Who was the Richest Most Powerful Mafia Boss?? | Michael Franzese

many of you have asked about the fortune magazine article that was written back in 1986. it's the 50 biggest mafia bosses they listed the 50 of us according to rank wealth power stuff like that [Music] [Music] hey everyone welcome to another sit down with michael francis hope everybody is doing well it is friday january 15th and uh another week almost passing by was a crazy week last week hopefully things calm down a little bit but uh you know we'll see what happens up into the inauguration and beyond but uh hope everybody is uh doing well keeping their sanity and getting through this as best you can i know i'm doing that but uh what are we gonna do today you know i tried to read through as many of your comments as i possibly can it's hard because we get thousands but uh you know i read through them and then try to judge what might be uh you know some good content to answer some of your questions many of you have asked about the fortune magazine article that was written back in 1986 and i've got a copy of it here and it's it's the 50 biggest mafia bosses the crime business who runs it how they manage it who profits and loses and that's a picture of uh fat tony salerno anthony soleno on the front page they had him as number one on the list and they actually had a list according to rank wealth power stuff like that so i'm gonna i'm gonna deal with this today and uh what i'm gonna do today i'm gonna kind of get into the list get into some of the guys give you my thoughts on it and then as we go further in this kind of series i'm gonna pick out some of the guys that i think will be of real interest to you now on this list there's probably 25 out of the 50 that i knew some way shape or form had something to do with them met with them might have had business with them i may focus on that but as we go through it if there's somebody in particular on the list that you'd like me to talk about uh let me know a lot of guys in there from chicago a lot from the genovese family a few from kansas city one from milwaukee i believe but uh all guys that uh you know this writer roy rowan considered to be prominent guys and have influence in that life now let me tell you this before we get started i don't agree with the list i don't agree with much that was stated in the article i think it's a silly list you know how do you rank guys on the street according to wealth how do you do that most guys don't pay their taxes a lot of guys have cash a lot of guys have no cash i mean how do you do it they don't ask for our tax returns so i think it was a silly list in that regard there was people on the list that i don't think should have been on the list and there were people that uh were not on the list that definitely should have been on the list so uh but listen you got to give the guy credit he sold a lot of magazines it was a big deal and uh you know in that regard it was okay but you know so much information a misinformation is out there about my former life and i try to straighten a few things out as best i could and uh and give you the real scoop so we're gonna get into it a little bit what i'm gonna do today let me let me give you some background this happened in november of 1986. i was in prison i was actually in phoenix arizona i was enroute i had just taken a plea not too long before that and received a 10-year prison sentence for racketeering you know the underlying act was tax fraud you know my deal and uh so they were shipping me out to terminal island california that's where i was designated in the fci the federal prison there and on the way they brought me to uh arizona and said they had no room that terminal line was overcrowded no that was nonsense i mean they can always fit another inmate they move people around in the bureau of prisons all the time they were just giving me a hard time they didn't want to get me out there when they should have got me out there so i'm in phoenix arizona it's fairly new prison at that time middle of the desert uh but i'm there you know doing my time minding my own business and i get a call from the lieutenant over the loudspeaker francis report to the lieutenant's office so i go there and i gotta tell you i think i said this in one of the videos it was a big heavyset guy right out of this i was right at that out of one of those movies that you see you know about these uh sheriffs or or or uh you know these funny cops and uh big guy and he sits me down and he shows me the article and uh he's what do you got to say about this and i said well i'm just seeing it for the first time i don't know anything about it he says well i'm gonna tell you this none of you mafia guys that are just like that are going to be taken over my prison i said hey uh lieutenant i'm not looking to take over your prison i'm looking to do my time and get out of here and get back to my family and he starts going through little bits and pieces in the article and uh apparently the writer roy rowan was all over the morning news shows and it was mentioned in my name because they featured seven guys in the article i was one of the seven that they featured so they spoke about me quite a bit and uh he says as a result of that i'm gonna lock you down for a couple of weeks now they don't like in the bureau of prisons when you have excessive publicity for them that's a no-no and so a lot of times they deal with that by locking you down so they put me in solitary for about two weeks if i recall while this thing played out and um you know again i think it's a silly list um you know uh and i'm gonna get into some of the guys who were they where are they now you know uh who's