The Spectator in Solitary

He lives in a 12-ft.-square concrete cubicle, entombed beyond the reach of daylight in a special solitary-confinement corridor of the fortress-like maximum-security U.S. Penitentiary at Marion, Ill. There, behind a steel door slotted for the passage of meal trays, Prisoner No. 08237054 spends his days peering at a tiny black-and-white television set, watching with fascination the proceedings of the Iran-contra hearings in Washington.

Prisoner No. 08237054 is Edwin P. Wilson, 59, the freebooting former CIA agent who has served five years of a 52-year sentence for providing arms and explosives to Libyan Ruler Muammar Gaddafi and plotting to kill his federal...

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