Digital Social Hour - Larry Lawton On Surviving Prison & Stealing Tens of Millions of Diamonds | Digital Social Hour #130

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

On today's episode of The Digital Social Hour, we sit down with Larry Lawton to talk about how he robbed jewelry stores, how the FBI caught him and how he survived the toughest prisons. BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] APPLY TO BE ON THE POD: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH HelloFresh: https://www.hellofresh.com/50dsh AG1: https://www.drinkAG1.com/DSH Hostage Tape: https://hostagetape.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I robbed 15 to 18 million dollars with the mob. I ended up doing four 12-year sentences. I was in maximum security prisons. I was tortured in prison. I ended up in the hole for three years. So what's the most expensive diamond you stole and how much planning went into that? Good questions. Most expensive single diamond, probably $150,000.

But I robbed the whole store. You know, when I robbed the store, the guy's out of business. I mean, he liked me. It's a fact. You know, the store owners didn't hate me. Because they have insurance. Insurance, man. They sold the whole store in one shot.

They got out of the business. They got out of the business. Even if they didn't, they got a lot more than they would have had. They had a piece of jewelry on their shelf for two years. Sold. You know? on their shelf for two years sold you know welcome to the digital social hour i'm your host sean kelly i'm here with an amazing guest today for you guys larry lawton how's it going thanks for having me sure glad to be your amazing young man absolutely man so a lot of people probably know you but for those who don't i'd love you give a quick summary of

your your story uh you know i i did a lot of time i'm the big i'm known as the biggest jewel robber in the united states ever i robbed 15 to 18 million dollars with the mob I would not tell on anybody they ended up doing four 12-year sentences run concurrent I was in maximum security prisons I was tortured in prison I ended up getting in the hole for three years I was in solitary confinement for three years I ended up getting a law degree I can't be a lawyer I have the credits because I'm a convicted felon. But today, now, I developed the number one program that helps young people around the world, actually. My program is used by the federal government, court systems, police agencies, families all over the world.

And I'm also the only ex-con in the United States who's an honorary police officer. And the only ex-con in the United States who's recognized on the floor of the United States Congress. Wow. To this day. And it's kind of surreal sometimes. You know what I mean? Like, you say, is that me? Because I'm still a street guy.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And that's where I'll always be. Because I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. So, you know, I come from the streets. Right. So, that's pretty much in a nutshell. I have a book, Gangster Redemption, a best-selling book. I have another book coming out called Prison Cookbook

with Larry Lawton. I have a cookbook. It's amazing. All done in like prison style with stingers and items. People go, wow, it's wild. So that's coming out in August. We just put it on pre-release and it's going crazy. And then I also have a program that parents buy for their kids that is online as well. Nice. How is the food in prison? Like what if you're a vegetarian? Do they have different options? There's no options. I think everybody's a vegetarian, Sean. Matter of fact, that's true. It's a great question. It wasn't asked to me. in atlanta usp atlanta we had a murder a month for 18 months that's the usp atlanta wow uh very bad prison at

the time it was the worst prison in the united states i quit eating meat then because i ate meat first of all this is in 1997 and i ate meat from 1992 whoa yeah five years old and it literally had on the box desert storm that desert storm and desert shield uh was back you know way in the 90s early was the rack i ran wore all of that so we we had the boxes they gave the meat the meat was such poor quality they take it off like near the bone of the of the cow and there'd be bone in it and i chipped the tooth in it it was the worst i think about that i almost want you know it's terrible man yeah that's awful man and when you got to prison like what was that like where were you at mentally and how did you survive i I mean, that's crazy. You know, survival in prison is a mindset, obviously.

Yeah, I was big, strong, a thousand push-ups in an hour, a thousand crunches in the same hour. But it's not about that, Sean. It's about mental. I was prepared. I knew I was going to go. When I was doing my crimes, I never thought I'd either see 50. I'm 61. So I never thought I'd either see 50. I'm 61.

So I never thought I would see 50. I went to prison. I had connections, obviously, with the mob. I was with the Gambinos. And I went to prison. So kind of like fell right into that crew. Right. But it's still survival.

I've seen stuff that will make your skin crawl. Man get his cut from the top of his a** until it's s**t. And a** by two people. And boiling water with a chocolate bar and olive oil in a bowl. Boiled and thrown in a guy's face. His face was peeling. So I see some crazy, crazy stuff. And your mindset, though, has to be survival.

What people don't understand about prison sean is your first year to two years you don't even really nothing processes in that kind of environment i'm in a maximum security prison and uh and even as a white guy in a maximum security prison i'm minority you know i tell black friends of mine you know we'll all hang out and i go you don't know what it's like to man like out. And I go, you don't know what it's like to, man, you're a white guy, man. You don't know what it's like to be prejudiced. And hold on. I was in prison with 15% white.

I'm a minority. You're never going to be white, I tell them. So you don't know what it's like. So I know both sides. And that's why I have no prejudices in me. I don't judge anybody. I mean in me. I don't judge anybody. I mean, period. I don't care what it is.

