94 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
94 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: WHO'S DISINFORMING WHOM ? FILE: UFO2539
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PART 6
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* Subj: The Mark of Zechel
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* Originally by Mark Harris
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* Originally to Don Allen
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* Originally dated 31 Aug 1993, 17:16
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Hi, Don;
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If the "Hot Air" report was really written by Todd Zechel, and at
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this point, I would have to say there's some substantial support
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for that allegation [including the fact that I, too, recognize
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the style], I'd say we need a rather large grain of salt.
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When my wife left me, in October of 1985, I moved from our house
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outside of Prairie du Sac, WI to an apartment in the village. It
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was a second story apartment, and just below me lived a wonderful
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retired couple, Walter Zechel and his wife. I got to know Walt
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pretty good; he remains to this day one of the kindest people
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I've ever met. He was retired from the Badger Army Ammunition
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plant, located between PDS and Baraboo, and to make ends meet, he
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did routine maintenance around the apartment complex, for which
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he got $5 per hour and the apartment he lived in.
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I often went fishing with Walt, and got to hear much about his
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children. In spite of the long talks we had, however, the first
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I knew he had a son named Todd is when Todd himself showed up at
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Walt's door about 11 pm one night, with a suitcase, an old manual
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typewriter, and not much else. That would have been sometime
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around June of 1986 or so, if I recall the date correctly. It
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was before my divorce was final, in August of 1986; I'm guessing
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as to the specific month. Todd had lost just about everything he
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owned in some unnamed disaster, and came to live with Mommy and
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Daddy until "things got better".
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It was the only time, before or since, I ever heard Walt yell,
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about anything.
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The reason I hadn't heard anything until then about son Todd was
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that Todd, according to Walt and later confirmed by Todd himself,
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had never once held down a regular job for any length of time.
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He had always aspired to being an author, or I should say,
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Author. I knew about his involvement with UFO's, since it was
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one of the few topics Todd would be fairly straightforward about.
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During the months Todd stayed with his parents, he held exactly
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one job, and then only when Walt threatened to have the cops come
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and move him out. He took a "telemarketing" job, which he held
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for something like two days, when he was fired. Walt told me it
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was because of alcohol use on the job, though I don't have
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anything more than circumstantial proof of that. I do know that
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Todd would drink, sometimes to excess, when he could get someone
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to give him some money; he used to sit at one of the local
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taverns, introducing himself as an Author, but when you'd ask
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what books he'd written, he'd go on about how they're under
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pseudonyms, and he didn't want to cite actual titles since he
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didn't want a lot of personal publicity, or to have to autograph
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books when he was in town largely "on sabbatical".
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He spent most of that time working on a book, or so he said; I
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used to hear typing from downstairs for hours on end. His
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parents reluctantly allowed him to stay during that period of
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time, with the provision that when he submitted his book and got
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paid, he'd leave. I also know that he was caught by Walt on at
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least one occasion with one of his mother's books, copying page
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after page out of it, not in any act of plagiarism, but to give
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the impression that he was, indeed, writing a book, when all the
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typing was just noise.
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Todd may have done some solid work early in his life, in
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investigating the UFO phenomena, but after meeting him and
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getting to know him for a few months, I'm not very inclined to
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take him seriously, or to grant him any credibility regarding his
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more recent investigations. He was a sorry picture of a man
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then, who frequently tried to characterize himself as a man of
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some importance while not providing any information with which
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someone could verify his status. To coin a phrase, he was "full
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of Hot Air". (G)
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Regards,
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Mark R. Harris
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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