An American Original | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

Hi, it's Phoebe. Today an episode that we originally made for our other show, This is Love.
Sometimes a story will come along and we're not sure whether to make it for Criminal or This is Love
because it could kind of go both ways. This is one of those stories. We hope you like it.
In 1963, Newsday published an article about an organization that thought animals should be wearing clothes.
The headline was Decency Counts. The article included a sewing pattern boxer shorts for dog and horse.
The pattern could also be used for cats, the writer noted, but with some minor adjustments. Quote, "Just ruffle the
bottom and use a fancy print material." The New York Times wrote about this campaign, too, after people showed up
and picketed in front of the White House. They wanted the first lady, Jackie Kennedy, to put clothes on her
horses. Jean Ebel was one of the picketers. >> We called it SINAN, the Society for
Indecency to Naked Animals. >> Jean says that during the protest, she held up a sign that said, "Please put
pants on Macaroni." That was Caroline Kennedy's pony. He'd been a gift from Lyndon B. Johnson.
Jean's husband, Alan Ebel, was at the protest, too. Picketing in DC had been Jean and Alan's
idea. Actually, the whole thing had been their idea. SINAN, the Society for Indecency to
Naked Animals, was a prank that they'd been running for years. How did you and Alan meet?
>> Well, I came to New York looking for my an acting career. I had already done summer stock and
and studied speech and acting in college and it was my time to try my luck. >> Jean saw a call for actresses in a
newspaper. She answered the ad and ended up meeting Alan. >> He seemed very nice. I at this point I'd
only spent maybe a a month or so in New York. Um I'd I'd met with various agents and they
all seemed rather abrupt. They didn't want to spend more than 5 minutes getting to know you.
But he took like 40 minutes. And I'm trying to figure out why he was being so nice and kind to me.
>> Alan was spending so much time talking to her because he was stalling. There was a man in the hallway waiting
to talk to him about a prop tree he'd used for an off-Broadway play and never returned.
>> So he was being sued for that, a couple hundred bucks. So I didn't learn about of course the
process server for quite some time after, but meantime we got, you know, very chummy.
What can I say? >> Jean and Alan were married within the year. I'm Phoebe Judge and this is love.
>> I I can't say, you know, I fell for him immediately. Um but he certainly grew on me, that's for
sure. He just had this I I don't know. I think a lot of it emanated from his father who
had a small general store in Coshocton, Ohio. And Alan was that kind of guy. He would
engage waiters and waitresses in conversation. He would he would step outside the norm
to to be kind and to be uh to to find other people interesting. And I I kind of liked that. I thought
that was very that was unlike many of the fellows that you would meet, you know.
>> When Jean met Allan, he already knew what he wanted to do with his life. He just didn't know how he was going to
do it. >> I think the thing that all started it all for him uh when he went to Ohio State, he was
giving uh the the new freshmen some sort of pep talk or something. In the process, he fell off the stage
and he got laughs. They thought he was being funny. He actually fell off the stage without a tent. And um but every
time he rubbed his elbow or some other, you know, scratched his head or whatever, he got a laugh.
And he liked laughter. He liked He thought, "Huh." >> It was a few years after that when Allan
came up with the idea that it would be funny to tell people to put clothes on animals.
At the time, he was driving around the country performing music. He played the drums and he spent hours on the road.
>> He was in Texas and all of a sudden along a highway in Texas, traffic stopped. There were cattle crossing the
highway and two particular lady and male um cows were having a romantic affair. And people were just
the various reactions that he saw them in the cars ahead and behind in his rearview mirror
were so interesting to him. He started writing in his head. He started writing this story
and it was about an association of people who were going to make animals wear clothes.
>> Allan wrote to a couple newspapers pretending to be a spokesperson for the association.
He wanted to see if they would take his letter seriously and publish them. They didn't.
But he was still curious if he could get anyone else's attention. >> And so he started printing up pamphlets
and leaving them along the way in motel drawers and and restaurants and tables and you know,
just trying to plant the idea. >> Alan wrote that the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals
was founded by a man named G. Clifford Prout who left his son G. Clifford Prout Jr. $400,000 to run it.
Apparently, the rest of the Prout family was contesting G. Clifford Prout's will
but his son was determined to carry out his wishes. Soon Alan decided that writing press
releases and pamphlets about Cenna wasn't enough. He wanted people to be able to hear from
G. Clifford Prout Jr. himself. So he convinced a friend, an aspiring actor, to play him.
>> G. Clifford Prout ended up being Buck Henry, a friend who was at that point in his career not only
an actor but a writer. >> Buck Henry would eventually go on to create a comedy show with Mel Brooks
called Get Smart. Then he'd co-write The Graduate, direct Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty, and
host Saturday Night Live 10 times. But when Alan convinced him to play G. Clifford Prout Jr., Buck Henry was just
