Playboy Interview: John de Lorean

It had all the elements of high drama--some would say melodrama--and a few of Greek tragedy: A handsome, powerful and charismatic tycoon whose car company was failing was video-taped in the act of apparently buying a bag of cocaine, pronouncing it "better than gold," was arrested on drug-trafficking charges and was put on trial with his gorgeous wife at his side.

Then two surprises: John DeLorean, whom most TV viewers would have pronounced guilty, was acquitted by a jury without even presenting a defense. The prosecution's case--shoddy to begin with--fell apart. And Cristina Ferrare, the beautiful wife and former world-class model who had taken a Bible to her husband in jail, thus sparking DeLorean's celebrated conversion to born-again fundamentalism, walked off days after the trial had ended and asked for a divorce. (In a bizarre twist, it was reported recently that although Cristina has remarried, she and DeLorean remain married on a technicality. Both parties have taken steps to formalize the divorce.)

Since the trial and Cristina's departure, DeLorean has not spoken to the press. There have been reports about acrimony between him and Cristina and stories about legal difficulties, stemming from the collapse of his auto company as well as questionable financial dealings, but DeLorean has kept his side of the story to himself. Until now.

DeLorean, 60, was born of working-class immigrant parents in Detroit, Michigan. He rose through the management ranks at General Motors to become head of the Pontiac division. He made a reputation as an innovative salesman who was able to tap Pontiac into the youth market with the GTO and the Firebird. For much of his life at G.M., he fit the corporate mold. But then came a divorce from his first wife, frequent trips to California and the squiring of such ladies as Ursula Andress and Candice Bergen. He developed a reputation for flashy dressing and, even more shocking to corporate sensibilities, he drove an imported Italian sports car instead of a Corvette. In 1969, his appearance changed after facial surgery, he married his second wife, Kelly Harmon, daughter of football star Tommy Harmon and his junior by 23 years. The marriage lasted three years. He got custody of their adopted son, Zachary, and soon took up with 22-year-old model Cristina Ferrare. He married Cristina three weeks after submitting his resignation to G.M., and they had one child, a daughter.

Despite grumbling at G.M. about DeLorean's lifestyle, he was promoted in 1972 to group executive in charge of North American car-and-truck operations, and he seemed a sure bet to eventually take over the top spot at G.M. But in 1973, DeLorean suddenly retired--or was fired--from his $650,000-a-year job with a pay-out of several million dollars. Later, he would chronicle his years in the executive suite in a book, "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors," in which he takes to task "the morality of the whole G.M. system" and the "undue emphasis on profits and cost control." DeLorean has said that during his tenure at G.M., he was personally responsible for progressive changes in the company's minority hiring, training and working conditions. G.M. officials dispute that assertion.

For the next few years, DeLorean simply jetted about, trying to put together various deals and buying expensive real estate. The DeLoreans lived in a $5,000,000 Fifth Avenue co-op in New York, on a 48-acre ranch in San Diego and on a 430-acre estate in New Jersey.

In 1975, he founded the DeLorean Motor Company to manufacture, at a plant in Northern Ireland, a new sports car that was to bear his name. At first, it seemed to be doing well; his backers included Sammy Davis Jr., Juan Trippe, former chairman of Pan American, and oilman Donald Anderson. Johnny Carson, who had reportedly invested $500,000 in the company, had DeLorean on his television program and even bought one of the 20,000 cars produced. "There were two maverick hot-shots in the automobile business," said a banker quoted by Charlotte Curtis in The New York Times. "One was Lee Iacocca. The other was John DeLorean. One stayed in the business. The other went off the deep end."

After running into major financial snags, DeLorean began a frantic search for additional cash to keep his fledgling company on track. It was during that unsuccessful effort that he encountered men who presented themselves as would-be investors but instead turned out to be FBI informants and agents. But before he learned their true identity, he was shown a suitcase full of cocaine, which the informants said was to be sold in order to raise money for the company. He was secretly video-taped at the time. The Feds jumped out from behind the bushes (or at least came rushing in from next door), arrested him and announced to the world the sensational charge--conspiracy to sell cocaine. DeLorean denied it, saying he had been entrapped by the FBI agents, whom he feared were Mafia members; he had been looking for a loan to bail out the company, he said, and had just been playing for time. After intense scrutiny by the media and a trial cut short, a jury decided in his favor and DeLorean was set free.

Since we felt that this case required a large dose of impertinence--after all, DeLorean has never been closely questioned, much less cross-examined--we turned to a man who has turned the impertinent question into an art form: Los Angeles Times reporter and longtime Playboy interviewer (of Jimmy Carter and Oriana Fallaci, among others) Robert Scheer. His report:

"There's an old saying, 'Never hustle a hustler,' that I'm certain applies to John DeLorean--but I'm not sure just how. Is he the mark or the con man? Most people seem to think he's the latter. But after spending many months hustling the elusive John DeLorean for an 'Interview' he did not at first want to grant, I have come to think he is a sucker. I believe it possible that he was set up on the cocaine charges.

"The man is an easy target. You could sell him anything as long as you played to his vanity and his arrogance. His is a vision so charmed by self that it is amazing that he has not fallen more often. Larger purpose is written all over DeLorean; and if you don't see it, he'll tell you. And tell you. Both before and since his recent religious conversion, he has tended to view the world as having been created for his convenience and growth--both material and spiritual. As the following 'Interview' suggests, this is a man who is fully convinced that both Jesus and the U.S. Department of Justice thought of little else these past two years than the testing of one John DeLorean.

"Vanity led him to think it natural that fast-talking strangers should come bearing huge gifts of money without strings attached to save his failing auto company. Arrogance led him to think he could outwit them, whatever their motives, to his own advantage. By his own admission, DeLorean was something of a highflying egomaniac who thought he could win any game. And he is a bit of a crybaby when he doesn't win. It's always someone else's fault--be it his wife's or the Devil's.

"But after spending a lot of time listening to his side of it, I believe DeLorean's story is plausible, because he is altogether too naïve and bemused to have descended to the level of venal calculation attributed to him by the Justice Department. He does not appear mean-spirited or petty and is determined to think well of himself. His posture is most often one of outrageous innocence, so fervently expressed that it seems genuine, if slightly absurd. This may explain the motive behind his brazen pitch in newspaper ads for funds to support his legal defense as a civil-liberties cause. The public response was mostly ridicule. But DeLorean had convinced himself that this, like Watergate, was a test of whether or not democracy would survive.

