Fireside With The Underboss - "When I got out of PRISON"

When you don’t have the support, I don’t see how it’s even possible to succeed when you get out of prison. They release you with no ID, no nothing and expect you to find your way. You can’t get a job with livable wages, you can’t get a place to live and they wonder why so many people end back in prison. There has to be a better way. We need prison reform and I will speak out about it. For now, here’s my story…

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, guys again, I'm talking. I got a lot of a lot
of questions about prison and all thisstuff and how when I got out,
how I got out, what happened. So I'm gonna take it like about
a month and a half, twomonths before I got out, I went

(00:20):
to a sickhole and they took bloodtests and did all these things because I'm
about to get out. So theycalled me back a week or two after
and they told me that that Ihad what's that cancer of the blood is

(00:44):
like what leukemia or something something likethat? Leukemia? You have cancer of
the blood. Wow, I'm gettingout four or five weeks after eighteen almost
eighteen years in prison and cancer onthe way out. What can trip this
is? Bro? I go backin and I tell one or two of

(01:08):
the guys, So it gets closerand closer to me getting out. And
I talk on the phone to dabAnd and I said, listen, you're
gonna be there to pick me up. Yeah, we're sending you an airline
ticket and all of this so youcould get back to Arizona. I said,

(01:30):
great, Listen, when you meetme at the air point, don't
have the grandkids there, just youCaaren and Gerard because I got something to
tell you. What is it?Listen, I don't really want to discuss

(01:51):
it right now on the phone,and but it's something that I need to
tell you Karen and Gerard alone withoutthe kids, without anything, and so,
and I don't want to talk aboutit on the phone. I'm just
gonna tell you to do it thatway for me, all right. Yeah,
So I figured, you know,I don't want to have them worried

(02:14):
or whatever, or have the kidsthere for sure, because I'm gonna tell
them listening. I got you know, I'm coming out, but I got
cancer. I'm waiting for an answer. How long do I got to live?
Two months? Three months? What'syour diagnosed? I'm waiting fanciers from
the doctors. I'm breaking balls ofthe doctor's dad everything. So anyway,

(02:40):
it's a couple of days before I'mgoing to get out, and I'm making
arrangements. I'm giving some of mystuff to other inmates. Things I have
because I'm going to get out.So people I know in prison, friends
or people who got nothing, Igive them some whatever. I had my
comments, every money. I hadfour hundred and thirty dollars in my account.

(03:01):
They have to give me that money. And they got an airline ticket,
and they're gonna give me the airlineticket. If it was up to
them, if I had no money, they would put me on the bus
to go home. But I hadan airline ticket, so I didn't need
them all the bus. So Iget called in to the doctor's office.

(03:24):
All right, I'm gonna hear therest of it. I woke in,
Hey, Doc Agrabano, how longdo I got? So? What do
you mean to live? What doyou mean? I got cancer? I

(03:44):
got littlekim me, how long doI got? He said, no,
no, no. The other testcame back and it was a miss diagnosis.
You don't have it, Robby amotherfucker more. We likeablet. I
still for two months upon a monthand a half. I got people waiting,
and I have no grandchildren. I'ma couple of nights. I'm in

(04:09):
tear. Oh in fucking eighteen years. I gotta die three months, three
weeks if they get out, Soall of that bullshit I get out.
And then I get the lieutenant,this guy Angelina, you'n the manager,
preh, It's gonna take me outfour o'clock in the morning with the with

(04:30):
the captain and two guards. Henever comes and does that, but now
this morning he's gonna do it.My pillow, I gave it to somebody.
Pillows are heart to come by inprison. I had a good one.
A guy made it for me.They've still stuffing. They get a

(04:55):
sheet, they make a pillow outof it, they sew it. I
pay for it. So I gaveit to somebody. Where is your pillow?
That's say so, No, it'snot. Put a report out.
I think it's stolen. They'll fuckhim. So anyway, we're gonna go

(05:17):
out. I get in the callwith them. So we're pulling out of
the prison, and he said,Gravano, I want to ask you for
a favor. We're gonna ask mefor a favor, all right, but
what do you want? Tell us? What's going on inside the joint?
You're in the Indian ceremonies. What'sgoing on? We pray, We passed

