William Hayes (born April 3, 1947) is an American writer, actor, film director and convicted drug smuggler. Hayes is best known for his autobiographical book Midnight Express about his experiences in and escape from a Turkish prison, after being convicted of smuggling hashish. Hayes was one of hundreds of U.S citizens in foreign jails serving drug charge sentences, following a drug-smuggling crackdown by foreign governments.

Early life and education

William "Billy" Hayes was born on April 3, 1947, in the Bronx, New York City, the son of William Hayes Senior, a Metropolitan Life Insurance executive and Dorothy E (Dottie) née Banks, a housewife. Raised in a middle class household with a younger brother and sister, Hayes was educated privately at Seton Hall High School, Patchogue, a Catholic high school for boys in Long Island, New York, graduating in 1964.

A major in Journalism, during his senior year at Marquette University, to the disappointment of his parents, Hayes decided to drop out from college to focus on traveling, surfing, skydiving and writing.

Illegal drug trafficking

During the summer of 1967, while working part-time as a child psychiatric aide at Milwaukee County General Hospital, a friend returned from Turkey with some hashish that he had hidden in his money belt. Soon after, Hayes got the idea to smuggle some hashish by hiding it in a cast on his leg.

No longer a student and lured by the Orient, in April 1969, Hayes traveled to Istanbul. He hid two kilos of hashish in a cast on his leg and went back to the U.S. This was a lucrative enterprise with Hayes buying the hashish for USD $300 and selling the drug back home for USD $5,000 to clients with a dealer nickname of "Crazy" amongst the purchasing community.

Arrest, trial and sentencing

At his fourth attempt, at Istanbul airport, after having passed customs, during a hijacking alert, Hayes was caught trying to again smuggle two kilos of hashish (as on previous occasions) out of Turkey on October 7, 1970. The PLO had hijacked four airliners in September 1970 and the airport had reinforced controls by searching passengers for explosives given that sophisticated devices such as fluoroscopes or metal detectors had not yet been introduced.

Hayes was originally sentenced to four years in prison for possession by a Turkish court. However, in 1973, with his release 53 days away for good conduct, he was informed via the American consul that the Turkish prosecutor had successfully appealed his original sentence and he was going to be convicted for smuggling. <blockquote>"With the usual one-third off for good behaviour, he (Hayes) was within a few months of release when the full bench of the Court of Appeals upheld a challenge by the prosecutor. The accused had already cleared customs and emigration when he was caught. Two kilos was more than could be justified for personal use. The case must be retried for smuggling."

At the time, President Nixon was waging a war on drugs, forcing the Turks to enforce their drug laws arguing that 80 percent of the heroin reaching the streets of New York was of Turkish origin. In 1972 Nixon managed to get Turkey to ban opium cultivation, which devastated and infuriated Turkish farmers, the latter claiming inadequate compensation from the U.S. for lost earnings.

Life in prison

Hayes was initially imprisoned at Sağmalcılar prison in Istanbul after having spent one night in Sultanahmet Jail. Following an incident in prison, he was briefly transferred in 1972 to Bakırköy Psychiatric Hospital, described as a 'lunatic asylum'.

On several occasions, the United States Department of State pressured Turkey to transfer sentencing to the U.S. (Nassau County Jail) with Turkish foreign minister Melih Esenbel stating that the U.S. was not in a position to dispute a sentence issued by a Turkish court.

Nevertheless, Esenbel noted privately to U.S. officials that a release might be possible on humanitarian grounds, if Hayes' physical or mental health was deteriorating. In a private consultation, Hayes remarked to U.S diplomats that his experience at Bakırköy was highly traumatic, but he did not have confidence that the hospital would certify him for early release.

As to the impact on his family back home, James W. Spain, Consul General in Istanbul (1970–1972), recalls that the overall experience was devastating with his father obliged to mortgage the family house to raise money to enable him to spend long periods of time in Turkey and to pay his son's lawyers. His mother, on the other hand, never found the courage to visit her son behind bars.

Escape from prison

Turkish officials transferred Hayes to İmralı prison on an island in the south of the Sea of Marmara. After 3 months, Hayes escaped from İmralı on October 2, 1975. Selecting a black, stormy night, Hayes initially swam into the local harbour then found a dinghy attached to a small cargo ship and started rowing, with favourable currents, to Bandırma, 27 km away on mainland Turkey. He then travelled to Istanbul by bus and checked in at a hotel.</blockquote>

Hayes continues:<blockquote>"The border is one of the most heavily fortified in that part of the world and I had no papers. The Greeks wouldn't let me in and in Turkey I had all the rights of any escaped convict. None. I still had money that my parents had sent me while I was in prison so I hired a taxi to drive me down a dirt road and finally into a field. I waited until dark, then swam across a river into what I hoped was Greece."

Life after prison

Hayes wrote a book on his experiences, Midnight Express, which was later adapted into the 1978 film of the same name starring Brad Davis as Hayes. The film was directed by Alan Parker, with a screenplay by Oliver Stone.

Hayes has since written the sequels Midnight Return (Escaping Midnight Express) and The Midnight Express Letters - from a Turkish Prison, 1970-1975, the latter a collection of the original letters written home to family and friends during his imprisonment.

Three years after his escape, Hayes started giving talks to promote his book and realized he enjoyed the limelight and the energy of performing. Hayes started in theatre, and his first role was in a production of The Glass Menagerie in Los Angeles.

In 2010, in an episode of National Geographic Channel's Locked Up Abroad, titled "The Real Midnight Express", Hayes finally told his version of being sent to the infamous Turkish prison in Sağmalcilar, eventually escaping from İmralı prison on an island in the Marmara Sea.

Hayes traveled the world with his one-man show, Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes, from its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2013 until theatres closed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Hayes also presented the TV series "Greatest Prison Escapes" produced by Sky TV.

Return to Turkey

During the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Alinur Velidedeoğlu, a Turkish advertiser, met Hayes by chance and interviewed him on the film Midnight Express. Hayes expressed his disappointment with parts of the film adaptation, especially its portrayal of all Turks as bad, and his regret that Turkey's image was negatively affected by the film.

Hayes also displayed affection for Turkey and the city of Istanbul. Although the Interpol warrant for him had by then been lifted, Hayes explained that while he wanted to return, he hesitated to do so, out of concern that many Turks might blame him for the negative publicity the movie had generated. The video was made available on YouTube.

The Turkish order banning him from the country was finally suspended and Hayes was allowed to return to Turkey on June 14, 2007, to attend the 2nd Istanbul Conference on Democracy and Global Security, organized by the Turkish National Police (TNP) and the Turkish Institute for Police Studies (TIPS).

Hayes said it was important to him to return, in order to "apologize and make amends" for the grim depiction of Turkey in the film based on his book. "The film wasn't what Turkish people deserved", Hayes said.