"I like DeLorean. He is slippery, but despite the many stories about his financial sleaziness, it's worth noting--in a country where innocence is still presumed--that none of the charges has stood the test of legal scrutiny. Indeed, at one time or another, he may have tried harder than most U.S. businessmen to do something constructive for other people. DeLorean is also funny, clever and better company by far than most of the people I get to interview. Rather than coming off as a sleazy character, he conveys a spirit of personal generosity and intellectual curiosity that contributes much to his substantial charm. But he is also driven and self-centered in the extreme. He strikes me as a good guy who is permanently stuck in overdrive.

"He is the quintessential salesman, at times subdued, then suddenly exuberant, but always poised for his next pitch. Certainly, there are moments of despair, when he evidences the pale uncertainty of a man who no longer likes himself yet must somehow go on. But then the beaming man we know from People magazine suddenly perks up out of a dark, angry reverie about the frame-up, his wife and the Lord; a boyish, confident grin appears, and it is as if none of this ever happened. After all, there is his book and a movie contract and . . . isn't it obvious that the Lord wants him to do well?

"In his new born-again marketing mode, DeLorean decided at one point, after the process had begun, not to be interviewed by Playboy. At another point, he wanted money for the 'Interview,' which is not how it works at this magazine. Finally, though, he was convinced that he could state his case, that this publicity, too, could be made to serve his larger purpose. I can almost see him when the magazine appears, throwing this issue of Playboy up into the air, smiling, pronouncing it 'better than gold.'"

[Q] Playboy: You underwent one of the most highly publicized trials of the decade and never took the stand. Perhaps the question most people would like to ask you is, Were you acquitted on a technicality? Why didn't you testify in your own defense?

[A] De Lorean: That was a decision of my attorney's. We didn't put on any defense, and the reason we didn't was that, almost from the very start, the Government's case completely fell apart. It became obvious to the jurors that it was a frame-up and a fabrication almost from the first witness. My attorney said, "Let's just rest our case right now." And that's the reason that I didn't testify. Nor did our experts. The jury went out, as you know, and the judge had instructed them to go through every bit of evidence, from beginning to end, before they took the first ballot. They were out for four or five or six days, and when they came back, the first ballot was unanimous for acquittal. So, consequently, no one has ever heard my side of it.

[Q] Playboy: Still, the most vivid impression people have is of you on a video tape, looking at a suitcase full of cocaine and saying, "It's better than gold."

[A] De Lorean: Yeah, that's easy to explain. The essence of that was that I was trying to save my life. I had lived seven years of 16-, 18-hour days, trying to make my company run. I'd made 43 transatlantic crossings in two years. I mean, I was destroyed; I was worn out. When we ran out of money, I was in a panic-stricken mode. I was talking to everybody, going anywhere. If you hinted that you might be willing to finance a company, I'd fly out there and sit on your doorstep. I was totally exhausted, just mentally worn-out, and I don't believe I was totally rational. I was a perfect target for setting up: My faculties weren't there. I was having trouble sleeping. Every night, I took a sleeping pill, and in the morning, I'd have to drink 81 cups of coffee to get cranked up again. I was really a basket case. I admit that. I was really fucked up; but at the same time, that's what they counted on. If I'd had all my faculties, I wouldn't have been there in the room in the first place.

All I knew was that this guy who was going to get a loan to save the car company had something else in mind. So here I am: I've been invited to go out there to meet, in effect, the new management of the company. They meet me at the airport and say, "Well, we're going to make one quick stop here at the hotel." So we stop up in the hotel room. I'm sitting there with three men whom I believe to be dangerous criminals, members of organized crime, and they take out a suitcase full of cocaine--which had come from the Government's safe. They throw it onto the table in front of me. Of course I'm flabbergasted, because I don't even believe they're truly dope dealers!

[Q] Playboy: Had you ever been around cocaine before?

[A] De Lorean: Never in my life. Never seen it, never used it. It's just totally alien to my nature. I think a glass of wine or two is the ultimate of what I ever do. So, anyhow, they take this Government case of cocaine. They throw it in front of me. Of course the question people ask me is, "Why didn't you get up and say, 'Hey, I'm going to the FBI! You guys are criminals!'?" Well, if they were truly criminals, which I thought they were, of course I'd never get out of there alive. And I thought, Well, maybe there is a chance that I'm going to survive. So I played along with them, which is exactly what my lawyers had told me to do. They said, "Go along. Just don't make a deal. Don't give them any money. Don't give them any collateral. But go along with anything they want." What can you do? You can't get up and say, "Hey, I'm going to the cops." You've got to play along and try to get out of there alive and do what you're going to do later on.

[Q] Playboy: But in that video, you weighed the cocaine; you sort of bounced a bag of it on your lap and seemed genuinely happy--

[A] De Lorean: Well, the people who know me know that that sort of giggle was not me--that's not what I do. It was a really nervous response to the circumstances, trying to act and go along with the whole thing. And anybody who knows me knows that wasn't me people saw. That was a guy who figured that he was in really deep, deep trouble. So I was just trying to save my life; that's all it was. I thought those people were going to kill me and my family.

[Q] Playboy: We'll ask you some more specific questions about the case later, but for now, the other thing that mystified people was the breakup of your marriage. You and Cristina presented a storybook image, with the beautiful wife faithfully supporting her husband in trouble--and days after the end of the trial, she moved out.

[A] De Lorean: Yeah.

[Q] Playboy: You were bitter at the time; have you gotten over it?

[A] De Lorean: I don't know if I would say I was bitter; I was devastated, because it came as a shock to me. I don't know if you notice the difference in me, but I lost about 35 pounds as a result of the divorce. The unhappiness of the trial was nothing compared with that.

[Q] Playboy: What was the devastating part--the disloyalty, the rejection of a beautiful woman?

[A] De Lorean: I think two things: one, that a day after the trial, after this tremendous display of the loyal wife and this and that, she said, "Well, this guy got me a job at KABC-TV. I'm going to make a quarter of a million a year, plus, and I'm leasing a house out here, and you're not moving in." That was a shock. And then, of course, a couple of days later, she had to explain to the kids why Daddy wasn't moving in. And she told them, "It's because I'm marrying this other man."

What bothered me was that this had clearly been going on for a long time. It bothered me because the only thing I'd ever asked of her was an honest relationship. I understand that new guys and new girls come along every day. That's the way life is. God creates a whole new bunch of them every time you turn around. So it's possible and it can happen. I'd always told her, "Look, if you meet another guy and you think it's the real thing, all I want you to do is come to me and be honest about it. Just say, 'Look, John, I met somebody else and that's the way it is, so I'm leaving.'" But this--to find out that it had been going on a long, long time--it really bothered me.

