About rights, not role models

In retrospect, both men said their arrest was the best thing that could have happened, because it forced them to get clean. "I would have died in Florida, or wherever we ran," Mangini said.

He has good and bad days, and he tires easily. "This might be as well as I get, but I'm alive," he said. "I'm here. I can breathe, I can see. I'll be around to haunt Steven for a while."

Mangini remains estranged from much of his family. Two of his four brothers do not speak to him, he said, and he is unable to see his nieces, nephews, and godchild. His mother died in 1994; his father remarried and lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

There are no such familial fissures on Roberts's side. He and Mangini plan to attend the first Roberts family reunion, on Aug. 25 at his brother's home in Spring City. Thus far, there are 73 confirmed attendees.

"It's not a fairy-tale ending, but true love prevailed," Mangini said.