Why I Married a Murderer

We hear stories about women who write love letters to convicted murderers, women in love with inmates—pieces that label the women “crazy ladies.” The fact is, you don’t have to be crazy to marry a murderer, writes Amy Friedman in Salon. She should know: she did it herself. Friedman was a newspaper columnist writing about life in a local prison, and though at first she tried to deny it, she found herself falling for one of the inmates. When Friedman first met Will, he was impassive, yet she felt a hint of attraction. “I sensed myself falling down a rabbit hole. I made excuses to rationalize my behavior,” she writes.

As obstacles to their meeting became greater (the prison, "trying to shut Will up and shut me out" barred her from talking to him), the only way to visit was to marry him. "For the next five and a half years, we were bound by attraction, by love, and by the fight we waged together to earn his parole." But after being released, Will became depressed; less than two years later, they divorced. Still, she has no regrets. “Those of us who have cared for and married prisoners, and nurtured and taught and ministered to prisoners, know” if there’s hope for them upon release, it comes from “knowing that they can be loved.” Click to read Friedman's full story.
(More jail stories.)