Kokyprik.com presents
AGAINST THE GRAIN
Fourty Blogs from Big Dave
Over the years weve received many offers and requests through our website kokyprik.com for Big Dave to do a bio style novel but the book is practically all ready in existence.
While blogging about his shady and sometimes controversial history Dave’s short stories have received well in excess of half a million reads mostly via our website.
These short to medium length stories are that book.
The kokyprik.com team have run through over 150 blogs published by Big Dave over the last 5 years (May 2006 to May 2011) and selected 40 of the best.
Each blog has been re-edited and tweaked.
Some of the blogs needed tidying up or had new detail added.
Finally we have compiled them in to one handy pdf including a few pictures.
Kokyprik is proud to present – Against The Grain.
Over 140 pages that should give you a clear idea of who Big Dave is and where he came from.
CONTENTS
Ripped Off By The Australian Federal Police.
Attempted suicide with only 12 months on his sentence.
A broom makes a good stabbing tool.
The Canberra bushfires a Symonston remand centre perspective.
A crazy night the Eminem concert 2001.
Superstition.
Gaol a gamblers paradise.
Cannabis hunting a Canberra childrens sport.
Organised beatings, a close call.
Oh sweet revenge.
I swear Chief we weren’t playing cards.
A buck naked biff.
The first jail brawl I ever saw.
Childhood trips to the track.
The case and conviction that got me a five year jail sentence.
Only the good die young.
What $50.
A shifty little thief named Ben.
Another get away, never picked her as a copper.
The hazards of smuggling narcotics in to prison.
A prison escape gone wrong.
How my ex screwed me out of my cash and belongings.
Stabbed in the back by my best mate.
Bashed and brutalised.
Using cars as weapons and hiding from pigs in underwear.
Arrived in Berra with an ounce of skunk, mobile phone and beaten up telstar(story of my weed bizo)
Tennis racket to the head.
The dangers of being a testosterone charged teen.
My worst day in Goulburn jail.
Some childish revenge on an ex.
Money and young luck.
Friends, firearms and the right thing to do.
Real mates and learning to rap in prison.
Biffo in the jail kitchen and a good laugh had by all.
Close calls in the hooch business.
The perils of trusting a kings cross hooker.
Jail cosmetic surgery, a razor blade to the penis.
Murders, attempted murders, ol mate robbed n beaten twice...18 months in quite Canberra.
The return of Death Row Records.
Back in the dirty south.
Against The Grain photo’s.
Big Dave biography mid 2011.
BLOG ONE
Ripped Off By The Australian Federal Police.
First published – Nov 14 2006.
Since it seems I am now able to earn a quid moving music instead of weed I can finally drop a few bombshells that I have been keeping to myself for a while.
Now my mates in Canberra already know what Im talking about but I’ve all ways wanted to drop these bombs publically and now that Im no longer mixed up in all the bizo I can finally spill the beans and I figure a blog is a good way to do it.
On most occasions I can prove every crime tale I rap about or talk about.
I will all ways keep it true but I cant prove this one (other than eye witness accounts from friends) and you will see why.
Now at the time this all went down I was living in Ngunnawal which is a suburb right on the edge of Canberra.
I had moved there a few months earlier as I had been raided by the police and charged with possession and supply of cannabis amongst other things and so I was awaiting my day in court.
I had been on a suspended gaol sentence and had a Supreme Court trial for other matters coming up so I felt it best to lay low because things were mounting up into one big pile of shite.
So I made my retreat and got myself a runner to keep the coin rolling in.
Each morning I would meet the runner at scrivener dam, load him up with the product and collect my cash from the day before.
I would give him enough to supply most of my clients but I would still deal with the larger customers personally and that's really how this came about.
The runner who we will call Ando, rang me and told me a couple of regulars were coming south of the border in the next couple hours to grab a couple of pounds.
I was at Belconnen mall at the time and headed home for a few pipes and some lunch while I waited for them to ring when they hit Canberra.
A few hours passed by and the lads finally rang so I grabbed my bag and headed out the door to head over and meet them at a spot across the street from a service station located at the edge of Canberra. (Across the street from where they hold the summernats)
I had no drivers licence at that stage so I used to get my girl of the time Bridget to drive me about and as usual she drove me to meet them and brought a friend of hers that was down from QLD and staying with us along for the ride.
As soon as we hit the road Bridget and I started our usual argument about breaking the speed limit while I had product in the car, she could never get it in her head how stupid that was, despite my protests she sped on anyway and in hindsight I should have stopped her.
As we got closer to the designated meet spot she began to play an overtaking game with a car that didn’t want to let her to pass.
A silly game of ‘let me overtake you bastard’ ensued until we turned onto the street across from the service station mentioned earlier and at that stage the other car involved in the game made its true identity known.
They pulled out a siren and forced Bridget to pull over no more than one hundred metres from the clients I had waiting.
