| Jack Abbott | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jack Henry Abbott January 21, 1944 Oscoda, Michigan, United States |
| Died | February 10, 2002 (aged 58) Wende Correctional Facility, Alden, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1981–1987 |
| Subjects | Prison life |
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Jack Henry Abbott (January 21, 1944 – February 10, 2002) was an American criminal and author. He was released from prison in 1981 after gaining praise for his writing and being lauded by a number of high-profile literary critics, including author Norman Mailer. Six weeks after his release, however, he fatally stabbed a man during an altercation, was convicted of manslaughter and returned to prison, where he committed suicide in 2002.
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Abbott was born at Camp Skeel in Oscoda, Michigan,[1] to an Irish-American soldier and a Chinese prostitute.[1] According to his book, In the Belly of the Beast, he claimed to have been in and out of foster care from the moment of his birth until the age of nine, at which point he started "serving long stints in juvenile detention quarters." As a child, Abbott was in trouble with teachers and later with the law, and by the age of 16 was sent to a long-term reform institution, the Utah State Industrial School. According to Abbott, his mistreatment by the school guards left him scarred for life.[2]
The Australian film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead is based on his life.
In 1965, aged 21, Abbott was serving a sentence for forgery in a Utah prison when he stabbed another inmate to death. He was given a sentence of three to 23 years for this offense, and in 1971 his sentence was increased by a further 19 years after he escaped and committed a bank robbery in Colorado. Behind bars, he was rebellious and spent much time in solitary confinement.
In 1977, he read that author Norman Mailer was writing about convicted killer Gary Gilmore. Abbott wrote to Mailer, alleging that Gilmore was largely embellishing his experiences, and offered to write about his time behind bars in order to provide a more factual depiction of life in prison. Mailer agreed and helped to publish In the Belly of the Beast, a book on life in the prison system consisting of Abbott's letters to Mailer.
Mailer supported Abbott's attempts to gain parole. Abbott was released on parole in June 1981, despite the misgivings of prison officials, one of whom questioned Abbott's mental state and whether he was rehabilitated, saying, "I thought ... that Mr. Abbott was a dangerous individual ... I didn't see a changed man. His attitude, his demeanor indicated psychosis."[3] After leaving prison, Abbott went to New York City and was the star of the literary scene for a short time.
On the morning of July 18, 1981, six weeks after getting out of prison, Jack Abbott went to a small cafe called the Binibon in Manhattan. He argued with 22-year-old Richard Adan, son-in-law of the restaurant's owner. Adan, a budding actor and playwright, told him that the restroom was for staff use only. Abbott stabbed Adan in the chest, killing him. Abbott maintained that he acted in self-defense.
The very next day, unaware of Abbott's crime, the New York Times ran a positive review of In the Belly of the Beast.
After some time on the run, Abbott was arrested in Morgan City, Louisiana while he was working in an oilfield. He was charged with the murder of Adan. At his trial in January 1982, he gained the support of such celebrities as writer Jerzy Kosinski, and actress Susan Sarandon. He was convicted of manslaughter and given a sentence of 15 years to life.
Apart from the advance fee of $12,500, Abbott did not receive any revenue from In the Belly of the Beast, because Richard Adan's widow successfully sued him for $7.5 million in damages, which meant she receives all the money from the book's sales.[3]
Norman Mailer was criticized for his role in getting Jack Abbott released and was accused of being so blinded by Abbott's evident writing talent that he did not take into account the man's violent nature. In a 1992 interview in The Buffalo News, Mailer said that his involvement with Abbott was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in."[3] Kosinski admitted that their advocacy of Abbott was in essence, a "fraud."[4]
In 1987, Abbott published another book titled My Return, which was not as popular as In the Belly of the Beast. In both these works, Abbott argues that society must reckon with its treatment of prisoners and that the prison system is fundamentally flawed in that it treats prisoners like sub-human creatures. In "Belly of the Beast" he explains the helplessness that prisoners feel while at the mercy of a prison system that is seemingly never held accountable for its actions. He also hints at the subtle yet devastating effect prisons have on all society. Abbot states,
We have no legal rights as prisoners, only as citizens. The only "rights" we have are those left to their "discretion." So we assert our rights the only way we can. It is a compromise, and in the end I greatly fear we as prisoners will lose-but the loss will be society's loss. We are only a few steps removed from society. After us, comes you.
He appeared before the parole board in 2001, but his application was denied because of his failure to express remorse, lengthy criminal record and disciplinary problems in prison.[5] Abbott's distrust of the prison system and his refusal to express remorse for many of his actions stemmed from his belief that much of what he did was in response to a dehumanizing system. He says his incarceration at the age of 12 until 18 was the result of "not adjusting well to foster homes" and his indeterminate sentence of up to five years for "issuing a check for insufficient funds" when he was 18 were examples of a system criminalizing and harshly punishing those it deems unfit for society.
On February 10, 2002, Jack Abbott hanged himself in his prison cell using a makeshift noose constructed from his bedsheets and shoelaces. He left a suicide note, the contents of which have not been made public.
In 2004, a New York theater company ran a play based on the book, named In the Belly of the Beast Revisited.[6]
In 2009, BINIBON by Elliott Sharp and Jack Womack was presented in New York at The Kitchen, which is based on the events surrounding the 1981 killing of Richard Adan.