A Day In The Life Inside the Mafia: The Michael Franzese Story

you know if you listen to some of the people on youtube you think a day in the life of a mobster is one of two things you put a gun in your hand or a baseball bat and you go out and shoot or hit people not like that it was a lot different i'm going to tell you what a day in the life of my life was like as a recruit as a soldier and as a cop regime stay tuned [Music] so [Music] [Music] hey everyone welcome to another sit down with michael francis hope everybody is doing well and everything is okay on this end and thank all of you for asking about how the francis family is appreciate it very much and what are we going to do today well you know i get asked so often so often again we read the comments you know my team and i we read them my team reads them more than i do because there's thousands of them but you know from them we get some ideas on what my people want to hear and we get asked all the time michael what was a day in the life of a mobster really all about and so i want to answer that today i want to deal with it but for me it's kind of in three sections it was different because my life as a recruit which is a mobster was one thing my life as a maid guy as a soldier was another thing and then my life as a kappa regime was you know another kind of thing and so i kind of divided it into three sections so a day in the life let me start with my life as a recruit you know and it's different for everybody but here's what's happening here's my thing that's going on at that point in time i had been indicted four times by the time i was 22 years old four times grand larceny and a bunch of other things i went to trial four times three times i got a hung jury jury couldn't decide on a verdict and the last time on my last case i was dismissed at the end of the prosecution's case there was no evidence i can tell you at this point in time that if my name wasn't franzis and there wasn't such a vendetta against my father i probably would have never been indicted but i get it you know i'm not crying about it i understand my father made a reputation for himself up to that point i did a couple of things probably i shouldn't have done but it resulted in some major issues for me so i get out of that i was still going to school at the time believe it or not you know when i dropped out of school i think you know the story there i went to see my father in leavenworth he was so mad at me he said mike you got four indictments by the time you're 22 you have more indictments than me you know and i did you know in his 50s so anyway i made the decision you know school was out he said to me if you want to help me the best way you can help me become a member of my life you know and he proposed me from the very first time after he proposed me and i was sent for remember that movie you know donnie brasco i was sent for it was a great line tell me where we're going i got sent for i was sent for by the acting boss at the time tom de bella little jojo vitaco who is a soldier picked me up i go to see the boss andrew russo was there he was kind of the underboss at that time and advising tom on a lot of things in junior's absence percico's absence and i sat with tom and he said mike your father wants you to become a member of this life is that what you want and i never forget i said yeah if that's what my dad wants that's what i want and he looked at me very sternly and he said i didn't ask you what your father wanted your father proposed you i asked you if that's what you want and i looked at him i said yes tom that's what i want he said okay well here's the deal from now on 24 hours a day seven days a week you're on call to serve this family the columbo family that means if your mother is sick and she's dying and you're at her bedside this family calls you to service leave your mother come and serve us from now on we're number one in your life before anything and everything and when and if we feel you deserve this privilege this honor to become a member will let you know that was it that was the opening speech that i got in my entry as a recruit into this life and he meant it andrew turned to me at that point in time he said be here tomorrow morning on carroll street which was the headquarters for the columbo family at that point and wear a suit and that was it from that point on i was on call all the time 24 hours a day seven days a week and i did get that call for various things but mostly what i did i'd come down to carroll street every day had to be there every day now this was tough on me because i'm learning the mob life even though i was being tooted by my dad when i went to see him in leavenworth once a month because there was visiting only once a month and i went every month but i was also learning the ropes on job training so to speak but at the same time after those four trials i was broke i had to try to make a living so you know you don't come into that life and all of a sudden start hijacking trucks and get into a gambler nobody's handing you money and saying okay go out and be wealthy no you got to make your own way you got to figure it out so i'm trying to do things legitimately i had an auto body shop at that point in time i was into selling cars i would buy a wreck at that time fix it up sell it at an auction i was doing a lot of stuff just to put money in my pocket because i paid i was broke i also uh got an opportunity through a columbo associate vinnie vingo who had a flea market out in long island he put me in charge of it on saturday and sunday i started to make a lot of money i was bringing a couple of thousand dollars a week home from the flea market because they started shylocking and doing other things there that vinnie allowed me to do he did it together so i started to you know get back in shape so to speak but as far as my being a recruit i'm on call every single day a lot of times we just sat in a social club on carroll street and a lot of times andrew who took a liking to me and who i loved and tom they were together all the time i would drive them around they liked me to drive i always had a good car because i was buying and selling cars i got involved in a mazda agency when i was a recruit so i was buying and selling cars and i'd come into brooklyn on carroll street and andrew would have me drive him around he used to tell me you're a