Free INFAMOUS SCANDALS (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head Page B

the exact details of what happened have never become clear. After the public outcry that met their views, the Children of God changed their argument and began to teach otherwise, but there was always the suspicion that a great deal of harm had been done while they espoused their bizarre beliefs – just at the time, in the 1970s, when River was growing up.
    Given his adherence to an ascetic lifestyle, the American public were shocked when news came that River Phoenix had died on 31 October 1993 of a drug overdose. According to those present, he had been partying at the Viper Room, a Hollywood nightclub owned by movie star Johnny Depp. He had been indulging in speedballs, a dangerous mixture of heroin and cocaine, and had also been smoking cannabis. After he died, a coroner’s report showed that he also had an unusually large amount of cough syrup in his stomach.
     
    S CANDAL BREAKS
     
    As details of the evening’s activities came out, it became clear that Phoenix had engaged on a drug spree that Halloween night. Shortly before one o’clock on the morning of 31 October, River had been in the bathroom of the Viper Room doing drugs with some friends who were known dealers. One of his friends offered him a snort of a high-grade drug called ‘Persian Brown’, which contained opiates and methamphetamine. The so-called friends told River that it would make him feel on top of the world. However, almost immediately after he had snorted the drug, River started to tremble and shake and vomited violently after screaming at his friends to help him. One of the men splashed his face with cold water and then offered him a Valium to help him calm down, probably not realising that it was the worst thing they could have done. River staggered back into the bar and then over to his sister Rain and his girlfriend Samantha. He started to complain that he couldn’t breathe and passed out for a few minutes. When he came round he asked his girlfriend to help him outside to get some fresh air. However, once outside the club River collapsed on the pavement and started to have seizures. A photographer, Ron Davis, aware that something was seriously wrong, went to call 911 at a nearby payphone and River’s brother, Joaquin, also called for help. Because River was thrashing around so violently, Rain threw herself on top of his body to try and control the seizure, but it was all in vain because by this time River had stopped breathing. By the time the paramedics arrived at 1.14 a.m. he was in cardiac arrest, his skin had turned blue and all efforts of revival failed.
    When the news of his death broke, it was all the more shocking because Phoenix had portrayed such a clean image, and seemed, more than most young Hollywood actors, to have his life under control. His friends and family did not, on the whole, speak to the press about the matter and have continued to maintain a dignified silence about it ever since.
    Critics, however, have discussed it a great deal and have been struck by the uncanny similarities between the stories told in many of his movies and his own life – in particular, the way he died so suddenly, and tragically, at such a young age. River Phoenix, who had everything to live for, tragically died at a time when he had fame, money, friends and at 23, supposedly plenty of time to enjoy it. Instead, his untimely death was surrounded by scandal, which his family have worked their hardest to survive.

Robert Blake

     
    ‘This really was a story out of a bad novel,’ CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin commented when details of the scandal surrounding actor Robert Blake began to emerge. Blake had been arrested for the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley, but just how contorted their relationship had been was not generally known until news of the incident reached the media. And, indeed, once the story was out, it really did seem extraordinary that such a tale of deception, stupidity and callous behaviour between two people could ever