Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
In the seventies, we were all wannabes. We did the
grunt work for the mob bosses or the upper echelon
mob guys, and those mobs have had power in those days.
If they gave you an assignment, you couldn't refuse and
you had to do it. Francis Lewis Boulevard walk into
the bank real quiet. I'd run into the bank and
(00:34):
vault right over the top of the counter and yell
back up, and all the teller's back up, and I
go into each draw and start scooping the money out.
My favorite trademark was to carry a bag with me.
I'd have two bags in my pockets and it would
be little plastic bags and it said I love New York.
(00:54):
I noticed every head teller would have a keychain with keys,
and I said to the head, tell her, let's go
into the vault right now. Go and she hesitated. She
began to urinate on the floor right in front of me.
Now I kind of felt bad that I made to
do that, but I don't have time for this.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
To the vault. She went to the vault.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
She opened up the door, she opened up a couple
of drawers, grabbed a whole bunch of stacks of money.
We got into the car, we got back to the
safe house, and we dumped all the money on the bed.
That was like one of the fun moments of dumping
the money on the bed. And I always swabbed the
banks with the same bag.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I love the New York bag.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Eventually, when I got busted, they had reports and they said,
we know how many banks you did. You always carry
that little white bag. You know, it was a trademark
of a criminal, and he just could get away from it.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's nineteen seventy eight and the United States government is
at war with a hidden en My warfare.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Is on the rise all across the streets of New
York City.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
In Brooklyn, a low level mobster is shot dead in
broad daylight a network.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Of gangsters who lived by a code of crime, violence,
and power. In the middle of this struggle are two men,
Michael Francis, a made man in the Columbo crime family,
the other, Joe Pistone, an undercover FBI agent, both trying
to climb the ladder and survive in the American mob They,
along with their compatriots on both sides of the law,
(02:31):
are witnesses to this secret history, stepping forward now to
tell their stories firsthand. A few stay in the shadows
for personal safety, fearing a criminal organization that reigned unchallenged
in the United States until recent times, and in the
nineteen seventies they were untouchable.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
What was the U and organized currently joining Europe.
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Back then, it was a very closed society. The organized
crime knew what police could or couldn't do it.
Speaker 8 (02:57):
There were crews within families that were literally untouched by
law enforcement for decades.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
In nineteen seventy eight, five crime families ruled New York
City and through it most of the country. The families
go by the names of their best known leaders, Gambino Colombo,
Banano Genovese, and Luke Casey. Right in their midst hiding
in plain sight is an undercover agent named Joe Pistone.
(03:27):
He's been living among the Colombo family for the last
year under the alias Donnie Brasco.
Speaker 9 (03:32):
And when I first started, the FBI didn't think there
was a mafia.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Pistone leaves the Colombo family looking for a deeper way
into the American mob and now he's got a shot
at infiltrating another of the five families, the Bananos.
Speaker 10 (03:48):
The Banano family controlled gambling and loan sharking back in
the day, but those days were over and they had
to find other ways of making money.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
The Banana family can be fairly characterized as ground briskers
when it came to drug trafficking.
Speaker 11 (04:01):
They would smoke drugs, rob drug dealers and little wild guys.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
That Bananas were really at this period of time the worst.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, for the first time in history, thanks to a
single undercover agent, the FBI has a shot at taking
down an entire family.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Joe Pistone was an FBI agent who was pretty effective
as a undercover, and he was recruited by the FBI
to get into the Banano family, which he did by
going to a guy named Lefty guns Virgeria.
Speaker 9 (04:36):
Lefty was a twenty four to seven gangster. He grew
up in the life. He had relatives how were into life.
Speaker 12 (04:42):
He was a tough guy to be around.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
If you were in Joe Pistone's shoes, you had to
know that every second that you were dealing with these
mafia guys might be your last moment on Earth. One mistake,
the slightest error, you're through. They never hesitated to kill.
Speaker 9 (05:01):
When you're with these guys, you have to blend in.
They have to you have to be believable.
Speaker 11 (05:06):
He had convinced them that he was a very adequate
and very good jewel thief.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
I would bring around some diamonds, I'd bring around watches,
you know, all stuff that was confiscated by the federal government.
After a while, Lefty really becomes comfortable with me, and
he'd be telling me about who's the boss of this family,
the boss of that family. I'm gathering great intelligence information.
(05:33):
He's like an encyclopedia at a mob.
Speaker 13 (05:36):
Law enforcement work requires infiltration. You cannot do all of
it through wire taps. You can't do all of it
through through telephone intercepts. He can't through all of it
through bugs because you don't know what to wiretap.
Speaker 14 (05:50):
What happened when.
Speaker 12 (06:03):
It's a real gold mine for the FBI.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Now they have an agent who is really in the
middle of a mafia family.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Soon, Pistone under the alias don Nebrasco and Ruggiero had
a scheme together.
Speaker 9 (06:19):
Lefty Oorys said he was interested in expanding out of
New York.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Fortunately, the FBI has already got a great front an
undercover operation in a Florida nightclub called the King's Court.
Speaker 12 (06:34):
So we got a club going at Florida.
Speaker 9 (06:36):
And because he knew that I was a kind of
guy that could be trusted, he'd put me in.
Speaker 12 (06:42):
Charge in there.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Another FBI agent, Steve Salmari, is already working undercover in
the club.
Speaker 7 (06:50):
The club was set up because this was a venue
they could have and they could see that the money
could be made. So Joe came down and you know,
it really solidified him with the Banana.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
That nightclub becomes the bait that Lewis Lefty and the
Bananas into a trap.
Speaker 9 (07:05):
Our operation was confined to a very limited number of individuals,
so agents will be taking photographs, that are taking pictures,
you know, on the surveillance, and I'm on a lot
of the surveillances, and the agents didn't know Donny Brasco
was really an FBI agent operation.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Donny Brasco is garnering results in Florida, but back in
New York, a mafia power struggle is about to change
the game dramatically for Joe Pistone. The problem an ambitious
Banano boss named Carmine Galante.
Speaker 15 (07:39):
Galante looked more like a grandfather than a godfather as
he walked his dog each morning in Greenwich Village. But
his real interests and race gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, and
most of all, heroin and other drugs.
Speaker 10 (07:50):
Comic Gallante, who get out of prison after a long
prison sentence for narcotics trafficking, tried to muscle in and
take control over the Benato crime fan.
Speaker 9 (08:00):
He controlled all the importation of drugs in the US,
and Galenti wouldn't share any offens with any of the
other families.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Sharing is a golden rule among the Mafia's five families,
and bosses who don't share get in trouble with the Commission,
the governing board of the mafia, which holds the power
of life and death over all mobsters, including upstart bosses.
Speaker 9 (08:23):
So the other families got together and they decided he's
got to go.
Speaker 12 (08:27):
He's got to go.
Speaker 16 (08:30):
Carmen Colente, He's a regular patron at a restaurant in Brooklyn,
call Joe and Mary's Restaurant, and he go sit out
in the patio in the back with his bodyguards.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
It was August hot some of the he is sitting there,
He's having pasta with his friends. They're holding a conversations.
Speaker 16 (08:49):
Car pulls up in front of the restaurant and there
are four people in the car. One is the driver
who stays with the car. The other three go through
the restaurant. They know exactly whe we're going to do.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Is going to be.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
He sits there, puts a cigar in his mouth.
Speaker 16 (09:06):
They walking through the patio.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
They blow him over the chair into the tomato patch.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Galente was having lunch in the courtyard of an Italian
restaurant in Brooklyn when five men entered with automatic rifles
and shotguns and open fire. Did your uncle say who
he was gonna eat lunch with today?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
No, he's stopped of it.
Speaker 15 (09:28):
There for col he's no.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
No, not.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
When I get there, the Bibles is still there, because
I get there pretty quick, and there's one lane in
the tomato patch with a cigar in his mouth and
a Zipo lighter in his hand. I look at it.
It's calm on Galente. It was the iconic picture because
went all over the world. My friends in Washington said,
(09:54):
Joe Coffee, you put that cigar in his mouth, because
they you know, I had a sense of yoma, so
did he, And of course I didn't do it, but
I let everybody thinks I did.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Down in Florida, Joe Pistone gets a call from New York.
Speaker 9 (10:08):
I was in Florida looking out after the club down there,
and I called Lefty because I had to call him
every day. He says, have you seen the New York papers.
I said, I haven't seen him yet. He said, well,
go buy the New York papers, then call me back.
Speaker 12 (10:23):
I bought a New.
Speaker 9 (10:24):
York paper and there's the picture. I knew from Lefty
that Galente didn't have a lot of admirers, but I
never had any indication that they were going to kill him.
So I called him back and I said, I got
the paper. He said you read it. I said yeah.
He said, well things are going to change. They killed Galente.
(10:46):
I want you to come back to New York.
Speaker 14 (10:48):
Belong to.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
His execution shakes up the Banano family in the unstable
New Water in prison, mobster Rusty Rostelli becomes the boss,
and a hard case named Sonny Black becomes a captain
left He gets reassigned to work under Sonny Black, and
long for the Ride is Joe Pistone.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Pistone is a godsend. He's more than just to wannabe.
