The Story of Thomas Fiore
Tommy and I met in 2010 at FCI Pollock, Louisiana. He was my first cellie there. Tommy is from New York, but had most recently lived in Miami, Florida, this prior to his arrest. Tommy is a boxer and a Martial Artist and had his own gym there in Miami. He loved to talk about his training, so much so that one of the guys ask a friendly guard to look him up, you know, to see if he was bullshitting. He was not. According to what was on the computer he had helped train Heavyweight Champ Mike Tyson at one time or the other and had also helped train Tennis Champ Serena Williams. He was very accomplished in his field of choice. The computer also indicated that he was a "Made Man" in the Bonanno Family. But to me, he was just a guy I hung around with. I genuinely like him. I could tell you a hundred stories about us, but who wants to hear war stories from prison. SO I will tell you that Tommy is a loyal friend and a man I would trust with my life ... well, okay, just one war-story.
When I landed at Pollock it was a new yard and as a result of this, a political mess. The white boys were unorganized and were fighting with everybody most of all amongst themselves, enough said on this, if you want the whole story, go to the books section of my site and read, Shot Caller Series.
I hadn't been there long when I was basically forced to take the "Keys" to the yard. One of the first things I did was to put the word out that the violence had to stop; it had to come through me, feeling of course that I could get things worked out with words rather than violence. Well, one of the first big trials was that one of the blacks in one of the other cell-blocks was changing the white TV at lockdown so that he could listen to B.E.T. at night. This is a serious violation of prison etic ate. So the Speaker for that cell-block, a man we called Sarge, came to me and explained the issue. Yes, he had asked the man not to change the TV and had been ignored, basically, F.U. white boy. Yes, he had went to the black speaker in the cell-block and asked him to stop it, again, nothing. So he came to me. He pointed out the violator and I told him I'd talk to him. Tommy was with me when this conversation took place.
The cell-blocks at Pollock were four stories high. I was assigned a cell on the fourth story of my building and coincidently the man in question was on the fourth floor of the block directly across from mine. So the next day I waited at the top of the steps in my block and watched for him to come out ... he did, he was headed to the Recreation Yard with a group of Homeboys.
I watched him and matched his pace as he went down the stairs and just as he hit the sidewalk I moved up beside him. He looked over at me and without either of us losing stride, I said, "I'm Mayor Mark". Without looking back at me he answered, "I know who you are'". I noticed that I was literally surrounded by blacks.
You're probably wondering why I would choose to handle this this way. Well, I have learned over many years of dealing with dangerous men that most of them are decent human beings, but if I had showed up with a crew of white boys, his crew would have taken this as a challenge to their ... whatever ... in this we're all the same. Prison pride, the need to defend your turf. Anyway I had always chosen, at first, to believe that two men could talk something out that ten men would only fight about. So I went alone. Yes, it is dangerous, but it also says to the other person or group that one: you respect him as a man, and two, that you ain't afraid of him or, as I say when I've had enough, "or your ten boyfriends". Going alone sends a very powerful message.
"The white boys in you block say you're changing the white TV to B.E.T. after Lockdown (he had a remote)"I said, we had hit the entranceway to the Rec Yard, a bottle-neck as guys had to go one at a time through a metal detector. "I like to hear the music" he replied. "It's our TV. The blacks control 5 of the 7 TVs in that block. We don't change y'alls TV and I would appreciate it if you didn't change ours". He turned to look me in the eye. His homeboys moved in close. We held each others stare for a minute, he dropped his eyes and said, "Ok". Not wanting to go to the yard and wanting to get out of the crowd I was in, I turned to head back to my block ... as soon as I turned around, who do you think was standing right behind me!? Yeah, Tommy had violated my orders and followed me out of the block and had my back even when he was outnumbered ten to one. That is one of the many reasons I consider Tommy a true friend.
Another thing to know about Tommy is that he is 100% Catholic, old school Italian Catholic, lol. He is devoted to his church. First you have to know that Tommy is in great shape and has a very handsome face; classic Italian (my drawing does not do him justice, wish I could have done a better job). With this said, when he brought me the picture that I used to draw his face for the 101 Faces project I said to him, "Tommy, I want to paint a Sacred Heart picture of Jesus. And I'd like to use your face for the rendition". He got this horrified look on his face then with hands and words said, "No. That would be wrong. No Mark. No" lol. I kept on him about it. I sincerely loved his look. Well, after many conversations he consented to allow me to use his face for my portrait of Jesus. Trust me, he was not comfortable with it. Point is: if you look very close at the paintings of Jesus on this site, you just might see Tommy Fiore with long hair and beard. Jesus.
Peace be with you all. And thank you for giving me a bit of your time. Mark
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