Gangland news 29th June 2017

[Hailbritain]

By Jerry Capeci

Sonny Franzese: Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong; You CAN Go Home Again

Gang Land Exclusive!John FranzeseSix months ago his jailers ruled that the legendary gangster — at age 99 — was too sick to go home. But last week, now a venerable 100, John (Sonny) Franzese got a hero's welcome as he exited the prison gates, having kept his promise to his sentencing judge to do the full 50 year sentence he got for a crime that many people don't believe he committed.

"Dad was no angel, but that bank robbery conspiracy they got him on was a frame up," said Franzese's son Michael, a former Colombo crime family capo who followed his father into the mob, and now preaches against that way of life, but still loves his dad and insists he was framed.

"My dad and I have had our ups and downs as a result of my walking away from the life," said Michael. "But I love him and I know he loves me. That will never change."

The senior Franzese, who uses a walker but still boasts a full head of hair and looks a decade or so younger than his age, will live with a daughter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Michael Franzese"I'm thrilled for him, that he made it out alive," said Michael. "He's a legend in that life. I still look up to him. He took 50 years for a crime he didn't commit, kept his mouth shut, did his time and did what he told the judge he would do the day he was sentenced 50 years ago this year: 'I'm gonna fool you, your honor, I'm gonna do the whole 50!'"

"I was no angel either, but I went to jail for a crime I was guilty of," said Michael, the onetime Yuppie Don, who made millions of dollars running daisy-chain bootleg gasoline scams in the 1980s. He cooperated with the feds, but he later made peace with his dad, and was a fierce supporter in 2010 when he was convicted of extorting the Hustler and Penthouse clubs and sentenced to eight years.

That trial played out like a bad reality TV show. To contrast the support of his turncoat son, it featured the dramatic testimony of his drug-addled son John Franzese Jr., who had tape-recorded incriminating talks with his dad. There was also a mini-riot in the halls when their mother Tina — who would die two years later — grabbed Sonny's wheelchair as he was being rolled to the men's room and yelled at him to plead guilty and spare their son any further time on the witness stand.

Michael was not happy that the feds prosecuted his father at age 93, when he was "a shell of himself," but he conceded that Sonny was guilty as charged.

John Franzese Jr."But that bank robbery case was a frame up. I'll take it to my grave," Michael told Gang Land. "I investigated the case thoroughly. Spoke to the witnesses who laid out the frame after the fact. I gave one of them a lie detector test, which she passed. That proved dad was framed. My dad took a lie detector test. He passed, and that proved he never met the witnesses. These are facts."

"The government buried, or destroyed, surveillance reports that would have proved he was not in the Kew Motor Inn the night he allegedly ordered the bank robberies which was the entire extent of his alleged involvement in the case," Michael continued. "It's a disgrace."

"My dad's had a very rough life these past 50 years, and the fact that he lived through it all is pretty amazing," said Franzese, referring to the 30 or so years he spent behind bars, which included five stretches for violating parole. "He's 100 years old though. He's sharp at times, then tends to lose it a bit at night. Not all the time, but sometimes."

In his heyday, though, Franzese was a wily tough guy gangster who masterminded many extortion schemes involving nightclubs, singers, dancers, and other entertainers and their agents in the music, television and motion picture industries. Treated like Mafia royalty, Sonny always had an up-front table whenever Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. were in town in the 1950s and 60s, no matter where they were performing.

And he got away with at least a few murders too.

Tina FranzeseAs the Colombo family underboss in the 1960s, he was known as a politically astute gangster who managed to remain friendly and respected by the rebel faction headed by Crazy Joe Gallo and the loyalists who supported then-boss Joseph Profaci in the early 1960s, including capos and successor bosses, Joe Colombo and Carmine (Junior) Persico.

"Sonny Franzese is the big comer in Cosa Nostra," famed NYPD mob buster Ralph Salerno said in a big investigative piece that Newsday's Bob Greene wrote in December of 1965 about the up and coming mob star. "He has an extraordinary talent for organized crime," Salerno said. "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 is an expert at not getting caught."

The FBI put an end to that four months later when agents arrested him and charged him with a 1950s bank robbery conspiracy that would stifle Franzese's rise and haunt him for the next 50 years.

But even then, 16-year-old Michael Franzese, who knew deep down that his father was a gangster, knew that his old man didn't do it.

