The Long Goodbye 
Death Letters
In 1990, Charles Dean Hood was convicted of murder and sentenced to die. Twelve years later he began writing to senior editor Michael Hall. Here, in three of his letters, he describes in extraordinary detail his two decades spent awaiting execution and reveals what it’s like to be taken to Huntsville for the lethal injection only to receive a stay at the last possible minute—not once, but twice.
Yvette Holden says: I think it is disgusting officers stood round celebrating the fact they are about to kill someone! What because they dress it up and call it justice its ok to act in this manner. When you read in court trials the murder took great pleasure he’s a sadistic killer I don’t see why these people in uniforms are any different. This man claims to be innocent so why would he say sorry if he is innocent he’s another victim and if he’s proved innocent how many ’sorry’ will he get? (August 24th, 2009 at 10:35am)
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I lived on G-25 for just a few weeks, and got moved to J-21, which is considered hell on death row (“The Dungeon”). I had gotten written up (failure to groom infraction) for not shaving, which wasn’t my fault. Going down to J-21 Wing was like something out of the movies. My first night was a hellish experience. It was hot, noisy, and complete chaos. I was escorted behind a shield on wheels you had to walk behind every time you went down the run. You could smell fecal matter. The vents in your cell just sucked it straight to your cell. And you could actually see shit on the run. As night fell, you could see rats running up and down the run. I just set there on the (bunk) bed and watched them come out of the rusted pipes. I couldn’t believe it, there wasn’t nothing shy about them. They walked around, scrounged for food. Donny4 said don’t let your covers touch the floor, they’ll crawl up your covers. That entire night I just watched to see if any came into my cell.
Max5 and Cosmos6 actually had rats for pets. I asked them how in the heck they did that. Max told me he would catch the Momma rats and just hold them until they gave birth, and he would raise the babies. You had guys who even had birds for pets. One guy, they called him Birdman,7 he would find a nest up at the top of a window or a fence and just get him a baby bird. And raised it like a child.
After I got off J-21, I decided to go to the work program. I started out in the garment factory. You work to put together officers’ clothing. I worked on a button machine until I started working with laying out of the material. I met my best friend, Troy Dale Farris.8 We had so much in common. We both had 4x4 vehicles, we hunted with our brother, we were wild, you name it. The only thing I didn’t like was he was a Dallas Cowboys fan and I a New York Giants fan. I remember going to the dayroom on Sundays to catch the Nascar races. We went to church together.9 We looked out for each other.
I decided to also go to school to get my GED. School was offered to us, until some public officials complained about death row inmates getting a free ride. You know you’re placed on death row to die. But some convicts call it Life Row, and you can understand this term, because you actually don’t know if you’re gonna be executed or live many years on the row.
There’s some things you see or experience that’s just unacceptable. I knew of a retarded guy who got raped and no one went to his aid. I never met a homosexual until I came to death row. The first guy was Slim.10 He had a feminine way about himself, and I became friends with him. He knew I don’t swing in that fashion, so he kept refraining to ask me. Many guys had girls (prison punks). I guess someone to cling to for all different reasons other than sex. For whatever reason I met some good guys whose life were in that way.
There are a lot of men on death row who shouldn’t be there. A lot of young guys (kids) come to Texas death row because they made a mistake, not some awful, evil person who would continue to break the law. In all my years on the row, I’ve only seen a few fights, nothing that got out of hand, just an argument that ended up throwing down on each other. When you got a lot of men together, who are stressed out, who could’ve gotten a bad letter. Wife, girlfriend leaving them. Only one man I saw get killed on the row. I’ve seen officers jumped on more than prisoners fighting it out. It’s all about respect and manhood back here. And a lot of the guards force an inmate in a situation that if they don’t act back, their homeboys think dude, you let that guard talk to you that way, he punked you. I’ve seen two groups of officers, the ones who do their job and don’t treat you like shit, and ones who think they need to prove something. You keep jabbing at a person who society condemns as a criminal, well what happens? The person or animal bites back.