I was in the passenger seat and simply had the bag of ganja sitting on the floor between my legs and if you are a skunk fan you know that car smelt like an the back room of an Amsterdam café during peak holiday season.
With all the shite I already had hanging over my head I was sure I was royally F**KED!
So the piggers get out of there car and mosy over to our car, recognising my face from a previous encounter one officer comes to my side and opens my door spotting the bag Im lamely trying to cover with my legs.
He asked me what was in the bag and I told him it was a bag of rubbish so he asked me to open it which of course I refused to do.
What could I do really?
So he gets me out of the car and opens up the bag himself.
Then he begins asking the usual questions who owns this where did it come from etc.
Figuring Im busted I decide now is a good time to start refusing to answer any questions but to my surprise he shuts my passenger door and casually tells me and Bridget’s friend to "piss off".
Unsure of what was going on but keen to not be associated with pounds of weed I take his advice and leave heading over to the service station just in time to see my clients drive past and take a right back out toward NSW.
Next the pigger goes past in my car while his partner and Bridget followed in there car heading back in toward Canberra.
Still a bit dazed I figure I should head home so race over to the servo and call a taxi.
A few minutes later Bridgets friend and I jump in a cab and off we go.
On the way there Bridgets friend started screaming about how she didnt need this crap on her holiday so I dropped her off on the side of the road, continued to Ngunnawal and got myself dropped off near home.
As I get to my place I see the cop car and my car in the driveway but there was no other cop cars in the area which I found really strange.
In all the raids I had ever been in there was alll ways a whole bunch of cops involved, usually a lot more then necessary.
So I snuck up the back of my place and looked through the back window just in time to see the piggers have a brief chat with my ex and leave.
I then ran inside to see what had happened, as I came in the door Bridget told me straight away they had takin a few ounces of pot some party drugs and $2200 on top of the two pound.
I asked if she had been charged or if she had to go to the station and she replied NO.
I thought for a second, checked my hidden cupboard at the front of the kitchen bench and my main stash was still there which was a relief and then I asked if they had left a seizure report or any documentation at all.
Again she said NO.
I was shocked, on one hand I was so happy that I had not been charged or even questioned about all this but on the other had I was a bit shitty that these guys had blatantly ripped me off.
I considered my options and figured that I had got lucky despite the loss.
Had I not been so dodgy I would have loved to get these guys busted but doing what I was doing meant I couldn’t do much about the situation at all.
So I told my crew but other than that I have pretty much kept it to myself until now and it feels good to put it out there for all to see at long last. (This happened in early 2002).
You can see why I can’t prove it because what’s a couple of eyewitness account against the word of "respected" police officers.
So next time you trust one of "The force" I ask you to judge each of them on an individual basis cause under that sheep’s clothing could be a wolf.
Maybe the same wolf that bit me.
BLOG TWO
Attempted suicide with only 12 months on his sentence.
First published – Dec 6 2006.
Sup people?
Thought I was bout due for another blog so since ya'll seem to like to hear bout my stay in prison here’s another thing I saw.
This situation starts off with me and my cell mate Thommo sittin in our cell waiting for the screws to open the cell doors to let the boys out for the day.
It was gettin well past the usual let out time so we new something was up, when we finally heard the clanking of keys and our door opened.
I wandered out of my cell to see a group of screws ushering some of the boys away from a cell a few doors down from me, being a curious mo fo I had to go have a look and managed to get me head round the screws for a look at what was up.
God damn, what I saw looked like a horror movie, the sink was half full of blood, the walls and roof had splatters of blood all over them and the floor had pools of blood next to the bed and next to a chair in the corner of the room.
The lad that lived in this cell was sitting on his bed looking extremely pale and was holding his arm with a green jail shirt wrapped around it, he removed it for a few seconds and I could see he had used a razor or something to cut a massive gash on the under side of his forearm and another smaller cut on the underside of his wrist.
Shortly after an ambulance arrived and took him away, I forget his name but I still remember he had done around 3 years of a 4 year sentence and I couldn’t fathom why he had done it but I guess every man has a breaking point.
A few months later the lad returned to X-wing and the screws put him in another single cell which I found weird.
I thought that if he had a cell mate maybe he could keep an eye on him.
I left Goulburn jail before this lad finished up his sentence but he only had a few months to go so Im sure he finished his sentence alive and in one piece.
Pretty gorey stuff to wake up too but its not like we were staying at the hyatt..lol
Woke up to my girl Stacey and a bowl of honey smacks this morning....Much better!!
BLOG THREE
A broom makes a good stabbing tool.
First published – Dec 8 2006.
Sup people,
Gonna be off line for a few days working on music commitments so I thought I would write a blog before I jet.
This ones pretty hectkic and something I will surely never forget.
It started off at the kitchen at Goulburn x-wing all the lads had finished work for the day and we were waiting to get back to the wing.
I had quite a few mates of Asian background inside and let me tell you the particular guys I’m going to tell you about could be ruthless.
Just before the screws took us back to the wing from the kitchen one of my mates we will call S because Im not dropping any names.