starting out. So no one recognized him when he was interviewed about Cenna on the Today
show in May of 1959. Or again in June when the show invited him back. NBC advertised that G. Prout Jr. would
return to the Today show to talk about quote his theories of nudism. Newspapers across the country started
writing about Cenna. In the Austin American, one writer said quote if you hope as we did that these people
are kidding you're wrong. >> Now, this unusual device here is called a Cenna Clothmobile, a vehicle, a truck
that we send into small communities with a driver and a CIN member who can spot a
naked animal at 50 feet. >> This is Alan Abel describing one of the ways CIN planned to get clothes to more
animals. He did interviews about CIN too, sometimes posing as CIN's vice president.
The clothesmobile never existed, but the Abels did make fake CIN membership cards
and some sample outfits. For an interview with one TV show, Alan brought a bag of clothes with him as
well as some diagrams of animals appropriately covered up. At one point, he pulled a large pair of
pants out of his bag. They were for an elephant. >> Tell me about the idea for DC picketing
in DC. What was the plan? >> The plan was basically Alan put out a lot of um print material
that alluded to, you know, thousands of people showing up to picket. And um we were going to be the
forerunners. It was Alan, myself, and his doorman. >> And since Alan had made such a big deal
of the plan, some reporters showed up, too. >> And um people going by in the cars were, you
know, pausing and asking for leaflets and as it builds, it builds, it builds. Even though there only three of us,
a few people joined in along the way just for the hell of it. But um it was just three of us, but it
made all the newspapers. >> In 1962, Alan Abel and Buck Henry visited the San Francisco Children's
Zoo, which Buck Henry said they called, quote, the burlesque house of the animal
world. Somehow, the Daily Herald in London picked up the story and wrote that, quote, crowds cheered as G. Clifford
Prout Jr. attempted to put a pair of pants on a goat. Some reporters were much more skeptical
about Cenna. When Buck Henry was interviewed by New York's Daily News, the writer said,
quote, "He's been on several TV shows, and thus far no one has discovered whether he has his tongue wedged in his
cheek." Alan Abel and Buck Henry told the press that Cenna had tens of thousands of
members, but they made it clear that Cenna never asked for money. Once, Jean Abel remembers, they actually
did get a check from a woman in Santa Barbara who wanted to support the cause. The woman sent it to Cenna's supposed
office at 507 5th Avenue in New York City, which was actually a small closet Jean
and Alan rented. They sent the check back. In one interview, Alan said Cenna wouldn't accept money because it had
been founded G. Clifford Prout Jr.'s inheritance from his father, $400,000. But then, Alan heard from the IRS.
>> Eventually, uh IRS came looking for the taxes on that money. >> Jean says the IRS wanted to see Cenna's
books. >> And he enjoyed the the fracas one way or another. He would solve all kinds of problems as they came
up, and I think he was even when the IRS called him in for an audit, you know. He'd be happy about it. I don't know
why, I wouldn't be, but he he was always felt challenged, and he liked the challenge.
Uh to a an IRS meeting, he would take uh gift wrap tube and put a microphone in it in a shopping bag so he could record
it. Uh I I never felt worried that he was Well, maybe I felt worried a few times
that he might get arrested. >> Things started to fall apart after Buck Henry, playing G. Clifford Prout Jr.,
was interviewed by Walter Cronkite on CBS. It was a risky move because Buck Henry
was about to start working at CBS as a writer for the Garry Moore Show. >> Well, uh it was found out that Buck was
kind of right under their noses. He was right there writing for for Garry Moore while he was still
occasionally playing Buck uh uh G. Clifford Prout. >> Jean says that eventually someone
recognized him and CBS realized they'd been pranked. Sen. wasn't real. Walter Cronkite was upset and people
started to realize that Alan Abel was the one behind it all. >> Well, I think CBS also was for a period
of time was angry with him wouldn't do anything. His his picture was up on some billboard
somewhere, you know, don't talk to this guy or whatever. >> In 1964, 5 years after Alan started
Sen., he admitted to a reporter for the Associated Press that it was all made up.
He also said, quote, "The Internal Revenue Service has no sense of humor." We'll be right back.
>> Tell me the story about Yetta Bronstein. >> Oh, well, Yetta. Yetta, Yetta, where are you?
Um this was something I invented. Um Alan once did a radio show uh from the Playboy Club. It was new at
that time and Hugh Hefner had seen him and put him in that role. And it was a call-in show, and people
could respond, and I would call in as different characters. And Yeta was one. >> Allan's live radio show for Playboy was
called Table Talk. When Jean called into the show as Yeta Bronstein, she introduced herself as a
housewife. Quote, "Yeta lives in the Bronx. She has a boy named Marvin. He plays the drums,
badly." >> The show with um the Playboy Club didn't last long, I think 3 months.
But um we thought Yeta can't be hanging out there doing nothing. Yeta has to do something. The campaign was on uh
Johnson and what was his name? Goldrich to gold something. >> Barry Goldwater. >> So, Allan decided that Yeta should run
for president. >> Allan later said they wanted to find out if, quote, "America was ready for a
Jewish mother in the White House." Jean liked the idea, and they started thinking about Yeta's campaign.
