Warning, this episode of Swindled contains descriptions and accounts of alleged sexual assaults.

Listener discretion is advised.

Can you help us out please?

Um, I don't know, like, there's some crates back there you can walk into.

Sheehee.

Rufus Hannah took his first sip of alcohol when he was 14 years old and never looked back.

His dependence wasn't the result of an abusive parent or childhood trauma of any kind.

According to Rufus, this family life in Georgia was great.

We just like to get drunk.

Which resulted in the next four decades of Rufus's life passing him by in a complete

blur, often on relationships, in and out of jobs, and televentually by the late 90s.

Rufus found himself living on the streets of the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, sleeping

under bridges and digging in dumpsters for food.

The only constant in Rufus's life was his drink and his drinking buddy, a man named

Donnie Brinnon, a Vietnam veteran who was also a homeless life-long alcoholic.

Together in drunk, Rufus and Donnie would scour the streets of La Mesa looking for ways

to acquire money in order to score their next bottle, and they almost always found a way.

The two men became familiar to the residents of La Mesa.

They were easily recognizable because there weren't many homeless people in the area,

most opted to live in the city instead.

But Rufus and Donnie preferred the stillness of the suburbs, and they seemed harmless,

so no one in La Mesa paid them any mind.

...