Speaker 1: It's with Dan Ray. I'm deel you easy, Boston.
Speaker 2: All right. Welcome back everybody, Thank you Dan Watkins. As
Speaker 2: we move into our third hour tonight on night Side.
Speaker 2: Week ago, I guess was a week ago Friday. This
Speaker 2: gentleman joined me during the eight o'clock hour, Scott Alan Curly,
Speaker 2: and as I talked to him, I felt that his
Speaker 2: story needed more time to really understand the triumph of
Speaker 2: this guy's life. And I also, you know, we don't
Speaker 2: take phone calls in the eight o'clock hour because the
Speaker 2: guests are only with us for you know, seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 2: ten minutes at most, And so I asked him to
Speaker 2: come back, and he's joining us again tonight, Scott, welcome
Speaker 2: back to night Side. It seems like it just only
Speaker 2: a few days ago we had you here. But tonight
Speaker 2: we got a little bit more opportunity to let your
Speaker 2: story breathe a little bit. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great.
Speaker 4: I really appreciate you having me tonight.
Speaker 2: Well, your story is just one of those those amazing
Speaker 2: stories of success. So let's start at the beginning. You
Speaker 2: spent nearly a decade behind bars. How did you get
Speaker 2: on that? What were your circumstances that led to you
Speaker 2: making I assume what now in retrospect, you recognize with
Speaker 2: some poor decisions.
Speaker 4: Very poor decisions. Well okay, well, so since we have
Speaker 4: a little bit more time to chat, I'll give you
Speaker 4: a little bit more expanded version. Yeah, so that we
Speaker 4: can you know, it can have more context. I was
Speaker 4: raised in a very dysfunctional family, and it was all
Speaker 4: about the exterior. It was all about the image. And
Speaker 4: so I've spent my entire childhood trying to mold myself
Speaker 4: into being what I thought others wanted me to be,
Speaker 4: as opposed to really embracing who I really was. And
Speaker 4: I got so good at that that I lost or
Speaker 4: lost myself in that in that facade per se. And
Speaker 4: and you know, just the struggle between those two dynamics
Speaker 4: was pulling at me so hard, and it was something
Speaker 4: that I kept very secret. You know, I kept it
Speaker 4: to myself. Even my closest the friends were unaware of
Speaker 4: the you know, the turmoil. And as as time went on,
Speaker 4: and when I got closer to graduating, I felt myself
Speaker 4: getting more and more intense tense step meaning that I
Speaker 4: felt like something was about to happen inside of me.
Speaker 4: But I still still I didn't share that with anyone.
Speaker 4: And then I started hanging out with quote unquote the
Speaker 4: wrong crowd, which was pretty much all that I needed,
Speaker 4: you know. And I say that tongue in cheek, and
Speaker 4: eventually things just began to implode.
Speaker 2: And where about you grow up?
Speaker 4: I grew up in a little town called Crosby, Texas,
Speaker 4: just outside of Houston, northeast of Houston. The first part
Speaker 4: of my early life was in Baytown, Texas, and from
Speaker 4: there we moved to Crosby, which is just maybe twenty
Speaker 4: minutes north of that, and that's where I spent the
Speaker 4: majority of my childhood.
Speaker 2: Okay, again, I don't want to ask questions that are
Speaker 2: too personal, But was your family situation tough or did
Speaker 2: you mom and dad you know, were they supportive? Or
Speaker 2: did you come out of a family, you know, a
Speaker 2: family stead of circumstances that we might characterize or a
Speaker 2: psychiatrist might characterize as dysfunctional.
Speaker 4: It was the epitome of dysfunction, no question about it.
Speaker 2: Well, you go right to the point. That's what I
Speaker 2: like about you. I'm trying to ask questions as kindly
Speaker 2: and as as I Then here I'll.
Speaker 4: Tell you don't have to. You can. We can be
Speaker 4: brutally honest. I wrote the book Absolution, The Dark Path
Speaker 4: to Light to to actually expose all of those secrets.
Speaker 4: And I did that, you know, for the sake of
Speaker 4: freeing myself and also helping others to understand that they
Speaker 4: can do the same as well.
Speaker 2: So you look like a pretty young guy to me.
Speaker 2: So I'm guessing you were born sometime in the eighties.
Speaker 4: I was born in nineteen sixty seven. I appreciate that compliment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good for you.
Speaker 5: Good for you will get you everywhere.
Speaker 2: You're on the right side of fifty. That's good.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so you you know you did you have
Speaker 2: a big family growing up or was it a small group?
Speaker 4: No, it was very small. Actually, I was the only child.
Speaker 4: I was adopted into the Curly family. And I will
Speaker 4: not say my parents, my adoptive parents. They were not
Speaker 4: bad people, yep. I'll say that the problem and the
Speaker 4: challenge that they faced is that they just did not
Speaker 4: have the training, understanding our history or experience to know
Speaker 4: how to raise a child properly. And there's something that
Speaker 4: I learned that we can only give as much as
Speaker 4: we have to give. And unfortunately they just didn't have
Speaker 4: the parenting skills. They weren't given a lot as when
Speaker 4: they were when they were with the way that they
Speaker 4: were raised, and so.
Speaker 2: Were they were they young with a young parent, with
Speaker 2: a young parents got they.
Speaker 4: Were average age parents. My mother was twenty nine when
Speaker 4: I was born and my father would have been thirty
Speaker 4: four when I was born, but they didn't adopt me
Speaker 4: until they were until I was two years old.
Speaker 2: Really really average, you know, average age. It wasn't like
Speaker 2: you had a teenage mom or something like that.
Speaker 4: Okay, no, not at all.
Speaker 2: So was there a point in time when you think
Speaker 2: things kind of went off the rails? And I'm wondering
Speaker 2: if you're able to isolate that that moment.
