Bank Robber to Business Owner: Mike Lee (BeanShooter)

Mike Lee1:17

Always around Boston and then, you know, I I just leave. I'd never stay anywhere or complete anything. Like I've been a you know, I remember one detox I was in and they're like, "Oh, you've been here 33 times, you know?" So I mean and there's countless detoxes around Boston and then where I'm from Lowell, Mass, you know, all around that area and um Mickey had offered to help me and um I ended up getting on the methadone clinic which was um which was a big mistake, you know, I'm not going to get up my soapbox and and preach against methadone and suboxone and and MAT which is, you know, medically assisted treatment they call it MAT now.

But for me that wasn't that wasn't um you know, good for me, you know? Because I just you know, kept selling drugs and I ended up catching another case, you know, a trafficking heroin case while I was on the methadone clinic and if anyone's ever kicked drugs in prison cold turkey or kicked the methadone clinic, you know, you've seen it. Working there. I mean, you don't sleep for a [ __ ] month, you know, it's especially the methadone and the dope and

Mike Lee2:23

100%. It's longer. Suboxone, too. Suboxone's a brutal kick. So I you know, Mickey had offered it to me and I ended up getting on the methadone clinic and after two, three months of that I finally you know, I was waving the white flag. I called up Mickey and said, "Hey Mickey, you know, if you can still get me in that place, I'm ready to go." And um that was 2013. He said um St. Patty's Day is your last hurrah. I got you on a flight at 5:00 a.m.

So you know, that's my sober day but that's the last day I got high actually, you know, March 17th and I get on a plane to Florida and Mickey picked me up at Fort Lauderdale Airport on the 18th.

Mike Lee2:46

Yeah. Yeah, divorced. My father was a bookie and a bartender. They divorced when I was in um second grade maybe. My father's a funny guy.

He's still around. He still wakes up at 4:30 in the morning to go to the gym and he still drinks every day. Goes down the bar at 3:00 and drink till 6:00, 7:00 at night. So he's one of these guys like a functioning alcoholic like, you know, always had a couple of jobs, you know, bartending working for the electric company during the day and waking up. He could be out drinking 2:00, 3:00 in the morning and get up at 5:00 in the morning like you. Runner and you know, and not you know, and not you know, you runners.

Runners are a different breed and you know, you got to be a little tough to be a runner but so growing up, yeah, my I remember my father getting in fights and having black eyes and you know, I told this story before not to not to slam him but to kind of, you know, paint a picture of how it was growing up. Some of my earliest memories of him opening my bedroom door thinking he's in the bathroom and start pissing all over the [ __ ] floor, you know what I mean?

Mike Lee4:01

Yeah, you know, there was that and I I always said I'll never drink, you know? You know, I was like, you know, 6, 7, 8 years old I'd see him like that and my mother would be, you know, "No, no, you know, the bathroom's over here." And I'd say I'll never [ __ ] drink, you know, I'll never drink and um I started with the drugs at a young young age, you know, 11, 12 with the with the marijuana and the you know, mescaline and acid and all that.

That lasted till I was 14. I'll never drink, you know, and the first time I ever drank in my life was down the projects, Champs Street projects in Lowell and somebody had told me might have been, you know, Dicky that there's there was this apartment there. It was like this lady's apartment and he said there was percs and Valium. She had a bunch of pills in the fridge. So I drank you know, I've told the story before but I drank five Bud Bombers, the 16 oz.

We used to call them Bud Bombers, you know, pounders, bombers, right? The 16 oz. I drank five of them and now I want to get these percs, right? So I'm up I'm 14. I jimmy the door with a with a card and I I get in and I steal the pills and we go up the street. There's like a little wooded area behind the projects so we're in there. We're like, you know, light is looking at the bottles and none of them say Percocet or Valium.

But it might have been a generic name on them. I'm a little kid, you know what I mean? I'm just looking so I'm like, "Fuck this. I'm getting something out of this house, you know?" So now I go back in the house with a friend of mine who's uh no longer with us and um I'm looking I'm looking and I'm I was tiny, you know, I'm a 14-year-old kid and I go like I could see a light on in the bedroom and I could see someone's feet like at the end of the bed like watching TV.

So I'm crawling on hands and knees and I see a pocketbook on the floor next to the bed. So I I reach out This is my first arrest. And it was a doozy. Oh, so they

I didn't go home. I didn't go home for 6 months. Uh yeah, home invasion. And I reach and I grab the pocketbook and I'm I'm sliding it back and you know, this lady let out this scream, you know, I can still hear it and I still got the pocketbook and I ran and these two guys next to her chased me and they caught the friend I was with and he gave me up and the police came to a house and I remember saying to my mother, "Ma, I've been here all night." She's like, "I'm not lying for you." My mother was like she wasn't that mother that's going to, you know, really stick up for you too much.

I think she ended up signing me over to the state not not long after this cuz I kept getting in trouble. So they get me the police car, they take me on the projects. The guy identifies me and when he pulled to the bottom of the projects, you know, they're under the street lamp. It's like 3:30 in the morning and I remember the guy goes, "That's [ __ ] him. That's him right there." You know, they were you know, they wanted to rip me apart and um the cop starts driving away.

His last name was Duffy and he turned around. He goes, "You know, what's your name?" And I said, "Uh you know, Michael Lee." And he like stopped cuz my father was really well known. He was a bartender. He was a bookie. Like everybody loves my father, you know? Yeah. Unlike me, you know what I mean? I got people that love me but I got people that, you know, so he stops and he spins around. He goes, "Tell me you're not Tommy's kid." And I'm like, "Yeah." And he's like, "Why didn't you say something?" You know, so I always say something now.

If I know a cop, I know someone's name, you know, just throw anything out there to try to get out of him anything. And he goes, "Why didn't you tell me?" And I'm like, you know, I don't know. He goes, "It's too late. They just you know, they just ID'd you, you know, it's too late. I can't do anything." And I'm like, I'm a 14-year-old kid. I'm like, "Yeah, all right, whatever." And um the next morning they held me, you know, they didn't release me to my parents like they usually do and I'm like, "What the [ __ ] going on?" And they bring me up into the courtroom and um the lady was a paraplegic and the house I you know, I yeah, I didn't know, you know, tough to come back from that one.

You know what I mean? I was like after that I was like and I you know, I've said it before I feel like when I got out after 6 months out of DYFS, they wanted to give me a year in secure treatment and I went and did this 28-day program on Cape Cod called Homeward Bound. It's outdoor rigorous activity program, you know, where we were like it was in the winter you had to break the ice, dive in the water in the Cape. It was you know, it's like the ocean so it's not like, you know, it's not ice like, you know, but the staff would do it, too, and you'd go on these like 20-mile hikes through the sand dunes.

You went through Provincetown and you know, just all kinds of I got out of there. I was in it was uh there was a 6-mile race at the end. I come in second but I come I come out of there. I was in the best shape of my life and I was only 14, 15, you know, fighting in the Silver Mittens after that like and um but I remember when I came home like I was like I was that kid, you and from getting out, you know, and I and I feel like I lived up to that.

Like a little bully. Yeah, not not so much a bully but you know, like

Mike Lee8:43

Yeah, starting trouble in school and not caring and and you know, and then getting locked up again and and that became, you know, my identity for a long time.

