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RUBIN "THE
HURRICANE" CARTER
BIOGRAPHY
BY
AMIT TEWARI #1 FAN
CLIK
TO GO BAK
It's June
17th, 1966, two men are shot dead at the Lafayette Bar and Grill store in
Paterson, N.Y. That night John Artis meets the promising middle-weight
prize-fighter Rubin Carter in a club. He excitedly asks for an autograph, and
finds out that his ride home has just gone. Rubin offers John a ride, and John,
not believing his luck, accepts it. During the ride home, John and Rubin are
pulled over by the police as suspects for the Lafayette Bar murders. The
witnesses at the Lafayette Bar and Grill murders fail to identify Rubin and John
as the murderers. The police release both and say that they "never were
suspects." On June 29 1966 Carter and Artis testify voluntarily before a
Passaic County Grand Jury and are exonerated. Neither are they indicted by
Grand Juries sitting in August, September and October. All seemed well for both
Rubin and John, untill Alfred P. Bello, a well-known criminal and a suspect
himself, gave the police a signed statement claiming he saw Carter and Artis at
the murder scene. Carter and Artis are arrested and later indicted for the
triple murders. Rubin and John both deny any involvement in the crimes. On May
27th, 1967 an all-white jury convicts Carter and Artis. The prosecutor was
seeking the death penalty, but the jury recommended mercy. Carter and
Artis were sentenced to three life terms. On April 30th, 1974 Carter was
illegally transferred from Rahway State Prison to the Vroom re-adjustment Unit
at the Tranton State Psychiatric Hospital. At this point Carter was certain he
was being set-up. Then on July 1974 Carter filed a federal suit against the
state for inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. After a hearing,
Federal District Judge Clarkson S. Fisher ordered Carter's immediate release
from illegal detention in the Re-adjustment Unit. On September 1974, Carters
book the Sixteenth Round is published by Viking Press. Then came the moment
where Rubin was drastically helped. The only witnesses who claimed to have seen
John Artis and Rubin Carter at the scene, claimed that they were pressured by
Patterson detectives to give false testimonys, they claimed they were offered
$10,000 in reward money and promises of lenient treatment in criminal charges
pending against them. On May 1975, Carter sent a copy of his book to popualr
singer, Bob Dylan because of his prior commitment to the civil rights struggle.
On July 1975, Dylan visited Carter in prison and said "The first time I saw
him, I left knowing one thing...I realized that the man's philosophy and my
philosophy were running down the same road, and you don't meet too many people
like that". Then on March 17th 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court
unanimously overturned the convictions, ruling that the prosecution withheld
evidence favorable to the defense, and ordered a new trial. Carter and
Artis were released on bail. After a second trial on December 22nd 1976, in
which the prosecution were allowed to argue for the first time that the murders
were motivated by racial revenge, Carter and Artis were reconvicted; the same
life sentences were imposed, and they were forced to return to prison. Then
finally, John Artis was released on bail on December 22, 1981 after serving 15
years. But the struggle was yet to end for Rubin. Carter then applied for an
appeal but it was rejected in a 4 to 3 vote by the New Jersey Supreme Court in
August 17th, 1982. But in November 7th 1985, Rubin got a glimpse of hope when
Judge H. Lee Sarokin of the Federal District Court in Newark, N.J. overturned
the second trial convictions after finding that the prosecution committed
"grave constitutional violations"; the convictions were based on
"racism rather than reason and concealment rather than disclosure."But
the good fortune Carter had, was then attacked again by the State of New Jersey
again. On November 8th 1985, the prosecutors argued that Carter was dangerous
and should remain in prison pending the state's appeal. But finding no
evidence of dangerousness, Judge Sarokin ordered Carter free without bail saying
"human decency mandates his immediate release". Carter served 19
years in prison. But on December 19th, 1985, the prosecutors declared to the
United Stats Third Circuit Court of Appeals that "Carter is a danger to the
community and should be reincarcerated pending appeal", but on January 17th
1986, the court rejected the state's argument, and Carter remained free. But the
court couldn't take it, they couldn't take that Rubin was winning. But on August
21st 1987, the U.S. Courts of Appeals upheld Judge Sarokin's decision throwing
out the convictions. Finally, on February 19th 1988, the Passaic County's
Prosecutor's Office announced they would not seek a third trial, and they filed
a motion to dismiss the 1966 indictments against Carter and Artis. And finally
on Februrary 26th 1988 the Passaic County Judge signed the order dismissing the
indictments. Rubin did it, and never bowed down to the governement. This
is just a brief summary on a miraculous journey through life, strife, struggles
and racism. He won. Here are some interesting facts on Rubin Carter.
