Gangster Redemption

by Larry Lawton

  Lawton invited Kottkamp to be a guest on his radio show, and they became friends. Lawton visited him in his home county in Fort Myers, Florida, and Kottkamp introduced Lawton to judges, the public defender, and the state attorney from Fort Myers’ Twentieth Judicial District.

  While he was attending the Sheriff’s Association convention, Lawton was invited by Randy Wecker, the host of the Healing Today Show which airs on the Christian Television Network to come on the show as a guest. The CTN has studios in California and in Punta Gorda, Florida, across the state about five hours from Lawton’s home in Melbourne. Lawton agreed to drive there and tape a show.

  Lawton brought with him his file of graphics, media material, and DVDs to hand out to the cast and crew. Joe Reilly suggested that during the taping of the show Lawton make sure to take his jacket off to reveal his cut-off red tee shirt and his tattoos.

  “That will be your signature move,” said Reilly, and when Lawton did that, hosts Randy and Rhonda Wecker just about fell out of their chairs. Lawton was their guest for the entire half hour. He found the Weckers to be good people.

  “I have been very lucky with all the TV I’ve done,” said Lawton.

  *

  All the while Lawton was learning more and more about marketing. He was doing all his own emails, newsletter articles, and research for his TV appearances. A workaholic, he routinely works fifteen to sixteen hours a day. It’s not unusual to get an email from Lawton at 1 a.m. and then at 7:30 in the morning. People ask him, “Do you ever sleep?” He only laughs.

  *

  One of the shows Lawton was emailing was The Huckabee Show on Fox. One morning in June of 2010 Larry got a call from the producer of the show asking him to come on and talk about redemption. Other guests on the show were Maury Davis, a pastor who thirty years before brutally killed a man and was imprisoned, and the comedian Tommy Chong, who had done nine months in prison for selling drug paraphernalia.

  Lawton was flown to New York and housed right in the heart of Times Square. He brought with him his sister and her family so they could meet Mike Huckabee.

  While Lawton waited in the green room to go on, Tommy Chong began complaining about having to do jail time for selling bongs.

  “Tommy, stop bitching,” Lawton said, “I did more time in the hole than you did in prison.” Chong began laughing.

  Governor Huckabee announced on the show that he was giving everyone in the audience a copy of the Reality Check Program DVD. The exposure Larry and his program got from coming on the show was enormous. The show was aired in August of 2010, and even before the show concluded the phones at the Reality Check offices rang off the hook, and the website was flooded with hits. Larry received two hundred orders for DVDs in minutes.

  After the show Lawton asked Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, if he was going to run for the Presidency in 2012. Huckabee said he had lost his bid for the Republican nomination in 2008 after he pardoned a group of inmates in Arkansas, only to see one of them commit a murder.

  “That showed me a lot,” said Lawton. “Whether you like his politics or not, you have to respect a man who sticks by his beliefs.”

  “Larry,” Gov. Huckabee said, “I did that against party advice, but I did the right thing, and I would do it again.”

  *

  In August of 2010 Lawton was presented an award from a local Melbourne bank called the Hometown Hero award. He had been a Rotarian for about a year, and he was proud of the good things the organization did. Lawton was honored to have gotten the award, but when he returned to his office he was thinking, I got an award for something I love to do. I need to create an award that recognizes people who give back to their community outside their profession.

  Lawton and Joe Reilly began the Reality Check Foundation whose purpose it was to provide DVDs to those families who couldn’t afford them. They also instituted the Community Champion Award, which recognizes young adults between the ages of 20 and 45 who give back to their community outside their profession, like a firefighter who donates his time on weekends to help people with disabilities or a police officer who helps the elderly, or a city employee who goes around and helps single Moms fix up their homes.

  The Reality Check Foundation also runs an annual golf outing, which is unlike any other. The foundation invites judges, states attorneys, sheriffs, and other community leaders and matches them up to play nine holes of golf with at-risk teenagers from the inner city.

  “It’s really a two-fold event,” said Lawton. “It shows the kids that adults in powerful positions aren’t out to get them, and it also shows the powerful people that these kids are human and not all are bad.

  “When can an inner city kid golf with a judge? The only time they see a judge is when the judge is sentencing him. When do they see a state attorney, except when he is prosecuting him? When does he see a cop, except when the cop is trying to arrest him? We have all these people come together for a day of fun, food, gifts, and mentoring. It’s an amazing event, the only one of its kind.”

  As Lawton tells the teens and young adults, “Don’t get mad at the guy who arrests you. Get mad at yourself for not thinking and not making the right choice. Understand that it’s your actions that brought the law down on you. Yes, there are bad cops and bad officials, but for the most part, if you do right, you won’t have the cops coming down and arresting you.”

  *

  Lawton’s initial program design hasn’t changed much, but he has perfected the program by changing stories, bringing in guest speakers, and adding more humor and video clips. Larry also invites judges, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and public defenders to his program. What Lawton always asks is for them to come as a regular person. Most of the youngsters who attend Larry’s program are street smart and can pick out a suit (a person in an official capacity). Police officers are asked to wear civilian clothes, to leave the uniform at home. Prosecutors are asked to dress more casually than they do in court.

