2. A SCAM ARTIST - ON THE (UFO) ROAD AGAIN

During the "Kristine" era another important event in the history of the UFOCCI took place. One of the contactees was from Texas. She lived in the Bothell, Washington area. Because she was a real estate agent she got a call from a person she knew in Texas who wanted to come to Seattle and invest. Purportedly he was a millionaire who had made his money from oil. The day he arrived happened to fall on the day of our monthly meeting. She asked if he could come along. Since our By-Laws as a non-profit organization stipulate our meetings are open to the public we said yes. Later we wished we had answered no.

Have you ever seen a mountain walking? When this man came walking up to the door he filled it! He was one of the biggest men I have ever seen. To top that off he was wearing a "10 gallon hat." His name was J.D. Now doesn't that sound like a name straight from Texas? From the beginning we had our suspicions about him. Later our feelings were confirmed.

J.D. stayed with the contactee from Texas. It wasn't long until he knew all her real estate friends, spent money like water (all on credit), and started proceedings (on paper) to purchase a mortgage company. Later we learned he established a Carte Blanche line of credit with Safeway. The Texas contactee then began to notice checks missing from her checkbook. When questioned he had a ready answer that sounded valid.

At that time Kristine was married to a man that could not comprehend her contact situation. When she met J.D., he expressed an interest in her. He promised to buy her a 350 SL Mercedes which she had always longed for, so she left her husband.

Isn't it funny what fate has in store for you, without even trying?!

J.D. made the statement that he knew where he could pick up a car pretty reasonable, only he would have to fly down on his private jet to Hot Springs, Arkansas to buy it. I asked him if he would mind bringing back one of the contactees that had been wanting to come to Seattle for a long time. She lived in Mountain Pine, Arkansas which was right next door to Hot Springs. He said no problem, what is her name. I told him. I also told him where she worked. He said, "Oh, I know the President of that company. He will let her go if I ask him."

When J.D. arrived in Seattle he had pictures of his ranch in Texas. It looked rather peculiar for a ranch. It was supposed to be situated on Cato Lake near "Uncertain, Texas." The picture looked more like a long building used for something else. It had moss hanging on the trees, and in general looked like it was located in the swamps.

At that point FATE stepped in!

I called the contactee in Mt. Pine, Arkansas to tell her that J.D. would be calling her. She asked for his full name. I told her what he had said about her boss. At the first opportunity she asked her boss about J.D. This was the first confirmation to our uneasy feeling we had about this character. Her boss said, "You mean that two bit crook from over in Uncertain, Texas? I know who he is, but he is no friend of mine. I met him once in a bar and he tried to con me. I knew right away he was bad news!"

That was all I needed to hear to pursue finding out just who this guy was. I called for the police department's number in Uncertain. It was such a small town that there was none. I got the closest town with a police department and talked to the person in charge. He then told me who the Constable was in Uncertain. I called him and found out that he knew of a con man by the name of J.D. He asked me what he looked like. I described him. I mean, when you weight 350 pounds you can't hide too easily! He said J.D. was wanted in Texas for a con game he pulled on a guy in Dallas. He order 25 Mercedes on this man's credit.

I also asked the Constable if he had heard of Cato Lake? He said it was a fishing lake near Uncertain, Texas. I told him about J.D.'s ranch house. He said, "Oh that -- that is an old defunct fishing lodge." Obviously the picture was taken when the fishing lodge was new.

After we heard the background on J.D. it was with dismay that several of our members were quitting their jobs to go to work for him in his new "enterprise," which was strictly on paper. We asked them to our home to talk to them about what we had learned. The first words they said were, don't try to talk us out of this -- even before we had the chance to tell them. Unfortunately both of these women were over 55. They had good jobs with an insurance company where they had worked for many years. J.D. had worked on them from the point of their secret ambitions. He promised them that later he would build an art studio and gift shop which they would be in charge of. That was their secret dream. They quit their jobs. Within a month everything was over. They both blamed us for not preventing this from happening!

In the meantime J.D. was not through with hurting people. The boyfriend of the Texas contactee believed him too. Unfortunately he talked him into signing over his Cadillac and his farm to J.D. The Cadillac he never saw again. The farm, of course, never had any payments made on it so it reverted to the mortgage company.

As I said, Kristine left her husband for J.D. He had the gift of a smooth talker. The "boys upstairs" made an arrangement so that she would hear the truth. Kristine had also moved up to the Texas contactee's home when she broke up with her husband. She met the contactee's nephew there. One day he asked her to go to lunch. They were sitting in a booth in a café in Bothell, Washington. In the booth next to them were two men. Both looked like "hoods," as Kristine put it. They had on leather jackets, gold chains and boots. At one point the nephew got up to go to the bathroom. Kristine had nothing to do so she was just sitting there sort of listening to the men in the next booth. (As I always say, nothing happens by accident!) All of a sudden her ears perked up. One of them said to the other, "What are we going to do to help J.D. He needs to get out of town fast before they catch him." The other one said, "Oh, he is just a small time operator, quit worrying about him." The other one replied that they should stick together and help him. At this point the nephew came back. Kristine wanted to leave immediately. She was then very frightened to think what J.D. would do to her if he knew what she had discovered; that he was not a millionaire, he was a crook that had taken every one that became involved with him.

The nephew took her back to the contactee's house. They packed all their things and left before J.D. came back. At that time they reported him to the police. The police had an all points bulletin out on him but he was too wiley and got away.

The boyfriend of the contactee from Texas still believed in J.D. at this point. He was taking J.D. to Oklahoma to visit his "sick" mother. On the outskirts of Reno, somewhere in the desert, they came to a parting of the ways. Somehow J.D. got him to sign the Cadillac over to him (so he wouldn't be picked up for car theft, obviously) and left the poor guy stranded. By this time the boyfriend's money was gone and he didn't have enough to get home. People he knew in Seattle sent him the money.

He said J.D. had completely changed his appearance. Dyed his blonde hair black and combed it slicked back and had a mustache. He wore horn-rimmed glasses. You would never know it was the same person. That was the last we heard of J.D. Thank goodness!

Kristine ended up going to California with the nephew. The two ladies looked for work for two years. They sold all of their possessions just to meet their daily needs. The contatee from Texas started her career over and the boyfriend we never heard about again.