How I Got Caught - Chapter 7: Episode 8 | Larry Lawton: Jewel Thief | 9 |

this is Larry Lawton and he's an ex jewel thief Larry's a former career criminal once considered the biggest jewel thief in the United States all of a sudden I hear say they're coming they're coming and I'm I jump out of my chair and the door flies open and they got guns in my face I go get ready to get my crew there's just just two guys this time so it's me and Davey so we head up and we head towards the Northeast and whatever though we go to Pennsylvania so I go into Pennsylvania and I know I can't get a robbery in the city of Pennsylvania that's just a little too hard cities are really tough like a lot of just getting away is tougher it's it can be done and and I've actually cased a few but they're harder to do you're better off in the suburbs so I found a store in Fairless Hills Pennsylvania and it was a pretty good store so I said I could do this store pretty good and it was in Fairless Hills Pennsylvania was in a strip mall same thing I wanted to do had the glare going at the right time and I had my same MO so I go and I get ready I get all my stuff I got my good clothes with me I got my pillowcases in my stomach I got flex-cufs on me I have my rubber gloves I have my fake gun I got a BB gun on me so we're all ready to go and I go in and cased a few stores cased about Oh probably 20 20 to 30 stores in that area to find the right store so we did find the store in Palos Hills Pennsylvania so we do the robbery I go in make sure the guy's not next to the buzzer he's you know away from the counter kisses a private buzzer somewhere and in case he has a buzzer in his pocket his hands are out I quickly pulled a gun jump sir robbery get down get down so he gets down and obviously gets down I take the flex-cufs out [ __ ] cuffs him up my partner comes right in you know he knows to come in after a few seconds he knows God kind of knows when so he comes in he flex you know he gets in he we start empty in the store the guys now cuffed behind the counter in the back counter behind the counter in between the safe now I'm back there cleaning out the safe so I'm cleaning out a safe and five guns I find five guns I put them in the bag I got my pillow case I'm getting of the stuff out of safe my partner's getting everything out I look and I see a lady come right up to the window and go like that she holds her hand over the window to cup at the seat because you couldn't see it if you didn't do that and I know we're made right away so ice cream we're made were made let's go and we jump up we get ready but going out I'm heading out the door and what are you pop pop pop glass was flying right next to me the guy shooting at us how does he have a gun I've got five guns in my bag he's shooting at me bang bang and we ducking and run out the door jump in the car the car is pulled straight into the internet business we had a fake plate on it I you know the same mo who I normally do so the car is in there pulled in I jump in the seat as I jump into seat we threw the jewelry right in the backseat boom jumped in got it partner gets in jumps in the guy levels a gun he comes running at you levels of gun right at my head when I'm at the steering wheel as he levels that gun I duck I ducked like that and the shot goes off it comes right through the windshield comes in it goes through skims my head skims my head my partner's lays down on on the on the in between the seat you know the two seats and he lays that and he and a bullet goes through his his back cuz he was laying that it goes through his back and into his arm into his arm and he screams I'm hit im hit I felt the burn from the thing I thing and I I didn't the adrenaline was going so far I go I'll take you to hospital take you to hospital he says no no no let's get to Brooke let's get the Brooklyn AC cuz he's hitting now he knows his head you don't know how bad he just knows he said so now here I got a bullet hole dead center of the windshield of the car how do you get through I know I got to go through tolls on it on the Jersey Turnpike and I got to go through a total going into the turnpike from Pennsylvania I'm a pencil icon it's about an hour and a half ride so what do I do I see a 18-wheeler up ahead I pull up straight close to the 18-wheeler right in the back of the 18-wheeler so the 18-wheeler goes I pull up real fast past the booth now the booth is on the side of me the front windshield has past me and I'm given the person the money had the money all set and everything ready I go to give the money in and I hear on the radio in the toll booth be on the lookout for a late-model and it gave the call on my call but I could see that the toll booth person wasn't paying attention I give the money and that's it I take off so I'm gone already now I knew that here I if I went three minutes after what happened there there's no way they would have been on a lookout for that car coming through and all that kind of stuff I would have been caught right then and there or it have been a chase and what it would have happen I don't know so here I am go ahead and go in the Brooklyn over and I had a bullet hole right my thing what do you do well the grete car I had was from Florida now if the rental car was from New York in New York City and antique even Pennsylvania put a registration in the corner left corner