About the Book

After reading his first law book—You and the Law—at the age of 10, Greg Bohl progressed to reading U.S. Supreme Court Reports, the Southern Reporter, and various other legal publications. When he was 17, he enrolled in college to pursue his goal of becoming a lawyer. However, he subsequently dropped out of college when his father threw him out of the family home on his 18th birthday. He never went to law school. He slept on a washing machine in an apartment building laundry room, spending days and evenings at the public library reading the Mississippi Code.

After preparing a "pro se" federal civil rights lawsuit against Jackson County, Mississippi, on behalf of a Baptist preacher charged with murder, Bohl's life took a sudden turn for the worse. He was charged by Jackson County with two bad checks to a 7-11 store totaling $54.68 and locked in solitary confinement in the Jackson County Jail. Although he was a homeless teenager and first-offender, he was sentenced to two 10-year prison terms and sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. One of the oldest prisons in the United States, Parchman was also one of the most violent and deadly—with 81 violent prisoner deaths in a single year.

From solitary confinement at the Jackson County Jail to the notorious Parchman Penitentiary, Bohl's resilience became a linchpin in a suspenseful tale of survival. Becoming a "writ writer" in the prison law library, he assisted fellow inmates with their criminal cases. With murderers, robbers, and drug dealers as his "clients," he navigated the treacherous waters of the law, delving into the harrowing stories of those society had cast aside. He became a beacon of hope for the condemned and the wrongly incarcerated.

His legal efforts led to notable successes, including the release of several prisoners serving lengthy prison terms. He won the release of two Yazoo City farmers in a marijuana case after surreptitiously recording the trial judge admit to having penalized them with 28 and 40 year sentences for "wasting the court's time" with a jury trial. The recording came at a very bad time for the trial judge—he had recently been appointed as the next justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

He won a published Mississippi Supreme Court decision releasing a man sentenced to life without parole for burglary as a habitual offender. A "plain error" in sentencing had not been noticed by his defense and appellate counsel, the trial judge, or any of the justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court on a prior appeal 4 years earlier. The case has been cited in over 90 other published appellate cases involving "procedural bars".

The federal civil rights lawsuit he prepared against Jackson County resulted in a groundbreaking 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals published decision mandating access to law libraries for state prisoners in county jails across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

He faced challenges from jail and prison authorities who opposed his legal activities, including being locked in solitary confinement and surrounded in the law library by prison guards with billy clubs who threatened "the boogeyman is going to get you".

Amidst the gritty backdrop of Parchman Penitentiary, Bohl faced off against the legal system, preparing legal cases in state and federal courts that became weapons in the fight for freedom. His own legal battle propelled him into the heart of the Mississippi legal system, where investigations, headlines, and courtroom drama ensued. The narrative unfolds in the Jackson County courtroom where it began, creating a thrilling tapestry of suspense, intrigue, and redemption.

As The Writ Writer unearths the layers of Bohl's extraordinary legal acumen, it unveils a gripping thriller that transcends the confines of reality, leaving readers on the edge of their seats, captivated by the indomitable spirit of a man who fought not only for himself but for those society had abandoned.

The book masterfully captures Bohl's resilience and diverse legal knowledge, illustrating how a young man's journey through the legal system evolved into a tale of triumph, growth, and contributions to legal technology and advocacy.

Read an Excerpt

Greg Bohl read his first lawbook—You and the Law—when he was 10 years old. Originally published in 1971 and edited by the Associate Dean of Yale University Law School, the book was 863 pages and covered a myriad of legal topics such as constitutional rights, crimes and criminal procedure, contracts, torts, and other common legal issues.

His real passion for the law started in the seventh grade after reading his school's student handbook, which allowed school staff to conduct warrantless searches and to discipline students by "spanking" them with wooden boards. He read a book about students' legal rights. Then he started reading U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the Southern Reporter, and various other legal publications.

