Gang Land’s Jerry Capeci writes,.
Six months ago his jailers ruled that the legendary gangster – at age 99 – was too sick to go home. But last week, now a venerable 100, John (Sonny) Franzese got a hero’s welcome as he exited the prison gates, having kept his promise to his sentencing judge to do the full 50 year sentence he got for a crime that many people don’t believe he committed.
Mr. Capeci writes, “Dad was no angel, but that bank robbery conspiracy they got him on was a frame up,” said Franzese’s son Michael, a former Colombo crime family capo who followed his father into the mob, and now preaches against that way of life, but still loves his dad and insists he was framed. “My dad and I have had our ups and downs as a result of my walking away from the life,” said Michael. “But I love him and I know he loves me. That will never change.”
The senior Franzese, who uses a walker but still boasts a full head of hair and looks a decade or so younger than his age, will live with a daughter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Hollywood goodfella 