On review, there are SO many guys who fall into this category for one reason or another that my choices were very difficult indeed. But in my humble opinion the following three fellas would definitely have to rank in the very top level of foolish behavior, if not downright idiocy, or lunacy. I will also list the reasons for my thoughts on them ok;

1) Carmine Persico - although this man rose to the very pinnacle of the Colombo Family, he ended up serving literally "one hair away" from a full fifty years in federal prison to accomplish it.... Thats FIFTY, as in "50" years of his life! Persico served at least 3 prison terms that aggregated to 50 years. In truth, he was sentenced to a total of 139 years in jail. He lived into his mid-eighties, so essentially he spent nearly two-thirds of his life behind bars.... He died behind in jail.

As if that was not enough damage already. He also made sure to destroy nearly every single male figure of the Persico/Russo extended family blood line. From his brothers, sons, nephews, and cousins. Each served many years in prison because of their "loyalty" to Carmine. And his beloved son Allie Boy Jr., and nephew Chucky Russo are in jail serving a life sentence as I write this.
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2) Alphonse (Big Allie Boy) Persico - the older brother of Carmine served a life-sentence for murder as a kid. After 20 years he was paroled, only to fall again a few short years later (appx 5 years as a free man), and was jailed for the remainder of his life.... He died behind bars too.
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3) John (Sonny) Franzese - this man may be one of the most tragic cases of all three. After falling on a federal case and receiving 50 years in prison for bank robbery conspiracy, Sonny was paroled after only 9 years behind bars....He had a new lease on life so to speak. Mob guys were amazed by his good fortune, because he was buried, and they never expected to see him on the streets again.

So what did he do? He made sure to screw himself by getting his parole "violated" within 3 years of his release. He went back to serve a 2-year violation. After being released a second time again, the by then, 64-year old mafioso never learned his lesson. He would manage to get himself violated over and over, time and time again. Its almost like he was a complete dunce, and didn't have enough common sense or smarts to see the FBI freight train barreling down on him.

Over the next forty-some odd years, Franzese was violated at least 6 more times. He ended up serving more time on parole violations than the original conspiracy conviction. In 2010, the now 93-year old hood was still at it. He managed to get himself newly indicted on a fresh Rico case. This conviction brought him another 8 years in federal prison. In total, Sonny Franzese served over (40) years in jail on the federal installment plan. He was imprisoned over 8 times since 1970. Time and again, freedom would elude him.

While away, his blood family, his wife and children were destroyed. One daughter died from a drug overdose in her mid-20s. Another had emotional problems and died of cancer while in her 40s. Two of his three sons betrayed their siblings, mom and dad for money. They also both became federal stool pigeons.
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The collateral damages done to the personal blood families of each of these men were emotionally and physically destroyed.... was it all worth it?

Not in my book it isn't! And the stories of these 3 are only scraping the surface of many others who fell this same way.


PS: I think others such as Jerry Langella (165 years in jail, died there), and Joey Gallo (a nut who tried taking on the entire Colombo Family) deserve honorable mention as well. But the my top three are as listed.