Jim, a.k.a. Reprobate, was a friend to many members of SuicideGirls, especially those from Los Angeles, where he once lived, and, more recently, New Orleans, where he relocated a few years ago. Around 4AM on the morning of March 22nd, Jim was sitting with a friend on a dock overlooking the Mississippi River when it collapsed, dumping both of them into the deep and swift-moving water. His friend made it safely back to shore. Jim never did. This morning it appears that his body has been located among the wreckage of the dock, and authorities have begun recovery efforts. He was 42.
Jim had “We the People” tattooed across his stomach, a fact that will come as no surprise to veterans of our Current Events board, a place where Reprobate’s sharp wit and seemingly inexhaustible knowledge were usually the end of any discussion he weighed in on. That he was out at 4AM would also probably not surprise his friends. Jim knew how to party.
Jim loved New Orleans. He once served as the executive director of the Louisiana Landmarks Society. When other people fled the city in droves post-Katrina, he stayed. He loved his town, but he wasn’t naive. The debacle that is NOPD’s handling of his disappearance would not have surprised him. He once wrote, “I live in a very broken city. Our streetlights don’t work. The power goes out randomly. Our gangbangers have PTSD. We’re not so Big or so Easy no more, and that’s fine for me.”
He was a father with a young daughter. At the time of his death he was working as a waiter, but had received his Juris Doctor (law degree) and was in the process of being admitted into the Louisiana State Bar Association. He loved Tom Waits. As a young man, he dropped out of college and toured as a “circus roustabout.” He was an Eagle Scout. He was a drinker and a fighter for what he believed in. He was as eloquent with power tools as he was with words. Jim was a real man of the sort they don’t make many of any more. The world is a poorer place without him.
His friends passed out fliers all over New Orleans and down-river for a week; they set up a Facebook group to coordinate their efforts. That was the sort of loyalty Jim inspired. Our thoughts are with his family and friends in their grief and loss.
