Victim of ‘Miami Zombie’ attack graduated from Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School ~ NYDailynews.com

[mzmolly]

Victim of ‘Miami Zombie’ attack graduated from Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School



The homeless drifter whose face was largely eaten by the “Miami Zombie” was once a brainy 1964 graduate of New York’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School.

Ronald Poppo, 65, was in the Latin Club and worked in the guidance office at Stuyvesant before his life hit the skids, his yearbook shows.

It was a long road from being one of the city’s smartest and most driven kids to lounging under a Florida bridge Saturday, when a maniac attacked him at random in one of the most gruesome crimes on record.

Poppo’s life unraveled early. He was already homeless in early 1976, when he was treated in Miami for a gunshot wound and gave his address as a Salvation Army shelter.

...

“The sad reality is there are many brilliant people who become schizophrenic and end up on the streets,” said a Stuyvesant classmate, Felix Freshwater, who became a pioneering plastic surgeon in Miami.

Read more: HERE

Such a horrible story.

[emilyg]

1. So sad.

[jpbollma]

2. Good Lord this story is horrific.

If I were religious I would think this man was possessed. How absolutely horrifying.

[Skidmore]

5. He was.

Drugs. Story this morning on national news was that the man who did this was high on "bath salts." Every time I see a story about someone brutalized by a person out of their heads on some of these chemicals that people ingest now, I cringe at the zealotry of those who want ALL drugs legalized.

[girl gone mad]

10. Prohibition has led to the proliferation of increasingly dangerous drugs.

Meanwhile the most dangerous drug of all, alcohol, is still perfectly legal.

[morningfog]

11. If drugs were legalized, regulated and taxed, people wouldn't need to turn to bath salts.

[mzmolly]

7. Eugene is said to have carried his bible around.

I think he was losing his marbles, and no one noticed. Perhaps he was delusional and just snapped?

Sad.sad.sad.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

3. So sad.

Its so easy for people to slip between the cracks (ever more each day). And once they're on the street they become non persons, regardless of the bright futures they were once capable of. This is an extreme story, and no doubt the media will focus on the bizarre circumstances of the crime committed. But the real crime is committed by a society who turns a blind eye to the homeless, nameless and (and no pun intended) faceless, silent and desperate, because they are "worthless", "beyond help" and "burden" to those who are more fortunate. A society of self absorbed consumers is all to quick to race blindly forward, while consigning yesterdays obsoletes to the trash heap.

[raouldukelives]

9. So very true.

If we are judged by how we treat the least among us. Then we are truly lost. It seems so hopeless. So many homeless, so many abandoned and terrified mentally ill people being preyed upon by the dregs of our society. That we allow such perversion because it's too costly to provide for them some manner of comfort & safety really speaks volumes about our moral compass as a nation.

[Jamastiene]

4. I'm still horrified by this story.

I hope the victim can at least not have to feel so much pain from it. A human bite is a nasty infection waiting to happen to begin with. That poor guy was brutalized in a most horrific way.

Oh yeah, before I forget to add it: Reagan turned a lot of people out into the streets who could have otherwise received help and lived functional and somewhat happy lives.

People who are schizophrenic are not unreachable or bad people. They deserve help and decent treatment and some respect. Instead, our society throws so many who suffer out in the streets and then mocks them.

[mzmolly]

6. Yes, it is horrifying.

I accidentally stumbled upon the injury photos. Viewing is not recommended, I might add.

I remember when Reagan turned the mentally ill out onto the streets. The homeless population increased dramatically. What a POS, he was.

[Quantess]

8. WOW, so tragic.

It sounds like the victim is still alive?

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. Completely unrelated to all things zombie, but this story demonstrates one of the greatest

hidden taxes in America. A tax that costs us dearly, every day, year after year.

"Disposable people".