Midnight Express [Paperback]

Billy Hayes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1987

For Billy Hayes, 1970 was a horrifying year. It was the year when he tried to smuggle 4lbs of hashish from Istanbul back to his home in America. It was the year when he was arrested at Istanbul airport, tried, and sentenced to 30 in a Turkish jail. For five years he suffered the filth, brutality and degradation of imprisonment in an environment of hellish squalor, while his family fought in vain to secure his release. Finally in desperation, he made a daring escape bid and incredibly the bid succeeded. This is the astounding true story, told in Billy Hayes's own words, of those five years of living hell and of the harrowing ordeal of his time on the run. Vivid and realistic without being morbid, it is a classic story of survival and human endurance, told with humour, intelligence and total honesty.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Billy Hayes was born in New York City. He went to Marquette University, dropped out before graduation and the following years are recounted in this book. William Hoffer is co-author of CAUGHT IN THE ACT and is Director of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sphere (March 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0751508810
• ISBN-13: 978-0751508819
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sticking to the point would be advisable to some.., November 24, 2004

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midnight Express (Paperback)

This legendary book (and later movie of the same caliber) has provoked and is still provoking so much off the point debate that it's hard to fathom.

A discussion about Turkey and its pros and cons belongs either in a different forum or upon a different book as a vehicle for argumentation. Even Hayes himself despite his martyrdom had said publicly after his escape to the States that his intention had never been a defamation of Turkey or the Turks. So lets leave it at that.

To the book itself, this is indeed a momumental reading describing the utter and surreal ordeal that Hayes, a convicted hash smuggler endured while incarcerated in the Turkish prison system. He describes a system which was designed (or left to its own devices?) to devalue human existence and destroy human dignity. In conditions mildly called appalling, Hayes went through 5 years of sheer soul and bodily torture until his incredible and unlikely escape which spared him life imprisonment.

He himself spares the reader none of all the disturbing details and descriptions as he unravels his nightmarish narrative. The Midnight Express is a book that punches hard at the incarceration system (as prisons in many other parts of the world are similar or worse) and the sheer disregard for human dignity. Credit to Hayes for not trying to redeem himself by claiming wrongful conviction. He accepts that he commited a crime according to that country's law and that he knew he was as he was commiting it. He doesnt accept (to put it again, VERY mildly) the severety of the penalty and the way it was carried out.

It's a book that will no doubt unnerve the reader who's unfamiliar with such literature or who's never given much thought to such issues. It's a scary experience even as an innocent turning of pages and will keep you hostage with its gloomy, borderline deathly and insane atmosphere. It will also provide some serious food for thought about the limits of human perseverence as a whole.

Written in a very direct and engaging style, Hayes proved a talent in writting and if you've read other such books you know that not everyone could achieve the level of directness and the effect of making you feel other the way he did.

Worthy of its fame by any standard. For anyone interested in a similar and perhaps even more disturbing book try the "Damage done" by Warren Fellows.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blatant smuggler versus Turkish brutality, June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Midnight Express (Hardcover)

Many of the reviews that I have read about Midnight Express seem to focus on whether Billy Hayes was a smuggler or not, and, having established that he was then go on to tarnish everything he says and dismiss all that has happened to him. whether or not he was a possessor or a smuggler is irrevelant - it is almost certain that he was a smuggler, as he states in the book and film that he did it for money. The point that people seem to want to gloss over is that he spent far too long in a Turkish Hell-hole, with a regime that no-one deserves. I wouldn't subject my worst enemy to such a depraved and abused existence. The book by Mr Hayes and William Hoffer graphically depicts the Turkish mis-justice system for what it is. to serve an entire sentence only to have it re-heard and re-sentenced is cruel and barbaric. The Turkish prison system is accurately depicted in the book and film, as can be proved by reading any of the other books about prison regimes in many similar countries - not just Turkey. The book is quite excellent and one of the best reads that I can remember: it is just a pity that it is out of print, people will now be denied the chance to read and judge it for themselves. Anyone with current information on either of the authors please let me know; also if there is a copy for sale in a shop near Liverpool, England.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WAITING FOR GODOT IN A TURKISH PRISON, November 3, 2004

By 

Michael JR Jose (the UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midnight Express (Paperback)

This is the vivid, detailed, and eye-opening autobiography of student dropout Billy Hayes, who relates his years from 1970-75 in the prisons of Turkey, where he was imprisoned for smuggling hashish. Captured at Istanbul airport by a random search, he has to learn to handle himself inside quickly if he is to survive. His case takes years to go through the courts, slowed down by the grinding wheels of the Turkish injustice system, crooked lawyers, and the bureaucracy found the world over in these cases. American status does not protect him, he is sentenced to life imprisonment, commuted to thirty years. There are graphic descriptions of everything that goes on: there are Turks, Europeans, one or two other Americans, and children all imprisoned together.

He has various plans for escape, the title of the book being his code word for his escape plan. His first plan revolves around getting a psychiatric discharge or escape from an easy prison. A couple of the other prisoners do escape, one by sheer cunning and the other by clever bribery. One or two fail spectacularly. One man is beaten so badly by the warders that he murders one of them when he is released and gets put straight back into the same prison, where now his status is much higher, as murder is considered a 'manly' crime there. Billy keeps himself going by correspondence with home and a past girlfriend, and adapting to but not succumbing to the prison regime. He has to learn to stay alive as a person and keep his humanity by forming friendships and alliances where he can.

One of the great ironies of being inside in Turkey for smuggling hash is that there is free availability of hashish and other drugs, which are used by all--police, prison guards, and prisoners alike. Eventually he is transferred to a low security island prison where he can steal a boat, row to the mainland, and escape to Greece. He returned home, much the wiser for his experiences, and co-wrote this book and also signed the Hollywood deal which led to the famous film of the same name. An exciting story, and an eye-opening account of the seamy side of Turkey.