Escape from the Rock

Ray Edwards Presentence Report: Ray Eugene Edwards, Jr. OFFENSE: Official Version:

Docket #76-166-Cr-J-T: Count one of the indictment charges that on or about October 19, 1976, Ray Eugene Edwards, Jr. and Robert last name deleted, by force and intimidation, did take about $565.00 from the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association, 70 Regency Square, Jacksonville, Florida. Count two of the indictment charges the defendant and his co-defendant with the use of a pistol in the commission of this crime. The official investigative report reflected the following information. At 6:15 p.m. on October 19, 1976 two (2) white males entered the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association, 70 Regency Square, Jacksonville, Florida. Unknown subject #2 approached victim teller, Tina lasted name deleted, and requested fifty cents worth of pennies. As Miss last name deleted turned to comply, unknown subject #2 displayed a small, dark gray handgun and ordered Miss last name deleted and another teller, Doug (last name deleted), to step backwards and not to touch any alarm. Unknown subject #1 then went behind the teller counter and emptied one cash drawer of $565.00; however, he did not touch the second cash drawer which was opened with money in plain view. Both unknown subjects backed out of the front door and ordered victims (Name deleted) and (Name deleted) not to tell anyone of the robbery. The unknown subjects were not observed after exiting the door of the Savings 8: Loan Association. Docket #75-167-Cr-J-T: Count one of the indictment charges that on or about October 26, 1976, Ray Eugene Edwards, in, by force and intimidation, did take about $2,006.00 from the Fidelity Federal Savings 8: Loan Association, 70 Regency Square, Jacksonville, Florida. Count two of the indictment charges the defendant with the use of a pistol in the commission of this crime. The official investigative report reflected the following information. At approximately 10:35 a.m. on October 26, 1976, a lone white male held up two (2) tellers at the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association, 70 Regency Square, Jacksonville, Florida. The armed bandit obtained $2,006.00 from this institution and his getaway was unobserved. Constance E. (Name deleted), one of victim tellers, provided the following information. Miss (Name deleted) stated that the unknown white male stepped up to the teller’s window and threw a note over the counter top which landed on the counter in front of her. She picked up the note which read, “Hold up, put the money in the bag”. Miss (Name deleted) stated that she read this note and place it back on the counter in front of her. She stated the unknown white male was holding a small gun in his left hand and shoved it through the teller’s window at her. He then handed a medium size brown grocery bag to her and said, “Put it in the bag”. Miss (Name deleted) stated that she put all of the currency that was in her teller’s drawer into the grocery bag including one hundred dollar ($100.00) in currency where the serial numbers were previously recorded by the bank. Miss (Name deleted) stated she placed the grocery bag on top of die counter at which time the unknown male turned to teller Marci (Name deleted) and said, “You too and hurry up”. Miss (Name deleted) then took currency out of her teller’s drawer and placed it in the bag on the counter. Miss (Name deleted) stated that Marci actually came over in front of her and placed the money in the bag. The unknown male then took the paper bag in his right hand, turned, and walked fast out of the front door turning toward the large parking area.

Docket #77-7-Cr- -K: A one count information charges that on or about November 3, 1976, Ray Eugene Edwards, Jr. , by force and intimidation, did take $4,099.00 from the Pan American Bank, South Trail office, Sarasota, Florida; in violation of 18 USC, Section 2113 (a). The official investigative report reflected the following information. At about 3:57 p.m. on November 3, 1975, two (2) white males came into the bank. One went to the window of teller Melinda (Name deleted). Miss (Name deleted) stated that the man at her window gave her seven dollars ($7.00) and asked for quarters in change. As she was getting the change, the man laid a note on the counter. The note stated, “Hold up, fill up the case and be quick about it”. When she finished reading the note, she looked up and saw the white male was pointing a gun at her. She did not see where the gun came from, but he was holding it in his right hand. He said, “Put it in the bag”. Miss (Name deleted) asked him where the bag was and he replied, “Give it to me”. So she dumped the money on the counter. The man unbuttoned his shirt and started stuffing the money inside. While he was doing this, Miss (Name deleted) was moving toward her alarm button, the man saw her and said, “Don’t touch the button. Just don’t do anything”. After stuffing the money in his shirt, he started toward the door. At this time Miss (Name deleted) turned to Melinda (Name deleted) and told her she had been robbed. She then pushed the alarm button and saw the robber run east along the building with the other white male, which had been at Miss (Name deleted) window. Teller Melinda (Name deleted) furnished the following information. At approximately 4:00 p. m. on November 3, 1976, two (2) white males entered the bank, and one came to her window. The other man went to the window of teller Sharon (Name deleted). The white male that approached her window gave her two (2) one dollar ($1) bills and asked for a roll of nickels. She stated that she was not immediately aware that a holdup had occurred as the white male in front of her backed away and started toward the door. About that time, Miss (Name deleted) turned to her and said she had been robbed. At that time, Miss (Name deleted) observed two (2) white males go out the front door and turn north and then run east along the north side of the bank building. Miss (Name deleted) exited the bank and followed the two (2) white males as they proceeded through an alley way between two (2) rows of buildings in the adjacent shopping area. Miss (Name deleted) continued following the robbers and saw them get into a white over blue Chevrolet Impala, four door sedan. Miss (Name deleted) then returned to the bank and gave her description of the getaway car to the arriving police officers. On 11/3/76, Ray Eugene Edwards, Jr. and William (Name deleted, Jr. were arrested by local authorities and charge with the robbery of the Pan American Bank at Sarasota, Florida. Subsequent interrogation resulted in Edwards’ admission of robbing the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association in Jacksonville, Florida on 10/19/76 and 10/26/76. Witnesses identified Edwards‘ photograph from a large photographic spread. On 11/17/76, Edwards was taken into Federal custody and charged with the bank robbery at Sarasota, Florida. Bond was set at $100,000 Cash or Surety. On 11/23/76, Edwards was given a preliminary hearing on two (2) indictments charging him with robbery of the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association at Jacksonville, Florida. Bond was set at $50,000 Cash or Surety, on each of the two (2) cases. On 12/16/76 Edwards through his Court appointed attorney, advised the U. S. Magistrate of his intention of pleading guilty pursuant to a Plea Agreement. He signed a consent to proceed with the presentence investigation which was witnessed by his attorney. On 1/12/77. the defendant Edwards appeared before the Honorable Charles R. Scott and entered a plea of guilty to count one of each of the three (3) cases pursuant to a Plea Agreement. A factual basis of the offense was given and the Court accepted the defendant’s plea and ordered a presentence investigation. Sentencing was set for the defendant Edwards on February 1, 1977 at 10:00 a. m. On 1/05/77, the co-defendant William (Name deleted) appeared before the Honorable Charles R. Scott and entered a plea of guilty to count one of the indictments pursuant to a Plea Agreement. A factual basis of the offense was given and the Court accepted the defendant’s plea and ordered a presentence investigation. Sentencing was set for February 17, 1977 at 10:15 a.m.

DEFENDANT’S VERSION OF OFFENSE:

“In October 1976, I came to Jacksonville and stayed with Bobby (Name deleted) and his parents. I couldn’t find work and was broke. I began looking for a place to rob and decided on the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Bank at Regency Square. On October 19, 1976, Bobby (Name deleted) and I went to Regency Square and sat in the car and watched the operation of the bank. I told Bobby to take the paper sack and to clean out the cash drawer after I pulled a gun on the teller. We went in and I asked the teller for a roll of pennies. When she gave me the pennies, I pulled a .25 caliber automatic pistol out of my pocket and gave the teller a note which said ‘This is a hold up, put the money in the sack’. I men told her to stand in the middle of the floor and then I told Bobby to go clean out the cash drawer. After he put the money in the sack, we left and went back to Bobby’s parents’ home. There we counted the money and I gave him half of it and I kept the rest. I then took him and his wife to Ocala where they bought a car and I went back to Fort Myers. I stayed there a few days and then returned to Jacksonville with my girlfriend, Peggy (Name deleted), who is Bobby’s sister. We stayed at her parents’ home. On October 26th, I returned to the Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Company by myself and robbed the bank again. I took a note to the teller which told her that this was a hold up and I put a gun on the counter. I gave her a paper sack to put the money in. After getting the money I went back to the Bobby’s home and picked up my girlfriend and went to Disney world. Later we returned to Jacksonville and rented an apartment. Peggy decided she did not like Jacksonville so we returned to Fort Myers. I then discussed the bank robbery with Peggy’s brother, Bill (Name deleted). I tried to get him not to go along with me but he insisted. On November 3, we went to Sarasota and picked out the Pan American Bank on Highway 41 South. We went into the bank and I showed the note and a gun to the teller. Bill turned around and walked out of the bank without saying a word. The teller put the money on the counter and I put it in my shirt and walked out of the bank to the car where Bill was waiting. We left and went South on Highway 41 until the police stopped us and we were arrested.” PRIOR RECORD: (Verified by Government records)

JUVENILE:

4/16/47 Fort Myers, B&E and Petty Committed to Fla. Industrial (age 9) Florida Larceny School for Boys (FISB), Mari- anna, Florida; Unconditionally released on 4/11/48 ______

7/08/49 Fort Myers, Committed to FISB, Marianna, Fla. (age 11) Florida B & E Unconditionally released 6/27/51

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3/24/52 Fort Myers, Larceny of Motor- Committed to FISB, Marianna, Fla. (age 14) Florida scooter; Truancy Unconditionally released 12/16/52 & Runaway

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6/27/53 Fort Myers, On 7/07/53 released to custody (age 15) Florida B & E of brother in Naples, Florida

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9/07/54 Atlanta, Crime on Gov’t TOT U. S. Marshal, Raleigh, (age 16) Georgia Reservation North Carolina

(Embezzlement) ______

At the time of the offense, the defendant was living with his brother who was a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Edwards was employed at the Post Exchange as an ice cream vendor and embezzled a cash advance of ten dollars (10.00) plus $33.63 as proceeds from the sale of the ice cream. On 10/14/54 he was adjudged delinquent on a plea of guilty to the charge and was sentenced to the Custody of the Attorney General for two (2) years under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act; 18 USC, Section 5032, was committed to the National Training School for Boys in Washington, D. C. and later transferred to the Natural Bridge Camp at Greenlee, Virginia. He was paroled on 12/19/55 and a violator warrant was issued on 6/19/56. The warrant was withdrawn when the sentence expired on 10/13/56 while the defendant was serving a State prison sentence.

Adult: FBI number 453 165 B

2/24/56 Everglades, Dismissed 2/27/56 (age 18) Florida Auto Theft

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3/27/56 Fort Myers, Investigation (age 18) Florida (Theft) Released—Lack of Evidence

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4/05/56 Fort Myers, 7/16/56 30 days in jail to (age 18) Florida Petty Larceny run concur. w/ State prison Sentence

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5/10/56 Fort Myers, Larceny of Auto (age 18) Florida and B & E

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On 6/05/56 to a plea of guilty to Larceny of Automobile, B & E and Uttering a Forgery, the defendant was sentenced to two (2) years in the State Prison on each charge, sentence to run concurrently There was no attorney of record. He was released on 2/10/58.

3/23/58 Moultrie, Larceny of Auto- TOT Valdosta, Ga. Authoritl es; (age 20) Georgia mobile Sentenced to 1 yr. and 1 yr. to serve (misdemeanor)

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6/02/59 Fort Myers, Robbery 6/29/59 plea of guilty; sentence (age 21) Florida to 5 yrs. State Prison. Escaped 6/24/61. Sentence vacated 9/9/63 ______

7/03/61 Miami, Escaped Prisoner TOT Collier County Sheriff’s (age 23) Florida Office

______The defendant was sentenced to three (3) years on each of two (2) counts of Escape and one (1) count of Larceny of Automobile, all to run concurrently but to run consecutively to sentence being served. The defendant escaped on 8/28/63 and he was apprehended on 9/20/63. His sentence expired on 10/10/53.

9/20/63 Panama Escape; Larceny of Truck; (age 25) City, Fla. B & E and Armed Robbery

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On 11/05/63 to a plea of guilty in Case #63-191 (Robbery), the defendant was sentenced to twenty (20) years in Florida State Prison. On a plea of guilty to Larceny of Automobile, Escape, 3 & E and Robbery, the defendant received sentences of five (5) years, three (3) years, ten (10) years, and twenty (20) years respectively, all to run concurrently with the twenty (20) year sentence imposed in Case it 63-191. The public defender was Virgil Q. Mayo.

1/07/64 Miami, B & E and Grand (age 25) Florida Larceny

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On 1/09/64 on plea of guilty to uttering a Forgery, Breaking 8: Entering a Dwelling House to Commit a Felony and Grand Larceny (2 counts) , the defendant ms sentence to ten (10) years in the State Prison.

He was represented by a public defender.

6/03/66 Atlanta, Fugitive TOT Sheriff’s office,

(age 28) Georgia Pensacola, Florida

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The Escambia County Circuit Court records reflected that in Case #66—492, the defendant was charged with Breaking and Entering a Dwelling While Armed to Commit a Felony, Robbery, and Assault with Intent to Commit Murder. He entered a plea of not guilty to all charges through his public defender, George Phillips on 6/23/66. A jury trial was set for 7/11/66 but was cancelled and the case was continued on 12/08/66. At that time his attorney entered a motion to dismiss all charges. On 12/16/66 the motion was denied by the Court. The defendant’s attorney appealed the Court’s denial of the motion and before the Appealate Court could render a decision the case was Nolle Processed on 3/07/67. In the meantime the defendant was turned over to the Union County Sheriff’s Office on a charge of Escape. On 8/29/66 in the Union County Circuit Court at Lake Butler, Florida, the defendant was sentenced to eight (8) years for Escape.

On 1/30/73 the defendant was released on parole and he completed parole satisfactorily on 6/07/75. The interval of time between 1/30/73 when paroled and 11/03/76 when arrested for the instant offense (approximately 3 years and 9 months), was the longest period of freedom for this defendant since he was nine (9) years old. The defendant stated that he had never had a trial and had always pleaded guilty as charged because he was guilty. He claims he never was represented by an attorney except in 1963 when in the Escambia County Circuit Court at Panama City, Florida. Prison records reflected that he was represented by a public defender when convicted in the Dade County Circuit Court at Miami, Florida in 1964.

FAMILY HISTORY: (According to the defendant and verified by mother and sister-in-law)

Defendant:

Ray Eugene Edwards, Jr. was born January 15, 1938 at Fort Myers, Florida. He was the youngest of seven (7) children born to Ray and Emma Stoots. He reportedly had a good home environment and received affection and discipline from both parents. For some unknown reason, in early childhood he became unmanageable and beyond the control of his parents. He became a chronic truant and eventually a delinquent that resulted in his being committed to the State Training School at the tender age of nine (9). Subsequently the home was broken by the death of the father who committed suicide in 1949. He reportedly took his own life when he learned mat he had cancer. The mother did not remarry for several years and when she did, the defendant reportedly resented her remarriage.

Parents and Siblings:

Father: Ray Eugene Edwards, died in 1949. Mother: Emma (nee Stoots) Minshew, age 78, lives at 4481 Armeda Avenue, Fort Myers, Florida. She and her present husband reside in a small house adjacent to and furnished by her son Frank Edwards. Step Father: William Minshew, age 66, resides with the defendant’s mother and is retired. Brother: John T. Edwards, age 52, resides at 2259 Crawford Street, Fort Myers, Florida, and employed as a cabinet maker. Brother: Arthur Edwards died in combat during World War II. Brother: Walter E. Edwards, age 48, reportedly lives somewhere in Texas and employed as a carnival worker. Brother: James R. Edwards, age 46, resides in Miami, Florida and employed by the Biscayne Roofing Company.

Brother: William P. Edwards, age 45, resides on Staley Road in Fort Myers, Florida and employed by the United Telephone Company. Brother: Frank L Edwards, age 44, resides at 4481 Armeda Avenue, Fort Myers, Florida and employed by the United Telephone Company. MARITAL HISTORY: (Verified)

The defendant married (Name withheld) on 4/06/73 at Fort Myers, Florida. This marriage ended in divorce on 5/04/76 (Case #75-2236CA) at Fort Myers, Florida. Custody of the child, Brian K. Edwards, age 2 and a half was awarded to the mother and the defendant was ordered to pay 930.00 per week child support. Child support records for Lee County, Florida, as of January 5, 1977 reflected the defendant was $820.00 in arrears. At the time of his arrest for the instant offense, the defendant was living in a paramour relationship with Margaret (Last name deleted) age 22, divorced and has one (1) child. She is the sister of the co-defendant Robert (Last named deleted)

HOME AND NEIGHBORHOOD:

Just prior to his arrest for the instant offense the defendant and his paramour had been residing with her parents in Jacksonville and with friends and relatives in Fort Myers, Florida. The defendant was born and raised in Fort Myers, Florida where he has lived most of his life when not incarcerated.

EDUCATION:

The defendant reportedly received a GED high school equivalency certificate while incarcerated in the State Prison at Raiford, Florida in 1965. (Verified) The defendant claimed to have taken nine (9) semester hours at Lake City Community College and have received two (2) semester hours of credit.

(Unverified)

RELIGION:

The defendant expressed a preference for the Methodist Church and stated that he attended services occasionally.

INTERESTS AND LEISURE—TIME ACTIVITIES:

The defendant stated that he enjoyed swimming, tennis, shuffleboard, and shooting pool.

HEALTH:

The defendant described himself as being 5 foot 9 inches tall weighing 138 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes and in good health. He stated that he suffered fractured vertebrae of the neck from a motor scooter accident in 1951. He related that he received treatment for a gunshot wound in the back in 1966 in Atlanta, Georgia. He admitted to the occasional use of intoxicants but denied drinking excessively. He admitted to smoking marijuana on three (3) or four (4) occasions but denied using any other drugs or narcotics. Mental and Emotional:

The defendant requested and received a psychiatric examination which was given by Dr. Ernest Miller on 12/11/76. He was found mentally competent by Dr. Miller on 1/03/77. Dr. Miller prescribed dilantin with phenobarbital three (3) times a day to help the defendant control his impulsiveness. A copy of Dr. Miller’s report is attached. The defendant was given a psychiatric examination by Dr. Hugo Brodesky who submitted a psychiatric evaluation on 12/22/76 to the defendant’s attorney. Dr. Brodesky expressed the opinion that the defendant was mentally competent. A copy of this psychiatric evaluation is attached.

February 1, 1973 to March 5, 1973 (Approximately 5 weeks)—Cement industries of Fort Myers, Florida. Personnel records reflected the defendant was described as a dependable and hard working employee who quit to taking other employment. (Verified) March 1973 to April 1973 (Approximately 2 months)—Exxon Service Station, Palm Beach Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida. The defendant stated that he worked as a service station employee and quit to take over the operation of a Mobil Service Station in Cleburne, Texas. (Unverified) May 1973 to December 1973 (Approximately 7 months)—Mobile Service Station, Cleburne, Texas. The defendant stated that he was the manager and operator of this station until he lost the dealership. (Unverified) First part of 1974 (Exact dates unknown)—Yellow Cab Company, Fort Myers, Florida. The defendant’s personnel record could not be located but it was verified that he worked for this company for at least six (6) weeks. He was described as being a good worker, well mannered and neat in appearance. April 16, 1974 to August 15, 1974 (4 months)—J. B. Draperies Company, Fort Myers, Florida. The defendant was described as dependable and reportedly did a good job considering the fact that he had no formal training in making draperies. (Verified) September 17, 1974 to August 1976 (Approximately 23 months)—Progress Drilling & Marine incorporated, Fort Myers, Florida. The defendant reportedly worked as a motor man and was earning $5.30 per hour at the time he was laid off. He was described as a hard working employee. It was reported that the defendant came into possession of some payroll checks for other employees at about the same time he was laid off. The defendant reportedly forged the endorsement on these checks and cashed them. (Verified) The defendant’s employment history is mainly limited to the years between 1973 and 1976 because he has been almost continuously incarcerated most of his life.

MILITARY SERVICE:

None

FINANCIAL CONDITION:

Assets:

None Financial Obligations: (Unverified)

The defendant stated that he had the following debts: $2,500.00—Barnett Bank, Fort Myers, Florida; $1.300.00—Badcock Furniture Company, Fort Myers, Florida; $600.00—American Finance Company, Fort Myers, Florida. ChapterHAPTER 1

I remember when I was about four or five years old and living in Waycross Georgia. I don’t recall the trip to that town, but I do recall living in a tent, and my mother cooked on a stove outside the tent. My father spent his time building our house, and he worked rain or shine. When it was completed, it had no running water and no lights. We used lamps, and we took our baths in a wash tub or went down to the river to swim and take a bath. I recall one of my brothers was chasing me, and I jumped out of the window, and my foot landed on a braoken jar, and I had to go to the hospital to have it sewed up. I went to school in a mule and wagon, and we didn’t have a school bus back in those days. We were poor in those years. My mother had to make me shirts out of flour bags and any other material that she could gather up. She made me sandwiches to take with to school. The other kids got their lunches paid for because their families could afford it for them. My father would take us to a movie, and sometimes I would be so tired my father would put me on his shoulder and carry me because it was a long walk. The tickets were cheap in those days, and they were only nine cents, and you could get popcorn for the penny. We would set out lines across the creeks and bait the hooks and come back later to see if we had any fish on the hooks. I also recall my mother caught me and a little girl in a chicken house, and we were playing chicken. We were up on what they call a chicken roost that the chicken slept on. However, we were naked, and we would ask each other, “Hhad we laid an egg yet?”. Needless to say, I got a good whipping because of that little stunt that we had done. My brothers would always kid me about it. Sometimes when we didn’t have the money for everyone to go to the movie, one of us would buy a ticket and then go in and open the exit door, and the others could then come in and enjoy the movie and eat popcorn with the penny that was left. Sometimes we would get caught, and of course, the usher would make us leave. A lot of times I would get hungry at school, and I would eat dates that grew on the school grounds. ChapterHAPTER 2

My father sold the house he built, and we loaded all our stuff on the truck, and we moved to Fort. Myers, Florida. At first we camped out by the river, and there were snakes living in the trees. I don’t know what kind they were, but I do recall that we were all scared. He finally found a place for us to stay running a service station. He then finally found a house that had four bed rooms and a large bath. Iit was also located up town and only a couple of blocks to the school that I had to attend. I was in the first grade, so I was six years old in 1944, and believe it or not, I failed the first grade. I really got a whipping for failing that grade. I became a friend to one of my class mates, and we would go around having fun by doing crazy things,. lLike setting fires at a loading dock that was right across the street from the county jail. Of course, we were talked to about this by the sheriff department, but we would not admit to any of this concerning the fire. During the time I was in school, the teacher would give a student the lunch money to take to the office. So when I took it and she was not in the office, so I took it and hid it in the bathroom. I then went back to my class and told her I placed the money on the desk. A little while later, the principale came up to the class room and asked where the money was, and I told her I had placed it on her desk. Well, they went looking for it, and they found it in the bathroom. Of course, when my mother found out about it, I was given a good whipping with a razor stroap. What my mother didone was take me toin the bathroom. She then took off my clothes and started whipping me with the stroap. I jumped in the bath tub, and she finally stopped after about a minute. So I didn’t do that anymore. However, later I was put in a room without any clothes. I was in there for several hours. Finally, I found a girl’s dress, and I put that on and crawled out a window. One of my brothers saw me walking down the street. I then crawled under a house. He just wentcame under theire and dragged me out. When I got home, I got another whipping. That was the last whipping I ever got. Then another time me and a class mate got into a fight, and I bit him, and he told the teacher. Well, the teacher made me stand up in front of the class and had him come up and told him to bite me back. Well, he did, and he did a good job of it. After that, we were good friends for some times. We would ride our bikes and go to the fair and go hunting and fishing. CHAPTERhapter 3

I was in the third or fifth grade when I started skipping school. I was taken before a judge, and I was sent to the Florida Industrial School for Boys that was located way up at Marianna, Florida. I was taken up there by the county sheriff department. When we arrived there, I was taken to the main office and then was assigned to a cottage that had kids around my age. The school at this time had only three cottages open with the fourth being closed because of a fire. The cottages had a basement where we took showers and had a bunch of lockers where we kept our clothes and other personal stuff. This was also where we had to stand in lines for long periods of time. The man or the so- called cottage father would make us stand there until we would crap or pee on ourselves. He also made us take cold showers for some kind of punishment. Another punishment would be to pull our side burns. Then the next floor was the play room, where we played cards and other things. The top floor was where we slept, and it was an open dorm. We also played games outside, and athe game was called steal the bacon. It was done by playing on the basketball court. They would put a sock on a line in the middle of the court, and then a guy from each end would run up to it, and the one who grabbed it ran back to his side without being touched by the other guy. Prizes would be given out to the winner. We also were given a bag lunch at night before bed time. We were also given a bottle of milk. However, I could not drink milk because it made me sick. The cottage father would try to make me drink it, but I could not, so he just gave up on me. However, before we went to bed and after we took a shower, we had to put on a white night gown with nothing on underneath, and it looked more like a girl’s dress. There was about fifty or sixty kids that were housed in this area. We had a school that we went to, and we also had the Bboy Sscouts. We had a place at school where we played bingo and where we watched movies. We were graded by our conduct. The grades were a grub, explorer, pioneer, or an ace. I worked in the laundry sewing the clothes that needed repaired. That was a pretty good job. Then because I did not go by the rules, I was placed on a work detail that cleaned up the grounds. They had so many rules that you had to obey, them and it was very hard. I was in the Bboy Sscouts, and we got to go off the campus to go on hikes and swimming at Blue Springs and also up town to the movies. I, of course, was taught by the other kids how to commit crimes. You learn how to steal cars, pull a robbery, forge checks, and how to break in houses, and many other crimes. It was sure named right by being called a training school for boys. We had to march from the cottages to the mess hall. We sat a table that would seat seven kids with the kid at the head of the table called the table leader. It was him who got his food first and told the rest of the table how much that each could put on their plates. If you did not do what he said, you would be punished and wrote up as not going by the rules. Then the punishment would be a trip to what they called the white house. This was where they took the kid in and had him bend over a chair, and the officer would beat you with an oak paddle that had holes in it, and then he gave you about twenty to thirty licks across your butt, and it would actually make it black and blue and would be bleeding. Then if you didn’t hold oun to the chair, they had a bed they put you on and had some black inmates hold you down until the officer finished with you. Needless to say, it hurt like hell and was really painful. Then after the beating your grade was to be dropped to grub, which was the lowest on the campus. Also, if the heating was real bad and you were bleeding, you would be taken down the hill to the hospital and maybe treated if you needed it. One time I went down there for changing the tickets in a canteen book. I had taken another boy’s canteen book and took his tickets out of his and put them in my book. Of course, when I went to the store, the man that ran it compared the tickets in the book to the front of the book and saween that they did not match. So he took me to the big boss, and then we took a walk to the so- called white house, where they did all the beatings with the paddle or razor stroap. One time I had a job picking up trash from the places where the employers lived. So one day I picked out of the ash trays some butts that were in the tray. I also found some matches. I placed all the stuff in my wallet and then went to the mess hall. Then while I was eating, an officer came up to the table and called me outside and asked me to take out my wallet, and of course, he found the butts and matches. I found out later that the kid I worked with had told on me. I was also assigned to the boxing team, and we trained by running around a large circle that was located close to the mess hall. We went on trips to various towns. One time we went to my home town at Fort. Myers, Florida. We fought at the Boys Club, and we stayed in a motel. Of course, I got to visit with my family while there. The kid I fought was a high school friend, and the match was judged to be a draw. Then we were on the long trip back to the school. CHAPTERhapter 4

After several weeks back at the school, I was called to the office and told I had to go home. I was given a bus ticket and taken up town to catch the bus. When I arrived at the bus station iIn Fort. Myers, Florida, I was met by my mother, and she told me my dad was dead. Then I was taken to the funeral home to view his body. He was laid in the coffin and dressed all up nice and neat. I could not really believe he was dead. When we left the funeral home, I asked my mother how he died. She told me he went to the county jail and told them he wanted to stay there for the night. So the jailers put him in a cell and didn’t even lock the cell door and didn’t even shake him down. Well, the next morning, the jailers went up to check on him and found him dead. He had cut his wrist with a pocket knife and let all the blood drain in the toilet, and none was on the floor. I found out later that someone in the family was trying to put him in a hospital for the mentally ill. I have no idea why they wanted to do that because I never saween him acting crazy or stupid. ChapterHAPTER 5

On one of the trips to Marianna, Florida, it was for a B and& E (breaking and entering). One day I stopped at a gas station and met a kid that I knew at the Industrial School for Boys. I asked him to hang out later with me, and we would have some fun. Well, we borrowed my step father’s little car. Actually, I just used it without his permission. We went and broke into a hardware store and stole some guns. Well, I guess we just did that to have some fun. What we did with the guns later was just throw them into a ditch. Some was found by the police, and we were on our way back to the bBoys’ sSchool. While at home, I worked at a restaurant, and I stole some money from the cash register and used it to buy me a motor bike. Well, of course I was caught, and the motor bike was taken back to where I had bought it, and the man gave the money back to the man that I had work for. Of course, I was taken before a judge and was put into custody of a brother who was living in another county. I was told not to come back into the county. Well, I lived with my brother who worked for the telephone company. Then later, another brother came down, and we would go gigging fish at night using a light to shine on them. We caught several fish and put them iIn a sack. Then my brother and I got into a dispute whether there was another pier out in the water. Well, I said there was, and he said was I calling him a liar. I said no, but there was another pier. That was when he got mad and said he would kill me, and he started chasing me with the gig, and I was running away because he scared me to death. I managed to get back to my brother’s house and hide under the bed. My brother asked me what was wrong, so I explained to him what had happened. So when the other brother came home, we got things settled now. The next day I went back to stay with my mother for a while. ChapterHAPTER 6

Then another brother that was six years older than me got together and robbed a service station. We did this by breaking a window, and then because I was the smallest, I went in and opened the front door. We stole a .22twenty two pistol and money and a lot of smokes. Well, he took the smokes to a taxi stand and tried to sell them. Of course, they called the police, and we were arrested and put in the county jail. Because we were under age, we were put in a cell by ourselves. Later we went before the judge, and he sent us to the Florida Industrial School for Boys. He was put into one cottage and I another. This was done because of the difference in our age. One day we got a visit from a couple of our brothers, and they drove up right next to the cottages. Well, they didn’t stay long. It was later discovered that my brother was missing. It was some times later that he was found up in Virginia staying with some of my mother’s brothers. Oof course, he was brought back and taken to the white house and given a beateing that busted his butt and made it black and blue and bleeding. He was taken to the hospital and was treated for the bleeding, and bandages were placed on his rear. We had games we played like golf and baseball. Because I was only nine years old and was the youngest kid at the school, I was made the team mascot. We were finally released from the school. ChapterHAPTER 7

When I got home, I found me a job selling newspapers and working at a food place washing dishes. As I got older, I found a job working at a cement company. My job was unloading box cars of cement and sand and gravel. Then later I got to be the operator of a front- end loader. That was a better job and then later I got the job of driving a truck and delivering material to various places around town. Then my brother came to work, and one day we were delivering concrete slabs for park benches. It was an accident that sometimes happens when we unload trucks. One of the slabs when it came off the truck landed on my foot, and I had to go the hospital. They had to take my toe nail off, so I was off work for some time. I kept getting in small trouble but never got caught. I would to go get some stuff from this service station for my mother. One day the man that owned the place was out pumping gas, and I saw his cash box sietting on the floor. So I went behind the counter and took all the cash and took off. I then later went to the fair and had a great time. About two weeks later, I went back to the station, and the man told me that someone had robbed him, and the next time it happened, he said, if he caught him, he would really fix him up. He then pulled out a long sword that was about four feeoot long. Needless to say, I never went back to his place of business. I did a lot of stupid things like that around gas stations. Later I found a job working at a packing house, and I made a lot of spending money for a kid that was just now getting to the seventh grade. I had a friend that had a motor scooter that he parked at school, so I stole it and had a good joy ride with it. I went to the beach and all over town, and when I finished with it, I parked it where he could find it. I was lucky he was one of my friends; he didn’t do anything. ChapterHAPTER 8

Finally my brother came down from Fort. Bragg, North Carolina, to visit with the family. Well, when he was ready to return, my mom said I could go with him if I wanted to, and so I did. On the way back we stopped in Waycross, Georgia, so his wife could visit with her family. They were share croppers that lived on a farm. They raised tobacco and cotton for the landlord, and that was the way they paid for staying there. It was a lot of fun staying there for a little over a week. We would go swimming in the river and also do some fishing. I also got to gather tobacco leaves and tooake them to the barn, where it would be put on a stick and hung in the barn to be cured. Then when we ate, it was always a good meal. If we wanted chicken, we went out in the yard and caught a chicken. We would wring his neck and then stick him in some hot water and take the feathers off. tThen clean him by removing the guts. The ice for the ice box was delivered each day was brought from town. Life was real good on the farm. It was finally time to go to Fort. Bragg, N.orth Carolina. When we arrived there, they had a place on the base, and it was real nice. I had my own bedroom. We also had a good heating system for the cold weather. So me being from Florida, I sure needed the heat for the winter. They also entered me into school that was located on the base. There on the base, they only went from the first grade to the eight. After that you had to attend school that was in town about eleven miles away. We caught a bus each morning, and in the afternoon, one took us back to our area. At times I got to go to where my brother ran a hobby shop for the soldiers on the base. He did all types of stuff made out of wood, and I spent some time with him. I would dress up in soldier outfits and even get to eat in the mess hall. However, one day a big shot came into the hobby shop and asked my brother who I was. So he was told I could not come to the shop anymore. Well, I started playing football after school, and I enjoyed that very much. When I needed medical attention I could get it right on the base because he had me down as a dependent. I even found a job on the base selling ice cream from a commissary that was on the base. I would be given a load of ice cream and place it in this cart that had dry ice or what they called hot ice. The cart was a thing that you peddled, and I went all over the base selling ice cream to the soldiers. I worked there several months, and then I got home sick. Well, after selling ice cream that day, I went back to turn my money in and turn in the cart. Well, when I saw the boss, he said he was busy so I should just take the money and put it in the office. Well, when I went into the office, I noticed the safe was open, and I saw several money bags that were real thick. Well, my mean streak hit me again, so I took the largest bag and stuffed it under my shirt and left. I went to a place where I could count it, and I discovered that itI had over five hundred dollars in it. I then caught a bus and went back to Fort. Myers, Florida,. to see my mother and friends. ChapterHAPTER 9

I didn’t stay there long and then went to a farm in Georgia where my sister- in- law was staying with some of her family. Her husband was in Korea, and I asked if I could stay there for a while. Of course, she didn’t mind at all. It was on a farm, and I and the other kids had a lot of fun there. Of course the house had no running water nor did it have a bathroom inside. However, we did have what they called an outhouse. It was a small building with a door and a seat inside that had a hole in the center. We had toilet paper most of the time, but when we ran out, we used a catalog. And if we didn’t have that, we used corn husk. Also, we had to clean in a wash tub. We also had a fire place, and we always had plenty of wood to burn. I had a lot of fun on the farm. We did a lot of picking corn and gathering in tobacco and taking it to the warehouses in town, where it would be sold. Then when we got the money for it, each of us would get some spending money for the movies and other stuff. One day while out in the fields, a car came out into the field, and they asked me if I was Ray Edwards, and of course, I said yes. They said I was under arrest. So they put me in the car and took me to the house to get some clothes and for me to tell everyone bye. They took to me to a jail in Thomasville, Georgia. They put me in a cell by myself because I was under eighteen. I was to be there about two weeks, and then the marshals took me back to thdie town that was eleven miles from Fort. Bragg, N.orth Carolina. My brother and his wife came to see me and brought me some smokes and some stuff to snack on. I was later taken before a judge and given two years in National Training School for Boys that was located at Washington, D.C. ChapterHAPTER 10

Pretty soon the U.S. mMarshals came and transported me to the training school. It was located up on a large hill, and it consisted of about four buildings that were dorms like in the Florida Industrial School for Boys. It was also black and whites located in the same dorms. The basement was where we showered, and we kept our clothes in the lockers that were provided for us. The dorm windows all had bars on them, and the security was pretty good. We had to line up in the basement sometimes for hours, and there was to be no talking. We had a razor box that was kept for our used blades. We also had to turn them in to the officer in charge. One night there was a lot of bull shit going on, and the officer got mad, and he threw the razor box at a kid, and it hit him in head. He was taken to the hospital and didn’t come back for several days. We marched to the mess hall in one of the ways the blacks march, slinging their arms and dragging their legs. They had a rule in the mess hall that what you put on your tray, you had to eat everything. Well, me being from the Ssouth, I liked grits. So I got me a big plate of them and found out it was cream of wheat. I could not eat it, and a couple of my friends helped me out so that I would not be punished. I took a test at the school and the results were pretty good, and they asked me if I wanted to get involved in computer work. However, I turned it down and got a job on the farm. It was real easy because it was winter, and there was not much to do except keep the fences up. Later, I was asked by the classification officer if I wanted to transfer to a place called Natural Bridge, Virginia. It was a small camp, he said, that helped the Forest Service fight fires. I told him yes, I would like to transfer to that camp. At night at the dorm, when we would be in the basement, some girls would come up to the barred windows and show us their breasts and sometimes something else. However, they did this many times and never were caught. ChapterHAPTER 11

