"outrageous coddling of cold-blooded killers sentenced to long terms.”

pdf, with thanks to the original sharer

“Some inmates set a trap to knock me off, they tried to electrocute me one time, they had it fixed, this room, and I’m getting ready to open the door to go iron my clothes and a guy named Curly knocked my hand out of the way. He said, ‘Johnny, you’re supposed to be dead.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He picked something up and said, ‘Watch this.’ He threw it against the door and [he makes the sound of an explosion]. A lot of guards didn’t like the idea that the niggers were going out singing ... a lot of people wanted to kills us ... fellow prisoners and the guards wanted to set it up, the guards set up for a lot of people to get killed in those days. They wanted Johnny bad, they wanted to kill that nigger.”