of the car it's where they stick the registration so then you're done if you change the window you got to change that that also that sticker so anyway we don't have that problem we get to Brooklyn now I don't know that I have blood trickling down my head right here I looked in the mirror you couldn't see it because it was like on the side and you couldn't see it in the mirror and you're paying attention and my brother's hit he's hit and he's got the bullet in him so we get to the home stretch bar we pull up there home we race into the bar we go up to the second apartment on the second floor we had an apartment there that we used to play cards wit and stuff like that and there was an old lady on the third floor but we had the second floor apartment and so here we all would get in that and we get cleaned up now we now what are we gonna do well first thing to do is we send the car to Brooklyn Auto Glass Brooklyn all that connect the joint go down to Brooklyn they they don't question anything I'm gonna go first we cleaning up my brother and clean me up I'm alright I just have a scratch through my head I was like a greys dang it another two inches I'm dead there to blow my brains out but I didn't have luckily I was didn't get hit so my brother gets hit and mine is a scratch is clean out of scratch right there his guy his his in him but he says he's alright and he's hurt and and it's blood all over here changes clothes do all that and I go with the car to Brooklyn Auto Glass because I got all that jewelry in the car and now it's in the trunk we transfer from the backseat into the trunk so it's in the trunk it's it's now and then we go to Brooklyn or the bus they don't ask questions to see it boy they don't care what it is they're getting their money they go change a windshield so they do that and now what are we gonna do okay so I said we got to take care of my brother I call down to Florida and Uncle Louie my buddy uncle Louie's associated with the Raymond Patriarca crew out of Rhode Island well he used to hang out at the track in Melbourne Florida that the race track so I called him he goes I'll look around I'll get somebody cuz we need a doctor to take care of him or somebody to take care of my brother you can't go to the police station can't go to a hospital I mean you can't go anywhere so he'd go to a doctor's office forgetting in a report a gunshot so he says he calls back he says yeah I got somebody he says I got a veterinarian I'm building a house actually a funny story the house he was building was a judge's house that's really funny but he's building a house and so he goes well we can bring him to that house we'll put up two sawhorses we'll put a board down and we can do the operation and get it this is this sound crazy we're thinking back then so we can get him back to Florida this is pre 9/11 so you don't have any IDs you can buy a ticket for cash on an airplane and they don't even question could use any name go up to a cast cast right at the counter give $250 whatever the flight was at that time and they'll give you a ticket and that's it no question anything they don't do anything like that back before 9/11 so we get we get him on the plane he's going back and I think wait a minute I can't do this I got a I can't do this I call my mother my mother's a nurse and she worked at a at a nurse like a clinic here she's been a nurse forever she was up in Westchester square hospital in the Bronx New York and she was a pretty good nurse she worked emergency room see you all of that so what we do my mom takes a I said mom Devi got shot we were playing with guns in the bar and I can't go to a police you know I got a record I said so I can't go to the police we can't go to all radio hospital so you just got to take care of David she agrees reluctantly my mother's the straightest woman you'll ever want to meet so she reluctantly agrees and we she takes care of my brother he gets down here she gets penicillin she gets the gauze she gets stuff thank God we didn't go to a veterinarian because my brother might have lost his arm he could add a veterinarian would have cut into all the muscles and everything up there and it would have got pretty bad and he didn't do that thank God and my mom took care of him got to penicillin and got everything done he gets taken care to this day still got that bullet in him right there he got to get the bullet in him so he's Kate and Cara I ended up calling my wife Missy I say come on up I want you to drive back with me and she comes up I get quick money for the stuff I come back about 70 grand I didn't get much and I take all the stuff I get all that and I head back to Florida now on the way back from Florida on the way back to Florida from New York what do I do I stop about our 95 in Florida at a rest stop I remembered the rest stop and I took the bag of guns and I threw them in a lake and I want to get caught with guns no matter what you do you never want to get caught with guns I threw the bag of guns five guns into a lake and a rest stop tell you why it's important is one of the best moves ever made I end up to taking the guns throw in a lake get down a floor I think I'm good okay everything's right we're looking good nobody's caught no nobody hears anything anything like that so we're good so things are going good little do I know at this time the FBI is floods the area in