sonny franzese and marilyn monroe
Franzeses financial empire was so vast and his power so great that bona fide tough guys feared him, and still do, according to former mob associate Sal Polisi. The more Im talking to her, I realize shes getting friendlier and friendlier. Dont forget, I fought everybody.. All this from a man who was 91 at the time. Act like a dumb son of a gun and cater to you people?. [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. 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. But despite the odds, that wasnt the case. 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. He was 103 years old. [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. Full head of hair - stand up guy. His pals included some of the biggest entertainers of the time, and a Newsday reporter would later ask if he knew Frank Sinatra. Russia I killed a lot of guys you're not talking about four, five, six, ten. He didnt squeal on nobody., His toughness earned him the reverence of street hoods and a grudging respect from law enforcement. However, this certainly doesnt mean the end of the Colombo crime family. . Unblock. 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. Franzese is keenly aware of his place in the annals of crime as someone who over more than 75 years never turned in a confederate. Alert, animated and with slightly graying hair, he claimed to have struck up relationships with Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and the 1950s television star Dagmar. [29][30][31][28], Franzese is listed as an associate producer of the 2003 film This Thing of Ours, which starred James Caan. Get the hell off the table., The table erupted in laughter, but Johnny made his exit. [4][40] He was buried on February 28, at St. John Cemetery following his funeral at Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.[41]. No doubt about it. The night started to wind down at 4 a.m., and they left the club for a hotel. newspaper 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. But his real job was as a gangster, authorities said, and living the high life. When I was away, I would run five miles a day, every day, he said. You asked the question the wrong way, Franzese replied. Sonny met actress Marilyn Monroe, not at the Copa, but at the Stork Club, thanks to an introduction by Frank Costello. The disclosure was made by George Masters, Monroes hair and make-up stylist, in recordings he made a month before his death in 1998. In 1944, he was dishonorably discharged from the Army for homicidal tendencies," according to court records. His son Michael, who initially followed his father into the mob, eventually left organized crime and became a born-again Christian and motivational speaker. So I got very close to him. John Franzese was born on Feb. 6, 1917, in Naples, Italy, where his parents, Carmine and Maria (Corvola) Franzese, were visiting. 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. But after violating parole by associating with known mobsters, he was placed back in prison in 1982 only to be inexplicably paroled again in 1984. Before long, he asked her, Whos taking you home?. He was well-regarded by his criminal associates, who used him to broker deals between feuding mob factions. Nutt y son of a gun. Sonny and Gardner never did anything more than the few moments of groping each other in a back room, but it was still a conquest to Sonny. News. Over the course of the ensuing decades, Franzese cemented his reputation as one of New Yorks flashiest mobsters. 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. Common knowledge she was stepping out on Joe Dimaggio while in NY. Life in the early '60s was good for Franzese. Franzese, widely admired and respected in the mafia for respecting his oath of omerta and keeping silent, he was finally released in 2017 at the age of 100. By one account, Franzese became a full-fledged made member of the Mafia at 14, the same year Al Capone went to prison, two years before the end of Prohibition forced organized crime to find primary sources of income other than bootlegging. What the hell are you doing? Asked about that, Franzese said:Cant answer that. [20], On June 4, 2008, Franzese was indicted along with other Colombo mobsters on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, robbery, extortion, narcotics trafficking, and loansharking. She flew home to Los Angeles early the following morning and was found dead that night. 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. Africa 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.. Technology He was back at Mount Carmel on Friday for the funeral. But Franzeses commercial side was darker: he had once admitted killing 10 men during a 2006 chat with a mafia informant, with other estimates of his mob murders reaching 60. Franzeses first recorded arrest came on Jan. 7, 1938, in Brooklyn for felonious assault. Wikimedia CommonsSonny Franzese (left) with famous boxer Rocky Graziano (center). To Sonny, that was tantamount to throwing down the gauntlet. It was so much part of who I am as a man, good or bad. [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. Did he give you his name? Cassato remembered asking the assistant. Following the 2008 arrest, it was the racketeering charges that stuck, allowing authorities to take Franzese to trial. 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. Franzese said he remembers crying when he saw him in prison the . the news A couple who had just gotten engaged were walking at dusk through the streets near the church. [37], His younger son, John Franzese Jr., was a Colombo family associate before becoming an FBI informant. Sonny Franzese romantic affair with Marilyn Monroe? [7][4] He was also a boxing fan of Rocky Graziano. [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. But one particular patron never had a problem. He was, after all, Sonny Franzese. Calling himself a die-hard American, he said, I was a good soldier.. In 1970, when Franzese was 10 years old, his father began serving a 50-year sentence for conspiring to rob banks. Youse made him a superstar. NEW YORK Legendary Colombo family capo John "Sonny" Franzese, who rubbed elbows with Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe before a bank robbery rap eventually made him the nation's oldest. 