From Mafia Boss to the Cross: An Autobiography

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© 2010 Dr. Bruno Caporrimo. All rights reserved.

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First published by AuthorHouse 5/19/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4343-2355-2 (sc)

ISBN: 9781467827287 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART 1

1

THE BEGINNING OF MY JOURNEY

2

TRAGEDY ON CHRISTMAS DAY

3

POLICE VIOLENCE BEHIND THE SCENES

4

GAMBLING AND STEALING

TO PAY THE DEBT

5

A LITTLE FISH

IN BIG NEW YORK CITY

6

EXPOSING THE DECEPTION

AND CONTROL OF THE MAFIA

7

YOU DO THE CRIME,

YOU DO THE TIME

8

BEATEN AND TORTURED

IN LAS VEGAS

9

NEW LIFE IN CALIFORNIA

DESTROYED BY DRUGS

10

THE INVASION OF THE SWEET

LOVE OF GOD

11

HEAVEN OPENED AND THE

FIRE CAME DOWN

12

VISITATION OF ANGELS

13

WITNESS AND PASS OUT

TRACTS IN CASINOS

14

TRAGEDY AND DISAPPOINTMENT

COMING MY WAY,

BUT NEVER DEFEATED

PART 2

15

ITALY MISSION MIRACLE

16

THE FUTURE MINISTRY - ASIA

17

TAKING ON THE WORLD FOR

THE MASTER

18

HEAVENLY CROWN ON HIS HEAD

19

UPCOMING MAYOR OF TAIPEI

20

FOURTH MISSION TO CHINA

21

DECEMBER 21, 2000:

MISSION TO BREAK CHAINS

22

2001: MISSION TO ITALY WITH

MORRIS CERULLO MINISTRY

23

2001, SEPTEMBER

END TIME MISSION TO ASIA

24

DECEMBER 2004:

INVITATION TO N.Y.C.

25

2005, AUGUST 17:

ANOTHER BLOWOUT!

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Everlasting Chip Ministry

University International

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

LIST OF BOOKS AVAILABLE

INTRODUCTION

Although some of the stories contained in this work are based on real life events, many of them have occurred more than forty years ago. This was my dark side, prior to coming to Christ. I do not condone many of the stories. My purpose, rather, is to reveal my past AND the transformation of my journey from darkness into his marvelous light. Many characters in this work are fictitional and names have been changed to protect the innocent. Persons, living or dead, who portray a resemblance or likeness to some of the characters in this book are coincidental in nature. Now, may God truly bless you as you read of MY life’s journey- from Mafia Boss to the Cross.

Dr. Bruno Caporrimo

PART 1

1

THE BEGINNING OF MY JOURNEY

In the beginning I, Bruno Caporrimo, was born in 1941 in Palermo, Sicily. I was one of seven in my family. I was born in the time when Hitler occupied Italy. The dictator Mussolini allied with Hitler while the war was going on. My father was an importer, exporter and an ambassador. He was very well respected in the community and with the government leaders and he was very successful in the agricultural business. He was an importer and exporter of fruits and vegetables. We lived on six acres in a castle with more than sixteen rooms, a mansion. We had no lack. In 1943, when the American soldiers came prior to the liberation of Italy, Mussolini was the General of Italy. He was a personal friend of my family. As the story goes, I was told that in 1941 on my birthday, there were over 100 families celebrating my water baptism. My father had over 300 people working for him on this occasion. We were very wealthy and even Mussolini came to this great banquet. During this time Mussolini was a general in Italy and a brilliant leader. He gave me many gifts for my water baptism. Tragedy begins as the Germans invaded Italy. With no way to go or nowhere to run, such a powerful antichrist dictator Hitler took the nation of Italy. The King and Mussolini the General, allied together under the deception of this false empire. Mussolini came to Sicily and invaded the hills. He entered the villas to our property. He came with German soldiers to recruit my father and his men.

I barely remember as a little boy. I was three years old. Mussolini gave my father greetings and they had a meeting on top of the mountain. He declared to my father, Antonio, we've been friends for many, many years. Surrender to the Germans and you will not be destroyed. My father had over 300 soldiers with him. We were given three hours to make a decision to surrender peacefully or escape. My family was faithful and patriotic to Italy. My father did not surrender to the will of the Germans. As proud Italians we had no choice but to run to the hills. The next 3 years, as I remember, we spent in caves while the war was going on. The German troops cut ALL the supply lines from the American soldiers who were already occupying Sicily.

