The Debrief With MyronGainesX - @michaelfranzese Explains The Colombo Crime Family Underworld

00:00:00.000 and we are live what's up guys welcome to fed reacts i'm here with the legend michael francis

00:00:06.200 um guys we've got a short show today um mike's got to be somewhere and we had some technical

00:00:10.880 difficulties earlier but i think we should be good uh mike what's up can you uh guys let me

00:00:15.940 give me a one in the chat if you guys can hear mike he's gonna start talking right now what's

00:00:18.560 up mike how are you all right myron good i'm here in uh downtown los angeles uh not one of my

00:00:24.400 favorite places but i'm here because we have business here but always a pleasure to speak

00:00:28.660 with you so hopefully this is working yeah absolutely uh guys give me ones in the chat

00:00:33.560 if you guys can hear him give me ones in the chat if you guys can hear him okay perfect they can hear

00:00:37.600 him awesome because yeah we were streamer i was acting kind of funky man so i'm glad y'all can

00:00:42.340 hear him so um mike thank you so much for coming i know you're short on time and we had those

00:00:45.980 technical difficulties so i'll get right into it this episode i was going to be specific about the

00:00:50.360 colombo crime family can you tell us about um how you got your start in the family and what it was

00:00:57.720 like working for them you know my dad was the underboss for joe colombo back in the 60s so

00:01:03.980 he was part of that crew that family for from the time he got made himself so uh that was the family

00:01:11.460 we belonged to and when i got proposed uh in the early 70s and then i took the oath in 75 obviously i

00:01:18.120 took it uh for the colombo family so that's how we started okay so um so your father has an interesting

00:01:25.260 story with them he was uh you know working with lucky luciano and those guys back in the day can

00:01:30.340 you give the audience a little bit of a insight as to your father because he was a legend in the game

00:01:34.000 well my dad yeah he was uh he was 103 when he passed away so he was quite active in that life and

00:01:41.760 he goes way back to the days of luciano and my olansky and and genovese and gambino all those guys so

00:01:47.920 he was uh he's kind of legend in that life you know um and uh i learned a lot from him quite honestly

00:01:54.220 myron you know he was my mentor i would say he was the one that proposed me brought me into the life

00:02:00.180 and uh i learned very well because he was uh he was a master at what that life was all about hopefully

00:02:06.600 you know a lot of it wore off on me because i paid attention to him you know and no matter what you do

00:02:12.300 what walk of life you're in you got to have a mentor that that shows you the ropes especially in

00:02:17.560 that life because you don't survive if you don't know it well uh that was kind of my uh you know

00:02:24.140 my you know pattern in that life gotcha um can you tell us a little bit about um joe colombo and

00:02:31.840 his situation because he was assassinated um in in new york city can you tell us a little bit about

00:02:37.880 that and um how outspoken you was well yeah i mean uh look i like joey a lot you know actually

00:02:44.180 obviously i knew him you know most of my life and uh he kind of took me under his wing when my dad

00:02:49.920 went in to do a 50-year prison sentence back in 1970 i got you know even closer with joey

00:02:55.980 and the day he was killed he was uh as far as i was concerned you know he was a good guy i liked

00:03:01.060 him very much he was a guy with integrity in that life he carried himself well uh but he made

00:03:06.800 some mistakes you know you're a you're a boss of a major crime family you don't put yourself out

00:03:12.000 there in public like he did you would know that myron you know eventually caught up with him and it

00:03:18.740 was an italian-american civil rights league rally the the league that he formed you know it's kind

00:03:24.380 of an anti-defamation league that i was very active in and we had a big rally in columbus circle

00:03:29.640 our second annual one back in 1971 i believe it was and uh that was the day that uh somebody

00:03:36.600 shot him and uh you know he eventually died from the wounds he lingered for about seven years

00:03:41.500 uh in a coma basically he wasn't really alive and then he passed away i was about 12 steps away from

00:03:47.860 him on the stage in columbus circle when that those shots rang out and it was uh it was really my

00:03:54.860 introduction into that life it was the first time that i had seen something of that nature

00:03:58.960 i was young i was 20 years old 21 years old so it was uh it was quite a quite an experience

00:04:05.920 yeah and for the audience here he is right here guys this is joe colombo here and and uh the person

00:04:11.080 that assassinated him if i'm not mistaken it was an uh it was a black guy was an african-american guy

00:04:14.760 african-american his name was jerome johnson yeah and he posed as a reporter he had credentials that's

00:04:21.780 how he got in and got up so close to joey we had a big stage set up you know in columbus circle

00:04:27.260 and it was elevated but he got right close up to the stage and you know he fired point blank and

00:04:33.200 he hit him in the brain and that was it you know yeah and he was if i'm not mistaken he was um like

00:04:39.480 pretty much uh in a coma for a long time right he was like pretty much a coma comatose yeah he lasted

00:04:45.080 about seven years and he never really came to you know from that moment on so it was uh it was tough

00:04:50.940 really was was he not able to was he still the the boss or was he able to run the family no no he

00:04:57.120 wasn't he was incoherent you know he was basically in a coma he never came out of it so you know a lot

00:05:03.360 of things happened in the family at that point somebody took over eventually carmine persico took

