In 1986 Fortune magazine ranked Michael Franzese at No. 18 on its list of the “50 Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses.”

“I kind of laughed at the whole list,” Franzese said during a telephone interview from his home in Santa Monica, Calif. “They put it there to sell magazines, and it worked. They didn’t ask for our tax returns. How would they know?”

Granted, an organized crime figure’s tax return might not be the most accurate assessment of his wealth, but his point about how silly the list was remains.

There is one part that he doesn’t find silly.

“Forty eight of those men are dead, and the 49th is still in prison and very old,” Franzese said. “I don’t know if he’ll get out before he dies.”

Franzese did get out. He left organized crime after meeting his wife, embracing his faith and serving eight years of a 10-year prison sentence. He describes himself on his website as “the first ‘high ranking’ official member of a major crime family to walk away, without protective custody and survive.”

He now uses his talents as an author, motivational speaker and podcaster with more than a million subscribers to his YouTube channel. He’ll speak Saturday at the Robins Theatre, for an event presented by the Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini Foundation.

“I love Boom Boom,” Franzese said. “He used to live here in Santa Monica, and my daughter went to school with his son. He’s very sincere, and we struck up a good friendship. He asked me to come speak, and I was happy to comply. My wife will be there with me, and we’ll have a good time.”

The program will cover his life, in and out of the mob, as well as a question-and-answer session with the audience.

“It’s going to be my testimony, being in that life from childhood, through my time in prison and what happened to pull me out of that life and how it’s been since,” he said.

Both in popular culture and in real life, the Mafia and organized crime are romanticized in a way that many criminal enterprises are not, including here in the Mahoning Valley. Franzese, who was part of New York’s Colombo crime family, said he doesn’t sugar coat the bad. There were people who were extorted and hurt by those activities, but they were embraced by others.

“We were held up in pretty high regard,” he said. “We kept our neighborhoods safe to the benefit of the people who lived around us … Through touring and on social media, I hear, ‘I wish the mob was back here. All this crime wouldn’t be occurring,’ and they’re right. We wouldn’t allow it.”

For Franzese, organized crime was the family business, but it was one his father, Johnny “Sonny” Franzese, didn’t want him joining. However, after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison, he dropped out of college to help his family financially.

As that silly Fortune story indicates, he was very good at it.

“I had a head for business,” Franzese said. “I took advantage of what that life had to offer to make a lot of money … I knew how to parlay that into things that benefited me. At the same time, I became a target of law enforcement.

“I left to preserve my family. I had a lot of good relationships, guys I was friendly with, who’ve all gone on, and a lot met their demise in a bad way. I don’t like to talk bad about the life, but I call it an evil lifestyle because I don’t know any member of any family in the lifestyle that hasn’t been destroyed by it.”

Except one, and he’ll be speaking at the Robins on Saturday.

If you go …

WHAT: Michael Franzese — A Mob Story

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Robins Theatre, 160 E. Market St., Warren

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $29 to $49 and are available at the Robins box office and online at robinstheatre.com.