4 4. 4 * ,.. 1* Page Four THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, November 22, 1970 Sunday, November 22, 1970 THE MICHIGAN DAILY . M: = -__ Deafing jujnk a hea in is not fithj Detroit illving Or, how i nfiltrated a heroin ring By HOWARD KOHN I arrived at Stonehead Manor on a cold Mon- day night, with the wind swirling the trash and dust from the gutters in front of a grotesque green house on Lincoln Street, heart of Detroit's tough west side. My partner was freelance writer Dave Rich- mond, a reformed alcoholic who got caught fly- ing supplies to Castro in 1958 and spent 17 months in federal prison with Rudolph Abel as cellmate. I was working undercover with Richmond to report firsthand on the lives and lifestyles of heroin addicts and dealers. We walked past the broken springbed couch on the cement front porch, kicked aside an old wine bottle and knocked harshly on the locked door. It is always locked, ever since May - when a college-educated father walked through the door in the early morning darkness and shot to death his daughter and the three boys she was visiting. Pete, the building manaeLer, let us in. Pete is a college graduate and former teaching fellow in chemistry. He used to manufacture LSD in his room, using part of a Kodak-5 color process- ing kit, before he became hooked on heroin. Still he sometimes likes to Let snaced out on speed before he shoots his heroin. He is six feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds and is one of the more bizarre junkies at Stonehead Manor, a house nicknamed by Junkies because it is one of their favorite hangouts. We went un the splintered wooden stairs and Dave knocked on Apartment Four. Darrel an- swered, a knife clenched in his hand. "He's cool," Dave said, pointing to me. Darryl recognized Dave and relaxed but he didn't put the knife away. Inside the one-room apartment, which rents for $70 a month, was a washtub of rancid wine, a homemade saki that Darryl gave us to drink. We sat down at the kitchen table, cluttered with syringes and needles and spoons. Wallpaper peeled from the walls and the kitchen pines leak- ed to a sodden floor. But an American flag hung from the stoved-up fireplace and the bed covers were pulled down crisply and cleanly - military- style. Darryl ,said he was an ex-Army commando who knew judo and knife-throwing. He flung his knife past my head into the door to prove his point. He also said he rode with the Los Angeles Hells Angels and drove trucks to get to Detroit two years ago. Darryl, I decided, was going to be my friend, the guy I would con to get close to the dealers. I would trick him, if my plan succeeded, by tell- ing him I could bankroll him in a smalltime deal- ership with money I supposedly had saved up from my work on the lake freighters. Richmond, who hadlived at Stonehead Manor for six weeks After Adler's departure and Canby's pro- motion, the number two spot was open. Log- ic seemed to dictate that Thompson-and Weiler would each move up a notch in the hierarchy while the Times found itself a new fourth string reviewer. But the Times operates on its own inscrutable illnic. So it hired Roger Greenspun for the second ton post and left Thompson and Weilpr in their pigeon-holes. Where Weiler is the c+Pgrivino nresence. a throwhqeV to the old d Ts. and Canby is the modern iournalist, Greenuin is the sneoialigt. He is well oroornedd. rrk complexioned, weavrs expensive double- breasted suits. and ijist a few veArs book had been nimincr for a life in academi-- ,e was graduated from ve. taught. at Con- ra-+ir~+',it nollo'ea fr r w , took his nre- limc inT no'lish hut inst- e' l(dn't hrinq' him- self to complete hia discertation. "So I c'nvP un ever-thino and movei to New York." Greencnun savs. "and worked for a time in a movie theater called the Charles Thenter. xwhieh at that time was runninco underronrid mn-ies. inee then it's descended to nothino. Then I was out of work for a lnng time and had od iohs. I worked Ps an ene-elonadia editor heeauqe that wa the only nlaen T connd o'et rork T started little maooarrAne with Jim Stokler l11lld MMTiP Goer. W- ran for oniv three is- sves. but it was a very o o d magnzine. I wrote a. little bit for the Voice. And the Now VYrk Free Press was being started by R. uv I had done one niece for, and I wrote for it for the +ime it lasted. which was iust over- a year. But that gave me a body of weekly re- views, and it was from those that I was real- ly hired here. "The Times editors literally did take me off the streets," Greenspun marvels. "I was out of work. They like to feel that everybody they hire is in tremendous demand from five hundred places. Hiring me was a bold move. I'm not entirely sure it's a move they would make today. "I was actually hired as a reporter," Greenspun laughs. "But they became com- pletely aware that I couldn't report on a goddamn thing; and all I could do was write movie criticism. In a move they are probably still regretting, they said. 'OK. Just write movie criticism, but we can't change your title.' " Once hired, a Times reviewer becomes one of the select, subject to a swirl of pres- sures by the public, the industry, and even fellow practitioners of the craft. Canby has always shunned the role of tastemaker, and as a result the Times influence is de- clining and industry arm-twisting is abat- ing. But film peddlers occasionally still ap- ply pressure. "Every now and then film companies will try to bring you in on the conspiracy," says Canby. "I've avoided that sort of thing. I had a call today from some lawyer who wants me to take a look at a film Elaine May has made for Paramount, called A New Leaf. Apparently there was some antagon- ism between Elaine May and Paramount, she is suing them for something, and he asked me to take a look at the movie. I wouldn't do it; I don't think it's a critic's function. They tried to do the same thing with Medium Cool. Haskell Wexler thought that Paramount was out to screw his movie, and one of his press representatives in New York asked me to start writing articles de- manding that Paramount release it. It turn- ed out that Paramount- wasn't doing any- thing to the movie." Most distributors are loathe to raise the hackles of the Times' powerful critic (one reviewer calls it "luxurious independence"). So their coercion takes less direct forms. "There are evidences of letter-writing cam- paigns from time to time," Canby claims. "I think right now there is one going on about my review - maybe I'm getting paranoid as everybody does eventually - of I Never Sang for My Father. I've gotten several letters, very strange letters and most of them are sent to the editor, pointing out the fact that I've hated all Columbia films for the last six 's/Yi com t use'skt,' you caO't use 'screw'... the I I I last word ound token gut r ry copy was 'lou- sy.r months, and they list the titles. It seems to me very curious that general readers would know that I've given bad reviews to six Co- lllmhia films." Often the fiercest pressure comes from other film critics .Twice this year, with Fel- lini Satyricon and Catch-22, top-critic Can- by has eschewed the pleasure of company and stood alone - but even then, in partial reaction to his friends. "In the c a s e of Catch-22 I think I reacted to a certain ex- tent against what I knew the prevailing opinion was. I didn't like it because of that, but you are drawn sometimes to defend a movie that you know will be generally blast- ed by the other critics," Canby says. "A more dramatic example of that sort of thing is the first time I saw Satyricon. It was a cold night, and it was at the Plaza Theater. Everybody arrived wearing 18 sweaters and coats and overshoes and ev- Continued on Page 22 I, jkie -JAMES A i1 In 1949, when had his choice of car or the Studebaker, two h It turns out they were Because today therec or Stuc But there are quite c three and a h Seldom has Howard Cooper 2575 So. State St., Ann Arb< Open Mon. & Thurss. tiIl 9 P.A Fr- 1,, li 1I- L BUT FOR T L Ssan d L ( i.I J '/ I GUITAR STUDIO INSTRUMENTS ACCESSORIES LESSONS Instruments MADE & REPAIRED 200 South State (upstairs) 665-8001 KLH KH SON A big dealer walks the street with his bodyguard. HI. 618 S. Ma Am '"QuolityS Internationally known and recommended by most major manufacturers, appeared on television, and featured in many major magazines and newspapers. I.: