Just a few words, of a journalistic sort, regarding my charming uncle, the late R J Thomas.
He had been a lieutenant colonel in WW II apparently, so he was not really a slouch, as individuals go.
After the war he hooked up with an outfit out of Allentown Pennsylvania, known as General Acceptance Corporation. Apparently he held several high executive posts with GAC, including Director of Personnel, and others which my mother, (the only knowledgeable family left) remembers. I recall getting a ride in their corporate jet back in the 60s; we actually flew over Washington I believe, en route to Florida. They lived in a split (4) level, in a fancy subdivision outside Allentown, surrounded by corn fields. He used to have a rather full glass of scotch with his rather large cigar.
He was so talented that he could swizzle the ice cubes, floating at the top of the glass with the index finger of the hand itself holding the glass, while of course gesturing with the cigar in the other hand, at the same time.
He used to go around the house in the early morning in full length pajamas and a fancy silk lapelled and cuffed smoking jacket, with cigar, looking very much like Winston Churchill, as well as Robert Macaire. They were all three rather plump.
GAC became a holding company, and had investments and subsidiaries of all kinds, all across the country. My uncle worked closely with the son of the founder, a young Yale graduate, after the war.
They were not, early on, into real estate, but had made some name for themselves as a diversified 'turn around' holding company.
They eventually acquired Gulf American Land Development Corporation, a very large, fraudulent, land sales organization, run by the Rosen brothers, out of Miami, who had come down from Baltimore, which in effect became a subsidiary, GAC Properties.
This entity continued the fraudulent practices of its predecessor while now a part of my uncle's holding company.
Needless to say, it did not turn out well for any of them.
Previous real estate posts contain references to articles on the land deals they conducted, in many states, until they went bankrupt in the 70s.
The story is really emblematic of both corporate America, and regulatory America, together.
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