S heard that a couple of lads had called him and his fellow country men dogs!
Inside calling someone a dog is pretty much one of the worst things you can brand someone and if you do call someone a dog you better be ready to go all the way with it.
Funny thing is that when I got released a lot of young Aussie guys that don’t know what’s up have started to use the word dog as the Americans do to refer to a mate, very strange, lets hope they don’t find themselves locked up cause that wont last long at all. (Im not dissing these guys each to there own its just heaps weird for me to hear that word spoken so freely after it had so much weight for a long time).
So anyway back to the story.
We get to the wing and by this stage S has really started to fire up and is whipping some other mates of ours into a frenzy!
Somehow S has got his hands on a sharpened house key and is ready to plunge it into this shit talkers head so he gets the lads together including myself and we march up to the top landing to sort this mess out.
At this point I had only been in the system for about 6 months but I had been in long enough to know that there is very little talk in gaol that doesn’t result in action so I knew this would be no different.
Being new to Goulburn I had the easy job of blocking the cell door so that the guys we were headed to see couldn’t get out of their cell once shit popped off.
Once we arrived at the cell of the shit talker S and two others marched in, the shit talker was having a game of cards with a mate and they both stood up for some action.
S simply said why did you call us dogs as he tried to slot the key into this guys head right hook style, it skimmed of the side and the five of them began hurling punches at each other until the shit talker managed to pick up a table and throw it at S.
The table bounced of his arms as he blocked it and hit one of our mates in the side of the head cutting it open.
As the table was connecting with a head the shit talker managed to reach out and hit the emergency button which they have in prison cells.
It alerts the screws immediately, inside its known sometimes as the "weak c**t" button.
After that button was pushed S races out of the cell and down to the end of the landing while telling me to keep the guys in the cell which I did by holding both sides of the doorway with each arm blocking the entrance.
As S gets to the end of the landing so do our other two mates but they go left toward the stairs one with his head bleeding.
S goes right straight into the showers.
I think to myself well Im gonna block this door for a few more seconds and then if the lads don’t come back im following there lead and getting the hell outta here.
Just after that S comes flying back around the corner with a snapped in half broom handle in his hand.
This bad boy had a pretty sharp point to it.
As he gets closer I move my arm out of the way to let him back into the cell and you can see the look on the shit talkers face as S comes back in with the broom.
He knew what was up!
S ran straight up as close in to the shit talker as he could get and with two hands rammed that broom handle into his liver region.
I couldn’t see how far it went in but it sure got some blood comin out of this guy.
He dropped to the ground clutching his wound.
A split second after it went down the screws arrived and S was caught with the weapon in hand, not that that really seemed to matter with just days to go on his sentence S was confined to his cell and then released the following week without charge.
It is very rarely that any violence between inmates goes any further than the gaol walls.
You can pretty much get away with beating and maiming each other as long as no screws are injured in which case police are involved straight away.
As for the shit talker he was moved from Goulburn the following day, I can’t remember where to.
As for me well I went and had dinner and a few games of cards and life returned to normal, well as normal as it gets inside.
Till next time.
Peace.
BLOG FOUR
The Canberra bushfires a Symonston remand centre perspective.
First published – Feb 2 2007.
Back again people,
I recently wrote a blog about a mate setting his cell on fire at the remand centre in Symonston ACT as a bit of a prank on the staff at the facility.
I had someone comment on this blog and say that by putting on this prank we somehow wasted tax payers dollars which could have been better served being spent on the Canberra bushfires.
Now considering no extra staff were required during that prank there was no extra cost.
I think a more cost effective solution would be to stop locking guys in prison that offer no threat to society anyway!(Not to mention that we were on remand and were not yet found guilty, many turn out to be innocent so should not be treated as criminals...INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!!)
And just to give you an idea of why we would play such a prank I will let everyone know about the handling of the Canberra bushfires by ACT corrective services since it has been brought up!
It was appalling!
I recall it was just before lunch when the first signs of how close the fires were to the prison became clear.
The sky was a deep dark orange and filled with smoke and bits of burnt leaves were raining into our small yard at the remand centre from the sky above.
Shortly after this all the tv stations stopped running tv shows and began running emergency flashes with a list of the most in danger suburbs.
The local radio stations dropped the playlists and followed suit.
We sat about the yard for a few hours while everyone in the prison called there loved ones to confirm there safety, many including my mate Pete could not get in touch with their loved ones.
It turned out Pete’s elderly mother had been evacuated to a shelter as her whole suburb of Duffy was under attack from the fires, he would not find this out until the following day.
Talk about a long night!
Many of the inmates suspected there loved ones were also at shelters around Canberra but the screws in most cases refused to ring the hotline to confirm this.
As the afternoon went on and the fires came closer more and more burnt cinders came pouring into our little concrete yard and the air became hotter and more filled with smoke.
