Talk:Jimmy Lerner

message: The way this article uses the word monster seems slightly biased against Lerner, because in his book he wasn't saying that the man was a monster physically. When I first saw this article a few years ago, it seemed extremely biased against him, but it looks better now.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gazok (talk • contribs) 13:41, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of word Monster 

message: Jimmy Lerner was basically a good. coomplicated, intelligent person on a higher level that lacked a lot of common sense with a touch of magical thinking. Magical thinking is what helped create this excellent book. Remember this is a man who was not violent is or would hurt a fly and if the New York Times article is accurate, the whole thing was so out of control substance abuse wise that is more than possible that he may not have remembered the turn of events and just wrote what he wished or even thought had happened. 
However it is important to note that the excellent description of his life in prison is the non-fiction portion of the book. For people to accuse him purposefully doing this after all he had lost, all he had done - they are relating to the events as a person that had had the space of time to ponder and plan to write a book of lies in order to make ends meet. He went directly to prison and later wrote what he probably were his characterization of the events or he filled in the blanks like he had wanted them to be. This is not a tough guy. I don't think he was ever able to accept the horror of what he had done. Most people would have drowned in self-pity but it is amazing that he was able to churn out this book on a typewriter while in prison, not after he had been released and had had time to fabricate this purported scheme to publish a book. What transpired between the two during this was a total abomination. What people say in a multi-drug induced rage sometimes has severe consequences. The mind blocks this information out or in layman terms the person may have a "black out" you don't need a psychiatrist or psychologist to know that these things happen.
Ever an optimist, he had fallen many times but always picked himself up again and tried and tried again even if he fell he would try to find a solution be it Tony Robbins, meditation, AA, getting an MBA; he never gave up. He always tackled problems with enthusiasm.  Most people would not have the persistence to write a book this long on a manual typewriter while in prison page by page in 2001.  It would seem that a purposefully fabricated non-fiction accounts are written after some separation between the event and the writing and publication of a book although I am by no means an expert on this subject. He just wrote this as he either remembered it or his mind filled in the blanks this way. 
He never thought it would get publshed so I personally think he was just trying to sort things out in his head. The reason I believe this is that having visited him in prison, I know something about it and he was writing that portion as it went along, basically a chronicle of prison life from his perspective and I had heard these stories personally. I just want people to know that he may have had to make sense of the events leading up to this tragedy because probably neither Jimmy or the victim  were in their right minds at the time. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that this was something commendable but given the facts and probably he did not remember and maybe could not even face the horror of it. The closest he had come to any behavior like this is being a fan of violent films and may have re-enacted a vigilante movie in the state he was in, who knows what someone under this much "influence" would have thought or remembered about the events that occurred during the crime.
It makes perfect sense that to most of us that this was an intentional ploy but bear in mind, luckily most of us will not go through this and wake up the next day to try and face or even remember what happened. He is not someone that wrote this after the fact 1,5, 10, 20 or 30 years later trying to get a book publshed. I really think that this was more of a cathartic experience and he was encouraged to do so by his best friend who brought him a typewriter one day and said you write so well, why don't you write a book about what life in pri son is like and that may help keep you going."
His demons tortured him. He did love his family but something inside him always seem to go the way of self-destruction just when things were at their best.  Jimmy died in February 2008 and we know that he never did anything on purpose and he always was striving for normalcy. He may have just been trying to live with his own demons but he had never been a violent person and he had never hurt anyone. This was something that only a pharmaceutical mix of drugs could have caused. I knew Jimmy for over 27 years and had to deal with him and I can still forgive him. He was not evil. I wish to remain anonymous but many will know who I am. 
== Death ==
Jimmy Lerner overdosed on drugs in February, the media usually does not publicize suicides.
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That's hardly true. Of course the media usually publicises suicides. The "death" still has no citation (and the only references available from a brief Google search appear to relate back to this article) so I am removing it. 80.2.63.55 (talk) 10:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Don't think fabrication of facts surrounding the crime were intentional, he either blanked it out or didn't remember

message: Jimmy Lerner overdosed on drugs in February, the media usually does not publicize suicides.
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That's hardly true. Of course the media usually publicises suicides. The "death" still has no citation (and the only references available from a brief Google search appear to relate back to this article) so I am removing it. 80.2.63.55 (talk) 10:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Death 

message: I only knew Jimmy electronically, and through his book, but I am truly saddened to hear of his death.
I read "You Got Nothing Coming" about six months before I got sober; I had started volunteering at Cook County Jail and was reading it to learn about the prison system and the inmate experience. Unfortunately, since I was also a "functioning alcoholic" at the time, I found I could relate to the last third of the book far, far more than I would have liked. It's impossible to say what would have happened had I never read it, but it definitely was one of the bigger nudges I got in that turbulent year, and I'm not sure if I would be alive and sober today without it.
A while later, when I was self-publishing a book of my own called "Pottersville," I contacted Jimmy electronically; he graciously read a review copy and provided me with a glowing review that encouraged me at a time when that was sorely needed. We had no contact for some time after that, and a few years ago, I discovered to my chagrin that I'd lost his email address. I found myself wondering tonight what he was up to, and this wikipedia page was the unfortunate result of my searches.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this is the best forum for this note, but given th fact that a few friends and associates of his seem to have posted here, I figured it would be OK to air out some of these thoughts. Even in our limited exchanges, it was clear that Jimmy was a complicated person, and when I got around to reading everything else out there on him, that became even more apparent, but whatever his faults, he's been a tremendous and positive influence on my life. Rest In Peace, brother.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.133.48.185 (talk) 05:05, 24 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  R.I.P. Jimmy 

message: Substituted at 19:55, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

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thread_title:  External links modified