John "Sonny" Franzese reportedly committed his first murder at the age of fourteen. As a "made man" for the Colombo crime family, he operated out of his Long Island home specializing in racketeering, fraud, loansharking, and other illicit deeds he would deny to his dying day. His career in organized crime spanned over eight decades—and he was sentenced to fifty years in prison for robbery charges. But even behind bars, Sonny Franzese never stopped doing business . . .



This is the true story of an old-school Mafioso as it's never been told before. Newsday reporter S. J. Peddie interviewed Franzese in prison—and uncovered a lifetime of shocking secrets from the legend himself: why FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had a very personal interest in Sonny; how Sonny managed to juggle numerous affairs with women, including a famous model; how Sonny spent a third of his life in prison—and still managed to earn untold millions for the mob; how Sonny accidentally revealed some of his worst crimes—to a "friend" wearing a wire; and how Sonny hobnobbed with celebrities such as Ava Gardner, Jayne Mansfield, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dionne Warwick, among others.



This is a must-listen for anyone fascinated with Mafia history—and a rare look inside a criminal mind that has become the stuff of legend.

Based on exclusive interviews before his death in 2020 at age 103