Gawker's A.J. Daulerio opens up about his life — and the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that ruined it

These moves allowed the staff to gel and traffic to soar, but they also enabled Daulerio to unravel. His former colleagues give the impression that they were too indebted to him to say anything about his behavior, so they went along for the ride. [John] Cook recalls a hazy, boozy midday outing to Belmont Park. [Leah] Beckmann had many nights out with her boss that didn't end until 4 a.m. One time, at a sex-toy party, she says, "A. J. was like, 'Do you want to eat acid?' And so we ate acid." And then in the late fall of 2012, Daulerio began a volatile five-month relationship with Cat Marnell, who wrote about her life as a drug-addled New York party girl in a Vice column. She was a kindred nightcrawler spirit. "We started our dates at 5 a.m. and wrapped at 10 a.m.," he says, "and then I went to work."Because Daulerio was "often completely MIA," [Emma] Carmichael says — sometimes for days — she was essentially the EIC of Gawker. When the envelope with the Hogan DVD showed up at the Gawker.com offices that October, Daulerio was on vacation. [Esquire]