Oral history interview with Henry X., 1980

Biographical Note

Henry X was born on August 23, 1913 in Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina, one of eight siblings. His formal education ended in eighth grade. When he was sixteen, he and his younger brother Perry left home and went to Jacksonville, North Carolina where they worked on the railroad. At the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, Henry was laid off, and traveled around the country on freight trains. In 1934 he moved to Philadelphia and got a job at Brown Packing Company. He began selling heroin and cocaine in 1950, and tried heroin for the first time that same year. After eight months of using heroin, he detoxed himself using a home remedy of sherry wine and eggnog. In Henry's lifetime, he was incarcerated twice for a total of four years. Once he came out of jail for the final time in 1954, he worked as a busboy at a restaurant in Far Rockaway, New York until 1960. In 1967, he began to use heroin again, but sought treatment at the Morris J Bernstein Institute to detox after only a few weeks of use, and afterwards, joined a methadone program. Henry X. was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name is likely a pseudonym for the project

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Henry X discusses his life in New York City and Philadelphia, focusing especially on his drug use. He discusses his various jobs, as well as the impact of the Great Depression on his employment. He comments on how he was first introduced to drugs through a friend who gave him marajuana. He also describes how he began both selling and using heroin in 1950. He describes his various attempts to detox from heroin, including by himself using a homemade remedy of sherry wine and eggnog, and at the Morris J. Bernstein Institute. He touches on his arrests and jail time, both drug related and not. He also details his personal life including his partners, children, and marriages

Subjects

• Courtwright, David T., 1952- interviewer.
• Depressions--1929--United States.
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Drug dealers--United States.
• Drug traffic--United States--History--20th century.
• Heroin abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Imprisonment--United States.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• X., Henry--Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright