Blow (51 page)

In Manhattan Beach, there was Jan Dennis, its former mayor and also author of a lively history of the town,
A Walk Beside the Sea;
in Puerto Vallarta, Ramón's wife, Emily, an earthy cook and tour guide and hostess to wandering journalists; in Mazatlán, Mauro Delgado Millan, a/k/a “Morris the Jewish Joker,” who passed along lore of the marijuana days, and in Durango, Alfonso Trevino, warden of the Durango penitentiary, who allowed a free-ranging tour of his facility. In Miami, thanks to Mark Teitelbaum, Dr. James Lipton, and criminologist Cloud Miller, Ph.D., for their views of George under lock and key. In Fort Lauderdale, to Eileen O'Connor, assistant United States Attorney, for her explications on matters of plea bargaining, and to Dick Kelly, a veteran flyboy with expertise relating to drug aircraft. In Jacksonville, thanks to Agent Sheila Smith of the Drug Enforcement Administration, for her assistance in obtaining documents. In Washington, thanks to Special Agent Frank Scafidi of the FBI, who inveighed upon the Bureau to permit its agents to tell their stories, and in Danbury, to Lisa Austin, management analyst at the Federal Correctional Institution, for her guidance through the prison labyrinth.

Among the numerous people who gave aid and comfort out on the Cape, thanks to Tim White, managing editor of the
Cape Cod Times;
to Johnny Scott and Bird, pliers of the fisher's trade; to Jeanne Flamburis; to Steven and Cathy Faucher, George's good neighbors in times of need, and, for her graciousness and her acts of kindness, to Marilyn Anderson, who cared for George over the course of two and a half years, until her tragic death on February 10, 1992.

For their assistance in other ways, my special thanks to Nell Porter Brown, reporter for the
Troy Record,
who provided valuable research help; to her husband, Andrew Brown, M.D., for patiently explaining the physiological effects of cocaine use; to Alexandra Porter and to Adelaide Porter, for their critical reading of the manuscript; and to Schellie Hagan, fact checker; John Mabie, of the legal department of HarperCollins; Rick Turner, in Sales at HarperCollins; Margaret Wimberger, the book's copyeditor; and Keonaona Peterson, its production editor.

The book would have been difficult to write had not other journalists and scholars gone down the cocaine road before and illuminated the way. Of particular help in understanding the broad reach of the Medellín cartel were the encyclopedic work done by Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen in
Kings of Cocaine,
and by Paul Eddy, Hugo Sabogal, and Sara Walden in
The Cocaine Wars.
Among other useful works were
Deep Cover
by DEA Special Agent Michael Levine,
Turning the Tide
by Sidney Kirkpatrick and Peter Abrahams,
Desperadoes
by Elaine Shannon,
The Fruit Palace
by Charles Nicholl,
Snowblind
by Robert Sabbag, and
Drugs and Human Behavior
by Tibor Palfai and Henry Jankiewicz of Syracuse University.

I owe a lasting debt to my agent, Sarah Lazin, for engendering the project and for being wise in many ways, start to finish, and to my editor, Wendy Wolf, who numerous times over saved me from falling prey to embarrassing sins of commission and omission alike.

And, of course, to my wife, Sara Jane, but for whom nothing anywhere would ever seem possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bruce Porter,
a former newspaper reporter and editor of
Newsweek,
teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has also written for
The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Playboy,
and
Connoisseur,
among other publications.

BLOW
. Copyright © 1993 by Bruce Porter. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

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First published in the United States by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

eISBN 9781466876248

First eBook edition: October 2014