The Marines got word to my father that they were in need of supplies and my father became a champion and a leader. He rushed to the rescue and he began to smuggle trucks full of food and all kinds of fruit, rice, and vegetables into the American camps. All of my family were considered heroes to the Americans. As a matter of fact one of these Marines, Ed Welch, fell in love with my mothers' sister and two years later he married her. He was a strong American hero and through him we obtained many favors. After the war we redeemed the land but there was no food left and no money. Everything was destroyed and there was a famine in the land. I remember that when I was five years old, I weighed 18 pounds. I was real skinny since I had not had any food for 12 days. My father finally contacted someone that had bread so he sold 90% of our property. He sold everything except for the castle which we lived in. He signed over the title to the land for three pounds of bread. Today the land is valued at billions of dollars. In 1945 we began to cultivate the land yet it was very difficult. We never recovered the wealth and prestige we had before. Instead, we lost it all and at seven years old I was adopted by my Godfather, Giovanni La Rosa. This man was our neighbor and he kept his land and a small castle on six acres of land where they raised me up. They took me in as their own son. Dear reader, through wars nobody wins except for satan, and lives are destroyed and changed forever.

After years of struggles, my family came to a conclusion to evacuate to America. My mother, my sister, and my brother evacuated to America. I was left behind with my father for more than seven years. At the age of 5 I had a dream to become a minister but the war changed everything. At 13 years old I began to dream of becoming an attorney in Italy. My dream was shattered because my father decided to abandon everything and move to America. On the 13th of December 1958, I joined my family in America, against my will. I left my family, school, work, church and country. Everything that I had loved was taken away from me. When we arrived in New York City my father told me to kneel down and kiss the ground of America. My dad was very traditional. No one in my family was born again except my mother. When I arrived in America, as a young boy, I became very depressed. I had no friends. I just had my family. I remember that it was very cold and I was not very happy about leaving my country. I felt that my dreams were shattered because I left all my friends behind, in my home land.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

John 10:10

The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy: I (Jesus) am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

I remember my father saying, Thank God. He made me kneel down and kiss the ground, at the airport, when we arrived in America. I did, and then my father said to me, Now in America we don't talk in Italian anymore. We have to speak English. I said Okay, papa. Dear Reader, I am reminded that I did not understand English at all. I was very happy to be reunited with my family. They bought a house in New Jersey. It was very beautiful and I remember that it was Christmas Day. We had a great celebration. Everybody was happy except for me. All I was thinking of was my friends in Italy, my school, and the fun I had as a young boy. Now I was in a strange land. I didn’t speak the language and it was very cold. The girls looked like boys. They wore shorts and chewed bumble gum. They had freckles and pimples on their face and the boys looked like girls, with long hair. I found myself locking myself in my room reading Italian stories and magazines. I always loved to read and I always liked to write. I wanted to become a famous lawyer someday. That was one of my dreams. I went through three months of depression where I locked myself in my closet.

Finally the time came. My brother knocked on the door and he looked at me eyeball to eyeball and said, Bruno get a job, mommy has cancer and we need money. When he told me that something happened inside me. I remember, at 4 a.m. I was up on a cold December day, there was snow on the street and I did not have the right shoes. In Sicily there is no snow. I went out looking for a job. By 9 a.m. I found a job with a fashion company named Evans-Picone. It was a very famous company. My position was running boy. I was assigned to bring the clothing material from one person to another. Very friendly people worked there, and many of them day after day would teach me English. I worked six days a week, 10 hours a day, for 90 cents an hour. I brought all the money home to support the family. Within seven months, my mother was operated on her stomach. The cancer grew worse. Because nobody knew how to pray and nobody knew to call upon Jesus and nobody had faith, within two months, my mother passed away. I felt like the lights in my life were shut off. I became more depressed and frustrated. I was upset with the doctors and their system, and I was bitter towards God because I lost my mother.

