European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 11, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Before he was through adolescence he had seen three electrocutions. He does not care to see but books turned him on and seven years after read ing his first he wrote his first a biography of Ernest Hemingway. He spent his Early life in a own of 127 people Starke fla., which had a pulpwood loading station two stores and a Little Post office. Mclendon did t see a town with More than 20 buildings until he was 18 and swiped my father s car to go to new Orleans for two but he dreamed of the outside world of big cars and big cities. Born into what he Calls depression Days limitations he has t splurged his newly found wealth. He thought of a Rolls Royce but he had the rear window of his old Chevrolet station Wagon fixed instead. A Pivotal thought Why drive a Rolls when you have three Small children and the imminent danger of lollipops stuck to the upholstery he does indulge in Dollar cigars and expensive Brooks Brothers suits but then he always has even while he was on the freelance Treadmill churning out More than 300 Magazine articles and two non fiction books to keep his Young family s life in a prison family destined to follow in his father s footsteps As a prison guard shaped much of his Outlook and opinions. You take children who live with War All their lives be suggests they Don t know what War is. They just know things go bang All the time. Well i did t know what prison was. Yet the nicest people i Ever met in my life the kindest people were the servants in our House and they were All murderers. Dad would t have a thief in the Mclendon personally favors capital punishment author Mclendon lived nine years in prison. Which is something you can t gather from his novel. Even his editor at j. B. Lippincott John Kinney did t know until months after he read the Book. Kinney had to ask to find out. Make the tools of rehabilitation available to prisoners but Only after a solid Day s work is one of Mclendon s themes. What i think prisons ought to say to people is we re going to punish you we re going to make you think about what you did you broke the Law you Don t go to prison for just a parking ticket Mclendon says. Death Row he concedes is no deterrent to crime it just stops the Man who did it from doing it life imprisonment is no substitute he believes be cause it merely transfers the responsibility to the prison and the prison guard. In other words you put the prison guard s life in jeopardy for the rest of his the convict s life. What do you think Charlie Manson s doing he s not sitting there learning calculus. He s sitting there thinking up some kind of meanness to do to the prison Mclendon whose varied career includes newspaper work and five prison jobs including guard has spent a Good Deal of time thinking about death work. A very important word is fix the bad Check artist can make restitution. But if you kill somebody you can t fix it. If you rape somebody you can t fix it. We punish Cap itally when someone takes a Capi Tal step. You have to work at getting into prison but you really have to apply yourself to get into death his Book gives four classic examples of capital crime the terrorist murderer he did t kill hundreds of people Only eight or nine. I gave you the woman who poisoned her husband and children. I gave you the Black a murderer and i gave you the five time Mclendon knows his stand is not popular with Many and it gives him no pleasure. But it is a matter of con science. In that final moment he says when you see that tragic looking wretch dragged into the execution Cham Ber your heart goes out to him. Naturally you weep for them. But in that final moment who weeps for the victim what about the victim whose head was blown off or the woman who s been raped who weeps for them Mclendon did t Start out to write a novel about capital punishment nor had he any idea that the supreme court would make the subject real and imme Diate again. He had written a very Long novel embodying his concept of Man seeking his better self. Lippincott editor Kinney who read it said Dostoevsky is dead. We Don t need from the ensuing Back and Forth emerged a faction novel on capital punishment a writ ing form made popular in the publishing world by Arthur Hailey. Mclendon decided to set it in a time when Florida re institutes the death penalty with no notion that such a Day might soon come. Then came the supreme court decision that the death penalty was constitutional. And from the Depths of an $11,500 debt Jim Mclendon Rose As a wealthy Man one novel about to be published and another in Progress and likewise sold. But not without sacrifice. The actual writing of death work a literary Guild selection for october in its final version was a Marathon of Many 18-hour Days for six months. And although he can afford a More leisurely Pace now Mclendon still drives himself at something Over the Safe Speed limit. Thinking about the events that Are changing his life resounds a Little unbelieving i have an agent in new York an outstanding Man. An agent in los Angeles. Who handles big names. Nine agents in Europe. I be got an accountant a banker a lawyer. Rags to riches. Incredible. I was going to hire a couple of violin players to follow me wherever i went to accompany my sad if you ?6 w a to of sunday september 11, 1977 a �tzlfem.vi1 the stars and stripes Page ii
