How Michael Franzese corrupted athletes--until God intervened

WORLD Magazine’s current issue includes an interview with former Mafia boss Michael Franzese (see also “Mafia life: Michael Franzese tells what it was like” and “Michael Franzese’s Mafia romance.” Here’s a portion from the interview on how he used gambling debts to get athletes to affect point spreads—and how God changed him and kept him from “getting whacked.”

How did you get basketball players to miss shots on purpose? They gambled with us, couldn’t pay the bill. A bookmaker would call me up and say, “So and so lost $25 grand. Should I cut him off?” And I said, “Why would you cut him off? Get into him for $250 grand and then bring it to me.” So these athletes would come and see me. My usual game was, “You owe me a lot of money. How’re you going to pay?” He says, “I don’t have that kind of money.” I say, “You’re not going to walk away, but I’ll do you a favor.” If it’s basketball—remember, gambling is all about the point spread—I’ll say, “Tomorrow night you’re the favorite to win by 10 points. Don’t win by 10, win by five. You do that for me 10 times, we’re even. Don’t worry about it.” And, unfortunately, they did it. They didn’t have a choice.

Between that, illegal gasoline sales, and the music and movie business, you weren’t doing good but you were doing well. In 1986, Fortune ran a huge article on the 50 biggest and most powerful mob bosses in the country, and featured six of us. I was one of the six. On Fortune’s chart of wealth and power, I was No. 18. Now, 29 years later, 44 from that list are dead, and three are doing life in prison without parole.

When you walked away from crime in 1995, you didn’t have a long life expectancy. Everybody predicted my death. Life ran a story that if I survived it would mark the first time a high-ranking member of the Mafia publicly walked away from his past and lived. The head of the organized crime strike force went on national TV when I was released from prison and said, “I wouldn’t want to be in Michael Franzese’s shoes.” An FBI agent followed him to the podium and wasn’t as diplomatic. He said, “Franzese will get whacked.”

You had been in the Mafia for 20 years. Six of us joined on Halloween night 1975. I’m the only one alive today. Every one of the others was murdered. I’m here for one purpose, and that’s to give praise and honor and glory to my hero, my savior Jesus Christ.

Do you think, apart from prison, that you would have come to believe in Him? When God’s got a plan and purpose for you, no mob, no sickness, no death, no addiction, nothing will stand in the way of God fulfilling His purpose in your life. But prison is fertile ground for God to do His work, because God does his best work when we’re at our lowest point.