Unfortunate

This man spent 13 months at a reform school in Florida in the early 1960s. The state recently opened an investigation into the facility after finding 30 unmarked graves of boys who were beaten to death there during that era. He's suffered a lot in the years since. With 18 prescription pill bottles in sight from my post on the couch, a thin layer of cigarette dust covering the furniture and clothes that haven't seen soap in months, it was a hard situation to photograph kindly.
His mind is full of conspiracy theories, including one that involves the police force in North Georgia actually being secret agents from Florida out to get him. His story about coming to Georgia starts with being accused of murdering five children, a charge he didn't deny in our conversation, and ends when he cut a deal with the judge - he paid $300 in fines and moved here.
He also spoke of his marriage dissolving sometime after he started beating his wife. He just wasn't willing to be with someone who would push him to that point.
It was a difficult conversation to sit through. I felt constantly torn between pity and caution. Someone so wounded and now so troubled is hard to anticipate. Perhaps I am just feeling as an American. We are angry with the system that caused so much pain, but we want so much to hear that there has been healing and hope in the time since.