MyDeathSpace.com

http://mydeathspace.com/article/2007/12/28/Dean_Johnson_(45)_died_from_acute_intoxication_and_his_corpse_sat_unidentified_in_a_morgue_for_days

It sounded like Dean had a crazy life. Crazy and interesting.  :-o

Check out various diary entries:

1983 -
1989 -

1991 -
1997 -
2001 -

I can't imagine how this guy wasn't a local celebrity.  To go unidentified  :huh2:  I'd have thought he'd have stuck out like a sore thumb.

All that and wealthy Saudi sex fiends?

Don't be jealous.

This sentence in the article struck me as odd, but maybe that's just me: " He either was or wasn't found with another dead man"  :huh2:

I think it was supposed to strike you as odd.  :nod:

 :nod: :nod:

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading the comments on the various articles.  'Specially the stuff regarding the "weird Saudi sex parties".  People say some funny stuff.

RIP Dean 

:-) I know, but I doubt myself sometimes cause english is not my native language, and that there might be a double meaning to a sentence that I'm not getting, so I wasn't sure if it really was odd  :-P

Very strange situation....

There was another man (Jeremy Conklin, 26) who was found DOA in the Saudi guy's (Steven Saleh) apartment just four days prior to Dean's passing ~ and the Saudi guy is innocent of any wrongdoing.  Something doesn't add up....

http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=14722

    
http://www.myspace.com/jeremy24nyc

Different article, same publication:

http://www.washblade.com/2007/12-7/news/localnews/11682.cfm

snippets of the article, Friday, December 07, 2007:

She said the Medical Examiner’s report for Johnson lists the cause of death as “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of Amitriptyline, Clonazepam, Oxycondone, Ramelteon and Tramadol.” Similar to Conklin’s case, the report lists the manner of Johnson’s death as “undetermined.”

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Friends said at the time of Conklin and Johnson’s deaths that they were stunned that two men, who appeared healthy at the time of their departure from New York, could turn up dead in the same apartment and in the same week due to unknown causes.

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Johnson’s friends have said Johnson told them Saleh is a former federal government employee who sought disability status for what he claimed was a work-related injury. One friend said Johnson described Saleh’s apartment as a “mini pharmacy” because Saleh was taking a large number of prescription drugs to manage pain.

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The police affidavit says Saleh told police that Conklin was staying with him in his apartment and that he met him by responding to an online ad seeking a roommate that Conklin had placed on Craig’s List.

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Johnson’s and Conklin’s friends said they were troubled over Saleh’s description of himself as a “gimp black widow,” as reported in the police affidavit. Corvino said Johnson’s friends learned through an e-mail exchange between Johnson and Saleh shortly before Johnson’s death that Saleh referred to himself as a “gimp” because of his physical injuries and pain.

The affidavit made no mention about whether investigators placed any significance in Saleh’s description of himself as a “black widow,” which is a male-killing, poisonous spider.

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Very fishy indeed. 

Great find, Boogins.
The plot thickens, indeed.

here's the saudis  myspace http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=136412475 he hasnt signed in recently though

Here is an interesting comment on a blog about this story:

"These are the common brand names of the 5 substances indicated in Dean's report: Elevil (antidepressant), Klonopin (antianxiety), Oxycontin (pain), Rozerem (sleeping pill) and Ultram (pain).

It's believed that Dean was prescribed the Elevil, Klonopin and Ultram. Saleh admitted to giving Dean the Rozerem. The question arises about the Oxycontin, a very powerful opiate

It's believed that Oxycontin was prescribed to Saleh for his chronic pain condition. The fact that both Conklin and Dean had oxycontin in their systems makes this suspicious."

I bet this isn't the first time Saleh has had this happen, it is a shame they closed the case-it probably won't be the last either.

james st. james the II?

I have never in my life seen so many *implied* penis'!!!  You never actually see the real deal, but its right at that line of almost!

wow... I wonder who was the one who finally said oh... Dean is missing....  lets go see if he is dead!

Interesting my ass. Sounds like he was a waste of life. I'll offend someone, but oh well. Anyone who can go that long and NOT think, "Gee, I've spent my whole life in a drug-fueled haze having sex with random strangers, maybe I should get some help" is a waste of air.

Good Riddance, Dean

I've taken Klonopin and Ultram at different points and I never found either of them to be exciting.  No weird feelings, no highs.  Ultram actually just did its job.  What a weird cocktail of prescriptions. 

I guess no one recognized him until they rolled him over.

