The Sunday Smuggler, story of Christopher V Parnell

The Sunday Smuggler (Hell's Prisoner) is a hard eyed open story of truth. The story of one man’s battle to survive in some of the World's hardest, cruelest and most inhumane prisons, armed only with his indomitable will, surrounded by killers, murderers, sadistic violent criminals, where food is the main thought of every man every day. Where life is as cheap as a single bowl of rice, or even a cigarette.

This is the true-life story of Christopher V. Parnell. A man with a “Colourful Background” to say the least, who was framed for drugs in Bali and spent 5 months on Indonesia’s infamous “Death Row” during the Kevin Barlow and Brian Chamber hanging for possession and transport of 52 grams of heroin each in Malaysia.

It was expected that Indonesia would follow Malaysia’s lead and execute the next white foreigner that faced drug charges. The next white foreigner would be Christopher V . Parnell.

Christopher recalls that on Death Row in Indonesia there was no Green Mile to look forward to… Only a darkly stained and blotched gray cement floor that led out into a dirt compound where scruffy, disheveled Indonesian Soldiers lolled about waiting with their rifles to form the firing squad that would take your life.

Christopher was subsequently given a Presidential Pardon exonerating him of the crimes that he was originally charged with over a decade prior. But not before he served over 11 years incarcerated within the walls of 5 of Indonesia's most notorious prisons, and not before 5 escape attempts, 2 years on a Devil's Island Punishment Prison and Leper Colony, and then finally being stabbed 5 times, losing his left eye along with various other internal organs.

Christopher Parnell survived to bring this story back to Australia. Spending over 4 years in solitary confinement seems to have done little to dim his mind and thoughts or his body and spirit.

Throughout this book, “The Sunday Smuggler”, Christopher narrates a story of Courage and Cunning. His pure force and his insuppressible will to live and to survive is on every page he writes

Yet with all these physical and unseen mental scars that he carries, he holds no grudges towards the Indonesians who so regularly beat and tortured him and deprived him of 11 years of his life... and the loss of his family.

It's the Australian Government that he readily blames for the majority of his beatings and for the bulk of those 4 years he spent in solitary confinement.

Sometimes in a darkened cell so pitch black that the silence screamed. He could not see his hand although only inches from his face. Where time knows and has no boundaries, and where the loneliness is an empty abyss.

Where for months his only mode of distraction or entertainment was a single button. A button which he flicked against an unseen wall of a darkened cell and would spend hours in this black void searching for it on his hands and knees, timing himself... 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 - how long to find it? Testing himself, using his ears to listen to the tinkle, tick tick of a button as it was flicked up against a wall, then bounce and roll around a blackened dirt encrusted floor... Where did it land? Imagine with your mind, where it landed. Eventually 9 times out of 10 he could reach over and pick up the button from the exact position it came to rest, without turning his head, or using his eyes.

The story of his attempted escapes will inspire the imagination and touch your heart, because this is a REAL AUSTRALIAN’S STORY. From a land that was originally a Penal Colony and from a descendant from that land comes a story, a story to bring back for all of us, the adventures of what our own for- fathers must have endured in an unknown savage frontier.

Life is a very precious gift and even under the most agonizing or painful conditions we must never lose sight of that. A faith, and trust in yourself, a belief that you can do it if you want it desperately enough. “The difference between possible and impossible is in the abundance of will within the individual.”

Christopher Parnell adheres to that belief in such an obvious way and many people from all Religions, from all Nationalities and beliefs, from all walks of life, male, female and child can learn from this man's example. NEVER EVER GIVE UP.

This is a powerful story that cuts to the bone. Murder, torture and blood fights were the norm for this man in these Indonesian Penal Institutions. Where the guards turned a blind eye to the knives and other assorted lethal weapons that the prisoners carried on their person. Their eyes constantly closed to the endless murders and killings that were a daily occurrence.

The prisoners kill each other off (and the guards happily let them do so, "It's a form of prison population control", Christopher states).

Christopher's story is one that will hit readers from a broad age spectrum. It's backed by Newspaper Clippings, Embassy Letters and even previously "unseen photos" of prisons that I'm sure the Indonesian Government will not be pleased about having published.

Throughout this book there is a large splash of humour. But as most Psychiatrists will tell you... "It’s common that many and most people will hide their pain, fear, anguish and suffering behind a laugh and a joke, henceforth... We have Gallows Humor, which is rife throughout this book.”

To write a Synopsis for "The Sunday Smuggler" would in many ways be just a waste of ink. To really find out what "The Sunday Smuggler" is all about... all you need do is read the Biography of Christopher Victor Vivian Parnell. That in itself will give you a deeper glimpse into the story, into the man...

The man we’ll call "The Sunday Smuggler".