Blood Covenant Quotes

“have tried to explain what happened to me in the pages of this book. However, God needs no justification! He will reveal Himself to those who truly seek Him. It doesn’t matter under what circumstances you open your heart to the Lord. Just do it! Your eternal life depends on it! The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. (Psalm 145:13)”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“Many wiseguys had waited years for a chance to be inducted into the family, and now my minister was telling me that my name had just been written into the Book of Life and that I would live forever in heaven because of a simple prayer I said in his office. He said that it didn’t matter what I had done in the past or how much money I’d stolen. Wow! This was overwhelming. I was now a real Christian.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“I asked Cammy if she would mind leaving the two of us together for a while so that I could speak to the minister alone, and she gladly agreed, going on home. Once Cammy had left, I said to Dr. Taylor, “You talk about forgiveness, but you don’t know who I am or what I’ve done. For God to forgive me would be a real stretch.” Dr. Myron Taylor was not phased at all by this statement. “Have you heard of the apostle Paul?” he asked. I indicated that, of course, I had. “Well,” Dr. Taylor said, “he was a murderer. As a devout Pharisee, it fell to him to kill the troublesome Christians. That was his job. Still, God chose to forgive him and save him. God’s grace is for everyone.” That was good news indeed, and I was enjoying hearing it so much that Dr. Taylor and I talked for the next several hours. Eventually, I was convinced that what this man was saying must be true. Cammy had told me before, but it just hadn’t sunk in. Now I was beginning to understand. And I was ready to become a real Christian.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“For once, I felt, the system had worked perfectly. The jury had somehow managed to wade through the government’s misrepresentations and separate the guilty from the innocent.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“Another government witness, a loan-shark victim, saw mobsters under every rock. He testified that he knew Catholic priests who were part of the mob. When asked how many people he owed money, the witness responded, “Everybody. I must even owe you money.” I loved that kind of testimony because it helped me a lot.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“It was some story, and Cammy’s father had the scars on his face and leg to back it up. After hearing all this, I was even more convinced that when the truth came out about who I was, this family would not be dismayed by it, although Cammy did not personally condone the type of activity her father was describing.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“took Cammy’s parents out to dinner that night to a spruced-up Black Angus in Anaheim, and there I spent a great deal of time talking with her father. He told me that when he had been a teenager, he had lost five teeth and had been shot in the leg when a gang of Mexican-born drug pushers ambushed him and his friend Alex Moreno after a New Year’s Eve party in San Diego in 1959. His face had been slashed with a straight razor and his chest gashed with a flattened can opener. His teeth had been dislodged by a gang member wielding a lead horseshoe stake. The drugged sociopath had been about to crush his skull when Moreno whipped out a .22 pistol and shot him in the stomach. Moreno shot a second pusher in the groin before the gang scattered.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“Yet, as I was leaving the dimly lit room that night, I found that I was excited. This feeling grew until it became exhilaration. I was now part of an army of blood brothers. I was locked into a brotherhood few would ever experience or even understand. And more importantly, I had become one with my father. I had bonded. I could never be rejected now, never be banished from the house. That’s all that really mattered. My father had accepted me as blood, blood spilled in drops on a wooden floor, but blood nonetheless. It was a joyous moment for me.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“A curious factor in the name circulation period was that I was never called in to confirm the heritage of my biological father. La Cosa Nostra only inducts Italians, and stepsons don’t count. For all they knew, Louis Grillo could have been Irish, Jewish, or Greek and changed his name. Normally, a recruit would have been scrutinized on that subject, but I was never called in to explain. It was thought that someone must have known that Grillo was Italian or that perhaps my father had cleared the matter.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“After the meeting, my name, along with those of the other potential inductees, was circulated around the five families. This was the mob’s version of a standard credit check. If anyone had any reason to object to me becoming a member of the family, he would let DiBella know quickly. The name circulation also had a second purpose. If anyone in another family felt he had a claim on a prospect, he was to let that be known as well. That’s exactly what happened with me. Pasquale “Paddy Mack” Marchiola, a Genovese soldier, raised an objection. He argued that I had done some business with one of his friends, and that made me his recruit. Paddy Mack gambled that this would counter my own father’s claim and negate the time I spent walking a picket line with family boss Joe Colombo. The mob commission overruled Mack’s claim.