00:05:07.760 over who was my boss when i got straightened out finally he was already in control and um you know

00:05:14.460 that's how that's how it went if my dad was home i believe that he would have taken over because he

00:05:18.960 was the underboss at that time and and your father was instrumental in diffusing a war right if i'm not

00:05:24.720 mistaken can you tell a little bit about that um yeah it was the uh the gallo profaci war this

00:05:30.900 this was before colombo when joe profaci was the boss and um you know gallo and him didn't get along

00:05:39.060 and joey gallo had some gripes about the family without getting into all the details so they went

00:05:43.940 to war the gallo faction the profaci faction went to war and as the story goes this is what i was told

00:05:50.460 obviously it's before my time this happened in the 50s early 60s i was a kid uh the gallows had

00:05:56.860 kidnapped uh a couple of the profaci guys and they were holding a ransom and uh it was my father was

00:06:04.380 one of the guys that went in and negotiated the release of the four captives because gallo trusted

00:06:09.960 my father too and uh eventually the war ended uh because joey joey gallo went to prison and that kind

00:06:17.560 put everything at rest and then profaci uh stayed in control until he passed away in the early 60s

00:06:24.140 and that's when joe colombo took off gotcha gotcha and then he ended up getting shot um at the rally

00:06:29.840 what what ended up like what was that guy's why do you why do you shoot joe like what was his what was

00:06:35.320 his purpose well listen you know no one ever knows the truth about this never been solved but you know

00:06:41.440 the story goes that while joey gallo was in prison he you know he got close with a lot of the black

00:06:47.160 guys and that jerome johnson was actually doing joey gallo's work that's never been proven uh joey

00:06:54.220 gallo who was later assassinated also in retaliation for this he always denied having anything to do with

00:07:00.280 it but when he came out of prison uh he wasn't happy with joe colombo being the boss he thought that

00:07:06.860 he should have been the rightful boss so there was friction between them um but again it's never

00:07:12.600 been proven if you ask people they'll say that you know the fbi set up joe colombo because they

00:07:17.840 were very upset we were picketing the fbi for for months and months and months and i can tell you

00:07:23.440 this they were very very annoyed about it byron we were on 69th street in third avenue and we were

00:07:30.140 picketing we had thousands of people on the line there was i can tell you some funny things happened you

00:07:35.400 know the fbi building they were throwing water balloons down on us on the picket line

00:07:40.140 i mean they were so angry we were harassing them when they walked in the front door

00:07:45.420 they hated us being there so who knows you know what really happened yeah uh for the audience that's

00:07:50.560 wondering so when uh when joe colombo was the boss he basically formed uh it was like the italian

00:07:55.920 um american league if i'm not mistaken right italian american civil rights league yeah and and at the

00:08:01.460 time because there was such uh bias towards italian americans right like oh they're all a part of the

00:08:06.480 mob they're all criminals blah blah blah you know joe's like i'm tired of this i'm tired of you guys

00:08:10.640 you know you know ostracizing us and saying that we're criminals whatever so he made this league and

00:08:14.980 they would protest the fbi right in front of their building guys in downtown man and uh and i guess i

00:08:20.660 guess some people have you know have issues with it like hey that brought a heat to us you know what i

00:08:24.380 mean it brought attention from the feds and then some other people were like no because it's starting to get

00:08:28.100 annoying because you know they're accusing people of all these crimes that they that they were

00:08:31.660 innocent of um and i mean sorry the way the way it started joe colombo's son joey jr got arrested on

00:08:38.820 some for melting down uh coins for their silver value that was the uh charge and joey was very upset

00:08:46.120 about it and i was one of the first ones that he called you know we got a call hey we're picking

00:08:50.660 the fbi i was excited because my dad had just gone into prison i believed he was framed for a crime

00:08:56.900 he didn't commit so i saw it as a way to help my dad that's how we got started so first day we had

00:09:02.340 you know a few people on the picket line in the second year we had thousands of people on that line

00:09:08.580 they had to close down uh third avenue you know for a section and at the second rally that we had where

00:09:14.660 joey got shot we had over 50 000 people there that day so i mean this was a big deal yeah he started

00:09:21.060 but again myron you can't be the boss of a family and be going on late night television shows and

00:09:28.100 and saying things that he was saying a lot of people were very annoyed with what he was doing

00:09:32.900 on the street you know guys on the line were very upset a lot of maid guys were saying hey the fbi

00:09:38.740 didn't know who we were now they're taking pictures of all of us this is putting us all you know on blast

00:09:44.500 and they were right it's not something that you're supposed to do but so he didn't he didn't go under

00:09:49.140 any good will by doing that with the other families even yeah no and and i mean yeah he

00:09:54.020 was one of the most famous ones i would put john gotty up there too but john you know john was trying

00:09:57.860 to i mean he was kind of like in the light at the same time but joe was like actively like no i'm

00:10:02.260 tired of these guys uh talking about us so i will say this so how since he was the boss at the time

00:10:08.660 right and he was uh getting all this media attention someone else probably had to handle all you know

00:10:13.620 the criminal stuff was was who was like doing the day-to-day running the actual criminal side of

