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What
the Hurricane Book
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On the fateful night, Carter headed out to the nightclubs for Ladies night, but he was also planning for a midnight business meeting with his "advisor," Nathan Sermond. (28-29) [Numbers in parentheses indicate page number in hardcover edition of Hurricane: the miraculous journey of Rubin Carter, by James S. Hirsch] |
Hirsch mentions the business meeting, but glides over whether it actually took place. Hirsch's description of Carter's comings and goings is completely different from Carter's description in his autobiography in 1974 -- but Hirsch never points out to the reader that Carter has changed his alibi over the years. |
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| Carter runs into an old sparring partner, Neil Morrison, who he thinks stole guns from him. He takes Morrison to see a woman who accused Morrison of stealing the guns. Her name was Annabelle Chandler and she was dying of cancer. "Little did Carter know that in years to come, this chance encounter with Neil Morrison and quick jaunt... to visit a dying woman would be used against him in a devastating way." (29) | Carter must have had some idea his midnight visit to a terminally ill woman's house, to ask about missing guns, would be used against him in a devastating way, because he didn't mention it to Lieutenant DeSimone in his initial alibi statement. And although he admitted to it before the Grand Jury and at trial, he left this information out of his own autobiography. | ||
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(Carter's co-accused, John) Artis had only met Carter a couple of times" (before the night of the murders). (30)
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Artis testified at trial that he had only met Rubin Carter a few times, but a trial witness testified she saw them 'palling around together' at the Kenya Club, the Paradise Club, Club LaPetite, the Nite Spot, the Polynesian Bar, Richie's Hideaway and other bars. She said they were 'close friends.' [all quotes from "the prosecution" are taken from the 1987 prosecution brief] |
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| When Carter and Artis were ready to leave the Nite Spot nightclub, Carter flipped his keys to Artis and told him to drive. Carter got into the back seat of his own car, and "slumped down." (30) | Sgt. Capter testified that Carter was lying down in the back seat of the car, (presumably out of sight and therefore it looked like there were only two men in the car.) | ||
| Carter and Artis' conversation that night was about sports and boxing and other "idle conversation." (30) | In testimony, Artis admitted that the "first time he spoke with Rubin Carter that evening they talked about Eddie [Rawls]'s [step]father having his head blown off." The murdered man was a black bartender and police theorized that the slayings at the Lafayette Bar were in retaliation for this murder. | ||
| An all-points bulletin is issued for a white car with "two colored males." "Officers Capter and deChellis had spotted a white car followed by a black car speeding out of Paterson. The officers gave chase, jumping on Route #4 heading toward New York, but they never saw the cars again. So they had returned to Paterson when they saw and stopped Carter's car." (31) | Very misleading! The car was not speeding OUT of town, but speeding THROUGH town. Sergeant Capter swung down another street in an attempt to cut the car off. When he reached the edge of town and could see down the highway, there was no car in sight. In fact, he had seen no other cars on the road at all. There wasn't much traffic at that time of night. (view Cal Deal's map) | ||
| When Sergeant Capter stops Carter's car a second time on the night of the murders, he is quoted as saying, "Aww shit, Hurricane, I didn't realize it was ---," implying that Capter didn't mean to stop Carter a second time and wasn't looking specifically for him. (31) | Sergeant Capter testified that he and his partner went to the murder scene and heard eyewitness descriptions of the getaway car. They immediately set out to find Carter because his car matched the description. | ||
| At the police station, Lt. Detective DeSimone keeps Carter and Artis in separate rooms while he interrogates them about their movements that night. (36) | And they give conflicting stories of where they went and how much time they had spent together. | ||
| Carter consents to a lie detector test and says he is willing to take a paraffin test to check for gunpowder residue on his hands, but he isn't given one. (37) This implies that the Paterson police could have tested him, but chose not to. | Lt. DeSimone told the grand jury that the Paterson police department didn't have the facilities to conduct a paraffin test. | ||
| After giving Carter a lie detector test, Sergeant McGuire tells DeSimone "(Carter) didn't participate in these crimes, but he may know who was involved." (38) | In his book, The Sixteenth Round, Carter quotes McGuire as saying after the tests, "Both of them are clean. They had nothing to do with the crime." The actual report states, "This subject was attempting deception to all the pertinent questions. And was involved in this crime." | ||
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| Carter figures he's been arrested because the mayor of Paterson, a law-and-order type, wants to look good as his term is ending. (42) |
Years later, Carter uses this same mayor as a character reference when he is trying to stay out of prison. The mayor is quoted as saying, "I don't consider him any threat." (288) Elsewhere, Carter has suggested that his arrest came at the order of the Big Guy himself, J. Edgar Hoover! |
