https://theblackhand.club/sonny-franzese/
John Franzese
(Sonny)
John (Sonny) Franzese was born in 1919 as Giovanni Carmina Franzese (TN). It is said Sonny was born on the ship en route from Naples, Italy to Ellis Island, NYC.
FBI # 3400301, NYCPD # B-164829
Sonny was raised and resided for the first 30 years of his life at 346 Leonard Street in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. He married young to Ann Schiller in 1942, and fathered three children with her before they later divorced.
Sonny and Tina Franzese
With his second marriage to Tina (née Capobianco), he fathered three more children and adopted one. The family moved to 384 Jefferson Street in Franklin Square in Nassau County.
By 1961, they had relocated again to 47 Shrub Hollow Road in the exclusive “Hamilton Park” section of Roslyn. He and Tina, with seven children in tow, had now settled firmly into suburbia!
Sonny was a ruggedly handsome man at 5=feet 9-inches tall with a trim and muscular 175-pound build. With full jet-black hair crew-cut style, he always spoke in a measured and even low tone. He exuded the very essence of what the public imagined a Mafioso to be.
He was once called “a mobster straight out of central casting”…… it was not an overstatement!
Sonny was a health nut way before the Jack Lalanne era.
Since the late 1930s, he’d been taking 20+ vitamins a day. Sonny was a diet-conscious, calorie-counting hood who watched his food intake religiously! He also kept fit by lifting weights in his basement long before it became en vogue.
Sonny FranzeseSonny Franzese
Sonny never smoked cigarettes or drank even though he frequented and owned bars and nightclubs all his life. He always drank “club soda”. Only when in the private company of a few of his highly-trusted personal men would he occasionally have a single glass of red wine!
As he aged into his 90s, he would allow himself one or two glasses of wine on occasion…… he never wanted to be “out of control” or vulnerable.
He also never owned a car of his own and rarely drove. Instead, Sonny had a steady stream of chauffeur/bodyguards over the decades squire him around town.
Known for never having sensitive conversations indoors, Sonny made fashionable the so-called “walk and talks” long before other mobsters did.
Law enforcement would see him on a Manhattan street corner day after day receiving a steady stream of mob underlings. One after another, like clockwork, they would approach him, they’d walk in public while chatting, and when finished, another mob guy would be received as the previous guy departed.
Sonny would also frustrate law enforcement by never using the same “public” telephone twice, making it nearly impossible for agents to “bug” his calls.
It was later widely reported by mob guys, that during the 1970s, Sonny had become the handball champ at Leavenworth Penitentiary and later Otisville FCI while serving jail time.
What the FBI thought of Sonny:
“He’s one of a kind,” said Robert Lewicki, a retired FBI agent who persuaded Sonny’s son John Jr. Franzese to wear a wire against the mob in 2005. “There’s never been a guy like Sonny. There will never be another guy like Sonny, the last of a dying breed.”
And although law enforcement authorities believe Franzese committed or ordered the murders of up to 50 people, Lewicki is not the only former FBI agent who has a begrudging respect for him.
Sgt. Ralph Salerno – NYPD
“I think it’s amazing that he stood up all those years,” said Bernard Welsh, a former FBI agent who tracked the Colombo Family and arrested Franzese several times on parole violations. “He never gave anybody up.”
…… and the New York City police:
Sgt. Ralph Salerno, Cosa Nostra expert for the NYPD said, “Sonny Franzese is the big comer in the Cosa Nostra. He has an extraordinary talent for organized crime. He knows when to compromise and when to get tough; he knows how to run a business and crime is big business, and, most important, he’s an expert at not getting caught.”
And Nassau County rackets bureau chief Norman Levy stated this:
“The criminal empire bossed by Franzese and his subordinates is so vast that the file maintained on them by Nassau D.A. William Cahn and our staff weighs nine pounds. Similar files are kept by the Suffolk Police Intelligence Squad, New York City, and Queens County district attorney’s office.”