Happened, what was your dad's reaction? He wasn't um you know, my father wasn't around too much, you know, my father my mother threw me out and then I was in the foster care system and I'd always escape and run away from these homes and the sexual abuse back then in the foster care system the early '80s was uh was pretty pretty, you know, rampant. And I didn't really know what was going on but I remember kids that like going in the guys' bedroom at night like there was like favorites in the house and you know, I'd stay a day or two and bounce, thank God, you know, unscathed but looking back, you know, I I realize what was going on but I'd always take off and go to my father's house and he had like a one-bedroom apartment.

He was bartending. He'd be like, "The police were already here." You know? But he's like, "Yeah, you can stay here." You know, they'd come. I'd jump out the window, you know, so he was always there for me. Like he has a couple bucks, Yeah. he has 100 bucks.

Mike Lee9:25

No, but he was around, you know what I mean? I used to follow him around.

Mike Lee9:47

No, no, he's old. He's 12 years older than me.

Oh, okay. I think he Mickey's four but uh yeah, I used to follow him around, you know, he used to take me with him down this place Elliot building 201 middle sex. We still talk about it. It was like It was just this high crime area. There was a lot of you know prostitutes around there up and down the street. It's like Like people today don't realize what it was. It's like when you see those old movies, you know, with the high heels and that [ __ ] nylons walking up and down the street and the cars.

It was like where we where we lived in lower Middlesex Street Lowell, it was it was pretty crazy and Dickie was um Dickie was you know the craziest.

Mike Lee11:36

Dickie's like that's where I got the name. There was this pimp Red Dog and we used to see this pimp and he'd be like you know, falling asleep, nodding out, itching his nose, and scratching. And we were little kids and we used to make fun of them, you know? Growing up around it, you know, I'll never end up like that, you know, I'll never end up on that stuff. But it was always like you know you know you just can't do it three days in a row.

You know, from when I was young. You know, you could sniff a bag of dope here and there, but I'm never going to get hooked like that. So before I before um I really got caught up in my own web cuz I sold a lot of coke and a lot of drugs for years, I um you know, I [ __ ] around with it before it ever really caught up to me. You know, I just thought I could sniff a bag once a month of heroin, you know?

First time I sniffed it when I was 15 years old, you know, and uh for years I'd sniff a bag every once in a while and I just thought I was you know I was too smart.

Mike Lee12:14

Yeah, well like I say to people, you know what happens is once you know that high, Yeah. something bad happens, right? Find out, you know, love of your life is cheating, you catch a case, you know, you're going away for 5 years.

Yeah. Somebody close to you dies, right? Any one of these and you know that that drug is just going to you know, you're going to be on a cloud floating, you know? You know, and it's just temporary. It's like everything else, whether it's booze, whether it's whatever it is for drugs. It's a it's a band-aid and when you when you sober up the problem is even worse.

Mike Lee13:03

24. And what was that case?

25. That was uh trafficking over 100 lb of marijuana. What happened? I was getting marijuana and some coke from some Mexicans in San Diego that I met through a friend of mine uh Greg Smith who's down in San Diego now who

Mike Lee13:22

Who I bailed out for 5,000 and he defaulted and um he never gave me the 5,000 back. So um Greg, I could use that right now. No, he's doing good down there. He's got a good painting business, but he had his father lived in San Diego. So in the early '90s, you know, we we realized pretty quickly the price of uh marijuana and coke near the Mexican border was so much cheaper than it was around here. So we started UPSing it and FedExing it and Airborne Express and DHL and sending packages back and then bringing the money back either by train or flying it back or sending it back sometimes, you know, but it's risky sending and doing that doing that and then you know, sooner or later you know, they started following me around and they followed me in a helicopter one day and you know, they just they they got me.

I I someone close to me wore a wire on me and you know, they jammed me up.

Mike Lee14:08

I did a year four years, but I did a a year in Billerica year old stomping grounds and then I did three and and in Walpole. It wasn't actually Walpole at the beginning, but I got in trouble in in there and I got lugged to Walpole. And then once you're there, it's a maximum security prison, you know, you're drinking homebrew, you're getting in fights, you just And I kind of liked it there to be honest with you.

There was this single cell and I don't like living with you know, another cellmate. You know, like Billerica those cells are Oh. how tiny they were. Place was a [ __ ] Yeah.

But a lot of fun, you know? I had a lot of fun there also, but yeah, that's that's when I went up to Walpole for a while and met a lot of the people I did and um yeah, then it you know, it was just a revolving door after that, you know? Well, basically forever since I was 15.

Mike Lee14:44

Later when I was living with uh at Boo Boo's house, um I was out on bail for something else and I was I was dope sick one day, you know, and like I I like to let people know it wasn't like the town, right?

Where I you know, we had we would trust like um It was scheming for a month planning.

Yeah, no, there was none of that. Yeah, it was me dope sick with a note saying, you know, no die pack or you die and you know, all hundreds and 50s put in the bag and try to find out who the head teller was and get them. Like one time I got 17 grand, you know? Wasn't a lot, but when you when you're an addict and you know, and you're getting high, it's uh if you're going to rob anything, you might as well rob the bank, right?

Mike Lee15:43

What uh yeah. Well, I you know, I have a scarf with a you know, with a hat on like this basically.

Mike Lee16:26

And tell me about your experiences at Walpole. Oh man, there's uh there's so many when I when I first got there

Mike Lee16:26

I was in Old Colony and I was in the hole if something happened there. That's a prison in Bridgewater. And the cop comes to my cell in the morning and when you when you're in the hole, you get 5 hours out a week. You get 1 hour a day like Monday through Friday and they take you out in this little like a little cage to get you 1 hour exercise.

And this cop would go through in the morning and he'd if you wanted to go out for your hour wreck, you had to you stand up in this prison. You have to be standing up and just say yeah and the cop would never talk to you. He'd just look at you, you'd nod your head like yeah, I want to go out when he's doing his count in the morning. So I'm taking a piss and he comes to the cell and he points at me. He goes like this with his thumb and I go I nod my head yeah and he he he was like this guy was a prick.

He wouldn't say a word, right? And he shakes his head like this. He just points at me again. He goes like this and I go yeah, you know, I want my wreck. And he shook his head. He goes MCI Walpole Cedar Junction. You're out. And I was like whoa cuz I was only doing 3 years for marijuana. You know, you always heard about you know, Walpole growing up, you know, it was Yeah, but how can that one cop decide that you're going there?

No, it was just on the transport sheet. He was just letting me know. Oh, he was saying you're being transferred.

Like the [ __ ] bus is outside, kid. [ __ ] Take your little [ __ ] shower shoes and your [ __ ] soap dish cuz you're out of here, you know? So I was like [ __ ] it. You know, it was a little trepidation, you know, a little nervous. Anyone who goes to Walpole, I don't care who you are, you got to be a little nervous. You know, it's growing up hearing all this stuff

About it. Hell yeah. It's like a dungeon and I remember I I get in the bus and then you know, there's like 12 inmates in there. Everyone's cuffed and shackled and they're just driving. They pick up some at this prison and that prison and then some guy starts talking. He goes, you know, where you going? Someone someone was like oh Shirley minimum, oh Pondville, all these minimum securities and this that. And I'm just sitting there and then the guy goes yo. And what's up? He goes, where you going?

