AAron Swank in the paper

[doubleplay1970]

http://nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1029748210167626.xml

read this article. I know alot of you knew him so there was a write up about it

RIP

[doubleplay1970]

here is the article for ease of reading

New Jersey

Drug, alcohol overdose kills aspiring DJ

Monday, August 19, 2002

BY JERRY BARCA

Star-Ledger Staff

Aaron Swank was supposed to interview today for a position selling suits with Armani in the Mall at Short Hills. After bouncing in and out of jobs since high school, the 24-year-old Parsippany man was getting his life together and had dreams of being a famous deejay at New York City clubs, family and friends said.

But his dreams will go unfulfilled. Swank died from an apparent overdose of the party drug GHB and alcohol on Friday, authorities said.

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"Me and my son were not always on the best of terms. Yes, he's a son, but he's also a man making his own decisions. It looked like he was getting his life back on track," his father, Tom Swank, said yesterday.

Tom Swank named his son Aaron Henry after Major League Baseball's home run king, Henry Aaron. Swank said he hoped his son would grow up to be a baseball player like "Hammerin'" Hank, but the closest Aaron Swank came to athletics was sculpting his body by lifting weights two to three hours a day.

Aaron Swank could pick from about 2,000 techno-music records he owned to play in his home studio. The music annoyed Tom Swank.

Aaron Swank deejayed at the Sound Factory and the Exit Night Club in New York, but his lack of a steady job grew tired on his father.

"He didn't take a manly approach to life. He lacked discipline," Tom Swank said.

Three weeks ago there was a turning point in the father-son relationship when Tom Swank came home from the hospital after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. With Tom Swank given less than a year to live, he and his son called a truce.

"I asked him not to play the music so loud and he played the music, but not that loud. Now, I only wish I had seen him dance. He was a great dancer, people told me," Tom Swank said.

Aaron Swank's deejay skills had built a cult following. Clubplanet.com has a link where fans have written about 20 messages mourning his death.

He met his girlfriend, Rachel Manheim, a little more than three years ago at the Exit Night Club. Manheim lived with Aaron in the Swank home.

As is common with the club scene, Swank used drugs occasionally, Manheim, 24, said.

"He wasn't a drug addict," she said.

Lately, the couple's lifestyle had changed. Instead of hitting the clubs they were going to movies and the mall, Manheim said.

When Aaron Swank hit it big deejaying, he and Manheim would marry, build a house and have four kids and two dogs, she said.

"He would cry to me all the time saying he had to make things right. This was his time to make things right," she said.

Police said Swank had no pulse when paramedics found him in a downstairs bedroom of a friend's house around 1 p.m. Friday. After a night out at Double D's, a bar in Morristown, Swank, Nicholas Protopapas, 25, and six others went to Protopapas' house on Rita Drive in Parsippany. Swank had been drinking GHB out of a Cepacol bottle, and Protopapas had drank it from a Renu bottle, normally used to hold contact lens solution, police said.

GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is often available in after- hours clubs and rave parties as a white powder that is dissolved in water, resulting in a salty tasting liquid. Users have reported a sense of euphoria, enhanced sexual effects and no hangover. It is called the "date rape" drug because an overdose causes the user to lose consciousness.

Swank and Protopapas were taken to Saint Clare's Hospital in Denville. Swank was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. Friday. Protopapas was released on Saturday and declined to comment when contacted at his home yesterday.

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office is investigating, said Lt. Paul Kalleberg. If the person or people responsible for giving Swank the GHB are identified, they will be prosecuted for homicide under the state's strict liability law, which has been used applied to people who supply a fatal dose of drugs, Kalleberg said.

GHB has been used since the 1960s, first as an anesthetic, then sold in health food stores as a product to induce sleep and as a bodybuilding aid. The drug can be fatal when mixed with alcohol.

In addition to his father, Swank is survived by his mother, Maria; four brothers, Eric Swank and Jose Morales, both of Parsippany, Maurice Guzman of Ridgefield Park and Bryan Swank of Little Falls; and a sister, Helene Scarnegi of Little Falls.

Visiting hours are today from 6 to 9 p.m. at Gaita Memorial Funeral Home in Little Falls. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the funeral home. Interment will take place at Ridgelawn Cemetery in Clifton.

[laurie619]

the media has no respect, you are right with that doubleplay1970