*
Rubin never agreed to wear the prison uniform, because he never comitted the
crime he was charged for, therefore he didn't have to wear it. The polive didn't
take this kindly and made him spend months in the "hole", which was a
small hole where nothing existed but him. Rubin became crazy, talking to
himself, but he never wore the uniform. The police, frustrated offered Rubin a
Barbers uniform, Rubin agreed. As someone once said " Rubin didnt have an
inch of body where muscle wasn't", but his mind was stronger and his heart
more determined.
*
Rubin was the number one contender for the midle-weight title before the
murders, and was known for his quick brutal finishings of opponents.
*
Muhammad Ali dedicated a fight with Lyle to Rubin. Rubin was also awarded a
Bravery WBC title for his will-power and heart.
*
Rubin was greatly helped by a canadian commune who never gave up on Rubin, and
helped him greatly in legal battles. Rubin would have died in jail if it wasn't
for them. He had a canadian lover from the commune, whom he loved very much.
*Rubins
close friends knew all along Rubin would never have killed the Lafayette Bar
victims with guns. They knew Rubin believed this was cowardly, and if Rubin
would kill any one, he would use his fists. Rubin wanted to turn his body to a
weapon. Anyone who knew Rubin knew not to touch him while he was angry. Rubin
may have been violent but he had a huge heart, and wouldn't attack any one for
no reason.
*
When 9, a dog lunged at rubins brother, instead of running,
Rubin punched the dog in the chest and knocked it out cold.
Now thats talent........
*
Although Rubin was a former boxer, he now strongly argues against boxing and
sees it as Barbaric. If I would describe Rubin in 4 words they would be, PROUD,
SELF- BELIEVING, DETERMINED AND HONEST.
IF
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE HERE ARE WONDERFUL MOVIES OR BOOKS ON RUBIN CARTER:
THE
HURRICANE- (With my favourite actor Denzel Washington)
THE
LABYRITH AND THE HURRICANE
- BOOK
RUBIN
CARTER - THE LIFE OF A FIGHTER- BOOK
Here
is an extract from the sixteenth round-
"I
come to you in the only manner left open to me. I've tried the courts,
exhausted my life's earnings, and tortured my two loved ones with little grains
and tidbits of hope that may never materialize. Now the only chance I have
is in appealing directly to you, the people, and showing you the wrongs
that have yet to be righted...the injustice that has been done to me. For
the first time in my entire existence I'm saying that I need some help.
Otherwise, there will be no tomorrow for me: no more freedom, no more
injustice, no more State Prison; no more Mae Thelma, no more Theodora
[wife and daughter], no more Rubin...no more Carter. Only the Hurricane."
"and after him, there is no more."
-From The Sixteenth Round by Rubin Carter.<
HERE IS AN RARE INTERVIEW WITH RUBIN IN 1975 (By penthouse)
Penthouse: For eight years you have been
imprisoned for murder. What do you believe is the real reason you're in
jail?
Carter: I'm not in jail for committing murder. I'm in jail
partly because I'm a black man in America, where the powers that be will only
allow a black man to be an entertainer or a criminal. While I was free on
the streets - with whatever limited freedom I had on the streets - as a
prizefighter, I was characterized as an entertainer. As long as I stayed
within that role, within that prizefighting ring, as long as that was my Mecca
and I didn't step out into the civic affairs of this country, I was acceptable.
But when I didn't want to see people brutilized any longer - and when I'd speak
out against that brutality, no matter who committed the brutality, black people
or white people - I was harassed for my beliefs.
I committed no crime; actually the crime was
committed against me. All the evidence today shows that the crime was
committed against me...and still is being committed against me. What has
happened in the past and what's happening right now make it a very good bet that
it may happen to you tomorrow.
Penthouse: When did the harassment begin?
Carter: As far as I can recall, it began in January, February, and
March of 1964. Before that time, I was Rubin Carter that everybody loved,
a good guy. Muhammad Ali and I once had to appear in front of the New York
Boxing Commission up in Albany when some people were asking for the abolishment
of boxing. Muhammad was the good guy who showed what boxing was doing for
him. Then I was put on display as the former bad guy who had come out of
prison, and I explained what boxing had done for me. I was the black
American pie at that time.