As things started to become a bit surreal and spooky the screws entered the yard and informed us that we had to return to our cells for a short period of time until a change of shift had occurred, this sounded like a lie and turned out to be one.
Once back inside the cells it became apparent just how hot it was and so I lay near the crack under the cell door to catch the draft of incoming air flowing in and I wet my head every ten minutes.
My cell mate Pete flicked through tv stations and the radio trying to find out if his mothers house had been burned down.
Poor bastard was in a panic.
As the evening came along there was an eerie orange tinged darkness falling over the yard and the air became much thicker with smoke making breathing a bit difficult.
By 6pm we were all sweating profusely and breathing as best we could, the screws came past every half hour and we asked to be allowed into the yard but they continued to refuse.
Gaol cells have very little airflow and at the Symonston remand centre the only real fresh air enters the cells by way of an electric exhaust fan.
The water and flushing of the toilet are also run on electricity at that remand centre.
By 7pm all power to the cells had failed due to the close proximity of the fires so there we sat in the dark with no water, no toilet and our cells slowly filling with smoke.
We began to call out to the screws but they ignored us.
We begged to just be able to lay in the yard and have some water but still no response.
As breathing became more difficult we all began calling out to be moved to the other remand centre in Belconnen which was further from the fires.
Still no response.
By 10pm we were beginning to become extremely concerned for our safety especially since the screws offered no help at all.
We began banging plates and cups against the walls and started kicking our doors demanding to be released from these cells and taken somewhere safe.
This went on for at least an hour but the screws still refused to concern themselves with our welfare!
Suddenly somehow two lads that had been kicking there door relentlessly for some time managed to kick it open and they got out into the yard running to the office window banging on it and demanding safety for us all.
The screws left the office and we assumed that finally they would get us out of here.
Unfortunately we thought wrong as they returned with a riot squad in there full gear with shields and batons at the ready grabbing the two guys that got out and taking them away with a few well placed hits.
As time dragged on it became increasingly hard to breath and we got louder and louder until finally around 1 am the screws came into the yard and began putting us all in cuffs, a sure sign we were finally about to be moved.
We were put into waiting vehicles and moved to the remand centre at Belconnen, it felt so good to be able to breath properly again and the drink of water I had when we got to Belco was one of the best I’ve tasted.
We remained at Belco for a couple of weeks before returning to Symonston.
We were treated as animals actually I think I would treat my pets better during a time of danger!
BLOG FIVE
A crazy night – The Eminem concert 2001.
First published – Feb 3 2007.
Back again people, I was thinking about a madd night I had a few years back, well six years ago to be exact.
If I remember it right Eminem was having trouble getting a visa to come to Australia because of his controversial lyrics but he got one in the end.
Me and some mates; Ken, Andy and a stupid skank I was seeing at the time had planned to go to the gig but left things to the last minute and only just managed to get our hands on some tickets.
They were up on a tier but we were still stoked.
The concert was on a Saturday so I picked up Ken first thing in the morning and he helped me out with my ganja run for the day.
We knocked it over and switched the business mobile off in the arvo and then got ready to go.
Of course by the time the four of us were ready to go we were getting well short on time.
We nearly even forgot to book a hotel.
So we left Canberra in a hurry and about half way to Sydney I started to really get sic of driving, we were pumping the D12 album Devils Night to hype ourselves up and that was the only thing keeping me from falling asleep at the wheel. Ha ha.
So I pulled over and the skank and I got in the back of the car
I went to sleep across the back of the seat to the sound of Purple Pills and rain pouring onto the roof of the car.
Next thing I wake up flying off the back seat and crashing into the front seats wondering what the hell is going on!
I look up and I see that Andy has hit the ass end of the car in front of him and in turn knocked it into the brand new car in front of it!
He never was much of a driver but this was pretty shocking stuff, he turns to me and says sheepishly what should I do?
I could see an exit ramp on our left so I figure if we are going to get to this show we better get the hell out of here quick and I told Andy to take the ramp.
We scooted through a few unfamiliar suburbs until we were away from the scene and lost in the Sydney suburbs.
Andy then pulled over so we could see what damage he had done to my new Nissan Maxima!
It turned out the front end was smashed in.
The grill was crushed and the hood pushed back a bit.
There was damage to the radiator and the left headlight was broken and hanging off.
I was pretty annoyed but what can you do if it’s a mate plus I was mainly thinking about the concert so I pushed the headlight in until it wedged still and took over driving.
Some how we managed to get to the hotel through all of these suburbs we didn’t know but we were almost out of time before the start of the concert.
So we checked in and raced up stairs to drop off our bags and stuff.
As soon as we had done that we headed straight for the superdome.
Upon arrival we realised the show was about to start and we weren’t even drunk yet!
This was a hip hop show after all!
So we ran to the bar and ordered 3 beers each and washed down a couple of E's as we skulled them.
As we entered the arena the crowd was going ballistic as Em was coming up out of the floor of the stage in a jason mask holding a chainsaw!
As he got into it the whole crowd started rhyming with him.
