know. Outside prison only a few very trusted people ever saw him cry.
In one of Peter’s conversations with his father, he made a positive reference to
Joseph McCarthy, linking McCarthy and his father because of their common anti-
Communist zeal. Reich replied that Peter should not compare his fate with McCarthy’s.
McCarthy had no solutions. But Reich had made a discovery with which to fight evil.
Eva visited Reich while he was in prison. There was generally a good relationship
between the two, although at one point Reich became quite upset because Eva had report-
ed to Aurora (who lived in Lewisburg during part of Reich’s confinement) some local gos-
sip about them as a couple. Aurora in turn was annoyed and Reich angry at Eva for report-
ing such gossip^14.
Eva believes that during his prison stay, Reich wanted to name Aurora Karrer as
executrix of his estate rather than herself. The reasons for this were never made clear. In any
case, no will later than the one Reich had signed on March 8, 1957, before going to jail, was
ever found.
On October 22, 1957, in good spirits Reich wrote in his last letter to Peter that the
date of his possible release was November 10, with a parole hearing scheduled for a few days
before. Reich concluded by requesting his son to find a good hotel in Poughkeepsie to stay
in on visits.He asked Peter to find a place without chlorinated water. And he agreed that
they had a “date” for a meal at the Howard Johnson’s restaurant near Peter’s school.
They were never able to keep it. Around October 22, Reich felt ill but he would not
reveal it to the prison authorities for fear his sickness might delay the parole^15. Undoubtedly
his distrust of physicians was even higher within prison. He intended to recuperate in a
sanatarium after his release.
To the end, Reich was hoping and planning for the future. But that part of him that
had believed he would die in prison prevailed. When he failed to appear for the roll call on
November 3, the prison staff found him at 7:00 A.M. He had died in his sleep. His shoes
were off,but otherwise he was fully clothed and lying on top of the bed.
Upon examination,a physician placed the time of death several hours earlier. His
death was attributed to heart complications “myocardial insufficiency with sudden heart fail-
ure associated with generalized arteriosclerosis and sclerosis of the coronary vessels.”^16
Sometime during the early morning of November 3, Reich’s vital spark, his orgone energy,
could no longer bounce back.He had been pushed beyond the limits of his endurance. He
died of heartbreak.
442 Myron SharafFury On Earth