Samurai Widow
Queenan, Joe
rr his is not a book about John1 although he is an integral part of it—but a book about healing, my healing." So begins Samurai Widow, the story of Judith Jacklin Belushi's eight-year struggle to...
...The serious ones had been 'to try' and he always did try...
...Honey, I don't want you to worry about it," he'd said...
...Only the dumb die young...
...Meanwhile, Rolling Stone was stabbing her in the back by suggesting the same thing...
...If you want facts, go to the historians...
...For eight long years, I, too, have struggled to understand why John was torn away from us so abruptly when it seemed that the full flower of his artistry was only beginning to blossom...
...Yes, and pay particular attention to Animal House...
...One reason the young die young is that old people don't make a habit of going to West Hollywood hotels with Joe Queenan is a frequent contributor to Barron's and other publications...
...But Judy maintains that John couldn't have had more than ten holes in his arm at the time of his death, which is pretty shabby stuff by junkie standards, and suspects that he, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin before him, may have been "killed by a government agency because their counterculture ideas and lifestyle were affecting too many people and were viewed as a threat...
...Listen to Judy: Sue's words popped into my mind: Only the good die young...
...Thoughts keep running through my head, Was he killed by a Fed, And left to die in his bed...
...It is a question the Samurai Widow has thought about long and hard...
...21.95 Joe Queenan THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1990 37 Because John died of a heroin overdose, there were many cynics ready to jump to the conclusion that he was a junkie...
...I have always felt I learned more about a society from its artists than from its historians...
...There wasn't a solemn promise John had ever made to me that he hadn't kept...
...When all is said and done, the question remains: What made John Belushi such an enduringly influential performer and top-quality human being...
...If you want the essence, the spirit, of a people, look at their art...
...this is your brain on drugs...
...And there was progress from those times...
...I mean, other than OD'ing on heroin, why...
...As she explains in the book: "It was true...
...The Los Angeles Police Department thought he was a junkie, and the National Enquirer thought he was a junkie, and "20/20" thought he was a junkie, because word got out that he had sixty holes in his arm, which was more than enough for them...
...When Royko begged off, she approached Bob Woodward, who stabbed her in the back by writing a book suggesting that John may have been a bit on the self-destructive side...
...There was no one left to turn to but British comic Terry Thomas, who she saw one night on TV explaining why he hated the press: "Never expect more than a grunt from a pig...
...No, that wasn't fair either...
...Rather, it is an account of healing, my healing...
...Judy was so incensed by the "20/20" report about all those needle marks that she wanted to sue for defamation of character...
...I'd always thought that a dumb sentiment...
...That was it...
...Listen to Judy: John is dead...
...What the hell was that supposed to mean, anyway...
...That was wrong...
...This is not a review about John Belushi—although he is an integral part of it—or even a review of a book about John Belushi—although he is an integral part of that too...
...So not only had he died, but he had broken his promise...
...So she figured it might be better to get Mike Royko to write the true story of John's life...
...Realizing that his words had not convinced her, John took Judy by the chin and said, "Hey, now, have I ever let you down on a promise...
...Okay...
...Only the . . . young . . . die young...
...Judy felt betrayed, too...
...I promise I will never do heroin again...
...When she describes her reaction to his death, she makes it clear that it wasn't just the fact that he had died that upset her, but that he had succumbed to heroin—a drug he had promised her he would stop taking...
...Why don't people named Millicent or Thurgood or Chevy ever die young...
...He had a brightness and a vividness which, like Van Gogh's sunflowers, remained clear in your mind: a vibrant symbol of life bursting with energy...
...With the Joe Cocker impersonations behind him, John had quietly begun to build up a memorable body of cinematic work, and had he not succumbed to a heroin overdose that horrible March night in 1982, he would now surely be working on Continental Divide III, Neighbors VII, The Bluer Brothers, or 1941: The Sequel...
...This was one of the hardest parts about my healing—because I felt betrayed when John crossed the line from being a big, lovable moron to being a big, dead junkie...
...Was this a solemn promise or a drug promise...
...I didn't know and cried into John's embrace . . ." This is your brain...
...Why is it always people named John—Kennedy, Lennon, the Baptist—who have to die young...
...It had nothing to do with being good or bad or smart or dumb...
...But in America it's almost impossible to win a libel suit when you're the wife of a dead, fat comedian with at least ten holes in his arm...
...Listen to Judy as she recounts a previous incident when she had berated John for shooting horse, and he had promised—promisednever to do it again...
...he employed a system of principles and methods, based on instinct and learning, with a high quality of conception and execution...
...So begins Samurai Widow, the story of Judith Jacklin Belushi's eight-year struggle to come to terms with the death of her husband, John, arguably the greatest Albanian-American bumble-bee impersonator of all time...
...women they hardly know and having the babes shoot them full of heroin...
...That's not what the papers said, But I don't trust them a [----] anyway...
...Why did he have to die...
...Only the young...
...John's death in 1982 is its catalyst," she continues, "and who he was explains some of the situations I found myself in at the time of his death...
...Listen to Judy: John was an artist, in that he performed his work as if it were an art...
...this is Judy Belushi's brain .. . SAMURAI WIDOW Judith Jacklin Belushi/Carroll & Graf/427 pp...
...Soo-ee...
...You know: "Power to the people," "Off the pigs," "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger...
...There had been a lot of broken drug promises over the years, though, but I didn't consider most of them sincere...
...Have I?" "No," Judy had to admit...
Vol. 23 • August 1990 • No. 8
