This is a continuation of the previous series detailing Sonny Franzese’s life. In this brief segment, Sonny comments on his bank robbery conviction, which helps Greg put both of their cases into context. Sonny has never spoken on camera before, so this is a first.

Amazing what LE has done to Italians from the get go they were framing guys and even worse what they did to children and women in there lives .

I really believe that it’s not until recently that they’ve started losing these cases because it’s getting more difficult for them the frame up guys and abuse people in there lives to get info.

Now don’t get me wrong if you are a friend or associate they will frame you up till you are looking at decades in the joint and itsjust now getting hard for them (LE) to make fake cases.

There are some honest LE but they are weeded out before they move up in rank .

Even worse them having Sonny under boss or similar it’s down right disgusting .


They say if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime but when the deck is stacked you are fucked.

Amazing to see Sonny give an interview. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the next part.

Examples?

LE really railroaded Sonny. He only raped women and killed lots of people. It's not like he did anything THAT bad.

My family......and not justifying anything just know and I wish I could explain but there are hundreds if not thousands of examples but I am not a researcher but trust me I know first hand how the law has twisted and it doesn’t surprise me one bit , but what does surprise me that you think that it has not.

And in no way do I think taking advantage of women is good I have several daughters and in no way am I condoning it also I am not agreeing what you said about Sonny because I have no clue.

And don’t think for one minute that I have not used LE to break the law so I have it on both ends .

What is wrong with you? This man served 30 or 40 years for a crime he had nothing to do with. What they did to this poor man was horrible. I'm not saying he's an angel, but I think we can all agree that Sonny is not a bad guy.

Didnt you also say you agreed with the Bergin crew who beat the shit out of a mentally handicapped man? I dont disagree that the bank robbery conviction was true BUT Sonny did admit killing many people using a kiddie pool as disposal

I did say that, but you need to see the big picture. It's about the message. If the people in your world understand you mean business, then you can do many things. You can help the less fortunate and bring your neighborhood up. That is what many of these men did. Gotti did it and was loved for it. Sonny is the same man. Beautiful men who made America a better place..in many ways yes.

i feel like hes being exploited. i'll skip the interview. if he wanted to talk he should have done so years ago not now that hes in a home and might get a extra vanilla pudding. keep the old legend off the internet , respect his gangsta. lol

I do see the big picture. Obviously you are probably young so you dont realize what you are saying is crazy but you will eventually

True Pmac that’s where I am coming from the guy is obviously seen better days and if 10% of us could reach that age and still be able to put sentences together.....but Feds having him running a crime family with the type of people he would have to deal with and bet your ass if they could get a junkie snitch to say he was active and told him to go collect a debt they would put him away for another 50 !

I know why they think he's still active. It's because of Catapano. Sonny is still very sharp and he's revered by the Long Island faction.

look I dont deny that sometimes the law is twisted. But most of the time law enforcement are the good guys and are just protecting us from those people. My father was a NYC cop so he had a lot of experience with organized crime members. As for Sonny I admit the robbery conviction was probably faulty BUT he got away with many brutal crimes so I dont feel too bad. I feel bad if a regular person with no criminal backround is falsely accused of a crime which unfortunately has happened

The way the feds go after Italians is just a whole different level.
Most of these new cases are nothing more than guys takin g sports action..

They look to put them away for 10, 15 years for that.

Every nationality has an O.C. element that services their people's vices I.E. Russians, Chinese even the hascisld jews.......

Where are the indictments?

The Russian and Chinese are more out in the open than the Italians are today

Where re the cases?

For the most part you very rarely if ever see them maybe once every 5 years a boss gets indicted??

The majority of these new cases are bull Shit the problem is that if you lose at trial your looking at 10-15 years or they offer a plea for 2 years...

The risk isn't worth it.

Look at this week's gangland that whole case against the Crea's is bull Shit.

Look at the case against Merlino he beat it the first time it was bullshit...

I said it before the feds in the late 70's-2000 would wait and build a case and gather evidence for years and years....

Look at Gotti took them 100MM and 6 years they spent buildings a case against him.

Obviously he was the highest profile at the time and not every Nickel and Dime wise guy will warrant such.

You get the picture.

I just watched the video
Disgusting

The guy is down to a NUB
Understandable at 100

How and why is his son Michael letting this happen.

If Michael wanted to tell his father's story he should be th e one doing it.

Have the guy look presentable on camera or keep him off.

I don't even think he knows what's going on fully.

He barely looked up at the camera.

No way this guy is the underboss

The Colombo's are better off leaving him in the slot because whoever the name the bullseye will be on their back...

Too many C.I.'S IN the Colombo family It's mainly the the associates from what's left of the Italians in bensonhurst

As soon as the name someone the feds know right away.

