Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - EX COP BECOMES MARIJUANA ACTIVIST | STONED SAILOR ( FULL PODCAST)

Episode Date: June 3, 2023

EX COP BECOMES MARIJUANA ACTIVIST | STONED SAILOR ( FULL PODCAST)

You know, when you stand up to go to the toilet to pee, it takes 100 miracles to happen. Yeah. From your brain to your spine. It takes 100 miracles to happen. And I'll never take those miracles for granted again. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I am here with Robert Farlow. And he is a former, well, retired. Porn star.

Porn star. Yeah. Former CEO at, was it just Coleman? Coleman, yes, just Coleman. At Coleman. And basically he's got a story, it's got an interesting story. And we're going to go ahead and go through it. So check this out.

I know you've been interviewed a bunch of times. Yeah, sure. But like, you know, I just basically, to me, it's like start at the beginning. Like, where were you worn? First of all, I want to thank you for having me. Sure. And, you know, I'm watching your show. I really like it.

And I really wish you the best, man. And like I said, I know that you're, you know, you're an intelligent guy. and I know you're going to put your, your energy into good things. And I know you're going to be successful again. Well, most definitely. I'm your biggest cheerleader. Okay? Just like all the guys that get out that, you know, I'm their biggest cheerleader.

I don't want to see anybody going there, but there are people that do belong in there. And we talked about that. Right. But, you know that, you know, like John Boziak. Yeah. He had told me about you. Really? Uh, I had, I had heard about you prior to that where I think,

I think it was Josh that mentioned it, but also Tyler, Tyler, my, Boziac and I is, like, our booking agent. He mentioned you. And I think I had two people in the comments, and I had a guy a couple days ago mentioned you. And I went back and I said, bro, I'm interviewing him like in two days or on Wednesday. Cool. So it's funny because it's like all of a sudden it's just within probably a month, multiple people just got got bombarded. When it was meant to be, Matt, check this guy out. You got check this guy out.

It was meant to be then. So where were you born? I was born in Philadelphia. I'm originally from South Philadelphia. When I was a young man, my father committed murder. He was in the underworld. He was a bag man for organized crime. He dealt drugs.

He pimped women. He was a gambler. you know, ran gambling, illegal gambling, underground gambling. And he ended up, you know, getting caught for a murder. Okay. And he got sentenced to life without parole when I was a young man. Now, the person that he murdered retaliated and burnt our house down and my sister perished in that fire.

Three-day, yeah. The person he murdered. Excuse me. The person he murdered's cousin. Yeah, not the person he murdered. He must have been Jesus. No, it wasn't Jesus. It wasn't Jesus.

But he was the devil. And he retaliated because his uncle was murdered And he burnt our house down My mother and I My father was in prison awaiting bond He had just got, he just got picked up This was in 76, no no 78, 79 Around that time

You guys were, but I mean you get out of the house Or you got running there? My mother saved my life She handed me to a fireman on a fire escape And my older sister was supposed to be behind her Holding on to her gown And she got scared because her dog ran in the room And my sister dropped my mom's gown

and ran to get her dog and when she ran into the bedroom it collapsed and then my mom couldn't get her and then the fireman pulled my mom out and the whole house went down and my sister my older sister died terra okay so that's how i you know uh that was my that was a big event in my life a watershed event in my life because all of a sudden i had a someone who used to take care of me and like boss me around and now all of a sudden i'm the old i'm the only child you know at that time and um well my anyway my father goes to prison and my mother remarries and she remarries a big drug trafficker and um you know and uh she gave me a he gave her uh you know they had a baby which was my baby brother my little brother whom i loved and um he was

you know he was everything to me and i always wanted to protect him and things like that and the things that were going on in the house as far as the money and the drugs being hidden and the cops coming in kicking the doors down and the state police raid in our house and people in the neighborhood never wanted their kids to play with me. I was ostracized. I was blackballed. People were calling me, your father's a jailbird in school. I was embarrassed. I was humiliated. Kids are dicks. Yeah. Yes, they could be mean. And I just remember, I just remember telling myself, you know, my father and my stepfather were always teaching me about how to like, you know, how to steal something, how to stay away from the cops, how to, you know, carry a baseball bat with.

you with a glove just in case you get in a problem you know you can hit somebody with the bat but if a cop stops you you could say hey i'm on my way to playing soft but you know i mean shit like that like little stuff they would teach me as a kid how to hide drugs how to hide money how to do all this shit and and it was stuff i just i was completely turned off because i was like i don't want to live that kind of life that's not for me you know i i didn't i wanted nothing to do with that i i i was disgusted i was embarrassed i was humiliated because i because of that what that life brought me and brought my the pain it brought me yeah you're growing up around kids that have normal lives they got a dad they've got a mom and a dad yeah and at one time I had a dad and a stepfather in prison

at one time I went to Trenton state prison on a visit and a month later I was in Danbury Connecticut at the federal prison to see my stepfather so that's I grew up in prison prison waiting room and visiting yes playing those little tick-tac-toe games and connect four I was one of those kids yeah so um and i was also i also know what it's like to have a loved one incarcerated and i know that the family does the time just as much as the the person you know the family suffers too you know because you know your dad's not there your mom's got to find another way to get a job or make money and you know it's it's a ripple effect it's a terrible effect so i never wanted nothing to do with that life right so i said i'm going to do you know i don't have any positive

male role models but i have a lot of negative ones so I'm going to learn from them. See, everything that they do, I'm going to do the opposite. I just figured out this formula. It wasn't like Einstein, E equals 2, M square, whatever. It was my little theory of relativity. I'm like, well, I'm just going to do the opposite of these guys,

and I'm going to do something respectful and honorable. So I joined the military as a young man. And when I got in the military, Navy. I joined the Navy. And I loved it. I finally I finally got an opportunity my whole life I was told you know you're going to be like your dad you're going to end up in prison you know and then I would start acting out that way in school and things like that I'd gotten arrested as a juvenile disorderly conduct shoplifting and people would just tell me you're just going to end up like your dad and I believed it for a while and when I joined the Navy that was the first time I you know I went in the Navy and I loved it I loved the structure I loved you know the whole idea of of, you know, honor, courage, and commitment,

all the core values they preached down. And it was something I wanted to be. It was something I aspired to be. I would watch TV and watch the movies. And I would say, wow, I really wanna do that one day. So I did it. And while I was there, lo and behold, they said, you know, I picked a job and they said,

you'd be a great military police officer. And I'm like, wow, what the, you know, that's pretty crazy. So they sent me to the Navy Police Academy in Lackland, Texas. And when I got in a police academy, when they were showing us how to search people and they would bring in like actors

from like the local dinner theater to come in and play criminals, right? And they would have them come in and they would hide like hide drugs in a, in a house like a crime scene scenario and you'd have to respond like a domestic and it would turn into a domestic to a drug possession to something

and you had to, you know, they were grading us. Well, I just always know this is how you search him. Keep him here, separate him. Oh, here, it's probably in his sock. Oh, he's got something in his pocket. he keeps fidgeting all this stuff my my dad and my stepdad taught me like I just keyed in on that and then they thought I was like the greatest thing in the world right they're like oh my god

this guy's great you know this guy's freaking you know he's dirty Harry you've been being tutor yeah yeah he's dirty Harry you know we would do these scenes where we would pull people over and I would search the car and find the drugs right away because I knew where they I knew where the hiding spots were my dad taught me they all taught me so um so basically I ended up graduating first in my class, which was the first time I'd ever been first in anything in my life. And they made me the honor graduate and they brought me before this big crowd and these the commanding officer, you know, they had medals, ribbons down to here. And all these important people were praising me in front of all these people.

And they were telling me that I was this great guy and I was the top performer and the distinguished honor graduate. And I actually at first thought they were putting me on. I'm like, no, no, no, this is going to be a joke. Like Ashton Coucher is going to come and this is punked, right? know I'd never and um from that point um they told me since you're the honor graduate you have the choice you could pick a specialty school and I said well what schools do you have available and they told me we have investigator you could be a bodyguard for an admiral someone important

a dignitary a state of you know a you know like secretary of the navy or somebody like real important be a personal bodyguard wear civilian clothes and just drive around with them and go on all these little trips around the world or we have canine dog handling and I always had dogs my mother we always had German shepherds we always had Doverman pinchers and my mom used to raise dogs so I came from a family you know that you know loved animals and I loved animals too so she said I said well can I you know can I go and look and see what the canine schools about and and the lady said sure well you know we'll have we'll bring you over there they're gonna do a

demonstration right and And I remember I showed up and I saw this guy come out with this camouflage uniform on, creases so sharp you'd cut your fingers on him if you'd touch them. And he had this big, beautiful German Shepherd next to him. And the dog was walking at the heel. And there's a man out in the field with the bite suit, you know, being an aggressive person, you know, because he was going to send the dog for the bite. Yeah.