I was like uh Walpole. And then it was like quiet for a minute. And then then this dude this black dude he goes, that's a bad hit.

When I got there, they brought me in and they you're in this thing and it's like a trap. One door shuts and you're in it and then before the other one opens, the guy lowers down a key. It was like it's like a dungeon, Walpole, you know, and um and right before the door opens, you walk through the courtyard into the prison, some cop, you know, obviously put this poster on the door and it was like a Hallmark poster and it had like an eagle flying over a mountain and it said today is the first day of the rest of your life.

And I was like some [ __ ] put that up. You know, you guys going in there getting life sentences every day going in there, you know? I remember looking at that going [ __ ] man. The door opens and you walk through this courtyard and you go into the HSU which is like the hospital the infirmary. And I get in the cell and I always tell people the first thing I did it was lunch. They gave me the tray. It was like three hot dogs, beans, big thing of coleslaw, like packs of mustard, relish.

There was a big giant wax bag full of Entenmann's chocolate chip cookies. And I was like It's like the best feeding tray I've ever gotten and I've been around, you know, what I mean? I'm like well, they feed them good here, you know? Obviously. And um I'm in the cell and then the cop comes out. He goes Lee Otsuki, pack it up. And I heard the name. I go "Oh, man. Remember Teddy Otsuka?" Yep. So, this guy, Teddy Otsuka, he's a Japanese guy. He was um like a serious bank robber in California.

He robbed a bunch of banks. He actually went to some small town in Texas, I think. Where there was like six cops in the whole town. And he went there with like four or five guys. And when the police would change in shifts, he surrounded them. And walked them back into the police station and locked them in the cells. And then went over to the bank. And just walked in and took over. Like, "Yeah, you can hit the alarm, you know." So, he did all kinds of stuff.

And he was in federal prison in California and he escaped. You know, I'm just letting people know this guy. So, he's in Boston casing out an armored truck or a bank. And he's in the Fenway. And you know, back then, they didn't really have cameras like they do now. But he had like a closed-circuit camera, you know, rigged up at the front door of the building he was living in in the Fenway. And a cop rang the buzzer and he saw it. And he panicked. And the cops were actually this just there like trying to deliver a warrant for somebody for domestic.

And I think they just hit all the buzzers. You know they do that. He panics. Climbs down the fire escape. There's a cop in the alley.

Mike Lee21:03

Cop [ __ ] tells him to freeze. He blows his [ __ ] head off. He shoots both of them. One of them lives, but they're like maimed. But he shoots the other one right between the eyes with a laser scope and disappears. And for years, he's all over America's Most Wanted. That show was like brand new then. You know, like '89, '90, whatever. And it was always Ted Otsuka, Ted Otsuka. You know, he looks like, you know, like a sumo wrestler. Like the face anyway, you know.

And I remember just hearing about this guy. Cuz it obviously it's big news in Boston. The guy shoots a cop, you know, kills him and then maims another one. And uh yeah, the door's cracked and he's standing there. And I go, "Hey, what's up, man?" He's like, "Hey, how you doing?" He's your cellmate? Yeah, no. But we were in cells next to each other. I didn't know it, but we both went to the block, the new man block, together, you know. I don't know where he was coming from, another joint or whatever, you know.

But that was uh that was my uh my first introduction there with him.

Mike Lee22:05

Well, it's not like, you know, California or you know, the other kid you had on Texas, where it's real like you know, you get the Aryan Brotherhood, the skinheads. Massachusetts is more like neighborhoods like South Boston, Charlestown, East Boston, you know, and the blacks, Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester. It's more like you know, the Irish, the Italians, the Puerto Ricans. It's more like that. I mean, the Puerto Ricans got the gangs and the blacks more. I mean, now there's kind of like some white gangs, but it's it's it's it pales in comparison to, you know, California and Texas that are really like regimented gangs.

Mike Lee22:37

Well, when I when I first got there, you go in the chow hall and it's it was a funny thing back then. Where the the the tables were like South Boston, Charlestown, East Boston, Somerville. And you're a new guy coming in. And the first thing they said to me in the block, they said, "Hey, when you when you go in there, there's a line for the whites and there's a line for the for the blacks.

You know, you know what line to go in. It was like the deep south, right?

Yeah. You get your you go to the right and left of the chow and you get your trays and you you you get your food and then you come out and sit at your table. And there was no I was I'm from Lowell, Massachusetts, which is a well, 25, 30 minutes outside of Boston, north of Boston. There was no Lowell table. So, I'm like, "Fuck." And the funny thing is is not funny, but let's say [ __ ] Somerville table, you're from Somerville. There is a Somerville table there, okay?

Let's say there's 12 seats. Let's say eight guys are in the hole. Well, there aren't even that many people there from Somerville at the time. And there's six open seats. I come in. I can't just go up, "Oh, there's an open seat. I'll sit down." You would have to get up and fight me. Like, "Who are you?" Yeah.

"Oh, I'm from Lowell. Hey, sorry." So, what do you do?

You can't eat there. Guys would stand up and eat what we call a Joe's table. Eat by the barrel. And cops walking

Mike Lee24:02

When I was in line, somebody goes, "Mikey, come here." And it was, you know, some kid from South Boston. And he goes, "Oh, you got you know, you can sit here and you know." And that. So, I I got lucky in that regards, you know. But uh yeah, some guys they uh they got nowhere to sit until someone gives them a seat. They had one table called the international table. Which was the worst of the worst of every race that wasn't accepted by their people. Whether they're rapists or you know, just pieces of [ __ ] in general.

So, there'd be a couple black guys, few white guys, some Spanish guys. All just They called it the UN table, the United Nations.

Mike Lee24:36

Maybe at the beginning of their sentences, but people forget. It dies down. You know, like if it's a real heinous case, yeah, they'd be PC or this and that. But, you know, a lot of guys you know, it dies down. They don't care, you know. Especially if it's just a regular rape. Like unless it's real [ __ ] heinous. You know, there there's a lot of them in population.

Really?

Mike Lee25:06

Oh, yeah. Yeah. [ __ ] happened all the time. Really?

Yeah. With the guy like I'm smashing him over the tray or I'm just trying to eat lunch. Yeah, I'm sure, you know. But he didn't do it again.

Mike Lee25:28

I get the case where I can give him a call, you know, ask him how he's doing and this and that. And you know, he'd always tell me. I'd be like, "Mick, I'm out of shape. I'm a [ __ ] mess." You know what I mean? Cuz I get I get big in there. Especially back then, I'd put on some size. But I've always always been struggling the battle of the bulge, you know. And um like like I said about you, like running. So, Mickey would be like, "Mike, listen.

Just walk a few laps. Run a half a lap. Walk a few. Run a half a lap." He's always telling me. Even when I was in rehab in Florida, "Mike, walk along the beach. You know the telephone poles? Run for one telephone pole to the next. Then walk for two. Then run for one." He was always my uh

Mike Lee26:13

Yeah, yeah. And and and hysterically funny. Yeah.

