Many residents will remember Bill Jakob, a man who rode into Gerald pretending to be a federal law enforcement officer in 2008. When he was discovered to be a fraud, the incident brought international attention to Gerald.

Through a long litany of lies, Jakob won the confidence of then Police Chief Ryan McCrary and other city officials.

Jakob was eventually sentenced to five years in federal prison and was released in June of 2013. He had been convicted of 18 counts of false impersonation and one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to the FBI. Those charges stemmed from other crimes committed by Jakob.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s online news outlet, stltoday.com recently posted a new story revealing recent new lies by Jakob.

Erin Heffernan, in her Aug.7 story reported that Jakob had created some turmoil at the American Legion Hall in O’Fallon, Ill.

According to her reporting, Jakob, now 51, had been frequenting the Legion and in June ran for the position of commander of the group. Eventually he won the election, having run on the fact that he claimed he left the military in good standing and that he taught classes at a local university. Heffernan writes “He handed out cards to members identifying himself as ‘Dr. Bill A. Jakob, PhD.’ that listed a position with ‘internal affairs’ for the American Legion in Illinois.”

The 2008 investigation established Jakob had been discharged from the Missouri Army National Guard with an “other than honorable” discharge for dishonesty. It also found he had lied about service overseas and injuries he said he sustained.

The Legion election was overturned on technical grounds and Jakob has resigned his membership. He told Heffernan, “The attorney did some razzle-dazzle crap and scared the judge because of my past,” he said. “I’m just trying to live my life and they all just want to rehash Gerald.”