He became a boccie player and a handball champion. And everybody wanted to get glory, said Ed McDonald, former chief of the federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn. "[1] In 2005, Franzese Jr. wore a wire around his father. Gioino, Catherina and McShane, Larry (June 24, 2017). In 1944, he was dishonorably discharged from the Army for homicidal tendencies," according to court records. He also became known as someone who would act ruthlessly on his bosses orders. In the two-page letter, which was written in the early 1960s, Jean . [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. Sonny met actress Marilyn Monroe, not at the Copa, but at the Stork Club, thanks to an introduction by Frank Costello. 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. It was so much part of who I am as a man, good or bad. He and Sonny, though, had an uneasy relationship, as each jousted to assert dominance. He beat three of the cases the homicide and home invasion trials ended in acquittal, and the bookmaking case was resolved with a plea to a misdemeanor but he was convicted of a conspiracy to rob banks across the country and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. There was laughter among about 75 people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at the funeral Mass for Franzese, the charming, menacing mobster who died Sunday at 103. News. The comments below have not been moderated, By Most importantly in his mob career, Franzese was an earner, making money for the family in a variety of ways. George specifically told me that Marilyn spent the evening with Sam Giancana. A couple who had just gotten engaged were walking at dusk through the streets near the church. . You know, Ive been away at college for a couple of years, Franzese said. The home of John (Sonny) Franzese on Shrub Hollow Road in Roslyn in 1970. Credit: Newsday / Bill Senft, I started buying businesses, you know, he said. Allowing someone to see that they got under my skin was not an option, as he explained, because they would learn my weakness and exploit it for their own benefit, for their own use to climb ahead., She added, Interestingly, he didnt want me to employ that same strategy. Sonny was not at all ashamed of his many infidelitiesI was a run-around guybut it bothered him that he had hurt a man he idolized. [34] While married, John had gotten Cristina Capobianco, a 16-year-old cigarette girl at the Stork Club in Manhattan, pregnant with his son Michael Franzese. But one of the actual bank robbers took the stand to say Franzese had overseen the heists. In the 1950s and 1960s, Franzese listed his official occupation as an owner of a dry-cleaning store in Brooklyn. If the club was filled, he would go to the back door and tell workers to set a table on the stage; and they did. I dont know. On Writing Outside (Or Inside) The Lines. Calling himself a die-hard American, he said, I was a good soldier.. Although Monroe's death was officially ruled a "probable suicide". And of course to take our zinc and our vitamins, she said. Over the course of the ensuing decades, Franzese cemented his reputation as one of New Yorks flashiest mobsters. Doubt she wastes her time with someone like Sonny at that point. That initially struck her as a very lonely way to proceed. "Serious loss at any age," said his son Michael. He chuckled as he perused old photos of himself in the tabloids, looking both fierce and dapper in his cashmere overcoat. Be the best.. [29][30][31][28], Franzese is listed as an associate producer of the 2003 film This Thing of Ours, which starred James Caan. We have estimated Sonny Franzese's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather. It was a free-for-all, Sonny recalled. He was arrogant. Adapted from SONNY: The Last of the Old-Time Mafia Bosses, John Sonny Franzese, by S. J. Peddie. He served as underboss of the Colombo family from 1963 until he was sentenced to 50 years in . It was May 19, 1962, when Monroe sashayed onto the stage of Madison Square Garden in a skintight, rhinestone-studded dress and sang a breathy Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy during a Democratic fundraiser. In a December 2006 conversation secretly taped by a mob associate, Gaetano Fatato, Franzese said as much himself: I killed a lot of guys youre not talking about four, five, six, 10.. Younger men are springing up on all sides, including Joey Gallo, Sonny Franzese, etc. , updated Do you know who my husband is? she replied. But the business side of Franzese was darker: He once acknowledged killing 10 men during a 2006 chat with a mob informant, with other estimates of his mob murders running as high as 60. To them, it was clear who the top man was, but Sonny, ever magnanimous, quieted them. You have notifications blocked. On August 20, 1962, about two weeks . Sonny knew them wellHe was a good guy, Dean Martin. Once you appeared at the Copa, you could go anywhere in the world. 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 bottom line, he said: I never hurt nobody that was innocent.. 