Discovers Demerol — the signature Substance

pivotal · age 23, ~B.S./early Subsidized

• When: his twenty-third summer "Out There," not long after Nucci's funeral
• What: Intra-ocular itching finally forced Gately off Percocets; someone in Salem handed him two tiny 50-mg Demerol tablets ("Pebbles"/"Bam-Bams"), and from a somnolent afternoon in the JFK Library lot he became "a faithful attendant at the goddess Demerol's temple, right to the very finish."