Recap

Inside the Mafia

In his very first radio interview, mafia associate turned government operative Tony Nastasi spoke with George Knapp (email) about his life inside the mob. As a youngster, Nastasi said he did occasional work for Joey Gallo in New York, and later graduated into the loan shark business. In the early 1980s, he took over an escort business in New York City and made it financially successful with some 500-700 girls working for his agency. Dubbed the "King Pimp of NY" by the media, he was reportedly making $6 million a year.

But after a few years, a new Mafia regime took over and pushed for Nastasi to use girls trafficked in from foreign countries, against their will. He objected to this and subsequently a murder attempt was made on him, in which his car was run off the road in upstate New York.

After this, he went to the FBI and offered to become an informant for them. He wore a wire during mob negotiations related to escort services in Las Vegas. His work helped send to prison such notorious mob figures as "Vinny the Aspirin" (named because he made "headaches" go away) and "The Angel of Death." The mafia, he noted, has been significantly "downsized" from its heyday, yet it's still out there in a number of operations.