I would be interested in the pictures and any info or pictures keeps the thread alive and we can gather more and more info. Most of these old customs hit a low point in their history where they just sat neglected and I remember looking through a dusty window at the El Matador when a guy got it for a few months and just stashed away in a little one car garage. That was one of the times that I retrieved it. I owned it several times. It takes someone like Barry to find and restore these cars back to their glory.
Cool, so The Aztec I've seen is the real deal and not a copy. Interesting history. Now, what's the full story on El Matador. Is the one here in Florida the real thing, or a copy?
your so true hotrod1940 these cars were thrown around like dirty laundry and left out to die, like my nomad it was left in a barn with a dirt floor on a farm and then sat in my bud chip starr's garage under a cover lookin like the wreck of wrecks for years. its sad what gets done to them over the years. but its great that people finally find them and restore these great parts of history. and always thanks to rikster for collecting and posting pictures on his site.
Kustomkarma, the Florida El Matador is the real deal as it was reconstructed from the hulk that was left after the devastating fire that destroyed the car. Harold Murphy bought the remains and took a stock coupe and blended together to bring it back from the dead. This was chronicled in Custom Rodder and it showed exactly what he had to do to bring it back. So, yes, it is the real deal, it is the actual car that was the El Matador. There was a clone in the eighties that was a very close copy and last I knew, it still existed somewhere in Denver. I corresponded with the owner of the clone for a while and he had got my name from Gene Winfield and we had some great talks. He built railroad cars for private individuals and was quite an interesting guy.
No unfortunately Albert Nussbaum has p***ed away as well - like you I had thought about trying to get in touch with him back in the 1990's when he was still with us but I didn't know where he was or what his reaction would be. As I found out later he had served his time and become a screenwriter in Hollywood. He was a member of the Mystery Writers of America and is said to have corresponded with author Dan Marlowe about Marlowe's book "The Name of the Game is Death" which is supposed to be based on the life of Bobby "One Eye" Wilcoxson.
Chicago, Illinois February 12, 13, 14, 1971 Black top Front lower Studebaker grille pan missing Reworked hoodscoop Different wheels and tires Repaint Etc Enjoy--TwoChops
Two Chops...........thanks for posting those photos. Great to see them. thats the way the Aztec looked the first time I saw it in person at a gas station in NJ. Bill Holtz [who bought the Aztec from Sonny Daout] had the car re done I have been told in a shop in Wisconson. They painted it a real "quicky" red and did the interior over in black cheap press pleats and the top in Aligator skin material, very grainy and ugly. He took the car to many many shows and when it was all over sold it to Walt Trapp. The deal was struck at the Cleveland auto show. One time yrs ago the fellow who did the upholstry called me and told me it was "RUSH" job and they worked all night on it. When they came for the car the kick panels were not done. He quickly threw in some cardboard with no material on it. He said he still has the original white kickpanels hanging on his shop wall. Great Factoid. Sonny Daout did all of the changes on the Aztec and still to this day has the original Barris Crests , spotlights , hood and, I guess the lower pan.??? I tried to buy these items but, NO SALE!!! BARRESSE'
KUSTOM KARMA Yes , the one in Fla is the real one.........however much of it was replaced with fresh body panels. It was amazing that Murphy could bring it back. To bad he didn't make it complete with orig type suspension and Olds engine. Fla res John McNally owned it for lots of yrs and like so many new owners did some changes including a tilt nose. It was on McNallys watch that his garage lit on fire and totally fell on top of the ElMatador reallycrushing it down. Still its the real one and yes the clone is quite well done and looks pretty dead on right down to the Olds engine. BARRESE'
Barry ---Here's an old photo in my collection, is this what it looked like when you get it?--or? THANKS-- Bill
Barry, when the El Matador came to Florida it had the Hypo 289 Ford engine that was installed by Dearborn Steel Tubing in Detroit. They did a lot of racing and custom work for Ford and the El Matador toured with the Ford cavalcade of Customs and Ford wanted it to have a Ford engine. I came tell you that thing ran well with that engine and the 4 speed ******. Dearborn Steel Tubing was owned by Andy Hotten and the cool stuff that came out of that shop was amazing.
