Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

99 year old legendary Colombo family mobster is denied compassionate release


John "Sonny" Franzese is blind, deaf and confined to a wheelchair.

The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office is opposing 99-year-old Colombo mobster John Franzese's request for an early release from prison because of his advanced age and medical issues.

Franzese, former underboss of the crime family and holder of the distinction as the oldest inmate in the federal prison system, filled out paperwork last year for "compassionate release consideration," according to documents unsealed Friday. The warden denied his request.

He is due to complete a 96-month jail term for racketeering and extortion of the Hustler and Penthouse strip clubs next June when he will be 100. Franzese is doing his time at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts.

The once fearsome gangster is accused of committting so many murders he couldn't keep track of the body count.

Franzese wrote by hand on the form that he has "little time left in my life" and wants to spend the remainder with his eight children, 18 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The once fearsome gangster who is accused of committting so many murders he couldn't keep track of the body count, is blind, deaf and confined to a wheelchair.

"I present no threat to community," he wrote, noting he spent more than 40 years of his lifetime behind bars for various convictions.

Franzese is due to complete a 96-month jail term for racketeering and extortion of the Hustler and Penthouse strip clubs next June when he will be 100.

The warden rejected Franzese's request so he's appealing to Federal Judge Brian Cogan, who sentenced him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gatta said a compassionate release can only be granted under "extraordinary and compelling" circumstances — which do not apply to Franzese because the prison hospital is fully capable of treating his maladies.

Earlier this year the feds seized $10,000 in Franzese's prison commissary account because he owes $116,000 in forfeiture to the government.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/colombo-mobster-john-franzese-99-denied-compassionate-release-article-1.2697126


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