They say that crime doesn't pay, but the truth is, in the cutthroat world
of the American mafia, those who survived long enough to rise up through the ranks
could pull in some serious cash from a variety of illicit activities.
Nobody knows that better than the subject of today's video - a man who, at the peak
of his career in the mob, was making 8 million dollars a week. This man was named 18th on a
list of America's 50 richest and most powerful mob bosses on a Fortune Magazine list in 1986,
and as of this year, he's the only one on that list who's still alive.
This is the story of Michael Franzese – the Yuppie Don who stole millions.
Michael Franzese was born on May 27th 1951 in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were John
“Sonny” Franzese, an underboss for the Columbo crime family, and Cristina Capobianco, a cigarette
girl at Manhattan's Stork Club. The two were not married at the time. In fact, John was married to
another woman and had three children. To avoid the inevitable scandal of having a
child out of wedlock, Capobianco married a man named Frank Grillo - No relation to the actor.
However, John Franzese eventually got permission from the Columbo family higher-ups
to divorce his wife, and after Grillo mysteriously disappeared, Franzese and Capobianco were married.
Michael Franzese, who went by the name Michael Grillo for most of his early life,
believed he was adopted until he was 18, when he realized his 'step-dad'
Franzese had been his biological father all along.
Though John Franzese was involved in the mafia life,
he never wanted to pass that onto his son, encouraging Michael to go to college and
study medicine. Michael enrolled at Hofstra University to study pre-medicine in 1969.
Unfortunately, he had to put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold when, in 1971,
his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison
and he needed to return home and help support his family. During this time,
Joseph Columbo, the boss of the Columbo family at the time, took Michael under his wing.
Over time, Michael started spending more and more time with his dad's friends and associates
from the crime world. They eventually convinced him that if he didn't quit school and take up
the family business, there would be no way of Michael ever getting his father out of prison.
John Franzese was already in his 50's when he was incarcerated, so Michael figured that unless he
got his dad free, he'd probably never see him alive again, given the length of his sentence.
So, Michael did what he felt he had to do. His father, who he visited in prison,
was upset at the prospect of his son following in his footsteps and joining the mafia,
but Michael had made his mind up. His father accepted his decision,
but wanted to make sure that if he was going to be in the mob, he'd do it the right way.
From prison, John got in contact with some of his
associates and proposed his son for membership in the Columbo family,
and from those humble beginnings, Michael Franzese would build himself a criminal empire.
For his first 18 months in the mob, he was merely a recruit, and during this period
he was on call 24/7. If anyone got in touch with him from the higher ranks of the family,
Michael had to do whatever they asked of him, no matter how sketchy, to prove his loyalty. Then,
in 1975, he was finally deemed ready to be inducted as a made man.
In the Mafia, the process of being 'made' refers to the process of being officially
brought in as a member of a crime family. Inductees must be of Italian descent,
and have been sponsored by a member of the family. Then, after a pledge period, they will be asked
to take part in a ceremony where they swear an oath of omerta - basically, a code of silence
that forbids talking about mafia activities or snitching on any other members of the family.
Michael's ceremony took place on Halloween night,
1975, alongside 5 other mafia recruits- Jimmy Angelino, Joseph Peraino Jr., Salvatore Miciotta,
Vito Guzzo Sr., and John Minerva. All of these men would suffer violent deaths in the next 20 years,
leaving Michael the only person alive from that night.
Each recruit entered a room, one at a time, where they stood
before the boss. They held their hands out, and the boss cut their hands with a knife,
dripping their blood on the floor. The boss then handed them a picture of a catholic saint,
which he set alight in their hands. He told the recruits - “Tonight, you are born again into a new
life. If you betray your oath, you're gonna burn in hell like this saint is burning in your hands.”
Once he was a made man, Michael's goals were twofold. He wanted to get his dad out of prison,
firstly, and secondly, he wanted to make money. Lots and lots of money.
Throughout the 70's, he made money through not only mafia operations,
but through legitimate businesses such as car dealerships, leasing companies, auto repair shops,
restaurants, nightclubs, a contractor company, movie production and distribution companies,
travel agencies and video stores. If you're wondering why he had his fingers in so many
different pies, it's common for organized crime syndicates to launder the money they
make from their criminal enterprise through other, more legitimate business operations.
Over time, Michael would climb the ranks of the Columbo family,
until in 1980 he became the caporegime - two ranks below boss - of a group of 300
soldiers. This was the point in his career when Michael Franzese would execute one of
the most ambitious and lucrative criminal operations the mob had ever pulled off.
It started when Michael was contacted by a man named Lawrence Salvatore Iorizzo,
who had been running a small scheme defrauding the government of gasoline sales taxes. Iorizzo was
being harassed by a rival crime family who wanted in on the operation, and he promised Michael
a cut of the profits if he defended him. Michael successfully got the rival family off of Iorizzo's
case, and the two started working together to take this gasoline scheme to the next level.
The pair set up 18 stock-bearer companies in Panama, which at the time had laws
allowing companies to sell gasoline to each other wholesale and without tax. So,
Michael and his associates were able to buy large amounts of gasoline tax-free, then import it to
America and sell it at a number of gas stations. The family collected the state and federal
taxes for each gallon purchased, but instead of paying it, they kept the money for themselves.
