In January 1988, a man named Patrick Quinn won a total of $58,600 in cash over four days on the game show Super Password. What host Bert Convy and the studio audience didn’t know was that Quinn’s real name was Kerry Ketchem and he was a wanted felon. Ketchem's arrest came as the result of an investigation started when a bank manager in Anchorage, Alaska, called the Secret Service after seeing him on the show. He was discovered to have outstanding fraud warrants in Alaska and Indiana, and producer Robert Sherman was contacted by the Secret Service shortly thereafter. Around the same time, Ketchem — claiming that he was leaving the country on work-related business — called Mark Goodson Productions and asked if he could collect his winnings in person instead of having a check mailed to him, which is the standard procedure. Sherman said yes, with the knowledge of the Secret Service, and gave him a date and time. When Ketchem showed up to the Goodson offices he was apprehended and taken into custody by local officials. The arrest came two days after his appearances finished airing. Booked on the outstanding Indiana warrant, Ketchem was found to have used his "Patrick Quinn" alias (which came from the name of one of Ketchem's college professors) to commit credit card fraud in Alaska; to defraud a used car dealer; and to collect illegally on an insurance policy on the life of his ex-wife. Ketchem, who had previously spent 18 months in prison on an unrelated felony charge, agreed to a plea deal in May 1988 on charges of mail fraud. He was sentenced to five years in prison and his winnings were rescinded as he was ruled to have violated contestant eligibility rules. As for what Ketchem had to say: “I need the $58,000 to pay for a lawyer.”
