Don Wildman

It's a rebellious childhood.

He ends up committing petty crimes after being discouraged by a teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer.

World War II comes along.

He does not wish to fight.

It's an interesting event.

He decides to get himself declared mentally unfit.

What a remarkable human being and resourceful person we're talking about, even against the odds in which he sets up for himself, right?

These have been stories that have been repeated now in movies and so forth.

But I caution the audience to not gloss over these events because when you read these events in more detail, especially through the autobiography, you get such amount of self-examination and self-awareness, which is really amazing.

One of those crimes, which he commits in the mid 40s, lands him in prison in Massachusetts for robbery.

It is there in that time frame.

And we're talking about 1946 to 1952, although he's originally sentenced for a much longer period, as I understand it.

Part of the reason that's shorter is because there's a great transformation in this man in that time frame.

And this is where he runs into or encounters the Nation of Islam.

Can you explain that development?

Interesting.

And remember, by the time I just did a little arithmetic here, by the time we're talking about, you know, by the time he's out of prison, he's only 21 years old.

He's very young.

He's a very young man we're talking about.

This has been a teenager who's been going through all of this.