They decided that she would run as a write-in candidate for a party they called the Best Party.
Yeta's platform would include national bingo and putting a suggestion box on the fence of the White House.
She also opposed the Vietnam War. Jean and Allan printed posters for Yeta, which included an address for the Best
Party headquarters, 507 5th Avenue, the same broom closet they'd used as the address for Senna.
Then, Jean and Allan contacted radio stations so Jean could give interviews as Yeta. She tried to stay away from TV.
>> I never appeared because at the time I was still in my 20s and um hardly a matron.
And um Yeta was obviously older, so we ended up using Allan's pic mother's picture when we had to produce
something. >> Here's Jean as Yetta on WNBC in New York. >> There'll be a change.
There'll be a change. There'll be a change in the government when Yetta gets to be first lady
and also president. >> When the Democratic National Convention happened in New Jersey that year,
Alan and Jean got 20 people to march around the convention center holding signs that said, "Vote for Yetta."
And also at least one sign with just the question, "Why not?" In November 1964, the New York Times ran
an article called "The Third Party, Mostly Extreme." The article read, "There appears to be
no national consensus for Bingo, and Mrs. Bronstein may fail to carry a single precinct."
That turned out to be true, since Yetta Bronstein wasn't even on the ballot. In 1972, Jean and Alan had a daughter,
Jenny. By then, they'd spent about 13 years trying to pull off different pranks together.
And Alan was still coming up with new ideas. Here's Jenny. >> He had just uh dressed up in bandages as Howard Hughes
right before I was born. >> Alan, with his entire face covered in bandages and claiming to be Howard
Hughes, announced at a press conference at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City that he planned to freeze himself.
>> Uh through cryo- cryogenics until the stock market was higher. >> And because the billionaire Howard
Hughes was usually very private, 36 reporters actually showed up. Jenny remembers that even as a toddler,
Alan would sometimes bring her in on his pranks. >> I do remember going on to the Bill Boggs
Show and eating a hair sandwich or refusing to eat a hair sandwich. >> This was when Alan pretended to be a
doctor investigating the quote food properties of human hair. He said it had good protein.
Jenny says even though they'd practice together, when the cameras were rolling, she refused to eat the fake sandwich.
A little bit later though, Jenny and Alan got away with something bigger. >> My dad somehow caught wind of the fact
that there was a train car, an old caboose, like a 1916 Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific caboose
that was down at the local train yard. >> Alan decided he wanted it. >> I mean, it was like
I don't know, 48, 50 ft long and 8 ft wide. This is no small thing. It had the cupola on top and all the old
classic looks of a a caboose. >> The Abels lived in Connecticut and the local planning and zoning commission
wasn't so sure about the caboose. >> Of course, they said, "No, no, no, you can't have a caboose, you know, blah,
blah, blah." And my dad had taught me how to cry on cue. And nobody wants a crying kid in the
room. So, I think they just appeased my dad and said, "Okay, okay, okay, you got
the permit." >> The Abels had a caboose christening party for their neighbors. And over the next few years, Jenny grew
up playing with it and Alan often used it as his office. The Abels eventually sold their house,
but as of 2023, the caboose is still there. Jenny remembers seeing her parents pull
off other pranks, too. Like in 1983, when Alan sent a fake referee into the Super Bowl.
>> I just remember the costume. I remember my dad having a fake referee costume.
I don't know if he bought tickets. I don't even know how with security at the time in the '80s
they got through, but my dad had a fake referee and a fake police officer run onto the field.
And I believe the fake referee called a few plays before they were pulled off the field. Someone realized it's a it's
a joke, they're not real. >> A few days after the game, the NFL confirmed that a fake referee had made
it onto the field. The Iowa City Press also reported that Alan Abel had snuck onto the sidelines
wearing a white medical jacket. One of Alan's most controversial hoaxes was in 1991.
A few years before, David Duke, the former head of the KKK, had tried to run for president, initially as a Democrat.
In 1990, he ran for the US Senate. And in 1991, he was campaigning to be the governor of Louisiana.
>> And he was actually, you know, taken seriously. And that was what bothered Alan.
>> And then, during his gubernatorial campaign, reports started coming out that David
Duke had founded a KKK Symphony, reportedly to rival the New York Philharmonic. When a reporter called David Duke, he
wrote he was, quote, "irritated" and said, "There is no KKK Symphony Orchestra."
The hoax was eventually traced back to Alan Abel. And he told that same reporter he
thought the KKK should be laughed at. >> And he always just wanted to get people
engaged intellectually to to get them to wake them up. Uh a kick in the intellect is what he
used to say. >> We'll be right back. >> By around 1980, Alan Abel's hoaxes had made him a little famous.
And Jeanne says there were conversations about making a movie about his life. When Alan went to meet with some
producers about selling the rights to his life story, he ended up in an elevator with people
who were talking about him. They didn't recognize who he was. >> And they were talking to each other
