A Mafia's consciousness

I was listening BBC Outlook programme on the way to fetch my children today. It was interview with the author of book “A tough guy- the insider story of Mafia”.

The guy, I supposed he was “tough guy” himself, was recalling his life as a member of criminal robbery group, how he was finally caught and stayed behind the bar for 12 years, and miraculously his life was changed by books.

One part, he was asked to copy with the cops to give the names of his group members. His reply was very interesting:

“No one had forced me into the crime, it was my own choice, and therefore, I thought it is justified to bear some degree of punishment. I don’t think it is right to give out others in order to get light sentence for myself. …Others may disagree with me, but this is part of me, my principle.”

After being put in jail, he finally had to think about his life, what he had done, it was waking experience. I daresay it was time of self recollecting and soul searching. At that time, he remembered one of his friends had Bible verse written all over the body, so one day he called this friend, “Please give me some books.”

The friends sent him some books. At first, he stumbled over the words, he then made a vocabulary list, to wrote down all the words he didn’t know and their meaning.

After that, the reading journey started, he had been reading 17-18 hours per day for last seven years in jail.

Today, he says in BBC “I am different person now, I don’t crave for power and money. I have more peace and meaning of life.”

“A tough guy” I don’t know what the story he was telling in this book. But surely a Mafia’s consciousness and books have transformed him.