Police Mistakenly Release Murderer: An Analysis
I wonder how far he'll get in his thin prison garb, in Chicago's February weather, without even the change for a phone call in his pocket.
It's not as if he'd planned a great escape, not as if he'd been prepared. One moment he was shackled, the next they let him go.
He walked away with their permission, disappeared in the wind, thinking to himself (I'm guessing here) "oh shit oh shit oh shit oh God, please don't let them realize their fuckup for at least an hour."
I imagine him looking for a laundromat, just one unguarded dryer or maybe a dry cleaners where he grabs a heavy coat and hustles down the street, tearing away the plastic baby-suffocating bag.
He has no plan, he needs a plan, he has no plan, he needs a plan -- the two thoughts bounce around inside his skull like racquet balls, slamming against his fear-machine lizard brain, driving him down one sidewalk and up the next in this unfamiliar city, in this brutal cold.
He knows his skill set (murder, non-specific rage) will serve him well if he can find some residential streets with cars asleep beneath their humps of fallen snow, some residential streets with gentle houses where he can cadge a meal and boost a car.
The cops could catch him quick before he offs some codger for his wallet and the SUV (not that they're asking my advice) if they'd just figure out exactly what a lifer wants to do the most when he gets out, then search those places.
https://www.cnn.com/2013/02/01/justice/illinois-prisoner-released/index.html
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Author's Note
Steven Robbins, 44, convicted murderer in Indiana, was freed due to an error by Chicago court and security officials.
Other stories by Gita M. Smith
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I love this line: tearing away the plastic baby-suffocating bag. Your use of language is excellent. fav
Pure capture of a foreign (though "He has no plan, he needs a plan, he has no plan, he needs a plan" above and beyond its poetry, is familiar to *me*) inner state.
tight, crisp writing. Good one, Gita.
"I imagine him looking for a laundromat, just one unguarded dryer or maybe a dry cleaners where he grabs a heavy coat and hustles down the street, tearing away the plastic baby-suffocating bag."
The world we do not see - but one that finds us now and again. Strong piece, Gita. *
Thank you all so much for commenting. They've finally recaptured him but the news accounts don't say how he survived or where or whether he committed any new crimes in the process.
The detailed practicalities of what to do once he has escaped and the problem-solving skills involved are hilarious. He has no choice but to steal a wallet and SUV. What else can he do in his fashionable clothes? An orange jumper perhaps?
Oh, and fave*.
Took me right there. Inside this guy's head. Believable.*
What a great depiction of being released as opposed to being free. Oh, the burden.