Random Dumbest Things We Believe About The Mob Thanks To Movies (12 items)

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  (#2) Local Cops Were Always Hassling Made Guys

  In A Bronx Tale, a young Calogero (Lillo Brancato Jr.) witnesses Sonny (Chazz Palminteri) gun down a guy in the middle of the street. Later, while his father Lorenzo (Robert De Niro) looks on, Calogero lies to NYPD detectives and covers for Sonny. 

  Michael Franzese's main objection to this scene was that local law enforcement was jamming up the local wiseguys. According to Franzese, local law enforcement seldom bothers established, high-ranking members unless they're extremely certain they've been implicated in a crime. In this instance, they suspect Sonny may have shot someone, but are making an awfully big show of things by interrogating him on the street in full view of the public.

  The Sopranos portrays this much more accurately: If a member of law enforcement does put pressure on a boss, it's going to be an FBI agent - and even then it usually only occurs after months or years of building up an impenetrable case against them.
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  (#3) The Undercover Agents Arrest The People Themselves

  At one point in Scarface, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is supervising some money laundering when two of his associates suddenly whip out firearms and badges and arrest him. It's definitely a dramatic moment - somebody whom Tony trusted is betraying him! - but real undercover FBI agents probably wouldn't act this way. 

  Any undercover cop who reveals themselves in a room full of criminals without backup is probably going to be outnumbered and outgunned. According to Agent McGowan, real-life undercover agents would simply have a large group of their fellow agents waiting outside to make the arrest.
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  (#8) Families Have Regular Massive Sit-Downs Where They All Gather In One Place

  At the end of Analyze This, psychiatrist Paul Sobel (Billy Crystal) attends a large gathering of several families, pretending to be the new consigliere. In The Godfather, the heads of New York's five mafia families meet to hash out problems. This trope makes it seem like mafiosos like to do business by holding regular conferences. 

  But holding big meetings is a huge risk. It makes it easy for law enforcement to scoop up several bosses at once. Meetings like these did take place decades ago, but that ended in 1957 when police nabbed 62 bosses at a summit in Appalachia. The conference in Analyze This is most likely inspired by the Appalachia meeting, even though such events essentially no longer occur. (For the record, it gets infiltrated in the movie as well.)
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  (#6) Hits Involve Dozens Of Goons

  One of the most memorable mobster moments in movie history is the slaying of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. As an irate Sonny pulls his car into a toll booth, several suited goons with Tommy guns pop out and spray his car with bullets. 

  But former caporegime of the Colombo crime family Michael Franzese doesn't buy it. While 1920s mobsters did use Thompson submachine guns, more modern mafiosos preferred to use shotguns and small-caliber side arms at close range. They also wouldn't bring a whole crew with them because it would attract too much attention. According to Franzese, planning and carrying out a hit like Sonny's would involve "too much work." It also involves 10 times the weapons that could tie people to the crimes, 10 times the potential future informants (including the tollbooth operator), and so on.

  An actual crew would've most likely had one person walk up to the car, fire, and leave. But man does it make for a much cooler scene.
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  (#7) Meetings Always Take Place In Abandoned Warehouses

  Having a clandestine meeting in an inconspicuous location like an abandoned warehouse seems to make sense on the surface. In movies, meetings like this happen so regularly that these warehouses barely qualify as "abandoned." But it's more likely that films always pick these locations because they're cheap to rent and easy to film inside, not because they reflect reality. 

  According to Agent McGowan, having a clandestine meeting in an out-of-the-way place telegraphs that you have something to hide, and could be extremely dangerous if things go south. The safer bet is to hide in plain sight and have the meeting somewhere out in the open.
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  (#1) Big Groups Of People On Both Sides Show Up For Deals

  In one scene from The Departed, Frank Costello's (Jack Nicholson) crew heads to an abandoned warehouse for a meeting with a group of Chinese gangsters to sell them some military computer hardware. Even though it's a simple money handoff, both groups bring around a dozen heavily armed goons. Most likely, it's because they don't trust each other, and they want backup in case something goes wrong. 

  But if a meeting like this happened in real life, it would be a huge liability for all involved. According to former undercover FBI agent Mike McGowan, bringing two dozen witnesses to an illicit business gathering just creates two dozen potential informants down the road. It would have been much safer if Frank and the Chinese negotiator had met one-on-one, or in the tightest group possible.

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