Randy Wicker Interviews St. Philomena
“A Nightmare in Nirvana”

March 5, 1966 on WBAI

introduction by randy wicker

"Saint Philomena" was one of the East Village poets during the late 1960s. My first interview with this young man was entitled “Big Head: Obituary for a Junkie”.  In that interview he argued that “drugs” weren’t the problem, it was “laws against drug use” that were the problem.

He was stunningly articulate.  In fact, a hardcover book entitled “The Best of Pacifica” included his interview in it.  

Pacifica was a network of four subscriber-supported radio stations one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, one in Houston and one in New York City, WBAI-FM. 

I vividly remember his description of shooting heroin: “This warmth sweeps over you.  All your troubles fade away.  You are in paradise.” That description strengthened my resistance to injecting anything into my body.  I knew doing so would risk my losing my life to simply chasing my next fix.

In that interview, Big Head explained that drug addicts rob their family and friends first because they won’t put you in jail.  Next you rob “friends of friends”, people whose apartment you visit with someone else and are able to “scope out”.  Friends of friends were also less likely to call the cops if they arrive home as you are carrying their TV out the front door. Never forgot that information either.  Druggies are best avoided at all costs.

At some point, I discovered that “Big Head” had deeper reasons for addiction.  I interviewed him in an abandoned loft somewhere in East Village.  He had a young woman in her early twenties with whom he lived and had a relationship with.  She left as I commenced the interview and was the artist that drew the artwork I’ve shared here. 

For the second interview, this young poet chose to use the name “Saint Philomena” because she was a Saint who had been stricken from Sainthood.  It was an apt metaphor for someone racked by guilt over behavior he comprehensibly understood was wrong — having sex with extremely young girls.

He loved being able “to gas a 12-year-old with a can of Coca Cola”…then succumb to the pleasure in being able to “mold this emerging beauty”. Ultimately, he says provocatively that he’d rather climb onto a sled with a 12-year-old as he rode down the hillside of life. Saint Philomena nodded off after injecting himself with heroin at one point during the interview---a very frightening experience for me since I didn't generally travel in heavy druggie circles.  

The program got a review in The New York Herald Tribune which I can’t find at this moment. It was a mixed review describing Saint Philomena as someone wallowing in self pity.

The night the complete two-hour interview was broadcast on WBAI-FM, it was followed by a two-hour discussion by some psychiatrists & myself.

During the panel discussion, I expressed outrage that addicts were dying all over the city because of the criminalization of drugs.  One of the psychiatrists admonished me by saying: "Your zeal is showing.” For once I was speechless since I'd never heard the word "zeal” before.

Since he was in the Korean War, he must have been several years older than I, who was born in 1938.  Big Head and Saint Philomena was known to others by “Al” which was based on a shortened version of his real name. I once somehow ran into one of his uncles, who expressed the opinion that “Al talked too much in that interview”.  

My last contact with him was in the mid 1970s and I assume he is deceased by now. I opened an Antique Art Deco Lighting shop in West Village in 1974. A couple years later, the phone rang and it was “Saint Philomena”.  

“Would you be interested in buying some really nice items at a very good price”? he asked.  

"No." I responded, since I wasn't interested in stolen merchandise.   

"I thought that is what you would say."  Saint Philomena replied.  That was in 1975 or 1976. 

 I've never heard from him since.

Randolfe (Randy) Wicker

9/25/2020

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