He Was Dead: Jack Henry Abbott On Trial For Murdering Richard Adan

Abbott takes the stand

Defense Lawyer Ivan Fisher asked his client: "Did you place the knife in the chest of Richard Adan?"

Jack Henry Abbott, convict turned literary celebrity, answered: "Yes."

Silence fell over the Manhattan courtroom where Abbott is on trial on a charge of murdering Adan, 22, a waiter and an aspiring playwright, last July—a bare six weeks after Abbott had been released from prison on the urging of Novelist Norman Mailer. Not a cough sounded as Abbott, 37, gave some grisly details of the aftermath of the 5 a.m. stabbing outside the Bini-Bon restaurant where Adan had worked. Adan, Abbott related,...