Heroin’s New Hometown
Barry and Candace Crupi’s son Johnathan died of a heroin overdose at their home on Staten Island. He was 21. The obituaries have a certain sameness to them: full of praise and regret for lives cut short, marked by telltale details and omissions. The deaths occurred at home, or at a friend’s house elsewhere on Staten Island. The mourned were often young and white, and although how they died was never mentioned, nearly everyone knew or suspected the cause.