He's got Lefty Ruggiero on his side, who's bringing him
in to meet capos like Sonny Black.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
The Pellatano.
Speaker 9 (11:19):
Sonny Black was a tough guy, but you can joke
with him. Plus, he wanted to keep earning money, and
the undercover operation we had in Florida made a lot
of money.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Pistone now gets close to Sonny Black, whose fortunes in
the Banano family are rising thanks in part to the
Florida Club.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
He's inside a capo's council. Capo is talking to him,
dealing with him, telling him secrets. He's at third base.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
I like Sonny Black.
Speaker 9 (11:50):
I mean, how could you have comfortable conversation with him
if you really don't like him. You know, I used
to spend a lot of time with him, and I
used to sleep in his apartment. I can remember telling
this story to my FBI superiors and they couldn't believe it.
Speaker 12 (12:08):
I mean, you know, he slept in the bedroom. I
slept on his couch.
Speaker 9 (12:11):
We get up in the morning and we sit around
on our underwear and here's me, an undercover FBI agent
and one of the most powerful captains of the Banano
family sitting there drinking coffee, having a har roll with
butter and watching cartoons on television.
Speaker 12 (12:31):
You never see that in the movies, but.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That friendship with Sonny Black is about to lead his
stone straight to cold blooded murder. By nineteen seventy nine,
FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone has achieved something no FED
had ever done, penetrating one of the mob's most notorious families,
(12:56):
the Banano family. The key to his success of powerful
Banana captain named Sonny Black.
Speaker 9 (13:02):
The relationship with Sonny really propelled the operation because Sonny
really becomes comfortable with me. Sonny and left, he would
have conversations and not cut me out.
Speaker 12 (13:13):
They tell me about what's going on.
Speaker 10 (13:18):
After the execution of comic Galante, three capitoys of the
Banano crime family tried to muscle in and take control
over the family.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
And it's an open warfare. They're looking to kill each other.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
Three captains wanted to take over the family, Sonny read In, Delocado,
Phil Lucky Giacombe, and Dominic Trencher. Sonny Black and Joey
Messina call a sit down to iron out the differences.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
But there is no ironing out these differences. It's all
about power and.
Speaker 10 (13:57):
What was supposed to be a sit down, it was
a trap, an ambush. Joe Messino was there. He tackles
Sonny red In Delecado shoots him the head. The other
two capitals are also killed.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The three renegade Coppos are dead. But there's a loose end.
Speaker 7 (14:28):
Sonny's cruel killed Sonny red and that his people, So
they were looking to kill each other and Joe's in
the middle.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
What follows is a conversation that no FBI agent has
ever had before, proof positive that Joe Pistone has pulled
off one of the greatest deceptions in law enforcement history.
Sonny Black invites him to join the club.
Speaker 9 (14:49):
Sonny tells me, you know, I already propose you for
membership in the family. You're gonna get made in December.
He tells me, you know, we took care of those guys.
He said, one got away. I said who, He says,
Bruno and Delaicado. He said, I'm giving you the contract
(15:11):
to get Bruno Delaicada. Now, as an FBI agent, you
can't get involved in acts of violence unless you're protecting
yourself or protecting a citizen. And one of the rules
in the mafia is is that when you get a contract,
if you turn it down, you're gonna get killed. So
(15:33):
when I was told you got the contract to kill
Bruno and Delacato, I said, Okay, Sonny, what do you
think he is?
Speaker 14 (15:43):
Come on, the hunt is on for Bruno in Delicado.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
If Pistone finds and kills him, he's going to become
a made man, earning his place in the Banano family
with blood. But over in the Colombo family, Michael Fanziz
is earning his place with cold, hardcare.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Did you ever have a king?
Speaker 16 (16:03):
You know?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Not till later on when the media attacked me as
being the yuppie dawn, which I hated, but nobody would
call me that to my face. YE told him, don't
ever say that to me. I don't like it, you know.
It reminded me of California and all these kind of
weird guys out there and suits.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Michael Fancais was an immense earner for the Colombo family
and the guy who knew how to really deal with
modern day capitalism.
Speaker 12 (16:26):
He was a new Breathe let's.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Go this handsome young mafia prince from New york Is.
Michael Francis the son of a legendary mafia godfather.
Speaker 10 (16:38):
Michael Francis' father was Sonny Francis. He was a legendary
figure in the world of organized crime, very powerful figure
in the Columbo crime family.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
You know my dad, He just had that presence about
him that people just really treated him well. And that's
you know, for a young guy looking up to your father,
That's who I want to emulate. That's how I want
to be in my life.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
One way friends, he hopes to make money is classic
mob through the labor unions.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I had some very lucrative situations with unions. One of
them in a major contract. He could construction job with
a major developer in Queens and this is a major
There was the biggest co op conversion in the country
at that time. And one of the guys in there
happened to be the brother of a girl that I
(17:26):
was dating at one time. And he got in touch
with me and he said, Mike, I've got this job.
And he said, the union is really harping on us.
He said, do you think he can help out? And
I said, yeah, So I go and meet the laborer
union guy and I said, you realize what we got here, right,
biggest job in the country. I said, let's work this
(17:46):
thing and he said great. So we made a deal
to keep the union out of there, and we charged
the developer so much for every apartment that he converted.
We hired all the trades, we did everything, and we
made a ton of money, both legitimately and through the unions.
And we whacked it up among everybody. Can I ask
you the term whack it up?
Speaker 12 (18:06):
Is that the same as.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Kick it out, whack it up, divide it up, cut
it up, share it Yeah, that's street term. I never
said share it's whack. Whack has different forms of different uses.
I would say.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Francis is part of a new generation of gangsters rising
up through the ranks of the American mob in the
late nineteen seventies. Another one is a guy named John Gotti,
a small timehood from Queen's looking to make a name
for himself and latch on to one of the Five Families.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
I was involved in various investigations of John Gotti through
the years, from the time when he was nothing got.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
In the seventies. We were all wannabes. Even John Gotti
was a wannabe in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Between scores, Gott he kills time with other mob wannabes, smoking, drinking,
playing cards.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
We would be playing poker. His cigar would be down.
He would just hold hold his cards and he wanted
to play. And every once in a while, when he
got a good hand, this long denoble cigar would go
up in the air and I would know this and
know what has fotted it.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And the minute we saw that ciicago up, we were out.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
To DOMI throw a handed and he could never figure
out what he did.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
He had to tell he was a wild gambler.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
He would just lose every night.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Rumors start to spread of an outsized personality in Queens.
Speaker 11 (19:26):
And all of a sudden you started hearing this John Gotti,
John Gotti, This John Gotti that we used to say,
is this John Gott.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
He ain't never heard of him.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
He was a wild and crazy, flamboyant personality, high energy charismatic.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
He had a too prong attack to become a made
guy and a mafia. You made either one or two ways.
You're an erner or you do hits from him. If
you do both, you're a huge made guy.
Speaker 14 (19:48):
He was.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It's the beginning of a legendary career in the American Mob.
In the late nineteen seventies, a new generation of gangsters
is rising up through the ranks of the American Mob.
Speaker 14 (20:07):
Among them is a guy named John Gotti.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
John got it. There's a low level gangster who was
like manned from the race tracks because he was a
mafia figure. He was involved in hijacking trailer trucks coming
out of the airport. Plus, he wouldn't hesitate to kill someone.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I had my first business encounter with John Gotti wasn't
a very pleasant experience. Two brothers came to me and
they had a guide that had a flea market in Brooklyn.
This guy's partner was dealing drugs and it was disruptive
to the market. So I interced. I go meet with
him and we make an arrangement and I chased his
(20:45):
partner out. Two weeks later, John calls me off. John Gotti,
he's Mike, I need to see you. It's okay. I
go meet him and he says, that flea market in Brooklyn, Yeah,
he said, the guy you chased out. Yeah. I said,
he's with me. I said, well, John, come on, you
know he just ran to you. No, No, I know
(21:07):
the guy a long time. John wasn't pulling out, and
I wasn't gonna give up. There's no way John Gotti
would walk away for an argument with anybody, including himself,
thinking that he lost. So I said, John, there's no
way I want to This guy's a drug addict. I
don't want to be around him. I said, I'm gonna
buy you guys out, name your price, and it's like
(21:30):
I knew it. He said, you don't buy me out,
I buy you out. And that's what happened. He bought
me out, gave me the money, and I gave my
guy a money. We kept some. He took the market
and within three months they closed. It was over. So
that was my first business encounter with Gotti.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
John Gott he was a thug IQ maybe a mothball,
but a thug.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
But Columbo family member Michael Frenzies is all so making
a name for himself as an earner among earners. He
brings in big scores that attract attention throughout the five
families of the American Mob. But nothing so far compares
to the scam he's about to pull off.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
This guy came to me and he tells me. He said, look,
we can make some money. I've got kind of a scheme.
I have gas stations. So I said, all right, let's
start a new company. I says, and show me how
this thing works, and I'll see if I want to
pursue it. I'll never forget. A week or two later,
this guy came to me and he's holding a box
and he used to bring me meat. He was a butcher.
(22:34):
He walks in. I says, what are we having a party?
