Gianni Russo on Sleeping with Marilyn Monroe, Kidnapped by Escobar, JFK Murder (Full Interview)

all right here we go we have Gianni russo and vlad TV welcome thank you for having me I appreciate it now absolutely you have a very very interesting story not only were you a character on in the movie The Godfather but there's the story outside of the movie was actually more interesting thank God for that thank God and we're gonna get into this whole story but I want to start in the very beginning you grew up in Little Italy right okay and I guess your mother primarily raised you and your two sisters and your father wasn't really around that much well my father took advantage of a no-show job that friends of our family the Gambino's gave him and the Anastasia's on the waterfront my father was a ladies man so I have to blame him for my past so he was never really there and my grandmother and grandfather actually raised me more than anything because my mother had a high aunts folk my to all the sisters and but which a normal typical thing you know in our neighborhood I didn't know what was right and what was wrong we had nothing to measure it against and the people like only ill delacro up go and the Gambino so there were a way of life and even at that young age I respected them and not knowing why you know they were the heroes they dress well they took care of people and actually controlled their neighborhood it wasn't the police wasn't anybody right and I guess your great uncle Angelo was a mafia boss back in Italy and Sicily uh well I didn't know that later when I met Colombo I mean knuckle um uh Frank Costello he asked me who might you know do I know my uncle Angelo and I said I know of him I don't know him and because he was he was put to death in 1947 they hung him when they were trying to take you know abolish the Cosa Nostra but unbeknownst to me he was responsible for sending Carlo Gambino Vito Genovese and Frank Costello to America and most people don't know it Carlo Gambino came here already made he was a made man in Sicily at the age of 19 yeah quite a history yeah quite a history so you kind of grew up in this kind of mafia backdrop right you know and I didn't like so many of my friends unfortunately who are even doing life Osten Modena who is hung up with older people and I'm 77 now so most of my people died on our in the 80s and 90s and now and but it was a way of life but they showed me a different respect said they would never let me into that life I was around it fortunately in so many ways but I had all the privileges and the safeguards of having them support me and you know basically vouch for me all over the world which is a great way to be when you're uneducated and not wealthy and friends of friends are always good well so you're growing up in Little Italy and then you wake up one morning around five years old and you suddenly realize that there's something wrong health-wise you know what happened I my father being a crazy man that he was we only had two bedrooms so my mother and father had one my sisters had the other so off the kitchen they had a closet they made it my bedroom so I could only get out of the bed on the left side unfortunately the left side of my body got polio and he saw I just give him a couple of aspirin he's probably got a cramp or something and my mother slept me off to a clinic and then the next day the clinic reported my tests and they came to pick me up and quarantine me and in Bellevue for five years okay so here you are you're how old at the time number six and a half it was August 7th 1949 you're six years old and from six to eleven you're in Bellevue Hospital right and I guess your parents didn't really visit you at all well they you know I I don't know what kid in the world at six knew even tired of spell walk read the name quarantine but I found out real fast nobody's coming it was terrible and was I watched 2700 kids die there over a five-year period which is a lot of people I think there was 45,000 cases just in New York alone and they had no no no my that vaccine for her so I became a part of Jonas Salk's experiment and huh but mine are the only reason that my sanity though is because a girl called Dolores Barone who was a candy striper when I got there happened to be caller Gambino's nice so he said look after this guy from the neighborhood and she used to give me the extra jello or the extra pudding but more important before she left every night she'd give me a hug and believe me I needed that hug I was about I watched all these kids I think they went into it deep depression and they never had no chance of survival there no Drive but then because of a little transistor radio that she gave me the night before my birthday on December 11th that transistor radio changed my life because that morning I turned it on and everybody was talking about Frank Sinatra because that was his birthday and I found out that you know him being an italian-american born in Hoboken his mother was a barmaid his father was a fireman and I felt that if he could do it I could do it and the good news I had the strength of my right side so once you had some mobility they'd stop giving you a bedpan they wanted to get out of bed and I used to drag myself out of the bed and drag myself all over the place and get on the rails and fortunately I got out of the hospital I don't want to tell you audience how I got ya I don't want to get the wrong viewpoint of me at that young age but well while you're still there there is a guy in the hospital who you called Harold the pervert yeah well Delores warned me about him as always gaining older eleven twelve years old I was a very good-looking kid as that as a young guy and she warned me that Harold may attack you that's what are you talking about attack because you know what you know my children are so privileged to so many things but we will we never know about sex at 11 12 years age and you know pedophile a man with the word men but he was and I was always wondering because he only basically privacy we had was the drapes hung from the ceiling around our bed and when he was given physical therapy to some of the kids in the ward he had closed that drape and these kids would be moan and I didn't know what he was doing now I know a new way after that and sure enough he came one night but I have a tremendous instinct and I always I'm the kind of guy that you know I I smell smoke and I leave the building and a Billiken saw fire but there was a Porter's broom leaned against the wall where the rails were so I had to strengthen my right arm and I was building my left arm so I don't know was blocking my way and I just stuck him under my left arm under the shoulder and went into the bathroom so I I had a stall number four which was like I was not ready to go back to bed so when I got out of bed I couldn't use your urinal I had to sit down because I had enough strength in my left side so I would sit there and I broke the broom part of the handle off and discarded it and then I was using the broom handle and I shop and did in the grout of the tile on the floor so I had the spear type weapon about three four feet and I always put it behind the radiator and that stole out the radios were hung on the wall and nobody found it so when I got there was took it laid on the floor and sure enough howl gana came one night and he was pulling on the curtain trying to get in I said I'll be right out and you know I saw his shoes facing me and the next thing you know he just opened the drape and closed it behind him and he unbuttoned his pants and he's trying to convince me his pants is a tootsie roll and fortunately on the strength I had and he was more paying attention of trying to put himself in my mouth he didn't see me grab the broom and went my left hand I just guided it and that the angle I was in and the strength I had in my right hand for five years was insane so I drove it unbelievers rib cage and went right out his back and he spraying the bathroom walls and floor as he bled out and then Delores came in threw a blanket on me and they put me up in the psych ward for 72 hours because the state didn't want nothing nobody to know about anything like that but anyway I got out that's how I gotta have a hospital you killed this child molester and the hospital covered it up because they didn't want the news to get out that he was molesting all the other kids in the hospital that wild yeah Wow and then I Delores because she couldn't release me on my own it's well so she came to me so we have to call your parents to come get you I said don't call my parents just take me downstairs like they would coming to pick me up and I said let me to Dallas and I'll take a cab down to the neighborhood was some xxx and I said you know I'll get you the money back she ain't worried about the money and she did that so I went down to the neighborhood and I got off a Mott and grand which I was just did Sunday again everybody's still there four hours is still there all those places still exist and I went to my grandfather's friend footings and McNally ran a bakery and they have every he knew about what happened because the 72 hours word spread like that kid the Apple didn't fall fall far from the