Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Meeting Movie Stars In Prison

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Meeting Movie Stars In Prison

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Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes, too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. I looked at them and I went, so the guys that made the hangover movies are going to make a movie about your life. And you're not going to make a dime on it. And he goes, now he's starting to get worried.

You understand what those movies are? I go, they're going to make a movie. called, dude, where's my hand grenade? And they're going to make you look like an idiot. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and we're going over part six in the videos about me, basically my prison experience. Is that what I'm going to call it? Like, my prison experience.

So at this point, I just went from the medium security prison to the low security prison. I've been locked up, I was locked up three years in the medium security prison. I was locked up one year in the Marshalls holdover or multiple Marshalls holdover. But so far I've been in prison like four years. Listen, it's been four years and I really like there's an issue. Like I'm at the point now where I realize that I'm not, you know, I'm not going to get my sentence reduced. I get that's really where where I'm on that like it's it's at that point so I um you know I'm I'm at the prison and did I tell you that did I mention ever mention that this is when the FBI starts showing up like they showed up at the medium one time I think they showed up one time like at the medium anyway so I'm not now at the low security prison and I'm at the low and I basically go to I go to the

education department I actually know some guys from the medium that have gone to the low now at this point so I see some of those guys one of those guys was this guy Kevin Weeks I mentioned him in another video and I remember he started shit he was super smart really sharp guy he had started shaving his head completely bald because he was going bald and his hair was thinning and he shaved his head for like a six months or something and he looked like um shoot what is the guy what is Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor Kevin Weeks looked like what Lex Luthor and I remember everybody started calling him Lex Luthor in my phone I have a picture of Lex Luthor so on him for his phone number

my point is is that I'm in the low and I go to education and I meet the guy who's teaching the real estate class. And when I meet him, we talk and he's teaching the class. And I think after a couple months went by, he came to me and he said, look, I don't want to teach the class anymore. Because you can't, like, I can't go in. You can't teach two classes. And the second thing is, you know, I didn't want to take, like, what am I, how am I, there's no way for me to take over his class.

Like, he has to give it up. So he says, comes to me and he says, listen, man, I don't want to teach the class anymore. I'm focusing on my, on my case. and he had a case where he was in real estate too it's amazing how many real estate guys and there's really very few real estate guys but it just so happens that they click up right away so i meet him and i start taking over the real estate class and it immediately people start coming and it becomes the same thing all over again the difference was at the medium you could teach a class where i could teach some kind of gray stuff like gray areas and in the low you can't

teach any gray areas because in the low it's really just packed with guys that are desperate to get out of prison they're all non not all nonviolent but most of them are nonviolent and they just they don't want to be there like they don't want to be in prison and you know and they're they're telling on each other left and right not that they aren't at the medium but the medium it could go bad for you like you could get stabbed and at the low like there's it's funny because I hate to say this because they were stabbing at the low there were guys cutting each other with razors and there were attacks and there were there's all kinds of stuff happening at the low but uh it just wasn't as tense of an environment and it was what's called a uh it was there were

controlled moves but it was it was also an open compound so during the day they had controlled moves where you had to at the beginning of each hour towards the beginning of each hour you had like 10 minutes to get to where you were going but after chow like after you ate lunch or dinner at like five or six o'clock it was an open compound until they closed the compound at nine o'clock which means that all the doors were open you could walk around the compound they closed the wreck yard but everything else was open so i'm at the low and i end up teaching the real estate class again and I decide at that point and I already said like I'd been on American greed I'd been on Dateline um I had a reporter contact me and he wrote an article on me and I would get reporters every

once a while and I was contacted by some of these TV shows um I was contacted by like uh who was I contacted by there's a TV show called I almost got away with it um I was contacted by another TV show that had been started by the same people who did Dateline. You know, but the thing is they, you know, they couldn't interview me. They could interview me on the phone, but they couldn't come and see me. So that never happened. Oh, I was contacted by the show. Shoot, what was it called?

Locked up abroad. Still, they couldn't get cameras in, so they just said, they were like, yeah, okay, we thought we could get cameras in to do your. to interview you on film, but if we can't, we're not interested in doing a piece on you. But by this point, I realize, like, there's a lot of interest in my case. And so I decide, you know, what I'm going to do is I've been reading nonstop. Like, I've been reading two books a week, at least two books a week. Well, one or two books a week for three years now.

