Though Jones drifts through most of his days with little regard for passing time, he expects others to be punctual - especially his women.
One night a few weeks earlier, he'd expected Carol home at 11 pm. She arrived past midnight.
"Is this eleven o'clock, Carol ?"
"It's only a few minutes after......."
"A few minutes - my fucking ass ! You say you're coming home at eleven o'clock, you be here, bitch !"
"I come home when I want, motherfucker !"
In a swift, sweeping motion Jones hit her face with the flat of his hand. She cursed at him again. His hand moved again across the space between them with the gathering force of a huge winged bird. She was knocked across the room and down.
"You don't like it," Jones said mockingly, "You can leave."
Carol was sprawled on the floor and crying.
"FUCK YOU, YOU CAN LEAVE, BASTARD !"
He shrugged: "All right........what the fuck.......I will."
'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' (252 pp) was published in hardcover by M. Evans and Company in 1974. A mass-market paperback edition also is available; however, copies in good condition have very steep asking prices.
In his Forward, author Willwerth explains that in 1973, he decided to write a book about a young, black street criminal. He soon met a 24 year-old mugger, who is referred to by the pseudonym 'Jones', who was willing to allow Willwerth to observe his daily life, and interview his family and associates.
Jones, who grew up in a New York City housing project, is half black and half Italian, and a resident of the Lower East Side of New York City.
Over the course of the four months in which he hung out with his profilee, Willwerth comes to be something of a friend and confidant of Jones.
Willwerth meticulously records his conversations with Jones, and his interactions with Jones's parents, girlfriends, street associates, and fellow drug abusers. Jones comes to trust Willwerth enough to relate to him his strategies for mugging (for example, he dresses well when out on the streets, since a well-groomed appearance can lull potential victims in feeling a false sense of security) as well as his memories of growing up in the projects, becoming a junkie, doing time in prison, and............. staying in style.
This means dedicating most of any ill-gotten earnings to the acquisition of the best of mid-70s fashions; at one point, for example, Jones decks himself out in black platform shoes; grey knit slacks; and a bright orange satin tank top. Another time he elects to sport a pink-and-blue dashiki.
A potential drawback for a book like this is the author's decision to politicize the topic. However, although the Willwerth occasionally indulges in sententious remarks ("As long as our society tolerates ghettos........we will have muggers"), 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' avoids overindulging in pop sociology, pop criminology, or identity politics.
Willwerth is a self-avowed white liberal, and at times he attributes Jones's criminal behavior to an uncaring and indifferent Society. But for the most part Willwerth wisely focuses his narrative on Jones's actions, and his explanations - which are frequently contradictory and self-serving - for his life of crime. There is some in-the-moment reporting as well:
We catch a bus for Broom street.
This is pushing it, a lot; my fear is rising. We are riding into an area of skeletal buildings. Junkies huddle on the corners like packs of starved rats; the streets are deserted in midday, stores closed, windows boarded up.......
We step off the bus and walk toward a windowless drugstore on the ground floor of a grimy brownstone....junkies all around it. The city here is diseased, dying all around me.
The junkies scatter. They probably think I am a cop. Jones recognizes one of them, a Puerto Rican with swept-back hair.
"We'll go talk to that nigger," Jones says.
He adds:
"A nigger around here don't mean a black dude, you dig ? It's a low-class dude who ain't going nowhere - that's the true meaning of the word."
I won't disclose any spoilers about what happens to Jones, save to say that a Journey to Redemption likely is not in the offing.
I finished the book thinking that it stands as an informative account of New York City and its pervasive crime in the era of the movie Death Wish, which also was released in 1974. 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' reveals an NYPD and criminal justice system helpless to address the epidemic of crime that grips the city.
Even former Mayor Ed Koch was forced to acknowledge the depth of the problem - while avoiding any mention of the failure of his administration to do much about it.
'Jones' makes clear that for many New Yorkers, street crime was as unavoidable an aspect of life in the 70s as transit strikes, sanitation worker strikes, air pollution, rising taxes, and crumbling infrastructure. To live in the world of Jones and his victims was to live in a time of danger that contemporary residents of the city likely would not understand or comprehend............
