As a boy in the early 70s, Joe dreamt of becoming a philosophy professor or a theologian. He loved ideas and words. His preacher father prepared him for academia by teaching him both Greek and Latin.

In 1971, when Joe was 9 years old, Joe’s beloved mom died after a prolonged painful illness. Joe’s memoir, The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell, tells the story of how his home life turned brutal until he picked up a steak knife and plunged it into his father’s neck. The book details his subsequent descent into crime, culminating with a 30-bank heist spree and eventual arrest. He ended up in solitary confinement for almost 2 years, where he returned to his boyhood dream of one day becoming a writer. He discovered his voice on the page, and the trajectory of his life was permanently altered.

3 years later he reentered society, and became contributing editor for the Pacific News Service. He began writing Op-Eds for national newspapers. His first official job as a professional writer.

Now committed to becoming a contributing member of society, Joe practiced meditation and used writing to encourage young people behind bars to find their emancipations. Joe has spoken to prisoners all across the country, and eventually even in prisons as far away as Norway.

He joined the Board of Directors for Walden House, a reentry program. He has conducted writing workshops in reentry facilities and prisons all across California.

Joe also worked hard on repairing his relationship with his father.

He and his father have since visited and spoken to prisoners incarcerated for domestic battery to share their powerful story and encourage compassion and reconciliation around a painful shared past.

Joe became a talking head on TV, sharing his opinions about crime, culture and religion on CNN, Nightline, CBS News/48 Hours, and Court TV. He even argued with Bill O’Reilly on his TV show, The O’Reilly Factor.

Joe’s critically acclaimed memoir, The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell: Confessions Of A Bank Robber was published in 2004. That same year he began a correspondence with an incarcerated woman. He encouraged her to write about her life. Piper Kerman was eventually released from prison and published one of Joe’s letters in her bestselling memoir, Orange Is the New Black.

In 2010, Joe published his award-winning essay Soundtracking A Bank Robbery in McSweeney’s magazine. Film director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) read the essay and contacted Joe to consult on his Baby Driver film script. Joe took the consulting gig, and in 2017 Joe also played the ironic role of a bank guard who gets shot and killed by Jamie Foxx during a harrowing heist getaway.

Joe has also written for the TV shows Queen of the South and Taken. 

Joe spends his days preparing to launch Watcha! Media. He’s also toiling to create a coming-of-age TV show about a badass girl who navigates the treacheries of middle school with help from her ex-con father who offers insights into insecure juvenile motivations that he learned from his many years behind bars. 

A 16-episode podcast about Joe’s life adventure, Bank Robber Diaries, produced by Western Sound, launched in November 2019.