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At the age of 14 I was falsely accused of burglary...
...and was sentenced to serve 28 months in prison.
After ‘76 I was arrested for robbery...
...for which I had to serve the remainder of the previous sentence as well.
In ‘84 I was sent to jail for various other crimes.
I had to face a rough crowd in prison...
...but I got them to accept me and...
...understand that my head wasn’t right either.
I got into a few fights and made them understand...
...they’d best behave around me.
No one disrespected me in prison.
You find that, when someone starts giving you trouble...
...giving them a beating will ultimately get you their respect.
Once I did a robbery with three other guys...
...of a ship owner we knew.
He needed some convincing...
...but he gave in eventually and we took everything he had.
That same night we heard commotion on the street outside the house...
...and saw a large group of cops had come to arrest us.
They took and beat my friend...
...and later also beat me in my cell.
In the end they sent us all to Poggioreale prison.
There I got into a fight with another inmate...
...and was sent to the prison of Reggio Calabria...
...where I shared a cell with a fellow Napolitan and another guy from Calabria.
This guy always needed help. He said he was broke...
...so we bought him cigarettes, toothpaste...
...everything he needed...
...food, everything he needed.
Then one day I found something in his pocket...
...I don't know why I did...
...so I found a savings account statement pocket, that showed a balance of five million lire...
...so i told him " why you said that you haven't money if you have?"
"I haven't!" he said "no? really? and what is this?"
I confronted him with it and we beat him up.
I gave him so many kicks, punches and slaps.
I was moved to another prison again as a consequence, in Sicily, Agrigento.
In 1984 I was arrested again for various offences and was sentenced to six years in prison.
During that time I was moved between prisons in Portoazzurro...
...Livorno, Regina Coeli and Viterbo.
In one of these prisons the conditions were so bad...
...that I deliberately injured my arm so to get transferred again.
One time at work...
I fell down from the second floor from a house...
...injuring my face, arm and the leg.
After eight months of rehabilitation the doctors wanted me to get back to work.
They said "you are well" but I feel not well...
...I had recovered and I didn’t want to go back after what happened.
So they did an assessment whether I was ready to work again.
After I was examined the psychiatrist concluded that there was nothing wrong with me, other than that I just didn’t want to work.
I got angry and beat him up.
"You are crazy" they said
"We'll send you to the Psychiatric center"
Then they sent me to the Colucci psychiatric center.
There I was locked in a small, windowless room.
I pretended to take the medication they gave me but instead I spat it out after...
...every time, until I was released.
And that's my story.
After my last conviction in 1990 I got my head straight.
I told myself I had to quit the life I’d been living and went to Milan...
...where I lived and worked for many years, staying out of prison.
My hope for the future is that everything will fall into place...
...that I can do some good.
That I’ll be able to help others...
...I have children and grandchildren....
...and I hope everything will turn out well.