that Fairless Hills area they go to every every store little I didn't notice at the time that's what they did so they go to every store and they ask for the same MO didn't guy in a nice suit come in here and look like he you know wanted to buy a ring they had the mo down but they didn't know who I was so sure one lady says yes we had a guy now this is not the right store I robbed a lady says no there was a there was a guy who came in with that mo and I got his license plate number so the cop said okay who was it she gave the plate and I'm sure enough they run the plate number well the plate numbers not registered me it's registered to Fat Tony Tony was my neighbor who did my bookmaking stuff great guy and he didn't do anything about robbery she knew what I did but he didn't you know know exactly anything never knew her Rob never was on a robbery no two people involved in a robbery at the New York end or anything like that so they looked him and he's heavy he's about 325 pounds 350 pounds so I'm not that heavy so they looked in they go this is not the guy but I was a co-driver I was a co-driver and you know being she got my plate number and she got the real plate because when I cased stores I didn't change plates I'd used them right because you ever get stopped you don't ever wanna have a fake plate on a car so anyway sure enough she had got the right plate and I was a co-driver say ran my name they come back with the case from New Jersey organized crime connections as a boom they got me then they started showing my picture around sure enough that's him that's him so at about 20 jewelry robberies about 20 of them they went to four of four robberies said 100% that's the guy I'll testify that that's the guy the other people said 95% of it is him I'm 95% sure it's him but not 100% on all the other robberies so they couldn't pin those on me although I ended up admitting to those robberies and later I ended up taking a plea offer explain that the second here so anyway I don't know this so here we are I'm down in South Florida they started putting it all together I'm golfing one day I'll never forget it was a Monday I go golfing and and Monday afternoons I used to have my crew from Central Florida come down get some bookmaking sheets and all that kind of stuff and go back to North Florida and run the bookmaker running some operations up there for illegal gambling so they come down I'll never forget I went golfing and you know my wife said to me during the day like three o'clock four o'clock you know I thought I was followed today I said I think you know you're just dreaming you want to follow but I put it in my head maybe somebody was following and I'm thinking who is it is it the cops is it the other mob family wanting to get money from me try to take me hostage do something I don't know I'm kind of thinking crazy but I call a friend I say come come to the house and get all the guns out of the house any gun that I had in the house he comes he takes the guns out of the house now I got nothing in the house I'm okay I didn't care in case it was the cops sure enough by five o'clock that afternoon it's a Monday I lived in a cul-de-sac so he had to go out to the end of the cul-de-sac before you come in to get the mail so my wife Missy takes my 15 month old daughter Ashley in her arms and she goes out and now I'm sitting at a desk that I had it off the kitchen area I have a desk where I was doing the paperwork and these guys had a nine-foot bar in the back there and they're sitting at the bar I have stuff there I actually had other stuff there and a little cocaine little weed there bookmaking stuff all that all of a sudden I hear say they're coming they're coming and I'm I jump out of my chair and the door flies open and they got guns in my face whoa I turn around I looked in my back patio they're coming through my back patio with all the gear and all this kind of stuff and I thought this is this is a crazy thing I hear the helicopter overhead it's it's just a crazy scene so they bring everybody out of the house they bring everybody out house I never forget it had three thousand dollars in my pocket I had expensive Rolex and all that kind of watch a jewelry on and I'm sitting on the curb and the cops are good they look at everybody's ID there sure enough Davey was there I was in a robbed but they don't have a warrant for him they only have a warrant for me and they have a warrant for Tony fact Tony they ended up arresting Fat Tony - I didn't notice he was away from the thing so the cut the F it was FBI he was Marshalls and FBI and they were pretty nice the FBI agent you know and I said hey listen can I leave my sneakers because I know about sneakers in jail ky leave my nice Sneaky's there's a money and stuff my wife and she says he goes yeah go ahead I gave her the money at three thousand about three thousand cash they didn't care they had anything they did search the house they only had a warrant for me and any large sums of money jewelry or jewelry paraphernalia like scales and stuff like that for jewelry making that's the only warrant they had they never even touched the marijuana they never touched a coke or a little bookmaking stuff other they they didn't care they just didn't care so they wanted me they got me heading down they take me in the back of a car and they sent me to opal acha I would go to opa-locka