But in his own dry way. You know what I mean? It's hard to portray like when Wahlberg played him in the movie.

Yeah. You know, and Christian Bale was so over the top with Dicky cuz Dicky's Dicky's out of his mind. But Mickey's like that. He's dry, you know. But he's he's [ __ ] hilarious, you know.

Mike Lee26:33

Yeah, yeah. He was really It was really

Mike Lee26:39

Oh, really?

Mike Lee26:44

So, listen. This is the thing. When I was in there, these guards were saying that. One one guy, this Captain Teddy. I'm like, "And he's you know, knows me good." He's like, "Oh, he's going to get killed." I go, "Fucking Mickey's going to drop him with a body shot. Mickey's going to win." And I tell Mickey to this day. Inside myself, I'm like, "Oh, man." Cuz Mickey could be a slow starter.

Yep. You know, and Arturo Gatti was, you know, just Yeah, he was a killer. He was fast and flashy. And I'm like, it really wasn't You didn't think it was a good match up.

Mike Lee27:12

You didn't think it was a good match up for him, right? Um And I was telling everyone, "Mickey's going to win. Mickey's going to win." And I was in my cell all night and I got the [ __ ] Walkman, you know, and I'm putting it on, you know, the local sports radio, you know, AM stations. Listening. Nothing, nothing, nothing. And like the doors would crack for breakfast early. You remember the pancakes at 5:00 a.m., you know. The doors cracked and I You remember guy Cleary?

Mike Lee27:34

Yeah, Captain Cleary. Captain Cleary's standing there with the white shirt on, right? I go, "Cleary, what happened?" He goes, "Mickey won a decision." I [ __ ] screamed. I was like walking in the chow hall. I'm like, "Fucking guys." I was I was talking [ __ ] to everybody, all the cops. They're all like, "You know, [ __ ] He didn't have a

Mike Lee28:03

I hit a I hit a home run I hit a home run against the cops on the 4th of July. Remember they had the they had the families come in. We play and they had a bomb squad. The cops always had some [ __ ] bomb squad out there. But yeah.

Mike Lee28:15

For sure. They were like high school superstars. Yeah. Your boy Tommy Gannon, remember him? Of course.

Yeah, he's a big boy. He's a lefty, I think. Yeah, he might have hit a dinger in that game. He might have dribbled out a few times and we roasted him cuz he could hit some he could hit some [ __ ] bombs. But yeah, man. I had I had a picture of all of us one time and from that from that game, that 4th of July game. And it was so different than the prison system, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Like the warden coming in with the families and playing the cops in baseball. Now it's all these brand new prisons where it's pods and [ __ ] little wreck yards.

Mike Lee29:14

Yeah, it's going to be a minimum security, right? They don't

Mike Lee29:23

Yeah, they all are now, pretty much.

Mike Lee29:24

And another thing too with the private system. And there's been a little bit of an overhaul about this. They just started giving Massachusetts prisoners free phone calls. And it kind of [ __ ] up the system cuz everybody's on the phone and and the it's like it's almost like it's like when you're got a cell phone, it's glitching.

It keeps going out and can't hear good. I think it's everyone in the world is on the phone now. It's not like waiting in line for the phones, so it's good with that. And also, I think there's been a big overhaul with what you were talking about with that guy over there. We were talking about the BOP, the Federal Bureau of Prison. I think they finally just said, "Hey, you know, enough of charging guys 75 cents for ramen noodles, a dollar 50 or two that used to cost 10 cents or 15 cents in the commissary." You know, it's um I mean, imagine the money you made off that for years.

Mike Lee31:42

I think so, yeah, something like that. 2011 last time I get out. When I beat the bank robbery cases, I ran right up the hill to Boo Boo's house, Gary Defrida, rest in peace, Gary. And the dope man was coming out, you know? I said I grabbed him. I said, "Hey, give me a couple for free." And I went in and I went I went in and I set it up. I I blasted off and I overdosed and almost [clears throat] died, you know, and and they [ __ ] came and and the cop come in and he's like, "Didn't I just pull him out of here for [ __ ] a couple bank robberies, you know?" Were they hitting you Yeah, Narcan a few times and right to the hospital and um you know, right back out.

I didn't waste any time. Usually when I get out, like if I was in for a while, I like I like to think I was always like liked to a certain extent. You know, like friends, like let's say, you know, I was your friend growing up, right?

Yeah. And then, you know, I get [ __ ] up on the drugs, I wouldn't go near you. I wouldn't be calling you up, "Hey Kenny, can I get 50 bucks? I got to Like my friends that were like normal, once I started, you know, back on that, you wouldn't see me. Yeah, I know what you

You wouldn't see me, but I'd always try to hang out and just go out and have a few beers, you know? Go to the Pats game, go to the Celtics game, have a couple beers.

Mike Lee32:40

No, that's No, that's the last time we got Oh, you know, that was 2001 back when I got out for that. 2011 I get out and I always used to say, cuz I was always against the methadone clinic.

You see everybody down there has got the false teeth Yeah. and they got canes. I don't know what that stuff does to you. No, it doesn't. But but I always used to say, if I'm 40 years old and I'm still shooting dope and I'm running around and robbing and stealing, I'm just going to wave the white flag, get on the clinic, you know? Just pull my teeth, give me the cane. I used to say I used to say that to my friends, right? Just let's get it out of the way and let's do it.

And um I did that in 2011 I get out, I got back on the dope and I I went down the methadone clinic.

Mike Lee33:31

Yeah, yeah, I mean, people always say they're going to get on and they're going to come off. They never get off.

It's almost impossible to get off, so

Mike Lee34:05

Yeah. Which sucked.

Mike Lee34:05

The worst thing I think about the methadone clinic, and there's so many um cons about the methadone clinic, is they want you on it. They don't want you coming off. Like you could say, "I'm going to get on. I'm going to stay on it for 6 months and I'm going to come down slow and

No. And there's people around you nodding out constantly, taking the Phenergan. Phenergan is a pill that's called Phenergan. It's for like seasickness, and you're not supposed to take it with methadone. It it like interacts with it, like doubles the dose. And then people take the clonidine and the Phenergan and the Xanax, and they're drooling on themselves. And you Every day you're seeing that, and you know, you're an addict, right? You you know, you like getting high and and you never come down. And the second you say anything to them, like if you had a a little bit of a cold, "Oh, do you want me to up your dose?

Oh, you feeling sick? Oh, you know what? Your body's getting used to the methadone. Oh, you're on 50 milligrams? Let me bump you up to 70, you know, 60, 65." And then and then you then you know that. You start telling yourself in your mind, right? "I don't feel that good today. Yeah, can you help me, Ted?" Yeah, no problem.

Mike Lee34:56

Um well, I went through the Suboxone. I kicked that and conquered.

Um But the methadone I um obviously the whole time I'm shooting dope with the methadone, Xanax, drinking every day, you know, shooting coke. You know, I was basically, you know, like I say, I was on everything but roller skates at that point in my life and and it was I was really depressed. I'm My whole life I've always had a pretty good attitude. Like in prison everyone said, "Every time I saw you had a big smile, you were laughing, you know?" It's kind of my disposition, you know what I mean?

