That time a psychopathic drug dealer was mad at me

Dateline: college. Yes another college barnburner. This one is interesting on an individual & group level, its ripple effect, as it were. I met Dan 1st day of college; he was in my dorm a few doors down. We went up to the rooftop, only time I ever did that. He had a pint bottle of whiskey with him. Told me about his high school days & his run ins with the laws. I would think 'college, why?' but we became friends anyhoots. Dan carried a pistol with him. One evening, freshman year, he came into my room shaking a bit. He said: 'I almost just shot a guy.' Tells me the story. He and member Brian were at a college party a few miles away, different college. Brian said something to a football player, he was like that. When they walked outside to leave, a buncha football players were waiting for them. Dan pulled out his pistol and pointed it at them. They scattered. Didn't your college pals pack heat? That was my fraternity. Not like what you think these are, filled with idjit bros, not mine. Mine was filled with nutters, some with guns, which I'll write about separately.

Sophomore year Dan brings, we'll call him Pat, around to the house, a lot. Pat wanted to join the house, based on Dan's prompting. Dan brought me to the house my 1st time actually (& within 5 minutes there was a bong in my hand). I got to know Pat. Once he took me out to lunch. He had a fancy sports car, took us to a fancy place. Mainly I was confused: I was 19, he was 19. Fancy sports car and a wallet filled with 100s. VCRs & stereo gear in the back seat. Again, 'college, why?' thoughts. But hey, just another character in a life where I was meeting them constantly. 

Now for the interesting stuff. Two items of drama began in parallel. One was he met & wooed (successfully) my gf at the time, Amy. Guess it's hard to compete with a roll of cheddar & fancy car (I didn't even own a car at the time). The drama part was his judgment in stealing away the gf of an house member. But hey, the heart wants what it wants & all that. Actual pics of Amy, at the time a high school Sr, quite the cutie:

The other item was him wanting to join/pledge the house. Actually, he did become a pledge/plebe for several weeks up until voting time. 

And that's where I saw up close what group stupidity & cowardice looks like. I would see it again in corporate life but not like this, not this intense. 

Specifically, the rumor was out that Pat was involved in the cocaine underground economy. I never saw that in person but that was the rumor. Personally, I didn't care about morality here, as my own drinking & drug use had begun in earnest. What I was focused on what that I had been elected 'rush chair' meaning I was in charge of recruiting new members to the house. And I knew the obvious: the house already had a party house stigma on campus (which was valid). Having a rumored drug trade guy as a member would make that image worse. Making recruitment not just harder but nigh impossible. This was a campus of 1,000 students. The size of a high school. Plain as day, no?  

Well, apparently not to everyone. For here's what happened next. With every pledge class the members verbally vote yay/nay on who proceeds to hell week then initiation. Verbal vote. Takes 3 nays to bounce out a plebe. And 3 nays were indeed what occurred. Me & two others took a stand, each for the reason outlined above. Drug use is one thing. Drug trade is another. To this day, the fact there were 12 yays still amazes me. Their yay vote verbal reasons were all the same: 'we think he'll change.' The actual nonverbal reason was: 'we're scared of this guy and we don't want him to know I voted nay.' 

So how would he know anything? Because! Even though these types of votes & meetings were all to be top secret, we took an oath for that actually, a handful of his supporters (technically, customers. allegedly.) went over to his dorm room that very nite and told him everything. Thanks guys. Not just cowardly. Not just oath breakers. They started a civil war of sorts in the house, of which yours truly was the fulcrum. 

Someone told me how pissed he was at me. Maybe he thought this was over a girl. It wasn't. I had met a hottie blond prior to the vote and was smitten with her. Actual pic of the new girl:

She would cry at length after sex, every single time. Not fun & couldn't take it for long & moved on after a few months. Plus we argued constantly. I'm not into blondes in general, but it's more a guideline than an actual rule. Let's focus. 

All this finally came to a head when Pat came over one night to talk outside. I reluctantly agreed, we went out to the front porch. He insisted we go for a walk. I shouldn't have but did. During the walk he started yelling, blaming me for getting bounced out (the other two nays escaped his wrath lucky them) then pushing me. At the time I had taken tae kwon do for 2 years, I wasn't worried about fighting, what I was worried about was what would happen to me later if I did fight back. Because I was in good shape and had sparred with guys for over a year. Anyone else, I would have fought back. But Pat was a psychopath with I assume chums in the drug trade. Ergo, I ran back to the house. Fuck this asshole. And the assholes in the house updating him in real time. Thanks 'brothers.'

Epilogue: I told a few family members what was going on, in case anything did happen to me. His full name, background info, etc. The fraternity house was never the same, not for me anyhoots. Still lived there, still had a ton of fun, made buncha friends. And learned a life lesson: people I thought were friends can be cowardly arseholes. 

A year or so later here's what I heard about Pat. His nearby campus pawn shop was raided and drugs were found. Moreover, an informant involved was killed. So went the rumor. He went away to prison. This was a long time ago. Maybe he turned his life around. Who knows. Who cares. If nothing else at least I never interfered with his commerce. 

Dan went on to sell new cars. I bet he was good at it. How do I know? Because 5 years after college, after living in SD a couple years, I moved back to MN, wanted a new car. Tracked him down and leased myself a shiny new Geo Prizm. Heady stuff. In hindsight there's endless other car lots, but I was curious about his life path. He was married, seemed successful. No more gangster shit, presumably. I told him I could only afford $200/month. I was still a broke boy, living check to check. He surely got a kick out of that. In fact, I bet he was thinking this of me: 'why college?'

The 'pledge marshal' Scott, himself a heavy drug user, who was leading the oath breaking / civil war faction was spotted a few years later, after college. This person told me they saw him in town, talked to him, and he had a throat scar ear to ear. Believed to be from unpaid drug bills. Allegedly. Scott said it was from throat cancer or something. I actually looked Scott up recently on linkedin, he has a nasty scruffy beard to cover it up. Still visible. 

Ah, college.