For Michael Franzese, a day in the life of a mobster was never one thing. It changed as he moved up the ranks of the Colombo crime family, and he divides it into three distinct phases: his time as an associate, his years as a made soldier, and his role as a caporegime, or captain.
He begins with life as an associate, the entry level of the mob. By age twenty-two, he had already been indicted four times, on grand larceny and a range of other charges. He stood trial four times. Three ended in hung juries. The last case was dismissed after the prosecution rested, because there was no evidence.
Franzese says he likely would never have been charged at all without the Franzese name and the grudge held against his father. He does not cry about it. He acknowledges his father had built a reputation by then, and that he himself did things he probably should not have done, which caused him serious trouble.
At the time, he was still in school, believe it or not, before he dropped out. He went to visit his father in Leavenworth prison, where the older man was furious. "Mike, you have four indictments by the time you're twenty-two," his father told him. "You have more cases than I do." His father was in his fifties, and he was right.
Franzese made his decision. School was over. His father told him that if he wanted to help, the best way was to become part of his life, and he proposed him for membership. From the moment of that proposal, Franzese was summoned. He remembers the scene like something out of the film "Donnie Brasco."
The acting boss at the time, Tom DiBella, sent for him. Little JoJo Vitacco, a soldier, came to pick him up. Franzese went to see the boss, with Andrew Russo present. Russo was effectively the number two then, advising Tom in the absence of Junior Persico.
Franzese sat with Tom, who told him his father wanted him to become a member of that life and asked whether that was what he wanted. Franzese said yes, if it was what his father wanted. Tom looked at him sternly. "I didn't ask you what your father wants," he said. "Your father proposed you. I asked what you want." Franzese looked back and said, "Yes, Tom, that's what I want."
Then came the terms. From that moment on, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, he was on call to serve the Colombo family. If his mother were dying and he was at her bedside, and the family called, he was to leave her and come. From then on, the family came first, before anything and everything. When they felt he deserved the privilege and honor of becoming a member, they would tell him. That was the opening speech he received as an associate.
Russo turned to him and told him to be at Carroll Street the next morning, then the Colombo family headquarters, and to wear a suit. That was all. From that moment, he was on call around the clock. He received calls for different matters, but he spent most of his time at Carroll Street every day.
It was hard, because he was learning the life. His father guided him during monthly visits to Leavenworth, the only visits allowed, and he went every month. He was also learning the trade on the job. At the same time, after those four trials, he was broke and had to earn a living.
You do not enter that life and suddenly start hijacking trucks and running bookmaking. Nobody hands you money and tells you to go get rich. You have to figure it out yourself. He tried to do things legally. He had an auto body shop and worked in car sales, buying wrecked cars, repairing them, and selling them at auction. He did many things just to make money, because he had heavy expenses and no cash.
An opportunity came through Vinny Vingo, a Colombo associate who owned a flea market on Long Island. Vinny put him in charge of it on Saturdays and Sundays. Franzese started making good money, a few thousand dollars a week, because he began loan sharking and doing other things there that Vinny allowed. They did it together. He began to get back on his feet.
As an associate, though, he was on call every day. Much of the time was spent sitting at the social club on Carroll Street. Andrew, who liked him, and Tom were often together, and Franzese drove them everywhere. They liked the way he drove. He always had a good car because he bought and sold them, and he got involved with a Mazda dealership while an associate.
He would come to Brooklyn to Carroll Street and Andrew would have him drive him around. Andrew always told him, "You're an associate, you just listen. Don't talk." Franzese was a good listener, because his father taught him to listen, always, before speaking. He learned a great deal from Andrew and Tom and from their discussions.
Often he was not allowed to sit at the table, but he was there and he listened, as much as they permitted, since he was not yet a made member. He began observing and became a student of the school of life, learning on the job. That went on for about two years.
During that time, he did anything asked of him to prove he was worthy. That is what you must do as a new associate. You have to prove yourself. Whether you are the son of Sonny Franzese, Joe Colombo, Carlo Gambino, a relative of Paul Castellano, or the son of Carmine Persico, it does not matter. You still have to prove yourself.
You cannot simply say you have a family name and walk in. It does not work that way. Even your father does not want you to enter that way. You have to have what it takes to be in that life, or you will not be part of it. Anything asked of him then, he did. It might be something very minor.
There was a great deal of discipline in that life, a great deal of so-called respect, and a great deal of authority. They had to learn to accept authority. If you did something wrong, you received a harsh reprimand. You had to know how to stay silent and take it. He learned that. When you are wrong, keep quiet. Do not defend yourself. You get past it faster if you stay silent, accept the reprimand, learn from it, and do not repeat it. That is what he tells his own children.
