Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Pastor's Kid Gets Arrested, Scams Prison Girlfriend & Beats the System
Thu, 05 Jun 2025
Alex Gruber explains how he manipulated a woman in prison by pretending to be in love so she’d send money and take care of him. He shares how he grew up in an extreme religious household, got locked up, and used people to survive.Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout.Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [email protected] you extra clips and behind the scenes content?Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime Follow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What challenges did Alex face growing up in a religious household?
What you want to do when you're in there is find a bigger girl. Convince him that you're in love. If they fall in love, he's gonna be like, I don't know what the hell they're thinking. This is probably gonna get me banned. My dad was our youth pastor. We went to church three days a week. We had a Thursday service, a Wednesday service, and a Sunday service.
It was excessive.
It was super excessive. We were taught that if you swear you go to hell, you burn an entire sin. I mean, very extreme religion. So we were educated to believe that if you step out of line— I mean, you're going to burn in hell. Right. And so throughout the years, my dad sober, doing good. He started drinking again. And very quickly, my mom did not like that.
She said, if you keep drinking, I'm going to leave. And he said, then get out. And so the next day he had a new girl over. I think we were, I think I was like 11 or 12 at the time. I was 13. Did your mom leave or the new girl? No, my mom was staying downstairs. So then the new girl, my dad knew her from a cage fighting gym. They were both cage fighters.
This is very pastoral.
It happened the next, it wasn't even like a week later. It was the next night. I mean, the next day we were waking up to this lady. Jennifer's here. Yeah. She's now moving in. So my mom freaked out, was like, F this, I'm out of here. Packed up her stuff, moved out because she was like, this is crazy. Throughout the time of that happening, my dad let us do whatever we wanted.
He caught me stealing his bud and he was like, hey man, just don't steal too much of it. Like if you want to smoke it every once in a while, that's fine. Just don't get crazy. My dad ended up building his dream house. We were, when I was way younger, we lived in Star. We dirt biked up in the foothills. We're sitting on a plot of land and my dad tells me I'm going to build a house here one day.
Eight years later, he ends up building a house on that plot of land. He designed it himself. It's 3,500 square foot. And so, I mean, that's where we lived. It was his dream home. And this is what he – this is all he – He owned an alarm company.
I was going to say, this is from alarms?
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Chapter 2: How did Alex's family dynamics affect his life choices?
So my dad and I decided to get strung out that night. And so that was the first time I ever experienced crystal. Yeah. And at that point, yeah, everything kind of changed. Life went downhill very rapidly. My dad at this time was also a raging alcoholic. So he was a very abusive drunk. There's a lot of stuff I'm probably skipping over. He couldn't handle substance very well.
But he's still managing to run this business. Yeah, he's somehow still managing to run it. So he would go to work all day, come home, drink a fifth of tequila, a 24-pack of Corona, do a bunch of dope, and then become excessively violent. And at this time, that girl that she's now passed away, her name was Erin. She was living. She moved in with us full time. She was also a cage fighter.
So these two would get drunk and then beat the living crap out of each other. Like, I mean, at 12, 13, it would be me and all my buddies surrounding it, and it was like a real legitimate cage fight. These two are drunk at this point, just, I mean, full domestic, beating each other. What does this chick look like? Oh, a straight cage fighter. She was a beast.
She would put on gloves and fight my homies, my buddies, and beat the crap out of them. Like, she was a monster. What does your dad look like? Oh, we can show you pictures. He was a monster. He was a beast, too. She ends up dragging him by a car later on, and that's why they split up. Almost killed him. So, I can show you pictures of that. So, you can see his skull for nine months.
Yeah, it was crazy. He used to be able to poke it. We'll get into that. So, I'm skipping over a lot. Okay. So, they're together. They're fighting, beating the crap out of each other. She hates me. Me and her beefed a lot. I was the worthless piece of crap son that just lived at the house. I was 14 years old. She used to be like, you're living off your father. You need to get out of here.
And I'm like... I'm like, what am I supposed to do? What do you mean? So me and her fought a lot. And so... As we're selling, we decide that it's a good idea to start growing bud in the house. Idaho is very strict on bud. And so we decide we're going to start growing bud. He gets plants from Oregon. His buddy brings him over. We plant them in our crawl space.
My dad, when he built this house, built it with a, I want to say it was a 12 foot crawl space, eight foot crawl space. So you had to, I mean, you had to have a ladder to get down in there.
