Hector Junior Pagan: Mob Wives Wire, Donovan Murder, Cooperation

Hector Pagan Jr. is a former Brooklyn organized crime associate who cooperated with federal agents against the Bonanno family in 2011 while simultaneously appearing on VH1’s Mob Wives, secretly recording his then-father-in-law, Bonanno consigliere Anthony “TG” Graziano. He later admitted from the witness stand that he fired the shot that killed Brooklyn businessman James Donovan in a 2010 robbery, and he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.

From Lucchese Associate to Bonanno Associate

Pagan grew up in what he described as a “mafia infested area in Brooklyn, New York” and said he started committing crimes at 13. He called himself a “score guy,” street slang for a robber, and specialized in holding up drug dealers. He had been in and out of prison since 1988.¹

He started out as a Lucchese associate. When he became engaged to Renee Graziano, daughter of reputed Bonanno captain Anthony Graziano, his Lucchese superiors told him to move over. As Pagan recounted the conversation, “He said, ‘If you’re going to do that we have to transfer you.'” As a Bonanno associate he was involved in robbery, extortion, beatings, kidnapping, and drug dealing.¹

The 2010 Murder of James Donovan

On July 2, 2010, at about 2:15 p.m., a robbery crew ambushed James Donovan, a Brooklyn businessman who ran a check-cashing operation, in front of a shop in Gravesend. The crew had followed him for weeks to learn his routine.² Donovan was shot in the leg, the bullet severed his femoral artery, and he died later that day. The crew took a bag with roughly $200,000 in cash and checks from his car.³

Pagan later testified that he pulled the trigger. His co-conspirators were Richard Riccardi, a 41-year-old Bonanno associate from Manalapan, New Jersey, who planned the job, recruited the crew, and supplied the guns; and Luigi Grasso, a 46-year-old Gambino associate from Staten Island, who joined the ambush.³ The three men split the proceeds at roughly $50,000 each.¹

Wearing a Wire While Filming Mob Wives

In the summer of 2011, Pagan agreed to cooperate. He was facing a potential 50-year sentence on drug charges and chose to flip rather than fight.⁴ At the time he was actively filming VH1’s Mob Wives, the reality series built around women connected to organized crime, including his ex-wife Renee Graziano.

Working with the FBI and DEA, Pagan wore a hidden microphone and secretly recorded conversations with at least six organized crime figures. His main target was Anthony Graziano, the Bonanno consigliere who had kept a relationship with him even after the divorce from Renee.⁴ The recordings captured talk about collecting a loansharking debt and other criminal activity.⁵

The cover blew in November 2011, when Renee Graziano learned her ex-husband had been working for the DEA. Show creator Jennifer Graziano, Renee’s sister, kept the cameras rolling through the fallout, and three episodes dealt with the recordings. Pagan continued to appear in footage shot before his cooperation became public, but he was not seen on Staten Island after flipping.⁴

What His Cooperation Produced

The recordings led directly to Anthony Graziano’s arrest on January 27, 2012, in a broader federal racketeering sweep of the Bonanno family.⁶⁷⁸

Pagan’s tapes also fed cases against Bonanno underboss Nicholas “Nicky Mouth” Santora on gambling and extortion charges, and against three other Bonanno-affiliated defendants in a conspiracy tied to the attempted collection of a $150,000 illegal gambling debt and a robbery at a family-controlled social club. Prosecutors were reportedly reluctant to put Pagan on the stand and preferred plea deals. Defense attorney Ron Fischetti, who represented one of the defendants, called Pagan “completely unworthy of belief” and argued that the government dropped racketeering and extortion counts against some defendants specifically to avoid cross-examination that would have required proving Pagan himself committed extortion and murder.⁹⁴

In March 2014, Pagan did take the stand, as the government’s star witness against Riccardi and Grasso in the Donovan murder trial in Brooklyn federal court. He admitted firing the fatal shot and walked jurors through the robbery, testifying under a plea agreement meant to reduce his own sentence. He also disclosed other violent acts, including a shooting of a man he found with Renee Graziano. The man survived, and available court records do not show separate charges for that shooting.¹⁰¹

On March 20, 2014, a federal jury convicted Riccardi and Grasso on all counts, including robbery, firearm possession, and causing death through the use of a firearm.¹¹ On August 1, 2014, Judge John Gleeson sentenced Grasso to 38 years and Riccardi to 36 years.³

Pagan’s Own Sentence and Return to Custody

For his role in the Donovan murder and his broader criminal conduct, Pagan was sentenced in 2014 to 11 years in federal prison. By December 2020 he had been moved to a residential reentry facility in Brooklyn, with an official release date of April 18, 2021.¹²

He was back in custody within a few years. Federal court records from the District of New Jersey show that by 2024 Pagan was held at the Middlesex County Jail on allegations that he had violated the terms of his supervised release by committing a new offense. On July 19, 2024, Judge Susan D. Wigenton issued a writ to transport him from the county jail to the federal courthouse in Newark for a violation hearing set for July 24, 2024.¹³ The specific new offense alleged in the violation, and the outcome of the hearing, are not detailed in the available records.

Pagan and Renee Graziano had reconciled and separated repeatedly over the years, but Renee has said the revelation that he had worn a wire against her father ended the relationship for good.¹

1
Cosa Nostra News. Hector Pagan Has Money to Invest Once He Gets Out
2
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Two Associates of La Cosa Nostra Convicted on All Counts for July 2010 Robbery and Murder
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Two Associates of La Cosa Nostra Sentenced for July 2, 2010 Robbery and Murder in Brooklyn
4
New York Post. Taking Stand
5
ABC7 News. Reputed Bonanno Crime Family Members Arrested
6
New York Post. Yes, We Have No Bonannos
7
New York Post. Mob Wife Dad Guilty
8
SILive.com. Pair Sentenced in Connection With Murder
9
HuffPost. Hector Pagan Mob Wives
10
New York Post. Mob Wives Star’s Ex-Hubby Lays Out Crime Past in Murder Trial
11
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Two Associates of La Cosa Nostra Convicted on All Counts
12
Cosa Nostra News. Mob Wife Husband Hector Pagan in Halfway House
13
GovInfo. United States v. Hector Pagan, Case No. 2:21-cr-00936