Crimes and the People Who Commit Them

Introduction

Introduction

Rick Mills

MediaNews Group

Phil Lippert lives on a river these days.

I like that from a practical standpoint, but I love the symbolism—a notion of flowing water, of life moving on, and of peace and tranquility.

This book you are holding will give you a peek at Phil’s life, his core values, his sense of humor, wry observations of other humans of all ilks, and lessons learned in 42 years of incarceration.

How he got there is the story of a one-time prostitute who was renowned for her multiple affairs and became smitten with the teenage Lippert, a schoolmate of her own children, and gifted him with s*x and drugs and a car to drive.

One evening, smoking m*******a with his high school wrestling coach, a recon marine recently returned from Vietnam, Phil divulged that his girlfriend was pressuring him to find a hit man to eliminate her husband. The coach responded, “I’d jump at the chance.” After being paid one hundred dollars for the task, he did just that. The murder was accomplished two weeks later.

Both men were arrested within two months, and Lippert was sentenced to life in prison fourteen working days after his arrest for his role in the crime.

It would be forty years later before I met Phil. He didn’t trust me. I wasn’t sure I trusted him. We quickly got past that. He and his family shared every report, every newspaper article, every document and review from the Department of Corrections and Parole Board. Approaching age 63, Phil was a man out of place, a kind and caring individual who took developmentally disabled prisoners under his wing, who often protected the vulnerable from predators, who trained dogs for police work and worked many years in prison hospital units. And he read. He spent hours every day living in books from the prison library.

“I know this may sound weird,” he once told me, “given my his tory, but I am not a violent person. I have never been in a fight. I have never twisted someone’s arm around their back and made them say, “Uncle.”

A series I wrote and published in the Morning Sun newspaper may have helped win parole for Lippert, who has been out of prison at this writing for four years, after successfully completing the mandates of his parole.

Since that time, we have become friends. My wife and I stood with them as Phil married his lovely bride, Cynthia. He’s visited my family and I his. We are friends.

Phil brings compassion, keen observations, 42 years of seeing things the rest of us can only imagine, and a great talent for writing to this book, and to all of his short stories.

I hope you enjoy them…