maintenance shop. None of the school authorities ever imagined that the stolen property might have remained on school grounds. When one of his stolen items sold on E-bay, he simply retrieved it from the maintenance shop and mailed it out from a post office a couple of towns away.
In a couple of instances, he purposely created a disturbance to be sent to the principal’s office for disciplinary action. He knew the principal’s desk contained keys to all parts of the school. While the principal was occupied, he took the keys he wanted, had them duplicated and used one of the keys to re-enter the office after hours to return the original keys. With the duplicates he could selectively take whatever school property he desired. By the end of his senior year he had amassed over $30,000 in illegal profits. He was never suspected of any misdoing by either the school or his parents.
In his senior year, on a dare, he took the SAT exam. He scored in the top five percent of graduating seniors. His teachers and the school administration accused him of cheating and refused to enter his scores. The strange element in the story was that Ford took the exam honestly, perhaps it was the first thing he had done honestly on his whole life. For almost four years, all through high school he had assumed a low profile so as not to draw attention to himself. In truth he could have been a brilliant student but he preferred to take a different and more lucrative path down life’s road. When he was accused of cheating, he admitted it, even though he had never seen the answers to the test nor had been aided in any way. Ford wanted to make sure he always remained under the radar; and acing a college entrance exam was not the way to do it!
He had a friend in high school who practiced hypnotism as a hobby. Ford learned the technique from him and embellished it by reading books from the library and watching professional hypnotists at work. Once, at a bar, he tried hypnotism on a drunken patron as an experiment. He was surprised at how effective he was. He had the drunk buy all his drinks and refer to Ford as master. When he was finished he gave the drunk a post-hypnotic suggestion that the drunk would not know who Ford was. It worked perfectly; in fact Ford had to laugh when the drunk looked at his wallet and realized all his money was gone. At that point Ford realized that he had a lucrative future career in hypnotism.
But up until now, thought Ford, the money he had been making was small time stuff; he had now entered into a plan which would bring him much more. It had already started. He laughed to himself; the clowns at police headquarters would never uncover his grand design.
Chapter 23
Three days had passed since the bank shooting. Fred was asked by Bernice, Ernest James’ widow, to deliver the eulogy. Fred recounted to the overflowing audience how he had been friends with James since grammar school. He brought smiles to the audience when he told of James’ host of practical jokes. Many in the audience had been the butt of those jokes; but because of James’ good nature they all took it in good humor and smiled recalling those incidents. Fred recounted how James especially enjoyed it when the focus of the joke was on him.
The funeral home was filled with pictures taken from James’ life. Two of the pictures showed the weekly poker gang which brought tears to Fred’s eyes.
When Fred finished, Bernice embraced him and said, “Please, Fred, whatever you do, make sure the bastard who killed my husband gets what’s coming to him.”
“I will do what I can humanly do, Bernice, I hope you know that.”
“You better or Ernest will come down and haunt you until you do; and I promise you he won’t be smiling. You know Ernest; he just hates to leave things unfinished.”
Fred thought, “That’s healthy, her sense of humor is coming back, maybe she is starting to pull out of this. And time—a lot of time—will help her
In a couple of instances, he purposely created a disturbance to be sent to the principal’s office for disciplinary action. He knew the principal’s desk contained keys to all parts of the school. While the principal was occupied, he took the keys he wanted, had them duplicated and used one of the keys to re-enter the office after hours to return the original keys. With the duplicates he could selectively take whatever school property he desired. By the end of his senior year he had amassed over $30,000 in illegal profits. He was never suspected of any misdoing by either the school or his parents.
In his senior year, on a dare, he took the SAT exam. He scored in the top five percent of graduating seniors. His teachers and the school administration accused him of cheating and refused to enter his scores. The strange element in the story was that Ford took the exam honestly, perhaps it was the first thing he had done honestly on his whole life. For almost four years, all through high school he had assumed a low profile so as not to draw attention to himself. In truth he could have been a brilliant student but he preferred to take a different and more lucrative path down life’s road. When he was accused of cheating, he admitted it, even though he had never seen the answers to the test nor had been aided in any way. Ford wanted to make sure he always remained under the radar; and acing a college entrance exam was not the way to do it!
He had a friend in high school who practiced hypnotism as a hobby. Ford learned the technique from him and embellished it by reading books from the library and watching professional hypnotists at work. Once, at a bar, he tried hypnotism on a drunken patron as an experiment. He was surprised at how effective he was. He had the drunk buy all his drinks and refer to Ford as master. When he was finished he gave the drunk a post-hypnotic suggestion that the drunk would not know who Ford was. It worked perfectly; in fact Ford had to laugh when the drunk looked at his wallet and realized all his money was gone. At that point Ford realized that he had a lucrative future career in hypnotism.
But up until now, thought Ford, the money he had been making was small time stuff; he had now entered into a plan which would bring him much more. It had already started. He laughed to himself; the clowns at police headquarters would never uncover his grand design.
Chapter 23
Three days had passed since the bank shooting. Fred was asked by Bernice, Ernest James’ widow, to deliver the eulogy. Fred recounted to the overflowing audience how he had been friends with James since grammar school. He brought smiles to the audience when he told of James’ host of practical jokes. Many in the audience had been the butt of those jokes; but because of James’ good nature they all took it in good humor and smiled recalling those incidents. Fred recounted how James especially enjoyed it when the focus of the joke was on him.
The funeral home was filled with pictures taken from James’ life. Two of the pictures showed the weekly poker gang which brought tears to Fred’s eyes.
When Fred finished, Bernice embraced him and said, “Please, Fred, whatever you do, make sure the bastard who killed my husband gets what’s coming to him.”
“I will do what I can humanly do, Bernice, I hope you know that.”
“You better or Ernest will come down and haunt you until you do; and I promise you he won’t be smiling. You know Ernest; he just hates to leave things unfinished.”
Fred thought, “That’s healthy, her sense of humor is coming back, maybe she is starting to pull out of this. And time—a lot of time—will help her
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