Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Mafia Associate On Surviving Beatings, Snitches & True Crime Stories

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Mafia Associate On Surviving Beatings, Snitches & True Crime Stories

You guys are freaking disrespectful. You let him a shoe to me. You, you know, Fangulo. He's yelling at us like in the time and this and that. Three days later, he's a sit down. You know, like, we all heard about it. Frankie got a pass. I mean, half the shit I have.

This is stolen. I was the go-to guy. That was my thing. Hey, man, we just got a score. They show me a diamond ring and I'm like, oh, that's a nice rock. We can cut this into like five rocks. So I go to my guy. My guy goes, dude, I'll give you 20 grand for it right now.

I call him up and be like, yo, my bad. He's only going to give you 15. I should be saying this now because guys are going to be looking back and be like, what a comeback, you know. Born in Serbia, January 20th, 1969, came to United States 1970s.

Grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was a big Serbian community, remaining community. I'm half Serbian, half Romanian. My dad's Serbian. My mom is a Romanian. Speak both languages. Why did your family come here?

My uncle came during the 60s, and we lived in the communist era and some of the family basically they didn't like communist the tito dictator they didn't they didn't like him a couple of my uncles got in trouble for cursing him while they're drunk you know so the cops would come into the house like the gestapo and throw you in jail the other ones would just out of necessity because we were we were farm we were peasants you know living on like farmland and you know taking care of the land or whatever And my mom was barefoot and working in the field. She couldn't afford shoes, you know.

So we came to America for a better life, you know. At least, you know, that's what my mom says. And my dad, you know, he was just happy way he was. You're not barefoot and. Hell's no. Hells no. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, we came in the 70s.

I grew up around a lot of Italians in that area, some Puerto Ricans. The neighbor who was touch and go. We moved to Ridgewood, which right on. the border. And long story short, my life was filled with a lot of trauma. You know, my father was an alcoholic. He beat my mom. He beat me. He was sadistic. He'd burn me with cigarettes time to time out of a joke. He would drink and be like, come over here, open up a jar of pepperoni, hot peppers, stick one in my mouth, and you know, just sadistic. You know, I had a pet parakeet, broke its neck, you know, sadistic shit. I'm just giving you a deal so you know, okay.

And what did he do? He, at the time, he was doing two jobs. He was working at a meat market in this Italian meat market on Nicarav. And at night, he was working in the maintenance cleaning. That's what all the immigrants are doing back then. My mom was working in the knitting mills of Ridgewood and Brooklyn. So she'd be working piecework, which is you get paid like 50 cents to a dollar or a dozen. The more dozens you crank out on the Merro machine or the Singer machine, the more money you get paid.

So back then my mom was making, you know, about $125, $150 a week, which that's good money back then. And my dad, between his both jaws, about two, two and change. My parents got divorced when I was seven. That was traumatic for me because my dad didn't leave us alone after that. It was just he'd come around a house, drunk, threatening my mom. He'd pick up a rock from the street like a brick. He'd smack her in the face, you know. He grabbed me and say,

I want to talk to my son. I'd come out in my pajamas, put me in the car, take me about two miles away to a park and interrogate me. You know, whose mom, you know, banging, what's going on? Who's this guy coming around the house? Seven? Seven years old, yeah. No shit.

Seven years old. And then he'd leave me in the fucking park. No shit. And I'd walk those two miles barefoot. I just had a good sense of direction where I lived. My mom, yeah, she took him to court a few times. The judge was finally fed up with his, you know, antics and was basically like, get a toothbrush, you go into jail.

That's it, you know. And he begged my mom in the court on his hand. I'll forget it, on his hands and he's, please, I promise, I never do this again, please, you know, with his accent. And my mom let it, let it be. And then she met this other guy, which was a bad role model for me, but this is where I became a gangster. His name was...

Worst than your dad? Yeah, not in a sadist. He kind of was sadistic, but he was more, just a bad role model you know he he had a business that he was kind of running but he was a gangster like a part-time gangster you know

he would take me in the car he would take me like Joe and Mary's restaurant where Carmine Galante got executed well when Carmine Galante was alive he would take me there leave me in the car and say don't worry nobody's going to and I see like Puerto Rican people walk by

you know some black people would walk by they look at the car but they knew not to You know, like back then the Italians had that clout, you know. They thought he was Italian because he looked at Italian, you know. So that kind of like is what I started to emulate. He'd come in the house. He'd leave guns in the house. I got caught at 10 years old, taking a gun to school.

Not shitting you. And I had such a cool security guard. No, this security guard, Mr. Andrews, God rest his soul, but he heard that I had a gun in my bag. He asked to see my bag. I gave it to him. He opened it up so the gun wasn't loaded. He goes, I'm going to hold his bag to last.

after school and I need your mom and dad to come and I was just like you can't do that and I told him the story what it was I go is my mom's boyfriend's gun and I just want to show off he came with me to make sure I went straight home with that bag stand-up guy I mean if it wasn't for him I would have been in the system long long ago but um yeah I did stupid shit like that you know um he just was a bad influence he was putting in my head at that age to to be disrespectful to women you know just just all over bed. Like nothing, wasn't a good father figure at all, you know. Um, but he was that gangster, you know, he was a black belt and hop keto taught me dirty pool. Um, I used to get, uh, beat on

as a kid. And, um, he put me in karate, taught me the dirty pool, um, even took on my sense. Because I said, back then, you used to be able to get hit by your teacher. What is dirty pool? Dirty pool, um, okay, you know, you have, uh, you, uh, you, um, you know, you have, uh, the foundation of karate or whatever, you know, art you're taking. Right. It's all, you know, you got to take your hands and you got to do it a certain position. They're called cadas. No, my guy, he goes to me, there's no, there's no cadas.

He goes, the guy comes at you, you go straight for a throat punch. You take your hand, you put it in his eyes. You know, you pull his eyes out. He taught me how to sweep the knee, how to take the knee out, like break the kneecap. So I learned at a young age, when you hit somebody, you hit him in this part. you break their jaw you hit him here you break their orbital socket you hit him here you like you know like crushed their windpipe it's just insane what he taught me and i knew all of this and i never used it until in my like early teens so my mom and him uh kind of i don't know if i should say this but

it's it's it's common knowledge everybody knows my mom would take off a long periods of time and live in connecticut now i'm at 12 years old 13 years old living alone my mom would just show up on the weekends do the laundry, fill up the fridge, and I was left to my own demise to do whatever the fuck I wanted. And that's where I started my life for crime, you could say. I started boosting bikes off the street. I would just walk up to kids, throw them off their bikes, take it.

But I would go into a different neighborhood. I shouldn't even laugh at that. Well, yeah, it's funny now, but it wasn't funny now. I'm sure it wasn't funny. But that adrenaline that I got. And I was like, this is cool. I get to ride this new BMX bike. And I was from a different neighborhood.

So I'd be driving it in my name. neighborhood riding around everybody would be like oh your mom loves you she always gets you a new bike all the time never told anybody i was boosting them um and then i would sell them i'd go to like bushwick and like go to the porto ricans and be like you want to buy a bike give me 30 bucks and then i hop on the bus for 50 cents come back to glendale you know and it was a pocket full of money yeah pocket full of money for you know 12 13 year old kid that's phenomenal you know i buy weed you know i treat my friends we get a 40 you know old english and we go to the park and this went on um you know and then my mom and him came back

he tried to like kick me out the house tried to get rid of me you know planted coke on me how old are you 14 15 at this time what's going on I mean you understand that I hear these stories yeah and and some of them have

similarities but what was the guy that had the dog that was in New York? You know I'm talking about he found the dog and everything remember he like his family like like his dad like threw him out when he was like 12 or 13 and yeah yeah no it's back then it was just and he was like yeah I was fucking living on the street like I'm eating out of garbage cans and

yeah it's still trying to go to school and it's like it's insane it's like you know me and my mom we've tried to talk about this and she kind of like you know blinders on like I didn't do no you can't forgive me or whatever yeah of course I do I'm a father now you know but that back then it was I couldn't I couldn't fathom the shit that I was going through I tried, look, you know, I didn't have no, I got no brothers, no sisters. I got a lot of, you know, cousins, but I was the black sheep of the family. It was just, there was two people in the family that were the black sheep. It was my uncle John and me. My uncle John, he was, you know, he had a smack habit, you know, and that's all stemming from his dad and his brother, you know, they kind of like,

they pushed him out the family, and they were always saying how one brother was better than him, and so that's kind of like I was, the same shit. Like, they're like, oh, you're following John's footsteps. I was like, it is what it is. I don't care. I started making up my mind what I want. Already was building a reputation as a sort of like, you know, a guy that could back up his mouth. All the Italian kids that were picking on me when I was growing up, you know, all their fathers and uncles were somebody in the mob. And I remember store, like, I remember going in these basements because up north they have basements. So a two-story house and then the basement. The basement was a summer kitchen where that's where all the cooking,

went on in the house and a big living room, everybody would hang out. Up on the first floor, the furniture was all in plastic, all like, you know, Louis the 14th looking styley furniture, you know. And this is what I grew up with. So you knew when these guys would come in there, wife beaters, and they'd go in there, they'd dip, you know, the bread and the sauce, and they'd be like, oh, Venica, come here, you know, they'd give us like 20 bucks. Go get some candy, get out of here.

We knew what they were doing. They were having a meeting, you know? So growing up, I started, like, bouncing around with these kids. and go to their house that's what i wanted to do rub elbows with these guys and they heard like one guy this guy tony goes hey kid come here i heard you uh laid out that guy uh michael angelo you laid him out like cold i was like yeah why i go i don't know he's talking shit yeah huh is he want to do me a favor i'm like yeah you want to take something for me down to bushwick i'm like yeah okay i didn't ask boom boom boom got in the car and i went you know and that's

how it started like from there you know um i started boosting cars right after that. I was to say when you're, you know, what I think a lot of people don't realize is like when you're, you're growing up

and you see all the people that have status and money and respect are criminals. Always. Then that's what you go for. Like if you grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood

and all those same people were doctors and lawyers, well, then you want to emulate them. Of course. But of course, everybody that you're seeing surrounding you.

Well, it all started with that guy that my mom brought home. Right. You know, I'm going to say straight up, the guy's a piece of shit i mean i've ran into him after you know um i'll get into that later but you know i i stood up to him and you know typical you know he's a punk straight up punk you know

i mean yeah he's got a little age on me or whatnot you know he's 70 something but at the time he was in his 60s i was in my 30s i gave him an opportunity to step up and he didn't step up he just kind of like back down you know i also found that he ended up being a rat you know and And that's one thing that was against my principles. When I found that out, I was just, I was like devastated, you know, because I sort of putting one-on-one together. And then that explains a lot of things, like, you know, how you held them, held them in esteem anyway. Well, you know, it is, I didn't have a father figure.

Right. All right? This was the only thing I had. It's just, he was in my life all those years. It was devastating to me when he planted coke on me, you know? Right. And I told my mom, yeah, I smoked. weed yeah you know I sell a little weed I go mom I don't do fucking coke she didn't

care she just fucking told me to pack my shit and go and you know sleeping on a couple of friends couches for about a week you know two weeks and my mom came back she's I made a big fucking mistake that she tried to juggle us like I'd be in the apartment and alone again and she'd be by his his place right and it just I don't know what ended up happened I guess she got tired again you know beat and what and whatnot and it was the next guy you know and then the next guy and i i don't blame my mom for making poor choices because her mom was a poor example of her mother you know my grandmother spent nine years in prison i'm not going to say for what but she did something really nasty to

somebody else with a knife um my mom kind of witnessed this and back in the old country that that's that's that's it they just take take you and put you in you know a camp a work camp and they put her in to work camp. In nine years, my mom grew up without her mom. And when she came out of prison, it was just guy to guide a guy to guide a guy looking for, you know, a father figure because my grandfather died tuberculosis who my mom was three. So, you know, it's like a circle of suffering that just, you know what I mean? Like it just, you know, I didn't think I'd be alive to be doing this podcast. I didn't think I'd be alive and living in Florida because I fucking detested Florida. I come here on vacation, be like, it's fucking awesome.

It's great to come on vacation, but the people here are fucking retarded. I just, I couldn't deal with it, you know? Nothing against you, but you know what I'm saying. It's just when you're in that vacation, you know, mindset, it's phenomenal. But once the vacation is over and you've got to go back to the nitty gritty, it's just like, I like where I came from. You know, like, you know, here is just like, it's a different world. But now that I'm here and I've adjusted, I, you know, literally became a Floridian now.

Like, there's no, there's no way. I'm Floridian, you know. I mean, I still got the New York in me. I still got that swag. But, you know, I'm a Floridian, you know. Yeah. I like Florida. I think the difference is that I think when people do come down from vacation

and when they see it on TV, it's totally different. It's totally, it's not. Florida is basically like Georgia, South Carolina. Yeah. It's, you know, there's cow pastures and there's dairy farms and there's farms and there's orange grows and there. everybody sees the beaches and the Miami and that that's not it's no it's not five 10% of

Florida it is it is pickup trucks and yeah you know it took me it took me two years to get used to when I first came down it because I'm used to the hustle bustle I mean I mean I grew up where I know everybody you know like I went to school I made my bones in the street I know everybody I knew everybody for everything you know I would drive down the block but you're also I was going to say you're also blocks away from everybody right yes like here's your yeah I mean you just walk out your house it's like 10 guys pass by date date date they start honking uncle on your pedge how you don't you got a car here oh you can for real you can't walk anywhere here like one time i had a um i forgot what it was i went somewhere and i left my car

i think it was the mechanic shop i left my car and i had to walk like four blocks the longest four fucking blocks of my life man and then i had across i had across a t my son was like yo dad it's a highway i'm like no it's not it's fucking sunset point road it's a fucking three lane road But my son sees all these cars And I'm like dude I go you want to see what traffic is Let's go back to New York Like I'll take you back

I'll show you what traffic is what you know A highway is But yeah I got I got used to it It took a lot of Compared to New York It's this this is so much Country It is everybody here it is

And I'm like I only in the last year or two Even went to New York When my wife and I went up there Yeah be filmed by some For some TV program Listen Even seeing it on TV I was unprepared for how massive, yes, New York is.

I mean, I'm just like, and you should have seen both of us sit in the back of this, this, this like, it's like almost like a mini Tokyo, like with the people crossing streets and unison and everything. It's buildings as long, as far as you can see. Yeah. You know, we were there, we were there like three days after three days. My wife was like, she's like, get the hell out of you. I feel like I'm good. Yeah. I'm good.

I'm ready to go. I was like, yeah, yeah, me too. Yeah, it's insane. I mean, when you live in there, it's not insane. You get used to it. You can get used to anything. Yeah, I worked in the garment district for 15 years, you know, and I worked in that hospitality and cleaning and, you know, taking care of office buildings. And for me, I was two blocks away from 42nd Street. And I remember 42nd Street when they called it the 40 Deuce when it was pimps and prostitutes and drugs. And you couldn't walk to the train station at 1 o'clock in the morning without somebody going, you know, don't move. Like, they were just pulling. lot of gun on you, rob you, you know. Before Giuliani. Yeah, and then Giuliani took over and it was just insane. They cleaned it up, you know, they started building more and, you know, I mean, I live there and I work there and now when I go back, just time to time, I can't stomach it.

Like, I mean, I love that I go back and I reminisce and I drive through the neighborhood. You know, I'll go by the old haunts. I'll see like they change a couple of places. Like an old Gambino spot is now a vape shop, you know. which is like totally bewildering to me. Like, I'll just stop and be like, what the fuck? Like, it's a vape shop, you know? I remember it, you know, wise guys going in.

We, you know, have coffee in the front, go play cards in the bag, hit the joker poker machines, you know. It's funny, you know, it's like getting out of prison after 13 years and come back to Tampa. And it's like, whole blocks are gone. It's like, oh my God, like there's a massive apartment complex and a grocery store and like all this stuff that was there. You're like, that was all old rundown houses for two or three blocks.

It's all gone. Yeah, like me being here almost eight years, I see it around me. I'm in Clearwater, and it's like, I see, you know, they're extending Route 19. They're building like little things over like that you could walk over pedestrian cross, you know, crosswalks.

And it's insane because I'm seeing they're building all these apartments. And I'm like, well, who the fuck's coming here? Everybody from Cali. Everybody from New York has come, mostly upstate New Yorkers. But there's a lot of wise guys coming down this way too. Like, I ran on to a couple of people in the gym.

There's a ton of them in, you know, West Palm. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, well, the East Coast, the East Coast is all, all ex-gangsters and everything. But they're starting to move in this area now, you know, like Dom Sikhali's out this way. There's a, I think, I think Marlino's out here this way, too. Marlino's in Palm Beach. Oh, he's in Palm Beach, so he's on the East Coast? Okay, yeah, okay.

But, yeah, I know we're actually interviewing another guy that used to be John A-Light. he used to do a podcast with on A Light. He's actually coming here in like a few days. Gene Barilla? Please don't ask me his name. I don't know.

I can't remember him. That's the only guy that I remember that I remember that was doing something with Johnny A Late. So probably him. Probably. He does live in Tampa. Oh, well, then it's got to be him. He just got out on a probation violation. Yeah, that's the one.

Yep, it's him. Jim Borrella. Good for you, man. But yeah, so like getting back to start a week. boosting cars. After boosting cars, I became entrepreneurial. You know, like I just started opening up little, like, tinting businesses in the neighborhood. I had 10 cars in front of my house. I would be tinting during the day. I started doing DJing. And I would be like making tapes, mixed tapes for all these gangsters, you know, a guy in, for instance, Ralphie Schuller, he got,

he got whacked. But Ralphie Schull used to work in a pizzeria and deal a little Coke, you know. took a liking to me. I used to give him mixtapes. He'd like, okay, come take a ride with me. You know, what are you doing this and that? He actually started getting me into dealing, into dealing Coke.

Sadly, there was an instance where he got too big for his britches, at least that's what I heard on the street. I was going around with like $50,000 pinky ring, diamond pinky ring, you know, flashing the jewelry. Didn't want to bring anybody else in the neighborhood on his scores and whatnot,

which it's rightfully so. If you pay tax, you don't have to. But everybody's getting greedy. everybody wants the tax. People who aren't made want tax. So he basically, they found him in a trunk, shot three times to the head, tied with telephone cord. At JFK Airport, three days bloated. And they shot him in the head for a reason, and they did that as a message. He couldn't have an open casket funeral. His mom went ballistic. The dude that did it, Vito Guzzo, actually in court was like, yeah, so I shot the guy three times, no remorse. The guy was a super.

Stone cold fucking killer I used to see him in the neighborhood I'd kind of like try to avoid him like the plague He was one of those guys where one minute he's joking with you Hey that's fucking funny right this and that Would you think was funny? Oh yeah You know it's one of those like that Joe Pesci day It's exactly like that but

That face of his it just Would like you shit yourself I got that guy Vito Gozo survived I think two attempts on his life They filled them up I think 11 with 11 bullets at one time Right in front of his house So this guy survived twice And now he's doing the 30-year bid

So yeah So that was my My team I was gonna say didn't Marlino Shot someone with like a fucking An Uzi or something Yeah some shit like that Yeah

And the guy didn't die Philadelphia Mob Wars Yeah No yeah that's just I mean I'll give you a story I've said the story before We're sitting there playing cards

In a little social club This guy Frankie Fioritalino You know he was up and coming his brother was a maid guy in the bananas and he comes in and he's like hey what's up sits down with two of his guys deal me in they start playing cards

another guy sitting across for him heavy Italian accent he's like oh Frankie we're gonna play a Dakar's a rider you know and he's just like all right shut the fuck up Charlie you know and this is going on we're just around the pool table we're over there by the by the joker poker machines

the place is about as big as you know that you have right here like it's a small little joint you know and they're playing cards and we hear frankie like say yo you fucking say that one more fucking time you know it's the last word you're going to say so we didn't really think anything we thought maybe it was going to be a little push and shove and this and that and all of a sudden it's just we turn our heads and we hear and we look and Frankie just drops the revolver on the table it's got rubber bands on it he he turns like sweaty cold runs for the door takes off this guy's in the chair going minkin he shot of me you let him

a shoe to me? We just high tail the fuck out of there. We don't know if this guy's dying or what the fuck. This guy gets up grabbing his chest like this, three times to the chest. And he just starts walking to his car. He goes, you guys are freaking disrespectful. You let him a shoe to me.

Fuck of you. You know, Fangulo. He's yelling at us like in the Thai and this and that. We're just like trying to get in our cars to get the fuck out of Dodge. The guy drives himself to the hospital. Three days later, there's a fucking sit down. You know, like we all heard about it. Frankie got a pass didn't have to pay retribution no tax for what he did nothing he just you know his

because his brother was you know made guy in the fucking bananas so this is the kind of life you understand like i've gone to sit downs and since i'm not italian but they kind of respect me like i was but i wasn't italian you know and i've gone to sit downs when you get in there you don't know if you're going to walk out of it that's just that's just how they operate you don't know if you're going to walk out. And I've known guys that were like, hey, I'm going to a sit down. And then they're gone. Like, for real, like, you don't ask questions.

You just hear through the grapevine. Yeah, they found them in his fucking... The Joe Pesci thing, he thinks he's going to be made. That's exactly how it happens. Walks in, there's plastic on the floor. They're your best fucking friends. They'll kiss your ass all the way to the fucking final end. And you don't know.

You don't know. I mean, there's another story with this guy, Frankie. I was running this social club. For the Serbian, he's a fucking trip, you know? And he turned around and he comes to my house. It was like 8 in the morning. My mom, I just wake up like, and Frankie's in my fucking bedroom. It's like, Frankie, what are you doing here?

He goes, come on, get dressed. I said, can I ask you what's going on? My mom's now worried. My mom comes in and she's talking to me in Romania. What's going on? What's going on? I turned it in Serbian because Romanian is a romance language like Italian. And Frankie can pick up on it.

So I was just like in Serbia and I go, I need to go with him somewhere. She's like, are you coming back? You know? But she said in Romania, are you coming back? And he goes, oh, signora, don't worry. He's coming back. I'm like, that's bullshit. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything coming in that guy.

I was just like, you know, I was just whatever. I went to open up my closet. And back then, Sergio Tikinis were really popular, like the track suits. So he's picking out a track suit. He goes, hey, wait it is. You're going to look good. I'm like, this guy's fucking prepping me for, you know, I don't know for what. So I was like, can I just ask you what?

What do you want for me? He's like, no, you know, I go to grab my gun. He goes, you're not going to need that. Now I'm even more worried. You know, I get in the car. I'm shitting pickles in the car, you know. These other two guys ain't saying shit to me, you know? And I'm just like sitting there in a passenger seat and I'm going,

I know this guy got a gun to my fucking back. You know, that's what I'm going through my head. We get to the social club. He goes, open it up. I open it up. He's like, yeah, take all the video cassettes and say, what? Now he pulls the gate down from the inside. I'm like, fuck.

that's a straight up like mob hit I'm like they're trying to muffle the sound whatever and I'm like grabbing the video cassettes put them in garbage bags now I'm a couple of you know fall down I'm like trying to bend over pick them up they're all hovering over me like this and over here I'm just like yo

I go I gotta fucking ask before I fucking move anymore what the fuck am I here for why am I bagging all these video cassettes he goes because you need to get rid of these video cassettes this is going to be my social club from now on you tell your boy in jail I took the spot over. If he doesn't like it, he'd come fucking see me when he gets out. I said, I don't

give a shit. I just told to open up, let the social club run, let the video store on the side run. I said, I really don't give a rat's ass. This is not my fucking, it's not my business. And I'm just like, you want to give me a hand with this shit? He goes, oh yeah, sure. Now they're helping me. And he goes, hey, what are you so nervous about any which way? You were like fucking sweating there for a minute. He had to know. He knew. He was fucking with me. Yeah, yeah. He was because he goes, he goes, what did you think you were going to get whacked? I said, honestly, fucking yeah and he goes hey he thought he was gonna get fucking whack you know

typical mob scene type shit it's insane that's just like one of the stories I've had like five at those with other people it's not it's an uneasy feeling you know that's why I got the nickname pedged two guns I'd have two guns on me at all times you know what I mean so it'd be like if I can't get this one

I get the one on my ankle I just I just didn't trust the situations I was in and when you're in that you know I mean you know you've done crime but my crime I'll fill it out paperwork bro yeah yeah you're filling out paperwork but mortgage brokers don't shoot each other yeah but see like with these people i just got so fucking deep in that life you know you see that shooting in front of you it's like a fucking watching a tv show like watching breaking bad and the guy shoots the guy

you know my son has asked me growing up he goes dad what does it like when you see somebody nothing it's cold it's like it doesn't i go i could walk over a dead body it could be my friend it could be my friend for real it could be my friend he just got shot and if it's me and him and I have to fucking high tail out of it because the cops are on the way I'll be like yo nice knowing you boom I'm out I'll cry about later at the funeral I was just gonna say I was thinking I've got no reference but actually

prison is the reference where like prison yeah first day I got there I didn't see it but I mean you know they screamed lockdown the thing everybody's going in I go what's going on what's going on and my celly which I met 20 minutes earlier said oh someone got stabbed on the rec yard and I thought I go someone just got killed

He goes, nah, they just stabbed them up a little bit. They're not trying to kill it. I didn't realize until later that they're not trying to kill you. They want to stab you four or five times to prove the point. It hurts you. It gets them some respect. They don't want you to die. Of course, no.

So, but, you know, and, and of course I have, I've seen people get stabbed. And I've seen, what I've seen, which seems worse is getting hit with a lock. I've been saying, I heard those stories. It's super bloody because they'll hit you in the head. Your head bleeds so much. So, but one time I actually had a guy who died in front of myself. Wow. He had gone to medical a couple times.

Complained of a heart problem. Been locked up since he was 20. He was like 30 years old. Right. Super overweight black guy. And he's walking down the hallway. Mm-hmm. And he falls right in front of myself.

Boom. And I look and I'm like, and you knew the way he, he rocked back and forth. He's done. Yeah. There's no muscle control that gets over. And I, my first thought. thought was, because I'd been in the medium for three years, but this was at the low, was that the moment something like this happens, they lock everybody down.

