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These ex-cons made the most of their second chances. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most remarkable instances of ex-convicts who defied all odds by turning their lives around and achieving success in their chosen professions.
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00:00 "When I left the penitentiary in 1969, I devoted my life to just helping others.
00:05 I just didn't know what else to do."
00:07 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:11 remarkable instances of ex-convicts who defied all odds by turning their lives around and
00:16 achieving success in their chosen professions.
00:18 "He was once the world's greatest con man, but he's moved on since then.
00:21 That was a long time ago, friend. Now you work with the FBI."
00:24 Number 20. Larry J. Levine
00:28 "I'm joined now by Larry Levine. He spent 10 years as a federal inmate
00:31 at multiple security levels, and he's now the director and founder of Wall Street Prison
00:36 Consultants."
00:36 We've all heard the popular quote, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
00:40 Perhaps no one took that saying quite as seriously as Larry J. Levine.
00:45 In 1998, Levine was convicted of a slew of crimes including racketeering,
00:50 securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and narcotics trafficking.
00:53 As a result, he spent nearly a decade in prison, only regaining his freedom in 2007.
00:59 After his release, Levine decided to capitalize on his experience.
01:03 He founded Wall Street Prison Consultants, aimed at advising convicted white-collar
01:07 criminals on how to navigate life in prison.
01:10 His clientele typically consists of bankers, Wall Street executives,
01:14 and individuals convicted of fraud or narcotics offenses.
01:17 However, he draws a line at assisting particularly violent criminals.
01:21 "If you walk in front of somebody, say, 'Excuse me.'
01:24 Don't sit on somebody's bunk unless they tell you that you can. Don't become confrontational."
01:31 19. Booker T
01:33 Today, he's one of the most respected professional wrestlers of all time,
01:37 boasting six world championship titles.
01:39 But Booker T's journey to this pinnacle was far from rosy.
01:43 The wrestler had a rough upbringing, having lost both of his parents at a young age.
01:47 In 1987, Booker was arrested alongside some of his friends for robbing several
01:52 Wendy's restaurants in Houston, Texas.
01:54 "That ride from 45 and 610 to downtown Houston,
01:59 to the county jail, that was the longest ride I ever had."
02:03 Booker was an employee of Wendy's at the time,
02:05 and would carry out the crimes while dressed in his uniform.
02:08 He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery and served 19 months in prison.
02:14 While still on parole, Booker enrolled in a wrestling school,
02:17 and quickly realized that was his true calling.
02:20 "I don't think I was ever asked one time,
02:22 what I want to be when I grow up as a kid. I don't think I was ever asked that once."
02:28 18. Larry Lawton
02:30 "I robbed over 20 stores and I had a hell of a run."
02:32 If you ask Larry Lawton, he'd tell you he was the biggest jewel thief in America in the 1980s and
02:37 90s, and there is substantial evidence to support that.
02:41 Lawton was involved in a string of robberies along the Atlantic seaboard,
02:44 amassing around $15 to $18 million worth of jewelry. He was finally arrested by the FBI in 1996,
02:52 and spent 11 years in prison for racketeering and robbery. During his sentence, Lawton became
02:57 a paralegal and resolved to use his own experience as a deterrent for others. Upon his release,
03:04 Lawton established the Reality Check Program, aimed at steering at-risk youth away from
03:08 criminal activities.
03:09 "Come get me. Lawton."
03:12 For his work, he was made an honorary police officer in Missouri,
03:16 becoming the first ex-con to ever achieve that.
03:19 17. Nigel Milsom
03:21 Nigel Milsom was once seen as one of Australia's most promising painters.
03:25 He earned an MFA from the University of New South Wales in 2002, and a decade later,
03:30 won the highly coveted Solman Prize for one of his paintings. However, his trajectory was marred by
03:36 mental health issues and substance use disorder. In 2012, while intoxicated, Milsom robbed a
03:41 7-Eleven and was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
03:45 "He was my barrister when I got arrested for armed robbery with a mate of mine,
03:52 about two weeks after I think winning the Solman Prize."
03:57 During the case, Milsom was represented by Australian criminal lawyer Charles Waterstreet,
04:02 who helped reduce his sentence to two years and four months on appeal. After leaving prison,
04:07 Milsom worked on a portrait of Waterstreet, which ultimately won him the Archibald Prize,
04:11 Australia's most prestigious portrait award.
04:14 "It's a portrait of Charlie Waterstreet, who everyone probably knows he's a criminal barrister."
