Conrad Black tells Vanity Fair he's innocent but 'humbler'

Fallen Canadian-born businessman Conrad Black says cleaning toilets, getting body-cavity searches andforming alliances with Mafiatypes ina Florida prison made him a humbler and more sensitive man, but he alsotellsVanity Fairhe's innocent of fraud and blames onetime media rival Rupert Murdoch in part for his legal troubles.

"The myth, in all the Canadian papers, was that I would not hold up in prison, that I would be physically and sexually abused . I realized, well, it would be a little tedious, but it wouldnt be difficult to endure," Black says in interview intercepts from the article in Vanity Fair, which is setfor full release next month.

He served 29 months in the Coleman federal prison in Florida before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some of his initial convictions, citing a misuse of the "honest services" provision of the U.S. fraud statute. He'llreturn to prison early in September to start serving up to 13 months for fraud and obstruction of justice, aftera Chicago court agreed to accept the29 monthshe has already served as part of his new sentence of 42 months.

In thewide-ranging Vanity Fair interview for the article "The Convictions of Conrad Black,"the Montreal native, whorenounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to get a seat in Britain's House of Lords, holds little back.The former Hollinger International executiveisfeatured on the cover in a photo by Annie Leibovitz,staring sheepishly and wearing a seafoam green long-sleeved shirt while sitting with his wife, journalist BarbaraAmiel, who is grasping his arm and relaxing her head on his shoulder.

"Im not embarrassed in the least bit I was in prison not the slightest," he says. "Theres nothing to be embarrassed about. You cant talk to Martha Stewart about it, or Alfred Taubman. They didnt see it as I did, as a nightmarish change in careers. I see it as a temporary vocation.

"What Ive been trying to do the last eight years [while fighting the charges against him] is to deduce, at a very fundamental level, what is the message of all this? I dont doubt that I am a humbler, more sensitive person now that I have experienced conditions with which Id had little experience. Ive worked hard to find something meaningful."

'"I quickly developed alliances with the Mafia people, then the Cubans. I was friendly with the good ol boys and the African-Americans. They all understood I had fought the system, and I do believe I earned their respect for that.'" Conrad Black

Black recalled how he endured body-cavity inspectionslike the rest of his fellow inmates "I was slightly mystified at the extent of official curiosity about that generally unremitting aperture"and described how he became a sideshow while cleaning prison shower stalls, a form of punishment at the prison.

"It wasnt terribly exciting work," he says."You just put soap on the wall and focus a hose on it. There was a social component to it, however. All of these guards from all over coming into the shower to watch this millionaire clean the shower. I said, 'Captain, I get the sense you are watching the Super Bowl here, that this is a spectator sport. I assure you, this is nothing so entertaining.'"

But he also saw himself as acomrade of sorts toothers in incarcerationincluding members of the underworld, according to Vanity Fair.

"I quickly developed alliances with the Mafia people, then the Cubans. I was friendly with the good ol boys and the African-Americans. They all understood I had fought the system, and I do believe I earned their respect for that." He also recalled his first meeting with a member of the Genovese crime family, saying he was told: "'No one will bother you here. If you catch a cold, we will find out who you got it from. You know, we have much in common. We are industrialists."

Calls fraud charges 'absurd'

Black once controlled Hollinger International, and through its affiliates, the company published major newspapers including the Daily Telegraph, Chicago Sun-Times, Jerusalem Post and National Postbased in Toronto, as well as hundreds of community newspapers in North America. In Vanity Fair,Black, who turned 67 this month,maintains his innocence and takes shots at Australian media competitor Rupert Murdoch, who has been at the centre of a phone-hacking scandal involving News of the World and other parts of his empire in recent months.

"The myth is that the price war put so much pressure on our profits that I was forced to steal money to maintain my opulent lifestyle," Black says in Vanity Fair. "Its part of the whole News Corp. mythmaking apparatus. It was Rupert, you know. He originated that one. He certainly parroted it. Rupert always says reasonably nice things about me, but then he throws in something like that for effect. I dont really blame Rupert. Hes not a non-friend. Rupert is just Darwinian.

"Frankly, these charges are absurd," Black says of the fraud and obstruction-of-justice charges. "If I wanted to take documents out of my offices, what are the chances I would have lugged them out under the glare of security cameras I myself installed? I mean, Id have to be mad. Thats the only thing they havent accused me of. The whole thing is absolutely farcical, but here we are. After eight years here we are."

Amiel, who stood by her husband's side throughout his legal battles, says in the interview that she doesnt believe prison has changed him. "When it comes to petty irritations, the chief offender has been this notion that prison has changed Conrad," she says. "All that changed was that people who barely knew him or did not know him at all changed their views of him."

As for his future business aspirations, Black says he plans to live off what remains of his wealth "I can live on $80 million. At least I think I can" and thathe will at all costs avoid publicly held companies. "The regulators, the minority shareholders, all that crap. Oh, I cant stand it."

Vanity Fair and the full interview with Blackwill be on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Thursday, andavailablenationallyand oniPad on Sept. 6 the same day Black is to report to prison to resume serving his sentence.