about, "Well, if we if we wait around, you know, till he dies, uh we can talk to the widow, you know, and
get it cheaper." It was basically that train of of thinking. And uh that's what sparked him to
figure, "Well, what if I die? Let's see what you do, you know." >> So, Alan decided to fake his own death.
He came up with a story that he died in Utah at a ski resort. He got in touch with some trusted
friends to help him pull it off. >> There is a whole like really involved production. Like he had
a fake telephone number, and his friend in Utah who would corroborate the story that he had skied and lost control and
like landed in the woods and died of a heart attack somewhere in Utah. And they had a fake funeral home director.
>> The funeral director would corroborate his story when the newspaper called. Alan submitted news of his death to the
New York Times, which published its obituary on January 2nd, 1980 with the headline
"Alan Abel, satirist, created campaign to clothe animals." It read, "He was 50 years old and lived in
Manhattan and Westport, Connecticut. Mr. Abel made a point in his work of challenging the obvious and uttering the
outrageous. In addition to his wife, he's survived by a daughter, Jennifer. Alan hadn't told Jean about the plan to
fake his own death. >> He didn't keep me waiting forever. I mean, knowing my husband as as I did,
I know he couldn't have been out skiing out out in wherever it was supposed to be, some western state.
So, I figured it's one more of those. >> Jenny was 7 years old, and Alan didn't tell her either.
>> The way that I remember it, I had gone to school that day, and everyone was looking at me with these
sorrow-filled eyes and expressions. And then my teacher actually approached me and said, "I'm so
sorry, Jennifer." And I really didn't know what she was talking about, honestly.
Like I that that I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Well, your dad died."
And I I I was like, "What? I my I just played basketball with my dad. I don't know what you're talking about."
I wasn't really phased because I think a part of me knew that it it was another hoax.
>> Jean says Alan eventually called to say he was alive, but she doesn't remember exactly when.
>> Did you have to confirm to anyone? Did anyone call you up and say >> Well, somebody somebody left flowers,
and we never knew who that was. And uh there were calls from his some of his friends. Uh
but that took another day or so. So, by that time I knew it wasn't, but uh I I I I I guess I kept his, you know, I
kept it quiet. I didn't divulge. Uh and someone said, "I was just writing you a note when I
thought, wait a minute. This is Alan Abel. And they threw it in the garbage instead.
>> Alan waited a couple of days, and then he organized a press conference to announce that he was alive.
On January 4th, the New York Times ran another article. Obituary disclosed as hoax.
It was the first time in the newspaper's history that it had to retract an obituary.
Alan and Jeanne Abel were married for almost 60 years. >> What What do you think was the key to
your long marriage? >> Well, I I guess I was tolerant for one thing. What was I going to do?
I loved the guy. Um It was hard sometimes. We went through a lot of different things, up and down.
And um I mean, we lived sometimes on you know, on the tip of a pin for lack of money or
whatever. We It's amazing how things happened. >> Their daughter, Jeanne, says her parents
were always talking to each other about ideas and writing them down. She remembers that one prank involved
throwing real money out the window of a fancy hotel suite. It's almost like it's symbolic of their
whole relationship where they weren't fixated on money. They just My mom and my dad loved each other, and
the money didn't matter. They would just wanted to to do their art together. Sometime around 2001, Alan was recording
an interview with a TV show that wanted to talk about his pranks over the years.
>> And apparently my father saw that the camera operator was s- suppressing laughter.
And after the interview was over, my dad said, "Hey, do you want to go out to dinner?"
The cameraman was named Jeff. >> Alan thought he might get along well with Jenny.
>> And my dad was he was relentless. It's like, "Did you call Jeff? Did you call
Jeff? Did you call Jeff?" Over over just he wouldn't stop. So, I finally called Jeff. We went on a date.
I don't know if I would say it was love at first sight, but by the end of the night
it the deal was sealed. Like, I just I can't believe that my dad set me up with him.
>> Jenny and Jeff have been together for about 24 years. They have a son who Jenny says reminds
her of her father. >> In September September 14th, 2018, my dad died for real. And we got more than one call from the
New York Times to make sure he was really dead. It was you know, my mom and I were still
grieving. But that part I found to be so it was almost like funny. You know, I feel like
if he saw that obituary that the New York Times inevitably printed when he actually died, like
he wouldn't believe it. It was like almost a full page. >> It ran with the headline, "Alan Abel,
hoaxer extraordinaire, is {parentheses} on good authority dead at 94." Quote, "He was the news media conceded
with a kind of irritated admiration, an American original." Criminal is created by Lauren Spore and
me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer.
Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajico, Lilly Clark, Lena Sillison, and Meghan Canane.
Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. This episode was mixed by Michael
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I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

