Tarring and feathering of John Vincent

so I might be the last surviving member of the policing crew that Tarred feathered John Vincent in his own apartment in New Orleans. 

Earl Redfern is dead, Gardner Sapp is dead. My girlfriend who knocked on the door is dead. Samantha God bless her soul. And the cameraman Mike Tenney is also dead. Earl had a girlfriend named Janice and I don’t know if she’s alive or not.

anyway, I will briefly tell the story. I woke up one morning in Atlanta with Earl dropping the news on me that John had come and jumped one of our buildings and made this building hot that was under construction. I believe it was the promenade building. We were friends with the construction workers as we were jumping it 2 to 3 times a week at night and keeping a very low profile. One of the guys that operated the Crane got fired for letting John go out on it thinking he was one of us.

and I said to Earl “we should go in tar and feather that motherfucker“. I was kidding. He was not. There’s a story about where I thought we should throw a 30k cubic foot skydiving smoke canister into the sheriff station that I was kidding about that he wasn’t (earl said 30k cubic feet of smoke...i never was a skydiver, I just know it was a lot of smoke in fact, smoked up the entire town from the lobby and I spent 30 days in jail) )but that’s a different story. Anyway back to Vincent. So without me even knowing Earl went and went a van and just said “get in” so six of us piled in and headed from Atlanta to New Orleans, given the address by the head of the basis association at the time. I can’t exactly remember his name now, but everybody was mad at John for this so we were given the address in confidence. 

There were three other guys besides me. And they were like talking about how they were going to kick his ass in one way or the other other, and I was more mentally perseverating on going to prison. but we picked up some roofing tar and some pillows and duct tape and made sure that our batteries were charged for the cameras. when we got there, I had my cute girlfriend knock on the door and he eventually opened it. What kind of pissed me off right off the bat was that my friends were down the stairs and here I was at the top of the stairs to take the first shot. but anyway, John opened the door and as fit as he was, he was hung over as I was told later, and I flipped him over his couch and his feet went up in the air, and I managed to headlock him and his ankles together and the others got him at least duct taped at the feet. It took a little bit more to control his upper body. and I think if he were awake and well, he probably could’ve taken out all four of us, but we managed to get him subdued. 

and he was getting a bit noisy, so Earl had to duct tape, his mouth shut and his eyes, and he slapped him a couple of times telling him to shut up. and yeah, he was blaming it on Tracy which I think it was another base jumper. and he really didn’t know why we were there, but he finally comes around and says so “you guys aren’t here to steal my dope?” anyway it was really funny hearing him say that with duck tape across his mouth, all muffled and shit. 

when we got the plastic down in his floor, that’s when he really started to freak out. But we put him in the center of a big plastic sheet and then opened up the tar can on him and he let out this deep disgusting groan “ewwww”. and then came the feathers. we were reasonably careful not to get it in his hair or fuck up his carpet. Then he finally goes. “Is this for making a building hot” and the girl Janice said yup and this is for that guys job too… the crane operator. 

anyway, I’ve still got the video and I would like to post it and put a link here. It’s pretty graphic though. I mean, he was yelling a bit like he was in pain, but it wasn’t really that much pain. He was just more protesting. anyway, I don’t know if it would be proper to post it right up on YouTube or anything because it would probably violate some sort of policy for sure. Any idea how I can share it so that this is historical element can be preserved?

Good on you. I approve of this message

post it on youtube but don't make it public.  share the link to those who you want to see it, like here because i want to see it too.  maybe post it on vimeo too.  never used that site to post but it has lots of videos.

I remember when this happened. We got a laugh out of it because it was warranted. Vincent was being a media hound, and burned a few sites. Definitely post the video.

Why are the others dead?  Was it that long ago?

1 hour ago, sundevil777 said:

Why are the others dead?  Was it that long ago?

aviation related  participants may not live as long a "normal" people.

On 7/17/2024 at 8:53 AM, sundevil777 said:

Why are the others dead?  Was it that long ago?

Out of curiosity, I searched "Atlanta Promenade" and found that there's a very tall building called the Promenade Tower.
40 stories, almost 700ft.
Finished in 1990, so 'under construction' would have been the end of the 80s.

