Sidi's Son --The Criminal Mastermind--and His 'Great Escape!'

 One of the features of visiting Sidi's home I enjoyed was my relationship with his sons, in particular his first-born son, Mahmood.

"The Great Escape"-- Arabian Style

The first-born son gets special attention in every culture, it seems. Mahmood Al-Jamal was no exception. 

He had his own room and office, which was quite the distinction given the paucity of rooms in Sidi's house.

He even had his own car. I wasn't sure if he paid for it himself or his dad did.

Mahmood considered himself a deep thinker, although his thoughts seemed mostly to follow the usual anti-Zionist Conspiracy Theories, e.g., that the Masons, in fact, controlled EVERYTHING, including the rise of the state of Israel.

Mahmood was a very handsome fellow with sleepy, puppy-dog eyes, a wispy beard, and was always well-dressed and well-groomed.  He was also quite the socialite, numbering among his friends the Singer Ofra Hozha, a Yemeni-Israeli who was an international sensation at the time.

He cultivated the image of a film star/bon-vivant. And he definitely looked the part!

He spoke excellent English, and I spent many hours discussing the affairs of the day with him. He seemed to welcome having a Westerner of the same approximate age to talk to.

He also had a quasi-legal "business" in partnership with an Israeli insurance agent.  So far as I could ascertain, this business consisted mainly in the forging/backdating of Israeli auto-insurance forms for Arabs who were in the unlucky position of getting ticketed by Israeli cops without insurance.

He was eventually caught and jailed for this offense, and we visited him several times in prison.

Sidi, nonetheless, described him proudly as some sort of Palestinian Robinhood, who was conducting financial guerilla warfare of a sort.  Definitely not a common criminal--NO!

Sidi once emphatically told a group of us that he "Never took ONE PENNY for HIMSELF!"

Giving all that he took to the widows and orphans, in fact!! Hmmm...

I didn't know if Sidi was pulling the wool over the audience's eyes or was just not well-informed, but from my perspective, Mahmood's motives were TOTALLY selfish & personal.

When he wasn't engaged in his anti-Masonic research, his primary pursuit was breaking his old record racing down to the Red Sea resort town of Eilat and back. 

His own personal Monte Carlo race!  He LOVED to talk about how he out-smarted the police and drove at breakneck speeds on the long, curvy, two-lane road.

And, as there were so few economic opportunities available for even well-educated Palestinians within the larger Israeli Occupation milieu, the act of outwitting the Israelis in any sector was seen as a valid form of financial Resistance.

Mahmood eventually visited America and stayed in our house, at least initially. It was unclear what exactly he intended to do in the country, but he soon had a sports car and an American girlfriend with whom he moved in.

My little boy loved him and described him as 'Nice Man' rather than using his name.

One day, we all returned to our West Marin house to find our exterior in-law unit ransacked!

This was unexpected, as we had never heard of such a crime in our area before. 

Moreover, we lived at the end of a long, semi-private approach road. If an oncoming car surprised an unknown or suspect vehicle leaving the scene, the exiting car would be trapped!

It was such a brazen, ridiculous crime! We didn't have many items of obvious resale value anyway!

We were particularly saddened that Ibrahim's favorite stuffed puppy dog was apparently among the stolen items. What kind of thief would take a used child's toy in the hope of some  profit for himself? It seemed not only stupid but heartless.

We still hadn't solved the mystery, and Ibrahim was still mourning his stuffed dog when we heard Mahmood had been arrested by someone from the Sheriff's Department--who dropped by our home to ask some questions.

Mahmood was actually in Marin General Hospital. 

Steve McQueen in the American Film 'The Great Escape"

He had been injured in a shoot-out with cops from multiple jurisdictions following him in a 100-mile-per-hour chase down the wrong side of the freeway. 

After which, he had attempted to flee on foot, responding to orders to 'halt' by brandishing and firing an illegal pistol--fortunately over the heads of the approaching officers--resulting in a gun battle in which Mahmood was seriously injured--ultimately losing a kidney.

It was a dramatic and senseless ending to an equally senseless campaign of burglaries on a scale previously unknown to local authorities.

We were told all the jurisdictions in Marin had recently had convened a meeting regarding the unknown thief's brazen burglaries up and down the County.  

A few days later, we were invited to pay a visit to a room at the Marin County Center, where all the evident proceeds from Mahmood's crime spree had been collected.

And, lo and behold, THERE was the missing Stuffed Puppy!  

I needed to phone Sidi in Jerusalem to inform him of his son's troubles.  He was, of course, deeply taken aback by the news.  Although there was none of the incredulity one might have expected in his voice.

He was rather stricken, it seemed, and deeply so.  He didn't even ask follow-up questions.  He just slowly put the receiver down in utter resignation.

Meanwhile, the  case with Mahmood was just beginning and already provided fresh opportunities for worry.

The criminal Mastermind was not repentant of nor resigned to, the trouble he had already created. He selfishly took advantage of his relatives to induce them in his plots to escape from police custody.

A desperate plan was hatched, which I was stupidly made a party to by the relative, having nobody else to discuss it with. 

I forget the details, but it had something to do with the relative bringing him the keys to a car left in the parking lot with thousands of dollars in cash. Which  Mahmood would run to and escape with.

(To where? I don't think they ever got that far.)

Of course, in so doing, the relative would have placed himself in great peril of arrest and long-term incarceration himself.  

The relative, in turn, was doing the same thing by discussing the crime with me!

I anxiously vacillated between the alternatives of turning the relative in and thus clearing myself but probably subjecting him to prosecution and a jail sentence, and just PRAYING the desperate escape attempt wouldn't happen. 

And if, by chance, Mahmood were to KILL anyone in this attempt, his relative could also be prosecuted. For MURDER! 

How absurdly selfish of Mahmood to jeopardize his loving family, as if his actions were not already bad enough!

For what? So he could steal children's toys?!

Fortunately, when the time came for the plot to take place, Mahmood was still too weakened from his gunshot wounds to overcome the Deputy, and the crisis was forestalled, although NOT ended.

Mahmood was transferred to the County Jail to await trial.  He conceived of another plot--again unveiled to me by his relative, and involving the latter's obtaining lapidary-grade 'diamond thread' for cutting through ceiling materials, which Mahmood planned to use to cut a hole through to the ceiling and to exit the jail thru an expected crawl space about the jail area.

The thread was duly bought from the ONE source in America where it could be purchased and was snuck into the Marin Country Jail to Mahmood.

Once again, Mahmood put everybody in extreme legal peril but once again, the family felt bound to 'help'.  

Suffice it to say -- that plot also failed to get off the ground. Thank God. 

And as before, so many clues were left behind that the rest of Sidi's family in America might have served long sentences had the plans gone through.

Also, as before, everybody's future, including mine, depended on Mahmood's already-shakey grasp of reality.

"But Allah is the Best of Plotters" - Quran 8:30

Mahmood, instead, received a long sentence to the state medical prison in Vacaville.  He served 7 years there before being allowed back to the West Bank.

In fact, Sidi visited him there in Vacaville on his first trip to America. I got the feeling that was as much on his mind as his evangelization/sexual predation plans.

I haven't heard from Mahmood since he moved out of our house before burglarizing it. So, no 'Sorry for The Burglary' card for me!

How about a $50 Amazon card, man?  Geez.

However, I heard that upon his later return to Palestine, a much younger bride was found for him. 

And, although supposedly college-oriented, she was persuaded to set aside her educational dreams for the more prestigious career of baby-making for Sidi's firstborn son. But Allah knows best!