Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Henry Earl
Henry Earl. Who is he? Does his name sound familiar? Could you possible know someone by that name? Chances are you probably don’t. But, if by some chance you do, it’s likely not the same Henry Earl that we’re focusing on…unless of course you happen to know the most famous drunk man from the city of Lexington, Kentucky.
Henry Earl’s fame or perhaps infamy stems from his staggering arrest record. While many sources show discrepancies on the exact number of times this man has been arrested, nearly all of the recent sources document his arrests as totaling over 1,000. But Henry Earl’s name has spread outside of the Lexington bar scene in recent years thanks to a YouTube video displaying his many mug shots throughout the years. This video has led to increasing popularity of his nickname “James Brown” as well. And with one look at any of his photos and it’s easy to see why this local legend is compared to the musical legend.
While it’s doubtful that Henry Earl has the same musical talent as James Brown, he does seem to have a talent for drawing attention to himself wherever he goes. There are numerous websites devoted to Henry Earl and his impressive number of arrests. After his arrests hit the 1,000 mark he appeared on the late night television program ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live.’ So, ladies and gents, prepare to learn more about this local legend of Lexington.
Henry Earl first started his locked up lifestyle in the 1970’s, 1970 to be exact, when at the age of 20 he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. The majority of the 70’s was a lull for Henry, at least by his own standard because during the entire decade he only managed to be arrested by police a total of 34 times. This is slightly less than 3 ½ times a year.
During the 1980’s while songs like Call Me by Blondie and Another Brick In the Wall by Pink Floyd were burning up the Top Billboard Charts, Henry found him self burning up the ink end of a printer as he added an impressive 230 arrests over the decade. This averages out to 23 arrests a year for a whopping 20x increase over his 1970’s record. This single feat by Henry outpaced the increase of growth in the U.S. Stock Market for the same period.
Despite the prolific record Henry built in the 70’s and 80’s he continued to manage to fly under the radar well into the 90’s where he only built upon his record at an even more astonishing rate. The bulk of the reasons for his arrest had changed very little while he maintained his drunkard habits and continued to be arrested for all reasons involving alcohol. Reasons range from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest and even terroristic threatening, however, Henry has never committed a violent crime.
Moving into the 21st century Henry didn’t let up his old habits. This was actually the most exciting point in Henry’s tenure as a public drunk artist. Due to the increasing popularity of the Internet and more purposeful and efficiently built search engines, fans of Henry could discover more about him. Being so, at this time a resourceful person thought it would be funny to create an entire video/slide show of all of Henry’s mug shots. Instant fame and notoriety was granted to Henry and in 2008 he was said to have gained his 1000th arrest.
Of course this statement of achievement didn’t last long and after careful calculations, many expressed that Henry was well beyond 1000 and that he had previously passed that milestone in 2002. At this time in 2008 after careful calculation it was noted that Henry had actually been arrested 1333 times.
In 2009, Henry tried to sober up, and after spending 5 months in an alcohol rehabilitation program at the Hope Center; Henry was once again busted for alcohol intoxication. He stated that it was the longest time he had went without drinking and was disappointed that he wouldn’t receive his certificate for the program, which he was a month away from graduating. (Hopkins)
While interviewing several people, from local bartenders, customers, and owners I found a repeating pattern. Almost every person interviewed expressed that the local college kids fed Henry’s addiction. Another topic that seemed to surface was that every bar refused to sell Henry alcohol because he was already in an intoxicated nature.
Kentucky Laws support the business in liability cases where intoxicated persons are involved. If Henry were to be intoxicated and get hurt outside of a bar then the law would support that as long as he was not served in the establishment then Henry would carry the liability due to “actions of intoxicated customers”. While laws like this give the Bar establishments that Henry frequents a great reason to not serve him, he has became an expert at using his fame for acquiring drinks.
When asked if Henry ever begged for money one bartender stated “I’ve never seen Henry ever ask anyone for money. He doesn’t beg for change, that’s not what he wants.” (Heflin). Instead Henry asks for drinks, “He peddles for drinks and the kids (college students) give them theirs.” (Heflin).
Of course the college students don’t announce that they are buying a shot or drink for him and it’s likely that they hand him what ever is left of the drink already in their hands for what one customer said as a “photo op” opportunity. “Henry is always getting pictures with people and for the most part he tolerates it. Even seems to enjoys it.” (Robinson)
Henry uses his notoriety to score alcohol and by the looks of his arrest record it works flawlessly. After all, if the bars aren’t giving him drinks then how is he becoming so intoxicated?
The difficulty of monitoring Henry with the customers is why he’s not usually embraced as a customer by many bars. Every bartender that I spoke with said they always ran him off. Most say he leaves when asked. “He comes around and hangs out front and after a little while we ask him to leave and he leaves with no problem.” Another Bartender stated, “He listens well, for the most part. I can’t say we have ever had a serious issue with him”
While they collectively agree that he doesn’t pose a serious threat, different establishments had different views on how he affected their businesses and customers. When asked if he had a negative impact on the business the bartender at Rosebud responded, “ Not really, he hangs out front with the college kids. Everyone enjoys seeing him.”
