Legendary Pitch Man Don Lapre Found Dead in Prison Days Before his Trial

Another Pitchman bites the dust.  Don Lapre who was on the Billy Mays level of pitchmen committed Suicide on Sunday.  Different then Mays who took pride in quality, Lapre was actually in Jail when he took his life.

He was going to trial this week for a $52 million dollar fraud trial and I guess the pressure was just too much for him.

Lapre was known for his company, “The Greatest Vitamin in the World”.

He was indeed the king of infomercials and making outlandish claims, so much so he was turned into skits on “Saturday Night Live” and the “Late Show”.

MLM Gurus Beware

Lapre started with “Money Making Secrets”.  This was a series of tapes, brochures and audiotapes that basically consists of setting up 1-900 numbers and placing tiny ads in various publications just to sell them the same thing.

Don ran into trouble when he fell into the miracle vitamin.  This vitamin supposedly could treat everything from heart disease to arthritis to insomnia to even cancer.  The FDA caught wind of the situation and Lapre ignored them and was indicted.  After failing to show up in court he was arrested.  Authorities found him hiding out in a gym.  They got to him just in time.  He had attempted to commit suicide by cutting his femoral artery.  It was reported that he had  “very deep cuts in his groin area,”

Although it is not mentioned how, he apparently was successful in prison.

He was looking at some serious time and fines.  If he was convicted, he would have faced between $250,000 to $500,000 per count and 5 to 25 years in federal prison.

On his website he left some inspirational messages and pictures of the children he left behind.

It’s actually pretty sad.   www.donlapre.com

Here’s a clip of Don at his best!