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[H2O Man]

97. Our conversation here

got me looking through my files etc.

I was a young teenager when I first wrote to Rubin, before people like Ali and Dylan brought his case to the public's attention. I had become convinced that he was innocent, so I let him know that I was planning to get him out of prison .....and, oh, by the way, since I was destined to become a world champion, I'd let him train and manage my career. Ha! He found the 13-year old kid amusing, I guess, as we began corresponding.

He was finishing his first autobiography, "The 16th Round." Frequently, he would tell his story on a cassette tape-recorder, then type it up. He began sending me those tapes, and soon, others. And letters, as well as various court documents, articles he had submitted to a prison newspaper, and documents put out by the prison administration.

After the retrial, when he kept himself in isolation from the outside world, Rubin would send lengthy letters that focused almost entirely upon philosophy and human evolution (not in the physical sense). By this time, I was a college student. I was active in the effort to get the state university system to divest in South Africa, plus attempting to gather support for Rubin among college students. These actions got the attention of some folks in offices in DC, who first advised me to find a better "cause," and eventually sent agents to the college, to try to shut down our work. Gracious!

Upon his eventual release, of course, he moved to Canada. The Canadian group attempted to cut him off from his friends and associates in the US .....they went so far as to say rude things about the Irish! I was pleased when he separated from them (it was frustrating to drive to Canada, only to find that they had "emergencies" that required Rubin to be elsewhere.

When things got back to abnormal, we were able to communicate on the phone and internet, and get together every now and then. I particularly enjoyed being able to get an 18-year old kid, literally given a life sentence for a "blow job," out of state prison, with Rubin and Myron's assistance. Also, to work with him on a couple books .....one on "forgiveness," to which he contributed a chapter, and his second autobiography. Rubin was frustrated when the publisher refused to include some solid documentation on the police-political corruption that poisoned his trials in New Jersey. These included documents from police & prosecutors' files.

So, I can see two possibilities -- three, if the two were combined: the story of our friendship, and the truth about the 1966 murders he was convicted of.