Doug Thorburn on Early-Stage Alcohol and Drug Addiction

Governing Under the Influence: the City of Bell and its Grotesque(ly Overpaid) City Manager, Robert Rizzo In a classic 1987 article entitled “Governing under the influence; Washington alcoholics: their aides protect them, the media shields them,” Steven Waldman wrote what was, for the time, not only a tell-all on Washington, DC alcoholism but also one of the most insightful and perceptive exposés ever written on the subject. Among the gems: “Reporters usually fail to cover the drinking problems in Washington officials….’I knew several alcoholics,’ says Richard Bolling, former chairman of the House Rules Committee and a recovering alcoholic, ‘and they all were in important positions.’” He identified a number of former congressmen as alcoholics, including Representatives Wilbur Mills (chairman of the ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the jury for whose corruption trial is sadly still deliberating as of the date of release of this issue of TAR. Blagojevich, whose misbehaviors were first chronicled in the January 2009 TAR Top Story, with brief snippets in the May 2009 and July 2010 editions, is the subject of a story by Jonathan Franzen in the July 26, 2010 The New Yorker titled “What About Me?” Rarely has the alcoholic’s theme song “Me, me-me-me, me me me me me me me-me me” (sung to the tune of the well-known traditional Mexican song “Cielito Lindo”) rung so true. Franzen reports that Blago became “increasingly erratic” during his second term as ...

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine suggests there may be some truth in something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a recent story follows for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behaviors. Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, cleared of wrongdoing in her home foreclosure fiasco by the House Ethics Committee. However, keep in mind the members of the Ethics committee are—politicians. Also, you will find in the fine print of the ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: Two people died and four were wounded before a gunman, Robert Reza, turned the weapon on himself at a fiber optics plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Reza’s live-in girlfriend, who had told co-workers she feared for her safety, was among those injured in what was obviously an extreme case of domestic violence. The unsurprising aspect to the story is Reza’s criminal history included at least two arrests for DUI; the surprising part is this was reported in a newspaper article on the tragedy, albeit in the 15th (and last) paragraph. As I point out in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, stories like this should lead off with “he had the disease of alcoholism, which took form in ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Several months ago it dawned on me I had not heard from my dear Internet friend Fr. Jack Shirley for some time....and I was afraid of what I'd find so didn't look. In writing this issue of TAR, I ran across one of his wonderful posts to me (he supplied me with a number of ideas and leads over the years). It was a terrific personal story on enabling by family physicians: "I remember over 40 years ago while I was in Detroit I went to my family physician and complained about my difficulties drinking beer. He told me to switch to Scotch, which I did. I now had my doctor's approval." Such was the recovery ...

Crony capitalist Alfred R. Villalobos, who has been named in a state influence-peddling lawsuit, filing for bankruptcy in Nevada with almost $5 million owed to Nevada casinos in addition to other debts. Villalobos was a deputy mayor of Los Angeles for five months in 1993 and a board member of CalPERS, California’s giant pension fund, from 1993 to 1995. Over the last dozen years, Villalobos took in more than $50 million in commissions for brokering billion dollar deals between investment managers and CalPERS, as well as other government pension funds. One can only imagine how prolific a gambler, as the Attorney General’s office put it, he must be. The AG office is opposing the Nevada bankruptcy filing, arguing that Villalobos’ ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: A 6-month-old baby, whose parents, Patrick Fousek, 38 and Samantha Tomasini, 20, tried to sell for $25 outside a Wal-Mart in Salinas, CA. What drug could possibly impel not just one parent but both to try to sell their child at a Wal-Mart? There’s really only one. When officers later arrested the couple at their home, they appeared to be high on methamphetamine and the house was in disarray (and for this to be mentioned by police we can’t imagine how great the disarray must have been). They were charged with child endangerment and being under the influence of narcotics. Fousek was also charged with—are you ready?—violating probation. I’m shocked, just shocked. Some 300 current and retired ...

Disenabler of the month: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha N. Revel, who after listening to actress Lindsay Lohan’s promises to do better and her defense of an “inadvertent” failure to attend weekly alcohol education classes and follow other orders, sentenced Lohan to 90 days in jail for repeatedly violating the terms of her probation. The case stems from two arrests for DUI in 2007, for which Lohan was originally given only probation. Judge Revel called Lohan on her lies, including never admitting to driving vehicles involved in two (apparently unrelated) accidents (“someone else was driving”), about the white substance (cocaine) found in her pants (“the pants belong to someone else”) and her claim that she couldn’t attend the Cannes International ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Chris Haney, a former Canadian journalist who with Scott Abbott, a sports writer for the Canadian Press, co-created the best-selling board game Trivial Pursuit, dead at age 59 after a long illness, which included kidney and circulatory problems. Haney often described himself as “a beer-swilling high school dropout” whose biggest mistake was quitting school at 17 because, as he’d tell reporters, “I should have done it when I was 12.” He and Abbott were housemates in the late 1970s when he complained about paying $11 for a Scrabble set, saying, “There must be a lot of money in games. Why don’t we invent one?” Haney soon quit his day job to work full time on the ...

Most accidents require an alcoholic. This includes great and tragic ones, including oil gushers. Accidents are unplanned, unexpected and adverse events. Absent the whims of nature, arguably well over half of these events involve alcoholism. In Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse, a study of automobile plant employees is cited that reported an 82 percent reduction in accidents a year after treating its employees for alcoholism. Other studies are cited showing that at least one of the participants in 70 to 90 percent of snowmobile, workplace and incendiary accidents is under the influence at the time of the incident, which is an almost certain indicator of alcoholism. On pages 66-67 of How to Spot Hidden ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Tiger Woods, who has reportedly blamed cheating on his drug addiction which, he says, impaired his judgment. This is one of those classic instances where almost everyone is looking in the wrong place: his obvious sexual compulsions. Since alcohol and other-drug addiction most often provides the springboard for compulsive behaviors, especially of the destructive variety, they are eyeing only a symptom (and probably one of many that go unreported). It’s also said that a full-time outpatient therapist now monitors Tiger to keep him from taking drugs and cheating. Most people still think he is merely a “sex addict” and that once this is treated everything will be fine. Memo to Tiger: no, it won’t ...

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine suggests there may be some truth in something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, recent stories follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behavior itself. Melissa Huckaby, 29, pleading guilty to the 2009 slaying of her daughter’s 8-year-old playmate Sandra Cantu in Tracy, California, in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table and dropping charges of rape. She had previously been charged ...

Enablers of the month: Orange County, California sheriff’s deputies, who allowed fellow Deputy Allan James Waters, 36, to keep driving his Mercedes-Benz after one accident—only to be called to another incident 30 minutes later in which he injured another driver. This time, they arrested him for DUI. Message to cops: you don’t do anyone favors by offering “professional courtesies”. As is true throughout the field of alcoholism, helping only hurts and, sometimes, kills. Singer Whitney Houston’s sister-in-law Pat Houston, who told reporters, “Whitney is doing fine. Some people have said cruel things, but she’s happy just to have rested in [London’s Dorchester] hotel” after a hospital stay with an “upper respiratory infection” and “allergies.” A month earlier she was seen “partying” with ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Actor Dennis Hopper, dead from complications of advanced prostate cancer at age 74. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, Hopper was one of “Hollywood’s most notorious drug addicts for 20 years.” For a period in the 1970s he was ostracized by Hollywood for being a “difficult” actor. No wonder: for the last five years before he stopped drinking and drugging in the mid-‘80s, his addiction had grown to “doing half a gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side, 28 beers and 3 grams of cocaine a day—and that wasn’t getting high, that was just to keep going.” He was married five times, including to Michelle Phillips for two weeks and, more recently, Victoria ...

March-May 2010 / Issue No. 54 You may have been wondering about TAR. We released at least one during every tax season since beginning publication in August 2005. Your faithful correspondent just didn't get inspired enough by any particular event to come up with a Top Story during this year's busy Season, and without a Top Story it's tough to get motivated on the rest (even though there were plenty of less important stories to write about). In addition, since the end of Season I've caught up on real life (including business in both Las Vegas and Colorado) and written a speech I'll be giving in June before the California Society of Enrolled Agents, which requires a 20-30 page workbook ...

More Evidence that Terrorism is Fueled by Addiction to Psychotropic Substances: The Possible Role of Khat In an article written in 2001 I suggested that Osama bin Laden might be addicted to opiates and hashish, and that many of the 9-11 attackers were likely alcoholics. In cases too numerous to mention, from "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse" to this Report, a far greater percentage of despots, mass murderers and cultists have been identified as alcohol or other-drug addicts than would be expected by mere chance or if we ignore the role that addiction plays in fueling megalomania. Evidence supports the idea that while not every terrorist is an addict, those who are not are ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods, involved in a 2 a.m. accident that seemed inexplicable, until the world learned of: (1) his serial adultery with more than a dozen women (sexually compulsive; borrowing the methodology from "Drunks, Drugs & Debits," 50% odds of alcoholism), (2) the fact that he seems to have met most of these women in nightclubs and that most if not all of the women appear to be “party” girls (addicts often hang out with addicts; by itself probably 20%, but add 20% of the remaining 50%, or 10%; see “enablers of the month” below for the luscious details), (3) that with at least two of the women he not only didn’t use ...

In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who haven’t figured this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a litany of recent stories follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behavior itself. Ivana Trump, 60, ex-wife of The Donald, forcibly removed from a Delta jet after throwing a tantrum. Dr. Keith Williams, his wife Melissa and their children, 2-year-old Hailey and 10-month-old Ethan, were in the row behind her four first-row first-class seats—all purchased for ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: Jonathan and Susan Maloney, ages 45 and 42, along with their two children, victims of alcoholism while alive and dead. After they were killed when broadsided by Steven Culbertson, 19, their home was burglarized. Culbertson, who later died, already had at least one DUI on his record and was seen drinking at a Petaluma, California bar shortly before he ran a red light at 70 to 90 mph. A few days later, shortly after their home was ransacked, sheriff’s deputies arrested Amber Marie True, 29, after pulling her over for a routine traffic stop and finding a credit card belonging to Susan Maloney in her possession. After finding other items owned by the Maloney’s in her ...

