Face to Face with a Former Mexican Mafia Hitman

The speaker shares his journey of faith, emphasizing the transformative power of Christianity. He discusses how studying the life of Jesus made him realize that emulating Jesus’ qualities would make him a better person in all aspects of life. He also shares his experiences in the mafia, highlighting how his faith helped him navigate through difficult times. The speaker encourages others to embrace Christianity, stating it’s a win-win situation that improves life on earth and promises eternal life after death.

That’s the only reason we’re here. You have this platform. I mean, it’s probably close to millions around the world, you know? And, but that’s the reason, you know, to speak and there’s tremendous power. And that’s what Paul says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. The enemy is just, his whole thing is just to suppress it. I forget about it. And you guys, you know, you got weak or righteous, think that too. You know, Christianity is what we do. They can’t maintain it. They can’t do time, you know, the complete opposite.

Christianity is the whole hospital. It’s everything. It’s the whole enchilada, it’s the meaning of life. And the Bible says too, that there’s no greater love than to give your life to another. Even your enemy, my God, I could even, my mind can’t grasp that, you know, barely now. But to die for somebody who hates your guts, oh my God, but the Lord died for us, you know, so we could have another chance. You know, you just gave me a good talking point, all right, listening to you. We took an oath of America, which was silent.

Yeah. And God released us from that with his great commission, just the opposite of the evil oath that we took. Yeah. You just put it, you see, you can never be too old to learn something. You taught me something, oh, thank you. You gave me a good talking point. Okay. No, it’s amazing, you know. And listen, that’s what we try to tell people, you know. And I also say this, you know, one of the conclusions that I came from, I’m always trying to look at things realistically and logically. So, you know, from the time I was a kid, my father, you got to be a man’s man, Michael.

That’s the standard in life you have to blow through. You walk down the street, hold your head up high, you got to have integrity, treat women and children the right way. If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times. I get into the life and I’m sure you have similar circumstance. We’re men of honor, we’re men above men. We’re men’s men. I heard it a thousand times. So, I grew up Catholic, but, you know, for some reason, Catholicism was like a subject in school. I didn’t like, and I’m not blaming Catholics, just how I looked at it.

And I always looked at Jesus as, you know, this wimpy guy hanging on a cross, you know, never heard of his manhood. Yeah. So, when I first, when I was in a hole that time, I wanted to look at Jesus, the man. I wanted to see what kind of guy Jesus of Nazareth was. So, I started studying the Gospels just with that in mind. I separated his deity. I wanted to see what kind of guy he was. Blown away. There was no greater man that ever walked the first of the earth than Jesus of Nazareth, ever, ever.

So, now, again, me trying to conclude rationally at everything, I said, okay. So, if I try to emulate this man, who was the greatest man ever, the most wise, the most courageous, the strongest, went to jail, went to his death for a crime he didn’t commit, never even opened up his mouth in front of a pilot. Very mob guys, most of them don’t do that. They start talking. Yeah. That’s why their life fell apart. But I said, this is the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth. So, here’s who we conclude.

If I try to emulate Jesus, can never be him, but if I try to emulate him, gonna be a better husband, gonna be a better father. If I’m a boss, I’m gonna treat my employees right. I’m an employee, I’m gonna give my boss an honest day’s work. And everybody in the community is gonna benefit from me emulating the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth. And I’m gonna benefit throughout my life, right? And then I said, well, when I die, if he’s not the savior of the world, well, I’m dead anyway, so what did I have to lose? But during my life, I benefited.

But then, of course, we know he’s the savior of the world. So, I tell people, following Jesus is a win-win situation. You can’t lose. Amen. You can’t lose. And that resonates with men. I said, don’t you want to be involved in something you can’t lose out on? You can’t lose. You know, people are gonna love you more. They’re gonna respect you more. You’re gonna have a better place on this planet. And then when you die, you got eternal life. You know, so that’s the message that I try to spread. And hearing a testimony like yours, I know how, look, I know what you went through.

I know, mentally, the challenges emotionally that you had, even walking away from a life that you gave your life to. It’s hard. You feel like you’re betraying something. I struggled mightily. I used to go to bed at night, being in the life, wake up, being out of the light. I didn’t know what I was. I was a mess for a while. I really mean it, Arne. My father was a part of it. I felt like I was betraying my dad. And then, you know, we had a war on our family and my dad called me back.