We're going to do it all this meat. He says, hey, chief,
it ain't meat, and he goes in. He puts it
on the kitchen table. He opens it up. He said,
first week's take in the gas business, three hundred and
eighty thousand dollars in cash. Got my attention, right.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Michael Fan says was an immense earner for the Columbo family,
and his biggest coup with some known as the Daisy
Chain gasoline scam. What happened was New York State in
the nineteen seventies decided to use a different way of
collecting gasoline excise taxes. Every year.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
At that time, whoever owned the gas station was responsible
to pay the tax. On every gallon of gasoline that
they bought and pumped.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And somebody hit upon the idea this was stupid.
Speaker 17 (23:23):
So the legislature in New York said, well, let's make
distributors responsible for paying the taxes that want a living.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
But the gas companies are required to pay the tax
on the honor system. So Frenzies figures out all he
has to do is set up dummy companies that don't pay.
It takes months for the government to figure out the
scam and collect, and by that time the dummy companies
are long gone.
Speaker 17 (23:47):
It was a fairly complicated scheme that involved a lot
of dummy corporations, which made it difficult to trace back
to the original source, that being Frencis.
Speaker 10 (23:56):
And somewhere along the line a stamp would come out
and would say tax paid, and it was very difficult
to establish just which company was saying that they paid
the tax.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
That's because no company is paying the tax. All of
the money is going into Michael Frenzies's pockets.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I had eighteen licensed companies, all of them were operating
out of Panama, so there was no trail back to
any of us.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
The gasoline tax scam has to go down in history
as one of the most successful coups ever pulled by
the mafia.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was making a lot of money in the gas business,
millions of dollars a week. I had a jet plan,
I had helicopter, I had all the money I wanted.
I did whatever I wanted to do. And word was
getting out on the street that even though I was
handing in millions, that I was making billions.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
The so called Francizi Group, a new mafia organization.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
That a story came out I believe in Newsday again
that I was becoming powerful enough to break away from
the Columbos and start my own family.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Said to be behind the mob's theft of hundreds of
millions of dollars in gasoline taxes in New York.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
My dad then got out on parole.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Frenzies' father's son, he is released from prison after serving
time for masterminding a series of bank robberies, but he's
also rumored to be a cold blooded killer, an accusation
familiar to his son.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Law enforcement said he's killed at least thirty people back
then now I think it's sixty. But as far as
a dad, he was dad for me. I loved him.
I idolized my dad. He was everything that I thought
a man's man should be. Every child wants a reason
to love their parents. You have to give them strong
(25:38):
reasons not to love their parents. And I don't have
any reason not to love mine, regardless of anything. The
word gets out on the street, I'm becoming a target
law enforcement, and all of a sudden, the two Frienzises together.
The son is making tons of money. Guys start to
think about it, you know, double edged sword. Even my
own father was totally put a contract on me.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
By the early nineteen eighties, Colombo Captain Michael Francis's success
in gas tax scams has earned him and the Columbo
family millions. But in the American mob, success can be
as dangerous as failure, especially if the mob thinks you're
skimming the take. So when Michael's father, the legendary gangster
Sonny Frenzies, calls him, he starts to sweat.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
One night, I get a call from my dad and
he said I got to see it. I say, okay,
he was on paroles. Should I go to which house?
We're in the driveway of his house and he said,
Junior wants to see us tonight. I said, okay, what
time you want me to pick you up? He's wow,
Well they want to do this differently. They want me
to come in first and they want you to come
in second. I said, why would we do that? He says, well,
(26:53):
this is what they want. I said, well, we're not
going to.
Speaker 14 (26:54):
Do that, dad.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Finally, I remember, I threw my hands up into dry
All right, Dad, I've been listening to you all my
life as I don't like it, but if this is
what you want, we'll do it. So I leave and
then Jimmy Angelina calls me and he tells me to
meet him on eighteenth Avenue. Jimmy was a captain too
(27:18):
at the time. Now, Jimmy all my life. I get
in the car. There's a guy sitting in the back
that I didn't know, and he didn't introduce me. And
you know, at that point, I was just really thinking
something's really bad here. It was a house in Brooklyn
(27:39):
that we were going to. I got in a car
and I start walking and Jimmy gets behind me and
the other guy is behind him. Now, this is bad
set up, and I'll be honest with you. I was getting
really nervous I wasn't a religious guy anyway, but I
(28:01):
started to pray because I really thought that I'm dead. Look,
i'd been into life quite a while. I know that
you get walked into a room by your best friend,
you don't walk out again. So door opens. I get
in there and a couple of guys there, and they
(28:23):
start grilling me about the gas business and the money
and all of this and that and everything else. And
they're trying to make an impression on me that you know,
I'm still a boss. Don't think you get away with
anything without saying it. They said it, I got it.
Speaker 14 (28:37):
The meeting ends, and to Francis's surprise, he's still alive.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So now Jimmy's gonna drive me back. I said goodbye, everybody.
We get in the car. I'm ready to really open
up on him. I was really upset with him. He
didn't tell me anything. So I get in the car
and I said, I know you owe my life. You
don't prepare me. You don't tell me anything that's going on.
He said, I'm gonna tell you something, Michael. He said,
your father was in there before you tonight. He didn't
help you one bit. You were on your own in
(29:03):
there and it really affected me in a bad way.
And I said, man, I can't trust my own father here.
I kind of felt the walls closing in on me.
At that point. He threw me under the bus in
(29:25):
that he didn't defend me. And that's almost as bad
as indicting me, you know, as saying he did it.
And I said, this money and that I'm making, what
do I do? Do I stop? This is like a
double edged sword for me. And I didn't have an answer.
I didn't have a solution, so I said, I'm just
(29:45):
going to keep doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
While Colombo Captain Michael Frenzies struggles with the consequences of
his gascam across town in Brooklyn, undercover agent Choked the
Stone is about to become an official member of the
Banano family and organizzation who make their money not just
from extortion and loan sharking, but drugs. Under the alias
Donny Brasco, He's penetrated the organization deeper than any law
(30:09):
enforcement officer in history. He's about to become a made man.
But first to prove himself, he must kill.
Speaker 9 (30:17):
When I was told you got the contract to kill
Bruno and Delacato. I accepted it because what am I
gonna say?
Speaker 12 (30:23):
No, I don't want to do it. I can't do it.
Speaker 9 (30:25):
But we had a plan in place, you know, Sonny
sent me looking for him. If I spotted him, I
call the FBI and they come and snatch him, and
which stage you hit? Or if they found them they
snatched him in which stage a hit?
Speaker 4 (30:37):
The FBI had faced with an incredible dilemma. What are
they going to do if Joe Pistone aka Donny Brasco,
He's asked to go along on a hit? That's a
no note. They can't do it, but will blow his
cover and the slightest suspicion could lead to Donny Brasco's death, So.
Speaker 14 (30:58):
The FBI may makes a decision.
Speaker 11 (31:01):
Joe was not allowed to become a member of La Cousinoust.
The Bureau decided that would not be the best interest
of him or the Bureau, and so we pulled him
out of there.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
After six long years under cover, the FEDS pull Pistone
from the streets and shutter operation Donnie Brasco.
Speaker 14 (31:19):
Now it's time to let the mob know the truth.
Speaker 9 (31:21):
When the operation was going to be closed down, we
had a meeting with three agents, and one of them
knew Sonny Black.
Speaker 12 (31:28):
So what I did is I took a picture with these.
Speaker 9 (31:30):
Guys with my credentials, and the agents went to Sonny
Black and they showed him a photograph of myself and
the guys, and they said, you know, Sony, we just
want you to know that this guy you know is
Donny Brasco is really special Agent Joseph deepest Stone in
the FBI. He's been working undercover for six years. What
(31:54):
Sonny said was, well, I don't know. If I see him,
i'll know, and that was it. Then they told him
that Sonny, once this comes out, you're better off coming
with us, because you know you're gonna get killed. And
he just told them, look, I don't believe it. And
he just shrugged it off.
Speaker 12 (32:16):
And that was it.
Speaker 9 (32:17):
And they left and he calls Lefty calls the other
guys in the crew.
Speaker 12 (32:21):
They all go to the motion.
Speaker 9 (32:22):
Lounge and he tells them what happened.
Speaker 12 (32:29):
In the beginning.
Speaker 9 (32:30):
Left he couldn't believe it either. Left he couldn't believe
that I was anoder cover agent. When he found out
I can't stay here on camera.
Speaker 12 (32:38):
What his response is it wasn't good. It wasn't good.
Speaker 14 (32:43):
Word spreads in the streets.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Banano associate Donnie Brasco is actually a Federal agent, an
infiltration that will soon shatter the American Mob. The FBI's
Joe Pistone has pulled off an un precedented coup against
the American Mob infiltrating the Banano family to its core.
(33:06):
But after six years undercover, the Feds pull him out
before he must kill someone or get killed himself, and
the news quickly spreads in the streets that the wise
guy known as Donnie Brasco.
Speaker 14 (33:18):
Isn't what he appears to be.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I remember meeting Donnie Brasco Joe pastone with Lefty. We
didn't have any business. It was hello and goodbye. He
was there. There was nothing more discussed. But when we
found out what happened, and it was common knowledgy on
the street that he wasn't an informing FBI agent, it
was pretty shocking because they he was almost straightened out,
he had gotten that far.
