Midnight Express

The real story ... not as exciting as the movie, but an honest portrayal of Billy Hayes' ordeal.

This is the vivid, detailed, and eye-opening autobiography of student dropout Billy Hayes, who relates his years from 1970-75 in the prisons of Turkey, where he was imprisoned for smuggling hashish. Captured at Istanbul airport by a random search, he has to learn to handle himself inside quickly if he is to survive. His case takes years to go through the courts, slowed down by the grinding wheels of the Turkish injustice system, crooked lawyers, and the bureaucracy found the world over in these cases. American status does not protect him, he is sentenced to life imprisonment, commuted to thirty years. There are graphic descriptions of everything that goes on: there are Turks, Europeans, one or two other Americans, and children all imprisoned together. He has various plans for escape, the title of the book being his code word for his escape plan. His first plan revolves around getting a psychiatric discharge or escape from an easy prison. A couple of the other prisoners do escape, one by sheer cunning and the other by clever bribery. One or two fail spectacularly. One man is beaten so badly by the warders that he murders one of them when he is released and gets put straight back into the same prison, where now his status is much higher, as murder is considered a 'manly' crime there. Billy keeps himself going by correspondence with home and a past girlfriend, and adapting to but not succumbing to the prison regime. He has to learn to stay alive as a person and keep his humanity by forming friendships and alliances where he can. One of the great ironies of being inside in Turkey for smuggling hash is that there is free availability of hashish and other drugs, which are used by all--police, prison guards, and prisoners alike. Eventually he is transferred to a low security island prison where he can steal a boat, row to the mainland, and escape to Greece. He returned home, much the wiser for his experiences, and co-wrote this book and also signed the Hollywood deal which led to the famous film of the same name. An exciting story, and an eye-opening account of the seamy side of Turkey.

This is one of the best prison books alongside "Papillion," "Death and the Maiden," and "Kiss of the Spider Woman." It's purpose is to juxtapose foolish freedom with insane ancient cultures. The result is tragic, terrifying, and almost beyond comprehension in it's cruelty. Turkey has been infamous for it's torture techinques for CENTURIES! And if you don't believe prison life in Muslim countries isn't still like this, you must be crazy! (Read "Not Without My Daughter;" the film doesn't even begin to touch on the horrors Betty Mahmoody survived in Iran). As another (very disturbed) reviewer points out here, William Hoffer isthe co-author of both books, NOT because he is a "one sided, racist" but because that's the genre he's an expert in! AND, HE IS NOT TELLING THE STORIES, BILLY AND BETTY ARE!!!One REALLY cool note: you can see the REAL Billy Hayes acting in a play about prison life filmed at the Odessey Theatre in Los Angeles in 1988! It's called, "The Cage" and it's only available on half(dot)com. Hard to believe that he'd want to recreate the "sadism of prison guards and the inmates' frenzied cruelty to each other" (Variety) only 13 years after escaping the Turkish prison!

Please note that at the time of Billy Hayes's story, Turkey was basically a dictatorship; just as Spain, Greece, Portugal, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. were. 30 years ago Turkey along with the other countries just named all had dictators and were not 100% free societies. Therefore his portrait of Turkey and their justice system is true. One must remember however that a lot has changed since 30 years ago. This should make people be aware Turkey is not like this today. It was, however, like this in 1970. Therefore, judging the book by one's ideas of Turkey today is a faux pas. No one would judge Germany of today when reading William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. So beware that many reviews of this book are biased and based on their views of the Turkey of today and not of 1970. Also, be advised that any person who lived through Billy Hayes's horror would no doubt have formed strong opinions on an entire people and society especially when still fresh. Such angers only leave after generations of people. Lastly, though the movie is excellent and follows closely to the book in some cases, the movie screenplay was written by Oliver Stone who rewrites his work for his own agenda and also uses his work as propaganda for some unknown cause which only he knows in that mind of his. He has done so in this case, changing many things that the book says and creating completely fictional accounts that never happened to Billy Hayes.

I read this book shortly after seeing the movie for the first time, and, as the situation usually is, the book is better than the movie. It is much more detailed (only in the book did I discover that the man who the story is about went to the same college that I am going to and studied the same subject that I am studying over 30 years ago...small world, huh?). The book goes deeper into the scenes with much more detail and includes many more scenes and a completely different ending. The book was a bit disturbing to read, but it was very realistic and brought me into such a petrifying situation and a dangerous world that hopefully I will never have to be in. While the lesson that this book teaches is not an in-your-face one, it is pretty obvious and very valuable: don't be a stupid foreigner and attempt to smuggle drugs out of another country because you WILL get caught (and even if you don't think you will, YOU WILL). This book was very touching and I would like to thank Billy Hayes for sharing his story with us.