Matt Kielty

Becomes this quite successful young man.

Working at this law firm in the Bay.

Tall, broad-shouldered, clean-cut.

Black suit, black tie, neat hair.

And in 1962...

He decides to join the re-election campaign of Democratic Governor Pat Brown.

And he would say this later in an interview that it was like this moment on this campaign where politics became, quote, etched in his heart.

And so in 1966, at the age of 34, he runs for a seat in the California State House.

On November 8th, 1966, he wins.

Well, he has this spectacular nervous breakdown.

He completely collapses.

The way he describes it, he says, I found myself and my identity in my life coming utterly apart.

Was there something that precipitated this?

Well, at the time, no one knew what precipitated it.

Like, he never talked publicly about the details of what happened.

But the way that Mitch would describe it to us was...

It was kind of as if John had felt like he'd been handed a script his whole life, like a script from his family, from his church, from society of like, this is how you're supposed to dress.

This is how you're supposed to behave.

And he was suddenly kind of coming up against the idea that maybe he didn't want to live by that script.

And after that, John realizes, he says in his book, that he has to find some help.