Sounak Sengupta
The two-hour-long documentary ‘American Pain’ details how two Florida twin brothers, Chris and Jeff George, ran what was once the nation’s largest illegal prescription drug network during the late 2000s. The episode features Chris and Jeff George’s biological father, John Paul George, and their stepfather, Michael Haggerty, as they recounted the twins’ childhood and how they were growing up.
Who Are John Paul George and Michael Haggerty?
John Paul George had a lot of success in the building industry and lived in the upscale community of Wellington, west of West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County, Florida, in the 80s. He had moved to the wealthy neighborhood with his erstwhile wife, Denice Haggerty, and their newly born twins, Christopher “Chris” Paul George and Jeffrey “Jeff” Frank George. John recalled how the twin siblings shared a deep bond growing up, completing each other’s sentences and always sticking together.
He recounted, “I had them doing push-ups when they were little. I mean, we stressed exercise.” There was pride in his voice as he reminisced how his sons were great athletes and also on the math team, even winning the Pal Beach County Mathematics Contest. However, he and Denice got divorced in 1988, with her meeting Michael Haggerty in 1989. Michael remembered the twins as “difficult,” as they were even responsible for starting a minor forest fire that firefighters took around three days to control.
As a firefighter himself, he strongly condemned their actions, though the twins got off easy by doing community service only. Michael also seemed annoyed as he recalled how the twins seemed to amass a lengthy criminal record as teenagers, including illegal possession of alcohol, brawls, contraventions, obstruction of justice, and theft. However, the stepfather recounted how their biological father, John, always had them released with sometimes nothing more than community service by hiring attorneys or paying hefty fines.
When Chris was arrested in 2003 for illegally dealing with anabolic steroids, John again came to the rescue by employing him in his flourishing real estate company named “Majestic Homes.” Out of his eight-month prison term, he served six months on work furlough, managing the company’s West Coast office in Florida. John proudly stated, “We were building 100 homes at a time, a $40 million business. We put a lot of pride into the business, and Chris carried that pride with him.”
Where Are John Paul George and Michael Haggerty Now?
John recalled how his business was the featured builder on a 2006 episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” calling it the “height of Majestic Homes.” Both his sons featured in the reality show episode, lending their hands in making the house. However, South Florida was one of the first regions to be struck by the bursting of the housing bubble, and John stated how buyers began breaking their contracts because the homes were depreciating so rapidly, causing construction delays.
As a cost-cutting measure, John closed his South Florida office, and Chris returned to his native Palm Beach County before joining his brother’s illegal online steroids-selling business. From there it snowballed with the twins establishing the most prolific pain pill empire in the nation’s history, with investigators estimating their four primary clinics churned out roughly 20 million doses of oxycodone in its three years of operation. However, law enforcement soon got a whiff of the empire, and the Georges were under investigation.
John maintained the clinics were operating within the law and that any illegal activity that occurred there was the fault of rogue physicians. He did not have a role in the clinics and was not charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the case. Though his former wife, both sons, and daughter-in-law were all convicted of various charges related to the drug business and had to serve varying prison terms. From what we can tell, he as well as Michael thus prefer to lead a quiet, private life well away from the limelight these days.
