Eric A. de Boer, Imposter claimed to be 'Kansas' guitarist
Rob Cibik
Monday, 02 Feb 2009
KINGSTON, NH - New Hampshire resident Eric "Rick" de Boer had several
people convinced he was actually a legendary guitarist. He claimed to
be Rich Williams from the band Kansas. He even claimed to write the
song "Carry on Wayward Son." When de Boer died on January 9, an
obituary said he used the stage name Rich Williams. One problem. The
'real' Rich Williams is alive and well, and lives in Atlanta.
link to video news report:
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/Imposter_rocker_claimed_to_be_guitarist_020209
Eric A. de Boer
Kingston, NH: Eric Anthony de Boer, 57, died peacefully on Fri., Jan.
9, 2009 in Portsmouth Regional Hospital.
He was born on July 13, 1951 in Middleboro, MA; the son of late Randy
de Boer and Virginia M. (Wood) Wright.
He was a Marine in the Vietnam War, and a POW for four (4) years.
Rick is survived by his significant other, Pamela Check of Kingston,
NH; his mother Virginia M. Wright, and an uncle, David Wood; a son
Eric and a daughter Kelly and many, many friends.
http://www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=122886977
Memorial contributions may be made in his name to VFW Post 1088 of
Kingston, 93 Route 125, Kingston, NH 03848-3536
Rob Cibik
Rich Williams bears no ill will against Vietnam vet who for years
impersonated him
By Bill Blankenship
The Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal
February 4, 2009
Just as in the case of Mark Twain, Rich Williams, lead guitarist of
the rock band Kansas, says the reports of his death have been greatly
exaggerated. Williams, who will be in Topeka this week along with the
rest of the band to record a live concert DVD at White Concert Hall,
today e-mailed to The Capital-Journal today a story from The Eagle
Tribune, a newspaper in North Andover, Mass, and a link to a news
story on a Boston television station, WFXT Fox 25.
The newspaper story and video told how Kingston, N.H., resident Eric
“Rick” de Boer had for years passed himself off as Williams.
When de Boer died last month, an obituary sent Jan. 15 to area
newspapers said de Boer had used Rich Williams as his stage name when
he played for Kansas for 22 years. The obituary also said de Boer
wrote the Kansas hit, “Carry On Wayward Son,” which actually was
written by Kerry Livgren, the band’s principal songwriter who lives in
the Berryton area of Shawnee County.
The obituary was published on legacy.com, an online obituary database,
with the incorrect information but was corrected a day later.
The Eagle-Tribune’s obituary department flagged de Boer’s obituary and
learned Williams wasn’t a famous rocker but was a 57-year-old ex-
Marine who served in the Vietnam War, including four years as a POW.
Friends of de Boer told Fox 25 he never meant any harm with his
impersonation, which had many convinced despite a lack of resemblance
to the real Williams, including no patch over his right eye.
Williams lost that eye in Topeka as a boy in an accident involving
homemade fireworks; de Boer told friends the patch was temporary and
just part of his on-stage persona. He also feigned off requests to
play guitar saying a medical condition left his fingers too swollen to
play anymore.
Williams, who in his e-mail called the whole tale “pretty wacky
stuff,” said he had been aware of de Boer for about five years but
never met him. Upon learning de Boer was a Vietnam veteran, Williams
told Fox 25 that he respected him for his service.
Williams and Kansas, with Livgren as a guest performer and the
Washburn Symphony Orchestra, will perform a concert at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday in White Concert Hall. The performance will be recorded for a
DVD to be titled “There’s No Place Like Home.”
Doug Reese
Doug Reese
On Feb 5, 11:31 am, Rob Cibik <lcp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Kansas guitarist still alive and picking
> Rich Williams bears no ill will againstVietnamvet who for years
> impersonated him
>
> By Bill Blankenship
> The Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal
>
> February 4, 2009
>
> Just as in the case of Mark Twain, Rich Williams, lead guitarist of
> the rock band Kansas, says the reports of his death have been greatly
> exaggerated. Williams, who will be in Topeka this week along with the
> rest of the band to record a live concert DVD at White Concert Hall,
> today e-mailed to The Capital-Journal today a story from The Eagle
> Tribune, a newspaper in North Andover, Mass, and a link to a news
> story on a Boston television station, WFXT Fox 25.
>
> The newspaper story and video told how Kingston, N.H., resident Eric
> “Rick” de Boer had for years passed himself off as Williams.