And I thought, fuck, they're going to lock us down. I need to get some coffee. I immediately grab, I grab my cup, I step over his body and walk down the hall. Like nothing. Like it was nothing. Didn't realize till medical staff was running in that I thought, and then they're carrying him out on the stretcher and everybody's like, oh, he's gone, he's dead. And I'm sitting there like, yeah, and I'm sitting there like, yeah, and I'm sitting there and

thinking damn did I just step over that dude's body you did like and I was like like didn't think it I don't have time to process yeah I just I just realized at that point I was like wow you're you're getting a little fucked up bro you need to get out of here well you're you're what's the what's the word um desensitized yeah you're desensitized and you just become of that environment you have to learn to survive you know like it's just like you said you get used to anything you do you after a bit like um i had to go had to go back to bosnia um that's where my dad is from um man i had to go back to bosnia in early 90s so how old of 20 okay 19 20 i think i just i think i just turned 20 and you're supposed to do army time if you're born in that country

so i was supposed to at 18 or i think 19 i'm supposed to do like 18 months But since I'm overseas and I live in America, they'll give you like, do six to eight months. So you're still a Bosnian citizen? You're not a U.S. citizen? I'm a naturalized U.S. citizen. Okay. Because my mom got her citizenship and they just gave it to me because I was a little kid. And legally, I'm still a Serbian citizen.

But since the Yugoslavia broke up, my dad's from Bosnia. So I'm also a Bosnian citizen and a Serbian citizen. So I got my birth certificate in Serbia. But I also have the citizenship in Bosnia. So either which way, you got to go to the Army. So Serbia at that time was, you know, they were putting in troops. You know, they were like, they're calling them paramilitary, you know. You just didn't have the Yugoslavia and Serbia patch.

You just had whatever patch was in that area. So I had to do, I had to do the Army. So I went, I didn't tell anybody. I just went and did it because they told me like, if you don't do it, you can't come back to this country for 15 years. They block you from entering again. Okay. So I was just like, well, you know, I don't really speak the last.

language grade and they were just like, you speak English, you speak Romanian, we'll put you somewhere in Voivodina, which is kind of half Romanian, half, you know, Hungarian, half Serbian. I was like, all right, which was bullshit. They put me right on the front line. You know, like they sent me into Bosnia. It was just, I was fucked, you know. And being there, there's a stench of dead people that you do not, you don't forget. When you smell dead people, burning flesh, rotting flesh, it's a distinctive smell. It's kind of like a. roadkill smell, but more pungent. So to this day, if I'm passing it as an armadillo or some shit in the, you know,

are possum dead in the street and I smell it and watch in my car, it brings me right back to that. Like it's just, you know, you become a, you become like a project of your environment. So being there, you learn to survive, you know. I didn't have to shoot anybody. I was just there in case maybe like NATO would come in, you know, the UN and it was a S4 at the time. So if they came in and somebody spoke English, they're like, well, this guy speaks English. Because nobody really like today, everybody speaks English in Serbia.

Right. It's a second language. It's bang, bang, bang. But by that, at that point, it just broken off from kind of like being a Soviet bloc country. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this is. 89. It started in Croatia. It was five republics. It was Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, I think it's six. And Macedonia. that broke up into republics it was then Serbia and Montenegro that was the Union of Yugoslavia Macedonia took off there was the war going on in Croatia then the war started to pick up in 91 92 in Bosnia

Bosnia ended up becoming two entities Croatia just expelled all the Serbs I mean I don't want to get into a whole subject yeah yeah it's a whole history but I mean predominantly they were they were not teaching English no they were not it was they were teaching Russian, German, French, you know, English was like, not even, you know. The real smart people were taking up Chinese, you know, because you can go into China and you can make money so quick with trading and whatnot.

But for me, I found my niche there. I was doing translation. So, you know, but still, they would put me in areas where you'd hear fighting, you'd see fighting, they'd give me an AK. I was dressed up for the army, but I was like an interpreter, supposedly. Like, this guy speaks English. Everybody else spoke English. All the German people spoke English as a second language

Everybody spoke English in a second language So they put me there to do that I finished my stint came back to the United States Was it full two years? No, it's seven and a half months Oh, okay In total seven and a half months Which was like

Yeah, I thought it was I thought you typically don't they They're supposed to give you two years Yeah two years They're supposed to give you two years But um Because uh Me being from America

I kind of like also Purposely spoke broken Serbia You know, I was just like, like, really broken. My grammatics were off. I was talking like a second grader. And they were just like, oh, this guy sucks. He can't speak for shit. Like they would tell me something.

And I'd be like, what? I don't understand me. You know, I was just, that was a good con artist, you know. So whatever, you know, you learn in your environment, whatever you could do. So, I mean, there was times where the Muslim troops are coming in and, you know, whatever. And you have to shoot. I mean, you're shooting to survive. But it's not like I sat there and I just like, you know, did what I had to do.

but yeah I mean that was an eye-opener because I got to see a lot of shit you know like coming back that kind of hardened me so coming back to the streets in the 90s the 90s were the shit you know it was just everybody everybody that I grew up with was up and coming like everybody was making their bones

one of my friends got like three bodies already you know and it's just like you know we're sitting there talking like me and you and he's like yeah you know there's a rule that they don't talk about it but some guys are so fucking brazen they want it to go from person to person, but they want the upper, you know, the upper guys to hear and that they can get, you know,

indoctrinated in, you know. And this one guy was telling me, yeah, you know, you know, I shot this guy's ear off and then I fucking stabbed him in the fucking eye and I'm all like, like, okay, you know. I heard someone's feelings once. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, I've gotten after that,

I've gotten involved in a few stabbings, you know, and then I was notoriously known for shooting people. people in the ass. If, you know, anybody from back in the day remembers me and oh, fuck you, I don't care. Like, honestly, like, there's a lot of people that are angry. It's just, well, okay, I'll tell you what, because I, I thought it funny. I used to be drunk all the time, half cocked all the fucking time. So, you know, I'd be sitting in the Serbian establishment.

I don't know. Some guy would pop off and say some stupid shit, you know, and I'd just be, like, drunk. So now you got, you know, your bravados more. Like, your inhibitions are. the fucking door and I'm like yo you know who I am like you know I could I could cause some fucking real harm to you yeah what the fuck you gonna do this and that you're you're an Italian fucking you with the Italians go kiss their balls or whatever I'd be like really and I just pull out my gun bang shot the guy right in the fucking hip right here the guy

fucking goes down I'm like yo boom shot him in the other butt cheek and I was like yo fuck you now you're gonna remember me whenever the fuck you sit down that's what I was known for so yeah you know you don't want to kill him no I never I never right so I I never shot anybody in the chest. I mean, you know, there was shoot-offs that we had where guys came to our social club and they just opened, sprayed with a fucking oozy on us. We came out, everybody's shooting and shit.

There was one situation with my friend E. I'm not going to say his full name because he's living a legit life. I don't think he wants anybody to know. But these guys from Howard Beach came to fuck him up. And they come out, they parked there, Coup de Ville, right on the corner. they just jumped out and they come out with like bats and whatever and they're swinging out my boy

my boy's just holding the fucking the 38 like this but he can't do it he can't shoot he's just like we're like shoot the motherfucker shoot the motherfucker they're beating up on one fucking guy and two guys I pull out one this guy put we just like we just start shooting this and that then he gets the balls he's like pop pop pop this guy jumps across the driver's seat like the way he jump from the passenger to the driver, jumps, just puts the car in gear, puts his, you know, like hand on the fucking gas. The other guy sitting in the back seat, he was all fucked up, and they just drive away, sidest wiping like six, seven cars on the plate, finally gets up and takes off.

That was just like a regular day, you know, like regular day in the life in the hood back in the day. I mean, I could talk about it. I could laugh about it now, but back then I wasn't laughing. I was just living. I was surviving, you know. So you're in your 20s. This is your 20s, 20s, yeah.

And what's your legitimate? Because a lot of the guys, they have like, they'll have like a legitimate, like, they'll be like a butcher, but then at night they're pushing trucks. I was working in the maintenance field in the city where I told you before in the garment district. I was working there.

That was a night job. It was perfect for me because I'd go in, punching at 5, I'd leave at 11. I'd get to go to the social clubs and hang out until 4, 5 in the morning. and that's where you hobnob with everybody. That's where you meet everybody. You're playing cards.

There's an Italian game called Scuba. It's in a Sicilian game. So you play that. I learned how to play that. Then we used to play blood, which is kind of like a rummy like you play in jail. It's the same same shit. And we would sit there and play

and you'd wait for somebody to come in, you know, just for that one moment to rub elbows with a maid guy, to rub elbows with somebody who's got a heist coming up or something, they need an extra person or whatever it is. Or if somebody comes in and says, Hey, you know, my security company works here and here. There's a jewelry store.

Yeah, you get the gist now. So for me, it was a perfect opportunity to rub elbows at everybody. So my legitimate thing was I was working in maintenance. And I kept that. It was good benefits. It was a union job. It was phenomenal, you know. But, you know, there was times where, you know, I couldn't make bail.

I got cough for some, you know, it was a week, two weeks at the most that I was ever in. And those two weeks were not fun. I mean, you know, Rikers Island, I'm pretty sure you heard stories about it. You know, it was fucking insane. And, you know, it was run by the blacks and the Hispanics and you had the Latin Kings and the Nettas and whatever. And you go in there thinking on the street Italian or something, you know, I go in there acting like I'm a cuisine. I'm like, hey, how you doing? That doesn't fly when you get in the jail.

When you get in the jail, it's all like you can figure, they'll ask you, where you're from? What's your hood? And you say, Bushwick, bro. or you say, you know, Ridgewood, you know, you say, oh, yeah, you know this guy, and that's what saves you. You'd be like, oh, I know Benji, I know Casper, I know this one. They'd be like, oh, yeah, they get right on the phone, you know, and they'd be like, yo, he's on the up and up.

Then they come to give you, like, a little package that you, you know what I'm saying? Like, they take care. You know, you go to prison, the guys will come out. Exactly. So, you know, then they'd be talking and finding out who you really are, like, what do you, you know, like, what's your name in the street? And these guys will come back. Oh, he's good.

Take care of him, you know. then they came and they asked me because I was there for two weeks like I said and like the fourth day they came and they asked me they're like you want to run with us so I thought they were going to

like right away brand me or something like I didn't know what to expect you know and they were just like no you just run with us but if we tell you to jump you jump you don't ask you just go how high you know I was like all right I'll do what us I was with the nietas and they were always at war with Latin kings

so I was kind of nervous because to me it's it all looks the same it's language is all the same but it's not you know it's each click is different and whatever so what were you in there for two weeks for um gun possession stolen car and uh i don't know whatever else they found some coke in the car or something like that so they you know they they just drum up charges uh so the car wasn't stolen yeah it was but it's not a drummed up charge but it wasn't hotwired i had keys you know so it's just like it's different it's different well it wasn't my eyes you know and i kept

And I actually beat the grand larceny auto because I was like, it was my friend's car. You know, what's your friend's name? And I'm like, Joe Blow. And they're like, you know, because I knew to look for the registration. And I would lie and say the owner of that car was drunk, told me to take the car. You're like, you know, drive him home, take the car and then use it for whatever I need and then come back and leave it by his house or whatever. And, you know, that worked once.

That worked twice, you know, wrong place, wrong time or whatever scenario. But the one time that I got to judge, and she was ruthless. She was just, she didn't want to hear it. She's like, so I look at your docket and I see that you got one GLA, two GLAs. Now you're going to come with a third and it's the same fucking story, same song and dance. She goes, no, you're guilty. You know, I got lucky my lawyer got me five years probation on that. But, dude, five years probation, you got to be super careful.

You get jammed up on something. They're going to just throw both charges at you or whatever future charge you got. So I started to At that time again Go back to Bosnia I mean why? Personal reasons Let's just say

shit happened in the streets And feds were coming around Regular police were coming around asking questions knocking on doors You didn't want to be there I didn't want to be there I just didn't want to answer questions It was one of those times where

I didn't want to divulge any information Because it would have put somebody away and I just figured if I'm not around, he could, you know, they'll find somebody else eventually, you know, to turn on him. I just,

I don't believe in ratting. You know, yeah, explained to me when the feds came around looking for me, I didn't want to be there or there. I don't want to have that. I don't want to have a conversation with him. Yeah,

I mean, it's, it's, of course, they were looking for me. Yeah. So, yeah.

I mean, there was one, there was one murder. Uh, and 90, I'm going to say, 94. Could be 93.

There was a, there was a murder. This guy, Tomashine. He was a Serbian gypsy. He was from Vancouver, not from Vancouver, I'm sorry, from Montreal. And it comes from a very well-known family. Drug dealers, they dabbled in everything. Drugs, fake currency, those, what do you call those, barabonds, you know, whatever. And he was doing cars. He was doing cars with this other guy that I was in his crew, but I walked away from that guy because the guy was a piece of shit

he stole all my contacts every time I had a scam going got in on my fucking scam stole my whole fucking scam got everybody that was working with me to go against me you know long story short fucking piece of shit so he was working with that guy

and he would come to me in a Serbian social club and he'd be like hey this guy's asking this much for cars can you get cheaper I said first you made a deal with this guy you stick with fucking him I don't want to be a part of this shit I said, second, he's my fucking arch nemesis. I don't want to deal with him.

