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00:00:12Hey folks, how are y'all doing?
00:00:14It's so good to be...
00:00:15Uh-oh.
00:00:16Excuse me for a second.
00:00:27Let's move on to some real comedy.
00:00:30Uh, let's talk about me.
00:00:36You know, humor and truth just sort of like mix it up together.
00:00:46Of course, people have always told me I had a band-aid personality and now life is imitating art.
00:01:04Those who aren't from Austin, and hey, all you people from Austin, hey, thank you for everything.
00:01:09You made me who I am.
00:01:25Tell me now as far as, um, Leslie, is that your given name?
00:01:31I'm really not going to go into that right now.
00:01:33Do you want to talk about that?
00:01:34No, the thing is, my, my, uh, when, okay, I'm going to repeat the answer.
00:01:39My first name is, uh, I gave it my first name, uh, now my first name, once I've decided to
00:01:49drop it, is no longer relevant.
00:01:51So, it's, um, a thing of the past.
00:01:54And we're going to, uh, I, you know, you give away all your secrets and people lose interest.
00:01:59So, let, let, let, I want to keep the people interested.
00:02:02So, we're just going to let them be curious.
00:02:31So, let's get started.
00:02:35You know, when I came in 95, Leslie was quite a fixture around the town, and it's almost
00:02:40like he took it almost for granted, he was always there.
00:02:47Did that hurt the other cheek?
00:02:49One of the things that was held up as a symbol of Austin weirdness over and over again was
00:02:55Leslie Cockburn.
00:02:57Leslie was an icon.
00:02:59He didn't have an address, he didn't have a home, you know, so he was homeless by all
00:03:05intents and purposes.
00:03:07I seen this good-looking girl walking away from me, and she had on these lit stocking-type
00:03:14legging things on, and I thought, my God, man, this has got to be a dog.
00:03:19And when I finally got up there, there was this beard, and there was this smiling character,
00:03:24and I thought, good Lord have mercy.
00:03:26Leslie, and he said, hello, I'm Leslie.
00:03:28A lot of people hear about me long before they come here, and have people all over the
00:03:32world come here looking for me.
00:03:34Leslie was case in point for why I moved from Houston to Austin.
00:03:38You know, this is what I was hoping for, this is exactly what I was looking for, I didn't
00:03:42know it.
00:03:44It made me love Austin all the more.
00:03:46People argue with me about what I really am.
00:03:50He certainly did not view himself as transvestite or transgendered or anything like that.
00:03:57He was Leslie, and Austin was his costume.
00:04:02He was a pretty good litmus test for Austin, you know, if someone said, oh, who's that
00:04:09guy, let's get rid of him, then you're not really an Austinite.
00:04:12You know, if you're like, if you're like, oh, that's Leslie.
00:04:14You know, if that's your approach, then you belong to Austin.
00:04:18You get this.
00:04:19So you have your own magnet collection that we can dress you however we want.
00:04:22If they make a homeless motherfucker and drag a celebrity, I know I can go to Austin and
00:04:28be somebody important.
00:04:30The reason why a lot of people are here in Austin, for whatever reason, is like people
00:04:34who grew up feeling like they were bullied or whatever for being different, or people who
00:04:40were rejected from socially, that's why I came to Austin, you know, people, they identify
00:04:48with Leslie, not just being different, but for just going out there and just being out
00:04:54there in front of everybody is going to be different.
00:04:56It's not like we need a lot of Lesleys, but we need, we need one for sure.
00:05:02He's a simple person, but there's a lot of complexity in his life, too.
00:05:06To me, Keith and Austin Weir is Leslie.
00:05:33People ask me why I do what I do and how they are or whatever.
00:05:39And for that, I like to quote Dylan.
00:05:42I say, you know, if I thought about it, I never would have done it.
00:05:48But if I live my life the way other people were thinking, this heart inside me would have
00:05:51died.
00:05:52I guess I'm just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity.
00:05:56If somebody had reached the rising star, I guess it would have to make it.
00:06:14I don't remember when I first saw Leslie.
00:06:19Leslie would come and hang around the salon.
00:06:22He was always trying to get people to cut and color his hair, but he did pop in one day.
00:06:30Most of the stylists, I think, were ignoring him because, of course, he was not a paying customer.
00:06:35And that day I said yes.
00:06:40So, what are you in the mood for today?
00:06:42Well, today what I'd like to do is, oh, come to the, oh, there it is.
00:06:50Let me get rid of the gray.
00:06:54I played around a little bit, you know, with film and images and creating.
00:07:00Working with Leslie, I had no choice but to ask him, could I start shooting you?
00:07:05What did you do last night?
00:07:08Went down 6th Street.
00:07:11Made about 70 bucks.
00:07:12Showing my eyes.
00:07:16He was fun to shoot because visually, he was visually very interesting.
00:07:21He was entertaining, always wanting to entertain.
00:07:24He loved performing for the cameras.
00:07:26He really liked the attention that that brought.
00:07:29I was just capturing what he was being.
00:07:33He was a contradiction.
00:07:34He seemed to be neither male or female.
00:07:37And to walk around with such confidence, you don't see something like that every day.
00:07:44So, how long have you liked to wear skirts?
00:07:47I started wearing skirts just as a thought when I turned 40.
00:07:52I didn't have any instrument at all, so I picked up a woman one night and turned out she was
00:07:58a guy.
00:07:58So, that was your first gay experience?
00:08:00Oh, yes.
00:08:02To losing your virginity.
00:08:06Do you think maybe you're a shaman?
00:08:08That is a common thought about me.
00:08:13I've experienced that people will be talking about you and you will show up.
00:08:17That is being at the right place at the right time.
00:08:22Sort of, I guess if I was Buckaroo Bonzo, I would probably just say I'd fly by the seat in
00:08:29my pants.
00:08:34January 24, 1996 was the first day that I got here.
00:08:38I was on a three-wheel bicycle pulling a six-foot trailer.
00:08:43I decided to do a book on how we treat our homeless.
00:08:47Just drift around and see how the place treats you.
00:08:52So, I decided to do a cross-section trip from Atlanta to Miami to Seattle.
00:08:58And here I am in Austin, Texas.
00:09:05When Leslie showed up, there was a pretty strong homeless presence in downtown Austin.
00:09:11Especially after the savings and loan crisis.
00:09:13By the time 1985 rolled around, many of the financial institutions failed.
00:09:18Many of the development projects fell through.
00:09:20There was a huge commercial vacancy rate downtown.
00:09:23With all those vacancies, the homeless population moved in.
00:09:26And so, as the city starts growing again in the 1990s,
00:09:30there was a big movement to get rid of an unwanted element in the downtown of Austin.
00:09:361996 was when the camping ordinance went into effect.
00:09:40And it is an ordinance that, in the 90s, spread across the country in many, many municipalities.
00:09:46These ordinances were clearly and specifically passed in order to control and to regulate out or to criminalize the homeless
00:09:53community.
00:09:56What is your life like in Austin?
00:09:58I have a dream life in Austin.
00:10:00And I owe it all to the police department.
00:10:02And the police department wasn't so rotten.
00:10:04And if they had tried to run me out of town by falsely arresting me and purging themselves and all
00:10:09that stuff,
00:10:09I wouldn't have stayed here and fought for freedom here in this city.
00:10:13So, what happened that you decided to protest the police?
00:10:18I mean, why?
00:10:18Okay.
00:10:19It's not what happens to you.
00:10:21It's what you do with it.
00:10:23I met Leslie in 1998.
00:10:26I was working with Dialogues for the Homeless on an access channel here in Austin.
