The Former Nazi The CIA Wanted NOTHING To Do With

Summary

Podcast Summary: Camp Gagnon

Episode: The Former Nazi The CIA Wanted NOTHING To Do With

Host: Mark Gagnon
Guest: Dave Frank
Date: November 4, 2025

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Overview of the Episode

This deeply personal and gripping episode features Dave Frank, a man whose life trajectory spans violent neo-Nazi gangs, time spent in the underbelly of Los Angeles and international conflict zones, and eventual redemption through sobriety and purpose. Host Mark Gagnon guides listeners through Dave's raw and unfiltered account, focusing on his upbringing, immersion in hate groups, criminal activity, journey to sobriety, moral reckoning, and eventual mission to fight on behalf of the "good guys"—including attempting, unsuccessfully, to join both the U.S. military and intelligence communities, and later taking up arms against drug cartels and extremist groups overseas.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Upbringing and Early Exposure to Chaos

• Roots in San Fernando Valley, LA: Dave describes the environment where he grew up as rife with crime, sex work, and drugs (02:24).
• Family history: His mother was a "pot-smoking hippie" heavily involved in the counterculture and narrowly avoided ties to the Manson murders, recounting chilling anecdotes about Charles Manson (03:26–04:40).
• Fathers with complex backgrounds: His biological father became a post-op trans woman and was a Vietnam tunnel rat—"If you know anything about that, you have to go into the tunnels in Vietnam and dispatch people in hand-to-hand combat in the dark." (06:00)
• Disrupted childhood: Moved from rural Iowa back to LA at 14, where violence and gang activity became unavoidable (09:16–09:23).

2. Entry Into Gangs and Neo-Nazi Culture

• Violent environments shaped choices: After being attacked and robbed by a gang, Dave retaliated violently and soon fell in with white power skinhead groups for safety and belonging (09:29, 12:00).
• Gang initiation: Reading racist literature and attending meetings, the culture demanded acts of violence—“A set of lightning bolts is that you've shed blood for the white race. They expect you to stab or kill people.” (23:09)
• Lasting marks: Dave began removing his hate tattoos later in life, recognizing the weight of what they symbolized (00:00, 11:44).

3. Criminal Activity and Turning Point

• Violence and attempted murder charge: Dave recounts his involvement in violent crimes, including a case where someone’s throat was slit during a robbery (13:57):
  • “Nothing I can ever do is going to make what happened that night okay. ...I apologize with all my heart and you don't owe me any forgiveness or anything.” (15:17)
• Jail experience: Shares brutally honest details about survival and violence in LA County Jail (16:48–19:34).

4. Hitting Bottom and Path to Sobriety

• Escalation and brush with death: Multiple brushes with death—from shootouts to gang vendettas—culminated in a standoff where he realized, “Is this how my life is really going to go? I'm going to kill this guy right in front of all these people and spend the rest of my life in San Quentin, or he's going to come in and kill me. And that's just the end of my pathetic existence.” (28:09)
• Catalyst for change: Participation in rehab brought him into direct conflict and then friendship with Andre, a black Nation of Islam member:
  • “He told me, if I'd been born white, I would be just like you. ...if I'd been born black, I would have been just like him. And I thought to myself, everything in your life, every failure, is your fault.” (35:55, 41:02–41:40)

5. Self-Awareness and Redemption

• Embracing responsibility: Reading Malcolm X profoundly shaped his worldview—“Malcolm X ...helped save my life, man. ...you do for self.” (41:40)
• Leaving hate behind almost cost him his life: Former associates turned on him after he denounced white supremacy (45:05–47:11).

6. Attempts to Serve - Facing Institutional Roadblocks

• Military rejections: Despite exceptional test scores, his criminal record and violent past blocked him from enlisting—even after multiple attempts (47:13–49:42).
• CIA & foreign intervention hopes dashed: Dave’s eagerness to fight extremists overseas led to frustrating calls with the CIA and unsuccessful attempts to join the French Foreign Legion and other organizations (47:13–49:42, 54:36–55:57).

7. Taking the Fight Abroad

• Daniel Pearl’s death as motivation: After viewing the beheading of the American journalist, Dave decided he would fight extremism directly, venturing to Russia and seeking entry into their security service to battle Al Qaeda (49:42–51:51).

8. Fighting Drug Cartels in Mexico

• Personal vendetta and commitment: His childhood exposure to drugs by cartels drove him to later fight against them, working as a bodyguard for a Mexican general—“When they took away my daughter and the cartels gave me drugs...I'm gonna go confront the cartels.” (56:08–58:13)
• Sense of honor and gratitude: Emotional moments expressing appreciation for his general and the shared purpose with his comrades (58:14).

9. Reflections on Regret, Purpose, and Advocacy

• No regrets, but always striving: Dave acknowledges his checkered past but expresses zero regrets for fighting evil and trying to do good with his life—“If someday someone catches me and I gotta meet a gruesome man...I'll pay that a hundred times over because you're not sending me any place I'm not already going.” (58:14–61:00)
• Future goals: Aims to become a lawyer to help others, motivated by his wife’s support and his own desire to atone and serve (61:36–61:43).

10. Closing Thoughts on Unsung Heroes

• Tribute to journalists and educators: Dave offers heartfelt respect for those fighting evil without weapons—“You have nothing but my deep, undying respect. ...We’re not the heroes with our weapons. You guys are.” (62:43–64:15)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On his tattoos and past:
  “A set of lightning bolts is that you've shed blood for the white race. ...They expect you to stab or kill people and this is just our whole mentality at the time.” – Dave Frank (00:00, 23:09)

• On family and violence:
  “My mom was a pot smoking hippie that was smoking pot with Charles Manson. ...She missed being involved in the Tate LaBianca murders.” – Dave Frank (02:24)

• On self-awareness and responsibility:
  “Everything in your life, every failure, is your fault. ...You did nothing with it. ...You hate everybody because you hate yourself.” – Dave Frank (35:55, 41:20)

• On sobriety and transformation:
  “If you're a Crip or a Blood, or you're a Latino gang member, or anybody watching this, if you're in a cartel watching this, I want you to know that a miracle can happen for you, too. Because it happened for me.” – Dave Frank (28:09)

• On redemption and regret:
  “If someday, someday someone catches me and I gotta meet a gruesome man...I'll pay that a hundred times over because you're not sending me any place I'm not already going.” – Dave Frank (58:14)

• On his purpose:
  “I'm not gonna quit, man. No way. ...If I have one regret, it's that I haven't done enough. In fact, I gotta get a bar exam so I can help people. I want to help people, man.” – Dave Frank (61:32–61:43)

• On the real heroes:
  “To the reporters that risk your life and your families every day...you have nothing but my deep, undying respect...their weapons [are] the pen.” – Dave Frank (62:43–64:15)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–01:02 — Dave’s former life in the neo-Nazi underworld
• 02:24–04:40 — Stories of family, hippie life, and near-encounters with Charles Manson
• 06:00–09:14 — Complex father figures and military backgrounds
• 09:16–11:44 — Transition back to LA and immersion in gang life
• 13:57–16:48 — Attempted murder case and reflections on crime
• 19:34 — Violent culture of LA County Jail
• 23:09–24:51 — Symbolism and consequences of gang tattoos
• 28:09–35:55 — Critical moment leading to sobriety and the turning point
• 41:02–41:40 — Insightful exchange with Andre and Malcolm X’s influence
• 45:05–47:11 — Dangers faced after renouncing white supremacy
• 47:13–49:42 — Frustrations with the military and CIA rejections
• 49:42–51:51 — Daniel Pearl’s beheading and the drive to fight terrorism abroad
• 53:08–55:57 — Language learning, Russia, and failed French Foreign Legion attempt
• 56:08–58:14 — Motivation to confront drug cartels in Mexico
• 61:32–61:43 — Aspiration to help others as a lawyer
• 62:43–64:15 — Final tribute to journalists, educators, and unsung heroes

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Tone & Final Impressions

The episode is raw, unsparing, and ultimately redemptive, blending street-level realism and violence with emotional vulnerability and philosophical growth. Dave’s candor, unfiltered narratives, and heartfelt gratitude—especially for his wife, mentors, and those risking their lives for justice—anchor the episode in hope and underscore the possibility of transformation, no matter the starting point.

