Brian Lane - Mind Games with a Serial Killer

Now that I’ve piqued your interest, I’ll close this short note here. Talk more on this later.

Hello Brian,

Curiosity has finally gotten the better of me. What’s going on? There were two weeks that went by when I was out of touch because the phone was out of order. When we got the phone back, I tried and tried to call you, Don, and Bobby. All without success. And now, there’s a collect call block on your phone. I can’t get ahold of anyone who knows what’s happening. Florence and Dave, Roberta and Patty have not heard from you, either. Roberta hasn’t even heard from Don, other than regarding my van. So, would you please let me know something? I’d really like to go on with our book. Please let me know.

As you can see, I got my typewriter. I also got my TV and headphones. And I got a watch from Florence and Dave in a Quarterly Package. I actually got to watch the two championship games between the AFC and NFC teams today. The Steelers and the Cowboys won and are going to the Super Bowl like I was hoping. I will even get to watch the Super Bowl game. (Barring electrical and cable failures, of course.) Living under the current circumstances has finally become a little bit easier to live with.

The TV is a Panasonic with a few special features: Sleep timer, program timer, channel block, captioning, on-screen menu and channel programming. This typewriter is even better, with a bunch of special features. It’s a Smith-Corona 450DLD. One of the features is a Spell-Right Dictionary of 79,000 words (I think). It also has bold printingand underlining capabilities. Left and right justification, search, insert, sub- and super-script features, special characters and much, much more. It will be a very big help with typing up my stories and other things.

By the way, you asked me to let you know if I came across any good books… I found a great series in the library here that I’ve gotten into: Piers Anthony’s “XANTH” series. It’s fantasy fiction, but the writing is fantastic! It’s comparable to Ann McCaffrey’s “PERN” series.

Well, I guess I’d better close here and get this into the mail. Please write back soon and let me know what’s up.

Hello Brian,

Long time no hear. Hope you are well and prospering. I am feeling better. The flu has been making the rounds here. I was down for two weeks with it. Just started feeling better this past Thursday (the 22nd).

Got your letter this evening (Tuesday) and was very happy to hear from you. I was beginning to think you had gone the same route as everyone else who knew me. I only get letters from 3 people regularly. Once in awhile, one comes from my Mother and Florence. So your letter was very welcome.

I had been given your phone number by Mom back last (1/29) month and your address from Mom on Wednesday (the 21st). I’ve tried to call you on the past dates: 1/30, 2/1, 2/2, 2/5, 2/7, 2/9, 2/10, 2/13, 2/16, 2/19, 2/21, 2/26. Whether you are aware of it or not, but your phone does have a collect charge block on it. I’ve heard that dog-gone message a dozen times so far. More if you count the number of times I heard it on your old number. Anyway, I haven’t been able to call you for that reason. I have tried.

In order to come up for a visit you have to call ahead of time. The Visitor’s Information number is (800) 374-8474. That number should answer all of your questions. If they aren’t, try calling Patty or her secretary: Kathy. I, myself, haven’t been able to find out much so far.

Sorry, you’ll have to dig out your magnifying glass again. My typewriter ribbon finally ran out. I’m trying to make a deal to get another one. It’s going to cost me stamps, but it’s the only way to get a new ribbon when I’m broke. Don hasn’t followed through on any of his promises about making sure I was taken care of. I talked to him, at Mom’s, on the 16th of this month. He was astonished that I didn’t have any money left over. I asked him what he thought the money was for. He said that I was supposed to buy an inexpensive T.V. and typewriter, not the most expensive ones I could find. I guess he doesn’t understand that we are limited as to style, brand, and where we can purchase anything. He also wanted to know why I bought a set of headphones. Why I couldn’t listen to the T.V. speaker like everyone else. He said I could have used the money I spent on the headphones to buy canteen. I almost hung up on him at that point. But I carefully tried to explain to him that regulations here dictate that the TV speaker has to be disconnected or removed. We have to order some kind of earphones and that I ordered the least expensive pair I could find that still gave good sound. I got the feeling that he didn’t believe me about that or about the $10.00 charge for disconnecting the speaker or the 10% charge taken out for the welfare fund. You know, I’m beginning to get severely disappointed in Don. I’m not about to make any more deals with him and doubt that I’ll even ask him to do anything for me again. He’s too unreliable. All my life I’ve tried to weed unreliable people out of my life. That’s why I wouldn’t have any dealings with Ken or Bob. But somehow I let Don slip by. Guess I was blinded by marrying Cheryl and then run into this mess and find myself convicted of crimes 1 had nothing to do with. Now I’ve had time to reflect on various events of the recent past and I’m not going to let it continue.

The next time I talk to Florence, I’ll let her know that she needs to get in touch with both you and Randy. Yes, I do still want to have “that matter” handled the way we discussed. Remember, Joan Altman is willing to help out. By the way, Joan wants to come up here for a visit with me. I’ll let you know when it, if it, happens.

Glad to hear that the book deadline has been extended. In case you still want it, I’ve rewritten ‘Tranquility Garden’ so that there are no syntax or other errors in it. I’ve let three people here (a neighbor, Unit Teacher, and an officer) read it. All three loved it, saying that it is extremely well written. The officer said that he could actually picture in his head the scenes as he read the story. He now wants to read anything else I’ve written or will write. This is the same officer that has treated me with open hostility since I got here. Insults, curses, etc. He heard my neighbor and I talking about it and asked if he could read it. I decided I had nothing to lose, so I let him. Since then, he’s been treating me with respect; calling me Bill, instead of William or Suff; passing items from others to me and giving me extra food at suppertime. It’s surprising how something like 10 pages of fiction can change a person’s opinion of you. He now sees me as a person who is literate, rather than an ignorant animal.

Talking about the serial killing trials you’ve been researching: Have you heard about a black man convicted of serial killing in San Diego in ’91 or ’92? I saw a program about Serial Killers and this guy was mentioned. It was discovered that he killed several women in San Diego County. I don’t remember his name or whether he killed prostitutes or just women in general. But from what I can remember of the program, he used a long, fixed-blade knife and there were several similarities between his crimes and those of which I was charged with and those I was convicted of. He is here at S.Q., also, but on a different yard and the other side of the building. Yes, he has a death sentence, also.

And, talking about the death penalty: As you probably know, Bill Bonin (the Freeway Killer), was executed at 12:13 A.M. last Friday (2/23). As you also know, he was on the same exercise yard as me. We wound up talking about death, reincarnation, space abductions, UFO’s, Aliens and the supernatural. I understand why he wasn’t afraid of death, especially after I got to talking to him about life after death. I do know that he became less ill-at-ease at the prospect of being executed. You might find some of these discussions he and I had interesting. I’ll relate some of them to you later.