The Hurricane: Fact vs Fiction
Rubin Carter, a former middleweight boxer nicknamed ‘Hurricane’ for his fighting style is one of the world’s most famous victims of injustice, having spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was further immortalized by the Bob Dylan song Hurricane which was sung to protest his 1967 conviction of the killings of three people in a bar, the same conviction re-imposed on Carter in 1976. In 1985, Carter was released by a federal judge who ruled that the former middleweight contender had not received a fair trial noting that the case was based on racism and the withholding of evidence. Following his release, Carter became an advocate for the wrongly accused. In 1999, The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison was released, starring Denzel Washington in the title role and focusing on Carter’s prison plight and the people who fought for his release. While the film was nominated for or received numerous awards, it did not actually follow most of the events accurately except for Carter’s story
1. It is unknown whether the stabbing of a man by Carter at the age of 11 occurred due to the former being an alleged paedophile who looked like he was harassing a friend of the latter. It is known that Carter stole a watch and $55 from a man who he stabbed during the stealing and there is no mention of the man being a paedophile who harassed anyone close to Carter
2. Carter did enter the army after he escaped from his first imprisonment and developed his interest in boxing there, defeating the champion boxer of the army but he was court-martialled five times and after being deemed unfit for military service, told to return to prison which he was sent back to as soon as he left the army. He was also not released from his first prison sentence in 1961 but 1957
3. While the film gives an accurate description of Carter's victory over Emile Griffith, Joey Giardiello’s fight against Carter (which actually stemmed from Griffith losing to Carter) was not handled well in the film. Giardiello won the fight fair and square without getting badly hurt or beaten by Carter who himself agreed that Giardiello was the rightful victor. Eventually the film’s producers paid a hefty sum to Giardiello by settling out of court with him and the director agreed to acknowledge Giardiello’s status as a champion fighter on the home video of the film
4. Carter was initially known to dislike his nickname ‘Hurricane’ which described the way he fought in the ring though he eventually grew to like it
5. Carter’s criminal history which was ignored by Bob Dylan in the song ‘Hurricane’ that immortalized Carter is not followed in detail though it does mention Carter’s seemingly antagonistic remarks during his career as a civil rights activist where he talked about wanting to shoot some cops during the civil rights movements although in reality that only happened when he read about an African-American youth who was killed by the police and not when he watched it on television. The movie also does not show that following Carter's conviction and imprisonment, Dylan was inspired to write and sing his song about Carter after reading the boxer's autobiography and meeting him in prison
6. Sargent Detective Vincent Della Pesca was actually modelled after Lt Vincent DeSimone, the leading detective in the bar killings that Carter was wrongly accused and convicted of. DeSimone had never met Carter before the murders at the Lafayette Bar and Grill and so did not hound or harass him from the time he met Carter as a child and only met Rubin for the first time on the night of the murders. He was not one of the detectives who pressed a shooting victim to identify whether or not Carter and John Artis were the men who were responsible for the killings. DeSimone resigned from his job in 1969, two years after Carter and Artis were convicted because he was not happy with the way a murder investigation was being handled. Because he died in 1979, thirteen years after the murders DeSimone could not have threatened Carter’s Canadian supporters or been present at the Federal Court hearing that freed Carter six years later in 1985. DeSimone's son on seeing his father's depiction defended him by saying that his father was an honest cop not racist and lying like the movie depicted
7. At the time of the killings, Carter was at another Bar, the Nite Spot which was a few miles away from the Lafayette Bar and Grill and took two passengers with him, John Artis and another friend. Carter was also not in the front seat with Artis but was at the back. Police who were at the Lafayette Bar and Grill stopped Carter’s car but let them go on seeing there were three people in the car not two in the car they were looking for which looked identical to Carter’s car. However after Carter and Artis dropped off their friend, they were stopped again by the police on taking the same route back and asked to come to the hospital where one of the shooting victims was unable to identify them as the killers despite detective pressure. Following this Carter and Artis took a lie detector exam which is disputed to either be a pass or a failure even though they were released
