Mob Betrayals from New York to Chicago (Full Episode) | Inside the American Mob Compilation

When you join the La Cosa Nostra,

you're in it for life.

You have to have honor and respect,

but when somebody does something wrong, I mean, you know,

they're going to get killed.

Louis DeMarco was a junkie

who was sticking up a made member of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra.

So, Angelo Bruno told us, "Find him and kill him."

Me and Vincent Falcone

hid in the one of the rooms in the hotel and we waited for

Louis DeMarco to to walk to his car.

When he came out,

I ran out first

and shot him in the back of the head.

The power of the blast of the bullet

pushed him so much forward, it looked like he was running away.

After he fell down, I ran over him and I emptied my gun into him.

After we shot him, me and Vincent Falcone ran through the alleyway

and when we hit this certain spot,

we threw both guns up onto this roof.

And we continued running to my uncle where he picked us up in the car.

When I committed my first murder,

it felt like I was doing a good deed for our family.

I was killing a bad man.

>> Mob warfare is on the rise

all across the nation.

It's just the latest sign of organized crime in America

becoming more and more disorganized.

>> It's 1980 and the United States government is locked in a battle to the

death with the mafia.

>> And that sends the message to these people that they cannot be above the

law and that they will be brought to justice

and they will be convicted.

>> But the secret society

known as Cosa Nostra

still remains immensely powerful throughout the country.

A force for corruption

and extreme >> in the cities of Philadelphia,

Chicago, and New York.

>> Police say that Calabrese

was ambushed by two gunmen in ski masks as he walked to his car.

>> Where five gangs called families

bring men in, but almost never let them out alive. >> Take three.

Watch your head and sit down next to me.

>> These men are witnesses

to a secret society's

history, stepping out of the shadows now to tell their stories

first >> A few remain in shadows

fearing for their personal safety,

afraid of an organization

with branches all over the country.

In 1971, the shooting of mob boss Joe Colombo

and the murder of Joe Gallo in retaliation

marked a kind of awakening

for young guys like Michael Franzese,

who was standing near Joe Colombo when he was shot.

>> The shooting that day

really impacted me when I said, "You know what?

Something's really going on here that I don't

I don't quite understand."

>> So, Franzese turned to the one man who can answer his questions,

his father Sonny, one of the most notorious

figures in the entire

history of the American mob.

>> Sonny Franzese was somebody who was a legendary

figure in in the world of organized crime, very powerful.

>> He's a 100% gangster.

Everybody heard of him. Everybody knows him.

There's not a person I don't know who Sonny Franzese

He lives the mob code to the T.

>> Uh law enforcement said he's killed

at least 30 people back then.

Now it's I think it's 60,

um which I don't believe.

60 people, I mean, come on.

>> Growing up, Michael worshipped his father

and despised the cops who shadowed him.

>> One day I was playing ball in the street.

I think I was 8 or 9 years old.

Ball sailed over my head and rolled down the street.

The detective stopped the ball with his

And when I got close to him,

he pulled over his jacket

and he had a gun in there

and he said, "This is for your father.

He's going to get it one

And I just looked up at him, I'll never forget, and I said, "You

know, can I have my ball, please?"

He kicked the ball roughly past me.

And boy, I hated that guy at that moment.

You know, I always say if I was lost when I was a kid,

uh the last person I would go to would would be a

I always looked at my dad as the hero and them as the enemy.

The FBI had a car parked

uh in the back of our house on the left side, the right side, everywhere.

So, anytime we left

with my dad, we had a parade of law enforcement vehicles following us.

One night, we went out to eat as a

All the law enforcement people would file in afterwards, sit at the table behind

us, and watch us eat.

And this one particular night, one of the agents, as he passed by my

table, he got a little out of hand.

And he made a nasty remark to my dad.

My dad jumped up and went right after the cop.

You don't disrespect him in front of his family.

And uh the restaurant was crowded, the cop got

He pulled out his gun.

Uh my dad said to him, "Shoot it.

