The Gossip Den: Volume 3 of 3 “Memoirs of a Magman, Pi & Crooked Cops” and “Coming Home”.

By Alfred J. Hudon

As for my continuous problem with Sgt. Butch and other police officers, they didnt let up with their harassment towards me. They put pressure on business operators and used extortion tactics, forcing people not to do business with Mr. Hudon. I retaliated the only way I could, by not letting up on trying to get certain policemen out of their involvement with private security work at McDonalds as guards. For ten years certain policemen used different forms of harassment towards me, and it continued on for another five years, till I decided that I had taken enough of their crap. The policemen who were involved continued telling businesses that if they had me do works for them, policemen would not respond to their calls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479759590

Alfred J. Hudon

N/A

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

I mentioned in the latter part of volume two the investigation I had carried out concerning the publicity seeker and con man Jean Cory. Soon after he had arrived from the States, he began telling wild tales of his claim to fame that he was a noted chef who partied with the rich and famous. Well, I reviewed some newspaper articles that I had kept over the years about Cory’s boasts about his associates and lifestyle while living in the States. I didn’t realize when I first began checking out his stories how complicated it would be, especially those that concerned the Kennedy family. I have always preached that nothing can be accomplished if you don’t put in effort and sincerely try; in regards to Jean Cory, I did try, and here’s what I found about a few of his wild tales that appeared in the newspaper back in the latter part of the eighties. He told the news reporter that he had written a well-known cookbook—his precise words were that his book Great Garnishes was an international bestseller in its fifth printing, sold in three languages. Here are the true facts concerning the real author. The author of the book which Cory claimed to have written was none other than Su-Huei Huang of the United States and was published by Wei-Chuan Publishing Inc. of California. But in the newspaper Cory claimed he had written the book. Shame, shame on Cory for taking credit for work that he did not do. But that was Cory, with his continuous lies.

But wait—the best is yet to come. In another news article in September 2009, shortly after Senator Ted Kennedy’s death, Cory stated that he had been the chef for the Kennedy family, namely Joseph and Rose Kennedy and their three sons: past-president John, Robert, and Teddy. He doesn’t mention anything about the Kennedy girls, which I can understand, because Cory only wants to mention world-renowned people, such as the three sons, and mingling with the rich and famous. In the news article, Cory had stated that in the mid-fifties he worked as a chef for the Kennedy family, in Hyannis port, Massachusetts, and he also cooked for the famed American family in Boston and in Maine for three years. Here’s the problem I had with Cory’s story about being a noted chef for the Kennedys back in the mid-fifties. John F. Kennedy was born in 1917, so in 1955 he would have been thirty-eight, and Robert was born in 1925; in 1955 he would have been thirty. As for Teddy, who was born in 1932, in 1955 he’d be twenty-three. Cory stated in the news report that he was born in 1933, which would mean that Cory was only twenty-two years old in 1955. Because he was here in town in 1953, this meant that two years later, when he suddenly left with the police looking for him, he ended up in the States as chef for the famed Kennedy family, which was one of the most protected families in the United States. That got me to wondering about what type of references Cory could give to the Kennedys regarding his past experiences as a chef. Cory also stated in the newspaper that the Kennedy family was a political dynasty and arguably the equivalent of American royalty, so my question is how could Cory at twenty-two years of age suddenly become a noted chef for the Kennedy’s just after leaving Bathurst? Oh, maybe a news reporter should visit Cory and ask him why he suddenly left town back in the early fifties.

Here’s the latest news clipping that I saved. On the front pages in bold letters the heading read THE FLAMBOYANT CORY SAYS BYE TO THE REGION. AFTER TEN YEARS AS RESTAURATEUR; HE’S PULLING UP STAKES TO EMBARK ON A NEW CULINARY ADVENTURE. Here’s some of the boasting Cory did in that article: We are perhaps among the best goodwill ambassadors this city has ever had; we have visited almost every corner of the world, and everywhere we go, we brag about this place. On account of us [referring to his wife], there are people all over the world wearing Bathurst pins, from tribal chiefs to heads of state. When traveling, my wife and I don’t only promote our restaurant; mainly, we promote the Chaleur Region, and because of us hundreds of thousands of people all over the world know about this region. Cory could have said a few thousand, but no, not him. He says hundreds of thousands; Cory always went big time.