Speaker 9 (33:40):
And then what happened once they found out it was me.
The Commission got together and the Commission put a five
hundred thousand dollars contract out on me.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Pistone gets out of New York fast hiding out in
FBI headquarters in Washington, d C. But within the mob,
those who are responsible for Donnie Brasco's rise must pay
the price.
Speaker 9 (34:00):
Sonny had to fess up to all the bosses what
had happened. So he gets a call to go to
a sit down. He walks into the motion lounge and
tells the bartender, I just got called to a sit down,
and he gives him his ring, gives him his money,
gives him his keys except his car keys, and he
(34:21):
calls his girlfriend and says, they tell me that Donnie
was an undercover agent.
Speaker 12 (34:30):
I didn't believe it. Now I believe it.
Speaker 9 (34:32):
If you ever see Donnie, tell him I'm glad it
was him. So he goes to sit down and the
next thing they noticed, Sonny Black is gone. Lefty was
on his way to get killed, and surveillance team snatched
(34:56):
him up because they heard that you know, when he
gets here, we're going to kill whack him.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
A year later, law enforcement makes a gruesome discovery.
Speaker 9 (35:06):
They found Sonny's body in eighty two in a body
bag with his hands cut off, and the reason that
they did that was he introduced me to bosses that
I shook hands with.
Speaker 12 (35:19):
Did I want to see him die?
Speaker 6 (35:21):
No?
Speaker 12 (35:21):
I mean, look, you know that's not my job. My
job as a gather evidence to put you in jail.
Speaker 9 (35:28):
Lefty he spends his fifteen eighteen years in a can,
doesn't say a word because they took that oath and
they believed in that oath. They took that oath, and
they believed in that oath.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
But Pistone's not the only one choosing a new path
across town. Michael fanzis, a captain and top earner in
the Colombo family, is becoming disillusioned with his way of life.
But that's the least of his troubles. Law enforcement's closing in.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
I started to feel the pressure in the early eighties
and the government opened my eyes to it and that
they had a major undercover operation on me on this
gasoline case and everything else.
Speaker 13 (36:08):
It would seem that Michael Francisi is unfortunately following the
footsteps of his father.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
The FBI can allege and say whatever they like. They've
been doing it for many, many years well.
Speaker 10 (36:18):
The FBI identified him as a significant target. Informants providing
information to the FBI about this up and coming, you know,
sophisticated gangster. So the FBI came to us and said
that they wanted to bring a case against him.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
And I got a visit in my officers out in
Long Island from two FBI agents and they came in
to see me and they said we need to talk
to you. And I saw what do you want And
they said, listen, tell us what you're doing and we'll
give you a pass. Yeah right. I said, well, I
don't know what you're talking about with gas, you know,
so I knew. I said, man, this is this is
(36:53):
not good. I mean, I really got their attention.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Now.
Speaker 10 (36:56):
We gathered evidence, primarily from cooperating witnesses, and when he
was faced with a lengthy trial and the prospect of
getting a very lengthy sentence.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
People were being convicted one hundred years, one hundred and
fifty years, they said, they're going to give me a
thousand years if I go down on this.
Speaker 10 (37:14):
He decided to plead guilty and to make restitution payments
of ten million dollars, which he pretty much defaulted on.
Speaker 5 (37:20):
Michael fran sees it in in dited on twenty eight
counts racketeering, fraud, and extortion.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
It made two very bad decisions of my life. I
trusted my father. Look where it got me. I surrendered
my life to La Close in Austra and look where
it got me. I got death threats, hits all over me.
FBI h me, everybody on the street h me. My
father disowned me. I don't have a friend in a world.
I'm going to spend the rest of my life in
(37:48):
his sixth by age cell and it was the first
and only time in my life that I really felt hopeless.
Speaker 10 (38:00):
And he kind of shocked us because he came forward
and agreed to cooperate, and based on the cooperation he provided,
he did get his sentence reduced.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I got four years on a parole violation, and I
spent thirty five months and thirteen more days in prison,
twenty nine months and seven days in the whole. And
during that time is when I strengthened my faith and
started to read the Bible.
Speaker 14 (38:28):
But Fanzies gets out and lives to tell the tale.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Do I find it surprising that I'm alive? I feel
in the most blessed guy walk on the streets. What
should my fate have been? I should either be dead
or in prison? For the rest of my life.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
The son who once followed his gangster father blindly into
the life now walks away from the mob forever, unscathed.
Speaker 10 (38:48):
I cannot explain how Michael Frenzies was able to do
what he did. The only speculation you could have is
that he paid his way out. Somehow he was able
to persuade people in the columbuok Prime family not to
do anything to him.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Really, the only way that ends is when you end
and you're in a coffin, it's over.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
How Michael Franzis got out of the American Mob with
his life remains.
Speaker 14 (39:11):
A mystery to this day.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
But the worst deeds of Frenzies's past still haunt him,
especially the murder of a close friend, Champagne Larry Carosa
Colombo Captain Michael Franzis walks away from life in the
American Mob and begins cooperating with law enforcement, but the
(39:35):
worst deeds of his past still haunt him, especially the
murder of this man, Champagne Larry Caroza.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Larry Caroza was someone very close to me. I mean
a kid loved me and I loved him. I baptized
his kids. He baptized my daughter. Unbeknownst to me, he
was having an affair with my sister. I was brought
in and it was told to me that this, this
is what was going on.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
No one messes with mob women. Those who do pay
a heavy penalty.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I was told, he disrespected you when he disrespected your father,
and that's something that we don't stand for in this life.
And I said, but you know he's not the made guy. Stupid,
how do we know what really happened? And let me
talk to my sister And nope, you want to take
care of it, you take care of it. If not,
we'll take care of it. And I said, I want
to do it. Guys too close to me.
Speaker 14 (40:33):
Larry Caroz's body is found near his car. He's shot
a single time behind the ear.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
His murder. That's probably something that has been the heaviest
on my heart these days.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
It's faith that helps Fanzi's cope with dark memories of
his past.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Guys, be honest, you don't come to church, but you figure, hey,
Sopranos is off the air. Let me go see what
the real mob guy is all about.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
What I did, I did, and that's it. As Christians,
we happen to believe that we can be forgiven for
what we've done in the past. So I believe with
all my heart that I've been forgiven.
Speaker 14 (41:11):
A line that's hard for a lot of people to swallow.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
People can say it's a phony thing and it's a scam,
and you know, fortunately in the end they're not going
to be the ones that judge me. But I can't
fool God. You know, I bless you all, thank you.
In fact, Michael.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Michael Franzis is out of the life today, but his
father's Sonny never walked away.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
You know, my dad's ninety six years old. He's the
oldest living mob guy in America. I think he's part
of this life. Sixty six or sixty seven years ago
he took the oath.
Speaker 10 (41:39):
He just recently was convicted with the age of ninety six.
I think he was convicted on racketeering charges and was
incarcerated again. Was active until the age of ninety six,
and it's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
He is a treasure trove of mob stories. If you
can get him to talk about Sunny.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Franzis is a last holdover from the golden age of
the American mob, an era that ends with the success
of Operation Donnie Brasco, the historic infiltration of the Banano
Family by undercover agent Joe Pistone.
Speaker 16 (42:10):
Up until nineteen seventy, all you could do with the
mafia was like men with their eyes closed trying to
feel an elephant. You would get a little piece of it,
but all you could prove was someone who actually committed
a particular crime. Joe Pistone did something unique, which is
he infiltrated the Banana Family, an organized crime family, with
such success that he was on the verge.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Of being made as a member.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
In doing that, not only did.
Speaker 16 (42:35):
He collect direct evidence of crimes against the Banana Family,
but he was able to talk knowledgeably about the structure
of the Home mafia.
Speaker 9 (42:46):
This undercover case was the beginning of the unraveling of
the mafia in America as we know it as it
once was.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
All in all, the information Pistone provides law enforcement leads
to over two hundred indictments and more than one hundred
convictions of major mob figures, but it is only the
beginning of the government's all out assault on the American mob.
Speaker 11 (43:11):
Job Pistone's role as Donnie Brasco was historic in the
FBI Historic and Law Enforcement.
Speaker 13 (43:20):
Pistone broke the confidence of the mafia. He broke the
mystique that you couldn't infiltrate the mafia. That mystique was very,
very important in getting people to cooperate, because now, all
of a sudden, it isn't this impregnable organization that nobody's
ever penetrated.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
Joe Pistone and his case was the perfect storm for
organized crime.
Speaker 12 (43:41):
We kicked it out of them, we really did.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
But the American mob still has enormous power in New
York City and around the country.
Speaker 14 (43:55):
In the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
You always have to use your brain and you always
have to use the gun.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
In cities like Philadelphia, home to one of the most
violent mob families in the United States.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
We live by our own set of rules.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
And a major battleground in law enforcements war to end
the rule of Causinustra.
Speaker 14 (44:11):
His reign becomes a reign of terror.
Speaker 15 (44:14):
I invoked my right and declined to answer the
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Question, and we got away with murder.
In the seventies, we were all wannabes. We did the
grunt work for the mob bosses or the upper echelon
mob guys, and those mobs have had power in those days.
If they gave you an assignment, you couldn't refuse and
you had to do it. Francis Lewis Boulevard walk into
the bank real quiet. I'd run into the bank and
(00:34):
vault right over the top of the counter and yell
back up, and all the teller's back up, and I
go into each draw and start scooping the money out.
My favorite trademark was to carry a bag with me.
I'd have two bags in my pockets and it would
be little plastic bags and it said I love New York.
(00:54):
I noticed every head teller would have a keychain with keys,
and I said to the head, tell her, let's go
into the vault right now. Go and she hesitated. She
began to urinate on the floor right in front of me.
Now I kind of felt bad that I made to
do that, but I don't have time for this.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
To the vault. She went to the vault.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
She opened up the door, she opened up a couple
of drawers, grabbed a whole bunch of stacks of money.
We got into the car, we got back to the
safe house, and we dumped all the money on the bed.
That was like one of the fun moments of dumping
the money on the bed. And I always swabbed the
banks with the same bag.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I love the New York bag.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Eventually, when I got busted, they had reports and they said,
we know how many banks you did. You always carry
that little white bag. You know, it was a trademark
of a criminal, and he just could get away from it.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's nineteen seventy eight and the United States government is
at war with a hidden en My warfare.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Is on the rise all across the streets of New
York City.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
In Brooklyn, a low level mobster is shot dead in
broad daylight a network.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Of gangsters who lived by a code of crime, violence,
and power. In the middle of this struggle are two men,
Michael Francis, a made man in the Columbo crime family,
the other, Joe Pistone, an undercover FBI agent, both trying
to climb the ladder and survive in the American mob They,
along with their compatriots on both sides of the law,
(02:31):
are witnesses to this secret history, stepping forward now to
tell their stories firsthand. A few stay in the shadows
for personal safety, fearing a criminal organization that reigned unchallenged
in the United States until recent times, and in the
nineteen seventies they were untouchable.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
What was the U and organized currently joining Europe.
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Back then, it was a very closed society. The organized
crime knew what police could or couldn't do it.
Speaker 8 (02:57):
There were crews within families that were literally untouched by
law enforcement for decades.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
In nineteen seventy eight, five crime families ruled New York
City and through it most of the country. The families
go by the names of their best known leaders, Gambino Colombo,
Banano Genovese, and Luke Casey. Right in their midst hiding
in plain sight is an undercover agent named Joe Pistone.
(03:27):
He's been living among the Colombo family for the last
year under the alias Donnie Brasco.
Speaker 9 (03:32):
And when I first started, the FBI didn't think there
was a mafia.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Pistone leaves the Colombo family looking for a deeper way
into the American mob and now he's got a shot
at infiltrating another of the five families, the Bananos.
Speaker 10 (03:48):
The Banano family controlled gambling and loan sharking back in
the day, but those days were over and they had
to find other ways of making money.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
The Banana family can be fairly characterized as ground briskers
when it came to drug trafficking.
Speaker 11 (04:01):
They would smoke drugs, rob drug dealers and little wild guys.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
That Bananas were really at this period of time the worst.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, for the first time in history, thanks to a
single undercover agent, the FBI has a shot at taking
down an entire family.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Joe Pistone was an FBI agent who was pretty effective
as a undercover, and he was recruited by the FBI
to get into the Banano family, which he did by
going to a guy named Lefty guns Virgeria.
Speaker 9 (04:36):
Lefty was a twenty four to seven gangster. He grew
up in the life. He had relatives how were into life.
Speaker 12 (04:42):
He was a tough guy to be around.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
If you were in Joe Pistone's shoes, you had to
know that every second that you were dealing with these
mafia guys might be your last moment on Earth. One mistake,
the slightest error, you're through. They never hesitated to kill.
Speaker 9 (05:01):
When you're with these guys, you have to blend in.
They have to you have to be believable.
Speaker 11 (05:06):
He had convinced them that he was a very adequate
and very good jewel thief.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
I would bring around some diamonds, I'd bring around watches,
you know, all stuff that was confiscated by the federal government.
After a while, Lefty really becomes comfortable with me, and
he'd be telling me about who's the boss of this family,
the boss of that family. I'm gathering great intelligence information.
(05:33):
He's like an encyclopedia at a mob.
Speaker 13 (05:36):
Law enforcement work requires infiltration. You cannot do all of
it through wire taps. You can't do all of it
through through telephone intercepts. He can't through all of it
through bugs because you don't know what to wiretap.
Speaker 14 (05:50):
What happened when.
Speaker 12 (06:03):
It's a real gold mine for the FBI.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Now they have an agent who is really in the
middle of a mafia family.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Soon, Pistone under the alias don Nebrasco and Ruggiero had
a scheme together.
Speaker 9 (06:19):
Lefty Oorys said he was interested in expanding out of
New York.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Fortunately, the FBI has already got a great front an
undercover operation in a Florida nightclub called the King's Court.
Speaker 12 (06:34):
So we got a club going at Florida.
Speaker 9 (06:36):
And because he knew that I was a kind of
guy that could be trusted, he'd put me in.
Speaker 12 (06:42):
Charge in there.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Another FBI agent, Steve Salmari, is already working undercover in
the club.
Speaker 7 (06:50):
The club was set up because this was a venue
they could have and they could see that the money
could be made. So Joe came down and you know,
it really solidified him with the Banana.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
That nightclub becomes the bait that Lewis Lefty and the
Bananas into a trap.
Speaker 9 (07:05):
Our operation was confined to a very limited number of individuals,
so agents will be taking photographs, that are taking pictures,
you know, on the surveillance, and I'm on a lot
of the surveillances, and the agents didn't know Donny Brasco
was really an FBI agent operation.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Donny Brasco is garnering results in Florida, but back in
New York, a mafia power struggle is about to change
the game dramatically for Joe Pistone. The problem an ambitious
Banano boss named Carmine Galante.
Speaker 15 (07:39):
Galante looked more like a grandfather than a godfather as
he walked his dog each morning in Greenwich Village. But
his real interests and race gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, and
most of all, heroin and other drugs.
Speaker 10 (07:50):
Comic Gallante, who get out of prison after a long
prison sentence for narcotics trafficking, tried to muscle in and
take control over the Benato crime fan.
Speaker 9 (08:00):
He controlled all the importation of drugs in the US,
and Galenti wouldn't share any offens with any of the
other families.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Sharing is a golden rule among the Mafia's five families,
and bosses who don't share get in trouble with the Commission,
the governing board of the mafia, which holds the power
of life and death over all mobsters, including upstart bosses.
Speaker 9 (08:23):
So the other families got together and they decided he's
got to go.
Speaker 12 (08:27):
He's got to go.
Speaker 16 (08:30):
Carmen Colente, He's a regular patron at a restaurant in Brooklyn,
call Joe and Mary's Restaurant, and he go sit out
in the patio in the back with his bodyguards.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
It was August hot some of the he is sitting there,
He's having pasta with his friends. They're holding a conversations.
Speaker 16 (08:49):
Car pulls up in front of the restaurant and there
are four people in the car. One is the driver
who stays with the car. The other three go through
the restaurant. They know exactly whe we're going to do.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Is going to be.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
He sits there, puts a cigar in his mouth.
Speaker 16 (09:06):
They walking through the patio.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
They blow him over the chair into the tomato patch.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Galente was having lunch in the courtyard of an Italian
restaurant in Brooklyn when five men entered with automatic rifles
and shotguns and open fire. Did your uncle say who
he was gonna eat lunch with today?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
No, he's stopped of it.
Speaker 15 (09:28):
There for col he's no.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
No, not.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
When I get there, the Bibles is still there, because
I get there pretty quick, and there's one lane in
the tomato patch with a cigar in his mouth and
a Zipo lighter in his hand. I look at it.
It's calm on Galente. It was the iconic picture because
went all over the world. My friends in Washington said,
(09:54):
Joe Coffee, you put that cigar in his mouth, because
they you know, I had a sense of yoma, so
did he, And of course I didn't do it, but
I let everybody thinks I did.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Down in Florida, Joe Pistone gets a call from New York.
Speaker 9 (10:08):
I was in Florida looking out after the club down there,
and I called Lefty because I had to call him
every day. He says, have you seen the New York papers.
I said, I haven't seen him yet. He said, well,
go buy the New York papers, then call me back.
Speaker 12 (10:23):
I bought a New.
Speaker 9 (10:24):
York paper and there's the picture. I knew from Lefty
that Galente didn't have a lot of admirers, but I
never had any indication that they were going to kill him.
So I called him back and I said, I got
the paper. He said you read it. I said yeah.
He said, well things are going to change. They killed Galente.
(10:46):
I want you to come back to New York.
Speaker 14 (10:48):
Belong to.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
His execution shakes up the Banano family in the unstable
New Water in prison, mobster Rusty Rostelli becomes the boss,
and a hard case named Sonny Black becomes a captain
left He gets reassigned to work under Sonny Black, and
long for the Ride is Joe Pistone.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Pistone is a godsend. He's more than just to wannabe.