I'll drop you before you get a shot off."

You know, moments like that,

uh I had more than one.

I mean, that leaves an impression on you when you're

>> At the time of Joe Colombo's

shooting in 1971, Sonny was in prison serving 10 years for bank robbery.

Michael paid him an urgent visit.

>> It was that that we first really had a discussion about the life.

First, he got to angry with me.

He said, "I told you not to be involved here.

You got to go to school."

I said, "I'm I'm going to school. It's over.

I have no desire.

I'm part of this.

I got to help you out.

He said, "Is this what you want to be part of?"

And I said, "Whatever I got to do to help you out."

I don't even know what I'm really a part of.

You never sat down explained anything to me.

But it's He says, "If you had to kill somebody,

could you do it?"

I thought about it.

And I said, "You know, if if the circumstances

were right, I I think I

And he said to me, "Well, that's the right answer.

Uh somebody's going to be in touch with

He said, "You do whatever you're told." That was it.

And that was the extent of the discussion we had.

In asking me that question, he gave me a choice.

And I made my decision right then and

>> While Michael Franzese readily joined his father's crime family in New York,

in Chicago, another mob scion

lived blissfully unaware of his father's business.

>> I grew up in Chicago.

As a young kid, I felt loved.

I felt safe in my home.

I went to school. I played sports.

Wanted to go to college, become a

As a young man, I idolized my dad.

He was a great father.

>> But Frank Calabrese Sr.

was not just a father.

He was also a prolific

loan shark and a feared hit man

with the Chicago mob.

>> As I got older,

I would see FBI agents sitting around the house sometimes.

But it wasn't that big of a deal to me because my dad always

used to say, "Don't bring your business in the home.

It corrodes the family

And I just did my thing like every other

>> Little did Frank Jr. know Frank Sr.

was a serious operator.

>> In fact, in the '70s and '80s, my dad had one of the biggest operations

in the city for for juice loans.

Million dollars on the street at most times, sometimes more. >> Frank Sr.

also loved to kill.

>> My dad's preferred method

or signature trade of killing you was with a knife and a rope. He loved hands-on.

He'd strangle you and then cut your throat to make sure you were dead.

>> It wasn't long before Frank's father began to groom his teenage son to join the family business.

>> His intention was to teach me about the street.

He would give me these errands

to do or I would assist

my uncle or my dad in mob activities.

I looked at it as chores right away.

Get them done so I can go be with my friends.

>> But in Chicago, grooming kids for the mob life was off limits.

>> In Chicago, you weren't supposed to bring your kids into it.

Okay, so when he did, he never went in and got

from his boss or anybody like he was supposed to.

It's kind of like their secret weapon.

>> By age 19, Frank Jr.

was collecting quarters from neighborhood peep shows

and keeping the books on his father's legal gambling

and loan shark >> Over time,

the more my father gave me to do,

the more he seen of him

in I never believed

through all of this

that I had a choice.

It was more like, "Be a good son and do this for your dad."

My dad was a master manipulator.

And slowly, I bought into all this.

>> I graduated to that next level,

extortion, violence, arson, planning and assisting murders.

Even though I did not like

I was good at it.

And that was one other thing that drew me in even closer to him.

>> So close that in 1986, when Frank Sr.

got the contract to kill a fellow mobster

in trouble with the outfit,

the plan was for Frank Jr.

to carry out the murder.

>> There was a guy named John Ficarotta.

John Ficarotta killed a lot of people, killed people with my dad

and my uncle >> Frank's uncle Nick Calabrese

worked hand in hand with his brother Frank Sr.'s crew.

Fecoratta had screwed up covering his tracks

in the notorious killing and burial of monster Tony Spilotro

and his brother Michael.

>> And when John Fecoratta

had also done some stuff personally

to my dad, my uncle, and our family,

I felt that this was my obligation

to step up for my family and kill him.

>> But in the end

Frank Jr.'s uncle Nick stepped up

and carried out the hit on Fecoratta.

>> He lied and said it was a better plan if he went alone.

