On the morning of Sunday, March 16, 2014, John Moffitt woke on the floor of a Chicago holding cell, his mouth bloody, his memory blank.
The catalysts for his reckless night had still been swimming through his blood stream when police had locked him in the cell with 40 other men, having arrested him on charges of battery and drug possession after Moffitt, standing 6-foot-4 and weighing more than 300 pounds, had tussled with a bouncer at a nightclub called Underground. The police report had catalogued the scope of Moffitt's thrill-seeking: He had on his person 10 grams of marijuana, four ecstasy pills, and a gram of cocaine, all stored in a sunglasses case.