Speaker 4: Yes, And and like I said, this is the whole
Speaker 4: point of us chatting, And as I did in my book,
Speaker 4: it's brutal honesty because the only way that we can
Speaker 4: free ourselves and do better is if we put aside
Speaker 4: the facades. And so during our talk tonight, I'll share
Speaker 4: some pretty uh you know, I'll be respectful about it,
Speaker 4: but I will absolutely tell you the truth.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: Growing up in my family was was was very difficult
Speaker 4: because my parents were more concerned about the image as
Speaker 4: opposed to building, uh, you know, growing and nurturing the
Speaker 4: family itself. It was all about how we appeared to
Speaker 4: the Joneses. On the outside. We looked like the absolute
Speaker 4: perfect family. We were an African American family where my
Speaker 4: father was was very well respected in the in the
Speaker 4: neighbor in the community we ended. When I was nine
Speaker 4: years old, we moved to a neighborhood called Newport that
Speaker 4: was primarily predominantly a upper middle class white neighborhood, and
Speaker 4: we were one of only maybe four black families in it.
Speaker 4: And my father was determined to to kind of be
Speaker 4: a step above everyone else. The nicer had a little
Speaker 4: bit nicer car than everyone had. They are of the
Speaker 4: month very often, you know, we we just I was
Speaker 4: pretty much their their their trophy child.
Speaker 6: I would.
Speaker 4: I hate to say, but it's a fact.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: And so my I was raised believing that I had
Speaker 4: to earn love and uh and validation. I did not.
Speaker 4: I was not taught that it was something that I
Speaker 4: would I had, that I should, that I had a
Speaker 4: right to just by being a human being.
Speaker 6: Per se.
Speaker 2: Let me let me ask you, how did you figure
Speaker 2: all of this out? And I know I'm jumping ahead
Speaker 2: of the story here, but how did you how did
Speaker 2: you figure all? And we're gonna when we get back
Speaker 2: from the break, we'll get into the story of of
Speaker 2: you know, how the roller coaster started and how you
Speaker 2: you went down and you and what you ended up with.
Speaker 2: But you've kind of figured this out, You've you've taken
Speaker 2: the time to to to figure out what happened. Did
Speaker 2: you meet people in prison or were there professionals in
Speaker 2: prison who helped you work? How did you figure this out?
Speaker 4: Yes, that's a very good question. The fact is I
Speaker 4: was blessed to be sent to prison. I was in
Speaker 4: and out of jail in prison for between eighty nine
Speaker 4: and I'm sorry, between eighty eight and ninety one, probably
Speaker 4: forty times. I was probably in jail thirty to forty
Speaker 4: times within a three year period. I would come out
Speaker 4: on a little short break and go right back in
Speaker 4: for something else.
Speaker 5: But the last what we would.
Speaker 2: Call what we would call a frequent flyer.
Speaker 4: Then I actually got categorized the last time I got
Speaker 4: sentenced for a non violent offense, which was for auto
Speaker 4: theft to thirty five years in prison. Because I was
Speaker 4: categorized at the age of twenty two, a habitual criminal
Speaker 4: at twenty two years old, And at that point I
Speaker 4: got sentenced to thirty five years, which was the worst
Speaker 4: and best thing that ever happened to me, because I
Speaker 4: was I was forced to take a real, real look
Speaker 4: at myself and at that was that was the point
Speaker 4: where I realized that no matter how well I could
Speaker 4: taught myself out of things, I wasn't going to be
Speaker 4: able to talk myself and we'll wiggle myselself out of
Speaker 4: this one. I had to deal with it.
Speaker 2: And the Texas court system in the in the late
Speaker 2: eighties early nineties was not a sort of Kumba feel
Speaker 2: good experience.
Speaker 4: So no, I was down there in old school, and yeah,
Speaker 4: I got sent to some of the I was on
Speaker 4: some of the toughest units in Texas. They called one
Speaker 4: of them Ferguson the gladiator, gladiator unit where you had
Speaker 4: to be able to take care of yourself to survive
Speaker 4: down there. But like I said, in hindsight, it may
Speaker 4: sound very bizarre to say that it was the best
Speaker 4: thing that ever could have happened to me, because to
Speaker 4: your point and to your question, I had to go
Speaker 4: through a program that was called i PTC. It stands
Speaker 4: for in Prison Therapeutic Community and it.
Speaker 3: Was the most intense, most rugged, most involved program I've
Speaker 3: ever heard of and ever known to be in existence,
Speaker 3: and a lot of folks couldn't make it through it.
Speaker 4: It was seven days a week, twelve hours a day
Speaker 4: for a full year. And thank God for that program.
Speaker 4: That program gave me the opportunity to have a life
Speaker 4: of real life and taught me how to manage my
Speaker 4: behavior and my feelings. And part of the big, part
Speaker 4: of a big reason that many of us get in
Speaker 4: trouble is that we have a hard time managing our feelings.
Speaker 2: So my guess is Scott Alan Curley. He's written a
Speaker 2: book called Absolution, The Dark Path to Light. I know
Speaker 2: that there are people out there who listen to my show, Scott,
Speaker 2: who are now behind bars. I get letters from men
Speaker 2: and women behind bars all the time. In my own career,
Speaker 2: as I think we mentioned the other night, I had
Speaker 2: worked on behalf of men who I came to believe
Speaker 2: were wrongfully imprisoned for a murder they had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with. And I have a lawyer by training and
Speaker 2: also by practice, and so I'm always fascinated when someone
Speaker 2: like you can literally scrape the bottom of the barrel
Speaker 2: and somehow, somehow get up and get back and restore
Speaker 2: your independence, your identity, and your integrity, because it's a
Speaker 2: tough place to get out of once you get in.
Speaker 2: I remember, as an eighteen nineteen year old young kid
Speaker 2: playing baseball, we went in to play a prison team
Speaker 2: and the guy that pitched against us that day had
Speaker 2: been signed by the old Washington Senators, and so I
Speaker 2: went out of my way to meet him after the game.
