Folks Of Interest SE OHIO AUCTION ALERT! Remember the guy who let all the wild animals loose?

Just returned from the Goodguy Nationals in Columbus, OH and while walking the swap meet section came across a flyer for an Auto Auction on Aug. 14, 2013.

The auction is offering the collection of hot rods, race boats, motorcycles, and other "equipment" of the late Terry Thompson.

You may know the name from news coverage of a year or two ago of the wild animals being let loose in Zanesville, OH.

Anyway, thought some HAMBers would like to know of the event... I expect people from all over the country will attend this event.

My father-in-law knew of him from living in the area and said he would never sell anything. He married into big oil money and bought what ever he wanted and did pretty much the same as well, from landing a plane on I-70 to racing his speed boat next to the police boat and swamping it.

From the pictures there are hot rods, motorcycles, engines, heavy equipment, and more. I'm not associated nor represent any of the parties involved and am including the link to the auction site so HAMBers may see the pics.

The auction is not far from National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, located between Columbus and Zanesville, Ohio.

Here is the link - after clicking the link, be sure to click on the "MORE PICTURES" tab http://www.seohioauctions.com/auction/208052/terry-and-marian-thompson-auction/

 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, it looks like you will be able to bid online.

 

I like the Bad Company Willys.

 

Isn't the bad company willys the old foley's fooler?

 

i went there long ago to look at the 50 chevy sedan delivery. he said it had just been driven to Georgia the year before, after seeing the open air floor, i knew it hadn't seen Ga. in a long time. he did have a helicopter and some kinda airplane in a hanger too. didn't see too many of the cars i remember in the auction pics. i'm goin, and bringin my checkbook. the rest of you stay away.

 

Dang it. I was hoping this wouldn't get advertised. Terry had lots of stuff. It will be interesting to see what is left there, and how bad the estate wants to move it.

 

$25.00 admission fee.

 

I called Jeff Koeler the auctioneer and he said "There is so much stuff!" He said only a hand full of items will be available to bid online, maybe a dozen to a dozen and a half, due to the magnitude of how much there is. He also said they are trying their best to avoid having a preview day so stuff doesn't end up at the "free auction" and that doors will open early on sale day and they are shooting for making this a one day sell all event.

 

Boy I wish I could be there, I was at T`s place back in 1994 and the stuff he
had then is still there just looks a bit rougher, always wanted to go back and buy that willys hope it goes to a good home and is put back to how it looks.
Paul.

 

I'm in with trailer in tow.

 

Wasn't he a street rod body builder for a while? Willy's maybe. Thinking in the late 80's. My brother-in-law was there looking at something once. Said he was a big money guy with lots of toys.

 

Couldn't have been the Foley's Fooler. The Foley's Fooler was originally the Hrudka Bros. CC/G 321 and after Foley's Fooler it is now the orange street rod "Larry's Delivery" down in St.Louis, Mo.

 

This is the first time I seen a admission charge to a auction.

 

it weeds out the "lookers", makes you have to buy something to get your money back.

 

Man if that was in Texas I would be there for sure

 

Figured word of this would be on here, and had to check. I'll be there, hoping to buy an old basketcase sportster to look at for a few years and maybe do something with.

T was my hero when I was a kid, Dad and he were very close. He'd sell me armloads of shirts from his Harley shop for a buck, gave me a whole box full when he sold the ultralight I used to play in at his bike lot when I was about 8. He was a pretty decent musician, and in my opinion does a better Roadhouse Blues than the Doors, and for a long time, when nothing else would calm him down, my little baby son would go to sleep when I'd play "Still in Saigon" from the CD he gave Dad. Still holds records in some flat bottomed drag boat classes, open cockpit stuff. 160 mph on the water. This man had more fun in the average weekend than most anyone in the world will ever have in a lifetime. When I was a kid and bored, all you had to do was wait, and T would either stop by, or better yet, buzz the house in a WWII Navy Stearman biplane. Ever look DOWN at a Stearman coming at you?

He saw some real Hell at Camp Coryell in Vietnam. Only leveled with me about it one time (usually it was just funny anecdotes of this or that) and I could tell it was a bad night for him, because it was some heavy, heavy stuff he told me. If it was worth owning or doing, T probably had it in stock. One of his sayings was "I swear on a stack of four speeds!" and there's probably a few stacks of them there.

He messed with hot rods and won some awards at the Columbus Autorama, I think they called it, in around 1972-74. I have the newspaper article from it somewhere in my T files. Also was pretty noted in flattrack racing, and may have done some other classes as well, but I haven't been able to research it yet to confirm the details.

