“I have a sentimental weakness for my children, and I spoil them, as you can see. – Don Corleone, The Godfather

Even grizzled old mobsters like legendary Colombo capo John (Sonny) Franzese find such sentiment hard to avoid. Franzese (right) learned that lesson one more time last week when he was arrested on a parole violation charge for consorting with his old hoodlum pals.

The feds’ key informer in the case, Gang Land has learned, was a source very close to the 90-year old mobster: his son John Jr., a drug-addled ne’er do-well who has been in and out of rehab, and wore a wire for the FBI against his father and others last year, sources say.

The parole violation was the elder Franzese’s fifth such arrest in 25 years and the old-line gangster took the pinch in stride. But he should have known better.

Gang Land reported back in 2002 that John Jr. had been responsible for his dad’s fourth parole violation when he told the FBI that Sonny would be meeting a few underlings for conversation and coffee at a Greenvale, L. I. Starbucks. At the time we wrote that John Jr. had become an informer to escape drug charges and help his mother Tina evade credit card fraud charges.

Incredibly, however, Sonny permitted John Jr. back into his inner circle. He did

“His son denied it,” said the source. “He came home and cried his eyes out saying, ‘I would never do that, no matter what kind of trouble I had.’ Sonny believed him.”

This time, it’s more than just the father who is in trouble. And the aged gangster now faces possible retribution from wiseguy cronies for sharing mob secrets with his son.

Among those caught on John Jr.’s tapes, sources say, were Colombo soldier Frank (Frankie Camp) Campione, (left) a close, loyal pal of the elder Franzese. Campione’s last prison stretch was for violating supervised release conditions, which replaced the parole system for crimes committed after 1987.

John Jr., 38, was taken off the streets and given a new identity in the federal Witness Protection Program last September, sources said.

Before he disappeared however, the son also told an FBI squad that focuses on mob activities on Long Island about meetings his father was having with wiseguys from other families. The meetings took place after Sonny Franzese’s

“The case against Sonny is the tip of the iceberg,” said one knowledgeable source.

“A bunch of people are going to go down,” said another source who is familiar with the case.

Like the last time, young Franzese “informed on his father to help his mother out of a jam,” said one source, declining to elaborate.

The Franzese family’s problems are of a magnitude that would keep Tony Soprano’s shrink, Dr. Melfi, busy for years.

For one thing, John Jr. isn’t the only Franzese son to “go bad,” in mob parlance.

Son Michael, a capo who earned millions of dollars in a so-called “bootleg gas” racket, quit the mob 20 years ago. Today, he makes a living preaching against his old ways. Unlike his brother, Michael, whose good looks and money-making

And while Sonny and Tina technically reside together in Northport, they are essentially estranged, sources say. “When they need to have a discussion,” said an acquaintance of both, “she calls Michael and he calls his father – and they go back and forth through him.”

But if Sonny wasn’t talking to his wife, he was talking up a storm with his mob pals. After his 2004 release from prison, he was meeting with high-level wiseguys from other families, according to a tape recorded discussion between turncoat Bonanno boss Joseph Massino and his acting boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano. 

Basciano reported that the Colombo family’s “street” boss, Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioelli, formally introduced Franzese to Bonanno capo Nicholas Santora during a “sitdown” to resolve a dispute between the families. “Nicky met him (Sonny) as underboss,” said Basciano. 

Sources say Gioelli, 54, (right) of Farmingdale, as well as other wiseguys and associates spotted at meetings with Franzese at a number of Long Island eateries are targets of a continuing investigation.

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin confirmed that Franzese’s parole violation charge stemmed from FBI surveillance, but declined to discuss other aspects of the probe, which

Mayer and Seigel, who are slated to prosecute acting Colombo boss Alphonse Persico (left) later this year in a retrial on a racketeering and murder indictment, declined to comment about the Franzese investigation.

Law enforcement sources say the parole violation – it is not publicly filed – stems from an hour-long get together that Sonny had with Colombo family cohorts at Marzullo Pastry Shop & Café in New Hyde Park in 2005.

Since 1970, when he was incarcerated for a 1967 bank robbery conviction, Sonny has spent about 12 years outside of prison. He faces about three years for the new violation, according to a Parole Commission spokesman. Sentenced to 50 years originally, he will remain on parole until 2020 – when he is 103.

Franzese was arrested at the Central Islip office of the U.S. Department of Probation and Parole by the FBI two days after he was summoned there for an unscheduled meeting by his parole officer, according to spokespersons for both agencies.

It’s hard to believe that Franzese didn’t see the arrest coming, but several knowledgeable sources say he didn’t, not until he saw FBI agent Robert Lewicki,

who had nailed him two previous times for parole violation (2000 and 1996), standing alongside his parole officer when he walked into the office.

Michael Franzese, (right) who has had contact with his father recently, wasn’t surprised by his inability to pick up vibes that being called in for a special meeting likely meant another stay behind bars. He told Gang Land his dad was a mere shell of his old self and no longer a high-ranked gangster.

“It’s sad, but over the last several months, he’s gotten old,” he said. “He’s still nobody’s fool. But in the last year or so he’s really aged a lot. He has a touch of prostate cancer and other ills. It’s sad to know that he has to go through this.”

Michael also backed up his old man on another longstanding gripe he’s had with the federal prison system over the years – his age.

“He’s 88, not 90,” he told Gang Land, before adding a punch line based on the fact that while growing up, he believed he was Sonny’s stepson, and learned only after writing a book about his life that Sonny was his biological father.

“He was born February 6, 1919, unless he threw everybody off on that too,” he cracked.

According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, he did. The agency, which has had a pretty close relationship with him for four decades, says he was born on February 6, 1917.

Seven years ago, between parole violations three and four, Sonny Franzese, who has always been comfortable with celebrities, enjoyed meeting Alec Baldwin and smiling for the camera with him at a Long Island fundraiser for the Carol Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund.  

Parole violation number five will prevent – for a few years at least – Sonny’s ability to enjoy Baldwin’s dynamic portrayal of a brutish Gambino capo in “Brooklyn Rules,” a tense, but often funny movie about friendship that opens tomorrow.

And that's too bad. It's a good one. Written by Emmy award-winning Sopranos screen writer Terence Winter, “Brooklyn Rules” is set during the advent of John Gotti’s rise to power – you’ll see actual footage of the aftermath of the killing of Paul Castellano and hear a report from Tom Brokaw – and revolves around the twists and turns of three life-long friends as one (played by Scott Caan, [right] son of James Caan) hooks up with the Baldwin character and enters the mob world.

There’s lots of rich gangland lore in this week’s Village Voice about the life and times of an old geezer gangster who’s on a mission to expose corruption on the New York  waterfront and get even with powerful double-dealing Genovese mobsters who used him, and then tried to kill him when he rebuked Andrew Gigante, the son of the family’s late boss, Vincent (Chin) Gigante. Check out the fascinating account by Tom Robbins about the crotchety, combative and often amusing 83-year-old turncoat Genovese soldier, George Barone.