Breakfast with the Devil

by L. Wayne Carlson

In 1960, 18-year-old Wayne Carlson was convicted for stealing cars, and spent his twenties and thirties in penetentiaries and prisons across Canada and the U.S. But Carlson was no ordinary inmate --... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1895837189
• ISBN13: 9781895837186
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Insomniac Press
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

I knew one dude in his book who passed away in 2018.

I was also in Saskatchewan Penitentiary in 2000 serving a total of 8 years and 10 months for the Albany Hotel Arson. I was designated as a Long Term Offender which is a bump down from a Dangerous Offender Designation. I met this one inmate named Freddy. He was in his early 60's and been in custody for a good 34 years of his life for 2 murders. One on the street and another committed while in custody. I knew other big names during my time there including 2 high profile killers named Robert Latimer (I personally don't view him a child killer in the conventional sense as his was more mercy rather than gratification or malicious intent) and the other killer was Colin Thatcher. Both in 2001. It was quite a life experience and education to say the least. I was housed on range F1+2 beside the infamous 'Blood Alley' A reputation for a corridor that goes into the rec center and gym where it was dangerous to go alone as you might be robbed. Saskatchewan Penitentiary was a Maximum Security in the 70's-90's or rather sooner than that. I was in there when it was medium security from October 2000 to May 2002 before being transferred to Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon where I met the now late John Crawford, serial killer. I would be a traveller throughout the Corrections Canada Penitentiary system from 1997 to 2004 including places like Stony Mountain, Kingston, Joyceville, the above 2 facilities I mentioned and the minimum security Pe Sakastew Institution in Hobemma AB. A lot of the stuff in this book including how one conducted themselves both in and out of the penitentiary system is spot on. From 1991 to 2004, I been inside myself a total of 10.5 years both in provincial and federal custody. You get emotionally cold and hardened the longer your in. I was fortunate that prison atmosphere never got to a deeper level of darkness of my soul. I look back today and those who know me today would never suspect that I ever did hard Penitentiary time because I conduct myself in a civilized manner. I don't play that role or carry myself in a manner of trying to survive.

Remarkable account of spiritual survival

I had the great pleasure of meeting Wayne Carlson on a cross-Canada music festival train trip in April 2004. Many of us on the train bought Wayne's book, and I read it with interest and pleasure. Doing so increased my astonishment that anyone could spend as much of a life in such lousy circumstances and emerge with humanity and humor intact. His narrative proves that he has. In an age when, certainly in the U.S., and probably to some extent in Canada as well, any pretense that the criminal justice system is intended to rehabilitate anyone is nothing but pretense, Wayne's story indicates that rehabilitation is possible. Great compelling read.

Intelligent, insightful, engaging memoir

Every few months or so I need to read a book or at least an essay such as this account of man surviving the, for most, unsurvivable. Papillon is one such story I would compare to Carlson's, the indomitability of an undefeatable man. That must be redundant, but I'm a bit bleary because I haven't been able to put the book down. What makes Carlson so winsome, beyond his genius for survival and escape, is his essential romantic innocence and affection for humanity. Despite his decades of imprisonment he seems to have maintained his human spirit, truly a miracle! A wealth of observational detail on life, friendship and survival. One hopes he does a sequel.