Carl Vonderau – Newsletter – January 2025

The fires happening in LA are unbelievable. The property decimated has a larger area than Manhattan, and the fire is still not contained. One expert estimated that it would take more than 20K firetrucks just to stop the blazes in all the houses. More Santa Ana winds are projected to spread embers into other areas so this could get worse. I only know of one person who lost their house, but I’m sure I’ll hear of others soon.

I am glad that our friends in Canada are helping. They have sent firefighters, as has Mexico. The Canadian water bombers produced by Bombardier have proven essential. Can’t they just douse the flames with water from the Pacific Ocean? Yes, but there are limits. Salt water is terrible for the soil; plants hate it. (There was a reason that the Romans salted the fields after they destroyed Carthage.) Dropping water from the air is also imprecise. The Santa Ana winds make it even more difficult. Thousands of pounds of water dumped on buildings can severely damage or destroy them. It also corrodes metal equipment.

We in San Diego are holding our breaths. We have not had rain for a long time and the Santa Ana winds also hit us. There have been some fires in outlying areas but none close to where I live near the ocean. However, once they start, fires can easily spread all the way to the beach. Just look at what happened with Malibu. None of us in San Diego are prepared enough. We need to collect key documents like passports and titles in order to prepare for any insurance claim. One insurance expert recommended that people document every item in their houses and take videos of every room. Our family isn’t close to having that accomplished.

Enough about the fires. Here’s another description of a crazy scammer to distract you.

From Copy Machines to Oil and Gas Scams

What makes a successful scam artist? Of course a lack of empathy helps. But I think being a good story teller is key. The scam artist has to be totally committed to the fantasy, be entertaining, and have the audacity to convincingly tell the fiction to the right people.

Take the case of the Texas oilman described in a New Yorker article by Charles Bethea in the July 3, 2024 issue. Todd May was born to a father who worked at a copy machine repair and rental shop. His mother sold flowers, but taught him there were other ways to make money. He was only twenty when he and she were arrested for passing bad checks. Apparently May avoided prison because of a great story he told to the judge. He was gay and promised to go to church, marry a woman, and make an honest living. He committed another check fraud and went to prison anyway.

He got out and actually did marry. Briefly. He told everyone that he had oil money and wore high-prestige clothes and gave expensive gifts to his friends. He often had people over for champagne and caviar. So where did he get the income? He used false identities to sell convention-booth rentals and then disappeared with the money.

May went to prison again, but that didn’t stop him. Even inside he had the use of a phone and scammed people with more fake expo and convention spaces. When he got out he bought a PhD to build up his resume and opened more businesses. He also bought lavish gifts with his new boyfriend’s credit card. But the authorities were on to him and he had to keep moving all over the South. They eventually traced him to a building and found him hiding in a bathtub.

Prison never seemed to sway him from conning. After he was released again, he started Prosper Oil and Gas. Its wells were duds but, like any good flimflam man he made up fantastic histories of profits. His stories lured in over a hundred investors, including the president of a small bank. As for his staff, he used his tried-and-true method for keeping them quiet—gifts of cars, vacations, and jewelry. Even his parole agent got $5K for looking the other way. Then federal agents showed up, and the SEC learned that the company was a giant Ponzi scheme. May had spent over a million dollars on meals, travel, an airplane, and houses, and condos. It was as if he knew that he would eventually be caught, so he spent the money as quickly as it came in.

May gave his boyfriend a Range Rover and treated him to luxurious vacations. When his office was raided, the boyfriend helped him escape. But then the couple had a fight. Never trust a spurned lover. The boyfriend immediately gave up May to the authorities.

What’s a conman to do when he’s sent to prison for 20 years? He updated his Facebook page as if he were still on the outside going to charity fund-raisers. He even created a YouTube channel and somehow drove a car on the prison property so that it looked like he was heading to a lake and a golf course. Authorities believe he made more than $700K from prison by claiming to represent businesses that were owed unclaimed oil and gas royalties. But the real money was outside prison, so he escaped in a prison truck.

