Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
How to Survive in Jail | Prison Boss Reveals All
15 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: What led Garet McLendon to a life of crime?
When they hit my house, I had 27 motorcycles, 10 cars. I had a full-on chop shop going on in the garage. When I'm sitting there on the cell phone inside the prison system, and I got people driving up, and I got them on the cell phone, and I'm directing them at every step they need to do, there is no better rush.
I loved it.
Horrible. Horrible, right? That's all I knew in my life, though.
Yeah.
Parents were married until I was five. My dad was an alcoholic. My mom was a drug addict. And it seems like that maybe those two don't mix as a couple. My sister and I stayed with my mom and my mom continued to do drugs.
And so like having a drug addict as a mother or an addict household, it was just like I go to school and I show up at home one day and there'd be another guy, there'd be a guy on the couch. And that would be my mom's new boyfriend that she probably met at the bar. They'd be fist fighting and drinking. I remember me and my sister being in the back of the pickup truck.
They'd be fighting in the cab up in the front, throwing punches, throwing blows. And your kids in the back of the truck screaming, thinking they're going to crash into a tree or something. And I was one of those kids and all this stuff happening at the home. And then I would just go to school and have to act normal and just have to blend in with all the rest of these kids. Where's your dad?
Is he coming around at all? I do vaguely remember the visits with my dad. And I remember the day that he came and I had this choice. He's like, you can come live with me and get away from all this. In which my sister was like, yeah, I'm going to go live with you, dad. And I stayed with my mom. And I continue in that misery as a kid. And I'm tall.
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Chapter 2: How did Garet's childhood impact his choices?
And so I just got to be able to stay in this conflict of life of my mom and guys and boyfriends and family.
and the abuse and the drugs like uh like kids would come to my house to stay the night because we i had no rules i did even the morning come back at night i i like to have i like to have friends that had stuff like uh food at the table some clean clothes that maybe i could wear and all this stuff because all those daily households all that daily household stuff wasn't getting met at my household unless it was like the first and the 15th when she got her check but even then towards the end that that was even making it i mean there was times as a kid like my mom would be with these guys and
the drugs and the money be all over the place but most of all there'd be guns around and uh she would like they'd be fighting so hard and and there would be times that she'd grab a gun and and she'd be pointing it at the guy and like if the safety wasn't on like my mom my mom would have just shot him Or I'd walk in, my mom would be getting raped by guys and all this stuff.
And I really felt like there was nothing I could do as a kid because I was so little that they just throw me around. And I finally got to a point in my life where I grew up quick and I was looking these guys in the eyes. And so at that point, there was no more, you weren't going to abuse my mom or nothing like that no more.
At this time, my mom, what she starts doing, she starts dating her connection. Her connection became my father figure because I don't talk to my father. I see him vaguely. I go to his house and visit. My mom finally gets picked up maybe for warrants. I remember we get pulled over. My mom gets picked up. Maybe they found drugs. Maybe it was a warrant.
It probably was a warrant or probably it was drugs, but whatever. I go from where we were living. I move in with my grandmother. And, um, my grandma lives in town and like, I sort of lived off in the outskirts of town and like this little secluded area to where like we're drinking pints and, and smoking weed and, and, and, um, The change happens.
Eighth grade, I get introduced to the, like, I meet this guy, and this guy is a full-on, he's older, he's like 10 years older than me, and I'm big, so I'm not like your average size, so I'm like, I'm a big kid. And I'm walking the dogs, my mom, like, my mom gets out of jail, she's like on this different path, she's living with her mom, and
And I meet this guy and like, and like, I think I'm just like this guy. I'm just like this boy who wants like this role model in this life. And I, I've been, my mom's connection has been like my, my role model for the longest time. Like I've been watching him sell drugs. I knew what drugs are. Like I, they're happy in my household. My mom would come in and bring me stuff.
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Chapter 3: What experiences did Garet have in prison?
And like my friends would sneak over and I'd be like, Hey, you guys all want to do lines and we all do lines. And, And then we'd just go ride our motorcycles all night. And we drank pints of liquor. And then I watched this guy. And what it is, he'd tell me things that I didn't know. He taught me how to use a broom and mop a floor. And he'd teach me that. Like, if you use a disc, wash a disc.
And these are all things that I learned later on in my life. I didn't know what he was teaching me. It was like the whole time he was like... he was like training me for prison and it just got worse. By the time my freshman year in high school, I was full blown.
I was, um, like, uh, um, that, that something happened in that, that, that summer from eighth grade into the beginning of freshman year in high school. And back then, like we checked herself into high school and, uh, I was already, uh, learning how to, uh, wrap up, wrap up, make bindles and make this little bit of side money by selling drugs.