Zing!   :notworthy:

Maybe the chick from his dad's church came to ID him and said, "Could you spread the butthole out a tad more? Yeah, ok, perfect. That's our man!"

Is it just me?  I found this guy to be extremely creepy...... :-o

It's totally just you. He seems so normal and down to earth.  :lol:

 :lol:   I deserved that........... ;)

In a way he does, quite seriously! And really intelligent and a good writer as well.

I did think his writing was interesting and engaging. In my world arranging sex parties for rich Saudis is weird, but I guess this cheese stands alone. I take that back, EW and I are in solidarity.

Nah, in fact, it seems like he would have been a great babysitter...

Yeah, maybe for Satan perhaps....... :lol:

I find that Jag on his top friends is extremely hot... which makes me sad because knowing he wasting all that hotness on another man. :)

There's quite a few smokin guys on his friends list.  :x

This guy is the sort who gives homosexual people a bad name. He's the one the haters remember. I guess he had a lot of fun, but I wonder how many people he helped to get AIDS with his parties.

Probably far less percentage wise than say a village in Uganda.   :roll:

I missed where there was a reference to him but he's one of the original Club Kids.  I don't know if you've heard of them or not.  There's a movie called Party Monster with Macauly Caulkin.  I think Seth Green played James St James.  I've seen interviews with the guy.  He's pretty wild.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0807,sudarsky,79123,2.html

Dean Johnson’s E-Mails Shed New Light on His Strange Death
New York nightlife icon was the second person to die in the same D.C. apartment in four days
February 5th, 2008 12:00 AM
Since his death last September, friends and relatives of Dean Johnson have tried to make sense of the strange details surrounding the demise of the six-foot-six, 46-year-old icon of New York gay nightlife.

On September 20, Washington, D.C., police took Johnson’s body from the apartment of Steven S. Saleh, a disabled former employee of the Commerce Department. Because of a police error, Johnson’s body then lay unclaimed for more than a week in a local morgue. Strangely, Johnson wasn’t the only tall gay New Yorker to die in the apartment that week. On September 16, four days earlier, the police had removed another body—that of six-foot-four, 26-year-old Jeremy Conklin—from Saleh’s one-bedroom in the upscale Envoy Towers.

Both deaths appeared to be the result of drug overdoses, and toxicology reports later confirmed it—both men died with large amounts of oxycodone (a powerful painkiller sold as OxyContin) in their bloodstreams. Police have indicated that they didn’t consider either case to be the result of foul play after talking with Saleh.

Johnson wasn’t only a nightlife legend who had started the weekly party Rock and Roll beaver Bar in the late ’80s and led the band, the Velvet Mafia; friends also knew he was proud that he could make a living as a prostitute well into his forties. As Radar reported last month, Saleh was a john willing to turn over about $1,500 for a night of rough sex with Johnson, even though he spent some of his time in a wheelchair because of intense pain associated with fibromyalgia. Conklin, meanwhile, was a young Arizona kid who had been visiting Saleh, and who wound up dead on his living-room floor. Radar’s account of what happened next had a somewhat romantic flair: Rather than abandon his john, Johnson jumped on a train to console his friend. “Most prostitutes would have immediately cut off contact. But Johnson, who was known to have a heart as big as his legendary member, frequently ignored the golden rule of hustling: never get attached,” Radar reported.

Perhaps. But the Voice has obtained Johnson’s e-mails to Saleh, which lay out in more detail what the three men had in mind for their weekend in D.C. before two of them turned up dead.

Johnson’s e-mails reveal that Saleh was a particularly needy john, sending him multiple messages a day. On one evening in August, after Saleh had sent several attention-seeking missives, Johnson sent back a curt reply: “I’m going back to bed, so don’t freak when I don’t answer ur emails.” Two days later, after several messages about problems with his pain, Saleh got another short reply: “I’m getting ready for my next client. I can’t answer any more emails today.”

Saleh wanted badly for Johnson to visit him, but money was an issue. On September 13, he acknowledged that Johnson would rather fly, but asked if he could purchase a train ticket for him instead. Johnson apologized for being “bitchy” in their exchange about the plans, but explained, “[No] one who isn’t freakishly tall can know how discomforting it is not to fit in a world that is too small so i get really sensitive about this particular issue.” Saleh assured him that he’d checked to see that the train seats were large enough for him.

This exchange settling the issue of Johnson’s train tickets occurred two days before Conklin first arrived on the scene, taking a cheap Chinatown ride to D.C. to meet Saleh. Conklin, ebullient and muscular, was interested in Saleh’s offer of free room and board for someone who would help take care of him, according to John Allen, a Massachusetts man who was Conklin’s boyfriend.