And I remember he sent that dog. He said, get him. That dog ran in the field, tackled that guy down in that big bite suit. And I just remember looking at it. And I said, that's me. That's my life. That's what I want to do. And then from there, I went into the canine program.

And I was a drug detection dog handler, bomb detection dog handler. I was in two tours in Iraq, counter IED, looking for bombs. Okay. And it was a pretty chaotic time when I was over there. This was right after the invasion during the election time frame. And it was a really, it was a crazy time over there. It was a lot, a lot of death. and destruction over there and um are you going to iraqi freedom or are you talking about uh no

the second yeah two thousand and three not 91 yeah yeah yeah not 91 i was i'm too i'm too young for 91 i was you know so um yeah it's funny the um you know you mentioned that i i never think of uh i never think of the drug dogs um as far as you know being in the military but i i i guess you Big business. Drug dogs right now, I mean, in the military, we have a drug problem, too. I mean, our drug dogs sweep all the barracks, rooms, all the ships. I don't even think about that. I can see the bomb, you know, but not.

Okay. Drugs, yeah, we have sailors, unfortunately. We go to foreign ports, maybe Thailand or some other place, and they bring drugs on the ship. Okay. Because they want to traffic them because they can get them there cheap. And sometimes they're even legal. They buy them in a pharmacy and stuff like that. and they bring them on the ship illegally and then, you know, we sweep and we find it.

So, and sometimes sailors deal drugs and shit out of their rooms on the base. Well, those ships are like small cities, right? They're, they're massive. Like a carrier, of course, yeah, like a 5,000 people. 5,000 people. You could be there for three years and not see everybody. You'll be on one side and the other person may be on the other. You could both be there at the same time, but never came near each other.

Wow. Yeah, it's one of those, you know, things. It's real, if you've ever had an opportunity to go on a tour of an aircraft carrier, do it. It's something amazing. And so basically I was a canine handler. I was, I ended up, I went on from there, and I was selected to be the Sixth Fleet, Chief Mastered Arms of the Admiral Ship, which is the USS Mount Whitney. And on that ship, I became the anti-terrorism officer, security officer, and I was an investigator. And that's where I finished out my career, and I retired from there.

I was going to say how long, how long was it before you were in, uh, in Iraq? I mean, like, oh, I had a 20 year career. So I was, I was, I was done. I had two tours in Iraq. I had, uh, I was, I was part of the, uh, Odyssey Dawn, which was the invasion of Libya. I was, I was other operations to, as far as as a canine handler, I would get assigned to the Secret Service sometimes to do bomb sweeps for like vice president Cheney, uh, Donald Rumsfeld. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger when he came to Tokyo I lived in Europe for five years I lived in Asia for three years I lived in the Middle East for two years I lived in the West Coast I lived you know

I got an opportunity to travel the world you know I've circled the globe right you know several times so it was it was a great experience being in the Navy When did you retire? 2012 Okay

and when I retired I was looking for a new career How old were you then? 38 38 how old were you now? Forty seven Okay Yeah, 4 to 7. And I was looking for a new career, and I was going, you know, I'd done police work for damn near, you know, 20 years.

And I said, okay, you know, I'm going to walk into a federal law enforcement job. I was a dog handler. I had all these skills. So I was looking for like customs or maybe TSA, but all their duty stations were somewhere I didn't want to go. Right. And at the time I was married and we wanted to relocate and live in Florida because my mother had moved to Florida many years before with my brother. so they moved to South Florida so that's where I wanted to eventually be so I ended up taking a job at I was you know looking on this federal job search and I see the Bureau of Prisons and from there

I applied and I was selected I went into the testing and and I went in there and they hired me so I started there August 12th 2012 exactly one month after I retired I started at the prison I started their academy at the prison. How long does that take? They have an academy? Yeah, they have academy. It's in Glenco, George. It's four weeks. I don't know that. Four weeks of Correctional Academy.

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Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. And they also bring actors in, too, from a dinner theater to play inmates, too. They do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's kind of funny, though, you know. But they, so I did that. I ended up getting hired with them.

And I was the type of guy when I went out there. I know what it was like to be in a visiting room. I know what it's like to have a fun. father incarcerated, a stepfather. I had cousins that were in federal prison. There were drug traffickers in the 80s when the crack cocaine came in. And they jumped in on that easy money, that free money. Right.

And they all paid dearly for it. And their families paid too dearly for it. And, you know, these mandatory minimums came in and just started wiping people out, you know. I had a cousin that got 15 years on a first offense for trafficking because he wouldn't talk, Matt. He wouldn't give up anybody. Well, that was a mistake. I had to cut everybody's throat. Well, his wife, his wife, my cousin, she would say, you know, she would agree with you.

But he was one of those guys from Philly that just felt, you know, I'm not talking. And they hit him. They hit him with it, you know. And everyone else talked on him, though. Everybody else sung like Canary's on him, you know. The same guys that you're going to prison for turn on you immediately. Exactly. So he was a stand-up guy.

And I give him a lot of respect for that because, you know, he really paid the price. And he did all his time. He got home and she waited for him. and they're still happily married. That's nuts. That's the part that never happened. Yes, they're still happily married. The only guys I know that that happens with is if it's one, if it's short time, a couple years,

or if they've got a bunch of money. Like, I know multi-millionaires. Neither. The government took every penny. That almost never happened. They took every penny. They seized my cousin's house. They had, they took everything.

Took every fucking thing because he wouldn't cooperate. So I saw, I kind of knew how the system was working. And so I also have empathy because I, you know, when I got to the prison and I actually saw firsthand when I started reading PSIs and things and seeing that some of these guys got 50 years, never touched a gun. No one got so much as a bloody nose in the indictment and they're getting hit with all this time for drugs, you know, but then you got a pedophile that comes in, does his three or four years at the low, walks out. And this guy that's got 30 years for cracks, got to watch this son of a bitch come in and out of the in and out of the prison. It's so fucked up. It's, you know, can I say that word? Yeah, good.

I'm going to say it fucked up. It's fucked up. And so I just remember when I got hired, we had an indoctrination at the training center. You go there, you stand up, you introduce yourself to everybody. And I just remember, I stood up the first day and I said, hi, my name is Rob Farlow. I was in the Navy. And if you do something wrong in front of me, I will report you. And I told everybody that from day one because I will.

Right. Because, you know, if you do something wrong, I'll write you up too. But if an officer does something wrong, I'm going to report them too. You know, it works both ways because you can't call these guys dirtbags if you're doing bad shit and falsifying documents

and, you know, assaulting people, excessive force or planning contraband and their fucking cells and shit. Right. You know? So I just made, I put everyone on notice

that, you know, that people called me a rat, whatever, I don't give a shit. I knew from that point going forward, anybody that worked with me would be somebody that was cool with that. You know what I mean? So if you didn't want to work,

with me yeah that's for you yeah you know I don't care I don't want to work with you anyway yeah I don't listen yeah I'm not I think you're not there to make friends not there to make friends no I'm not there I'm there to give you what you got coming and get and go home all right you know what I'm saying that's it you know I'm not there to to to be petty to violate anyone's rights to mess mess up anybody's locker or sell and that kind of stuff makes me sick to my stomach and I just I didn't tolerate that and people that work with me knew that well so so which where did you which pen one prisons you were predominantly

and yeah i was assigned to usp1 which is the max pen yeah there but the the thing about coleman is the good thing is they have two pens you got pen one you got pen two which is called like a drop pen more of a senior citizen pen like if you get really old at pen one and right you can go there um or if you a gang drop you dropped out and you um debriefed yeah then you can go to Penn 2, you know, and that's the difference is. Basically, you have Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. Penn 1 is Pepsi, Penn 2 is Diet Pepsi. Right.

And you got the medium, and you got the low, and then you got a female camp at the time. It was a female camp. And the good thing about Coleman is, as an officer, you can go on the roster and you could do overtime or you could get sent to any other prison. So you get to see all the different levels of custody as a corrections officer.

So one day, you know, I work at USP, and then all of a sudden they go, we got overtime at the low. Well, everybody at Penn 1 wants to jump on that because that's easy 8. That's an easy 8 overtime. Right. You know? And Penn 1, you're running all the time with the body alarms, you know, you've got an inventory, packed property, all that shit, you know? And you go to Penn 2 or you go to the camp or you go to the medium and it's an easier day.

