😮 #90 - The Real Life, R-Rated Forrest Gump | Charlie Cifarelli

(***TIMESTAMPS in description below) Charlie Cifarelli is a former addict, corrections officer, and businessman who describes his life as, “The R-Rated Version of Forrest Gump.” Following stints that included: running up against the infamous Seven-Five Police Precinct in NYC as an addict, working on death row as a guard, and building and selling a company –– in 2012, Charlie famously tracked down and adopted the New York Pitbull, Star, after the video of the NYPD shooting her in the face went viral around the world.

***TIMESTAMPS***

0:00 - Intro; Charlie’s father’s criminal past; That time his parents picked up a hippie on the way to Woodstock; Stories of his father’s anger issues; NY & Cadillacs; The Vietnam vet who turned on Charlie; That time Charlie was thrown out of his house at age 8

28:27 - Trying to survive as a child; One time when Charlie’s father stuck up for him; How CHarlie got addicted to painkillers; Charlie’s history with the 75th Precinct of the NYPD (As made famous by the Netflix Documentary “The Seven-Five”); Charlie’s car chase story; The criminal who turned on him

55:36 - The power of addiction over the body, mind, and spirit; Living off of salad dressing; Charlie’s breaking point on the subway; The man Charlie met in the train station who changed his life; A run-in at a restaurant

1:17:06 - Charlie remembers his father picking him up from the train station to take him to the monastery to get clean; “We’re human beings –– not human doings”; Charlie tries to talk his way out of staying at monastery; Charlie remembers getting clean and what happened at rehab afterwards

1:41:49 - Charlie moves to Nebraska with his new wife and becomes a prison guard on death row; Charlie explains what prisons really are; The problem with the death penalty; Charlie recalls his last conversation with child-killer, John Joubert; That time Charlie testified on behalf of death row inmates; Charlie talks about recidivism and the problem with criminal records in the criminal justice system

2:10:15 - Charlie tells the story behind building his trash business in Nebraska and selling it; The fly in Charlie’s house and the chase for happiness

2:25:05 - Charlie talks about when he first saw the video of Star the dog’s shooting at the hands of the NYPD; The movement Charlie started online to track down the dog; How Charlie found and adopted the dog

2:50:02 - The legacy Star created through her life; Charlie tells the story about how Star died in 2021; Charlie found the childhood he never had in the dog who never should’ve lived; Charlie talks about reconnecting with the infamous former head of the Seven-FIve, Mike Dowd, years later; What John Gotti hitman John Alite said to Charlie recently; Why we need to show the same love to other humans that we seem to show to dogs today