My Start as a Jewel Thief - Chapter 1: Episode 1 | Larry Lawton: Jewel Thief | 1 |

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 everybody here we go chapter one of gangster Redemption the book this is who wants to [ __ ] miss or Molino and I only did this that this is my childhood and I'm starting this chapter so everybody can you know have the whole book in the summarization of my own words which I think people wanted more than anything I opened my book with the torture scene I opened the book with when I was strapped down naked and beaten and tortured by guards a true story I mean I get the chills whenever I do this thing do what I'm doing now and that's reliving some of my earlier life and that you know when you're getting beaten and you're tortured and you're thinking back and and you'd think when it all started where did you know where did your own life start I mean you're in desperation you're in the hole you're in prison you'll learn about that later in the chapters coming up and you think you're gonna die and you also wonder what happened you went from being a multimillionaire to be an in a prison cell contemplating suicide so I'm gonna go right to it I grew up in the Bronx New York I grew up in the Bronx under the Throgs Neck bridge I sail under the Throgs Neck bridge I was in Locust Point a little little full block area at the end of Throgs Neck at the end of East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx there were little bungalow houses my dad built the house it was a little the whole house was about 1,200 square feet that's the house 1,200 square feet and we had five young people five mium four brothers and sisters a dog and my mother and father there were only two bedrooms in a basement that was finished somewhat but that's where the workshop was that's where the laundry room was that was like if you want to call him a playroom stuff like that and then upstairs you had the kitchen a little living room and my mom and dad's room and ended up being my sisters my older sister's room my dad was a construction worker so he made the Attic into two rooms if you want to call it that you couldn't stand up as an adult you had to stand up in the middle where the point at a house went because if you couldn't stand up here because it was too tall but as kids we thought that was great anyway so we lived up there and the stairs that went up into the into the Attic if you want to call it that and my dad built that that's where we live my brother and I had one room my youngest sister my just older sister had the upper room and my sister downstairs had they had her own room she you know she was the oldest so she got her own room I guess that's how they did that the neighborhood was Irish Catholic mostly and Italian German that kind of ethnicities it was a pretty denominator of a Caucasian or white area if there is what they call white area in the Bronx New York goes down off the Throgs Neck bridge in a little place called Locust Point and there were four blocks and those four blocks it was our blocks I mean you couldn't come in now I won't kill who you are what color you were if you came in that area we knew who you are and we didn't like it whether it's people coming to fish off the jetty you know it's funny thinking back into this chapter and thinking about my neighborhood where I grew up was at the end of the East River under the Throgs Neck bridge and we had a thing called Locust Point Civic Association and they had in there they had a basketball court and then I had a beach that went out into the East River at the end of the East River it's just the start of the Long Island Sound and we thought we were living in like a country club and on the other side of a jetty sticking out there was a sewer literally raw sewage which sometimes come out raw so [ __ ] would be floating in the water we were swimming in this [ __ ] thinking why are we living in this great area you know we had the water that's what we thought as young kids I mean we had a raft days they had out their anchor down so people can go out and swim get to the raft it was really kind of weird I mean we they had like these like wooden stands around the beach air is supposed to keep seaweed and and crap out and everything it never did it was just it was kind of like disgusting when you think about it but that's where we live and we thought we were living in high and that's just the Bronx that's the way you lived in my neighborhood we had I guess said gangsters and we had a family I call me O'Reilly family man what a tough Irish family they'd make you laugh man had a mother who would kick your ass funny story and I'll never forget this story we'll play football on the street and you know it's a tough family this is a tough Irish family and she comes in the old station wagon you know what the muffler coming down and she's driving down we're here we're playing football we used to play football on the streets from telephone pole to telephone pole and the sewer that was in the middle of the street was the 50-yard line we'd even take spray paint and do that and walk the street up but this is where we're playing football now we played rough to touch in there we we bang you into a car literally you'd go flying off a car we played a rough game in the streets roughing you up and I was always a little guy I'm not not this big guy you see now I was a little guy and when I say little I was all I wasn't when I went into service I was a hundred and thirty-two pounds think of that soaking wet it was 132 pounds now I'm 245 pounds but anyway so we're in the street now I'm playing with Tommy Joe and we just