A must-listen for anyone interested in stories of redemption, the psychology of hate and violence, and the struggle to right past wrongs.

Transcript

[Dave Frank]

Basically a set of lightning bolts is that you've shed blood for the white race. But I've been going to get my tattoos lasered off for a long time. They expect you to stab or kill people and this is just our whole mentality at the time and it's not any tough guy thing, it's just, it's what it was.

[Mark Gagnon]

This is Dave Frank and his real life is something out of a booty.

[Dave Frank]

I myself in 91 was looking at an attempted murder charge.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And what was the nature of that case? Can you share?

[Dave Frank]

There was a guy walking down the street and so I ran across the street and I dropped the dude. Come to find out the dude was a dealer. We're trying to get the guy to go to his house. The person I was with wound up slit in the guy's throat, jumped by.

[Mark Gagnon]

Gangs as a kid. He got hooked on drugs and alcohol. He got pulled into a violent neo Nazi crew and somehow found his way out. He read the autobiography of Malcolm X. He got sober and he made it his life mission to take on bad guys.

[Dave Frank]

I have zero regrets. And if someday, someday someone catches me and I gotta meet a gruesome man, a can pay that 100 times over because you're not sending me any place I'm not already going.

[Mark Gagnon]

This episode is fascinating. He goes through the entire story from hate to redemption, from the streets to the front lines. This is Dave Frank's story. He is the real life American history X. So sit back, relax and welcome to Camp.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Dave Frank.

[Dave Frank]

Mark Ganyon.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

How are you sir?

[Dave Frank]

I'm very well. Thank you for having me back to your show, man.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Of course, brother.

[Dave Frank]

Come to my house.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Thanks for having us in your home again. I really appreciate it.

[Dave Frank]

Dude, your guys is you guys. I've been watching a lot of your material online and you guys are just fire.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Thank you, man.

[Dave Frank]

I hope for those of you that don't know, these guys are the man, him and his whole crew.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Thank you, brother.

[Dave Frank]

You're welcome.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

I appreciate you saying that. We spoke a little bit about your, your past working as protection for a Mexican general and basically battling the cartels in Mexico and fighting on the side of the good guys. And today I kind of want to just jump all the way back because your story from the very beginning is fascinating. I mean from you know, growing up in California to joining like a neo Nazi gang to then denouncing the neo Nazis and the movement to then going off to Russia to go, you know, try to fight Al Qaeda. It's a fascinating wrap up that I wanted. I wanted, you know, basically to start from the beginning. So can you explain where were you born and what was childhood like generally?

[Dave Frank]

I gotta. I gotta rep LA the San Fernando Valley, where I came from. In fact, it's funny that you bring that up because right now, if you go onto my Facebook thing, I've got several mutual friends that are right now facing a federal RICO indictment for being white power or white supremacist in the San Fernando Valley. I'm not going to get into it and throw out a bunch of names, but where I come from in LA is both the porno capital of the world, or was before they moved it to Vegas. When I was born, my mom was a pot smoking hippie that was smoking pot with Charles Manson. They lived up on George Spahn's ranch in Santa Susana pass before the 118. And my grandmother found out that my mom was smoking pot and dropping acid with Charles Manson. So she made my mom go up there with an undercover LA cop. And my mom got afraid and she just missed being involved in the Tate LaBianca murders in 1969 and 70.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

So your mom was living on Span Ranch?

[Dave Frank]

She was up there doing acid and smoking pot every day? Yeah, she would go up there with her friend. I don't know if Debbie. I'm not going to leave her last name out of it, but Debbie lived in Simi Valley. In order to get back and forth between the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, you had to go along the Spahn Ranch because response Sandy Susanna Pass, which is where the Spawn Ranch was. It was on that road. And so they were hitchhiking. There are two hippie chicks, they're hitchhiking back to Debbie's house. Lol. Who picks him up? Charles Manson. So that's my mom.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Wow. Did she talk about Charles Manson?

[Dave Frank]

Yeah, Charles Manson used to fill up my mom's back. He would sit there and see if she was wearing a bra and stuff like that. Yeah, for real, man did.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

What did she say about him? Like, what did she say?

[Dave Frank]

She had hippie beads. My mom, like doing scrapbooks and stuff and she had hippie beads that Charles Manson gave her. I think that when my mom died, she died the day I got home from the Bering Sea. But when my mom died, I think my sister got all those scrapbooks. But we couldn't prove that they were Charles Manson, but we know they were just as a family and that was my mom. So she would talk about going up there. My mom just loved partying and dropping acid and Just the complete hippie.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

I mean, did she describe him as being violent or did she describe him as just being kind of like a music guy?

[Dave Frank]

No. What my mom specifically talked about, Charles Manson was, and I'm going to be very specific, word for word, he would talk about them all dropping acid, or she would talk about them all dropping acid together, him filling up their backs because there's all hippie chicks up there. So it was. And it's 1969, Summer of Love. And they would paint rooms in the Spawn Ranch black and then use glue and paste Styrofoam peanut packaging up on the wall and trip. Trip out on LSD looking at it like they're all stars. That's what they were doing. But it's the 60s.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

I mean, it was just basically like a drug community at that point.

[Dave Frank]

It was a total drug community, but it was a very violent underlying. You know, it's weird because we were talking about narcosetismo. There are violent evil people out there and Charles Manson's whole thing. In fact, one of the persons that's tied into my story about robbing drug dealers and stuff was locked up with Charles Manson and Charles in Vacaville. They were at prison hospital in California and they were talking about Charles Manson doing things for ice cream that are less than savory, we're gonna say. And well, he's not a big guy. He's like, really?

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Right.

[Dave Frank]

Maybe comes up to here on my chest or whatever, but fascinating.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And then what was your dad like?

[Dave Frank]

I've got two dads. I've talked in the other interview about one of my fathers being a post op transsexual. And I grew up. I've got a little bit of cauliflower ear left over. If anybody ever feels a certain way about it and they want to talk about it, we can. I try to be humble, but I'm not going to put up with any crap about my dad. I tried to understand it. My biological father became a post op transsexual. And I've read books on it. It's called sexual reassignment surgery. My last name sounds like synonym for homosexual. And so I grew up my whole life fighting. I'm not the toughest guy, but I've had to fight a lot in my life because of it. And he ironically was a very masculine man. He was a tunnel rat in Vietnam. And if you know anything about that, you have to go into the tunnels in Vietnam and dispatch people in hand to hand combat in the dark, being as quiet as possible. So you don't alert any other people that might be in the rooms. So that was my biological father. And so what people think, like I'm kind of looped or whatever, going down, confronting drug cartels or being in Russia, that's kind of where it came from.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Runs in the family.

