Flaze

**Flaze** was a resident building manager of an apartment complex where Zampanò and Lude lived in 1996 and 1997. According to Johnny Truant, Flaze was mixed Hispanic and Samoan. "A bit of a giant," Flaze was 6'4" and 245 pounds with little body fat.

As the property manager, Flaze was intensely protective of the complex. He readily attacked vandals and junkies with physical force or even guns.

Flaze was visibly perturbed by Zampanò's death in the apartment, and allowed Lude to handle the problem by handing him the key to his apartment. After police and paramedics arrived, Flaze succumbed to his curiosity and watched the investigation.

## Commentary.

The identity of Flaze is unknown and the name "Flaze" is a mystery - perhaps a pseudonym drawn from 1990s drug culture much like the nickname behind Lude. Much study has been devoted to the person of Flaze, a man only briefly mentioned yet crucial to understanding Zampanò, his apartment, and his demise. Christy S. Matthews researched the persona of Flaze in mid-2001, shortly after the publication of House of Leaves, and came up with three likely candidates behind Flaze:

* **Johnathan B.** - A property manager and amateur wrestler in Los Angeles, California. According to Matthews, B. "enthusiastically" agreed to an interview in September, but the events of 9/11 made that an impossibility, so the two promised to reconvene later. My own research shows B. died of a brain aneurysm in 2002 while training in a gym.
* **Felipe T.** - A property manager in Los Angeles, California who went by the nickname "Flash." He worked at several properties as a resident through the 1990s, but denied knowing anyone that matched the descriptions of Truant, Lude, and Zampanò. He manufactured an excuse to cut the interview short (Matthews actually catches T. lying, which gives the article a hilarious spin worth reading), and has since refused future requests. He continues to work as a property manager as of 2019.
* **Aleki Z.** - An unemployed, disabled veteran from American Samoa who was known to work odd jobs off the books in southern California around the same time in exchange for housing. Friends said there was a time in the late 1990s when Z. matched Truant's description to the letter: 6'4", 250 pounds, and ready to throw down; but by the time Matthews found him, the poor bastard had thinned substantially. He was "evasive and whiny," "paranoid of government surveillance," and probably hooked on drugs. Information relating to Zampanò was contingent upon money or alcohol, and Matthews quickly realized that Z. was either exploiting him or at least not interested in telling the truth. Z. has since returned to Samoa.

Truant's own description paints Flaze in a suspicious light. He notes Flaze's "tough-guy" persona vanished when confronted with Zampanò's death, unable to find his keys to Zampanò's apartment and "muttering about calling the owner of the building." After twenty minutes of waiting, Lude impatiently offered to handle the problem himself. Truant continues, "Flaze immediately found the keys and with a big grin plopped them into Lude's outstretched hand."

Later, as part of his research into The Navidson Record, Truant interviewed Flaze, who said he had never seen a dead body. Truant seems to accept Flaze's explanation for his instantaneous and deep anxiety without further investigation, an investigative decision that has been almost universally criticized by later researchers. "The fiction known as Johnny Truant made a lot of mistakes which boil down to a troubled man trying to make sense of a world constantly re-shaping itself around him. I get it," professor Thomas Crist wrote on Facebook. "But that was just sloppy research. Full stop."

## Footnotes.

1. ↑ Since the first printing of this article, Lauren Levitt has noted that Flaze speaks in a collective sense: "We knew what we'd find," and "we knew that guy was dead." By doing so, Flaze hints at a deeper connection with Lude. Was it merely an agreement in a single conversation, she asks, or evidence of a criminal conspiracy? Letter to the editors (Aug. 2, 2018).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Johnny Truant, "Introduction" in House of Leaves xiii (2000).
2. ↑ "Flaze? Flaze Who? The Mystery of Zampanò's Building Manager", 19 *White Cap* 68 (2002).
3. ↑ *See, e.g.*, Marjorie A. M. Greene, "The Devil in Final Details: A Forensic Psychiatrist's Analysis of *House of Leaves*", 128 *Am. J. Forensic Psychiatry* 33, 34, 48 (2015); Aaron Glass, "Finding Flaze" in 3 *Johnny Truant Revisted: Transactions of the European Conference on* The Navidson Record 96 (2016).
4. ↑ Profile page of Thomas Crist, Facebook (Mar. 18, 2011) (link redacted).