Here’s an interesting fact about the story about him leaving Canada, which appeared in the newspaper in 1998. He stated that he and his wife, who, by the way, was just as bad as he was in conning people, were leaving for other parts of the world. Approximately twelve years later, in 2010, the Corys are still around. Get this—in the same article Cory stated, For all we have done for the community and for the efforts we have made, we were never once considered, either one of us (again referring to his wife), as entrepreneur of the year by the Regional Development Commission. This is my only gripe in leaving. Here are the true facts as to why he was never considered as an entrepreneur of the year. First I want to elaborate about him being a goodwill ambassador. At one time Cory tried to be officially appointed by the provincial government has a goodwill ambassador but was refused. As for him not being recognized by the Development Commission, it was simply because they felt he wasn’t worthy of the award, and they chose more deserving entrepreneurs who had done much more for the community than Cory had done, which in my opinion was very little, other than con the government in funding a few of his phoney projects.

A bit of his history after he arrived in town follows. Shortly after getting here, he and his wife operated a small lunch counter over in the west end in an old run-down rooming house that was once a hotel. At the time no one had heard of the Corys. After managing to hoodwink the government for money, he opened a restaurant in an old run-down building a few miles out of town that once was an old dance hall. Shortly after that, Cory begin spreading stories of his adventurous life prior to arriving here, which turned out to be a lot of bull. In my opinion, if the Industrial Commission ever gave out an award to so-called entrepreneurs who went around telling wild tales and lying, Cory would have easily won because of his fantastic imagination for coming up with weird stories about his accomplishments. And yes, years later Cory is still around, and he continues to brag about his life mingling with the rich and famous to anyone who will listen. As for him being a noted chef for the Kennedy family, we must remember at the time he was only twenty-two years old. That by itself would be an astonishing achievement, if only it was true.

Cory eventually eased up on bragging about his wild tales. He walked in to Tim’s one morning, and I noticed him enter with the aid of a cane; it was reported in the newspaper that he was seventy-seven and having health problems, which I felt was a mental condition brought on by his over-active imagination over the years. After ordering a coffee he went over and sat with a couple who he knew. When I overheard him say that he and his wife were planning on taking an extended trip to Asia, I felt the time had come for me to let him know some of the true facts that I had learned about him. So after I left the coffee shop, I returned home and printed out a few pages of my findings, especially in regards to the cookbook he claimed he had written. I also included a copy of the letter I had received stating who the true author was; along with that, I included my findings in regards to him being the chef for the renowned Kennedy family, and then I mailed it off to him. For some strange reason Cory suddenly stopped coming to Tim’s. Oh, yes—I must mention that at the bottom of one of the pages I had sent, in bold letters I wrote, Stick around—there’s much more to come about you conning people.

Another strange twist occurred one day as I drove by his residence in Janeville, where he still had a few cottages. I noticed that he had his property up for sale. I thought, Well, the sucker isn’t going to stick around to be embarrassed about all his lies and wild tales. I was a bit disappointed, because my intention was to make him look like the ass that he truly was in the eyes of the public. Anyway, he’s still around, and maybe he still will be when I make my findings known, but before I have a chance to, I just hope that he doesn’t crawl in some hole and die.

Let’s go back to the mid-eighties when Cory first arrived in town and got government funding to purchase an old dance hall. The second funding was to upgrade the old hall and his not-so-successful restaurant; he’d go around boasting about him being the chef. The main reason why he didn’t make a go of the restaurant was due to the fact that local people didn’t take to kindly to boasters like Cory, so this was his downfall—if not for his continuous cunning in receiving government funding, Cory would have ended up with nothing. The people weren’t aware of where Cory was getting his money to survive from; now they know that he lived and survived at the taxpayers’ expense. He came to town as a bum, and one never knows, he may also leave as one, or maybe he’ll be leaving with a few taxpayers’ dollars. In the eyes of a person who knew the true facts about Cory, such as myself, he will always be the cunning bum who came from the States and conned his way into the community with his wild tales of serving royalty and partying with the rich and famous, Oh, yes, and we must remember his meeting with head of states all over the world. Boy, it must feel great to be famous, even if it’s only a fantasy.

