Michael Franzese with Carman on TBN Jun 9, 2011

I am I decided to allow my my console area to stay with me as we interview the next guest Aires he is one of the biggest was was one of the biggest mob money earners he didn't say move yet oh wait till I give you the heads up okay he's one of the big mob earners since Al Capone relaxed and well the youngest in the youngest individual and fortune magazine listed as the 50 biggest mafia bosses he's number eighteen Oh back in the old days and you know a lot of times if you're watching like a na or something like that you see one of those you know mob BIOS you're gonna you're gonna see his name pop up one of the few guys who was able to live that life to rise to the to be a captain in the Colombo crime family and make it out alive and not only make it out alive but make it out alive born again saved and in the ministry he had what they call it the mascius road experience is gonna talk about that here today he's a motivator for the for the youth and he's a professional and student athletes and he speaks the corporate executives he wrote books like I'll make you an offer you can't refuse the good the bed in the forgiving blood covenant which is being made into a movie about his life would you please welcome save sanctified feel the Holy Ghost but still Italian so uh how you doing I'm doing good but honestly I got a little nervous the last time I was sitting with two other Italians I was under arrest this is like a RICO indictment it's Jimmy Carmen and Michael I know the Frankie in common were here with she'll be on we're gonna get nothing I can't hear I'm deaf I don't know nothing you didn't see you didn't know nothing you don't see nothing so you guys are both from New York right yes Obama this I'm doing the interview I'm a new testimony today is you from New York from New York Queen so when when just to give us a brief perspective when would were you as the active captain in a chrome Colombo's I was I came into the life actually took the oath on Halloween night 1975 you come into the life you come in as a soldier and in 1980 the boss from my family appointed me as a capo de Shamu captain and from 1980 until about 93 when I consider myself formally removed from that life I operated as a captain so for 13 years yes that's a pretty long run when is it a good run at that time well I mean yeah I mean long right it was the good old bad day second but yeah it was a long run I mean this mean I don't want to scroll ahead but how many other guys do you know of who have actually made it out of that level of the mob alive just not not even talking about getting being saved but just alive and out there somewhere calm and I honestly I don't know of anyone that's been able to reach the level that I've reached not enter a witness protection program and then publicly come out of life and you know I realized at some point in time that the only I'm probably the most fortunate most blessed guy that you're ever wanted gonna gonna see in your life because if I was lifted up to my own to do what I wanted to do I'd either be dead or in prison for the rest of my life just about every one of my associates have met that fate but I realized at some point in time God had a different plan and a purpose for my life you know look I don't attribute anything you know my successful my ability to get out of that life or anything that I did if it wasn't for the Lord Jesus I wouldn't be here plain and simple whoa well you know being being from being an Italian I mean we grow up with this all around us from New Jersey guys are from New York you know this is just part of our culture and so you know the TV comes on you're watching A&E you're watching all these mob BIOS every single one of these mob piles ends with a guy either in prison or dead I mean that's just the end of the story your story is completely unusual and the fact that you actually went to prison for you were prison for how long I did I got a ten-year sentence I did eight years on the ten and but when you went in you didn't like confess anybody else's sins you just confessed your own yeah no I never uh it wasn't I didn't have anything against any of the guys in that life I I didn't want to hurt anybody I just wanted out of life I met a young girl from Anaheim California actually and I felt very much in love with her she was a young Christian and also met her mother who was probably the the most godly woman I've ever met in my life Carmen very simple woman but powerful woman woman of Prayer and even today my home church agape House of Prayer in Anaheim was started my brother moisturize I think he's in the audience but yeah he's up here someplace but my mother only he started that church several years ago and you know this woman I believe prayed me to where I am today and yeah so when you so when you what what got you I will how did you get caught I get I don't know caught arrested what the do well know what I I had I went to trial actually five times my dad was the underboss of the Colombo crime family my dad at the age of 94 has spent 34 years in prison he's back in prison now he's been in and out five times on parole violations he was the underboss of that family and so he had a lot of publicity that kind of came on me later on I he became a major target I can indict it five times I went to trial five times I beat every case I'd be Rudy Giuliani and 84 indicted me on a big racketeering case when he was the US Attorney when I met this young girl she was a young Christian fall very much in love and I realized that my life was a direct contradiction to everything this woman and her mom believed and if I was gonna be with her I had to make a break and this is the amazing thing karma when I met her I'm at the top of my game beat every case captain in a family they were grooming me to be the boss and I'm going mob all the way I meet this young woman and for some reason my love for her becomes more