Vato Maldito: My Life of Crime by John "Bubbles" Gallegos, edited by Raoul Vehill

In prison I worked in the service garage. I had to service all of the State vehicles and equipment. In the cellhouse where I was housed, 3 major drug dealers were also housed. It was easier to obtain drugs in there than on the street. In fact they were still running their business on the streets from inside the prison. A runner from one of the dealers would come to my cell every morning before breakfast, with a couple of papers of heroin.

The prison had a dairy farm. The prison dairy delivered milk to various Colorado cities and their jails and such. The driver of one of the milk trucks approached me one day about delivering contraband. He would charge me $100 dollars for every load he brought me, regardless of the amount.

My credit with the dealers was growing very thin.

I called my brother at college in Boulder, where he was a counselor. I told hit that I as heavily in debt and needed some help. I knew that he was dealing heavily in marijuana. I asked him to send me a pound to help pay my debts. It was either get his help or go to war.

I told Sam where and how to deliver the pound. He came through for me. I was able to pay my debts, and then some. I could stash the weed in the garage where I worked. Whenever needed to, I paid some inmate to smuggle an ounce or two at a time as needed. The truck driver would work with no one but me. I had a monopoly on smuggling large amounts of weed into the prison. Soon I was smuggling pounds and even kilos for a few people.

In August, 1977 I met the Parole Board for the third time and was granted parole. But I had to complete a drug and alcohol program at the Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo before I would be let out. The program took 30 days.

The first day there, A friend of mine, Mike, who had also been paroled when I was, came to visit me at the hospital. We snuck away from the hospital and walked to a bar to play some pool and have a few beers.

Walking back to the hospital we met someone Mike's friend knew who dealt heroin, We bought a $65 dollar bag from him, and went to a public bathroom in the administration building on the hospital grounds. A cop, security for the facility, stopped us and said that we smelled of alcohol. He backtracked about 100 feet and found the half empty bottle of vodka Mike had ditched behind a tree when we had first spotted the cop. The cop walked back and admonished us on the restrictions against alcohol on the hospital grounds. Then he ordered us to go to our respective units. We went to the restroom instead, to do the heroin.

When we were through doing our thing, we still had a little bit left over for later. But Mike's friend wanted to some more before going home. He was trying to inject it when the very cop who had confronted us earlier walked into the restroom with another cop. I grabbed the syringe from Mike's hand, cupped it in my left hand and walked towards the two cops.

To get by them I had to walk between them. I bumped the cop on the right with my right shoulder. He grabbed my right arm as I flung the syringe in my left hand out the bathroom door as it was still closing. Both cops wrestled me to the floor.

They took the three of us to their security office, which was in the same building, to decide what to do with us. They were curious as to why I had struggled with them as I had. Also, they had found a burnt spoon in one of the wash basins in the restroom. They really had nothing on us at that point. Then one of the cleaning ladies that worked there knocked on the door of the room we were in and handed the still full syringe to one of the cops, telling him that she had found it in the hallway as she was mopping.

The security cops called the narcotics agents from the Pueblo police. When they arrived they pulled Mike's friend into the hallway to question him. Then they talked to Mike. They never did talk to me. Then we were taken to jail.

A few weeks later the three of us were taken to a parole hearing. The Parole Board released Mike and his friend. My parole was revoked and charges were filed against me for possession of a controlled substance. On top of that I was charged with being a habitual criminal.

VATO MALDITO: My Life of Crime, by John "Bubbles" Gallegos

Now Available!!! from Enlightened Pyramid

A notorious Denver professional criminal tell his story in his own words. Armed robbery, addiction and hard time are just the tip of the ice berg in this career thief's autobio.

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