Dateline: April 11. 2008
While we're on the subject of Mark Ober, I'd like to share some future topics -
"Mark Ober's Soft Spot for Serial Killers."
"The Truth About Mark Ober,"
"Mark Ober's Christmas Card Fetish."
It's true - I did send Mark a Christmas card once. I think it was 1980. He must not get many Christmas cards, for informed sources say he still carries that dog-eared Christmas card around in his briefcase wherever he goes. He even showed it off to the Parole Commission twenty-two years later!
What got Mark so excited? An innocent inscription meant as humorous: "Merry Christmas from Raiford, wish you were here."
Come on, Mark. Get over it. I hope thousands of bloggers will send Mark Christmas cards this year, so he'll have new ones to carry around.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
Dateline: April 10, 2008
Recent news from Tampa concerns the outrage over used car dealer, Mr. Kuhn, making $18000 in illegal campaign contributions to a city council candidate opposing John Dingfelder. State Attorney Mark Ober refused to prosecute Mr. Kuhn, citing, "the ignorance of the law is an excuse doctrine," especially if you have two law degrees and are wealthy.
Daniel Ruth and others ask why Mark Ober gave Mr. Kuhn a free pass, when other prosecutors have put such miscreants behind bars. That's an easy one.
One advantage to serving life in prison for something you didn't do is that you have time to focus your attention on subjects that interest and concern you. I've been studying Mark Ober's campaign contribution disclosures for for almost eight years, and have come up with some astounding insights, which I will share with you over the next few weeks and months.
The question: why wouldn't Mark Ober prosecute this election law violation?
The answer: Because he is guilty of the same crime. When his own infractions are exposed, he'll be obliged to prosecute his own contributors, and we know that's not going to happen.
If you want to hear more about Mark Ober and the campaign contributions issue, or if you have something to add, please log on and blog.
How about it, Mark? Are you going to come clean?
Recent news from Tampa concerns the outrage over used car dealer, Mr. Kuhn, making $18000 in illegal campaign contributions to a city council candidate opposing John Dingfelder. State Attorney Mark Ober refused to prosecute Mr. Kuhn, citing, "the ignorance of the law is an excuse doctrine," especially if you have two law degrees and are wealthy.
Daniel Ruth and others ask why Mark Ober gave Mr. Kuhn a free pass, when other prosecutors have put such miscreants behind bars. That's an easy one.
One advantage to serving life in prison for something you didn't do is that you have time to focus your attention on subjects that interest and concern you. I've been studying Mark Ober's campaign contribution disclosures for for almost eight years, and have come up with some astounding insights, which I will share with you over the next few weeks and months.
The question: why wouldn't Mark Ober prosecute this election law violation?
The answer: Because he is guilty of the same crime. When his own infractions are exposed, he'll be obliged to prosecute his own contributors, and we know that's not going to happen.
If you want to hear more about Mark Ober and the campaign contributions issue, or if you have something to add, please log on and blog.
How about it, Mark? Are you going to come clean?
Monday, April 14, 2008
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
Dateline: April 9, 2008 Location: from a prison cell
I am new at this blog game, and obviously because of my circumstances, I must learn as I go. I read the Tampa Tribune daily, a week late by mail, but enjoy Daniel Ruth, Steve Otto, and William March, their columns and the comments from their blogs. I hope that you will help me with this - take my leash in hand and lead me in the right direction - give me your insight, comments, suggestions on how to proceed, what to write about and discuss.
I have spent my time in prison more as a studious monk than a convicted murderer, and I have documented over thirty years of imprisonment in words, art, and photos. I have read over 4,000 books, the World Book Encyclopedia (twice), the Holy Bible (several times), over two hundred art books, history, science, religion, psychology, anthropology, archaeology, genetics, criminology, social science, politics, and much more. I've read every book that a number of popular authors have written, including John D. MacDonald, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, Stephen King (reading Duma Key now), James Grippando, James Lee Burke, his daughter, Alafair Burke, Tom Clancy, Michael Connelly, Stuart Woods, James Patterson, Vince Flynn, Sue Grafton, Greg Iles, and several more.