Enablers of the month: Golf reporters, who obviously didn’t want to risk losing what little access they had to Tiger Woods; Woods’ handlers, who didn’t want to risk losing their jobs; and Woods’ fellow players, who no doubt kept secrets because of Woods’ beneficial effect on their earnings from the increased public interest in golf, not to mention TV ratings. Tiger Woods’ mistresses, including Rachel Uchitel, NYC club hostess; Jamie Grubbs, cocktail waitress;Kalika Moquin, club manager/promoter from Las Vegas (and least likely to be a co-addict based on her pictures; very cute and earthy); Jamie Jungers, “cute, but totally trashy lingerie model” from Vegas; Mindy Lawton, trailer park waitress; Cori Rist, aspiring model who met Woods at a Manhattan club last year ...

Headlines of the month: “Brittany Murphy Likely Died From Natural Causes.” So said the PopEater headline reporting LA County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter’s take on the 32-year-old’s untimely death from cardiac arrest. However, Murphy, whose claim to fame began with 1995’s “Clueless” and continued in films including “Girl, Interrupted,” reportedly suffered from diabetes and used a lot of cocaine over the years, which can cause sudden death. Her husband, Simon Monjack, 39, reportedly disrupted the set of “Shrinking Charlotte” by showing up inebriated. In a case of possible co-addict enabling, Murphy reportedly shelled out a lot of money over civil judgments against Monjack. Likely death from complications of diabetes and, despite having diabetes, psychotropic drug use should never be referred ...

Chremes: “And what vice [is] the vilest?” Pamphilus: “Drunkennesse, for it makes a Beast of a Man.” --Nicholas Breton, An Olde Mans Lesson and a Young Mans Love, 1605 Drug-addicted enabler to Anthony Sowell, Lori Frazier—and a slew of drug-addicted victims The criminal justice system is filled with addicts, who often were arrested by addicts, judged by them and guarded by them. Victims are also frequently addicts. While too often an innocent was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming victim to a stray bullet, a vehicular homicide or a robbery, the number of occasions where the victim is another addict is probably woefully underestimated. It doesn’t make it any less tragic, as so often addicts of all stripes are decent human ...

Tessa Zelek, 25, found guilty on two counts of cruelty to children, four counts of contributing to the deprivation of a minor and two counts of prescription drug forgery. Zelek, who fed her twins so little that at 13 months they reportedly looked like skeletons and weighed only nine pounds each (more than 50% underweight for their age), blamed the pediatrician for failing to tell her what and when to feed them and give proper parenting advice. The twins’ father, James McCart, also 25, copped a plea and admitted he didn’t “know how many days went by that the kids weren’t fed. I thought like two, but I’m not sure.” What could possible distort the perceptions of parents to the ...

Former Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa, 56, found by his wife lying face down in bed in their Tokyo home, dead of uncertain causes but with “numerous anomalies in his cardiovascular system as well as the presence of alcohol,” according to the Tokyo metropolitan police department. Nakagawa was a “runner-up” in the February-April 2009 edition of TAR, having slurred his speech and repeatedly appeared to doze off at a meeting of finance ministers focusing on the world’s economic mess, followed by a bizarre visit to the Vatican Museums in which he touched various exhibits that mere mortals like the rest of us would never dream of getting too close to (take a look at this and you’ll understand why). Oh, ...

Timothy Willgruber, 56, who took his own life a week after he killed his twin brother Thomas Willgruber in a freak “accident” (see the discussion on Heath Ledger’s death in the March 2008 edition of TAR for my view of such “accidents”) for which he was facing charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence. After both were drinking while driving to the Bethlehem, PA annual Celtic Fest, Timothy was having trouble parallel parking. When Thomas hopped out of the vehicle to help, Timothy backed into the spot and pinned Thomas between their minivan bumper and a sport utility vehicle, killing him. Such antics weren’t new: Thomas had previously pled guilty for DUI in 2000 and Timothy had ...

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, pleading guilty to lying to the White House while being vetted for the top Homeland Security post and for income tax evasion. As Commissioner on 9-11, he won glowing reviews for his leadership—all the while filing false tax returns (he has promised to refile 1999 through 2003 and 2005). As discussed in Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse, most crimes, including white-collar crimes such as tax evasion, are committed by alcoholics. Other clues to likely alcoholism include abandoning an illegitimate Korean daughter, accepting undisclosed gifts from firms doing business with New York City while Commissioner, having at least two mistresses, being expelled from Saudi Arabia after ...

Major Malik Nadal Hasan, an army psychiatrist, who killed 14 and wounded 31 others in a mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas after getting “upset” over being given orders to deploy to Iraq. The tragedy is so well-known only one observation bears mentioning, which other commentators seem to have completely ignored: psychiatrists have access to all sorts of drugs that are capable of causing distortions of perception, egomania and grandiosity, which in rare instances can lead a person afflicted with addiction to commit mass murder. Seven-year-old boys were turned into little killing machines in the Sierra Leone civil war by feeding them drug cocktails containing tranquilizers and amphetamines. Hasan had plenty of access to such drugs. While we may be ...

Convicted swindler Bernie Madoff, accused of financing a cocaine-fueled work environment and a “culture of sexual deviance.” Bernard Madoff Investment Services was known in the 1970s by insiders as the “North Pole” due to the excessive amount of cocaine used in the work place. The complaint, brought by former investors, alleges that Madoff used stolen money for his extravagant spending, which included escorts, masseuses and topless entertainers at company parties. Florida attorney Scott Rothstein, who according to The Wall Street Journal is being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for allegedly selling stakes in phony employment-dispute settlements that could rank as South Florida’s largest-ever Ponzi scheme. Known for lavish spending, Rothstein owns several mansions overlooking the canals of ...

Dr. Christopher Thompson, 60, convicted of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and other criminal charges after being arrested for slamming on his car’s brakes on a narrow Brentwood road with two bicycle riders right behind him, seriously injuring them. Thompson, a veteran emergency room doctor, was the subject of the January 2009 TAR Myth of the Month) after a blogger asked, “Do you really think that a prominent local member of the community—himself in the medical profession—deliberately tried to cause harm to these cyclists?” If he’s an addict, the answer is a resounding “yes!” but, unfortunately as is often the case of non-celebrity professionals, personal information is difficult to find (and in fact was redacted from many web sites, ...

Actor Nicholas Cage, who filed a $20 million lawsuit against his former business manager Samuel J. Levin, alleging that he was reckless with his money, including failing to pay more than $6 million in taxes. However, the actor purchased more than a dozen houses (including mansions in places like Newport Beach, Venice Beach, Malibu, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York and a castle near Bath, England), two Bahamian islands, dinosaur skulls, shrunken heads, two yachts, a Gulfstream jet and at least 50 cars (including Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces and Bentleys). Two mansions in New Orleans have been foreclosed and he recently sold his main home in Bel Air for less than half of the $30 million he paid for it. ...

Richard and Mayumi Heene, admitting they perpetrated a hoax when they claimed their 6-year-old son Falcon floated away in a giant balloon, when in fact he was in their Fort Collins, Colorado home while the entire nation watched the drama unfold on national television. Flights in and out of Denver International Airport were rerouted and a farmer’s field was destroyed by would-be rescuers when the balloon landed without the boy and authorities feared the worst. Aside from the obvious (“He’s a great liar,” clue # 12 in the chapter entitled “A Supreme Being Complex,” How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in Its Early Stages), Heene is known for his “extreme” risk-taking personality (“Engages in risky ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: Katherine Willis, 15, and Melissa Elh-Mirra, 5, the two foster children in the care of Genevieve Bethea who died after her daughter, Sheila Bethea, 45, lost control of a van and slammed into another vehicle in Queens. Before pleading not guilty to manslaughter and other charges, Bethea admitted to smoking crack cocaine at 2 a.m., doing heroin at 9 a.m. and drinking “one” alcoholic beverage at noon before the crash at about 5 p.m., where she told a witness she lost control after “driving too fast.” Investigators believe she wrapped a crack pipe in tissue and hid it in a “body cavity” after the crash, which she claimed occurred because a replacement tire gave way at ...

Enablers of the month: Facebook fans of Colton Harris-Moore, 18, who glowingly describe him as a teenage Jesse James, for being suspected of having stolen at least one boat, at least two airplanes, a thermal imaging camera (giving him night-vision capabilities for living in the woods he often lives in) and necessities. But he may not be the addict. Read on. Colton Harris-Moore’s mother Pam Kohler, who doesn’t find much wrong with her son’s exploits. “I hope to hell he stole those airplanes. I would be so proud.” Kohler was usually unemployed while raising her son in a reportedly run-down, single-wide trailer in the woods on the south end of Camano Island, north of Seattle, Washington. She sometimes threw her young son ...

Disenabler of the month: Mary Strey, 49, who called 911, saying “Somebody’s really drunk driving down Granton Road.” When the dispatcher asked, “Are you behind them?” Strey responded, “I am them.” “You am them?” “I don’t want to hurt anybody. I’m drunk.” She admitted to having been “drinking all night long.” With a blood alcohol level of .16 per cent, she was. It’s rare to get an honest drunk who disenables herself, but she is them.

Headline of the month: “Teen Burglary Ring Rooted in Friendship.” So headlined the story reporting a gang of suspects arrested on suspicion of burglarizing Lindsay Lohan and other Hollywood celebrities from October 2008 through September 2009 on www.popeater.com. No it isn’t. The ring is rooted in alcohol and other-drug addiction, along with possible codependency; where alcoholism is involved, friendship is secondary. Most of the group, including Nicholas Frank Prugo, 18, Alexis Neiers, 18 (sister of Playboy playmate Tess Taylor), Rachel Lee, 19, Diana Tamayo, 19 and Courtney Ames, 19, were classmates at a continuation campus for high school drop-outs in Agoura Hills. Prugo pled guilty to possession of cocaine in February and agreed to an 18-month drug diversion program. Lee, reportedly ...