Some of his Roslyn neighbors included Lucchese labor racketeer Harry Davidoff, Genovese soldier Zookie Esposito, Gambino capo Patsy Conte, and down the block… lived the Bonanno’s, Frank Mari.
Another noteworthy takeaway was that Sonny’s Roslyn home, although beautiful, had no shrubs or bushes whatsoever around the foundation of the house. It was completely barren. Law enforcement correctly believed that Sonny avoided such landscaping so as not to make a ready hiding spot for a would-be killer. Only years after the Gallo-Profaci war did he acquiesce to his wife, Tina, and allow her to minimally decorate the property.
During the construction of his Roslyn home in 1961, FBI agents had installed “bugs” in the kitchen walls and den after construction workers had left for the day. For years, Sonny wondered how the feds knew even the smallest of details about him.
Sebastiano Aloi
Sonny was the youngest son born to Carmine (Turiddo di Leone) Franzese aka “Turi the Lion”, who was an early associate of the Camorra of Downtown Brooklyn. His father was associated with other “Napolitani” hoodlums such as Vito Genovese (an early idol and mentor of Sonny), Mike Miranda, and other Camorristi, who later became inducted mafiosi.
Although his father was affiliated with the “Napolitani” Genovese faction, Sonny was befriended as a young hoodlum by the top “capo di decina” overseeing his Greenpoint neighborhood for Joe Profaci. It was a veteran Sicilian mafioso by the name of Sebastiano (Bustiano) Aloi.
After observing how Franzese conducted himself in the neighborhood, Aloi took the young hoodlum under his wing, putting him “on record” with the Profaci Family, which was the preeminent Cosa Nostra Family operating in the area along with the Bonanno Family.
In 1961, the FBN stated, “his native toughness and deceased father’s prestige in the Mafia are aiding his rise to the top of Brooklyn’s Mafia racketeers.”
As Sonny grew in stature and reputation, and “served” Aloi and the Family as required of him, Aloi eventually proposed Sonny for formal induction in either his mid to late 20s or early 30s. He was accepted into the Family shortly thereafter.
When first coming up, Sonny originally operated out of The Miami Bar, a Greenpoint neighborhood gin mill co-owned with his brother Mike.
By age 35, in 1954 or 1955, he had been elevated to “capodecina” of his own regime. Several “soldati” were assigned to him, in addition to several close friends that he proposed for induction within his own crew.
I know some say he became a capo in 1962, I do not believe that is correct!…. 1962 may be when law enforcement learned of it.
By the late-1950s, Sonny had gained a notorious reputation as a top hoodlum “torpedo” for the Brooklyn underworld and the “biggest comer” in the world of organized crime.
In 1964, prosecutors once claimed in open court, that law enforcement suspected Franzese had committed an estimated 30 to 50 gangland killings in his rise to the top of the Family.
By the early 1960s, he was being closely watched and hauled in on a regular basis by Brooklyn and Queens rackets detectives and federal authorities.
San Su San
He became one of the top racket figures in the Jackson Heights section of Queens. At the time, the 1950s, that area was the top entertainment capital of New York City, second only to Manhattan itself.
Sonny was partners with capo Frank Tieri in “The Orchid Room” – one of the most popular night spots in the area.
He also held interests in “The Flamboyant,” another top Queens nightclub.
Upon migrating to Nassau County, he invested and opened the most popular nightspot yet – the San Su San in Mineola – which featured top entertainers such as Jimmy Roselli, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra Jr…..everybody who was anybody frequented the San Su San.
….Sonny was at the top of his game!
Legitimate and semi-legitimate interests included:
— nightclubs, bars and restaurants
— dry cleaners
— real estate investments
— trucking companies
— entertainers and professional boxers
— record companies and recording studios (his company signed some of the biggest stars including Dionne Warwick and many others).