tree he killed a pedophile in the hospital which was good for me to have that reputation going back to the neighborhood and I used it well and that was it well I mean it was clearly self-defense right but how did you how did you feel taking a man's life at that age you know it didn't bother me at all knowing what he was due to these other kids I felt you know I took out a guy that was you know I have no problem killing somebody if they're evil and I fact I had this conversation Pope John Paul I got very close to him and he knew all about my life and he says how do you justify killing people I swear I feel I'm doing God's work and he was taken back by that ice well you know reading the Bible I think I'm a disciple they get rid of these people I don't kill any good people the people I got involved with our really bad people and that I never had a problem I just you know I think my want to survive and get out of here he's just justified anything to me okay so now you're out of the hospital and you're back in your neighborhood and you become I guess an errand boy for Frank Costello yeah that happened I was I was and I was staying in the neighborhood and I was making bread at night make some 50-pound bags of flour by hand which unbeknownst to me was like going to a gym because it's like dynamic tension that we wait for it to raise we cut into quarter pound loaves and they do a totally different exercise and eating it and then I'd go sleeping in the storeroom that's why I lived and again having all that flour that's why I have nothing wrong my mobility now I normally I would have rheumatism all kinds of arthritis by this time my oldest I would be locked up but I got out and I always walked I still walk three to five miles every other day I walk to this today from 61st Street but I do that yet and with that one day my grandfather took me to Delancey Street to take a walk with him after work and he used to go to this place Leo Rabinowitz who had a stationery store you need buy pads and pencils for his club and Leo or minutes when he got there was so excited he just got these ballpoint pens that you didn't need ink anymore and there has old cartridge he was trying to sell my grandfather the fence and he said just give me my pencils but I remember that and I went back the next day so I got an idea he said what sure I didn't you had a heavy Russian accent I said well if you give give I give nothing to nobody I said let me rephrase that lend me 50 pence I don't lend I said can I tell you the story I'm gonna take your business to Wall Street or the banking exchanges you're here we got a 10 foot 10 foot front of the Lancer Street I'll go and I'll sell them the next day as many as I sold you replenished him and I'll pay you for them I said I'm where my grandfather is you know his club if I don't show up go get the money from him I said my grandfather told me look at me and I shake his hand your word is your bond he's well your grandmother's a smart man I'll give you one day and I did it so I exhausted the whole area it got to be when I'd walk in that's when people get paid with with you know cash they were gonna get checks over getting envelopes with money in it so I staggered where I went to the hours of whereas today got paid but there was a while and I show up they would even say anything but they opened the door I bought pens the night it and then I took the train uptown now Frank Costello was the the boss of the Luciano crime family exactly who Malvina Vito's in jail right yeah Lucky Luciano originally founded it right so so Frank was running the operation right and you you became an associate of him well what happened was I I got out I took the end train up to 59th Street and Fifth Avenue and when I got out was on the park side I saw their sherry-netherland hotel everybody was dressed I said this is perfect for me so I used to stand outside there and every morning this guy come walking down without who I thought was a friend I didn't know it was a bodyguard and he would never take a pen give me words of wisdom give me $1 $2 sometimes finals and that before he left he would always grab my left shoulder and hug me like and then walk on so this went on for months it was like a father image I could wait for this guy to come because I knew I'd have been oh by the end in a week I'd have 1015 dollars from this guy alone and then one day I'm going I'm downtown come ready to come uptown I used to stop at Ferrara's go Scala Gambino like the coffee in Ferraris coffee shop ran it in the club and I just had a respect that go say hello to him and I came out and next door and it's still there the Catholic store is still there yet it was opened in the early 1900s and in the window was the lagoon the horns that a lot of times we're around their neck for superstition something like this and then there's the red one you must have seen him hanging on mirrors and cars and all that and this time I what caught my eye this one had a hunchback on it on top of the horn so I asked Joyce what's that about he's well the Sicilians are superstitious about touching a [ __ ] for luck well the blood drains from my head because I thought this guy really liked me and I didn't need to set you know 12 or 13 years of age I'm just trying to rebuild my life so I waited for him to come but on the way to the train station they would sell her all these novelties and their solar rabbit's feet for luck so I bought a pink one I put it in my pocket and I waited for him to come down and I didn't know who he was so he as his normal thing gave me words of wisdom and no latin goes to touch me I move away is what are you doing because the touch began I move away he's what are you doing Rice's know which one you're doing eyesight don't you like me you touching me for luck I got Lafayette liking this big rabbit's foot and he looked at his body gun and he said you believe this kid that's what's there to believe I trusted you he's what's your name and I told my name that's how I found out that he knew my uncle he said okay who's Angela Russell to you I said my great-uncle his when's the last time you saw I says you must know when I saw him I didn't see him he's not I want you to tell me say never saw his wife that I stay hung him in 1947 so he looked at Blackie his bodyguard he says the guy who knows him he knows him he's and he tries to take my cigar boxes you ain't taking my cigar box he gave me three $100 bills I never saw hundred honorable in my life I'm 12 or 13 to the vase now guy gave me three $1 bills he's you know where the world of the story is of course he says I want you to beat it in the clock in the lobby you know where that as I said yeah it's a famous clock claims to walk to all the hotels and you know anybody used to you know try to hustle anybody with my pens so you pedia tomorrow 11 o'clock well I was there at 10 o'clock I wanted to make sure this can't go away and Blackie come out and beyond the clock was they called the Peacock Alley right next to the bar and he held court every day for a couple of hours before he went to lunch so he said mrs. C wants to see you and I went over there that's when he told me about why how he came to America my uncle he'll never do this again I want you to do errands for me come here every day at 11 o'clock I'm not hearing Blackie tell you what to do and that went on I mean I traveled then started travel in the world till 73 and until he died even that was even after the Godfather he couldn't believe it he was so proud of what I was doing okay so then in 1958 you started to go to beauty school I didn't decide at Rueda office to decide he caught me I was on my way to touch shore in fact Frank just sent me over to the Wyndham Hotel where they kept the top floor on 58th Street and that was their bank when they dropped on receipts and all that so he wanted me to pick up $5,000 to bring it over to to it sure who owned the ball and thus I went over there and I mozz on my way there and the truant officer said to me because he had a brown uniform on he knew he wasn't a cop he's what are you doing out of school that's what he's talking about he's how old are you I some 15 he's white red school I said I don't go to school I had like ten thousand in my pocket he said he says well I need to adjust I gotta give you a ticket so I gave my grandmother's address he writes me a ticket so I don't know what it's about I have the ticket in my hand and I walk into to shore and Frank notices the ticket he's how did you get a ticket you walking too fast I said I don't know this guy gave it to me he looked at it it was a truant officer slip and he says how old are you I some fifteen fifteen and a half he's how long you've been with me asks about three years now he said what okay I'll straighten it out so the next day I meet him you said took care of that ticket for you guys I said great he says before you come here every day go to Willford Academy on 52nd Street it's on top of Lindy's it's a beauty school so I don't want to become a beautician forget about it soon all right I just go there to you 60 then you don't go no more you have no problems so I did that so next morning I go to it I couldn't believe when I got there lady Sony it's all taken