Rudy Eugene

Ronald Poppo, Miami Zombie Victim, Releases Video Message

It's been almost exactly a year since Ronald Poppo literally had his face eating off near the MacArthur Causeway in Downtown Miami. Since then doctors at Jackson Health System have done their best to reconstruct Poppo's face and get him back to health. Poppo has now released a video in which he play ... More >>

The Miami Herald's Weird History

Miami Beach Memorial Day Weekend 2013: Prepare For More Traffic Loops, DUI Stops, and License Plate Scans

Living on South Beach sometimes feels like hosting a party that never quite ends. Just when all the frat boys from South Bend and Tuscaloosa have stirred themselves from their piles of vomit and slumped out the door, another waive of crazy party kids are snorting your granny's ashes for the sheer fu ... More >>

Miami's 2013 Resolutions: Jeffrey Loria Needs to Shut Up, Jeff Ireland Needs to Man Up

Bath Salts Will Make You Punch Your Girlfriend, Listen to Dubstep, Says U.S. Navy PSA Video

Up until now, the true dangers of bath salts were a bit hazy. The synthetic drug was blamed for everything from the Miami zombie to the guy in West Virginia who dressed in panties and slaughtered his neighbor's goat, but the science was much less certain. After all, face-eating killer Rudy Eugene's ... More >>

Naked Man Enters Yard, Chokes Dog, Bites Homeowner Before Being Shot and Arrested

Last year Florida witnessed some crazy sh*t, most famously "Miami Zombie" Rudy Eugene tearing the face off of Ronald Poppo before dying in a flurry of bullets.Well, 2013 isn't starting out any more sane.A naked burglar was arrested this morning after allegedly breaking into a yard in Little Haiti, c ... More >>

New Year Resolutions For Miami's Best and Brightest

The world didn't end after all on December 21, so now we all gotta make amends for our bad behavior in 2012. Our New Year's resolutions last year all failed, of course, whether it was taking abuelita to church every Sunday or deleting our Facebook accounts because Mark Zuckerberg is a privacy-pirati ... More >>

Riptide's Ten Most Popular Posts of 2012: Porn Stars, Roadside Masturbation and the Miami Zombie

Another year down. Thousands more blog posts committed to Riptide's digital page. So what better way to look back at the previous year than to look at the posts that racked up the most page views on this here humble blog. Of course, that makes the year of 2012 look like it was dominated by the Miami ... More >>

Mayan Calendar Predictions vs. Miami Reality

Marijuana Didn't Make the Face-Eater Go Nuts

What if Face-Eater Rudy Eugene Really Did Only Smoke Weed?

What If Face-Eater Rudy Eugene Only Smoked Pot? Weed Can Trigger Psychotic Reactions, Studies Say

Soon after Rudy Eugene gnawed off Ronald Poppo's face near the MacArthur Causeway in May, the media ran wild speculating he was high on "bath salts." Later, commentators suspected LSD, coke, Ecstasy, or PCP. Eugene's girlfriend even insisted a voodoo curse was to blame.Yet when Eugene's autopsy came ... More >>

Fear and Loathing in Tampa: Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

Face-Eating Victim Ronald Poppo On Causeway Cannibal: "He Just Ripped Me To Ribbons"

Ronald Poppo was blunt about the horrific Memorial Day weekend attack by Rudy Eugene that left him blind and disfigured. "He attacked me," Poppo said. "He just ripped me to ribbons. He chewed up my face. He plucked out my eyes. Basically, that's all there is to say about it." That recollection cam ... More >>

Foul Balls, Foul Mouth

Sweetwater Mayor Wants to Ban Bath Salts

Bath Salt Epidemic Bogus? Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño Says It's Real, and It's Scary

People love a good story. It's why when Rudy Eugene ate Ronald Poppo's face beneath the MacArthur Causeway on May 26, the whole world latched onto one cop's careless explanation: Bath salts drove Eugene insane.Cue public panic. In Miami, media blamed the mysterious compound -- often called synthetic ... More >>

Experts Say Pot Didn't Trigger Miami Zombie Attack and Bath Salts May Yet Be to Blame

Though final toxicology results on Rudy Eugene's blood turned up only traces of marijuana, experts say there's no way pot could have caused him to eat a man's face. Instead, some suggest he might have been under the influence of a bath-salts-like substance that laboratories are not yet equipped to d ... More >>

No Evidence of Bath Salts Found in Rudy Eugene's Body, Only Marijuana

Turns out Rudy Eugene, the "Miami Zombie," was probably not under the influence of bath salts after all. It had been previously reported that Eugene had marijuana in his system, and after further tests, that's all the medical examiners found.

Tech N9ne, Mayday, and Strange Music's Hostile Takeover Tour at Club Cinema June 26

Miami Police Tasered Naked, Knife-Wielding Man Along Biscayne Boulevard

About three weeks before Rudy Eugene took off all his clothes and chewed off Ronald Poppo's face, Miami Police had to subdue another naked man who went crazy in the Upper Eastside. Luckily, Andre Patterson didn't seriously hurt anyone and didn't end up dead. The incident occurred on the morning ... More >>

Miami-Dade Approves Bath Salts Ban

There's no proof yet that Rudy Eugene, the "Miami Zombie," was actually on bath salts when he chewed off a man's face, but the high-profile case and its rumored connection to the synthetic cocaine-like substance certainly played a part in the Miami-Dade County Commission granting initial approval to ... More >>

