LEWISTON – Michael Landry’s mother used to tell him he had nine lives. Good thing. As a kid he was always getting into scraps or falling victim to mishaps. It was no better when he grew up.

The 49-year-old was stabbed more than a dozen times last week while walking on Pierce Street. Police and medics at first did not think he would survive.

On Tuesday, Landry was home from the hospital. He was recovering from 13 stab wounds and trying to figure out exactly what happened.

“I remember talking to this boy. He asked me if I remembered who he was,” Landry said. “I don’t know what happened after that. All I remember was the police being there and then I was in the hospital.”

Police say it was a 16-year-old who stabbed Landry repeatedly with a knife and then left him bleeding at the side of Pierce Street. The teenager was arrested hours after the attack and charged with attempted murder. A knife was recovered.

“I don’t know what to think about it. I can’t understand his motivation,” Landry said.

Investigators said the teenager resented Landry because the older man used to date his mother. The relationship was turbulent and the 16-year-old harbored hostility toward Landry.

“I dated her for five years,” Landry recalled. “The relationship had its ups and downs.”

But Landry doesn’t remember much about the kid who stabbed him. He doesn’t recall any of the attack that left him hospitalized for more than a week with stab wounds to his chest, side, back and left eye.

Landry said he was with a friend on Bates Street in the hours leading up to the attack. He was walking to his apartment at 148 Pierce St. just before midnight when he met up with a group of teenagers. Beyond that, his recollections are unclear.

Landry – who has an extensive criminal history in Lewiston, including arrests for violating an abuse order, assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing – is a bit hazy about details of previous injuries, too.

In March 1999, Landry was beaten by a man with an ax while drinking in a Park Street apartment. The 41-year-old attacker was arrested and Landry was taken to the hospital.

Years before that, in 1993, Landry was beaten in the face with a broomstick while serving time at the Maine State Prison in Thomaston. He doesn’t recall the motive for that attack, either. In fact, Landry cannot remember why he was in prison.

“I’ve been banged around a lot in my lifetime,” Landry said.

Yet, he has survived each assault with no long term disabilities, a concept Landry is at a loss to explain.

“Maybe God is on my side, I don’t know,” he said. “My mother used to say I had nine lives. Maybe that’s it.”

“He’s a miracle kind of guy, I guess,” said Frank Digaetano, Landry’s cousin.

Released from the hospital Tuesday, Landry was not going directly home. He planned to lay low at Digaetano’s apartment for a while. He said he was not so much angry about the stabbing as he was confused. Still, he was taking no chances.

“He’s afraid someone else might come after him,” Digaetano said. “He’s going to recuperate here for a little while.”

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