This document summarizes the life story of James William Edward Caldwell, who grew up in a small East Texas town in a prominent family. As a star high school student, he attended college in 1967 but began making wrong decisions, including smuggling marijuana. He was ultimately arrested and sentenced to two life sentences without parole for his role in a large marijuana smuggling conspiracy. After many years in prison and legal battles, his sentence was reduced and he was approved for release to a halfway house. He began writing his life story as a memoir for his children to explain how he ended up spending nearly 20 years in prison while they grew up with only one parent.
Faith is driving her daughters Destiny and Treasure to Washington D.C. for a conference. They get lost and end up in a run-down neighborhood. While there, Faith has a teaching moment with her daughters about not judging others based on appearances. She tells them about her difficult past, how she fell in love young and was wrongly convicted of a crime. Through reading books recommended to her by a stranger, Faith found purpose and direction, eventually pursuing higher education. She wants to impart lessons of positive identity and overcoming challenges to her sheltered daughters.
This is an assignment I did for my Media Writing class at the University of Kansas. It features Brent Wagner, president of Alpha Epsilon Pi for 2014 and describes his leadership skills and involvement on campus.
I had a horrific experience in San Diego, California at St. Vincent De Paul I had an apartment there for four years. A black woman who is on crack, uneducated with a jail history attacked me without cause. I tried to protect myself and received an eviction notice. The judge was paid off and illegally evicted me. I had an attorney overthrow the decision. This is an evil organzation. The woman is still there she has all kinds of violations and she is never evicted. It was a nightmare.
Leopold is a three-legged dog who was found injured on the side of the road in Indiana. After receiving medical care, including surgery to remove his rear left leg, he went to live with a foster family in Wisconsin as he recovered. A family in Maryland, including another dog named Lucy, saw Leopold's story online and decided to adopt him. Leopold has now settled into his new forever home with his new family and dog sister Lucy. He enjoys activities like going to the dog park, getting frozen treats, and supporting local animal rescues. Leopold is grateful to the organizations that saved his life and helped him find his loving home.
The document summarizes an interview the author conducted with their 94-year-old grandmother about her life experiences and the lives of their ancestors. Some of the key topics discussed include the grandmother's upbringing in New York, the various European countries her ancestors immigrated from, gender roles and women's rights changing over time, and cultural differences between her generation and current generations. The author analyzes some of the information learned through the lenses of biological and cultural anthropology.
The document summarizes a discussion on a CNN program about a doctor charged with murder for overprescribing painkillers linked to patient deaths. The hosts interview the parents of two young men who died about their experiences with the doctor and their efforts to educate others. They also discuss broader issues of prescription drug abuse and debate the doctor's responsibility in such cases.
My child's father turned out to not only be a serial stalker, but a child molester. I am trying to get him completely out of my life. I have gone far away to start my life over. It has been a complete nightmare. I want to put this behind me.
Faith is driving her daughters Destiny and Treasure to Washington D.C. for a conference. They get lost and end up in a run-down neighborhood. While there, Faith has a teaching moment with her daughters about not judging others based on appearances. She tells them about her difficult past, how she fell in love young and was wrongly convicted of a crime. Through reading books recommended to her by a stranger, Faith found purpose and direction, eventually pursuing higher education. She wants to impart lessons of positive identity and overcoming challenges to her sheltered daughters.
This is an assignment I did for my Media Writing class at the University of Kansas. It features Brent Wagner, president of Alpha Epsilon Pi for 2014 and describes his leadership skills and involvement on campus.
I had a horrific experience in San Diego, California at St. Vincent De Paul I had an apartment there for four years. A black woman who is on crack, uneducated with a jail history attacked me without cause. I tried to protect myself and received an eviction notice. The judge was paid off and illegally evicted me. I had an attorney overthrow the decision. This is an evil organzation. The woman is still there she has all kinds of violations and she is never evicted. It was a nightmare.
Leopold is a three-legged dog who was found injured on the side of the road in Indiana. After receiving medical care, including surgery to remove his rear left leg, he went to live with a foster family in Wisconsin as he recovered. A family in Maryland, including another dog named Lucy, saw Leopold's story online and decided to adopt him. Leopold has now settled into his new forever home with his new family and dog sister Lucy. He enjoys activities like going to the dog park, getting frozen treats, and supporting local animal rescues. Leopold is grateful to the organizations that saved his life and helped him find his loving home.