And my dad bought into that.

And I was actually mad at that time, too, cuz I thought he was

trying to take this away from me, my uncle.

But really he was looking out for me.

>> It's a move that will later prove disastrous,

not just for the Calabrese

family, but the entire Chicago mob.

While Frank Calabrese Jr.

is moving up in his father's Chicago

Outfit crew, mob son Michael Franzese

begins his own career

in New York's La Cosa Nostra.

>> One of my dad's soldiers

called me and said, "Meet me at the J&B Lounge, which was on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn."

We go see Tom DiBella.

Tom was acting boss for Persico

at the time, who had taken control of the family.

And Tom says to me, "I got a message from your father."

He said, "You want to become a member of our life, is that true?"

And I remember saying, "Yeah, if that's what my dad wants,

that's what I want."

And he said, "I didn't ask you that."

I said, "Is this what you want?"

And I said, "Yes, it's what I want."

>> He said, "Well, here's the deal.

From now on, 24

hours a day, 7 days a week,

you're on call to serve this family.

If your mother is sick and she's dying

and we call you to serve this family, you leave your mother's side and

you come and serve us.

From From now on, we're number one in your life before anything and everything.

I'm putting you with Andrew Russo. He's your captain.

You do whatever Andrew tells you. I said, "Okay."

Andrew looks at me and says, "You're going to be busy from now on."

He says, "Meet me tomorrow night on

Carroll Street and wear a suit." That was it.

>> When you're in your recruitment

period, you're not really making money for them.

You're just being around.

And I used to sit around in a social club again, listen, took everything in.

And I always had a nice car.

So, Tom DeBello and Andrew

would always have me drive them.

Except that I would never drive.

I'd have to sit in the back and they would sit in the front.

So, I just listened and I heard

so much conversation between the two of them.

They did talk pretty openly in front of me.

And um I guess they trusted me at at that point.

That recruitment period was very valuable

to me because I'd try to absorb everything like a sponge

and really learn what the life was about.

>> Michael Franzese is now a Colombo family associate.

His education begins and ends with one lesson,

how to make money for the boss of the family.

>> As an associate, if you made a score,

you had to make sure you sent something up to the boss.

A couple hundred dollars in an envelope.

Most guys that are associates

not made members, they always have to kick up to their boss.

>> If you get involved

and you become an earner,

somebody who can be trusted,

you become a higher associate.

>> I had to be a good earner.

I wanted to be the best possible

mob guy I could be.

I made a score at one point.

Some guy came to me with a load of meat.

If I remember, six or seven thousand dollars worth of >> Let me show you.

>> So, I said Andrew, I got this load of meat.

He says, "Make sure when you get the money you turn it in." Great.

So, I bring it and I turn it in.

It's like seven grand.

And uh takes it and

after a day or so he gives me back 600 bucks.

I said, "Wait a second.

I said, I'm 7,000,

I get 600 back."

I said, "What the I don't like the math here, you know?"

But I saw my father the next time and he he said to me,

"What did you turn it all in for?"

He said, "Rule of thumb,

25% goes to them."

He said, "You keep the rest."

It's really on-the-job training.

I mean, nobody prepares

you for this stuff.

>> Francese soon found a much bigger way to earn

a gigantic in overseas shipping.

For a cut of the take,

a friend who worked for a shipping company

sent Francese fake work orders to repair his containers.

Francese didn't actually repair the containers,

but billed the company anyway.

>> And they would cut me a check.

We were doing 20, 30,000 dollars a month.

And all he did was

submit a work order and I submitted submitted a bill.

And that was the scam.

>> He became the biggest earner not only in the Colombo family, but probably

on an individual basis

among all the made guys in in in the five families.

>> There was only a handful of us that were making real money.

>> He's so successful at earning that the highest honor in the mafia

is within his grasp.

He's on the verge of becoming a made man.

>> Even though I didn't know the time or the place or when the the

event would happen, I knew that things were starting to heat up because

a couple of guys were

all of a sudden being made.

