WEBVTT - The Mysterious Story of Larry Bader 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:09.200 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.360 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:15.680 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:16.079 should know. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.960 That's right. I don't want to give away what this 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.279 one contains, so let's just say it is the strange 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:26.840 tale of a man named Larry Vader. 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.280 Yes, he went to Great Links to escape Ohio. 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:38.320 Right, well, you just gave it away. Not really, this guy, 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.400 Lawrence Joseph Bater. He was an Akron native, So shout 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.200 out to my people, my wife's folks, and Akron, Akron, 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.080 Akron Akron, as she says, because of that bridge. If 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.199 you've been through there, you know what I'm talking about. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:53.800 He was born in nineteen twenty six to a Catholic, 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.880 pretty well to do Catholic family. His father was a dentist, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:02.040 and Lyvia dug up some dirt from a family friend 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.720 who was like, you know, Larry and his brothers and 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.000 sisters were spoil little rich kids. Larry was pretty careless 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.160 with his money because he could just get more anytime 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.960 he needed it. But he was pretty funny, guys, pretty 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.560 fun dude. Had a lot of personality and he used 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.319 to do weird things, like in one of his party tricks, 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.040 would he would he would eat a whole chicken, like 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:25.560 including the bones. 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.560 Yeah that's special. 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:30.560 Yeah, but put a pin in that. We're not just 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.680 mentioning that strange factor for no reason. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:37.559 No, So he joined the Navy in nineteen forty four. 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.639 I think he left high school to join the Navy 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.960 because the United States was in the grip of World 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.800 War Two and he served for I think a little 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:47.920 under two years. And when he came back, he graduated 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.560 from high school and he went to the University of Akron, 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.240 but school was just not for him, and he dropped 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:59.120 out after a semester. Apparently he was known for money 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.440 making schemes more than he was known for acing tests. 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.040 I gotta say, if you're known for money making schemes 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.839 after a semester, you must have been doing a lot 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.239 of money making, well, highly visible money making schemes. Yeah. 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:18.919 Or you wear a suit that's got dollar dollar signs 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.040 printed all over it. It's a green suit with dollar signs. 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.480 That's another way to become known for money making schemes. 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.240 Yeah, that's bait. All my suits look like that. You 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:38.440 know nothing, You threw me off, all right, So he's 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.040 not lasting in college. He didn't last long in the navy. 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.480 But while he was in college, he did accomplish something 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:47.959 because he got married. He met a woman named Mary 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.120 loud Knapp with a K. They got married nineteen fifty 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.800 two and within five years had three kids, with a 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.600 fourth on the way. And he was doing pretty well 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.560 for himself. He was making the equivalent of about one 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.079 hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year these days as 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.360 a cookwear salesman, and that was about twice the median 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.600 income at the time. So he's doing pretty good. But 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.080 he still had some debts. He had a pretty hefty mortgage, 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.720 He had a new car, and was about two four 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.440 hundred dollars in debt. Basically, you can multiply most stuff 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.080 from this era by ten and arrive at our modern 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.520 conversion rate, so you know, roughly twenty four thousand dollars 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.000 in debt is pretty hefty. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.960 Yeah. He also like he didn't pay his taxes for 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:33.760 like five years. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.120 I think, yeah, not good. 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.880 No, And it was bad enough. He was bad enough 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.760 with the bills or behind enough that the milkman apparently said, like, 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.520 I'm not bringing milk anymore until you pay your milk bill. 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:47.400 Yeah. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.200 So the thing is, is this guy, like you said 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.600 family friend from when he was a kid, was like 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.240 he was a rich kid, but he was actually really charming, 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.120 fun to be around, rich kid, And apparently as he 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.120 grew up into an adult, he remained essentially the same. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.920 Like basically everyone who met him or had something to 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.880 say about him later on basically unanimously said, this guy 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.840 was a good guy. So if he's like cracking under 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:17.400 the pressure of these bills and this debt, it's not 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.320 showing outwardly to anybody who knew him. One of his 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.800 friends said that he was a red blooded American thirty 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.400 year old family man who liked hanging out and drinking 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.680 beer with friends, and his friends liked hanging around him 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.040 because he was just fun to be around, essentially without 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.120 being like a reckless party animal. He was just fun 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:39.640 to be around. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.520 Yeah, just sort of your average fun guy exactly. And 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.400 he was also and put a pin in this, we 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.320 just were not mentioning this for no reason. He was 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.680 also very good at archery, had won some competitions, so 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.560 he was an archery He was a fun guy and 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.960 everything swimming along in his life, making a pretty good living, 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.600 little bit in debt, and then on Wednesday May fifteenth, 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.279 nineteen fifty seven, he had collected some bad payment checks 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:11.480 from vendors from his business and said, you know what, 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.640 I got to go to Cleveland to kind of clear 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.359 up these bad checks with these vendors. He tells this 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.480 to his wife, Mary Lou who is, keep in mind, 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:20.880 four months pregnant, and he said, so, I'm going up 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.240 to Cleveland. It's going to be the morning, and then 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:25.880 I'm gonna probably do a little fishing in the afternoon 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.760 in Lake Erie, and so I'll be home late. And 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:34.240 she said what any partner should say in that situation, 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.200 which is, maybe you could also come home and be 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.360 a father and husband instead of going fishing after you 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.039 do your work. And he supposedly replied with, yeah, maybe 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.680 I will, maybe I won't. All right, So I'm not 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.240 saying he's some really bad guy. It may have been 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.440 a cheeky response, that may have been how things went 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.680 in their marriage, but he just was a little vague, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:05:59.520 and that will come into play. 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.840 So one of the things he did was he paid 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.200 some bills before he left, and one of those bills 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.840 was a life insurance premium. He had recently adjusted or 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.680 changed the policy to include a nice payout for an 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.800 accidental death. And he whistled as he drove off to 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.440 Cleveland and eventually went to Rocky River, Ohio, which is 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.920 a little town on the Rocky River which flows into 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.440 Lake Erie, and he runted a boat at Eddie's Boat Dock, 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:30.800 about a half a mile inland from the lake from 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:38.520 a guy named Lawrence Cott cut leure, yeah, cut lower Yeah. Anyway, 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.719 he paid fifteen bucks from a big roll of bills. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.200 It's also kind of important. And he said, hey, Lawrence, 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:47.320 I want you to put some running lights on this 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.760 boat because I'm probably going to be out after dark. 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.240 And Lawrence said, okay, I'll do that, but it's going 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.440 to cost you an extra fiver I'm presuming here at 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.680 this time. And Larry Bader paid it. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:02.480 Yeah, he paid it, and he was like, all right, whatever, buddy. 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:03.120 Uh. 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.560 He did notice, and this is stuff that you know. 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.520 They interviewed Lawrence afterward for reasons that we still don't 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.160 know because we're keeping this a secret. Well we know, yeah, sure, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.000 but he did notice that he had a suitcase with him. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.200 He thought that was a little bit weird. He said, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:24.680 you know, you got a storm coming, you might not 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:26.480 want to be out there after doc. 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:32.320 Let us people in Cleveland. Sure it is, and King 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.040 novel about Cleveland. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.440 So people don't go in there. That's why the Browns play. 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:45.720 So he warned you about the storm. Uh. He goes 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.400 out on Lake Erie. The coastguard sees him and says, hey, there, 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:50.720 you know there's a big storm coming in after sunset, 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.240 and I've noticed you have some running lights, so you 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.880 clearly plan on being out after dark. And he was like, 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.520 it's fine, and so they said, all right, go about 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.960 your way. Three hours later, that storm does come in 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.680 and Larry Baier has disappeared. They find the boat the 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.400 next day about five miles away. The life jackets were 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.520 all on board. There was a some scratches like it 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.120 had hit some rocks. There was a bent propeller, and 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.280 some accounts say that it was either a gas line 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.160 had been disconnected or the gas cans were empty, but 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.200 either way, and I guess it's the kind where the 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.520 gas line runs directly into like a gas can. That 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:28.320 sitting on the boat must have been one of those 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.400 kind of boats. But basically they were like, but nothing 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.440 shows the kind of distress where a human would be 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.480 completely missing, Like it wasn't capsized or sunk or anything 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:37.720 like that. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:39.960 No, and the life jacket was in the boat. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.600 You said, right, that's right. 