You know what I mean? And so I would take advantage of those opportunities and I would work at all the different custody levels because when I went in to something just like anything when I enter it I always want to be I always see myself with a long-term strategic plan I say okay today's an officer five years I want to be a lieutenant right you understand so I have a plan going in because I jump into things with both feet I don't have fast stuff all right so okay sorry go ahead I was going to say um so at Penn 1 like how often are those guys locked up well they were locked down pretty frequently because of the violence right now I retired before COVID and I

I hear COVID, I hear now, it's just pretty much a shoe. Now they just lock it down 24-7 and very, very limited movement. Yeah. You know, and it's, you know, but when I was there, we would lock down for violence. We would have a fight, maybe possibly a gang beef that could overflow into the next day or the next shift. And we would just, as a precaution, keep them locked down for a week, two weeks a month and to let everything cool down. So we were locked down quite frequently because of violence We had a murder there

We've had many assaults many rapes And I was part of the evidence recovery team I was on a special team there And I used to actually go and collect evidence for crimes And things like that So I got the process stuff And trained with the FBI and all that kind of cool shit Yeah, I don't know if you

I mean obviously you weren't there if you were there in 2012 When I was in the medium I remember they had like six guys got stabbed a couple of guys people got shot they we could hear the helicopters and they locked us down yeah yeah that was in the medium then yeah what was funny about that was there was a newspaper article that came out and it said that the the Coleman complex like you know there was a there were several people that were like life flighted to the hospital there were several shootings there was a several six people got hurt

officer so they go on and on and then they put that the the complex hold such notorious criminals as Matthew Cox No, one of them was Matthew Cox So it said Conrad Black Who was at the low? Yes Me I was at the media Like everybody they named

None of them were in that riot Like in the pen Yeah, we're in the pen But if you read it it seems I'm like It looks like I was in the pin In the riot I mean practically puts me in the riot Which was hilarious because

Yeah they love the media It loves to spin their tails The closest I got was hearing them Hearing the helicopters Some gunshots And them screaming locked down We were locked down for like three days. It was, I mean, coming from an environment, a combat environment where, you know, you're constantly on guard and your situational awareness is always high, your heightened alert, you know, working at the pen, it was like pretty easy for me to transition because I was used to that working in a high, stressful environment.

Right. In the military, whether it's the tent finding bombs or investigating crimes or things like that or planning, planning against repelling possible terrorist attacks against our assets. and stuff so it was I'm kind of used to that like an adrenaline junkie type of guy so I like that kind of occupation you know um so hey okay why do you know white bulger right yeah whydy where was he was he was at pen too I saw him a couple times when I would when I would do overtime with him and I remember one time like because he was the only living inmate that actually served time in Alcatraz yeah at one time so I remember I remember saying something to him like you know I was doing an overtime and he had a walker you know he would go with this walker

and I remember saying something to him and and I was like you know Mr. Bolger you know how I said to him you're pretty you're a pretty popular guy and he was like yeah that's my problem like that's my problem kid like you you know muttered it under his breath and and I remember he said something along the lines like one of the one of the counselors said to him he was complaining about something and she said I guess you don't like the accommodations here and he said no I was better in Alcatraz I wish I could come back there or something like that

he made some kind of off the thing but they transferred him to Hazleton and he was dead within six or seven hours right was it Hazleton Lee County I think it was Hazelton I mean I don't know I do one of them I forget I think it was Hazleton maybe or I know they killed him

killed him immediately within six hours of getting off the bus you know that guy should have been in segregation there's no way that was a that was yeah he he should have been in the medium absolutely he's that he's an old man absolutely absolutely i remember there was i was sitting on dry cell you know what dry cell is if someone uh was suspected of ingesting contraband in a visiting room you have to keep them in an isolation cell and they have to have three successful bowel movements okay and you have to

watch it so you talk about a shitty day yeah it's a shitty day yeah and i remember i had an inmate on dry cell and i don't know some some guy get angry with the term inmate prisoner I don't know is you know some guys are sensitive about that but yeah I'm a convict yeah I I just say prisoner inmate at the time because that's what that's what it was at the time you're still a human being but at the time you were classified as an inmate but a human being but and he told he was in the shoe at Whitey the night before he transferred and he told me that Whitey told him he said yeah I'm going to this place and yeah

they're I'm gonna die there I remember him telling me that like five days after I was sitting on this guy watching him and he told me he was in the shoe with him and he told him yeah they're going to kill me I'm not going to make it you know so it was it was kind of I don't know I think somebody orchestrated that I don't get conspiracy theory but you know that's that was a pretty that was a that was like a rookie mistake for the shift lieutenant to not recognize this guy and know that he had separaties and things like that I mean they usually know that before you get off the bus that was just I don't know that just didn't smell right to me well I mean we were talking about this like the the custody or not the custody level but the the actual security around let's say like the pins and the medium and you know look I was I was in the medium I mean I've gone to the pen only I was in the pin for 24 hours okay I was there in the shoe you got your street credit then I guess listen in the shoe and the whole time they were walking me in there because I had to go to the shoe I'm sure they were listen I was like hey bro to the see I was like oh you can't put me in with one of these guys I mean these guys I mean these guys

have tattoos on their eyeballs and they're like and he's like no no no cox it's okay yeah you don't worry you're gonna we know we know better and they were so cool like they put me in a room they go look i could cox i got you some books yeah i got this i got that he i remember he said you're a medium prisoner and we know at that time i was a whoa okay well they know that and they don't want nothing i mean they don't want nothing bad to happen if they put you in with a with a pen guy that's that's a big no no exactly those guys when in your water walking in the shoe i could see you could see the um the rec yard and they look like cage fucking animals and i don't mean just because of the cages i'm they are they're they're just

they're detention and there's tat it up and they just look like they were bottled energy and i remember thinking oh hell no yeah you can't put me in they were like no no no no no don't worry and you know i was there 24 hours next day they called me out they said hey cox should have been locked up we're bringing it back yeah give me about an hour because they didn't have a shoe well you were going to the media was the shoe full in the medium yeah what's so funny is the one guy that I went with he went to

the medium and that was it they were like full and then they brought brought me to the to the you know to the pen and I was like oh this is fucked up yeah and luckily 24 hours later I was right back you know well I would know when we would get a guy from the low or something at the shoe like an overnight person you know they're not going to give

you any trouble they just want to get put in their cell and you're not going to hear of people out of them it's the guys that are you know it's the guys on your range that are from pen one that you know are the ones that are going to be kicking doors and screaming yeah throwing piss and all that shit and what you know that the so the pen like listen you this is what kills me is that the custody levels are so fucking outrageous like i went to a medium yeah first of all you know well you know you got over i had over 20 years you're an escape risk are you out of your out of the pit i mean out of the medium like you're not getting out of the pin you're

nobody's getting out of the escape risk because of the the time or did you have an attempt if you had over 20 years you had to go to the medium okay under 20 you could go to the low under 10 you can go to a camp but as soon as i got to the medium my counselor was like yeah you shouldn't be here yeah yeah you know um you i'm glad you had a council that had some brains that actually recognized that because some people would just throw you out there and say you know fend for yourself yeah well i mean she did i mean what she did all she did was say you really shouldn't be here but you're here oh she didn't oh she didn't move me no i stayed there can I ask you her name um it was her name was I don't know her net last first name her name

was Bates she died about five or six months later I know who you're talking about smoked like a chimney yeah I know you're talking about I know who you're talking about super cool yeah yeah yeah I know you talk about she was a salty yeah yeah she'd been there a while yeah I know you're talking about she died um a heart attack yeah yeah yeah her sleep or something like it she was like in her 50s but yeah she was yeah like yeah chain smoker definitely you know even though there was no there's there's no tobacco on the compound that man she didn't give a fuck she walked right out on the top let it and it would smoke and come back in being there for 20 minutes come back out smoke yeah yeah yeah i know yeah i know but very nice super super cool um and thank god um uh not that due

diligent on her paperwork because i actually came in what and i had restitution right so i got in there and she has you fill me filling out my paperwork and i said okay you know she signed here sign here she's okay well you have to make restitution payments and i went what and she goes you have to make restitution payments and i went no no no no no i said listen my judge said i owe restitution i said but i don't have any payments while i'm incarcerated i said i have no money have no job 20 cents an hour right you get the prison job uh pay scale well and i had just gotten there and she went she looked at me and she said i mean well first of all she said you don't have any money on your books yet Yeah, okay.

And she said, but you have to, she has, you have to pay. And I went, listen, I said, my, my lawyer made two arguments with restitution. One, I shouldn't have to pay interest. And two, I said, I shouldn't have to pay while I was incarcerated. Yeah. I said, and I know those are the only two arguments she won. By the way, this is a complete lie. Sure.

