Sonny, S.J. Peddie
Sonny, S.J. Peddie
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Sonny
The Last of the Old Time Mafia Bosses, John "Sonny" Franzese

Author: S.J. Peddie

Narrator: Tanya Eby

Unabridged: 8 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/29/2022

Synopsis

John "Sonny" Franzese reportedly committed his first murder at the age of fourteen. As a "made man" for the Colombo crime family, he operated out of his Long Island home specializing in racketeering, fraud, loansharking, and other illicit deeds he would deny to his dying day. His career in organized crime spanned over eight decades—and he was sentenced to fifty years in prison for robbery charges. But even behind bars, Sonny Franzese never stopped doing business . . .

This is the true story of an old-school Mafioso as it's never been told before. Newsday reporter S. J. Peddie interviewed Franzese in prison—and uncovered a lifetime of shocking secrets from the legend himself: why FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had a very personal interest in Sonny; how Sonny managed to juggle numerous affairs with women, including a famous model; how Sonny spent a third of his life in prison—and still managed to earn untold millions for the mob; how Sonny accidentally revealed some of his worst crimes—to a "friend" wearing a wire; and how Sonny hobnobbed with celebrities such as Ava Gardner, Jayne Mansfield, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dionne Warwick, among others.

This is a must-listen for anyone fascinated with Mafia history—and a rare look inside a criminal mind that has become the stuff of legend.

About S.J. Peddie

S. J. Peddie is an investigative reporter at Newsday Media Group and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series of stories on police misconduct. Inducted into the Long Island Press Club Hall of Fame, she's the recipient of National Headliner, Casey, Scripps Howard, Silurians, and New York State Newspaper Publishers Association Awards. In 2018, she won a New York Emmy for coproducing the documentary Cost of Corruption. Peddie served on the board of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and has been a featured speaker at national conferences sponsored by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Poynter Institute, as well as the International Center for Journalists, the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, Columbia University and New York State Archives. She has taught journalism at Hofstra and Stony Brook universities.

Reviews

Goodreads review by ♥Milica♥

This was amazing from start to finish. It's one of those books that you have to try really hard not to read all at once, because there's so much fascinating information on every page that you need to process. The writing style gripped me from the very beginning, it flows really well and does a good j......more

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val)

This was a fascinating story of the longest living mob guy in history, John “Sonny” Franzese, who lived to age 103. Surviving 8 decades in the mafia is in itself an achievement, with all the murders that go on. He married his first wife, Anna when she was just 15 and he was 24. Sonny had a son with......more

Goodreads review by Kisxela

It was a very interesting read. When I started, I thought it was just an average mafia story. It then turned out to be much more than that, a man’s long life, full of happenings, experiences, violence, love, affection, duty, and sin. It was basically about original sin, about the culprit, yet Sonny......more

Goodreads review by Dianne

This is the true story of one of our longest-lived mobsters, John "Sonny" Franzese. It is about him and his rise in the Columbo family. However, this book is more than just about his criminal career; I found it to be so much more. Of course, his two marriages were something else, but you have to rem......more

Goodreads review by Jake

There’s a more interesting story here than the one the author tells. Of course, like many, I came for the old school mob tales but Peddie just breezes through them because it’s not possible to corroborate them with any accuracy. She recounts the play-by-play of Sonny Franzese’s life but doesn’t slow......more

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