By Mandy Feder — Norman Mailer stood before a crowd at a speaking engagement in New York City.
The majority of the audience adored him and anxiously awaited his speech.
When Mailer appeared, people stood up and clapped. But one man, not a fan, yelled out, “it”s your fault my brother is dead.”
Mailer, a highly-acclaimed American writer, championed the cause to release Jack Henry Abbott from prison.
Abbott was troubled even as a youth, bouncing from one reform school to another. His childhood records cite a “failure to adjust.”
After spending time in juvenile halls until he was 18, he was back behind bars serving five years in the Utah State Penitentiary for breaking and entering and later forging checks. In 1966 he stabbed an inmate to death and was given an additional three to 20 years. In 1971 after he escaped from prison, he robbed a bank and was convicted of armed robbery, which added a 19-year federal sentence to his state sentences.
What would possess a literary genius to decide that this anti-social, violent man should be free? Abbott could write, that”s what.
In prison Abbott read, a lot — philosophy, sociology, you name it.
He also read in Time magazine that Mailer was working on the book “The Executioner”s Song.” Abbott wrote to Mailer and offered to give him a perspective about what it”s like to spend almost his whole life in prison. Mailer wrote back and the men became pen-pals of sorts.
Mailer was so impressed by the literary quality of Abbott”s writing that in 1979 The New York Review of Books published a selection of Abbott”s letters to Mailer. What followed was a publishing deal with Random House. Mailer described Abbott as “an intellectual, radical and potential leader.”
When Abbott was eligible for parole in 1980, Mailer wrote to the Utah State Prison board.
He boasted Abbott”s attributes saying he could be a powerful and important writer.
He also guaranteed Abbott a job upon his release.
Prison psychiatrists called Abbott “a dangerous individual,” but in 1981 Abbott was released and employed by Mailer.
Abbott first stayed at Mailer”s Cape Cod home before he was sent to a Salvation Army halfway house in New York City. He became a star, the talk of the town, appearing on the Today Show and he was the subject of articles in both Rolling Stone and People magazines.
But ultimately, some folks just don”t change.
A scuffle with a server at a Manhattan restaurant ended with the death of a 22-year-old aspiring actor working in his father-in-law”s restaurant.
A heated argument that escalated to the point of stepping outside finished with the young man stabbed to death by Abbott.
Witnesses said Abbott stood over the dying man and taunted him.
Abbott went back into the restaurant and told his companions they had to leave because he just killed a man.
Abbott was only out of prison for six weeks when this incident occurred.
He was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter. The young man”s widow filed a wrongful death suit and the jury awarded her $7.5 million.
In 2002, Abbott hanged himself with a bed sheet in prison.
Norman Mailer died in 2007. His Cape Cod home where he was host to the man he helped to free, Abbott, was turned into a colony for aspiring writers.
A couple of weeks back I wrote about three men who were wrongfully persecuted and imprisoned for more than 18 years.
Abbott was a talented writer, but more importantly, he was a violent, anti-social criminal, who should have done his writing from behind prison walls. It is urgent to understand that prisons are not typically filled with innocent people.
The protection of law-abiding citizens should be paramount in our society.
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee managing editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32.
