'God The Father' Michael Franzese Promotes Upcoming Autobiographical Movie About Accepting Jesus After A Life of Crime (VIDEO)

Ex-Columbo Family Mobster Michael Franzese recently gave an interview after he shared his testimony at Greg Laurie's 25th SoCal Harvest Crusade at the Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California on August 15.

"My dad [John (Sonny) Franzese] was the under boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the five La Cosa Nostra families in New York. So I kind of grew up in the life style. My dad was a very high profile public figure at the time and was always under major investigation from the government. So I grew up in that kind of atmosphere. Originally my dad didn't want me to be in that life," said Franzese to Assist News Service.

"At that point in time, Joe Colombo, who was the boss of our 'family', took me under his wing and, after a while, I dropped out of [pre-med] school and wanted to be on the street to help get my father get out of prison. He proposed me into that lifestyle and in 1975 I took an oath Halloween night actually and became a 'made member' of the Colombo crime family," he stated.

The 63-year-old Brooklyn native also talked about his experience which earned him at least $5-8 million during his life of crime.

"I ended up creating a scam to defraud the government out of tax on every gallon of gasoline... At one point it was close to $0.40 a gallon and I was selling half a billion gallons of gas a month. You do the math-it was a lot of money...That kind of life is very violent, and, unfortunately, if you're part of that life you're part of the violence and there's no way to get around it. If anybody tells you differently they're probably not being honest with you. So unfortunately it was part of my life," said Franzese.

He explained, "I never enjoyed that, but it's a tense life and you have to worry about guys on the street, because I became a major target of law enforcement. I drew five indictments, so you're worried about the government, and you're worried about guys on the street, so it's kind of tense, but you know you get through it at some point. That was my life at that time."

Franzese later came to repent his sinful ways when he accepted Christ into his life inside a prison back in 1987.

He was released from prison in 1994, after he was originally indicted back in 1985 on 14 counts including counterfeiting, extortion, tax scams, and racketeering.

He credits his wife Camille Garcia (who he married in July 1985) as the person who led him to Christ and helped him to leave the mob for good nearly three decades ago.

"Her mother, Irma Garcia, was a devout Christian woman, who despite her husband's radical ways, was deeply devoted to her family and raised her children in an atmosphere of love and warmth. She instilled in 'Cammy' a strong sense of determination and taught her to seek God first while pursuing her true purpose in life," said Franzese.

"It was her love of God and her foundation in faith that is what has kept us married I believe, and we're very much in love... I tell anybody that's having any kind of struggle in their life, I don't know how to get through struggles without Jesus Christ. He's been my hero, my savior and every other thing that I.... Everything that I've had are only blessings that I attribute to my relationship with Jesus," he concluded.

The 'God The Father' film is expected to arrive in movie theaters in October 31, 2014.