— He was partners in a top Manhattan talent agency with Norby Walters whose father, “Soldier Major”, had been a close friend of Sonny’s.
For decades, he listed his occupation as partner in a Greenpoint dry cleaning shop, L & R Cleaners, located at 635 Metropolitan Avenue, and later a record company, Karma-Sutra Records.
A short list of his notorious criminal associates have included many bosses:
Sebastiano Alo;
Joseph Profaci
Giuseppe Magliocco
Salvatore Mussachio
Vito Genovese
Raymond Patriarca
Toddo Del Duca
Joseph Gioelli
John Oddo
Carmine Lombardozzi
Vincenzo Plumeri
Philip Rastelli
Vincent Napoli
……but Franzese was well acquainted with nearly all members of the NY/NJ and nationwide LCN.
By the mid-1960s, since being elevated to the “underboss” position by Joe Colombo as his number two, he was arguably the number one target of every law enforcement agency in the greater New York City area – and the nation for that matter – including the FBI.
It was once said,“that J. Edgar Hoover would give his left testicle to get Sonny Franzese!”
He and his “regime,” having grown to be the largest of the Profaci-Colombo Family and one of the most deadly, operated extensively throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Nassau-Suffolk area of Long Island.
He was largely credited with having expanded the Brooklyn-based Family’s influence into Queens and Long Island. At the time, the Island was untapped fertile territory. The Colombo Family became the biggest mob group, by far, in the area.
Larry Abbandando
It was said by law enforcement that he controlled the largest group of bookmakers and shylocks (estimated at over 400) in the Long Island and Queens areas.
As later reported in U.S. Senate hearing testimony, by 1968, Franzese had reputedly infiltrated the Times Square “flesh” industry. He and Larry Abbandando were alleged to have moved in on several pornography firms and peepshow operators.
He would later additionally be credited, along with soldier Anthony Peraino, of being a behind the scenes principal of the famed porn movie, “Deep Throat”.
By 1963, it seemed that Sonny was in the newspapers every other day, with either he or associates getting investigated or arrested for their racket activities …..this publicity culminated in two very extensive articles/exposes written about him.
One was March 30, 1968 issue Life Magazine which devoted half the entire periodical to Franzese’s background and his murder trial. The other was in Newsday, released on Christmas Eve 1965, entitled “The Hood in our Neighborhood”…. an extensive expose on his biography and climb up the underworld ladder.
Sonny instantly became the most publicized underworld boss in the country! ….. the John Gotti of his era. He was Gotti before Gotti was Gotti! ……Nobody but nobody was more notorious in the Mafia!
Sonny’s “core” crew consisted of approximately 8 to 10 formally inducted soldiers, another 10 to 12 top-quality capable “proposed” associates in line for formal induction years later when the “books” would open in 1975, another 30 to 40 active, capable “second tier” associates, and numerous other “outer ring” hoodlums of every size and shape, literally numbering into the hundreds!
As both federal authorities and mob figures alike recognized….. Sonny controlled “an army within an army”! ……gamblers, loansharks, extortionists, truck hijackers and thieves, strong-arm men and enforcers, union officials and labor racketeers, and more……indeed …“a Family within a Family!”
That being said, he was a feared guy, maybe too feared!…… by both law enforcement and the mob! From the FBI on down to his own Family Boss Joey Colombo and many other mobsters…. all kept a wary eye out for Sonny, with jealousy, envy, fear, and yet a begrudging respect for him!
