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Though its unclear exactly how John Franzese died, it is clear that his death closes yet another chapter in the ongoing history of gangs in New York. Credit: Newsday / Ari Mintz, I was a firm believer that if a guy knew something about you, you had to worry about it, he said, referring to the men who actually robbed the banks and later testified that he was the mastermind behind them. (on-sale March 29, 2022), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window). /r/Mafia features stories, interviews, documentary and news articles about organized crime around the world. So I says, What the F are you doing up there?, She said, I dont know. Its crazy that sonny franzese lived such a stressful life and looked so When I used to see him, I made out (like) I dont see him. Jeffrey Basinger/Newsday via Getty Images. A letter was found recently that appears to confirm the long-held rumor that Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had an affair. How the Bounty Mutineers Found Their New Home on a Secret Pacific Island, Jeffery Deaver's Guide to Writing Page-Turning Fiction, Seven Crime Novels Centered Around Musicians Out in 2023, An Author's Guide to Stealing from the Books You Love, The Many Levels of Mystery: Whodunnit? to Whydunnit? and Beyond, The Literary Film and TV You Need to Stream in March, Tracey Rose Peyton: Exploring Six Stories of Motherhood for Enslaved Women, The Day Explorers Finally Found One of the Worlds Great Lost Shipwrecks, What If? On a side note sonny is so old, looking at the era he came up in he mustve seen it all, stories would be insane to listen to. He thought every girl was, was in love with him. By 1935, when he was 18, he said, he was running the largest craps game in New York. Marilyn was gorgeous, forget about it.. He vowed to do the whole bid.. He spoke to Newsday, in part, because he said he remembers reporters treating him fairly after his conviction for conspiracy to rob banks in 1967. You thought I was the star sometimes., The Copacabana was a launching pad for careers, from Sammy Davis Jr. to Wayne Newton to June Allyson, who got her start on the Copa dance line. Their collective charges included racketeering, gangland hits, the theft of fur coats in New York, and a home invasion in Los Angeles with Franzese held responsible as the underboss of the crime family. So I ran away. No doubt about that.. Theres, there is no question about it.. Life in the early '60s was good for Franzese. Legendary mobster John 'Sonny' Franzese dies at 103 58.0k members in the Mafia community. [13], However, on March 3, 1967, Franzese was convicted in Albany, New York of masterminding a series of four bank robberies across the country in 1965, and was finally sentenced to 50 years in prison at United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, by judge Jacob Mishler in 1970, after several denied appeals. Getty ImagesJohn Sonny Franzese is escorted by police in 1967. You should have asked, Did Frank Sinatra know Sonny Franzese?. He was 103. She died in 2012. sport Franzese's career in organized crime began in the 1930s and spanned over eight decades. While Franzeses son Michael renounced his ties to the Mafia in 1995, he later told The New York Times that he was aware his father had approved an order from family leaders to kill him for leaving. Later a coroner ruled that the death was a probable suicide. Following the 2008 arrest, it was the racketeering charges that stuck, allowing authorities to take Franzese to trial. Dionne Warwick? Football But he did it.. Once again, John Franzese had beaten the system. Lo and behold, he went away to school again!. IN THE GALAXY of New York City nightclubs, the Copacabana burned brightest. . [5] In 1942, in the midst of World War II, he was drafted to the United States Army, but was discharged later that year classified as "psychoneurotic with pronounced homicidal tendencies". Franzese returned to the courtroom, where the jury made clear its view that he was guilty. Crowd tradition claimed that the early gangster became a man made at the age of 14, and he was soon conducting a crowd-controlled craps game. [8][9], He was accused of murdering Genovese crime family hitman-turned-informant Ernest Rupolo in 1964 on the orders of Vito Genovese. By the mid-1970s, John Franzese was widely believed to be one of the Mafias biggest earners since Al Capone, taking home between $1 million and $2 million a week. Franzese, dark-haired and handsome, would claim dalliances with Monroe and actress Jayne Mansfield. A gunman suddenly appeared and took it. He contemplates . On June 23, 2017, he was released, having spent a total of 35 years behind bars. The world lost a luminous legend of the big screen when Marilyn Monroe died at 36 on Aug. 5, 1962, of a barbiturate overdose. Only now he gets to feel holy and forgiven while he cashes the checks. Doubt she wastes her time with someone like Sonny at that point. Screwed his mind up.. DiMaggioby then Monroes ex-husband, but still carrying a torch for hertried to approach Sonny to confront him about their affair. Still do. Corona Virus 1966. [21] On December 24, 2008, Franzese was released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. In 2006, a fellow gangster secretly wearing a wire as an F.B.I. stars Spritzers, really weak white wine spritzers. ! Franzese defies many mob stereotypes. Despite the entreaties of FBI agents and a 