![]() | This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary . It should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context.(August 2015) |
![]() | |
Author | Stephen Hunter |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Crime, Thriller |
Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | October 1994 |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback); Audio CD |
Pages | 496 |
ISBN | 978-0-440-22179-1 |
Dirty White Boys is a 1994 crime thriller novel by American author Stephen Hunter. It covers the escape of convict Lamar Pye and two accomplices from a penitentiary in Oklahoma, and highway patrol officer Bud Pewtie's attempts to track them down.
The events in the novel are set in between Point of Impact and Black Light , the first and second novels in the Bob Lee Swagger series.
The opening chapters of Dirty White Boys articulately sets an impressionable tone for the remainder of the novel, as the story's main antagonist, Lamar Pye, a physically powerful, charismatic, aggressive, and intelligent "alpha male" in his late thirties, uses brutal violence to avoid being raped by a giant black inmate in the showers at McAlester State Penitentiary (the Mac). Despite his position as a "Prince" (a ranking prisoner) amongst the Dirty White Boys, a white gang element of the prisoner populace, the rape was ordered as revenge for a slight made by Lamar's developmentally disabled, behemoth cousin Odell against the white gang chief. After his sale to the black inmate gang, Lamar knows that the revenge is inevitable if he remains in the prison. Richard, Lamar's failed artist cell mate, a timid man imprisoned for gruesomely blinding his own mother, joins Lamar as he uses his quick wit and unrestrained capacity for violence to abscond "the Mac" with Odell.
Bud Pewtie, the novel's main protagonist, is a State Trooper called to participate in the search for the escaped criminals. He is initially portrayed as a responsible father with two teenage boys, but it quickly emerges that he is having an affair with the young wife of his partner, Ted, a confused young man with unarticulated doubts about his role as a trooper. The troopers are briefed about the escape by the embittered alcoholic Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Lieutenant C. D. Henderson, a once star law enforcement officer who once served with Earl Swagger as a detective. A series of tips leads the troopers to the remote farmhouse of an old couple, where the Pyes and Richard have taken refuge, arming themselves with the old man's firearms. An ambush by the Pyes ensues, with Pewtie and Ted ducking for cover. While Pewtie performs distinctly well under fire of the Pyes, Ted caves under the pressure of the assault. As a result, Pewtie is severely wounded and left for dead by Lamar, and watches in horror as Lamar brutally executes his helpless partner.
The Pyes escape but Pewtie survives having been unknowingly shot by Lamar with lightweight bird hunting shot. The Pyes flee to the remote house of a mentally ill young woman, Ruta Beth Tull, who has been writing confused letters to Richard about their "mystic connection". Tull, it later emerges, murdered her own parents as a juvenile and sees this as her link to Richard. Tull immediately takes to Lamar and the group forms into a twisted family unit as the search for them loses momentum. Pewtie returns to the house where he was ambushed to thank the owner, who also survived being kidnapped by Lamar and raised the alarm about the shootout. While at the house he is given pictures of lions drawn by Richard, and overlooked by investigators, as Richard's value to Lamar rests on his ability to draw pictures as Lamar orders him to; Lamar being amused and intrigued by the artist's ability. Pewtie also returns to his affair with his dead partner's wife Holly and frustrations at the conflicting demands of his newfound romance and his family life continue to build.
Lamar and his "family" carry out a bloody robbery of a Denny's restaurant in Wichita Falls, Texas, from which Lamar narrowly escapes with his life. The bloodshed of the robbery intensifies the manhunt for Lamar and Pewtie is one of the officers who drops by the scene of the crime. There he finds more pictures of lions drawn by Richard at the restaurant. He is questioned by a suspicious Henderson about his find, but does not explain it or the earlier pictures. Lamar now reveals to his family that Richard has in fact been working on the design for a tattoo and they begin a search for a top quality tattoo artist to carry out the work and finding Jimmy Ky outside a small town. After discussing the drawings with a local art teacher Bud also begins to suspect that Lamar is working on a tattoo, and obtains information about Jimmy Ky. The stage is now set for the second bloody confrontation between Pewtie and Lamar. Pewtie literally stumbles in as Lamar is being tattooed and watched over by Odell. A gunfight ensues which ends with Pewtie killing Odell in a gun battle that only ends after Bud expends all his ammunition from his 3 handguns into Odell and blasting two fingers off Lamar's left hand. Pewtie himself is once again badly injured and Lamar escapes after the intervention of Richard and Ruta.
