Moment 202: Former Mafia Boss EXPOSES How The Real MAFIA KILLS People...

0:00My dad was involved in 30 -35 murders. Now, he never admitted that to me about anyone in particular. He was indicted for one murder and he was acquitted in that case, found out guilty. But my dad was, he was a tough guy. There's no question. So... If he was involved in 35 murders as the FBI suggests, do you think he was better off behind bars? What I'm getting at here really is if they framed him, was it a net benefit to society that they framed him? Well, you know, Steve, let me, I know there's going to be a tough one, but let me tell you how I think.

0:41The right and just side of me, the legally just side of me, says that the government is never allowed to break the law, to uphold the law. Because if you allow that to happen, then it falls into monarchy and people are not protected. Because if they do it against sunny francies, they can do it against anybody. So I believe strictly, the government has enough tools and weapons to get people the right way. And they do 96, 97 % at a time. They shouldn't be allowed to violate the law, to go after a criminal. That's my, my feeling on it. Now, another thing is this. People think when we take an oath, the oath of Omerica, it's an oath to stay silent.

1:23It's not an oath to lie, steal, cheat and kill. Does that happen as part of that light? Yes. But we're told straight out. Now, try to understand the thinking here. You come into that life, you told straight out, we have rules. You don't ever violate another man's wife, daughter, sister, girl, never. That'll cause you to die. During my era, we weren't allowed to deal with drugs. You deal with drugs, you get caught, you die. You maybe do some other things, you're not honest with people, you disrespect somebody, you hit another made guy, you die. Now, we understand that. And they tell you, your best friend may be the one that pulls a trigger, because the life comes before anything.

2:06That's it. You don't violate the rules. That's how we maintain control in this life. That's how we existed for 100 years. And that's how it's going to stay. So now you're saying, okay, we all agreed to this, we all admitted it. If one of us decides to violate the policy of the law, and we get caught, well, we understand the consequences. So that's how I looked at it, and that's how I justified it. Now, does that say you can go out and start to do random killings? No. If the boss tells you to go kill somebody because he doesn't like them and you do it, that's not right. But if we kill our own, and you hear a lot of times what, we only kill our own, well, we don't only kill our own.

2:50But if we only kill our own, knowing that we made that choice, well, then, okay, I kind of get it anyway. Even though murder is murder and it's a crime and it's sinful, and I understand that. But that's how you justify it. But it wasn't the case that you any killed, Ryan. Well, for some of us who was, and for others, it was not. And I've seen both sides of that. You've never talked about having to kill someone, have you? No. Why is that? It's just not a subject I care to get into, you know. I listen. I like to be as honest as I possibly can because I am a Christian and you don't want a lot of people.

3:37But it's not something I want to talk about. I was wondering because when I read that, I thought maybe it's because, you know, there's something might be legal retribution. Maybe it's because, you know, it's not nice for people to hear about. Maybe it's because there's still some kind of like rule where you can't say anything. But I wouldn't do the why. Maybe it's one of the above, I don't know. Well, you know, Steve, look, there's guys, there's a lot of guys on the street now. And if you go on YouTube, you'll see a number of them. And they've admitted to murders that they were involved in. These are made guys.

4:09And they've admitted to it. And many of them struck a deal with the government. They had immunity for the crimes they committed, even murder. I mean, the government give you immunity for murder if you want to, if they want you to cooperate and help them out. It's amazing, but they'll do it. And so they have immunity. They could talk about their crimes. I didn't cooperate to that level at all. I don't have immunity for anything that I've done in the past. You know, and listen, you know, all laws here in the United States, if you were standing next to somebody when they murdered somebody else, you could be charged for murder the same way that they're in.

4:43So, you know, I'm a saying I have a, was in that position. I'm just saying that's the law. So, you know, why talk about it? Number one, and number two, murder is ugly. You know, it's ugly. And you don't ever want to talk about it. I mean, I don't, if I were to do something like that, I wouldn't be proud of it. I'm not trying to throw my chest out and say, hey, look what I could do. Guys go to war, they kill people all the time. You know, in defense of our country, a defensive. So, I mean, it's not like, oh, God, you know, nobody, I mean, murder happens every single day. Who wants to talk about it?

5:19Some people there. I know. Not me. You got closer to the mafia when your father was sent down. And at this was the point where you decided not to go to school. The boss of the Colombo family, that brings you close, brings you under his wing. Do you have to do some kind of training or something to join the mafia? Is there any, or you do? Oh, yeah. Well, when you come into, here's what happened. I leave there, a captain and a family picked me up and took me to see the boss. Now, unfortunately, Joe Colombo was assassinated. He was shot, seriously wounded. He lingered for about seven years and then he died as a result of these wounds.

5:56So, a new boss took over and he's passed away now. And I sat with him. This was about two weeks after my father sent word downtown that he was proposing me to be part of that life. But you can't just go up to somebody and say, I like to join. Somebody has to propose you, vouch for you, say you have what it takes. There's a lot of nepotism in that life. A lot of fathers brought their sons in, their nephews, whatever. So, in my case, it was my dad that proposed me. And so, I sat with the boss and he said to me, here's the deal. You want to become a member of our life. Your father sent the message, is that true?

