Donnie Brasco

Did Al Pacino's character, Lefty Ruggiero, really get whacked as the end of the film implies?

No, he did not get whacked. Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggerio was picked up by FBI agents as he left his apartment on August 30, 1981. As a result of Pistone's work, Ruggerio was sentenced to serve twenty years in prison. In the early 1990's, he was released from prison, and on Thanksgiving Day, 1995, at age 72, he died of cancer in his New York home.

What happened to Michael Madsen's character, Dominick 'Sonny Black' Napolitano, who was also responsible for bringing Brasco into the family?

In early August of 1982 surveillance agents noticed workmen dismantling Sonny's

pigeon coops on top of the Motion Lounge. On August 12, 1982, Sonny Black's body was discovered in a hospital body bag in a creek near South Avenue close to the Geothals Toll Bridge that connects Staten Island to Linden, New Jersey. His hands had been cut off, and his body contained several gunshot wounds.

So, if Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino) was never whacked, was the part at the end of the film where