Jailhouse Writer Back Behind Bars ‘Drugstore Cowboy’ Author On Binge Since Wife Died

The man who wrote - and largely lived - “Drugstore Cowboy” is back behind bars again.

James Fogle, 58, was arrested here Wednesday for the burglary of a downtown pharmacy.

In an interview Friday at the Lewis County Jail in Chehalis, Fogle told The Chronicle of Centralia he’s not sure how he arrived in town. He made no secret of his drug habit.

“I’ve been on a binge since my wife died,” he said.

Fogle has spent most of his adult life behind bars and had just gotten out of prison on June 1. Less than a week later, he returned to his Seattle home and found his wife, Janet, sitting in a car parked in front of the home, dead.

“I thought she overdosed, but they didn’t find any drugs in her,” he said.

Fogle said he used what little money he had left to bury her and then drifted, drinking and taking whatever drugs were available.

“Maybe I was trying to die,” he said. “This killed me having my wife die.”

Fogle became a jailhouse celebrity in 1989 when Portland filmmaker Gus Van Sant made a movie on Fogle’s then-unpublished novel about a gang of four junkies who roamed the Northwest, looting pharmacies and hospitals to support their drug habit. “Drugstore Cowboy,” that starred Matt Dillon, got laudatory reviews and won awards that included Best Screenplay from the Los Angeles, New York and national societies of film critics.

Fogle wrote the story while serving a sentence for a Cowlitz County drugstore heist.

Deputy prosecutor Ruth Vogel doesn’t know how long Fogle could spend in prison if he’s found guilty of the latest charge.

Fogle, meanwhile, finds himself in familiar surroundings.

“This is the only place I can relate to,” he says.