If I see him, it's high and goodbye, you know? I go, he's a scumbag. I got nothing nice to say about him. So Frankie, again, was in this click. And I just remember one day Frankie pulling up with this guy. And Frankie just saying the words, I'm going to fucking cut your fucking head off. And I just looked, and I warned Toma, I said, now that the Italians are involved, I don't know how we would operate

and how we would make somebody disappear? I said, this guy just gave you green light. I don't know what you did to fucking aggravator or piss them the fuck off, but you need to square this shit off. Don't come around here because it could happen here right in front of us. Two days later, you know, I come home, whatever,

and I see there's police down the block from my house, you know? And I lived off a main avenue, like up the block off a main avenue. And down there was like all warehouses, you know, a block down. So I see the cops like yellow tape, the area off. I'm not thinking anything of it. Next day, my bell's ringing. Eight in the morning, bang, bang, bang, bang, you know, banging on the door. I come out, I'm like, yeah, there's a Fed, there's cops, and just like, you so-and-so. I'm like, yeah, I'm Predreg Reikovic, yeah. He's like,

where were you last night? I was like at the social club, this and that, you guy, you know, a guy named Toma Shine. Yeah, here and there. They have black and white surveillance. They just whip it out and they show well you're hugging this guy and kissing him on the cheek i go i said i know him he goes no you're making like you didn't know him i'm like no i fucking know him you know so were you with him last night i was just like no two days ago they pull out black and white photos out in front of that fucking serbian bar you know and i'm just like okay so what's the deal he goes you don't know that he's down the block i said what do you mean he's down the block they're pointing down the block not as you know ambulances you know the coroner's there you're putting it together now

I just put it together, and I was just like, I lawyered up. I was just like, I ain't got nothing to say. They're like, you got nothing to say? And, you know, they tried to press you even after you say you got nothing to say. And I just was like, no, I got nothing to fucking say. They just asked one other question was, where's Frankie Fertilino? I don't fucking know. I really don't.

I go, I see him here and there. I don't know. I'm not answering no more questions. Frankie ended up, it was him. He did it. Yeah. You know, but it was a drug deal gone bad, supposedly. I don't know.

He shot him in the fucking in the neck. We didn't know until like a year after the details to come out. Frankie disappeared. But he lives him down the street from your house? No. The body was found down the block from my house. Yeah. They shot him in an Italian social club.

They decapitated him. They put his head in the trunk, body in the back, drove the car and left it by the warehouses. They were trying to set the car on fire. But that little area is all like, it's just, It's like the lights are out There's no street lights It's really dark

So they were going to set the car on fire And they left it's called Traffic Ave Traffic Ave is where all the If you steal a car and you want to do an insurance job That's where you do it You know what? Because you can burn it

There's no surveillance No surveillance no cops It's not going to burn the house Exactly So That was that And later on In the 2000s

Frankie gets picked up for this And Basically Frankie shot the guy another guy cut his head off guy was angry as fuck because the guy wasn't going down the guy was like six fucking six man

you know and Frankie's a little guy so Frankie had to shoot like this so instead of him shooting him in the head got him in the fucking neck this guy went down but he was grabbing his fucking neck and the other guy shall remain lameless because he was a rat for the feds

he was wearing a wire but that night he wasn't wearing a wire cut the guy's fucking head off and listen no no yeah Frankie frankly actually got he got caught cleaning up the mess so when the cops came in because the place was under surveillance they're like what are you doing and he's mopping up the blood he goes I was told

to come in here and clean up they questioned them released him he disappears he goes MIA for like year and change and um I mean I keep going around like Frankie's stories I'm sorry I was going to say I was going to say you don't think that he

the guy doesn't like you you don't think that he maybe put the body there hoping it would put he on you That's what I was thinking. Right. You know, the guy that was working with Frankie, I think that guy did that. And, you know, I was kind of known in the street for the gun thing, shooting people in the ass and whatnot. And I guess they saw that I was with him.

They probably thought I was trying to muscle in on some scam or whatever it is. And I did what I did. But, you know, I told him, I'm lawyering up. I'm not going to say a fucking other word. Of course, they came back again and they, you know, they asked me. They were like, what's your lawyer's name? All right. So then I had to get him my fucking lawyer.

and then, you know, we went into the pre-stint and we talked to the Fed guy was there. Now, the Fed guy was there because this was, there was a stack like this, like a file. Yeah. And it was on that other guy and Frankie and the bananas and, you know,

so they were just trying to tie up loose ends and get whatever. Everybody in that little click, the guy who was a scumbag, him, his girl, four guys in his crew, Frankie, everybody just fucking high-tailed it. They were like MIA for like six to eight months.

he was gone. Frankie said he went back to Sicily or something like that. But you went to well after a few months I took off, went to Bosnia. Okay. I mean it was just, I figured, you know, I got connections over there because when I was in my teens I made a, I met

a famous Serbian gangster who was at one time head of the Irish mob, the Westies, Basco Reduncich. So I got introduced to him in my early teens and he took a liking to me. and I would see him in the Serbian social clubs.

He was connected to John Gotti and the Gambinos. So I started doing some things, and I'd go by his social club in Manhattan, and I start talking to him. I would frequent places that he would frequent just to rub elbows with him, and I would be like, hey, you know, did you hear? Of course he heard in the Serbian community

that I was boosting cars. I had this great scam on boosting cars. And it became to the point where if everybody in the community knows that I'm doing, this? Well, the police are going to get wind of it soon. Somebody's going to get pinched for something and they're going to give me up. We were doing cars with keys. Yeah, I was going to say what is this? Yeah, we were doing cars with keys. We had a guy in motor vehicles. So the guy in motor vehicles would give us a fake driver's license. Then we also had another guy that was a great

counterfeiter and he would make driver's licenses. He would make registrations and everything. So we came up, I came up with the idea. If somebody was to go to a dealer, say Mercedes-Benz, because I had a friend, Serbian guy, who worked as a head mechanic at Porsche Audi in Long Island. So he told me, he goes, oh, yeah, the key costs like $95. All they asked for is a registration and a driver's license. My head is clicking. If we're fucking boosting cars, high-end cars, constantly from people's driveways, we have to get a slapjack to pull out the ignition, you know, and put a fucking screwdriver in there or put a pair of pliers and, you know, get it going, you know. I said,

what if we got keys right now we're getting orders from people in the neighborhood like oh yo i just smacked up my 560 i need you know parts what color do you want i get you the exact color so with the key you just walk over doop doop and just get in and drive away like no problem so we started getting everybody fake IDs and we would go and scope the aerial out get the VIN numbers write them all down go back and go to the guy in the motor vehicles and say can you give us a print out of this and this. The guy with the fake IDs, he would give us the name that we wanted. Once we got the registration, we knew who the owner was. We would take the owner's name, put it on that driver's license. They would never check to see how old you are. They would never check

anything. As long as you got a nice suit on. We even would pay people like, hey, you want to make a quick $250, just go in there, give him this, give him this license, come take a picture at this guy's house. You know, guys were desperate, they would do it. At one point, we had 125 keys. So 125 keys and we get $5,000 on the car on the quick on the quick so it got to the point that everybody enabled knew about the scam and because you know word them out like one guy would say hey you know what this guy Pedge did this and this guy did that and like I said the guy Bosco heard about me and he was like yo you're making money hand over fist you're fucking you're smart bro I respect that so I would go Bosco at in 91 because he's

did a jury tampering case for John Gotti he fled he just took off it it wasn't really you know the mafia was everybody was getting pinched that was right before uh gravana got pinched and all of that so bosco left he had a casino already in serbia he had a casino in a nightclub so he was a Serbian underlord you know over there he had his own crew he was he was making hand over a fist he was also involved in a little narco trafficking so i went over there and i saw him uh he would put me on with other gangs and whatever so while i was there i was making a little money overseas so that's like when i like when the whole thing happened with that guy getting killed and i took off i would go see bosco and be like yo can you give me some can you throw me a bone of course he'd be

like yeah sure boom go to go see this guy in belgrade go see this guy in verse shots go see this guy in this other you know town and i'd make a little a little coin my family didn't like it because there's a there's a thing like like when i walk in a room i have a typical European swag of a gangster or a criminal or a ex-boxer or you know karate dude everybody says it you know like I don't walk like regular guys when I walk in I walk in like I own the place so Bosco took that to his advantage so when I got over there the guys in the street that were walking saw me walk and they were just right away like not questioning me they were just like you look like you could take care of yourself I maybe got into two fights when I was back home you

And basically, I did my dirty pool, and I was doing MMA before MMA was big. Like I did Hopkito, I did Muay Thai, I did Jiu-Jitsu. I was doing it. There was no UFC back then. The UFC was, I think it was the early 90s where they would put up people from different genres. Like, you know, they would put a Kung Fu guy versus a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy. It was a shit show. UFC wasn't what it is today.

But, yeah, so, you know, I would do that and I'd make a few dollars while I was. was there and then I'd come back and get my feet wet again here and the job was always waiting for me it was a union job they couldn't fire me as long as my job was done I could take a leave of absence at will so you know once you get into the union you could do stuff like that so the job was my buffer um you know it kept a thousand dollars a week in my in my pocket you know helped out my mom with the rent and whatever but um I was always trying to make some kind of a hustle I got off on it like honestly like you know being entrepreneurial as a kid you know i had like three four different businesses you know and got to the point where i wasn't doing anything like i had the guy tempting

my windows etching my windows for me and i would just take the money i wasn't even DJing anymore i would just be like send people out to DJ parties and stuff and i would be taking money and um it was when i did a scam or a hustle or something and i made some money i never did it too long something was always in my gut telling me after like six months months, eight months, like, yo, you're playing this out. You need to back the fuck up. There's guys that still do the same hustle. Like, you were doing your hustle.

And people just, like, a comfort, like, yeah, I could do this. I never got comfortable. Like, six months, eight months, that was, I did cigarettes. When cigarettes were, like, they were taxing the shit out of them in New York. And Giuliani was like, oh, you know, you can't go to the Indian reservations no more. Because I was going to the Indy reservations and buying 500 cartons at a clip. I would send four guys with vans and minivans and be like, here's the money. Go buy 500 cartons, you know.

And then he made a law, you can't buy anything over 300. So I'd be like going in by 299, you know. And then I had guys going to Virginia, same shit, bringing them in, 299. If they get caught going over the bridge, well, it's not a federal offense. You're not, you know, traffic in the cigarettes, you know. You're not trying to avoid the fucking tax thing. It's 299, you know. But, yeah, I did a lot of crimes, a lot of things.

Do I have regrets? Yes or no. Yes or no. I mean, I have regrets for the things I got caught. You know, I was stupid. There's a lot of things I don't have regrets. I just, you know, I kick back, have a few beers with my friends, and we relive these times. And I'm like, you remember that?

And they're like, yeah, you were the shit, you know? It's something. I mean, being 54 years old now, it's like, it's something to look back on. I wouldn't want my fucking kid doing any of this shit, honestly. Like, that's the reason I came to Florida. because, you know, I was living in Jersey and then like getting divorced it was just a shit show.

I had to go back in the street. Now, I was out of the life for a bit. I had to go back into the street to make a hustle because, you know, I didn't know what else to do. You know, I went back to Queens and I was like right back in the street. Like tell my son, stay with Grandma, I'll be right back. I come back with like two, three thousand.

Like, I was just hustling again. And I got told, get the fuck out of here. Like, what are you doing? You've been clean all this time. get out. I had people that liked me, you know? But it was, uh... It's going to go bad eventually.

It's just a matter of time. Oh, I'll be honest with you. Back in the day, it was golden because there was no cameras. They couldn't tap into the ATM cameras. Nobody had cell phones. There wasn't the iPhone where you're committing a crime. You got a gun to somebody's head

and they could take a fucking picture or you whack somebody. There's surveillance. There's a freaking ring camera on somebody's house. Today, they will catch you quick. Yeah. You know? I mean, you have to be super slick

and you've got to come up with something like, you know, something that you're going to bang out some money but don't get greedy. Don't go banging out a lot like you did. Well, I was going to say was it's funny because... The new Bimo, V.I. Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card,

and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit BMO.com slash ViPorter to learn more. I was thinking this when you were talking. It's like you're, you know, you've got your regular job. But you're also doing stuff on the side. Always.

Always. Like, to me, I've got $2,300,000 in the bank. I'm still flipping properties. I'm still buying properties, renovating them and selling them. And it's like, that's your thing. That's your gig.

But it's like, but it's not even a scam. It's just because I always have to be doing, like I can't imagine like working 40 hours a week and that's it. Like what do you mean? What else do you do? Yeah, you always got to be on the move.

Hang out with the with your kids and you do this. Yeah. And I'd be like, like I could, but I could buy this house for 50 grand and I can this, you know, on the side and I can, And, you know, which is probably why, you know, most of my family doesn't talk to me.