This meant that, even though they were selling the gas at much lower prices
than at legitimate gas stations, they were still making millions.
If ever the feds started to catch on to the operation, Michael and his crew would simply
move their operation to a different one of their 18 gas companies and start again.
This scheme ran for 8 years, and during that time,
it's estimated that $250 million dollars in gasoline tax was stolen
per year from the New York state government. When Franzese moved the operation to Florida,
it's estimated that he was responsible for between $40 million and $250 million tax stolen.
All in all, at the height of this operation, the Colombo family and
their associates were pulling in a collective 8 million dollars a week.
Michael Franzese was making about a million per week for himself,
money which he would use to buy himself a private helicopter, a house in Florida,
and another house in Marina Del Rey, California. Much of the money made
from this scheme was put into offshore bank accounts in Panama and Austria, and the money
that stayed in America was laundered through Franzese's film production company, Miami Gold.
In the 80's, Michael was also a business partner with talent agent Norby Walters. Michael's
main role as partner in Walters' firm was to intimidate any existing or prospective clients.
By all accounts, this was a job that he was extremely good at. In 1981, he was even able to
extort a job for Walters working with king of pop, Michael Jackson, on his upcoming national tour.
In 1982, Michael also managed to 'gently persuade' the managers of
R&B legend Dionne Warwick to keep Walters on as an agent.
We'll leave it up to you to imagine what kind of persuasion tactics he used.
On top of his work in the music industry, he also allegedly had some ties to boxing promoter
Don King, and in 1985, he was made a partner in Norby Walters' new sports management firm.
Then there was also the aforementioned film production company, Miami Gold.
In 1984, the company was producing a film called Knights of the City,
a film about street gangs facing off in a singing competition, and while casting performers for the
film, Michael met professional dancer Camille Garcia. Michael and Camille
instantly hit it off and would later marry. As of 2021, the two of them are still together.
Michael was able to achieve his goal of making money, but he didn't forget about his other goal
of getting his dad out of prison. John Franzese was released on parole after serving 10 of his
50 year sentence, and though he would be in and out of prison over the next few decades,
he was released in 2017 and died in the hospital in 2020 at the age of 103.
So, he was making bank, and his dad was out of prison, but things wouldn't stay this
good for Michael Franzese forever. In April of 1985, he was charged with racketeering,
but was acquitted. In December of that same year, he would be called back to court
as one of 9 people being charged with 14 counts of racketeering, counterfeiting and extortion.
Lawrence Iorizzo, the guy who had initially been Michael's partner on the gasoline racket,
started testifying against him in the trial, having already been sentenced to five years in
prison and ordered to pay back $1.7 million of the stolen money. On March 21st, 1986,
Michael Franzese plead guilty to one count of racketeering and one count of tax conspiracy. He
was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit over $14 million in restitution.
In order to do so, he had to give up his New York mansion, the Miami Gold film company,
and most of the profits from Knights of the City. Michael would get out of prison on parole in 1989,
but he would be put back behind bars in 1991 after violating probation requirements.
While in prison, Michael would spend time in solitary confinement, which he considers to be
one of the worst experiences of his life. However, one good thing would come out of his prison
sentence - a chance at redemption. He was given a copy of the bible by a prison guard and, like
many prisoners do, gained a sense of comfort and purpose through rediscovering his spirituality.
He became a born-again Christian and when he got out of prison in 1994, he decided to relocate
with his wife and kids to California, quitting his life of crime for good. But, like we said before,
Michael had taken the oath of omerta, and in the Mafia, that's not something you go back on.
Michael's decision to walk away from the mob wasn't without consequences, and during this time
in his life he recalls basically having to dodge bullets everywhere he went. One of the hits put
out on him had even been signed by his own father, who had all but disowned him after his betrayal of
the family. Even so, Michael has never regretted his decision to turn his back on organized crime,
as so many of his associates from his time in the mob went on to suffer violent deaths.
So, you might be wondering what Michael is up to these days, after losing so much of his money and
power. Well, we're happy to say that he's doing pretty well for himself. Michael and his wife
Camille currently live in Anaheim with their seven kids. Michael works as a motivational
speaker and author, appearing at schools, youth centres and Christian conferences.
He's written 6 books – one of which we feel the need to tell you is called 'From Godfather
to God the Father'- that all deal with his experiences in the Mafia and his spiritual
journey. In addition to the books, he's also been involved in a number of documentaries,
including 2013's The Definitive Guide to the Mob and 2020's Fear City: New York vs the Mafia.
He also briefly appeared as a character in the movie Goodfellas,
where he was played by Joseph Bono. Michael even has a youtube channel where he answers questions,
shares life advice, and reviews gangster movies in a series called 'Mob Movie Mondays'.
If he thought the Mafia was competitive, wait until he hears about the YouTube algorithm...
Now check out “Crazy Italian Mafia Crimes” and “What Does the Mafia
Even Do Anymore?” for more Mafia secrets!