00:10:19.700 the organization no he was still in charge i mean he had his own boss obviously and and all his

00:10:25.540 captains you know uh but he was the boss and when you're the boss you're the boss and he was doing

00:10:30.260 both you know he was also a real estate broker too he had a legitimate license he was a broker you know

00:10:35.620 so but listen you know we all did that we had our legitimate business but we still handled our

00:10:40.740 business on the street we all uh those of us that were in business we we did that gotcha so um

00:10:47.140 prior to you coming on and uh coming up with the the gas um scheme how was the colombo family earning

00:10:54.020 predominantly well you know listen you do you know everybody believes that when you come into that

00:11:01.860 life they hand you a bag of money and you know you're wealthy from that point on it's just the opposite

00:11:06.980 you got to make your own way and you got to support the family you know they expect you to

00:11:10.900 be an earner for the family now not everybody is in a position to use that life to benefit themselves

00:11:15.860 financially as a matter of fact in the colombo family we had 115 guys made guys guys that actually

00:11:22.500 took the oath out of the 115 maybe 20 of us were real earners the rest of the guys were just you know

00:11:28.420 trying to get by who had a no-show job who you know had a little gambling operation put some money on the

00:11:34.180 street trying to get by you know maybe they were involved with a union uh so you know how we would

00:11:41.860 you know i earned whatever scheme i came up with on the street i had to pay up to my boss yeah you know

00:11:48.420 so if you come up with something that's on the street that's illegal you always got to pay up to

00:11:52.900 the boss that's how it goes so were we into gambling yes were we into shylocking yes were we into uh

00:11:59.460 construction and unions yes i had two unions that i was uh basically in charge that i controlled and

00:12:05.460 anything that you can do to generate money you do you know and if you come with a big score great you

00:12:10.580 know and that's how it goes yeah um so uh in comparison to other families um how are you guys

00:12:19.540 stacking up i mean at the time back you know in the heyday because you got made and if i'm not mistaken

00:12:24.580 75 or was it 76 75 75 halloween right halloween night 75 halloween night 75 uh and you were there

00:12:34.020 during the in the mafia's heyday and you you became a made guy then you ended up becoming a capo later

00:12:38.580 on in uh eight was it um 80 yes so five years later you become a capo in comparison to other families

00:12:46.580 how was the colombo crime family as far as um earning well we had good earners there but you know

00:12:52.100 we were one of the smaller families because my boss i used to say hey genovese guys they got 250 guys

00:12:58.340 you know the the gambinos got over 200 uh but us the bananos lucchese we were smaller and i said you

00:13:06.340 know why is that and he used to say well we go for quality not quantity i don't know what that means

00:13:12.260 but anyway i would have to say that you know the genoveses and the gambinos they had more guys earning

00:13:18.180 money more guys that were knowledgeable and earning money than we had in the family that i have to say

00:13:23.300 because they were bigger and you know uh when paulie castellano was in charge he was a business guy so he

00:13:30.340 uh you know he encouraged guys to be in business you know it was a little different we were we were one

00:13:35.620 of the families that were always at war we were kind of more they were more of the violent family you

00:13:40.180 know i guess you'd have to say that but then the bananas too was smaller they was always they always

00:13:45.460 had issues also so uh but you know listen you worry about how you're doing individually and you know

00:13:53.940 individually i can't complain i was doing pretty good yeah so you you were you so for you you were

00:13:59.540 really into the money uh not necessarily the worst so what were you like in in the 70s right with uh

00:14:04.740 with one of the wars that went down with the second family war um like what were you doing did you

00:14:08.980 take a side did you just say you know what no i'm staying out of this completely like because it

00:14:12.900 seemed like it was an internal thing so how'd you avoid that conflict well you can't stay out of it

00:14:16.900 there was really no war in the 70s after joey got killed it was a pretty peaceful transition to persico

00:14:23.060 because he was the guy it was two guys it was either my father or it was my personal uh but my father

00:14:29.380 was doing a 50-year prison sentence so that that put him out of it you know uh but it was a peaceful

00:14:34.980 transition there was no war the next colombo war that we had was in the 90s yes and that's when you

00:14:41.780 know vicarina who was uh acting boss while while persico was in jail he decided he wanted to be the

00:14:48.500 boss and so uh the two factions uh you know teamed up and they uh they went to war mm-hmm so listen when

00:14:57.220 you decide leadership in that life it's normally not by an election you know you take out the boss you

00:15:04.100 got to be ready and it's you go to war that's what yeah absolutely um so let me ask you this

00:15:10.500 because you had mentioned prison earlier and i didn't want to interrupt uh what is prison life

00:15:15.060 like for a maid guy um obviously you know prisons are very race-centric um especially at the federal

00:15:21.300 level how how do guys protect themselves in prison well listen you know for me i can speak for myself

00:15:28.980 you know i had a pretty good reputation coming in because i had a lot of publicity and it was high

00:15:33.780 level publicity you know i was making all of this money i was a captain in the family

00:15:38.740 but aside from that myron i have to tell you this my father educated me he said mike one day you're

00:15:44.340 going to go to prison that's what this life is all about you're going to do your time at some point