And, and she said, okay, well, I'm going to look into it. I'll take a look at your judgment commitment. I'll see what it says. She says, and I'll get back with you. And I said, okay, cool. I get up and I leave. I don't hear you. anything from her. Six months later, she dies several months later. A few months later,

I get called into the office because it's team. Yeah, team. You got your team, unit team. Right. So the unit manager is there, my counselor's there. And they said, okay, Kock's yeah, you're fine. Everything's good. I mean, you got a lot of time. Like, you know, just trying to keep yourself busy, stay out of trouble. And they went, um, you're not paying restitution. And you, and they go, but you're not on, um, what do they call it when you didn't pay? You're not on, like a garnishment type of thing where they were they deducted out automatically if you get any money in your books or something no well what you're not on um where they basically they put you on refusal oh you're not on refusal she's you're not on refusal but you're not paying and i went well i don't have to pay and actually this was a guy and i said no i don't

have to pay this is my new counselor and i went i don't have to pay and he goes well why is that i said no i said i went over this with miss bates and they were well she's not here i said i understand And I said, you know, I explained what happened with my lawyer, boom, boom, boom. I said, she checked into it. I said, she called me back in. She said, you're right. I looked into it. I've never seen it before, but you don't have to pay.

And I said, cool. And I said, so I've never paid. And he went, I said, you can check. Look at my file. The file's there. It's this thick. And I go, look at my file. And he goes, yeah, yeah.

He said, I'll check. I'll let you know. I said, okay, cool. I get up on a leave. Six months later. I have another counselor now. Yeah. Boy, you're nailing it right on the head.

how it works in there, huh? Listen, so this time, they go, you're not on FRP refusal. That's what they call it. Yeah, yeah. You're not on FRP. Me right now with all this lingo. You're saying, but go ahead. He goes, you're not on FRP refusal.

And I went, right. And I said, yeah, I know. He said, but you're not paying. And I went, no, no. I said, I went over this with Ms. Bates. I went over this with Mr. Johnson or whoever his, whatever that guy's name was. I said, and I explained it all again. And I said, you can look.

I said, they both checked it out. And he goes, no, he said, I'll check it out. He's out. And the unit manager is there, and he's like, yeah, yeah, he was, we'll let you know. I said, okay, cool, I get up final leave. That guy, for like the next two years, I think he was my counselor. Then I had another counselor, which was like Ms. Brown or somebody. Ms. Brown, yeah, sure.

And then same, went through the same thing with her. I go to the low. This first day, Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith, yeah, Mr. Smith. And he goes, and he was like, oh, I remember he was, listen. I liked him, but he was a dick. to me he's been around a long time Mr. Smith. Here's what he said. I remember

he said to me, he looked at it and he goes, Jesus Christ Cox, he goes, you got 26 years. He goes, your nuts are going to be hanging down by your knees when you get out. Oh my God. And I just went, I just thought what's this fucking horrible? And he goes, what's up with this

with your FRP? And I said, bro, I don't have to pay FRP. So I tell him the same thing. Then I go to Ms. Jenkins. About a week later, I'm in Ms. Jenkins. God, she was something else. So I go to Ms. Jenkins. He, and she goes, what's up with your FRP? You're not paying? And I, and he happens to walk in. I said, Mr. Smith just asked me the same thing. I said, he looked, he checked out my file. I said, I don't

have to pay. And now that's not what happened at all. I just told him the story. And he goes, yeah, yeah. He said, it's weird, but he's, he's never paid. He's never had to pay. He said, if several people have looked into it, he doesn't have to pay. And she was, okay, I go, can you make a notation or something? You guys keep saying. And she's, I'll, I'll put in a note. I said, okay. She didn't do it. Yeah, I doubt she did it.

Yeah. Listen, I never was asked about it again. I went 12, almost 13 years until I went to Ardap. And an art app, they caught it. Okay. And it goes to Grand Prairie, that's when they caught it. Yeah. But, yeah.

So anyway, what I was going to, so I just thought that was comical. I got you. So I did three years in the medium. But honestly, like, so the pen, I mean, you know how it's set up. Like, nobody's getting out of there. No. The medium, nobody's getting out of there. Shit, we run to get out of there after a shift so we don't get mandated, you know, because

a lot of times you get off and you got no relief and they go, you're mandated. You got to stay. You know, so now you're doing a mandate, in other words, I finished my eight hours. Right. And no relief shows up. Someone banged in, called in sick. Okay. They got no relief from me.

So then they call me on the phone and say, sorry, you got to stay there for another eight hours. Do you want to stay there? I can swap you to another. unit but you got to stay yeah i understand i mean but you're not escaping no no no but i'm saying that's why officers at the end of their shift when they get relieved they bolt there's a lieutenant's office you go the other way yeah because they'll stop you and say wait wait wait wait wait wait you know and you try to run the fuck out of there and get to the gate you're trying to escape too you know

but they have to buzz you through you know that through the um shallow ports so they'll tell the control officer to keep the door locked and not let you out so they're locking you in too Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, the security is outrageous. Sure. It's outrageous. Well, it's got to be. Even in the low, you're like, like, we mentioned it before, like you're not, it's too late. It's the, the, what, there's motion sensitive?

Yeah, everything. Yeah. There's, what, four layers of, uh, concertino wire, two fences and a patrol guard that drives right. Yeah. I mean, it's insane. And that's just what you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, there's, you, there's just no way. There's more I'm sure maybe I can't divulge But there's more It doesn't matter I'm not getting over the fence

No no no Yeah it's no it's bad Matter of fact There was one guy that actually escaped While I would not at Coleman But another pen I think it was in Texas And he They

He got over the electrical fence And they were so puzzled How he did Now they caught him right away But he got over the electrical fence They were so puzzled how he did it that they actually told him if you show us how you did it

instead of the five years or whatever on this skate we'll give you like 18 months but you got to give it and he did a video and demoed it and he used plat like he stole plastic things from wreck and he put them on the barbed wire like so it didn't on the electrical so it didn't and he put his foot there and then he had the other

put his hand there and he was like just doing that to get over the fence so he couldn't get shocked he showed him in a video how he defeated it. So, you know, it was kind of like, you know, show us how you did it and we'll, and we'll, you know, you know, so you don't get hit with the whole thing, but he did. So he was telling him how he defeated the fence because we were like, you know, how to hell did he get over there?

So, and then, of course, they make recommendations and fix the things and stuff like that, you know. But yeah, we, we have 24-hour electrical security fences. We have a very high-tech system. Nobody's getting out of there, you know. What was the majority of your time you said was basically the PIN? Penn one, yeah, pen one, yeah. So what is, I mean, what's, what's that like? Like, what's a day at the PIN?

Like, not a lockdown day, but like a kind of like normal day is, you know, it pretty much runs itself, but, you know, you have to be aware because at any minute you're going to hear the tones, you know, the body alarm is going to go off and you're going to have to respond, lock your unit down, you know, do things like that. It can go from mundane to complete. sheer terror I mean like two guys are stabbing each other right you know I mean it can go from that to a big fight in a unit you know 10 guys are rumbling locking a sock you know all that shit going down and you know and and it just it's one of those things like you know you just

you show it's something different every day and it's it's it's you have this I don't know you have this heightened sense of you know at any moment something can happen so it's kind of like it's I don't know it was a little exciting for me I like that But it's funny that you say lock in a sock Like that sounds benign No, that'll fuck you up A lock in a sock Oh God, yeah

So one of the, probably the most blood I think I've ever seen was a guy Get hit in the back of the head The guy, I don't know if it was a belt or a sock Just ran up behind him and hit him in the head Three or four times Right when he was on the phone I remember he came out of his cell

Like Indiana Jones with the whip And he was like this And I'm just watching him And he went like this When the guy was on the phone And by the time he looked Here it just his eye sock I mean right there and he was just I mean pouring blood he was out like a light the guy just got his put in his pocket walked in the cell and just started packing his shit because he knew he was getting locked up and that was it I just I locked everybody down I came to a cell he's like I'm ready you know it was just like that you know so so I worked there and I always I always I never had a problem at because I gave people respect I I always treated people how I'd like to be

treated. I never abused anybody. I don't, you know, I would bump into, even now on my YouTube channel, I have, you know, guys that, you know, that, uh, were inmates and it worked in my, you know, that were in the units with me and stuff that, you know, send me, you know, comments on my YouTube page a channel and like, you know, like everything this guy say is legit, you know, because I tell prison stories and things like that on my YouTube channel. Where, where are you from on the, where are you running your channel? At my house. No, I mean, I'm saying it's Tampa or Atlanta. Orlando. Orlando. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have a nice big, you know, fancy studio like you, you know, pictures of President Trump.

By the way, 2024, when he's president again, put that painting in with your pardon application. Because I think he'll sign it. He'll see that and he'll say, Matthew Cox, let's clear his record. I have a bunch of these. Send them one with your pardon application. I'll give you one if you want it. I like it, man. Yeah.

I would appreciate that. That would be awesome. I have them in the garage. I like it. You didn't go in the garage. I'll take you in the garage and show you where I, I'll give you. I didn't see it, but I love, I love, you know, I'm looking at him and you're very talented, Matt. You're very talented, buddy.

