‘You die': New York mafia boss unleashes on gangs in Sydney, Melbourne
Crime gangs playing out their drug wars on Sydney and Melbourne streets are lacking the moral compass of old school New York criminals who made sure 'their own' were protected, according to Michael Franzese, one of the world's most powerful former mob bosses.
'I spent over 20 years in that life, I grew up in it with my father, a major figure, and the truth is we didn't go around killing innocent people, we took care of people in our neighbourhood,' Franzese told news.com.au.
'You couldn't get involved in the drug business, you deal with drugs you die.'
Franzese said allowing innocent people to get caught in the crossfire of organised crime was an example of 'morality being at an all time low'.
Since the gang war in Sydney began in October 2020, 28 people have been shot and killed – eight of them innocent people, while a further six have been injured – many of them children.
On Monday a f50-year-old emale kebab shop worker was caught in the crossfire, critically injured when two men stormed the store and opened fire.
Melbourne is facing the same crisis, and was shocked in January this year when 27-year-old 'completely innocent' Katie Tangey died after arsonists linked to the city's tobacco wars hit the wrong house.
Franzese said the rise in attacks on innocent people was a reflection on the deterioration of society in general.
'I think it's a reflection on the decline generally of the world we live in. When the mafia originally started in the US there were lots of street gang wars, innocent people caught in the crossfire but it was all straightened out, divided into families and we were very careful,' the 73-year-old said on the eve of his Australian visit.
'We had a code of conduct. Today I would say it's the attitude in general. The conduct has been deteriorating.'
Franzese, who was played by Joseph Bono in Martin Scorsese's classic movie Goodfellas, was the caporegime of the New York Colombo crime family but left in 1995 after serving eight years for a $520m tax dodge.
He became a major target of law enforcement and was arrested 18 times, indicted seven times and had two federal racketeering cases brought against him, one by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
These days Franzese travels the world telling stories of his mob days, being as 'honest' as he can about his violent way of life, hoping he can wipe some of the shine, courtesy of Hollywood, of a career in crime.
'I like to be as honest as I can, it gives me a lot of credibility,' he says, though shying away from directly answering a question about whether he has committed murder.
'When people ask me that I tell them I lived a violent life at a violent time and if you're part of the life then you are part of the violence. People are usually satisfied with that answer.'
Forced to postpone his planned trip to Australia because of immigration hold-ups, Franzese has now provided all the paperwork about his criminal history to satisfy officials and will hold talks in Sydney and Melbourne in July.
'There's a lot of interest in my former life especially in the last four or five years because of social media raising the level of interest about mafia and mob life in general,' Franzese said.
'No doubt Hollywood has played the major part. There has never been any kind of organised crime life that has been romanticised and publicised by the media and entertainment industry as much as the New York mob life,' he said.
'No other group has been covered in such a romantic way.'
But the reality is a world away.
'People were very upset when I walked away. The bottom line is I had a lot of years where I struggled because my boss was very upset and took it very personally,' he said.
'You are not allowed to walk away. I need to lie very low, I moved to California. The bottom line is I did not join witness protection or cause hurt to anybody so it turned out okay for me.'
The catalyst was a woman.
'I wanted to marry her. The mob life, the mafia life, it's a bad lifestyle. I don't call the guys bad, I had many friends. Good people do bad things. Some very good people did bad things and at the time we believed it was justified.
'The life is bad though because I don't know any family member of that life that wasn't devastated. My dad was in prison for 42 years. My mum blamed him for everything, and rightly so.
'I knew I had to change to preserve my family. I chose my wife over the life. We've been married for 40 years so I made the right decision.'
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