8. Carter was searching for guns that he took from the army but lost on the night of the murders and by co-incidence, ammunition in those very guns that happened to be found in his car were identical to the ones used by the killers in the bar though no fingerprints were taken at the crime scene. Carter and Artis later testified before a grand jury which declined to return an indictment against them given that detective DeSimone said that Carter and Artis could not have been the killers given that they did not fit the identification of the killers, they were not wielding any weapons when the police found them and they did not have time to change their clothes and drop their weapons although the evidence would later mount, prompting the mayor of New Jersey then offered a $1,000 reward for anyone who could bring the killers to justice and this contributed to the pursuit of Carter given his criminal history
9. Following the investigation into the murders at the Lafayette Bar and Grill, Carter went to fight in Rosario, Santa Fee in Argentina where he lost to Juan Carlos Rivero. As soon as he returned, he and Artis were arrested and charged for the murders due to the testimony of thieves Alfred Bello and Arthur (Dexter) Bradley who claimed to be within inch of the killers and identified them as Carter and Artis
10. The prosecution after hearing testimony from a neighbour Patricia Valentine who lived above the bar as well that of Bello and Bradley who were within inch of the murders as they escaped, presented the bloodstained clothes of the shooting victims in an emotional appeal to the jury since there was no evidence or trace of blood found anywhere on the defendants, something which the movie did not mention as well as the trial not being covered in detail such as the testimony of people who were with Carter at the Nite Spot during the time of the murders. The state's initial theory was that Carter had been drinking on the night of the murders and this is what may have prompted him and Artis to comit murder although this theory was later dropped when Carter testified. Artis could have told police that Carter had something to do with the crime which could have cost Carter his life but Artis was loyal to Carter and never testified against him. The jury convicted Carter and Artis of first-degree murder, following which the prosecution sought the death penalty for but the jury recommended mercy and suggested that the defendants recieve a life sentence each
11. As soon as Carter got to prison, he decided not to let the prison treat him as a guilty man by refusing to wear a prison uniform and said that no warden should touch him otherwise it would be either death for that man or for Carter. This resulted in Carter being sent into solitary confinement for discipline. While the movie portrays this, it does not show that he lost his (right) eye during his time in what was called ‘the hole’ b before being taken out and offered to go back to the hole for he still refused to wear a prison uniform at which point he was given a pair of pyjamas to substitute for prison clothing and the eye he had lost was replaced with a prosthetic one. Lt Jimmy Williams who takes pity on Carter and respects his decision not to wear prison clothes by giving him pajamas to wear was based on a guard who had the same sympathy for Carter. It was not only sympathetic guards who brought Carter food but also younger prisoners who respected his status. The food he was brought to him mainly included tinned goods such as beans or soup which he heated with a wire coil and ate in his cell. The film also does not show that on Carter’s 30th birthday when a cake was sent to him by his family, a guard crushed it, fearing a weapons smuggling and handed Carter the crumbs. Carter also refused to see parole officers and declined offers to teach boxing to other inmates
12. The film does not show that Carter was involved in a prison fight which resulted in a fire in 1971. The experience strengthened his determination to fight to prove his innocence and led to him studying law which helped him to write and publish his autobiography The 16th Round
13. Fred Hogan, a private investigator who knew Carter during his boxing years and was convinced of the former middleweight contender's innocence thanks to his autobiography The 16th Round is not mentioned or shown in the film. He managed to uncover evidence that Bello and Bradley had been pressured by authorities to lie at trial so that they would be compensated and Bello even recanted his testimony to members of the press and Bradley would do the same later on. Hogan uncovered a tape made by Vincent DeSimone on which the detective could be heard promising leniency to Bello in exchange for his co-operation in the investigation of the murders which those who heard felt that Carter was framed. DeSimone seemed to threaten a reporter who went to visit him about the case and after the second trial in 1976, seven years after DeSimone resigned due to pressure resulting in claims that he framed Carter and the way a murder investigation was being handled, the detective shortly before his death in 1979 claimed that he could never rest in peace if he put an innocent person in prison