And I think that's the best gift my parents gave me, too. Did people try to test you in prison since you were outnumbered? Sure. People are going to test everybody in prison, whether you're outnumbered or not. I was in one jail. And I walk into the jail. This is after Hurricane Andrew, which was 1992. I walk into Miami jail this is after hurricane andrew which is 1992 i walk into miami-dade county jail there was no electric no nothing i mean you know there wasn't anything

there it was a jail and had no electric after the hurricane so they had 32 guys in a 16-man pot this is just one place i was there i was the only caucasian in the whole place. So I've been around. I know what time it is. They had this TV show called Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Yeah. It was on TV. Now they have what they call a house man. So I walk into the cell.

I know they all look at me. I say, I know what I have to do. I walk up to that TV and I turn the channel. I said, the first man who opens his mouth boom I'm gonna hit him and I do he doesn't go down and I can hit boy did we get to fighting I couldn't even I thought don't even busted my windpipe my hand was broke I mean I was bloodied and you know they come in they take us apart and yeah uh thank god because she was getting better to me and uh they threw me out the next day sean they put me back in that same pot

he looked at me i looked at him he was a convict it's called being a convict or an inmate and he he knew what i did and he goes you're all right and we were cool and he was what I did and he goes, you're alright. And we were cool. And he was what they call the house man. Being the kind of inmate that runs that pod. And that's even from the guard's perspective. They'll like to dish out the food and stuff like that. Wow. This is a county jail. And he threw a guy off one of the bunks

and gave me that bunk. I mean, it was 16 bunks. There's 30 guys in it. Wow. So, you know, he knew it. I knew it. So you're going to be tested. It's how you win. Whether you lose or win doesn't have anything to do with it.

Really? A lot of people think that. Oh, I got to win. Nope. I've seen a kid get kicked two, three times in a row. People say, man, that kid is a warrior. He's good with us now. Wow.

And it took that. Because you showed heart right you show your internal fortitude you don't you don't quit you don't cower you you fight and and you again i get kids and say man i never lost a fight i said really you never fought the right guy there's always someone better absolutely so you're pretty much supposed to assert dominance as soon as you enter prison it's not about certain dominance. It's about standing your ground or not accepting disrespect towards you. You know, I often tell young people, you want to go to prison.

The most respect you'll ever see is in prison. Because if you bump into somebody, you better say, excuse me. Because if you don't, you could get caught. Wow. See, you know, the difference between a penitentiary and, let's say, a medium security prison or a low. And I've been to a medium. That's the lowest I've ever got. But there's like a camp, a low, a medium, and a high.

The difference between a, let's say, a medium and a high is there's less fighting and more stabbings and more, more serious violence. The high ones have stabbings? Oh, there's more people. You know what I mean? It's, you know,

I often tell people, you know, let's say you and I went to prison and you weren't around. I say, Oh Sean, I'm a teacher to ropes. You know, how do you know how there's tension in this prison?

Look at what people are wearing on their feet. If they have flip-flops on, I'm not worried about this place. If everybody's walking around in sneakers and boots, be careful. Keep an eye on what people are wearing. You'll see a shirt come up and you'll see a magazine there. That's body armor. You'll also go to, I'll say, come on, we're going to shower. Not to do anything, obviously, but you go in the shower.

You walk to the shower, you take your boots off, you get in, we're going to shower. Not to do anything, obviously. But you go in the shower. You walk to the shower. You take your boots off. You get in. I'm outside the shower. I see three guys come and I hit the wall. You put your boots on and get your shank. Wow. You're ready to go.

Because I watched the kid not do that. He was stabbed up in the shower. Fell down. Covered the drain and the blood was going all down the tear. My gosh. And people don't get the real prisons. You know, I often tell, I don't dramatize, I don't scare, I don't have a scared straight, but I don't believe in that. I tell the truth.

You want to go and play around today. You want to really cross the line, so to speak. The United States is very very bad prison system a lot of people don't know that it's got one of the worst in the in the free world and i'm talking about like germany france italy spain canada uh all uh germany all of those countries have better prison systems in the united states we don't care about it it's a shame our country does not care about its own citizens in that kind of way. Right.

And, Sean, a great thing was told to me once, and this is the truth. A country should be judged on how it handles its elderly, it's infirmed, and it's incarcerated. You handle them with the right respect, you're doing the right things. Just because they don't have a voice, they're abused. And that's that's kind of sad like the elderly we don't handle elderly too well uh even in firm we have a pretty our medical system is you know if you're poor you can be bankrupt yeah can't that that doesn't happen in other countries yeah it's super expensive you mentioned you were tortured in prison was that from other inmates or from the guards? No, it was guards.

I was fighting the abuses. I ended up getting my law degree. I used to fight the system a lot. I was in the hole a lot. Well, I was exposing the prison for a couple of inmates. Through medical care. There's an article out there. I compare the

prison to Abu Ghraib. Abu Ghraib was the prison in Iraq where the Americans would torture an Iraqi prison. This was a big thing back in the day. Well, I was taken to the hole. I was in there for 11 straight months. And you go crazy. There's no question. Solitary confinement is one of the worst things you can do to a human being.