00:10:33Someone had told me about this guy protesting up on 183 at a grocery store.
00:10:38He was trying to meet somebody there at the store and that he was currently protesting because they were trying
00:10:47to run him off.
00:11:04It was hard to believe that somebody would spray a homeless person with a hose.
00:11:17But I'd heard about it before, but Leslie made me believe it.
00:11:24I would say that's what first attracted me to his friendship is that I got to learn a lot about
00:11:30the police activity with the homeless.
00:11:33When you go after the people that you're supposed to be serving, it doesn't, you know, it changes the whole
00:11:39attitude of the city.
00:11:49Matt springboarded his career, if you would, with the Austin Police Department.
00:11:54Just don't go after I got here, I got myself a citation for camping.
00:12:03The no-sit-no-lie ordinance really makes it difficult to sleep on a park bench, rest in a park,
00:12:11loiter around a business.
00:12:13Whether you're outside during the day or whether you're outside at night and you're homeless, it's very difficult to be
00:12:19legal.
00:12:20It was being applied to the homeless people to run them out of town.
00:12:26In Austin, there might be, might be a thousand chronically homeless people like Leslie Cockburn.
00:12:35People are living in alleyways.
00:12:37People are sleeping in parks.
00:12:40They are trespassing on private property and building camps, you know, and trying to survive.
00:12:49So the phone's ringing off the wall, and the city council's getting the calls, and then the police chief gets
00:12:55the calls,
00:12:56and then they go out there, rip up the campsite, kick the guys out, throw all the stuff into the
00:13:02dumpster,
00:13:02and the guys move down the block, and then the same thing happens.
00:13:07But they're not going to fix that until we recognize why people are there.
00:13:11And it's a profound, catastrophic loss of family because that is ultimately our infrastructure, our safety net.
00:13:22Leslie found himself in jail several times because he had that willingness to stand up and fight.
00:13:29It developed into a kind of tug of war between the Austin Police Department and keep Austin weird, i.e.,
00:13:38leave Leslie alone.
00:13:41I've been arrested 81 times and a bunch of tickets.
00:13:44I've been found guilty six times.
00:13:47Three times, I got a whole dollar fine.
00:13:51Once I got a $10 fine, once I got a $15 fine, and once I got a $45 fine.
00:13:57The price of being a serial sleeper is going up.
00:14:06My very first experience with Leslie, he was arrested for public intoxication behind the kiosk over at Kruger's jewelry store.
00:14:14I think Leslie had, you know, a perfume called alcohol because there was never a case that Leslie didn't smell
00:14:20like alcohol.
00:14:23First and only time I've arrested him, it was for public intoxication.
00:14:27So in Leslie's case, he was squatting in the middle of the road in what I consider a pretty dangerous
00:14:31intersection at night.
00:14:32Can't really leave him there.
00:14:34Public intoxication is under the influence of alcohol and a danger to yourself and others.
00:14:39Public intoxication is purely subjective.
00:14:41You're dropping on to the training and the experience of the officer.
00:14:45For us on 6th Street, you spend a lot of time enforcing laws that protect people from themselves.
00:14:51For a while, Leslie was in that heyday with the cart with the sign.
00:14:56You all have done this and all that.
00:14:58Totally understand.
00:14:59Fight the power, question authority, all that.
00:15:02We're the authority.
00:15:04Most of the time, 90% of the time, was Leslie was either sleeping or walking and he could have
00:15:12stumbled into traffic and been hit.
00:15:14That was 90% of the allegations against Leslie.
00:15:18There was something about Leslie they just didn't like and all Leslie had to do was give them a reason
00:15:23to be arrested and they would happily take that invitation.
00:15:36This photograph was taken in downtown Austin Community Court.
00:15:40We represented him so much and he had so many dealings with our students.
00:15:44I was the lucky person to be chosen to get all of Leslie's cases for the fall of 2002.
00:15:50One case, for example, officers arrested Leslie for public intoxication.
00:15:54And the reason why they even got involved was because he was saying very loudly in his Leslie voice downtown,
00:16:02all fucking cops are pigs who want to get fucked.
00:16:06And the reason in the police report for the arrest, he might upset an officer who might hit him and
00:16:12therefore he was a danger to himself.
00:16:14Which really makes it not a public intoxication charge but involves things that you're saying and what your free speech
00:16:21rights are.
00:16:22And this is the kind of trouble Leslie got into.
00:16:26Yes, he was drunk. Yes, he was in a public place. We're all admitting that.
00:16:29But with speech.
00:16:31Representing him, it made it really easy and fun and interesting.
00:16:35Leslie was not cowed by the power structures.
00:16:47Be careful.
00:16:50Have you done that before?
00:16:52Oh, yeah.
00:16:58Where did you grow up?
00:17:00Oh, obviously I never did.
00:17:03Where, where, where, where did you, where did you live when you were a child?
00:17:13Uh, actually I was a young man.
00:17:14Um, I was in, um, uh, okay.
00:17:22When I was, um, do you know where Tel Flamador is?
00:17:30See Tel Flamador is a fictional planet one of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s books.
00:17:37So, I won't take you there.
00:18:01Basically, I was born in Miami, Florida.
00:18:03Sorta lived in, uh, Hialeah Airport, uh, side.
00:18:06Right there on the borderline of Hialeah in Miami.
00:18:10So, how many brothers and sisters do you have?
00:18:14Too many.
00:18:15Too many?
00:18:16Uh, I had, I had three sisters and two brothers.
00:18:21But my favorite sister died.
00:18:24And I really miss her.
00:18:25Just knowing that Harriet's not here anymore is, um, is a loss to the family.
00:18:34I'm the oldest.
00:18:35And then Harriet came next.
00:18:38And then Albert, Leslie, um, who was an identical twin.
00:18:43And John died shortly before their birth.
00:18:45And his name is John because they were born in the feast of John the Baptist.
00:18:49And then they came along Freda.
00:18:52And several years later, Patrick joined our family and then Silas.
00:18:59Mom was a stay-at-home mom.
00:19:01Dad worked.
00:19:02Seemed like a typical life.
00:19:04We had our chores to do.
00:19:06My mother and father, it was a, you know, a loving couple.
00:19:10It was just two people married, raising children.
00:19:14We went to school at St. Mary's in Miami, which is now the cathedral.
00:19:19Because faith was very important.
00:19:20Our religion was important.
00:19:22And I was responsible for getting my brothers and sisters to and from school.
00:19:28Albert was a handful.
00:19:29He was always looking for attention.
00:19:34His teacher, Sister Josephine, could not control him.
00:19:38He was a class clown, I guess they would call him back in those days, a class clown.
00:19:44And she had to put him outside on the front porch.
00:19:46So he sat outside on those steps all day long.
00:19:50He liked to.
00:19:51Shock.
00:19:53He was a master at it.
00:19:56My mom was a, as a mother, she was great.
00:20:02She instilled to me the idea of getting a good education.
00:20:06And she was domineering.
00:20:08My dad was domineering.
00:20:10And so am I.
00:20:11And I tell you, I got my spankings.
00:20:17My mother never got over the loss of John.
00:20:19Um, and it's crazy, but some parents blame the other child.
00:20:26And that's what she did.
00:20:28She had an extremely hard life herself.
00:20:31Um, had a cold nature.
00:20:33I'm sure, you know, she loved us, but cold nature.
00:20:36And she was brutal to Albert.
00:20:38At one point in his life would say to him,
00:20:40I wish John had lived and you had died.
00:20:43It was, it was horrible.
00:20:45He didn't always speak much about his father,
00:20:48but I could tell he didn't like his father.
