Norman Mailer's Stabbing of Adele Morales: Difference between revisions

Mailer had decided to run for Mayor of New York.{{cn}} On November 19th, 1960, in an effort to boost the campaign, the Mailers hosted a party.{{cn}}{{Copy edit inline}} The attendees of this event however would be given a clear insight into Mailer's irregular mental state at the time, as it was reported that alongside the formal guests, many individuals had come straight from the streets.{{sfn|National Post|2015}}. Mailer cursed and told the crowd to shut up when being interrupted{{sfn|Schwartzman |2019}}. He shouted: “You’re nothing but a bunch of spoiled pigs!” {{sfn|Schwartzman |2019}}.  As the hours passed, many of the guests including Mailer had become heavily intoxicated, and quarrels broke out. {{sfn|Mills|1982|p=221|}} An argument between Mailer and his sister regarding the campaign came up, resulting in Mailer assaulting her.{{cn}} The Mailer couple themselves began arguing when Adele Morales tried to defend her. Mailer had begun physically attacking the other guests and then proceeded to leave and fight those who were not involved with the party.{{cn}} When he had returned at around 4:30 a.m., witnesses say that Morales taunted Mailer's masculinity and literary talents during their argument.{{cn}}

Angered, he grabbed a penknife and then proceeded to stab Morales once in the back and once in the upper abdomen, narrowly avoiding her heart.{{cn}} As she lay there, hemorrhaging, a man at the party came to assist her and Mailer snapped, saying "Get away from her. Let the bitch die."{{sfn|Hari|2007}}. Before being stabbed in the back and the breast, she yelled “Toro! Toro!” to further ridicule Mailer’s bullfighter fetish, their routine of making public displays of their distress hit bottom. In a blind rage, Mailer thrust with a penknife and in two striking blows. {{sfn|Moore |2020}}

She was not taken to the hospital until three hours after the altercation.{{cn}} After arriving at the hospital, she said that she was at a party and fell onto glass, though doctors were skeptical.{{cn}} She told the police after that "He didn't say anything, he just looked at me. He didn't say a word. He just stabbed me".{{Verify quote}} Morales never made a full recovery.{{cn}} She developed pleurisy and found herself coughing up black phlegm several times throughout the day.{{cn}} Several years later, she fell into poverty and became an alcoholic.{{cn}}

Yet in an aftermath dominated by friends, family members, colleagues, and other enablers rallying to Norman, it became clear that he’d be “protected” and Adele, for all intent and purposes, was left to recover from her wounds and resume her life. {{cn}}