care just come sign in stay as long as you want that she gives me a tour to school there was 50 20 great little girls there I went everyone enough to meet him until 11:00 and then one morning as luck would have it marks and Claire from Clairol and Kenneth they were partners and Kenneth was Jackie oh you know Jackie Kennedy's hairdresser and they were looking for shampoo boys and the teacher told me if they pick you those hours would count like you go to school but you can make tips so I was in for that so I went there and then I told Costello I gotta go do this for a couple hours of days so I did that and the fourth had a air was mild Monroe I couldn't believe Mountain Boudreau was there and I just saw some like it hot made me a hundred times because when cast on weren't home I used to go to Broadway a lot and that's when I was over 24-hour theaters so I saw some like it hot in the balcony I know how about how many times and now there she is when I had a shampoo basin looking up at the ceiling and finally she said is this someone in the room I said I'm sorry yeah I'm here and I had the card you know they tell you what Ranson the warm temperature of water you have to put it on her inside our wrist and she approves it then I start giving a shampoo she liked a hard firm shampoo and I'm giving it as she's morning and I'm a 15 year but kid not think I think I'm having sex and I did in a direction it must have been poking her in the year and now I have to towel dry hair and walk it to this the station in the middle of the casino and middle of that salon and I'm walking behind and trying to come cover myself and all of them are laughing at me and then she started requesting me fortunately and about a month ago goes by and Costello says we have somebody staying up in the suite which he always had somebody there he's looking on them I'm gonna go fishing he went to Chicago he's the fish would Tony Accardo and so that morning I go up there twelve o'clock like you said and she opens the door and she said Johnny what are you doing here that's what mr. C told me to look in any so I just ordered room service come on in and I didn't know a room service was she had all these carts of food and all that I say you know I better go downstairs I said if you need anything I'm downstairs just ask for the kid he never told anybody my name because he didn't want me to you know I'm on a Wyatts happen yeah guy always protected me through the world I was known as the kid and so I think I did the Godfather and people started to know my name but she's come and not worried about I'm not gonna tell him so I sat down for a minute she's have a glass of champagne kids ring come on 15 16 years old she's that she gave me to Christian and never had a drink why got a little buzz it was amazing he said I'm gonna take a bath I said okay I'm gonna go dad says she walked me in there so she walks she turns the water on and she's come out my hair which I've done a hundred times at the salon so she lowers her robe and I'm saying to myself who's gonna believe I'm over here with Mallory then she shuts off the bathwater and she's getting the tub with me are you gonna get me killed and with that she drops her robe this is Marilyn Monroe I can't believe it she gets into the tub and she convinced me to get into the tub so I'm a gentleman that was Saturday afternoon I left Monday morning in you how old I was just gonna be 16 that December this was like September October of what year what would that be 53 you think it is 54 yeah I was 18 I was 18 what 60 so yeah I had to be then we're not okay so 16 years old you slept with a 28 year old Marilyn Monroe yeah okay but I stayed for the next four years he stated that I was within the next four years I was at cal-neva when they summons her to go to Cal neva and for the people who don't know Calne risk Kelly was a resort on the california/nevada border that the mob controlled and why people liked it was old bungalows and you can actually enter on the California side and they had a meeting because spinning forward they got jf Kenny elected and that was done by his father with the mob and the deal was if they supported them with all the unions once they got elected they would have the Bay of Pigs invade Cuba and they get the casinos back and that's the only reason they did it but the mistake John made was make his brother Rob the Attorney General and Robert didn't go along with it at all in fact it they screwed up the baby pigs as the world knows now but they still wanted the casinos so with Sam Giancana who was the street boss of Chicago that convinced the cardo and all the other guys Marcello's all of them that we're gonna blackmail the Kennedys Robert showed up with Joe Kennedy Joe Kennedy was in a wheelchair ready John didn't show but the idea was to convince Marilyn to be with Robert and they're gonna take pictures of them now he's an attorney general you already had five kids now the Attorney General good Kennedy Catholic boy to have these pictures they're gonna blackmail him which they did to Jo Hoover long before that they had pictures of Jay guru as a crossdresser that's why he always denounced the mob until Bobby got him so I was there after the epilation fiasco would all those meet here on the mob going they never went anywhere anymore so I was the eyes and ears for Costello so I would just everybody knew me so I got there and i just sat around the pool in fact there's some great photographs that I have that Sam Giancana actually took the pitches he was controlling all the pitches so he was like the camera boy at sky and I'm pictures of me and Sinatra her I mean was crazy but that was it and that she went crazy that night when Sinatra told him what they wanted to do they had a room set up and there one of the photographs she won't go along with it unbeknownst to us we didn't realize bobby was consoling her because John said once he became president he did leave Jackie and Mary huh that's how naive she was then she disclosed to us that day screaming Bobby impregnated her and he convinced her to abort it so she was done with him I mean we don't know how mentally and physically heard she was by these guys up until this time she's I'm going to the press once she said that we knew she was dead so I flew home Monday morning they killed a Tuesday night but right because there's a photo I remember seeing and I just looked it up of it's kind of like an open door or something that shows John F Kennedy kind of snuggling with Marilyn Monroe I know that's the photo you're talking about yeah we got a lot of photos we still no real I got I have somebody proposed Iowa voters now well you said that according to your mafia sources Marilyn was giving was given an injection of air to her pubic area so you wouldn't see the needle mark yeah the doctor that they used we used also uses an anesthesiologist but then he didn't work even for the Vatican he's dead now but I still won't give his name but the thing is that he taught me for a while I was going crazy with when I got hooked up being a Coria go to the Vatican I thought maybe I'd become a collector and an assassin gonna make it so much bigger money and I really loved my life was phenomenal you know and so they've learned a lot of techniques and this was one of them it was just co2 man in your book you said that Bobby Kennedy was the one that killed or had Marilyn Monroe killed she ordered he orders it and you know it's so funny because my books out now a year and a half no Kennedys came no lawsuits came st. Martin's Press I had a signed a waiver to them that I would take while they eat on that but you know I mean I don't know how many of your audience realizes when you write a book the lawyers vetted they want to make sure there's in the deep pockets so I mean when I mentioned in this book is insanity nobody ever did it before in their lives but that's why the books are bestseller in seven countries do it all I mean yeah I mean you said that the Kennedys killed Marilyn Monroe that's quite a claim but in in that claim I mean none of them came none of their sons daughters buddy well Shawn they did actually I'd love the lawsuit I'd sell another main books well in the book you also talked about Kennedy's assassination you said Frank Sinatra who was a good friend of yours was the go-between with the mob and the Kennedys JFK and Sinatra oh great pals well yeah uh I was early on with that when he was Senator I used to go to this I used to go to Vegas every other weekend and I saw them all there and Bobby and I'm not Bobby but John Bobby was not a part of it until he got elected but John was a great guy man and then I didn't know who the target was I thought it was gonna be Bobby because I remember flying one of my last trips I flew to Dallas and somebody picked me up that I knew and took me 30 miles out and I had a suitcase and I know it was full of money and I dropped it off came home so uh castel on that morning and that night is when Lyndon Baines Johnson announced he's going to be the running mate because they made a deal with him because they were very optimistic they said John will do the first date and you'll do the next day because they already had Truman at that time they already