Barry Clifford: Tales From New York - Mad Bob

I met Mad Bob in New York in 1994 on a building site. He had earned his title by his schizophrenic and deeply paranoid personality. He looked the part then as well: 6’ 5” tall, blond haired with broad shoulders and bulging muscles from working in the gym, while taking steroids with a little coke on top to keep it all looking good. His first touch with infamy was 10 years before that.

He was riding on the subway after a long day working as a labourer in Manhattan when a slightly built African American, suffering the affects of too much drugs as well, menaced Bob for money by holding a screwdriver to his neck. He may not have seen too well either for one long studious look at Bob would tell most people to stay away. Not this man. Bob pulled out his long serrated knife that he kept in his leg holster hidden by his pants and swiftly set to work on his would be mugger before he knew it was too late. Twenty seven stab wounds later the man was dead long before Bob tried to remove his head from his shoulders. Bob was sentenced to ten years in prison with the chance of parole for simple overkill. The judge noted in his judgement that the first two stabs wounds meted out by Bob might be classed as self defence but the other twenty five along with the attempted decapitation was murder. And so it was that Bob went to prison for the first time; it would not be his last.

To be continued..........

By Barry Clifford