BY MARK SKERTIC
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A 41-year-old mystery at Xavier University has been solved.
It began Jan. 10, 1957, when the Jesuits running the university awoke to learn that more than a dozen investors were interested in buying their home.
A classified item in that morning's Wall Street Journal advertised "The Hinkle Building," an apartment complex with easy access to downtown Cincinnati. The building had to be sold quickly, the ad said, and referred buyers to Paul L. O'Connor.
That was the Very Rev. Paul L. O'Connor, university president. He and the other Jesuits lived in Hinkle Hall. Father O'Connor was kept busy that Thursday telling callers that, no, the faculty residence hall was not for sale.
Making matters worse, many prospective buyers called collect, and the pranksters who placed the classified ad had the cost billed to the university.
Those who placed the advertisement were never caught. And their identities remained a secret. Until now.
"We did it," admits Timothy Woomer, now a Colorado businessman. At the time, he was a junior, hatching the prank with some friends. "I heard O'Connor had to have the receptionist stop taking out-of-town calls."
This weekend, he will attend a class reunion, marking his first visit to Cincinnati since graduation. He still chuckles about the joke that resulted in stories in Cincinnati's three daily newspapers.
He and some of his co-conspirators recently sent a confession to the university, along with a $25 check "to cover the collect phone calls from prospective buyers around the world for such an attractive apartment complex."
"We did a couple other things, too," Mr. Woomer admits. "But I'm not 'fessing up to those."