One morning I was woken up and told to pack my personal property and that I was being transferred. I was taken to the mess hall and fed and then put on a van with several other kids, and we were off to Natural Bridge Training Camp. It was named that because there was actually a bridge like that and a town with that name. The camp was located in a big valley below what they call the Sky Line Drive. The camp consisted of five dorms, and they had different names that I cannot remember now. They had a nice mess hall and a store where we could buy goodies. They also had a gym where we watched movies on the weekend and on holidays. I worked in a wood shop making signs for the National Forest Service. It was a real good job. I used a router to carve out letters in wood, and they were real neat. I would have to sand them and paint them. I worked there until I was released. We had a football team, and we went on trips playing against school. We also got to go to see the college games play, and we really enjoyed those trips. However, one time we played them, and they were twice our size. They won by fifty points. We were not allowed to smoke there, and the money to bargain with was chewing gum. We were not allowed to have cash money. If we had money, it was put on an account in the commissary. We had a system in the dorms that concerned the eating position. Whoever had the cleanest dorm would be the first for all week long to be the first in the mess hall all week long. You could also win trips to the movies up town. We also went on sightseeing trips all around our area. In the summer time, we would have to go up into the mountains to help the Forest Service control the fires. We would have to put in fire lines to keep them from spreading to other areas. They also paid us for this type of work. The money was put into our commissary account. There wereas times I actually saween a lake that really was not there. It would be so hot in the mountains. I had seen real live bears running to get out of the areas that were burning like crazy. In the summertime, wWe were often in the summer time taken up about half way up on the mountain; that was where a swimming pool was located. It had fresh mountain water that kept it filled at all times. It was always ice- cold. Also, there were some large rocks up on the mountain and we called it Ddevil’s Mmountain. They were huge rocks that were blasted away in order to build Sky Line Drive. One day I decided to climb from the camp to the top of it. It was about a half a mile to the top. As I was climbing over the huge rocks, something came out of the rocks, and I thought it was an eagle. However, it scared me so bad I ran the other way. When I got to the top, I caught a ride back to the camp. One time a bunch of us went fishing, and I didn’t catch any fish, but I did catch a bull frog. I had heard they were good to eat, so I cut his legs off and took them back to camp. I gave them to the cook to prepare them, and he deep- fried them. This was the first time I had ever eaten frog legs. Believe it or not, they sure tasted good, almost just like chicken. It was not long when I saw the parole officer, and he said I would be granted a parole. ChapterHAPTER 12

So several months later, I was taken to the bus station. However, when I got to Tampa, Florida, I had to check in with a parole officer. He gave me some rules I had to go by, and I had report to him with a monthly report. So I left there on my way to Fort. Myers, Florida. My mother and some others met me at the bus station, and we headed for home. She had moved from up town to a place they called Russell Park. I liked the place because it was real close to the skating rinkg. All my friends went there on Friday and Saturday nights. One day I was walking around up town close to this hotel and sat down on a park bench to rest. I happened to look down and saween a check in a wrapper. I picked it up, and there was a fifty- dollar bill attached to it. Of course, I kept the fifty and dropped the check back down by the park bench. That night I went to the fair and met my girlfriend. We really had a good time riding all the rides and trying to win teddy bears. I was home one day, and a man came to see me and wanted to know if I wanted a job at Marco Island Iinn. I asked him what I had to do. He explained to me that I had to deliver ice and empty the trash out of the cottages. Well, I told him I had a sweetheart, and he said to bring her along. I had my own room, and all my meals were free, and I could save my money. He told me I could use his truck any time. I told him I liked to go fishing, and he then told me how to catch a large fish. He told me to get a piece of index card and cut it out like a small fish. He then said to get a pole with a wire and leader and place it on there with a piece of tape. Then he told me to go down to the dock where a light shined in the water and drag the hook across the light. Well, I did this several times, and a fish just about pulled me into the water. I had to get a man that was on the boat to help me get the fish out of the water. I took the fish back to the motel and gave it to the cook, and he fried it up, and we had it the next day. I really liked my job because I could go swimming and fishing all the time. I also made some good tips for carrying bags to the cottages and cleaning their rooms up and doing other things for them. One day the boss told me to get something from his office. So I went to his office and saween that his safe was open. Well, I saw this large money bag, so the temptation was there again. I took the largest money bagck and hid it in my closet. Nothing was said about a missing money bag. After working several months, I acted like I was going fishing, and I took the truck and went to Fort. Myers to see my girlfriend. We went out to a drive- in movie and did a little necking and fooling around. I then took her home and drove about three blocks and was surrounded by police cars. I was taken to the county jail and was arrested for auto theft. ChapterHAPTER 13

The next day I was taken back to the jail at Everglades, Florida. This was in Collier County and that was the county seat. The next day I was taken before a judge, and he read the charges to me. I told him I did not steal the truck and that my boss gave me permission to use the truck. The judge asked my boss if that was true, and my boss said I was right. However, he said he didn’t give me permission to take the truck to Fort. Myers. So the judge told me he was going to release me and for me to leave the county and not to return. After I left the courtroom, my sister- in- law was there, and she gave me a ride. So I got her to take me to the place where I worked to get my clothes. While I gathered my clothes, I got the money bag and put it in my suitcase. Then we went back to Fort. Myers, and I started looking for a car. I finally found one at a service station, and the man wanted a hundred dollars for it. So I bought a ’47 forty seven Cadillac. It was a four- door and in real good shape. I drove it over and showed it to my girlfriend. There was no doubt in my mind that she really liked the car. I finally went back to work for the cement company. I finally gave her an engagement ring, and we spent a lot of time together. We went to the beach almost every chance we could and took pictures and just played in the sun. She had to go the hospital for some medical reason. I never did find out what was the matter with her. It was no doubt some female trouble. I finally quit my job and started doing things that I shouldn’t have been doing. I signed up for the draft and was told that I had to report in a couple of days to report to a recruiter in Miami. I forged a check on my stepfather and also used his little car for a little joy ride. Of course, I was arrested and placed in jail. I was to be on the bus the next morning for Miami to be sworn in for the military service. I pleaded with the sheriff to let me go but, he had talked with the D.A., and he said no, that I was going to prison. While I was in jail, my girl’s aunt brought the engagement ring to give back to me. It was placed in my personal property. I was now eighteen and no longer a minor. ChapterHAPTER 14

After a couple of weeks in jail, I was taken before the judge, and I was given two years at the Florida State Prison. I was loaded in a van and was on my way. However, before I left the jail, my brother told me a lot of things about the prison. I was wearing a red shirt, and he told me not to wear that because someone would think I was gay. It took us over two hours to get to the prison. When we arrived, all we could see was a huge white building and a lot of gun towers and fences. We arrived at what they called the rear gate. There were two towers and two gates. The outer gate was opened, and then the van entered. Then the gate was closed, and the guard then put his gun in a bucket, and it was raised up to the guard in the tower. Then he told him how many inmates were entering the prison. Then the inside gate was opened, and we entered, and the gate closed. We then were taken to the main office, where we were to be processed. Each of us was asked what our names were, and then each was given an I.D. number. We were then taken to a receiving center, where we would remain until classified. We were placed in a cell that held eighteen men. The bunks were three high, and there was only one toilet and one sink. This floor was known as G- fFloor. We all were taken over to the laundry and were measured for our clothes and what size shoes. The clothes were stamped with our inmate numbers on everything. Then we were taken to the hospital for a physical. Then we had to go to the school for testing. Then later in the week, we were assigned jobs by the classification office. With me having only two years, I asked to be transferred to a road prison. He said I would be put on the list. In the mean time, I was assigned to the school. I only had to go for a half day, and the rest of the day I would be allowed to go out to the yard. They had card tables and other games you could play. They had all kinds of weights and sports equipment. They even had a boxing ring. The prison had three floors, and the first floor hadwas eighteen- man cells. Floors two and three were all two- maen rooms. However, you had to be there a while before you could get one of those. If you had money, it could be done real quickt. The mess hall was real big. It hadwas long benches, and the blacks sat on their side and the whites on the other. This was in 1957, and they had not passed the laws on keeping the black and whites together. They had a place above the kitchen where we watched movies and other entertainment. When I first got to the prison, they still had the women housed in what they called the wWest uUnit. They even came to the movie with us. However, they saet on one side of the building and us on the other. A guard would be posted to see down the rolls to make sure no one crossed over to the other side. However, sometimes the lights would go out, and someone would make it across. We would get high on what they back then called an inhaler that had cotton in the tube. You could take it out and cut it into small pieces. Just a thien slice would keep you awake for a couple of days. You could chew it or swallow it and then drink coffee behind it. It wasn’t long before I got a notice that I was going to a road camp. ChapterHAPTER 15

I was woken up one morning and told to pack my stuff and report to the main control room. My name and number and my picture wereas verified, and then I was placed on a van and left through the gates. I was now headed for a road prison called Doctors Inlet that was located close to Jacksonville, Florida. We were taken off the van and taken into a long building that looked like a military barracks. It had a chute that opened and let you in, then that door would close, and then another door would let you into the dorm, and then it would close. It had mostly double bunks. We also had a little commissary that we could buy things from if we had money. The mess hall was right outside the dorm. The whole compound was fenced in, and it was guarded by guards bearing shotguns. When we went to work, we would be loaded on trucks that had a cage on it with a guard riding on the back. We would work on the roads picking up trash, and cutting grass and repairing the roads. We would have lunch on the road that was prepared by the kitchen inmates. The lunch consisted of sandwiches. They consisted of meats and cheese and peanut butter. We would usually have tea to drink. I was assigned to what they called the bull squad. That was where all the new inmates were assigned. It had two shotgun guards watching over the squad. We went out early in the morning around eight o’clock and would return around four or five. We would be checked at the gate to see if we had anything that we were sneaking back into the building. If you were caught, youwe would be punished by the captain. You would be placed in what they called the box. There was no toilet or water in the building. They kept you in there for a week or longer. They fed you very small amounts of food. A trusty would empty the bucket that we used for the toilet. It was also pretty hot in there during the summer time. I never made it to the box, but my buddies would tell me about it. I wasn’t there at the camp too long before I got sick. I had got some kind of rash that made blisters break out all over me, so I was sent back to the main prison. I was admitted to the hospital and had to eat drinking out of a straw. They didn’t know what it was. However, they gave me shots and medicine, and it finally cleared up. ChapterHAPTER 16

I was then sent back to the road but not to the same camp. This time I was sent to a camp that was at Bronson, Florida. This camp was a wooden building that was real old and built like the other one. The security was about the same as the other place. I only had a short time, so I worked on some easy squads and made trusty real quick. I was assigned to the kitchen, and I washed dishes and made sandwiches, and I fried a lot of things. I also had to clean a lot of fish that the captain brought to the camp. I would make a lot of wine for my friends. I would get gallon jars and put sugar and juices and a little yeast and get them all drunk. I would sneak it into the dorm while all the squads were out on detail. Then we would have a party at night because the guard in the little cage in the building could not see into the back room. That room was the hobby room and the dress- out room before we went to work. We had a laundry man that had a little cabin outside the compound. We would gamble in there during the day. I was now running the little store selling smokes and candies and other stuff. One day I was gambling, and I lost all the money from the commissary. I then asked a couple of players to loan me some money, but they all refused. I then went trying to borrow some money, but all I could get was twenty- five cents. Well, with that quarter, I went back to the poker game and broke all of them. They could not believe it. Now they wanted to borrow some money, but of course, they couldn’t get any from me. We had a dog boy there that tracked anyone who escaped, and I did help him to just train the dogs. The captain would take me about three miles from the camp and let me off in the woods. Then he would bring the dog boy with his dog, and they would track me. I did this many times, and the dog always found me. That dog had a good nose for tracking. I had a good friend that I met, and he was being transferred back to the main prison. I hated to see him go, but that was the way things happened in prison. I had a detainer on me, but the captain had made me a trusty earlier. I could work just about any place on the compound. One day I was in the kitchen making buck. That was the home made brew. Well, I had three gallon jugs in the sink, mixing it, and the yard man walked in and asked what that was in the sink. I explained to him it was just some jugs I was washing out to use later to save stuff. Well, he accepted that as a good answer, or he just didn’t want to bust me from my job. The yard man took care of things when the captain was not at the camp. I was getting short, and one day I asked the captain if I could be assigned to the patch squad so I could get a little tan before I was released. Well, he put me on the squad, and I really enjoyed getting out of the kitchen. The patch squad would repair all the small holes in the road with tar and rock that was mixed together. We did a lot of traveling all over the county. When we put the tar down, we would then cover it with a thin layer of sand to keep it from getting on the tires of cars. ChapterHAPTER 17

It was my morning to get out of prison, and the captain called me out to his office. He then told me that the parole officer told him to go ahead and release me, for they only wanted me to report to him in Tampa, Florida, when I was released. So I was given pants and a shirt and a pair of shoes and given a check for one hundred dollars plus a bus ticket to Fort. Myers, Florida. My brother got out of a road prison soon after I got home. He had me buy him a car because he couldn’t because his parole officer wouldn’t allow him to purchase one. So I bought him a 1952 Buick. He really liked it, and so did I. We would get all kind of girls wanting a ride and also dates. I would use it while he was working at a service station. I picked up the girl that I had met and took her to the skating rinkg. We then found some vodka in the glove box and started drinking. I draink a little too much, and she had to drive me back to where my brother was working. He then drove her home then took me home. He was not mad, but he said I shouldn’t have drunk all his vodka. Well, one day I and my buddy were low on money. Well, that night we went to a drive- in theater to rob it. I drove almost in but dropped him off where he wouldn’t be seen. I went on in and paid my fee at the little booth. I then drove around to the exit, and he had already robbed it, and we drove out of town. We rented a place out of town for the night. The next night we drove over to Starke, Florida. Well, he was driving, and he got stopped for some reason. Well, he didn’t have a permit to drive, so they took him to jail, and then I had to bond him out. We drove on up to Valdosta, Georgia, and ran out of gas, and we were broke. So I parked the car next to another one at this movie theater. Then I checked the car I was next to and saween the keys in the car. So we took all our stuff and put it in that one. As we drove away, a kid came out of the movie and yelled at us, saying that was his car. Well, we kept on driving and got off the main road as soon as possible. We soon raun out of gas in that one and left it parked. We finally split up, and I went on to Moultrie, Georgia. ChapterHAPTER 18

I went to the police station to get my brother’s address, and they gave it to me, for he worked at the telephone company. As I left, it was dark, and I had gone about two blocks, and a couple of police cars surrounded me, and the police told me they had a warrant for my arrest. I was taken to the city jail and booked for auto theft. The next day my brother came to the jail to visit me. He brought me something to smoke and left me some money. I was finally taken to court, and I pled not guilty, and I was given a jury trial. However, this took place about a week later. I was then taken to court and had a jury trial. Of course, I was found guilty and sentenced to one to one year in the Georgia Department of Corrections. I was then loaded into the back of a pickup up truck and taken to a road prison at Waycross, Georgia. It was almost just like the one in Florida. However, the captain was a real mean one that beat the prisoners if they got out of line about anything. We made county roads and did a lot of cutting down trees. The camp housed about seventy- five inmates. We were guarded by guards holding shotguns. I got sick again and was taken to the state prison at Reidsville, Georgia. It was another all white and colored prison, as like it was painted. This one also had plenty of guard towers and plenty of razor wire on the fences. This time I was taken to the prison hospital and had to stay in there for about three weeks until they treated me for the rash. They finally let me into population, and it was a big dorm. They had a house man that weighed about three hundred pounds. This was the man that made moonshine around Atlanta, Georgia, some years ago. He made a batch that killed a lot of people, and he had been sentenced to life in prison. They put me to work on an outside work detail cutting grass with a swing blade. However, I didn’t like that, so I refused to work, so they put me in the lockup for about two weeks. Then they asked me why I refused to work, and I told them that someone had told someone that I was a dog boy in Florida. Well, I wasn’t a dog boy. I just laid a trail for the dogs. Well, they then put me in a cell away from the other inmates. I finally got a visit from my brother, and I told him to write or call someone and get me transferred close to where he lived. ChapterHAPTER 19

Finally, about three weeks later, they loaded me on a bus and sent me to a road camp at Bainbridge, Georgia. This wasn’t too far from Moultrie, Georgia. Once again I was put on a road crew working on the roads. We also cleaned up the parks and any other stuff that they required. We made roads and repaired them after the rains. We did anything that needed to be done around the parks. This camp was just like all the rest of the ones I had been in. I was finally transferred to Moultrie, Georgia. This camp was a real old one built almost like a barn. There was a long hallway that separated the state prisoner from the county prisoner: I was put on a detail clearing right- of- ways and making roads. We cut down trees and sawed it into pulp wood. Then we had to load it on trucks. Then I got sick again, only this time I had some kind of growth on my eye lid. It was about the size of a golf ball, and I couldn’t see out of it. It was real painful, and they took me to the doctor, and he gave me something for the pain but said he could not lance it until it came to a head. It was almost like a boil. I finally got well, and I felt a lot better, and I could see again. I was still wanted in Florida, but they didn’t know it, so I didn’t tell them. They put me driving a dump truck, and we would haul clay and dirt and repair roads. The roads were county roads that were not paved. One day, I was dumping a load, and I forgot to pull the handle for the tail gate. Well, the whole truck went up in the air. I was the laughingstock joke on the compound for that mess- up. Another driver crawled under his truck and banged on something, and the truck started rolling, and it ran over his leg and broke it. The camp gave us Prince Albert in the can. For you who do not know what that is, well, it is smoking material, but was really made to smoke in a pipe. We would roll it up to smoke it. After my year was up, my brother came over after midnight, and the captain let me go as soon as the clock struck twelve. My brother and his wife were living in Lakeland, Georgia. He worked for the telephone company, and he traveled all over the place repairing phones and telephone lines. I would go with him to just see the sites. I finally wanted to find a job, so I went to Waycross, Georgia. I found a job at a cement company that made cement blocks. I also found me a place to stay, and the rent was real cheap. I had to get to work by walking, but it wasn’t too far to the job. My brother finally bought me a motorcycle to drive. I drove it for a while until one of my friends wrecked it. I was once again walking. I moved back to my brother in Lakeland, Georgia, and then decided to go back to Fort. Myers, Florida. ChapterHAPTER 20

Well, when I got there, I stayed with my brother who lived right next to my mother. I stayed there a couple of days. Then one morning I was woken up by someone knocking on the door. It was two county sheriffs, and they said that they had a warrant for my arrest. They said it was for armed robbery. Well, they took me to the county jail, and I sure enough was in some serious trouble now. I knew the sheriff and had a chance to talk with him. He asked me if I had any money, and he said he would get the charge dropped. Well, I didn’t, so I went to court and pled guilty, and the sheriff told the judge that the other person had received five years. Then that was what the judge sentenced me to at the Florida State Prison. The jail at the county was still the same. You could order stuff from the grocery stores, and a trusty would go and purchase it and then bring it back. When we had visits, it would be through a wall with a glass there and little holes to talk through. The trip back to the state prison was no different than the first time I was there. The security was still the same. However, this time I was given a new I.D. number, and it was 66963. The first one that I had was 57670. The purpose of this number was a matter of record keeping. The women that had been there had been moved to a new women prison that was near Ocala, Florida. The oOld wWest uUnit was now a receiving and classification center for new inmates coming into the system. I was assigned to the print shop as my job assignment. After that, we were moved back to the main cell house, which was called the rock. I was once again assigned to one of the eighteen- man cells. We didn’t like it, but we had to deal with it. Then they were building a new prison, and I was put on the detail to help build it. We would be marched out of the river gate. Then we would cross a wooden bridge surrounded by four shot gun guards with also side arms. My job was hauling cement in a wheelbarrow up ramps. It wasn’t too bad, but it made the days go by. Back in the rock, we would kill time gambling and going to the yard playing games. On Saturday and Sunday, they would put up a skid row in front of the mess hall. What this amounted to was a modern- day flea market. There was everything out there. If it wasn’t there, they would find it somewhere else. The homosexuals or gays would want ladies make up or women’s panties, and this could be arranged also. Some inmates worked in the laundry, and they would steal them. The laundry also did all the officers’ and their families’y laundry. So when it came in, they would take what they thought they could make some money off of it. They would then sneak it into the rock and hide it until someone needed it. Iif you wanted drugs, or a knife or any other thing that could be found, they would get it for you. It wasn’t long until I was moved into a two- man room with a friend that was from my home town. He knew all my family, so we got along pretty good. ChapterHAPTER 21

I was finally sent to a road camp way down south. The name of the camp was Deep Lake Road Prison. It was near a little town that was named Copeland, Florida. When you looked from the road, the camp looked just like a motel. Iit was also real close to my home town. This camp was built like all the rest of them. I worked for a while on the patch squad then on another squad repairing the washouts on the side of the highways. I did a lot of hobby craft and did a lot of gambling. One weekend my mother came over and said she had lost her home. I asked her how it happened, and she told me her husband had gotten a loan on it. Then she told me he had left her. So I decided to escape and see if I could find him. I got some clothes from my friend in the laundry and took off through the swamp. I ran into a deer during the escape, and it really scared me. I then caome out of the glades at Copeland, Florida. I was lucky and caught a ride with some people that were going to Miami, Florida. They let me out where I told them where I lived. So I started walking, and I passed by this house where a man was cleaning his yard. He said hello, and I stopped to talk with him. Then he invited me into his home and fixed me something to eat. He also noticed that I had a real good tan. Then he came on to me as a queer would. I said that I wasn’t into that kind of thing. He then said he had to go to work. He asked where I wanted to go, and I told him to drop me off at a certain place. He then went on to his job. I then walked back to his house and went around to the back and broke open the back door. I took his rings and a watch and a few dollars that he had left there. I then went to Miami Beach and fooled around for a while. Late at night, I walked into the hotel and spotted a door open and walked into the room. I saw a couple on the bed, and they had been drinking. Well, I looked around and found some money and I put that in my pocket. As I was about to leave, they woake up and asksaied what I was I doing there. I told them that I was hotel security. I also told them that they should keep their door closed. Then I got out of that area real fast. Then the next day, I walked by a store, and I saw a sign that said Freedom Fighters Wwanted. I then went in and inquired about what the details concerned. I was told it was training done in the Everglades to get ready to over throw Fidel Castro. So I thought this was a good place to hide for a while. We were given a place to stay and money to buy food plus a car to travel. One day I came in, and I saw a deputy sheriff come in and sit at the desk. He of course was the one who raun the place. He explained a lot of things, and he welcomed me as a new member. Then one day I was at the bus station, and a guy in the bathroom wanted to know if I wanted to buy a driver’s license. Of course, I got it right away. I met a man that was from California, and we became friends. However, as I got to know him, I let him know a little too much about me. I told him I had escaped from the Florida Department of Corrections. This I should never had told him. Later one night, I was at the apartment, and we got a call to report to the office. Everyone was to come down there. I felt that something was wrong, but I decided to take a chance. When we arrived, I was told the boss wanted to see me. He then started asking me questions and wanted to see my license and then asked where I lived. Back then they did not have pictures on the license. Everything else fit my description pretty good. He then dialed several numbers and then hung up. He told one of the men to take me into the back.

ChapterHAPTER 22

Well, when he turned his back, I started running. Well, he ran me down, and they cuffed me and put me in his car. I was then taken to the county jail. I was questioned by the police and finger printed. It didn’t take them long to find out who I was and that I had escaped. I was held in the jail for a while until the Collier County Sheriff’s Department came to pick me up. I was placed in the jail with ten men. There were several that I had served time with, and one was at the road camp when I had escaped. The other one I had met at the Florida State Prison. We started talking about how we were going to escape. Well, we noticed that the door had been sprung and that they had four chains wrapped around it. One inmate had a butter knife. So I took thdie knife and beat it against some metal and put little groves in it like a hack saw blade. I then took the knife and worked on the locking system. I would raise the latch where we could slide the door back. However, because of the chains on it, we could not get it opened all the way. I then took the knife and sawed through the chains and then got some string and tied them back together. We did that because it was during the day, and we were not leaving during the day. Also the guard had to come up to feed us and also to count us. That night the inmates that didn’t want to escape we tied them up so they couldn’t put the alarm out to the guards. We then took the chains off the door and lifted the lever up and slid the door wide open. The four of us then crawled out the window because it didn’t have any bars on it, and the drop wasn’t very far to the ground. We then found a truck and headed toward a town where a friend was located. However, before we got there, we ran out of gas. We had to do some walking but soon found the bar that we were trying to locate. We stole a truck there and drove it to Fort. Myers, Florida. When we got there, we parked the truck at a grocery store. Then we headed to a patch of woods. We waited there for one of the inmates to get some money from his wife. Well, when he came back, he had been followed by the county police. We first heard over a loud speaker to turn off those radios and get going. They came in the woods shooting, and we were lucky that we didn’t get shot. Of course, they caught the four of us. ChapterHAPTER 23

When we were taken to the county jail, they lined us up, and the sheriff and took pictures of us. Then we were soon returned to Collier County. We were then taken and put in a cell, and they took all of our clothes and just gave us a blanket. We stayed in that cell for five days. They then moved us to the other side of the jail, and we were placed under twenty- four- hour watch. It wasn’t long before we were taken to court for the escape. However, before we went, I had wriotten a note telling the judge how they had treated us in the jail. I also told him that one of the jailers had taken the note from me. He asked me which one, and I told him, and he made the jailer give him the note. He then read it, and then he asked me how I would plead. I told him I was going to plead guilty. So he sentenced me to three years on each of the escapes and ran the sentences concurrent, meaning I had only three years. After we were sentenced, we were loaded into a sheriff’s car and taken to another town where a prison bus was waiting on us. We were then taken back to the main prison and through classification again. I was once again considered for transfer to the eEast uUnit. It was not long because the eEast uUnit pPrison was opened up. I was transferred over there. Of course, it was surrounded by fences, and there were dogs inside the fences. The security was as tight as any other prison. They had the double gates and also a special thing between the two gates. It was when a van came in, it would drive over this, and a guard could walk down some steps and look under the van. Then they would look inside the van and check it all out. Then when we were unloaded off the van, we would have to walk up a ramp to get inside the prison. Then we had to go through a metal detector to make sure we had no knivfes or any other thing. Then we were marched to where the control was located and assigned to different wings. There were thirteen wings. Each wing had about ninety- six single cells. They had one wing that held nothing but death- row inmates. There was another that they used for punishment and for holding you until you were classified to where you would be assigned. They had one wing for the inmates that worked in the kitchen. Then the wing for real serious punishment was called Q- wWing. This was used for when you didn’t obey the rules. The diet for those inmates was peas and carrots ground up into a soup, and you ate that for about thirty days or less or sometimes more. It was a cell with a tile floor with a hole in the floor that was used for a toilet. There was no drinking water, and if you wanted some, you had to wait until a trusty brought it around. And of course, there was no smoking allowed while in that kind of punishment. They would always cut all your hair off as part of the punishment. The captain would make his rounds, and it was up to him to release you. Then of course, you would lose about thirty pounds on that special diet they fed you. I was assigned to an outside squad digging up stumps and then rolling them into a big pile and burning them. They always had us under guard, and no one had ever tried to escape. I was finally assigned to the kitchen, and I liked that job. I was assigned to the job of washing trays. We had one of those automatic dishwashers that you put the trays in, and they would come out the other end. The inmate on the other end would take them and put them in a rack and then take them to the dining rooms. We, of course, had all we wanted to eat. We could also score a little coffee once in a while. When the officer that made it turned his head, we would manage to get a bag or two then stash it somewhere until later. They always caught someone for trying to sneak food and any other stuff out of the kitchen. When we left the kitchen, they always made us go through a metal detector to make sure we were not stealing any knivfes. ChapterHAPTER 24

It wasn’t long before I transferred to the school that was located under the hospital. I studied real hard in my cell. There were many nights that I would stay up all night cramming for the test so I could take the G.E.D. test. I finally passed the pre test so I could take that test. While I was in prison, this time they came out with a new law that you had to have a lawyer at any stage of the criminal proceedings. So I had a judge file me a motion to vacate and set aside the judgment and sentence. However, it was some time before it was ruled upon. Anyway, I took the G.E.D. and passed. I had the lowest score of the whole class, but I passed it without cheating. Then they took us over to the rock for the graduating class. There was a big crowd there, and I had to make a speech. I told them what it meant to me since I had earned the G.E.D. Well, it went okay, and at the end of the speech, I askesaid if there was a member of the parole commission present, if they would they help me. That statement made them really burst out laughing. When I received the G.E.D., I was transferred to the main prison. This time one of my buddies was transferred with me. We already had a good friend that worked in the lieutenanLt.’s office. We, of course, were again assigned to the famous G- Ffloor, where the eighteen- maen cells were located. With our friend working in the office, he had the ability to make changes with the cells. So with a little money, it was arranged that myself and my friend would move into a two- man room. Our other friend was moved into a cell by himself right next to ours. We had planned this thing for some time. Since I was working in the print shop, it was my job to get a bottle of black printer’s ink. This was to be used to cover up the white stripe on our pants. That way we would not be spotted so easily. Then one of us had found a pair of pliers that wasn’t much good, but they could come in handy. We even practiced putting dummies in the bed. We learned this from the movie they made about the prison on the island out in California known as Alcatraz. We put the dummies in the bed with a mop head dyied black to look like hair. We then got a bunch of blankets to make a bundle under theme covers. It looked just like someone was in bed asleep. Then we hid under the bunk, and when the guard came to count, we would be out of sight. Well, the clerk was in front of the officer, and he told the officer there were two in that cell. The officer repeated that there were two in there. The guard said that was correct. He went to the next cell and said, “Wwe got one in there.” The officer repeated that was correct. So we now knew our idea would work. So the next night, they had a ball game, and before we left, we had our cell dummies in place. When the ball game was over, we were the first inmates to come back through the gates. So we hurried up and got to our hiding place beside an outside bathroom that was next to a bunch of trash barrels. We bid behind there until the count for the night was clear. It was about two in the morning that our friend came to use the bathroom singing the song letting us know the count was clear. The tallest of us climbed up the windows of G f-Floor and reached the roof. As we were going up the windows, one inmate saween us from the cell inside. However, all he said was, “I hope you make it.” We got up on the roof and then crossed over the place where they showed movies. We had to dodge the power lines that were on the roof. The river gate was real close, so we kept real quiete. We dropped to the ground without making any noise. Then we went down to where they grew plants and other stuff. They had a fence around it, but it was easy to get through at the gate. There was a large gap located in the center. We then crawled down to the other three fences. The first fence had all kinds of barbwire on the top. The center fence had a high- voltage wire running all around the prison. So we would cut on the first one and then unraveled the rest to make a hole big enough. Then we had to get through the other two. My buddy crawled out and put his body up all along the center fence. Then he called me out and said it looked like Mmachine Ggun Aalley out there. I agreed with him, and it was so well lit up, and we could even see the tower guards. We got through the center fence, and then they wanted to climb the last fence. I told them we had gotten through two fences, and we should go ahead and cut through the last one. So that is exactly what we had done. We were finally out of the prison, but we had to get off the state property before daylight. So we started up the road, and we soon spotted a car sietting in a yard. One of us went over to it and checked it out. Iit didn’t have any keys in it, but that was okay. It was one of those that you turned it off but you didn’t put the lock in the locking position. So we rolled it out of the yard and up the road a piece. We then climbed in and fired it up. It was running real good, and we were lucky finding a car so quick. We stopped at a gas station in Starke, Florida, and put gas in it and bought us some smokes. Then we drove it until daylight and then took it a long ways into the woods. We were walking through the woods when we came upon some boxes that were for bees. So we proceeded to make a little fire to fight the bees off so we could raise the top of the hive off to get some honey combs out of it. This we did manage to do, and it sure tasted good. After about two hours of walking in the woods, we came upon a hunting cabin. There was no one around, so we went inside. The cabin was not even locked up. We found all kinds of guns, food, clothes, and plenty of ammunition for the guns. We finally decided to take a high- powered rifle and a carbine, and a shot gun with plenty of shells. Then we washed up and cleaned the ink off our legs because it came off the stripes. I tried to get them to stay there, but they wanted to go on further. We left the cabin and were walking through the woods, and my friend in front said to watch it because there was a snake in some bushes that he had stepped over. Well, we got us a long stick and pushed it into where we thought it was located. Then out come a rattlesnake about five feet long. We could have shot it, but we didn’t want to make any noise. There were some houses in the area. We finally made it to a highway, and a train was on display in this little park. However, it was now dark and across the street there was a truck parked in the yard. So we checked it out, and we were lucky because the keys were in it. We put our guns behind the seat and were on the road again. We drove to Pensacola, Florida, to see my friend’s girlfriend. He wanted to visit with her for a little while. We had stopped at a store to get some smokes, and I got a newspaper to see what they had said about the escape. As we were leaving the gas station, we met a highway patrol car, and we watched to see if he turned around. Well, he sure did turn around and turned on his lights. However, we were way ahead of him. I told the driver to take him out on the back roads and we could get rid of him. So when we turned a corner of this certain block, we turned the truck sideways in the road. The one that sat on the right of me pulled out his carbine and fired a lot of shots at the trooper’s car. We were lucky that he had not killed the trooper. The block was shot out of the trooper’s car; that we later found out. The trooper was not even injured. We then parked the truck in some woodedn area and covered it up. We also wiped it down as much as possible to get rid of any fingerprints. We then had to get out of the area, so we started out and found this river. We finally found a boat, and my friend wired it up because there wereas no keys in it. We got on board and headed across the bay to Pensacola, Florida. It didn’t take us long, so when we got across, we tied the boat up at a boat dock. We then checked this one house out, and we saw a man sitting in a chair watching T.V. We entered, and he did everything that he was told to do. We were not there to hurt anyone; at least I was not planning anything. We then took his billfold and his car keys. We then tied him and his wife up in their bedroom. We then went outside and started the boat up and tried to get it to go back across the bay. However, it just went around in circles, and that was the way we left it running. ChapterHAPTER 25

We then got in the car and headed for Atlanta, Georgia. We didn’t know at the time that it was the wrong place to be going. When we pulled into town, I watched for police cars. I saw one parked next to a building and kept my eye on him. Well, as soon as we passed him, he pulled out behind us. We stopped at a red light, and my friend said, “Wwhen I tell you to duck, you better duck.” There now were about four police cars around our car. He waited for the cops to come up to the car, and the officer said to get out of the car. Well, that is when he told me to duck. The friend in the back seat had his carbine out and was ready for all of it. They started shooting, and it was like the Ffourth of July. We managed to lose them, and we hid the car behind a Ddumpster. Then we got out of the car and started running. I ran for about two blocks, and then I fell down. My friend came back for me, and I asked him to check my back. He looked at it and said Iyou got shot in the back. I could hardly breathe, so I told them to lay me on someone’s porch. That is what they did with me. I then knocked on the door, and the people came out. They asked me what was wrong and I told them someone had shot me in the back. They then called for the medical team, and of course, the cops came along with them. I was taken to the hospital and given some shots and some pain medicine. They took Xx-rays, and the doctor said they would not take the bullet out. He said it would be O.K.okay where it was located. I stayed in the hospital for about two weeks. I got visits from my mother and a brother. My brother left me some money and stayed with me for about four hours. The doctor finally released me, and of course, I was taken to the county jail. AIt at that time it was known as the Fulton County Jail. I was put in the same cell block where my two friends were located. We were kept there for a couple of weeks, and then we were released back to the sState of Florida. We were picked up by the County Sheriff’s Department of Pensacola, Florida. That was where we all three were placed in the same cell block. That was real nice that they placed us all three together. We got to talking with one of the inmates, and he wanted to help us. So we told him that we needed some hacksaw blades. We told him how to get them in to the jail. He was to break them iInto pieces that would fit in a toothpaste tube. This was done, and we got the blades. We started sawing the bars, and we could only get halfway through them. Then we cut off a table leg and wedged it out. However, when it made a noise, it was heard down stairs. They had a listening device in the cell block. Then when we heard them coming, we hid the blades, but they found them. They put one of us in another cell block and left two of us together in the same block. The very next day we were taken to court, and our charges were read to us. They were attempted murder on the state trooper: We pled not guilty, and as we were leaving, the trooper wanted to know if it was us who shot at him. He said he would like to know because he had been messing around with another man’s wife. We let him know that we were the guilty ones. My friend had gone to the same school with the state trooper. After the hearing, we were taken back to the jail and loaded up in a squad car and returned to the Florida State Prison. ChapterHAPTER 26

