Mob Story Monday The "LAST" Sit Down with Michael Franzese

[Music] my name is michael francis and i was a former capro copper regime in the colombo crime family back in new york one of the five new york mafia because of oyster families many of you know that i was in the gasoline business and when i say that you know people chuckle at times yeah i was in the business but i was really there to defraud the government out of tax on every gallon of gasoline and people want to make this clear i wasn't the only guy doing this i didn't invent defaulting the government out of tax it's done every single day believe me by different people in different businesses and different uh you know occupations the government is defrauded all the time the thing that i was able to do okay or the the thing that you have to figure out is to create a system that allows you to defraud the government on a wide basis for substantial money over a period of time and not get caught doing it and i was able to do that until i did get caught but we ran it for quite some time once again let me make this clear i'm not advocating that anybody steal tax money i'm not telling you to defraud the government i'm telling you what i did back in the day when i was in that life okay but i had to uh tell you that to set up uh the story so i'm in the gasoline business for about seven or eight years and we're defrauding the government out of tax on a huge basis to give you an idea i was selling a half a billion gallons of gas a month to over 300 stations 350 stations that i owned or operated or sold gas to i also had 18 licensed companies to collect the tax on every gallon of gasoline and then in turn we devised a scheme not to pay the government so at the height of my operation i'm selling a half a billion gallons of gas a month and we're taking down 20 30 40 cents a gallon uh whatever deal we made at that time so if you do the math it was a very very considerable amount of money at one point in time i'm bringing in six eight million dollars a week into my operation now is that going into my pocket no i didn't put six million dollars a week in my pocket or eight million dollars but i did pretty good i'll tell you that much i had my own jet plane i had a helicopter i had a house in florida a house in california house in new york i had a couple of boats in the backyard i was doing pretty good at that point in time okay and uh again i wasn't the only guy in the business but i think that we perfected the system when i say we me and my partner larry iriza who is now deceased who became an informant that's how the government uh really uncovered the scheme he became an informant when he got in some trouble on another matter and uh he allowed he told the government rather what we were doing that's how they found out otherwise they couldn't find out we had devised a pretty airtight scheme at that point in time when we were defrauding them over a period of seven or eight years and they didn't know what we were doing so i'm doing pretty good i got a big crew and that life money is power when people know you're earning money uh people are attracted to you i had a big crew i had brought the russians into my operation in brighton beach they had a big crew at one point in time i had over 300 guys working for me with me in that operation and we're bringing in several million dollars a week uh at one point in time and i'm paying up to the family this was a scheme where i had to let the family know about it i had to let my boss know about it there were other families that were trying to get involved in it i don't think they were able to do it on as big a scale as we were but some of them were doing it it was very difficult to get licensing at that point in time i had a connection to get the licenses in albany new york and in various places that we were selling gas florida too we we expanded this operation quite a bit so i'm making a lot of money i had a big crew my father came home on parole now my father sonny francis well respected guy in that life i believe until this day that if my father didn't get a 50-year prison sentence when joe colombo was shot and eventually died from his wounds i believe my father most likely would have been the boss of the colombo family because he was that much respected at that point in time 50-year sentence that killed any opportunity he had to become a boss so he was out on parole we had a big crew word is all over the street that i'm expanding i'm getting you know friendly with some of the bosses and the other families and uh it was growing and i think what happened at the time is my boss at the time got a little bit concerned about it and there was a story out there that i was making so much money and i was becoming so powerful that i was going to break away from the columbo family and start my own family there was absolutely no truth to that whatsoever never even a thought in my mind never even a thought in my father's mind there was no truth to it it was a fictional story that came out in in one of the newspapers i think it was newsday i don't remember okay but it got into people's heads you know it got into the leadership of the colombo family they started to think about this and my boss at the time was in you know in the uh early to mid 80s uh started to i think get concerned so here's what happens my father's out on parole i'm a captain he's a captain he calls me up he says son i gotta see you i go over to his house we're in the driveway uh of his house and he says look the boss wants to see us tonight i said okay dad no problem what time you want me to pick you up because i always drove him around he was on parole he couldn't really meet anybody i didn't have a record at the time so and i'm his son i was allowed so i would drive him everywhere it wouldn't go anywhere without me but he said to me you know son they want to do this a little bit differently i said what do you mean he said they want me to come in first and they want you to come