powerful than this bond I had with my dad all my life more powerful than his blood oath that I took and I didn't understand it back then I was just in love with a beautiful woman but she was a godly woman and I believe God put this woman in my life and saved my life through her and gave me a different plan and purpose and so I realized that I had to make a break I took a plea they were going to indict me again on another big case 10-year prison sentence 15 million dollar restitution I married this young girl who at the age of 21 I said honey can you handle me doing a couple of years in prison my wife is Mexican I'm at I'm from Brooklyn I gotta tell you how it'll let feel god I never met a Mexican before I never even ate a burrito before I have my wife right the first Mexican I met I love American Mexicans now be honest love the whole family but you know God put this woman in my life I'm so attracted to her and it wasn't because God I mean God was important to her to me I just respected her beliefs but I said I gotta make a break so I take a plea government want me to get a conviction on me ten years sentence 15 million dollar restitution I marry her and I said to her Camille can you handle me doing a couple years in prison at the age of 21 she tells me God will be in the foundation of our marriage I'd rather have you in prison and with all these struggles on the street and I always say that the story really is about her it's not about me I mean I brought all this baggage on myself but her conviction was so strong and I was so impressed with her love of the Lord and my mother-in-law's love of the Lord that it just you know eventually caught me over a period of time I mean I didn't fall right away it took I was a rough case God had to do his work with me I wasn't easy but so I took the plea married this girl and eventually the Lord just won my heart over and how long are you in for I mean you said you said to her a couple years but it was longer than a couple of years why went in I did five years and made parole I come out of parole when I had rejected the life I never realized it was gonna become so public I tried to do it quietly but it hit Life magazine all the papers in New York my dad disowns me because he believes that maybe I'm gonna start cooperating Boston my family call my Persico is not doing life immediate contract on my life the feds come to me Mike your own dad approved the contract you're in trouble this will put you in a witness protection program help us out I don't want any of that and so I rejected it I get out on parole the 13 months are ma I'm off parole the worst time of my life I'm dodging bullets literally I'm trying to stay away from the feds their pressure so they're trying to kill you oh yeah I mean my wife and I we couldn't put a house in our name no utilities on jumping from one so they like not know where you're at I mean we're talking about the mobs trying to kill you well it was a little different back then you know it's one thing and and I don't want to be offensive to anybody but I'm just being honest with you you know you're in that life you're in trouble your best friend puts his arm around you walks you into a room you don't walk out again so I mean I had a lot of experience in the life and I said well you know what I've been there for a long time they're gonna have to get me I'm gonna have to work at it because I understand this life as well as anybody so I did what I had to do to try to stay away moved out to California and kind of you know change my whole lifestyle so that they couldn't create a pattern on me feds came to me several times Mike we got word from whether they like you or not if they know your life is in danger they're obligated to tell you Mike we got word from our informants your life's in trouble you got to move my wife pick up we move we leave town and and the whole time God is working on me God is working on me and you know and I I accepted Christ but I wasn't ready to surrender to Christ because I couldn't I couldn't process surrender you know I'm a mob guy I'm in control of my life you know God helps those who help themselves but I found out later on that that our acceptance of the Lord is made whole in our surrender so that God can work through us and during this time how did you make a living you know what common I'll be honest with you it was so tough I mean big mob guy on the street made all this money I was like a fish out of water in LA and you know it was very very difficult meeting to really get off again and you know I had a fifteen million dollar restitution so I gave the feds a lot in order to get a 10-year deal long story short they violate my parole they had enough with me I didn't want to cooperate they violate my parole cleaned me out financially throw me in a hole in LA then indict me on another racketeering case violated me my parole that night they put me in a jail cell they said you're done my wife's home she's 27 years old we got two kids I'm saying how's this girl gonna wait for me now I may be in jail for the rest of my life the girl I did all of this for I'm gonna lose you know what they can't put me out on the yard I got death threats all over me I'm in that six by eight cell and a common worst night of my life and I have never cried out to the Lord before but that night I said to him Lord if you're up there you need to give me something to help me feel better I can't deal with this I'm being honest a prison guard walk by myself he says Franzese you okay you don't look good I chased him said get away from me don't bother me now he's mad he comes back a minute later and he pushes a Bible through the slot on the door I picked the Bible up I'll be honest with you amen I'm so angry with God I take that Bible toss it against the wall as hard as I could I said you know what I got nothing but enemy he's only me and God in his cell I don't need another enemy right I picked the Bible up