played football all roth's the mother comes rolling up and the old station wagon with the you know the stuff on the side old old station well you know at the wood on the sides and she comes up but she goes Tommy Joe get home put the lights on he says [ __ ] you tell us his mom like damn like whoa these people quake she goes Larry I got a football she was Larry give me the football I says alright the football Tommy you don't give it a football give me that football Larry don't give me a football I throw the football in the air to get out of it this was a great family but they were crazy they had a lot of fun they were they were really a good family that struggled like everybody in this neighborhood my next-door neighbor was in the mob literally then three down I had my buddy Ronnie his family was down there now on the corner was mr. Knapp worked for the telephone company a couple of houses in they had like different kind of houses they weren't all like the same house like you see today they were all little big all small and in the sense of anybody thinking about a house and next next you had the de Janeiro's and next you had the Nancy pet relax the pet relax then he had the Duffy's who was both schoolteachers one was a principal and I think they were both principals the mother and the father were principals and and to this day Johnny got killed in a bar fight and he was a big kid he got killed this there than a bar fight and next to them you had my neighbor which was the seals still contacting him today I know him well and then us and the next day I missed the land he was in the mob and then add the Chicago's on the neck south then we used to call it the Greek houses there were newer houses were built where we used to play in the area there was like a real weeds I remember we used to build forts with little kids now we're talking in the 60s late 60s we used to build forts and in the fort we'd like to have car seats as cushions you know kids building stuff and there were rats in there cuz the next day you'd see rat rec room it's in there you didn't even know you just brush it away and let downs like it was dirt on your on your car seat that you use the net we we made forts that were so allowed but we used to tap into the electric along the bridge that's what we still we were just innovative young kids you know we we were always doing something and in my neighborhood there were some famous people that came from Michael Kay who's the announcer for the New York Yankees he grew up right around the corner he's a friend of my good friend of Mines two going to his house all the time him and I used to go into his house her sister Debbie and and went to a wedding and I know Michael very well and also Dougie Marone don't get me wrong I used to like my sister my little younger sister Donna Dougie Marone is the coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars football team he ended up going to Syracuse and he ended up playing professional football in the NFL big kid when were kids big kid dougie yeah I'm partying with these guys all all of us hanging out I got some great pictures and we'll put them up as well on the Instagram so that would be cool to see that those kind of guys in our neighborhoods and who do you have that you had my dad was a construction worker my dad worked for local 28 he was a which is a tin knockers they put in the ductwork for buildings and my dad worked on the World Trade Center that's when we thought we were doing good but that's when I got introduced to if you want to really call it the mob my dad was a foreman on the job for Brook sheetmetal Brook sheetmetal had the the World Trade Center you talk about good construction the Union construction construction they built the World Trade Centers at the time the two world's biggest buildings 110 stories I am I and that whole building that whole project was started in 1968 and it was finished in 1972 and you think they put those two buildings up in four years think him think of the coordination putting the two biggest buildings in the world in Manhattan all the way up and I have pictures of me wrapped with a rope around going on a hunt third floor like crawling up to the edge and looking out and you could actually feel the building sway up there it's kind of crazy but you can feel that and it's I we used to go on the roof my dad was the construction he was the head he was one of the Foreman's on that job and I used to go with him and he used to deliver the payouts now you can't get anything done in New York City without being mobbed up and what I mean by mobbed up you're making payments there's no way you're gonna do it without making payments and sure enough my dad used to I remember he used to bring home envelopes so it was on a Friday and it would be about four or five six seven envelopes and he always carried him in the top he used to carry he was sort of flannel shirt those flannel shirts he's a bald like me but he had the hair around you least call it the horseshoes and he used to keep the envelopes in his pocket and I would go on and what rounds this is 1972 him 11 years old 71 72 and I used to go with him and he used to go to the cue lounge and drop off an envelope in there and I remembered all the mobs is it kid come here I used to go into the bar I used to go to the triangle ball was on pure Avenue in the morning memory I never forget and a triangle bar was on pure Avenue in New York City under the El and this is in the Bronx and it was called the triangle bar was literally like a triangle right on a corner of a street and in there was the book he was named Vinny tremor Muno Vinny Vinny