Michael Franzese has often been asked what finally drove him to walk away from organized crime. His answer is that no single moment was responsible. Instead, it was a combination of events and losses that accumulated over his years in the life.
One of those losses involved a man he had known since childhood. His name was Tony Orgello, known as Tony the Gawk or Gallo, a nickname he earned because he was a big man at six foot two with enormous hands.
Tony was a soldier in the Colombo family and had been part of Michael's father's crew when his father was a captain. He was always around when Michael was a kid, and Michael loved him. Tony was affable, outspoken, and had a deep voice. He was a real tough guy who later became involved with unions, shylocking, and extortion, and he ran a club. He was very close to and very protective of Michael's father.
When Michael was inducted into the life, his father was in prison, and he and Tony remained close. Michael recalled a lighter moment from the days when the Colombo family was picketing the FBI building on 69th Street and Third Avenue at Joe Colombo's call. The men walked the line day after day, unhappy about it, and Tony was vocal in his complaints but loyal to the order.
One day, agents high up in the building began throwing water balloons down on the picketers. One hit Tony on the head and exploded. He looked up and said, "All right, you want to hit us with water balloons, that's okay, just don't be hitting us with indictments." Everyone around him cracked up.
In the Colombo family, drugs were forbidden. Michael was told straight out on the night of his induction that if you dealt with drugs, you died. He recalled the scene in the Gotti movie where Carlo Gambino forcefully told John Gotti the same thing. That rule was real in the Colombo family, even though some men did small drug deals here and there.
In the mid-1970s, Tony came to Michael and said he was in trouble. He had gotten involved in a small drug deal with someone who had come out of prison, and he had discovered they were dealing with undercover cops. He believed he was going to get pinched.
Michael told him he should not have been doing that, but he also told him not to worry. Tony had been around a long time, he was a loyal guy, and Joe Colombo loved him. Joe Colombo had already been shot and was in a coma for many years, and Carmine Persico had taken over. Michael said they would straighten it out.
Not long after, Tony was pinched and indicted along with a couple of other men. Then it got worse. Tony had drawn in Carmine Persico's son, Allie Boy, who Michael was very friendly with at the time and who was a made guy. Tony came to Michael and said Allie Boy had gotten involved and that he was going to be in trouble.
Michael told him that Allie was not a baby, and if he got involved, he knew what he was doing. Tony was scared. He said that bringing the boss's son into a drug deal meant they would lay it on him. Michael told him not to worry, that he had been around so long and was a good soldier whose heart everybody knew, and that he would straighten it out with Allie Boy.
Tony said he did not want to look over his shoulder every day. He knew the life and had been around a long time. Michael kept telling him to calm down and that he would straighten it out.
Tony told Michael once, twice, three times that he could not live like this. He was so afraid that somebody was going to walk him into a room, one of the horrors of that life that he simply could not deal with.
Michael got on a plane heading down to Florida. When he got off the plane, he received a phone call. It was one of the worst calls of his life.
Tony had been so scared that someone would walk him into a room that he went into a phone booth, called his wife, and told her he loved her and loved the kids and that she had been a great wife. She did not understand what he was saying. He hung up the phone, took out a .38, and shot himself in the head. He wrote his own contract.
Michael was devastated. Tony was a tough guy, and when Michael said he was in fear, he did not mean he was a scaredy cat. Tony simply did not want to get walked into a room. He said he did not want to go out that way, and he had enough courage to shoot himself in the head.
Michael has never forgotten it. First there was Artie "the Animal" Entrada, and then there was Tony.
Michael is honest about the rules. They were told straight out that you do not deal with drugs, and that if you deal with drugs, you die. Tony violated the rules, no question about it. He was more concerned because he had brought Persico's son Allie Boy into it and thought he would be killed.
Michael does not know if he could have saved him. Tony might have gotten killed anyway. Michael does not know. People tried to call on him because he was so close to Tony.
It is things like this that made Michael think about that life. They were told straight out that they had to play by the rules, and that if they did not, they could pay for it with their life. In this case, it was a sad situation.
Throughout his time in the life, there were other men close to him who made mistakes and ended up paying with their lives. On the night Michael was straightened out, there were six of them. He is the only one alive today. The other five, he was told, were all murdered.
Death and death by violence were a major part of that life, and Michael says nobody should be told differently. If someone tries to soft-pedal it, they are not being honest.
Michael does not like to talk about it. It is one of the low points of that life. But he tells the story because no single instance made him walk away.
He was not mad at anybody. He did not have it in for anybody. He did not want to get even with anybody. He had his bickering with people back then, men he liked a lot and men he did not care for as much, and they had their disputes. That was all part of the life and part of the territory.
He did not leave the life because of that. He did not seek revenge on anybody and did not want to hurt anybody. He tried his hardest to make sure he did not hurt anybody, and he never put anybody in prison.
But when he finally started to look back and think about it, all these things came together. Other issues came up as well. The government came up with racketeering laws, and many men turned informants. The government had an arsenal of new laws, including the racketeering law, the bail reform act, and the sentencing reform act.
Michael also recalled an incident in which he was called into a room one night and was fortunate to be able to walk out of it, an incident in which his father might have betrayed him. He does not lay this on his father, whom he loves. He says it is all a product of that life, and part of that life, that makes you start to realize what you are really involved in.
Michael does not knock his father, who kept omerta until the day he died. That was his principle as an old-school guy. Michael understands that some might say he did not live up to that. He says they are right. He did not put anybody in trouble, but he has been speaking about the life. He wanted to preserve the life of his wife and children. That was his decision.
He also became a Christian. You cannot be a Christian and be a member of the mob. It is the complete opposite in many ways.
There were many Catholics in that life. On Ash Wednesday you would see them with ashes on their faces, and some went to church. A lot of them fought in the military and were good guys. But they lived by that code, which is a direct contradiction to a life of faith.
A lot of those things came together and gave Michael the decision to walk away. He also met his wife, a young Christian girl, and she and her mother had a very strong impact on him. As a result, he became a person of faith.
Michael says he is trying to give real insight into that life, because a lot of material is out there. Sometimes the media gets it right and sometimes it gets it wrong. Sometimes the movies get it right and sometimes they get it wrong. When you hear it from him, as best as he can recall and relay it, you can pretty well take it to the bank. He might make a mistake on a date here and there, since these events were 30 or 40 years ago and he left the life 25 years ago.
The moral of the story, he says, is this. No matter what you are involved in, when you agree to play by the rules, you better make a conscious decision and know what rules you are playing by, and then stick to them. Whether you are on the street, in a legitimate life, or a person of faith, when you agree to play by the rules, you play by the rules, because the consequences can be very severe. But before you accept something, make sure you know what you are accepting.