Cathy Smith

Smith was born in Hamilton, Ontario. Her association with celebrities went back at least 20 years prior to her confession in the National Enquirer. Her earliest acquaintance was with Levon Helm, who later joined the Band, in 1963.{{cite book |last1=Helm |first1=Levon |title=This wheel's on fire : Levon Helm and the story of the Band |date=1993 |publisher=W. Morrow |location=New York |isbn=978-0-688-10906-6 |edition=1st |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-688-10906-6}}{{cite web| title = Book: "This Wheel's on Fire"| url=http://theband.hiof.no/books/this_wheels_on_fire.html| website=The Band|accessdate = 2007-01-30}} In his autobiography, Helm recalls that he first met Smith in Hamilton, Ontario.{{cite web| title = The Band's guestbook at Official web site| url=http://theband.hiof.no/guestbook/may_00.html| accessdate = 2007-01-30}} Helm, with friend and bandmate Rick Danko, was in a band called the Hawks at the time (see Ronnie Hawkins). At one point, the musicians were in Toronto facing a drug bust.{{cite web| title = Peter Viney, "14 Years old" citation at Official web site of The Band| url=http://theband.hiof.no/articles/the_weight_viney.html#sdfootnote14sym| accessdate = 2007-01-30}}

Smith has been connected to the Band's song, "The Weight" (1968). Smith says in Rock and Roll Toronto: From Alanis to Zeppelin (1997),{{cite book|author1=Goddard, John Goddard |author2=Crouse, Richard |title=Rock and Roll Toronto: From Alanis to Zeppelin|url=https://archive.org/details/rockrolltorontof0000godd |url-access=registration |publisher= Doubleday|date= 1997|isbn=9780385256001 }} that Richard Manuel offered to marry her, but she refused.{{cite web| title = Cathy Smith's connection to song; "The Weight".| url=http://theband.hiof.no/articles/the_weight_viney.html| quote="According to Rock & Roll Toronto, Smith was impregnated by one member of the band, but the identity of the father was not clear." | accessdate = 2007-01-30}} Nevertheless, she continued to tour and party with Helm, Danko, and Manuel through the 1960s, and at one point became pregnant with a child known as "The Band baby," as its paternity was unclear.{{cite book|last=Hoskyns|first=Barney|title=Across The Great Divide: The Band And America|url=https://archive.org/details/acrossgreatdivid00hosk|url-access=limited|year=1993|publisher=Hyperion|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-7868-8027-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/acrossgreatdivid00hosk/page/67 67]}}

Smith became an employee (and, later, mistress) of Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot in the early to mid-1970s.

The Smith-Lightfoot affair was violent and illustrated in the lyrics of "Sundown" (1974), Lightfoot's No. 1 hit and most lucrative song. It reflects the dark feelings Lightfoot was experiencing at the time, with lyrics such as: "Sometimes I think it's a shame / When I get feeling better when I'm feeling no pain." Drinking too much and married to another woman, he on one occasion broke Smith's cheekbone in a fight.{{cite web| title =Lightfoot broke Smith's cheekbone.|url=http://www.corfid.com/gl/press/press04.htm| accessdate = 2007-01-30}} Lightfoot has stated of his three-year relationship with Smith, "I was sometimes crazy with jealousy".{{cite web| first=Jean|last=Sonmor|title ="I was sometimes crazy with jealousy".- Gordon Lightfoot|url=http://www.corfid.com/gl/press/press14.htm|newspaper=Toronto Sun|date=November 10, 1996| accessdate = January 30, 2007|via=corfid.com}}

Bluegrass musicians Bruce and Brian Good, The Good Brothers, who were one of Lightfoot's opening acts during that time, got fired by Lightfoot for "flirting" with Smith.{{cite web| title =James & the Good Brothers fired by Lightfoot for flirting w/ Smith.|url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/tnunn/onradio.htm| accessdate = 2007-01-30}} Smith was cited in Lightfoot's divorce papers, and shortly after his affair with Smith ended, Lightfoot was a party to the most expensive divorce settlement in Canadian history to that date.{{cite web| title =After "Sundown" Gordon Lightfoot makes up for lost time|author=Naglin, Nancy |url=http://www.corfid.com/gl/press/press26b.htm| accessdate = 2007-04-07}}

In a 1975 interview, Lightfoot expanded upon "Sundown" and hinted at the worry he experienced in his relationship with Smith:

{{blockquote|All it is, is a thought about a situation where someone is wondering what his loved one is doing at the moment. He doesn't quite know where she is. He's not ready to give up on her, either, and that's about all I got to say about that.{{cite web| title =Song Facts: "Sundown".|url=http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3833| accessdate = 2007-01-30}}}}

Lightfoot gave another insight into his relationship with Smith in a 2000 interview when he remarked upon "Sundown" being:

{{blockquote|[A] back-alley kind of tune. It's based on infidelity – I've seen both sides of that.{{cite web| title =Gordon Lightfoot article: "Still out there."|url=http://www.s-t.com/daily/12-00/12-04-00/b02ae081.htm| accessdate = 2007-01-30}}}}

In 2008, Lightfoot gave an interview confirming that "Sundown" was written with his then-girlfriend in mind:

{{blockquote|I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs. I thought, 'I wonder what she’s doing with her friends at that bar!' It’s that kind of a feeling. 'Where is my true love tonight? What is my true love doing?'{{cite web| title =Gordon Lightfoot article: "Sunrise to Sundown".|url=http://www.americansongwriter.com/2008/01/gordon-lightfoot-sunrise-to-sundown/| accessdate = 2010-03-26}}}}

In 2014, Lightfoot added further insight into his writing of "Sundown":

{{blockquote|Well, I had this girlfriend one time, and I was at home working, at my desk, working at my songwriting which I had been doing all week since I was on a roll, and my girlfriend was somewhere drinking, drinking somewhere. So I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on her, because she was pretty good lookin'! And that's how I wrote the song 'Sundown,' and as a matter of fact, it was written just around sundown, just as the sun was setting, behind the farm I had rented to use as a place to write the album.{{cite web| title =Gordon Lightfoot Interview: 'Gordon Lightfoot here. Singer/songwriter for over 50 years whose work has been performed by everyone from Elvis to Barbra. AMA!'|date=22 August 2014 |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2e8cjz/gordon_lightfoot_here_singersongwriter_for_over/| accessdate = 2014-08-22}}}}

After Lightfoot and the Band, around 1976, Smith became a backup singer for Hoyt Axton, who was struggling with cocaine addiction at the time.{{cite journal|author1=Allen, Bob|date=1998|title=Hoyt Axton|work=Encyclopedia of Country Music|author2= Kingsbury, Paul (Ed.)|location= New York|publisher= Oxford University Press|page= 23}} She sang on his album Fearless (1976) and co-wrote the song "Flash of Fire" with Axton.{{cite web| title= Smith sang backup on song; "Fearless" + co-wrote; "Flash of Fire".|url=http://theband.hiof.no/guestbook/may_00.html| accessdate = 2007-01-30}}

Smith began using heroin in the late 1970s. In Bob Woodward's book Wired, she appears as a drug dealer to Rolling Stones band members Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards during their touring and rehearsals as The New Barbarians. She moved to Los Angeles and, as her addiction increased, she became a full-time drug dealer and courier to Wood, Richards, and others in the entertainment industry. Smith first met comedian John Belushi on the set of Saturday Night Live in 1976, when the Band were the musical guests.{{cite web|first=Jonathan|last=Katz|title= Smith met Belushi on set of SNL.|website=The Band Guestbook|url=http://theband.hiof.no/guestbook/december_98.html|date=December 1998| accessdate = January 30, 2007}}

She later met Belushi again through Wood and Richards, when Belushi contacted her to purchase the drugs that eventually killed him. Smith claimed that she injected Belushi with 11 speedballs (a combination of cocaine and heroin) at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, California in March 1982, and that this injection led to his death. According to Woodward, Robin Williams was present and was "creeped out" by Smith, whom he deemed a "lowlife."{{cite web |last=Wilkins |first=Frank |title=Robin Williams thought Cathy Smith was a "lowlife." |url=https://www.reelreviews.com/shorttakes-56/johnbelushi/morbid |accessdate=January 30, 2007 |website=reelreviews.com}} Belushi had been battling cocaine addiction for years and combining it with occasional heroin use.{{Cite magazine|first=Randall|last=Sullivan|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/wrong-time-wrong-place-wrong-people-19820513|title=John Belushi: Wrong Time, Wrong Place, Wrong People|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=March 13, 1982|access-date=January 2, 2018|archive-date=March 1, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170301141207/http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/wrong-time-wrong-place-wrong-people-19820513|url-status=dead}}

