Gene Krupa

[Johnny]

Eugene 'Gene' Krupa (1909 - 1973) was a Jazz musician and band leader.

January 1943 - The New York Times - GENE KRUPA IS ARRESTED - He Denies He Sent Boy to Get Marihuana Cigarettes

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20 (UP) -- Gene Krupa, swing*band leader, pleaded innocent today to a charge that he contributed to the delinquency of a minor by sending a 17*year*old boy to his hotel room for marihuana cigarettes. Judge Thomas J. Foley continued the case to Jan. 26 on a motion by defense attorney, J.W. Ehrlich. Mr. Krupa was arrested last night by Federal narcotics agents after appearing at a local theatre. In continuing the case, Judge Foley made public a statement which the youth, John Pateakos, of Bedford, Mass., made to the narcotics agents. The District Attorney's office said that Federal agents arrested Pateakos and found marihuana cigarettes in his possession. Pateakos told the arresting officers, the District Attorney's office said, that he had been sent to the hotel room to get the cigaretes and that he was to take them to the band leader at the theatre. At the city prison, where he was booked and released, the band leader made a general denial of the charges "as I understand them."

Here is Gene's own recounting of his drug arrest. The arrest occured when Gene's valet, who had been drafted, gave him marijuana cigarettes as a "going away present."

"By then I was the glamour boy-15 camel hair coats, three trunks around me all the time-and he couldn't think what to get me. Finally he thought, 'Gee I'll get Gene some grass.' At that time California was hot as a pistol, you could park your car for a bottle of beer and get arrested. So he had a rough time getting the stuff. He probably shot his mouth off a little-'I'm getting this for the greatest guy in the world, Gene Krupa.' Gene decided to leave the marijuana at his hotel. The police, being tipped off, began searching the theater where Gene's band was currently playing. "I suddenly remembered the stuff's at the hotel where they're going next. So I call up my new valet and say, 'Send my laundry out. In one of my coats you'll find some cigarettes. Throw them down the toilet.' But the kid puts them in his pocket and the police nail him on the way out, so I get arrested." "The ridiculous thing was that I was such a boozer I never thought about grass. I'd take grass, and it would put me to sleep. I was an out-and-out lush. Oh, sure, I was mad. But how long can you stay mad? So long you break out in rashes? Besides, the shock of the whole thing probably helped me. I might have gone to much worse things. It brought me back to religion."