Billy Hayes Has A Plan

Like a lot of people I first heard of Billy Hayes in 1978 when the film ‘Midnight Express’ was released.  It’s hard to forget such a powerful film, much less think of it as somebody’s reality.  Billy is best known for his autobiographical book ‘Midnight Express,’ about his experiences in and escape from a Turkish prison after being convicted of smuggling hashish. He was one of hundreds of U.S. citizens in foreign jails serving ‘drug charge’ sentences following a drug smuggling crackdown by foreign governments.  I read the book after seeing the movie and found it to be even more harrowing than the film in many ways.  Since then I have always wondered who Billy Hayes really was and what’s he like today?  I got my opportunity to find out recently when Billy met with me for a quick photo session and conversation about what he’s up to and the life long effects of being a world famous convicted drug smuggler.  


Here are some details.  Billy, who was an American student at the time, was caught trying to smuggle four pounds of hashish out of Turkey on October 7, 1970. He was originally sentenced to four years and two months in a Turkish prison, then with his release date weeks away, he learned that the authorities had chosen to penalize him with a life sentence, which in practice, meant 30 years to be released in 2000.


Billy was imprisoned at Sağmalcılar prison in Turkey. Following an incident in prison, he was transferred in 1972 to Bakirkoy Mental Hospital, described as a "lunatic asylum." The United States Department of State on several occasions pressured Turkey to transfer sentencing to the United States, however Turkish foreign minister Milah Esenbel stated that the United States was not in a position to exercise a sentence handed down by Turkish courts. Esenbel stated privately to officials that a release might be possible on humanitarian grounds if Hayes' physical or mental health was deteriorating, but in a private consultation, Hayes stated to U.S. diplomats that his experience at Bakirkoy Mental Hospital in 1972 was highly traumatic and he did not have confidence that the hospital would certify him for early release. Billy also stated that he felt attempts to win early release would jeopardize his prospects of being transferred to a more desirable half-open prison.


On May 12, 1975, the Turkish Constitutional Court declared amnesty for all narcotics offenses which shortened Billys’ sentence from 30 to 25 years. He was transferred to İmralı Prison on July 11, 1975.  He escaped from İmralı on October 2, 1975, escaping at night on a rowboat to Bandirma, blending in with locals and then heading westbound across the border to Greece. He was deported from Thessaloniki to Frankfurt on October 20, 1975 after several weeks' detention and interrogation about what military intelligence Hayes possessed about Turkey. 


Billy then wrote a book on his experiences, ‘Midnight Express,’ which was later adapted into the 1978 film ‘Midnight Express’ starring Brad Davis as Billy. The film was directed by Alan Parker, with a screenplay by Oliver Stone. The movie differs from Billys' account in his book. Among the differences is a scene in which Hayes kills the prison guard Hamid "the bear", the main antagonist of the story. In fact, the prison guard was killed in 1973 by a recently released prisoner, whose family Hamid insulted while beating the prisoner, years before Hayes' actual escape.


For legal reasons, neither the film nor the book had been completely accurate. In 2010, in an episode of National Geographic Channel's ‘Locked Up Abroad,’ titled ‘The Real Midnight Express,’ Billy tells his version of the full story about being sent to the infamous Turkish Sagmalcilar prison, eventually escaping from the Marmara Sea prison on İmralı island.



Billy has acted in a few film roles and directed the feature ‘Cock & Bull Story’ in 2003.  The film is the story of two friends who are torn apart by passion and ambition in the violent world of amateur boxing starring Brian Austin Green.  







AM:  Billy, I can’t even begin to imagine what the arc of your life has been like.





BH:  Interesting is the one word that pretty much covers the whole breath and depth.





AM:  Was it interesting from the day you were born?





BH:  Pretty much so.  I had such an easy life.  Everything was so easy for me, school, sports, girls, being social, it was all so easy.  Then everything changed in an instant.  I had taken everything for granted as most people do, especially Americans.  Then, when everything was gone I had to examine who I was and why I was here.  I had to discover things.  It was actually very valuable to me.  Even today when I get concerned about things I have to stop and remind myself that I am healthy, free and my wife still loves me and nobody is beating my feet.   Everything else is gravy.





AM:  You have your priorities in order it seems.





BH:  I hope so.  I am happy!





AM:  Did you always want to be an actor or performer?





BH:  I always intended to be a writer.  It’s what put me out in the world to explore.





AM: Well you’re good at it so it makes sense.





BH:  Anybody can be a writer.  All you have to do is sit down everyday and do it whether you have something to say or whether you’re good at it.  In college I was a journalism major.  When I returned home for the first time I got off the plane at Kennedy Airport and there were one hundred journalists there, asking me what it felt like to be home again.  I didn’t know how it felt yet.  I hadn’t even seen my Mom yet.  I got asked to speak at high schools and colleges and I wondered why, but then I realized I did have a good story for kids. My message was if you are this stupid, look what can happen to you.  Those kids understood this.





AM:  Did you feel like your trials and tribulations were on display?





BH:  Everybody goes through their own trials and tribulations.  Mine just happened to be more compact and dramatic because of having the media involved.  I was in jail from 1970 to 1975.  Everybody can relate to going through customs so my situation struck a chord.  I got home on a Friday and by Monday I was writing the book.  Before the book was even finished the producer Peter Guber was flying me out to Hollywood to talk about a movie deal.





AM:  Did you imagine your experience being turned into a movie while you were in prison?





