In 1996, a son of Charles Nordby contacted Dateline NBC to hopefully find a news media outlet willing to tell the story the local news media had "coward" out of. After making contact with Dateline NBC, he was instructed to send them information concerning the story that was now being dubbed in Sacramento as "THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD." A short time later, a representative of Dateline NBC, Deva Newman, contacted Jack Nordby to inform him that she had received the information that had been sent (Charles Nordby's book), and that she and her supervisors were very much interested in doing Nordby's story. She also indicated that Dateline NBC wanted to do an exclusive story.
Nordby's story had gone from a simple "turnaround" story of a local supermarket chain, to a story that involved corruption, collusion, and a "conspiracy of silence" within the local news media. Jack and Newman made contact through emails and telephone calls. However, it was only months after Newman first made contact with Jack Nordby that she became "silent."
Jack Nordby, knowing that Deva was no longer contacting him, came to realize that Dateline had also been influenced not to tell this story. But why? Jack Nordby wrote letters to the top people of NBC to find out why Dateline had abandoned a story that they initially indicated they were very much interested in telling. NBC wrote Jack Nordby claiming that it would be more appropriate for the local news media to present Nordby's story about Raley's. They even had the audacity to suggest that KCRA (Channel 3), an affiliate of NBC, where the news is brought to you by Raley's, should be the ones to tell this story. NBC's letter to Jack just didn't add up. Here are ten (10) good reasons why their letter didn't add up?
1) Charles Nordby's story is about Raley's stores of Sacramento, which was voted #1 supermarket by Consumer Reports through consumer responses. All Americans would like to know how Raley's became such a fine operating chain of stores. An acclaim that can be attributed directly to Mr. Nordby and his expertise in the grocery business.
2) Raley's is one of the most successful privately owned supermarket chains in America. All Americans would probably like to know how Raley's became so successful, especially knowing that they should have gone bankrupt in 1974.
3) Charles Collings was selected Chairperson to Billy Graham's Sacramento Crusade in the mid 90's. All Americans would like to hear the true story about Charles Collings and how his hiring of one man changed his life forever.
4) Charles Nordby's story also involves the Billy Graham crusade. All Americans would like to hear how one of the top people in the Billy Graham crusade probably had to make sure that Nordby wasn't going to get any media attention concerning his fraud lawsuit against Raley's and Charles Collings (we don't want Graham to be publicly embarrass knowing that his chairperson in Sacramento is just a fraud), before writing to Nordby and indicating his letter to them didn't influence their attitude about Mr. Collings chairperson role.
5) Charles Nordby's story about Raley's also involves the local news media (which now includes Dateline NBC). All Americans would like to hear about news media corruption and just how corrupt the news media can get!
6) Charles Nordby's story also involves a corrupt courthouse with crooked defense attorney's. But then, with the right amount of money, all courthouses are corrupted and by corrupt attorneys. All Americans would like to hear how Joyce Raley Teel (one of America's richest women) was able to avoid Nordby in his lawsuit against Raley's, in the courts, because crooked judges and crooked attorney's have made "justice for all," in America, only comes if the price is right. It was obvious Joyce Raley Teel was willing to spend whatever it took to stay out of court and out of the news. You would think that a company like Raley's with nearly 500 lawsuits on file in Sacramento County alone, would be more than willing to meet Nordby in a court of law to prove Nordby wrong. Raley's masterfully turned a court of law into a court of fraud with the rule of law being blatantly ignored by everyone involved.
7) Charles Nordby's story also involves a lot of Sacramento Businesses. All Americans would like to hear how local book publishers told Mr. Nordby that they would not have any part in publishing his book titled "Raley's Exposed, Who On Earth Saved Raley's?," because they do business with Raley's. One publisher told Mr. Nordby he would have to leave the Sacramento area to find somebody to publish his book.
8) Charles Nordby's story about Raley's also exposes Tom Raley (deceased owner of Raley's.) All Americans would be interested in knowing how a man who had mismanaged a chain of stores in Sacramento (a chain of stores that should have gone bankrupt in 1974), abuse two (2) of his wives while being married to them, become so successful and didn't even know the man who made him successful. Oh, by the way, one of the abused wives, Joan, was conveniently hidden from employees and the public when Raley's published their history book. All Americans would also be interested to know how a man like this could have his name placed on a 'Boys and Girls' club, along with having his last name attached to a minor-league baseball stadium.
9) Charles Nordby's story also involves a chain of stores called "Eagle Thrifty." All Americans would be interested in knowing about a chain of stores in Nevada that were losing money in 1973 and how Raley (they were going bankrupt in 1973), was able to buy this chain of stores right about the same time Charles Collings and Jim Teel hired Mr. Nordby to troubleshoot Raley's mismanaged operation. All Americans would be interested in knowing every detail about this purchase, including the little detail about Teel and Collings immediately setting up the Eagle Thrifty Corporation of Nevada at the end of June, 1973.
10) All Americans would be interested in knowing about the claim that Raley's made in their history book, that Tom Raley's big gamble in buying the "losing" Eagle Thrifty Chain of stores in Nevada (June of 1973), was the big event that took place that changed the image of Raley's, turned Raley's around, and made Tom Raley a millionaire several times over. It was nothing but a con-job-fraud.
Raley's surely couldn't credit Charles Nordby with saving their company in Raley's history book because that would have reminded Collings, Teel, and McMinn of the fraud they committed against Nordby. Plus, Nordby had been gone for nearly 15 years and they certainly didn't feel they had to answer to him. So, instead, they fabricated this great deal in buying the Eagle Thrifty stores (filthy stores and just as mismanaged as Raley's at the time), and made this the reason they became successful.
This Eagle Thrifty event took place at about the same time that Charles Nordby was hired. And by doing so, they tried to mislead their readers into believing these three (3) knuckleheads were grocery geniuses. All Americans would also be interested to find out if Raley's buying the Eagle Thrifty chain of Nevada was even a legitimate deal, or was it just a fraud in disguise and only designed for Collings and Teel to get their hands on some quick cash from this chain of stores before they intentionally bankrupted it?
The Eagle Thrifty Corporation would have disappeared just as quickly as the money that was being pulled out of the Eagle Thrifty stores payroll, with just a little trail being left behind after this chain of stores went bankrupt. Nobody would have even considered the possibility that this purchase (of filthy and thieve ridden stores) was just a fraud. How interesting that this bogus deal was only exposed because Raley's wanted to boast about it in their clever and deceitful history book. LOL
Raley's story in their history book just didn't add up. Talk about a couple of criminals going back to the scene of a crime. It would be interesting to find out if Tom Raley had any knowledge of him even buying the Eagle Thrifty Chain. They were the Enron of the 60's and 70's. Just this #10 alone should get Joyce Raley Teel to take the Nordby's to court and prove them wrong-with the facts. The Nordby's are ready to prove her wrong-with Raley's own words!
