Michael Franzese - Interview
An heir apparent to the Colombo crime family's deep power, Michael Franzese was labeled as "one of the biggest earners the mob had seen since Al Capone." A made man at the age of 24, Michael honed his uncanny business skills and was pulling in millions of dollars a week from union kickbacks and a highly successful gas-tax scheme. After rising in position and power, he successfully dodged multiple attempts at indictment. But a love for his wife and a change of heart led to an acceptance of a prison term, the loss of his Cosa Nostra empire and the dissolution of his covenant with the mob. Michael Franzese became the first high ranking official to successfully quit the mafia, refuse government protection and live to tell the story. His book, Blood Covenant, details the rise, fall and new-found commitment to Jesus Christ.
Bypassing introductions, I made a point to not rehash story information that was in his book. Rather, I was interested in picking his mind in the short time at hand. The following is our interview.
David: It's a pleasure to interview you; I just finished reading your book.
Michael: Well, thank you.
D: I've been a big mafia fan. Well I'm a managing editor here at a Christian music magazine and we have this thing called intermission where we talk to people who are relevant, that are doing something that we need to hear, so I think you fit that bill perfectly.
M: I think that's great. Is this attached to the Sonic Flood tour in anyway?
D: Actually it's not but we cover them.
M: Oh you do? I'm not sure if you're aware that I'm going out on tour with them…
D: You're going on tour with Sonic Flood?
M: Yeah.
D: That's great. Are you speaking before they play or after?
M: Yeah, I'm going to be opening up for them. I'll be honest this is new ground for me, it's the first time in my experience that I’ve done something like this, opening up for a band. It's kind of strange. I think the title of the tour is something like “No Fear” and they just thought I’d be ok to open this thing up for them. We're going out in mid-march and supposedly 30 cities right through May 1.
D: Wow. So what do you? Are you going to speak the message that you do when you speak to the youth or are you catering your message to that tour?
M: I would think so, we're getting everything together. All the discussions so far have been between Rob Michaels and their people, but I'm going out on the 4th of December to do a promotional piece with them and then we're going to really get into how the tour's going to flow and exactly what they want of me. I'm pretty sure I know already, it's basically what God has done in my life, where I've came from, and where I am today.
D: Yeah, that's incredible and no one can refute your testimony, that's powerful stuff.
M: It is what it is and hopefully God's using me for the right purpose, or I should say that I’m fulfilling God's purpose.
D: I understand that. In preparing for this interview the initial reaction for me is, I'm just curious and I’ve got all these interesting mob questions. But later in looking into it I would just like to ask you things of your relationship with God and how you deal with stuff mentally. Is it ok if we kind of start there?
M: We have no boundaries so wherever you want to go.
D: One thing is we know that we have temptations and we're faced with them daily, little things we may ask God forgiveness for over and over. Now, you've seen things most people only hear about or watch in the movies and you've had obscene amounts of money pass through your hands how are you able to transform your mindset to pull away from that?
M: Well you know it's, at times it was very difficult for me and at times it still is difficult. It's an appropriate question because I just left a meeting that you know somebody had told me, I met with an attorney actually, a real nice guy, and he said “The question is still out there that you have billions of dollars, that you have access to millions of dollars”, and this is twenty years removed. From where I was at that time and you just can’t get that perception out of people’s minds. I tell you this; my life has changed so much. Obviously having been in a position where money wasn't an object for me you know there was no object to anything I wanted to do that concerned money because it was plentiful. I lived that kind of life and had all the luxuries at the time, I think it is difficult in a time where you've changed you life and now you're doing it the right way when you know that you have the know how and the expertise to do it the wrong way. The temptation at times was there for me over the years. I think it's totally gone now, it was a process but it took a lot of prayer it took a lot of concern at some point when my walk with God became as strong as it is today and I started to think that it really was important to be accountable to God, and it made it easier for me to turn the other way when that temptation came around. That's really what happened, plus being accountable to my wife and kids, and not wanting to go back to prison. I had an experience last week where I went to see my dad. I visited him in prison. I was in the visiting room and I hadn't been there in several years and I met a few inmates that were with me when I was away. They were out and they went back in again, which is pretty common. The whole situation just hit me again and I said, “I do not want to be in this place again.” I think God puts these little reminders in front of you and makes you conscience of the fact that you better stay straight.
D: So you said, “accountable to God,” just reading your story and hearing you say, “accountable to God”. Is that in itself difficult, being accountable to somebody? Or is that something you were used to?
M: You know I was used to that because in the life that I led, you're very accountable for your actions all the time. With serious consequences if you make the wrong move. So I never had a problem with authority and I never had a problem with accountability. You know, I guess sometimes you have a problem with who you're accountable to, but the concept of accountability I think is very important. I think we all need to be accountable, so I don't have a problem with that.
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