By Jack Burbridge as told to Victoria Chandler
1980, Acclaimed Books
Grabbed this on the strength of the cover in the Men's Adventure section and was surprised to find it was inspirational fiction. Jack Burbridge was a remorseless psychopathic petty criminal who, after a religious conversion in prison, became a remorseless psychopathic public speaker.
Jack went from stealing hubcaps as a kid, graduated to pimping and black marketeering in the Army, moved on to protection and pimping in rural Indiana, before being busted for bank robbery and going to prison, where he became born again, got early release, and started a prison and biker ministry.
Works surprisingly well as a true crime memoir outlining the life of a mob connected minor dirtbag in 1960s Indiana. And if you're worried he gets too preachy at the end, he's far too focused on talking about himself to get around to God much.
Taken at face value (and if you can't trust a pimp turned religious zealot, who can you trust), he at least stopped the assaults, killings, and sexual slavery after he got out. But his account is completely consistent with someone playing up his religious redemption to get out of prison early and stuck with it as a career - he even jokes about how he never had to get a real job.
Happy Jack's story checks almost every box for what those in the biz call Criminal Attitudes. Nothing was his fault, he was the real victim, the corrupt system is out to get him, he wasn't really that bad of a guy, and it's not fair that he faced any consequences at all. Clearly still proud at what a tough guy he was, says that he was a compassionate pimp and only beat women if they acted like a man, whatever that's supposed to mean. Minimizes the harm he did, even to the point of passive voice admitting to a self-defense killing - the other guy "got shot down".
He's not too heavy on the excuses because he's completely devoid of remorse. Mentions that one time, once, for a few minutes, he felt bad about the things he did, but then remembered that he was born again, so he didn't actually do those things, it was the other guy, get off my back, man. An ounce of recognition that he hurt his wife, but even with his kids he's more worried about his self image as a good dad.
The thing that really burned my hide is when a couple times somebody dies instead of him, it was because his mama was praying for him. The other poor schmuck, including someone he kills while driving under the influence, were just out of luck. Maybe their mamas should have been praying.
Available at https://archive.org/details/enforcerstory000burb - don't keep it in your locker!
From Amazon https://amzn.to/3YPMbI5
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