We're communicators we're people people so you didn't talk to anyone for 11 months nobody I mean a guard that walked by you end up telling them to f*** themselves and everything else and it was funny because I mean funny people asked me I was taken out of my cell

strapped down naked they came in my cell they'd beat the s*** out of me, breaking ribs. Now you're dead. You don't even know. They take you out of the cell, strip you naked, and literally four-point you. Naked. On a slab.

And I had a guard stand over my face. Man, look at me. I'm going to get goosebumps. Piss in my face. And say, keep writing, Senators Lawton, keep writing Senator's Law. Keep writing Senator's. Because I was writing. I ended up learning that the pen is mightier than the sword.

I had a guard spit. You know, this is how I'm forepointing it. And, you know, at that point, you're pretty, your brain. I ended up, people would say would say you know when you were fighting them because I went crazy and did you what was that the poem most point you when you're scared I said no the worst part you have is when they open the tear door you know you're in a cell and they have a tear well they even walked it to your door when they lock that tear door, unlock it,

and you hear the chains rattle, and you know they're coming to your cell. That 30 seconds, 40 seconds. Because when they come down the tear, Sean, if they don't say, cuff up, Lawton, cuff up, you have to put your hands through the food slot that opens, and then they huff if you ever watch the prison movie. And if they don't say, cuff up, they're going to beat you.

They're going to throw it. You know, I love guys who stick their tough. Oh, yeah, I'm a martial artist. I'm a MMA. I did a lot of that stuff. Let me tell you something. It means when five guys rush your cell in this little compartment, and they're geared up up so i've been

concussion grenaded what's up that's when they drop a concussion grenade in the cell and the equilibrium out of your ear you go boom you fall straight down i've been shocked with the shields i've been maced that you know, they hit you right in the face and you're on the floor, knots coming out of your nose, in a fetal position. And so I've been gassed. I've been shocked.

I've been concussion-grenaded. And I will tell you what, there isn't a thing you can do about it. You know, you think, oh, I wrote senators. I have letters from senators if if i wasn't writing the people that i was writing i truly believe to this day i wouldn't be sitting here i'd be dead wow but i ended up bringing enough attention on the prison with with my family and friends too right that they couldn't just get rid of me at that point because then

it would have been they would have known somebody would have so what were you writing to them just like I was writing I was writing uh letters to like I was in South Carolina at the time a prison called Edgefield and uh terrible prison new look beautiful it was like a torture chamber and when they put me in the hole and they started this i wouldn't quit because they friends of mine medical one of my friends was having chest pains arm pains he goes to medical they say you know go he's still having a week later the guard he works for and what they call cms it's like the prison maintenance. He says, man, Arch, you look terrible.

Get to medical. He walks into medical. They give him Maalox and say, you got gas. Get out of here. And he walks back to the cell. Myself and this other guy named Jimmy Brown are standing there watching the TV on their two TVs. And he walks in

and he's pale. He says, I'm dying. We put him in a chair. He goes over and dies right there, right in front of us. I don't know if you've ever seen a man die. I've seen many. When a person dies, the first thing that happens is everything that's in them comes out. They soil themselves, if you want to call it.

Piss and whatever. And so he falls down. And then the guard sees it. We're trying to help him. And they go, lock down, lock down. Everybody will run to their cells. And they hit what they call the deuces. People go, what's the deuces?

The deuces is the little button they have on their radio. When they hit that button, everybody comes running. The reason they call it the deuces, a lot button they have on their radio when they hit that button everybody comes running the reason they call it the deuces a lot of people don't know this the reason they call it the deuces is because in every phone in the prison if you hit 222 it's like there's a button so they'll come running to that phone all the guards in the whole facility so they hit the deuces and they lock us all in our cells and they caught caught them away, and they were laughing, Sean. My cell was near the door, and we had this little window, that wide, not real windows.

And I'm looking out that window, and I could see them, put them on a golf cart in the back of a golf cart. It had a little flat spot. And they didn't get ****. They didn't try to give them CPR. They didn't ****. They were laughing. I mean, they were must talking about something else or whatever. And boy, to this day, that pisses me off.

And what happened was they come to every cell and they said, well, you saw him hit his head, right? Hit his head. You **** that **** as quick as somebody stab him. And, boy, they didn't like that. And they put me in the hole to try to shut me up. And I'm pretty stubborn.

So I wouldn't be shut up. And that's why I actually compare the prison I was in to Abu Ghraib. And an article,ib and an article. I wrote an article to a magazine, and they publish it. And, boy, from then on, then I got people involved like senators, in fact, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Hillary Clinton from New York. She was a senator at the time. Bill Posey, not Bill Posey,

there was a guy named McCallum. There was a couple other senators and congressmen from, oh, Debbie Wassamy Schultz. She was from Fort Lauderdale because I lived in Fort Lauderdale. So a lot of them, I was starting to write politicians because I found out the prison system can match your violence. They don't

care about how tough you are. They don't care what you do. They're going to beat you. They're going to win. They don't like the pen. Right. You know, and so I understood that. And I think that's a turning point in my whole life, too.

Right. What do you think the way to fix the prison system is? Because it seems like a lot of the issues are from the guards, right? Well, you know, I don't know. Well, part know well part of its guards obviously hiring and training the right people i mean you can't there's no qualifications to be a guard high school diploma i don't even know if you have to have that so they're getting people can't get a job anywhere else have power issues or whatever there's zero psychological training to get in there. And you get the wrong guy with keys and the power.