However, this time we went right to the eEast uUnit pPrison. We were taken into this room, and they took all our clothes off and made us walk back to maximum security naked. We were placed there for over a year. One day I wrote the captain, wanting to have a newspaper delivered to me. He wrote me back saying that no papers were allowed in maximum security. The captain finally decided to let us out and back into population. Of course, I was once again assigned to U- Wwing. That wing was where the outside gun squads were always housed. Iit was quite a while before I got off that outside squad. I went back to work in the kitchen, and after about six months, I was once again transferred to another road prison at Panama City, Florida. It was like all the rest of the camps, and security was the same. However, this time I was placed on an honor squad. This meant no shotgun guards. We worked repairing the shoulders of the road by throwing dirt up to fill up the washouts that the rain had made. It wasn’t long before I got tired of this, so one day, I refused to work, and I was placed in the box. That was the punishment for refusing to work. I only had to stay in there for a little over a week. However, when I got out, I was real mad and wanted to escape. So one day on the road, we found a knife, and we acted sick, and the truck driver took us to the camp. However, before we got there, I told the driver that I had to get out and use the bathroom. So when he stopped, I got out and went around to the driver’s side and opened the door and pulled a knife on him. We then took him in the woods and took his clothes and then tied him to a tree. Then we took the truck and drove it quite a long way, and we drove it into some woods. We left the truck in the woods and went and found us a place to sleep in a barn. The next day, we crept up to the house and went inside. There was no one home, so we took a bath and changed clothes and had something to eat. That afternoon we saw a little car come up to the house. There was only a kid that got out, and he looked like a college kid. So we hid in the house, and then we surrounded him and then tied him up. Of course, we took his billfold and his watch and his car keys. We then got in his car, and I tried to back it up, but I never could find the right gear. So I just drove around in a circle and to the highway. As we were leaving, a person across the road saween us, and I was nervous about that person. He really gave us a good looking over. It wasn’t long until we found out. I saw a deputy sheriff’s car coming our way. Then he went on past us, then I saw him turn around. I had no choice but to pull over, and we were trapped because other police cars had us surrounded. We were then taken to the county jail and placed in a holding cell until the investigators were finished with us. They made us take off all our clothes and then went through them and got the kid’s billfold back and his clothes that we had taken. We were then given some that the jail had in storage. Then they booked us for a number of charges. They were escape, armed robbery, auto theft, and some others that I can’t recall. We were then put in different cells. He was on the same wing but on the other side of the wall. In my cell, we played cards all the time because there isn’t much to do in jail. One evening they brought a drunk in, and he said no one could get his money because he kept it in his boots. So after he went to sleep, one of the inmates cut through his boots and took his money. The next morning he told a deputy about it, and the deputy shook down the cell. He found a little of it, but he didn’t get it all. We had hid it in several different places. On visiting day, my friend that I escaped with told me to go to the visiting area and try to get in the same visiting room. Well, it did not work out that way. So after visiting was over, I was taken back to my cell. Later, I found out that he had escaped by hiding in the shower when he let the other inmates out of the visiting area. The trusty did not check the shower where the curtain was pulled. The trusty was just an inmate that was allowed to have keys to the jail. ChapterHAPTER 27

One day a jailer brought me some papers that showed that I had been released from the Department of Corrections while I was in jail. What happened was the judge that sentenced me had vacated my sentence because I had no lawyer at court at any stage of the proceedings. I was taken before a judge, and the lawyer had made a deal where I could only get twenty years, and if I didn’t plea, they would give me a life sentence. So of course, I took the deal. I was then taken back to the west unit and processed once again. I was then transferred back to the eEast uUnit. I was placed in the hole for a while for punishment. While in the hole, we would play football tickets and try to win money. We would also play chess and checkers by shouting out our moves down the range. Then one day, an inmate asked me to get him pills for his headache. I asked him how come he couldn’t get them. He told me he had got some the other day. Also, the M.T.A. wouldn’t give him any more. Well, I asked the medical man for the pills, and he busted out laughing. He said those pills were for women. The whole unit busted out laughing because it was a joke that I had faellen head over heeills for. I was the laughing stock of the unit for a while. I stayed backd there about a year then let out again to work on a gun squad. One day we were unloading dump trucks, so one of the inmates wanted to escape. So with all the trucks coming in, they would block the guards’ view. So we buried this one inmate, and he placed a pipe in his mouth to breathe and wrapped his head up. So they could not figure out how he had escaped. They counted us about five times. So the walking boss started looking around, and he discovered the pipe sticking out of the ground. Of course, he reached down and pulled the pipe up out of the ground. Then the inmate that was there had to come up, and he knew he was caught. A van came out and placed him in cuffs and took him straight to lockup, where he stayed for a couple of years. One day when I wasn’t on the squad, there were eight inmates who escaped off the eight spot. That was the name of the outside work detail. You would wonder how eight could do it in broad daylight. Well, no one would expect anything like that at that time of day. They were all caught during the next twelve hours. All of them were placed into maximum security, and that was total lockdown. Also, one time I was living on one of the wings close to maximum security. I looked out in the hall, and I saw the captain running down the hall way toward the security units. He was firing a .38thirty eight pistol. We found out later what it was all about. Some of the inmates had taken over one on the security units. They also had caught the captain and were trying to throw him off a third- floor tier. If it wasn’t for two black inmates, he would have been dead. They over powered the other inmates and broke up the riot. The two inmates that saved the captain were made trusty and went everywhere the captain was to go. While I was in the kitchen, we had one inmate that would come through the line that had a huge hunger for food. We would pile his tray up with food. He had a pass from the medical department for getting extra food. The only thing he couldn’t get extra was meats and deserts. He would eat everything on his tray and always wanted some more. I finally got off that squad and went to work back in the kitchen. In the units, I would run a poker game. Sometimes guys would go broke and try to put up watches or radios. Well, this one inmate who had a life sentence wanted too much for his watch. So I refused to give him what he wanted. He then got mad and kept his hand in his pocket like he had a knife. He even threatened to kill me. I told him if he pulled that knife that one of us might get hurt. He then told me that I was just as crazy as him. I then was called up to the captain’s office, and the new sSuperintendent. wanted to talk to me. He was once my classification officer, and he wanted to know what job I would like to be assigned. I said I really didn’t know. He askedsaid if I would I like to work in the radio room. This job required me to keep the music piped out to all the wings. I kept the stations going that I was to play by their orders. I even recorded the fights that took place in the gym. They were regular boxing matches that were held almost every Friday night. Another inmate was put in the radio room because it required two shifts. The man that they placed in there with me was the Catch Mme Killer.: He was well known in all the news back in the sixties. We got along pretty good, but at times he would walk up behindin back of me and say, “Yyou know, I could kill you real easy.” Well, he was just joking, and I was glad he wasn’t serious. One time he whipped eight inmates in the wWest uUnit. We had a large yard that we went to mostly on the weekends. However, during the summer, when it wouldn’t get dark until late, they would take us out. Sometimes a few inmates had grudges against one another. They would protect themselves by wrapping newspapers around their chest to help prevent getting stuck with a knife. One day an inmate I knew got beat in the head with a baseball bat until he was knocked out cold. Of course, he was taken to the hospital and kept there for some time. One day the captain called me into the office and wanted me to rat or tell on someone in my unit. He told me the inmate’s name and that he was dealing in drugs. Well, I told the captain that I had to live with those inmates and I would not do that and put my life in danger. The captain then told me to find another job. I asked him if he would place me in the laundry room. This job I really liked working there. We had to take care of all the inmates’s clothes in the whole prison. I worked on a sewing machine quite a lot. I would have to sew name tags on the clothes for all the new inmates. We would pick up dirty laundry located on death wing, which was known as R -Wwing. When picking up the stuff, I would always stay back from the closed cell except for the bars that were there. Some of those inmates would try to grab you and I wasn’t going to let that happen. The job was a real good one, and we got to go to all the units. We would pick up the dirty clothes and delivery them to the laundry room. They would then be put in carts and sent out of the prison to be washed at the main prison. We got letters from other inmates that were hidden in the clothes coming back from the main unit and to be delivered to some inmates in our prison. One day the big boss from the main prison came over. He was in charge of the laundry over there, and I asked him if I could come to work for him. He said I could if I could get a transfer. I then wrote my classification officer and requested a transfer. He wrote me back and said we would talk about it at the next progress report. Well, after several weeks, I was called to his office. He said he would grant me the transfer.: However, he told me not to mess up because if I did, he was going to put me in maximum security for a great length of time. ChapterHAPTER 28

So I finally was returned to the main prison, and this time I was placed in the west unit, where all the laundry workers were housed. It was a large dorm with about seventy- five to one hundred inmates assigned to the laundry. We would get up early and go eat in the main mess hall. Then after that, we would go to our jobs in the laundry. I first started out on a press, and then I went to work on a sewing machine. I worked in that area for quite a while, then I got a job in the office as a secretary for the big boss. One day they were having trouble on the compound. Then a bunch of officers came in and asked who answered the phone. I said I did ,and they put cuffs on me. They were ready to take me to lock up, but my boss told them he had given me permission to answer the phone. So they took the cuffs off. The boss saween a club in my desk drawer, and he asked me why I kept it. I told him that in case someone messed with him, I could help him. He was a real good officer to work for in that laundry. I would gamble and win other inmates’ canteen books and give them to him to get stuff for us from the commissary. They had a commissary that you could buy steaks and any other type of food from. One day I went to the store from the dorm and came back to enter the wWest uUnit, where I was assigned. The officer called me to his office. He said that he knew I raun a poker gcame in the dorm. He said if I wanted to continue to run one, no other game would run but mine. However, he said he smoked cigars and that I better bring him a box every time I went to the commissary. He kept his word on the matter of my game being the only one in the dorm. I also got his cigars for him as long as I was at the wWest uUnit. The work in the laundry was going pretty good until I had an argument with one of my friends. The result of that was I was put back on a press. I worked out there until we had settled the argument. So he had his boss put me back in the office. I had been working in the laundry for a year. I saw my name on the call out sheet. I was to have an interview with my classification officer. He, of course, knew that I had been doing a good job on my work detail. I then requested for a transfer to a road camp that I had escaped from some years ago. He asked why I wanted to go back to that camp. I told him that it was close to home, and that was where all the mistakes that I had made happened. Once again I was loaded on a van and delivered to the prison that I had escaped from years before. When I was unloaded off the bus, the yard man saween me and said, “Wwelcome home, Edwards.” ChapterHAPTER 29

There was a lot of difference in my way of thinking. They had passed out a new law that said that everyone had to be interviewed by the parole commission. I had been in quite a few years, and I was never interviewed. It was now in the 1970nineteen seventies, and I would soon be interviewed. I was glad of that decision coming down from the courts. I worked on the roads patching up the roads and going to the parks picking up trash. I now had no intentions of escape. I finally got off the road details and was placed in the kitchen. This was a real good job, and I started out washing dishes. Then the captain wanted to know if I wanted to run the camp’s commissary. I told him I would like to have that job. We sold just minor store items. Of course, we sold smokes and cookies and ice cream and candies. I also sold coffee, and sometimes the camp would run out. I would then get the sergeanSgt. to buy me large jars of instant, and I would sell it for ten cents a cup. You would be surprised how many cups you could get out of a jar. Since I worked in the kitchen, I could go and come as I please. It being an honor camp, they still had the security of the two doors about getting in and out of the building. We had a hobby shop where we made billfolds and ladies’ purses, and also men’s belts. We made pretty good money. We also gambled in the back room, where the guard couldn’t see us. However, sometimes one would sneak up on us but usually wouldn’t say anything about it. I was listening to the radio, and I heard that a family member in Miami was dead. I went out to see the captain and asked for a phone call. I called my brother, and he said yes, my nephew was dead. He said he had called the Department of Corrections to see if I could go to the funeral. They granted the request, and my brother came and picked me up. The captain said, “Edwards, you know you should come back because you are getting close to parole.” I told the captain not to worry, that I would be back on time. We went to the funeral, and a strange thing happened. The sister of the deceased tried to pull him out of the coffin. She then ran out into the heavy traffic and just about got run over. My brother finally took me back to the road camp. We also played softball, and we had a pretty good team. I usually played center field. We would make road trips to outer camps because sports were a big thing in prison. If you could play, you could get a transfer to mostly any place you desired. It wasn’t long before I was interviewed by a member of the parole commission. When I saw him, I went out and spoke with him. I asked if he wanted me to carry his bag into the office, and of course, he said no. We did talk about his car, and it was one with the engine in the back. I didn’t know what end it was on because I had been in for so long. He asked me a lot of questions and about the escape that I had done in 1966. He was really concerned about the shoot-out that occurred in Atlanta, Georgia. The parole officer asked the captain how I had been doing. He told him that I was doing quite well. He also told the parole officer that I had attended a funeral and had been back on time. The parole officer then told the captain to go ahead and put me on the work- release program. This required you to have a job in the free world, and you had to come back to the camp each night. My first job was driving a tractor cutting grass along the highways. Then I got a job working as a bridge tender on Marco Island. However, I had to have my own transportation. My Ssergeant. at the camp took me down to get my driver’s license. My brother got me a car to drive back and forth. The job was to put a crank in the middle of the bridge and walk it around so the boats could come through. I had to do this at any time of the day. I got to fish any time I wanted. I worked the job seven days a week, and that got me away from the camp. I had a house about midway of the bridge. I also had a phone and a stove and a T.V. I also had an ice box to keep things cool. The only thing I didn’t have was a toilet. I just had to sit over the hole, and it would drop right into the water. I made friends with a lot of the fishing men that came under the bridge. They would always throw me a fish up for me to eat. One day one of them threw me a twenty- one- pound red fish up. I took it back to camp, and we had a good meal out of that one. Then at the end of the bridge, there was a man who was a fishing guide. I asked him how I could catch a big fish. Well, he told me to get a real strong line and a big hook. I got a hook about a half foot long. It had a large barb where the fish would take the bait. He then told me to catch a catfish and make sure he was alive. Then he said to make sure I cut the fins off him. I did as he told me, and then I halted the hook and tied it under the bridge. The next morning I went down under the bridge and saween that the line was wrapped around the piling. I begain to unwind it, and then I felt a strong pull on the line. I was real careful now since I got that pull on the line. I finally got the line from around the piling. I had a jewfish, andthat later when I weighed it, it was forty- five pounds. As I walked along the bridge carrying it all, the cars would stop and look and want to take pictures. I also showed the fishing guide, who was the man that told me how to catch it. Sometimes the bridge would get jammed up, and I would have to call my boss, and he would send the repair crew out. I sure had a lot of fun working on that bridge. One day I saw a lady with a camera walking on the bridge. We started talking about the bridge. I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was doing a story on the bridge. I then told her I could give her a real good story. She wanted to hear it, so I gave it to her. I told her that I was on a work- release program and that I was a state prisoner.: I also told her that I had twenty years and that the parole commission had put me on the program. She also wanted to know how long had I been in prison, and at that time it was thirteen years. Then she told me that she was going to put the story in the paper. She asked me to sign a paper for the release of the story. Well, one day when I came in from work, I always had to turn my car keys in and also my license, like I always did. Well, the captain was in the office and wanted to know why I had been talking to a reporter. I explained to him how it occurred, and I didn’t say anything bad about the prison. Well, he told me not to be talking to any reporter iIn the near future. A couple of days later, I stopped at this store and bought one of the island papers. There was my picture on the front page. Of course, that evening I took it back to the camp and showed it around. ChapterHAPTER 30

I now was allowed a furlough on weekends when I didn’t have to work. A member of my family had to come and get me and have me back in four hours. This time increased to eight hours and then twelve hours then up to twenty- four hours. When I got the twenty- four hours, I could stay overnight. As long as I was on the program, I was always back on time. One day I was called into the office, and they said they had a special letter for me. The parole commission had finally granted my parole. It was granted for some time late in 1972 or early 1973. I can’t remember the exact date. However, I was finally released in 1973. I had a job offered to me by the company that I had worked for back in 1959. It was working at a cement company driving a front- end loader and a forklift. When I was released, I stopped at this little store in Copeland, Florida, and bought myself a good meal. I then went over to the bridge to tell a friend that I worked with the good news of me going home. He was real glad that I had finally got released from that place. When I left there, I headed for my brother’s house in Fort. Myers, Florida. I was going to stay with him until I got on my feet. I started working at the cement company, and I had a pretty good job. I finally quit there and went to work at a Pepsi Cola cCompany. This was a real demanding job. It required delivering drinks and then picking up the empties. I didn’t last long on that job. I then found a job working for a blind company. We made curtains and many other things. I worked there for about six months, and then the boss said work was short with the company. So I had to find a new job. I had been using the company van, but now I had to use my own car. One night I was at a friend’s house, and I had won a few dollars in a poker game. They said a girl was coming over and we would have some fun with her. They had plans to rape her, and I wasn’t going to get involved in that situation. So when the girl got there, she went with them, and I followed them. Then for some reason, they stopped, and she ran back to my car and asked me to take her home. I said sure, I would take her home. I asked where she lived, and she told me the location. I asked her if I could see her again, and she said yes. I asked for her phone number and if she worked any place. She said she had worked as a waitress at this cafée. I finally dropped her off at her mom and dad’s house. I had for gotten her number, and I went the next day to the café where she had worked. They were kind enough to give me her home number. So I called her, and she said for me to come out and see her. She introduced me to her dad and mom and sisters and brothers. We went to the beach and spent the days just fooling around. That night I took her to a store that was lit up real good. I explained to her that I was on parole for armed robbery and other charges. “I don’t want you to find this out later because I want to be honest with you,”. I told her. So we started hanging out about every day. A few days later, I asked the girl I was going with if she would she consider marrying me. She said, of course, she would and real quick. So I went out to her dad’s house and asked him for his daughter’s hand in marriage. He said that he didn’t care if we got married, but he was not going to be the one to do that. He said he felt he would be doing me wrong and I would regret marrying her sooner or later. The mother agreed for me to marry her, and she would sign the papers. We had to get to the courthouse to get a marriage license and also to get a blood test. We then called the church to ask the preacher to perform the duties for us to get married. Her mother was there along with some of her daughters and son. My brother was also there with his two sons taking pictures of the ceremony. I had to get my stepfather to walk her down the aisle, and my brother was the best man. Her sisters acted as the bride’s maids. We then went to our apartment, and that was our honeymoon. I was now driving a taxi because I had been laid off from a job that was doing less business. However, about this time I got a call from my brother who was in Texas. He wanted me to come out there. I told him I was now married, and he said to come on out. Of course, I had to get a travel permit from my parole officer, and he granted it. However, he told me as soon as I got to my brother’s house to call the officer out there. ChapterHAPTER 31

Wwe then got tickets for the Greyhound, and he was to meet us in Dallas, Texas. It was some ride going all the way out there. He met us on time, and he then took us to the town of Cleburne, Texas. He showed me the station that he was running. We then went to where he lived, and he had a real nice house. The town wasn’t very big, and it was real nice. I worked with him at his station for a while. Then his boss wanted to know if I wanted a station for myself. So he gave me one, and my wife helped me. I was still on parole and had to report to the parole officer. The parole officer said I was doing just fine. At times I would have my nephew help me at the station. Then later I hired another friend of his, and he was a pretty good worker. One day I went to report to my parole officer, and my nephew went with me. On the way he told me to stop at this store. He said he wanted to show me how he got his smokes. So like a fool I went in with him, and he was caught shop lifting. He was arrested, and I was also. I was charged with aiding a minor. We were taken to the jail, and his mother and father came after him. I had to band out and then go and get my car out of the tow service compound. I had to pay around one hundred dollars and for a fine and bond at the jail, which was around two hundred dollars. When I got back to my brother’s station, he raised all kind of hell with me. One day my wife was at the station, and I let her run the register. The guy that was working also sometimes worked it also. Well, that day I came up short thirty dollars. Of course, I fired him for the shortest. Later when my wife went shopping, I wanted this nice sport coat. I didn’t have enough money with me, and she said she had some money. I asked her where she got it, and she told me she had taken it out of the register. Well, I told her all she had to do was to ask me for money, and I would have given it to her. Well, during the next morning, my wife kept running to the bathroom being sick. I didn’t think nothing about it at tdhie time, but later I found out she was pregnant. Then she got home sick and wanted to go home. Well, her father sent her a ticket, and she went back to Florida for Christmas. She would call me all the time at the station. So I decided to go down there for Christmas. I told my boss that I was going, and I had someone to take care of the station while I was gone. I had bought this old car from my brother, and it raun pretty damn good. When I left, I loaded the car up with about everything I had, and it was snowing when I left. When I got to her mother’s house, my wife was real happy. So while there, I called the station out in Texas. Someone that I didn’t know answered the phone. He said he was now the manager of the station. He said my boss had given the station to him. I called my brother, and he said there was no need for me to return to Texas. So I explained this to my parole officer, and he said he would call the parole officer in Texas, and I could stay in Florida. ChapterHAPTER 32

So now I stayed with her mother and father. He was a nice man, and we got along real good. One time her father and I went fishing out in a boat. Well, on the way out, I saween this sign on a sand bar that said “SharkHARK InfestedNVESTED WatersATERS”. After about two hours of fishing, there came a heavy rain. So we headed back to shore. However, on the way, we came to the sand bar. As our luck would have it, we got stuck on it. I asked him how we would get off the sand bar. He said Iyou hadve to get out and push. I asked him why I had to get out. He then said becamuse he was the captain of the boat. I laughed about that and never forgot that statement. I finally got a letter from the parole commission telling me that they had taken me off parole. They said I had adjusted to society like I should have done. When at his house, we were living in a room that was on the outside of the house. In other words, we had to go inside to use the bathroom and to have our meals. The room before we got there was a dog room. So of course, we had to give it a good cleaning. However, we didn’t get it as clean as we thought. My wife and I were fooling around one night, and I found on her breast a second nipple. What I saw was a dog tick. I had to hold a match to the tick to make him pull back out. When my wife saween it, she started screaming. She woke up the others in the house. So for the rest of the night, we slept inside the house. Later, we moved into the garage until we found a place of our own. Later I went back to driving a taxi because I knew the town pretty good. I was in a bar one night with my brother who was up from Miami, Florida. After we got to drinking, he started talking about his wife. She had disappeared, and no one knew what happened to her. However, I asked him if he tried to find her. He said he didn’t have to because he knew where she was located. He told me he could take me to her in about fifteen minutes. I told him I didn’t want to know anything else. The police had a big investigation but could never find enough evidence to charge my brother for her murder. One time he drove over to my brother’s house, and they saw cement blocks and chains in the back of his truck. They asked him what he used those for, and he said to sink people in the water. I also met a guy in the bar that worked on an oil rig. He said for me to ride out to the job with him to see what it was all about. I went out, and they explained a lot of things to me. I then had to go to a doctor and take a physical examination. I passed that, then I had to go to the main office to sign certain papers. The boss then told me where the rig was located and told me when to report for work. My wife was going to the hospital to have her baby. She had a baby boy, and she named him Brian Keith Edwards. He was really a cute little boy. After the baby was born I, went back to work on a rig as a rough neck. I had managed to get me another car and now had the transportation. We had four men that drove together. If you didn’t have a car, you had to pay for your ride that day. Each of us took turns driving to the rig. Sometimes if it was over a certain amount of miles, each driver was paid fifteen dollars a day, and this was added to his pay check. We also had some good insurance with Blue Cross, Blue Shield. One of the men I worked with became a real good friend. We would party together and have a lot of fun on the rig. One time we were on the platform of the rig, and we just finished making a connection. I told Ernie, who was my friend, that I saw a big gator crawl out of the water. So we went out and found out where he came over the bank. We followed him into some bushes, and we heard him making some noise. I told Ernie to go around and chase him out, and I would get the front, and he would get the back part of him. Well, that gator came out with his mouth wide open and madeking all kinds of noise. I told Ernie that we better not fool with that gator. It was about twelve feeoot long and looked very mean. One night one of the crew went to take a leak between the two water tanks. Well, he came running out of there and said there was a gator back there. In a couple of minutes, a gator came out of there, and it was about six feeoot long. The gator went his way, and we got out of his way real quick. Boy, we did some laughing about that situation. We told the rest of the crew about that, and they laughed like hell over it. Then at another time, these raccoons came up to the rigs to get into the garbage cans. So we started throwing rocks at them, and I thought I killed one. I picked him up and put him in my car’s trunk. I was going to make a coon hat and give it to my son. I sure thought that coon was dead. During that day, before I wentgoing to work, my wife asked me what I wanted for supper. I told her I wanted her on the dining room table naked with candles burning. I also told her to be naked. Well, my buddy came over that night, and he wanted to borrow a wrench. So he had followed me to the trailer, and I opened the door and told him to come on into the trailer. However, as I looked in, I then saw her on the table. I told my friend that he had to wait a minute. I then got the keys and gave them to him and told him the wrench was in my car’s trunk. Well, he went and opened the trunk, and that coon had come alive. He ran right over the top of my friend and scared the shit out of him. That coon had all the dogs barking like crazy. We sure laughed about that for a long time. ChapterHAPTER 33

I had another friend that I partied with many times. He had gotten married, and I was his best man at his wedding. He told me about the time he got arrested. He wore these cut off short pants that were real tight on him. He was at this laundry mat, and this old lady thought he was flashing at her. She called the cops on him, and he went to jail and bonded out. Later he went to court and to pay a fine. I never believed that he had done that to the old lady. He worked putting in drive ways and patios. He had an old truck he used to get around for his work. The best thing that happened to him was when he met the school teacher who was from Sweden. Her parents were rich and had a large home on the water front. They had lived next to us until their trailer burned down. They then lived in a camper until a house was built on her mother’s property. It was three bedrooms with a two- car garage plus a swimming pool. One time my friend’s girlfriend ran off with another guy. We tracked her down and found out where she had gone off too. I had to go to a place out of town and talk to her mother and her and told both of them that Ernie wanted her to come back home. So she agreed to come with me, and I took her back to my friend. After that, Ernie and I were the best of friends. We were always taking my son along, and he just loved the water. It was hard to get him out of the water without him crying. One time I took him to the store, and he was walking around looking for candy. He was walking real well. When we got to the cashier, and I paid for the candy and took him out to the car. My son began pulling candy out of his pocket. I took him back into the store. I sat him up on the counter and made him show the lady the candy he had stolen. I gave him some money for him to pay for the candy. The cashier said that was all right and that he could have it. I thanked her and told her to have a nice day. My wife and I had moved to another place that was in a low place near the river. One week we heard over the radio that the river was flooding. So our landlord was right next to us, and she invited us to stay with her. Well, the next morning we looked out the window, and our place was flooded. My wife wanted some milk for the baby, and I went out to get it from our very flooded place. However, the day before, I heard over the radio someone had opened an ice box by pulling on the handle. It was a good thing that I remembered that detail. As I walked toward the ice box, I could feel a tickle in my legs, which was not normal. What it was, I found out, was an electric current caused by the water coveringed over the motor. I got me a broom and opened the ice box handle. I then reached in with the broom handle and got the milk out. If she had gone out, she would have just pulled on the handle. When I left the flooded house, I pulled the main switch to cut off the juice. When we were living in the flooded house, I got in the mail one day a phone bill. The bill was for about three hundred dollars. I asked her who she had called, and she said her grandmother iIn Ohio. I told her I couldn’t afford that type of phone bill and for her not to be calling there. Well, she said she would call anytime she had a desire. So I got so mad I tore the phone off the wall. I never had another phone for quite some time. We finally moved to a place almost right across from her mom. It was a two- bed room house with a nice kitchen. We stayed there for quite a while, and then my wife started working at a Shop &and Go. So one day there was a girl outside, and I tried to make a date with her. However, she went right in and told my wife. We got into an argument when she got home, and she slapped me. Then I told her to hit me two more times, and that is when I slapped her. I told her iIf she every slapped me again, I was going to do the same thing to her. We worked that little problem out, and then all of a sudden I came home, and everything in the house was gone except a few things. ChapterHAPTER 34

I had my friend’s girlfriend help me with a loan by acting as my wife. We went down to the loan company, and she signed my wife’s name to the application. We then went to her apartment and were drinking coffee. I got up to get more coffee and asked her what she would do if I rubbed her on the back. She said she wouldn’t tell on me. So things got real hot with both of us, and she said for us to go to the bedroom. Well, we had a real good time for about two hours. After that, I went back to my motel room. Then later I had to go to the rig because I had to be the watchman at night. The next day I went looking for my wife. I had a hard time finding her. No one in her family would tell me where she was located. I happened to stop at a store, and there I found her. I bought something and then showed her some money I had gotten at a loan company. She asked me how I borrowed it, and I told her I went to the place where we had the account. She then tried to grab my car keys, and I had to go behind the counter and get them back from her. I thought she was going to call the police, but she didn’t. However, she did call the place and inquired about how I got the loan. Then the loan office called me and told me I had to pay the money back that I had borrowed. They didn’t want to press charges because I still owed them for the loan I had gotten with my wife. As I went into the loan company, out came my wife, and that was a shock. I was surprised when I saw her come out, and I knew what to expect. I finally found out where she lived and went to see her, and we had a good talk. We finally got back together, and we spent Christmas at the place she had rented. Then later we rented a house about a block from her mom and dad’s. I was now making good money on the rig, and we had a nice car. One day I came home, and my wife said she had bought me a new recliner. Well, several days later, the chair came up missing. I asked her where it was, and she said she let her father use it for a while. I got a little upset over that because they were living in a big, rich house. We were working to haveing something, and she was just giving our stuff away. Then she went shopping, and I checked the receipt and found that a lot of meat and other stuff were missing. I asked her about that, and she said her mom needed that stuff. I told her we would never get ahead doing stuff that way. Any marriage has its ups and downs, and we had our share of those. So a little while after that, I came home from work, and once again I found most of the stuff in the house was gone. She had moved out, and it was a while before I did also. In the meantime I had rented a room to one of my buddies, and we did that for a couple of months. After that, I moved in with my good friend Ernie. I stayed with him for about a month then finally moved into a motel. One day my wife came over, and I let her into the room. What she didn’t know was I had a woman with me, and I was hiding her in the bathroom. My wife told me she was filing for a divorce. Before she left, she wanted to use the restroom. That was when I told her that someone was using it. She asked who it was, so of course, I didn’t tell her. She finally left, and I was glad she had gone. Several days later, I got a letter about the divorce papers that had been filed. I then had another letter for me to meet her in her lawyer’s office. I was there on time, and we discussed the payments that I was to make. The lawyer came up with a price, and I had an argument with him. He told me that if I didn’t pay it, he would have me put in jail. I told him to go ahead and that I had been there already. I also told him a few more years wouldn’t hurt me. We finally left his office, and I asked her when the divorce became final, and she said in a few days. I then had to move some stuff out of the house that she had left there. There was the washing machine and dryer. I took it over to my friend’s house. As we were unloading it, my wife came by and saween us. She had moved into the apartment that was flooded out. I went down there to see my son, and when I knocked on the door, he came and said, “Ddaddy, daddy.” Then she came and pulled him away from the door. I then asked her if I could see him, and she shut the door in my face. So I left and went back to my motel room. Later that night, I drove by her house, and I saw a sSheriff’s dDepartment car parked iIn her drive way. I stopped to see what was happening. She was outside talking to them. They asked me who I was, and I told them I was her husband. They left after finding that out. I left also, but the next day, I called the sSheriff and reported the incident. They said they were not even in the area they were told to patrol. They got chewed out real good by the department for that incident. Later my wife told me the cops had told her about the incident. One time I was in a bar ,and I saw her come into the bar. However, when she saw me, she left in a hurry. I went outside to see her, but she had already disappeared. One time I went by a store where she was working and was talking to her. I pulled out my keys, and I told her I still had a set of keys to the house. I also showed her a bunch of bills. She grabbed both of them, and I had to go behind the counter and take the stuff back. I sure thought she was going to call the law on me, but she did not. Then at another place when we were together, she worked as a waitress at a resort club. She would like to dance after she got off work. I wasn’t that good of a dancer, so I let her dance with a guy that could really get down. In my off time, when the rig was shut down, I would drive a cab for extra money. One day I got a call to pick up someone at a bar. I went to the bar, and it was known as a gay bar. Guess who I was I picking up for my fare? Yes, it was the guy my wife had been dancing with at the resort. He askedsaid to me, to “Pplease don’ot tell anyone that he was gay, because if his mom or dad found out that they would disown him. He was from a real rich family. My wife didn’t believe it. She went on to ask why I was there. I explained to her that I was driving a cab, and I had to pick up passengers at all types of places. I used to pick up drunks that were so wasted that they couldn’t even remember where they lived or even know where they had left their car. I had eight brothers, and all except two of us had bad drinking problems. I didn’t want to be like that, but we all have problems on this life on earth. However, we create a lot of problems for our selvesf. My wife and I finally appeared before a lawyer for a divorce discussion, and she tried to get some crazy amount of money from me. I got real mad about what she was trying to do. However, I agreed to a lower amount. The lawyer and I got into an argument, and he threatened to have me arrested. I told him that didn’t bother me at all and that I had spent thirteen and a half years in prison. I told him to do whatever he thought best. I guess my wife calmed him down because he never did do anything to get me arrested. ChapterHAPTER 35

