John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
John Kiriakou's Dead Drop

S2E10 Food, Glorious Food!

July 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In his first full day at FCI Loretto, John Kiriakou walked into the chow hall and saw boxes of frozen fish stacked behind the serving line. The boxes were clearly marked "Alaskan cod, product of China. Feed use only, not for human consumption." A fellow inmate named Pete Calabries had already warned him: "Don't eat this fish. We call it sewer trout." That was the moment Kiriakou understood that prison food was not just bad—it was something else entirely. Months later, the warden sent a memo to the entire prison population apologizing because, on a previous taco night, the kitchen had accidentally served dog food. The meat plant had mislabeled the packages. The shame, Kiriakou notes, was not that they were fed dog food. The shame was that nobody could tell the difference.

The Stinger and the Garbage Can Kitchen

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:35) **Opening: The Reality of Prison Food** - John introduces the episode by describing the inedible slop served in prison, including "sewer trout" and dog food labeled as ground beef.
  • 2 (04:07) **Welcome and Guest Introduction** - John welcomes Joey Castle, a fellow inmate who became a gourmet chef in prison using improvised tools like a "stinger" (homemade immersion heater).
  • 3 (06:41) **Joey's First Days and Prison Social Rules** - Joey explains the initial culture shock, including learning to avoid traps from other inmates and the unspoken hierarchy in the cafeteria.
  • 4 (08:51) **The Art of Prison Cooking: Calzones and Gourmet Meals** - Joey details how he transformed basic ingredients into authentic Italian dishes, often using a stinger and plastic bags in a trash bucket.
  • 5 (09:56) **The Pipeline: Smuggling and the Mob Hierarchy** - Joey reveals how he got premium ingredients through a network of corrupt guards and his connection to a high-ranking mobster, Nikki Carrazo.
  • 6 (14:38) **Step-by-Step: How to Cook with a Stinger** - Joey walks through the exact process of using a stinger and a plastic bag to boil water and steam food in a prison cell.
  • 7 (16:01) **Joey's Integration into the Italian "Family"** - Joey describes how he was formally claimed by the Italian mobsters, moving from sitting with African American inmates to the Italian table.

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Guests on this episode

John Kiriakou

Show Notes

IN THIS EPISODE, meet Joey Casolo. These days, Joey owns a great pizzaria in South Carolina. But, back in the day, Joey was one of the greatest prison chefs ever at Loretto. If you remember from the movie Goodfellas, the Italians weren't interested in the prison chow. Instead they cooked their own food - gourmet Italian meals - all prepared using a rudimentary (and incredibly dangerous) cooking system: a bucket of water and a live electrical wire that makes the water boil immediately.



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John Kiriakou's Dead Drop

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