in second i said dad what's with that i said why are they going to separate us no you know there's some talk on the street that i don't like i said if we go we're going to go together we're not going to let anybody put us in a trick bag we go together he said no no no we got an order he said you know this is how they want to do it we got to do it that way mike we got to follow orders and i said no dad no we're not gonna let him separate us if we're gonna have a problem let's have it together no no no no no we went back and forth this was the first time i really got into a bit of an argument with my dad i always respected my dad because he deserved that respect for me i always respected him but even if i disagreed with him always did it respectfully but uh he was obstinate and i was adamant and we went at it back and forth back and forth finally you know i threw up my hands i said you know what dad i've been listening to you all my life i don't like it but if this is what you want this is what we'll do i left i get a call a little bit later from another captain jimmy angelina calls me up he says mike meet me in such and such a place i had to meet him and then he was in brooklyn he was going to pick me up and take me to where the boston leadership was at the time so that uh it was a covert meeting because my boss was out on parole at that time so we had to be very very careful how we met with him make sure we weren't tailed so we didn't bring somebody to the meeting and get him violated on his parole you know who my boss was persico and some of the other guys i don't like to mention a lot of names but i will persico langella those guys they were all part of this okay so i drive into brooklyn i meet jimmy i park my car get in jimmy's car now there was a guy sitting in the backseat who i barely recognized i seen him maybe once or twice didn't know who he was so jimmy's driving me to this meeting this covert meeting and we had to you know be careful so he's driving around a little bit making sure we didn't get tailed i know i didn't get tailed and i'm waiting for jimmy to talk to me to tell me what's up tonight what's going on now you going to understand some i knew jimmy all my life okay all my life so i'm waiting for him to prepare me to tell me what this meeting is really about you don't say anything as a matter of fact he starts talking to me about the yankees now i'm a die-hard yankee fan i'll be honest with you i didn't want to hear about the yankees that night i wanted to know what was going on he don't say anything guy in the back was quiet that was it we finally get to this house in brooklyn where this meeting the sit-down was going to be so we parked the car it was a night in august i'll never forget warm night summer night and i had to walk about 30 yards from where the car was to the basement apartment where this meeting was i get out of the car and i assume that jimmy gets out behind me and the other guy behind him now i want to tell you this people one of the horrors of that life and i really mean that is you're a made guy you make a mistake you don't know it your best friend walks you into a room you don't walk out again you've seen it in movies i think you've seen it in goodfellas that's a real horrible part of that life and obviously in 25 years of my life i've experienced that i was a captain i start to walk down that path and i'm saying to myself hey this this isn't good there's something wrong here this guy isn't talking to me i'm going into this meeting it's midnight i'll tell you what people i was scared believe me i was scared i mean my knees started to shake my heart started to pound i remember that night so vividly that as i'm talking about it now i can hear the crickets chirping i can smell the fragrance of the flowers in the air that night that's how keen my senses got because i said i'm gonna walk into that down that steps that door's gonna open and i'm gonna get blown away this is the last thing i'm gonna see in my life and i'm telling you i was scared and you know what i started praying now i wasn't religious at all but i found out people when you think you're going to meet your maker you start to pray and i'm walking and and people i'm telling you i don't know how i don't know how i made it and people said to me why didn't you cut and run you know it wasn't heroic people it wasn't like oh i'm gonna face my death and and it was some active heroism it was pretty pretty much robotic i was such a product of that life i said okay man if this is it then this is it i guess it's my time and that's how i dealt with it and i walked down that stairs and i'll tell you when that door opened people i don't know how i didn't faint i'll be honest with you it was scary and people saw that i was nervous i mean and i think they expected that so i get into the room i knew what the setup was going to be if i was going to get it as soon as that door opened it'd be somebody standing on the side and boom i'd be gone right that didn't happen i walk into the room my boss is there we sit down at the table under bosses there and they start to grill me about the gas business i mean grill me about the money hey we heard you're taking down two billion dollars a month and i said hey you know you read a newspaper article with everybody else it's untrue but when it comes to me it's true i said that's nonsense i'm turning over more money than this family has ever seen and now you put me on the spot for it i started to get mad and then i caught myself people you don't get mad with the boss right wrong or indifferent you do not get mad with the boss so i held myself and i listened and i answered the questions because in my mind i did nothing wrong okay this was my scheme i was bringing plenty of money into the family at one point a couple of million dollars a week i did nothing wrong okay finally okay the grilling is over everybody's satisfied we get up have a glass of wine we get hugs the whole bit i'll be honest with you i just