James is more than 1.8 metres tall, but it seems unlikely that this 58-year-old gent in a smart navy jacket might take a violent turn as we sip English Breakfast. I tell him I feel quite safe.
Thirty-one years ago, though, a British judge considered James dangerous enough to lock him up for life. He served 20 years of his sentence for murdering two people.
In jail, James became known as the prisoner who could write a decent letter, despite his brief and sporadic schooling as a boy. He sent articles from prison to national newspapers, which were sometimes published.
When an editor at The Guardian came looking for an inmate to write a column about prison life, James was an obvious choice. A life inside – full of insight and vivid characters – became a popular fixture in the paper.
At the bottom of the first column, published in 2000, The Guardian noted that James was serving a life sentence for two murders. For some readers, it became a consuming question: who did Erwin James kill?
They speculated in online forums. Was it, wondered one sleuth in 2008, a crime of passion? Surely there must be some excuse for this writer with his gentle wit.
Twelve years after he left prison, James has released a memoir, Redeemable. “I never thought I'd be someone who’d commit such terrible crimes,” he says.
“I’ve ended up with a life that’s quite meaningful and satisfying. And yet there’s two people not here because of me – two people who will never have satisfaction. Their families will always be grieving. Because of me.”
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