Oh boy.

(Latin music)

Hi everyone, Michael Franzese here,

former mob guy with the Columbo family back in New York,

I was a solider.

Caporegime at one point in time.

Lived in that life for over 25 years,

made a break back in 1995, I've left that life

and ever since I've been a motivational speaker.

I've written a number of books,

I've done a number of documentaries.

I'm here today to play Never Have I Ever.

Not something I would play back in the day.

All right, got a bunch of statements in front of me,

questions are gonna be asked,

I don't know if I've ever been asked these questions before

but we're gonna find out.

Never have I ever put a horse's head in someone's bed.

I have not.

But I gotta say, that's one of the greatest scenes ever

in The Godfather, it's something

and everybody remembers that.

I can certainly see my former associates doing it back then

and it was a great scene.

I wish I thought of that, but no, I didn't.

I never had to resort to something like that but

I know some other things that were done

that were kind of on that level

but we won't get into all of that.

Never have I ever had a hit put out on me.

I have.

You know, unfortunately, when you walk away from that life,

you're not allowed to do that

and my former boss, Carmine Persico,

was very upset when it became public

that I was walking away from that life

and he did put a hit out on me.

As far as I know, it's never been rescinded.

I don't know if those things ever go away.

So you're not allowed to walk away from that life.

When you take that oath,

you know, it's The Oath of Omertà,

of silence, you're not allowed to betray it,

you're not even supposed to admit that there is a mob

or that you're a part of it.

But yes, I've had a hit put out on me and,

you know, by the grace of God,

I've been able to overcome that challenge and here I am.

Never have I ever been to prison.

I have.

I spent eight years in prison,

got a 10 year prison sentence back in 1985,

I pled guilty to racketeering,

the underlying act was tax fraud.

I created a huge scam to defraud the government

out of tax on every gallon of gasoline.

I had over 350 gas stations,

18 companies that were licensed to collect the tax

on every gallon of gasoline.

When I finally got caught, my partner testified

against me and a number of other people,

so I took a plea.

10 year prison sentence, $15 million in restitution,

5 million in forfeitures, went off to do my time.

You know, prison is what you make of it.

I mean, you're certainly there to be punished.

Whenever your freedom is taken away, that's punishment

and it's rough.

Never have I ever made a bribe.

I have.

Yeah, you know, back in the day,

we had a lot of politicians certainly on our payroll,

we used to pay them,

we used to fund a lot of their fundraisers,

we would go to them and contribute big dollars

in order for them to do our bidding.

As a matter of fact, in the gasoline business,

I needed to have licenses for my wholesale operation,

had to be licensed in order to collect the tax.

Well, I had 18 licenses, they weren't easy to get.

But I was bribing public officials in order to get 'em

and they were only too happy to do my bidding

and as a result of that,

I was able to actually defraud the government

with help of the government, you know,

and help of politicians.

It was very accessible to us at the time.

Never have I ever been an informant.

I have not.

Now, this is a controversial thing,

'cause I want to straighten this out,

I'm glad I have an opportunity to do this.

I never put anybody in prison.

Nothing I ever told the government

ever resulted in anybody going to jail.

Have I spoken about my former life, sure.

But the things that I've talked about,

just about everybody knows because

my former associates have been captured on tape

and tape recorders and so on and so forth.

I will admit to this.

I did play kind of a game with the government.

For a time, I made them believe

that I might go along with them

but then in the end, I never did and as a result of that,

my parole was violated, I was sent back to prison.

So I want to make that clear, never been an informant,

never told anything to the government

that put anybody in prison

with my former associates.

Never have and never will.

Never have I ever fired a grenade launcher

while shouting "say hello to my little friend".

I have not.

- Say hello to my little friend.

(banging)

- I absolutely love that scene,

I thought that Pacino was terrific.

I mean, that was a classic movie, he was great in that film.

But no, I never had to fire a grenade or anything like that.

I did use weapons at that time.

Never used a machine gun either.

That was back in the 30s and the 40s and the 20s.

We didn't do that, we used short range pistols at the time,

so never had to resort to anything,

no high artillery like that.

Never have I ever killed someone.

Oh boy.

I'm gonna pull one of these.

You know, credibility in what I do is very important to me

so I never want to lie to anybody,

whether it's in private or in public.

I will tell you this, that life is a very violent life.

If you're part of the life, you're part of the violence,

there's no escape.

And if anybody tells you differently,

they're either not being honest with you

or they want to remain a member of that life and,

you know, I will say this.

Murder in that life was taken very seriously

and I will tell you this about myself

and I'm glad I have the opportunity to say this.

I don't judge other people, I don't know their hearts

but I was around a lot of guys,

that if they had to commit a violent act,

it seemed that that was part of them.

I'm not gonna say they enjoyed it

but they did it with some kind of fervor

and when I did it, when I was involved in anything

that might have had violence to be part of it,

I never felt good about it.

I want to make this clear.

I never glorify my former life

and the reason I don't do that,

because I do believe it's an evil life

and I want to be clear on this.

I'm not calling the guys evil.

I was one of them, I just happen to be very blessed.

But I don't know any family of any member of that life

that hasn't been totally devastated, including my own.

Now, not my wife and kids,

fortunately God has preserved them

but my brothers and sisters, mother and father

had a very, very difficult life

as a result of my dad's involvement in that life.

So any lifestyle that does that to families

is obviously an evil life

and I will tell you that I am extremely blessed

and very fortunate to be where I am today,

to have left that life and be able to talk about it

and hopefully be a source of encouragement and hope

to people, to make them understand that

you can get out of a bad situation in your life,

you can turn it around.

For me, it's all about my faith but,

you know, never give up hope.

Do the right thing and there's always a way out.

(Latin music)