As Bud struggles with his choices Lamar plots a terrible revenge for the death of his cousin.
The stage is set for the final confrontation between Pewtie and Lamar. Pewtie fails at first to shoot Lamar with a rifle, his bullet deflected just enough by an unseen glass door to miss his intended target and wound Ruta. The firefight leads to Lamar breaking out of a window using Holly as a shield while running across the fields towards a patch of trees with Pewtie chasing. Holly breaks away from Lamar and runs back towards the house leaving Bud to face Lamar. Bud again confirms to Holly that they are through. Lamar ambushes Bud in the patch of trees but fails to shoot him with his final bullet; the two men begin a desperate hand-to-hand struggle for Bud's gun, which the physically stronger Lamar is sure to win. As the men fight, Pewtie desperately manages to fire a shot, which hideously wounds Lamar. The fight finishes as Bud uses his back-up gun to shoot Lamar twice in the head. As the medics and SWAT teams arrive all seems to be settled, but Richard is still alive and decides he should help Lamar. He finds Bud near a creek with the just-arrived Henderson. Both of the policemen talk quietly to Richard, trying to convince him to drop his gun and telling him that they know he was not responsible for the crimes committed by the Pyes. Richard responds by firing at Bud with the gun that Lamar took from Pewtie after their first confrontation at the old couples' farmhouse.
Henderson moves in front of Bud and takes the brunt of the bullet's damage, though the bullet hits Pewtie after going through Henderson. Bud is severely injured but lives as Henderson dies. The final scene is of a recovered Richard (having been shot by other policemen after firing) being transferred back to "the Mac" where he finds his previous fear of the prison and its brutal inmates is gone and he is a feared member of the criminal community.
Lamar Pye - A physically powerful, ultra-aggressive career criminal with high intelligence and considerable charisma. Lamar is depicted as the misshapen product of a violent, impoverished upbringing with the strong suggestion that under different circumstances he may have been a better man. Lamar is motivated by his contempt for the seemingly arbitrary rules of normal society, his desire to protect his retarded cousin Odell, his own love of danger and his violent tendencies.
Odell Pye - A deformed and mentally disabled man, rescued from a brutally abusive parent by Lamar, who has been looking after him ever since.
Richard Peed - A terrified, but artistically gifted inmate. Lamar is pleased with the art he produces, and in return for drawing more pictures, Lamar protects him from the violence and rape that is prevalent in the prison. When Lamar escapes, Richard goes with him because he knows he would be doomed without his protection.
Bud Pewtie - A courageous, but flawed police officer who is tasked with tracking the three escapees down. He is shot and nearly killed by Lamar, but recovers.
In 2014, Fox commissioned David Benioff and D. B. Weiss to write, direct and produce a feature film adaptation of Dirty White Boys. [1]
The Attica Prison Riot, also known as the Attica Prison Rebellion, the Attica Uprising, or the Attica Prison Massacre, took place at the state prison in Attica, New York; it started on September 9, 1971, and ended on September 13 with the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States prison uprisings. Of the 43 men who died, all but one guard and three inmates were killed by law enforcement gunfire when the state retook control of the prison on the final day of the uprising. The Attica Uprising has been described as a historic event in the prisoners' rights movement.
Sundiata Acoli is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1974 for murdering a New Jersey state trooper. Acoli was granted parole in 2022 at the age of 85.
Waruhiu Itote, nom de guerreGeneral China, was one of the key leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–1960) in British Kenya alongside Dedan Kimathi, Stanley Mathenge, Kurito ole Kisio, Musa Mwariama and Muthoni Kirima.
Cult of Crime is this third installment in the Hardy Boys Casefiles series, published in 1987. The story revolves around Frank and Joe who try to save a girl named Holly from the clutches of a person who calls himself 'the Rajah'.
24: One Shot is the first graphic novel published that is based on the TV series 24. It was first released by IDW Publishing but has more recently featured as one of three graphic novels in a collection book known simply as 24. This book was published by Titan Books in 2004.