Sonny and his crew were into nearly everything — with the definite exception of narcotics. Sonny never fucked around with drugs, but pretty much everything else was on the table and fair game including:
extortion, shakedowns, and protection
shylocking
policy/numbers
bookmaking
floating dice and card games
truck hijacking
after-hours unlicensed “bottle clubs”
armed robberies and thefts
labor union racketeering
business infiltration
police bribery (the pad)
stock thefts and frauds
strong-arm and enforcement
pornography
gasoline tax bootlegging
Sonny’s criminal record starts in 1938 and includes:
Felonious assault
Bookmaking and conspiracy
Disorderly conduct (three times)
Vagrancy
Robbery
Extortion (twice) and conspiracy
Attempted extortion
Bank robbery and conspiracy
Murder (first degree)
Contempt of court
Parole violations (six times)
RICO conspiracy including (usury, extortion
Over an 80-year span he was convicted of contempt of court, bookmaking, bank robbery conspiracy (50 years, served 9 yrs then paroled), 6 parole violations (2 yrs, 4 yrs, 8 yrs, 2 yrs, 4 yrs, 2 yrs), and RICO conspiracy (8 years.)
Additionally, he was held without bail several times for murder and other crimes…..
Sonny has served a total of over 40 years of his life in prison
As stated above, at his “zenith,” Franzese oversaw a huge crew (rivaling that of a small LCN Family) which literally numbered into the hundreds, in addition to his more formal duties as the Colombo underboss, and that of overseeing the additional 100 to 130 or so “formally inducted” membership of the other regimes. But his original “core” crew, of his closest confidantes, friends, and mob associates easily numbered 40 to 50 quality “capable” hoodlums.
This “core” crew, mostly based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, owed their allegiance to Sonny and Sonny alone!
It was a fact not lost on the Colombo hierarchy!
First Joe Colombo, then Carmine Persico, both would come to cast a respectful but wary eye on Sonny’s suspected real “strength”!
The original Franzese “crew” (circa 1950 to 1965) consisted of most of the men listed below, close associates who law enforcement say were formally inducted at different intervals through the years as the “books” allowed:
Inducted between 1951 and 1958
Joseph Brancato, Dominick Scialo, Joseph Vitacco, and Anthony Augello
Joseph (Little Joey) Brancato
Dominick (Mimi) Scialo
Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco
Anthony (Tony the Gawk) Augello
Rosario (Black Sam) Nastasa
Ferdinand (Freddy Red) De Lucia
Inducted between 1975 and 1980
John Matera, Robert Falvo, and Carmine Franzese
John (Johnny Irish) Matera
Robert (Bobby Green) Falvo
Carmine (Tutti) Franzese
Michael Franzese
Inducted between 1990 and 2005
Frank Campione
Frank (Frankie Camp) Campione
Michael Catapano
Vincent (Big Lou) Russo
There were additional soldiers assigned to his crew from time to time by the administration, that are not included. The above named men were his “core” regime.
Significant close “associates” circa 1955 to 1995 included:
From top: Felice Vizzari, Dominick Santoro, Nicholas Botta, and Ralph Esposito
Felice (Philly Cigars) Vizzari
Gennaro (Big Jerry) Galtieri
Alphonse (Big Funzi) Tarricone
Dominick Santoro
George Papageorge
Lawrence (Larry Baccala) Abbandando
(Charlie Monk) LNU
Albert Maione
Nicholas Botta
William (Red) Crabbe
Michael Franzese (Tutti’s father)
Onofrio (Nufio) Franzese
Joseph (Whitey) Florio
Nicholas Potere
Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro
Carmine Scotti
Joseph (Joe Cousins) Fiore
John (Johnny Tarzan) Lusterino
Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito
Lazzaro (Larry) Sangiovanni
Anthony (Tony C) Carrozza
Lawrence Carrozza
Frederick (Fat Freddy) DiGregorio
John (Johnny V) Vanasco
Dominic Famulari
Anthony (Flemmo) Famulari
Louis (Louie the Mole) Morra
Anthony Polisi
Louis (Lou Curry) Arcuri
Lawrence Messina
Samuel Galasso
Frank Giampoli
Joseph (Joe D) DiGorga
This list is far from complete but reflects most of the important members and significant criminal associates of the last 60 plus years…..there were dozens and dozens of additional, less important associates I didn’t include.
