Mobster Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano has opened up about life in America's most secure prison and described the whole experience as 'hell'.
The former mobster, now 77, eventually found freedom after agreeing to a plea deal that saw him serve over 17 years behind bars for running a drug ring.
Following his release, he opened up about the punishment he faced for his work as a mobster. Work that he admitted led to him being involved in 19 killings.
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This saw him locked behind bars at America's most secure prison, ADX Florence in Colorado - home to the likes of the Boston marathon bomber and Osama Bin Laden's son-in-law.
"I was in the hole for six and a half years straight," Gravano said. "If I moved from one place to another, I was in the hole. If I moved again, I was in the hole. I was always in the hole.
"At one point, after about a year, I went to the ADX supermax in Colorado. This was a prison made for inmates who they lose control of.
"They're killing people in other prisons. They don't know how to manage them. They don't know what to do with them. This is where you end up. This is the max."
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Gravano explained that security was so strict at the prison that if an inmate put their hands on the bars of their cell, a guard would hit them with a baton.
"I knew when I was there, 'This was hell'," he said.
He explained that there was no such thing as fresh food at the prison, which was prepared by inmates at another site.
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"Your food would be made in another prison," he said of maximum security life.
"They would make it. They would put it in these heaters and they would put it in a truck and bring it to the prison, roll it in."
Gravano said that the prison was so secure that he was actually kept locked up 20 feet below the ground.
"The silence is deafening," he said. "There's no inmates across from one and another. It's just one row of cells. There is literally no communication between us."
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He said that he was allowed to make one phone call a month and added that well-behaved prisoners would be allowed a maximum of two calls a month.
"They're recorded, like any other prison. The only thing is, your call in this prison, there's a guy listening live. He's got his finger on a button. Anything he doesn't like, he hits the button [and ends the call]."
If you'd like to find out more about Gravano's unbelievable life, he now shares his stories on his popular YouTube channel.
Topics: US News
Emma Guinness