- 1986, Fortune magazine wrote a huge article,
50 biggest and most powerful mob bosses in the country.
Out of that list of 50, some 33 years later,
49 of them are dead.
I'm the only one that survived.
(suspenseful music)
My name is Michael Franzese,
and I was a former caporegime in the Colombo crime family
back in New York.
One of the five New York mafia La Cosa Nostra families.
My dad was the underboss of the Colombo family.
His name was Sonny Franzese.
My dad was a very highly publicized figure.
He was a major target of law enforcement.
Had a lot of media attention.
When I grew up, as a result of that actually,
hating the police, 'cause I loved my father.
You know, I always saw them as the enemy,
you know, trying to hurt my dad, trying to hurt my family.
Originally, my dad didn't want this life for me
he wanted me to go to school, be a doctor.
I was on that road
until my dad got in some very serious trouble in the '60s,
and in 1966, my dad was indicted in federal court
for masterminding a nationwide string of bank robberies.
After a lengthy trial, he was convicted.
1967 he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
He was shipped off to Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas
to do his time, and I was a pre-med student.
Well, when my dad went away,
I was devastated, he was 50 years old when he went in.
Figure 50 on top of that,
he'd never come out of prison alive.
And at that time, Joe Colombo was the boss of our family.
He kinda took me under his wing.
I started to meet a lot of my dad's friends.
They would say to me,
Mike, what are you doin' goin' to school?
If you don't help your father out,
he's gonna die in prison.
So, I was very impacted by that.
I went to see Dad and he was pretty upset.
He didn't want that life for me.
Originally wanted me to go on as a professional,
but he knew my mind was made up
and I was a pretty headstrong kid.
He kinda threw his hands up,
I'll never forget, and he said, all right,
but if you're gonna be on the street,
I want you on the street the right way.
He says to me, go home.
Somebody'll be in touch with you.
Do whatever you're told.
He actually proposed me for membership in that life.
You can't just go up and say to somebody,
hey, I'd like to join.
Somebody has to propose you,
they have to vouch for you, say you have what it takes.
So, in my case, it was my dad.
Next 18 months to two years,
I was in kinda like a pledge period.
I was known as a recruit.
I was on call 24 hours a day.
You had to do whatever you were told
to prove yourself worthy to become a member.
Halloween night 1975, I was called into a room
with five other gentlemen.
It was a very solemn ceremony.
The six of us walked into a room individually.
Boss seated at the head of a horseshoe configuration,
walked down the aisle, stood in front of the boss,
held out my hand.
He took a knife, cut my finger,
some blood dropped on the floor.
Took a picture of a saint, a Catholic alter card,
put it in my hands and lit it aflame.
And he said, tonight, Michael Franzese,
you are born again into a new life and to La Cosa Nostra.
If you betray your oath, you violate your oath,
you're gonna burn in hell like the saint
that's burning in your hands.
Do you accept?
And I said, yes, I do.
I took that oath very seriously back then.
It's a very serious life.
And I take it seriously today
even though I don't consider myself
a member of that life anymore.
I was motivated to do two things.
One, I wanted to get my dad out of prison.
And two, I wanted to make money.
I was very aggressive on the street.
I brought some new things into the family
hadn't been done before.
I devised a scheme to defraud the government
out of tax on every gallon of gasoline.
I ran that operation for about eight years,
and at the height of my operation,
I was shellin' a half a billion gallons of gas a month,
and at one point in time, we were bringin' in
seven, eight, nine, 10 million dollars a week.
I had my own jet plane.
I had a helicopter.
I had a house in Florida.
I had a house in Marina del Rey, California.
A house in New York.
I had 300 guys under me
ready to do anything I tell them to do.
I did get my dad outta prison after 10 years,
he got out on parole.
He kept goin' back.
He was violated five times.
My dad did a total of 40 years in prison on that 50.
Today, my dad is released from prison.
He's 102 years old.
He'll be 103 in February.
Tell you where I was in 1984
when things started to make a transition for me.
I was probably at the height of my game,
my father was grooming me to take over the family boss,
underboss, whatever way it worked out.
I was indicted five times.
I had two federal racketeering cases,
one brought on by Rudy Giuliani.
