The Peculiar Truth about the TV Amnesiac

• May 15, 1957: Larry Bader had left Akron for Cleveland on business. He phoned his wife to tell her he was going fishing on Lake Erie. That was nothing new for him. Larry was an accomplished outdoorsman. He hunted game with a bow and arrow and won state archery tournaments.

• That Wednesday afternoon he rented a motorboat. The renter warned that a storm was on the way, but Larry didn’t seem worried. Later, the winds became powerful and created whitecaps on the lake.

• The next morning, the rented motorboat washed ashore on a Cleveland beach. Larry was not on it. He was presumed dead.

• Everyone liked Larry. After serving in the Navy, he sold kitchen appliances for a living. He was garrulous, friendly, and a family man with a wife and three kids. Marylou was pregnant with child number four. His death was tragic.

• Mysteries lingered, though. The boat renter noticed that the motor’s gas line had been disconnected. Also, Larry had taken a suitcase onboard with him which was never recovered. It was later learned he had five years of unpaid income taxes.

• Nevertheless, Larry Bader was declared deceased. He received a funeral, and his life insurance policy paid out to his widow.

• Omaha, Nebraska: A dashing, handsome stranger in a swell suit strode into the Roundtable Bar. He flirted with a waitress and introduced himself as John ‘Fritz’ Johnson. He said he’d been given a medical discharge after 14 years in the US Navy.

• He sat on a flagpole for a full month as a charity stunt, and he drove a remodeled hearse. Fritz came across as erudite and charming. The Roundtable Bar hired him as a bartender.

• Then he became an announcer at a Nebraska radio station. Later, he was promoted to KETV television in Omaha as the sports director. By 1960, Fritz Johnson had become a local celebrity.

• 1961: He married Nancy Zimmer. She was a divorced single mother who, at age 20, was 14 years his junior. Fritz adopted Nancy’s daughter. Later, she was pregnant with Fritz’s son. They had a good life.

• Three years later, doctors discovered a tumor in Fritz’s brain. He received surgery to remove the cancerous lump, and he lost his eye. From then on he wore an eye patch.

• That didn’t slow him down, though. Fritz still enjoyed his hobbies. Including archery.

• 1965: He was at a Chicago sporting goods convention demonstrating the latest archery gear. A college-age woman stared at him with shock. Then she approached and asked, “Are you my Uncle Larry?”

• Fritz had no idea who she was or what she was talking about. The woman made a call to Akron, Ohio.

• Two men got on a plane and flew to Chicago. They met Fritz at the convention center and knew immediately that he was their presumed-dead brother, Larry Bader.

• Fritz didn’t know who those men were. He swore he’d never been to Akron. They asked if he’d submit to a fingerprint test. Fritz said yes. They visited the Chicago police who fingerprinted him and compared them to Larry Bader’s Navy prints.

• A perfect match. Fritz Johnson was stupefied. He had no recollection of ever living the life of Larry Bader.

• His new wife Nancy was as stunned as his “widow” Marylou. The latter was engaged to be remarried. But that couldn’t happen given the circumstances. Nancy chose to live with Fritz, even though their marriage was revoked. No one knew what to do.

• Except the insurance company that issued Larry Bader’s claim to Marylou. She had to pay it all back.

• Psychiatrists studied Fritz aka Larry Bader for a week and a half. The team concluded that he was not pulling a hoax. The man had no memory of his previous life and might have acquired amnesia from the brain tumor.

• Fritz remained in Omaha with Nancy but offered to help Marylou and his other family financially as best he could. That didn’t last long, however.

• September 1966: About one year after the discovery of his identity, the tumor resurfaced and claimed the life of Larry Bader aka Fritz Johnson.

• The former local TV celebrity left behind disrupted lives, a financial mess, and lingering questions about whether he was truly an amnesiac or whether he had committed an audacious fraud.