Michael Franzese: From Crime to Christ - FULL INTERVIEW - Life Imprint Dinner 2020

tonight what we're gonna hear is a story from a speaker whose life is a sketch of contrast and mystique we're gonna look at three topics and I were gonna divide his life up into three topics first of all we're gonna look at his life as he was under the influence of his earthly father and we're gonna look at what that life was like then we're gonna talk about his life under the influence of the Godfather which is the Mafia is what I'm referring to and then thirdly we're going to look at his life under the influence of God the Father and we're gonna break his life down into those three pieces we started a little bit early tonight then leave earlier than last year because we didn't want to get rushed last year we got a little bit rushed and we had to get her speaker to the plane and we don't want to go through that again so tonight we're gonna relax and kind of let the story unfold and all I need to ask you to do is please put your phones away don't be distracted and listen to the flow of what you're going to hear you probably will never hear another story like the one that you're about to hear this evening this is rare and unique but before the speakers come up would you turn your attention to the screen [Music] [Applause] [Music] and then there was Pete the killer who was Sally Balls's Brothers and you had Nicky eyes and Mikey franchisee Michael Franzese was not just a soldier but a capo in the notorious Colombo crime family he spent the better part of a decade in federal prison on charges including tax fraud and racketeering and parole violation I grew up in New York where there are five organized crime families my dad Sonny Franzese was the underboss of the Colombo family back in the 1960s I went to see my dad in Leavenworth in the visiting room and I said dad I'm not going to school anymore and he said okay son but if you're gonna be on the street then I want you on the street the right way his mind the right way was to become a member of his life he should go home somebody be in touch with you do whatever you're told that's how it started for me he was a made member of organized crime his main forte was making money for the mob in a very short period of time he made over 1 billion dollars for the Colombo organized crime family by far the most lucrative business I got involved in was the wholesale gasoline business and in a nutshell we devised a way to collect the taxes not pay the government to taxes and I was there to be in business to make money real money Life magazine called him the mobs young genius the government calls him one of the biggest money earners in the history of organized crime and cement high living young man as rich as royalty and royal he is a prince of the Mafia made millions live the flashy life and came to be known as the yuppie Don did you fix any games in college absolutely he says he doesn't have fourteen levantar he doesn't it's about 50 million how do you know that because I personally deliver the thing I was notorious infamous maybe sophisticated at times but I was a criminal eventually you realize it's a life built on treachery and had money and power the driving forces and I began to question the life and my commitment to the life at that time making the most money for the mob since Al Capone Michael was the youngest person listed on Fortune magazine's 50 most wealthy and powerful mob bosses now as one of the only guys from that list still alive Michael has transitioned from powerful mob boss to now speaking in front of thousands of people each week a lot has changed these past 20 years but it's safe to say that Michael Franzese is a man on a mission [Music] let's extend a warm life for printed or welcome to Michael and kami Frenchie's [Applause] thank you well I've been studying your lives for the last several months and I can't believe you're finally sitting in front of me we made it right we're glad you're here your brother is here yes Dean is here a lot of people here came and you know what often accompany him right this is what a first few time I do when I don't when I have time I come along with you yes all right well you know what yeah you know I I didn't realize she was speaking with me at this point so I I heard a lot about that before we got here town and I don't prepare her properly but she's trouper all right we're gonna look forward to hearing from both of you as we had lunch today Michael I've commented to you there's just so much to cover and it seemed reasonable to me that the best way we could approach it would be to divide your life up into these three segments and just talk our way through these and so I'm gonna kind of pose some questions to you you can follow up for those and came if you want to share perspective as he's talking then you'll be welcome to do that as I read your books Michael it did seem that your father played such a powerful role shaping influence in your early life let's talk about John Sonny Franzese what would you what would you begin what would you want us to know about him well you know first of all I love my dad you know growing up I idolized him and you know he's a great father to me very supportive of me you know I thought a good husband to my mother and he was very family orientated but you know he was the underboss of the Colombo family back in the 1960s and that's a very powerful position but aside from that my dad was kind of the John Gotti of his day extremely high-profile always in in the media you know always a major target of law enforcement so I grew up in that environment and I grew up actually hating the police and hating law enforcement because I love my dad and I always saw them as the enemy trying to you know harass my father our family so I grew up in kind of that mentality but he was you know he was great growing up you know he didn't want this life for me originally he wanted me to go to school be a doctor he would say son stay off the street get an education that's what it's all about he wanted me to be a doctor and so he kind of you know pushed me in that direction and you know he was great I always tell his story you know I was an athlete in school I played all three sports and my dad would never miss a game no matter what he was doing mob business legit business I'd be playing ball he'd show up and so baseball was really my sport this happened all the time I'll repeat it I'd be playing ball and I'd be looking for my dad and I'm up to bat and I look out at the corner of my eye and here he comes you know he drive up in a big black Cadillac or a black Lincoln that's the car he drove and it always come late so we never go into the parking lot he'd always pull right up to the field you know and he gets out of the car always dressed sharp in a suit dad never dressed any other way always had five or six guys with him he never traveled alone so he'd get out of the car he'd walk on to the field going through the stands I'd be up to bat I kid you not umpire takes one look at that crew never called strike three on me when he saw dad I say hey pop you're very good for my batting average you know I played football nobody would tackle me when he was in the stand so you know he was really great and like I said he pushed me in the right direction but you know I mean every other week he would be arrested it would be all over the newspapers we didn't have social media at that time but I heard you know a lot of issues in the schoolyard your dad's a mafia dad I would fight you know it was that kind of environment and you know so that's how it was in my in my early childhood okay he was known as the Iceman what did that mean well you know he look my dad was very charismatic I mean if you would write the typical or get the image of the typical gangster that was my dad you know address sharp he just had that look in that way about him and you know allegedly and I always say this you ask and I'm honest about it you know he was an enforcer and as a result you know a lot of bodies in his wake so he had that reputation and I I saw that kind of you know and I loved and respected him for idolizing I wanted to be like him and you know that's that's the that's what he was alleged to be one of the comments in your book was that he was known as The Iceman because when he walked in the room everybody's blood ran cold well wasn't me but I guess everybody else yeah I mean I you know I saw him a few incidents that I witnessed when I saw people get pretty a you know pretty scared just being in his presence and he didn't often do that in front of us but once or twice you know circumstances allowed and people were scared okay all right you were one of seven children yes if your your father had three by an initial marriage Corral you were your mother's first child correct and then they became they were married and then they had three more so you were one of seven correct but she were the only one in that family that was not one of his blood sons yes that's true okay in that perhaps played into your desire to please him so strongly this powerful figure would does that make sense yeah you know it would form to my early life and I you know is is my desire to please him all the time thinking that I was the only one that really wasn't at blood so and even though he was the only father I ever knew and quite honestly my mother she was 16 when I was born my dad got divorced and his three children came into the house my mother was 19 or 20 so she had an instant family and she didn't take to that too well at a time she was not real nice to those other kids so my fear was always hey maybe he's gonna turn on me because I'm not one of his real children but he never did never did and always treated me as well or better than the others you know and but that drove me to always try to please him he wanted me to play ball I want to be the best ballplayer you want me to go to school I got great marks a little conduct problem at school but other than that I had good marks you know so and that drove me in my early life to please him and quite honestly you know he taught me be respectful of women you know try to keep your word do the right thing growing up he taught me all the right things in your book you mentioned playing with this red rubber ball game at your grandparents oh yes grab that just briefly yeah yeah in the back of my my grandmother's house they had a chimney and it was a brick chimney then it had a little kind of a like a ledge and then and went you know chimney is they had cement on the bottom so we used to play against would have you know rubble ball we'd play a game whoever got to 100 points win if you get it off there and you catch it it's one point if you hit it off that Ridge and you caught it on a fly it was five points so he and I were very competitive in that game I never won because he cheated all the time well my dad really did cheat I know cuz I have a son that Jesus made cheese it happens to be true but yeah but we used to really go hard at that game and it was something that I'm realizing now you know how important was because my sons and I play golf all times been great but it really brought us even closer you know and he used to antagonize me to beat him all the time alright so it was pretty much under the wraps that he was in the Mafia but then the the article came out the hood in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve and that sort of blew the cover yes it was a huge article in Newsday which was the big publication on Long Island the hood in your neighborhood and it was gosh I know how many pages with photos and everything else and that kind of blew the lid like you said off everything and you know I had a graduation party when I graduated high school and we had my dad put up a fence a tent in the backyard we had about 500 people there a lot of my friends were invited and everyone's car in the entire neighborhood they took all the license plates and maybe three or four weeks later everybody started getting Grand Jury subpoenas now even if my friend borrowed somebody's car the person whose car they're barred was quarter