[Q] Playboy: It did seem like a pretty bohemian attitude for her to take, given that both you and your wife were born-again Christians at that time. Isn't it a sin to divorce, to leave your husband?

[A] De Lorean: Well, I'm telling you what I said. . . . You know, during our married life, I'd always said, "You're a very cute girl, like a painting on the wall. Right now, you're hanging on my wall; but some other time, you might be hanging on someone else's wall." I mean, I understand those things.

It was deeper than that, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that what I really wanted and the only thing I ever asked for was an honest relationship. And when it turned out that we didn't have that, that bothered me a lot. It was devastating to me, and I still haven't dated. She left me in August 1984, and I haven't dated anyone since then.

In fact, I feel like an animal in a cage that's been beaten and is sort of cowering in a corner. I haven't quite gotten my act together in regard to going out with someone else. Today I would like to meet some--you know, some women, but only as friends. It would be nice to have somebody who I could just talk to and maybe go out to dinner with or go to a party or something. But I have absolutely no interest at this time in any kind of romantic relationship, because I'm still gun-shy. I'm still hurt. I'm badly hurt. But that's life. Those things happen.

[Q] Playboy: You say your wife's affair had been going on for a long time; during your trial, you two were probably the most closely observed people in the country, outside of the President and the First Lady. Your wife's activities must have been watched by the FBI.

[A] De Lorean: I'm sure the FBI knew about it! [Laughs] I didn't know about it, but I'm positive they knew about it.

[Q] Playboy: That your wife was having an affair during the trial?

[A] De Lorean: Oh, sure. Because when we were back in New Jersey, while I was at our country home with the kids, she'd go into the city many, many nights for various reasons--maybe two nights a week. And I've always been an absolutely trusting human being. It turned out that that was a mistake; that's all. But looking back on it, it was God's will, I guess. It really bothered me for many reasons, for the dishonesty and for the impact on our children. After the horror that they've been through the past few years, it's really been very, very difficult.

[Q] Playboy: When you talk about God's will, though--this is the woman who brought you to a recommitment to God, right?

[A] De Lorean: Well, she was instrumental. She brought me a Bible while I was in jail.

[Q] Playboy: But something doesn't fit here: Isn't it odd that a born-again Christian would have an affair while she was leading you to God?

[A] De Lorean: Well, we're all guilty of weaknesses and sin, and none of us is perfect. It's like Jesus said: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Of course, I'm very appreciative of the fact that she and her fiancé stuck with me through the trial. [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: She and her family would undoubtedly see it differently, wouldn't they?

[A] De Lorean: She's got some serious problems within her own family. Her sister and brother and their families are very critical of her at this point in time; they're all born-again Christians, too, and, I must say, very good people, so it bothers them a whole lot.

[Q] Playboy: Given your association with a lot of beautiful women and the fact that you referred to Cristina as a beautiful picture on your wall, do you suppose your attitude toward women might be the cause of some of your personal problems?

[A] De Lorean: I'm not sure. I haven't sorted out all my thoughts. I've always had a tendency to associate with women who were dramatically less educated than I am. I have three and a half college degrees and I read incessantly. I don't think Cristina ever read one book from cover to cover during our 12 years of marriage; I can't remember her ever doing that. So I start asking myself, "Well, why is this?" I can remember one time before I married Cristina. I met this lady and she was really magnificent--beautiful, intelligent, well read--and for some reason, we seemed to get along real well. But I just couldn't--I can never let myself get involved with somebody who was an intellectual challenge. I don't know why that was. But it clearly is one reason the relationships I've had have tended to be quite superficial: We have not had too much to talk about.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that you consulted a spiritualist during that period?

[A] De Lorean: I did frequently. Cristina had introduced me to her. When she was trying to get pregnant, she talked to her, and after some carnival trick, she got pregnant. Cristina was convinced that the spiritualist was responsible. So when I got into business trouble later, she persuaded me to talk to this lady. I did so, initially skeptically, and slowly she captured my confidence--a very bright and unusual woman. I slowly got into that--though, of course, now I look back and it was really a sick thing. But there I was, with some card reader telling me how to run my life. Although I noticed an interesting article in the paper: My wife's new husband is an ABC executive, and the L.A. Times ran a piece about how he and his boss had been consulting some spiritualist in New York to help with their programing. So they're getting the same kind of help I got. [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: Do you think Cristina turned them on to it?

[A] De Lorean: Oh, no, it had been going on for quite a while. But the way I see it now, it was very sick, very satanic to be talking to people of that sort.

[Q] Playboy: Why did you go with a Christian publisher for your new book? Wasn't it turned down by commercial publishers as too self-serving?

[A] De Lorean: We had offers from other people. But I really felt that my spirituality was an important part of the book, and I wanted somebody who could treat it sensitively. It also is true that, for example, the biggest-selling hardcover book of recent years was Chuck Colson's autobiography. So it isn't necessarily true that by going with a Christian publisher, you're automatically eliminated. I think Colson's book still outsells Iacocca two to one, even at this point in time. [This is not accurate. Currently, Iacocca far outsells Colson's Born Again.]

[Q] Playboy: Is that a goal--for a book to outsell the competition?

[A] De Lorean: No. But I mean, the point is that it's not like you're just going to sell to a few Christians. The publisher is capable of marketing on a broad basis. That's all.

[Q] Playboy: Do you see any kind of pattern, or danger, in this born-again syndrome, in which people who get into trouble suddenly get more involved with Christianity and begin proselytizing? You mentioned Colson as one example.

[A] De Lorean: I think Colson today is one of the most important Americans, and I think what he's doing is a miracle. I believe he's an infinitely better human being than he was at any other time of his life. When I look at what I've been through, I can't imagine that I could have survived this--I know the human being I was could never have survived it without my faith and this powerful belief in Christ.

[Q] Playboy: But the pain you have suffered, both from your wife and from the Government prosecutors, as it turns out, was not at the hands of drug pushers, pornog-raphers, the godless. The pain you suffered was at the hands of God-fearing Christians--your wife and the prosecutors alike. They are people who share the same values, the same God, the same worshipful posture as you. Yet that didn't prevent them from doing what you have described as terrible things to you. Couldn't you well ask, "With Christian friends like that, who needs heathen enemies?"