Over the decades, 99 percent of his most trusted men passed away. He was basically left with no core crew.
As Sonny aged, it forced him to accept strangers and untested men into his inner circle, thereby allowing “rats” such as Guy Fatato and others to get “close” and set him up.
In 1953, Jojo Vitacco, and others including Papageorge and Arcuri, were arrested several times that year for several truck hijackings and robbery of a wholesale Manhattan furrier. It was thought that as key crew members, Sonny was behind the ring.
They were all convicted and jailed.
In 1955, Vitacco was investigated and hauled in for the suspected double-murder of two gangland hijacking figures found hacked apart and shot in a car parked on a Lower East Side street. As Vitacco’s capo, Sonny was suspected of ordering the hits!
The charges were dismissed.
In 1962, Sonny, Frank Giampoli, and several others were picked up for the extortion and systematic shakedown of beauty parlors using a beauty and barber labor union as a “whip” throughout the Queens area (Flushing, Jackson Heights, and Forest Hills). His minions were accused of releasing mice and swarms of bees into the beauty shops, scaring away all the screaming women customers to coerce shops owners to pay him weekly protection money.
The charges were dismissed.
In 1964, he and several pals including Papageorge, Falvo, Santoro, and Charlie Monk, among others were investigated for their “push” into various nightclubs and restaurants throughout Queens and Nassau. They were suspected of shakedowns, extortion, and obtaining hidden ownership of multiple establishments over the years.
Although a grand jury was empaneled, law enforcement failed to make a solid case. No formal charges were ever brought.
In 1964, he and several of his men including Matera, Crabbe, and Florio, among others were arrested, indicted, and went to trial for the gangland execution of underworld hitman turned informer, Ernest (Ernie the Hawk) Rupolo.
After mysteriously disappearing, Rupolo’s body washed ashore on Jamaica Bay…… it was a textbook gangland rubout!
An autopsy revealed that he had been repeatedly shot, stabbed, and gutted. His body was wrapped in heavy motorcycle chains and attached to heavy cement blocks at the ankles, and was dropped into the Bay. Despite his stomach and lungs having been ripped open so he wouldn’t float, his body washed ashore anyway.
After a highly-publicized trial, Sonny and company were all acquitted!
Years earlier, Rupolo had testified against Vito Genovese for a murder. Some say that Sonny had an special extra-incentive to kill Rupolo as a favor to his idol and hero, Vito, and that he had architected the murder with an “artistic mob flair” toward perfection since Vito (who died in 1969) was watching admirably!
In 1965, he, Matera, and several others were again indicted for the home invasion robbery of a jukebox machine executive on Nassau’s South Shore. Money, jewelry, and other valuables were taken.
They were all acquitted at trial.
Also in 1965, he and soldier Nastasa were arrested with others by Manhattan D.A. Morgantheu on gambling charges for taking an extortionate cut of a $100,000 a week Manhattan bookmaking operation.
In 1966, Franzese was suspected of being a behind-the-scenes conspirator after his bodyguard/driver, John Matera, of 96 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan’s “Little Italy”, was among five hoods arrested, including Galtieri and Tarricone, for the spectacular and brazen armed robbery of safe deposit boxes at the plush Harbor Island Spa Hotel in Miami.
Sonny Frazese and John Matera
Over $2,000,000 in jewels and money were heisted….. none of which was ever recovered!
Matera and Galtieri would ultimately be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Florida.
In 1966, Matera, Crabbe, and associate Pasquale Pasqua, also were tried and convicted in the robbery of $125,000 in rare coins from a Madison Avenue coin dealer. Franzese of course was reputed to have been their behind the scenes coordinator.
Matera got 5 to 10 years, Crabbe, 15 to 20 years, and Pasqua 10 to 15 years in state prison.
In 1966, Franzese and company, including Matera, Crabbe, Florio, and Potere were again indicted. This time, the FBI seized them for allegedly operating a complex multi-state bank robbery ring that had “cased” and robbed a series of banks in various states such as New York, Utah, and Massachusetts, among others.