14. While Carter was unsuccessful for seven years in his appeals and requesting another trial, unlike the film (which sees him demanding a new trial) it was the New Jersey State Supreme Court which ordered a new trial on the basis that evidence which could have helped the defence in the case was withheld even though Judge Samuel Larner who sentenced Carter and Artis to three to four consecutive life terms denied Bello’s recantation of Carter and Artis. This resulted in a campaign for a pardon or retrial of Carter (and Artis) which drew celebrities such as Muhammed Ali, Ellen Burstyn and Bob Dylan who was inspired to write and sing the song 'Hurricane' about Carter's predicament after reading The 16th Round and seeing Carter in prison. Dylan's song rallied public support behind Carter and was sung both in prison in the presence of Carter and a few inmates an later when a new trial was in the works
15. The second trial where Bello recanted his recantation by continuing to identify Carter and Artis as the gunmen is also not covered in detail nor is the prosecution revealing the possible motive for the murder which was a racial revenge for the killing of an African-American tavern owner by the previous (white) tavern owner over a business dispute. The prosecution theorised that while the tavern owner of the Lafayette Bar and Grill was killed, so too were the patrons to avoid the possibility of any witnesses to the crime. The stepson of the murdered tavern owner was a friend of Carter’s and was aggravated even when police took his stepfather’s killer into custody and immediately granted the killer a life imprisonment without parole or opening a trial through a district attorney. News of the killing spread across the African-American community, even reaching Carter and talks of possible revenge occurred. The prosecution made it clear that Carter had taken it upon himself to get revenge and convinced Artis to go along with him. Before the second trial, the prosecution offered Carter and Artis a deal that if the defendants took a second lie-detector exam and passed, they would not be tried a second time but Carter refused, prompting Artis to do the same. Carter did not testify unlike the first trial which may have led to him and Artis being reconvicted. Also the second jury that reconvicted Carter and Artis unlike the first one was not all white people as it consisted of two African-Americans as well. Bradley however refused to co-operate with authorities and thus was not called upon as a witness
16. The prosecution in both trails tried to determine if Carter's car was similar in appearance to the car driven by the killers shortly after the crime although both supporting witnesses (apart from Bello) Patricia Valentine and another witness, Ronald Rugerio both said that Carter's car was the car driven by the killers. The defense said that it was only co-incidence that Carter's car matched the car driven by the killers and there was nothing to prove that Carter or Artis had comitted the murders although both men were again convicted
17. In the film, Carter talks to his attorney Myron Beldock seven years after his conviction requesting a new trial. In real life, Beldock did not join Carter’s defence team until the retrial (which was ordered by the Supreme Court who ruled that evidence that could have helped the defence was withheld) where he was joined by Lewis Steel, an attorney who is completely absent in the movie and who during the second trial was held in contempt of court when arguing against the prosecution's theory that the murders were comitted in revenge for the killing of the African-American earlier during the same night although this was mainly because the lead prosecutor unfairly told the judge that he would lose the case if he was not allowed to present the racial-revenge theory
17. In the film, Carter talks to his attorney Myron Beldock seven years after his conviction requesting a new trial. In real life, Beldock did not join Carter’s defence team until the retrial (which was ordered by the Supreme Court who ruled that evidence that could have helped the defence was withheld) where he was joined by Lewis Steel, an attorney who is completely absent in the movie and who during the second trial was held in contempt of court when arguing against the prosecution's theory that the murders were comitted in revenge for the killing of the African-American earlier during the same night although this was mainly because the lead prosecutor unfairly told the judge that he would lose the case if he was not allowed to present the racial-revenge theory
18. While the movie and a few accounts told in books about Carter depicts him divorcing his wife Mae Thelma as he is unable to bear her seeing him behind bars, in truth she divorced him after the second trial because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her due to his seeming romance with many supporters one of whom claims that Carter viciously beat her up which Carter denies due to her being rejected romantically by him. Carter and Thelma have two children from their marriage, a daugher Theodora and a son Raheem who was born shortly after his father was convicted a second time
19. Even though Bob Dylan did not attend the second trial after he sung 'Hurricane' to raise awareness of Carter's plight and never performed the song again, Patricia Valentine unsuccessfully attempted to file a lawsuit against him three years after Carter and Artis were convicted a second time, believing that the song portrayed her as part of a conspiracy to frame Carter. However, her appeal was dismissed by a federal court who said that Dylan's song only portrayed what exactly happened on the night of the murders and later Valentine was forced to admit that whatever Dylan sung about her in the song was true. Dylan would not meet Carter again until after he was released from prison and met Dylan at a concert where the singer apologized to the former boxer for not being able to help him further
