I’ve known Thom Kidrin for decades. He is one of the most innovative, imaginative, entrepreneurial and over the horizon thinkers that I know. He is also one of the more fun people to be around. Chairman and CEO of Real Brands Inc. and President and CEO of World’s Inc will give you some insight on how he is avant garde.
But most importantly in my life, Thom was a lifelong friend and advocate of “Hurricane” Rubin Carter who spent 19 years in prison for twice being wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. And a forceful advocate for the remarkable John Artis, one of the most decent, courageous and honest people I have ever met.
Thom Kidrin, Rubin Carter, and my wife Iris Adler
Thom was an indomitable supporter of Rubin and John during their time in prison and after, and has continued to honor their legacy since Rubin passed from prostate cancer in 2014 and John died in 2021. Thom managed to get the attention of Muhammed Ali, Jimmy Carter, and the NAACP in order to support freeing Rubin and John. While many gave up support after Rubin was convicted for the second time of the same crime, thinking that the court could not be wrong twice, Thom stuck with him.
Rubin, knowing that he was not meant to be there, refused services from the prison, including eating the food being served. Thom would take a train once a month from Manhattan to Trenton to deliver 25 lbs canned food to Rubin in prison, the maximum amount allowed. If the box of food exceeded 25 lbs, the guard would take out the heaviest cans, remarking that Rubin will “lose some weight this month.”
Thom also brought Rubin books, at first law books that Rubin would read to try to get himself out. But later, Thom convinced Rubin that he needed to free his mind because he was not going to be able to free himself through reading books on law. He started to bring him different kinds of books, ones on philosophy and metaphysics, ones like Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning that had a profound impact on my life as well. Thom said that his goal was to provide Rubin with food for his mind, body, and spirit.
Thom has continued to tell Rubin’s story in whatever medium he can. While Bob Dylan’s song Hurricane is the song that most people would attach to Rubin and John’s story, Thom also wrote a song representing the case a year before Dylan. During his second trial Rubin would enter the floor to speak to the lyrics of Thom’s song:
Life…in the Trenton Penn
A fortress of misery
Stripped of human dignity
But he would never fade away
He couldn’t fade away
His efforts continue today. Thom co-wrote a musical with Peter Allen dictating Carter’s story and is now the lead in an effort to make a documentary series that uses 40 hours worth of tapes which only the BBC had used previously, telling the story in visual form.
I worked with Thom, Rubin and John to bring their archives to Tufts, where they now exist in the Tufts Digital Collections and Archives. It was through Thom that Iris and I met Rubin and hosted him in our Truro home. I invited Rubin as a paragon of dignity and ethics to Tufts and honored Rubin posthumously with John present with a Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award.
Months before his death, I hosted John and two extraordinary advocates, the authors of Justice on the Ropes at the Brookline Booksmith store for a book signing.
Now, while the archives are well presented at Tisch Library, the explicit intent of the archives was not to remain passive but to be actively utilized in campus programming and more importantly to inspire students to actively work on death row cases and on behalf of people unjustly accused and convicted. This responsibility contractually lies with the Director of the Institute for Global Leadership, but has remained fallow since I retired in 2016. With the incorporation of elements of the Institute into Tisch, given civic mandate and its highly successful Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch (TUPIT), Thom and I are intent on reviving its original intent.
More information can be found here.