Chicago: Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley's dual life got more complicated when he became a double agent for the US Drug Enforcement Administration and then liasoned with the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan.
Headley, also known as Daood Gilani, has one blue and one brown eye, almost reflecting the double life he has been living almost since the day he was born.
Raised by an eccentric, flamboyant and rebellious high society mother from Philadelphia and a strict, former Pakistani diplomat father, he spent half his teen years in a regimented military academy in Pakistan and the other half living above a bar in Philadelphia.
Now admitting to conspiracy to murder and maim in Mumbai, even members of his own family wonder who David Headley really is.
"I was really shocked. It was like you had poured cold water inside my chest," says his uncle William Headley about his reaction when he came to know of terror charges against Headley.
There was disbelief until William began receiving letters from Headley, who was in jail.
Headley wrote that despite his heritage he is now 100 per cent Muslim, and though he considered himself innocent until proven guilty, He hinted that he didn't expect to be acquitted.
Even more bizarre was the fact that he was a drug-dealer-turned-informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration after being caught according to his family.
In February 7, 1997 he was conspiring in a hotel to bring drugs from the Middle East to New York.
As he tried to escape the hotel, he suddenly found himself surrounded by gun-totting DEA agents. It would be the ultimate turning point in his life.
What happened next is a mystery. While his conspirator went to prison for 10 years, he was out in 15 months.
His family believes the DEA frequently sent him to Afghanistan and Pakistan to meet directly with heroin dealers which may have brought him directly in contact with terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba.
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