So I decided, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to start writing my story. So I start writing my story. And I wrote a version, you know, I wrote my story, and it was about 300 pages. You know, it was actually more than that typed on a Swintech typewriter and, you know, handwritten and everything. But in the end, it was roughly about, at that point, it was roughly 300 pages. So which 300 pages roughly, 90,000 words, maybe a little bit more.

And I started letting guys read it. And, you know, they were like, oh, you know, this could be better. this you know they'll they'll tell you different things and then i actually wanted to start sending it off and i i got a book sent in called um how to write query letters and it was the it was all i also got a letter in called the literary agents guide so you you really can't go directly to like someone like simon and schuster someone like simon and schuster or penguin books or whoever they if they would come to you or like so there's like the big you know there's double day and those kinds of big companies,

they would, if they came to you and said, we want you to write your book or we want you as a writer or we want to hire someone to write your book, that's really how it works. But if you say, hey, I've written a book and I want to contact these people,

you really can't go directly to like Simon & Schuster because they're so big, they don't really deal with authors individually. They deal with literary agents. So I need to contact a literary agent. So first thing I did was I wrote my book. I then learned how to write what's called a query letter.

So I wrote a query letter. And the query letter was, and if I don't say so myself, I hate to say this, but it was great. Like I wrote a really great query letter. And I sent off, gosh, a hundred of them and got maybe a couple people that were interested and mailed them the manuscript. And one woman I worked with her back and forth for maybe a few months or two. but I came to the conclusion that I just wasn't going to be able to polish up the actual manuscript good enough for her to be happy. And the other person like it was, it just didn't go anywhere.

So I contacted my sister and I said, because my sister had told me that she had a friend that worked in entertainment as an entertainment agent. And he had represented a bunch of comedians and I forget the name of the comedian that was in the movie, Deuce Bigelow. There was a black guy that plays the Gigolo. He represented him. He represented a bunch of guys. And he represented a bunch of sports stars, you know, baseball, football players. And he also represented some radio personalities show guys called. called Ron and Ron.

So he represented, this guy's name was, his name was Ross Reback. So Ross Reback was like an entertainment agent. And if you know, if you know anything about the entertainment industry, what constitutes an entertainment agent, an entertainment agent is absolutely nothing. Like there's no license or anything. You can just say, hey, I'm an entertainment agent. So Ross was an entertainment agent, and he actually worked on a bunch of stuff, and he'd actually sold several ideas for TV shows. He had also sold or optioned the rights to, like I think one or two books. One of the books was Mob Lawyer.

There was a book called Mob Lawyer, which he had optioned the rights to pitch the story, the film rights for the book. book from the family, the lawyer's family, because the lawyer had actually died. He'd written the book when he retired and then he died. So Ross was trying to get that turned into a movie. So I contact my sister and say, hey, I understand that you got you and my brother-in-law, which my sister is married to a lawyer, and his name's Jack. So I said, I understand that you and Jack know, you said you knew an entertainment lawyer that wanted to talk to me. He'd actually told, Ross had actually told my brother-in-law he wanted to meet me and talk to me about my story. But I hadn't really pursued it. So once I wrote the book and I wasn't getting anywhere,

I said, hey, look, you know, I need a literary agent to my sister. And I called her and I said, I need a literary agent. And you said you knew somebody who was in entertainment. And she says, well, you know, it is funny. I can call him. I can have Jack call him. I know he wanted to talk to you. So I end up sending Ross Reback my manuscript. He looks at the manuscript. He reads it. He then schedules a time to come visit me. He and my brother-in-law come to Coleman to visit me. So they come to the low and I meet them at the low. And Ross comes in and I said, hey, Ross, what's going on? You know, did you read the book? He said, yeah. And he said, I said, okay, he said, why do you think? He said, why do you think I'm here? I said, well, I'm assuming you're here because you want to represent

me. And he said, you know, I think you have an amazing story. And I read your story. He said, and your story is absolutely amazing. He said, but at the end of the story, like, you're just a psychopath that got 26 years in prison and I don't care about you. And I went like, wow, that was like he drove like an hour and a half to get here to tell me that. So I said, wow. I said, that's not what I expect at all. He said, you have a great story, but you didn't tell it great. He goes, you don't talk about your childhood or anything like that or the things that helped make you the person you are that ended up doing all of these crimes. And I went, I know, but nobody wants to hear me cry and bitch and moan. And nobody wants to hear that stuff because

