Many tried to pull me into mainstream society over time and all failed as I clung to the fringes of our society, doing it my way. I would like to thank all who took a shot at changing me into a more productive member of society. There were many.
My parents were there, time and again, when I failed at crime and also when I succeeded at other things. For that, I thank them.
I would like to thank the three women who bore the shame and expense of loving a rounder doing life on the instalment plan. I couldn’t have done it without Sharon, Diane and Angela.
I would like to thank everyone who wrote letters of support over the decades to the parole board and especially to Glen Flett of Long-term Inmates Now in the Community (L.I.N.C.) and Joan McEwen, lawyer/ author, who sat beside me at parole panel hearings fighting for my greater freedoms.
I would like to thank Wardens Jim Blackler, Dave McDonald and Fred Sisson for allowing Brian Judge to escort me outside of their prisons more than 460 times to film the world’s first prison reality television show, Contact, which has evolved into www.prisontv.net. It changed the course of many lives.
I would like to thank Mel Bellissimo, founder of Decorus Spiritual Arts Academy, for his advice, friendship and employment opportunities. I would like to thank my children, Melissa, Sonny and Jennifer, and my stepdaughter Kristin, for never turning their backs on their dad after a life of him in prison.
Journalist, author and man-about-town, Joe Fiorito listened to me and applied his craft to my story. I thank him for his generous spirit and talent. Thanks also to Michael Callaghan and his publishing team at Exile Editions for assuming the challenges of this project.
Lastly, I would like to thank any cop, parole officer, or correctional officer who saw something worth redeeming in me and reached out to help. There were many. Just as I have not forgotten the abusers over the decades, I have not forgotten you.