But that's the point. But, you know, the point is that, you know, I had that, you know, you got that hustle drive where you always had that hustle drive. Yeah. Coming here, the first two years, I was always on the hustle. Like, you know, I would like to look at a dollar and see 10. You know what I mean? So, like, but I don't know anybody here.

I don't know anybody here. There's nobody here that, like, there's not a go-to guy. I was the go-to guy in New York. You needed a car. You came to me. I knew chop shops. I knew, you know, junkyards. I knew everybody for everything.

I knew who can smelt gold down, who could fucking cut diamonds. I knew everybody for everything. I was the go-to guy. That was my thing. I loved it when I went somewhere and somebody said, hey, what you got going on? And I'm like, well, what do you need?

Hey, man, we just got a score, you know, and they show me a diamond ring. And I'm like, oh, that's a nice fucking rock. We can cut this into like five rocks. So I'd be like, let me take it to my guy. And, you know, you got to trust me now. So I go to my guy. And my guy goes, oh, dude, I'll give you 20 grand,

for it right now, I call him up and be like, yo, my bad, he's only gonna give you 15. I said, you know my cut. I mean, okay, guys, I shouldn't be saying this now because guys gonna be looking back and be like, what a fucking scumbag, you know? But yo, that's the part of the game, you know. I would never take anybody with me to go to my connect

because I've gotten scumbagged in the past. I've got people that have taken me for a ride and went undercut me and went straight, you know. But I mean, I've dabbled in everything. I've dabbled in weed. Um, most of the guys that I dabbled with, now they're all legit, you know, they all got, um, legit, uh, what do you call smoke shops or whatever in the city. So they're all making hand over fist because it's all legal in New York. I don't know why anybody would be like doing illegal weed now. Like, do you ever have anybody, um, uh, reach out to you and say, hey, I got this thing. I need you to. And I'll be honest in the beginning. Yeah. Um, it was like, you know, favors would get called in like, hey, pedd, you know, uh, you got to connect for this and this. And I'd be like, yeah. And I'd be like, my head would just, the way you said in one of your podcasts, like, I'd be like, wow, my head would be like just figuring how I can make money, what, you know, like, it was just the excitement of it, like all over again. I get all tingly.

But I'd have to pull the reins back, look at my kid and be like, you know, I'm 50-some years old. I could go away for a long fucking time. I mean, I could do the favor. So what I would end up doing is I'd reach out to my guy. guy and I would just remove myself from the situation you know from that equation I would remove myself so I would tell my guy look you want to bless me you want to send me a little something some from my kid I appreciate it if not I'm out you could have my connect he's going to call you just call him on a burner and do what you need to do and how is it and once I started

getting into that habit it was easier to just separate myself from that life right and eventually most of those guys get pinched anyway so yeah they're not reach it out to you as much as time goes on so you get to remove yourself from this situation but it's also there's a saying in Serbia in a face not seen is a face forgotten so you're not in that life you're not rubbing elbows with these people

on a regular basis you're not playing cards with them they don't see you in the hood anymore you're a face forgotten so you know like I'd reach out to a couple of guys hey what's up they wouldn't have time for me they'd be like oh you know I'm doing something I'll hit you up later never fucking hit me up so it

it kind of sucks But then I have all these stories I have all this You know It's for the batter It no it really is It really is Because my kid

Once we move back to Queens And my son Started to literally see what it was like My son saw when we used to go see grandma People say hey Pedge How you doing this and that My son got to see that A few guys would come up

And put a 50 on them And say hey good luck kid This is for you You know Like a little blessing But once we had to go back to Queens And I'd go to like pizzerias And I would be ordering

Kalamar AMs, this, calzones, nothing. Everything would be on the cuff. They would never charge me. Like, oh, it's good, Pedge, don't worry about it. I would, like, $60, $70 with their food. Oh, Pedge, don't worry about it. It's okay.

I'd blow red lights. I'd have, like, 18 PBA cards. I'd be like, here you go. Oh, yeah, I know who you run away. They'd let me go. They'd be like, just, you know, don't go so fast. You know, don't go through the red light like that. Don't just blow it.

My son saw this, and he thought it was, he thought it was Grand Theft Auto. He thought it was Nico Belich. Nico Belich is a Serbian guy from Bosnia. son is like playing grand theft daughter going dad are you this guy in the video game and i'm like what do you say to the kid i'm just like you know and then it just so happens one day there's a block party down a block from the house and an italian guy turns the corner i've been telling my kid all these stories like you know about me in my past and everything he's heard me talking to other people and there was this guy joe he was supposed to clip me and um he was supposed to clip me because this

guy said pedged this and this and he lied and this guy just came he was he was he was one of those shooter guys you know and he just came and he came into my bar and he just and I see him with the gun I'm all like yo Joe what are you doing here and he's just like pedj I don't know be I'm hearing words you know this guy said this and this I was like you believe that he goes no but I was told to come in I was like yo do what you got to do because this is bullshit this guy's lying he's like that's what I said so we ended up having to sit down about that but this guy came to whack me came to clip me so I told my son about this this guy turns the corner and then my son turns around And this guy's talking to him, going,

this is your little man. Oh, my God. Mink, yeah, you know, starts hugging my kid. He goes, your father's a man of respect. He's a good man. You know, look up to him, you know. And he gives him a little money. He goes, hey, good senior patch, kiss me on a cheek, takes off.

I go to my son Marco. I go, hey, see that guy? He goes, yeah, I go, that's the guy who tried to kill me. My son couldn't fathom why I was kissing this guy on a cheek. And I said, business is business. This is the life. Now are you so happy about thinking that I'm Nico Beilich from Grand Theft Auto? And then my son was like, no.

I said, I have to look over my shoulder. I said, Marco, I'm going to be honest with you. We need to leave. We need to get the fuck out of here. Pick a fucking state. Of course, my son is going to pick Florida because we'd come here three times a year. You know, it was me and him.

It wasn't me and my ex-wife. Yeah, Disney. We'd go to fucking Tampa. We'd go to the zoo. You know, we would do everything. We'd go to Space Center. You know, it was always the same thing. And I bought a condo on Cesta Key.

So my condo is my base of operations. Then I'd come and hang out in Tampa, my godfather's house and then I'd rent a hotel in Orlando and I go and spend five days there and hit everything hit Hollywood studios hit you know hit Disney my son loved it here and he goes Florida it's like I fucking hate Florida I said I said but for you you know my parents came to the United States for a better life I said for you I'll do it I go plus I don't want you walk into my fucking footsteps at all and it was the hardest thing I used to sit here and curse Florida I'd be like I fucking hate it here because you know going from that atmosphere where

you know everybody you were a wanted you were a wanted guy everybody loved you everybody feared you know i don't have that here you know i walked down the street i'm nobody right first year i was here skinhead fucking try the step to me literally in the mall step to me said some shit it was it called me like a fucking juice head or something and i was like a little bit more jacked up than i am now i turned around i was like who the fuck you think you're talking to the guy goes out what are you going to fucking do about it he's got a nazi swastik he's got he's like tied it up he's got at least like seven inches on me 30 pounds on me and I'm just like yo I'm gonna warn you right now I know fucking MMA second I don't think you know who the fuck I am and he's just like

pulls out a fucking knife I was just like like he pulled out a fucking knife and I was just like yo for real and I just go to swing on him he starts running his wife pulls out a box cutter so it's like swiping at my fucking girlfriend my girlfriend's taking a fucking bag and she's just fucking hit her with a Michael Coorsback bang bang I'm flying down the escalator No, this is in the middle of the mall. And I'm just going like, fuck this. Now I'm in Florida. I said, call the fucking cops.

I was like, because I'm going to murder this guy. Like, call the cops before I murdered this guy. I chase him out into the parking lot. Cops are there, six fucking squad cars. And make a long story short, the cops are yelling at me. Because I'm going, yeah, you know what? If you want to come see me, I work out of fucking LA Fitness on 580. Come see me, you motherfucker.

And the cops are going, shut the fuck up. Because if this guy slips in a shower and bumps his fucking head and dies, we're coming for you. And I'm just like, all right. And my son is watching us, like nothing, you know. And my girl keep trying to get in between. And I just, my girl's a little, little short, little stubby little girl, man. It's tough. I pushed her.

I flung her into Macy's. Like, my son was just like shaking his head going, don't fuck with my dad. My dad will fling you, like, you know. But yeah, I got, I got tested when I was first here. It is what it is. I mean, now I've learned to control my temper, you know. Here you'll never see that guy again. In New York, you might bump into him five times

and the next time you will. Yeah, next time I got to take care of them, for real. Like I got to fucking bat him, stab him, shoot him, do something. But yeah, I mean, and now I carry a gun legit because, you know, my record's expunged. I'm all legit now. And, you know, it's funny. I used to pull out that gun so fucking quick.

Man, I don't even pull that shit out now. Like, for real, it's like, I warn the person. Like, yo, back the fuck. I don't want any fucking problems. Like, I had a few altercations in the gym where I'm like, yo, for real, I grab a fucking dumbbell and crack you in the head. like, do you know who I am? And here I am saying this, like, do you know who I am?

I'm like, I'm nobody. Like, I was that person. Right. I just need to like, yo, let's go outside and take care of it. I'll show you who I am. Now it's like, I just kind of like ignore shit. Like, you know, I go to the gym. I get my, you know, I get my swell on.

My son works out with me. You know, it is what it is. I got some haters that talk some shit that I'm on juice. Like, for real, dude, if I was on juice, you don't think I'd be like fucking 19, 20 inch arm's like, for real, like, it's insane, bro. I was going to say, you're not? I mean, I'm not. This is only 17.5 inch arms, but I was way bigger before.

Bro, I take tests. I mean, you know, from the doctor, you go in. They're like, I test your shit and they're like, here, let me give you something. You get older and they'll, they'll, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're an older guy now. I am. You're my age.

I was born in 69. Me too, 69, bro. Listen, everything's not. You go to the gym and I hurt for four days afterwards. Oh, no. I used to be able to train like so intense. I cannot train intense. I've had four surgeries back-to-bag.

I've torn ligaments. I've torn like the tricep tendon. This was a bad surgery here in Florida. I had to get surgery four times. The guy screwed me up. The first time I went to another doctor. That guy screwed me up twice. Put in a screw.

The screw was popping out of my skin. So I went to a guy in Tampa that does Navy Seals. This guy goes, yo, listen, he goes, I'm going to cut you. I'll put a cadaver tendon in there. I'll stretch it out, all of this. He goes, you won't be 100%, Yep, but you'll be 75 to 80. I'm 75 to 80.

I am. But I can't train intense. I used to be able to do like 120 pound dumbbells. If I do 70s and I do 70s for reps, I do like 35, 40 reps, sets of four, you know. My son's pretty fucking jacked up too. And everybody in the gym was saying shit like I got my son on fucking juice. And I'm like, I don't. My son is stockier than me.

Like when I was my son's age, I was a fucking crackhead. I was like so skinny. My son, very stocky. He takes after his mom, very stocky, five, seven. He's kind of like you're built, you know. But he just, he works out. That's all he does. Comes with me, does the routine.

I wish I was five seven. You're not five seven? No, I'm like five, six. Oh, one inch. I really like, it means a lot. Put lifts in your shoes, man. I mean, that one in them. That's with the lifts.

I'm insane. How do you, so the guy that connected us is, is punch. I've done an interview with him. We're supposed to be doing another one. How do you know him? Okay, so he's got a story that's... Oh, dude, dude. I did another podcast before and that's how I brought up the situation of,

and the story is about the Serbian mob, because I want to plant the flag. I want to plant the flag for the Serbian community because, you know, it's great that I was a mob associate with the Gambinos and the Bananos. It's all, you know, it's all peaches and cream. But I was running around with the Serbians and I was in, that circle and you know i just thought it's about time we get some respect albanians are getting

respect because they're dealing drugs they're narco trafficking and why can't serbians get respect i mean and i knew the stories about the pink panthers because i met uh pavlostanamitovich punch i met his dad uh voyaslav stanimirovich i met him i got introduced to him in a club called dubrovnik in manhattan by basco roduncich head of the westies he was a big serbian gangster and he introduced me to him. I was 17 years old when I first met him. So he goes to me, hey, this is, say, Uncle Voya. So I said Uncle Voia and Serbian is Chickavoya.