Quotes of the month: “I guess all the rumors our parents told us about drugs and alcohol are true. I was just dying an alcoholic death….I had to be putting poison in me 24/7. It went on for quite awhile.” So said Kevin Green, would-be Mammoth Lakes, California king of real estate, now 20 months sober and making amends to those he harmed. On a personal note, back in late 2005 my wife and I traded two of our three overpriced Mammoth vacation rentals for real estate outside the bubble states (Tennessee, to be precise—but the idea was to go anywhere else). We kept the third because it’s very cute (and available for rent), we love Mammoth and I figured, hey, ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Dickie Peterson, the bassist and lead singer for the heavily amped Blue Cheer, dead at age 63 of metastasized prostate cancer. Best known for its name (a potent strain of LSD) and a 1968 rendition of the classic “Summertime Blues,” Blue Cheer members were not only enraged over Viet Nam, but “we were outraged at society in general and we were expressing it in a way that had never been done” in a style that The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll says was a “heavy-metal landmark.” While Peterson admits that band members took “a lot” of drugs, he acknowledged that while he still believed “LSD and such drugs have a positive effect…we took it ...

There’s an addict behind almost every crime, especially heinous ones. Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and raped 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard, is no different from the rest. The only question is whether he was a dry or active drunk. Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, a registered sex offender and parolee, was recently arrested for having abducted 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and holding her in captivity ever since. While their Antioch, California neighbors knew something was “off” about him, they saw only an overgrown backyard filled with sheds and tents and never detected the wailing or screaming one might expect of an abductee. Instead, they occasionally heard children, who “sounded normal.” The neighbors had no idea that Dugard gave birth to these ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Celebrity disc jockey Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein, 36, found dead with eight undigested OxyContin pills in his stomach and a ninth in his mouth, along with cocaine, hydrocodone (Vicodin), Ativan, Klonopin, Xanax, Benadryl and Levamisole (a drug use to cut cocaine) in his system. Goldstein was famous for spinning records for as much as $25,000 for a three-hour set at some of the world’s most exclusive parties, including private events for Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Stiller. Throughout his early 20s he struggled with drugs and his weight, reaching 300 pounds before getting sober and undergoing gastric by-pass surgery. After surviving a fiery Learjet crash barely a year ago on the runway of ...

Under watch: Five actresses from the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” arrested in Georgia for dangling from the side of a bridge and exposing their breasts to passing motorists. A Sheriff’s deputy spokeswoman (we’ll pass on the obvious jokes about “under watch” and “spokeswoman,” not “spokesman”) said that “one girl was holding another girl’s ankles and hanging her over the bridge like she was going to drop her.” Nina Dobrev, 20, Sara Canning, 22, Kayla Ewell, 24, Krystal Vayda, 23 and Candice Accola, 22, were arrested along with cameraman Tyler Shields, whose footage confirmed (to the spokeswoman) several dozen drivers’ accounts of the escapades. The idea that none of the above may have been sober is supported by the fact that Canning ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: Residents of the motor city, Detroit, Michigan, who suffer with the likes of Renee Jason Beavers, 33, arrested with a 24-ounce can of beer between her legs on charges of auto theft and driving without a valid license—for the 45th time; and Ahmed Malik, 31, arrested for having an improper license plate—the latest in his transgressions that include 52 license suspensions and 18 warrants for his arrest.

Enablers of the month: Marsha Polk-Townsend, who described her brother Brownie Polk, 46, as not being “a violent guy” after causing a disturbance at a liquor-store and confronting police with a hatchet. After ignoring “numerous” commands to drop the weapon, he held the hatchet over his head and advanced on the officer, who shot him several times, killing him. While Polk-Townsend disputes the story, a security camera recorded the entire incident and corroborates the officer’s account. Polk-Townsend claims, “He would never charge at police with a hatchet.” No, Ms. Polk-Townsend, the brother you knew would never do that. Meet Mr. Hyde, who would. An un-named resident of Malibu Colony, referring to Cheronda Guyton, who was responsible for Wells Fargo Bank’s foreclosed commercial ...

Disenabler of the month: Frank Canale, 83, and his daughter, who were on their way to a wedding when Canale’s car was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver. Canale, realizing the man was under the influence and fearing he “could kill someone,” called 911 and followed the culprit for 15 miles from New York into the man’s Danbury, Connecticut driveway, where Canale remained until police arrived. By the time they finished filing police reports in two states, the wedding was over.

Quotes of the month: “I have never had anyone call me or e-mail me to say they wished they wouldn’t have given someone an ultimatum. But I have a couple of dozen times had some[one] contact me to tell me that they wish they wouldn’t have backed down or waited, because now the person is dead.” So said interventionist Jeff Van-Vonderen matter-of-factly in a newspaper article on whether traditional intervention, in which the addict is given an ultimatum, might have worked on Michael Jackson. This pretty much puts to rest the idea that ultimatums should not be given and that they should, instead, be offered at every opportunity. “My father was not a bad man. He was a very sick man….He was ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, dead from brain cancer at 77. Kennedy’s life was filled with the conflicts, inconsistencies and enigmas that are rarely explained by anything other than alcoholism. Although he reportedly sobered up in the 1990s, to the end he continued to manipulate the system wherever he could and maintain he was not drunk the night he left a party in 1969 and drove his chauffeur’s limousine off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island into Poucha Pond, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. However, the facts belie the claim: he swam to shore and walked back to the party, past several houses and a fire station. (Kopechne had scratched the upholstered floor above her head in ...

Diane Schuler: A Tragic Case of Hidden Alcoholism Diane Schuler’s husband, Daniel Schuler, told investigators that everything seemed fine when she left a Sullivan County, New York campground with her 2-year-old daughter, 5-year-old son and three young nieces at 9:30 a.m. on July 26. He was going fishing, while his wife was heading home. When he heard from police a few hours later that she was involved in a wrong-way head-on collision that killed everyone in both vehicles except for the 5-year-old, he—and the press—had no idea what could have possibly gone wrong. For days, cops and family members were “baffled” about what made her drive so recklessly. Six other drivers called 911 before the collision, as she straddled two lanes, tailgated, ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Systems analyst and loner George Sodini, 48, who walked into a Pittsburgh gym, shooting and killing 3 women, wounding 9 women, terrifying dozens of others and then killing himself. In his personal blog, he recounted years of loneliness and rejection, along with his plans for committing mass murder, which he delayed twice. He knew that liquid courage was required for him to pull it off. He wrote on May 5: “To pull the exit plan [i.e., murder-suicide] off, it popped into my mind to just use some booze….I stopped at Shop N Save and got a fifth of vodka and a small bottle of Jack Daniels. I haven't had a drink since September 1, ...

Former New York Mets and, later, Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Lenny Dykstra filing for bankruptcy the day before his mansion was to be auctioned in a foreclosure sale. Dykstra, who reported an estimated $58 million in net worth as recently as early 2008, listed less than $50,000 in assets against $10-$50 million in liabilities. His storied career includes a DUI after demolishing his Mercedes roadster in 1991 in a 1 a.m. spin-out with his BAL at .179 percent, an arrest for making sexual advances to a 17-year-old worker at his Simi Valley car wash in 1999 (for which he was later cleared), being the target of at least two dozen legal actions since 2007 and a business empire that appears to ...

Jesse James Hollywood, runner-up in the June 2009 TAR, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2000 slaying of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz even though he didn’t pull the trigger. The jury found that “friends,” eager to clear the books of drug debts, followed his orders to kill by shooting Markowitz nine times. The gun, which was buried with Nicholas, belonged to Hollywood. One journalist reporting the conviction reminded readers that the case inspired the 2006 movie “Alpha Dog,” which “depicted a dark side of middle-class suburbia, a world of frequently stoned young people who were willing to take orders from a criminal mastermind.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems to imply that this middle-class world consists of stoners taking ...

Scott Kernan, 47, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2008 as undersecretary for prison operations for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, suspended for six weeks without pay as punishment for driving his state-provided car while under the influence. Kernan, whose position places him as the second-ranking administrator of California’s prison system, says he is “deeply remorseful” and will plead guilty. But Mr. Kernan, will you seek sobriety? And will you begin to inspire those serving under you to do the same? Alexandria, Virginia police chief David Baker, arrested on charges of DUI after crashing his unmarked city vehicle. Baker’s blood alcohol level was .19 percent, for which anyone Baker’s age, 58, is almost certain proof of alcoholism. Baker ...

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economis magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a litany of recent cases follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the crime itself. Disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier, sentenced to 20 years after admitting to selling $700 million in fake promissory notes and to stealing client funds. Dreier, who was featured in the January 2009 TAR “under watch” section, explained that his crimes “in part” grew ...

Alcoholic victim of the month: Lily Burk’s body was found in a car in downtown Los Angeles. Her neck had been slashed a bit over 12 hours earlier. Shortly after her murder, Charlie Samuel, 50, was apprehended for public intoxication and having a crack pipe in his pocket. Two days later, Samuel was charged with Burk’s murder after police matched his fingerprints with those found in the car. Samuel was a drug addict with a “colorful” criminal history, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and robbery. He was given early parole because California’s prisons are arguably filled with too many non-violent offenders and, while he should have been tried and convicted on a third strike under California’s “three ...

Co-dependent of the month: Former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who announced she is resigning as Alaska’s governor without an explanation that makes sense. When something doesn’t make sense, addictionologists know that addiction likely lurks just beneath the surface. Evidence supporting the idea that Palin’s reaction is to alcoholism in those close includes: 1. Daughter Bristol has been reported to be a dope-smoking underage drinker and party girl. 2. Bristol’s estranged boyfriend, with whom she bore a son, appears to consume alcohol and other drugs addictively. 3. The boyfriend’s mother Sherry was arrested and charged with six felony drug charges late last year. Addiction sheds light on the behaviors of many politicians. The behaviors of many non-addicted politicians could be explained by ...

Disenabler of the month: Marina Fanouraki of Crete, who turned herself in to police, asserting she acted in self-defense by setting fire to a 20-year-old Briton’s genitals after repeated advances were flouted. The intoxicated male, Stuart Feltham, had taken his pants down and was “waving” his genitals at women in a bar at the seaside resort of Malia, Greece, which boasts a tad over 6,000 permanent residents and 63 bars. Not surprisingly, Malia is notorious for attracting young people (especially Brits) looking for bacchanalia, but I digress. After he “forcefully fondled” the 26-year-old woman and asked her to take hold of his genitals, she responded by “soaking” them in liquor. Much to his later regret, she claims he persisted. She allegedly ...

