The Trip West

The flights have been booked, the visas and insurance confirmed and Rachel and myself are just two days away from boarding the plane to Houston, Texas.

Its hard to believe that a spark of an idea around 18 months ago and a throw away comment about visiting Texas is about to become a reality.

It is not a journey that is undertaken lightly. We will spend around 5 days exploring Huntsville, visiting the prison museum where we will get to see ‘Old Sparky’, the former electric chair and taste the ‘Killer Burger’ at Mr Hamburger’s. Whilst we are visiting the town, an execution is scheduled for Tuesday 6th October and if this goes ahead we shall witness how the town responds to state sanctioned homicide.

I’m also interested in the general culture of the Huntsville juxtaposed to the ‘Walls Unit’, which sits right in the centre. Huntsville is the former home of Sam Houston, who was instrumental in Texas becoming part of the United States; the university there is also named after him. So time permitting we hope to visit his memorial museum and take in Huntsville’s heritage along the way.

During are trip we also hope that some of the women who are involved with the inmates on death row will feel comfortable enough to share some of their experiences. I can imagine they think we will be there to judge them or paint them in a negative light, which is absolutely not our intention.

A highlight for me will be meeting with former warden of the ‘Walls Unit’, Jim Willet. Mr Willet over saw around 80 executions and is now the Director of the Prison Museum. I have already read his book, Warden, and heard him interviewed several times and I’m really looking forward to his insights around my research.