One night a few weeks earlier, he'd expected Carol home at 11 pm. She arrived past midnight.
"Is this eleven o'clock, Carol ?"
"It's only a few minutes after......."
"A few minutes - my fucking ass ! You say you're coming home at eleven o'clock, you be here, bitch !"
"I come home when I want, motherfucker !"
In a swift, sweeping motion Jones hit her face with the flat of his hand. She cursed at him again. His hand moved again across the space between them with the gathering force of a huge winged bird. She was knocked across the room and down.
"You don't like it," Jones said mockingly, "You can leave."
Carol was sprawled on the floor and crying.
"FUCK YOU, YOU CAN LEAVE, BASTARD !"
He shrugged: "All right........what the fuck.......I will."
'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' (252 pp) was published in hardcover by M. Evans and Company in 1974. A mass-market paperback edition also is available; however, copies in good condition have very steep asking prices.
In his Forward, author Willwerth explains that in 1973, he decided to write a book about a young, black street criminal. He soon met a 24 year-old mugger, who is referred to by the pseudonym 'Jones', who was willing to allow Willwerth to observe his daily life, and interview his family and associates.
Jones, who grew up in a New York City housing project, is half black and half Italian, and a resident of the Lower East Side of New York City.
Over the course of the four months in which he hung out with his profilee, Willwerth comes to be something of a friend and confidant of Jones.
Willwerth meticulously records his conversations with Jones, and his interactions with Jones's parents, girlfriends, street associates, and fellow drug abusers. Jones comes to trust Willwerth enough to relate to him his strategies for mugging (for example, he dresses well when out on the streets, since a well-groomed appearance can lull potential victims in feeling a false sense of security) as well as his memories of growing up in the projects, becoming a junkie, doing time in prison, and............. staying in style.
This means dedicating most of any ill-gotten earnings to the acquisition of the best of mid-70s fashions; at one point, for example, Jones decks himself out in black platform shoes; grey knit slacks; and a bright orange satin tank top. Another time he elects to sport a pink-and-blue dashiki.
A potential drawback for a book like this is the author's decision to politicize the topic. However, although the Willwerth occasionally indulges in sententious remarks ("As long as our society tolerates ghettos........we will have muggers"), 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' avoids overindulging in pop sociology, pop criminology, or identity politics.
Willwerth is a self-avowed white liberal, and at times he attributes Jones's criminal behavior to an uncaring and indifferent Society. But for the most part Willwerth wisely focuses his narrative on Jones's actions, and his explanations - which are frequently contradictory and self-serving - for his life of crime. There is some in-the-moment reporting as well:
We catch a bus for Broom street.
This is pushing it, a lot; my fear is rising. We are riding into an area of skeletal buildings. Junkies huddle on the corners like packs of starved rats; the streets are deserted in midday, stores closed, windows boarded up.......
We step off the bus and walk toward a windowless drugstore on the ground floor of a grimy brownstone....junkies all around it. The city here is diseased, dying all around me.
The junkies scatter. They probably think I am a cop. Jones recognizes one of them, a Puerto Rican with swept-back hair.
"We'll go talk to that nigger," Jones says.
He adds:
"A nigger around here don't mean a black dude, you dig ? It's a low-class dude who ain't going nowhere - that's the true meaning of the word."
I won't disclose any spoilers about what happens to Jones, save to say that a Journey to Redemption likely is not in the offing.
I finished the book thinking that it stands as an informative account of New York City and its pervasive crime in the era of the movie Death Wish, which also was released in 1974. 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' reveals an NYPD and criminal justice system helpless to address the epidemic of crime that grips the city.
Even former Mayor Ed Koch was forced to acknowledge the depth of the problem - while avoiding any mention of the failure of his administration to do much about it.
'Jones' makes clear that for many New Yorkers, street crime was as unavoidable an aspect of life in the 70s as transit strikes, sanitation worker strikes, air pollution, rising taxes, and crumbling infrastructure. To live in the world of Jones and his victims was to live in a time of danger that contemporary residents of the city likely would not understand or comprehend............
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