<Begin Segment 7>

LT: Well, after Gordon was indicted and he was taken to the King County Jail in Seattle, your father and your mother visited him.

ED: Yes.

LT: Do you recall what they said and what they did?

ED: Not much. I think they usually took him some fruit, or maybe part of a cake, not more than that. And I don't know whether that was an occasion when my father gave him chiropractic adjustments, but I know he did at some point. And the boys thought that was all right. My father adjusted some of the brothers when they were on, in camps around the country. If he went to visit them, he offered them an adjustment.

LT: That's a nice service. And what did your mother take when she was --

ED: Pardon me?

LT: What did your mother take when she visited Gordon?

ED: I don't remember that she said much of anything. She may have asked him how he was or something, but I don't remember anything more.

LT: Okay, you mentioned that she had baked a cake for him, too?

ED: Hmm?

LT: You mentioned that she baked a cake for him?

ED: Speak louder.

LT: You mentioned that he baked a cake?

ED: That she did?

LT: Uh-huh, and took it to him?

ED: I expect that's right. I mean, isn't that what a woman does when she tries to do something nice for a male? Maybe she had a particular kind that he was particularly fond of, so maybe that's why she did it. I think there's something in one of the letters about that, about her baking a cake.

LT: And I understand that you and your father also visited Gordon at the jail.

ED: Uh-huh.

LT: What do you remember seeing and thinking and talking about when you visited Gordon?

ED: Well, my father was a very silent guy. You didn't get much out of him. He may have talked more readily with my mother, but as to talking very readily with me, it's something else again. And he may have thought that what he said, what Gordy and he said were pretty private conversations, also legally a questionable thing. So there wasn't as much as you might think.

LT: When you visited Gordon at the jail, were you and Gordon able to talk?

ED: Oh, goodness. I don't remember. If there had been a situation where there were... if our right to talk was free at that time, I expect we could have talked a few minutes. But then he wasn't always free, and when we did talk it was probably limited, I think, for anyone who came to visit him. They took a picture, transcribed, etcetera, so you know that what you were saying was not private.

LT: So you remember being photographed when you went?

ED: What?

LT: You remember being photographed when you went?

ED: I don't remember. If we were, that may happen, but I don't remember for sure.

LT: You mentioned that when Gordon was in jail, he was influenced by his reading of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Can you talk about that? What did he tell you about that?

ED: A little bit, not very much. I think he was more apt to write about it than to talk about it. Because then you could respond more readily in writing than you could in stories. He wrote quite a bit, and he enjoyed that reading and writing on that topic, on the topics of the several philosophers he was reading. He kept busy. [Laughs]

LT: How do you think they influenced --

ED: Hmm?

LT: How do you think they influenced his thoughts and actions?

ED: How these people he read? Oh, I think from what I read, that they influenced him quite a bit. After all, he was in the kind of situation that these men, these authors were themselves. And, of course, I expect that's why he was reading them, because they gave him some guidance about how the situation might affect him. So he increased his reading in that field, I think, as time went by, read more of it, and that helped him considerably, I think. And I expect -- I'm theorizing -- that there were people here in town who were able to help him in that area, who may have been in prison themselves. I suspect that the ministers, if there was a minister who felt supportive of what Gordy was doing, would have made a real effort to talk with him. And from what I remember seeing in the letters, there was something about that.

LT: Okay, thank you. Actually, as I'm thinking, here he was, a University of Washington student...

ED: Didn't hurt any...

LT: He was in jail, he was not in school. How did that affect his relationship with his friends, the students, his university, the community?

ED: Well, I can't possibly say as a rule it did this or did that. Each individual, I think, would have been affected differently, depending on their own experience. There were ministers who made a special effort to visit him, and to give him support. And I think that was very, that was very good. And I expect there was occasionally an individual who had spent some time in jail and felt he had something to offer Gordy in terms of that experience. I don't remember Gordy saying anything about it, so I'm just theorizing here, but it makes sense. There were organizations after he got out that gave him support, church groups, school groups. Do you remember anything about it?

LT: A little bit. I'm wondering, do you remember any particular church groups or school groups?

ED: Hmm?

LT: Do you remember any particular church groups or school groups?

ED: Well, I think the school group would have been the Y again, the YMCA. And the church group, I don't know. I'm sure there were some, but I just don't remember about that.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.