So, I I kind of knew my time was coming.

One morning it was early

and I get a call from Andrew.

And he said, uh

"Meet me on Carroll Street

such and such a time."

He said, "Dress up."

Happened to be Halloween

night and it was 1975,

night I obviously can't

We end up in Brooklyn at Anthony uh catering hall.

And then I started to realize this is it,

you know, this is my time.

>> To become a made guy,

you have to participate

in a murder, you were 100% Italian,

and you were sponsored by two official members, >> you qualified.

Then you had to go in and take this oath that you were never

supposed to reveal the secrets of the

>> You can refuse it all you want.

If they want you to become a made guy, they're going to they're going

to force you to become a made guy.

>> It is a lifetime contract.

Respect and honor is is the whole life.

>> The only way out would be death.

>> It was very dark.

Uh there was a couple of candles lit.

I walk down the aisle and I stand in front of Tom DiBella.

And um this initiation starts.

And it's very intense.

And Tom looks at me and he says, "Are you ready?"

And I says, "I am."

And then we went through the ritual.

Andrew had a a little knife.

And he cuts my finger and some blood drops on the floor.

And he I remember him gripping my hand very firmly.

And I remember looking down and seeing blood spots there.

So this was a place

I knew that had been used before.

I took a picture of a saint,

put it in my hands, and lit it a flame.

And then Tom started to say to me, "Tonight, Michael Franzese,

you're being born again."

I'll never forget those words.

He said, "You're being born again into

a new life, our life, La Cosa Nostra."

"You swear to give your life to this to a La Cosa Nostra."

I said, "Yes, I do."

"If you violate what you know about this life, betray any of your brothers,

you will die and burn in hell

like this saint is burning in your hands."

And he said, "You're a friend of ours."

And he hugged Andrew hugs me.

And then all the captains line up and they all give me a hug

and welcome me, kiss on the cheek.

As Tommy said, "From now on, wherever you go in the world,

you'll have a brother there.

Don't ever worry about your mother, your sister, your daughter.

We're going to protect them.

And um you know, I got your back, you got mine."

Uh that was exhilarating for me.

You know, but okay, I made it. I'm here.

And now it's it's up to me to really prove that I'm worthy of the life.

As Tommy said, "Uh let this be a lesson to all you.

We don't earn for you.

You're going to earn for us."

It's all about earning for the family and doing for us.

And he looked at me.

"We want you guys that are earners to get out there and earn."

And uh and then we ate.

We had a celebration.

And then that was it.

And then it was uh I went home that night after we talked and

I was uh very exhilarated.

And I understood that once you're part of that life, you're a new creation

within that >> It's 1982.

And Michael Franzese is earning his place in the mob with cold, hard cash.

>> Did you ever have a nickname?

>> You know, not till later on when the the media tagged me as being

the Yuppie Don, which I hated.

But uh nobody would call me that to my face.

I'd tell them, "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 in suits.

>> Michael Franzese was an immense

earner for the Colombo family.

And the guy who knew how to really

deal with modern-day capitalism.

He was a new breed. >> Hey, fellas. Let's go.

>> This handsome, young mafia

prince from New York

is Michael Franzese, the son of a legendary mafia godfather.

>> Michael Franzese went to college.

I guess he dropped out of college after about 2 years, but was more

sophisticated than the average run-of-the-mill Mafia guy.

>> Franzese got the keys to the city

and a Bible blessed by the Pope.

>> There's a big perception out there.

There's this genius about us that we know just what the target and just

how to make money.

Rarely does that happen.

It's always somebody from the legitimate

world coming to us.

And then you just

show them how to do it, protect them, and you make money with them.

>> And one way Franzese

hoped to make money is classic mob.

Through the labor >> I had some very lucrative situations with unions.

One of them in a

major contract, you could construction

job with a major developer in in Queens.

And this is a major It was the biggest

co-op conversion in the country at that

And one of the guys in there

happened to be the brother of a girl that I 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, "You think he can help out?" I said, "Yeah."

