Joel Blaeser

                    IN THE BEGINNING

     THE IMPETUS for writing this book was the extreme nature of the Federal crack law riots on October 18th/19th 1995 in which 13 federal prisons near simultaneously rioted over the federal crack law not being changed and the wicked nature of the federal drug laws themselves.  I witnessed and was a part of the federal prison riot in Talladega Alabama (the first one to riot) which was spurred by changes in these seemingly racial drug law interpretations. 

     This book is the eyewitness account of my day-to-day life, both inside and outside federal prison. I travelled the world with the Grateful Dead selling LSD, seeing them 101 times spanning 5 different countries from 1984 through 1992. In 1992 at 23 years of age I was sentenced for Federal LSD violations as a first time non violent offender to 151 months of incarceration after losing my federal jury trial. 

     Each chapter of this book opens with letter(s) written to a family member, most of which I wrote to my mother, Rosemary, or brother, Bradley, during my stay at United States Penitentiary (U.S.P.) Marion, (October 1995 arrival) The last and longest stop of the six federal prisons I did time at during my entire incarceration, and consequently living amongst wickedly sophisticated and predacious criminals such as John Gotti, Bruce Pierce, James “Doc” Holliday, Big Mac-Michael Mcelhiney and many others…...

     Each original letter and most of the accompanying envelopes are photocopied into this book.  My family saved all of the letters and most of the envelopes that I sent them from prison. only a handful appear in the following pages. 

     I went to prison  as a smooth-skinned, non-violent Grateful Dead following first-time offender. My crime had been consensual-victimless- as opposed to a non-consensual crime like murder, rape or armed robbery.  Yet, I ended up in Marion.  A man in a lower security prison could stab a prison guard and not get sent to Marion.  A man could commit diabolical bank robberies or murder and not get sent to Marion. Those who ended up in Marion were to be feared and respected.  It was designed for the worst of the worst. 

     Marion opened in 1962 as the highest-level U.S.P. ever built within the U.S. Federal Prison System (level 5.5). When Alcatraz closed at the end of 1962, all of Alcatraz’s worst convicts were sent to Marion.  

     Built into a valley, USP Marion is a completely self-contained prison, fenced in by three walls of Constantine razor wire.  Movement on the yard was heavily controlled and escape near impossible given the six gun towers, which were manned twenty-four hours a day, and a roving truck patrol that circled the prison on a special track. Adjacent to the prison was a mini subdivision which housed some of the prison staff. 

     Marion consisted of eight units, A through H, and the cells were designed to hold only one  prisoner each. The first six units were reserved for “ general population.” G-Unit was for mentally disturbed criminals or those in protective custody. Finally, H-Unit—the first of its kind—was an ultra maximum security unit deep within the penitentiary itself.  Prisoners in H-Unit were only allowed out of their cells for one hour per day. Food was brought to them via cart and tray.  In order to leave their cell, they first had to be handcuffed behind the back and then shackled at the ankles with leg irons connected by a short chain. This protocol was to be followed every time, even if they were leaving their cell for a shower or recreation. Furthermore H-Unit prisoners were mandated to be accompanied by two to three guards when out of their cell.

     On October 22, 1983, the face of Marion changed forever and for the worse. On that fateful day, two prison guards were simultaneously murdered in two separate incidents on either side of H-Unit. Merle E. Clutts and Robert Hoffman were killed at the hands of a member and associate of the Aryan Brotherhood, Thomas Silverstein and Clayton Fountain. Allegedly both guards were known for routinely abusing and taunting convicts on the H-Unit Prison Range.  

     As the court records show, Silverstein broke away from the guards after a shower while still shackled and handcuffed, then stuck his hands through the slot of a fellow prisoner’s barred cell door. His comrade who had a homemade handcuff key quickly removed Silverstein’s handcuffs and handed him a sharp homemade knife, or “shank.” Silverstein went right for Clutts and repeatedly stabbed him to death. At almost the exact same time, far away on the other side of H-Unit, in similar form and fashion, Clayton Fountain, an associate of the Aryan Brotherhood, administered the very same fate to prison guard Hoffman. 