04:21 16. Koss Marte
04:23 Koss Marte was just a teenager when he was drawn into the drug trade in New York.
04:27 "Started wearing a suit, tie, and just started marketing. And I actually made
04:31 business cards. I started this whole 24-hour delivery service."
04:35 Marte ascended through the ranks, selling a variety of substances and raking in an
04:39 estimated $2 million annually. This continued until 2009 when he was arrested by federal
04:45 authorities and sentenced to seven years in prison. While locked up in solitary confinement,
04:50 Marte embarked on a rigorous fitness journey, shedding 70 pounds in just six months.
04:55 This experience served as the foundation for ConBody,
04:58 the fitness program Marte established after his release. Today, ConBody is a successful enterprise,
05:04 employing former inmates to lead high-intensity workouts for clients. Remarkably, the recidivism
05:10 rate among ConBody staff who are ex-cons stands at an impressive zero.
05:14 15. Tracey McNess
05:17 At the age of 37, Tracey McNess was convicted of drug conspiracy charges and sentenced to 10 years
05:23 in prison. "Once I've been in prison for about three or four years, I've had enough. I was
05:28 worried and I used to stress out about getting out." Prior to that, she gained notoriety in the
05:33 Essex crime underworld as a drug debt collector referred to as "The Queen." While in prison,
05:39 McNess took a counseling course that opened her eyes to the grave consequences of her actions.
05:43 She credits this course for transforming her life. After working in the prison butcher shop,
05:48 McNess used her experience as well as the money she earned to set up a sausage business called
05:53 the Giggly Pig Company upon her release. This company, which employs over 20 individuals,
05:58 has won McNess accolades for her diverse range of gourmet sausages.
06:02 "Sit down and think about what you really want to do. You've got to break the cycle of that old
06:07 life that you had. And believe me, it's not the way forward going back into that."
06:10 14. Tim Allen
06:12 "Got myself in trouble, ended up doing some prison time,
06:15 humiliated my family, and all of it was selfish." Long before gaining fame on the ABC sitcom Home
06:23 Improvement, Tim Allen was a struggling comedian who got embroiled in a criminal case. In 1978,
06:29 the actor was caught with over 600 grams of narcotics at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
06:34 International Airport in Michigan. To avoid a potential life sentence, Allen cut a deal
06:39 with prosecutors to rat out other drug dealers, and he received a sentence of three to seven years.
06:44 Once he got out of prison, Allen focused on his comedy career, and about a decade later,
06:49 landed the role on Home Improvement that launched him to stardom. He further solidified his
06:54 reputation by voicing Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story franchise, and by playing Mike Baxter on
06:59 Last Man Standing. "As long as nice guys don't finish first." "You can consider that a compliment."
07:08 13. Uchendi Wani
07:10 Raised by a minister, Uchendi Wani led a less-than-virtuous life during his college years.
07:15 "I was living a double life. At that time, I was in college, on the dean's list, and I always worked."
07:22 Wani operated a drug empire, smuggling illicit substances from Miami to Nashville.
07:27 However, his day of reckoning came during his senior year. Authorities had intercepted a
07:32 million-dollar shipment of drugs and declared him wanted. Wani ultimately turned himself in,
07:37 and received a sentence of six and a half months at a federal boot camp. He managed to finish his
07:42 studies after his release and capitalized on the one skill he had — cutting hair.
07:47 "I saved my money, lived below my means. I'm cutting hair at the halfway house,
07:51 and then I started cutting hair at a barbershop. I ended up buying a barbershop."
07:56 In 1998, Wani established his own barbershop and school, which quickly took off. These days,
08:02 he's also a motivational speaker, traveling the country to share his story and inspire
08:07 others to learn from his mistakes.
08:08 12. Mark Wahlberg
08:11 "Mark Wahlberg, who was making news with his recent request for a pardon to erase his conviction
08:16 for a violent assault committed back in 1988."
08:18 Oscar-nominated actor Mark Wahlberg made quite a few questionable decisions when he was a teenager.
08:24 The young Wahlberg was involved in a series of racially motivated attacks,
08:28 most notably attacking two Vietnamese-American men in one day and hurling racial slurs at them.
08:34 Wahlberg was initially arrested for attempted murder, but he later pleaded guilty to felony
08:38 assault and served 45 days of a three-month jail sentence. However, the actor managed to
08:44 turn his life around in his later years. He made his big-screen debut in the mid-'90s and quickly
08:49 rose to stardom by the end of that decade. Not only has he earned multiple accolades and
08:54 nominations since, but he was also the world's highest-paid actor in 2017.
