According to that Kenny Gallo's book the old man Franzese was still sharing pictures of his grandkids that his son John, the FBI informant, would send him, doting over them like a regular old grandpa. Kenny was taken aback by this as well.

The American mafia started to stray from its Sicilian roots even before the commission was formed. Already there was a "conservative" (Sicilian) and "liberal" (American) faction. In this country, threatening civilian relatives of a gangsters just isn't going to fly. It's right up there with killing cops, women, children.