5 Myths About The Mafia : Real or Fake? | Sit Down with Michael Franzese

there's so much misinformation you know there's misinformation about everything online but there's so much info misinformation about my former life and he goes on to quote you know informants told him this and that listen i'm gonna tell you this right now informants lie a lot of the times they get up there and what they say is self-serving they try to ingratiate themselves with the government not all of them and not everything they say but come on [Music] [Music] hey everyone welcome to another sit down with michael francis hope everybody is doing well all is very good and blessed on this end and as always i give all the praise honor and glory to my lord and savior for that what are we going to do you know some things drive me a little bit crazy and when it comes to people talking about mafia kozanostra and they just get things wrong but they speak with such authority like they know what they're talking about and a lot of so-called experts i think you're guilty of that now they're not going to admit it and people don't know i mean what do you know you know but there are a lot of people out there there's a lot of stuff on youtube that's just inaccurate it's just not true not about anyone in particular i'm talking about the operation of cousin austria mafia in this country in general and i was reading an article and it got to me a little bit when i said got to me i said yeah here we go again by an expert and i have nothing against this guy and i'm sure he has credentials and he studied the life and he knows it fairly well but he still gets things wrong and he's a reporter his name is george anastasia i believe he worked in philadelphia for many years he covered the organized crime in the mob he was reported for i think the inquirer one of those papers there wrote a couple of books and i understand they were very good you know so again i'm not knocking him as a whole but this article that i read and that he uh wrote and he talked about were five myths of the mafia that he claimed were five myths of the mafia so i read it and uh there's just things i disagree with and i'm gonna talk about it i'm gonna read it and i'm gonna let you know because look people i have no acts to grind here i have no reason to tell you things that are not true i tell you what i know i'm not always 100 right sometimes i could be a little bit off i know whenever i make a mistake on a date or a time or somebody's name you all jump on me and correct me and that's a good thing i'm not infallible i make mistakes sometimes too sometimes i'm talking about things that happened 35 40 years ago in my life so i don't get them exactly right but i get them pretty close but most of the time i believe i know what i'm talking about make minor mistakes here and there it's okay but when things are out and out inaccurate kind of bugs me from somebody that's not a part of the life but think they know it all and so i'm going to read this article again the guy's name is george anastasia was written in the washington post couple years back five myths about the mafia myth number one the mafia doesn't deal drugs now how many times have we spoken about this and people call me out on it all the time and i continue to tell you that in my era my era drugs were not allowed to be dealt with i didn't say nobody ever dealt with drugs i didn't say that i didn't say it didn't happen before i'm not even sure if it's happening right now but during my era my time in that life from 1970 71 when i became a recruit until i formally formally was out of the life in 95 people were not allowed to deal drugs people got killed for dealing drugs you weren't allowed to do it so it's not a myth during that era so please understand this but this was what he writes in the godfather michael corleone became a gangster after his brother sonny was brutally slaughtered on the causeway in a dispute over drugs is that why he was killed in a dispute over drugs it was over the drug business you know whether they were going to get involved or not you know you remember the whole thing don vito corleone about opposition to narcotics trafficking helped create the perception that drug dealing was against the rules no he didn't create that perception that was a fictional movie and it wasn't based upon fact at that point in time and during that day they might have been dealing with drugs as a matter of fact i know they were it wasn't a major business but they were doing or dealing in narcotics back in the days that the godfather was the era that the godfather took place in testimony at real life mob trials reinforced that canard our policy was against drugs mobster turned government witness salvatore sammy the bull gravano said while testifying against my voice john gotti in 1973 so even sammy verified it through our era you weren't allowed to deal with drugs the reality is as far as this guy says is that as far back as lucky luciano the mobizman in the drug business in 1959 vito genovese who gave his name to one of the five new york families was imprisoned on drug charges as was his low-level crime family soldier joe valachi we know that that's not news once again never said we never dealt with drugs so it's not a myth that we don't deal with drugs it was a reality that we were not supposed to deal with drugs during that era and i would say that was from the 50s right through at least to the mid 80s and beyond that that's a fact that's it and he goes on to actually verify that where he says fbi documents do indicate that bosses such as paul castellano vinnie de chen gigante in new york and angelo