"AND?"

(This is a portrait I made [in 1992 in Occidental, California at a marijuana stash house] of an alleged drug cook I had become a friend of in the mid-1970s.)

 

He once told me that if the police busted me, I should only say "and?" in response to anything the police said to me.

 

(Color pencils and watercolor crayons on paper) (BEST VIEWED LARGE)

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(Please read ALL of the IMPORTANT explanatory text AND COMMENTS below)

 

It is a VERY IMPORTANT legal principle in America that a person must be "presumed to be innocent of committing a crime until that person is found to be guilty of committing a crime."

 

After a lengthy and exhaustive search, conducted over a period of years, I have never seen any evidence that the "alleged drug cook" pictured above has ever been convicted of committing any crime.

 

(In early 1972 I was arrested on federal MDA [methylenedioxyamphetamine] charges. [At the time of my arrest, I thought MDA was legal. Unfortunately, it had been outlawed approximately 2 years earlier.] MDA seemed to me to be unlikely to be a substance that most people would use more than a very few times, because my personal experience of using it was that it was that it usually left me extremely, and distressingly, drained of energy the day after my use. The severe "crash", as the local drug users called it, was unusually unpleasant.

 

The effects of MDMA, which, years later, was widely distributed and became globally popular, seemed to me to be quite different than MDA, especially in that, if used properly, there seemed to be very few, if any, negative effects experienced the day after use. Nonetheless, I have always refused to buy, sell, or manufacture MDMA because the name of the drug 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine contains the name "methamphetamine".

 

After being beat and tortured during my arrest, I refused to cooperate, entered a plea of "NOT GUILTY", and jumped bail.

 

I was arrested in Oakland, California in June 1985 on a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute LSD in Missouri, days before MDMA [or "ecstasy"] was made illegal. I again refused to cooperate with law enforcement or prosecutors. At the time of my arrest I was in possession of various amounts of a number of drugs, including a psilocybin mushroom, a trace amount of heroin, codeine, valium, a cigarette made of marijuana mixed with freebase cocaine ["crack"], a number of doses of LSD in various forms and a small amount of 2C-B that had been made by someone I knew who was an academic chemist who also provided a hand-drawn diagram showing how he synthesized it that was found with it . I was also in possession of a small amount of MDMA that the alleged cook pictured above told me he had made. I do not know why I was not found to be guilty of possessing any of the drugs found in my briefcase. I do not know why I was not found to be guilty of the LSD conspiracy charge.

 

I was not found to be guilty of the 1972 MDA charges, but I WAS found to be guilty of failing to appear in court in 1972, and was sentenced to serve 2 years in prison.)

 

 

Roy Edwards, who was NOT a drug cook, taught me about art when we were housemates in 1992 in a large marijuana stash house owned by the alleged drug cook in Occidental, California. (Roy had been one of Mark Rothko's studio assistants.)

 

 

(In 2012, Rothko's 1961 painting "Orange, Red, Yellow" was sold by Christie's in New York for more than $86.8 million.)

 

 

("To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.

 

This world of imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense.

 

It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way--not his way."

 

---Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, in a 1943 letter to the art editor of The New York Times.)

 

 

(Roy Edwards was a devoted member of the Krishna cult [ISKON-International Society for Krishna Consciousness], a group that was founded in the mid-1960s. When I was an underage teenager in Berkeley in 1969 they gave delicious free vegetarian meals at their temple near Telegraph Avenue. I was not into joining their cult, but while on LSD I had several unusually high-energy encounters with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who founded the group and was sometimes at the Berkeley temple. Beatle George Harrison, a Krishna devotee, produced a single "Hare Krishna Mantra" with the Radha Krishna Temple. It featured Harrison singing with the Krishnas and was released by Apple records in mid-1969, doing much to popularize the Krishnas. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that a number of serious criminals had joined. At first it seemed like a positive thing, because they smuggled and distributed quantities of potent cannabis products like hash oil. They also bought and sold LSD. [While visiting Canada in the early 1970s I obtained cannabis from a Krishna who smuggled it there from their temple in West Virginia.] Things went downhill fast. In March 1980 a lot of guns and ammunition was seized from Krishnas in Lake County, California and in El Cerrito, near Berkeley. A few months later the Berkeley police found a submachine gun, 2 assault rifles, and 3 loaded pistols in an unregistered Mercedes. [I knew the owner of the car...] The head of the Berkeley temple, Hansadutta, was arrested. In August 1984, Hansadutta ran amok and shot up Ledgers liquor store in Berkeley and then drove to the McNevin Cadillac showroom and shot it up. When arrested soon after, Hansadutta had 4 loaded guns and much ammunition. He also had $8,200 in cash.