So as an associate, he drove to Brooklyn every day and went home trying to make a living. He was enterprising by nature and personality, and he began to use and understand that life to benefit his legitimate business. He sold cars to some made members. He would drive one over, and they would say they liked it. He would tell them to give him the money and drop him home, and they could take it. He never fell in love with a car. He was always trying to make money, around the clock. He was very driven. That was his life as a new member.
Then one day he got a call from Andrew, who told him to wear a suit and be in the city. He met him. They all wondered when and whether they would receive the invitation to become made members and take the oath. Until about 1975, the books had been closed. They had not brought in new men for roughly twenty years, for security reasons or others.
Franzese was surrounded by men who had waited twenty years to become members. Sammy had reservations about it. He told Franzese that he had skipped over a lot of men, and some were upset. He was right. There were men who had been around a long time, and Franzese had passed them for one reason or another. He did not make that decision. The bosses made it, and his father was in prison at the time. So yes, he skipped over many men.
Was there resentment? Yes. First, because he was very young. Second, because he had not served twenty years, only two. But they gave that respect to his father, and he had proven himself in their eyes, so he received the invitation. It was Halloween night, 1975. Six of them received the invitation that night. He was not the only one who had skipped ahead. Others were there too.
Now he was a made member. After taking the oath, they went in and held a feast, as they always do. They ate together, all of them. It was a great occasion. All the crew leaders were there, the boss was there, and Andrew was there. Little JoJo Vitacco, who had asked permission to attend, was only a soldier but he loved Franzese. He asked Tom DiBella for permission and was allowed to come.
When they went in for the feast, JoJo came in carrying a brown bag. Franzese never forgot it. JoJo said, "Boss, should I give them their money bags now?" There was an irony in that, because people think that when you enter this life, money pours in all the time. It is not like that at all. It is the exact opposite. You are the one who pays if you are among those who earn.
You have to make your own way. You might be given a no-show union job and get benefits that way, but nobody gives you a lot of money to become rich. You have to do it yourself. You have to prove yourself either as an earner or as someone who handles things for the family, but not at a different level only. Maybe you are more of a gangster than an earner. Who knows? Some men were both gangsters and earners. Some he would describe as gangsters only. Nobody was an earner only.
The perfect example is Frank Costello, whom they called the Prime Minister. He came up the hard way and had some arrests in his youth, but he was not arrested again for thirty-seven years. Why? Because he realized he had become a true earner. You have to have political connections. You have to make money if you want to succeed in that life. You have to be among those who earn, because money is power. Money provides everything. Without money, you have no organization. It does not matter whether it is legal or illegal. Without money, you have nothing, whether you steal it, earn it legitimately, or anything else.
So Frank Costello became the classic earner. Thirty-seven years without trouble again. When he did run into problems later, it was mainly over fraud and white-collar cases. Frank Costello is one of those men Franzese would want to go back in time to meet, perhaps the main one. His father knew him. Franzese thinks he may have met Frank, though he does not remember, because as a child his father took him many places and he met many people. He would be honest about that. But Costello is someone he would like to have met. A classic earner, but he also came up the hard way. He truly understood, like many men. Carlo Gambino understood too.
What was his life like as a made man of the family? Andrew Russo was his caporegime, and a man named Joe T. came in for a period, but Andrew Russo was his captain. He had to visit him two, three, or four times a week. Anything he did on the street had to be put on the record. Even if it was legitimate, he recorded it, in case someone tried to bother him, or a man from another family tried something in a legitimate business he ran. He would tell Andrew, "Andrew, this is what I have," so that if anything happened or a challenge arose, it was on record.
When he says on record, they did not write it down. It was in your head. You do not write anything down then, at least if you are smart. It was funny. When he was on the street, he never forgot a name or a phone number. It stuck in his mind completely. He had an almost photographic memory for faces, names, and phone numbers.
When he went to prison and served his eight years, and by the way he did serve eight years, Sammy was a little wrong about that for those listening. He said three and a half years. Franzese served eight years in prison. That is documented fact. During that time, when he was in the yard, many people came to him with schemes and business proposals. He listened, and it went in one ear and out the other. When he came out, he could not remember a name or a phone number. That is what prison did to him. Thank God for cell phones. He does not memorize numbers now. You just press buttons. But back then they wrote nothing down. Everything was recorded in their minds.
So he visited Andrew two, three, or four times a week. He still had to do everything asked of him. You must report to your captain. When he went to Florida, California, Chicago, and did things in other cities, sometimes he had to ask permission, and sometimes it was enough to put it on the record. At the same time, he was building his own crew, his own group of men. Men came to him. He assessed their value, so to speak. Men from the neighborhood, men he met along the way.