Regarding my own problems that I continue to have with local police, especially the ones who were involved in working as private security guards for the local McDonald’s restaurant, which they weren’t supposed to, my beef was rather simple. Why should policemen be allowed to work in that line of business without being licensed to do that type of work? This continues today, but now they are employed there as regular policemen, even carrying their side arms—in other words their guns. When you think of it, it seems kind of weird having armed police working at a fast food restaurant, especially one that had huge billboards advertising as a family restaurant. Yeah, it does seem a bit strange to have armed policemen at this location.

Well, life must go on, and like the saying goes, you must do what you need to do, so I kept up the pressure of trying to get those policemen, who were working to earn a few extra dollars, out of the security business and for them to concentrate on the job for which they were hired—to serve and protect the citizens. That does not include working at McDonald’s without reporting their earnings to the revenue department. When you come to think of it, some of those policemen have an easy life when it comes to getting things free. I’m quite sure while working at McDonald’s they can have all the Big Macs they want, and whenever they are at coffee shops they don’t pay. It’s like the story I previously mentioned about the cop who went into Tim’s and was served by a new employee who was unaware that town policemen didn’t pay. After he had served the cop, he reached out to get paid, and the officer said, Policemen don’t have to pay, because we come here to protect the place. After the police had left, a couple who was at the counter who heard the policeman commenting as to why they were there laughed. One said, Unbelievable—they don’t pay because they’re here to protect the place.

Yeah, that’s nothing, said the other. A few days ago over the radio I heard a woman police officer request that people stop waving at policemen, because they found it distracting.

Oh, really? said the other, adding, She sure thinks a lot of herself.

There was one thing about Tim’s—while there you’d overhear mostly everything that was going on around town. Each morning I’d begin my day by stopping by and having a fresh coffee and reading the newspaper. There were other places, such as Burger King and McDonald’s and Wendy’s, but I preferred going to Tim’s. Early each morning it was mostly the same. The regular customers who gathered there would greet each other as they entered, and some would at times make some sort of smart remark, but it was all in fun. At times there were discussions about politics regarding certain politicians who were using their position in government for their personal gains. If it wasn’t about politicians, the talk would be about what was going on around town. Nowadays I find it much more pleasant to go to Tim’s in the mornings. The group that now comes around, in my opinion, is much more respectful than the earlier group that once gathered there, who were loud. It wasn’t unusual to hear the F-word being used over and over again, and not only by customers; workers could also be heard from the back also using the F-word freely.

On the subject of Tim’s, there’s my nasty little friend Jenny, who I briefly mentioned in volume 1. One morning while talking with another server, I asked why the manager put up with Jenny’s craziness and her unusual behaviour, and the worker simply replied, It’s because they depend on her to do things that other workers won’t, such as coming in early each morning to do some of the baking. But as time went on I’d find other reason as to why they kept her, and it sure wasn’t because of her pleasant mannerisms. Jenny could at times be very nasty and wouldn’t hesitate to tell anyone off, including me. At times I found her to be a pain in the ass, but in time I’d have reasons to think better of her. It wasn’t that I disliked Jenny. My problem was her big mouth, and I found some of the things she’d say very annoying; she never knew when to close that trap of hers. Other workers didn’t pay much attention to her behaviour. When I mentioned to Craig that her mouth was always going, he simply replied, Oh, that’s Jenny for you. As for Craig, I believe that Tim’s workers couldn’t find a better employer. He was easy-going, the kind of a boss that employees could turn to whenever personal problems arose. This could be on account of Craig’s upbringing, or maybe his compassion for others; he reminded me of my Jewish friend Mr. Linett, who I had once worked for in Montreal. He was always ready to help out people in need. Whatever it was about Craig, he was well liked and looked upon as a community-minded businessman.