50-year prison sentence for a crime he swears he didnt commit, Franzese did his time and never talked. What the hell are you doing? Al moved to Chicago in the 1920s then Alcatraz after in the early 30s. Following Monroes death a host of conspiracy theories emerged, but on the tapes Masters is clear about the reason why she died. He was also a regular at the Copacabana and met such stars as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. on a frequent basis. But he deflected questions about his mob family, how he ran the rackets, or prominent mob bosses such as Frank Costello and Joseph Bonanno. Within three years, three more followed two for disorderly conduct and one for third-degree assault but none of them stuck. All this from a man who was 91 at the time. Getting in wasnt easy. His son Michael, who initially followed his father into the crowd, eventually left organized crime and became a born-again Christian and motivational speaker. Calling himself a die-hard American, he said, I was a good soldier.. Hoffa was buried somewhere very wet and deep, out of New York and Jersey. It is believed it involved the relationship each had with Marilyn Monroe and that the Mafia was using the actress to blackmail the Kennedys. He told the mourners during his homily of a moment after his transfer. [22] John Franzese Jr. testified twice against his father, the last time his father attempted to have him killed; he later lived under witness protection. After six months, his family returned with Franzese to their home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where his father ran a bakery. Podell insisted that employees and customers alike adhere to a strict dress code. I'm gonna do the whole 50". He said, If you want to play rock and roll, first you have to play blues, then you have to play jazz. Franzese looks far younger than he is and remembered details of the various criminal charges against him with clarity, particularly those surrounding the bank robbery conspiracy that he insists he was not involved in. Marilyn Monroe was supposedly at Cal Neva lodge July28,1962 Weekend - Sinatra got upset with her -he told body guard to throw her out - rumor has it Sam giancana was there (may of plug her by way of the tunnels?) Michael Franzese Interview - GangsterBB.NET As for Franzeses own estimate, he killed too many to remember them all but was caught on tape saying, I killed a lot of guys youre not talking about four, five, six, ten.. He apparently assumed his estranged wife would not follow him there. The cassette tapes were found by his nephew, Jeff Platts, and have now been made public. Ava Gardner, I started to talk to her. During a break in the proceedings, the elder Franzese rolled into the mens room in a wheelchair. After Frank Uale, aka Frankie Yale, owner of the Harvard House bar in Coney Island, became the first hoodlum in New York killed with a Thompson submachine gun, his funeral procession had 36 flower cars. I hope so man. Sonny was tough as nails. Im going to have it with her. John Sonny Franzese, in the center, is escorted to Elizabeth Street police station in New York after his arrest on a 43-count gambling charge. He was sentenced to eight more years. He died in a Queens nursing home. 'I done the time': Longtime mob underboss Sonny Franzese, 102 - Newsday [23] In 2010, Franzese Jr. admitted that he received $50,000 from the FBI as a cooperating witness. In April, the U.S. Attorneys Office charged him with conspiring to rob banks and obstruction of justice. If your husband comes here, Im going to beat him up, he told her. Your wifes a whore? Gorgeous and glamorous women were inevitably drawn to Sonny, something he said he never fully understood. So Id have to be a nut to rob banks.. Within 30 minutes, Sonny came with the pocketbook with all the money, plus some money that didnt belong to them. So I jumped in and started helping him. The Hollywood actress is said to have spent the evening with Sam Giancana after taking the singers private jet to Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Sonny Franzese romantic affair with Marilyn Monroe? Franzeses son Michael remembers that when he and his father were discussing business, his father would routinely lead him into the bathroom of their Roslyn home and turn on the water to drown out their conversation. One of Monroe's last flings was Giancana, who was arguably the most powerful gangster in the country at that time, and was in Sinatra's circle. The elder Franzese clearly did more than just cash in on the Shirelles. He wanted to be catered to all the time. coronavirus [27] Franzese was denied compassionate release in July 2016. Both had immigrated to the United States from Italy. information Because its my principle.. In 2010, at the age of 93, he was indicted for attempting to shake down two night spots and a pizzeria. ! [37], His younger son, John Franzese Jr., was a Colombo family associate before becoming an FBI informant. In October, the Queens district attorney indicted him in the homicide of Ernest (The Hawk) Rupolo, a one-eyed mob hit man from Baldwin. His pals included some of the biggest entertainers of the time, and a Newsday reporter would later ask if he knew Frank Sinatra. Mike said he knows the shooter and he has a tape to this today which discusses where Hoffa was killed. [4], In the late 1930s, Franzese worked under Joseph Profaci, boss of the Profaci crime family (later named the Colombo crime family). Today, Franzeseregularly