The Fear of 13 Page #5

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and we'd go out and look for it.

PLANE FLIES OVERHEAD

ENGINE TURNS OVER

ENGINE STARTS:

So, usually, my friends and I would

go to the Philadelphia airport

and wait for what we called vics...

TYRES SCREECH:

.. which was somebody who walked up,

took their luggage

out of the rear of the car,

and then walked inside with

the family members to see them off.

And never got a car

when they came out.

I've had several people

in the rear-view mirror

chasing behind you

as you drove off with their car.

You dropped the car off,

you got $200-$300.

And then you took that money

and you bought drugs.

And by the time I was 17,

I was really,

really getting hooked

on methamphetamine.

My favourite vein was right

there on the outside.

I can still feel

the hole in my arm.

I can still taste

the drug in my mouth.

When you inject

methamphetamine into your arm,

you get the burning numbing

sensation shoot up your arm,

and then you get

the taste of...

ethanol in your mouth.

And it's like a cough...

HE BLOWS:

.. just like that.

And then the other Nicky came out.

The one I didn't

cringe in the mirror from.

The one who wasn't weak.

The one who wasn't afraid.

CHILD PANTS:

'I wasn't just hooked on one drug. '

I was a mess of multiple drugs.

And alcohol.

And by December 20th,

I had already been homeless on the

streets for about most of that year.

And that's when I stole

two cars in a row for $500 each,

and I went out,

started partying again.

I was on the binge.

Burning it, they called it.

Every time I think of that night,

I smell wet, burning leaves.

It's almost sweet.

I was driving around

in another stolen car.

LOUD FUNK MUSIC PLAYS

The radio was blasting.

POLICE SIREN BLARES

You must have heard

the radio before you saw me.

When he flew out,

I knew he was going to stop me.

I just...

I just felt it coming right at me.

And... the adrenaline.

HE POUNDS HIS CHEST WITH HIS FIS His hand's on the butt of his gun.

Here he comes. Now, I'm like,

"Oh, I can't stop it. "

HE GULPS:

Sh*t... I can't do anything.

I remember, like,

looking just like that.

HE MIMES:

I don't understand whatever he's

saying. His hand's going.

HE MIMES:

The door pops, and the vacuum now,

when the door comes open,

and there's all that

quiet on the street, and the noise

on the radio's still going...

IMITATES GUITAR:

.. that's when I realised

the radio was still on.

LOUD MUSIC PLAYS

"You didn't stop for the light.

Didn't you see the stop sign?"

All those things, but...

I panicked, you know?

Like, I remember I did that.

Like, stand-up.

He was, like, right

against my throat with his forearm.

Bang! Against the car.

When he shoved me back like that,

I remember, like, coming up

with my left arm.

And it was, like, gone,

right for the stick,

and I just followed it along,

grabbed his arm.

He had the stick come out,

I took it right out,

like it was nothing.

Right out of his hand.

He was furious! And that's

when the right-hand came out.

I saw that gun.

I grabbed it. I reached out,

I pushed his arm straight down.

Then you felt the percussion

of the blast.

And then you heard the pop.

GUNSHO "OK! OK! OK!"

He stuck the gun right there.

He said, "You son of a b*tch!

"You almost got us killed!"

He was, like, "Get in the car!"

And he slammed me in the back,

in the cage area, shut the door.

"Shots fired, officer assist. "

I remember just...

He said it four times.

I remember,

I was just sitting there, like this.

What the hell happened?

KEYS RATTLE:

HEAVY DOOR CLOSES

They threw me in the intake unit.

And I crashed.

I must have slept at least 16 hours.

HEAVY DOOR OPENS

I was so scared. They pulled me out.

I'd been arrested enough to know

this one's scary, this is serious.

This one's bad.

And the public defender was this

young kid, and he turned to me.

He said, "Look, Mr Yarris,

"do you understand the serious

nature of these charges,

"because if you're convicted of

these charges,

"you face life imprisonment. "

I said, "What's my charges?"

He said,

"Kidnapping of police officer.

"Attempted murder

of a police officer.

"Reckless endangerment,

possession of a firearm,

"robbery, resisting arrest,

"possession of a stolen vehicle. "

I started crying.

They take me back to the cell,

and there was the newspaper.

The December 16th

Delaware County Daily Times.

The front page was missing, so

the front page on it was page three.

And right there was

the story of Linda Mae Craig.

I swear...

something about that

newspaper kept calling me.

On December 15th, 1981, at 4:05pm,

Linda Mae Craig left work.

She was knocked out of her shoes

in the car park

of the Tri-State Mall,

dragged into a car that she owned,

and then driven into

the state of Pennsylvania,

about two-and-a-half miles away,

where she was taken

behind a church...

.. where she was stabbed after being

raped, and dumped in the car park.

The next morning, two children...

.. walked up to what they thought

was a mannequin that had been

covered in the newly fallen snow.

One of the boys walked up, and

kicked the snow from the face

of the mannequin, so that

they could see if it was

a boy or a girl mannequin...

.. only to discover

the disfigured face of Mrs Craig.

I lived 20-something

miles from the murder scene.

And I said, "Man, if I had

knowledge about a crime this big...

".. I can get out of this.

I bet you they would let me out

"and then I could get out

on bail and I'd run. "

Like the stupid mind of a child.

So I sat in my cell.

And I started making up a story.

And I said I would tell 'em...

that somebody did the murder, right?

And then I had to find out

who I could blame.

And the only one I could

think of was Jimmy.

I had met Jimmy Brisbois

in 1980, when I was doing drugs.

And I stole some coins from a car

that I'd gotten from the airport.

1,000 coins? There was

a lot of coins in this big bag.

I made the mistake of showing Jimmy,

and, out of nowhere,

his friend hit me

with this 357 Magnum.

THUMP:

I've still got a chip out of my

eyebrow that I can rub at this time.

TYRES SCREECH:

And they had an old carpet

in the front room that nobody

used in this house we were

living in on Woodland Avenue.

So, rolled me up in the rug,

threw me into this pick-up truck

that Jimmy had,

and they took me behind

the Westing House warehouse.

And I heard the spliff - PEW! -

like that.

One of them took a 22-calibre pistol

and shot the rug.

But being drug addict

idiots that they were,

they shot it where the folded part

over of the rug was,

about two feet above my head,

way out of range of anywhere I was.

I was enraged.

I went looking for Jimmy.

"Hey, Michael, what happened

to your buddy, Jimmy?"

Cos he knew Jimmy.

"So, what happened to your

old rat-bastard Jimmy?

"I ain't seen him for a while. " And

that's when he told me the story.

Jimmy and his friends were over

in Jersey. Jimmy had an overdose.

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