>
> When de Boer died last month, an obituary sent Jan. 15 to area
> newspapers said de Boer had used Rich Williams as his stage name when
> he played for Kansas for 22 years. The obituary also said de Boer
> wrote the Kansas hit, “Carry On Wayward Son,” which actually was
> written byKerryLivgren, the band’s principal songwriter who lives in
> the Berryton area of Shawnee County.
>
> The obituary was published on legacy.com, an online obituary database,
> with the incorrect information but was corrected a day later.
>
> The Eagle-Tribune’s obituary department flagged de Boer’s obituary and
> learned Williams wasn’t a famous rocker but was a 57-year-old ex-
> Marine who served in theVietnamWar, including four years as a POW.
>
> Friends of de Boer told Fox 25 he never meant any harm with his
> impersonation, which had many convinced despite a lack of resemblance
> to the real Williams, including no patch over his right eye.
>
> Williams lost that eye in Topeka as a boy in an accident involving
> homemade fireworks; de Boer told friends the patch was temporary and
> just part of his on-stage persona. He also feigned off requests to
> play guitar saying a medical condition left his fingers too swollen to
> play anymore.
>
> Williams, who in his e-mail called the whole tale “pretty wacky
> stuff,” said he had been aware of de Boer for about five years but
> never met him. Upon learning de Boer was aVietnamveteran, Williams
Kris Baker
news:3d60f61f-d5c1-4853...@p2g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
>> On Feb 5, 11:31 am, Rob Cibik <lcp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Kansas guitarist still alive and picking
>> impersonated him
><
>>
>> The Eagle-Tribune’s obituary department flagged de Boer’s obituary and
<> learned Williams wasn’t a famous rocker but was a 57-year-old ex-
>> Marine who served in theVietnamWar, including four years as a POW.
>>
>
>
> de Boers was not a Vietnam POW.
>
> Doug Reese
You're right, of course. How SLOPPY is this? They know
they're dealing with a liar, and then they fall for the biggest
lie of them all?
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmsea/HTML/pmsea_html_d.htm
Did you write to the newspaper?
Kris
Doug Reese
> "Doug Reese" <dre...@erols.com> wrote in message
>
> news:3d60f61f-d5c1-4853...@p2g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> >> On Feb 5, 11:31 am, Rob Cibik <lcp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> Kansas guitarist still alive and picking
> >> impersonated him
> ><
>
> >> The Eagle-Tribune’s obituary department flagged de Boer’s obituary and
>
> <> learned Williams wasn’t a famous rocker but was a 57-year-old ex-
>
> >> Marine who served in theVietnamWar, including four years as a POW.
>
> ><http://cjonline.com/stories/020409/bre_richwilliams.shtml
>
> > de Boers was not aVietnamPOW.
>
> > Doug Reese
>
> You're right, of course. How SLOPPY is this? They know
> they're dealing with a liar, and then they fall for the biggest
> lie of them all?
>
> http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmsea/HTML/pmsea_html_d.htm
>
> Did you write to the newspaper?
I copied the newspaper (cjonline, or something like that -- the one
that did a follow-up story) on a message I sent to real POW Mike
McGrath. Mike is sort of the "debunker-in-chief" when it comes to
phoney POWs. If you or I were to contact the newspaper and inform them
this guy was a phony, they might not listen. If Mike does, well, they
tend to take notice.
You know, even his age is a tipoff he was lying. He would have been
born in 1951. He would have had to go in the military when he was 17,
or barely 18, and then go to Vietnam right away . . . . . and then be
captured right away. For a person to have been a POW for four years
(keep in mind they were released in Feb/Mar 1973), well, do the math
and you'll see what I'm talking about.
I'll come back here and let you know what does, or does not, come of
this.
Doug Reese
> Kris
Doug Reese
> captured right away. For a person to have been a POW for four years
> (keep in mind they were released in Feb/Mar 1973), well, do the math
> and you'll see what I'm talking about.
>
> I'll come back here and let you know what does, or does not, come of
> this.
Well, Mike must have been reading my mind.
Here's his reply. He copied the newspaper on it.
Doug Reese
.........................................................................................
Thanks, Doug...
No man named de Boar was ever with any one of us, the real 661
surviving
POWs of the Vietnam War, nor is he known by the Department of Defense
in this regard. The obit must have reflected lies he told his family.
