Two bloodbaths haunt me from my dark days as New York Mafia ‘prince’ – but new breed of bosses are even more terrifying
IN the 1970s the Big Apple was known as 'Fear City' for its lawless streets gripped by drugs, mob violence and gruesome murders.
Former New York Mafia prince Michael Franzese witnessed it all - but believes a new silent breed of gangsters could be even more dangerous.
The infamous 'Five Families' who once ruled the state by stealth are still never far from the headlines, with Netflix fans captivated by a new documentary about mob boss John Gotti.
The flashy overlord headed up the Gambino crime group, whose associated were last month arrested in a landmark operation that led to 17 arrests across Sicily and the US.
As Gotti rose to power, Franzese was also coming through the ranks as a trusted caporegime — or captain — in the powerful Colombo crime family.
At his height, he was earning about $8million to $10million a week for the Colombo family through a series of crooked deals.
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In the 1980's Fortune magazine named the 50 richest mobsters in America, with Franzese being the youngest on the list at No18.
But while terrified footsoldiers lived in fear of ending up "whacked and buried" if they upset their seniors, Franzese says today's bosses are harder to read - which means it is even harder to predict when the axe might fall.
"It’s the silence in today’s world that makes them dangerous," he explains.
"You are more scared about what you can’t predict, especially
if you are doing something wrong."
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Two bloodcurdling moments
Franzese, now 72, was lucky to escape with his life after becoming the first high-ranking mobster to walk away from the Mafia without police protection and survive.
However, the ex-gangster and dad of seven claimed the brutal days of 'golden era' still haunted him.
He said: "There is a lot I saw in that life, you know I was a soldier when I was inducted and then I was elevated to caporegime - so you see a lot.
"There were two shocking events in my life that made me realise I was in the big leagues now with respect to crime."
The biggest involved the slaying of tough man Arthur "Artie the animal" Intrator in 1972.
He said: "When I walked into the funeral parlour, his sister came up to me and said 'Michael, look what these animals did to my brother'.
"I will never forget those words.
"We went over to the coffin and opened it up and he was unrecognisable.
"There was a guy that I loved, unrecognisable, it made me sick.
"He was in the construction business and basically a rival gang went to his work and abducted him and smashed him to pieces with a baseball bat and sprayed him with bullets... they mutilated him to a pulp.
"I found out later, that he fought back but it got brutal - it was horrible."
They smashed him to pieces with a baseball bat and sprayed him with bullets... they mutilated him to a pulp
Michael Franzese
A year earlier, an assassin had tried to kill Franzese's boss, Joseph Colombo - one of the Mafia’s most publicly vocal bosses - in full view of pedestrians at the intersection Columbus Circle.
Although he survived the attack, the wounds left Joe almost completely paralysed and eventually proved fatal.
He died seven years later from heart failure, which was attributed to the lingering effects of his injuries.
Franzese added: "I was 12 steps away from him when the shots rang out and he went down.
"People were screaming 'Joey has been hit, Joey has been hit'.
"I was 20 years old when I witnessed that, it was eye-opening."
However, the morbid killings failed to dissuade the young man.
Franzese was Mafia progeny - his dad, Sonny, was a close associate of mobster Joe Colombo.
Sonny, who lived to 103, was indicted and acquitted three times for murder.
But he was eventually jailed for 50 years for masterminding a string of bank robberies, which he always denied. Sonny Franzese was 100 when he was finally freed from prison.
His son said: "I was very angry. I was gung-ho to help my father.
"I felt the need to help him otherwise he would die in there – he was 50.
";He said if you want to be out on the street to help me out, you need to do it the right way and that’s when he proposed me for membership.
"That night they ran it by my, they said 'from now on you are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"If your mother is sick and dying and you are beside her bedside and the Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian mafia) calls you, you leave her and you come and serve us.
"Be at the social club tomorrow at 9am and wear a suit."
Franzese heeded to the hierarchy and soon proved to be one of the Mob’s biggest-ever earners.
He ran 350 petrol stations in New York and New Jersey as the Mafia defrauded the government of millions of dollars by neglecting to pay tax on millions of gallons of petrol a month.
Going to war
The five families that control New York include the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese mobs.
They have mostly co-existed peacefully since the alliance was formed in 1931.
However, when there were disputes - they became bloody.
Franzese said during his time, the Colombo's went to war three times.
He added: "A lot of guys got killed.
"As the second war began I was on parole, which I violated and was thrown in jail – but 13 guys got killed then.