I've always, you know, someone could always have it worse than me type of deal. I've never But I was really depressed with the you know, adding the alcohol. I was drinking every day and the methadone and all that. You know, I was selling dope and selling like I was always selling something, you know, my whole life. Since I was a little kid, used to shine shoes. Nobody shined shoes after me, you know? Back then, like '81, '80 '80, '81, '82 was the end of it. Going in the bars, the kids with the shine boxes.

It just phased out. You know, it used to be all guys in bars wearing wingtip shoes and you know, smoking butts. It's just you know, you're going to buy now it's a sports bar or you wear sneakers and you know, it's just just like now, the times change. So, my whole life, whether I was doing that or then when I was like 12, 13, I started buying, you know, bricks of firecrackers and grosses of bottle rockets and selling them 25 cents a pack, selling joints, selling coke.

My whole life. Always trying to hustle for a buck. Kind of like you, Kenny. You know, you know,

You don't know a stranger. You don't know a stranger that's trying to make a dollar. No.

So, I always had that in me. No matter where I was at my lowest, I was selling dope to other addicts and and uh so, on the methadone clinic that didn't change, you know? And I started thinking, "Oh, good. I won't be spending all my money on dope cuz I'm on methadone, so I can sell it and I can sell coke." But But I just did more and more and more and more. And right before um before I went to rehab, like a month before, Mickey had offered to get me down to Florida.

It was a friend of his he knew, his name was Bobby Orr, different than the hockey player. Bobby Orr owned a place in Florida with another guy, Sharif, who's from Boston, called the Florida House in Deerfield Beach, right next to Boca. And he told me before he could get me in this place. And it was always in the back of my mind. And then I'm like, "Nah, you know, you know." Then I his Mickey's uh sister died and I I went to the wake. There was a lot of people at the wake and I was in line.

And I get up to him and I'm, you know, sorry. And I got everyone in. He goes, "Mike, you ready? I can still get you in down to Florida." And he was living down there at the time. I'm like, "No, no, you know, I got on the methadone clinic. I'm good." And I remember he said, "Mike, no." And I'm like, "I don't really want to have this conversation with him with a line of people that just just died. Like sit here and talk about my [ __ ] problems up, you know?" I'm like, "No, no, I'm good.

I'm good." And he was like, "No, no." You know, and he was right. No, I'm not good, you know? I was far from good. You know, and so, drinking every day, Xanax, everything. And um I get this call one night for uh two bundles of dope, which was 20 bags. And this night, you know, we got whatever, you know, 24 inches of snow the last 2 days. I had this little Chevy S10, front-wheel drive. And you know, you know how you get the alerts on your phone, like high winds, high It was one of those things like don't drive.

The roads were so There was not one car on the road. And a week or two before there was a a local who was a detective. And he and he told my father, he said, "Tell Mike to come to the gym tomorrow morning." Cuz I always had cops that liked me, you know? And I always had cops that hated me, you know? So, I go to the gym and he grabs me. He said, "Hey, man, we're following you right now. We have two teams of cops following you selling dope the last 2 days.

Cuz I'll lose my job for telling you this. Stop right now. Cuz we're going to get you." So, now I'm [ __ ] I'm being real careful, you know? And people come to my house. So, you know, cuz that's supporting my habit.

Mike Lee39:06

I can outsmart them, Kenny. You know, and I get the call and I'm looking out my window. And you know, you know, in wintertime it gets dark, you know, real real early, you know?

It's like pitch black. It's like 7:00 and I'm looking out my window and there's [ __ ] not a car on the street, right? So, I I like 50 bags on me. Got it down my pants and I leave, I go to this dope house. I'll walk a street in Lowell. And I went in and um I served them and I I I bagged a couple bags. And when I walked out the door, I just got choke slammed. You know, grabbed by the throat. Somebody's got a new mouth.

Choke slammed. Wham on the ground. You know, gun to the head, the whole thing, you know, and and they got me. I had like 30-something bags of heroin and uh like 1,100 bucks and um You know, they yoked me up bad and I'm like, now I got to I got a monster habit, methadone, heroin, Xanax. I'm drinking every day. And I I get out on bail. So now I'm like, [ __ ] You know, now I have this monster habit. Now I start thinking, oh man, I should call Mickey and go to this place.

So my my primary reason for going was to try to come down off the drugs before I cop out and go back to prison cuz I don't want to go back cuz I kicked in a cell cold turkey so many times. Anyone that's been there, it it's the worst it's the worst thing in the world. You want to die. Like someone said to me once, we could just lock you in a cell for 2 weeks in the back of the HSU and you're going to think you're dying, but you're not going to die.

Alcohol is different, you know, they got to monitor you and you can literally die coming off the alcohol and and I was coming off that, too. But I get out on bail and now I got a big dope habit and I can't sell it. You know, so now I'm every time I leave my house, I met this one kid in Kentucky Fried Chicken. Calls me up right after it. It's right after you drove away, they bundled me. They [ __ ] He goes, "You walked over to a trash barrel." They took the trash barrel, they dumped it out, they were sifting through it.

So now I'm like, they're still following me. Like, you already got me, you know? So it happens like 2 days in a row. I go see somebody at 7-Eleven. I bump into someone, they call me up right afterwards. It's like if I bumped into you, talking to you for a minute and you drive away and they surround you. You know, like, "Hey, I just just said so they're still like they really had you know, they really had a hot on me. One of the last days before I called Mickey and said, "Mickey, please, you know, I'm ready to go." I went and um I bumped into a kid at the gas station.

I talked to him. I went up the street and they just surrounded me. And they get me out of the car and it was it was like snowing out. And they were ripping my truck apart. I'm like, they're going to find something, you know, I dropped and I didn't even know it was there. Like, they are ripping it apart. And they got me out. And I remember the cop had me spread-eagled and I had like sweats on and he was pinching like behind my ball bag all the way up the crack of my ass.

Like pushed in. I'm like, I could have had a little 20-bag and he would have been like, "What's that?"

Like they It was like that, you know? And then he's like, "Take off your shoes." And I I remember it was snowing. It was like, you know, when the snow hits the ground, it melts. It was like puddles everywhere. I'm like, "No." You know, whatever. And I'm out on bail. So if you get arrested again, they can revoke your bail and I got this big habit and I'm like, "No, I'm not taking off my shoes." And he's like, "Just take one off." And he's he's feeling the bottom of my foot and squeezing between each toe.

Put it back. Stand on your sneaker. Then put it back on then take the other one off. I'm like, so finally there's like six of them around me, you know? And I said, "Hey, man, this is the score. You already got me. I'm out on bail. Now I got a dope habit and I'm trying to go get off E and you guys are following me around in [ __ ] teams of three different cars. Like, you got I get it. You got me. You know, selling heroin isn't good, you know?

You got me. Now I can't even go cop a bag because you guys are following me around, shaking down anybody I talked to. Like, leave me the [ __ ] alone. They let me go and then I called Mickey. I said, "Mickey, you got to get me out of here cuz I'm going to I'm going to get jammed

Mike Lee43:04

Yeah. Yep, 2013 right after St. Patty's Day. And what happened with the case? The case is going on.