had Nixon the mob-owned those guys that's why when they wanted Jimmy Hoffa out of prison Nixon pardoned him because he found God and he was going to come out and get rid of Frank Fitzsimmons because we just borrowed it almost two hundred men and the brothers pension fund to build Las Vegas well you said uh my errand to Marcelo was involved in the master plan to assassinate Kennedy I had played a role small as it was while I was literally only the messenger yeah I mean I could when and again with Costello being two steps ahead of everybody when I met him and I came back after seeing Marcellus I brought a number off to him I had to go to the bathroom and he said somebody's in there so I was staying at the bar because the bathroom door was right there and when the guy came out he bunked into my pay no attention to the guy I went to the bathroom went to see myself and I was about to sit down have a great dish you bust him ugly because the chef's knew I liked it he soon they'll get back to New York so I went right back to New York and I say what's the message he said it's on ice that's the whole message is he'll know what it is so I mean in the next morning and he said what's the message I said it's on so he had a manila envelope what about 15,000 in cash from me and some paperwork he's I signed you on the independence the ship that's where my god he's just don't worry about it the first port is gonna be bustle on Spain get off the boat somebody will meet you there okay I never asked him in question I'm just traveling all over the world had a great life and I know by other people if they asked him a couple of questions he'd get pretty annoyed Goethe so I didn't want to you know I want to lose this guy so now I'm on the boat we're going onto the Verrazano Bridge and they announced on the PA system that the president was shot not killed yet and all the pilot boats came people were getting off the boat amen basically because this was out you know a thirty day trip and I'm saying to myself all these broads gonna be on about me and it's all these drugs I loved it not realizing the seriousness the next morning they had a tell a newspaper on the ship and the guy that came out in the bathroom was Lee Harvey Oswald that was my loss Ellis a shooter Chicago shooter was the kill shoot the kill shot was Johnny Roselli he was in the storm sewer but it wasn't till the years later when they did that graphic that it's been sent around then that that bullet having him ricocheting going ten different ways but it would the bolt though and it was funny both assassins were trained by the Marines Johnny Roselli and then Santo Trafficante was trained by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro that was one of their plots they even created a powder because he used to powder his beard for edginess they put a pound him with poison in it the anesthesiologist created it this guy was a mastermind on stuff but Castro never fell for any of it and they didn't get him obviously but the funniest thing is even Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marine and trained as a marksman and here they kill the President of the United States that's craziness but Lyndon Baines Johnson brought him to the target okay and then Jack Ruby ended up killing Lee Harvey Oswald that was the dumbest thing in the world they said you killed Lee Harvey Oswald you'd become a hero now Jack Ruby was working with Chicago to begin with because he was running although the strip joints and the Select arcades that Chicago had out there so he was a definite to do it and he wanted to do it well you know it's interesting there's an open case that I was just interviewed on by a guy who's writing another book about Dorothy Kilgallen her murder has never been solved she was the 72nd person killed after the assassination of Kennedy she was going out with a mob guy who she knew too much and that's why I left the country 22 months that was Costello and so kids could Costello could convince everybody else leave this kid alone do you know anything about the murder of Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters well I knew I knew I know that I never say this I know the I when Bobby De Niro I bought the script and 2004 and he asks me about it cuz I was close I'm still close to Bobby nice the guys foolish the guy was an errand boy he said what do you know about I saw I'm gonna tell you some Jimmy Hoffa was picked up in a burgundy Buick he never left the call never left the car I said I know for a fact they axle and the engine block was taken out and they'll never find Jimmy Hoffa it was putting in a car crusher the friction of that heat he came out to be a two by four block of steel the friction II got rid of all the DNA they weren't gonna leave ya Jim look at me and he was buried in giants he they had him all over the place and the FBI returned they want their budget we found more evidence we to go dig up this foot six months get out of here alright cuz I've been interviewed uh Michael Franzese a couple of times and he's always said that Frank Sheeran did not kill Jimmy Hoffa no you know we had a way to get around people and and and do our bidding or have them do our bidding for us I'll tell you this I saw the Irishman I don't know if you've seen it Scorsese's new film not yet okay you know it was good it wasn't epic it wasn't the Godfather it wasn't Goodfellas or I don't think it was in that level and I can tell you that the story was a complete lie there's no truth to the story yet certain little things that happened were you know but Sheeran did not kill Jimmy Hoffa and that whole thing it's been he's been disproved you know so often by law enforcement everybody else and he didn't kill Joe gallo either because a kid from the neighborhood called the club the only reason Joe gallo just left us at the Copa because Costello older co-pi Stang out there a lot and he came to see Don Rickles he was there with Jerry Orbach his wife Joe's wife and him they normally go to Mott Street number 14 but there was nobody in the business closed it so our back says to him let's go to Umberto's he didn't know Joe gallo couldn't go on the street so they went who's gonna be dead three o'clock in the morning Pinto sees them in they calls the club O'Neill's down there he was though he was the street boss and he says you ain't gonna believe was on the block is can I make my bones I'll kill him it's go ahead and kill him and he did now this guy said he killed him he killed Danny I don't get the Helen he also said he supplied the rifles to shoot JFK that's the thing it's crazy well you're still working for Frank Costello and you eventually end up in Bay yeah and at that time this was kind of outlined in the movie Casino the the mob was controlling some of the hotels and casinos in Vegas which was funded by the Teamsters Union to fund all the loans to build all these hotels so explain to me how Vegas was back then well Vegas but that was run by families every family some had to I mean Chicago had three hotels but st. Louis everybody I mean New York had the sands then went to Caesars but everybody was all controlled they couldn't that's why there was never a killing or any problems in Vegas goes to mob controlled it then there was a guy called nicknamed out of Chicago me out of New York we would go meet them in the counting rooms they counted the money before anybody there there was no cameras in there and I was very close to all those guys through the years Mickey Cohen Yale calling all these guys they controlled it and we believed there every Monday morning and drop off money here and there and then we started make making longer journeys going to the Vatican because everybody's catching on to it especially Howard Hughes the only reason Howard Hughes went to Vegas I don't know if anybody in the world knows this he was backed by the United States government I don't know if you know that did you know that no they gave him a large aircraft contract with the understanding the profits from that you stopped buying up hotels because they realized they had to get in to see what was going on they had FBI agents as 21 dealers cocktail ages they had to see what the mechanism was then they started to see it and that would still went on for a year or two and then we all got out and then spolano destroyed it all Tony Spilotro destroyed that whole deal like I he destroyed New York it's all over well I recently interviewed Frank Collado did you uh cross paths with him at all so many times Frank Cullotta Frank Cullotta was a guy from Chicago that was with I liked how he just walked on every day and he said I read right out nobody oh okay when you look back at all this cuz you come from a family of criminals being a rat is one of the worst things that you could be and in the mob you get killed for being a rat but you cooperated and would you consider yourself a rat not really I'll explain let me explain that there a rat doesn't informant I made a mistake one time call myself a rat a rat is an informant he works with the FBI or local law enforcement for money he likes it he's like who's they want to be cop I was a federal witness I testified and the only things that I actually participated in that's