A HARD HABIT TO BREAK

Man's Addiction Leads Him To Steal From His Relatives, Lose His Family And
Land In Jail For The Countless Time

DALLAS -- He lied, cheated and stole from his family. He was gunned down by
a drug dealer and almost died. He spent the past decade spinning through a
revolving door of Texas prisons.

Yet John Hyder isn't confident that heroin has loosened its death grip. And
he sees a new generation of young addicts following in his footsteps.

"I'm only 34 and I sit back off to the side and see that the system is
flooded with youngsters," Hyder said in an interview at the Lew Sterrett
Justice Center in Dallas, where he was awaiting a hearing on burglary charges.

"The prison system has become nothing more than a breeding ground for our
youngsters," he said. "They learn how to be a better addict, how to be a
better hustler, manipulator and con artist. Hey, I'm No. 1 on that list."

Hyder dreamed of piloting a helicopter or becoming an artist until his
heroin addiction took over. In and out of prison since 1989, he lost his
first wife and three children when they got "smart enough to get the hell
out," he said.

Along with his jail whites, Hyder wears a thin gold wedding band given to
him by his second wife, Vanessa, a heroin addict serving time for burglary.
Around his neck on a black leather string is a St. Jude medallion -- patron
saint of thieves, he points out -- and a scapular medal, a Catholic symbol
that he believes will save his soul from the fires of hell.

Hyder can't remember how many times he's been arrested. He will, however,
acknowledge the people he's hurt to feed a habit that sometimes topped $400
a day.

"It's just amazing the lengths we go to as addicts to get high," Hyder
said. "We steal from our parents, our grandparents. I've stolen everybody's
stuff: rings, family heirlooms, antiques. Stuff that can never be replaced."

Other than his sister, Rhonda Benschoff, Hyder's relatives keep their
distance.

"He's my brother and I love him," said Benschoff, 39, of Rowlett, noting
that Hyder has stolen from most of their relatives. "When my family talks
about what he's done, I say, `This isn't Johnny doing this.'

"My dad doesn't understand. My sister doesn't understand," she said. "This
is the drug. I learned that it is an addiction. But I am not going to lie.
I do want to say, `Johnny, why don't you just not do the drugs?' "

Hyder, a sixth-grade dropout, tried heroin for the first time when he was
20. "It's been a helluva habit," he said.

He recalls frequenting a low-income neighborhood in Dallas to score
capsules of black tar heroin from his favorite dealer, who would cruise a
10-block area all day waiting for customers to page him.

"He would meet us at a store," Hyder said. "He was better than Domino's."

In 1993, Hyder was shot in the chest and abdomen by a dealer who wanted to
steal his jewelry and money. He almost died. But even that failed to shock
him out of his addiction.

Hyder hasn't seen his son and two daughters since 1993. His former wife
married a Navy officer and now lives with the children in Virginia.

"My kids have a role model to look to, and you know what? Who am I to go in
there and take that away from them?" he said. "Because I'm nothing but an
addict. Everything I promise you, I'm going to break. I wouldn't want to
take that from my kids."

Hyder met Vanessa at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in October 1996. When
she relapsed, so did he, and the crime sprees started anew. The latest
arrest -- in July 1997, five months after their wedding -- came when he and
his bride were caught stealing from his uncle in Rockwall.

Hyder is serving six years for the Rockwall burglary and was sentenced last
month to an additional six years in another case. His wife is serving a
nine-year sentence for burglary in Denton County and a 10-year sentence for
the Rockwall crime.

Hyder continues to hope that he will beat his addiction.

"I say `real treatment.' That's not going and sitting in a room and
watching some films and stepping out the door and saying, `Hey, I'm cured,'
" he said. "No, you're not. You're never cured."

His salvation, he says, will come only from hitting bottom.

"You finally get to a point where you're sick and tired," he said. "Drug
use, I can assure you, that if you use, it will lead you to three different
things: jails, institutions or death.

"I've been to the first two and pretty close to the third one."


Checked-by: Richard Lake