As John “Sonny” Franzese, 93, is betrayed by his guilt-racked son.
The annals of American Mafia history are replete with spectacular betrayals. Friends have killed friends, “made men” have assassinated fellow mobsters, and “capos” have rubbed out their bosses. But in the old days it was a matter of honour that a mafioso would never “rat out” a partner in crime.
That code of silence, or omerta, has broken down in recent years as gangsters have testified against their peers in return for leniency from prosecutors. Informants now feature in almost every US Mafia trial, with a parade of mob soldiers, hitmen and even bosses taking the witness stand.
Even seasoned Mafia watchers were aghast, however, when the son of a legendary New York mobster turned on his 93-year-old father this week. John Franzese’s decision to testify in Brooklyn Federal Court against the reputed Colombo family underboss John “Sonny” Franzese is all the more dramatic because the younger Franzese is not trying to cut a deal with prosecutors. He is testifying against his father out of his own sense of right and wrong.
“What kind of despicable, sub-human person does that?” Richard Lind, Sonny Franzese’s defence lawyer, asked the jury.
The collapse of omerta is blamed on generations of Italian-Americans taking over the traditional crime families from their Italian immigrant fathers. The first chink appeared as far back as 1963 when Joe Valachi, a “soldier” in the Genovese crime family in New York, testified before the US Senator John McClellan’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that the American Mafia did exist.
The avalanche of mob informants began in earnest in 1991 when Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano agreed to take the stand against the head of America’s largest crime family, John “The Dapper Don” Gotti.
The FBI had been trying to nail the flashy Gotti, godfather of New York’s Gambino clan, for years when Gravano turned against him. Gravano, a self-confessed hitman with 19 murders to his name, was Gotti’s hand-picked successor but he agreed to testify after hearing Gotti insult him on FBI tapes.
Gotti’s son, John, known as Junior – accused of taking over the crime family – soon faced his own turncoat: a self-confessed hitman who claimed he had slept with Junior’s married sister and considered himself Junior’s best friend. John Alite’s appearance on the witness stand sparked an angry courtroom clash, with Junior yelling at him: “You fag! You’re a punk! You’re a dog! All your life, you always were.”
Alite claimed that Junior, who was the best man at his wedding, mouthed the words, “I’ll kill you” across the courtroom. Junior, however, was set free after the jury ended up deadlocked – for a fourth consecutive mistrial.
This week’s New York case involved allegations that Sonny Franzese tried to extort money from the Penthouse and Hustler strip clubs and from a pizzeria on Long Island. The elder Franzese, who has spent 25 of the past 40 years in jail, is an infamous figure in New York mob lore who was once dubbed a “super-Dillinger” by the FBI, after the notorious criminal John Dillinger.
He frequented the famous Copacabana Club, where Frank Sinatra once kissed his ring.
His defence lawyers say that the ageing Franzese, one of the oldest mobsters to go on trial in America, is now nothing but a figurehead who uses a wheelchair and is pushed about by his wife. “People used Sonny’s name because Sonny’s name meant something back in the age of Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson, and maybe the age of George Washington,” one said. “But today he has no power at all.”
Prosecutors say Franzese went to the Penthouse Club and when the manager refused to cover the cost of his drinks, an associate asked whether he “could come up with a way to get rid of the bill before his head hit the ground”. When the same thug demanded that Franzese should receive free drinks at the Hustler Club, the manager kissed his hand and made sure he got the best table the next time he visited.
John Franzese testified that he became a Colombo family “bagman” at the age of 18, enjoyed an “exorbitant” wardrobe and got a new car from his father every year until he was 26. But he tumbled into drug addiction and decided to co-operate with prosecutors as a way of turning his life around. “I thought it was the right thing to do,” he told the jury. “I thought it was a chance to make up for what I had done.”
Sonny Franzese’s other son, Michael, who renounced the mob life to become a born-again Christian, said he did not agree with his brother testifying against their father. “The family’s taking it hard,” Michael Franzese told reporters. “I feel worst for my father. He always had a soft spot for his kids.”
Sonny Franzese’s wife, Christina, 75, said she was on John’s side because he had to turn on the “terrible life” of his father to find inner peace. She said that John had told her: “I’m not testifying against Dad. I love Dad. I’m testifying against our life and our lifestyle.”
Sonny Franzese is facing the betrayals with equanimity, saying he does not care if he dies behind bars: “Who cares? I gotta die someplace. I die outside; I die in jail. It don’t matter to me.”
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