CHAPTER 2

Extortion Tactics

As for my continuous problem with Sgt. Butch and other police officers, they didn’t let up with their harassment towards me. They put pressure on business operators and used extortion tactics, forcing people not to do business with Mr. Hudon. I retaliated the only way I could, by not letting up on trying to get certain policemen out of their involvement with private security work at McDonald’s as guards. For ten years certain policemen used different forms of harassment towards me, and it continued on for another five years, till I decided that I had taken enough of their crap. The policemen who were involved continued telling businesses that if they had me do work for them, policemen would not respond to their calls. This type of extortion went on for years. The same was being said to private club and restaurant operators, and the same threatening tactics were used over and over again. But I was also using a tactic of my own, which seemed to bother the police, and that was not to let on that their antics bothered me. Whenever I had the opportunity to write something negative about them and their security work in the newspaper, I would. I felt that the only way I could get the police officers out of the private security business was to keep the public informed about what was going on. My intention was to embarrass them and keep the townspeople talking about this issue of policemen working as security guards. The majority of the townspeople agreed with me, and the question that would at times pop up was, If McDonald’s was a family restaurant, why did they need armed guards? Other nearby fast food outlets such as Burger King and Wendy’s didn’t, so why McDonalds? Just because they were policemen, this didn’t give them the right to work as guards, especially when they weren’t licensed to do so. For me to operate my business, I needed to be licensed and bonded and have liability insurance, but the cops had none of this, and they were allowed to pass themselves off as security officers.

I would eventually come to a conclusion as to why McDonald’s used police officers. As we know, places such as McDonald’s usually employed a great number of teenagers, who worked for a minimum wage, and besides this they would have someone with very few skills employed as manager. The skills I’m referring to are not about managing teenagers or dishing out burgers. I’m talking about the type of person they have acting as night managers. If you happen to go into a certain location in the evenings, you’d mostly find that the person in charge is young and doesn’t have the appearance of someone with authority who is capable of dealing with disorderly customers, which at times occurs. So instead of hiring such a person and paying a fair wage, the owner relied on off-duty police officers to take care of such problems. The policemen who were involved were very glad to do this type of work because they were being paid under the table; at the end of the year, they don’t disclose the cash money they had earned to the revenue agency.

Back then a lot of this was going on among a number of police officers, such as Sgt, Burns, with his sideline of going out of town with family members to pick up vehicles for a local dealership; he also didn’t declare his cash earning. As I previously mentioned, Sgt, Burns was doing this while he was supposed to be on duty working as a police officer. He had other policemen cover up for him when he’d be out of town, either in another part of the province or in Nova Scotia. I often heard him being paged on the police scanner, and another policemen would reply, saying that Sgt, Burns was occupied and would be tied up for the rest of the day, which was bullshit because he’d be gone picking up cars. This type of crap continued on for years, and maybe it still does today. This type of deceitfulness by Burns didn’t bother me, but police involvement in private security sure did.

In regards to laws and regulations that we as citizens must obey, including filing an honest income tax returns—these laws and regulations were put in place to govern all of us, and police officers aren’t exempt. Such laws also refer to them. It’s been my experience that the greater majority of citizens aren’t aware of their rights and certain legalities whenever dealing with policemen. One must keep in mind that police officers are citizens, just as we all are, and are subject to the same laws. The police officers are given a few special powers in order to enforce the laws, but in principle this gives them no more rights to break the law than we have. The law belongs to all the people, not just policemen, lawyers, or courts. These laws are intended to make life better, but if the people are not aware of these laws that we are all governed by and their ordinary rights, then they are at a great disadvantage when it comes to being confronted by police officers who are aware of these laws. As we know, there are times when officers misuse these laws, but if policemen realized that you were also aware of the laws and your rights, then their approach to you might be different.

If a person is approached by a police officer other than in a social way, it may be because he or she wants to question or arrest you. If so, there are certain procedures on both sides designed to safeguard your rights, so it is strongly to the peoples’ advantage to be familiar with these laws and their rights. Keep in mind that no one is above the law, including lawyers, judges, policemen, and citizens. In my opinion it’s all about education and educating one’s self, and I’m not referring to the type that comes within schools. Over the years I have dealt with some people who had many years of schooling, but when it came to the issues of their rights and certain legalities, I have found that their education in dealing with these matters was very limited.

