Former Colombo mobster says leaving meant choosing prison or death

Former Colombo crime family member Michael Franzese told ERR’s programme Ringvaade that he decided to leave the Mafia after more than 20 years, but faced the choice of continuing his criminal life, going to prison or risking being killed.

Donald Trump Jr brought Franzese to Estonia. He had belonged to New York’s Colombo family, one of five influential Mafia families that controlled the city’s underworld.

Franzese said he decided to leave after meeting and falling in love with a 20-year-old woman. Mafia life had also become increasingly difficult for his family.

“Mafia life is very difficult, especially for the family. My entire family fell apart, my mother, brothers and sisters. My father was in prison for 40 years,” Franzese said.

He said the situation became more difficult after the introduction of anti-organised-crime legislation. He was arrested 18 times, faced seven charges and went to court five times.

“The choice was ultimately simple: either continue the life I was living, go to prison or be killed,” Franzese said. Three wars were taking place within the family, he added, and many men had been killed.

Franzese said he was unable to leave immediately despite making the decision. “When I went to bed in the evening, I had left the Mafia. When I woke up in the morning, I had gone back. The emotional pressure was strong,” he said, adding that he had been very close to his father.

His boss was unhappy about the decision because Franzese was, according to Franzese, one of the family’s most important earners. The boss took the departure personally and ordered his killing, he said.

Franzese spent a total of eight years in prison. After being released on parole, he returned home and found two FBI agents waiting there. They told him that, according to their information, people were planning to attack him and that he would be dead by the end of the week if he did not leave.

Franzese said he did not want to frighten his wife further by telling her about the agents’ warning. He left home for several days to let the situation calm down.

A few days later, he was shot at in New York. He said he had been leaving a restaurant after a meeting at around 11 p.m. or midnight when another car drove past and its occupants fired automatic weapons at him. He and a friend escaped unharmed, although the car was hit. Franzese later learned that the attackers had mistaken him for someone else.

Franzese said the Mafia still exists in the United States, but its influence is no longer what it once was. In his view, the golden age of the Cosa Nostra lasted from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s.

At that time, the Mafia had extensive influence in the United States, reaching trade unions and even the White House, he said. The Colombo family had 115 sworn members, 20 of whom focused mainly on making money.

Mafia members were involved in gambling and lending, among other activities. Franzese said he made money through a tax fraud scheme linked to fuel sales.

“At our peak, we sold nearly two billion litres of fuel a month and made 30 to 40 cents on every gallon. It was a lot of money. We brought the family seven million dollars a week,” he said.

After leaving prison, Franzese found religion and began speaking publicly. He said he tries to persuade young people not to enter that life because it ends badly.