Released after initial questioning on the morning of Belushi's death, Smith spoke briefly to freelance writer Chris Van Ness. Then, two National Enquirer reporters, Tony Brenna and Larry Haley, spoke with her and published, four months after Belushi's death, their lengthy in-person interviews with her under the headline: "I killed John Belushi. I didn't mean to, but I am responsible." Her revelation led to the charge against Smith in Belushi's murder and 13 counts of administering cocaine and heroin. The National Enquirer reporters refused to testify at the subsequent trial and were threatened with incarceration by Judge Brian Crahan; however, he later vacated the contempt order.{{cite news| title=Contempt Finding Reversed For Writers in Belushi Case|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/11/us/contempt-finding-reversed-for-writers-in-belushi-case.html| accessdate = April 7, 2007| work=The New York Times | date=July 11, 1985}}

After the police released her on March 5, 1982, the morning after Belushi's death, Smith went to St. Louis on the advice of her lawyer, Robert Sheahen, to avoid reporters. Discovered there, she flew back to Los Angeles. Then she traveled to New York and eventually returned to Toronto.{{cite news|title=The Investigation Centers on a Burnt-Out Case, Cathy 'Silverbag' Smith|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20082686,00.html|accessdate=15 February 2013|newspaper=People Magazine|date=July 19, 1982|author=Michael Small|author2=Salley Rayl|author3=Tony Costa|author4=Karen G. Jackovich|author5=David Gritten|authorlink=The Investigation Centers on a Burnt-Out Case, Cathy 'Silverbag' Smith|agency=Time Inc.|page=88|format=Magazine|archive-date=14 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130214053738/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20082686,00.html|url-status=dead}} Smith ultimately returned to the United States in June 1986, where she accepted a plea bargain by pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter and several drug charges.{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Cathy Smith Ends Prison Term for Belushi Death|work=Daily News of Los Angeles| date= 1988-03-17}} She served 15 months in prison at California Institution for Women between December 1986 and March 1988.{{cite news|agency=Associated Press| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/17/us/figure-in-john-belushi-case-freed-from-california-prison.html |title=Figure in John Belushi Case Freed From California Prison|work=New York Times|date= 1988-03-17}} She was deported to Canada after her release and moved to Toronto, where she worked as a legal secretary and spoke to teenagers about the dangers of drugs.{{cite news|author=Lundgren, Mark|title= Personals|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date= 1992-01-24}}

Smith was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia in July 1991 with two grams of heroin in her purse, for which she received a fine of CDN$2000 and 12 months' probation. She appeared in the E! True Hollywood Story episode on Belushi's death, which first aired in 1998.{{cite web|website=Internet Movie Database|url=http://us.vdc.imdb.com/title/tt0365389/|title=E! True Hollywood Story: John Belushi|date=1998|accessdate=2007-12-16}}{{Dead link|date=June 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite news|url=http://mywebpages.comcast.net/be3t/ethsone.html|title=The E! True Hollywood Story|work=The Comfy Chair blog|accessdate=2007-12-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930021535/http://mywebpages.comcast.net/be3t/ethsone.html|archive-date=2007-09-30|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1989 |title=E! True Hollywood Story: John Belushi to air on Monday, 12/5|website= Blues Brothers Central discussion thread|accessdate= 2007-12-16}}

Smith died on August 16, 2020, in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, at the age of 73.{{cite web|last=Genzlinger|first=Neil|date=September 4, 2020|title=Cathy Smith, Who Injected John Belushi With Fatal Drugs, Dies at 73|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/cathy-smith-dead.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514142409/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/cathy-smith-dead.html|archive-date=2021-05-14|website=The New York Times}} According to The Globe and Mail, she had been on oxygen and in failing health for the previous few years.{{cite news|last=Evans|first=Greg|date=August 27, 2020|title=Cathy Smith Dies: 'Sundown' Muse Who Injected John Belushi With Fatal Drug Dose Was 73|language=en-US|website=Deadline Hollywood|url=https://deadline.com/2020/08/cathy-smith-dead-obituary-john-belushi-drug-overdose-gordon-lightfoot-sundown-1203024794/|access-date=July 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627201407/https://deadline.com/2020/08/cathy-smith-dead-obituary-john-belushi-drug-overdose-gordon-lightfoot-sundown-1203024794/|archive-date=2021-06-27}}

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• {{cite book|author=Smith, Catherine Evelyn| title=Chasing the Dragon|publisher=Key Porter Books|date= January 1984|isbn= 0-919493-50-5}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:2020 deaths

Category:20th-century Canadian criminals

Category:Canadian people convicted of manslaughter

Category:Canadian people imprisoned in the United States

Category:Drug dealers

Category:Groupies

Category:Musicians from Hamilton, Ontario

Category:Prisoners and detainees of California