His childhood had been difficult. When he was 2 years old, his mother packed everything in their small apartment in Columbus, Ohio, and moved—abandoning him and his brother and sister. Bohl has no memory of his mother—all he knows is that she died around 10 years ago.

Bohl and his siblings went to Santa Maria, California, and lived with their paternal grandparents for 2 years. Then they were ordered by a judge to go to Mississippi and live with their biological father and stepmother, who they didn't know.

Their father worked at NASA in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Before that, he worked at Boeing. After NASA, he worked for Ingalls' Shipbuilding—a division of Litton Industries that built ships for the U.S. Navy. He later went to Saudi Arabia for 3 years and worked with their Navy. He had commendations and awards that spanned two hallways, including commendations from two U.S. presidents for his work on the Apollo mission that landed on the moon.

Bohl's father was also chairman of the Ingalls' Management Association's Entertainment Committee. He hired famous singers and bands to perform at numerous parties, balls, and other company events. There were two huge annual company picnics. They had season tickets to all the New Orleans Saints football games and would charter buses to attend the games at the Superdome in New Orleans. He was King of Mardi Gras twice and Exalted Ruler of the Ocean Springs Elks Lodge.

He had two fully stocked bars in their home with enough liquor to serve hundreds of people at any given moment. There was always plenty of liquor and drinking, and their home was filled on many occasions with over a hundred people—engineers, scientists, and other very intelligent people who loved to drink and party. Bohl often wondered how all those drunk people could possibly send a man to the moon or build an aircraft carrier. But they did.

Despite all the lavish entertaining, Bohl's father was an extreme disciplinarian. He once broke three of Bohl's toes by kicking him with cowboy boots while he was sleeping. Bohl could barely walk on that foot for a year. His father would beat Bohl and his siblings with a belt for hours for frivolous things, while taunting them by saying “I can go all night”. Their stepmother frequently referred to them as “Goddamned little brats”.

On one occasion, Bohl's father had placed a small mark on a soda bottle. When he saw that someone had apparently drank a small amount of soda, he beat Bohl and his siblings for almost two hours. Sodas were for cocktails—not for kids.

One day, Bohl witnessed his stepmother holding his sister's head down on their bed by her hair and screaming in her face “Whore” ... "Bitch”, while his father was beating her with a belt mercilessly. His sister was screaming as loud as she could—to no avail.

On another occasion, Bohl's father slapped his sister in her face so hard that she fell and hit her head on a metal encyclopedia stand. Bohl picked up a can of beans and threw it across the room at his father's head. It missed the target and slammed into the wood paneling on the wall. Bohl ran outside and hid in a house that was being built across the street. When he returned home about 45 minutes later, his father didn't say a word to him.

Bohl's sister suffered so much physical and emotional abuse as a child and became a "cutter"— someone who cuts themself to relieve severe emotional pain. She had razor cuts up and down both of her arms. When she was 15, she ran away to Los Angeles. Years later, she drove her car into a lake and drowned.

Bohl was angry, and he became anti-authority, anti-parents, anti-school, anti-everything. He had a grade point average of zero and was suspended from school on numerous occasions.

He became an amateur boxer for three years, winning every fight by TKO—except for two losses by decision to the Golden Gloves Champion. His father never came to his fights, except once—to see his brother who was also fighting that night. For three years, Bohl jogged seven and a half miles across town five days a week to the boxing gym, but his father didn't even know where it was, because he never went even once.

When he was in the eleventh grade, Bohl's father showed up at his high school with a police officer and had him arrested for using his father's car without permission. Bohl was led through the school in handcuffs, placed in the officer's patrol car, then locked up in the Jackson County juvenile detention facility. That was Bohl's last day of high school.

At his father's request, the Jackson County Juvenile Court Judge (Bohl's neighbor) sent him to Oakley Training School (formerly "The Negro Juvenile Reformatory"), a juvenile reformatory near Raymond, Mississippi. Oakley was originally the state prison for women that had opened in 1894. After a few months, Bohl was transferred to Forestry Camp in Columbia, Mississippi, which housed about fifteen boys in the state on the campus of Columbia Training School.

