UTICA —
Former Mafia boss Michael Franzese knows he probably should be dead by now.
He knew too much about the inner workings of organized crime, and his decision to walk away from the Colombo mob family did not sit too well with those who put loyalty above all else, Franzese explained Friday.
So when faced with threats on his life while in prison during the late 1980s and pressured to snitch on other mobsters, the son of Colombo family underboss John “Sonny” Franzese chose to leave behind a lifestyle that made him one of the richest Mafia bosses since Al Capone.
“Anybody in that life has to realize that the life is destructive to families and to the people that you love … it’s just not what it’s cracked up to be” said Franzese, now 58.
Prompted in the late-1980s by his love for a born-again Christian who would become his wife, Camille Garcia, Franzese took steps to set himself on a path to redemption. Now, Franzese tours the country to encourage people to make the same positive changes in their lives.
This weekend, Franzese will return to Utica to speak at the Redeemer Church at 931 Herkimer Road about a life that brought him prestige and wealth, as well as many haunting regrets. The nondenominational church is headed by Pastor Michael Servello Jr.
As Franzese will tell those who gather to hear him speak, he became an official “made” member of the Colombia Mafia family Halloween night in 1975 at age 24. While Franzese said he initially jumped into organized crime in an attempt to get his father, “Sonny” Franzese, out of prison on trumped-up charges, he soon found himself rising in the ranks to a Mafia “capo,” or captain.
“Once I get into something, I’m going to be the best possible soldier, and that’s what happened,” Franzese said “Quite honestly, the life took hold of me. If you’re not into it with your heart, mind and soul, then you won’t survive.”
As Colombo soldier Joseph “Joe-Joe” Vitacco mentored Franzese into the underworld, Franzese said he would accompany Vitacco to Utica for business during the 1970s. It was here that Vitacco had ties with brothers Salvatore and Joseph Falcone, who reportedly ran organized crime rackets in the Utica area.
Franzese also heard of Dominic Bretti over the years, a Utica man who would join forces with Donato “Danny” Nappi and John Anthony D’Amico to kill Dawn Grillo in 1979. Like Franzese, Bretti claimed to be a born-again Christian, but Bretti later admitted that his phony conversion was only a scam to build a Utica-based crime empire.
While Franzese wouldn’t get into the details of his most serious regrets, he does admit that the lifestyle required him to turn a blind eye to many things.
“Yes, there were things I did that were distasteful and that bothered me,” Franzese said. “But I did it anyway, and that’s what you have to do in that life in order to survive.”
But once Franzese decided to step back from all that tragic unpleasantness, he knew that he could find himself in serious trouble if he made any wrong steps. So Franzese never snitched on anyone, he never “sold anybody short,” and he outlived all the people who might have wanted to harm him.
“Did I live in fear? No, because you pretty much know what fear is all about in that life,” Franzese said. “But I was never 100 percent confident that I would survive all of this.”
Despite the repeated death threats, Franzese did survive, and that is the message he tries to share with everyone else.
“For me, the bottom-line in all of this is that God had a different purpose for me in my life, and if He didn’t I don’t think I would have succeeded in anything,” Franzese said. “It’s pretty hard to deny that God didn’t have a hand in this.”