[A] De Lorean: With the prosecutors, I think they were guilty of the same sin I was. Their egos got in the way, and all of a sudden it became a matter of personal glorification and aggrandizement, and they lost sight of the law and the fact that it was pretty clear that this whole thing was fabricated. They'd already decided that they were going to get famous, they were going to get promoted, they were going to write a book. All of them were looking forward to it, and those are human weaknesses. Everybody is subject to those. I have no animosity toward any of those people. But if they were true Christians, they couldn't have done what they did. And anyway, the word Christian is very badly misused--

[Q] Playboy: You might have been a much happier man if you'd had atheist prosecutors and an atheist wife.

[A] De Lorean: [Laughs] It's very possible. I don't know. I think that, unfortunately, in our system, people have a tendency to pervert Christianity for their own purposes, which is wrong and sinful.

[Q] Playboy: What is the relationship of materialism to your kind of Christianity? You live in a $6000-a-month house and have million-dollar book contracts, million-dollar movie deals. We see these people on television who seem to pull in a lot of money for their version of Christianity. What about the Christian tradition of shunning material goods? What about the parable of the rich man's getting into heaven being more difficult than threading a needle with a camel?

[A] De Lorean: No, that's a gross misinterpretation. I think that my interpretation is the traditional one--that, of course, Christ wants you to be prosperous and successful. I think that in that instance, the rich man Christ was talking about was one whose idols were riches. In other words, today's idols are Rolls-Royces, stock options, money, big houses, and so on. It's not wrong to aspire to them, but it's wrong to worship them and to make them the most important things in your life.

[Q] Playboy: Then you don't think there's a contradiction between being a Christian spokesman and getting wealthy from it?

[A] De Lorean: No. I think that the Lord says in many places in the Bible that He wants you to prosper.

[Q] Playboy: And that endless pitching on television to the true believers, the milking for donations--

[A] De Lorean: That bothers me. That really does bother me. In some instances, it's possible that whoever's doing the soliciting has the same disease I had--his ego has gotten so much in the way that he has to be on television and it becomes an endless drive for funds to keep the show going. You've got to remember, Christ was a tough guy. He really never relented once from his standards. If he was hassling somebody who was part of the establishment, he confronted all obstacles; he was never afraid to stand up and say what he had to say.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think that the Lord guided you through the cocaine trial?

[A] De Lorean: Well, we had no money; we couldn't put on a defense. Now, who are you dealing with as adversaries? You're dealing with a trained bunch, like a football team; those guys play that game every day of the week. Every one of them testifies an infinite number of times; they never make a mistake. So why would these guys get up there and all of a sudden start stumbling and falling, lying on the witness stand, get caught back-dating documents and destroying evidence?

[Q] Playboy: Do you think that was the work of the Lord?

[A] De Lorean: You tell me.

[Q] Playboy: Why would the Lord do that on your behalf?

[A] De Lorean: Well, it's unusual. I needed to get rid of my foolish pride and get my act together and become a proper human being, with the proper orientation. It's a process that Christians call breaking; He had to break me in order to get to the real me. So it was just part of the game.

[Q] Playboy: Do you feel the Lord set up the initial bust?

[A] De Lorean: No, I don't say that at all. I just say that I needed to be broken and, in His mercy, the Lord prevents a lot of things from happening. I believe I needed it. My wife said to me 50 times, "You know, your relationship with God is absolutely wrong; just because you go to church"--and I used to, every day-- "Jesus doesn't live in Saint Patrick's. That has nothing to do with it; he lives in your heart. And you haven't got him, and he's gonna really break you to get you." And that's what happened.

[Q] Playboy: Yet that same person left you.

[A] De Lorean: That's typical, what happened. In my opinion, when your viewpoint is as damaging to the Devil as mine is, a number of things will happen to impeach your credibility.

[Q] Playboy: You mean, the Devil was behind the case?

[A] De Lorean: No, I said that the Biblical view is that the Devil heaps burdens in your way. He tries to destroy your credibility as a Christian and, of course, that's certainly the impact of my wife's divorcing me. It really hurt my credibility as a Christian witness, because, as a Christian, you're not supposed to be divorced.

[Q] Playboy: But isn't it arrogant to think the Lord would go through this trial and all this publicity just to make a point to you?

[A] De Lorean: Well, except that isn't arrogant, because, you know, He has numbered every single hair on your head; that's the infinity of His sovereignty. I mean, He really knows what it's all about. The Lord says--I think in Psalms-- that before you're created in your mother's womb, He has written in His book every single event of every day of your life.

[Q] Playboy: Let's talk about the case itself in more detail, since, as you say, no one has heard your side of it. What was the basis of the Government's case against you?

[A] De Lorean: The whole case ultimately depended on a confidential informant, James Hoffman, who was the ultimate sleaze. Here was a guy who started his life as a Bible salesman, selling Bibles to widows, and who ended up conning and cheating people. And he'd been a Government informant a number of times. In each instance, he became an informant to save his own fanny, and he wound up sending his friends to prison. But he never made a case outside of that. Anyhow, every witness the prosecutors put on, the same thing happened. The whole thing had just completely fallen down around their ears.

One of the things that have never come out and would have come out if the trial had gone forward is that I had written a letter very early on in my involvement with these people--I'm going to tell you everything, but you've got to be responsible, because this is pretty heavy-duty.... I had sent a letter to my law firm in New York, and it's inside the envelope there [gestures]. I won't give you a copy of it today, but I'll read it aloud to you. I've only just gotten it out from the attorney's vault.

I had gotten a call from the informant, Hoffman, on the night of the 18th of October, and he said, "Look, the money you want [for the car company] is ready." By then, I was under the impression that these guys were organized crime--not drug dealers!--and that they had stuck me in the middle of this because they wanted to use my company for moving money around the world. And so after I got that call, which was about 8:30 Monday night the 18th, I wrote this letter and gave it to my attorney the following morning when I left for California.

[Q] Playboy: That's the reason it's not postmarked--you hand-delivered it?

[A] De Lorean: I hand-delivered it and it went into his vault and stayed there.

[Q] Playboy: He has vouched for it?

[A] De Lorean: He has vouched for it, and the other side of the envelope, which isn't shown there, showed when it was opened by two attorneys and they signed it.

[Q] Playboy: Just to set the stage, you claim you had been approached by Hoffman with an offer to save your company with an infusion of "offshore money"; out of desperation over your ailing car company, you jumped at the chance and only later suspected it was Mob money, right?