I got to know Pop, as I call him, old man Willis,11 when I went back to G-15. I got tired of the work program and needed to get focused on my case again. I called him Pop because he really cared for me, treated me like a son.
I started drawing, to occupy my time, building jewelry boxes, clocks, you name it, I did it.12 You needed something to take up your time. Time goes by so slow on the row. You wait for mail call in the evening because it’s the best part of the day, and if you don’t get any then you get down & out. At Ellis you were allowed to have a celly, and it really did help the time to go by. You are a bit worried at first, because you know for some reason another guy is on death row so you don’t want him to act crazy on you and things get out of whack. I was in the cell with several people over the years @ Ellis. Bobby13 came up for the program and they placed him in the cell I was in. We lived together for some time. A lot of bathroom humor went on. We would purposely eat a can or two of beans to fart to get a good laugh. It’s hard to find laughter on a daily basis on the row.
So! One thing I know is you must have something to hang on to. I’ve met some really wonderful people and some beautiful women over the years here on the row. You get some who you can go down the romance road with. You are a man, so you do miss being with a lady. So you talk sex with them. You used to be able to get nude photos to assist in your cravings, etc. There was even the opportunity to hook up with an officer (female). Many guys have had the opportunity to get some ass. It was that wide open over there. I remember even one getting pregnant. I remember me and my friend Chucky14 would hold jiggers (watch out for each other) when one would like to get some. Some of the ladies were even selling it if you had the money.15
Another thing that we used to have at Ellis was sports tournaments, and we used to get ribbons for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd prizes, however we also would chip in different items. I remember Big George, A.K.A. “New York,”16 Me, and Paul17 and Bob18 winning the basketball tournament. It was so cool. The odds were clearly against us, but we won, and till this day Big George and I reminisce about it. It was like winning the NBA Finals.
You have some really good times on the row and you have the down and out ones. I’ve lost so many good friends. Chi-town (Richard Cartwright),19 a guy from Chicago, was considered a dang good friend. I even got to know his mother. You spend so much time on the row you actually grow up with guys. You can tell when someone gets a bad letter or something is wrong because you’ve been around them so long. A lot of them become like family.
I wished we were still over at the Ellis Unit, but since the Death Row Seven tried to escape in November of 1998, everything went downhill. Over the years at different times men had escaped, but always got caught before they got over the fence. Once one got over the fence, that was it. They started shipping death row over in 1999. On March 2, 2000, I was told to pack up.20
I remember all being crammed on a bus like sardines. As we were coming over it was so good to see the free world, people, houses, trees, just life in motion. At a bridge going over Lake Livingston, I can remember one guy yelling out, “Officer (the bus driver), you ain’t got a hair on your ass you don’t drive this bus off the bridge into the water.” The ride was tense, and everyone started to laugh at these remarks, but I was praying that it wouldn’t happen. I’m damn sure others were also.
And we reached the unit, Terrell Unit it was called.
June 14/08
Dear Mike,
How are you doing?
I hope things are going well on your end. What did I tell you, shit was gonna hit the fan on the Judge & DA issue. It’s all over the news and papers yesterday.21
Well, here is Chapter 2. I hope you got the first part.
Hope to and pray for it to see you after the 17th. Maybe one Wednesday you could make it, the 18th or 25th.
Take care, my friend, and appreciate all your help. Mean that! “God Bless You.”
Your friend,
Charles!
Life on the Row: Polunsky Unit
I remember pulling up to the back gate. Then it was Terrell Unit, but Mr. Terrell didn’t want his name affiliated with death row so they changed it to Polunsky Unit.22 It clearly looked bigger and a lot different than the old rusty brick color Ellis Unit. We drove all the way up, till we reach the back gate to the death row 12 Building section. You were checked naked and given a piece of clothing they consider boxers. I was placed in 29 cell with nothing except a blue mattress. I got up on the bunk and looked out the window. It was very small, 3 inches wide by 4 feet long, but at least you had a view.23
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