[Dave Frank]

It runs in the family. And I'm gonna say this. I love my father's. I have two of them. I have my biological father, and I have the father that raised me. I love them both deeply and.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And the father that raised you, what kind of work did he do?

[Dave Frank]

He was a combat marine. He. They wanted to court martial because he liked being in Vietnam, jacking stuff up. So when my biological dad, him and my mom went and go see Jimi Hendricks, which my cat's named for, and he was shipping out of Fort Ord in California, which no longer exists, but used to be an army base, going to Vietnam. And my brothers and sister's dad was getting back and he had put in three tours and they were going to court martial him if he didn't leave Vietnam. So he had to come back. And he met my mom, who's this hippie chick. And my mom was already pregnant with me. But he was a very. Leland was a very. And I call him dad too, because he taught me how to shoot. By the time I was four years old, he was from Nebraska and Iowa. So when they got out, we went back and grew up on a farm. My mom gave me away. He was. Both of my fathers are very logical, unfeeling, and I don't know if Vietnam had something to do with that. And sometimes my wife complains about how I am, and I try to be a feeling and not emotional, but just try to, like, understand or be empathetic, if you will, of what other people are going through. But neither one of my fathers. You asked about what he was like. Very hard workers, both of them, in their own right. And when he came back, he. He spent his entire life in the military. And then even when he was done with one branch, he went from that to Army National. He went from Marines to Army National Guard to Air Force National Guard, and he retired with all kind. In fact, I buried my father. I was one of the. In fact, I literally buried my father. There's a picture somewhere of me shoveling the dirt on top of him because no one's gonna send my father home except for me. That's just the way it is. So.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

So you lived on a farm in Iowa for a little bit, and then you.

[Dave Frank]

Until we were 14. And we came back and we're immediately dumped into gangs.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

So you go back to San Fernando Valley.

[Dave Frank]

Yeah, correct.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And you're just like a skater kid in San Fernando Valley, Right? And pretty immediately you're getting jumped by. By other guys.

[Dave Frank]

I got jumped by six Crips. They beat me up. And then, no bones about it, I. I went back and brained one. They stole my. They beat me up. Six grips, beat me up, stole my skateboard, punked me, if you will. I got punked and I went back to school the next day with a bat and brain the dude that was responsible for it. And that's just the way it is. And I'm not being like, I'm not some macho tough guy, man. I mean, one of my favorite movies is the Notebook. My wife hates it. I'm very. I'm very in touch with, like, feeling affection. My mom was a very affectionate person. My fathers were not. I believe in being responsible for your own security and whatnot. And again, I'm not tough, but I do believe in being thorough and responsible for yourself in every way. I'm very submissive and subservient to my God. But my father's taught me that. They stuck us in church from a young age, taught us to work at a young age. But going back to la, you're forced. They had a thing called busing. And so no matter where you lived, and as it happens, I lived right next to the projects off of Van Alden and Parthenia or Wilbur and Parthenia in the San Fernando Valley. And there's projects there. And so you're going to run into stuff. They had one guy get his throat slit at Laurie's Liquor. There was another guy that had one of his arms cut off with a machete because there was some altercation. So it was kind of a violent place. People will get into debates or have disagreements and arguments over what part of LA is the most violent. I'm not going to do that. What I'm going to say is that my brother and I had repeated run ins with both Latino gang members and. And black gang members. And I'm not faulting anybody for the color they were born. I mean, when I was younger, I got into skinhead gangs, like I was telling you on the other episode. And I've tried a long time. There's pictures I can show you where these used to be a lot darker. But I've been going to get my tattoos lasered off for a long time. I've got these big old SS lightning bolts on my arms. Had one ex girlfriend try to get me to cover him up and then midway through I'm like, you're not going to be able to cover it up. Just stop.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And how old are you? And you got the, the first tattoo.

[Dave Frank]

My tattoos, my first tattoos I got right about when I was like 17, I think 18.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

So you're basically getting beat up by these gangs and then for protection you're like, okay, who can I roll with to not get beat up?

[Dave Frank]

Yeah, well, I mean, well, you immediately decide whether or not you're going to be that guy. Because there are people that go through their entire life being bullied or refusing to confront whatever it is that they have to confront. I'm not, I'm not going to do it. I'm just, I'm not going to do it. I'm, I'm not a tough guy. So you immediately start falling in with like minded people is more the way that it is. And so you start looking and back then there wasn't online. I mean we're talking like 1986, 1988. So you just start looking around and reading stuff. You go into punk rock shows and you run into like minded people and then so you start forming associations that way.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And then how do you actually like join into the gang? Like what, what happens from just kind of meeting?

[Dave Frank]

Start reading literature and stuff like that that comes out magazines and publications and that's how you enter. And back then they didn't have the Internet, so it's not the same way. And I'm a little bit older than you are. Back then there wasn't any of the Internet. I mean back then we had pagers, beepers were a new thing back then. But you'd start reading literature and stuff like that, you'd correspond them and then you go to local meetings and stuff like that. And even though it's California, everybody thinks that it's Liberalville or whatever. Like it's a very left leaning place. There's still a lot of that present in California.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Right. So how long were you in that gang for?

[Dave Frank]

I was in that. I wouldn't call it a gang, but associating with those type of people right until before I got sober, which was probably 25, 26.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And what was happening while you were involved with that? Did you have to, did you, was there any crime involved?

[Dave Frank]

Oh yeah, no, definitely. I have, I have members or people that I called friends that are serving life sentences in prison to this day. Other ones that are, have been shot and killed in Pacoima, robbing drug dealers. We. I myself in 91 was looking at an attempted murder charge.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And what was the nature of that case? Can you share?

[Dave Frank]

Robin? Yeah. Robin. Well, it's all public record, so, like, I'm not dog. I'm not covering my face up. And just this morning I was watching a thing where a lot of people will talk about things and you're not really clear on what their past was or not. Anyone that was really interested can go down to anywhere in LA and pull up the case file if they want. But what it was is there was a guy walking down the street and we wasn't. We weren't sure if he was an officer or not. And so I ran across the street and I dropped a dude, and then a lot of police didn't come in and come to find out he wasn't a cop. And this is just our whole mentality at the time, and it's not any tough guy thing, it's just. It's what it was. This is. And the same's true for Latinos and black people growing up in LA too. So when we found out he wasn't a cop, come to find out the dude dealt was a dealer, and we're like, no, no way. So we're trying to get the guy to go to his house, and long story short, we go to his house and the person I was with wound up slit in the guy's throat. And there's a misquote, like, I was in the LA Times and the reporter misquoted me, saying that I slit. It's in court documents. No one told on anybody. What happened was the guy spent so long in intensive care that because you'll see a lot of people that are talking about anybody online is a rat or whatever, now there's no rats in this case. What happened was the guy spent. When you get arrested, the government has a certain amount of time to arraign you, give you a pretrial and et cetera, in a certain amount of time, and a lot of times to try you. And a lot of times they'll want you to waive your right to, to a speedy trial, and we refused to. And the guy had spent like a month in intensive care because, as I told you, he had his throat slit. So he's sitting in there. And originally they had arrested us for murder because they thought that we were going. That the guy was going to die, and he didn't die. And to be honest to the gentleman that they happened to, I'm going to Pick up with the point. But I want to make this clear to the gentleman that that happened to. If there was a way that I felt like I could reach out to you and somehow try to make amends for what you suffered that night, I would do that. And nothing I can ever do is going to make what happened that night okay. I'm not some tough guy. I've gone to school. I got my GED while I was locked up. I scored almost 100% in all the categories with the exception of mathematics. And to this day, now I do engineering. I've tried to make a better life and try to stop from repeating the mistakes of my past and prevent that from happening to other people like you. And I apologize with all my heart and you don't owe me any forgiveness or anything, but I want to make that clear.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

I mean, that's beautiful.

