Customer Reviews

The great American mail-fraud trial: United States of America vs Glenn W. Turner, F. Lee Bailey, Dare To Be Great, Koscot Interplanetary Incorporated, et al

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The great American mail fraud trial is a graphic example of why being rich and being right can be harmful to your wallet, particularly if you are a proponent of Multi-Level Marketing and Personal Development Systems and in the 1970's.

Multi-Level Marketing (today known as network marketing) was euphamistically referred to as pyramiding. Personal development systems were and in some cases still referred to as "feel good" hokey pokey programs designed for the gullible.

Imagine a 8th grade drop out with a severe speech impediment due to a harelip challenging people to "Dare to Be Great" and having the audicity to presume that he could lead people to financial independence and freedom!

The fact is that Glenn W. Turner did in fact turn five thousand dollars into over a quarter of a billion in under three years and through his company, Turner Enterprises, paved the way for 800 people to achieve a 7 figure income in the 1970's and in record breaking time.

He showed people how to "better their best" and taught success and leadership principles used through the centuries.

Turner amassed a net worth reportedly in excess of $350 million, owned a lear jet, a castle in Oveido, Fl, was one of the largest employers in Orlando and became "American of the Year" in 1972 beating out people like Art Linkletter.

Turner had 700 lawsuits filed against him ostensibly by over eager lawyers and spurred on by politicians looking for votes.
Glenn W. Turner was a rich, easy target. Multi-Level Marketing was an easy industry to attack and Turner was the King of MLM in 1970's USA.

Turner successfully defended 699 lawsuits, but the suits and negative media publicity achieved it's intended purpose bleeding Turner of his cash flow and his lawyer. Turner lost one lawsuit and spent some time in prison as a result. But the real question still remains, "Did Glenn W. Turner really do anything wrong?"

To the people who worked with and knew Turner personally, GWT exuded charisma and integrity. He was a real life hero, bigger than life who challenged them to "Dare to Be Great" and then showed them how they could indeed become great.

Koscot cosmetic products were state of the art. Dare to Be Great success program delivered on it's promises.

Unfortunately, to the American media, Turner was a hero that they despised and they revised his image even though it had nothing to do with fact or reality.

To the American courts, MLM was an "illegal pyramid scheme" and needed to be taken down. Be aware that these were the same courts that attempted to stop franchising a decade earlier on the basis that franchising was "an illegal pyrimid scheme" and "was robbing people of their life savings."

Today network marketing also known as muti-level marketing or MLM has attained respectability and is a huge industry. But Glenn W. Turner paid a heavy price as a pioneer and as the King of Network Marketing.

There are books such as "Con Man or Saint" and "The unstoppable American" and "Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing" which go into greater detail about KOSCOT Interplanetary, Dare to Be Great and The Great American Mail Fraud Trial.

Did Glenn W. Turner really do anything wrong? Did he bother people that much only because he was worth millions while they were worth thousands?

I submit that Glenn W. Turner didn't do anything wrong. And what he did do was to develop people and show them that they could have anything they wanted in life if only they were willing to step up on their toes and go for it!

Although the Koscot case seems to be one of the most visible court cases in MLM or Netowrk Marketing, it is not the only one.

In the early 1960's, the late William P. Patrick and his company Holiday Magic came under attack by courts ostensibly due to running a pyramid scheme and his company was shut down.

In the 1990's, the State of Utah charged Nu Skin as breaking security laws with their form of distributorship. The court went on to state, that the "promise of lucrative rewards for recruiting others tends to induce tha participants to focus on the recruitment side of the business at the expense of their retail marketing efforts, making it unlikely that meaningful retail opportunities for retail sales will occur."

The charges were later dropped, obviously.

Interesting is that in the Nu Skin and Koscot cases, no mention was ever made by the courts of the entry fee ... for Koscot and ... for Nu Skin. Only large investments came out in the court rooms

The question is are courts supposed to enforce the laws or create new ones?

That is what the title of this book should have been called.America is the greatest country in the world and I am a proud American. However, I am not too proud of the government that orchestrated this fiasco.What a waste of American Tax payers dollars! I highly recommend that you read "Con Man or Saint?", "Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing" and especially "The Unstoppable American", if you can still get a copy.

