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Man Who Led Colombo Family's Long Island Rackets Dies
John “Sonny” Franzese, Sr., a Colombo mob underboss who ran the family's rackets on Long Island, has died.
Franzese, of Roslyn, died on Sunday, Feb. 23 of natural causes in an upstate New York nursing home. He was 103 years old.
Franzese took over the mob family’s operation on Long Island in the 1960s and was renowned for his business interests in Nassau and Suffolk County, including financing the 1972 porn film “Deep Throat,” which reportedly made millions.
In 1967, Franzese was arrested and sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery, though he was paroled in 1978.
He served …