Wilbert Rideau The Real Story

           I like hearing from supporters of Wilbert Rideau. They casually malign my character and impugn my motives for maintaining this website. Rideau did the same thing in his memoir, In The Place of Justice (Random House 2010): he lied, misrepresented, and fabricated to malign all the people he feels did him wrong during his 44-year penal incarceration. This website was created to refute those lies, misrepresentation and fabrications. I have not tried, nor will I ever try, to pass these posts off as “journalism.” My posts are presented to provide the online public with documented facts and reasoned points of view (based on my 40-year prison experience and my decade-long personal and professional relationship with Wilbert Rideau) to illustrate that In The Place of Justice is a literary fraud.

            If any of Rideau’s supporters can present credible evidence (not personal opinion or biased perspectives) that I have lied about or misrepresented any information on this website about the “famed prison journalist,” I will cease my posts. Until then, and for as long as the material is available, I will continue with my posts. This website will exist as long as Rideau’s memoir remains in print. When he was writing his memoir, do you seriously believe that the former convict editor had any personal or professional concerns about the feelings of the people he was determined to “get even” with. He had been the “darling” of the national media for so long during his incarceration that he believed he had an unchecked literary license to write whatever he wanted about others in his memoir without regard for the truth. Personally, I don’t care if the New York Times and NPR’s Fresh Air believe Wilbert Rideau is the greatest invention since the light bulb. I know better. He is a literary thief and a journalistic fraud. This website has documented both charges.

            I suggest that Rideau supporters read more of the message and shoot less at the messenger. The fact that the message presented here is not important to them is precisely why I have used this website to clear up the lies and misrepresentations Rideau presented in his memoir: either to “get even” with people he doesn’t like or to present himself in a “hero’s light.” And I will repeat some the examples here:

• Sister Helen Prejean: Portrayed as a naïve nun who knew nothing about the prison world and had no business acting as a “prison reform” spokesperson for inmates.
• Burl Cain: The current warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary depicted a corrupt, lying, dishonest official because he curtailed a litany of Rideau’s “special privileges.” Rideau even implied the warden tried to have him killed.
• John Whitley: Former warden at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Though portrayed as a staunch Rideau supporter, Rideau depicted Whitley in an unflattering manner as a bumbling warden incapable of handling a prison crisis without Rideau’s assistance. He did so with conversations that either did not occur or did not occur as Rideau described them.
• Ross Maggio: Former warden at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Rideau attributed conversations and actions to Maggio that did not happen. He did so in a manner designed to undermine the professional integrity of the former warden.
• Frank J. Polozola: U.S. District Court Judge in Baton Rouge. Depicted as a judge with a “hidden agenda” to cover up violence at the state penitentiary.
• Buddy Roemer: Former Governor of Louisiana. Depicted as a manipulating and conniving politician because Roemer rejected Rideau’s clemency bids.
• Dora McCain: One of Rideau’s three crime victims. She survived his murderous assault. Portrayed as psychologically unstable and who lied about how Rideau attempted to kill her and how he did kill one of the bank employee hostages.
• Rick Bryant: Former District Attorney of Calcasieu Parish. Portrayed as a racist prosecutor because he consistently opposed Rideau’s release from prison and had the courage to prosecute the “famed prison journalist” a fourth time for murder.
• White Community of Lake Charles: Depicted as old south “Johnny Reb” racists because they did not embrace the “greatest” and “importance” of the man who committed the worst crime in the history of their parish.
• Lake Charles Media: Depicted as corrupt and unprofessional because they consistently refused to buy into Rideau’s storyline that his crimes were a byproduct of having been reared in the shadows of the racist Southern confederacy.
• Bishop John Sullivan: A Kansas Catholic bishop misidentified in Rideau’s memoir as a “not so reverend pedophile.”

         I did not include my wife and I on this list. We have adequately defended ourselves against Rideau’s scurrilous attacks.

         What I find particularly scandalous is that Random House published Rideau’s memoir with little or no serious fact-checking. Equally disturbing is the fact that “journalists” for the New York Times, NPR, and Associated Press rushed to not only embrace but professionally endorse the memoir despite its obvious factual errors, misrepresentations, and fabrications.

        This website has done what they should have done.