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“My induction was made possible by a mob high commission decision. From 1955 to 1972, the mob was a closed shop. Virtually no one was inducted during that period. This ironclad policy was developed to keep the families tight and secret and to eliminate the possibility of informers or undercover agents infiltrating. By 1972, with the ranks thinning because of death, old age, and imprisonment, the doors were opened. It was time for fresh blood.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“There was another unspoken benefit in joining the mob. The way I saw it, my father had been forgotten by the Colombo family because of his long prison sentence. Although he understood the life and never complained, I had a hard time dealing with that fact. With me in the family, I might be able to use La Cosa Nostra’s influence and vast network of contacts and associations to help free him from prison.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“Despite Philly’s undermining my case, the charges against me were weak. The jury hung several times, 7-5, 10-2, and 11-1, all favoring acquittal. The fact that the case was tried a third time after a 10-2 acquittal vote was a legal rarity (and a waste of taxpayers’ money), but it spoke of the prosecutors’ intense desire to feather their caps with the conviction of another Franzese.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“What was more incredible was the upshot. I had been dragged out of bed and arrested merely because a second count had been added to the coercion indictment. It was something that could have been accomplished with the stroke of a pen and then mailed to my attorney. Instead, it had been decided that the blue army must invade under the cover of darkness, ready to break down the door and trample my mother’s freshly raked carpets. It was no coincidence that all these arrests had occurred on Fridays. This is a common police tactic used when they want to get under someone’s skin. Since judges work Monday through Friday, nine to five, like the majority of people do, a Friday arrest, especially a Friday afternoon arrest, results in a Monday arraignment, which means a weekend in jail for the suspects. There was definitely a method to their madness.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“I was arrested and charged with conspiracy, grand larceny, and two counts of possession of stolen property (the police viewed the car and the registration as separate entities). The charges, altogether, were punishable by up to ten years in prison. Tony Morano was also arrested. It was a strange arrest. Because of nothing more than an in-house employee/management hassle, I had been slapped with serious felonies. The newspapers and television stations covered it as big news. I was Sonny’s son—a Franzese—so I had to be a mobster. Enhancing that image was the fact that Philly Vizzari, the mildly interested observer, was also arrested under the same charges.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“A friend introduced me to a banker who was being strangled by a mountain of medical bills because of a paraplegic son, and I was given to understand that if I took care of the banker, he would feel obligated to push through my credit application. Strangely, all the banker required, initially at least, was for me to purchase from him a $2,500 mink jacket he claimed to have won in a church raffle. I figured it was a small price to pay for a $2 million line of credit. I was wrong. That fur coat would haunt me for the next two years, leading to my arrest, three trials, and the destruction of my entire business structure. It would also forever brand me as a mobster—a distinction I had until then escaped.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“The bottom line was that the government felt the Franzese family was too powerful, and our image too menacing, for anyone to believe that we hadn’t frightened, coerced, or bought the testimony of the witnesses. So the appeal was rejected. To say that we were shattered doesn’t quite capture our feelings that afternoon. The time, the money, and the agonizing effort spent baby-sitting Eleanor had all gone for nothing.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“As it turned out, it was easy to lose. Eleanor had demanded and received too much from me, and therefore the judge felt that she wasn’t credible, especially after the state produced a witness who claimed Eleanor had bragged that she was selling her testimony. Regarding Zaher, a witness reversing prior statements holds little weight in the eyes of the law. Except for rare instances, the only thing that matters is what is said during the trial. Plus, there were three other witnesses who had not yet recanted their testimony. Since the Zaher letter hadn’t been mentioned during the trial, a legal loophole held that it was insignificant. Besides, the judge felt that there was some debate over the meaning of the word “frame” in the letter.”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived

“I called our attorney, who contacted Judge Mishler. The judge confirmed that the allegation had been brought to his attention. Our attorney quoted the judge as saying that he hadn’t necessarily believed the story but neither could he discount it. What effect the FBI’s underhanded tactics had on the subsequent decision is impossible to determine. Under the law, judges are ordered to remove themselves from a trial or hearing if they believe a threat, or even an unconfirmed report of a threat, may cloud their judgment. In practice, however, judges rarely take this step. What is known is that my family received a devastating lesson in the law. We entered the hearing with what we confidently felt was an open-and-shut case—recanted testimony, sworn affidavits, a critical piece of written evidence that spoke of the plot to frame my father before the fact. How could we lose?”
― Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant: The Story of the "Mafia Prince" Who Publicly Quit the Mob and Lived