Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Mafia Life Exposed: Beatings, Snitches, and Survival

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

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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 in 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 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 and like the Gestapo and throw you in jail.

The other ones would just out of necessity because 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 uh 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 that's what my mom says and my dad you know he was you're not you're not you're not barefoot and hell's no hell's no yeah yeah so yeah so um yeah we came in the 70s uh i grew up around a lot of Italians in that area uh some Puerto Ricans uh 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. Just sadistic. You know, I had a pet parakeet. He broke its neck. You know. Sadistic shit. I'm just giving you a test 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 were 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 Mero 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 jobs, 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. smack her in the face, you know, he grabbed me, 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 in 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'm not, 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, worse than your dad? Yeah, not in a sedist. He was a sadist. He kind of was sadist. 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 town 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 shit you and I had such a cool security guard no this security guard Mr. Andrews you know 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 till after school, and I need, you know, 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, it's my mom's boyfriend's gun, and I just wanted 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, yeah, I did stupid shit like that, you know. He just was a bad influence. He was putting in my head at that age. to be disrespectful to women, you know, just, just all over bed. Like nothing, wasn't a good father figure at all, you know. But he was that gangster, you know, he was a black belt and hop keto, taught me dirty pool. I used to get beat on as a kid, and he put me in karate,

taught me the dirty pool, even took on my sensei, because I said back then you used to be able to get hit by your teacher. What is dirty pool? Pretty pool. Okay, you know you have the foundation of karate or whatever, you know, art you're taking. 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 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, kind of, I don't know if I should say this, but 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 right that's where I started my life for crime you could say I um started boosting uh 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 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 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. And then I would sell them. I'd go to, like, Bushwick and go to the Puerto Ricans and be like, you want to buy a bike, give me $30. And then I hop on the bus for $0.50, come back to Glendale. You know, and it was a pocket full of money. Yeah, pocket full of money for, you know, a 12, 13 year old kid. That's phenomenal, you know.

I'd 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, you know, and then my mom and him came back. He tried to, like, kick me out the house, try 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 some of them have similarities. But what was the guy that had the dog that was in New York? In New York, you know what I'm talking about? He found the dog and everything. Remember, he, like his family, like, his dad, like, threw him out when he was like 12 or 13. 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 still trying to go to school. And it's just 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 none or you can't forgive me or whatever. Yeah, of course I do. I'm a father now, you know. But 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 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 um 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 XIV, 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. And 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 laid out that guy, Michelangelo. 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 going 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 it 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 i was say when you're you know what i think a lot of people don't realize is like you 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 you want to emulate them of course but of course everybody that you're saying surrounding you? Well, it all started with that guy that my mom brought home. Right. Um, you know, I'm gonna say straight up. The guy's a piece of shit. I mean, I've ran into him after, you know, I'll get into that later, but, you know, 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. He didn't step up. He just, you just, you know, he just, he's a 70-something, but at the time. He just, he kind of like back down you know i also found that he ended up being a rat you know 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 so well you know it is i didn't have a father figure right right this was the only thing i had um it's just he was in my life all those years it was it was

devastating to me when he planted coke on me, you know. Right. And I told my mom, yeah, I smoke 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 said, oh, 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 place. Right. And it just, I don't know what ended up happened. I guess she got tired to get, you know, beat and whatnot. And it was the next guy, you know, and then the next guy. And 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. My mom kind of witnessed this back in the old country that that's it. They just take you and put you in, you know, a camp, a work camp. And they put her in a work camp. And 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 guy, looking for, you know, a father for you. Because my grandfather died tuberculosis who my mom was three.

So, you know, it's like a circle of suffering that just keeps, 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's 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, 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.

