If someone were to build a Hall of Fame for eastern Connecticut criminals, the Pinks of Old Lyme would certainly be inducted.

And so it is may be fitting that it was Dwight Pink Jr. who made headlines around the world last week with his lawsuit against a Connecticut ban on pornography in prison.

The story ricocheted all over but got a lot of traction in England, where apparently newspaper tabloid readers find stories about pornography in prison especially scintillating.

It was Dwight Pink Sr. who once made the most headlines around here - back in January 1993, when he fatally shot a car salesman during a test drive in East Lyme, hijacked a school van and led police on a long high-speed chase, holding the van driver and two children hostage until he was finally shot to death by police.

One heartbreaking footnote to the story was that one of the children held hostage was hit in the hail of police gunfire that felled Pink and died months later of complications that his family said were related to the Pink shooting.

The story was also a cautionary tale about mental illness and gun violence. Pink, the same day he spun out of control, had been turned away from his psychiatrist's office in West Hartford because he hadn't paid his bill.

Some psychiatrists later suggested Pink, who had once slashed his neck in a suicide attempt while in prison, may have led police on a chase that day in 1993 hoping to be killed.

The day Pink killed the car salesman in East Lyme, his son Dwight Pink Jr., well known to police in shoreline towns, was serving a six-year sentence on three first-degree robbery convictions. His brother, Elijah, was being held at the time at the New Haven Correctional Center, awaiting trial on a third-degree burglary charge.

Dwight Pink Jr. is now serving a 56-year sentence at Cheshire Correctional Institute for his part in a 1998 killing of 35-year-old Scott Rufin of Old Saybrook.

Pink was charged years after the killing after he disclosed, out of the blue in an interview with his probation officer, that he had been involved. His report to the probation officer led police to find the body in a wooded area.

In his new lawsuit against the Connecticut ban on pornography in prison, which was established in 2011, Pink is representing himself. He filed the lawsuit in the spring and last week the state responded, saying the ban is constitutional and protects prison workers.

Pink may or may not win his case, but he is raising some interesting issues. He is seeking an end to the ban and monetary damages.

In addition to the basic claim that the ban on pornography in prison violates his constitutional rights, he says he has been unfairly singled out by prison authorities who are also misapplying the ban.

It turns out the books that Pink was not allowed to have are not what many of us might think of as pornography. He had purchased books showing nudity - how to draw figures using techniques from Renaissance paintings, for instance, and another on childbirth.

I know, the childbirth book sounds creepy. But is it pornography?

Legal opinions in other cases involving prison pornography have tended to fall on the side of prison officials who try to keep their cells G-rated.

But Pink's argument that the books he ordered fall into the category of "literary, artistic, educational or scientific," which are specifically excluded from the Connecticut ban, could have some legal traction.

The complaint in his lawsuit seems pretty well crafted, as competent as I've seen from some lawyers.

If nothing else, the lawsuit, in addition to putting the Pink name in headlines again, may prove that prisoners with a lot of time on their hands can get a lot done if they focus on something, especially without the distraction of what may or may not be pornography.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: DavidCollinsct