Original subtitles

If you smuggle marijuana, you can make a considerable amount of money. And

that's exactly what I did.

Check that out.

Then I started smuggling cocaine.

It was paradise.

But then one day, paradise came to an end.

I was in a pit of hell.

I thought, I'm going to die.

I knew we had to get out of that jail, like now.

It's my 21st birthday.

It was just an outrageously beautiful day.

A good friend of mine invited me to go up into the mountains with him and take

LSD.

I'd never tried it, but I said, let's do it now.

And he said, sure, go ahead. It's in the glove compartment.

Take one of those capsules.

I laid my head back in the seat to let the experience come on.

The next thing I knew, I looked around and there was a tree.

It was sparkling and it was filled with jewels.

Oh, it was absolutely gorgeous.

I got out of the car and all my friends are here too.

We're in heaven.

That day was the beginning of a new life.

Our group started forming.

We called ourselves the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.

I was invited to go with my brother to take some LSD.

I saw a sense of change in my brother that I wanted to find out what he was

talking about.

We wanted everyone to take LSD and experience a new way of living.

The LSD experience was learning how to love each other, learning how to live in

harmony.

They were fantastic times.

But the Brotherhood of Eternal Love needed a way to make money to help

share that way of life.

And so we created a shop called Mystic Arts World.

And I started selling beads.

But then one day, something bad happened.

LSD was being made illegal.

The substance will be outlawed within weeks.

People could actually go to prison for manufacturing, distributing, and even

being under the influence of LSD.

We decided we needed to get out of here.

Just get away from the law.

And one of the guys said, what do you think about buying an island?

Yeah.

That was it.

That was the answer.

That would give us the freedom from the oppression, freedom to take LSD.

But there was a problem with Mystic Arts World. It wasn't making much money.

How are we going to finance an island?

Some of my closest friends had smuggled a few pounds apart from Mexico.

What, that's it?

They'd made a little money, but not that much.

And that's when it came to me.

Why not smuggle a couple hundred pounds?

And so I came up with a plan.

And that was to take a pickup truck down to Mexico.

So I gathered two friends and lynched them.

And Larry, the plan was to stuff the

pot into the hollowness of the side of that vehicle, just nail the panels back

on, and if we get stopped. The story was that we're buying goods for Mystic Arts

World.

Next stop, Mexico.

Let's do it.

We all arrived in Mocelot.

We went to pick out a place where we could camp out on the beach.

We really wanted to stay as incognito as we possibly could.

We're smugglers.

Larry went off to buy goods for the shop.

And then Lencho went off to find somebody to buy pot from.

Eventually, Lynch came back with the truck.

Check that out. Check that out. He'd made the buy. He had 100 kilos.

It was what we came for.

But Larry was still gone. We had to wait for him to come back.

And as we're waiting, I got a pair of binoculars, and I saw...

Mexican cops driving along the ocean.

I thought, oh, my God, if we get caught with this big amount of pot, they're

going to take us to jail.

They were in some way off in the distance, and so we dug a hole, and we

that pot pretty fast.

They were getting closer to our campsite.

My thinking was, there's nobody else on that beach but us.

They must be looking for us.

That was the first time I felt scared.

What are we going to do?

And so I volunteered to talk to them.

My stomach was really churning.

There was three cops.

And when I turned around, the first thing I saw was a pistol.

My very next thoughts were, they know about the bot.

And so I panicked.

I thought, just get away.

Which I went the other way.

Started to hear gunfire.

Bullets were coming so close, I could actually hear them whiz by my ear.

They were trying to kill him.

I just hit the sand.

I heard Lencho yell, don't move, don't move, and they'll kill us.

I thought, don't let my life end here like this.

And then they came, they grabbed us up.

I remember thinking, don't cop to anything.

Just tell them you were scared.

We went back to the camp.

And when I looked down and saw, oh my God, they're standing on top of the pot.

They're standing right on top of where we buried it.

How are we going to get out of this?