bruno in philadelphia banned members of their organizations from getting involved with narcotics and then he goes on to say so that's a fact am i saying anything that's not true no it's been verified we weren't allowed to deal with drugs during that time and then he goes on to say it wasn't for moral reasons well whoever said it was we didn't say it was for moral reasons what i said was we weren't allowed to deal with drugs number one yes because the government was cracking down on it it was a dirty business and we don't want to deal with it the buses didn't want to do it they especially didn't want it in their neighborhoods and it may not have been for moral reasons but quite honestly mob guys didn't want their kids and the kids in their neighborhood dealing with drugs and if we were dealing with it if anybody was dealing with it and dealing it in the neighborhood they'd be in real trouble so it could have been a little bit of a moral issue too not everybody was an animal everybody uh you know didn't have a cold hearts for kids out there that's for sure as a matter of fact a lot of us you know saw a lot of young people suffer over drugs and it troubled us so maybe there was some morality for some of us and yes the government had a lot of heat so we didn't deal with drugs for that reason so this is not a myth so his first thing saying myth number one that the mafia doesn't deal drugs it's not a myth it was the truth during our era and you don't say the mafia when one two or three guys were doing it you know then he went on to talk about you know the pizza connection well yeah i've said this many times the pizza connection were sicilians from italy in the mafia and in italy they deal with narcotics they deal with heroin that's not a secret we're talking about cousin austria here in the united states through my time there was no myth we weren't allowed to deal with drugs let's move i hope we got that clear now let's move on myth number two omerta the code of silence is a sacred rule well it's not a myth omerta is a secret code it's the code of silence it's what we swore when we took our oath on halloween night 1975 with six other gentlemen i swore to the oath of america i was never even supposed to talk about the life never mentioned that it really even exists that is the sacred oath it's not a myth now have people violated that oath yes going back to the days of joe velacci and jimmy frantiano and so many guys after that of course but tell me what oath that was ever made that wasn't broken that doesn't mean it wasn't an oath it's the oath it's reality it's real because people violated doesn't mean that it's not sacred because a lot of people didn't violate it and weren't supposed to violate it and that was the the oath that we took it was an author of silence and alta balmerita so myth number two saying that the code of silence is a sacred rule is a myth it's not that's the sacred rule of course in austria and of mafia now for those people that broke it they broke a rule like any i think anything else it's like when the government takes an oath you know to protect and do all that stuff and they lie and steal and cheat they break their oath too a lot of people break their roads priests do it sometimes a lot of people do it doesn't mean that it's not a sacred oath or wasn't meant to be a sacred oath and so omerta is just that so his omerta the code of silence is a sacred rule is a myth that's not true number three myth number three according to anastasia the mafia's initiation right is a secret ceremony well it is a secret ceremony absolutely the night that i got made we had to travel you know in all different directions to make sure that nobody was following us nobody is allowed in except for the hierarchy of the family and the copper regimes it's not supposed to be spoken outside it is a secret right now was that violated from what i understand there was some guy in philadelphia that recorded his uh initiation was he supposed to do that no because it is a sacred secret right so for him to say it isn't it these things don't even make sense because you violate something that doesn't mean that that something isn't what it is so here again the mafia's initiation right is a secret ceremony is a myth according to george anastasia he's wrong it is a secret ceremony and we go through great lengths to make sure that it's secret to make sure the government doesn't infiltrate as a matter of fact joe perstone okay was going to get made they were actually going to make him he didn't he didn't get to the ceremony he'll tell you that himself when he was you know donnie brasco so i don't know why this guy's making this statement it's wrong so so far three myths three misses he was wrong on all three let's go to number four anyone who testifies against the mafia will be killed myth number four according to the the oath that we take if we betray our life in any way we could pay for it with our life that's not a myth now the fact that that doesn't happen all the time doesn't make it a myth people enter the witness protection program you can't get to them at that point in time other circumstances happen where you can't get to people that doesn't mean it's a myth if they could get to you you're going to get killed that's the way it goes so again as far as i'm concerned myth number four it's not a myth anyone who testifies against the mafia will be killed and first of all i never heard it said that way what they say if you violate the oath if you betray your brothers that's the oath i took you violate the oath you betray all america you betray your brothers you couldn't get killed and that's the