What if Sam Giancana said, Look, Frank, you didnt get it done. Rupolo was shot and stabbed several times before his feet were attached to two concrete blocks and his hands tied before being dumped into Jamaica Bay. From breaking news to special features and documentaries, the NewsdayTV team is covering the issues that matter to you. Mike said he knows the shooter and he has a tape to this today which discusses where Hoffa was killed. /r/Mafia features stories, interviews, documentary and news articles about organized crime around the world. In the two-page letter, which was written in the early 1960s, Jean . I figured hes a skinny guy, theyd kill him. Franzese was a well-dressed regular at the Copacabana nightclub, where he spent lavishly and hung around with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra. But just like everyone else, he couldnt beat death. He recounted a time when he was starting out in music and grew weary of playing classical works. The mourners laughed as they had at the line about taxes, making it two laughs more than at your basic old school mob boss funeral. One F.B.I. Now you may not believe this, but, so help me God, she told it to meshe says to me, I made a lot of pictures. Following that arrest, plenty of macabre and lurid stories came to light. I didnt want to talk to him. Within 30 minutes, Sonny came with the pocketbook with all the money, plus some money that didnt belong to them. Especially in his mafia career, Franzese was making money by making money for the family in various ways. They wanted me to roll all the time, he said over a bowl of pasta e fagioliin the nursing home where he now lives. Then-Nassau District Attorney William Cahn, who went to Washington D.C. to debrief Valachi, became keenly interested in Franzese. He was deeplyin love with his second wife, Tina, whose volatile temper influenced the family dynamic as much as her husbands outlaw life. Sinatra? Never under my name, though. Family business. Lo and behold, he went away to school again!. It was because of the Kennedys. But one of the actual bank robbers took the stand to say Franzese had overseen the heists. On June 23, 2017, he was released, having spent a total of 35 years behind bars. Colombo's legendary gangster gangster John "Sonny" Franzese, who was with Frank Sinatra and befriended Marilyn Monroe before a bank robbery conviction made him the nation's oldest federal inmate, died in a hospital of New York City. In time, according to FBI records, he acquired businesses, among them the Le Tique Disco and Decameron Room in Levittown, the Apple Orchard Restaurant in Roslyn and the El Elegante in Hicksville, all now defunct. Watch full Franzese podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZFK-KBINY\u0026list=PLPT_cCpNMvT50d_7cJ55ciKoZEY8q_YPt\u0026index=4Michael Franzese UK tour: https://michaelfranzesetour.com/Michael Franzese YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6hqYXMeeZU\u0026t=64sMichael Franzese Insta: https://www.instagram.com/michaelfranzese_/Michael Franzese Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelFranzeseMichael Franzese inner circle: https://join.michaelfranzese.com/Michael Franzese grew up as the son of Sonny Franzese, the underboss of New York's violent Colombo crime family. In his first extended interviews following his release in June 2017 as the oldest inmate in the federal prison system, Franzese spoke to reporters as he never has, reflecting on a criminal life rooted in New York City and on Long Island that spanned the birth, glory days and current lower profile of traditional organized crime. Ava Gardner, I started to talk to her. One night while the singer was performing onstage, Sonny struck up a conversation with her. [25], With the help of Franzese Jr.'s testimony, the 93-year-old Franzese Sr., on January 14, 2011, was sentenced to eight years in prison for extorting two Manhattan strip clubs, running a loanshark operation and extorting a pizzeria on Long Island. Major Franzese was born in Sicily, moving with his family as a child to Brooklyn. [32] He also helped to finance the $22,000 budget of the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat, which generated $3050 million, and the 1974 slasher film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which earned over $30 million from a $80,000140,000 investment. Franzese went on to say that he had been told of the great good Cassato had done. Auto . Franzese rose quickly through the mob ranks and became a capobecause he was what is known as an earner, generating steady income for himself and his bosses in the Colombo family, his sons said. He would be the last guy I thought would do that. John "Sonny" Franzese reportedly committed his first murder at the age of fourteen. COVID-19 They had met years earlier when he was performing at the Rustic Cabin, a roadhouse in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and a fight broke out. I heard about you, Franzese said. They went to the church for help, lacking even the subway fare to get home. There were no flower cars outside the funeral of 103-year-old John Sonny Franzesebut gospel music, funny stories, and eulogies from his loving grandkids made it much grander. Sonny was always nattily dressed and knew full well that reporters would describe his wardrobe in detail, his cashmere coats included: In those days, cashmere was expensive.. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Patrons of the club knew exactly who he was. The charges, ranging from vagrancy to rape, all followed a strikingly similar pattern they were either dismissed or he was acquitted. Gardner was beautiful and tempestuous, and everyone knew Sinatra was hopelessly in love with her. /r/Mafia features stories, interviews, documentary and news articles about organized crime around the world. He hung out with Sinatra and fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr. at the legendary Copacabana nightclub in New York. That was the Madison Square Garden of show business., Part of the Copacabanas appeal was its exclusivity. Franzese told Fatato:[18]. Jayne sat down, and they began flirting. 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 prison, he said, I learned one thing: Determination is stronger than anything.. McShane writes for the New York Daily News. I knew them all, he said. Lets bring her back again so I can have a shot at it. IN THE GALAXY of New York City nightclubs, the Copacabana burned brightest. John Sonny Franzese, who was one of the deadliest, richest, and longest-living Mafia bosses, died on February 25, 2019. He contemplates . He was paroled in 1978, but was re-jailed at least six times on parole violations throughout the decades that followed. 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. His son Michael, who initially followed his father into the crowd, eventually left organized crime and became a born-again Christian and motivational speaker. She died in 2012. 