Free Bamboozled by Joe Biel Page A

incongrous. Even when he re-tells the stories now, he seems to be creating contradictory and revisionist history as he goes.

    One day he was called to the warden’s office while he was in the middle of making a deal. While it may not have felt like prison to visitors, there remained occasional reminders.
    As Joey sat down he says the secretaries asked him for Emmitt stuff, which Joey tended to refuse giving to cops and guards. The new warden supposedly informed Joey, “If you want to keep running your operation, you are going to need to make a donation to my son’s baseball team.” All calls to and from the prison were recorded so the warden knew exactly how much money Joey was earning behind bars so lying wasn’t an option, for once.
    Joey says he responded, “Since you broke the ice, I need to be on that same level” leaning forward over the desk. “I will not be sending your son a dime and if anything happens to me, you’ll be guaranteed to be cut up into little pieces and put out in the desert.” And with that, Joey walked out, smiling. He hadbeen “reformed” to look after his own interests.
    After that, Joey was promoting the event of his life—a
Night of the Champions
signing that included Cecil Fielder, Jeff Bagwell, Carlos Palomino, Bip Roberts, Boom Boom Mancini, Scott Cooper, and many more. Lou Gagliano, an associate of “the family,” would hand Joey’s phone call around from player to player as they signed and then to check the money count. Joey says he chargd $45 for signing flat items and $75 for round items.
    He put Ana Luisa in charge of his new company OG Collectibles, which he claims meant “originally guaranteed,” because he had letters of authenticity for even the signings he admitted were bogus.
    Joey married Ana Luisa that April, and she started to ask about Joey’s appeal. Joey thought about it for days. He had created a comfortable life in prison with some fame and a healthy pile of cash. At the same time, he says he felt stupid for sitting in an empty cell while his wife was on the outside.
    The same week he’d demanded money from Joey, the prison warden was arrested for soliciting an underage prostitute. Joey’s cell door came to be open 24 hours/day on the honor system. He could spend up to 10 hours/day on the phone and Joey used every second. Joey claimed that he paid the guards for a weekly pizza, gold chain, a Rolex, and a bottle of Hennessy. Nonetheless, Joey told Ana Luisa that he would shift focus to his appeal in the prison law library.
    After eighteen years of incarceration, Joey came to believe that attorneys represent you as long and as well as you can afford, and their opinions aren’t of much importance. Joey had also learned in business that anything is possible, even when he’s told that everything is in the hands of the parole board.
    Joey met with Chris Baca and informed him of his plans to return to California for access to California law books. Baca understood and wrote letters of support.

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    Joey contacted Curt Rost from the DOC, explaining his interest in returning to California to appeal his case. Rost understood the dilemma: Joey didn’t want to be killed by California inmates but he wanted access to California legal documents to secure his released. Joey was transferred to Folsom Prison while OJ Simpson was all over the television after his wife had been murdered. Being escorted over to the attorney area, Joey claims he ran into two suits he thought looked like Feds.
    He took a seat as the suits requested the relationship between Michael Irvin of the Cowboys and Daryl Strawberry’s drug connection. The men suggested that they could make it rough for Joey but he claims he said that if he gave them anything on Luigi and Mr. Gambino, it would be worse. Jimmy “the Weasel” Fratianno had turned into a federal informant, sending numerous leads down the chain. Joey claims