dedleg.com

I’m not sure how well known this information is, but it blew my mind a couple nights ago when I heard it. For over a decade now, a nasty little rumor has been spreading around the Internets that there was something more to Mr. Rogers than feeding the goldfish, getting the mail, and playing with toy trains… something… darker.

Some tell of a Fred McFeely Rogers with a tortured past… his story was a harrowing tale full of death, but it was also one of redemption. After his passing in 2003, the urban legend gained increased fervor, and was attached to a chain email that was making the rounds at the time.

On another note, there was this wimpy little man (who just passed away) on PBS, gentle and quiet. Mr. Rogers is another of those you would least suspect of being anything but what he now portrays to our youth. But Mr. Rogers was a U.S. Navy Seal, combat-proven in Vietnam with over twenty-five confirmed kills to his name. He wore a long-sleeve sweater to cover the many tattoos on his forearm and biceps. A master in small arms and hand-to-hand combat, able to disarm or kill in a heartbeat. He hid that away and won our hearts with his quiet wit and charm.

Hid it away… like a silent killer hiding in the tall grass, waiting for his target to emerge from his hut so that he can kill him in front of the man’s crying family. That his signature cardigan was actually only there to disguise his scary tattoos is almost a juicier bit than his kill count. And his subsequent dedication to educating children and ordination as a Presbyterian minister later in life is told to be an effort to save his soul. A perfect legend… too perfect, perhaps.

The story is fantastic… I wish it was true, but the true, uh, truth is that Mr. Rogers was just a genuinely good person. After college, Fred Rogers pursued a career in television and later entered the seminary to study theology because he honestly just liked teaching children and reading about god and shit. I know. Boring.