That's about 35 years ago.
So, yeah, 'that long ago'.

Add in the fact that that was an era when both skydiving and BASE were pretty dangerous, then it's a bit more understandable that none of the others are 'left to tell the tale'.

On 7/14/2024 at 3:34 AM, sfzombie13 said:

post it on youtube but don't make it public.  share the link to those who you want to see it, like here because i want to see it too.  maybe post it on vimeo too.  never used that site to post but it has lots of videos.

Perfect! 

On 7/17/2024 at 6:53 AM, sundevil777 said:

Why are the others dead?  Was it that long ago?

Earl Died in a plane crash. Gardner died a few years ago. The cameraman Mike died a long time ago. Samantha my GF died about 1 yr ago. Janice was Earls GF and i dont know where she is or if she is alive 

2 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Out of curiosity, I searched "Atlanta Promenade" and found that there's a very tall building called the Promenade Tower.
40 stories, almost 700ft.
Finished in 1990, so 'under construction' would have been the end of the 80s.

That's about 35 years ago.
So, yeah, 'that long ago'.

Add in the fact that that was an era when both skydiving and BASE were pretty dangerous, then it's a bit more understandable that none of the others are 'left to tell the tale'.

The promenade is the likely building. 191 peachtree was another but i that i think was completed by then. We jumped a lot of buildings back then and in the late 80s-early 90s Atlanta had a shit ton of construction: Gardner and I got arrested, jumping off of the Peachtree Plaza by…get this…Macy’s security. That was fucking embarrassing. But then I followed that up with jumping off of it again into the Braves Parade. Well almost into the Braves parade. I was going to land in the middle of the street in front of the motorcade and I had such an old mushy seven cell parachute that I didn’t even make it to the street. I came up about 15 feet short and landed in a small tree between the sidewalk of Peachtree Street and a parking lot. I had to land in a tree or I was gonna hurt somebody. But I fell down on the roof of a car like an SUV or something, and probably caved the entire roof in. I lost the parachute but managed to get away on my motorcycle that I had stashed in one of the parking garages. That was like 600,000 people that I did a fucking disappearing act on. Anyway, that was my one glory jump, I guess. 

I've seen said video, not online but in person and it wasn't shared with anyone that saw it whatsoever. The way it was presented to me had a profound impact on who and what i will show online. It was a very good learning tool in ethics, Don't burn shit, don't burn people, ones base jumping antics has effects on more than just oneself. I would look up the statute of limitations for the whatever you think you could be charged with if John is still alive. Just a little C.Y.A... And if you do post it online I'd like to have a copy for my own personal collection.

Cheers, D.J.

Gardner gave me the video, to show in classes.  I have showed it during the BASE Ethics lecture in every course for the past 20 years or so.  He did not give me permission to copy it, so I have only used it for courses, and have never given anyone a copy.

I heard the basic story about this, years ago, but never with so many details. Now, I’m absolutely dying to see the video! Even if you can’t post it publicly, I would really love to see it, please.

On 8/6/2024 at 8:39 AM, SkyGretch said:

I heard the basic story about this, years ago, but never with so many details. Now, I’m absolutely dying to see the video! Even if you can’t post it publicly, I would really love to see it, please.

sounds like you need to travel to TF and attend or audit a class from Tom.

What happened to Lyle Murphy, the OP? I thought he was going to post the vid?

On 7/29/2024 at 5:49 PM, SelfmadeDiesel said:

if John [Vincent] is still alive

I don't think he is. I'm kind of hesitant to post this because I don't remember the details, I think it's in a thread somewhere on blinc magazine. If I remember this right, I think he fell on hard times and ended up homeless with drug/alcohol problems. I think he was involved in a DUI accident where some girl died. And I think he ended up passing away, I'm not sure exactly what from but I think it was related to his substance abuse.

On 7/30/2024 at 2:16 PM, TomAiello said:

Gardner gave me the video, to show in classes.  I have showed it during the BASE Ethics lecture in every course for the past 20 years or so.  He did not give me permission to copy it, so I have only used it for courses, and have never given anyone a copy.

On 8/9/2024 at 6:13 PM, dudeman17 said:

What happened to Lyle Murphy, the OP? I thought he was going to post the vid?

 

I don't think he is. I'm kind of hesitant to post this because I don't remember the details, I think it's in a thread somewhere on blinc magazine. If I remember this right, I think he fell on hard times and ended up homeless with drug/alcohol problems. I think he was involved in a DUI accident where some girl died. And I think he ended up passing away, I'm not sure exactly what from but I think it was related to his substance abuse.

Tom, you can post the video. It was my video. I gave it to Gardner as a copy. And yes, John got himself in some trouble for a hit-and-run I believe. I’ll get around to posting it. It’s pretty graphic really and I’d have to figure out a way to post it and maybe not have it be public. This is the kind of stuff they probably don’t let you post on YouTube, without some sort of warning about the content. It would be considered violent if you were sort of ass watching it and did not know the story. 

if it were me, i would post it on youtube after listing it as nsfw and list it privately.  then when anyone wants to see it they send you a private message and you send the link.  as long as it's not listed public you're good.  nobody just stumbles across it and they can't even see it unless they sign in to prove their age. 

OK, here’s what I’m gonna do. Today I ordered a DVD drive for my computer. Knowing Amazon, it should be here in a couple of days. Then I’m going to load it up to a Google document and then I’m going to share the Google document here.

i’m the guy with the long hair that looks like he was picking his nose while Earl was doing most of the wrestling. But somehow, I got signed up to take the first shot on him and got lucky that he flipped over backwards on his couch off balance. I wasn’t the type of person to slap him across the face and humiliate him like Earl did…. honestly, I think that part was a bit rude. 

And so soon the legend of Bigfoot will be put to rest
 

On 9/1/2024 at 5:45 PM, Lyle Murphy said:

OK, here’s what I’m gonna do. Today I ordered a DVD drive for my computer. Knowing Amazon, it should be here in a couple of days. Then I’m going to load it up to a Google document and then I’m going to share the Google document here.

i’m the guy with the long hair that looks like he was picking his nose while Earl was doing most of the wrestling. But somehow, I got signed up to take the first shot on him and got lucky that he flipped over backwards on his couch off balance. I wasn’t the type of person to slap him across the face and humiliate him like Earl did…. honestly, I think that part was a bit rude. 

And so soon the legend of Bigfoot will be put to rest
 

 

How soon?

This is a photograph of John Vincent at Bridge Day in the mid-90s or so. He was already known as a notorious site burner and I, and some others, had a serious talk with him. Yet, he was oblivious to anything except what brought himself fame and publicity.

When John jumped the World Trade Center Tower in New York City he was so new at BASE he didn't even know how to pack. And the BASE rig he used he purchased new from us at Basic Research (now Apex BASE) when I was working there. Back then we sent out complete systems already assembled and packed. BASE packing was still a mysterious art to newer jumpers coming from skyjumping, so we thought we were helping as the idea was, you'd open the rig on the ground and carefully un-pack it to get some idea of how it all goes together. However, we heard later that John used the rig, to jump the WTC right out of the box without ever inspecting or re-packing it. That caused Todd Shoebotham some angst - and we immediately stopped sending out gear already packed.

I've always felt a bit responsible for John's tar & feathering as prior to it happening I was bagging on him pretty good in my BASE magazine, The Fixed Object Journal. It was hard not to - as at the time - John was the poster boy for publicity seeking site burning gloryhounds. And, nowadays, I just figure he brought it on to himself.

Just saw on FB that John Vincent passed away sometime in the last year in (I believe) New Orleans. The post only said of his passing, "John was homeless in New Orleans in 2013 and died about a year ago." Also in the same thread, John's wife, Mary Vincent, confirms his death.

As much as I didn't like how John conducted himself while BASE jumping - I wouldn't wish such an end on anyone.



 

So are we going to see this video before this site shuts down?

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On 9/23/2024 at 8:07 AM, NickDG said:

This is a photograph of John Vincent at Bridge Day in the mid-90s or so...

That guy behind him over his shoulder in the sunglasses looks mighty suspicious. That wouldn't be Cooper, would it?