The real POWs and MIAs are listed on the official DoD website at:
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmsea/files.htm
On another subject, ... . .... . . .. . . . . . Let's keep in touch.
Mike
> Doug Reese
>
>
>
> > Kris- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
La N.
Just to give Doug a High-Five! Good to see you popping up over here
in "the dark side" with your usual enlightenment.
- nilita
Charlene
> "Doug Reese" <dre...@erols.com> wrote in message
> > de Boers was not a Vietnam POW.
>
> > Doug Reese
>
> You're right, of course. How SLOPPY is this? They know
> they're dealing with a liar, and then they fall for the biggest
> lie of them all?
Maybe the editor was too busy checking out his claim that he "just
missed" the RMS Titanic?
wd44
Jed
<nilit...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Feb 5, 10:13 pm, Doug Reese <dre...@erols.com> wrote:
>> On Feb 6, 1:01 pm, Doug Reese <dre...@erols.com> wrote:
>> Well, Mike must have been reading my mind.
>>
>> Here's his reply. He copied the newspaper on it.
[...]
>Just to give Doug a High-Five! Good to see you popping up over here
>in "the dark side" with your usual enlightenment.
Agreed. Mr. Reese was a welcome voice of reason and, significantly,
first-hand experience during many of the debates about the
swiftboating of John Kerry during the 2004 election.
Not only that, but more importantly, his posts were interesting.
Kris Baker
Doug Reese
------------------------------------------
Just after I posted, I sent an email to the cjonline reporter - with
a link to the "d" page of the official DoD Vietnam POW database.
This kind of thing makes me ill. I'm SO tired of fake Vietnam
veterans trying to claim benefits, fake vets claiming they're
homeless because of the war, fake POWs, fake anything (and
that includes conspiracy theories). I just flat-out hate liars.
Kris
Kris Baker
de Boer claimed to have been a Marine; there's only 128
Marines who were confirmed MIA/POW:
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmsea/accounted/pmsea_acc_p_usmc.pdf
I wonder if he were in the military at all, and just HOW do
you get away with claiming you were a POW without
anyone questioning you?
What did he do for those four years he was "a POW"?
He certainly couldn't have been IN the Marines, could he?
I hate liars, but love a mystery. And debunking lies.
Kris
Kris Baker
news:069e994f-f95c-4e34...@w1g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
Snort.
I think the editor "just missed" journalism school.
Kris
Doug Reese
http://cjonline.com/stories/020609/bre_imposter.shtml
Doug Reese
On Feb 6, 1:13 pm, Doug Reese <dre...@erols.com> wrote:
> .........................................................................................
Kris Baker
Good job, Doug. Good job.
The imposter's picture is here:
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/Imposter_rocker_claimed_to_be_guitarist_020209
The real Rich Williams is shown here:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/81/232424427_efbe718da0.jpg?v=0
and
http://www.johnson-amp.com/image2/artists/rwilliams.jpg
Since there's no resemblance, I guess he was never confronted
by a real fan? I'll also bet that de Boer is much shorter than
Williams.
Kris
Wife of a Vietnam vet - did I say I hate the liars?
Brad Ferguson
<paralle...@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't know how they get away with it, but they often do, and
sometimes for years. We had a bogus Silver Star winner debunked here
just a few weeks ago. He'd been going to the local schools for years,
modestly lecturing the kids about what a hero he was, and how he'd left
a lot of his buddies on the beach, and all that. Problem was, he'd
never even been in the service. Now what's *really* weird about this
is that the guy has always lived here. You'd have thought someone
would have pointed out that the hero had never gone away so he could
leave his buddies on the beach, etc., but no one ever seemed to twig to
any of it, or even care very much.
Kris Baker
news:060220091851359357%thir...@frXOXed.net...
Maybe because everyone else went off to war, so didn't
notice if he didn't? Or he was away at college....or no one
paid attention to him?
Really pitiful people, with no lives. Just think what they
could accomplish if they'd put as much effort into their
own life, rather than a fantasy.
I can't remember what the data was exactly, but a good
percentage of "homeless veterans", aren't really veterans.
Anyone else remember that study? I'm not talking about
Bill O'Reilly's schwang.