There's an old saying, Sean, and if you ever heard of the Stanford study, it was a study they did at Stanford University in 1971 where they took the class and they split them up from prisoners to inmates. Did you know how to stop the study in eight days because the prison the guard the students were abusing the inmates wow and that's a study it's called the stanford study if anyone wants to look it up uh so there's an old saying power corrupts

absolutely absolute power corrupts absolutely so but to fix the system, what you said, I'm not saying it's just the guards. It's policies. It's training. It's the people in leadership positions when they know things are happening, they still do nothing about it. It's like policing. How do you fix policing? Well, if the police won't police themselves, how is the public to believe they're going to police us without abusing people? You don't think, listen, if you take a corporation and there's 200 employees, you know, I have employees.

I'm sure you had employees, the whole works. You know who the screw up is. And all the people who work for you know who the screw up is. Well, you have a police department with 300 cops. I expect there to be bad cops. I'm not blaming the police department for that. I mean, you take a collective apple of any company, there's going to be bad people.

But when you know they're bad and you leave them there and you don't do anything about it, that's what I mean by policing yourself. you take a police department with 300 people they have two three if it some people say it's 10 i'm not even saying that high 10 would be 30 bad cops let's just say it's one percent okay so if you have three bad cops in that place, you don't think everybody else knows who they are? Of course they do. So they know who the one's doing the bad s***,

and they don't police themselves. They cover it up. So that's when you become an organization that it's an us against them. That's why we have a policing problem. Right. Because they don't want to police themselves. Same with guards or same with the prison system the best way we can stop prison uh fix our own prison systems two main

things need to happen we need to get rid of private prisons for-profit prisons how do you give a company money and say i want you to guard these thousand inmates now you're going to cut costs because you're a business right you you want to put things you're not going to give overtime if it's needed to your own guards you're not going to give the programs needed that that someone needs to get out and get help you're going to cut back on the food on medicine and it happens all the time so private prisons are gone they should be out there's no way any country or government and people we the people of the government should pay people to incarcerate another person but second way they can do it is they have to have an independent and i say

independent they have a thing called the aCA, American Creditation Association. What a crock of s***. They used to come into the prison, Sean. They knew when they were coming. They would make the inmates paint the walls. They'd put the best food up. They'd come in for two days. They would hide guys like me or people in the hole that are being abused where they couldn't see them.

And then they come and look. We're accredited. Accredited. Take that piece of paper and wipe your ass with it because it's nothing. Now, if you put an independent board together, and I often talk about this. I can actually do this for free. You take a person like myself, former inmate. You take a former guard, a former medical personnel in a prison system,

maybe a former warden. They have to have the right credentials on the team. And now we, this team, would have autonomy, would be able to go into any, let's say it's the federal government, any federal prison they want at any time they want, show up at 2 in the morning on a Sunday. Now, what would happen? They would set this up. The first prison that says, no, we don't let him. Do you know a United States senator or a united states congressman that's there's 435 senators in the united uh congressman united states is 100

senators that's 535 people of the legislative branch of the united states the three branches of the united states government massive the 535 most powerful people in this country did you know not one of them could just go up to a prison and go in not one of them are allowed to go in that prison without a whole uh clearance this talk to this guy talk to this so if i'm a senator i say i want to go and visit that prison i give you the money for it i want it's good uh we'll have to set that up, Senator. They cannot go into that prison. Wow. Now, we need that changed where a team can go in. Now, I go up to that door in that prison, and they refuse to let me in. First thing that would happen, they'd put a memo out, hey, there's this team that can go into any prison.

If they come with the right credentials, they have to be let into that prison at that minute. The first prison I go to and they don't let that happen, Sean, whoever's the leading person on that prison gets fired. On the spot, no pension, everything's done. You lose your pension, you lose everything, and you were running that prison at that time. You knew it was coming. Not coming.

You knew the memo. You didn't read it or whatever training they got hey beforehand if there's a special team if they ever show up here if you don't you will lose your job you will lose it's gonna happen because some wardens say i don't care who they are nobody comes into my prison well really fired on the spot you know what happened in the next prison they'd be let in immediately now once they're in that prison sean i would know where to go see if i put you on my team what would you do you wouldn't know where to go right i could teach you say well you can go here every prison's built like this you're not

gonna know you wouldn't know how to talk to the inmates to find out the problems i would they would talk to me they're not going to hide from me. And people say, well, they won't because the prison isn't going to beat them. No, no, no. You set up a system. I set up a system that we have a person in our office that calls every day and talks to that inmate and finds out the minute you can't call. And if he wants to transfer, he goes to any prison he wants.

And we can monitor him so the prisoners are able to talk now the prisoners are going to do i would i would know it's not you get what i'm saying yeah so i could talk to a person in the hall and find out why you're in the hall the hall they call it the hall it's also called special housing issue shu which is special housing unit uh there's the box, the hole. There's a bunch of names used for it. It's proven to be one of the worst things you could do to a human being. Wow. It was such social animals.