So I was like, nice to meet you, Chikovoya. Bosco vouches for me by saying, good kid, he's an earner. So he goes to me, if you ever have something you want to get rid of, come see me. Gives me his business card, something painting or some shit. Like they had a painting company like a side fucking, like a side gig. Right. And I remember one time we robbed the job. jeweler that was on his way home and he was we heard from somebody that worked there that he was

going to have a lot of shit on him you know bars and and diamonds and loose stuff and whatever so we waited put a gun to his head with masks took his fucking shit and i was the guy to get rid of it like you know can you get rid of this yeah so i went to punch his dad and punch his dad was just like oh this is a good fucking score with a little eye thing he's looking to go this is fucking phenomenal he goes you're good and of course he's like oh i could only give you 60 on the dollar you know he's got to make his fucking money he's the guy who's going to get rid of it you know um as the years went by i mean we weren't really doing like jewelry heist but there was always the occasional you know somebody i knew would like rob somebody of like an enormous amount of silver or gold or whatever it is and they'd be

like patch can you get rid of it because if you go and you try to melt it yourself and get rid of it you have to go from place to place to place and people ask questions and they want to give you shit money on the dollar so i'd be like yeah i said but you got to pay me a finder's fee So I would always be like That's my finder's fee You know And I'd get there And I'd call them up

And be like Go to a pay phone And be like Oh he said he's only Going to give you this much Of course I'd tag a couple A couple of Gs on there Then there was times when

I had some Rolexes You know stolen Rolexes When we were boosting cars There was different crews of guys boosting cars Some people would leave their roleys In the car Sometimes you

The key would be there To go into the person's house They'd see that there was nobody home how they got in they got in um they would steal the jewelry they would steal the Rolexes uh protect philippe whatever was who do you know to get rid of that you can't go to a fucking you got to have somebody you know in the jewelry district i used to go to punch his dad punch his dad it'd be like oh this is awesome oh this we can't move what it's like one in 40 piece like only 40 of them i made he goes let me hold on to it i'll see if i can get you at

least 20, 25,000 for it, you know, of course I had low ball the thing and be like, you can only get you 50, you know, whatever. I started getting known as the watch guy for a while because I was getting stolen watches, guys would get credit cards, go to turn or corner in the city by like bang out three, four fucking watches, come back to me and be like, get me four grand for this Rolex. It'd be like, it's an $8,000 Rolex, just get me four grand. They're like, okay, you know, like box comes with the papers, everything. I'd go around to the cafes and be like, anybody who won a Roli for six?

They'd be like, oh, I give you a five and a half. You know, I'm still making money. The guy wanted four. Yeah. And then back then, I mean, that's money. I mean, for me, it was a lot of money. You know, I would get $1,000. I moved three watches.

$1,500 for being in the bar anyway. Exactly. You know what I'm saying. So that's kind of coming with, you know, when I said, when I have my steady job, but doing what I was doing, I had to like spend all this time in these areas. And I would like, mean half the shit that I have. This is stolen. Like, I mean, I mean, like, dude, this is

fucking, I mean, this is one of my classics. It's a Bentley. It's like, I love this fucking shit, you know. I got a couple of rollies home. Some of them are legit. Some of them are not. I mean, you know, but I mean, it is what it is. I mean, you know, it's the spoils. You know, I mean, like, this is all I have. I have a watch collection now, you know, and I have jewelry. I was going to wear my chain. And if I would have wore, I thought it would have been a little bit much. It's like a 200 gram chain with a big cross like this. The Priests don't even wear crosses this big. It's got like seven carrots and diamonds in a custom-made cross.

I was going to wear that, but I was just like, you know, I don't want to show off. I'll just wear this, you know. I was going to say, it's funny when I own the mortgage company, I would have a customer come in and like they'd been on their job for five years. Yeah. They have 750 credit scores. Yep. They had their deposit in the bank. Yep.

They had, like, you're looking at them like, this is a perfect customer. And I would call one of the brokers and give it to the broker because. I wasn't interested, like, I'm not interested in this perfect loan. This guy can go to Bank of America. Like, I don't want to deal with him. No, you don't. I wanted the guy that, oh, you don't claim taxes. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. The seller's giving you your down payment on the side. I got to make some. The finagle, yeah, that's the way you do it. Yeah, because you could charge more money. Of course. And it was a challenge. It was fun.

That was exciting. Yeah, exactly. The guy that can go to his credit union is like, oh, I don't want to deal with you. You're going to be arguing about interest rates with me. I don't want to. Yeah. I mean, that was my thing, too. I loved the hustle.

It was like, it was like a high, you know, like when I spoke to Punch a few times and Punch was telling me about like, he would get like a hard on because he was doing a heist. You know what I mean? Like, he'd be just like, yo, he goes, I'd be so hard I can cut diamonds with my dick.

You know, like, I'd be like, what? He goes, yo, he goes, I'd be sitting there like, oh, I would you want to punch the fucking safe and get in and out. And he was a master. He was not on the streets to punch into a safe quick. How he did it, I don't fucking know. I don't care.

He did it. I mean, you know, one of his downfalls was when he first did one of his he, uh, I heard this rumor in the street and reading his book, it vindicates it. Um, he went into, to punch into the safe and there was bags of money when he got in the safe on the floor that he just kicked the fucking bags over. Well, they were, they were bags, but he didn't know they were full of money. No, no, right, right. He didn't think to check.

He just was like, let me get the diamonds. Let me get the gold. You know, he, he came away. What I forgot. I think he was $8 million in gems. And it was $20 million in cash. on the fucking floor that the next day his dad was like, hello, stupid, did you read this?

And he's like, what? The feds are going to be all over us now. Like, you know, because they were the original Pink Panthers. The Pink Panthers came from Europe. Right. And that's why I was trying to plant the flag. I want credit where credit is due. Serbians are the ones, the innovators of the Pink Panthers.

To this day, it's predominantly Serbians that are doing all these Monaco heists and the Beyonce thing. Well, these are like X. These are like X. Summer X. Yes. Some are X. some are just I'm gonna be honest with you

hooligans soccer hooligans guys that have that swag when they walk into a room they walk shoulders flaring and they just got fucking balls of steel they don't give a shit they're meticulous they plan this shit it's guys that have been doing it for years teach a younger generation they break off

to have another crew you got one in Belgium you got one in France you got one in England you got them all fucking over you know and like I said I just wanted to plant that flag and I did a podcast where I planted the fucking flag I got like whatever I got how many views I got punch happened to see it and he reached out to me he's just like yo dude why didn't you reach out to me you know sooner and I'm just

like for what I mean we're not doing anything like I haven't seen you in fucking 20 years man 15 years since you know before you went in the first time like second time actually and you know I just wanted to touch base with him a couple times about the book I love the book it's like his book is my life minus my name like right you know except for the high and like that he was doing these he was doing some fucking high-end shit man some some of them were worth like fucking 15 20 40 million but the guys that he was in that circle we all were in that circle he's got a guy sava boxer that guy worked my door he was a mentor to me when i was growing up uh he he was the one that told me you you love being serbian take you

double-headed eagle and put it inside he goes you don't need to put a target on your back nobody needs to know what the fuck you are you're a good chameleon when you're with spanish people you look Spanish and act Spanish when you're with Serbians you speak and act when you're Italian's you speak and act he goes that's what you need to do he was a big mentor to me then it was the guy that punch had in his book uh Yovan Pudar he's a Serbian boxer he went pro he worked for me I gave him his first fucking job he worked for me at my fucking bar you know and I think that's where punch came into my fucking bar I was really busy at the time but punch came in and punch was looking for me and then he got locked up

again because you know he he was doing a lot of fucking careless shit yeah uh you know carjacking uh i mean you name it he was doing it well i was just getting off on it the interview was you know like like i told you his um his wi-fi was messed up but yeah it was the stories that you know he needs to come out and he needs to put us on the map okay punch you need to come and put us on the map he has a great story yeah and here's what's even funnier is that so i did his interview right Like, we never released it. Right. But what happened was so, and I want, you know, he's supposed to come down from, come down from New York or wherever he is.

And do a podcast. But I saw a documentary called, I want to say it was it's something about Spider-Man. They were calling this guy Spider-Man. Right. He was in France, robbing. And he was, he would climb up the side of a building. Yes. Jump from building to building.

It's insane. And the whole documentary is really only about five people. They did this whole documentary and they only talked to him and like four other people. Well,

that guy was probably a gymnast where he worked for the circus. He was, listen, he was super strong. Yeah. Amazing. Like his story is really cool.

Like it's a great story. But he's got nothing on Punch. Oh yeah. Like Punch's stories. This guy's basically burglarizing residences. Punch is burglarizing fucking 47th Street,

the diamond district. Right. The diamond dish. He's going into, into actual commercial building. It's insane. And fixing the alarms, cutting through the drywall to get around this,

you know, punching to the, going into the safes, the whole thing. And he's leaving with, this guy's leaving with like jewelry. Yeah, no,

this is leaving with like millions of dollars. Yeah. And it's insane because like, we knew who punch was in the streets. We all knew, you know, and the stories, the rumors that was circulating. It was just,

it was just insane. And I said it on another podcast, and I'm going to say it here. I said, you know, everybody that I was growing up who was like, oh, Lufthansa Heist was the biggest heist, you know, and everybody's just like all making out this thing to be the biggest thing ever. Right.

To me, it's like a freaking gumball machine because honestly, punching his dad and his crew and everything were doing multi-million dollar heist. He was at 16 years old doing these fucking heist. 15. This guy was taking in 15, 20 million, 30 million. I don't know what his biggest scores were, but people were talking about it in the streets.

And like I said, I wanted to plant that flag and he needs to come on the show and plant the flag because that group, that criminal enterprise, a lot of guys went into different directions. A lot of guys started becoming heavy hitters in the sense like some guys went back to Serbia, working with other criminal gangs. Some guys worked for Bosco, as I said.

Other guys were making up their own little. You know, like they'd come and work for Punch his dad. And he would teach him the ropes. They'd bring to the table what they were good at. Like I said, maybe this guy was an acrobat. Maybe this guy worked as, he was a gymnast or he worked, he was an Olympic gymnast or whatever. Those things come into play when you're doing that kind of crime. Right.

I mean, there's stories that he wrote in his book that I laugh about because I heard where they had a scale of pole to get into the building. You know, like, you know, the guy's got like 40 pounds of silver and gold on. Plus he's a big tall dude. He slides down. He almost breaks his leg. You know, it's insane shit that they were doing, you know? or they would like there was one story

where they left acetylene torches in the building and nobody because in Manhattan nobody there's tanks everywhere on the street there's not hydrogen tanks on the street and everything

nobody thought this guy left it on the loading dock fucking for two days comes the fucking weekend he has a connection with the security company he shuts off the security goes offline

he goes in pretends he's a worker they come in with dollies this and that they go to the loading dock take the acetylite is cut through, walk away, nobody questions shit. I mean,

he's got a pair of nuts on him. I'm serious. Like, half the shit he did. I mean, I did some crazy shit. And he says to me, I wish you were there, you know, just to sit in the car. Fuck, dad, I'd be shitting pickles. Like, you know, I've done little heist where I was fucking scared shitless. Could you imagine like a $20 million

house? No way. I'd be like, I don't know if I'd be able to go through it. I mean, maybe the adrenaline would fucking kind of push me, but it's so funny too, because I'll I've talked to guys who have done like home invasions or they broke into jewelry stores and it's like to them they're like oh it's no risk like like because we were in and out

but to me it's like bro that's the longest part of your life. Yeah that's the that's a problem where you talk to other guys who plan it for two or three weeks and they're in the building for hours and you're like that would be terrifying like either one of those scenarios really is terrifying but the guys that run in and the smash and grab

guys think these guys are idiots and these guys think the smash and grab guys are idiots. It's what your comfort level is. Yeah, I mean, like, I don't know, like maybe if I would have been asked back in the day to do something and maybe if I would have got my feet wet, maybe I would have got that hard on to want to do that kind of stuff. I mean, you know, punch always tells me like, oh, he goes, dude, you skirted the law. Great. He goes, you never did hard time. And I'm like, yeah, he goes, I look up to you for that.

I'm like, are you nuts? Like, you look up to me. I go, look at you. I go, I made fucking peanuts compared to you. He goes, yeah, but you were in that life. You got to do the hustle that you liked. He goes, something told you. Like, don't stay in it long.

And he goes, I wish I could have did that. He goes, I was, something was telling me, don't do it. I would just go and do it anyway. He goes till I finally would get caught, you know. I just was like, I don't know. I mean, for me, I think if I would have got slammed with some hard time, I think that would have fucking really woke me to fuck up for real. This is definitely won't me up.

Listen, I honestly think, talk to this FBI agent the other day, did a podcast with her. And I was saying, like, honestly, the first time I got in trouble, like, if they'd give me a year or two, I probably would be right then been like, you know what I'm done. I'm done. I'm going to go to a job.

I'm going to sell used cars. I'm good. You know, because. Yeah, but then again, a year you would have did you a year and you would have made connections

on the inside. You would have came out and been like, I was pretty cocky. Like I also think age. Well, you're young, dumb and full of cum. The age takes a lot of it.

It does. It does. You get to a point where you start going, is it worth screaming out, you know, getting, is it worth turning this into something? No. Or walk away.

Like, if this goes wrong, I'm going to do this much time and the whole time I'm going to be like what did I do when you know what I can just do without How old were you when you first started

Like in 20s? I was late 20s I had 29 30 yeah And then went for You know Didn't end up going to prison Until like 37 38

You thought you were invincible I thought of well Of course I'm superman of mortgages I'm arrogant You know Just you know Just think nothing can touch me

They're never gonna They're not smart enough to catch me. It's just a jerk off. Yeah. You know, and it's funny, you said, do I regrets? Every month of all, you'll talk to somebody and they're like, you heard, well, no, because it makes me the person I am today.

Bro, come on, man. I did 13 years. I'm going to tell you a quick story. Sorry to cut you off. I got a big regret. One regret I got, I shot a dude, all right? And my son was just born. And, you know, after my son coming into life, you know, this was eating at me.