00:15:48.500 he said i'm going to give you three words they're going to help you get by in prison he said remember

00:15:53.300 that please thank you excuse me he says you know you you want to uh you want something from

00:16:00.260 somebody you say hey may i please have that you uh cut in in line and somebody maybe your friend is in

00:16:06.260 line you go excuse me do you mind if i get in ahead somebody gives you something you say thank you

00:16:11.620 the reason for that is because all these guys that never got any respect on the street they want all

00:16:17.540 the respect in prison because they're showing off for their friends yeah so you'll be respectful

00:16:22.500 you get a lot of respect in return i never had a problem in prison because you know i i'd like to

00:16:28.260 think i carried myself well and i was nice to everybody john gott he got beat up in prison

00:16:33.940 you know guys that i know got beat up because you can't throw your weight around when guys are doing

00:16:39.540 life and they got nothing to lose they don't care who you are you know everybody's kind of equal in

00:16:44.660 there in that regard so if you if you don't carry yourself the right way you're going to pay the price

00:16:50.340 no matter who you are and i learned that i learned that early on from what i witnessed and from what my

00:16:55.380 father told me so you know i had it probably better than most because i had so much publicity

00:17:01.540 and you know guys are coming over me with deals you know myron i gotta tell you something before

00:17:06.340 i went to prison i never forgot a phone number or a face because i wouldn't write anything down but i

00:17:13.140 had a you know good memory for that yeah out of prison i couldn't remember a name or a phone number

00:17:18.820 or anything else because so many guys are telling me stories that would go in one ear and one out the

00:17:23.460 other and i just say yeah yeah yeah nice and i forgot everything because every day you know they

00:17:28.820 come at you the funniest thing i tell you to myron say you know what i know what i'm doing now next

00:17:36.180 time i go out i'm not going to get caught and i used to tell him really who told you that who taught

00:17:40.900 you that because everybody in here got caught so how did you learn from somebody that that's that got

00:17:46.180 caught i said forget about it dude you go or you're going to be in the same place again it was fun

00:17:52.420 forget about it so you were you were making a lot of money on the streets i mean upwards of eight

00:17:59.780 million a week uh with the gas station scheme which uh you know puts you as one of the top earners

00:18:04.980 for between but between any family to be honest um how are you keeping all that money safe like uh how are

00:18:11.460 you yeah were you getting bags of it were you putting in a bank when you're burying it underground like

00:18:15.460 what are you doing to keep all that money safe well you know we we didn't only have cash we were

00:18:19.700 wiring money i i had a very complicated system i was doing exactly what uh joe biden is doing now with

00:18:28.020 with all these companies that he had that have nothing but they're all shell companies and he's

00:18:33.300 got money it's a perfect money laundering scheme i had 18 companies myron 18 and wow yeah 18 companies

00:18:41.780 that were licensed to collect tax on every gallon of gasoline but they were shell companies so money

00:18:47.460 was passing through them and i you know send it to wherever either i cash in on some of it or send it

00:18:53.060 to foreign banks wherever we were putting it it was very complicated the way we did it because we don't

00:18:57.460 want to get caught um but we had a lot of cash also quite honestly and i had safes in different places in

00:19:04.980 the ground and how much were you uh pass because you you were making all this money what what percentage

00:19:10.580 were you kicking up to the to the boss we had a formula that anything that i got on the street

00:19:16.900 that i didn't need help in other words nobody financed me and nobody gave me anything it was my deal 100

00:19:23.460 all i needed from the family i said look if we have ever sit down everybody anybody ever challenges me

00:19:28.740 you got to have my back and that's what i told my boss at the time i said look i said i came up with a

00:19:34.980 a deal here that's going to be amazing amount of money and he looked at me right away and he said we

00:19:40.900 don't do drugs i said it's not drugs you know i hate anything you do with drugs i said it's gas

00:19:46.020 i said but here's the thing i said everybody's going to want a piece of this and you know what happens

00:19:51.780 when that happens we're going to blow it i said so what you have to do you got to make sure i win

00:19:57.220 every argument you got to have my back all the way don't play politics let me win every argument

00:20:02.660 and i'll make you wealthy and he looked at me and he said show me and i said i'll show you and within

00:20:08.740 a period of time he was i was kicking up two million dollars a week so that bought a lot of loyalty i

00:20:13.700 can tell you that much wow you're so you were making eight and you were kicking back up to to the

00:20:19.140 boss it's about 20 20 25 is the way we figured it out now let me ask you this you're making all

00:20:26.580 this money man because here's the thing you were a very sad businessman you had the car you had the

00:20:30.820 car company you had the gas um you were lending out money on the street with high interest rates

00:20:36.580 um you had several legitimate businesses as well you had to have been garnering quite a bit of hate

00:20:41.300 from other family members in the colombo crime family or other crime families how did you protect

00:20:45.380 yourself well you know myron it's like anything else you know i was one of the younger guys and like

00:20:52.420 anything else even in legitimate business you know so there's a lot of resentment there when you

00:20:57.300 you know you're doing well and you're younger than guys that have been around for 20 25 years so you

00:21:02.020 have to deal with that but you got to deal with it diplomatically and smartly and understand the

