All this could have been easily explained with the story fitting certain ideological agendas. Yet, the phenomenon isn't anything new. While in law school, one of my professors was describing somewhat similar story about Jack Henry Abbott, convict who had been serving long prison sentence for arson, armed robbery and manslaughter. In 1977 he heard about The Executioner's Song, book by esteemed novelist Norman Mailer about infamous killer Gary Gilmore. He began to write letters to Mailer about his own criminal experience. Famous writer apparently discovered great literary talent in the author of those letters and began campaign for his release, which was joined by writer Jerzy Kosinski and many other prominent intellectuals and celebrities of the time. The campaign succeeded and Abbott was released in 1981, shortly before the publication of his book In the Belly of the Beast. On the very same day the book received glowing review in New York Times, Abbott went to a bar where a waiter said something Abbott didn't like. It ended with a waiter being stabbed to death, Abbott arrested and put behind bars for the rest of his life, with some 7.5 million US$ of book revenue going to the family of his victim. Many years later, Mailer describing the episode as "something he wasn't proud of".