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. The charges wereand continue to bewidely viewed as false. [22] Franzese Jr. was allegedly also responsible for his father's fourth parole violation, but was accepted back into his confidence after denying the allegations in tears, saying, "I would never do that, no matter what kind of trouble I had. 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. Theres an expression, theres two things in life youre sure of, right? Cassato said. I dont get it.. He asserted that no one in history has done what he did and grandiosely even compared himself to Jesus Christ. Copyright 2023 Newsday. Sonny today Alert, animated and with slightly graying hair, he claimed to have struck up relationships with Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and the 1950s television star Dagmar. Younger men are springing up on all sides, including Joey Gallo, Sonny Franzese, etc. He became Colombo family underboss again in 2005, until he was convicted of extortion in 2011, and sentenced to eight years in prison. Asked about the prosecutors and judge who sent him to prison, who have all died, Franzese said, Ill meet them in hell.. You are spunkier than all the women I met in life. That had been before Cassatos time. China The conversations became the foundation of a deep. I went out with a lot of handsome leading men . 1966. Sports George also said that the person she was really in love with at that moment was Sam Giancana.. One time, I met an FBI agent on the street, Franzese said. You should have asked, Did Frank Sinatra know Sonny Franzese?. He met her at the Latin Quarter, a Manhattan nightclub opened in 1942 by Lou Walters, Barbara Walterss father. 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. He said he got good grades in school, but the allure of the street proved irresistible. Within three years, three more followed two for disorderly conduct and one for third-degree assault but none of them stuck. Sonny was tough as nails. [21] On December 24, 2008, Franzese was released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He is so smart and careful and sufficiently insulated that police are frustrated in every attempt to nail him down. The bronze coffin was covered with an American flag in recognition of Franzeses service during World War II, even though it was cut short for reasons that are not entirely clear. The elder Franzese clearly did more than just cash in on the Shirelles. ", "A Godfather Betrayed by His Namesake, Part II", "Hundred-year-old mobster's daughter gushes over dad's freedom", "John Franzese, Mafioso Who Consorted With Celebrities, Dies at 103", "Geriatric NY gangster, 93, gets 8 years in prison", "Legendary Colombo underboss John (Sonny) Franzese sees his holiday bid for bail whacked", "Italian mob boss freed from prison at 100-years-old", "Al Sharpton's Secret Work As FBI Informant", "At 100, mob underboss Sonny Franzese gets out of federal prison", "2 Nabbed in Heist of Elmhurst Bank; Cosa Link is Seen", "Franzese Is Said to Have Killed '30 or 40 or 50' Persons", "NEW BREED SAID TO EMERGE IN ORGANIZED CRIME", "Franzese and 4 are found guilty; Albany jury convicts them in bank robberies", "Five Mafia Families Open Rosters to New Members", Feds want jury to hear Sonny talk about mob murders", "Crime Figure Seized on L.I. 09:25 GMT 28 Apr 2011 And unless you knew otherwise, you would not have imagined that the bronze coffin borne up the steps contained the mortal remains of New Yorks last bigtime Mafia boss. Play a lot of base ball with peoples kneecaps, eat well (the grilled cheese on the radiata) and have a reason to live (to outlive all the people that wronged you) and you'll look this good at that age. When Sonny Franzese died last month at age 103, he was the last living remnant of the New York Mafia from its heyday. [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. 09:05 GMT 29 Apr 2011. 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 Once asked if he knew Sinatra, the gangster was quick to turn around the question: You asked the question the wrong way. You should have asked, Did Frank Sinatra know Sonny Franzese?. [16] Until 2008, he was never charged with another crime,[5] although he would return to prison on parole violations on at least six occasions. John Sonny Franzese, who was one of the deadliest, richest, and longest-living Mafia bosses, died on February 25, 2019. "Listen, it broke my heart. 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. And he gloated over his own Oceans 11-style celebrity. Patrons of the club knew exactly who he was. He died in a Queens nursing home at the age of 103, having lived long enough to become known as the Nodfather for dozing off in court. At the trial, John Franzese Jr. told jurors not to be fooled by his elderly fathers frail appearance (he was dubbed the Nodfather by the press due to his habit of dozing during the trial). 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.. 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. He worries about his grandchildren, exhorting them to get an education, and says he has told many younger relatives to go straight, for practical reasons, at least. To them, it was clear who the top man was, but Sonny, ever magnanimous, quieted them. Though frail, he was all smiles. That man can do jail time standing on his head.. 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. 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. 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. John Franzese, known as Sonny, had been the federal prison system's oldest inmate and its only centenarian when he completed his last stint behind bars in 2017. What's new Most importantly in his mob career, Franzese was an earner, making money for the family in a variety of ways. He became a boccie player and a handball champion. He would of been early 20s, known as a tough guy and boxer on the street I don't know.. Mike is an interesting guy, hope Sonny gets on soon before he kicks the bucket! Nevertheless, murder wasnt the case that authorities were able to use to bring Franzese down. 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.. But just like everyone else, he couldnt beat death. A new account claims she spent the night before her death at his retreat in Lake Tahoe She flew home to Los Angeles early the following. No doubt about that.. 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.