Politicians
Harry Truman--Granddad was his Press Secretary
Ronald Reagan--Good friend was a huge fundraiser for him in Missouri
George H.W. Bush--His brother Bucky is a casual acquaintance here in St. Louis
Bob Dole--At a fundraiser
John Ashcroft--Had breakfast with him when he was drumming up money
Bob Barr--Got a copy of a Waco expose movie for him and watched it with him and some of his staff in a hotel room
BUSINESSMEN
James S. McDonnell
John Olin
Donald Trump
Military & Pilots
Norman Schwarzkopf--At an SCI event in Vegas
R Lee Ermey--At Knob Creek. Great guy.
Chuck Mawhinney--Drank with him at SOF in Plaster's room in Vegas for an hour or so. Great guy.
Maj. John Plaster--Served Chuck and me drinks and got an "Oh ****!" look on his face when I commented that I really liked having Maj. John Plaster wait on me...
Ollie North--At a fundraiser. Brought an FN-D to show him and his handlers about fainted. He looked it over and said, "Damn, where were YOU when I needed you?"
Carlos Hathcock--At a book signing
Paul Tibbetts--At SOF
Chuck Yeager--At Oshkosh several times. Always kind of an ******* to everybody and a LOUSY taildragger pilot. I wouldn't let him near my Pitts...
Scott Crossfied--At Oshkosh several times. Great guy and fun to watch the enmity between him and Yeager
Pappy Boyington--At Oshkosh. Great guy.
Dick Rutan--At Oshkosh. Had dinner with him, brother Burt, and Jeana Yeager after their Voyager success. I was one of their larger private sponsors, and I built one of Burt's designs in 1979.
Bob Hoover--At Oshkosh several times. Drank with him some. Great guy always.
John "Forty Second" Boyd--Came to the house to see Dad when I was about nine years old. Dad thought the world of him. There's a fascinating biography about him that came out a couple of years ago.
Patty Wagstaff--At Oshkosh several times. I started the rumor that she dyed her hair blonde because people were taking her too seriously. She said she liked my book. Nice woman with a sense of humor.
Curtis Pitts--Several times at various airports. Great guy.
Caro Bayley--At Oshkosh. She flew EVERYTHING during WWII in the WAC. I asked her what she flew now and she said "Boeing." "Oh," I replied, "you've got a Stearman!" She liked that.
Bobby Younkin--At Oshkosh. Had dinner with him and held one of the poles for his inverted ribbon cut the next day.
Delmar Benjamin--Personal friend.
Sean D. Tucker--Several places. Casual friend. As much energy as any three normal people.
Jimmy Franklin--Liked my book and said he'd let me stand on the wing of his Jet Waco in a vertical takeoff but was killed in a midair with Bobby Younkin in Canada before that happened.
Steve Fossett--Had dinner with him at Oshkosh. Great guy.
A bunch of less-famous acro and race pilots
Gun People
Elmer Keith--Personal friend
JD Jones--Personal friend
Rex Applegate--Personal friend
Lee Jurras (Super Vel and Auto Mags)--Personal friend.
Tim Mullin--Personal friend.
Leroy Thompson--Personal friend.
Bob Brown (SOF)--Personal friend.
Dan Shea--Personal friend.
Bob Landies (Ohio Ordnance)--Personal friend.
Doc Dater (Gemtech suppressors)--Personal friend.
John Stemple--Personal friend.
Mark Serbu--Personal friend.
Pete Kokalis--Personal friend.
Richard Davis--Personal friend.
Neal Knox--Personal friend. Used to stay at my house when he came to St. Louis.
Larry Pratt--Personal friend.
Aaron Zelman--Personal friend.
Mike Dillon--Personal friend.
Steve Hornady--Personal friend.
Kent Lomont--Best friend
George Nonte--Casual friend, knew him through Lee Jurras
John Taffin--Talked to him many times. Great guy.
Hamilton Bowen--Ditto.
John Linebaugh--Ditto.
Charles Askins--Talked to him several times and he once said in front of my GF, "That's a fine piece of womanflesh you got there, John." She laughed out loud and sat next to him at dinner. She liked him.
Jack O'Connor--The same GF referred to him as "That VILE old man!"
Jeff Cooper--Talked to him several times. Liked my book and quoted parts of it.
Bill Jordan--Talked to him a few times.
Ross Seyfried--Talked to him many times. Very knowledgeable and likes big guns.
Charlton Heston--At a fundraiser. Charming man.
Richard Mack--Several times we were both speakers at gun rights events. Got the feeling he didn't know what to make of me.
Jelly Bryce--Met him once when I was maybe 6 or 7. My uncle knew him. Don't remember any other details.
I've met and spoken to most of the other gunwriters out there, but not for any length of time.
I know most of the people at S&W. The ones that matter, at least...
Writers
Donald Hamilton--Liked my book and quoted some of his favorite parts.
Mickey Spillane--Ditto the above.
Hunter S. Thompson--Many times, in Aspen. Kind of a jerk to almost everybody, almost all the time, as far as I could tell. Somebody pointed out the section in UC about the Woody Creek Tavern and him and he was nice to me the last time I saw him, shortly before he shot himself.
John Irving (The World According to Garp)--Taught a course I took in college.
Robert Stone--Ditto
John Camp (John Sandford)--At a book signing where we talked for about 20 minutes. Great guy.
Robert Parker--At a book signing.
Stephen Coonts--At a book signing.
James Ellroy--At a book signing.
Stephen Hunter--At the SHOT Show. Talked for over an hour. Good guy.
Ken Royce (Boston T. Party)--Personal friend.
Movie People and Singers
John Milius--Several times. Says all his friends tell him to read UC but he's too busy...
David Niven--At a party in Monaco. Charming and gracious.
Larry Miller--Personal friend from the '70s. Went to the same college and were in the same frat. Hilarious guy.
Charlie Napier--Got drunk with him at a hotel bar in Kentucky one night at Irlene Mandrell's Celebrity Sporting Clays Shoot in 1999. Great guy.
Irlene Mandrell--Great person.
Steve Martin--Several times in Aspen. Great guy.
John Denver--Lived a few houses away from my aunt & uncle in Aspen. Always made time for people to talk to him and and get photos, even when he obviously had things to do.
Bruce Willis--Exactly the opposite of John Denver
Ted Nugent--Several times. Said he liked my book. Fun guy.
Leroy Van Dyke--Called me on the phone two years ago after I wrote him a letter. Charming man. Hope to meet him in person.
Matthew McConnaghy--At a party in L.A. Bat**** crazy.
Tom Sizemore & Heidi Fleiss--Same party. No comment.
Clint Eastwood--At a gas station near Glenwood Springs. Great guy.
Charlie Sheen--Ran into him in a bar in Germany in the late '80s and ended up drinking with him for about four hours. We had fun.
Sports Figures
Stan Musial--Friend of my dad's. Saw him a lot as a kid. Great guy.
Tony Twist--Was in a movie with him and I was also his shooting double, but those scenes were cut because I was 50 lbs. heavier then. Great guy.
Spider Sabich--Skiied with him two days before Claudine Longet killed him. Great guy.
Chris Klug, Olympic Bronze Medal Snowboarder--I'm good friends with his dad. Great guy. Chris has a huge scar from a liver transplant and when wearing swimming trunks would always tell pretty girls he got the scar from a shark attack...
Richard Afflis (Dick the Bruiser)--Gave him and his GF a lift when they ran out of gas. I was 17. The three of us squeezed into my Corvette. She sat between us, was really cute, smelled great, and wore no underwear. He was really cool.
Eddie Feigner--Several times. Always had time to talk to fans, and MAN could that guy pull chicks a third his age in a bar or restaurant! An inspiration.
Car and Motorcycle Racers
Too many to list all but here are a few:
Justin Bell--Personal friend
Carroll Shelby--Very nice man.
Tommy Archer--Personal friend
Bobby Archer
Bobby Allison--Rode a ski lift with him in 1980 and I told him I thought it was a hoot when he told Car&Driver magazine (in the mid-'70s) he thought Porsches were "just $12,000 imported Corvairs." He slapped me on the back and said, "Man, I got **** for that for a LONG time!"
Curtis Turner--Friend of my uncle. Met him after he put Smokey Yunick's Chevelle on the pole at over 180 MPH (new record) at Daytona in 1967. Tech inspectors gave him a two page list of things the car needed before it could race. IIRC the first one was "Change the frame"...
Lance Reventlow--Met him on a ski lift in March 1969 and we spent the day skiing together, having lunch, and talking about his Scarabs and sports car racing in general. We'd get together on my subsequent ski trips to Aspen but he was killed in a plane crash in July of 1972. Great guy.