But the moment that I got rid of my manager, Carmen
Tedeschi, because he had beaten me out of all this money, then the news media
came down on me. They started saying I had left the man who made me - even
though each time the bell rang, he grabbed the stool and went and sat down
outside the ring.
Penthouse: In other words, you were challenging the boxing
establishment?
Carter: Yes. Before that, I would never say much. My
manager would do all the talking. He was a publicity hound, and he would
always bring up my past - that "my man was in prison" stuff. I
let it go, and that I believe now, was a mistake on my part. Because the
moment I got rid of him and started speaking for myself, that's when
people started saying, "He's challenging boxing." From that time
on, everybody really started coming down on me.
But my real problems began when the Saturday Evening
Post printed what I said about the Harlem fruit riot that took place in April
1964. I said that black people ought to protect themselves against the
invasions of white cops in black neighborhoods - cops who were beating little
children down in the streets - and that black people ought to have died in the
streets right there if it was necessary to protect their children. When a
reporter - and a very good friend of mine, or so I thought - asked me about this
Harlem fruit riot, I told him how I felt about it. None of this was
supposed to be printed, but he saw a story in it and had it printed in the
Saturday Evening Post. Well, when that came out the police throughout the
world thought I had declared war on them...and when war is declared, truth is
always the first casualty. It was at that point that police throughout the
country came down on me. There were times when I was arrested three or
four times just to put the headline RUBIN CARTER
AGAINST THE POLICE in the papers. This is a very skillful maneuver
to turn the victim into the criminal and the criminals into the victims.
Because not only did it alienate me from white people - the papers said I was a
racist bent on killing all blue-eyed devils - but it made black people scared of
me too. So I was isolated, hung out there. Meanwhile, I'm trying to
fight, trying to go on with my career, and I'm catching pure hell from
everybody.
Penthouse: Were you arrested outside of your hometown, Paterson?
Carter: Yes, in Hackensack, New Jersey. I was riding down the
highway and my car broke down. I pushed it off the road and walked on down
the highway hoping to find someone to help me get it fixed. So when this
police car came up on the other side of the highway, I jumped over the viaduct
and said, "Man, am I glad to see you. Would you take me to a service
station?" He said, "Sure, come on with me, get in the car."
So I got in the car and he said, "Let's stop by your car to see if we can
start it." He had jumper cables in the back. We pulled up to my
car and on the side it had my name in silver letters, Rubin Hurricane Carter.
Well, when we couldn't start the car, he said, "I'll take you down to a
telephone booth." But he took me straight to the police station and
got
me in there with all his buddies. And he said, "You know who this is?
This is Rubin Hurricane Carter," and all of them pulled guns on me.
Then they locked me up and charged me with breaking into a meat-packing place
somewhere in the city. I stayed there about seven or eight hours, knowing
that I was going to prison if I couldn't get a message out to anybody.
They wouldn't let me make any telephone calls, but that morning a black police
officer came into the station, saw me sitting in that cell, and he said,
"What the hell are you doing here?" I explained to him and he
was angry. He began cussing and finally nobody knew who put me in jail or
anything, and they let me go. But that was the type of thing that I was
running into constantly.
Penthouse: When you were in Los Angeles for a fight, you were
required to report to the L.A. Police Department. You wrote in your book
that the police chief, William Parker, told you that the FBI had kept close tabs
on you. What about other examples of harassment by the FBI or other
federal agents?
Carter: I had a few friends who were Secret Service men and federal
marshals, and they told me about the file they had on me. They were
following me around. Each state that I went in to fight, the moment I got
into town the police rode down on me, fingerprinted me and mugged me, and I
would have to carry this card attesting to the fact that I was an ex-convict.
The harassment was steady...constant.
Penthouse: When you arrived in various towns, did the authorities
come and get you?
Carter: Yes. They knew I was coming, and someone had to
contact them that I was coming.
Penthouse: Do you believe the FBI has a file on you?
Carter: Absolutely. There is no doubt about it. I
remember when I was in Los Angeles and got off the plane that day, I saw this
beautiful woman...I just happened to look at her and then kept on going.
But in the air terminal I saw the same woman again. She was always behind
me. And when I got to the motel on Olympic Boulevard in L.A., she was at
the motel. I didn't connect it with anything, but I kept seeing this same
woman. And then, when Chief Parker called me up at the motel and told me
I'd better come down to the police station to register as an ex-convict, there
she was - trying to hide in his office. That's when he told me that the
FBI had been following me every step that I had taken in Los Angeles.
