research endeavors. His ex-wife Pamela Waller got a million dollars, a Mercedes and a Land Rover in the divorce. Both kept their memberships at the prestigious Houstonian Club.

In contrast, Zhirakarov's life had no such perks. Before he took on the mysterious identity of a Russian drifter, Zhirakarov joined the U.S. Marine Corps to escape the poverty of Campbell's cotton patch. His sister, Nancy Gatlin, says he served two tours in Vietnam, earning two Purple Hearts and his sergeant stripes. It was after he settled into a desk job stateside and started handling payroll accounts that he ran into trouble with Uncle Sam. Doing what any reasonable outlaw would, he went for a jog on a California beach and never came back.

Several identity changes followed. Gatlin says he forgedjust two short years.

Fabre didn't shy from using his proximity to pharma wealth when he went bride-shopping in 2003.

"I am fairly famous for being responsible for approval of drugs like fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), olanzapine (Zyprexa) and many, many others. I am quite wealthy and have houses in Houston, Austin, and in the Bahamas. I fly my own jet airplane," he wrote to at least one online Russian a fraction of his age.

He also noted he was "responsible for getting these drugs approved in the United States, and the European Union."

The drug approval process is also desperately dependent upon the dutiful throngs of men, women and children who line up and lie down to swallow or get stuck with thousands of newly created substances every year. They may