00:21:06.820 mentality of people so i mean i had my issues but i always got by with it and it's not a question of

00:21:12.820 having to protect yourself look in that life you always got to be on your guard you don't want to make

00:21:17.700 a mistake that can cost you so you just got to play by the rules as best you can make the right

00:21:22.980 relationships get on the right side of the right people make people earn and uh you know you're going

00:21:29.540 to be okay for the most part did you um did you end up like employing a lot of guys in the family in

00:21:36.500 the colombo crime family to kind of keep allegiance uh and keep the jealousy out of out of play with the

00:21:42.580 gas uh situation no i mean i didn't employ i had my own crew of guys and uh you know they were doing

00:21:48.980 well they were all making money our crew was known for for uh being pretty well off that way but no i

00:21:54.740 didn't have to take care of anybody else i mean if people came to me for a favor you know and i could

00:21:59.940 do it i would do it if i could as long as it didn't impose upon anything that i was doing uh but again

00:22:07.140 you know you didn't step on anybody else's toes and you you did your own thing and yeah you're

00:22:13.460 going to come up with nonsense like everybody tried to get into that business i had a run-in with

00:22:17.620 with john gotti over it he wanted to get involved and i was able to you know hold him at bay in that

00:22:23.460 regard but i said look if you want me to you want to buy gas so for me no problem but i'll sell gas to

00:22:28.980 anybody as long as i know you're going to pay me uh so you know we put a lot of guys in business back down

00:22:34.420 too gotcha um so after you left the life um did you have any enemies or people trying to come after

00:22:41.780 you uh after the fact from the maybe whether it was from the colombo family or some or somewhere else

00:22:47.620 the only people that were upset with me were my own people for walking away my room because you

00:22:51.940 can't do that you know you're doing it for life when you get in it allegedly um so people were very

00:22:57.620 upset my father was upset with me quite honestly for quite some time we patched it up later on

00:23:03.140 uh persico my boss was pretty upset with me um but i knew i was going to encounter that

00:23:09.300 but the bottom line i also knew i wasn't going to hurt anybody because that's that's not what i was

00:23:13.940 about so it took a lot of maneuvering not to do that to try to you know you may understand this to

00:23:21.060 try to stay on the right side of the fence so they really believed i was out of the life yeah

00:23:26.020 uh and yet not hurt anybody and i i will tell you this i don't think anybody i know for a fact

00:23:32.500 if you look this up uh myron i don't think there's anybody that was able to

00:23:38.980 to construct the deal that i had and get and and not put anybody in prison or testify against anybody

00:23:46.820 and yet you know walk away clean as a matter of fact uh john gleason do you know who john is

00:23:52.660 john what was it john gleason you said he's a he was a federal prosecutor he was he was actually my

00:23:58.740 prosecutor he also was the guy to put uh john gowdy away he was the prosecutor on gowdy's case

00:24:04.980 okay yeah john gleason he just recently wrote the book gowdy i think it was called bringing down

00:24:11.460 gowdy something like that yeah john jake he was also a federal judge okay yeah this is back in new

00:24:18.100 york no i don't think that's him that's somebody else no no that's no it's john gleason put federal

00:24:24.100 judge or prosecutor or put gowdy next to him you'll finally you'll see it hold on

00:24:33.460 uh yeah guys where i'm chief of the organized crime unit yeah this is yeah that's that's him

00:24:38.340 before he got appointed to the bench okay yeah so he was an ausa person he recently wrote a book

00:24:46.820 and in the book he basically said that michael francis took the government to the cleaners

00:24:53.300 that was a quote in the book oh really yeah because it was uh i i just look i manipulated them

00:25:03.140 in the end of the when they found out what i was doing they sent me back to jail i did another three

00:25:07.700 years and i did it in solitary but it was the best thing that ever happened to me because when i

00:25:12.260 walked out i walked out clean and i never hurt anybody and that's what i was that's what i was

00:25:17.380 hoping not to do because i wouldn't hurt look walking away from the life is one thing hurting people that

00:25:23.700 you you know walk side by side with is another thing and it wasn't in me to do that yeah and i think

00:25:30.180 that that's why so many people respect you is because you were you know you did your time you

00:25:34.500 didn't uh no one could really call you a rat you didn't put anybody else in jail you know you just

00:25:39.140 say you know i'm just gonna take the i'm just gonna do my time and get out and walk away so i think

00:25:44.100 that's why so many people uh admire and respect you um so let me ask this as far as um what were some of

00:25:52.740 the the major because you know there were the five different crime families how'd you get along with

00:25:56.980 with everybody i would assume that it was you know crazy competition between people trying to earn

00:26:01.460 whether it's you know learning lending out money the unions i assume it must have been really

00:26:06.340 competitive at that time you know yes and no but honestly myron i got along with just about everybody

00:26:14.420 i didn't uh you know i was able to do my own thing and uh look i'm gonna be honest with you i didn't

00:26:20.820 think up this whole gas tax scheme it kind of uh i stumbled on it because a guy that was in the

00:26:28.180 business came to me i never thought about being in the gas business and he came to me with the germ

00:26:33.460 of an idea that i was able to expand upon and put the right team in place to execute because there was

