Technically Speaking: Mob Talk

My Technically Speaking column this month was really fun. I spoke with undercover FBI agent Joaquin “Jack” Garcia, who transformed himself into an Italian jewel thief and spent two and half years infiltrating the Gambino crime family so deeply that La Costa Nostra actually invited him to become a “made man.”

Not surprisingly, he was pretty opinionated about how Hollywood represents the mob.

Here’s another one. The place in The Sopranos where Tony hangs out with the gangsters, Satriale’s Pork Store: Do you think anybody in law enforcement with half a brain would eat at the same place that the gangsters are at? So they could spit in my food? You think that any respectable law enforcement office is going to go to a mob joint and eat a veal parmesan? Number one, you don’t know what they’re going to do to your food and number two, why am I giving my hard-earned dollars to one of these gangsters?

In Hollywood, they make it seem like “Hey, Tony, how ya doin’?” Yeah, well, if they were drinkin’ coffee, I’m sure they’re pissing in it too. Trust me, I was with these guys. I walked the walk and talked the talk. They hate the cops. They hate the FBI.

We talked for over an hour and the conversation drifted all kinds of directions. I asked him lots of non-pertinent questions that didn't fit in the article because, well, how often do you get to talk to a guy like this?

I hope you dig it.