It's not like that with the Genovese, Gambino and the Luc's

The pretty much usually have it wrong with those 3 families.

The Colombo's and Bonnano's the feds almost always know what's going on.

Thanks Nick will watch later tonight.

And on another note it is for the police to convict on a specific crime not to frame as they believe the person done something else. In a democratic society everyone is allowed a fair trial and minorities are not discriminated against..

The argument of he probably deserved it anyway is BS

Dam right...!

And believe this everyone is doing something and the guy that framed my blood was framed up same as he framed my blood it was not hard the greedy fuck fell right into it was not able to get him busted but he lost his wife and family now sure a fed would be much harder then LE but still some street justice is sweet.

lets not get into the whole "democratic" stuff. I agree everyone should get a fair trial BUT I dont feel bad for Sonny...guy was an admitted murderer and criminal

flip side. i wonder what his income is monthly. yaeh he did alot of time but he was in the record biz and im sure was on payrolls even well he was in prison. im talking his ssi and pension. bet some union has been paying him a nice monthly check 3k maybe more. i mean now hes in a nursing home they take it all but the last 2 decades. wonder if he was getting royalties from some of the groups he sighned or whatever. was he a manager. he was in with morris levy alot. he s the guy who gifted chin the upper eastside house

Who’s catapano? And would any of the Colombo’s care about the interviews, or about him at all?

I think Catapano is his nephew

They couldn't care less about these interviews. Same thing with Tommy Shots. That guy actually has his own online blog. Tough Tony Federici and Patsy Parello have both given video interviews. No one cares. They're still just as respected. Solly D, the alleged boss of Chicago has also given a video interview, if I can remember correctly. I'm not even gonna start with Joey Merlino.

Catapano is always by Sonny's side. If Sonny is the underboss (and according to LE, he is), then Catapano is probably the acting underboss. My guess is he's meeting people all over town. It's not that hard to put two and two together.

just my educated guess what ever persico is calling shots today relieved sonny of the underboss position when he was sentence to 8 yrs back in 2011. probaly took a few years but id bet theres been a new underboss for awhile. wasnt benji the claw the underboss for andy russo, hes probaly is again or someone from the persico family tree. im sure sonny is highly respected but you cant have the offical underboss in a assisted living home or whatever its called. theres way to many younger guys think about it.the feds just either dont know or dont want to state it to the public yet. till the next indictment

some guy testified how sonny ran his induction in 2006 on staten island the guys name was souza he was nuts. said he was pricked with a diabetic needle. cant remeber much but he flipped like 2 yrs later. him and i belive 4 other guys. the colombo just keeps moving along. they probaly brought in some new guys other the last year. grandkids

Don’t get crazy with this like the Gambinos or Bonannos of the 80’s but the blood family has been bringing blood from Italy for 8 years or so and cousins of Persico’s have been also .

Not saying they are building a zips crew but a good amount have been coming.

It's not really that anybody cares about career criminals going to jail, it's the fear of a truly innocent person getting jammed up. I know it doesn't happen all the time, and most likely not on purpose, but it's happened, DNA testing has cleared how many people from prison, including death row. That's why this stuff matters.

Also these days it’s getting a little harder to do it all the way through the case to court but in the beginning when going after a guy if they use unfair practice they gain the info they need and find out about the people they need then they have there rat or info and they try to keep it legal from there on in .

Look it’s being done it’s always been done and most likely it will never stop ....look how the street cop have to have cameras on their cars on their helmets on their chest because shit is being done illegally by LE .

It has happened to me on both sides of it I have been saved by illegal LE and I have been hurt by it ....it happens everyday!

Italians: "Cosa Nostra is the most elaborate and sophisticated organized crime syndicate in world history."

Also Italians: "It's not fair that Italian mobsters get these long prison sentences!"

Look at pop culture. And try to think of an Italian American musician or actor. You have Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack. Now I can't remember but either they liked hanging around with wiseguys or the mafia had their hooks in them. You have Frankie Valli who acted on The Sopranos. You have Marlon Brando, whose most famous role is arguably On The Waterfront. You have Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino who a lot of people associate with mob roles.

Like these are great musicians and actors but that's not my point. My point is that a lot of the time you can't think of one without thinking of the other (maybe a stretch for Brando and Pacino). Which is absurd. But that's how powerful the mob is and the indelible mark it's left on society and pop culture.

Is it any wonder Dr. Melfi's husband and her family hate the mafia? I must watch that scene again where she gets pissed off at her husband. Her husband seems like my kind of guy.

*The above is why I thought it was a bit rich for Joey Merlino to say Jersey Shore made Italian people look bad as if he is the arbiter of that.