- Born
- Died
- Jack Abbott was born on a US Army base in Michigan, the son of a US soldier and a Chinese woman. In trouble with school authorities and the law at an early age, Abbott was sent to a reform school at age 16. At 21 he was serving time in a Utah prison for forgery when he got into a fight with a fellow inmate and stabbed the man to death. Abbott was given a sentence of three to 20 years for the killing. In 1971 he escaped and, while on the lam, committed a bank robbery in Colorado. He was eventually caught and sent back to prison, earning himself an extra 19 years for his additional crimes. In prison he was troublesome and defiant, refusing to obey orders, and spent an inordinate amount of time in solitary confinement.
In 1977 he read that writer Norman Mailer was writing a book about convicted murderer Gary Gilmore. Abbott wrote to Mailer and offered to write a book about his life in various prisons and what it was like. Mailer agreed, and the book, which was actually a series of letters Abbott wrote to Mailer, was called "In the Belly of the Beast". Mailer helped get it published and it garnered extensive critical acclaim. Mailer got behind Abbott in his attempts to get parole, and in 1980 his efforts were successful; Abbott was granted parole and traveled to New York City, where he met up with Mailer and became the "toast" of the literary scene for a while.
In July of 1980, only six weeks after getting out of prison, Abbott got into an altercation with a young waiter in a restaurant when Abbot tried to use the bathroom and was told that it was for employees only. Abbott wound up stabbing the 22-year-old waiter, Richard Adan, who died from his wounds. Abbott quickly left New York City, but was captured in Louisiana not long afterwards and returned to New York. Tried for the death of Adan, Abbott acted as his own counsel, but to no avail--he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
On Feb. 10, 2002, Abbott was found hanging in his cell in the New York state prison at Alden. He had committed suicide.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
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