Since I was a kid, one of my greatest fears was being wrongfully convicted of a crime. I mean, what could be worse? Particularly when the crime is horrific, and the punishment severe? How would that feel?
This weekend, you can find out. In our cover story, Max Towey interviews Archie Williams, who spent 36 years in Louisiana’s most notorious prison for a crime he did not commit. It’s powerful. Read it here.
Nearby, I ask: Why does the leftist streamer Hasan Piker get so much media attention, when there’s another, more popular streamer with very different politics, who has never gotten any? I break it down – and interview that other streamer – in my article, Why the Media Loves Hasan Piker.
Beneath that, Max Hudgins answers another pressing question: Why do celebrities suck now? Why do they no longer have the aura that stars of the past – from Muhammad Ali to Marlon Brando and Paul Newman – once had? Read Why Celebrities Suck to find out.
And if you want some more on-the-ground reporting, we’ve got it: Stefano Montali reports from one of Vermont’s disappearing dairy farms. Why’re the farms going away? He has the answer.
Lastly, our sportswriter Ryan Hinske has a report from a dirt racing track in Kansas City. Like the dairy farms, these old-time local competitions are going away. He explains why right here.
This is Issue 5 of the Roca Mag. Our goal is to make this the best bundle of weekly reporting you can get anywhere. If you have thoughts on how we can make it better, please let us know.
And if you’d like to support Roca’s original journalism and access the magazine’s full contents, you can upgrade your subscription here.
Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy.
–Max Frost
Editor-in-chief
Click each preview below to read the full article.
In December 1982, Archie Williams was walking from a friend’s house to his mother’s apartment in Baton Rouge when police cars surrounded him. Officers drew their guns. He was 22.
Williams asked why he was under arrest. The cops listed charges of aggravated burglary, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated rape. He asked who said he did that. They took him away.
A female detective rode in the back seat with him. “She told me, ‘Man, you don’t fit the description,’” Archie told me. “She said, ‘Don’t worry, they’re not going to do anything to you. Just go through the procedures.’”
He was convicted. For 36 years, he’d wrongfully sit in Angola, among America’s most notorious prisons.
I first heard about Angola – actually the Louisiana State Penitentiary – from season one of True Detective. In an interrogation scene, Marty Hart, played by Woody Harrelson, told one inmate sitting in a cell at the Avoyelles prison, “Give me a break. This is Avoyelles. It’s a g—damn day camp. Spend some time in Angola.”
In another scene, a preacher’s assistant became a suspect for a heinous crime. The assistant, who seemed mentally disturbed and possibly ill, refused to talk to the police. That made the police more suspicious until the preacher explained the assistant’s strange behavior with one simple detail: He spent two years in Angola for public indecency. No more questions followed.
Angola’s notoriety extends far beyond True Detective. It is the largest maximum security prison in the country and one of the most notorious prisons in the world. It got its name because of the plantation that used to sit there, which took a disproportionate number of its slaves from the African country of Angola.
The prison has since been subject to numerous controversies over the years, including extreme inmate violence, allegations of a “sexual slavery” system, and overall brutal conditions. Inmates used to pick cotton for hours every day without pay, and “death row” inmates spent their sentences in solitary confinement.
Here’s what it’s like being a free man there.
Thanks for reading another issue of the Roca Mag. We were speechless after hearing Archie’s story. We’re sure there will be a lot of feedback on this one, so send us your thoughts here or leave a comment below.
And, as always, you can find the rest of the Roca Mag articles here. We look forward to hearing your reactions to this week’s reporting. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
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