to grand jury and they were asking questions what were you doing at the party you know so that kind of blew the everything at that point in time but that's the kind of environment you know we lived in okay and eventually he was indicted on bank robbery charges he was indicted in the in the 60s three times in the state of New York twice for grand larceny wants for homicide and over that three or four year period he went to trial on all three of those cases and he was acquitted found not guilty each time 1966 they indict him in federal court from masterminding a nationwide string of bank robberies goes to trial after a lengthy trial he was convicted and in 1967 they sentenced him to 50 years in prison was a longest sentence for a bank robbery conspiracy case ever given up to that point 1970 he loses all his appeals and they ship them off to Leavenworth Penitentiary to do his time what so dad is now out of a home he's in prison how does that affect you oh it affected me tremendously because you know I had a conversation with him I want to see him in prison and I said dad bank robbery and he looked at me and you know to that point my dad never lied to me and he said to me son I'm innocent of these charges I'm not a bank robber but the government framed me and that's all he had to say and I believed him and one of the things that really made me believe my father throughout my childhood hated anything to do with drugs hated it he would make up stories like parables to to show the evils of drugs and as a result until this very minute I've never taken a drug never smoked weed nothing in my whole life because he put that in my head and other other issues because of that but so the the alleged bank robbers were all drug addicts so I knew my dad wouldn't have anything to do with them so I said but Dad 50 years and I was a pre-med student at Hofstra University I was playing ball and Joe Colombo who was the boss of our family he kind of took me under his wing I got very close to him and a lot of my dad's friends and they say Mike what are you doing going to school if you don't help your father out he's gonna die in prison because it was 51 he went in figure had 50 on top of that he'd be dead so I go to see him and loved more then I said dad I'm not going to school anymore if I don't help you out you're gonna die in here and he was he was upset you know I don't want that for you and we back and forth but I was a pretty headstrong kid and he kind of threw his hands up and he said okay but if you're gonna be on the street I want you on the street the right way and in his mind the right way was to become a member of his life so you know dr. J he just looked at me and you know I'm gonna be honest and I hope it's not offensive to anybody but I'm being as honest as I can he looked at me and he said I want to ask you a question it's very serious and I said what he said if you ever had to kill anybody could you do it and honestly I was kind of taken back by that but you know I thought about it I mean and I said looked at under the right circumstances I think I can so he looked at me and he said that's the right answer he said go home somebody's gonna be in touch with you just do whatever you're told and that was it and from that point he proposed me for membership in the life when you come into that life you can't just go up to somebody I'd like to join you know somebody has to propose you and vouch for you and say you have what it takes to become a member and in my case it was my dad all right so now what we're moving is into the second phase of your life which is the Godfather phase all right so you're nominated Chumlee or whatever the word is proposed okay by a friend of your father's I think well yeah since my father wasn't there he sent word out and proposed me but then somebody else had to make the introduction okay and so someone comes to you and I think a set up a meeting with Tom DiBella yeah he was the the boss at that time okay and and what transpired in your meeting with mr. develop why sat with Tom and he said Mike I got a message from your father he says you want to become a member of that life is that true and I'll never forget I said Tim yeah if that's what my dad wants that's what I want he looked at me said this isn't about your dad I asked you if that would is that what would you want and I said yes he's well here's the deal from now on 24 hours a day seven days a week you're on call to serve this family the Colombo family that means if your mother is sick and dying and you're at her bedside and we call you to service you leave your mother you come and serve us from now on we're number one in your life before anything and everything when and if we feel you deserve this privilege this honor to become a member we'll let you know and and that's how it started for me and at that point you're a recruit so the initiation or probation period starts last about a year almost two years yeah yeah you know when you're a recruit you're on call 24 hours a day seven days a week and you have to basically do whatever you're told to do in their eyes to prove yourself worthy to become a member and honestly that could be very menial there's a lot of discipline in that life a lot of alleged a lot of authority a lot of alleged respect you had a meeting at 8 o'clock you weren't there at 7:30 you elate can never be late in that life drive the boss to a meeting sit in the car three four or five hours god forbid you go out get a newspaper go to the restroom he comes back you're not in the car you're in trouble I know I did that once I paid the price but a lot of stuff like that and you know honestly that life if you it's very violent at times and if you parted a life you're part of the violence and there's no escape if anybody tells you differently they do the warrant a made member of that life well they're not being honest with you which it's part of life all right so during the probationary period you have to make your bones just what does that mean exactly well you know this is always very difficult you know I got to be honest I do a lot of interviews and it's always very difficult for me to talk about this because I don't want to offend people and I certainly don't wear it as a badge of honor and I see other guys out there and they're talking about it like Sammy the bull and I don't mention age but you know they're talking about this with some amount of pride and I I find it very difficult to do that but also in being honest is you know if you were ordered to murder somebody within that life you have to do it and if you don't you're in trouble and you know the thing was during that time for 20 years prior to the time that I got made they had an expression that said the books were closed meaning they weren't bringing any new guys into the family into any of the families it was kind of a security thing the only time you were allowed to bring somebody in is if somebody died and you replace them but in the early 70s they opened the books because they wanted to build up the rank so what I told people is you know in that life it's not like you run around just committing murder and you're not killing everybody that you see so there isn't enough people to go around that had to be killed so but you had to be prepared to do that if you were called on to do it and they had to believe that you had that ability and that's kind of what the way it was during my time all right so Halloween night 1975 you get a call saying tonight's your night there's no you're you're never supposed to know when that night is because obviously that has to be a very secretive thing we're always being surveilled by the government so nobody knew the night that you were going to be called could have been any time and so it had Joe happen to be Halloween night when I got a call from my capo regime my captain at the time and he said I need to see it tonight in Brooklyn he said wear a suit so I got dressed and you know you're anticipating but I heard that called a hundred times and nothing happened and that was the night it happened Joe Colombo's son Anthony Colombo had a catering hall in Brooklyn and that's where this event took place for me it was late at night you want me to describe the yeah it was there was six of us that were inducted that night and we walked into a room individually the boss was seated at the head of like a horseshoe configuration underboss consul Gary to his left and right and all the captains couple regimes were alongside it and we had about 15 in our family at that point and I walk down the aisle stood in front of the boss held out my hand he took a knife right here cut my fingers from blood dropped on the floor this is a blood oath and I cupped my hands he took Victor of a saint the Catholic altar caught put it on my hand slid it aflame didn't hurt it burnt quickly was merely symbolic and he said something to me that night that I don't recall ever hearing in my life before and I grew up as a Catholic I went to Catholic school from kindergarten right through high school but for some reason for me you know Catholicism was like a subject in school and I'm certainly not blaming Catholics I'm at my family's Catholic I you know I do a lot with it faith but um just didn't work for me at that point and he said tonight Michael Franzese you are born again into a new life until the Cosa Nostra violate what you know this life betray your brothers and you will die and burn in hell like the Saint that's burning in your hands he said do you accept and I said yes I do and that's the oath the other five guys went in they all took the oath you come into the life you come in as a soldier and for me I was motivated to do two things number one I wanted to get my dad out of prison and I did end up getting him out on parole after 10 years and he kept going back after that but I did get him out and went back five times but that's another whole story but uh and then I wanted to make money my dad said in this life you make money it translates into power not unlike the real world and again pleasing my dad and wanting to be the best possible mob guy could be I was fortunate that I knew how to use that life to benefit me in business I was very aggressive on the street I brought some things into the family that hadn't been done before I made you know a significant amount of money you know the funny thing dr. Jay after we take the oath we do what Italians do all the time we had a banquet we won't eat right right in the other side of the Cairo at a big banquet I'll never forget this little guy Joe Java taco he was a soldier he comes in with a brown paper bag and he says a boss should I give them all their bag of money now you know the irony in that statement is everybody thinks you come into that life and people are throwing money at you it's just the opposite you come into that life you got to prove yourself and you're always paying up to the boss and if you're an earner you know you have a certain level if you're not you have a certain level so you know I learned it that day because the boss said hey don't expect us to do anything for you you guys got to earn yourselves over here and earn your keep and so it was a good lesson for me early on all right let's just let's briefly touch on this and then we'll move on in this story there are certain rules that go with with the Mafia yes only Italians okay the oath absolute priority once you commit yourself to that you've surrendered your life to that's it okay no no grace any violation the blood gets may get spilled like your finger was pricked that was a symbolism you know you're told and I want people to understand this you know because a lot of people look like how did you do that you know when you come into that life you're told look this is the deal you play by the rules you don't violate the oath you don't make any mistakes if you do you can pay for it with your life and it might be a best friend that walks you into that room that you won't walk out of so we all have an understanding that we have to play by the rules and if we violate we can pay the consequences can be severe so we understand that