In 1960, I quit my job. Me and six neighbor friends decided to go to California. We rented an apartment and we picked oranges and strawberries in the farm to survive. It was the days of the Beach Boys. All the guys began to party and to drink and chase girls. I was the only one working and paying the bills. After three years of this crazy life, I got a phone call that my father was dying. I sold my 1959 Ford Retractable, which now, is valued at $75,000. We sold it to a Ford dealer for $1100 and we got a 1948 Plymouth. Seven of us began our journey back to New Jersey. It took five cars before we got there because every car was a lemon and leaked oil. This was incredible. We lived like gypsies. It took us 11 days to get back to New Jersey. I arrived in New Jersey and I started working at a construction company. At night I was attending classes to achieve my high school diploma. I moved in with my sister and brother-in-law.

2

TRAGEDY ON CHRISTMAS DAY

Tragedy struck my family again. I was so taken back by that because the love that I had for my mother was very great and I would have done anything for her. I want to remind you that there was no prayer life in my family. No one knew how to pray for healing miracles. Shortly after, my father died broken hearted because of my mothers death. We went to the hospital on Christmas day and the doctor could not find anything wrong with my dad. He was brokenhearted and fell into a deep depression. He gave up his will to live and a priest administered the last rites. Within hours my dad was pronounced dead. It was Christmas Day and for many years Christmas did not have any value for me. There was all this darkness in my journey of life until much later in 1985, when I came to Christ, which will be told in the coming chapters.

I found myself without family values or a mentor. I was lost. All I knew how to do was to work with my hands. I was young, strong, and I worked seven to eight hours a day with a pick and shovel with my brother-in-law in construction. At night, I had no goals and no values. I began to follow a destructive lifestyle. Alongside me came a fellow who was the same as myself. A friend with no direction. His name was Ricky O'Ricchio. He was a wonderful Italian man, very handsome and smart in his own way. He would always chase girls. He came from a family that loved to drink beer, day in and day out. We lived in New Jersey where the law was that you had to be 21 years old to drink alcohol. In New York State the law was only 18 years old. So my friends and I would get into a car and drive over to New York, to the clubs, to drink and dance. At that time it was the common thing to do. Many of us carried false identification and so it was easy for us to live a lie and get our way. In many clubs 10 cents would buy a large glass of beer. We would have a good time drinking and dancing until after midnight when we were all drunk. When it was time to leave we still had to drive 45 miles to our home in another state.

We would do this week after week. One night, after the club closed, we got into a fight with the bouncer who was a bald man and big and strong. They beat us to a pulp. We fought back but to no avail. We never remembered how we got home. Did we learn our lesson? No, we would go back to other clubs and do the same thing over and over. The worst tragedy of this story is that my friend, Ricky O'Ricchio, loved to drink and drive fast. One night we were coming home from the club on a two way highway. He felt challenged to pass a slow car just as another car was coming from the other direction. At 70 miles per hour Ricky then swerved and flipped over many times. He was thrown out of the car and hit a rock. He suffered a brain coma and died one month later. Family and friends were brokenhearted over this tragedy. Ask yourself this question: Did they quit drinking? No, we only stopped for a month, then we went back to drinking even harder. I didn't stop drinking until I became a Christian many years later, in 1985. As a matter of fact, if you want to know more about the subject you can go to my web site and get one of our books called, The Snake in the Glass, about the deception of alcohol and facts on fermentation.

The Bible declares in Proverbs 23:30-35:

Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine, do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying "They have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?

If I would have known then what I know now, I would not have wasted those precious years of my life. How much better to be a part of Christ for a good cause, and not a part of Satan, the serpent of destruction? Unfortunately I was still in darkness. God did not hit it over my head yet and I was still walking in darkness. There was no truth in my life. My soul was totally deceived and I began to lose my conviction of self-worth and my sense of values because I was looking at people that had no faith in God, laws, and to do right instead of wrong. I was around 21 years old, working and going to school to get my high school diploma. As time passed, doors began to open for me and I would take the opportunities I had. I would go dancing and clubbing. From New Jersey, we would cross into New York City to go drinking in the clubs week after week. I was without God's council in my life and come to think of it, now that I look back, Satan was planning my life down a road of destruction. In New York City, on 45th street in Manhattan, there were these VERY famous nightclubs called, Wagon Wheel and The Peppermint Lounge. These clubs were KNOWN for being frequented regularly by super famous movie stars and celebrities like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Chubby Checker and also by investors, from all walks of life. These clubs were also known in New York City as being affiliated with mafia, mobsters, the underworld of Manhattan nightlife. I began to associate with this real colorful world that existed. I worked five days a week like a slave and I desired to have pleasure and fun and I was looking to find me a girl, to complete my life. I want to repeat that without a mentor and family values, I was looking in the wrong place. I had a great time among high society people from all over the world, at least this was what I thought. Week after week, I began to drink and live the lifestyle of a social drinker complete with drunks and constant fighting.