This one specific guy was, he didn't have. it coming to him. I wasn't drunk. It was over a fucking card game. I just didn't like the way he was shuffling the fucking cards. He was doing this the whole time. I was like, you're making me nervous. Stop doing that. Then he would like throw the cards and give me a new deck. This went on for like fucking three hours and I just boom, you know, did what I had to do. I went to go see my priest. I'm very kind of religious, if you can believe that, but I went to go see the priest. And I told the priest that said, you know, in our church, I'm serving Orthodox. So you got 2,000 parishioners

and then the priest goes Does anybody want to You know confess You have to go in front of Every fucking body He pulls up the cape puts the cape over And you tell him

What you did wrong So I said I shot a guy Yo he jerked the cape like this He went like that He looked at everybody Like guilt on his face Like he did it Now everybody's looking at me

Going they know who the fuck I am And they're like Oh what did he do wrong now What is he trying to be like Fucking you know forgiven about Now everybody's like Wondering whispering you know the priest goes I want you to stay after mass I want to talk to you all right but before

you leave go put money on this icon pray to this icon give me 10 Hail Marys give me 11 our fathers you know I went there I did all of that I waited you know he chewed my fucking ear off and he goes you know what you want to make this right with God you really want to be forgiven I said yeah I go you know me I don't have a fucking care in the world I don't care that I stole fucking cars I don't care that I don't give a shit that I shot other guys in the ass he goes but this guy's sticking out to you yeah go find him go knock him go not on his door, ask for forgiveness. I said, are you fucking nuts?

I go, this guy's probably a made guy in the fucking Gambinos now. He goes, you got to do it. I said, that's poking the fucking bear the wrong way. I may not come out of this. He goes, that's the only way God will forgive you. Thought about it for a week.

Found him. Went to Long Island. Went to this big ass house. I'm like, this got a Mercedes in the driveway. I'm like, this motherfucker is going to, he's going to cap me right here. Knock on the door. Ring the bell.

Knock on the door. He opens, he comes like limping. Like, you know, I see him through the thing. How long had it been? 15 years. 13, 15 years? Yeah, like, that's not good. I hit him bad.

So, I mean, I heard in the street that, like, he's, one leg is shorter than the other. So, make a long story short, like I always do, but he opens the door, his face just, you know, dropped. He goes, fuck you want. I said, yo, this has been sitting on my conscience. It's been eating at me. I did you wrong. He just went I mean luggy. It was like right in my eye. I was like I got to get an AIDS test after this. They're like he did that and he goes you got a lot of balls coming to my fucking house. You know who to how fuck I am? I said well if you were really fucking somebody I go I wouldn't be standing here. I said I just wanted to and he just slams the fucking door and I was just like I'm gonna need to go see my guy Bobby glasses about this because this could end up being really bad and I

poke this fucking bear, you know? And I came back, I went to go see Bobby, sat down with Bobby. He was a big guy in the Gambino's Bobby Glasses. And Bobby was like, I'm going to reach out. I'm going to see if this guy wants to make a fucking beef on this, you know? He goes, it's been so long ago, you know. I was like, but is he somebody? He goes, he's an associate.

He makes fucking money. But he was really scared of me, you know, and I heard that he tried to get people to like off me, not to pay money, but like he was trying to pit people against me like, oh, Pedges this, Pedge is that. yeah pet shot me but you know whatever the story may be and um nothing ever you know came came to fruitation for him and bobby said he's not going to bother you no more he said it took a lot of balls for you to come there but he doesn't forgive you i said but i got a kid now i'm like looking over my shoulder he goes but why'd you go over there and poke that bear i said my priest

told me oh you got a conscious now i said it you know i don't how to explain it like i like i said I'd done a lot of shit wrong. And maybe because I was drunk or I was high or whatever the story maybe, I have no regrets. This one dude, it ate at me. It ate at me and ate at me. And I looked at my kid. And that's the real reason why I pulled out of that life. I had a little money on the street.

I was doing a couple of scams. You know, I did a couple of credit card things. I was going to AC banging out cards. I went to Vegas. I got jammed up there. But I was just like, you know what? I'm going to stay with my kid. And I raised my kid

My ex-wife was a horrible fucking person She got up after 30 days I went back to fucking work So I basically raised I was this kid's mother and father And you know Having a kid with colic for three months Crying on you

You know and the only way they could sleep Is hearing your heartbeat That just ate me to fuck up You know like It was just like I don't want this kid growing up like I grew up Right I don't want this kid walking in my footsteps

I don't want him to look up to me Because I'm a gangster I want him to look up to me because he looks up to me. Right. And he changed my life. And then that's why I said, let me get a house in Jersey.

Let me move out of the neighborhood. Because I was told by Bobby Glasses, leave. If you leave this neighborhood, it's in your rear view. The further you can get away, the better. So I was 45 minutes to an hour away.

You know, in the beginning, you come back to the neighborhood constantly. But if you've got to keep driving, going into midtown traffic and all, well, like you said, you're not around, so you stop being involved in all that stuff. Exactly.

Yeah. I mean, I had a couple of weed spots. You know, I was selling weed through barbershops. So I would just go and collect. After a while, I didn't even go collect. I had my mom collect. So I would be like, your mom just, you know, my mom was like, what? Like the guy's going to come and give you an envelope.

Count the fucking money. She called me out and be like, there's like $5,800 in one envelope and there's like $10,200. What are you doing? And I'd be like, shut the fuck up. Take a hundred for yourself, you know, for counting and take for groceries or whatever. You know, I tried to, she was living in my building. It was rent free. Right.

But, you know, once I was out there. And I said, you know, teaching my son how to play sports. I had a big acre of land, big backyard, trampoline. Me and him would, it was just the best times of my fucking life, you know. Right. And that was it. I stopped going. I got rid of the weed spots. Sold them to some fucking competitor.

I was like, take them over. Give me this much. You know, give me my tax. And that's it. I'm out, you know. And I just didn't do anything. But when I got divorced and I got cancer, colon cancer, guy. Yeah, I got diagnosed, um, what state.

two twice I got I got a problem with polyps they told me I got like fertile land inside of me like where the polyps just grow I'm a big meat eater you know I eat a lot of meat and Serbians eat a lot of pork a lot of beef you know just a lot of meat in general and first time stage two it pulled it out second time stage two same fucking place it was as big as my fucking pinky like that and he goes you know you need to do something about this get change a diet so I went from like 255 big as a fucking brick shit house and then I went down like 220 just by dieting just like I had to like start eating more fucking vegetables salads stay away from the red meat

but look at your face is like salads like you're disgusted I just look at salad and I get diarrhea looking at it for real and that's all it does is it just cleaned you to fuck out it's like I like a solid shit so I like to eat fucking a two pound fucking steak you know but yeah so um I didn't go from my colonoscopy I usually go once a year once every 18 months came to Florida my kid we sold the we sold the condo and she has the key something was telling me I need to get rid

of it because I kind of smelt my ex-wife was there was something brewing caught a cheating so I got rid of it just in the nick of time did a little under the table fucking jam with a guy you know so she don't know about that fuck you bitch and yeah so yeah and then

I went to the doctor like I was feeling something was off Like, I don't know, they say that you know, when you get the big C, you know, whatever. Right. Just feeling something was off. Wasn't feeling right. I went to the doctor. They did the colonoscopy.

His face was a little different. Like, usually when I wake up after a colonoscopy, usually zips his pants and goes, hey, that was fun. You know, great fucking doctor, you know? This time, there was no zipping up the pants. There was no joking with him, you know? And I was just like, yo, what's up? You know? And he goes, come to my office.

So I leave that room. I go to the office. He goes, I don't like the way it looks. He goes, but it looks like stage three. I go, what? He goes, it's a pro-plastic tumor, meaning it's like a mushroom. He goes, usually tumors grow like a nub.

He goes, and it spreads. He goes, yours grew a neck, and the fucking thing just blossomed like a mushroom. I said, and he goes, I got most of it out, and I did some biopsies around, but I like to see you in three months, and I want to go back in.

If not, we're going to have to cut you surgically and remove like eight inches of your intestine. Yeah, so that's a great way to fucking go home with this. so now I'm sweating the biopsy he calls me and he goes I was right he goes stage three

so go what do we do he goes I want you to come in a little sooner than this and I went in again put me under I was bleeding how much he was fucking biopsying me and whatever but he kept pulling and pulling he was right next to my appendix and he was pulling and pulling he was I pulled so much

he goes you're bleeding but I got it he goes and we're going to biopsy those 30 pieces came back gone It's, I mean, it's there, but it's malignant. He got it. Luckily, the way it grows, the blood is given the top of it, you know, to survive, the blood. That was the cancerous part. It didn't go and start to spread yet because it usually goes that way.

And that's what he was telling me. So he goes, I need you to come every three months, but I want to send you for radiation therapy. I was just going to say, do you have to take chemo or anything after that? Yeah, they sent me. I went to this place in Jersey, St. Joseph's, it's a cancer place. And I went there alone, no ex-wife. She didn't come with me. My son was devastated because, you know, I had to tell my son because, you know, what do you do?

You know, you got the apple of your eye here. You know what I'm saying? You got this new life. And I was just like, just, I was bewildered. I was shocked. I didn't know what the, I didn't know if I was going to live. And I didn't want my son see me wasting away from being this big fucking powerhouse to be a fucking, you know, right, you know, fucking AIDS patient.

So I don't know It's just really I'm just holding it back It's all right It was just really devastating for me All right And I went through six sessions of chemo They would give me an injection

They would put this machine on me It's kind of like a x-ray machine And it would thump and whatever For like 15 minutes And I had to put this You know, the thing in my vein And started getting this metal taste After the second, third

By the fourth I was like That's all like taste. It was metal. I had no, I didn't have a taste for food because everything tastes like tinfoil. Everything. Even if I wanted to like drink chocolate milk, didn't taste like chocolate milk. It tastes like fucking metal and something thick, you know. And I went in for another colonoscopy. They did an oncology tests. They said there's nothing in my bloodstream. There's no markers. There's no nothing. But I got to go constantly every six to eight months to get

another colonoscopy to make sure there's no polyps growing or whatever. And, and it's At the same time, I find out my ex is cheating. So, I kind of flipped out. And I'm going to leave that at that because that kind of opened up a can of worms about my past, and I kind of did some stupid shit. How long was this? 2014.

Okay. Actually, 2013 is when it all started happening. 2014. It was just, I already confronted her in 2013, and I said, you know, I want you fucking out. I want you to get the fuck out of here. And she was begging me, like, you know, for my son, whatever. And I didn't want my kid growing up

The way I grew up in a divorce house And I said, look, I could forgive you But I can't forget I said, but this motherfucker that you cheated I'm gonna put them in this fucking early retirement I'm gonna fucking take care of him She's like, no, this that, that, you know And she said she was gonna try

You don't forgive people When they do some shit like that When they do you dirty like that, walk away Right Because once they do it dirty And they see that they got away with it And you forgave them They'll do it a fucking again

Little in six months she was doing it again where I was putting spy gadgets in her car and microphones, key loggers. I was living just to catch her. And when I caught her, I was just, it was constantly like just us bickering. And then she was just yelling at, you know, at me in front of my son and spitting on me.

And I was just like, like, do I now beat the shit out of her in front of my kid? Then she tried to throw cases on me. She'd call the cops and be like, he hit me. She had a fucking mark here. And the cop who was like, well, how the fuck is that mark from him hitting you? And I go, yo, that's a defensive.

wound because I was grabbing her like this while she was clocking me in the face look at my face and my son is right there my son's going yeah my mommy hit my daddy but the cops motherfuckers the next morning they waited and they waited they I went to go take my son to school and they just stormed me in this little town of 2,000 people the whole police force for that town stormed me and the cop that arrested me was like get against the fucking car and I did I didn't fucking resist but the other cop was talking to my son and like literally going your daddy's a bad man he's going to go to fucking jail

how do you talk to a little fucking 9-10 year old like that I lost my shit I just like I don't know how I wrestled my hand away jumped over the fucking hood sort of jumping on this cop they were pulling me off they arrest me I'm screaming you don't know who the fuck I am like you know like you know meanwhile the cops already Googling my name

and he goes your name keeps coming up patch tattoos and this and you ran with the Giannini crew you ran with this one you ran with that one how come you don't have an arrest record. I was like my friend, good lawyers. And I'm like boasting. I'm sitting there in lockup boasting to this guy. And long story short, I spent some time in there. She didn't want to bail me to fuck out. And my son was begging and begging days of begging. Please, mommy, take my money from the bank. We had a little account for him set up. And she was like, no, no, no. And he was

begging. And I said, how could you make this fucking kid cry? Just bail me out. I'll go fucking Queens. I'll go live with my mom. So she bails me out. Now child welfare services get involved because we did this in front of our kid. Right. And we got them coming to the house saying I can't be in the house. I have to have a police escort in and out. So I go, okay, fine. So I go grab my kid. The cop goes, no, the kid stays here. I said, fuck no. I said, kid goes with me. My ex goes, yeah, the kid has to go with him because that kid won't stay with me. I didn't raise him. She said that on record in front of fucking child welfare services. Right.