Ken and I were out of our seats with hands up in the air, SIC ATMOSPHERE!
My mates Pete and Jonny were part of the security team and got to meet D12 and Em, lucky bastards!
Em did his songs and was joined by D12 for purple pills and other joints from Devils Night they absolutely killed it!
After the show, still buzzing, we caught up with Pete and John and kicked on for a while before heading back to the hotel.
We were back in Canberra the next morning hangover a dinged up car (she made it back fine) but it was all worth it.
Poor Andy had to work for me for a month to pay for the $5000 car damage he caused but I think even he would say it was worth it.
The things you do to hear some dope live rap hey.
Good times.
BLOG SIX
Superstition.
First published – Feb 7 2007.
Back again,
I was talking to someone about superstitions and that I don’t really have any but then I remembered one from when I was a kid that was pretty amusing so I figured I put it down in a blog.
I went to a high school in Canberra called "Melrose high" I guess it was your average size school, 700 or so students I think.
It was a co-ed school and was built right next door to an all guys catholic school called Marist brothers so as you can guess there was a fair bit of competition for the young ladies.
The problem for us was that our school only went to yr 10 while there school went all the way to yr 12 plus our school was smaller so we had a bit of an age, size and numbers disadvantage.
The action began with a young me, I was 15 and hooking up with a girl in my year named Anne who happened to be going out with a yr 12 from Marist named Kevin.
I knew who the guy was because I was a basketballer and this guy was the captain of the Marist side.
We had played against them and been beaten pretty badly in the past since they were like 18 year olds and we were 15 year olds.(winge winge..lol)
Now it wasn’t really that I hooked up with Anne that caused the drama it was more that I had written her a letter containing certain details and Kevin had found it in Anne’s pocket after school.
So she rings me that night and warns me that Kevin has the letter.
When she rang I was eating a jar of lolllies but I put the lid on a put them away in my cupboard and that was the start of my superstition.
The next morning I get to school and a couple of dudes are with my mates waiting for me out front of the school.
I could tell they didn’t go to our school straight away since they had street clothes on...and had five o’clock shadows.
I walked over and they told me to meet Kevin just across the freeway from school straight after the bell rings and not to bring anyone else or I was a dead man.
Then they walked over to another mate of mine Todd, it turned out that he had been doing the same thing with Kevin’s best mates girl too.
Jeez we were shifty bunch. Ha ha.
I had known about it but I didn’t know he had been busted too until now.
I thought sweet at least theres two of us now..lol
It was a pretty long day at school and when lunch time came around I found out that Todd had gone home sic, the cheeky bastard had bailed and hadn’t even told me.
I can remember making the most of it all day.
What else could I do?
Dudes kept coming up to let me know they thought it was sic someone was taking on the Marist boys and I would be like yeah Im gonna kill this faggot but I was really thinking how am I gonna beat this dude he is like a grown man!
Motherfucker is going to beat me to a pulp.
So the day went on and as last period came around I could see Kevin and about twenty of his mates through the window walking across our oval toward the place he’d demanded I meet up.
To make things worse one of the dudes he had with him was known to have a desert eagle hand gun.
I had no idea what a desert eagle even looked liked but I knew I didn’t wanna see it in my face that’s for sure. lol
Even though Kevin’s mates had said not to tell anyone I pretty much told the whole school.
When 3.15 hit I met up with my crew and we started the walk across the oval to meet my fate.
Along with the crew there was a turn out of about 200-250 Melrose high kids coming along with me or at least coming along to watch.
Still all the black and white (our uniform colours) looked good marching toward the bridge across the freeway.
My mate Jade had got his older brother and a mate Nick to come along since they were 18 and we needed some guys there age.
We swung through the Mawson shopping complex first and then came back down to the bridge which was just short of the meeting spot.
As Kevin and co came into view Jades brother and mate backed out on me when they saw the dudes Kevin had with him, my mates were still by my side but I wasn’t sure how long that would last.
Kevin called out “ I said come alone and you bring the whole school” (I was happy he was at least a bit worried) I called out get fucked and thought to myself I will just fight as well as I can and as long as I can until he over powers me and that way I might at least save face in front of all these people.
At this point a young guy from my school came up and handed me a knife and told me a few of there boys had them I put it in my pocket and kept marching at Kev and Co.
Just as me and the crowd got about ten metres away from each Kevin and co I put up my guard and started to go at him.
As I did his whole group including him turned and ran.
Don’t get it twisted I knew they weren’t running from me so I look behind and there’s cops everywhere chasing kids all over the place one flew past me and grabs Kevin and one reaches for me I managed to step back and get out of his reach.
I jumped over a few fences and ran through a few backyards until I got to my place.
Over the next few weeks I found out Kevin had said around town he didn’t want to take it further that was it I even ran into him at a couple of parties and survived.