the difference between being an informant and a witness so I always try to correct people some of them don't quite understand it this is the way I look at it how come you not in jail you've done killings we know he shot a guy he shot I had a kid working for me I used to do believe this another I used to do a cooking class but I was all through Europe I ain't learnt how to cook I'm not gonna do that so I used to train my own chefs I used to go to Jean prison have a culinary class and I take out white collar guys and then but the shares bus would drop them off dishwashers everything I had the whole back of my house I'd paid nothing I got a write-off in taxes for no less and this kid worked for me and he always just say you know boys I took a bullet for you for what you did me to change my whole life around when I used to close State Street operated my restaurant my club Casino I used to operate 12 hours a day 6 o'clock to 6:00 in the morning and then we go for pizza or somewhere takeout people and if it was warm out I'd go to the lingo of my boat and I'd take some women with me so one day one morning in the Marella Square Shopping Center there's a big shot I always had great cars Rolls Royces Ferraris all that so I never parked the mixer you know other cause I plucked them in the middle of one empty bottle and nobody's yeah but the beat Zabala and I catch at Mi I a car Eiling oh well on the other side of the parking lot and my after war maybe to the middle of they get to my car and I had this guy Ralph with me and we start walking towards the car this guy comes down as he gets maybe a hundred feet next to me Ralph throws me to the ground and takes six shots and kills him the guy dies in my arms he said it'd take a bullet he didn't it costs paid off was he my guys the depan our brothers not we're getting in there causing the kachanov move so they're firing at that car but palaca want to be in the worst I threw him in its colada out of my club now coladas running tours in Vegas two mob museum I love this guy did you know that he has towards going for the mob yeah yeah like I said I just interviewed him you know for those for those that don't know the movie Casino he played one of the one of the characters in that movie I mean he was portrayed as one of those care advice like basically Joe Pesci's right-hand man right was Frank Cullotta in real life you know did you know the Joe Pesci character what was his real name are you kidding that was the end Tony Scott room Tony Tony swatch or nice poncho hated me I met him on New Year's Eve when Nick neeti at the Stardust Hotel I unlike the guy from day one and he hated me because he's like John if he ain't getting the attention and now you know they always wanted to come come on we're going to meet John at regimes I some going home you know I never got I was always smart enough to stay away from it and I did indeed becomes I'm still here doing everything I'm doing I never slept in jail never had a handcuff on never arrested well at one point the Godfather book was written and then there was a word that is gonna get churned into a major film right and as they're working on the script the head of the Colombo crime family catches wind of it and he gets involved in an injury job senior he was picketing the FBI below he didn't want the movie to be made they were doing rallies so I figured it out my ego I wanted to be in this movie I read the book I loved it somebody read it to me because I can't read and with that said I knew but I knew everyone the way their minds work how can they make money so they hire a guy who's still my attorney bearish logic he's still alive his son is my attorney now also and I could I go to see him at the club in Brooklyn before he came to New York they had an office and anti-defamation the Italian anti-defamation on Madison Avenue so I said Joe there's an opportunity here making a lot of money with this is how we're gonna make any money I said you got your high in Barry let Barry read the book what you don't like in the book if they take it out give them the cooperation all the unions and the neighborhoods and we'll make money now I said we will make money cuz now I had his attention is how we're gonna make money I said we're gonna ask for all the world premieres in every major city and well how was those ticket sales will see the film and every major city before anybody else we can make $150 a ticket so I said you give me permission to go up there and ironically the Gulf and Western building who Gulf and Western just bought parama is where Trump Tower is now in Columbus Circle so I only had a welcomed 59th Street and I'm sitting in the lobby in the next morning and here comes Stanley Jaffe who and Bobby Evans who were the presidents they will moved here now because somebody blew the gates of paramount and monk in California on Melrose Avenue off the hinges they're 30 feet high and that was a warning so they all come here it was perfect timing for me I approached the message gentleman you have a problem New York I think that could straighten it out so we have no problem I said I just left Joe Colombo and he won seven meeting well they were dead and Mitch next they said you just left Joe Colombo I said yeah he wants me to set up a meeting so he's our wait here so I didn't know if they're gonna call a cop saying went upstairs in the elevator this girl Naomi cherry don't ask me how I remember these names niobe cherry was Stanley Jaffee's secretary she said mr. Jaffe wants you to come up so I come up everybody's in the room now and I said I just left mr. Colombo and he'd like to work this out so they said and he'll come here I said yeah then will he come tomorrow I said don't come anytime you want mr. ten o'clock that's perfect so I walked back down so I told Joe I said I got the meeting set up here's you cannon tomorrow morning ten o'clock nice but they all read the book I want you to take because I knew Laney Montana it was an ex rasuluh he was doing collections with Joe I wonder you take Mulaney butter SP to Chico oh I want you to come in with who they think you're surrounded with the mob and we went so I'm sitting jaws be between me and bearish Lonnie and these guys are staying against the wall like this and I do all the talking I tell them exactly what they want to do Barry's gonna read the script what's ever offensive to them if you're willing to take it out perfect we have another meeting they have meet there well shaking hands and they're gonna do it so I said Joe what about me you see what about him I want you take care of my boy so right away al ruddy the producer said oh no we're gonna give him a part in the movie ice excuse me you ain't gonna give me a part in this movie I just made this deal either one playing Michael Sonny or caller so they said to me this may even be a shock even you they say to me well Michael's already been cast that's my home he said we're gonna use Jimmy Caan I said what about you know my Sonny they said Sonny is gonna be carmine Caridi he's doing a plane the man from the modulator he should be a big guy I said well who's playing Carlo they said we didn't get to that part yet so I said to Joe I said John want to play caller so he said he's playing column they all look at each other he said yeah that's how I got the boat okay and you played Carlo Rizzi who was married to Don Corleone's daughter right and you were at one point you were abusive to the you know to the daughter and then Sonny went beats you up in the street and then later on you basically I'm trying to remember how it goes you you set up Michael or something you were working with one of the enemy factions well yeah I was working I'm bar Z Nia approached me at my wedding because he said these people ain't gonna give you nothing if ever you want to join me and it was true because you know I wanted to do more business Sonny if the character was always telling me shout out we don't talk visit the Taymor all that so then I figure okay so I was working with Barzini and buzzy undermined the whole family yeah that's why Eva Brando when he found out we had the first rehearsal up at Patsy's another 19th Street I loved it because that was Fat Tony Salerno Stein they ran the Genovese family out of that at all Imams day all the time so that's where the rehearsal was so I never had a Call Sheet before and they should be here and I love the ice I came we're gonna go to head so I'm all dressed to the nines I got a Brioni suit on I got a 65 Bentley with a Chinese chick chauffeur I go up to the neighborhood I get there early and I'm at the bar with Fat Tony Salerno Angela cheesecake everybody and they say what are you doing here so I'm here for the rehearsal I mean I didn't do the rehearsal the Godfather's rented the room I see I'm playing call us can either you came for you're not an actor I stopped playing Carlo then sure enough we get into the room and everybody starts coming in and we're sitting around the room it's characters and before they bring Brando in they said now we're gonna bring Brando in have no eye contact with them and do not approach him okay so we do a rehearsal for about 10 to 15 minutes they take a break and Brando comes over to me because everybody