However, she did have me in court several times because of being late on payments for child support. My brother came by and wanted me to go to Mississippi with him. We were going to pick up his daughter that was working at a fair. I was planning to rob something out that way, but I never did. So we got the daughter and returned to Florida. I worked for a while on the rig, and one night the crew came to get me, and I said I quit. So I just gave up a good job that paid me over four hundred a week because I just didn’t care anymore about nothing. I started writing checks knowing that I didn’t have the money to cover them. I also knew pretty soon I had some more out there, one more wouldn’t hurt. I finally went to Miami, Florida, to see my brother. We all called him T-Bone, and I was hoping he would help me out. I had located him at where he worked, and he said to go to his house. He told me where I could find the key under a flower pot. Of course, I took my girlfriend down there with me. My brother was going to get the money from his boss and bring it to the house. However, the key was not where he said it was located. I had to open the door by wedging the glass in the door. I then readied in and opened the door. Once we got into the house, we found that there was no electricity. We decided to get into the bed. Of course, we got to fooling around, and one thing led to another. I slowly undressed her and proceeded to make love to her. She finally told me she couldn’t stand it anymore. Then she said, “I don’t know where you came from, but I don’t want to ever lose you.” She jumped up and went into the shower, and I continued to love her right in the shower. Then we wanted some coffee, but there was no electricity was working. Since we had no power, I had to make it like we did in the jail house. First, I got some toilet paper and wrapped it around my hand to make a rolled- up bomb. Then we got us a pot with water and lit the bomb under it. It heated the water in about three or four minutes. So as we were drinking our coffee, we saw an old lady snooping around the door. She asked us who we were and how did we goet into the house. We told her the door was open, and I was waiting on my brother. She asked how the glass got broken, and I told her it was broke when we arrived. Finally my brother came and gave me the money I needed, which was around five hundred dollars. Then for some reason, he got into an argument with the old lady, who was the land lord. She called the cops, and he was charged with disturbing the peace. I had to give him most of the money back and follow him to the jail. I waited until he bailed himself out. He gave me enough money to get back home and a tank of gas. When I got back, I went to pick up my check at the oil rig company. I then got two others while I was there. I signed them and cashed them. Of course, I knew what I was doing wrong, but I just didn’t care anymore. I started writing checks that I knew would not be covered at the bank. I took out all kinds of loans and never paid them. One week I went into a super market and cashed a check for groceries. Then the next week I went back to the same store to cash another one. After the cashier rang the sale up, she said she had to get the manager. She told me to wait right there. So as soon as she got out of sight, I was out the door. They tried to get my tag number, but I was too far away from them. I cashed checks all over town, and then I would sell the stuff. I finally got the lady I was staying with a job as a waitress. I had painted my car because the company was trying to get it, for I was behind on payments. One day I went to pick her up and parked at a bar next to the place she worked. I had left my car door open, and this guy pulled up right behindin back of me. He also had a dog in his car. He got out of his and approached me and asked me what my name was, and I gave him some name other than mine. He asked me where the owner of the car was, and I told him he had just gone into the bar. So he went into the bar, and the minute he was out of sight, I backed up into his car and pushed him out of the way. He had blocked me in so I couldn’t get out. I finally got him out of the way, and then he came back out of the bar. I left in a hurry, and he tried to follow me for a long distance until I lost him. Then I bought two tires from a company, and they came looking for me because they got a check that was not covered by the bank. I had to start parking my car away from the house because if they found it, they would tow it away. One day I went over to my brother’s house, and I saw my new couch sitting on his porch and also my dining room table. She had taken about every thing. I asked my brother about it, and he said he had bought it from my wife. Well, I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t mad at my brother. Later, I got a call to meet my ex-wife at the airport. I knew she wanted money, so I took her some out. However, I didn’t give it to her, but I handed it to my three- year- old son. She just snatched it out of his hand. She was headed for the snowing country, Ohio. Several days later, a deputy sheriff woke me up serving a paper that said I had to appear in court. The judge asked me where my ex-wife was, and I told him she had moved to Ohio. He asked whyile I hadn’t been paying her the child support. Well, I showed him all the receipts that I had given her money. I had her sign all the receipts. The judge thereafter dismissed the case. I was still working on the rig and was still making good money. However, it wasn’t the same now since my wife had left and took my boy with her. I started drinking and hanging out at the bars. One night while in the bar, I was trying to put the make on the lady bartender. She finally got tired of it and said she was going to make me a good drink. She sure did, and I woke up in my car, and the keys were under the mat. One time I took my girl friend to the rig with me, and we were in bed. So I wanted to make out with her, but she didn’t. So I got up out of bed and went to the kitchen and got a butcher knife. I then went back to the bed room and told her to remove her clothes. She did, and she said for me not to hurt her. So I told her to put her clothes back on because I didn’t want her that way. However, I told her if she wanted me to take care of her and the kid, she was going to have to go to bed, or I was leaving. So the next day she had her brother take the kid off for a while. She asked me if I wanted to take a shower with her, and of course, we both enjoyed it very much. Then another time we rented a motel room, and she wanted some whipped cream. So I went to this all- night place and asked if they sold whipped cream. The hostess said no, they didn’t. I then asked her if they had it to put on pies and things. She said yes, so I told her to sealle me a pie and put the whipped cream in a cup. So she went and told the waitress, and they started laughing about the situation. Anyway I got back to the motel and asked her why she wanted the whipped cream. She told me to take my clothes off and that sheI wilould show meyou. Of course, I knew why, but I played dumb. It was so good that I even smeared her with it, and we had a real good time. One night we were doing mushrooms and went out on this pier, and a couple was sietting on a bench. As we started back, they asked us how we were. I said we would be okay if I made it to the end of the pier. The effect of the mushrooms made it seem like I would never get there. One day at the house, I heard a knock on the door. I looked out to see who was there. I saw the drilling sSuperintendent. at the door. I then told the girl to tell him that I was not home. He told her that when I came back, to come down to his office. After a couple of hours, I did go to the office and had a talk with him. He asked what happened with the checks. I told him I took them to the bank and cashed them. He then wanted to know what I did with the money. I told him that my wife wanted so much money and that way she would not bother me anymore. Then he asked me if I wanted to clear the matter up. So I told him I sure would and asked what I had to do. He then told me to go and talk to a certain man at the county jail. I went down there and saw him, and he said he was not going to charge me as long as I paid the money back to the company. ChapterHAPTER 36

It was time for me to leave, so I took the girl and her kid and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. When we were driving late at night, these two big eighteen- wheelers passed me. They were really hauling ass. I had a C.B., which is a short wave radio. I called the truckers and told them there was a trooper coming after them. They thanked me for calling them. Then the trooper stopped me and told me not to be warning trucks about him. I said I had not called them. We later got to where her mother and father lived. We spent a couple of days with them. Then her brother and I went to this mMall where this bank was located. I went in and produced a note and a gun and told them it was a hold up. While I was robbing this one teller, another teller looked over and asked what was going on over there. I then told her, since she wanted to know, for her to pass her money over also. I then left the bank with a pile of money. I had my car parked out in the lot where it couldn’t be seen. I had parked it behind a big, long truck. I made a safe getaway and got back to the trailer where we were staying. We then rented us a place later but didn’t stay there very long. I then went to another place with her brother and made all the people lieay down on the floor. He then went behind the counter to get the money. However, when he looked in the drawer, he said there was no money in there. So we had to get out of there in a real big hurry. Later, in the trailer court, we saw two squad cars driving through the trailer park. However, they just went right on by us. Her brother and his girlfriend wanted to leave, so I drove them out of town and left them at a truck stop. I then went back, and the girl and I along with her brother went back to Fort. Myers, Florida. We rented an apartment and moved all of our stuff in from another place we had been staying. I and her brother went to another town looking for a bank to rob. We found one in Sarasota, Florida. We parked at this laundry mat that sit right in back of the bank. Both of us went into the bank, and I was going to get one teller and him the other. Well, he walked up, and while I was robbing the teller at the other window, he turned around and walked out. He had got scared and just left. While I was robbing the teller, I told her to put the money in a bag. What she told me was, “Yyou are the bank robbery. Yyou should have brought a bag with you.” I finally put all the money down inside my tee T-shirt. I left the bank, and my friend wasn’t in the car. I had to look for him in the laundry room. As I was getting in the car, I saw the bank teller looking around the corner of a building. So we left and gotten about three blocks and saween all kinds of police cars. One of them finally got behind me and flashed his blue lights. I could not out run them, so we bailed out of the car. I ran one way and he another way. I ran through this building, and this man asked, “‘Why are you running?.” I told him someone was trying to shoot me. I then walked down the side walk and met a police officer with his dog. I just kept on walking down the street. Then as I started across the street, I saw a police car coming toward me. I then went to this yard, and it had a tree growing in the yard. It was a Christmas tree, but all the branches grew toward the ground. I crawled under the tree and wrapped around it. I saw a lot of police officers go by and also the dog. However, they didn’t even look under the tree. They did check all the houses in that area. I had to stay under that tree four about five hours before it got dark. I then went through this trailer court, and then I heard a car coming through there without any lights. Yes, it was a police car, but he didn’t see me. I then walked about four blocks and went in this grocery store. I asked the cashier if I could use her phone to call a cab. I also asked her if I could wait in the store until it got there. I waited about thirty minutes, and then I saw a police car drive toward the back of the store. Then I saw a car go by slowly in front of the store. I then saw two men come into the store and geot a buggy. However, when they passed me, they grabbed me and had me on the floor. I was then taken and put in a little cell all by myself until the next morning. Then the police started asking me questions about the bank robbery and other stuff. Then in a couple of days, I was taken to court on the bank robbery. Of course, I pled not guilty. I was then taken back to the jail, and they hooked me out along with the guy that was with me. They cuffed us up with leg- irons and then took us to a jail iIn Tampa, Florida. We were fFederal prisoners because they had taken the case. Sometimes the fFederal people will let the state handle a case. We stayed iIn the Tampa jail for several weeks then were taken to Jacksonville, Florida. That jail was a real big one, but we were treated pretty nice. I did get one contact visit while there. A contact visit was a visit where you didn’t have to talk over a phone. I was finally taken before the judge, and I pled guilty to the charge in Sarasota and also to the ones in Jacksonville. I received thirty years for both robberies, and the judge ran them concurrent for a total of just thirty years. However, he said I would have to serve ten years before I could make parole. Then I had to deal with the state charge. It involved another robbery charge, and I made a deal with the D.A., (Ddistrict aAttorney) for a sentence of thirty years to run concurrent with the thirty that I had received from the fFederal jJudge. So all together I had a sentence of just thirty years. ChapterHAPTER 37

Several weeks later, I was loaded on a bus and headed for the big house. This was to be the fFederal prison in Atlanta, Georgia. When the fFederal mMarshals transport an inmate, they cuff your hands, and they always put leg- irons on you. That is standard procedure anywhere you go. When we arrived at the Ffederal Pprison, it wais a sight you will never forget. It has a wall that is thirty- five or forty feeoot high. On top of that, they have razor wire. They unloaded us in front of the prison, and we had to walk up a lot of steps. Then they opened one gate, and we wentgo through, and when everyone wais in, they closed that gate. Then the entery gate wais opened and then closed after we all entered. We weare then taken to a couple of large holding cells. Then the mMarshals started taking off the cuffs and leg- irons. Sometimes this takes a couple of hours, and it isn’t any fun sitting on the hard benches. Then they would have fifty or sixty men in a cell block with only one toilet. If you used it, everyone could watch, and some would just stare. Then while in the holding cell, you have to fill out a few papers for medical. Then you have to give permission for the post office to open and take care of all the mail you may receive. Then they call you out one at a time to fingerprint you and take a picture. After all this, they then take you to another room where they make you strip. They then look up your rear and then hold your front part up then they look in your mouth. After that, they run their hands through your hair and check your ears. After that, they then give you a complete set of clothes and shoes. If it is winter, they will give you a coat. Then you have to talk with medical and let them know if you need anything. Then an officer will assign the inmates to a certain cell block. The tiers in the block were three high, and each cell would hold twelve men. Well, thereis being so many in one cell, you could forget about going to the bathroom without someone watching you. We had showers on one floor, and there were about twelve or fourteen showers. The second and third tiers had a wire mesh that kept anyone from throwing anyone off it. We had T.V. oOn the bottom floor, and everyone had ear phones because that cut down the noise. We also had a phone and sometimes two or three more. You would have to sign up for the use of it. This prison had four main cell blocks, and some were two- man cells However, you had to be there for some time to get moved to one of those. The next day they took us to the laundry to get our clothes. They had to put our prison number on each article of clothinges and a number in the shoes. After that, we would be taken to the dentist for an examination. After that, we would go to classification and be assigned a job. Sometimes an inmate could find him a job ahead of time, and they would assign him to it. We had a huge mess hall, and the colored ate on one side and the whites on the other. However, you could sit on either side if you desired. We had a place where outside entertainment would put on shows. We also had a rodeo come into the prison when I was there. I was assigned to the mill that made thread and a lot of mailroom carts. They also made metal lockers for inmates to store personal property. The yard was real big, and they played everything out there. We had a commissary that sold all kinds of snacks. We could also order tennis shoes, watches, radios. They would also let you order certain hobby crafts. I had a detainer in Fort. Myers, Florida, and the authorities came after me and delivered me to the county jail. I was charged with armed robbery and also for the bad checks that I had written. I was put in a large cellblock with about ten other inmates. I got several visits while there. I also had my money sent from the prison. That made time a little better when you had money in jail. The court gave me a current sentence to run with my fFederal time. Then they took me to court on the bad checks. They judge asked me how I plied, and I told him not guilty. I also told him I wasn’t worried about the checks. He asked why, and I told him I had thirty years. He then told the deputy to get me out of his courtroom. I was then taken back to the jail and soon after was put on a plane and flown back to Atlanta Federal Prison. They processed me again, but it didn’t take long this time. That was because I had already been processed into the system. In fact, I was given the same cell back. One night I was on the telephone, and someone asked me if he couldto use the phone. I told him it was my turn on the phone. He said, “This is a mattnner of life and death.” So I let him have my turn on the phone. I went back to my cell and told a fellow inmate about the situation. He just laughed about it. Well, the next morning the inmate had been found stabbed to death in his bed. What happened was the inmate had been caught driving down the iInterstate doing seventy- five. He was pulled over by a state trooper. In the car wereas a huge amount of cash and all kinds of cocaine. He was arrested, and then he had ratted on one of the main men. However, the Bureau of Prisons made the mistake of sending him to the same prison where the inmate was that he had ratted on about the dope and cash he was carrying. Chapter HAPTER 38

Later, I was locked up in maximum security because someone had told them that I knew about the situation that had happened. These cells were like a protection cell, and the main population could not get inside this building. We had an outside yard, where we could go out and get some sunshine and get fresh air. Then one morning, the guard came by my cell and told me to pack up. I was being transferred to another prison. We once again went through the changing of clothes and the inspection of making sure we were not hiding anything on our bodies. We were once again cuffed and leg- irons put on us. We were loaded on the bus and locked in behind a steel gate. We had a guard and driver in the front and one in a wire cage in the back. There was no way an inmate could over power a guard. The prison had made bag lunches for us on the trip. We also were given a bottle of water. When we arrived at Terrea Haute Pprison, we were unloaded right in front of the prison. Of course, we were surrounded by the shotgun guards and the towers. We were then taken into the prison receiving area. It was in a basement under the same unit we were being processed. Once again we were to go through the process of taking off our clothes and getting our bodies searched. Then they took pictures and fingerprinted us, and we had to fill out a bunch of medical papers. We also had to sign papers for them to open our mail and take care of our money orders if we received any from home. Because of the killing in Atlanta, the Bureau of Prisons started a new process when an inmate came into a prison. They would call you in a room and ask each inmate ifwas there was any reason that youhe couldn’t go into population. This was to make sure that he could have protection if he wanted it. After the processing, we were seen by medical so that they would know if anything was wrong or if we took any medicine. After seeing medical, we were assigned to a unit. I was lucky because I got assigned to a small unit. It was located right above R and D, this standing for Receiving and Discharge. They were all single- man rooms, and now we could use the restroom without everyone staring at you. When I saw classification, I was assigned to the mill where they made blankets and towels and wash cloths. I worked in the section where they made blankets. We had looms that did this. I was trained on one of those, but I didn’t like that job. I tried to get moved to another part where they made towels and wash cloths. However, I didn’t manage that until about three months later. I had seen a doctor, and he had put me in for a transfer to the mMedical hHospital in Springfield, Missouri. I was sent out there for an operation on my neck. When I arrived there, we went through the same process. I was assigned to the medical part because of the upcoming operation. I was called into the medical office, and they asked if I was I ready for my insulin shot. I told the nurse, “Wwait just a minute, you better check with the doctor because I don’t take any shots.” She came back and said someone had made the mistake. Then the doctor told me about the operation. I asked him how he could determine the right nerve to cut during the operation. He was to cut a nerve in my neck because I had a lot of pain along some bone chips in my neck. While I was there, they put me to work in the gym. All I had to do was sweep and mop it and make popcorn for the inmates when they had movies once a week. They even had a skating rinkg there just like the ones in the free world. We also played bingo once a week for candy and cookies and sodas. It was a lot better than some prisons that I had been recently.

ChapterHAPTER 39

I finally decided to not get the operation and return back to the prison that I had come. So they had me sign the papers so they would be clear and they could show I had refused. I finally arrived back at the institution and assigned to a different section in the mill. This section was a lot better than the one I had before. One evening I stopped by the drug window and asked to get my medication. I gave her my I.D. card, and she then gave me the medication. I started walking up the hall to the mess hall and had to hold on to the wall. The lieutenanLt. saween me holding the wall, and he asked what I was I doing. I told him I took some medicine and I was headed to the mess hall. He asked if did I geot it from the drug window. I said, “Yyes, sir, but I think she gave me the wrong kind.” He then went to the window and asked her, and she checked. However, when he returned, he told me my medicine was still on the shelf. He then helped me into the mess hall and asked if I was I going to be all right. Well, I was feeling good now and was ready to eat. I told him I would be all right. The next morning I reported to my job feeling real good. I was working just one loom, and then when you got good on that one, they would give you two of them to operate. So I learned those, and then he put me sweeping the floor and taking out trash. I had seen a job that was a real good one. It was making large spools of thread that made aone big one. I was working the back, where I sometimes put four spools on the back and then one came out on the front of it. Then sometimes I would put three on the back. Some were for the wash cloths and some for the towels. It was a real good job, and I got all kind of pay awards. We could get just about all the overtime we wanted. On the front of the machine we had to separate the threads by putting two threads in each hole. It was like a rake turned upside down. We even had fun working in this area. We had really had some good men that we worked for. In the units, we would have our fun. We always had weed to get high on and playing cards. We had a special room that we had hobby craft. I had made a lot of stuff out of clay. We had to buy our molds, but the bBureau bought the cookers that baked the clay. Then we had the leather craft shop where billfolds, belts, and ladies’ purses, and many other items were made. One time I bought some weed that was cured in something that really made you high. This was some of the best weed that I had ever smoked. I had paid two hundred dollars for just an ounce, and I could even sell the seeds, and you would get high off the seeds. When I went to pick it up at the gym, I had two inmates as my guards. They made sure it wasn’t going to be a rip- off. Of course, I paid them with the dope. Dealing drugs in the joint is a rough and dangerous game, and there had been plenty of killings because of drug dealings. There would be someone who would getting drugs and then not paying for them. This even happened to me on one occasion. Two inmates tried to get my drugs one time, and I had to get a knife and confront the inmates. I ran after them, and they checked into the hole. This was a lock up where an inmate is placed for his protection. One time I loaned an inmate some money because he didn’t have anything. So he had someone to send me a money order. Well, when the mailroom read the letter, she knew it came from another inmate’s family. We were called to the captain’s office, and he decided to send the money order back. Since we were good inmates and not trouble makers, he said not to do it again. The inmates that are locked up are only allowed out of their cell every three days to take a shower and do a little exercise. When inmates try to put pressure on you and you don’t do anything about it, they will try anything with you. They will think you are weak and then really try to pressure you into other kinds of bullshit. They would try to make a punk or turn you into a gay person. We had killings there like any other prison. Sometimes they stab an iInmate in bed, kill him, and then they would cover him up with a blanket, and it would be hours before he would be found. Then he would be found at count time, when everyone would have to stand up for the four o’clock count. ChapterHAPTER 40

They finally changed the prison from a high level 5five or 6six to a four level 4. A four level 4 iIs a fFederal cCorrectional iInstitution and not a fFederal pPenitentiary. Since I was in the level 5five, I was told to pack my property, and then I was placed into total lock down. They kept about thirty- five of us locked up, and then about two weeks later, we were taken to R.D. and processed for the transfer to another prison. We couldn’t find out what prison we were going to until later after we boarded the bus. We were told we were being delivered to the most secure prison in the United States. It was known as Marion Federal Penitentiary. It was the prison that took the place of Alcatraz. It was a prison where all the hard cores or most vicious inmates were held. Most of the inmates were there because of causing trouble with guards, or they were hard to control. Then they also had the high- profile case like the Mafia or French Cconnection, the latter being large drug rings that sold drugs all over the world. We were transferred there without even having a hearing, and we had done nothing wrong to be sent to this dangerous prison. This was a prison that was under total lock down. This was like being in a single cell twenty- three hours a day, and we were only allowed out for a shower and a little exercise every three days. They had a little exercise yard, where we could go and walk around. However, when you left your cell, you were handcuffed before leaving the cell. Then when you got to the recreation area, and the door was secured. Yyou had to stick your hands through a slot, and the cuffs were removed. One inmate was killed like that, and the guards could do nothing to stop the killing. What happened was one inmate had an argument with two other inmates. So the two inmates went to the yard first. Then when they brought the other one out and he stuck his hands through the slot to get his cuffs off, they stabbed him with homemade knivfes. They had taken their headphones off, and the piece that went over your head was metal. They sharpen it and got it real sharp. Then they concealed it on their body to get it to the yard. We also had a library on a cart, where we could get books for a two- week period. In order to get out to recreation, we had to sign papers for our okay to get out with certain inmates. The reason for this procedure was because you may have an enemy or someone that just didn’t like you. Trouble would happen if they put you out in recreation with the wrong inmates. The reason the prison was in total lock down was because the prisoners had rioted, and a couple of the guards wasere killed. This was done to have total control over the inmates. I kept writing my father-in-law about the fact I had not broken any rules and regulations for that type of prison. He finally made some phone calls, and they transferred me several weeks later. ChapterHAPTER 41

I was transferred to a prison out to Leavenworth, Kansas. This prison also had a forty- foot- high wall and was built almost just like Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. They had processed us and placed us in various cells and had placed me in a cell with all black inmates. I had trouble as soon as I was placed in the cell. I explained my problem to the officer, and I was moved to another cell. Then later I was placed in the A and O, which is Aadmission and Oorientation. Then I met another inmate that was black and wanted to make a punk out of me. So I just talked with him to wait until that night and things would be okay. I looked for a knife and couldn’t find one. I wanted to kill the asshole. So because I didn’t find a knife, I just went up and cussed a guard out and got myself locked up. Then later in the night, they brought him to lock up, but they didn’t put him in my cell. Well, the next morning, I found out he had raped a white inmate that was in his cell right across from mine. The inmate he raped was called out and questioned, and I was also. They sent the black inmate who had two life sentences to the Marion Penitentiary. The inmate that was raped was sent to one prison, and I was sent to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. This was another forty- foot- walled prison. I was placed once again into the admission area. One day I was in the library and ran into an inmate that I had owed money to, and he was demanding for his money. So he was trying to apply pressure on me to get his money. So I wrote a letter using a different name. It said someone was out to get this certain inmate naming me. So later in the day, an officer approached me and took me to the lock up. I was placed into the twenty- three- hour cell to keep me away from the other inmates. I was questioned by the investigation committee, and it was determined that I should be kept locked up for my own protection. I knew one of the inmates that was in lock down from the Terre Haute Pprison, and he sent me some smokes and other stuff. Just like in other prisons, we were allowed to shower three days a week. We were also given razors if we needed to shave. We were given health care items like soap and toothpaste, and that was about it. If we had money, we could buy stuff from the prison commissary. I needed a stamp one day, and I borrowed one from a black inmate, and I would pay him back. He told me not to worry about it. We had ways to get smokes and drugs also. They would throw lines out from the window toward another cell block. The other cell block would fish the line in and tie the smokes or drugs to it, and we would then fish it back into the cell. ChapterHAPTER 42

It was later that I was transferred way out to California. It was known as the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary. This transfer was done like all the others. We were shook down, leg- irons and handcuffs were put on us, and handcuffs, and we were loaded on a bus and then put on a bus and then ton a jet plane, and we were flown to the prison in California. When we unloaded from the plane, it was surrounded by guards with shot guns and rifles. It was for sure no one was going any place. We then were loaded onto a bus and taken to the prison. It was located on a U.S. Air Force bBase. It was known as the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary. This transfer was done like all the others. We were shook down, leg irons put on us and handcuffs, and loaded on a bus and then put on a jet plane and flown to that prison. When we unloaded from the plane it was surrounded by guards with shot guns and rifles. It was for sure no one was going any place. We then were loaded on to a bus and taken to the prison. This was a prison with all single and two- maen cells. It had about ten or twelve different wings, and it held about 1,200twelve hundred inmates. They had a regular orientation cell block, and this is where I ran into an inmate from the Lewisburg prison. This was the same inmate that I had borrowed the stamp from. I saw him, and I went up to his cell to pay him. I talked with him a while and gave him his stamp and thanked him. HI-le was drugged up, and I could tell this from his actions. It was then that he told me that he was going to kill someone that day. It was then that I decided to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. He was subject to do anything, so I thanked him and wished him good luck and got the hell out of there. Later we had recreation, and we went outside to walk, use weights, and play ball or whatever. I was walking around the yard, and then I heard from the other end of the compound someone was screaming. I just kept walking until I got to that area. I then saw the inmate that I had paid for the stamp, and he was sietting on another inmate, just stabbing him in the chest. There were guards all around the incident, but none of them were doing anything. I then saw someone call the nurse station or clinic that we have in the prison. Well, when the stretcher was brought out, the inmate got up off the inmate that he had been stabbing and made the inmates take the stretcher and throw it over the fence. Then he told officers that no one could have him until he was finished with him. The inmate then went back and sat down on the inmate and continued to stab him until the inmate was dead. He also told them when he got to the gate, he would then give them the knife. So that was exactly what he did. I had seen a lot of murders during the time I was in the system, but that one was the most brutal. While I was at the prison, I had first gotten a job in the cable department working for a private company. The company was an industry where inmates worked and got paid. However, I was not interested in that type of work. I was interested in printing. I worked on that job for a while but later got a job in the print shop. I really liked that job, and I started working in the bindery. I finally worked my way up to the type setting job. I first worked on an old line-o’-type machine that printed letters on lead. This type of machine is now no longer used in that profession. No doubt you can see one in a museum somewhere. They now do this on a special computer machine. I worked in the typesetting room with an inmate that was training me on the computer. While I was assigned to the print shop, I took college courses that were taught by the college, and it was Cal Poly State University. I completed all the courses that they had concerning the print shop work. One time while taking a training class in the print shop, I was told do a certain project. Well, I made a letter head with the manager’s name on it, and it said, “TheHE BuckUCK StopsTOPS HereERE.” Well, I turned the project over to the teacher. He approved the project with a grade of “A”. However, several days later, I was called into the manager’s office, and he chewed me out for the project that I had completed in the college class. However, after I explained to him it was a class project, he understood what had happened. Some of the papers had been left around the press, and one of our bosses had found them and turned them into the manager’s office. Well, I really had done nothing wrong. During the time at the print shop, I made homemade brew that was made out of orange juice, yeast, and sugar. This would certainly get you good and drunk. It was so good it would sell for twenty- five dollars a gallon. I then had the job by myself. However, before he left, he sold me some dope for two hundred dollars. It was an ounce of real good weed. He had this teddy bear bottle with water in it and had made a pipe to smoke out of the bottle. When I first hit it, I really didn’t feeill anything. So he fixed it again, and I hit it, and after a minute, I had to go to the trash can to throw up. I can say one thing: that sure was some good dope. Later, I wengot to making wine quite often in the room. I would mix it up in the room. We would then put it outside the room into a transformer that sait nearby. It was out of sight of the office, and we could do it without being caught. I also put a rag on the top of the jug so it would not blow up. It would only take three days, and it would be ready. When it was ready, I would then pour iIt into little bottles and carry it into the main prison. The bottles were small, and I could put them in my pockets. I had to go through a metal detector, and some times they would randomly shake you down. I was lucky with carrying all that wine, and I always carried eight bottles. The institution had all one- man cells, and that made it pretty good to do time. One time I got moved to a unit that was like an honor dorm. However, if you broke a rule, you would be moved to another unit. Well, one day, coming in from the print shop, I carried a roll of tape into the building. However, when I went through the metal detector, the thing went off. Of course, I was pulled out of the line, and they shook me down. So they found the tape, and the lieutenanLt. gave me a write- up. Later, I beat mye charge, and it was because the lieutenanLt. investigated the case. That was an error on his part. He couldn’t write the misconduct charge and investigate it. I was still moved to another unit. It was a good dorm, and we had a lot of fun. I was like everyone else in prison, and I smoked weed and did other drugs. I did acid, some pills, crank, and cocaine. However, I never did heroin. They did have a drug test, but for some reason, I was never tested positive for anything. I sold acid, weed, and other drugs. I never was caught selling anything. While working in the print shop, I never had any problems with my work or other inmates. This was one of the ways we passed a lot of time to get our minds off the outside. We also made wine inside the dorm and hid it in the pipe alley. Of course, they would shake us down and find some, but we always got away with some. One day I came back into the dorm and went to my friend’s cell, and he wasn’t there. However, I noticed his locker that was on the floor raised up like it had been a shaken down. So I asked where my friend was, and they found him for me. I asked him ifdid the officers shooake his cell down. He wanted to know why I asked that question. I then told him his locker was raised up off the floor. He said, “Oh, shit!” and ran to his cell. What happened was he made wine and forgot to put air holes, and it raised the locker up off the floor. We got a good laugh out of that happening. Then the workers in industry built a tunnel underneath the building. They even had a phone line in it and also a big fan to keep them cool while they were digging. Of course, it was snitched off, and the next day they were out there with a pay loader caving it in. They were about five feet from freedom when it was snitched out. Then we had a couple of inmates steal the garbage truck on the compound and tried to crash the fence. One of the inmates was killed, and the other one was caught. We had poker games in the unit. We could get rolls of quarters for the vending machines and for the washer and dryers that were in the units. We could wash our own clothes or send them to the laundry. We also had a toastmasters club in there, and it was to make a better speaker out of a person. I can say it certainly helped me out a lot. We also had a lot of outside entertainment come in to give us a little pleasure. It was mostly music groups that came in, and it was a very good show. ChapterHAPTER 43

I finally had my ten years completed, and I was ready to see the parole board. I had to do one- third of the thirty- year sentence. I had several letters of recommendation from the print shop, plus I had attended college and didn’t have too bad of a record while in prison. When the day did come for my parole interview, I dressed as good as I should, and my boss from the print shop went to the interview with me. When I entered the room, there wereas three men behind a long desk. They went over the routine questions, of asking me why I had committed the crimes. They also asked about my drinking problems. They questioned me about the write- ups I had received for being drunk and fighting. I had also received a write- up for stealing some tape. Then they discussed the bank robberies and other crimes I had committed. They then asked me to step outside, and then they called me back in after about five minutes. They then told me they were granting me the parole. They also told me they were going to parole me to the state of Florida because I had a detainer. They also told me that I would hear from them soon. In a couple of weeks, I received a letter saying my parole date was November 17, 1986. I then reported back to work, and everyone was glad that I had made the parole. I then trained the inmate that worked with me to do everything correct on the computer. The time came for my date, and since I had detainers from the Sstate of Florida, I was picked up a day early. They made me leave all my property there, and I was taken to the lieutenanLt’s office. I was handcuffed and then taken to the front gate. The tower guard called down and asked the officer if he was he going to put leg- irons on me. The officer that was with me told him I couldn’t be too bad because I had made a parole. We drove to the airport, and we caught a small plane to another large town and had to wait about an hour for our plane to arrive. He ordered me breakfast and even removed my cuffs. He explained to me he would treat me right if I didn’t try to escape or anything. He kept his word and treated me like a human being. ChapterHAPTER 44

We arrived in Florida at the Orlando airport early in the morning, and then he rented a car and drove me to the sState prison at Lake Butler, Florida. The prison siets out in red neck country, where everyone chews tobacco. The prison is surrounded by about four or five guard towers, and of course, to get in, you have to check your guns at a tower. The tower lowers a bucket, and the guns are placed in it and then pulled up. Then they open the outer gate and then closed it after the vehicle enters. Then the vehicle is shook down, and they checking the things that cannot be brought into the prison. After it is determined it hads no contraband, the entery gate is opened and then closed. I was then taken to the receiving and discharge area and processed. They first make sure of the fact that you are the right person they are booking, and also the charge. When he read my papers, he asked me where I had been since I had received my sentence back in November of 1976. I then explained to the guard that I had been in the fFederal system. He then took me into a room, stripped me off, and looked all over my body. He even made me bend over and spread my rear end for him. He then gave me clothes and also some soap and other supplies and a bed roll. I was then taken to a cell block holding area because I came after midnight. The cell block was a real old place, and it was mostly single cells. After a certain hour at night, there was no talking, and if you were caught, they would write you up with a bad report. Then if you got smart with the guards, they would whip your ass. I was in this housing area a couple days and then released to open population. I was sent to an open dorm with about seventy- five inmates, and it hadwas double bunks. I was then assigned to a bunk and told the rules of the dorm. The one rule we all hated was sitting on the bunk at count time. Sometimes we would have to sit for over an hour or more. If the officer caught anyone talking, we would sit that much longer. Then while sitting, there he would deliver the mail, but you could not read it until the count was cleared. We had showers right by the officers’s station, and there was no way you could take a shower in private. They had lady officers, and if they wanted to look into the shower, well, there was no curtain to block the view. They also had another rule that there was no looking at the ladies that worked there. They called it wreck less eyeballing. Then some called it staring too much at them. The guards would then take you into a room and close the door and whip your ass. One day we had an escape. The officers would bring other inmates from other camps to the hospital. They would then park their vans on the compound. So two iInmates snuck out and hot- wired one of them. They then crashed through two fences and got away. However, they later wrecked the van. They then entered the woods and were caught later that night. ChapterHAPTER 45

We had to get up early because when the dorm ate, everyone went at the same time. If you didn’t go when it was called, you just did without. The mess hall was like all the others. You had to stand in line to get served and then had to sit down in order. If you took too long to eat, they would tell you to get up and dump your tray. They would do the same thing if you talked too much while eating. We, of course, had to go through the medical department for checkups. This usually took a long time. Then, of course, all new inmates had to go before the classification officer. I was told I was not allowed to have a copy of my parole papers, and this was kept by the classification officer. I was asked where I would like to go, and I told her somewhere warm, like down south. She also told me my release date was like 2006. I was later transferred to a place where they held you until you were transferred. This place was a little building that was narrow and only had a latrine where you could take a leak. There was a sink, and that was all. If you wanted to take a shower, you had to go to another building. They also had tents where they housed inmates because the system was overcrowded. There were about twelve to twenty beds in the tents. The tents in the summer time were extremely hot, and in the winter, they were cold. This was a transit unit, and you didn’t want to be there very long. This is where I finally got a visit after over ten years in prison. My brother came down from Georgia, and I had to strip down in a little room before I was allowed to go out to the visiting park. They had tables and chairs, and we had to sit in a smoking section. We visited for about two hours, and after he left, I was again stripped and then allowed to return to my dorm. It was about a week after the visit that I was told to pack my personal property and that I was transferring. They put about forty of us on the bus, and it was going south. They did not hand cuff us or put leg- irons on us. ChapterHAPTER 46

I finally arrived at the Martin Correctional Institution. It was located near the big lake called Lake Okeechobee. This prison was a fenced- in prison with no towers. It had trucks that would patrol around the prison twenty- four hours a day. The outer gate was opened, and the bus entered. Then the gate was closed, and the inside gate opened to let the bus in and then closed. The bus pulled up to this one building where we would be processed. Then our names were called off of the ones that would be staying. The guard had our records and pictures along with our life history and so forth. My name was called, and you have to give your name and prison number: This number you would have the rest of your life no matter how many times you get out and return to prison. I was unloaded, and about ten others were with me. We were then taken into this admission building known also as Receiving and Discharge. We were told to sit on a bench and to keep our mouths shut. We were then taken to a room one by one and stripped and searched. Then our property was searched, and things were taken from us that we were not allowed to keep. If we wanted to send it home, we could, but we had to pay for the postage. Then after they took our pictures and fingerprints again, we were given a blanket, sheets, pillow case. Then they passed out toothpaste, soap, and that was it. Then we were assigned to a dorm. The compound consisted of six dorms with four quads to a building. This was to keep everyone separated from one quad to the others. If you lived in one quad, you could not enter any other quad or building. The control room sits in the middle of the quad, and the guard could observe all the quads at one time. The control could control the room locks, lights, and the T.V., and the phone. The phone was out in the hall, and one at a time, we wereas allowed out to use it. Sometimes there were fights over who was going to use it next. In the quads, it was all two- maen rooms, and we had two showers on each floor. There were only two floors. We had to go out into the hall ways in order to turn in our dirty clothes so we could get clean ones. If we received money from home, we had to fill out a slip, and it was then issued to us in the form of a coupon book. They had two canteens or commissary where we could buy various food items and stuff. When you went and made your purchase, the operator would tear out the coupons he needed. The operator was an inmate that was just like the rest of us. The operators could get fired for various reasons. Some would gamble in the dorms and couldn’t pay their poker debts. They would then steal it from the canteen to pay it. However, sometimes they would get snitched on, and the business office would pull a surprise inventory. They did the inventory each month, usually the last day of the month. However, if they got information, they would do it at any time. Then as usually we had to go to medical, and also classification. When I went, they determined my release date would change because I had been working while in the fFederal system. The state was giving outr huge amounts of gain time because of the prison overcrowding. There were times we would get 108one hundred and eighty days or more in one month. When they did this, that would pull our release date way down. I received a job working in the school as an iInstructor, and it wasn’t a bad job. I lost that job because they almost caught me for changing some money for one of the inmates. They had stopped the canteen books, and we were not allowed to have any bills over a five- dollar bill. We could have twenty or thirty in cash on us, but anything over a five- dollar bill would be taken. After losing that job, I was assigned to the laundry. I worked on a folding table doing towels and sheets. I would then get off around two in the afternoon. I was finally given a job in another room where I stamped numbers on the clothes. There was a group in there that was a click;, in other words, they were real tight buddies. I didn’t fit in with that click, so I was called into the office one day and was told to report to my classification officer. He told me he was going to assign me to the inside grounds department. This involved picking up paper and raking the grounds. I was assigned to keeping the area clean around the mess hall. This involved sweeping the cement and picking up trash, and it was an easy job. We had a lot of dope on the compound, and one day out in the yard, they made an inmate strip to his shorts. Then the inmate starting running, and he managed to get rid of his dope by throwing it up on the mess hall. He was taken to the lockup, which was known as the hold. You stay in a cell all day and get out to a shower every three days. There is no T.V. or any other thing to do. It wasn’t a place you wanted to be in unless you snitched on someone or you were scared of someone. Finally, my custody was reduced by my classification officer, and I was approved for a transfer to an honor building. However, before that happened, I was moved from the dorm to one of the twenty army tents they had on the compound because of the prison overcrowding. The tents were very hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I wasn’t in them in winter, but I heard about them. After about three weeks in the tents, I was moved to another dorm for a couple of weeks. This dorm was the same as the other one that I had moved out of several weeks before. One day while at work, I was called over the compound intercom and told to report to the dorm. When I arrived at the dorm, I was told to pack my stuff and report to classification. This was also a place where they shook your personal property down before transferring. They looked through all our stuff, and there was about fifteen of us, and then we were placed into a van. ChapterHAPTER 47

