Speaker 1: Campsite media.
Speaker 2: I lived in a jungle. I survived in a jungle,
Speaker 2: and every conceivable thing could have happened. The person happened
Speaker 2: to me who I was. To take off my shirt
Speaker 2: and you're a see my body just totally crisscross from
Speaker 2: bob wire, knife wounds, jumping through windows. I got about
Speaker 2: two thousand stitches sold me together, and then I suppose
Speaker 2: that the scars within me are even more so.
Speaker 3: We opened on the grounds of the Brampton Reformatory, which
Speaker 3: really was a former World War II military base repurposed
Speaker 3: by the Canadian government to be a place where criminals
Speaker 3: deemed strong enough to hold a shovel could learn a trade.
Speaker 3: The year is nineteen fifty four. Out of a gymnasium,
Speaker 3: into the frosty moonlight march is sixty seven of the
Speaker 3: type of men your mother used to warn you about.
Speaker 3: Among their ranks are certified rob thieves and killers, all
Speaker 3: clad head to toe in denim, all marching the five
Speaker 3: hundred yards back to the barracks. Near the front of
Speaker 3: the pack are the two kids I really want you
Speaker 3: to see. There's Red, a short, wiry kid with a
Speaker 3: face full of freckles, and then beside him is sixteen
Speaker 3: year old Roger Roger Caron, a strapping, dark haired French
Speaker 3: Canadian kid. If the story I'm about to tell you
Speaker 3: has a hero, and I would argue that it does,
Speaker 3: it's him. While those around them march drowsily toward the
Speaker 3: barracks at the end of another hard day, Roger and
Speaker 3: Red's bodies are coursing with adrenaline because they know that
Speaker 3: they have only five minutes before someone will discover the body.
Speaker 3: As they march in lockstep, Roger gives his friend Red
Speaker 3: a reassuring wink as he takes stock of what they're
Speaker 3: up against. There were the guards who did the head count,
Speaker 3: following behind, a few marching on either side of the pack,
Speaker 3: and up ahead, three standing between them and the fence,
Speaker 3: night sticks drawn. Roger squints towards the spotlight from the
Speaker 3: tower that follows their every step. The silhouette of an
Speaker 3: idling jeep hovers near by, daring these sorry teens to
Speaker 3: try something stupid. It wasn't their plan to be in
Speaker 3: the situation where they had no choice but to do
Speaker 3: what they were about to do. But things on the
Speaker 3: inside tend to explode out of nowhere. It was as
Speaker 3: prism shit as it gets. The toughest guy in the place,
Speaker 3: a dude literally named Boner, saw that Red had a
Speaker 3: fancy cigarette lighter and wanted it. During recreational time, verbal
Speaker 3: jabs between the two escalated to fisticuffs when Roger, who
Speaker 3: was playing floor hockey in another part of the gymnasium,
Speaker 3: sprinted to his friend, and before anyone could react, Roger
Speaker 3: brought the hockey stick down on the crown of Boner's
Speaker 3: skuld with everything he had. The goliath crumbled and lay
Speaker 3: motionless before Roger read and the dozen other inmate witnesses
Speaker 3: when someone said, your best bet is to jack Rabbit,
Speaker 3: and I mean tonight. As Roger's eyes flicked to the
Speaker 3: fences topped with barbed wire, he didn't know if Boner
Speaker 3: was alive or dead in the gymnasium behind him. As
Speaker 3: it worked out, Boner would regain consciousness and was fine.
Speaker 3: Boner isn't even what mattered, because what does is that
Speaker 3: that night, in that reformatory, a legend was born. As
Speaker 3: they approached the bottleneck before left turn, three guards stood
Speaker 3: in their big swinging Dick's stances, the first and last
Speaker 3: line of defense between Red and Roger and the prison fence,
Speaker 3: the barbed wire, the beyond wheat fields, woods and darkness.
Speaker 3: The two friends exchanged one final look and they made
Speaker 3: a move for it. They bolted. Roger thought it was
Speaker 3: boring here anyway. The guards were quick with their hands
Speaker 3: and nightsticks. Before he knew what was happening, Roger had
Speaker 3: one guard clamped on his coat and the other with
Speaker 3: a firm grip on his hair. As Roger rolled like
Speaker 3: a crocodile to get them off of him, he saw
Speaker 3: that his friend Read was already on the ground, being
Speaker 3: pummeled by the guards. In a fit, Roger shoved them away,
Speaker 3: leaving one guard with nothing but a fistful of his curls.
