Flipping Capo

How the FBI Dismantled the Real Sopranos

By: Seamus McElearney, Barbara Finkelstein

Narrated by: Eric Smies

Séamus McElearney's early days on an FBI organized crime squad were full of grunt work.

For months he was mired in administrative tasks, including the transcription of secret recordings of the DeCavalcante and Bonanno crime families. Eighteen months later, McElearney assisted in his squad's arrest of 39 Mafia suspects; he led the team arresting Anthony Capo, a DeCavalcante soldier linked to stock fraud and conspiracy to commit murder.

Barely a week after Capo's arrest, McElearney accomplished what no other law enforcement agent had ever done in the hundred years of the DeCavalcante crime family's existence: he flipped one of their made men.

What followed was a spiral effect of cooperation as McElearney and colleagues flipped three more DeCavalcante associates, one captain, and an acting boss. Flipping Capo resulted in the Bureau solving eleven murders, convicting seventy-one defendants, and dismantling the DeCavalcante crime family.

Thanks to the redemptive relationship he built with Capo, McElearney helped unmask a criminal network that led to the RICO convictions of the entire DeCavalcante hierarchy, just as the world was coming to know them as the "real Sopranos."

©2025 Seamus McElearney and Barbara Finkelstein (P)2025 Tantor Media

Rookie Agent Talks too Much about what he thinks he knows

The Agent was Young and Irish and knew little about the American mafia. The story is true and accurate but he makes it sound like he was the James Bond of organized crime and ruins the real truths. RICO is unconstitutional and Vinny Ocean Palermo is a scum bag rat. 10 years for obstruction is ridiculous and contrary to what this momo wants you to think the life is quiet like it should be. Yeah there was a sent put in it but it’s stronger now then it was when he was a rookie. This mamaluke doesn’t have any understanding of anything or what it’s about. Of rat or two rats do not define the rank and file of the real brotherhood. This book tells a good story if u want the story. But sucks from the standpoint of the agent.