Speaker 2: His name was Lefty Gilday, and I said to him,
Speaker 2: I said, you know, I was a nineteen year old kid,
Speaker 2: and I said, you know you can get out. I
Speaker 2: left he you know, you were not a major league player,
Speaker 2: but you were a bonus baby. He made some money,
Speaker 2: and you're an athlete and you're a good pitcher. And
Speaker 2: he probably was thirty five years old at the time.
Speaker 2: And I'm nineteen year old, kid, you can get I'll
Speaker 2: become a coach or something. And he looked at me
Speaker 2: and he said, kid, when I get out, I'm going
Speaker 2: to get drunk and rob the bank. And guess what.
Speaker 2: I was at Basic Training in Fort Dixon, New Jersey,
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy and he was out. He robbed a
Speaker 2: bank and he shot a police officer during that bank
Speaker 2: robbery and killed an officer named Schroeder, Walter Schroeder. He
Speaker 2: spent the rest of his life in prison. And when
Speaker 2: I was working, believe it or not, to show you
Speaker 2: how people function when I was working. Now, this is
Speaker 2: probably at least I'm trying to time it here, at
Speaker 2: least twenty five years later, I walked into the prison
Speaker 2: to interview one of the men I was helping to
Speaker 2: who I believed in. I was trying to get him
Speaker 2: out of prison and left. He was sitting over the
Speaker 2: corner and he didn't look hardly anything like I remembered him.
Speaker 2: You know. He was saying a left handed picture. His
Speaker 2: weight had blown up, and he looked at me and
Speaker 2: he said, I struck you out twice. And I said, no, left,
Speaker 2: to your lion, you never struck me out. It's just
Speaker 2: amazing how the people who find themselves in that situation.
Speaker 2: You know, It's like I wanted to be kind to him,
Speaker 2: but it was like, no, left, you didn't strike me out.
Speaker 2: You couldn't. You couldn't break a pane of glass. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're a good picture. Don't get me wrong anyway. I'm
Speaker 2: fascinated by people who find themselves in prison. The man
Speaker 2: who I work for to get out of prison, he
Speaker 2: said to me at one point, he said, how do
Speaker 2: you feel, knowing that you had nothing to do with
Speaker 2: this crime, that you're truly an innocent person. You're not
Speaker 2: like some of the folks in prison who always want
Speaker 2: to say they're innocent, but they're really not. And he
Speaker 2: said to me, he said, I know the circumstance. I mean,
Speaker 2: I have to do the time. I can't let the
Speaker 2: time do me.
Speaker 4: That was his. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: And I'll bet you can identify with that phrase. Let's
Speaker 2: take a break, Scott. I'm going to invite people to call.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they want to call or they
Speaker 2: want to listen to us, but I hope some want
Speaker 2: to call. Uh. And first of all, congratulate you on
Speaker 2: the amazing experience that you have somehow endured and overcome
Speaker 2: six seven four ten thirty six one seven nine three
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. I also have told you, Scott, I
Speaker 2: have lots of people listening in different places around the country,
Speaker 2: and whenever I say that, all the calls come in
Speaker 2: from from New England area. If you're if you're inspired
Speaker 2: by this story. This is a gentleman who has gone
Speaker 2: through a lot, and I hope you buy his book.
Speaker 2: I do. I hope to get it myself, Absolution The
Speaker 2: Dark Path to Light. Where do you hear the rest
Speaker 2: of the story. He is now a self made millionaire,
Speaker 2: a successful businessman. So this is a guy who not
Speaker 2: just got out of prison and is like living life
Speaker 2: day to day. He has taken life in overcome obstacles
Speaker 2: that you and I never would have ever experienced. Back
Speaker 2: on Nightside with Scott Alan Curley the book Absolution The
Speaker 2: Dark Path to Light. Right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guess is Scott Alan Curley. Scott he is one
Speaker 2: one final comment on my time playing. We played inside
Speaker 2: of what was called Walpole State Prison, which was the
Speaker 2: toughest prison in Massachusetts, and earlier that summer they had
Speaker 2: had a riot inside the prison. So we were supposed
Speaker 2: to play in July, then we ended up playing in September.
Speaker 2: So at one time I bet bat against Lefty. He
Speaker 2: plunked me on my left elbow, Okay, hit my pitch.
Speaker 2: You know, it didn't hurt because he didn't throw that hard.
Speaker 2: So I got down at first base. I'm like, again,
Speaker 2: nineteen year old kid. So the first baseman I kind
Speaker 2: of to complain to him. I said, man, you know,
Speaker 2: so I was kind of play a tough kid, right, which,
Speaker 2: of course there is a big mistake. So I said
Speaker 2: to the first first basement, big big guy, I said, hey, man,
Speaker 2: where'd you get this guy?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: I said, he is he can't throw hardening, yeah, and
Speaker 2: he has no control. The guy turned to me and
Speaker 2: he says, hey, look, punk. He said, if you spend
Speaker 2: the last six week in solitary confinement, your control wouldn't
Speaker 2: be any good either. It was true anyway. So you
Speaker 2: talk about this program, I'm wondering if there's anybody within
Speaker 2: that program, because I'm a big believer in that all
Speaker 2: of us have mentors in life and that at some
Speaker 2: point along the line people come along who can change
Speaker 2: our lives. Was it just the program or was there
Speaker 2: someone in the program that helped you open your eyes?
Speaker 4: Well, the program was the people. That's one thing, and
Speaker 4: there's one thing that stuck with me and will stick
Speaker 4: with me for the rest of my life. That when
Speaker 4: I really understood this and internalized this fact, it gave
Speaker 4: me a completely different perspective on life. And I'll share
Speaker 4: it with you and the listeners.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 4: They taught us that we all make mistakes, but none
Speaker 4: of us is a mistake, and and so often in
Speaker 4: life and I and I've done it. I did it
Speaker 4: my entire childhood. I equated myself with my mistakes. And
Speaker 4: when we do that, so oftentimes oftentimes we feel less
Speaker 4: than and unworthy and and like we have no value,
Speaker 4: and we don't feel like we're deserving of good, wonderful
Speaker 4: blessings and good things, and we tend to act accordingly.