Then the following day after the drama I was about to eat that jar of lollies I was munching when Anne rang and I thought nah I cant eat these they were my lucky charm through the whole Anne/Kevin drama and since I was running a few shifty ventures and still seeing Anne behind the big guys back I played it safe and I put them back where they came from just in case.
About six months later I was cleaning out my cupboards and Im like what’s this disgusting melted crap!
Then I realised it was my lucky charm had a laugh and threw it out.
The good luck stayed...most of the time.
BLOG SEVEN
Jail a gamblers paradise.
First published – Feb 13 2007.
Back again folks,
I don’t mind a punt either on the cricket, footy, Melbourne cup, the greyhounds or a bit of casino action it’s all good.
But ill tell ya gaol is a true gamblers paradise!
Now gambling is banned in NSW gaols as it seems to start a bit of trouble but that doesn’t stop the lads indulging in a bit of a wager.
I would have to say cards rules when it comes to gaol gambling mainly the games 41, Manilla or Chinese poker.
Sports, chess and table tennis got there fair share of punters too.
At Goulburn we ran a monthly 41 tournament usually getting around twenty teams of two entering at a cost of two packets of white ox tabacco (the usual currency) per team.
I never won a 41 comp but me and a mate did manage to make it to the final once.
I was more of a Chinese poker fiend or Manilla when it was on, we had more difficulty running Manilla comps as you would have like 20 guys around a table making plenty of noise and we also had to have a book to keep track of everyone’s finances and betting chips ( special cardboard only one guy had access too).
We would start a weekly Manilla game on Tuesdays as that was the day you could choose what things to purchase from the gaol canteen so you would either buy things for people if you lost or request stuff from people if you won.
The game co-ordinator would assign who collects what from who.
It was an exciting game while it would last; your fortunes can go up and down dramatically! I once lost over $600 in less than a week only to go gung ho and win it all back plus $300 in the last hour or so of the playing week!
The gaol wage is between $30-$60 a week so the limit in all games is $60 per player per week unless you have access to funds outside of the prison and you better have that cash outside if you say you do cause "there’s no where to run to baby and no where to hide".
I saw a few guys get the gambling bug and loose there $60 tell the table that they had madd cash on the outside etc only to lose a few hundred and not pay.
I always used to think to myself why would you take such a crazy risk?
Shit never ended well.
I’ve done some less than sane things in my life but telling murderers that I have money to bet and taking that chance knowing I don’t have the cash is not a move I would ever make!
They usually ended up in the hospital at Long Bay gaol.
The best Manilla player I ever saw, actually the best card player I have ever seen was an Vietnamese guy named "Dang" I never once saw him lose at Manilla every week he would be the highest winner the lowest I saw him win in a week was $800 and that is a shitload in gaol!
On top of the cards there was often a chess comp that payed reasonably well but was very hard to win.
In the footy season there were many tipping contests (your sentence had to be at least as long as the season), pick the winners, pick the score and head to head.
There was always a few guys running horse tipping but that never interested me.
I guess for once the screws were right it did create the odd bit of violence but it helps pass the time.
And hey if you and ya mates are any good it can help fund fun activities like smoking weed or buying new cds'!
BLOG EIGHT
Cannabis hunting; A Canberra childrens sport.
First published – Feb 14 2007.
As anyone that reads this from Australia will know; weed is decriminalised in Canberra which is my hometown.
Due to this fact there’s a lot of pot smokers and almost as many backyard pot growers in Canberra.
I know its a bit slack but for us guys growing up there as kids a great way to spend the school holidays was to go searching for dope plants.
Each year we would be sitting around after a game of basketball, cricket or footy and one of us would suddenly go "oh shit lads its harvest time" and we would all realise it was that time of year.
Having grown up around the green herb I was the nose of the operation and we would hit the streets and allies with our noses in the air.
The start of the season was easiest as we would pull out our map of the last year and re-visit some places that would be trying to grow for a second unsuccessful year.
Like I said it was pretty slack but hey you get up to mischief as a youngster.
Usually after a couple of weeks we would have enough smoko to have us in the money for a while on top of the odd smoke.
I have a million funny stories from these missions’ here’s a funny one.
It was my first year living out of home and although I managed to make a few dollars I wasn’t that good at budgeting (I was only 15 or 16) so the money I did get went as quick as I made it partying and supporting my broke mates.
So when this harvest season came around me and another mate "Andrew" who at the time was also supporting himself at age 15 decided we were fairly keen to get into some action.
After a few days of not locating anything we decided to go on a night mission to check out a small time local dealer’s back yard.
We arrived at roughly midnight and quietly we made our way into the backyard taking care not to set the sensor lights off.
It wasn’t that big of a yard but in the dark it took us a while to search and turned up nothing.
As we walked home I remembered a girl I knew telling me some guys behind her house grew pot and so as not to waste an evening we checked it out.
After sneaking into my friend’s backyard we climbed her back fence and searched the yard of the house behind her.
At this stage it was about 1am.
I found one plant but it was only small and the head on it was barely worth taking so after a thorough yard search we thought that was it for the night until I noticed some clear perspex on the roof of a shed.