Black Light is a 1996 thriller novel by Stephen Hunter. It is the second novel in the Bob Lee Swagger series and the sequel to Point of Impact.
China Moon is a 1994 American romantic thriller film directed by John Bailey and starring Ed Harris, Madeleine Stowe and Benicio del Toro. It was written by Roy Carlson. It was filmed in 1991 but "shelved" for three years before its release.
Night of the Demons 3 is a 1997 comedy horror film. It is the third and final film in the Night of the Demons series before the 2009 remake. It was released in 1997 by Paramount Pictures and Republic Pictures in R-Rated and Unrated versions. It stars Amelia Kinkade, Vlasta Vrána, Gregory Calpakis, Tara Slone, Christian Tessier, Joel Gordon, Larry Day, Kristen Holden-Reid, Stephanie Bauder and Patricia Rodriguez. To date it is the only installment in the series that has not been re-released to either home formats or video on demand.
20,000 Years in Sing Sing is a 1932 American Pre-Code drama film set in Sing Sing Penitentiary, the maximum security prison in Ossining, New York, starring Spencer Tracy as an inmate and Bette Davis as his girlfriend. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and based upon the nonfiction book Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing, written by Lewis E. Lawes, the warden of Sing Sing from 1920 to 1941.
The San Quentin Six were six inmates at San Quentin State Prison in the U.S. state of California who were charged with actions related to an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that resulted in six deaths and at least two persons seriously wounded. They were Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo Pinell, Johnny Larry Spain, Willie Tate, and Luis Talamantez. The dead included George Jackson, a co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family; two other inmates, and three guards.
Henderson's Boys is a series of young adult spy novels written by the English author Robert Muchamore. The series follows Charles Henderson, the creator of the fictitious CHERUB organisation. The novels are set between 1940 and 1945, during the Nazi occupation of France in the Second World War. Throughout the novels, Henderson leads a series of war missions, aided by children.
A Dangerous Man is a 2009 American direct-to-DVD crime action film directed by Keoni Waxman. It stars Steven Seagal as an ex soldier released from prison after spending six years locked up for a crime he did not commit.
Marc Kilgour is a fictional character from the Henderson's Boys series of books by Robert Muchamore. He was born in France not long before World War II. He was found by Charles Henderson and helped him to foil Nazi Germany's planned invasion of Great Britain.
The Marin County Civic Center attacks were two related domestic terrorist attacks in 1970 targeting the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, United States, tied to escalating racial tensions in the state's criminal justice system.
"Head Shots" is the thirtieth episode of the American television drama series The Killing, which aired on June 16, 2013. The episode was written by series co-executive producers Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin and is directed by Michael Rymer. In the episode, the 7 Stars Motel and its proprietor are investigated as the site for the DVD production. Detective Holder attempts to mediate between Linden and Reddick. Bullet helps Twitch when he gets into trouble. Seward rejects his medicine and his guards must persuade him.
The 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape was a jailbreak that took place on June 6, 2015, when two inmates, Richard Matt and David Sweat, were discovered missing during a 5:17 a.m. bed check at the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, United States. Matt was serving 25 years to life and Sweat was serving life without parole, both for murder. The two prisoners had escaped by cutting a hole in their cell walls gaining access to the utility areas behind and above their cells. Eventually they cut a hole in a steam pipe and used the pipe to escape from the prison into the city sewer, with tools obtained from two cooperating prison employees. Nearly three weeks after the escape, Matt was found in Malone, New York, where he was shot and killed; two days after that, Sweat was shot and taken into custody. The manhunt and investigation were said to have cost about $23 million.
The Young Don't Cry is a 1957 American drama film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Sal Mineo, James Whitmore and J. Carrol Naish.
Bud Rowland and Jim Henderson, two Black men, were lynched in Rockport, Indiana on December 16, 1900. The following day, Joe Holly was lynched in Boonville, Indiana for the same alleged crime.
Normand Hamel, better known as "Biff", was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. A senior member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Montreal, Hamel was the right-hand man of Hells Angels leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher and became one of Quebec's top drug traffickers before he was shot dead in 2000. A member of the rival Rock Machine gang, Tony Duguay, was convicted of Hamel's murder in 2006 but was acquitted of the killing in 2016 after a witness in the case admitted that he lied while on the witness stand.