Oregon Department of Corrections photo of James Fogle, 1968 

SEATTLE (AP) — The man who wrote "Drugstore Cowboy," an autobiographical
crime novel that led to an acclaimed 1989 film starring Matt Dillon, has died at
age 75.

A state corrections spokeswoman says James Fogle died Thursday at a prison
in Monroe, Wash., where he was serving time for holding up a pharmacy in a
Seattle suburb in 2010. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s office on
Friday says Fogle died of probable malignant mesothelioma.

The Seattle Times reports that Fogle had already spent half his life in prison
when he wrote "Drugstore Cowboy," based on his experiences in a band of
addicts who roamed the Pacific Northwest robbing pharmacies to feed their
addictions.

Filmmaker Gus Van Sant turned the novel into the acclaimed 1989 film. It
was filmed mainly around Portland, Oregon, including in an area in the
Pearl District that used to be a rail yard

     
      Director Gus Van Sant

Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis in the Smithsonian National Air and
Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)