Reddit has had some fairly explosive guests on their ‘AMA’ (ask me anything) page, but none have been quite like ex-mafia boss, Michael Franzese.

Franzese has defrauded governments out of millions, spent years in prison, and probably made more than a few men swim with the fishes. The 62-year-old appeared on Reddit yesterday, and spent a good couple hours answering questions.

After he pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax fraud, Franzese went in and out of prison between 1986 and 1994. His time in the cells led him to call it quits with the mafia – and become a born-again Christian.

When a Redditor asked if he still has any lingering fears about being taken out, he said that:

I can’t go back to Brooklyn to live, or in New York in general. I wouldn’t last. Remember, I am the only made man, a caporegime, that I know of who has walked away from the life, publicly, not entered a witness protection program, and lived.

Franzese specialised in gas tax fraud, through which he scammed the state governments of New York, New Jersey, and Florida out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The gas tax scheme was one in a million. So much money. Better then drugs and a lot less ugly. At its height, we sold 500 million gallons of gas a month and kept 20 to 30 cents a gallon of the tax money. Do the math. Lots of money.

Fortune magazine named Franzese no. 17 on its list of the 50 biggest mafia bosses in a 1986 cover story.

I am not proud of my past. My wife will tell you that I do have rough nights sleeping at times. Regrets? I would have preferred not to have gone through it, but I just move on and try to use my experiences to benefit others.

Franzese is now an author and a motivational speaker.

[Source : Mashable]