From Mob Boss to Man of Faith: The Real Story of Michael Franzese

Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Shawn French | Adversity & Determination Expert

Michael Franzese shares his journey from growing up in the mob world to becoming a man of faith and redemption. He discusses his father's imprisonment, his rise in the Colombo family, and his eventual transformation. The conversation highlights themes of loyalty, personal responsibility, and second chances.

Key takeaways

• Grew up hating law enforcement due to family trauma
• Earned mob status through loyalty and effort, not just nepotism
• Transformed from crime to advocacy and mentorship

Transcript preview

I grew up hating law enforcement. I hated the government, I hated police, because I saw them as the enemy and my dad is the hero. From the time I was three, four, five years old, my dad was surrounded by law enforcement. There's a misconception out there that mob guys sit in their social clubs and they think of the next business they're going to attack or defraud it with them. In 1986 Fortune magazine top 50 mob bosses in America. The guy sitting next to me was on it. an author, a husband, a father. I want to welcome Michael Franese to the show. My challenge to people all around the United States of America, can we learn to disagree again? We're fighting over things that are trivial compared to what you're talking about. And yet there was still reconciliation, respect, and no love lost. But yeah, there's people down on the streets. You know, the CIA, why would you trust that? Their job is to be dirty. Yeah. He'd done something that nobody else can say that they did that they did. away publicly and there was a contract put on your life, you tell us that your dad approved the contract. How are you sitting here right next to me? Well, there's a list. In 1986, Fortune magazine, top 50 mob bosses in America. The guy sitting next to me was on it. In fact, he's the only one on that list that is alive or not in prison. His name is Michael Franese. he walked away from it, something that nobody is allowed to do, walk away publicly. And in fact, there was a contract put out on his life and it is rumored that his dad actually approved the contract. So we have a gentleman now who is here, is now a speaker, an author, a husband, a father, and he's giving back to athletes, give him back to entrepreneurs and speaking in many arenas helping people with their lives. And we get the opportunity to talk to him today. So I want to welcome. Michael Franiseise to the show. Sean, thank you. So good to have you, man. Good to be here. I want to start at that moment, you know, 16 years old, young Michael, your dad is sentenced to 50 years in prison. Take me back to that room and what it actually did to you. It was crushing because I love my dad. He was my idol, my hero, and just a great father. And to realize that he was, what we figured would be a death sentence. he was 50 years old when he got sentenced to when he went in. If you had 50 on top of that he never come out of prison alive. So it was, you know, you have these defining moments in your life that just really have an impact on you and this was one for me. Big one. Yeah. What were some of the early feelings in that room when, you know, of course, you know, it changed the whole trajectory of your life. Right. You were a pre-med track and you transitioned out from that. You went into the life. objection from your father and you became you know one of the you know you're you were the captain for the Colombo family man and you know generating eight million dollars a week in and in the gasoline tax scheme and all that kind of stuff like but in that moment what triggered you to be like all right I'm gonna change what I'm doing now I'm gonna go into this life. Well what happened you know you got to understand I grew up hating law enforcement. I hated the government I hated police I saw them as the enemy and my dad is the hero. Because you know from the time I was three four five years old my dad was surrounded by law enforcement and you know I always looked at him as harassing him and harassing my family I got it to many run-ins with them so I was very resentful when my dad got sentenced and was going away because I believed he was innocent because he told me he was innocent and if my dad said it I believed it and by the way I believed it and by the way I believed that until his day. I and I'll take it to my grave. So I was just really angry, resentful, and I wanted to figure out a way to help my father. Because I understand there's shown, I never aspired to be a mob guy. It's not what I was going. I was going to be a doctor. I was an athlete. You know, I played ball in school. My idol at that time, aside for my father was Mickey Manel. I grew up loving Mickey I'm a die-hard Yankee fan until today. I don't miss a game. But, you know, that changed everything that changed everything. my father said to me you're the man of the house you know he got to take care of your mother your brothers and sisters and I felt you know the weight of that in a way and I wanted to do whatever was necessary to help him get out of person because I thought he would die in there if I didn't and you know I was at a meeting with him when he went in in Leavenworth penitentiary we were in the visiting room I had been highly influenced by Joe Colombo who was the boss of our family he was kind of my mentor when my mentor