Wednesday, November 19, 2008

On my commute home last night I was listening to the Mike O’Meara show on the radio and caught his interview with Craig Glazer, author of The King of Sting.

Craig Glazer’s story began in 1971 in a student apartment where, as a freshman at Arizona State University, he got ripped off trying to buy marijuana. Fueled by fantasies drawn from movies of the era like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which the hero was just on the edge of the law, Glazer decided to strike back at the dealers. With his partner, the streetwise Vietnam veteran Don Woodbeck, he orchestrated his first “sting,” posing as local law enforcement. He walked away from that first sting with $50,000 and a high he couldn’t get from any drug. So began Glazer’s career as the King of Sting.

From Boston to Phoenix, Kansas City to Las Vegas, Glazer, Woodbeck, and their crew set up cons and raked in a fortune in cash and drugs, eventually becoming so successful that Glazer was hired as an undercover cop by the Kansas State Attorney General’s office to help capture some of the most notorious criminals in the Midwest. The outlaw lifestyle began to take its toll, and one by one, the crew members got out while they still could. Glazer and Woodbeck headed to Hollywood, where they hooked up with an agent and tried to sell their remarkable story. But even with the glitz of Hollywood and the promise of a movie deal, they still weren’t willing to give up the game. Woodbeck tried one last sting, a set-up that went horribly wrong and left him dead. Despite the danger, Glazer then attempted the ultimate sting in Los Angeles, all on his quest to become famous, even if meant becoming infamous.

The interview was riveting because Glazer is a natural story teller. What struck me was that in his telling of his story, he didn’t really try to glorify himself or the illegal things he did. He really just wanted to tell it because he knows it is an interesting tale. He freely admitted that he was an idiot.

I plan to add the book to my hold list at the library (if they have it).