So I'm trying to cop out to 3 years on it and my lawyer, Joanne Daley, the best, she's like, "Just hold on. Hold on." So the police report they used to to search me and to stop me, in my police report it said they received an email from the Massachusetts State Police saying Michael E was trafficking heroin in the Lowell area. So my lawyer immediately says, "Okay, we want to see this email." So we go to court once and they're like, "Oh, we'll have it next time.

We'll have it next time." So I'm like, "Listen, if you can get me 3 years right now, you know, cuz of my record, I'll take it. You know, even house correction, maybe do 18 months. You know, you In Billerica, you could get 12 and 1/2 days good time. So I'm sober, I'm clean, I'm trying to cop out." She's like, "Hold on. Hold on." And she beat the bank robbery case. She's a dog. Joanne Daley.

Mike Lee43:55

Yeah, so now where's the email? "Oh, we'll have it next time.

We'll have it next time." So I'm still trying to cop out and she said, "You don't understand. It's like um electronic footprint, a fingerprint." She said. She goes, "Emails don't go away." Of course. I mean, I don't know [ __ ] right? Even now. She goes, "Emails don't go away. If there's an email from the state police to the Lowell police saying you're trafficking heroin, it's there. If not, it's fruit of a poisonous tree. If they made that up, anything that comes after it, no matter what you get caught with, is no good." So I'm like, "Oh, really?" So now boom, continued, continued, continued.

Finally he says, "Your honor, we got to make a note of that this is the third continuance." So he goes, "Next time, Commonwealth better have the email." Next time comes, "Oh, we don't have it, you know, they're sending it you know, tomorrow. We'll have it." Next date. Now they're offering me like 18 months. Righty goes way down.

Yeah. So now I'm like, "Oh, we got them." You know? And so they're offering 18 months. You know, "We'll have it next time." And the judge is like, "Okay, we're going to put a date on." My lawyer goes, "No, no, no, no. Look at the transcripts. You said if they didn't have it this time it was He goes, "Give me the transcripts." The judge looked. It was all charges dismissed, lack of prosecution. Bang.

Mike Lee47:03

Want to take the I try I try to glorify like, "Oh, I did this." Like,

Mike Lee47:03

Like, how'd you do all this [ __ ] No, I meant the other stuff. I don't get like I'm going to go in here and tell these crazy stories I did.

Mike Lee47:16

Yeah, yeah, like I tell you know, some things that happened, but that isn't you know, like you said, it's about, you know, redemption and and it's

Mike Lee47:48

So yeah, like thinking back what you said, you know, being so low, you know, I mean, I was I remember one time I I you know, I overdosed and I was I had a I was intubated and the catheter and I was I pulled out catheters so many times. I pulled out an intubating tube once. And the air got trapped in between my chest and it was like Rice Krispies when I pushed down for like a week.

It would like crackle like so many times I've overdosed and almost died and you know, I had a I had a hospital tell me once I was there 13 times for an overdose. And I've been to a bunch of them. So I was prone to overdose and you know, and when I when I finally made it to the Florida House Rehab, I had abscesses on both arms and I was shooting up into my neck right here. And I remember the nurse goes, "Wow." cuz I had on a you know, like I said, I'm from Lowell, Massachusetts.

But they hear the accent right away and I got a Celtics jacket. You're from Boston, you know? So you get that a lot, you know? Red Sox hat. And and she goes, "Wow, you Boston guys don't [ __ ] around, huh?" And she's snapping the gloves on. I go, "What do you mean?" She goes, "Going right for the jugular, I see." Like the trap knocks down, you know? And so yeah, it was it was the lowest of the low. And when I got out of there, I was with a friend of mine, Gary Boyle, who's no longer with us.

Um And we were out to eat in a restaurant cuz I was hustling down there. You know, I was always, you know, I wasn't, you know, totally uh on the straight and narrow yet, but I was sober. And then we're out to eat in a restaurant. I was making money and flying back to Boston once a month doing what I was doing and and he goes, "Hey, that's the way to make money right there, kid. You got no [ __ ] overhead." And I looked and there was like these Guatemalans power washing around a dumpster behind a restaurant.

He's like, "Kid, alls you need is the pump sprayer, had of bleach, and a hose, and a power washer. And you know, what he was saying was true, you know, you know, you're talking about power washers 2 300 bucks and you know, I'm listening to him. I'm like, "Oh, he's got a point." Right? So, after I was down in Florida for a year, I come back and I had that in the back of my mind that I was going to start a power washing business. So, during that whole time also, in 2008, I um I had a baby girl, she was born.

And I was at the height of my addictions and I uh you know, going to prison for the bank robbery in '09 and I'm bouncing out and this and that and and my father was watching my daughter most of the time. I was, you know, you know, I had her over Boo Boo's house like, you know, I mean, just definitely had no business bringing a bringing a child into the world, you know? And um when I got out for the bank robberies, I was in my father's house and my daughter was

Mike Lee50:30

I'm going to say three and she didn't really know me, you know, my father I was locked up all the time or getting high and um my father and his girlfriend at the time like were raising her and I went over there right when I got out of prison after I went and got high first and all of those, I went back to the house and I was holding her in the kitchen and the police surrounded the get me for another bank robbery. So, I was doing stupid [ __ ] you know, all over the place and um you know, they're banging on the door boom boom boom boom boom.

And the cop I'm screaming at the cop. He's this big I'm screaming through the door like I was really I used to really butt heads with police, you know. You know, he's like, "I got him right here." I'm like, "You don't got [ __ ] [ __ ] Get a warrant, you know, you piece of shit." And then my father's like, "Mike Mike, calm down. I know, you know, you You know, and um they come in and he goes, "Oh, this is the hottest thing I ever had to do." And I looked and I saw my ex-girlfriend's parents at the bottom of the stairs and they had money.

And they found out my name wasn't on the birth certificate and they got a court order and they came and took my daughter and that was the last time I saw her. And it really crushed my father and his girlfriend. They like broke up afterwards and my father's girlfriend really like, you know, she was raising my daughter at the time and it really crushed them. And after that, you know, um being back in prison and this and that, I remember I saw my cellmate once. He goes, "You never told me you had a daughter." And I was like, "Yeah, well, it wasn't something I was proud of that I had a kid that didn't even know who I was.

I was being raised by their family and they didn't let me see her or or this and that. So, when I first got sober and I was in the rehab in Florida, you know, that was weighing heavily on my mind. Yeah. You know, that I wanted a fight for custody and and you know, at least try to get visitation or this and that and so, I'm out and he's you know, he's talking about the power washing business and I'm I'm flying back to to Massachusetts once a month, you know, selling some things and um like I said, I wasn't um I wasn't totally on the straight narrow yet.

I was straight sober, but you know, I was still trying to make money, you know, in a bad ways, you know? And um I started I I went to the courthouse and I I started filing motions for custody cuz when I was in Walpole, I was always in the law library. So, I know my way around. You know how to file motions and this and that. So, I hired a PI and where I really caught him with their pants down is they go to Naples, Florida every winter.

