Old Toot-Toot
Old Toot-Toot is a fixture of Cold Mountain Penitentiary, a trusty who has pushed his red snack-wagon through the prison's corridors since "Pony Express days, practically." His cart is covered with hand-lettered Bible quotes—"REPENT for the LORD shall judge his people" (Deut. 32:36) and "And surely your BLOOD of your lives will I require" (Gen. 9:5)—that offer a grimly ironic counterpoint to the goods he sells: sandwiches, pops, moon pies, and other small luxuries. He is a man who has seen generations of prisoners and guards come and go, and his toothless grin and cackling laugh are as much a part of E Block as the green linoleum floor.
Role in Execution Rehearsals
Old Toot-Toot has become the traditional stand-in for the condemned during execution rehearsals, a role he performs with a mixture of theatrical gravity and irreverent humor. During the rehearsal for Arlen Bitterbuck's execution, he sits on the bunk, announces each step of the process—"I'm steppin forward, I'm steppin forward, I'm steppin forward"—and, when asked if he has any last words, replies, "I want a fried chicken dinner with gravy on the taters, I want to shit in your hat, and I got to have Mae West sit on my face, because I am one horny motherfucker." This outburst provokes laughter from the guards, which Paul Edgecombe sternly suppresses, reminding them that the next day a real man will die in that chair. Toot's performance, while comic, underscores the tension between the macabre ritual and the human need to defuse it.
Moral Ambiguity and Significance
Old Toot-Toot is not merely a comic figure; he embodies a troubling moral ambiguity. Paul Edgecombe regards him with distaste, seeing in him "an older and dimmer version of Percy Wetmore, a man too squeamish to kill and cook his own meat but who did, all the same, just love the smell of a barbecue." Toot's eagerness to participate in the rehearsals, his cackling delight in the proceedings, and his willingness to sell goods to prisoners against regulations (as when he sells a moon pie to William Wharton, leading to a violent incident) mark him as a man who profits from and takes pleasure in the machinery of death without ever having to bear its full weight. He is a survivor, a fixture of the prison's ecosystem, and his presence serves as a reminder that even in a place of ultimate retribution, there are those who find a way to thrive on the margins of suffering.