you're wrong about that. I want to hear about that. People want to hear about that. People want to know who you really are. You don't touch on that at all. It's really just a, he said it reads almost like a newspaper article it's like it's one criminal event after another after another you're just documenting it he says i don't need it documented he says if you want if i want to read the documentation sees i can just read the articles about you he said you have to rewrite that book and i went bro it took me like six months to a year to write that book and he said you're going to rewrite it and he said i'm going to send you some books so he sent me some books You know, like true crime for dummies.

One was how to write nonfiction for dummies. And then I actually, actually somebody had seen me reading these books. And the four dummies series and the, oh, no, the idiot's guide to true crime writing or something like that. Like those sound horrible. Like, but they're actually all great books written by really accomplished. The new Bimo, V.I. Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more. perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value

in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash ViPorter to learn more. writers. Hey, if you guys didn't know, I also do paintings and if you're interested in a painting, I'm going to leave my contact information in the description beneath the video. Back to the video. So I end up getting that and I end up somebody in another unit knew I was writing and came to me and gave me a book. I remember it was probably 90 pages, maybe a hundred, less and a hundred, probably less than 100 pages. There's a little tiny book and I remember it was called. Fuck, I forget what it was called. I never can remember what it was called. But it was written by a woman who'd written three memoirs about her life, three memoirs about her life.

And I read it in like a day. And it was the best book. Out of all the books I read on how to write, it was the best one. So I then have to rewrite my entire book. And I end up going back and including stuff about my childhood, stuff about my dad, stuff about just things that helped form my personality. for my belief system, things that helped create the person that actually committed the crimes that I committed and gave reasons for why, whether these are the actual reasons or not, it's what I believed helped formulate the person that I am.

And I hated putting those things in that book because specifically, you know, I had met guys that really had traumatic by this point in life or in my prison sentence i'd met guys that truly had had horrific um upbringings guys that had been you know burned by their parents um beaten by their parents tied up abandoned starved to death locked in closets the guys that had had truly truly horrible um uh you know childhoods and so for me to bitch because my dad you know didn't really, you know, want me. I wasn't really the son that he wanted or because I never really felt like he, I lived up to his expectations or because I was a disappointment to him or, you know, to bitch about those things made me feel, you know, like a, just like a, like a fake, like, you know,

unappreciative for the fact that I grew up middle class and that so what if you had a bad childhood, you still had a car when you were 16 and you still were able to go to private schools because I had a learning disability and, you know, you still had a mother that loved you and, you know, that sort of thing. So, but I put those things in there. I realized that I shouldn't diminish those things simply because I felt other people had it worse because certainly other people had it better. So I put those things in there and I rewrote the book and it took me like three months to rewrite that book. And I sent it to Ross and he scheduled the time to come out with me again and he came out and he said this book is amazing he said this is a book that can

get published this is a book that could be a movie this is phenomenal your story's amazing my story hadn't changed the only thing that changed was me putting in like how did I feel when I walked in the bank how did I feel when I walked out of the bank with a check how did I you know and about things about my childhood about my my my relationship with my parents my siblings my girlfriends like I didn't really have anything before about my girlfriends, you know, events that had occurred. So he said it needed to be more personal stuff. So I had included that. And so he loved the book.

And he wanted to represent me on the book. And what I decided was, you know, I absolutely wanted to go with Ross. And I thought Ross was a great guy. And so Ross said he was going to, you know, he wanted to represent me on that, on my, on my. memoir, which my book's called Shark in the Housing Pool. So while that process was going on, I was wrapping up final edits for Ross, and he had sent me final edits, and he had decided he was going to start contacting literary agents, or I'm sorry, he was going to start contacting publishers. You know, I, um, I, um, I.