He was very social and very aggressive. He was involved in business, so many people came to him. They wanted to be connected to him. He was something of a known figure on Long Island. His father had a well-known name, and he hopes he made a name for himself through the work he did and the money he earned. He began building many things. He went to his office every day. He had two car dealerships, first Mazda, then Chevrolet. He also had a leasing company. He had offices, nice offices. He met people legitimately all the time to build his business. He had a production company. He had many things, so he was very involved in his work.
So what did a typical day look like? He woke up early every morning. He was an early riser. He needed very little sleep throughout his life. He still does, though he sleeps a little longer now, but he wakes very early, around five-thirty or six in the morning. He might not jump up to do things immediately, but he was awake at that hour. He started his day quickly.
Often he went to his office first to make sure everything was running smoothly, then went to Brooklyn to see Andrew and sit with him. Andrew, do you need anything? Put some things on record. What do you want me to do? Sometimes he drove him around on a tour. Andrew would tell him he wanted him to come to a meeting. Often he held a sit-down because of things happening on the street, and he had to meet someone about it. So that was a kind of mob business he handled. Then he left.
He went back to his offices. He sat with his men. He listened to them. He had a place called Michael's. On Monday nights, he met people. He met his men all the time, and they reviewed everything they needed to review. So he woke early, drove to Brooklyn, met Andrew, then went back, went to his offices, made sure everything was fine, and went home at night to his first wife and children. He was married at the time.
He always tried to get home for dinner and spend two hours at home. He always tried to do that as best he could. Honestly, at ten or eleven at night, they would come to pick him up, and they would go to a club. He spent six nights a week at a nightclub, whether in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Long Island. He got involved in the club business. Men came to him, he lent them money, and he took a share of the profits. So he had a piece of a club called Jupiter's. He thinks he talked about it in one of his clips. He had a club called Le Jardin, which he also talked about. He used to spend time there until two, three, or four in the morning. He went home, slept a few hours, woke in the morning, and boom, out again.
He will be honest with you. He did not give his family enough time during that period. He was very determined to be number one, the best possible mobster, to make money, and to help his father get out of prison. By the way, that was a big effort he made during that period too. When he became a soldier, he worked constantly on his father's case. Many things came up. He mentioned them in other videos, so he does not want to go into all of it. Just fighting for his father and his case during that time. It was hard work they had to do, but his father was sentenced to fifty years. That was a death sentence if they did not get him out, so it took a lot of work.
He could spend two hours just talking about one day of what he did then. Then, boom, his father came home from prison. Franzese became his acting field commander. As a result, they had a bigger crew, with made men working under him. In 1980, he became a field commander himself, and things changed somewhat, because now you are in a bigger leadership position.
People wonder, "Well, Michael was never a boss." He never claimed to be a boss. But when you are a caporegime, you are called a street boss because the boss assigned soldiers to follow you. You are their first boss. You are their direct manager. They must come to you first. They cannot go directly to the boss. They do not go directly to the underboss. They come to you first. You are their direct supervisor. So it is like a street boss. So do not be upset when someone calls him boss. When you are a caporegime, you hold that position.
He had men working under him. He constantly solved their problems, with them, in continuous meetings. Again, because he was an aggressive person, he was always involved in this meeting or that. You have heard about many of them. He will not go into them now. So he divided his time the same way. He woke early, drank coffee with his wife, fed the children, and drove them to school, his first wife at the time. Then he went about his work, went to the office, and took care of his affairs.
Once or twice a week, he went to Brooklyn. He went less because he was a capo, and Long Island was almost his territory, so he handled things there. Yes, he went to the neighborhood in Brooklyn once or twice. His friends were still there in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, so he could see how things were going in the neighborhood. He organized his schedule fairly well. He traveled a lot at that time. He had interests in Florida, so he went there and took care of them. He had a house in Florida. He had a house in California at the time because he owned a film production company there. So he moved around a lot.
He wishes there were five or six extra hours in the day when he became a capo and was involved in the gas business and all of that. He was busy around the clock, seven days a week, if he wanted to be. When you are a caporegime, it takes a lot of work. When you have a big crew, and he had many men under him. Remember, he had the Russians working with him. He had a lot of men. It was continuous work. It was almost exhausting, but he was immersed in it at the time. He was young. He could handle it.
Of course, he began to run into trouble, with charges from every side. He was indicted seven times. He faced two federal racketeering cases. He faced a state racketeering case. He fought the cases. He was with his lawyers. It was hard work, he can tell you that.
So trying to balance street business, the mob life, Cosa Nostra, and legitimate life, the businesses he owned, and family life, which he admits he was not great at. Yes, he loves his children and he loves his family, but he was not good at it. He tried to devote a lot of time, but he was too immersed in the mob life and business at the time. He has regrets about how he handled things then.