Yep. He even helped get a murderer a reduced sentence - enabling that murderer to kill again, I believe.
Yes--Jack Henry Abbot was the name of the murderer that Mailer screamed and agitated about and got released from prison early. A few months later a waiter in a NY restaurant did something to him that he did not like and JHA killed him--stabbed him I think. Mailer was unapologetic.
To me, mailer has always seemed like a guy who thought that other people would not think of him as manly because he was a writer, so he had to do all this posturing. Yes, he can write; but so what? X42 was charming, wasn't he? At the end of the day it is character that counts and Mailer lacks same.