00:20:52He didn't like what happened in his childhood.
00:20:56He had a lot of sadness when he would talk about it.
00:21:01Whether it was the way he was disciplined
00:21:04or the way the kids were treated.
00:21:08I mean, I, I do remember coming down the street
00:21:12and seeing him under the tree in the front yard
00:21:16wrapped in a sheet that he had peed
00:21:18so the whole neighborhood could see that he peed his bed.
00:21:22He said that his mom, uh, was cruel to him when he was young.
00:21:28He said that she, I don't know.
00:21:33I don't know if I should say.
00:21:36I think a PE coach finally found out about it one time when he was,
00:21:40he wouldn't, you know, he kept on refusing to take showers.
00:21:43And so it finally made him take a shower and they saw he was,
00:21:47he had marks on him.
00:21:55As I think back on it, I believe that's why I was known as the perfect child,
00:22:03because I would do nothing wrong because I didn't want to suffer what he was suffering.
00:22:09I left right after my 18th birthday.
00:22:13I eloped.
00:22:14My mother did not want me to leave.
00:22:16I was to stay and help raise the children and be there as her right hand.
00:22:22When I left, things started falling apart.
00:22:26Albert left and Harriet wound up, you know, having a boyfriend
00:22:31and having a child and getting married.
00:22:35And, and it just kind of went downhill after that.
00:22:39It's hard enough for two domineering people to live together.
00:22:42But you get three domineering people something to give.
00:22:45So I bailed at 16.
00:22:47And because my parents teaching me about it's important to get an education,
00:22:52I stayed in school and I worked hard to get my education,
00:22:56maintain my AA average, got an academic scholarship towards the university.
00:23:02I went there for a couple of years before I dropped out and joined the Navy.
00:23:06I enlisted in April, May of 73.
00:23:12And there's some real nice military pictures of uniform.
00:23:16One of the few pictures of me without a beard because I joined the military.
00:23:19The only time I haven't had this.
00:23:22And after those parts of his life, he, he started his nomad life.
00:23:27To be able to really figure out who he was and what he wanted out of life.
00:23:34So what mom and dad did to him, he was his own man.
00:23:41He was in charge of his life.
00:23:43He was in control.
00:23:44So now I know where all that showing off, all that negative behavior was coming from.
00:23:52Say, I'm a person.
00:23:54I am somebody.
00:23:59Albert is the little boy.
00:24:03Albert is the persona he had as a young person.
00:24:09And I don't think he liked Albert.
00:24:12That's why he wanted to change his name.
00:24:15He was ready to live.
00:24:18And he loved that being in the spotlight.
00:24:23You know, the motto of Austin is keep Austin weird.
00:24:25Do you notice a weirdness around you when you're in Austin?
00:24:28I do.
00:24:28Well, for instance, there's a guy in Austin who they call the mayor of Austin,
00:24:32who's not actually the mayor of Austin.
00:24:34But they call him the mayor.
00:24:35Of course.
00:24:36Which is weird.
00:24:36Why not, yeah.
00:24:37And he walks around town and everybody knows his name except for me.
00:24:41I just call him the mayor.
00:24:42But he walks around town in a thong and a very short, like, tank top.
00:24:48That may be a little too weird for me, honestly.
00:24:55Howdy, folks.
00:24:57Welcome to the campaign.
00:25:00Leslie was very serious about running for mayor.
00:25:05And honestly believed that he had a shot at winning it.
00:25:09This is a very bold move by a homeless person
00:25:12to actually consider running for the position of mayor of the city of Austin.
00:25:15And it shows a lot of gumption.
00:25:19It shows a lot of the guts.
00:25:23The American statesman didn't think he was a serious candidate.
00:25:29It was kind of an interesting side story.
00:25:35Leslie certainly put himself in opposition with other candidates on certain issues.
00:25:39He was an advocate for keeping the Austin sense of place.
00:25:43That was rapidly changing.
00:25:45A lot of people knew it was rapidly changing.
00:25:47Hey, folks.
00:25:48Check out all the traffic over here.
00:25:50See all that traffic?
00:25:51We got a lot of traffic on this road.
00:25:54And if you look down here, we got a lot of traffic coming down Lamar, too.
00:25:57We're at 6th and Lamar.
00:25:59And we're looking and we're talking about tomorrow's growth.
00:26:02While other people are talking about tomorrow's growth.
00:26:04We're being overcrowded right now with an influx of people.
00:26:08And we need to do something about this so we can have a little more livable condition for those who
00:26:15live here.
00:26:16We need to get the light rail input in as soon as possible.
00:26:22In 2000, he was talking about corporate subsidies, about politicians just bending over backwards to bring these large corporations to
00:26:31town.
00:26:32He had seen already and was already witnessing how wealthy individuals was pricing out the working class, artist class, the
00:26:41people that made this city great.
00:26:43I'd vote for you.
00:26:44Appreciate it.
00:26:47Hey, don't forget to vote for me tomorrow.
00:26:49There's eight people on a ballot.
00:26:50Leslie Cochran, number seven on the ballot out of eight.
00:26:53One of the first times he ran was, you know, Kirk Watson.
00:26:55And later on it was Will Wynn.
00:26:57And even though times are tough and everybody knows it and folks are hurting right now.
00:27:01And both of those individuals were very keen on making Austin a business friendly, tech friendly, walkable, livable, desirable downtown.
00:27:11We've gone upon a greedy growth plan and a greedy growth plan is killing a large part of our culture.
00:27:16We must protect us.
00:27:17The one way I differ from the other candidates, the fact is that, hey, let's keep Austin Austin.
00:27:22Candidates that put it on the city charter to keep Austin Austin, they're doing everything they can to kill what
00:27:27is Austin.
00:27:28They're saying what people want to hear, but they're doing just the opposite.
00:27:31And that's trouble with politicians.
00:27:32They have to have to do that.
00:27:35There were a percentage of people who voted for him because he was funny.
00:27:40Austin being the way it is, you know, there's a certain kick or weirdness to Austin.
00:27:44Why not vote for Leslie Vermeer?
00:27:47The number of votes he got tended to fall off each time he ran.
00:27:53And was terribly depressed every time he ran and wasn't elected.
00:28:00If the people of Austin pulled it off and made me the mayor, I got nothing but work, work, work.
00:28:09I mean, I got nothing but work.
00:28:11And you know what?
00:28:12I'll work my ass off in this town.
00:28:17Leslie could not dwell on bad stuff.
00:28:21He was always more than willing to move on to let's have fun.
00:28:37How's it going?
00:28:39Oh, pretty good.
00:28:39Good to see you again.
00:28:41Good to see you.
00:28:41What's going on today?
00:28:43Well, I'm sitting back relaxing and avoiding work.
00:28:47I've got to clean up all that mess out there.
00:28:49And I'm waiting for it to cool off.
00:28:53Where do you get everything?
00:28:55I get most of it from the garbage, except for the DVDs.
00:29:00Oh, you've got lamps.
00:29:01Oh, and your clothes are so organized.
00:29:04Yeah, it will be eventually.
00:29:06Leslie lived in a few different places.
00:29:08A lot of times it was in his sleeping bag.
00:29:11He lived on people's couches.
00:29:15Another time he lived in a beautiful house in West Lake.
00:29:21This was very typical, typical Leslie.
00:29:25One of his friends had a house for sale, so she let him stay there for probably two months.
00:29:34Ah, the master bedroom.
00:29:37I love the mirrors.
00:29:39Aren't they great?
00:29:39I think he probably got along better in West Lake because West Lake was fancy and Leslie was fancy.