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.520 So that's a really that's so that's a big point 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.520 because the coastguard was like, that was one heck of 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.320 a storm on Lake Erie. There's no way that anybody 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.000 could have survived this. Even a strong swimmer like Larry 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.160 Baiter was known to be without a life jacket. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.600 Yeah, one of the oars was missing, but you know, 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.520 just do with that what you want, right. 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.439 But the boat was generally in pretty good shape. The 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.320 thing is is like, this is not an uncommon thing, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.520 Like people drown in Lake Erie pretty frequently. It's a 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.760 great lake. It's a very big lake. And just as 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.920 a little side anecdote, when I was a kid, we 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:22.000 used to vacation on Kataba Island on Lake Erie, and 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:24.720 every week we would go there for a week every summer, 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.199 and every time we went, I would have to wait 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.480 on the beach the first half of the week because 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.000 somebody had drowned, and I was convinced that if I 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.680 went in the water, they would their dead body would 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:36.720 bump up against me, and I just couldn't even bear 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.440 the thought of that. So finally I would watch the 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.840 news every night, and finally when they announced they found 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.240 the missing person. Wow, then I would start to go 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:45.160 into the lake. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.200 And you thought, I won't run into that body. Now 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.280 I might become one, but it's worth the. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.360 Risk, right, yeah, because no one had any business swimming 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:55.960 in Lake Erie back when I was a kid. 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:58.520 What do you what's Kataba Island? Like? What do you 0:09:58.559 --> 0:09:58.880 do there? 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.240 Oh? You play mini golf and putt putt? 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:02.319 Okay. 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.080 We stayed at this place. It was just like a 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.520 block of like I guess, little condos or apartments or 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.079 something like that. And everybody had beach towels like drying 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.319 over like the railing and it was like on the beach, 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.240 like the sand came up into your little front stoop 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:20.959 and it was just great. It was one of it. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.200 I remember my oldest sister went on a date with 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:24.719 the dude she met there, and they went and saw 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.280 a top secret at the drive in. 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:31.160 Oh, the vacation date. That's always great, man, that's nice. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.160 I love young Josh stories, all right, So they looked 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.000 for Larry Bayder for a couple of months. The coast 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.040 guard was like, no one's going to survive that storm 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.880 if they don't have a life jacket, but they looked anyway, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.319 and they were also were like, well he was a 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.640 strong swimmer though, so it's a little weird that, like 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.920 the boat wasn't that damage and he's just nowhere to 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.360 be found. Some people thought, you know, he had this 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:54.960 big wad of cash. I don't think, we said, but 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.200 he cashed a four hundred dollars check, so if you 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.560 do the math, you know, that's probably like four thousand 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.480 bucks a lot of dough. So he may have been 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.400 you know, robbed and murdered or something. And also the 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.960 suitcase was gone, so that could also explain that. But 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.040 either way, they said, we just got to put this 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.160 one to rest. And so in nineteen sixty he was 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.520 declared dead and his wife got that forty thousand dollars 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:28.280 insurance policy and Social Security started rolling in. That's right, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.360 and I believe that's where we should take a break 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:33.520 and see what happened to Larry Bader. 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.400 Okay, Chuck, where we last left off, Larry Baters missing, 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.360 he's disappeared, but enough years have gone by, I think 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:09.079 roughly three that he's officially declared dead. His insurance policy 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.920 has come in, his wife has said, this is what 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.240 you get for telling me. Maybe I will, maybe I 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.160 won't when I tell you not to go fishing. Yeah, 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.720 and if we rewind just a little bit to the 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.120 day that Larry Batter went out on the lake and 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:29.080 add usually people say about three days zoom on over 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.760 from Lake Erie over to Omaha, Nebraska. When we sit 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.000 down at a little bar called the Round Table Bar 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.640 in Omaha, what we will see on May eighteenth, nineteen 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.959 fifty seven, as a guy walk in and his name 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:45.760 is John Johnson. Take it, Chuck. 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:47.280 That's right. 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:48.200 Oh. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.040 I was so busy trying to work up a Saturn 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.000 joke about that eight hundred miles, but I couldn't do 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:52.480 it in time. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.359 Well wait, if you can, I'll give you an hour. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.040 Eight hundred miles between Omaha and Acri and roughly one 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.840 third the size of the distance between. And then I 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:06.440 couldn't remember what it was on Saturday. 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:07.520 The Cassini Division. 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:09.560 That Cassini Division. 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.920 So that's not a joke. That's making fun of my 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:13.839 hard work. 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:19.559 I know. So here's what happens. Three days after Larry 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.400 Bader disappears, eight hundred miles away, a dude shows up 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.480 in Omaha at the Round Table Bar. He said his 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.199 name was John Johnson. He said, I got this driver's 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.360 license here, it's got my name on it. I was 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.920 a fourteen year veteran of the Navy. It's a Navy license, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.240 as you'll see. I got out because of a bad back. 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.400 And I go by the name Fritz. And there was 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.440 a bartender there named Betty who said he was a 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.960 really well dressed guy. He clearly had money. He was 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.720 really sort of fascinating and charming. He asked me out 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.600 like thus second he met me, which is I assume 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.520 what you do if you three days after you have 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:57.920 left your wife and soon to be four kids. Oh well, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.880 probably ask out the first woman you see. Well we have. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.000 I haven't said it yet, but okay. John Johnson bore 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.200 a really striking resemblance to Larry Bader. 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.000 Also, yeah, I mean, didn't people see that coming. 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:10.640 I don't know. I mean now they do. 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.880 Okay, So this guy, John Johnson aka Fritz, gets a 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:20.720 job not there, but at Ross's Steakhouse. And basically it 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.560 was like, hey, I came from an orphanage in Boston. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.640 There were twenty two boys in this orphanage. They named 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.640 us all john Johnson and gave us all nicknames so 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:32.840 they could tell us apart instead of just naming us 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.480 different things. It's very strange, but they called me Fritz 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.200 because I reminded them of a character from a comic, 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.800 The Kats and Jammer Comic, Cats and Jammer Kids Comic. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.360 Different times during that period, he also would say that 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.760 his navy buddies thought his haircut made him look like 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.640 a German soldier, so he went by Fritz. But either way, 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.920 this is some new dude in town, and he was like, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.760 all of a sudden, the talk of Omaha. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.760 Yeah. Betty Johnson's impression was not isolated. Apparently, people who 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.520 met Fritz Johnson felt essentially the same way that she did. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.280 Like he was a cool dude that you wanted to 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:14.240 be around. Debonair, you could say. But he also was 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.080 a bit of a character. And by a bit, let 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.680 me just say that he bought a hearse and rearranged 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.840 the back so that it was like a little lounge 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.280 area for him when he picked up women on dates. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.360 And I saw one place but it was a legitimate source, 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:36.680 like a contemporary newspaper article that said that it he 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.440 had somehow gotten it licensed with the city as a 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:45.000 hunting vehicle. Can you imagine anything more nineteen fifty seven 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.040 than that nineteen fifty seven bachelor? 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:49.520 Yeah, I mean he was an avid hunter. 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:52.600 That is not what he was going for. 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.200 You think it? Is it? I mean, I don't know. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.240 Yes, you don't put a lounge area in the back 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:00.920 of your heart for dead deer. 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:03.920 No, no, no, I know. But do you think he 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.320 had it licensed as a hunting vehicle because like he 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:07.920 was hunting ladies and he just want to be able 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:15.280 to tell people that yes I do. Okay, I don't agree. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.200 Okay, that's fine, but either way with UPI buddy. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:23.120 He's an eccentric dude. He wears a leather beret. His 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.040 apartment apparently was just a bunch of like beanbags and 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:32.880 throw pillows. He had champagne parties, he had Sime's fighting fish. 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.920 He was an archer. He said, you know, I hurt 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.440 my back, and so archery really helped strengthen the back, 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.160 and so I took up archery. And then five weeks 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:45.960 later he's won a state championship in Nebraska and then 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.720 one's thirteen I believe twelve more thirteen total archery titles 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.920 in the state, and at parties would do the eat 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.080 the whole Chicken, including the bone. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:16:59.880 Trick and the last three listeners. 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.119 That's right, so's he's working at the bar, but he 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:09.359 butties up with a guy that works at a radio 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.800 station kbo IN, and he lets him come in there 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.240 to kind of just monkey around because he was interested 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.399 in broadcasting. And he's monkeying around enough to where he 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:21.639 figures it out and deers himself like he seems to 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.080 be doing to everybody gets a job as a DJ 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:26.240 reading the news. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.760 Yeah, I want to just backtrack a little bit and 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:33.040 specifically say there was nobody in any interview or any 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.520 article that I read about this who seemed to think 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:41.439 that Fritz Johnson was a creep or like a jerk, 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.600 or like a sicko or anything like that. I know, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.919 he kind of painted him a little questionably, but there 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.600 doesn't seem to be anybody who had any kind of 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.239 weird vibes from him at all. He was just a 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:56.480 fun guy to be around and just living up the 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.600 bachelor life. Apparently he was saying like I spent you know, 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.800 my youth and an orphanage having to listen to the 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.159 people who ran the place tell me what to do. 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.200 I spent fourteen years in the Navy listening to them 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:10.040 tell me what to do. And now I'm finally free. 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.720 I'm living it up. So that's essentially I think the best, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.400 the best way to paint his character is that he 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.040 was living it up his newfound freedom. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.159 Yeah, for sure he and we can talk about some 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.560 more of his plamboyants, just because it's simply really funny 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.320 and interesting. When he wrote a personal check to someone, 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:34.120 he would sign it Fritz only, and then he wouldn't 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.040 put it in a date. I don't know why I 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.600 love this so much. He wouldn't put a date. He 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.560 would just put a season. So he would write a 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.480 check to someone on the date of, you know, autumn, 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:46.560 and then he would just sign it Fritz. 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.280 Isn't that weird that they would catch I. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.399 Think it's well, it's a nineteen fifties. I guess stuff 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.840 like that would happen. It was also the nineteen fifties, 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.240 so you could collect your tip money as a bartender 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.119 in a milk bottle and then just go hand that 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.399 milk bottle to the uncounted to the person working at 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.520 the bank and fill out the deposit slip one court 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.760 of money. And I'm sure they thought, oh, he's such 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:11.639 a character, but like, now I got to count on 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:13.760 the stuff. Yeah, thank good, lot, dude. 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.000 Yeah, every time he made that deposit, he think to himself, 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:18.720 are you going to withhold the milk deliveries? 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.919 H yeah exactly. 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.359 So one of the other things that he was known 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.880 for is being a little unkind to friends who were 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.040 engaged or married or about to get married. He was like, 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.160 marriage is just another way to trap a fella. Yeah, 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.080 whoever gets married is a sap. Probably said something. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:37.440 Along those lines, that old thing. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.560 And then a few years after he appeared in Omaha 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.960 in nineteen sixty one, he got married. Yeah, he got 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.720 married to a model named Nancy Zimmer who was twenty 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:49.560 one at the time, and she had a daughter from 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.320 her first marriage. She said later that they were just 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:59.080 too young, and not only did Fritz Johnson adopt her daughter, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.040 they also had their own son. So he had a 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.760 family all of a sudden, within just a couple of years. 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.680 Yeah. So he's working part time at the radio station, 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.560 eventually works full time there and then transfers over to 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.720 TV when he got a job at k E TV, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.120 the local affiliate there, eventually getting promoted up to sports 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:26.000 director and also on the side, he was advising, like consulting, 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.639 I guess for archery companies because he was just so 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:29.200 good at it. 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.280 And he's like, well, maybe consider making the arrows straight. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.440 And it's MARCHERI at the camp. We took a big 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:37.919 family trip with a bunch of families, and I got 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.480 the archery set out and it was quite fun and 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:41.600 I'm a pretty good shot. 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:43.120 Oh yeah, any bulls eyes. 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:45.320 Yeah, I was hitting some bulls eyes on the rag. 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.800 And I've never even done much archery. It just seems intuitive, 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:50.880 you know, just kind of hold it steady and aim 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:52.040 at the thing and then let it go. 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.480 You're like, I'm just as surprised as any of you. 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:55.520 I really was. 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.280 How far away though, are we talking like five feet? 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:00.960 I mean, I don't know what standard archery is. I 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:06.160 was shooting I bet from about probably from about thirty 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:07.760 five feet would be my guest. 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:09.040 Oh that is good man. 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.240 I don't know what standard is. But everyone's like, oh, yeah, 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:12.399