But that was me at 20, when I knew everything. Nowadays it occurs to me, I can't imagine what it is like to have such unimaginable resource to allow oneself everything one desires. My favorite benign story about rock stars is, Prince calls his personal assistant at 3AM wanting to get a camel to his Minnesota estate right away. This may be apocryphal, but can you imagine that? Thinking it's reasonable to order a camel at a moment's notice?? I don't know what it's like to be able to be so whimsical. (Fortunately, I've never craved the company of a camel.) Nowadays, I know most people can never hope to relate to a Michael Jackson. We have almost no common experience, and that's part of his problem. He may as well be a space alien. Why shouldn't he think the laws don't apply to him?

Your story is fascinating. One aspect that's almost humorous is, when your "friend" denigrates you for being middle-class and convential because you don't approve of his hideous behavior! I imagine few others would accuse you of this. But I know from my own experience, no matter how free-spirited, experimental, or "laid back" one is, there's always someone else who's far over the line. It's good to be experimental at some point, but there's always someone abusing the concept.

My experimentation was mostly with drugs, petty crime, and music. Which means I've seen friends become heroin addicts, convicts, and jazz artists. I did try to dissuade them, but it is tricky. If you go about it the wrong way, they simply shut you off and never listen to you again. It's easier to see addiction to drugs, or atonal improvisation, as a disease; it's easier to be sympathetic.

I will have to take your word for it, as Crossbowman seems to agree, about the police situation in Eastern Europe. Of course, you don't have to leave America to see that YES, many people equate homosexuality with pedophilia. They imagine the two are just different levels of the same perversion.

He moved to another country, changed his name, and probably is doing exactly as before.

Cheer up. Perhaps he's sick, or dead.

I don't know if this is the response you hoped for, but I did appreciate reading about this. I can at least relate to the quandary of knowing an associate is doing something terribly wrong, but not knowing how to effectively stop it.