People aren’t usually aware of issues regarding obtaining the services of a lawyer. We must keep in mind that some lawyers are better at certain criminal cases than others. For instance, if you’re facing a serious criminal prosecution you may not want to hire a lawyer to defend you who has handled nothing but civil court cases and has no experience in handling cases in criminal courts. If you find yourself in an emergency and you do not know a lawyer, your best course of action would be to ask someone who has some knowledge of the type of lawyer you would need. And do not be satisfied with the assertion that so-and-so is a good lawyer; make inquiries to satisfy yourself as to what kind of person this lawyer is and whether or not he or she will represent your case adequately in a court of law. The most important factor is to find a lawyer in whom you have confidence and whose advice you believe you can rely on. Legal problems become twice as unpleasant if you for some reason mistrust your own lawyer. Another factor I have learned about is lawyers and their service fees. I would recommend that whenever you’re in need of a lawyer, after explaining your problem you should inquire as to what their charges will be, or an approximate cost, and not wait till his or her service has been rendered. By not inquiring first, you may end up paying much more money than you had anticipated. In other words it isn’t wise to wait till the court case is over with to ask how much you owe. If you didn’t ask for a rough estimate before your court case began, the lawyer is in a position to charge any amount he or she feels like.

Case in point regarding a lawyer and his service fee—some years ago I obtained the service of a local lawyer who I had met when he had first arrived in town to practice law. Quite often I’d meet him at the coffee shop and we’d talk about our work. One morning I appeared in court on a minor mischief charge, and at the time I felt that I wasn’t in need of a lawyer, because I was just there to ask for a postponement for my trial. But when I noticed this lawyer was there defending another client, I approached him and asked if he’d speak to the judge on my behalf and request the postponement because I’d be out of town for a few weeks. He agreed, and when my case came up it took him only a few minutes to have my trial held over to a later date. After I returned home, I called the lawyer and asked how much I owed him. He replied, Oh, for this morning, five hundred. I thought that was a bit excessive, because he was already in court on another case and it took him less than five minutes to do what I had asked. I said, Okay, I’ll send you a cheque for the five hundred.

After a bit of hesitation he replied, Oh, we’ll wait till the case is over with, and I’ll then invoice you.

I answered, I will not need you because Jim will be back and I will be using him, so like I said, I’ll put the five hundred dollar cheque in the mail for you.

He responded, Oh, you must have misunderstood—it’s a thousand, not five hundred.

I thought to myself, the bloody shyster’s trying to rip me off for an extra five hundred. After thinking for a moment I said, By the way, Mr. Cleaver, I have no problem with my hearing, and I plainly heard you say five hundred.

Before he had a chance to respond, I added, If you care to hear what you said, I can replay the audio recording I have attached to this phone line.

Hearing that, he quickly responded, Mr. Hudon, its illegal for you to record our conversation without my permission.

I replied, I’m well aware of that, and it’s also illegal for you to try and rip off clients. I abruptly hung up.

And within a few seconds he called and said, Okay, Mr. Hudon, I’ll accept the five hundred.

I answered, I’m glad you decided to, because I wasn’t going to send you anything, and furthermore I was thinking of replaying the recording of our conversation to a few lawyers, just to let them know the type of lawyer that you are.

After a bit of hesitation he replied, Mr. Hudon, like I said, you can send the five hundred. I was glad that he didn’t ask me to replay the tape because our conversation wasn’t recorded. I would later learn that Cleaver was the type of lawyer that used different gimmicks to get extra money from unexpected clients. If they didn’t have the extra money, in many cases he would then ask for their car or motorbike or other material thing that they might own. This would occur whenever he was working on legal aid cases, which was most of the time. Mr. Cleaver was known to take on a lot of social assistance cases, which were paid for by the government, and then he’d try and bribe these poor clients into giving him things that they owned. In one incident he talked a man who owned a motorbike into signing it over to him; even though Cleaver was paid by social services, he also got the bike. Yes, in my opinion he was a shyster who should have been reported to the law society that oversees the practice of trashy lawyers such as him. Today thirty years later, whenever I see him I greet him with a smile and think, You bloody shyster. It is lawyers such as Cleaver who make other honest lawyers look dishonest in the eyes of the public. I have to admit that over the years I have met a few lawyers who weren’t too honest, but none were as crooked as Cleaver. After getting to know him and how he operated, I was of the opinion that he was the type of lawyer that would rip off his own mother.