[Dave Frank]

I really. In case he sees this, because he might. And he got his throat slit and he was in intensive care for a long time. And so we didn't waive our right to an arraignment or anything like that to have any of that waived. And the very last day that they had to arraign us or give us pre trial, the guy wound up getting out of the hospital. And he was in court and he was incriminating himself for selling drugs. And the judges told everybody that the guy that I was with and myself had separate lawyers. They wanted to see all the council in the judges TAM chambers. And what had happened was the guy was incriminating himself on the stand for. And he didn't have any legal representation, so the judge was putting a stop to it. So basically what happened is the prosecutor, they were offering us 15 years of life plus an extra five years on top of it. They threw away the 15 years of life and they offered us. In my case, the guy was with. Had just gotten out of state prison, so he had to go back to prison. He didn't have any deal. And because I had never been to prison and still to this day have never been to prison, I got six years joint suspended and had to do a year in LA county jail. And what I was convicted of was ultimately considered a California wobbler. So a wobbler is something that the prosecutor could have tried as a felony or could have tried as a misdemeanor. And many years later, I wound up getting a lawyer and getting all of my cases expunged. I'm not a felon. I've done everything in my power to try to get an education, everything in my power to try to become a good person. Everything in my power. And they'll talk about it a lot. Like, people will be in prison and they'll, they'll. An LA county jail is a very, very violent place. There's a lot of stories I could talk to about that, but I don't know if I should say it, but when people cut in line, when you're working in the kitchen and having access to large can openers and it's been a long time, so I'm pretty sure that if there was a statute of limitations, hitting people in the head that want to cut in front of you in line with the can opener because members of a certain gang that are around Echo park, that beat the hell out of me. And I was in the hole and I remember crying to my mom in the hall. I was crying. I'm like, hey, don't come visit me, because my whole head's lumped up because I just got in a fight with a whole bunch of Latinos in LA county. And you're locked up and everybody there is in there for murder. Everybody there, you know, Sonny Barger, the leader of the, of a motorcycle club, is, has a quote of something along the line that everybody thinks they're a tough guy until they meet one.

[Mark Gagnon]

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[Mark Gagnon]

So to skip your morning cold brew and instead get that hard brew for an entire month. Yes, that [e-mail], use the promo code Gagnon and start laying it down like that they deserve. Let's get back to the show. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a break really quick. Cause I gotta tell you a story. Imagine you're sitting in your house, it's cold outside, it's a little snowy. And you're like, man, I just want a panini. So you go and you order it, you know, from. From Doordash or something like that. And it never gets to you. You're looking at the app, you're like, dude, it's been four hours. Where's my panini? You're calling? No one answers. Well, this is a true story that happened. There was a woman, a client that was working as a door dash driver, and she slipped and fell on an icy walkway outside of a Panera Bread in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She breaks her elbow, which leads to surgery and hardware having to get inserted into her arm. She can't work. And originally, you know, she sues Panera. And Panera is like, okay, we'll give you like 125,000. But then the good people over at Morgan and Morgan fought for her and got her the million dollar verdict that she deserved. Yes. If you never heard of them, Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm.

[Dave Frank]

Yes.

[Mark Gagnon]

And they are that way for a reason. They've been fighting for the people for over 35 years. Now, I'll be honest. If I ordered, you know, a panini and the woman gets paid a million bucks because she slipped, I mean, it's a tragic thing to happen, of course, but I deserve a little bit of that. I should get a cut at least, right? I'm the one to order the panini. If I never ordered that panini, she never would have slipped, never got a million bucks, which obviously she deserves. You know what I mean? But maybe next time she gets a million and million point one, I can get a cool a hundred thousand out of that. Regardless, all I'm saying is if you're ever injured and you are looking to get the money that you deserved, the compensation that is entitled to from your injuries, Morgan and Morgan could be the way to go. Hiring the wrong law firm can be disastrous. I mean, you can be locked up and litigate, it's a nightmare. But hiring the right law firm could substantially increase your settlement. And With Morgan and Morgan, it's easy to get started. Their fee is $0 unless they win. That's right. Their fee is free. Unless they win your case. You don't pay a zero. You pay zero cents. Unless they win your case, you can Visit for the People.com Gagnon G A G N O N that is F O R the People.com Gagnon or dial pound law. That's pound 529 from your cell phone. That's for the People.com GagnON. Or click the link in the description below. And thank you so much to the good folks over at Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this program and making this show possible with this paid advertisement. Let's get back to the show.

[Dave Frank]

Okay, so just to elaborate a little bit on joining the Nazi cult and getting bolts, basically a set of lightning bolts is that you've shed blood for the white race. And it's a big deal. They expect you to either stab or kill someone. And I don't want to offend anybody, but I mean, that's really what it is. They expect you to stab or kill people. And if there's people that are being on a federal indictment right now, currently, it's going through the court system, you're going to be involved in like, robbing people, robbing drug dealers, selling drugs, manufacturing drugs. And I mean, I'm not going to name any of them by name because that's just out of bounds. But they've made movies about these people. It's a San Fernando Valley. You can look it up and how many people are attached to that. And that's where I was born. That's where my cases were tried at. And that's where I'm repping the San Fernando Valley just from the fact that I'm from there and involved in that type of stuff. And so everybody there is serious about it. And plus, California's got one of the most violent county jails or LA county, one of the most violent prison systems there are. So as soon as you get in and getting lightning bolts, it's because you were like, actively confronting some of the premier gangs in the entire country. I mean, Los Angeles is the gang capital of the world.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Did you get the bolts in prison?

[Dave Frank]

I got them. Right. Yeah. I don't want. I want to leave that part out of it for certain matters. But, yeah, it had everything to do with that.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

How do you eventually get sober?

