Johnny Santa Cruz and I met around 1959 at a movie theater in Fort Worth, Texas.
The purpose of that meeting was to create a Fanclub for horror movie director William Castle. A week or so later, Johnny stopped me as I was walking home from elementary school.
"Hey--I think I know you. Weren't you at the William Castle Fanclub thing?"
And in that encounter, my entire life was fated to change forever.
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I soon discovered, Johnny Santa Cruz was a Jehovah's Witness and the continuity of our friendship, I would also discover, hinged upon his converting me.
This process took him about 4 years before I was baptized.
Because of my direct connection to Johnny and his family, I went to Federal prison as a conscientious objector and afterward married his sister.
My 1st three children are his sister's children.
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Johnny and I were best friends. He was my FIRST friend of any consequence.
His influence was boundless. He was larger than life in many ways.
He was six feet three inches tall and ponderous! He had one eye, red hair, freckles and large flat feet.
The laugh of his could fill a stadium. We kept each other laughing a lot in those early years. His personality was irrepressible. By imitating his aggressive nature, I learned to emerge from my super-shy backwardness socially. I thank him for that.
But, he also broke my heart eventually. Maybe we broke each others' hearts.
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I did not remain Jehovah's Witness. His sister and I divorced and she died in a car wreck. We stayed in touch in violation of JW shunning policies.
When I moved back to Ft.Worth from California and he moved back from Corpus Christi, the first thing he did was contact me and invite me (although I was disfellowshipped) to a family reunion.
Later, he would sneak off and visit me at least once each week at my place of employment and we'd sit and talk for hours. . . usually arguing over JW's being False Prophets.
He admitted many (if not all) of the Watchtower failures, but shrugged them off. He admitted "most of the Elders are idiots" but shrugged that off too.
"I know how to play the game." He once told me, and he meant he saw through the pretentious rules and set his own course carefully within bounds.
One of his DF'd kids discovered he had been visiting be regularly. His son saw my postings and figured out the "Johnny" I was talking about was his dad.
When he confronted his father, Johnny lied and said that I was just a lying Apostate trying to get him in trouble!
He never admitted otherwise, but many people knew about it and did not report him. He had a golden bubble of protection around him. He was the male in the Santa Cruz family and was the little Prince. The daughters didn't seem to count for as much. I think most of them would tell you that.
After Johnny was 'outed' and he cut me dead, I never heard from him again. When I wrote my book, I Wept by the Rivers of Babylon, much of that book was devoted to Johnny. As far as I know, he never read it.
I have asked to be invited to the funeral. I'm sure they'll tell me to go pound sand--but that would not be right and they know it.
I'm shocked at his death--but, not surprised.
His health was lousy. He weighed over 300 pounds and was the sort of person who sneaked the wrong foods behind his wife's back.
He sneaked around a lot as a JW and saw movies that would shock the Elders if they knew. He went his own way.
I am still processing this.
He is, as I said, a large part of my life story. It hurts to know we never got to have one last conversation.
It hurts he put out that I had lied about he and I meeting all the time.
I do understand, but I hate that I have to understand.
This will take a long time to truly get over.
I loved you, Johnny. I really really loved you.
Goodbye