Admission of the month: Kid Rock, telling Q Magazine after being sentenced to anger management classes, “I think that the judge made a mistake when he sentenced me. I think he probably should have sent me to Alcoholics Anonymous because I do have a drinking problem….None of these fights would have ever occurred without drinking.” Quote of the month: Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, admitting to drinking at a bar where compromising pictures were taken last January, explained that if he thinks he can have one or two drinks it inevitably snowballs to 10 or 12. In the words of a fellow alcoholic: “I'm allergic to alcohol. Every time I drink it, I break out in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs.” Hamilton has otherwise ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: TV infomercial king Billy Mays, dead from heart disease—with “cocaine use” listed as a contributing cause of death. Vicodin, Oxycodone, Xanax, Valium and alcohol were also found in Mays’ system. Mays, who was known for shouting in an abrasive manner while promoting OxiClean, Orange Glo and other household cleaning and maintenance products, had been in chronic pain for more than two years and was about to have his third hip surgery within 18 months. According to his (second) wife, Deborah Mays, prescription pain medications were at doctor-recommended usage levels. However, the labels on pains meds explicitly warn against the use of alcohol which, if ignored, is an excellent indicator of alcoholism. In addition, as explained in ...

Michael Jackson was enabled to his death In Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse, I wrote: “The higher an addict’s social status, the greater the enabling, because the enablers have more to lose….Enabling is the reason so many talented people—Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Burton and John Belushi—die young; they are ‘helped’ to their graves by those around them.” Close people can’t tell the addict he needs to stop drinking and using if they are to protect their jobs, incomes and, in many cases, positions of status, prestige and power. Underlings can too easily be fired. Let’s not confuse this with blaming enablers for addiction, a genetic disorder that results in biochemically processing a drug in ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Longtime “Tonight Show” sidekick Ed McMahon, dead at age 86. McMahon, whose life was partially chronicled in these pages in July 2008 edition of TAR, sued his insurer and won $7.2 million in a settlement over mold that allegedly killed his dog Muffin in the early 2000s. That’s one way to get your money back after blowing through a reported $200 million net worth. More recently, he sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, two doctors and the owner of the home where he fell and broke his neck some 30 months ago. Like other addicts, he likely triggered alcoholism at an early age and was, therefore, a practicing alcoholic while he served as ...

Under watch: In a recent piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a case is presented for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behavior itself. Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist who was with Michael Jackson when he went into cardiac arrest. He filed for bankruptcy in 1992. If that were all, he wouldn’t be on our radar. However, this was followed by five tax liens totaling more than $44,000 between ...

Enablers of the month: Nutritionist and registered nurse Cherilyn Lee, 56, who said, despite Michael Jackson’s repeated demands for the heavyweight drug Diprivan, which is given intravenously for anesthesia, “He wasn’t looking to get high or feel good and sedated from drugs. This was a person who was not on drugs.” Believing his addict-talk, she quoted Jackson: “I don’t like drugs. I don’t want any drugs.” She explained that he “just wanted more energy.” Lee spoke out in an effort to “protect” Jackson’s reputation from what she considers unfounded allegations of drug “abuse.” Unfortunately, Ms. Lee, given Jackson’s extraordinarily bizarre behaviors, his reputation would suffer if he had not been a poly-drug addict. The fact that you have overlooked the enormous ...

Disenablers of the month: Michael Jackson’s nanny, Grace Rwaramba, 42, who was fired in December 2008 for proposing an intervention for Michael. “He didn’t want to listen,” she says. She added, “That was one of the times he let me go.” At least you tried, Grace. But you had to battle the likes of Cherilyn Lee and her cohorts. You didn’t stand a chance. University of Southern California sociologist Julie Albright, who observed that celebrity doctors may have questionable pasts or significant debts. “Some of these people might not be the most successful doctors, so the money will [not only allow them to make large amounts of money, but also] buy their complicity in fueling a drug” addiction. Elvis had such a ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Michael Jackson is not the only star who was likely driven by and succumbed to alcohol and other-drug addiction. Ironically, Jackson kept statues of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe at his Neverland ranch. He bought the publishing rights to the songs of John Lennon’s Beatles. Those whose stars burned brighter after death according to one newspaper report, perhaps because of their early demise, include a whose-who of addicts: “Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Roberto Clemente, Steve Prefontaine, Steve McQueen, Judy Garland, Hank Williams and Barbaro.” Except for the great long-distance runner Prefontaine and the horse, Barbaro, they were all addicts. Although we can’t be certain when Jackson triggered his addiction, we know that alcoholism usually begins during the ...

James W. Von Brunn, Racist Octogenarian—and Alcoholic In Drunks, Drugs & Debits, I explained that the addicted ego can impel the addict to degrade, defile and ridicule others in an effort to build himself up. Sometimes this devolves into hatred, which can be directed against entire classes of people, as in racism or bigotry. I surmised that while not all racists and bigots are addicts, probably most are. Former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver recanted his idea of a war between races only after he got sober. Former Governor George Wallace died “not drinking” with huge support among Blacks, who formerly had been the target of his racial epithets. Adolf Hitler was an amphetamine and barbiturate addict. As mentioned in How to ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Jesse James Hollywood, accused of ordering the murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in 2000 and finally standing trial in a Santa Barbara, California courtroom. In a classic case replete with addicts, Hollywood allegedly kidnapped Markowitz in August, 2000, in revenge over a $1,200 drug debt owed by his older half-brother, Ben Markowitz. According to prosecutors, after learning from his family’s lawyer that kidnapping can carry a life sentence, Hollywood gave his friend Ryan Hoyt a gun and car and told him to drive to Santa Barbara and “take care of business.” Hoyt was convicted of being the shooter and sentenced to death for the murder. In a truly bizarre case of distorted perceptions or ...

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” With this in mind, these are stories for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behaviors themselves, even though absolute proof in public sources may be lacking. James William Lull, who failed to show up for sentencing in court in Hawaii after being convicted of scamming more than 50 investors out of $30 million in a Ponzi scheme because his car ripped through a barbed-wire fence and plunged 200 feet down a canyon, killing him. Lull, 60, while manager at ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: The rest of the human race apart from North Korea’s Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong Un, who has been anointed the next leader of the totalitarian socialist state by the elder Kim. Un is said to be competitive, proficient in English and, oh yes, a “heavy drinker” just like his alcoholic father. No wonder, according to Kim’s former Sushi chef Kenji Fujimoto, Un “acts just like his father and is [his] favorite.” As I wrote in the October 2004 TAR, the most dangerous people alive are alcoholic despots, especially those with access to weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, addicts are capable of anything (and I mean anything). North Korea just tested another nuclear ...

Co-dependents of the month: The San Francisco Zoo, which settled a lawsuit with two brothers who survived the Christmas Day 2007 tiger attack after they and their friend Carlos Sousa, Jr. taunted the tiger, reported in the January-February 2008 TAR. Carlos was killed, but Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, in whose car an empty bottle of vodka was found after the attack, are said to have raked in a cool $900,000. “Other” escapades, reported in the September-October 2008 issue of TAR, included several counts of felony shoplifting and imprisonment for violation of probation involving a high-speed chase for Paul and public drunkenness and resisting arrest for Kulbir. Most lotto winners run through their take within a few years; the addictionologist in me ...

In a recent piece on white-collar crime, The Economist magazine observed that “many [Club Fed and other white-collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” This should come as no surprise to our audience. In Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse, I argue that 80-90% of criminals, including those who perpetrate white-collar crime, are addicts. Students of my books know how to use this simple idea to protect themselves from the financial devastation wrought by addicts. However, try proving the existence of alcoholism when it is so often hidden by both addicts and their enablers. As I wrote in the Top Story on Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and his wife ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Lindolfo Thibes, sentenced to 109 years-to-life for sexually assaulting his daughter beginning when she was 6 years old and ultimately fathering her three children. What began as a domestic violence assault in a Las Vegas hospital parking lot in 2005, in which Thibes reportedly stabbed his “girlfriend,” ended up revealing a harrowing tale, in which the girl was found to be his daughter. He monitored her every move for over two decades using surveillance cameras and home imprisonment. He beat her fiercely during paranoid rages. The unnamed daughter, now 29, told authorities he plied her with alcohol and marijuana from the age of 8. While Thibes rambled off a litany of complaints to the ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, 22, Courtney Frances Stewart, 20 and Henry Pearson, 25, who were killed and Jon Wilhite, 24, who survived, when Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, blew through a red light at an estimated 65 mph in his Toyota Sienna minivan and broadsided a Mitsubishi Eclipse. Gallo, whose license had been revoked after a 2006 DUI conviction, fled on foot without checking on the victims. He was arrested 30 minutes later and charged with three counts of murder. Despite the fact that he was ordered to take alcohol education classes after his 2006 conviction, his BAL was .24 per cent, three times the legal limit and a level at which most non-addicts would have ...

Co-dependent of the month: Rihanna, whose tale of having been punched, bitten, threatened and choked by her R & B singer boyfriend Chris Brown was briefly told in the Feb-April 2009 TAR, explaining why she’s back with him: “He’ll hit me and feel bad afterward, but then he turns into the sweetest man and becomes my angel. He’ll cry like a little baby when he makes up to me, and that’s the part I love.” She admits, “I’d seen what alcohol and drugs had done to my dad [who was a crack cocaine addict] and I wasn’t going to follow in his footsteps.” Maybe not, but she’s clearly followed in her own way by substituting Brown for her father and thinking ...

Enablers of the month: Vincent Carroll, who reviewed Jeff Kass’s Columbine: A True Crime Story and Dave Cullen’s Columbine for The Wall Street Journal. Carroll doesn’t mention Eric Harris’s drug use, including the fact that his favorite drugs were vodka and whiskey. The implication is that neither book Carroll reviewed identified alcoholism as the root of the tragedy. I’d like to hope that someone who has read either of these books will prove me wrong. (Had TAR been in existence at the time, Harris and his apparently codependent friend Dylan Klebold would have been the Top Story of the Year. They were mentioned in the April-May 2007 issue of TAR in the Top Story on the mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho, who ...