He's got Lefty Ruggiero on his side, who's bringing him
in to meet capos like Sonny Black.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
The Pellatano.
Speaker 9 (11:19):
Sonny Black was a tough guy, but you can joke
with him. Plus, he wanted to keep earning money, and
the undercover operation we had in Florida made a lot
of money.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Pistone now gets close to Sonny Black, whose fortunes in
the Banano family are rising thanks in part to the
Florida Club.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
He's inside a capo's council. Capo is talking to him,
dealing with him, telling him secrets. He's at third base.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
I like Sonny Black.
Speaker 9 (11:50):
I mean, how could you have comfortable conversation with him
if you really don't like him. You know, I used
to spend a lot of time with him, and I
used to sleep in his apartment. I can remember telling
this story to my FBI superiors and they couldn't believe it.
Speaker 12 (12:08):
I mean, you know, he slept in the bedroom. I
slept on his couch.
Speaker 9 (12:11):
We get up in the morning and we sit around
on our underwear and here's me, an undercover FBI agent
and one of the most powerful captains of the Banano
family sitting there drinking coffee, having a har roll with
butter and watching cartoons on television.
Speaker 12 (12:31):
You never see that in the movies, but.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That friendship with Sonny Black is about to lead his
stone straight to cold blooded murder. By nineteen seventy nine,
FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone has achieved something no FED
had ever done, penetrating one of the mob's most notorious families,
(12:56):
the Banano family. The key to his success of powerful
Banana captain named Sonny Black.
Speaker 9 (13:02):
The relationship with Sonny really propelled the operation because Sonny
really becomes comfortable with me. Sonny and left, he would
have conversations and not cut me out.
Speaker 12 (13:13):
They tell me about what's going on.
Speaker 10 (13:18):
After the execution of comic Galante, three capitoys of the
Banano crime family tried to muscle in and take control
over the family.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
And it's an open warfare. They're looking to kill each other.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
Three captains wanted to take over the family, Sonny read In, Delocado,
Phil Lucky Giacombe, and Dominic Trencher. Sonny Black and Joey
Messina call a sit down to iron out the differences.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
But there is no ironing out these differences. It's all
about power and.
Speaker 10 (13:57):
What was supposed to be a sit down, it was
a trap, an ambush. Joe Messino was there. He tackles
Sonny red In Delecado shoots him the head. The other
two capitals are also killed.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The three renegade Coppos are dead. But there's a loose end.
Speaker 7 (14:28):
Sonny's cruel killed Sonny red and that his people, So
they were looking to kill each other and Joe's in
the middle.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
What follows is a conversation that no FBI agent has
ever had before, proof positive that Joe Pistone has pulled
off one of the greatest deceptions in law enforcement history.
Sonny Black invites him to join the club.
Speaker 9 (14:49):
Sonny tells me, you know, I already propose you for
membership in the family. You're gonna get made in December.
He tells me, you know, we took care of those guys.
He said, one got away. I said who, He says,
Bruno and Delaicado. He said, I'm giving you the contract
(15:11):
to get Bruno Delaicada. Now, as an FBI agent, you
can't get involved in acts of violence unless you're protecting
yourself or protecting a citizen. And one of the rules
in the mafia is is that when you get a contract,
if you turn it down, you're gonna get killed. So
(15:33):
when I was told you got the contract to kill
Bruno and Delacato, I said, Okay, Sonny, what do you
think he is?
Speaker 14 (15:43):
Come on, the hunt is on for Bruno in Delicado.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
If Pistone finds and kills him, he's going to become
a made man, earning his place in the Banano family
with blood. But over in the Colombo family, Michael Fanziz
is earning his place with cold, hardcare.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Did you ever have a king?
Speaker 16 (16:03):
You know?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Not till later on when the media attacked me as
being the yuppie dawn, which I hated, but nobody would
call me that to my face. YE told him, don't
ever say that to me. I don't like it, you know.
It reminded me of California and all these kind of
weird guys out there and suits.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Michael Fancais was an immense earner for the Colombo family
and the guy who knew how to really deal with
modern day capitalism.
Speaker 12 (16:26):
He was a new Breathe let's.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Go this handsome young mafia prince from New york Is.
Michael Francis the son of a legendary mafia godfather.
Speaker 10 (16:38):
Michael Francis' father was Sonny Francis. He was a legendary
figure in the world of organized crime, very powerful figure
in the Columbo crime family.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
You know my dad, He just had that presence about
him that people just really treated him well. And that's
you know, for a young guy looking up to your father,
That's who I want to emulate. That's how I want
to be in my life.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
One way friends, he hopes to make money is classic
mob through the labor unions.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I had some very lucrative situations with unions. One of
them in a major contract. He could construction job with
a major developer in Queens and this is a major
There was the biggest co op conversion in the country
at that time. And one of the guys in there
happened to be the brother of a girl that I
(17:26):
was dating at one time. And he got in touch
with me and he said, Mike, I've got this job.
And he said, the union is really harping on us.
He said, do you think he can help out? And
I said, yeah, So I go and meet the laborer
union guy and I said, you realize what we got here, right,
biggest job in the country. I said, let's work this
(17:46):
thing and he said great. So we made a deal
to keep the union out of there, and we charged
the developer so much for every apartment that he converted.
We hired all the trades, we did everything, and we
made a ton of money, both legitimately and through the unions.
And we whacked it up among everybody. Can I ask
you the term whack it up?
Speaker 12 (18:06):
Is that the same as.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Kick it out, whack it up, divide it up, cut
it up, share it Yeah, that's street term. I never
said share it's whack. Whack has different forms of different uses.
I would say.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Francis is part of a new generation of gangsters rising
up through the ranks of the American mob in the
late nineteen seventies. Another one is a guy named John Gotti,
a small timehood from Queen's looking to make a name
for himself and latch on to one of the Five Families.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
I was involved in various investigations of John Gotti through
the years, from the time when he was nothing got.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
In the seventies. We were all wannabes. Even John Gotti
was a wannabe in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Between scores, Gott he kills time with other mob wannabes, smoking, drinking,
playing cards.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
We would be playing poker. His cigar would be down.
He would just hold hold his cards and he wanted
to play. And every once in a while, when he
got a good hand, this long denoble cigar would go
up in the air and I would know this and
know what has fotted it.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And the minute we saw that ciicago up, we were out.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
To DOMI throw a handed and he could never figure
out what he did.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
He had to tell he was a wild gambler.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
He would just lose every night.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Rumors start to spread of an outsized personality in Queens.
Speaker 11 (19:26):
And all of a sudden you started hearing this John Gotti,
John Gotti, This John Gotti that we used to say,
is this John Gott.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
He ain't never heard of him.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
He was a wild and crazy, flamboyant personality, high energy charismatic.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
He had a too prong attack to become a made
guy and a mafia. You made either one or two ways.
You're an erner or you do hits from him. If
you do both, you're a huge made guy.
Speaker 14 (19:48):
He was.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It's the beginning of a legendary career in the American Mob.
In the late nineteen seventies, a new generation of gangsters
is rising up through the ranks of the American Mob.
Speaker 14 (20:07):
Among them is a guy named John Gotti.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
John got it. There's a low level gangster who was
like manned from the race tracks because he was a
mafia figure. He was involved in hijacking trailer trucks coming
out of the airport. Plus, he wouldn't hesitate to kill someone.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I had my first business encounter with John Gotti wasn't
a very pleasant experience. Two brothers came to me and
they had a guide that had a flea market in Brooklyn.
This guy's partner was dealing drugs and it was disruptive
to the market. So I interced. I go meet with
him and we make an arrangement and I chased his
(20:45):
partner out. Two weeks later, John calls me off. John Gotti,
he's Mike, I need to see you. It's okay. I
go meet him and he says, that flea market in Brooklyn, Yeah,
he said, the guy you chased out. Yeah. I said,
he's with me. I said, well, John, come on, you
know he just ran to you. No, No, I know
(21:07):
the guy a long time. John wasn't pulling out, and
I wasn't gonna give up. There's no way John Gotti
would walk away for an argument with anybody, including himself,
thinking that he lost. So I said, John, there's no
way I want to This guy's a drug addict. I
don't want to be around him. I said, I'm gonna
buy you guys out, name your price, and it's like
(21:30):
I knew it. He said, you don't buy me out,
I buy you out. And that's what happened. He bought
me out, gave me the money, and I gave my
guy a money. We kept some. He took the market
and within three months they closed. It was over. So
that was my first business encounter with Gotti.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
John Gott he was a thug IQ maybe a mothball,
but a thug.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
But Columbo family member Michael Frenzies is all so making
a name for himself as an earner among earners. He
brings in big scores that attract attention throughout the five
families of the American Mob. But nothing so far compares
to the scam he's about to pull off.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
This guy came to me and he tells me. He said, look,
we can make some money. I've got kind of a scheme.
I have gas stations. So I said, all right, let's
start a new company. I says, and show me how
this thing works, and I'll see if I want to
pursue it. I'll never forget. A week or two later,
this guy came to me and he's holding a box
and he used to bring me meat. He was a butcher.
(22:34):
He walks in. I says, what are we having a party?