 

Roy [who was a friend of Hansadutta] often talked about Rothko. He said he had been at the studio around the time Rothko committed suicide. Roy had a "terrible" methamphetamine addiction at that period in his life and was injecting himself with the drug day and night. The way he told the story implied he may have killed Rothko. He said he was never interviewed by the police and went to India and hooked up with the Krishnas there immediately following Rothko's death. The next day I went to the bay area and looked at many books about Rothko. I arrived back at the stash house late at night. I did not turn on the lights. I quietly went up the stairs to my room, pausing mid-way to retrieve a piece of metal pipe I had hidden in case I needed to defend myself. The pipe felt wet. It had not been wet when I hid it. I went into my room and used the flame from a cigarette lighter to examine the pipe, which was dripping paint that was the color of blood. I heard a loud maniacal laugh from the next room. "Now you know what art is!" Roy exclaimed...)

 

 

("A painter here has sued CBS Inc. and its New York publishing house, charging that it implicated him in the death of the artist Mark Rothko.

 

The painter, Roy Edwards, seeks $1.25 million in compensatory and punitive damagess from CBS, its publishing subsidiary, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, and Lee Seldes, an author. The plaintiff charges them with having made libelous statements about him in Mrs. Seldes’ book, 'The Legacy of Mark Rothko,' published last year. The suit contends that Mr. Edwards has suffered damage to his reputation and career as a result of 'malicious, false, scandalous and defamatory' references in which he was said to have been involved in 'a successful plot to murder' Rothko. The Abstract Expressionist artist died in 1970 at the age of 66 in his New York City studio. The death was ruled a suicide.

 

Mrs. Seldes denied any link between Rothko's death and Mr. Edwards. 'There is no plot in the book at all, except the fact that Rothko was pushed to suicide,' she said. 'That is my scenario and I stand by it.'"

 

---The New York Times, 3.1. 1979, "CBS Is Sued by Painter Over a Book on Rothko".)

 

 

("In his review of my book, The Legacy of Mark Rothko [NYR, December 21, 1978], Robert Hughes..."

 

"...charges that I, on the basis of 'gossip,' state that Rothko did not commit suicide but was 'assassinated.' Neither of these charges is true. I believe that Rothko’s death almost certainly was self-inflicted and much of the book is devoted to the many reasons for his suicide. The major pressure on Rothko was, as I state repeatedly, 'the forced selection and sale of his paintings to Marlborough' scheduled for the day of his death. [Hughes, though he has chosen to adopt much of my biographical and medical research on the matter as his own, neglects to mention this crucial motivation.]

 

In the penultimate chapter of the book I have attempted to resolve public and private speculations about the circumstances surrounding Rothko’s death. That he might have been murdered had been voiced publicly, not only by Agnes Martin, but, as recounted by Paul Gardner in New York [February 7, 1977], by Kate Rothko’s lawyer, Edward J. Ross, and others. The subject of possible murder having been raised, it would have been irresponsible, I believe, not to explore the facts as fully as possible, which I did. Apparently Hughes did not read the detailed autopsy notes of the pathologists’ views that I quoted from, because he states that Rothko cut 'his elbow veins with a razor.' In fact Rothko did not [that would have taken much longer]. Having taken a massive overdose of drugs, he somehow managed to chop through the ligaments and the artery in his right arm with only the aid of a double-edged razor blade, one edge wrapped in Kleenex. According to a well-known surgeon this is not possible without the aid of a scalpel or a blade with a handle for leverage. The ligaments and the ante-cubital fossae are far too tough to be severed with just a razor blade. But, as I wrote, at that moment in his drive to die, Rothko must have possessed superhuman strength. Still the questions of how drugged he was at the time and how he performed all this without the aid of his glasses remain unresolved. Since the possibility of homicide could not be completely ruled out—however unlikely—I reported these facts in detail in what I believe to be a straightforward and unsensational exposition. It is my view, as stated in the book, that Rothko almost certainly committed suicide, pushed to the brink by the Marlborough deal. Nowhere did I suggest or imply that any individual was the 'hitman.'"

