Bill D'Angelo of Femme Fatale, OD'd on meth
mill...@intergate.com
Toxicology reports reveal former Femme Fatale rocker OD'd on meth
Toxicology reports reveal former rocker OD'd on meth, allowing the
Office of the Medical Investigator to issue his death certificate
By Maggie Shepard
Tribune Reporter
March 21, 2006
At one time in his life, Bill D'Angelo wore spiked bangs several inches
high and pants tighter than a banana peel.
He had guitar skills vicious enough to take his Albuquerque heavy-metal
band, Femme Fatale, onto the 1988 Billboard charts and on a tour of
Europe.
SIGNS OF ABUSE
Watch for these signs of intoxication or chronic use of methamphetamine
in a loved one:
· Increased irritability, anxiety and nervousness.
· Drastic and unnatural energy bursts.
· Altered sleeping patterns, including long periods of alertness
followed by hours of sleep.
· Sweating; dilated pupils; racing heartbeat; headache.
· Weight loss.
· Skin lesions from nervous picking.
· Bad teeth can sometimes develop as early as six months from chronic
use.
Source: Kirk Cumpston, medical director of the New Mexico Poison and
Drug Information Center
He also had a drug habit that eventually killed him.
Though his parents suspected as much, it took the state toxicology lab
four months to confirm that methamphetamines contributed to his death -
even though the lab was working overtime to erase its backlog of cases.
His father, Russell D'Angelo, said the long wait made the situation
worse. "It took so long. . . . They said they would have it (finished)
one weekend, then they didn't. We just wanted to know. We had to just
know."
Russell and his wife, Joann D'Angelo, suspected their ex-rocker son
used drugs but weren't sure until last weekend when they finally
learned what killed him.
The 43-year-old died Nov. 21 from complications of methamphetamine
overdose.
The state's lab in charge of toxicology reports took until early
February to finish tests, but then had to re-run them. Autopsy
physicians said the negative results didn't match other evidence.
A second toxicology test, completed last week, revealed methamphetamine
in D'Angelo's system.
The family was highlighted in a Tribune story Jan. 24 about a backlog
in the toxicology lab as long as eight months. Without the test
results, the Office of the Medical Investigator couldn't issue death
certificates, leaving families such as the D'Angelos in limbo.
And the couple were waiting for two reports: one for Bill D'Angelo and
one for their oldest son, Russell D'Angelo Jr., who was killed in a car
crash in August.
The D'Angelos still haven't received the toxicology report on Russell
Jr., but aren't concerned because his cause of death was obvious.
Bill D'Angelo's case, however, required toxicology tests to learn what
killed him. At the time of the story, the state toxicology lab said his
case was one of the first to benefit from staff working overtime
through the backlog.
But now that the family knows the truth, "Oh, I cuss him every day for
doing that to himself," Russell D'Angelo said.
The parents had seen signs of drug use, "but when we asked, he always
said he wasn't using drugs," D'Angelo said.
"There were signs," D'Angelo said. "He was being really nasty. He was
thin and irritable."
He'd always deny using, his father said.
Fellow band member Bobby Murray, now 42 and living in Phoenix,
recalled, "Drugs were all around and we all dabbled, but we didn't let
it get its hooks in us."
The band eventually fizzled out, and when it did, Murray said, "From
then on, it took its toll on that kid."
"Most of us just blew (drugs) off, but he was always in denial,"
according to Murray. "But it got its hooks in him and he could never
just get it together."
Other bandmates Mazzi Rawd, Rick Rael and Lorraine Lewis couldn't be
reached for comment.
Russell D'Angelo said a friend of his son's told him Bill was afraid to
admit the drug use.
"He was afraid that I wouldn't think much of him," D'Angelo said. "But
I would never turn him away. Never."
Bill D'Angelo was at a friend's house in Northeast Albuquerque the
morning of his death. He called his father on his cell phone,
complaining of severe chest pains.
The father met his son in a parking lot near the elder D'Angelo's home
at Wyoming and Menaul Boulevards Northeast. He barely got his son to
Presbyterian Kaseman hospital before Bill D'Angelo collapsed and died.
Russell D'Angelo said his son's last words were, "If I die, I'm sorry."
"He had everything going for him at one time," Russell said.
Bill D'Angelo was the lead guitarist for Femme Fatale, a heavy-metal
band that hit the Billboard charts, albeit low, in 1988. They toured
the United States, England and Germany.
Kirk Cumpston, medical director of the New Mexico Poison and Drug
Information Center, remembers the band.
"Oh yeah. From here right? I remember them," he said Friday while
offering tips about the signs of methamphetamine use.