So long to Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione and former San Francisco police chief Alex Fagan, Sr., functional alcoholics.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Bob Guccione, who founded Penthouse magazine, dead at 79 after a several-year battle with lung cancer. A cartoonist who once attended a Catholic seminary, Guccione started Penthouse in 1965 in England and introduced the magazine to the American public in 1969 at the height of the feminist movement and sexual revolution, taking risks most of us would never consider. He was married four times, which by itself indicates an 85% probability of alcoholism. Guccione was listed in the 1982 Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people, having amassed a net worth of $400 million by building an empire under the General Media Inc. umbrella, which included book publishing, merchandising divisions, Viva magazine (featuring nude males aimed at a female audience), Omni magazine (which focused on science and science fiction) and Longevity (a health advice magazine). Guccione later lost much of his fortune on bad investments and risky ventures, which alcoholics often do. His staff described him using a classic alcoholic euphemism, “mercurial.” He even clashed with one of his three sons over the direction of his son’s music magazine, Spin, which the elder Guccione helped launch and later decided to shut down, forcing his son to secure outside funding. In short, the evidence strongly suggests the best explanation for Guccione’s successes and failures is alcoholism, even if we lack absolute proof.
Former San Francisco Police Chief Alex Fagan Sr., whose 30-year career ended in scandal, dead from a heart attack at age 60. Described as a cop’s cop, Fagan was decorated for valor eight times before being named chief in 2003 by then-Mayor Willie Brown. Victor Makras, a San Francisco police commissioner during Fagan’s rise in the ranks, said “If you had an incident, you’d want him to respond to your 911 call. He cared. And he knew how to take care of business.” In 1976 Fagan helped to save 30 men from a fire at a gay bathhouse and in 1979 he swam 200 yards to help save a suicidal woman in San Francisco Bay. However, such heroism and overachievement not only do not preclude a darker side rooted in long-standing alcoholism but, as pointed out throughout these pages and more elaborately in Drunks, Drugs & Debitsactually may dramatically increase the odds. In 1990 he was arrested after threatening an officer who responded to a report of an argument between Fagan and a female companion. While never charged, the department sent Fagan to alcohol rehab. In 2000 he was “apparently intoxicated” when he struck another vehicle and, after exchanging information with the other driver, abandoned his teenage daughter at the scene. Gavin Newsom, who became Mayor in January 2004, asked Fagan to step down as chief and become head of the city’s Office of Emergency Services. His tenure there ended within months after details surfaced of a drunken brawl with his son that resulted in his son’s arrest, which apparently inspired in Fagan a need to get sober. At the time of his death, he hadn’t had a drink in six years.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts—which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism, consequential bad behaviors and, ultimately, tragedy, is simple: stop protecting the addict from the logical consequences of misbehaviors and, where possible, proactively intervene.