From Mafia to Ministry: Robert Borelli’s Story
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Robert Borelli once believed the Mafia offered the clearest path to power. As a teenager growing up in Brooklyn, he set out to become a gangster, drawn to the respect, money, and status he saw around him. Instead, that path led him in and out of prison, and eventually to rock bottom.
But inside a jail cell, at his lowest point, Borelli cried out to God for change. What followed was a transformation that gave him a new purpose in life, one rooted in faith and service to others.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:13.7 | And we continue here with our American stories. |
| 0:17.9 | In the shadows of New York City, a rich history lies hidden within the walls of social |
| 0:22.7 | clubs that once served as the epicenter of the notorious New York City Mafia. These clubs, |
| 0:29.2 | which have evolved, offer a glimpse into the secretive world of organized crime, providing a fascinating |
| 0:35.1 | narrative of power, loyalty, and tradition. |
| 0:39.3 | We'll hear the story right now of a former member of one of the most well-known crime families in New York. |
| 0:46.2 | Robert Borrelli started his life of crime when he was just 14. |
| 0:50.9 | Here now is Robert Borrelli. |
| 0:57.0 | Welcome, Bro Rockaway. |
| 1:02.3 | Childhood was a little rough, you know, was hard to make ends meet. |
| 1:07.0 | It was a poor neighborhood that I lived in. |
| 1:13.6 | Mom and dad worked really hard to try to make ends meet, and it was a challenge for them. |
| 1:16.6 | So at an early age, I really didn't want to be like my mom and my dad |
| 1:21.6 | having the struggles that they had. |
| 1:24.6 | And a lot of times, some of the arguments that would happen in the home were about mostly |
| 1:31.0 | time about finances not making enough money to pay school bills rents and stuff like that so |
| 1:39.3 | and then you had in the Vietnam War just people from a little bit older than me, |
| 1:45.1 | coming back into the neighborhood and drugged out and drinking and in the streets, a lot of them, you know, |
| 1:53.3 | and didn't want to be like those guys that I looked up to before they went to the war. |
| 1:59.2 | And then we had the guys in the neighborhood who kind of protected the neighborhood, |
... |
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