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N0KFQ > TODAY 19.10.13 15:37l 56 Lines 2584 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 19
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<ED1ZAC<VK2DOT<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 131019/1316Z 6147@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.57
Oct 19, 1982:
John Z. DeLorean is arrested in $24 million cocaine deal
On October 19, 1982, the automaker John Z. DeLorean is arrested
and charged with conspiracy to obtain and distribute 55 pounds of
cocaine. DeLorean was acquitted of the drug charges in August
1984, but his legal woes were only beginning. He soon went on
trial for fraud and over the next two decades was forced to pay
millions of dollars to creditors and lawyers. Nevertheless,
DeLorean occupies an important place in automotive history:
Thanks to its starring role in the 1985 film "Back to the
Future," his gull-wing sports car is one of the most famous cars
in the world.
DeLorean grew up in Detroit and began to work for Chrysler while
he was still in college. His career was a promising one: He
worked his way up the corporate ladder at General Motors, where
he is credited with designing the GTO and the Firebird, and
became a vice-president in 1972, but he left the company just a
year later to pursue his own business interests. In 1978, he
started the DeLorean Motor Company in Northern Ireland_the
British government, along with investors like Johnny Carson and
Sammy Davis, Jr., paid the bulk of his start-up costs_to build
his dream car: the DMC-12, a sports car that was like nothing
anyone had ever seen before. Its stainless-steel body was
unpainted; its doors opened up, not out; it had a 130-hp Renault
engine and could go from zero to 60 mph in eight seconds.
But not many people actually bought a DeLorean car. They were
much too expensive: Each one cost $25,000, compared with $10,000
for the average car and $18,000 for a souped-up Corvette. The
company's financial trouble, DeLorean's attorneys argued, was the
reason the FBI had been able to entrap him in the $24 million
drug deal--the authorities knew he would do anything to save his
business.
DeLorean was already mired in legal problems by the time director
Steven Spielberg chose a DMC-12 to serve as Marty McFly's time
machine in "Back to the Future." Spielberg had originally planned
to use an old refrigerator instead of a car, but had changed his
mind at the last minute. (The director liked the DeLorean's
futuristic look, but more than that he was worried that young
fans of the movie might accidentally get stuck in refrigerators
and freezers while playing make-believe.) While the DeLorean's
instant celebrity did not do much to revive its creator's
fortunes, it granted him a permanent footnote in pop-culture
history.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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