Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History

Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History

Khalid Elhassan - May 2, 2020

Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History
Willie Roger Holder in Paris. Pintrest

7. Finding Fame, But No Fortune

Willie Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow became celebrities in France, where they were befriended by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, and actress Maria Schneider, who had co-starred with Marlon Brando in The Last Tango in Paris. Eventually, however, Cathy dumped Willie in 1977, telling him she was going to Switzerland to get some new fake documents, and never came back.

Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History
FBI agents escorting Willie Roger Holder off an Air France plane in New York’s JFK Airport after his voluntary return to America. Associated Press

Willie eventually agreed to face justice in America, returned in 1986, and did two years in federal prison. Upon his release, he struggled to find his place in society, and made a living mostly as a day laborer, before dying in 2012 at age 62. As for Cathy, she never resurfaced after vanishing into Switzerland in the 1970s.

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