uses a wheelchair to get around. He cared about his money and was particularly entrepreneurial in infiltrating legitimate businesses. However, Franzese ultimately beat the case. People just liked me, you know what I mean? Born in 1917 and raised in New York City, John Franzese grew up during a boom era for organized crime and it didnt take long for him to get involved himself. Franzese returned to his family in Brooklyn after his release in 2017 from the Federal Medical Center in Danvers, Mass., leading a quiet life far from the spotlight of his youth. Ruggedly handsome with a swagger many women found irresistible, he frequented the citys top clubs, especially the Copacabana, where Frank Costello boss of the Luciano mob family, which was the precursor of todays Genovese family was a silent partner and Franzese was an honored guest among the celebrities. Asked where he sat when he went to the Copa, Sonny Franzesehandsome and charismatic underboss of the Colombo familysmiled and said, Wherever I wanted.. In college you couldnt bring a phone book with you, Maurice noted, saying Franzese could remember a thousand different phone numbers., He would rattle off these phone numbers, rattle off these names, tell you what to do, Maurice recalled. [12] Franzese was later acquitted of the murder. Cassato had come to the parish in 1985 and by all accounts was a major force in reviving the neighborhood before he was transferred to another part of Brooklyn in 2001. I never hurt nobody that was innocent, Franzese once told Newsday. Queens, New York. I wouldnt turn around., Sinatra was used to being in charge, but not when Sonny was around. McShane writes for the New York Daily News. The renowned tough guy spent his time in prison without ever igniting his mafia comrades following a 1967 conviction that was widely considered an organized crime both internally and externally. [10][5][4] He was arrested with nine other people on April 13, 1966,[11] and during his trial, the prosecution produced records that claimed that Franzese had killed between 30 and 50 people. While in prison, Franzese suffered from maladies that could have brought his story to an end (including kidney disease and high blood pressure), but he beat the odds each time. Some mid level wiseguy, as Sonny Franseze was at that time, might have been a stepping stone on her way up to Sinatra and Jack Kennedy. Afterward, John Franzese joined the Colombo crime family under boss Joseph Profaci. And then youll be ready to play rock and roll because you have to know where the music comes from., The grandson now marveled, And to hear that from an old Italian guy. Did you know she was pronounced dead, and then they brought her back to the house, and she was still alive, and they took her back to the hospital, and brought her back home, and then the coroners came over, and they found her dead in another bed somebody moved her, he says. "[1] In 2005, Franzese Jr. wore a wire around his father. [39], Franzese died in a New York City hospital, on February 24, 2020, aged 103. If youre smart, Sonny told me, you can avoid some of those taxes, Cassato said, drawing laughter even from those who appeared to be feeling the loss most keenly. Julie Podell thought I was the best thing that ever happened to him., It undoubtedly had a lot to do with business. Maurice also recounted a story from the 1960s, before Franzese was sent to prison. His wife made clear her displeasure with him over the crooked path their son had taken before becoming an informant. "Listen, it broke my heart. Full head of hair - stand up guy. Wife Claims Sonny Franzese's Son Destroyed His Family [5], Franzese operated out of New York City and New Jersey and was involved in racketeering, fraud, and loansharking. On Writing Outside (Or Inside) The Lines. The mortal remains of John Sonny Franzese were then carried back out to the hearse. For one, investigators said that Franzese had largely been able to avoid murder charges because of his knack for making bodies disappear. Other recordings were made with the help of informants. He was deeplyin love with his second wife, Tina, whose volatile temper influenced the family dynamic as much as her husbands outlaw life. After the 2004 incarceration of John "Jackie" DeRoss, Franzese was again promoted to Colombo family underboss in 2005, for the first time since his 1967 imprisonment, by Thomas Gioeli. On June 23, 2017, Franzese was released and returned home. News. As a "made man" for the Colombo crime family, he . report from 1965 described Franzese, then underboss of the Colombo family, as the fastest growing and most prominent shylock in the Greater New York area.. Although Monroe's death was officially ruled a "probable suicide". No flower cars accompanied the hearse and the three black limousines that pulled up to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Bizarre moments in Alex Murdaugh double murder trial so far, Stolen car crashes into another car causing building to collapse, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. She was madly in love with him. Franzese said his superior officers liked his quick intelligence and fighting spiritbut that his gambling and liaison with a majors wife probably were what got him into trouble. The made members Valachi named included Franzese, and law enforcement became so determined to build a case against him that agents installed a bug in his kitchen as his new home was being built.