I like that. Appreciate it. Definitely. So I was there and I was working there. I worked there for seven years. Love the job. It was doing great. And all of a sudden, I, you know, things were going on in my life.

I was going through a rough divorce. You know, I was, you know, down in the dumps. And, you know, I was drinking a lot. lot and doing things like that, you know, because I financially, I was paying lawyers all the time and my house was gone and I had to sell everything and all this stuff like this. And, you know, I remember there was a big staff outbreak in the, in the prison, staff infection. Yeah, yeah. We would always have, they have, they had a legionnaires outbreak. Legionnaires, I thought, was cured in the 70s, but they had a Legionnaires disease outbreak at the, at the female camp, you know, they would

always have, you know, whether it was lice or crabs or friggin, whatever it was. It was, you know, and they had a bad staff outbreak in Penn One, staff infection. And I remember a couple weeks after that, maybe two weeks or so after that, I developed an eye infection really bad. And it started in one eye and my eyes swell up and it was like very sore. It was like someone just like beat me up and punched me. But it was just like, oh, the pressure on it. And it was, next thing you It started to bleed a little bit out of my tear duct. So I, you know, I'm one of those guys that last minute doesn't go to the doctor. It's always like, I'll be fine.

I'll be fine. I still worked, everything, you know, I would use. And then all of a sudden I said, okay, maybe I got pink eye. Let me go in and get checked. So I go to one of these clinics and they tell me it's pink eye. Oh, at this time it spread to the other eye too. It went over finally. And they gave me medication for pink eye.

I put it on, I put it in my eyes. I did it for a couple of days. It got worse. Finally, I woke up one morning and my eyes were just blood, just dried blood shut. I had to go in the sink and just throw, and it was like, it was like the exorcist, man. So I went back to the doctor. I went to the VA and I, with an optometrist, and he said, no, that's not pink eye. You have a staff infection in your eye and it needs to be treated because, you know, it can, you know, go in your body and hurt you and kill you, you know.

So he gives me antibiotics and medicine and says it'll clear up in a couple days. days and I took the medicine a couple days it went away and it was fine and I was you know everything was fine my vision wasn't affected it went away just like went away um about two or three weeks later after it went away I started developing serious back pains like and I norm I have a bad back anyway from being in the military all those years backpack you know carrying a rucksack or lifting up my sea bag or you know going up and down ladder wells and ships and going up and down the tears and all that shit and um But this was a different kind.

It felt like someone had a knife in me and they were just twisting it. Like right in this one particular spot. So, of course, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, laying flat. I'm taking hot, you know, cold, hot, putting ice packs on it, doing all kinds of things. And I got to get my back check. This, this is hurting me. So I go in and you didn't think it was related? No.

Didn't put two and two together and make four men. And I went and I went and I got an x-ray. I went into the emergency room. an x-ray and they said well your back is your back is damaged you know but i don't see i don't see anything you know really bad and um they said but i you know other than that i don't see you know anything in that area what do you mean damage well i had the degenerative disc disease okay which is unrelated unrelated yeah yeah it was just i had a lot of a lot of damage on my back you know from that so um they told me here's some muscle relaxers take these blah blah blah right okay

So I'm taking muscle relaxers And my back is still hurting But since I'm taking the muscle relaxers It's masking it Yeah And next thing I know about A week later I come home from work

I was working morning watch I get off at 8 a.m. 12 midnight to 8 a.m. I drive home I lay down in my bed And I woke up a couple hours later And I urinated myself And I couldn't move my legs They were just jello

They were done So My girlfriend friend at the time she called 911 they had me out of there in an ambulance they took me to the emergency room and I was in the emergency room they had to put I had to pee so bad but I couldn't urinate my bladder was like you know couldn't urinate so they had to cathetered me right and I don't know if you've ever had that okay well I've been lucky it's not good and they're I'm totally anticipating this painful you know thing and and they hit me with it and I'm like

Oh, you know, and I'm like, and next thing you know, I feel great because it's all, you know, all that stuff is getting relieved. And the doctor's like, he's like, I don't know what's going on with you, you know, because of course they think, I don't know, maybe they think because I'm a government employee. I'm trying to fake it to go out on a disability or some shit like that. I don't know. But there was a military doctor there that was a naval reserve doctor. And he saw my Iraq bracelet on. And he came in the emergency room and started talking to me. And I told him what was going on.

And he said, send this guy for an MRI. I think he did an MRI. Sent me for an MRI. As soon as I get back from the MRI, 15 minutes later, he comes running in and he's like, I got to get you on a helicopter and get you out of here. You have an abscess on your spine. And I'm like, an abscess, you know, whatever.

And I'm like, he's like, I got to get you to emergency room. I just got off the phone with a surgeon, spinal surgeon. They're waiting for you. And I was like, oh, shit, because I'm so freaking oblivious that I'm thinking I'm having a bad reaction. to the muscle relaxers.

And they'll probably give me a shot. This will all come back. Like, no problem, right? Next thing I know, they wheel me out. They put me, send me to the emergency room. Doctors are waiting for me. You know, and this one doctor, I remember, he looked like Richard Dreyfus on jaws.

Remember Richard Dreyfus when he played in jaw? Okay, he had a little bit of a beard and he had that, you know, and he said to me, he said, Mr. Farlow, you have an abscess on your spine. and it's caused you to get paraplegia and you will never walk again and this is before the surgery right as there walk I mean the

the anesthesiologist is here asking me how much I weigh he's here telling me the paramedics are behind me pushing me and he said right now I'm concerned about saving you from the neck from the waist up the waist down's gone I'm like Jesus Christ This guy's telling me, he's like, you're never going to walk again.

I remember him saying that, and he kept doing this in your head. It's never, you know, you're never going to be able to walk again. He kept doing this. And I'm looking at him, and the lady asked me how much I weigh, and I said, give me enough to kill an elephant. And I told her that, the anesthesiologist, because I said, that's it. I don't want to live. Telling me I'm never going to walk again, you know.

Right. And they put me to sleep. I woke up the next day, it was my birthday. I was wrapped up like a mummy. I had a tube in my throat, a tube down. there a tube in my rear and they were all looking at me when I came out of it and they you know the doctor was talking to me and he was he was telling me the same thing you had an abscess I had to cut your back open you had staff infection

that penetrated into your spinal cord at your T6 level thoracic six and from that abscess pushing into your spinal cord the infection the pus contaminated your spinal cord. Yeah. And it caused you to have paraplegia from the waist down. And I'm like, wow, I don't want to live no more. At this point, can you feel your feet or anything? Nothing.

Everything's gone. It's all gone. I can't move. I can't feel. It's like jello. I feel everything from the waist up. They cut me right here. I was split down the spine like a Thanksgiving turkey.

I mean, I'm cut right down because they had to open me up wide. And they had to clean all that infection out. They even had to remove two little bones that were there that were so infected that they were just brittle that they didn't want them to break off, that they removed them. And they don't know very much about, even like the best doctors in the world,

I found this out after, but they only know a limited amount with your spine and your brain, how they communicate. They know how, like, this releases this and all that, but they don't know how it works yet. they're still like you know scratching the surface of that stuff you know and now they're doing implants with chips and all that other stuff and stem cells but um I woke up the next day they told me the news again I thought it was a dream it was my birthday I'm paralyzed for the waist

down and that's when my you know and that's when you know the nightmare all hit me now in between this time I left this out it's very distasteful for me to talk about but while I was while I was going through this divorce, my brother was a heroin addict. And he had gotten sober, but then he fell off the wagon. And he was living in Fort Lauderdale with my mother. And he was starting to steal things from her. So I said, bring him up here. I have this big house.

And I'm going to get him health insurance, you know, through, you know, I got him health insurance. I'm going to pay for it. I'm going to get him into a rehab. And while I did it and I brought him up there, He ended up committing suicide in my house, and he died in my arms. So this was all going on. My wife left me after that, and this had all spun, and then the staff infection, and now I'm paralyzed. This is a really shitty time.

This was, you can't get any lower than this, you know? And then my cat died, who was like my best cat, you know, because I'm an animal lover. I had a cat. He was with me for, you know, 15 years, and he was like my best buddy, and he died. And, you know, it was all right after 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. So it was a very bad time. And I just woke up and I said, you know, I don't want to live no more. You know, I want to die.

And I was trying to ask people to bring a gun in so I could blow my brains out in the hospital, you know. And, you know, they were trying to get me, you know, they were, you know, I was in the hospital for three months because my infection, what they have to do is they have to put you, they put me in an infectious disease ward with other people that were like, Because when you have a massive infection like that, your immune system's low. Yeah. So they have to put you in an isolation area and they had to run IV antibiotics in my arm. Every day, two different bags, two different antibiotics. They do it for 45 days straight. So it's like a full spectrum.