And they delegated guardianship to one of their other daughters, you know, so my daughter be living with this one, that one, bouncing around, going to school here, living you know, they were actually living in New Hampshire, going to school in Mass like and you can't delegate guardianship of a child to someone else, you know, so I caught him with their pants down. I had them served. They're like so they never thought in a million years I was just a chunky loser to them, you know, in their eyes, you know.

So, I'm filing motions and um I start, you know, this power washing business. And that it was 2015. That winter 2015, me and my good friend Joe Fanchulo, Frenchy, who just passed away from cancer. He had season tickets to the Pats and the Patriots in the Super Bowl that year in Arizona. So, I'm hustling power washing, getting a job here like you like a friend like you would be like, "Yeah, Mike, you know, come power wash my cellar door, you know, here's a buck fifty." Like guys that always knew me that knew I was trying to do the right thing.

Like I look back and I'd go up to them and say, "Hey, thanks." And my friend John Sullivan, right? He owned a lot of properties. I remember he had me power washing his like wooden fences at the time, paying me like 300 400. Like, "What do you want?" He sit there behind his desk. He's this businessman. Well, "How much do you think I should pay you for that job?" And you know, and looking back, I realized it was charity work, you know?

Yeah. So, I'm um I'm power washing, making a few bucks and he says, "Hey, let's go down to the Super Bowl." And I got some tickets that year and that year something crazy happened where StubHub had a shortage of tickets and everybody buys your tickets and you fly down there, they give them to you. In the morning of the Super Bowl, we had ours be like 1,500. It said the cheapest Super Bowl tickets going for $9,000. So, I had like $1,500 and it was in my front left pocket like to my name.

So, I looked at my friend. I said, "Hey, I'm selling my ticket. Like this is a no-brainer for me right now." Yeah. You know, and he's like, "Oh, it's my birthday. Last time I went to the Super Bowl on the on my birthday, they won." I said, "So, you already saw them win a Super Bowl. Like what are you thinking, you know?" So, we sold the tickets for 17,000. A pair of them was 17,000, 8,500 a piece. I I shot over to the Wild Card Gym.

I went over to Hollywood. Saw Dicky Eklund Jr. Freddy Roach popped in. I'm bouncing around. Right before I went down there, when I'm when I'm fighting for custody of my daughter, their lawyer they had big money. Not big money, but you know, they you know, they do all right. And um their lawyer must have said, "Hey, this kid caught you with your pants down." You know? So, they had to travel all the way back during their vacation and went to they go to [ __ ] Cambridge Probate Court, you know, so the couple times before that I went in and the aunt was there that my daughter was living with.

And I was with my father and it was mediation. So, I said, "Yeah, there's no mediation with me and this family." They're like, "Well, you got to go sit down." You know, guy was a probation officer in Cambridge. "You got to go sit down and talk." So, the aunt's there and right before that I I did something kind of crazy. I I went to the Do you want to tell everyone that a police station is someone in my life? I went to the police station in Pelham, New Hampshire where they were living cuz the child's mother started sneaking her to come see me.

And she said, "This is my friend Richie." Cuz they told the mother, "If we find out you brought Jordan to see her father, you'll never see her again." So, the mother's like, "This is my friend Richie." So, I'm taking my daughter to Candy Land, you know, make her happy that I'm sober, buying her [ __ ] She still got little pink pair of thins I got. I almost threw them out once. She goes, "That's the first thing you ever bought me." She's 17 now. I go, "Whoa." She goes, "Yeah, don't throw them out." I was like, "Wow, that's cool, you know?" So, she's bringing her to visit me and I go to the police station in Pelham cuz she's like, "Oh, she's calling her aunt and mommy.

Mommy's new boyfriend bought me this, that and a Cinderella thing for my wall, right?" And I'm just like, "Fuck this." I go to the police station. I say, "Hey, I don't know who this guy is, but the last guy she went out with was a skinner. Yeah. Was a I don't know, chomo, but he had a rape case. So, she's telling me about this new boyfriend, right? So, I'm already in my mind devising what I'm going to do to this guy. Yeah. Like I'm giving Kenny my cell phone to drive around and call my call people while I'm over here [ __ ] getting this guy.

Like I'm already plotting it out like, "Hey, if I ever do something like that, you know, I'm going to do it so at least make it difficult to get me. I'm not just going to walk up there and shoot you in the forehead in Walmart." You know, so I went to the police station and said, "Hey, I don't know what's going on, but I want this investigated. I don't know if this guy's [ __ ] touching these kids or what. He's buying her all kinds of [ __ ] Cinderella [ __ ] I don't know who he is." So, that I I like to say that was the first flame and arrow over the bow Yeah.

To let them know that I was back, you know? And then I had them served in Naples. So, it was on. And the lawyer must have told them that, you know, "Hey, you don't got to like the stand on him." But when we were mediating, the probation officer in Cambridge is sitting there and and she's like, "You know, he's a drug addict and he's a criminal and he's this, he's that." And she's she's hammering me sitting there. So, they go to me and they go, "Well, what are you going to say to that?" I go, "Well, first off, who is she?

She's not the guardian of this child. Why am I mediating with her? Who is she? This kid's calling her mommy. Like get her the [ __ ] out of here, you know? Cuz I'm not going to mediate with someone who shouldn't even have the child. Doesn't even make sense." And she's like, "He's a drug addict." So, I says to the guy. I says, "Hey, listen, I'll take a urine test right now, a blood test." And he goes, "I'm just going over your criminal history." And word for word, he goes, "Your criminal history is terrible at best." So, I says, "Oh, that's how you're going to judge me?

On my past? Cuz I came here to tell you what I'm doing now. What I've been doing the last year, clean and sober and starting a business and and I hammered him. And he looked at her and said, "You know what? He has a point. He's clean and sober. He's the child's father. You don't have guardianship. I suggest you start letting him see the child on the weekends until this is resolved." And I was like it was like at that moment That

Mike Lee58:43

So, right then Yeah. after that when I went down to the Super Bowl and sold my tickets, when I came back, if you remember, you you were probably out in LA, but and I know you don't know your family much back home, but 2015, Lowell and parts of Boston was the snowiest city in America.

We get hit with these blizzards. It was like three or four of them within a month. And I had my daughter in the truck. That's why I was saying I wanted to go back to that cuz I had my daughter with me and I had my little power washing business. So, I had this this little Chevy S10 with a ladder on the top and I pulled into this gas station and I had just got back from from Cali when I sold my tickets. I had like, you know, 9,000 9,500 and to me that was like, you know, things things were going good and I pulled into this gas station, to get gas and the guy says, "Hey, do you shovel roofs?" So, I go, "Yeah, I shovel roofs." And then my daughter goes, "Why'd you tell him you shovel roofs?" And I said, "Joan, if someone asks you you can work, do a job, you say yeah." She goes, "What if they ask you to

Jump off a bridge?" She was six. I go, "You say how much?" I go, "Just If someone asks you if you can do a job, you just say yeah. Even if you can't, we find someone to do it. That's what we do." So, he goes, "How much to shovel that?" It was a little single-family house right there. It was a little ranch. I go, "Uh 600 bucks." He goes, "When can you do it?" So, I go grab this kid, a friend of mine, Mike Landry, lifelong roofer.