really interesting who's not and i'm just gonna go down the list and then in in some of the days that follow i'm gonna take particular guys and i'm gonna get into their stories a little bit my relationship with them and what you can learn from some of these guys you know look not everybody on the street was a dummy a lot of guys were pretty darn smart a lot of guys would have succeeded in the real world you know i did uh something a couple of days back where i gave you some quotes from al capone and a few other guys that were pretty spot on you know not a lot all of these guys are dummies let me tell you that so we're going to get into some of that and i'm going to tell you some of the things that i think you can learn and some of the things that you should avoid from some of the more prominent guys on the list so let's go down it number one fat tony you know who he is he was the boss of the genovese family on paper this is the first mistake that they made the real boss as many of you know who followed the mob stuff was uh vincent giganti the chin he was really number one but you know his whole deal he played it very low key made out that he was uh you know he was out of his mind in a way it wasn't in in full uh uh connection with his senses so uh i'm putting it mildly by the way but actually the number one guy on this list and the number one guy in the country at that point in time really was the chin giganti but anyway fat tony saleno and i'll tell you where he is now tony died in 1992. next was anthony accardo some of you know who he is they they called him joe batters he was boss in chicago a strong guy in chicago i would say he died in 1992. uh anthony tony ducks corrallo i think you all know who he is a luchaz guy he died in 2000 number four gerardo coutinho another genovese guy they called him jerry he died in 2000. uh jerry langella jerry lang i think a lot of you know he was a colombo guy he was my underboss knew him well he was given hundred years on the mob commission case along with some of the other bosses and uh jerry unfortunately died in 2013 doing a 100-year prison sentence number six carmine persico now that was definitely out of order because persico is the boss langella was the underboss but they had it mixed up for some reason you know his story he was my boss he died in prison uh again a hundred year sentence in 2019 march of uh two years ago number seven christopher fernari uh christy tick another lucasia guy powerful guy captain in that family he died in 2018. i knew him well salvatore santoro was number eight another luchaz guy died in 2000 philly ristelli rusty they called him head of the bonanno crew um rusty died in 1991. vinnie dinopoly another genovese guy a lot of genovese guys on this crew he died in 2005. rock ralph scopo was number 11 they had him as he was a colombo guy i knew ralphie all my life he was a captain in the family he was one of the main guys that brought the commission case about and i want to get into that maybe at another time very interesting case but rafi died in 1993. he was in prison when he died also russ buffalino was number 12. many of you know who he is you watch the irishman joe pesci played his part did it brilliantly by the way in the movie the irishman about jimmy hoffa's death he died in 1994. number 13 you all know who this guy is john gotti who uh you know his story i'm not going to get into it he died in 2002 should he have been number 13 i don't know like i said a lot of these things are in whatever order roy rowan the writer thought they should be in number 14 joe bonano you know who he is he died in 2002. he shouldn't even be on this list because joe bonanno was ostracized to arizona he left if he didn't leave he probably would get killed because he tried to you know get carlo gambino killed and so he was basically out of the life he wasn't held in in any regard at all and i don't know why they had him down as a powerful figure he died in 2002 number 15 santo trafficante um tampa bay uh guy at the city of tampa he was a powerful guy he died in 1987. carlos marcelos you know i'm from new orleans they called him the little man carlos died in 1993. very powerful guy a lot to talk about with him and i will get into carlos story he's very interesting number 17 frank balisteri they called him frankie ball he was from the milwaukee crew he died in 1993. number 18 was yours truly michael francis now the interesting part is that the 17 people in front of me they're all dead every one of them died some died in prison others died free i guess you know i mean granted they were a little bit older when this article was written but 17 people in front of me all dead do i belong at number 18 i'm not going to say that i mean i don't know how this guy got this number for me believe me i like i said i dispel this list i don't agree with it i don't even know why i'm on the list but you know i guess i was a prominent figure at that time i had a lot of publicity i was in the gas business and he thought he saw fit not only to put me on the list but to highlight me in the story and he wrote a lot about me so that's number i was number 18. number 19 vincent giganti now how did they put michael francis in front of vincent giganti when he was really the boss of the genovese family the most powerful guy in the country at the time so that in itself would show you that this is a silly list but uh chin died in 2005. joseph fariola i didn't know who he was part of the chicago crew died in 1989. joseph ayouba joey o'brien heard of him but never had anything to do with him chicago crew again died in 1997. gus alex uh never heard of him and this is interesting he was a greek guy in