Right. And people go crazy. You know, there was a kid on a yard. I used to talk to him all the time. Nice guy. About mid-30s, you know, maybe maybe 35 i went in at 34 i got out of 46 so i was in a long time but and this guy was a young guy nice guy well he goes to the hole he was in the hole approximately i don't know a year maybe i saw him in the hole this man went absolutely crazy he was taking

feces out of his ass and writing on the wall demonic stuff whoa i mean i mean the stuff i saw he would what they call jack the shoot which means the food shoot where you know in he put his arm through it so one time they broke his arm by slamming it uh he went crazy and uh it went crazy because of the hole he was a normal guy i talked to matter of fact i don't even know his crime because he's like you don't know a lot of people's crimes but he was a good dude he's he's a bet with me and i had a i was a bookie in prison too i had to make money so and uh he you know common baton you know football tickets and stuff with you know hustle yeah so you know people go crazy and it's sad it's a sad place yeah so you went through a lot of traumatic experiences probably major ptsd

right me i do but you know this is don't we can stay here for hours because that's another topic the government has lied to us forever. To this day, they're using mushrooms, they're using LSD as some of the best for helping PTSD in the world. But they lied to everybody for the last 40 years saying how bad all this stuff is for you. It's like pot. Pot was supposed to be the big evil drug you know nancy reagan you smoke pot your brains on out of here these people have no clue but uh now you know a lot of people once they get out they end up going back in i don't know the exact number i can tell you that okay the number is about 65 depending on where you leave the hole or prison from wow

meaning if you leave from the hole you you're apt to go back to prison up up to 75 that's crazy yes three out of five uh you are so first of all when i got out of prison sean there's a great story i could not i couldn't even buy a cup of coffee mmm I got on a bus they give you money I had money in my pocket I don't believe them but I had money because money changed so you know chain meaning pictures and I had colors and never had that long I was in there it all changed so when I got out they gave me my money at 250 something bucks or whatever was they give it to me I go where do I cash it in He goes no that's money

I said where's my money No Lawton that's real money And you know money changed that dramatically It has collars in it Holding all these holograms All this shit Anyway I accept it I had what they call $25 gate money to give you

I get to the bus stop And I get in the bus stop sean and i get in the bus and they make sure you get there and i sit next to a girl on the bus and i haven't seen a girl in this so long and i'm like she's looking at me i'm doing this people think you're crazy well i was in shackles i've been on con air 16 times that plane what's con air con air is the the prison transport plane. There was a movie about it. Con Air was Nicolas Cage.

There's a whole movie. But I've been on that federal plane for inmates 16, over 16 times. And in shackles, your legs are shackled with a chain and a belly chain. I've been on that sometimes 16 hours, 15 hours, you never left and have a black box. So I'm free. I wanted to take a bus to the halfway house. I'm free. I'm a happy guy.

I look at the girl. I say to her, she had a razor flip phone. I say, hey, can I see that? Think of how that sounds today. Some guy sitting next to you, hey, can I see that? Well, she knows i'm i look half nuts she gives me the phone i'm thinking how can these fat fingers touch these little buttons i closed the phone give it back to her hung up on whatever she was doing

don't realize it the next stop she moved i had my whole own seat the whole trip and people must have thought i was crazy but the bus driver says all right let's go and you can get something to eat we're gonna have 40 minutes we're getting gas get something to eat i'm thinking get gas something to eat when i went to prison in 96 a gas station sold beer it sold candy. No, this gas station we pulled in in 2007 had a subway. It had a food mart. And I go, wow. And I don't know this. The fat guy, Jared, the guy's in prison.

He belongs in prison. He's probably getting whacked there. So I go into the subway because I want a subway sandwich, man. Because every inmate will ever tell you, any guy who's been in prison for even even over a year you ask them what they miss most your food you know what they're gonna tell you food really absolutely wow everybody because you know less more food is something you don't get in prison right you know i mean even in prison but uh it's not even the it's you everybody you ask any convict who gets out of prison he's been done time like me what do you You know, I mean, even in prison. But it's not even the, it's you, everybody. You ask any convict who gets out of prison, he's been done time like me.

What do you miss, food or, oh, food. Second, but. Yeah. So I get out. I'm online. I got money in my pocket. I want a Subway sandwich. I look up, Sean.

I couldn't make a decision. I started shaking. Now I feel people looking at me. Wow. I left that line. I went on, Sean. I couldn't make a decision. I started shaking. Now I feel people looking at me. Wow. I left that line. I went on the bus. I was crying like a baby on the back of the bus. Whoa. I didn't eat for the whole time.

It was 20-something hours. I did not eat. And I was so close to doing something to somebody to go back to prison. I was what they call institutionalized. Now, why I was institutionalized, let me give you a little hint. The average person today, you and me, Nick, these guys in the studio, these guys will make approximately 1,500 choices today. We're all going to make.

You got up, what you're going to put on, what you're going to wear, how many cups of coffee. Oh, I want to stop at the 7-Eleven on the way, you know, the studio, whatever it is. The average inmate makes 100. Think of that. You make 100 choices a day for a decade. Now you're thrown into the real world. You have what they call sensory overload.

