To Write a Murderer?

Corey Hollinger 2007

Would you write to an admitted and convicted murderer in prison?  At one point in my life I would have said “no way.”

Now, I was assigned to read a story about a man serving out his life sentence in prison in Pennsylvania.  I was curious about his life in prison.  It started when he was 16 and now he is 41.  http://girlboxer1970.com/2012/03/14/life-sentence-at-16/  I received an A+ on my review of the original article about this crime.

So, I typed two paragraphs to Corey Hollinger and I received six hand-written pages in return.  He doesn’t seem like a horrible person.  Actually, he seems like a pretty decent guy.  I could scan his letters and let you all read them but, I can sum them up much easier.  He works as a teacher’s aide teaching other prisoners English to earn their GED.  He enjoys almost all types of music.  He found God.  He believes he will get the chance of parole someday.  He works out and is in very good shape.  When he is paroled he wants to finish his college degree (he started college while in prison) and be an ordained minister.

At least he has hope.  I don’t see Pennsylvania every letting Corey out of prison, but that’s just my opinion.  Who am I to rain on his future parade?

(Corey doesn’t have access to the Internet so I can pretty much write whatever I want.)

I wrote Corey a “real letter” this time, explaining why I even know who he is.  I told him what I study in school.  How I’m trying to get through a divorce.  I even printed off some of my papers I wrote for college and some blogs to entertain him.  He will be the only person who reads my blogs off of paper!  I sent him copies of the paper I wrote about him and his little brother Tracy and my opinion piece on life sentences in Pennsylvania.  http://girlboxer1970.com/2012/03/20/life-without-parole-in-pa/

So I’m writing to a murderer…I never would have guessed.

~P.