On closer inspection I discovered two things
1) Looking through a small hole I could see the shed was full of ripe plants ready for harvest.
2) The shed was bolted and welded like a fortress!
After a quick think I worked out a plan we climbed into the neighbour’s yard which had its fence backing onto the shed and we began to dig.
Unfortunately we weren’t prepared for digging and the only tool we had was our hands.
After digging for a long while we discovered the shed had chicken wire buried around the perimeter which was attached to the walls inside the shed.
With our pair of scissors and small knife we had brought along we slowly and very quietly cut a hole in the wire and continued digging until past sunrise.
As it came on seven thirty we realised it was now or never for our rip as both the people in the house who owned the shed and the people in the house belonging to the yard we were in were all up and awake.
The hole still wasn’t that big but I would squeeze in through it and Andrew would push me through by my legs, I would grab two plants, one in each hand and he would pull me back out.
About 2/3rd's of the way through removing the plants I was just grabbing another pair when I heard a voice in the yard the shed was located in and it sounded as though it was right next to me!
I thought oh its cool he won’t notice me in here until I heard him call out "honey, that little plant is gone quick get me the shed keys".
I grabbed two plants and kicked my legs so Andrew would drag me out, as I popped out the other end I could hear the shed door being opened.
Andrew grabbed the bag which was full to the point of bursting and I had the two plants bout 4 foot tall each and we bolted down the street.
It took us over two hours to make what would normally be a 20 min walk to my flat as there was cars screeching around every where looking for us so we constantly had to dive into bushes or run through allies, a couple of times the cars even trailed us for a while until we managed an escape.
Once we got home we harvested our spoils and hung them out to dry.
Im pretty sure we skipped school got stoned and watched Menace to society and crashed out.
A week later we were buying sneakers and cd's, partying and showing our people a good time.
Two weeks after that we were back on the hunt.
Good times.
BLOG NINE
Organised beatings, a close call.
First published – Feb 28 2007.
Hey people,
Its been a while since I’ve been online so I thought I better swing through and write a blog.
Im doing a small business management course and on top of my music and everything else its getting hard to get to the pc.
Anyway this blog is called organised beatings so lets get started.
During my stay in the NSW prison system I got to see how creative people can be when dishing out some violence especially when it involves revenge.
One favourite the boys have when dealing with someone that is out of line but is one of their own crew is to place a chair in a cell and have the all the lads stand around it in a circle.
It sounds like musical chairs but it’s a bit more hectic than that.
The culprit sits in the chair and has to take the beating dished out by the lads surrounding him, if he runs he must be a dog, if he stays he still has some heart, he takes his beating and it’s forgotten.
I heard a couple of these games of musical chairs and witnessed one myself, one day I even almost took a seat myself thanks to some mis communication.
I got back from work at the gaol kitchen to hear from the main lads in our crew that some things had been said about me that had got me in trouble.
We headed to a cell and went inside; the boys were all standing around with a seat ready for me in the middle.
Most of the lads knew me fairly well and couldn’t believe I had opened my mouth ( which I hadn’t).
I took a seat and began to get the old sweaty palms you get when things make you a bit nervous.
Part of my brain was explaining I hadn’t opened my mouth while other parts were working out the best way to take this beating.
Just when I thought the party was about to begin the main man in our group told me he just couldn’t believe I would have opened my mouth and said he had to grab the guy that had made these accusations about me and allow me to speak to him face to face first.
I felt a lot calmer then knowing I was getting the chance to prove I am a man of my word.
The main man returned alone and pulled me out of the seat to apologise.
It turned out the guy that had said I opened my mouth had actually been the one that talked and was trying to use me as a scape goat.
When it looked like the guys had found him out he had just ran to the screws and had himself put into protection.
Anyway its 6.30 am and I have to start getting sorted for class.
kokyprik.com should be up this week with all the real hip hop and that Aussie true crime blog shit from me and other dudes locked up round the state.
Hope shit is all good people.
Back soon.
BLOG TEN
Oh sweet revenge.
First published – Mar 28 2007.
Back again,
Lets talk some revenge, this ones from when I was a young fella.
I would have been maybe 18 or so, it was back in 98 before we partied like it really was 99 (damn that was a lame joke lol but so lame its funny so I’ll leave it in).
I was out on the town with my mates drinking and experimenting with ecstasy for the first time.
My memory of the evening is pretty hazy in parts so I don’t know why I left the club on my own but I wandered outside and walked along the front of Civic along the club strip for some reason.
Next thing I recall is drinking in the carpark across the street from Mooseheads night club in Canberra with a couple of young ladies, doing my thing and generally enjoying the evening.
After a while we walked back across from the carpark to the front of Mooseheads and the ladies and I were just standing there chatting and having a laugh when a group of lads came around the corner acting all rowdy and hard.
One of the lads calls out to the chicks I with something along the lines of "what the fuck are you doing with that dickhead" and how they should go with them.