the chicago crew he wasn't a made guy he was greek couldn't get made but he was a powerful guy and i understand he did have some say in in the family back then they elevated him to a position even though that was uh i don't know how that worked out because you got to be a maid guy to have certain privileges and authority in that life so i'm going to look into that a little bit more maybe we'll talk about that anyway he died in 1998. vincent hello jimmy blue eyes genovese guy very powerful guy i knew jimmy he died in 2001. um so that was one two three four five the five guys after me uh are all dead i should say yeah five guys after me all dead so 17 before me dead five guys after me dead and then we get to number 24 anthony delicato uh they called him bruno uh bonanno family guy he was uh sonny red's son and uh you know a good guy he is alive and uh from what i understand he's doing okay i think he's 74 years old he's out of prison he did get a 40-year prison sentence he was convicted i think also on the mob commission case and given 40 years he got through it and he's out and i know he has a restaurant i'm not going to say where but good guy i knew him well and i got a story to tell about his restaurant but i'll tell it another time so uh number 25 michael genovese from pittsburgh didn't know him he died in 2006. uh joe gallo okay guy i knew he was a genovese guy died in 1995. number 27 phil lombardo benny squint knew him also he was a one-time boss of the genovese family powerful guy he died in 1987. number 26 raymond martirano long john they called him guy from philly didn't know him he died in 2002 have no idea if he should be on this list or not anthony provenzano tony pro genovese guy you saw him also in the irishman you know he was involved with hoffa in uh you know in a big way and we can get into that another time i'll tell a little bit more about his story again he was number 21 he died in 1988. john cerrone jackie sauron chicago crew i knew of him um i believe i met jackie in prison at one time visiting my father not when we were in prison uh powerful guy but he died in 1996. james napoli jimmy knapp genovese guy knew him he came out of my father's neighborhood uh or operated there for quite a while i have a story to tell about jimmy i'll get into that he died in 1992. paul vario cena senior number 32 lucasia guy you know who he is uh in the movie goodfellas paul cevino played him henry hill had involvement with him you know the story there and i knew paulie fairly well he died in 1988 number 33 carl de luna they called him tuffy out of kansas city didn't know him died in 2008 have no idea if he belongs on this list or not but we'll get into that number 34 jerry angelo they call him jerry boston guy and vibe what involved with whitey bulger we talked about him in our last mob movie monday i knew uh jerry angela good guy and uh he died in 2009. number 35 matthew ianello matty the horse famous name i'm sure you know him genovese guy i knew him well i got a story to tell about maddie involving vegas and and a couple other things he died in 2012. james fiela jimmy brown gambino guy i did know him powerful guy also died in 1999. notice all the deaths number 37 john riggy the cal belcanti boss good guy i knew john well i was involved with him the tv show the sopranos was basically patterned after him at least in theory it was a really good guy i liked him a lot he died in 2015. number 38 louis manner they called him bobby at genovese consolideria at one time he was sentenced to 80 years in prison for a plot against uh john gotti he was allegedly planning to kill john gotti he was convicted of that sentence to 80 years he's in prison now he's 91 years old he's very sick and i know he tried to get a compassionate release just recently and i think he was denied that so for all intents and purposes uh louis manor will probably die in prison very sick right now number 39 don diglio johnny d they called him genovese guy did know him he died in 1988. number 40 william camisano willie they called him from kansas city have no idea if he belongs on this list he died in 1995. number 41 vincent melly little vince from detroit and by the way if you know any of these names comment you know if you're from any of these areas you know let me know what you know about him maybe we can get into it maybe it's an interesting story to tell but he died in 2008 number 42 vincent solano chicago crew died in 1992 number 43 famous guy nicodemus scarfo little nikki uh he was a philly guy i knew nikki well and you know i know there's a lot said about him but i happened to get along with him and liked him a lot and he died in 2017. number 44 tino fiomaro george greco they called him genovese guy didn't know tino he died in 2010 number 45 donald angelini they called him the wizard of oz he was into gambling big time in the chicago crew he died in 2000 number 46 pete milano uh los angeles guy originally came out of the midwest but came out at uh it came out to los angeles he was the boss of the los angeles crew i won't call them a family i knew pete fairly well i spent time with him in terminal island in prison nice guy uh pete died in 2012. number 47 paul shiro a chicago guy he's in prison right now he is alive he's 83 years old another guy that's uh he was convicted on the big chicago case operation secrets i think it was called and he was given 20 years and he's trying to get out on a compassionate release another guy that was sick he's 83 years old and uh i doubt that uh that he's going to get out i think he was denied release also for all intents and purposes he may die in prison maybe he'll get out who knows but he's number 47 number 48 