Jay’s post reminds me that about 25 years ago, when I was a brand new assistant U.S. attorney — and Mike Chertoff was already a seasoned prosecutor — our office was prosecuting all the mafia families (in addition to the Sicilian mafia and Commission of Cosa Nostra — the case Mike ran). That meant five or six different trial teams were using Joe Pistone as a witness (including the team I was on — the “Pizza Connection” case, on which I worked for Louie Freeh, who would later become FBI Director). Joe was the FBI undercover agent who famously infiltrated the Bonanno Family for 5 years. (He later wrote “Donnie Brasco,” a bestselling book that was made into a hit movie.)

The guy Joe first got into was a killer called Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero. His last name, in the classic Brooklyn/Bronx style, was of course pronounced “Rue-JAIR-ee-oh,” but at a later point he became known in mob circles as as “Half-cocked” because — well, ‘nuf said on that. Lefty was brilliantly played by Al Pacino in the movie.

What Jay’s post reminded me of, though, was Joe’s hysterical account of the time he went to Cleveland with Lefty. They are on a promenade looking out at Lake Erie, and Lefty insists to Joe that it’s the Pacific Friggin’ Ocean. Joe tried to correct him, but there was no talking him out of it — to the point that Joe finally had to agree that, yes, okay, it’s the Pacific Friggin’ Ocean because, though Lefty liked Joe, he was after all a homicidal maniac.

Murder ain’t rocket science!