Michael Franzese is a former captain in New York’s Colombo crime family who left the mob in the 1990s and now works as a speaker, author and YouTube host. In the 1980s he was one of the mob’s biggest earners, largely through a gasoline tax fraud, and he served prison time after pleading guilty to racketeering in 1986.
Brian Rose has interviewed Franzese three times on London Real, between 2020 and 2022. They have talked about his life in the mob and how he left it, Brian’s 2021 campaign for Mayor of London, and his argument that governments now behave like a mob racket.
Each interview is listed below in order with a short summary.
Mafia Secrets Revealed (2020). His first interview and the one that tells his own story, from the Colombo family to leaving the mob.
Franzese became known for running large frauds that sat alongside legitimate businesses, most notably a scheme in the early 1980s to avoid federal and state gasoline taxes. He has spoken publicly about how the money was made and what it cost him.
Franzese pleaded guilty to racketeering in 1986 and served prison time. He says he became a Christian in prison and left the mob in the 1990s, which is the basis for his later work as a speaker and author.
Speaking in 2022, he argued that modern governments behave like a mob racket, using power and fear to keep control. The comparison is the theme of his book Mafia Democracy.
In 2021 he backed Brian Rose’s independent run for Mayor of London and argued that voters should look beyond the two main parties.
Michael Franzese is a former caporegime, or captain, in New York’s Colombo crime family who left the mob in the 1990s. He was born in Brooklyn in 1951 and is now a speaker, author and YouTube host.
Across three interviews from 2020 to 2022, Franzese talked about his life in the mob, how he made his money, why he left, Brian Rose’s campaign for Mayor of London and his view that governments behave like a mob racket.
Start with Mafia Secrets Revealed from October 2020, which covers his own story.
Three times: in October 2020, April 2021 and May 2022.
Yes. In 1986 he pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax conspiracy charges and was sentenced to ten years. He was paroled in 1989, returned to prison for a parole violation, and was released in 1994.
Mafia Democracy, published in 2022, is Franzese’s book comparing the way governments use power with the way the mob ran its rackets. He discussed it with Brian Rose in May 2022.
Official site: michaelfranzese.com
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