Gail Sullivan - Tears and Tiers The Life and Times of JosephMad Dog Sullivan the only man to escape Attica Prison, the true story of a legend

TEARS AND TIERS

(A PRODUCT OF THE STATE)

PART I 1952-1971

The life story of the only manever to escape ATTICA Prison

Biography by:

Joseph J. Sullivan

Gail W. Sullivan

Copyright 1978

"A Brief FamilyHistory"

His given name is Joseph George Sullivan (confirmation name isJohn) named such in March 1939 in Rockaway Beach, (Irish-Town) Queens. Third generation Irish-American andsecond eldest of six children, Four boys and two girls. He was named such in honor of my father'sbrother "Joe", who died four years before his birth at the young ageof twenty-two.

"UncleJoe" was literally the shining star of the staunch Irish-Catholic Sullivanfamily from Belle Harbor, New York. Uncle Joe was doted on by his mother and father and worshipped by hisfive brothers and two sisters who he led the way for and was very defensiveof... at a time when there wasstill a good deal of W.A.S.P. prejudice against Irish Catholics. And signs such as "Irish Need NotApply", employment wise, and "Irish Keep off the grass", werestill a common sight. But noneadored "Uncle Joe" more than Joes Dad, or was more devastated uponhis untimely death. The exceptionof course being his mom, Julia Sullivan (McLoughlin) and my grandfather"Big Tim Sullivan", who all said died of a "broken-heart"within a year of Joe's passing.

BigTim, as all called him, had been the N.Y.C. hand-ball champion while serving asCaptain on the Police Force for over twenty years. Uncle Joe was a strapping six foot two, drop dead handsomeleft-tackle for the "Fighting Irish" of Notre Dame at South Bend,Indiana. He planned to go into theMonastery (priesthood) upon graduation in his senior year of 1935, and had justbeen voted co-captain at the start of the '35 season, his final year under headcoach Elmer Layden... one of theHeralded "Four Horsemen" of the Knute Rockne era. When suddenly, in the bone chillingcold of a South Bend, Indiana winter, Joe contracted pneumonia and died a veryfew short days later. Some of thefamily say his death was due to a head injury in that era of Leather-HelmetFootball. Uncle Joe's greatestbattles on the gridiron were against Army and Navy as two of his youngerbrothers Frank and Eddie played for Navy and Army respectively in Joe's thirdyear at Notre Dame.

Asa wide-eyed eight year old in Joes grandmothers' house in Belle Harbor,N. Y he heard all the lovingstories and thought heI was in a museum dedicated to his memory. His presence was everywhere... in the pictures, medals and trophiesfor football, Javelin, and the shot-putt. And of course in the News-Clippings which I read with a young boy'sawe. Though his most sacredmoments came whenever he snuck down into the basement, silently undoing thehuge brass clamps on a steamer-trunk, which held all Uncle Joe's footballparaphernalia. Before which hedsit for hours on the damp basement floor. Holding and fingering the muddy high-topped cleats, blood stained jerseyand battered leather helmet in his trembling hands. All the while listening for footsteps on the cellar stairs,for it was Taboo --an unspoken agreement that the trunk was never to be opened,or these Holy Relics ever touched again. But something Joe had been doing every week since