We're going to do it all this meat. He says, hey, chief,
it ain't meat, and he goes in. He puts it
on the kitchen table. He opens it up. He said,
first week's take in the gas business, three hundred and
eighty thousand dollars in cash. Got my attention, right.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Michael Fan says was an immense earner for the Columbo family,
and his biggest coup with some known as the Daisy
Chain gasoline scam. What happened was New York State in
the nineteen seventies decided to use a different way of
collecting gasoline excise taxes. Every year.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
At that time, whoever owned the gas station was responsible
to pay the tax. On every gallon of gasoline that
they bought and pumped.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And somebody hit upon the idea this was stupid.
Speaker 17 (23:23):
So the legislature in New York said, well, let's make
distributors responsible for paying the taxes that want a living.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
But the gas companies are required to pay the tax
on the honor system. So Frenzies figures out all he
has to do is set up dummy companies that don't pay.
It takes months for the government to figure out the
scam and collect, and by that time the dummy companies
are long gone.
Speaker 17 (23:47):
It was a fairly complicated scheme that involved a lot
of dummy corporations, which made it difficult to trace back
to the original source, that being Frencis.
Speaker 10 (23:56):
And somewhere along the line a stamp would come out
and would say tax paid, and it was very difficult
to establish just which company was saying that they paid
the tax.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
That's because no company is paying the tax. All of
the money is going into Michael Frenzies's pockets.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I had eighteen licensed companies, all of them were operating
out of Panama, so there was no trail back to
any of us.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
The gasoline tax scam has to go down in history
as one of the most successful coups ever pulled by
the mafia.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was making a lot of money in the gas business,
millions of dollars a week. I had a jet plan,
I had helicopter, I had all the money I wanted.
I did whatever I wanted to do. And word was
getting out on the street that even though I was
handing in millions, that I was making billions.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
The so called Francizi Group, a new mafia organization.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
That a story came out I believe in Newsday again
that I was becoming powerful enough to break away from
the Columbos and start my own family.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Said to be behind the mob's theft of hundreds of
millions of dollars in gasoline taxes in New York.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
My dad then got out on parole.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Frenzies' father's son, he is released from prison after serving
time for masterminding a series of bank robberies, but he's
also rumored to be a cold blooded killer, an accusation
familiar to his son.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Law enforcement said he's killed at least thirty people back
then now I think it's sixty. But as far as
a dad, he was dad for me. I loved him.
I idolized my dad. He was everything that I thought
a man's man should be. Every child wants a reason
to love their parents. You have to give them strong
(25:38):
reasons not to love their parents. And I don't have
any reason not to love mine, regardless of anything. The
word gets out on the street, I'm becoming a target
law enforcement, and all of a sudden, the two Frienzises together.
The son is making tons of money. Guys start to
think about it, you know, double edged sword. Even my
own father was totally put a contract on me.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
By the early nineteen eighties, Colombo Captain Michael Francis's success
in gas tax scams has earned him and the Columbo
family millions. But in the American mob, success can be
as dangerous as failure, especially if the mob thinks you're
skimming the take. So when Michael's father, the legendary gangster
Sonny Frenzies, calls him, he starts to sweat.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
One night, I get a call from my dad and
he said I got to see it. I say, okay,
he was on paroles. Should I go to which house?
We're in the driveway of his house and he said,
Junior wants to see us tonight. I said, okay, what
time you want me to pick you up? He's wow,
Well they want to do this differently. They want me
to come in first and they want you to come
in second. I said, why would we do that? He says, well,
(26:53):
this is what they want. I said, well, we're not
going to.
Speaker 14 (26:54):
Do that, dad.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Finally, I remember, I threw my hands up into dry
All right, Dad, I've been listening to you all my
life as I don't like it, but if this is
what you want, we'll do it. So I leave and
then Jimmy Angelina calls me and he tells me to
meet him on eighteenth Avenue. Jimmy was a captain too
(27:18):
at the time. Now, Jimmy all my life. I get
in the car. There's a guy sitting in the back
that I didn't know, and he didn't introduce me. And
you know, at that point, I was just really thinking
something's really bad here. It was a house in Brooklyn
(27:39):
that we were going to. I got in a car
and I start walking and Jimmy gets behind me and
the other guy is behind him. Now, this is bad
set up, and I'll be honest with you. I was getting
really nervous I wasn't a religious guy anyway, but I
(28:01):
started to pray because I really thought that I'm dead. Look,
i'd been into life quite a while. I know that
you get walked into a room by your best friend,
you don't walk out again. So door opens. I get
in there and a couple of guys there, and they
(28:23):
start grilling me about the gas business and the money
and all of this and that and everything else. And
they're trying to make an impression on me that you know,
I'm still a boss. Don't think you get away with
anything without saying it. They said it, I got it.
Speaker 14 (28:37):
The meeting ends, and to Francis's surprise, he's still alive.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So now Jimmy's gonna drive me back. I said goodbye, everybody.
We get in the car. I'm ready to really open
up on him. I was really upset with him. He
didn't tell me anything. So I get in the car
and I said, I know you owe my life. You
don't prepare me. You don't tell me anything that's going on.
He said, I'm gonna tell you something, Michael. He said,
your father was in there before you tonight. He didn't
help you one bit. You were on your own in
(29:03):
there and it really affected me in a bad way.
And I said, man, I can't trust my own father here.
I kind of felt the walls closing in on me.
At that point. He threw me under the bus in
(29:25):
that he didn't defend me. And that's almost as bad
as indicting me, you know, as saying he did it.
And I said, this money and that I'm making, what
do I do? Do I stop? This is like a
double edged sword for me. And I didn't have an answer.
I didn't have a solution, so I said, I'm just
(29:45):
going to keep doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
While Colombo Captain Michael Frenzies struggles with the consequences of
his gascam across town in Brooklyn, undercover agent Choked the
Stone is about to become an official member of the
Banano family and organizzation who make their money not just
from extortion and loan sharking, but drugs. Under the alias
Donny Brasco, He's penetrated the organization deeper than any law
(30:09):
enforcement officer in history. He's about to become a made man.
But first to prove himself, he must kill.
Speaker 9 (30:17):
When I was told you got the contract to kill
Bruno and Delacato. I accepted it because what am I
gonna say?
Speaker 12 (30:23):
No, I don't want to do it. I can't do it.
Speaker 9 (30:25):
But we had a plan in place, you know, Sonny
sent me looking for him. If I spotted him, I
call the FBI and they come and snatch him, and
which stage you hit? Or if they found them they
snatched him in which stage a hit?
Speaker 4 (30:37):
The FBI had faced with an incredible dilemma. What are
they going to do if Joe Pistone aka Donny Brasco,
He's asked to go along on a hit? That's a
no note. They can't do it, but will blow his
cover and the slightest suspicion could lead to Donny Brasco's death, So.
Speaker 14 (30:58):
The FBI may makes a decision.
Speaker 11 (31:01):
Joe was not allowed to become a member of La Cousinoust.
The Bureau decided that would not be the best interest
of him or the Bureau, and so we pulled him
out of there.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
After six long years under cover, the FEDS pull Pistone
from the streets and shutter operation Donnie Brasco.
Speaker 14 (31:19):
Now it's time to let the mob know the truth.
Speaker 9 (31:21):
When the operation was going to be closed down, we
had a meeting with three agents, and one of them
knew Sonny Black.
Speaker 12 (31:28):
So what I did is I took a picture with these.
Speaker 9 (31:30):
Guys with my credentials, and the agents went to Sonny
Black and they showed him a photograph of myself and
the guys, and they said, you know, Sony, we just
want you to know that this guy you know is
Donny Brasco is really special Agent Joseph deepest Stone in
the FBI. He's been working undercover for six years. What
(31:54):
Sonny said was, well, I don't know. If I see him,
i'll know, and that was it. Then they told him
that Sonny, once this comes out, you're better off coming
with us, because you know you're gonna get killed. And
he just told them, look, I don't believe it. And
he just shrugged it off.
Speaker 12 (32:16):
And that was it.
Speaker 9 (32:17):
And they left and he calls Lefty calls the other
guys in the crew.
Speaker 12 (32:21):
They all go to the motion.
Speaker 9 (32:22):
Lounge and he tells them what happened.
Speaker 12 (32:29):
In the beginning.
Speaker 9 (32:30):
Left he couldn't believe it either. Left he couldn't believe
that I was anoder cover agent. When he found out
I can't stay here on camera.
Speaker 12 (32:38):
What his response is it wasn't good. It wasn't good.
Speaker 14 (32:43):
Word spreads in the streets.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Banano associate Donnie Brasco is actually a Federal agent, an
infiltration that will soon shatter the American Mob. The FBI's
Joe Pistone has pulled off an un precedented coup against
the American Mob infiltrating the Banano family to its core.
(33:06):
But after six years undercover, the Feds pull him out
before he must kill someone or get killed himself, and
the news quickly spreads in the streets that the wise
guy known as Donnie Brasco.
Speaker 14 (33:18):
Isn't what he appears to be.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I remember meeting Donnie Brasco Joe pastone with Lefty. We
didn't have any business. It was hello and goodbye. He
was there. There was nothing more discussed. But when we
found out what happened, and it was common knowledgy on
the street that he wasn't an informing FBI agent, it
was pretty shocking because they he was almost straightened out,
he had gotten that far.
