Murder at Will...

~1~

Alone, confined in the four walls of my cell. Studied as if I were an ape beginning to learn sign language. Completely cut off from the world. Sitting alone in my cell, without a trace of human connection, I recall the events that took hold that night.

I was born in a small town just south of Kansas. My father was a small business owner. He didn't make much money as a fruit merchant but he was proud of what he did. He always said that the only way to get somewhere in life was to work hard. I didn't believe him. He was the hardest working man I knew and tethered was still wearing the same clothes ever since I was born. While father was at work, mother stayed home and watched over me and my kid sister Joan. My mother was a religious person. She planned to name me John but my father argued that there were at least four other Johns in our town. So, she let father name me and she would name the next one. He named me after his father. Gram, I always hated that name. Mother named my little sister Joan because it was her favorite saint.

My Father was killed when he tried to breakup a fight near his fruit stand. He must have thought it was bad for business. Turns out one of the men had a gun and shot them both dead. Mother passed the following year from a weak heart. From that point on it was just me and Joan. I was her protector. I beat the shit out of many of her boyfriends and it gained me a bad reputation which prevented me from getting a job. I never made it to high school so I turned to theft. For a while, no one bothered us. It wasn't until the spring of 1952 that I was arrested and taken to prison and Joan was put into a foster home. It was degrading for her. She lost all of her friends and from that point on she tried to forget every trace of my existence. Three years later I was released and I tried to find Joan and take her home.