The Racketeer

“In the United States we spend $40,000 a year to incarcerate each prison inmate and $8,000 to educate each elementary school student. Here we have counselors, managers, caseworkers, nurses, secretaries, assistants of many varieties, and dozens of administrators who would be hard-pressed to truthfully explain how they fill their eight hours each day.”

John Grisham is a critic of the American justice system, which has the highest incarceration rate per capita of any developed country in the world. This passage illustrates the theme of The Cost of Punishment. There are many costs beyond simple money, but the financial cost alone to society is enormous. As the author will show, this cost is being incurred unjustly or unreasonably in many cases.

"Because of this, I feel more white than black.”

Malcolm Bannister is Grisham’s first Black protagonist, but unlike in previous novels, such as A Time to Kill, race does not play a central role in the narrative of The Racketeer. Grisham makes no effort to write from a “Black” perspective or to address the issue of racism, although he has done so in other stories. Malcolm’s observation about his ambiguous status in prison implies that other factors are more important to his identity than race.

“Every day I take a long walk, alone, on a dirt jogging trail that skirts the edges of the camp and follows the boundary, or the ‘line,’ as it is known. Step over the line, and you’re considered an escapee. In spite of being the site of a prison, this is beautiful country with spectacular views. As I walk and gaze at the rolling hills in the distance, I fight the urge to just keep walking, to step over the line. There is no fence to stop me, no guard to yell my name. I could disappear into the dense woods, then disappear forever.”

This passage foreshadows the revelation that Quinn Rucker not only escaped but did so as part of a plan between Malcolm, Quinn, and Vanessa. It highlights the sacrifice that Malcolm made by staying in prison rather than escaping with Quinn. Malcolm’s plan enables him to get out of prison with a fortune without having to live as a fugitive.

“From the moment I was indicted, my father believed I was guilty, of something. Forget the presumption of innocence. Forget my rants about being innocent. As a proud career man, he was thoroughly brainwashed by a lifetime of chasing those who broke the law, and if the Feds, with their resources and great wisdom, deemed me worthy of a one-hundred-page indictment, then they were right and I was wrong.”

This passage points to another bias in the legal system. Here, Grisham calls attention to the tendency of law enforcement officers and people outside the system to assume that arrest and conviction serve as ironclad proof of guilt. The quote also highlights the depth of his father’s betrayal.

“I am sitting here doing ten years for a noncrime because a hotshot US Attorney needed to jack up his kill quota.”

This passage speaks to the theme of Injustice in the Justice System. Too often, justice is overlooked in the game of cops and robbers played by law enforcement and the legal system, and harmless civilians often suffer the consequences.

“Gerard is a kindly soul with no mean streak. He has no history of violence and no business wasting his life in prison. He’s one of a million young blacks being warehoused by the taxpayers. We’re approaching 2.5 million prisoners in this country, by far the highest rate of incarceration in any semicivilized nation.”

Grisham uses this passage to reiterate one of his main criticisms of the American justice system. He makes the point that Gerard is no threat to society and that there should be a more reasonable and less costly way to deal with nonviolent crimes.

“Revenge is a motive, though the FBI says nothing about it. The words “contract killing” are being used by some reporters, who apparently have nothing to base this on except for the professionalism of the killings. Given the crime scene and the empty safe that was so carefully hidden, robbery seems the likelier motive.

I have a plan, one I have been plotting for years now. It is my only way out.”

With this quotation, Malcolm introduces the fact that everything from this point forward is an elaborate confidence game, but he still withholds crucial details from the narrative. Thus, the tension of the story lies as much in whether Malcolm will be successful as in the anticipation of seeing the plan unfold layer by layer.

“I’m excited by the possibility of attacking the lousy performance of a lawyer who’s still out there, still making a living and pretending to be much better than he is. I spend an hour with Roman and we make an appointment for another meeting.”

