“Well,” said Jake “I towed the truck in here and when his daddy showed up the next day told him that the frame had been bent.” “Well he got all excited at that and said he was calling his insurance company to have the truck declared totaled and then signed the truck over to me for the cost of the towing charges before storming out.” “Hell” said Jake “I didn’t even get the chance to explain to him that the frame was only bent a little at the very back end and that I could most probably straighten it for a couple of hundred dollars.”
“Anyway he tried to claim I cheated him by saying the truck was totaled when it was not and we had words.” “I called him a fucking liar in front of his wife, son, and daughter and told him that if he continued spreading lies about me I was going to make him tell the truth,” said Jake as he continued with the story. “His son, who has less sense than a rock, took a swing at me and tagged me one on the jaw screaming that I can’t talk to his daddy like that.” “Well I turned toward him because he had sucker punched me and backhanded him to the floor.” “I started to get in his face tell him what a goddamned fool he was when someone shouted “Look Out!”
“Now when a person yells something like that to me I just naturally duck as low as I can and it was a good thing too or his daddy would have smeared my brains all over that place with the barstool he was swinging.” “I came up out of my crouch with a hard uppercut to his wind followed by a rising knee to his face and that was the fight.” “His son had a broken nose and he was out cold and you know” he said to me “I could swear that it was his daughter that gave me that warning.” “I grabbed a pitcher of beer and poured it all over his face and when he started to come around I grabbed him by the hair and poked my pen in the side of his neck like it was a knife blade. I told him he had better start telling the truth as I was tired of his lies and bullshit and if he didn’t I was going to cut his throat and to hell with the consequences.”
“He started mumbling something and I told him to speak more clearly.” “That’s when I discovered that I had broken his jaw” he said to me “so I grabbed a waitress’s pad, handed him my pen, and told him to by god write the truth about everything or I was going to break his goddamned neck after I had dismantled his body.” “He sat there and scribbled for a good 5 minutes before coming to a stop. I took it from his hands and I asked one of the Deputy Sheriffs that had arrived on the scene to read what he had written so folks couldn’t say I was telling stories.
“Now I must have either really put the fear of god into that sorry bastard or my knee had shocked his brain something awful for not only did he confess to lying about what I had said about the truck, but he also admitted to having an affair with another woman.” “He said that for several years he had been blackmailing a woman that worked for him to having sex any time he wanted and his “rights” included both he and his son molesting her three underage children!”
“Now let me tell you that this bit of news sent shockwaves around the room, but he wasn’t finished, no, not by a long shot.” “He went on” said Jake with relish in his voice, “to confess to working with two local bankers to advance loans to local farmers who were having difficulties and when they defaulted he had a corporation he and the bankers had set up buy the property from the bank at a steep discount.”
“Oh he was a slimy bastard all right,” he went on, “he, and his son when old enough, were involved in ripping off people in 3 counties, and he was the one behind the movement to have the three counties voted dry, because he couldn’t get the local beer distributor and several of the bars to sell a piece of their business to him.” “Scott,” Jake said, “I want to tell you that by that point, the men wanted to take him and his son out and string them up, and the women, well they wanted to cut off his and his son’s balls with dull scissors and then feed them to each other.” “If it hadn’t been for those two Deputy Sheriffs and a half dozen more they had called in for backup there would have been blood spilled that night” he finished.
“Anyway” Jake said, “he had pulled the original engine out of the old dodge and replaced it with the blown Mopar 440, the transmission, transfer case, rear axle and far too much other stuff to list. “Basically what you have here Scott” he went on, “ is a truck that looks exactly like a lengthened and slightly modified 1943 Dodge WC-54 on a 1 1/2-ton 6×6 frame, but under the skin is a completely modern vehicle.” “Now I am not going to drive that truck, I started it as a restoration project and got carried away.” “95% of the parts came from my salvage yard and what I did have to buy was pretty cheap” he said, “and besides you need a vehicle”
“I won’t argue with you Jake” I said “and the truck would work perfectly for me.” “With a little work inside I could easily turn the space in the back into a nice small camper and with its off road capabilities go places I could never have reached with the MG.” “Let me think about it and I’ll tell you in the morning” I said.
“Now I’m curious” I said to Jake, “that’s one hell of a story and I would like to know what happened to them after that night?”
“Well the Feds claimed precedence and after the trial they were convicted and are serving 25 years to life for everything from tax evasion, violation of federal banking laws, kidnapping and violation of the Mann Act and a whole slew of other crimes” said Jake smiling, I think it’s what is called “piling on” as they added every small violation they could find.” Then, to top it off” Jake continued, “the State decided to hold their trial as well.” “Normally the State will withhold taking someone to trial if they are being tried by the Feds’, but in this case, since the pair of them had done so much damage locally it was decided to try them anyway.” “The jury convicted them both of every single charge the Grand Jury brought against them and the Court sentenced the pair to another 35 years each with the sentence to run consecutively to the federal one so should he or his son ever get paroled they will move from the federal pen right to the state pen!”
“Ok, so what happened to the mother and daughter” I asked? “I figure they got divorced and moved, but did they end up with anything at all after the dust and restitution claims were settled?” “It just seems unfair that they would be made to suffer because of those two assholes” I went on.
“It’s funny you should mention that” said Jake, “Cathy, the woman I am seeing is Hansen’s ex-wife and his daughter Kristin should be home from college tonight and I invited them to come over for dinner this evening.” “I think that you would really like Kristin” said Jake, “she is tall like her mother and has the same red hair and slender build.”
“I don’t want to discourage your match-making Jake” I said, but girls aren’t really interested in me” I said pointing to the scars on my face. “Every one of them I have met has turned away once they got a close look and I have just gotten used to the rejection” I said a bit bitterly. “Hell! Even some of the hookers I have picked up had a hard time looking at me and that really sucks!”