Autoblog's John Neff Kinda Clears Carroll Shelby Of Rape Charges
The auto world was rocked — ROCKED, I tell you! — yesterday by allegations that Carroll Shelby did all sorts of bad stuff recently. We here at TTAC have no opinion about this kind of thing. We don’t know any of the people involved, we don’t have access to any inside information, and we’re really not qualified to dive into the deep waters of rape, privacy, violation, money, power, lawsuits, and whatnot.
Luckily, our friends at Autoblog aren’t so shy.
Quoth Autoblog’s John Neff,
None of us here at Autoblog know Shelby on a personal level, but we’ve met the man on more than a few occasions and have always been charmed by his natural charisma, genuine love of cars and friendly nature. Hopefully the truth is reached in this case and it’s not as bad a picture as these allegations paint.
Our august founder, Robert Farago, famously called Neff “insane” a few years back. I don’t know if this latest comment is so much insane as it’s simply in horrible, horrible taste. Try to read a bit of the potential subtext here: Hey, maybe he made some tramp bring him pornography, but he’s NATURALLY CHARISMATIC! Sure, it’s possible that he just possibly could have acquiesced in the drugging and rape of an innocent woman, but HE HAS A GENUINE LOVE OF CARS!
But just when you think that Neff is too busy fluffing an [Ed: alleged] sex criminal to turn towards the pursuit of truth, he proves you wrong:
Hopefully the truth is reached in this case and it’s not as bad a picture as these allegations paint.
What a wishy-washy sentence! You could read it as, “I hope they nail that molesting bastard to the wall” or “I hope that bitch gets countersued into the ground for daring to bother the man who motor-swapped an AC Ace fifty years ago!” I’m not even sure what he’s getting at with the second half. What would satisfy Mr. Neff in this case, bad-picture-wise? Is he hoping for less penetration? Less fondling? Less rape? Less of the ol’ Four Loko/roofie combo?
Nor will the comments — on either Autoblog or Jalopnik — raise your spirits. Most of them are along the lines of “she was asking for it.” One has the distinct feeling that if ol’ Shel had a pinball table, the Autoblog commentariat would be standing around it cheering away like in that one porno Jodie Foster did…
…and yes, that was an authentic “My Name Is Earl” reference. We only follow the serious shows around here!
More by Jack Baruth
Comments
Join the conversation
To begin with, though the accusations are serious, either the plaintiff didn't take her case to police and prosecutors first, or they decided that they didn't have a case against Shelby and his associates. Remember, this is a civil lawsuit, where the standard is "preponderance of evidence", not "beyond a reasonable doubt". Now I can understand her suing Shelby over a grope that the police didn't think was serious, but she's claiming that a Shelby associate raped her at Shelby's house. That's something that the cops and prosecutors in today's PC world would have taken very seriously and most likely investigated. The fact that there was no apparent criminal case in this matter makes me skeptical of the plaintiff I understand Neff's comments about 'Ol Shel's natural charisma, having met the man and watched him schmooze with his friends, Ford folks and the media, but I'm as cynical as anyone is about the man, think he's traded on his past accomplishments (admittedly great accomplishments, no doubt), and think some of his litigation has been a bit predatory. No question that the guy whores out his name a bit, but it's his name to whore out. My favorite part of this case is where the plaintiff said that it started with him sending her for groceries and progressed to having her pick up porn for him. I'm trying to imagine Shelby, in that well known Texas drawl, saying something like: "Darlin', would you be a sweetheart and stop by the QuickStop and grab a half gallon of milk and some coffee? Oh, and while you're at it, stop over at the Adult News and pick up the latest copy of Barely Legal Teens With Really Old Men." I wonder if the "pornography" is something like an issue of Maxim or some similar publication that was running an article or photo relating to Shelby cars.
After the recent DSK fiasco, I think we should take a chill pill and wait for the courts and the cops to be done with this one.