Crime journalist Colin McLaren spent three years toward the end of his career infiltrating the mafia all over the world, particularly in New York, where he managed to become friends with Gambino family Boss John Gotti and his followers.

Once he became a trusted member of the city's gangster group, he was even involved in the planning of high-profile drug deals and witnessed a series of brutal crimes.

The evidence he gathered eventually helped send them all to prison.

“There’s always an element of sensationalism attached to the New York mafia,” he said in an exclusive interview with Breaking Celebrity News. "It’s not the same in Italy and Australia. There, they keep everything under wraps."

“It’s very hard-nosed, it’s very blunt and it’s very truthful."

McLaren does, however, understand why the New York media has glamorized the feared mobsters, and why the public has learned to regard even the most vicious killers as Hollywood stars.

“They’re intriguing characters,” he admitted.

With REELZ’s new Mafia Killers series, premiering on Wednesday, the writer tries to stay away from romanticizing the gangsters. Instead, he shows viewers who the mobsters really were, what crimes they committed and how they fell so hard after reaching their ultimate peak. He communicates something powerful: the real story.

Mafia Killers: John Gotti airs Wednesday, August 29 at 9ET / PT on REELZ.