HunterHarry
Long Time Member
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When I became convinced that Darner had not killed the buck on the cover of the book I had ghostwritten for him, my immediate reaction was that he obviously had let his ego get the best of him. Yet I had learned so much from him that I assumed that he was a great hunter regardless of this mistake and that he had probably taken most of his other deer himself and with legal means. Kim Bonnett pointed out to me that it was probably more logical to assume that not one of Darner's other trophies was legitimate rather than all but one was legitimate. I have no proof that Darner has ever poached any of his trophies, but I have serious questions about several of them. Nobody knows how Darner came into possession of Naylor's rack. Whether somebody gave it to him, whether he bought it, or whether he got it in some other manner, I doubt that anybody will ever know.
I hesitated for many years to bring this issue to light for two chief reasons. All of us who knew the story expected the Boone and Crockett Club to make its investigation public. I thought Darner had suffered enough from the scorn of his peers among trophy hunters in the know and from the limited negative publicity that had made its way into the media. I certainly did not want to be the first to cast a stone as I myself was not completely without sin, and I doubt that few hunters are. And yet I would never think of claiming somebody else's trophy as my own. Still, I felt a duty to inform the public since I had been one of Darner's tools in defrauding the public, and so I never hesitated to tell others what I knew. Also, I didn't want others to think that I had known of or condoned his actions before I wrote the book. Zumbo and Reneau told me they felt the same way.
Over the years my connection with Darner had negative impacts on me and my career. A friend told me my name came up recently during a conversation with a fellow hunter whom he met on a jet while returning from a big game hunt, and the hunter immediately said something along the lines of, "Isn't LaRocco the guy who was caught poaching with Darner?" So perhaps you can understand why I've finally decided to divulge the truth about the Darner-Naylor buck.
Interesting, Darner and some of his loyalists have done their best to discount the Boone and Crockett Club's ruling. Some of these efforts are almost as unbelievable as this story has been so far.
To be continued
I hesitated for many years to bring this issue to light for two chief reasons. All of us who knew the story expected the Boone and Crockett Club to make its investigation public. I thought Darner had suffered enough from the scorn of his peers among trophy hunters in the know and from the limited negative publicity that had made its way into the media. I certainly did not want to be the first to cast a stone as I myself was not completely without sin, and I doubt that few hunters are. And yet I would never think of claiming somebody else's trophy as my own. Still, I felt a duty to inform the public since I had been one of Darner's tools in defrauding the public, and so I never hesitated to tell others what I knew. Also, I didn't want others to think that I had known of or condoned his actions before I wrote the book. Zumbo and Reneau told me they felt the same way.
Over the years my connection with Darner had negative impacts on me and my career. A friend told me my name came up recently during a conversation with a fellow hunter whom he met on a jet while returning from a big game hunt, and the hunter immediately said something along the lines of, "Isn't LaRocco the guy who was caught poaching with Darner?" So perhaps you can understand why I've finally decided to divulge the truth about the Darner-Naylor buck.
Interesting, Darner and some of his loyalists have done their best to discount the Boone and Crockett Club's ruling. Some of these efforts are almost as unbelievable as this story has been so far.
To be continued