Harold
H. Thompson is an anarchist prisoner serving life plus sentences in Tennessee,
USA. He is a first generation Irish-American and was born on April 9th, 1942 in
Huntington, West Virginia, where his parents (both now deceased) settled after
fleeing 'the troubles' in Ireland. Harold spent his childhood years within a
home environment where politics was a regular topic of conversation. He became
interested in anarchism at an early age from listening to the political debates
of his father and visiting friends. His affinity to anarchism was solidified by
a stint of military service during the Vietnam war in which he was discharged
after being wounded. He then became active in the anti-war movement, associating
with Viet Nam Veterans Against the War during the 60's and 70's era of mass
civil disobedience and struggle in America. From the late 60's onwards Harold
was repeatedly in conflict with the cops and the legal system, raising money for
survival and political activities outside the law. Several of these
expropriation activities resulted in him doing time in Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia
and Tennessee prisons. Harold has two sons (with different mothers), the mother
of his eldest son was murdered in 1978. Her killer, Walter Douglas Crawley was
sentenced to life imprisonment but then released on an appeal bond after
becoming a police informant. On the same day as his release Crawley was
overheard threatening to murder Harold's son and another child who had testified
against him during his trial. Crawley boasted how he "had nothing to
lose" since he'd already been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. In
Chattanooga, four days later in October 1979 Crawley was shot whilst drinking in
a bar, his unmasked assailant escaped and sped off in a waiting car into the
night. Ten days later, after a large scale manhunt for Harold he was arrested
and charged with the murder of Crawley. Harold was also charged with
expropriating money for political activities from a jewellery store. For these
incidents he was given life plus 50 years after a series of farcical trials.
Later Harold was given an additional 21- 75 years for a second shooting incident
which occurred in Cleveland Ohio. Around this time Harold also had a stroke
leaving him in a coma for 3 weeks. Following brain surgery he was diagnosed
epileptic.
In
November of 1986, Harold started a 5 year, 4 month stint in maximum security
/solitary confinement after a failed armed escape attempt while in an East
Tennessee prison. He was charged with the attempted murder of three guards,
kidnap of a hostage guard, Possession of explosives, Possession of a dangerous
weapon and attempted escape. The judge sentenced Harold to an additional 31
years. In July of 1993, after being released from solitary confinement for about
15 months he was framed-up for having Possible escape plans allegedly based on
the information of an outside "confidential informant" and put back in
maximum security I Solitary confinement, where he remained until March 1995 at
West Tennessee High Security Facility in rural West Tennessee. In June 95 Harold
was again reclassified to lower security but had to wait a further 8 months
before being transferred to a lower security prison where he is now.
Behind
the walls, Harold is well known for his work as a 'jailhouse lawyer' and says he
copes with prison by fighting for his fellow prisoners in the courts for some
semblance of real justice. His legal work mainly consists of other prisoners
appeals, drafting their legal briefs for submission to the courts, filing civil
rights complaints on behalf of prisoners who have been abused and had their
rights violated. He helps file proper grievances in the prison system and
courts.
Such
activities have brought Harold intense provocation and harassment from prison
guards, especially because he has frequently helped black prisoners
with legal problems, which in the South doesn't go down too well with the racist
establishment. This harassment included confiscation of his legal materials and
law books in frequent cell searches and being the victim of the frame-up in
1993. He believes the lengthy wait for his most recent transfer is more of the
prisoncrats special treatment of 'Psychological torture mind games'. A form of
punishment given to Harold because his solid commitment to helping fellow
prisoners and his anarchist politics are openly abrasive to the prison system.
The most recent incidents of petty harassment include the confiscation of his
anarchist literature and law books and deliberate damage and theft of his
personal belongings by prison guards. Literature sent in to Harold was even
withheld by the prison mailroom because it contained "narratives of
anarchy".