American Mafia: With Lurid Headlines Fading, Ex-Mobsters Weigh In On Resurgence

For much of the last century, the American mafia controlled industries, kept police, judges, and politicians on its payroll and literally got away with murder. But somewhere in between Don Corleone’s version of La Cosa Nostra and Tony Soprano’s, the once-powerful organized crime syndicate lost its grip on power. In a three-part investigation, The Daily Wire looks at what the mob once was, how it was brought down, and how it may soon be back on the rise.

In a quiet, affluent Staten Island neighborhood just a mile from Vito Corleone’s home in “The Godfather,” a horrifying scene was unfolding outside a mafia don‘s mansion. Gambino boss Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali had just been lured outside, gunned down, and run over in his own driveway, his wife and young children just feet away inside the house.

On that evening three years ago in March, New York City was suddenly transported back several decades to a time when old-school mobsters settled family business on the streets.

“GAMBINO BOSS WHACKED” blared the New York Post cover the next day. The headline smacked of the tabloid’s cover more than 30 years prior when another Gambino boss, Paul Castellano, was shot dead in midtown Manhattan, the last mob boss to be publicly whacked. Castellano had lived less than a mile away from Cali on Staten Island. 

“THE BOSS IS DEAD,” the December, 1985 Post cover had announced.

Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” (CBS via Getty Images)

As it turned out, Cali had not been rubbed out by another family or an ambitious underling. Police would learn that he was killed by a deranged lone wolf not connected with organized crime. Nevertheless, his assassination piqued the imagination of the American public.

Could the mafia rise again? Was a La Cost Nostra renaissance underway?

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Many experts are skeptical that the American mafia will ever ascend again to the staggering and often deadly levels of political and social power it wielded during most of the 20th century.

But one former “made man” warns: Don’t count it out.

Michael Franzese was once a powerful caporegime in the Colombo family. He was a pre-med student but joined the mob in 1971, four years after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery. Franzese knew John Gotti in the 1970s and became fluent in sophisticated fraud schemes, estimating he earned $8 million a week in his prime. In 1986, he went to prison on conspiracy charges. He was released in 1994 and has renounced the mafia.

Michael Franzese on trial (Courtesy of Michael Franzese)

Young Michael Franzese with his wife (Courtesy of Michael Franzese)

“I see what’s happening in the FBI. They seem to be more susceptible to corruption now than they were in the past,” Franzese told The Daily Wire. “When you’re partisan in the FBI, that means you’re susceptible to corruption on the street. Because let me tell you this: Guys in that life know how to get around people. I mean, that was one of our biggest assets was that we knew how to maneuver people. We knew how to manipulate. We knew how to get them on our side.”

“Our government is acting very Machiavellian, very mob-like. There are tremendous similarities, and that’s very, very dangerous,” Franzese said, noting that he goes into more detail on this issue in his recent book, “Mafia Democracy.”

Michael Franzese then and now (Courtesy of Michael Franzese)

“So it seems that there is a breakdown in morality in our government officials, and if that happens, guys on the street will take advantage of that and you’ll see a rise in power again,” he said. “I don’t count that out at all. I really don’t.”

Other ex-mobsters say they don’t see it happening.

Bobby Luisi was a made man, or capo, in the Philadelphia mafia. He grew up in Boston’s Little Italy and was eventually tapped to lead the Boston crew of the City of Brotherly Love’s Bruno-Scarfo family. In 1999, Luisi was arrested and charged with cocaine distribution and served 14 years in federal prison. He has since renounced the mobster life.

“I just don’t see a resurgence of La Cosa Nostra, and I just see it dying,” Luisi told The Daily Wire.

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Luisi explained that in the “war time” of the ‘90s, members of some of the New York families, the Patriarca family in Boston, and his own Bruno-Scarfo family in Philadelphia were “fighting for power, jockeying for position”