Hurricane

[H2O Man]

"Only he who attempts the ridiculous can ever hope to achieve the impossible.”
Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

Over the past few days, I've had several good grass roots Democrats tell me that they are tired, not by the future, but by the current social-economic-political reality. It is as if we are hostages in a bank, where the lowest of mob thugs are robbing everyone. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't tire me out, too.

Yet as everyone who is familiar with my rants on this forum knows, I will talk about current events in the context of boxing and boxers. For the boxing ring was where I felt safest in my youth. I knew that tough fights involved cycles. I didn't expect to win every minute of every round. I would do good, then he would do good, and then I would inflict the damage needed to knock him out. Some bouts had more than one cycle.

A couple of good friends noted that, despite not supporting republicans as a rule, they were upset by the recent primary loses of Rep. Thomas Massie and Senator Bill Cassidy. In my opinion, those loses showed how much certain interests will invest to defeat the truth from coming out on issues such as the Epstein scandal. Yet both will finish out this cycle, until after we have the opportunity to take out the individuals who beat them in the primaries. Now back to boxing.

I, for one, did not like getting hit. I preferred punching the opponent. Like boxing, politics has cycles. Some are much larger than others, and some are more positive or negative than others. The Constitution and democracy are being viciously attacked. And the more tired one is, either in the boxing ring or the political ring, the more the opponents' punches hurt. So much in the manner of Muhammad Ali, we have to take advantage of the minute between rounds. Ali did just that in his fights in the ring, and against Uncle Sam in the courts.

Back when all of our ancestor's ancestors lived in tribes, during harsh and dangerous times, the Elders – both female and male – would tell stories from the past in similar times of trouble. These stories might involve the group, or an individual, and how they dealt with serious conflict. Now if I were discussing theology, I'd be quoting from Isaiah chapter 51. Yet boxing will do for now.

Long ago, as a young teenage amateur boxer, I wrote to Rubin and said I planned to get him out of prison for two reasons – first, I knew he was innocent, and second, so he could guide my future boxing career. And here some of you thought I was obnoxiously arrogant these days! This was the beginning of a 40+ year friendship. In time, we would be communicating through letters and cassette tapes. In time, my high school English class was communicating with Carter.

But then, in one letter, he wrote, “..... but, man, I kid you not – things are really uptight in this jail, and about to explode in death and destruction.” Cassettes were out of the question, and restrictions on mail coming in or going out was going to limit communications. Now, I knew that previously, a couple weeks after Attica, Rubin had been credited with saving the lives of the warden and two guards during a riot in Trenton State Prison. So, with my teenage ability to know everything, I told Rubin to step up and prevent another riot.

Son of a gun, that was exactly what Rubin did. He had maintained a hermit status in prison, but decided to run for the president of the Rahway Prisoner's Council. He approached the leaders of the various leaders of the gangs and got their support. He won the election, but for a week, the prison administration ruled the loser actually won – kind of like the Supreme Court selecting Bush. But even the guy who came in second said that Rubin had won.

In a letter, Rubin told my brother, “Since I've been writing to Pat, and he asked me not to let this prison explode, I stepped forward and took control of the jail. Something I never wanted to do in the past – and which could be very dangerous to me. And now I am the director of the Rahway Prisoners Council on Penal Reform. So if you and Pat and perhaps Russell P. really want to come into this prison and see what it is like …. we can arrange a day for the near future. What the hell? If I can't go to you. You come to me.”

A week later, in a letter to me, “ …..since I've become the Director of the Rahwat Peoples Council, I've been busy beyond relief. Man! I'm just waiting until you can send me the date that you will be here, to see me in person – that's really going to be a day for me to remember. (smile) I really love you, little buddy – I think you are one of the best things that ever happened to me. You are a real friend. Thank you.”

This was at a time when the public took an interest in prison reform. Almost immediately, university professors and political aides to state officials started to visit Rubin, and listen to his ideas on reform. I have a pile of communications between Rubin and the warden. My impression was that the warden wasn't very interested in what Rubin was advocating. Then things changed quickly – Muhammad Ali visited Rubin, and they planned to box in an exhibition in the prison. This got the attention of more than ABC's Wide World of Sports (they broadcast fights from Rahway), and that was apparently too much.

In 1958, in a study by Princeton University professor Gresham Sykes titled “The Society of Captives,” he wrote: “Centers of opposition in inmate populations – in the form of men recognized as leaders in the inmate population –can be neutralized through the use of solitary confinement to exile to other state institutions. Just as the Deep South served as a dumping ground for particularly troublesome slaves before the Civil War, so too can the mental hospital serve as a dumping ground for the maximum security prison.