Then one of the other cop skills tell me what you guys are doing here.

Surfing.

Surfing.

It's terrifying, and I'm trying to look as normal and natural as I possibly can.

And all of a sudden, Larry showed up.

All we could think of was, oh, Larry. He doesn't even know what happened.

Amigo. Amigo, shopping.

He just said, He came down on vacation, he owns a Mexican shop, and he went to

Guadalajara to buy goods, and now he's back. What's going on?

After a while, the policemen calmed down, and eventually they

decided to let us go.

We just looked at each other.

I just couldn't believe it.

It was a big relief.

Big, big relief.

My thinking was, let's go now.

Got the pot up out of the ground.

Filled up the truck bed.

Let's get out of here.

Got back to California.

I realized really quickly this is a lucrative business.

My thought was I need to do this again.

And that's exactly what happened.

A couple of years later, I found myself living on the island of Maui in the

state of Hawaii.

I spent my time surfing and taking LSD for the first time in my life. I had

enough money.

It was paradise.

But then one day, paradise came to an end.

Living on Maui was the ultimate, and then I saw Diane.

As soon as I saw her, there was an attraction.

She was undeniably the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen.

Diane liked cocaine.

We got together, and we started having parties.

At the time, I wasn't really into cocaine.

But I thought this was the lifestyle that she enjoyed.

So I started taking it.

We would snort coke all night.

You could go through $1 ,000 worth of cocaine in 24 hours.

I really thought I had to do that to keep her.

And eventually, the money was running out.

And so I started thinking about smuggling cocaine.

I went to someone that I knew might be interested in investing.

He said, I'll give you some money to work with.

I knew someone in Peru called Gustavo.

Gustavo. I called and said, I'd like to come down.

Okay.

Well, I'll see you soon.

It was on.

Flying to Peru was very exciting.

I went down there with two other friends, James and Richard.

James.

He just wanted to go with us.

Richard was a man's man.

You could depend on him.

He wouldn't run on you, and he certainly wouldn't snitch.

The first thing we do is check in at

a hotel.

Richard and I started dividing up the money.

The remainder was placed underneath the sofa.

It seems really secure.

We'd been told, Gustavo is at a house outside of downtown Lima.

I called the manager to get us a taxi.

Okay, thank you. It'll be five minutes.

He said it was a friend of his that drove the cab.

It seemed okay.

As we walked out, I noticed a car parked maybe 50 yards away with three men in

it.

And as we left, that car followed us.

I thought it was a bit strange.

But the thing to do now is just act naturally.

It stayed with us.

For half the journey.

I was starting to become a little bit uncomfortable.

And that it was just not there anymore.

We get to the house.

Gustavo and his friend are there.

They have the cocaine in four big plastic

bags.

And I gave them the money.

They count it. It's all good.

I wanted to be there and out of there as quickly as possible.

And so we put those four bags, two each, in two leather satchels.

And that's exactly how it went.

We got back in that cab.

We went about a block, and that same car that was at the hotel suddenly

appeared.

We were being followed again.

I got a real hit of paranoia.

What am I doing?

I don't know the taxi driver.

We just went in this house which is full of cocaine.

I'm trying to stay as calm as I possibly can.

I was convinced those are the police following us.

My very next thoughts were, Get out of here right now.

We get back to the hotel.

That car was stationed down the road. It was just sitting there.

Richard and I took the bags, the taxi left.

I knew we needed to get out of town right now.

And so we started dividing the coke so it would be a lot easier to smuggle.

Suddenly the door opened.

And when I turned around, the first thing I saw was a chrome -plated pistol.

They grabbed Richard and threw him to the floor.

And then the officer started yelling at me, how much coke.

I could hear the handcuffs clicking.

And then he went over and sat on the sofa.

He took a bullet out of the chamber of his gun and looked at me and tapped the

bullet on James' chest.

He was saying, you know, you're going to die, and he's going to be first.

I thought, it's over.

We're all dead.