He claims he was on the side of a mountain, right? Isn't it?
Yeah, it was on the side of a hill. And we had a sunken daylight basement. But he claimed the crawl space was always there so that he could grow one day. Okay. And so he did. And we start growing bud in the crawl space. He puts like 10 plants. And at this point, we're a mess. We're doing drugs, all sorts of drugs. We're doing whatever we can do. He's drinking.
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Chapter 3: What led Alex to start selling drugs?
2012.
17.
No.
30.
I'm 30.
What? You look like a child. Yeah. How old did you get?
Not 30, huh? You can't say you were 22 years old.
So, imagine now. Now, imagine me at 18 when I go to prison. You look like one of those little baby babies.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was thinking we could turn him into one of the little baby videos, but I don't think there would be a difference other than the beard would be gone.
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Chapter 4: How did Alex get arrested and what were the circumstances?
And you're locked up for 20 hours a day. So when you got to do something, I mean, pooping and pissing right around each other. Yeah. And I'm an 18, 18 year old kid. I was like, what the hell?
Uh, my celly curtain or something. Yeah.
I mean, can I get some privacy here, man? No, no, My celly, super cool experience. I mean, not super cool. The older guy, so he was able to look out for me. He had seizures at the time. So the first time I get in the cell, he's like, hey, man, just so you know, I have seizures. If I ever have a seizure, shove a book in my mouth. And he tells everyone this when they first get in.
And I'm like, okay, that's weird. One day, he starts seizing out. And I think it was me. It was either me or one of the cellies shoved a book in his mouth. Not the encyclopedia.
Just a big old... Something smaller.
Well, and so they ended up having to take the book because he bled on it and everyone was mad at us because we just lost the book. But... And then the CEOs yelled at us for putting the book in his mouth because you... You're not supposed to. Because they can choke on their own tongue.
Yeah. Well, that's a myth. It's actually... More damage is done trying to break these guys. You'll chip their teeth. No, it's super aggressive.
Like when you're trying to shove a book in a dude's mouth, that's seasoned.
But they actually never swallow their tongue. You can't swallow your tongue. I'm just saying I've met, I knew a guy who had seizures and he was like, bro, he had two or three chipped teeth. He's like, these are because fucking people try to shove shit in my mouth. Try to put a spoon in my fucking mouth and chip in my teeth. He's like, that's a myth. He's like, just leave me alone.
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Chapter 5: What was Alex's experience like in prison?
Yeah. During this, two dudes escape, just take off running from the camp, from the compound. They were like two months away from getting out. And each of them got five more years. Jeez. And so at the time, there was a nine-month program. That nine-month program was allowed to go leave the prison. And like commissary would show up in a truck.
They would take inmates from the nine-month program to go unload the commissary into the prison. So they would open the gate and let these inmates walk to the commissary truck and... Walked back in the prison, and they just took off running in the woods.
Kept walking?
Yeah. Lasted like three days. Got busted in Washington. I ended up in prison with him later. But, I mean, I asked him, was it worth it? He's like, I don't know. Ask me in five years. Right. I was like, that doesn't make sense to me, but okay. So I do the program. Struggle really hard with it. Almost get kicked out a few times.
And got back, went in front of my judge, and he did not want to let me out because I did not do good. Right. And he's like, I have a feeling you're going to be back. Uh, back to Burley, they put a warrant out for my arrest. So he releases me from my rider, but I can't be released. I have to be shipped all the way up three hours, four hours because I have a probation violation.
So then I have to be sent to that County jail to fight my probation violation, which it wasn't because I was still in custody. Judge is like, Oh, that's our mistake. We're going to release you. So he releases me. So now I'm out, did a rider. And this is so kind of where life takes a turn. Because I was like, at first, I was like, I'm going to do good. They make it really hard.
They don't really want you to succeed, I don't think. What, when you get out?
Get out of prison the first time. Did you go to a halfway house?
No. And so I got released. I tried to get released with my mom and her boyfriend. At the time, her boyfriend, my new stepdad. They were like, no, he's got guns in the house. So I was like, well, can I go to my buddy's house? And they were like, yeah, that sounds fine. So I went to just a buddy's house and they're smoking herb and you know, they're partying. And so I got there, got a job.
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Chapter 6: How did Alex manipulate the system during his legal troubles?