There is no indication in the passage that Roman is innocent, but the system is based on the premise that everyone is entitled to the best defense available. Malcolm has always cared about justice, but he now has a very personal investment in ensuring justice and fair play.

“As the victim of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), an often misguided and famously flexible federal law, I am keenly interested in the proliferation of the federal criminal code, now at twenty-seven thousand pages and counting. The Constitution names only three federal offenses: treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. Today there are over forty-five hundred federal crimes, and the number continues to grow as Congress gets tougher on crime and federal prosecutors become more creative in finding ways to apply all their new laws.”

Grisham makes two points here. First, an ordinary civilian has no way of knowing every law on the books and has no recourse if they inadvertently break one. The words “their new laws” suggests that law enforcement agencies regard the law itself as a toy to play with, and ordinary civilians are their prey in an ongoing game that does not have their best interests at heart, contrary to popular belief. This cynical, hardened view persists throughout the narrative as Grisham uses his characters to give voice to critical yet fact-based perspectives on the inherent flaws of the judicial system.

“The trial was a spectacle, a farce, a ridiculous way to search for the truth. But as I learned, the truth was not important. Perhaps in another era, a trial was an exercise in the presentation of facts, the search for truth, and the finding of justice. Now a trial is a contest in which one side will win and the other side will lose. Each side expects the other to bend the rules or to cheat, so neither side plays fair. The truth is lost in the melee.”

In this passage, Grisham is inserting another critique of a legal system in which civilians are nothing but pawns in a game. The reference to finding truth in the courtroom is a reference to the older genre of the courtroom drama in which the lawyer exposes the real perpetrator in a dramatic twist.

“The real tragedy of the federal criminal system is not the absurdities. It is the ruined and wasted lives. Congress demands long, harsh sentences, and for the violent thugs these are appropriate. Hardened criminals are locked away in ‘U.S. Pens,’ fortresses where gangs are rampant and murders are routine. But the majority of federal prisoners are nonviolent, and many are convicted of crimes that involved little, if any, criminal activity.”

In this passage, Grisham continues to emphasize the cost of a bloated and inefficient system. As the protagonist states, all the costs of that inefficiency are borne by taxpayers, and that doesn’t account for the cost of broken families and lost futures. The plot twists of The Racketeer are ultimately designed to illustrate the many costs, both tangible and intangible, experienced by those caught up in the various punishments of the judicial system.

“Hanski whips out a document and slides it across. ‘Here’s the indictment,’ he says. ‘Came down late Friday afternoon in Roanoke, still a secret, but it will be released to the press first thing in the morning.’ I hold it like a brick of gold and have trouble focusing on the words.”

The reference to a brick of gold foreshadows the gold that Malcolm and his co-conspirators will soon be stealing from Nathan Cooley. To Malcolm, holding the paper is equivalent to holding the gold itself.

“‘The defendant claims he was repeatedly threatened with the death penalty by both agents. If true, this of course would be highly improper and would probably kill the confession,’ Westlake replied as he shook his head. ‘Look at the bottom of page seven, both affidavits. The agents state, under oath, that they made no threats whatsoever.’”

This is an example of the dishonesty and game-playing that goes on in the legal system. The statement of the agents is meaningless. There is reason to believe that they are not telling the truth—which in this case, they are not—but the FBI has no intention of showing the evidence that they did threaten Quinn.

“If the government wants to watch me, there’s little I can do. They can obtain court orders to snoop into my bank account, to listen to my phone calls, to monitor my credit card activity, and to watch everything I do online. I anticipate all of the above, and my challenge in the near future is to deceive them without letting them know they are being deceived.”

Grisham is making two points here. First, the government has extensive powers that most people would find objectionable, and which may be used in a less-than-ethical manner. Second, Malcolm’s reference to deception hints that he is playing a deeper game than he is revealing at this time.

“They think we’re pals now, one big happy team walking lockstep toward another just verdict. If I could, I would knife them in the back and poison their case. They—the federal government—took away five years of my life, along with my son, my wife, and my career. How dare they sit here as if we’re trusted partners.”

