I Married A Mobster: Recap of “Rat Trap”

Denyce Rodriguez was a party girl in LA in the 1970’s. Her friends were the royalty of Hollywood. One day her partying catches up with her and she realizes she needs to get help. She is an alcoholic. After her recovery from alcoholism, she gets a job at a rehab, as a counselor, and gets her life back on the right track.

One day John Franzese walks through the doors of the rehab. Denyce cannot resist this charming “bad” boy. Alcoholics tend to bond with each other, Denyce says. John tells her that he is the son of John “Sonny” Franzese, but Denyce isn’t familiar with the name. John runs to his room and brings out a book called, The Murder Machine. The book is full of newspaper clippings about his father and people he knows. Denyce falls for John and he reassures her that the mob life is behind him. John gets a job hosting a radio show and Denyce is his frequent guest.

One year into the relationship, Denyce introduces John to her son, Hunter, and they bond. She lets down her guard about John and his past. When they visit a known mob hot spot, Denyce is treated like she is “somebody” because she was with John.

“Sonny” Franzese is a legendary mobster. He is the feared, loved and respected underboss of the Colombo crime family. Sonny is a mob king and John is the Prince. John drops the family name wherever he can because he knows he will be respected.

Denyce says John had a great sense of humor and she thought she had found her prince charming. After two happy years together, the couple marry and Denyce meets the family. Sonny called her an angel for helping his son, John. Denyce says Sonny was likable, sweet and lovable… a huge teddy bear.

John idolized his father and his father had big plans for him. There was just one problem, John was using drugs again and strung out on cocaine. The other mobsters will not work with him. Denyce and John are broke and living on little money.

One day a mysterious check arrives and it’s for a lot of money. Denyce questions John about it. Fearing the worst, she wants to know where all this money is coming from. She asks if he is doing drugs again. John denies it. Denyce worries that he has relapsed or is back in the mob. John says he is clean and selling steroids. Denyce is not convinced.

She tells of how they went to parking lots at night and how she thought it was so he could pick up steroids. But, John parks the car so she can’t see what is going on. He tells her to walk away when he is on the phone so she doesn’t hear any of his conversations. This was done to protect her from what he was doing.

Four years after marrying John, Denyce struggles to keep their lives from falling apart. John is acting strange. He says he is going to meetings, but he disappears and reappears with no real explanation. Denyce knows the signs of relapse and feels that John is back on drugs. One day she tells him, if you leave don’t come back. He didn’t. She never heard from him again.

John had gone into the witness protection program. He had agreed to testify against his father in exchange for money and protection from the FBI. He had worn a wire while he was visiting his father in New York and discussed enough mob business so that the FBI could prosecute him.

John says he was born into this life, he had no choice. He claims he wasn’t testifying against his father, but against the “lifestyle.” However, everyone thinks John did it for the money. He was able to get money, relocation and a new identity from the Feds. John only thinks about John.

When he testifies, John says he left Denyce because her drug problem was too serious. Denyce is crushed by his accusations and feels betrayed and appalled by his words and actions. She describes him as “despicable and disgusting.”

Sonny gets eight years in prison based on John’s testimony and has to face inmates with the disgrace that his own son did the unthinkable by testifying against his own father. Sonny wanted John killed for ratting on him.

Denyce and her son are left homeless and abandoned while John gets a paid vacation from the FBI. Denyce says she was penniless, she lost her home, she had to give up custody of her son and live in a car…all because of what John did.

John tore two families apart to save himself. John’s story is a microcosm of what happen to the mafia organization. Drugs destroyed the mafia and they destroyed this family. Denyce is proud of the fact, that through all this, she has managed to stay clean and sober.

She has so many regrets, but says he was such a great person when she met him.

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Picture Credit: Denyce's Facebook