The document summarizes an interview the author conducted with their 94-year-old grandmother about her life experiences and the lives of their ancestors. Some of the key topics discussed include the grandmother's upbringing in New York, the various European countries her ancestors immigrated from, gender roles and women's rights changing over time, and cultural differences between her generation and current generations. The author analyzes some of the information learned through the lenses of biological and cultural anthropology.
The document summarizes a discussion on a CNN program about a doctor charged with murder for overprescribing painkillers linked to patient deaths. The hosts interview the parents of two young men who died about their experiences with the doctor and their efforts to educate others. They also discuss broader issues of prescription drug abuse and debate the doctor's responsibility in such cases.
My child's father turned out to not only be a serial stalker, but a child molester. I am trying to get him completely out of my life. I have gone far away to start my life over. It has been a complete nightmare. I want to put this behind me.
Linda and Becky had a troubled childhood and estranged relationship as adults. Becky became very successful running a medical financing company, but was later convicted for her role in a $1.9 billion fraud scheme. When Becky went on the run after her conviction, Linda communicated with her in secret and later lied about it to federal agents, landing her in jail. Becky was eventually captured in Mexico and is serving a 25-year sentence, while Linda questions whether helping her sister was worth the consequences.
Romney and Gingrich are locked in a tight race heading into South Carolina's primary election. Romney urged Gingrich to provide more details about his past ethics issues as House Speaker. Gingrich's campaign accused Romney of panicking due to recent polls showing Gingrich gaining ground. Santorum and Paul argued they remain viable candidates as well. In other news, a fast-moving wildfire near Reno, Nevada destroyed 26 homes and forced thousands to evacuate.
The Columbia Missourian's From Readers sectionJoy Mayer
The Columbia Missourian has a section of the paper dedicated to readers telling their own stories. Here's a sampling of stories published in the From Readers section in 2014.
The section included well over 200 stories total in that calendar year. Readership of these stories is strong, especially among our core, local audience.
Graterfriends is a monthly newsletter written primarily for and by prisoners in Pennsylvania. I am the managing editor and create the newsletter every month. I write the editorial on page two, and sometimes write additional news articles.
What It’s Like to Chill Out With the World’s Most Ruthless Men: Ratko Mladic...Jill Starr
Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at large and currently having a five million dollar bounty on his head for genocide by the international community. Yet there I was with my two best friends at the time, a former Serbian diplomat, his wife, and Ratko Mladic just chilling. There was no security, nothing you’d ordinarily expect in such circumstances. Referring to himself merely as, Sharko; this is the story of it all came abouT.
The document summarizes a court case involving Matthew Whitehair who was convicted of multiple sex crimes against his adopted daughter. It provides background on the case, including testimony from the victim describing 10 instances of sexual abuse by Whitehair from when she was 11 to 15 years old. These instances included rape, sexual battery, and incest. It also describes testimony from the victim's boyfriend who reported suspicious behavior by Whitehair to the police, leading to Whitehair's arrest. The court ultimately affirmed all of Whitehair's convictions.
Pressure ulcer case study a pbe study involving 95 long term caYASHU40
A study of 95 long-term care facilities in the US found that nursing interventions for pressure ulcer prevention varied greatly between facilities. Nearly 30% of patients at risk of developing pressure ulcers did develop an ulcer during the 12-week study. Characteristics associated with higher and lower risk of developing ulcers were summarized. The research findings were used to develop standardized pressure ulcer prevention protocols and clinical decision support tools. Four facilities that participated in the study implemented the protocols and tools by sharing findings with nurses and incorporating documentation standards and decision tools into their electronic health records.
Litt 507 - Joy Luck Club as a Contemporary American FictionBernard Paderes
An analysis of Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club proving the "contemporariness" and "Americaness" of the book despite Chinese background of the author and its historical theme.
Soldiers wed before shipping out to war zones
The article describes an impromptu wedding between Army Ranger Sam Melenez, 24, and fellow soldier Amber Mueller, 19, in Warren, Michigan. The couple only has two weeks together before Mueller ships out to Iraq and Melenez departs for Afghanistan a year later. They hope to have a larger celebration when they both return from war.
Linda and Becky had a troubled childhood and estranged relationship as adults. Becky became very successful running a medical financing company, but was later convicted for her role in a $1.9 billion fraud scheme. When Becky went on the run after her conviction, Linda communicated with her in secret and later lied about it to federal agents, landing her in jail. Becky was eventually captured in Mexico and is serving a 25-year sentence, while Linda questions whether helping her sister was worth the consequences.