We had to drive about a mile or so to arrive at Martin Vocational Center. This was a small complex with no fence and with only three buildings sietting in the middle of an orange grove. When we unloaded off the van, we were taken into a little office, and our property was searched. We were identified and then were assigned to bunks and a particular building. We were given sheets, blankets, and towels and some soap, toothpaste, and razors. Each of the two buildings was very old, and each one held about seventy- five inmates. They were all double bunk beds. We had six or eight toilets and about the same on showers. Of course, you had to shower with other inmates. You also had to share with inmates in the toilet area. The building had a small office where a guard sat, but he was not armed. The next morning we were woken up and went to the chow hall. We were fed just like the army, but the food was not as good. Work call was at eight, and we would line up in a certain row and then pass through a gate and hadve to give our I.D. cards out to an officer, and they would be put in a certain holder. They would take them to the office after we left. For the first couple of days, I worked picking oranges that the state grew for another prison that had an orange juice plant. Then after a couple of days, I was finally called to talk with a classification officer. I was assigned to the mechanic shop, which was a job working on the state vehicles. We would do all the work on them. Mostly we would change tires and change oil, and do tune- ups. We also had to go out on road calls to do repairs. However, before we did this, we had to be checked out on a special permit for a certain length of time. This was a lot better than the place where I had been located. The amount of time the state was giving out was reducing my sentence very quick. My brother came over to see me, and we visited in a pretty nice place. There were picnic tables, and we could sit outside or inside. The officer did not hover over you and watch you like a hawk. Then on the night of February 5, 1988, an officer had a list of names, and I was on that list. So that night I packed all my personal items and gave my stuff away that I wasn’t taking with me. I had made a call that night to my brother to come and pick me up the next morning. When I woke up the next morning, I took a shower. I then told the inmates farewell and wished them all luck. I then called my brother and found out he was on the way. Then I had some breakfast and waited around the camp until about eleven thirty, and my brother finally arrived. When I saw him as I approached the office, I was told to take the clothes he brought me and to go change. It didn’t take me long, and then I was given a hundred- dollar check and was told which bank I could get it cashed. I then signed a paper, and I was then free to go. ChapterHAPTER 48

It was really nice to be free, and I felt real good. We arrived at my home town, which was Fort. Myers, Florida. My brother gave me clothes and shoes, and I slept on a little army bed in the living room. That was okay with me, and I was now free. I had to report to my fFederal probation officer, and he told me to come to his office the following day. So that night I just stayed home and relaxed and watched T.V. The next morning, I dressed up, and my brother and I went for the interview with the parole officer. Of course, he laid down all the rules about being on parole. I had to be employed, live at a certain place, and advise him when I moved or changed jobs. I was also told that I could not drink. I had to have a special permit to leave a certain area outside the county. I could not be around fire arms because I was a convicted felon. I was not to be taking any drugs, and I would be random tested. If I took any drugs, they had to be prescribed by a doctor. The rules were tough, but I had to go by them. The parole officer was a real nice guy, and he discussed my case with my brother very politely. He gave me some information as to where to look for help and for job- placement centers. I went to the center, and when you find a job, the government pays the employer half the salary, and the employer pays the other half. What it amounted to is the company that hired a felony, they get a tax break. I got a job typesetting on the same type of computer that I had trained on in the fFederal prison. When I produced all my diplomas and college credits, I was hired on the spot. I worked for a company that produced a paper that was given out free, but you had to pay for the ads if you wanted to place one it. When I first went to work, I had no transportation, but my brother took me to work and picked me up. I was looking around now for someone to have a good time with, and of course, a man who had done over ten years is looking for a woman. One day I was driving around, and I saw a young lady standing by a car in a parking lot. I blew my horn at her, and she waived. So I stopped and talked with her, and she agreed to go to bed with me for a certain amount, which was thirty dollars. What I didn’t know was that she was a crack addict. I soon started dating her, and we were taking a bath together. After that, she smoked some crack in front of me. Up to this time, I had only smoked weed. She was smoking, and she told me to just try some smoke in the can and that it wouldn’t hurt me. So what she would do was put some ashes from what she was smoking on the can and then put a piece of crack rock on it and hit it with a lighter and inhaled the smoke of which I didn’t feel anything. So she smoked another rock and left more smoke in the can. I then inhaled, and after about twenty seconds, I did feel something. The young lady looked different, and it appeared to me she had a certain glow about her, and she looked real good. She looked a lot better to me since I had inhaled this time. I just reached over to her and started making love to her, and she was all for it. I would see her a lot after that, and we would get together a lot after that meeting. ChapterHAPTER 49

My brother finally sold me a car, and now I could drive myself to work and go where I wanted. I did change jobs, and I now worked for a place that did all kinds of typesetting. This was a good trade, but I didn’t make much money for all the training I had taken while I was in prison. I was now smoking the crack rock with the girl that I went with, and it was easy to spend your pay check on it. Now I was hooked on it, and you start to scheme and figure ways to get more. You will steal, borrow, and about anything else to get more. I robbed stores and four banks to get more money. I would write out a note and walk into the bank and give the teller the note. I would tell her to be quick about it. They never refused to give me the money. They would just start putting the money in the bag. I would then walk out and around the corner and be gone. I usually kept my car out of sighte of the bank. In one bank I went into, I gave the teller the note, and she laid the money on the counter. I told her to put the money in a bag. She told me that she did not have a bag. She said, “Yyou are the bank robber, and you should have brought a bag with you.” I thought she was real cool about it. I just picked the money up and put it in my shirt. I then just walked out of the bank and disappeared. In another bank, I walked in and produced the note and was getting the money from one teller. The other teller next to her asked what was going on over there. I told her to pass her money over also, and then I walked out. The tellers are trained to give you the money, and that makes it easier because no one gets hurt. They especially don’t want any customers harmed. I would then head to the nearest crack dealer and then wind up in some motel room. I would usually be with four or five people, and most of them would peep out the windows, crawl around on the floor looking for pieces of crack. Some of them would like to sit in the bathroom with the light off. The crack smokers see things and they really don’t. They see things moving when they feel the effect of the crack. It makes a lot of them paranoid. When the crack runs out, they start crawling around looking for some that someone may have dropped. People that smoke crack don’t care about anything except getting more. I once told a young lady that had a kid that we should go and buy the kid something, and she said, “Hell no, gets some crack.” I was once sitting in my car at a doctor’s office, and a lady asked me if I was I waiting on someone. I told her I was waiting for my wife, who was in the doctor’s office. Later when the F.B.I. scanneds the area asking questions, she would describe me and also what the car looked like. They then scanned the area where crack wais sold and fouind out who wais spending a lot of money, and they get their leads by the crack heads telling on you. Then when they go to the jail, they get out real quick. Then you have the regular informers that help the police. ChapterHAPTER 50

I was finally caught when I and two girls went out to a crack area. I saw cops all over the area, and I told her not to pull down in that area. However, she said there were no cops or dogs, and she pulled in to the area. We entered this one little house where a black family lived. We then sent the lady to buy some crack. Outside the cops were looking all over for who had gotten out of the truck. The cops looked in all the houses around the truck except for the one where we were located. Then a cop started looking in the truck we had been driving. That is when the woman I was with went to the door and asked the cop what he was doing messing with her truck. The cop then came to the door and asked who else was in the house. Then the cop came into the house. He asked what we were doing there. We told him we were watching a couple of kids. Then he asked me for my I.D. and my name. He then asked me to step outside so he could get a better look at me. We went outside, and he told me to put my hands on the hood of the car. He then reached into my pants pocket and got my wallet out and pulled the I.D. out. He then said, “Well, look who we got here.” He then took all the money out of the wallet and said, “Look at this.” He then finished shaking me down and then put handcuffs on me then put me in the car. He drove me down to the city jail and booked me for the robbery of three banks in Lee County. They finger printed me and took my picture. Then they took me into the interview room and questioned me about the various robberies. I was hand cuffed and placed in another squad car and taken back downstairs and placed into a holding cell for about an hour. I was handcuffed and placed in another squad car and taken to the county jail, which was only a block away. Here they also had the outer gate and then the entery gate. The two gates were never opened both at the same time. Before we entered, the officer got out of his car and put his weapon in a locker. He then removed me from the car. He then took me up to a window, and I was told to take everything out of my pockets. These items were put on a personal property list, and I was given a receipt. The deputy took me and placed me in a holding cell until later in the night. After about two hours, I was called out, and they took my picture and fingerprinted me and then placed me into a different holding cell. Later I was called out again to see a nurse, and she asked various questions about my health. I was stripped down and given a pair of coveralls and a bed roll and then placed into another holding cell until the next morning. After having breakfast, I was taken upstairs and placed in a large cell with about twenty other inmates. However, I had to sleep on a mattress on the floor because there weasren’t enough beds to go around. There were already three inmates sleeping on the floor. I would just have to wait until I got a bunk bed. I called my brother and let him know that I was in jail and asked him to bring me some underwear and T-sShirts. The next day was for visiting, and my two brothers came to see me. We had to talk through a telephone and see each other through a thick glass. We visited for about an hour, and they left. One of my brothers left me ten dollars so I could get something to smoke. The T.V. in the cell block was run mostly by black inmates, and we also had a black houseman. The houseman is like a boss, and he sees that everything is cleaned up and also everyone gets a tray. However, if you don’t wake up or have a friend wake you up, someone else is going to get your tray. You would have to wait until lunch to get some food. One time I and a friend had tried to escape. We hid in the visiting booth and were down on the floor. If the guards looked in, they could not see us. The count was taken in the dorm, and two inmates were missing. They started looking, and they even looked into the window but didn’t see us. However, the captain came up and asked them if they looked into the room. The guard said yes. Then the captain asked, “Ddid you open the door?” The guard said no, he didn’t. The captain said, “Wwell, open the damn door.” There they found us down on the floor. Then of course, they put us in the hole for a couple of weeks. I was called out of the cell for an interview with my parole officer, and of course, he told me my parole had been violated. He also told me a warrant had been issued and a hold or detainer was going to be placed against me. Then a couple of days later, I was taken before a judge and charged with three bank robberies and was pled not guilty. I was given an attorney from the pPublic dDefender’s office. ChapterHAPTER 51

Then about three days later, I was called out again and taken to Naples, Florida, and booked in that jail for another bank robbery. I didn’t have to stay long there. I was taken to court and charged, and then a lawyer talked with me, and I was told to plead guilty, and I would receive fifteen years, and the judge would not charge me with a habitual criminal act. So a couple of days later, I was taken before the judge again and sentenced to fifteen years to be served in the Florida Department of Correction. I was taken back to the jail in Fort. Myers. I was once again taken back to the same cell block and got a bed right away. Later on a lawyer came to see me, and a plea was offered to me. I was to be given a forty- year sentence, and the time would run concurrent with the sentence that I received in Naples, Florida. So for the three bank robberies, I received fifteen on one, fifteen on the other, and ten on the third one. These ran for a total of forty years. The forty years was the complete total I would have to serve. So I went to court, and that was the way I received the sentence. One night they came by and called my name and told me to pack my stuff and that I was leaving the next morning. Later that night, two deputies came and took me down stairs and placed me in a holding cell until they were ready to leave. There wereas about twenty of us in the holding cell, and we were called out one at a time and hand cuffed, and leg- irons were placed on us. We were then placed in the back of a van and were on our way to the reception center at Lake Butler, Florida. It was a rough ride because we were all crowded up in there with all the personal property. It took us about six hours to arrive. We could use the bath room, which was just a funnel in the floor, to take a leak, and this ran out on the ground. When we finally arrived, it was about the same as before. They still had double gates, and the guards checked their guns at the tower. A bucket was lowered, and the guns were placed in it, and then it would be pulled up to the tower. The processing was the same as before— sietting on a bench and no talking. Pictures were taken, and we were finger printed as usual. You still could not look at the women or even talk to them. After the processing, we were assigned to dorms, issued coveralls until we were to receive our regular pants and shirts. We were assigned beds in the dorm, and the guard ran the rules down to us. He told us when to shower and when to eat, and about how the count was held, and course what would happen when a rule was broken. Then the next morning, we were woken up with all the lights in the dorm turned on. We would wash up, and then we would all go outside when the dorm was called. We would line up in rows of two and march to the chow hall. We then, of course, went through the serving line and were served by inmates that worked in the kitchen. The black inmates had their own section, and the whites sat in another section. However, you could sit anywhere if you wanted to do so. We would then return to the dorm, and some of us would have call outs to see medical and dental departments. This would take some times hours to be examined because they may be two hundred or more inmates from various jails coming in twenty- four hours a day. We were told that no talking was allowed and no eye balling the women. There was no undressing them with your eyes or drooling over them. If you didn’t do as the guards said, they had a special room they would take you in and rough you up. If you gave them any trouble at all, they would take you to the lock down section. This was like a dungeon, and it hadwas one- man cells, and it was hot as hell in the summer time. In the lock down section, you took a shower every three days and changed clothes. Your food was slipped through a hole in the door. There was no talking during the count nor was there any talking after the lights were out at ten at night. If you had letters to mail or a request to certain departments, you would place it in the bars, and a guard would come by and pick it up. Then in open population, we would be interviewed by different departments. They would explain how all the whole prison worked and what they expected from us while we were there. ChapterHAPTER 52

After we finished here at this prison, we were transferred to another place for holding until we were sent to our permanent institution. I was transferred to a place they called tent city. This was just across the river about a mile away. This place was like an army barracks and was built with just a latrine and sink to wash up. If you had to sit down and pass your bowels, you had to go outside to another building. You also had to go out to change your clothes and take a shower. They also had several rooms where we could watch T.V. We also had several large recreation fields where you could walk or run and play various games or just sit down and talk. Several days later, I was woken up early in the morning and wasere told to pack my personal property, and I was being transferred. We were taken to the mess hall and fed. Then we were taken out to where the bus was located. We were called out one at a time by the guard, and we had to give him our prison number and ourt date of birth, and also our I.D. number. He would ask us other questions to make sure it was the right inmate. We then boarded the bus, and the gates were opened, and the bus had about forty inmates that were going south to various prisons. I was taken to Marion Correctional Iinstitution, which is located just outside Ocala, Florida. This prison had the same entry as other prisons. The guards checked their guns, and then a gate opened, and the bus entered,s and the gate closed. We were called one at a time to unload and then taken into a visiting area. There the guards looked through our personal property, and we were shook down and given a different set of clothes. They took pictures and finger printed us, and our clothes size was taken by some iInmate that worked in the laundry. He also gave us a blanket, sheets, pillow case, towel, and a wash cloth. We were taken over to medical to talk with an M.T.A,. and this was a medical assistant. If we had any real health problems, he would then refer us to a real doctor. After this, we were taken to a dorm and assigned beds, and this was an orientation dorm. This was where every department at the institution would talk with us and explain all the rules to us. Then someone would call us out and discuss our case with us. Then classification would assign us jobs if we had not found one. I myself found one working in the gGarment fFactory. However, I could not prove I had a G.E.D,. and I had to attend school for two hundred hours before I could go to work. I completed the hours and went to work. The factory made shirts, pants, shorts, and T-shirts. I worked on a sewing machine sewing pockets on shirts and also the collars. Then I got the job, which was just pressing the pockets prior to being sewed onto the shirts. The wages we received were very low, but this was raised up month by month. The highest we could make working was fifty- five cents an hour, and you had to be there a while to get that type of pay. We also had a lot of poker games, and a lot of betting on sports. Two inmates made an escape from the garment factory. Someone put them in a box and loaded them onto a truck. They made it out okay, except when they jumped off the truck, one landed running, and the other one fell and broke his leg. Well, when the ambulance came, he took the ambulance and tried to get away. The police over took him and brought him back to the prison. He was placed into solitary confinement. He would stay there until his trial date came up. The other one, to my knowledge, was never caught. I worked in the garment factory for about four months. I was transferred back to Lake Butler Rreception Ccenter to see a doctor about a mole that I wanted removed. One day I was called out and placed in leg- irons and handcuffs and taken outside the prison about fifty miles away. The doctor I saw examined me, and then he froze my mole, and about five days later, it just dropped off. I was transferred back to the camp at Marion and went back to the same job. We had a large recreation yard, and I spent a lot of time just walking around. Then of course, once a week we had a place to watch video movies. The movies were the latest movies that came out. In fact, there was one law maker that was in Tallahassee, the capitol, which said we were seeing better movies than he could afford. When he raised so much hell about it, the state did away with the movies. We then could only get films for educational interest. One evening I was called to medical for a physical, and that is a complete check up, and later I found out that I was being transferred to another institution. What the classification officer had done was to just fill up another camp was to pick at random twenty inmates. Then of course, we had to pack our property. The reason was the camp we were going to had created a riot, and they were moved to a maximum- security prison. We were loaded on a van like sardines. ChapterHAPTER 53

We were taken to a reception center in Orlando, Florida. When we arrived there, we went through the processing system, and then we were placed in the dungeon. It is just another name for total lockdown. This place is kept real cold even in the summer time. That way the inmates are all wrapped up and quiet. Then on Monday morning, we were called out and loaded on another transfer bus and taken to Lake Butler. However, this time we were placed in the wWest uUnit. It was also called the Wwild, Wwild, Wwest. This place was a real red neck country. You really had to walk the line here, or you would get your ass whipped. They had a lot of female officers, and a lot of them would want to show you they had the power. They could do whatever they wanted to do. We still had to sit up on the beds for hours at a time for the count to clear. If you were caught talking, we would have to sit there longer. We had to march to the mess hall, and it was crowded. When a guard told you to dump your tray, you had better do just like that whether you were finished or not. Finally, after two days there, I got up early in the morning and was told I was transferring. So we were all gathering in this little room, and one inmate asked what he was he going to do with his box. The lady officer who chewed or dipped something told him to stick it up his ass if he wanted to do so. Needless to say, I was sure glad to be leaving that place. The inmate couldn’t say or do anything because if he did, the guards would have roughed him up real good. We were finally taken over to the mess hall and fed, then we were loaded onto the bus for our trip to various camps. I was transferred to Gulf Correctional Institution. This camp was built over a garbage dump, and sea gulls would be flying over the camp every day dropping their waste on us. It was like they were bombing us. Also they had a riot at this camp and transferred a lot of inmates. The fourteen of us were the replacements for them. Since it was a new camp, there wasn’t much to do there. However, they did have a lot of poker games, and there wasn’t anything else to keep the inmates occupied. Then the library was in a real small trailer with very few books in it. They also had the law library in the same trailer, which was making it more crowded. The dorms were what they called open bay dorms. There was a dorm on one side and another on the other side. In the center was a large glass- enclosed control room where two to three officers worked. The TV. saet right in front of the control room where all the inmates could be observed. Right in back of the control room was where the laundry room was located. Off to the side of it was where the officers sat and could see the showers and the bathroom. The toilets had no doors on them, but a small block wall would block you from each other sietting on the commodes. The officers could see everyone in the showers. The sState of Florida was still giving out a bunch of gain time each month. It was twenty days extra if you worked. However, if you kept a good record by not getting into any trouble, you would get a lot more. Sometimes they would give you sixty to ninety days because of overcrowding in the prison system. They also had inmates that would loan you money, and if you borrowed $5.00five dollars, you would have to pay back $7.50seven fifty for interest the next week. If you didn’t pay it, they would put another $2.50two fifty interest on it. Then if you didn’t pay, they would send the hit man or bill collector after you. There were times an inmate would be beat up, or he would tell an officer he was in fear of his life. He would then check into solitary confinement, where he could be away frorm the regular population. He would be in lock down all by himself. This camp didn’t have a confinement building because it was new. So if an inmate wanted to transfer, he would just sign a paper saying he was in fear of some inmates. ChapterHAPTER 54

They would then transfer him to another camp. I finally did this because they had no jobs here that paid. They put me on a van and placed me in solitary until the officials in Tallahassee made a decision. That was the town where the Florida Department of Corrections main office was located. I was finally approved and sent to an A.C.I. This was located near a little town up in North Florida. After going through processing, we were assigned dorms, and my cash money was taken from me. The officer took me to the store or commissary. I was allowed to spend it. This camp did not allow any cash but gave you canteen books with little tickets inside that would be torn out when you bought something. These were issued each week. I was assigned to the wWest uUnit. They also had an eEast unit, but it was located across the highway. We went through orientation, and then we were assigned to dorms. These dorms were the same as other camps. I was assigned to a job that was called inside grounds. This was taking care of the grass, plants, and other things. I would finally get the garbage dump where I looked through the trash and got all the drink cans out of it to save them for the state. I had to work this spot in the rain, and they did issue me a rain coat for the job. They also had poker games here, and inmates were checking into the hole or solitary because they owed money for gambling. I didn’t like it at this camp, so I wanted a transfer. However, since I worked the dump, I thought of a way to make some money. The visiting park sent all their garbage to my area. So I talked to this inmate, and he had his visitors to bring dope in, and this would be put it in an ice cream container. This container would be smashed shut and thrown in the garbage. Then of course, this would come to my dump, and I would dig it out and deliver it to my friend. He would give me one- third of it. The weed would scell for ten dollars for just a little bit in the corner of an envelope. You could usually get two small joints out of it. Wwe did this for a long time and never got caught. I got a note one day from a friend that I was in jail with, and he was in the eEast uUnit. The inmates that worked the garbage truck brought me the note. He asked me to transfer over there, so that is what I did. I signed a paper saying I was in fear of my life, and they put me into solitary confinement. I stayed in there for a little over two weeks and then transferred to the eEast uUnit. This unit was up on a hill and at one time was a military base but then was sold to the stlate. Once again I went through the shake down, and they always make you bend over and look up your rear end and they laugh and joke when they do this. They may even laugh and say, “Tthat is a real nice one.” I was then given a bed roll and other little things and taooken to a dorm. I was then assigned to G d-Dorm. There were four buildings, two on one side of the compound and two on the other side. It was separated by a fence where the sea gulls stayed. They flew over the compound all during the day. There were two dorms in each building, making a total of eight dorms. There were about eighty to one hundred inmates per dorm. The control room saet in the center of the two dorms, but the officer couldn’t see the T.V. room, and he had to leave the office in order to observe the inmates in that area. They had several vocation shops, and I worked in one, which was the mechanic shop. We repaired the vehicles for the state and county sheriff’s department. I enjoyed that job, and I took a special course in fixing brakes. It was a good course, and it taught you everything about brakes. I worked until they closed the shop because they moved it outside the fence. I was a high- security inmate, and that meant I couldn’t work outside the fences. I had holds or detainers on me from the fFederal gGovernment because I had violated my parole in 1988. When the shop closed, I finally got a job as a houseman. This was an easy job sweeping and mopping the dorm and dusting and also taking out the garbage. They let us play cards in the dorms, and we spent a lot of time doing that to kill time. They had one good escape while I was there. They had a man hole cover down in front of the mechanic shop, and two inmates busted the lock on it and discovered that the bars had rusted away, and they crawled to freedom. They had about a three- hour head start before they were missed. The security check was taken quite often. We found out later they had broken into a house and got drunk and were caught. They finally closed my dorm for repairs, and I was moved to G-D dorm, which was on the other side of the compound. When I transferred over there, I got me a job working in the library. I checked out books, news papers, and other things to the inmates, and that was a real good job. I got interested in the lLaw lLibrary. I had to study for that, and then I was tested for it and finally given my diploma for a certified law clerk. We helped inmates prepare petitions for the courts, and a lot of them wanted their petitions typed. It was this area where I made my money. I would type them up and give them extra copies and get smoking money and coffee money. I was now spending time with my friend who I was in jail with in Fort. Myers, Florida. There was another inmate we called Captain Red because he worked in the cCaptain’s office. He grew a lot of hot peppers and always played poker with us. He was a real nice guy, and we were good friends. He finally transferred, and my other friend was released. I never got money from home, and working in the library was okay with me. The inmates would send me money orders for typing things for them, and they would put my brother’s name on it as the one sending it. It was against the rules for another inmate’s family to send money. If they caught you doing this, they would give you a bad report. This meant going to lock up and maybe staying in prison longer. While working in the library, a friend of mine was locked up in confinement. The law clerks went back there to bring them legal material. Well, I had taken some smokes back to him. I hid it among the legal papers, and the guard didn’t look in the package that I laid on the bench. I was shook down and then let into the confinement area. I finally got the package delivered. However, several days later, he had hung himself with his bed sheets. I finally started smoking weed, and I also started holding another inmate’s dope for him in the law library. They had a cabinet in the bath room, and it had a false bottom to it that no one knew about it. It had a sliding bottom, and it was real easy to put the dope in and remove it. A lot of inmates wanted dope, and you couldn’t let anyone know you had it because they would rob you. If the guards caught you withfli a large amount, they would put a charge on you with the outside court. One inmate found some residue that I had left on the glass below the mirror. This was in the bathroom, and he told me he knew I had dope, and he wanted me to sell him a twenty- five- dollar piece. So I did sell him some, and he paid me right away. At this time they were not testing us for dope, but about a month later, they did start testing. We would smoke all the time and not worry about it unless a guard would catch us. One day I was walking across the compound, and this inmate I knew brought me a bag with chips in it. He told me to carry it to the library. Well, I glanced in the sack and saween packages of dope underneath the chips. So I had to walk up to the control booth where they controlled a gate for both sides of the compound. The guard asked me what I had in the sack. I told her some chips for the boss. She then passed me on through the gate. If she would have looked in the sack, I would have gotten an outside charge. I managed to hide it in the library without anyone knowing where I stashed it. While at A.C.I,. I knew how the dope came into the prison. What the inmates would do is have some visitor drop the weed off at the guards’s range. This was where the guards practiced their shooting ability. The inmate would have his friends on the outside drop the weed in the garbage cans at the gun range. The garbage truck would go by and pick it up, and the inmates that worked on it would bring it back iInto the prison. They would then deliver it to who was to receive it. We got whiskey and other stuff the same way. They also had a medical department, and a couple of females worked there. Well, one day a black iInmate caught one alone and knocked her out and raped her in a little lunch area. He was caught later and taken to outside court and charged. He was in prison for raping his grandmother, and he had only three or more months before he was to be released. When this happened, they locked the compound down for several hours. All inmates had to remain where they were until they opened the compound. On Sunday, the library didn’t open for anyone. The outside dDrug tTask fForce came into the prison with police dogs. They shook the whole compound down for drugs. In my work area, they found some weed in some newspapers near my desk. This in turn caused me to be shaken down in the dorm and also for me to be called up front for a urine test. Of course, I tested positive and was placed into confinement for sixty days and a loss of one hundred days gain time, which meant I would spend that much longer in prison. While in lock down, we were not allowed to smoke, but once in a while, smoking material would be smuggled in by someone. They would charge you five dollars for three joints. They would get Bbugler tobacco in, and they would roll them up small and sell them for two dollars. Sometimes we would have to get lights for our smokes from an electric wall socket. The way we did this was to take a paper clip and put one end of it in each hole on the socket with a piece of toilet paper over the clip. When the clip got hot, it would light the toilet paper, and we would drag it into the cell. Sometimes a guard would walk by and see you smoking, and he would just look and shake his head and keep walking. Then another would come by and open your cell and shake you down. However, there would be nothing left for him to find. We were allowed to shower three nights a week. When we showered, there was about ten inmates all crowded in a stall where you had to share the five showers. Then you had the sex perverts that wanted to look at your rear end and say, “You sure got a fat ass.” This was mostly talk from some black inmates, but you had white inmates that were just as bad. One inmate had a W on one cheek of his rear and another one on the other cheek. One inmate asked him what it said, and he said, “WowOW.” This caused a lot of trouble, having to deal with the homosexuals throughout the prison system. I was finally called to talk with my classification officer, and he said I could not work in the library. He asked me where I wanted to work. So I told him I would like to have a job working as a houseman. This was an easy job cleaning up the dorm. I was finally released from confinement after doing sixty days, and I was assigned to A- Ddorm. This had been remodeled, and it was a real clean dorm. My job was sweeping and mopping the dorm and a little dusting. We would be finished with our work by ten in the morning. Then at eight, the work squads would leave and everyone else. If you didn’t have a job, you had to leave the dorm and go to the recreation yard until eleven o’clock. This was because they would start feeding lunch at eleven. Then when they fed lunch, they would feed by dorm, and the feeding order would rotate among the dorms. While working as a houseman, I had plenty of time to play cards and any other thing. However, since I couldn’t get back iInto the library, I had to figure a way to get to another prison. One night in the dorm, we had this female guard working. We also had this real pervert in our dorm. The lights had been turned out, and this female guard was standing outside the office, talking with someone in the office. This black inmate crawled up behind her and smelled her ass. His nose brushed against her ass. She turned around and asked him what the hell was he was doing down there. He picked his keys up off the floor and told her he had dropped his keys. She told him if she caught him down there again, she would kick his ass real good. It was funny as hell because all the inmates laughed about it. Then on the outside of the building, we had a basement where there was at one time a confinement area for army prisoners. One iInmate was good at picking locks and making keys. He had several keys for different doors around the compound. What he would do is charge the homosexuals to use the room. He would lock them in and come back and let them out in an hour or two or when the coast was clear of guards. The inmate was never caught by guards. ChapterHAPTER 55

I finally decided to get me a transfer so I walked up to a guard and told him I had to go to confinement because I was in fear of my life. So I packed all my personal effects, and he took me to solitary confinement. They stripped me off and shook me down real good and gave me what I was allowed. The other stuff was kept in a property room and then given back when you were released. I was finally taken to a cell and given a bedroll and toothpaste and a toothbrush. This would be where I would remain until they decided what to do with me. All the prisons in North Florida were built about the same as others. It is the same procedure at all the new camps. After being assigned to a dorm, we would be sent to the yard every day except Saturday, Sunday, and holidays. We were allowed in the dorms for about an hour during lunch and then back to the yard until about three thirty. This gave us time for the count at 4:00four Pp.mM. After this count, we were free to do anything. Mostly we would go to the yard or library and play cards or watch TV. until the nine o’clock count. While at Jackson C.I,. I tried to get a job in the law library. The lady that ran it would not hire me because of what had happened at the other prison. She also said that the library had no typewriters because the court had told her motions and petitions could be hand written. The courts have to accept those court papers because the inmates are pro se, meaning they have no lawyers. The inmate’s petitions the courts to get their sentences reduced or try to get a new trial. The law clerks are trained by the state and help the inmates prepare their petitions by looking up the cases in law books that support their cases. They then study the inmate’s case to find out if the court made mistakes in the case or find some loop hole that can get the inmate back to court to get some time off the inmate. In the years that I was in prison, I have seen many inmates go back to court because of these certified law clerks doing a great job helping their fellow inmates. A lot of the inmates would pay the clerks even though the law clerks were not allowed to receive any money in return for theirhis work. However, money would change hands because some inmates felt they could get a better job done if they gave the inmate something for his work. One time I received a one- hundred- dollar money order from an inmate’s family, and in the letter, the inmate’s’ family had put a little note saying, “Thanks for the excellent typing job you have done for my son.”. Well, one morning when I went to work, my boss called me to his office. He told me that he had to take me up to have an interview with the prison investigator. He said he could not talk about it until we talked to the investigator. So we went to his office, and we sat on a bench until I was called into the office with my boss. The investigator asked me a lot of questions as to whether had I received money from other inmates, and I said no. However, he then produced a letter and a money order from an inmate and asked me if I knew him. I told him yes, I did. He then told me if I could get the other inmate to drop the grievance or complaints against the mail room, he would then drop or not carry it any further with me about receiving money from this inmate’s family. sSo I went out and talked with the other inmate, and he said he would drop the grievance against the mail room iIf they dropped the other charge, which is a bad report that would cause us to do more time in prison. So we were both called into the room, and the deal was made, and we were free to go back to our jobs. They told me that the money order would be returned to the person who sent it. I was finally called one day and told to get ready for a transfer. ChapterHAPTER 56

Once again I was loaded on a van and went back through Lake Butler, die reception center for the north part of Florida. We again had to go through the shake downs, and waiting for a picture to be taken, and being finger printed. We then went to the dorm to be assigned to a bed. We were given linen and so forth. During the day we had to go outside and walk the yard, watch T.V,. and whatever else we could find to do. Finally, one morning I was told I was being transferred again. We were loaded on a bus, and I was told we were going south. We stopped at various prisons along the way, and when we arrived at Okeechobee Correctional Institution, the bus pulled in between the gates, and I was finally called to unload. This was to be my camp or institution. The buildings were what they call T- Bbuildings. It was buildings with three wings running off a large control room. The control room can observe all three wings. The wings or units each have TV. and showers, but no tables. The T.V. is controlled by the officers in the main control room. Once again we weare put through a shake down along with them taking pictures, finger prints, and we had to go through orientation and medical exams, and were assigned to dorms, and given bed rolls. Some of the officers were real nice, but others could be real ass holes. This institution was complete except for a factory. The factory was a place where inmates worked and got paid for it. This would happen before I left this institution. I met one of my friends who I had worked with at the A.C.I. institution up in North Florida. He told me he was working in the law library but had got pissed off and quit. He took me up to the library and introduced me to everyone and showed me around. He talked with the head law clerk, who was an inmate. He told the law clerk that if he hired me that he would then come back to work for him. The head law clerk said he had a deal, and I would be assigned within a week or so. In the mean time, I went out to the yard and walked around during the days. We would all sit down and shoot the bull and try to kill the day. The days were real boring because we were not allowed to play poker. We could play other card games, but if they caught us playing poker, they would lock yous into solitary confinement. The institution had the regular shake down squads that shook down and went from cell to cell checking for extra clothes and any contraband that we were not allowed to have in our possession. If they found anything, they would write an incident report, and if it was real serious, they would lock us into solitary confinement. After about twelve days, my name appeared on the job- change list for the law library. I was already a certified law clerk, so it was pretty easy for me to get into the click that ran the library. A click is a group of inmates that doesn’t let anyone that would cause trouble enter their little domain that would cause trouble. I talked with the boss lady, and she was black and one of the nicest persons that I had met. She told me my job would be typing up the petitions and other things for the inmates. A lot of the inmates would pay me for doing the typing because they really wanted a good job done. The other inmates were paid for researching the inmate’s case and then putting it all together so they could get into court. The inmates we did things for would usually pay us in the form a store order like coffee, smokes, and things to eat. However, if it was a large amount, we would have them send us a money order. However, they had to do it in a way that the officials could not catch us receiving money from another inmate’s family. This was against the rules, and if you were caught, you would lose your job in the library. The head librarian would show good movies every Saturday morning for the inmates, and she never missed a Saturday. We had one inmate that always had dope in the library, and he was finally caught and shipped out to another camp. When they shook his cell down, themay found phone numbers, and some address of one of the females that worked in the library. Then the guards figured that something was going on between the two of them. This was also our opinion among all the law clerks. The two of them were always talking, and you could hardly keep them separated. I worked in the law library every day because that was the place to stay away from all the trouble that took place on the compound. There wereas always stabbings and fights taking place, and most inmates didn’t even want to be a witness to any of these. We also had the shake down squads that look for nothing but drugs. They bring their dogs iInto the units, and if the dog smells something, the officer will call the control room and tell them to open that cell. On one occasion the dog stopped at my cell, and the dog started sniffing, and the guard kicked the door and said, “Get it, boy.” He then had the guard open the door. They made my cell partner and I strip down and give us a good shake down. They tore our smokes open looking for dope, then they took us to a shower room and locked us in and then called us one at a time, trying to find out about the drugs. They asked me how much time I had to go, and I told him about sixty days. They told me that they knew I had the dope because their dog was never wrong. Well, I told them their dog was wrong that time. They tore our cell up and didn’t find anything. They asked us where we had gotten all the smokes, and we said we bought it at the store or commissary. We asked them if they wanted to see the receipt, and they said “Nno.” We went back to our cell, and it was a total destruction. It was like a storm had hit it. The guard then locked us in our cell until they had finished with everyone. They had finally finished the factory that made orange juice, and that put a lot of inmates to work, and now they could earn a little money. I could not work there because I was now a short -timer. However, the librarian had checked her computer, and she had told me that I had a detainer filed against me. This meant that the United States mMarshal had a hold on me because I had violated parole back in 1988. ChapterHAPTER 57

