This is a story about a dude we all called,  “Cutter”. Not as in the kind of cutter that likes to slice their wrists. Another kind of cutter. The kind of cutter that cuts people who fucks them over.Cutter’s real name is Kyle. Last I heard, he’d been transferred back to USP Leavenworth. A born and raised Okie like myself, Cutter did a lot of state time behind the walls at McAlester. He’d murdered a man and got a life sentence. When I met him, he was doing a 30 piece in the feds. He was my celly at FCI El Reno in ‘01. An average looking old boy, you wouldn’t think Cutter a badass at first sight. Yet once you got to know him and learned of his repuation and/or saw him in action, you immediately knew,  look can sometimes be deceiving. You see, Cutter was a straight up killer. He was notorious for stabbing and slicing people up who stole from him, disrespected him or called him names. That’s just the way it was. Lots of men fell to the ground bleeding like a stuck pig at the hands of Cutter.

    Fortunately, Cutter being my homeboy from Oklahoma, we saw eye-to-eye on stuff and got along just fine.He knew some of the same dudes I knew from the Oklahoma joint and we’d done time at some of the same prisons.Quiet around those he didn’t know, Cutter was pretty mild mannered and calm. He stuttered real bad and didn’t talk much but when he did say a few words,  the worst thing a man could do was tease him about his speech impediment. Many times the alter­cations he got into had something to do with some asshole chastising or making fun of him when saying stuff like,”Wha-wha-what are y-y-you-you loo-lookin’  at du-du-duh-dumbass? “Constantly pumping iron and doing pushups, Cutter was in excellent physical shape.And, not only was he trained in mixed martial arts, he was one hell of a dirty,  state raised, prison fighter too. If you came to Cutter looking for a fight, you’d better be ready to go like hell. Because true to what I’m telling you here, he wasn’t anyone to fuck with.

At El Reno, if an inmate wanted to watch a particular television program, that inmate would sometimes make a sign and tape it up on the wall near the tv. Being an old cowboy, Cutter liked professional rodeo. As a kid he’d been both a bronc and bull rider. And a pretty damn good one so T was told.One evening Cutter put up a sign that read,  “PBA Bullriding 6:00pm tonight.” At six when it was time to kick back and watch bull riding, Cutter went into the TV room only to find some black guys had tore down his sign.”Who-who-who t-t-t-tore down m-m-m-my sign?” he announced to the room full of convicts. At first, no one answered yet with basketball on TV and a room full of St. Louis gangbanger it was pretty much easy to figure out.”I said, who-who-who t-t-t-tore down m-my sign?” Suddenly, one young black dude with a mouthful of gold teeth stood up and said, “I to’ it down cracker! Now git yo’ stuttering ass outta here. Nobody wants to watch no fuckin’ white boys ride bulls!” Cutter silently left the room while all the blacks began to laugh.

Standing in the center of the housing unit,  I saw the same black dude that had just embarrassed Cutter in the TV room bending over at the water fountain getting a drink. That’s when Cutter came out of nowhere making his move. Sneaking up behind the  ‘banger with a homemade ice-pick, Cutter brought it down hard stabbing the guy in the shoulder. He was aiming for his neck but at the last minute the black guy saw what was coming and jerked to one side.His reflexes saved him. Because,three or four inches to the left and Cutter would have got him right square in the jugular. Stabbed and bleeding,the black guy ran toward his cell grabbing a folding chair along the way holding Cutter at bay as a lion tamer might do a ferocious lion. “Come on out of th-the-there mo-mo-moth-motherfuck-er! You asked for this sh-sh-sh-shit!” To make a long story short, the cops rushed in and took both Cutter and the black dude to the hole.Later on, the black guy apologized to Cutter for teasing him about his stuttering and both were released back to the population.

      Another time, Cutter came in from work and noticed his new NIKE tennis shoes had been stolen from his cell. Asking around, no one knew anything. A few days later Cutter was walking by the bank of telephones in the unit and saw a black guy wearing his shoes. He knew the shoes were his, because like everyone else in prison, he had them marked so he’d know they were his in the event someone stole them. Tapping the guy on the shoulder Cutter said,”Hey! Th-th-those are m-m-m-my shoes!” Mad because Cutter interupted him when talking to his baby momma,the black dude covered the mouthpiece on the phone and said, “Get the fuck away from me punk fo’  I kick yo’  cracker ass!” Thinking no more of it, the black dude kept talking on the phone. Cutter quietly went to his cell, got a single edge razor blade, slid down the wall next to the bank of phones, reached up and cut the guy’s throat. Damn near bleeding to death before prison staff could get him to the hospital,  the black guy never stole another pair of tennies nor did he ever talk trash to another man with speech issues ever again.

     Cutter got sent to lockup and then to USP Terre Haute. Anyone who knows this guy, knows he’s for real.I thought about him because there’s a guy here named Dave who knows him and we were talking about him the other day. Dave told me he’d been at both Beaumont Medium and Forrest City Medium and got into fights over the TV at both joints. Dave knew him from USP Florence where once again he cut some guy with a lawn mower blade for cutting line in front of him in the chow hall. One more thing before I close. Ever heard the old saying,  “Think before you act?” Well, here’s what Cutter told me one time. “Trip,  sometimes it has to be the other way. A man does wha-wha-what he has t-t-t-to do, and thi-thi-thinks about the con-con-se-se-se-sequences la-la-la-later.” An average looking man who stuttered, men in prison thought they could take advantage of Cutter. Just goes to show you, sometimes the real badasses don’t always look all that bad. Watch out for guys nicknamed Cutter. Don’t steal from another, don’t cut line and don’t make fun of anyone who stutters. I’m Tripper.    Better Days!