The charge: second degree
One year ago this month on Sunset Boulevard, after a sleepless drug-and-liquor binge, John Belushi was injected with a "speedball," a potent mixture of heroin and cocaine. Early that afternoon the wasted comedian was dead in his hotel bed, and a Hollywood hanger-on named Cathy Smith was in Los Angeles police custody. But Smith, who had been with Belushi all night, was not charged with any crime. Two months later, the tabloid National Enquirer reportedly paid her $15,000 for an interview. The paper quoted her (inaccurately, she claims) as saying that she had given Belushi the fatal...