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| Arrested and awaiting trial, Carter writes letters to potential alibi witnesses. (44) | In fact, he wrote a woman and asked her to "remember" that he had given her a ride home around the time of the murders. He asked her to read his letter carefully and show it to her mother, another alibi witness. | ||
| While he's awaiting trial, Carter "learned through the jailhouse grapevine that two hostile witnesses had emerged," Al Bello and Arthur Dexter Bradley. (42) | Hirsch doesn't mention that Carter claims, in his biography The 16th Round, to have actually received a letter from Arthur Dexter Bradley, confessing to the whole conspiracy frame-up. Did Hirsch ask Carter, "well, gosh, why didn't you save the letter?." No mention of this all-important letter in Hirsch's book. | ||
| Questioned by the police on the night of the shooting, eyewitness Al Bello, a petty thief, said he could not identify the assailants. "But suddenly his memory had improved." (42) | Bello was afraid his life would be in danger if he testified against Carter. | ||
| Lt. Det. Vincent DeSimone is presented as a racist, foul-mouthed, intimidating cop more interested in convicting Carter than in searching for the truth. (35) |
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| The jury was all white, no way Carter could get a fair trial. | The jury selection process took three weeks and Carter faced "hundreds" of potential jurors. If the jury was prejudiced, Carter's lawyer is as much to blame as anyone. "All white" does not necessarily equal "all racist." | ||
| Al Bello is confronted with his testimony that both men were the same height. (53) | He first testified that one man was taller than the other. (view original police report) | ||
| Carter wondered, why was Bello afraid to testify before but not afraid to testify now? (52) | Well, for one thing, he was now heavily guarded (protected) by police and DeSimone had promised to protect him from retaliation. | ||
| "Carter gave the same account of his whereabouts on the night of the murder that he had already given the police and grand jury." (55) | Which is not the same account that you, dear reader, got in the book -- Hirsch has left out the details about the alibi that collapsed. Carter told the court that he was driving two women home at the time of the murders. | ||
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| Carter gets in trouble as a child when he fights back against bullies. He is expelled from school and his father beats him harshly. (62) | Carter was sent to a special school for children with behavioral problems. He did not defend people against bullies, he WAS the bully. The school's records state that he "terrorized boys and girls in class so that they were afraid to report him to the teacher." | ||
| Carter was "discharged" from the army. (76) | After four courts-martial in 21 months, Carter was discharged as unfit for military service. | ||
| Carter's boxing manager, Carmine Tedeschi, ripped Carter off for thousands of dollars and Carter only found out when the IRS came after him. (85) |
Tedeschi had problems with Carter, too: "The late Carmine Tedeschi... called the police and reported he was having contractual problems with Carter and was fearful of his life and lo and behold doesn't someone blow up his car in the middle of the night while it was parked in front of his house a few days later." Tedeschi's widow, Nettie denies that her husband ripped Carter off: "I want to clear my husband's name... I've been trying to contact (Carter) but I can't. He wouldn't be able to face me. My family is very sad and very furious about what he has said." |
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| (In prison) Carter assaulted a "mentally disturbed" inmate named Wallace who was "about" to throw hot coffee on him. (97) | The prosecution describes Wallace as "slight (in build) and severely retarded," not mentally disturbed. Also, Carter "did not hesitate to flatly state to the Disciplinary Court that 'he would kill Wallace' and that 'if he had a weapon today Wallace would be dead.'" | ||
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| After three years of laborious work in his prison cell, Carter publishes his autobiography in 1974. | Hirsch chooses not to mention that Carter's autobiography contains many distortions, half-truths and falsehoods -- leaving his readers in the dark about an important aspect of Carter's character -- his truthfulness and credibility. | ||
| Hirsch quotes Selwyn Raab's New York Times article, in which Bello accuses the police of being racists who deliberately framed Carter. | But Hirsch doesn't give equal prominence to Judge Samuel Larner's dissection of why Bello and Bradley's recantations don't hold water. You can read it here (pdf file) | ||
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The tape was mentioned at the first trial. The entire transcript and Real Audio clips are available at Cal Deal's site. It clearly shows that no specific promises were made to Bello in exchange for his testimony. In fact, Bello refused to testify at two Grand Jury hearings because he had not been granted immunity, and was finally persuaded to testify at trial. | ||
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While interviewing Bello, De Simone shows his true, racist colours by referring to Carter as "boy." "He repeatedly referred to Carter as "boy," even though Carter was twenty-nine at the time." (126) |
Hirsch
doesn't quote what De Simone said a moment later -- he also referred to
Bello's fellow prison inmates as "boys" -- as in, "ask the boys about
De Simone." I can find only one instance where DeSimone referred to Carter
as "boy," DeSimone does not refer to Carter "repeatedly" as boy.