Love this thread! I sent Rikster a 1950's HOT ROD magazine with the AZTEC in it. Post some of the pics of it if you can Rik.
TWO CHOPS...........Wow, thats exactly it when it was returned from Fed impound in North Jersey. The car was in Tuckerton, setting in a garage on Main St across from the dinner almost. The owner had attempted some minor plastic work but, it was far far worse than a little plastic. Even Gary Minors "LEADO" would not have made it better. For a time the rear was covered in plastic bags cause ther was a window and the car could be seen from the street. I used to wig out over the fact that the car was just setting ther dead, the most famous Kustom ever just reduced to almost junk by loving owners. At one point and time I was so bugged out over the owners refusal so sell I told him that I was going to clone it and he could keep it forever cause it would never get restored. I once offered a Alburn Speedster to him even up that was worth at the time at least 45K. I bought a 55 Bel Air and had all the parts ready to go for the clone attempt. The very week that I was getting started we ended up buying the Aztec,,,,still to this very day I'am stunned when I look at it, I can't tell you all what it means to me, more than anyone could ever know. The stuff dreams are made of. BARRESSE'
hey barry no one can expalin that feeling i watched my nomad go down hill, set outside, get a bbc shoved in it and then watched the front end and door get smashed, i was ready to build a clone had the car and parts. but then i finally found the real one again. you did a truly wonderful job on your car, i would be very proud of it to. congrat's
I, too, know exactly the feeling you have with the Aztec. The night I got the El Matador, I owned a factory and had an apartment in one end and I literally spent the night out in the factory staring at, and walking around, that car. I regret to this day that I sold it, but I couldn't control my economy in the late seventies so i lost it. But I do know the feeling.
Mr. Mazza; I am the author of the bobbywilcoxson.com site and the blog captioned at top of this thread. I have been searching high and low to make direct contact with you for over a year. I am happy to see you found the bank robber website and the blog. Please contact me directly at tommy.gunn @ bobbywilcoxson dot com . I would like to interview you . Your factoid about Bill Carr is very interesting to me. I am sure the FBI worked Carr and posted the ad about the Aztec ***le and so on. I am sure Bobby threatened Carr during the course of their dealings. However, Bill Carr did not successfully lure Bobby to California to be arrested by the FBI. Bobby Wilcoxson was captured by the FBI in Baltimore, Maryland, several weeks after he rented a house directly across the street from a house owned a Baltimore FBI Agent. Once the FBI tracked Wilcoxson to the Baltimore address and they learned one of their own agents lived across the street, the FBI set up a command post in the agent's house and watched ****y around the clock. He was known to be armed with machine guns and live hand grenades and his 19 year old girlfriend had a 14 month old son in the house. The FBI acted with extreme caution so that no one was injured in Bobby's arrest. This is well do***ented in the headlines of the newspapers of the day, and my web site attracted the son of the FBI agent that arrested Bobby in Baltimore, who confirms the newspaper stories and filled me in with the exact details of how Bobby was tracked to the Baltimore address. Thank you and Mrs. Mazza for rescuing the Aztec and restoring her to her glory days. I look forward to hearing from you very soon. Regards ~ Steven Hurley
As a general note to anyone viewing this thread, I publish the site bobbywilcoxson.com and alnussbaum.com. I am very interested in any photos of the Aztec and the Dean Jefferies Porsche that can be authenticated as taken between 1961 and 1963 . Please contact me at tommy.gunn@ bobbywilcoxson dot com . Thanks~ Steven Hurley
WOW...awesome post! I had the pleasure of seeing the Aztec at the Barris Kustoms exhibit at the Wally Parks NHRA Museum a few years back. It's always been one of my top 5 favorite kustoms, and I never thought I'd get to see it in person. Thanks to Barry Mazza and Bob Nitti for bringing the car out west for us to enjoy...and thanks for saving this great piece of Kustom History!
