'Drugstore Cowboy' author sentenced in robbery

[March 05, 2011]  SEATTLE (AP) -- The author of "Drugstore Cowboy," a crime saga that led to a Hollywood movie, has been sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison for holding up a pharmacy in a Seattle suburb.

The Seattle Times reports that 74-year-old James Fogle was sentenced Friday in King Superior Court for last May's Redmond robbery. The ailing man was brought to court in a wheelchair, breathing with the aid of an oxygen tank.

Fogle was armed with a BB gun, while his co-defendant, Shannon Benn, had a handgun. Benn pleaded guilty in September.

Fogle has spent much of his adult life in prison, which is where he wrote "Drugstore Cowboy." Filmmaker Gus Van Sant turned the novel into the acclaimed 1989 film starring Matt Dillon. The work was loosely based on Fogle's life robbing pharmacies to feed his addictions.

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Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com/

[Associated Press]

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