(05:44):
some piece of pipe around, Wesmoke, and no, you must take
you sneak tobacco back, not thatI know. Well, what about in
the arrest of the prison. Youknow everybody in here, and listen,
don't fuck yourself, bro, youwant me to tell you what they're doing
as I'm walking out of prison,so you could go back and fucking break

(06:09):
balls. You don't need me tobreak balls. And I want to tell
you something good news I got foryou, bro, because he lived there.
It was in Pennsylvania. I knowwhere you live. I got a
family member of mine. We're gonnaput a deposit on the house right near
you. That's where the fuck I'mgonna live. You don't know where I

(06:32):
live. Well, we'll see inthe morning. We'll wait for each other
good morning every morning. He's probablyhaving a hount attack. So the captain
is there and he's driving the carand he says, Angelini, you don't
want to be bothered. Obviously buckthem. So they go to this tiny

(06:56):
little lampard. Now. They gaveme a card like a credit card,
look like bo is my picture onit, my name, Salvatokabata. That's
it. That's it. Nothing,no documents, no papers. And I
have my airline ticket and I havefour hundred and thirty dollars that they had
to give me. I got itin my pocket and I said, you're

(07:20):
would have dropped me off at thisairport here? Yeah, don't they yet?
For an idea, or when youget on the plane, you got
that card. If the cart's not, it's nothing. It's not an idea.
It's not like a driver's license.Give me some documentation. Nothing.
No, what if I came onon the plane. You're at a prison.

(07:44):
It's your fucking problem. I said, all right. So I go
in the airport and I go tothe desk. It's a small, I
mean, a bullshit little airport.I think fucking helicopters coming in at iss
fucking place. I get. Igo there and the woman tells me you

(08:05):
have idate. I give it acard that's not idate. Do you have
any any kind of idate, anypaperwork anything? No, she said,
did you just come out of theprison. This is like four o'clock in
the morning, right, I said, yes I did. She said,
the really pricks over there. Shepicks up the phone and she calls somebody.

(08:30):
A man comes. She said,give him a body check. The
guy passed me down. She said, you're gonna get me fired, but
get on the fucking plane. Shegot me throughe But the plane didn't go
straight to Arizona. It went toPhiladelphia, where I have to get another
flight. So I'm in Philadelphia.Now I'm saying to myself, how do

(08:58):
I get on the next flight.I mean it's it's this is a bigger
airport. I think they'll be alittle more secure or whatever. Of course
for me. There's a guy,a girl or two girls, and a
man sitting next to me, andthey're talking to each other. They know
each other. They're going tirezoney,waiting for the same flight I'm waiting for.

(09:20):
And they tell him we'll be rightback. We're gonna go to the
ladies room. So the woman getsup, probably his wife and the two
kids, and they leave. Acouple of minutes. Goes by says,
you know how they are? Womentake, they take forever. I says,
yeah, they went to the badroom. He says, I gotta go.

(09:43):
I'm busting now. He's got theirhull bags, their bags, his
bags, all the bags to that. So I said, go go to
the bedroom. I watched the bags. We're sitting here. I mean,
god, you sure he goes heleaves. They come back while he's gone.

(10:07):
Where's the guy? Freda's name?Said? He went to the bedroom
and he left all these bags herealone. No, he left them with
me. Who are you, Isaid, I don't know, what's it?
Deference who I am. I watchedthe bags, they're like there.
Nobody robbed them, nobody touched them. He searched them yourself. Do what

(10:28):
you want. I always get intothese fucking weird situations. I don't know
why, but I'm always in weirdsituation. So anyway, now he comes
back, he thanks me, andthen she apologizes and thanks me. And
so the plane is going to go. They call them for the flight and
they get up and they're walking.So I said, let me just walk

(10:52):
with them. I got in withthem, talking with them. We're going
ran in between all of them.I figured when we could just go through
like a family, but it didn'twork. Everybody has showed an idea.
I didn't have an idea. Ishowed the woman to card and I'm taking
through it. I'm telling like Ithe prison, and she didn't want to

(11:13):
hear nothing. There was a blackguy, tall guy. He had a
police shooting for him on his securityand