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"One Eye" Bobby
Wilcoxson liked fast women, fast race horses and fast cars. With
proceeds from one of his bank heists, Wilcoxson bought one of the
most famous hot rod's ever customized: The Aztec. A 1955 Chevy,
the Aztec was
many things but fast one not one of them.
William "Bill" Carr, an
insurance company adjuster from Hollywood, California by way of West
Virginia, moonlighted as a hot rod customizer in the 1950's. Carr
worked nights in a shop owned by George Barris, the legendary hot
rodder and famous creator of the original TV Batmobile, the
Munster's Coach, and the Black Beauty from the Green Hornet, just to
name a few.
Carr bought a brand new
1955 Chevrolet Bel Air and customized it. The Aztec appeared at a
hot rod show in Washington D.C. in June, 1959 where Carr told a
Washington Post reporter $20,000 had been spent customizing the
Chevrolet Bel Air convertible.
Sometime in 1961 or 1962,
Carr sold the Aztec to "Bob Wilcox", one of bank robbing "One-Eye"
Bobby Wilcoxson's aliases. Carr was paid
some cash and given a new Pontiac. A short time after the deal was
done, FBI agents showed
up at Carr's house asking questions.
Before it was known publicly Wilcoxson was a wanted man, he left the Aztec for safe keeping in
Phoenix, Arizona, in my grandparent's garage. My father, a young auto
body and fender repairman and an expert car painter from Salinas,
California, visited his parents in Phoenix and looked the car over.
I was with my father on that that trip - at the rip old age of two!
"Most of the body was
molded from lead so it was a heavy car," Jim Hurley said. "It was so
heavy that changing one flat tire required a floor jack lifting the
frame behind each wheel well."
Wilcoxson was soon named
on the 10 most wanted public enemies and the FBI seized the Aztec from my grandparents
garage. As the story goes, the G-men tore the heavy car apart looking for
stashed loot, weapons and
evidence, according to Wilcoxson's half-brother, Jim Hurley.
The Aztec was next
auctioned to a man in New Jersey who modified the original
customizing, and sold it. The FBI eventually seized the car again
when one of its subsequent owners was caught transporting illegal
drugs. Thus, the "Curse of The Aztec" was born.
The car sat rotting away
in a New Jersey junkyard. Barry Mazza, a hot rod man now living in
Florida, acquired the corpse of the Aztec in 1991, barely saving the
classic's remains from the jaws of a car crusher.
Today, thanks to Mazza's
tender loving care, The Aztec is restored to its original customized
glory. The popular car appears periodically at hot rod shows around
the country. |