>> What the mob-dominated union will do is strike a sweetheart

deal with the employer

where the actual workers pay the price.

They They don't get the benefits they ought to get

or the salary they ought to get

because the mob has cut a deal with the employer

at the expense of the worker.

>> So I go and meet the labor union

guy and I said, "You realize what we got here, right?

Biggest job in the country."

I said, "Let's work this thing."

And he said, "Great."

So we made a deal

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.

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"?

Is that the same as "kick it up"?

>> Whack it up, divide it up, cut it up, share it.

Yeah, that's street term.

You never said share, it's whack.

Whack has different forms of

different uses, I would say.

>> Soon Franzese was making a name for himself as an earner among earners.

He brought in big scores

that attracted attention throughout the five families of the New York mob.

But nothing so far

compared to the scam he was about to pull off.

>> 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 it.

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. He walks in.

I says, "What are we having a party?

What are we going to do with all this meat?"

He says, "Hey chief, it ain't meat."

And he goes and he puts it on the kitchen table.

He opens it up.

He "First week's take in the gas business, in cash."

Got my attention, right?

>> Michael Franzese's biggest coup

was something known as the

daisy chain gasoline scam.

What happened was New York State

in the 1970s decided

to use a different way of collecting

gasoline excise taxes every year.

>> At that time, whoever owned the gas station was responsible

to pay the tax on every gallon of gasoline that they bought and pumped.

>> And somebody hit upon the idea this was stupid.

>> So, the legislature in New York said, "Well, let's make distributors

responsible for paying the

taxes that we want to levy."

>> But the gas companies

are required to pay the tax on the honor system.

So, Franzese figured out all he had to do

was set up dummy companies that don't pay.

It took months for the government to figure out the scam and collect

and by that time

the dummy companies were long gone.

>> 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 Franzese.

And somewhere along the line,

a stamp would come out and would say "tax paid".

And it was very difficult to establish

just you know which which company was saying that they paid the tax.

>> That's because no company

was paying the tax.

All of the money was going into Michael Franzese's

>> I had 18 licensed companies.

All of them were operating out of Panama.

So there was no trail

back to any of us.

>> The gasoline tax scam has to go down

in history as one of the most successful

coups ever pulled by the mafia.

>> I was making a lot of money in the gas business.

Millions of dollars a week.

I had a jet plane, I had a 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.

>> The so-called Franzese group,

a new mafia organization

that federal >> A story came out I believe in Newsday again that I was

becoming powerful enough to break away from the Colombos and start my own family.

>> Said to be behind the mob's

theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in gasoline

taxes in New York.

>> My dad then got out on parole.

>> Franzese's father, Sonny, was 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.

>> Law enforcement said he's killed

at least 30 people back then.

Now it's I think it's 60.

But as far as a dad,

he was dad to 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 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 of law enforcement

and all of a sudden the two friends used to get together the son

is making tons of money.

Guys start to think about it.

You know, a double-edged sword.

Even my own father.

I was told he put a contract on me.

>> 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 calls him, he starts to sweat.

>> One night I get

a call from my dad and he said, "I got to see you." I said, "Okay."

He was on parole, so I go to his

>> Hey, how you doing, Bobby?

>> 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 says, "Well, they 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, this is what they want."

I said, "Well, we're not going to do that, Dad."

>> crazy you're going to do it.

I'm not doing it.

>> It was the first time as a made guy that I really had an

argument with my dad.

I was told her no, we're not doing that.

Back and forth, back and forth, he wouldn't give in.

Finally, I remember I threw my hands up in the driveway.

I said, "All right, Dad.

I've been listening to you all my life.

I says, "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 on 18th Avenue.

Jimmy was your captain too at the time.

I knew Jimmy all my life.

I get in the car there's a guy sitting in the back that I

didn't know and he don't introduce me.

And you know, at that point I was just really thinking

something's really bad here.

It was your house in Brooklyn that we were going to.

I get in the car and I start walking

and Jimmy gets behind me.

And the other guy is behind him.

