Don Lapre, Infomercial King, Dies in Apparent Suicide
by Free Britney at .Self-proclaimed "King of Infomercials" Don Lapre, who later went to jail after being arrested for conspiracy and fraud, was found dead Sunday morning.
His body was discovered in his Arizona jail cell after an apparent suicide.
Lapre, who has been a fixture on early AM TV hocking various products, was to be tried within days for allegedly selling millions in bogus vitamins.
Don was facing 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and promotional money laundering for hocking "The Greatest Vitamin in the World."
The FDA begged to differ with that description.
Concluding that Lapre was making wild claims about the vitamin that were simply unsupported by evidence, officials locked him up on MANY charges.
Lapre was accused of fleecing 220,000 people out of nearly $52 million. It's unclear how Lapre killed himself, but U.S. Marshals are investigating.
He was a staple on early a.m. TV for years with spots like the one above, in which the salesman tries to sell tiny classified ads out of his apartment.
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Comments (25 Total)
I remember this guy and his commercials, whenever they came on I could not change the channel fast enough! After seeing him for just very brief moments, and seeing how slick he was, I always felt oily and in need of a shower afterwards!
Lot of elderly got ripped off from this guy, he decided to killl himself and he killed the hearts of his loved ones and those who cared for him. I feel bad for his family, friends, and those he scammed, he was a coward and took the earthly easy way out, but his creator sees it in a different way.
RIP Don. I used to love his infomercials. It allowed me to dream again on some of my low spots. I love people who try and max out there lives. No one put a gun to Antibes head and made them purchase. He also refunded if you didn't want the program. My friend bought his course, he didn't make time to use it and they refunded him no problem. God bless his family, I will pray for you guys.
Deception never ends well. The family doesn't get to dictate how the public feels about that. He committed suicide rather than defend him self in court. He wasn't killed. I'm hoping everyone that was involved will be held accountable. These are not little charges, AND it happened over a long period of time.
Don was a very carismatic guy i remember watching him on tv in the 90s. Its sad that it had to end that way it did.Im shure he could have found a better way to make money.But u know what they say make your bed u haft to lay in it.