Sonny F himself alleged he killed at least 10 people, do we have the names/reasons of the people he murdered? Who are the oldest LCN members today? Associates to bosses.
New York mafia legend John (Sonny) Franzese is a man linked to dozens of gangland slayings; some he carried out, some he ordered, some were sanctioned by his rivals to hurt him.
Here are some of the most notorious mob murders related in some way or another to the last of the old-time mafia bosses. Check out S.J. Peddie’s new book Sonny: The Last of The Old-Time Mafia Bosses, released late last month by the Citadel Press and based on Peddie’s exclusive tell-all interview with Franzese’s life.
The Sonny Franzese Hit List (1952-1994)
March 8, 1952 — New York clothing salesman Arnold Schuster is shot to death outside his Brooklyn home by a mob hit team. Schuster had given police the tip that took down famous bank robber and mafia asset Willie Sutton.
June 8, 1962 — New York mob figure Joe (The Fish) Vitelli is gunned down jogging in a Brooklyn park for the belief that he was informing on Profaci crime family drug rackets.
August 24, 1964 — Genovese crime family hit man Ernie (The Hawk) Rupolo is found in the Jamaica Bay in Queens, with a pair of concrete blocks tied to his arms and legs. Rupolo was slain for helping the government build a murder case against Genovese mob don Vito Genovese.
April 11, 1965 — New York mob associate Arthur (Artie Steaks) Rupolo – not related to Ernie the Hawk – is slain for cooperating with NYPD detectives on a series of drug-trafficking and hijacking i
nvestigations.
September 26, 1966 — Long Island bank teller and topless go-go dancer Irene Brandt disappeared on her lunch hour. Brandt danced at a club controlled by the Franzese mob crew.
October 9, 1974 — Colombo crime family capo Dominick (Mimi) Scialo is tortured and murdered for making an insulting remark to the Boss of Bosses at the time, Gambino mob chief Carlo Gambino, during a drunken rampage. Scialo had taken over Sonny Franzese’s crew when Sonny was behind bars serving his bank-robbery sentence.
April 26, 1975 — New York mob figure Billy (The Eagle) Rupolo, his wife and step-daughter are stabbed to death in their Bensonhurst residence and set afire. Rupolo’s brother was Ernie the Hawk Rupolo.
January 7, 1981 — Colombo crime family capo John (Johnny Irish) Matera disappears on orders of the Persicos for skimming drug proceeds, Matera was Sonny Franzese’s bodyguard and driver and controlled Colombo rackets in South Florida.
May 20, 1983 — Colombo crime family up-and-comer Lawrence (Champagne Larry) Carrozza is shot to death getting into his car in Brooklyn. Carrozza was best friends with Sonny Franzese’s son, Colombo capo Michael (The Yuppie Don) Franzese, and romancing his drug-addled daughter Gigi. Rumors swirled around reasons for Carrozza’s murder, who ordered it and who okayed it.
November 28, 1988 — Colombo crime family consigliere Jimmy Angelina is shot to death in the New Jersey residence of a Colombo button man and is the first body to drop in the Carmine Persico-Vic Orena beef that would play out over the next half decade. Angelina, a former acting boss, was close to both Michael and Sonny Franzese.
August 12, 1994: The Body In A Box Hit — New York mob associate and thief Louie Dorval is found shot to death and floating in a box in the Atlantic Ocean. Dorval was part of a Colombo crime family burglary crew that had killed a armored car driver six weeks earlier in a June 23 heist.