As he throws a sleeveless T-shirt on over his tattoos and barrellike frame, he continues the story, laying out the yet-untold details about how Councilman Darrell Clarke tried to stop one-time Mariano booster and union boss John Dougherty from reaching the councilman on the rickety steps leading up to the observation deck. (Mariano says Clarke told Dougherty, “He’s fucking up there because of you.” Dougherty recalls that Clarke said, “He isn’t feeling you right now.” Clarke didn’t return a call for comment.)

Whatever was said, Mariano remembers U.S. Rep. Bob Brady ‚Äî in that vulnerable “High Drama” image that was memorialized on the front of the Daily News ‚Äî whisking him over to Mayor Street’s house. There, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson asked him to get a psychiatric evaluation as “a favor.” Soon he was off to the Pennsylvania Hospital, and then a facility in Bryn Mawr where, in what has become a bit of Philadelphia’s political folklore, he was admitted under the name Axl Rose.

Shaking his head and smirking, Mariano deadpans, “I don’t know where the fuck that came from. Shoulda said Jack Benny or something.”

CP: Welcome To The Jungle

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 10:40 am.