Once upon a time, a college-educated mob prince thwarted Manhattan federal prosecutors in a blockbuster racketeering case and thumbed his nose at his Mafia heritage. He moved far away from New York and the clutches of its feared five families, and lived happily ever after with his wife and children. 

No, this is not a fairy tale based on the life of John (Junior) Gotti, who could do something similar in the coming months if the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, as expected, dismisses a still-pending racketeering indictment against the Junior Don. 

In fact, the unlikely scenario is the real-life saga of the Yuppie Don, Michael Franzese, a multimillionaire mobster scam artist in his own right who quit the mob 18 years ago and has made a cottage industry out of his resignation.

It’s hard to imagine a better illustration than Michael Franzese for the proposition espoused by Junior Gotti: There may be a Mafia axiom against quitting the mob, but members of powerful New York crime families have shown they can do it and not only live to enjoy it, but prosper in their new, straight lives.

In recent years, Franzese, a son of legendary Colombo capo John (Sonny) Franzese, (left) has literally gotten religion. He has lectured about the evils of gambling and other organized crime activities to many groups, including small town police departments, big time college football teams, law schools, conferences of the American Football Coaches Association, and professional football, basketball and baseball teams.

Four years ago, he caused quite a stir when he alleged that in the 1970s and 1980s he had induced unnamed members of the New York Yankees with gambling losses to fix games rather than pay off their debts. The charges were denied by the

Yankees and Major League Baseball. Numerous teams still use Franzese during spring training to alert players of the dangers of gambling and organized crime. 

Franzese, 52, who broke his vow of omerta in the late 1980s, implicated his father – who, at age 89, is the underboss of the crime family, sources say – and scores of others in criminal activity, but never testified against any wiseguys or mob associates along the way.

On his website he promotes his books – five bucks extra for an autographed copy – and himself as a born-again Christian who can alert any number of different audiences about the evils of the mob. He also relates how a prison guard, and a pretty 19-year-old dancer he fell in love with at age 30, and later married, helped him find redemption.

The website – www.michaelfranzese.com, of course – contains praise from several satisfied customers, including the CEO of a software company and Ron George, an executive with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.

When defense lawyer Charles Carnesi took over Gotti’s defense following his first trial, he spoke to Franzese about “quitting the mob,” which is the title of the first of two books he has written about his mobster days and his escape from that life.

Carnesi stressed to Gang Land that his client had no intention of going down the same road as Franzese.

“We believed he would be an excellent example for the notion that you can quit the mob, even if you’re not disposed to be a cooperating witness,” Carnesi

said. Like Franzese, Carnesi said, his client was the son of a powerful gangster, had attended college, and had no intention of taking the stand against his former cohorts. 

The attorney said Franzese – who was in Waco, Texas on Monday giving professors and law school students at Baylor University “a unique opportunity to see another side of the law,” according to the school’s newspaper – spoke eloquently about the inherent danger of quitting the mob. He drove home the point, Carnesi said, that while the Mafia has a rule against it, individuals can opt to break it, if they choose to live with the dire consequences that could result.

“Obviously there’s a rule, but like all rules they can be broken,” Carnesi said. “Michael talked about it very effectively: ‘Sure you could be in danger, but it’s not as if you are not in danger if you stayed in the life, where guys sitting in the front seat get shot in the back of the head by guys sitting in the back seat. If they want to kill me now, they can’t get my best friend to call me to a meeting.’” 

“He spoke to us at length and was extremely cooperative,” said Carnesi. “He said, ‘If I’m subpoenaed, I’ll be there.’ We decided not to call him when the government moved away from the absolute stance they took in the first trial, that you cannot quit. Obviously you can quit if you are willing to accept the risk of whatever consequences result.” 

Like Franzese, said Carnesi, “John has assumed that risk.”

Gang Land reached the ex-Yuppie Don yesterday at Birmingham International Airport following a talk at the University of Alabama. Franzese confirmed that he reluctantly agreed to testify, even though he feared his appearance might

antagonize the FBI as well as his former wiseguy friends. “You never skate away from this thing one hundred per cent,” he said.

Franzese recalled: “I wasn’t thrilled with it, but I said, ‘If John is for real’ – And why wouldn’t he be? It’s no surprise that anyone in his right mind would want to leave the life. I believe it. – I said, ‘If I’m subpoenaed, I’ll come in.’”