I ALWAYS SAY...."WHY RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD STORY BY TELLING THE TRUTH". Tommy, the only person who I know could shed any light on all that FBI stuff would be Barbara Carr, Bills wife. She is still alive and was present 1st tense when this was going down. I think Bill @ Barbara for a time did live around DC. She was from DC area and that accounts for some of the sightings of the AZTEC around that part of the US. Bill opened a Trophy shop in West Virginia which he adv in Hot Rod mags . I also think he and his brother Tommy had a Kustom shop in Huntington W.Va. for a time. I would love to know how the Aztec ended up with the Feds back then??? How did it get to the used car lot for sale, if any other owners were in the picture??? Any one in Tuscon AZ know anything, I could run a pic of the Aztec on the used car lot....maybe jog some memory? BARRESSE'
George Barris' Kustom's website ***erts Barris' claim as a maker of "The Black Beauty." http://www.barris.com/gallery_cars/TV_MovieCars/gallery_greenhornet.html
"The Name of the Game is Death" by Dan Marlowe is NOT the story of Bobby Wilcoxson, and was written by Marlowe without any collaboration with Al Nussbaum. "The Name of the Game is Death" was copyrighted in 1962 and the first printing was January 1962 which means the book was written 1961 or sooner. Given it was written 1961 or sooner meant it was written while Nussbaum and Wilcoxson were at their busiest, robbing banks not writing books. Al Nussbaum did not establish a mentoring relationship with Marlowe until Nussbaum was improsioned for the bank robberies - Nussbaum was not sentenced until April 1964. There is some evidence Nussbaum read "The Name of the Game is Death" while running from the FBI, and there is some evidence Nussbaum was so impressed with the book that he contacted Marlowe's publisher and sent fan mail to Marlowe using a fake iden***y. The FBI was also impressed with "The Name of the Game is Death" and there is evidence they visited Marlowe, suspetcing the detail in Marlowe's book was so right-on that it came from Marlowe's either being in on the bank jobs, or that Marlowe was in contact with Nussbaum and Wilcoxson.
Barry, Barbara Carr visited my site (bobbywilcoxosn . com) just 90 days after it went up last year. She messaged me through the site and left her email for me. I have also spoken personally with George Barris regarding the Aztec at his shop on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, California. The FBI seized the Aztec from the garage of my grandparents. They lived in Phoenix, AZ at the time. My Grandmother is Bobby Wilcoxson's mother. My father and Bobby had different fathers. Bobby left the Aztec at my grandparent's place before anyone in the family was aware Bobby was wanted by the FBI for bank robbery. Bobby and Nussbaum were suspected by the FBI and chased by them long before Hoover put Bobby on the 10 most wanted list. Bobby Wilcoxson was not very close to his mother or her other children. Until Febraury, 1962, the general public, including family, was not aware Wiclcoxson and Nussbaum were wanted for robbery. My grandparents thought they were just storing the car for Bobby - they didn't realize they were hiding it for him. They were as surprised as anyone else when the FBI showed up looking for Bobby. The Feds impounded the car as evidence, towed it out of their garage, searched it from one end to the other looking for weapons, cash, and evidence of the bank robbing crimes. The car procedurally became federal property since it was purchased with stolen money from federally insured banks. Once the car was searched, it was of no further use to the FBI since it was not an instrument of any of the crimes committed by Wilcoxson and Nussbaum. The Aztec was put up for auction in Tucson, along with other surplus federal property. The story in the Rodder's Journal Volume 22 and the history of the car as known by the Mazza's follows the Aztec from that point on. I would like to converse with you directly for my research. Please contact me via tommy.gunn @ bobbywilcoxson . com.
The Jalopy Journal
