Wild Man Arrives at the Big House (Part 1)
Wild Man – My large and fearless raving partner from my hometown. He is also Hammy’s cousin, and one of the main characters in my jail memoir. He looked out for me at Arpaio’s Towers jail when we first went in. He was sentenced a year before me, and ended up having various adventures in the prison system. I recently asked him to share some of his prison stories. Click here to read the previous blog I did on him.
“So what was it like your first day arriving at a prison yard?” I asked.
“It was around July ’03,” Wild Man said, “and I’d just got 8 years. I’d already done 14 months at Arpaio’s jail, where I was with you. I’m sentenced, so I’m going straight to the big house. I walk into Steiner Unit at Buckeye prison, a high-medium yard, and go to the end of the dorm. It was a twenty-five-man dorm. Four bunk beds. The rest single cubicles. I put my net bag on the top bunk, and this big wood comes over all slung down with political ink, and a big WHITE PRIDE across his chest.”
“Someone the Aryan Brotherhood’s sent to check you out?”
“Yes. He walks up to me and says, ‘What’s up, wood! I’m the head of the white boys in this dorm.’
I say, ‘I’m Wild Man, and I’m having a bad day. I just got 8 years. I’ve been in transport all day. I’m going to get my head down for a few hours. Could you wake me up?’
He says, ‘I need to see your paperwork.’
I said to him, ‘What the fuck did you just ask me?’
He said, ‘You heard. Where is your paperwork? I need to see it.’
Well, the next thing you know, I swung a big ol’ left that caught him on the jaw. He fell like a bag of turd, and was knocked out.”
“Holy shit!” I said. “How were you planning on getting away with that?”
“He shouldn’t have come at me like that. I’d had a hard day in transport. You know how it is, Shaun.
So his boys come rushing in, saying, ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You’re not gonna get away with that! We’ll handle this at rec.’”
“How did that make you feel?” I asked.
“I went to sleep for a few hours. I was tired.”
“Unbelievable!” I said.
“Next day, I wake up for chow. It’s breakfast. Rec’s at 10…”
Wild Man – My large and fearless raving partner from my hometown. He is also Hammy’s cousin, and one of the main characters in my jail memoir. He looked out for me at Arpaio’s Towers jail when we first went in. He was sentenced a year before me, and ended up having various adventures in the prison system. I recently asked him to share some of his prison stories. Click here to read the previous blog I did on him.
“So what was it like your first day arriving at a prison yard?” I asked.
“It was around July ’03,” Wild Man said, “and I’d just got 8 years. I’d already done 14 months at Arpaio’s jail, where I was with you. I’m sentenced, so I’m going straight to the big house. I walk into Steiner Unit at Buckeye prison, a high-medium yard, and go to the end of the dorm. It was a twenty-five-man dorm. Four bunk beds. The rest single cubicles. I put my net bag on the top bunk, and this big wood comes over all slung down with political ink, and a big WHITE PRIDE across his chest.”
“Someone the Aryan Brotherhood’s sent to check you out?”
“Yes. He walks up to me and says, ‘What’s up, wood! I’m the head of the white boys in this dorm.’
I say, ‘I’m Wild Man, and I’m having a bad day. I just got 8 years. I’ve been in transport all day. I’m going to get my head down for a few hours. Could you wake me up?’
He says, ‘I need to see your paperwork.’
I said to him, ‘What the fuck did you just ask me?’
He said, ‘You heard. Where is your paperwork? I need to see it.’
Well, the next thing you know, I swung a big ol’ left that caught him on the jaw. He fell like a bag of turd, and was knocked out.”
“Holy shit!” I said. “How were you planning on getting away with that?”
“He shouldn’t have come at me like that. I’d had a hard day in transport. You know how it is, Shaun.
So his boys come rushing in, saying, ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You’re not gonna get away with that! We’ll handle this at rec.’”
“How did that make you feel?” I asked.
“I went to sleep for a few hours. I was tired.”
“Unbelievable!” I said.
“Next day, I wake up for chow. It’s breakfast. Rec’s at 10…”
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Do you think the Aryan Brotherhood will retaliate against Wild man for knocking out one of their woods?
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Email comments for Wild Man to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
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Shaun P. Attwood
17 comments:
Wild Man looks tough, but he won't take on the Aryan Brotherhood, there are too many of them inside.
