The Informant Files: John Pennisi, the Lucchese Soldier Blogging the Life
Mobsters DailyJohn Pennisi is a former Lucchese crime family soldier who was made in 2013, walked into an FBI office in October 2018 to cooperate, and has since become the modern mob's unlikely explainer — blogging and podcasting the life he left. He is the informant as content creator, and he knows how strange that is.
A late bloomer in the life
Pennisi's road in was long. Raised in Queens, he orbited the Gambinos as a teenager, then spent 17 years in prison for a non-mob murder. Released, he rebuilt a straight-looking life as a construction manager — and still climbed, in his forties, into the Lucchese family's Brooklyn crew on Staten Island. In 2013 he was formally inducted in a secret ceremony at a Staten Island house, an old ritual performed for a shrinking, aging organization. His later testimony described a family of diminished numbers and codes: the rules he had romanticized were, inside, applied selectively and broken constantly. It is the oldest informant story there is — it runs from Joseph Valachi, the first canary, straight to Pennisi.
What makes Pennisi different is not that he flipped — it is what he did with the microphone afterward — which is why, with November here and the holidays coming, rewatch season belongs to the Tony Soprano Ugly Christmas Sweater: Tony in black-and-white stencil, nothing covering the design, built for holiday parties and long nights back in this world.
The accusation that flipped him
By his account, the break began with a false accusation: word spread that he was an informant, and although the family concluded the claim was a mistake, the damage was done. Believing men he had sworn an oath with were discussing killing him, in October 2018 he walked into the Bureau and began telling the truth about his crimes and everyone else's. He testified for the government, including at the 2019 racketeering trial of Lucchese soldier Eugene Castelle, describing the family's hierarchy, gambling operations and ceremonies in open court — evidence aimed at the leadership profiled in our look at underboss Steven Crea. He entered witness protection and, on paper, disappeared. Then he did the opposite.
The informant as content creator
Instead of staying vanished, Pennisi started writing. His blog, Sitdown News, dissects mob protocol, current cases and street gossip, and with Tom La Vecchia he co-hosts the podcast The MBA and the Button Man. He gives interviews and corrects movie mythology with a made man's pedantry. Earlier generations of cooperators hid; Pennisi monetized candor, becoming a one-man bridge between the courtroom transcript and the YouTube era. The archive he is building is something no previous informant ever left behind: the modern Five Families, annotated by a man who was in the room.
Frequently asked questions
When did John Pennisi become a made man? In 2013, in a ceremony at a house on Staten Island, after years as an associate and a long earlier prison term.
Why did Pennisi cooperate with the FBI? A false rumor that he was an informant convinced him his family intended to kill him; in October 2018 he walked into an FBI office and cooperated.
What does John Pennisi do now? He writes the Sitdown News blog and co-hosts The MBA and the Button Man podcast, commenting on Mafia history and current cases.
Keep reading: Joe Pistone and the bounty that never expires · Michael Franzese, the capo who walked away · Greg Scarpa, the hitman who worked for the FBI
From the shop: Shadows of the Underworld — the real-mafia history behind the names in this story.
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