13 May 1 - 7, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents He was nervous a few years earlier when he met with his daughter. It was their first time together since Florida in the early ’90s. She was nearly a high school graduate. He was now collecting money for Jesus instead of the mob. A Christ For The Nations gradu- ate, he became an associate pastor at Fellow- ship of Joy in Mansfield from 2003 to 2006 and continued his nursing home ministry until 2015. He started a nonprofit — Back to Acts Ministry — in 2007 and raised money for a church in Kenya that he had visited on a trip with other ministers. He also helped a former Christ For The Nations teacher set up crusades around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana But he was a stranger to his daughter, a teenager in 2010 when they met at a hotel restaurant in Brooklyn. The FBI arranged the meeting for him. They were there with them, waiting and watching from the shad- ows in case the mafia arrived. “It was one of the toughest things, and I was hoping to get different results than what I ended up getting,” Borelli says. “Some- times you watch the movies, and they finally meet their dad. … It was nothing like that.” Reunited A t The Gaston House in Dallas, Borelli and Ruggiano, now in their 70s, remi- nisce about their life growing up to- gether in the mafia. A month has passed since their late January 2025 trip to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, and they’re chatting about old times for Borelli’s YouTube chan- nel, Robert Borelli, which he started in June 2024 to discuss Jesus and the mob. In a dark suit with a maroon shirt, Borelli offers mobster vibes instead of Texas minis- ter ones inside the historic home, built in the early 1900s. Ruggiano sits across from him at a large dining table that recalls a scene from The Godfather. He’s taller than Borelli, slightly larger around the waist and wears his black hair slicked back like the mobsters in the movies. Ruggiano talks about his gangster life on his own Reformed Gangsters podcast. He isn’t the only former mafia member with a podcast. Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, a for- mer Gambino underboss, has one. He mur- dered 19 people and, according to Scala, only did two or three years in prison after he tes- tified against Gotti. “Now he’s got a podcast and tells 10% of the truth and 90% fabrication,” says Scala, who recommends Mikey Scars: No Excuses with RJ Roger, hosted by Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo, because he often fact checks Gravano. This time last year, Borelli appeared on Ruggiano’s podcast to share his mafia mad- man turned Texas minister story. Ruggiano’s mother saw Borelli on The 700 Club with Pat Robertson in 2014. A phone call later, Rug- giano and Borelli reconnected. “I was a little cautious going to New York and meeting with him,” Borelli says. “But we knew each other since I was 17 and he was 18. We met up, and it felt comfortable.” Ruggiano was also in WITSEC. He’d been arrested in 2006 for racketeering and a cold case murder. While others had alibis, Ruggiano was the last to see his brother-in- law Frank Boccia alive in 1988. He took him to Fat Andy’s social club, where Boccia was shot five times for assaulting Ruggiano’s mother. “We decided that we’re not going to kill him until after the baby is born so my sister won’t have a miscarriage,” says Ruggiano, who left witness protection in 2009 on what he claims were good terms. “That is how sick we are. … So we wait until the christen- ing, and we’re going to kill this guy next week. We’re taking pictures with him and laughing. “None of this fazes me,” he adds. “...We went out to dinner with guys who we knew were going to die. We knew, like Thursday, they were going to get killed.” Similar to Borelli, Ruggiano needed an attorney but didn’t receive help from the mafia, despite Gotti sanctioning the killing. The feds offered to help and, with Ruggia- no’s testimony, brought down capos Bartolo- meo “Bobby Glasses” Vernace and Dominick “Skinny Dom” Pizzonia and family hit man Charles Carneglia. Ruggiano left WITSEC in 2009 on what he claims were good terms. But he didn’t leave behind the new identity they’d given him — one he doesn’t advertise like Borelli. “When I started to cooperate, I felt guilty because I loved [my father] and knew how he felt,” Ruggiano tells Borelli. In late 2014, Ruggiano faced sentencing for Boccia’s murder. Ruggiano’s niece had grown up believing her father had aban- doned her like Borelli had done to his daughter. “The anger you left with me is in- describable,” she told him. “... I can’t tell you what that did to me as a child. I pray today that justice prevails.” Ruggiano’s cooperation led to a time- served sentence for killing his brother-in- law. According to a November 14, 2014, New York Post report, he only spent three days in jail. “The Robert today is not the Robert over 50 years ago,” says Ruggiano, who now works as a drug counselor. “The Robert you know today, he is a miracle.” Scala makes a similar claim about Borelli. Scala says he usually rejects interview requests but agreed to speak with the Observer because he believes Borelli is different from the other reformed mobsters. Borelli doesn’t have a dis- dain for the mob and talks kindly about people like Corozzo and prays for them. “He is a big believer,” Scala says. “He doesn’t make a lot of money, and I try to help him.” Scala says the mafia, now mostly Sicilian, changes its business model every time a prosecution takes place. These days, they’re more involved in the legitimate side of busi- ness but keep “whatever dark business” close to their inner circle. “The Bureau doesn’t have any type of co- operation like it did 10, 15 years ago,” Scala says. “People are scared to death of Sicilians in Italy. If people cooperate, they will kill their wife, their kids, everybody.” Corozzo is now a free man. He just turned 85. Borelli, though, isn’t worried about retal- iation. “I just look at it this way,” he says. “I’m in a win-win situation. I know where I’m going when I die. God saved me for a plan and purpose and for his will to be done in life.”