[Dave Frank]

I got sober. I knew I wouldn't die, if you can believe that, because you'll go to meetings a lot and you'll hear people talk about if I ever drink or use again, I know I'm gonna die. And I'd been through so much stuff. I'd been. My mom sent me to live with my uncle in Santa Ana. I was in front of Father's Bar. It's not Father's Bar anymore, but I was having this issue with some gang members down there. And I jumped over a Corvette and they were shooting at me. And I remember thinking that this is how I'm gonna die. And they left. They were in a white Jeep Cherokee. It was right there. Off of. It was in Santa Ana. Didn't die and drug use didn't die. My first. My mom kicked me out at 16 years old. I had sold 500 worth of crack cocaine to a guy, Jeff Jones, that had gotten run over and by a bus in Hawaii. And I got his Firebird. That was my first apartment. Because I was such bad news, my mom told me to get out of the house and not have anything to do with my brothers and sisters because I was just bad news, man. And I'm not bragging or up playing any of this. In fact, I wish I had a different childhood and had done everything right, but I did not. So I have to do the best I had. How did I get sober? I was. I had a daughter, my first daughter, and I tried to get sober for her, and I just knew it wasn't going to happen. And I went out and I didn't think I was an alcoholic or whatever. And I'd gone out and I decided I wanted to have a drink. And the book tells you to try some controlled drinking. So, you know, I decided I was going to try some controlled drinking. I went immediately back to my old friends, immediately back to everything. And getting into one of the predominant California prison gangs, which is an upper echelon prison gang. I'm friends with a lot of them or was. And it's kind of like a farm team, or at that time was a farm team for like the premier prison gang for white people in the entire United States. I'm not going to name names, but everybody knows what it is. And these people are for real. They had killed somebody and put them in a storage facility. I mean, when you involve yourself either with Satanism or with violence or with college sports, Little League, and you get into college sports, when you dip your finger into a certain color paint, sooner or later you're gonna have that paint all over you, if you know what I mean. And that's applicable to almost anything. Studying art. Pretty soon you're probably going to be an accomplished artist, right? Stand up comedy. A few years go by and all of a sudden you're killing major, major arenas full of people. It's the same thing with being bad and going down the wrong path. Pretty soon you're pretty far down that path. And I was. And I involved myself again. I couldn't get sober because of my daughter, because I just didn't feel like it and wound up again. Drug dealers are a good thing to do because there's no law enforcement involved. You don't have to worry about it. You have to worry about people that want to kill you anyway. So you're not losing anything, man.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Right.

[Dave Frank]

And was back in that thing. And there was a love triangle with my best friend Danny, who's now deceased. God rest your soul, Danny Dog. And another person who is also now deceased, that's a member of one of these gangs, Danny Boy. And I'm gonna name him because they're both dead. And there was a love triangle between both of them. And one of the member, my best friend was not hooked up with this gang and the other one was. And my friend beat up the other one and his girlfriend was going to get a gun out of the car and shoot him. And I wound up smashing her because we can't be getting shot. So him and another person who's now sober also, who I wanted to be friends with. His name starts with a B. You know who you are. They came back to this house to kill me and Danny Boy or Danny Dog, I mean, and we weren't there. So we went to go get guns and go back to this house and kill him. It was on Lindley and that's the way it was. And cece was there, an ex girlfriend. And I'm sitting in there on a counter and it was at 1 o' clock PM, July 18, 1997. And I'm sitting there with a weapon on the counter and I've got some dope and I'm looking out this kitchen window and here this guy comes rolling up in his Nova. He had a white Nova. And I was very. If I was fearful, man, I'm gonna complete 28 years that I haven't touched a drop of booze or anything, man. And I know so many people out there. I got the best wife. I've got you. You were just interviewing Trump and he's in my room, man. This isn't my mom's basement, man. This is my own house. And I've been given so much. And if you're a Crip or a Blood, or you're a Latino gang member. You're anybody watching this, if you're in a cartel watching this, I want you to know that a miracle can happen for you, too. Because it happened for me. And this guy's rolling up, you know, I'm gonna kill this guy. But I'm afraid, and I'm afraid because I'm in a house full of witnesses, and I'm gonna have to smoke this. I don't want to cuss, but I'm gonna have to kill him, man. Because they just came here earlier that day to go kill us. And we went to go pick up weapons, and Danny Dog didn't show up. He wasn't there because he had to go get a flak jacket. And so there was me and a member of a major Mexican organization that I'm not about to drop their name. We were there. And I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, is this how my life is really going to go? I'm going to kill this guy right in front of all these people and spend the rest of my life in San Quentin, or he's going to come in and kill me. And that's just the end of my end of my pathetic existence. And when people think that, like, I think, like I'm all that because I've been chasing or working alongside a general in Mexico. I've been to Russia. If you want to speak with me in Russian, I can speak that my name is David. In Arabic, I speak all this stuff. I've studied. I've. The opportunity all started with a GED at Max facility in Wayside, and then also in Supermax and Wayside as we were fighting an attempted murder. And so how I got sober, I'm sitting there thinking, I'm going to have to kill this guy on this day at 1 o', clock, and I'll never forget it. And I know that there are black and Latino people out there that go through the same thing I had to go through and booyah tribe. I'm thinking to, man, I love your guys's music. I watch all your videos. It's not a racist thing. It's a thing that you fall in with drugs and stuff like that, man, you get caught in this cycle. And so Cecilia runs out there and she tells this guy, hey, Burndog's in there with. With a gauge and he's gonna kill you. And Danny Boy wasn't a punk. He's a member of, like, a premier prison gang. I don't know what she told them she went out there crying. He got in his car and left. And I hid out at my sister's house and they. In my sister's apartment. We lived right there on Orion street off of Roscoe. It's a straight up Latino hood that you can get shot in. And I'm sitting there hiding out in my sister's apartment and I'm hearing these guys come to my apartment looking for me for until Monday. And that happened on a Friday. You can look it up. July 18, 1997. It was a Friday. I hid out until Monday and got sober thanks to Russ and some other people at Sobriety House. And we were. And actually I'm in the paper, I meet a Nation of Islam guy. Because I was still racist as hell at the time too. And by racist I mean unapologetically. Because things have changed a lot now in today's world where, you know, people got to be worried about offending people. Believe me when I tell you, we weren't offended. We weren't worried about offending people. Because if you're a straight up. If you're into that, you're not worried about hurting someone's feelings. So it was definitely not that type of thing. It's not a bravado thing. It's just like the mentality so people understand. I go into this rehab and there's this guy by the name of Andre there. And I think that he might have passed. He wasn't there. And I was reading a book on Dr. Joseph Mengele and had a great big red swastika on the front of it. And he comes in the room, he asked me, you know, what are you reading, white boy? And immediately I told. I called me N word. I'm not going to say because I don't want to get the video zapped. But I called me N word to his face and big bluff, black dude, Nation of Islam. And they're. They don't have the best relationship with white people. In fact, I like a lot of. And this is going somewhere. We get in a big fight and then we get another fight, and then we get in another fight. And it's in. The LA Times did a story on us. And one day he comes to my room and he's telling me, you know, I was thinking about you last night because neither one of us were going to capitulate to the other guy because he didn't like white people and I didn't like black people and neither one of us cared. He told me if I'd been born and he said something that changed my life because I was listening to Amazing Grace on bagpipes. He comes in and I have this thing about not denying people. Jesus. He sits down and listens to it because he has to be. Can listen to. I'm like, yeah, you can listen to it. And then you can leave. Comes back the next day and he told me, you know, I had a dream about you last night. I'm like, are you gay or something? Real story. This is what happened. And Andre knows it too, and other people that were there. And he told me, if I'd been born white, I would be just like you. My. Whoa, man. Because you got these, like, straight up racist, black Nation of Islam guy. And when he told me that and I realized if I'd been born black, I would have been just like him. And I thought to myself, everything in your life, every failure, is your fault. Because even you've been blaming black people and Latinos for this whole time. You were gifted athletically. You did nothing with it. You speak all these languages, which you learned all by yourself without even going to school. You did nothing with it. You got straight A's in school. When mom and dad got divorced, you took the easy way out and went to drugs. You did nothing with it. So you can't be mad at anybody but yourself. And you hate everybody because you hate yourself. And to be honest, Mark, even all these years later, I still. Man, my wife got. Oh, my wife got straight A's in school. She's got two master's degrees. Oh, I gotta keep it together because I went to Mexico to go die, man. And I don't want to cuss, but I mean, dude, she did everything right in her. Pull it together, man.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Take your time.