So then we had to come to an agreement where we went to counseling. That didn't do fucking shit, you know. It's just, it's beyond repairable now. It's just done. Yeah, we're just, the animosities. Oh, dude, it was two ships passing in and I saying, fuck you to each other. You know, like, you know, like Pirates of the Caribbean, fuck you, fuck you, just passing each other. You know, I don't even like talking about it because it was such a fucking horrendous period.

And my son hates his mother and hates all that shit that she did and put, you know, I was trying to do an opposite and raise him a different way. and it just looks like the ball rolled in that circle that I was raised in. I gave up. Let the bank take the fucking house

didn't pay the mortgage didn't pay fucking jack shit. She tried to be friendly which was bewildering to me. Like, hey, come, gives me a kiss like to see the kid. I'm just like,

yo, like don't fucking come kiss me. Like, God knows what your mouth has been, you know? And she's just like, well, you know, I'm trying to be cordial

in front of the kid. I go, you didn't think about that where you were spitting on me and yelling and saying I'm a fucking thief. I'm a bum. I'm a, you know, I'm a gangster.

I said, you didn't think about that then, right? And she's just like, you know, whatever it was, I went back to Queens, and she knew that when I was in Queens, she was powerless. She'd come by to house to see the kid. The kid wouldn't want to see her. You know, Marco, my son would just be like, I don't want to talk to mom. And I'd be like, you have to. And she'd be like getting all tizzy, and I'd be like, you know where you are, right?

I was like, I make one phone call. It's done for you. And then one of my friends happened, this gangster drove by. He hates her. uh he drove by and um joe this uh johnny de santis he drives by my my cell phone rings and i'm like hey what's up johnny and he's just like was that your fucking ex-cunt he's the why's she talking to you in front of your fucking house and i'm like ah johnny i don't know she wants to see the kid fuck her she lost privileges to marco if i turn this fucking corvette around i'm like uh okay

like you know that's how it was you know so you know for that one year i was doing what I was doing but I was like I said six months and I just like I have to get out of Dodge I can't do this and then we we came here I met a girl in the process which I didn't want to meet nobody I'm sitting in front of the school where I'm picking up my son this is up there up there in Queens yeah and um I'm talking to this other Serbian girl Serbian gypsy girl and here comes my you know my now girlfriend she walks in front I kind of like cock block her you know that to talk to this other girl and she goes look at you and I'm like what do you fucking want you know and she's like who the fuck you are and I'm like you don't know who the fuck I am this one's

going he's pedge patch tattoos everybody knows him you know fuck him like you know I was like fuck you know and the next the next day this girl goes hey she's interested in you I was like she was cursing me out how fuck is she interested in me you know and we started talking on the phone and it was one of those we got on the phone we couldn't get off right and she'd come by my house she had a problem she was still with her ex-husband and i was like you need to get rid of your man i can't i can't do it i'm not a you know a person to break up in marriage you know you got to think about your kid first i'm thinking about my kid she just came around as a friend came around as a friend and she finally tried to get rid of him and we hooked up uh kicking he asks is that

i'm friends with her family like me and her dad go back back in the day she's uh 36 years old so she's way younger than me. So me and her dad go way back. So there's kind of an embarrassment coming into the house as now, you know, her boyfriend, you know, because I'm the same age as her mom. So it's just kind of like, you know, a really awkward situation, but they accepted me. They're great people, you know. And I'm with her and she stood by me all this time.

She knows my past. She knows who I was and what I'm about. And she still knows that I'm capable of going to an extreme. Like if somebody touches my family, like God forbid somebody touches my son. I don't I'd go to prison that I that's that's a given that's a given you know what I mean but I don't stick up for my friends no more like I used to I've taken bullets for my friends I've been shot I've been stabbed I got jinged over here with a bottle of Corona oh I got stabbed in the back in the kidney it's I mean I got in crack with a bat in a

bar fight we get outside this guy just pulls out a bat I turn around bang right split my wig I just laid on the floor I saw stars I couldn't get up and I just see the guy going to hit me again and my friend just comes all well boom shoots him right in the fucking shoulder the guy goes down I grabbed the bat you want to fucking hit me with a motherfucker you know it's there's stories I mean I got tons of stories but I'm saving a lot of my stories for my book but I gave you some really gisty stories you know who I mean what are you have you have you completed no I've always started to write and it's like I've been reading up that when you want to write a book you need to every day set aside half an hour to one hour

you need to write regardless and you need to be relentless about this and no matter what the ideas are just jot them down, jot them down, jot them down, jot them down. My girlfriend goes, why don't you do that chat, whatever AI thing? And I said, because it's not going to sound like me. I'm going to tell it to write about me

and give it a couple of stories and it's going to make me out to be like some Harvard, you know. Well, and it also sounds, it just sounds fake. It just generalizes. It gives very general. They don't know what you know. Exactly. So Punch has been pushing.

And I was just like, you know what? Because when he heard my podcast, he goes, man, he goes, the stories you tell remind me a shit. And you planted the flag. And, you know, he goes, did you read my book? I'm like, yeah, I read your book. I read twice back to back. You know, stealing Manhattan? Awesome fucking book.

Get your book now. But yeah, I mean, have you written an outline? You know, I've started. This is gotten worse and worse. I have a spiral notebook where I started doing it and I get sidetracked. Like, I started doing themes for the podcast, like, because I want to do a podcast with my son. And I start writing ideas and I do these things where I do imitations. I do jokes.

I get stuck on one imitation. I'll do it for like two weeks. Like I walked around the house like two months ago doing Bain. You know, like, so we watched, you know, we watched Dark Night. And I'm just walking around the house going like, you know, Gotham City. You know, and then my son would be like, can you shut up? Now my new thing is, since this thing is going on in Israel, every time I hear Hezbollah, I go Hezbollah. You know, and it's just.

I go through the house and my son is just like, ah, this is annoying. To the point that everybody doesn't laugh anymore, they're just like, can you fucking bury it? So that's when I bury it and I work on my next, you know, imitation. So I was doing that.

But I have about 300 pages that I did write. I just have to make sense of them because there's days where I write eloquent. My ideas come out so perfect. They're run-on sentences. You need, you know, I need to, you know, go over it. But then there's like, quick story. stalking to a guy Mark Terra Grosa.

He was from my past. He did nine years. He was involved with this kind of thing with Frankie where, you know, they came to him while he was locked up and they said, hey, we're going to put you on this murder that you were there, even though you weren't there. You knew about it. Like you premeditated it. You knew it.

So we're going to throw that predicate on you and you're going to get hit with 20 years. He didn't even get a chance to finish his nine years. So he was just like, what do you want me to say? What exactly happened? He said what he had to say. They released him. Frankie gets pinched. So Mark went and did a podcast, and Mark was mentioning me.

And he was saying some stories. I literally forgot that I got high with Robert Downey Jr. Right. Totally forgot. We were in the Hamptons. We drove up there, like four or five of us. And Robert Downey Jr. is a little VIP thing. And we're drinking and we're like, hey, can we take a picture with you?

And he happens to notice that I'm doing. Right. You know, this. He's like, hey, I'm like, yeah? He was like, do you have? I'm like, yeah, sure. Let's go to the bathroom. Go to the bathroom.

we made a deal that night. He goes, well, how much do you have? And I said, well, I have this much. He goes, oh, shit, you're going to be with me all night. So hanging out with him, getting high, he's got an open bar tab. Right. He lets us go back to his house that he rented into Hamptons. He leaves at 11 o'clock in the morning because he's got to fly out to California.

We're still in his freaking house. Like, the guy's like, oh, you can stay as long as you want. I forgot that story because I was in a fucking high drunk stupor. Mark brings it up. And I'm like, but yo, we have pictures. of that. I remember now. Mark's like, yeah, we do have pictures. You have them. I'm like, where the fuck are they?

He goes, you got to look. So I tore my house up looking through boxes of photos. I lost a lot of photos in Sandy, in New Jersey. I got flooded. My basement got flooded. And I lost a lot of fucking precious fucking pictures. That's one of them. That would have been a great story.

And, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like, maybe even Robert would remember that, you know, because a bunch of wise guy kids from the neighborhood in the Hamptons, you know, This was when he had that little space between his teeth and all of that. You know, it was the early 90s. Pickup artist. Yes, yes, yes, yes, less than zero where he had to, you know.

That was a disturbing. Yeah, so, I mean, I got a lot of stories. And I don't want to put, like, you know, reading Pavla's book, you know, punch. He kind of left off the book where there's going to be a part two. You could feel it. The minute you end that book, you're like, this book isn't done, you know. So I don't want to do a part one, part two. I would rather do like we just did this, you know,

came to America and just write like each chapter for a part, like a little whatever, five, six years, because there's a lot of dark stuff that I didn't touch on that I still carry. Like, you know, I carry that stuff about my dad. I carried the stuff about my mom. You know, I was always alone, you know what I'm saying? So now that I got my son, my son is my best friend,

he makes me a better person. He's always the one telling me, let the guy go. Don't fucking pull him over. Like, I know you kick his ass and just let it go. It's not you anymore. And I got to do it. I mean, and I let it go, but old habits are hard to break. And if I could break the habit of not being in a life,

I could break the habit of not fucking knocking somebody off or looking at me the wrong way. You know what I mean? But it's a hard thing, but, you know, I'm looking to move up in this area as well. So getting out of like the clear water area is very busy. Up here, it's a little bit more laid back. Yeah.

So I'm going to come up this way and me and my, My girlfriend will maybe buy a place together. Her daughter and my kids stuff up here. Yeah, and the prices are dropping like crazy now. And a lot of New Yorkers are coming up this way too. And you're living in it. It's like the Truman Show. It's beautiful here.

It is like design. I like it that you're not in that complex where you have that gate and you got to come in. You know, like my friend lives in that complex. This is just like open, which is good. You know, I like it. So far back here. Like there's nobody coming back here to do anything. Yeah, but it's nice.

I like it. I live in that one little town in Jersey. No, that's what I'm saying. It's like you don't need a gate because nobody comes back. If you don't live back here, you're not coming back here. Yeah, yeah. And everything's brand new. Yeah, that's what I like about it.

And if you buy something to use, it's like five years old. Yeah. So, like, what's the big deal? I bought my condo, and my condo's, like, built in 2011. That's pretty new. I mean, I updated the kitchen and the bathroom, so I don't like the plastic tub walls and shit. So I put typical New York or floor-to-ceiling tiles, you know,

bull-nose edge, you know, granite here, this and that. That's just what we do in New York, you know. But, well. Yeah. Well, listen, are you, you feel good about that? Do you think of anything we didn't cover? No, we pretty much covered everything. You know, I'm healthy.

I'm cancer-free. Not in the life. I still keep in contact with a lot of people. Some people don't want to keep in contact me because they're moving up in that life. Right. And I won't mention their names because they're active members in the mob. And, you know, I don't want to fucking put any fucking radar signals, you know,

with the feds on them and this and that. But, yeah, my whole thing is like I started doing. doing podcasts to kind of like lay this out, let people know that, you know, I didn't have a father figure. If you could stay in school, stay in school. If you could like try to tiptoe around the law the best you can do it. Everybody's going to break the law a fucking little bit. You know what I mean? But, you know, just try to stay out of fucking trouble. I mean, you know, you did time. I never did any serious hard time. But I've paid for it in other fucking ways, you know. Like I've pissed away so much money. And I was just thinking about it.

the other day, at a given time, a given year. I was blowing on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday, like five to 10,000, you know, for the whole weekend. Just going out to titty bars, hanging out with guys, rubbing elbows, trying to make a connection. Like six months of spending money to make one, two maybe fucking connections, to have like another connection for cars or for gold or for watches. And, you know, it doesn't pay.

The money comes and the money fucking flows through your, It's like a, it's like having a basket that's weaved. You pick up the water. It just comes out, you know. It doesn't stay. It's a lot of money, but you're still going paycheck to paycheck. I mean, look, I'm lucky. I'm at a point.

I had a lot of real estate. I lost everything. You know, I liquidated a lot of shit. I got rid of everything. I had to give that one apartment building I had in Queens. I had to give half to my fucking X. She didn't deserve it, but, you know, it is what it is. You know, I can't sit there and say, well, I made it from illicit gains, you know.

So, whatever. I gave her half. Shame on. her because that would have been my sons it wouldn't have been mine you know i would have kept it from my son but it is what it is uh i got a few watches out of the you know deal i got some great stories i got a fucking lot of ink you know um i got a great kid and uh i'm good where i'm at now life you know all right all right we were i was i was hoping we were going to we were going to leave it off with the guy opening the door and saying i forgive you i understand and you guys

were gonna have a big hug hey if it didn't work out that way if it was me i would would have did the same thing like i'm sitting there like i'm waiting for the thing and i was like yeah that's that's not we're worrying this like this is horrible no no my stories don't ever end like that man i'm sorry man my stories are real um all right listen i i really appreciate you uh you coming by thank you i appreciate it it was a blast coming here yeah hey i appreciate you guys watching the interview checking out the podcast thank you very much please do me a favor subscribe if you like the video hit the bell so you get notified leave a comment we're going to leave some links in the description box really appreciate it see you