Andrew Purcell
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‘The most guilty person in the history of Montgomery County’
A few days after the execution date was confirmed, I received a message: Swearingen wanted me to watch him die. As far as police were concerned, the case was closed. Unless someone unexpectedly confessed or irrefutable new evidence came to light, he would be added to the list of men with unsafe convictions killed by the state of Texas.
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When he’s ready to sleep, Ryan Charles reclines the driver’s seat of his Honda Accord as far as it will go, lies back and shuts his eyes. He’s been living like this for six months and it feels like home.
Standing on the corrugated steel deck that will be the 88th floor, the lateral movement is disconcerting, the feeling more like seasickness than vertigo, until you look down.
On March 31, burdened with survivor’s guilt and unable to cope with his PTSD nightmares, Corporal Clay Hunt shot himself. According to official military statistics, he was not a casualty of war.
“The idea is immortal, it is without class and it doesn’t care anything about wealth,” he says. ” I could get my horn and play for you, and believe me, I would play something.”
Kurt Vonnegut is dwelling on the apocalypse. For the third time over lunch America’s funniest and most pessimistic novelist is explaining why he will welcome the end of the world.
The phone rings. Would I mind if he takes it? His daughter in California is worried about forest fires. “Well how far away is the smoke? I’ll buy you another house if it burns down, honey, OK?”
Andrew Purcell
I'm a British freelance journalist based in New York. My principal clients are the Sunday Herald (Scotland), the Guardian, BBC World Service radio, and the Sun-Herald (Australia). For a complete list of contents, click here.