The U.S. Department of Justice eventually sued the State of Mississippi over conditions at Columbia and Oakley. Among the many accusations were claims that youngsters were sexually abused by staff, forced to eat vomit, were tossed nude into isolation cells, and pepper-sprayed while in restraints. Columbia was closed in 2008 due to continuing allegations of abuse. Oakley is still operating under a federal consent decree.

Bohl was released from juvenile detention after 5 months. He subsequently took a test and obtained a GED (General Education Diploma)—essentially the equivalent of a high school diploma. He got the highest score in the history of the testing facility.

When he was 17, he enrolled in college to pursue his goal of becoming a lawyer, majoring in political science. However, he subsequently dropped out of college when his father threw him out of the family home on his 18th birthday—a cold winter night in mid-December. He never went to law school.

He slept in a baseball dugout the first night. Then he slept on a washing machine in an apartment building laundry room. He spent days and evenings at the public library reading the Mississippi Code.

Cold, hungry, and penniless, he was arrested for two bad checks to a 7-11 store in the amounts of $24.68 and $30 and was incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The store refused to press charges.

While waiting to be released, Bohl informed fellow inmates about an old law that was still in effect in Mississippi that allowed food to be brought to inmates from outside of the jail. He also informed them about a federal consent decree that required jail staff to take inmates outside for exercise on a regular basis. He informed them about their constitutional right to access to law books.

He was brought to the jail administrator's office and told to stop giving legal advice to other inmates. When he told the administrator that inmates had a federal constitutional right to be assisted in legal matters by other inmates, the administrator replied "not in this jail."

After preparing a handwritten "pro se" federal civil rights lawsuit against Jackson County, Mississippi, its Board of Supervisors, Sheriff, and County Jail Administrator on behalf of James L. Hooten—a former pastor who was serving a life sentence for capital murder—Bohl was charged by the Jackson County District Attorney with two felonies. He was charged under a criminal statute which left it to the discretion of local prosecutors to charge bad checks under $100 as a felony or a misdemeanor.

Although he was a homeless teenager and first-offender, Bohl was sentenced to two concurrent 10-year prison terms for the two checks which totaled $54.68. He was also locked in solitary confinement so other inmates couldn't talk to him about legal matters.

After preparing a handwritten Petition for Writ of Mandamus against the Jackson County Sheriff, Bohl was shackled at four in the morning and transported to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, where he spent the next year and a half working as a writ writer in the prison law library.

Mississippi State Penitentiary is a maximum-security prison located in the unincorporated community of Parchman, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. One of the oldest prisons in the United States, it was also one of the most violent and deadly—with 81 violent prisoner deaths in a single year.

Bohl's "clients" included murderers, armed robbers, rapists, drug dealers, burglars—all types of criminals from all over the state of Mississippi.

Among his clients were:

● Death row inmate Attina Marie Cannaday who, at the time of her trial, was a sixteen-year-old divorcée, who had married at thirteen and divorced at fourteen. Her death sentence was subsequently commuted to life plus two 25-year sentences. The 1990 television movie "Too Young to Die" starring Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis is based on the crime. She was released on parole in 2008.

● Death row inmate Cecilia Ann "Cookie" Williamson who was sentenced to death for the contract murder of her husband. A change of venue to Pontotoc County, Mississippi, was ordered due to enormous pre-trial publicity. After her murder conviction was reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court, she was allowed to plead guilty and received a life sentence. She was released on parole in 2007.

● Larry Shelton Hentz who was sentenced to multiple life sentences for capital murder and other crimes. When Bohl met Hentz in the prison law library in 1983, Hentz said "I've got 200 years without parole, what can I do?" Bohl told him "Get a TV." Hentz thought that was hilarious. He escaped from prison in 2003 and was featured on "America's Most Wanted". He was recaptured in San Diego a few weeks later.

