….because while her husband semi-languishes in jail, Barbara Amiel is having a crisis.
She has been shunned by other wealthy families in this exclusive area of Florida, and is hardly seen outside her mansion.
One of the few with whom she has remained in contact says: ‘Barbara’s presence on the social scene is absolute zero. She did not have that many friends here to begin with, but with her husband in jail she has even fewer.’
At the Palm Beach Daily News, one reporter who covers the social scene in Palm Beach told me that Amiel’s name was no longer on any of the regular invitations that are sent out.
‘She was always considered something of an outsider, who did not participate in the charitable scene. Now she is even more so.’
She will not have endeared herself to former friends and associates either with her recent activities. In a rancorous and self-serving article in a broadsheet newspaper last week, Lady Black unleashed her fury on both the American criminal justice system and those she still insists abandoned her and her husband in their hour of need – the ‘rats who left the ship’ as she calls them.
She went on to denounce her husband’s ‘judicial murder’, as well as the treachery of his former colleagues.
Her husband had, she wrote, been ‘baselessly smeared, wrongfully deprived, falsely accused, shamelessly persecuted, innocently convicted and grotesquely punished’. If, she asks plaintively, the rich and well-connected cannot get justice, ‘what chance for anyone else?’
Please, people, try not to laugh too loud at that last howler. Lady La-de-Da’s silk-upholstered fainting couch is already sopping wet. And why not, since her dear husband has been adverbially verbed in every vile, cruel, baseless way…
Oh, who’m I kidding–that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in this whole affair since the word “guilty” came down!
Don’t worry, Babs–the rich and well-connected can and do get justice once in a while, despite their billions and all the lawyers they can buy. I do agree that poor, dear Conny just hasn’t gotten quite enough, considering all the people he’s swindled and screwed and sold false news to over the last three or four decades. He should be getting twenty to life (whichever comes first).
It is, however, nice to know that in the meantime, he’s learning a thing or two about how the other half 99.999999% lives:
It is now just over five months since Black – now inmate 18330-424 – arrived at Coleman for the start of his six-and-a-half-year sentence, clutching only his spectacles, his sleeping tablets and a tube of lip salve (the latter two being immediately confiscated).
He had hoped his stay would prove a short one, remaining optimistic about a hearing before the Appeal Court in June. Alas for Black, it was unanimously rejected, in a decision that described some of his conduct at Hollinger International, the company over which he presided, as ‘ridiculous’.
[…]
According to other prison sources, Conrad has been ‘stunned’ by the lack of education of his fellow inmates.
‘Conrad remains very snobbish, despite having the same daily routine as all the other prisoners,’ said a source. ‘He said he was shocked by how uneducated most of his fellow inmates were.
‘It was a surprising thing to say, given that many of his fellow prisoners are hispanics and blacks from very poor communities who did not even graduate from senior school.’
No matter, since they now have ‘Lordy’ to bring some of his sparkling intellect and insight to bear.
Of late, Conrad has been holding lectures in American history which have been attended by both inmates and guards alike. The talks have been so successful – and entertaining – that they have been moved from the library to a bigger venue within the prison to accommodate demand.
It is perhaps just as well he remains busy, given that the U.S. prison service does not much allow for leniency when it comes to early release, and Black is likely to serve at least 85 per cent of his sentence, making him past 70 by the time he regains his freedom.
Heh…maybe he will get life after all–or something close enough to it. And in the meantime, just imagine what a fine public education he’ll be getting–all of it in the realm of social studies, and all about what makes and keeps people poor and downtrodden.
Mind you, I’m not sure how much of these valuable lessons will sink in. After all, His Nibs was shocked, SHOCKED at the education level of his fellow inmates. Speaks volumes, no?
