Starting the day with ‘Unsolved Mysteries’

There are some pretty weird criminals in the annals of Bay Area history, and then there’s Edward Maurice Barbara. The onetime furniture salesman popped up on a December 1989 episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” and as this is October of 2019, I’m just getting up to speed.

Every morning around 6, I watch a handful of vintage “Unsolved Mysteries” cases on Amazon Prime. It’s the only screen time I’ll allow my baby, and while I’m sure this predawn habit is frowned upon by most child development experts, it’s how we start most days in our house.

On occasion, the show will feature a mystery with a connection to the Bay Area, and when that happens, my son Leo and I will attempt to give late host Robert Stack our full attention. This week, we sipped our respective coffee and brainboosting baby formula to absorb the case of Ed Barbara, a hawker of cheap furniture and swindler of investors.

Here’s what happened: In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Barbara owned a local chain store named Furniture USA. It had locations in, among other places, Merced, San Jose and San Francisco. Barbara (and sometimes his son, Ed Jr.) appeared in a series of aggressively annoying local commercials promising great deals and credit approval. His commercial catchphrases were “Hi Kids” and “Bye Kids,” which might ring a familiar note to those of you who watched regional commercials during the first half of the Reagan administration.

Hugely wealthy from selling plaid couches, Barbara became a gold prospector and, in the mid1980s, purchased a New Mexico gold mine. Even famed San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli was an enthusiastic investor.

But the gold mine was a complete sham, as confirmed by geologist David Fingado, who was hired by Barbara to legitimize the illegitimate mine. CNN, brandnew at the time, did a big investigative story on Barbara and his shady gold. Fingado appeared in an interview with CNN, classifying the whole operation illegal and unethical. Barbara was then interviewed by the news network, alleging that Fingado’s opinions “suck.”

This was all on “Unsolved Mysteries,” and Leo and I were rapt. (Well, I was rapt. Leo was distracted by basic household utensils.)

Fingado, who had a big bushy beard and was very obviously telling the truth, was apparently fearful for his life — and rightly so. Five days after his interview with CNN and two days before it aired on national television, Fingado died in a suspicious car crash.

Soon thereafter, Barbara disappeared with his fake gold mine money and eventually resurfaced in Canada and the Northwest, where he was back to his old con man tricks. Extradited to New Mexico, Barbara was convicted of fraud and racketeering in the summer of 1988. He was released on his own recognizance, skipped town, and was never heard from again.

In 1990, Barbara’s wife, Candace Inmon, surrendered to authorities and confessed that her husband had died of cancer a few months earlier. He had been living in Florida under the name Norm Peterson, whom most might know as a character from the classic TV sitcom “Cheers.”

The sepiatoned Bay Area connections to this story are what I find most compelling. Belli, whom I only really know from the movie “Zodiac” and the time my dad pointed him out on a Union Square sidewalk, seems like he was a thrilling character. I wonder what possessed him to so publicly endorse a New Mexico gold mine. That seems an odd business choice for a famed attorney to take. (Belli died in 1996, the year I graduated from high school and long before I found flamboyant lawyers interesting.)

Further research revealed that in addition to the Barbara family’s Furniture USA outposts in the Bay Area, California’s Central Valley was home to a chain of furniture stores bearing the same name. Its owner, Ken Nguyen, is also famous for appearing in wacky commercials. But unlike Barbara, Nguyen’s story is an inspirational one. He fled Vietnam as a refugee and found extraordinary success as a salesman in the greater Sacramento area. Nguyen retired this year, signing off to his customers with a tongueincheek series of “Closing Store Sale” commercials.

There’s no real mystery as to what happened to Barbara. But the twists and turns of this case and the tragic death of a whistleblower piqued our interest. Well, it’s piqued my interest. Leo was more interested in playing with a 10yearold turkey baster than researching local true crime with his mom. At least for now.

We sipped our coffee and baby formula to absorb the case of Ed Barbara.