Speaker 3: And from there it was a pure hundred yard dashed
Speaker 3: to the fence. Roger's feet pound the frozen ground, and
Speaker 3: as he leaps onto the fence, he hears a chance
Speaker 3: has broken out among the inmates and the distance the
Speaker 3: barbed wire. With his bare hands, and hoists himself up.
Speaker 3: As the chant grows louder, the barbs rip into his
Speaker 3: clothes and then his flesh as he furiously pushes his
Speaker 3: way over. When he can first make out what they're saying,
Speaker 3: the boys across the field were chanting the thing that
Speaker 3: inmates in that era, in that region would chant whenever
Speaker 3: anyone would make a break for a chant that Roger
Speaker 3: would hear many times in his life. But atop that fence,
Speaker 3: covered in his own blood, with a floodlight shining on him,
Speaker 3: this was the moment of his christening, as he tore
Speaker 3: the barbs from the bloody denim and he fell through
Speaker 3: the air to the other side. This was the moment
Speaker 3: he became Goboard. From iHeart Podcasts and Campsite Media, I'm
Speaker 3: Sam Mullens and this is Go Boy Episode one, run
Speaker 3: Roger Run. The story begins for me with my friend
Speaker 3: Rob telling me to meet up with him in a
Speaker 3: coffee shop. He said he had something he wanted to
Speaker 3: give me. When we were in the place, he reached
Speaker 3: into his bag and slid across the table between the
Speaker 3: americanos a worn out copy of an out of print book.
Speaker 3: On the cover was what looked like a stock photo
Speaker 3: of prison bars and the title read Go Boy Memories
Speaker 3: of a Life Behind Bars. As I leafed through the pages,
Speaker 3: Rob told me it was a book he'd been obsessed
Speaker 3: with for most of his life, that it was a
Speaker 3: story filled with fistfights, bank robberies, jail breaks, and prison riots.
Speaker 3: Very much the type of book that one dude would
Speaker 3: give to another dude. But why was he giving it
Speaker 3: to me? Rob told me this is a true story
Speaker 3: about a real guy, and that he'd met and spent
Speaker 3: time with this Roger Karan. And while the book is
Speaker 3: an incredible story, his life beyond the margins was even
Speaker 3: more compelling. And this, Rob explained, should be our next project.
Speaker 3: Rob's a documentary filmmaker, and I make podcasts like this,
Speaker 3: so I was like, what happened in his life beyond
Speaker 3: the book? Rob said, just read this first, and sitting
Speaker 3: down with this thing was unlike any reading experience I've
Speaker 3: ever had. Yes, the writing is exceptional and violent, but
Speaker 3: beyond the violence is a singular voice that is like
Speaker 3: an electric howl from the dark, And the book itself
Speaker 3: performs a magic trick where with each page turn you
Speaker 3: slowly come to grasp the insane unlikelihood of the book
Speaker 3: in your hand existing at all.
Speaker 4: Our guest is a man who's said that he was
Speaker 4: borne to raise how.
Speaker 5: Roger Karan was sixteen and first convicted a.
Speaker 6: Forty two, has spent twenty four of those years in jail,
Speaker 6: twelve years in solitary.
Speaker 3: To see Roger Koran on his book tour, and many
Speaker 3: speaking engagements captured in glorious, crackling vhs. You're struck first
Speaker 3: by how much he doesn't sound like an author.
Speaker 5: And I broke up with jail more than you have
Speaker 5: in Canada, take thirteen times, and I really am for it.
Speaker 3: When he's on TV promoting his book Go Boy, he
Speaker 3: just doesn't look or move like a person who has
Speaker 3: ever written anything. He looks more like a boxer, an athlete,
Speaker 3: like Brando in on the Waterfront. And no matter how
Speaker 3: puffy the early eighties sweater he's wearing, it's clear that
Speaker 3: underneath his body is carved from granite.
Speaker 4: I've just come to the conclusion that I'm, in fact,
Speaker 4: almost two people I have to be to keep my stand.
Speaker 4: I think you guys, spend twenty four years in prison
Speaker 4: in a sudden transition to the outside world is mind boggling.
