HOW AN UNDERCOVER OFFICER
INFILTRATED A NEW JERSEY MAFIA FAMILY
Taking Down The Real Sopranos
ABOUT | VIDEOS | SPEECH TOPICS | THE BOOK
About Giovanni Rocco
• Public Speaker
• Teaches Workshops, Training Modules, and Mental and Behavioral Health Programs
• Host of Podcast for MOB Museum
• True Crime Author
Giovanni Rocco was the FBI undercover at the epicenter of several federal undercover operations. His most recent assignment in operation Charlie Horse ultimately brought down several high-ranking members and associates of the infamous NJ DeCavalcante Mafia family, the organization known as “The Real Sopranos”.
Giovanni’s successes have been covered in dozens of newspapers, television and social media channels throughout the world and is now told in his critically acclaimed book “Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside The Real Sopranos”.
Giovanni’s Ring is not just simply a chronicle of Giovanni’s heart stopping adventures in the murky and dangerous criminal underworld he inhabited, but also a fascinating window into the psychological and physiological struggles that such a life inevitably entails.
The culmination of Operation Charlie Horse and many other operations resulted in successful criminal prosecutions, but ultimately resulted in Giovanni’s sudden and unplanned retirement from law enforcement as well as the government having to relocate him and his family to an undisclosed location for fears of criminal retaliation.
Having received extensive training in these agencies as well as through his participation as a member of the elite FBI National Covert Operations Unit, Giovanni’s survival depended on his ability to access the resiliency skills and focused thinking he now brings to his workshops, training modules, and mental and behavioral health programs he helps design.
Giovanni continues to share his experiences and provide training to law enforcement agencies, as well as military and intelligence branches within the United States and internationally.
The insight and strategies Giovanni brings to his lectures and trainings were acquired over decades of exemplary service with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. As a decorated investigator, a subject matter expert, as well as a husband and father, Giovanni brings a realistic outlook and insightful understanding as to what first responders are experiencing in today’s work environment and the solution focused steps needed to resolve the inner conflicts prohibiting those front-line guardians in attaining maximum personal performance.
About the Book
Book Overview of GIOVANNI'S RING by Giovanni Rocco with Douglas Schofield
MY LIFE INSIDE THE REAL SOPRANOS
Giovanni’s Ring is the story of “Giovanni Rocco,” a New Jersey police officer, known undercover as “Giovanni Gatto,” who was the mysterious agent at the epicenter of Operation Charlie Horse, a federal undercover operation that ultimately brought down ten members and associates of New Jersey’s DeCavalcante Mafia family, the criminal organization known as “the real Sopranos.”
Giovanni spent nearly three years working his way into the DeCavalcante hierarchy. That lethal assignment brought the undercover operation to an end in March 2015, and the resulting string of high-profile arrests eviscerated the criminal organization.
Giovanni’s Ring is not simply a chronicle of Giovanni Rocco’s adventures in the murky and dangerous Mafia world he inhabited, but also a fascinating window into the psychological struggles that such a life inevitably entails.
REVIEWS
“A STORY THAT IS ASTONISHING, ELECTRIFYING, AND GUT WRENCHING – WHILE ALWAYS BEING DEEPLY HUMAN.” - CHICAGO REVIEW PRESS
“A FASCINATING WINDOW INTO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRUGGLES THAT SUCH A LIFE INEVITABLY ENTAILS.” - GOODREADS
“A CAPTIVATING TRUE-CRIME THRILLER FROM START TO FINISH AND A NEW GEM FOR MAFIA BOOK FANS” - BOOKLIST
“Very few undercover agents (UCAs) have been able to successfully infiltrate the inner sanctum of Cosa Nostra. Giovanni Rocco is one of those UCAs. This page-turner is a must read if you want to experience Giovanni’s dangerous and oftentimes violent journey inside the real-life Sopranos.”
— Joaquin “Jack” Garcia
Retired FBI UCA and author of Making Jack Falcone
“Once again truth trumps fiction in this riveting account of an undercover cop from New Jersey burrowing deep into the confidence of mob killers and made-men straight out of Hollywood Central Casting. Giovanni Rocco, himself a product of the streets of Bayonne, risks his marriage and family spying for the FBI on an assignment where a mere slip of the tongue or discovery of his hidden recorders could kill him. From page one of Giovanni’s Ring, the jeopardy is constant, the stakes high, and the prose pure Jersey.”
— William C. Rempel
Author of At the Devil’s Table
“This account of Giovanni Rocco’s many years’ work to infiltrate the ranks of the Jersey Mob drips with authenticity and crackles with tension from the first page to the last. But what sets it apart is Rocco’s unflinching honesty concerning the cost of such work to his family, his marriage, and, ultimately, his very soul. You will likely read this at an unbroken gallop, just as I did.”
—Les Standiford
Author of Bringing Adam Home
“Giovanni Rocco and Doug Schofield tell a terrific, fast-paced story about Giovanni’s undercover penetration of the DeCavalcante crime family. But what makes the book compelling and different than other Mafia tales is the often chilling incidents in which Giovanni found himself close to being exposed by the Mob, and the psychological torment that put him and his family through. Giovanni’s Ring is a great crime story about a man who rose from the streets of New Jersey to help destroy a notorious crime family.”
—Anthony M. DeStefano
Author of The Deadly Don
MEDIA
July 12, 2021
ED BERNSTEIN SHOW
Giovanni Rocco at Mob Museum on
The Ed Bernstein Show
June 23, 2021
THE MOB MUSEUM
Taking Down the Real Sopranos: How an Undercover Officer Infiltrated a New Jersey Mafia Family
August 21, 2021
Books on Pod with Trey Elling
Episode 163: Giovanni Rocco chats with Trey Elling about Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos.
June 18, 2021
Philly Prime Podcast
Episode 40: We go undercover with a former North Jersey cop who infiltrated the DeCavalcante Crime Family.
June 14, 2021
FBI Retired Case File Review with Jerri Williams
Episode 236: Giovanni Rocco and Anthony Zampogna – Taking Down the Real Sopranos, DeCavalcante Mob Family
FOR BOOKING INFORMATION OR MEDIA REQUESTS, CONTACT JUDY L WILKINSON
[email protected] | (706)518-2116