John Belushi died of a fatal drug overdose at Los Angeles’ famed Chateau Marmont in March 1982, but it wasn’t until September 1986 that anyone was held responsible for his death. And it was all thanks to The National ENQUIRER and its dogged investigation of Cathy Smith, a then drug dealer known in L.A. as “Cathy Silverbag” because she carried the dope in her metallic purse.
Smith hightailed it to Canada after the 33-year-old comedian’s death, but it was The ENQUIRER who caught up with her and landed the interview that led to her prison sentence for his shocking death. Revisit the interview that Gerald S. Arenberg, the executive director of the National Association of Chiefs of Police in 1986, lauded as “one of the most outstanding jobs of investigative reporting I’ve ever seen!”
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‘I Killed John Belushi’
“I didn’t mean to, but I was responsible for his death.” That’s what Smith admitted to The ENQUIRER in a world exclusive interview published in the June 29, 1982, issue. She also explained of her escape to Canada, “I didn’t feel responsible for John’s death at the time because I didn’t feel anything. I was loaded — really high on heroin. But now, I know it was my fault.”
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‘I Was His Gofer’
“I’d go for heroin and I’d test his drugs to make sure they were safe,” she told The ENQUIRER. “Sometimes they’re cut with things that can kill you.”
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Dark Behavior
Smith said she used to travel with Belushi: “Sometimes when I was with him in New York, we’d drive to a cemetery and he’d dance around the graves of dead friends. He’d dance around their tombstones and mock them, shouting, ‘I’m still here! You thought I’d be the first to go!’”
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Lending a Hand
The night of his death, “he had bags of cocaine stashed in his pockets and around the room” at the Chateau Marmont, Smith revealed. After he took a shower that evening, “I helped him into the bedroom. He plopped onto the double bed like a beached whale.” She claimed he then started shooting up.
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Famous Friends
“
Robert De Niro and
Robin Williams came bopping in, laughing and shouting, ‘Hi, guys! Where’s the blow?’” she alleged. “John handed his friends a bag of cocaine. They attacked John’s bag, sticking straws in it and sucking the white powder into their noses, looking like Hoover vacuum cleaners.”
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‘He Couldn’t Even Hold the Needle’
After De Niro and Williams left, Smith claimed the comedian continued to do drugs and couldn’t even hold the syringe. “He sat there on the bed trying to find a vein in his arm, and the stuff was squirting out of the needle all over the place. I said, ‘Here, let me help.’ And I did.”
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‘Florence Night and Day’
“At 3:30 a.m., I shot up John for the last time. He got his coup de grace — which is what he wanted,” she alleged to The ENQUIRER, also mentioning that he called her “Florence Night and Day” because she was like “Florence Nightingale with a hypodermic syringe.” “He had a death wish.”
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Speedballing
“He knew he was blowing himself apart,” she claimed of the comedian, who she alleged had injected drugs about 24 times in the last 30 hours. “The cocaine put fuel in his rocket until he passed the moon — and when he couldn’t get any higher, he added heroin for an extra blast. That’s called speedballing.”
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Dead
Smith left the Chateau around 10 a.m. and returned at 1:45 p.m. and learned that the Blues Brother actor had been found dead at 12:45. “I didn’t feel responsible for John’s death at the time because I didn’t feel anything. I was loaded — really high on heroin. But now, I know it was my fault.”
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No Contest
Smith, then 39, pleaded no contest on June 11, 1986, to involuntary manslaughter and three counts of administering controlled substances. The
judge sentenced her to three years. While noting the comedian’s drug use “led to his own death,” the magistrate also added, “Every time you stuck a needle in someone’s arm, you put their life at risk. And as a result of your actions, John Belushi is dead.” She served 15 months of the sentence.
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She Wasn’t Clean!
Smith admitted in an exclusive 1989 interview with The ENQUIRER that she was using during her trial. “The court case was a really rough period in my life. I was even using heroin during the trial,” she revealed. "There were times I felt I’d rather be dead — but I managed to live through it. I think Belushi would have killed himself anyway. He had all kinds of things wrong with his body due to his drug abuse.”
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Doing Good
“I like giving something back to society,” she said in The ENQUIRER’s exclusive 1989 interview. “Kids are experimenting with hard drugs at a much younger age, and I’m telling them to stop — or better yet, to never start. … They believe me, since I’ve been there. I’m a survivor.”
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Trouble Again
“I’ve had several run-ins with the law, and I was on house arrest for six months a few years ago for possession of heroin with intention to sell,” Smith, then 55, admitted to The ENQUIRER in 2002. “I live basically hand-to-mouth now, and my main source of money these days comes from disability checks. … I used to fly to Bangkok and return with loads of heroin to sell. I was up to a gram a day myself, which is a lot for a heroin addict. I used to shoot up a lot of people because I was good at it.”
