‘CIA got Mob to kill JFK’
FORMER MAFIA MAN MICHAEL FRANZESE SAYS TRUTH WILL COME OUT
FORMER mobster Michael Franzese has told the Daily Star he knows who killed the American president John F Kennedy – the Mafia.
Once a captain in New York’s notorious Colombo crime family, he believes the CIA asked the Mob to help arrange the shock shooting.
Franzese says: “I will take it to my grave.
“I know this for a fact and this information eventually is going to come out – they came to us for help to assassinate John F Kennedy.”
Back in the 1980s, Franzese was one of the richest gangsters in the US, raking in $8million a week through crooked deals.
And he says the huge power of the Mafia meant US government agencies often asked them for aid, from World War Two to trying to bump off Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Kennedy was gunned down on November 22, 1963, as he travelled through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top limo.
According to the official verdict, the killer was Lee Harvey Oswald, using a rifle while hiding in a nearby building and acting alone.
But Franzese backs the conspiracy theory that there was more to it than that.
He adds: “I heard my whole life from the right people that it was a Mob hit, and you’re going to find that out when they finally do release the classified documents.
“Every time they are supposed to release them – every 25 years – all of a sudden they stop. I believe the reason is they don’t ever want the truth to come out that the Mob was able to get to a sitting president.
“It’s not a good look for the United States.
“So, that’s the kind of power that we had – you can’t get away from it.”
Now 72, he is the son of Sonny Franzese, a close associate of mobster Joe Colombo,
who would be jailed for 40 years.
And he witnessed plenty of bloody murder and mayhem himself during his time working in organised crime.
He says: “If you’re involved in that life it’s hard to escape the violence.” Franzese also specialised in petrol bootlegging, adding: “We were defrauding the government out of at least a billion dollars of tax money a year.”
He was even played by Joseph Boni in the 1990 gangster movie Goodfellas, starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
In 1986, dad-of-seven Franzese went to jail on conspiracy charges for 10 years.
When he got out, he decided to try and leave the Mob because of the toll the lifestyle had taken on his family and for the sake of his second wife Camille.
Amazingly, Franzese managed to go straight without going into witness protection, explaining: “I talked to the government, but I never gave them anything that could put anyone in prison.
“And finally, I outlasted everybody. “Everybody I know is either dead or in prison for the rest of their life.
“I always say this, if you’re a made member of that life – as I was – and you die of old age and you die free, you’ve really accomplished something.”
Today Franzese is a motivational speaker with a tour of the UK kicking off in March, counts boxing legend Mike Tyson as one of his pals and has his own wine and pizza-making businesses.
He says the power of the Mafia is not as strong as it was back in his gangster heyday or in the era when he alleges they were involved in taking down a US president.
Franzese adds: “It’s different now – it’s no way the same authority we had back then.”
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