Speaker 4: And so when I when I was taught that, yes,
Speaker 4: we make mistakes, we sometimes make really big mistakes, but
Speaker 4: it doesn't mean that we are a mistake. Then when I,
Speaker 4: when I really grasped that concept, that was the beginning
Speaker 4: of my transition, my mindset shift into a totally different direction.
Speaker 2: That is distinction with a very clear difference. Oftentimes we
Speaker 2: used to praise distinction without a difference. Boy, if you
Speaker 2: were able to absorb that that thought, how did you
Speaker 2: deal with the long nights in prison? I mean, I
Speaker 2: would think that the worst part of the day is
Speaker 2: when you're in your cell lochdown for the night and
Speaker 2: you're alone with your thoughts.
Speaker 4: That's when we start. That's when I really did the
Speaker 4: most of my reflecting, and I realized the value of time,
Speaker 4: and I made it a point to not waste my
Speaker 4: time even though I was in prison. So what I
Speaker 4: really tried to do, and I feel that it really
Speaker 4: helped me, was I tried to educate myself as much
Speaker 4: as I could while I was in prison. Ten years
Speaker 4: is a long time. I didn't do it all in
Speaker 4: one stretch. I did it over four different times, but
Speaker 4: it was still ten years and ten years. But during
Speaker 4: that time, I read over a thousand books, I went
Speaker 4: through college programs. I did everything I could to be
Speaker 4: in it, but not of it, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: I made it a point to not get involved in
Speaker 4: any gangs. I didn't. There's so much temptation down there
Speaker 4: to get caught up in that penitentiary mentality, in that
Speaker 4: penitutuy lifestyle, and the way I carried myself was not
Speaker 4: the coolest. I didn't talk the slip, slick hip and
Speaker 4: cool slang that is known within the system. I just
Speaker 4: made a conscious decision to use that time to prepare
Speaker 4: myself for when I got out, because I did believe
Speaker 4: that I would get out one day.
Speaker 2: So how tough was it to be in that milieu,
Speaker 2: in that set of circumstances where a lot of people
Speaker 2: will say, hey, in order to get along, you got
Speaker 2: to go along because you're not living, you're living in
Speaker 2: a different society. How tough was it to have not
Speaker 2: only the backbone, but the courage to deal with that system?
Speaker 2: Because I'm sure that there were people who either wanted
Speaker 2: to recruit you to a gang, and when you resisted,
Speaker 2: they probably wanted to teach you a lesson of why
Speaker 2: you should be a member of the gang. Am I
Speaker 2: right or wrong on that?
Speaker 3: You're right?
Speaker 4: And I'm going to give away a part of my book.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 4: It's funny and it's embarrassing, but i will share this.
Speaker 4: So one thing that you cannot do in prison and
Speaker 4: if you want to survive, is to not stand up
Speaker 4: for yourself. And I'll be the first hit it. When
Speaker 4: I was down there in my early twenties, I'm a
Speaker 4: light skinned guy, I had real curly hair. They considered
Speaker 4: me a quote unquote pretty boy, which I had all
Speaker 4: that works against you in prison. It works well with
Speaker 4: the girls when I was you know, out, but it
Speaker 4: didn't work so well in prison.
Speaker 2: Right so, but a roommate is what you're telling me.
Speaker 4: Right yeah, so so. And I had a fear of
Speaker 4: losing my teeth. There are a lot of people in
Speaker 4: prison who have missing teeth, and they don't have the dentists.
Speaker 4: They don't replace them, they don't give you false teeth.
Speaker 4: And I was absolutely determined to not put myself in
Speaker 4: a position where I got my teeth knocked out or
Speaker 4: something like that. So here's the funny story. I'll give
Speaker 4: it to these throuper quick, Thank god, Lester Curly. My
Speaker 4: father was tough as nails. He was like he carried himself,
Speaker 4: sort of like Malcolm X. And when when I was younger,
Speaker 4: he taught me to box. He taught me to box
Speaker 4: the right way, and he would be very hard on me,
Speaker 4: and to the point where it was probably these days
Speaker 4: it might even be a borderline illegal. But I did
Speaker 4: understand the fundamentals of how to use my hands. So
Speaker 4: there was a time, and I'll give you a very
Speaker 4: short funny story, but it's what kept me going. It
Speaker 4: kept me out of trouble per se, as far as
Speaker 4: having to do a lot of fighting the whole time
Speaker 4: I was in prison. So I was in on the unit.
Speaker 4: I just hit this really tough unit called Ferguson, and
Speaker 4: I had on some Jordan's and that's sort of like
Speaker 4: a status symbol when you were in prison back then,
Speaker 4: the only thing you have are your shoes, and if
Speaker 4: the nicer your shoes are, the more status you have
Speaker 4: amongst the other prisoners. Well, well, this guy approached me,
Speaker 4: and I'll be the first to admit now, as I
Speaker 4: felt then, I was scared to death. I will not
Speaker 4: lie and say that I wasn't scared. I was absolutely
Speaker 4: terrified to be in prison, especially on that unit, and
Speaker 4: I was very afraid of getting hurt. So but I
Speaker 4: did remember what my father taught me. And this guy
Speaker 4: was approaching me, and my dad always said, if it's
Speaker 4: going to go down, it's got to go down on
Speaker 4: your terms. So the guy approached me and was in
Speaker 4: the process I could tell of aggressively coming at me
Speaker 4: because he was interested in my tennis shoes. Because he
Speaker 4: mentioned it, I heard him, overheard him, and when he
Speaker 4: approached me, I just by instinct hit him as hard
Speaker 4: as I could with my left hand. And this is
Speaker 4: nothing to boast about. It's just a funny story in hindsight.
Speaker 4: And the guy was about two sixty. I was about
Speaker 4: one ninety. But I hit him just in the right spot,
Speaker 4: knocked him out. And now said that to say, I
Speaker 4: was scared to death because, oh my god, I was
Speaker 4: praying to God that he would wake up and please
Speaker 4: don't die or don't being hurt, because now I'm gonna
Speaker 4: get even more time. I'll never get out of prison. Right,
Speaker 4: Thank god, he got up, Everything was okay, shook it off.