Now, this is bad setup.

And I'll be honest with you, I was getting really nervous.

I wasn't a religious guy anyway,

but I started to pray cuz I really thought I'm dead.

Look, I'd been in the life quite a while.

I know that you get walked into

a room by your best friend, you don't walk out again.

So, um, door opens.

I get in there and a couple of guys

And, um, they 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 the boss.

Don't think you can get away with anything.

Without saying it, they said it. I got it.

>> The meeting ends and to Franzese's

surprise, he's still alive.

>> So, now Jimmy's going to drive me back.

I say goodbye to 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 all my life.

You don't prepare me.

You don't tell me anything that's going on."

And, uh, he said,

uh, "If it was the other way around, would you have told me

It just hit me like that, you know, and I thought about it for a minute.

I said, I wouldn't have."

He said, "Well, the life we chose, Mikey."

He said, "You know it as well or better than anybody.

You grew up in it."

He said, "I'm going to 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 there."

And it really affected

me in a bad way.

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 that he didn't defend me.

And that's as almost as bad as indicting me, you know, as saying he did it.

I mean, I should dis money that I'm making.

What do I do? Do I stop?

This is like a double-edged sword for me.

And um I didn't have an answer.

I didn't have a

I said, "I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing."

>> While Michael Franzese struggled with the consequences

of his gas scam,

in Chicago, Frank Calabrese Jr.

was starting to see a different side to the and his father.

>> I seen what this life does to people on the street.

It wears them down.

And they start My dad had multiple personalities.

I didn't know what dad I was dealing with

I seen the like guys killing each other off more, the FBI getting stronger.

And when I seen my dad changing, I wanted out.

>> Frank resolved to start life over,

and that takes money.

But he didn't have much money in hand.

>> My dad was holding

close to $400,000 of my money,

and I went and I stole

money of his from a hiding place.

Cuz I felt it was my money and I had it

>> At first, Frank thought he'd gotten away with it.

But then one day, Frank's father summoned him.

>> I went and met him.

I thought we were working on our relationship.

He wound up getting me to a garage.

He set me up.

And when we got in that garage,

he slammed the door.

And when I turned around, he had me by the throat.

He had a gun in my face.

He said, "You know what?

I tried controlling you.

I can't control you no more.

I'd rather have you dead than you disobey me.

But I'll come to your grave and pay my

When I seen that look in my dad's eyes, I I break eye contact

with him, and I was using trigger words.

Dad, I'm your son.

What are you doing?

I've done everything you asked.

And I don't know what

or how that night my dad couldn't do it.

And from that point on, I knew I could never trust my dad.

It's the only man in life I ever feared.

>> It's just the start of one of the most notorious

betrayals in American mob history.

In New York, Michael Franzese,

a captain and top earner in the Colombo family,

is also becoming disillusioned

with his way of life.

But that's the least of his troubles.

Law enforcement's closing in.

>> I started to feel the pressure in the early '80s,

and and the the government

uh opened my eyes to it and that they had a major undercover

operation on me on this gasoline

case and everything >> It would seem that Michael Franzese

is unfortunately following the footsteps of his father.

>> The FBI can allege and say whatever they like.

They've been doing it for many, many years.

>> Well, the FBI identified

him as a significant target.

Informants providing information to the FBI

about this up-and-coming um you know, sophisticated gangster.

So, the FBI came to us and and said that they wanted to bring

a case against him.

>> And I got a visit

in my offices 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 said, "What do you want?"

And they said, "Uh listen.

Tell us what you're doing.

And uh 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 not good."

And I mean, I really got their attention now.

>> We gathered evidence primarily

from from cooperating witnesses.

>> And when he was faced with

a lengthy trial and the prospect

of getting a very lengthy sentence,

people were being convicted

>> 100 years, 150 years.

I said, "They're going to give me a thousand years if I go down on this."

>> He decided to plead guilty

and to make restitution

payments of $10 million,

which he pretty much defaulted on.