And another thing about lawyers that I feel you should be aware of—some have never, or seldom, been to court to fight a criminal case. Maybe a civil lawsuit, but not a criminal case, so as I mentioned, it is to your advantage to choose a lawyer wisely. Be careful you don’t end up with one such as Cleaver, because you’ll surely be ripped off.

After years of continuous hassle between me and the off-duty policemen who worked at McDonald’s, the police chief came up with a brilliant idea, mainly due to the pressure I was putting on them to get people to openly talk and express their opinions concerning the issue of policemen working as guards. The chief finally came up with the bright idea of having off-duty police officers in full uniform do private security work at McDonald’s. The manner in which the chief had set it up was that the police department would invoice McDonald’s for the hours that the policemen worked, and in turn the chief would then pay the officers. This was a smart way for the chief to get around the problem that people were talking about, but it still boiled down to policemen working as guards, even though they were in uniform, including carrying their service guns. When I first heard that they were there wearing police uniforms, I found it hard to believe, so one Friday evening, I drove over to McDonald’s. Sure enough, there was an armed police officer on duty. To be sure that the officer was actually working there in full uniform, I later called a woman I knew that was employed at McDonald’s to get a bit more information. I was told that for the past few weeks, policemen were showing up fully dressed with their service pistols. I said to her, Doesn’t that seem a bit odd? Policemen hanging around the service counter in uniform with their guns?

She laughed, saying, Oh, yeah. Even customers are making comments that now we have armed guards, and some customers are asking what the hell is going on.

After getting more information, I wrote a letter to the town’s mayor and council objecting to the police chief’s decision to have uniformed off-duty police officers employed there as security guards. I also sent a copy of my letter to the editor of the Telegraph Journal newspaper in Saint John. Two days later an article appeared on the front page of the newspaper. In large bold letters, it said, SOME BATHURST POLICE OFFICERS WORK THEIR SHIFT AS ‘RENT-A-COP’ AT THE MCDONALD’S RESTAURANT. In smaller letters it said OWNER OF PRIVATE SECURITY FIRM TAKES ISSUE WITH THIS PRACTICE. The article went on to explain why I was objecting to the uniformed police officers working as guards at McDonald’s, and it mentioned that Mr. Hudon has no direct interest with his security firm supplying guard service for places such as McDonald’s. However, as a citizen, Mr. Hudon said that residents should complain because the police were taking badly needed work away from local residents who were able to do what the police were doing. Two days later, another article appeared in the newspaper, the police chief’s response to my letter. On the front page in bold letters, POLICE CHIEF SAYS OFFICERS WHO ARE ON DUTY AT MCDONALD’S ARE NOT ‘RENT-A-COPS’. To the news reporter, he tried to justify why the police were employed at McDonald’s by saying, We are there in the status of a police officer and not as a security guard, which is completely different than a private security firm, who are not police officers. They have no power of arrest under the liquor control or narcotic criminal code, and these are major problems around there as far as under age drinking and illegal possession. When I read this part of his reply, where he mentioned liquor, drugs, and illegal possessions, I found it hard to believe that the police chief would make such a public statement about why police officers worked at the McDonald’s restaurant. This is a restaurant that advertises itself as a family restaurant, and the chief’s statement made it seem that instead of being a family restaurant, it was a place for alcohol and drug users and pushers to hang out.

