Jack Abbott

Infobox Writer
name = Jack Henry Abbott


imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate = Birth date|1944|1|21
birthplace = Oscoda, Michigan, United States
deathdate = death date and age|2002|2|10|1944|1|21
deathplace = Wende Correctional Facility, Buffalo, New York
occupation =
nationality = American
period = 1981 - 1987
subject = Prison life
movement =
influences = Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Niels Bohr, Heinrich Hertz, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, Rudolf Carnap, Willard Van Orman Quine, Vladimir Lenin, Friedrich Engels, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin

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 knifed a man during an altercation, was convicted of manslaughter and returned to prison, where he committed suicide in 2002.

He was born on a U.S. Army base in Oscoda, Michigan, [cite book |last=Abbott |first=Jack Henry |title=In the Belly of the Beast |publisher=year=1981 |isbn=0-679-73237-3 ] to an Irish-American soldier and a Chinese prostitute, [cite book |last=Abbott |first=Jack Henry |title=In the Belly of the Beast |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1981 |isbn=0-679-73237-3 ] . Manywho believe this background and lack of a family structure was the beginning of his problems - dating all the way back to his birth. According to his book, "In the Belly of the Beast," he claims 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 reform school.

The Australian film "Ghosts... of the Civil Dead" is based on his life.

Prison and release

In 1965, aged 21, Jack Abbott was serving a sentence for forgery in a Utah prison when he stabbed a fellow inmate to death. He was given a sentence of three to 23 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 troublesome 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 and offered to write about his time behind bars and the conditions he was experiencing. 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."cite web | last =Gado | first =Mark | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Jack Abbot, murder made into literary celebrity | work = | publisher =Crime Library | date = | url =http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/jack_abbott/index.html | format = | doi = | accessdate =2007-11-15 ] After leaving prison Abbott went to New York City and was the toast of the literary scene for a short while.

Murder and return to prison

On the morning of July 18, just 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, after Adan told him that the restroom was for staff use only. The short-tempered Abbott stabbed Adan in the chest, killing him. 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 Richard Adan. At his trial in January 1982, he gained the support of such celebrities as Susan Sarandon, whose son Jack Henry Robbins is named after Abbott, and Jerzy Kosinski. Abbot was convicted of manslaughter and given fifteen 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.

While Abbott was an accomplished writer, Adan was both an actor and a playwright, whose talent was just beginning to be recognized; shortly before his murder his first play had been accepted for production by the La Mama theatre company.

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." Kosinski admitted that their advocacy of Abbott was in essence, a "fraud."cite web | last =Wolffs | first =Claudia | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =In the Belly of the Beast | work = | publisher =Time Magazine | date =August 3, 1981 | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,949268-1,00.html | format = | doi = | accessdate =2007-11-15 | quote=We pretended he had always been a writer. It was a fraud. It was like the '60s, when we embraced the Black Panthers in that moment of radical chic without understanding their experience. ]

Final years

In 1987 Abbott published another book titled "My Return," which was unsuccessful. It contained a great deal of self-pity, but no remorse for his crimes. In fact, Abbott blamed his crimes on the prison system and the government and said he wanted an apology from society for the way he had been mistreated.

He appeared before the parole board in 2001, but his application was turned down because of his failure to express remorse and his lengthy criminal record and disciplinary problems in prison.cite web |url=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/jackabbott1.html |title=Jack Henry Abbott, parole hearing, June 6, 2001, New York State Parole Commission. |accessdate=2007-11-15 |format= |work= ]

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.

References

Fuchs, Christian [1996] (2002). "Bad Blood". Creation Books.

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/10/specials/mailer-abbot.html New York Times article about Abbott from 1981, written before his return to prison.]
* [http://www.buffaloreport.com/020301abbott.html Report of Abbot's death from the Buffalo Report]
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/jack_abbott/?sect=20 Jack Abbott at the Crime Library]
* Comment from Ivan Fisher, attorney for Abbott, following conviction [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E1DC1E38F931A15752C0A964948260]