Viral Video Star Has ‘Golden Voice,’ 20-Year Criminal Record
By: As job offers pour in for Ted Williams, the homeless guy with the golden voice whose YouTube video has now been viewed by over 11 million people, one dirt-digging web site has revealed that he has a 20 year criminal history.
There’s been a frenzy of activityin the past few days over Williams, a former radio announcer who stunned the Internet world by delivering a pitch-perfect radio announcement to a reporter while panhandling on a highway in Columbus Ohio. He was flown to New York to be interviewed by every major television network, he got an agent, a haircut and everyone from the Cleveland Cavaliers to ESPN and MTV want him.
But the Smoking Gun, a site famous for digging up dirt on the famous and infamous, discovered that Williams has a 20-year criminal recordon a slew of charges, including theft, robbery, escape, forgery, and drug possession.
He’s also been busted for trespassing with a female companion in a parking lot, which may seem the most benign of the charges, but the police report indicates that, while Williams begged for money, the woman was “picked up and dropped off in the parking lot by various and numerous males in different vehicles. The management had repeatedly asked the two suspects to stay off the property and have been cussed and yelled at by the suspects for their effort.”
His heartwarming story-turned-schadenfreude has sparked a debate in the webosphere. Comments on YouTube video and Smoking Gun page go from “Everyone deserves a second chance” to “he already had too many chances!” and the inevitable, “He has awesome hair!”
Even his mom seemed dubious when interviewed by the local news.
It used to be this kind of controversy would destroy a career, but something tells me this man is getting – or has already received – his own reality show!
Stay tuned. This one may take more than 15 minutes.
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