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Shop now at IKEA.ca. I think when people do come down from vacation and when they see it on TV, it's totally different. It's not, Florida is basically like Georgia, South Carolina. Yeah. You know, there's cow pastures and there's dairy farms and there's farms and there's orange grows. and everybody sees the beaches and the Miami and that that's not

it's not 5, 10% of Florida it is it is yeah it's pick up trucks and yeah you know it took me it took me two years to get used to when I first came down 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 up on, yo, Pedge, how you don't? You got a car here. Oh, you can't walk anywhere here. Like, one time I had to, 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 a cross, I had across a, 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 um compared to new york it's this it's so much country country everybody here it is and i mean 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 uh for some tv program listen even seeing it on tv i was unprepared of course for how massive yes new york is i mean i'm just like we and you should have seen both of us sit in the back of this this uh this like it's like almost like a mini tokyo like with the people crossing streets and unison and everything it's 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 i'm i'm good yeah i'm good she's i'm ready to go i was like yeah yeah me too yeah it's it's 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 don't move. Like, they would just pull out a 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 um 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 joko poca machines you know it's funny you know it's like getting out of prison after 13 years and come back to tampa it's like 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 into a couple of people

in the gym and 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 it, I think, I think Marlino's out here this way, too. Marlino's in, and he's in Palm Beach.

Oh, he's in Palm Beach, so he's on the East Coast? Yeah, 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 John 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. He went back to me.

Yeah, that's the one. Yep, it's him. Jim Borrella. Yeah, good for you, man. But, yeah, so like getting back to started 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 whacked. But Ralphie Schull used to work in the pizzeria and deal a little Coke, you know. Took a liking to me. I used to give him mixtapes. He'd like, hey, 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 pinkie 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 stone cold fucking killer I used to see him in the neighbor that 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 what you think was funny oh yeah you know it's one of those like that joe pesci thing it's exactly like that but that face of his it just would like you you shit yourself i got that guy vito guzzo survived i think two attempts on his life they 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 a big so yeah so that was my my my team since they didn't marlino shot someone with like a fucking an oozy or something yeah some shit like that yeah and they had the philadelphia mob wars no yeah that's just i mean i'll give you a story um i've said the story before we're sitting

at playing cards in a little social club and this guy uh frankie furtolino you know he was uh up and coming uh his brother was made guy in the in the bananas and he comes in and he's like hey what's up sits down with two of his guys he 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 decards 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 uh 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 minkie 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 comes 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 fungulo he's yelling at it's like in the time and this and that we're just like trying to get in our cars to get the fuck out of dodge 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 know, they 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 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. just hear through the grapevine. Yeah, they found him 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, they're your best fucking friends.

You'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 the social club for the Serbian... Yeah, some problems. Oh, yeah, he's... He's a fucking trip, you know?

And he turned around and he, uh, 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, she's talking to me in Romanian. What's going on? What's going on? I turned it in Serbian because Romanian is a romance language, like Italian. Frankie can pick up on it. So I was just like in Serbian.

I need to go with him somewhere. She's like, are you coming back? You know? But she said in Romanian, 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 to 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 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 I'm going I know this guy Got a gun to my fucking back You know I 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 him in garbage bags now I'm a couple of you know fall down I'm like trying to bend over pick him up they're all hovering over me like this and over here I'm just like yo I go I got to 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 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 a side run. I say, 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 going to get fucking whack. You know, typical mob scene type shit. It's insane. That's just like one. One of the stories, I've had like five of those with other people.

It's not, it's an uneasy feeling, you know? That's why I got the nickname, Pedge 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'd 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'm filling 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 is it like when you see somebody nothing it's cold it's like it doesn't I go I can 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 or 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 going to say what I was thinking I've got no reference, but actually prison is the reference where like The first day I got there saw somebody 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 my sally which I met 20 minutes earlier right said oh someone got stabbed on the rec yard And I thought I go someone just got killed and he goes nah they just stabbed them up a little bit

They're not trying to kill it I didn't realize till later that yeah they're not trying to kill you No no no what to stab you four or five times to prove the point It hurts you. It gets you Gets them some respect But they don't want you to die Of course not So but you know

And you And of course I have I've seen people get stabbed And I've seen What I've seen Which is worse Is getting hit with a lock Like 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 Complaint 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. And he falls right in front of myself. Boom. And I look and I'm like, and you knew the way he rocked back and forth. He's done. There's no muscle control. It's over. And I my first thought was, because I'd been in the medium

for three years, but this was at the low, was that the moment someone... For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffer or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. 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 and thinking, Damn, did I just step over that dude's body? You did? Like, and I was like, like, didn't think it.

