The Truth about the Devlins

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of historical and systemic racism.

In The Truth About the Devlins, Gabby Devlin, TJ’s sister, takes on a case involving medical testing done on incarcerated people at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. TJ’s involvement in this case is what sparks his determination to get his law degree and begin to “work for justice” (370). Gabby’s case and her plaintiffs are based on the real history and experiences of men incarcerated in Holmesburg Prison during the 1960s and 1970s. The novel hews closely to the facts of the case, in which Dr. Albert Kligman conducted medical, pharmaceutical, and biochemical experiments on incarcerated people at Holmesburg. Kligman and his associates saw the prison as an untapped source of subjects, and Gabby shares a true and famous quote by Kligman, who wrote that upon entering Holmesburg Prison, “All I saw before me were acres of skin. It was like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time” (65). Gabby also refers to Kligman as a “racist with no moral compass” (63), noting that he referred to the incarcerated people as “anthropoid,” which can be defined as either human-like or apelike—either of which illustrates Kligman’s understanding of the people as less than human.