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  1. Politics
10 September 2009updated 27 Sep 2015 2:29am

The Tale of Tony Trout

Spying, corruption, prison and a pet deer

By Sophie Elmhirst

This story is a classic. Thank you, Greenville News. A local Greenville councilman, Tony Trout (TONY TROUT!), is done for spying and wiretapping. He gets sent to Beckley, a West Virginian prison camp (headline: Disciplined prison life awaits Tony Trout). And then you get this:

A man identifying himself as a former camp inmate in a popular online prison forum said one of the best parts about Beckley is the wildlife: hand-fed raccoons and skunks, even a deer named “Buttons” that would stick its nose in inmates’ pockets for candy.

And suddenly we’re in a Disney film or Dr Doolittle, but with a criminal edge. Buttons?!

The Greenville News blogosphere don’t seem to think much of the whole set-up either. One commenter compares it to “Camp Old Indian”, a holiday camp, which prompts an outpouring of nostalgia. “Rusty Nail”, says he, “went there for several Summers when I was a ‘YOOT’ growing up in Greenville.” Another says he still drives up there to reminisce about “how simple and good life seemed to be way back then”.

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It’s all too much. But somehow I think old wiretapping Tony Trout could probably do a lot worse for his moral fibre than spend a few months feeding sweets to Buttons. Makes me think our criminal justice system should start seriously considering the introduction of tame deer and raccoons. Into the manifesto, I hear you cry.

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