Leslie Cochran is Austin’s most famous homeless person. If you know who Leslie is, you’ll know why. He certainly does his part to Keep Austin Weird.

It’s being reported that Leslie is in the hospital in critical condition. Reports here, here, here. Looks like he received a blow to the head, found unresponsive. The really odd thing is, this happened 10 days ago… why is this only hitting the media now?

I recall the first time I saw Leslie. Moving to Austin. Got a full U-Haul, we’re driving into town to our apartment. We pass this Albertson’s grocery store and see this ramshackle cart outside on the sidewalk and some person holding up a sign in protest of Albertson’s. And we see… it’s a grizzled man wearing a bikini.

Welcome to Austin.

And so that was our introduction to Leslie. First day in Austin and there he is, all leather-skinned and bikini-clad. I never actually shook the man’s hand, but I’ve seen him on and off throughout the city, mostly downtown. Always an interesting guy.

I hope he’ll be OK.

Updated: New story. Sounds like Leslie will live but likely in some sort of assisted facility for the rest of his life. It’s sad to hear, since it’s not really the way he chose to live. I hope all works out OK for him and his family.

Updated 2: Another story. Sounds like he had a brain aneurism rupture, so likely the blow to the head may have been when he fell. Reports however are mixed. That one story says he’s pretty much brain dead and that’s that. Other stories are saying he’s out of ICU, improving, will survive but assisted. Of course, the two stories aren’t totally irreconcilable against each other. We’ll just have to wait and see what else comes to light.