going in I'm not saying it's right to accept something like that but that's the mentality you have when you're going in and that's a sense in which you surrendered your life to the Godfather you were now under that influence yeah it defines your life in so many ways keeping confidential all family rituals and secrets you don't supposed to talk about that's not a lousy look at the Mafia that's the that's the oath of America that we take you're not allowed to talk about all right you're not violate another man's wife sister or daughter that's a ironclad rule you know when I came into the life they should might don't ever worry about your wife your sister your mother your daughter nobody will ever do that and if you haven't violate something like that you're in trouble okay never raise your hand against another member never never pay your dues to the boss unquestionably yes follow orders unquestionably yes okay and no involvement with narcotics at that time we were told straight-out if we dealt with drugs we died has that changed I believe so you know with the younger guys unfortunately I saw guys that did mess with drugs during that time and they paid the consequences for that but you know for me I hated anything to do with drugs anyways but so at age 24 you know you enter into the Mafia now you you were hoping for business connections and the opportunity to make money to try to get you dad out of prison yes and you were not disappointed no business opportunities begin to present themselves if you took advantage of talk about that a little bit please well again you know I knew how to use that life to benefit me in any ways and you know I don't want to get into all the various businesses I had but a couple of things that I did look every mob guy is in some way involved with gambling you know at the height of my operation I had 12 13 bookmakers that answered to me and for those of you that don't know bookmaker takes bets illegally on the street and if you're a bookmaker in you're poor in most of the big cities Youngstown Ohio Kansas City you can't operate without the mob because number one we wouldn't let you we're gonna do a run to the police you're a bookmaker you know secondly you know a lot of times we would finance them and thirdly bookmakers give you credit so sometimes you know guy loses you don't want to pay well we were pretty good to collect the money at that time so you know they wanted to be involved with us so I had a number of bookmakers working for me everybody was involved in gambling mob guys like to gamble it wasn't a habit that I had but a lot of guys do and then we always had money out on the street if we had money [ __ ] money and we used to lend it out it you know you Julius rates you don't go to a bank it come to us but you got to pay that's it you know you don't you don't get away with it so you know I was definitely involved in that most of the money that I lent was either to business people or to my own crew so that they can go out and earn some money I would lend it to them at 1% a week and they would go out and let somebody else I had the worst time collecting from my own guys and I did from business but hey but you get involved with influencing some professional sports games yes well we had a lot of professional athletes gambling with us and you know back then in the 80s I would have a bookmaker come to me just give you example Michael's so-and-so from the Yankees the you know I don't want to name names you know he's into us for 50 grand should we cut him off I said why would you cut him off you're taking an entry on a piece of paper let him get into you for 250 grand because they're always gonna lose and then bring him to me and we'll tell you how he's gonna resolve it so it was that kind of a thing and unfortunately athletes it's a it's an extension of their competitiveness they love to gamble and for some reason in my experience they're horrible gamblers they gamble out of emotion they're horrible and so we had a lot of them on both the you know professional and college level gambling laws let's talk about the gasoline business she got into describe that because that seemed to be the big giant moneymaker yeah well I had a number of things you know I had two automobile dealerships I had a leasing company I had a number of restaurants that I got involved in and you know doing a lot of things and then you know people have this idea that mob guys sitting there social clubs and they think of what business they're gonna target it's not like that I mean we were involved when unions you know I had a couple of unions that I that I controlled I'll tell you this might scare you off a little bit but I control the security guards Union and that security guards well the security guards we had nine nuclear power plants around the country that I was in control of the security of now I love my country so nothing would ever happen I tell you and I don't know if you know this but if you have a nuclear power plant after it closes you have to have security there for a hundred years a hundred years so that's a good business but uh there's nothing to do but sit there but anyway so I had a number of unions under my control but you know one day I used to have a place on Monday night I'd call it Monday's wasn't very you know creative with that but if somebody wanted to approach me with a business they would come there on a Monday night and talk to me so guy comes to me that had a small gasoline operation out in Suffolk County Long Island he tells me Mike there's two guys from another family that has shaken me down they're trying to extort me I was kind of the guy on Long Island he said I'd love to make you my pawn to help me out and so on and so forth and I didn't like the guy too much just certainly he was six foot five almost 500 pounds big guy but he was he was big he wasn't like sloggers big but I just didn't take to him right away and I said well I'll get back to you we kept coming back to me kept coming back to me then one day says look I think I have a method of possibly defrauding the government out of tax well I didn't like the government okay I want to hear that and so he tells me about it he kind of gets my attention I say okay here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna start a new company because I don't know if you owe any obligations anybody want to be involved that will start a new company and let's see what we can do so he had a couple of gas stations on Long Island I had a guy around me by the name of Vinny as for Monti he was my butcher he was a big guy at a big scar across the top of his head an imposing looking guy so I said Vinny I'm gonna put you with this guy Larry make sure he does the right thing let's see what he's got so about two weeks later Saturday morning Vinny used to come to my house to bring me meat you know butcher so he comes on a Saturday and he's got a big carton on his shoulder and I said what are we gonna do with all this meat I'm having a party I don't know about it and he says hey chief and Amy he's coming through the kitchen we go into the kitchen he puts the Box down on a table and he opens it up and he said this is the first two weeks taking the gas business three hundred and twenty thousand dollars smelled like gasoline I didn't care what it smelled like at that point right well he got my attention at that point and over an 8-year period of time we grew that 3:20 and to about eight million dollars a week and I had 350 gas stations I had 18 companies that were licensed to collect tax on every gallon of gasoline we had you know I had a major operation because I brought all the Russian mob guys from Brighton Beach Brooklyn were partners with me and we just exploded and this is you're in your early 30s during this making this kind of money yeah I was I was late 70s when I started right up through 85 and there were there were instances you mentioned in your books that while all this is happening you're making all this money deep down inside you're bothered by some of what you see the the the toast to the one of your soldiers that was taken out and the words came to mind while you're toasting to one of your friends that was taken out that Michael we're all sick we're just all sick occasionally these things would kind of flood through your mind how did you deal with that when it rolled over you like that you know you know and try to understand it so I'm not making excuses for anything but you know that's a tough life and when you were called upon to do certain things I I did things that I honestly was not comfortable with I wouldn't let anybody know that because you can't reveal a weakness in that life it's you just cannot but I wasn't comfortable but I don't know if I stepped out of myself and I did it anyway but it just was bothersome to me and I saw guys at least outwardly seemed to enjoy that and seemed to really get into that and that was bothersome to me because I said you know this is not pleasant stuff how do you enjoy it but you know I put on the image I was supposed to put on and I move forward with it but it's something that bothered me really the whole time because you know I I never aspired to be a mom guy I want if you would ask me when I was what I wanted to be I wanted to play centerfield for the New York Yankees Mickey Mantle was my idol you know aside from my dad it wasn't like I wanted to be in that life I really didn't I had no desire whatsoever it just came about the way I describe it is that circumstance go I love my dad but um so if things were troubling to me so being under the Godfather and all that influence there were times where you had weaker moments and it really gallons your conscience but you just kept going kept soldiering kept going and one of the things that really bothered me a very dear friend of mine who I loved and you know I think you mentioned is champagne Larry you like Dom Perry Ellis we called him champale Harry but he got killed and I thought it was very unjust and was very very troublesome to me because I baptized his kids and I was very close to him and you know he was involved with my sister I'll tell you what happened just briefly he was having an affair with my sister and I didn't know it and he was married and people found out about it and they brought me in and I couldn't believe it I was like shocked but you just can't do that and I tried talking I said look he's not a made guy he's a guy he's an associate but he's not a made guy my sister's not married you know I tried to but they weren't having it you know and so that hurt okay all right in 1983 major development happens behind the scenes you don't know anything about it representives from elaborate 11 separate state county and federal law enforcement agencies march into the basement of the federal courthouse on Long Island and they're gonna hold three day-long intensive meetings and their purpose is to get you yeah I mean I did know about this I didn't know anything at the time I found out that they had an 11 agency task force comprised of feds and state people whose total mission was to put me in prison you down yeah you sensed it and along that time you decided to move your base of operations out of Brooklyn yes went to Southern California in southern party and you got into them into the movie business yes why don't you just summarize that briefly to bring us up to the point where you met this came quick I got a million stories but I don't keep here all night just because everything happens with a story behind it but I had a friend of mine who long story short got himself in some real trouble and I it took everything in me to save his life because he did something that was horrible and I was up against an old-timer from another family who really wanted to hurt this guy and I had to go way out of my way to save his life and the old-timer at the time really resented me because I was one of the younger guys but I won the argument and he was okay but I said to him look this guy was so upset if you happen to be walking down the street and a car plows into your safe falls on your head we're not gonna know where it came from you