Florida where they had a new FBI like with all this special fingerprint stuff you know the for now it's a normal but you put your hand in and had four points and and you and it all done automatically it wasn't it was like rolling fingerprint stuff so they do all of that they get me down there and who do I see down there I see Fat Tony now I'm thinking I hope he just shuts up you know not that he know any I don't know what they have yet and he did okay they listen all I do is uh rent the car from he's my neighbor and he has no credit cards so he asked me where I can rent a car and that's exactly what I said so that worked out well and they let him go and they got me so now what do they do they take me they got me I don't know how big it is yet and they take me down to the federal holding Detention Center in Miami it's called the FDC Miami they sent me to FDC Miami I'm on the seventh floor and don't know what's going on yet I called my lawyer I said okay I had a quick hearing so here's the hearing and I think I'm gonna get bail so my thought was let me get bail if I get bail I'm running I'm gone I'm gonna go to Costa Rica I know enough people I can get money I could pay off whatever bail that I put up my dad puts up his house or whatever he does I can get bail so I'll never forget in the courtroom is my parents in the back my wife is in the back with the baby and this is the next day you know they have to have a bail hearing real quick so within within it anyway so I'm in there and my lawyer says you know the only two reasons you can't get bail one is your flight risk and the others you are a threat to the community it's the only two reasons if you if you could prove other than that then you're gonna get bail no matter what the charge so sure enough they think the government makes a case and my lawyer says Your Honor he's not a flight risk I had a case with him in New Jersey back few years ago we had a fly back and forth that was on a drug case and it was ended up being a minor but he didn't know that if he was gonna run he could have run then sure enough sorry judge does you know he's not a flight risk boy did the pet that the prosecutors panic they jump up your honor your honor he's organized crime he's got connections with organized crime and he's now a threat to community we don't want him out there the judge man was thinking about I'm thinking I'm getting bail I'm getting memory even my dad was willing to put up his house and I would have gave him the money for that but he was willing to put up his house and I'm thinking I'm getting bail because I knew it let me get out if I can get out and get on the run I can get away with this or at least this crime is I didn't know how big it was at this time so anyway the prosecutors jump up the judge thinks about it and I'm thinking I'm gonna get bail and she she was it was a female man forget he says no he goes he is a father threat danger to the community and no bail no bail so I'm sitting in my holding cell in the holding cell FDC seventh floor all of a sudden at about 2:30 in the morning maybe a little less two o'clock in the morning they come get me Lawton cuff up that mean cuff up you have to cuff up and you go go downstairs and they process me and they transfer me this is they transfer me and I don't know where I'm going no calls no nothing no paperwork you've nothing you just go so they take me and they put me on an airplane and they send me the Harrisburg Pennsylvania now I'm going to Fairless Hills I'm gonna actually sixth in marketing in downtown Philadelphia is where the federal courthouses and that's where I'm going and Harrisburg Pennsylvania okay you think they get me off there and bust No the next flight they take me all the way to like Rhode Island up up in that area I hope they take me off the plane up in Rhode Island they stop bussing me down from Rhode Island all the way to Pennsylvania don't ask me why they didn't take me off there this is a federal transportation system for the Marshall school the u.s. marshals they run the federal planes for transporting inmates and it's unbelievable operations those people you don't play with either they don't mess around so here we are the Marshalls get me there and now that take me in a van all the way from Rhode Island I stay in a County Jail in New York then I stay out of County this is the next day County Jail next day out last day I was in Elizabeth County Jail in New Jersey water scum all so I'm in this county jail now this is about three days now I haven't had a meal have the meal consisted of a bag with an apple crackers you'd look if there'd be a bologna sandwich in there and I got a little pain of you know jumbled juice or something like that so I'm in there and I have nothing to do I am smelling I know shave nothing so we go in and we report so we go in front of the magistrate and the magistrate judge says I said Your Honor can I speak first now people are waitin eight they have other people inmates that coming from the from wherever to go in front of the judge from county jails or whatever this young lawyer comes up and says I'm gonna represent you and I'm looking at who is this guy he was some public defender just gonna represent you for the hearing and I said you ain't represent me I got a lawyer I said to the judge that says hey Your Honor can I say something here and she says yes