"'My life sentence had actually started the day I left my mother's womb . . ."

Jimmy Boyle grew up in Glasgow's Gorbals. All around him the world was drinking, fighting, and thieving. To survive, he too had to fight and steal. Kids' gangs led to trouble with the police. Approved schools led to Borstal, and Jimmy was on his way to a career in crime. By his 20s he was a hardened villain, sleeping with prostitutes, running shebeens and money-lending rackets. Then they nailed him for murder. The sentence was life--the brutal, degrading eternity of a broken spirit in...