● Death row inmate Jessie Derrell Williams who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 18-year old Karen Ann Pierce. Sixteen members of the Outlaw motorcycle gang were initially arrested for the crime which allegedly occurred at the Scoreboard Lounge in Gautier, Mississippi, but were subsequently released. The case was featured in the National Enquirer and other national media outlets. Shortly after Williams' conviction, co-defendant and star witness Terrell Evans visited Bohl at the prison law library and told Bohl that he lied during the trial because he was afraid of getting the death penalty. He agreed to recant his testimony against Williams. Bohl prepared an affidavit in which Evans recanted his testimony. Evans signed the affidavit, and it was notarized. Bohl sent it to Williams' public defender, but Williams was executed anyway in 2002.

● The Reverend James L. Hooten, a former Savannah, Georgia, preacher who was serving a life sentence in Mississippi for capital murder. The case was featured on news channels throughout Mississippi and Georgia on numerous occasions. After Mr. Hooten's murder conviction was reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court, a change of venue to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was ordered due to enormous pre-trial publicity. The federal civil rights lawsuit Bohl prepared on behalf of Reverend Hooten resulted in a published opinion by the 5th Circuit U.S Court of Appeals requiring all county jails in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to provide access to law libraries to state prisoners. Reverend Hooten, who had already served seven and a half years in prison, was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser offense of manslaughter and was released from prison.

● Turner Paul Smith, who had been sentenced to life without parole on a burglary conviction as a habitual offender. After reviewing Mr. Smith's indictment and sentencing order, Bohl immediately realized that he had been incorrectly sentenced to life without parole under the wrong habitual offender statute. This "plain error" had not been noticed by his defense and appellate counsel, the trial judge, or any of the justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court on a prior appeal four years earlier. Bohl immediately prepared a "pro se" motion seeking relief from the life sentence on grounds of plain error and ineffective assistance of counsel. The Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously held, in a published opinion, that Mr. Smith had been denied due process of law under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. After serving more than 8 years in prison, he was released. The case has been cited in over 90 other published appellate cases involving "procedural bars".

Bohl also prepared a "pro se" appeal in the Mississippi Supreme Court which led to the Mississippi Attorney General's determination that thousands of probationers had been unlawfully committed to state restitution-correctional facilities as a condition of their probation. The Mississippi Legislature had authorized county governments within the state to establish restitution-correctional facilities so that "parolees" could reimburse county governments for rent and supervision while working to fulfill their restitution obligations following their release from prison. The Legislature did not authorize confinement in restitution-correctional facilities as a condition of "probation". The Mississippi Code was subsequently amended by the Mississippi Legislature to correct this deficiency.

After filing a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus on behalf of Mississippi's two female death row inmates seeking reasonable access to the prison law library, a group of prison guards entered the law library and surrounded Bohl with their billy clubs out. When Bohl asked "What did I do?", the head guard, Sergeant Ford, told him "You're going overboard with your legal work". Bohl replied "I'm here to do a job and that's what I'm doing." Sergeant Ford replied "The boogeyman is going to get you".

After filing a "pro se" appeal of his own case in the Mississippi Supreme Court, the Mississippi Attorney General and a journalist with the Clarion-Ledger newspaper launched investigations. A few weeks later, the Jackson County Circuit Court entered an order effectively reducing Bohl's sentences to "time-served”, and he was released from prison. The only reason given in the order for his release was that it was "in the best interest of justice and fairness."

The Mississippi Code was subsequently amended by the Mississippi Legislature to make the penalty for uttering bad checks up to $1,000 punishable by a period of probation not exceeding one year, a fine not exceeding $1,000, or both. No prison time. Additionally, anyone who had ever been convicted under the old law could have their conviction erased.

After Bohl's release from Parchman, he moved to Los Angeles and worked for American Legal Systems—a company that developed computerized databases of trial exhibits and other litigation-related documents in complex litigation. He worked on civil litigation instituted by the State of Alaska against numerous oil companies operating within that state. The litigation involved the largest civil case in U.S. history at the time.