You cannot process. I was never told. In fact, for the first few few months three months at a prison i ordered a mcdonald's number one oh they had mcdonald's in prison no no no no when i got out oh when you got out because i couldn't process a menu i'm intelligent high iq all that got my degree this and you think i'm not institutionalized. You're institutionalized. I could not process making that choice because you don't have to make choices. So it was very easy for me to say, I'll take a number one.

In fact, one of my good friends broke me of that. We would golf a lot. I'm a golfer. He buys me golf clubs, the whole works. So we'd go to lunch at the golf course and I'd say, when the waitress would come around, I'd say, I'll take what he takes. You know, after she comes, I'll take that. He's looking at me every day because he's

bland chicken. It was gobbling. I mean, you know, it's the way he was. He stops one day and says, Larry, we're not leaving this table until you read that menu and you make your choice. And the first thing, I get offended. Like, what, you think I can't read?

You know. And he broke me. I love the guy for any. And it took my time, and I ended up. I remember I had a burger with, like, cheese and bacon on it. That's why I'm a fat but uh so it took me a long time to process things and people don't get why you know a lot of inmates don't need to help people think they need right they were all hustlers they all made money yeah but now deal with the real world

and i i actually do some of that help a lot lot of people do that. Do they offer, when people get out of jail, like therapy or anything? No. Yeah, yeah, right. Okay, they got therapy. Here, get the f*** out of prison. You know, they say, they give it what they call, I call it the b***h to please the public,

the unknowing public. They'll give you a pre-release class. They'll say, in your pre-release class, okay, you got to go get a driver's license, and that's it. I mean, you have to have a housing, you have to have a job. They don't talk about the things that are important. How to process

things. How to talk to a person that might piss you off. You can't stab them. You can't **** them. You can't approach people the way you would in prison. Especially the prisons I was at. You go to a lower camp, it's a whole different animal. I'm not talking about those kind of guys.

I'm talking about guys who did hard time. Guys who did time and you let them out, they're crazy. You talk about PTSD. Obviously we all have PTSD, but it's just a way of processing things. They're so able and probably going to snap. i often tell people

you know why should we rehabilitate these people you know they murdered people they just let me explain here's why you should 95 or 96 percent of all people incarcerated getting out do you want the guy who's getting out to be living next to you has no hope and you're his next victim? Because you're going to be. He's going to live next to somebody. And if that guy don't give a shit and doesn't care, you know, when things don't go well, he gets fucked. He has food. He does this.

He's going to fuck you and rob you because you don't care. Or do you want the guy that gets out, has hope, he's trained, he's looking at things a little bit different. You're not trying to put your foot on his neck as a government. We put the foot on their neck so quick. Listen, why can't they vote? Why can't they vote? So many things. You did your time.

You know the difference between myself and most people. Don't get me wrong. I was a prisoner. I was a convict. And I was a criminal. You didn't want to know me in those days yeah uh but people change number one but besides that most people could go to prison for something now you know i tell everybody you know you commit a crime every day you don't even know it from jaywalking just taking a pencil out of the

office right this is crimes we commit i'm not saying there are felonies and stuff like that. There are felonies. Technically, there's a lot of felonies. My point is, did you know, Sean, I don't know how fast you drive a car. Do you ever go 20 miles an hour over the speed limit? I'm sure you do. For sure, yeah. I still do.

Did you know if you **** someone there that's vehicular homicide, you're going to prison? Wow. I didn't know that. Over 20 miles an hour. That's reckless endangerment, vehicular homicide. You're going to prison. Mm.'t know that over 20 miles an hour that's reckless endangerment homicide you're going to prison you made a bad choice you're not a bad guy right so you know especially if you don't have money you don't have a lawyer you don't have the you know the right thing you know and that's another statistic you know our whole system's broke i think i told you i could be here for hours and hours it's all pay to play right if you got money you're gonna be that's a great way of putting it yeah uh you know sadly

you don't see that congressman's kid going to prison like you do right some poor guy down the street they could get away with murder probably pretty much you know and i'm listen no system's perfect i love our country i love our you know the structure of the united states and i was a history nut and i'm still am uh it it just needs to be repaired it really needs to be fixed things are not the way they were 250 years two and third whatever years ago so a lot has to change and it should change at what point are we going to change i don't know i won't see it i hope your generation does we'll see i want to touch up on the jewelry stuff because that's what you're known for um so how did you get started with that like how old were you and walk me through that journey well you know

i was the biggest jew robber my first i was associated with again being a crime family in new york and my first robbery was a setup So the guy wanted the insurance money. I had to still rob it legit. I never talked to him. The whole thing, I knew where everything was going to be. I knew who was going to be in the store and everything of that nature. And I walked away with $150,000 in my pocket. Wow.

What age? Wow, 27, 26. That's a lot of money. By your age now. Yeah. But back then, that's a lot of money. A lot of money. This is the 90s. your age now yeah but back then that's a lot of a lot of money this is 90s you're like a millionaire back then oh yeah i was crazy so i said wait a minute

this is good i could do this sure enough no this is in the 80s so i said okay i can do this i started doing my own and i got better and better at it. And I become, I robbed over 20 stores, 15, 18 million. Jeez. That time money. Yeah. Imagine what it is today. It's like 100 mil now.