00:26:40.580 a lot to do without having the government find out what we're doing and so we made it so difficult for

00:26:47.220 them that they just couldn't understand as a matter of fact you know one time uh two agents came to

00:26:51.620 visit me at my i had a dealership it was a mazda dealership and they came to visit me they said we

00:26:56.420 got to talk to they brought me outside and they said michael this was after about three or four

00:27:00.340 years they said tell us what you're doing we know what you guys are doing if you tell us we'll give

00:27:06.180 you a pass we you won't have any problem yeah like i believe that right myron yeah i still know what

00:27:12.100 you're talking about is you want to buy a car come inside i'll give you a break you know and they got

00:27:16.660 so mad at me myron they started you don't want to help us they started cursing me out i said i don't

00:27:21.460 know what you're talking about you know so we put a system in place where they just couldn't figure it out

00:27:26.100 i couldn't figure it out so um so i didn't bother anybody you know it's not like i was looking to

00:27:32.740 you know to move in on anybody's territory i was doing fine on my own and like i said whenever i

00:27:38.420 could be courteous to somebody and do them a favor i would do it you know so i had relationships with

00:27:44.740 guys in the other crews they came to me for things here and there i used to sell a lot of cars to the

00:27:49.860 guys you know i'd give them a break you know i had a dealership i would drive in a car that i knew

00:27:54.260 everybody would want i knew hey michael we want that i say bring me your cash drive me home i don't

00:27:59.700 care you can have the car right now so i sold cars to people i give them a break you know you try to

00:28:04.500 you try to be as diplomatic as you can until you can't that's how hard um so man uh so with the

00:28:15.140 colombo family right um at the time you were one of the you were were you the number one earner probably

00:28:19.860 for the family ever i i you know i can't say i mean look i think it was life magazine or vanity

00:28:26.420 fair said that i was the biggest earner the mob had seen san al capone now i don't know how they

00:28:31.780 compute that that's the tag that they put on me but look there was guys earning money i mean i wasn't

00:28:36.740 the only earner you know especially in the other family genovese and the gambino family there were some

00:28:41.620 really good earners there but i i don't know that there was ever a scheme other than drugs you know

00:28:49.620 that we didn't get involved in in a big way i don't know if there was anything ever that brought in that

00:28:55.060 kind of money quite honestly that that the gas business did i just don't know of it if there was

00:29:00.420 something i don't know of it let's put it that way so i gotta ask this and i know we're uh coming up

00:29:06.340 here because you got to get going here soon and people have been asking me this so i want to i kind

00:29:10.100 of want to get your perspective on this people have been asking like crazy cover this guy uh i

00:29:14.180 think it's rich kuklinski or robert kuklinski the ice man yeah the ice man yeah can you talk a little

00:29:20.820 bit about that because you you have a a different perspective on this um you know he allegedly had

00:29:26.020 done all these murders he was a hit man i mean i'll turn it to you you can give them a little overview

00:29:29.780 who this guy is in the background yeah i'm sure they're asking because they saw the movie and maybe

00:29:34.820 they saw a documentary that he might have done i i can tell you this the movie was very much

00:29:39.860 exaggerated he was supposed to be part of roy de mayo's crew and you know roy de mayo the gemini

00:29:45.140 lounge he was uh he was uh he was a rough guy let's put it that way but it was highly exaggerated

00:29:52.580 in that movie he was not used to the extent that they showed it as a matter of fact how many years

00:29:58.260 i spent in that life i never even heard his name never brought up never heard it nothing ever until

00:30:03.940 later on so uh it was highly exaggerated and that's all i could say yeah yeah they had they

00:30:12.340 have them at some like ridiculous kill count um and i've been like kind of nope my bad yeah and i've

00:30:18.340 been like thinking in my head like ah do i want to cover this because i don't know if it's uh a lot of

00:30:22.420 this stuff is verified you know that some there's not you myron it's not verified listen they accused

00:30:28.900 my father of 40 murders 35 to 40 and i asked an agent once i said can you give me one i said give

00:30:36.100 me one i said i'll give you one ernie rapolo my father went to trial for that and he was acquitted

00:30:41.860 so you can't even give me one so where'd you come up with that number you know 35 or 40 because they

00:30:47.380 just make it up you know now you know in the case of some guys like roy de mayo had a reputation that

00:30:53.780 we knew was pretty solid i mean he was a rough guy the whole gemini lounge thing where where he would

00:30:59.380 bring people down there but some people said he killed 200 guys do you know what you got to go

00:31:04.420 through to kill 200 guys where are these guys it's like you you don't kill 200 guys in the vietnam war

00:31:10.740 you know i mean so where are all these guys you're going to kill they make it sound like this is what

00:31:15.460 we did on a daily basis that we were out there finding people to kill it's not true myron trust

00:31:20.980 trust what are what are some of the biggest um i guess stereotypes that are like not true or myths

00:31:26.740 that that you know surround uh the colombo crime family or the mafia in general you would say

00:31:32.820 again i gave you one myth that you know people think you come into that life when they're throwing

00:31:36.980 money at you you know it's just nobody's throwing money if you don't know how to use that life