tremor Muno was the bookie and now it was so funny back then this is in the 70s this is godfather come out 72 so this is pre even Godfather days and right around that time I started really understand and my dad just to pay envelopes to certain guys he'd meet at that bar that was main meeting meeting place and when we did that I would go with him and the old-timers would give me quarters to say hey kid played a machine and they'd be playing the old pinball machines Bing Bing Bing Bing you know they didn't have these new stuff they have today we hit buttons it was the old pinball machines and I would be playing them all the time with the old guy all rotten mobsters and I take kid your dad's a good man listen to your dad all that and I was you know I knew my dad gambled and he was a small batter but he would bet and and I always wanted to do that so it was like a big deal back then you'd it wasn't like it is today with computers and the internet and gambling all over the place there was no places legal for gambling except Las Vegas that's it even Atlantic City wasn't there yet Atlantic City came in the mid-70s it didn't come until then so here we are in the bar and I want to place a bet never forget this the bookie had what they call flash paper they can write you know on it and keep the paper but if they even touch the little light to it go home it would like flash away it'd be gone well I remember my first bet I ever made you know it was funny too cuz he didn't just do it right there sit now you know cuz they'd have the squads that have they called the mo Vice squads that come in and bust people for bookmaking loan-sharking and and prostitution it was like they had all teams like that but they were all paid off too so this is the triangle you talking about like the little hub and if you remember any movies that kind of like Goodfellas where they would be in that one bar and they would all be in that the place there and I forget to even the name and I used to know the name of that bar so anyway that wasn't a Gemini that was another one but anyway so here we are in the bar and I wanted to make my first bet so I said dad I want to make a bet he goes okay and I remember I bet the Giants the New York team I was in New York and the Giants were playing I think Dallas because that was a big game and you get to watch it again now you were tone both this is before ESPN before sports channels we only had 7 channels 2 4 5 7 9 and 11 and then 13 was WPIX that's all we had in New York City imagine around the other country but the main networks ABC NBC see if it was that not even a Fox Network but they would have the football game on you know and this is so you get to watch the football game that was like a big deal so I wanted to place my first bet so I placed a $5 back in bookmaking lingo one time is a fight our bet so if you want to bet a 20 time bet that's 100 bucks so and you have to give 10% Vig the Vig is the interest so let's say you want to put I'm just gonna give a roundabout number if you want to put $100 on the Giants you would have to give him a hundred and ten dollars if you win you get back 200 and you're fig so you get back two hundred and ten dollars got it so you gave them one ten you got back two hundred and ten you don't make money on the vague let's say you lose the game you got to give him a hundred and ten dollars so that's where they make the money if they had a hundred dollars on this team and a hundred dollars on this team this hundred dollars pays this guy off they make ten dollars now multiply that by a hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars they give a hundred thousand that's ten thousand dollars they make without even gambling just be in the middle man passing money that's what a real book he is real bookies don't gamble real a bookie is not a gambler a bookie is a businessman who makes money off the Vig and I learned that very early and that's why I always wanted to but get into that business and then eventually learn from Mac and I'll get in that a little later but it was great so I place my first bet I remember we go into the bathroom and we sit in the bathroom and he puts his foot up against the door this is how it is he goes what are you on a kid got the cigar hanging out this guy's out of central casting he's got that hat you know and he got that so that's the colitis mile 8kr Dion I said give me one one time one time on the giant - three of us guys - Trey writes it down your guard I give five dollars and fifty cents they don't not take that 50 cent they take five dollars and fifty cents at was my first bet ever made illegally in a bookmaking and it was at the ball where all the hustlers were that bar was where everybody was that was the creme de la creme in the bars and it was really really amazing to see how they did that you know the the bookies and how they ran it tell you what kind of knocked around borrow was it was just a crazy bar we go in there one time and there was a guy there who couldn't read bigger this he couldn't read he could you couldn't give him a note he couldn't read it all guys on I've guarantee everybody on this channel can read cuz you're here you find it you read my titles or whatever you can read now this is a man can't read but this is back in the 70s early 71 are the guys in the bar do they're not the round bars there's a bank across the street so they give this guy a note and they say hey go go cash this for you know we need to get money just go give the note to the teller and get cash a guy walks across the street gives the note the ladies are looking at him everybody's looking at him all of a