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‘Guilt-Ridden’
“Cathy has never gotten over her role in John Belushi’s death,”
a friend later revealed to
The ENQUIRER. “She has remained guilt-ridden and haunted by memories of that dreadful night. It literally ruined her life. The stigma of causing Belushi’s death follows her everywhere.”
‘I Killed John Belushi’
“I didn’t mean to, but I was responsible for his death.” That’s what Smith admitted to The ENQUIRER in a world exclusive interview published in the June 29, 1982, issue. She also explained of her escape to Canada, “I didn’t feel responsible for John’s death at the time because I didn’t feel anything. I was loaded — really high on heroin. But now, I know it was my fault.”
‘I Was His Gofer’
“I’d go for heroin and I’d test his drugs to make sure they were safe,” she told The ENQUIRER. “Sometimes they’re cut with things that can kill you.”
Dark Behavior
Smith said she used to travel with Belushi: “Sometimes when I was with him in New York, we’d drive to a cemetery and he’d dance around the graves of dead friends. He’d dance around their tombstones and mock them, shouting, ‘I’m still here! You thought I’d be the first to go!’”
Lending a Hand
The night of his death, “he had bags of cocaine stashed in his pockets and around the room” at the Chateau Marmont, Smith revealed. After he took a shower that evening, “I helped him into the bedroom. He plopped onto the double bed like a beached whale.” She claimed he then started shooting up.
Famous Friends
“
Robert De Niro and
Robin Williams came bopping in, laughing and shouting, ‘Hi, guys! Where’s the blow?’” she alleged. “John handed his friends a bag of cocaine. They attacked John’s bag, sticking straws in it and sucking the white powder into their noses, looking like Hoover vacuum cleaners.”
‘He Couldn’t Even Hold the Needle’
After De Niro and Williams left, Smith claimed the comedian continued to do drugs and couldn’t even hold the syringe. “He sat there on the bed trying to find a vein in his arm, and the stuff was squirting out of the needle all over the place. I said, ‘Here, let me help.’ And I did.”
‘Florence Night and Day’
“At 3:30 a.m., I shot up John for the last time. He got his coup de grace — which is what he wanted,” she alleged to The ENQUIRER, also mentioning that he called her “Florence Night and Day” because she was like “Florence Nightingale with a hypodermic syringe.” “He had a death wish.”
Speedballing
“He knew he was blowing himself apart,” she claimed of the comedian, who she alleged had injected drugs about 24 times in the last 30 hours. “The cocaine put fuel in his rocket until he passed the moon — and when he couldn’t get any higher, he added heroin for an extra blast. That’s called speedballing.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
Dead
Smith left the Chateau around 10 a.m. and returned at 1:45 p.m. and learned that the Blues Brother actor had been found dead at 12:45. “I didn’t feel responsible for John’s death at the time because I didn’t feel anything. I was loaded — really high on heroin. But now, I know it was my fault.”
No Contest
Smith, then 39, pleaded no contest on June 11, 1986, to involuntary manslaughter and three counts of administering controlled substances. The
judge sentenced her to three years. While noting the comedian’s drug use “led to his own death,” the magistrate also added, “Every time you stuck a needle in someone’s arm, you put their life at risk. And as a result of your actions, John Belushi is dead.” She served 15 months of the sentence.
She Wasn’t Clean!
Smith admitted in an exclusive 1989 interview with The ENQUIRER that she was using during her trial. “The court case was a really rough period in my life. I was even using heroin during the trial,” she revealed. "There were times I felt I’d rather be dead — but I managed to live through it. I think Belushi would have killed himself anyway. He had all kinds of things wrong with his body due to his drug abuse.”
Doing Good
“I like giving something back to society,” she said in The ENQUIRER’s exclusive 1989 interview. “Kids are experimenting with hard drugs at a much younger age, and I’m telling them to stop — or better yet, to never start. … They believe me, since I’ve been there. I’m a survivor.”
Trouble Again
“I’ve had several run-ins with the law, and I was on house arrest for six months a few years ago for possession of heroin with intention to sell,” Smith, then 55, admitted to The ENQUIRER in 2002. “I live basically hand-to-mouth now, and my main source of money these days comes from disability checks. … I used to fly to Bangkok and return with loads of heroin to sell. I was up to a gram a day myself, which is a lot for a heroin addict. I used to shoot up a lot of people because I was good at it.”
‘Guilt-Ridden’
“Cathy has never gotten over her role in John Belushi’s death,”
a friend later revealed to
The ENQUIRER. “She has remained guilt-ridden and haunted by memories of that dreadful night. It literally ruined her life. The stigma of causing Belushi’s death follows her everywhere.”
