News > September 20, 2007

By Caitlin Brooks | Contributing writer

Halloween night, 1975, before a table amidst some of the most dangerous men in New York City, Michael Franzese made a blood oath to the Colombo mob family and began his rise to infamy. Blood drips from a cut while in his cupped hands the image of a saint turns to ash, flames licking the dark air.

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Michael Franzese, former mob captain in New York City, speaks Sept. 18 in Pugh, brought to the university by Student Union. Franzese spoke of his life in crime, as well as life since leaving the mob. (Rachel Cameron/Old Gold & Black)

“Tonight, you are born again; you are born into this family. If you violate this oath, you will burn in hell like this saint burns in your hands,” the mob boss said warningly.

One of the primary money earners in the Colombo family, mob captain Franzese, dealt primarily in the “enormously lucrative edges of the legitimate business world,” according to his Web site.

However, despite the promise of large amounts of money involved, Franzese said that he had never intended on entering the mob in the first place.

As a matter of fact, the infamous Franzese was pursuing a pre-med degree when his father (also of the Colombo family) was sent to prison for a crime that, “honest to God, he was innocent of,” Franzese said.

His father, already in his 50s, was put away for 50 years.

“It was essentially a life term,” Franzese commented. He knew he had to act.

“The only way to get my dad out of jail was the mob. I went in with two goals, to make money and get my dad out of jail,” Franzese said.

He was successful in both aims.

He dealt daily with millions of dollars in cold cash and he succeeded, through useful contacts in New York City, in obtaining parole for his father years before it was due.

He was living the high life, rolling in and out of clubs at four in the morning, making millions and flying around in a private helicopter and jet.

He even dappled in legitimate movie producing. It was there that he met the woman who changed his entire world.

Camille Garcia, a Mexican dancer from California stood up the mob captain five times before they began dating. The two fell in love.

“Camille never asked me to give up the life, but I knew I had to do it. I couldn’t live like that; she is a woman of faith,” Franzese said.

He began the long, deadly process of leaving the mob by marrying Garcia, then pleading guilty to racketeering and serving the next four years in prison.

Franzese has come a long way since that night of his initiation in New York.

He is now the most senior member of the American mob to leave the family and tell the tale, without entering the Witness Protection Program.

“It wasn’t easy, but I had to do it,” Franzese said of leaving the mob.

Once his intention to leave the mob was made public, Franzese was a marked man.

One attempt on his life remains particularly clear to him.

In 1990, Franzese came home one day to find several unmarked cars surrounding his house.

Upon entering his kitchen, he found his wife with FBI agents, in a state of hysterics. “They told me people were coming to kill me. They knew where I was and they were coming. I was so angry.”

“Why did they have to do this to Camille? They told me I wouldn’t have believed them without her.”

“We knew we had to get out,” Franzese said. He, his wife and children were able to get out in time, but it was a narrow escape.

How has he survived all these years? “I don’t go to clubs anymore, I don’t walk my dog at the same time everyday, I don’t have patterns. And basically, I’ve outlasted everyone. All the guys after me are either dead or in jail now,” Franzese said.

Now, Franzese spends his time as a public speaker, delivering anti-gambling messages to student athletes as well as rookies and referees for all the major sports leagues.

“Last year, Franzese came to speak to the athletes about the dangers of gambling. But this year, I wanted him to focus more on the mob story. I think it’s more interesting,” sophomore Sarah Chase, member of Student Union, said.

“Our Executive Committee heard him speak at a conference and they just had to have him for Wake,” she said.

The Student Union coordinated Franzese’s visit.

“I think the most important message people should walk away with is that it’s not too late to make a change,” Franzese said.

“ I don’t believe you can be whatever you want to be, and I won’t tell you that, but don’t ever think you are stuck and cannot change,”

This message is one of the reasons Franzese is so widely requested as a speaker.

“Mr. Franzese, I just wanted to tell you, you have been such a blessing,” Miller Allen of the Winston-Salem Gospel-on-Wheels Outreach Program said.

“Your conversion from mob life is really a helpful example to young people who are struggling.” Allen attended the lecture after his wife saw information about it in the Winston-Salem Chronicle.

“The presentation was fascinating. He (Franzese)really connects with listeners, like someone who lived a good honest life wouldn’t. They wouldn’t have the same impact,” senior Trey Godwin said.