I said god help me out I had never read the book of Proverbs before ever I opened a book and for some reason the first verse that really touches my heart proverbs 16:7 when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord even his enemies are at peace with him and I believe in adverse the Lord convicted me and gave me hope in the same verse because he said yeah you married this girl yeah you left the life but who'd you do it for didn't do it for me you did it for you and it really got me and then even your enemies were at peace with you nothing but enemies that night I started to read on a little bit more I came to the verse that became the verse of my life and I believe should be the verse of everybody's life proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 & 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight I can tell you this in that point that night I said okay God I said but I got to this Lord I made a mistake in trusting my dad I took a blood oath entered that life I said two strikes look where it got me I said Lord if you really are God if this Bible is truly the blueprint for my life and jesus is my risen Savior you need to prove it to me and the reason I say that you know I always say God gives us he put us in this world he gave us a lot of choices and I don't think it's a bad thing to challenge God and say God show me the evidence you know I need to know you put me in this world you gave me a free will I want to know I want to believe but show me well I got to I know a little bit about evidence alright five trials and I believe me I know our system inside out and upside out when I started to really search open this stubborn mind in my heart and said God show me I found out not beyond a reasonable doubt which is our standard of proof in the criminal justice system by any but beyond any doubt the Bible is God's Word and Jesus's our risen Savior and he sold me in that cell I spent three years in the whole 24 hours a day seven days a week me and God if you see my prison Bible there's more of my notes on there than a red scripture I must have read it a thousand times I read over 400 books with starting with Chuck Colson's born again I had a Sony Walkman I'd listened to pastor Greg Laurie every day love pastor Greg that you know that soothing boys so then I get him Atticus to listen to no not I had a Sony Walkman at the time so I listened to the radio okay yeah him and you know whoever else you want to listen to I wish you would add Jimmy I could listen to but anyway and I came out you know I had no choice I surrendered but you know what I found out even when you don't want God he wants you and he wouldn't let me go he said something that you've said it a couple times into kind of went by and I've always meant to ask you this is there was a time we said Carmine Persico who was you know he's just he's one of the big top dogs well on A&E or or any of these mob shows I mean he's like one of the big guys he put put it put a price out on you yeah time time for you to go did he have to get an approval from you from your dad to do that or does that you just have to go along with it know what he was the boss so you know in that life really they talked about only the boss gonna put a contract thing my dad at that time was a captain my dad had to go along with it because if you bring somebody into the life and that person goes bad well you're in trouble for bringing him in he died proposed me so my dad was in a position where he really had to go along and my dad loves me and by the way my dad and I didn't speak for ten years common I thought I'd never have a relationship with him again now we're closer than ever God has brought that relationship trying to figure out how what was the the pinnacle the most difficult time of that that family dynamic so obviously the the Persico says to your father we got to do this if he if he if he says no he could be gone oh yeah that night you had to go along so is does he send word to you does he sneak a message somehow or does he just have to be quiet how does that work you know I knew I knew I was in trouble there was no doubt it I knew the life well enough to know that I was in trouble and I had to it what they could they use your father to get to you well I don't believe my dad would have went that far and I don't think they would have put that pressure on him but he had to go along with it in other words he if he if he tried to argue it there would have been a war in a family I mean there's you know those things are real so at that point did you feel like there was this separation between you and your dad because he was in the life or because you felt like he betrayed you you know I don't I don't believe he betrayed me because I understood the life and you know my wife has a difficult time with this well you know Mike your dad and how could he have done that in a sauna you don't understand the life but my father loves me but we was such a product that at life I had it takes over your whole in monetary sort of it's exactly right but now you know like I said we're closer than ever and only Jesus could have restored that and by the way I want to tell you this I've been praying for my dad for 15 years I've had thousands of people praying him wherever I go and speak at a church I figured if my father came to the Lord it was gonna be a deathbed experience I never figured he would do it but I had faith that the Lord would answer our prayers two months are going at jail cell in Manhattan my dad accepted Christ don't have to give up on prayer people you love don't ever give up on prayer God answers you can look online see for Sonny Franzese I mean that that's a serious mob guy well I'll tell you it my dad is the oldest living mob guy in the country he's been he's been in that life 65 years the oldest living guy so but you know one of the messages that I like to put out work a lot with young kids a lot of gangbangers