[A] De Lorean: More or less.

[Q] Playboy: OK. Read the letter.

[A] De Lorean: Right. [Reads] "This is today, October 18, 1982. Dear Tom: By tomorrow, I'm going to accomplish a minor miracle. I will have induced organized crime to literally donate $10,000,000 to reopen the Belfast plant. And when they figure it out, they cannot do anything about it. Hoffman, Benedict [actually, undercover FBI agent Benedict Tisa], Hetrick [acknowledged cocaine smuggler William Morgan Hetrick] and Vicenza [actually, undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agent John Valestra] are not what they pretend to be--don't be shocked--cocaine dealers.

"Without any question, they are part of organized crime and the Eureka Federal Savings and Loan is a front they use for laundering money. [Agent Tisa posed as a crooked official of Eureka Federal.] The cocaine charade is designed to make me feel implicated so I won't look too hard at the source of funds. Tomorrow, when they put the $10,000,000 into Eureka and Benedict wire-transfers it to Court Gully"--that's the British government's receiver of DeLorean Motors--"the Mob will own 100 percent of DMC, Inc., which is a corporate shell with no assets. In effect, the Mob will have donated $10,000,000 to the Belfast plant and have gotten almost nothing for it. . . . Obviously, they wanted to control the motor company to use it for moving and laundering money. And when they find out they own and control nothing, they'll be very pissed. The reason I'm convinced they won't do anything about it is that to take any kind of action against the company or myself will blow their money-laundering operation at Eureka Federal.

"When they start to push, I'll tell them that there is a letter that was to be opened in the event of my death, and maybe they'll just take a walk. And if I'm wrong and my death is from anything but absolutely natural causes, take this letter to the police and take care of my family. God bless you."

That's all. That's why I thought I might be killed--because I'd pulled a fast one on the Mob, raising the money to keep the company going. I absolutely thought I was going to be killed.

[Q] Playboy: But the company would be saved.

[A] De Lorean: Except that the Mob would own it.

[Q] Playboy: But the DeLorean Company would have gone on.

[A] De Lorean: Yeah. But they would have owned it under the British government's control, since it was already in receivership. But it was an irrational thing for me to do; they'd got me into a position where they squeezed me into this corner and I was dead. There was nothing I could do instead of just saying that what I was trying to do was create a heroic position for myself out of a defeat. I mean, that's a sick man talking. When I look at that, I can't believe that was a rational human being.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you really suspect it was Mob money the moment you heard from Hoffman it was "offshore"?

[A] De Lorean: What's offshore money? Saudis have offshore money. Everybody has--most money in the world today is offshore. Almost all major investment money is offshore. No, I stressed that any investment money we got had to be a loan through the bank. "I can't take the cash," I said. "It has to be a legitimate investment." But even if it's a legitimate investment, I'm sure that nobody knows whether there are any illegal investors who have bought General Motors stock or stock in Standard Oil of New Jersey--

[Q] Playboy: But looking at the record, isn't it true you said that even if it came in dollars, it had to be looked at? And then Hoffman suggested a way of laundering it through Eureka Federal?

[A] De Lorean: That's not laundering. If it comes through the bank, it's a legitimate investment.

[Q] Playboy: Even if it's put up by--

[A] De Lorean: It doesn't matter--how do I know? Hoffman didn't tell me it was gangster money. He just said they had money they wanted to invest.

[Q] Playboy: So you were willing to not look too closely at this. If they could get that money through the bank, wherever it had come from, you would have accepted it?

[A] De Lorean: If it was a legitimate investment through a bank, who put it in the bank was not my concern. Whether it was an ex-king who had stolen it from his people or a stock manipulator who'd made a killing in the market or--

[Q] Playboy: Or the Mafia.

[A] De Lorean: It could come from anywhere.

[Q] Playboy: And if it had really come from the Mafia, you didn't feel any--

[A] De Lorean: Don't you think the Mafia owns 50 major corporations in the United States today?

[Q] Playboy: We don't know.

[A] De Lorean: I'm sure they do.

[Q] Playboy: So at what point did you become aware that it was illegal and feel threatened by the connection?

[A] De Lorean: Well, they went through a charade from the end of June 1982, when I got the first call from Hoffman, who said, "I have some people who want to invest in your company if it can be saved," until September fourth, when they invited me to go to Washington, D.C. That's when Hoffman said, "I've got good news for you. Meet me at this hotel in Washington and you're really going to be pleased. Everything is all handled." When I got to the hotel in Washington, I called up to his room from the lobby and he said, "Well, I'm busy now. I can't see you for half an hour. But you're really going to be pleased. I've found a way to invest the fee, the commission you were going to pay me, in another transaction that'll generate all the money you're ever going to need." He said, "I think the thing's a done deal. You don't have to worry about anything."

I didn't know what that meant. I didn't understand it. So I went and had a hamburger, called him back, went up to the room and met him. All of a sudden, for the first time, he said, "We're going to take this million-eight that you've already paid me as commission, and I'm going to put it into a dope deal and make a lot of money."

Then I wanted to get out. All I wanted to do was get out of there. The so-called commission was a line of credit I had at that time from Citibank for $2,000,000. And I said to Hoffman, "Look, it's not my money. I don't have any money." So when I got back down to the lobby, I called my attorney in New York and said, "I got myself a really serious problem. What am I going to do? I thought it was a legitimate deal. Now it turns out to be with some criminals who are trying to get me to engage in a criminal activity." And without saying anything about dope or specific names, I described generally what had happened.

After thinking about it awhile, here's what my lawyer advised me: "Look, because of the situation you're in, there isn't any opportunity for you. If you go to the police and it's true they own this big bank, they're going to know the minute you do; they must have connections in the FBI; they must have connections a lot of places. Eureka Savings--a financial institution of that size couldn't exist as a Mafia front. So they've got to be people who are well connected throughout Government. Procrastinate them to death. Don't give them any money. Don't get into a deal. Don't sign anything for them. And they'll get bored with you. They'll wear down, and afterward, we can go to the police in a quiet way. But if you confront them now, they have two choices. They're going to kill you or they're going to grab your family and force you to do what they want."

[Q] Playboy: He didn't advise you to go to the FBI or the police?

[A] De Lorean: I couldn't do it. I didn't have anything to go with.

[Q] Playboy: So you played along and wrote this letter on the 18th of October?

[A] De Lorean: Right.

