MB: How old is he?
He’s probably close to 80. Buck’s been in maybe 40 years. But I look at him and he still has hope of getting out, when I know it’s never going to happen. So I always said, “How could you men expect people to have empathy for you — to forgive you — when you can’t have it for Buck, knowing that he’s never going home? That he’s going to die here?” And in a way, it’s inspirational. That he would still think about having a lawyer help him with his case and get out. But I knew that that wouldn’t happen. And, you know, how could you — even if he is a little aggressive, a little meaner, then that means you be a little bit nicer, a little bit kinder to him, and he’ll come around. So, guys like that and people like that, kind of — you pick and choose your own little network to kind of help you. And each one of them helped me. Buck helped me to realize that: to have empathy for other people in tough situations and not have a lot of my own anger.
This therapist used to say, “That’s your sixth sense, you just have this unbelievable perception about people.” Sometimes people come up and I know what they’re going to do or say before they even say it. ’Cause I read so much, I’ve observed for so long. … I think that [prison] may have heightened that sense.
A free man in chains
MB: If you could compose a letter or have a conversation with the kids who accused you of molesting them, what would you want to say?
I don’t really know. I think I would probably acknowledge their own suffering first, their belief in what happened. Because the bottom line is, these kids were told they were molested for years. So they, I’m sure, lived that kind of life. I would talk more about the science of those cases back then, let them know they were victims, but victims of overzealous prosecutors; they were victims of the system back then. You know, there was the theory that kids never tell stories back then. And I think that’s probably would be the best approach, because I wouldn’t want — if I was to write a letter, I wouldn’t want there to be too much personal feeling about it, because I would think that for those who still believe that they were molested, it would be very heart-wrenching and painful for them. And I think that all of us have been through a lot.
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