1996: Steven Seagal is in Trouble!
A friend of mine got a spot on a dating show on KIIS-FM, a major LA radio station. I wasn't interested in the dating show, but I said I'd accompany him down to the station, and see if I could get on the air and screw around. I feigned being also interested in the dating aspect of it, but gave a fake name and made up phony details about myself. I don't remember much about the show itself. I know some girls called in, but I basically sat back and let my friend talk to them, and I think he got a few phone numbers. They didn't sound like my type anyway.
After our segment was over, surprisingly we weren't escorted out. The host said we could "hang out and watch, leave, whatever you want", and had on his next male guests. My friend elected to sit there and watch, but I was already bored.
Instead, I wandered around the station, because I had always been curious about what it was like inside. Nobody was there at that time of night except the host and a board operator, so the "office" part of it was abandoned.
As I was milling around, I heard the fax machine printing something. The nosy side of me had to go see. My excuse, if caught, was that I was going in there to get the fax to give to the host, in case it was important.
The fax coming through was something I didn't expect -- a warning that the mafia was extorting Steven Seagal, and that he was in serious danger!
I kind of wanted to keep the fax and read it in more detail later, but I was afraid they would catch me swiping it, and I would be banned from the station forever. So I went to the board operator and told him that I walked by as a "large fax was coming through" and that perhaps he should read it in case it's important. He went to go take a look, and muttered something about it being "crap", as he threw it in the trash. I asked him if I could have it, and he told me I could. I grabbed it out of the trash and took it home.
I read the whole thing later on, and it was basically a whole story about Steven Seagal being threatened by the mafia. The paper was poorly written, was somewhat confusing, and was overly detailed. The takeaway was that Seagal was involved with the New York Mafia, and that he was being threatened and intimidated by them. After reading the erratic, incoherent ramblings in the fax, I wasn't sure what to think. While the author of a fax appeared to be nuts, it was a highly detailed story, and it would be odd for him to have made up the whole thing in such intricate detail, especially about a B-list star like Seagal.
I eventually threw the fax away and forgot about it.
Then, in 2002, I saw this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/13/ny...hollywood.html
Here is a more detailed account of the situation:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal...gal/index.html
Part of me thought at the time that there was a good chance it was true. However, there wasn't anything I could do, and even if I could get the right people's attention, I didn't really want to be the one attempting to mess with the NY Mafia.
I decided to pass on further pushing this story.
By the way, the DJ present that night, Anthony "Domino" Lini, just passed away at age 61:
https://www.insideradio.com/free/leg...74373c2eb.html
His death was unexpected, and he was not known to have any major health issues.