About two weeks after arriving in the East Block condemned row, he received a letter from his mother. That letter was very discouraging. The majority of his family had left California and were fighting over his property. Two brothers, his mother and a sister were all fighting over who should get the van he owned. One of the brothers wanted to sell it to the highest bidder at a “crime afficionado” auction, so he could use the money for his own purposes. His sister, mother and another brother all wanted the van for their own use. Lee had been an amateur photographer and had raised saltwater fish before he was arrested. But now, his various cameras and marine aquarium had just plain disappeared. Everything Lee considered important to him, physically and emotionally, had been taken away from him or had disappeared. If the truth ever did come out and he was released from prison, he had no hope of ever getting any of his property back. In essence, he had effectively lost his own blood family. He believed this was a fact because he felt that all his family wanted from him was everything they could get their hands on. No matter what it would cost him, they were going to take advantage of it.
One brother was telling everyone he knew, that he was writing a book about what had happened to the family because of Lee. None of which was true, of course. This brother of Lee’s also heaped the blame for all of the other bad things that had befallen him personally, at Lee’s feet. Lee was really beginning to resent the things this brother was saying.
He was rather concerned about his safety, also. He had now gone out to his assigned exercise yard several times. Although he was very nervous at first, Lee’s old cell partner, Jake, had told him not to worry about anyone on their yard, that there were people on the yard with worse crimes than those of which he had been convicted. He was told that if anything was going to happen, it would have already happened to someone else first. That didn’t make a lot of sense to him, but he was finally able to relax to a limited degree. He had made several friendly acquaintances on the yard that promised to watch his back, as long as he would do the same for them. But that didn’t really make him feel any better. With all of the death threats he had received, he was aware that a killing blow could come from anywhere, at the hands of anyone, at anytime! He knew of incidences when friends turned against each other and one or the other was killed. It had even happened between brothers and other family members.
As the days merged into weeks, Lee began to feel like he was going mad. He had nothing to truly occupy his time. He liked to write, but had almost nobody to write to. When he finally got some lined paper, he began to write some more on a fantasy novel he had started in the county jail. He was also finally able to get books from the prison library. That helped a great deal, because he loved to read extensively, mainly science fiction and fantasy novels. He also came across an address for an overseas group that dedicated themselves to writing to condemned prisoners to give them a touch of compassion they could receive nowhere else. Lee began to receive letters from Australia, Ireland, and England, not to mention the few he got from Southern California, and Florida, Those letters were a welcome source of relief from the boredom he was experiencing. Lee couldn’t even get that from his own family.
One benevolent person went so far as to send him enough money so he could place an order for a television and a few other items. On January 12, 1996, Christmas-time came to Lee’s world. The television he had been awaiting so patiently for, had finally arrived. So did a wristwatch that was sent to him in a quarterly care package that his friends, Dave and Flo, had bought for him. Between his pen-friends and Dave and Flo, these caring people were a great assistance in maintaining Lee’s sanity, or what little was left of it. Lee was the type of person who needed to know exactly what was going on in the world as much as was humanly possible. Being so deeply in the dark, knowing absolutely nothing as to what was happening in the world and what time it was, began to be almost as maddening as having nothing to do. Now, at least, with the television and a watch, he could feed that need, the hunger that was a constant, tangible presence in his mind. Then came a day that almost destroyed Lee emotionally.
One of the people he had met since coming to prison, was a man who was measuring his life in days, hours and minutes. His name was Bob and he had been convicted more than a decade before of killing several young men and boys, then leaving their bodies along the side of one of Southern California’s major highways. On the yard, Bob was a polite conversationalist, aware of other people’s feelings and the need for courtesy and respect. Bob and Lee would have long, intense discussions on several subjects. They often slowly walked around the yard, talking about their similar religious beliefs, supernatural subjects, the uselessness of the death penalty, and why death should not be feared. That last subject was becoming increasingly important to Bob as each day passed. The reason became apparent when the second week of February arrived. The last day Lee saw him, Bob immediately called him to the side of the yard. He was very agitated and began asking question after question, querying once again about Lee’s beliefs in life after death. Lee had experienced two separate Near-Death Episodes and had talked to another person who had witnessed one herself. He disliked talking about them, though. Not because he was afraid of what he had seen, but because he knew the ridicule and criticism he had received in the past, and would more than likely receive in the future. However, Bob didn’t ridicule him. He was very interested in finding out every aspect of those three episodes which Lee could recall from his memory. They sat in one corner of the yard and spoke quietly to each other, Lee going over and over every point which Bob was unsure about. When their yard time was over for the day, they shook hands and Bob whispered quietly to Lee…
“I don’t have much time left. I’ll see you on the other side when the time comes.”
Lee didn’t quite know what to say, but just then it was his turn to leave the yard.
Just over a week later, on February 22, 1996, thirteen minutes past midnight, television stations broadcast that Bob had been executed in the San Quentin death chamber. Lee had heard several of the broadcasts following Bob’s death and was very upset. Once more, tears began to fill his eyes; they didn’t, however, fall this time. There were people who were attempting to describe what type of person Bob was. Those people didn’t know him the way Lee did. Lee knew that they were wrong and felt they were only beating their chests like some gorilla in a forest, trying to gain status in the eyes of others. Lee had very strong feelings about the death penalty and the execution death of anyone. It was wrong, regardless of any rationalizations. Lee found that many of the prisoners tried to rationalize their reasons for killing someone. Those reasons and rationalizations were still called murder by society. But an execution of a prisoner was nothing more than a different kind of rationalization for killing someone. Murder, by society’s own definition. That, among other reasons, was why Lee felt that society was inhumane, sick, morally decadent, and decling very rapidly. He had met a couple of prisoners who believed there was nothing wrong with the death of the person or persons they killed during the commission of their crimes, because society saw nothing wrong with executing prisoners.
Lee also had some strong opinions as to why there was so much crime these days, as opposed to when he was growing up. He felt that if certain steps could be set into motion, then most of the crimes could be stopped before they were even thought of by the perpetrators. But then, who was he? Who would possibly take his ideas seriously. As far as society was concerned, Lee was nothing more than an evil, cruel and indifferent man, an illiterate monster, intent only on causing pain to others. Little did society know how wrong they were. He had attended college under the most difficult of circumstances and gotten both his associate degree and a bachelor’s degree in the combined fields of Sociology and Psychology.