You don't have time to process. Yeah, 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 word? 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. After a bit, like, I had to go back to Bosnia. That's where my dad is from. Man, I had to go back to Bosnia in early 90s. So how old are? 20.

Okay. 1920. 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 or you have a neutralized 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 and 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 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 coming entering again. Okay. So I was just like, you know, I don't really speak the language grade and they would 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, it was, 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 what's 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 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. 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 wholesale weekend. Yeah. It's a whole history thing just sucks. 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 and 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... because me being from America, I kind of like also purposely spoke broken servian. I was just 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. I mean, I fucking do. 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, uh, 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 that I grew up with was up and coming.

Like, everybody was making it bones. One of my friends got like three bodies already. You know, and it's just like, 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. Right.

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, 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. Yeah. 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 in the ass. But if, you know, anybody from back in the day remembers me and will, 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 out the fucking door

and I'm like yo you know who I am like you know I could cause some fucking real harm to you yeah what the fuck you're gonna do this and that you're an Italian fucking

you're with the Italians go kiss their balls or whatever and 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 never shot anybody in the chest I mean you know there was shoot ass that we had where um guys came to our social club and they just opened sprayed with a fucking oozy on us uh we came out everybody's shooting and shit uh there was one one situation with my friend e I'm not gonna say

his full name because he's living a legit life now I don't I don't think he you want anybody to know, but these guys from Howard Beach came to fuck him up, and they come out, they parked their, uh, Coupe deville right on the corner, they just jumped out and they came out with like bats and whatever and they're swinging out my

boy and my boy's just holding the fucking 38 like this, but he can't do it, he can't shoot he's just like, uh, like you know, 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, 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

jumped from the passenger to the driver, jumps, just puts the car in gear, puts his, you know, like a 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 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. 20s, yeah. 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 using 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 and punch. at five, I'd leave at 11, I'd get to go to the social clubs and hang out until 4 or 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, 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. 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 could have made bail. I got cough for something, you know. It was a week, two weeks at the most that I was ever in.

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 what. 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. get in the jail it's all like you can figure they'll ask you where you from what's your hood and you say bushwig or you say you know ridgewood you know you say oh yeah you know this guy and that's what saves you'd be like oh i know benjie 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 give you like a little package that you know saying like they take care you know you know the deal you go to prison the guys will come exactly so you know um then they'd be talking and finding out who you 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 uh two weeks like i said and like the fourth day they came and they asked me they're like uh you want to run with us so i thought they were gonna like right away brand me or something like i i didn't know what to expect you know and they were just like nah 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 else i was with the nietas uh 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 this language is all the same, but it's not.

You know, each click is different and whatever. So what were you in there for two weeks for? Gun possession, stolen car, and I don't know, whatever else, they found some coke in the car or something like that. So they, you know, they just drum up charges. So the car wasn't stolen? Yeah, it was. But it's not a drummed up charge.

But it wasn't hot wired. 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, 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, 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 my, 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. Because, 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 ratin you know yeah explain to me when the feds came around looking for me I

didn't want to be there there I don't want to have that I don't want to have a conversation with them 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 a 90 I'm gonna say 94 could be 93 there was a there was a murder, this guy, Toma Shine. 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 car. Hey, so what did you want to talk about? Well, I want to tell you about Wagovi.

