Cocaine contributed to death at 50 of hyperactive OxiClean salesman Billy Mays – Telegraph Blogs

Saturday 15 March 2014 | Blog Feed | All feeds

Andrew M Brown


Cocaine contributed to death at 50 of hyperactive OxiClean salesman Billy Mays

The television pitchman Billy Mays, who died in Tampa, Florida, of a heart attack on June 28, aged 50, had used cocaine not long before he died, the medical examiner’s office in Florida has revealed. But it's the combination of drugs they found that is really intriguing.

Mays, a bearded man with jet-black hair, became hugely famous in the USA as the king of “infomercials”  on TV channels like the Home Shopping Network, and for the style he used to promote household products like OxiClean, Orange Glo and Mighty Putty. He began his career pitching products direct to the public on the boardwalk in Atlantic City .

The initial post mortem conclusion was that he died of a heart attack. Now an official autopsy report indicates (as reported by CNN) that Mays did indeed have high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries, but the toxicology also reveals traces of cocaine. The drug had been partially metabolized, which suggests it was not taken immediately before death but probably within 24 hours or so.

A statement from Hillsborough County, Florida, attributed to Dr Lesrek Chrostowski the associate medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, says Mays died from “a lethal arrhythmia of the heart caused by hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease”. It adds: “From the presence of metabolites of cocaine and the absence of cocaine itself, it was concluded that Mr Mays used cocaine in the few days prior to his death but not immediately prior to death.”

TMZ further reports: “Official documents show the following drugs were in Mays' system: hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (painkiller), alprazolam (Xanax), nordiazepam (Valium), benzoylecgonine (byproduct of cocaine) and temazepam (anti-anxiety). Ethanol was also in Mays' system.”

Mays had recently undergone hip surgery apparently, which would explain the opioid painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone. The other tablets are benzodiazepines, both to aid sleep (temazepam) and relieve anxiety (Xanax and Valium). What is interesting to note is that he had consumed alcohol as well. It is not as commonly known as it should be that booze and cocaine combined produce a highly toxic compound, cocaethylene, that is more rewarding than cocaine and carries an increased risk of fatal damage to the heart.

Not surprisingly, Mays’ widow Deborah is none too happy with the Hillsborough County medical examiner’s office. She has released a statement saying:



So is poor Mrs Mays questioning the validity of the autopsy? The discovery of traces of cocaine must be distressing, but if that's what the medical examiner found, then an independent evaluation will not make any difference.

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