Watercooler Stories

Mussolini's clothes to be auctioned

DALLAS, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The auctioneers behind the Dallas sale of clothing believed to have belonged to Benito Mussolini and his mistress said the items could fetch $15,000.

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions and San Francisco-based Greg Martin Auctions, the auction houses handling the sale, said the clothing is believed to have been worn by the World War II-era Italian dictator and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, when they were captured while trying to flee Switzerland in April 1945, The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reported Thursday.

The clothing items were inside a suitcase presented by members of the partisan resistance movement in 1945 to Army Col. Charles Poletti, and he gave the suitcase to Cpl. Paul Moriconi to dispose of as he saw fit.

Moriconi mailed the suitcase to his mother and kept it in his possession until his death in May 2010.

"If we had a dinner party or friends came over and the topic of conversation came up about World War II, he would bring them out," said his wife, Regina Moriconi, 63, of Webster, N.Y. "People were amazed. They really were amazed."

'Private Bank' owner convicted of fraud

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A Missouri man found to have made $100 million from selling worthless financial documents was found guilty of 21 federal fraud charges.

Prosecutors said Denny Ray Hardin, 52, used his home computer to create 2,000 "bonded promissory notes" he claimed to have backed by a U.S. Treasury Department account and sold them for a fee at the "Private Bank of Denny Ray Hardin," which he ran out of his Kansas City home, The Kansas City Star reported Thursday.

Hardin threatened creditors who refused to accept his notes with legal action, prosecutors said.

Hardin was convicted in U.S. District Court in of 11 counts of creating fictitious obligations and 10 counts of mail fraud. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

Woman has 20 feet of nails on each hand

NEW YORK, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A Las Vegas woman who has been growing her fingernails out for 18 years was certified as a Guinness World Record holder in New York.

Chris "The Dutchess" Walton, 45, who has nearly 20 feet of fingernails on each hand, said during her visit to New York she started growing her nails out 18 years ago and never got around to cutting them, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

"I'm pretty sure one day I will cut them, but I can't see it in my head because I'm so used to having them," Walton said. "It's like a leg, I wouldn't just chop it off so it's gonna take some thinking."

Guinness said Walton will appear in the 2012 Book of World Records for having the world's longest nails.

The previous record holder, Lee Redmond, lost her 28 feet of nails in a 2009 car crash, Guinness said.

Norwegian lied about 'year in the wild'

OSLO, Norway, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A Norwegian man who claimed to have spent a "year in the wild" said his story was a hoax and he spent much of the time living in a Swedish hotel.

Kristoffer Clausen, who wrote a blog about his supposed experiences in the Norwegian wilderness and followed it up with a popular book, "A Wild Man: 365 Days as Hunter, Fisherman and Gatherer," told the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet his "year in the wild" was a fabrication, The Local reported Thursday.

Clausen, who had claimed to be living "with what nature was providing for him" in the Central Norway forest outside Sognefjorden, said he instead spent much of the year living in a Torsby, Sweden, hotel.

"I'm sorry for doing it," said Clausen, who titled a Tuesday blog entry "Sorry, I've been an idiot."