I "inherited" Clay as one of my staff writers when I succeeded the recently departed Neal Knox as editor of Handloader and Rifle magazines in 1978. He came out for a visit and quickly succeeded in making himself thoroughly unpopular with our staff. After a while, the material that he sent me got too sloppy to tolerate from a staff writer, so I took him off the staff but encouraged him to send me cleaner material as a free-lancer and earn his old staff position again (as he had done before). He acknowledged that he'd gotten increasingly sloppy and seemed to accept my decision like an honest man. But I never got any more material from him.
I don't think I announced his removal from my staff. IIRC, readers noticed the absence of his material and mast-head listing in later issues of the magazines.
Then I started hearing, one after another, from manufacturers from whom he'd borrowed dozens of guns (on limited-time consignments), which he'd neither returned nor paid for. The manufacturers were very lenient -- offered to extend the consignment periods, but needed signed copies of his renewed FFL for their records. He wouldn't answer their repeated inquiries. Finally, one manufacturer was forced to report to the BATF that he had not provided the needed FFL copy. Then it came -- in a BATF envelope.
The total value of all those rifles, handguns, and shotguns -- even at the much lower "friendly" prices for writers -- ran to a total well into five figures (that's $xy,000!). The last I heard, a grand total of no gun had been returned, and a super total of $0 had been received by any of several manufacturers.
And that wasn't all of it. Several ammo companies told me that a typical request from Clay was Send me a case of each load that you offer for the [.30-06, .44 Magnum, etc] -- a total, sometimes, of close to a dozen cases per cartridge.
Then I heard from some of Clay's shooter neighbors, including dealers and gunsmiths, who reported that Clay had (a) offered them great quantities of factory ammo at less than retail price and (b) had a huge selection of new rifles, handguns, and shotguns on his tables at local gun shows -- for sale.
Let me make this clear, because a number of my writer and editor friends condemned me for "exposing" and "firing" Clay and black-balling him with the manufacturers. I did neither. All of the "dirt" on Clay came out, independent of and separate from my limited role in removing him from his staff position. I learned of the rest afterward and had no part in spreading the word. That kind of word gets around this industry pretty fast on its own legs with no help from me.
A couple of other editors continued to buy material from Clay -- until he sold 'em both the same article, and both published it (neither aware that the other also had it) -- which is a cardinal no-no for writers. So I have no trouble guessing or understanding why you don't see his byline in any recent publication.
Too bad. Clay was able. But he fouled his own bed.
