Somewhat disturbing article from Mercer Island, Washington state

[Sandra Ludwig]

Several days ago, I came across this article: Mercer Islander’s images of fame 30 years ago still tell stories

It's from 2010 and it's about the photographer who took the wonderful Bolinas photographs from 1980. 

In it,  Roger Ressmeyer says of Jim, "'He needed help. I took care of him and drove him around. I bought him food.'"

And then there is this, "On their travels, Ressmeyer, a diabetic, had his insulin needles with him. Carroll, a heroin addict, asked the photographer if he could have a couple of syringes for himself. Ressmeyer demurred"

This hurts my heart on various levels. First, I hate to think of Jim needing to be cared for and fed. At any point in his life. Second, I thought he was clean in 1980. I know he was into cocaine during the JCB years but I thought he was done with heroin. 

There is a possibility that this person was lying. One red flag that pops up is that in 1980, he had been married to Rosemary for two years. So why would he need a photographer to look after him and feed him? 

This doesn't mesh with anything else I know about him from this era. 

Of course, I could be totally wrong because I certainly don't know everything about him. Nobody does. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Note: On the side of bullshit, I recently came across a 12-year-old comment on YouTube, on the "For Elizabeth" video. This guy claimed Elizabeth's brother jumped onstage at a JCB gig, "beat the crap out of" Jim and it took "six cops" to get him off Jim. I had a brief Facebook Messenger chat with Wayne Woods from JCB and he no such incident happened. Also checked with a fan who was at said show and he confirmed it never happened. I guess some people have nothing better to do than make up stories about famous people. 

[Cassie Carter]

Well … I don’t know the context of the photo session, whether the photographer was freelance or working for Rolling Stone or what. (I don’t think the photos were published in RS.) 

Yes, Jim was married to Rosemary in 1980; she earned her JD at Stanford in 1980 and was admitted to the bar in 1981. And I don’t know that JCB had had a chance to make a lot of money yet at the time of the photo shoot. I imagine it was lean times for them.

As for JC being clean by then … a “clean” heroin addict is a heroin addict who is not using heroin at the moment. The addiction never goes away and it is a lifelong battle to stay clean. I can’t imagine that the world of rock n roll helped.

Cassie 

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[Sandra Ludwig]

There were a lot of JCB gigs in 1980, for sure. Of course that doesn't necessarily translate into making money! I'm guessing they didn't have a lot until "People Who Died" became a hit. 

It is sad that once an addict, always an addict. As JC put it himself, he was still paying off the monkey years after quitting. I guess I was just shocked that he'd ask somebody for needles. I've read some of the articles on the Catholic Boy site where he admitted he didn't know if he'd be able to refuse if someone offered him heroin at some point. And one where he said, when he'd hear about a particularly good batch of heroin, his first thought was "where can I get some?" 

I am the daughter of a functional alcoholic, now deceased. It's been a lifelong struggle for me to understand addiction, and I have a ways to go on the matter, I'm sure. 

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