Real story from the St. Petersburg Times. Must be read to be believed.
Holy Cow! How on earth did he keep everything straight? It is strange that the wives never met.
I’m confused–he didn’t marry the second “wife” until the first one died? Were they just shacking up and having kids?
I wonder if the kids met each other at the school?
The wives did meet, but wife #1 didn’t realize identity of wife #2. I’m assuming here wife #2 was in on the deal, because… well, because a) otherwise she wouldn’t have put up with his refusal to be seen at the school; b) the timing of the wedding would indicate it; and c) the switch of the names on the nametags at Georgia Tech would indicat it.
What a bizarre story!
Well, at least he had the good sense not to have different initials. He cuold keep his monogrammed shirts on.
How does Mrs. Carlson explain marrying Cone without divorcing Carlson?
Ow. My head hurts.
The wives did meet. They both served on the Board of Trustees at the School. I Don’t think it’s likely the kids would’ve met though. One Carlson son is now 23 and the Cone children are mentioned as having graduated high school in the 70s.
My friend’s dad’s poker buddy did something similar except he used the same name with both families. He was found out when two of his son’s were at the same airport. One to meet dad and one to meet someone else. One was having dad paged and the other one said “hey that’s my dad’s name.” and they talked a bit and pieced it together, and both waited for dad. . .
What goes through people’s minds??? Chrissake! I can’t even buy a birthday present early because I cannot keep it a secret. How can you live with someone and not accidently mention something about when you were at your other house?
Well that’s, uh, that’s something, ain’t it?
This sort of thing happened kinda sorta often when I was younger. A guy would have two different families on either side of the border. Now that people cross more often, it’s tougher to keep families seperate and so I haven’t heard of a case in ages. Unless you count the one that’s been going on for twenty years and nobody talks about (cow-orker).
Wow. There aren’t a lot of folks wandering around with the brass to have a donated baseball diamond named after their alias.
OK, maybe I’ve been watching too much Law & Order, but now that I’ve got the whole story straight, it’s SO obvious that he killed the first wife and set it up to look like an “accident” because the second wife threatened to blow his cover unless he married her (thus assuring her a hefty inheritance) before he got that second leg in the grave.
Oh, yeah. Just call me Sherlock.
Is that a mis-typing of coworker, or cow-porker? Important distinction. 
Yeah, but at that point why not just kill both of them and marry a nubile 20-year old blonde? Plus he’d have both estates to himself at that point.
His second wife has magic. He couldn’t kill her. Plus, maybe he really loved her, or maybe he didn’t want to have to host her snotty brats alone at Thanksgiving.
Holy cow, I am from Tampa and I have met Douglas Cone…unreal I am flabbergasted…
auntie em, I was just about to nominate this story as Most Likely to Wind Up in a L&O Episode.
We had something similiar happen here in Michigan. A judge had two families. The first wife, his legal wife and he had a passle of kids. His second wife, IIRC, either knew about the first wife or didn’t, but I am remembering she did know, but don’t bet the farm on it. But, he lead a double life for years and had something like 12 kids total. I forget how he was found out. I think his name was O’Brien.
The kind of mental power and finances needed to keep both families going is nothing short of amazing.
It was made into a schlocky TV movie years ago.
It is totally fascinating, though and I bet will be on **L&O **as well.
I’m also guessing that wife #1 he met and married during his poor, struggling years and she helped his career along being the perfect wife. Somewhere along the way he grew antsy but a divorce would clean him out (as there was probably no pre-nupt.)
So, somewhere along the way ( mid seventies) meets #2 and either marries her or shacks up with her. ( It has to be the latter, no woman would marry a guy or keep up the premise of “Government work” alibi without demanding some verification or credibility and keeps the lie going because a) they do love each other b) if he divorces his first wife he will lose his shirt c) the money is really good d) He’s not around alot so he isn’t getting on her nerves. e) The money is really good.
That’s my bet.
Keep us posted on this if any more developments occur.
Us too, mipiace – What were the circumstances? What was he like?
Ahh, finally someone after whom I can model my life! But at 23, am I starting too late?
Was his last name Pennypacker?