Straight Life - Art Pepper [138]
I DIDN'T know Diane had taken these pills. I'm running around East L.A. pulling burglaries and boosting and trying to get ahold of a gun, and they're going to give Diane ninety days or something like that. So what she does, in order to get out early, in order to make them like her and help her, she says, "Well, I'm Art Pepper's old lady." All the narcs had heard of me and they said, "Oh? Where is he?" She said, "He's in East L.A. robbing and stealing, just strung out like a dog."
The police can't arbitrarily stop someone and search them without a reason. If they do, their case isn't any good. But when Diane told them about me, that was the "show cause," and they went to their files and gave pictures out to the heat in East L.A., my pictures. And when I got busted, the show cause was Diane's statement. She had informed on me.
At this time I was so hung up I had no one to go with me anymore. I was just walking the streets, burglarizing houses, going into stores, no car or nothing, just carrying stuff down the street-televisions, clothes, power tools-carrying them to the connection, hiding in alleys and parks. But then I did an album for Les Koenig, Smack Up, and I got some bread, and the next day I went to Stone Street in East L.A. I went to Frank and Lupe Ortiz's house to cop, and I bought a half a piece of stuff; the house was under surveillance; and the police had my picture in their car.
I got two condoms of stuff. I had had a student of mine drive me; he was parked three blocks down, on Wabash, a busy street. I turned the corner onto Wabash; there's a Bank of America and a lot of people going and coming. I'm walking by the bank, and the car is just a few feet away, and two guys are walking toward me, I'm trying to pass them, and all of a sudden somebody grabs me from behind, around the neck, and starts strangling me, and one of the guys drops a badge and says, "Sergeant Sanchez, L.A. Narcotics."
There were four of them: MacCarville, Salazar, and this guy who had me around the neck, Solagi, and Sanchez, who's a total illiterate madman. I'm trying to get my hand to my mouth. There was no way I could have swallowed the stuff because the guy had me so I could hardly breathe, but Sanchez saw me and grabbed my arm. I fought as much as I could and screamed, "Help! Help! Robbery!" hoping some citizens would jump in and give me just enough time to get it into my mouth and swallow it, but I was dead. They had me. They were too strong. Sanchez opened my hand, and there were the two quarters.
They got me in the car and drove about three blocks. I'm handcuffed with my hands behind my back, and this ape Solagi, he's sitting on my right; Sanchez is driving; and MacCarville is sitting next to Sanchez. All of a sudden we stop; I fall forward; and Solagi smashes me in the stomach with his elbow. Sanchez whips out his gun and hits me in the head with it. He clicks it and says, "I'm going to kill you, you motherfucker! You stinking bastard! Open the door!" Then he yells, "Open the door! Throw him out! Run, you bastard! If you don't, I'm going to kill you right here!" I said, "Ohhhh, man, what are you doing?" He'd cut my head with the gun. I said, "Just take me to jail and book me, man!" He said, "We know where you got the stuff. You got it from Frank and Lupe Ortiz, and you're going to tell us that or we'll kill you!" I said, "I didn't get it from anyone. I had it. I had it before I went to the pad."
They drove me to the Hollenbeck Station. They parked in the lot and Solagi said, "Get out!" I went to get out, and he kicked me in the legs so I fell. I would have busted my teeth out because I fell on cement, but I turned and hit my head. They grabbed me and dragged me in.
They had two holding tanks in the Hollenbeck Station. They took everyone out of one of them and threw me in it. Then Sanchez pulls my belt out and hits me in the