Thus, Rubin was taken to the Vroom Building, the state prison's psychiatric wing of Trenton State Prison. He was kept in solitary confinement for the next 90 days, before a hearing in federal court. The judge ruled in hearing that there was absolutely no evidence that Rubin posed a danger by planning an inmate uprising or riot – which I think from this essay alone one can see was the exact opposite of what he was doing.

Eventually, Rubin sued for being placed in the Vroom Building's isolation unit. He was awarded $2000 in damages, which went to hire a former detective, now private investigator, who had been among the police that recognized Rubin was being framed. And this investigator, now trusted by the community, soon was uncovering the extent of the police corruption. They knew the identity of the two NOI gunmen, but would never admit to their purposeful framing of Rubin and John Artis.

Note: If you like or dislike this, the story was something that popped into my fat head as I read a post from my good friend Frank, also known as Kid Berwyn.

[cachukis]

1. You ought to be a writer.

[H2O Man]

2. Thank you!

I've been thinking about writing the actual story of the murderers that Rubin and John were falsely convicted of. There are a few good books, but there were things that couldn't be told until, well, everyone involved had died. The fellow with the shotgun, who Rubin was accused of being, confessed on his death bed, and named the late guy with the pistol.

There are still people in the boxing community who insist that Rubin was guilty. It is interesting to see their response to a few things. First, let's consider the murder of Malcolm X. Two men, dressed in suits, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol. The crime Rubin was convicted of had two men dressed in suits, one with a shotgun, the other with a pistol. Now, Rubin and John were not in the NOI, and were dressed differently than the murderers. The two that survived the shooting said it was not Rubin and John that night while they were in the hospital.

And that's just the beginning. The police had picked up the two actual gunmen that night. Both failed polygraphs, while Rubin and John passed their's. (I have the reports.) One was held in jail for a month. The other fled the state after being released. He had told his uncle, a well-known boxing referee, the truth before leaving. But witnesses for Rubin and John were threatened. One was held by police for a month in a hotel room, being pressured to lie.

I could go on and on.

[cachukis]

5. If you have the time and enough typewriter ribbons.

[malthaussen]

19. Any possibility -- this is kind of far-fetched -- that Rubin was framed to take him out of the boxing game?

Boxing being a pretty corrupt sport, with lots of money riding on it, both legally and in assorted kickbacks/payoffs, could there have been an actual underworld conspiracy to take out somebody who was a contender who wouldn't play the game? But why not just hit him, then? Pour encourager les autres?

-- Mal

[Walleye]

3. Wow, hell of a story, good job!

[H2O Man]

6. Thanks!

That was a heck of a strange time! Maybe it is just me, but I think that some of the circumstances we are confronted with today are similar to what the Hurricane was dealing with half a century ago. When we do Good, our opposition can be counted on to respond harshly.

At the beginning of the movie "The Hurricane" shows the night they took Rubin from his cell and placed him in what can actually be called a dungeon. But as it was a Hollywood flick, not a documentary, and could not focus on many important aspects of Rubin's journey, they took the liberty of changing a number of things. (The movie was made to re-pay the Canadians for their investment in the case, hence the movie focuses more on them than the actual legal case.) This is the actual story behind why Rubin was kept in a cell that was dark 24/7, with two slices of bread and some water for his daily meal. One might question, among other things, if that would be a good way to treat a human being suffering from a severe mental illness.

Back at that time, Rubin's friends kept me updated on how he was doing. A prison guard snuck in a postcard for Rubin to write to me during those 90 days. Solitary confinement -- especially when the person is kept in darkness -- is cruel. It is worth noting that each and every day in this country, a large number of human beings are kept in solitary. In most cases, a log period of solitary has been documented to cause changes in parts of the brain. None of those changes helps the inmate to behave better -- just the opposite. When one considers the actual amount of time Rubin was subjected to solitary in those twenty years, it is amazing that he came out stronger.

[Walleye]

24. That's so interesting and sad. Shows how little we know of our own history.

So now we are doing it again locking people up without due process, putting them out of touch with anybody putting them in warehouses. It’s just too much.

[malaise]

4. Waterman you are my idea of good people

Last edited Fri May 22, 2026, 03:54 PM - Edit history (1)

You continue to walk the walk

[H2O Man]

7. Thank you!

At this point, I'd say I hobble the walk, and rest as needed! But I am old enough to remember a half-century ago, when the Democratic Party took an active interest in penal reform. It's been decades since then, of course, and the public tends to forget that most inmates are eventually released.

The amount of human potential that is destroyed by our penal system is immense. And society pays a price. Now, I could be wrong, but I will speculate that as things become worse, there will be less money invested in prisons, at the same time the inmate population increases. What could possibly go wrong?

