feedback on AL and ALICE BLACK

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Name withheld by MOTHER

I was glad to see your note about Al Black in MOTHER N0. 19, I should have written to you sooner as I've had a personal experience with Al and can confirm your most horrendous suspicions about his character.

I began by answering Al's ad in MOTHER last fall. We corresponded and Al offered to help me find and purchase some land in Nova Scotia. I planned to drive up in January, but then Al wrote and encouraged me to come up right away to attend a tax sale. Before long, a friend, Bill, and I were on a plane to Halifax.

When we met Al we were absolutely impressed. He seemed to be the most genuine and sincere person in the world. We were shown some fine country hospitality. Anxious not to be a burden, we gave Al some money to put towards food and such ($30.00) and worked hard around the farm every day. Meanwhile, Al showed us some property he said was for sale. We loved it. Al convinced us to give him $2,000 so that he could give the owner a deposit and negotiate a sale. We'd have given him more if we could have cashed our checks and money order sooner. As it turned out, the land was not for sale and we began to realize that after trusting Al completely, almost everything he had told us in the course of two weeks was a fabrication of some sort.

We met a lot of good people in Tatamagouche, however, and they told us enough about Al's past shady dealings to fill a book.

We got a lawyer and with his help got all but about $400 back. Al stuck to his stories claiming that the $400 was taken up in fees and an irretrievable deposit. The man who Al had told us owned the land didn't. Al had advised us not to negotiate locally on our own because we would be overcharged.

Finally we went to the RCMP and pressed charges. We almost had a case of criminal fraud that would have put a stop to this nonsense, but Al knew more about what he was doing than we did. None of the charges stuck and, as far as I know, Al Black is still ripping people off. We saw Al receive money orders—each made out to him and totaling thousands of dollars—from different people in the States. These poor folks are losing a lot more money than we did if they think Al Black is buying them land and giving them a fair deal.

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