Wendell Bolden takes the stand in chapter 4 of Walter Dean Myers' book Monster. Immediately from his responses to the lawyers, readers can see that he is a tough guy and not unfamiliar with the prison scene. His testimony shows a few things that are critical to the plot of the story.
First, Bolden elaborates on how he heard about the murder. A man sold him some cigarettes and mentioned a few details – enough to let Bolden know that the cigarettes came from the robbery on Malcolm X Boulevard. Since Bolden knew someone was killed there and the suspects had not been caught, he filed the information away for later. When asked who gave him this information, Bolden says it was Bobo Evans. Later, when Bolden went to prison, he whipped out the info to get out, and here we all are.
When Briggs starts questioning Bolden, he pushes back on this part of the story, asking why Bobo would confide in him about something that could get Bobo in big trouble. Briggs also questions Bolden's honesty, claiming that Bolden would say anything to get out of prison. Bolden doesn't seem too intimidated by this, though, and it seems pretty likely that Bobo was just a blabber-mouth and Bolden is telling the truth (especially when we hear Bobo himself testify later).
No comments:
Post a Comment