Gangster to Doctor is the true life story of Ray A. Ransom. As a young boy he helped integrate public schools in the South during dangerous times of racial unrest. As a teenager he turned the tides on a gang of bullies and enjoyed it so much that he embraced his newfound power and became a gangster while still in high school.
Because of the early teachings of a grandmother, and a promise he made her to become a medical doctor, he refused to drop out of school, and graduated only to find himself homeless after receiving his diploma. This book tells a story of a double life Ransom lived in which he was known by many as an up and coming successful real estate millionaire, and others to be a vicious gangster dealing in international drug smuggling, suspected murder-for-hire, suspected mob ties, and organized criminal activity. After a million-dollar federal investigation he would be indicted and convicted on fifteen counts, and serve over sixteen years in prison. It was what he learned during those sixteen plus years of federal confinement that allowed him to walk out of prison with a BA, MBA, and Ph.D., and retire within six years of his release during the second worse economic period in U.S. history. Gangster to Doctor: The True Life Story of a South Florida Gangster Who Became a Ph.D. tells that story, and suggests that growing up poor, coming from a single-parent family, making the wrong choices, and going to prison is never an excuse for being a failure.