What's the Frequency, Kenneth? - The Time Traveler Who Mugged Dan Rather

Dear Gen Xer,

It was October 4^th, 1986, quarter to eleven on a Saturday night, when Dan Rather noticed he was being followed. Two men accosted him moments later. They bombarded Rather with the same bizarre question: Kenneth, what is the frequency? Kenneth, what is the frequency?

Rather told the men they had wrong guy. Then he continued on his way.

He made it about a block to 88^th Street before one of the men punched him in the jaw and knocked him to the pavement. Rather got up and ran for his life.

He got as far as 1075 Park Avenue. That’s where the men laid into him, kicking and punching and repeating their question: Kenneth, what is the frequency? What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

The superintendent at 1075 Park Avenue saw what was happening through the lobby window and rushed to Rather’s aid. The assailants fled into the inky night.

Rather was taken to Lennox Hill Hospital. He suffered multiple bruises on his back, as well as a swollen jaw. Rather told authorities that one of his assailants was 6-foot tall, with dark hair and a mustache. He said both of the men were wearing dark suits, white shirts, and black ties. They must have mixed him up with someone else because the men kept calling him ‘Kenneth’. Robbery was ruled out as a motive since neither attacker had bothered to relieve Rather of his wallet.

"I got mugged. Who understands these things? I didn't and I don't now. I didn't make a lot of it at the time and I don't now. I wish I knew who did it and why, but I have no idea." – Dan Rather

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August 31, 1994. 5:07 p.m.

A hidden camera at 36 West 4^th Street reveals a man parking his car and opening the trunk. He slips into a dark-colored smock and hides a rifle in one of the sleeves. The man approaches the building at 36 West 4^th Street, which happens to be where the Today Show is filmed. He’s denied entry by Campbell Theron Montgomery - an employee who notices the rifle. The man returns to his car and drives away.

5:23 p.m.

Montgomery is standing in front of the building, talking to his boss about what just happened, when the man comes back. Montgomery is alarmed and attempts to alert the police. The man exits his vehicle, adopts a military stance, and shoots Montgomery in the back while he’s running away.

The man is apprehended, arrested, and identified as 46-year-old William Tager.

Montgomery is rushed to Bellevue Hospital. He dies shortly after on the operating table, courtesy of a gunshot wound to the back, with perforations of spleen, kidney, and colon.

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William Tager claimed that he arrived at the Today Show because he possessed relevant knowledge that NBC would be interested in. He also believed that the network’s newscasters were sending him messages, and were out to get him because he disagreed with their reports. That’s why he carried the rifle: protection.

“The defendant suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had long believed that the television networks were bugging his home in North Carolina.” - Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney New York County, New York

The diagnosis was echoed by Dr. Park Dietz, the forensic psychiatrist who examined Tager. Dr. Dietz had testified at the murder trials of Joel Rifkin, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Hinckley Jr. He agreed that Tager’s suspicion of the media, which had led to the murder of Campbell Theron Montgomery, was steeped in paranoid schizophrenia.

It was during Tager’s confession to the murder of Montgomery when he admitted to the attack on Dan Rather. The CBS anchorman was one of many figures in the media who Tager blamed for tormenting him. Tager’s knowledge of certain facts and circumstances, details that had never been announced to the public, left no doubt of his guilt.

Rather confirmed this after looking at pictures of Tager. “There is no doubt in my mind that this is the person,” he said.

The statute of limitations on Dan Rather’s assault had already run out by 1994. But Tager was found guilty and sentenced for the murder of Campbell Theron Montgomery: 12 ½ - 25 years in Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

As for the second man who’d assaulted Rather, Tager claimed that he’d acted alone. Rather later admitted that everything had happened so fast that night, perhaps there had only been one attacker.

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A month after Tager murdered Montgomery, R.E.M. released their album Monster, along with its first single, What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?, which was inspired by Tager’s attack on Rather.

“It was the premier unsolved American surrealist act of the 20th century, it’s a misunderstanding that was scarily random, media-hyped and just plain bizarre.” – Michael Stipe

A year or so after the song’s release, R.E.M. performed their hit on The Late Show with David Letterman. The show featured a clip of Dan Rather performing with R.E.M. during a soundcheck at Madison Square Garden.

