# Good Books With Criminal Authors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320 "2003-05-29T17:48:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/1 "2003-05-29T17:48:33Z")
Do you know of any books that you’d recommend that were written by criminals, either before or after their commission of the crimes(s)? And I’m not talking about petty offenses like getting caught with a joint in their glove compartment or cutting the tags off of their mattress- I’m talking about more serious crimes. Do you know of any such books? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/2 "2003-05-29T17:53:20Z")
I haven’t read _Catch Me If You Can_ (written by Frank Abignale), but it’s the only book I can think of offhand that was written by a major criminal. ---
**Author:** ![labdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5fc32e/32.png) [@labdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labdude)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/3 "2003-05-29T18:02:39Z")
“confessions of a prision fish”, I haven’t read this but the guy was on booktv a few weeks ago and it looked interesting. Also, the steve mcqeen movie, “pappillion” was based on a book by the real life prision escapee. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/4 "2003-05-29T18:16:16Z")
Anne Perry, the mystery author, served time for her involvement in the murder of her best friend’s mother, when she was 15 (in New Zealand). The movie _Heavenly Creatures_ is about the murder - pretty good movie, too. Her books are fiction and I don’t think she talks about the crime to interviewers, but she is a criminal author. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/5 "2003-05-29T18:17:04Z")
Abnagle’s book is definitely worth a look. Stephen Reid is another good one. He wrote “Jackrabbit Parole” after his career as a successful professional bank robber (member of the “Stopwatch Gang”) was interrupted by incarceration. Since his subsequent career as an unsuccessful and really bad bank robber has met the same fate, there’s every chance he’ll be writing more in the future. He’s got the time. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/6 "2003-05-29T18:54:09Z")
Mark Brandon Read. I haven’t read his books, but a movie made from one of them, _Chopper_, is brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/7 "2003-05-29T19:03:52Z")
[The Four Million](http://www.literaturepage.com/read/thefourmillion.html) by the convicted embezzler William Sydney Porter\* Chester Himes wrote a series of successful mystery novels starring the characters Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones (best known – “Cotton Comes to Harlem”). He started writing in prison after getting 25 years for armed robbery. \*Better known by his pen name, O. Henry. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/8 "2003-05-29T19:05:35Z")
**You Can’t Win** , by Jack Black - not the guy from Tenacious D or Shallow Hal - a 1920’s era petty thief/hobo who wrote his autobiography. Really well written, cited as an influence by William Burroughs and a few other Beat writers. **Straight Time** , by Art Pepper - one of the best alto sax players (up there close to Charlie “Yardbird” Parker). This is an oral history he dictated to his third (fourth?) wife, Laurie. Fascinating, great book, with lots on jazz, life in prison, committing crime, etc… **Soul on Ice** by Eldridge Cleaver - I haven’t read it, but isn’t it about prison experience? **The Autobiography of Malcolm X** - one of the best books I ever read. Oh, and **Homeboy** , by Seth Morgan. Came from money, got screwed up with drugs and crime, served time, got out, wrote this great book - kinda Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen - then killed himself in a motorcycle accident (drunk, I think). Great book, woulda been great to read more of his stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/9 "2003-05-29T19:07:07Z")
Nice catch on _The Autobiography of Malcolm X_, WordMan. Great book. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/10 "2003-05-29T20:21:59Z")
Robert Mason had _Chickenhawk_, about his flying in Vietnam published after he was convicted of smuggling a _lot_ of marijuana. They made a bad movie from his excellent novel _Solo_. Thre is a sequel, the title of which escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/11 "2003-05-29T20:51:43Z")
I can’t believe I forgot this one, considering I just finished reading it about a week ago. **Final Truth: The Autobiography of a Serial Killer** was written by Donald “PeeWee” Gaskins, a serial rapist/killer who was put to death in South Carolina in 1990. I read this book because he committed his crimes in coastal South Carolina, which is where I live. Knowing what he did has definitely made driving along US 17 pretty creepy. This book is not for the squeamish - it describes brutal rapes and murders in detail. He couldn’t remember them all, and he was never charged with most of his murders, but it added up to almost a hundred. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/12 "2003-05-29T21:05:37Z")
Dostoyevsky did four years in the joint for associating with socialists. Yeah, not much of a crime nowadays, but he was originally sentenced to be shot for it and recieved a last minute commutation. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/13 "2003-05-29T22:01:52Z")
Boethius wrote the Christian classic _The Consulation of Philosophy_ in 524 in prison before he was executed (well, duh). I don’t know if he would fit your criteria as a hardcore, badass criminal, **Surreal** , for he was in on trumped-up political charges stemming from his stand against corruption. But he was executed, gotta be worth something. Likewise, I would group Oscar Wilde’s 1895 conviction for homosexuality with joint-smoking and mattress-tag snipping. More scumlike (presumably) is the convicted rapist Thomas Malory, who wrote _Morte d’Arthur_ in the late 1400s. And the Elizabethen poet/playwriter Ben Jonson did time for murder as well as for “popery and treason.” ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/14 "2003-05-29T23:01:34Z")
There’s always _Manson in His Own Words_. Nuel Emmons did a series of interviews with him and helped him put something together in book form so maybe it doesn’t count as actually being written by Charlie himself. There’s also _In the Belly of the Beast_ by Jack Abbott, who got out of prison with the support of Norman Mailer after Mailer read the book. (Alas, he soon stabbed another man to death during an argument and wound up going back to jail.) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/91b2a8/32.png) [@Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_Sandwhich)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/15 "2003-05-29T23:14:01Z")
Slight nitpick KRC, but “Belly” consists of letters Abbott wrote to Mailer, who then helped get them published in book form. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/16 "2003-05-29T23:19:28Z")
I haven’t read it but Live From Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal seems like a good candidate for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/17 "2003-05-29T23:46:57Z")
What about the guy in your sig line, **Surreal**? I guess that it depends on your point of view, but Henry Kissinger is considered by some to be a war criminal and he’s written quite a few books. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/18 "2003-05-30T00:19:31Z")
I’d recommend [Life Sentences: Rage and Survival Behind Bars.](http://hallevents.com/crime_criminals/129.shtml) While it’s more about prison life than the actual deeds that put the criminals there, the book was written entirely by inmates - contributors to the Angolite, Louisiana State Penitentiary’s uncensored newspaper. I was actually surprised at what a fascinating read it turned out to be. My wife had it hanging around from an old university class. I picked it up on a lark and ended up having a very difficult time putting it back down. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/19 "2003-05-30T03:17:55Z")
If Malory’s included then we mustn’t leave out Geoffrey Chaucer (of Canterbury Tales fame) who in 1380 was accused of Cecily Champain’s “raptus” (rape or abduction). She signed a document releasing him from the consequences of his crime. .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320/20 "2003-05-30T04:03:43Z")
_The Riddle of the Sands_ by Erskine Childers is generally considered the first modern spy novel (it was written in 1903). Childers was later arrested and executed for fighting for Irish independance (the specific charge was possession of an illegal gun). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-with-criminal-authors/178320.md?page=2)