[malaise]

13. Nailed it re the penal system

Rec

[H2O Man]

21. There are some

real horror stories in NYS. Some make the news cycle, then are dropped. Most are never reported on.

I think I've told you about when my younger son applied some years ago to work at a prison for youth. When checking his references, a friend mentioned he was even-tempered, and a state Golden Gloves champion. He was hired for one of those two reasons. He went through the training, including restraints. But on his first night on the floor, he witnessed two guards beat up an inmate. He tried to step in, saying that was not how they were trained to handle situations.

His co-workers laughed, and said he "would learn" how it was actually done. Due to the brutal nature he continued to witness, he would resign about ten days later. The next week, those guards beat a kid to death. Of course the state investigated, and ruled that it was the dead kid's fault. There have been similar incidents since, including perhaps the best known happened near Rome, above Utica.

I should add that the current lack of staffing -- plus the nature of most people doing that job -- has created a powder keg. The difference between a lot of guards and inmates is the guards get to go home, often after a double-shift. The deputy to shot my cousin & his son a decade ago, to express his frustration with the boy driving the speed limit, comes to mind. Although legally drunk before noon, he was in a hurry to buy more beer. And he had a history of being intoxicated on the job, as well as being fired from at least two other jobs for being drunk and a bully. Indeed, he had a history of threatening two other drivers with his gun, and of shooting over his teenage neighbors when he was annoyed at something or another.

[malaise]

27. The cruelty sanctioned by the state in many countries is

Frightening. Then they pretend to claim to be democracies practicing the rule of law.
Our monsters killed a women in cold blood at a protest last weekend - like they copied ICE with Renee Good.

[malthaussen]

20. "Less money invested in prisons?" I don't think so, Pat.

Prisons are privatized, now, they're milch cows for politicians to transfer taxes to their millionaire cronies. More investment, I'd predict -- with fewer results.

-- Mal

[H2O Man]

22. Not in my state.

There was a move nationally to privatize prisons, but in many areas that has stopped. But I will bet a dollar to a doughnut that it will pick back up very soon.

[1WorldHope]

8. That was an excellent read. You had a super cool experience becoming friends with Hurricane.

I think you could publish that somewhere. I'm going to share your story with people in my life that important to me. 🙏🏼✌🏼

[H2O Man]

11. Thank you!

Long ago, I had a version of this published in a newspaper I wrote for. Over the decades, I have had things published in a variety of books, magazines, and newspapers. Heck, I was a good enough amateur boxer that at the age of 13, a British writer for Boxing Illustrated did a feature story on me. But eventually Rubin would tell me to hang up the gloves and get into college, which I did. For boxing is both beautiful and brutal, and my brother that Rubin really liked would die from head injuries sustained in the ring.

My paternal great X7 grandfather was a hedge school master on the Old Sod in the era of the United Irishmen. He was arrested, sentenced to death, kept in a dungeon, and eventually released when the Brits recognized his role was simply as the poet of the uprising. I keep that in mind! (grin) Plus my other mentor, Onondaga Chief Waterman, stressed that my assigned role was like his -- to reach the grass roots with the message. Other positions on the Council of Chiefs involve being known in the media, etc. Hence, nothing pleases me more than writing primarily for DU:GD these days. Hopefully the militias that the president wants to enrich to "stand by" will not come to hang me for that!

[1WorldHope]

23. It is a pleasure to be here and read your wisdom.

[H2O Man]

29. Well, thank you!

That is very nice of you to say! It is a pleasure being here for me, too. I feel kind of uncomfortable with anyone mistaking me for wise, though ..... as at best I repeat the things that truly wise men -- Rubin and Onondaga Chief Waterman -- taught me. I think that the Universe's decision to appoint two wise mentors was because it considered me a trouble-maker. I know the faculty & administration in my high school sure did!

[Kid Berwyn]

9. A Truly Strong Man

You gave Hurricane Carter something too few had given him previously: Acknowledgment, Respect, Kindness and Commitment. By giving him these honestly, freely and without pre-conditions, you acknowledged another's true value as a human being: Infinite.

Thank you for sharing with us, H2O Man. You make us feel special. Please know you are, too.

[H2O Man]

25. I have a NYT article

from 1974 that describes Rubin as an attractive being stuck in a cob web in an old haunted house. He appreciated that the kids in my class listened to him, and responded. The teacher Russell P got fired for letting the class communicate with Rubin! Decades later, when we were planning the book tour for his second book, Rubin planned to come to one of our class reunions. He always asked questions about some of my old classmates. But alas, an auto wreck put the book tour on hold, as a car slamming in to his vehicle injured Rubin's neck. And then the cancer took him.