De Simone is just being palsy with Bello. |
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| Hirsch quotes DeSimone: "I understand that you have fear. You understand what I mean? Of the colored people and their supposed movements where they are strictly for the colored." Hirsch then adds: "the message was clear: the colored parole officer would not follow Bello to [the place where DeSimone was interviewing him]. There, a couple of white guys could talk in peace." (127) | Uh, sorry, Hirsch. DeSimone is talking about Movements, not movements. Duh. As in the Black Power movement, not moving around. "their supposed Movements where they are strictly for the colored." Now the sentence makes sense. DeSimone understood Bello's fears that Carter had connections with a fringe group of radical Black Muslims (or people who called themselves Muslims) who were active in New Jersey prisons and could threaten his life and his brother's life (Bello had a brother in prison at the time). | ||
| The New Jersey Supreme Court overturns Carter and Artis' convictions in March, 1976, agreeing with the defence contention that the police made promises of leniency to Bello and Bradley in exchange for their testimony, and hid this fact from the jury. This information could have been used by the defence to attack Bello and Bradley's credibility. "The opinion was written in dry, bloodless prose, but it represented a rout for many people: for DeSimone and former Assistant Prosecutor Hull, who suppressed the evidence; (and) for Judge Larner, who on appeal upheld the conviction." (132) | The prosecution fully explained to the jury in the first trial that Bello and Bradley had criminal records and pending charges against them. Near the end of Judge Larner's findings about Bello's credibility, (pdf file) he quotes the trial transcript in which the prosecution tries to discuss whether any promises were offered. Three times Prosecutor Hull tries to raise the matter in open court -- three times Carter's lawyer objects and keeps Bradley from testifying on this point. So it wasn't the prosecution hiding this information from the jury, it was the defence. Judge Larner surmises that the defence lawyer was afraid Bradley would say that they'd been offered protection from Carter -- Carter's lawyer didn't want the jury to hear that Bello and Bradley were afraid of Carter. | ||
| After the first trial verdict is overturned, Carter is accused of beating a black female supporter, while out on parole. Hirsch is openly skeptical: "(Carolyn Kelley) looked remarkably fit for a woman who claimed to have been brutally assaulted by a muscular man who could knock a horse over with a single punch." (139) |
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| At the second trial, Bello withdrew his recantation and returned to his original story of seeing Carter and Artis fleeing the bar. He also said he was offered bribes to support Carter. (Carter supporters) Fred Hogan, Selwyn Raab and Hal Levinson all faced questions on the stand about their involvement with Bello. (146) | Hirsch doesn't mention what the prosecution uncovered about bribing Bello -- Hogan's notes of his interviews with Alfred Bello indicate that Bello would testify for the highest bidder and that $20,000 was mentioned. | ||
| Three of Carter's alibi witnesses from the first trial testified at the second trial that they lied for Carter at the first trial. (152) Hirsch doesn't say whether it was true whether they lied, or not, but concentrates on the fact that black people were turning against Carter. | Rubin Carter's alibi had fallen apart The jurors also heard about his search for guns on the night of the crime. | ||
| "Put racial revenge (as a motive for the murders) in front of this jury, Carter thought, and the trial is over." (148) | The "racial revenge" theory was first introduced by Carter's lawyers, not the prosecution. "The prosecution avoided any reference to the matter of motive..... until the trial court ruled on the question.... Early on in the trial and well in advance of the court's ruling, the defense introduced to the jury, in no uncertain terms, the theory that the motive for the killings at the Lafayette Grill was to avenge the earlier killing of Mr. Holloway..." | ||
Hirsch writes that at the first trial, "[Valentine] specifically said she could not identify Carter's white Dodge as the escape car. Now, ten and a half years later, Valentine was certain that Carter's car was the getaway vehicle." |
Valentine did identify Carter's car as the getaway vehicle in the first trial. Valentine has never wavered in her testimony that the car she saw leaving the Lafayette Grill looked the same as Carter's car. She identified it the night of the murder, and in every subsequent statement in the case. The defense claim that she changed or "hardened" her testimony, that she was uncertain at first, is hogwash. Carter's defense attorney used the word "similar," not Patty Valentine. You can see the original statements she gave to police about the car at Cal Deal's site. |
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The "Caruso file," kept by a detective who was suspicious about the way the case was handled, suggests that Pat Valentine's evidence was "coached." He also insinuates she was bribed, because she was able to buy a home "although she was understood to have no assets." (233) |
