The Continuing Adventures of Arthur J. Curry

Nov. 29, 2006

Editors Note: Five years ago Express contributing editor Rick Coates detailed the turbulent times of Chicago venture capitalist Arthur Curry. Curry, in the mid to late 1980s, owned both the Perry Hotel in Petoskey and the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City. Both landmarks were on the verge of bankruptcy and Curry’s arrival with promises of restoration and economic revitalization were welcome words to business and downtown leaders of the two communities whose economies were ailing.
His time in Northern Michigan was short-lived as Curry drove both properties further into debt and left several local investors with no return on their investments. With mounting financial pressures resulting in several failed investment projects, Curry kidnapped Gayle Cook, wife of billionaire Bill Cook. The failed attempt landed Curry in prison; after 12 years he was paroled, 18 years prior to completing his full sentence.
Coates’ original article appeared on December 12, 2001 and is now online at www.northernexpress.com. A few months ago Coates decided to see if he could track down Art Curry. He found Curry back behind bars. What follows is Part I of the story as well as an exclusive interview with Curry’s former wife Kristine.

By Rick Coates
 
Chicago stockbroker Arthur (Art) J. Curry said and promised many things 20 years ago when he purchased both the Perry and Park Place Hotels in Petoskey and Traverse City. On Monday, December 28, 1987, he joined his wife at the podium of the Park Place in Traverse City to announce his purchase of the historic landmark. While his words of “restoration” and “economic revitalization” resonated with the gathering of local media and community leaders, it was one statement that today appears to be the only truthful words he spoke—maybe ever.
“I am incompetent.”
That statement brought a chuckle from the crowd. After all, Curry was simply making reference to his inability to personally run a hotel, stating: “If I were behind the desk I would run it into the ground.” Instead, he vowed to bring in the “best people” to manage and restore the Park Place to its grandeur as the beacon of downtown Traverse City’s economic renaissance. Having purchased the Perry Hotel in Petoskey a year earlier, Curry promised a cooperative spirit between the two properties and communities.
Instead he spent the next year proving that he was indeed “incompetent.”
That prophetic statement may be useful as Curry battles his current legal troubles. He certainly has proven to many over the past 20 years that he is indeed “incompetent.” 
 
THE BACKGROUND
When Curry arrived to Northern Michigan his charisma and flamboyance convinced several local investors in both communities to join him. Using the bait of funds from the Chicago-based brokerage firm he was president of, he collectively raised a couple million dollars for both hotel projects.
But as bills didn’t get paid and restoration projects at both properties fell behind schedule, Curry became harder to find. He was busy buying an Upper Peninsula ski resort and purchasing a hotel and restaurant in Indiana. Eventually, his brokerage firm forced him out in January of 1989 and he was relieved of his role as operating partner of the hotels.
  Despite this Curry vowed “to buy the properties outright from the brokerage house and keep the projects on task.”
Instead, a few months later Curry kidnapped the wife of Forbes 400 member Bill Cook. Demanding a ransom of $1.2 million in cash and $500,000 in gold, Curry was captured by the FBI 36 hours later. He was convicted in 1990 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Benefiting from good behavior and overcrowding in the prisons, Curry was granted early release the day before Halloween in 2001.
Indiana corrections officials who observed Curry in prison told the Express in a 2001 interview that “they expected Curry to re-enter society and accomplish great things.”
 
A TRUSTING COMMUNITY
Restricted by his parole, Curry had to remain within geographical boundaries known as the South Bend Parole District. Having a friend from college who was a prominent resident in Wabash, Indiana (located in North Central Indiana), Curry was invited and welcomed to this trusting community. Introduced by his friend to the business community, Curry was basically given the keys to the city -- as he was in Northern Michigan -- and resumed the wheeling-dealing ways of his past.
“Everyone in the community was fully aware of his time in prison,” said Roy Church, long-time editor of the Wabash Plain Dealer. “But he was introduced by a person of prominence, and coupled with Curry’s charm and charisma, the community took him in.”
As was the case in Traverse City and Petoskey; at first, everything seemed to be okay. Curry bought buildings and businesses in Wabash. He even formed a construction company with his brother Dan (Jackson Wallace, after both of their middle names) to oversee the restoration of several projects.
Church recalls Curry coming into the editor’s office, “excited about some donut shops he was purchasing.” However, later that day Curry met up with his brother at a bar in a neighboring county. An argument ensued with Curry walking out and stealing a car. He was caught, and when he jumped out of the car, he demanded that the police “shoot him.”
 
RELEASED ON BOND
His bizarre behavior and past criminal record (his one year parole period had expired and he was not subject to any parole violations) was not enough for law enforcement to hold him until his trial, and Curry was released on bond.
The next day he skipped town, never to be heard from again by those in Wabash who befriended him and invested in him. Roy Church reports that a shocked community has since rebounded and, in an ironic twist, others have carried out Curry’s grandiose plans.
Curry resurfaced in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, North Carolina. Known as the Triad, the three communities collectively have over one million residents. Curry was able to blend in without being noticed.
  He took up residence at a Winston-Salem boarding house, living in the “penthouse” and making wild claims to residents that he was “an Ivy-League grad and millionaire,” and “was committed to a life to help those in need.”
 
IDENTITY THEFT
According to news reports, one person Curry befriended was Aldine Grey Hege, Jr., another resident of the boarding house. Curry convinced Hege that he could help him receive disability benefits from the government, but needed his driver’s license, social security card and birth certificate.
True to his word to help those in need, Curry chose to help himself and took on the identity of Al Hege, Jr.
Posing as Hege, Curry began making deals and even became a partner in a local car dealership. As he had done in Traverse City, Petoskey and Wabash, he convinced many in the Triad to invest in his business projects.
Eventually Curry would move from Winston-Salem to Greensboro, first living in an apartment and then taking up residence near a prominent country club.
According to reports in the Greensboro News-Record, those who knew Curry said that he was “compassionate and charitable.”  
 
