P
o
o
0
o w
The
Good
Thief
and the
Gentle
Forger
By BOB DRISCOLL
Dannemora prison in New York state
was like all prisons to convicted forger
Carmelo Soraci in 1940 a bleak limbo void
of hope or identity.
But he was glad he was being transferred
there from Sing Sing. Some priest had heard
Soraci was an "artist" not with pen and
check but with brush and paints and
wanted him to help build a chapel. In prison
parlance, it was a "good deal," a chance to
dodge backbreaking work. Nothing more,
prison-wise Soraci figured.
Father Ambrose Hyland was like all
prison chaplains eager, hopeful, trying to
make life a little more meaningful for caged -men.
Soraci listened to him respectfully but
not without cynicism.
"I want to give Dannemora a chapel, Car
melo. One dedicated to St. Dismas, The
Good Thief who died on the cross next to
Jesus. I want you to do the murals. Of
course, we don't have any money . . ."
The cynicism was visible now in a bitter
smile on Carmelo's face. Why had he even
hoped he'd get a chance to play artist?
Since he was a kid, he'd been driven by a
love of art and always frustrated. The de
pression had cheated him of a chance to
study, and his own weaknesses and needs
had put him behind, bars at 18. Now art
again had been held out to him, then
snatched away.
Father Hyland saw the disappointment
"Carmelo, this St. Dismas lived a life of
crime; he was without hope; yet Jesus
Carmelo Soraci's windows in Sing Sing chapels
include gem-like rose window (top right),
and (in clockwise order) the Crucifixion with
scene at Christ's tomb, the Holy Eucharist,
and Christ in the Garden and His betrayal.
Family Weekly, August 7, 1960