Romney and Gingrich are locked in a tight race heading into South Carolina's primary election. Romney urged Gingrich to provide more details about his past ethics issues as House Speaker. Gingrich's campaign accused Romney of panicking due to recent polls showing Gingrich gaining ground. Santorum and Paul argued they remain viable candidates as well. In other news, a fast-moving wildfire near Reno, Nevada destroyed 26 homes and forced thousands to evacuate.
The Columbia Missourian's From Readers sectionJoy Mayer
The Columbia Missourian has a section of the paper dedicated to readers telling their own stories. Here's a sampling of stories published in the From Readers section in 2014.
The section included well over 200 stories total in that calendar year. Readership of these stories is strong, especially among our core, local audience.
Graterfriends is a monthly newsletter written primarily for and by prisoners in Pennsylvania. I am the managing editor and create the newsletter every month. I write the editorial on page two, and sometimes write additional news articles.
What It’s Like to Chill Out With the World’s Most Ruthless Men: Ratko Mladic...Jill Starr
Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at large and currently having a five million dollar bounty on his head for genocide by the international community. Yet there I was with my two best friends at the time, a former Serbian diplomat, his wife, and Ratko Mladic just chilling. There was no security, nothing you’d ordinarily expect in such circumstances. Referring to himself merely as, Sharko; this is the story of it all came abouT.
The document summarizes a court case involving Matthew Whitehair who was convicted of multiple sex crimes against his adopted daughter. It provides background on the case, including testimony from the victim describing 10 instances of sexual abuse by Whitehair from when she was 11 to 15 years old. These instances included rape, sexual battery, and incest. It also describes testimony from the victim's boyfriend who reported suspicious behavior by Whitehair to the police, leading to Whitehair's arrest. The court ultimately affirmed all of Whitehair's convictions.
Pressure ulcer case study a pbe study involving 95 long term caYASHU40
A study of 95 long-term care facilities in the US found that nursing interventions for pressure ulcer prevention varied greatly between facilities. Nearly 30% of patients at risk of developing pressure ulcers did develop an ulcer during the 12-week study. Characteristics associated with higher and lower risk of developing ulcers were summarized. The research findings were used to develop standardized pressure ulcer prevention protocols and clinical decision support tools. Four facilities that participated in the study implemented the protocols and tools by sharing findings with nurses and incorporating documentation standards and decision tools into their electronic health records.
Litt 507 - Joy Luck Club as a Contemporary American FictionBernard Paderes
An analysis of Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club proving the "contemporariness" and "Americaness" of the book despite Chinese background of the author and its historical theme.
Soldiers wed before shipping out to war zones
The article describes an impromptu wedding between Army Ranger Sam Melenez, 24, and fellow soldier Amber Mueller, 19, in Warren, Michigan. The couple only has two weeks together before Mueller ships out to Iraq and Melenez departs for Afghanistan a year later. They hope to have a larger celebration when they both return from war.
2. “James William Edward Caldwell”
of Sulphur Springs Texas
It would have been difficult to have been a better kid growing up in Sulphur Springs, a small East Texas town of 12,000 people when I graduated from high
.
school in the fall of 1967. My family, since 1901, had owned and operated the main funeral home and retail furniture store in Sulphur Springs. Just about
everybody in the surrounding county knew, or had heard of, my family. My great-grandfather, H.W. Tapp, had started the business in 1901. It had
prospered until it was sold a couple of years ago, much to my disappointment.
Although I had grown up in a dysfunctional family because most of the members were, at best, social alcoholics, I still lived a charmed life compared to
most kids growing up in East Texas. I don’t recall ever really wanting for anything within reason. I had just about everything a young boy growing up in a
small town could ever want. My parents belonged to the local Country Club while at the same time were regular members of the Methodist Church. They
would party and get drunk on Saturday nights, then attend church on Sunday, asking forgiveness for their “wrong-doings.”
During my senior year in High School, I had a new Pontiac GTO, my car of choice. During my freshman, sophomore, and junior years, I was nominated
Class Favorite. My senior year I was voted Class Favorite and Most Handsome. I dated all the prettiest girls and was Class Representative at all the
major functions for my class. My girlfriend, Pat McGarity, was voted Most Beautiful and Homecoming Queen. I was an All-District Football Player and ran
on the Track Team. I was also voted Vice-President of the Letterman’s Club. I did not think that life could be better or would get worse.
The only brush with law enforcement that I had was for numerous speeding tickets and, on one occasion, for fighting in public over my girlfriend. My
senior year, along with a few friends, I was scolded by the local Chief of Police for trying to cement a toilet on the front steps of the High School.
