Michael Franzese's Mafia romance

WORLD Magazine’s current issue includes an interview with Michael Franzese. Fortune in 1986 called him one of the top Mafia bosses in the country, but in this interview excerpt (see also “Mafia life: Michael Franzese tells what it was like” and “How Michael Franzese corrupted athletes—until God intervened”) he explains how God used a woman to change him.

What was your life like in 1984, just before you met Camille? That year they promoted me to captain in the family, and were grooming me to be the boss or the underboss.

Money was rolling in? Eight to 10 million dollars a week. Got my own jet plane, a Lear 25A. I flew around in my helicopter. Two yachts. House in Florida, house in Marina Del Rey, Calif., house in New York. I had about 300 guys on to me ready to do anything I told them to do. I had organized all the Russian mob guys in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. They ran the oil and gas business with me. I was 33, on top of the world.

And you’re making movies? Had a production company in LA. We’re filming in Florida a movie called Nights in the City. I bring in a cast and crew from LA and 50 professional dancers to dance in the film. I was sitting by the pool talking with a couple of guys and all of the sudden out of the water came this gorgeous 20-year-old girl. I saw everything in slow motion, like a Pepsi commercial. I said to the choreographer, “Bring her over. I want to meet her.” I figured I’m a big shot producer, she’ll want to meet me.

Did she? I said, “Camille, I’m your producer. I want to get to know you better. I want to take you to lunch.” She says, “Sure, no problem.” Sweet, polite, gorgeous, right? So we set a time and place. I had one of these restaurants on top of one of the hotels and had everything set up. I was going to impress her, sweep her off her feet, no problem, and she’s mine.

But … I’m up there half an hour, 45 minutes later … she stood me up. I couldn’t believe it. I saw her on the set the next day and said, “What happened? You never showed up.” You know what really got me? She never made an excuse. She looked at me like, “Did you really expect me to come?” So I said, “Can we try it again?” She said, “Sure, let’s try it again.” We set another time and place. I go. She stood me up again. She didn’t want to have anything to do with me.

You persevered … I go and see her and she finally starts talking to me. She says, “I’ve got to go home.” She tells me used to dance in Disneyland and had no clue what she was getting involved with with me. She said, “Some things happening on this movie set I don’t really agree with.” It was a wild set, but I said, “What’s the big deal?” She said, “I’m a believer, a girl of faith, a Christian,” or something like that. I said, “I’m Catholic, we got something in common.”

And then … She says, “You’ve got to come home, meet my mother.” I say, “No problem, I’m great with mothers.” We jump on a plane and I go meet her mom—the most godly woman I have met in my life. You meet for two minutes and your name goes in her prayer book. The woman used to sit on her little porch and she would pray. I’m looking at the woman, thinking, “Wow, Jesus really means something to her.”

And to Camille? The Lord meant something to her. So I’m starting to fall in love with her—but my life is a direct contradiction to everything these two women believe. I realized that if I wanted her in my life, I had to make some changes. It was never on my radar screen to walk away from my life. Now all of a sudden, my love for this woman was becoming stronger than this lifelong love and bond I had with my dad. It’s becoming stronger than this blood oath I took to La Cosa Nostra, and that’s a serious oath. I’ll be honest, she wasn’t the first beautiful woman I met in my life, but there was something different about her.

You married in 1985. Now 30 years later, in the way my life has turned, there is no doubt God put her in my life. I tell her, “You were a plant.” And she says, “You’re darn blessed that I was.”