Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Freddie Hayes, 1980Biographical NoteFreddie Hayes was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1927, the fourth of nine children. His family moved to New York City in 1936, where he began attending kindergarten at nine years old, having been unable to go to school beforehand due to his asthma. His formal schooling ended in 1945 when he prematurely left high school at James Fenimore Cooper, and got married. He and his wife later had five children. At the age of eighteen, Hayes got a job as an assistant salesman selling women's wear at a garment center, a job which he worked off and on for roughly thirty years. He started using heroin in 1944, and began dealing it around 1956. He was arrested nine times between 1949 and 1969, and spent a total of fourteen years in jail during that period. Around 1976, Hayes wanted to stop using heroin, and began treatment at a methadone clinic. Freddie Hayes was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived
Scope and ContentsIn this interview, Freddie Hayes describes his life from adolescence to adulthood, with a focus on his drug use and dealing. He discusses different methods of heroin intake, the drug's rapidly increasing price, and his mostly Puerto Rican clientele. He comments on how he was able to conceal his addiction from his wife and employer, as well as how he amassed enough money, through legal and illegal means, to support his family and his heroin habit. He compares trends in the New York City drug scene before and after World War II, mentioning changes in the amount of users, the average age of users, the price of heroin, the amount of theft by users, and the amount of addicts in jail populations. He also discusses how his attempts to stay away from heroin often led him to compensate with other drugs like cocaine and alcohol
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by David Courtwright
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