A TRUE GANGSTER

Legendary Mob Boss Sonny Franzese Dead at 103: Son

The prolific mobster, who began his career in organized crime in the 1930s, left an indelible mark on the Colombo crime family’s legacy.

John “Sonny” Franzese, a prolific and famed New York mobster in the Colombo family, reportedly died Monday morning from an infection at age 103, almost three years after he was released from prison. Franzese died in a hospital in New York, according to his son Michael, who testified against his father in 2010, ultimately aiding his conviction on federal extortion charges the following year. Franzese, who worked in organized crime since the 1930s, was released in 2017 after he turned 100-years-old. He was reportedly the oldest federal inmate in the country at the time of his release. “He was so much a part of who I am as a man, good or bad. He loved his children. No doubt about that,” his son told the New York Daily News. The mob boss, who was born in Sicily and moved to Brooklyn with his family as a child, mingled with the likes of legendary singer Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. Franzese was sentenced to 50 years in prison for robbing a bank in 1967 but was eventually paroled in 1978. He was reportedly hauled back to jail at least six times for parole violations.