By FRED SWIFT
The County Line
I was sorry to read this week of the death of James O’Neal, Jr. Only longtime area residents are likely to remember this Carmel boy who showed great promise as an entrepreneur, but tried to rise too far too fast.
I knew Jim from the time he graduated from Carmel High School in the 1960s. He came from a prominent local family. His father, Jim O’Neal, Sr. was an insurance executive and longtime school board member.
Jim Jr. got the idea of starting a newspaper in Carmel while still in college. He did, in fact, launch the Carmel News Journal which served a real need in the growing community. Jim had dreams of building a chain of suburban papers. But, he left the business within a few years to move on to other pursuits. (The News Journal remained in business for over 20 years with editors John Klingensmith, Valerie Waters and Marty Spitz, each of whom maintained a strong “watchdog” editorial policy.)
By the early 1970s, Jim was organizing a bank named Carmel Bank and Trust Co. An attractive building was constructed on Carmel Drive, a building that now serves as a branch for Chase Bank. Jim left the banking business without having made his fortune, and moved to Florida.
He soon developed a new business that provided housing for Disney World employees. That seemed to prove pretty successful. Always personable, Jim was called a “charmer” in the Orlando press. Trying to get into really big business, Jim, along with some big-league investors including Arnold Palmer, developed a group of auto sales malls in Florida.
Jim seemed to have finally struck it rich, and reportedly lived accordingly. But, something went wrong and the business declared bankruptcy in the 1990s. Going through company records, Internal Revenue Service agents found evidence to charge Jim with tax fraud in 2002.
Sentenced to three and a half years in prison, he was also ordered to pay $8 million in restitution to his investors whose money he took. He had also had some minor scrapes with the law and his career in big business dealings was over. For the last 20 years Jim lived in relative obscurity in Florida.
It’s a sad story for a guy who had the smarts, the personality and the ambition to go far. Jim died last week at the age of 75. He will be returned to Carmel for services and burial.