The Beat Goes On...

It's a funny thing... I've been waiting for the 'right' moment to take this thread beyond the bust and into the crazy world of what happens afterwards. It was too easy to postpone and after a few months turned into a year, there were just numerous excuses that justified stopping where it was. But I've always felt that the story, of course, didn't end when the Feds showed up and I ended up in the 'system'.

So I think I'm going to try to narrate what came after that day... My memory is, understandably, a bit foggy now, 28 years later. So I'll try to keep things chronological but I make no promises. I don't have perfect recall and I suspect I'll discover things are out of order at times... and when I do, I'll just let it be known.

One of the main excuses, as it turns out, is that I felt a sense of betrayal by telling the tale here where my son could stumble on it... or my soulmate might not feel right about seeing it out in the clear.

But hey... if I don't do it, I'll always wonder how it would have felt and honestly, having taken you all for the ride this far, I kind of think it's only fair to let you see what happened once the curtain fell.

So be aware that I'm going to post some more here before my recollections become too foggy and indistinct.

 Looking out the window of my 'cell'... I could clearly see the Brooklyn Bridge. I recall a wistful feeling at being able to see it but not being able to leave the place. BTW, there was a wired glass window and a seriously sturdy steel door. There was no privacy... no escaping (lol)... no bars. This was just a solid little room with no way out. There were lots of guys who were there for sheer stupidity... They had been snitched on and would rather take their chances than cooperate. Mostly though, they had nothing to cooperate with so they were basically screwed until the 'system' decided they were unscrewed.

Was I nervous? Well yeah... I was. The lawyer and his 'investigator' both told me this was going to be a weird place and that I should protect myself at all times. The good news, though, was that this was federal... not state or local. State and local lockups were totally miserable places to be. Rikers or any state prison were all extremely dangerous. Me? I wasn't exactly a world class physical defender so I stayed really really quiet... quietly being friendly but not too friendly.