Charlie Gillis over at MacLean's magazine looks at the rough times Gordie Howe has been going through in the years since he has essentially lost his wife to the evils of dementia. His business advisers, Del Reddy and Aaron Howard, have been fleecing Howe and his charity of an alleged $338,000 US.Now the framework of this story is not exactly new. But this is the most detailed account I have seen of the saga. Reddy and Howard bullied the 80 year old Howe, but the family stayed the course with their advisers because the dastardly duo were hand picked by Mrs. Howe before she lost control of her mind due to Pick's Disease.
But Gillis has brought to light this interesting fact: Gordie Howe has not been part of the Vancouver Giants ownership group since 2005, although we were all led to believe he a very proud minority partner.
Then there was the Vancouver Giants deal. According to the Howe’s suit, Reddy in 2005 told Gordie that Power Play was having financial difficulties, and needed to raise cash to help pay for Colleen’s care. Ron Toigo, the majority owner of the Western Hockey League team, told Maclean’s Reddy approached him with the same story, and set up a deal for Howe to sell his five per cent share back to the other owners. The sale netted Howe US$200,000, court documents show. But the Howes contend that Gordie was not in financial distress at all. Reddy and Howard made the move, the suit alleged, to enhance Power Play’s bottom line so they could collect bonuses and “other financial rewards” due to them if Power Play did well.Unbelievable.
Now it needs to be acknowledged that all of these facts and accusations are all alleged, and of course Reddy and Howard have a much different side to the story. The two sides settled out of court, largely because the Howe family felt Gordie was not mentally fit to withstand a messy courtroom fight. His memory is not what it used to be.
All in all, another sad story for Mr. Hockey. And that's not even taking into account his asshole neighbors.
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