The Man Came and Took it Away – published 1973
Bill had a checkered past in Kansas that started at the age of fourteen that blossomed into a stint in reform school and a number of arrests and by the time he was twenty he’d been branded a criminal in Kansas. Trying to flee his past, he bounced from state to state until finally landing in Denver Colorado, where he landed a job delivering dog food. It was there that his Mercury got repossessed. What followed was a successful, respectable and storied career. In 1973, he published his memoirs which provide us probably the best glimpse of the repossession world during the 50’s and 60’s.
Old school indeed. In 1955, Bill’s repossessed Mercury introduced him to his future employer, Joe Wallace, owner of the Transnational Detective Service. Bill cut his teeth repossessing tires,
batteries, furniture and eventually graduated to cars. Stakeouts, tailing, chases and fights were commonplace and the term “breach of peace” was left to the hands of law enforcement and tended to go no further.
As Bill put it, there was a natural draw to the profession for him that satisfied his otherwise criminal nature. Working 14-18 hours a day, he was a natural to the business and at one point was even bringing his pregnant wife along to help him in the field.
After four years of repossessing everything from tires to batteries, furniture and cars, his employment came to an end. Not over anything he’d done, but because of his criminal record came to light as the result of childhood friends sought by the FBI and the Denver PD told his employer that they would revoke his business license if Bill remained in his employment.
Unable to escape his past, Bill struggled to find his way and bounced around until finally coming to the realization that he was meant for the repossession business. Two years later he opened his own company, The Denver Repossession Bureau.
What many of you may not be aware of, is that in the old days, agencies could be quite hostile to one another. Bill talks of his former employer, Wallace, slashing his tires, sugaring his gas tanks and bad mouthing his company to law enforcement. Such practices were common clear into the 90’s to my personal knowledge. Truth be known, there was at least one .38 revolver strapping TFA agency owner who was known for maintaining a gallon of gas and road flares in his trunk to keep the competition in line.
Repo fees were competitive between him and his former employer and were $15 a repossession in 1965, which is low even by modern standards with an adjusted value of $140 in today’s value. Bill even lamented that he would raise his fees but was afraid that his competition would benefit from it. Not that Bill was in any way responsible for this half-century chronic psychological illness of self-doubt and fear that plagues the industry to this day and is much to blame for today’s stagnant and flat fees, but it is affirming to the nature of the industry that he would make this observation in 1973.
Bill or the publisher hired a professional writer for this book and it is a very well written. It really paints a clear picture of the “cowboy” nature of the repossession industry in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I strongly suggest it for reading by anyone with an interest in the history of repossessions.
I received this book after I had already submitted my final manuscript draft of my upcoming book but did include Bill in a section of it for another interesting facet of this repossession pioneers life.
My copy of this book came from a friend who stumbled across it in a bookstore outside of a Colorado ski resort but you can find The Man Came and Took it Away online at Amazon, Walmart and elsewhere, both new and used. Bill passed away in 2014, but his widow would certainly appreciate his memory being honored, as well as a few bucks in sales commission!
Related Articles:
Repossession history – the 50’s-60’s memoirs of Bill Bowser
On this day in repossession history, 1994 – John Henry Peters murder
The History of Auto Repossession in North America – The 1920’s
The First Repo Man and First Auto Repo in History
February 25th – Fallen Agents Day
Repossession history – the 50’s-60’s memoirs of Bill Bowser – Repossession History – Repossession
Facebook Comments