The days finally came for my release, which was on April 1, 2002. However, the United States mMarshals arrived to pick me up. It was a simpley procedure., Tthe state took my picture and asked me some questions to make sure who I was. I then signed some papers. The fFederal mMarshals came into the gates in their van. But of course, they checked their gun at the control room before they entered between the two gates. I was hand cuffed and put in leg- irons and loaded on the van. I was taken about sixty miles away, and they placed me into a little holding cell until they fingerprinted me and took my picture. They got me some food, and he then went through my personal stuff and let me keep some things. The other stuff I had thirty days to send home. I was then taken to another jail for the night. The next day I was transferred again to the jail in West Palm Beach, Florida. This was another holding place for the U.S. mMarshals until they got ready to transfer you to another holding place in Miami, Florida. The U.S. mMarshals finally came and got me and took me to that detention center, and it was called the Miami Detention Center for Federal Pprisoners. This place was in the center of Miami, and it was a tall building about ten or fifteen stories high. It was a holding center for just fFederal prisoners. They process you like any other place. They put you in a large holding cell and then start taking the leg- irons off and the chain around your waist that connects to the handcuffs. Then we are called one by one to be processed. Then they assigned us to cells, which were two- maen cells. They were two tiers set up with showers on each floor. Then they had T.V. with each on a different station, and there were three of them. They had a supply room where on a certain day of the week you could go and get supplies like soap, tooth paste, and cleaning material for our cell. The guards had an inspection every week on a Friday to make sure everything was clean in our cell block. Then iIf our cells were dirty, we would be put on a cleaning detail for extra duty. We played a lot of cards, and they also had a recreation yard on the fifth floor. They played volley ball, basketball, and hand ball. The recreation yard overlooked the city of Miami, and we had a real good view. I was waiting to see the parole man, and I finally decided to write them after about two months. I also was trying to locate my son but with no luck. After about three months, I was told to pack my property and that I was leaving the next day. Once again it was time to be cuffed up and fitted with leg- irons. We were loaded on a bus and taken to the airport and were surrounded by guards carrying shot guns and rifles. Once we were aboard and in the air, we were all given a bag lunch. It consisted of a pack of crackers and some cheese and a little drink. The plane had about ten U.S. mMarshals on it, and they watched every move you made. ChapterHAPTER 58

We stopped at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. This was one of the oldest U.S. prisons, and it had a forty- foot or so wall around it. The inmates that were to be transferred were put in solitary confinement, and that was like a dungeon. Therye were two- man cells, and we were locked in them except to eat or shower. They did have a little exercise yard about the size of a bedroom. I myself preferred to stay in my cell. That way I didn’t have to put up with all the bull shit that goes on outside the cells. Iin three or four days we were cuffed again and loaded on buses and taken to the plane, and we were in the air again to pick up prisoners in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania,A., and other places up north. When we made the pickups from the other prisons, we were headed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This was where I was to be interviewed by the parole committee. When we landed at the airport, the plane pulled right up to the detention center. We never touched the ground when we unloaded from the plane. You just walked into the prison just like an airport. Once they took the irons off us, we were booked again, our pictures were taken, and then we were given bed rolls, and we were assigned to our living quarters. They were two- maen cells, and on both floors they had showers. We had two or three T.V. rooms. When we were fed, we were served off food carts that kept the food real hot. At this prison we were in hold over, and you could not buy any smoking material. However, if you worked, they would pay you in smokes. You had to clean the dorm or do whatever the officer wanted done. We had a lot of inmates that had smokes, and they would share with us until we managed to get some. We were not shy about smoking shorts or even rolling butts up. We did what we had to do to satisfy the addiction of tobacco. I was called out one day to see a lady lawyer, and she explained everything that would happen when I saw the parole man. She asked me if I had any incidents reports in Florida, and I said one for smoking weed. Then she told me if he asked me that I had better tell him the truth. TheIt day finally came for mey day to see the parole man. I was to wait outside in a sietting room until my lawyer came after me. She did after about two hours of waiting. When I walked into the office, he introduced himself, and we shook hands, and I was told to sit down. I then looked at him, and he was dressed in a black suit and tie, and he looked like an undertaker and like he wanted to bury me. He told me that our conversation would be recorded for the pParole cCommission, and a release date of March 28, 2002, was determined. He also told me that could change if I received an incident report for bad conduct. He asked me if I had anything to say for myself, and I said I had plenty to say if he had time to listen. He told me that was what he was there for so he had time. I explained to him how I had gotten addicted to crack cocaine and what it did to you. He asked me when I got out if I was I going to rob any more banks, and I told him I was retired from doing that type of thing. He also asked me what I was going to do when I was released and where was I was going to live. I gave him an address in Fort. Myers, Florida, which was the only one I knew at that time. I didn’t know where my son was noreither my brother, Frank, was. He was the only brother living among nine brothers. He wished me good luck and that I would receive a paper in the mail when a final decision was made. A release date was set for March 28, 2002. My lawyer wanted to know if there was anything else she could do and if so, that I was to call or write her. I was then escorted back to the unit where I was assigned. I told my roommate how it went, and he was real glad for me. I then wondered how long it would be before I was transferred out. I didn’t have to wait very long because in about five days, I was woken up early in the morning and put on a plane and flown back to Atlanta, Georgia. ChapterHAPTER 59

After three days I was put on a fFederal transfer bus and was on my way to Edgefield, South Carolina, and it was called Edgefield Federal Correctional Center.: This prison had eight towers around it, and the fences had motion detectors along with all kinds of razor wire. It had four buildings, and they were two stories high. Therey were all two- maen cells. Therey were about nine hundred to twelve hundred inmates on the compound. This was a lot better place thant the others. They had a large recreation yard and a T.V. underneath shelters. They also had a recreation room with weights, a T.V. room, music room, hobby craft, and a small library all in the same building. Then on the compound they had a school, drug classes, and a big regular library, and a law library. They also had a factory where inmates made money making clothes. We had a large laundry, plus we had a washer and dryer in the dorm. They didn’t cost anything for us to use. They also had between the dorms counselors and classification officers. We also had a large commissary, which stocked all kinds of stuff. We were not allowed any cash, but our money would be in a commissary account on a computer. When we bought something, they would deduct it from the account. I got a job working in the education department cleaning the school as a janitor. It was a pretty good job, and I went to work at eight in the morning and got off at two in the evening. We had a lot of cleaning to do, but everyone worked together, and we got the job done. There were times the whole compound would be locked down, and we were confined to our cell. This was caused by a fight on the compound or someone goetting stabbed or a guard beingwas jumped on. We would be fed bag lunches, and we would be let out for showers every three days. We would be called out of our cells to be interviewed to see if we knew anything about the events that happened. My se worker was trying to locate my son, but he was unable to do so. However, one day he got a call and hollowed up to me to come to his office and that someone wanted to talk with me. I finally got to talk with my son after twenty- seven years in prisons. We talked for quite a while, and I got his address so we could write each other, and he gave me his phone number. He told me he had me a place to stay. I explained to him about me going to have to get my resident address changed because I had it for Fort Myers, Florida. So I went to my classification officer, and he completed the necessary papers for me to do this correction. My son and I called each other quite often. A couple of weeks later, my papers came back with the approval of me living in Ohio with my son. I had a real good cell mate, and he helped me out with smokes and coffee and anything else I may have needed. He had really messed his life up. He had a life sentence without parole for trying to get someone killed. You really couldn’t find a nicer guy to get along with in prison. I finally got into a drug class, and I really enjoyed it. The instructor was really good and explained everything real good. We had all kinds of tests on what she taught us. She also showed us some good movies that were all pertaining to drugs. The whole group all passed the course. One of the strongest impressions that I received from the course was about our families. She explained to us that if we wanted to sleep with men the rest of our lives, to go ahead when we got out and do drugs. She also told us how our kids and family would be disappointed that when we got out if we turned back to drugs. I always have remembered that statement because I didn’t want to disappoint my son nor my family. The morning for my releaseIt finally came, my morning for release and it was March 28, 2002. I was told to pack my stuff and report to the property room, which was also the receiving and discharge room. A transfer bus was coming in with new iInmates, so they locked me in a holding cell to keep me separated from them. Iin about thirty minutes, the lady came and got me and took me up to the discharge room. She asked me for my I.D c.Card. She then asked me what size clothes I wore, and after that, she got those. I was then taken to an area where I could change my prison clothes and get into what we call the free world clothes. I was then taken back to the discharge room and given a bus ticket, and then I was taken to the bank cashier, whoere she gave me some money to eat on and to maybe catch a cab with. That was just in case my son didn’t meet me. I was then taken to the main control room by my counselor, and they asked me my prison number and some other questions, and he said I was good to go. The main gate was opened, and I was a free man once again. ChapterHAPTER 60

We got into the government car, and I was taken to the Greyhound bus station. However, before we got there, I asked him to stop and let me buy some smokes. I got out of the car and started to enter the store. He told me not to rob the place while I was in there. He said I was to make sure I brought a receipt back with me. I then went into the bus station and talked with the ticket agent. I asked him several questions and told him I had just been released from prison. He said don’ot to worry, that things would work out okay. It was time to board the bus for Youngstown, Ohio. The bus ride was real strange, and there certainly was a mixture of people. I had to change buses twice before I arrived in Youngstown. The strangest things I had seen were in the bus terminals. Everyone was walking around with cell phones. I also noticed that everything was real high, especially the food and the smokes were real high. I finally arrived in Youngstown the following day at around ten thirty. I got off the bus and walked around looking for my son. I didn’t see him anywhere, so I went into the station to call and didn’t get any answer. I hung up the phone and started to walk back outside, and he was just coming in the door with a friend. We shook hands and hugged. He then introduced me to his friend. We then went and got in his car, and he asked, “Wwhere to?” Aand I told him, “Take me to a bank.” They really cracked up over that, and they thought it was funny as hell. They then took me to a place that made milk shakes. My son took me there because that was what I told him I wanted when I was released. We then proceeded to our little town, which was known as Leetonia. Iit was a little town about twenty miles from Youngstown. When we got there, my son showed me his apartment, which was on the second floor of a three- floor apartment house with the land lord living down stairs. His little girl friend came out of the living room, and I gave her a kiss on her hand, and I said, “Look what my son found.” At this time she was only eighteen years old, but she was fixing to turn nineteen. She was working at a golf resort, and at this time he wasn’t working any place. He had been working as a plumber and was helping one of his cousins cutting trees down and any other work that he could find around the area. He had a nice little apartment with a room for me, and they had the larger room. They had a nice living room and a pretty nice kitchen. The following day he had to take me to see the parole officer, which was in Youngstown. The interview went pretty good, and he laid down all the rules. He also told me I had to take a “drug and drinking treatment” program. I had to attend this session once every three weeks, and it went pretty good. I once had a problem with drinking, and I knew what it would do to you. I had permission to drink but not while I was in the treatment program. I had a real good counselor, and we got along real good. There were times I would get a ride to her office and wouldn’t have a ride home. Well, she would give me a ride and drop me off right at the front door. The counselor would discuss with me any problems that I may need help with. My son and his mother wanted to know how it felt to be free after so many years in prison. The only problems I really had was getting used to a son who I hadn’t seen since he was a little over two and a half years old. He was now twenty- six or twenty- seven years old. I expected a son that maybe wore a suit and tie and went to church and had good manners. However, it was all so different. I now had a son that did drugs, and he was not what I expected. However, there was a reason for him being this way. His mother had been married four times after she had divorced me. You can just picture what he went through with all those step dads. A kid with all those dads would certainly go through many changes. I had seen some of his explosive personality, and he was real dangerous when he was that way. Even his girlfriend was scared of him when he got that way. He had his own way and style of getting even if someone got him pissed off. He showed me that on numerous occasions. I had loaned him money, and he would not pay it back. One time I loaned him some money to make some money, and he did pay that back. However, the next time I loaned him some, I never got it back. I would say something to one of his cousins about his dope usainge, and they would then go back and tell him, and then he would be pissed at me. One night we had an argument, and I went to bed. The next morning when I woke up, the door to the bathroom had been beaten in, and he had done it with his fist. He had also left a note on my door explaining why he had done this to the door. He had taken his anger out on the door because I was going to leave. It was several days before he would even talk to me. He acted like a little spoiled kid. Of course, he had every right to be that way. His mother and I got into an argument, and she slapped me, but I just overlooked it. Then she would have my son crying and hurt because of the way he was raised up. My son and I certainly had our misunderstandings because of our not being together for so many years. His mother always kept trying to turn us against each other by saying I was no good and I would go back to prison. I would talk about getting a job, and she would tell him I couldn’t get a job because I was too old. Well, I told her, “I bet you I’d find a job.” She had such a negative attitude, and it made me feel sorry for her. She had also been through a lot by being married four times and still paying rent. My son and his girlfriend would go bowling, and we would have a lot of fun. He would also take me to the biker bar where they drink and ride the bull. We would have a lot of fun at these places, and there was always plenty of dope around. The dope transactions would take place in the bathrooms, where no one could see what was happening. My son would ride the bull, and if you could stay on it for the time limit, you would win cash money. The bull was seldom ridden for the required time for winning the prize. We met a lot of people at these meetings, and some were real friendly, and then others wouldn’t even speak. My son would take me for rides on the motorcycle, and he would go so fast I would have to tell him to slow the damn thing down. ChapterHAPTER 61

I inquired about a job at the different employment services, and finally they sent me to a place about three blocks from where I lived. It was a place where they did a lot of plastic molding and packaging and also a lot of routing work. In other words, they carved designs into wood with router bits. One lady came up with an idea about making bows. All it consisted of was a board and a few pegs, and you had to purchase your own ribbon. However, by moving the pegs, you could make any type of ribbon. I made a little over two hundred dollars a week, and it was a pretty good job. They worked me in several spots, training me on different jobs. I worked on a computer router machine that ran off a computer tape. All you had to do was lay the board down, clamp it down, and press the button. I also made a lot of wind shield wiper displays that you could pull the inserts out, and it would tell you exactly what size wiper you needed for any type of car. They finally gave me a fifty- cent raise after a couple of months. In the short period of time that I worked there, I made over a thousand of them. They also made consoles for jeeps and cars, but I had nothing to do with that department. I got along pretty good with the people I worked with, but like any other place, everyone talked about everyone. One day the lady that ran the place came back and told me that a man was out there to see me. He said he was a United States pParole officer. He asked me a few questions about my job, and then he gave me a urine test, then he left. After he was gone, my boss wanted to know why I didn’t tell her I had a criminal record. I explained to her that I had put this information on my application. She said iIt was to be kept between her and me. She also told me the parole officer was not to interfere with me during the time I was working. He had to see me during my lunch hour or during my break period. She didn’t mess with me any more after that incident. We got along real good afterwards. She would work me in different places, and she would give me over time hours when we had plenty of work to do. A lot of weeks I would make over three hundred dollars, which was after taxes. My production boss finally gave me a key card so I could check in without using the time clock. When we used the time clock, we had to have a supervisor to sign it every day. Like all work places, we had individuals who would talk about each other. If you told someone something, it would wind up back to the boss. We had one lady that bitched about anything and everybody. She was what they called the Mmouth of the Ssouth. She would bitch all day about something. I had managed to get food stamps for $one hundred and thirty nine dollars139. I also got a check for $135one hundred and thirty five a month, and this helped me out a lot. We would go grocery shopping where we could get four grocery carts full. We always had plenty of food. My son worked at various jobs but would not keep any job for any length of time. At oOne place my son was working was at a lumber place where they made trusses. It was a good job for him, and he made good money. However, one night I told him to gas the car up that night because he said the gas station would open up the next morning. However, the next morning the station didn’t open up, and he ran out of gas. He called his boss and told him that if he would come and get him, he would gocome to work. The boss told him it wasn’t his job to gocome and get him for work. So that ended the job for him. We went bowling, and we had a lot of fun, and we played a couple of games. Then on the way home, we would stop and get something to eat. ChapterHAPTER 62

I called my brother in Georgia a lot, and he wanted me to come down and visit him. Of course, I had to get a travel permit from my parole officer. He did issue it, and I got a couple of days off work, and my son and his girlfriend decided to drive down. We had driven about fifteen miles and put gas in the car. When we pulled out from the station, the gas tank fell off the car. The reason for this was the car had saet in a field for several years. The steel bands that held the tank up had rusted. The full tank of gas created extra weight, and it made the straps break. It just so happened that we broke down right in front of an auto parts store. We bought several straps, which were like a flexible metal, and also a couple of rubber tie- downs. This solved our problems, but on the way we still had a few problems with it as we drove on down the interstate. Since we had trouble with the tank, it took us about twenty- four hours to make the trip. We finally got to Adel, Georgia, and we were going the right way, but we thought we had gotten on the wrong road. So we turned around and stopped at the Waffle House, and I inquired of the waitress if they knew my brother. So one of them called the right place, and I finally got in contact with my brother. He asked me where I was, and I told him Adel. He then explained to me the route to his house, and I had no trouble finding it. When we finally got to his house, he was standing in the front yard. That night he took all of us out to eat. The bill was over a hundred dollars for a group of eight people. We all stayed at his house that night, and he made us real welcome, and he was real glad that we had come down for the visit. It was time for us to go back after a couple of days. He asked me if I needed anything. I told him just enough money to make the trip back to Ohio. My travel permit only allowed me so many days, and they were pretty strict on me being on time and reporting when I was told to do so. The trip back to Ohio was made without any trouble. When I arrived, I reported to my parole officer. He asked me if I enjoyed the trip and ifdid everything wentgo okay. I answered it was just fine. I went back to my job at the place where I had been working. They all wanted to know if I was going to move to Georgia, and I told them I didn’t know at that time. My son had a lot of problems with his mom, and they would get into some tough arguments. She would get him real upset. She told me one time that I had better not take that boy away from her. They would make up until the next disagreement. They would drive their car without insurance and without a driving license. One night they got their car impounded, and it cost too much to get it out. They didn’t bother getting it back. My son and I would go for rides on his motorcycle, and he would drive the hell out of it. He would drive so fast I would have to scream at him to slow it down. I finally told my son that I was going to Georgia. My brother needed me to help him out. I finally got a car from one of my son’s friends. I had to get the brakes fixed. I packed all my stuff and left early one morning and was driving down the interstate. The right front wheel started shaking the car real bad. The right front wheel came completely off. I managed to get the car to the side of the road. I was lucky not to be hit by another vehicle. The right front door was also damaged by the tire. I raised my hood hoping a trooper would caome by, but none did. I finally got a man to stop, and he gave me a ride to a service station. I made a call to a towing company. He finally arrived, and we went back to the location of the car. The tow truck driver discovered that the truck he had would not work. The right front wheel was off, and he couldn’t pull it up on his flat bed truck. We had to go back to the station, and he called someone. He then left and finally came back with a different tow truck. He then had this big, large strap to hook and lift the front end so he could tow it to a garage. After we got it to the garage, I had him drop me off at a motel, where I spent the night. The motel bill was fifty, and for the towing bill it was fifty dollars. The next morning I went down and talked with the people at the garage. I explained to them what the problem was with the car. I wanted it repaired, and I would be back in a couple of weeks. ChapterHAPTER 63

I then went and made a call to my brother in Georgia. I let him know what had happened, and he sent me enough money by Western Union office so I could get a bus ticket to get home. I had to walk about three blocks to get to the Western Union office, which was in a shopping mail. The bus station was about six blocks away. I enjoyed the trip on the bus because I met a lot of people. I saw a lot of country because I was a free man. I certainly was enjoying the freedom. The trip was a long ride, and my brother was at the station in Moultrie when I got there. He was glad that I had come down to be with him. He gave me a nice bedroom, but it was pretty crowded because it was also his wife’s sewing room. I reported to my parole officer, who was a lady. She explained all the rules to me and what towns I could go to and which ones I couldn’t. I could not leave the state without her permission. She seemed pretty nice, and she told me as long as I obeyed the rules, we would get along just fine. She had me looking for a job and turning in a report to her each month sayingand where I had applied for a job. I registered with all the employment agencies, and I would call them each day. Mostly every day when I called in they never had any jobs available. They would then call me in to go for a job interview. They would talk with me, but I never got a job after the interview. I reported to the county work department several times, but I never got called to report to a job. I went to a printing company. The man was talking to me about my felony record, and he asked me what I had done. I explained that I had robbed several banks. The expression that appeared on his face told me right away that I wasn’t going to get the job. He did ask me if I was going to rob any more banks. I told him I was retired from doing things that were bad. I knew when I left there, I would not even be considered for the job. I kept checking with him, and he told me he had hired someone. I still called in everyday to the employment office every day, but I never got a job. They would send me out on interviews, but I would never get called in to report to a job. I worked on one job roofing, but this was with a man I had met at a café. It took us about a week, and I got paid around one hundred and fifty dollars without any tax taken out. Then I got another job working on a farm cutting bamboo down and cleaning the property off and doing a little roofing job. I got paid six dollars an hour on this job, and I worked with my nephew. My nephew and I had to cut bamboo then take it and stack it up, then later we had to put it on a truck and haul it to a place on his property and unload it so he could burn it later.: I got in about three weeks’ work, and that money came in handy. The events in my life were fixing to change quite a bit. Since I had been released from prison, I didn’t know much about the street life, and I was to learn a lot. ChapterHAPTER 64

My niece, I soon learned, was a crack smoker. Some people who don’t know that cocaine is cut with baking soda and something else. You then smoke it on a piece of screen that lays over some can and ashes. The hits of crack cost usually twenty dollars for a small piece, and the high only lasts for a short period of time. My niece got her father to rent her a place, and it was a two- bedroom house. It was a real nice place. She also had her two daughters staying with her, and one was fourteen, and the other was fifteen. One day the mother asked me to take her to see a lady friend of hers. We went to a trailer court, and when the lady came to the door, she was around thirty- three. I liked her looks at first sight. Of course, after being in prison for so long, they all looked good to me. She took her over to her house and invited her to stay with her. She agreed to stay as long as possible. This was when I would learn about the street life. I soon saw the whole street scene among my niece and her friend, who we will call Mary. Mary was a street girl or hooker who turned tricks for money to get crack cocaine. I would drive them around to different places, and she would tell me they were visiting friends. However, it didn’t take me long to catch on to what was going on around the town. It wasn’t long before another girl came to the house. She was called Red or Jerry. She also was a dope head, and she loved to shoot cocaine. She was also a crack head and a hooker who needed money to get her drugs. These two women were staying at the house. Soon they had their customers coming to the house doing drugs and tricking in the bathroom with Mexicans and blacks. This all was done around the younger kids that were teenagers. I would observe all this, and I would tell my brother what was happening. My brother finally came over and told his daughter to get the two ladies of the night out of the house. He said they could not stay there any longer: They would all be smoking crack in the house around the two young girls. The ones smoking the crack would go peeping out the windows saying someone was out there. However,; I always looked, and this made them feel better. Then at times I would go outside and look around. One night I went outside with my niece, and I took my dog out, and someone left a gate open. Well, the dog was running across the road, and a truck ran over him. I wrapped him in a sheet and dug a hole in the back yard and buried him. My niece asked me to use my car to go to the store, and I didn’t see my car for two days. They had gone out turning tricks and smoking crack. The young girls would have their boyfriends over, and they would drink beer and take their acid pills or meth. It was a real bad scene. Their boyfriends would spend the night. Their mother would be sleeping on the living room floor. One of her daughters got to drinking, and the boyfriend and sher made love. She messed up and got herself pregnant. The daughter told me later that she thought she was pregnant because she was having that morning sickness. It was about this time that the welfare department was looking for the mother. They wanted to run a test on her for drugs. The mother was so drunk she started walking up the road. The police finally got her and charged her for disorderly conduct. Then because the cops were roughing her up, Mary decided to go over and interfere. Well, I told her not to go over there because they would put her in jail. She wouldn’t listen, so the police slammed her over the hood of the car and cuffed her up also. They were both placed in the patrol car. The last words I heard from Mary wereas, “Ray, please come and get me out.” Well, I did go down to get her, but I couldn’t at the time because it was a charge that the judge had to set the bond for. That couldn’t be done until the following Monday, and this happened on Friday night. The welfare people were looking for Sue’s two daughters. They did find them later driving around town by their older sister. They were both put in foster care until welfare took them before the court. They were given a urine test, and both of them tested positive for drugs. The one that was fourteen was also found to be pregnant. She was later put in a foster care center. The other one was put in custody of her grandparents. I finally got Mary out on bond, and we went and got us a motel room. While they were in jail, we had to clean the house out that we had rented for Georgia Ann, who was my brother’s daughter. Needless to say, we had a good time at the motel even though Mary was still doing the crack cocaine. Then about this time she got back with friends, who were also crack heads, and she loved cocaine, and her name was Red. They would shoot up cocaine all night long in the motel room and get all screwed up in the head. They would lie down on the floor and peep under the door saying there was someone out there. There wouldn’t be a soul out there. They would be looking at shadows and swoeare they were moving. I would watch them so much that I would finally have to leave and get me some coffee and maybe come back in an hour. The one thing about drugs is you could get some bad stuff. If you are shooting cocaine, you could get some strong stuff. If you have been getting the weak stuff, then you get strong stuff and shoot the cocaine. Yyou could get overdosed and die from it. This was happening to Mary one night. She had been using cocaine that was cut a lot. However, this time she shot up, and it was real strong cocaine. She had Red give her more than usual, and after a few seconds, she walked around and hit the floor. She hit her head pretty hard on the tile in the bathroom. They had to pick her up and walked her around to bring her back. She certainly about died that night. They always want another hit of the crazy shit. ChapterHAPTER 65

I would drive them around all day, and they would be smoking crack. That is all they would do seven days a week. Mary got arrested again for some bull shit that she didn’t have anything to do with. Ann had helped rip off some drugs one night from a drug dealer. Well, the drug dealer got one of her friends and went and got Ann. The drug dealer put a pistol to her head and roughed her up. There were two others involved in this, and one was her daughter and the other her boyfriend. They were also crack heads and liked cocaine. The next day I was out looking for Mary, and I happened to go by B.A’s. house. I found Mary camped out there. They invited me in, and we discussed everything that happened the night before. They all wanted to go and get something to eat, so I agreed to take them to the store. We finally decided to go and get some tacos and then decided to stop and get something to drink. We stopped at a place and decided to get some beer. I went into the store and got the beer and went back outside, and all hell had broken loose. They had pulled up in a truck and blocked my car in where I couldn’t get out. Then as I approached the car, they started hollerowing, “Ccall 911.” They said we had drugs in the car. Then Ann’s daughter got a tire iron and was threatening B.A. with it. B.A. was trying to cut Ann with a knife, and the daughter was trying to get my car keys. However, she never did manage to get them. I told them to get out of the car, and they did. I told them both to start walking somewhere before the police arrived. One of them, B.A,. had a knife, and she put it in a garbage can. Then they just waited until the police got there. There were four police cars that arrived. The police put Mary on the ground and took the package from Mary, which was later determined to be cocaine. My brother was called to come down by the police. My brother gave them permission to search the cair. If he had not given them permission, they would have impounded the car until they got a search warrant. The police searched it and then had a dog sniff it out. However, no drugs were found in the car. All the police asked me was who I was and ifwas I was the driver and ifwere the girls were in the car. I told them no, they were not in the car. Mary was arrested for possession and also B.A. Ann’s daughter was also arrested for brandishing a weapon. They were all put in the squad cars and taken to the jail house. Mary had no bond, but B.A. got outr right away. I couldn’t get Mary out, and she had to wait until her court date. ChapterHAPTER 66

When she finally went to court, she pled guilty and got eight years on probation. She also got a large fine, and she had to do sixty days in jail with credit for time already served. The time served was about ten or twelve days. So she had to serve fifty more days. I went to see her every Saturday and left her thirty dollars every time I visited with her. She had written me a lot of letters telling me she was quitting the crack smoking. She said when she got out, she was going to attend church. She did do some of those things, but after about four weeks, she was smoking again. She went into a store and shop lifted a slip and put it in her purse. When she walked outside, she was surrounded by store security guards. They grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall. They roughed her up by bending her arms up behind her. They finally got her cuffed up and took her purse from her. They then took her into the store. Then about thirty minutes later, a security guard brought her out and put her in the police car, and she was off to the jail. I went down to the jail and found out she had a very high bond. It also took a property bond. I called one bondsman, and he told me she had to do five days in jail first. I went to my brother’s house, and about an hour later, there was a truck outside blowing a horn. There was the bondsman and Mary. The bBondsman asked me if I would take her home. I told him I would, and I wanted to know when she had to go to court. Once we got in the car, she was very upset and wanted to leave the state. She said all of her people would be upset. She started talking about doing dope again and getting back with the old crowd again. She started talking about killing herself. I checked her into a motel room. I stayed with her during the night to make sure she didn’t do something stupid. Then the next morning, I took her home, and then she found out the parole officer had been by, and she was to report to his office. She was already on a curfew, where she had to be in by six at night and couldn’t leave until six in the morning. Now they gave her a urine test, and she was positive. They gave her a warning that the next time she was going to be violated. She was also put under house arrest and couldn’t leave the house at all. However, she could go and look for a job and had to prove to the probation department who she had seen about a job by turning in a job sheet for who she had seen about a job. Mary would pick up her application and have her sheet signed and then go do her tricks. She would charge twenty dollars for going to bed. Sometimes she would do it for eight or ten dollars a trick. She would trick with Mexicans, whites, or blacks, and it didn’t matter to her. Sometimes she would be in the house for over two hours. Some of the places I was allowed in to be in a cool spot because it was hot as hell outside. I soon became buddies with some of the Mexicans but not the blacks. Mary had gotten weekends in jail for the shop lifting and had, I believe, fourteen weekends to do. She would go in at six on Friday evening and get out on Sunday at six in the evening. She had community service on Saturday, and that was when she worked on county roads picking up trash. That was when she met the black guy that she thought she was in love with. They would go to work on Saturday mornings at seven thirty then get off that evening at two thirty. I would take her home, and she would take a bath and then go out to trick for a while so she would have spending money. However, before she started tricking, she would buy her a twelve- pack of beer. She wanted to be half lit before she started tricking. Then a lot of times she would get her some weed and goet high before she tricked. We would during the day go out to a lake and get us a nice tan during the day. We would listen to music on the portable radio. She bought an ice cooler for her beer and would drink iIt from a cup. There was no drinking beer or any other stuff, except sodas. It was against the law. She also bought her a water float and two chairs so we could lie down and be comfortable. We had to have a park pass, and it cost two dollars a day except on Wednesday. However, for twenty- five dollars we could get a permanent pass for a year. At this park they had nature trails with a long board walk that led to the river. One day we had been drinking a pretty strong drink, so we went for a walk on the board walk. This walk went back to the river. Then at a certain section, the board walk separates and splits off going right and left. There in that spot we laid the blanket on the board walk where it split and made love. She said that was really some wild shit doing it that way out in the park. Then afterwards we walked to the end of the board walk and talked to some men in a boat that were fishing. They told us they had caught a couple, but they were small ones. If only they knew what we had been up to just a few minutes before. We really enjoyed ourselves when we went to the park. ChapterHAPTER 67

However, this all stopped when she met the black guy that worked with her on community service. She was now spending most of her time with him. This interfered with her tricking and making money. As I took her places, she started talking to me just about any ways she wanted. I told her several times not to raise her voice at me because I didn’t allow that in prison. I also said I wouldn’t put up with it from her. One day while driving, I mentioned to her about some gas. She told me she was tired of putting gas in the damn car. That night, which was a Friday, she had to report at six to the jail and wouldn’t be let out until six on Sunday. That was when I decided to stop messing with her because of the way she had been talking to me. She just knew in her mind she could handle me any kind of way. So when she got out, she would called the house, and I was notever there. I had told everyone to tell her I was not there. Then one of Ann’s daughters told her one day that I was there, but she was instructed to say I was not there. During this two- week period, she never once tried to see me at all. However, she had no trouble seeing her black boyfriend every day of the week. So after that period of time, I finally called her and then went out to visit her. She wanted to know why I wouldn’t take any calls from her. ChapterHAPTER 68

So it was about this time that my son called from Ohio. He said he had some problems up there. He wanted to know if he and his girlfriend could come down. I told him to hang on, that I had to discuss it with my brother. I explained to my brother what the problem was, and he said to tell him to come on down. What happened up there was my son had let a friend stay with him, and he had turned into a snitch. He had told things about my son. My son said that the snitch had a wire and was trying to bust the dealers in order to keep from going to prison. This same guy had gotten cocaine from one of the big dealers. He then didn’t pay the dealer on the certain day that it was agreed. The dealer went back over to my son’s house and wanted to know where his friend was located. He told my son and him owed for some cocaine. They had better pay up or else. My son told him that he had nothing to do with the deal. The dealer said that my son was the partner, so he had better come up with the money. The dealer found out that my son’s friend was a snitch, and the dealer also believed my son was also. The dealer put out a contract on my son and his friend. My son finally arrived at my brother’s house in Georgia. He let my son and his girlfriend stay with him until they could find a place of their own. He finally found a place for around three hundred dollars. This included garbage and water. Then he had to put down a deposit of around two hundred, but the landlord said he could pay that a little at a time. I put in some, and Mary put in some to help out with the rent. My brother had the lights turned on with a deposit, and the first light bill was seventy one dollars, which had not been paid. The rent was due again before the sixth of the month, and we still owed fifty dollars on another month. Things aren’t going to work out here because my son’s money goes to cocaine. I found him a job at a store, and he was approved, but he dhasidn’t reported after the lady told him he neededs to come down to talk with her. He was to see her on Saturday. He was too high on cocaine to go to talk with her. He was all spaced out. He was saying they had cameras in the bathroom where he worked. The people he worked with were talking about him and that he was in serious trouble. I knew right then he was spaced out, and he also had done too much cocaine in that bathroom. I went as far as to inspect the place, and there was no sign of any camera. It was real hot that day, and he was working on that hot asphalt, and he was lucky not to have a heat stroke. His eyes were wide open, and you could look and see that he was high on something. That evening when he got off from work, he took a shower and layid on the couch wide- eyed and wouldn’t talk to no one. It was quite clear he was all messed up real good. The next day he was to go to the dollar store, but he didn’t because he was off that day from the gas station. The next day, which was Sunday, he just relaxed. The next morning he finally went, and it was after nine. The lady told him to find a pair of pants, but they didn’t have any that fit him. She told him to find a pair of the ladies’ pants. She then told him to go to a certain store and to be back by eleven o’clock. So he finally found a pair and went back, and they gave him a black shirt and a black belt and a name tag. He worked until six thirty that night. The women that worked in the store did not like the boss because of her personality. She didn’t appear to me that she knew what she was doing. There was mass confusion in the store with this one boss lady. It appeared to me that she didn’t know how to deal with her help or the general public. My son has an attitude like he didn’t care about nothing, and he doesn’t care about authority. In other words, he doesn’t give a shit. In Tthe place he rents, he depends on me to pay the rent and other bills while he snorts all his money up his nose. There isn’t any food in the ice box, and he is behind on the rent. He owes my brother forty dollars and other people some money. ChapterHAPTER 69

