I met a conspiracy kook the other day. Strange fellow, obviously. He belives that a sinister cabal of Texas oilmen secretly run the country. What a refreshing change, he’s laying off the Jews!
Anyhow, he clams that these oilmen have cheated him and his extended family out of an enormous, trillion dollar inheritance based upon the “Meadows Estate”, and that various family members are trying to get it back, and this fight is responsible for the assasination of Kennedy, the election of Bush, etc.
The man is obviously the victim of the old “Drake’s lost fortune” con from the '30s, in which the scammer gets money for “legal fees” from the supposed heirs, dragging the “case” on for years.
Has anyone else heard of this particular incarnation of the scam? Any advice on what to tell him if I see him again? I tried to ask some pointed questions but he was pretty oblivious.
“Nice to see you again! So sorry I don’t have time to talk. Bye now!”
At least that’s what I’d say to him. If he’s that hardcore of a CT than anything you show him which contradicts his beliefs will only be taken as further evidence of the existence of the conspiracy. “thay” have either “gotten to you too” or, worse still, “you’re in on it.”
I would report him to authorities. The man appears to have some serious mental issues and could be dangerous.
What’s so strange about believing that oilmen run the country? Duh, read the papers. Though I don’t think they’d be piddling around in inheritances when they can scam the American public. Texas oilman conspirators think big.
I can get on board with some conspiracy theories until people start talking about how it personally affects them. Like, I do believe that the rich control the world and that we’re all the targets of machinations beyond our control but I think that if you, personally, singularly think you’re being persecuted, then that’s not just being paranoid, that’s being self-centered. And nobody likes that.
How did you meet this guy? On the street? Maybe you should change your route. Or kick down his cardboard box when he isn’t looking. That will keep him on his guard.
there does indeed seem to be an ongoing inheritance battle over texas oil money based on the meaders, meadors and meadows families. Part of the problem is that there is confusion over the exact spelling of the family name back on the turn of the century. I cant find any definite online summary, but sone flavour can be found in the google cache (may not last)
which includes a case against amoco
JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:
Plaintiffs James Clark and Dan Profitt, in their capacity as administrators of James R. Meadors’s estate, brought this diversity suit in federal district court against four oil companies that allegedly had extracted, without payment or permission, billions of dollars worth of oil and gas from lands in which Meadors owned a one-eighth interest.
The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant oil companies, concluding that the deed upon which the plaintiffs based their claim conveyed rights only to four specified tracts of land in which the companies had never held any interest. …