Sonny was specifically charged with multiple counts of bank robbery conspiracy……. but this time around things would be different!
The entire complexity of the case would be too voluminous to explain here, but THIS case was his downfall!
And I can safely say that, indeed, Sonny was completely “framed” by J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI, federal prosecutors, and the courts!
The bottom line was that he was getting way too big for his own good. Law enforcement, as well as some in the mob, wanted him out of the way.
J. Edgar Hoover was embarrassed, ordering his agents to “get Franzese” at any cost!….. and they did!
Judge Jacob Mishler
Subsequently, in 1967, Sonny was tried and convicted by a “Kangaroo Court” and sentenced to 50 years in federal prison by Judge Jacob Mishler.
After serving 9 years he was able to make parole in late 1978, with the other 41 years dangling over his head like a guillotine.
Originally sentenced to two 25-year “bits” running wild, under the old law and special stipulations in it, Franzese was eligible for parole.
Side Note: After being paroled, by 1983, Sonny and company had infiltrated the wholesale gasoline business on Long Island becoming partners with conman Larry Iorizzo. And although Sonny would violate parole…his disciples, with son Michael leading, would go on to dominate the multi-million dollar “gasoline tax-bootlegging” racket under Sonny’s auspices…… but that’s a story for another day!
Not to belabor the minutia, since 1978, Sonny has violated his parole six times by my count. Anybody else typically would either have not been violated or served no more than three to nine months tops for “technical violations” which is all he’d ever been charged with….. typically meeting with others who had a criminal record…a minor violation.
Sonny Franzese
But because of his notoriety, he, nonetheless, was always sentenced to no less than two years incarceration. And several times, he was sentenced to four years and an unconscionable eight years at a time….. Not until this last arrest and violation had he ever been charged with “new criminal activity” as he had this last time around in 2008 to 2010.
Basically they were making Sonny do “life” on the installment plan!
Only with this last big Colombo Family indictment (acting boss Tommy Gioeli and 11 other family members and associates) did Sonny face “new” criminal charges of loansharking and extortion.
He was convicted at trial, receiving eight years, that at age 93, nobody…law enforcement or the street, thought he would survive!
But whether it was a fabulous “gene” pool he drew from, all those vitamins he took religiously over the decades, his weekly handball, racketball, and jogging he was so slavishly devoted to, or probably a combination of all the above, coupled with an uncanny mental stamina….. Mr. John (Sonny) Franzese served his full sentence, emerging from prison, aided by a walker and wheelchair at the historic, very ripe old age of 100 years old!
Sonny made front page news in every newspaper across the country! Touted as “the oldest prisoner in the federal prison system”…… if it wasn’t so tragic, it would have been funny!-
You have to laugh and certainly give him credit for literally outliving all the local and federal agents, prosecutors, trial judges, and parole officers who hounded him practically his entire life!
At the “golden” age of 102 years old (and I might add) with ALL his marbles and still sharp as a tack, Sonny is the living embodiment of all that “The Life” is, or ever was, supposed to be!
Sonny Franzese
Sonny has also endured the embarrassment, shame, and ridicule of having both his sons go “bad” (becoming informants for the FBI). Yet, his reputation has stood the test of time…..he is revered!
One of the highest compliments that one mafioso could ever bestow upon another mafioso was to say that he was a “hoodlums hoodlum!”
THAT is who Sonny was and is! ….. a complete hoodlum and mafioso to his very core! ….. till the end!
Buona Salute, Sonny!………
One last note, and a bit of levity at that. We Italians often use a phrase when toasting of “Cento Anno” which literally means “One Hundred Years of good health!”
If you should ever have the good fortune to be in his company, remember to always toast “Cento Anno e Dieci” or “One Hundred and Ten Years of good health” ….. otherwise you just may get knocked dead! LOL !