Once again, Grisham is reminding his readers of the human cost of a flawed system. Not only has Malcolm lost his family, his reputation, and his career, but he has also lost his faith in the system. His hostility drives him to manipulate the system for his own benefit.

“Other than myself, no one really cares anymore. I suppose my father and siblings would like to see my life made whole again, but it’s not a priority. They have their own lives to worry about. Once you go to prison, the world assumes you deserve it, and all pity comes to an end.”

Again, Malcolm’s former life has been effectively destroyed by a false conviction. Malcolm could be wrong in his assessment of his family’s disinterest in him, but he makes the point that the public has little interest in considering that the system might make mistakes.

“I’d say it’s pretty hopeless. There are no jobs except for coal, and so many young men just don’t want to work in the mines anymore. Plus, they start getting high when they’re fifteen, hooked at sixteen. The girls are pregnant at sixteen, kids having kids, babies nobody wants. Once you start screwing, you don’t stop. I don’t see much future around here, not for people like me.”

Although this conversation does not advance the plot, it does serve to provide a viable platform for the author’s observation about the relationship between crime and economic depression. It also paints Nathan in a sympathetic light as someone who fell afoul of the law at least partly because of circumstances. That perception is turned on its head when Malcolm eventually reveals that Nathan tortured and killed both the judge and his mistress.

“This is the fateful moment upon which everything else has been created. Without this, the entire project would be a gargantuan disaster, one horrific and lousy gamble.”

This is the second turning point of the story and the beginning of the third act. At this point, it is clear that Nathan is far from an innocent bystander and was almost certainly the judge’s killer.

“I take a deep breath and feel like crying. This project has been on the drawing board for over two years, and during most of that time the odds of a successful outcome were at least a thousand to one. A series of loosely connected events had to fall perfectly into place.”

Up to this point, Malcolm’s endgame has been unclear, but with this quote, two points become apparent—that the con has been more complex and more detailed than was previously seen and that Malcolm has known all along that Quinn is innocent, further reinforcing the suspicion that Quinn and Malcolm are working together.

“Nothing definite, but we’ll find one. Racketeering comes to mind. I’m sure we can bend RICO to fit these facts. Conspiracy to impede the judicial process. Lying to the court and the FBI. Come to think of it, the indictment is growing the longer we talk. I’m getting pissed.”

The goal of the prosecutors here is less about justice or catching the real killer than it is about power. The FBI and the prosecutor are willing to trump up charges and bend the law to get what they want, rather than working with an innocent man to solve a crime.

“A total of nine, all apparently untouched during their journey from Miami to Antigua. I often wonder about their history. Who mined the gold? From which continent? Who minted it? How did it get into this country? And so on. But I know these questions will never be answered.”

Unlike other forms of currency, gold has an aura of romance; it has history. It is beautiful, durable, and rare, possessing conductive properties that make it valuable for technological uses as well as coinage or ornamentation. With this quotation, Grisham emphasizes the long reputation the substance has held in people’s imaginations, as well as the many crimes people are willing to commit for the mere chance of possessing great quantities of it.

“I’ll bet your initial reaction is to trump up some bogus indictment and come after me and Quinn Rucker. You can’t help this because you are, after all, the Feds, and it’s just your nature. What is it about our prosecutorial system that makes guys like you want to put everyone in jail?”

Malcolm is correct; this is exactly what the feds have been doing. Fortunately, Malcolm has anticipated them. More importantly, Malcolm is summing up the injustice in the system; the agents and prosecutors treat civilians as toys in a game.

“‘You’re just getting revenge, aren’t you, Max? One last shot at the government.’ ‘Who says it’s my last?’ I say over my shoulder.”

This passage hints at the depth of the rage Malcolm feels over his wrongful conviction. Ultimately, it is clear that his rage is justified, for Westlake tacitly acknowledges that the conviction may not have been entirely just.