About Me
Name: Shaun Attwood
Location: London, England
Biography
Written by Shaun's sister, the journalist Karen Attwood.
Shaun Attwood grew up in North West England where he was an early participant in the burgeoning rave scene that soon took over the whole country.
Graduating from Liverpool University in 1991 with a business degree, he immigrated to Phoenix, Arizona to try his luck in the world of finance, and rose quickly through the ranks to become a top-producing stockbroker.
The rave bug had never left him, and Shaun started to throw raves in Arizona while investing in technology stocks online. By 1999, he was living in a luxurious mountainside home in Tucson's Sin Vacas, working as a day trader in the day and partying at night. It was the time of the dot-com bubble and he made over a million on paper, but the bubble was soon to burst and Shaun lost most of his fortune and moved back to Phoenix.
In May 2002, he was arrested in Scottsdale during a SWAT-team dawn raid, and alleged to be the head of an organisation involved in a club-drug conspiracy. The local media described him as “bigger than Sammy the Bull.” Facing a life sentence, he entered a lengthy legal battle.
In 2004, Shaun started the blog, Jon’s Jail Journal, documenting the inhumane conditions at the cockroach-infested Madison Street jail run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
After two years of being held on remand while three trial dates were cancelled, Shaun signed a plea bargain admitting guilt to three class 3 felonies: Money Laundering, Attempt To Commit A Dangerous Drug Violation, and Use Of An Electronic Device To Commit A Drug Transaction. He was sentenced to 9 ½ years, of which he served almost 6.
Shaun had only read finance books prior to his arrest. While incarcerated, he submerged himself in literature – reading 268 books in 2006 alone, including many literary classics. By reading original texts in philosophy and psychology he sought to better understand himself and his past behaviour. His sister sent him a book on yoga, which he still practices.
In September 2004, blog excerpts were published in
The Guardian, attracting further media attention, including several BBC news stories.
Shaun was released in December 2007, and has since kept Jon’s Jail Journal going by posting the prison stories sent to him from the friends he made inside.
In July 2008, Shaun won a first prize, a Koestler/Hamish Hamilton Award, for a short story, which he read to an audience at the Royal Festival Hall. In February 2009, Shaun moved to London to work for the McLellan Practice speaking to audiences of youths about his jail experiences and the consequences of his drug taking.
He is presently working on his book,
Green Bologna and Pink Boxers: Surviving Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Jail.
Interests
Reading, especially the humourous, bizarre and creatively written. I like exciting stories with sentences capable of goosefleshing my arms.
Books like
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy,
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert,
The Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor,
The Castle - Franz Kafka,
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes,
A Man in Full - Tom Wolfe,
Cosmopolis - Don DeLillo,
High Lonesome - Joyce Carol Oates,
Naked - David Sedaris,
Brokeback Mountain - Annie Proulx,
Hollywood - Charles Bukowski
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk,
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole,
Money - Martin Amis,
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh,
Any of the
Best American Short Stories,
Any short stories by Anton Chekhov
Other interests: Yoga. BodyCombat. Rollercoasters. People Watching. Performance Art. Organising events for cockroaches, including the 1-yard dash. Jogging. Martial Arts. Jet-skiing. Vegetarianism. Food that makes me sweat. Dessert wines. Banter. Plays. Music (from electronica to classical). The Love Parade. Chess. Extreme clowns and circus folk. The stock market. The Bearded Lady of Guildford. Art Exhibitions. Independent movies. Philosophy. Psychology. History. Spanish. Foreign Travel and Cultures.
Quotes
"Know thyself!" Oracle at Delphi (Socrates' motto)
"The only thing that we can know is that we know nothing and that is the highest
flight of human wisdom." Count Leo Nikolavaevich Tolstoy
"The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is
untrue." Antisthenes (Founder, Cynic School of Philosophy)
"Make haste slowly." Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus)
"Our life is what our thoughts make it." Marcus Aurelius Antonius
Links
Jon's Jail Journal
Hell on Earth
It was a hotbed of violence
Free Books for Prisoners
Overthrow Arpaio
Phoenix Crime Statistics
Vegetarian Society
Online Now!
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