Smith & Wesson chief did time for '50s armed heists

[donsu]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0212minder12.html


At 74, James Joseph Minder has had a professional career many would envy.

He is board chairman of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., parent company of the famous gunmaker. He also ran a successful non-profit agency serving delinquent and disabled Michigan youths for 20 years before retiring to Scottsdale in 1997.

But he also is a former convict who spent 15 years in prison in the 1950s and 1960s for a string of armed robberies and an attempted prison escape. News articles in the Detroit News said he was known for carrying a 16-gauge, sawed-off shotgun.

Other Smith & Wesson board members did not know about Minder's criminal record until he called and told most of them Wednesday, offering to resign.
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oh those gun guys, what a tribe!

[Zero Gravitas]

1. He liked the product so much

he bought the company! ;)

[JanMichael]

2. Bwah! Nice one.

Thanks:-)

[SonofMass]

3. Smith and Wesson doesn't make shotguns.

.

[Zero Gravitas]

4. details details

:)

[MrBenchley]

5. Yeah, they didn't check out the guy they made chairman

in any way...maybe they just liked the way he worked the country club shower room...

He joins such other notable gun manufacturers as nutcase cult member Sun Myung Moon (tax fraud) Robert Hodgdon and John Olin (price fixing). And the NRA board has a number more criminals.

Long past due for a congressional investigation into gun industry persons and practices.

[John BigBootay]

6. What's the point?

To damn the industry because one chariman has a rap-sheet?

[Moderator]

7. Locking

Active discussion at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=118&topic_id=39788