CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The pretrial-hearing transcript is in the court record. I have imagined the circumstances of Lorilei Guillory getting ready for this date, informed by Lorilei. Documents about Judge Alcide Gray’s recusal from further death penalty cases and the briefs Clive Stafford Smith filed to get the 2003 verdict overturned are in the court record. The Waiver & Agreement referenced here was signed by Lorilei, Clive, and Ricky Langley on June 7, 2002. On May 8, 2003—well after Lorilei met with Ricky and decided to testify for him—the three signed a second Waiver & Agreement, which did make clear that Ricky and Clive would push for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, or NGRI. Though I cannot be certain that Lorilei and Ricky formally met at the high school, it was a small school that they attended at the same time, as the next chapter makes clear, and so it is a reasonable supposition that they did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
This description of the meeting between Lorilei Guillory and Ricky Langley is based in part on Lorilei. I have also drawn on a letter written by Lorilei and published in the American Press on May 25, 2003, in which she talks about her thoughts and feelings, though not the visit. Finally, I have imagined some of the details necessary to bring the scene to life. The statements about Bessie Langley’s absence are in the 1994 trial transcript. In crafting this chapter, I have also drawn upon Ricky’s records from the Georgia prison, a 1993 defense mitigation memo that is in the court record, and the 1994 trial transcript.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I drew upon Eula Buller’s pamphlet “Hebert Cemetery 2007” in preparing this chapter.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The song “The Rose” was written by Amanda McBroom. The description of the motorcycle crash that killed the father and son I’ve called Terry and Joey Lawson is based on the police report, which is in the court record, as well as an obituary published in the American Press. The motion and brief referenced are in the court record. That the motion was denied and that the family said they would file a complaint with the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Disciplinary Board over the motion comes from an article published in the American Press.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The letter by Lorilei Guillory referenced here was published by the American Press. The conflicting statements and descriptions are from the 1994 and 2003 trial transcripts. The letter written by Ricky Langley to his parents here is a composite drawn from several letters. This actual quote is from 1992 and was read aloud by Clive Stafford Smith during Lucky DeLouche’s testimony during the 2003 trial; Ricky was referring to his desire to help others understand the minds of pedophiles. Descriptions of the seminar, as well as what Ricky and Clive said during it and what attendees were thinking, feeling, or said, are based on statements given by seminar attendees to prosecutors later. In some cases, however, I have compressed two attendee accounts into one person for ease of reading. Further I have imagined the room and people’s physical actions. These statements are in the 2003 court record, but were not admitted at trial. The meeting between Colonel Bruce LaFargue and Ricky prior to the seminar is based on LaFargue’s January 2, 2003, affidavit. A December 12, 2002, fax from Clive to LaFargue asserts that nothing Ricky said would be used against him; in the January affidavit, LaFargue says he never promised that and that he responded to Clive’s requests for that assurance only by saying that they were in agreement that Ricky wouldn’t talk about the murder. In crafting this chapter, I have also relied upon testimony from the 1994 trial.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The voir dire section is based on transcripts in the court record. Judge Alcide Gray’s and Cynthia Killingworth’s comments about there being a murder every day occurred on different days of voir dire, but I have compressed time here for narrative flow. My estimate of the numbers of jurors questioned is approximate. In thinking about this chapter, I drew upon On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman and Jurors’ Stories of Death: How America’s Death Penalty Invests in Inequality by Benjamin Fleury-Steiner.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The courtroom scene is drawn from the 2003 trial transcript, though I have imagined the lawyers’ physical actions in the courtroom and what the jurors were thinking. The 2003 KPLC-TV clips are not available, but clips from the 2009 revisiting of the case include sections that were played in 2003, and I’ve relied on those here. It is worth noting that the aerial photographs of the woods were not taken at the time of the murder—at this trial, the photographer clarified that the helicopter had been unavailable then—but in the spring of 1993.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The dialogue and trial descriptions in this chapter come from the 2003 trial transcript. The descriptions of the videotapes come from their transcripts. I have imagined the jurors’ and Lorilei Guillory’s thoughts and feelings. The Christmas photograph of Jeremy Guillory comes from the KPLC-TV clips referenced in chapter thirty-three. That prosecutors called Lorilei unfit appears in many statements given or articles written by Clive Stafford Smith, for example an October 10, 2008, opinion piece on the Al Jazeera Web site, “Death Penalty ‘Utterly Barbaric.’”