John Heinracy--Personal friend
Willie Borsch--When I was a kid in the '60s, I saw him asleep in the pits at the Alton Dragway when the deafening nitro rails were running. I thought he'd had a heart attack or something. Got the ambulance crew and when Willie woke up and found out what I had done he was laughing so hard he was crying. Willie had narcolepsy, and could sleep through ANYTHING. He had qualified (in his Fuel Altered!) for the Top Fuel (dragster) field but the dragster guys refused to race him (afraid his car would hit them) so he was taking a nap. He bought me a hot dog and let me sit in the Wingfoot Express. Great guy. Died of cancer a few years ago.
Bill Jenkins
Don Garlits
Smokey Yunick--Told me some great stories about stock car cheating.
Junior Johnson--Shook his hand and listened to him tell stories, but I didn't talk to him. Great guy.
Soapy Castles
Art Arfons--Visited him and talked to him at length about building an Allison-engined street car, before I had my stroke and got divorced. Great guy who would share everything he knew with you.
Mert Lawwil--Personal friend years ago
Chris Carr
Bubba Shobert--Dated a close friend
Ricky Graham
Neil Keen
Terry Poovey--Good friend was his crew chief
Elmer Trett
EJ Potter, the "Michigan Madman"--My hero and the reason I built a V8 motorcycle. He told me I'd done a good job when he saw it. His book is fascinating.
Models
Cheryl Tiegs--Showed her around Aspen and had dinner with her on several nights when I lived there in 1980. Wonderful person.
Cindy Crawford--I was with my 14-year-old daughter in Aspen in 2007 when she spotted a pretty brunette with two little kids. She suggested I go invite them over for pizza and offered to keep the kids occupied while I chatted up the mother. The pretty brunette was Cindy Crawford. Great person.
Playboy Playmates
Sandie Greenberg--Personal friend in the '80s. We used to ride motorcycles together.
Patti McGuire--Several times. Lived near St. Louis
Susan Kiger--Had dinner with her during the SHOT Show in Atlanta in the '80s. Great person.
Cynthia Brimhall--Talked with her for a half hour in the Denver airport. Nice person.
Tanya Beyer--Dated her sister Natasha a few times.
Marilyn Cole--She and her husband live near my place in Aspen. Nice person.
Monique St. Pierre--Was out in Aspen a lot in 1980 when I lived there.
Janice Pennington--Sat next to her at her husband Carlos DeAbreu's film festival dinner in Hollywood in 1996 when I was setting up pitch meetings for UC. People came up to her for autographs all throughout dinner. During dessert I opened my briefcase and pulled out the May 1971 Playboy and opened it to her centerfold for her to sign. She about fainted and the rest of the table howled. Great person.
Penthouse Pets
Victoria Zdrok--At a cigar shop.
Janine Lindemulder--Friend of my friend Mike South.
Gina LaMarca--At a nightclub. Fun person and a great kisser.
Tammy Chapman--Best friend. We now live together. Photo below
Adult Film Performers
Mike South--Personal friend.
Ron Jeremy--Friend of Mike's. Funny guy, but lock your refrigerator or he'll eat everything in it.
Sophia Capri--Dated a few times.
Ginger Lynn--At a nightclub. Very nice person with a great sense of humor.
Marilyn Chambers. Had drinks in her room with her and her husband Chuck Traynor at SOF in about 1985. Unforgettable evening.
Victoria Paris--Met her on a plane to St. Louis and then gave her a lift to her hotel. Nice person.
Ashlyn Gere--Classmate at UNLV of a St. Louis friend. Smart and fun.
Kayden Kross--Good friend of Mike South. Delightful person and drop-dead gorgeous.
Amanda Emino--Personal friend. See below. (Photo cropped because she was wearing a sexy evening dress that night and I don't want Lee to give me another warning...)
Royalty
Prince Albert of Monaco--Personal friend who went to college and sang in the Glee Club with me.
Prince Ranier of Monaco--Albert's dad. Dozed off a lot, at least when I was around...
Princess Stephanie--Albert's little sister. She was 14 when I met her, and very shy. She made up for that later...
And I saved the BEST for last......GRACE KELLY! Albert's Mom. The most gracious and enchanting woman I have ever met. She made you feel like the most important person in the room. Dancing with her for about 20 minutes at a formal dinner is one of the high points of my life.
You Win Game Over..
