Harold was an anarchist prisoner serving life-plus sentences in Tennessee after a series of farcical trials. He was well known for his work as a “jailhouse lawyer”, and in his own words, coped with prison by fighting for his fellow prisoners in the courts.
The series of events that led to Harold's incarceration in 1979 sound like a Woody Guthrie folk song. A woman was murdered. The killer went to jail. In jail he became king rat and squealed on his fellow inmates. A woman was murdered and her killer gets out of jail scot free because he did the states' dirty work. They value more his work as an informer than their own system of justice. Harold H Thompson, Vietnam vet, anarchist activist, found this intolerable. The murdered woman was the mother of his child. One night in 1979, peoples' justice was served upon the woman murderer and rat called Crawley. He was shot as he enjoyed a (last) drink in a bar. Harold went down for the deed, and proved one feisty rebel behind bars. A valiant jail-break attempt led to years of solitary confinement, after which he picked up a law degree and worked solidly for his fellow prisoners release, even if he, serving a life sentence, would never get out again.
I raise my glass to Harold, and return the sentiment - well done, my heroic comrade, I miss you already.
The review:
Ramor Ryan’s Clandestines—a modern adventure chronicle of those who have
fought, or are fighting now, against injustice and oppression—is inspirational with examples of compassion and solidarity.From Europe to the Middle East and across the seas to Latin America, the Irish anarchist tells stories of his travels: the people he riots with, drinks with, makes love with, everyone. I consider Clandestines a must-read, no matter what one’s political identity may be; as while one relates to the books’ characters the realization is born that a revolutionary exists in us all.
Being of Irish heritage, I especially was drawn into the chapter titled “The Making of a Rebel,” regarding the tragic Graveyard Massacre in Belfast in 1988 at the funeral of three IRA Volunteers murdered in Gibraltar by British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers, when the Volunteers were gunned down in cold blood. Ryan’s account of the cowardly attack on the grieving families of the three IRA soldiers and other mourners by a member of the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) with gun and grenades ranks among the best accounts of this Bloody Sunday tragedy I have ever read. Through Ryan’s description of the attack on those attending the funerals of the deceased Volunteers and the aftermath, the reader feels like they were actually there, experiencing outrage, fear, and determination.
Ryan’s Clandestines is one of those rare books a reader hates to put down before finishing, which is the highest compliment paid to any author. As you read each chapter, you find yourself drawn into the events Ryan is writing about, and caring about the characters he introduces to the reader, real people living through extraordinary circumstances; one wonders about their welfare after finishing this book, wishing them well. The only thing I did not like about this amazing journey through events of the past several decades is that each chapter, after drawing the reader into it, ends leaving one yearning for more, exhibiting Ramor Ryan’s skill as a writer. Summing up my thoughts regarding Clandestines would be the words, “Well done, lad!” I would hope my free anarchist brothers and sisters will share any futureworks by Ramor Ryan.
Harold H. Thompson