09:00 "I want to make sure that I am very clear,
09:01 because whatever personal security you presently enjoy comes from me."
09:06 11. Greg Mathis
09:08 The life of Judge Greg Mathis is one that essentially came full circle. Early on,
09:13 Mathis faced numerous arrests as a juvenile delinquent and later served nine months in
09:18 adult jail on a concealed weapons charge. "17 years old, you were arrested,
09:23 ended up in juvenile." "Not juvenile, I was tried as an adult."
09:27 "They tried you as an adult at 17." Upon his release, Mathis earned his
09:31 bachelor's degree and then went on to the University of Detroit School of Law. However,
09:36 due to his criminal background, Mathis was denied his license to practice law for many years.
09:42 "After I got my law license at the state Supreme Court, because they had denied me,
09:48 um, I then began working for the city council, then the mayor, then Reverend Jackson,
09:53 and, uh, then elected judge, and…" Once he eventually acquired it, he made a
09:58 rapid ascent in his legal career, becoming the youngest person in the history of Michigan to
10:03 be elected a district court judge. Additionally, his court TV show Judge Mathis enjoyed a successful
10:08 24-season run and received a Daytime Emmy Award. "In the meantime, you gotta pay that child support.
10:14 That's your old judgment for the plaintiff. Good luck."
10:18 10. Georgia Durante "If there was trouble, I was there."
10:22 Explored in detail in her memoir, The Company She Keeps, the road traveled by Georgia Durante to
10:27 her current profession has been filled with unexpected twists and turns. As a young woman,
10:32 her interest in danger made her a regular at a mafia-owned club in NYC. After a shooting,
10:38 Durante was ordered to take the victim to the hospital, proving herself to be an excellent
10:42 driver in the process. Before she knew it, this unlikely speed demon was a mafia getaway driver
10:47 and married to a mafioso. She eventually escaped the life and made a name for herself in the stunt
10:52 driving world, becoming one of the industry's top drivers. "I felt this big weight being lifted."
10:58 9. Paul Carsten Fautek "Therapist? Is that it?"
11:03 For Paul Fautek, a stay in a federal pen was a pretty serious wake-up call. Having started his
11:08 criminal career at the tender age of 13, he had a diverse resume that included counterfeiting,
11:14 burglary, car theft, and illegally smuggling his Mexican wife into the United States.
11:18 "I made a decision that my career was going to be crime."
11:22 Upon his release, he began visiting a therapist who not only helped him to better comprehend his
11:27 own criminal inclinations, but also to discover his future career, psychology. Starting with a GED,
11:34 he entered a master's program, eventually earning his doctorate and a presidential pardon,
11:39 and ultimately publishing a psychology book aimed at helping convicts straighten out their lives.
11:44 8. Daniel E. Manville Manslaughter is a crime that can be
11:48 incredibly hard to move past, but Daniel Manville did more than just reform and reintegrate into
11:53 society. "And that's something you do not recover from. That's something that follows you for life."
11:57 With his second chance, Manville became one of the last things anyone expected - a lawyer.
12:02 It wasn't easy - his application for a legal license was initially denied,
12:06 before being overturned on appeal. While some reformed convicts are just looking to forget
12:11 their stint upstate, Daniel Manville became a serious advocate for prison system reform,
12:15 and now fights for prisoners' rights. He's also been the director of the Civil Rights Clinic at
12:20 the Michigan State University College of Law since the early 2010s.
12:24 7. Eugene Brown For Eugene Brown, a failed bank robbery at
12:29 the age of 20 earned him an 18-year prison sentence. "Seven year here, eight year here."
12:36 For many individuals, that might as well be a life sentence, dashing any hope of a real future.
12:41 But not for Brown. In prison, he mastered the game of chess and came out a truly changed man.
12:47 He founded the Big Chair Chess Club, a youth program that teaches kids and teens to always,
12:52 quote, "think before you move." His inspiring story of redemption and community spirit was
12:57 even adapted into a film, Life of a King. "People find healing in stories like this."
13:02 6. Jeff Henderson "Where I didn't get arrested, I got rescued."
13:06 Sometimes, it takes hitting rock bottom to find what you're meant to do in life.
13:10 Jeff Henderson, who was since named Las Vegas Chef of the Year in 2001,
13:14 may have never found his true calling had he not done hard time. After being arrested for
13:19 dealing illegal substances, he spent 10 years in prison, where he honed his cooking skills
13:24 working kitchen duty. Upon his release, he worked his way up the cutthroat world of professional
13:29 cooking. "I eat everything from the snooty to the booty, let me tell you. Now, I can't eat a lot of
13:33 this stuff." He's since married, had kids, written a best-selling memoir entitled Cooked,
13:38 and starred in multiple television shows.