In 1963, Jeanne and Alan Abel traveled to Washington, DC to picket in front of the White House. They said they were part of a campaign that wanted to put clothes on animals — including the first lady’s horse.

Jenny Abel and her husband, Jeff Hockett, made a documentary about her parents called Abel Raises Cain (https://www.abelraisescain.com/).

Criminal is a show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Episode 350 originally published January 30, 2026. https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-350-an-american-original-1-30-2026

Music in this episode: “Leptias” by Blue Dot Sessions “Crumpet With a Beat ” by Blue Dot Sessions “Selena Leica” by Blue Dot Sessions “Happenchance” by Blue Dot Sessions “TK Destino ” by Blue Dot Sessions “Etude 13 LaSalle” by Blue Dot Sessions “Don Germaine” by Blue Dot Sessions “Cumaribo” by Blue Dot Sessions “Basal Fife” by Blue Dot Sessions “Palms Down” by Blue Dot Sessions “Cornicob” by Blue Dot Sessions

Brief Summary

Alan and Jean Abel's humorous campaign for animal clothing sparked media attention and showcased their creative pranks.

Key points

The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. A prank organization advocating for clothed animals, led to protests and media attention.
Alan Abel's Hoaxes. Alan Abel's elaborate pranks, including faking his own death, gained him fame.
The Hoax Revealed. Alan Abel orchestrated a press conference to announce he was alive after a hoax obituary.
A Lasting Love. Jeanne reflects on the key to her long marriage with Alan, filled with tolerance and love.
A Daughter's Reflection. Jenny shares her father's legacy and the humor in his final obituary.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Please put pants on Macaroni.

Jean Ebel at the protest for clothed animals.

1:12WatchMay 29, 2026

Tension

40/ 100Low tension

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