have a brother out in California go out and stay with your brother for a while go sell cars out there so he goes he's out there about two months and he closed me up and he say boss we're gonna be in the movie business nice what do you know about movies she saw don't worry it's easy you know I got a script we're gonna get a director and actor he says this two hundred and fifty thousand dollars he said send me eighty three thousand you're my partner that's okay like a fool I sent him eighty-three thousand dollars so we make this movie called mausoleum which is now a cult movie I've just put it out on Netflix so PSPs a million dollars later we make this horror movie that didn't scare anybody but me right and so now I'm in the movie business I said well how am I gonna get my money out of this so now I start to get involved and I buy into a distribution company in all this con and I'm making movies for a couple of years you know financing them and having some fun with it we make them money actually so Smokey Robinson another friend Leon Isaak Kennedy come to me with a screenplay for a breakdance movie was in 1983 a lot of music go dancer a lot of rap music but that's when you can listen to rap music on radio I like today forget about today but back then it was great and so we film it in southern Florida and we being cast and crew from LA to work in the film and 50 or so professional dancers and we have them all staying in a hotel in South Florida called a Marina Bay Club is Fort Lauderdale right Lauren oh yeah and lo and behold as one of the dancers okay so you see her one day in your hip I know I want you to say that my version of this is the right one she always disputes this but this is it okay I'm sitting by it I threw a big party for everybody we had done pre-production and it was we were getting ready to start principal photography on a Monday Sunday I throw a party for everybody in the back of the hotel big barbecue everybody's having a great beautiful day in Florida and I'm sitting by the pool and I'm talking to a couple of guys and minding my own business and she comes out of the water and I'm telling it was like a Pepsi commercial everything went slow-motion and she just blew me away so I asked the choreographer I said is that one of our dancers he said yeah cuz I hadn't seen her yet and I said bring her over I want to meet her you know she want to meet me my not so I introduced myself to her says her name is Camille I said look I want to get to know you better I'm your producer I want to take you to lunch she said sure the sweet polite right so we set a time in a place and I got one of these restaurants set up on one of the hotels you know a guy in new way I had everything going but the violins I figured she'd come up there sweep her off her feet she's mine so up there for about that was my attitude back then I'm up there about 45 minutes she stood me up she never showed up so I see you the next day on this set she said I'll meet what why would I go through all that trouble if she wasn't gonna go trust me my version is the correct version so now I see her on the set the next day and I said hey what happened we had a date you didn't show up so I figured she was gonna say I'm sorry you know I bet she's well I was busy I saw I saw I said what were you doing she's why I had to rehearse I said okay she says you know and then I went to Isaac we try it again she says yes I said another time in a place why would I make this up I said another time and she stood me up again no I'm telling you that dr. Joshi stood me up five times she kept saying yes and she would never say yes I said maybe I said I'll try I said I'm busy I'll try means you're caught that man yes I'm gonna be there yes but what did she have to do she was rehearsing for me she was able to show up not maybe I just didn't want to go anyhow okay let me ask her a couple questions how did you get its a Fort Lauderdale I belong to a dance company called the dancing machine and those were the dancers who were hired to be in the film but I wasn't initially because I was one of the younger dancers and I came along kind of late and I wasn't as trained as the rest of the dancers so Jeff katashi was the director he took a liking to me and he said you have potential but I need you to you know work and train with the dancers so I actually wasn't cast as one of the dancers to go be in the film but a friend of mine who lived in Florida said hey your dance company's here and they're dancing but I have this club here in Miami and they're looking for dancers and I told them about you and this guy wants to hire you so I just like I just said likes want to get out of Anaheim for a while and do something so my father was all for it my mother was like absolutely not you're not going anywhere but somehow I got there they send me a ticket and then we just went over to the set and Jeff was like so surprised to see me he's like what are you doing here and I gave him the whole story and then just so happened one of the dancers that they had left to go do something else here in LA and I just kind of stepped right into it it was a blessing and a curse and you were how old I was just turned 20 just yeah and you grew up in a family you were the oldest of seven I am yeah and your your your mother was the pillar she was and she was a woman of faith a very strong woman of faith and she had introduced you to the idea of a relationship with God in your teen years at 13 yes okay and that's when you felt like you've made your connection with God yes okay that is definitely when I made my connection with God is when when Elvis Presley had died and I had come to the realization of if the King Elvis Presley could die so young my competition I was just major competition it just left me just you know bewildered like how can that be and then I started to think about death and what's gonna happen to me and when I die and that's when I became a young girl of faith okay I gave my life Jesus Christ at thirteen okay so he is struck with the thunderbolt in in his breath is taken away what was your reaction first couple of times you met him nothing true true I thought he tracer ice but I just I just I don't know just like you know I mean like I mean now I mean we're married 35 years later so don't get like your feelings heard but to me I just like he was just sure there's a thousand other man he was just he was just old I mean he was only 32 but you know that was like I was 31 I was 31 31 oh you're gonna turn 30 skaters I don't know I mean it was just it wasn't even a thought in my head it was but the crazy thing was is that all of the dancers that I was dancing with they were just all enamored with him they're all he saw this and so that so I kind of played with it because I thought oh they all liked him but he actually likes me let me just go with it for a while and have a little fun you know and then Here I am 35 years later oh yeah but she's not telling what happened so finally he even felt it no no no I'm chasing I'm chased literally chasing her she didn't want to have anything to do with me I knew that but one night we're having a cast meeting yeah and she comes out of the meeting it's about 9:30 at night and she was upset something was wrong she wanted two of her friends I don't remember and I said oh this is great tailor-made for me I got to fire somebody I'm gonna be our hero now right so she tells me she's from Anaheim California and she's the dance in Disneyland Knott's Berry Farm and and she says Mike I need to go home and I said why she said well my parents are very strict and this is 3,000 miles away I've never been away there's warm 20 years old and they want me to come home and she said there's some things happening on this movie set that I don't agree with and I'm saying you know it was a wild set music that young kids you know it got a little crazy at times but I'm saying to myself oh you're a dancer what's the big deal well I didn't mean it that way but you know what I mean you're a dancer all the other dancers were partying with us and you weren't partying so you know so we used to go out to some of the clubs but she would never show up you know cuz I was always looking for her but so I said what's the problem with that what's the big deal and I forget how you put it she said well I'm a you know I'm a girl of faith or I'm a believer or Christian I swamp Catholic we got something in common let's talk right you know so so we get to know each other a little bit on this set and you know she starts to like me a little bit we wrapped the movie she says you got to come home and meet my mother it's very close with all moms I said I'm grateful you meet my mom and she likes you maybe so I said I'm great with moms let's go right so we jump on a plane and we go to meet her mom I gotta tell you her mom Erma was the most godly woman I am you know I'm up to two minutes your name goes in a shed a prayer book like a telephone book I'm not kidding and I'll never forget this we're sitting I know her about a week we're sitting down at a table in her mom's kitchen and her mom looks at me and she says where are you with your faith and I said well what do you mean you know I'm AMA Catholic she said well where are you with that and I said well I'm a Catholic I don't know I believe in God I didn't want to answer her so she looks at me dr. J my hand to the Lord she's I have a feeling one day you're gonna be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and millions of people out of nowhere like that you remember you said she says mom please don't scare him away I'm hoping she said yeah you must done that with all the guys she said I'm hoping for a Bibles service a Bible study on Wednesday our service on Sunday that was her answer and her mom looked at her because I thought her mom was nuts at that point her mom looked at her and said why would you ever limit the power of Jesus Christ in anybody's life and she said at that point I'm putting his name in my prayer book what's the right top of her prayer book that was more protecting you I think than me but yeah but uh honestly at that point I thought she was out of her mind okay move yeah and right about this time though the movies over you got to go back to California and your business empire sorts y'all are coming together but the businesses start to fall apart and they they're on your trail and you start to hear that they're they're going to indict you I think and you're arrested in Kennedy Airport after you'd flown out to California to see the family you know dr. J for a period of about four or five weeks they arrested me every Friday on another case another case I mean they just came down like a ton of bricks on me Giuliani indicted me on a big case Eastern District of New York indited me I got indicted in New York again they just kept hitting me one after the other okay and honestly I kept beating them one after the other yeah these are all charges you were able to get past yeah okay em once you were able to get past all those it kami you're certain to realize there's some things going on here in his life but you go to California and you propose marriage to the family well what happened was I wanted to marry her I knew that I mean she was that was it for me and but I realized I had all these cases and you know you got to understand I don't know if you realize this but on these racketeering indictments that they will land handing down on us you don't go away for ten years or five years they were giving us 50s hundreds and you know some of my friends were going to trial they were getting convicted they were getting 7080 years a hundred years record under the new law there's no parole you're doing 85 percent of your time that's it so I said man I'm the youngest guy at all of these guys they're gonna give me two three hundred years because I beat them so many times so I was talking to realize that when we were going out strong and Giuliani indited me on a major case and I was a lead defendant I had 15 co-defendants and Giuliani told me in the courtroom he said Michael he didn't say he said frenzy so if I convict you on this