textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/2000/2539.ufo

SUBJECT: WHO'S DISINFORMING WHOM ?                           FILE: UFO2539



PART 6


               
 * Subj: The Mark of Zechel
 * Originally by Mark Harris
 * Originally to Don Allen
 * Originally dated 31 Aug 1993, 17:16

Hi, Don;

If the "Hot Air" report was really written by Todd Zechel, and at
this point, I would have  to say there's some substantial support
for that allegation [including the fact that  I,  too,  recognize
the style], I'd say we need a rather large grain of salt.

When my wife left me, in  October of 1985, I moved from our house
outside of Prairie du Sac, WI to an apartment in the village.  It
was a second story apartment, and just below me lived a wonderful
retired couple, Walter Zechel and his wife.  I got to  know  Walt
pretty  good;  he  remains  to this day one of the kindest people
I've ever met.  He  was  retired  from the Badger Army Ammunition
plant, located between PDS and Baraboo, and to make ends meet, he
did routine maintenance around the apartment complex,  for  which
he got $5 per hour and the apartment he lived in.

I  often  went  fishing with Walt, and got to hear much about his
children.  In spite of the long  talks we had, however, the first
I knew he had a son named  Todd is when Todd himself showed up at
Walt's door about 11 pm one night, with a suitcase, an old manual
typewriter, and not much else.  That  would  have  been  sometime
around  June  of  1986 or so, if I recall the date correctly.  It
was before my divorce was final,  in August of 1986; I'm guessing
as to the specific month.  Todd had lost just about everything he
owned in some unnamed disaster, and came to live with  Mommy  and
Daddy until "things got better".

It was the only time, before or since, I ever  heard  Walt  yell,
about anything.

The  reason I hadn't heard anything until then about son Todd was
that Todd, according to Walt and later confirmed by Todd himself,
had never once held down  a  regular  job for any length of time.
He had always aspired to  being  an  author,  or  I  should  say,
Author.   I  knew  about his involvement with UFO's, since it was
one of the few topics Todd would be fairly straightforward about.

During the months Todd stayed  with  his parents, he held exactly
one job, and then only when Walt threatened to have the cops come
and move him out.  He took a "telemarketing" job, which  he  held
for  something like two days, when he was fired.  Walt told me it
was because of  alcohol  use  on  the  job,  though  I don't have
anything more than circumstantial proof of that.  I do know  that
Todd  would drink, sometimes to excess, when he could get someone
to give him some  money;  he  used  to  sit  at  one of the local
taverns, introducing himself as an Author,  but  when  you'd  ask
what  books  he'd  written,  he'd  go  on about how they're under
pseudonyms, and he didn't  want  to  cite  actual titles since he
didn't want a lot of personal publicity, or to have to  autograph
books when he was in town largely "on sabbatical".

He  spent  most  of that time working on a book, or so he said; I
used to  hear  typing  from  downstairs  for  hours  on end.  His
parents reluctantly allowed him to stay  during  that  period  of
time,  with the provision that when he submitted his book and got
paid, he'd leave.  I also know  that  he was caught by Walt on at
least one occasion with one of his mother's books,  copying  page
after  page  out of it, not in any act of plagiarism, but to give
the impression that he was, indeed,  writing a book, when all the
typing was just noise.

Todd  may  have  done  some  solid  work  early  in  his life, in
investigating  the  UFO  phenomena,  but  after  meeting  him and
getting to know him for a few months, I'm not  very  inclined  to
take him seriously, or to grant him any credibility regarding his
more  recent  investigations.   He  was  a sorry picture of a man
then, who frequently tried  to  characterize  himself as a man of
some importance while not providing any  information  with  which
someone  could verify his status.  To coin a phrase, he was "full
of Hot Air".  (G)

Regards,

Mark R. Harris



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