John Belushi's Final Party: Part 1

Cathy Evelyn Smith knew her way around hard drugs. She had been dealing them to the stars for years in the late 70's and early 80's. Among her clientele were the Rolling Stones, The Band, and many Hollywood movie stars. At one time in her life, Cathy had been a promising beauty. Born in Toronto, Canada, she had been a back-up singer for many artists, including Hoyt Axton and Gordon Lightfoot. It was with Lightfoot that she would find love and heartbreak. It would be the best of times and the worst of times for Cathy as she got deeper into drugs, namely heroin. Eventually, she would break up with Lightfoot [the song, ''Sundown'' was written by Lightfoot about their relationship] and she would go from musician to musician, looking for love and stardom as a singer. But, her drug habit turned into an addiction. Her looks and behavior suffered, and she went from being a nice-looking, pleasant person, to a hard-faced, irascible drug dealer. She would have brushes with the law, popped a few times for possession and drunk driving. She went from man to man, each worse than the other, in the drug merry-go-round world she lived in. By March 1982, Cathy Smith was living on the fringes of show business, what some would call a groupie, while others would call a drug addict leech looking for a new mark....... John Belushi, in March 1982, was in the mist of one of his notorious drug binges. Belushi, famous for his comic genius and wild-man ways, was depressed during this time. He had arrived in Hollywood on March 1st determined to straighten his career out. John felt that he was being jacked around by Paramount Pictures over the script of a new movie he was preparing to do. The script, titled ''Noble Rot'', was a wine caper that John and his friend, Don Novello [''Father Guido Sarducci''] had been writing for the first couple of months of 1982. The script had been rejected by Paramount as not being funny enough. This drove Belushi into a depressive funk. His career has hit a few road bumps during the previous year, his two attempts at breaking out of his ''slob image'' from ''Animal House'' had not done well. Plus, he was overweight and not in the best of health. Unbeknownst to him, his body, his internal organs and heart, were of an old, sick man. This was because of his obesity and his years of abuse of his body. John Belushi had a well-deserved reputation as the King Of The Partiers, a man who outlasted everyone around him, a non-stop, runaway train of fun and good times.  His fuel was cocaine. Over the last several years, after his fame hit hard with ''Saturday Night Live'' and the movies, his drug use, once controlled, has gone into overdrive. While he had long stretches of sobriety, the nagging itch that addiction has for some never left him. It was a constant struggle for him to control his demons. Most times, he was successful, able to pull back his intensity when it got heavy. This was also do because of two key people in his life, his wife, Judy, and his best friend and partner, Dan Aykroyd. These were the only two people who could reach him, whom he would answer to and pull back from his partying ways. But, in March 1982, both Judy and Dan were in New York, worried sick about John and the cocaine........ The first few months of 1982 were not good for the Los Angeles Police Department. Corruption among the force----the taking of bribes and police brutality---- has started to bubble to the surface. A new wrench was about to be thrown into public view: some officers had been involved with underage girls. The scandal, not yet widely known but on its way, was the last thing the LAPD needed. The department, swimming in the Hollywood community, had long looked the other way with the behavior of movie stars. The power of the major studios guaranteed that nothing huge would ever erupt. That was why, for years, messy divorces and wife beatings and drug and alcohol abuse, never saw the light of day. But, the police were not happy about this preferential treatment of the ''stars''. So, with all of the scandal swirling around them, the police task force decided to strike back and get some goodwill going in the public eye. They wanted to go after the big shot drug celebrities, with their cocaine and limos and beautiful women. Undercover agents quickly zeroed in on the high-profile people to bust. They planned to use anybody they could that was close to a star in their quest. And, being the drug squad, there were plenty of snitches and drug dealers to use....... At 5am on Monday, March 1st, 1982, April Milstead got up in her Hollywood apartment to answer her ringing doorbell. When she opened the door, she was surprised and delighted to see John Belushi on her doorstep. April and her boyfriend, Charlie, had met John a few weeks earlier at a drug party. April, very beautiful to the eye, had a cocaine habit and dabbled in heroin, at times. She was trying to break into show business---like everyone out there---- for the last two years but was having no luck at it. The best she could do was hang around the fringes of the business, hoping for that big break. John Belushi, with his star power and money, was an ideal companion for someone like April. Plus, they shared a love of drugs and John always seemed to have some on him. But, April was surprised to see him, for he had left LA only a week ago for his home in New York. When John entered her home, he asked her bluntly if she could score some heroin for him. This surprised April because she did not associate John with smack. In fact, no one who knew him did. John was steadfast against heroin and was terrified of needles. But, for some reason, John wanted some. April said she knew of someone who dealt heroin, a woman named Cathy Smith. April would call Cathy and find out if she could supply John with his request. Satisfied, John left to go back to his hotel, the famed hotel of the rich and famous, the Chateau Marmont...... John Belushi was still determined to go after Paramount about his wine movie. The script meant everything to him, he had poured his heart and soul into the creation of it. The rejection of it by the studio was sharp and personal. John demanded, and got, a meeting with Michael Eisner, the head honcho at Paramount. Eisner met Belushi at the Marmont on that Monday afternoon. But, Eisner