John Harvey Coots

speaker

309 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 10 Jul

John Harvey Coots’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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My best friend, when I was seven or eight years old, lived a few doors down from me in a government-assisted housing co-op in Schwa, Michigan.

His name was Michael, and his parents used to lock him out of the house when they got high.

Michael showed me the needles once.

When he was locked out, we'd spend all afternoon down in the ravine behind the co-op making potions out of mud and casting magic spells.

Michael's dad taught us how to play darts in his basement, and his mom used to cook us hot dogs in their backyard.

I know Michael's dad hit him sometimes.

Michael had a little sister named Jess, and the three of us were all together when we found his dad's stash of dirty magazines.

Mostly, what I remembered was the little girl laughing at the pictures.

My mother used to tell me that Michael was on the road to ruin and that his parents were unfit.

When I asked Michael about his mom and dad though, he always said he thought they were great and that he loved them.

Some people just can't see the truth about things even when it's right in front of them.

I thought a lot about Michael and his sister and wished I'd been older back then and could have helped them somehow.

I ended up becoming an FBI agent.

No one could say I didn't turn out okay.

Still, when I think back about being a kid, it's like there was some dark cloud over the whole thing.

Part of me always wanted to get back to that darkness.

I didn't know it yet, but I was just about to find it.

I've always hated the sun.

It lays bare the ugly truth about everything.

And I burn easily.

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