00:29:45And he related and they related to him.
00:29:49During the time I knew him, Leslie seemed to cope pretty well.
00:29:52But then with me, he had a home base and had a place to sleep in peace.
00:29:59I really like being housed more than not housed.
00:30:02But not having the money or the means to be housed doesn't stop me from living a very full and
00:30:06fruitful life.
00:30:07Hey, as soon as I can, I'll be out of the street.
00:30:09But in the meantime, when I'm here, I might as well make the best of it.
00:30:16He had a friend that was remodeling her house.
00:30:19He did a lot of work for her.
00:30:22That's how he bought one of his sheds.
00:30:24He, like, redid all of her floors.
00:30:26You ain't take fugitives on my butt, are you?
00:30:31My sense of why people would welcome Leslie into their homes or include them in their lives is that he
00:30:38made that very easy to do.
00:30:42There was Leslie on and then there was just plain Leslie.
00:30:46That sounds so ordinary and I can almost feel Leslie tapping on my shoulder saying I was never ordinary.
00:30:53I didn't hold back any of myself from Leslie.
00:30:56I don't have a sense he held back himself from me.
00:30:59We were just friends that kind of clicked.
00:31:02Leslie taught me a lot about myself.
00:31:05He was a very good friend in listening and helping me sort things out.
00:31:15Leslie, when you know him really well, you get to see all the sides of him.
00:31:19Leslie, when you know him really well, you get to see all the sides of him.
00:31:25This gun was handcrafted to my specifications.
00:31:28And I rarely draw it unless I mean to use it.
00:31:37Leslie and his movies, he has a great interest in Western movies, which is something you wouldn't think of about
00:31:46him.
00:31:48I think when he was a child watching Westerns, that was a happier part of his childhood.
00:31:56I was a kid.
00:31:58We used to watch half gun travel.
00:32:00Everything was done with a code.
00:32:03I mean, a code of ethics.
00:32:05Without honor, just nothing.
00:32:11It was always about fighting injustice.
00:32:16Oh, Paladin rocks.
00:32:20He's one of my heroes.
00:32:21And I like to think I could have been, would have been, should have been.
00:32:42Ah.
00:32:42Trapper was just Trapper, a long-haired hippie boy.
00:32:45And you know, he was called Trapper Al for a reason.
00:32:49He was a guy.
00:32:51I mean, he was definitely a guy.
00:32:53We hung in different groups, but that, you know, it's a little town.
00:32:57You run into each other all the time.
00:33:00Trapper was who Leslie was in the 70s in Oak Creek, Colorado.
00:33:09My image of him is more of a hippie-slash-mountain man.
00:33:18Trapper.
00:33:19I love that.
00:33:19That's so charming.
00:33:37Leslie hitchhiked all over the country, and he showed up in Oak Creek, and it felt like home to him.
00:33:47I was working for the town in, let's see, I think it was 1977, for $2.50 an hour.
00:33:56In the 70s, when the hippies were here, we kind of just, you know, it was much more laid back.
00:34:04Years later, I got a letter from one of Leslie's friends from Oak Creek, and she told me about this
00:34:10part of his life.
00:34:10His friend Cheryl Lynn said Trapper Owl just showed up one day.
00:34:15They never knew where he came from, just that he had been hitchhiking.
00:34:19Trapper Owl would play his guitar in Oak Creek and Steamboat, and that's how he made some money.
00:34:25I wasn't surprised to learn from her that he always had his flask with him.
00:34:30I mean, it's nothing like it was in those days.
00:34:33In those days, everybody partied all night and worked all day.
00:34:36Thursday nights became boogie night.
00:34:39The band would be on break, and you'd walk up on stage, and there'd be people boinking behind the drum
00:34:44set, you know?
00:34:46Crazy.
00:34:48People from Craig and Steamboat and Vail would all come, and the place would be packed for a boogie night.
00:34:56And it was a good night to just go out and have fun.
00:34:59It's coming, man.
00:34:59The three, the three...
00:35:08And goin' down to pick up a girl for the bluegrass festival, there's nobody on the road.
00:35:13And I'd know the road like the back of my hand.
00:35:15And I just came on that curve.
00:35:27He was riding his motorcycle and hit a deer and basically split the deer in half on his motorcycle.
00:35:38And he probably shouldn't have survived.
00:35:45And he was in a coma.
00:35:48They contacted my mother.
00:35:50My mother went to Colorado and never left his bedside until he recovered.
00:35:56And I think that's when Mom realized how much she truly loved her son.
00:36:01She realized that Albert wasn't responsible for John's death.
00:36:07You know, and the thought of losing him was more than she could deal with.
00:36:12So she would not let go of him.
00:36:17We all have mysteries, I guess.
00:36:19In 1977, I woke up in the hospital.
00:36:24I'd been in a coma for 11 days.
00:36:27I woke up with damaged memories.
00:36:37It's sort of strange waking up and having a big question about who in the fuck you are.
00:36:43And you can't tell anybody because it's a scary thing not knowing who you are.
00:36:51My mother talked about everything a lot to try to get those connections back with him.
00:37:03I think I got it all back.
00:37:05Well, no, I know I don't got it all back because I have bad memories or had them.
00:37:11But a good thing about waking up with no memory, you can remember what you want to remember.
00:37:15You don't have to remember the nightmares.
00:37:18I know that they are, and I sort of got parts of them.
00:37:23But I remember the good times.
00:37:27You're the only ones worth remembering.
00:37:30I think the head injury caused a shift in his thought processes.
00:37:37He just wanted to find something better in his life.
00:37:43It was maybe the impatience from his brain trauma.
00:37:49He was not afraid to live his life the way he wanted to.
00:37:54Your drive to live your life fully and with enjoyment becomes top priority.
00:38:01Now, check this out.
00:38:03Wow.
00:38:05You saw this one.
00:38:08So, if you haven't, no, you saw, yeah, have you seen this one yet?
00:38:13I saw this second one.
00:38:14I haven't seen it before.
00:38:15You will love this one.
00:38:16It's a little more intriguing because it starts off with a guy, they fish out of the,
00:38:22they fish out of the ocean, and he doesn't know, he has amnesia.
00:38:29He doesn't know his name.
00:38:30He doesn't know anything about himself.
00:38:34So, you will love that.
00:38:35It's a great, great...
00:38:37Leslie, he always thought about today and not about tomorrow.
00:38:43So, if he had money for some booze and a pack of cigarettes, then he'd worry about tomorrow,
00:38:51tomorrow.
00:38:51Today, he had the money for what he needed.
00:38:54I'm from the Wingo.
00:38:56Now, getting back to something important.
00:38:58Got it.
00:39:02Sobriety is a rotten excuse not to get drunk.
00:39:06Trust me.
00:39:07I know.
00:39:10So, do you think you're an alcoholic?
00:39:12Oh, no.
00:39:13They go to meetings.
00:39:14I don't go to meetings.
00:39:16It's not what you do.
00:39:17It's how you do it.
00:39:18Gorgeous.
00:39:19Oh, gorgeous.
00:39:20Well, you take your right heel and put it in the middle of your left foot.
00:39:26Fantastic.
00:39:27Thanks.
00:39:29I think in the beginning stages, I don't think that Leslie really thought that this was something
00:39:33that was going to be seriously pursued or that there would really be a follow-through on it.
00:39:39Sales started in this independent bookstore, but the image of the half-dressed Austin queen
00:39:43has now made it to retailers in over 58 Texas cities and 23 states.
00:39:48You know, it took almost a year from the time that magnetic paper dolls originated as a joke
00:39:53into an actual product.
