Tom Ogle's investors

Randy, Mack Massey Jr. was an investor in Tom Ogle's invention. At the time of Ogle's death there were about 50 people who claimed a share of his invention.

There are a lot of twist to this story. In 1978 radio  personality Paul Harvey reported that Ogle had "disappeared." In 1981 he was sued by the government for non-payment of taxes. The same year he was shot and wounded outside a bar in Northeast El Paso.

If there is enough interest I will post some of the articles I mentioned above. For those who didn't read the original post on Ogle's invention you can read it and view photos of Ogle here.

May 27, 1977

More Claimants Surface For Oglemobile Share

BY MIKE CONNOLLY
El Paso Times

A local car dealer says that although he owns interest in Tom Ogle’s 100-mile-per-gallon auto fuel system, his patent attorney has advised him his share may be worthless in light of a similar patent allegedly held by General Motors Corp. since 1972.

Mack Massey Jr., owner of Mack Massey AMC-Jeep, told The Times with some reluctance that he and Buick-Opel dealer Travis Crawford “have had some involvement” with the Ogle invention.

The Times also has learned that another group of five El Pasoans, including two federal probation officers, claim they may hold as much as 25 per cent share in Ogle’s device.

Ogle said Thursday that his lawyers will be meeting soon with the claimants. He added that he and his partner, Jim Peck, are close to an agreement on their own division of any profits to be realized from the invention.

Asked about his involvement with Ogle, Massey said, “We’re not trying to get this publicized, and we’re not going to get into it until everything airs out. But we do have a binding contract with Ogle.”

Crawford would not comment Thursday.

Massey said he and Crawford are involved in the invention “for a good amount of interest,” but he would not say just how much. He said the contract with Ogle, signed last year, describes the invention in detail and is signed by all parties involved.

“Travis and I both had funds involved,” Massey said. “We spent more on the patent research too.” Massey said Ogle did some of the work on his invention at Crawford Buick Opel.

Massey said Ogle tested the invention enough to satisfy him that “it does work, although it needs more experimentation and study work. I don’t believe a hoax or fraud is involved in the fuel system’s performance.”

Physicist Robert Levy has told the Times he doesn’t think it physically possible for Ogle’s 1970 Ford Galaxie to get 100 per gallon, as its inventor claims. The 100-mile-per-gallon figure was established several weeks ago when a Times reporter drove with Ogle to Deming, N.M. and back on two gallons of gas. Ogle drained his gas tank before the trip, and poured in just two gallons with the reporter watching.

Massey said he and Crawford were associated with Ogle for about a year. But then a patent search indicated the existence of one invention that might supersede Ogle’s claim.

“Nobody has come up with anything like this, except for the possibility of that one patent,” Massy said, “although there were some others that were very closely related.”

Speaking with noticeable reluctance, Massey said the “one patent” that he felt was most similar, in that it was a vaporized fuel system that eliminated the carburetor, was obtained by GM in 1972.

The Times called GM Thursday but was unable to verify whether or not the nation’s largest automaker holds such a patent.

Ogle’s attorneys have told The Times their own patent search so far has turned up on serious rivals.

Massey said that he and Crawford are not involved with any others making claims on a share in Ogle’s invention.

Other investors besides Crawford and Massey have popped up since news of Ogle’s invention became public knowledge.

Mrs. Polly Snyder, administrative assistant of Alternative House, a federally-funded halfway house at 4910 Alameda, told The Times she is partner in an organization that may hold as much as 25 per cent of the royalties from the Oglemobile.

According to Mrs. Snyder, she became acquainted with Ogle after he was paroled to Alternative from the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Correction Center outside Silver Springs, Md., there he had served time for a federal offense he committed while a juvenile.

It was a few months after his release from the program, on a regular visit back to Alternative, that Mrs. Snyder said Ogle approached her with news of an idea he had to make gasoline-powered engines more efficient.

“He came in one day all excited over an idea he had and saying he just wished he could find somebody who believed in him.” Mrs. Snyder said. “He said he needed tools to get started and the he could get a good deal on some for $1,400.

“We’ll, I’ve been her four years and I’m still an easy mark for these boys so we jut went down and borrowed the money.”

Mrs. Snyder said she was one of five investors who had given Ogle “about $4,000.” Others in the group included Cecil T. Ming, former director of Alternative, attorney Bob Perel and U.S. Probation officers Robert Garcia and Bob Kirkland. Each holds part in a contract promising a five per cent chunk of Ogle’s final machine.

At the moment Perel is in India, Kirkland has been transferred to Idaho and Ming has apparently left town. Garcia talked with a Times reporter and verified much of the information Mrs. Snyder gave.

“We do have a contract,” Garcia said. “We gave him some tools and a place to work.

“He had an idea that seemed to us to be workable,” Garcia said. “We told him ‘See what you can do with it and we’ll help you out.’”

But Garcia said they later pulled out of any active involvement with Ogle, saying, “when it looked like it was over his head we decided to get professional help and he went out on his own.”

Garcia said the original group then formed its own group to look into a fuel vaporization process, Vap-Air Fuel Systems Inc. He said the corporation’s process is in no way similar to the Oglemobile.

