John Wayne is an off ramp bum like our friend Frank. He hangs around off ramps trying to collect change. There's a lot more to John Wayne, however, than just being a street person. Before he would agree to be featured on the site, we had to agree not to use his last name. And it wasn't because America’s Most Wanted was going to hunt him down, "cuz the law ain’t got nuthin on me", but because he has family in Memphis. I had to ask if they knew that he was homeless, and thus began John Wayne’s tragic tale of car wrecks, emphysema, and a dead dog that had dashed his hopes and dreams, robbing him of the will to live. It seems that John had been a hard working soul who lost his wife of 30 years to emphysema and then just six months later, lost one of his children in a car wreck. He survived the heartache of these tragic events and continued to work. That is, until his dog died. That was the last straw. Now God was just kicking him when he was down. So, John Wayne threw in the towel on life. He gave up his house, his job and the finer things for a freeway underpass and a bottle of whiskey.
It seems that even though John Wayne has buried family members and his dog that his remaining family does not let him stay in their homes because he has a habit of getting into the whiskey, which results in him, as he described, "getting a little crazy with yelling and acting up." J.W. explained that as long as he has a bottle he can go four or five days without eating. For the rest of us, this is more commonly known as a bender.
Before John Wayne gave up on living a normal life, he claims to have been very successful, if you call dropping out of school at age 15 to work construction and then marrying the foreman’s daughter at age 16 successful. He worked for 30 years building up his construction business, reaching twenty employees at one time. His biggest claim to fame was that he built a house for Elvis’ dad before Elvis had all that money.
He credits his "success" to his father-in-law who showed him the ropes in the construction business. Each day on the job his father-in-law would tell him, "You can ask me to explain what I am going to teach you as many times as you want today, but if you don't learn it before you go home then don’t come back tomorrow." I guess his father-in-law should have taught John Wayne not to drink the whiskey because all he needs now is "a dry place to sleep and a bottle" and he is having a good day.
"Look at me funny and I'll cut you."
John shared some insider knowledge with me about the bum code. There seems to be an understanding amongst bums that you share; not just the bottle, but panhandling space and living space. J.W. said that if a bum is panhandling and another bum comes along you are supposed to give up the space after an hour so the other bum can work the area. Basically, you are only supposed to take from the region what you need to get by for the day. It's like some sort of twisted bum ecology management. Just as the Fish and Wildlife Department don’t want people over-hunting because it depletes the stock, if bums over-panhandle it depletes the change supply, so they have to spread the begging around. According to John Wayne, his needs are simple: $1.09 to get a double cheese burger at McDonanld’s, $2.90 for a pack of smokes, and $3.60 for his whiskey, which will also power your car in a drag race. Of course he's not out pandhandling just to get that $1 cheeseburger each day. No, our man is shooting for the stars and has his sights set on that bottle of whiskey. John Wayne is a man who likes to reach for the sky, especially when he's plastered off cheap whiskey and laid out on his back in the lush grass that runs along side a freeway exit ramp.
I talked to John Wayne about Bela Lugosi, the actor, who was a known alcoholic and who got his fix by spreading sterno on bread. I suggested this might kill two birds with one stone as he could eat and drink at the same time. But personally, I think John Wayne's problems started long before the death of his dog; he was damned the moment his parents named him. What where they thinking giving him the middle name Wayne...don’t they know that's just asking for trouble? Think John Wayne Gacy and a host of others with that accursed middle name:
Eric Wayne Kelley — sex offender
Nathan Wayne Green — kidnapping, assault, homicide
Ronald Wayne Spencer, Jr. — triple homicide
David Wayne Rhodes — practiced as a nurse without a license for 10 years
Larry Wayne King — homicide
Paul Wayne Mitchell — theft
Michael Wayne Hills — theft
Jeremy Wayne Hopkins — homicide
Garry Wayne Carriker — knowingly having unprotected sex while HIV positive
Bruce Wayne Potts — homicide
Joshua Wayne Jones — assaulting a police officer
Billy Wayne Sinclair — homicide
Billy Wayne Boyer — assault
Billy Wayne Miller — attempted murder and robbery
Kenneth Wayne Downs — sexual assault
Jerry Wayne Lucas — attempted homicide
Tony Wayne Swinnie — aggravated assault of grandmother in front of her grandchildren, robbery
Larry Wayne Dacy — home invasion
Richard Wayne Miles — police standoff
Charles Wayne Thomas — homicide
Wayne as a middle name is the kiss of death for a child, or at least the fast road to living under a highway overpass spooning with a bottle of Evan Williams.
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