Speaker 9 (33:40):
And then what happened once they found out it was me.
The Commission got together and the Commission put a five
hundred thousand dollars contract out on me.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Pistone gets out of New York fast hiding out in
FBI headquarters in Washington, d C. But within the mob,
those who are responsible for Donnie Brasco's rise must pay
the price.
Speaker 9 (34:00):
Sonny had to fess up to all the bosses what
had happened. So he gets a call to go to
a sit down. He walks into the motion lounge and
tells the bartender, I just got called to a sit down,
and he gives him his ring, gives him his money,
gives him his keys except his car keys, and he
(34:21):
calls his girlfriend and says, they tell me that Donnie
was an undercover agent.
Speaker 12 (34:30):
I didn't believe it. Now I believe it.
Speaker 9 (34:32):
If you ever see Donnie, tell him I'm glad it
was him. So he goes to sit down and the
next thing they noticed, Sonny Black is gone. Lefty was
on his way to get killed, and surveillance team snatched
(34:56):
him up because they heard that you know, when he
gets here, we're going to kill whack him.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
A year later, law enforcement makes a gruesome discovery.
Speaker 9 (35:06):
They found Sonny's body in eighty two in a body
bag with his hands cut off, and the reason that
they did that was he introduced me to bosses that
I shook hands with.
Speaker 12 (35:19):
Did I want to see him die?
Speaker 6 (35:21):
No?
Speaker 12 (35:21):
I mean, look, you know that's not my job. My
job as a gather evidence to put you in jail.
Speaker 9 (35:28):
Lefty he spends his fifteen eighteen years in a can,
doesn't say a word because they took that oath and
they believed in that oath. They took that oath, and
they believed in that oath.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
But Pistone's not the only one choosing a new path
across town. Michael fanzis, a captain and top earner in
the Colombo family, is becoming disillusioned with his way of life.
But that's the least of his troubles. Law enforcement's closing in.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
I started to feel the pressure in the early eighties
and the government opened my eyes to it and that
they had a major undercover operation on me on this
gasoline case and everything else.
Speaker 13 (36:08):
It would seem that Michael Francisi is unfortunately following the
footsteps of his father.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
The FBI can allege and say whatever they like. They've
been doing it for many, many years well.
Speaker 10 (36:18):
The FBI identified him as a significant target. Informants providing
information to the FBI about this up and coming, you know,
sophisticated gangster. So the FBI came to us and said
that they wanted to bring a case against him.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
And I got a visit in my officers out in
Long Island from two FBI agents and they came in
to see me and they said we need to talk
to you. And I saw what do you want And
they said, listen, tell us what you're doing and we'll
give you a pass. Yeah right. I said, well, I
don't know what you're talking about with gas, you know,
so I knew. I said, man, this is this is
(36:53):
not good. I mean, I really got their attention.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Now.
Speaker 10 (36:56):
We gathered evidence, primarily from cooperating witnesses, and when he
was faced with a lengthy trial and the prospect of
getting a very lengthy sentence.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
People were being convicted one hundred years, one hundred and
fifty years, they said, they're going to give me a
thousand years if I go down on this.
Speaker 10 (37:14):
He decided to plead guilty and to make restitution payments
of ten million dollars, which he pretty much defaulted on.
Speaker 5 (37:20):
Michael fran sees it in in dited on twenty eight
counts racketeering, fraud, and extortion.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
It made two very bad decisions of my life. I
trusted my father. Look where it got me. I surrendered
my life to La Close in Austra and look where
it got me. I got death threats, hits all over me.
FBI h me, everybody on the street h me. My
father disowned me. I don't have a friend in a world.
I'm going to spend the rest of my life in
(37:48):
his sixth by age cell and it was the first
and only time in my life that I really felt hopeless.
Speaker 10 (38:00):
And he kind of shocked us because he came forward
and agreed to cooperate, and based on the cooperation he provided,
he did get his sentence reduced.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I got four years on a parole violation, and I
spent thirty five months and thirteen more days in prison,
twenty nine months and seven days in the whole. And
during that time is when I strengthened my faith and
started to read the Bible.
Speaker 14 (38:28):
But Fanzies gets out and lives to tell the tale.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Do I find it surprising that I'm alive? I feel
in the most blessed guy walk on the streets. What
should my fate have been? I should either be dead
or in prison? For the rest of my life.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
The son who once followed his gangster father blindly into
the life now walks away from the mob forever, unscathed.
Speaker 10 (38:48):
I cannot explain how Michael Frenzies was able to do
what he did. The only speculation you could have is
that he paid his way out. Somehow he was able
to persuade people in the columbuok Prime family not to
do anything to him.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Really, the only way that ends is when you end
and you're in a coffin, it's over.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
How Michael Franzis got out of the American Mob with
his life remains.
Speaker 14 (39:11):
A mystery to this day.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
But the worst deeds of Frenzies's past still haunt him,
especially the murder of a close friend, Champagne Larry Carosa
Colombo Captain Michael Franzis walks away from life in the
American Mob and begins cooperating with law enforcement, but the
(39:35):
worst deeds of his past still haunt him, especially the
murder of this man, Champagne Larry Caroza.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Larry Caroza was someone very close to me. I mean
a kid loved me and I loved him. I baptized
his kids. He baptized my daughter. Unbeknownst to me, he
was having an affair with my sister. I was brought
in and it was told to me that this, this
is what was going on.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
No one messes with mob women. Those who do pay
a heavy penalty.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I was told, he disrespected you when he disrespected your father,
and that's something that we don't stand for in this life.
And I said, but you know he's not the made guy. Stupid,
how do we know what really happened? And let me
talk to my sister And nope, you want to take
care of it, you take care of it. If not,
we'll take care of it. And I said, I want
to do it. Guys too close to me.
Speaker 14 (40:33):
Larry Caroz's body is found near his car. He's shot
a single time behind the ear.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
His murder. That's probably something that has been the heaviest
on my heart these days.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
It's faith that helps Fanzi's cope with dark memories of
his past.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Guys, be honest, you don't come to church, but you figure, hey,
Sopranos is off the air. Let me go see what
the real mob guy is all about.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
What I did, I did, and that's it. As Christians,
we happen to believe that we can be forgiven for
what we've done in the past. So I believe with
all my heart that I've been forgiven.
Speaker 14 (41:11):
A line that's hard for a lot of people to swallow.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
People can say it's a phony thing and it's a scam,
and you know, fortunately in the end they're not going
to be the ones that judge me. But I can't
fool God. You know, I bless you all, thank you.
In fact, Michael.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Michael Franzis is out of the life today, but his
father's Sonny never walked away.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
You know, my dad's ninety six years old. He's the
oldest living mob guy in America. I think he's part
of this life. Sixty six or sixty seven years ago
he took the oath.
Speaker 10 (41:39):
He just recently was convicted with the age of ninety six.
I think he was convicted on racketeering charges and was
incarcerated again. Was active until the age of ninety six,
and it's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
He is a treasure trove of mob stories. If you
can get him to talk about Sunny.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Franzis is a last holdover from the golden age of
the American mob, an era that ends with the success
of Operation Donnie Brasco, the historic infiltration of the Banano
Family by undercover agent Joe Pistone.
Speaker 16 (42:10):
Up until nineteen seventy, all you could do with the
mafia was like men with their eyes closed trying to
feel an elephant. You would get a little piece of it,
but all you could prove was someone who actually committed
a particular crime. Joe Pistone did something unique, which is
he infiltrated the Banana Family, an organized crime family, with
such success that he was on the verge.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Of being made as a member.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
In doing that, not only did.
Speaker 16 (42:35):
He collect direct evidence of crimes against the Banana Family,
but he was able to talk knowledgeably about the structure
of the Home mafia.
Speaker 9 (42:46):
This undercover case was the beginning of the unraveling of
the mafia in America as we know it as it
once was.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
All in all, the information Pistone provides law enforcement leads
to over two hundred indictments and more than one hundred
convictions of major mob figures, but it is only the
beginning of the government's all out assault on the American mob.
Speaker 11 (43:11):
Job Pistone's role as Donnie Brasco was historic in the
FBI Historic and Law Enforcement.
Speaker 13 (43:20):
Pistone broke the confidence of the mafia. He broke the
mystique that you couldn't infiltrate the mafia. That mystique was very,
very important in getting people to cooperate, because now, all
of a sudden, it isn't this impregnable organization that nobody's
ever penetrated.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
Joe Pistone and his case was the perfect storm for
organized crime.
Speaker 12 (43:41):
We kicked it out of them, we really did.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
But the American mob still has enormous power in New
York City and around the country.
Speaker 14 (43:55):
In the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
You always have to use your brain and you always
have to use the gun.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
In cities like Philadelphia, home to one of the most
violent mob families in the United States.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
We live by our own set of rules.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
And a major battleground in law enforcements war to end
the rule of Causinustra.
Speaker 14 (44:11):
His reign becomes a reign of terror.
Speaker 15 (44:14):
I invoked my right and declined to answer the
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Question, and we got away with murder.
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