Escape Artist: A Memoir of a Visionary Artist on Death Row

William A. Noguera has spent 34 years at the notorious San Quentin Prison, home to the nation’s largest and deadliest death row. Each day, men plot against you and your life rests on a razor’s edge. In Escape Artist- A Memoir of a Visionary Artist on Death Row, he describes his personal growth as a man and artist and shares his insights into daily life and the fight to survive in the underworld of prison culture.

After being sentenced to death, he arrived at San Quentin Prison and was thrown into a rat-infested cell-it was there that he discovered the key to his escape- art. Over the next three decades, Noguera rebelled against conventional prison behavior, and instead forged the code he lives by today-accepting responsibility for his actions, and a self-imposed discipline of rehabilitation. In the process, he has explored his capacity to bring focus and clarity to his artistic vision.

An unexpected transcendent moment occurred while Noguera lay face down in the prison yard as guards fired shots at two men locked in battle. He realized the prisoners around him, their lives and experiences behind these walls, possessed significant worth.

Escape Artist exposes the violence, politics and everyday existence within the underbelly of society that is prison life. Noguera’s story includes having been an abused child and a victim of racial discrimination and bullying. Ultimately, these challenges led him to the martial arts-and the lethal unknown side effects of Roid-Rage Syndrome caused by steroid use.

In an unprecedented narrative, Noguera reveals the emotional and heart-wrenching loss that landed him on death row and the journey he has taken to become an award-winning artist, speaker, and author, a tale of one man’s transformation through tragedy.