The Legendary Grandpa came out: The story of 100-year-old gangster Sonny Francese

Legendary mobster John Francese, nicknamed Sonny, is free again! There is a high probability that this time Sonny got out of prison for the last time. And not because he promised not to commit any more crimes, but purely biologically: after all, in February 2017 Sonny turned 100 years old.

The last time Sonny went to jail was in 2009: the 93-year-old gangster was engaged in racketeering in strip clubs in Manhattan and in a pizzeria. For the criminal world of New York, Francese is a heroic figure, one of the most respected mafiosi in the Colombo "family" and in the USA in general. He is by far the oldest active member of the mafia.

The idea of the post: samsebeskazal

(10 photos in total)

"I've killed a hell of a lot of people. Not five, not ten, not twenty or thirty. Much fucking more." However, Francese has never been convicted of murder.

John Franchese was born on February 6, 1917. As befits a real American mafia, he was born not in the USA, but in Sicily. Almost immediately after the birth of his son, his parents moved to live in America and started a new life in one of the districts of Brooklyn. In the second half of the 30s, a very young Francese got a job in a small Italian-American company engaged in the import of olive oil from Italy (here we must recall the "Godfather" of Coppola).

The company was run by another Sicilian by the name of Joseph Profaci. In addition to the official business, Profaci had an unofficial one. In fact, it was a small gang engaged in various cases in Brooklyn. It was into it at the age of 19 that Francese joined. After a while, this gang will become one of the five New York families, and the Franchese will move up the criminal ladder, reaching almost its very top.

Sonny and his wife.

In 1938, the official countdown in the criminal career of Francese began. He was arrested for armed assault, but avoided jail time. Then the war broke out, and Francese was drafted into the American army. However, the military career did not last very long. In 1942, he was demobilized for "propensity to murder." I must say, a very strange wording for wartime. Apparently, the inclination was so strong that Francese was sent home to New York instead of the front. To establish, so to speak, a peaceful life.

In this case, he was very successful. Doing the usual things for any gangster, he periodically came to the attention of the authorities. In 1947, he was arrested on charges of raping a waitress, but he got out again and escaped punishment. In 1966, Francese appeared in court on charges of murder. A witness saw him tie a concrete block to the man's body and throw him to the bottom of the bay, but the body was not found, and the charges were dropped.

John Franchese in 1967.

During the day, he was engaged in racketeering, fraud, extortion and murder, and spent all evenings at the fashionable Copacabana club on 60th Street, where he constantly communicated with the stars of the first magnitude, including Frank Sinatra. He was friends with Rocky Marciano (heavyweight boxing champion of the world) and Jacobbe Lamotta, nicknamed the Raging Bull (the one about whom Martin Scorsese would later make a film of the same name). Among other things, Franchese was one of the investors of a sensational porn film called "Deep Throat" at the time and co-owner of a very successful recording studio "Buddha Records", through which he laundered money.

Sonny with his lawyer, Murray Edelbaum.

In 1967, Francese was charged with bank robbery, and the case was finally brought to an end. He received 50 years, of which he served nine, after which he was paroled. After serving time, Francese became smarter and decided never to get caught again. And he almost succeeded.

Father and son.

According to various sources, Francese sent from 30 to 50 people to the next world. Someone writes about hundreds of victims. When, in 2006, one of his henchmen named Gaitano Fatato became an FBI informant and began wearing a listening device, Francese let slip in a conversation with him that he had killed many people. "We are not talking about four, five, six or ten people here," he said. Sharing his experience, Francese said that before each murder he covered the pads of his fingers with nail polish so as not to leave fingerprints. He also recommended that you always put a mesh on your head so that you don't accidentally drop a hair, which can then be used to calculate DNA.

He also said that he had developed a whole technology for getting rid of bodies, which he willingly shared with Fatato. The recipe, according to him, is simple: cut up the body in the children's pool, dry the resulting parts in the microwave and dispose of what is left in an industrial shredder for garbage. Take your time and be patient. It's better to spend an extra hour getting rid of a corpse than to leave it on the street. And, as everyone knows, if there is no body, there is no case. Unfortunately, the technology was so effective that the authorities were never able to charge Francese with any murder.

In 2005, Franchese officially became the acting deputy boss in the Colombo family. After the head of the family, Carmine Persico, nicknamed Junior, received a life sentence, Francese could have become the boss, but this was prevented by his frequent incarceration due to violations of the rules of parole. In 2008, the authorities tried once again to put Francese behind bars, but a few months later he was released again.

Three years later, thanks to wiretapping materials and the testimony of his own son (who was also a member of the mafia, but because of drug problems became an FBI informant), he was convicted on charges of racketeering two strip clubs in Manhattan and one Long Island pizzeria. It's very funny to read about how the manager of the Hustler strip club fell into a slight stupor when strong guys showed up to him and told him that now they are his roof and he has to deduct a decent part of the proceeds to them. The manager looked carefully at the calendar, made sure that it wasn't the 80s or even the 90s, and immediately called the FBI.

They were even more surprised and hung all the listening equipment on him that they could. You know the result. During the hearing, it turned out that Francese knew that his son was a rat and tried to organize his murder, but the son was quicker and turned his father over to the feds. Sitting in the dock, Franchese was nicknamed The Nodfather (nod — nodding off; napping) for constantly falling asleep during the trial. Then he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

John Franchese (left) during the trial.

In February of this year Sonny turned one hundred years old. A few months later, the prison commission approved his application for parole. On June 23, Franchese was released again. According to law enforcement agencies, he still holds a high position in the Colombo family. According to his relatives (including Michael Francese, until recently known as the capo of the Colombo family), the old man just wants to stay at home. "Sonny hardly hears or sees anything. He needs the attention of his family."

— Weren't you afraid to die in prison? Sonny was asked by a NY Daily News reporter.

— Who cares. I'll die somewhere," the mafioso remarked philosophically.