Norman Mailer's Stabbing of Adele Morales

Background

Norman Mailer would often abuse many types of drugs and alcohol. Mailer also had a short temper and would happily engage in Head-butting, arm-wrestling, and random punch throwing. For much of the '50s, he drifted, frequently drunk or stoned or both. * McGrath, Charles (2007). "Norman Mailer, Towering Writer with Matching Ego, Dies at 84". The Mailers had been married six years. Norman was waiting on a hearing of a charge of disorderly conduct. He had gotten into a hassle over a tab of $7.60 a week before at Birdland. Adele told the arresting detectives the night of November 20 that he had been displaying "homicidal tendencies". Their family had been attempting to get him to see a psychiatrist.

The Incident

They hosted a party on November 19, 1960. The next morning, people at the party got incredibly drunk in the early hours, and quarrels broke out. Mailer and his sister got into a fight about her campaign that he did not agree with. He started hitting her, then the Mailer couple themselves got into an argument when Adele tried to defend her. Some say that Adele taunted his literary talents during their tiff. He stabbed her by the heart in her upper abdomen, and in the back, both by a penknife. She was not taken to the hospital until three hours after he hurt her. When she arrived, she told the hospital, though they were skeptical, that she had fallen on a broken bottle. She told the police the truth in the afternoon after her surgery.

The Aftermath

Mailer was arrested at the hospital around 10 pm. Initially, Mailer pleaded “not guilty,” but later changed his plea to “guilty” to avoid harmful publicity for his family. After the stabbing, Mailer was committed to Bellevue hospital. "I was very upset, because me feeling was I committed a crime." His criminal lawyer had suggested he go into the hospital. "He was thinking like a criminal lawyer" Mailer spoke. They used the mental hospital as a way to save him if his wife did end up dying from the injuries inflicted upon her. Mailer hated this, he felt he would go crazy if he'd be there any longer.

Morales, despite her wounds being superficial, pressed no charges against Mailer. He was confined to the mental Bellevue Hospital for seventeen days as a result.

This incident wasn't well received in the public eye. They weren't amused by Mailer's published poem in 1962 indirectly poking at the stabbing. "So long as you use a knife, there's some love left"

Critical Response

Susan Mailer, when interviewed, spoke briefly about her father. She said that in her memoir, she wrote the chapter "Silent Spaces" which was about the unavoidable angst that the traumatic event caused for their family. Susan studied in psychoanalysis for many years. When she wrote her memoir, it was her "second analysis." She admits she was afraid of him, but she also understood her fears of him. "He had stabbed his wife, my stepmother, Adele."

Personal Response

After being remanded to Bellevue, Mailer confessed to the judge: “I feel I did a lousy, dirty, cowardly thing.” In an interview, Mailer was asked if he drank a lot (he was drunk when he stabbed her). Mailer went on to say the only time he ever drank heavily was when a marriage was breaking up. When asked why Mailer stabbed his second wife, Adele Morales, Mailer opts out of talking about it saying that he'd maybe write about it later. He was then asked if he hated women to which he responds that he doesn't hate them, however, he did get irritated with them differently than he did with men.

In her 1997 memoir titled "The last party", Adele Morales gave a written recollection of the stabbing. She recalled seeing Norman punching people in the street during the night of the stabbing. He apparently was in a delirious state where he couldn't "remember who he was, or what his name was." She vividly remembered Norman Mailer bursting into her apartment, also recalling that she couldn't see the knife in his hand while he was rushing towards her. Morales noted that Mailer had a jarring indifference while she laid on the floor bleeding.

Citations

Norman Mailer's second wife survived his stabbing attack

Bibliography

• Lennon, J. Michael (2013). Norman Mailer: A Double Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• McKinley, Maggie (2021). "Introduction". Norman Mailer in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. 1–10.
• Moore, M.J. (February 21, 2020). "Blood in the Morning: The Turbulent Relationship of Norman Mailer and Adele Morales". Criminal Element. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
• Bufithis, H. Philip (1978). Norman Mailer. NewYork: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. pp. 1–147.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Daily News, New York (2015). "Norman Mailer stabs his wife Adele in 1960". news. New York.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cornwell, Rupert (2015). "Adele Mailer". article. UK.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• "Adele Morales Mailer dies at 90; artist was stabbed by then-husband Norman Mailer". www.latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. November 23, 2015.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Merill, Robert (1978). Norman Miller. University of Nevada: Twayne Publishers.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Death for the ladies (and other disasters). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1962.CS1 maint: location (link)
• Lucid, Robert F. (1971). Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work. Canada: Little, Brown & Company.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)