There is not much I don't know about crime, punishment, and prison. When I first was locked up, I treated my imprisonment as I thought Margaret Mead would conduct herself had she been parachuted into a strange new society in New Guinea or elsewhere. Criminals of every stripe have confided in me, and I've learned more than anyone ought to know about the details of thousands of crimes. I've talked to child molesters, kidnappers, bank robbers, burglars, con men, and serial killers, including Ted Bundy and several who were never identified as such.
I've worked with juveniles in the state boot camp program, and literally thousands of adult prisoners in many other programs over the years, including women prisoners from Lowell.
Although my immediate focus is wrongful prosecution and imprisonment, if you have questions about most any other topic I will address them. I've studied the prison issues and prisoners, and I have a unique vantage point. Send me your comments. Thanks.
I am new at this blog game, and obviously because of my circumstances, I must learn as I go. I read the Tampa Tribune daily, a week late by mail, but enjoy Daniel Ruth, Steve Otto, and William March, their columns and the comments from their blogs. I hope that you will help me with this - take my leash in hand and lead me in the right direction - give me your insight, comments, suggestions on how to proceed, what to write about and discuss.
I have spent my time in prison more as a studious monk than a convicted murderer, and I have documented over thirty years of imprisonment in words, art, and photos. I have read over 4,000 books, the World Book Encyclopedia (twice), the Holy Bible (several times), over two hundred art books, history, science, religion, psychology, anthropology, archaeology, genetics, criminology, social science, politics, and much more. I've read every book that a number of popular authors have written, including John D. MacDonald, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, Stephen King (reading Duma Key now), James Grippando, James Lee Burke, his daughter, Alafair Burke, Tom Clancy, Michael Connelly, Stuart Woods, James Patterson, Vince Flynn, Sue Grafton, Greg Iles, and several more.
There is not much I don't know about crime, punishment, and prison. When I first was locked up, I treated my imprisonment as I thought Margaret Mead would conduct herself had she been parachuted into a strange new society in New Guinea or elsewhere. Criminals of every stripe have confided in me, and I've learned more than anyone ought to know about the details of thousands of crimes. I've talked to child molesters, kidnappers, bank robbers, burglars, con men, and serial killers, including Ted Bundy and several who were never identified as such.
I've worked with juveniles in the state boot camp program, and literally thousands of adult prisoners in many other programs over the years, including women prisoners from Lowell.
Although my immediate focus is wrongful prosecution and imprisonment, if you have questions about most any other topic I will address them. I've studied the prison issues and prisoners, and I have a unique vantage point. Send me your comments. Thanks.
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
Dateline: April 8, 2008 Location: from a prison cell
"Innocent man wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit - FREED!"
"Florida Legislature approves $1.25 million for innocent man imprisoned 26 years."
I remember Alan Crotzer in the mid-1980's at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution as a small, quiet, shy man from Tampa who attended the "GOLAB" Program I taught. He told us that he was innocent, and I said, "Amen, brother, I can identify with that."
Fortunately for him, a DNA test and the work of "Innocence Projects" freed him. I haven't been so lucky.
What is interesting is that with all the national media attention, not one peep has been heard from Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober, who was an assistant state attorney along with his partner, Norman Cannella, when Alan Crotzer was railroaded and hustled off to state prison. And they are the same people who worked for state attorney E.J. Salcines, who committed egregious prosecutorial misconduct in order to guarantee my conviction and their political careers.
Norman Cannella's political career went down the tubes when the photograph of him in handcuffs with head down was featured on the front page of the Tampa Tribune after FBI agents arrested him for bribery, corruption, and being a member of an international drug cartel. He slithered out of those charges, but any hopes for higher office went KAPUT. His partner, Mark Ober, was able to keep from getting splashed with Cannella's mud, got rich as a private lawyer with Cannella, and after Harry Lee Coe's suspicious and convenient "suicide," he was elected state attorney. The foxes got into the henhouse. And they've been gorging themselves ever since.
