THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE REAL DON DRAPER

‘QUINCY, M.E.’

“SULLIED BE THY NAME”

This may be about a ‘Quincy’ episode, but we’re going to start with a different show…..

From the 'Mad Men' Wiki: 

Lieutenant Donald Francis Draper was an engineer originally from California and his birthday was June 2, 1917. Draper was a soldier assigned to build a field hospital in 1950 during the Korean War. While the other men in his group were engaged in combat several miles away, Lt. Draper was supposed to receive about 20 soldiers to build the installation. Instead, only one young soldier, Dick Whitman is assigned to this duty, and works under Draper's command.

While working outside, they hear mortar explosions get closer until gunfire erupts and bullets zoom by their heads. They hurry for cover, and after the short round of shooting ends, they light up cigarettes. No sooner do they realize that the gasoline has spilled everywhere when a huge fireball engulfs the ground.

When Dick wakes up, he sees that Lt. Draper has been killed, burned beyond recognition. He finds Don's dog tags and pulls them from the body and replaces it with his own. The next day at the military hospital, Don receives his Purple Heart and the news that he is going home.
("Nixon vs. Kennedy")

Although it never came up in ‘Mad Men’, the real Don Draper had a first cousin but they were never very close.  Which is a good thing too, since had that cousin gone to New York to look up his cousin Don, he would have realized that he was a ringer.  And the cousin might not have been as understanding as the real Don’s widow.

That cousin was Jules Draper, a high-powered attorney in Los Angeles who represented the Roman Catholic diocese among his clients.  Another client was Charles Descassa, the publisher of the skin magazine Phantasie.  Descassa was at odds with a crusading priest of the diocese and when that priest found out that Draper was representing them both, he stormed into Draper’s office to have it out with him.  During his tirade, the priest suffered a heart attack and Draper panicked – he put the priest’s body into the trunk of his car and brought him to the home of another client, a high-priced call girl. 

They arranged him so that it looked like he had been a client of the hooker, but they didn’t realize that the priest hadn’t died immediately at the office.  If Jules Draper had only called for help, the priest might have survived.  But apparently he didn’t realize that the case would be investigated by Dr. R. Quincy, the medical examiner……

BCnU!