June 29, 2014 - The Georgia Gazette
By
the summer of 1987 news of what was happening to Jonathan Winston had
spread across the globe. On June 6, 1987 this paper, the Georgia Gazette, published an article entitled "The Man Who Never Sleeps."
Within days, the requests for interviews numbered over 300.
What Jonathan Winston feared most, as he passed 100 days
without sleep, was not death. He now seemed certain that whatever was
happening was not killing him. Nor did he worry that he was losing his
mind. His time in the Glen Oaks mental facility in the spring of 1987
had calmed him down and made him stop questioning his sanity. What would
have kept Jonathan awake at night (if he had been able to sleep) was
the overriding thought of becoming a freak show.
Jonathan had spoken with the Georgia Gazette for the article
because he knew the story would get out no matter his wishes, and
he wanted the record to be correct. He told the paper that the doctors
had been unable to find the cause of his "problem". They could see some unusual brain
activity happening every night at almost the same time, but had no
explanation for why it occurred nor any suspicion as to what it was
doing. The brain tremors seemed to make it unnecessary for Jonathan to
sleep. Each morning he felt much like you or I would after a full
evening of shut-eye. And yes, he was actually apparently completely
healthy.
The Gazette's piece was filled with expert opinions on what
ailed Mr. Winston. From around the globe there were diagnosis and cures.
"Give me 72 hours with him, and he will be sleeping like a baby" was
the pronouncement of Dr. Walter Postman who had won universal acclaim
for his study on sleep ailments. He postulated that there was a
triggering mechanism in Winston's brain that could be turned on and off,
like a light switch. His theory, like every other one that came before
and would come after, was incorrect.
Jonathan's bookstore business had been in shambles in the early months
of 1987 as he was shunted from doctor to doctor, and then to Glen Oaks.
While friends tried to help out, they could only do so
much. After he returned to work, and the Gazette article was published,
Jonathan Winston's bookstore became a tourist attraction. Within weeks,
business was exploding and Jonathan hired his first full time employee
since he opened his doors eight years earlier. While he welcomed the
financial relief, he despised why it was occurring.
In July of 1987, Jonathan Winston disappeared. It would be 18
months before he resurfaced. There were reports during that time that he
had died in an accident, committed suicide, become a monk, shaved his
head, grown a beard. There were thousands of sitings and endless conjecture. In his absence, his fame only grew larger. If Jonathan Winston hoped would come back to find his story nothing more than yesterday's news, his wish would not be fulfilled.
Where
had he been during those months? Jonathan would not divulge this information nor what had prompted his return.
One would have thought this secret would long since have been
revealed, if not by Jonathan, than by someone, anyone, with whom he had
an encounter, by chance or purpose, during that time. But, like other
great mysteries of the universe, no one knows where and how Jonathan
Winston lived from July 1987 until January of 1989. And he was soon
voted one of the ten most famous persons on the planet for the decade of
the 1980's.
After giving the interview to the Georgia Gazette in the
spring of 1987, Jonathan Winston would not grant another request to
speak on the record for 27 years. As he neared 10,000 consecutive days
and nights without sleep, he decided that he would grant one, and only
one more request to tell his story.
To discover Jonathan Winston's personal thoughts on the
odyssey that has taken him to places he never dreamed of going (and.,
literally, could not dream about) you must read the July 6, 2014 fourth,
and final, installment in the Georgia Gazette of "The Life and Very
Strange Times of Jonathan Winston"
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