Ex-Mafia hit man now serving ‘Father God’

Tom Papania knows all about the power of prayer. It was through prayer that his mother — her body overtaken by cancer — miraculously and quickly became free of all cells of the disease. Papania also understands what the relentless, fervent prayers of a mother did in his life.
   
Papania gave his testimony at three Alabama Baptist churches in January. He shared how years of prayer by his mother led to his rescue from a life in the Gambino organized crime family.
   
Two of his visits were at Cropwell Baptist and Riverside Baptist, both in the St. Clair Association. Riverside Baptist sponsored Papania’s visit to the area.
   
Papania told the crowd at Cropwell Baptist of never receiving love or acceptance from his father.
   
He said the only thing he did receive regularly from his father were beatings. It was around the time he was 15, that Papania realized one way he could hurt his father was to become involved with organized crime.
   
He was earning a couple thousand dollars each week through mafia work when he was 17. It was also at that age the Mafia provided him with his first gun.
   
At 19, he began executing contracts for the Mafia. After gunning down two people, he was sent to prison in Kansas, and his parents disowned him.
   
Crime boss Carlo Gambino gave him two nightclubs to run after Papania was paroled for good behavior. It was not long before Papania was running 40 businesses, which brought in millions for the Gambino family.
   
Papania eventually returned to prison after he was convicted of a federal offense. It was upon his release that the change began in Papania, now aware something was missing in his life.
   
Papania said he began traveling, but found the void was with him wherever he went. It was in Atlanta in 1984, when Papania planned to take over a restaurant for the Mafia, that he heard a voice tell him that he was “going to hell.”
   
“I trembled with fear,” Papania recalled.
   
Papania said he cocked a .357- caliber Magnum and put it to his head, thinking he would take his life before God could. Papania felt he was more powerful than God.
   
That’s when Papania received a telephone call that would change his life. The caller invited Papania to dinner and to attend an interdenominational church the next day.
   
Papania told God he would not be “conned” by such a tactic as a telephone call interrupting his plans, but went to the church anyway.
   
Papania was leaving the church when he was confronted by the pastor, who told him, “Jesus loves you.” He also told Papania he saw in his eyes a little boy who wanted to be loved and accepted.
   
Papania said he was angered, because the preacher had uncovered a weakness — something no one in a crime family is supposed to have.
   
Papania said he made plans then to kill the preacher.
   
He met the preacher that night at the church with the intent of emptying his gun into the man’s head. But when he went for the gun, his hand froze near the holster.
   
While Papania tried to figure out why his hand would not move, the preacher began to share that everyone has done wrong, and Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for those wrongdoings.
   
Papania remembers he thought he had sinned too much for God to save him. After 23 years of keeping his vow not to divulge anything that went on in the crime family, Papania found himself confessing to the preacher. Soon, he was on his knees, praying and asking Jesus to come into his heart.
   
“I felt like someone had taken a thousand pounds off my shoulders,” he said.
   
Remembering he cried all the way home, Papania said he asked God to forgive him for thinking he was more powerful. He said that was when God told him, “I’m raising you up for ministry.”
   
“For 23 years, I served godfathers,” Papania said. “Now I’m serving Father God.”
   
Once at home, God began to reveal things to Papania. Although it meant a contract would be taken out on his life, he knew the first thing he had to do was leave the Mafia.
   
Papania said the next thing God told him to do was to reconcile with his father. God then instructed him to get rid of all his idols — house, clothes, jewelry, car, etc. His instructions, Papania said, were to “give anything away that you didn’t work for.”
  
Since Mafia money had provided all his possessions, he knew he must do away with everything.
  
Finally, God directed Papania to get a real, honest job. Using a testimony instead of a resumé, he secured a job as operations manager on a dairy farm in Atlanta.
   
The sins of his past still carried their consequences. His previous crime boss was arrested and Papania received notice he would have to testify against the man, increasing his risk of being killed. However, shortly before the trial was to start, his old crime boss was gunned down, and John Gotti became the new leader.
   
The man’s death not only canceled the trial, but also the contract  on Papania’s life.
   
Later, Papania spent nearly a year in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary while on trial for charges associated with his life in organized crime. But unlike before, this time he was innocent of wrongdoing.
   
Housed in a separate area of the facility, Papania learned inmates in the three cells next to his had been charged with executing another contract on his life.
   
Papania said God told him to tell the men about Jesus.
   
Though reluctant, all that would come out of his mouth was about Jesus .
   
By the time Papania finished talking, the three were on their knees in prayer, asking Jesus to forgive them and be their Savior.
   
Papania was on trial on 17 counts and was facing a life sentence. The trial, one of Atlanta’s longest, lasted more than 11 months and 56 people testified.
   
A witness in the trial finally admitted to taking money from the prosecution. Papania said he was set free by the grace of God and feels God sent him back into the prisons to minister.
   
Now Papania is an evangelist, ministering in jails and prisons. He also speaks throughout the United States and the world through his outreach, God’s Saving Grace Ministries, Inc.
   
As for his praying mother, she did get to see him after he received Christ as his Savior. At the time of their reunion, she was in a New York hospital and weighed about 65 pounds, her body consumed by cancer.
   
Upon seeing him that first time since he had been disowned years before, Papania didn’t even have to tell his mother what God had done in his life. She said, “When I looked into your eyes, all I could see was Jesus. He has answered my prayers.”
   
Papania prayed hard for two days for his mother, who had spent all those years praying for him to become a priest
   
Her physician called Papania several days later after he had returned to Atlanta and told him the most recent tests could not find any cancer.
   
“My mother lived 18 months from the time she went home from the hospital,” Papania said. “When she died, it was not because of disease or  illness, he said. It was just her time.”