Call it strange. Call it dumb. Call it at the very least a prime example of how drug use messes up the brain.
In Manhattan, a couple of men in their mid-60’s walked into Hell’s Kitchen and made an attempt to cash their friend’s check. The pair, David J. Dalaia and James O’Hare, both had criminal records dating back to the 1960’s. Driven by their addiction to heroine, they were often arrested for petty crimes and burglaries over the years.
The store clerk wouldn’t cash the check and simply told them that the owner of the check had to be present in order for him to complete the transaction. The two returned to the apartment they shared with Virgilio Clintron, another known drug user with a long rap sheet. Apparently the check was written out to Clintron and he was unable to cash it himself – he was dead.
Now we’ve all heard stories of scam artists cashing social security checks of the deceased; sometimes they get away with it for years. This however, is a very unique case. Desperate enough to exchange the document for cash, the pair decided to dress the decedent who was nude when he died. Rigor mortis had already set in so the body was too stiff for them to pull a pair of pants up all the over his hips. Undaunted, they added a T-shirt and draped a coat over him in order to conceal his exposed waist. They finished by putting a pair of Velcro shoes onto his feet.
What happened next is quite unbelievable. The two placed the man onto an office chair and wheeled his corpse down the street to the check-cashing store. They paraded down the street struggling to keep the body from slipping off of the chair. Onlookers gathered as Dalaia and O’Hare entered the store again, leaving the body outside of the entrance.
Across the street at a deli, New York detective Travis Rapp noticed the growing crowd. He saw what he thought was a mannequin and figured it must have been some kind of a joke. He abandoned his lunch to take a closer look. As he approached, Dalaia and O’Hare had just exited the store and were attempting to take the body inside. Rapp stopped them and identified himself as a police officer.
The two continued with their ruse – oblivious to the fact that it was clear that Clintron was deceased. In the words of Victor Rodriguez, he not only looked dead, “he looked very dead”. His skin was pale, his body rigid; his eyes were shut, and his head was leaning back.
“I have to get my friend in here. I have to cash his check,” O’Hare told the detective.
Trapp ordered the two away from the body and called for paramedics. They confirmed that Clintron was dead; all were amazed when the schemers feigned surprise. The paramedics explained that their friend was dead and their response was:
“Oh my God, he’s gone?”
They were quickly arrested and the $355 check was confiscated. Relatives told investigators that the deceased had recently been hospitalized for Parkinson’s disease. Though autopsy results were inconclusive, the medical examiner believes that he did die of natural causes.
After first hearing about this story on the radio, and then reading it in several on-line publications, the “This is your brain on drugs.” commercial came to mind. I remember how we used to make fun of the TV ad. Geared towards youth, it was short and simple. It started out with a shot of an egg and a voice-over stating: “This is your brain.” The egg would then be cracked and added to a frying pan bathed in hot oil. Sizzling and popping as it began to fry, the voice-over concluded with: “This is your brain on drugs. (slight pause) Any questions?”
Some say the ad wasn’t very effective in preventing drug use. It became a pop culture phenomenon for some time, however, before it was retired. There were several versions of the commercial. I also recall it often being the butt of jokes for stand-up comedians and even skit-programming like Saturday Night Live. I say, that as I’ve matured and witnessed some of my own school companions turn into drug addicts, the commercial has made more and more sense to me.
Perhaps the next anti-drug campaign should feature idiotic acts like these. While they certainly make one chuckle, they also provoke reflection. The damage that illicit drug use does is obvious when we learn of people like David J. Dalaia and James O’Hare. It is further punctuated as we realize how strong drug dependency can be, not only physically but psychologically. These addicts were more than desperate, more than pathetic…they were completely absent of rational thought. It is said that even if one can achieve sobriety and maintain it, it is nearly impossible to re-generate the damaged brain cells. Can you imagine trying to live out your life, unable to rationalize and see the world as it is?
It is true that there are those who have abused drugs and have managed to kick the habit without any lingering effects. There are also those who use on an on-going basis and live as “functioning addicts”. But let’s be honest. We all know that many more end up living a sad existence full of crime and deception. There are those who die. I say to my young friends: Why take that risk? You can’t predict which category you’d fall into. Of the friends I had growing up who got into doing a little more than pot, very few have gone on to lead healthy and successful lives. I remember when I was 22, a girlfriend who I had known since the sixth grade tried to get me to help her cash a stolen check. I declined. Later that year she was arrested for grand theft auto. She was the mother of two at the time. Then there was the time I witnessed another girl I had gone to school with prostituting herself downtown on Santa Clara Street. Another dear friend of mine is doing prison time again. He has spent more of his life being locked up or “on the run” than being on the “outside”. I don’t look down on him, nor judge him. Instead, I am very sad for him. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t seem to break the circle drug addiction has confined him to. These are just some of the examples of how drugs have affected the ones I grew up with.
I have a sense of humor and I can honestly say that several jokes have come to mind when I think about what these two men did to their “friend”. On the other hand, I know the seriousness of addiction and how it ruins lives. IIt’s a cliché and maybe I sound like a dork, but kids…Just Say NO. It’s simply not worth the risk.