when my dad went away and he had League and I believed it was something that would help my dad so I was very active in it and Just one day I went in the visiting room and I said that I'm not going to school anymore if I don't help you out you're gonna die in here and We had a bit of a discussion I would say about it and finally he threw his hands up because I was kind of a headstrong kid he knew my mind was made up and he said okay but if you're gonna be on the street the right way and in his mind the right way was to become a member of his life so he proposed And so what's that process look like you know is there a vetting process and you know Yeah I mean you can't just go up to a guy in that life and say I'd like to join you know what do I have to do somebody has to propose you You know say you have what it takes in my case it was my dad which there's a lot of nepotism in that life and then he sent word downtown and the boss of the family at that time Joe Colombo had been shot and seriously wounded I was with him when that happened And he said, Mike, I got a message from your father. And is this what you want? I said, yes. And he said, from now on, you're on call to serve this family, the Colombo family, 24-7. If you buy your mother's side and she's dying on her deathbed and we call you, you leave your mother, you come and serve us. We're number one in your life. And they said, when and if we feel you deserve this privilege, this honor to become a member, we'll let you know. So you're in kind of a recruit period. So you're in, your time is called when they figure okay you've earned it. How long is that process or for your specifically I guess? Well for me it was two and a half years for others it could have been 20 years because there was a something going on then that the books were closed since the 50s they weren't bringing in any new guys for security reasons and then in the mid-70s they opened the books so there was guys waiting 20 years to become a made member. For me it was two and a half years. Wow. Wow. Obviously there's been things that I've heard that Sonny said to you that you didn't get it on your own merit. It was a favorite of your father. Do you ever think about that? Or you know, is there any... Because you mentioned nepotism, but at the same time, from what you're describing, is like you earned it. You put in your work and then you got, you know, you were made and then you were made and then you became the captain. You got it. You got to be made the captain. You got it's for security purposes, you know, you know, you know, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were made, you were they're not going to betray the life, the oath, that's the thinking. So no, I never thought of it that way. There's people out there that they say what they say for whatever reason, but you have to earn it no matter what. You know, it's no gift to you and you got to earn it and you got to prove yourself and you don't do that. I think with anything like you said, you know, if you're an actor, if you're an inside track to become an actress, but they also have to do the work and they have to be good at it to be good at it for them to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have a sustained have a podcast or take over when I'm done. Well, yeah, that's the nepotism factor, right? But they got to be good or nobody will listen. Listen, you know, Frank Sinatra had kids and they tried to follow in his footsteps and to a degree they did but they're not Frank Sinatra. You know, you got to earn it and I tell my kids the same thing. I say listen, you know, I'm having some success right now. I say, you know, I'm having some success right now. I'm having some success right. you have to take advantage nobody is going to do it that for you so it's not wrong for a father you know a family member to open a door for their children but then it's up to them agree that's how life is we start talking about opening the door I thought of brawny and lebron yeah you know what it means like hey he's there but he's not lebron and you have to perform to get that earned respect right so on Halloween was it 1970s 50 years. You took that blood oath, right? Yes. What did it actually feel like when the knife was cutting into your hand? For me it was very exhilarating, you know, you work hard to get there and then when you finally get there, okay, I've made it. You know, for me it was even more special because it was now I was, I had an even greater bond with my dad and that meant a lot to me. And then now the work starts, you know, because you know there was a thing, the night, the night we got, that night and after we finished we went into a room and we all had a banquet you know that's what the time is doing we had wine we whatever and I'll never forget one of the soldiers came in and he had a brown bag paper bag and he brought in and say hey boss should they give them all that bag of money now and the irony in that is people think you come into that life and everybody's handing you money just the opposite you come into that life you were expected to hand up and the boss said that night that night Don't expect any handouts here. You guys got to earn your keep both on the street and what you bring into the family. And so I got it that night. I understood it. Yeah, and you generated a lot of money and revenue for the Columba family. I mean, most notably the tax scheme, the gas tax scheme. Can you explain that to me? Because I'm not in that life. I don't know what any of that means. I mean, how does a man generate $8 million a week? sitting there's social clubs and they think of the next business they're going to attack or defraud or whatever and that doesn't happen quite often normally it's somebody from the inside of a company whatever that comes to you with a scheme to defraud their own company you know and that happened to me several times because I was kind of the guy out there my name was out there especially on Long Island and certain parts of Brooklyn so people would come to me all the time you know hey I got this deal I got that deal whatever and then you pick and then you pick and then you pick and then you pick and then you pick and then you pick and you pick and you guy comes to me and he's got a small operation a gas company and he was actually being shook down by a couple of guys from I think was a Genevese crew so he came to me for help they were extorting him for money and after turning him away a few times he was very persistent and he came to me and he said mike I have the germ of an idea he said I know you don't like the government I said no I don't he said well I think we can make some money with the government I said how he said we said we said we can't of an idea so I said okay so I got rid of the two guys that were bothering him I made them go away and we went into business together and basically we devised a scheme to defraud the government at a tax on every gallon of gasoline it was us we're doing it the Russians was kind of doing it you know but we perfected it that's that's it we perfected the scheme and for about eight years I ran an operation where we had a number I had over 300 gas stations we either owned or I had 18 companies that were licensed to collect the tax, they were wholesale companies, and they were all from Panama, created a scheme out of Panama. And at the height of my operation, we're selling a half a billion gallons of gas a month and we're taking down 30 to 40 cents a gallon, whatever the market would there at the time. So we're making a lot of money. And I will say this, Sean, it was the biggest money-making operation in my view since the days of prohibition. Because contrary to what people believe we were We weren't allowed to deal with drugs. Guys that were doing it were doing it on the side to sneak. We were not the cartel by any means and that wasn't a major source of income. So, but the gas tax thing was big. It was very big. It sounds like it, you know, and my question to you is, how does one come up to someone like you and be like, hey, I need your help? I got an idea. It's like, how does someone have access to that? What did you know them or how does that work? my name was known and then I started to make a name for myself so people would come up to me all the time how do I get to you know through a friend through an associate it got to a point where I had a place that every Monday night on long island if you wanted to come and speak to me about something this was the spot so Monday night we basically had a line of people who would come in a I got a deal I want to do this I want to do that and you you pick and choose And originally I chased him, because I did my investigation on him and he had testified in a civil matter against former Governor you Carrie. So I was, eh, this guy testified, I don't want to deal with him. But he was persistent, he kept coming back, he was an Italian guy, and finally I said, okay, when he said the government thing, I said, all right, he's got my attention. Yeah, so that's so interesting, man, it's super interesting to me because I've never, I mean, you're the first one I've ever met, you're the first one I've met, you know, you know, you're the first one I've met, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you're the first one I don't know anything about it I would imagine it would be scary to come up and talk to somebody about this stuff yeah based on what you see in the movies right but how much of the how much of that stuff is actually what goes on well it depends what movie you know I mean they get it they get it part right because the characters are portrayed right but the storyline isn't always that way you know they try to intensify it you know like goodfellas there was basis of fact in that but they try to you know we get a bad rap a lot of times in the movies i have to say that but uh you know i'm not knocking the movies some of them were brilliant i tell people all the time it's not a documentary it doesn't have to go you know right fact just enjoy the movie it's entertainment right it's for dollars right it's entity people in the theaters make some money in your opinion what's the most accurate film okay this is something i've been saying for years and both paramount pictures and Armand de sante they've been thanking me for years they're thank me for years The most accurate was HBO's Gotti movie in 1996 with Armand-Disante and Anthony Quinn. Very accurate, tremendously well-acted. It's my favorite movie of all time. I've seen that one a long time ago. It's terrific. It's really good. Yeah. And Armand and I became very good friends as a result of that, me plug in that movie all the time. So it was very accurate. Goodfellas to a degree, Donnie Brasco to a degree. You know. and the characters are portrayed well. Doesn't mean the storyline is always accurate, but portrayed well. You