You've
probably seen his picture in biker lifestyle magazines' coverage of
rallies coast to coast.
Be
it on the sands of Daytona, the Black Hills of Sturgis, or the sunny
slopes of the southern California hills, the man the world knew as
Eugene Paull posed on his hawg as a hero of the Vietnam war.
The
bike was festooned with rockets, hand grenades and machine guns, and
he kept a sign handy that said “$1 to photograph the bike, $5 to
take a picture with it, and $10 to take one sitting on it...”
The
money?
Authorities
who came to bust he and his Jamaican girlfriend one day last March at
his home in Tampa estimated that of the $100,000 he raised and
promised to homeless veterans, only about $1,300 ever found its way
into the troubled lives of the men and women who trudge America's
streets with no home in sight.
But
what a home it was where he and Subrena Spence ruled over a house
equipped with a dozen video surveillance cameras, a secret bunker
equipped with firearms and explosives, and the beginnings of an escape tunnel leading away from the property.
Federal
authorities acted on a tip that Mr. Paull and Ms. Spence were using
the names of dead people as assumed false identities in their quest
for riches from illegal drugs smuggled from the island republic of
Jamaica.
In
a 33-year career as an impostor, the Army veteran allegedly
trafficked in contraband and lived it up in two Tampa area homes,
cruising on a 47-foot yacht, riding a pair of custom motorcycles, and
driving three vehicles.
Inside
the bunker, the SWAT team found about $20,000 in cash, a fraction of
what they took in another arrest when they discovered $90,000 stashed
in gas cans with false bottoms.
To
avoid prison time, the couple forfeited all their assets of more than $1 million; immigration
officials deported Ms. Spence to her island home of Jamaica, and Mr. Paull
now lives on probation in the Miami area.
Said
Bryan Harley, cruiser editor of Motorcycles-USA, who once wrote Mr.
Paull up as a colorful hero, “I've been bilked. Bamboozled.
Hoodwinked. Had the proverbial wool pulled over my eyes...”
Wonder
when he's going to tell us what he really thinks...
No comments:
Post a Comment