Speaker 4: But that got me a nickname. And oh my god,
Speaker 4: before I tell you the nickname, I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 4: In prison, everybody has the cool nicknames, hipping, slim, jazzy, red, Colorado, black, smooth,
Speaker 4: all that stuff. Well, guess what they called me. They
Speaker 4: called me. They called me froggy. They called me froggy
Speaker 4: because they said I jumped like a frog and.
Speaker 7: They said, yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm like, oh my god, can I have
Speaker 4: a better nickname than froggy? And but it was it
Speaker 4: was actually a show of respect because they were like,
Speaker 4: don't mess with that dude. He's froggy, he'll jump.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yes, you you you you were you did
Speaker 2: You didn't want to punch the guy. You didn't sucker
Speaker 2: punch the guy, because the sucker punch is when the
Speaker 2: guys doesn't see it coming, he's sward coming. But but
Speaker 2: you knew, you knew you better to strike first.
Speaker 5: I had to.
Speaker 4: And yeah, that was the one and only physical altercation
Speaker 4: I ever got into in the entire time I was
Speaker 4: in prison. And although I had the stupidest nickname and
Speaker 4: I could never say kid it was, there was a
Speaker 4: bit of respect that went with it. And that was
Speaker 4: the only issue I ever had in prison with.
Speaker 2: Word got around. Word got around. He wanted your kicks,
Speaker 2: and uh.
Speaker 4: You don't mess with a scared man. They're the most anxious.
Speaker 2: All right, Uh, we got to take a quick news
Speaker 2: break here. My guest is Scott Alan Curley. I want
Speaker 2: to talk about your time out and what you said,
Speaker 2: what you have done. We now know what you overcame,
Speaker 2: but I want to talk about your triumphs. And again
Speaker 2: I would love folks, particularly folks who have spent time
Speaker 2: in a set of circumstances, and I have many listeners
Speaker 2: in that situation feel free to join the conversation. I
Speaker 2: think that it's very important to make people understand that
Speaker 2: if you do make a mistake, and you pay your
Speaker 2: debt to society and you come out and you can
Speaker 2: get past that mistake, as the guest has, there's a
Speaker 2: there's a tremendous amount of respect that should be rendered
Speaker 2: by those of us who have never known what it
Speaker 2: was like to be incarcerated. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: This is night Side six one seven, two, five, four
Speaker 2: ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: My guest is Scott Alan Curley, his book Absolution, The
Speaker 2: Dark Path to Life. He is forty seven years old.
Speaker 2: If I'm doing my math correctly, Uh. He has spent
Speaker 2: ten years of his life inside of tough prisons. He
Speaker 2: got off that roller coaster. He has overcome drugs, prison, sobriety, determination, relapse, homelessness,
Speaker 2: and ultimately absolution. Uh. And he is now a millionaire
Speaker 2: and an entrepreneur, a successful businessman, an incredible story. Back
Speaker 2: on night.
Speaker 1: Side, night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: I guess is Scott Alan Curley his book Absolution, The
Speaker 2: Dark Path to Light. Scott, what year did you get
Speaker 2: out of prison. Finally you hit you hit the joints
Speaker 2: at sometime in the late eighties. When was When was
Speaker 2: the day you walked out for the last time.
Speaker 4: Last time I walked out was in two thousand and one.
Speaker 4: I was back on a parle violation. And I do
Speaker 4: have to clarify, as much as I would like to
Speaker 4: own the age forty seven, I'm actually fifty seven. I
Speaker 4: was born in nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 2: Okay, you know my math. My math has failed me there, Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: that's okay, okay, Well that's good instead of having a
Speaker 2: you know, twenty five percent. Okay, no, thank you for that,
Speaker 2: for that correction, no problem. Let's I want to work
Speaker 2: phone calls in here, but I also want to complete
Speaker 2: the story. Let me let me grab a couple of
Speaker 2: calls and we'll complete the story here. I got Jeff
Speaker 2: in Brockton. Jeff, you're first. I'm going to get you
Speaker 2: on here real quickly. With Scott Allen.
Speaker 5: How are you man? I got I got to see. Congratulations.
Speaker 5: I am still on the path. I I got out
Speaker 5: of prison seven years ago, and this is the first
Speaker 5: time in my life I've haven't made an effort to
Speaker 5: stay out.
Speaker 4: I'm allow wonderful work.
Speaker 5: I work two jobs full time. You know, I'm like
Speaker 5: I said, I'm still on the path. I've dealt with homelessness,
Speaker 5: you know, substance abuse, hurole violations. You know. I'm tempted
Speaker 5: to do something stupid every every day, and if it's
Speaker 5: you know, I just keep my head down, keep pushing
Speaker 5: forward with work work. Why you know, I know what
Speaker 5: you will. You have overcome so up, what much respect.
Speaker 5: I haven't read your book yet. I'm just looking at
Speaker 5: the Dan ray Am. I right home like I do
Speaker 5: every night, and I'm definitely gonna be picking up your book.
Speaker 4: Man. Congratulations, Thank you sir. Let me share just a
Speaker 4: real quick tidbit with you, because I love and appreciate
Speaker 4: that you called in and love your brother. I would recommend,
Speaker 4: whenever you think about doing something that's not the best,
Speaker 4: that may not be the best decision, because I think
Speaker 4: about it every day all day as well, just apply
Speaker 4: what I call the ten second rules before you do anything.
Speaker 4: Just pause, breathe, and just take ten seconds ten seconds
Speaker 4: before you make any sort of decision. And there's a
Speaker 4: very good chance that if you just wait ten seconds
Speaker 4: before you make that decision that your emotions are telling
Speaker 4: you that you should make you more than likely will
Speaker 4: not make that poor decision just takes ten seconds.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do just that.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jeff, thank you for being a loyal nightside listener.
