Cause of Death: Accute Multiple Drug Intoxication.
He collapsed outside the Viper Room club in Los Angeles (co-owned by Johnny Depp)
with his actor/brother, Joaquin and girlfriend/actress, Samatha Mathis at his side.
River was in LA, working on a film called, Dark
Blood, for Fine Line Features.
While in LA, he usually stayed at the St. James's Club and Hotel, on Sunset.
The destination for the evening of October 30th 1993,
was The Viper Room, a club owned by Johnny Depp,
at 8852 Sunset Boulevard.
Erick Reddekopp writes :
A few minutes before 1am (Halloween morning), River had been in the bathroom doing
drugs with some drug dealer friends and
someone offered him a snort of high-grade Persian Brown.
He was told it would make him feel fabulous.
As soon as he snorted it he started trembling and
shaking in front of the sink,
screamed at his friend and then vomited.
Someone tried to help by splashing cold water on his face and then gave him a Valium.
(Nothing helps someone O.D.ing then to give them more drugs.)
He staggered back into the bar and over to actress Samantha Mathis and his sister Rain.
He complained he could not breathe and briefly passed out.
When he came to, he asked Mathis to take him outside.
Mathis first called River's friend and assistant Abby,
then Mathis and River's brother Joaquin took him outside.
River then collapsed on the sidewalk.
After that he started going into seizures and had three before a photographer,Ron Davis,
went to call 911 at the nearby payphone, and so did Joaquin.
"He looked like a fish out of water," said Ron Davis, who was standing outside the club.
He was "thrashing spasmodically, his head flopping from side to side, arms flailing wildly" .
Rain had since come out and thrown herself on River to attempt to stop the seizures.
It seems after 8 minutes of seizures they stopped and River was still.
At which point Joaquin said he was not breathing.
At 1:14 a.m. he was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived and Paramedic ,
Ray Ribar of the LA County Fire Department began to administer CPR.
They rushed him to Cedars Sinai Medical Center where they arrived at 1:34.
When they got there, his skin was dark blue, but his body was still warm.
The ER physicians did everything to revive him, even inserting a pacemaker.
He was pronounced dead at 1:51 am.
He was 23 years old.
River was placed in a blue coffin, and on November 4,
sixty mourners showed up at Milam Funeral Home for the viewing.
His usual blonde hair was dyed black for the film he was working on.
He was dressed in a black t-shirt with the logo of his band,
Aleka's Attic on it. His mother put a single carnation in the coffin.
As mourners passed the coffin, several placed things like notes and necklaces in
the casket.
River was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over the family
ranch, in Florida.
There was a memorial service held on the Paramount Lot on
November 18th.
Sidney Poitier, Rob Reiner, Richard Benjamin, John
Boorman, Christine Lahti,
Peter Bogdanovich and River's mother, Heart, attended it.
