CARTER, RUBIN "HURRICANE" SIGNED LETTER FROM PRISON (1972-TO STANLEY WESTON-PSA/DNA)

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer who was convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after spending almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, police arrested Carter and friend John Artis for a triple homicide committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. Police stopped Carter's car and brought him and Artis, also in the car, to the scene of the crime. Police did not take fingerprints at the crime scene and lacked the facilities to conduct a paraffin test for gunshot residue. Carter and Artis were tried twice for the murders in 1967 and 1976 and convicted; both served time in Rahway State Prison. After the second conviction was overturned in 1985, prosecutors chose not to try the case for a third time. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1975 by Warner Books. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. Offered here is a scarce, original letter which was written and signed by Rubin Carter while in prison in 1972. This letter was typed and signed on November 21, 1972 and reads in full: Monday November 21st 1972 2:00 P.M> Greetings Mr. Weston: Although you probably did not expect a reply; with the embarrassing possibility that you won't even have the spare time to read this, your letter to me was received with the utmost appreciation for the trouble that you have so graciously undertaken in my behalf...and perhaps another less appreciative person would have left it at that. But I'm not another person--I'm me, and "me" has the inner human need to write this letter of gratitude just to show you how I feel. First of all, I must thank you for just simply taking this time out to write a final few words to me. You didn't really have to do a damn thing at all; and most people wouldn't have. Or else you could have relegated the nuisance to a subordinate, or written something like "listen, you dumb convict, I'm not running a goddamn advertisement agency here. So bug off, youbum!" But you didn't...and that means a lot to me. Because prison is a place where you can go for years without feeling the warm touch of a human hand, where you can go for months without hearing a kind word. Its a place where your friendships are shallow, and you know it; and letters like yours come as a cool breeze on a much agitated brow. Thank you. Your letter was really short and concise, but unconsciously--and maybe it wasn't--you said something interesting that fascinated me, that titilated those fond memories that you spoke of; but should also definitely replace a fantasy in the minds of the public with a solid framework of reality. I'm referring to your statement of which you said; "But getting the breaks in life is, in many cases, even more important than natural talent." And, of course, you were absolutely right. Because talent is--as talent is allowed to be displayed. And you dropped a lug that we, as humans, have been trying to get around for years...and it should be heralded in trumpet tomes. But you should have said that natural talents and natural instincts are not socially acceptable attributes whenever displayed hand-in-hand, one into the other, and culminating a whole. Society wrongfully expects a warrior (a real prizefighter) to entertain them royally with vicious displays of spine-tingling brutality on the one hand, and asinine passivity on the other. Dissembling the man into two parts; trying to separate the id from the consciousness without the surgical knowledge, and then expecting that a person to be the same as they. They've continuously failed to ask themselves the simple question of: "How long can a man participate in controlled violence and brutality and still his nature go unchanged?" Thats the question at issue, I think...what do you say about it? This is not to imply any inferences of nefarious thoughts unknown, I want you to understand that fully; its just that you brought it up in a round-a-bout way and I wondered if you had took it a step further and dealt with it at it's proper level. (?) All of which I fully intend to do in my soon-to-be released autobiography entitled "The Sixteenth Round", published by Viking Press and will be on the Fall market next year--73. I too am sorry that we never had the opportunity to meet personally. I'm sure, now, that it would have been rewarding. Although I generally don't like people as a rule, who knows what would have lurked in the dusty closets of our future had we met. Riches? Poverty? Exotic experiences? Anarchy? Who knows!! But I am glad we finally met now: and thank you again for yourself...and people just like yourself; you have brightened my life and made me feel that all the world has not really done wrong. Peace, Brother... Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
This is an original, typed, 4 page letter. Boldly signed in ink, "Rubin "Hurricane" Carter." Includes original folds. Includes mailing envelope. Includes a copy of the letter Weston wrote to Carter. Clean with no staining. 8 1/2" x 11." Authenticated by PSA/DNA and comes with their full letter (PSA # AG04322).