The Story behind the story of "Ol' Mother Oak"

 

About 20 years ago when I was at USP Florence, Colorado, a new guy showed up over there. I watched him as he came in and thought to myself that he was completely out of place, like me. I quickly concluded that he was somewhat of a misfit too. Truth was, I could tell that he was very intellegent, like three times as smart as me; I am always intrigued by smart people, so I introduced myself and we became friends. Around this time my son Marco passed his Texas Bar Exam; being a proud father I told my new friend about my son being a Lawyer. A week or so later he brought me a letter he had recently received from a business group of some kind in Germany, I think it was. The crux of this letter was that they, this European Outfit, was offering him money to let them represent him.

Well, the letter indicated that my friend had, at some time in the past, created a Cyber Security Program which he released for free on the internet AND according to them, someone had taken his program and begun to market it and sell it as their own. My new friend ask me to talk to my son the lawyer, about this proposal from them. I did.

By this time he and I had become good friends and so I asked if he would type out a story I had written ( I don't type), he said yes. So I gave him a story I'd written called, "OL Mother Oak". He diligently took it up to the library and typed it out for me. When he returned he handed it to me and without a word left. Being the writer I went to my cell to proof read his typing. Boy was I in for a surprise! He had changed my story, put a new ending on it. When I read what he wrote I busted out laughing, it was perfect, actually much better than my own writing. I went to him and told him how much I liked it ... a few days later, he was gone. I don't know why or how, he was just gone. I never saw him again.

Two years ago I was reading a book called "The Dark Web", don't remember the authors name, sorry. But much to my surprise, there was a whole chapter dedicated to my old friend from USP Florence. Turns out that he's sort of famous, or infamous if you will. You see my friend, the co-author of "Ol' Mother Oak" is none other than James Bell, the creator of "Assassination Politics". And now you know the rest of the story.

To read "Ol' Mother Oak" go to my Homepage www.markcrawford079.com

 

Bruceton Mills, winter 22