20. A Wartime Hero’s Peacetime Heroics Had an Unexpected Plot Twist
Negative press followed Maynard Smith for years. In 1946, his ex secured an extradition warrant for missed child support payments from the same Michigan governor who had honored him a year earlier. A judge refused to extradite Smith after he promised to catch up on the payments. Washington’s Evening Star ran a story with the headline Extradition of Smith, War Hero, Is Refused in Non-Support Case. A few years later, he was busted by the Food and Drug Administration for peddling a quack remedy to restore “lost manhood”, and got a suspended sentence for false advertising. The Detroit Free Press ran a front-page story with the headline Salve Puts War Hero in Jam.
Snuffy was in the headlines again in 1952, this time with good coverage – at first. That summer, he rescued a suicidal young woman from a sixth-floor ledge in Washington, while hundreds of onlookers watched from below. As the city’s Evening Star put it in a headline, Medal-of-Honor Man Saves Young Mother From Suicide Plunge. There was a plot twist, however. It turned out that the whole thing was a stunt. Smith, who wanted to run for Virginia governor, wanted to get his name in the press. He paid the woman $500 to fake a suicide attempt, so he could fake-rescue her.