WILBERT RIDEAU ON THE FRONTLINE CLUB
On January 12, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. Wilbert Rideau will appear on the Frontline Club, some kind of London-based group that reportedly champions “independent journalism.” That’s generally a euphemism for a liberal, idealistic group that places the celebrity of a cause before the actual real-world facts. The former famed prison journalist, of Louisiana State Penitentiary fame, will be interviewed by Afua Hirsch, a “legal affairs correspondent” with a London newspaper, the Guardian. Rideau will be promoting his memoir (and literary fraud) (here, here, here, here, here, here) , In The Place of Justice (Random House 2010).
The program promises to be a “love fest” lies, misinformation, fabrications, and exaggerations which are the hallmark of Rideau’s prison journalism career (here, here, here, here, here, here). This was evidenced by the first paragraph of Frontline’s description of Rideau and his crime: “In 1961 Wilbert Rideau was a nineteen year old African-American living in Louisiana, the deep south of segregated America. An eight-grade dropout despaired by the dead-end and small-town future his life held for him he set out to rob a local bank. The robbery went very wrong and lead to Rideau killing a young white female bank teller, he was arrested and gave a full confession as an angry white mob gathered outside chanting ‘kill that nigger’. He was sentenced to death row.”
Not only is the description factually incorrect, it is flawed grammatically. If these champions of “independent journalism” can’t write it right, you certainly cannot expect them to report it right. The sophomoric description implies that no matter how Rideau elected to escape the despair of a “dead-end” and “small-town” situation, it was justified because of the racism prevalent in “deep south … segregated America.” I don’t care how much the Frontline Club, or anyone else, tries to excuse Rideau’s crime as an inevitable and justifiable product of Deep South racism, it is simply not factually correct (here, here, here)
Rideau was not a dumb “eighth-grade dropout.” He was a bright, intelligent student who was always at the top of his class (here). As a teenager he decided to rob a local grocery store so he could buy some jewelry for a school girl he was infatuated with. He was sent to a reform school where he became enamored with a transvestite. Despite this criminal background, he got a job at a local fabric store where he was paid a decent salary, given a raise, accorded respect and assigned extra job-related responsibilities.
But working and making a living was not on the 19-year-old’s mind. Rideau wanted a “new life” in California. He started watching the Gulf National Bank which was located in the same shopping center as the fabric store where he worked. He frequented the bank and had a cordial relationship with its employees. It provided him with an ideal opportunity to study the bank’s operating procedures, the work schedule of its employees, and the kind of vehicles they drove to and from work. He was cunning and deliberate. He purchased a gun and a knife to carry out the bank robbery. He bought a suitcase to haul off the loot.
The robbery did not go “very wrong” in the sense that Rideau did not intend its ultimate consequences as suggested by Frontline. Rideau took the three bank employees hostage as he had planned all along. Hd needed time to get away as well as a getaway car. He ordered one of the hostages to drive the group to a remote area in Calcasieu Parish where he tried to execute all three to keep them from identifying him. He murdered Julia Ferguson by stabbing her several times in the heart and cutting her throat. This after he “ran out of bullets” trying to kill of the other two hostages. Those are the facts, and attempts by Rideau’s liberal media supporters (here) to re-write history will not alter them (here, here, here, here, here, here).
The Frontline description then talks about Rideau’s prison accomplishments. “ … He worked with prisoners and officers to improve the lives of his fellow inmates, lecturing and co-writing a prison textbook on how to manage prisoners …”
Rideau did not co-author a “prison textbook.” He and two other literary cannibals, Burk Foster and Ron Wikberg, put together a collection of criminal justice articles which had been previously published in The Angolite, other prison publications, and free world newspapers. This textbook was titled The Wall is Strong and was used in a criminal justice course instructed by Foster at a small Louisiana university. Beyond its literary cannibalism, Rideau plagiarized four articles I had written and passed them off as his own in the textbook (here). Being a literary thief is not one of the “accomplishments” the Frontline Club will discuss with the “award-winning convict editor” (here, here, here)
The Frontline description also added this factually flawed diddy: “ … Yet in spite of his tremendous efforts Rideau remained behind bars, whereas many with longer prison sentences and worse prison records were released sooner.” I have debunked this misrepresentation Rideau has made part of his resume for decades (here).
I made the Frontline Club aware of this website with the “real story” about Wilbert Rideau. Naturally, I didn’t get a response to my email and did not expect one. At least the champions of “independent journalism” enter their discussion with Rideau with the “real story available” to them. Frankly, I am glad to see Rideau get this opportunity to promote his “memoir.” It will result in more people doing Internet “searches” about the “famed prison journalist” and they will most certainly come across www.wilbertrideau-realstory.com Curosity will prompt them to read some of my posts, and while it may not change their minds about Rideau, it will certainly give them information about him they won’t find in his memoir.