Smokey
Good reading. Does the story have a starting point? As the previous blog only starts after the arrest of wild man.
Looking forward to the next blog!
Wild Man is nuts, isn't he? what has he been up to since his return? is he calm now?
Claudia
As long as Wild Man doesn't blink, he'll be OK. One blink though? I wouldn't want to be him.
Ronald Pires
I love the Wild Man stories! I've heard plenty. According to him, they are all true. Haha!
Cityboy,
The previous story is from the day Wild Man and I were arrested, May 16th 2002. We ended up at Towers jail. The jail system is different from the prison system in America. Jails house mostly unsentenced or short-sentence inmates. So after we were sentenced, we were sent to prison. This story pertains to Wild Man's first day in the prison system.
Shaun Attwood
Personally, I think that was a remarkably ignorant and oblivious move on his part. Where do I begin?
A. You're white and automatically a minority, why instantly alienate what little support you have available to you?
B. In prison, where respect and saving face is the ultimate basic rule, punching the emissary of perhaps the most violent gang(The Brand) would be an instant death sentence.
C. Is it really that big of a deal to show him your papers, just so they know you're not a chomo or rapist?
D. Even if they don't kill you right off the bat, who wants to spend their entire sentence in protective custody?!
To the lay observer, they might admire his cheeky bad-ass move, but as I think anyone who's been in prison could tell you, surviving your stay in prison with as little trouble as possible is a tightrope, navigating your way between those who would take advantage of you while still maintaining personal dignity with tact.
Disrespecting your race like that from the first day is probably the single stupidest move I can imagine any inmate could make.
I can't wait to hear how the rest of this story unfolds.
Jon,
Ah I see now, much clearer to me. I'm still trying to get my head around the penal/detention system in America.
Sell on the Black, buy on the red
There must be some sort of insanity gene that is running in the family if Wild Man and Hammy are related. Thanks for the story-these are some of my favorites.
I agree with Alex D.
Like how dumb to alienate the ones you might need the most. Who gives a hoot about what your paper says. Just hand it over and get the sleep.
That's a cracking comment, Sue. I pissed myself laughing. You don't know the half of it with the family insanity gene.
I'm in Spain. I decided to get some excercise. So I walked 28km over the mountains in the Valencia heat. Not a single breeze. Top scenery though. Golden eagles soaring above.
Found a bar in a village called Dos Aguas after 28km+. Had a beer in a frosted glass. Got the taste for it so that was that.
Tomorrow, I'll have my feet in the pool with an ice cool San Miguel.
Hammy
I completely agree with your statement Alex D, however, in prison there are those who choose to do their "own number", and even though they do run the risk of being subjected to constant attacks from all sides, some simply refuse to click up. We had a white dude named Wayne from Idaho that landed on the yard. He was hit up by the woods and after running check on him they found out he had been clicked up with some bikers from Alpine and was to continue his towing of that line, but he refused. The next day Wayne got his 4 front teeth knocked in for choosing to do his own number and not click up. Some people are really crazy and can handle it, others are just better off on their own. Over time though some do earn the respect and are left alone by all sides. But there are more than you would imagine. Actually the "Bible back door" is an example. The ones who 100% genuinely convert to a religious faith and have support from those who turned to their supreme being. All across the US, most prisons are turning to Sensitive Needs, and the number of individuals living in those housing units is increasing like crazy.
I don't know what to make of the Wild Man situation, because as far as I know it is supposed to be 100% onsite assistance. Unless there was a factor we are unaware of why the woods just didn't handle it right there to save face of making their OWN gang look bad.
But I agree Alex, that took a big pair when knowing the repercussions. Take good care Shaun.-Jose in San Diego.
Hammy, we need more posts by you! Shaun had me dying with stories about Wild Man during our visitation in Tucson-good stuff. Glad to know you're cooling your heels a bit!
i say, beat those aryan brothers, not sure what wild man did, but being an aryan is bad in itself. good job wild man
Karen Thomas
Ouch!
I can only imagine that they respect his boldness - not because I think that's what they would normally do - but because he lived through it to tell you the story - :)
What happens next?
Anxiously yours,
Chris H
I can see why he is called Wild Man.
He's about as calm as anyone could ever be under the circumstances.
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