Plymouth Legend Jay Allen

At Plymouth State University, if you get caught drinking underage on campus, you more than likely end up at the On Campus Talk About Alcohol class, otherwise known as OCTAA.

Most students anticipate didactic lessons on the rights and wrongs of drinking. Few are shocked to hear stories like this:

"... And he touched me.. I turned around and murdered him. I stole that human beings right to life. I caved his fucking head in."

Students in the class look around stunned, even mildly entertained, like they were watching a bloody scene in a Quentin Tarantino film, as the speaker adds,

"I didn't want to let a murder go to waste, so I robbed him."

The speaker is Jay Allen, originally raised in Rumney, Jay has been involved in drug addiction, robbery, assault, and murder. Jay shares his story of addiction and incarceration at every OCTAA class.

Jay shows the class a black and white picture of a little boy chasing a bird near Stinson Lake, he holds the picture up and looks it over, "that grew up to become a murder," the picture was of him.

Jay shares his story, of growing up and just wanting to fit in. After barley passing his 5^th year of high school, Jay enlisted in the Army. "I spent 13 months in those central highlands in two core, infiltrating into Cambodia, infiltrating in Laos, and killing people... and I got very, very good at killing people."

After his service Jay headed west, and while living in Denver he was introduced to a new vice. 

"I had injected a substance called methamphetamine sulfate, the street name of it is speed, and I absolutely loved it."

"It's 1976, and by this time in my life I'm shooting $300 a day in heroin, that's just to get right with the world."

Eventually Jay's life in Denver fell apart. The biker gang he was affiliated with told him to cover his tattoos for the rest of his life or have his arm cut off. So he returned to the Northeast, this time Boston; stealing panty hoes in bulk from delivery trucks, still using drugs daily, and getting involved in cold-hearted murder.

Despite that, "I wanted to be a good guy, I wanted to do something right." So when a buddy of his tells Jay that a girl on Beacon hill had been kidnapped and raped in a cellar apartment, Jay decided to take action.

"I went and I kicked in that cellar apartment door, and I dispatched those three guys that raped and kidnapped that women. I broke their knees and I broke their elbows with that ball pein hammer. I put them in their car down the hill, and rolled them down the hill toward mass general hospital. Just knowing they would get the help they so desperately needed."

Eventually he developed a relationship with the women he rescued, so he followed her down to Texas. Where, eventually, she would turn him into the feds. "They sentenced me to 35 years for murder."

Before Jay's story, Sean O'Brien, the 4-year OCTTA instructor, facilitates discussion among the students, and gives the standard biology of drinking. Like, how much you need to be legally intoxicated, and how long booze stays in your body.

"Really what OCTTA is, is life style risk reduction. So, getting students to realize that they need to make smart choices by reducing the amounts they need to drink. I'm not gonna go tell them not to drink, their gonna do what they want to do. But, I want them to be safe."

Jay, who is now 28 years sober, has been through four different instructors over the past decade. Jay says he has continued speaking over the years not only for the students but for himself. 

"I really identify with the person who is sitting there. To have gone through what I've went through, and to present it in a formal setting, OCTTA, is a gift for me, too. It helps me with my life."

Eventually, Jay got sober in prison through the AA. But in retrospect, he still can't help but regret. As he tells the class, "I never ever learned from my mistakes.. I never grew up."

He shares other heartfelt stories, like missing out on time with his family or his brother and friends passing away.      

These stories resonate with students, making Jay a sort of underground famous figure on campus.

 "Everyone who left that class really had a better idea on drug and alcohol addiction, he really got his point across by using his life as the example," says Johnny O'Connor, a sophomore, and OCTAA student.

Jay and Sean want all students to know that their door is always open. "We make ourselves available to student too, Jay always says... I'm down here, I'm around campus, I'm available," says Sean.

"We want the best for this community, I want the best for this school, I want the best for you," says Allen.

Jay can always be found downtown, riding up on his motorcycle to Market Street, and sitting down for a coffee, where he is happy to listen to your story.