Franzese partnered with the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn in the gas scheme. Under law at the time in Panama, gasoline could be sold tax-free from one wholesale company to the next. The pair set up 18 stock-bearer companies based in Panama. Iorizzo was being hassled by criminals in California and offered Franzese a percentage if he would defend and solve the issue. In 1981, Franzese was contacted by Lawrence Salvatore Iorizzo, who had developed a scheme to defraud the federal government out of gasoline taxes in 1985. In 1980, Franzese had become a caporegime of a crew of 300. Franzese later expressed admiration for Gotti, citing his strict mobster lifestyle and his overwhelming ego. Gotti however claimed that the scared-off partner was an associate of his. Franzese sent Colombo soldier-turned informant Anthony Sarivola and another member who remains unidentified. Franzese agreed to frighten him and become the new partner. Franzese was contacted by a flea market owner who complained that his partner was using and selling drugs at the market in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. During the late 1970s, Franzese met with future Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, who was then a soldier. įranzese was briefly mentored by Colombo soldier Joseph "Joe-Joe" Vitacco (1927–1980). Although Franzese recounts this ceremony had taken place in 1975, the membership books reportedly were not reopened until 1976 (they had been closed since 1957). He took the oath alongside friend Jimmy Angelino, Joseph Peraino Jr., Salvatore Miciotta, Vito Guzzo Sr., and John Minerva - all of whom except Miciotta died violently over the next 20 years. As part of the ceremony Franzese took the blood oath and swore omerta. įranzese became acquainted with his father's friends such as Joseph Colombo, and according to Franzese, later became inducted as a made man on Halloween night 1975 under acting boss Tommy DiBella. However, in 1971, Franzese decided to drop out of college to help his family earn money when his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967. In 1969 his father originally did not want him to be involved in organized crime. After the mob allowed John to divorce his first wife, Grillo disappeared, and he married Capobianco. However, it was later discovered that John, already married with three children, had gotten the 16-year-old Capobianco, a cigarette girl at the Stork Club in Manhattan, pregnant with Michael, so Capobianco married Grillo to avoid having a scandal surrounding having a child out of wedlock. Michael says he had gone by the name "Michael Grillo" until he was 18 years old. Franzese had initially believed that he had been adopted by John after his mother divorced Frank Grillo, whom Franzese thought to be his biological father. Soon after, he retired to California and is now a motivational speaker and writer.įranzese was born on May 27, 1951, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, to John "Sonny" Franzese, a Colombo crime family underboss, and Cristina Capobianco-Franzese, although Michael had initially questioned his actual biological father. In 1986, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges, released in 1989, rearrested in 1991 for a parole violation, and ultimately released in 1994. Franzese had claimed that at the height of his career, he generated up to $8 million per week. He eventually helped implement a scheme to defraud the federal government out of gasoline taxes in the early 1980s.īy the age of 35, in 1986, Fortune Magazine listed Franzese as number 18 on its list of the "Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses". Franzese was enrolled in a pre-med program at Hofstra University, but dropped out to make money for his family after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967. Michael Franzese ( / f r æ n ˈ z iː s/) ( né Grillo born May 27, 1951) is an American former mobster who was a caporegime in the Colombo crime family, and son of former underboss Sonny Franzese.
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