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| Carter's supporters tried to show that Pat Valentine was making up a story about seeing the ammunition found in the car on morning of the murders, because she had never testified to that at the first trial. (221) | She was never asked about it at the first trial! Not only did she see the ammunition, but so did a reporter. John Artis also testified that he was shown the bullet and shell at headquarters the morning of the murders. | ||
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| When Carter is arrested, he thinks the evidence of his involvement in the crime is so scanty that he'll be released soon. He thinks the authorities are worried that he'll sue for false arrest. (30)(43) | The same evidence is referred to by Carter's lawyers as "a mountain of incriminating evidence" in the appeal court. There is so MUCH evidence, they say, that some of it must have been faked! (269) | ||
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"[Carter] rebuffed Martin Luther King, Jr.,s request to join a demonstration in Selma, Alabama. Carter knew he would not, could not, sit idly in the face of brutal attacks from law enforcement officials...." |
If Hirsch had compared Carter's fight schedule with the dates of the Selma marches, he'd have noticed that Carter was in Europe at the time he supposedly got a phone call at his home from Dr. King. The King story is another one of Carter's tall tales. | ||
| When Carter goes to Los Angeles for a fight, he is harassed by LAPD Chief William Parker and the FBI. | How could Carter be followed by a female FBI agent in 1965 when the FBI didn't hire female agents until 1972? Another tall tale from Carter. | ||
| Carter claims that he smuggled guns to South Africa and gave them to a teenager named Steve Biko, (who went on to become a leader for black civil rights in his country before his death in police custody.) | Oh,
please. Carter a freedom fighter? How did Hirsch fall for this one? |
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| Hirsch implies Bello should not be believed because he's a school drop-out, army wash-out, alcoholic with a criminal record. | Hirsch thinks Carter should be believed in spite of the fact that he's a school drop-out, army wash-out, alcoholic with a criminal record. | ||
| Bello changed his story about what happened that night several times. | So did Carter. | ||
| "Carter always had confidence in his instincts about other people, his ability to quickly judge character and motivations." (278) | So how come every time something goes wrong for Carter, it's because he was betrayed by somebody he trusted: the journalist who makes him look like a crazed cop killer -- his boxing manager who takes all his money -- his supporters Solomon, Lois, Hogan and Raab who let him down --his supporter Carolyn Kelley who (he says) tried to blackmail him -- his alibi witnesses who turned on him -- the Canadians who were too controlling -- even young Lesra Martin ripped him off over a car! If half of what he accuses others of is true, the Hurricane is actually a terrible judge of character. | ||
| "Before his own arrest in 1966, Carter had never been political." (317) | Then why does he blame his arrest and conviction on the white power structure who were out to get him for speaking out? If he "wasn't political," then why did "The Man" frame him for murder? And why doesn't Hirsch deal with this glaring contradiction? | ||
| Before the murders, Carter was disliked by whites (20), at odds with the police (21), feared by blacks (21). He was Paterson's "most celebrated, most feared, most hated black man." (45) | During one of the final appeals, Carter's lawyers try to keep him out of jail by saying Carter was "a well respected member of the community" who lived in an integrated neighborhood. (281) First he's a cross between Shaft and Malcolm X, suddenly he's Mr. Rogers. | ||
| "(Prosecutor Marmo's appeal to keep Carter in jail) gave the full courtroom a vivid view of exactly what kind of man the prosecutors thought Carter was. It helped explain why they had pursued him with every resource they could muster, why they were not about to give up and -- perhaps -- why they had withheld or misrepresented evidence in two separate trials and appealed to racism in one trial. What are constitutional violations when the alternative is letting a monster roam free?" (281) | So in the end, it looks like even Hirsch, who says he carefully researched the story, doesn't buy Carter's accusation that the police knowingly framed an innocent man. In this passage, Hirsch acknowledges that the police and prosecutors sincerely felt they had the guilty guy. | ||
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| John Artis now counsels troubled kids. | In 1987, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and to receiving a stolen handgun and went back to prison for a few years. | ||
| Carter has "lost touch" with the Canadians who dedicated so much time, money and effort to freeing him. | "There are so many untruths in the (Hurricane) book,'' Terry Swinton told the Toronto Star in a Feb. 13, 2000, article. Sam Chaiton adds, ``These accusations that we held him prisoner - it's so hurtful and so untrue. We were really there for Rubin when it counted. And I know he knows that still today.'' | ||
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James Hirsch
has presented himself as an objective chronicler. As he said on Court
TV,
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