I really try to get him the right way and I try to explain to these young people why was I be able to make it in his life a good Church a copy house of prayer these people reach out to anybody to church welcomes everybody my brother-in-law is my more than a little great people right you've got to surround yourself with God loving people we got to be nourished all the time I tell these young people you are who you hang with you hang with the wrong crowd you could have a good heart good mind great family you're gonna be known as the wrong person you have to surround yourself with God loving people and that's how you you stay on track and you know I tell people you don't get a lobotomy when you come to Christ you still remember the old where am i right Jimmy you know hey we're calling the neighborhood yeah you dropped me off from Brooklyn I got the same accent I'm ready to do the whole thing right but you got to stay around the right people and you got to be nourished with the Lord all the time and that's that's how you succeed CNN at your brother-in-law I'm thinking that if it's your brother-in-law and it's your church obviously you're gonna have to speak their every once in a while I mean you get a you got to come through with something whenever I'm not on the road I'm at the church speaking Louis terrific you don't need to check check him out online copy House of Prayer copy House of Prayer Lincoln Lincoln Boulevard nine Heim great Church open to everybody and I love them they've so many people who have walked through those doors and never walked out again but love the Lord yeah you've seen a lot of people walk through doors never walk out again right well I didn't mean it that way you know what then we grow up and one of those that we grew up near each other we grew up in one of those neighborhoods no matter how you got killed it was always a heart attack right it's good throw a guy off a 30-story building cops come without but I don't know it looked like a heart attack yeah something a big guy with an ice pick in his back but I don't know look like a heart attack yeah the guy grabbed this chest and fell on it 17th I know what happened I don't know what's up TV also I my Sony Walkman oh I know I want to awake I look in the corporate it was just a hand in here what are you gonna say yeah it looks good lost a few pounds huh so the widow she's crying what happened the best thing Jimmy you know in that life every weekend is weddings and funerals and every funeral orders and he looks so good when he was alive that's true it's like that you're evaluated by how good you look when you die we were putting you know what's funny with us they would put makeup on us and we looked at each other like the only people in our family so you got a movie that you're working on about your life yeah the same producers that produce the movie Soul Surfer have produced in a movie on my life they're going to production in September and hopefully if everything stays on schedule we'll be out next year and you know the people have been trying to make a movie on me for the last 20 years and they always want them to make another good fella another casino I don't want to do that but this group they're gonna honor God in this movie I've read the script we'll get it and I made a promise you know I've been so blessed you know I speak to thousands of people a month then I make a promise and a commitment if God doesn't not is not honored in that movie it'll never hit the screen so now don't tell me how I'm gonna take care of that but don't have you know you think about a mob movie and yeah of course you know that's it's all f-bombs and all sorts of bad language because we're just so used to it with the like The Sopranos and Goodfellas and the rest of that but this is they're gonna have to take another approach I mean they just have to dig a little deeper for them in the writing correct yeah but you know common if you look at the Godfather there wasn't one cuss word in that movie and when I say that nobody remembers that but go look at it not one cuss word and yet it was the greatest mob movie ever made so you can do it you know you can do what would I be in that light you knew sir there's got to be a part for the two of you without forgot come on you two sure common for sure what do you think he's better looking to me but you look more like a mob guy than me you know if I wasn't if I was gonna be in trouble I'd walk down the street with you they grab you first it's happened I don't know who would I be I don't know what you'll be Michael it could be the younger version of my dad yeah yeah I'm serious hot dog hot dog vendors are very important in my life you know that on the way out the door right right man is that so hot dog they work eight months a year they go to Greece for the other four nights are all agreed what do you say we all look standing at it hey I'm in is in you all right I'm in you guys put up the money I'll get a piece we got the muscle over here we go we already go we got a minute okay well Jamie Slocum is gonna sing and then I'm gonna come back and I got a word for those of you here tonight that those of you that are watching that you got somebody in your family that might be you know it sound a little bit like a Michael Franzese that might be out there you don't know how to get to them and or like a Shelley Lubben you don't know what to say to them we're gonna think of a way now Jim live real I don't know I would know what to say today I would say if anybody's out there like me get help my education is not a bad thing I say he's Reiser he's right but he didn't have to agree with me I can agree with somebody Jamie Slocum's going to

Channel: The Inspirational Corner

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Keywords: Michael Franzese with Carmen on TBN Jun 9, 2011

Id: zr125KBfU-s

Length: 25min 2sec (1502 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 15 2011