Michael McKay’s A Big House for Little Men
By Suzy Geers
The Author and his book
This isn’t just a corruption book. This isn’t just a prison book. This is, in my opinion, the be all, and all of crime and punishment books about the inside of our Massachusetts prison system. It’s a story of survival ~ and it happened right in our backyard. It is about my neighbor and yours.
This book IS violent. Very violent, in fact, I had to re-read pages because I just couldn’t fathom what I was digesting. But, it is a life story ~ someone’s tragic life story.
Imagine being born without a chance. No chance to be a kid, to be loved unconditionally by a mom and a dad, no chance to join Little League ~ but instead being drawn into burglaries and murders, seeing your siblings off to prison, not college. This is the sad way of life for main character Cody in the intense and often shocking A Big House for Little Men. Dorchester native and current North Attleboro resident Michael McKay penned an eye-opening fictional story of Cody’s rise from juvenile offender to the most powerful criminal in Boston.
Time to elaborate: This book is based on a real story which had to be written as a fictional account of murders that occurred within Walpole State prison in the late 1970s. So, although it is listed as “fiction,” it is based ~ oh so closely ~ upon real events.
McKay explains, “80% is fiction and the 20% are embellishments. I have all the facts to back it up ~ written documents and reports. If I made this a work of non-fiction, I would have troopers, D.A.s and prison officials wanting to know the who, the when, the how…and I don’t want to deal with that, if you know what I mean.”
Cody is the notorious real life Mikey Thurber and the crimes he commits are atrocious. Thurber was the most talked about and feared creature of the 1970s. One of the most heinous and brutal (alleged) murders he commits while in prison involves an ice pick and a castration (and there’s much more to it), retaliation for a fierce act of vigilante prison vengeance (specifically, someone strangling his friend). Riots at Walpole State Prison shook the Bay State in 1972. The facility gained national notoriety when prisoners took guards hostage in 1978; several murders within the prison made national headlines in 1979, after which the correction officers (scared for their and their families’ lives) had enough and walked out of the prison in protest. At Walpole, the prisoners ran the show. Thurber ~ and in A Big House for Little Men, Cody ~ was its virtuoso.
As evil as Cody is, Michael McKay has superbly ~ if not perfectly ~ hand-crafted a character that gains readers’ sympathy, that lets us have compassion for Cody. I actually felt for this person who had committed such vile crimes; I wanted him to win, to beat the system and get some sort of normalcy, a fresh start, a chance. I felt in a strange way that the state owed it to him, that maybe any of us who grew up loved and loving owed it to him.
Cody is now walking the streets ~ your streets, my streets. He was released ~ yes, released ~ with life parole (to tell you how and why now would be doing a disservice to McKay’s magnetic storytelling, so all I shall do is urge you to read A Big House for Little Men for yourself!) but his sentence was eventually greatly reduced by a crooked ex- Massachusetts State Trooper
(Cody’s old acquaintance from the neighborhood) turned head of the Massachusetts Parole Board.
McKay’s fiction, so heavily infused with often bone-chilling non-fiction, is a magnetic character study not just of a character named Cody, but of characters named The MA Judicial System and Where We Come From. Pick up a copy and set aside some time to read A Big House for Little Men from cover to cover. It is a thought-provoking dose of “fictional reality.”
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December 4th, 2009 at 12:46 am
[...] http://www.thevitalitymag.com/michael-mckay%E2%80%99s-a-big-house-for-little-men [...]
July 9th, 2010 at 11:05 am
I am the real character Cody in this book, my real name is Mikey Thurber and I am working with this author Michael W. Mckay on his next book called “You Leave me no Option”
I did like this story Suzy Geers wrote about this book and about me, Great Job Suzy. Let me tell you Some Facts about myself, Whitey Bulger and Congressman Delahunt and the Massachusetts State police:
Yes, I did know and work for Whitey back in the early 70’s, yes; he did like having sex with younger boys as well. I never liked the guy; he was not as powerful back then but was moving fast up the chain very fast. I always knew he could not be trusted. I use to watch him deal with all the Boston cops and pay them off, I also watch him set people up to be busted by these same cops he was paying off. But he always paid well with drugs and money, and I learned a lot from this Irish Gangster.
When I went to Walpole State Prison, the Bulger gang supplied Walpole with more drugs in the prison than anyone in hopes of keeping his crews safe inside and recruiting other inmates to join him when they got out. He counted on our crew to supply him with who to deal with and who he could trust. He love information on any that happened, his brain was a book of power and played the system very well.
Yes, it is true Whitey Bulger Killed a very Good friend of mine over in Southie, and yes it is true most of all Whiteys group from South Boston Started getting killed within this prison by other inmates – most are all dead now from drugs overdoses.
Walpole Prison was a very bad place and a lot of people died within those prison walls. The Guards did nothing; they allowed all those murders to happen. Yes, it is true I did escape twice from Concord Prison and was indicted along with 12 other inmates for murder and forming execution squads within this prison, I was found not guilty of all charges. I spent many years locked up in Block ten 23 hours a day because I was one of the most feared inmates within this prison.
Yes, it true I did have a childhood friend named Robert Murphy who was a Massachusetts State Trooper and ran the Norfolk District Attorney’s State Police Unit. This Unit covered all the crimes with Walpole State prison. Yes, I knew William Delahunt who became a Congressman, and then he had my Friend Trooper Robert Murphy placed on the Massachusetts parole board.
They both helped me get freed from Walpole prison and back on the streets. (I will add I never had to help Mr. Delahunt or Testify against anyone in any Court to get free). Yes, it’s true once my friend was placed on the parole board, my life parole was removed and record expunged.
And yes, I and Robert Murphy are still friends to this day. Yes, its true This State police unit and Mr. William Delahunt were more corrupt than half of Whitey Bulgers gang, and Mr. Delahunt did in fact have dealings with Whitey, and Mr. Delahunt did in fact set up inmates to take the fall for Murders they did not commit.
Yes, I have my opinion of where Whitey Bulger is right now, and yes, I will disclose this information in the other novel “You Leave me No Option” once Mr. Mckay is ready to move forward.
We have many records handed to us from the D.A.’s office and Robert Murphy to back up anything written in both books. I was asked by Congressman Delahunt through Robert Murphy not to write any books. If only the FBI was smarted enough to tap Robert Murphy home phone each time they both talked. I was at Murphy’s house many times Delahunt called. Also, once Delahunt heard I wrote this book he is now stepping down from office. If they checked Delahunt’s phone records, it would be very interesting on who he has called while in office.
The Boston globe and Boston Herald would never write about this story, it just shows you what people in power can do. I remember two key items with Delahunt, once the Mafia from Boston got a girl to work close with Mr. Delahunt and she was giving all the information to us and the Boston mafia. When too much information was getting leaked out someone arrested her and the Boston globe did a story on this and buried it real fast.
Also, My Attorney Joseph Balliro who was a top Boston Mafia Attorney and he won a murder case for me, use to give money to Delahunt and show up at all his benefits and talk to Delahunt on the side. This guy Joe Balliro had one of the top Mafia families in Boston. Everyone knew this!
Bottom line:
Everything I am stating are facts, and can be backed up….After all, I am a Free Man, and yes, some say I beat the system – I don’t believe this because I spent most of my life in Youth centers and state prisons. Hell I even know who the real Boston Strangler is and he is still alive in prison.
If you ever want to talk more, e-mail me.