Published: September 22, 2008 12:03 am      

Q&A: Ed Cjhrzanowski presents prison life from inside

Ed Cjhrzanowski, 79, was born in the Port Richmond, a low-income, primarily Polish section of northeastern section Philadelphia and became a priest in 1957.

He has a masters degree in Theology from Notre Dame and taught at Bishop Duffy in Niagara Falls. Cjhrzanowski left the priesthood in 1977 and married a former 19-year nun, Shirley Mahar of Lockport, three years later.

Cjhrzanowski, who worked in sales and as a part-time writer for the Niagara Gazette and the Buffalo News, was a professor at Canisius College and at Attica State Prison.

His first book, “The Dead End Kids of Port Richmond, Philadelphia,” was a memoir of his first 18 years. That was published by Authorhouse in 2002.

“Letters from a Lifer,” his second book, is about Danny Edwards, a Tonawanda native, and a three-time killer who spent years in solitary confinement. It was published in August by Authorhouse.

Edwards escaped from Sing Sing Prison in 1991. In 1996, he was stabbed to death at the Auburn Correctional Facility.

Cjhrzanowski and his wife, Shirley, live in Lockport and do volunteer work for Meals on Wheels and the Briarwood Nursing Home. He helped with Bingo until he had a stroke midway through writing the Danny Edwards book.

Shirley finished the work from dictation. Cjhrzanowski is preparing a second memoir about his life as a priest.

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Question: What was Port Richmond like?

Answer: It was a good place to grow up. The kids were tough. The Dead End kids were our heroes. They were New York City tough kids. We saw the movie (Leo Gorsey) and aspired to be something like them, to a point.

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Q: What did they do?

A: Shoplifting, occasional fist rights. Mob fights took place. The first Pep Boys was in our area and the guys from our neighborhood would go down every week and shoplift there. It’s a wonder that store survived and grew throughout country.

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Q: Were the Port Richmond kids like the kids in the movie?

A: Yes. We paled around as a gang, fought with other gangs in the area and tried to make a dollar where ever we could.

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Q: When did you enter the seminary?

A: Right after high school. The Oblates of St. Francis DeSales had the biggest school in the world, an all-boys Catholic School. There were 4,000 of us. A lot of oblates came from that school. I was ordained in 1957.

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Q: Why did you leave the priesthood?

A: I was always helping people and I was sort of spent, helping others. I needed some help. I needed some support. Some intimacy, not sexual intimacy, but emotional intimacy that was lacking in my life.

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Q: What is your first book about?

A: It’s a memoir of my childhood, the first 18 years of my life. I wanted to recapture those years. I felt that nobody really described those years accurately. There was a gap. I wanted to do it honestly and realistically as I could so that people who came after me would know how we lived.

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Q: Was it well received?

A: A lot of people in Port Richmond read it and said it was a treasure. They didn’t realize this existed back in the ’30s and ’40s.

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Q: Any favorite characters?

A: Beebo, Leonard Gniewek, was a remarkable young kid. He was a great athlete, took a lot of chances. We liked him, but we hated him. We hated him because he beat us in all athletic competitions. He beat us shooting marbles, playing cards, shooting pool, bowling, every sport. He was gifted and had tryout with the Eagles.

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Q: What did you do after leaving the priesthood?

A: Sales. Journalism. I wrote for the Niagara Gazette and Buffalo News as a stringer. I taught in high school and college. I taught at prisons and worked at Attica for 13 years as a counselor and teacher.

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Q: How did you get to know Danny Edwards?

A: It was during the first class I taught at Attica. It was a philosophy class with 30 inmates, most of them black and Muslims. I said that western philosophy began with Plato and the Greeks and they objected. The Muslims stood up and shouted at me saying that’s not true. Plato traveled to Ethiopia and got all of his ideas from the Egyptians and the blacks. A lot of them were hollering at me and confusion reigned in the classroom.

A guy whistled in the back. It was Danny Edwards. He stood up and they all quieted. He was tall, husky, handsome and had a certain air about him. He said why don’t you guys lay off and give the professor a chance to talk, so they did. They sat down.

I was very grateful to Danny getting control in that class. I certainly didn’t have any control. It was a near riot.

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Q: Where did western philosophy start?

A: I looked it up. They were right. Plato did travel and get some of his ideas from Ethiopia. I apologized to the class and they had respect for me. The class went well.

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Q: When did you meet Danny again?

A: I had Danny in an English composition class for better students. It was a consortium of Niagara University, Daeman College and Canisius that granted degrees to prison inmates.

I was in charge of 40 inmates, whose job it was to tutor other inmates and be tutored. We met twice a day. My job was to see that they studied. I was locked up with 40 inmates, which itself was a little risky. Sometimes the guards would crash in on us and search everybody.

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Q: Was Danny a good writer?

A: I encouraged him to write. I really think he had a gift. It’s up to the readers to decide. I think he was gifted.

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Q: What happened?

A: After corresponding for 4 to 5 years, I read in the paper that he was plotting the murder of his ex-brother-in-law while he was in jail. FBI agents came to my home and asked if I knew about his plot to kill his ex-brother-in-law. They were trying to find out how he got money in and out of Attica.

That was intense. I did visit Danny a few times. They told me if I did help him and was not telling them, I could go to jail. Danny got solitary confinement for two and a half years for murder plot.

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Q: Could he still write?

A: Yes, and get packages, but he was consigned to his cell for 23 hours out of 24. He couldn’t telephone. The real penalty of solitary confinement is that you’re in a cell all day long except for an hour of exercise out in the yard.

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Q: How long did he write to you?

A: For seven years, 1995 to 2001.

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Q: Why read should people read the book?

A: They will marvel at what a good writer he is. It gives an insight into the mind of a convict, now an educated convict, who was very articulate. It’s very honest. It reveals the minds of inmates and divides them into categories. It tells you what life is like, not only in the bowels of prison, but in the box, solitary confinement.

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Q: What of your experience?

A: It’s one of the gifts I received in getting involved in prisons. I had all kinds of stereotypes of what prison life was. I worked there for 12 years and have a whole different attitude toward them. Anyone who reads this book will do the same.

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Q: How did he die?

A: He was stabbed by another inmate. He was coming into the cell and this inmate stabbed him, for what reason I don’t know. I tried to find out and couldn’t. I think it had to do with a race issue, a Hispanic stabbed him. There is animosity among the Hispanics, blacks and white.

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Q: Did you have contact with his family?

A: They can’t reveal anything without his permission and he’s dead. I’m hoping that one of them will read this book and contact me.