Speaker 3: As he sits in these TV studios, he has an
Speaker 3: appealing shucks approachability. There's no airs here. He instead wears
Speaker 3: an expression that says, can you believe it? Like he's
Speaker 3: a lotto winner holding one of the those big checks,
Speaker 3: which isn't far off. Now, tell me how well has
Speaker 3: that book done. It's been on two printings, right.
Speaker 7: Oh, extremely well.
Speaker 4: Sales of god Boy are skyrocketing.
Speaker 2: In less than ninety days, It's sold one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: copies in Canada. It's everywhere drug stores and supermarkets and everything.
Speaker 2: It's bestseller in French, bestseller earning is It's throughout the
Speaker 2: Commonwealth now as far as Australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 3: But in these interviews there are moments where one is
Speaker 3: reminded that this is not a man or story that
Speaker 3: would usually be featured in these programs. Television hosts and
Speaker 3: panelists and people in the studio audiences will ask them
Speaker 3: straight up, how are you still alive? Did you ever
Speaker 3: think you were losing your mind? Why would they starve you?
Speaker 3: Can we see your scars? How did you never take
Speaker 3: your own life? The words on the page that changed
Speaker 3: Roger Kuran's life, that had brought him to these heights,
Speaker 3: that had captivated a nation, were covered in blood and grime.
Speaker 3: While everyone and their dog was reading it, there was
Speaker 3: one person decidedly avoiding its pages.
Speaker 5: I'm probably the only author in the world who hasn't
Speaker 5: read its own book.
Speaker 7: I haven't read the Gold Boy and hardcover. I haven't
Speaker 7: read it the paperback. I haven't read it in the
Speaker 7: French version. I here's a good book. I haven't read it.
Speaker 3: He didn't need the help of his book to remember
Speaker 3: the things he'd seen, the horrors he'd survived. It came
Speaker 3: back to him often enough in his nightmares.
Speaker 5: I screamed so loud in my sleep that I dislocated
Speaker 5: my right my job. So this is a very real book.
Speaker 5: This isn't fection, and it is so scary it's incredible.
Speaker 3: Twenty five years before the Go Boy book tour, sixteen
Speaker 3: year old Roger leaped from the top of the barbed
Speaker 3: wire fence. He could hear his friend Red's voice cut
Speaker 3: through the night. Go Roger, Go, Go Go. He emerged
Speaker 3: from the brush and entered the town a mess after
Speaker 3: just one night on the run. He looked and walked
Speaker 3: like a zombie. The cut on his chest from the
Speaker 3: barbed wire needed stitches. He was covered in welts from
Speaker 3: the struggle with the guards, His uniform was in shreds,
Speaker 3: and he was caked in blood and mud from writhing
Speaker 3: on the ground in pain all night because also a
Speaker 3: horse stepped on him while he was catching his breath
Speaker 3: in a field. But at least he was free. He
Speaker 3: made it all of seventy two hours before he was
Speaker 3: arrested in a diner and he was driven to Guelph, Ontario,
Speaker 3: one of Canada's oldest cities, known for its hockey culture
Speaker 3: and known among juvenile delinquents as the place you don't
Speaker 3: want to go. He entered the reformatory, this time as
Speaker 3: a repeat offender and was thus placed among the general
Speaker 3: population of the prison. He heard through the grapevine that
Speaker 3: his good friend Red was being disciplined internally back in
Speaker 3: Brampton for their escape attempt, but it seemed only a
Speaker 3: matter of time before Red would do something to wind
Speaker 3: up here too. Roger would need a friend, because this
Speaker 3: time he was in the true jungle Gwelph Reformatory.
Speaker 4: In those days it was one thousand inmates.
Speaker 1: There was more guns there than any penitentiary in Canada.
Speaker 1: That was a pretty tough joint.
Speaker 3: If he was going to survive, he had to learn
Speaker 3: quickly the art of being invisible among the milling bodies.
Speaker 3: He took on the posture of a shadow on the wall,
Speaker 3: arms crossed, hat perched on the tip of his nose,
Speaker 3: seeing all around him, careful to never be caught looking.
