Violation Ep 1: Two Sons, Lost

Beyond All Repair

WBUR

Criminal Justice, True Crime

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why did Jacob Wideman murder Eric Kane?

In 1986, the two 16-year-olds were rooming together on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon when Jacob fatally — and inexplicably — stabbed Eric.

That night, Jacob went on the run, absconding with the camp’s rented Oldsmobile and thousands of dollars in traveler’s checks. Before long, he turned himself in and eventually confessed to the killing — although he couldn’t explain what drove him to do it.

It would take years of therapy and medical treatment behind bars before Jacob could begin to understand what was going through his mind that night. It would take even longer to try to explain it to his family, to his victim’s family and to parole board members, who would decide whether he deserved to be free ever again.

This debut episode of “Violation,” a podcast from WBUR and The Marshall Project, introduces the story of the crime that has bound two families together for decades.

Jacob’s father, John Edgar Wideman, is an acclaimed author of many books on race, violence and criminal justice. He spoke with Violation host Beth Schwartzapfel in a rare, in-depth interview about his son’s case that listeners will hear throughout the series, including this premiere.

Transcript

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0:00.0	W-B-U-R Podcasts, Boston.
0:09.0	Would you be willing to read a couple of passages?
0:11.0	I brought some of your books with me that speak to some of these issues?
0:14.6	Depends. I don't want to get into anything that even begins to feel like he said, she said.
0:25.0	Because that ain't gone nowhere.
0:27.0	I have a couple of, I flagged a couple of passages.
0:30.0	Let me see, this passage here that I've marked with the red pen.
0:36.1	I don't know if I can read this, particularly after looking at that picture of him.
0:48.4	This is John Edgar Wideman, author of more than a dozen books, English professor, Rhodes Scholar, MacArthur Genius. I've been reading John Wideman's books for years,
0:55.0	intrigued first by his lyrical explorations of the criminal justice system, of
0:59.8	racism and class and privilege.
1:03.0	And then, later, even more intrigued,
1:05.0	when I learned how these themes played out eerily,
1:09.0	tragically, in the life story of his middle child, Jacob.
1:13.6	Is this you guys in Wyoming?
1:15.3	Yes.
1:16.8	That's Jake.
1:18.6	Huh, look at that.
1:20.6	Who are you with there? When I finally arrived at his Manhattan apartment on one of the first blustery cold days this winter,
1:28.0	it felt like I was walking into something intensely personal,
1:32.0	something that as a journalist I'd been fascinated by for at least a decade
1:36.7	but as a human I was mindful was a painful private story.
	...

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