Al Petty

[Sonny Jenkins]

oh no Damir,,I was NOT defending the guy,,,just saying he was convicted of a lot worse than non-payment of child support.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

I believe Al genuinely did not understand how he was ripping people off. He was a true genius, and like all geniuses, mentally, he was living on another planet.

I believe he was so locked up into his Steel guitorchestra that he did not realize that his scheme to finance its production was a ponzi scheme. He actually thought that this thing was going to take off, and his investors would all make a lot of money, and all of us would be playing his invention.

I think he was delusional, rather than dishonest.

[Fred Jack]

Damir, I would be the first in line to string up a deadbeat dad. My mother raised three of us from my very first day w/o one dime from him. We were never on welfare. She worked 24 hrs per day 7 days per week every month, every holiday EVERY DAY! I have no sympathy for them. I know, and I am sure everyone on this Forum knows, several deadbeat individuals. Hard to even call them dad's.
My thoughts on Al are not in approval of that , if it happened and I don't doubt Tom Bradshaw one bit, as too the conversation. The one part I do is I feel compassion for Al because I do not think he intentionally bilked people. He honestly thought it would work and there has been crazier schemes that did. On the other side is that people really should know that a deal that is going to make them rich comes along its prolly a good time to back off and study the proposition.There was a lot of "literature" available online about this and quite frankly I didn't pay much attention to it. It didn't pertain to me so I left it up to others to sort it out and they spoke loud and clear. He has paid for it. Does anyone know for sure if this is the Al that we know?

[Fred Jack]

I agree with Mike. I must have been typing while he was.

[Jim Smith]

Besides Dekley, there was at least one other builder that he ripped off by not paying for a guitar. I put a LOT of hours into designing and building a D-12 with heel and toe pedals for him.

[Tom Bradshaw]

When I first heard of Al's conviction and incarceration, I learned of one close friend of his in or about his home town. That person was somewhat knowledgeable of Al’s investment "business." [I was curious because at the time I was on the Steel Guitar Convention Board and Al’s name had come up for induction into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. I was the primary person who put nominations together for the Board to consider.] I was able to make contact with that person. He told me that Al used his ingratiating personality and his position of some kind of church "minister" to con people into investing in what turned out to be a kind of Ponzi scheme. That friend spoke humorously about the idiocy of the many people who fell for his plans for making them rich. He told me that he didn’t invest with Al, and all along was suspicious, since he had known him for a long time and took most of what he said (other than about music) with a grain of salt.

Right after Al got to prison; he and Maurice Anderson began writing each other. Reece told me that Al was trying to build a pedal steel there and had access to everything except end plates. Reece asked me if I had any I could ship to Al. I didn’t, but Reece said he would keep looking. We didn’t discuss anything about the case. I did tell Reece about Al’s explanation of his name change (posted earlier in this discussion). Reece had no comment about that. I don’t know if Al ever obtained his end plates.

For those with more interest in Al, here are some topics I’ve gleaned from the Internet. Be ready for a lot of annotations to more detailed information!

A lengthy bio-chronology is available on Al at http://www.alpettytrial.com/LifeofAlPetty.html

Al posted a lengthy summary of his trail and his lack of guilt: http://www.alpettytrial.com/

Al also provided an annotated listing of sources of evidence presented to show his innocence: http://www.alpettytrial.com/OutlineIndexofTopics.html [Be prepared to read numerous cross-reference sources that provide more detailed information as to the main topic(s).]

There is yet another web page that appears to be testimony at Al’s trial. I didn’t have the interest to read it, but for those who do, here is the site: http://alpetty.homestead.com/Topic23Olson.html

An effort was made to obtain a pardon for Al. See: http://www.alpettytrial.com/StatementofFacts.html

Several people added comment and opinions to the request for a pardon:
http://www.alpettytrial.com/Responses.html

Al may never have wanted to scam anyone in his investment operation (although his name change was definitely a designed scam); he probably thought that his investment ideas would eventually prove successful. A Federal court concluded that it did not. But let’s not forget that our Social Security System is a Ponzi scheme. However, it has backup: the U.S. taxpayers, with Congress’s capacity to fund it when and if it runs out of money.

[Finis Spier]

the steel player in the picture with big red and little red was Bobby Garret i grew up in tyler with both and played fiddle with them both

[Finis Spier]

Damir i would say let him that is without sin cast the first stone

[Steven Finley]

How sad so many folks have nothing better to do than sit around and pick dead men's bones; oh yeah, dead men can't defend themselves--how convenient!
How boring some folks lives would be without rumors and gossip.

So, what does this have to do with the steel guitar? Well for one, Al was a genius for what he came up with on steel guitar. I met him at Blackie Taylor's and
he could accurately play all those pedals. He was very cordial to me.

[Erv Niehaus]

Finis,
Amen!

[Jerry Overstreet]

Can I make a suggestion? Just keep Mike's notice of Al's death here and have b0b move all the other discussion to Steel Players where people can discuss Al's troubles, woes and accomplishments.

All due respect to everybody posting here, I'm sorry for those of you that were wronged by him and I don't want to dismiss that, but it just seems that bashing anyone on their obit/death notice is just bad voodoo.

I'll use the old phrase: "There, but for the grace of God go I."

I had some skepticism about this being the Al that we all knew, so I searched his inmate number and found that it is indeed him. He is listed as deceased May 31 2017 at age 83.

I have a couple links etc., but I'm not going to post anything further here in the Gome Home section.

[Donna Dodd]

I am locking this for now. B0B can have the final decision if he thinks it should be moved.