Has anyone ever refuted Franzese’s claims? He always gave off a Michael corleone vibe to me for some reason.

IMO Michael franzese is not on this list at all. Guy looked at getting time and ratted to get a reduction on non-lcn guys then gave up the life. Guy comes across well but fell upon the gas tax scam that made his name in the life.. I like his story about the sit down with gotti and believe it. However gotti would’ve died for it and Michael wasn’t into the life like that.

And all the god stuff is BS IMO designed to make a good living from the speaking circuit. Don’t buy it in the slightest.

Well he was smart enough to leave that shitty life. Gotti during for the life is nothing to be proud for lol.

Agreed. I was referring to the topic of sons who were the real deal re lcn. Not necessarily their IQs..

There is no real way to refute his claims, but the Persicos didn't like to share, why would they share with him? If anything they would have kept milking him for all that they could and then gotten rid of him, they were able to get rid of a street smart gangster like Wild Bill, why not him?

Was Franzese the main benefactor of the profits from the gas scam? Whenever it is brought up it sounds like he was making most of the money. Casso was making a lot but nothing close to Franzese apparently.

I believe Franzese got in their first with his guy. I’ve read both their autobiographies. I Remember cassO got testa to whack out the guy giving his Russian gas scam guy trouble.

Didn’t each family have a representative to handle the gas scam for each family? Pretty sure Joe Glitz Galizia was the rep for the west side. Maybe the Bonanno’s didn’t have anyone since they didn’t have a seat on the commission at the time. Who was the rep for the Gambinos?

I thought the Lucchese’s and Colombo’s were in on it the most. How envious were the bigger families like the Genovese and Gambino’s? Casso has said that the gas scam made him more money than drugs ever did. Franzese allegedly made millions a week. If the American mafia could keep finding rackets that earned like this then they could’ve really stuck to their model of making money and doing business without having to sell drugs.