00:39:57Yeah, so you take the basic thing, you pick out the outfits you want me to wear for the day.
00:40:01Right now, the supply can't meet the demand.
00:40:03They're just flying off the shelves at every retailer that they're at here in Austin.
00:40:08Leslie's part of Austin, so that's all we have now.
00:40:12He's getting a percentage of the sales, and from what I understand, he's doing quite well.
00:40:19What about those magnets at Oat Willys?
00:40:21Jay Leno showed them on national TV, and then SunX said it.
00:40:27What do you got here?
00:40:29Well, while we were down there, Jay, we bought this wonderful souvenir from Leslie.
00:40:33We thought we'd present that to you.
00:40:34Well, this is, there you go.
00:40:36That is a lovely item.
00:40:37Put those on your refrigerator.
00:40:38Yeah, well, thank you very much.
00:40:40That was the peak for him, the peak in his life.
00:40:45How do you like being Leslie, the celebrity, you know?
00:40:48It is quite an honor.
00:40:49You know, when you come to a place like Austin, which has the most dynamic people around,
00:40:52and if I had anything, you're something special.
00:40:55Girl, you want it straight to my head, you know?
00:41:11He bought a two-story storage shed.
00:41:14It was like 12 by 12 by 12.
00:41:17He bought it with the magnet money.
00:41:21And he called it his house.
00:41:26When I used to make money, I used to make about $35,000 a year, back about 20 years ago.
00:41:31I was about 35, 36.
00:41:48I was working for Sacred Stores Incorporated in Seattle, not in the store, but in the warehouse, and paid pretty
00:41:55good.
00:41:57Everybody knew me as, only knew me as Trapper at Safeway.
00:42:03I even bought cars under the name of Trapper, and all my life when I was working, I paid into
00:42:09Social Security.
00:42:11He was a great character.
00:42:18So he was a good worker, I mean, he was there every day, he could do his job, but he
00:42:22was just, he was different.
00:42:24When he was in Seattle, his life was normal, like any one of us.
00:42:29He had a job, he was working at Safeway, everything was normal.
00:42:35Did you know I was married once?
00:42:37It sure pissed your husband off.
00:42:42So we had to get an annulment.
00:42:45If we didn't get an annulment, he would have got over big of me.
00:43:13Never met her.
00:43:15We got an announcement, and I sent him a gift.
00:43:17I sent him and her beautiful placemats with napkin rings.
00:43:26How long were you together?
00:43:28Oh, I knew her for years before we got married.
00:43:32She lived in Seattle.
00:43:34The marriage left about six months.
00:43:36But she was into drugs, and I'm not into drugs.
00:43:43I told her she'd quit drugs, I didn't marry her.
00:43:46She lied, said she was going to quit, but then when she would come home for lunch and she wasn't
00:43:51there, I said, where were you?
00:43:53She said, I went into town, and my husband told me if I didn't stay with him, he was going
00:44:00to get me for big of me.
00:44:01I said, what husband?
00:44:04Then she told me, marriage is over.
00:44:07So, you know, that's life.
00:44:13What year was this?
00:44:15Forget it.
00:44:15Gone.
00:44:17I know, but I...
00:44:18I'm not talking, I'm not talking.
00:44:19I want people to see...
00:44:21I don't care what you want people to see.
00:44:23This is my private life, and, you know.
00:44:26Okay.
00:44:27It's not fair enough.
00:44:28Okay.
00:44:31Whatever.
00:44:34The marriage dissolved, the job dissolved after that, and that's when life really started changing for my brother.
00:44:42So whether the head injury ties in, he didn't want to be contained by the world and fit into a
00:44:49mold that people expected him to be,
00:44:52he became uninhibited and being more free to be himself.
00:44:59He became a modern-day gypsy.
00:45:02Albert came to Atlanta, where I was living, and then to Tallahassee.
00:45:10And then Albert went on his merry way, and then he found Austin, and he fit right in.
00:45:19What exactly do you do?
00:45:20What's your job description here at Austin?
00:45:22Oh, I don't really work at all.
00:45:23Oh, I don't really work at all.
00:45:24I'm just Leslie, and I've seen him and somehow gotten the attention of the people of Austin, they love me,
00:45:28and I go down, and I just...
00:45:30A lot of people come up and want my picture, and a few of them tip, keeps me alive.
00:45:44There were a couple years that I didn't shoot with Leslie at all.
00:45:47I needed a break.
00:45:49He was doing his Leslie thing and still getting lots of attention.
00:45:53He did ads, movie cameos, his magnets were still selling.
00:45:59His fame was working for him.
00:46:02But in 2009, I remember getting a phone call from Val saying that Leslie was in the hospital.
00:46:32The doctors, they didn't think he was going to make it, and that's when people thought he had died,
00:46:38that he was going to be a vegetable, because the hospital gave a really grim view of what was happening.
00:46:48I woke up in the hospital.
00:46:50I'd been in a coma for 11 days.
00:46:53It's sort of strange waking up and having a big question about who the fuck we are.
00:47:21I had asked the doctors whether they thought he was beat up or not, and they said no.
00:47:28They said it was most likely a seizure.
00:47:31But he came back with a vengeance.
00:47:34Yeah, he was determined.
00:47:37Every day he was improving, his brain was waking up.
00:47:40He's not a vegetable like the hospital thought.
00:47:46Leslie Cochran is back, okay?
00:47:48He just wants to send his love, and he'd like to give a little thanks here.
00:47:52Yeah, I want to thank you all.
00:47:53I want to thank George here.
00:47:55He's a very good friend of mine.
00:47:57I want to thank the great people that came up here.
00:47:59Great.
00:48:01He's back, ladies and gentlemen.
00:48:03He is back.
00:48:04I had him here at my home.
00:48:07He was improving by the hour and by the minute, where he was just getting his determination
00:48:13to get back out there.
00:48:16And the fifth day said, they're waiting for me.
00:48:19And Leslie was gone.
00:48:21You couldn't stop him.
00:48:25I just came to a realization that Leslie is going to live his life to the fullest until he dies.
00:48:35We're out in front of the Sweet Leaf Tea, the truck, or it's not even a truck.
00:48:39It's like an oversized limo where they're giving away free tea.
00:48:45And not only is that cool, Garrett, what are you doing out here besides taking advantage of the free tea?
00:48:50Well, tonight we're looking for none other than Leslie Cochran.
00:48:53I haven't seen him yet, but we're going to find him tonight.
00:48:55Positive attitude, they're going to find Leslie.
00:49:00Leslie!
00:49:02Leslie!
00:49:04Over here!
00:49:07I saw Leslie one day, and one of the things, I guess, that shocked me the most was that he
00:49:16wasn't the same.
00:49:18Hey, she is. How you doing?
00:49:19His age was starting to show.
00:49:23There we go.
00:49:25He was actually starting to look a little more like a homeless man.
00:49:32I got two $100. I just need one more $100.
00:49:36Yeah, one more $100.
00:49:38How are your magnets going?
00:49:40Slowly.
00:49:42And it's going to go slower because this time nobody has any money.
00:49:47I think the magnets could have been marketed much more widely than they were.
00:49:51It could have given him a steady income, I think, for a long time if he wanted.
00:49:55But I think at the bottom of it, he doesn't trust anybody.
00:49:58I was willing to help for free, but he was afraid I'd won a percentage.
00:50:08Where are you sleeping right now?
00:50:12Well, I'm couch surfing different places, and I've got a good sleeping bag, so sometimes I just got places I'll
00:50:19put my sleeping bag down that I've been authorized to be at.
