Lily Stone stood in her cell. Inside the largest women's prison of the state of Massachusetts, she was known as the Butch Brawler. All the other female inmates feared her, and with reason. This six-foot-two, 250-pound black woman was once a member of a ferocious gang from Dorchester. In the streets, she had a reputation as a fierce fighter and a deadly hustler. She and her crew controlled the drug trade from Dorchester to Roxbury, around Mattapan and also parts of South Boston. This was a whole lot of territory but these fierce street thugs ruled it.
Back in the day, nobody messed with Lily. Unfortunately for her, she crossed the line one too many times. Most of her gang had been either shot or arrested by the Boston police department, as ordered by the governor during an election year. Of the two hundred members of the gang, ninety percent of them went down. The district attorney, a woman named Jennifer Graham was a driven and ruthless politician who made a career out of messing up the thugs and bitches from the hood.
Lily watched her friends go to prison. Young men and women that she had known forever. They were her crew. They were her blood. She even lost Ricardo, the young man she had loved. Ricardo was a tall, caramel-skinned dude with honey-colored hair and sparkling brown eyes. He was a beautiful young man. When they met, Lily was a rising gang leader and he was the social worker trying to lead her and some of her friends away from their life of crime.
When the district attorney came after Lily, she suspected that Ricardo knew many members of the gang and approached him so that he could testify against them. Ricardo refused. The district attorney brought up some charges against him. Ricardo didn't go to jail. Some crooked cop killed him to keep him quiet. The young social worker knew about many corrupt cops in the department. He was going to blow the whistle on a whole lot of them. That's why he was shot. Angered at the loss of the man she loved, Lily swore vengeance.
Lily walked into the office of the district attorney and shot the bitch twice in the head. From that moment on, the world would never be the same. A black female gangster had killed a prominent district attorney. The law enforcement community was terrified. A massive manhunt was organized to catch the woman who had committed this grievous offense. Lily was captured, Tried and convicted. She was now serving three consecutive life sentences at Massachusetts's largest women's correctional facility. All without the possibility of parole.
While in the slammer, Lily was targeted by both the guards and the female inmates. She'd been a brawler all of her life, so she did what she did best. She fought back. Her reputation inside the women's prison grew. Everyone feared her. They called her the Butch Brawler. The prison subculture was at her feat. Nobody messed with her. There were many cliques inside the jail system. The women criminals were more vicious than the men. They were ruthless and cruel. They had no code of conduct, unlike the most ruthless of male inmates. They terrified the guards, and each other.
Only Lily got respect in this place. Once, there was this tough bitch named Ramona who tried to mess with Lily. Ramona was a tall, large Hispanic woman with a shaved head and a scar on her face. She had been sentenced to twenty years for murder. Inside the jail, everyone feared her. Lily didn't. When Ramona provoked her into a brawl, Lily unleashed the cold fury that she kept carefully locked inside. She beat Ramona to a bloody pulp, and broke both her arms, in order to teach her a lesson. Since that day, nobody messed with Lily. That's where the nickname Butch Brawler came from.
For over a decade, Lily lived inside the prison, if one can call this living. She kept to herself. She read comic books and adventure novels in the library. She worked inside the kitchen. Anything she could do to pass the time. Other women started brawls and did all sorts of crazy things. For the most part, Lily was a peaceful and quiet inmate. While the women fought each other for the privilege of taking younger female inmates as lovers, and also for status, Lily carefully kept to herself. In spite of her name, this red-blooded heterosexual black woman had no interest in discovering the love that dared not speak its name.
Life in prison as a sentence was the death of hope. That's what messed with the heads of both male and female inmates. Lily chose not to lose hope. From time to time, she was visited by her brothers and some friends. She was especially happy to see her younger brother Julian. Julian had grown into a tall, muscular young man. These days, this black stud played college football while studying business administration and was even approached by scouts from the National Football League. Lily loved him with all of her heart. Seeing him was always a pleasure.
Lily kept to herself, and stayed out of trouble. She fought against female inmates of all sizes and races. Black women, white women, Latin women and Asian women. All of them fought against her and lost. Why? It wasn't because of her size. Once, she fought against Bertha, a six-foot-six, 300-pound woman from Germany. Bertha was once a boxing legend. She got sentenced to life in prison for killing her husband in his sleep. When she got to the jail, she thought she could become its Queen Bee by beating up Lily, the reigning champion. Lily beat Bertha to a bloody pulp. All female inmates from prisons around the country knew Lily's name. None of these tough bitches wanted to get sent to her jailhouse. They knew that she'd be the death of them.