Franzese, who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in Brooklyn 20 years ago, forfeited $5 million, agreed to cooperate and then reneged, serving about seven years in prison before his release in the early 1990s. Two years ago, according to court records, the feds placed a lien on proceeds from his second book, “Blood Covenant,”citing a $10 million fine that hasn’t been satisfied.

Franzese declined to disclose the unpaid balance, or a payout schedule that he has worked out with the government, but he doesn’t really expect to pay it off.

“I hope I do,” he said with a chuckle. “That would mean I’ve been pretty successful.” Franzese left unsaid that it would also mean that he had avoided, by hook or by crook, the stated punishment of death for violating the sacred Mafia oath of omerta.

Prosecutors Victor Hou and Miriam Rocah declined to discuss the finer points of their case, including the notion of voluntary mob retirement. But FBI spokesman Jim Margolin insisted that the feds haven’t changed their mind. “It’s no secret that the government’s position at all three trials, and it hasn’t changed since, was that John A. (Junior) Gotti had not quit the mob,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gotti lawyer Seth Ginsberg is preparing motion papers seeking to dismiss the racketeering indictment and prevent the government from bringing Gotti to trial a fourth time. Under a schedule set by trial judge Shira Scheindlin, Ginsberg will file his papers on October 11, unless the U.S. Attorney’s office throws the case out before then.

   The Last Godfather, The Book
“You must be Kimberly and you must be Jeffrey,” cracked Joe Massino on his last day as a free man after a 10 year run as boss of New York's Bonanno crime family. The Last Don was sitting in a government car on January 8, 2003 with two young, preppy-looking FBI agents with accounting degrees who had just nailed him on racketeering and murder charges that would ultimately lead him to become the first New York Mafia Boss to cooperate with the feds. 

The anecdote in which Massino lets FBI agents Kim McCaffrey and Jeff Sallet know that he also knows who they are appears in the first chapter of “The Last Godfather,” by Anthony DeStefano, the last word, and best work, on the life and times of Joe Massino. DeStefano begins his telling book with Massino’s arrest and ends it with the defrocked wiseguy shuffling out of court with federal marshals to begin a career as a stool pigeon on June 23, 2005, his eyes “cold, gray and dead as gunmetal.” 

As a foundation for “The Last Godfather,” the author draws from three decades of testimony and court records, including a 1977 appearance on the witness stand when the burly gangster talked his way out of a hijacking arrest. DeStefano, a veteran New York Newsday reporter, brings the story to life through interviews with a gaggle of law enforcement officials who pursued Massino over the years. DeStefano adds special insight into Massino through interviews with his wife Josephine and daughters Joanne and Adeline.

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti – the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do – tells the complete saga of John Gotti, from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall. Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on "Mob Star" in 1985, when we began covering the Gotti story as news reporters.

The first edition came out in 1988, and we finished this new edition three days before Gotti died in June 2002. We added a postscript, and with a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga right up to his time in prison and his death from throat cancer.

The 378 page, full-size book uses eight additional chapters, a prologue and an epilogue to complete the story we began telling (better than any other reporters, we might add!) when we covered the Gotti-orchestrated, midtown Manhattan assassination of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

For the last and best words on Gotti, this is the book to have. It is specially priced at Amazon.com at $11.02, more than five bucks off the suggested retail price.

The best of Gang Land is available in a book store near you. Or you can pick up a copy of "JERRY CAPECI'S Gang Land: Fifteen Years Of Covering The Mafia" at a special low price from the Godfather of online booksellers, Amazon.com.

The 330-page oversized book includes an index and eight pages of photographs. It is sure to contain a few of your favorite columns, as well as some you may have missed during Gang Land's lengthy run that began in 1989 in The New York Daily News and continues today online and in The New York Sun.

The book's 125 columns chronicle the New York Mafia landscape from John Gotti's heyday in 1989 as the swashbuckling Dapper Don to the remarkable day in 2003 when Gotti's longtime rival Vincent (Chin) Gigante gave up his Daffy Don routine and confessed to having put on a crazy act for three decades.

Amazon.com has it in stock for $12.32  – 35% off the $18.95 list price.