Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Monday, June 14, 2010

John Franzese Jr, mob turncoat who ratted out father, has revelation: 'I think I'm still married'


On the third day John Franzese Jr. testified against his gangster father, the mob rat had a revelation.
"I think I'm still married," he said.
The remembrance of things past came as defense lawyer Richard Lind pounded the witness for dumping his wife and step-son in California so he could enter the witness protection program after secretly wearing a wire against his father, reputed Colombo underboss John "Sonny" Franzese.
Franzese Jr.'s wife Denyce told The Daily News that his vanishing act left her destitute - she lost their apartment and spent many nights sleeping in a car and on friends' couches.
"I did love her, and I still do," Franzese Jr. insisted in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Then he threw her under the boss.
The mob scion explained that he didn't take her into the witness program because "she had too severe of a drug problem."
"It was healthier that I left her for her own sake," he said.
The couple had met at an L.A. rehab center in 2001 and married in 2004.
Denyce Franzese said her husband's testimony is "one thousand percent untrue" and that she has been sober since 1987.
"I am a recovering alcoholic, I am not a drug addict and I have bever been," she said. "You know how lucky he is that I don't have the money to fly there (to Brooklyn)?"
Meanwhile more detailed records about Franzese Jr.'s expenses in the U.S. marshal's witness protection program were made public today.
Taxpayers have forked over $338,881 since 2006 for housing, subsistence, medical and travel expenses. More than $200,000 is in medical expenses for Franzese who has HIV from drug use. Last week Franzese Jr. acknowledged that he has received about $50,000 directly from the FBI.
Asked about $1,768 for documents, Franzese Jr. seemed puzzled. "Quite frankly I don't know," he said. "This is interesting to me."


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