introduced themselves around the table he knew most of sterling Hayden rich guy everybody's dead so he comes to me he says you're a big TV actor no he's got a big movie coming up I said no he's well you're not on Broadway because I know everybody on Broadway he's who just studied when I said study one what are you talking about with that he calls Coppola Roma he's Francis this guy's playing Carlo he's I know him cuz he had nothing to do it I was a gift this guy's play cop and with this I'm listened to Brando telling him you should rethink this he's good I never broke down the script but even I don't break down a script he says he marries my daughter he undermines my family he gets my son Sonny killed he gets my son Michael involved in the business which I never wanted this guy's got to be believable so now I said whoa a minim I don't put no protocol I said Francis Coppola let's go over there a minute and he walks away now the whole room goes slightly said who is this guy just the right but you can't do that now the next sacrilege I put my arm on Brando they said look at him on touching him I want to walk him in the backward was I don't like to hear what I was gonna tell him so I walk him in the back room and I got on face to face with him I selected all due respect mr. Brown though I don't want any problems with you but if you think you're gonna get me fired and embarrass me with all my friends I've told everybody I'm in this movie now listen to me clear if I get fired I'm gonna suck on your heart I'm gonna watch you bleed out you can't do this to me he stepped back he said that was brilliant that was good acting he thought I was acting I meant it right and you actually said in your book that Marlowe hated doing that movie you said that he felt it brought out venom it's crazy yeah yeah and ultimately in the movie Michael Corleone has you killed yeah went through the windshield yep well you got you got strangled in the back and then yeah get him through the windshield thank God if that movie else be fifty years in 2022 magic fifty years and he just renewing everything I'm glad to goes up I'm still so involved I am I'm the brand ambassador for quarterly old family food products throughout the world it's a gift that never stops giving yeah and I guess in the movie during the the wedding scene you know Carlo and Connie's wedding all the guys the table were actually real mob guys they were yeah well the Colombo family everybody was there in fact the crew went barzinis sitting near they're all good friends of mine they're real guys but they wanted that that's so funny because Nick Vella longer who wrote green book and won Best Screenplay and Best Picture he just optioned my book and he's doing a ten-hour series and he wrote the pilot and the outline and when I met at me so I met you a long time ago I said how did you meet me and I knew his father was Tony lip because he worked for Costello at the Copacabana that to agreement was all about he and my father was at the yes I know that he's always a little kid running around there and they were the wedding I was 12 years old I can't believe how there's world this is this guy now writing my life story as a screenplay and he was at my wedding in The Godfather that's crazy well uh you go and act in this movie but you're still affiliated with the mob and you're still doing runs you know my adds to me I'm I have every legitimate license in the world I don't casino licenses I'm a federal Coria recognized even by the Vatican I got three carry permits even in New York City so obviously I don't have any felons and I got gaming licenses but I'm not dumb my family is my family so I care what my uncle didn't know I had people dead well in 1978 the Las Vegas Sun ran a story about a young 34 year old who was about to build a 54 million dollar hotel and casino that was me and it was you so you read that that's a great great research I was on a wiretap so you actually built a casino or did that not happen no what happened was this I I borrowed 32 men on a napkin I made to deal with Cokie Civello who was working with Frank Fitzsimmons he me I had allocated loans for Vegas and I bought this 23-acre parcel of land and I bought that early on would offshore corporation that I had I had great mentors show me how to do things and I bought that land at $1,600 an acre it's wait 16 million an acre today it's still there vacant because Nevada is the only state you can buy vacant land as an investment pay no taxes on until you improve it Wow and my kids are saying to me today that why'd you sell it first of all it's a mnemonic Oh corporation I was good friends with Grace Kelly and when she married Renny we were at the wedding and with Sinatra all of us went and I have a municipal over there so why would I want to sell any of this stuff it's untouchable and I'm just you know if I need money I'll sell it my grandfather told me that don't sell anything less you need the money and I don't need them anymore I do her well so you still own all that land in Vegas I don't know a lot of land you okay and you know it's so funny they surrounded it I mean if you go if you zoom in right now on the corner of Colville and Harmon Harmon Avenue between Flamingo Road they surrounded the Hard Rock's on one side of me and gems on the inside this is the only piece of roll in well uh during certain times you're dealing with John Gotti very little Marilyn well I mean we had a mutual respect because of O'Neill O'Neill Delacour Co was the underboss of the Gambino family John Gotti looked up to this guy he was his mentor in fact that's the only reason he got so angry he killed without permission Paul Castellano Tommy Bilotti Tommy Bilotti who was my best man for two of my weddings that's a well I know this guy and I'm away and I watch this on the news but John John went crazy because Gambino put Castellano the head of the family and left O'Neill the street boss which was a good move but John had visions of O'Neill going in and him becoming the underboss so I mean what he did he went against the whole Commission but then he made he makes the son a boss high and he make his son his mother's Jewish can't be a boss can't be in the Sicilian organization they're all he can't belong to the italian-american Club for this guy they make him a boss well you said Gotti surely burning and whatever kind of hell exists must be wondering what became of La Cosa Nostra he ought to know his a competent leadership was instrumental in getting the mob where it is today I don't know that to me where is the mob today it's not what it was in the seventies it's richer now than ever because we had gentlement business they're not doing the street stuff they're not doing what John was doing he was called in so many times John this is a secret organization stop being on the heads of he was a yellow he was under New York time magazine he was a ghost he loved the camera and so despacho I think the damage those two people did destroyed the mob as we know it and fortunately you know they they got into legitimate business and that was all done by Maya Lansky and Frank Costello that's why we're even in Godfather to when he said we'll be bigger than us steel they are well in 1988 you had a club in Las Vegas right and a situation happened in that club yeah let's talk about that a scary situation it's so funny because I just interviewed from steve Schirripa steve Schirripa was going to UNLV for hotel school I hide a lot of kids as my doorman and they put him in a tuxedo he was there that night and we had house accounts all over the city because I I thought as I experienced myself there was no place to have gourmet food after 12 or 1 o'clock in Las Vegas so I built this club Johnny Russo State Street and we serve gourmet food 12 hours a day 6 at 9:00 to 6:00 in the morning tableside Russian service all the dishes were finished high end a beluga caviar whatever you want in your head and the casinos who'd send their high rollers there we had House accounts so this guy comes in he's given hundred dollar bills everybody which is normal when a guy makes a big score I never saw the guy so I call on a hard line in the cup before you know cell phones they had the big stupid ones at the time I said Steve what was the guy he says he Caeser cinnamon ice holiday radio mrs. five stars I said load him out so they sent up a bottle of Cristal about louis xiii cavi had a 1700 all been in about ten minutes he gets into an argument with the his date he breaks the crystal bottle and sticks right in our face i'm watching this from my perch on my bar where you're standing now and I call the door again I said Steve get over there he's ain't going over him and that guy's crazy I snatched what you're supposed to do so now I get in a mix of it because I don't know who the guy is and I don't want to I don't need cops there so I walk over the guy and I declare myself I so listen this is my homeroom the owner so I'm on I so so ah man I see you with anybody I should know no mom I swell the girl needs medical attention you hear these sirens - coming for you want you to sleep let me get it to the hospital I didn't know he had the bottle in the CNEA so he goes to turn to the girl and he spins