But listen, I wasn't a good guy. I don't want people to think that I don't, it was an exciting time. It is what it is. People say, do you regret it? I don't regret anything in life that I don't. It was an exciting time. It is what it is. People say, do you regret it? I don't regret anything in life. Things happen for reasons. Right. I wouldn't be sitting with you.

Wouldn't be out. Maybe I'd be shot. Maybe I'd get hit by a car. Who knows? Things happen for a reason. Would I do it different? Absolutely. Obviously, Bill Gates at the time was the richest man in the world.

They asked him, would you do the same things? He goes, no. I know where my mistakes were. Why would I do the same exact thing? He goes, obviously we would change, but you can't, so you can't regret it. You learn from them. And that's what I try to teach young people.

But I rob stores from Florida to Connecticut, up and down the East Coast. not in New York I wasn't allowed mmm mafia yeah mama and so from Connecticut all the way to Florida so many robberies tied up a hundred people well you know I wasn't a good guy I didn't I didn't pistol with people I didn't hurt them in the robbery physically okay but you do hurt people I put a gun in your face.

Get down, get down. Mentally. That's trauma, man. That's trauma. But people say, oh, you should never get free for that. I said, hold on. Get over it, too. People got to get over it.

We all get faced with a lot of **** in life. Well, the strong survive. You got to get over things, man. You try to help them. You try to do the right thing. Would I do it? No. But I can't sit and say, oh, my God, I should go to hell for it.

I'm going to hell anyway. So I'm going to believe in that. But everybody in life, everybody, all of us, have to just take whatever we did, move on with it, and get better for it. Right. So what's the most expensive diamond you stole and how much planning went into that? Good questions. Most expensive single diamond?

Probably $150,000. But I robbed the whole store. You know, when I robbed the store, the guy's out of business. I mean, he liked me. It's a fact. You know, the store owners didn't hate me. Because they have liked me it's a fact you know the the store owners didn't hate me because they have insurance insurance man they sold the whole store in one

shot they got out of the business they got it even if they didn't they got a lot more than they would have had they had a piece of jewelry on their shelf for two years sold you know so uh they they're not the ones uh that hated me So individual piece, $150,000. Stores, $1.3 million, $1.4 million, whatever it was. And then as far as some of them took three weeks, four weeks, a month to plan, to case, to do. You know, when you rob a jeweler, I was a professional. There wasn't a thing they could do to stop me. I could rob one today. I tell people that all the time.

Really? Absolutely. They didn't increase their security at all? I speak sometimes at insurance places to show them how. My assistant, Nick, who drives, I have a big RV as well, he thinks I'm the relapse because I look at that jewelry store, and I say, you know, I could totally hit that. They do the same thing, stupid human beings make human mistakes.

Right. And I would know when the sun rises, sun sets, how the angle of the sun hit the window so nobody could come in, where the mailman or where the police were in the area, when the deliveries were done. Every employee, where they lived, when they come in, when they took break, who they were, if they had, you know, I knew every piece. Most of my robberies were in a plaza. You know, with an anchor store like a Publix or, you know, a big store. I don't know what they have for grocery stores, Walmart, whatever it is. It's in a plaza.

And the reason being, it's busy. Well, you can sit in case that store for days nobody's gonna know anything think you're just waiting for your wife right you know who's going shopping and i'd read the paper but i knew every little thing of that plaza wow that you can even imagine then that's just before you even do the robbery then you have to go in and make sure that where it is the numbers with cameras i knew every piece that was my business you know and that's why i was a professional wow matter of fact the fbi caught me you know a guy named matt moan he's since passed he says man i'm retiring you would have made your

case quite he goes you were the best i've ever seen do it no way yeah i was looking for you for six years. No hate there, you know what I mean? And I just, I was upset. And I didn't hate him. That was his job. His job, yeah. I was upset. I am so ADD as it is. Right.

And so what do you call it? OCD and all those freaking acronyms there are. I mean, I will hyper focus on something crazy or i don't care if the i can be talking to you in my office and there could be a battery that's being charged in the thing and i'm in the middle of something i gotta get that battery out of there i don't know i'm you know everything has to i i'm so focused on everything around me it's just and that's what i would do with robberies and you'd'd have to know everything about that, Sean. Did any of your robberies not go to plan and you had to adapt?

Well, you know, the last one where we were shot and I was shot, my brother was shot. I went through my head into him. His bullet's still in him. But not that one. The big one, I was going to do a $12 million robbery in the Fountain Blue Hotel on Miami Beach. It was called the H. Stern Jewelers. Well, in H. Stern Jewelers, I planned this out. We were going to put dynamite on the owner, keep his family kidnapped at home.

And if he said anything, I was going to walk him in before the guards come in. We were going to open up. We were going to take all the diamonds. $12 million. I already called my guys in New York, made sure I could get rid of the $12 million. It would have been big. I would have been leaving the country. My end would have been about $4 million.

Wow. Back then. Yeah, that's crazy. That's like $10, $12 million, whatever it is. It's a retirement job. The robbery went down to we were about to kidnap them thank god i did because everything's fate kidnapping is no statute of limitations so if i would have ever did that there's no way you know it would have been over over forever for

life we were in the bushes ready to go and a dog from another person walking went crazy and kind of spotted us. Somebody knew something. So we got out of there, and I **** the whole robbery that minute. Whoa. That minute. Just because of the dog? Things didn't feel right.

