Emperor of Wine by Elin McCoy

Author:Elin McCoy [McCoy, Elin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction, Retail, Robert M. Parker Jr., Wine Critic
ISBN: 9781437969559
Google: zhejQQAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2006-07-25T04:00:00+00:00

ONE INDIVIDUAL IN THE WINE BUSINESS WHO WAS UNHAPPY WITH Parker went far beyond complaining and accusing. In 1990, Parker was preparing to hit the road for a book tour to promote Burgundy: A Comprehensive Guide to the Producers, Appellations and Wines, with a schedule that included stops and signings at important wine shops across the country. But one morning in early October, as his secretary, Joan Passman, listened to the messages on the answering machine upon her arrival at the office, she heard a disturbing threat. Shaken, she found Parker and said, “I think you should listen to this.” The voice on the tape warned Parker “you will be killed.” The message had been left sometime after midnight, setting a pattern for the nine threats that would follow; all would be left between 11 P.M. and 2 A.M.

Parker immediately phoned the local police and the FBI, who started tapping his phone. He’d already done some signings locally, and Simon & Schuster agreed to provide protection at future events. Parker continued with the tour, but the calls persisted. What was most worrisome was that the caller seemed familiar with Parker’s schedule. Simon & Schuster had placed ads in selected wine publications to let the faithful know places and times. “If you show up at Draper & Esquin on Saturday, you will be killed,” he intoned in one message. Draper & Esquin, in San Francisco, was one of the shops on the West Coast leg of Parker’s tour, which also included other shops in San Francisco, in Menlo Park, and at two locations in and near Los Angeles. At that point his publisher decided they couldn’t properly protect Parker. It was too expensive. They advised him to cancel the rest of the tour, and he did.

With the phone tap the FBI was eventually able to determine that the threatening calls were coming from a New York City retailer. Parker informed the local authorities.

“ ‘You know, you should hire a private investigator, somebody who is a former policeman, and have him go and confront the guy who’s leaving these messages,’ ” Parker told me they advised. “ ‘That might stop it right there. If you want to prosecute, go forward. But you probably won’t have much luck because you don’t have any bullet holes or knife wounds.’ ” Making death threats was considered a felony in both New York and Maryland, but the local police made the point that unless the person said “I will kill you,” there wasn’t much that could be done. Just warning someone he would be killed or shot wasn’t enough.

A worried and angry Parker bought a gun and installed a security system in his house. When packages arrived, Pat was afraid to open them for fear they might contain a bomb. Parker hired a former lieutenant in the New York City Police force as a private investigator, who soon discovered that the retailer was snorting cocaine at night after he closed the store and making similar threatening phone calls to other people.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.