Im not sure but I expect the e and beer may have made my next decision but I moseyed on over and slugged the culprit in the jaw.
I had just seen my fist connect with his face when I felt 2 or 3 fists hit mine and guys start grabbing at me left right and centre.
The next couple minutes is even more hazy I just remember spinning around and getting belted countless times and picked up and thrown into a big shop front window which luckily didn’t break.
As I hit the window and took a few hits my mates came round the corner and the dickheads stopped beating the F**k out of me.
I had a pretty swollen head, a broken nose and blood all over me.
We gathered together and looked around but couldn’t find the guys that night and we cruised back to my apartment for some pipes.
It wasn’t over yet though, not that easily!!
I mentioned the new millennium earlier and weeks or months after that went down I met up at a club in Civic with a heap of the lads and our girls for a big night out.
Drunk, coked up and celebrating I didn’t really notice who was around in the club other than my people but mid way through the evening my sister Hayley nudged me and pointed out 2 guys seated at a table right in the middle of the club.
Talk about amazing luck, it was the guy that had called out that smart ass comment a year and a half earlier and one of the dudes that helped flog me!!
I had been waiting a while so I leaned over to my good mate Tony P (R.I.P) and let him know what was up and then I headed for my targets.
I moved to the table pretty quick and didn’t even let the cheeky bastard stand up.
I just lay hit after hit into his mug.
As I pummelled him into the corner of the table against the bench his mate stood up to help out and as I looked up my mate Tony P did what I can only describe as a super man dive and took this lad out.
After Tone did that the place erupted in to an all in and after revenge had been taken we were ushered out the back door by the owner of the club before the cops could get there.
We gave those two a fairly evil beating and as we left I could see the girls stomping them with high heels as they walked by.
Apparently it took a decent while before they recovered.
Im not into violence n all that but I gotta say that was a good feeling, I had to wait a while but so the saying goes "revenge is a dish best served cold"
I say especially if your the chef..lol
Back soon.
BLOG ELEVEN
I swear chief we weren’t playing cards.
First published – Mar 29 2007.
Back again,
Thought we could take another trip down memory lane.
I was working in the kitchen x-wing, Goulburn gaol and since things had been pretty boring around the place cards and gambling in general had gained even more popularity than usual.
On top of the usual comps and games at the wing me and a few other lads were running a work comp to try and hustle a bit of extra coin.
Now gambling is banned in gaol and so we had to keep it on the sly which wasn’t easy since the games we played needed score sheets and win loss books.
The best spot for us to get a table or two going was in a cage at the rear of the kitchen.
This cage was just a concrete square about 2.2 meters by maybe 6 meters with fencing around it and a roof, it was for the lads to use outside for smoking.
We would all ways have someone at the back door of the kitchen who would call out if the screws were coming to check up on us and by the time they came through the door and walked through the oven room and into the cage the game would be well hidden.
The problem was that after an hour or so the screws would notice guys were missing from the work area especially since the games would attract a crowd and soon only 5-10 of the 50 odd blokes would be working!
I had been there over a year and never came close to being pinched playing cards but there was one screw that knew I was basically coming to work and gambling on cards all day.
He would get to the back door and hear our lookout call out and then he would try and jog round the corner to catch us in time but he was always too late.
Eventually I guess he got sic of being laughed at as he came around the corner and so he got shifty.
He walked all the way around the back of this massive kitchen complex and up to the cage from out of no where.
In the middle of a big hand we didn’t notice he was there until he yelled busted!
After he called that out he fumbled for his keys and opened the back door of the cage up, the problem for him was it took a few seconds and we quickly hid the cards and score sheet under a near by bin.
He almost exploded when he got in and we denied we had been playing cards even though he had seen us.
We all burst into laughter until he looked on the hot water system above my mates head and found a deck of cards sitting in plain sight!
The worst thing was they weren’t our cards!
He had found someone else’s deck that they could have hidden better.
He cussed and cursed and docked us all every cent of that weeks pay ( $30 - 60 depending on the job).
The game went back to normal the next day and he never caught us again.
I suspect he didn’t try as hard after catching us the first time, too much effort and he had already bragged to his fellow screws and taken the piss out of everyone for docking there pay that week.
He was a monumental dickhead that screw, kept us amused though cause even the other screws didn’t like him and they usually stick together.
Other screws would tell us about his mis fortunes and embarrassing moments on the outside of the prison walls so that we could take the piss out of him more than we did them...Gold!!
I have to say though the shifty bastard did catch us that day, well sort of. lol
Back soon.
BLOG TWELVE
A buck naked biff.
First published – Apr 3 2007.
Back again,
It was a cold morning at Goulburn gaol, I had been up late having a big one watching late night telly in my cell.
I was pretty tired and grabbed a coffee straight away when we got to work at the kitchen.
We had an on going joke at the kitchen which was that every now and then someone would get hit with ice cold water from the fridge as they took a morning shower.
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