CORRESPONDENT NOTES
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Copyright 2007 by William A. Mays, Proprietor
| The Strange Case of Mr. Alexander P. |
Return to Correspondent Notes.
Mr. Alexander P. from the Daytona Beach area of Florida has been carrying on an extensive correspondence with Mr. William A. Mays on the subject of the Police Gazette. Here is a recent tidbit:
On Feb 3, 2008 1:06 PM, Alexander P. wrote:
CEASE AND DESIST NOTIFICATION---You are hereby ordered to suspend all operations of your website that is fraudulently using the trademark and goodwill of The National Police Gazette, which is owned by us and we in fact are the successors to the name, title and goodwill associated with The National Police Gazette. If the website is not taken off the Internet within 72 hours, we will proceed with legal action against you and we will proceed to collect damages as well as punitive damages against you.
GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY!
This came as we were preparing to witness the inevitable: our sporting editors' prediction that the Giants would win the Super Bowl. The celebration of that victory—or rather the recovery from the celebration—lasted a few days longer than expected, but when the fog cleared we turned our attention to the curious note in our inbox. Mr. P., it turns out, has no official connection to the Police Gazette, but has made a diligent effort to represent himself as having one during a barrage of emails to Mr. Mays. When we received 28 emails—some of which were very involved and well researched—over an 18-day period we sensed someone with the time on his hands of a retiree who has grown bored with the golf course—one who spends all day on his Macintosh thinking of and researching ways to engage in online high jinks—then, landing on the Police Gazette as a suitable subject, engages in fanciful claims:
On Jan 28, 2008 10:43 PM, Alexander P. wrote:
My lineage of direct association with the Gazette can be traced directly back to Richard K. Fox. My esteemed colleagues knew Charles J. Fox and two of them personally knew Richard Kyle Fox. I also was personally and professionally associated with Harold Roswell, Nat Perlow and Joe Azaria to name a few. I am the only person alive with such a connection or such a heritage. They in turn passed the Gazette and its future to me.
The celebrated-in-his-own-mind Mr. P included fictional stories of Police Gazette business-management derring-do:
On Jan 29, 2008 8:07 PM, Alexander P. wrote:
Well right now our trademark ownership to the Gazette is being challenged. Offshore money interests are trying to get their hands on it in an attempt to use it for offshore gambling purposes for betting on boxing. It is ENORMOUS money behind this concentrated effort. They are based in Costa Rica. We own the rights going back to 1845. It is very upsetting that someone of such ilk is going to cost me a lot more money on the Gazette and legal fees. And I have to go into a legal battle ala John L. Sullivan now. This isn't the first time and it probably won't be the last either.
When Mr. Mays indicated after two weeks that he had things he needed to tend to other than engaging in continuous colloquy with Mr. P., the latter became belligerent:
On Feb 2, 2008 7:37 AM, Alexander P. wrote:
It is quite obvious that you are avoiding me about discussing you being authorized to conduct your website. That is not a good indication. We own all rights to the name NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE and the logo. The name we own (as well as the goodwill) and I don't want to be placed in a position that I have to turn this over to my attorneys and issue a cease and desist order to you and commence a costly litigation. I really don't want to be placed in that position and you need to stop avoiding this subject and discuss it with me when I am in a mood to attempt to work out something favorable with you. We are the rightful and bona fide successors to the Police Gazette. (tracing our direct lineage back to September 13, 1845). If you enter into a licensing agreement with us, then you would be authorized and bona fide and it could be mutually beneficial to everyone which would be advantageous to you.
Cordially,
A. P.
We feel that Mr. P. is a creative genius. The FBI, on the other hand, may have a different opinion of threats, fraud and blackmail conducted over interstate communications. We don't know. In the meantime, we welcome Mr. P. into our little group of obsessive Police Gazette fanatics!
On Feb 3, 2008 1:06 PM, Alexander P. wrote:
CEASE AND DESIST NOTIFICATION---You are hereby ordered to suspend all operations of your website that is fraudulently using the trademark and goodwill of The National Police Gazette, which is owned by us and we in fact are the successors to the name, title and goodwill associated with The National Police Gazette. If the website is not taken off the Internet within 72 hours, we will proceed with legal action against you and we will proceed to collect damages as well as punitive damages against you.
GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY!
This came as we were preparing to witness the inevitable: our sporting editors' prediction that the Giants would win the Super Bowl. The celebration of that victory—or rather the recovery from the celebration—lasted a few days longer than expected, but when the fog cleared we turned our attention to the curious note in our inbox. Mr. P., it turns out, has no official connection to the Police Gazette, but has made a diligent effort to represent himself as having one during a barrage of emails to Mr. Mays. When we received 28 emails—some of which were very involved and well researched—over an 18-day period we sensed someone with the time on his hands of a retiree who has grown bored with the golf course—one who spends all day on his Macintosh thinking of and researching ways to engage in online high jinks—then, landing on the Police Gazette as a suitable subject, engages in fanciful claims:
On Jan 28, 2008 10:43 PM, Alexander P. wrote:
My lineage of direct association with the Gazette can be traced directly back to Richard K. Fox. My esteemed colleagues knew Charles J. Fox and two of them personally knew Richard Kyle Fox. I also was personally and professionally associated with Harold Roswell, Nat Perlow and Joe Azaria to name a few. I am the only person alive with such a connection or such a heritage. They in turn passed the Gazette and its future to me.
The celebrated-in-his-own-mind Mr. P included fictional stories of Police Gazette business-management derring-do:
On Jan 29, 2008 8:07 PM, Alexander P. wrote:
Well right now our trademark ownership to the Gazette is being challenged. Offshore money interests are trying to get their hands on it in an attempt to use it for offshore gambling purposes for betting on boxing. It is ENORMOUS money behind this concentrated effort. They are based in Costa Rica. We own the rights going back to 1845. It is very upsetting that someone of such ilk is going to cost me a lot more money on the Gazette and legal fees. And I have to go into a legal battle ala John L. Sullivan now. This isn't the first time and it probably won't be the last either.
When Mr. Mays indicated after two weeks that he had things he needed to tend to other than engaging in continuous colloquy with Mr. P., the latter became belligerent:
On Feb 2, 2008 7:37 AM, Alexander P. wrote:
It is quite obvious that you are avoiding me about discussing you being authorized to conduct your website. That is not a good indication. We own all rights to the name NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE and the logo. The name we own (as well as the goodwill) and I don't want to be placed in a position that I have to turn this over to my attorneys and issue a cease and desist order to you and commence a costly litigation. I really don't want to be placed in that position and you need to stop avoiding this subject and discuss it with me when I am in a mood to attempt to work out something favorable with you. We are the rightful and bona fide successors to the Police Gazette. (tracing our direct lineage back to September 13, 1845). If you enter into a licensing agreement with us, then you would be authorized and bona fide and it could be mutually beneficial to everyone which would be advantageous to you.
Cordially,
A. P.
We feel that Mr. P. is a creative genius. The FBI, on the other hand, may have a different opinion of threats, fraud and blackmail conducted over interstate communications. We don't know. In the meantime, we welcome Mr. P. into our little group of obsessive Police Gazette fanatics!