253. Bob Delaney went undercover for three years to successfully infiltrated the Genovese , Bruno and DiNorscio Crime Families. (A real Donnie Brasco story)

<p><strong>Bob Delaney</strong> is a former undercover New Jersey <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_trooper">state trooper</a> and <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_basketball">professional basketball</a> <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_(basketball)">referee</a> in the <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association">National Basketball Association</a> (NBA) Bob is a 1985 graduate of <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_City_University">New Jersey City University</a> with a <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Science">Bachelor of Science</a> degree in <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminology">criminology</a>. After finishing college, Delaney joined the <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_State_Police">New Jersey State Police</a>. During the mid-1970s, Delaney worked as an <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercover_officer">undercover officer</a> as part of an operation known as "Project Alpha".</p> <p>     His book ‘Covert’, is a riveting page-turner, NBA referee Bob Delaney reveals the clandestine life he led before becoming one of professional basketball’s most respected referees. In 1975, Delaney had spent only a year and a half as a New Jersey State Trooper when his superiors approached him with a tantalizing yet dangerous undercover assignment: to infiltrate the Mob. Delaney accepted, and became Bobby Covert, the president of Alamo Trucking, a fully-operational business used by law enforcement as flypaper for snagging crooks. <br />      At the height of <em>The Godfather</em> era, Delaney wore a wire and lived among wiseguys who modeled themselves on their on-screen counterparts, quoting lines from “The Movie” and boasting of how often they’d seen it. Delaney even crossed paths with Joe Pistone, the real-life Donnie Brasco (though neither knew the other was undercover), knowing all the while that a single slip could get him killed. Ultimately gathering enough evidence to co