Ladies, Let me tell you about R.C. 'Bill' Strunk - Avoid this man. He is a used car salesman and he will take you for the worst ride of your life. He will wine you, dine you, and show you a good time - at first. Then when he really settles down to business you will find yourself being mentally and physically abused, and facing the ugly realization that you were had by one of the best con-artists to come out of Montana (at least that's what I've been told about the con-artist part -the rest of it I experienced first-hand), and you will wish that you had never set eyes on him.

He is smooth, glib and very convincing. It is impossible to describe him accurately without writing hundreds of pages. He looks and acts like a 'big daddy' kind of character, fancies himself as being a 'General Swartzkopf' or 'General Patton' type of guy. He is arrogant and loves to 'throw his weight around' - and at 5'7', and 250 pounds, there's plenty of it to throw around.

If you have any self-doubts or hang-ups (most of us do), he will quickly and skillfully manage to detect and use them to his advantage. He is a predator, and he is currently on the prowl. His home is in Montana and he travels to Southern California and Las Vegas a couple of times a month to purchase automobiles at the various auctions.

Don't let his 'good guy' demeanor cloud your vision. He is one of those people who jumps right in if someone needs help because he wants everyone to think well of him. Along with this display of being 'a good guy', he visits old people in nursing homes (hoping that they'll leave him some $), goes to church every Sunday, and likes to think of himself as being a 'pillar in the community' along with professing to have 'friends' in high places. He has no friends. He has acquaintances and business associates, but no real friends. All he ever talks about is business, his business.

His unspoken agenda will be to date you, and then persuade you to sell your automobile because he will 'furnish' you with one, so why be making those monthly payments when good old Bill can keep you in wheels. The next step on his agenda will be to have you come live with him in Montana. If you have a business or a career, he will encourage that at first; however, you will eventually find yourself slaving away at his business, polishing and detailing cars, running errands, and just generally be at his beck and call.

For all of this, he will pay you nothing, zero, zip, zilch. For you see, he now has an in-house slave who will also cook, clean, shovel snow and watch TV while he sleeps away on the couch, occasionally waking to demand that you get him his tea.

He will make glowing promises about what a wonderful future you will have with him and all the wonderful places he is going to show you. In your dreams, baby, in your dreams.

I remember the first Christmas I spent with him - incidentally, Christmas is also my birthday - I had bought him a present and wrapped it and gave it to him... he wouldn't open it, and he didn't give me anything - nothing. It was a very sad day and I went off by myself and cried, wondering what kind of a person I had become involved with.

But there were times before I went to live with him when he did give me presents. The most outstanding was a 'gold' pendant of Our Lady of Guadalupe surrounded by 14 'diamonds' and suspended from a 'gold' Italian-type chain. I remember that evening well. We were dining at an upscale restaurant in Westlake Village, California, and he tells me he has this special gift for me that he had been keeping in his safe because it was so valuable, and did I have a safe to keep it in?

No, as a matter of fact, I didn't, but I promised that I would keep it well hidden. Well, after I escaped from him, I was down to my last few dollars and decided to take the thing to a pawn shop - I was told it was practically worthless - a piece of junk.

I wasn't the only lady he gifted with jewelry. Another lady in Great Falls had received a very large (over 2 carats) diamond engagement ring from him. She received a similar shock when she had it checked out by her jeweler - it was a cubic zirconia which he had had mounted in an inexpensive gold setting to make it look like it was the 'real thing.'

Needless to say, Mr. Strunk got the ring back along with a good-bye from his lady friend. Quite a few people around Great Falls told and retold that story - at least somebody got a few laughs out of it.

The lady just prior to the lady who got the phony diamond had been a nun - well, I guess they got married... it was the usual MO for Bill: she sold her car, sold her house and moved in with Bill, only to move out a short time later, poorer but wiser.

Probably Bill Strunk's most tragic victim was a lady who had lived with him for fourteen years and then died of breast cancer. During the last eight years of their relationship, good old Bill was having an affair with a previous wife and was taking car buying trips to California with the ex-wife, while the other poor lady sat at home and wondered what had happened to her self-esteem.

When she was sick and dying from cancer, he told her she had to move out by spring; she died February 28th. Did Bill Strunk honor her memory and her fourteen years of servitude with him by picking up the tab for her funeral. No, the lady's mother paid for the daughter's funeral; however, Bill managed to come out ahead once again, as it's rumored he bought three life insurance policies on the poor lady.

If I haven't convinced you entirely that Bill Strunk is a total cad, let me tell you about his wonderful bathroom and how I came to be homeless, car-less and broke.

One day Bill announced to me that he wanted to fix up his house. The house was a modest but nice looking on the outside home which had been built in the mid-fifties, and had never been upgraded. The carpeting was dirty, there was mold on some of the walls, and the upstairs bathroom smelled heavily of urine. I said good. He said get some estimates. I did.

Then when the carpet people came to remove carpet from the stairs and from that bathroom to see what repairs might have to be made before a new floor was put down, we discovered that the urine had eaten through two layers of carpeting, a layer of asbestos tile and 3/4 inch plyboard. Needless to say, the stench was overwhelming.

It was at this point, that Bill said I don't want to do anymore, and this horrible smelling mess in the bathroom remained that way. At this point, I knew for certain that he had to have mental problems to ignore such a health hazard as that bathroom. Six or eight weeks had gone by and he did nothing about it. He knew I was pretty upset over such a filthy situation, and I figure he was using the condition of the bathroom to get me to leave at least, that was what was going on in my mind.

Also, about this time, I started finding out the real truth about Bill Strunk, and I immediately realized that there was no future for me with the likes of him. And there I was, my condo in Southern CA was gone, my almost new Blazer, gone, my holistic health practice, gone, my savings, gone. And I knew I had to get away from him and soon.

I waited for him to leave, then I packed up some of my things and put them in storage, loaded up a vehicle and left Great Falls. What did he do? He started searching for the vehicle, demanding it back, going to the police, calling my family and friends... and starting an ugly smear campaign. Then he started stalking me, by fax, emails, snail mail, phone calls. He even ran ads in newspapers offering a $500 reward for information leading to my whereabouts.

He also attempted to extort a hold harmless agreement from me by promising that he would give me another car (I turned in the one I escaped with) and some money so that I could get a place to live. He made a lot of promises, and he broke everyone of them. He went to the police and filed false police reports saying I had stole this '$25,000''diamond' ring from him, blah, blah, blah. The police and the DA in Great Falls know him better than he realizes and regard him as the local crazy, and refused to pursue any of his requests.

I think you get the gist of what I'm saying here... If this Bill Strunk from Great Falls, Montana, starts coming on to you, you would probably be wise to head for the next exit. However, on the other hand, if you are the kind of bit**ing woman who is looking for a mean, rich dude who would be a challenge to your ingenuity for picking pockets, you might want to cozy up to 'big daddy' R.C. 'Bill' Strunk.


Florence
Cottonwood, Arizona
U.S.A.