around to get me for sure I was agile enough I went back and he slipped me right along here 81 stitches now my chin is hanging down now I'm saying I gotta end this so I I divert him by saying look what you did to my show I waited six months for these shades he's just see on the concerts the guys look at me like I'm some kind of nut but I had to get my hand I used to carry two derringers and my vest and my suit so I got my no.1 and I put it right to his head I said now I'm gonna ask you one more time leave are you going out in a black bag he's f human I put two right between his eyes it's a lot of 50 people and he said people will look at it places back the guy don't go down it's like a mosquito bit him he was so loaded with coke it took it a little longer register so I put the other three shots Cruz was a five shot I put the N three shots right in his heart he went down only to find out he was in love the basta learns Morales to Pablo Escobar okay and then Pablo Escobar ended up putting a hit on your life over that right well when I found out after a day or two when they found out who the guy was that he was a marielito and they got a girl who knows all of that and the UNLV and she said what they're gonna do is kill you pets your children you're gonna go last so I said I ain't gonna with that happened at that time I think I had seven or eight kids I have eleven now so I go see John because I knew John was doing business with him the Noriega and he held me with open arms cuz I got this all now you were killing them all over their minds you're killing me my st. John or nobody I said the guy stabbed the woman he's I might throw me I was all bandaged up as I gotta get over there is you want to go to Bogota yeah I saw I gotta stop this it's all arranged that I'll even buy you the ticket cuz he thought oh my god I'm never coming back well just interrupt you before you decided to go to Colombia you found something called a Colombian death warning in your house in my house of Santeria and I don't have a gun in my house it was about eight foot diameter in my living room with pictures of my kids within Blondin only salamander sign so that was the girl from UNLV they called her in and coots the detective what she was a friend of mine and Rex Bell who was the district attorney at the time was my neighbor so you know I a know I haven't had anything I needed with these guys and she let me know this is what they're gonna do so I arranged to go see John and then John arranged me to get into Bogota and I was supposed to meet him in a church which gave me great comfort because I'm still very religious and when I got the authorities there by himself because my open the door he was at the altar on the far right right-hand side and I go there and as I approach him he's burning his fingertips on candles and now I found out later on in life do you know why he did that right do you know why right No rid of all his people did that they had no fingerprints I mean these I mean it's pretty wild what these guys did but anyway I got to the altar and he says you Johnny worse I said yeah and that's all I remember somebody hit me from behind and I found up three three stories below the prison that he built for himself and I was you know body bags were laying around me and they were having their way with me man I was like a punching bag to them and then he showed up I didn't know how many hours or a day and he was the only one not in fatigues he was dressed and I'm sitting down and I look up and he's this guy who whoever he was had the book in his hand the making of The Godfather I couldn't believe it and he says to me why don't you tell me you would call him that's my favorite movie clean him up and bring him upstairs I can't believe this saved my life and that was that and now I had dinner with him after a couple hours and he said to me I told the story he's why would you come here I said I did my homework you have a daughter the same age as my daughter if someone was gonna kill your daughter wouldn't you come and try to stop it and he got up and gave me a hug he's you're a real man you must be nuts but you're a real man and he said okay you can go is what I want you to do me a favor that's whatever you want me to do well I was kidding with him cause you want me to cut the grass woman do you win those what his what's that mean I said I said what do you want me to do he's I want to do the closing scene in The Godfather with you that's what he said I want to play Michael and obviously you playing Carlo and it's just before they take out to the car and I'm saying to myself this is well this guy's gonna kill me I mean I said for a minute I thought I was really gonna go and he comes and he knows a lie so you want me to write the lines of 900 lines and he gets up and goes with a couple of his guys like they were in my living room he's you sit here and I get up and he's this caller got answer for Santini Assenmacher you have it all wrong it's come on Carlo you think this is fun and I'm saying to myself this is how this guy's gonna kill me and he gives me an airline ticket to Florida and I look at it because I was like in the movie Brando told me that technique he's make sure there's a ticket in there so there is a ticket so and they walk me out to the car instead of one guy in a back seat there's two guys in a driver and Pablo opened the door for me I get in the car and they all say hello and Carlo and I think I'm done he starts laughing gives me a hug he's Gennady I'll take care of it is that nuts that's nuts that's definitely necessary that's why this book is such a hot seller well you've always been affiliated with the Mafia but you're never actually a made man yourself because we all know like being made was like being a slave in a nice suit that's it to me I saw what these guys did and you know and their loyalty and their honor and their oath maybe that was years ago but I've seen these guys of you people come and drop Alva Lopes to them every Sunday and then you know and they say don't let the guy in a club anymore and one time as a mistake I said to mr. Gambino I said Tony you just hug the guy said don't have him on let my kindness fool you you know it's crazy if you ever cross paths with Michael Franzese no I wouldn't I knew his father really well tonight I saw his father's just recently who passed away recently yeah I just saw his father at Parkside in Corona he used to go there all the time he's a good friend of friends boss no my I never understood Michael when he came to Hollywood was funny he had the same agent as I did Jack Gilardi and he did well but I mean I don't know it's a different time to view see most people don't realize I left I left New York City after the Kennedy assassination I came in and out in and out never lived here again I mean where I live now I always kept it I sent my kids to school there I still have it I always have it because Costello left it to me when he died it was it I went through the first time I went to where I live now I was 12 and a half years old that's freaky 65 years yeah well during your life you be 23 federal criminal indictments yeah what was that what were some of the indictments were the indictments I started a company one of my greatest mentors and still a friend of mine al Malnik he took over they say he took over for my Lansky after he died I met him early on and they were all these guys rich trading penny stock it was a big thing and so he said why don't you get into this I said what is it you buy stuff for the nickel $2.00 whatever it is but we're we gaining leads on it you know they knew when they like one loves hot dogs lungs was a franchise in Florida only that's so hot dogs soaked and still stale beer they used to get the beers from the Brewers and them that's what they boil in him well that stock came out at 50 cents a share when $296 split three ways became Caesars world so I opened the company called the 72nd Street investments corporation and I didn't get a license or anything when I filled out my job you know my up my application of all that I never put my date of birth in it with their advices don't put it on and I submitted and I got a license and when I did I didn't hire anybody not all the people from Chicago commodities market Wall Street I'll retire in Florida so I ran an ad offering ownership equity in this company and just for you to tout stock we have a chat letter come out and we didn't charge your commission we did an honor system give us what you would give you stockbroker and we gave my bank account you couldn't believe the money started coming in so I got 23 fell indictments so the first day is trial I'm in the Federal Building I'm there by myself all dressed up I think I had like a twelfth karat pinky ring on and they call it a cola thing - and then the phenols coming in six seven guys with booked boxes on carts and all this and they called the court to order and the judge says to me mister mister you have representation I said Your Honor I'd like to approach the bench I do not want to embarrass the federal government and they're all looking at each other there's a murmur that you know the the prosecutor's table so I approach the bench and they all come running up