6:28And I said, yes. He said, here's the deal. From now on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you're on call to serve this family, the Colombo family. That means if your mother is sick and she's dying, you're at her bedside. We call you to service. You leave your mother. You come and serve us. From now on, win number one in your life before anything and everything. Winning if we feel you've deserved this privilege, this honor to become a member will let you know. That's it. And do you accept that? And I said, yes, I do. And so, over the next two and a half years, I was in like a recruit pledge period, where I had to do anything and everything I was told to do.

7:04Prove myself for it. Could have been something very menial. A lot of discipline in that life, a lot of authority, a lot of alleged respect. You had a meeting at eight o 'clock. You weren't there at 730. You were late. You could never be late in that life. I don't care what the situation is. You had a meeting at eight o 'clock. If there was traffic and you were concerned, come tonight before and sleep in the car. You can never be late. No excuses. You know, drive the bus to a meeting, sit in the car at three, four, five hours. God forbid you leave. You go to the restroom, get a newspaper. He comes out.

7:34You're not there. Oh my gosh, we could have had trouble. You were the getaway driver. You weren't there. I know I did that once and I paid the price for it. That's very serious stuff. You paid the price. Well, paid the price, in other words, I got a real good tongue -lapse ring. I'll tell you, you know, just stuff like that. They kind of put you on the shelf for two weeks to make you understand the seriousness of what you did. So you never do it again. You never repeat your mistakes in that life. If you're smart, if you want to, if you want to, number one, want to survive, and number two, you want to move up.

8:04You never repeat your mistakes. So, you know, things like that, and then look, I'm going to be honest with you. You know, as honest as I possibly can, it's a violent life at times. If you're part of the life in some shape or form, you're part of the violence. And if anybody tells you differently, they're either not being honest or they weren't a made member of that life, and that's just how it goes. Why did you say that? Because you said the menial, and then you said it's a violent life. Are you saying that in that sort of probationary two years, you had to do both of those things. You had to be involved in the violence and do the menial stuff.

8:38Let's put it this way. They got to have enough faith in you that you can be capable of doing whatever it is they tell you to do. They have to understand that and feel that. Because if they don't feel that, you're not going anywhere. That's it. So during that time, you're going to be tested. And you were tested? Yeah. When they made you pledge that if your mother was dying and you were at her bedside and they called you and asked you to do something, you'd leave, would you have left if your mother was dying? Back then, I mean, I might have. I mean, I was a play by the rule guy.

9:18I was very fortunate that I had a great teacher in my dad. He was a student and master of the life. And so, and I was like a sponge. I absorbed whatever my dad told me. I listened. And you know, some of the things that he told me were right. So I might have at the time, I'm going to be honest with you. I mean, I don't know. It would have to depend on what's happening at that moment. But, you know, I was so indoctrinated into that life at some point. It's who I was. Sounds a bit like a cult anyway. It's cult like, I guess, you know, in a way. I mean, we didn't do silly things. You know, when we went and have rituals and ceremonies other than that.

9:59Sounds like one, yeah. Other than that one, nothing after that. But what did it teach you about people's skills? Because you're around these bosses, these very talented men. You're seeing how they conduct themselves, do business, influence people, win friends. What did that phase of your life teach you about how to be a motivator slash manipulator of people? Yeah, it taught me well. I think I got it. You know, there's kind of two levels in that life. You're either a racquetier or you're a gangster. What's the difference? I'll tell you the difference. A gangster is a guy that really doesn't know how to use that life to benefit him in business.

10:45So he's more of a, I don't want to say tough guy. I don't want to say this term. But he's more of a guy that, hey, we had something done. This is the guy. Send him out. Let him do it. Because you got to earn your keep in that life. We in the Colombo family had 115 made guys at that time. Out of the 115, 20 of us were really earning money and supporting the family in some way and really elevating the family. We were racquetiers. Now a gangster could never really be a racquetier. He just doesn't know how. But a racquetier has to be a gangster also because you're going to be called upon. Not as much as this guy.

11:21But when you're called upon, you got to do it. So, you know, I was more of a racquetier. And as a result of that, I was constantly in businesses, buts, and sitting down with other guys. And you have to learn, you know, how to negotiate. I mean, I learned the art of negotiation at these sit downs, you know, learned how to try to, you know, really before I walk into a meeting with somebody, number one, try to know the personality of that person. Know if there's a fallback position. If I'm not winning, what I'll accept. And so I had to prepare myself for these meetings because unprepared, you know, they'll chew you up.

11:58Because a lot of these old times were very skillful. And believe me, you could be 100 % right and end up wrong. And they'll put you in a trap. So you really had to know what you were doing. And so my people skills in that regard, as far as negotiating and identifying a true leader, were really honed to a, you know, a high degree because I came out on top many, many times.