I had only limited contact with MQ Scott when I was a kid. I went to school with his son Winfield, but I was like many other Burnet County people, that just didn’t go around him. The first time I remember seeing MQ was during a hog buying episode when he bought a pen full of hogs from Brown Parker. Brown was my dads best friend and kept hogs at our place, down at the old place where my grandparents had once lived.

MQ was a major hog raiser back in the 60s and 70s. While trying to load out the bunch of hogs he had just bought, something happened causing him to slip down in the loading chute with a big sow on top of him. He literally bit her ear, then once he was up on his feet, started beating her in the head with his fists and screaming. Then he lit into Winfield for no reason that anyone there could explain. The encounter ended with Brown and Cecil, my dad, running him off and telling to never come back on our place again. I don’t know that he ever did.

Okay now that I’ve told you a little about MQ, this is a story told to me by his son Winfield:

Back in the 1970s, a hog buyer from Arkansas came to the Scott Hog Farm and bought a truck load (big cattle truck size load) of hogs and paid MQ with a check. The Buyer and the hogs went back to Arkansas. The check bounced. The buyer showed up a few days later wanting more hogs. MQ asked about the hot check. A deal was made for a second load under the condition that he would be paid with certified funds for both. The truck was loaded and the driver was told to follow them to the Big Wheel Truck Stop in Oak Hill, in the edge of Austin. The driver was to set and wait.

MQ drove the hog buyer downtown to one of the big banks where the guy had made arraignments to get a certified check for both loads.

The Buyer told MQ to pull up to a walk up lobby at 8th and Guadalupe where he had been told that a check would be waiting. The Buyer got out and walked over to a window. In a matter of minutes there were APD cars with lights and sirens going coming from every direction.

The Buyer had walked up to the window, handed the teller a note saying the guy in the brown Ford LTD had kidnapped him and was going to kill him if he didn’t pay a ransom. Once the cops starting arriving, the Buyer faded away into the hustle-bustle of downtown Austin, supposedly meeting up with the truck and headed out for Arkansas or parts unknown.

By the time MQ was arrested, booked into jail and allowed to tell his version of events, the guy was long gone, to never be heard from again.

The real problem was there was no evidence of who the guy was or where he was really from. The check had been a complete forgery.