New Berlin — Dale "Mad Dog" Messmer, an ex-convict, an honorably discharged United States Marine, former
mercenary, bounty hunter, body guard, pilot and stuntman will be the guest speaker at New Berlin West Middle/High School on at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in the West Performing Arts Center.
His talk, open to students, staff and the public, will be about choices.
And he admits that he made some bad ones.
Messmer spent more than a decade in prisons in four states after having been convicted of a laundry list of crimes ranging from drug smuggling and distribution of cocaine to possession of automatic weapons and explosives. He also was convicted of money laundering and of violating the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act.
"Mad Dog" was raised in Wichita and attended college in central Kansas. He joined the Marines but was discharged early because of an injury.
He became involved in various legitimate business enterprises which eventually lead to him smuggling drugs in his own aircraft for the infamous Pablo Escobar Cocaine Cartel. When arrested he jumped bail and vanished for more than a year, until he turned himself in to the authorities. He served 10 years, 8 months and 11 days in prison before being paroled in 1994.
After his release, "Mad Dog" founded The Straight Talk Outreach Program. He has taken his message to more than a million young people in 41 states, in hopes of giving them an example of what not to choose in life, so they won't have to learn about the dangers of drugs, gangs, violence, prison and death the hard way.
Messmer's Straight Talk Outreach Program has garnered the endorsement and support of a multitude of law enforcement agencies, juvenile courts and educational systems across the country.
"He is very down to earth and tells it like it is," said New Berlin West Principal Blake Peuse who heard him speak at a different school. "He tells how drugs pushed him into a life of crime."
Peuse said he hopes students will listen to Messmer's story of how he got mixed up with some bad people and made some bad decisions that affected his whole life.
Peuse said he could lecture the students all day long but it would not have the impact of someone who has been there, like Messmer.
"He's actually lived the prison lifestyle," he said.
Messmer will give a separate talk to New Berlin West students in the morning, visit classrooms all day and be available in the cafeteria at lunchtimes in addition to the evening presentation.
To bring him to the district, the school won a federal "safe and drug-free" grant.
- Jane Ford-Stewart
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