The Old Man Woman and the Sea Jailcell

October 5, 2001 10:04 AM

The Old Man Woman and the Sea Jailcell The son of Ernest Hemmingway, Dr. Gregory Hemingway, died on Monday from natural causes in his private jailcell at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention Center. No, not a typo there: Gregory, who occassionally also went as "Gloria", had been arrested on relatively minor charges ... emerging naked from a state park in the Florida Keys.
posted by bclark (16 comments total)

Just an fyi, Key Biscayne is an island suburb of Miami, it's not really part of the "the Keys", which constitutes most of Monroe county.

Key West has an annual Hemmingway festival, where every fat guy with a beard shows up, gets drunk, and enters a Hemmingway lookalike contest.

I'm thinking Gregory/Gloria contest would be a LOT more interesting.
posted by groundhog at 10:17 AM on October 5, 2001

Hey, Groundhog ... I'm an honorary conch myself, and a full-time (but employed) Floridian, so I'm well aware of Key Biscane's location ... and took a couple of literary liberties with the post to entice people to read a non-WTC story ;)

Fantasyfest anyone?
posted by bclark at 10:27 AM on October 5, 2001

I'm confused. he was found naked, but put in the women's detention center.

they determine which detention center you go to according to whether or not you're wearing high heels?
posted by rebeccablood at 11:12 AM on October 5, 2001

rebeccablood, the only clothes he had with him was a dress so I'm assuming they didn't want to put a cross-dresser with the male population to avoid the obvious homophobic problems that would arise. Maybe the women's center had empty cells or they thought it would be funny to put him in there. I'm sure there's going to be some statement on this soon.
posted by skallas at 11:33 AM on October 5, 2001

crossdressing doesn't equal homosexuality, as I'm sure you know, as would any inmates who engage in situational or habitual homosexual behavior. I would think the police would know it too. it doesn't make sense to me....
posted by rebeccablood at 11:38 AM on October 5, 2001

No ... apparantly there had been "sufficient surgery to constitute a sex change", despite the fact that Gregory did not spend all his time as a female.
posted by bclark at 11:44 AM on October 5, 2001

crossdressing doesn't equal homosexuality

I think that's beside the point. Homophobia isn't terribly rational. I really don't see the bunch in the holding cell arguing over this. To most people, cross-dressing is homosexual.
posted by skallas at 11:53 AM on October 5, 2001

poor fellow.
posted by newnameintown at 12:01 PM on October 5, 2001

Let's see... you don't actually have to be a homesexual, or a woman trapped in a mans body, you can just wear a dress and heels, and you get to stay in the Women's Detention Center? Where do I sign up? I mean I'm sure it's not the happiest place on earth, but in all those female prison movies it looks like one big slumber party.

Also, why does Raising Arizona keep popping in my mind?
posted by fluxcreative at 1:00 PM on October 5, 2001

I think the fact that a Hemingway died of natural causes is news in and of itself.
posted by kerouaciness at 1:14 PM on October 5, 2001

Of course, Laura Branigan predicted this all two decades ago...
posted by gimonca at 2:11 PM on October 5, 2001

He was obviously lucid:
The younger Hemingway wrote angry letters to Ernest Hemingway, calling him "an ailing alcoholic'' and deriding The Old Man and the Sea as "a sickly bucket of sentimental slop.''

posted by Johannahh at 2:13 PM on October 5, 2001

If Papa was alive he would probably shoot himself again. Goddamn kids these days.

I obscenity in the milk of your crossdressing!
posted by Hildago at 10:50 PM on October 5, 2001

If Papa was alive he would probably shoot himself again.

Well, considering that for the first few years of his life, Papa H's mother dressed and raised him as the twin of his older sister, he might conceivably feel a small (very small) pang of sympathy. On the other hand, most clothes small boys wore back then look like girls' clothes to a contemporary eye, so who knows how meaningful these matching outfits really were? Opinions vary.
posted by redfoxtail at 8:50 AM on October 6, 2001

I read his book--it was excellent. I had no idea that the guy was such a weirdo.
posted by Witold at 2:09 PM on October 6, 2001

Witold: I never read his book. Is your opinion of him changed? If so, how?
posted by allaboutgeorge at 6:59 PM on October 7, 2001