One night I was at a club, in a fight, with the bad guy. Sal, one of the owners said to me You're good with your hands, do you have a suit? Yes I do, I answered. Good, he replied and hired me as one of his bouncers. I was overwhelmed and in my glory, man was I flying high in this entrapment, that seemed to be the right thing to do. The truth is that I was caught in a snare of the devil leading me deep into corruption with the mafia. Night after night I saw people drink and become incredibly drunk. Some I would have to remove from the club due to their terrible behavior. The more these troublemakers were prohibited from entering, the more aggressive and outraged they became. There were many educated people of class whom I was observing. Wealthy people, happy people, the very educated, they would all come into the club sober and go into a 3 day drinking bash and leave beaten, robbed, abused and brokenhearted. Some were even killed after a brawl or fight. These events, you don't see them in a local town, like maybe where you are from dear reader. New York law at that time said that, if the police saw a person out of control, that person could be arrested and booked into jail for 3 days before release. This is all the law ever did for drinking. But we know that this is not the remedy. Isn't it amazing the stronghold demon alcohol has on so many?

Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, people are entrapped by this spirit of darkness. I know…because I, Bruno Caporrimo, lived this lifestyle for many years. Despite the drinking I had to keep myself in good physical shape to keep my position at the club.

One night I came to the club and a big fight was in progress involving a motorcycle gang. I rushed to help out when I noticed many customers taking shelter under the tables. One was Sylvester Stallone, and another was Ed Sullivan. At that time, Mr. Stallone was not famous (today he is one of Hollywood's great actors). I thank God we were able to break the fight and rescue these men.

As a Minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I hope and pray that the contents of this book will help people to understand and know how to make good and wise decisions in order to change their lives for the good. It wasn't until 1972 that I left this crazy lifestyle and moved west, seeking the truth, and opened a deli/restaurant in Southern California. For 13 years I sought the truth, yet I was still drinking and blind to the truth. People from ALL OVER the world would come to these famous night clubs. People would line up outside the door. There, I met people in the fast lane. In the uptown night life of Manhattan, New York City.

I began to know gamblers, prostitutes, pimps, the police, violence, the bribes that were going on and from time to time I began to wonder, What's going on in this world? Who am I? Where am I going? It was right there that I began to doubt the system, the laws, the country and everything it stood for because of the immorality and destruction and the evils that were going on, night after night. In my spirit I felt that there had to be a better way and that I would not give in to drugs or gambling. I was keeping my integrity away from the evils of drugs, stealing or doing wrong. Every week, after the night club would close, many members of the club would get together. Both blacks and whites would engage in gambling dice or playing cards, all night long. They would always invite me into their activities. I would always reject the offers. I kept my integrity.

3

POLICE VIOLENCE BEHIND THE SCENES

In the winter of 1963 I had no work. There was no construction work and I wanted to find myself a job. I read an article that the World's fair was coming to New York City. Seven days later I applied for any kind of work. They gave me a job driving a trolley cart. It was very exciting. The night before I started working, we were celebrating in the club with some of the people that I was acquainted with. This guy Johnny that I was spending time talking with, I knew from his reputation that he was a gambler and con-man. He was involved in pimping women and many other strange activities. That night, in the restaurant, I said that I had a terrible headache. He handed me a pill and said, Take this pill. It will get rid of your headache. This was a big mistake that I made. You’re probably saying, But Bruno you have made a lot of mistakes already. I know that, that is why I am writing this book. I took it and swallowed it. I found out later that night that it was LSD. I began to hallucinate and I found myself riding in the car with him. He got involved in a dispute with some men. I remember him exchanging words and then there was a fist fight. All I did was try to break it up and I got punched as well. Then I remember that I ran. I got on the subway and went home.

Three days later, low and behold, this man was with the police pointing me out at the club and saying that I was one of the guys who assaulted him. There the police took me in and questioned