We're in a whole lot of trouble, and I'm thinking, how am I going to get out of

here?

And then I remembered the cash that I'd stashed under the couch.

Maybe we can make a deal.

Maybe they'll let us go.

I mean, as far -fetched as that might sound, that was what I was thinking.

Tell me, what's the story here? And I said, why don't you guys reach

that couch?

There's a bag of money.

This was our only way out of this.

He just looked at me very seriously.

This is making my stomach knot up.

Suddenly, he asked everyone to leave the room.

He found the money.

The officer said, don't say anything about this to anyone else. We'll work

something out.

And he said, we'd have to go to the prison for all the reasons to make it

good.

And a week later, you guys will be let go.

He told me with a very straight face that the prison was nice.

Years later, I found out the prisoners had a nickname for it.

It was Casa de Diablo, the house of the devil.

The prison was ancient.

All these guys are standing there.

It reminded me of dogs in a kennel.

They shut the gate.

And now we're in this whole other world.

As we are being escorted, Richard and James were put in separate cells.

I was by myself.

I was told real clearly, we expect you to try and escape, but if you don't make

it, we'll kill you.

And that was a promise.

The cell door was open.

I walked in.

There was a man sitting.

On the floor, I said, this is it.

He said, see?

Right then, I realized that I'm a long way from home.

My first night in L 'Oregoncha, I remember a lot of noise.

People yelling all night long.

Cell doors opening and closing.

I started getting the clue that we'd been lied to by the police officer at

hotel.

I realized that it's going to be a long time, if ever, before we leave here.

And a week later, something very bad happened.

Woke one morning, heard a shot.

I could see the man lying on the ground. He was shot in the leg from a gun

tower.

It was obvious that he had tried to escape.

And then another guard approached that prisoner.

Took his pistol out.

Shot him in the head.

It was just so

heart -wrenching.

I was in a pit of hell.

Shortly after, My brother Dennis came to Larry Goncho.

The guards wanted to go through absolutely everything I had, trying to

tell them where the drugs were, like I was trying to smuggle in drugs into the

prison.

Larry Goncho was very intimidating.

I was excited to see him, and I was mad.

I hated the fact that I had to be there.

and visit him there.

Dennis was the first person I'd seen from home.

The one and only person I'd seen from home that I know loves me.

I love you, brother, is the first thing I could think of saying.

You didn't look that good.

It didn't look like they'd been eating very good.

I was trying to give him a don't -worry -about -me attitude.

I'm okay, you know. I'm okay.

I had a few supplies with me for my brother and his friends.

Thank you.

It was a precious time.

But before I had a chance to chit -chat, the time was up.

It was really heartbreaking to have to leave and realize that they were going

be on their own.

Okay. And so I did my tough guy thing, but I was at my lowest spiritually,

physically, mentally.

I was at an all -time low.

But I had no idea the situation was about to get a whole lot worse.

I had been in prison for a year.

There was still no trial in sight.

I was told I had another visit up in the administration area.

I had no idea who it could be.

Diane stepped out from behind a pillar.

She looked gorgeous.

And so we started chatting.

And then she kind of blurted out, the lawyer says you're going to do at least

years.

I just couldn't believe it.

It was actually a numbing kind of a feeling.

I don't think I can wait 12 years.

I felt very scared. She's going to say that I'm leaving you.

I thought, I've got to start thinking about a way to get out of prison

way before 12 years, like

now.

So a few days later, I'm out in the exercise yard.

Jimmy, another prisoner, approaches me.

How you doing, Eddie, my boy?

I don't really know Jimmy. He was a Colombian. Hey, Jimmy.

And tells me that he has an escape plan.

He tells me that the next time he goes to court, the lawyer is going to forge

some documents that say he's been released.

He said if he escaped, then he could help me escape.

But he wants some money.

to get this going.

The next step is to introduce him to Diane.

This is going to be the plan, okay?

She'll need to give his attorney money to forge my documents.