chris petty chicago guy don't know him he died in 2005 number 49. angelo tominaro they called him little angie lucasia guy uh as far as everybody knows he's still a fugitive he's got a pretty good history i may get into this story a little bit um he was very old when he did this uh when they did this back in 86. i'm sure he's dead now either he's about 110 which i doubt so for all intents and purposes we can say he's he's dead and then number 50 last guy on the list frank bucheri they called him the horse chicago crew uh he died in 2004. so if you're keeping score uh i'm telling you this there's 46 dead and there's four alive two that are in prison very very sick the night of compassion released and two of us are out and free and that's bruno anthony delicato number 24 and number 18 myself so you know when you look at this um you know to say that i'm fortunate to be alive and to be free and to be doing the things that i do uh considering this list was you know some 30 odd years ago i consider myself very fortunate very blessed you know i walked away from that life and you know after some struggles and challenges it worked out for me so um you know i'm not going to get into the moral of the story at this point in time a lot of things are written about my former life a lot of misinformation out there and i'm going to get into the stories of some of these guys and i'm going to get into some things that i think you can learn as a result you know i don't like to just ramble on and tell stories i like there to be uh an end game to the story what are we trying to get out of it you know you can watch mob stories everywhere you can read books you can look at documentaries but what do you learn about this stuff and hopefully you've learned something from my life and there's something in every one of these men's lives that you can learn but the bottom line is 46 out of the 50 are dead and many of them had many struggles throughout their lives let me tell you today a lot different you know uh this was this was a different era in mob life today it's a lot different it's not nearly as powerful or as strong as it was in my day and not because of me because of my contributions it was just different back then it was before the racketeering law i always say you know between the the 50s and the mid 80s were the golden years of uh causing austro mafia in this country once the racketeering laws came in the bail reform act the sentencing reform act you know that changed everything in the mid 80s they took a lot of the union power away a lot of the influence and control that we had across the board in this country um was taken away and so the government was very effective in that regard i don't just i don't agree with all their tactics and the way they did it but they did do it so i thought this list would be interesting we're going to post some of it you can look at it if you can get it online and read it i suggest that you do like i said things have changed but but you know the construction of the mob is pretty much uh the same so you can learn a lot just from from reading things uh even though there's there's misinformation in there it kind of gives you an idea of what things are all about so that's it for today again we're going to get into it a little bit more i'm going to pick out the guys that i think we're going to you know you're going to find very interesting to talk about and uh and guys that i knew and had relationships with we'll get into that so that's coming up next mob movie monday we're going to be doing bugsy great great great movie uh you're going to enjoy it and i have a a great perspective on that film and uh you know we're going to do that for mob movie monday after that we're looking at departed i believe unless you people inundate me with another movie that you want to do first we got a lot planned we're going to be doing boardwalk empire everybody's asked for that we're going to be doing uh godfather of harlem great film kind of a follow-up to uh you know another film that we did american gangster which you all love by the way so uh we got a lot on tap and a lot of other things coming around uh i just got word today from mike tyson he is going to be available in february to do a sit-down interview with me we're not going to be doing a zoom i've avoided that so unless mike's schedule changes because i hear there's a contract out for him to fight with evander hollyfield so let's see if that happens he's getting into training again but we got that coming up donnie bresco yes that's on tap i have another guy a special guy an organized crime expert that came out of new jersey uh that has a very interesting story that we're going to be talking to soon so we're seeing how covert works out if we have to jump on zoom with a few of them we will but we're going to see how it goes so that's it michael francis.com community is growing over 11 000 in it i got a zoom call with everybody tomorrow you know my inner circle gonna be great we just put a new ebook in there that's uh the greatness within you and a couple others that we put in there people are loving it 350 000 subs man you know we got like uh i think 50 000 in the last two and a half to three weeks so we're so grateful when we hit 500 000 subs it's going to be a giant giveaway i promise you a great giveaway we got planned you're gonna like it so keep uh you know uh come on in and and join you know be a subscriber we we appreciate it so that's it for today how do i always leave you be safe be healthy god bless [Music] you

Channel: Michael Franzese

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Id: yoTyXs3erPc

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021