And I take this kid, Pig Pen. I forget who else I grabbed. It's so long ago. And I said, "Hey, I'll give you 150 bucks each if you can shovel this roof real quick." And I remember I just, you know, before my social media got big, I was on Snapchat down in Florida. Kid Evan Yianopoulos, he's like, "Mike, are you going to get on Snapchat?" And this kid from Staten Island first gave me the word bean shooter, which is like a [ __ ] A bean shooter is like someone who exaggerates.

People never know what it is. So, I grabbed these two kids to shovel the roof. And they were up there shoveling and I went to Dunkin's and I'm sitting in the truck, you know, it's freezing out and I'm filming them, you know, I'm like, "Wow, I'm making 300 bucks right now doing nothing." You know what I mean?

Mike Lee1:00:41

Drinking coffee, so the neighbor come out and said, "Can you shovel my roof? Can you shovel my daughter's roof? Can you shovel this one? Can you shovel that one?" And it was a month straight of shoveling roofs nonstop. Now I got like three or four guys working. I forget what I had. I think I had like 35,000 when all was said and done. And the kid Mike Landry worked for me. He says, uh "Hey, you know, how many people are going to need roofs when this all thaws out?" I go, "What do you mean?" He goes, "You got people on roofs that have never been on roofs before.

They're cuz the ice was this thick. They're drilling through ice dams. They're smashing them with hammers. And he's like this, shoveling up, you know, shingles over each other. They're shoveling up, you know, ripping off shingles and the snow off. He goes, "When this thaws out, you know how many roofs are going to be leaking?" I'm like, it was like a light bulb, bing, you know? This guy has a point. You know, like I couldn't nail my foot to a roof, but you know, I didn't get a roofing business, so I said, "You know what?" I went and bought another truck.

Now I got two trucks. I went and got workman's comp and liability and started a roofing business and that's that's how I Broadway Home Improvement started.

Mike Lee1:01:36

So, like a year or two of the roofing company, you know, I saved up a few bucks. I had like I think I had like 70,000 put away and my best friend, Spiros Gonsalves, he'd been my co-defendant before. He's like a real estate tycoon.

You know those Greeks are. You know what I mean? They got every They got his first communion money. Well, they don't make first communion. Yeah, he's got his first communion money. But, he'd always done real well and he was like one of them where I mentioned, you know, when I was doing bad I wouldn't go around him, you know?

Yeah. He bought his first house in 19, Jesus, '89, I think, 561 Westford Street. And then he bought another house and another house and another house and uh you know, you saw where the real estate went. You know, he just did real well for himself. I went to him to pitch the idea. I says, "Hey, listen, I was in this sober house in Florida. Right? There's eight guys in there. They're paying 150 a week. I go, "That's 1,200 a week, you know, you know, it's 4,800 a month." And this thing was a tiny little, you know, ranch house in Pompano Beach.

So, I'm in there always doing the math with things, right? Like this is the way to go, you know? So, I I went to pitch to him. And he said, "Man, you know, Mike, you don't want to be partners with me." Partners with a dance. So, let me let me just look around see if we can find something and then like 2 weeks later he says, "Come on, come on, we're going to look at this house." This house was big, right? It was dump inside, needed a lot of work.

135,000 dollars. Like 2 years before COVID, probably like 2018. I said, "Man, Spiro, I don't got 135,000. Probably got 65, 70." And my father's whole life worked for you know, Mass Electric, bartender. He didn't have money. Maybe I had a couple hundred grand, you know, 150 grand in the bank. He's like, "Just borrow the other 70 off your father, the old guy." I said, "Man, he ain't going to do that." He's like, "Gary, well, you're doing great, you know, blah blah blah." And and he did, you know, my father lent me the money.

And it took me a while when I opened it cuz I didn't have a lot of money, you know, I had guys like you coming over. "Hey, Kenny, you can cheat rock? Hey, help me out." You know what I mean?

Yeah, of course. You know, you know, this one, that one and I was still hustling then, you know, taking a little action, might have been selling a few beans, you know? You know what I'm saying? You know, I'm cutting corners, this, that, this, that and I rehabbed the whole house. And I opened up a sober house. And uh it's got 12, 13 guys in there, you know, paying 850, 900 a month rent. And I got no mortgage. I bought it cash. I paid my father off within a year.

And then he found another house for me, a beautiful house for 230. And I By then I had about another 140, 150 cash put away. So, I put 130 down and I got a mortgage on the second one and the mortgage is only 900 a month. Same thing, 13 guys paying 900 a month rent.

Mike Lee1:04:29

I remember when I was in rehab in the Florida house, this guy come in to speak at the AA meeting and he says, "You know, I got custody of my my son and you know, I got a brand new Corvette parked out there." And I'm like, "Fuck this guy." You know what I mean? Cuz I'll never have that. That's right.

I'll never have that. My father knows a lot of people in law, like I said, and he knew the head of the housing authority, Bobby McBobby McMahon, who's the greatest guy ever. RIP, but Mr. McMahon. And I got on the list for low-income housing. And my like dream was to get a place in the projects.

Yeah. You know, down in North Conway. Cockroaches everywhere. To have my own place in the projects would be like a dream come true. Still be hustling, selling things, right? So, I get on the list for housing and that was my goal. Like hey, they say aim low, right? And anything that goes above it is is a win, right? And after I come back and started the business and everything took off like a year or two later I got a letter, you know? And I had my place in the projects.

And I still wanted to take it, you know? And my daughter's like, "No, you know?" Absolutely not. I'm going to the projects. You know me, you know? I was like, "Yeah, we I should do you know what I mean?" And um yeah, I never thought in a million years that uh anything anything close to this. And you know, they say it's a life a life you can you can never dream of, you know, when you get sober what you're capable of.

All your wildest dreams can come true if you get sober. You know, it's a full-time job maintaining a habit, whether it's alcohol, whether it's heroin, whether it's pills, whether it's cocaine. It's a full-time job. And and like I say to people, even if you're worth 20 million dollars and you're hooked on dope, right? It's going to take you down because you're avoiding people that love you cuz you don't want them to see you when you're that high. Or you're busy trying to cop, going to get something.

Or then you get it and you're isolating and you're hiding in a bathroom or hiding in a room to do it. And pretty soon your whole life is revolving around that. And if you don't have money, your whole life is going out and stealing and robbing and selling drugs and borrowing and scheming and conniving. And man, it's a lot of work. And you did it. Yeah. Bean shooter.

Mike Lee1:06:49

Yeah, when it when Zuck isn't wiping out my pages.

I'd be at a million. It's so terrible uh what he does. Um Bean Shooter 69 or Bean Shooter's Gallery. And um you know, I got a little podcast, too, Kenny, you know what I mean? Yeah. Um Bean Shooter's Gallery on YouTube.

Mike Lee1:07:15

Kenny, it's an it's an honor to come down. I mean, you're a legend in your own right. Uh what you've done with your life, you got your own story, but what you've done besides that, what you have done, I mean, it's just, you know,

Thank you, brother. stuff that [ __ ] dreams are made of. They [ __ ] make movies about [ __ ] like that.

Mike Lee1:07:49

Yeah, it was well planned me coming down here, right?

Mike Lee1:08:06

Guys, thanks for being with us.