Court TV Host: Joe Pistone spent six years as an undercover agent infiltrating the mob. Ultimately, his alter ego -- wiseguy "Donnie Brasco -- became more widely known than Pistone himself as a result of Pistone's bestselling book and movie about the sting operation that resulted in dozens of convictions, including many mob bosses. Pistone has just written another book, Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent

Court TV Host: Welcome, and thank you for being our guest today.

Joe Pistone a.k.a. "Donnie Brasco": Thank you, it's my pleasure.

Question from MELINDA: I would like to know what happen to your family for the 6 years you were in the mob?

Joe Pistone: During the six years I was working undercover, my family was in another part of the country. I had my own apartments in New York and in Florida, and I would get to see my family once every three or four months for maybe a day. My basic contact was via telephone. It was tough because I had three daughters and my wife was basically raising them, and during those six years, I missed birthdays, school events, confirmations, communions, and graduations.

Question from Honey: Joe I have a few questions. First of all how hard was it for you to infiltrate the mob?

Joe Pistone: Well, it wasn't hard -- it was long. It took me about nine months before anyone of any consequence took me in, because we didn't have any informants. We had informants, but for security reasons, we didn't want the informant to make the introduction -- we wanted the introduction to be a cold one. So basically what I had was bars and restaurants targeted, where we knew that certain wiseguys hung out. And my objective was just to keep frequenting these places until I finally could catch a break and get into conversations with anyone who was connected with the wiseguys.

Question from Cindi: How did your family handle it?

Joe Pistone: Like anything else, number one your family knows that undercover work is voluntary, it's not like being in the military -- so that's your first problem. Because they know you volunteered for it. The second thing that comes into play is that you can't discuss the outlines or ramifications of the case, because it's a breach of security. So all your family knows is that you're out working a case -- but they don't know what you're doing. And in these deep penetration cases, you don't live at home with your family -- so that puts a burden on it. Especially if you have children. Basically, it comes down to if you're married, it comes down to how your relationship was before you took the case, and why you took the case. If you took the case for the benefit of the investigation, that's one thing, but if you took the assignment because you wanted to get away from your situation, then it's just going to deteriorate more.

Question from Paul: Joe, are you still an FBI agent?

Joe Pistone: No, I retired in 1996, but I still do lecturing at the FBI academy.

Question from Harriet: Joe, what do you remember most about being in "the mob"?

Joe Pistone: There's a lot of things to remember. In my new book, there's a lot of information in there about how you become a wiseguy, the rules and regulations of being a wiseguy, and how wiseguys kill you. Generally, the guy who kills you is someone who is close to you, often your best friend.

Question from naz: Did you have to do anything at that time that you thought was morally or legally wrong , considering the type of people you were dealing with?

Joe Pistone: When you're in an undercover situation, in deep cover, there are certain illegal activities you have to commit, or they won't keep you around. But over the years, these illegal activities are sanctioned by the government. One thing you can't do, of course, is you can't kill anybody. Sometimes I had to smack somebody around -- you sometimes had to do it for your own security, or to enhance your credibility. Those situations were tough -- but it's better smacking someone around than seeing them get killed, or getting killed yourself.

Question from Cindi: Were you ever asked to kill someone?

Joe Pistone: Yes, I was given contracts to kill people, other wiseguys, that ran afoul of the family. But of course I didn't actually go out and kill them, because as an FBI agent I couldn't go out and kill someone.

Question from Dennis: Was sex ever offered to you?

Joe Pistone: Yeah, you're out there on the streets with people. Eiseguys have girlfriends, so you're expected to be seen with females, but that doesn't mean you have sex with them. The sex is there, if that's what you're looking for .

Court TV Host: Were any of the illegal activities that you had to commit to keep your cover, were any of those every brought up by defense attorneys at trial to try to get their clients off?

Joe Pistone: Yeah, some of those activities were brought up at the trials. Basically, the attorneys were trying to show that I was involved in illegal activities, but that's one of the tactics that defense attorneys use against undercover agents.

Question from naz: How do you feel about the recent information coming out about relationships between the CIA and the FBI ( or lack of communication, re: 9/11 ) ?

Joe Pistone: The information regarding the lack of communication between the FBI and CIA is totally wrong. The FBI and CIA have been working together for years. FBI agents have been working at CIA headquarters and CIA agents at FBI headquarters for years. There's always been an exchange of information. The problem lies with the laws that hindered the intelligence agents sharing information with the criminal agents, or the criminal agents sharing information with the intelligence agents. The problem is that even within the FBI is that agents who were working criminal matters couldn't share info with agents who were working intelligence matters. That was the wall that the Department of Justice had put up. In brief, the FBI and CIA have been sharing information for years, but on certain cases they couldn't share information -- it had nothing to do with the cases but with the law.

Question from jpasquale: Do you think Hollywood glorifies the Mafia too much?

Joe Pistone: As far as the glorification of the mafia, I think Hollywood does glorify it way more than it is. It shows their brutality, but it also shows them as lovable characters, which basically they are not. In my book Way of the Wiseguy, I have a chapter on why wiseguys aren't nice. But most definitely the media does glorify the Mafia, more than they actually are.

Question from hedge: Did Johnny Depp accurately represent your own mannerisms? Did he study you?

Joe Pistone: Yes, for the movie, Johnny and I started hanging around two months before the movie. He had me down, he had it nailed, mannerisms, he even started sounding like me, his voice sounded exactly like mine.

Court TV Host: Thank you very much for being our guest. Before we go, on the air you mentioned that wiseguys have a way of making restaurant reservations -- what is it?

Joe Pistone: One way is they go in, if they don't have a reservation, give a name, the maitre d' says there's no reservation under that name, and they insist that there is a mistake, and they get loud and obnoxious until they get seated. The other way is they'll go in and say they have a reservation, their told there isn't any, and they'll palm the guys hand and give him a $50 bill. So either way they're going to get seated.

Court TV Host: Thank you very much...Those two methods aren't really exclusive to wiseguys, though...

Joe Pistone: Yeah, but they invented it! !