It was $1 ,000.

So the plan was on. We agreed. We'll do this.

The next time Jimmy was called to court, I actually saw them line up and march

out.

I knew that if he doesn't come back, that's a sign that his escape plan

That day passed slowly.

Desperation was setting in.

This has to work.

I need to be out there with Diane.

When the prisoners come back into their cell blocks, he doesn't come back.

I just couldn't believe it.

The plan must have worked.

I had some renewed hope.

That week went by of trying to pretend nothing was happening, trying to

act like normal.

I'm completely obsessed with waiting to go to court.

But then I got some bad news.

The word got back to me that Diana and Jimmy had been seen downtown Lima

hand in hand.

I just couldn't believe it.

It was just so heart -wrenching.

The death of betrayal was humiliating, was degrading,

and it hurt like hell.

I wanted Jimmy dead.

I didn't care what it took.

If I couldn't escape, I was going to find a way to kill him.

There was a man named Palone.

Palone was a killer.

So I approached Palone and I asked him. You heard about Jimmy and Diane.

He looked at me very seriously and said, so what do you want?

And I said, I want to kill him. I want you to help me.

He thought about it for a while.

It made me nervous.

And then Palin said, yeah, I have a cousin, and he is a hitman, but it's

to cost $1 ,500.

The only way I could relieve that pain was to cause Jimmy's death, and I was

to do it.

We made a deal.

Looking back, I had stooped so low.

But I needed revenge.

Two weeks went by.

Wait for news that Jimmy's dead.

Palone came back.

He said, I got a problem.

What do you mean, you got a problem?

And he says, Jimmy ran to Columbia.

He took Diane with him.

And Palone said, he still wants that $1 ,500.

And I said, no, no one's getting paid. Nothing got done.

No money.

No money, man.

Immediately, Palone became angry and threatened my life.

I was terrified.

He had asked for money, and I had refused.

Nobody said no to Pellon.

Give him what he wants.

I went back to my cell.

The next thing I knew, Pellon came in.

Immediately, he pulled the shank out.

It was a good 10 inches long.

I'm scared to death.

I have no defense.

I'm no match for this man, even without a knife.

Suddenly, he just swung at me.

And I caught the flat of the blade on the shoulder.

If the shank goes into your core area, you're going to die.

He screamed at me again, give me my money.

And then he swung it again the other way.

Suddenly and out of nowhere, Richard and James jumped on Pallone.

They got the shank out of his hand.

Richard ran over to the wall where I was.

My right arm is bloody, but it was nothing to worry about.

It's just a miracle.

I could have died easily.

Shortly after Palone's assault, Richard James and I were told we were going to

trial and we were transported to a jail in a part of Lima called Pueblo Libre.

The jail was actually clean.

Compared to La Reconcha, this jail is a hotel.

My very next thoughts were, we've got to escape from here.

The odds of escaping Lurigancho and making it are incredibly low compared to

this jail cell.

There's got to be a chance here.

At the back of our cell, there's a barred window that looks out the back of

jail.

There's a wall that's about 15 feet high, and on top of that wall is a five

-foot chain -link fence with three strands of barbed wire on top of that.

I knew we could climb over that fence, but we don't know what's on the other

side of that wall.

We need to get out there and find out.

So a few days later, we're out in the exercise yard.

I went up the stairs and looked over.

There was a bunch of stuff on the other side.

And then there's another wall.

And on the other side of that wall is freedom.

My thinking right then was, we've got to get out there and we've got to make

that our escape.

But to get out of Pueblo Libre, we had some problems to overcome.

First problem is the barbed wire.

You can't grab this barbed wire with your bare hands. You're going to end up

or stuck.

And so we had to find something to put over it.

Somehow a prison chaplain knew we were in this situation in jail and started

visiting us.

He took a liking to us, and we asked him if he could bring mail.

And so we asked him another favor. Could you bring us...

Some washing stuff.

He brought us towels.

It was a way to throw something over the barbed wire, pull yourself over.

The second problem is how to open the metal door that connected the hall into

the exercise yard.

There's a lock, and when it springs back, it's very loud.

And that goes in the hallway.

And we don't have a key.

That's a problem.

We figured the handle of a serving spoon was the right size and strength to

wedge into that lock and pop it open.

There was a lady bringing us food once a day.

And when she's looking down the hallway, Richard grabbed one of the spoons and

kept it.

She left and didn't notice the spoon was gone.

That spoon could open the metal door.

But how are we going to unlock the cell door?

There's no way a spoon handle would open that lock.

We figured the only thing that we could do was wait for a time when the cell

door is open.

We had to wait for the right opportunity.

The attorney comes on Friday night, and we can tell by the look on his face,

it's not going to be good.

He says, boys, I have bad news.

They're taking you back to Lurigancho on Monday.

Richard James and I were in total agreement.

We are not going back to Lurigancho, no matter what we have to do.

I knew we had to get out of that jail.

Like now.

Not long later, James got very sick.

He'd been throwing up.

The guard opened the door and let him go in the restroom.

And the cell doors opened.

I thought this was the opportunity that we were waiting for.

But what about James?

If we go now, he's not going to come with us.

This is the most serious decision of my whole life.

I looked down in the hallway.

There's a football game on TV up in the front office.

It was really loud.

I thought, this is our only chance to escape.

And I turned to Richard and I said, brother, let's go now.

It was on.

I was filled with so much energy all of a sudden.

The guard was typing in the next cell with his back to the door.

We could get by him.

But what about that lock? When that lock springs, it's going to be so loud.

Richard got to the door.

Suddenly a phone rang up in the front office.

We froze.

I'm thinking, what if the guy typing in the next room came out in the hallway?

If he caught us, we could end up dead.

The phone's still going.

Richard and I are trapped in between those two cell doors.

What do we do from there?

I'm thinking, we've got to go back to ourselves.

It's over.

Suddenly, up in the front office, a goal happened on TV.

That was it.

This is our chance to escape.

It sprung that long.

He went through that door so fast, there wasn't a look back.

We got out in the yard.

My only thought was, the guards inside had automatic weapons.

If they'd see us, they're going to shoot us.

We've got to get away right now.

I immediately went up the stairs.

I threw my towel over the chain link.

Got on top of the fence.

Over the barbed wire.

Down to the inside.

Now Richard's coming up.

I'm thinking we could get shot there easily.

Richard got up and over the barbed wire so fast.

He leaps out.

He lands on all fours. He just signaled, come on, let's go.

Now it's my turn.

I leaped off the wall.

I hit the ground.

My ankle twisted.

The pain was so instant.

But I just knew I'd need to get up.

I braced myself against the wall and pushed off.

I couldn't even stand.

And then I remembered the man who had tried to escape from where he got to.

So I started crawling, but I had to keep moving.

It was very painful.

I don't care if they're yelling at me with a gun drawn.

I'm going to keep going.

I watch Richard run over to the wall, and he grabbed a ladder.

I'm thinking, he's almost gone.

I made it over to the ladder. I just start pulling myself up.

I'm scared to death.

I got to the top of that wall, and I could see Richard.

He's yelling for a taxi to stop him.

I just threw myself off the wall.

When I hit the ground, I felt pain like I'd never known.

Richard got a car to stop.

He just ran back, got a hole in my arm, put it over his shoulder, and helped me

stand.

And he carried me over to the car.

I just couldn't believe it.

We made it.

We were going home.

When I got back to California, I came around.

I met this incredibly kind, beautiful person, this lady named Lori.

And she became my wife, and she's my wife today.

Edward and I have been married 31 years.

I can't imagine being with anyone else.

I am madly in love with this man.

She saved my life.

Today, I help people overcome addictions that have destroyed their lives.

And that's what I've been doing for the past 27 years.

It's an honor and a privilege to witness people's healing process and to be a

part of that.