[Dave Frank]

She did everything right. I'm not gonna punk out, man. My wife did everything right in life, man. And she saved me for myself at Mexico. And so, like, when people see my videos or whatever, I'm not some, like, better get that guy, dude. Ah. And she's right there. My wife is crying off camera, man. And you know what? I've sat there in a cartel gunfight thinking about how I'm gonna kill my wife. Because if they come in inside and see my uniforms, they're gonna. We're in torture. My wife and I have been through some serious dude. And saying these videos, something could happen to my wife and I. And, you know, I worry about if while I'm at work, someone's going to come home and get my wife or some. This is real. So to the other people Doing podcasts that won't say your name. You know what? This is my life and this is what I'm about. And part of me feels happy that I can, like, cry and open up, because I've been really hardcore in life, man, and I love my wife deeply. I care about doing what my God says deeply. And if I ever have to pay some particular price, that's okay. But I mean, when I. Back then, I wasn't feeling anything, and so Andre made me know that I hated myself and not all these other people. So, yeah, I got these big SS lightning bolt tattoos that I've tried to get stuff taken off. And so that day when I got. You asked me how I got sober, because I have a looped, roundabout way of talking, so please, no, no. Because I go off on a trail, but I want people to understand the details because I'm a very logical, concise, unfeeling person sometimes. And with work, that's all I get paid to do. I'm all about results in Mexico's results here. To this day, I still get paid for results. And I mean by big, major international defense companies, you know, right now I'm working. I showed you my lanyard yesterday. I'm not going to get into who it is I work for what I do, but I'm helping keep this country safe with stuff that's out in the water right now, which is awesome.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Thank you, bro.

[Dave Frank]

Yeah, man. Well, because, like, freedom's an important thing. Mark.

[Mark Gagnon]

What's up, guys?

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[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

But what happens with Andre?

[Dave Frank]

Andre tells me that, you know, that if I was black, I would be. If I was white, I would be born just like you. And it gave me the opportunity to start changing my life and Malcolm X. So I get in this fight with these two other Nation of Islam guys because they asked me, what do you know about Malcolm X other than he's black? I'm like, that's enough. That's the only thing I need to know about him to dislike the guy. No lie, no cap, if that's what they're using these days. And so I get in a fight with these guys and we can't leave this place because it's kind of like a last stop type thing before you get in big trouble. And they give me a book on Malcolm X. In fact, I got that book upstairs right now and I read this book on Malcolm X, man. Malcolm X. Oh, man, if I could say it. My. My N word. Hey, Malcolm, I don't care who sees it. You helped save my life, man. And I'm not. I'm not Muslim, not at all, man. I'm a fervent Christian. But I believe in what they told you when you got out of prison. They gave you a 30 and told you to do for self. And, man, you do for self. And if you're watching and if you're white and black or whatever Latino, you do for self in all things, do for self. And when you can't do for self anymore, then your higher power, your God, will step in. But I've seen you work, Mark. I went to your show and I saw you grind out another show, and then I saw you grind out a whole nother day of stuff. And, man, respect, because your work ethics there, too. And in Brooklyn, the thing that's great about New York and I'm going to Andre, New York and LA are cities that if you don't produce, you will get smashed. It will grind you to nothing. And I've seen at Madison Square Garden, epileptic, sitting there having a convulsion. And someone in glasses said, I'll never forget I just got back to States. They're like, isn't it your job to go off and crawl off in a bush and die somewhere? Straight up is what they told somebody. No one gives a. Nature doesn't give a damn about you. So Andre gave me the ability to recognize that everything in my life was my fault. And when I learned that I had no one to blame but myself, I got to take a long, cold, hard look at your lack of education, your lack of finishing school, your lack of anything in life. And now, many years later, like I told you, 28 years later, almost three decades, I'm still enrolled in school right now. Mark. I can pull out a thing right now and show you. I've got a Harvard thing open on that. On that laptop over there where I'm studying right now. And I want. I went to law school in Mexico. I want to pass the bar exam in the United States and become a lawyer here and fight for rights that I think that are important for us. And that's what Andre gave to me. He gave me the drive to do that. My wife continues to give me the drive to do that.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Did you stay in touch with Andre after that day?

[Dave Frank]

You know what? I did. And that's also in the paper, too, because I would go back, and Andre, I don't think, made it. I think that he died. I would go back and drop him off. Cigarettes. He smoked Newports. Andre had some own. Some of his own demons that he was wrestling with. And, you know, not all of us make it. So anyone that thinks, like, I feel like I'm special or whatever, I'm not. I don't deserve this chair any more than any one of a million other people that are out there doing the fentanyl bend over. I just saw. I just saw someone online the other night. Was it you doing the fentanyl joke? Someone was doing a fentanyl joke where they delivered a baby by being, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there's a. I see it every day, and that could be me. And so, like, my life. So I wind up getting sober, and it changes my whole life. And I'm sure at that point, you.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

You start to realize, like, exactly what you said, that a lot of the problems were internal, which gave you the autonomy to fix them. But you're in an organization and hanging out with a lot of guys that still have a lot of racist ideals, so how do you step away from them?

[Dave Frank]

It almost cost me my life, man. In fact, just recently, I went to. Forgive me, but if you just give Me, an indiscretion. I'm not choosing any of you guys on. But I'm just going to say what it is. It was at the Van Nuys Air Museum right there on Balboa. And the guy that I'm talking about, whose name starts with a B, one of your homeboys was there. And I'm not being all brave or whatever, if you guys feel if. Because we run into each other, Mark. We do. We're all sober now. And if you guys feel a certain way, I love that you guys are sober, but I run into these people. They're real people and they have done serious stuff. And a lot of them, like I told you, are, still have life in prison. I went back to LA recently for a dear friend Sam's birthday at the Van Nuys Airport Museum. And a lot of these people weren't okay with me leaving white supremacy and everything that we were about. And, you know, some of them have wanted to kill me, man. I mean, I don't feel like I have a life or a risk to my life these days. But that night, there was a few of them that gathered around that wanted to have things a certain way with me. And I left because I don't My wife around that because it's ugly, man, and it's savage. And to be honest, that night I probably would have gotten work because these guys. One of them was on. One of them was on. Soft, white underbelly. And so, you know, the Valley produces like a premium prison car. It's famous. It's a SFV prison car in California. California is probably the biggest prison car with. And like I told you at the beginning of all this, with a major federal RICO racket right now that's going through court with the 818 operation. That's what's called 818 because of a playoff on our area code for that sector of la.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

So now at that point, you try to join the military.

