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Profile William Van Poyck
Born and Raised in Miami, William spent his early youth climbing trees and exploring limestone caves, swimming in lakes and canals, and catching snakes and turtles in the cabbage palm and palmetto bush woods that made up post-war, pre-boom, semi-tropical South Florida. Possessed with an incorrigible rebellious spirit, at age 11 he was locked up in Youth Hall. By 12 he was confined in Kendall Children's Home and at age 14 he was shipped off to the notorious Okeechobee Boys School. In January 1972, at age 17, William was sentenced to life imprisonment for a Miami robbery. He spent the next 15 years touring and escaping from Florida's ever-expanding prison system, becoming a certified legal aide and renowned jail-house lawyer in the process. In 1988, William was sentenced to death for his part in the 1987 botched attempt to free a friend from a prison transport van in downtown West Palm Beach, during which a guard was shot and killed by William's accomplice, Frank Valdes. In 1999, a raft of Florida State Prison guards murdered Valdes in his death row cell. In the subsequent investigative furor the governor ordered William transferred to Virginia's death row, where he has penned and published a novel, Quietus, and an award-winning autobiography, A Checkered Past. Both are sold online at www.authorhouse.com and www.amazon.com. He has also published and won awards for his short stories, and in 2004 the PEN American Center awarded William its "Fielding Dawson Special Citation for Outstanding Achievement" for his body of literary work. Currently, William maintains a website for his writings and case history at and a blog where he posts weekly letters at www.deathrowdiary.blogspot.com. Readers can post comments and questions on his blog for Bill to read and answer.
Address: William Van Poyck 274949
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