James Bell Yager's Mystery Running-Mate
VP candidate for Independent (1996)
Running mate with nominee: James Bell Yager (ca1934-1998)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Did this running-mate actually exist, or, was this another con job by an expert con artist in order to raise "campaign money"?
James Bell Yager was serving a 42-year sentence in prison located in Plainfield, Ind. for bank embezzlement and forgery. He would be eligible for parole on Jan. 15, 2002.
Yager was also a nationally known jailhouse lawyer and one of the cofounders of the National Prisoners' Rights Union. He was a very prolific letter-to-the-editor writer concerning prison conditions.
He ran for President in 1984 and 1988 as a write-in, both times without a Vice-Presidential nominee from what I can gather. In 1988 he scaled back his campaign after Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle was selected as George Bush's running-mate. "Hell, you know I can't oppose a favorite son."
In the early 1990s Yager had become the public news source for Mike Tyson's life behind bars when the boxer was incarcerated in the same prison.
In 1996 he was making his third attempt for the White House. His platform included a national sales tax and a federal program to combat juvenile delinquency.
He told a reporter, "I am not naive enough to think we are going to win; but when you look back, they have had some characters that probably were as crooked as I have been."
In April 1995 Yager was coy with the press and said his running-mate was a woman who was a certified public accountant and had once been in prison for tax fraud. Her identity would be revealed on June 14, 1995. Either he did make the announcement and the press ignored it, or, it never happened, or, the so-called existence of this VP was a con job hoax.
A year later, in April 1996 Yager dropped out of the race "due to illness and bad health dealing with various medical problems such as going blind, diabetes, heart trouble, hypertension and other problems ... I'd like to finish the campaign but I'm fighting the battle of my life with these medical problems."
Oh, but the story continues. Yager, who was wheelchair-bound at this point, was granted an early release from prison on account of his health on Mar. 6, 1997. "No amount of money could tempt me to commit another crime," he was quoted by the press.
By June 1997 he told a reporter he had a couple used car dealerships, one in Indianapolis and another in Louisville, Ky. He also said he had a written a book about his prison life entitled Behind the Scenes.
In truth he had relocated to Lafayette, Ind. and moved in with the sister of one of his fellow inmates (no, she wasn't the 1996 running-mate), bilked her and her daughter out of about 35 grand, and then vanished in Aug. 1997. The woman was identified by one columnist as his fiance. He was arrested in Jan. 1998 in Springfield, Mo., where he gave his name as "Jim Brown." He died Feb. 12 in a Missouri nursing awaiting extradition to Indiana.
If the Yager/Mystery Person actually won the election, she would have become President upon Yager's death.
Election history: ?
Other occupations: certified public accountant (alleged)
Buried: ?
Notes:
Anyone out there know if she existed, and if so, who she was?