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. The extraordinary life and times of a legendary crime boss who refused to squealbut who finally agreed to talk to an award-winning New York Newsday reporter shortly before his death at age 103 . By turns avuncular and crude, he answered questions about his extraordinary life. 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. He didnt deny himself. 09:05 GMT 29 Apr 2011. The once-feared mobster was the Colombo crime family's second in command and died on February 20 of natural causes at a nursing home in upstate New York. advertising See, I used to play it right. But he did it." Now, Franzese who once ran in the same crowd as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Dagmar lives a much quieter life. So I ran away. It also probably was inevitable. How does he know this?. Interesting interview. I was ashamed. Queens, New York. He was chasing me all over the place. Sonny knew them wellHe was a good guy, Dean Martin. Once you appeared at the Copa, you could go anywhere in the world. He dated Sinatra and Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr. at the legendary Copacabana nightclub in New York. According to his son Michael, he passed away in a hospital in the New York area, but no further details were given. Copyright 2023 Newsday. You know what she told me? And he said to me, [On]account of you, we could have broke the Mafia up. International By 1963, he had been promoted to underboss by boss Joseph Colombo. The late Gambino boss John Gotti was caught on a federal wiretap marveling at Franzeses refusal to rat: Sonny Franzese, hes one tough [expletive] guy, one tough, [expletive]guy. The late Bernard Welsh, an FBI agent who arrested Franzese for violating parole, agreed in an interview with Newsday in 2017: He demanded so much respect because he did all that time and he never gave anyone up., Authorities believe Franzese personally killed or ordered the murders of dozens of people. In the 1950s and 1960s, Franzese listed his official occupation as an owner of a dry-cleaning store in Brooklyn. Spritzers, really weak white wine spritzers. 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. That I promise.. It is believed it involved the relationship each had with Marilyn Monroe and that the Mafia was using the actress to blackmail the Kennedys. Franzese, who died Monday, had been living in New York since being released from prison. United States of America More significantly for Franzese, Valachi identified him as a member of the Profaci family, which was the precursor to the Colombos, according to Senate records. What the hell are you doing? In 2006, a fellow gangster secretly wearing a wire as an F.B.I. His wife made clear her displeasure with him over the crooked path their son had taken before becoming an informant. You have notifications blocked. She reported his essential advice for all his grandchildren. Gioino, Catherina and McShane, Larry (June 24, 2017). 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. Franzese was born in Naples, Italy, to Carmine Franzese and Maria Corvola on February 6, 1917, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Longtime Colombo under-boss John " Sonny " Franzese is the living embodiment of the ultimate mob rule bragging in an interview about refusing to rat despite it making him the oldest federal. [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". the news I really think the FBI did it, he says. By Net Worth in 2022. As a caporegime, Michael was making $5-10m weekly from a petrol bootlegging scheme, involving the Russian Mafia.Watch my interview on Michael Franzese's channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6hqYXMeeZU\u0026t=64sSupport us on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/shaunattwoodShaun Attwood merch: https://shaunattwood.shop/collections/allShaun Attwood's social media:TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shaunattwood1?Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaunattwood/?hl=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/shaunattwoodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaunattwood1/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shaunattwoodOdysee: https://odysee.com/@ShaunAttwood:aJen's website: https://www.organiccottonclothing.co.uk/Jen's Insta: https://www.instagram.com/boomer_jen/Jen's Twitter: https://twitter.com/boomerandjenLtdJen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ7utxeVCXBkhDXms36xLfgJen's clothing company on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/boomerandjen_organic_clothing/Jen on FB: https://www.facebook.com/BoomerJen-106167247767169/Andrew Gold's links: YouTube: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 On the Edge with Andrew Gold Podcast - https://podfollow.com/on-the-edge-with-andrew-gold Twitter: twitter.com/andrewgold_ok Dr DAS' CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/c/APsychForSoreMinds Dr DAS\" social media: TWITTER - https://twitter.com/PsychSore FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/psychsore INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/psychforsoremindsWatch our true crime podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT50d_7cJ55ciKoZEY8q_YPtWatch all of our Wild Man videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT5SlYuhHm-kLYekc8FIAWvzWatch UK Wild Woman, Sammy the Bull Gravano, Arizona, Mexico: Kerry Osborne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5CKU-Qg0tM\u0026list=PLPT_cCpNMvT50d_7cJ55ciKoZEY8q_YPt\u0026index=3Watch our Royal Family videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT7FSrvAJL-44G2_WQTeU5d5 Watch John Abbott's California San Quentin prison stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT4opC39yEqNU3fmPBQUHsv3UK gangsters playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT55XryzNClntlWEHGqDs-HZWatch our full interview with a Mafia hit man for the Gambino crime family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_o3tTOekqY\u0026list=PLPT_cCpNMvT50d_7cJ55ciKoZEY8q_YPt\u0026index=6\u0026t=9075sWatch smuggling stories with David McMillan: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT6P4orHr3HqE2Dpw5aPyv_OOur donation links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shaunattwoodPayPal: https://www.paypal.me/SAttwoodJustGiving: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/shaun-attwood-1SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/true-crime-podcastMerch:Books: https://shaunattwood.com/shaun/books/Wild Man T-shirts: https://everpress.com/wildmanShaun's Website: http://shaunattwood.com/ Shaun's Blog: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.co.uk/ #truecrime #mafia #thegodfather #franzese #gravano #sammythebull #podcast