  As a matter of principle Larry won’t bend to pressure to change his program, no matter who asked him to. Back in 2009 Larry was at a function and he asked Sheriff Jack Parker if he would use the DVD as a law enforcement tool.

  “The DVD is perfect for law enforcement to give out to the community,” said Lawton. “It breaks down the us against them mentality a lot of people in the public and in law enforcement have. I hate that. The police and general public have to come together and be partners against crime and illegal activity. Somewhere along the line it became a battle. Look, I don’t want a murderer or rapist living next to my mom or me. We need cops, but cops also have to know they are part of the community and they work for the citizens of that community. Both parties need to be better at being friends.”

  Sheriff Parker called Lawton aside and said, “Larry, some chiefs and law enforcement people think your DVD is a slam on cops and guards. I have three hundred plus corrections officers working for me and I have to protect them. Would you change some things in the DVD?”

  Lawton asked Sheriff Parker if he had watched the DVD. He was honest and said no. Lawton said, “Jack, watch the DVD and you tell me if I am against guards.” Sheriff Parker watched the part in the DVD where Lawton said that some guards had saved his life. He also saw where Lawton talk about the abuse he suffered at the hands of bad guards.

  Sheriff Parker, a man of his word, watched the DVD and gave Lawton a call.

  He said, “Larry, you are correct. The DVD is good, and there isn’t anything in there that is wrong.”

  Said Lawton, “Sheriff Parker ordered five hundred DVD’s to put in his patrol cars to give out to kids making bad choices and doing things that weren’t serious. Sheriff Parker is a man who wants to help. He can be hard on one hand and very compassionate on another. That is the sign of a good law enforcement officer.

  “Slowly but surely law enforcement officials a
re coming around. The old guard is moving on, and their old ways are leaving with them. I am the first person in the world who understands the need for law and order, but law enforcement agencies need the communities help. It is a proven fact that community policing is a successful, cost effective way to reduce crime.”

  Through a friend, Rockledge City Manager Jim McKnight, Rockledge Police Chief Ron Kruger got to know Lawton. The three met to discuss ways that Rockledge can help the young people in their city. There’s a lot of crime in Cocoa, a city just north of Rockledge, and they were hoping to find a way to keep it from crossing the city line into Rockledge. After the meeting, Chief Kruger asked Larry if he could talk to him privately.

  He said, “Larry, I know you and I know your heart. You’re a good man with good intensions, but sometimes when you write an article about a specific chief or city you are hurting the rank and file police officers of that city.”

  Lawton explained to Chief Kruger that he never intended to be in battle with law enforcement.

  “We all need to work together to save our young people,” he said. “I can reach a young person easier than a cop, and the cops have to understand that. A lot of teenagers and young adults have had bad experiences with law enforcement. I am not siding with either side. I am trying to find a solution to make these young people respect cops and do the right thing.”

  Lawton once offered $5,000 worth of free DVD’s to a city Police Athletic League, and his offer was refused for no good reason except that the chief of police, who had a lot of pull with PAL, and he didn’t see eye to eye.

  “I don’t want the same bullshit to keep going on,” said Lawton. “When people don’t point out problems, they keep happening. Just like in the Norm Wolfinger, Tony Bollinger incident. That kind of stuff has to stop.

  “If teens and young adults see me working with law enforcement, that gives the cops instant credibility. The teens say, ‘Wow, if an ex-con like Larry who isn’t a rat is working with the cops, the cops must be good guys.’ I am not a supporter of ratting, and the young people know that. I am not talking about a dangerous situation. If two kids are selling weed, and one tells on the other to save his own neck that is wrong.

  “I understand how ratting works. I’m not talking about a civilian calling the cops or anything like that. I was at a conference at the government center, and I said to the audience, ‘Ninety percent of all rats commit another crime. Are you okay with letting a drug dealer off knowing he is going to sell drugs again? If that guy who you let off sells bad drugs to a young person and that person dies, are you okay with that? I know I wouldn’t be okay with that.

  “Yes, to get a murderer off the streets, I understand that totally. But I am talking about a system that has gotten lazy. Informants have become part of the system, and in most situations I am not a believer in the system. If a person wants to tell for the right reason, he should still be held accountable for what he did. Do we need to be putting these people in prison for life and ungodly amounts of time? No. Criminals have figured out how to play the system, and that’s why our system is broken.

  *

  Larry’s continued rise in the public eye came during the Casey Anthony case, a high-profile murder case centered in Orlando, Florida. Because of Larry’s vast knowledge of prisons and the code of federal regulations, Larry was asked to be an expert on Fox news, Orlando. Casey Anthony beat the case and since she was going to be released, Larry was asked what would happen to her when she left confinement. Who better to answer that question than Larry?

  Larry’s straightforward approach and his ease on TV helped make him a local celebrity and has helped him grow the Reality Check Program and Lawton 911.

  CHAPTER 18

  The Reality Check Program

  What makes the Reality Check Program so successful is the way it’s presented and how the participants view me. The high success rate shows that we are getting through to young people. That is all I care about. Here’s how it works.