After reading the article, I called the reporter who had interviewed the police chief and questioned him regarding the part of the chief’s statement where he had talked about drugs and alcohol; the reporter said he quoted precisely what the police chief had said. I mentioned to the reporter if McDonald’s head office heard of this, I didn’t think they would appreciate what the chief had to say about their family restaurant. The reporter said that he had called McDonald’s head office and spoke with a spokeswoman for McDonald’s of Canada in Toronto. She said that security decisions are made by the individual restaurants based upon what they feel is required. She added, We are a consumer-driven company, and we do whatever it takes to make our customers as safe and as comfortable as possible. In an interview with the local owner, he stated to the reporter that the restaurant hires police officers frequently to make sure its customers are as safe as possible. He then went on to say that police protection is part of the restaurant’s investment in the community and its young people. My reply to this owner and the spokeswoman for McDonald’s was that if McDonald’s is such a family restaurant, why do they need such special protection? Again we must keep in mind that McDonald’s is supposed to be a family restaurant; if so, then why have they armed policemen employed as security guards? And as for the chief’s reply to my letter, in my opinion it was all bullshit. On account of my letter he had to respond and say something, but he said that the reason for policemen working at McDonald’s was due to the problem of drugs and alcohol. In my opinion he should have chosen better words in his explanation as to why police worked there.

As for my letter to the mayor’s office, a few weeks later I received a reply from the town clerk on behalf of Mayor Bob that simply said, Today constant cutbacks in municipal revenue force a municipality to sell its services whenever possible, and the stationing of police at the McDonald’s is just one example of the sale of our services that will become more and more common in the future for our municipal department. It is in an effort to keep our tax rates from increasing and to prevent the reduction of services to our citizens. We feel that such arrangements are not only effective in crime prevention, but also cost effective. My answer to this was, What a bunch of crap! The city’s going into the rent-a-cop business because of cutbacks in revenue? I knew that after what was written in the newspapers, they’d have to come up with some sort of story to justify why the town was permitting this to go on, and what better excuse could they use than saying they needed the extra revenue? It would be just a matter of time before we’d learn just how long the city would stay in the rent-a-cop business. I took the letter that I had received from the town clerk and went to see the newspaper editor to have it published. After reading it he agreed and asked if I had a comment to make in regards to the letter. I replied Yeah, you could say, ‘Mr. Hudon asks, what next? Mayor Bob and our police chief, dishing out burgers at McDonald’s for a few extra dollars’? The townspeople got a laugh when they read the article, but Mayor Bob and the police chief didn’t think it was humorous.

Getting back to my friend Murphy and his wife—one night at the Bo, I met Joan, and as usual; she was with Diane and a few other friends. Diane seemed to be high on some sort of drug. Her mouth just kept going with her stupid giggles. Seeing that Murphy wasn’t around, I asked where he was. Joan said, Oh! He’s out of town, and she asked if I’d like to join them in a game of pool. I said okay. After playing a few games, Joan said that they were going to a friend’s home to a party and asked if I’d like to go. I said sure I’d like to. Arriving at their friend’s home, the party was already in progress; Joan introduced me to the owner, whom I had previously seen around town. After having a few drinks, I took notice that Joan and Diane were continually talking with a young man. As they spoke, he’d stare over at me. At first I ignored him. Later, he came over to where I sat and said, So you’re the private detective?

I smiled and answered, Yes, its part of what I do. To change the subject I said, It’s a nice quiet party they’re having here.

He smartly answered, It was till you came.

Seeing that he was serious, I stood and said, By the way I was invited here. As I said this I noticed Joan and Diane looking over towards us. I could tell they had heard what he had said, but they didn’t bother to come over and tell the young man that they had invited me. I felt something was up and decided to leave, so after I finished my drink I walked towards the door. The young man followed, and when I opened the door to leave he followed me outside. I turned and said, I’m not looking for trouble, so don’t bother me.

Just as I began walking away he said, Some say you’re a tough guy. I would like to see just how tough you are.

I again told him that I wasn’t looking for trouble. He was about fifteen years younger than I, with a stocky build. I didn’t fear him, but knew that I could get myself in more trouble, so I proceeded walking down the pathway to my car. Before I got to the sidewalk, he grabbed my arm and pulled me around; as I turned I saw Joan and Diane with a few others standing back near the house watching. I pushed him away, telling him to keep his hands off me. He took a swing at me, which I had expected him to do, and I avoided the blow by stepping back. I retaliated with two quick punches to his face that dropped him to the ground. I then moved back and waited for him to get up. Joan and Diane rushed up to us and helped him up, and as they did Joan said to me, You had no reason to punch him, he just wanted to talk.

I said,