He made his way to Palm Beach, Florida, where the truly gifted scam artists lived. Now known as Jacob Turner, he struck up with people at the croquet club and attended charity events. Could there be a better place to identify future wealthy victims? (For a wonderful expose on Palm Beach, see Holly Peterson’s article in The Wall Street Journal on January 11-12, 2025.) May and his boyfriend had twin Mercedes Benzes and an apartment just down the road from Mar-a-Lago. But his rising stature had its costs. Someone spotted him on the Palm Beach Daily News society-page and the U.S. Marshalls caught him again. And how did the community respond? The Palm Beach Daily News society page columnist said he’d never belonged. Just look at the way he dressed in a Glen plaid sport coat for an evening event.

He was supposed to on on trial in late 2024, but apparently that didn’t happen. No trace of the verdict can be found on the internet. His lover is talking with Hollywood about a movie. His brother runs the family business, a copy-machine store.

Learn about Linda Moore

Linda Moore has written two terrific books—Attribution and Five Days in Bogotá. Five Days came out last year and is a high paced-thriller about a gallery owner trying to save her family by selling paintings at an art fair in Bogotá. It’s Colombia, so you know that guerrillas, art thieves, and sketchy foreign diplomats are involved. Plus Nobel laureate García Márquez. It’s a fun, well-written book that you will really enjoy.

I asked Linda about her life and work and here are some short answers you will find interesting.

1) What genre do you think you write in and why did you choose that?

I write the book that is in my head to write and don’t worry about genre. As my friend author Ron Currie told me—“Genre is for booksellers and librarians to know where to shelve the book and not a worry for the author.”

2) How does your writing relate to your past career and travels? Do you use those settings in your book?

Setting establishes the stage set for the narrative to unfold. Sometimes it becomes a factor that determines the story. I have traveled a lot (over 100 countries) and lived abroad. I see places vividly and when a critic calls my book ‘immersive’ I am pleased I was able to create that environment with words for the reader to be there.

3) How do you find the time to write, and what schedule do you use?

I need to be alone with no interruptions or distractions. Because of promoting Five Days in Bogotá, I am not able to find the time to write or rewrite existing chapters.

4) What is a book you recommend and why?

Hmmm need to think about this.

5) What do you enjoy doing outside of writing?

I love meeting people and talking with people. Every person has an interesting story to tell, and I am fascinated by them. It’s also why I enjoy traveling.

Please reply to this email (or click here for my online readers) if you would like to be in a random drawing to get a free paperback of Five Days in Bogotá.

Another good book

Terry Ades, a friend of mine, lives in Montreal and is visually impaired. Nevertheless, she is a very skilled author. Tumbleweed Press just published her book: How People See. It is a very interesting take on Quebec culture. How does a woman who can barely see help her delinquent nephew when his parents both die? It is set in 1994, the year Quebec voted on sovereignty, so the whole Quebec sovereignty question further complicates the lives of all the characters. To what extent is someone French or English, and to what extent is Quebec a separate land or part of Canada? The boy has a francophone mother and and English father so he is pulled into both cultures. Terry writes in third person but has a a very good literary voice. I was so pleased to read her book and really enjoy it.

Where I’ll be in the next month

January 31. I will be at the Murder in the Magic City reader’s festival. If you are in the Birmingham, Alabama, area, I hope to see you.

February 8. Don’t miss our Partners in Crime virtual event on Feb. 8 with Supervising Deputy Attorney General Tiffany Susz, who will speak on human trafficking. Just register here.

Do you have a book club?

If you would like me to talk at your club about Saving Myles, please respond to this email or simply email me at carlvonderauauthor@gmail.com. If you are close by, I can come to your meeting. If not, we can talk virtually. I really love to do these, so don’t hesitate to ask.

Finally, if you know someone who would enjoy my book, please buy it.

Until next time,
Carl