00:31:41.940 to benefit you in business well then you're not going to earn any money as a matter of fact

00:31:45.700 it's going to hurt you you know another thing you know people think when you take the oath of omerta

00:31:52.020 that it's an oath to lie steal cheat and kill it's not the oath of omerta means one thing

00:31:58.100 silence you're not even supposed to admit that the life exists yeah so you don't take a you don't take

00:32:03.620 an oath to come in there and be a bad guy but but let me clean it up now you know obviously you do

00:32:09.860 things on that because we didn't believe in in abiding by the government and the law

00:32:16.820 you know in certain things we didn't believe it and so we did what we had to do to earn

00:32:22.420 but you know a lot of people think that all we did on a daily basis was beat people up and

00:32:27.300 kill people and that it's not true believe me it's not true and most of the guys you know

00:32:33.540 you want to avoid that unless it's absolutely necessary you want to avoid it unfortunately

00:32:38.660 a lot of these foolish guys on tape you hear them threatening people and i'll break your legs

00:32:44.020 and i'll do this because they're just not smart and it gives the impression that that's what we're

00:32:48.180 doing on a daily basis because guys just they talk more than they they act yeah a few violent guys

00:32:54.660 caught on wiretaps make it look like it's it's you know they're just beating the crap out of everybody

00:32:59.060 and you know everyone's swimming with the fishes or whatever but the reality is that's very bad for

00:33:02.340 business exactly yeah and and for your viewers i want to be honest with you i'm not i'm not uh

00:33:08.020 look i walked away from the life because it is a bad life but most of the time you know here's the way

00:33:14.740 you justify it myron when i came into that life i was told straight out you know you make a mistake

00:33:20.900 you you do the wrong thing you could pay for it there's severe consequences so we understand that going in

00:33:26.580 and that's how we kind of justify it well if we break the rules we know this this can happen

00:33:32.580 and if my best friend breaks the room and breaks the rules it might be me that's called upon to do

00:33:38.740 justice the way we were but this is within the family it's within the guys that took the oath to

00:33:45.140 do that it's not like we're running around you know hurting people killing people shooting people

00:33:50.660 that's not true and i i i have to say and i'm not trying to clean anybody up look i'm out of the

00:33:56.580 life so i could talk bad about it if i want but i'm just telling the truth i'm telling the truth about

00:34:02.980 no absolutely i mean it i mean just from a practicality sense i'll tell you this from a

00:34:07.060 former federal investigator as soon as there's enormous amounts of violence you crack down on the guys

00:34:12.420 immediately so you guys the mafia would not have had its reign as long as it did if they were just

00:34:17.540 running around killing everybody every single day you know the instances of murder and you know

00:34:22.100 hits and all this other stuff these are you know acts far and few between because at the end of the

00:34:26.580 day it's all about earning money there's a reason why you know so many guys didn't get involved in

00:34:31.220 super violent acts or selling drugs or whatever that would bring a lot of attention to them and

00:34:34.420 that's why the mafia was able to exist for so long you know absolutely and it's a last resort you

00:34:40.660 don't want to make it a first resort trust me yeah no i believe it man i believe it um

00:34:45.460 mm-hmm so uh so mike real quick can you tell the people about uh what you got going on in july

00:34:53.380 yeah very excited myron i have uh recently come together with uh an old friend an old acquaintance

00:34:58.980 mike tyson and we're putting together a platform and we're going to be launching it in july and the

00:35:06.420 platform is basically mike is is looking at this point in time in his life to be a benefit to people he

00:35:12.500 wants to share his experiences and be able to uh basically the theme of the whole platform is

00:35:19.300 turning adversity into an advantage and mike and i are two guys from brooklyn we both have our share

00:35:25.380 i think mike has had it a little rougher than me growing up uh but we've been able to turn our lives

00:35:30.100 around and now you know at our ages we want to benefit people by it we want to give them the experience

00:35:36.340 and the benefit of our experience i should say so it's not only for personal development it's also

00:35:42.260 we're bringing in a team of the best qualified people that we can find here in this country i'm

00:35:47.220 not going to get into all the names they're all coming together to teach people how to uh to uh

00:35:52.740 advance in business whatever um field of business they want to go into whether it's ai real estate

00:36:00.180 construction social media platforms whatever we have an expert that's proven themselves in every

00:36:05.780 single industry so along with personal development that we're going to help people on we're going to

00:36:10.980 also help them in their business life and we're creating a platform that's going to be hopefully

00:36:16.020 a community that we believe is going to be global mike is one of the best known figures in the entire

00:36:20.660 world i have a pretty good following and we're here to help people and um we're very excited about it

00:36:26.580 mike is very excited about it so on july 22nd at the james l knight theater uh i'm sorry james l knight

00:36:34.420 center in miami it's attached to the hyatt hotel you probably drove by it yeah we're doing we're

00:36:40.260 launching but it's going to be myself mike and chas palminteri my good friend we'll be on stage we're

00:36:46.500 going to be uh you know talking about what we're doing uh we're going to be doing a q a we got a vip

00:36:52.500 section there uh where we're going to be giving special gifts away taking photographs signing

00:36:57.140 books it's going to be a great night we're very excited about it and we're very excited about the