had come with an offer for Belushi. The National Lampoon organization---which John had helped make famous with ''National Lampoon's Animal House''---- had another potential movie brewing. It was called ''The Joy Of Sex'' and it contained a lot of juvenile, scatological humor that Eisner thought would be perfect for John. In one scene, Eisner laughed, John would be wearing a diaper!!! John listened politely to Eisner, all the while stewing. Here he was, John Belushi----a grown man with dignity, who had become a cultural icon with his talent, admired among his peers and the public---- and this goof who ran Paramount Pictures wanted John to wear a diaper?! John was crushed and angry. But, he kept his composure and argued for his wine movie. After an hour, the two men reached an impasse. They agreed to get together again soon and work out their differences...... April Milstead got her drug friend, Cathy Smith, on the phone. She told Smith that ''John Belushi is in town and is looking for something.'' That ''something'' was heroin. Could Cathy get the stuff for John? Yes, replied Cathy. They would meet later at April's to have a little fun....... In addition to calling her connection for the heroin, there are also strong signs that Cathy Smith called the LAPD. The reason was that Cathy Smith, drug dealer to the stars, was also moonlighting as a police informer. Since her busts in the past over narcotics, Cathy Smith had curiously avoided any prison time. She was out on parole but left alone to deal her business trade of drugs. The LAPD knew this. They also knew she had connections deep in the film industry. And, with a scandal involving police officers and young girls about to be opened up for the public, the image-conscious LAPD needed something to offset the negative publicity coming its way. You know, something involving glamorous people.......When John Belushi walked into April Milstead's home late in the evening on March 1, he took the fatal first steps to his eventual doom. He actually had met Cathy Smith a few times in the past. Once on the set of ''SNL'' when Cathy was supplying members of the group, The Band. And, a few years after that on the set of ''1941'', the comedy that Belushi made with Steven Spielberg. Cocaine was all over the set of that movie and Smith and most of the drug dealers in town vied for the honor of coking out most of the people involved in making that film [with the notable exception of Spielberg, who do not use drugs]. So, when Smith and Belushi met again that March night, there was a brief reunion. But, mostly, John wanted to be hit up. He wanted a ''speedball', the combination of cocaine and heroin. Cocaine, the upper, mixed with heroin, the downer, could cause a tremendous high for its user. It also was highly dangerous because it is playing body games with the heart and blood pressure. Those in attendance that night: Milstead, her boyfriend, Charlie, a friend of John's, Leslie Marks, and John himself all watched as Cathy Smith heated the coke and heroin together in a spoon. Then, a cotton swab was used to weed out the impurities that may have tainted the drugs. The cotton soaked up the contents in the spoon, and, then, a small syringe was stuck into the cotton, releasing the contents into the syringe. All of those present were watching with fascination. Cathy gave herself the first shot to test it. Then, she gave one to John. His reaction was instant joy. As the night went on, Cathy Smith shot up everyone at the party, including John several times....... For the next few days, John Belushi and Cathy Smith were inseparable. John was bouncing back and forth between the sober world and the drug world. By days, he was meeting with agents and studio executives, trying to get his wine movie going. By night, he was haunting the famous Sunset Strip, frequently clubs and partying too hard. Cathy Smith had become his constant companion, not so much because he liked her company but because he was becoming more and more dependent on her ''speedball'' shots. John was ashamed to be seen with his real friends while doing these drugs. That was why he was with people like Smith and April Milstead and Leslie Marks. They were the enablers and John was the enabled. Unfortunately for John, two vital happenings were going on around him. His body was slowing down. And, Cathy Smith was in back channel contact with the police. The reason was the LAPD, using Cathy Smith, was setting John Belushi up for a big bust. And, knowing that Belushi also had famous friends who also were in the drug scene, the police were hoping for a big score......... On Wednesday, March 3rd, John Belushi lost touch with his drug friends. He literally disappeared from everyone, family, friends, agents. Part of the time, it was later revealed, he was crashing at the home of Leslie Marks, one of his cocaine friends. But, for much of the time, he was MIA. A cab driver, Billy Kopecky, met John in the middle of the night at a diner. Kopecky reported that John seemed very down and depressed. He was mad at Paramount and he was unhappy with what he was doing in L.A. with drugs. John said that he missed his wife very much and wanted to go home to her. He needed to reorganize his priorities and make changes to get away from drugs. This was the Good John, the clean, kindhearted man that all who knew him said he really was. This was the John filled with good intentions and caring. But, as all addicts seem to be, there was a Bad John there also. This was the reckless, free-wheeling, damn-the-risks person. This behavior, ironically, is what made him such a star----complete uncontrolled behavior and actions. Bad John took Kopecky out to John's car and they shared some cocaine. As they did the drugs, Kopecky would spy a LAPD police car hovering nearby with the lights off. But, according to Kopecky, there was no doubt the two police officers in the vehicle were watching the Belushi car. John noticed them, too. He attempted to back up and pull away but he was having trouble doing this [John Belushi was a notoriously bad driver, even in sober moments]. After several attempts, John turned to Kopecky and gave him a goofy smile. Kopecky decided to leave the car and bid John a goodnight. After John Belushi pulled away, the police vehicle turned on its lights and followed him.........