sudden the manager comes over what is it the guys in the ball gave this guy a note that said this is a stick-up of course it was it and the cops came and of course they knew the guys in the bar were [ __ ] around with him and they let him go they didn't even do anything and I think about that today could you imagine that today that never happened today the guy you'd be everybody would be in jail and that's just the way it would be it was really funny that's I mean it really I got such a kick out of that and it made me laugh and I learned about knocking around guys in that place you know they had a guy there that's how I first met the Purple Gang I was a little older and the Purple Gang was in there now if you ever never heard a Purple Gang the Purple Gang was a real mean gang back in those times in the 70s and it was a guy used to be the Purple Gang and he always had a bag on on the top of the ball and in that bag you used to keep a 45 a gun so he introduced so you he sees me always in the ball he knows everybody everybody knows everybody I'm a knocked around kid down now I'm a little older I'm a rock mouth around kid and he's starting to talk to them and I'm asking questions I'm inquisitive but not like all a rat they don't that wasn't even thought of back then you know so here I am just talking a guy because you want to make extra money now where I grew up wheesht the gamble I mean with kids gamble and heavy in the streets I mean we would either play sports up at the field we had a field near the bridge now I remember I told you the Throgs Neck bridge goes over to over to Long Island Exeter Willets Point so it would go over to Fort Totten Willets Point and we used to go we still play either under the bridge play stickball I met I made with my first girl under the bridge all we'd be up near the front of where the bridge is they had like a feel there we just call it the field and we used to drink and we used to get big vats like a big vat stick packets of iced tea mix bottles of vodka in there put put a hose in there we'd get a hose from the bridge hose where we'd like you know even the people up the bridge they knew not brown kids they had a basketball court up there and they would put we put water in there mix it up and drink that that would be our drink for the night and we were crazy we were all kids 15 years old drinking party and like you wouldn't be now you got to remember 18 was the drinking limit back then it wasn't 21 like it is today in most places it was 18 but we were up there wish to go dad a basketball court up there matter of fact one my dad and 72 gets after the World Trade Center he gets laid off we got no money I mean we are family with five kids a mom and dad no money we weren't they called latchkey kids too when my dad was out working my mom would be working or sleep and coming from the night shift there's a nurse and we were what they call latchkey kids today we world it wasn't supervised at all but anyway so my dad got laid off I remember we had no money for sneakers and we were poor and I literally played basketball in my slippers in my slippers and they ended up with grease and I ripped them up in no time and and this is trying to play basketball to hang out up at the at the bridge because our family didn't have money we were poor you know I don't mean we were lower middle class if you want to call that and in times we've become very poor cuz my dad got laid off and it was no money coming in and that's just that's the way that was back in those days and and and trust me it did you didn't even know you a boy you knew you had nothing or like during Christmas time you didn't get a bunch of presents you got a shirt maybe a shirt or a football for you and your brother to share and or a basketball that year or a hockey helmet or a you know a football helmet whatever you got you got one item you didn't get like kids today they got tons of items under the thing I listen I know I have a grandson who gets everything a granddaughter it's totally different today than it was when I grew up and that's just the way it was I mean you know when you're little and young that's the way it was you know it was a crazy place and you know we had no money and that's the way it was so in 1972 we used to go I was also an altar boy and this is a part I didn't really didn't want to bring up but I'm gonna and get him tell the audience the truth and obvious always the truth but I was thinking of skipping this part of it in 1972 was 11 years old I was an altar boy and you know we used to go to confession I was Catholic I went to Catholic school I went to Saint Francis the Chantal it's a little school you know Catholic school in the Bronx and sure enough I was an altar boy and one time after church the priest said you know stayed here and he comes in here and I was getting changed in the back the other kid left and we used to like to be get funerals or weddings because afterwards used to make money and you just actually you know the family would give you 10 bucks 20 bucks whatever it was it was a big money back then and we were kids you know now this is even before I was even a real teenager I was 11 years old and the priest said you could take it all off I know what do you mean take it all off and he came up to me and I was standing up right where we had changed clothes and he took down my pants and he gets down on his knees and he proceeds to blow me and give me a [ __ ] I'm at the age where I'm just learning about even sex not even you know getting a hard-on at night and jerking off so 11 years old just understanding not knowing it and he proceeds to get me excited and blows me and then all he gets up man I hate this video but people gotta know life and and so he does what he does to me and after he does that he starts getting up and right what he started get up he started on Buffalo on his pants I took off out of that [ __ ] church like you wouldn't believe and it you know I'm sure I've been with psychologists and everybody else and they'll say hey that [ __ ] you up for your life you know that wasn't good I mean you lost all authority respect how do you tell a priest know you know I totally understand the scandals when they say you know people that want to tell the priests in our neighborhood were revered they were revered and you couldn't say anything against them it wasn't before computers before anybody knew to this day we found out later there were multiple people who were abused in my neighborhood that I even know and it just I think about that and I said man these scumbags you know taking advantage maybe that's why I have such to stay that's why I really hate of Tom molester so people take advantage of people I can't stand that it [ __ ] drives me I want to [ __ ] kill somebody and obvious I'm getting over all that kind of stuff so after being abused I'll never forget I used to go to my mom used to let us go to church alone and we we bring home we'd bring back the bulletin to show we went to church so I never went my mom used to give us a dollar to put into the to the basket and are you [ __ ] kidding me I we would go up to the church we'd run into the church see who the priest was cuz your mother would sometimes ask you what father did the mess we'd look who the priest was as a matter of fact when I used to see that [ __ ] scumbag I used to give me the willies I hate him Ilana what running but we'd go in and we take the the program you know the mass bullet and they call him and we'd run out and there was a shop down at the end we used to call it the [ __ ] shop and we'd go into the [ __ ] shop and we'd wait out front of the [ __ ] shop until an older kid 18 19 20 whatever his age was he was legal which hey can you buy us a quarter beer quarter beer was 69 cents never forget that a quart of beer was 69 cents and we used to give him the dot we all stole the money that we used to can't get from the church or our parents our allowance or whatever you thought you're gonna get hustled shovel the driveways mowed a lawn what lawn we only had the hand mowers back then but we do whatever did Rica some of these leaves you did whatever you could and when we did that we'd get a dollar but every time my mother used to give us a dollar we would go - watch out now - whap shop was a little store right next to the Little League next to the school in church and it was a little Italian store was called the [ __ ] shop where it had a little penny literally petty candies I come from the area where you can buy for one penny you can buy a barrel you know the root beer barrels there were a penny get five for a nickel and we used to get stuff like that we used to go in there and get whatever a soda or something which was so cheap it was now you look back but a quarter be always to get that - and it was a 69 cents we take our quarter beer back to the neighborhood you know walk down a penny field Avenue which it came up from where I live go to penny field Avenue and then go into Locust Point and up the field and we'd be drinking and get drunk as little kids that's literally that's what we did it drove us nuts and that's you know a lot of people who know me and I'm talking my wrote the book for me was Peter going back great guy psychologists who've met me and talked to me since and said you know that was the start of your career that's when you started getting to be a rough kid and I'm gonna end this part right here I'm gonna continue chapter one next Thursday you'll get that and I want you to know this has been a great experience again you know about our merchants in the links below you see it right here you know I literally use my merge that's not a joke all the stuff you can look into the links below we can do stuff I'm gonna be on twitch I'm gonna be on a couple other platform I'm gonna do the more videos on the gaming more videos on I have a great series plan I'm gonna tell quit going now I'm gonna be doing my prison cooking show and I developed the whole show it's gonna be me cooking with exactly the way I did it in prison with the exact same stuff I didn't put a meaning the Stingers the little cut razor blades show you how we all did it and actually cook a meal and have a special guest come in and eat it that's gonna be a fun story I'm getting people to help me with that we're gonna have special guests ex-felons we're gonna get some celebrities I think I can get some to come and actually sit down and I'll be telling stories with them and they'll be telling stories one of my guests I'm gonna have his cruiserweight champ of the world back then was Mark Randazzo owns and dazzles restaurant he is great friend of mine he and he volunteered to come do and eat my pasta because the first one we do is gonna be prison pasta and that's coming right after the series is over it's totally technically over but I'm redoing these first series is for everybody thanks everybody love you really do I love the support thanks very much it means more than you know and stay safe don't make the choices I made and keep following us have a great day [Music]

Channel: Larry Lawton

Views: 766,689

Keywords: Gangster Redemption, Larry Lawton, Reality Check Program, jewel theif

Id: KE0hMgzm_48

Length: 29min 13sec (1753 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020