Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. He spent 12 years in prison, and once released, began a career as a motivational speaker, life coach, and author. In 2007, he started the Reality Check Program to help educate at-risk youths on the consequences of breaking the law. He has acted as a spokesperson for prisoners and prisoner issues, been a vocal advocate for prison reform, and made appearances in the media as an expert on robberies. Early life Lawton was born in North Hempstead, New York on October 3, 1961. His first encounter with organized crime was through his father, a metal worker who delivered bribes to the New York mafia. In grades one through six, Lawton served as an altar boy at St. Francis de Chantal in The Bronx, where he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. Lawton attended Intermediate IS 192 and Lehman High School, but did not graduate. In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard and took part in the Mariel boatlift. In 1983, having earned his GED, he left the Coast Guard and began engaging in criminal activity, mostly loan sharking and bookmaking. Criminal career Lawton executed his first robbery when he was 28, an inside job to collect insurance money. He then began robbing jewelry stores along the Atlantic Coast, using his contacts within the Gambino crime family to fence the stolen merchandise. At one point, he purchased an Italian pizza restaurant in North Lauderdale, Florida, which he later burned down as part of an insurance fraud. He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. Capture In May 1994, three males robbed a jewelry store in Daytona Beach, Florida, netting $500,000 (nearly $950,000 in 2022) worth of gold and diamonds. The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. The two store owners were bound while two individuals robbed the store and a third acted as a lookout and the other as the getaway driver. The robbers took $480,000 ($910,600.81 in 2022) worth of gold and diamonds making it the biggest