  The Program consists of four parts;

  1. My Life.

  2. What Prison Is Really Like.

  3. What Will You Lose?

  4. Avoiding and Dissolving Bad Associations.

  Part One: My Life

  The difference between the Reality Check Program and say some other program by a cop or counselor is that it is coming from someone who has been there. Young people for the most part aren’t book learners, They are watch-and-do learners. If a cop gets up and starts talking about prison, a teenager or young adult will be saying inside, What does this guy know? He’s never been to jail. They can’t say that with me.

  Another important factor is that when I was being prosecuted for robbery I didn’t rat on my accomplices. Whether a kid says it or not, he doesn’t want to be known as a rat. I have been through so much and survived and young people see that. I always say a kid can spot bullshit a mile away, and they know I’m telling the truth and that I truly want to help them. Deep down they want to change and make better choices. The thing is, we don’t know what will trigger them to finally start to get it. I often tell parents, “Don’t give up. People do change. Look at me, I did.” It’s all about hope and respect.

  When I first enter a room I’m usually wearing a sports jacket and jeans. (That’s my work outfit.) I never yell at a person or look down on him. Who am I? I’m no better or worse than anyone else. I bring the program down to their level, and that is another reason it works. The delivery is the most important part. A professor friend of mine who himself gives speeches asked me if I ever took speaking lessons. I haven’t. He said, “People pay thousands of dollars to learn the things you do naturally.” -- like raising my hands in a disarming way when I speak on a stage. I just do it, and I do it from the heart. It’s all about passion.

  When I developed the program I kept thinking to myself, What would I want to hear? Telling my life story brings the human side into the equation. The kids in the program see they’re just like me. I tell the good and the bad. I open my heart to a past that hurts me deeply when I talk about it. I also talk about my glory days of being a gangster. It’s all about opening the mind, and once the mind is open, you can teach good things and bring true and lasting change.

  The reason Scared Straight doesn’t work is that if you scream and yell at someone, he or she will shut down, whether it’s a child or an adult. Once a person is thinking about nothing except getting out of the situation, he will never trust you enough to learn from you. He might act like he’s listening to make you happy, but once he gets away from the situation he’ll tend to block out the good message that was given. People who have been to my program come up to me years later and say, ‘Mr. Lawton, I will never forget that story you told about hiding a knife up your ass,’ or ‘I will never forget about your losing your grandmother.’ It’s amazing what I hear and very rewarding at the same time.

  Telling the truth about myself opens up a person to wanting to learn. That’s the key. If a person makes the choice to change himself, he has a better chance of success. When does a person want to change? That’s the million-dollar question. But hitting bottom seems to be one of the keys to wanting to change.

  Everybody has a bottom. How far down that bottom is is different in every person. A person who almost kills someone driving his car after having a few drinks might be home shaking and realize that his life just passed in front of his eyes, and for him that’s his bottom. He will never drink and drive again. Another person might spend a night in the county jail and realize this isn’t for him. A third person might go to prison and still not get it. Like I said, everyone is different.

  When I went to prison I still didn’t get it. It took me going to the “hole” and experiencing things no human should have to experience to find my bottom. Being brutalized by the guards, having friends kill themselves, watching guys get stabbed, or hearing the blood-curdling sounds
of a guy getting raped was what it took for me to change.

  Change comes from within. What I do is show a person that if he doesn’t change, he will learn the hard way. Like I did. It breaks my heart when I see people who make the choices that will land them in prison, and they still think it’s a joke.

  The horror stories I experienced, all true stories, were terrible to endure, but the worst part of prison life was the loneliness. To me nothing is sadder than watching men who shuffle to the mail call table and never get a letter. Everyone on the outside has forgotten about them. That was sad and heartbreaking to see. It’s a fact of prison life, but most people don’t understand that until it’s too late.

  After my introduction, one of the lines I use when I walk into a room is, “Can you hide a knife up your ass? I did.” It’s a total shock. Sometimes I get chuckles, and I know that’s a nervous chuckle. I then begin to tell how I had to hide a knife up my ass to save my life.

  “Can you do it?” I ask them.

  I explain how I took half a toothbrush holder and put the shank in there and then taped the open end with masking tape. I say, “Then I inserted the holder in my rectum past my sphincter.”

  I give them all the details of how I had to get through three metal detectors, and how every time you go through a metal detector the alarm sounds. The guards pull you out and you have to strip down until you’re naked. They tell you to lift your nuts and then turn around and grab your ass and spread your ass cheeks. Of course, the knife is way up your ass, so they can’t see it. They don’t know if you have metal screws in your knee or a bullet in you and they tell you to dress and move on.

  I tell them, “Once you get to the yard you find a corner and squat down and pull the toothbrush holder out of your rectum and you extract the knife and put it in a wooden handle you’ve hidden on the yard.”

  The kids ask me, “Why don’t you just hide the knife on the yard.” The reason is because the guards are smart, and while we’re locked in our cells the guards will run metal detectors all over the yard and find your metal shank you’ve hidden along the walkway or under the dirt on the softball field.