     This was not Silverstein’s first in-prison murder. Eighteen months prior to this incident, Silverstein had taken the life of Cadillac Smith in the same manner in the very same unit. Smith was the head of the D.C. Blacks, a prison gang that started in Washington D.C. and spread throughout the country’s prisons. Silverstein was given a life sentence for the murder of Smith.

     Shortly after the two murders in H-Unit, the entire prison became designated as a federal super-maximum lockdown penitentiary, (level 6) the first ever in the United States. At that point, each prisoner, not just those in H-Unit was put on twenty-three hour lock down status and allowed only two fifteen-minute phone calls per month, amongst many other extreme restrictions. It now became known as the “Marion Model” and all other state supermax prisons would be based on this design. USP Marion stayed this way for the next 23 years.

     In the ensuing lockdown, all of the prisoners were brutally beaten by staff in retaliation of the two murdered guards. President Reagan even issued awards to Marion prison staff for reestablishing control and locking the prison down. Marion’s notorious reputation only grew larger and more ominous.  

     In 2006, twenty-three years after becoming the nation’s first true Supermax, U.S.P. Marion was redesignated a medium security prison and “normal” yard movement was established. Florence Colorado’s ADX became the new federal supermax though it is astoundingly safer than Marion due to the fact that inmates are not ever mixed with one another as all convicts have their very own separated recreation yards.

     Ninety percent of this book is my experiences in federal prison as a first time non violent offender, the other ten percent is the rest of my life, childhood, family, after release, subjects like prison, poker, politics and the pop in the housing bubble as it relates to my journey. Also chronicled are the 101 Grateful Dead shows I saw spanning 5 countries. 

     THIS IS A TRUE STORY, THE EVENTS PORTRAYED ARE BASED ON MY EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY AND OFFICIAL COURT RECORDS, MOST OF THE NAMES HAVE NOT BEEN CHANGED.

     Hilary Martin of Boulder Colorado was very instrumental with helping me come up with the entire outline for “LETTERS FROM MARION” and without her brilliance this book may have never come about, THANK YOU HILIARY. 

     "There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires" 

— Nelson Mandela 

"KNOWING IS DOING NOT THINKING" Joel Blaeser  1995 

     Shortly after release from USP Marion Supermax federal prison I  started restoring and developing real estate, buying  my  first property using a arcane law that I learned about while  inside  federal  prison,  allowing me  to secretly buy a property from the federal government at a United States Marshall drug seizure auction with no other bidders, it was called the unsolicited bid rule,  (827 E Wright street  Milwaukee, WI).  I am now on my 56th and 57th property in northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan.

     In 1974, at the age of five and a half, I was diagnosed with ADD and was prescribed Ritalin. Per a 2nd opinion I was prescribed a natural diet as a total alternative to the drug and thus started a food ingredient odyssey that continues to THIS DAY.  

     At the age of 5.5 i started reading every label in the grocery story often and by 10 became a quasi expert on ingredients in the food supply and effects and reasons for them being used. Every time before purchase still to this day i read them and it is wise to do so. 

            BEING BORN GRATEFUL AND HAPPY  IS A HUGE GIFT, TREASURE AND STEWARDSHIP, IT IS NOT A CONTRIVANCE CREATED IN THE MIND, IT EMANATES FROM WITHIN THE BODY AS A VERY WARM GLOW LIKE A SUN SHINNING. 

"FOOD IS MEDICINE"

 LIFE LONG DIET INGREDIENTS:  See Diet Ingredients link at bottom of this page.  

"A GRATEFUL HEART LAUGHS THE EASIEST"........ JOEL BLAESER APRIL 30TH 2026

#2  "A GRATEFUL HEART LAUGHS THE EASIEST ESPECIALLY AT ONESELF" 

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