To try and kill the... Whatever it is. They treat you for every virus known them, every infection known the man and they give you the antibiotics for it. And it's like a 45 day, only intravenous, two bags a day, two different drugs. So I was going through that. And this is before COVID, all right? So that we're talking January, excuse me, November 2019, I was paralyzed on my birthday.

So I'm in the hospital, November, December, January, February. Finally, they released me. And I end up going, you know, they told me I would need assisted living forever, that I would need care, 24-hour care, you know, a catheter. You know, I wasn't able to pee on my own. I wasn't, I was wearing diapers. It's really humbling experience when you're shitting yourself again like a baby and you're wearing diapers, you know, and you're, you know, you're watching TV and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, Jesus, I got to get changed. You know what I mean? It's it's very, it's very humbling, you know, and I, they were giving me a whole bunch of pain pills.

They were giving me whatever prescriptions I wanted, oxy cot, whatever the fuck I wanted, man, I got, whatever I wanted, you know. And while I was, you know, I would try to get people to smuggle me. alcohol was like I was I was like in the prison I was like paying off the CNAs like the nurses assistants right you know here's $20 bring me back a little bottle of vodka when you go out like I was I was I was getting people to bring me contraband in right when I was like in that thing you know because I couldn't move myself yeah you know and so I was working my you know using my prison my prison smarts to get things into me you know even food you know because they have you on this bland diet whatever pick me up a cheeseburger you know checkers or

something and bring it in you know I would do things like that because I didn't give a fuck. I was going to die anyway. I knew as soon as I can get out of this, you know, I can get around somewhere where I can get something, maybe some pills or whatever, and I'm going to just take them all and just, you know, go to sleep forever.

I can understand. Yeah. And so I'm taking all these pain pills. And they had me on a morphine pump. And, you know, and next thing I know, I end up getting discharged and I had a caregiver. She was an angel. She's an angel.

I had physical therapists that were angels too. that came into my life and saved me. And, you know, and I remember when I got home and I had a friend, I wouldn't let anybody see me, not even my mother. I, like, I refuse visits. I just didn't want anyone to say, I didn't want people to feel sorry for me.

Because I was a big guy. I worked out, I'm, you know, this and that. I was in good shape. I'm a jiu-jitsu black belt. I'm an instructor. I've done this for 25 years. You know, I've been doing this. The military, I was always known for my physical prowess

for my athletic. and stuff and um that was gone you know that was gone we're not being able to work out not being able to do jiu jitsu not being able to have sex it's all gone all taken from you and i had no will to live and i had a buddy and he came to see me and he said i'm coming to your apartment and i'm not taking no for a fucking answer you're going to let me in right so he came to see me and And I'm laying there and, you know, he hands me a joint. And I said, what the fuck is that? I'm like, I don't want that, you know, because I'm anti-drug.

The cop, you know, a drug dog handler. I'm the guy. I'm anti-that. I'm like, those are drugs. Get those the fuck out of here. But I have a whole stack of pain medication right here. Yeah, I was going to say. Exactly.

But in my mind, this came from, this is from a doctor, Matthew. It's not a drug. You have a prescription. Yes, it's not a drug. that's a street drug this is cannabis right by the way this is cannabis so he hands it to me and then I said to myself well fuck it I might as well just go out as a drug addict too you know because the pain pills so I lit up that joint and I smoked it and it completely saved my

life it elevated my mood it brought my mind temporarily away from the what I was in. It helped me with my pain. It helped me with my motivation. And it completely just elevated my mood. And I said to myself, I don't need all this shit. I got this.

This is better. You know? So when people say that marijuana is a gateway drug, they're wrong. Marijuana was an exit drug for me. It helped me exit Big Pharma. And the first drug you usually try is what? Marijuana.

No. alcohol that's a gateway drug alcohol tobacco then usually marijuana so I started researching reading all these books like marijuana manifesto from Jesse Ventura and the history of marijuana and how it was made illegal and how it was based on you know basically uh it had a racial component to it the war on drugs by president Nixon he wanted to lock up the hippies and the blacks because they didn't vote for him so he wanted to prosecute them for marijuana so I started researching that hemp was the original cash crop of this country for the

first 150 years. They used to actually pay people to grow hemp and stuff. Our first constitution was written on hemp. The first Bible was written on hemp. Hemp is American as apple pie. And it's been criminalized and demonized. And from that point, I remember

I went to sleep and I had a vision and I saw this. okay and from that point the stone sailor was born and I said the stone sailor I said I'm going to be

you know the stone sailor I'm going to push for cannabis you know reform because especially me with PTSD from being a veteran and things how I don't need all this other bullshit medication that they want to keep me on that numbs me down where I don't feel anything

I don't feel bad I don't feel good I don't feel okay this allows me to feel from there I was going on about a year, still not, no movement in my legs, nothing, you know. The cannabis motivated me to start working out. And the pain pills made me groggy, I couldn't do anything. The cannabis elevated my mood.

Okay, I'll do physical therapy today. So they would come in and they would stretch my legs and massage them. And I would start working out my upper body. Like I had a little thing here, like a, like a, like a, like a, pull up by my bed and I would start pulling up my upper body and get my upper body strong and then I had to learn how to transfer like go from the bed to a board to the wheelchair from the wheelchair to the toilet from the toilet to the shower I had a bench in my shower I then from the shower to the wheelchair to the car getting in the car you know all I'm you know I'm learning this all

on my own and I'm and I remember watching it like on YouTube and I was and I would start doing it and like learning tricks and doing this and then when I would go to physical therapy, I remember going in and I said, guys, they were teaching me the same thing. Right. And I said, guys, I want you to teach me how to live my life without this chair. Don't teach me how to live my life with this chair because I don't need you for that. I already watched YouTube and I know how to do all that. So if you can't teach me that, then I don't need you.

So from that point, they agreed they'll do it my way. And I started researching and I said, and I was once again using cannabis, I started learning about the strands, the sativa, the Intica, one is elevates your mood, gives you energy, a setiva, an Indica puts you to sleep, that's a daytime, that's a nighttime, the hybrids, the RSOs, the cannabinoids, the receptors. I researched everything, and it's all, it's all science, and it's all proven. There's no, there's no need for any more studies. They've been studying it for 75 years, and the government's just been lying.

Right. You know, and finally, the states are starting to take the lead. We got, what, 36 states, I believe 37, have some. some form of legal cannabis. Right. But what I remembered is George Mordorano, who was at the medium, who got a life sentence for cannabis. Yeah. And he was in my mind.

And he's from Philly. And I used to talk to him all the time because he's from the same neighborhood I was from. And his father was a legendary guy there, you know, mobster. Right. And, and, you know, he has a nephew that owns a restaurant and, you know, the, you know, really successful man, Steve Mordorone, a very successful man with a great restaurant. And he has one in Fort Lauderdale, Cafe Mordoranos, but that's his, that's his nephew. And I remember thinking, Jesus Christ, they gave that guy a life sentence for weed.

There was other guys in there for 10, 15 years for cultivation of cannabis and all this. And I said, these people don't belong in fucking prison. This drug should be, everybody should be allowed to grow this, like my own medicine cabinet. I should be able to, just like you can get an aspirin, I should be able to go into my little yard and pull some buds off grind them up and you know make a joint or or smoke it and well going back now all of a sudden after from that point i started learning about aquatics like putting paralyzed people in the water to help you know because it's zero gravity and and you know it helps less stress on your body zero gravity less pain and um i started going to the pool in my neighborhood

and they would start seeing me and I would wheel up there and people would cheer me it was like I was rocky and I would go to the pool and I would just throw myself in like a fucking thing like this and then I would swim my upper body

my lower body's just dangling and I would get to the little end and I would hold the end and I would try to do squats and I would try to make myself walk and I would try to and I started filming all this stuff and then out of nowhere

one morning out of nowhere I was my big toe on my left foot started moving and at first I thought it was because I spasm like chicken legs

I have to take a one medicine I do have to take is a anti-spasm medication because my legs will spasm sometimes because I have nerve damage permanent nerve damage and I didn't know if that was me or if it was a spasm

and then I looked down and I realized it's me I'm doing this and it was just just that little toe, that big toe on my left foot. When that started moving, it was like such a victory for me because I finally had some fucking hope

that I might be able to regain some of my body again, you know? And I remember it was just so emotional. I was just crying when it happened, and I was just, it was such a, it motivated me because I was, you know, 10, 11 months with nothing. And my mother would call me every day and go, did anything move yet? Did anything move, you know?

And everyone was, and I was just, and finally, and I got tired. I got sick and tired of people asking me that question every fucking day because it was like a disappointment, you know what I mean? Because I had to say nothing. And next thing I know, a couple weeks later, Matt, my calf started moving, my butt cheeks. Like everything started unlocking, but in different ways. You know, my toe, and then, you know, this toe worked. And then my calf muscle started twitching, and then my gluteus maximus started twitching.

