Colombo Family Underboss Sonny Franzese under indictment again

Long time Colombo crime family member and reputed Colombo family underboss Sonny Franzese is once again under indictment. Franzese has been a member of the mafia and Colombo family for years and is still active at the age of 93. Franzese has been around since the days of Frank Sinatra and his legendary concerts at the Copa but is showing no signs of a possible retirement.

The new indictment against Franzese is for shaking down Hustler and Penthouse strip joints. Franzese offered the strip clubs protection from other criminal elements for a price. Franzese even personally along with members of his crew visited the establishments to see the girls and have the little people pay homage. During a visit to the Penthouse Executive Club a manager refused to comp Franzese’s bar tab he had one of his soldiers threaten to throw him down a flight of stairs asking if by the time he hit the ground he could come up with a way to get rid of the bill. He also threatened a manager at the Hustler Club after being told he could not drink for free and after wards the club manager apologized to Franzese and kissed his hand prosecutors claim.

Franzese has already served an 11 year sentence for bank robbery and from that conviction is still on parole until he is 102 years old. Since then he has been jailed on five separate occasions mostly for associating with known mobsters which is a parole violation. He has one son already in the witness protection program and another son who left the mafia and has now become a born again christian. The new extortion charges are going to be tacked on to a racketeering case already in the works in which there will be testimony from informants that Franzese boasted about “killing a lot of guys”.

Prosecutors say they have wiretap evidence of Franzese talking about the art of murder and tips on how to avoid leaving behind forensic evidence and advice on how to dispose of a body. Franzese on a recording explains how to dismember a body in a kiddie pool and dry the body parts out using a microwave before stuffing the parts into a commercial garbage disposal unit. Franzese was caught on tape saying “You cant have a body no more , its better to take the time to get rid of a body instead of just leaving it in the streets”. The federal judge in the case has yet to decide if the jury will be allowed to hear these graphic tapes. Franzese’s lawyer says he will lobby to have the strip club charges thrown out because they were leveled just a month before his trial for loansharking and extortion of a pizzeria.