Cowboy charity ride called hoax

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 10:46 a.m.

Richard Fipps fancies himself a buckaroo with a tender heart.

The 37-year-old Las Vegan told people he was going to saddle up his horse and journey from Mexico to Canada to raise money for needy children and battered women.

A Las Vegas Internet company created a Web site for him and maintained a "blog" or journal chronicling a 2,140-mile, 72-day adventure.

Local businesses sank thousands of dollars into sponsoring him. A truck accessory store outfitted some pickup trucks for him, and another loaned him a recreational vehicle. Other companies donated hundreds of T-shirts, signs and banners and cowboy hats.

But his noble excursion is now being called a hoax.

Some say Fipps was in Las Vegas during the time he was supposed to be on the trip, from April 26 to July 7.

Shirley Shown, owner of the Bighorn Ranch, said she knows Fipps never made the trip -- she had his horses.

"I asked him about it (the journey) in the beginning of April, and he said it fell through," she said. "He now says he had other riders do it for him because he had to stay here and work."

Shown said Fipps told her he met the wranglers at different spots and he dropped off supplies.

"It doesn't compute," she said.

Fipps began spinning his tale about a year ago when he hitched wagons with Patrick McCarrack of the Las Vegas-based Absolute Internet Marketing.

Fipps asked McCarrack if he'd design a Web site promoting his journey and his nonprofit organization, Cowboys Helping Kids.

McCarrack did some Interent research on Fipps and found some newspaper articles about a similar charity ride he took from Alabama to Utah in 2002 and felt confident Fipps was genuine.

But CuChullaine O'Reilly, a founder of the Long Riders' Guild, an organization of equestrian explorers based in Kentucky, questions whether Fipps actually made the trip to Utah.

"We've never seen anyone take horses and equestrian travel and cowboy mythology and children and Christianity and create such a poisonous brew," said O'Reilly, who has spearheaded an effort to expose a hoax.

Nearly every morning of his supposed excursion to Canada, Fipps called and left lengthy voice mail messages describing the trip, and McCarrack would transcribe his musings and then post them on the site, a task that took up to two hours a day.

"They sounded very believable," McCarrack said. Fipps described the sunsets, the grub, bald eagle sightings, various aches and pains.

He abruptly ended his trip in Montana, vaguely citing financial problems and trouble crossing the border into Canada.

The Sun reached Fipps on his cell phone, but he refused to comment.

McCarrack estimates he lost $5,000 to $7,000 working on the site, and Shown is out $900.

David Moore of David's Western Wear said he donated 400 promotional T-shirts valued at $2,800.

"I thought it was a good cause, Cowboys Helping Kids," he said. "I looked at the Web site and saw all the other sponsors, and it all seemed pretty legitimate."

"I didn't check the police reports," Moore added with a chuckle.

Metro Police arrested Fipps on Dec. 12 for domestic violence -- a cause he said he was trying to rally against through his journey. He'll be in Municipal Court Aug. 31 to face charges.

Moore and the other sponsors said they would not have supported him if they knew of his record.

Some of the sponsors he listed on the site, Cowboys for Christ, for example, never even heard of Fipps, O'Reilly said.

"What you're looking at is a committed liar who looks and talks the part," O'Reilly continued. "Everyone fell for it."

Everyone but Allen Russell, a horse rancher from Livingtson, Mont., who actually made the trip from Canada to Mexico on horseback and said Fipps' descriptions don't ring true.

The travel log on the Web site is vague, and he barely mentions his horses, Russell pointed out.

"Obviously this guy is a stinker," he said. "I'm proud of the ride I did and I find all this very insulting."

Russell picked up on little things, such as unrealistic suppers Fipps said he whipped up at camp after riding 20 miles -- rabbit dumplings one night and "country fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, corn bread and peach cobbler cooked in a dutch oven" another night.

When Russell made his journey, he attracted attention in just about every town he rode through and local newspaper reporters wrote about him.

But apparently no one spotted Fipps, Russell said, even though he claimed he had a trip partner, wranglers, a dog and several vehicles, including an RV, with "Cowboys Helping Kids" emblazoned on them.

"The whole thing smells from step one," Russell said. "Nothing sounds realistic. All of his terminology -- it's extremely obvious that it was all phony.

"I'm betting he couldn't even nail a horseshoe to the side of a barn."

The local FBI office said it was looking into the matter.

One sponsor, Ed Severance, owner of Rhino Linings who donated pickup bed liners, said he'd be willing to be a plaintiff in a class-action suit. He estimates he lost just over $800 in the scam.

But Moore, the Western wear dealer, doesn't want to bother.

"I'd rather not put the effort into it," he said. "Everything the guy has was donated to him. I don't think he has anything to sue for."