Penknife

When writer Joseph Harms hears of our idea to make a podcast about criminal writers, he leaves a series of disturbing messages pointing us in the direction of one of Abbott’s famous penpals: Jerzy Kosinski.  Harms claims that Kosinski killed a man, would regularly hide in people’s walls for days at a time and was somehow responsible for the Manson murders! Allegations such as these are way too juicy not to investigate. So that’s what we do. This episode starts at the beginning, and looks at Kosinski’s early life, especially the years he spent in hiding during the holocaust. We also explore the childhood of Abbott’s other famous penpal, Norman Mailer and glimpse the budding ego and machismo that will define his life, his writings and his crimes.

Outside an East Village diner, in the early morning hours of July 18th, 1981, a writer named Jack Henry Abbott stabs waiter and fellow writer Richard Adan to death because Adan refuses him use of the diner’s bathroom. Abbott is no ordinary writer; from age 12-37 he’s lived all but 9 ½ months in prison or juvenile detention. At the time of the murder, he’s just been released from prison and within a matter of days his highly praised and anticipated book about his life behind bars is set to be released. Season 1 of Penknife explores the books and crimes of Jack Henry Abbott, as well as those of his two most famous penpals, Norman Mailer and Jerzy Kosinski. In this inaugural episode of Penknife we look at Abbott’s first 37 years; years that lead him to write a great book, and to commit a grisly murder. 

With Mailer’s help, Abbott is released from jail. His book, In the Belly of the Beast, is garnering rave advance reviews and is primed to be one of the biggest books of the summer. We take a close look at the night he threw away his literary career—and his life—by senselessly taking the life of another writer, Richard Adan. The killing’s ripple effect is widespread, affecting not just Adan, Abbott and their families, but his pen pals, Norman Mailer and Jerzy Kosinski, as well as the prison reform/abolition movement of the early 1980s. We look at how the Adan murder plays into Reagan’s “Tough on Crime/Law and Order” policing agenda.

Penknife Season 1: Liberty and the Pursuit

Coming Soon!