19. Even though Bob Dylan did not attend the second trial after he sung 'Hurricane' to raise awareness of Carter's plight and never performed the song again, Patricia Valentine unsuccessfully attempted to file a lawsuit against him three years after Carter and Artis were convicted a second time, believing that the song portrayed her as part of a conspiracy to frame Carter. However, her appeal was dismissed by a federal court who said that Dylan's song only portrayed what exactly happened on the night of the murders and later Valentine was forced to admit that whatever Dylan sung about her in the song was true. Dylan would not meet Carter again until after he was released from prison and met Dylan at a concert where the singer apologized to the former boxer for not being able to help him further
20. Artis was offered his freedom if he identified Carter as one of the gunmen since a few authorities believed Carter to be more guilty than Artis. However being a loyal friend, Artis refused to betray Carter. During his time in prison, Artis was was allowed to attend college and even married shortly before being paroled in 1981. He was returned to prison on drug charges and following his release, became a counsellor at a youth centre in Virginia
21. The team of Canadian entrepreneurs who changed the life of Lesra Martin by helping him to read and write and prepare him for college did not just consist of Sam Chaiton, Terry Swinton and Lisa Peters. There were more members of their team who after hearing of Carter’s predicament volunteered to help his cause. Some members of the team continued their work in Canada while Sam, Terry and Lisa moved to Canada to work with Carter’s lawyers in arranging new evidence to prove Carter’s innocence after Lesra read Carter's autobiography and he and the Canadians were convinced of Carter's innocence as a result. Carter's book also encouraged Lesra to believe in himself in overcoming illiteracy and preparing for university. He and Carter also exchanged a series of letters shortly after Martin read Carter's autobiography and this led to Martin meeting Carter in prison. Eventually, Lesra's Canadian family were also able to meet Carter
21. The team of Canadian entrepreneurs who changed the life of Lesra Martin by helping him to read and write and prepare him for college did not just consist of Sam Chaiton, Terry Swinton and Lisa Peters. There were more members of their team who after hearing of Carter’s predicament volunteered to help his cause. Some members of the team continued their work in Canada while Sam, Terry and Lisa moved to Canada to work with Carter’s lawyers in arranging new evidence to prove Carter’s innocence after Lesra read Carter's autobiography and he and the Canadians were convinced of Carter's innocence as a result. Carter's book also encouraged Lesra to believe in himself in overcoming illiteracy and preparing for university. He and Carter also exchanged a series of letters shortly after Martin read Carter's autobiography and this led to Martin meeting Carter in prison. Eventually, Lesra's Canadian family were also able to meet Carter
22. Leon Friedman who joined Carter's team two years after his reconviction was a more experienced lawyer than Myron Beldock and even a renowned university professor which is completely reversed in the movie and there is no mention of Friedman’s university career
23. After reading The 16th Round, Lesra and the Canadians actually had a difficult time trying to locate Carter because of his constant transferal between Trenton State Prison and Rahway State Prison when Lesra wanted to communicate with Carter through letters. While it is not evident in the film, Lesra was actually quite frightened when he entered the former prison on his first visit to Carter who actually held Lesra in his arms to ease his fear. Also it was not after just two letters (from both Lesra and Carter each) that Lesra went to visit Carter but after a long series of letters. Carter upon communicating with Lesra, felt he was ready to open himself to the world again; he changed his appearance through shaving his beard and allowing his hair to grow and this is something which Lesra saw unlike the film which still depicts Carter with a bald head and beard when he met Lesra
24. Carter was not weary or shunning of the Canadians when he first met them although he was reluctant to talk about his case to them until he realized they were trying to help him. They did bring him many gifts such as a boxing robe as the film depicts. They even sent him food he had not eaten in years as he was more used to eating prison food. Both before and after he met Martin, Carter focused on uplifting his hate towards white people whom he believed were the reason for his impasse and an example of this occurred by him listening to Lisa during her visit to him in prison when she prevented him from raising his hand on a guard whom he was angry with for touching him as he never wanted to be physically touched at one time although there is also no evidence to suggest that Martin gave his high school diploma to Carter.