Susie lady I'll never forget her so she's sure I said Your Honor I haven't had a hot meal having it really ate I haven't had a shower I smell everybody's laughing I says I was kidnapped I have no idea I have an attorney but I don't know what this guy wants we were the judges so this is a federal judge they don't play federal judge looks at the amorphous as his marshals it's true Marshall says Your Honor we just picked him up at the county jail so we don't know anything so the marshal goes the judge says we're gonna stop this hearing he'll be back tomorrow I want this man to have a hot meal I want him to make a phone call and I want him to get where he's going immediately and I mean now and these marshals jump they don't they don't play marshals so judges federal judges don't play and the marshals knew that so sure enough I go down to 6th and market is in Philadelphia I go downstairs and this signs over the wall knowing made phone calls no calls by any hit at it give me the phone I'll never forget they went and got me a Philly cheesesteak never forget that down in in you know Philadelphia I'm gonna fill it off and they got me a Philly cheesesteak I'm eating a Philly cheesesteak made a phone call and I made a phone call not even at my lawyer made a phone call to my wife to get through my lawyer and all that kind of stuff so but then they taped me to a place called Fairless he'll not fail the salesman sort of robbery fare into New Jersey fare to New Jersey there's a federal prison there but they have what they call a carrot unit the carrot unit is the unit that the inmates are in orange orange means you're pretrial that's all it means you're on the yard you're on the facility you can walk around you can do anything you want just means you're pretrial you're not sentenced yet so here we arm in the carrot unit and I'm only there a couple days I'm waiting for hearings and my case is just really starting and I called my wife and she says she's hysterical crying and I mean a sterol and I remember she's home she's a young girl she has a little baby and she said the lawyer called he needs more money he said your face in life you'll never get out I am so pissed who you want to talk about pissed these lawyers this is why they call them sharks they catch people when they're down and what do they do they step on their neck they try to get more money out of them they do stuff that that's right at home sharks they prey on the weak they prey on people who who were in the worst of this situation I'm not saying don't make money but there's no way that lawyers should have told my wife she's facing like talked to me you want money you need something you want money it took every bit of energy for me not to explode and and what I did I wanted to kill this guy for a long time ended up cursing him out doing a whole bunch on about that but I called Dominic I said hey Dom I said you know this is what happened he can't talk so per se but he goes you know we kick involved in this he just as a friend he says call this phone number and it's an attorney so I call this attorney and it no money nothing and he attorney you know says lo send me your stuff I sent him my stuff he looks at my stuff and he says hey listen he goes down on a attorney-client privilege call and he says to me he goes listen because you going away for a long time he goes but you didn't have a gun did you and I'm like what do you mean he goes you didn't have a gun did you use the BB gun didn't you I said yeah I had a BB gun I had a BB gun he was yeah well then you could beat the life sentence because how the federal law works in the United States the federal law if you have a gun during the commission of a crime you get five years extra so if they give you five years for a robbery then they give you five years for the gun and that has to run after your time on your sentence it's called running wild not running consecutive or concurrently is what ended up getting they call it running consecutively not concurrently or in the in their terminology this is running wild so normally your case would be five years for a robbery and five years for the gun so you're doing ten years well in the federal system is called the 924 C you end up doing five years for the robbery and then the next robber you do with a gun it's 20 years and then the next robbery it's 20 years and then an ex robbery it's 20 years so for my cases just the four cases I was charged with not the others the four case I would say I would have got eighty five years for the gun not counting the robbery I ended up getting beating the gun charge but that's what would have happened to me and I beat the gun charge myself understanding the law studying the 924 C in the law library once he told me you didn't have a gun I kind of a light bulb went off and they could not prove I had a gun and it was real important earlier remember I told you I threw the guns in the lake the FBI actually sent a dive team into that Lake to get though guns and as I said listen if I had a gun when a guy is shooting at me what and I at least shoot back at him so he stops shooting when I even shoot in the air or try to scare him and do something all right no I said no had a BB gun so they ended up dropping the 924 C I ended up getting four 12-year sentences all run concurrently meaning you got 12 years 12 years 12 years toys but it's all