you're gonna get double what your father got I'm giving you a hundred years so now I'm with her and I'm saying how am I gonna marry her and then go away for the rest of my life she was 21 years old so I knew I had to fight that case and she'll tell you she practically didn't see me I fought day and night I hired a team of investigators I had my lawyer I was on trial seven months in federal court and I was acquitted in that case some of my co-defendants are convicted they got 30 years so I would have got at least fifty hundred percent so I I beat the case on a Friday I came back she was with her mom in New York I said pack up we're going to Vegas we're getting married tomorrow and so and her mother was happy you know it was her idea she said what are you gonna tell me when she's right away so let's go back up we're going right so we go Merritt get married in this chapel in in Vegas and then you know I we had a big wedding in July after that with family and all that stuff but let's talk about the conversation before you had the mayor at the wedding in the church you met the pastor y'all had to go for counseling yes and that's what you sort of conversations and you asked to speak to him privately everybody talking to the pastor yeah we were we were in Westwood California we were staying at the Westwood Marquis I was anyway and across the street there's this beautiful church Westwood Hills Christian Church so I said temp I want to get married there no I didn't get the church she wanted Christian's want to get married just pick a church and because honestly I wasn't buying into anything at that point so we go speak to pastor dr. Myron Taylor gentlemen you know an elderly fellow at that time and as we're talking about it I I can't explain it something just struck me with this man and I I asked throw at em could you believe for a second I want to talk to doctor tell it privately and he's talking to you about where you are in your relationship with God would at that moment he didn't know anything yeah but I sat in the room with him and I said doc I got to tell you something ISU's my future wife and my mother-in-law they're talking about Jesus and forgive yourself sins and all that let me tell you a little bit about my who I am in my past and so I started to open up him a little bit never had done that before and the way he reacted to that it was just so comforting I can't explain it and I felt such a confidence with this man that he was the one that really started to make me think well maybe there's something to this because honestly at that point forgive me I mean you know I'm a mob guy I mean this is my life you know and I I didn't think about my salvation or anything like that honestly but things started to churn in me at that point in time really an indication you know he quoted John 3:16 he quoted John 6 3 at 3:16 and he he really talked to me about Paul and you know let let me really understand what that life was all about and that transformation in transition and of course that's comforting to somebody like me but still you know I got to try to explain it you know I had this mob mentality you know the mob is not a business it's a way of life and so you have to be in it all the way or you don't survive so it's who I was from the inside out and so it was very hard for anything else to penetrate because you know not only was I in it for that amount is but I grew up in it with my dad so it's who I was and it just but it started the wheels to turn on me started to make me think you know not again I wasn't buying into everything right away but he started to have a little bit of an impact on a second 10 to 12 years to actually be okay with grace and forgiveness and that he was forgiven and that God's mercy was for him too I think that was the hard thing for Mike he couldn't accept that so baptism helped because it was a ritual for him you dunk him in water and that made him feel yep you know yeah when he suggested baptism yeah I related that to the ceremony it's ritualistic it's something I can understand it's having an impact that I can visibly feel and see and and maybe I need that and and so I approach baptism that way well in your conversation with a pastor that day before y'all got married you you you started to connect the dots that who Jesus was what he came to do and that maybe that could apply to you you might be eligible for the benefits of a relationship with God through Jesus in that that he died on a cross for your sins and you begin to understand the concept that maybe you could be forgiven forgiveness and forgiveness seem to come into focus in that conversation am I reading that right that's correct okay all right so that day you you ask him how do I enter into a relationship with God and he explained to you a simple matter of praying which he did and that seemed to represent a step you took in the direction of God yes and then after you get married you have a child and then you're indicted again and this time you decide you're not gonna fight it but you want to get out yeah I recap the plea deal and tell us a little bit about that I realized at that point that they were never gonna let me go and if I were to stay in that life and remember any time that I were to be convicted I'm gone forever I realized that I had reached that point where they weren't going to accept anything less than that and I'm watching my friends get crazy census so I said I have leverage with the government why because I beat them on the Giuliani case a my partner in the gas business the big guy he had turned informant and he testified against me in the Giuliani case and we destroyed him on the witness stand so their major witness against me was now damaged so I told my lawyer said look I said I'm gonna take a plea I said his here's my plan I said I want to wrap everything up that might be pending on me I said they really want a conviction on me I beat them now five times and every time was media a lot of media attention they kept losing so I said I'll take a plea I'll pay him back some money I had the jet plane I had a helicopter I had a number of pieces of property I said I'll give him those things as part of my plea agreement I'll do some time I'll marry Camille when I get out of jail I'll have parole and probation I can use that as an excuse not to meet up with the guys in New York because when you're on parole you can't meet with anybody it's a violation I said maybe after 10 or 12 years they'll forget about me I'll live happily ever after out in California with Camille that was my plan so I took a plea at a 10-year prison sentence I was under the old law meaning that I was still eligible for parole the law changed in 85 but I was under the old law I gave up playing helicopter the whole bit they gave me a fifteen million dollar restitution I had five million more forfeitures and that was it I wrapped everything up and I had immunity against anything that had been done in the past except for murder but I wasn't worried about them getting a murder conviction on me so and that was it so I said okay I'll marry her I can do a couple years in prison I'll negotiate to get into a prison out in California so she can visit me I'll try to stay in touch with the family as best I can and we'll get through this because you know I wasn't afraid of prison I mean I visited my dad since I was a kid I knew at some point in time I was gonna do jail time so it wasn't that that worried me I said let me get it over with and that's what happened but you know spiritually I accepted Christ but quite honestly it was more self-serving because my mother in law you should tell me you got to surrender your life to Jesus I couldn't process that what do you mean surrender I'm a mob guy god helps those who help themselves I couldn't process that so yeah I want my sins forgiven but surrender I couldn't get it so I had one foot in and one foot out it was very self-serving for me and then the distraction for me was that I'm still on the street I still have that mob mentality okay I'm not gonna get arrested anymore and I'm gonna try to do things the right way but IIIi can't expect it wasn't real even though I was trying to make myself thinking was real and I was going to church with her on a Sunday but you know it's not a game and and I was kind of playing it on myself without really thinking that I was and if I'm describing it right any lost yeah and then um November 13 what happened was I'm in prison a life magazine they had done a huge story on my dad it was the biggest story ever in Life magazine it was 29 pages with pictures and everything else well their anniversary edition they were doing one on me so the warden calls me up when I'm in Terminal Island he says frenzies they're doing this big story to Life magazine guy says it'll be better if you participate so me always thinking you know I can handle stuff I said let me talk to this guy maybe he'll give me a better story because I'm trying to make peace with the government I don't want to get anybody on the street upset so I sit down with the guy and I'd standard mob stuff a there is no mafia I marry dish girl I moved out to the west coast I'm tired of the government I'm gonna live my life out there standard stuff right now three weeks later the warden calls me and I'll never forget it close me back in he says Francis have you got a death wish that's what are you talking about he shows me the article oh my gosh huge article on Life magazine big double page big picture me across the top quitting the Mafia and he had me almost testifying against everybody in New York who was total fabrication but the warden said I gotta lock you down you're in trouble we got word from the FBI it's all over the street their informants you know Persico put a hit on you it's done and we got to lock you down the FBI comes in to see me Franzese it's all over the street you know we'll put you in a program we'll protect your life and none of your families now I didn't want to do that I wasn't mad at anybody I wasn't going to testify against anybody and I would never dishonor my dad to that point no way so I'm not doing that and I had a tough couple years in prison as a result they kept locking me down about it was just a mess we get out I get out we survived that I'm on parole quite honestly worse 13 months for my life you know a Big Shot mob guy made all this money on the street I couldn't get anything going in LA it was like a fish out of water we couldn't put a house in our name no utilities the FBI coming to me Franzese you got to leave town we had to pack up and leave there was guys out there they were looking to kill me because you can't you can't walk away from that life I mean I did betray my oath by just walking away my father disowned me at that point my boss Persico immediate hit on me and so I had a lot of trouble and you know I won't get into all the details but I mean this poor girl every time I walked out of the house she was afraid I wasn't coming home we didn't have cell phones we had beepers she used to beat me I had to run to a payphone honey I'm okay no it was that kind of it was very very tough I had tough time running my was tough and after 13 months like a fool a fool I fall into a trap my violate my parole government had it with me because they tried to get me to testify against the boss of New Jersey who was a good friend of mine John Rigi and they tried to put me in a trap to testify against him and I refused well within ten days I was violated on my parole and they said Franzese we'd done with you we don't want you to cooperate they what happened I was walking out of a bank in Brentwood California 15 agents who was in body thought I was robbing the bank I mean they went into the bank like I was holding it up I was just walking hours if it made my deposit or whatever threw me in a paddy wagon drove my car away went to the house with a search warrant cleaned us out I mean just took my everything we had Franzese we're done with you we don't want you to cooperate anymore we violated your parole with indict you for murder you'll never see the street again you're done they told her your