I was the boss, so I said, it's over. We're not doing it. Wow. And I invested probably money and time and three weeks, four weeks of planning and casing and everything in this H2. I used to sit in the lobby of the Fountain Blue Hotel, you know, Miami Beach. I'd have my shorts on or a bathing suit like I was a guest there and everything, sit at the bar, and I'm watching that store.

I knew every little piece. When that security guard left, when he'd come in, who he was. They had two, and when they rotated. That would have been a good job, too. That would have been a signature job, for sure. So you would have been out of the country? Oh, absolutely. You're damn right I would have been.

I planned that. Matter of fact, the guys I dealt with said, we'll give you $2 million when you bring it up and we'll work out the other $2 million in a couple months. I trusted them, obviously. So that would have been no problem to do that. And looking back, fate-wise, I'm glad it didn't happen, of course, because a lot of these shit went wrong.

You put dynamite on somebody. And it was fake dynamite. Oh, it's fake? Oh, yeah. We had the sticks. It looked just like dynamite with a clock and all the works. We're going to put it on in front of his wife and say, this guy's going to wait here with a walkie-talkie. If he doesn't hear from me, he's going to **** your wife and kids.

And I'm taking you. And if you even, like, you wave down a cop, I'm going to get out of the car and hit this button taking you and if you even like you wave down a cop i'm gonna get out of the car and hit this button and you're gonna blow up i mean we that was some great i thought of every scenario what he could do what he couldn't do don't try to say something because if he don't hear from me in 30 seconds he's gonna hear from me every minute or your wife and leave so even if i get caught your wife and kid are dead. Jeez. I mean, wow, that was crazy.

But I had every single little piece of that down, but it didn't happen. And thank God I did that. So you even had, like, backup plans if this happened. Oh, oh, ouch. The exits, exit routes, I mean, alternate exit route in case something happened. It was an accident on that route Oh, you know, I was a professional. I wasn't a smash-and-grab kid going in and getting a Rolex's, you know Yeah, when I went in I took the whole store. She it was the whole store. That's Wow Did you ever get pulled over after robbery? No, no

Even had that covered, but no. That's insane. And I never got pulled over and, you know, had changed plates, had fake plates, and then put back the regular plates the first thing. I mean, you made it. You thought out everything. We really did. What about phones? Were you worried they'd get tapped? No.

Matter of fact, you couldn't use them. Phones weren't as common back then. Oh, okay. Obviously, this is in the, even up to when I went to prison. Matter of fact, I was one of those guys that had the first cell phone. I had one with a strap on it, like a box, looked like a walkie-talkie from G.I. Joe with a line.

Then they came out with the Motorola. You guys wouldn't even know that. It was a big brick phone. I used to beat people with that phone. And then I could make a phone call. I should do a commercial for them. Because it was a heavy, heavy, like big It's called a brick, a Motorola brick Then of course, you know, the phone's evolved

To what it is today, it's unbelievable I have no idea I'm done, life I'm 61 If I live to 80 I got 19, 18 19 years left And that's not not being morbid i always tell everybody you you're 26 you got 60 years left think of that 100 if you go to 100 years old

you got 80 years left going for it yeah do you want 100 my mom is 90 wow she's 90 it doesn't take a piece of medicine it's not that that i would want i wouldn't want to be like you know she can't get around so i'll lose her mind a little bit but she's still great you know i take care of i actually moved to florida to take care of my mom not florida actual the town i'm in and moved to take care of built the whole studio in the house i mean the garage took it over big studio just just to take care of my mom it's awesome so you care a lot about family yeah you know that's the hardest part when i went to prison my daughter was 15 months old i got out she was 13 my son was 7 i got out he's 18 did they forgive you yeah i mean

took a while but they visited me they never really had to forgive me it wasn't like uh my daughter said some things that are rough now i have grandkids of course but uh the uh i would say forgive yes uh but it's rough because you have to still be a parent you have to discipline you have to do whatever even though they were older i'm still the father i come from that old time school you know the respect certain things and you understand what i mean for parent wise so uh i yeah i mean it's not easy but i have a great relationship with my kids that's awesome larry it's been a blast man what's next for you and what are you trying to promote well you know promote

i do so much with my program a parenting program a my reality check program the book coming out august is huge uh and it's it's already people finding it i'm just i got internet people doing it as we speak and they're finding and buying it already it's on pre-release wow so it's a great book and you can go to my website realitycheck program.com they can go there and just hit the store and you'll find the book uh that's the new book coming out and my other bookemption, is still going crazy. And that's a crazy ride. Literally, people can read that book and know how to rob a Jewish. But they also can know what's going to happen to them in prison from the torture.

Because it all goes in there. The book has me from my young days robbing cars as a kid to being who I am today. It's raw. I love it. Yeah. So, man, I want to thank you for having me on today it's raw i love it yeah so man i want to thank you for having me on yeah you were great man thanks for tuning in guys digital soloslauer see you next time