Speaker 2: Congratulations to you. If you're in the midst of a
Speaker 2: fight or you're gonna going to overcome it. And if
Speaker 2: I can ever.
Speaker 5: Be for anybody with a criminal record, I'm sorry, I
Speaker 5: could not hear that. I said. The discrimination is real
Speaker 5: out here for anybody with a criminal record.
Speaker 8: It is.
Speaker 4: That just means we have to fight a little harder.
Speaker 4: That's all I got.
Speaker 5: Lucky. A guy gave me a chance and I and
Speaker 5: I'm making the best of it.
Speaker 4: You know, man, you're proud.
Speaker 5: Thank you. Congratulations, stay out right.
Speaker 2: Back at you. Congratulations, appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Thanks.
Speaker 2: That's that's a guy who's listening every night. Let me
Speaker 2: go to Marty and Florida and Saint Augustine, Florida. Marty,
Speaker 2: you're on with my guest Scott Alan, Curly Scott. I
Speaker 2: will tell you this is a former police officer, former
Speaker 2: New York City police officer.
Speaker 4: But I suspect ahead.
Speaker 6: I went on in nineteen seventy I got promoted to
Speaker 6: sergeant in nineteen eighty five. I retired in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 6: Let me just tell you something. First of all, like
Speaker 6: a a friend of mine in Long Island who was
Speaker 6: mentoring a felon, and it's certainly he had an argument
Speaker 6: with his girlfriend and he's tried to choke her. And
Speaker 6: they made a new law in New York called criminal strangulation,
Speaker 6: which is a felony. So this guy became a felon,
Speaker 6: and he's the nicest guy in the world. And when
Speaker 6: I go to New York to visit him, I say
Speaker 6: his name is Michael. I said, Mike, you're a felon,
Speaker 6: but you're not a crook. Okay, that's number one. Number
Speaker 6: two Martha Stewart is a felon, and I couldn't afford
Speaker 6: to live next to her for a pispic. I what
Speaker 6: you call it insider trading? Okay, number three. A few
Speaker 6: years ago in Florida, they had Proposition four. Well, they
Speaker 6: want to give felons, except if you're a sexual violator
Speaker 6: or murderer, they want to give you back the right
Speaker 6: to vote. I voted yes. The Republican Party said vote no.
Speaker 6: And now felon's can just walk in and vote as
Speaker 6: long as they are paid up all all their dues whatever. Okay,
Speaker 6: and I do agree. One thing I don't like is,
Speaker 6: and this has nothing to do with the felons, but
Speaker 6: when you come out of prison or whatever your felon,
Speaker 6: it's like you might as well be dead because it's
Speaker 6: supposedly hard to get a job. And that I think
Speaker 6: that there are a lot of people out there, Goodie
Speaker 6: good He's who I hate. I love felons and I
Speaker 6: love homeless people. My next door neighbor was a skinhead
Speaker 6: in California. He did eight years in prison, shot up
Speaker 6: a bar, and now he's working in the local his
Speaker 6: His only problem is he's a drinker, but he's working
Speaker 6: in the local hospital. He's very proud of his job,
Speaker 6: and his family has a key to my house. So
Speaker 6: I tell people, felon doesn't mean a crook, right, And
Speaker 6: we were appreciated When I was in New York during
Speaker 6: the before I retired, a life sentence in New York
Speaker 6: was usually about eight years, and that's ridiculous. But I've
Speaker 6: met people in screed who said, well, I serve time
Speaker 6: for manslaughter. I killed an FBI agent. I don't like
Speaker 6: when people braggs. But I totally support your guests, and
Speaker 6: I want to thank him and everybody out there. I'm
Speaker 6: going to tell you right now I would hire a
Speaker 6: fellon in a minute, but I don't like to hire drunks.
Speaker 6: So he knows somebody that's a fella, and give the
Speaker 6: guy a break because he's trying to make something that.
Speaker 2: It all right, mighty, Thank you man. We'll talk soon, Okay,
Speaker 2: thanks Welby show.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Rody.
Speaker 2: You can tell from Marty he's in New York and
Speaker 2: he's got that classic New York accent. Let me go
Speaker 2: to Sherry out Sherry in Houston, Texas. Erry, I suspect
Speaker 2: that you may be a friend of our guest if
Speaker 2: you're a regular listener to Night Side. Welcome either way,
Speaker 2: go right ahead, Sherry.
Speaker 7: This is my first time. Hi Scott, it's your classmate,
Speaker 7: Sherry Morgan. And oh and I wanted to call in.
Speaker 7: I know me and some of our other classmates are listening,
Speaker 7: but I wanted to call in and personally, I just
Speaker 7: want to tell you Scott. You know, we went to
Speaker 7: school together. We we we've.
Speaker 6: Been through a lot.
Speaker 7: Uh, we've probably seen each other at our words our best.
Speaker 7: We've all gone through things and since graduating from high school,
Speaker 7: all of us, we've all gone in different directions. And
Speaker 7: the truth is, we all have a story.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 7: I have your book, and the truth is I've read
Speaker 7: just a couple of pages. I haven't read all of it,
Speaker 7: and and.
Speaker 6: I'm going to.
Speaker 7: But I just want to let you know that, in
Speaker 7: spite of all that you've been through, Uh, I'm proud
Speaker 7: of you because it's like you say, you know, turn
Speaker 7: lemons into lemonade. Uh, that's what you've done. I looked
Speaker 7: at you at the at at our last class of union,
Speaker 7: and I thought, I mean, I just the things that
Speaker 7: you've accomplished. You didn't let the things get the best
Speaker 7: of you, and even when you were down, but look
Speaker 7: where you are now. Uh. And I'm just thankful to
Speaker 7: God that that you are doing great things. And I
Speaker 7: pray that you continue to do great things and uh,
Speaker 7: just reaching out telling your story, helping other people. But
Speaker 7: you know, as your classmate, I know, I'm I'm proud
Speaker 7: of you so much.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Scherry, and I love you, and
Speaker 4: I'm proud to be proud to call you my friend.