00:50:23I felt bad for him because now all of his stuff was in a storage unit.
00:50:29He'd gotten kicked out of his friend's backyard, so he lost his shed.
00:50:37With Leslie, it gets out of hand in a hurry.
00:50:41The late hours, the junk, nothing to Leslie was junk.
00:50:46I moved him off of Annie.
00:50:49His response to that was to march up and down my driveway for weeks on end.
00:50:56Looking back on it, Leslie was already not in control of himself in the way that he had been.
00:51:05At that point, I just moved him out of my life.
00:51:07I moved his cart to a side, nearby side street and moved him out of my life.
00:51:13Why do you think people are homeless?
00:51:16Because they don't have a home.
00:51:17What do you think causes them to be homeless?
00:51:20The family can put up with this shit.
00:51:24And, uh...
00:51:25Do you think maybe because they were abused?
00:51:27No.
00:51:29Hey, everybody can make a claim of being abused.
00:51:32You know, fuck it.
00:51:33But you become...
00:51:34Hey, no matter what happens to you, what you do with it.
00:51:42I think he's estranged from his family.
00:51:44You know, I thought that maybe his sister or...
00:51:47Not his brother.
00:51:48He just can't stand his brother.
00:51:50I'm not aware of there being some person or place out there that is sort of a place that he
00:51:58can just go and just hang out.
00:52:02He was in touch with his sister after the 2009 incident and would be in touch with her a little
00:52:12bit.
00:52:12So whatever that was with his family, um...
00:52:18There was definitely some disconnect.
00:52:23We all stayed in contact, but it was just like we were just a broken family.
00:52:28Dad died in 74.
00:52:31Mom moved to an apartment.
00:52:33Albert would call my mother.
00:52:35He would touch base.
00:52:36And I have to say, as his big sister, when he started the cross-dressing big time, I was embarrassed.
00:52:43I was, you know, like, oh, my.
00:52:47I would be terribly upset by it.
00:52:51And he also knew it would get under my mother's skin.
00:52:55And it did.
00:52:58He had a rough, difficult relationship with his mom.
00:53:03He came over the night she died.
00:53:06He was pretty sad.
00:53:08It's the only time I ever saw him cry.
00:53:15Were you close to your dad?
00:53:21Uh...
00:53:21Well, I like my dad.
00:53:26But trust me, he was a pedophile for help.
00:53:30Outside of being a good guy,
00:53:33he was a sickly good guy.
00:53:35He was a bad guy.
00:53:39He was a bad guy.
00:53:43He was a bad guy.
00:53:45He was a bad guy.
00:53:46He was a bad guy.
00:53:46He was a bad guy.
00:53:46During different conversations that Leslie and I had,
00:53:49he had alluded to certain things.
00:53:52And, you know, some of that he said he just didn't really want to talk about.
00:53:58But why he decided to share that then, I really don't know.
00:54:04I think Leslie spent his whole life running from the pain he experienced as a child.
00:54:10But those memories were there.
00:54:13I only had one memory of something.
00:54:19But it came later.
00:54:22My father, he was abusing me.
00:54:24He was abusing my siblings.
00:54:27But he was an alcoholic.
00:54:29And he was mentally sick.
00:54:34He came from severe abuse.
00:54:36There's no healing.
00:54:37And there wasn't counseling back then.
00:54:39You didn't take your family to counseling.
00:54:42The abuse stopped with me and my sister, Harriet.
00:54:46It continued with Albert and Freda.
00:54:49And they got the worst of it.
00:54:51I mean, there were two babies.
00:55:01He was having them having relations when they were preschoolers.
00:55:07It's beyond anything a child should ever suffer.
00:55:12And how my mother never knew, unless she was just blinded to it.
00:55:18I don't know.
00:55:20I don't know.
00:55:21The denial, I don't know.
00:55:25My memory was protected.
00:55:28You know, because I think, honestly, if I had the full memories, like Albert had, I wouldn't be here today.
00:55:38Albert had the knowing and the memories.
00:55:46Well, when the tough get going, when the tough gets rough, the tough get going.
00:55:53I just kept going.
00:55:54I got out.
00:55:55I took care of myself.
00:56:11Leslie was very resilient.
00:56:13He always comes back.
00:56:14You know, he always comes back.
00:56:18And I knew he would again this time.
00:56:21Okay.
00:56:22I think this is going to be good.
00:56:30Hey, mama, won't you come with me, yeah?
00:56:33Very nice.
00:56:34Very good.
00:56:34Good.
00:56:35Good.
00:56:44I was worried about Austin thinking Leslie was dead.
00:56:48I didn't want him to have to think that.
00:56:50So when I told Leslie, he said, oh, I like it when they think I'm dead.
00:56:55I get to surprise them.
00:56:59If you walk with Leslie, you are walking with a movie star.
00:57:03And he thrives on that attention.
00:57:07A lot of people in Austin thought I was dead or whatever.
00:57:12So I had to come back out and be out here for the people of Austin.
00:57:17In the last year with the economy the way it is right now, people all want to have a picture
00:57:23with him.
00:57:24And they don't tip him.
00:57:27So people would buy him a beer and so he just mostly drinks.
00:57:34It's really been really disheartening.
00:57:36And then he came home and prayed and showed support when I was in the hospital.
00:57:41How do I live without a little financial support?
00:57:44I mean, I honor them with pictures but they don't honor me with tips.
00:57:56You know, he made money by performing and people would tip him.
00:58:01He said that Austin was changing too much for him.
00:58:05But I think he was changing as well.
00:58:09Leslie had been in Austin forever, was successful.
00:58:12And I'm wondering if people understood how much he needed financial support.
00:58:20The skies are taller in Louisiana.
00:58:24The skies are wider in New Mexico.
00:58:27The skies in Texas kind of split the difference.
00:58:30Don't sue me no matter where I go.
00:58:33I ain't got a place.
00:58:35I ain't got a place in this world.
00:58:39I ain't got a place.
00:58:42I ain't got a place in this world at home.
00:58:55I don't know why or how I ended up with Leslie.
00:58:59And he's never gone away.
00:59:03Are you going to allow him to stay here a little longer?
00:59:06Well, I will as long as he, you know, goes by the boundaries.
00:59:12Yeah.
00:59:12Which is you don't come in too late at night.
00:59:14You don't come in here drunk.
00:59:16You saw how crowded my house is.
00:59:18There's no way that people falling down can work in there.
00:59:22Wow.
00:59:23She exaggerates that a little bit.
00:59:26Well, there's been a couple times.
00:59:28Hell, I'd be sitting here, I'd be sitting in the chair right there awake and she'd come and say,
00:59:35Oh, you can't be sleeping in my funny world. I'm not sleeping.
00:59:39And I'll try to be nice about it.
00:59:42If I'm not, you can edit it out.
00:59:44Well, try real hard because I don't know where else you're going right now.
00:59:49He wanted to live with me, but I don't want to live with alcohol.
00:59:54And yeah, sometimes I've asked him to leave because it gets pretty intense.
01:00:00But I always, always want to be able to have him back.
01:00:05So he's more than welcome at my home.
01:00:08It's hard though.
01:00:09I always kept my boundaries with him because I knew how he was with him taking more than was comfortable
01:00:21with some people.
01:00:22Because once you give Leslie something, he wants more.
01:00:32Finding the right thing, the right answer, the right place for him to go and to have some support.
01:00:40Something that he can deal with.
01:00:45It's not an easy task.
01:00:48He's making excuses for everything.
01:00:50Well, that's too far out or just too much money.
