A rat through and through

The ratings for last night's edition of "60 Minutes" will no doubt be boffo. They had a football playoff game lead-in. They had a segment with Roger Clemens, professional baseball player, denying he took steroids. And they had Johnny Martorano, professional murderer, waxing philosophic about the art of blowing people's brains out.
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You'll have to forgive Emily Connors for not tuning in. Johnny Martorano helped murder her husband 33 years ago, as Ed Connors stood in a phone booth in Dorchester.
"You know what?" Emily Connors said of Martorano's schtick. "It's getting old."
She got that right. It would almost be bearable to watch this stuff if we knew it would be over and done with. But it's pretty obvious Martorano's appearance was the launch of another attempt to capitalize on the very marketable concept of the sensitive sociopath. After Martorano wraps up his government-witness obligations, which allowed him to trade the 20 human lives he took for 12 years in prison, there will be another kill-and-tell book. Another movie treatment. Some clueless Hollywood type will be snookered by all this tough-but-thoughtful hit-man jive, and we'll have to endure an endless string of breathless whispers about scripts, stars, and on-location shoots in Southie and Winter Hill.

Liesguys Lit is a lucrative genre. It's revisionist history for murderers, allowing them to imbue their venality with a sense of nobility that is otherwise missing from the brutal act of shooting someone in cold blood.

And the best part for the purveyors of this junk is that almost everyone who can dispute its authenticity is either dead or not talking.

It's just as well Emily Connors didn't watch last night, because Martorano's performance was far more offensive to his victims than anything he said in court some years back when he got the sweetheart deal that allowed him to walk out of prison last year.

Johnny told Steve Kroft he didn't enjoy killing, but that he did it for his family and friends.
What a guy.

You could never pay me to kill anybody," said Johnny, who, by job description, was paid to kill people.
"I didn't enjoy risking my life," Johnny said, "but if the cause was right I would."
He never got around to identifying these causes. Perhaps it was to free Tibet, or maybe help the nuns pay off the mortgage at an orphanage. Oh, and even though Johnny is a government witness he is not a rat because he's testifying against those who ratted before he ratted.
Got that?

Like all these criminals who trade their infamy for a few bucks, Johnny Martorano comes across as a guy who is sorry only that he got caught.

Paul Rico, the disgraced, and now dead, former FBI agent who helped Johnny kill people also helped frame a guy named Joe Salvati. Asked how he felt about Salvati doing 30 years for a murder he didn't commit, Rico replied, "What do you want, tears?"

Well, yeah, actually, we do. It would be refreshing to see one of these guys look into a camera and say, "I can't make up for my past. But I don't want to talk about it, either, because all it will do is hurt the families I already hurt."
Don't hold your breath waiting for that one.

FEDS THROW EX FED UNDER THE MOB BUS

Joe Pistone aka Donnie Brasco, was an FBI agent who worked undercover for six years as an associate of the Bonanno Crime Family. He also helped FBI agent.Zip Connoly with -Mob-informants, Whitey Bulger, and Stevie Flemmi.. Pistone had met and talked to Flemmi and Bulger at a social dinner with Connolly at another FBI agents home in a Boston suburb .
After Connolly was convicted of federal racketeering charges in 2002, Pistone wrote a glowing letter to the sentencing judge urging leniency for .John Connolly,saying, ” he should never have been singled out to take the hit for the admitted flawed policies of a government that benefited from his skills, courage and dedication . I thought that was a cool thing to do.
Pistone must have caught some flack from the feds because now Pistone came up with some lame excuse for not testifying for the defense at Zip’s Conspiracy to Murder trial.. Pistone claims he can’t, and won’t testify without wearing a disguise, which the judge won”t allow. This guy has had his puss shown on TV almost as much as Barack Obama. In my opinion, Pistone is keeping his big trap shut to stay golden with Uncle.Sam. I met Pistone doing a show in the late eighties We compared war stories about what it was like wearing a wire According to Pistone. his wire had malfunctioned many times, which made me wonder if he ever really put it on in dangerous situations, or did he just claim to his superiors that it didn’t work when the going got hairy and scary. I busted his balls about it for a few laughs.
I had flipped to informant and wore a wire on many of the Boston mob . . Something Flemmi and Bulger never really had to do, or they were to scared to do. Connolly’s goose is going to be cooked because of the raw deal he is getting from the deaf, dumb. and blind agents who have thown him under the bus. Pistone should believe his own glowing letter, and have the balls to testify for Zip Connolly . Man up Joe !!! .
Anthony “The Animal” Fiato

Mob Killer lived the good life in the joint

Ronnie "The Pig" Casesso.

When I first met Ronnie "The Pig" Casesso he was in Walpole prison courtesy of the snitch Joe Barboza. .Casesso was a made guy in the Patriarca Crime Family who had gotten the death penalty for being one of the shooters in the murder of a minor hood named Teddy Deegan.. "The Pig" caught a big break when his sentence was reduced to life in prison because the death penalty was repealed.

Casesso.had the run of Walpole in those days...Here's how strong Casesso was. My friend Ronnie Rome was related to Casesso through marriage. He was also in the vending business with mob boss, Jerry Angiulo.. Rome gets a call from Casesso. who tells him to bring a pin ball machine to Walpole for the warden as a gift. .I decided to take a ride with Ronnie Rome....When we get there I expect to be frisked by the guards, but its not that way. Then I see Casesso really has the run of the place...He's in for murder, and not only is he not behind bars, he's not even inside the prison.. He's lying on the grass working on his tan outside of the front gate. "The Pig" is acting more like the warden's brother-in-law, than a prisoner.
. . ..

We greet and I see how informed "The Pig" is.. He is really happy to see Ronnie Rome Rome tells him I was with Nicky Giso.( Nicky was a Patriarca made guy),.but Casesso had already heard. He had . .better news sources than the Boston Globe . He offered us a drink....For a guy in prison , he was a gracious host.

We asked him how some of the guys from our neighborhood were doing. Casesso said," you just missed "The Bear", (Jimmy Flemmi, the brother of Stevie Flemmi)' he was just here getting a tan,.''we are going to eat good tonight,'Chinese food, 'in a swell joint down the street." I couldn't believe it. ."The Pig"
was living better than most guys on the outside. He laid woman in a motel down the road, and he even stayed overnight. He dropped in on the warden anytime he wanted anything. He was more free than the guards.

Everybody was afraid of Ronnie "The Pig." They all knew he was Raymond Patriarca's buttonman and he had killed plenty of times.. When we were leaving he told us to watch out for "those people", meaning The Patriarca Crime Family, " they will use you".. I laughed, and told Casseso to get my cell ready. ..Ronnie "The Pig" Casesso died in prison, but he lived like he was as free as a bird.......
..
.Anthony ."The Animal" Fiato.....