13:40 5. Junior Johnson This NASCAR legend won a staggering 50 races
13:45 during his time on the circuit in the '50s and '60s. Johnson's start as a driver, however,
13:50 is vintage NASCAR. A moonshine runner for his family's whiskey operation,
13:54 Junior was eventually nabbed for having an illegal still, and served a year in prison.
13:59 "You just know that if you got caught, you's going to jail."
14:02 Upon his release, he turned his attention to professional racing, winning five races in his
14:07 first season. He proved to be not only a talented racer, but also an innovative one. A super speedway
14:13 basic today, in 1960, Junior Johnson discovered drafting during a test run and subsequently used
14:19 the technique to clinch the Daytona 500. And in 1986, he received an even bigger prize,
14:26 a presidential pardon. "You know, I've been lucky, huh?"
14:29 4. Eugène-François Vidocq Few criminals have gone on to greater or
14:34 more ironic careers than this legend. Vidocq spent his youth committing petty crimes, forging
14:39 documents, escaping prison, and dueling. Whatever he did, he did with a sense of style, flourish,
14:45 and self-assuredness. His exploits eventually made him too famous for a life of crime,
14:50 and therefore, he casually switched sides. His work as a police informant inspired him to form
14:55 the Sûreté Nationale, which would go on to inspire numerous similar agencies around the world.
15:00 "A gentleman can only offer his wit."
15:02 In many ways, he shaped modern police work, popularizing ballistics, crime scene investigation,
15:08 detailed descriptions of criminals, plaster casts, and more. Unsurprisingly, he inspired
15:14 the works of numerous detective writers in the process. "The robbery was committed from inside."
15:19 3. Mark Chopper-Reed "Used to be bloody Chopper-Reed.
15:24 Now I can't even get arrested in this fucking town." This former felon spent nearly two decades
15:29 of his life behind bars due to committing a variety of crimes that ranged from armed robbery
15:33 to homicide. The number often changed over the years, but by Mark Chopper-Reed's own estimates,
15:39 he killed or was involved in the murder of anywhere between four and 19 people.
15:44 It's unsurprising, then, that over an 18-year period, he only spent 13 months as a free man.
15:50 Following his final release in 1998, he went on to write crime novels and even a children's book.
15:56 He also recorded rap, painted, and dabbled in comedy, while his insane life inspired the
16:01 2000 film Chopper. "Homicide have picked up the guy, right? They've even got the murder weapon."
16:06 "What murder weapon?" "410 shotgun." "Yeah, this bloody 410 shotgun." "Put it away, Mark."
16:14 Reed's unbelievable life story, however, came to a rather ordinary end in 2013,
16:19 when he died of liver cancer. 2. Danny Trejo
16:23 "Good Spanish, or I'll let you live." While the instantly recognizable actor
16:29 is essentially a household name these days, he got into the acting business relatively late.
16:34 Born in 1944, Trejo only got his first part in 1985. Before that, he did multiple stints in
16:41 prison for armed robbery and drug charges. While in San Quentin, he learned how to box,
16:45 a skill that would take him to unexpected places. A person who previously used drugs himself,
16:51 his work as a youth drug counselor brought Trejo to the set of the film Runaway Train.
16:56 This proved to be his break, as he was soon offered a role as an extra and boxing coach
17:00 for Eric Roberts. From there, the roles just kept on coming for this criminal-turned-actor
17:05 and activist. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell
17:18 to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos
17:23 or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on
17:27 notifications. Number 1. Frank Abagnale. Etched into our memories thanks to 2002's Catch Me If
17:35 You Can, Frank William Abagnale Jr. led a life that few could keep up with. Before his capture
17:42 at the age of 21, he'd already assumed the identity of a lawyer, airline pilot, a physician,
17:48 and even a U.S. law enforcement agent. Despite being sentenced to 12 years in prison, he was
17:54 released after just four. Why? The FBI wanted his help investigating other forgers, scam artists,
18:00 frauds, and conmen like himself. Apparently, first-hand experience is invaluable, regardless
18:05 of how it's gained. With his criminal past behind him, Abagnale has since found a career as a
18:10 legitimate private fraud consultant. Which of these former inmates inspires you the most?
18:19 Let us know in the comments below.
18:20 "I dedicated my life to helping other people. Came out of the joint and that's all I did. All I did."
18:26 Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
18:30 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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