I ended up, I kind of decided I was going to start writing other inmate stories because I really liked writing. Like it was a, it gave me a real feeling of accomplishment, like I enjoyed it. And so at the same time as I was wrapping that up, I had gotten, there was a newspaper, there was an article in Rolling Stone magazine about, it was, it was called arms and dudes. And so I was like, okay, arms and dudes, and I read it. And it was about these two stoner kids that, these two Jewish kids that were stoners in Miami that had kind of stumbled their way into getting a contract to supply ammunition to the Afghan security forces for it was, they always say a $300 million contract, but it was actually $298 million. The point is, so roughly a $300 million contract to supply munitions for the Afghan security. forces, but the U.S. government was the one that was paying them and collecting. So even though the ammunition was going to end up in the Afghani's security forces hands, it was actually

a U.S. government that had put out the contract. They bid on it. They got the contract and they were getting paid by the government. So the main kid, there were two guys. One was David Packowls and one was a guy's name was Ephraim Devoroli. Well, Ephraim Devaroli had ended up um he he ever had ended up in coleman low he's got like six years three years no four years three four i don't know what i know is i think you got four years yeah i think you got four years maybe whatever that's as irrelevant if you're interested look it up so he got some time you got like roughly whatever four or five years so he came the low. And while I was standing in line, I was standing in a line one time with this guy

and I read the article, maybe a week ago, by the same guy that gave me the article. And all of a sudden the guy I'm standing with in line waiting for chow, waiting for a lunch or dinner. He hits me and he goes, hey, bro. He said, see that guy over there? And I go, yeah, he was the guy with the curly hair. And I went, yeah. He goes, that's that from Deverelli? And I went, who? He says, remember the article I gave you in Rolling Stone magazine? I went, yeah. He He goes, that's the guy. I go, the gun runner? And he goes, that's the gun runner.

I was like, holy shit. He got so fat. Like, he was real fat. And I was like, oh, my God. I said, that's him. And he goes, yeah, bro. He said, he got here a couple days ago. And I was like, oh, wow.

I said, what a great story. And so we're walking. And the guy, the guy's name was Chris. Chris goes, bro, you need to talk to him. And I went, about what? And he goes, about writing his story. And I went, yeah, you know, you're, right. And I kind of decided I liked that. And I thought about doing it. And I went, yeah, I should talk to. Maybe I should. So I went a couple days later, I found Devoroli on the rec yard. And I went up to him. I said, hey, what's your name's? You're Devoroli, right? And he goes, yeah. And I said, listen, man. I said, my name's Cox. And I said, my name's Cox. And I read that article in Rolling Stone. It was a great article. And he goes, yeah, he was that Cox sucker, the guy that wrote it. He said I was a greedy bastard. He was, if you think that's great. And I went,

Well, I didn't see it that way. I thought it was great. Just that you guys were able to get the contract and just the way the whole thing unraveled. I thought it was an amazing story. And he goes, yeah, well, yeah, it's pretty good. But they really did a hatchet job on me. Like, you know, this guy's a fucking complainer. So I said, I said, well, what's up, bro?

I said, well, I was wondering if you had considered writing a book. And he goes, nah, he's, man, I'm, I'm, you know, he's like, I got ADHD. He said, I'm bipolar. He said, I'm up and down. I got mood swings. There's just no way I could focus long enough to write a story. I said, well, I just, I'm finishing up my book right now. If you want, I could help you write an outline and you could send that to a ghost writer on the street.

And he went, well, yeah, I guess. He goes, I said, I mean, if you're thinking you can't do it, maybe you could just hire someone. He said, it sounds to me like you probably still have money. And ghost writers don't cost but between $15,000 and maybe $45,000. You can probably get a ghostwriter to do it for 20 or 30. At this point, I said, you have so much publicity. And when you get out, you're going to have a ton of publicity. I said, and if you wrote a book, there would probably be tons of publicity on the book.

I said, it really shouldn't be that hard. I said, I'm in the process right now of trying to get my stuff done. And I just wrote my book and I'd be finishing it up. I was doing some final edits. And I said, if you're willing, I'd be willing to help you. And he kind of looked at me weary and he was like, I don't know. I'll think about it, bro. I'll think about it.

Like, he was like he didn't trust me or something. He was just, and he's very untrustful person in general. So he goes, I'll think about it. I'll think about it. I said, okay, well, let me know. So I leave. Anyway, like a couple of days later, I see him on the compound. We're walking by and I said, hey, what's up?