“Curry seemed to live a normal, upstanding life there, neighbors said. He doted on his brown, mixed-breed dog. He attended Lawndale Baptist Church and volunteered at Greensboro Urban Ministry. In addition to donating money to the nonprofit, he cooked, served meals and handed out towels and soap while bantering with guests at the night shelter.” -- Greensboro News-Record, March 18, 2006.
 
As he had done in Northern Michigan, Curry had them all fooled. 
 
TWO SIDES
Those who know Art Curry see two people: one side is a person of immense intelligence, good-hearted and is a visionary. Then there is the other side that seems out of character, performing a series of irrational acts. During the 2000 kidnapping trial, a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of Curry stated: “He has above average IQ and is a sociopath in need of years of treatment.”
While there is crime in the white-collar world, it is often embezzlement or investing schemes, not kidnapping or now, what appears to be a series of bank robberies and possibly even murder.
When Art Curry was released from prison, he was given a new lease on life by a close friend and a community that has the same small town charm and trusting personality as Traverse City and Petoskey. But for whatever reason, this opportunity was not enough for Art Curry; his partnership with his older brother Daniel was more than contracting company. The two were robbing banks -- possibly 20 banks in a three-year period -- in southern Indiana and Kentucky.
BACK IN PRISON
Currently Art Curry and his brother are in prison indicted on four armed bank robberies that netted over $1 million. Their trial in Federal Court will begin on February 20, 2007. If convicted, both will serve possible sentences of 25 years for bank robbery, and up to 80 years for using a weapon for a crime of violence.
Those might be only part of Art Curry’s legal troubles. In late September, human remains were found in the basement of one of the buildings Curry owned in Wabash. Details remain sketchy, as law enforcement has released little information. What is known is that the person was murdered and that death happened during the time Curry was owner of the property.
Calls to several law enforcement agencies connected to the investigation point to “Curry as a person of suspicion.”
 
Part II will appear in next week’s Express and will feature comments from those who have known Curry, interviews with FBI investigators, details on the bank robberies and an update on the possible murder charges. For a look at Curry’s life in Greensboro visit www.news-record.com and reference an excellent article by Eric Collins: “A secret life: Triad man linked to several crimes” in the March 18, 2006 issue. For more on Curry’s exploits in Wabash visit www.wabashplaindealer.com and reference articles by editor Roy Church.

‘A Total Shock’ -- an interview with Kristine Curry

By Rick Coates
 
Art Curry was a charismatic figure who captured the hopes of many in the business communities of Petoskey and Traverse City in the late 1980s. His wife Kristine was equally charming.
Kristine Curry was often at her husband’s side at press conferences and public events in both communities. She oversaw a lot of the day-to-day operations. With their two children, Nathan (Art’s son from a previous marriage), and daughter Lindsey (the kids were eight and five respectively when the Curry’s bought the Park Place), they appeared to be the all-American family.
Mrs. Curry was 39 and had family connections to the area. As a child she summered at the Bayview community in Petoskey and eventually bought her own place there. She grew up in Ida, Michigan (a small community near the Ohio border, south of Detroit) and graduated with a liberal arts degree from MSU. She made her way to Chicago and enjoyed a successful marketing career when she met and fell in love with Arthur J. Curry.
Eventually, Kristine Curry would become the popular wine and food writer for the Chicago Tribune and Arthur climbed his way to the top of the Chicago investment community. The couple was popular around the Chicago social scene.
They seemed to have it all. During the purchase of the Perry and Park Place, the couple pledged to live here and be a part of the community. Excitement swirled as this young, dynamic couple brought enthusiasm and inspiration.
But both deals soured, and as fast as the Currys arrived in town, they left.

THE DIVORCE
Kristine Curry and her daughter and stepson were victims of Art Curry’s bad decisions. After Art Curry’s conviction on kidnapping charges, Kristine Curry divorced him. His son Nathan returned to live with his biological mother while Kristine and daughter Lindsey were left to pick up the pieces.
When I called the former Kristine Curry, there was a hesitation in her voice at first. After all, she had started a new life for herself, and as she said, “put that part of my life behind me.” There was reservation to discuss this part of her life until she learned the latest revelations. She was shocked to learn that the man she was once married to was in jail waiting to be prosecuted for several armed bank robberies.
“Art is an extremely brilliant person,” said Kristine. “He has so many wonderful qualities - this is such a shame. He really is a remarkable person.”
Actually, it is Kristine who is remarkable. Most people might have folded under the pressures and public humiliation she had experienced. Instead, Kristine Curry returned to her expertise of marketing and wine and food writing and created a new life for her and her daughter Lindsey.
She eventually became an executive and spokesperson for a Fortune 500 company. She wrote a book about restaurants, and resumed her writing about wine for several publications. She remarried and spent her time raising Lindsey -- who is now 25 -- while actively working with several charities in her hometown.

FOND MEMORIES
Kristine Curry still has fond memories of Northern Michigan.
“I have sold my place at Bayview, as have my parents,” said Kristine. “I visit every so often as I have friends and family up there, but it is bittersweet.”
She must have been somewhat curious as to the whereabouts of her former husband?
“To be honest, I have been so busy that I really haven’t had time to think about what he might be up to,” said Kristine. “This has certainly been hard on Lindsey, but she has a wonderful job and is soon to be married. So this latest revelation comes as a total shock.”
 
Part 2 of the interview with the former Kristine Curry will appear in the next issue of the Express.