The Stage

Long before Norman Mailer helped convicted killer Jack Henry Abbott win both literary fame and a moment of freedom, Abbott told the macho novelist to quit romanticizing his wretched world. "My life is not a 'saga' and I resent your using the term like that," he wrote. On Feb. 10 Abbott--author of the 1982 best seller In the Belly of The Beast, a collection of prison letters to Mailer--got the last word, hanging himself with a bedsheet and a shoelace in his cell at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, N.Y. He left a note, but authorities would not reveal its contents Serving a life sentence for the stabbing of waiter and aspiring actor Richard Adan, 22, Abbott had recently been denied parole.

"I never knew a man who had a worse life," Mailer said when he heard of the apparent suicide. A prostitute's son, Abbott spend nearly 50 of his 58 years in custody. In 1977, while doing time for bank robbery and killing a fellow inmate, he wrote Mailer (then researching The Executioner's Song, on murderer Gary Gilmore) offering to share his insights into "violent men." They struck up a correspondence that became In The Belly. Mailer helped get the book published and its author released, telling the parole board, "Mr. Abbott has the makings of a powerful and important writer."

But in July 1981, six weeks after leaving prison, Abbott knifed Adan during a quarrel outside a Manhattan restaurant. Mailer, criticized for sponsoring a sociopath, accepted responsibility but said he "never thought Abbott was close to killing....I just was not sensitive to the fact."

In 1990 Adan's widow, Ricci, won a $7.5 million lawsuit against an unremorseful Abbott, who told the judge that Adan's life "was not worth a dime." Of the death of her husband's slayer, Ricci, now 42, said simply, "I am happy he will not kill again."

"In The Belly of the Beast"

Halsted Street near Belmont when "In the Belly of the Beast" was running at the Ivanhoe Theater.	Theater in Chicago Thanks Richard.	Organic, Remains and Chicago Dramatists Workshop banners then Joel's. Also the entrance to the "International Association for World Peace" which is a martial arts place on the second floor and a windsurfing/skating store on the street.

People Mag. 2-25-02 DEATH OF A KILLER Once Norman Mailer's protege, Jack Henry Abbott takes his own life in prison Long before Norman Mailer helped convicted killer Jack Henry Abbott win both literary fame and a moment of freedom, Abbott told the macho novelist to quit romanticizing his wretched world. "My life is not a 'saga' and I resent your using the term like that," he wrote. On Feb. 10 Abbott--author of the 1982 best seller In the Belly of The Beast, a collection of prison letters to Mailer--got the last word, hanging himself with a bedsheet and a shoelace in his cell at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, N.Y. He left a note, but authorities would not reveal its contents Serving a life sentence for the stabbing of waiter and aspiring actor Richard Adan, 22, Abbott had recently been denied parole. "I never knew a man who had a worse life," Mailer said when he heard of the apparent suicide. A prostitute's son, Abbott spend nearly 50 of his 58 years in custody. In 1977, while doing time for bank robbery and killing a fellow inmate, he wrote Mailer (then researching The Executioner's Song, on murderer Gary Gilmore) offering to share his insights into "violent men." They struck up a correspondence that became In The Belly. Mailer helped get the book published and its author released, telling the parole board, "Mr. Abbott has the makings of a powerful and important writer." But in July 1981, six weeks after leaving prison, Abbott knifed Adan during a quarrel outside a Manhattan restaurant. Mailer, criticized for sponsoring a sociopath, accepted responsibility but said he "never thought Abbott was close to killing....I just was not sensitive to the fact." In 1990 Adan's widow, Ricci, won a $7.5 million lawsuit against an unremorseful Abbott, who told the judge that Adan's life "was not worth a dime." Of the death of her husband's slayer, Ricci, now 42, said simply, "I am happy he will not kill again."