>> Michael Franzese indicted on 28

counts of racketeering, fraud, and extortion.

>> I made two very bad decisions in my life.

I trusted my father,

look where it got me.

I surrendered my life to La Cosa

and look where it got me.

I got death threats,

hits all over me.

The FBI hates me, everybody on the street hates me, my father disowned me.

I don't have a friend in the world.

I'm going to spend the rest of my life in a 6x8 cell.

And it was the

first and only time in my life that I I really felt hopeless.

>> Then he kind of shocked us because

he came forward and agreed to cooperate.

And based on the cooperation

he he provided, he did get his sentence

>> I got 4 years

on a parole violation

and I spent 35 months and 13 more days in prison,

29 months and 7 days in the hole.

And during that time

is when I strengthened my faith.

And um started to read the Bible.

>> But Franzese got out

and lives to tell the tale.

>> Do I find it surprising that I'm alive?

I I feel I'm the most blessed guy walking the streets.

What should my fate have been?

I should either be dead or in prison for the rest of my life.

>> The son who once followed his gangster father blindly

into the life now walks away from the mob forever unscathed.

>> I cannot explain how Michael Franzese

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 Colombo crime family not to do anything to him.

>> Really, the only way that ends

is when you end

and you're in a coffin, it's

>> How Michael Franzese got out of the American mob with his life

remains a mystery to this day.

But the worst deeds of Franzese's

past still haunt him,

especially the murder of a close friend,

"Champagne" Larry >> Larry Carrozza

was someone very close to me.

I mean, the 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 I I was told to me that this is what was going on.

>> No one messes with mob women.

Those who do pay a heavy penalty.

>> I was told he disrespected

you and 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 a made guy. He's 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."

I said, "I won't do it."

I said, "He's He's guys too close to me."

>> Larry Carrozza's body was found near his

He was shot a single time behind the

>> His murder, that's probably something that

has been the heaviest on my heart.

>> These days it's faith that helps Franzese

cope with dark memories of his >> 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, right?"

That's your only >> 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

that I've been forgiven.

>> As a Christian, we >> A line that's hard for a lot of people to swallow.

>> 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 very much. >> Thank Michael Franzese.

Michael, thank you, man.

>> Michael Franzese is out of the life today,

but his father Sonny never walked

>> I think he's part of this life

66 or 67 years ago he took the oath.

>> I think he was convicted

on >> on racketeering charges and was incarcerated again.

Was active until the age of 96

and it's absolutely amazing.

>> He is a treasure trove of mob stories

if you can get him to talk about them.

>> Sonny Franzese told me that at the time

he would finish parole I believe at 103 years old.

He was in a go,

pissed on the White House,

and called the guards over and tell them, "Yeah, I pissed on the White House.

Come on, bring me to jail."

>> Sonny Franzese is a holdover

from the golden age of the American mob.

But in Chicago, mobster Frank Calabrese Sr.

passed his mob legacy on to his son

along with prison time.

>> In 1995 we were indicted

from running a loan sharking operation

through threats, intimidation, and violence.

When we went to jail,

I thought this was a blessing in disguise

because I want to get away from my dad.

>> Frank hoped they'd end up in separate prisons.

A few years earlier Frank Sr.

nearly killed his son

when he found Frank Jr.

had stolen $400,000 from him.

Since that time, Frank Jr.

lost all trust in his dad.

But Frank's worst fears were realized

when father and son landed in the same prison.

>> I always feared my dad.

But in prison, I said, "I'm going to try to work it out with

my dad one more time,

become a >> After just a few months,

Frank realized his father would never be the kind of dad he wanted.

>> He had this second chance

to make some changes

in his life and he didn't

because of the addiction

of this life on the street.

And at one point I realized

that he was manipulating me.

And there was no way I was going to ever get out of this in his eyes.

Sometimes in life all your choices stink.

What am I going to do?

Confront him and one of us is going to wind up dead.

My dad was good at killing.

So it'd probably be me.

So that's when I came up with the

painful decision of cooperating with the FBI.