And I was like, dude, what's up with that skinny girl? And he's like, oh, she's underage. I was like, oh, fuck, never mind. I was like, what's up with that bigger girl? And he's like, that's my sister. I was like, perfect. And I was like, you know I'm going to use her, right? And he's like, oh, yeah, I don't give a shit. And I was like, perfect.
Because what you want to do when you're in there is find a bigger girl. We're going to get into this real quick. Oh, my God. Listen, they support you. They help you out. You know what I mean? They know what it's like to go hungry. This is probably going to get me banned.
They knew what it was like to go hungry. They wouldn't be bigger girls.
True. Yeah, but missing a meal to them, when you start talking about missing meals, they're like, damn, that sucks. You can pull at their heartstrings, you know what I mean? So I tell him I'm going to use her, and he says, well, that's a good idea. So I write her.
So when I got to prison, as soon as I got sentenced, the day I got to prison, she'd already, I didn't even know she'd put in a visit request. So all of a sudden there's a visit request in, she's coming to see me. And I'm like, what the fuck? This chick's crazy. Worked out. Cause. If they fall in love, he's manipulated. So you convince him that you're in love.
So then her friend is bringing her boyfriend, Bud.
I was just thinking this is your husband.
Yeah. So her friend is visiting her boyfriend in there, my buddy Squeak, and she's bringing him Bud. So I'm like, Megan, what's up? Like, you know, I'm going hungry in here. If you just bring me these balloons. make some money and we're good. And she's like, there's no way that's going to happen. I'm not, no. And I was like, well, you're in college right now. You need a laptop.
They'll drop off three balloons in a laptop. You keep the laptop. You give me three balloons. I mean, it's pretty good trade. She's like, that's a great trade. So now she's bringing me in. She thinks it's herb, but bud, it's crystal. So now I'm having my buddy package crystal, drop it off to her. She's bringing me in three balloons at a time, three eight balls. Uh, and it just kind of.
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Chapter 7: What lessons did Alex learn from his experiences with drugs and crime?
And so, like, you'd be in there and all these older guys would be like, you used to fuck dudes back in the day. And they're like, no, no, no, no. I would never do that. I just watched. I just stood watch. I made sure the CEOs didn't catch them. And I was like, if you're standing watch, you were participating, you old fucking... Grandpa George was his name. We used to talk a lot of crap to him.
He's going to die in there. But so, ad seg... Uh, learned a lot there, got out of ad sake. And so a funny story there. So we were only allowed to have the phones for, uh, one hour, four times a week. My wife hates this story. So one hour, four times a week, the CEOs usually didn't care. They would let you have it for longer. So you got to put in a slip.
They'd give you the phone and you'd put it in for the second at 1 PM. They'd give it to you at one, take it at two. Most CEOs didn't care. They'd let you hold on to it. There's this one chick. She's probably like five foot. Just started there in Ad Seg, and she was evil at 2 o'clock. Your hour, she'd come take it. So my homie was like, hey, just get naked.
When she comes to take it next time, just strip down naked and act like you're pleasuring yourself. You're going to sell by yourself. He's like, she's not going to stop. She's not going to try to take it. And I'm like, that's a good idea. So I do that. I mean, I take my watch off. I take everything off. I'm standing over the toilet. I got the phone in my ear. I'm not even on the phone.
She walks to that window, bangs on the door and looks me dead in the eyes. And she's like, give me the phone. And I'm sitting there like, uh, excuse me. I was like, really? Like right now I'm in the middle of something. She's like, give me the phone, hang up and give me the phone. I was like, are you, I was like, are you serious? Like really? And she's like, you know what?
I'm going to go get another CEO. He storms out, gets a male CO. He comes in laughing his ass off. And he's like, dude, are you serious right now? You were butt naked, dick in hand, sitting there. And I was like, dude, she is evil. Like, she will not. I've never had a lady look me dead in the eyes while you're doing that and be like, give me the phone.
He was like, he thought it was the funniest crap ever. He left me the phone. He was like, you know what? You can hold on to it for a little bit. And I was like, thank you. But there was a lot of cool CEOs too. Like, I mean, I had great interactions with some staff. There was a lot of dicks. But after that, AdSeg, I didn't get in too much trouble there.
There's nothing really you could do to get in trouble. Get out of AdSeg. Get back to GP. And at this point, all my homies are like, oh, you're going to start doing stuff again? Fat girl left. Big girl left. She went to AdSeg. She was like, you know, I can't do this anymore. You're in AdSeg. I was like, whatever.
What happened to the big girl that was coming to visit you? Her.
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