I pistol whip people because I beat people up during certain robberies. I was like the muscle. It's an armed robbery. It's an assault. It's a burglary, false imprisonment. There's a knock on the door. I know it was a copse. That yard by far was the most violence ever seen in my life. I carried a razor blade in my mouth the whole time. I was a soldier. There wasn't no fist fighting on these yards. Breaking skin. You're trying to hurt somebody. You're trying to kill somebody. Mario Sanchez was born and raised in San Francisco, California.

He's a former

Norteno gang member who served hard time in the shoe at Pelican Bay State Prison, California's

most infamous and dangerous correctional facility. When Mario was just 19 years old, he and his crew

went on a spree of armed robberies,

pulling home invasions and kidnappings throughout the San Francisco area. He eventually got caught

and sentenced to 10 years in the state system. He served time on all of the most dangerous

yards in the state, including at Pelican Bay, where he was part of the worst race riot in the

history of that prison. You've probably seen the security footage on TV before.

It was absolute mayhem.

Two inmates got killed, and dozens more were stabbed and wounded.

Mario was a faithful soldier, putting in work for the Nortenos wherever he went.

But when he was finally handed the keys to the yard and made a shot caller,

he decided to quit the gang life and finish out

his sentence in peace. Once he got out, he became a successful millionaire mortgage broker

only to lose it all after the 2008 financial crisis. The years that followed were up and down for

Mario as he battled drug addiction and depression. Finally, at his rock bottom, Mario decided to start robbing banks.

After he knocked over a few branches of a local credit union, he got pinched and spent the next

seven years fighting for his life. But in that time, he turned his life around for good,

getting sober and starting a successful independent film company. The state eventually dropped his bank robbery case, and Mario was once again a free man.

I love this episode.

Mario's story is proof that it doesn't matter how many times in life we fuck up.

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