Godfather star James Caan’s ties to organized crime were well-documented—so much so that they were even mentioned in his obituary. According to a New York Times article from 1992, Caan spent a lot of time with Carmine “The Snake” Persico (the eventual head of the Colombo crime family) in his early years, which had the FBI convinced that Caan was an aspiring mobster. Caan was also an admitted friend of both Colombo street boss Andrew Russo—who was the godfather of Caan’s son, Scott—and Bonanno family soldier Ronald A. Lorenzo. Caan testified on Lorenzo’s behalf in 1992, calling him a “law-abiding citizen,” shortly before Lorenzo was sentenced to 11 years in prison for selling cocaine to an FBI informant.
Another well-known mobster who claimed to have associated with Caan at one point was former Los Angeles crime family hit man Anthony “The Animal” Fiato. As Fiato tells it, he and Caan were so close that Caan once enlisted his help when his brother, Ronnie Caan, was kidnapped by some gangsters over a drug debt. Fiato says Caan arranged to pay the kidnappers what they were owed and Fiato’s crew accompanied him to make sure everything went smoothly. Fiato and his guys reportedly ended up assaulting the other men while Caan brought his brother to safety.
James Caan Once Allegedly Asked a Mob Hitman to ‘Take Care’ of Joe Pesci
But that’s not the only time Caan supposedly called upon Fiato for a little assistance. In 2006, Fiato told The National Enquirer that Caan asked him to “take care” of fellow actor Joe Pesci after Pesci skipped out on an $8,000 hotel bill back in 1982. If Fiato’s to be believed, the Miami hotel belonged to one of Caan’s friends. And although Fiato chose to share the story with a questionable publication, and Caan denied it through his publicist (adding that he and Pesci were good friends), Fiato insists that the FBI has a recording of the entire conversation.
“[Caan] can say he’s a friend of Pesci’s now. But he can’t deny that at one time he tried to hurt him. It’s on tape,” Fiato explained. In an extract from the recording, Fiato can apparently be heard telling Caan, “We’ll get to him,” referring to Pesci, after which Caan allegedly says, “We’re gonna make him pay.” The FBI evidently got ahold of the taped conversation around the time Fiato testified at O.J. Simpson’s murder trial (Fiato was an informant for one of the case’s lead investigators).
Whether or not Pesci was ever “made to pay,” one way or another, remains unclear.
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