husband will never see the light of day again she'll date never that was November 13th 1991 all right so they put you in the hole of holes and you you hit the wall of despair they had me and they put me in a hole and they were gonna transport me back to vows in LA federal jail at LA and then we transported me back to Brooklyn in the morning where my case was and dr. J I'll be honest with you you know it was just without a doubt the worst night of my life because I said I'm I'm done I said she waited she's 27 years old she waited for me five years 13 months on parole we got two little babies now how's she gonna wait for me now I'm gonna lose the girl I did all that is four I said they can't put me out in the yard I got everybody looking to hurt me I got the enemies on both sides and so I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in this six by eight cell at the age of 39 I'm done it's over you know I always say this you know you can call me a coward or weak or whatever at that moment but I'll tell you how bad it was I used to demean people that were suicidal I said they're weak how did they not face up to their troubles after that night I don't do that anymore I mean I wasn't suicidal I wasn't that brave but honestly I wanted to lay my head on that cot and I couldn't it was too painful to think of what my life was all about I was devastated so you wanted you'd like to end in a security guard walks by and says Mikey don't look so good God walked by a CEO and he opened the slot on authority said Frances you okay you don't look good and I said get away from me I don't want to see any of you guys tonight leave me alone I chased him and he left and he comes back maybe a minute later and he pushes something through the slot on the door and it falls on the floor and I hear like a thump and I was kind of groggy I looked down it was a Bible I got mad it's not I want to buy but I want a bottle a prozac I sell them at this bar and and you know honestly I mean I can relive it's so vivid in my mind because when things like that happened to you don't forget and I'm looking down at that Bible I'm getting so angry you know like feeling sorry for myself you know God is nonsense look at me I jumped off the cot I picked up the Bible and I slammed it against that cinderblock wall as hard as I could I mean everything came out of me and then you know it took me about a minute and I think it was the Holy Spirit I didn't know that then but I said you know what I got nothing but enemies I believed in God I said I don't need to know the enemy you know and I picked up the book there's only me and God in that cell and I looked up that cement ceiling and I said you know if you're really up there you need to give me something to make me feel but I can't deal with this I need help I'd never read the Bible never you know in Catholic school we read the Catechism all the time I never really read the Bible and so I opened it up and it I didn't know where to begin it just falls open to the book of Proverbs I don't think that was a coincidence because you know I'm a very cynical guy I think in terms of evidence that's how I think I mean I've been to trial five times I defended my dad four times okay I think in terms of evidence you know you have to prove things to me I'm not an easy guy to convince when I'm paying attention and I start reading proverbs and I said men this guy is brilliant you know you know I said wow this is this smart guy right here that's thought and it just just got me distracted from the mess that I was in and I'm reading through it and all of a sudden I came to a verse it just stopped me cold and it was proverbs 16:7 and it says when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord even his enemies are at peace with him and what happened is the enemies first got me because I had nothing but enemies and then it was kind of like I don't know if I finally face myself and I said have you always been pleasing to the Lord like who are you kidding this is not real with you and I got I convicted myself or the Holy Spirit convicted me I don't know what it was but it started to make me think and I just started to read on and read on and I was I read through proverbs that night and I came to another verse that just it's the verse of my life and it was proverbs chapter three verses five and six and it says trust in Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all of your ways acknowledge him and this is the one he will make your paths straight when I read that verse I kind of challenge God at that point I said God stop you know I said I trusted my father my whole life look where it got me I said I took a blood oath look where it got me I said now I got to buy into this I mean in my own Brooklynese words this is what I saying and I said you know what prove it to me as you got to show me well they told me I was gonna spend the rest of my life in that cell that we're gonna indict me and fortunately they tried to put another racketeering case on me and it fell apart they were never able to indictment but they gave me the maximum they gave me four years on the parole violation so I spent 35 more months and 13 days in prison 29 months in seven days in that whole six by eight cell 24/7 me and God and I want to tell you this that's not easy we were not meant to be so low creatures we were meant to be social those lights went out at night I heard a lot of screaming moaning a lot of stuff that I encountered during my life and but what I did I dove into that Bible I was looking for the evidence and I had her I said look I owe nothing but time on my aunt's send me books I want to read about every faith I had the prison library I started reading about every faith and and I had a Sony Walkman not his young kids I don't know what that is but we understand what that is and and that was my contact with the outside world and I discovered pastor Greg Laurie I used to who now became a dear friend but I used to listen to pastor Greg and the way he interpreted scripture for me as I was doing my own study was so helpful and I did a very valid comparison over a 3-year period of time and I came out of there believing that the Bible was God's Word and that Jesus was my Savior and you know one way I approach this and I think this is very important because I talk to a lot of men I speak at a lot of different groups and when I started to look at Jesus I said you know what this is Jesus of Nazareth he was a man he walked the face of the earth he laughed he cried he bled he was a man from the time I was a kid my father drummed it into my head you got to be a man's man that's the standard in life you have to live up to you walk down the street people got to respect you respect women you got to be a man's man when I came into the life that's all I ever heard we're men of men were men of Honor I used to look up to some of the guys that I thought were really meant my dad Tony Salerno was the boss of the Genovese family and I were close and I really respected these guys so when I looked at Jesus my first reaction was well let me see what kind of man he is and I studied the Bible's forgetting I separated his deity from his manhood and I started to look at Jesus the man and look I was blown away by his qualities of manhood everything about him his wisdom his courage his strength what he taught he he was brilliant to me and he was somebody I said you know this is somebody I want to emulate and then realizing through my search of the evidence that he was absolutely absolutely crucified and he absolutely rose from the dead and I can get into all the reasons why I believe that which I could would tend to I obviously now so I looked at it and I said okay wait a minute here's the deal Jesus is the ultimate man's man the only man's man so if I try to emulate Jesus throughout my life okay I'm gonna be a better person I'm gonna be a better husband to my wife I'm gonna be a better father to my children if I'm a boss I'm gonna treat my employees well if I'm an employee I'm gonna give my boss an honest day's work everything about me is gonna be better everybody in a community I come in contact with is gonna be benefited from that and I'm gonna benefit and when I die well if he's not the savior of the world well I'm dead anyway so what did I have to lose but throughout my life I benefited from emulating this man so that's how I looked at it that's what was my rationalization it's just so I'm gonna try to do what Jesus would like me to do you know what would Jesus do that famous thing now I fail miserably I do at times because I'm gonna be honest with you you know I didn't get a lobotomy when I came to Christ every time I go to a gas station I want to rob the gas station okay especially out in California because it's $4 in change in gallon I'm saying I'm saying and every time I look at a pump I say these people are telling me this is premium when I know they put the same darn gas and everything because that's what we did right you know you're in a constant battle but you know I always say this you must you must be held accountable in life Jesus number one holds me accountable my wife holds me accountable my kids hold me accountable people with friends in mind that a brothers in Christ hold me accountable you got to have that accountability I tell these young gangbangers that I speak to all the time you know I'd tell them two things don't tell me you can't leave your gang I left the biggest gang in the world there's a way through Christ that's number one number two I tell them you are who you hang out with in this world you hang with the wrong crowd you're gonna be known to be the wrong type of person of course they're gonna influence you you must surround yourself at the right people you know and that's this that's the ticket for me I've surrounded myself with the right people I love the Lord for what he is and what he's done in my life and you know can I can I just drive this home I want people to understand something I don't take credit for any of this because I had no plan to be what I am now if you would have said to me 25 years ago you're going to be talking about Jesus I was here out of your mind I had no plan whatsoever at all it's just the way it happened it happened I told you this is lunch but when I walked away from that life in 1995 everybody predicted my death everybody and there's no blueprint from walking away from the mob publicly like I did as a matter of fact I don't know anybody that's ever done that publicly went through the witness protection program stuff like that yes but when I walked away life magazine quote if he holds to what he has promised will mark the first time a high-ranking member of the Mafia will publicly walk away from his past and live at McDonald head of the organized crime strike force he went on national TV in 1995 when I was released from prison he said quote I wouldn't want to be in Michael Franzese issues I don't think his life expectancy is very substantial he was very diplomatic but you know predicting my death the FBI agent one of them in my case she followed him to that pole and he said straight-out Michael Franzese will get whacked that's it that was in 95 1975 Halloween night I walked into room with five other gentlemen today I'm the only one alive the other five were all murdered we had a big war in our family 91 to 93 and I'll tell you this she doesn't even know this okay because I didn't want I don't tell my wife anything honestly whatever she knows about me she knows the way you people know she don't read my books she doesn't watch to any of my documentary she turns it off she don't want to know can I tell this quick story we go see Goodfellas I get out of prison we go see Goodfellas I say honey come on you know it's nostalgic I knew all those guys let's so juicy good fun she says okay we get in there and I love popcorn in a movie right and she'll tell you I always buy a big popcorn and I get my refill and I give that to her because I like to eat my popcorn alone so I'm eating I'm eating this takes four bytes and she's done I'm eating and I realized I made a mistake I don't know if