Octomom’s confabulated thinking suggests addiction Confabulation is described in Wikipedia as “the formation of false memories, perceptions, or beliefs about the self or the environment as a result of neurological or psychological dysfunction.” The source of most such dysfunction is psychotropic drug addiction, involving the repeated use of drugs capable of causing distortions of perception, memory and beliefs. Journalists usually look for addiction last. It should be first, particularly when “confabulation” is combined with bizarre behavior. Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in late January, has been in the headlines ever since. Most shake their heads and wonder, “What’s she thinking?” Many figure she’s simply irresponsible. Those who understand addiction might instead ask, “What is she on?” Addiction to psychotropic drugs, ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: John C. Odom, the minor league baseball player traded for 10 maple bats who died November 5 at age 26, only recently determined by a medical examiner to have died from an “accidental overdose.” The combination of drugs, heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol, suggest that the “accident” should be re-stated as "death contributed to or caused by distortions of perception from brain damage rooted in alcohol or other-drug addiction”)*. At the time, the former prospect in the San Francisco Giants’ chain seemed to handle the trade well, kidding that the kooky deal would make a great story if he ever reached the major leagues. Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year, felt ...

Under watch: Ervin Lupoe, who killed his wife Ana and their five children in Wilmington, California, after both he and his wife had been fired from their hospital jobs for falsifying income records so they could qualify for a low-income child care program. The Lupoe’s each made over $40 per hour as radiological technicians for Kaiser Permanente in West Los Angeles, but made it appear they were earning less than $10 per hour. They were behind in their mortgage payments and had recently bounced checks for $15,000 and $2,000 to reportedly pay for back property taxes and penalties. Although there was nothing in Lupoe’s military record indicating any problems, he had applied for but was rejected by several police agencies before ...

Enablers of the month: One of the sources reporting on the Chris Brown-Rihanna entanglement, explaining they are “both pretty stubborn.” No, Mr. Source, while we can’t yet be sure about her, Brown is an addict. Dr. Jay Carter, a psychologist and “world-renowned expert on anger and abuse,” says “both need therapy, and Chris needs anger-management classes….If they do get back together…they need to attend joint counseling.” No, Mr. Carter, while she may need counseling he needs AA. (I’d say “Mr. Carter, you idiot,” but that would unfairly denigrate idiots.) Heidi, the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decided to allow her loyal customers - most of whom were unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Baseball great Dock Ellis, the former major league pitcher who threw a no-hitter while on LSD and who had no memory of his performance that day in June, 1970, dead from cirrhosis of the liver at age 63. Near the end of compiling a 138-119 career record from 1968 through 1979, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ellis began counseling addicts at a prison in Pittsburgh. He began his drinking and using career by the time he was in high school and didn’t get permanently sober until after he retired from the game in 1980. He managed to pitch for the triumphant 1971 World Series team and was named to the All-Star team that year. He was ...

Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich: His God-Complex Indicates Alcoholism In the latest of a series of scandals emanating from the Illinois governor’s mansion, Rod R. Blagojevich, 51, and his chief of staff John Harris, 46, have been charged with, among other extraordinary acts, solicitation of bribery in connection with an attempt to sell the Senate seat recently vacated by President-elect Obama. In "How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in its Early Stages" I describe several key early-stage generic clues to alcoholism, including a “Supreme Being” complex and sense of invincibility rooted in egomania. Here are a few of the specific egomaniacal power-seeking symptoms that may be relevant in explaining Gov. Blagojevich’s otherwise inexplicable behaviors: 1) Is employed in ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: The Mumbai, India terrorists, who battled Indian commandos for 60 hours, relied on cocaine and “other stimulants” to stay awake. Drug paraphernalia was recovered from the sites of the attacks, in which almost 200 people were murdered. Officials said, “We found [syringes] containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists and later found drugs in their blood.” They added there was also evidence of steroids, “which isn’t uncommon in terrorists.” I have suggested elsewhere that terrorism is rooted in alcohol and other-drug addiction, including in an article written shortly after the September 11 attacks available at www.preventragedy.com under “articles and interviews,” as well as the TAR August 2005 Top Story “Tantalizing ...

Under watch: I have long maintained that if 80% of felons are alcohol and other-drug addicts, a similar percentage of those who commit white-collar crime—including those who perpetrate Ponzi and other con artist-type schemes—are also addicts. Charles Ponzi was an alcoholic. The behaviors suggest that those listed below are as well (and if not, they are likely children of particularly emotionally abusive ones). Unfortunately, the number of celebrities outed as alcohol or other-drug addicts are inversely proportionate to the number of attorneys, businessmen and politicians who are not. Occasionally we run across a non-professional con artist, in whom we are more likely to have a chance at confirming addiction. We might argue there should be no difference in the incidence of addiction ...

Under Watch: Esteban Armando Nunez, the 19-year-old son of former California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a 22-year-old student after a night of drinking at a party near San Diego State University. He and his three cohorts (one of whom had a felony record and had been charged in two DUI cases), also charged in the death, identified themselves as members of The Hazard Crew, or THC, perhaps not coincidentally the abbreviation for the active chemical ingredient in marijuana. Nunez and one of the other men were reportedly heard bragging hours before the incident about how they learned to gang up on victims and take turns punching them. They were seen drinking beer ...

Victim of the month: Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, despite billing themselves as a place “where a kid can be a kid,” for becoming popular among disorderly adults. Several of the restaurants, under pressure from locals, have stopped serving alcohol—which some city officials have “pinpointed as the main cause of the fighting.” Of course, we know it’s not the booze—it’s just a few of the people on the booze—but giving up the alcohol is probably a good idea. The non-alcoholics really won’t care, and the addicts, well, maybe they’ll abstain for an evening or take their kids elsewhere, so that Chuck E. Cheese will again become the safe environment for which it is known. Enabler of the month: Rolling Stone Magazine, which I favorably ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Pinup queen Bettie Page, dead at 85. Page was famous for the some 20,000 photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957 and for being one of the first centerfolds in a nascent Playboy Magazine (winking under a Santa Claus cap in the January 1955 issue). According to Page, her father, an auto mechanic, “molested all three of his daughters.” There are several clues in her life story suggestive of the idea that she inherited her father’s exceedingly likely alcoholism. First, at 37, she abruptly stopped posing and immersed herself in Bible studies, soon serving as a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade. She was married and divorced three times and, after divorcing her third ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Brian Nichols, found guilty of murder, armed robbery and kidnapping after launching a courtroom rampage in 2005 that left a judge, a court reporter and two law enforcement officers dead. Nichols was on trial for rape when he broke out of a courthouse holding cell by overpowering a guard and seizing her gun. After committing mayhem in the court he hijacked a car and fled to the apartment of a young woman, Ashley Smith Robinson, forcing himself in at gunpoint. She calmed him down by giving him drugs"the first and only mention of which was in the 14th paragraph of the article reporting the jury's finding"and reading to him from pastor Rick Warren's A ...

Under watch: Skylar Deleon, 29, convicted in the gruesome murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks, who thought they were dealing with a prospective buyer of their yacht when they took Deleon and his pregnant wife Jennifer on a cruise to show the vessel in 2004. After being forced to sign over ownership of the boat, the Hawks were tied to an anchor and tossed overboard somewhere between Long Beach Harbor and Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. While Deleon's ex-friends and family testified that Skylar did not "abuse"alcohol or other drugs, there's little question that his behaviors were addiction-related. His father abused him, left his mother when he was five and was sentenced to three years in federal prison ...

Alcoholic victims of the month: "American Idol"star Jennifer Hudson's mother Darnell Donerson, brother Jason Hudson and nephew Julian King, who are believed to have been murdered by William Balfour, the estranged husband of Jennifer's sister, Julia Hudson. Balfour, who was on parole since May 2006 after serving seven years on charges of attempted murder and carjacking, was kicked out of Julia's home in May because of alleged drug dealing. Furious, he vowed to Julia that he'd kill her and the rest of the family if she "didn't stop messin' in his life."He threatened to kidnap Julia's son Julian and kill him. While it's true that we generally shouldn't believe addicts, there is one exception: if they threaten you, believe them. The ...

Disenablers of the month: Casey Anthony's father, George Anthony, who has reportedly admitted to police having grave doubts about Casey's innocence over the disappearance of his granddaughter Caylee. He seems shaken over the fact that he has caught his daughter in lies that border on the delusional, including her telling a friend her father had suffered a stroke, was divorcing his wife Cindy and was turning over their home to Casey. Armed with fabricated work sheets, phony emails and dummied-up date books, Casey convinced her parents she was an event planner at Universal Studios, when in fact she hadn't worked in two years. LaVelda Conrad's daughters, Kaja, 25, Camille, 23 and Chelsea, 21, who reported LaVelda for cocaine possession to authorities, which ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: DeWayne McKinney, 47, killed when he crashed his moped into a bus stop sign and utility pole in Hawaii with a BAL of .22 per cent. McKinney had been released from incarceration in 2000 after being wrongly convicted of a 1980 robbery-murder at a Burger King in Orange, California and, amazingly, expressed no anger or bitterness. Instead, he spoke at churches about the faith that carried him through his years in prison and even met the judge who sentenced him and the prosecutor in the case, accepting an apology and a hug from the judge and endorsing the reelection campaign of the prosecutor. He won a $1 million settlement in 2002 and parlayed it into a ...

Presidential Contenders: Sons of Alcoholics Presidential contenders Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain may be members of different parties, hold opposite views on many subjects and have very different ancestral backgrounds. They have, however, one key similarity: they are both sons of alcoholics. Barack Obama Sr. met Ann Dunham while both were studying at the University of Hawaii in 1959. In 1962, a year after their son was born, Barack Sr. won a graduate scholarship to Harvard and left, never to return. Sen. Barack Obama was abandoned by his father before he was old enough to remember him. While earning a masters degree in economics at Harvard, Obama Sr. became a fixture in bars, chain-smoking and ordering scotch straight up by the ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: O.J. Simpson, 61, who finally got his comeuppance by being convicted on all counts of armed robbery in a trial involving, as I wrote in the October 2007 edition of the Thorburn Addiction Report, a cast of characters consisting solely of other likely alcoholics. Most commentators were amazed when he broke into the hotel room to "take back"his memorabilia from sports collectors. I wrote that if one is to understand O.J., one must grasp the concept of alcoholic egomania, which compels the addict to wield power over others. This accounts for O.J.'s success on the playing field and as an actor, because success facilitates the use of power. It also sheds light on a ...

