Source: (2005) Los Angeles Times. October 1, 2005.
Deep inside this infamous old prison, Patty O’Reilly stands before eight men doing hard time, her shoulders slumped, a man’s gold wedding band hanging from a chain around her neck.
Three of the inmates are sobbing. The others sit motionless on metal chairs, eyes locked on the small, sad woman in front of them. O’Reilly’s words seep out. A ballet teacher from Sonoma, she has come to San Quentin to share a story — about the killing of a husband and the trauma caused by that loss.
She tells of two daughters left fatherless, of a widow, not yet 40, paralyzed by grief. Weeping now, O’Reilly describes happy futures shredded in an instant by one man’s single, terrible act. (excerpt)
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