Naples Man Threatens to Bite Faces Off "Like Guy In Miami," Spits Blood at Nurse

Rudy Eugene, "the Miami Zombie," is not a role model. We thought that much would be evident, but apparently 21-year-old Giovani Martinez decided he found him self a new hero after being arrested for a DUI. After being transported to a hospital, he threatened to eat the staffers' faces "like the guy ... More >>

¡Mayday! Tells Strange Stories From Hostile Takeover Tour

The future is born a trillion times a second when the present meets the past through subatomic intercourse. Our universe is the climactic product of this union. And our physical reality is its explosive fury, travelling at lightspeed through every molecule on Earth. Of course, humanity doesn't pos ... More >>

New Photos of Ronald Poppo, Face-Eating Victim, Released Post-Surgery

Two weeks after having most of his face chewed off by a crazed Rudy Eugene near the MacArthur Causeway in downtown Miami, victim Ronald Poppo is slowly recovering. Jackson Memorial Hospital says the 65-year-old is awake and alert, and the hospital has released new photos of his face after undergoing ... More >>

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide

Zombie Virus Hoax Is the Work of Florida Webmaster Alfred Moya

For the past week, rumors regarding the Miami Zombie attack have been going bananas on the Internet. In one version, face-eater Rudy Eugene was infected with something called the LQP-79 virus. A website and YouTube video devoted to the supposed outbreak racked up over 10,000 views in less than 24 ho ... More >>

Jay-Z, Beyoncé Join Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow for Florida Trip: A Family Fun Guide Featuring Miami Zombie Tour!

Jay Z and Beyoncé love Florida. So much, in fact, they're planning to spend their family vacation exploring the 65,755-sqaure-mile peninsula that 19 million of us call home. According to Contact Music, after Jigga and Coldplay wrap their respective world tours, the hip-hop power couple is teaming ... More >>

Rudy Eugene Smoked Pot Before Face-Eating Attack, Other Drugs Won't Be Known For Weeks

Despite all the hubbub floating around about bath salts, so far a preliminary toxicology report has only found marijuana in Rudy Eugene's system. That doesn't mean that Eugene, who ate a man's face near the MacArthur Causeway over Memorial Day weekend, hadn't used other substances. The full toxicolo ... More >>

North Miami Beach Man on Synthetic Drug Growls at Police and Tries to Bite Officer's Hand

Another week, another local man on synthetic drugs showing bizarre behavior with a penchant for biting others. Brandon DeLeon, a North Miami Beach man, is under arrest for walking into a Boston Market and trying to get into a fight with two police officers who were dining at the restaurant. Once in ... More >>

Miami-Dade Takes First Step Toward Banning Synthetic Marijuana

Well this couldn't have come at a more opportune time. Today, the Miami-Dade County Commission took the first step towards adopting a strict ban on synthetic marijuana products. It comes hot on the heels of news that a North Miami Beach man on some sort of synthetic drug tried to bite a police offic ... More >>

"Zombie" Attack Location Added to History Museum's Sightseeing Tour

Riptide used to get a sick kick out of driving over the Julia Tuttle Causeway and informing our visiting friends we were now directly above America's most infamous sex offender colony. Of course, that's no longer there, so instead we'll just take the MacArthur Causeway to the Beach and casually quip ... More >>

Ronald Poppo, Face-Eating Victim, Had Been Shot in Bayfront Park Back in 1976 UPDATED

Ronald Poppo is currently in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital after having large portions of his face chewed off by Rudy Eugene on Saturday near the MacArthur Causeway. However, it's not Poppo's first trip to Jackson Memorial Hospital after receiving near-fatal injuries in downtown Mi ... More >>

Causeway Cannibal Rudy Eugene Has North Miami Beach In "State of Shock"

North Miami Beach mom Vivianne Perpignan remembers Rudy Eugene as just another good kid from the football team, who'd stop by her house while hanging out with her son Teddy. The Perpignans live on a residential street a five minute drive from North Miami Beach High, and the neighborhood feels like a ... More >>

Rudy Eugene to Mother In 2004: "I'll Put a Gun to Your Head and Kill You" UPDATED

People who knew face-eating Rudy Eugene before he became the "Miami Zombie" have been telling news outlets-- including this one-- that he was a good kid who must have been made insane by a drug binge. But Eugene previously had at least one extremely violent episode, when he was 22 years old. Ripti ... More >>

Miami Zombie Witness Called Police 17 Minutes Before Cops Shot And Killed Rudy Eugene

Nash Perez was driving his kids home from a Sunday afternoon at the Miami Children's Museum when a curious sight made him tap his brakes. A few hundred feet ahead, about midway up the sharp hill 395 climbs near the Miami Herald, a naked man was gesturing angrily at the cars whizzing past. Perez call ... More >>

Rudy Eugene's Stepfather: Police Should Have Tased, Not Killed, Him

Since 31-year-old Rudy Eugene was shot and killed by a Miami Police officer while devouring a homeless man's face, his family has stayed mum. But this evening, Eugene's former stepfather, who raised Eugene through much of his childhood, spoke for the first time to Riptide-- and said that the police ... More >>

Rudy Eugene Identified As Miami Zombie, Plus NSFW Photo of Attack's Aftermath UPDATE

More than likely, Rudy Eugene was on a bad acid trip, according to Miami police union chief Armando Aguilar. Eugene's the naked man who was gnawing the face of a half-naked homeless man on the MacArthur Causeway near the Miami Herald headquarters Saturday afternoon. A Miami police officer shot and k ... More >>