BH:  It’s so bizarre.  While I was inside a lot of my letters and writing got sent to a school in Milwaukee.  I always wanted to write a book about it but to have it become a movie is strange, and to have it become what it has to this day is even more weird.





AM:  The story has never gone away.





BH:   No it hasn’t.  I’m a bed bug in the fabric of our culture.  You can’t get rid of 'Midnight Express.’  People have always been talking about it even while I was in jail and then all the media after I got out.





AM:  You actively promoted your book and movie didn’t you?





BH:  I did promotions for the book and then a worldwide promotion for the movie.   Now I’ve got a woman who has been following me around for a few years making a documentary.  She is picking up on all the bizarre aspects of 'Midnight Express’ seeping into the culture.





AM:  I see references to it all the time.





BH:  John Belushi talked about it on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Jim Carrey has a scene in ‘Cable Guy’ when he gets arrested and put in jail, and there are about ten more examples how the story has seeped into the culture.  There was even a ‘Midnight Express Tour’ that went from London to Amsterdam and back.  There is still a ‘Midnight Express’ Courier driving around town.  I don’t know what to make of all that.  The National Geographic ‘Locked Up Abroad’ TV show did my story two years ago.  The response to it was just incredible.  It led me to a One Man Show I have in progress now.  I did it in Hollywood for a couple weeks just to get it up on it’s feet and help me feel what it’s like getting up on stage.





AM:  Is being on stage natural for you?





BH:  Yes, my Mom said I never have any trouble BSing about myself!  





AM:  I can tell you are an outgoing person.





BH:  Always!   My wife and I are going to London in April because the London Coliseum Theatre is doing a production of the ‘Midnight Express Ballet.’  They are bringing me over to do some promotion.  It stars this Russian dancer named Segei Polunin, who is the bad boy of ballet.  I also have two new books coming out so I will be doing some book signings too.  Every thirty years I make a big splash!  Wait til you see me in my nineties.  (laughter)  It just continues and it’s too bizarre for me to think about.





AM:  This attention you receive seems to suit you very well.





BH:    In prison you try to avoid attention.  You really don’t want any.  There’s too much danger being the center of attention there.  As soon as I got out that’s all I’ve had.





AM:  You went from one extreme to the other.





BH:  Exactly, it hasn’t stopped since I got off that plane at Kennedy Airport.





AM:  Does it ever get old for you?





BH:  It does when it hinders communication.  When it fosters communication it’s great.  I’m constantly having to deal with and adjust to other people’s perceptions of me.  Normally when you meet someone you don’t know them and you find out who they are, but people think they know me.  If they’ve read the book they know one guy.  If they’ve only seen the movie they know somebody else.





AM:   Everyone thinks they know you already.





BH:  Yes and while some concepts are valid, many aren’t.  I have to constantly live with this, but it’s not a big deal.  It is what it is.  For a while I did totally get away from anything ‘Midnight Express’ and ‘Billy Hayes.’  When I got my SAG card it was under the name William Hayes.  I literally showed everyone my SAG card when I got it.  I do that now with my Medicare card!  (laughter)  I never thought I’d see thirty so I am thrilled to be sixty-five.





AM:  How do you stay looking so fresh and young?





BH:  Yoga.





AM:  What about Spiritually?





BH:  I was raised a Catholic until I was eleven or twelve years old when the church and I went opposite directions due to puberty and reason.  I do think religion is the main source of human misery but in prison I discovered my reason for being.  This always sounds so trite, but it’s true.  My reason for being is to love.  I didn’t know this until after many years in the depths of jail.  It changed everything for me.  All my needs are secondary after that.  I’ve been married for 32 years.  Life is kind of sweet now. A lot of good things are happening now.  I always want more, but I think that’s good.  When you lose that you start to die a little bit.  I’m very excited about life and I always have been.    






AM:  When you say you learned that you are here to love, did that awareness just rise up one day?





BH:  I was always a reader of philosophy.  I got rid of religion because it didn’t make sense.  I was an English major in college so I was always seeking.  I had all of this Spiritual yearning that seemed to be part of growing up in the Sixties.   When I realized I was here to love, it simplified everything for me.





AM:  I think keeping things simple is the only way.





BH:  That is the energy I seek in myself and in others.  It’s the arrow by which I guide myself.  I know this energy now and if people vibrate this energy I move in that direction, if they don’t, I move in another direction.





AM:  That is a great way to see things.





BH:  Things just happen.  We decide what they mean and how they will affect us or not.   I used to do the college lectures in the Eighties.  I visited 103 colleges in a three year period talking about all this stuff.  The writer William James said, “People can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.”  It makes so much sense.  We alter our life by altering our attitude.  That’s so simple and profound.  It really helped me deal with prison.  Prison was the worst and the best thing that ever happened to me.  Even down to the fact that when the movie premiered at the Canne Film Festival in May 1978, I met the woman I am still married to today.





AM:  You were mostly pleased with the film weren’t you?





BH:  I was pleased by the fact it was an incredibly well made film.  Alan Parker is a genius and Brad Davis gave his heart and soul.    





AM:  You liked Brads’ performance, of course.





BH:  I loved Brad.  I miss him so much.  I could go weeks and months without talking to him on the phone and then suddenly we’d be having breakfast or lunch.  The cool thing about Brad was you could meet up with him and no matter what your day was like, it was going to change and you’d never know where it was going to lead.  He had an incredible child like nature that was wonderful as an actor.





AM:  So you are moving into the future with your one man show!





BH:  Hopefully this Spring we’ll be putting up 'Riding the Midnight Express’ up in New York.  We want to take it all around the world.  That’s the plan!