USA. New York City. 1972. The hotel clerk, the neighbors, his roommate of three years... no one knew a thing about the dead young man in the hotel room -- not even his real name, or where he worked. The man lay fallen back on the bed, eyes fixed to the ceiling, a hypodermic needle in his arm. "How did this guy die?" I asked the cop. "Dirty drugs." I learned later that he had been a police informant.