Jack Laurence

And all started when some friends asked for some help.

Oh, my God.

Great friends.

In most criminal circles, the worst thing you can be called is a rat, a snitch, a grass, someone who talks to police, someone who grasses on another to save their own skin.

To not speak is the criminal code.

The most infamous criminal organization with this intense code of silence was the mafia.

It even had a term, omerta.

Omerta is a Sicilian word and a concept most closely associated with the Sicilian mafia and later the American La Cosa Nostra.

It is most commonly translated as a code of silence, but the meaning runs deeper than that.

It encompasses an entire philosophy of non-cooperation with authorities, absolute loyalty to the organization above all else, and the settling of disputes internally rather than through an official channel.

In practice, omerta meant that speaking to police, prosecutors, or any government authority about anything under any circumstances was the most unforgivable act a member could commit.

Not just punishable, punishable by death.

The old school criminals lived by their code of silence, and many went to prison for long stretches, even for crimes they had nothing to do with because they refused to speak with police.

However, as the sentences and punishments that started to be handed out became longer, with many facing sentences that would see them die behind bars, well that code of silence began to crumble, and more and more members turned government witness to save their own skin.

Now I know what you're thinking, what has the mafia got to do with Holly?

Well no, she wasn't the head of a mafia organisation or even a member of one.

However, what she does have in common with these old school crooks is that she says she very much believes in that code of silence.

And that's why she spent so many years behind bars.

even if it costs you potentially 18 years of your life?

Chapter three, you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind.