The Long, Strange Flight of George Irving Norman, Jr
| Publication year | 2009 |
| Pages | 69 |
| Citation | Vol. 38 No. 5 Pg. 69 |
2009, May, Pg. 69. The Long, Strange Flight of George Irving Norman, Jr
May 2009
Vol. 38, No. 5 [Page 69]
About the Author
Frank Gibbard is a staff attorney with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and Secretary of the Tenth Circuit Historical Society-(303) 844-5306, frank_gibbard@ca10.uscourts.gov. The views expressed are those of the author and not of the Tenth Circuit or its judges. The author is grateful for the research assistance of Dan Cordova and Lynn Christian of the Colorado Supreme Court Law Library. Readers are encouraged to contact Frank Gibbard with topic suggestions or to volunteer to write Historical Perspective articles.
George Norman's name may be unfamiliar to the general public, but he will live forever in the annals of tax-related legal history. He was indirectly responsible for a key case limiting the power of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): G.M. Leasing Co. v. United States.(fn1) However, that tax case, as important as it was, was just one small aspect of the larger-than-life story of a man who brought rock-and-roll to Salt Lake City, amassed a fortune estimated at $50 million,(fn2) was sentenced to federal prison for embezzlement, and remained a fugitive from law enforcement for twenty-three years before his recapture in 1996 made news all over the world.(fn3)
On March 13, 1973, Utah attorney Orrin G. Hatch and his client pulled up to the Denver law office of James Morrato.(fn4) Hatch, the future U.S. Senator from Utah and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was at that time a high-powered defense attorney. The federal marshals had agreed to give his client, George Irving Norman, Jr., time to take care of some last-minute legal business before Norman began serving a two-year sentence for bank fraud.
Morrato, Norman's Colorado attorney, had loaned Norman the car he and Hatch were sitting in-an orange Pontiac LeMans convertible. The colorful automobile suited Norman well. He was known for his lavish lifestyle, his million-dollar mansion in Salt Lake City, and his Hollywood friends.(fn5) Some even thought Norman had the good looks of a movie star.
Norman epitomized Utah's burgeoning commercial empire more than he represented the state's austere Mormon origins. Since his arrival in Salt Lake City from Los Angeles, he'd founded a national chain of health clubs and brought rock-and-roll music to the area through one of twenty radio stations he owned in the Rocky Mountain region.
Religion, money, and glamour followed Norman all his life. He was born in 1930 in Chicago to not one but two reverends: Rev. George Irving Norman, Sr. and Rev. Olga Marie Isoz-Norman. He attended Clemson University and the Chicago Conservatory of Music, graduating with a master's degree in 1953. In addition to his considerable entrepreneurial talents, he was later known for composing gospel hymns.
Norman was best known for his phenomenal ability to make money. Rumor had it that he began amassing his considerable fortune by selling bomb shelters at the height of the Cold War nuclear panic. He later engaged in "radio and television broadcasting, real estate development, mortgage banking, oil and gas exploration, broad market investment, marine product development,"(fn6) and, apparently, fraud.
Norman's circumstances that March day in 1973 were anything but glamorous. He recently had been convicted in federal court of "aiding and abetting misapplication of moneys of a statutorily defined insured bank,"(fn7) which netted him the two-year sentence in federal prison. The bank in question was the Rocky Mountain Bank in Lakewood, Colorado. The government charged that Norman had secured borrowers to apply for loans, and then obtained the loan proceeds and used them...
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