Sonny

';A gripping account of an old school gangster, someone who absolutely refused to turn state's evidence, refused to ';rat,' the last of a breed. Sonnyis well worth the time, whether one is a die-hard mob book fan or simply an interested party.Peddie has a great book here, something that really adds to the genre.' Mystery Tribune';Couldn't put it down.' Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy (Goodfellas) and CasinoThe extraordinary life and times of a legendary crime boss who refused to squealbut who finally agreed to talk to an award-winning New York Newsday reporter shortly before his death at age 103 . . . 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 decadesand 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 prisonand 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 prisonand still managed to earn untold millions for the mob. * How Sonny accidentally revealed some of his worst crimesto a ';friend' wearing a wire. Through it all, Franzese refused to break the Mafia's code of silence. Authorities believe he may have murdered, or ordered the murders of, forty to fifty people. Yet he earned a grudging respect from law enforcement and an absolute reverence from his fellow gangsters. Eventually he managed to outlive them alluntil his death in 2020 of natural causes, a rare event in the Mafia. Thanks to a series of exclusive firsthand interviews, the astonishing life story of John ';Sonny' Franzese can be told in all its bold, brutal, and blood-spattered glory. This is a must-read for anyone fascinated with Mafia historyand a rare look inside a criminal mind that has become the stuff of legend.