The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison (53 page)

Matthews was quiet after telling the story, and then he said, “There is evil in this world and sometimes you can’t do anything to change that. You must accept it and deal with it. There are certain people who are just bad people, and these people are going to do bad things. That is why we need penitentiaries. That is why we need Leavenworth and that is why we will always have penitentiaries like Leavenworth.”

It was later than usual when Warden Matthews finished his daily close-out session with his executive staff and left for home. As he walked from the warden’s office into the prison lobby, he could hear the muffled sounds of hundreds of inmates inside the great rotunda as they headed toward the dining hall for dinner. The officers in the control center nodded in respect as Matthews stood in front of the penitentiary’s steel front
grille, waiting for it to open so he could leave. He hurried down the white limestone front steps guarded by two statues of growling lions. Jerry O’Brien had installed the lions. O’Brien thought they gave Leavenworth a certain regal atmosphere. He also hoped they would intimidate inmates when they first arrived. The guard in the tower yelled a cheery “Good night, sir!” to Matthews as he strolled across the asphalt to his car, now shaded from the hot July sun by the trees that lined the circular drive. It had taken him two full years, but he had finally accomplished his goal.

Robert Matthews was the master of the Hot House.

Six months later, he was gone. Director Quinlan sent him to take charge of the penitentiary at Atlanta. On January 1, 1990, Matthews’s successor turned his car into the penitentiary’s drive, drove past the guard tower, and slipped into the parking spot marked
WARDEN
. Within minutes he was climbing the Hot House’s forty-three front steps.

This book is a factual account of the activities inside the United States penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, between July 1987 and July 1989. The material is based on interviews, prison and court records, newspaper accounts of various crimes, and personal observations by the author. More than one hundred people were interviewed face-to-face for this book, including several whose names do not appear but whose comments proved helpful in describing prison life. A few names have been changed to protect persons from physical harm or prosecution, but the only major character who was given a pseudonym was Norman Bucklew. All other convicts whose stories are described at length chose to use their actual names.

It would have been impossible to write this book without the cooperation of J. Michael Quinlan, director of the Bureau of Prisons. There is no constitutional guarantee that gives authors the right to enter prisons and interview inmates, yet Director Quinlan permitted me to come and go as I wished. There was never any attempt by guards to monitor my movements or conversations, and, to the best of my knowledge, no inmate or employee was ever coerced to speak to me or punished for doing so. I am grateful to Director Quinlan and to Warden Robert Matthews for their openness. I am also
indebted to the employees and inmates at the Hot House who shared their stories with me.

I wish to thank the following persons by name. In Leavenworth: Frederick Thaufeer al-Deen, Terrance Al-den, Gary Anderson, Susan Avila-McGill, Alvin Bass, Kirk Binszler, William Blount, Carl Bowles, Sam Callibone, Charles Carter, Barry Chapin, Carl Cheek, Steve Chuning, Earl Coleman-Bey, Lee Connor, Don Denny, H. W. Diamond, Sr., John Dobre, Phyllis Driscoll, Connie Duncan, Jeffrey Duncan, Armando Figueroa, Frank Flying Horse, Leonard Foresta, Yvonne M. Frament, Fred Fry, Burrell Fuller, Edward Gallegos, Daryel Garrison, Edward Geouge, Torres Germany, Richard Green, David Ham, Mike Harris, Jim Henderson, Charles Hill, Mike Janas, Sabrina Johns, Tracy Johns, Bill Kindig, Sharon Lacy, Steve Lacy, Bob Lawrence, Albert Lee III, Thomas Edgar Little, Bill Lucas, James Luongo, Bill Masters, Dan McCauley, Janice McCauley, Steve McGill, Cherre Miller, Eric Mitchell, Ray Moore, Carlos Moran, Osiris Morejon, Daisy Morello, Larry Munger, Kenneth Myer, Steve Myhand, Mark Nash, Bruce Newkirk, Jim Orr, Pat Othic, Craig Ozarowski, Connie Parish, Franklyn Perry, Leonard Peltier, David Phillips, Edward Pierce, William Post, Wade Rabb, Vandell Racy, Randy Ream, Ranldy Reed, Barbara Ricktor, Pamela Rothberger, John Rowe, John Rule, Eddie Sanchez, Mike Sandels, Jim Schroeder, Dallas Scott, Jim Sheeve, Jacquelyn Shivers, Ralph Siever, Dennis Silverberg, Thomas Silverstein, Ron Simpson, LeRoy Skaggs, Bill Slack, Bruce Smith, Clyde Smith, Dick Smith, J. R. Smith, Wayne Smith, Don Stiles, Dan Tedrick, Bill Terrell, Barbara Thomas, Bill Thomas, John Trott, Joe Trustee, Glenn Walters, Monty Watkins, Thomas White, Bill Whited, Ernie Williams, Jerry Wolfe, Mark W. Works.

In Washington: Clair A. Cripe, Gerald Farkas, Lloyd Hooker, John Jackson, Tom Kane, Laura Mecoy, Kathryn L. Morse, Roger Ray, Craig Trout. In Marion:
Ronnie Bruscino, Randy J. Davis, John Greschner, Gary Henman, R. A. Litchfield, Mike Sizemore. Others include: Lawrence Y. Bitterman, Norman Carlson, Linda Davis, Maxine Evans, David Freeman, Jerry O’Brien, Jeannie Pellman, Elke Shoats, Doris Smith, Michael Stotts, Lois Wadsworth, Father John Wielebski.

I would particularly wish to thank two fellow writers, Walter Harrington and Patricia Hersch, who gave me excellent editorial guidance and moral support, as well as Ann Harris and Fred Klein, my editors at Bantam Books.

Others whose help I would like to acknowledge include: George and Linda Earley; Stephen J. O’Neil of the Los Angeles law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton; Carolyn Hunter; Nelson and Ginny DeMille; Karen Lockwood; Jay Myerson; Keran Harrington; Toni Shaklee; Lynn and LouAnn Smith; Dr. C. T. Shades; Donna and Wayne Wolfersberger; and my friends at United Christian Parish.

Last, I would like to thank my parents, Elmer and Jean Earley, for their loving advice and support; Barbara Hunter Earley, my wife, who put up with my being gone for months at a time while I was in Leavenworth; and Steve, Kev, and Kathy Earley, who were always waiting at home for Daddy with a smile and a hug.

Bantam Books by Pete Earley

THE HOT HOUSE

CIRCUMSTANTIAL
EVIDENCE

SUPER CASINO

WITSEC

(with Gerald Shur)

PETE EARLEY’s interest in prisons and the American justice system dates back to the 1970s, when he wrote a series of newspaper articles about the inhumane treatment of mentally ill convicts being held in the Oklahoma state prison system. He was formerly a reporter for
The Washington Post
, and is the author of articles for other newspapers and national magazines. Like his other acclaimed books, the bestselling
Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring
, the Edgar Award-winning
Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life and Justice in a Southern Town
, and
Super Casino: Inside the
“
New
”
Las Vegas, The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison
shows Earley as the consummate reporter who lets the evidence of what he observes form the heart of the powerful story he has to tell. His latest book,
WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program
, written with WITSEC founder Gerald Shur, has been praised by
Kirkus Reviews
as “a fast-paced, exciting text that rings with the authenticity to which other crime books aspire.”

Pete Earley and his family live in Virginia.

Visit the author’s website at

www.PeteEarley.com