truth so i don't know where he comes up with myth number four so far he's all for four struck out each time myth number five the mafia never interacts with other organized crime groups i don't know where he ever got that never heard that before in my life that we never got involved with other groups we got involved with the westies i had russian partners they were the russian mob we did business with other people you know hell's angels the pagans we did business with them at times we used them at times so for him to say that this is a myth he just made this up the mafia never interacts with other organized crime groups where did he get that from is that stated anywhere did anybody say that no you know so i don't know why he just called it a myth when it really isn't a myth so as far as i'm concerned he made five mafia myths here and not one of them are right and you know the reason i'm saying this people again there's so much misinformation you know there's misinformation about everything online but there's so much info misinformation about my former life and he goes on to quote you know informants told him this and that listen i'm going to tell you this right now informants lie a lot of the times they get up there and what they say is self-serving they try to ingratiate themselves with the government not all of them and not everything they say but come on you know when you know you can get yourself out of a 20 30 40 year prison sentence a life sentence if you got to you know ingratiate yourself and you got to make some things up or embellish some things and the government is going along with it because it's helping that case it happens does anybody really think that every informant gets on the stand and tells the absolute truth these are criminals all of a sudden they get under oath and now they're you know putting their hand on the bible and swearing to tell the truth and to tell nothing but the truth do you really believe that so you know take a lot of things you hear from informants with a grain of salt a lot of them and you know if you were ever at one of these trials and you saw cross-examination of some of these informants you'd understand that they get caught in a lot of lies so don't think that just because they get on a witness stand that right now they're telling the truth hey look four guys lied against my father i'll take that to the grave my father was no bank robber they lied they lied through their teeth jury believed him you know you don't need a lot in a federal indictment especially a racketeering indictment you don't need a lot to convict somebody remember that so you know again a lot of misinformation out there these five myths that a alleged organized crime expert george anastasia stated all five of them were untrue they're not myths there's something he just thought of and i don't think a lot of people think that way a lot of people don't think that the mob is not involved with drugs i hear just the opposite every time i say that people jump on me come on michael you're not telling the truth well i am telling the truth so it's not a myth people believe that the mob deals with drugs you know people believe that omerta is the code of silence it's not a myth because people violate it doesn't mean that it's not the truth it is a code of silence the initiation it is a secret ceremony we don't advertise it we don't put it on television we don't write books about it it's it's a secret ceremony the fact that it's been infiltrated the fact that informants talked about it the fact that some guy crazy guy uh recorded his initiation he'd have been killed on the spot if they knew that trust me but somehow he did it i don't know how it happened in philadelphia i think so you know um again don't believe everything that you hear take things with a grain of salt because you see it in print doesn't mean that it's true and that's true about everything there's so much inf misinformation i mean come on look at our government today look what happened through the pandemic we were told one thing when it was just the opposite don't believe everything you hear about anything anymore unless you can verify it you know so many different ways so look that's it for today just had to kind of get that out of my system i share with you because you're my audience and uh i enjoy sharing and i like to know that you get the right information at least most of the time look when it comes from me i'm going to give you the best i can if i'm ever mistaken a little bit it's certainly not intentional and you know it's not going to happen too often i promise you that so that's it for today my friends how do i always leave you the same way but please do subscribe we're almost at a million we want to do the giveaway we're going to start to announce it so hopefully you know you get us there a little closer than the end of the year that's when we projected to get there now so please do and again we appreciate it we're going to show our appreciation how do i always leave you same way be safe be healthy god bless each and every one of you because we need it during these times people crazy times and yes i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Michael Franzese

Views: 177,208

Keywords: michael, franzese, michael franzese, mafia, mob boss, mafia boss, caporegime, colombo mafia, american mafia, italian mafia, sitdown with michael franzese, mob stories, Five myths about the mafia, myths about the mafia, mafia myths, oath of omerta, the mafia's initiation rights, mafia doesn't deal drugs, drugs in mafia, organized crime

Id: bkHGo0vtPCI

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 24 2022