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The trial portion of this chapter is based on the 2003 trial transcript. My thinking about whether most pedophiles have been abused is based on “Does Sexual Abuse in Childhood Cause Pedophilia: An Exploratory Study,” K. Freund et al., Archives of Sexual Behavior (December 1990), and “Cycle of Child Sexual Abuse: Links Between Being a Victim and Becoming a Perpetrator,” M. Glasser et al., The British Journal of Psychiatry (December 2001). Both articles are available online. By asking whether Lorilei Guillory saw herself in Ricky Langley, I do not at all intend to indicate that she saw herself in what he did. Rather, I am questioning whether she perhaps saw herself in some of the challenges he faced in life. In thinking about that possible connection, I drew upon the play Lorilei.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The trial portion of this chapter is drawn from the 2003 trial transcript.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The quote from the social worker is drawn from a 1993 defense mitigation memo that is in the court record; other descriptions of what the jury did not hear about are drawn from sources cited above in the chapters in which the events unfolded. More about the “dream diary” and the debate about whether it included dreams or confessions is in the 1994 trial transcript. That Lorilei Guillory did not attend the announcement of the jury’s verdict for the 2003 trial comes from an American Press article. That Clive Stafford Smith appealed the 2003 verdict, and on what grounds he did so and what happened afterward, is in the court record. In 2003, I heard the jury foreman, Steven Kujawa, say what is quoted here in an event held at the LCAC office. The event was attended by LCAC interns who did not work on Ricky Langley’s case, as well as community members who were not involved in the case. I have based my description of Kujawa’s family circumstances on statements he made that day and in the 2003 voir dire transcript.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The photographs described here are in the court record.
CHAPTER FORTY
Some of my description of Angola is based on God of the Rodeo, a nonfiction account of the Angola Prison Rodeo written by Daniel Bergner. The letter from Ricky Langley to a judge referred to here is in the court record.
Acknowledgments
Sometimes good lightning strikes. I was fortunate that it happened twice during the writing of this book, when generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rona Jaffe Foundation arrived at exactly the moments they were most needed. The financial support made the research for this book possible; the votes of confidence were invaluable. So, too, was time and space provided by the MacDowell Colony, the Corporation at Yaddo, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Blue Mountain Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Studios of Key West, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, a
nd the family of Alice Hayes, who funded a fellowship at the Ragdale Foundation.
Some of the sections in this book were published in previous form in Oxford American, Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre, Bookslut, and the anthology True Crime. I am grateful to their editors, Brenda Miller, Marcia Aldrich, Jessa Crispin, and Lee Gutkind, for recognizing promise in the material. A particular debt is owed to Wes Enzinna, then at Oxford American, who once called me at 10 p.m. about a verb. He was right, and that call taught me so much.
My agent, Robert Guinsler, was the best champion of this book I could have hoped for from the very first moment I told him about it. His belief has been unflagging, his agenting nothing short of wizardry. To agent fixer extraordinaire Calvin Hennick: Thank you, always. Thank you, too, to Szilvia Molzar.
To my editor, Colin Dickerman: Thank you for having such a clear and complex vision for this book, a vision that brought out what it could be. Thank you, too, to the team at Flatiron Books: James Melia, Amelia Possanza, Marlena Bittner, Molly Fonseca, Nancy Trypuc, and Keith Hayes, as well as to Robert Ickes and Michael K. Cantwell. I feel privileged to be in such excellent hands, and in such excellent hands in the UK, with Georgina Morley and her team at Pan Macmillan.
Before this was a book, Douglas Whynott believed it could be one, and started teaching me how to turn it into one. For his mentorship and for the mentorship of Richard Hoffman, Megan Marshall, Pamela Painter, and their colleagues in the MFA program at Emerson, I am thankful. I am thankful, too, for the advice and encouragement along the way of Jonathan Harr, Sydelle Kramer, David Shields, Jane Brox, Joshua Wolf Shenk, Rachel Sussman, and Deanne Urmy.
At the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, I am indebted to Michael Collier, Noreen Cargill, Jennifer Grotz, and Jason Lamb. There I met Ross White and Matthew Olzmann, who run the Grind, in which many pages of this book were written. At the Wesleyan Writers Conference, I am grateful to Anne Greene and the families of Jon Davidoff and Joan Jakobson.