wanted to get out of there i had it i said jimmy i gotta drive out to long island drive me home drive me to my car rather i'm sorry so uh we get in the car right with jimmy we leave i say goodbye to everybody everything's okay we get in the car and i'll tell you this i was mad i was about to turn around and really blast jimmy i mean verbally blast jimmy for not preparing me i turn around and i'm ready to give it to him and he says wait a minute stop before you say anything michael i got to tell you this you held yourself pretty well at that tonight it could have been a problem and i looked at him i got even more mad i looked at him and i said you know this you knew it could be a problem you drive me there i know you all my life we're friends and you don't prepare me you don't tell me you don't prepare me at all and he looked at me and he knew the right answer he looked at me and he says well let me ask you a question mike if it was the other way around would you have told me i thought about for a second i shook my head and i said no he said well that's the life we lead mike you know it is well or better than anybody you grew up with it you grow up with your father you know the life and i you know i couldn't say anything i just sat there and i said man you know and i didn't say a word it was about a 15 minute ride to my car i go to get out of the car and he stops me i'll never forget grabs my arm and he says to me listen before you get out of that car i want to tell you something he said i am your friend he says you're not going to like what i have to say but you can take it to the bank it's true and i said what are you talking about what he says to me your father was in there earlier tonight he didn't help you one bit mike he threw you under the bus and people i'll be honest with you i was so stunned when he told me that i didn't know what to say i didn't respond to it i'm just shaking my head because you got to understand some i get out of the car i said hey good night and i start to walk back in my car and as i'm walking back i'm saying what could my father have done he would never do that but then knowing my dad as well as i know him i said i know what he did rather than re then support me and stand up for me and say my son would never steal he would never do anything like that he kind of just backed off he said hey i'm on parole i don't do anything my son does everything if money is missing i don't know about it he kind of took the high road and boy that really hurt people because i want to tell you something look say what you want but i worked really hard to try to get my dad out of prison i left you know medical school and then a pre-med student rather you know to join this life to help my father that was my only concern i got into that life to help my father i want to be clear i didn't aspire to be a mob guy my whole life i was a ball player you know i was going to be a doctor but when my dad got his 50-year sentence i wanted to help him and he thought this was the way to help him and i gave it my all now i'm not making myself the best guy in the world and i'm not copping a play and i'm not looking for sympathy but i'll tell you what at that moment i was very disappointed in my dad very disappointed because i said and i was disappointed in the life because i said hey if this life can separate father and son i seen a lot of things go on that i thought were not right we're not you know what we were built on but i said if it can separate father and son what do we really have here and it just made me think and i put it in the back of my mind i didn't talk about it i didn't say anything about it i didn't even discuss this with my father i didn't tell him what jimmy told me i didn't say a word because people in that life sometimes it's better to keep things to yourself because you don't know where it's going to go and how it's going to come back at you you keep things to yourself never said a word but i want to tell you this people if that incident doesn't happen that night i don't think i would have ever walked away from that life ever so what's the moral of the story here for me number one i was scared as anybody could be that night man and i'm not ashamed to admit it i was afraid i had fear that night to the extent that i had never felt in my life never felt in my life and i've had fear since my fear now is is you know god forbid anything should happen to my children my family i fear that i don't even want that to happen you know i i don't know what real fear i don't walk around in fear people i think you know that because i wouldn't have walked away from that life but but it showed me that i can face death and i realized when i walked away from that life i said you know what i may pay a severe price for this because you're not allowed to do that people may come after me a contract could be placed on my life but it showed me that i can face death and it gave me the strength okay and i don't want to see courage it gave me the strength to move on and say you know what i'm going to try this because nobody's going to walk me in the room they're going to come and get they're going to they want to get me they're going to have to come and get me and that's how that's how the positive side came out of this fear that i had that night this tremendous fear disappointment with my dad you know what i didn't love my dad any less when i finally brought this up to him actually i didn't bring this up to him i wrote this story in my book because i thought it was important to let people know that and my dad read it and he got very upset very upset he said to me you believed that michael it was a lie jimmy was lying to you i said dad i believe it jimmy had no reason to lie to me that night but it's okay you know i understand you dad i know your legend sometimes means more to you in this life than anything else i get it but i know you love me i know you wouldn't have sacrificed me i get what you did at that moment maybe you reacted