Penthouse: You participated in Martin Luther King's march on
washington in 1963. Yet in 1965, when Reverend King asked you to
participate in the march in Selma, Alabama, you didn't. Why was that?
Carter: Because of threats on my life. I was catching pure
hell in the North and the West and all the other places I was going, and I knew
that if I ever went to Alabama nobody was going to protect me down there.
Dr. King was talking about nonviolence, about being peaceful - laying down on
the street while police dogs were biting you and horses were stomping on you and
cops were beating you over the head. Well, I knew that I could never be
nonvioltent. I'm a peaceful man, but that doesn't mean I'm nonviolent.
If you will be nonviolent with me, then I will be nonviolent with you. But
if you are going to put some violence on me, I'm going to whip it right back on
you.
Penthouse: Do you believe that agents provocateurs were involved?
Carter: Well, I really didn't know then. But, yes, I believe
it now.
Penthouse: With your beliefs about self-defense, how did you handle
all the harrassment from the police and the FBI?
Carter: I had to hire an adviser to handle the police. This
adviser went with me everywhere, but I stayed out of the country and up in my
training camp so much that he got tired. He was married and had children,
and his wife got tired of him staying away nine months out of the year. So
ultimately he left me too.
They were isolating me. And this was before black
people were proud to be black, you know. There was no "Black
Power" then, so I was hung out there by myself, and people would say,
"Well, that crazy nigger is in the papers again - messing with some cops
again." I was seen as messing with all the police forces in the
country. During all that time I had to go to other countries to fight
because the cops were really coming down hard on me at home.
Penthouse: So you were actually forced into exile in sense?
Carter: Yes. I had to go to Africa to fight. I had to
go to London, to Paris, to South America - just to stay away from here. It
was brutalizing me, mentally, because in fighting if you aren't in shape, both
mentally and physically, you're no good.
Penthouse: What were the circumstances of your arrest for the
Lafayette Bar & Grill murders?
Carter: It was about one o'clock in the morning and I was riding
down the street - I'm a night man, you know. When you train in the day,
you sleep all night; and when you come out of training, your body clock
gets all messed up. So I was riding down the street one night....Now, just
that afternoon I had seen in the papers that they had police on rooftops
allegedly guarding some witness to these murders (that was Bello, I found out
later), and everybody knew it - so if I had committed that crime I would have
been long gone. Well, that night I went to turn a corner, and the next
thing I knew there must have been 20,000 police shotguns in my face. Just
that quick. Wow! "Keep your hands on the wheel," someone
said, so I kept my hands on the wheel until they handcuffed me behind my back
and put me in a car.
Now, the police station was only a block away, but they
didn't take me there. They took me up into Paterson mountains - about ten
cars of detectives, all with unmarked cars. And I was sitting handcuffed
in the back - with two detectives up front and two detectives in the back.
They took me up into those mountains, and they parked. Nobody said
anything to me. We just sat there. I could hear these
loudspeakers...these microphones, going back and forth, chattering
angrily...very angrily. You could see policemaen walking around out there
with shotguns. No light anywhere, just a dark road. And I thought,
"My God, these people are going to kill me!" We stayed there
about an hour - just sitting there, nobody saying anything to me. Then,
all of a sudden somebody on the car radio said, "Okay, bring him in."
It seemed like they were very disappointed, as if somebody had talked them out
of killing me - that there would be a big investgation or something if they
killed me - which wouldn't have meant shit to me. I would've been dead!
Penthouse: After you were picked up on the night of the murder, and
none of the witnesses were able to identify you and John Artis, you took a
lie-detector test that proved your innocence. Why wasn't that used as
evidence in your trial?
Carter: At that time, in 1966, the lie-detector test wasn't
admissible in court.
Penhouse: Weren't there other white cars that were stopped by the
police?
Carter: Yes. In the court records cops said, "I stopped
this car here, I stopped this car there," but mine was the only car
that they stopped and brought to the scene of the crime.
Penthouse: During the trial, were any of the defense witnesses
threatened?
Carter: Yes. My God, yes!
Penthouse: Who were they? Can you give us any specific names?
Carter: John "Bucks" Royster. He was the third
person in the car with me on the murder night when the police stopped us.
Penthouse: He was threatened? By whom?
Carter: By the police.
Penthouse: And who else?
Carter: My sparring partner, Wild Bill Hardney. He was run
out of town. He lived in Newark at the time; and when the Paterson
police knew that he was coming as a witness, they got in touch with the Newark
police and the Newark police ran him out of town.