25. When Lesra visited his family shortly after gaining good results at university, he attempted to introduce them to Carter's story although they were not as moved by Carter's story as he was
26. The reexamining of Carter’s case did not attract much news in the media but among those who got to know of this was one of Carter's cousins who was not happy with the juries who convicted Carter although was encouraged to believe that his cousin would be free thanks to a cab driver who told him of what was happening in Carter’s case and was convinced of Carter's innocence. While the Canadians worked with Carter's lawyers on the case, Lewis Steel was the only attorney of Carter's team who was reluctant to try the case again yet he eventually partook in proving Carter's innocence on seeing how unfair both trials were
27. Carter’s lawyers were upset that they did not receive fair credit in the film as they worked equally with the Canadians to assemble evidence for Carter’s innocence rather than the Canadians uncovering evidence and bringing it to them
28. Carter’s lawyers spoke with a man who conducted polygraph tests on Bello before the second trial and it was revealed that the lie detector test results of Bello were worded in a way which made it appear that Bello was telling the story that the prosecutors wanted to hear and that itself was the truth when it was not
29. There was no investigator called Dominic Barbieri although the Canadians did uncover notes from a diary which revealed that prosecutors were suppressing evidence at the trials
30. Once enough evidence was brought together it was not only Carter’s suggestion to take the case to federal court but also Friedman’s. When the defense team for Carter agreed to take the case to the federal court, they knew that it would be Carter's last stand for freedom and approached it on the basis of habeas corpus to decide wither or not there was a violation of the United States constitution of Carter. If the case did not work at Federal Court, Carter would only be eligible for release through parole in 2000
31. Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin, the Federal Judge who would take Carter's case was initially unfamiliar with its history. When his children learnt that this case was assigned to him, they gave him a copy of the song 'Hurricane' by Bob Dylan but he declined to listen to it
32. There was no trial with an audience in person at the Federal Court in 1985 before Judge H. Lee Sarokin. In early 1985, Carter’s defense brought their case to Sarokin and even though the prosecution was present as well, Friedman did most of the talking to disprove that the killings at the Lafayette bar and grill were committed in (racial) revenge for the murder of the African-American tavern owner as there was no evidence to suggest that Carter and Artis had committed the murders nor that they had any hostility towards white people since the killer of the murdered African-American was sent to prison for the rest of his life. However Carter was not actually present in the courtroom. The case had nothing to do with forgeries and lies as the lawyers in the film claim.
33. On November 7th 1985, Sarokin released his decision to grant Carter’s release from prison and granted Carter a writ of habeas corpus stating that the first trial violated the constitutional rights of Carter and Artis since Bello's interrogation tapes were withheld. The second trial further violated the defendant's constitutional rights not just through the second withholding of Bello's lie-detector results but also that the prosecution failed to provide any evidence that Carter and Artis were interested in the murder of the African American man or felt angry about it. Following this, Sarokin's clerk Bruce Rosen gave the writ to Carter's lawyers, congratulating them. The lawyers delivered it to Carter and the Canadians who read it in prison and on hearing the results, the entire prison both prisoners and even guards cheered
34. The next day after Carter cleared out his cell in anticipation of a positive outcome, he went to court before Sarokin (who saw him for the first time) where the prosecution attempted to prove that Carter was a threat to the community and wanted to keep him in prison until his appeals were exhausted, only to be rejected by Sarokin. Carter's family including his mother and cousins were also present at court although unlike the film, Carter did not adress the court with a speech and Lesra was not in attendance neither was Friedman, only Beldock and Steel were Carter's lawyers for that day. While Sarokin made his statement which revealed that the violation of the constitutional rights of Carter and Artis were as heinous as the crimes for which they were convicted, at least one person yelled in anticipation that Carter would be released before Sarokin completed his statement freeing Carter at which the entire courtroom erupted with cheers and applause
35. Following his release, Carter did not interact with the media like the film depicts following his release by the federal court but slipped away quietly while Artis who was present at the trial did answer questions from the media
36. In 1988, after the Supreme Court upheld Sarokin’s decision to set Carter free, turning down the appeals of the prosecution for a third trial and dropping all charges against him and Artis, Carter moved to Canada and briefly moved in with the Canadian commune that helped to free him. He even authored a book with them about how they worked to free him and was briefly married to Lisa for two years before founding the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted to help those who may have been wrongly convicted. Around the time that Carter's case concluded, Lesra graduated from the University of Toronto with an honour's degree before pursing further study in law. After articling with a Vancouver law firm, he practiced law as a Crown Prosecutor, similar to a District Attorney. He even went on to become a motivational speaker like Carter and also wrote a book about overcoming the negative effects of illiteracy
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