I've got the founders of the United States on one side of my hallway, T is on the other, right above Chuck Yeager.

 

Cool... good to get some info from someone who knew him...as we all know the media can really skew things and selectively cover events.

 

I can handle people being angry that he had so many animals, but he was a bit of a dare devil, drag racer, you name it even before Nam. Nam changed him in a big way, and I think his way of coping with things was to go faster. Drag racing (he had some sort of straight axled '57 Chevy) got boring, flat racking got boring, custom cars got boring, drag boat racing got boring, aerobatic stunt flying in the old Stearman got boring, and the only thing that, I think, kept him going were the animals. And with T, if he liked something, he liked it A LOT. SO there you go.

One of the problems with the media in all of it, is that most of the people they talked to didn't know him, or were folks that T could not stand. So basically, around here, you might hear 15 T stories and 1 will be true. Sadly, some of these people contributed to an author of a two-bit poor excuse for toilet paper book on him, and their half-assed stories inspired the author to question his military service. His MOS was basically a Huey Mechanic, the same MOS that a crew chief or door gunner would have. Some of the local idiots talked about medals and stuff, so this idiot calls T a "helicopter deck helper and clerk (whatever that is) and insinuates that he made everything up. Now, like T, when I like something, I like it a lot. I've sort of used my time away from throwing money at rusty old cars to throw money at military uniforms, which is something I've always been interested in, and no doubt the fact that T was a vet and seemed 10 feet tall when I was 8 factors into that. Knowing my interests, and knowing some of the pieces I had, I'm pretty sure if he was full of shit, I'd have heard him make a claim about some sort of medal, and he never once mentioned any damned awards. In fact, when I got my first Vietnam jungle uniform, the response was decidedly heavier than I had hoped.

I will never forget him, and still look every time I go past his house to see if he's out, same as I've done for almost 25 years. And as I talk to people around here, I have met several people my age whose fathers were friends of T's, either through horses, the Harley shop, etc., and almost all of them liked him because he had a way of making a kid feel like they were big stuff. I got to walk around drag cars, airplanes, bikes, literally most people's idea of paradise, I wanted to go there whether Dad was stopping there or not. He was damned nice to my step kids the few times he was around them, and it kills me that they and my 2 year old won't have the same influence in their lives.

Anyways, here's T and I, I was probably 9 or 10.

 

Looking at the collecton its an odd assortment, with the exception of the hot rods, it 1949 - 1962 then mid 1970's stuff. Completely skips any muscle cars. Makes me think the 70's stuff is what he may have bought new, not a "show off" collector, just bought what caght his eye.

 

His Harley shop might have had something to do with that. He had one outside of town for a while, then moved it into Zanesville in the 80s. At least some of the things there were the results of wheeling and dealing, trade-ins, etc. When he sold it to Finks, all of that stuff went to his house. If I remember right, there is a 72 or 73 Impala there with what used to be a pretty strong running circle track engine in it, lots of oddities like that. At any given time at his old shop, there were a few tri-5 Chevies, old hot rods, Amish buggies, a monster truck, a few airplanes, military deuce and a half, a few tractors. Now, you go into a Harley "boutique" and can sip a cappuccino while you have your tire pressure checked.

 

I would not mind the DiMarco ski hydro. Cool old boats.

 

Chromed Rat, thanks for the first hand insight on the man. I remember him listing the Willys in his H-D ads in the Auto Trader, way, way back. Never knew he was the 'animal guy'. What a tragedy.

 

Is this the same guy that intentionally had a restored Chevy pickup placed about 50 feet up a tree?

 

I sure don't think that was him, at least not since i knew him.

 

OK, I wasn't sure, thanks.

 

I posted before viewing the auction pics. The Willys I mentioned being listed in the Auto Trader was a 40-41 coupe. Do you remember that one ChromedRat? Seemed like the guy always had some really neat stuff.

 

If I saw a picture I might. The only Willys I remember well is the Bad Company Willys, but it depends on when he had it, too. When he had the shop, I was too young to really be able to distinguish between models and years.

 

For those of us who were wanting to keep this sale "quiet"...forget that it was on the channel 4 Columbus news tonight

 

I seen a few things I wouldn't mind having and some things I had no clue what they were..lol

 

just got back home, went with a bunch of cash and came home with it. the red 34 coupe went for 33Gs, the yellow Anglia $9500, the Fiberglass 34, w/fenders,RBs, grille was $4700, the decent 50 chevy coupe was $5500.