He later worked in Mortgage-Backed Securities at Drexel Burnham Lambert—one of the largest investment banking firms in the United States. Michael Milken, who was Drexel's head of high-yield securities, was paid more than $1 billion over a four-year period—a record for U.S. income at that time. Milken is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"). In 1989, Milken was sentenced to ten years in federal prison (later reduced to two years) and fined $600 million for securities and reporting fraud. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.

Bohl later became the manager of the legal departments of two companies in Los Angeles that handled collection lawsuits for Citibank and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He filed and tracked thousands of civil cases through default, summary judgment or trial and utilized post-judgment remedies to collect judgments against numerous individuals and businesses in California.

One of the most notable defendants Bohl sued for Cedars Sinai Medical Center was Constance Francesca Gabor Hilton—daughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. After Bohl agreed to dismiss the lawsuit against Miss Hilton because he believed it was unjust, she invited him to lunch. When she asked where he wanted to go, Bohl suggested The Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles, but Miss Hilton told him she had been kicked out of The Ivy—which Bohl thought was a bit odd. Although they never went to lunch, Bohl met Miss Hilton and her mother a few years later at the grand opening of attorney Melvin Belli's new office in Beverly Hills. A year or so later, they met again at Belli's 83rd birthday party at the Hollywood Yacht Club.

Known as the “King of Torts”, Melvin Belli had represented Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live television days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He also represented numerous other famous, as well as infamous, persons such as Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Nick Nolte, Sirhan Sirhan, and many others. Bohl had read Belli's book—Melvin Belli: My Life on Trial—when he was 17 and considered him a role model. Bohl worked on two legal cases with Belli's office in 1994 and 1995.

When he was 27, Bohl became the legal director of an international religious organization with branches in thirty-seven countries. With a $31,250 monthly salary, he purchased a home in Palm Springs, California, and built a 3-room law library with almost two thousand books. He lived alone and read law books day and night for four years while working on the organization's legal cases.

In 1994, he prepared an appeal in the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals which resulted in a published opinion and the recovery of $15.5 million for the organization. The case had previously been lost on summary judgment by a law firm in Los Angeles that had charged the organization $350,000.

After winning the appeal, Bohl utilized an obscure procedure in the California Financial Code to freeze millions of dollars of cash in the defendants' bank accounts, including a $5 million account at Citibank. He also recorded liens (notices of lis pendens) on approximately 30 parcels of real estate, including a commercial building the defendants had recently acquired for $4 million cash. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California also issued a permanent injunction, effective worldwide, requiring the defendant church organization to change its name, uniforms, and insignia. The case was twice featured as "special investigation" news reports by Channel 7 News in Miami, Florida.

In 1997, after hiring and firing four different law firms to represent him in bankruptcy court proceedings and losing at every stage, including at trial, a creditor (a Los Angeles jeweler) was referred to Bohl by a mutual friend. Bohl appealed the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The judgment was vacated by the District Court, which enabled the creditor to foreclose on and acquire a $4.5 million shopping center in Fresno. A few years later, the creditor sold the property for all cash with a $3.5 million gain. In lieu of a 1031 exchange, Bohl prepared a private annuity trust which deferred capital gains taxes over the creditor's lifetime. He also filed a "pro se" fraud lawsuit against one of the creditor's former law firms, who promptly settled by refunding all of the substantial legal fees it had charged.

In 1998, Bohl moved to Coral Gables, Florida, and purchased a home and 230 apartments. He retired at 35 with $107,000 monthly rental income.

In 2009, he founded LawDocs, which developed consumer bankruptcy training programs for lawyers. He also taught a basic to advanced consumer bankruptcy course for lawyers looking to start a consumer bankruptcy practice or expand upon an existing practice.

In 2019, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.

He is the founder of BankruptcyUSA, a legal technology company that enables individuals to file bankruptcy without an attorney. He is also the legal director of four gun companies in Las Vegas, including the largest online gun retailer in the USA.