you're so good fella's very graphic right and I'm eating my pop gun I'm getting a little bit nervous and at one point in time she looks at me and she said is this where your life was really all about I mean you really did these things and I saw honey it's a movie it's Hollywood they make things up watch the movie right no sooner I say that then that scene comes on and visitor and this might be Francie since she looks amazing come on honey let's go right and we left right and I said that wasn't me it's some guy by the name so Sheila goes online looks it up and Michael Franzese and there's a mug shot of me from Goodfellas anyway just before I got violated my dad had called me he was out on parole and he said to me the family is going to war stop the nonsense we need you back here and I'll be honest we I was so troubled by that I said man what kind of guy am i I'm leaving my men back there and family's going to war I'm on parole I'm gonna break my parole if I go back but what kind of man am I if I if I abandon my guys at a time of need because there was a power thing and the guy that was trying to get purser ghost power I was loyal to him was somebody I really didn't and I said I can't let him do this I had made up my mind to go back I was gonna break my parole I wasn't gonna tell her two days before that I get violated and they throw me in a jail cell and I'm in jail the whole time of the war and during that war thirteen men were killed 29 guys went to jail for life and Paul Michael is sitting in the hole that I believed until today that God saved my life at that point in time I really do I can't see it any other way because I've made up my mind to go just to continue that when that life magazine article came out in 1986 50 biggest most powerful mob boy they featured six of us I was one of the six and they actually had a chart with the 50 of us on there according to rank of Welton I was number 18 the youngest guy on a list I was five behind my friend Gotti at the time he wasn't boss yet they he was number 13 and I always say people don't ask me how they make a list like that they didn't ask for our tax returns don't ask me how they got it was silly list but I'll tell you what's not silly about that list out of that list of 50 33 years later 49 of them a debt 49 a debt over a 33 year period and I'm here I believe one reason and one reason only because God had a different plan and a purpose for my life and he's made that evident to me over the past 23 years and let me speak into that for a second the second imprisonment was you I think you've gotten the Savior part of Jesus around the baptism time in the wedding time but in that second and present when you hit the wall of despair can I'd commit to work in your life in which you're in solitary confinement for 29 months you put the Bible on trial with all your legal expertise and you became totally convinced of the veracity of the Bible and that Jesus was he is the man as men he is the made man yes and at that point you had gone from your earthly father controlling you to the god father controlling you and now God the Father is your boss yes and your life is in a place of surrender and after that all of this you're describing speaking to thousands of people all that opened up yes and you know another important thing my earthly father had such a tremendous hold on me that I'll describe this you know one of the horrors of that life and it really is a heart of that life you make a mistake your best friend walks you into a room you don't walk out again and unfortunately I witnessed that throughout my time in that life well I got that call one time you know being honest in that life I was one of the younger guys and it was envy because I was making you know more money than most of the guys there a lot of the old-timers and so there was a story that was written in Newsday that I was becoming powerful enough to break away from the Colombo's and stop my own family it was a fiction so it could have been made into a fiction movie there was no truth to it whatsoever but it started to get into people's heads and my dad was out on parole and called me one day so we got to go see the boss he sent for us and being that my dad was on parole and even though I had all those arrests and I was never convicted so he was able to stay with me I would drive him everywhere so I said okay what time you want to go he said no they want to do this differently they want me to come in first they want you to come in second now we were both captains at that point he was captain I was captain I said dad why are we gonna separate I said you know the talk on the street I said no we're not gonna do that we're gonna go together it was the first time I had a real disagreement with my dad and we were of equal rank back and forth back and forth my dad always you know no we got an order we got to obey the order I'm saying but Dad you hear what's going on if there's gonna be a problem let's go together you know back and forth finally I threw my hands up I said you know I've been listening to you all my life I don't like this but if that's what you want fine so I leave I get another call from another captain Jimmy Angelina he says meet me in Brooklyn it was a late meeting and we had to be covert because the boss was on parole at the time so we had to be very careful because he would have been violated so I drop my car off I get in a car with him I know this guy all my life there's a guy sitting behind me I'm in the passenger seat who I didn't really recognize I'm saying why is this guy here you know and as I'm driving with Jimmy I'm waiting for him to tell me what this meeting is about well he don't say anything he's thoughts talking to me about the Yankees I'm a die-hard Yankee fan I want to hear about the Yankees that night I'm waiting for him to give me a clue as to what we're doing you don't say a word I got this guy sitting behind me I'm saying something's wrong here don't look good so we get out of the car and it was about a 30-yard walk from the car to the basement apartment where we were meeting with somebody's house private as I'm walking it was a summer night and I can tell you I started to get very nervous because I'm assuming now I don't look back but I'm assuming Jimmy's behind me and the other guys behind him I'm saying this is a bad setup I can remember that night so vividly when I talk about it I can remember the aroma of the flowers I can hear the crickets talking that night because my senses got so high I said I'm gonna walk in this house and that those go I'm not gonna get killed this is it and people have said to me well Michael why didn't you run you know it wasn't heroic it was robotic I said well this is it this is it it's like I just said okay and my knees started getting weak I was thought to get very scared and he opens the door I don't know how I didn't faint when the door opened I'll be honest with you until today I don't know what kept me standing and obviously I'm here so we had a whole big thing and I started to get mad when they accused me of because they said that the newspaper came out and said I made two billion dollars of some ridiculous number and I said come on was a billion and a half I'm only kidding it was some ridiculous number and I said you know what I said I'm I was turning in two million dollars a week at that point it was my whole scheme and I'm saying you guys had the nerve to be upset with me I started to get a little irritated with the boss now you don't do that because from right you go to wrong immediately so I held myself everything was done we finished that a hugs have a glass of wine I just wanted out of there so I told Jimmy I said Jimmy drive me back to my car I got to go out to Long Island I got a long ride now we get into cars just me and Jimmy and I know him all my life and I was so angry at him that he didn't prepare me I looked at him I was about to blast him verbally blast them right and I always have to be careful with my words but uh he looks I mean he says stop before you say something stop I said what he said I gotta be honest for you Mike it was a problem for you tonight he said you held yourself pretty good I said now I got even more mad I said you know that I know you my entire life you know I'm walking into a possible trap you welcomed me in you don't tell me and he looks I mean he said if it was the other way around would you have told me and I thought about it for a second and I said no and he said it's the life we lead he said you know it better than anybody you grew up in it and man you know for some reason it just struck me I said what the heck is this it's my good friend but then we drive back to where my car is and it gets worse I go to get out of the car and he grabs me by my arm and he says I want to tell you something he said you're not gonna like this but I'm your friend and I'm telling you the truth you could take this to the bank I was his exact words my father wasn't in there when I got in there he said your father wasn't in there your father was in there before you tonight he didn't help you one bit Michael he threw you under the bus and I said what I was so stunned I couldn't respond to him and I get out of the car and and I'm starting to walk back to my car I'm saying what could he have done but knowing my father so well you know what he did he said if my son is stealing money I don't know he does everything I'm on parole he handles it all you got to go to him he didn't stick up for me and he had juice my dad he could have said what are you kidding me my son would never do this he just threw me under the bus and man I'll tell you what you know I said man if this life can separate father and son what do we really have here I'll tell you why this was so significant I believe that I know it for a fact now that God used that time to break the hold my dad had on me because if that incident don't happen regardless I would have never walked away from the life and that had and I made that decision later on to walk away but that never left me so I realized that God I had such the mob mentality and such a whole my dad had on me that ad hold had it be broken so that hold was broken at that point and then he had to be able to penetrate me during that time on the whole on the whole because if I was on the street forget about if I would I got killed in a war or something would happen but if I was on the street I could have never turned to him because I I was too much a product of my own self and I always can handle everything she'll tell you my famous word don't worry about I got it covered even when I don't have it covered I say don't worry about it and so I always thought that I can handle everything and God had to show me you know you can't you can't well you're not a place where don't you come in a sense full circle he started out under the power and control of your earthly father then you move to the Godfather and now you're solidly in the hands of God the Father over that ten to twelve year period that got broke you down now you're at a place where that word surrender that her mom and she mentioned to you that's real to you yes it's kind of here's what I see in having studied your books and if you want the full detail of all they just talking about where you have a book table out in the lobby and you can get these books and you can read this because we're just skipping over so much of it but here's what I see happen like in your early life on your god screen God was kind of an there was an outline of God that it was just dots vague then you got into the Mafia in God left the screen all together Gambas out of the picture that's right then you met kami God comes back into the picture but it's black and white then you get thrown in the hole and you spend twenty nine months with God God dealing with you you did them with God in the Bible and it became went from black and white to color where now you see God in clear color with perfect clarity in your life this fully surrendered in his hands yes is that fair it is very fair and you know I try to look back I don't create a story for myself I try to look back and