El Paso attorney Dudley Mann, representing Mrs. Snyder and the other four initial investors, has steadfastly refused comment on the contract other than to acknowledge its existence and that “it will stand up in court.”

One question raised by the name on the contract has been the issue of a possible conflict of interest for the investors. All five initial investors had been connected with either the federal probation office, which supervised Ogle’s parole, or the federally-funded halfway house, at which he had been a resident.

“There is no way this could be a conflict of interest because we entered into the agreement with Tom months after he had been released,” Mrs. Snyder said.

Garcia also denied a conflict, saying “I was not actively involved and it was not taking up any of my working time.”

The supervisor of the federal probation office in El Paso, Arnold Rivera, said he had not given any thought to whether a conflict of interest could arise when he first heard of his officers’ involvement with the Oglemobile.

“I never dreamed it might bring any discredit to a probation officer,” Rivera said. “This is a unique situation. I have never heard of any similar situations.

“It never entered my mind that their ethics might be questioned.”

Comments

[Tim Collins]

So I'm curious, if there was a patent issued, can the plans for this invention be accessed and tested again?

[Randy]

Very kind of you, thanks.

[Bob]

Ogle drained his gas tank before the trip, and poured in just tow gallons with the reporter watching.

Nice spelling in that sentence. TWO!

[Trish Long]

Thanks Bob. I fixed the typo.

[Jean]

Tommy's "invention" was boiling gasoline to make it possible to burn a very lean mixture. He got the good milage by loosening the wheel bearings, backing off the brake shoes and pumping up the tires to rock hard. All the demo drives started at the top of the hill near the airport in Las Cruces and went down hill and down wind to El Paso. The engine didn't have enough power to start the car on it's own. Cheater was working on a heated intake manifold for Tommy to make the Invention a little more usefull but drugs and money killed Tommy before any more work was done.

[Miller Girl]

Jean,

If the downhill explanation is true how did he get from El Paso to Deming and back on two gallons?

[Jean]

Go over to Cheater's and ask him to show you how to plumb NO2 up from a hidden tank in the frame (or a fake fire extinguisher), up through the engine mounts into the block and up to the intake manifold.
Smart race car builders have been doing this sort of thing for years.

[ff]

Whatever:,Tom ogle had people all over that car,he made the front page 4 days in a row, & all the ignorant clowns said " The Sky is Falling Its A Hoax" He removed the smog equip. & it burned better than Most New Cars, Then They Said The Machine was Wrong.It Burned clean because hes Burnin VAPOR. SEE SHELL OILS 356 MPG. Car, AT 30 Mph". That to me equates to at least 150 MPG in My Truck Today.

[ff]

AUTO INDUSTRY HOLDS 94 GAS SAVING PATENTS, BIG OIL 5, US GOVERNMENT 15. APPROX. Hey jean:
He Didnt Need To Run Lean.
Put A bit of gas in a container, Stick it in the Hot Sun,{Let It Heat Up} Have Spark Ready, Open Cap! Then Tell me: hes runnin lean...

[popeye58]

After 35 years, we still have those who believe that the only solution available is fossil fuel...amazing. Tom may have been a con-artist or he may have been just a guy who stubbled onto something that would have translated into billions upon billions of dollars of losses for the largest sydicate in the history of mankind. Accident? Suicide? I think not. The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Tom was just dumb enough to turn the light on after everyone had gotten used to the dark. I'm 50 years old...just a little younger than Tom would be were he still alive. I stood in gas lines...I voted for Jimmy Carter because he said, "never again"...oil won that round but I have to keep fighting because I still believe we can change the world. Don't let this be the way it has to be.

[john nagle]

well said popeye58, just everyone imagine what it would be like to go 100 miles on a gallon of gas. tom ogle was ripped off.

[Jerry]

I have been working with HHO, and after looking at Tom's design, have turned my interests into Tom's idea. Hope more people do this.

[kdee]

@Jerry

How is the work coming, did you come up with anything yet?

[Soft Cialis]

I just want to emphasize the good work on this blog, has excellent views and a clear vision of what you are looking for

[ken]

Im going to try vapor but hho still is on my mind too . Working on both. I would like to get 50 plus out of my 35 ft motorhome ?

[me]

jean,

are you a shill??

[Chad]

This idea needs to be sent to Mythbusters on natioanl T.V. to been proven or disproven,alot of people know of this story and would find it entertaining to say the least. I believe Ogle was on to something.

[Scott]

Chad < i must agre..it needs to done on Myth Busters. I have a copy of the patent and it was easy to get on line for free. IF it works , why has no one built another??

[Trish Long]

Chad, Scott,

I just posted it at Mythbusters, here's hoping they check it out.

Trish

[Monika]

Tom Ogle's 100 miles to a gallon of gas was not a hoax and nothing was hidden. I should know. I was one that went on his trip to Deming and back. I was his wife.

[Trish Long]

Thanks Monika. I didn't realize you went on the trip as well. I knew it was Tom and a Times reporter. Can you tell us what happened to the Oglemobile? Thanks again for the additional information.

[gordon knapp]

The oil company (Shell) got him, of course.