I have to agree with the other reviews. Those who were around back in the 70's and had any involvement in "Dare to Be Great", "Koscot Interplanetary" or any part of Turner Enterprises or any of the 78 companies run by Glenn W. Turner knew that GWT was a man of integrity.

Regarding the media, as the late Jerry Sicliano used to say; "They look good, smell good but they don't know anything."
If it bleeds it leads. Glenn Turner was a rich easy target and even today, misleading articles abound about "Dare to Be Great", "Koscot Interplanetary" and even the "The Great American Mail-fraud Trial", a case that was thrown out of court by Orlando Judge Reed back in 1975 but some folks would like you to believe that Turner was convicted. No so.

I have also come across several articles written about "Glenn W. Turner", "Dare to Be Great" and Koscot Interplanetary" clearly written by people who are merely regurgitating misleading news articles. Obviously these people never thoroughly researched the facts, never spoke with the people who were really involved in "Turner Enterprises." Most were babes or not even born during the period (1967-1975) that Glenn W. Turner created the most powerful network marketing company in the world.

There is some talk about "Koscot Interplanetary" and "Dare to Be Great" was a pyramid scheme and no product was ever sold. I well remember coming to Orlando from the Midwest where I lived at that time courtesy of my Koscot/Dare to Be Great rep on one of Turners "Go Tours." Part of the tour was visiting the mammoth warehouse located on Sand Lake Dr. near Disney World. This warehouse appeared to be twice the size of a football field. Stacked on the shelves of rows of tall steel racks stretching from one wall to the other were $18 million of cosmetics that many officials and the media publicity stated never existed.

I recall one lady in our group saying; "My goodness, I have never seen so many cosmetics in my life."

We were then told that there was a lot more in the territorial distribution systems. So much for Turner selling distributorships and not product.

When we actually got to meet Mr. Turner, we realized that there was no way that what the media was saying could be true. This man exuded charisma and integrity. During his speech to us, he strongly indicated the need for retail sales. "Retail sales are the foundation" Turner told us "If there's no retail sales, your building on sand and it won't stand." Turner then told us that was the reason he got out of another company called "Holiday Magic."

So much of what has been said about "Glenn W. Turner", "Turner Enterprises", Dare to Be Great" and "Koscot Interplanetary" as Turner would say "just ain't true!" For a change I would like to see people telling the facts about GWT and the people that he has helped.

I am sure that my review here will not stop the negative, biased and inaccurate articles that still popup on Turner. Obviously this guy still bothers people, but if I can reach just one person and help them realize the truth about this great man, then the time it took to write this was well worth it.

I understand that Glenn W. Turner may be starting another network company again. If true, look for another MLM Giant and I suppose that explains why all of the biased articles, totally lacking in facts have sprouted up against GWT, "Dare to Be Great", and "Koscot Interplanetary, Inc."

This book was spawned out of anger because the case was thrown out of court and is not accurate. F. Lee Bailey successfully defeated case after case but you would never know it based on what was written in the media back then and even now. Many people got in "Dare to Be Great", "Koscot Interplanetary, Inc."
to make the easy money by selling franchises but never worked the business, never helped the people they enrolled and then tried to sue Turner to get their money back. Those are the facts. Unfortunately, "Glenn W. Turner", "Turner Enterprises", "Dare to Be Great" and all of the franchisee's and distributors were the real victims.

There has probably never been more misinformation regarding a court case or a company than the great American mail-fraud trial, Dare to Be Great, Koscot Cosmetics and Glenn W. Turner.

In truth, Glenn W. Turner was a victim of politics, dirty politics where the attackers where greedy, hungry politicians and truth and honesty were never considered. Nore were the interests of the shareholders who invested in Glenn Turners company or the people who needed the services that Turner offered.

Although accusations and innuendo against Turner made front page news, the facts were never told by the media.

Here are the facts about the great American Fraud Trial, the accusations of some people who felt that Turner had cheated them and what really transpired in the court rooms:

"One by one, Bailey [F. Lee Bailey, Turners attorney], defeated all of the politicians who went to court with charges that Glenn Turner's Koscot was violating the laws of their states. Under the gentle, disarming cross-examination of Bailey, the complaintants who had signed the suits against Turner admitted that they had not tried to work the franchises they had purchased. He compelled them to say that Glenn Turner had warned them that they wouldn't make it as independent businessmen if they didn't follow the instructions taught in the schools he had financed for them to attend. Some even said they didn't take the salesmanship courses designed for them. Others said they quit trying to sell the cosmetics because of the unfavorable publicity the company was recieving.

