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The Midnight Express Letters is a compelling collection of letters that Billy Hayes wrote to his family, girlfriend, and friends during his years in a Turkish prison. Here is the raw source material from which Midnight Express—the worldwide best-selling book and Academy Award-winning film--is drawn. These letters tell Billy’s story of both the events and the inner journey, in his original words, with the urgency and intimacy of the moment.

Midnight Express tells the gut-wrenching true story of a young man's incarceration and escape from a Turkish prison. In 1970, Billy Hayes was an English major who left college in search of adventures to write about, like his hero Jack London. He had a rude awakening when he was arrested at the airport in Istanbul trying to board a plane while carrying four pounds of hashish, and given a life sentence.

The story of Billy Hayes, an American tourist caught attempting to leave Turkey by plane in 1970 with bags of hashish taped to his stomach, for which he was subsequently jailed for five years - and, with only 42 days left to serve, resentenced to life in prison - was made into a major motion picture starring Brad Davis and written by Oliver Stone. But many key aspects of Midnight Express may have been invented by Stone.