Chris OConnor wrote:Can you post the story here or perhaps email me? I'd love to know the facts.
It's a very long and tragic story After Lance found out from me that his father had committed suicide, he lived with another Captain's family (the same family he was staying with when the Yacht Bluebelle went down). Captain Jack Williams was the skipper of another Yacht named "Alesia" docked about 100 yards south of the Bluebelle's docks.
One night, President Richard Nixon showed up with his daughters for a ride on the "Alecia".
Captain Jack Williams was married to Gloria Williams, and had three children with Gloria, Jamie, Madeline and Beverly. The family was pretty disfunctional with Jamie being Gay, Madeline promiscuous and the same age as Lance, and Beverly still sucked her thumb when she was eleven years old. Jack sailed the "Alesia" up to the great lakes every summer, which left poor Gloria very lonely for a few months every year...rumors about her extra activities were rampent.
One summer, Lance and Gloria decided to drive her new convertable T-Bird to California to visit frinds and relatives, and when they returned, the family accused them of having an affair.
Lance and I stayed very close. I was working on another Yacht, the Marco Polo, and got Lance a job on the yacht with me. Shortly after, I married and moved into an apartment, Lance stayed living on the Yacht.
One evening, a few days later, Jamie got into a fight with his mother about Lance, and beat her up. Gloria called me at 3AM that day and asked my to come over and see her, but I politely declined because I was in bed, with my newly wed wife.
When Beverly came home from school at 3PM the same day, she found her mother, Gloria, dead, hanging from the showerhead in the bathroom at their house. The entire family estranged Lance. He borrowed all the money I had, about $1,600, and left for California. I did not see him again for a few more years, but he did mail me a check for what he borrowed and paid me back in full.
The next time I saw Lance was at midnight in the Sportsman Bar in Miami, on NW 20th Street and 22nd Avenue. He was missing an eye. If you are interested in hearing the rest of the story, let me know.
Fred Sassen
404-281-0531
[email protected]