Penthouse: Is it true that 400 potential jurors, only eight were
black? And that the only selected juror who was black - a West Indian -
was the only one dismissed?
Carter: Yes, that's right. Ain't that something? You
know, those are astronomical odds - that out of fourteen people on the
jury the only black man would be taken off!
Penthouse: With the recantations of the prosecution's key
witnesses, Bello and Bradley, and all the other facts that have come to light
about the suppression of evidence by the police - for instance,
discrepancies concerning the time the police turned in the bullet they claimed
to have found in your car - and with so much more new evidence crying for a new
trial, why do you think Judge Larner turned down your appeal?
Carter: Well, of course, Judge Larner turned down the appeal
because he secured the conviction - and Larner wasn't even a judge before he
tried my case.
Penthouse: You mean that was his first case as a judge.
Carter: That was his first and he wasn't even from the same county
as I was. You see, in 1966 I was the number-one middleweight contender and
an international figure, and everybody in Passaic County - well, everybody in
New Jersey - knew that this was a frame-up. None of the judges in Passaic
County would touch this case because they knew it was a farce. But they
still had to try me, so the governor of New Jersey at that time, Hughes,
appointed Larner, at that time a lawyer from Essex County, on September 21, 1966
to go into Passaic County and try my case as his first criminal trial. Now
Hughes did this for various reasons, but specially because he knew that Raymond
Brown was my attorney. Well, Brown was the best criminal lawyer in the
state and a black man. And Larner and Ray Brown were bitter enemies - they
had been in cases together before. So they sent Larner in there to hold
Brown down and get me convicted. Larner acted like a prosecutor from the
bench, and the moment he got me convicted they shipped him back to Essex County.
They put him into civil law because he didn't have enough ciminal trial
experience.
Penthouse: You mean they let him try your case, then they said he
didn't have enough experience and sent him back to civil court?
Carter: Yes, civil court in another county. So therein lie
our political implications: Hughes, who was governor of the state of New
Jersey at the time and who is now the chief justice of the State Supreme Court.
We also have Brendan Byrne, who is the governor of New Jersey now; he was
in cahoots with Larner at that time. When these two criminals testified
for the state in 1966, they had nine or ten armed robberies throughout New
Jersey to answer for. Well, Brendan Byrne, who was then the Essex County
prosecutor, went around to all the judges in his county and had them quash all
those indictments because they testified against me. So there you see the
political ramifications.
Penthouse: Larner was from the same county as Byrne?
Carter: Yes. So when you ask why did Larner deny that appeal,
well, he's the guardian of that conviction. He said right from the start
of the hearing, "Why should the State be deprived of this conviction?"
Those were his exact words - not why two human beings should be deprived of
their lives because of vicious and prefabricated lies.
Because I will not say that I'm guilty, or act like I'm
guilty, I am a threat to the administraion, to the politicians. You know,
there are brutal people in control of these prisons. There is no
accountability all the way up the ladder. We are just left here with these
people, and they are vicious. There have been several instances in the
last four or five months of people being brutalized to death right here in
Trenton State Prison. This is the snake pit of the politicians. This
is the place where they kill you, and that's why they moved me here after the
Rahway rebellion. I have as many problems with the inmates as I do with
the guards and the administration. I'm like a man sitting on a high fence
at noon. This place is very dangerous for me, from both sides of the
fence. If for a moment either the administrtion or the inmates here felt
as though Rubin Carter was weakening in his fight to any degree, they would
pounce on me and wipe me out. It's very dangerous for me here.
I'm blind in one eye because of a lack of proper
medical attention in this Trenton State Prison, and I know that if i get sick in
here I'm going to die. I know that because it's what the administration
wants. They showed me that very clearly when they blinded me in my eye.
Penthouse: What did happen to your eye?
Carter: I don't know. When I came into this jail, I had
perfect vision - no problems ever with my eyes even when I was a prize-fighter
going through all that rugged stuff. I never had problems with my eyes.
But then I came to this jail, and when I was here about three weeks I had an
examination - at that time they gave every person an examination; now they
don't give you anything - and the man who gave me the examination said I had a
detached retina and that if he didn't reattach it, I would slowly lose my sight
in my right eye.
RUBIN
IS MY ROLE MODEL, I WILL MAKE SURE HIS LEGACY LIVES ON.......... BY AMIT
TEWARI AT P12IOR1TY.CJB.NET
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