Memos from Purgatory is Harlan Ellison's account of his experience with juvenile gangs when he joined one to research them for his first novel, Web of the City.

Impressing them with his tough demeanor and refusal to back down when intimidated, the gang members eventually invite him to join.

First, by stripping to the waist and running the gauntlet where gang members flip their sharpened belt buckles at him like whips.

The girls are viewed as property, expected to allow their current sexual partner to burn or cut his initials into her skin.

Nonetheless, Ellison begins to feel kinship with most of his gang associates, and affection for his unorthodox girlfriend.

After his arrest he experiences what he describes as a series of indignities, such as being chained to a blood-spattered man who attacked a young woman with a hammer.

The book has a dedication to Ellison's friend Ted White, a jazz critic and fiction author who bailed him out of jail and who had encouraged him to write down his experiences.

The episode aired in 1964 under the slightly different title "Memo from Purgatory" and starred James Caan as the author Jay Shaw (based on Ellison), and Walter Koenig as the gang's leader.