Wagovi? Yeah, Wagovi. What about it? On second thought, I might not be the right person to tell you. Oh, you're not? No, just ask your doctor. About Wagovi. Yeah, ask for it by name.

Okay, so why did you bring me to the circus? Oh, I'm really into lion tamers. You know, with the chair and everything. Ask your doctor for Wagovi by name. Visit wagovi.combe.com for savings. Exclusions may apply. Ours. 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 straight,

fucking piece of shit. So he was working with that guy and he would come to me in his 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. 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 taped 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 Frederick Reichovic, yeah. He's like, where were you last night? I was like at the social club, this and that, 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 hugger.

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 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 try 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? So I don't fucking know. I really don't. 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 leaves him down the street from your house?

No. The body was found down the block from my house. 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 what I'm saying, down the traffic. Because you can burn it, there's no surveillance, no cops. And it's not going to burn the whole, there's no houses down. 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 lame was because he 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

frankly frankly actually got he got caught cleaning up the mess so when the cops came in because the place was on the 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 them. He disappears. He goes, MIA for like a year and change.

And, I mean, I keep going around like Frankie's stories. I'm sorry. Well, 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 on 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 preston and we talked to the Fed guy. was there. Now, the Fed guy was there because 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. Frankie 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 and you know 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 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, 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 and

motor vehicles and say can you give us a print out of this and this the guy would uh 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 dollars 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 in a car.

On the quick, on the quick. So it got to the point that everybody in the neighborhood 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. 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 did a jury tampering case for John Gotti, he fled. He just took off. It wasn't really, you know, the mafia was, everybody was getting pinched. That was right before Gravana got pinched and all of that. So Bosco left. He had a casino already in Serbia.

He had a casino and a nightclub. So he was a Serbian underlord, you know, over there. He had his own crew. 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. 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 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 see this guy in Belgrade. Go see this guy in Verschrots. Go see this guy in this other town.

And I'd make a little coin. My family didn't like it because there's a thing 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 know? And basically, I did my dirty pool. and I was doing MMA before MMA was big. Like I did Hapkido, I did Muay, 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 there. And then I'd come back and get my feet

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. You know, it kept $1,000 a week in my pocket, you know, helped out my mom with the rent and whatever. But 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 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, eight months, like, 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, of 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. 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 have guys going to virginia same shit bringing them in 2199 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 um yeah i did i did a lot of A lot of crimes, a lot of things. Do I have regrets? Yes and no. Yes and no. I mean, I have regrets for the things I got caught. 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 the 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 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, 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 got to come up with something like you know something that you're gonna bang out some money but don't get greedy don't go banging out a lot like you did well i you know i was gonna say was it's it's funny because 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 it's like you don't always like to me I've got two, three hundred thousand dollars 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, like I could, but I could buy the, house for 50 grand and I can this you know on the sign and I can 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 is that you know I had that hustle drive where I always had that hustle drive yeah coming here the first two years I was always on the hustle like you know I would 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 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 gonna give you 15 I say you know my cut I mean okay guys I should be saying this now Because guys are 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 Right Because I've gotten scumbagged in the past I've got people that have taken me For a ride

And it went undercut me It went straight you know But I mean I've dabbled in everything I dabbled in weed Most of the guys that I dabbled with Now they're all legit You know they all got

Legit 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 Reach out to you and say Hey I got this thing I need you to And I'll be honest In the beginning Yeah It was like

You know Favors would get called in Like hey Pedge you know You got to connect for this and I'd be like yeah and I'd be like my head would just the way you said in your 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 right my kid and be like you know I'm 50 some years old

I could go away for a long fucking time um I mean I could do the favor so what I would end up doing is I'd reach out to my 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. guys get pinched anyway so they're not reaching 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 there's a saying in serbian 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 yeah they'd be like oh you know i'm doing something i'll hit you up later never fucking hit me up. So 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 pizza cereas and I would be ordering calamar clams this calzones nothing everything be on the cuff they would never charge me like oh it's good pege don't worry about i were like 6070 dollars with their food oh page don't worry about it's okay I'd blow red lights cops will pull me over I'd have like 18 pba cards I'd be like here you go oh yeah I know who you run away you know 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 Bellich. Nico Belich is a Serbian guy from Bosnia. So my 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 that 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 and 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 he was supposed to clip me because this guy said, Pedge this and this and he lied and this guy just came 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 Pedge 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 myself 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, so it's 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, kissing 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 Siesta Key. So my condo is my base of operations. Then I'd come and hang out in Tampa by my godfather's house.