John Franzese In Greepoint"He told me the day he was arrested that he was innocent, that he never met the witnesses. His word was enough for me," Michael recalled. "But what sealed the deal for me when I was a kid, before I started to investigate, was the fact that the witnesses, robbers, were drug addicts. My father hated drugs.

"He always preached against them to me when I was growing up. He would make up horrible stories about drug addiction and actually scared me into hating drugs and never trying one my entire life. Nor did I ever deal with drugs.

"I knew he would never have dealt with drug addicts. He was far too smart to ever put his life in the hands of those junkies."

"The irony of it all," said Franzese. "My brother, the drug addict, turned on my dad."

Michael, 66, a father of seven and a proud grandpa of five grandkids with a sixth "on the way," said he expects to visit "and hog some time" with his centenarian old man in the coming days.

He'll have to remind his dad, who has three years of supervised release, to maneuver his walker on the straight and narrow, and avoid meetings with wiseguy pals that have sent him back to the joint several times in recent years.

Vinny Asaro's Plea Deal May Not Be Such A Good One, For Him

Vincent AsaroMost of the numbers batted around this week as aging Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro pleaded guilty to arson sounded pretty good: The 82-year old who beat a much bigger rap two years ago stemming from his alleged role in the storied Lufthansa heist, was looking at sentencing guidelines as low as 41 months for having ordered the torching of the car of a stranger who had cut him off in traffic. Plus, the veteran mobster would get credit for the 22 months he spent behind bars before he was acquitted in the Lufthansa case.

But as the proceeding unfolded, Asaro began squirming as the judge talked about what he was opening himself up to by his guilty plea. During the proceeding, Asaro seemed surprised, and got visibly agitated several times, as Brooklyn Federal Judge Allyne Ross explained the possible ramifications of pleading guilty to directing an arson in violation of the federal Travel Act.

The judge noted that Asaro's 41-to-51 month sentencing guidelines in his plea agreement were not binding on her, and that she could give him more time than that if she chose. To make matter worse, Ross pointed out that while he no longer faces a mandatory minimum term of five years — as his original indictment called for — he had signed an agreement stating that he faced a possible maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars.

Alynne RossAfter taking several breaks to speak to attorney Elizabeth Macedonio, who engineered his stunning acquittal of murder and racketeering charges stemming from the $6 million Kennedy Airport robbery in 1978, the gangster went ahead and took the plunge, pleading guilty to using a phone to direct the torching of a car whose owner had cut in front of him in Howard Beach on April 1, 2012.

Whether Asaro did the smart thing by copping a plea, or if he should have rolled the dice and gone to trial, is something he won't find out until sentencing day on October 24. Meantime, he'll have plenty of time to second-guess himself as he awaits his judgment day at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

One of the things Asaro will be able to ponder is the absence from his own plea agreement of a key provision that was included in the one that co-defendant John J. Gotti, the grandson of the late Gambino boss, who also pleaded guilty on Tuesday, had worked out with the government.

Gotti's plea deal states that prosecutors will not ask Judge Ross to mete out a prison term that is greater than the one recommended by his sentencing guidelines, which in Gotti's case, is 60 to 71 months. Five years is the mandatory minimum for him. His plea agreement also states that prosecutors will recommend that half of whatever sentence he receives will be served concurrently with the eight years that he is serving for drug dealing.

Elizabeth MacedonioThe reason why the no "upward departure" provision would have been a very nice clause, perhaps even one that could spare Asaro from dying behind bars, is that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are not shy about asking judges to hammer wiseguy defendants who beat murder cases when they convict them on other charges.

They asked one judge to give Dino (Little Dino) Saracino, a Colombo mobster who was acquitted of three murders, 100 years for racketeering and other crimes. He got 50 years. They and asked another judge to give 20 years to a mob associate who was acquitted of two murders, Francis (BF) Guerra, for selling his own prescription pain meds. He got 14 years.

Gang Land would not be shocked if prosecutors cite the acquitted conduct in the Lufthansa case, including the 1969 murder of Paul Katz, as well as Asaro's hard-to-swallow alleged threat to kill the lead prosecutor in both cases, Nicole Argentieri, and ask Judge Ross to impose a 20 year prison term. In fact, Gang Land would be surprised if they don't.

And if they ask, there's a good chance they'll get it.

Nicole ArgentieriRoss stated last month that she thought Asaro has a "proclivity for violence" that "neither his age nor his health problems" have altered, when she decided he was a danger to the community and refused to grant him bail in the arson case. "He repeatedly and chillingly importuned the killing of the prosecutor, noting that it not be botched," Ross declared.