This guy that lived like two, two doors down from me, he was, uh, he was an active gang member And I just went right under his wing. And I remember sitting there one night with this guy in his house. I stay up all night at his house. My house was full. My household was full. My household was like this.
It was my grandma, my uncle, my little sister, my nephew, and me in this one bedroom little spot. Like everybody, like really no space or no privacy. And then there's a guy next door that seems like he has stuff going on. And, um, and he teaches me and I, and I learned this flow of how to make a couple dollars by, by, by selling drugs.
And, um, I remember sitting at his house that one night and, uh, And there was a knock on the door, and it must have been this guy just getting released out.
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Chapter 4: How did Garet learn to navigate the prison system?
And everybody just looked at this guy, and he was just such a big role model to everybody in the room. Everybody just stood quiet. He came in large and in charge and walked through, and everybody gave him this really good respect. I still see it, and it's still clear as day right now. And I love that. And I love that. I started selling drugs. And this is 15. This is a 15 years old.
And, um, I'm, I, and I took off from home 15 years old Christmas break. And, uh, and I took off from home and, um, And I started, uh, staying on the streets. I used to, you know, I, at first it wasn't like I was, I go out there and I'd be gone for like two, two weeks at a time, one week, then a two weeks and it'd be a month. Okay. Are you still going to, you're still going to school?
No. Dropped out of schools out. Yeah. I mean, when you say selling drugs, are you like going to like, like a street corner?
Like, uh, apartment complexes and, uh, street corners and, um, hanging out with just the clientele. So there's like, uh, There's like a street that has apartment buildings on both sides, multiple units, and you just sort of just run through all of them night and day, hang out at the Circle K right there on the corner, and just sell all day long. You're like a pager. What year is this?
I don't even have a pager at this time. I mean, pagers are just... I did have a pager at this time. This is like 94, 95. Okay. And then the pager comes out and Motorola brick phones and that lifestyle starts for me. And I just, I delve in.
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Chapter 5: What was Garet's turning point towards recovery?
It was like all I knew. And I liked being in these apartment buildings and selling drugs to the night of day. And I make the laundry room like my little office and people just would come through and all this stuff in it. And all it is, is like my mom's connection became my connection. So I was able to just go get large amounts from him, break it all up.
And then I just go in there and sell it and sell it. And then one day I showed up at home and I told my mom that she can buy her drugs from me now on. She doesn't have to buy them from nobody else. And then not only that, she became my mom, but she became a using buddy for me. I mean, are people getting busted? Do you ever get busted? I don't get busted at this time, no.
I'm too fresh in the game to really notice it. I know this, is that... I start messing with, uh, this guy that I met in the apartment in the park, John that lived next door. And, uh, and he's rolling around.
So like, I'm, I'm, I'm in my, I remember like my freshman year in high school, I'm going and, uh, and like, these guys are well above graduated and they're bringing me and dropping me off at school. And like, they're, they're blasted back with tattoos and, uh, Six, four Impalas. It's the whole, the whole thing. Going to like high school parties and like beating up people.
Like, so like your reputation is coming. And, and I, and what I do is I start hanging out with these people nonstop. That's the life I went into. And by the time I, I don't get busted until like 17 years old, I get busted. I get picked up for a GTA. And, and it was, it wasn't like nothing happened.
ferocious as uh i was out in those apartment buildings serving for as long as i could and and uh i wanted to go home and get some rest and i remember that one of the guys parked a stolen car over there on the side street and i went and grabbed that stolen car and i wired it up and i and i drive it and uh and uh i missed the wire and had no brake light so i get pulled over
And I go to, and I go to YA. I'm in there with this little slap on the hand, turn around type thing.
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Chapter 6: How did Garet's family relationships evolve after prison?
What's YA? Youth Authority. Okay. I'm not, I'm not 18 yet, so I can't go into the county jail. And, and I go on this little, little trip in a YA. I get some community service and kids programs and stuff like that. And, um, I don't finish it. I don't do it. The need for the streets to pull me in. I'm getting ready to turn 18.
I know a lot of people from what I've been doing for the past three years. This is when people start getting busted. The guys I'm hanging out with are doing too much. Stuff's happening on the streets. We're getting busted. We're pulling guns on people. We're going out there collecting money and doing what we need to do. And it seems like I'll never forget, man, I was out there.
I was on a bicycle. Friends of the guy that I sold for, man, he was driving by in this Astro van. And I remember, like I'm a kid, I'm a big kid, but I remember he seen me riding my bike down the street and he grabbed me and he threw me in that van and he took me out in the middle of the desert, man. And he squared up with me and made me fight him.