Speaker 3: The only conspicuous part of him was his unfortunately shiny
Speaker 3: boots he'd been issued a few weeks prior, and it
Speaker 3: wasn't long until a dude with an entourage swung by
Speaker 3: to ask if they could try them on. Roger stood
Speaker 3: still as a statue as this welcome wagon hectored him,
Speaker 3: wondering aloud if they might be the same size. But then,
Speaker 3: at the instant the bully reached for Roger, he planted
Speaker 3: his shiny leather boots so swiftly into the testicles of
Speaker 3: the leader he crumpled to the floor, gagging on the air.
Speaker 3: Roger switched into his fighting stance and shoved a hand
Speaker 3: into his pocket to firmly grip his imaginary shive, daring
Speaker 3: them to call his bluff. The guys backed off, but
Speaker 3: unfortunately for Roger, one of the guards had seen the
Speaker 3: whole thing, and he was taken to the warden to
Speaker 3: receive his punishment ten days in the cooler. They shoved
Speaker 3: them in and closed the door. The bed was made
Speaker 3: of uneven steel slats, and in place of a toilet.
Speaker 3: There was just a hole on the ground that flushed
Speaker 3: every sixty seconds day and night.
Speaker 5: And as cold, dead as this coal started making me
Speaker 5: shiver and natica rabbit waters running along the walls, and
Speaker 5: the rats are running along that fights.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 3: Part of his punishment was that his diet was reduced
Speaker 3: to just bread and water. Bread and water, three times
Speaker 3: a day. Bread and water.
Speaker 7: We used to break water and pick our guys in virginios.
Speaker 7: We had eight food to sleep it, he said, Bring
Speaker 7: the biggest water bringers in the world. I had to
Speaker 7: put something in our stomach.
Speaker 3: Castik Roger would be in many cells just like this
Speaker 3: one in his life, hungry and cold, where the only
Speaker 3: company was the rapid engine of his thoughts and the
Speaker 3: thick walls that seemed to move a little closer every
Speaker 3: time he blinked. While Roger was down in the cooler,
Speaker 3: his friend Red was transferred to Gwelph, just like he'd
Speaker 3: hoped and had scored a job in the kitchen. Roger
Speaker 3: couldn't wait to link up with his buddy, to slap
Speaker 3: him on the back and go about finding a way
Speaker 3: to survive this place together, but they never got the chance.
Speaker 3: Red and some of the guys on kitchen detail had
Speaker 3: tried making a prison brew out of some cherries they
Speaker 3: had in the kitchen. They let the fruit ferment in
Speaker 3: a metal container they'd found, and when the brew was ready,
Speaker 3: they all got hammered off their glorious artisanal sauce. But
Speaker 3: later that night, the four who drank from the brew
Speaker 3: suddenly developed severe cramps. Red had it the work, and
Speaker 3: he was rushed to the hospital. It turned out that
Speaker 3: the metal lining of the container they used for their
Speaker 3: brew poisoned the whole batch, and Roger's good friend Read
Speaker 3: had died. This was Roger's introduction to life behind bars.
Speaker 3: In just the first two months, he'd committed assault with
Speaker 3: a weapon, split his chest in two on the barbed
Speaker 3: wire fence, was stomped by a horse, kicked someone's testicles
Speaker 3: into their body, was thrown into solitary, and lost the
Speaker 3: only friend he had on the inside. It was a
Speaker 3: wicked and bitter first taste, and as Roger shivered in
Speaker 3: his cell, he wondered how did he end up here?
Speaker 3: Roger was born to a poor French Canadian family in Cornwall, Ontario,
Speaker 3: in the spring of nineteen thirty eight. In the context
Speaker 3: of this large Catholic family, juxtaposed with the throngs of
Speaker 3: siblings to compare him to. It was clear from an
Speaker 3: early age that Roger was a little different.
Speaker 2: I had this tremendous energy that kept propelling me to
Speaker 2: do things, and because I had no education, I couldn't
Speaker 2: understand what was happening inside me.
Speaker 3: Every adult in his life was trying to get this
Speaker 3: spirited boy to sit still at the dinner table, the
Speaker 3: church pew, or the classroom seat. But he couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: Roger had to go.
Speaker 7: He had to run naturally. I disrupted classes. I just
Speaker 7: couldn't sit down.
Speaker 5: I couldn't concentrate. That put me down in a classroom
Speaker 5: on a chair was like couh, an unusual punishment.
Speaker 6: He just didn't sit his little Putsi down at all.
Speaker 6: He just go, go, go. He learned to be go
Speaker 6: boy very young.
Speaker 3: This is Sue, Roger's little sister. As with any large fan,
Speaker 3: the kids will break into smaller subgroups, and to Roger,
Speaker 3: Sue was the closest in age and the closest in heart,
Speaker 3: the Lisa to his Bart Simpson.
Speaker 6: It was it was never a dull moment between the
Speaker 6: truant officer coming looking for Roger daily.
Speaker 3: A truant officer back then functioned like a dogcatcher, but
Speaker 3: for children.
Speaker 6: He actually kept the truant officer in a full time job.
Speaker 7: I just couldn't concentrate the cossman. Therefore I became a
Speaker 7: truant officer's number one.
Speaker 3: Sure, he'd roam the streets feral, usually with a fishing
Speaker 3: rod over his shoulder and a slingshot in his pocket,
Speaker 3: always on the lookout for the officer.
Speaker 6: They just never seemed to be able to find him.
Speaker 6: He'd make his little appearance for a few minutes at
Speaker 6: the school and have him forbid there was a recess,
Speaker 6: because then he just never made it back in the class.
Speaker 3: His passion was to play hooky by fishing on the
Speaker 3: banks of the Saint Lawrence or by practicing his aim
Speaker 3: on the squirrels during school hours. You know, if Roger
Speaker 3: was born today, it's easy to imagine how a parent
Speaker 3: nowadays would be like, Oh, he just has different needs
Speaker 3: and learns in a different way. But he grew up
Speaker 3: in the forties when they dealt with kids like him
Speaker 3: with a firm hand in the shape of a fist.
Speaker 5: Was a hyperactive kid, queen says, still in the classroom,
Speaker 5: and hyper activity wasn't diagnosed back in at night I
Speaker 5: went to school, it.
Speaker 7: Was he got the devil. Were only one way to
Speaker 7: get the devil see John Bosco school. I had religious
Speaker 7: brothers and nuns, you know, and they'd just get you
Speaker 7: an am right. I mean this for your own good kids,
Speaker 7: saying boom, don't do again.
Speaker 3: Everything Roger did seemed to land him in trouble and
Speaker 3: complicating things further. For young Roger was that the grown
Speaker 3: up world of what was right and wrong and good
Speaker 3: and bad was slippery and shaped almost entirely by the
Speaker 3: actions of his father, a man for whom the laws
Speaker 3: of the land would bend as he saw fit. His
Speaker 3: old man would find as a carpenter, and Roger used
Speaker 3: to see him come home with items he'd swiped from
Speaker 3: the work site.
Speaker 5: I watched him come home with a keg and nails
Speaker 5: one night.
Speaker 7: Next night with a hammer. And you ever accused my
Speaker 7: father's stealing? He said, that's not stealing.
Speaker 5: He says. They're a rich capitalist. He says, in my
Speaker 5: roof is leaking. I need the nails and a hammer
Speaker 5: for that.
Speaker 3: His father would catch fish out of season and he'd say,
Speaker 3: if I throw this fish back, it's just going to
Speaker 3: be caught by some fat cat with a yacht downriver.
Speaker 3: Having a misguided moral compass like this translated into him
Speaker 3: never holding down a job for very long, perhaps because
Speaker 3: he was stealing. But eventually Roger's father did discover his
Speaker 3: true calling.
Speaker 6: Yes, my father was a bootlegger.
Speaker 3: When they were tucked in their beds at night, the
Speaker 3: booming adult voices would echo through the house. Roger would
Speaker 3: nudge Sue awake, and they'd hear through the vents the
Speaker 3: discourse happening downstairs.
Speaker 6: That was always interesting, Always interesting stories you'd hear as children.
Speaker 6: Our ears are always wide open.
Speaker 3: The kids learned to adapt to their father's side hustle
Speaker 3: and the shenanigans it brought with it into the house.
Speaker 5: If cops used to come, you know, surround the house,
Speaker 5: gang bus your style, come in the front door, back
Speaker 5: door and search and bust my father.
Speaker 6: I remember being a child where the police would come
Speaker 6: in to me. It was the middle of the night
Speaker 6: with big flashlights in my face.
Speaker 3: In the comfort of his childhood bed, being surprised by
Speaker 3: an angry man in uniform shining a bright light in
Speaker 3: his face was an image Roger would never shake.