"Innocent man wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit - FREED!"
"Florida Legislature approves $1.25 million for innocent man imprisoned 26 years."
I remember Alan Crotzer in the mid-1980's at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution as a small, quiet, shy man from Tampa who attended the "GOLAB" Program I taught. He told us that he was innocent, and I said, "Amen, brother, I can identify with that."
Fortunately for him, a DNA test and the work of "Innocence Projects" freed him. I haven't been so lucky.
What is interesting is that with all the national media attention, not one peep has been heard from Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober, who was an assistant state attorney along with his partner, Norman Cannella, when Alan Crotzer was railroaded and hustled off to state prison. And they are the same people who worked for state attorney E.J. Salcines, who committed egregious prosecutorial misconduct in order to guarantee my conviction and their political careers.
Norman Cannella's political career went down the tubes when the photograph of him in handcuffs with head down was featured on the front page of the Tampa Tribune after FBI agents arrested him for bribery, corruption, and being a member of an international drug cartel. He slithered out of those charges, but any hopes for higher office went KAPUT. His partner, Mark Ober, was able to keep from getting splashed with Cannella's mud, got rich as a private lawyer with Cannella, and after Harry Lee Coe's suspicious and convenient "suicide," he was elected state attorney. The foxes got into the henhouse. And they've been gorging themselves ever since.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
Dateline: April 7, 2008 Location: Deep inside a prison cell in Florida
Despite what some people think, there are no country clubs in state prison, and there is no internet access. We can’t have laptops or cell phones. We can make collect telephone calls to any of ten people on our approved lists, and we can write letters. I am blessed that I have a few friends in “free society” who love me and care about me, and believe that my message should be heard, so they deal with e-mail, websites, and the intricacies of the internet on my behalf.
A few years ago, at another prison in North Florida, I told a particularly oppressive person who’d been dogging me that the U.S. Constitution didn’t stop at the front gate, and even prisoners had certain rights. His response so epitomized a certain mindset that I memorized it exactly as he said it, “The Constitution ain’t in effect in Columbia County.”
Fortunately for all of us, that isn’t true. The vast majority of prison staff are good people doing a difficult job, and I get along with them fairly well. Many of them are aware of my situation – I’ve known some of the higher ranking officials twenty-five years and more – and most ask me, “Why are you in prison?” or, “You don’t belong in prison.”
I couldn’t agree with them more.
Despite what some people think, there are no country clubs in state prison, and there is no internet access. We can’t have laptops or cell phones. We can make collect telephone calls to any of ten people on our approved lists, and we can write letters. I am blessed that I have a few friends in “free society” who love me and care about me, and believe that my message should be heard, so they deal with e-mail, websites, and the intricacies of the internet on my behalf.
A few years ago, at another prison in North Florida, I told a particularly oppressive person who’d been dogging me that the U.S. Constitution didn’t stop at the front gate, and even prisoners had certain rights. His response so epitomized a certain mindset that I memorized it exactly as he said it, “The Constitution ain’t in effect in Columbia County.”
Fortunately for all of us, that isn’t true. The vast majority of prison staff are good people doing a difficult job, and I get along with them fairly well. Many of them are aware of my situation – I’ve known some of the higher ranking officials twenty-five years and more – and most ask me, “Why are you in prison?” or, “You don’t belong in prison.”
I couldn’t agree with them more.
Friday, April 11, 2008
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
Dateline: April 6, 2008 Location: Deep inside a prison cell in Florida
Three weeks ago, when my friend and PEN literary mentor, William Brantley, suggested I start a blog, with his help and expertise, I agreed wholeheartedly. I’d been thinking the same thing for months, but had no idea how to implement it. I knew that my story needed to spread into cyberspace if I had any hope of being rescued from Purgatory, so that if enough people discovered the truth of this miscarriage of justice, perhaps the hue and cry of thousands of good people would overwhelm the lies of a corrupt, powerful few.