Here’s the clip, in case you’re interested. It’s one of the strongest arguments you’ll see for the adage, “Don’t quit your day job.”

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So that’s pretty much it, right?

Well…

Two years into Tager’s sentence, he reveals to Sing Sing’s psychiatrists the real reason he jumped Dan Rather. Tager explains that he’s a time traveler from 2265. Turns out he’s a felon in the future as well, and was sent back in time on an experimental mission. The authorities in 2265 are tracking his movements via a chip they implanted in his brain. Tager confesses that he attacked Dan Rather because he looked like his Vice President in 2265: a man by the name of Kenneth Burrows.

The chances that Tager is from the future are as slim as me dating Justine Bateman.

But it wasn’t the only strange theory out there.

There was also the one posed by Kenneth Schaffer.

Schaffer is a former rock ‘n’ roll publicist who worked with Alice Cooper and Jimi Hendrix. He was married for a spell to Alla Kliouka, best known for her role as Tony’s one-legged Russian friend in The Sopranos. Most impressive of all, perhaps, is his invention of the Schaffer-Vega Diversity System. It was the first wireless electric guitar signal transmitter, which was largely responsible (for better or worse) for making arena rock possible. Pretty much everything you’ve seen on stage the last 45 years or so owes a debt to Schaffer.

“Kenny is an old, old friend of mine, a prolific, wildly eccentric, free-thinking inventor whose ideas are sufficiently distanced from consensual reality as to make them both a danger to society as we know it, as well as essential to its further evolution.” – Sting

On October 4^th, 1986 – the day of the attack on Rather – Schaffer was at Columbia University, showing broadcasts he’d intercepted from the Soviet Union. He’d found a way to hijack signals from behind the Iron Curtain and revealed to entertained visitors a variety of Russian programming like cartoons, soap operas, and cooking shows. One of those visitors on October 4^th happened to be Dan Rather.

Kenneth Schaffer believed that he was the ‘Kenneth’ Tager was hunting on the night of the attack. Schaffer admitted he may have been approached by Tager that day, or perhaps another day in the past. So many people had questioned him as to how he’d intercepted Soviet signals. Schaffer refused to reveal the frequencies.

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Tager served his time quietly. He completed a 4-year degree and worked as a teacher’s aid in Sing Sing’s engine shop, where he received several promotions.

Sixteen years later, on October 27, 2010, William Tager was released on parole after earning ‘a limited time credit allowance’. On his certificate of release were special conditions that needed to be met. Here’s an abbreviated list:

• I will seek, obtain, and maintain employment and/or an academic/vocational program.

• I will submit to substance abuse testing as directed by the P.O. (Parole Officer).

• I will not consume alcoholic beverages.

• I will not frequent any establishment where alcohol is sold or served as its main business without the written permission of the P.O.

• I will not operate any motor vehicle, apply for, renew or possess any driver's license without the written permission of the P.O.

• I will abide by a curfew established by the P.O.

• I will participate in anti-aggression/anti-violence counseling as directed by the P.O.

• I will cooperate with all medical referrals and treatment recommendations.

• I will reside only in the residence approved by the Division of Parole.

Also included in Tager’s parole documents were the now 63-year-old’s plans for the future:

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Nine years pass.

God only knows what Tager’s been up to because I sure don’t. He lays low, I assume. Obeys the conditions his freedom depends on.

But what about his plans? What about the children?

After a bit of digging, I found a William Tager on IMBD. He has one credit, circa 2019: a compositing gig in the animation department for a children’s show called Hey Duggee.

For those who don’t know, compositing is the bringing together of two or more picture elements to make a single image. Like green screen technology. Or text over a picture.

But who the hell cares about that?

Did William Tager – the man who mugged Dan Rather and murdered Campbell Theron Montgomery – actually work on a children’s program?

The birthdate checks out: November 9, 1947.

Ditto the birthplace: Charlotte, NC.

Here’s his IMDB pic (which looks suspiciously like he’s heading to court), along with another one from Getty Images.

It’s the same guy.

William Tager – killer, assaulter, muse to R.E.M. (there are those who will argue which of these is worse) – achieved his goal of helping children at the ripe old age of 72.

I wonder why he only worked on one episode.

I wonder if he ever saw it.

I wonder if it spoke to him.

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