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