|
We took off for Florida and bought a shrimp boat for $55k cash from some Cubans. It was around the 1st of June and it was hot and muggy in Miami. The boat was the Red Cloud. She was an old Desco fishing boat that had not changed in design for the last 30 years. It was a proven design that had successfully taken fishermen to remote areas of the Caribbean for years, in any weather, and brought them and their cargo back to port safely.
Accommodations were Spartan but had the basic requirements for our purpose; cargo hold, huge fuel tanks, bunks, refrigeration and a stove. No toilet, no shower. A shower was a saltwater waterfall from a pump and a 2-inch hose. The toilet was hanging your ass over the rail and hanging on. In fact in heavy weather you didn’t have to wipe – the ocean swells did that for you as you needed both hands anyway just to keep from falling overboard.
We loaded up with about 10 shopping carts full of groceries and 20 5 gal water cooler bottles, 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel, charts, cigarettes, rolling papers and yes a few firearms.
Eleven days later I was off the coast of Colombia and met Victor. We loaded up 55,000 pounds of Colombian reefer and proceeded to Marathon Key, Florida to unload it. Everything went unbelievably like clockwork. Don was waiting with two refrigerated tractor-trailer rigs, one Peterbilt and one Kenworth. As they headed for Detroit, I took the Red Cloud back to Miami and as agreed headed for Ann Arbor. We all met at the Campus Inn a week later.
We now had the capital to start fixing the mess. I enjoyed the smuggling part so much that I decided to have everyone put the blame on me and I would lead the feds on a wild goose chase over the next few years. After all, how could they find me if I was out on the ocean? I might as well keep doing what I was doing as I was a fugitive anyway, right? So I made another run in the Red Cloud right away and the sold her for a faster boat, the Joe Louis.
In July though things would change. I had just got paid from my last trip and Herby, Affy (my Doberman) and I were on our way to see Eileen traveling east on M50 in my Porsche. We were high on life and driving in excess of 100 MPH, sliding through the curves. Then from the other direction a full sized Chevy was straddling the double yellow line and there was not enough shoulder between the road and guardrail. We hit drivers headlight for drivers headlight, it was like an explosion as the cars were spun into circular orbits. The three of us were shot out of the car. Herby slid under a guardrail, crossed the creek and landed in a freshly plowed cornfield next to Affy. He had a cut over his eye and serious road rash. Affy had a broken leg. I on the other hand slid for a long way and then started somersaults eventually coming to a stop. In a state of shock I got up and started back to the car, which was on fire. It was like the Twighlight Zone with my ears ringing, the wind blowing and our empty burning car that smelled of the 60 pounds of Thai sticks that were incinerating in the trunk. I was bewildered; where was Herby? Where was Affy? Where was the car I hit? Here I was in the middle of nowhere with a burning car, the smell of buds and in a strange condition of un-reality. Was I dead? Had I entered another dimension? I called out to Herby and soon he came crawling up over the creek bank. He acknowledged his presence and I told him that he should sit down, that he was in bad shape. He informed me that maybe I should look in the mirror!
The car we hit was in a cornfield on the other side of the road. The impact was so severe that three of the wheels were missing. The drivers side front wheel and suspension were completely gone. The engine was shoved back and under where the transmission should be. The driveshaft was shoved back through the differential and stuck out of the back of it like a straw in a tree after a hurricane. The force from that ejected both rear axles complete with wheels and backing plates. When they set the car on the ground at the wrecking yard Herby had his picture taken with a yardstick to show that both bumpers were on the ground and the doorpost in the center was raised up 18 inches. That Chevy was almost folded like a pocketknife. My car was crushed to the front wheels and the front axle was pushed back about 4 inches. The pedals inside the car were pushed back around 2 inches.
We were taken to Tecumseh Michigan County Hospital. When we arrived the doctor took one look at me and told me there was nothing he could do for me. Then they went to talk to Herby. I was freaking out. Here I was about to die, no priest, no friends, and they just walked away from me. After a while Herby came in to see me and he told me they were going to stabilize me and transport me to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Ann Arbor where there was an intensive care trauma unit. But first they had to stabilize me so I was given an injection of Demerol.
During all this excitement there was a screw-up on the dosage of Demerol I was to be given. The nurse questioned the dosage, but was reassured to follow the order. They gave me 500mg of Demerol and she put a piece of tape on me stating 500mg Demerol.
I was in the ambulance and they started losing me. The paramedics saw the tape and panicked because they were about to lose me to a drug overdose. They were on the radio to St. Josephs and the hospital was instructing them how to keep me alive. I was vomiting and they had to vacuum my air ways to prevent suffocation (like Jimi Hendrix). The vacuum pump worked off of the engine in the ambulance and that required that they drive fast and then coast to create a high amount of vacuum. I owe Herby my life because he was sitting in the front seat of the ambulance throwing $100 bills at the driver to keep going and not lose me. My heartbeat stopped just as we entered the city limits but Herby kept throwing money at them and would not allow them to quit. They were taking short cuts through parking lots and through a picnic area.
I had been a flat line for over 4 minutes when we arrived at the hospital. I was revived and I woke up in a hospital completely disoriented. Herby was there, Eileen was there, the paramedics were there and I was told an amazing story of what all had happened after I lost consciousness.
After a week in the hospital and seeing specialist after specialist I was getting cabin fever and most of all afraid the feds would find me there as I was in no condition to run. I was about to get released; I just didn’t know it yet.
Eileen came in one afternoon while I was sleeping and proceeded to crawl in bed with me. She was in the middle of horizontal oral groin massage therapy when a Catholic nun came in to give me my medication. She flipped out and ran down the hall screaming. Next a Catholic priest came in with my doctors and asked what was going on? I replied that they had brought in a specialist for my back, eyes, internal organs, etc. so I was also checking with a specialist to insure that everything was working properly.
It was determined in not so many colorful words that I was well enough to leave for home. I was in need of constant care and Eileen nursed me back to health. I was in a back brace, my vision was blurry, I had migraine headaches, my left foot was a mess, but I was alive – I was free. I had lost over $80k in cash that burned up in the car. The heat was so intense that it melted my silver and gold jewelry in the glove box into a pool on the floor of the car. The turquoise stones had turned white from the heat, and Affy had a rod in his leg. Boy were we a pair.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
