* 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
Cori,
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
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