BIO : I was an author of gambling "how to" books and professional  "21" card counter and poker player.
I played in casinos worldwide.  During a long string of troubles in my personal life, partly due to undiagnosed depression and other health problems, I started to lose touch with reality and my work suffered.  I lost my girl, my house, my mind, and all but 40,000 or so of my savings.  I finally went off the deep end completely and wound up on Death Row : killed 2 people for insane reasons.

To To give you an idea how bad depression is as an illness, how even successful famous people can come to believe their lives and / or the world is hopeless, look at all the people its happened to, like me.  Winona Ryder is a recent example, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Howard Hughes, past victims, Jim Morrison, etc.  We've all heard of other such examples.  I, like all depressives, felt things were bad despite any and all evidence to the contrary.  I still had about $40,000, a BMW, a Porsche, (both paid for), all the "toys," expensive stereo, TV, camcorder, film camera, 2 VCRs, art work, gun collection, my physical health was good, I exercised and ate like the doctors wish people would, as befitting the scientist and ex-marine I was.  Yet I felt hopeless, not in control of my own destiny, a failure.  (To be fair, I had suffered a long string of defeats, my girl, most of my $ was gone;...Now I paint, write essays about widely different things (I have massive science education and life experience to draw on)  CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE OF ONE OF MY EARLY ESSAYS.

I will write to penpals.

SEE BELOW - Enclosed is some of my art.  I've many more.  I will paint anything requested.  I'll donate a portion of each sale to CCADP.

                               H. J. Coddington
                                E-08100  5-E-63
                        San Quentin State Prison
                          San Quentin California
                                    94974  USA

                           " I will paint anything requested.
      I'll donate a portion of each sale to CCADP."

                               H. J. Coddington
                                E-08100  5-E-63
                        San Quentin State Prison
                          San Quentin California
                                    94974  USA

            
           30" high, 2' wide                                    'Frisco,  Bay Bridge in mirror