He goes, I'm still thinking about it, bro. And it keeps walking a week, another week goes by, another week goes by. And by by this point, you know, it's been months. You know, months go by. And then one day I see him. And I said, hey, I said, you know, hey, what's up? He was, hey, bro, wait a minute. I've been looking for you.

He would stop. And I go, what's up? He said, did you hear that they sold the article in Rolling Stone? They option the rights to it. They're going to make a movie. And I looked at him and I went. But the article wasn't written. from Deverelley's perspective.

It was written from David Packow's perspective. And David Packow's had made Devoroli sound, I don't think he made him sound that bad, to be honest. But the article was written in such a way that they basically both sounded like stoners, who were kind of buffoons. And I went, and he told, he's, when we talked. talked in the rec yard, he had told me that he didn't like that. He didn't like that made him sound like a fucking stoner, like he was an idiot of some kind. Like he was like, oh, dude,

like they, like they, like they, like they, they, like they, they, like, they, they, like, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, he was, he wasn't that guy. He was a very driven person. Um, and he, granted he was all over the place, but he was extremely aggressive. So, I had stopped him and I went, really? I said, well, who bought it? And he goes, yeah, he, he said um oh god i forget it was like i forget who bought it the exact but it basically i forget the name of it it was essentially though it was the guys it was a todd um todd phillips which is the guy who made the hangover movies so todd phillips and um bradley cooper had purchased the film rights and the life rights to,

or sorry, the film rights and the life rights for the story and from David Packhouse. And so I looked at him and I went, so the guys that made the hangover movies are going to make a movie about your life. And he goes, yeah, bro, yeah, pretty cool, right? And I went, and you're not going to make a dime. on it. And there, I said, do you understand, have you seen the hangover movies? He goes, uh, you tell now he's starting to get worried. He's like, oh, yeah, I've seen them. I go, do you understand

what they make? You understand what those movies are? I go, they're going to make a movie called, dude, where's my hand grenade? And they're going to make you look like an idiot. You're going to look like David Spacoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which I'm sure nobody, people that are watching this are probably in their 20s and 30s and don't know what Fast Times at Ridgemont High is. Do you? Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a coming-of-age story that takes place with several kids that are graduating like high school.

And one guy is a complete stoner. Like he gets a pizza delivered to class while he's in class. He stoned all the time. He was like, oh, dude, bro. Like, what's up, man? Like, oh, that's crazy. I mean, just a complete stoner, like the quintessential stoner, straight out of central casting is David Spacoli. So, and I looked at him and I go, you're going to be David Spacoli from fast times at Ridgemont High.

They're going to make you look like an idiot. And I said, you have to, you're going to get out of prison in a couple of years, and you're probably going to want to go back into business, right? And he wouldn't, yeah. And I said, you're going to say, you're going to introduce yourself to people as Ephraim Devoroli, and they're going to snicker. That would be like me introducing myself as David Spacoli. If I did that to another 50-year-old, my generation, they would laugh.

They'd go, are you serious, bro? Like, they would immediately laugh. And I said, but Debroli knew who David Spacoli was. He was not that much. He's younger than me, but, you know, not that much younger. And he went, the look on his face was like, holy shit. He hadn't even considered that if he didn't like the article, what was he going to like when Todd Phillips got done with him?

What was he going to look like when Todd Phillips got done making him look like a fool? And so, you know, I looked at him and I said, bro, you're going to look like an idiot. And he goes, yo, man, he said, and he goes, man, I went all. And you're going to look like an idiot because you can't meet me once or twice a week so that we can write an outline of your story so you can write a short book so you can get a movie made. I said, that movie should be being made from your perspective because I said, it's really your story. but they're not going to tell your version of the story. They're going to tell David Packhouse's version. And you have to understand there's nothing he could do about it

because it was public record. He'd been convicted of a crime and those records are public. He'd been in the newspaper. His name had been in the newspaper. So they can now use his name and his likeness as long as they stay close to the truth. And nothing he can do. Now, he can sue, but he has to have grounds to sue.

