John Sonny Franzese Dead: Longtime Colombo Power Was 103
John (Sonny) Franzese, longtime Colombo underboss, died Sunday after a brief illness at the age of 103, Newsday reports.
Franzese, of Roslyn, reigned over the mob family’s rackets on Long Island in the 1960s and had interests in restaurants, several topless clubs, independent record labels and even the porn classic, “Deep Throat.”
He was considered a rising star in the Mafia hierarchy until he was convicted of masterminding a series of bank robberies across the country in 1967.....
One of our last stories about him addressed the question of why Sonny Franzese would give a high profile interview to Newsday, Long Island’s hometown newspaper....we posited a very specific covert reason ....
John Sonny Franzese was the ultimate stand-up wiseguy. He was the embodiment of omerta, a man inherently incapable of breaking the Mafia's codes. He spent decades in prison because he refused to name names. Even at the advanced age of 90, he served the sentence handed down rather than talk, even th…
Franzese, of Roslyn, reigned over the mob family’s rackets on Long Island in the 1960s and had interests in restaurants, several topless clubs, independent record labels and even the porn classic, “Deep Throat.”
He was considered a rising star in the Mafia hierarchy until he was convicted of masterminding a series of bank robberies across the country in 1967.....
One of our last stories about him addressed the question of why Sonny Franzese would give a high profile interview to Newsday, Long Island’s hometown newspaper....we posited a very specific covert reason ....
John Sonny Franzese was the ultimate stand-up wiseguy. He was the embodiment of omerta, a man inherently incapable of breaking the Mafia's codes. He spent decades in prison because he refused to name names. Even at the advanced age of 90, he served the sentence handed down rather than talk, even th…