He said, stop, you know, we need your crew here. You know, this is the god’s honest truth. I don’t talk about it much. I was out on parole. I had already walked away. Life magazine, it was a big story. Contract on my life. Everybody’s upset with me. My father calls me. He was out on parole. He was always in jail. He says, the family’s going to war. We need you here. I said, dad, I’m on parole. He said, I don’t care. You took an oath. We need you, right? I’m saying, how am I going to die? I felt like a coward.

Got my guys out there. What am I doing? So I’m in my mind thinking how I’m going to violate my parole, lie to my wife, right, and go back. I made the decision to do that. I was committed. A day before, a day after that, I’m walking out of a bank and I get locked up. I get thrown back in a hole for three years. The war ran on for three years, okay? What do you think happens? 13 men got killed. One guy in my own crew. 13 men got killed. 63 men went to jail.

And I think 18 guys became informants. I would have been right in the middle of it. So at the worst time of my life, when I was in solitary thinking my life was over, God did his best work for me. Wow. That’s called grace. Same what he did with you. Absolutely. And then you beat all of these cases because you had a different plan and a purpose for your life. So listen, you know, for all of you watching here, you know my story. But this is another miracle. You know, God does perform miracles.

In a man’s life. And I hope you’re paying attention. I really mean it. This is real. We just celebrated Good Friday, Easter Sunday, not too long ago. And I think there’s a reason why art came into my life at this point, right after the greatest two days in the history of mankind. A lot of people don’t realize that. But if Jesus doesn’t die and rise again, this life isn’t worth anything. But this is what happened. So I really hope you paid attention to Art’s story and you look further. He wrote a great book that I think you all need to get a copy of.

We’re going to put it up there. And Art, I really appreciate you coming here. Thank you. Thank you. I mean it. Thank you. And I think in many ways, you know, because I know how rough the Mexican mafia can be and how entrenched you were in it. And I know you played a pretty significant role and it’s amazing what God has done. I’m still praying for them that I still haven’t come over to the Lord, you know, no matter where they’re at, no matter who they are, I’m still praying for them.

Like you said, you mentioned they’re good men, but they’re stuck. They’re stuck. Well, you know, one last thing. Some of the things, you know, when Jesus died on the cross, I was so impressed with some of those things that happened on that day. And, you know, look, we have anger inside sometimes for something and maybe somebody did the wrong thing with us when we get angry. But then I’m looking at the cross and there’s Jesus, innocent, scourged, spat upon, nailed to a cross. And what was his last, some of the greatest 10 words that were ever spoken, the greatest 10 words.

Father, forgive them for they know what they do. And then I said, how could we not forgive people that have hurt us? You know, and then, well, is there really a heaven? Do you really go there? Deep on the cross? What did Jesus say to that man? That man looked into Jesus’ heart, saw it was real, and he said, remember me today in your kingdom. And what did Jesus say? I always say, he didn’t say, hey, wait a minute, you’re guilty. I’m innocent.

You got to pay the price. He looked in that man’s heart and he said, today you will be with me in paradise. What more proof do you need? Today. You know, so… He’s a good God. You know, we’re not guaranteed another moment in this life. Not another moment. And you know, if people are waiting, they want to test, they want to see, what are you waiting for? You know, you and I, I don’t know how old you are, but I’m going to be 74 in a couple of days.

And you know, you start to realize times are getting short. And who knows? It could be even shorter. We don’t know what’s going to happen. You can’t mess around with eternity. You know, no, and in a quick, quick, quick, little addition to what you said about the thief on the cross, they were part of Barabbas’ crew. Barabbas was a murderer, you know, a killer, executioner. He was there for rebellion and treason. The other two guys, they were there, his crew and others.

But that cross, that was Barabbas’ cross that Jesus took. I spoke a bit about that, the great exchange, you know, the great love, the great moment, you know, and that’s not bad because of them three, you know, I believe two made it to heaven and two out of three ain’t bad, you know, and we all got to make a choice about that man in the middle, that man in the cross, you know, and one denied him and mocked him and the other one said, as you mentioned, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

He remembers and he sees and that’s where our will comes in too. We have a choice in this matter. He’s at the very last, you know, God gives us a chance, an opportunity to cry out. He’s a loving, good, faithful God, you know. Oh, well, listen, I can’t summon up any better than that, so Art, really. Oh, okay. Yeah, this is a what a title to blood in blood out and it’s an incredible story. And I’m going to make it available. So anybody wants a copy, you come in and order it.