see how God had a hand in this it's like when I meet her she was in the first beautiful woman I met in my life but there was something about her when I met her it was never on my radar screen to walk away from that life it wasn't even a thought you don't even think about something like that but for some reason my love for her is becoming more powerful than this lifelong bond this love I had for my dad it became more powerful than this blood oath that I took and I how do you explain that you know I don't know how to explain that I wasn't looking for anything it was just her she don't come into my life I'm dead or in prison for the rest of my life there's no doubt about it a thousand percent I I realized that and and you know the way this just progressed for me you know I'll tell you how strongly my belief is and I uh I have a hard time saying that I get a little emotional when I say it but you know there is a saying that that the sins of the father fall on the children and I've always said you know what God don't do that to me you know I have seven kids I love my kids we've been so blessed don't do that to me and he's honored that in a big way but even if that were to happen I might get angry with God I I don't know what I would do but I can never disbelieve it it's too strong it's too powerful to me not only in my life but in lives of others that I've been blessed to witness over the past 23 years God has a transforming power in your life if you give it up to him there's there's no other explanation you know the reason why I'm walking so freely people can't believe that you know they just done and to a great degree I don't get it well let's get clicked at this point when when do you met Jesus and it went from black and white to color when that connection was made that's when all of the the death of the Mafia went away and when the images of your father and the Godfather launched up all that was displaced in Jesus took front-and-center in your life that's when you became fully alive and that's when you became all that God has created you to be and he has kept you alive to speak about it no doubt about it I mean I I can't explain it any other way you know and even that night you know when when I walked away what God made me realize he said I prepared you you can face death because I faced it at one point in time and you know when I walked away I said well how is this gonna happen man these guys are not gonna let me go and I said okay they're not gonna walk me in a room they're gonna have to work to get me I'll move out to California you know I changed my whole lifestyle she'll tell you I didn't walk my dog at 7:00 in the morning I didn't create a pattern in my life we didn't go to the same restaurant every Tuesday night in case guys were looking for me they had no way to go I didn't put a house in my name no utilities I was very disciplined in that regard because I knew the methodology God prepared me he says you know exactly what they're going to do I prepared you for all of this because I have a different plan for you and so it wasn't like he just threw me in the fires hello I'm gonna make you a preacher and you're gonna annul he I was prepared for quite a while for this and I believed that and when I said to you you know and again not making excuses that I didn't feel good about things that I was doing I think God saw something on my heart and said I could work with this guy that's how I you know on my own terms break it down and you know and look I mean I am by in no way a perfect Christian you know I have my times you know sometimes the mob stuff comes back into my head you know my wife will tell you but I love the Lord for what he's done in my life and and my commitment is now to let others understand the transforming power of Jesus Christ and that's why I work a lot with these gangbangers I go into prisons all the time and you know it's amazing I always say the best thing that happened to my ministry this is Sopranos being at everybody's living room for the last 10 years why not when I first started speaking every Church we go to I'm not kidding we have the best attendance you know to Easter not because they knew who I was the mob guy is here people came to see the mobster know that that was it because this now with the Irishman out there it speaking again I mean they're starting all over again so I always say God is brilliant he knows how to get people in the door and then it's it's up to the Holy Spirit to do his work you know I want to tell you people that I have never seen God in a dream and he's never spoken to me audibly I don't have that gift some people do I don't have that gift but I the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart because I have a relationship with him my connection to the Holy Spirit is on the stage because there are times when I say things that I have no idea that we're going to come into my head on my mouth and people come up to me after and say Michael I really needed to hear that tonight I had I've been struggling so much I really needed to hear that because you become a vehicle you know and that's that's what happens and that's what keeps me going because I see that it has an impact on people and as long as God allows me to do it I'll do it well a few minutes ago I mentioned that you guys were setting extremes you're few you evolved through this process that we've detailed a night into a place of faith where now you've surrendered your life to God and God is in control for you cami you came into all of this with faith but through it all it served as a refiners fire to strengthen you and to also bring you to a place of deep and profound trust in conviction so you're both in a place of trust and surrender to the Lord but you came from two totally different angles to get there that true anything else you want to say well I want to know I want to say this this is this is very secure so much she's a lot better person than I am now born because for her I did what I did she got thrown into all of this and you know for her to stand by me and to do what she's done through all my stuff which was immense and for her mom my mom had a tremendous influence on me my mom died of cancer in 2012 and we were taking care of her at the time and she was doing her chemo treatments and me I'm gonna cure your mother to don't worry about it I got around 30 different homeopathic paying some doctors all over the world I got everything taken care of right me and so her mom is starting to reject all the pills and everything that we're giving her so to reject the food she's crying every night because she's so close to her mom all the kids are crying so I'm taking a her to UCLA she had lost her hair she's got the bandana on her head and I got her in my car and I say ma what's up with you man I said we're trying to help you you're starting to reject the medication camis crying every night I said I'm I'm very upset with you and she turns to me she turns to me just like this and she looks at me and she's I'm not kidding she had a glow not you know just the glow on her face and she said Michael I'm going home I'm ready to go home what got me there was in one hint of fear in that woman she was so sure in her relationship with the Lord and knowing how she lived her life I said this is real there's no question about it in my mind there was another thought in my life another thing that God put in my life to assure me she died two weeks later not a hint of fear that was the most courageous thing I've ever witnessed in my life and I'm coming from the street I've seen a lot of stuff the most courage did not want dr. J not even no doubt no fear nothing and I said wow this is so powerful so between these two women you know it's I mean I just look I'm thankful to God every day I really am because I know it should have been a lot worse for me all right well I hate to end our time together but we need to stop let's let's do this it's our tradition at these dinners that when we finish we give the speaker a chance to pray for you so what we're gonna do is have a brief word of Prayer if there's anything you want to say before you pray you can say no I just then I want you to lead us in prayer we'll have a moment of silence and then I'll close in prayer okay you want to say before you pray no I just want to I want to thank Brian he was a host and picked us up and you know everybody's been so nice here and courteous and cordial so I appreciate that we always appreciate the opportunity of being able to come and share so I thank you all for that and thank you for the great turnout I mean it's important and pray that next year it's even better than this so we hope for that and that's really it I want you to leave this is great let's all pretty good you know dear Lord I just want to thank you for bringing us all together lord I appreciate everybody that's come here tonight and I'm praying Lord that the Holy Spirit you know was able to touch some hearts here plant some seeds through the the testimony that you've given to me to share in Lord I don't know anybody in here but I know some people have heavy hearts some people are struggling with something in their life I just want them to understand that your doors are always open Lord that the ground at the foot of the cross is level no matter what people have done in their life that you are a merciful forgiving and and loving God and I ask that you come into their hearts Lord that you lead them in the right direction Lord we never try to impose you on anyone Lord but we try to open the door so that people can see you know through somebody like me and through the many testimonies that you have throughout the history of the world that you are real and that you are there with open arms waiting for everybody Lord so I thank you again I ask you to bless everybody in this room you know bless their their travels home tonight bless their families Lord and really point them in the right direction Lord let them understand that you you know you are the answer to not only everything here on earth but to uh to happiness and all of eternity and we do this always in Jesus Holy Name let's just have a London of silence and if there's anything you that are here want to say to God we want to give you a among of silence to do that someone when you turn your attention to the Lord in whatever is on your heart maybe you express that to him privately the Lord we want to thank you tonight form your presence here among us in in power we have felt and witnessed a power that's beyond us beyond anything human and we want to you to know Lord that we're forever grateful for the way you have not left us at the mercy of our sin nature our need to control our Tennessee to distress which went to extremes and Michael's life and he took the lifestyle that he did that you rescue us from ourselves and Jesus is he is the essence of all that is true honorable good noble virtuous perfect and holy he is a man's man he is the answer to our every need no matter what our questions are we always can find our answer in him what an amazing realization so you know what understand these things and to see see it work out in a person's life and to take him from literally the pit of hell to the pinnacle of peace and forgiveness and in a a resignation of joy in his life it's an amazing thing thank you for everyone here tonight Lord we trust that you've spoken to each of us in some way and as we leave this event tonight Lord let us let let us let us let them be resolved in all of our hearts not to see you vaguely but to see you live and in color and to clearly understand how it is that our souls are restless and they will be restless until we find our rest in you thank you for your presence here tonight Laurie it's been wonderful in Jesus name we pray amen America let's give these guys a round of applause [Applause]

Channel: The Church Of The Apostles

Views: 705,887

Keywords: michael franzese, former mob, former mafia, goodfellas, michael youssef, christian testimony, christian testiomony videos

Id: _zOnDn_-dKA

Length: 99min 15sec (5955 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 04 2020