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Escapee from a dysfunctional family? Dropout,
juvenile delinquent, and gang member? Troublesome prisoner?
A case history of successful prisoner re-entry?
A common
laborer struggling for respectability? A respected clinical and
forensic psychologist? Actually, all of the above!
by Ralph M. Hahn
Fauteck was born outside Wichita, Kansas in 1935, the youngest
of four with the closest being 12 years older. By his description
he was labeled the family scapegoat virtually from birth. His public
education ended at age 15 when he was caught going through wallets
in the boys' locker room.
 He worked at numerous jobs and was frequently in trouble after
that, including serving 60 days on a city prison farm for carrying
a concealed weapon. At age 18 he was encouraged to go in the Army
rather than face a burglary charge, and 11 months later received
a "general discharge under honorable conditions." He impulsively
married a young Mexican woman whom he barely knew, who turned out
to be ineligible for a visa because of her own record. Fauteck and
his mother smuggled her into the country. This came to light later,
and both he and his mother were charged and received federal probation.
About a year after that he joined a group of men who were printing
counterfeit cashier's checks on a non-existent bank, a federal
crime for which Fauteck was eventually caught. He was sentenced
for this and violation of probation, and spent his 21st through
24th birthdays in federal correctional institutions. Not a model
prisoner, Fauteck was sent to solitary many times, but during
his
incarceration decided to turn his life around. That decision became
more solid when, four months before his release, his father died.
He was the one family member Fauteck could respect and felt close
to.
After his release, he found what work he could, and eight months
later a friend helped Fauteck, who spoke fluent Spanish, get a
job
writing and selling advertising for an English-Spanish radio station
in south Texas. This paid very poorly but led to other jobs in
broadcasting,
including deejaying, and eventually advertising. He changed jobs
many times, sometimes for a better position, but often out of
restlessness
or personality conflicts. For a period of time he even worked as
a comic in a strip club. Eventually he moved to Chicago, and at
age
33 was running his own small advertising agency. The agency didn't
succeed, but by then Fauteck knew he wanted to do something else
professionally. Having benefited from psychotherapy and being told
by a psychologist friend that psychological tests showed he was
more cut out for the helping professions than for advertising,
he enrolled at Roosevelt University, continuing to work full time.
Because of exceptionally high performance, he was allowed to place
out of most undergraduate work on the basis of equivalency test
scores. He received his masters in psychology in 1976.
Continuing to work part-time in advertising for the first few years,
Fauteck helped build a successful therapy practice in a Chicago
suburb. He then returned to graduate school and received the Doctor
of Psychology Degree with honors in 1989. While working on the doctoral
degree he took an interest in forensic psychology, and performed
a diagnostic practicum in a support agency of the world's largest
criminal court system. He took well to this work, since he understood
criminal thinking well and was hard to deceive, so at the completion
of his practicum he was offered and accepted a position as a staff
psychologist. On receiving his Psy.D. he was advanced to senior
staff psychologist, and worked in that agency a total of 13 years
before retiring. In 1992 following a thorough U.S. Department of
Justice investigation he was granted a presidential pardon.
Fauteck readily admits that in the early years, although he refrained
from frankly criminal activity, he had difficulty shaping a respectable
life. This was apparent in his spotty work history, but was even
more pronounced in his love life. He didn't take well to monogamy,
and didn't stay
long with any partner at first. He did have a marriage that lasted
14 years before ending in 1978, and raised three of his own
children and a stepdaughter. He now has a growing contingent of
grandchildren. He married his present wife, Miriam, in 1983. According
to Fauteck, the probability that he would ever end this marriage
is zero. His wife works as a programmer-analyst in a major financial
institution.
Although he succeeded in staying out of jails and prisons from age 24 onward, Fauteck knows he could have become a "better citizen, sooner" if he had fully understood the transition he needed to make. But in 1959, criminal rehabilitation programs and prisoner re-entry support systems were even less plentiful than today. Realizing this helped lead him to write "Going Straight..." and to volunteer time to work with offenders.
 Now
maintaining a small clinical and forensic practice, Fauteck is
also planning to write a second book. He has volunteered to lecture
offender groups, in or out of custody, for expenses only, time
permitting. Among
Fauteck's current pursuits are working on a
country
home he and his wife own,
learning (and trying to win) unusual games, exploring new innovations in hypnotherapy,
and spoiling his dog Delilah.
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