Washington State went so far as to pass a law against the
fakers:
http://veriseal.org/news/040327.html
Kris
Charlene
> In article <6v31s8Fi32t...@mid.individual.net>, Kris Baker
It's a combination of not wanting to admit they're wrong and not
wanting to be wrong. People say they care if their heroes lie, but
they really don't. In fact, they hate it when fake heroes are
debunked, but they almost always blame the debunkers.
Humans need to believe that their most dearly-held beliefs - all war
veterans are honourable, being a POW makes you automatically a hero,
true love will always win, karma exists and will always punish the
wicked, if you work hard you'll always succeed, we are always in
control of our destinies, anyone can pull themselves up out of the
gutter if they just tryyyyyy, people are generally honest, the old
days were always better, safer, etc., and the like - are true. The
problem is that real life doesn't work like this: life is random and
unpredictable and often unfair, people are dishonest, rich jerks stay
rich, most people born in the gutter die there no matter how hard they
try to get out, true love sometimes fails, hard work doesn't guarantee
success (and may even kill you - you could ask my uncle if he hadn't
died early from it), and the old days were just as cruel as modern
times are.
A factitious story, on the other hand, sticks pretty close to pre-
existing suppositions while purporting to be true. People become
emotionally invested in them exactly because they usually support one
of these deeply-held beliefs. You can't that from honest fiction,
which doesn't purport to hold a perfect mirror to society. Nobody who
reads Pride and Prejudice thinks that Lizzie and Darcy never fought,
or that Lizzie couldn't have died in childbirth later on. Nobody who
reads The Call of Cthulhu thinks there's a giant squid lurking
somewhere under the earth's crust. Had that apple-throwing scene from
the recent discredited Holocaust memoir been in a novel, nobody would
have blinked an eye.
When a factitious story is debunked, those who believed it therefore
feel personally attacked, as if the debunker was actually saying that
all those beliefs were false and that they were stupid for holding
them. You can imagine how angry, attacked, and even personally hurt
this makes those who believed in them.
We don't know what specific stories de Boer told his friends, but a
lot of liars, crooks, and plagiarists think they're justified, and
their fans and supporters are the first to abuse, harass, and threaten
debunkers - no matter how much evidence they have.
wd44
Kris Baker
We don't know what specific stories de Boer told his friends, but a
lot of liars, crooks, and plagiarists think they're justified, and
their fans and supporters are the first to abuse, harass, and threaten
debunkers - no matter how much evidence they have.
wd44
--------------------
Brava!
Kris
Doug Reese
http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies1007.htm
Doug Reese
On Feb 7, 4:23 am, Doug Reese <dre...@erols.com> wrote:
> Here we go . . . . . . .
>
> http://cjonline.com/stories/020609/bre_imposter.shtml
>
> Doug Reese
>
Kris Baker
If you look at the pictures **right on** that website, you'll see
something odd: all those guys look alike.
Kris
Charlene
And a lot of them are career conmen.
wd44
Kris Baker
wd44
--------------------------------
So looking like that, should scream "avoid me!"
Kris
fros...@gmail.com
> "Charlene" <charlene.vick...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
To clear this all up for you, I am the exwife of Rick deBoer, he was
never in the Marines nor was he ever in Vietnam nor was he a POW.
Kris Baker
news:efc2245d-bbe4-451c...@l1g2000yqj.googlegroups.com...
>
> To clear this all up for you, I am the exwife of Rick
> deBoer, he was never in the Marines nor was he
> ever in Vietnam nor was he a POW.
Thank you!
Would you mind telling us more?
Did you hear those stories?
Is that part of wy you're the ex?
Thanks again
Kris
fros...@gmail.com
> <frostj...@gmail.com> wrote in message
We married in 1976 had two beautiful children but, unfortunately our
marriage was based on lies. I don't think he new how to tell the
truth. It didn't matter what he said I just didn't believe anything he
told me anymore.
He walked out on us when my children were 7 & 11. That was that. I
have been looking for him for over 20 years. I knew he went to
Chicago then Tennessee then South Carolina then to find out that he
lived an hour away from us for 5 years and never got in touch with his
children makes me sick.
He was in the Coast Guard but, I think he was dishonorable discharged.
I heard all the stories the POW the rock band although it wasn't
Kansas at that time.
Kris Baker
news:8a6d5f53-51d5-4dd8...@t13g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
=====================
Thanks. I almost could have predicted your reply.
Not to be too harsh, but maybe it was a good thing
your children didn't have contact -- although I'm
sure you could have used the support. But guys
like him, just leave.
Kris