I was eventually acquitted in that case.
I really had it goin' on at the age of 29.
And among many things I was doin' back then,
I was makin' movies.
I had a production company in LA.
And Smokey Robinson was a good friend.
He comes to me with a screenplay for a break dance movie.
So, we made this movie in Florida.
And I brought in 50 professional dancers
to work in the film.
There was a young dancer by the name of Camille Garcia.
I saw her and that was it.
It was like, you had me at hello.
And as a result of my falling in love with her,
and us being so far apart,
I mean I'm this mob guy and she's this young girl of faith,
I knew if I wanted her in my life,
I had to make some changes.
I decided to try to walk away from that life.
I didn't wanna hurt my former associates.
That's not something that you do.
When you leave that life,
it's considered betraying your oath
and you can pay for it with your life.
I was willing to take that chance.
I took a plea on a big racketeering case
involving this whole gas scam that I was involved in.
I got a 10 year prison sentence.
I married Camille, she's now my wife of 35 years.
We moved out to California.
I go off to do my time.
As a result of that, I'm in a lot of trouble.
Immediate contract on my life.
My father, at the time, pretty well disowned me.
He was very upset with what I did.
I had law enforcement all over me.
The Feds wanted me to become a major informant,
a major witness.
I didn't want any part of that.
I had a very rough time in prison.
I did five pretty tough years as a result of that.
I got out after five years on parole.
I'm on parole for 13 months.
Worst 13 months of my life.
You know, basically dodging bullets,
a lot of trouble with the Feds,
still trying to make a living out in California.
My wife and I, at that point and time,
we had two little babies, third one on the way.
After 13 months, like a fool, I make a mistake.
I fall into a trap, violate my parole,
they send me back to prison.
Told me I'd never see the light of day again,
I'd never be a free man.
I did 29 months and seven days in the hole.
24 hours a day, seven days a week,
I was in lockdown.
It was during that time that I became a person of faith,
studied my Bible very much
and decided that I was gonna really try
to make a transition of my life
for the last 23 years, I've been a very prolific speaker,
both on a faith-based side and in a secular side.
I speak all over the world.
I've written four books, I'm on my fifth.
And I've been extremely blessed to be
where I am today.
I told ya in 1975, there was six of us
that took the oath that night,
I'm the only one alive today.
The other five were all murdered.
Takin' that a step further,
1986, Fortune magazine wrote a huge article
50 biggest and most powerful mob bosses in the country.
Out of that list of 50, some 33 years later,
49 of them are dead.
I'm the only one that survived.
So, to say that I'm a fortunate, blessed guy
is really an understatement.
And you know, I attribute that
to God havin' a different plan and a purpose for my life,
and me meeting this young girl.
'Cause if it wasn't for her,
I'd either be dead or in prison for the rest of my life,
without a doubt.
Like all my former friends and associates.
You know, I have to say, during my time in that life,
I was a committed mob guy,
and I wanted to be the best possible mob guy I could be.
I wanted to make my father proud,
and plus I try to do my best when I'm doing something,
but there were times in that life
when I did things that I just did not feel good about,
and I'm almost ashamed to say that I did 'em anyway.
I saw people get killed for the wrong reasons.
I saw people suffer for the wrong reasons.
You know, unfortunately, you can't go back
and change things,
you can only hope that you can move forward
and do better.
The mob life should not be glorified.
I always say it's an evil life.
I'm not callin' the guys evil,
'cause I was one of them and I don't judge people like that,
but the life is evil because I don't know one family
of any member of that life, including my own,
that hasn't been totally devastated.
So, any lifestyle that does that to families
is an evil lifestyle.
You know, I just really wanna encourage people
that you can come back from a bad situation.
I mean, look, everybody predicted my death
when I walked out of prison, everybody,
from law enforcement to everybody on the street.
The important thing is you gotta be held accountable.
You gotta surround yourself with the right people
because in this life, you are who you hang out with.
And I have a wife that holds me accountable.
I have children who hold me accountable.
I have a church that holds me accountable.
And this is the way I stay on the right track.
You can come back from a bad situation.
You can defeat the odds.
And I just wanna encourage people
to never give up hope in that regard.
(thoughtful music)