And simply saying, hey, you used my name and you weren't accurate in your depiction of me isn't really enough. Like it is, but it isn't. Like, you could sue, but you probably wouldn't get very far. Hey, I wanted to let you guys know that I have a Patreon account. If you're interested in joining the Patreon account, it's got three tiers. The top tier, you actually get a different con man painting. every single month if you're already joined and you're already supporting me i really appreciate that if you haven't joined yet and you're interested in joining i'm going to leave the contact

information for patreon in the description thank you very much for watching the video back to the video so what he does is he looks at me and he says man what how quickly can we meet how quickly can we meet and i went i mean we can meet tonight bro let's meet tonight and we'll work out a deal and you start writing. How quickly can you write? I said, I don't know. How much of your stuff do you have? I got everything. I got a great memory. I can tell you all the dates, times, everything you need. Because, you know, what I'd been doing, like for my own case, I figured out how to order something called the Freedom of Information Act. And that basically allows you to go. And so there's a federal Freedom of Information Act, which allows you to go

to any federal agency and order any document that they have on you. So I was able to do that. And you can also go to all of the states have a freedom of public records act, which allows you any person to order documents on any individual that's been, let's say, arrested or investigated. And they have to provide those documents for you. So I've been ordering documents on myself. And I told him, I said, well, I might have to order the documents on you. And that might take some time. And he goes, no, no, bro. I have a great memory.

I know when all the dates are. I know all the amounts. I know my case inside and out. And he goes, plus, I have all the files in my case. in my legal locker and in boxes underneath my bed so he had everything

so I said bro if that's the case I could probably write your whole outline in a month or so he's all right let's meet tonight so we start meeting we meet every other night for probably two or three weeks in the meantime and I write an extensive

outline on on him and his entire story. And it's a great story. It's a story that's so much better than that movie is or probably could have ever been. It was just a great story. It really should be an entire series. It's so phenomenal.

And what's really amazing is that this guy, David Packowls, who the movie ultimately kind of gets written from his perspective, he comes in at the very kind of the very end. Like, the movie and the article make it sound like they started the company together and they were together the whole time. But the truth is, Devereoli had been doing, had been fulfilling contracts for years prior to Packow's coming in. So Packhouse doesn't really know the whole

story. He knows his story, but there's no Devoroli's story. Devoroli's story is phenomenal. And I realize this right away as I'm writing the story. He's also a much more vicious character than was portrayed by Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill plays him in the movies, in the movie. And he's a much more vicious person and much more aggressive person in the article or the movie portray him as. I mean, he's truly a cutthroat person. I mean, just ruthless.

So while I'm writing that story or writing his outline, as I get to the end of the outline, Deverelli says, Matt, I got a question for him. I said, well, he said, did you finish your book? I said, yeah, yeah, I basically just finished it, just got it sent in. I'm still kind of reading over it, maybe doing some touch-up, typos, whatever. And I was waiting for Ross Reback to come see me again, which was a few weeks away. And I said, he sat there and he goes, okay. He said, can I read it?

And I went, uh, yeah. yeah you can read it and he goes okay yeah give it to me bro i i'll read it i said okay so i go and i give them the book and i give my manuscript manuscript was like god the manuscript was big too like the book ultimately ended up being like 330 pages i think the manuscript was like 400 and some of pages but it's just because the formatting was fucked up was it was the lettering was too big and there were spaces so that i could write notes and so i give it to him and maybe a week less than a week goes by maybe and i remember he I kept asking, I'm like, hey, did you start the book?

No, not yet, bro. Next day, hey, man, you start the book? No, not yet. And I'd walk by him in the compound, see or I'd see him in the chow hall or something. I'd go, man, did you start the book? And he goes, nah, I'm going to do it tonight. I'm going to do it tonight. And so, it's like three or four days went by.

He hadn't started it. And then one day I stopped asking him, like two, two, three days later he shows up and walks up with the book. Boom, puts it down. And he said, we're supposed to meet to go over some of the stuff on its outline. He goes, how much? And I went, what he was, how much, what would you charge me to write my book? He said, what you wrote is amazing.

He goes, that's the best thing I've ever read in my entire life. And I go, are you serious? He goes, I want you to write my book. I'm telling you, man, like, that's what I want. That is what I want. He's like, like, you say it exactly how it is. You describe yourself exactly how you are. He was, and on top of that, he said, you said some bad stuff about yourself.

Like, you admitted that you were a flawed individual. However, in overall, he said, I rooted for you. I wanted you to succeed. I was, he said, I was devastated when you got caught, even though I knew it was coming. He said, you were a flawed person, but overall, an amazing individual. He said, and that's what I want people to know. about me. And I went, I was just like, wow. I said, I don't know. Like, I probably, like, want a percentage of the book. Like, I just want a percentage of whatever sales or whatever you get.

You know, film rights, like the whole thing. And he's like, okay, okay. He said, we can do that. And he said, okay. He said, yeah, man. He said, and he said, I don't really know how it works, like how exactly it was going to work. And I said, okay, well, I said, you could get a literate agent, but I said, you could go with my literary agent. I said, I have a literary agent that is coming to see me in a couple weeks. And so we work out a deal. And I told him he had to pay me because I had to type the whole thing up in what's called Core Links, which is our, it's like an email system, sort of, like an email system. Like I said, I have to type everything up and I was already typing his outline. So I said, you have to like basically send me money.

and so I can type everything up. And he said, yeah, yeah, I'm going to put you in contact with my sister. And I'm going to give you all the documents. And he said, but we have to do this right away because he's like, I'm going to be moving in a few months. You have to write this whole thing in a few months. I was like, oh, wow, I don't know if I can do it in a few months. So he and I start working everything out. And he ends up saying, look, I'm going to get an entertainment attorney to write up a contract.

Can we start now? I can put money on your books. for you to start typing. And I was like, here's the great thing was. The great thing was I had just kind of finished up where it was roughly finishing up within a week or so, his outline. And I'd written this exhaustive, like, 80-page outline. Like, I only have to really expand this outline that I'd written over the last month or two.

So it wasn't going to be that hard. Like, I don't really even need him anymore. I just need the documents. I'd heard the stories. I mean, 80 pages. If you turn 80 pages into, let's say, 300 pages, it's not that hard to expand. Anyway, so I had it. I was thrilled, and I was like, oh, my God, this is great because I knew this was going to be a good book.

And not just that, there was a chance that this book could be turned into a movie or a series. Because although they had sold the film rights to the article, which had been written in Rolling Stone magazine by a guy named Guy Lawson, although they had sold the film rights, they hadn't actually done anything yet. Like, there was no, there was no script or anything yet. So nothing had been done. Like, it was still a chance that we could kind of get ahead of, of the film that was supposedly pot in motion. Like, they even had got a script. So if you move a little faster, maybe you get your stuff made.

I didn't really know how it worked. But I knew that at the very least, he could probably get a book deal. The reason I say that also is that there was a book. So, Guy Lawson, who'd written the Rolling Stone article, was expanding his article into a full-length book. That wasn't even scheduled to be come out, to come out for like a year. So I had time. So I end up putting Devoroli in touch with my literary agent. And we schedule a time for all of us to meet in the visitation.

Now, keep in mind that he couldn't just meet with Reback without me, okay? Because you have to say you have, when you fill out paperwork, you have to say you have an existing relationship with the person. and reback had lied on his well reback had come in the first time with my brother-in-law and that got him approved to come see me so he's already approved but he can't get approved to come see devoroli so we schedule it so that devoroli is going to have his mother and sister and his brother come to see him the same day that Reback's going to come see me. So we'll all be in the visitation area at the same time. And so we can all sit together and have a conversation so that they can meet in person.

And basically so that Reback can kind of pitch himself on who he is and what he thinks he can do for Devoroli. We're already at 40 minutes. So I'm going to wrap this up and I'll explain what happens in that meeting. and how that whole thing kind of evolved with me writing the story for Devoroli. The name of his, the name of his book, by the way, is called The Book that I wrote for him. It's a memoir, so I wrote it in first person as him as if he wrote it, which he didn't. And it was called Once a Gun Runner. And it's amazing.

It's an amazing story. I believe he still has it up on, I think there's an e-book, an e-version. And anyway, I'll tell you how the whole thing plays out. So I end up writing this whole book for him. But yeah, so I'll talk to you about our first meeting and about how the Devoroli things and how the Devoroli thing works out and our first meeting with Ross in the next video. So I appreciate you guys watching. Please subscribe to the channel. Please hit the notification bell.

So you get notified of videos like this. And leave me a comment if you like these videos or whatever. And I appreciate it. And thank you. Thank you.