Depp was supposed to be an expert in jewelry. Someone with real knowledge would have a jewelers loupe with them at all times to check jewelry with. Just to look at a diamond and say it is fake seems hard to believe. Throughout the movie he was never asked to verify jewelry or any other type of questions. The Mob accepted him with out verification. I rent my house to people and ask them more questions than they asked him.
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This is a difficult answer in real life because there's a lot wrong with how the movie explained it.
1. Pistone took what amounted to a 2 week (maybe 3?) intensive crash course in gems and jewelry from a real jeweler. He knew enough to know the basics and could definitely spot a poor fake. Could he spot a good one? Maybe, maybe not. But he was a jewel thief so he just needed to know enough to not be an obvious fraud. As he said in the book, nobody knows everything about their profession even if they are experts.
Or maybe Lefty isn't that thoughtful, and the others just take him for his word when he vouches for Donnie.
Here's the thing... No, Mobsters are usually thought of as Goons. Just guys with connections, not very bright, just powerful and dangerous etc etc... And as you said, agents DO talk about this in many books that have been written about the Mob. The problem is, it's all relative. Plenty of them are incredibly intelligent, especially with what they do. Guys operating for decades illegally and making a fortune aren't usually dumb. The same can be said about the Agents. These guys walk around with College Degrees and are dumb enough to leave paperwork out in the open and get witnesses killed because of it. They lack common sense. They don't understand the basic elements of crime and in their own way, they're absolute morons. I'm not disagreeing as far as the Big Picture goes, it's just that Agents like to paint perfect pictures of themselves and it's hardly the case. Reading on Whitey Bulger and all the incompetence that was going on in every Agency, it's horrendous. 30 years of terror and murdering, all because of corruption and moronic behavior.
shareVery valid point mags. Great post. Spot on. Agents want to look like the geniuses and paint the mob guys as idiots. I grew up around guys like that. While some of them come off obnoxious when you spend time with them, they're good at scheming and it takes a smart person to scheme and get around the system. Are they stupid for getting caught? Well, agents/detectives have more power and resources at the end of the day to catch them.