Allen and Conklin had been together over the summer, but the young Arizonan—estranged from his Mormon family—wanted to try a new life in D.C. Saleh’s offer, for about a month of boarding, seemed like a good way to make the transition, and Conklin wanted to make an initial trip to check things out. On the night of the 15th, at 10:30 p.m., Allen says Conklin called to tell him that he had made it to Saleh’s apartment. “He said he was doing fine. He couldn’t wait to see me after the weekend.”

Meanwhile, Johnson started getting e-mails from Saleh about his visitor. Saleh, sounding like he was apprehensive about Johnson’s reaction, at first claimed that Conklin wouldn’t be around when Johnson arrived, and emphasized that he wouldn’t be having sex with him. But Saleh later e-mailed a photograph of Conklin’s penis and suggested that the young man join in their activities. “Maybe he’ll learn something,” Johnson responded. But later, Saleh sent several more messages saying that Conklin had been drinking his Bacardi rum. Saleh says that it didn’t surprise him after looking at Conklin’s MySpace page. He concluded that Conklin was recovering from some kind of abuse in his background by turning to drink. He told Johnson that he was trying to get Conklin to relax.

The next day, September 16, Allen called Conklin’s phone from Massachusetts, and a D.C. police officer answered. Two attempts later, he was told by Saleh that Conklin was dead. Allen says he called back again demanding an explanation, and he says Saleh claimed that Conklin had been upset and that Saleh had comforted him. “Then he became dismissive,” Allen notes, “and he asked me, ‘What else can I do for you?’ ” Further calls to Jeremy’s phone went to voicemail.

Saleh told police that Conklin “must have taken some pills.”

According to the D.C. medical examiner’s office, a toxicology test showed that Conklin’s death was caused by “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of oxycodone and alcohol.”

The afternoon of the 16th, Saleh e-mailed Johnson: “Jeremy is dead please call me.”

Johnson replied: “Is this a joke?”

Late that night—and three days before he made his own trip to Saleh’s apartment—Johnson sent Saleh a consoling message that was less sympathetic than starkly philosophical: “I would be freaking out, too. But there’s no reason he would be mad at you. Whether his death was accidental or deliberate, he would understand that it was his choices that led to his demise, and he would forgive himself and move on. That’s what happens when we die. It’ll be okay.”

On September 20, police retrieved Johnson’s body from the same apartment. His seven-page autopsy report cites as the cause of death “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of amitriptyline, clonazepam, oxycodone, ramelteon and tramadol.” The manner of death was left “undetermined.”

Johnson was taking prescription drugs for depression, anxiety, and back pain, but William Closson, a forensic toxicologist who reviewed the autopsy report, tells the Voice that the oxycodone, at 1.1 milligrams per liter of blood, was more prevalent than the other substances.

“The oxycodone level found in this case is a significant finding, especially in the presence of the other drugs, and may have resulted in this individual’s death,” Closson says. Ramelteon, another of the drugs found, is a sleeping medication sold under the name Rozerem. In a statement to police, Saleh acknowledged providing the Rozerem to Johnson. In an affidavit, police report that he also expressed his concern over being perceived as a “gimp black widow” after the two deaths.

Johnson’s autopsy report notes bruises to the buttocks area, including “three linear superficial abrasions,” as well as two superficial lacerations/incisions to the head area, a few centimeters in length. But with so much oxycodone in his system, it’s doubtful that Johnson would have been capable of rough sex (or any sex at all).

Saleh’s lawyer has advised his client not to talk to the press. Some of Johnson’s family and friends, meanwhile, have resisted romantic versions of what happened, and are frustrated that D.C. officials don’t seem more interested in questioning Saleh now that it’s clear both men died of high doses of oxycodone—a drug that is often prescribed for fibromyalgia.

Allen is among those who are angry that Saleh is no longer being questioned. “Isn’t it a little ridiculous that two people died the same way in the same place within four days?” he says.
 

Ah,  I remember seeing him on America's Next Top Model...funny to watch those girls try to imitate his flaming ways.
Absolutely sad. Such a obvious issue, and yet the investigation ends....someone has a lot more influence than a drag queen/prostitute.

Anyone else notice that the dates don't match up?  He lists himself as 28 and from the class of 1999.  There is a post on his site from a girl of the class of '99.  Yet those journal entries listed earlier start in '83?  Gay porn at two?