Boston has one of the best writing communities around, and that is largely due to its organizations. I am deeply grateful to Eve Bridburg and Christopher Castellani for providing me with a home, for so many years now, at Grub Street, and grateful for the work of Alison Murphy, Jonathan Escoffery, Sonya Larson, Dariel Suarez, Lauren Rheaume, Sarah Colwill-Brown, and the many others who keep Grub running. I am thankful to the board and members of the Writers’ Room of Boston, where much of this book was written, and in particular to Debka Colson. Thank you, too, to my colleagues at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and in particular to Jeffrey Seglin there, a great mentor, former teacher, and dear friend. To my students, past and present, in Grub Street’s Memoir Incubator, other Grub classes, Cedar Crest College, and Harvard: Thank you for trusting me with your stories, and for teaching me through your bravery. Working with you is a deep honor.
In the middle of working on this book, I got an e-mail inviting me to join a writing group. Little did I know it was the best writing group that ever was. To the Chunky Monkeys—Chip Cheek, Jennifer De Leon, Calvin Hennick, Sonya Larson, Celeste Ng, Whitney Scharer, Adam Stumacher, Grace Talusan, Becky Tuch—so much gratitude and love. You are all basically the reason I still live in a place with winter.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was a valuable resource. In Louisiana, Loretta Mince, Jeannette Donnelly, and Alysson Mills provided essential legal advice and assistance. I am thankful for the help of the staffs at the Southwest Louisiana Genealogical Library, the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, and the Iowa Public Library, as well as the Bullers at Consolata Cemetery and Mari Wilson at KPLC-TV. A special thank-you to Sha Carter, Bethany Smith, and the rest of the staff at the Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court criminal records division, for the endless photocopying, mountains of paper clips, and for finding me a comfortable chair.
The material for this book was often very difficult to write. For hugs and for bourbon, for pep talks and crucial feedback, thank you to Alysia Abbott, Howard Axelrod, Ned Baxter, Steven Beeber, Michael Blanding, Nicholas Boggs, Sari Boren, Lori Brister, Alexander Chee, Julia Cooke, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Ted Genoways, Michelle Hoover, Elin Harrington-Schreiber, Patricia Harrington-Schreiber, Hannah Larrabee, Ron MacLean, Richard McCann, Nicole Miller, Mary Jane Nealon, Shuchi Saraswat, Mike Scalise, Linda Schlossberg, Kat Setzer, Justin St. Germain, Rachel Starnes, R.J. Taylor, Laura van den Berg, Robin Wasserman, Sarah Wildman, Alexi Zentner, and Ann Zumwalt. I cannot say my thank-yous for this book without saying one to my late dog, Lada, who made the days of my early work on it so much softer. Thank you, too, to the staffs at Diesel Café in Somerville and 1369 Coffeehouse on Mass Ave. in Cambridge for all the necessary coffee, and to Zoe Keating for her music, the soundtrack for so much of my writing.
It cannot have been easy for my family to be supportive of me writing this book, but they have been, and for that and for so much else I am profoundly grateful. Every family is complicated, but it has been a deep blessing to know that ours is glued together with love.
Janna and I had our first date the evening it became clear this book would eventually be published. Some months later, she became a character in it. To her: Thank you for making the material of this book easier to live, and then easier to write. Thank you for your love, and for making a home with me where my memories of the past can live safely alongside my hopes for the future.
About the Author
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, an award given for her work on The Fact of a Body. She has received a Rona Jaffe Award and fellowships to the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Oxford American, and the anthology Waveform: Twenty-First-Century Essays by Women. She lives in Boston, where she teaches at Grub Street and in the graduate public policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
A Note on Source Material
Legal Note
Prologue
Part One: Crime
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Part Two: Consequence
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Part Three: Trial
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Sources Consulted
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
THE FACT OF A BODY
. Copyright © 2017 by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich. All rights reserved. For information, address Flatiron Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.flatironbooks.com
Cover design by Keith Hayes
Cover photograph by Matthew Somorjay/Millennium Images, UK
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-08054-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-15493-4 (international, sold outside the U.S., subject to rights availability)
ISBN 978-1-250-08056-1 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250080561
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First Edition: May 2017
The Fact of a Body Page 31