[Alberta's Child]

Tattooing AIDS victims would have been an appropriate public response to a disease that was as much of a threat to the public at large as the gay/AIDS "community" wanted us to believe back in the 1980s. I suspect this comment of his was more satirical than anything else -- to make the point that AIDS was really not much of an issue at all.

I never knew about his support of a murderer back in the 1960s. Are you sure you aren't confusing him with Norman Mailer?

[maryz]

I remembered it vaguely, but not the details; a quick Google turned up crimemagazine.com

Updated: The Great Prevaricator. (Updated 03/29/04)
Edgar Smith, with William F. Buckley Jr. blithely playing his stooge, wrote his way to freedom from the Death House in Trenton State Prison in 1971, becoming the most famous death-row prisoner of his time. Fourteen and-a-half years earlier, Smith -- at age 23 -- had bludgeoned to death 15-year-old Vickie Zielinski in Mahwah, N.J. Less than five years after his release from prison, Smith kidnapped a petite but scrappy young mother who miraculously managed to escape from Smith's car with a knife stuck in her side,

[miss marmelstein]

No, he meant it very seriously. In fact, his wife had to publicly disavow the statement. Remember, they are both NYers with many liberal (and probably gay) friends. Pat Buckley is extremely social.

And I'm not confusing him with Norman Mailer, another idiot. Buckley did defend a murderer - I'm almost sure the guy killed his wife.

[mr.pink]

I never knew about his support of a murderer back in the 1960s. Are you sure you aren't confusing him with Norman Mailer?

The guy's name was Jack Henry Abott. While in prison for murder he wrote a book called "In the Belly of the Beast". Mailer, Buckley and quite few others (literatis and politicos) read his work and considered him a "raw talent".... and lobbied for his early parole. It became a trendy sign of sophistication to support his parole.

Well ole Jack Henry got his early parole (early-mid 80s I believe), and within a month or two murdered a busboy/waiter/dishwasher (forget exactly which) with a knife in the alley outside the restuarant in NYC where both men worked.

And so to the Beast's Belly, back went Jack.

The End. ;o)