Michael Franzese has defrauded governments out of hundreds of millions of dollars and spent years in prison. On Wednesday, the once-notorious mafia boss made the Internet an offer it couldn't refuse when he typed those now-famous three words on Reddit: "Ask me anything."
Franzese, 62, spent a couple of hours fielding questions posed by Reddit users about his nearly two decades with the mafia.
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After pleading guilty to racketeering and tax fraud, Franzese was in and out of prison between 1986 and 1994. During that time, he renounced his ties to the mafia and became a born-again Christian. The former "made boss" for New York's Columbo crime family then did the unthinkable, when he voluntarily walked away from his life of crime in the early 1990s.
"I can't go back to Brooklyn to live, or in [New York] in general. [I] wouldn't last," Franzese wrote in response to a Redditor who asked if he has any lingering safety concerns. "Remember, I am the only made man, a caporegime, that I know of who has walked away from the life, publicly, not entered a witness protection program, and lived."
In his day, Franzese was famous for gas tax fraud, through which he scammed the state governments of New York, New Jersey, and Florida out of hundreds of millions.
"[The] gas tax scheme was one in a million. So much money. Better then drugs and a lot less ugly," Franzese wrote. "At its height, we sold 500 million gallons of gas a month and kept 20 to 30 cents a gallon of the tax money. Do the math. Lots of money."
For his efforts, Fortune magazine named Franzese no. 17 on its list of the 50 biggest mafia bosses in a 1986 cover story.
Franzese's father, John "Sonny" Franzese, was an underboss for the Colombo family and one of the most-feared mafia bosses New York has ever seen. He was an "enforcer known to be cold blooded and extremely deadly," the younger Franzese wrote in the introduction to his Reddit session.
Franzese ultimately decided to walk away when he fell in love with a religious woman, who convinced him to do so. He credits religion for keeping him alive, even after his father disowned him and the mafia put out a hit on him.
"I am not proud of my past. My wife will tell you that I do have rough nights sleeping at times," Franzese wrote. "Regrets? I would have preferred not to have gone through it, but I just move on and try to use my experiences to benefit others.
Franzese, who is now a motivational speaker and author of several books, will be the subject of a movie scheduled to be released this fall. On the subject of films, Franzese called Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco the most accurate onscreen portrayals of the mafia. (There also happens to be a side character in Goodfellas named "Mikey Franzese.")
The one question Franzese would not address directly: "How many lives have you personally ended and how many have you been responsible for ending?" Franzese simply hinted at his involvement in response: "Know this. You are part of the life, you are part of the violence."
When the same Redditor asked Franzese for a $100,000 loan from any "mobster dollars" he had tucked away, Franzese replied, "You would not want a loan at my former rates! LOL!"
Another user, "cowmanjones," then captured the surreal nature of the question-and-answer session: "A former mob boss said 'LOL!' I've seen everything on Reddit."
The entire conversation with Franzese is available on Reddit.
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