Speaker 6: They would actually make me get out of my bed
Speaker 6: to check my sheets to make sure that no beer
Speaker 6: or anything was hidden in there.
Speaker 3: These types of scenes were happening often enough at the
Speaker 3: house that Roger and Who's Dad took it upon himself
Speaker 3: to build some new relationships.
Speaker 5: One of the most popular policemen in Cornwall used to
Speaker 5: come in our driveway and he went, if you're paying
Speaker 5: me a certain percentage, I'll tip this off whenever we're
Speaker 5: going to RADI you.
Speaker 6: He knew most of the time when a raid was coming.
Speaker 6: Very seldom he didn't.
Speaker 5: He wasn't doing wrong because he was given twenty five
Speaker 5: percent of his take every Sunday to the parish priest,
Speaker 5: and so therefore he had he had God's blessing for
Speaker 5: doing for selling boost.
Speaker 3: Young Roger was watching all of this very closely.
Speaker 6: It's catch twenty two. Really, you know when you say, well,
Speaker 6: if you're going to tell me to do this, then
Speaker 6: how come you're doing this.
Speaker 3: Roger was only twelve years old when he was arrested
Speaker 3: for breaking and entering. To the surprise of no one, I'm.
Speaker 5: A kid, I'm getting banged around, bounced off the walls
Speaker 5: because I'm bad, because I'm no good, I'm going to
Speaker 5: end up in prison on the gallows.
Speaker 7: I'm a thief on this and that.
Speaker 3: It was only a matter of time before Roger would
Speaker 3: get into more serious trouble.
Speaker 2: Everybody told me I was bad and I can't and
Speaker 2: I was going to end up in jail. So I said, well,
Speaker 2: I got this energy drive, this motor drive, so if
Speaker 2: I'm going to be bad, I'm also to be the baddest.
Speaker 3: When he was sixteen, he got pinched for stealing from
Speaker 3: a sporting goods store. If it was any other kid
Speaker 3: who didn't have a several years long reputation for trouble
Speaker 3: making with the truant officer, they might have just given
Speaker 3: him a slap on the wrist. But the court wanted
Speaker 3: to send a message, so they sent him to the
Speaker 3: gwelf Reformatory, one of the most notorious prisons in Canada.
Speaker 2: And the judge told me, I hope you go in there.
Speaker 2: I'm going to send you into the school and I
Speaker 2: hope you learn something.
Speaker 1: You come out a better man.
Speaker 3: Man man. Roger didn't feel like a better man sitting
Speaker 3: in his cell at the Gwelfer formatory, he felt worse
Speaker 3: than ever. He was still coming to grips with the
Speaker 3: reality that his only friend, Read was dead, coming to
Speaker 3: grips with the reality of his new life in general.
Speaker 3: While other kids his age were learning how to drive
Speaker 3: so that could take their date to the movie house,
Speaker 3: Roger was here where the only entertainment was to rest
Speaker 3: his head against the cold iron bars of his cell
Speaker 3: and eavesdrop on the guys talking nonsense after lights out.
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what he was doing, drowsily listening to
Speaker 3: the forbidden conversations on the range one night, when suddenly
Speaker 3: a government issue flashlight was thrust into his face. A
Speaker 3: guard's voice boomed, So you think we're all a bunch
Speaker 3: of farmers and cowfuckers? Eh? I caught you talking and
Speaker 3: here with a screw screaming at him for something he
Speaker 3: didn't do. Is when something seems to click. The prophecy
Speaker 3: had become true. Everything everyone said about him had come true.
Speaker 3: They said he was the worst kid in school, the
Speaker 3: worst kid in town, and now he was the worst
Speaker 3: kid in po And he hated it. He hated that
Speaker 3: this was his lot. So as the mist of the guard,
Speaker 3: saliva sprayed his face Roger lost control. In a blink.
Speaker 3: Roger snatched the flashlight from the guard and began hammering
Speaker 3: it against the bars. He swung wildly as the other
Speaker 3: inmates heckled and cheered him on. He swung again and again.