[Q] Playboy: Instead of writing a letter, why couldn't you just have walked into the New York office of the FBI?

[A] De Lorean: What could I prove?

[Q] Playboy: You could have described what had happened to you.

[A] De Lorean: OK, what are they going to do? They're going to say, "You have no proof." And then they make you an informant: "We want you to get wired and go meet these guys, and after you get through, you then have to assume a new identity and become a car-wash operator in Eureka and your wife becomes a supermarket clerk." My whole life is gone. My company's gone. My wife's career is gone.

That's the only alternative available. Or, no, there's another: You go to the police, as you suggest. Somebody tips these guys off that you've gone, and you and your kids are blown away. I mean, those are the two alternatives. It just wasn't possible to go to the police.

[Q] Playboy: That was the old you. Now that you have intensified your religious beliefs, if you had to do it over again, would you act in a more moral way?

[A] De Lorean: I didn't act in any immoral way.

[Q] Playboy: You don't think that your duty as a citizen--

[A] De Lorean: Well, what could I have done? Your two alternatives are you can live or you can die. You have two choices.

[Q] Playboy: You could blow the whistle on wrongdoing.

[A] De Lorean: Well, you didn't listen to the advice the lawyer gave me. You're talking too much. The lawyer didn't say, "Don't go to the police." He said, "You can't go now, because you have no proof. You have no evidence. All they're going to say is 'Hey, go make a buy. We'll photograph you and grab them. "'In other words, get an illegal activity going and you then destroy your life. My company is gone. My wife's career is gone. Our children are going to be hiding for the rest of their lives. Also, I'm not interested in being an informer. It's just not my nature. So the alternative he suggested was a valid one. And it was the only solution to the problem.

[Q] Playboy: To bore them to death?

[A] De Lorean: To procrastinate and not confront! Which makes sense, if you think about it. If you were in the same spot, you'd do the same thing. So would the Pope if he were in the same spot, because you have no alternative.

[Q] Playboy: The Pope would have done that?

[A] De Lorean: Well, eliminate that. That doesn't make sense, because he's totally different. But no human being--you have no alternative, unless you're a guy whose life is meaningless and you want to assume a new identity and let the Government support you; that's fine.

[Q] Playboy: What if you're a religious guy who thinks that God judges you on your behavior and you have to make some sacrifices for the larger good, for morality?

[A] De Lorean: Well, that's a stupid remark.

[Q] Playboy: It is?

[A] De Lorean: Yeah, because I said we would do it later. All I was trying to do was stay alive for a few months until I could go to the police. That's what I was trying to do. I mean, what you're saying is irrational.

[Q] Playboy: The point is that this letter, which you say is exculpatory, doesn't say you intend to go to the police.

[A] De Lorean: It says so at the end. It says,"If I'm dead, go to the police." Does it say,"If I'm not dead, I'll go to the police as soon as I can"? It doesn't, because I wasn't going to do that.

[Q] Playboy: The letter says that if you die of anything but natural causes, the letter should go to the police. But shouldn't the lawyer expose this wrongdoing anyway? If there's a bank on the take from the Mafia--organized crime, drug pushers, and so forth--that's a real menace to society, right? Doesn't someone at some point go to the FBI and say, "There's this bank and these people who should be looked into"?

[A] De Lorean: Who's he got to expose? He doesn't know anything about it. He has no evidence. All he's going to do is get my family back into it.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't he have the names of some of those people right in your letter?

[A] De Lorean: What does that mean? [Angrily] I really don't think we're on the same wave length. I really think we should forget this whole thing!

[A] Playboy: These are questions that people are going to have. They're going to want to know, if the trial ended on a technicality--if this thing about the bank and the letter was a technicality--what you'd have said--

[Q] [DeLorean, annoyed, abruptly gets up and leaves the room in which the interview is taking place. The interviewer follows him and coaxes him back to the tape recorder.]

[Q] Playboy: We're back on.

[A] De Lorean: I'm not trying to be touchy. But I'm trying to put my life back together, and I really don't need one more bullshit thing that I'm part of. I've been fucked over by every reporter in the world, and 99 percent of them come in and say--Incidentally, what I just said, if you recorded it, is off the record. I don't want any bad language in this. I want you to promise me you won't have any.

[Q] Playboy: Bad language?

[A] De Lorean: Yeah.

[Q] Playboy: Off the record is before the fact, not after, but we wanted to ask you about that--bad language. In the only other interview you've given, to Rolling Stone, in 1983, you used very profane language.

[A] De Lorean: Yeah. But that's not me anymore, and I try not to, even though when I get really upset, I will occasionally let a word fly that I learned from my 13-year-old son. But I don't talk like that anymore and I don't want to. And I try hard not to. Not that I haven't spent a lot of my life working in a factory.

[Q] Playboy: But hadn't you already undergone your religious conversion when you gave that interview?

[A] De Lorean: Yeah, except that I was pretty young in it all at that point in time.

[Q] Playboy: One issue that keeps coming up, though, even among people who feel that you were framed, is that you tried to make your story too perfect. OK, DeLorean was set up and framed, but the way he'll have us believe it, it was always the other guys' fault--the British government's, the overzealous prosecutors'. The way you tell it, there's no blemish on John DeLorean's character, nothing you did wrong. And people who know the wheeling and dealing you've done in your career have trouble with that.

[A] De Lorean: Oh, no, I think there were a lot of things I did wrong. I think my ultimate sin--and it was really terrible--was that I had this insatiable pride. I really was insane. Looking back at it, I see that I had an arrogance that was beyond that of any other human being alive.

[Q] Playboy: How long had you had it?

[A] De Lorean: I think it had been part of my life for a long, long time. It goes back through probably half of my General Motors career. I just couldn't accept defeat. No matter what I had to do, I tried to stay fighting, keep winning. And I think that the Lord had to knock me down and stand on my chest to show me the error of my ways. I realize now how atrocious I was from that standpoint. I just wouldn't let the company die, and it was because of my ego. And that was true of many things in my life. It was just illogical.

[Q] Playboy: Was it a desire to be perfect, all-powerful?

[A] De Lorean: No, I don't think it was that. It was just that I couldn't let this company go down. Of course, in this particular instance, when I started the company, every guy I ever met in the industry told me I was a moron, that there was no chance in the world of its ever, ever, ever succeeding. We put the company together and we were successful. We were profitable. It looked like if we had had the working capital that the Government owed us, we would have had a winning company. And then, all of a sudden, that was all snatched from our grasp--or my grasp, I guess I should say.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have a theory about why it was snatched from your grasp?

