Letters written from prison to former smuggler and friend Tammy whom Steven met in the 1970’s on South Padre Island off the Texas Gulf Coast where he began pot importations from Oaxaca, Mexico. A prison from which there is no escape is a shattering revelation.
October 7, 1989 Saturday
So much has happened in my life that I don’t know where to begin or if you even care to know… Suffice to say, when my dreams were realized, only then did I understand what I had been striving for over the years was really insignificant. After spending fifteen years searching for wealth, thinking it would bring me happiness, I saw how mistaken I was about life. But I had to fulfill my goals to learn the truth.
As you probably know, I had several exciting years that I will never forget, and though I am paying some heavy dues, I would not have changed a thing.
Tammy, I have never forgotten the summer in South Padre Island. It is strange to think about, but the people I met so long ago eventually led me to all that I have done. A very long road…And what a story it will make for my children one day or the book that I will write.
October 19, 1989
My life has undergone so many changes, and it has been difficult if not impossible to maintain contact with many people I always held dear to my heart. And considering my present notoriety not a lot of people feel comfortable keeping in touch with me.
Tammy, I was not pleased with what I had become at the time of my arrest. I had allowed myself to be corrupted with the lure of power. I believed I was invincible and had dreams of grandeur. Once I had earned millions of dollars, I wanted the power to influence the lives of others. Of course I believed my motives were noble and my cause just but I had aligned myself with despicable people. And I had forgotten the age-old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
March 4, 1991
I suppose prison is partly responsible for keeping me young. Time has a way of stopping in here which is very hard to explain. Of course there is the obvious explanation that you are unable to abuse yourself with the poisons available in the free world. But I think it is much deeper than just that. We are actually in a time warp; as the world changes around us. We remain the same. This is why it is so hard for people to readjust to living outside of prison—their perceptions of the world and the people they knew remain unchanged from the time they were taken from society and placed in prison.
They remember everything exactly as it was, not as it is. Hopefully I will not suffer this delusion; I have tried to keep abreast of the changes in my friends’ and family’s lives. I will know rather shortly though if this is the case with me.
Shortly means another twenty months in captivity, which is not long when you consider I have been away for seven years this summer. It’s all relative to the person involved; twenty months almost killed Joe whereas I look upon it with joy.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LARGEST DRUG SMUGGLING RING EVER DISCOVERED IN THE UNITED STATES...... COMING 2017-2018 the non-fiction crime epic about one of the most compelling stories in the twentieth century "The Last Gentleman Smuggler" by former Texans Steven M. Kalish, a fifteen-year-old hippie drop-out to one of the largest pot smugglers and money-laundering masters in a tribe not his own, and Nikki Palomino, award-winning author/filmmaker DAZED Novel Trilogy, rock journalist, former grunge rock musician/radio personality.
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.
July 1984
“I have been involved in marijuana smuggling for most of my adult life....I am Steven Michael Kalish, convicted narcotics smuggler.”
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