Under watch: Con man Daniel Heath, 51, sentenced to 127 years in prison on 400 counts, including grand theft, elderly abuse and filing false tax returns, for running a $180 million investment scam that bilked many of at least 1,800 elderly investors of their life savings. In classic Ponzi-like fashion, Heath, along with his late, possibly codependent, father John Heath, and Dennis T. O'Brien, 53, funneled money from new investors to pay off early investors. The scam dated to the early 1990s, when Daniel W. Heath & Associates lured clients to "free lunch"seminars where they were told their money would go into fixed income investments with little or no risk. Instead, it went into high-risk real estate and small business projects. I ...

Headline of the month: "Jobless dad kills 5, himself"; also, "Father kills family and himself, despondent over financial losses" We may as well get used to headlines like these which refer, in this case, to the murder-suicide by Karthik Rajaram, 45, as the unwinding of the great credit bubble proceeds. Unfortunately, they will be mostly misleading and thereby fail to help prevent future similar tragedies. As regular readers know, almost all crime"especially murder"is rooted in alcoholism. Many suicides also have their source in this disease. Readers of "Drunks, Drugs & Debits" (with thanks to James Graham's "The Secret History of Alcoholism") also understand that desperate measures are sometimes taken to compensate for a deflating ego. As wealth contracts, leaving the alcoholic less able ...

Co-alcoholics of the month: Ed McMahon, who had trouble selling his home partly because it's just off Mulholland Drive near an area where photographers wait for shots of one of his neighbors, pop singer full-blown poly-drug addict Britney Spears. McMahon purchased the home in 1990 for $2.6 million. He listed it near the peak of the housing bubble for $7 million and only recently reduced the asking price to the approximately $4.6 million he owes on the home. McMahon, who plight is recounted in the July 2008 issue of TAR is yet another example of an alcoholic harmed by another alcoholic.

Enablers of the month: Donald Trump, who announced he will purchase Ed McMahon's home and lease it back to him. That's very sweet, Donald, but you don't seem to understand what you're doing. How do we know this? Because you asked, "How could this happen?"Donald, Ed McMahon dug himself into this hole because of his alcoholism. He's reportedly been sober for a decade, but recent history suggests otherwise. He won a lawsuit with his insurer over mold and lost THAT fortune after squandering millions from being Johnny's sidekick. He borrowed an additional $250,000 in July 2006 at an annual interest rate of 15%, suggesting there were serious financial problems before he injured himself so badly he couldn't continue to work"at age ...

Disenabler of the month: Paparazzi Jill Ishkanian, who reported Actress Heather Locklear, 47, to 911 after observing her acting strangely and driving erratically while maneuvering her car in a Montecito, California parking lot. Ishkanian told authorities that Locklear, who left a treatment facility in July after receiving four weeks of treatment for "anxiety and depression,"stopped shortly after exiting the parking lot, stepped out of her car and stumbled into a traffic lane. A California Highway Patrol officer found her shortly after inside her vehicle stopped in a travel lane nearby and booked her on suspicion of driving under the influence of a controlled substance. Wow, a paparazzi doing the right thing"not just reporting the alcoholic antics of her subject, but actually ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Thomas "Bud"McDonald, who appeared as the freckled and big eared Buddy in several "Our Gang"movies in the 1930s and later co-founded what are now called the Southern California Alcohol and Drug Programs, dead from congestive heart failure at age 85. McDonald began his movie career at age 8 but moved to Oregon with his mother and two brothers after his parents divorced during his mid-teen years. He eventually moved back to Southern California and became a Los Angeles police officer. After four years on the force, he "left"the LAPD in part, according to his son, because of alcoholism and "running with a bad crowd."His alcoholism-induced misbehaviors obviously worsened, as he was quickly convicted of armed robbery. ...

Bruce Ivins, anthrax suspect. Verdict: alcoholic. Bruce E. Ivins, PhD, was a leading scientist researching vaccines and cures for anthrax exposure. Until 2006, he was also one of the key members of the team investigating the October 2001 anthrax attacks. About a year ago, he emerged as the prime suspect in the one of the longest and most frustrating government investigations ever. A federal affidavit says he was the "sole custodian"of the unique strain of anthrax that killed five Americans and sickened 17 others. It asserts he was inexplicably working late on the nights before the deadly mailings and had not spent so many late-night hours in his lab "at any time before or after this period."It states he purposely provided ...

Enablers of the month: Bruce Ivins' attorney, Paul F. Kemp, said his client's suicide was the result of the government's "relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo."He was disappointed that Ivins "would not have the opportunity to defend his good name and reputation in a court of law."If Kemp understood addiction, he might have said, "Since Ivins was an addict, he was capable of any crime. He may have been guilty, but it's unfortunate he didn't give me the opportunity to defend him and let a jury of his peers decide whether he committed the heinous crime of which he is accused.” Social worker Jean Duley's attorney, Mary Drawbaugh, said that under Maryland law "you can't use a prior violation such as driving ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"actor Shia LaBeouf, 22, busted on suspicion of DUI. After failing to negotiate a turn at around 3 a.m., he crashed his truck into another vehicle and rolled it. It was "immediately apparent"to responding officers that LaBeouf was intoxicated. It's not his first public indication of early-stage alcoholism. He was taken into custody in Chicago last November after security officers made repeated requests that he leave a Walgreens pharmacy. (I can't even imagine what he was doing to merit such attention.) He also had a warrant out for his arrest because he skipped a court hearing over a smoking violation. If the "public policy recommendation"for this ...

Shooter Jim Adkisson, 58, charged with first-degree murder after killing two and injuring seven at a Unitarian Church in Knoxville, TN. Police claimed he was motivated by his frustration over being unable to get a job and his "hatred for the liberal movement"and especially for gay people. Neighbors said Adkisson kept to himself and that he was "just a really, really nice guy."Oh, the only criminal record authorities found shows two instances of DUI"one in California "a number of years ago"and one "more recently"in Tennessee. This is just another case supporting the theme in this month's "public policy recommendation of the month,"which suggests elevating DUIs as the key for "broken window policing."It's also another instance supporting the idea that alcoholics ...

Under watch: Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, sentenced to life in prison for murdering two indigent men for financial gain. The "black widows"befriended the homeless men, took out insurance policies on their lives, let a couple of years run and then drugged and ran over them to collect the insurance proceeds. As mentioned in the April-May 2008 issue assuming that addiction explains their horrific behaviors, instead of having been offered the opportunity to get clean and sober a few decades ago, they get to live out their golden years behind bars. Actor Omar Sharif, 76, announcing through his attorney that he will never pay a dime of a $449,000 award to a valet, Juan Ochoa Anderson, 50, for assault and ...

Co-Dependents of the Month: Actress Evelyn Keyes, who played Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister Suellen in "Gone with the Wind"and was involved with some, shall we say, very interesting men, dead at 91. Her first marriage to the "heavy drinking"Englishman Barton Bainbridge ended when he committed suicide. She married film director Charles Vidor in 1943 and divorced him two years later. Vidor was married four times. Her marriage to director John Huston in 1946 ended in 1950. Huston was married five times. She was, apparently, devastated and sought analysis, concluding that she "was always looking for the same man: a strong father figure."She lived with the "flamboyant"(aka alcoholic) producer Mike Todd for three years before her last marriage, to bandleader Artie Shaw ...

Disenabler of the Month: Sarasota, Florida landlord Ace Holland, offering 25% off the monthly rent for those willing to be drug-tested, explaining he got "fed up with druggies…telling me they couldn't pay their rent."At least one prospective tenant, who laughed when she first saw Holland's sign offering the discount, said "this is a place I want to rent"because she knows there won't be any drug use. As mentioned in "Drunks, Drugs & Debits," tenants who don't keep their promise to pay rent or even vandalize the property are virtually always alcohol and other-drug addicts. While he may miss screening out a few objectionable types (nothing in the news item suggests he'll test for addiction to the drug alcohol), I've a hunch ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Boxer Mando Ramos, who won the lightweight title at 20, dead at age 59. Ramos turned pro at age 17 and was living in cars by the time he was 25. While according to his own testimony he "never really trained,"he went to the gym every day and the bar every night and still managed a career 37-11 record with 23 knockouts. After losing two brothers to heroin overdoses, he checked himself in to rehab in the early ‘80s and remained sober for the last 25 years of his life. He ended up helping a lot of inner-city kids by starting the Boxing Against Alcohol and Drugs program. After partying hard and developing diabetes, he was ...

Foreclosures and alcoholism: Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon, U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson and boxer Evander Holyfield In the August 2007 www.ThorburnAddictionReport.com top story, "The Mortgage Mess, the Real Estate Bubble and Alcoholism," I suggested that the bubble and its aftermath were at least partly a result of alcoholics doing what they do best: inflating the ego. Any one of a set of common spin-offs of egomania"grandiosity, excessive optimism, a sense of invincibility and excessive risk-taking"can cause the afflicted to take chances that sober individuals would rarely consider. Another set"infectious enthusiasm, all-too-believable lies, charisma, charm and a "rules-don't-apply-to-me attitude”"can be used to cajole others into accepting risks they would never otherwise take. Such risks, as shown in "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Former Broadcom co-founder and CEO Henry T. Nicholas, 48, charged with orchestrating the backdating of stock-option awards and with buying and distributing cocaine, ecstasy and other controlled substances. Employees reportedly regarded Nicholas as a messianic leader who routinely convened 2 a.m. staff meetings during his company's heyday, no doubt driven by alcohol and other-drug fueled mania. The fact that Nicholas was released only after his mother posted $2 million in home equity towards a $3.4 million bond suggests he has hit the burn-out stage financially. The details of his life while head of Broadcom, if they come to light, will prove to be lurid if initial reports pan out. Recall from "Drunks, Drugs & ...