[A] De Lorean: We have a pretty good idea. (continued on page 134) John DeLorean(continued from page 72) We got some documents, some telexes, through the Freedom of Information Act, that showed that the U.S. embassy in London was involved in the company's downfall. [Points to a stack of folders on the table] The papers showed the embassy was concerned that DeLorean car exports from Northern Ireland's permitting lower prices would give them an unfair government-financed advantage over U.S. competitors in the market. Now, the only U.S. competitor to our car was the General Motors Corvette, so I mean it's an asinine thing to think some little jerkwater plant up in the middle of war-torn Belfast is gonna be a serious threat to an established organization like that. But I think it's interesting: [Reads from telegram] The embassy "wishes to alert Washington to this development in a belief that it is best to consider this matter"--in italics, notice--"on an urgent basis."

This telegram is from Kingman Brewster, the U.S. Ambassador in London at the time. I think this is interesting: "It would also be important to convey our objections first and privately to the U.K. government. . . ."

[Q] Playboy: Why is the U.S. embassy cautioning the U.K. government?

[A] De Lorean: Well, it clearly had to come from General Motors, right? I mean, how else could that have initiated? Can you imagine an Ambassador to London reading something in the paper about some guy building a little tiny factory up in Belfast and creating this whole document? This obviously had to originate from somebody with a commercial interest.

[Q] Playboy: What's the date of the telegram?

[A] De Lorean: August 1978; it was during the time of our negotiation with the British government.

[Q] Playboy: So it confirms your claim of what the U.S. Government was doing?

[A] De Lorean: Well, there was a fascinating development. We were then approached by Peter Jay, the British ambassador. We had arranged some U.K. government financing, and his people proposed that we pay back a $400-a-car royalty. The financing never came through, and it was clear what they did was trick us into this arrangement in order to satisfy the U.S. Government. This $400-a-car penalty was really more than any British company had ever earned. No one had ever earned $400 a car in the history of the automobile industry of Great Britain, from 1903 on. In effect, it said we were dead before we started. They wanted us to fail.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever discussed this?

[A] De Lorean: No, you're the first person outside our legal staff who knows anything about it. Don't forget, we were the only profitable automobile manufacturer in the entire United Kingdom in 1981, our first year. At that point in time, we had orders on the books to completely fill the next year's production--I mean, orders from dealers--and it looked like we owned the world. It was just unbelievable, and at that point in time, the British refused to give us the export-guarantee financing that every other company got--I don't care what you make in Great Britain, if you export it, you get it automatically, whether it's toothbrushes or cars or anything else.

[Q] Playboy: And you really claim that this was done at the instigation of the U.S. Government, acting for General Motors?

[A] De Lorean: I don't know; I really don't know. There are some implications that it was. As soon as the U.K. government quit on us, refused to live up to its agreement, G.M. suddenly decided to build two plants in Belfast. They had never done that before and had never showed any interest. They had also publicly made a number of statements that they would never, ever situate another facility in Great Britain because of the labor problems. I can't extrapolate that into some kind of arrangement, but it's certainly a peculiar coincidence.

[Q] Playboy: Why do you think your car would be so threatening to General Motors?

[A] De Lorean: The car wasn't threatening in any way. I think what was threatening was that I'd written my book [On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors], which was critical of G.M., and they wanted to be sure I failed. That's my opinion. Give you an example: Back when we were signing up dealers, we tried to sign up a Cadillac dealer to be one of our dealers down in Fort Worth. It was a magnificent facility, and he wanted to handle our car. He said, "Fine; the only thing I have to do is to check with my own office." So, in a short time, the dealer called us back and said, "I can't handle your car. They told me that if I tried to put your car in our showroom, they would build another Cadillac dealership four blocks down the street."

[Q] Playboy: What is this dealer's name?

[A] De Lorean: I can't remember. He's the only guy in downtown Fort Worth.

[Q] Playboy: You say the people at General Motors were vindictive toward you. Why do you think they cared that much?

[A] De Lorean: There were a lot of sick, punitive things some G.M. executives set out to do to me after I left and wrote my book. I think a guy who's his own man is automatically a threat to every organization guy in the world, and they hate you from the beginning. They had a lot of reasons to dislike me. I was very easily dislikable, that's all. Without apparently trying very hard--I did try hard, but I don't think they thought so--I was very, very successful. The records that I set at Chevy and Pontiac still stand today. They'll probably never be broken, either in profit or in sales volume. . . . And part of it was, I think, a lot of people resented my wife. In fact, Warren Jollymore, my PR director at Chevrolet, used to say, "I can tell you why everybody hates you: When so-and-so in Detroit crawls into bed with his wife and thinks about you going to bed with so-and-so, this has got to drive him nuts." He said, "I love you . . . and I hate you."

[Q] Playboy: So, at General Motors, you stuck out because you were a good-looking, flashy guy with a good-looking wife--a jet setter among the gray-flannel suits?

[A] De Lorean: Well, you know, I was never a jet setter, though people said that. I'm the most conservative guy you ever met in your life: I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't go to parties, I don't do anything. Basically, I'm a family man; I like to be with the kids on Sundays. I don't fool around or anything. I don't know how those stories come about. Of course, I like girls; I don't think there's anything too wrong with that. When I was single, I did what you do when you're single. But I worked very hard. I have a very highly developed sense of competition.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that you had a face lift and got yourself a new chin?

[A] De Lorean: No, it was a little different from that. What happened was, when I was a kid, I had some surgery that went bad, and as a result, I had an impacted piece of bone in my jaw. Then, about 18 or 19 years ago, I went to a doctor, and he said it had to be corrected or there might be serious consequences. So he performed an operation and attempted to remove the impacted bone, and it turned out to be much more complex than he had expected. He threw some junk back in and sewed me up. Well, then my face blew up. It was as big as a watermelon, and I was scared silly. Anyhow, he then said, "Well, we should go back and correct this and make it right." It looked terrible.

[Q] Playboy: But despite your protestations, you enjoyed having more style than those other guys at G.M., didn't you?

[A] De Lorean: Oh, that's probably true.

[Q] Playboy: Having a prettier wife and all?

(concluded on page 158)John Delorean (continued from page 134)

[A] De Lorean: I don't know--I think I enjoyed it--

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you feel you were a rebel and showed a different way to get ahead?