And then, you know, things like that. Next thing you know, now I'm, I'm, I'm, able to move my legs a little bit and the doctors are amazed they can't believe it and is this 10 months after you got out of the hospital a year after oh a year yeah i was completely no movements for about 10 months okay i was wheelchair bound i was in a diaper uh you can't you can't control you got a little bug on your chair oh there is that son of i thought i noticed that's my ocd i wanted to do that but i don't do it so the uh i was uh so then the next thing i know No, things are unlocking, and now I'm like, okay, I'm going to stand.

I think I could stand for the first time. And I tried it, a year, about 12 months to the day, I went and I got in a wheelchair, and I stood for the first time. I got out of the chair and I stood it. My legs went like this, and I pissed my pants and everything, because my body was just like that. And it was an amazing moment because I said I would never be able to do that. and out of nowhere then my my my bladder control came back and I remember talking to the to the to the to the urologist and and he was like I was like you know he goes you know how do you feel your

bladder I said yeah I can feel it better like I feel it and and I remember going I'm going to take the catheter out and see if I could do this on my own like urinate right and all of a sudden I pulled the catheter out on my own right out of you know right out and You know, all of a sudden, next thing I know, I'm peeing on my own. And I'm, your bladder and you're, the way they, I would think the muscle was a muscle. Yeah, was so relaxed by that point. Yes. It's not ready to, you have to retrain.

You have to, exactly. You have to work it. It's a muscle. The same thing with, how they tell if you're paralyzed or not, it's, it's pretty gross. But I'm going to tell you is your anal sphincter. They know you can't fake that. When a doctor puts his finger there, you clinched. Yeah.

automatically you can't stop it unless you're paralyzed if you're paralyzed you have no control of it that's why you wear a diaper right right same kind of concept with the with the um your bladder right it's a muscle you know you got to build it to hold and i just started you know doing these exercises in my body like contract and things to like work them i would contract contract contract and work them i guess women call them kegel exercises yeah i was going to say women do it so exactly so i started doing it And then with that, all of a sudden, next thing you know, I'm, you know, I could pee on my own and I don't need a diaper anymore and, you know, and I'm on a walker and I start training again, you know, I start, I start hitting, you know, hitting it real hard because I'm like, I got momentum going. I'm not going to let this thing stop. You know what I mean? I'm going to, I'm going to walk again, you know, and it was just an amazing thing. The urologist couldn't believe it. He's like, you got your bladder back. When you get urine function back, He's like, that's a major, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but he's like, you don't understand that muscle, you know what I mean? He said, you're getting that back and it's a miracle, you know? They have, you know, they have certain, what thresholds or certain things and certain things. Like, I remember when my mom stopped being able to, when she had a stroke and was in a wheelchair, they were like, she's going to go down fast. Like as soon as you start losing momentum of mobility, you start going down. Absolutely.

And there's certain things that doctors are like, okay, this just happened. Yeah, bad sign. Yeah. So all those bad signs were now coming back. That's you're reversed. I reversed it. It reversed. And I don't know why.

When I was in rehab, there was a 24-year-old kid that was on his way home from a concert, got in a car wreck, waist, neck down, paraplegic, quadriplegic, quad. And I remember all the people that were like, we had this young kid. He was shot in the spine over a girl. He was paralyzed from the. the ways down. These are all in the rehab centers with me. And I remember going back to the rehab centers and I'm now on a walker when I was with those guys in a wheelchair. Now I'm on a walker. Right. So I started feeling guilty because I'm like, things are coming back for me, but they're not coming back for these guys, you know, and they're seeing me in the progress

and they're putting me in the pool and Survivor guilt. Yeah, just like for when I got back from Iraq and you know I had a real good buddy of mine get blown up and killed so you have a survival guilt and and and I just I didn't understand why you know why I got this back you know like why me and not them you know I'm not no more deserving than they are right you know and I just said to myself you know I'm going to I have to just keep moving forward and I got to get back on my feet because I got to be an example to them because if I could do it then they could do it so every step you know that every little inch I would try to gain maybe I'd be on the walker and then I would try to get a cane and do one step and then I'd fall her you know busted my ankle

up real bad had to get laid up again came back again then I've tried to go two steps and then three steps and then you know with the cane and I'm you know like this and I just said to myself I got a I got to you know I got to show them that that if I could do it they could do it you know and I can't I have to you know show them that you could beat this you know you could beat this. There's a lot of medical technology and things, but in the states, we're so restricted because of these stem cells and the fact that they won't allow other countries where they could do stem cell implants and your spine and things like that. I was even looking at going to South America. They have a big stem cell thing in Medellin, I think, Colombia,

where they'll put stem cells in your injuries. A lot of people are going down there because there they don't have the restrictive laws because of the stem cells with the aborted babies and all this other stuff, the placenta. It's just all, you know, to me, it's all bullshit. If you can help living people, help them. Right. You know what I mean? And so I just, you know, it came back to me

and I just said to myself, you know, there's a reason why I got brought back. There's a reason I'm here. That obviously wasn't, you know, because I remember just completely, you know, having a, you know, and I'm not like some super religious guy or anything like that.

I'm very spiritual. And I know. know enough to know that I don't know what God looks like or what he wants and things like that. I know enough to know I don't know that. You know, but I do, I do know enough to know that there is a higher power out there, whether he looks like Jesus or he looks like whoever else. We don't know. It could be just an entity of being, who knows. But I know there's just, there's, there's a higher power out there, you know, because this, the way your body works and how everything complements each other, you can't, you can't deny that. You'd have to be a fool not to think that somebody

didn't of greater intelligence didn't create that you know because how your cells work and how how I was learning how my my nerves and my signals if they can't if they meet a roadblock your body will create an alternate route to get through your body does that the doctors don't do it your body does it so that design right there has got to come from someone that's intelligent you know super intelligent higher intelligence so and even the best doctors don't even understand our brain and our spine. So I just know that when you get up in the morning to, before you, you know, when you stand up to go to the toilet to pee, it takes 100 miracles to happen from your brain to your

spine. It takes 100 miracles to happen. And I'll never take those miracles for granted again, ever. So I know that. So, and I just, from that point, I started cutting videos and I started my own channel and I found that people just really like hearing prison stories. Well, I don't know what. I mean, I've done a lot in my life.

And, you know, and of course they're like, but the prison stories, they just love. They just, every time with all the things I've done in my life, like people, I would get around. And it would be crazy because I would get around like doctors, college professors, somebody who works in the business world, who works in, you know, corporate America.

And I'll sit around at a table and we're eating and everything is just directed at, tell me what it's, was like to work in the prison i'm sure you get oh are you kidding it's crazy it's it's i i've said that exact scenario which you just said yeah i'm like this guy's a doctor yeah this guy is a cpa this guy is even a police officer yeah and it's like you guys are asking me what about being in prison yeah you know um it's crazy it is you know so i have a quick question um so how long once you started before you were actually walking on your own because you walked in here

Like I didn't even, I did something, you have a cane. Yeah, I use the cane because my leg shakes sometimes. I get spasms. Oh, I didn't even notice. I didn't notice that when you walked in. I saw you holding the cane, but I didn't even using it, really. Yeah, I spasms sometimes. And I don't, sometimes, like, it's weird because, like, my legs, sometimes there's a delay.

So if they get too tired, sometimes I'll just fold. Like, so I use the cane, you know, it's something. If I feel like my legs are buckling, I can hold on to it. Okay. I mean, so I mean, are you going to the gym or are you doing like leg extension? Yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing everything. I'm, you know, I can't run. I can't, I can't, you know, I can't do cardio. I do it on a bike. Yeah, yeah. I pedal and I lift weights and I, and I teach jujitsu. Okay. You know, I teach kids, jujitsu, young adults, defense and stuff. And I used to roll all the time, like, you know, compete and do things like that. I can't do that kind of stuff anymore.

right but um i still teach self-defense i still go to class i still do you know i so how long from the point when you actually have said okay i this is i'm in the pool something's happening here i can feel it to where you were actually walking on your own uh from well i would say two and a half years okay yeah a little less a little over two years you know well this thing happened um 19 yeah okay so i was gonna say because you walked right in here yeah yeah that's you're looking at it this is this is you know this is i mean this is my uh you know this i would say six months ago i was on a walker and you drove here i drove here mm-hmm cool yeah and there's no problems with you driving you don't feel you no no no i'm fine i i would i had to take a driving

testing you don't know but when you get disabled they suspend your license you know that no no They hold it because you have to, I had to get a handicapped parking sticker. Right. So when you go to do that, what they do is they tell the DMV, this guy is handicapped. So now they bring you in and they make you do another driving test. Okay. Okay. So I had to come back in and do a driving test.

