Cleaning House

I once heard a guy interviewed on the radio about his lucrative business of cleaning up crime scenes. He said that the most disturbing thing about his job was the realization of how filthy and alone so many people live, and die. He said that the bulk of his work was cleaning up apartments after a tenant had literally disintegrated on the couch, only to be discovered after the smell became overwhelming for the neighbors.

We criminal defense investigators get to meet the folks he speaks of before they actually disintegrate. But it's no less disturbing. We come into their private spaces unannounced to interview them about a crime they have witnessed or been a part of somehow. We are often greeted with filth and clutter, or conversely with an eerily spare space, despite their having lived there on the margins of society for many years. Once you talk to these folks, you realize they're a person just like you and me. But for one reason or many, they have found themselves on the edge of society. It breaks your heart, and you never forget them, because you know that everyone else has.

A couple of years ago, I was looking for a witness, but got to his room at a residential hotel just as they were cleaning it out. The manager of the place was a young hipster type who was trying to restore the hotel to it's former glory. The manager insisted on bringing me up to the room to show me how much stuff my witness had accumulated by the time of his death. The manager kept boasting to me, "And we've already taken away four dumpsters of the stuff." The manager seemed so proud and excited about it. Frankly, the room didn't look as if they'd even started to clean it out, as there were newspapers, knick knacks and lord knows what else, scattered everywhere. The manager told me my witness had once had a successful acting career, having played the "Fix It Man" on Sanford and Son TV show.

There was a nice guitar slated for the trash bin, so I asked if I could have it. It's made a great beginning instrument for my son. I looked on the internet when I got home, but could not find any information on a "Fix It Man" character on Sanford and Son. I did find a character of that name on the Andy Griffith show, but that actor died in 1973. Seems my witness' greatest public accomplishment has disintegrated as well.