the wrong way i don't know but i love you it doesn't matter i never never really held it against him i gotta be honest with you it did it did maybe maybe cause a little bit of separation between us but it showed me something else even the people that you love in life are going to disappoint you i tell my kids i love you to death but it doesn't mean i'm not going to disappoint you and i did disappoint my kids at times i have disappointed my wife at times and people that looked up to me or respected me maybe i disappointed them because we're human and we can't always come through for the other person but you know what you move on you don't hold the grudge because holding a grudge holding resentment holding anger for somebody is so detrimental to ourselves people and i was so happy that i was able to move on because at least okay in the last few years of his life i was able to enjoy my dad because i love him and i know he loves me so i want to ask you this question now what's the greatest fear you ever had in your life what did you learn from it and no matter how fearful you might have been at that time if you're watching this video you're still here so in some way somehow some shape you overcame it okay and we're going to overcome what's happening in this pandemic we are going to overcome it they're going to find a vaccine we're going to get back to normal at some point in time you may struggle through it you may have some some real challenges through it i get it okay but we're going to get through it and for those of you that have lost a loved one there's nothing i can say to make it better people you know that's just life and these are you know death is a part of life that we all in some way fear and we all don't want it to happen to the people that we love but we have to deal with it people we have to move on okay and for those of us that are christians and please don't knock me for my faith i am a christian and i believe in jesus christ i believe in a life afterwards you don't have to share my beliefs but some people get on there and they say the wrong thing you don't knock people's beliefs as long as those beliefs are not detrimental to you they're not hurting you and you know what i have something to say for those of you that are non-christians you better pray that us christians are wrong you better pray because if we're wrong okay you're okay but if we're right and there is a life after death and there is a heaven in hell and you haven't accepted jesus christ well penalty is severe and if we are wrong well we didn't lose anything we're in the same boat as you when we're dead we're dead but through our life we live better because we followed a man okay and our savior that taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves and love god and that's what we try to do we're not all perfect at it i certainly not but that's what we're taught to do so for those of us that believe in christ if we're right we got everything to gain and if we're wrong we're in the same boat as you anyway so if i were you do the research make sure we're wrong and if we're right jump on board for those of you that have been disappointed in somebody all i can tell you is this move on people you're going to get disappointment a lot in life you know how i deal with disappointment hey it wasn't meant to be let me move on if i have a business deal falls apart hey it wasn't meant to be i'll move on okay find the next one if somebody that i love disappoints me in some way i'll deal with it i'm not gonna let it destroy me i'm not gonna let it wreck me i'm not gonna let it kill me i'm not gonna do that and that's the attitude that you have to have people and i learned that through experience so that's it for today hopefully this is meaningful to you i enjoy doing this people i really do next week is mob story monday okay and i'm sorry i'm sorry next week rather is mob movie monday now here i want to give some of your homework a lot of mob movies out there some great some not so good the gotti movie that was done by hbo back in the 90s is one of the best mob movies ever made authenticity so on and so forth anthony quinn was brilliant okay armond asante brilliant i want you to watch that movie it's on youtube you can watch the whole movie or go to hbo go and pull it up there watch that movie and i'm going to talk about some of the scenes because obviously i knew all of those people and i was around during that time and i have a lot to say about it it was a brilliant movie one of the best of all time take it from me okay as far as authenticity the story the acting brilliant so go watch it the gotti move it don't confuse it with the gotti movie that came out last year or the year before not that one hbo gotti armand asante anthony quinn watch it we're going to have some fun reviewing that next monday god bless you all stay safe stay healthy stay blessed stay smart [Music] you

Channel: Michael Franzese

Views: 1,337,057

Rating: 4.9319549 out of 5

Keywords: franzese, michael franzese, mafia, mob boss, mafia boss, colombo family, colombo mafia, gambino family, john gotti, godfather, goodfellas, sit down, what is a mafia sit down, what is a mafia boss, mafia sit down, mafia sit down rules, mafia sit down scene, michael franzese sit down, michael francheezie, what is a capo, mafia capo interview, mafia capone, mafia omerta, fear city netflix, mob sit down, what is a sit down, sit down with michael franzese, mafia boss sit down

Id: Ea3ofaW29dI

Length: 22min 7sec (1327 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BaldrickTheBrain]

Ah Michael “I’m literally everywhere” Franzese.

[u/asphyxiationbysushi]

I love how he talks about everyone needing to be saved by the lord. So I guess all the people who lived and died more than 2000 years ago just went straight to hell.

[u/MistaTorgueFlexinton]

Is this guy an actually mobster you’d think they wouldn’t want a guy running his mouth or that a real mobster would put themselves out their like that?