Joseph Taylor

Mailing Address:

Joseph J. Taylor BG3293
Ironwood State Prison
P.O. BOX 2199
Blythe, CA. 92226

Background/Bio:

I was born May 31, 1985, at 4:43 pm in Huntington Beach, California. I’m the eldest of five siblings. My mother, Mary, and father, John Taylor, have separated since I was three. Despite their irreconcilable differences, they get along just fine. My mom lives in Oregon. I also own Oregon property and plan to be paroled around 2030, maybe sooner. My dad lives in Huntington Beach, California, at our “Little House of Repair” surfboard shop where I grew up… I went to many schools because I was a wild child. To make a long story short, in 10th grade, I violated probation and was sent to juvenile hall. The judge ended up sending me to “Touchstones” adolescent treatment facility, which probably saved my life. Of the 80 kids there, only three graduated during my nine months. I was one of those three. 

 

So, I got sober at the age of 16. The old schools didn’t want me back, so I was sent to Huntington Beach High School, where I graduated in 2004 with a 3.71 GPA. I received the Academic Achievement Award. When I wasn’t working at the surf shop making new surfboards and repairing old ones, I was surfing, sailing around Newport Harbor, and wrenching on a motorcycle or car. I stayed sober for four years, but I didn’t think I had a problem with alcohol. I thought drugs were my problem, but I was wrong. At first, things were fun. I was going to a lot of punk shows, drinking here and there, but this didn’t last long as I got behind the wheel after a bar fight that I was fleeing and ended up getting a DUI, hit & run, criminal threats, and resisting arrest. The judge gave me one year in jail, as well as a one-year residential treatment program at Hope House and three years of probation. I completed everything and, trip out, of the 80 men and women, only three graduated, and again, I was one of those three…

 

I stayed sober for about three years this time, just until I got off probation, but this time, I injured my shoulder doing mixed martial arts in a cage match. Opioids, here we go… from 25-27 years of age, I was popping pills like candy. Eventually, I stopped on my own, and believe it or not, I became a “normal,” as in a regular drinker. I could drink and stop. The work was good. I had strong bonds with my family and friends. I think what grounded me was finding my old rune set that my grandmother gifted to me when I was 16. When I was growing up, she read stories out of the Poetic Edda and Icelandic sagas. I have been practicing Odinism since I was about 10. Asatrue taught me morals, principles, noble virtues, and politics. Eventually, I got into trouble again. I had been collecting guns to keep around the house or for when I’d go hunting. I believe that the rights of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, felon or not.

 

On May 12, 2015, I was arrested for solicitation of murder and attempted murder for what I see as protecting my family. I was going to kill my brother’s ex-wife. I ask myself, is this course the best one I have chosen? Though I find despair often enough, sometimes I long for that other way. Truth is nothing in the face of self-falsehood, and principles are useless if idealists can’t live up to their standards. Then, yes, it is! I look back to May 12, 2015, and I keep getting asked why. Well, I ask you this… what would you do if your brother’s ex-wife was beating her daughter and you and your family reported her to Child Protective Services, but because the child was 7, they did nothing when I saw my niece all bruised up, broken finger, and injured back begging me to stop her mom. I threatened the mother to stop, but it only provoked her more. There is no talking to a meth addict that’s popping Xanax. So my brother’s ex-wife started making false police reports trying to destroy our family, so yeah… I did what I did. 

 

Since I came to prison, I have found who I am. I am no longer the angry, hateful individual I once was. I have learned practical coping skills and participated in many groups, including AVP, ACP, ISUDT, and CBI. Additionally, I became a teacher’s aide for ABE3/GED, helping these guys get their diplomas. I took an IQ test, scored 131, and took an aptitude test, and I discovered that I’m abstract, utilitarian, and rational. My intellect is Coordinator, Strategic Fieldmarshall, & Strategic Engineer Inventor. I’ve always been good at science, technology, and systems. I value being calm, trusting reason, yearning for achievement, seeking knowledge, prizing deference, and aspiring wizard—social role: mating-mind mate, parenting-individuator, leading visionary. I ask you this: What do you aspire to achieve or become? What do you believe is so important that it drives your behaviors consistently? What are you better at doing than anything else? What energizes you? What do you feel is right and wrong in a given situation? What do you think? And most of all, what turns you on?

 

How do you measure a decade when a single hour seems like a day and a single day seems like a year? I find living so close to death that I have come to appreciate life all the more. I know this now: I have never been as healthy as I am now, physically and mentally, because I put in the work. I work out half the day and hit the books the other half. I only have one class left to be a college graduate. Where are you in life?

Hobbies/Interests/Goals:

Working out helps me relax, lying up to my name, “Taylor,” cutting clothes, gardening (I have a green thumb); I am interested in girls! I want to meet that remarkable woman who wants to move to Oregon and share their dreams with me.

 

Interested in hearing: I would like to hear from NATURALLY BORN WOMEN and straight men with like-minded interests in surfing, sailing, welding, growing edible plants and herbs, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Odinism/Asatru.