JoeLoya

I actually did time on a solitary confinement tier with Charles Keating who was the famous Savings and Loan swindler of my era. His crime cost society billions of dollars and he served less than 5 1/2 years and got to keep millions because he had bought off senators. Some bank robbers on that tier had robbed two banks and made $600 and were serving 20 years. So on the tier we gave him the blues every time he went to the showers. Asking him questions like, "Is that all you back there or did you just get a new wallet?" Yeah, it ays more to rob banks with a pen than with a gun, everybody knows that.

This is one of the best questions I have ever been asked. I met this guy named Cuffy, a Rastafarian. All the guys I looked up to respected Cuffy. He knew that we knew the same people, so one day he comes to my cell with a letter envelope turned into a bowl full of tortilla chips. "Here you go Joe. I did time with your homeboy Dagwood, and we used to bust out canteen for each other when one of us came up." He was super ethical and friendly and as I grew up in prison I modeled my best self after Cuffy's kind of honor. The worst figure, the guy who lied to the FBI and said he saw me by my ex-cellmates cell before he was murdered. I spent nearly two years in solitary confinement before I was proved to not have ben involved because that guy was desperate to be transferred from the prison.

I didn't use drugs, but I was a total hedonist. I three cars. All my suits, and there were many, were all tailor made. I spent a ton of money on friends. I'd take them to Vegas, pay their way, give them spending money. i play golf five six times a week, bought friend clubs and lunch all day long. I purchased ten or 15 concert tickets and took friends to restaurants on Melrose before the show. I was a punk, raised poor so wanted to live extravagantly.

Never killed anyone during a heist. Never pulled a gun. Only ever thought I would be shot in during a heist. I threatened to kill tellers but only to terrorize them. The gun I carried in my backpack was for me to protect myself. I look back on that way of thinking and I cringe at my stupidity. People could have definitely been hurt and shot because I was desperate, which is why i was robbing in the first place.

Mazda RX-7. Mercedes. BMW 733i. Nothing wild.