A cautionary tale for every middle-aged man: part 8

In Western medieval legend, a succubus is a demon who takes the form of a beautiful woman to seduce men in dreams to have sex. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death of the victim. This definition could very well describe my new life with my new wife.

She started right off by driving a wedge between me and my kids. When your boss runs off with your husband, you can imagine what your spouse is going to say about you to the kids. My ex-wife predictably trashed me to everyone who would listen. It was hard for people to treat you the same after hearing her tell the story, and that's only scratching the surface.

What's worse, my crazy new wife somehow befriended a retired insurance salesman who was a lifelong crazy, gun-toting, life-threatening drunk. This disrespectful alcoholic lunatic created situations that resulted in his own death over a fight over — of all things — military dog tags.

To skip over the details for now, I was convicted of his kidnapping and murder in 2003 and am now serving a life sentence for his death.

At only 44 years old in 2003, I'm in prison for life all because of my weak mind.

I had everything with my first wife, except she was not desirable in any way to me. Later at trial, she even got on the stand and lied about me because she hated me so much by that point. But I'm the one who threw away a good life for an unattainable dream. I succumbed to the influence of the wrong people who warped my thinking, and turned my previously clear perspective inside out.

What's funny is that, looking back, I broke one of the main tenets of Tom Leykis: Never ever move in with your girlfriend. Ever.