Motel voyeur Gerald Foos to Westword: All that spying was “pretty impressive”

You’ve surely heard the story of Gay Talese, the famed author, and Gerald Foos, a motel-owning guy who liked to spy.

It made huge headlines here, since the Manor House Motel is in Aurora. Later, it got even bigger when the Washington Post poked some holes in the story. (Such as Foos not owning the place for a while.)

Then things seemed to die off. When Westword’s Chris Walker called Foos, he found that practically nobody else (except Vanity Fair) had followed up with the former motel owner.

There’s some very strange and amusing back-and-forth between the journalist and Foos, all detailed in Walker’s new article in Westword. Somehow, the whole thing turns into a business discussion about Foos’ baseball card collection, including a six-figure offer, which I won’t spoil here.

Anyway, go read the article, but here’s the big-money quote, as far as I’m concerned:

“I’ve done the one that you know about — that’s pretty impressive. If you get my age and you don’t know anything, then your life has been a waste.”

Yep. Decades of creeping (assuming it’s all true) adds up to a big life accomplishment.