Monday, August 31, 2009

Buck Howdy - Wiretapper DNA Gone Good

Life is strange. Take a moment to listen to a Roy Rodgers / Rolling Stones mash-up “Hey! You! Get off of my cow!” The artist is Buck Howdy, a singing cowboy, specializing in kid-friendly tunes. He’s also a genuine, tractor-driving, turkey farmer.

Ok, now that you have stopped laughing...

Buck Howdy: “I inherited my geek DNA from my dad [Jim Vaus Jr.]. As a kid my dad helped me build a ham radio and then I got my broadcast license WN2FEZ was my call sign.

He was a HUGE geek - he invented wiretapping and tracing phone calls - and then employed his skills at the same time for the L.A. Syndicate (mob), the police and Hollywood movie stars all at the same time!

He also invented the machine that they patterned the big sting in the movie “The Sting” after - where they were supposedly intercepting horse race results on the wire service - and then delaying those results just long enough to place bets on the horses.”

(Jim Vaus cleaned up his act, by the way. You can find out more in his book, “Why I Quit Syndicated Crime,” the basis of the 1955 movie Wiretapper.) (more)

I know a few folks from the Vaus clan.
They are really wonderful people. ~Kevin