odd mail

a strange piece of mail arrived at the domestic abode the other day. it was addressed to someone i don't know at my address, which is common enough - we get a lot of junk mail for people who no longer live here. but this letter was hand written and had the words "please forward or blog" written on the envelope. hmm. please forward is a pretty standard request for mail, but the blogging part threw me for a loop. i wasn't planning to open the letter, since i think opening other peoples' mail is some sort of federal offense, but since it asked to be blogged about... and i happen to have a blog... i guess it's my duty.
and i'm so glad i did. it's one of the most bizarre pieces of mail i've ever received. and i have worked at organizations where i've opened a lot of odd mail.
the sender is a mr. holden charles hollom, who apparently gained international attention in the late '80s by chasing down a purse-snatcher and pinning him against a wall...with his cab. marty says he remembers this being in the news - a cabbie who took it upon himself to defend a japanese tourist whose purse was stolen by running down the assailant and using his cab to pin the man's body to the side of a building until authorities arrived.
it seems as though he gained further infamy when the confessed robber won a lawsuit against him for use of excessive force in the amount of $25,000. it doesn't seem as though either of the two men actually handled any of the money; the purse-snatcher was serving a ten-year term in prison and the money went to cover his publicly-funded medical bills, and people all over the bay area and apparently around the world saw charles hollom as a good samaritan and raised the money so he didn't have to cover it.
which gets us to the part about why he's writing a letter to marie at my address. he included in the envelope the original letter marie had written to him in 1992 (yes, that's 16 years ago) saying she was sorry for the way he was being treated and she saw him as a "hero" (her quotations, not mine). included with marie's original letter is another letter he wrote up on a typewriter and seems to have sent to all the people who once showed him support. i've scanned it in, but the text is interesting enough to actually be reproduced in its legible entirety here:

September 23^rd, 2008

Hello out there to all my friends on shore,

My name is Chuck Hollom; my Driver’s License says that my name is Charles Oscar Hollom. I was named after Grandpa Hollom but have always been called Chuck.

Perhaps more people than any other way know me as a San Francisco Luxor Cab Driver than any other reference; warily and who can blame them after the storm of commentary after I took exception to a vilent mugger’s attach upon a young lady visiting from Japan in 1989 as she strolled up Market Street with two tour companions around Ten O’clock in the evening of May Second. They were only going for a bite to eat at Zim’s at Van Ness.

I chases him and, with permission of my passenger, pursued and pinned the mugger against the wall of the San Francisco School Administration building with my taxi; put it in Park without turning the engine off so the vehicle would not sag back down a little; and waited for all sorts of people to arrive; which they certainly did; then and since; for years and years with what some might call a great strain on me as well as those close to me….

I can’t call what happened to me after that night unbelievable because so many people along the way believed the misconstruances and half-truths and simple lies to which they were exposed. I can’t blame the people who lost faith in whatever they took me to be. I couldn’t track all the prevaricating spin-doctors or iconoclasts who took it upon themselves to make a mockery of my existence; but I have taken an interest in the reasons for their smilingly brutal activities…

I’m in Minneapolis, being near my failing 88-year old Mom as long as she recognizes me, and helping my only sibling, my younger sister Linea, who has been Cerebral Palsied since she was two and I was five, with her charge of Mom’s care in a care facility.

Currently, I live on a soldier’s pension of $935.00 per month and have a $250.00 per month fun live-work space in conjunction with a $300.00 per month office.

My life has been saved three times by San Francisco General Hospital and three times by the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m a cat. I have acquired an old Royal alpha 110 typewriter at a garage sale for $5.00. Since the Bum Rap King will be a Corker; I’ve decided to seek help; loans or patronage with the assurance that it will all come back to you. (It’s been awhile wince I’ve typed, but that will all come back to me), God bless you and keep you.

Chuck

P.S. Don’t hurt yourself

P.P.S Please Blog intact.

Wow.
so in addition to that letter he has photocopied a check, presumably from the japanese tourist, in the amount of $3500.00, and the memo line reads "a salute to our common humanity, arigato!" and chuck's note photocopied below the check says:
Hello again, Thank you all so much for helping me long ago. I have the hope that you might find a way in your technological power to help me in what has come to be a long, difficult journey. I would like to have my Sept. 23rd letter (enclosed) seen by as many people as possible. America's "Legal" types have so "branded" me a "Cowboy." But perhaps without offense, you could consider me in metaphor to be a Samurai on a path with a broken sword. Respectfully, Chuck Hollom
and finally, there's a copy of a certificate of merit and appreciation for charles hollom from the va medical center radiation oncology center, on the bottom of which he writes "42 Treatments. These folks are the best and the brightest!"

and there you have it. i've now used my technological power to have his letter seen by as many people as possible.