And I passed the driving test in a wheelchair. I wheeled in. When I took it, it's like, I wheeled in, I opened it. I got a thing and I did it. I did the driving test and I passed. I cheated a little. why what do you mean I cheated a little how's that because it was during COVID and they don't come in the car with you they put a cell phone in there so they only watch you from the waist up they don't

know it is but you know I'm not divulging any I'm not going to admit to anything else so I passed how long have you had that so you started a YouTube channel yeah how long have you had the YouTube channel about a year about a year I I the first show I went on was you know was I was watching a lot of TV because it was COVID I was paralyzed so I started watching a lot of YouTube and a lot of stuff and I came across John and Gene their show

and I was watching it and it seemed like he had a good vibe John he was you know pushing a lot of stuff helping kids out and things like that and I just commented I said it was a good show you know whatever and he saw my name like the Stone Sailor I guess and looked at my

Instagram right who John A light oh okay yeah yeah John Elyde. He was a, you know, a mob guy. He was, you know, he was... Yeah, he was on. Yeah, yeah, I know. He was on your show. Yeah, and he and he and then... But you said John and Gene. I didn't know there was a gene. I didn't know. It was John and Gene. They originally had a show. Gene Borrello and John A. Light started a... That was before he and Mike. Yeah, yeah, he and Mike. And they had a show. And I was just

watching it one day. And they had a military veteran on. And they were talking to him. And And next thing I know, I get in contact with John, I sent him a great show, and then I talked to him. He's, you know, he happens to live very close, not near me, but near a relative of mine. And he said, do you want to come on the show? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if I want to do that because, you know, I told him I was retired, you know, I got medically retired from the job and all that too, you know, so he said, I said, I don't

know, let me think about it, whatever. And then I said, you know what? if my story can help somebody because I never shared like that my dad was in prison and things like that because when you know sometimes I from my experiences as a kid other kids ridiculed me for that my dad was in the newspaper because he killed somebody I did you know my you know all the stuff and people knew and it was like you know kids weren't allowed to play with me weren't a lot to come to my house I wasn't allowed to go to their house I mean it was just a whole big thing and I never really shared a lot of that so that was my first time telling my whole story

you know about what about how i grew up and things like that right i you know i always took that with me it made me a better corrections officer that's for damn sure well i mean going on people's channels also helps you with your channel oh it'll help grow your subscribers it helps get your story out there yeah people tend to you know they get they get invested in you and then they they want to help support you they you know and they're interested in you know you interact with other people it's a good way to more importantly though when i did his show and it was the first time I ever talked about these things in my life when when I when we shut down and I closed the laptop I had never walked out of a psychiatrist's office or a psychologist office and felt as

good as I did that day cathartic shut that absolutely absolutely it was a purge absolutely a complete purge and I felt better than any psychiatrist's all and I've been to a lot of them at the VA and I never felt as good as I did like I let a big load off because I just shared it it's out there in the open and now everyone knows yeah you know yeah it's it's so much better to just talk about stuff than yeah yeah you know um okay so anything else what can you think of well I've been great bro because you could tell your whole story I don't have to say anything I don't have to do anything I just you know so I have my YouTube channel the stone say Taylor. Yeah.

And you have a cannabis line. I have a can. Yep. I have, I have, well, this is my swag line right here. This is all my shirts and I have hoodies and things like that. Right. Shirts, hoodies, cups, mugs. As a matter of fact, it's Mother's, and you should get, and you should, you need to get your mother a stone sailor mug. My mom's that is. I apologize. Okay. How about your father? He's gone too. I'm an old man. How about your girlfriend? I, she's a recovering drug addict. Well, coffee cough. She's a coffee.

It's a coffee. I thought she was talking about that. Actually, wait a second. Cannabis is proven to help people. They're using that to wean people off opioids. I can get a coffee cup. She loves coffee. Okay.

But you need to look. She might want to look into that. Cannabis has been proven to help people wean off opioids. That's another great thing about cannabis, you know. So it really is. I mean, you should check into it, you know. But get her a coffee mug. Don't be a cheapscape.

I can't get her a coffee mug. now she just walked in she's gonna when she sees the coffee mugs on my site there she has you're gonna get a coffee mug from him okay he's gonna buy it off my site i think i thought he was trying to give me to um uh you can get her you can get her cannabis too i can't get her no yes you can actually well i told you cannabis is they're using cannabis to wean people off opioids and it's successful very successful look into it if that's that's the thing just it's out there the information's out there you know and and and it's uh it's really a miracle there's people that are weaning off opioids alcohol all kinds of stuff through cannabis well put um we'll put the link

to your youtube channel and um you know and and see if you can get some subscribers but there's something else i'm doing too matthew what's that i am now in the world of professional wrestling i'm a manager are you really yes yes with who with pro wrestling 2.0 right now What do you know Johnny Walker? I know the drink Johnny Walker. No, no. Very well. No, listen, we had a guy on here who was those.

Oh, him. Yes, I saw him. I liked him. He's, I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You have bothered me? I think that was one of the best interviews I ever did.

Didn't do well because people want to hear about prison stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I liked him. Put me in touch with him. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. We've been to his, put me in touch with him. He's great. Yeah, I love when he was on the show.

Yeah, I loved it. You got to go, though. It's, you know, it is what it. It's hilarious, though. He's like they got the, he focuses more on the story and the character. Yeah, the backstory. Yeah, that's what I like. The original wrestling, the original stuff that we grew up watching in the 80s, not this stuff here.

Yeah, we're showing the whole thing. It's great. Yeah. And they saw some videos because, you know, I'm a character and I cut videos and promos and stuff. And one of the guys is like, you'd be a natural to come do this. Let me train you. Yeah, well, you're a big guy, too. So I went down.

Yeah, but I'm not, I'm not going out there wrestling and, you know, And I'm a manager. I'm the guy that, you know, cheats and insults the crowd and gets you to hate me. And any time the referee's not looking, I beat up your guy and I hit him with a cane or I strangle him or hit him and stuff like that. Yeah, you should talk to him. I'm a bad guy. I'll put you in touch with Heather. Heather's his.

Definitely. Heather's his, what is she, is he his manager? Not manager. She's his, does the promotions and stuff. Whatever, his, the Booker or whatever they call, Booker, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Make sure he gets you a cup. Don't let him get off length.

that easy good and a shirt too you need to get a shirt like this thing you need to get one too don't be a cheap skate man all right so but that's what i'm doing now they're training me to do that and and i'm doing that and doing a bunch of things i i i said to myself i i didn't learn to walk again to walk on eggshells around anybody else ever again and i got a bucket list i've been all over the world but there's some things i still want to do and um i've always been a huge fan of pro wrestling thought I would eventually maybe be a wrestler one day when I was a kid, but that's, it's a different, you know, things happen, but this is a cool way, and they,

they saw a talent in me for it, so they're training me. Yeah, they're, I was gonna say, it's like, they were the, um, the Marvel movies before they were Marvel movies. You know what I was, they were the good and evil, the characters, good versus evil, yeah, exactly, the storyline. Yeah, definitely, you would, listen, you'd love Johnny. Yeah, I would love to meet him. Yeah, I saw, I did see him.

I didn't watch the whole show. but I saw a little bit of it Yeah, I saw a little bit of it He's such a nut and he's lived a life Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, please put me in contact with I would definitely like to meet that guy, definitely I thought it was a great...

What's his name, Johnny Walker? Yeah, that's not... That's his stage number. Oh, that's his name. What? Oh, yeah, Jeff Green. All right, Jeff, I'm gonna get in contact which I want you to train me, you understand?

I can't think of it, is Johnny Walker, it's just him. That's his, yeah, that's his wrestling name. It's just wrestling. I'm the Stone Sailor. That's just, but I'm the manager. I'll definitely, I'll definitely get you in touch with them.

Definitely. So yeah, definitely. So what's the name of the channel, the YouTube channel? The Stone Sailor. Yeah. Okay. I'm on Instagram, Rob Farlow,

the Stone Sailor, YouTube, the Stone Sailor. Mob Swag is my, is my merchandise page. You know, I'm up, she's laughing. Mob swag. They got a bunch of guys, you know, that came up with this company. And, you know, they,

this is tried, trademark this it's mine and um they do all the shipping and all the yeah logistics of it you know yeah we split the money so yeah i got i got i got i got i got to call him back do the same i'm not talented like you i can't paint paintings like this and all that stuff i don't you know design the problem with like designing you you have to you have to really know how to design a logo everything so easy you could paint that yeah of course anything well my birthday's in november Matt. Hint.

Thanks for, well, thanks for being here. Definitely. Thank you for having me. All right. So if you like the video, do me a favor and hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so you get notifications of other videos like this. Leave me a comment in the comment section. I try and respond to all the comments.

I'll go and get to all of them. And share the video with as many friends and families you can possibly think of. And I appreciate it. And see ya.