Judge Gives Mailer a Break
Unsigned New York Mirror account of Mailer's 4 May 1961 guilty plea to felonious assault on Adele Morales. Mailer: 'I feel I did a lousy, dirty, cowardly thing.' Sentencing postponed six months and Mailer placed on probation. Attorney Joseph Brill describes him as 'a genius' whose 'contribution to the culture of our civilization should not be impaired for even a minute.' The judge: 'I intend to gamble on you.'
“Judge Gives Mailer a Break.” Article by unidentified writer. New York Mirror, 11 May 1961, 5.
Account of Mailer pleading guilty on 4 May 1961 to stabbing Adele. “I feel I did a lousy, dirty, cowardly thing,” Mailer told the court. The judge postponed sentencing him for six months and placed him on probation, saying, “I intend to gamble on you.” Mailer’s attorney, Joseph Brill, described him as “a genius” whose “contribution to the culture of our civilization should not be impaired for even a minute.”
The article is the closest contemporaneous record of the plea; Lennon’s JML Days revised, 2-26-17 (RTF) compresses this event as “In March, he pleads guilty,” but the Mirror report, two months later, places the plea on 4 May 1961. The 4 May date is followed here per Days 1961.