My Criminal Father Groomed Me to Take Over His Empire

Sonny Malvolio (0:00)

He basically walked out of prison and crawled in the desert maybe a full day, maybe longer, on his hands and knees.

You know, he's an ex-Special Forces guy, he's a war hero. So once he gets in the car, he starts taking off his prison clothes, rolls out in the windows, just tossing them out. He realized I'm awake, because I asked him, like, daddy, what's going on, what's wrong? Shut up, sit back, go back to sleep. What I didn't know is he had a bunch of guns stashed underneath. So he's teaching me these ethics, teaching me like these certain dissonance through these movies, you know. I had to sit down and watch Godfather with him and watch like Midnight Express.

Shelise Ann Sola (0:36)

So he's trying to groom you to be a criminal.

Sonny Malvolio (0:38)

Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, I didn't know it at the time. I thought it was just completely normal. Don't smile, never smile in pictures. He said it created a sign of weakness. If I were to go and I would have to do payroll for these people when I'm a kid in a little suit, he'd always constantly dress me up in suits. I mean, as a kid, I was frightening, man. Like, what, where did you bring us now? Like, oh my God, it's like a series of nightmares. Because at a young age, we were money mules for him.

Shelise Ann Sola (1:02)

Yeah.

Sonny Malvolio (1:03)

He was taking money to our bodies, taking them in, you know, at one point it was like in diapers. He's like, hey, well, this is your name. And I'm guessing this is where we became the Dogatos. They would just sit there and I could not tell who was in the car. And then they'd just slowly drive off. He comes up and just knocking on the door. I go, yeah, what's up? He's like, grab a weapon. He's like, come down, let the dogs loose. So he's like, grab your brother and have him grab a weapon as well. I go, okay.

And my mom's there. She's like, oh, Lord Jesus, oh, Lord Jesus, and in God's and Jesus' name. I remember him telling her, yeah, Jesus is not going to save you at this point.

What have I been doing?

Shelise Ann Sola (1:53)

Hey, my name is Shelise Ann Sola and this is Cults to Consciousness where we discuss improving high-demand religions or organizations and finding healing and independence through awareness and true individual sovereignty. If you're only listening on those podcast platforms and you'd like to see both of our faces in studio today, you can go to YouTube at Cults to Consciousness. It really is the best way to support the podcast. Just interacting with the post in any way, shape or form, liking, sharing, commenting, boost the algorithm, watching, even on mute if you want to skip a video but you're one of our core people and you watch it, it tells the algorithm, hey, let's show it to more people who are not subscribed. We really appreciate your support, guys. Thank you so much for being here. Today's guest, we had on his sister, Zett, who talked about her father growing up, who was a professional criminal in Los Angeles and even going down into Mexico, being forced to change identities, and now we have her brother who happened to be in Austin as well.

We have him here in studio. Thank you so much for being here, Sonny.

Sonny Malvolio (2:49)

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Shelise Ann Sola (2:51)

Yeah.

Cool. Yeah. When Zett came on and she was like, Oh yeah, my brother is out there too. I was like, No way. Let's bring him in. I know.

Sonny Malvolio (3:00)

That's me.

Shelise Ann Sola (3:01)

Yeah. It's so cool.

I know part of your story obviously because you grew up with Zett and she walked us through it, but obviously you're going to have a much different perspective. You're younger than her, right? Yes.

Sonny Malvolio (3:14)

I'm eight years.

Shelise Ann Sola (3:15)

By how many?

Oh, eight. I didn't realize it was that big of a gap. Oh, yeah. This is going to be a totally different perspective then.

Sonny Malvolio (3:21)

Oh, yeah.

Shelise Ann Sola (3:22)

So I guess let's just start at the beginning if you can tell people who your father was or who you remember your father to be when you were a kid.

Sonny Malvolio (3:32)

Well, as you guys have heard before, we were born in East LA. I was born in 1977 Growing up in LA, I mean, I remember Bisson Piazza when I was so young. But I do remember seeing my father. My father was a very large, powerful man. Everybody always knew that. I remember going around with my mom down in Chinatown. We were living in Monterey Park, California.