Speaker 3: The thing was practically pulverized by the time he was done,
Speaker 3: and for a moment it was still again. Roger's eyes
Speaker 3: lifted to the guards, who returned his look with a
Speaker 3: twinkling eye, as if to say, you're gonna be sorry
Speaker 3: you did that. The guard blew his whistle and the
Speaker 3: goon squad came in with their clubs swinging, overpowering Roger,
Speaker 3: they handcuffed his hands and feet and dragged him out
Speaker 3: of his cell. It's one thing to get into it
Speaker 3: with other inmates, but when you put your hands on
Speaker 3: a guard or on a guard's property, what Roger didn't
Speaker 3: realize was that he was provoking something much bigger. He
Speaker 3: was so young and new to the inside, he didn't
Speaker 3: know what to be afraid of.
Speaker 7: Yet.
Speaker 3: They led Roger to the elevator and began taking him
Speaker 3: all the way down.
Speaker 5: And underneath the prisoners, all these catacombs, these mind shafts
Speaker 5: snaking all around there, for Semo City block.
Speaker 3: They led him deep into the underbelly to a place
Speaker 3: he would never forget, a place that would make him
Speaker 3: avoid reading his own book because of what happened there,
Speaker 3: a place called the Limbo.
Speaker 4: There was a saying in French, I say could be
Speaker 4: a at pool for Pimi, for I feel good in
Speaker 4: my flesh for the first time in my life. I
Speaker 4: just feel so durned good. And being able to wake
Speaker 4: up in the outside world in the morning is so fantastic.
Speaker 4: Being able to put my feet on a carpet. I
Speaker 4: put my feet on concrete floor for twenty four years,
Speaker 4: and it's such a fantastic feeling to put my feet
Speaker 4: on a rug.
Speaker 3: The journey between these two Rogers we've met, the sixteen
Speaker 3: year old on his way to the basement to receive
Speaker 3: his punishment, and the forty year old Roger smiling and
Speaker 3: being celebrated on national television is more unpredictable, unlikely and
Speaker 3: dark than you would believe. And it was only possible
Speaker 3: because there's something you don't know yet, and that is
Speaker 3: that Roger Karan had a superhuman ability to survive. He
Speaker 3: was going places simply because nothing they can could do
Speaker 3: to him could stop him.
Speaker 1: People wonder where did I get the strength to go on?
Speaker 1: Where did I get the determination of want? It was
Speaker 1: just a composition. I would have climbed that mountain till
Speaker 1: I was ninety nine years old. But when my book
Speaker 1: got published officially, well then I had crested and yes,
Speaker 1: yes I am a winner.
Speaker 2: Damn it.
Speaker 3: Coming up this season, pun go boy, I.
Speaker 7: Can get that one big score. I'll prove to them
Speaker 7: that they're wrong. That's just a man.
Speaker 6: In the years to go mad Dog Karate, I.
Speaker 5: Used to look at things like some guys look at
Speaker 5: girls and ministrits.
Speaker 6: No, oh my god, Oh my god. No, he's describing
Speaker 6: this bank robbery in detail. Roger went for the long shot.
Speaker 6: Does that a lot in his life, and he was
Speaker 6: instantly a celebrity.
Speaker 5: A gunman wearing a Halloween mask robbed the store and
Speaker 5: briefly called a stork er Costa. You couldn't think somebody
Speaker 5: in Hollywood came up with this story as a movie.
Speaker 1: It would really you wouldn't think it.
Speaker 7: Would be livable.
Speaker 3: Go Boy is a production from Campside Media in partnership
Speaker 3: with iHeart Podcasts. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts
Speaker 3: or Wherever you get your podcasts. Go Boys was written
Speaker 3: and hosted by me Sam Won. Our producer is Rob
Speaker 3: Lindsay of Paradox Pictures. Laine Rose is our senior producer.
Speaker 3: Sound design, mix and engineering by Garrett Tiedeman, original music
Speaker 3: by Garrett tiedemant fact checking by Michael Kenyon Meyer. Selected
Speaker 3: archival clips are from CBC Licensing. The book Go Boy
Speaker 3: was written by Roger Kuran. iHeart Podcasts executive producers are
Speaker 3: Lindsay Hoffman and Jennifer Bassett. Campside Media's executive producers are
Speaker 3: Josh Dean Vanessa, Gregoriatis, Adam hoff and Matt Cher. A
Speaker 3: special thanks to our operations team Doug Slaywyn, Ashley Lawren,
Speaker 3: Sabina Mara and Destiny Dingle. If you enjoyed Go Boy,
Speaker 3: please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.