know you get that all the time though, right? It doesn't matter what. I interviewed someone last year, Marcus and Morgan Lutrell and Marcus was the lone survivor in redwings. They made a movie about it and folks, right? Mark Walberg played him in the movie. And there's a bunch of people come out saying that that's not an accurate depiction of what happened. It's Hollywood, right. Not a documentary. Thank you. You know. You know. So it's about it's about it's about it's about it's about. It's about. It's about We're telling a story. So people have to understand you go in a movie to be entertained and you see a good story. If you want to see a documentary, it would go read a book or you know go watch it on you know on Netflix or wherever they post it even though they're not always right either. No they're not. There's there's always slanted right. Yeah. Like every every I'd say every documentary has their own slant because it's depending on who's telling the story. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's like if you watch that guy's You mentioned a few minutes ago about the biggest misconception is people think that we were running drugs and you know you're saying that we're not allowed to we aren't the cartel. You know I've read some things of you saying that the the underworld isn't it's a shadow of what it used to be but the cartels aren't. What part of the whole evolution scares you about that? Well understand something with the cartels, Mexican cartels even in Colombia. the government is in cahoots with them for a degree. There's no question about that. So they don't come down on the cartels the way the government came down on the mob. We don't we didn't work with the government. Let me let me make that very clear. The government came to us on certain occasion. They came to us with Kennedy. They came to us with you know during the Cuban missile crisis when they wanted to assassinate Castro. They came to us. Wow. They came to Luciano. during World War II when they need to access the Allies there to come into Sicily. So they've come to us on occasion when it served their purpose. There's a new movie coming out with Mark Allberg about Greg Scarpa's involvement, you know, getting the civil rights, during that civil rights deal back in Mississippi and in the 60s. When there was four guys that were murdered, four black guys were murdered, and the FBI couldn't find out who when there was a big uproar here, where they enlisted one to find out who killed these guys and Greg Scarpa found out. He basically beat the hell out of a Ku Klux Klan guy and they gave up the actual murderers. So they've come to us when it's convenient, but it's more convenient for them to come down on us. So they came down on us. The government in Mexico don't do that with the cartels because they were almost as powerful as the government, these people, like their own army. So it's different in that regard. And look, I was told the night that I was proposed, and set. with the boss he told me if you deal with drugs in our family you die I know people in our family that dealt with drugs and died one of my best friends he was a soldier under me I was just captain he blew his brains out in a phone booth because he got caught in a drug deal and he was afraid they were gonna kill him so he killed himself guy knew my whole life afraid the family was gonna yeah and and he might have gotten killed because you can't violate that rule but so I need people I need people to understand that I need people I need people to understand that beat up when I say it on. Well, Vito Genevese was a big drug dealer. Yes, he was. That was in the 60s. It was outlawed after that. Well, guys doing it on the side, yeah. I mean, they're street guys. They're gonna hustle and make a few bucks. But we were not anywhere near the same level as cartels. Yeah. It's interesting. You talked about the government, right. And you had mentioned Castro. I did a show a while back and there was a movie coming out about. and it was about the specific time that he went to New York City and there was a contract on his life. So that's interesting, right? Because that's government assisted, right? They came to you guys about that. Yeah, oh yeah. That's so interesting. That's a fact. No, I hope one billion percent believe you. What did they come to you guys about Kennedy for? Well, there's different theories as to why Kennedy was assassinated. an oswalt, 100% alone killer that just didn't like Kennedy. 100% no question that Jack Ruby was tied up with the mob. One of the reasons why I don't believe anything in that Warren report was the Warren, yeah the Warren Commission is because they said in the Commission that Jack Ruby had nothing to do with the mob. Jack Ruby was totally mobbed up. From Chicago to Louisiana, totally mobbed up. He was some partners with us and they used him to kill Oswald. Why did we want to him to kill Oswald. Why did. Why did. Why did it. Why did we did we want him to get involved, very simple, because we handed the election to John F. Kennedy. We handed Illinois to him. Razor thin between him and Nixon at that time, they needed Illinois to bring Kennedy over the hump to become president. We delivered it, and the deal with Joe Kennedy was that they were going to back off of us. What happened? Robert Kennedy, when he became the attorney general, he came on to us even stronger. When after half a lot of our guys, I believe he's the guy to put