And the judge sat through Asaro's Lufthansa trial, during which the only participants, or regular daily spectators who didn't think that Asaro was guilty, seemed to be the twelve folks who were sitting in the jury box. Even a grinning Asaro said he was "shocked" by the not guilty verdicts on all counts.

Asaro's only solace, in the plea agreement, is that he will be entitled to appeal any sentence greater than 46 months. Such appeals didn't do Saracino any good, but Guerra did manage to chop off three years. So if Asaro finds the need, maybe the Second Circuit Court of Appeals might be his salvation.

Macedonio did not respond to a Gang Land request for comment about Asaro's plea deal. The lawyer was quoted by The New York Post as saying: "We're hoping for a fair and just sentence that not only takes into account his crimes committed, but also factors in his age and heath."

Wiseguy Tip To FBI About Hidden Explosives Cuts No Ice With Federal Appeals Court

Gregory Scarpa Jr.Despite what the U.S. Bureau of Prisons database states, second-generation mobster Gregory Scarpa Jr. won't be getting out of prison in 2027. That's thanks to a decision last week by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that Scarpa, son of legendary Colombo crime family capo Greg Scarpa Sr., is not entitled to a 10-year cut in his sentence that a Brooklyn judge had granted him as reward for tipping the FBI to a cache of explosives hidden by Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols.

The 10 year reduction of the 40 year sentence Scarpa, 65, is now serving was originally ordered by Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman who decided that Scarpa Jr. had done his Uncle Sam a true solid by telling the feds where the explosives were stored.

Scarpa, who had been housed with Nichols in 2005, told the FBI about a "cache of explosives" that Nichols had buried years earlier at his old home in Herington, Kansas. Bureau agents, as well as a polygraph expert, initially didn't believe the gangster. But eventually, after some prodding, the FBI checked it out, and found the hidden explosives.

"It is difficult to ignore the fact," wrote Korman in his January 4, 2016 decision, "that the information Scarpa provided embarrassed the FBI because the explosives were not found during its initial search in the wake of the bombing and because the FBI agent who interviewed Scarpa did not follow up on the information he received" for several weeks.

Judge Edward KormanBut the three judge panel agreed with the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office that prosecutors had the right to reject any clemency for Scarpa because of his perjured testimony at his racketeering trial in 1999, and a slew of other lies and misdeeds he committed over the years.

Scarpa Jr., whom the feds say was tipped off about a pending drug arrest in 1987 by his dad, a Colombo family top gun who doubled as a top echelon FBI informer for decades, has been behind bars since deputy U.S. Marshals caught him hiding out in New Jersey in 1988.

Convicted and sentenced to 10 years for drug dealing, he was subsequently charged with five murders and racketeering charges. At trial he was acquitted of all the murders, but convicted of racketeering, loansharking and gambling charges. He was sentenced to a total of 40 years. Gang Land expects that his new release date will be in October of 2035.

But the odds against Scarpa now reaching that date are steep: First, he has to survive a very tough ailment from which he suffers — nasopharyngeal squamous cell cancer. Then he's got to make it to 83 years old.

[Hailbritain]

Oh my god , fuckin borefest

[SonnyBlackstein]

Oh my god , fuckin borefest

He cant be annoucing barney as Westside boss every week HB.
He's had an interesting run of late, cut the guy a little slack eh.

As the Colombo family underboss in the 1960

Said before but Ill say it again, the fucking stories this guy could tell! ON the Admin Since NINETEEN SIXTY!

He'll have to remind his dad, who has three years of supervised release,

Place your bets does he outlive his parole...

Vinny Asaro's Plea Deal May Not Be Such A Good One, For Him

He's Fucked.

[HairyKnuckles]

As the Colombo family underboss in the 1960

Said before but Ill say it again, the fucking stories this guy could tell! ON the Admin Since NINETEEN SIXTY!

It´s a myth that Franzese was underboss in the 1960s. Capeci seems to believe it but he´s wrong. He was a captain until he was jaileed in the late 1960s. You´re right however about the stories he could tell. If he remembers only a fraction of them, they´s still be good to listen to.

Thanks for posting HB!

[Cheech]

Oh my god , fuckin borefest

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[SonnyBlackstein]

As the Colombo family underboss in the 1960

Said before but Ill say it again, the fucking stories this guy could tell! ON the Admin Since NINETEEN SIXTY!