Speaker 4: I have to say something real quick about. Sherry said,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go ahead and put her out there since
Speaker 4: she called Cherry was my friend in school that she
Speaker 4: didn't know it, but she lit up my day almost
Speaker 4: every day. Because Sherry, I could do almost anything and
Speaker 4: make it she. I could make her laugh and see
Speaker 4: that she had the most infectious natural laugh. And even
Speaker 4: when I was down, I would just do something stupid
Speaker 4: and Cherry would just giggle and laugh. And I get
Speaker 4: her in trouble, and she and I get in trouble.
Speaker 4: But it was worth it because it was so much
Speaker 4: joy to us.
Speaker 5: Yes, it was.
Speaker 4: Yes, So I have so much love for Sarry. Thank you,
Speaker 4: thank you for that, Sherry.
Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you for ca And you said first time calling.
Speaker 2: We always get first time callers a round of the
Speaker 2: calls here on night side. So I don't know if
Speaker 2: you've ever listened before. I suspect that probably you knew.
Speaker 2: You knew Scott was going to be on, but I hope.
Speaker 7: I did Facebook post and I said, you know, another classmate,
Speaker 7: I said, look, I was going to call in socheck check.
Speaker 2: In every once in a while. We did a lot
Speaker 2: of interesting shows up here, and uh, we have a
Speaker 2: lot of listeners in Texas believe it or not to
Speaker 2: listen to us regularly.
Speaker 6: Thanks, thank you, Okay, thank you, Scott.
Speaker 4: Bye, this is great.
Speaker 2: Look, Scott, I got to take one final quick break.
Speaker 2: I do want to talk about your success. And we
Speaker 2: got a bunch of calls as well, and we'll try
Speaker 2: to get them in as well, but we'll get it
Speaker 2: all none by eleven. I promise. That's what we do
Speaker 2: here every night. All right, my guest to Scott Allen
Speaker 2: Curly the book Absolution, The Dark Path to Life. This
Speaker 2: is one I think you want to get, folks. Okay,
Speaker 2: we I believe in this gentleman, and I hope you
Speaker 2: can hear in his voice the ring of truth and integrity.
Speaker 2: And he has been there and got back and not
Speaker 2: many people do that, but he he set an example.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Nightside. We got a couple of
Speaker 2: lines open six one, seven, nine, six, seven, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Night Saint Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, this hour's moving too quickly. Scott Alan Curley is
Speaker 2: my guest. Scott spent time. He's fifty seven, young man
Speaker 2: as far as I'm Concerned, spent ten years over a
Speaker 2: period at various periods of time in prison, and is
Speaker 2: now a self made millionaire of his book Absolution The
Speaker 2: Dark Path to Light. What did you do once you
Speaker 2: get out in two thousand and one for the final time?
Speaker 2: What what? What career path have you followed? Which one
Speaker 2: allowed you to succeed and also allowed you to accumulate wealth? Well?
Speaker 4: I started, I started doing what I'd been doing all along,
Speaker 4: but I just started doing it legally. I started I
Speaker 4: was working, started working in sales. So when I was in,
Speaker 4: when I was out in the streets hustling and doing
Speaker 4: all the bad things. Uh, the way that I got
Speaker 4: what I wanted was by talking myself into getting people
Speaker 4: to give me what I wanted. And some people could
Speaker 4: call it being a con artist or or whatever, but
Speaker 4: I did have thanks to Annie Curley, my mother, she
Speaker 4: required She forced me to speak good, proper English and
Speaker 4: and to be a strong communicator. And so when I
Speaker 4: got out, I just started I had that natural skill
Speaker 4: set and I just started using it in the professional world.
Speaker 4: And I realized pretty quickly that I had a knack
Speaker 4: for sales. And so that's that was my first Uh,
Speaker 4: professional type position.
Speaker 2: So what type of sales were you involved in.
Speaker 4: I had the worst, the worst sales job. I was
Speaker 4: working for a company that that UH sold. It was
Speaker 4: retention sales. Back in the day, this was in the
Speaker 4: early two thousands, they used to have these credit card
Speaker 4: enhancement programs where UH these credit card companies, and I
Speaker 4: feel like it was a scam. In fact, I'm pretty
Speaker 4: sure that it was where they would they would have
Speaker 4: h on they would have you sign up for these
Speaker 4: quote unquote programs for dental benefits and dining benefits and
Speaker 4: all that, and and you and people would be paying
Speaker 4: for it not know it, and then after three or
Speaker 4: four months they would notice it on their bill and
Speaker 4: then they would charge. They would call the cut that
Speaker 4: number on the back of the card and cuss out
Speaker 4: whoever they get on the phone. And my job was
Speaker 4: to take take that take that call and somehow convinced
Speaker 4: them to keep the program.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm a millionaire doing that. How'd you how'd
Speaker 2: you how'd you accumulate wealth?
Speaker 4: Well? Well that was my that was how I cut
Speaker 4: my teeth. And you know how I realized that I
Speaker 4: that I had a knack for sales. But then I
Speaker 4: got into the tax resolution in sales, and and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, we don't have enough time to really get
Speaker 4: into how it all happened. But okay, but but the
Speaker 4: short of it is that the conversation and having the
Speaker 4: ability to effectively communicate will open all sorts of doors
Speaker 4: for you and I.
Speaker 2: That's what is as simple as that.