"It was a tough time, you couldn’t walk the streets, you’ve got to be careful whatever side you pick, they are looking to knock off anyone they can – so you have got to be very careful, even in prison.
"And we were one of the more violent families in those regards.
"Murder was taken very seriously."
Michael said a lot of disputes ended up happening between individuals rather than families.
He said: "If you are considered to be a snitch or that you might be – you’re in trouble.
"If you fool around with somebody’s wife, daughter or sister – that’s unforgivable and you’re in trouble, you are going to go.
"I saw two soldiers in their family kill their own dad, because the father was messing around with somebody.
"Then there is politics too, where guys get killed for the wrong reason.
"A friend of mine got involved in a drug deal when he wasn’t supposed to be involved and he was so scared that he was going to be killed that he walked into a phone booth and blew his own brains out.
"He was so worried that he was going to walk into a room and not walk out again.
"I witnessed all these things, it’s tough to get over."
Seconds from death
While bosses rarely dirtied their own hands, relying instead on a legion of hitmen who could rack up dozens of kills, Franzese says there was only one man that truly terrified him.
“The only person that you really fear is the person that can hurt you, and in my case that was my boss Carmine Persico," he says
“They called him the snake, I got along with him very well but I knew he had the power of life and death over me.
“Greg Scarpa was one of our guys, he was known as the grim reaper, he was a killer, but I didn’t fear him because I had nothing to fear, we were equals.”
Scarpa was the chief enforcer and hitman for the Colombo family for about 20 years – he was sentenced to life in prison in 1993 for three murders.
When Franzese was controlling the gas scheme, he believed he was seconds away from being killed.
He added: "There was one night, where I walked into a room and thought I wasn’t coming out.
"I was put on the spot, I was scared walking in.
"You know when you think you are going to meet your maker, it is not a good feeling.
"I went robotic – I said to myself 'if this is it, then this is it' - you resign yourself.
"One of the main horrors of that life is that if you make a mistake and you don’t realise, your fate is basically cast, your best friend walks you into a room and you don’t walk out again."
Franzese believes out of his close pals, he has lost 20 to murder. Hundreds of his other associates have been killed.
The new breed
After 20 years in the business, Franzese claims it was love that persuaded him to turn state witness and leave the Mob for good in 1995.
“The mob life, the gang life, the street life… it’s an evil
lifestyle," he says. “I don’t know any family of any member of that life that hasn’t been totally devastated, including my own.
“My mum went 33 years without a husband. My sister died of a drug overdose at 27 years old, my brother was a drug addict for 25 years.
"He eventually became a cooperating witness and went into witness protection because he testified against my father, direct result of the life, my other younger sister was never mentally stable – she died young at 41, and my dad spent 40 years in prison, ruined our lives.
“I met a young beautiful girl who I fell very much in love with and I said if I am going to marry her I can’t give her the same fate that my family had – that was the motivating factor.”
Franzese will be in Britain in 2024 on a tour to tell his remarkable story and reveal the secrets of the Mafia to audiences all over the country.
The former mobster will also shed light on the differences between the golden era and the new-age mafia.
He said: "It has changed a lot.
"The Five Family still exist but it is very low-key and undercover."
However, an indictment that dropped in November showed the New York mafia was still thriving.
Joseph "Joe Brooklyn" Lanni, Angelo "Fifi" Gradilone, and Francesco "Uncle Ciccio" Vicar named in a justice department crackdown against the Gambinos.
Charging documents filed by prosecutors used wiretaps, secret recordings and surveillance footage to lay out evidence against the men.
They stood accused of conspiracy to use violence and extortion to commit fraud and retaliate against witnesses.
While the charges reportedly had no impact on the mobster network, the documents did show a close relationship between the New York-based mafia, and its progenitor in Sicily.
Italian officials said the arrests demonstrated "the solidity of the existing relationship" between American and Sicilian gangsters.
Among those arrested were a father in Palermo and his New Jersey-based son.
Two of those arrested in the US were described as American-based members of the Sicilian Mafia.
One of the men arrested in Italy was believed to spend time in the US.
Anna Sergi, a criminology professor, told the BBC the Italian gangsters considered New York to be a "gym" where their members were hardened.
She added: "The connection is strong because neither side is strong," said Professor Sergi.
"The Sicilian side is under siege since the 1990s and uses New York as a 'gym' to grow new guys," she said. For the New York families - beset by 'recruitment' issues - the men are welcome additions."
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Michael has exclusively spoken to The Sun as he announces his live tour "The Michael Franzese ReMade Man Tour" hosted by Shaun Attwood.
Full details for the Euro tour can be found at at