Oral history interview with Mel, 1980

Biographical Note

Mel was born in 1915 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended school through eighth grade. When Mel was fourteen years old, he left his home in Chicago, and travelled to New York City where he stayed in a shelter created by Father Divine. In 1931, he began using heroin. Mel maintained many sources of income to fund his drug use such as selling drugs, gambling, working as a conman, pickpocketing, and pimping. In 1933, Mel transitioned from using heroin to opium. He was arrested in 1935, and served three years in a New York State penitentiary. He spent the 1940s traveling the United States with a group of friends and fellow conmen. From 1942 to 1969, Mel spent the majority of time incarcerated. He joined a methadone program in 1969. Mel 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, Mel discusses his life in New York City, with a focus on his drug use. He describes the drug scene in New York City in the early 1930s, and the broad array of people who used drugs at that time. He describes the first time he used heroin, and how he developed an addiction. He discusses the negative attitudes popular among opium users toward heroin users, and compares a typical opium user to a typical heroin user using metrics of class, race, and occupation. He discusses how control of the New York drug trade changed hands from Jewish crime syndicates to the Italian Mafia in the late 1930s. He discusses the drug panic that took place during World War II, and explains how he acquired drugs during this period of scarcity. He describes traveling across the United States with his friends and fellow conmen in the 1940s, and compares the price and availability of drugs between big cities and small towns in America. He describes how he approached doctors to acquire drug prescriptions in rural, southern towns in the 1940s. He details his arrest history, and discusses the conditions in various prisons in which he was incarcerated. Mel discusses various illnesses he contracted from heroin use, such as tetanus, abscesses, and ulcers. He discusses racial discrimination he experienced from the police. He describes how the drug scene in New York has changed from the 1930s to the 1980s. He shares his opinion of the methadone maintenance program

Subjects

• Courtwright, David T., 1952- interviewer.
• Crime--New York (State)--New York.
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Drug dealers--United States.
• Drugs--Prescribing.
• Drug traffic--United States--History--20th century.
• Heroin abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Imprisonment--United States.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Mel--Interviews.
• Opium abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Swindlers and swindling.

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright