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View Full Version : Marine Richard Keech ... 83 this month in Calif Prison!



gunnyg
10-14-02, 08:47 AM
From: JPageSpann@aol.com | This is Spam | Add to Address Book
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 15:54:43 EDT
Subject: #135 Richard Keech 83rd Birthday on October 27
To:

This isn't the real #135...that should be Return to Tokyo Part 3 which didn't arrive in the mail as expected yesterday. However, here is an opportunity to do something for Richard. On October 27 Richard will be 83. It will be his 4th birthday in prison.

In 1999, the newsletter readers responded to his 80th birthday with an avalanche of birthday cards that overwhelmed the mail room in the Salinas State Prison. It would be wonderful if you all could do it again so that both Richard and CMC will know he still has friends.

So that you will know how important you all are...here is a reprint of Newsletter #6...sent in November of 1999. Joan ANOTHER BIRTHDAY IN PRISON Dear Friends, Wednesday, October 27 was my birthday. I am tempted to say it was the best ever. But thatâ??s probably stretching the point a bit.

Letâ??s just say it was one of my very best birthdays. To start with, my birthday sort of extended over the whole week. Starting with Monday, my walking friends who greet me each time I lap the t ract around our Quad field, added â??Happy Birthdayâ?? to their usual â??Good Morning, Richardâ?? greeting.

Iâ??m not sure how they found out, but it was nice to hear. In my four laps after each meal I usually greet a dozen or so such friends. Thereâ??s Dusty, the handsome, prematurely gray black gentleman.

Thereâ??s B. J., the black expatriate from the San Francisco music scene. Thereâ??s Skeeze, the intellectual, friendly, really tough apple. Heâ??s white, by the way. These are my â??yard friendsâ??, my lap-the-track â??rooters. As an aside here, let me add that their calling me â??Richardâ?? is a credit to their sense of courtesy. Normally a man of my age would be referred to as â??Popâ??.

I, however, have asked that they not do this. â??Wait until I am olderâ??, I say, â??Until then call me by my name, Richard.â?? They respect this and do so. In our quad I know some 80 to 100 men as â??yard friends.â?? Men who I say â??Hiâ?? to every time we meet. Men who always ask me how Iâ??m doing. To which my answer is always the same. â??Just fine, thank you, and how about you?â??

As you know I donâ??t consider myself to be a prisoner. Iâ??m a traveler. Iâ??m one of you but on a trip. A trip to a fascinating foreign country. (The California Prison Empire). At the moment Iâ??m stranded in one of its major cities. (A prison in San Luis Obispo).

All of this to explain I live in two worlds, your world and the prison world. You, my friends on the â??outsideâ?? did much to make my birthday the special occasion it turned out to be. My cousin Joan for instance asked our internet friends to remember my birthday with letters and card.

That triggered a veritable deluge of mail into the prison. As a result I set prison records for several days for incoming prisoner mail. These letters were great morale builders for a couple of reasons. First: It made me happy to once again be a part of your lives. I read every letter twice. I walked once again down your sidewalks, listened to your stories and shared with you your joys and sorrows.

Second: This was an opportunity to â??tweakâ?? the guards a bit. They are nice guys in their own way most of the time, but they have been rather carefully indoctrinated to think of us as â??the bad guysâ??. They of course think of themselves as â??The good guys.â??

What bugs them is, How come this â??bad guyâ?? gets more mail in a week than any of them get in a year? How can people like a â??bad guyâ??? The guards came around to talk to me during the week. They were trying to make sense of this paradox.

Their first guess was that all of this mail had come from family. One can understand a familyâ??s loyalty to a â??bad Guyâ??. Being prison guards they put their question into the form of a statement. Prison guards never ask questions, it might make it look like they didnâ??t have all the answers. â??

This mail is from your family, isn't itâ?? they said. it was kind of fun to puncture the balloon. â??Noâ?? I would answer, â??These letters are just from friends!~. End of discussion.

My family remembered me too, of course. My son in Seattle sent me two books by my favorite author, Tom Clancy. My granddaughter took valuable time out from her first semester in college to write me twice. My wife, daughter and grandson came up to visit me on the first visiting day after my birthday. So yes, my family remembered me well.

This is very important to a prisoner. It is his assurance he is still one of them. One of the most touching tributes of all came from my prison comrades. My â??Cellieâ?? ( thatâ??s short for cell mate or cell partner) came to me on Tuesday and said I was to be honored that night by a special birthday supper, to be cooked by him and his friends.

He explained that they had selected Tuesday night for the birthday meal because a check of the prison dinner menus for the week showed this to be the best supper to skip.

A really good supper was scheduled for Wednesday, my birthday. They didnâ??t want me to miss that one. I was touched. Cooking a special meals calls for real sacrifice on the part of the men doing it. They have to draw on their own precious little store of luxury foods to create such a meal.

This is generosity at its best. Itâ??s sort of like a friend on the outside saying Iâ??m going to use my months allowance for food to take you out to dinner tonight. I happily accepted. Let me stop here and add, this really will be a very tasty meal. My â??cellieâ?? is a French Canadian. He has somehow inherited the French flair for cooking.

He loves to prepare special menus. For his cooking he will use only the one acceptable prison heating device, a Stinger. A stinger is an electric gadget developed for office workers and travelers that can be inserted in a coffee cup to heat a cup of water. Will this cook a meal, you ask, The answer is â??In prison, you bet!â??

All prison meals are built around some sort of Noodle dish. The noodles are bought in the canteen, packaged in cardboard crates, and consumed by the ton by the prisoners.

These are the famous Japanese â??Top Ramenâ?? noodle soups. (5 packets for a dollar in prison.) The dish, or casserole, my cellie prepared for my birthday had a Mexican taste to it. This was done to please me. My favorite Prison meals are Mexican dishes.

Hereâ?? what went into his â??French-Mexican casserole that night. 2 cans of chili beans 4 packets of top ramen noodles 1 bottle of pickled Jalapeno peppers 1 can of mushrooms 1/4 cup of mayonnaise 1/4 cup of cheese sauce, jalapeno flavored 1 teaspoon of garlic powder Added without measuring, just to make it taste good, salt, pepper and a bunch of other secret spices my French Canadian Cellie chef swears by.

The above ingredients were cooked separately then combined for further blending. The dish was served with a side of Tortilla Chips. The meal was delicious! Prison food when prepared by a French Canadian Chef just canâ??t be beat. Hey, I havenâ??t yet talked about my birthday night.

I was doubly honored that night. The supper Wednesday night was every bit as good as had been predicted. It was one of the Mexican meals nights. This night we savored the famous CMC Tamale pie casserole. My favorite meal of the week.

My friends had been right in moving the birthday meal a day early. Also, Wednesday is the night I go to a chapel service in the prison Protestant Church. Usually some 50 or more men attend this service. We sing songs of praise, join in prayer groups, then watch an inspirational movie.

As the music started, I was surprised, honored and deeply touched, when the entire audience joined in singing the chorus of â??Happy Birthdayâ?? to me. My birthday being on Wednesday made it impossible for my friends on the outside to come to the prison to share that day with me. Visitation days are only on weekends. No problem.

Friday, the 29th was just as good a day as Wednesday the 27th. Even better, because my wife, Kay, my daughter Nancy and my grandson Martin came to spend the day with me in the visitors area. Needless to say, we had a wonderful visit.

My five year old grandson makes every minute of his life an exciting one. I admire this in him. (Iâ??ve always tried to do the same.) Kay and Nancy were full of news of home and family. All good news. We had a happy three hours together. I always try to induce my guests to leave while theyâ??re still rested and enjoying themselves.

They left for home about 2:30. It worked out well. So there you have it. Another Birthday in Prison. Oh, I almost forgot.

One last thing. The birthday cards all say I am 80 years old. I canâ??t believe thatâ??s right. I feel so good! However, if heredity means anything, I wonâ??t have to hang around here too long.

All of my family have lived healthy lives till they die in their late 80s. I guess this means I have another â??healthyâ?? 8 or 9 years to go.

Should be fun.

Richard Keech
Semper Fi

http://www.richard-keech.org/

The mailing address is: Richard Keech
86028 CMC E 3122 P.O. Box 8101 San Luis Obispo, CA 93409

thedrifter
10-14-02, 10:00 AM
Good Post.......

I man of Great Honor.................


Sempers,

Roger

ivalis
10-14-02, 06:45 PM
Why is this guy in prison?

gunnyg
10-14-02, 06:52 PM
see his website for the full, detailed story--listed at bottom of the above post.

Website also contains Richard's writings--he is a prolific writer--his Newsletters, Trial Info, POW Memoirs, etc.

DickG

Norton1
10-15-02, 05:06 PM
My sister was married to a drunken abuser. No one would tell me about it because they were all afraid I would have killed him. It took great courage to see the path as this Marine did and to view it as simply another journey full of life.

What an incredible story -

gunnyg
10-15-02, 05:23 PM
it does fit the legal definitions of murder.

In other words, the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law--nor does the punishment fit the "crime!"

Richard defended himself, and his daughter, however, once he had shot the perp down, he continued to "empty the magazine" (so to speak, actually, I believe it may have been a revolver), thereby diminishing a defense of self-defense....much in the same way that a cop is excused in a shooting where he/she continues to fire (freeze) beyond what is necessasary to put down the immediate danger to himself and others.

But, Richard accepts the responsibility for this--the problem is the state, and the dupes of the state who do its bidding.

Just Plain Dick