Oldfellas

The Mafia has aged just like much of America and the rest of the world.  Guys who are up and coming no longer want a long apprenticeship.  They want everything now and have no intention of waiting.  Yet mafia leaders are living longer than ever.  The problem is just like the problem that faces legitimate Americans - they can no longer earn like they could in their heyday.  Today the problem with the aging Mafia is even more pronounced because the Feds take your assets away with powerful laws like RICO.  Let's say you own a business and property. Today they seize it and after your prison term you come back to nothing.  Not the case with Vincent Asaro, a former Bonanno Capo who is now on trial in Manhattan US District Court for (among other things) the 1978 robbery of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry from Lufthansa Airlines.  It was most famously portrayed on the big screen in the movie Goodfellas.  

Vincent Asaro is now 80 years old and not only facing the robbery charge from the Lufthansa heist, but a 44 year old murder.  Paul Katz was an associate of Jimmy Burke’s, the Irish hoodlum made famous by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas.  Burke got information from his law enforcement sources that Katz was cooperating so he strangled him with a dog chain.  Burke and Asaro buried him in a vacant queens home under some concrete.  Years later Burke contacted Asaro from prison and had him move the skeleton to the basement of a home he owned.  It might never have been discovered, but one of the men who helped decided to cash in on his time in the Mafia.

Gaspare Valenti, a cousin of Asaro, was over his head in gambling debts.  So, he went to the FBI.  He started wearing a wire and he recorded over 1000 hours of conversations with many Bonanno family members. Valenti was paid by the FBI the whole time he was wearing a wire.  

The lawyer for Asaro is making a big deal about this, but Asaro’s words come from his mouth and that is a fact.  What the US Attorneys fail to realize is that American juries that are made up of mostly blue collar and retired people are sick of these government vendettas.  

They spend millions of dollars paying a loser criminal to record another older criminal for a crime that took place 30 years ago.  They cannot stop the killings today or the invasion from Mexico, but they waste resources to go after an old man?

The government spent 3 weeks presenting its case, which included playing some bad tapes of Asaro complaining he did not get his share of the famous heist.  He even spoke about being worried he would be put on the shelf by the Bonanno family.  The problem is that most of the tapes are bad and they are spoken in a code.  They have to be explained by Valenti and he did not come across as likable. Juries also resent that murderers and criminals get paid by the FBI when they have to work hard just to live.  The former Underboss Sal Vitale made an appearance on the stand. He was above Asaro and made millions and murdered many people, yet he is free?

The case rested on the tapes, yet as damning as they were, Asaro never says Lufthansa or admits directly to murder.  They brought in 33 witnesses and dozens of pictures but not one picture showed Asaro engaged in a criminal act.

Valenti did describe how the robbery of Lufthansa went down.  It is a riveting first hand description of what it was like to break in and steal so much cash.  They formed a chain and handed over 50 boxes of $125k in cash from the vault to the van.  How did they plan the robbery so well, only to forget to have a place to keep the cash afterwards?  They ended up keeping it at Valenti’s home for the next couple of days.  They had no idea that there would be so much cash and the heat it would cause.  The police found the black van just like in the movie Goodfellas.  They found the yellow styrofoam popcorn that was used in the boxes to pack the cash.  They just ate the details up, but all that showed them was that Valenti was in on the robbery.

Asaro’s lawyer spent just one afternoon on two witness and then rested.  The jury took two days but came back with a not guilty verdict on all counts.  After two years in custody, Asaro was free to go.  The first place he went was to get a plate of pasta.

Sonny Franzese: Still Going Strong

Sometimes you can read transcripts and get a feel for what is going on in a courtroom, and sometimes you can tell from what is going on that somebody is cooperating.  Sonny Franzese was on another level.   At one time, he was seated in the courtroom a wheelchair and and needed a fresh battery for his hearing aid.  An FBI Agent from the C-38 Colombo Squad was about to testify.

The FBI Agent started to speak about John Franzese Jr who is a proactive source for the FBI.  He agreed to wear a wire for the FBI against his father.  Sonny found out that his son John was working for the FBI in October 2006.  The FBI found out from another proactive source, Gaetano Fatato, who was wearing a wire when Sonny found out.  Gaetano wore a wire from 2005-2007 and made 242 recordings over 1000 hours for the FBI.

Sonny was very upset and worried that John might say something about Tommy Gioeli, who was the street boss of the Colombo Family.  He feared that it would make it look like he condoned what his son had done.  Sonny was so upset that he went to Gaetano’s home to speak to him right after he visited his parole officer. Sonny had thought that he would be picked up but now he felt the FBI was leaving him on the street to make it look like he was also cooperating.

Sonny told Gaetano that there may be a time when he would have to call in his son in and then they would... (Sonny then made a pistol with his finger) Gaetano agreed that he would help.

Sonny had asked him a year before if he would be willing to kill if asked and he agreed.

Sonny spent a lot of time with Gaetano and one time he started talking about the old days and he told him he had taken part in possibly 60 murders.  At the time, Sonny was the 92 year old acting Underboss of the Colombo Family.  He had never had real job in his life.  John Franzese Jr. would live to testify against his father and other Colombo figures, and told of flying around in a lear jet with tons of cash when his dad was younger.

In some ways I feel bad for Sonny because his own son John testified against him.  I knew John when he was in California and lived at a drug rehab place.  The guy was always a loser and was always supported by his family.  Sonny’s other son Michael had been a Capo in the Colombo Family, but had successfully walked away from the life.  Michael would later become a Christian speaker.

In other ways, I do not feel bad for Sonny because he lived his whole life dedicated to the Mafia.  He lost two daughters, really his whole family because of the Mafia.  He made a life out of shaking people down.  The saying on the street was “His pockets are sewn shut,” meaning he would never go into his pocket for anyone or anything.  He always used his connections or someone around him to pay for things, every meal, every tank of gas, every little thing.  

The Government blamed him for glamorizing the Mafia in the media because he was spoken about in at least 15 books as a Legendary Mobster.  The glamorization comes from those in Hollywood who have never held a pistol, never struck a person, yet feel the need to make up Hollywood versions of the truth.  The truth is, he’s an old man who has lost his family, who committed many violent crimes against others in the same small crime world, spent over 50 years in prison, retains the respect of some, but the love of few.  I once asked a former Colombo capo friend of mine, “Do you know of any happy endings in the mafia?”  He thought about it for a minute, looked at me, and said, “None.”  You can can glamorize Sonny all you want, but its not a happy ending or a happy life.

Sonny is 98 years old today and has a release date of 2017 when he will be 100 and still owe 3 years of parole.