Those were interesting times. I thank you for reminding me of them the other day. It's not just national law enforcement & intelligence that has had organized crime connections. Certainly the Paterson NJ police, who at the time were the most corrupt in the nation. And obviously the sport of boxing. The stories I could tell!

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread H2O Man

[H2O Man]

26. Thank you!

Much appreciated!

[flashman13]

12. Dylan

[H2O Man]

30. Great song!

I have a few versions of it. The record company's lawyers asked for two lines to be changed before they released it, and Bob had sung it live a couple of times already. The changes made had nothing to do with Miss Patti Valentine, yet she sued because the song made her sad. It should have made her feel guilty about lying. I knew the second Patterson patrolman to arrive at the scene of the shooting. He told me that Valentine was not upstairs sleeping until the gunfire woke her, allowing her to look out her second story window and "identify" Carter and Artis by the back of their necks. Seriously. She was actually at a party down the street, and no one else there said it was Rubin and John -- in fact, there was a boxer at the party, who said it definitely wasn't them.

I also know a local man, the cousin of a good friend, who was in the bar earlier that evening. He was on leave from fighting in Vietnam at the time. He said that the white people he knew had long considered Rubin to be a scary man. And I have had someone say to me, "You can tell he is a murderer! Just look at him!" I think that is what convicted him, since the evidence couldn't.

[mgardener]

14. I read this a few months ago.

And saved it.
Whenever I get discouraged, I re read it.
Hope it helps others.

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated”
― Thomas Paine, The Crisis

[H2O Man]

31. Beautiful!

Thank you for sharing this with us! Much appreciated!

I keep a notebook of quotes I've collected over many decades that I find inspiring. Today I mowed the small but nice area that I like to sit by, feed the birds as well as the fish in my pond, and read those quotes.

[lastlib]

15. Wonderful story, H2O Man!

I always enjoy hearing about your relationship with Rubin! I have followed his story since I first heard Dylan's song about him; I bought his first book, The Sixteenth Round, and devoured it. So glad he was finally freed, but still mad as hell that so much of his life was stolen from him!

[H2O Man]

32. Thanks!

After being released, but before moving to Canada, reporters would ask Rubin if he was bitter about having twenty years stolen from him? And he always said no. Rubin held that until he died. I've likely told you that after he introduced my daughters and I while speaking at a university, and saying that I had kept him alive in his darkest days, a professor contacted me. She was writing a book about people who are abused by anything from their parents to prison. I knew Rubin was busy at the time with public speaking and working on his second book. We had a lot of late night conversations about the book, so I mentioned it to him, and he said he would.

He wrote about how furious and bitter he had been. He knew he was not guilty, and would not live like a convicted murderer. He did his best to exist by not always following the institution's rules. That tended to result in being put in solitary. Every 30 days, he would be brought out to be examined by the prison doctor. Then one day he saw himself in the mirror, and did not like what he saw. The chapter he added to that book focused on the power of forgiveness.

Rubin liked to say if he could refuse to be bitter, and forgive those responsible for his incarceration, others could do so, too. He used to tell me that he could not have become who he had without "studying in that unnatural laboratory of the human spirit" for twenty years.

[Easterncedar]

16. Thanks, Pat

Another great read. History and encouragement. You continue to do good

[H2O Man]

33. Thank you!

I try to do good. Yet I recognize that unlike when I was a teenager, I no longer know everything!

[Easterncedar]

36. Yes. It seems wrong.

My parents grew so much wiser as I got older, but I seem to know less than I used to.

[FakeNoose]

17. K & R Recommended!

Great story, and it's something I needed to read today.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, Waterman!

[H2O Man]

34. Thanks!

We are having a rainy weekend here in upstate New York. My younger son is in a canoe race, as the longest one in the country is held not far from here. However, despite what my mother insisted, I actually do know enough to come in out of the rain ..... though I might hobble out and pull some weeds from the garden. It is easier when the soil is wet.

A great weekend to you & yours!

[people]

18. Wonderful, amazing and inspiring.

Thank you.

[H2O Man]

35. Thank you!

Much appreciated!

[Saoirse9]

28. I love your Rubin stories

But at the same time I get enraged reading about the injustice he suffered for so long.

I hope we can prevail against this tyrannical regime the same way Rubin did against his oppressors.

[H2O Man]

37. Thank you!

There is an old saying, almost as old as I am, that some things make you stronger, not because of them, but in spite of them. Hence, when Rubin and Nelson Mandela first met, the first thing Rubin said was, "We made it!"