"Didn't you hear Mr. Turner say that some of the people who bought distributorships would not make it because they would not follow instructions?" They were asked.

Yes, they had heard him say that. But they thought he was talking about somebody else.

Witness after embarrassed witness, in state after state, confessed that they had not tried to set up sales teams to sell cosmetics. They admitted that they tried instead for the big money that came with selling Koscot/Dare to Be Great franchises.

The big, quick money was in franchises, or distributorships. The solid, steady money was in selling the products of the two Turner companies, the cosmetics of Koscot and the motivational courses taught in the Dare to Be Great Schools. In the long run, there would be no Koscot if it's cosmetics remained unsold. There would be no Dare To Be Great if people did not attend it's schools.

Turner Enterprises limped along, managing to stay just above water, even though Bailey won every case. The damage done by the newspaper headlines that ran in big, black lines over the reports of the harassing litigation had been too great. The accounts of Bailey's victories were hidden over and under the lingerie advertisements. His cases won, Glenn Turner was left to his own devices. The politicians who had initiated the suits, in order to build up images as "Fighters for the People",
had either won or lost their elections and moved on to other things. [other victims??] They no longer cared about Glenn Turner or Koscot or Dare to Be Great. If they apologized for the harm they caused, not only to Glenn Turner but to thousands of investors, there is no record of any apology. After all, politics is polics. Right?"

Very little of what is in this book describes what really happened in the Koscot/Dare To Be Great/Great American Mail Fraud Case.

The fact is that this book was spawned out of anger because Judge Reed threw the case out of court in Orlando way back in 1975. As a result, many money hungry lawyers lost what they thought was a sure kill case against Glenn W. Turner, Koscot Interplanetary and Dare To Be Great.

Interesting too is that in all of the so called legal documents that keep sprouting up from time to time; court dockets etc. all state regarding Dare To Be Great, Glenn W. Turner and Koscot Interplanetary right on their covers: "alleged" and "opinion."

Like the court documents, this book has a lot of "alleged" information and "opinion" of a writer. Of course the media also did there usual hatchet job on Turner and his companies as well. Out of 700 lawsuits filed against Turner, Koscot Interplanetary, Dare To Be Great or any of Turner's 78 other companies spread out in over 21 countries, Turner successfully won 699. At best, these wins showed up somewhere under the lingerie ads and consisted of about 2 lines, if they showed up at all. To the American media, Glenn Wesley Turner was a hero and the media does not like a hero so they revised his image even though it had nothing to do with fact or reality. And much information never made the news. Only the "opinions" and "allegations" made the media, some of which is still being circulated today.

Turner did lose one case (unrelated to Dare To Be Great/Koscot Interplanetary/Turner Industries) in a company that he didn't even own and spent four years in a federal prison on the most trumped up charges imaginable.

Some better books are Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing, The Unstoppable American or Con Man or Saint which tell the true story of this great and patriotic man.

Mail Fraud Trial would make a great novel.

All Glenn W. Turner did was challenge people how to "DARE TO BE GREAT" and then show them with his seminars, records and tapes how to become great.

Turner created a cosmetic company called "Koscot Interplanetary" and a motivational company "DARE TO BE GREAT", turned $5,000 into over $350,000,000 (1.5 Billion in todays $$$$) and guided average, everyday people to become millionaires. In less than five years, over 800 Turner students became millionaires with the Koscot and Dare TO Be Great programs.

Turner industries would eventually exprapulate to over 78 companies in 21 countries.

The Great American Mail Fraud Koscot Interplanetary farce is a perfect example on how a good thing can be deemd bad by government intervention. Interesting is that is was the government at that time that were the real bad guys and only a decade earlier had made charges similiar to what was made against Glenn W. Turner against franchising.

Today both franchising and network marketing are flourishing but what a price pioneers like Glenn W. Turner had to pay to pave the way for what we have today.

Mail Fraud? What about Watergate? What about all of the people involved in this hoax who in fact were proven to have broken the law, some are still serving prison sentences?

The real cuprits were not Glenn W. Turner or hsi people, but the people who attacke him. Unfortunately you won't read that in this tome.