I attended church whenever the church doors were open. I was considered damn near the perfect kid until I went to college at North Texas State
University (NTSU) in Denton, Texas, beginning the fall of 1967.
3. 2 Life sentences w/ no possibility for parole He overturns his case on a
technicality that changes the picture.
INTRODUCTION
It is Thursday, the 17th day of August, 2006. I was informed yesterday that I have finally been approved
for halfway house placement in Dallas, Texas, after 17 years and 8 months of incarceration in various
Federal Prisons for a non-violent marijuana conspiracy case. I am currently housed at the Federal
Correction Institution located in Jesup, Georgia, and have been since November 11, 2005. Since I arrived
at Jesup I have been waiting for the resolution of a second Re-Sentencing Hearing and an Evidentiary
Hearing pertaining to a conflict of interest claim that I raised pursuant to a Writ of Habeas Corpus. Both
hearings were held in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Memphis
Division, on September 29-30, 2005, before the Honorable Magistrate Judge Diana Vescovo.
In 1991, after my arrest on January 11, 1989, I was initially sentenced to two life sentences without the
possibility of parole for my involvement in a 4,457 pound marijuana conspiracy, then subsequently re-
sentenced to 360 months some five-plus years later. A few months ago, I was once again re-sentenced
In-Absentia, hopefully for the last time, to 240 months. Since I have served nearly 18 years in prison, I am
to report to the halfway house on August 31, 2006, within two hours after arrival at the Dallas/Ft. Worth
Airport. It has been a long legal battle and sometimes lonely ride through the Federal Prison System
contending with the Federal and State courts, prison guards, staff, and inmates; all with various
dispositions ranging from what is considered the norm to the dysfunctional. If nothing else, my travel
through the prison system has been a rather interesting study of the psychology of the members of the
penal system.
4. On December 1, 2005, I started, once again, writing what initially was meant to be a long letter to my children, a memoir of sorts. My intention was to try and explain
how and why their father has spent nearly 20 years in Federal Prison and, subsequently, they have grown up basically with one parent.
As I began my incarceration, my eldest son, Cris, was 18 years old. Loren, my second son, was only 11, and his sister, Ivy, my first daughter, was just 9. Chelsea, my
youngest daughter, was born three months after my arrest and I have only met with her in the visitation room of several Federal Prisons during the last 17 years. I felt
compelled, for one reason or another, to explain, the best that I could, my story starting as a clean-cut young man from a small town in East Texas on the way to college
and how that trip transformed a typical college kid to a highly sought-after Federal Fugitive living in a foreign country operating a major marijuana smuggling operation.
The more I wrote about my travails in the marijuana smuggling business and life in prison, the more that it seemed that perhaps someone other than my children and
immediate family might find my story interesting, enlightening, and, perhaps, entertaining. With that thought in mind, I would sometimes struggle with wanting to remain
100% factually accurate and also appealing to the general reader while keeping the memoir primarily written to my children. At the risk of being boring to the general
reader, I opted to remain faithful to my initial objective; a long letter to my children.
As I have finished the first rough draft of the story line, before writing this introduction, I hope, if nothing else, that after reading my memoir, my children will conclude that
perhaps their father, whom they have really only known through countless telephone conversations and a few visits in the visitation rooms of Federal Prisons, is not that
bad of a guy. This would be an assessment contrary to that characterized by the government. I would hope that my children would conclude that I was just a young
college kid growing up during the turbulent years of the 60’s and 70’s who did, indeed, make some wrong decisions but also made some good ones, as well.
My initial draft of the story line used the correct names of the cast of characters that have played important parts in the story of my life. However, after some rethinking, I
have since decided to change some of the names just in case I could bring unwanted attention to their current or past involvement in the marijuana business. Besides
the changing of some of some of the names of the characters, the facts are 100% correct to the best of my recollection. Since I finally sat down behind a rather
obsolete typewriter some six months ago, I have finished the first rough draft of a story line that encompassed nearly 40 years of my life. I am certain that it will be
several months before a final draft is finished and a book self-published. Regardless, I am determined to accomplish just that as I was determined to smuggle my first
load of Acapulco Gold across the Rio Grande River.
A few inmates currently incarcerated in Jesup FCI have read the first draft and all have found it quite interesting and I can only hope that future readers will also find the
finished product the same.
It is not my intention to glamorize my smuggling of an illegal substance; marijuana. But instead, my intention is to tell my children and any other interested reader, a
story of how a typical college kid made some wrong decisions that cost him 20 years of his adult life. And also, to make a statement that the so called “war on drugs”
just is not working in society’s best interest.