Читать книгу The Day John Fitzgerald Kennedy Past - Welby Thomas Cox Jr. - Страница 5

The day I was convicted I went to prison. I did not have to do so, I could have gone home to await the sentencing, and in retrospect, I should have. But I was so angry and embarrassed that I just felt like I should be punished for the damage I had done to my children, most especially my son who was an honored soldier who had served in the Gulf War and came home to become a police officer and while serving his community he was paralyzed in a fall while saving the lid, of a young girl threatening suicide. For his own private reasons, enhanced by my own condition, my son would take his own precious life.

To say that I was sick with depression and hatred and a lack of understanding as to why my life had come to this state, would be a gross understatement. But that pain was only beginning, as I would soon discover while at Manchester Federal Camp in 2008. To begin with my wife divorced me (after 38 years) without a "how-do-you-do" as they say...and has not written or spoken to me since 2007. Of course it did not stop her from stealing my identity, running up bills which she failed to pay. But this was typical of her “Holly-Go-Litely” attitude, the irony was that I knew who she was when I first met her, and I loved her for it…”so you gets what you are due!”

I was poisoned by a Cambodian PA at “Sick-Call”while at Manchester Federal Prison (because she said that I had killed innocent children). The medication she prescribed caused me to bleed for a period of five (5) weeks until I sued the Bureau of Prisons in a habeas corpus motion seeking medical attention for the condition which caused the loss of fifty-five (55) pounds in less than sixty(60) days.

I was taken to the hospital at Hazard, Kentucky where several kidney stones were removed by a wonderful Indian doctor who saved my life. As a result of my aggressive action to take care of myself, the warden placed me on diesel therapy which is a punitive action the BOP uses against inmates whom they considered to be troublesome.

Shackled hand and feet, placed in a bus and driven ten (10) hours to Atlanta where I was placed in the most draconian, antiquated, notorious prison in the United States with the possible exclusion of Sing Sing, Alcatraz, and Leavenworth (where I would go later).

Worse than the condition of the prison was the brutal manner in which the prison guards treated the inmates. Forcing them to be herded into small rooms with no chairs to wait for hours to be processed which included "cavity" inspections, verbal and physical abuse with the slightest provocation.

I was so weary, I curled-up by a post and went to sleep on the concrete floor as the other inmates yelled at each other and walked over me. Finally near midnight was rousted by the inmates as we were lined up in single file and marched through the pipe dripping rust and rat infested dungeon somewhere beneath the floor of this archaic federal prison.

I was struck by the amount of noise at this hour but as I was led to my cell, dragging a mattress, blanket, towel, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, trying to walk in shower shoes that had to be size 14 for my 10 1/2 left me to scooting like I was skating, I got a glimpse of the construction which had an open center with cells around it. There were TV's on each floor controlled by the black trustees who programmed BET and soaps as loud as the sets would permit so that all the blacks on any floor could watch.

On arrival at the cell, the door opened and I was told to step forward...I could not see there were no lights on in the cell.

"Can you turn on the light?" I asked the guard.

"Better ask Ham...he owns this cell" the guard responded.

From the corner of the cell there was a grunt..."leave the fucking light off!"

I stood there hoping to acclimate to the darkness. My eyes took on a new life... I could make out a window with holes in the glass and a wall outside that was twenty-five feet tall with razor wire, there were two iron beds or cots, a wash basin, toilet, small desk and chair.

I drugged the mattress to the bed with nothing on it and placed it on the metal shelf. I put the soap, toothpaste and brush in the towel as a pillow, kicked off the shower shoes and fell into a deep sleep as I heard myself make the comment...” No offense.