[Dave Frank]

But I went down to the military to go try to join the military seven different times. And be super clear, for any of you feds watching this, because you are. I called you guys and was on the phone with Langley, Virginia, for a half hour with a lady. Gentleman or not gentlemen, obviously, but with a lady for a half hour, trying to talk you guys into. Let me go to Nice, France. You have the recording. It's in your database somewhere. I'm on the phone with Langley, Virginia, trying to join the CIA, because one thing I do know how to do is shoot and fight. I'm very good at Both of them. I'm a professional. Am I Sean Ryan? Good? Probably not. But do I feel comfortable with, like, bad guys coming into my house? I was talking with one of your crew members earlier today about just kind of how I roll. I feel okay with that. But I do go down to the military, and I ace their ASPAB because I've always been gifted at school. And that's really disgusting if you think about it, because God did give me a lot, and I've done nothing with it. So I go down and ac aspab, but they tell me, hey, you can be military intelligence. You can do whatever you want. Oh, your record. Ah, you can't come in. And they have a thing called the captain's waiver for all of our military. Everybody's out there. They know what it is to where if you past high school, haven't got a prison thing or any felonies, they will work with you on certain things. But with the gravity of what I was involved in, they didn't want anything to do with me. I've been down to the Marine Corps several different times. I've been down to the Navy, and I've been down in the Navy. Shame on you guys. You guys are really kind of picky. I've been down to not the Air Force, but the Navy and the Marine Corps and the Army. I went down to all of them, and seven different times I tried doing list, and none of them are having anything to do with me. So, long story short, I watched the Daniel Pearl beheading video, and Daniel Pearl was a Jew. For those of you that don't know that, just think I'm, like, got an axe to grind against Jewish people. I do not. Daniel Pearl is an American, and they cut off his head. And there's some conspiracy about whether it was an American CIA video or whatever. But the bottom line is I watched that video in my office at home and decided I wasn't gonna let the American government tell me what I could or couldn't do. And if anyone ever wants to, like, try to, like, make me pay for trying to be a good person and do the right thing, I'm okay with that. You go right ahead.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Daniel Pearl's a journalist that gets beheaded by Al Qaeda, right? But that Daniel Pearl moment, I think is important because that, to me, is, like, the moment of redemption, right? Like, you have this moment where, like, you're a guy that I think a lot of people assume you're, like, o is just some racist guy, right? He's got these bolts on his arms, he's in this neo Nazi cult. But then you get sober, you denounce all those sort of racist ideals, you start reading Malcolm X, you have a complete turn of heart, you know, towards people of other ethnicities or other religions and you start to acknowledge that people are just people that are control over.

[Dave Frank]

What color you're born, dude. Right? That's it.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And then you see this video of an American journalist who happens to be Jewish, who gets beheaded. And it enrages you so much that you want to now go fight Al Qaeda.

[Dave Frank]

I've always wanted to serve this country. Both my dads were military. My family's been military since before this was even a country. They hung my grandmother in Boston because of her religion. So my family is. My great, great, great, great grandfather started Rhode Island. So my family's been involved in this country for a long time. I wanted to join the military. They didn't let me. And I'm not going to let someone tell me that I have to have their permission to go do the right thing. So if I have to go to another country, I went to Russia and had Muslims joking about cutting off my head in the car as we were going to Mount Shaikhan to go learn how to do paragliding and everything. I was looking at fighting Al Qaeda in Russia. Ultimately. Sam childers, there's been YouTube videos of him. They wanted to sell me a $4,000 visa to Sudan, to South Sudan to go rescue child soldiers. And I just wanted to go over there directly from Mexico. Sam Childers, if you see this, I wanted to go work for you. You guys wanted to sell me a four thousand dollar visa straight up. There's email and Internet traffic to verify that. I wound up going to Russia to go confront Al Qaeda because I'm not going to wait for someone to tell me I need their permission to do the right thing.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

So how does that work? Like how do you get to Russia and then who do you talk to to try to join sort of like the Russian military to go fight Al Qaeda.

[Dave Frank]

So I gotta be careful about how I say that because we're in an era where we're potentially at point to where, where we might be having a war with Russia shortly. And you know, I want to be kind of careful about how I say that. But I wind up in Sterlita Mack, Russian, and my second daughter is born and Soda Hospital in Sterling, Bashkortostan, Russia. Her birth certificates in Russian and Bashkiri, which is a requirement there. And I'm going to say that if you did want to do something hypothetically, like join the Fayette Bay, which is a federal national, which is the federal security or intelligence service, that you would have to know somebody that was either a KGB member or a member of that service and have them vouch for you to get in there. And that Russia is something that I did that I'm going to. At this point in time, we can maybe. I gotta talk to a lawyer before I expand on that some more, Mark, But I. If I do divulge more on that, it's going to be with you. But that's. I'm in Russia. I'm looking to, like, go look for bad guys.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

That makes complete sense. Did you learn Russian while you're there?

[Dave Frank]

I learned Russian shortly before I was there, and then I learned it back in the United States. Well, I mean, living there, obviously, it's immersive. So you come back with a commanding language or a certain command of the language, and then came back to the United States and wound up, of all things, going to work and. And trying to go to work in Mexico for the factory, doing that whole thing, and then wound up doing the cartel thing for my general.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Right. And that's in another episode that we did that people can check out, that you expound on a lot of the. The work you did. Just.

[Dave Frank]

And there's even more. I mean, there's five and a half years there of stuff that you could go on. I mean, we've really condensed a lot of this. But. And I know that you're busy. You've been working and working and working.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Well, I also. I don't want to dive too deep into the Russian stuff.

[Dave Frank]

Before you speak the Russian thing, I really do want to dive into it because it's incredibly interesting. And there's a lot that I can expl Expand on on Russia. But given the political climate right now, with everything that's going on in the world and with the Ukraine thing, there are people right now, American soldiers, that are going over and fighting for Ukraine, and no one's saying anything about it. There are people in Africa that are American military or Eric Prince. I want to just be super clear for the audience. I have applied for Triple Canopy. I've applied for Blackwater. I've applied for G4. I know all these companies off the top of my head because they all have my resume, so I'm not hiding anything.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And you said French Foreign Legion as well.

[Dave Frank]

My grandmother made me promise. Yeah, I called the French Foreign Legion. They didn't like my grill. The Guy was the biggest jerk I ever talked to in my entire life because I called him. And in order to join the French Foreign Legion, you got to go to Fort Denogenet in Paris, France. And the guy was talking about, you have to be strong. And by strong, I don't mean just being able to lift weights, but you have to be physically strong. As far as endurance, Swissant diese is how you say, 72, Swanson is 60, decent 12. But to say 72, it's not. Satan is. Swissant dies. And they teach you how to count the six digits of your weapon by duck marching and beating you in the back of your head. But they got to have a good grill. Reason why you got to have a good grill is because a lot of people went to the French Foreign Legion from Africa, would get their teeth fixed and then they'd bail. But my grandmother, who basically raised me, made me promise not to go. Grandma, God rest your soul. I really would have loved to do the French Foreign Legion thing, man. I mean, man, the Kepi Blanc. I really wanted to do it. I've done. I've been to Russia. I've been places where they're going to cut off my head, Grandma. But. And I've been to Mexico. But this French foreign. The French foreign thing was my rooster. That's the one I really wanted to do. But my grandmother made me swear not to. To do it. And I did not do it because of her.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And why was she. Why was she concerned about the French?