running together so it goes together and people always ask me why did they give a person three life sentences you know you can't die three times well why did they give you 12 years four times they're all running together and the reason they do that is because if you beat a case on appeal if you I had four charges so they gave you four twelve year sentences run concurrently I mean they're all running together the reason they do that is if I beat one of those cases on appeal I'm still doing the twelve years same with a life sentence guy if he beats that one life sentence he's gonna still do a life sentence cuz he's got the two other charges unless he beats them all so that's why they do that that's why they run three charges and I'll all say okay we're three life sentences or five life sentences or [ __ ] a life sentence plus 50 because if you beat the life scent you're still doing 50 years so whatever it is that's why they do those kind of sentences so I ended up getting four 12-year sentences because I beat the gun charge the 924 C if I didn't beat that gun charge I wouldn't be doing this video right now you wouldn't even know who I am so that that's why I beat it and so here I am I'm the happiest guy I get 12 years ended up getting four twelve year sins is either what they call after I beat the gun charge I did what they call proper proper means they wanted to offer me three years they wanted to offer me three years if I would rat on everybody rat on Dominick in Willy and everybody in the whole case but I didn't I ended up saying a proper profit means you just tell about what you did and the crime and that's it so I told him my partner was John Rodriguez thinking I'm a slick stuff how many John Rodriguez's are in Miami gotta be a zillion right okay so they end up investigating I'll tell you how I know this there investigating John Rodriguez's for forever and they can't find a John Rodriguez okay that's your partner John Rodriguez they accept everything I go little do I know five years later when I'm in prison I ended up getting charged with it's a crime call filing a false statement it's the exact same charge Bill Clinton got for filing a false statement with Monica Lewinsky Bill Clinton and I got the exact same choice that was five years later I ended up running a a case and I'll talk about that later in the book about what happened with that case and it's a pretty wild story there but anyway so I ended up getting that 12 years and I'm ready to go I said oh I'm like the happiest dude in the in the holding cell in federal prison who just got 12 years 12 years I'm not I did get 3 I didn't rat I wouldn't rat I ended up getting 12 years in prison and I'm happy I'm not gonna hold him so because most of people are rats most those people don't give a [ __ ] now all ratting on each other and stuff and getting three is you should see them come back in the holding cell which is down below the courtroom or next to the courtroom it's down there and that's where they hold you before you go back to wherever you're staying in the prison system or the County Jail system whatever you're gonna be staying at and you should see all these guys crying like babies I mean you know I laugh at people today oh I'm a tough guy I'll hang tough and all that it's all [ __ ] I face the devil I was facing a life sentence and didn't tell and it's just it's in my nature it's not like I like I said I don't despise I do despise rats I think people should have some kind of on or at least have a word least at least their word should mean something and that's how I believe and I always believe that but it's it's pretty wild think about what I just said and so that's how it goes so now I'm ready to go I'm ready to go to jail and now I'm heading so I'm in the holding cell and my next stop is on the way to jail so here you know I get told at the end that you're gonna be going to USP Atlanta United States penitentiary Atlanta at the time was the worst prison in the United States it was crazy prison we had more murders there more assaults there maximum-security prison in Atlanta Georgia and as a white guy you're done even a black guy you're done but now talk about racism I'll talk about that in a minute because I have a lot of black friends I say listen you don't know what race it is I know what it's like to be black because I was in a prison with 15% white and I was I was the minority that's why I feel for you when when things are done but that's a whole nother story we're gonna get into that's the end of chapter 7 in the summarization I hope you liked it obviously next chapters gonna be chapter 8 it's gonna be my journey to Atlanta you can won't listen to this whole thing when I read it on Spotify and iTunes and a links below you can listen to it or pass that around if you like what we're doing please spread the word please pass it around I'm trying to make a big platform so I can make changes in this world and the prison system you're gonna see about that hope everything's going well hope you had a great holiday and you're going to hop great new year - and we'll be back done next for Chapter eight thank you [Music]

Channel: Larry Lawton

Views: 2,784,314

Rating: 4.9473042 out of 5

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Id: wJMS8LMOuKY

Length: 32min 26sec (1946 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 29 2019