Eugene Debs Hartke

Eugene Debs Hartke is the narrator of Hocus Pocus. He is named after the famed socialist labor leader. Eugene is a very cynical ex-college professor in his mid-life awaiting trial for aiding the conspirators in a prison riot, which he did not in fact actually do. But what Eugene has done throughout the rest of his life makes him so guilty of other crimes against humanity, one questions whether or not Eugene has had a free ride until this moment of reckoning in his life.

The worst of Eugene's sins are that he killed innocent women and children while serving active tours of combat in Vietnam. While this is somewhat excusable as acts of duress committed during a war, there is no doubt in Eugene's mind or the reader's after his confession that he is guilty of murder. Furthermore, Eugene reminds the reader that he is...