01:00:53And then he doesn't want to go through the process.
01:00:55So every time we go sit down and go apply and do the process, he doesn't want to do that.
01:01:02I'm worried that I'm at the same time and I can only support him the way he is asking for
01:01:08support.
01:01:12There's so many people that are so afraid of dying and they never live.
01:01:17Me, I can't stop living because I'm afraid of dying.
01:01:21And remember, in the next world, you're on your own.
01:01:33I think it's frustrating for the people who are really close to him.
01:01:41I think most people wouldn't, you know, really want to put up with having an ongoing friendship with them over
01:01:50time because it's kind of maddening.
01:01:56Guess who that is.
01:02:00I better go say he owes me 40 bucks.
01:02:09I know, I know.
01:02:10I know, it's kind of hit and miss.
01:02:13Alrighty.
01:02:15I know.
01:02:17So, I haven't seen any of that in a while.
01:02:20Tell you what.
01:02:21What?
01:02:22Let's make it 50.
01:02:24Man, you are so persuasive.
01:02:27I don't know if I have a 10.
01:02:29You know, I have eight bucks.
01:02:30Eight bucks to do it.
01:02:33So you owe me an odd number, 48 bucks, okay?
01:02:36Okay.
01:02:37Alright.
01:02:38Just make it 50 with interest.
01:02:39If you bring me 50, I'll give you two back.
01:02:42I'll have two ones by then.
01:02:43You're too kind.
01:02:44Okay.
01:02:45Thanks.
01:02:46Alright.
01:02:55Wow.
01:02:56And that is kind of what he does all the time.
01:02:59Just wanted to say hello, nothing special.
01:03:02At the end, it's like, you don't have 20 bucks.
01:03:09But, he always pays it back.
01:03:11I think it says something about his character.
01:03:16I had to be real creative to help Leslie.
01:03:19Because I didn't want to make him feel bad.
01:03:25He needed help.
01:03:26And I could help him without thinking he was asking for help.
01:03:33Well, we threw a birthday party fundraiser for him.
01:03:36That brought a lot of people.
01:03:40The people who really cared.
01:03:42What's it like to have buddies like this?
01:03:44Oh, yeah.
01:03:46It's quite an honor.
01:03:47And it's great.
01:03:49I got a heart, but it don't work like it should.
01:03:57I got a heart, but it just made my face.
01:04:00It's as important event as any.
01:04:03You know, Leslie turning 60 is most certainly, you know, an event.
01:04:08Curious job living on a road like that, you know.
01:04:11He's been doing it for decades.
01:04:13I actually hope that he has a place to live right now,
01:04:17because it's tough living in the streets, I'm sure.
01:04:21I hear the whistle, but the train ain't coming back.
01:04:25I helped Leslie apply for SSI for his Social Security check.
01:04:32I'm calling to check on the status of my SSI check and when it's going to be here.
01:04:39They have, it looks like they have processed that they reported that you should get it by August 20th.
01:04:44And the amount of it is $2,022.
01:04:49$2,022.
01:04:51It will be coming my way and the statement will be here on the 20th and there will be a
01:04:54check in there with it.
01:04:57Yeah.
01:04:58Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:04:59And then he had regular money that he could count on.
01:05:04He just needed money to live on.
01:05:09Leslie represents what it was like when I came here.
01:05:12I don't know if he or I still represent what it is now, but we're still here.
01:05:18And that says amazing things about we have a culture here and we may have to be going underground, but
01:05:25we're still a culture.
01:05:27He was a star at that birthday party.
01:05:30I want to thank you all.
01:05:31You make me feel like I'm somebody.
01:05:35Oh, happy birthday, Leslie. How about that? Cheers!
01:05:51I forgot to check the mail today.
01:05:53Oh.
01:05:54Oh.
01:05:58Oh.
01:06:01Yeah.
01:06:01A couple checks here.
01:06:08$2,022.
01:06:09Just like you said.
01:06:11Yeah.
01:06:12I think Leslie was ready for a home and have his independence back.
01:06:22Home means a place where you can feel safe, where you can take off the face you might have to
01:06:31be wearing out in public.
01:06:33It's where you lay down.
01:06:37I'm not a homeless.
01:06:39Austin's my own.
01:06:40I'm just another American whose home is in the street somewhere else.
01:06:46I just need to get myself into a structure.
01:06:51I'm not sure.
01:06:51I'm not sure.
01:06:52I'm not sure.
01:07:07I'm not sure.
01:07:20I'm not sure.
01:07:22I'm not sure.
01:07:23So you're feeling okay?
01:07:25The doctor says I'm going to die.
01:07:28But not today.
01:07:32The doctor's already gone.
01:07:36And I'm checking out against his eyes.
01:07:39He's very stubborn.
01:07:42You can't really tell him what to do.
01:07:45Is that enabling at this point?
01:07:47You know, I don't know.
01:07:48I mean, I think he's made his choice.
01:07:50I think he made his choice a long time ago.
01:07:52They say if he just keeps on this path, it's just a matter of time.
01:07:56The seizures are starting to be more frequent.
01:07:59And so it takes him longer to recover from them.
01:08:03His drinking doesn't help.
01:08:06I'm done.
01:08:06I'm over.
01:08:07I'm done with it.
01:08:08He took his money and went to the liquor store.
01:08:12Right now, we're watching him kill himself.
01:08:14And that's too hard for me to do, and I'm not going to do it anymore.
01:08:17He's not allowed at my house.
01:08:19And then when he's going to be out of money, he's going to be calling you, you, me, and Valerie,
01:08:24and going, oh, I don't have any money.
01:08:28I have nowhere to, you know, he's going to pull the same old routine.
01:08:31And the only way we're going to end it is to cut him off.
01:08:34I, number one, am not going to enable him anymore.
01:08:38You have a serious condition, which is why they want you here in the first place.
01:08:42Are you sure you don't want to spend one more night here?
01:08:46Hmm?
01:08:46Are you sure you don't want to spend one more night here?
01:08:48I'm sure of that. I, uh, to wake up and be disappointed that I'm still here.
01:08:55You weren't even conscious, though, until early this morning.
01:08:58I mean, today's your first day you've had a fully coherent day that you knew where you were and the
01:09:03date and all that, so.
01:09:04Well, I think I, I think I woke up yesterday and then went back to sleep because I, uh, because,
01:09:12uh, because I remember twice of having dreams of being in Colorado or on the river or somewhere.
01:09:28Colorado was a happy memory for Leslie.
01:09:36So much so that he actually had gone back in 2006.
01:09:40He just took off and hitchhiked his way around until he got back to Oak Creek.
01:09:44But he went back as Leslie, not as Trump or Al.
01:09:52He came in and sat down at the bar and asked me if I remembered him.
01:09:58And I didn't, um, until he told me who he was.
01:10:02He was dressed very eccentric.
01:10:05So you showed up in this town dressed in a Star Trek uniform?
01:10:10Oh, yeah. He was nice hitchhiking around in my Star Trek outfit.
01:10:13Boy, was he different.
01:10:15He had on, like, Lieutenant, a horror or something.
01:10:18It was a Star Wars outfit with the big boobs and the long nails and then full beard, you know.
01:10:25You know, here, I think, was a memory lane sort of trip for him.
01:10:29But, see, a lot of those people aren't around anymore.
01:10:35It was Labor Day weekend.
01:10:37The town's folks all come out.
01:10:39Everybody does the parade and hangs out in the park.
01:10:42And we have music and bands and parties and stuff.
01:10:45So he came strutting by with fuck me pumps and a leopard skin short skirt thing.
01:10:52And I believe it was a pink boa.
01:10:55I did learn just asking around, you know, who's the crazy guy in the pink halter top I just met.
01:11:02It's like, oh, my gosh, who is this?
01:11:04It was kind of shocking because this is a little, kind of probably a little redneck town, if you want
01:11:10to call it that.
01:11:12There were some that didn't really care for him.
01:11:15Where are you from? You need to go back to where you're from or whatever, you know.
01:11:19So as long as he was in here, he was safe.
01:11:22What was your favorite thing that happened while you were gone?
01:11:25Did you have any awakenings?
01:11:30Yes, enough.
01:11:34Tuesday, I go to Denver.
01:11:36And here he was just sitting up by the gas station.
01:11:40And he was hitchhiking.
01:11:42And I kind of looked over at the gas station and see who was there.
01:11:46And there were some guys that probably, you know, he probably wouldn't be safe around, you know.
01:11:51So I made a U and I came back, picked him up.
01:11:54And I just felt that if I don't get him out of town, he might get beat up or something.
01:11:58So I dropped him off and that was it.
01:12:05You were hallucinating late last night.
01:12:07And, um...
01:12:09What?
01:12:10Yes, sir.
01:12:11Yes, sir.
01:12:12Yeah.
01:12:13So, I mean, that's not a normal state to be in,
01:12:17which is why they wanted to keep you here for observation
01:12:19and make sure that's something that's gone for good and not going to return.
01:12:24Okay.
01:12:24Wow.
01:12:26Do you ever think about going back?
01:12:30It sure looks good sometimes.
01:12:33If I go back to Colorado and become trapper again,
01:12:35I don't have to worry about a place to live,
01:12:37I don't have to worry about friends.
01:12:41It'd be easier to just go to Colorado
01:12:44because they've been missing their icon.
01:12:58I think he could tell what was coming, kind of starting to get on survival mode.
01:13:06He was telling everybody he's going to Colorado
01:13:08because we weren't recognizing him as famous anymore in Austin.
01:13:13Now that he's coming to the realization that he's got serious health problems,
01:13:18I'm not so sure he enjoys being in the public eye all the time like he used to.
01:13:24He's just out there for the whole world to see.
01:13:28If we were Austin, I could stay.
01:13:32But we lost Austin.
01:13:34I've been here, and I've made a nice statement,
01:13:40and I've been well received.
01:13:43But things have changed a little bit,
01:13:49and it was time to move on.
01:13:59It was on Valentine's Day,
01:14:02and I was here at the salon.
01:14:07And there was Leslie.
01:14:09Thank you for being my friend.
01:14:13We've been there and back again.
01:14:15I don't know what that was.
01:14:16I don't remember the words of the song,
01:14:18but it's a great tune.
01:14:21And it's so nice having a friend.
01:14:25And he said he was leaving.
01:14:27You're really leaving right now?
01:14:31Yeah.
01:14:32I couldn't leave without coming by and talking to my good friends.
01:14:37Wait, you're leaving right now?
01:14:38Yeah.
01:14:39Even now, I'm surprised at how hard it was to say goodbye.
01:14:56It's been a great 20 years or so.
01:14:59I've had a great 60 years.
01:15:03Any fool can enjoy the good times.
01:15:07It takes talent to enjoy the bad.
01:15:10It's a moment where I am talented.
01:15:27If you come to Oak Creek, Colorado,
01:15:31don't look for Leslie,
01:15:33because nobody will know who he is.
01:15:36Look for Trapper.
01:15:46Well-known Austinite Leslie Cochran is now in the hospital in critical condition.
01:15:51A spokesperson at St. David's South Austin Medical Center confirmed he is being treated there now.
01:15:56He's been talking lately of moving to Colorado, but he was found unconscious in a South Austin parking lot.
01:16:01And has been at St. David's South Austin Medical Center where he recently...
01:16:09What do you think is going to happen now?
01:16:11The truth?
01:16:13Well, I think that if Leslie has a strong will, he may hang on for a few weeks.
01:16:24But I think that's probably about as long as he can hold on.
01:16:42Hi everyone, KXAN News has confirmed Leslie Cochran has died.
01:16:47You may simply know him as Leslie, the cross-dressing homeless man.
01:16:50He died early this morning at one o'clock and the mayor will proclaim today as Leslie Day.
01:16:56He was 60 years old.
01:16:58Now therefore, Eileen Leffingwell, mayor of the city of Austin, Texas, do hereby proclaim March 8th, 2012, as Leslie Cochran
01:17:06Day in Austin.
01:17:15And I thank you for your graciousness to my brother and for loving him as you have.
01:17:27I had no idea to the magnitude of how much he was loved here.
01:17:33I had no idea.
01:17:35The city came out and there was a parade and there was a memorial service the day after.
01:17:42I keep saying, is it that of a dignitary, not a homeless person?
01:17:46They're forgotten.
01:17:47He wasn't.
01:17:49And it really made a difference in my heart.
01:17:57When I asked forgiveness for ever being ashamed of him.
01:18:02Leslie was a perfect Leslie.
01:18:06And he made a statement.
01:18:08He affected the city in a beautiful and special way that no one else has and I doubt anyone else
01:18:16ever will.
01:18:19Leslie was a real gift to me.
01:18:23You were confronted with what does it mean to feel compassion.
01:18:30The person who's drunk and obnoxious and a little out of control who's sitting in front of you and he
01:18:35gives you the chance to learn through the deeper meaning of how to join his suffering.
01:18:42That's a gift.
01:18:44It's a real gift.
01:18:49Do we need a Leslie?
01:18:52I think we need original creative people, people with heart, people who care about other people.
01:18:59And he was all of that.
01:19:02Leslie was not planned.
01:19:04Leslie did not sit down at the drawing board one day and draft out what this was going to look
01:19:11like.
01:19:11That is true authenticity.
01:19:14And yes, I miss him terribly.
01:19:16And it's getting to that point in the conversation.
01:19:22He was such a good friend.
01:19:26Yeah, I miss him immensely.
01:19:33Out of the night that covers me, black as a pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may
01:19:40be for my unconquerable soul.
01:19:43In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winched nor cried aloud.
01:19:49Under the bludgeoning of the chance, my head is bloody but unbowed.
01:19:55Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms the horror of the shade.
01:20:00And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid.
01:20:07It matters not how straight the gate or how charged his punishment to scroll.
01:20:13I am the master of my fate.
01:20:15I am the captain of my soul.
01:20:19I am the master of my soul.
01:20:19And me and my father and my father.
01:20:26I am the master of my soul.
01:20:33In the hands of your soul.
01:20:40Come back as my tree
01:20:44I'll plant you close to me
01:20:48And we'll overlook the sea
01:20:54If you please
01:20:57If you please
01:21:00Please come back to me
01:21:11Come back as my pet
01:21:15I'll make sure you are fed
01:21:19You can sleep in my bed
01:21:25If you please
01:21:27If you please
01:21:31Please come back to me
01:21:41Tell your angels that you love me
01:21:49And how you'd like to live alongside of me
01:21:59Just come back as my friend
01:22:04I'm broke but I can mend
01:22:07It doesn't have to end
01:22:14If you please
01:22:16If you please
01:22:19Please come back to me
01:22:50Tell your angels that you love me
01:22:56And how you'd like to live alongside of me
01:23:07Just come back as a fish
01:23:12Or anything you wish
01:23:15I won't put you on a dish
01:23:20I won't put you on a dish
01:23:24If you please
01:23:26If you please
01:23:28If you please
01:23:29Please come back to me
01:23:36If you please
01:24:13If you please
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