Former NFL Linebacker Steve Foley, 32, charged with failure to secure two pit bulls, which bit his neighbor on her arms and face before killing her puppy. Foley, who played from 1998 through 2006 with the Bengals, Texans and Chargers, ended his career by driving with a blood alcohol level of .23 per cent at 3 a.m., weaving erratically at speeds ranging from 30 to 90 m.p.h. and getting shot by an off-duty police officer who was trying to get him off the road while Foley's girlfriend tried to run the officer over. Incredibly, he was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of DUI and sentenced to five years probation. He now faces two to 10 years in ...

"Star Trek"to "T.J. Hooker"to "Boston Legal"star William Shatner, 77, who has come clean about his alcoholism (apparently some two decades after getting sober) and tumultuous life with his wife Nerine Shatner, who he found drowned in their pool in 1999 with "huge levels"of alcohol and Valium in her system. "Star Trek"co-star Leonard Nimoy, also a recovering alcoholic, told Shatner just before he married Nerine, "Bill, you do know that Nerine is an alcoholic."When Shatner responded, "I know she is, but I love her,"Nimoy responded, "Well, Bill, then you are in for a rough ride."Nerine was apparently sober for a time before they married, but after going to bed that night "ecstatic,"he woke up at 8 a.m. and found her drunk. ...

Under watch: Defense attorney Stephen Charles Hollingsworth, who according to the L.A. Times was cited"again"by L.A. County Superior Court Judge John J. Cheroske for lateness, failure to appear and "other strange courtroom behavior."The latter may include the time he limped in with a crutch and blamed his tardiness on a knee injury. Deputy District Attorney Christopher Frisco said, "Then someone called him from the audience and he walked up to them, forgetting his crutches and his limp."When he failed to show up at a preliminary hearing, court staff called two phone numbers he had provided. Neither one worked, so the judge, who was "not happy,"issued an arrest warrant. After Hollingsworth showed up for a new hearing 35 minutes late (on a ...

Co-Dependents of the Month: Once again, the U.S. Government, for continuing to "negotiate"with Kim Il Jong of North Korea. In exchange for removing North Korea from its list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, the totalitarian regime blew up the cooling tower for its main nuclear reactor as a signal that it is sincere about dismantling its nuclear weapons program. The trouble is, the tower would take a month to rebuild, while the rest of the buildings"still standing"would take at least 18 months to replace. John R. Bolton, who headed nuclear proliferation policy at the State Department during President George W. Bush's first term, said he thinks it's an embarrassment and "represents the definitive collapse of the Bush Doctrine and I'm sure they're popping ...

Enablers of the Month: Psychologist Lillian Glass. This is the sort of psychologist I lambasted in Chapter 5 of "Drunks, Drugs & Debits""who, by the testimony of addicts long in recovery are their biggest enablers. Commenting on former "Full House"star Mary-Kate Olsen's two-night wild party binge, during which she was described as "way out of control"by friends and after which she checked in and checked out of rehab after only two days, Glass said, "In my opinion, she's a very troubled girl. I think she may be depressed"and could use the help of a professional therapist."Friends used to say they sometimes detected a note of anger in my voice when discussing alcoholism and implied it was directed at my addict-ex. No. ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Comedian George Carlin, dead at age 71 from heart failure. Carlin, who was raised by his mother after she left his very abusive alcoholic father when he was two years old, was a frequent performer and guest host on "The Tonight Show"during the three-decade long Johnny Carson era. He was the first host of "Saturday Night Live!"(October 11, 1975"he confessed to having been high on cocaine at the time) and had roles in a number of films, including "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"and "Cars."He admitted that his drug addiction"a "54-year buzz,"as he put it"resulted in neglecting his business affairs, resulting in an IRS debt that took him almost 20 years to dig himself out of. He ...

Austrian monster Josef Fritzl: he could be simply crazy, but… Statistics and anecdotes recounted in "Drunks, Drugs & Debits" provide a wealth of evidence that monstrous behaviors are generally rooted in alcoholism. While journalists often fail to mention that their subjects had prior arrests for behaviors directly linked to heavy drinking or drugging, when able to dig deep enough we usually find this connection. Whenever we shake our heads and wonder, "How could anyone engage in such conduct?"we should suspect alcoholism. As the "note to readers"below says, we not only give the benefit of the doubt without excusing, but also make sense of the nonsensical and point to the cure. Josef Fritzl is one such case. While the only known indication of ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Hawaii State Senator Ron Menor, 52, arrested for DUI while "weaving in a snake-like motion"20 miles under the speed limit. The arresting officer saw that Menor's eyes "were red and watery, and he emitted a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage…[and his face was] flushed and he appeared extremely tired."While failing to mention drinking, he told the officer he was "on pain medication"and later said the medication "might"have been Vicodin. Menor, in a feigned mea culpa to the public, admitted he had "one to two glasses of wine"with dinner after a Chicago concert ended. He may have forgotten about his consumption at the concert preceding the late-night dinner, but his sons, ages 17 and ...

Under watch: Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson, 25, charged with operating a 30-foot boat on Lake Travis, near Austin, Texas with 15 passengers aboard while allegedly intoxicated and for resisting arrest after being stopped for a "random"safety check. He was pepper sprayed when according to police reports he refused to come ashore for additional sobriety tests, after allegedly failing tests applied on the police cruiser. Once in custody, he refused a breath test. Benson invited scrutiny by choosing to park his boat inside the lake's most popular cove for drinking and partying and putting himself in the middle of an ongoing police crackdown on drunken boaters in the area. Misdemeanor "drug and alcohol"charges against Benson were dropped in 2002 and ...

Disenablers of the Month: Detroit's City Council, which has begun the process of removing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office for (allegedly) lying under oath to cover up an extramarital affair with his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty. The mayor, a Democrat, whose story was chronicled in the Top Story in last month's TAR says the City Council is persecuting him for political reasons. However, the entire council consists of Democrats. Maybe lying under oath really does matter, even if the subject is "only"about sex. On the other hand, the council members may be simply sickened by Kilpatrick's multiple shenanigans. Porter, Indiana Superior Court Judge David Chidester was fed up with Stephanie Pochron's repeated arrests for DUI, the latest one of which resulted ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Writer Elaine Dundy, born Elaine Brimberg and married (1951-1964) to theater critic and New Yorker writer Kenneth Tynan, dead from a heart attack at age 86. Dundy was best known for her novel, The Dud Avocado (1958), and her memoir, Life Itself! (2001). The former chronicled a young woman coming of age through a series of alcoholic-fueled sexual misadventures in the decadent Paris of the 1950s, while the latter revealed, among other frothy anecdotes, her sexual exploits with Tynan, including having sex while being caned. She explained she stayed in the relationship partly because of a fear he would commit suicide if she left him and partly because of her own "sickness,"which she described as "the ...

Evidence offered in "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse" suggests that roughly 80% of serially erratic misbehaviors can be explained by alcohol or other-drug addiction. Unfortunately, since addictive use is often hidden from pubic view by enablers, in ratcheting up or down the likelihood that addiction explains poor conduct, we are often stuck at 80%. This is particularly true among CEOs, doctors, lawyers, other professionals--and politicians. Most celebrities and professional athletes who misbehave are almost always "outed" by journalists. The fact that such behaviors in celebrities who are known alcoholics are similar to those of politicians, etc., in whom heavy drinking is never reported--and for whom enablers abound--is damning evidence that alcoholism is the driving ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Actor Wesley Snipes, convicted of three counts of willfully failing to file tax returns and sentenced to three years in prison in the IRS's highest-profile criminal tax case in decades. Insight into Snipes' convoluted thinking, likely rooted in long-term psychotropic drug addiction, can be found in the January 2007 edition of the Thorburn Addiction Report (http://preventragedy.com/pages/TAR/027.jan07.html). There's more, below, under "enabler of the month." Actor Gary Busey, evicted from his rented Malibu home on which he allegedly owes more than $50,000 in back rent. Busey was last seen in court in 2004 when refusing to pay $52,000 in past-due rents, according to his attorney because of mold in the house. Friends admit that while Busey ...

Under watch: Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is one of the many top law enforcers in whom we have no definitive proof of alcoholism but whose behaviors indicate this disease. The key hallmark of hidden early-stage alcoholism, egomania, has been evident in Spitzer for years. Proving alcoholism in an influential politician in whom no one suspected it could break the budding field of addiction identification based on behavior patterns wide open. It is in the hope that Mr. Spitzer might be that "someone" that previous observations are recounted. From the May 2005 issue of the Thorburn Addiction Report: "New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, publicly airing charges of fraud by former AIG CEO Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg, not only before charges have ...

Helen Golay, 77 and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, convicted of murdering two homeless men for $2.8 million in life insurance. In a carefully plotted scheme, the women picked the men off the streets, purchased numerous small insurance policies on them (keeping off insurers' radar), paid for apartments for the two years--the period after which insurers generally cannot contest a policy--and either ran them over or had them run over in dark alleys. The women were allegedly partners in a number of bogus lawsuits before trading up to murder in the late '90s. Let us assume alcohol or pharmaceutical drug addiction explains their horrific behaviors. Instead of being given the opportunity to get clean and sober a few decades ago and living ...

Under watch: Orange County, California Deputy Sheriffs, who allegedly lied, fabricated stories and even compared notes after being ordered not to discuss the case by a grand jury investigating a deadly beating at Theo Lacy Jail. During 45 days of questioning, members of the Sheriff's Department hindered the probe to a degree the likes of which have rarely become so publicly obvious, with then-Sheriff Michael S. Carona leading the fray. Carona, who qualified for Top Story in TAR's November 2007 issue, refused to answer a single question, including whether he was the county's sheriff on the day John Derek Chamberlain, a computer technician held on suspicion of possessing child pornography, was beaten by fellow inmates over a 50 minute period. According ...

Co-Dependent of the Month: Jamie Spears, pop star Britney Spears' dad, giving in to her tirades by letting her drink wine with dinner "as a way to relax" and because the young, tragic alcoholic convinced Jamie that "a steak dinner isn't complete" without a glass of red wine. Reportedly, when her mother Lynne asked Britney if she was drinking, she responded, "Daddy said I could. It's just wine." Message to Jamie: while a glass of wine can be a "way to relax" to a non-addict, it is an open invitation to begin a full-blown relapse to an addict.

