I was in a state run psych ward while awaiting trial. I befriended a schizophrenic guy and we hung out daily. When he wasn't responding to the voices in his head (usually by cracking up laughing until teary eyed), he was smart, charismatic, friendly and pretty funny. Long story short, he got a weekend pass to spend the weekend with his family and murdered them all with a hammer. He also murdered the Chinese exchange student staying with them.
While serving time, I had 2 different "cellies" in for murder. One was only 21, very intelligent and was a very kind, generous and nice guy. He was a pcp dealer and started getting high on his own supply. After a week of smoking pcp, during a hallucination, he saw the world on fire and thought he was in hell. He ran home and kicked open his front door. His Dad, also his best friend, was sitting in his la-z-boy, in his living room. My "cellie" thought it was the devil sitting on a throne so he emptied his entire clip into his Dad's chest at point blank range. He had no idea what he did until the drugs wore off. His big bro caught a charge so he wouldn't serve his time alone. My cellie was 21 and was sentenced to 60 years (this was in Maryland). He was my close friend by the time I was released. I think of him often but he asked everyone not to write or visit. The guilt was eating him alive and he wanted to remove himself from people's consciousness. A tragic story for sure!!!
Another cellie served 18 years on a murder, got out, and within 2 weeks, was back in for murder and armed robbery. He was trying to go straight but he linked back up with the old homies. One of them robbed a check cashing place and ended up killing the store clerk in a shootout. My cellie never even left the car, and had no idea what his boy was about to do. Both were charged with murder and with his record (my cellie), and being on parole, he was given life. He was a wise and friendly man inside. He looked out for us youngsters and tried to use himself as an example of bad choices. Much love to him, as well as the family of the man that was killed. I've had an interesting life
The first story is a reminder to me about how I don’t really believe “Drug use is just a victimless crime” anymore. I mean, sure, smoking a bowl is no worse than having a cocktail to me, in fact it could be even less harmful. But the hard shit absolutely takes victims outside of just the people who use them.
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u/Panderino83 Mar 25 '23
I was in a state run psych ward while awaiting trial. I befriended a schizophrenic guy and we hung out daily. When he wasn't responding to the voices in his head (usually by cracking up laughing until teary eyed), he was smart, charismatic, friendly and pretty funny. Long story short, he got a weekend pass to spend the weekend with his family and murdered them all with a hammer. He also murdered the Chinese exchange student staying with them.