John Simpson
speaker
287 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 3 Jun
John Simpson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Joey started yelling.
The stranger started yelling.
And at some point, I threw a punch at him.
The stranger, whose name we learned during the trial, was Gavin Derwent, raised his hands and mocked surrender.
He was bigger than both of us put together and he knew it.
But as he backed away, Joey gave him a parting push and Gavin slipped.
I'll never forget the sound that bastard skull made when it cracked against the sidewalk.
No one in the bar heard the insult or witnessed the punch I'd thrown.
All anyone saw was the big guy raising his empty palms and Joey's life-changing shove.
Joey's silence was the only reason why I was called as a witness at that terrible trial, rather than as a co-defendant.
During one of the rare moments we had alone in his public defender's office, I tried to thank him, but Joey just held up a hand and gave me a sad little smile.
There'd be no point, he said, in both of us going to jail.
At the time, there was no way we could have known how severely Gavin Derwent's condition would worsen, or how harsh the judge would be with Joey's sentencing.
The letters we'd exchanged hadn't prepared me for how much Joey's time behind bars had changed him.
His skin had taken on an unhealthy yellow pallor, and even though he was only 27, there were already flecks of gray in his wiry brown hair.
His green eyes still had the same daring sparkle that I remembered, but the joy had gone out.
I wondered how I looked to him, with my scuffed-up black boots, thrift store parka, and name tag that read Assistant Manager.
I had wanted to be an English professor, but I'd dropped out during the trial.
I'd drifted from one job to another until somehow I wound up here, renting a leaky one-bedroom apartment a few blocks away from the bus station.
The streetlights came on, jolting me out of my reverie.
Showing 21–40 of 287 · page 2 of 15
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