recruit you just listen you don't talk and i was a good listener why my father taught me to listen always listen before i speak so i was a good listener i learned a lot from andrew and tom and the discussions that they had now a lot of times i wasn't allowed to sit at the table but i was there and i listened i heard the discussions afterwards as much as they would allow me to hear because i wasn't a made guy yet but i started to observe and i became a student of the life on job training and that lasted for about two years two years and during that time anything that i was told to do to prove myself worthy i did that's what you have to do as a recruit you have to prove yourself whether you are sonny franzis's son joe colombo's son carlo gambino's son paul castellano's relative carmine persico's son it doesn't matter you still have to prove yourself you don't just say hey i got a name and i walk in just not how it goes not even your own parent want you to your father doesn't want you to come in that way you got to have what it takes to be in that life well you're not in it and i want to make that clear so whatever i was told to do at that time i did it could have been something very menial a lot of discipline in that life a lot of alleged respect a lot of authority we had to learn how to take authority if you did something wrong you got it tongue lashing you had to know how to keep your mouth shut and just accept it and i learned that you know when you're wrong shut your mouth don't defend yourself you get over it quicker if you just keep quiet take the tongue lashing learn from it and don't do it again the next time it's what i tell my kids when you're wrong just keep quiet don't defend yourself listen so you don't make the mistake the next time and i learned how to do that that's my job as a recruit so as a recruit i'm driving into brooklyn every day and i'm going back home trying to earn a living and i was you know pretty entrepreneurial i guess you know just my spirit my makeup whatever so i started to be able to use that life and understand it to benefit me in business legitimately i would sell cars to some of the made guys i would drive in with a car they'd say hey mike we like that car you know what i would tell them hey give me the cash drive me home you can have it i never fell in love with the car i was always trying to make money i wanted to make money 24 7. i was very aggressive that was kind of my life as a recruit and then one day i get a call from andrew he says wear a suit and be downtown i met him you know we're all wondering when and if we're going to get called you know to become a made member you know to take the oath now remember this up until around 1975 the books were closed they weren't bringing new guys in security reasons whatever for about 20 years so i was around guys at the time that were waiting for 20 years to become a member now sammy took a little bit of issue with this he said you know michael you jumped in front of a lot of guys and some guys resented it you know what he was right some guys were around for a long time and i jumped in front of them for whatever reason okay i don't make that decision the bosses make that decision and my father was away in prison at that time they made that decision so yeah i jumped ahead of a lot of guys was there resentment yeah number one because i was a younger guy and number two because i didn't put 20 years in i put two years in but you know they gave that respect to my father i proved myself in their eyes so i get the call it was halloween night 1975. not going to go into it all again there were six of us that night that got the call i wasn't the only one that jumped ahead of people there was other people there but we got the call so now i'm a made guy after i took the oath we went in and we had a banquet at a banquet you know we always do that we broke bread we have every one of us it was great you know and so all the uh the couple regimes were there the boss was there andrew was that was great right little jojo vitaco who asked permission to come he was only a soldier but he loved me and he asked tom debella for permission to attend and they allowed him so when we go in for the banquet he walks in i'll never forget with a brown bag and he says hey boss should i give them all their bag of money now and there was an irony in that because you know people think you come into that life and they're throwing money at you all the time it's not that way at all it's the other way around you're the guy paying up if you're an earner you got to make your own way now yeah you can be given a no-show union job and you know you can get benefits in that way but nobody's handing you a lot of money to become wealthy you got to do that on your own and you establish yourself either as a racketeer and an earner or a guy that's getting by doing work for the family but not just on a different level you know maybe more gangster than racketeer who knows and there were some people that were gangster and racketeer there were some people that i would say were only gangster there was nobody that was only racketeer you know what a perfect example of that is frank costello they called him the prime minister here's a guy that came up the hard way had a few pinches a few arrests when he was young but then for 37 years he never got arrested again do you know why because he realized he became a real racketeer i have to have political connections i got to make money if we're going to have success in this life i got to be an earner because money is power money provides everything without money you don't have an organization i don't care whether it's legit or illegit without money you don't have anything whether you steal it earn it legitimately whatever so frank costello became the you know classic racketeer 37 years never got in trouble again and then when he did get in trouble was all for you know fraud or white collar stuff basically prime minister frank costello he's one of the guys if you said to me michael who do you want to go back in time and meet as a mob guy frank costello would be one of them he might be the primary guy now my dad knew him i think i might have met frank i don't remember when i was a kid because my dad took me a lot of places and i met a lot of people i don't remember i'll be honest with you but he's a guy that i'd want to meet classic