[Dave Frank]

She didn't want me to give away my American citizenship. She was tripping on that.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

And that makes sense. So when you come back from Russia, you still have this strong sense of doing the right thing.

[Dave Frank]

I'm gonna do my own thing. I. The cartels gave me drugs when I was a kid, Mark. And when I went to Mexico and I'm like, my ex left my daughter in Russia, Yakata, and the one I was talking to you about or talking about in the other video. And my grandmother was dead while I was married to her. And I didn't do the French Foreign Legion because I've got my daughter at this point, when she left my daughter in Russia, I'm just, you know, just. Because I could really go on tangent on this and I don't want to. I was training at Gokor Ceviche in North Hollywood doing judo. I'm a judoka. I love judo. I practice it to this day. I get a call from my ex and she's telling me that she's down at Tom Bradley International Airport, and I go to pick her up. My daughter's not there, man. Long story short, I offer my. My ex $10,000 in cash. My daughter's lived in Russia for these last two decades. My ex has lived in the United States, and I never got to be my daughter's father. And that kills me inside, man. And so when they took away my daughter and the cartels gave me drugs, and I have a commanding thing of Spanish because everyone that works for me is Spanish. I got like, 200 guys. I'm like, you know what? You, man. I'm gonna go confront the cartels. I'm not a little kid to give drugs anymore. And we're just gonna fight until I die. You know, if you guys ever want to take me up on that and kill me, that's still very much my sentiment. I. I would like to live a life in peace. But.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

But that feeling of the cartels giving you drugs when you're a kid, really.

[Dave Frank]

I'm gonna do something. I'm growing up now. Let's do it.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

That motivated you?

[Dave Frank]

A hundred percent. So I wrote a letter to the peke, to the Procaria canaround de la Republica, and they didn't tell me, no. They just said, not right now. And I took that to be like a huevo, which means, like, you know, in Spanish, it just means, like, yeah, let's go. I'm gonna go down there. And I knocked on their door, man, and they gave me a chance, and my general gave me everything. Gosh, man, I feel like a. Because I'm.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

No, not at all. I feel it.

[Dave Frank]

My general gave me everything, man. And when you get in that truck and you're gonna die and fight these guys and protect your general. My general gave me the opportunity to be with my wife. He gave me an opportunity to live in Mexico. He gave me food. When I was going through basic training, they fed us pork that was kind of rotten. I was going to spit it out, Mark. And I couldn't spit it out because I'm sitting there eating this rotten pork with my. With my brothers that have been murdered. With my brothers that we spend all night all away from our home. Our families have been threatened and killed. We've been imprisoned. The Americans call us degenerate, corrupt trash. And we get up and we do it for 600amonth. I've got my paycheck stubs right over there, and I ate that chunk of rotten pork because there's no way I'm going to let my brothers from my own platoon eat that Alone. And you know, man, you know what? Hey, I have zero regrets. And if someday, someday someone catches me and I gotta meet a gruesome man. When I went to Mexico, I was afraid to have my head cut off or be shot in the head. Now this day, it's not bravado, but I'm not afraid to have my head cut off. I'm not afraid to be shot in the head. Because if you cut off my head, it's going to last about 60 seconds. And if that's the price of admission for everything that I've got to live, I'll pay that a hundred times over because you're not sending me any place I'm not already going straight up. And you know what? I'm just going to end with that, Mark, because that's just the way it is, man. You know, and if people see my videos and they're going to see this in the comment section, to my haters, you didn't give me a chance to begin with. And if you think I'm gonna regret something when talking because you didn't want to give me a chance, now, Thoma, I. I have zero regrets, okay? And it's not me being bravado. I'm a very humble person. But. And any of you, I would invite you to dinner in my house. I've invited all you guys to dinner in my house and stay in my house. And that's kind of the way I am in real life. But I'm not going to put up with a scintilla of you guys bad mouthing me because I've done the best I can with what I got. And that's just the way it is, Mark. And I hope that I've given you a good episode and I hope that I've given people that see this a better understanding about our two countries and the way things are or about people with my background. And the very last thing that I want to say, I want to thank my mother. I want to thank my father, Tommy. I want to thank my father, Leland. I want to thank my God for everything that I got.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Thank you, Dave. Thank you, brother. Genuinely. I. I see your story as. As one of redemption and one of, of really trying to do the right thing. Right? Like you were born into a tough situation and you did the best you could. And I think, you know, I've spoken with a lot of different people from different backgrounds, you know, whether it's, you know, black gangs or Latino gangs. And the stories are always similar, right? It's people that are struggling that need to survive and they try to find situations they can survive. And the difference with your story is that I think you came out the other side a much better person. You know, you went through some real.

[Dave Frank]

I'm not gonna quit, man. No way.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

I don't think you know how.

[Dave Frank]

If I have a one regret, it's that I haven't done enough. In fact, I gotta get a bar exam so I can help people. I want to help people, man.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Well, you've done enough for me. And I really think your message is gonna hit a lot of people that even if you know you're on the wrong side of something early on in your life, it's not how the game starts, it's how it ends. And it seems like your life, specifically in that moment of getting sober and realizing, you know, that. That you control your destiny and that you've really taken upon yourself to be a good guy and to do the right thing and to do the hard thing, even when it's really hard to do, I find really motivational and really inspiring. So I appreciate you sharing the story with me and with the whole audience.

[Dave Frank]

I appreciate you coming to my house, man. You guys are welcome, all of you. I mean, I don't know if I should name your entire team, but I mean, I know all of your guys names. I was ashamed because I didn't know them the first night when I met you guys the first time.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

No, no, no, no worries.

[Dave Frank]

But I know them all now. And you know what? All welcome to my house anytime that you want. And my wife echoes the sentiment.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

I think maybe the most beautiful part of the story that, that you've touched on a little. I don't want to get into it more because I obviously know it's sensitive, but the relationship with you and your wife is really beautiful. And the way that you guys have been there for each other and support each other through really difficult moments.

[Dave Frank]

I want to say one last thing in the video, if I can, please every journalist that works in Mexico, Incluso Canada, entre otros to everybody that's trying to make money off this thing. There's a bunch of Mexican journalists out there. My wife's one of them, working for Televisa. And my brothers and I will go toe to toe with any cartel, toe to toe with any evil that's in the world. And we're trained to do it. We've been trained to a very high level. Can repel off of buildings upside down with no hands. There's videos of it to the reporters that risk your life and your families every day. Without all the weapons that we're carrying, without your platoon with you by your side, you have nothing but my deep, undying respect. And thank you for trying to bring light to the world, the great evil that exists that destroys all of our children's lives. And to you, I respect you. You are the unsung heroes. And to the doctors and people that are making the world a better place. We're not the heroes with our weapons. You guys are. And to the educators, and I would be remiss if I did not take the time to thank all those people, because as far as I'm concerned, that's who I respect. The people that are doing that, the reporters that confront the same evil we confront, but their weapons of pen. So that's what's up.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Well, to both of you, thank you so much. And you both have my respect. Thank you for inviting us into your home to do this, to do all these episodes, man, for real. I'm excited to do it again.

[Dave Frank]

Hey, man, thank you.

[Interviewer (possibly Mark Ganyon or a co-host)]

Thank you, brother.