The Monkey's Disgrace Author
as per information received via an e-mail!

The author of this poem is Gilliam S. Weaver. His symbol was 20 years behind the 8 ball which referred to prison time he served for armed robbery. He was caught inside an armored car with a gun in his possession. I met him in Bunker Hill Indiana in the cold winter of about 67. He was hitch hiking to a priest friend in Florida where he often wintered. His stories were so interesting that I took him home for lunch and later to the Kokomo city shelter near where I lived. He gave me a hand written copy of that poem as a means of saying thank you. He said that he had written that copy the previous night while he was in the Peru, IN jail for vagrancy. He said that they had picked him up the night before after they had served supper and released him the next morning before the served him breakfast.

He was an older man when I met him and I remember seeing him on the old Art Linkletter TV show telling the same stories. We even wrote to the priest in Florida to see if he ever made the trip safely, but never got an answer.

I've always remembered the poem and have always seen it as author unknown. Maybe we can put a name to that poem at last. His stories seemed believable to me, but who knows.

William R. Milligan

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Bill Milligans response to my request to use his information told me "Do with the info as you wish." so I have copied his email just as it was sent to me. I will not enter his email but if anyone would like to write him, then please let me know.

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WEBMASTERS NOTE: I have seen this on joke pages and Christian page.. Personaly I believe it belongs on my Inspirational pages.