And then I'd rent a hotel in Orlando and I'd 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, 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 walking in my fucking footsteps at all. And it was the hardest thing. I used to sit here and curse Florida. I used to be like, I fucking hate it here because, you know, going from that atmosphere where you know everybody, you were a wanted guy. Everybody loved you, everybody feared you. You know, I don't have that here.

You know, I walked down the street, I'm nobody. First year I was here, Skinhead fucking tried to step to me. Literally in the mall. Step to me, said some shit. 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, oh, what are you going to fucking do about it?

He's got a Nazi swastika here. He's got, he's like, tatted up. He's got at least like seven inches on me, 30 pounds on me. And I'm just like, yo, I'm going to 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 Corz bag. bang bang I'm flying down the escalator yo this is in the middle of a 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 gonna murder this guy like call the cops before I murder this guy I chase them 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 a fucking LA fitness on 580 come see me you motherfucker and the cops 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, 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 six months. Yeah, next time I got to take care of him, 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, you know, for real, I grab a fucking dumbbell and crack you in the head like do you know who I am and I hear 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 on I'm like for real like it's insane bro i was gonna say you're not i mean i'm not this is only 17 and a half inch arms but

i was way bigger before bro i take test i mean you know got it yeah yeah yeah doctor you go in they're like yeah test your shit and they're like here let me give you something yeah you get older and they'll they'll you know yeah yeah you're you're an older guy now i am you're my age we're i was born in 69 yeah too 69 bro listen everything's not yeah you go to the gym and and i hurt for four days afterwards oh no i'm like i i used to be a able to train like so intense. I can't 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 a hundred percent but you'll be 75 to 80 I'm 75 to 80 I am but I can't I can't train intense I used to be able to do like 120 pound dumbbells fuck if I do 70s and I do 70s for reps I do like 35 40 reps sets of four you know um 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 my son is stockier than me like when when I was my son's age I was a fucking crackhead I was like so skinny my son very

stock 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 aren't you're not five seven no I'm like five six oh one inch right really it means a lot put lifts in your shoes man

I mean that one in that's with the lifts um insane how do you uh so the the guy that connected us is is punch somebody I've done an interview with him we're supposed to do another one how do you know him. Okay. So he's got a story that. Oh, dude, dude. I, um, I did another podcast before and that's how I brought up the situation of, uh, and the stories about the Serbian mob, because I want to plant the flag. I want to plant the flag for the Serbian, uh, um, community. Because, you know,

it's great that I was a mob associate with the Gambinos and the bananas. It's, it's all, it's all, you know, it's all, uh, peaches and cream. But I was running around with the, 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 voyislav stanemirovich 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 Voia. So I said Uncle Voia in Serbian is Chickavoia. So I was like, nice to meet you Chickavoia. 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 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 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 the little eye thing. And he's looking to go, this is fucking phenomenal. He goes, you're a good. And of course, he's like, oh, I can only give you 60 on. 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 uh 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 of G's 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. They would steal the jewelry.

They would steal the Rolexes, 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.