I don't know why, but because they thought I was putting a needle in my arm. For whatever reason, they just wanted to, maybe just to show that inferior, maybe to put that scared. I don't know, just to see if you were down, if you were going to fight or if you were scared or nothing. I'm out in the middle of the desert. I'm scared for my life.
As a kid, I'm sitting there with this guy and I'm like, get up. And he's rushing at me, get up.
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Chapter 7: What strategies did Garet use to stay sober after release?
And it's terrifying. And then he takes me back over to the brother's house. And at the brother's house, he's a big guy. He's out there. He's doing the deal. These guys are doing their manufacturing methamphetamine. And it goes from speed to crystal. It comes out. I'm no longer selling weed or anything like that. It's all about selling crystal, man. And we go in. And I'm watching these guys.
And they give me whatever I needed at any time. And just, man, this lifestyle started. I no longer did anything with my mom's guy, my mom's boyfriend, anything like that. I'm hanging out with white boy, white Peckerwood gangsters that run the streets. And as they get busted or die, you know, Um, and you're still 17 years old. Uh, I'm about 18 years old now.
I mean, 17 years old comes at this time when that thing happened was I was probably about 16 at 17 years old. I did that little YA thing and, uh, 18 years old. Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm just before I turn 18, you know, cause on, on 18 years old, I, I, um, I get my own place. At 15 years old, I got my own place. At 15 years old, I got my first car.
I don't even have a driver's license and, uh, I don't have nothing. I'm just, uh, I, I, I pay for it with drugs and I'm out there just, uh, ripping and rolling around in this car, no longer on a bicycle. I, and, uh, And, um, at, uh, 18 years old, um, I move in with this girl and, uh, it gets bigger and, um, and, uh, and the dealing gets bigger and, and, and, and not the higher.
And then at probably about the, at the age of 19 years old, it gets like, uh, guys really start, um, getting picked off. But, uh, I do it, I do a little stint.
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Chapter 8: How does Garet now help others in recovery?
And do some jail time and... For what? Stolen cars. Sales. Or your... Nothing big, dude. This is like a little turnaround. And what happened is this, is that... It's this, it's, it's nothing, it's nothing but like that first introduction into the county jail where I go to this processing. It's, it's scary. They throw me in a 9,000 hall. It's, it's, it's scary.
I'm big, but a lot of people know me from that. So like I get pulled into the right places. I, I hang out with the right people and, uh, and I, and I get let out with, uh, and I get let out, man, thinking that was nothing.
it was nothing i might have been scared the whole time i was in there you fight when you fight you don't do this you don't do that i'm here on this thing and and this is what happens it seems like all those guys that that that whose tails i were i was on or who i was selling for and who i was watching do their thing it seems like they um they all single-handedly get busted and it seems like my time comes up to the top of the ladder or or to that somewhere on that ladder how to make it even the ground and since i've been watching the manufacturing
amphetamine and doing all this stuff. Like I, I get my hands into it.
And, uh, and so, um, and so it begins and I, and I, and I get my hands in the, and, and it, and it just like, uh, and it's like, um, the rush, uh, all, everything about it was just like enriching and, uh, the, the, the, the, the, to, to cook a batch, to rip it down in the house, to, to blow out a kitchen into the garage, from the garage to the kitchen. And, uh,
and do all this stuff to learn manufacturing like so we i set up a lab inside the garage of a house and um and at first i really didn't know how to mix chemicals i'm sort of just like air shouldn't hit at this time you're checking your ph balance and stuff and like one wrong twist or tape the airtight and boom it just blows it right up the from the garage into the kitchen it's a it's a rental house i'm just like uh and everybody's like oh
my god what's going on and like you just like you you go to another house you set up the same thing you do the same stuff and and and and it finally goes smooth and you run for like five or six months and you and in that time you have enough you go to the next one and um and then you go to another spot then you get a trailer and we start cooking him a trailer in the middle of the desert and uh and it and it just keeps on i remember my i had i had some friends i mean friends of mine are dying out there but uh
I remember like sitting out in the berm. Like I have a house out in a sort of like secluded area in the middle of the desert. It's a decent place. And I'd be so sketched out drugs just thinking that I'm going to get busted, right? I'd be sitting there with a pager, cell phone, right? In the middle of the desert watching my own goddamn house and just paranoia. And I get busted, dude. I get busted.
And how did that happen? I beat up this guy, which happened to be a guy that put hands on my mom. I beat him up pretty bad. I made him walk, stripped him on the streets, took his shoes, everything, his underwear, made him walk down the street. And at the same time, I was cooking at my house. So you beat him up, made him... So what happened is I...
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