My parole officer finally came over to visit me, and we had a good little talk about drugs and other stuff. She told me she wasn’t going in the trailer and that she had knocked on the door but no one would come to the door. She tested me for drugs and also the test to see if I was drinking. I had no trouble passing it because I did not use any drugs. She told me she had gotten information that drugs were around the area. She thought it best that I move back with my brother, who was willing to let me stay there. She told me to make sure to call her on the first of the month and let her know if I had moved. I did call and let her know that I did move. I moved all my clothes and stuff in the trailer that I had been painting. As soon as I pulled into the back yard, my brother’s wife was peeping out the back door, watching me like a hawk. Then her daughter came out and told me not to move anything in yet. However, after about five minutes, I moved all the stuff into one of the bedrooms. I kept all my clothes and stuff out there, but I went into the house to shower and to eat and watch TV. I slept in the house on the couch. I would go back and forth to my son’s and my brother’s house. I helped my son and his girlfriend get a trailer, and my brother had the lights turned on for them. They had never paid their seventy- dollar light bill nor did they pay all their rent. They still owed seventy dollars on the last month’s rent. They still had not paid him the forty dollars they had borrowed from him and never paid him. So it is very unlikely that he will help them anymore. My son will be tellsing people that no one is helping him. However, he faills to tell them that he spends all his money on cocaine, weed, or crack. He found another job at a store doing stock work and then got mad and quit because I told him I was moving. I had to move because of all the drugs at that location. It got to be every night that themay were doing drugs. One night he gave a black guy fifty dollars to a friend of my niece. He beat them for that money. The black guy got the money and went to an apartment. We waited over two hours for the guy to come out, and he never did. The next day we went looking for him. The people at the trailer said he didn’t live there anymore. It seems every time he gets his drugs, the packages are short. He doesn’t get the amount he is to receive. It is really a waste of money. It causes a lot of problems like not being able to pay the rent and being not being able to buy things you need for daily living. My niece has found her an apartment for two hundred dollars a month. My son and his girlfriend plan to move in with her and share expenses. However, I don’t believe that will work either. Things are hard to work out when two couples are living in the same apartment. They have already tried to borrow money from my son. They then get mad because he didn’t get his money from cable gram. My niece wanted the money for some crack because she is always smoking. She tells her daughter that my son wouldn’t loan her any money, and he wants to stay there. Before he even moves in, the disagreements start over some little bull shit. That morning my brother and I wentgo over to pick her up, and she wias in the room. She was high as a kite. There is no doubt that she was smoking crack all night. My brother raised all kinds of hell with her. We fouind out that they had a fight and an argument. Then that morning I wentgo to my brother’s house and pulled all the weeds around the house and then mowed the lawn. I am the only one that helps him out at the house. I was going to wash my clothes, but his wife keeps the laundry room locked because she had a deep freeze in there. She found out that her daughter was stealing meat out of it. So she just put a lock on it and woan’t open it. So now we suffer because of the stuff the daughter does around the house. They have come up missing a lot of stuff, like an air conditioner, micro wave, checks missing out of a check book, and a lot of other stuff. They even have to keep a lock on their bedroom door. They will steal anything and go to the pawn shop with it. I went to see my friend in jail, and she wanted to know if I was going to leave her any money. I told her I was leaving her twenty dollars, which was all that I had to give her. She also wanted me to go and talk with the lady that ran her group meetings so she could talk with the judge on a certain day. I decided to talk with the lady that she was staying with for several months. This may make a difference when she appears before the judge. She also told me to tell her group counselor to have her sleeping medicine renewed. It appears to me that I am fighting a losing battle with this one. My brother had asked me to do some things, and his wife says she is tired of all this secret shit. All we were doing was having the lights cut off at one place and transferred to another place. They did turn them on at the new place. However, they forgot to cut them off at the old place that had been rented. Now I had to go back to the electric company and find out why it wasn’t cut off. I did go and check on it, and it was taken care of just as I walked into the office. I then let my brother know it had been taken care of that morning. I then had to check on the insurance. I finally got that taken care of, and it increased my iInsurance from fifty six to one hundred a month. My brother and I had to move my son from his trailer to another apartment. They were sharing the apartment with my niece, who is the crack smoker. It was a real nice apartment, that had two bedrooms, and a nice kitchen. Now we will see if they get along good together: My niece and her boyfriend have a drinking problem and also a drug problem. My son and his girlfriend have their drug problems with weed and cocaine. The problem with my niece is when she drinks, she wants to fight and raise hell. Then with her boyfriend, he likes to get a knife and wants to kill people. They don’t get along too good when they drink. It appears that all hell breaks loose when they get to drinking. Then when my niece goes to my brother’s house, she creates a problem. She starts arguing with her mother about various things that occurs among the family members. Almost everyone in the family does some type of drugs. They argue about who does drugs and who doesn’t. Their mother raises hell with her daughter but doesn’t raise hell with her son who does the same types of drugs. This son I speak of is a mama’s boy. It is always “Mmama, this” and “Mmama, that.” My niece likes crack so much she does what every that is necessary to get another hit. Once you have a hit of crack, you crave another to get that same high again. The dealers stand on the street cornmers selling it, and it is done every day. Then you have other dealers that you can call, and they will deliver it to your home. My niece and her boyfriend get into some rough arguments, and he doesn’t like what she does. For iInstance, she stays in a section all night where the blacks live. Then he hears from various people that she is screwing blacks for the crack. He knows that they just don’t give it to her for nothing. Some nights she comes home, but other nights you waon’t see her for days. I drive her around myself, and I have yet to see her mess with a black. However, I have seen her and know for sure she tricks with Mexicans and white guys. She will use any excuse to get me to go to the crack areas to get another hit of the wicked stuff. I even provide the condoms. Usually I stop by the health department because they give them away. Then to make sure I have them, I stop and buy some at one of the stores. Most of the time the girls go out not unprepared and depend on the customer they screw to furnish the condoms. They don’t have any, and they try to get the customer to furnish them. Sometimes I had to go to the store and buy them. Then when they finish the trick, they can hardly wait to get to the crack man. They are out to make money. However, they waste time by going back and forth. The crack man is on the other side of town. My niece was telling me they were in a crack house, and the police raided the place. They also took every one to the jail. However, she said they couldn’t get in touch with her probation officer, so the police let them go. Then on Sunday night she said she was going to check herself into a rehab center. She wanted to help herself. However, I believe she probably did it to cover up the fact she was in the wrong place. She wants to cover her tracks so she wouldn’t have to explain to her parole officer. ChapterHAPTER 70

I finally got a job at a pizza place, and I was going to work for five dollars an hour. I had to deliver the pizza and work in the shop. I checked with the sSocial sSecurity oOffice. They told me that I could make only sixty dollars a month, and it wouldn’t affect my SSI. I didn’t make enough money to draw my full social security benefit. I am going to find out from the big boss at social security to make sure how it will affect me with SSI. I called the main office in Atlanta, and they said they would not count eighty dollars of my earnings. However, if I made eight hundred dollars that they would take four hundred off my SSI check. So under those conditions, I am not going to work. I will work odd jobs where I get paid cash and checks. We went up to see his daughter at the rehab hospital. She appeared to be okay. However, she has a real bad habit, and she has got to want to help herself. Then one of my brother’s granddaughters got out of a foster home with her new baby, and they brought her home. They are proud of the new baby boy. A couple of days later, they wenthave to go and pick up another grand daughter who was in jail for three months. She was also in a boot camp. She said she will be different this time because she doesn’t want to go back to jail. I and Jeff, who is a boy friend of the one that is in rehab, wentgo up to see her. We broughttake her some food from a restaurant, but she was not allowed to have it. He left her some money. Then we drop by a friend’s house in another town. He borrows another twenty dollars from him. He then goes and buys a twenty- dollar piece of crack. The crack scene is very bad around this town. I guess it is all over the United States. On Saturday I went and played poker and won over a hundred dollars. I wasm counting my chips, and I goet a call from my son. He said he had something to tell me and no one else was to know. I told him I would talk with him at home. When I get to their house, I find Jeff by himself. He tells me that his girlfriend who is my brother’s daughter is home. What she had done was she packed her stuff and just walked out of the rehab center.: My brother told her she wasn’t to go any place and get some crack. She does whatever is necessary to get it. She will beg, steal, borrow, or sell herself to get another hit of it. Then I discussed taking her somewhere with her boy friend because I didn’t want him getting mad at me. So I droive her around for a while, and she turned a couple of tricks then wanted to go and get her a hit of crack. Then she picks up another girl, and they are already high. They don’t want to trick because they are so high. So I called iIt a night after that incident. ChapterHAPTER 71

The next day I go and see a friend that was in jail on a Saturday. So she tells me to come back the next day because she doesn’t feel good. However, she also told me to leave her some money before I left. I did not leave her nothing. What the scheme was that if she saween me on Saturday, she couldn’t get another visit the next day. Well, I figured it out that she wanted to see her boyfriend since she had been locked up. I had told her if she messed with him anymore that I was finished with her. I told her that was exactly what I meant. Well, when I went up to see her the following day, her boyfriend was there waiting to see her. I told him to tell her I would see her later. Well, if she wants someone that beats her, she can have him. Iin fact, she can keep him. I had already told her my intentions if she did. My son loaned his car to my niece and a black guy, and they kept the car for over eight hours. They brought it back all messed up. It was two days before we saween her again. The black guy hasn’t been seen for about a week. He is really staying hidden out somewhere. I met another girl who tricks, and I tooake her around for a little while. Then she decided to get crack right after she trickeds. This one had all kinds of bull shit stories about her. She even conned me out of ten dollars and then got my son for twenty dollars. I took her to buy some crack, and when she went into the house, she never came out. I drove around the block about ten times and finally gave up on her. So when I got to my son’s place I paid him twelve dollars of the twenty he lost and explained to him what had happened. The next day I paid him the other eight. So he wasn’t out any money at all. I was the one that was out the thirty dollars. One morning I went out to my son’s house, and my niece had come back to rest at the crib. The crack scene is a real big problem all over the country. I have seen the street life here in this small town, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The crack women sell their bodies for ten dollars or whatever they can to get some more. The crack cocaine into my opinion is addictiveed because of the high people get from it. Then my niece is hooked on it, and she sells her body for more. They then rent rooms and smoke their crack all during the night. Then they sleep during the day. One girl I know had a drinking problem. She can’t handle drinking at all. She acts all crazy, and she wants to go and get another hit of crack. Then if you refuse to take her, she gets all crazy. Then she wants to jump out of the car and fight anyone around her. On the last trip she tried to hit me and then tried to hit my son. She finally jumped out of the car and was walking down the road. My son tried to get her back in the car but couldn’t do it because she was completely out of control. My niece’s boyfriend gets mad at her because she goes off and turns her tricks for money to get crack. He wants to ride around with her then help her smoke the crack. They talk with each other and say they are not going together. Each of them does what they want to do. However, the boyfriend gets mad at her because she will not smoke the crack with him. Then the crack smokers get mad because one gets a bigger piece than the other. Then the boyfriend wants to ride with them while we travel around and then gets mad because he can’t. One day when he goets off work, he packeds some of his clothes and saidys he was spending the night some place. My son and I figured he was up to moving when this occurred. One day when everyone wais sitting around, the boyfriend caomes by riding with the landlord. The boyfriend caomes in the door and said,ys “Tthe party is over.” Then the land lord coames to the door and saidys, “Iit is eviction time.” Then my son and his girlfriend starteds packing their property and putting it outside. Then the boy friend saidys we can blame all this on his girlfriend. His girlfriend was going out tricking to get crack but wasn’t smoking it with him. Then she was also going to bed with a black man. However, everything is okay if she brings him back some to smoke. He bitches and moans because she does what she wants but then wants to ride with her when she turns her tricks. However, he was the one to blame ftor causinge everyone to move. My son asked if he could rent the apartment, and the land lady said she didn’t know him. The rent receipt was in the boy’s name that brought the land lady to the apartment. He could have gotten fourteen more days, but he wouldn’t do it because it was time to get even time. So they put most of their stuff outside and left the others in until we could move it. The landlord said to call her when they wanted to get the rest of their property. One day when we go over to crack town, we see the boyfriend trying to get a ride, and he sees us and tries to waive us down. So we just shoot him the finger and say, “Ffuck him.” A couple of days later, we go to his house to find out the landlord’s telephone number, and he tells my son that he is sorry that he didone that to him. He was referring to my son having to move. We find out that my niece is in the hospital. We find out what is wrong with her. The next thing we know, she is in a rehab place in Thomasville, Georgia. Then his daughter calls the sSheriff’s dDepartment and tells them where she is located. The police go and take her from the rehab and place her in the county jail. Then her mother and father go to see her probation officer. They ask that she be put in some rehab for a long period of time. It probably will not do her any good. She has to make her mind up to stop doing drugs. Her daughter was in the boot camp and got placed under intense probation. That is from six in the evening until six in the morning. She has to remain home during those hours. She can go out in the day time to look for a job. She then has to log it on a special sheet that the probation officer furnished her. Now the guy that rented with my son has started the rumor around that I take my brother’s daughter around tricking all over town. Well, that is the truth because if I didn’t take her, perhaps some psycho would pick her up. I would like to see her get her life back together, but only she can help herself. Her kids, the three daughters, have been raised by the grandfather and grandmother. The grand kids are spoiled rotten and they are lazy. They do not want to wash a dish, clean the house, or do any type of work around the house. They talk back to their grandfather and grandmother. ChapterHAPTER 72

The street life here in this town is terrible. There are drugs in any area that you go to, and if you want a lady of the night, just give her a piece of crack cocaine. Then you may give her some other type of drug. My son is now pretty well hooked on the crack cocaine along with his girlfriend. My son insistsed on riding around with us when I take the lady of the night around because that way he gets to smoke his crack free. The lady happens to like my son’s girlfriend because she likes women as well as men. There is no doubt in my mind that the lady will make a move on my son’s girlfriend. She has already been saving her hits of crack cocaine, whichthat my son is unaware of happening. The lady I speak of is a fully experienced street lady and knows how to play the game really good. I rented my son and Red a motel room for a week at a price of $160one hundred sixty dollars because it saved them a lot of money. The rooms per night run $36thirty six. That is a total of $242two hundred forty two dollars. That saves them $82eighty two dollars. I drove Red around, and in two days, she used a total of twenty- four condoms. So at $20twenty dollars a trick, that is a total of $280two hundred eighty dollars. That is pretty cheap to sell your body for just to get some crack cocaine. Things have even happened that Mmy son’s girlfriend has even shown her breast to one fellow for hits of crack cocaine. She has done this on several occasions. The lady of the night has even discussed with her about going out with her to turn tricks with her. It is just a matter of time before she hits the streets selling her body. After I rented them the room, they were to pay me back seventy- five dollars each, and they promised they would do it. I told them not to mess me up on my car payments or my insurance. So in the next couple of days, my son made several call to Ohio, and I figured then something was up. He kept asking them how long it would take them to get down here. My son also got to the point he thought someone was watching the room. He was afraid that the person in jail was going to rat us out in order to save herself. He had me take the room out of my name and put into his girlfriend’s name. So I made sure it was out of my name because I didn’t want to get into any trouble because of drugs. I then had to pick up my son’s girlfriend, and I took her to the motel. I then went to where I was painting, and I told her that was where I would be all morning. So after I finished up around eleven thirty, and I went to my brother’s house. They told me that my son had gone back to Ohio. He didn’t even bother to tell me he was going. He also told them that I was hauling whores around and that I was going to jail for twenty- five years. He also told my brother that he said thanks for the twenty- seven years. He didn’t like any of my family because they did so well. He also didn’t tell them that he took the whore with them. She (the whore) was a lady that liked women, and she liked my son’s girlfriends. The whore was keeping my son’s girlfriend with a steady supply of crack. I checked with the motel and found out that the key was turned in, and no deposit was returned nor was there any refund on the room. The reason I know he took Red with him is because she hasn’t been seen around town since my son left. I checked all the spots she visited during her crack- smoking daysareas, and she hasn’t been seen in any of those areas for over two weeks. My brother goets a call from a black guy wanting me to return a purse that belonged to the girl I had hauled around for over a year. My brother and I delivered it to the boyfriend’s sister’s house. Then we went and gathered pecans. I had to rake the leaves away to gather the pecans. We used a roller that picks them up, and we then just dumped them in a box. We gathered a big sack full of them and still had more to gather. I had another place to pick them up from, and these pecans are real big. I have to rake the leaves away with my hands, and all kinds of pecans are laying there. The people that own the grove said we could get them all if we wanted them. The lady that owns the grove stopped by while I was picking them up and wanted to know when my brother was going to give her some pecans. I told my brother, and he called her and left her a message. So we finally broughttook her over some pecans so we could continue picking them up. We finally sold the small pecans, and we got seventeen dollars for fifty- five pounds of the money maker pecans. Then we sold the larger ones and got forty- two dollars for the larger ones. ChapterHAPTER 73

I met a guy in the cafée that needed a wall torn down in a building that he was remodeling, and he gave me seventy- five dollars to do it and also haul off the material. I got some good two- by- fours and a good door out of the deal. He then wanted the place cleaned up and the floor swept, and he gave me ten dollars for doing that for him. So after I got paid, I went and picked up a lady friend to take her to make some money. She usually makes one hundred dollars or more each time she goes out on these trips. She likes certain places better thant others because some haveare drunks that aandre hard to manage. They get drunk and think they can whip the world. We so far have had no major problems in the business. The man I worked with when I tore the wall down for him told me I could get all the pecans I wanted from his property. He had a lot of scrap lumber he was going to burn, and he said I could get all of it if I wanted it. I did get a load of it because I was repairing some old trailer for a man, and he paid me fifty dollars to fix a wall in the bath room around the tub and shower. He wanted me to repair other things but didn’t want to pay me for it. The girl I drive around with had moved over there. She then decided to move back to the other place. She had to deal with three Mexicans there by keeping all of them satisfied. She spends all of her money on the drugs, and she forgets to take care of the driver like she should do. It is no fun when I go to her place because she can’t please everyone at the same time. When she asksed one of them for some money, they don’t want to give it to her. I know she has a lot to deal with, and this caused her a lot of headaches. She has a lady friend that wants to smoke dope with her, but it is always with her hard- earned money. She always spends her money on someone else. The other lady can’t go out and trick because her boyfriend doesn’t allow it. Then the boyfriend doesn’t want her to do any dope or go drinking. When the boyfriend goes to bed, he wants his lady in bed with him all the time. It is apparent to me that she is trying to please everyone, but she runs into too many problems doing it her way. She makes appointments and doesn’t show up for them. This also causes other problems. The guys get mad because she doesn’t show up. I get blamed for it, and she doesn’t realize it. One night I was parked at her place, and someone pulled up behindin back of me and blocked my car. I heard a tapping on my window, and this little Mexican was trying to talk to me. So I tried to talk to him, but he was drunk and mad becamuse I didn’t bring the girl back after I told him that I would do it. He even tried to snatch me out of the car, but I finally locked the door. The other Mexican took him away from the car. The next time I made the trip over to the daddy’s house, I explained the problem with him. He said it would be taken care of real quick. The trip went pretty good, and we were invited back once again. The lady I drive around with is run- down from drugs because she doesn’t eat anything before she starts doing the drinking and doing drugs. She has finally realized that she needs to eat prior to the drinking and drugs. She still has the problem of dealing with the three guys that she lives with regarding going to bed with each of them. She spends around four hundred dollars a week for her habit. I went to gather pecans, and now the pecans are getting real hard to get. One pecan grove I was working in was picked clean by someone else. I took the lady I drive around with up to another town about thirty miles away and made her an appointment with some people that I knew. She is to go back the next day. One of her lady friends that were staying with a Mexicans went off with a lady friend and stayed away for two days. When she goets back, the house it iwas full of Mexicans and one big lady that looked like a fat cow and another slim girl. The big fat cow was cooking the Mexicans supper and hadwas already moved in with them. The slim lady who was there had called my house several times trying to find me. She was on her way to buy some crack. She even asked me if my friends had any money. We then looked out the door, and I sawee Becky walking around the trailer. We then got her in the car and took her to the trailer where Tonya lived. However, she couldn’t stay there because the Mexican men didn’t want her there. So they saet around smoking a joint and smoking crack. She told us how she had gotten stranded up in a town about fifteen miles away. She couldn’t get back home because the lady she left with couldn’t drive at night. What it all amounted to was that Becky had caused a lot of problems. We finally decided to take her back to the trailer court and see who was still in the trailer. Sso when we got there, it was discovered that the fat cow was in the back bedroom. So we got two pillows and her blankets and took them over to the trailer where she was staying. I took Tonya and my friend by the dealer’s house and got them some more bull shit crack. She keeps asking me for money. What she doesn’t realize is that I can’t afford her crack- smoking habit. The Mexicans she stays with are all screwing her. She has to beg them for money. Then when she can’t get it, she has to sell herself for money to get the crack. I then went over to her house the next day, and now she has decided that she isn’t going to trick anymore. She hasd decided to be true with the Mexicans whoere she lived with in the trailer. However, she is tricking with all three of the guys that live there with her. How in the hell can she promise someone that she isn’t going to trick anymore?. She has been screwing all three Mexicans in the trailer. Then I go to check on her friend and found out that she has been in a fight with the Mexican she has been living with. Then the big fat cow that was staying there with the Mexicans had to leave because the police were called. They told her to leave. Then the Mexican’s girlfriend, Becky, had a fight with him and hads blood on her arms. She wanted me to haul her around so she could do some tricking. I told her I had to go to bingo with my brother.: Iin this situation, you have a white woman that doesn’t understand the Mexicans talking. Of course, he doesn’t understand her. So there is no way the couple will stay together. The one I haul around now has said that she wasn’t going to trick anymore. She made her Mexican boyfriend a promise. So I had a talk with her and told her what I had on my mind. I explained to her how she had done me wrong. I don’t really believe that she is serious about quitting what she is doing. The next morning I goet a call from another girl, and she wanteds me to pick her up at a motel. I wentgo to the motel and goet her and the boyfriend. I took them about fifteen miles out of town to the Mexicans’s trailer. So while they were inside doing the dope, I was outside gathering pecans. I gathered up about thirty pounds in a real short time. They decided they wanted to make another trip to get more drugs. So then after we get back to the trailer, I wentgo to gathering pecans. ChapterHAPTER 74

Then at about one o’clock I toelld them I hadve an appointment that I caouldn’t miss. I explained to them that I hadve to be there because it wais with my fFederal pParole officer. They wanted to know when I would be back. I told them probably around three o’clock. However, when I got to my brother’s house, my parole officer called and said she would be thirty minutes late. After she arrived, she asked me the usually questions, and then before she left, she gave me a drug test. I passed the test with flying colors. I went back to pick the girl up and her boyfriend where I had gathered the pecans. They decided to make a trip to Valdosta, and what a trip that turned out to be. There was to be a lot of Mexicans around, but we only found one. The girl who was tricking said she had put forty- five dollars in the glove box, but there was only twenty- five dollars in there. She accused me of taking the money. I then told her she could have my twenty if she was accusing me of taking her twenty dollars. The crazy bitch began to shake down the whole car and messeding everything up in my car. She did this several times, and then she lost her smoking tube. She started shaking down again. It was later discovered that the twenty dollars she was missing was given to her boyfriends. We weare drinking in the car and smoking. I looked in the rear view mirror, and a state trooper wais behind us, and he stayeds there for about ten minutes. There is no doubt in my mind that he checked us out real good on his computer. He observed us as good as anyone would. Everything must have been okay because he finally went on to other business. This girl I was driving was about half loco. I finally had to tell her to get out of the car because she would smoke her crack without even trying to hide it when she fired it up. So I told her I would not be riding her around anymore because she was going to get us busted. I went back to hauling a regular girl around, and this worked out pretty good. However, we did have one problem with one of her tricks. I was sitting outside in the car when I heard her screaming inside the trailer. I had to run inside and pull the guy off her because he wanted her but did not want to pay her. She had a lady friend that we used to smoke with, and she would always take the bigger piece of dope or hide an extra piece for later. We used to smoke with her so- called body guard. He would load his pipe real large and then would skip me on the hits, and he would bull shit every night. He would do things that he said he was good at his word, and that would be bull shit also. Once he said he would be good for forty dollars, and that has been quite a while, and he has never paid that either. He said he would take care of a motel bill one night, and he spent the money on crack. When I and the girl wentgo back to the motel, he hads some black girl there with him, and that did the trick. We just got all of our stuff out and never went back. ChapterHAPTER 75

One time a friend told me a joke that I would like to share with anyone who reads this book. He said a burglar breaksing in a house, and he goes to get the TV.. All of a sudden he hears a little voice screaming. Saying, “Jesus is watching you.” Then the burglar looks around kind of startled, and switchescuts his flash light on, and he doesn’t see anybody, so he says to himself, “I must be getting old, and after this job, I’m going to quit, because I hear voices.” He goes to steal the stereo., Aas he pulls the wire out, he hears the voice. “I told you Jesus is watching you.” The burglar turns his flash light on and spots a bird cage sietting over in the corner. He sees a bird in the cage, and he goes and turns the light on. He then walks over to the cage and sees a big- ass parrot sitting in there. He looks at the parrot and asks if he said that. The parrot answers and saysid yes. The burglar says, “Ddamn, you are a pretty smart parrot. What is your name?” The parrot says, “Moses.” The burglar then says, “Ddamn, what kind of people would live in a house like this that would name a parrot Moses?” The parrot says, “Tthe same kind of people that named a rock welder, Jesus.” ChapterHAPTER 76

I had been writing quite a few checks, and they were now coming back to the places that I had cashed them. My brother and I were at the cafée, and he showed me a letter that said I was wanted for a felony. That was when I told him I was getting out of there. So he gave me the money to go to Ohio. I got to Ohio and found out from one of his buddies where he was living. I then started going to his place of work, hanging around and helping him a little in the garage. Then one day the boss said, “Edwards, if you are going to hang around here, you should get on the payroll.” I asked him what I had to do, and he said, “Iif you got a license, you can drive cars for me at eight dollars an hour.” I told him I would like to have the job. So I would pick up cars and deliver them to different lots. I would also go to the auctions, and we would get cars there and bring them back to his place of business. During this time, my son and I wereas smoking crack and wereas really having a good time. The boss was a real nice fellow, and I was glad to work for him. I was having my checks mailed up to me from Georgia, and I was making good money working. I had been there about three months, and then something happened. A bank was robbed about a block away, and we were sitting around the office. I saw all these police cars going back and forth. I told the boss that someone must have robbed the local bank. I then had to go out on a job to pick up some cars with the rest of the crew. On my way back, my son called and said that a detective was there and wanted to talk to me. I had a funny feeling, but I went on back to the shop. The detective introduced himself to me and wanted to take a picture of me to prove to his boss that it was not me that robbed the bank. He also looked at my I.D. and thanked me for being of some help to him. Someway he had found out that I was on parole. Someone at the shop must have mentioned it. My son said, “Yyou got out of that one.” I told my son sooner or later he would be back to get me. I told him he would put it in a computer and find out that I was wanted in Georgia. So we finally finished the day and went to our apartment house. Later that night, I heard cars going up and down the streets. Then about five minutes later, I heard a knock on the door, and I told my son that he better answer that door. Then my son opened the door, and there was the detective that I had talked to earlier in the day. He asked ifwas Ray was here. Then the detective saw me sitting in the chair. He said I was under arrest for parole violation and bad checks in Georgia. I was handcuffed and placed into the patrol car, and my son asked the officer if he could talk to me a minute. Well, after the talk, I was taken to a county jail. I was placed in a holding cell and then booked. Then I stayed in that cell all night, and then the next night my son came and brought me some clothes. The date that I was arrested was on January 14, 2002. The day was one day before my birthday. ChapterHAPTER 77

On my birthday I was taken to the Youngstown, Ohio jail in Ohio. It was a pretty big jail, and of course, I was booked once again and placed in a cell block. A couple of days later I was interviewed by my parole officer that I had before I left for Georgia. He asked if I wanted to sign a paper for violation, and it called for seventeen months for the violation. He also told me that if I didn’t sign, it could be more than that if I saw the parole commission. After a couple of weeks, the fFederal mMarshals came and put the cuffs and leg- irons on me, and I was taken to a pPrison tTransport and then to the aAirport and then to Atlanta, Georgia. There we picked up some more, and we were then taken to the F.C.I. that was located at Marianna, Florida. This was close to where I was back in 1948nineteen forty eight. The bus pulled up in front of the prison, and our names were called off. I was one of those names. We then entered the prison. They opened one gate, and we entered, then they closed that gate. Then another gate opened, and we entered onto the compound. It looked like a college campus, and there were flowers and trees everywhere. We were first taken to Receiving and Discharge and placed into holding cells. Then the cuffs and leg- irons were removed. Then we had to fill out the paper work for the medical department and the mail room. We then had our pictures taken for our prison I.D. Then we had to produce the I.D. at the mess hall, commissary, and anywhere else when it was asked for by the officers. After we finished with the R. and D. area, we were taken to the laundry to get our clothes. We got three sets of everything, and if ait was winter, we got jackets. We were also given a raincoat. After the laundry, we were told to what dorm we were assigned to. The dorms were named with Indian names, such as Mohawk, Apache, and I cannot remember the others. Each dorm had and A side and B side. You were not allowed to go to one side or the other unless you had permission by the dorm officer. The dorms were graded weekly on how clean they were kept. This was done to see who would be the first to go to the mess hall. We had a good recreation department and a large recreation yard. We had a hobby shop, barber shop, a basketball gym. They also had a school and also a library and a lLaw lLibrary. We also had a large medical department. We were put on call out when we first arrived to get a physical and to get any medical attention if needed. However, medical treatment in prison is a lot different thant an outside hospital. While there I was assigned as a janitor for my dorm. I kept the floor and trash taken care of and waxed the floor. I got paid a few dollars each month. However, my brother would send me two hundred dollars each month. The dorms had all two- man rooms, and you could ask your dorm supervisor to move maybe in maybe with a friend. If you gave them no problems, they usually would grant the request. The security was real tight. They had cables running over the compound to keep the planes out. They had barbed wire all over the fences plus alarms. They had no towers, but a truck went around the compound twenty- four hours a day. I met one inmate that I had been with in the fFederal system and also the state system. He had been in prison for over forty years. As ofI write this writing, he is still in a fFederal prison. I was told by my case worker that I had detainers against me in Moultrie, Georgia. They were for the bad checks that I had written and didn’t have enough money to cover them. However, when I got ready to be released, they refused to come and get me. The reason was the charge was less than a felony and was not very serious. So I went to Ddischarge and was given money and a change of clothes. They told me to walk out to where the telephone was located and a cab would pick me up and deliver me to the bus station. So I got my ticket and got on the bus.

ChapterHAPTER 78

However, I got off before I got to Moultrie because I thought the police would be waiting for me. I then called a friend of my brother and had him to come and get me. He took me to the cafeé, and then my brother showed up. When we got home, I got my nephew to call the jail to find out if they had any warrant: on me. He was at his house, and he called me back and said yes, and the bond was fifteen thousand dollars. Then he said they had come out to his house wanting to know if he knew where I was located or living. He told them he didn’t know where I was living. I then told my brother and that I was going to turn myself in at the clerk’s office. My brother told me that he would put up the bond for me. So I went to the clerk’s office, and she asked me if I was I sure that’s what I wanted to do. I told her that I wanted to clear it up. So she took me down to the jail, and she told them to book me for the bad checks. They took my picture and finger printed me and took all my personal property. I was then placed into a holding cell. I was fed supper, of which It looked so bad that I did not eat it. In the cell right next to me was my niece. She got out and came to my cell and asked me what I was doing in there. I explained it to her and told her to tell her dad to make sure and get me out. She then was released on bond. I was in jail for about six hours before they would let me out. The reason was they had been booking Mexican men that had been arrested for being in the country. They did not have a green card that was required by the United States. My brother and I went and had something to eat and just shot the bull for a while. I went home with him and stayed with him for a while. Then one of his daughters wanted me to stay with her. She was working at a children’s plant, and I was drawing S.S.I. While I was there, one of her boyfriends came over and stayed. Then her sister and her boyfriend stayed with us. Then the boyfriend cut a hole in the back of the couch. He then stole a billfold out of the guy’s pocket of the guy that was sleeping. Then he stole their car and later was caught. I later moved back in with my brother. My brother was getting real sick, and we had to send him to the hospital several times. While he was in the hospital, I went to an agency to find a job. I filled out the papers, and they said I would be called if anything came up. In the meantime, I just kept hauling the girls around. Then about two weeks later, I got a call for me to report back to their office. I returned to their office, and they asked if I wanted a job at the chicken factory. I told them yes, and I was to report the next day at eight o’clock. They gave me a pass because they had security that inspected every car that entered. I left there and went to the hospital to see my brother. I explained to him about the job and told him they would call me. It wasn’t long before my brother passed away, and he was buried in a little jug. He had been burned into ashes. I reported for the training section and was told all the regulations about the plant. I was then dressed out in a white outfit and a hair net. We were taken on a tour through the plant and toldsaid we would be called later. However, something happened, andthat I was never called. ChapterHAPTER 79

After a couple of weeks, I called the plant and told them what had happened, and they told me to come out to the plant. I was cleared at the gate and was interviewed by a sSupervisor, and she asked me if I was I ready to go to work. I told her yes, I was ready. I was dressed out in a white outfit and a hair net, and she put me to packing chickens in a box. Then I went from there to the drip line. That was where the chickens were on a track going all through the plant. The chickens came out, and we had to hang them by their legs and upside down. Then the good chickens without broken legs and wings would go one way. The ones that were damaged went another way. These would be cut up and into different pieces. I worked hanging them for a while, but I was not fast enough for that job. I finally got a job in the ice house. All I had to do was shovel ice into an auger that was in the floor, and that would take it all through the plant. I would work in there for over two and a half years. I had gotten a car and met a young lady and started hanging around with her. Sometimes I would let her drive me to work, and she would pick me up when I called her. One day my supervisor came to me and told me that my car had been in a wreck. What had happened was she had been drinking and had pulled out in front of a truck. The truck broadsided her and totaled my car.n I went to the dealer and got me another one, but I didn’t let her drive that one. I did not stay with her, and I lived in a little house about a mile away. I stayed there for about a year and then missed paying him on time. So he told me I had to move out. I told him he had my first and last month’s rent, and I had thirty days before I had to move. He was what I thought to be a friend, but he turned out not to be a not a friend. I did move as soon as I found another place. It was closer to town and meant less miles that I had to deal with. I finally rented a little camper trailer that was just about right for me. It was only two miles from where I worked. ChapterHAPTER 80

However, I started getting the wrong type of company that smoked crack. My two nieces and their boyfriends would come over. I then started missing things out of the trailer. One day I came home from work, and my microwave came up missing. There wasn’t anyone who knoewing anything about where it had gone. I was getting good income tax returns that were over three thousand dollars, and I was really living just fine. However, my niece started hanging around with a boyfriend that had gone with her mother. He, of course, was a crack smoker ,and she was also. I met him and started hanging around with him. The place that I worked at had a rule saying, if you missed nine days within a six- month period, you would be terminated. Well, that was what happened to me. If you even missed just a half a day, that was counted as a day. They didn’t explain that to me when I started to work. Then I was stlaying with the girl and paying her. Then a friend of hers came over and told me I should move. Well, I told him if I had some gas money, I would move out that day. So he gave me some money, and I went and lived with my niece for a while. That was a big mistake because she was a real serious crack smoker. I helped her get a car because she could not because she had no license. I would drive her most of the time. However, sometimes she would drive around town. Well, I finally got another car from the same place that she had bought her car. Later, we got into an argument, and I moved back in with my girlfriend. One night I had a shot of vodka, and this girl next door wanted to go to the store. I told her that I would get someone to take her. However, no one wanted to, and they said to let her use the car. I said no, that I would take her. So after we got to the store and she got what she wanted, and she got back into the car. I then backed up and so did this other car. We backed into each other. It was just a freak accident. Then the police came, and she asked what happened. I explained it to her. Then she got real close to me and said that I smelled like I had been drinking. That is when she went and got her breathing machine. I tested .07 on it, and then she put the cuffs on me and took me to the county jail. There she gave me another test, and it showed the results. I was then placed into a holding cell. Later, a bondsman came and got me out. It was after one in the morning. Because of this, my probation officer said I would have to pay five thousand dollars, and if I didn’t, he would have to violate my probation. He said to make sure I called before I reported in for my next interview. ChapterHAPTER 81

My niece was living in Omega, Georgia, and wanted me to stay with her and her boyfriend. She had been left a truck that my brother had wanted her to have, and it was real nice. They had their own room, and I had mine. One night she said she was going to rob someone. I didn’t believe her, and when she and her boyfriend came back, they had a pocket full of money. The crack man was real close and right next door. The next morning they told me to go and get smokes and put gas in my car. Well, what I didn’t know was that was the station that was robbed. I then went back, and they asked me what was happening, and I said nothing. So that night while I was sleeping, they got my car and used it in a robbery. However, I did not know anything about them getting my car. Then they woke me up and asked me if I wanted to smoke some crack, and I said yes. Then I left to go to Moultrie, and while I was in a café, they called me and he said my niece had been shot robbing a store. So I went back to Omega, and they were at the apartment and wanted me to take them to a motel. I took them to Tifton, Georgia, and rented them a room and put the receipt in my wallet. We were in the motel, and he was helping her with her leg. They told me I should go because they didn’t want me to get involved in that shit. So he gave me forty dollars, and I left and went back to Moultrie. I was sitting in a café, and I called my niece. She answered the phone, and she asked me where I was at right then. I told her, and she told me tosaid wait a minute, that she had another phone call. So right then I knew something was wrong. So I went out and saet in my car until the police got there. There were four of them that pulled into the lot at the café. One of them came over to my car and asked if I was Ray Edwards. I said I was, and he said that an investigator wanted to talk to me. I also noticed my niece standing over there looking aon to what was happening. There was no doubt that she was the one that called them. The investigator told me he could lock me up for interfering with an investigation, so I told him what he needed to know. One of the reasons was while he was talking to me, my phone rang, and it was them calling me. The cop that was looking at the phone had seen who it was because iIt had their name on the phone. Then the investigator looked in my billfold and saween the motel receipt and asked who was there. I told him, “Yyou know who is there.” Aand he then called the police in Tifton and told them to watch the motel room that was on the receipt. He also told them to not to do anything until they got there. Then he thanked me and told me I was free to go. ChapterHAPTER 82

One night I went to the crack dealer and went in and got the stuff. I then returned to my car, and a guy walked up and asked if I would give him a ride. I said, “Ssure, where do you want to go?” Aand he said he was homeless. I said, “Yyou can stay with me if you want.” I then took him to the apartment, and we smoked some crack and had a good time. Then he wanted to know if I had any more money, and I told him that I had none at all. Then he said, “Llet’s take the micro wave to the hock shop and also the T.V.” We then went to the hock shop and got money and went to the crack man. The next thing I saw was hime was ripping the air conditioner out of the window, and thenre we went back to the crack man. Then we came back to the apartment and smoked some more. After that he said he wanted to borrow my car, and I asked what for, and he told me he was going to rob some store. Well, he took the car and came back about thirty minutes later with a pocket full of cash. I asked where he had got it, and he said a restaurant that sold Chinese food. He had about six hundred dollars. We, of course, went to the crack man and enjoyed the night. The next day he said he knew a store that he wanted to get, but it was in another town. I said O.K.okay, and he said it was in Thomasville, Georgia. I had told him that I was not going to get involved in any armed robbery. Then he told me if I didn’t help him, he would kill me. So I took him to where he wanted to go, and I parked in another lot. After about fifteen minutes, he came back running out of the alley and told me he robbed this store and tolet’s get out of there. There was a cop at a red light with his lights flashing. So we pulled out, and he remained where he was at the red light. Then we headed back to Moultrie, and then these two cop cars came by just flying by us. I said, “Aat least they are not after us.” ChapterHAPTER 83

However, after about five minutes, a car pulled up behindin back of us and flashed his blue lights on us. I had to pull over, and I knew we were in some serious trouble. I was then told by the police to put my hand outside the window. Then he told me to shut the car off and open the door. That is exactly what I did. Then he told me to get out of the car and walk backward toward him. This I did just like he said. His next order was for me to like face down on the road. There were all kinds of cars stopped both ways watching what was happening. After they cuffed me, they then told the other guy to exit the vehicle. I told them he could not get out because he had no door handle on the inside. That was because several days before, it had been broken. Two of the police then approached the car and managed to get him out and had him back up and lieay on the pavement. He was then cuffed and put in a police car. They had already placed me in the back seat of one and closed the door. The cap asked me how old I was, and I told him seventy- one. He was curious because of my age. I know what he was thinking— why I got mixed up in something like this. We were then taken to the county jail in Thomasville, Georgia. I was placed into a holding cell waiting to be bhooked. I then saw him being taken to an interview room by a detective for questioning. Then when they brought him back, they took me to be interviewed. The detective asked me if I had anything to say about what happened out there tonight. He had already advised me of my rights. I told him I had better talk to a lawyer. That was when he ended the questioning. I was then taken to the booking area, and fingerprints were taken and a picture. Then my personal property was taken and placed in a plastic bag and put in storage. I was then taken into the shower room and told to strip off and then told to take a shower. After the shower I was given one of the jail’s jump suits that were orange and were stamped on the back with Thomasville Jail. I was then assigned to a cell block, which was called A bBlock. They were all lower bunks, and I had a lower bunk pass just in case. We had T.V. and tables to play cards and eat on. We also had a phone, but you had to pay to use it. We had a pill call every morning. If you went on sick call, it would cost you five dollars. However, if they called you up and you didn’t ask for it, you were not charged. I met a lot of inmates and a lot of inmates that had problems. I had to figure out how to deal with all these problems. We had one that would talk to someone at the table, but no one would be there. We did become friends, but we had our ups and downs. Like fFor instance,ts he only wanted to watch one hour a day to listen tof some type of music that came on. However, this other inmate that was in for murder didn’t like that type of music. So we got into an argument, and he said something out of his mouth that I didn’t like. This other guy said he didn’t hear him say anything. Why he said that was because he was playing the guy so he could get coffee from the inmate. In other words, he was a player, or so he thought. Anyway, I took up for the guy that talked to himself. Then one day he and I got into a heated argument, and the nurse had to take him out of the cell block. He was finally put into one of those strap- down chairs and was finally sent to a hospital and put on medication. ChapterHAPTER 84

A couple of months later, he came back into the block and hugged me when he came into the block. He asked me if I needed anything, and we became the best of friends. Then the man that was in for murder had talked to me about his case. I told him not to discuss his case with anyone in the jail. He told me I was the only one in there that he talked to about it. He said if I ever testified against him, he would hire a hit man to kill me. I then told my attorney of the situation, and he told me to be careful about getting involved with a person that was in for murder. However, he told me to keep talking to him and gather any information that he would discuss with me. It was not long after that when I was called to an investigator’s office. He began asking me questions concerning what I had discussed with my attorney. I then told him the same thing that I had discussed with the attorney. All the time he was recording this so he could let someone else hear it. He also told me that he was not telling me to go and talk with this man. He made it very clear that he was not. Later the guy that committed the murder got out on bond. He was out until he had to appear in court. Well, when he came back, I was in the same cell block that he had left from. As soon as he came in, we got into an argument about some letters that I was to have written. However, someone else had written the letters and signed my name to them. So the guard took him back to the booking area and caome back later and told me I had to move. They moved me almost right across from the A bBlock. In fact, we could look at each other every day. Finally, my lawyer called me down to the booking area, where he had his interview and handed me a paper that the D.A. had entered in my case. The charge that I was accused of had been dismissed and also the gGrand jJury iIndictment. Now they had a hold on me for my violation of fFederal parole and the state probation for D.U.I. and for the checks I had written a couple of years before. ChapterHAPTER 85

I was finally released to the custody of the transport officer for Dooley County Georgia. I stayed in that jail for about two months, then I was moved to Crisp County Georgia. After I was there for about three weeks, they told me to get ready for transport early in the morning. Well, they dressed me out, and then the fFederal tTransport oOfficers came. However, they said they could not take me because they didn’t have a warrant for them to take me. So I was taken back to my cell block. I had to sleep on the floor because someone had taken my bunk. About three weeks later, they called me out again. I was taken to the booking area, and my property was put away again. You could not take it with you on the transport bus. They would keep it in storage until you got to the prison, and then you would write to them. I was cuffed up, and they asked me my prison number and told me where I was going. I was then taken out and placed on the transport bus. We were headed once again to the famous prison of Atlanta, Georgia. However, there was a new hold over block that had been built since I had been there. They were all two- man rooms, and there were two floors. There was also an A side and a B side. On each side it would hold seventy- five to one hundred inmates. These inmates in this block were being held for transport to various prisons. There was no telling how long you would be in this holding area. ChapterHAPTER 86

I was there for several weeks before I was on a plane headed for Okla. I had to go through all this because of a D.U.I. The fFederal mMarshals transport prisoners every day except Saturdays and Sundays and hHolidays. The plane lands in Okla. It is just like an airport. When you unload from the plane, you walk right into the prison. It had not changed since I had been there years ago. I was there about three weeks when I was called down to the office to talk with a fFederal Ppublic Ddefender. She had a paper that she read to me saying if I signed it, I would not have to go before the parole commission. She said it would speed up the process and I would get out on October 29th., 2011., Hhowever that was changed because it fell on a Saturday, and they do not release inmates on the weekends or holidays. So a few weeks later, I was on a jet heading for Jacksonville, Florida. I was then taken to the Tallahassee Federal Prison by a transport bus. I was also here years ago in 1977, when I first entered the fFederal system. They had built a brand- new holding building. It was almost like all the other holding systems. They had all two- man rooms, and they just put you in with anyone. If they had a bad personality, you would just have to learn to deal with it. It was a real clean prison, and they fed pretty much the same as the others. I wasn’t there for long, and then I was transported to Marianna, Florida. They had sent me back to the prison that I had been released from in 2009. There was nothing new there except they put me in a different dorm. All the inmates that were there when I was were no longer there. They put me in a cell with two other men. The bunks were three high. However, I had a bottom bunk pass. The next morning I wantedould like a cup of coffee, and I didn’t ask for any from anyone. So this one inmate walked up to me and asked if I wanted a cup, and I told him I didn’t have any cup. He said he would get me one, and he had some coffee if I wanted some. I said I sure did, and he asked if I wanted sugar and cream. He was a real nice guy and said when I wanted another one, to let him know. He said he knew how it was when an inmate came in and didn’t have anything. Another inmate came up and offered me some soap and other stuff. He was an old bank robber that probably would never get out. He was either seventy or seventy- five. He had robbed this bank and was leaving, and a security guard entered the bank. One day I was called to the hospital and was examined by a doctor, and she told me she was going to remove a mole from my shoulder. Well, she didn’t do it the date she had told me. Then I saw her again, and she said she had to remove it after twelve o’clock. Well, she didn’t, and of course, I still have iIt. I was assigned to the kitchen and had to get up at five every morning except for the two days that I didn’t have to work. My job was to pass out two napkins to each inmate as they came through the line with their trays. Sometimes I would serve the cake and maybe something else. I had only to serve two meals, and that was the morning and noon meal. I would get off at around twelve and be finished for the day. I spent time on the yard and went to the library quite a lot. Iin the dorm, I could watch T.V,. but I couldn’t hear it because I didn’t have money to buy earphones. We had a microwave to heat things up. I did get to go to the commissary one time because I had only twenty dollars a friend sent me. I sure bought me enough coffee to last me until I was released. ChapterHAPTER 87

I was interviewed by a case worker, and he asked why I had been sent there with only a little over two months. I said I didn’t know and I only had a D.U.I. violation. He called the business office about my release, and they told him that was correct, and I would be released on October 28, 2011. He had told them that he had nothing on it in his computer. He then told me there wasn’t enough time to put me into a halfway house. I told him I didn’t need a halfway house. I told him that I had a son that I could stay with in Ohio. So he asked me ifdid I hadve his phone number, and he called him and let me talk with him. I then gave him back the phone, and he got all the information from him that he needed. He had to have the address and other information so that he could fax it or eE-mMail it to the pParole cCommission. Then he wished me good luck and said if I needed any help on anything, to make sure I let him know. The time came for me to get ready for my release. The day before you are released, you have to let every department know the day before. You have to take a paper around to each department and also turn in all your prison clothes except the outfit you are wearing. On the morning of my release, I had to go to work because the dorm officer woke me up. So I went to work at five and showed the paper to my boss and said that I had to be at Rreceiving and Ddischarge by seven o’clock. He asked me how come I just showed him the paper, and I said because it was already signed the day before by a kitchen staff member. So he made a couple of calls and confirmed this situation. He finally called me and told me to report to Receiving and Discharge. When I got to R and D, he asked me for my I.D. cCard and took my picture. He then gave me my dress- out clothes that I had been fitted out the day before. He then took me to the bBusiness oOffice. They gaive me the money to eat on and for cab fare if I needed it and a paper to get my bus ticket then had me sign the paper saying I received it. I was then taken to the place where the guards came in, and a lady asked me my name and number. They then opened the inside prison door and closed iIt after I entered. Then the outer door to freedom was open, and I was met by a lady guard. She said she was to drive me to the bBus sStation at Panama City, Florida. She asked me if I smoked, and I said yes, I did. She said for me not to smoke in the car. She also said she would stop to get gas, and we could both smoke when she got the gas. So we stopped, and I bought a pack of smokes and stepped outside and had a smoke. I can say that it really made me dizzy, and I hadn’t smoked a good smoke since 2009. Since I had not smoked since, then I should have just kept on not smoking. Then we went on to Panama City to the bus station. We went into the station, and I gave them the paper the institution gave me. At first they made a mistake on the spelling of the town, and it took about fifteen minutes to get the ticket made out correctly. I asked the lady that brought me if I couldto use her phone to call my son. She told me it was a government phone, and they checked her calls. I told her that I understood the situation. She stayed with me until I boarded the bus and wished me good luck. ChapterHAPTER 88

I then met a fellow on the bus and asked him if I couldto use his phone to call my son. He said sure, I could use it. I called my son and told him I was on the bus leaving Panama City and would arrive there at five thirty Saturday evening. He said to call him when I got closer. I had one lay over for about four hours. I called him there and explained to him about the lay over. Then I called him again when I was about one hundred miles away. When I arrived in Youngstown, Ohio, I entered the bus station. I didn’t see him, so I went to the phone, and when I turned around, there he was with a friend he brought along. He lived in a trailer right outside Lisbon, and believe it or not, he lived right down the road from a fFederal pPrison. We pass it every time we go to the store or go to town. It is a good reminder to me every day not to go back into those places. After the weekend, I had to report to my parole officer in Youngstown, Ohio. My son took me over there, and as we entered the building, we had to go through a metal detector. We then had to go up a couple of floors to his office. A lady in a booth asked me who was I was, and I told her my name. She then said he was not in, but another officer would see me. He took my picture and explained all the rules. He then told me I had to attend a special meeting the following week. He then gave me a bunch of papers concerning rules and so forth. My son took me to a store and bought me pants, shirts, shoes, shorts, and also a phone. He was sure taking care of me. Several days later, we had to go back to Youngstown to talk with my parole officer and to have a meeting. The meeting involved the same thing that I was told when I first went over there. All the rules were explained to all of us that were in the group meeting. I have been visited by the parole officer several times. The first time he gave me a urine test for drinking and drugs. The next time he stopped by because he was just in the area. He seems to be pretty nice, and as long as I do right, everything will work out just fine. ChapterHAPTER 89

After that I was told to report for a one- on- one meeting with a lady at the Family Recovery Center. It was for drug and drinking problems. I have attended three meetings, and the lady has been very helpful in many ways. She has been very inspirational about my past problems and my future. I realize that is what her job is all about. She learns a lot from me about the years I spent in prison. She has given me encouragement in the things that I plan to do with my life. I was contacted on my computer by a friend down in Georgia. She told me my niece had passed away. She explained that she had taken drugs and some other kind and had over dosed. This was the niece that I had lived with before I got arrested in Thomasville, Georgia. This is another example of what drugs will do to you. I don’t get around to much because I have not got a license. It took me several weeks to get an Ohio I.D. The reason for that was because I had trouble getting my bBirth cCertificate. Here I am at seventy- five years old, and they wanted to amend it. On my birth certificate it is R. E. Edwards, JIr. I told them thereit wasn’t any need for that and asked why make a change now. So I had one in Georgia in an evidence room. I had a friend go to the Thomas County Jail to retrieve it. Finally, I managed to get the I.D. The I.D. the government gave me wasn’t any good for anything. It just let anyone who saween it know that you were released from prison. So I got the state I.D. I then had to go to another office across town to take the vision test and the written exam. I now had the right to drive with someone that had a regular license. Then the next thing I had to do was make an appointment to take the driving test. I did call a couple of days later and made an appointment for 10:00ten aA.mM., March 2, 2012. I then called my boss who I was going to work for driving cars and asked if Ito could use one to pass the driving test. He said he would send a driver to pick me up but to remind him the day before that I was to take it. So on the day I took the test, a driver met me at the café and took me over to where the office was located. The purpose of this was to get a small car, and that would make the driving test easy. However, the boss didn’t have a small car so, I had to take it in a truck. So we had to drive backd to Lisbon, Ohio, about fifteen miles to the place I was going to take the driving test. So I went into the driver’s license office and told them I was there to take the driving test. She then told me to go park the truck in front of some signs Well, I misunderstood her and told the friend that drove me over to park it. Instead of parking it in front where the signs were, hbe parked it over at the cones. That was where you had to pull up and back up several times. However, I had to walk over there and tell him the right place to park it. Then he came back over and was going to the wrong place again. I finally had to walk and get him again. He finally managed to park in the right place. In the mean time, the officer was already mad about the situation. I finally was told to get in the truck and put my seat belt on, and then he had me test the brakes, turn signals, and horn. He then had me drive for about fifteen minutes. He then instructed me to pull over to where the cones were located. This was the maneuverability test, and it required parking and pulling up and backing up between the cones. The truck I was in, I wasn’t used to driving it, and I ran over one of the cones. He then told me to drive back to the office. He said I was to come back again to pass parking between the cones. ChapteHAPTERr 90

So I left and I had my friend drive me back to where I lived. My appointment was set for March 15fifteen at two thirty in the afternoon. However, I still had to obtain a small car in order to pass the parking between the cones. My son finally found me a vehicle on the Iinternet, and it cost me seven hundred dollars. It was a 1995 jeep and was not in bad shape at all. I put me four cones up in the yard and practiced about two hours parking between the cones. I didn’t knock any over this time. I finally got my regular license to drive by myself. My son did a little work on it by changing the tires. I had a little trouble going down the road one day. The front end started shaking real bad like it had a flat tire. However, my son said it was the ball joints. He also said it could be the tie- rods. Anyway, he said he would check iIt out for me. You can’t expect a perfect vehicle for seven hundred dollars. I got the job driving cars for the dealer in Ohio. He is a real good boss to work for, and he treats me real good. One day I had an accident at a red light. It was on caution, and a car ran out in front of me. I had to go to court and pay a fine of ninety- nine dollars. It was better than going to jail. We drive all over to deliver cars at different dealerships and to auctions. It is an easy job, but you have to be careful on the highways. One day we were coming back from an auction, and the lead driver took us through some woods. Well, of course, we ran into some trees that were on the road. That didn’t go too well with the boss because the cars were scratched up quite a bit. The next morning at the shop, it was discovered that the lead driver had coame in early. He was working on the vehicle to try to clean it up. However, the boss had discovered it, and both of us got chewed out real good. The boss asked me why I had followed him. I told him that we were in the woods, and I didn’t want to get lost. The boss then said to me, “Iif he jumped off a building, would youI follow him?”. Of course, I answered, “Hhell no.” ChapterHAPTER 91

Once I met a guy that asked me if I wanted some fudge. I, of course, told him yes. I was given a pretty large piece. It tasted real good. What I didn’t know was it had been cooked up, and weed was mixed with it. It got me real high, and I felt real good. I drove home and had to sit down on the steps. I was so wasted that I couldn’t even get up to get the key in the door. I sait there for about an hour, then I beat on the door, and my son finally came to the door. He asked me what was wrong, and I told him to just carry me into the house. The next day I told a couple of my friends about it, and they laughed about it. They knew about it already because the guy that gave it to me had told them. We also had one driver that was having trouble with his eyes. One time I had him help me take me some stuff to my house. However, when he backed out of the yard, he ran into the mail box. Of course, it scratched the side of his truck up pretty good. At another time he was loaned another vehicle, and he ran that one into a telephone pole. However, it did not belong to theour business where we worked. We had it were trying to sell it for another car company. The bad part of it was the vehicle was totaled. Of course, this didn’t go over too well with the other company. The other company was so mad that they sent their drivers to get all the vehicles they had at our place of business. Finally, the company would not let the guy that wrecked the vehicle drive for the company anymore. The main reason was because his eyes were real bad, and they were concerned about the insurance if he got into another wreck. He finally had to take off several weeks until he had his eyes examined and then to received his glasses. However, when he did get his glasses, he still wasn’t allowed to drive the vehicles of the dealership anymore. We had several more drivers, but they didn’t hang around the shop like I did. I got most of the calls if they were close, and they got the long trips. I made the bank deposits and took the titles to get them changed over. I usually made a lot of trips for the boss because he would be busy with customers. I had been working for the dealership for just about two years. ChapterHAPTER 92

I finally made a big mistake for wanting to help someone. I was parked on the main street in town, and a flag man was holding up traffic. The young lady wanted to know if I could give her a ride. She then approached my car and said if I gave her a ride, she would give me ten dollars. I told her yes, I would, and she then got into the car. She told me her car was in another town and had broken down. She started asking me if I was married and ifdid I fooled around and party. I told her I was single and wasn’t planning on getting married again. Then she was rubbing on my leg, and I didn’t try to stop her. I asked her where was she was going, and she said this house that was in Liverpool, Ohio. Well, the house turned out to be a crack house. So Bbeing around the crack, you are tempted to have a hit or two. So one thing led to another, and I found out she had lied about the car breaking down. She lived with an older man that she had been taking care of for about ten years. He had a real bad breathing problem, and it was hard for him to move around. She had been living with him for that reason. She didn’t have any other place to stay because she was on drugs. He had to deal with her because he couldn’t take care of himself. When he went to sleep, she would get his bank card and get money off it. She would then go to crack town. She finally introduced me to him, and I slept at his house several nights. She finally got me to smoking crack with her. One night I took her out to my son’s house. However, he was at another place down the road. We shot the bull and had a few drinks. I then told my son that I was going up to his house. He said that was okay. So we, of course, went right to my bed room and fooled around. However, I had drunk more than I could handle. Later in the night, my son woke me up and said she had been arrested. At first my son thought I was with her because my jeep wasn’t in the yard. Then my son told her to bring the jeep back, or he was going to call the law. Well, they started screaming back and forth. Finally, we got a call from her, and she told us where she had parked the jeep. ChapterHAPTER 93

After that trouble between them, I could not take her out to my son’s house. She wanted me to go with her to get some crack. I told her I was not going, so I let her use the car. The crack house was always crowded on Friday nights. The dealers would be there, and they did a good business. The girls would be there, and their ages would be from sixteen to about forty. They would turn tricks for hits of crack. They would do the tricks mostly in the bath room. A lot of times they would ask me if I had any condoms. The lady I was hanging around with was on probation. She had to go to a place where they took a urine test. Of course, she failed the test. However, she was allowed to leave. When she got home, the man she was taking care of was admitted at the hospital. We found out from his son that he would not be coming back. So I had parked my jeep about two blocks from where we were staying. As I was walking to the house, I saw a car that looked like a police car. I entered the house and told her what I had seen. Then about thirty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. She told me not to open the door. Then someone outside said, “Tiffany, we know you are in there.” Then he said, “If you don’t open the door, we are going to bust it open.” I finally told her I was going to open the door. If I had not opened it, they would have arrested me for interfering with an arrest. When I opened the door, the police came in and asked me who was I was. I told them I was just a friend. They went to the bedroom and told her they had a warrant for violation of probation. They cuffed her up and took her to jail. While she was in jail, I went by the place where she had been staying. She had given me the keys before she went to jail. Bruce was not getting out of the hospital. So she had a few things of hers that was left in the house. Most important wereas some pictures that could not be replaced. She also had a bunch of C.Ds. that she wanted me to get them for her. I took care of everything for her. While she was in jail I was the only visitor she had during the three weeks she was locked up. I even sent her some money during that time. ChapterHAPTER 94

One day I got a call at work, and I was told by an officer at the jail that she was waiting for me to pick up the girl. When I got almost to the jail, I saw her walking down the road. She was real glad to see me. She didn’t have any place to stay except the crack house. The guy that owned it rented rooms out, and he had four rooms. Then he also had some sleeping on the couch. Of course, he was paid in cash and also drugs. He had a good little business going for himself. I finally got hooked on the crack, and I messed up real good. I went to work one morning and took a couple of company checks and rubber- stamped them with the boss’s signature. I then went to the bank and cashed them with my I.D. After that, I went straight to the crack dealer. Of course, she was glad to see me, and we bought some crack then went to play the slots at the gambling house. The first couple of nights we rented a motel room. Then I went back to the place where I had worked. I had the key to three of the outside doors. However, I did not have the keys to the office doors. I went into the garage and got an iron bar and broke out one of the small window panes of the office. I then went in and got several checks and then rubber- stamped them. I then went to the bank at nine o’clock. I approached the teller and produced my I.D. She looked into her computer and saw something. I could tell by the expression on her face. She told me to wait just a minute and went to talk with her boss. That was when I got my I.D. and left the bank. I also knew that a notice had been placed on the computer about the checks. We finally rented us one of the little rooms in the crack house. We were out of money and had no other place we could stay. So once in a while I would let her use the jeep, and she would always bring back money. One night I went with her, and I let her drive. We had just left the crack house, and we came upon a line of flashing lights. Of course, they pulled up behind us and pulled us over. They asked for driver’s license and proof of insurance. They then brought a dog that smelled the car for drugs. Then they shook us down and found a scale on me. However, I had found it, and that is what I told them. They also asked us where we were going. She told them we were going to a birthday party. They didn’t have anything to hold us for, and they finally let us go. We then went on to see one of the drug dealers. ChapterHAPTER 95

A lot of times in the crack house, she would ask the dealer what they needed from the store. She would go shop lifting and bring those items back. She would always carry a large purse or pocket book. Then when she went to the cashier, she would spend five dollars for a certain iItem. The purse would be over her shoulder. I once took her to one store, and she came out with over one hundred dollars of baby clothes. All those items had been ordered by the drug dealer. Most of the time I would let her go alone. I would be in the crack house all doped up. There was one time we were smoking, and this older man said he wanted a hit. Well, one of us fixed it for him, and when he hit it, he said that was the best he had ever smoked. Then all of a sudden he hit the floor, and he was dead. I got the hell out of that area real quickt. One time I went to talk with my son, and I tried to open the door, and he had changed the lock. I then wrote him a note and left it on his truck’s widper blades. I told him to please call, but he never did call. Once in the crack house, my lady friend had shot some heroin and went to take a bath. Well, I went to check on her, and she opened the door. She was sitting on the toilet with sweat just running off her. She really looked in badck shape. I finally went and told the owner to send someone up to look after her. After about an hour, she finally came out of the bathroom. What happened was she had gotten some stronger heroin, and she just about over dosed. Several times when she came in from her tricking, I would listen in when she would be shooting the bhull with the crowd downstairs. I would later ask her about the trip and how much she had spent on crack or heroin. Several times I had caught her lying. ChapterHAPTER 96

I finally madke up my mind to call my son. I finally got the call through, and I told him I was coming to see him. When I got to his trailer, he was out in the yard. I told him to let me make some coffee. After I got the coffee, we sat down at this table he had in the yard. I asked him how much he knew about what had happened. He said he was going to help me, but first I had to give him my keys. He then explained to me everything he knew. He also told me that the parole officer said to keep me home until he could get there to talk to me. He did come the next day, and he gave me a urine test. I passed the test because I had not smoked for several days. Then he told me that he was waiting on the parole board to make a decision. He said sometimes it takes them a long time. When we were talking, he discussed with me about a half way house. That involved being there at certain times, and there were rules to go by. Then he discussed with me about an ankle brace. With that type of device, they could control your movements if you left a certain area. Also, they could track your location if they wanted you real bad. However, I was told that I could not go any place by myself nor could I drive my jeep until it was approved by him. So any time I had to go anyplace, my son would have to take me. The parole officer told me I could not talk with the lady that I had been hanging out with. Any time my son got a call from her, he would tell her not to call him again. I had been going to the rRecovery cCenter, and I found out she had got caught shop lifting. The charge was petty larceny, and of course, she was in jail once again. I did go out to see her. After I arrived, I changed my mind becamuse I was afraid they might have a warrant for my arrest. ChapterHAPTER 97

In my leisure time I got into a habit of going to a casino. I loved to play the slots, and I would win quite often. However, if you continued to play, it would get the money back. I even played black jack, and I would also win at that type of game. Like all gambling places, there will be women looking for men who wanted sex. However, I met the wrong one and got rolled or robbed. She took me up to her motel room, and we gotwere in bed and hadving sex. Then out of the bath room came her pimp, and I guess that was why he was there. He then proceeded to grab my money that was out on the table, and then he ran out the door. Of course, I asked her ifdid she kneow who that was, and she said no. She also told me she had left her room open and that was how he had gotten into the room. So that broke me from going to the casino to play the slot machines. I also just barely made it back home. I went to one of the stores, and I had to use the bath room. Well, as I was fixing to leave, I slipped on some water that was on the floor. I hit the floor with a loud bang. I finally had to knock on the door in order to get some help. The store employee and a customer tried to stand me up, and then they dropped me. They then decided to call an ambulance. They finally got there in about thirty minutes. They strapped me down on a hard board and took me to the hospital. The Xx-rays showed that I suffered from cervical sprain and strain, cervical and neck sprain and strain, (Neck Sprain and Strain). After about three hours, I was finally released from the hospital. I had to get the nurse to call my son, and it took him about thirty minutes to arrive. My jeep that I owned was finally taken back by the bank. I had gotten behind on the payments since I had lost my job. My son had parked it in the front of the trailer, and later in the evening I saween that it was gone. Several days later, I received two certified letters saying that the jeep would be sold at an auction. The payments on the jeep were $220two hundred and twenty dollars per month. My only income at the time was $680.00 dollars from sSocial sSecurity. I also had to pay my son $250.00 for rent, so I didn’t have much left if I made the payments. So now I will look around and see if I can find something cheap that I can just pay cash for, and I want have to make payments. My son told me that he got a call from my parole officer. He said that I had to seit up a payment plan with the place that I had worked. We did call him, but he has not given us a call back. ChapterHAPTER 98

I go to the recovery program twice a month now, so I will let my counselor contact him. Well, we had a big meeting at the rRecovery cCenter. My son took me to the meeting, and my parole officer was there. The meeting lasted for about two hours. The parole officer told me the parole board had with draewn the warrant. He also told me I had better not mess up. He also said as long as I obeyed his rules and make the payment, I would be okay. I woan’t get into any trouble because I don’t have any way to travel until I get something to drive. They set some goals for me to do and said to have them ready for the next meeting. One of the goals was to write and tell my old boss that I intended on paying him the money back. One of the goals was to find something to do around the house. I can mow the lawn,; pick up trash, and do small things. I can’t do too much physical labor because of the trouble I have breathing. I do help him split fire wood. Splitting the fire wood only requires me to pull a lever. He does all the heavy lifting to put it on the splitter. There is one thing that I really don’t like about living here. The people all know all about what you are doing. It seems like it spreads like a big fire. People don’t need to know a person’s life history. I went to another meeting at Family Recovery. I had the lady there to fax my ex-boss a copy of a letter that I had written. The previous letter was never received by him nor was it returned to me. The main reason for the fax was to prove to my parole officer that I had contacted my ex-boss. Well, things at home are not going too good. My son and his girlfriend got into an argument. This concerned her wanting to have a kid, and he refuses to give her one. He already has two kids, and he doesn’t want any more. He told her that she had better get someone else to give her one. Of course, these arguments happened after they had been drinking beer. Then on another night, they were out drinking at a party. They had the party out in the woods. When it came time to going home, she wouldn’t let him drive his own truck. She thought he had drunk too much to be driving. So he had to walk about two miles because of her not letting him drive. Well, when he got home, all hell broke loose. I was in my room sleeping, and I was woakend up by a loud crashing sound. They were hollering and screaming at each other. My son had turned over furniture, chairs, and anything else he could get his hands on. He finally got a hold of her and threw her out of the house. Before that happened, he cussed me and her out with every word he could think of saying. He even threatened to pull me out of the room I stayed in and also the computer that I owned. He kept going back ten or twelve years about me being toin prison. He also stated that I said he was a drug addict. Wwell, when I was in prison, I thought he would be a clean- cut grown man. Well, I made the mistake of telling someone about it, and it got back to him. We didn’t talk to each other for about a week. Now since she is no longer here, he really wishes she would come back. He found out fromby someone that she has a black eye. Her father came over and talked with my son. I do not know the outcome of what they discussed. She finally sent her sister to get her dog and her purse. All of her clothes and personally things are still here. ChapterHAPTER 99

My son always takes me to my meetings at the rRecovery cCenter. Well, he drops me off, then he says to wait a while. What he was doing was making an appointment to have some interviews. I received a call from my parole officer. He told me that my boss at the car dealership said he had received a money order from me. He told my parole officer that he wanted me to come back to work in the near future. However, he wanted some more of the money that I had taken. I intend on paying him out of my social security check. At this time I have no other income other thant what I get from the government. I do have a winning voucher from the casino, but I wdon’t know how much it is until I turn it in at the casino on November 2, 2013. Things are going quite well with my son and his girlfriend. She now comes over and spends the weekends and will return on the first of the month for good. They just had to patch things up after the argument that they had several weeks ago. I had a call from my parole officer. He told me that he had not received my August report that I turn in at the end of each month. However, I did send it, and he had misplaced it in his files. He then told me that he would be by on Friday, and he never showed up. He had also told me that all the warrants had been taken care of, and I was free to go on with my life. It has been three weeks, and he has not arrived yet. I explained this to the lady at the rRecovery cCenter, and she said she would check into the matter. Things have been going pretty well with me after I got out of the crack scene. ChapterHAPTER 100

I did go to the casino to check on the money voucher, and it was for only five dollars. The parking area was so full it was hard to find a parking place. Of course, they do that to get you to the casino, and perhaps you’ll may spend some of your own money while you are there. However, the trip was worth going because I left with winnings over two hundred dollars. Now for the month of December, I have received another one with the lure of a promise I have a chance of winning $10,000 dollars. I, of course, will return to take a chance of winning the large sum of money. However, the most they will get me to play is the free money they give you to play the slots. Sometimes they give you $25.00 dollars free just to get you onto a machine. The customers will dig in their pocket to play a little more. However, I may invest $20,.00 dollars and then if I lose that, I will make up my mind and get out of there. I did go up and had the voucher checked, and it was only worth five dollars. However, with the twenty- five free play, I won over three hundred dollars. I gave my son and his girlfriend a hundred dollars. We also had reserved a free motel room for the night. However, we would not spend the night. I had thought I cashed all the vouchers in, but when I got home, I found one in my pocket for $107one hundred and seven dollars. The voucher is good for only ten10 days. I finally got my son to go up and cash it before the time ran out. I have finally got to talk with my boss I worked for, and he wants me to come to his office. My parole officer called me also and wanted to know how I was doing. He also approved a travel permit for me to visit in Moultrie, Georgia, for thirty days. My son and I got into an argument about me carrying wood. Well, I am seventy- two years old, and I have a shortinessg of breath. This means if I move too much or I carry something, I have trouble breathing. So I don’t do hardly anything except to wash dishes or something real easy. I told my son that the parole officer had approved the permit for me to visit my family and friends in Georgia. He didn’t believe me, so he called the parole officer. The parole officer got me on the phone and wanted to know why I had waited so late to tell my son. I explained that my son had been busy and he had got up late. I also told him I had to let him take care of things before we discussed the Georgia trip. The parole officer asked me if I had bought my ticket yet, and I told him no. He then said for me to wait until the following day, and he would come by, and we would talk about it. He came the next day around eleven o’clock. My son told him that he wanted to make sure that it was approved for me to make the trip. The parole officer did tell him I could go. He also called the friend in Georgia to check if it was it all right for me to stay with him. He also asked the friend if he had any guns in the house. He also asked him if he had any felony record. Of course, he was crime- free. After all was approved, my son and I figured how much the trip would cost, and we determined it would cost one $181hundred and eighty one dollars for a one- way ticket. So I decided that the trip wouldas costing too much, and I decided not to go. So now I have made up my mind to save my money until I can afford to get a car and then make the trip. I discussed with my parole officer about the fFederal bBonding pProgram. This program gives a business a $2,500twenty five hundred dollar tax break if it hires a felony. The parole officer said he would send me the papers, and then I could send the package to my ex- boss. I once again got a lucky money voucher from the casino. I went up to cash it, and I finally won fifty dollars on the voucher, plus I had a twenty- dollar free play on the slot machines. However, I didn’t win, and I lost the money from the voucher plus the free play. My son and I tried to purchase a car, but the ones we looked at were too much for the repairs that we would have to do. So I decided to wait another month to purchase one from a dealership instead of off the Internet. My parole officer came by to check on me once again. He said I was doing just fine. My son has bought a safe to keep his guns in, and the parole officer was glad. My son found me another car. It is a 1996 Buick Century Special. It was in very good shape and only needed a few things. The muffler needed to be replaced, and my son fixed that real quick. The power steering had a little leak, and he fixed that also. That waIs all that was wrong with it that we have discovered. The person we bought it from was willed it to her daughter.: The daughter kept it in the garage for many years and finally decided to sell it. It was real clean on the outside as well as the inside. We do have to replace one front tire because it was worne down on the treads. I feel we were lucky to find one for $500.00 and the great shape it was in. Before I end this story, I want to mention something about the inmates I escaped with in 1966. I checked on the Internet and discovered that both passed away while still in prison. They were in prison for over forty40 years. I was lucky that I didn’t remain in prison. I am now seventy- seven and have some years to enjoy this freedom. I hope everyone whothat reads this novel will enjoyed it. I also hope that it helps the younger kids to not wind up in prison like I did.