It´s a myth that Franzese was underboss in the 1960s. Capeci seems to believe it but he´s wrong. He was a captain until he was jaileed in the late 1960s. You´re right however about the stories he could tell. If he remembers only a fraction of them, they´s still be good to listen to.

Thanks for posting HB!

Cheers HK.

[Chucky]

Was thinking that a Franzese piece would lead to a Colombo update, but I guess I'll give Jerry a pass since he's had some good columns recently.

[Rocco]

THanks for posting . Shitty again. Vinny Asaro and Scarpa JR ...no one gives a fuck about these guys. Oh and Sonny Franzese yeah we read everything he wrote in Gangland in the papers a week ago. Word for Word. Capeci is a has been with zero info

[dixiemafia]

There is just not much going on I imagine to have "new stuff" every week or whatever it is when he releases this stuff. It ain't the 70's and most of the people that read his column doesn't want to hear about the only true family that is doing anything as I'm talking about Montreal.

As for Scarpa Jr., that is pretty shitty though. Give him a 10 year cut then say the judge was wrong? That's horseshit. Reminds me of the judge that gave those 2 ranchers a break only for the Feds to come and make them go BACK to jail after they said the judge was wrong. Unless they had proof anything was fixed, I think it's b.s. they can go back and add time just because they found a judge to be wrong. I know legally it's not double jeopardy but that is almost exactly what it is.

I too would buy a book from Sonny if he ever told Michael or whatever the stories he knows. Of course I probably have a better chance at hitting the lotto than to see Sonny tell his stories to anyone, but at least it gives us something to talk about.

[moneyman]

Interesting to note that Franzese is living in Greenpoint now. There was a Columbo making ceremony there in 2005.. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1707&p=28823&hilit ... int#p28823

[Chrissy_Scars]

tough crowd

[Rocco]

He could have wrote about the Death of Angelo Prisco(But Capeci doesn't even know about it). My point is Capeci is no longer in the know so to speak. He should fly to Montreal and partner with some journalist up there for 1 month piece on whats going on up there. Capeci only writes about what is in the NY DAILY news a week prior. Sometimes word for word like this weeks piece about Sonny. Also everyone involved in that Lucchese Indictment has known for weeks who the guy is that wore a wire yet Capeci is not in the know. 25yrs ago Capeci would have a good idea who the informants are within a week of the indictments coming down because he had contacts in LE , defense attorneys and prosecutors office. I believe these contacts died off yrs ago.

[Cheech]

He could have wrote about the Death of Angelo Prisco(But Capeci doesn't even know about it). My point is Capeci is no longer in the know so to speak. He should fly to Montreal and partner with some journalist up there for 1 month piece on whats going on up there. Capeci only writes about what is in the NY DAILY news a week prior. Sometimes word for word like this weeks piece about Sonny. Also everyone involved in that Lucchese Indictment has known for weeks who the guy is that wore a wire yet Capeci is not in the know. 25yrs ago Capeci would have a good idea who the informants are within a week of the indictments coming down because he had contacts in LE , defense attorneys and prosecutors office. I believe these contacts died off yrs ago.

agreed

so much going on. Bonanno Howard beach bust. Luchese hierarchy. Joey still fighting it. all 3 things he went with have been in the daily news/post ad naseum or whatever

[Wiseguy]

If memory serves, Capeci was the first (maybe only) to write that the Lucchese bust was coming months before it happened. Nobody else knew about it at that point.

Yes, many of his articles can be boring and he often skips over stuff that readers would find more interesting. But I don't think saying him not being "in the know" is accurate. He's still more in the know than most journalists who cover the mob, as well as anyone on the forums.

[Rocco]

If memory serves, Capeci was the first (maybe only) to write that the Lucchese bust was coming months before it happened. Nobody else knew about it at that point.

Yes, many of his articles can be boring and he often skips over stuff that readers would find more interesting. But I don't think saying him not being "in the know" is accurate. He's still more in the know than most journalists who cover the mob, as well as anyone on the forums.

The Lucchese bust was 2yrs in the making. Everyone knew he Meldish murder indictment was coming down on Madonna the minute they picked up Londonio for the hit. Madonna has been the prime suspect for 2yrs. It was in the papers several times prior to the indictment coming down. 20yrs ago.. Capeci would have known who the informant was in the Lucchese bust about a week after the indictment came down. Capeci is just out of the loop these days. I don't believe he has the contacts he used to have back in the day. I think those contacts retired long ago.