Unfortunately, not all bars feel the same way, when the same question was asked at the Chase, the bartender responded, “ He’s always drunk and we can’t serve him. I used to be more tolerant of him but we got into one night. Ever since if he shows up I tell him he has to go.” (Heflin). While also stating, “I’ve personally had him arrested a million times.” (Heflin). While another bartender offered a reasonable reason for not welcoming him, “People who know him are ok with him being around but it’s the out of town people that he freaks out. “ (Bindner). When asked for further details the bartender replied, “ He’s entertaining, you know? At first but if you don’t know of him, you won’t know how to take him and that is what causes problems with the customers.” (Bindner).
I asked everyone I spoke to if Henry had a job to which everyone one replied that there was no way possible. I asked if he was homeless and actually received varying answers.
“Well he’s not homeless, he lives in the jail” one customer said jokingly, while another stated, “No, I definitely don’t think he is homeless.” (Robinson). When asked why, the theory of his clothing and wardrobe was brought up. “He wears nice clothes, and is really clean.” (Robinson) When questioned about the style of clothing the response of “You know, like sports coats and stuff. He has some really nice jackets.” (Robinson), was given.
The clothing remark prompted me to ask more people about his dress which I had originally not thought of doing. So while interviewing I would ask if he was homeless and then bring up his unique style of clothing. Most responses were homeless at first with a customer stating “Yeah he’s homeless, which I’m pretty sure is a crime in itself in Kentucky.” However when I asked about his particular style of clothing it was as if the interviewee would become confused. “You know I never thought about it. He does wear nice clothes so maybe he isn’t homeless. I bet somebody takes care of him.”
I asked a couple bartenders for their favorite story on Henry and one spoke of a time when Henry came in and was asked to leave. Henry didn’t fight being kicked out but made sure to let the bartender know how he felt by saying, “You’re not invited to my funeral.” (Bindner). When no response was offered by the bartender, he continued, “I’m serious” (Bindner), all while giving the bartender a glaring look.
Another story was apparently passed down from a police officer and it involved a call from a suburban neighborhood where there were complaints of a strange man hanging around on someone’s front porch. A description was given and immediately it was assumed to be Henry. Of course this didn’t make sense because he was so far out of town. When the police officer arrived, he found that it was indeed Henry. The police officer asked Henry what he was doing that far out of town, to which Henry replied, “Damn college kids.”
Apparently this once again supports the theme that Henry gets his drinks from the college kids, apparently he had agreed to ride with them to a party and instead of delivering on their promise, they dropped him off in a random neighborhood.
While retelling these stories the bartenders laughed about the events but still insisted there is more bad than good with having Henry as a customer. “He just really needs help.” (Binder), stated one bartender.
From my research and all the stories I’ve heard on Henry I feel that he’s become a victim of today’s young people glamorizing addiction. Alcohol addiction, which is one of the most prevalent addictions today, and even the most if not counting nicotine, is no laughing matter. Nearly 17.6 million people in the United States suffer from alcoholism or have problems with alcohol. An alcoholic can become physically dependent on the substance and can suffer from withdrawal symptoms such as “the shakes”, nausea, and vomiting if not allowed to drink alcohol.
They have overwhelming cravings for alcohol and once the start drinking they can seldom stop. Alcoholics generally have lost their ability of good judgment on when too much is too much and when you couple that with a high tolerance a alcoholic seeks to drink more and more just to maintain the same buzz they are used to.
Studies suggest that Alcoholics are more at risk to becoming physical abusers and are more apt for creating interpersonal violence. (Urell) While this doesn’t seem to fit into Henry’s character from my research, it’s definitely something he’s been exposed to because he’s usually around intoxicated people while being intoxicated. I’ve often wondered if somebody has ever been violent towards him.
Unfortunately I could never get an interview with Henry. He’s currently in jail and will be in jail for a while so there are many questions I never have had a chance to ask him. After calling the detention center in an attempt to set up an interview I was warned that interviewing Henry while he was drunk was pointless and that he may even act agitated.
While Henry battles his alcohol addiction, he keeps a positive outlook on being able to overcome it. He feels it’s something that he can beat and is worried that if he doesn’t beat it, something bad may happen to him on the street. The best for Henry would probably to get help outside of Lexington to get away from his fame and to make it harder for him to gain access to alcohol but as he stated in a news article (Hopkins), he does not want to leave his hometown, the community where he is known.
Anonymous. “Lexington Night”. 2007. Picture. City-Data Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Anonymous. “Rosebud Bar”. 26 August 2010. Picture. Lexington.com. Web. 15 November. 2011
Bartender, Rosebud. Personal Interview. 17 November 2011.
Bindner, Sarah. Personal Interview. 14 November 2011.
Heflin, Chris. Personal Interview. 14 November 2011.
Robinson, Adam. Personal Interview. 17 November 2011.
Urell, Bill. “How Alcohol Abuse Affects Family”. AddictionRecoveryBasics.com. 2005. 15 November 2011 http://addictionrecoverybasics.com/how-alcohol-abuse-affects-family/.
Hopkins, Shawntaye. “Earl Logs Another Drinking Charge”. Kentucky.com. 1 April 2009. 15 November 2011 http://www.kentucky.com/2009/04/01/745755/earl-logs-another-drinking-charge.html.
Anonymous. Lexington Night. 2007. Picture. City-Data Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Anonymous. Rosebud Bar. 26 August 2010. Picture. Lexington.com. Web. 15 November. 2011
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