Speaker 4: I just talk and and and it it opens so
Speaker 4: many doors. And and uh, I want to I know
Speaker 4: we don't have much time, but to to your point
Speaker 4: when you ask, how did I get to where I'm
Speaker 4: where I am and where I hope to continue to
Speaker 4: go because I feel like I still have a lot
Speaker 4: more work to do. People tend to misunderstand and and
Speaker 4: misconstrue the difference between barriers and obstacles. A barrier is
Speaker 4: something that you cannot get through. You can't penetrate it,
Speaker 4: you can't get over it, you can't get under it,
Speaker 4: you can't get around it. An obstacle, on the other hand,
Speaker 4: is something that you can get around and you can
Speaker 4: get over and you can get through it. The problem
Speaker 4: that many of us are let me rephrase that, the
Speaker 4: challenge that many of us spaces that we confuse barriers
Speaker 4: with obstacles. In many cases, some of us, we're all
Speaker 4: guilty of it, will encounter a difficult situation and we
Speaker 4: will perceive it as being a barrier, and in many
Speaker 4: cases we'll stop trying to push forward. But in most
Speaker 4: cases that perceived barrier is actually just an obstacle. The
Speaker 4: world in general is filled with obstacles. There's one obstacle
Speaker 4: after another, but it doesn't really have a whole lot
Speaker 4: of barriers.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of perceived barriers, But those perceived
Speaker 4: barriers are actually not barriers, They're just obstacles.
Speaker 2: That is a great philosophy. I got a couple more
Speaker 2: calls I want to get in. One is from Houston.
Speaker 2: We're going to take first, LeAnn, who's calling from Massachusetts, Attleborough, Massachusetts. Leanne,
Speaker 2: I know you've been waiting a little bit, but I'll
Speaker 2: ask you to be quick so we can get one
Speaker 2: more person in from Houston. Go ahead, Leanne.
Speaker 9: Hello, good to talk to you Dan and Scott. First, Scott,
Speaker 9: thank you for being the inspiration that you are both
Speaker 9: to the incarceration those on the outside, because success stories
Speaker 9: such of you as yours are few and far between.
Speaker 9: As you know, I have a question about the title
Speaker 9: of your book, Absolution the Dark Path to Light. Since
Speaker 9: absolution means forgiveness of sins, I'm curious as to whether
Speaker 9: you attribute any of your success and soundness of mind
Speaker 9: to a faith based experience or a relationship with God
Speaker 9: or anything like that.
Speaker 2: All right, go ahead, Scott, all the above.
Speaker 4: There's no way that I could ever be where I
Speaker 4: am now if I weren't a able to forgive myself
Speaker 4: and be able to forgive the people that hurt me.
Speaker 4: And so that is the short, short answer to that question.
Speaker 4: Carry around carrying that burden of non forgiveness is very
Speaker 4: very heavy. It's very heavy and a weigh down. And
Speaker 4: so when I was able to forgive myself first of all,
Speaker 4: and then forgive others who harmed me, and I pray
Speaker 4: that they forgive and ask for forgiveness that they forget
Speaker 4: you know me as well, then that paved the way
Speaker 4: for me to be able to do all sorts of
Speaker 4: wonderful things.
Speaker 2: Leanne, great question. I want to get one more in.
Speaker 2: Thanks Lee, And that's an excellent question. And I should
Speaker 2: have I should have thought of that one myself.
Speaker 9: Thank you, all right, thank you, good night.
Speaker 2: Let me go back to Houston. Keith is in Houston, Keith,
Speaker 2: you were on with Scott Allen Curley go right ahead
Speaker 2: on WBZ and Boston Keith, go right ahead.
Speaker 8: Hey Dan, you're from one of my favorite cities on
Speaker 8: Protectas I grew up with Scott, I just wanted to
Speaker 8: pass along something real quick. We're longtime friends, Yes, we're are.
Speaker 8: His story, his story is real. And I remember going
Speaker 8: to his house and hanging out with his parents, Lester
Speaker 8: and Annie Curly. And what was interesting was, now that
Speaker 8: I think back on it, how accommodating and loving they
Speaker 8: were to the friends and me, and they welcomed us,
Speaker 8: wanted us to hang out. She would ask me if
Speaker 8: she could cook me anything. And it was a long
Speaker 8: long time before I realizing. Me and Scott talked and
Speaker 8: he confided in me different things that it had happened
Speaker 8: in his life that I didn't even know back back
Speaker 8: at that time. So my point is is that you
Speaker 8: never know what people are going through. It's easy to
Speaker 8: make a judgment about a family or people and friends
Speaker 8: or whoever it may be, but you really don't know
Speaker 8: a lot of times. And Scott's story, you know, it
Speaker 8: took control of me and him we're in our fifties
Speaker 8: to finally reveal and tell me about a lot of this.
Speaker 8: So it's just an interesting part of life and it's
Speaker 8: taught me life lessons up until this day. Yes, Scott's
Speaker 8: story is part of that. And even even though I
Speaker 8: knew his family well I thought I did. We hung
Speaker 8: out together and did a lot of things together and
Speaker 8: had a lot of life experiences together. But you never
Speaker 8: know really what people are going through.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Keith, Keith, I'm flat out of time, so I
Speaker 2: got to let you go. But I hope you'll continue
Speaker 2: to listen to my show. We do a variety of
Speaker 2: issues up here, and I think you have a better
Speaker 2: sense of what this show is all about having listened tonight.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening, all right, Keith got Thank you
Speaker 2: Keith Scott, Alan Curley a great hour. Absolution The Dark
Speaker 2: Path to Light. The book is available and Amazon, I
Speaker 2: assume everywhere.
Speaker 4: Right Amazon, you can buy it in barns and now
Speaker 4: will go to any anywhere books are sold, either online
Speaker 4: or in stores. You can find it. If it's not
Speaker 4: in the bookstore, so just go to the front count
Speaker 4: and make an order for you to have it for
Speaker 4: you the next day.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, Scott Alan Curley, I hope to meet you
Speaker 2: someday if I get down your way, you get up
Speaker 2: to way. You are an inspiration and I feel I
Speaker 2: know you have to have spent an hour with you,
Speaker 2: and you're an extraordinary person. Thank you so much for being.
Speaker 4: I really appreciate you. Dan, you have a wonderful rest
Speaker 4: of your evening. And to your listeners, I thank them
Speaker 4: all and God bless all of you. Guys.
Speaker 2: Right back at you, well we come back. We got
Speaker 2: one more hour to go. Right after the eleven o'clock
Speaker 2: news here on night Side on a Wednesday night,