there I said Your Honor I said in the eyes of this court I'm an infant he said what are you talking about I said when I signed that application I was only 18 years of age they license man supposed to be 21 in the eyes of the court I'm an infant and they run back and the own lookit's relay files because they had all my records and sure enough the application didn't have it that's they converted on it they let it go I paid the fees upfront I in fact what I did do on the recommendation of my friends they said over pay it let it be a diversion so I think I sent like three times the amount of money clear in on it and so they sent me my license so they need to recess and see what else they could do they call me back two weeks later and they call the court to order and they dismiss all charges so I said Your Honor I have one more request and he said I wouldn't press your luck too much mr. Russo I'm not pressing my luck sir it's my right is what you're right I said well when they arrested me I was on the front page a Miami Herald the son and all that I said I want this to be on the front page they have to guarantee in they've ruled by reputation around the world and he granted it quite a life quite a life coz and I'm doing the Godfather yeah no I mean they're still going because after the Godfather you're at a small flashback in The Godfather to you were in rush hour to you were in a Seabiscuit the best league any given Sunday I'm gonna give you something I was just gonna say that what a great movie to be a part of oh yeah no I have had I've done 200 hours of television involved in 46 films and now I'm about to do my life in a film I can't believe it yeah all was someone who's never taken acting class never uh you know did Broadway leading up to his first film nothing you just kind of bluffed your way through the whole thing the only person can make this mcsnack statement Marlon Brando was my only acting teacher Frank Sinatra's my only singing teacher and Marilyn Monroe taught me how to be a man at 16 right cuz uh Frank Sinatra is the The Godfather of one of your kids yeah the shadow yeah amazing my nightly on I now have nine sons two daughters and ten grandsons that insane twenty what do you think no that's insane uh what do you think was your greatest Frank Sinatra story ever all of them well when he was teaching me how to sing he said you know I want to sing come to the house sometime so I called Dorothy I said when's he gonna be home so he said he said he normally comes home Sundays on Mondays I said well he told me to come down it's all right so she calls me says come Tuesday and Wednesday at this time you never got up until 2 or 3 o'clock and she said bring a bathing suit I said I'm on a swim I'm Aneta saying she's Springer Benson so I get to the house my I have my old crew that down the road staying I wasn't staying South Services come for lessons and I used to go into Palm Springs all the time because they'd leave Vegas and go there in the fall is always nice and Palm Springs so I get there and I think his name is Henry it says a masseuse you bring a bathing suit I said what's with this bathing suit I said I want to sweat him he says you got to go swimming I said go I used to go out to the beach the Cabana out there his robe maidens are all clean for more on so here comes Sgt wood a robe on he said get in the pool ice Frank what is this he says you want to learn how to sing you gotta learn how to breathe is you know why I could sustain my notes and phrase the way I do because Tommy Dorsey I never knew when he was taking a breath he taught me how to do that he's now I want you to submerge yourself underwater and I'm gonna time you and in the next 2 or 3 days we're gonna expand your lungs so you can start sustaining notes that was my singing lesson then the last night we get drunk him and I and we just reminiscing and I made him a promise cuz he always thought I could sing him so funny I made him a promise that whenever you do his show I want you to sing this song because I was with him a couple of times when he broke down over a Oh God Ava gone he tried to kill himself you know I don't know if you know that he tried to kill himself in his agents apartment up on 72nd Street Mayo they found him with his head in the owned and he destroyed his vocal cords for about a year and a half everybody thought his career was done but he needed to get that picture here to Eternity and the only way he can get it was to convince Cohan to give it to many wouldn't that's a fact that's a part of the godfather that he hated because they they look like their mom got it for them and it was Ava Gardner Ava Gardner went away with colored for three days and Acapulco so he could have his way with her but she made him give him the pot and when he found out about that that's why the song is all the way and he taught me the song and I sing it at every show and I dedicated to him and Ava got in every show so at one point in your life you cross paths with Bill Clinton well yeah what happened was we were both invited to Australia this gentleman who was he owned all of these they called him froggy calm he owned all the phone lines over there he was a big benefactor and he loved Bill Clinton and he paid bill 250,000 ago would paid me a hundred grand ago to speak at this big fundraiser and then his personal Secret Service guy Bobby and I got close and before they'd leave clubs or restaurants Bobby would give me the list of people bill would like me to take home the lady in the green dress 200 the blue dress and you know I did so we really got close and then one morning was like I've forgotten a minute maybe 11 whatever was there I get up and this frog men coming down from helicopters on our balcony on the roof I mean all kinds of gear so I go to the double door my suite and this secret service out there they said Johnny go back to bed I said hold it we said we know what's going on we have to move the president I said what's going on he's turned the television on and I turned the TV on and that's when he saw the second plane hit that Tower I was winning 9/11 is that a while well uh apparently there are some stories he told about Bill Clinton in various women oh I mean bill and I parted then we had some it was crazy especially on uh what uh what's her name is Bo cuz you know there's nobody there we had two Secret Service with us on the boat and they had a follow boat but then we we had some fun he's a party guy I'll tell you right now though I've never seen a guy with so much Chris I just saw him at Berkeley sent about two years ago I was hosting a high-roller party in the super box and Barbra Streisand announces that the First Lady and the president is in the audience Bill Clinton and now I'm I'm watching him on the monitors up in my suite so I still have Bobby's speed dial his cell phone so I see Bobby Israel I know you're in the house I could hear the noise I see I'm up in a booth superbook's 125 a I said if he wants to stop by combine so he I seem lean over to him but I'm watching all move leaning over then he leans over to Hillary and next I guess he talks is gonna go to the bathroom about five minutes go by the butler comes in sinister so you're not gonna believe who's at the door now I have the president of Mohegan Sun with me and he's high rollers I said let him in I don't let him know who's coming in and Clinton comes over me gives me a hug and he's looking at all the girls I had up there that's all he was there for but it solidified me with the Mohegan Sun Shane forever which I work for yet when he said is it I don't we had so many different nobody had the president night states come up to both I mean well yeah Bill Clinton cheating on Hillary is not a shock oh my god so ridiculous and the winner the whip I tell you I hung out with a lot of guys including Sinatra this guy walks in a room and women leave their husbands the President of the United States I mean what do you expect how can you compete with that I know but I mean I don't see anybody running after Truman what a peanut vendor right well Gianni Russo hell of a hell of a life that's still going strong appreciate you sharing our store you know sharing your story here and I mean it's just kind of mind-blowing it just kind of shows how you could really accomplish things without going to regular route just as long as you have the will and the balls to really pursue what it is that you want you could do anything you want I said you know were you saying that I wrote the book where I was 75 and I said in the last sentence in my book is yes you can if I could do it anybody you know I mean that now even I mean if I'm allowed to say this on your show the book is Hollywood Godfather my life in the movie in the mob I now have a podcast Hollywood Godfather podcast that's gone viral and so I'm not going away anywhere I'm like a cockroach you can't get rid of me that's what it is Gianni appreciate you sharing your story thank you very much I appreciate it until next time say thank you

Channel: djvlad

Views: 1,017,549

Rating: 4.8143325 out of 5

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Id: dJuAA0zttBM

Length: 87min 34sec (5254 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020