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. He then testified against his father, 93 at the time, and later entered the federal witness protection program. Ate a lot of crappy jail food. Dinamo More posturing followed, and Jayne tried to gentle Sonny, telling him not to get too excited. Once asked if he knew Sinatra, the gangster was quick to turn around the question: You asked the question the wrong way. I told him, Grandpa, I really want to play rock and roll, the grandson recalled. And you saved my parish and I want to thank you for that.. Over the years, Franzese listed his legitimate work as a tailor, a baker and a salesman. And then I would go and play handball. She was hard as a rock.. I really think the FBI did it, he says. Sonny met actress Marilyn Monroe, not at the Copa, but at the Stork Club, thanks to an introduction by Frank Costello. 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. The film is based on Joyce Carol Oates . Maurice recalled monthly visits to see Franzese at college, as prison is termed in the mob world. But he did it.. So Id have to be a nut to rob banks.. But one particular patron never had a problem. Franzese defies many mob stereotypes. What do you expect a guy to turn out to be? Sonny told them. [4], In 1967, Franzese gained a financial interest in a new recording company, Buddah Records. You Do You. 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.. Facts are facts his time is nearly up. Cassato turned solemn without being somber at the end of the funeral, saying that Franzese now rested in Gods love and grace. Franzese also told Fatato that he put nail polish on his fingertips before a murder to avoid leaving fingerprints at the crime scene. Never under my name, though. His son Michael, who initially followed his father into the crowd, eventually left organized crime and became a born-again Christian and motivational speaker. [17], In 2006, Franzese discussed techniques for mob murders with Gaetano "Guy" Fatato, a Colombo associate, not realizing that Fatato was a government informant and taping the conversation. Franzese who now has a pacemaker, hearing aids and a broken hip had been tipped in the 1960s as a potential new Colombo boss. Sinatra might have been high-handed, but Sonny felt a certain affinity for the singer. . Sonny frequented all the citys top clubs, but he felt most at home at the Copacabana, with its roster of glittering acts and Copa Girls dance line. Before long, he asked her, Whos taking you home?. Later, he would become convinced that his affair with Monroewho was rumored to have been involved with Kennedys brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, toowas what brought the wrath of the U.S. government down on him. He had been the oldest inmate in the federal prison system, but now he was free and on his way to spend time at his daughters home in Brooklyn. As a younger man, according to Mafia lore, Franzese was a . Julie Podell thought I was the best thing that ever happened to him., It undoubtedly had a lot to do with business. And he gloated over his own Oceans 11-style celebrity. One of his paramours was Jayne Mansfield, the buxom blonde star of the 1950s and 60s who was one of Playboys early centerfolds. [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. A grandson also spoke. I would win, too., But his bottom line on prison where he spent more than a third of his long life is I hate everything about it.. Sonny maybe met Al Capone but he said Sonny knew him and it's a pretty vague term. One of 16 children only 10 survived to adulthood he was the youngest son. He didnt squeal on nobody., His toughness earned him the reverence of street hoods and a grudging respect from law enforcement. At 100 years old, mobster John (Sonny) Franzese the oldest inmate in the federal prison system was released Friday from a Massachusetts . 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. 09:25 GMT 28 Apr 2011 Then in 2010, at age 93, he was sentenced to eight more years in prison after being convicted of extorting the Hustler and Penthouse strip clubs in Manhattan and a pizzeria in Albertson. My father was a chameleon, Michael said. Franzese is said to have run a craps game and to have gone into loan sharking. Getting in wasnt easy. It also probably was inevitable. Following that arrest, plenty of macabre and lurid stories came to light. He died in a Queens nursing home. You wouldnt help us. I said, Go and F yourself! And I walked away from him.. 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. [36] However, in 1971, shortly after his father had been sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery, he decided to drop out of college to help his family earn money. Paroled for the first time in 1978, Franzese returned to prison five more times as he violated his parole again and again by associating with fellow mobsters. You should have asked, Did Frank Sinatra know Sonny Franzese?. I hope so man. 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. That I promise.. Monroe and Mr Masters apparently flew back to Los Angeles where he dropped her off at her home around 9am on Sunday August 5 1962. Down in the darkened arena, a very different personal drama was playing out. He was deeplyin love with his second wife, Tina, whose volatile temper influenced the family dynamic as much as her husbands outlaw life. He is believed to have been elevated to caporegime or captain in the Colombo family in the mid 1950s by Profaci.