racketeer but also came up the tough way but he really figured it out like a lot of guys carlo gambino figured it out anyway what was my life like as a maid guy well andrew russo was my copper regime you know then a guy by the name of joe t was for a while but andrew russo was my copper regime and yes i had to visit him two three four times a week anything that i was doing on the street i had to put on record even if it was legitimate i put it on record because in case somebody tried to move in on me some other made guy from another family tried to pull some kind of scam on something that i was doing legitimately i let andrew know andrew this is everything i got so in case anything comes up or there's ever a challenge you know it's on record with you now when i say on record we don't write it down you know it's in your head you don't write anything down at that point in time at least if you were smart you didn't you know it was funny when i was on the street i never forgot a name or a phone number it was like just stuck in my brain an almost photographic memory for a face a name and a phone number when i went to prison and i did my eight years and by the way i did do eight years sammy had a little wrong for those of you that were listening he said you did three and a half i did eight years in prison matter of record fact but during that time when i was out in the yard so many people would come to me with scams and business propositions and this and that and this and that and i would listen and they would go in one ear and out the other and when i came out i couldn't remember a name or a phone number i mean that's what it did to me thank god we have our cell phones i don't remember the numbers now you just got to punch it in all that stuff but anyway we didn't write anything down everything was on record in our minds so but i would visit him two three four times a week i still had to do whatever i was told to do you have to report to your kappa regime when i went to florida when i went to california when i went to chicago and i did things in other cities sometimes i had to ask permission sometimes i just had to put it on record and at that same time i was establishing my crew my crew of guys guys would come to me i would you know kind of assess their value guys from the neighborhood guys that i met along the way i was pretty outgoing guy i was very aggressive i was involved in business so a lot of people would come to me they'd want to be associated with me i was kind of the guy on long island my father had the name hopefully creating a name for myself just by being involved in the business that i did and the money that i earned i started to establish a lot of things i would go to my office every day i had two auto dealerships one a mazda agency number two a chevrolet agency i also had a leasing company i had offices nice offices i used to meet legitimately with people all the time building my business you know i had a production company i had a whole bunch of things so i was very much involved in my business so what was a day in the life for me about well i get up early every morning i was an early riser i required very little sleep my entire life i'm the same way now even though i sleep a little bit longer now but i'm up you know bright and early 5 30 6 o'clock in the morning i may not jump up and do things but i'm up you know at that point in time and i'd get my day started very quick very often i'd go to my office first make sure everything was running smooth and then i'd run into brooklyn see andro sit with him andrew you need anything put some things on record what do you want me to do sometimes i would drive him around he would say you know i want you to come to me with this meeting a lot of times i would have a sit down because of stuff that was going on on the street that i had to meet with another guy about so that was kind of the mob stuff that i do then i'd leave i'd go back to my offices i'd sit down with my crew i would listen to them you know i had a place called michael's but on monday night i would meet with people i would meet with my crew all the time and we'd go over everything that we needed to go over so wake up early drive into brooklyn meet with andrew come back you know go to my offices make sure everything is okay get back at home at night to my first wife or my kids i was married back then i was always trying to get home for dinner and spend a couple hours home i always would try to do that as best as i possibly could and then truthfully 10 o'clock 11 o'clock i get picked up we'd go out to a club i was in a club six nights a week six nights a week in a club whether it be in brooklyn in manhattan or on long island i got involved with clubs guys would come to me you know i'd lend them some money i'd take a piece of the action so i had involvement in the club called jupiter's i think i talked about that one of my segments i had a club called les jardin talked about that i used to hang out that's where we used to go you know until two three four in the morning i'd go home sleep a couple hours up in the morning boom out again i'm gonna be honest with you people i didn't give enough time for my family during that time i had such resolve to be number one the best possible mobster i could be to make money to help my father get out of jail and by the way that was a lot that i did during that time too when i became a soldier i was constantly working on my dad's case there was so many things come up i've mentioned them in other videos so i don't want to get into all of that just fighting for my dad and his case during that time it was a lot of work that we had to put into it but hey he was doing 50 years was a death sentence if we didn't get him out so it was a lot of work get into that i'm kind of you know just going over a lot of things because if i i can probably spend two hours just on one day of what i did during that time now boom my dad comes home from prison i become his acting kappa regime as a result of that we had even a bigger crew of made guys that were under me 1980 i become a kappa regime on my own and things kind of change because now you're in more of a leadership position and by the way you know people get you know man well michael was never a boss i never claimed to be a boss but when you're a cop of regime it's called a street boss because the boss assigned you soldiers