Robert E Steffey

Robert Edward Steffey was the son of the late Edward R. and Shirley (Smelson) Steffey and he was survived by a sister and brother-in-law, Sandra and Nick Frank of Piscataway, New Jersey. Robert Steffey was married and the parent of Jaclyn Steffey Dover. He was also the parent of another daughter, whose name is unknown. Although he appeared in two documentaries about his criminal life and his struggle with drug addiction, he tried to keep his wife and daughters out of the limelight. Robert, also known as Rob, was a career criminal. In 1989, along with his buddies, Deliris and Freddy, he was followed by a cinematographer for a year as they shoplifted and lived their - often dreary - lives. Then, in 1998, HBO showed part two of the documentary, following the three almost a decade later. By that time, all three were trying to turn their lives around. Robert was active in AA and NA by then, but he didn't survive much longer. By 2002, at the age of 41, Robert died from a drug overdose. For a synopsis of the documentary, also available on Youtube, see Life of Crime: 1984 - 2020 IMDb. While the cinematographer, Jon Alpert, had thought that his 1998 documentary was the end of the series, he was wrong. He decided to make a third installment when he was contacted by Deliris Vasquez. At the time, she was drug free and asked that he tell her story after four years of being drug free. Then she relapsed, and it killed her. See the 2021 update at HBO’s Life of Crime: 1984-2020. You can see some trivia about his life at Trivia about Robert Steffey from IMDb website. Also read a glowing review of the documentary from the website ICS - International Cinephile Society - at Review: Life of Crime 19844 - 2020 (Jon Alpert).