The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-09-26
Liars Club
Begins Annual
Yarn Spinning
BY DOROTHY RAYmER

4NCAt " lCSluSuL 1lullIduy Tie
most difficult man to see is big
Rupert" He's president, too,
His real name is Rupert Knowles
and he is the chief executive of the
Key West Liars Club.
The group meets, or rather
struggles in, if they feel like it, at
the Horseshoe Bar at 800 Caroline
st. There isn't any horseshoe on
the door or above it; the bar 81
shaped like two sides of a restangle
and the only picture of note is not
of horse but caricature of big
Rupert" Maybe the place has its
liable because of the horseplay that
goes on when story telling time
sets in.
After three entire days of tele-
phoning and stalking the assembly
place, big Rupert" was finally
shared at dusk last night in the
huge throne chair which has white
letters printed on the backrest
Reserved for Big Rupy." That
doesn't mean a thing. Everyone
takes turns sitting in it.
When trapped by the camera,
"Blimp" Knowles, alias big Ru
pert" was holding court, more
like monarch than a president.
He was esconced in a chair, less
er throne, on the slightly sagging
veranda outside. Around him in a
circle were his cohorts, discussing
reelection of Knowles. Secretary
Ketchum observed that, never,
since the club was organized, has
Mr.. Knowles failed to be re-elect-
ed and that he obviously is still
"far out in front" this year.
His supporters include such ILL
ustrious characters, or let us say,
men of character as "Lightfinger'
Saunders, Pirate Gay. Badly"
Higgs, Speaker of the House who
is also known as Bald Head"
Scabie; "Pruneface" Cordou,
"Wickie" Roberts. The roll call
also includes "Old Corset, "Chick-
en- Charlie, "The Rat'', "The
Peace Maker, "Dodo", pronounc
ed "dudu" and the browning name
of them all, Blind Shark Don't
Bite"
Swearing on their integrity as
honest liars the group insist that
they have not lost their amateur
standing. One spokesman said, 1--WE
are a strictly amateur group. We
exclude professionals like polid-
clans and officials.
The rules committee Is consider
ing changes in the annual lie con-
test. The change is due to the
wrangling in last years whopper
contest which ended in a draw.
"A. P" Inez reports in last years
contest, Capt. Rudy Patai, repre-
sentative from the Shrimp Fleet,
told a wriggling tale of yellow-tails
so big down by Rebecca Light that
they averaged Is pounds and we're
so aggressive they had run all the
barracuda off the reef.
Then up stepped David Higgs.
Last night he repeated his story
for this reporter. He asked if had
ever seen 20 pound alligator pears
(avacadoes to youse). He said
they grew that big and there was
a picture in a Miami paper to
prove it. However, the avacadoeS
turned out to be papayas on close
investigation. "A. P" Inez added
that the story was almost thrown
out of the contest but that Mr.. NJ.
Bralh came to the fore, big
Rupert" style, and swore the own
err of the tree had to construct
stands under each fruit to keep the
limbs of the tree from breaking off,
Riggs stated that the owner sat up
all night with a shotgun to protect
his property. Some say he had a
tommy-gun and a mob from De-
troit as bodyguards.
The argument as to which story
was the best arose when the judges
disagreed over magnitude of Capt.