[A] De Lorean: Oh, I think in some areas, yes, particularly in the area of liberal activism. I was a rebel there. I enjoyed tweaking their noses by getting G.M. more involved in the black and minority communities. They kept saying in those days, "We can't hire qualified minorities anywhere." That was standard dogma. So when I was the head of Chevy, I said, "From now on, I'm going to sponsor only blacks and minorities in the G.M. Institute program"--which until then had been a great boondoggle for executives' sons.

[Q] Playboy: It's interesting that you stress your commitment to liberal activism, yet now that you're a born-again Christian, your image is a very conservative one, the opposite of liberal activism, isn't it?

[A] De Lorean: Well, I'm not, I'm still new at this, and, in fact, I believe that ultimately, that's the direction my life is going to take. Hopefully, when I get the legal stuff behind me, I intend to set up a ministry, and the primary function is going to be in that area.

[Q] Playboy: In the area of born-again Christianity?

[A] De Lorean: No, in helping minorities and trying to get equality. Traditionally, one of the main functions of the church has been to care for the poor and the needy. I have some ideas about things that I'd like to do. When you talk about human-rights violations, I don't think there's a human-rights violation anywhere in the world that compares with some poor kid's being born in the South Bronx, because from the day he's born, he's deprived of everything--only the tragedy of his life is that he knows there is another side. All he's got to do is turn on a TV set and, man, he knows that America isn't the way he's living. He's deprived of it. He's deprived of an education; he lives in a garbage-strewn hallway where drunks are urinating in the corner. And he's going to live there all his life unless he accidentally grows up to be 7'4" and plays for the New York Knicks. He hasn't got a chance in the world. How many Presidents have walked through Watts and the South Bronx and said they were going to do something? I can remember three Presidents walking through the Bronx--carefully guarded, I might add.

[Q] Playboy: Do you really care about that, or is it just part of your image creation?

[A] De Lorean: No, I've always cared about it. It's part of me; it's part of my character. Neither of my parents was educated at all; neither one had a sixth-grade education. My dad was a foundry worker at Ford. Every Friday night, he'd cash his pay check and go out and get drunk, come home and beat the stuffing out of my mother. That's what I came out of. That was typical of the whole neighborhood. In any event, I don't know; I never did figure out why God selected me to be successful. You may not believe it, but at the beginning, I never really thought about getting ahead, never asked for a raise in my life.

[Q] Playboy: You present yourself as an innocent, nonmanipulative man on an almost unconscious journey to success--

[A] De Lorean: I've never been manipulative! I've never been involved in corporate politics. In fact, I was always shocked at that kind of thing, and I think that if I had been better at it, my life would have been quite a bit different.

[Q] Playboy: Earlier, we were talking about how you lost your car company and your claims that G.M. was somehow involved in getting the U.S. Government to pressure the British government.

[A] De Lorean: Yeah. DeLorean Motors was dead in the water before we even started. No new company in Britain ever had to comply with the demands they put on us.

[Q] Playboy: But as farfetched as the Government part of it is, we still can't see G.M.'s interest in this. The DeLorean car was a competitor to what--the Corvette, right? Yet we heard reports about your car's being badly built--

[A] De Lorean: No, even by the standards of an established automobile plant, for a brand-new car, it was OK. For a new car in a country that had never produced a car, with an untrained work force, I think our people did a spectacular job.

[Q] Playboy: So those stories about the floors' leaking and people's getting locked inside the car--

[A] De Lorean: We had a few problems. I bought a Jaguar when they first started producing the V12. It was the worst car I ever owned. I understand the Jaguar is a pretty good car today. General Motors is, I think, on its 13th or 14th safety recall of the X car, which is a car the company claims it spent a billion and a quarter dollars engineering. So, you know, when you build an all-new car, you have problems. And, of course, we had additional features coming. We had colors that we'd been working with DuPont on--a special kind of transparent lacquer. We had a twin-turbo engine that would have gotten the performance down in the 4.6, 4.8 seconds, zero to 60, the fastest car in the world.

[Q] Playboy: What do you think of G.M.'s new Corvette?

[A] De Lorean: I borrowed a guy's Corvette a couple of months ago, and I was amazed that it was really a very, very good automobile. Everything about it is good. It's a good, solid car. The little nagging quality problems are all gone. The engine compartment is really professional.

[Q] Playboy: Are you saying it was because you challenged them?

[A] De Lorean: Well, whatever it was, they've done a really good job of it. It's a fine car now. Anyhow, I've learned a lot about myself both through the experience and, of course, through this ritual of trying to be absolutely candid and honest in all my thoughts about what's going on. And some of the things I've found out about myself are disconcerting.

[Q] Playboy: Such as?

[A] De Lorean: Well, I don't think I had ever thought of myself as arrogant until I looked back from my present perspective. And I clearly was. I was really horrible.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think you ran over people? You've claimed to be a political and unmanipulative, but there have been very unflattering articles published about your business dealings.

[A] De Lorean: Those are all lies. All that evil stuff came from a guy named Bill Haddad, who used to work for me. It turns out that he had dug out documents about three obscure lawsuits that I had in my personal files and had given them to a writer called Hillel Levin. That became part of his book; Haddad fed that same information to all these people. I've been taken advantage of so many times!

[Q] Playboy: You've given us mixed signals: You admit to feeling beaten down, like an animal in a cage, by your wife's leaving you; you also talk about having been humbled in the Christian sense; yet you also sound like your old self--the publicity that you're drumming up for your book is very aggressive, making you sound on top of the world. What are we to believe about you, your image and your future?

[A] De Lorean: Well, it's true that I was very committed to my wife and my family. And that hurt me; I'm badly hurt. There are no two ways about it. But I'm not beaten, by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think I'm on top of the world. I feel that I understand what I was, and I think I'm a better human being for this horrible experience. You know, as Nietzsche says, anything that doesn't kill you makes you a better man.

Hopefully I still have a lot of life ahead of me and I expect to take advantage of it. There's a very strong program to put my motor company back in business, and I expect that probably within the next six months, there will be cars in production again.

"I was talking to everybody, going anywhere. If you hinted that you might be willing to finance a company, I'd fly out there and sit on your doorstep."

"That's why I thought I might be killed--because I'd pulled a fast one on the Mob, raising the money to keep the company going."

"I think my ultimate sin--and it was really terrible--was that I had this insatiable pride. I really was insane."

"Executives had a lot of reasons to dislike me. I was very dislikable and very successful."

"I was never a jet setter, though people said that. I'm the most conservative guy you ever met in your life."