Enablers of the Month: Family members, friends and fellow actors Woody Harrelson and Denzel Washington, who attested to actor Wesley Snipes' "compassion, intelligence and value as a mentor" in letters to the court asking for leniency at Snipes' sentencing, where he was given three years in prison on three counts of misdemeanor failure to file tax returns (incredibly, he was acquitted on felony charges of tax evasion). Such comments stand in stark contrast to those made by journalist Chris Parry, who recounts a day on the set of "Blade: Trinity" in a piece entitled, "Drugs, Stand-Ins, Mood Swings and Legal Action: The Real Wesley Snipes," describing Snipes as a "drug-affected, moody, uncooperative piece of garbage, masquerading as an actor while all ...

Disenabler of the Month Dean Babcock, who after a 30-year stint as a police officer with a lot of drunk-driving crashes in his memory banks, became a security guard for Target. When he saw a teen-age girl shoplift a $45 bottle of Patron tequila, he confronted the girl, took the bottle and called her father, who was thankful to learn what his 16-year-old was up to. Because Babcock wasn't authorized to stop shoplifters, even though no "authorized" person was on duty store officials canned him. Although he said he understood Target's policy, Babcock explained, "I am not going to let a 16-year-old girl walk out of here with alcohol." Let's hope another store recognizes the value of having a Dean Babcock ...

Actors Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro succumb to "accidental" overdoses When does addiction-fueled risk-taking make an "accident" not an accident? English contains numerous words with dozens of meanings. For example, the word "run" has over 90 different definitions. While such nuances can make language more interesting and beautiful, it can also lead to a lack of clarity, making words less useful and communication more difficult. Progress is enhanced by increasing specificity and differentiating meanings. In science, a singular idea is usually ascribed to each word, allowing scientists around the globe speaking different languages to efficiently exchange information and add to mankind's knowledge. Compared with the physical sciences and mathematics, from a libertarian perspective there have been far fewer advances in the so-called "social" ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who reportedly "misspoke" in announcing that he chews "coca paste" every morning, which serves as a base for cocaine and is sometimes smoked but not chewed. He later claimed he meant to say he chews coca leaves, which with his consumption of up to 30 espressos a day may explain his tirades. However, this and his weight got me thinking about comedian Arte Lange, who is over 300 pounds and uses cocaine, heroin, alcohol and just about every other drug under the sun. Perhaps Mr. Chavez has learned Lange's secrets. This would be consistent with the observation that alcoholics are more frequently heavy caffeine users than are non-addicts and that ...

Under watch: Attorney William S. Lerach, 61, sentenced to two years in prison for participating in schemes involving fraudulent class-action lawsuits against numerous large corporations on behalf of plaintiffs who received kickbacks. Lerach, who was known for "explosive" courtroom rants, will likely be disbarred. We might suspect that while some of Lerach's victims, including a number of former Enron executives, got what they deserved there could be many who were true casualties. Although he has admitted that his "conduct was completely and absolutely unacceptable from anyone, and especially a lawyer," we might speculate that alcoholism-fueled egomania drove him on both good days and bad. Rogue Trader Jerome Kerviel, 31, almost brought down the venerable French bank Societe Generale SA with one-way trades ...

Co-Dependents of the Month: Friends of Actor Heath Ledger, described as "an intense, restless man known as much for his partying and wild streak as for his sweetness and sensitivity" and "devoted to his daughter [yet] driven by reckless impulses." Friends watched him "drinking and taking drugs to excess" on New York's party circuit, but everyone seemed to think he had it "under control." Here's the problem, friends: we aren't mind readers or little gods. There is no way to predict when an addict will lose control, or in what destructive way. Perth, Australia locals, who expressed "dismay at speculation in the media that actor Heath Ledger had used drugs." A supervisor at Royal Perth Hospital, Margaret Byrne, 56, commented, "If a ...

Enablers of the Month: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, launching a study into a "bizarre" condition known as Morgellons, in which sufferers typically feel crawling sensations and observe fibers coming out of their skin. Many doctors have diagnosed the disease as "delusional parasitosis" and treat it with anti-psychotic medications. Dr. Mark Horowitz, a dermatologist who has "seen hundreds complaining of Morgellons," said he believes "it's a real entity [but would] be very surprised if they find anything more than a psychiatric disease." Since methamphetamine can cause "worms crawling out of the skin," delusions and numerous other distortions of perception, we might profitably divert the funds to more useful research by instead testing for meth in the systems of those supposedly ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Chess genius Bobby Fischer, who became a Cold War hero when he defeated Soviet champ Boris Spassky in 1972 in Reykjavik, but who later became known for his hate-filled rants after becoming a fugitive, dead at 64. Fischer's encounter with Spassky transformed the game, causing sales of chess sets and memberships in chess clubs to skyrocket while making front-page news. Harold C. Schonberg, in his 1973 book Grandmasters of Chess, wrote that Fischer single-handedly helped the world recognize that chess is as "competitive as football, as thrilling as a duel to the death, as aesthetically satisfying as a fine work of art, as intellectually demanding as any form of human activity." However, his "dark side" had ...

Jim Leyritz, Baseball Hero, Alcoholism Enabled " and an Innocent Person Dies Jim Leyritz, best known for hitting a key three-run homer in the 1996 World Series, drove off in his 2006 Ford Expedition at 3 a.m. after celebrating his 44th birthday in a Fort Lauderdale bar. Fredia Ann Veitch, who had just left her late-night shift at a steak house, didn't stand a chance when Leyritz ran a red light and broadsided her 2000 Mitsubishi Montero, causing it to flip. The 30-year-old single mother of two was ejected and died shortly after. Leyritz reportedly had "red, watery eyes, a flushed face and an odor of an alcoholic beverage" and refused a Breathalyzer at the crash scene after failing several field-sobriety tests. ...

Runners-up for top story of the month: Robert Hawkins, 19, who shot and killed eight people including himself at Westroads Mall in Nebraska on December 5. As usual, everything except his obvious drug addiction was blamed--which serves as an excuse to authorities for not having appropriately intervened. Diagnoses from various mental health professionals included schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. Yet Hawkins had a history of alcohol and other-drug violations, including being a minor in possession of or dispensing alcohol and being a minor in possession of an open alcoholic container. He was charged with intent to deliver a controlled substance and found guilty of disorderly conduct (which almost always involves heavy use of ...

Under watch: Sallie Mae's Chief Executive Albert L. Lord, cagily declining to properly respond to a number of questions in a conference call from investors about the student-loan company's finances and strategies. Reacting to investors' anger, he pledged to answer many of the dodged questions at a meeting in January and promised, "I can assure you, you will be going through a metal detector," an implicit acknowledgement that their wrath could turn lethal. He ended the call saying, "Let's go. There's [sic] no questions. Let's get the [expletive] out of here." Lord recently sold 97% (over 1.265 million shares) of his company stock, against which he had borrowed and apparently faced a margin call as the value of his holdings declined. ...

Co-Dependent of the Month: The U.S. Government, for allowing North Korea's alcoholic despot Kim Jong Il to blow another "important" deadline--this time, to report details of the dismantling of its nuclear program. We need to remember that when dealing with alcoholics, lines must be drawn--and promises must be kept. (Note to readers: until I understood that alcoholics are, when using, capable of "anything," I was a died-in-the-wool isolationist libertarian. An understanding of alcoholism makes one question that idea in an age of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.)

Enablers of the Month: Country-western goddess Dolly Parton, 61, for defending her drunk brother, and Roanoke Rapids, N.C. , for allowing a drunk to help destroy the financial fortunes of a theatre. Dolly said Randy Parton, 54, who lost his job after allegedly showing up drunk before a scheduled performance at the $21.5 million city-owned Randy Parton Theatre, was a scapegoat for its failure. Yet, he was reportedly intoxicated at a number of recent performances and had been using profanity on-stage ("regularly uses foul language" is clue # 2 in the chapter, "A 'Supreme Being' Complex" in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics). He is also accused of using theatre money to buy booze and, we might surmise, lots of perks. The ...

Disenabler of the month: Jane Hambleton had two rules for her 18-year-old son and his car: "Keep it locked, and no alcohol at all." When she discovered alcohol under the seat of his car, she took out an ad that read: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet." And she kept her promise: the car sold.

Victim of the month: The San Francisco Zoo, where a 350-pound Siberian tiger jumped over a fence and killed Carlos Sousa, Jr. , and injured his two friends, Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal. Authorities found an empty bottle of vodka on the front seat of the car the trio had driven to the zoo and suspect the three may have been taunting the tiger. Attorney Mark Geragos, who has represented many others suspected of alcoholism, including Bill Clinton's former business partner Susan McDougal, Wynona Rider, Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson, is representing the survivors in a suit against the zoo. Question of the Month: Antonio Llerenas, 24, was arrested after he dangled a baby over a second-floor motel railing in Sylmar, California, because the ...

Sometimes, it takes an addict: U.S. figure skating champion Christopher Bowman, found dead at a budget motel in the San Fernando Valley from "unknown" causes. Bowman, a former child actor who had a part in "Little House on the Prairie" for one season, won the U.S. men's figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992 and won spots in the Winter Olympics in 1988 and 1992, where he finished fourth. A fellow Olympic champion said Bowman was one of the three most talented skaters of all time and could turn on a crowd in seconds, describing him as a natural athlete with extraordinary charisma. Yet, training was a challenge because practice didn't interest him, while drugs did. He went to rehab at ...

DUIs as a clue to danger lurking elsewhere: celebrity plastic surgeon Jan Adams Something I've said before bears repeating: I have long bemoaned the fact that the press discloses the drinking and using foibles of celebrities and sports figures while generally failing to report any evidence of use in law enforcers, politicians, CEOs, attorneys and doctors. In my files of likely and confirmed alcoholics, for every celebrity suspected strictly on behavioral clues, four or five are confirmed addicts; out of every four or five law enforcers suspected, there is only one in whom I can prove alcoholism. Yet, the behaviors are similar in all those under suspicion, celebrities and non-celebrities alike. Therefore, hidden alcoholism is likely epidemic in the non-celebrities who ...