that are under you you are their first boss you're their direct boss they have to come to you first they can't go directly to the boss they don't go directly to the underboss they come to you first you're their direct supervisor so it's like the street boss so don't get all riled up when somebody calls me a boss when you're a cop of regime you have that position i had the men under me i was constantly resolving issues for them with them in sit downs constantly and again because i was an aggressive guy i was always involved in one sit down or another you've heard so many of them i'm not going to get into them now so i would kind of divide my time up the same way get up early kind of have coffee with my wife see the kids get them off to school my first wife at that time then i'd go about my business go to the office take care of business once or twice a week i would head out to brooklyn i was able to go less now because i was a couple and long island was pretty much my territory so i handled things there yeah i'd go into the neighborhood in brooklyn you know once or twice because it's still my friends east area in greenpoint williamsburg just see how things were going in the neighborhood and i kind of scheduled myself pretty good i traveled a lot back then i had interest in florida so i would go down and take care of that i had a house in florida i had a house in california at that time because i had the movie production company there so i was kind of running around quite a bit i could have used another you know five or six hours in the day when i became a capo and i was involved in the gas business and you know all of that i was busy 24 7 if i wanted to be you know when you're a copper regime it's a lot of work when you got a big crew and i had a lot of guys under me remember i had the russians involved with me i had a lot of guys it was constant work it was almost exhausting but i was into it at that point in time i was young i was able to handle it and of course i started getting in trouble indictments left and right i was indicted seven times i had two federal racketeering cases i had two state racketeering cases i was fighting cases i was with my lawyers it was a lot of work people i can tell you that so trying to balance you know street work you know the mob life cause on austria legitimate life and the enterprises and the businesses that i had family life that i admit i wasn't great at yeah i love my kids and yeah i love my family but i wasn't great at it i tried to dedicate a lot of time but i was you know so into you know the mob life at that time and and business at that time i have regrets on how i handled it back then so that was a day in a life you know what's my day in a life now i'm not going to get into all of that i can tell you it's a lot more calm now you know i'm 70 years old and you get older and wiser i hope and things have settled down quite a bit but i'm busy i'm always busy i'm involved in a lot of different things right now i like to be busy and i think i'll be busy until god calls me home i don't see myself retiring at all i just i don't understand retirement i want to have more time for myself more time for my family of course they deserve that for me but i don't see myself retiring and hopefully god willing i'll have the strength and the stamina and the health to keep going again until god calls me home so that's it for today i mean i hope i gave you a little bit of a bird's eye view of what you do in the mob life without getting into detail i've been in details in so many ways on so many of my videos you've heard it before documentaries that i've done so just a couple of things i want to make aware of there is a television series based upon my life i don't know where it's going to appear on what streaming platform on cable network we don't know but it's really moving along that casting it right now should go into production next year with kennedy marshall great production company they'll make an announcement at the appropriate time my book mafia democracy will be out in january we're going to start talking about it fairly soon you're going to really enjoy it it's my perspective on what government is looking like now and yes it is very close on australia trust me again have to keep mentioning it michael francis.com join the inner circle join my crew people are benefiting left and right so much content interacting with me and my team we're going to improve your business skills your leadership skills your life skills that's our goal and for those of you that want to attend by no obligation whatsoever but those of you who want to we're actually now doing a group bible study for those of my faith that want to participate and even if you're not of our faith if you want to hear you want to you know you're just curious jump in we do that twice a month subscribe to the youtube channel please you're building our platform we appreciate it you know that we're going to be doing a big giveaway shortly when we reach a certain milestone i don't want to say what it is my team knows what it is but i know it's coming up probably the end of the year or very early next year so that's it youtube subscribe thank you all those that keep coming in we appreciate it very much and of course the inner circle and my crew thank you for jumping on board and we really really hope you're benefiting by we know you are that's about it slices pizza doing great you know what we're opening up stores want to be involved slicesusa.com look us up that's about it so that's it for today i can go on and on and on but i'm cutting it short how do i always leave you same way be safe be healthy i really mean this god bless you all and hopefully i will see you next time take care [Music] you

Channel: Michael Franzese

Views: 738,882

Keywords: michael, franzese, michael franzese, mafia, mob, mobster, mob boss, mafia boss, capo, caporegime, colombo, colombo family, colombo mafia, gambino, gambino family, bonanno, bonanno family, lucchese, lucchese family, genovese, genovese family, al capone, john gotti, gotti, american mafia, italian mafia, cartel, prison, federal prison, prison gangs, fear city netflix, sonny franzese, sitdown with michael franzese, mob stories, michael franzese story, mafia life, franzese mafia life

Id: K-KmSk6UpqQ

Length: 24min 32sec (1472 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 06 2021