>> Frank wrote a letter from prison

volunteering crucial information about his father.

>> I just told them to come on I wanted to talk to them.

Basically I told them I wanted to help to keep this sick man locked up forever.

>> Frank wouldn't cooperate against other mobsters

besides his father and he declined

offers most prisoners would jump at.

>> I told them I don't want to be obligated to you guys. No disrespect.

I'll do all my time, pay all my fines.

No immunity, but I'm only helping you against my dad.

>> At first Frank said no when asked to wear a wire.

>> But then I thought about it after a while.

My dad's too smart.

I got to get him in his own words.

So I wore wire.

When I put the wires on

it's like a soldier.

You train, you go out there and you do it.

And that's what I did.

>> But even soldiers have back up. Frank Jr.

had no choice but to go it alone in

>> The danger level when I left that building

that the agents were there,

I was on my own.

Because of the concrete

they couldn't monitor me.

But I knew my dad,

he taught me well.

So I knew when to back off, when to be aggressive with them.

>> Over about 6 months Frank recorded

a number of conversations with his father.

>> We talked about certain murders

and also what I did was

I put my uncle against my

And that made my dad mad.

And when sometimes when somebody gets

they talk a little more.

If we were sitting anywhere where we thought there'd be surveillance,

we would talk heavily in code.

But if we were wired on the prison yard and walking,

he felt comfortable He told me a lot a lot of murders

that >> In addition to this gold mine,

Frank's uncle Nick turned informant,

confessing to the murder of John Fecarotta,

and implicating Frank Sr.

and several other mobsters

in murder, racketeering, and loan sharking over decades.

By 2000, Frank Jr.

left prison, and by 2005,

the FBI gathered enough evidence

to indict the entire

Chicago Outfit in what they called Operation Family Secrets.

>> In total, 18 murders were charged

as part of the racketeering conspiracy,

ranging from a murder committed in 1970

to a murder committed in 1986.

>> A case of this magnitude

in Chicago had never been like this.

And for my uncle Nick to cooperate,

it was the first time in the history of the Chicago mob

that made member actually cooperated

against >> For Frank Jr.,

the day he faced his father in court was a day of reckoning.

>> It was one of the hardest things I ever did.

First thing went through my mind,

oh my god, this is my dad.

I hate his ways, but I love him.

That family thing kicked in.

Okay, until he looked at me with the threats, and I knew why I was there.

I am my father,

and he taught me everything he knew, and that's what I used against him.

My dad, he threatened

to kill the prosecutor

in front of the judge and the jury.

So, besides putting a $150,000

hit on my head, he actually put a $150,000

hit on my uncle's head, too.

>> Within days, the jury reached their

>> Everybody at the trial was found guilty.

Uh my dad and two other bosses got life.

Life in the federal system is life.

And leaving that courtroom on the final day, looking at my dad,

knowing that I probably never going to see him alive,

was also the hardest thing I've ever did in my life.

Actually sat down in another room with tears in my eyes.

>> It's a huge blow to the Chicago outfit.

>> Going all the way back to the early 1900s,

there was 1,112 documented gangland slayings, okay? Only 14 convictions.

In Operation Family Secrets, there was 18 convictions

and over 40 murders solved.

>> This is the first

investigation that I can recall, an indictment I can recall that involved

so many murders, which really gets to the heart of what the LCN is,

and that is a bunch of murderous thugs. >> Frank Calabrese Sr.

died in prison in 2012.

>> So, we are in one of three parts of Little Italy at one time. >> Today, Frank Jr.

leads tours of Chicago's infamous mob landmarks.

>> So, this was breeding grounds for Tony Accardo,

uh the Spilotro brothers who ran Las Vegas,

my dad, Joey Lombardo.

>> But, the profound effect of Operation

Family Secrets is still apparent in Chicago.

>> So, it was a huge turning point for the Chicago mob.

That's why there's not too much left today.

>> With La Cosa Nostra's skill at lying low in hard times,

the question of just how many are left may be anyone's