00:37:02.100 entire platform so i was with mike last week that's why i was down by your place and we were uh filming

00:37:08.180 a lot of the content that we're putting together and uh we're both very excited about it so is jazz

00:37:12.980 so it's going to be a good good trio no it's going to be awesome and guys if you want to meet me i'm

00:37:17.940 going to be there as well uh on july 22nd you're my guest myron yeah i'm going to be there guys so

00:37:23.220 make sure to pull up it's going to be down here in miami we'll probably have we're actually going

00:37:26.500 to have uh mike and maybe uh both the mics on uh mike tyson and mike frizzes you might bring both of them

00:37:32.020 on uh for fresh and fit uh a few days before the event man so um so guys definitely if you want to

00:37:36.820 meet me in person i will be there as well man so i'm super hype and excited about it um and we're

00:37:42.020 definitely going to do another podcast on fresh and fit i'll read these chats actually you know what um

00:37:46.100 mike i know you got to go right

00:37:48.260 yeah i got five minutes how's that okay cool perfect perfect so i'll read these real fast

00:37:52.740 jared choy five bucks appreciate that leprecoon goes get the likes up yes guys like get the likes

00:37:57.300 up and also guys go subscribe mike has a youtube channel guys uh here i'll show you guys right now

00:38:02.340 and uh did you want to talk about mob ties real quick or mob ties is a platform that we have that's

00:38:07.780 doing something similar to what champions corner is going to be doing that's what we're calling the

00:38:12.180 platform with uh tyson but yeah if you go to mom ties vip.com it'll give you the whole breakdown as

00:38:20.500 to what we're doing now we have a great community now that i've formed a while ago and you know myron

00:38:25.380 the amazing thing about this is that people are helping one another they're going into business

00:38:30.980 with one another they're supporting people you know in so many different ways it's become a great

00:38:35.540 community a great platform and that's what gave me the idea to expand it with someone like mike so

00:38:40.500 that's what we're doing i also just uh started a new podcast called the wise and the wise guy we

00:38:46.020 launched it yesterday and that's with me and chas palmitari so if you're listening in please go to

00:38:51.700 the wise and the wise guy and subscribe we picked up four so almost five thousand subscribers in one

00:38:57.780 day so we just launched it yesterday so a lot of people are tuning in i think you're going to really

00:39:02.580 enjoy it i've got my own youtube platform i've been up there for a while so i think people uh they

00:39:07.700 certainly know yeah there's there's me and chas the wise and the wise guy yeah you want to guess

00:39:12.660 who the wise guy is it's probably you yeah yeah it's good he's great so uh yeah we got a lot going

00:39:20.820 on and of course i got franzi's wine if you come on july 22nd you'll get a taste of my wine

00:39:27.060 that's franzi's wine.com and i also am in the pizza business but i've got something so special and so

00:39:36.180 exciting i'm not going to talk about it yet because when we launched this uh myron it's

00:39:41.300 unbelievable you've never seen anything like this in the entire industry in the entire restaurant food

00:39:46.660 industry it's amazing what we've come across my partner put it all together very very excited about

00:39:52.180 it we'll be launching that soon you'll be hearing a lot about it no man definitely it's it's it's great

00:39:57.860 because uh you know the x mob guy is doing pizza wine why is the wise guy podcast it's awesome man

00:40:04.260 um and then it says here low says uh the most solid men on youtube best crossover yet yeah guys

00:40:09.060 i like i told you before i really enjoyed that interview that we did uh before and i got even

00:40:13.300 more questions like i said we're tight for time today but when he comes back um in july we're

00:40:18.500 definitely going to go a little bit more in depth uh and then we got sir i just want to say love feta

00:40:22.900 and you are one of my mentors mine i appreciate that my friend but mike i'll let you go i know you

00:40:26.820 got uh you got a run right now thank you so much for taking the time out to come on and uh discuss the

00:40:31.780 colombo crime family and a little bit of your involvement with it and you know how you were

00:40:35.300 earning back then uh any last words for the people yeah you know i just want to say this myron i do a

00:40:40.660 lot of these interviews you're one of the top guys i really mean that you i like the way you come you

00:40:45.540 come well prepared you carry yourself well anytime you want me you got me so just want you to know

00:40:50.740 that and when i come down and visit i'd love to come into your studio again it'd be great absolutely

00:40:55.300 it'll be great man you're always welcome and we're always happy to have you uh my one of my chicks

00:40:59.460 she's blowing me up right now like ask this question ask this question blah blah she has her

00:41:02.900 book right now she's reading this so now man we're definitely uh big supporters of your work

00:41:06.660 and it's fantastic that you know you were able to kind of take a negative thing and turn it positive

00:41:11.140 and you know to teaching people that there's other ways to earn nowadays legitimately so that's

00:41:14.980 awesome man thank you absolutely all right man guys he is michael francis go check him out i'm

00:41:19.700 gonna put all his links down in the description if you guys don't know him you better

00:41:22.260 fucking know him after this one we'll catch you guys on the next one peace

The Debrief With MyronGainesX - May 26, 2023

@michaelfranzese Explains The Colombo Crime Family Underworld

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