FACT: I did not shoot or kill Steve Bluffstone in the early morning hours of February 17, 1975, in Tampa, Florida. I have been paying for others’ crimes for over thirty years. That should accumulate a lot of interest in a justice account somewhere.
FACT: I was wrongfully arrested and convicted of first degree murder based on withheld evidence, perjured testimony, and the actions of corrupt police detectives and Hillsborough County prosecutors Norman Cannella and Mark Ober.
Unlike the victims of prosecutor Mike Nifong, the Duke University lacrosse team players, I did not have wealthy parents to hire the best legal defense team, to shove this flimsy case down their throats. I refused their plea bargain offers to be out of prison in five years. I risked the electric chair for principle. And here I sit. This is my story.
Three weeks ago, when my friend and PEN literary mentor, William Brantley, suggested I start a blog, with his help and expertise, I agreed wholeheartedly. I’d been thinking the same thing for months, but had no idea how to implement it. I knew that my story needed to spread into cyberspace if I had any hope of being rescued from Purgatory, so that if enough people discovered the truth of this miscarriage of justice, perhaps the hue and cry of thousands of good people would overwhelm the lies of a corrupt, powerful few.
FACT: I did not shoot or kill Steve Bluffstone in the early morning hours of February 17, 1975, in Tampa, Florida. I have been paying for others’ crimes for over thirty years. That should accumulate a lot of interest in a justice account somewhere.
FACT: I was wrongfully arrested and convicted of first degree murder based on withheld evidence, perjured testimony, and the actions of corrupt police detectives and Hillsborough County prosecutors Norman Cannella and Mark Ober.
Unlike the victims of prosecutor Mike Nifong, the Duke University lacrosse team players, I did not have wealthy parents to hire the best legal defense team, to shove this flimsy case down their throats. I refused their plea bargain offers to be out of prison in five years. I risked the electric chair for principle. And here I sit. This is my story.
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
COMMUNIQUES FROM A DEAD MAN
Dateline: April 5, 2008 Location: Deep inside a prison cell in Florida
Thirty years ago today, I had no idea that in a few short hours my life would be over. I discovered that there is a place between Heaven and Hell, and my body and soul have been suspended in Purgatory for 10,959 days now, more or less, but who’s counting?
Six-thirty A.M., I was peacefully dreaming in my bed in our little house north of the University of South Florida, when my girlfriend, Debbie, lying next to me, woke me screaming.
“Get out, get out! Go! Just go! Get out now! Hurry! They’re coming for you!”
Her panicked voice startled me awake, freaked me out, and I thought she was trying to kick me out of the house.
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere, I live here.”
Her eyes focused on mine – it was like she was coming out of a nightmare – and she clung to me.
“You have to go. You’re in danger. Just leave. I’ll follow you later. They’re going to kill you.”
I scoffed at her fears. I shouldn’t have. At two-thirty that afternoon eight TPD detectives with shaking shotguns surrounded my car and told me to get out, don’t make a move, or they’d shoot.
At that moment life as I knew it ended.
Dateline: April 5, 2008 Location: Deep inside a prison cell in Florida
Thirty years ago today, I had no idea that in a few short hours my life would be over. I discovered that there is a place between Heaven and Hell, and my body and soul have been suspended in Purgatory for 10,959 days now, more or less, but who’s counting?
Six-thirty A.M., I was peacefully dreaming in my bed in our little house north of the University of South Florida, when my girlfriend, Debbie, lying next to me, woke me screaming.
“Get out, get out! Go! Just go! Get out now! Hurry! They’re coming for you!”
Her panicked voice startled me awake, freaked me out, and I thought she was trying to kick me out of the house.
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere, I live here.”
Her eyes focused on mine – it was like she was coming out of a nightmare – and she clung to me.
“You have to go. You’re in danger. Just leave. I’ll follow you later. They’re going to kill you.”
I scoffed at her fears. I shouldn’t have. At two-thirty that afternoon eight TPD detectives with shaking shotguns surrounded my car and told me to get out, don’t make a move, or they’d shoot.
At that moment life as I knew it ended.
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