It's like one in 40 piece. Like only 40 of them are made. He goes, let me hold on to it. I'll see if I can get you at least 20, $25,000 for it. Of course I'd low ball the thing. And be like, oh, you can only get you. 50 you know whatever um 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 uh get me four grand for this rolex it's an eight thousand dollar 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 you want a roly for six they'd be like oh i give you uh five and a half you know i'm still making money the guy wanted $1,500, 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, I 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 it, 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 up I'll just wear this you know I was 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 yeah they had their deposit in the bank yep they had like you know 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 in this perfect loan of course I 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. Oh, yeah, yeah. The, 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. You could do it. And it was a challenge. It was fun. That was exciting. Yeah, exactly. The guy that can go to his credit union is like, 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 just 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 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 depart 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 came away what i forgot i think he like eight million in gems and it was 20 million in cash on the fucking floor that the

next day his dad was like hello stupid you 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'm 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 biontie thing and well these are like x these are like summer x yes some summer x some are just i'mma 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 And 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 you know Except for the heist And like that he was doing 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 your double-headed eagle and put it inside he goes you don't need to put a target on you 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 serbian you're with serbian you speak and act when you're Italian 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

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 was doing a lot of fucking care of shit, you know, carjacking, I mean, you name it, he was doing it. Well, I was just, you were just getting off on it. The interview was, you know, like I told you, his, his Wi-Fi was messed up,

but 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 uh new york or wherever he is um and do a podcast but i saw a a documentary called i want to say was it's something about spider man they were calling this guy spider man right he was in france right robbing and he was he would climb up the side of a building yes jump from building to building yep it's insane and the whole documentary is really only about five people yeah like they did This whole document, they only talk 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 Dish. Right. The Diamond Dish. He's going into an actual commercial building. It's insane. And fixing the alarms, cutting through the drive. wall to get around this you know punch into 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

and it's insane because like we knew who punch was in the streets we all knew you know and um 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 it was like oh luftanza 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 sort of 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

would work 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 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 of silver and gold on

Plus he's a big tall dude He slides down he almost breaks his leg you know It's 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 and 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 acetylene torches, 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 heists where I was fucking scared shitless. Could you imagine like a $20 million heist? 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'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 yeah 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 some 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 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. 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. Listen, I honestly think, I talked 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'd probably be right then been like, you know what I'm done.

I'm done. Yeah. I'm going to go to a job. I'm going to sell used cars. I'm good. Yeah. 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 oh i got i was pretty cocky like i also

well you're young dumb and full of come the age takes a lot of it does it does you get to a point where you start going is it worth screaming 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 you when you first started like in 20s um i was late 20s like 29 30 yeah and then went for you know it didn't end up going to prison till like 37 38 you thought you were invincible i thought of course i'm i'm superman of mortgages you know arrogant prick you know just you know just think nothing can touch me they're never gonna they're not smart enough to catch me yeah just a jerk off yeah you know and it's funny

you said do i regrets every once in a while you'll talk to somebody and they'll like 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. It's 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 an 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 with, 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, forgiving 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 Mary. 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 asks he goes but this guy sticking out to you yeah go find him go knock 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's 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. Are you still limping? 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's the 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 Spat I mean luggy

It was like right in my eye It 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 my guy bobby glasses about this because this could end up being really bad and i poked 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

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, Pedge is this, Pedge is that. Yeah, Pedge shot me. But, you know, whatever the story may be. And nothing ever, you know, came to flirtation 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, well, why'd you go over there and poke that bear? I said, my priest told me, oh, you got a conscious now. I said, you know, I don't how to explain it. Like I said, I've done a lot of shit wrong. And maybe because I was drunk or I was high or whatever the story may be, 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 gonna stay with my kid like and I raised my kid my ex-wife was a horrible fucking person she got up after 30 days and 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 you 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 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 just 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 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 in my fucking life, you know? Right. And, um, 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, uh, colon cancer, uh, guy. Yeah, I got diagnosed, um, with stage