 

---Lee Seldes, in a letter to the editors of The New York Review of Books, 2.8. 1979.

 

"Most of her objections are trivial, but one substantial matter is her defense of the chapter in which she strove, by innuendo, to suggest Rothko was murdered on behalf of Marlborough. 'The subject having been raised,' she now claims, 'it would have been irresponsible…not to explore the facts as fully as possible.' But who actually raised the subject? One magazine writer, who knew nothing about the matter; one painter, who knew less. If the lawyer Edward Ross did raise the question he showed no evidence for it. To slip a journalist your fantasies is not to offer proof; and that was all Ross did. The idea that Rothko was murdered was never considered by the court. It was not suggested by the forensic experts who examined his body. The autopsy produced no evidence for it. It was, quite simply, not an issue. Yet Ms. Seldes, using phrases like 'If Rothko was not murdered, he was pressured into taking his own life…. It was at best a kind of remote control killing' (p. 317), saw fit to spend a whole chapter dragging this red herring to and fro, instead of giving it the brief paragraph it might have deserved. There was, I think, only one reason for her tendentious performance. She is so obsessed with the evils of the art world that her villains cannot possibly be black enough. They must be murderers as well as thieves."

 

---Robert Hughes, in a letter to the editors of The New York Review of Books, 2.8. 1979, written in reply to Lee Seldes.)

 

 

(Snapshot, Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, California, 1971: I saw a young man with long hair who was wearing lizardskin cowboy boots and carrying 2 very large suitcases. He looked at me and said "help!" It turned out he was from Texas and both suitcases were filled with "bricks" of Mexican marijuana. I sold the pot and became good friends with the Texan, whose name was Bill. Over the next decade I met many of Bill's crew of marijuana dealers and their many friends and associates from Texas.)

 

(Snapshot, Occidental, late 1992: I saw Terence McKenna picking up his mail. His vehicle had a personalized California license plate with the letters NN DMT. Big grin!)

 

(Snapshot, Occidental, late 1992: I was at a marijuana stash house waiting for Roy Edwards. I heard sirens and an amplified voice "PULL THE VEHICLE OVER! PULL THE VEHICLE OVER NOW!" Roy's VW van ccame skidding down the driveway and hit a small tree. I was in a room next to the road, a room that was piled to the ceiling with marijuana. No curtains on the windows. From their vantage point, the police officers who pulled their car over could see me. We made eye contact, and they turned their car around and left. [I called the owner of the house, and left a recorded message: "Excellent!"]

 

I left the stash house and returned to my art studio in Berkeley.

 

Soon after that, a Texan helping distribute the load of marijuana was arrested near Occidental with a quantity of the drug.

 

[Previously I had, at the request of the owner of the stash house, strip-searched the Texan to make sure he was not wearing a wire. He showed me his ID ('William Wright"), which he said was fake, and explained that recently he had assisted the feds in arresting some of the members of the organization that was the source of the Mexican marijuana. The members had murdered a number of people, and the Texan said the feds had agreed to let him distribute the load.]

 

The arresting officers convinced him to give up some of his local distributors, and a media crew made videos of him helping the police arrest the distributors. Shortly thereafter, the videos appeared on a national television series called "American Detective". Almost all mentions of the series have been removed from the internet and replaced with mentions of an entirely different television series with the same name that appeared later. Videos of the episode that showed the bust of the Texan and his distributors are absolutely impossible to find...)

 

(Snapshot: In early 2009, former state governor and Oakland mayor California Attorney General Jerry Brown called a press conference to announce that the owner of the stash house in Occidental had been arrested elsewhere at what was at the time said to be one of the largest MDMA labs ever seized in California.)

 

 

My "autobiography":

thewordsofjdyf333.blogspot.com/

 

 

Another version is below (click on the image to view it larger):

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