Writer Eddie Little offered glimpses of 'Outlaw L.A.'

LOS ANGELES — Eddie Little, whose first novel, "Another Day in Paradise" (1998), was a fictionalized account of his life as a drug addict, thief, con man and convicted criminal, died Tuesday of a heart attack in a Los Angeles motel room. He was 48.

Born in Los Angeles and one of three children, he said that his father, a schoolteacher, taught him to read by twisting his arms behind his back and squeezing tighter if he mispronounced a word. After that, Mr. Little said, he became a "compulsive" reader and writer.

He started sniffing glue at 10, ran away from home at 12, got arrested the first time at 15 and started his first novel 20 years later while he was serving yet another prison term.

The book, about a teenager's introduction into a life of crime, was made into a movie starring James Woods and Melanie Griffith.

Mr. Little went on to write a second novel, "Steel Toes" (2001), and a newspaper column, "Outlaw L.A.," for the L.A. Weekly.

"The idea of the column was to show the underside of Los Angeles," Howard Blume, Mr. Little's editor at the L.A. Weekly, said Thursday. "So much of what goes on in the city is underground, under the table. There are people who live their whole lives unlisted."

To write the column, Mr. Little interviewed old acquaintances, prostitutes, professional burglars ("home invasion specialists"), a convicted murderer. He rarely used his subject's real name.

"Doing the fact-checking on Eddie's column was very challenging," said Blume.

Editors at the Weekly got used to Mr. Little's unique presence. He once thanked a top editor for giving him his chance, saying, "Anybody ever messes with you, if you ever need help dealing with anybody, you call Eddie and I'll take care of it."

Blume said that writing "was the center of Eddie's life."

"He could pull himself up to another level through his writing," Blume said. "It gave him extreme joy. But he also had his demons."

At the start of his first novel, a teenage crook named Bobbie describes his mentor, Mel, who teaches him how to crack a safe, force a door and set up a bogus checking account. This "practical" education makes a new man of Bobbie.

Mr. Little seems hardly a step away from his made-up character when he writes:

"The American dream in person — hustling, stealing to steal; blowing the cash as fast as I could get it; shooting speed 'til my nose bled, 'til my eyes crossed — ether fumes rolling out of my lungs like clouds of toxic waste; staying away for days on end; amphetamine psychosis in full bloom; giving money away; giving drugs away and always stealing so I'd have more for me and more for the borderline crazies, buzzed-out junkies, psychotic scooter trash, ex-con vet — Vietnam vet — 'kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out' fools and dope fiends I ran with, looked up to and loved like a normal person supposedly loves his brothers."

Reviewers placed Mr. Little among a small, contentious group known as "outlaw writers," whose personal stories turn on drugs and crime.

"Eddie did a lot in his life he wasn't proud of," said Brandi Kenyon, his fiancée. "He seemed so macho, but he was a good guy."

In a 1998 interview with Terry Gross for National Public Radio's "Fresh Air," Mr. Little talked about his work with a volunteer group, We Care, visiting housebound AIDS patients.

"I've always, even at my worst, I would always, like, want to help other people, be of service," he said.

Mr. Little is survived by his daughter, mother, stepfather, a brother and a sister.