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, they 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 of 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 Salad it's 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 a two pound fucking steak you know but yeah so 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 siesta 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 yeah caught a cheating so i got rid of it just in nick of time did a little under the table fucking jam with a guy you know so uh she don't know about that fuck you bitch and um yeah so um yeah um and then um i went to the doctor like i was feeling something was off like i don't they say that you know when you get the big see you know whatever right just feeling something was off wasn't feeling right and went to the doctor it did the colonoscopy his face was a little different like usually when I

I wake up after colonoscopy, he 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 gonna 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, 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 yeah they yeah they they sent me i went to this place in uh in jersey uh st joseps 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 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 being a fucking you know right you know fucking AIDS patient so um I don't know it's it's just really I'm just holding it back all right it was just really devastating for me all right and um 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 the thing in my vein

and started getting this metal taste after the second, third. By the fourth, I was like, that's all I tasted 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 tasted like fucking metal and something thick, you know? and I went in for another colonoscopy.

They did 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 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 it 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 going to put him in this fucking early retirement. I'm going to fucking take care of him. She's like, no, this, that, you know and um 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 all 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 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 uh she was just yelling at you know at me in 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 uh she'd call the cops and be like he hit me she had a fucking mark here and the cop who's 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 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 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 him, he 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. started 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, meanwhile, the cop's 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. You know, 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 ahead 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 it was the animosities That's not dude Oh dude it was two ships passing in and I Saying fuck you to each other You know like like you know

Like Pirates of the Caribbean Fuck you, fuck you You just pass on 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 He 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 and I'm just like yo like don't fucking come kiss me like what do god knows where 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 was 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 the 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 this gangster drove by he hates her uh he drove by and um Joe this uh Johnny DeSantis he drives by 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 like why she talking to you in front of your fucking house and I'm like 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, okay. 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 was just like, I have to get out of Dodge. I can't do this. And then 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 I'm talking to this other Serbian girl, Serbian gypsy girl,

and here comes my, you know, my now girlfriends. She walks in front. I kind of like cock block her, you know, 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 think 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, you know. And 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 a 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 kicking he asses that I'm friends with 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 right because i'm the same age as her mom so it's 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'd 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 uh 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 over boom shoots him right in the fucking shoulder guy goes down I grabbed the bat you want to fucking hit me with a motherfucker fucking bat you know 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 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. 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. Well, it generalizes. It gives you very general. They don't know what you know. Exactly. So, punch has been pushing.

And I was just like, you know what? Because he, 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 I've started I have worse and worse I have I have a spiral notebook where I started doing it and I get sidetracked I started doing themes for the podcast like because I want to do a podcast with my son 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 a house like two months ago doing bane you know like so we watched you know we watch dark night and I'm just walking around the house going like you know Gotham city you know and then

my son 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, oh, 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 go 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 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. 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, you know, he was 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 gonna 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 in the 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, his fucking pitches. That's one of them.

That would have been a great, like, 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 and the Hamptons, you know, this was when he had that little space between his teeth and all 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 can feel at the minute you end that book, you're like, ah, 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, I 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 can't. 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. 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?

Right. 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 Clearwater 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 girlfriend and 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. It's like design. I like it that you're not in that complex where you have that gate and you've got to come in.

You know, like, my. My friend lives in that complex. This is just, like, open, which is good. You know, I like it. You're so far back here. Like, there's nobody coming back here to do anything. Yeah, but it's nice. I like it.

I lived 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 is like built in 2011. That's pretty new. I mean, I updated the kitchen in 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 it? 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 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 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 I got a few watches out of the deal I got some great stories I got a fucking lot of ink, you know I got a great kid and I'm good where I'm at now in life, you know. All right.

I was hoping we were going to leave it off with the guy opening the door and saying, I forgive you, I understand. And you guys were going to have a big hug? Hey, if it didn't work out that way. If it was me, I would have did the same thing. Like I'm waiting for the thing and I was like, yeah, that's not we're wording this. This is horrible. No, no.

My stories don't ever end like that, man. I'm sorry, man. My stories are real. All right. Listen, I really appreciate 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.

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