We’ll figure out a way. We’ll put a link into it, I’m sure, but thank you very much. This is my special copy and I have a copy of my book for you, Art. Oh, thank you. And it was just a pleasure meeting you and I’m sure, I hope this is the first of many meetings. We’ll go out to dinner and we’ll keep spreading the word. Praise the Lord. Okay. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. All right, my friends. Well, there you have it. You know, I didn’t mention up front that Art had a transformation through Jesus Christ because some people are right away.

This is going to be some religious thing. No, it’s not. You got to hear the stories of people that have had a transforming experience in their life and they’ve had it through our Savior Jesus Christ and Art’s a perfect example. Sonny Arganzoni, same thing. Tough guy, came out of Green Point in my neighborhood, knew about him, gang leader, hardcore drug guy. He found the Lord and what did he do? He has victory outreach. It’s a ministry that’s worldwide and all these former gang bangers and drug addicts who have turned their life around instead of, you know, meeting the fate of prison for the rest of their life or God forbid, you know, getting killed on the street or killing themselves with drugs.

They found something new in their life and they found it through Jesus Christ who transformed them from the inside out. I’ve seen so many amazing transforming stories like Art and you know what? Myself also, you know, I attribute my being here, my being alive and free, you know, to being a follower of Jesus Christ people and victory outreach, terrific. If you’re struggling out there with any kind of issue that you might have, former gang member, whatever it might be, you find a victory outreach.

I can give you those resources. They will take you in, they will help you and through God, they will transform your life, guaranteed. So I really hope you enjoyed this and by the way, before I leave, I have to get in so many questions because I’m wearing this great t-shirt. I know you’re going to love it. Yes, we are dropping these soon. Yes, you’ve been asking me about this. This is a verse, Proverbs 16 seven that had a major impact on me when I was locked up, when I was in the hole, some, you know, almost 30 years ago.

And the verse says very simply, when a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, even his enemies were at peace with him. I’m not going to get into it. You know, I talk about it all the time and all my events and every time I share my testimony with people. But this is terrific. People are asking me about it. Well fit. My daughter and her future husband, her fiance, put this great, great, great wardrobe together. It’s this, it’s a three-quarters zip, I think you call it, and some cool pants and they got my monogram on it.

I’ll show you right here. You’re going to see it soon if you can’t see it now, but they fit great. The material is great. I didn’t want anything that was cheap. I told them, you know, just do the right job. My daughter has expensive tastes anyway, but this is going to be priced really right. So we’ll be dropping it really soon. You can watch for it. I think, you know, you’re a remade man. You’re a made man if you wear this. So I hope you enjoy it. But yes, it’s coming soon.

So my friends, that’s it for today. I hope you really enjoyed it. How do I always leave you? Same way. Never going to change. Be safe. Be healthy. God bless each and every one of you and especially those that might be struggling right now. I hope, I really hope you’re encouraged by Art, what he had to say and his testimony because basically that’s what it is. Anyone can change. Anyone can be transformed and that means you also. I’m an example of that. I could be dead or in prison for the rest of my life, but I’m not.

I’m here. God has had his protective covering over me for whatever reason and hopefully, you know, I’m doing the things that I’m supposed to be doing in Thanksgiving for that. And that’s why I always thank my Savior. The same way Art does. Same way Sonny, who unfortunately we just lost, he passed away, I believe in March. Good man, good man, who benefited so many people. You know, if you’re struggling and you turn your life around, you can be a benefit to other people. There’s nothing more satisfying than that.

Take my word for it. I’ve been doing it now for a lot of years. So, you know, God bless each and every one of you, your families, your friends, your neighborhood, your community. And by the way, if you want a real community, michaelfrancis.com slash family. Join me. We encourage you. We help you. We help you to transform yourself. We give you business tips. We do Q and A’s. We have special events. It’s a community that we’re formed, that everybody is really getting a lot out of. I mean that.

It’s a legacy piece for me. This is what I want to leave for all of you when I’m gone in the next 10, 15, 20 years, I hope. But anyway, that’s it. So I’ll see you next time my friends. Take care. My friends, if you enjoyed this video, I’m going to give you an opportunity to become my partner in business. Franz Eastwine experiencing tremendous growth over the past couple of years and we’re going to experience even further growth in the next few years. You’re going to have an opportunity to be my partner because you’ve been supporting me.

You’ve been my fan base and I want to share this with you. So go to invest.franzieswine.com and hope you shouldn’t refuse. [tr:trw].