Our story begins modestly enough. In one of my few moments of relative calm, I was sent a link to the “Tiger Mike memos,” now somewhat famous in Internet-land because, well, they’re awfully mean in a funny, “thank God I never had to work for this jerk” kind of way.

What piqued my interest is that the memos were written at an oil company called Tiger Oil in the late 1970s. If I had gone to work at Tiger Oil straight out of high school, I too might have been subject to such gems as “Handwriting takes much longer than a typewriter — you’re wasting your time, but more importantly, you’re wasting my time.
If you don’t know how to type, you’d better learn.”

But, as with most things on the Internet, one can’t just assume that these things are legitimate. Not even Wikipedia, that dubious but thorough source of all information, brought up any mention of Tiger Oil Co. or its infamous boss, Edward Mike “Tiger Mike” Davis. Additional digging was in order.

Initially Google wasn’t much help either — other than several sources of “Tiger Mike” memos, the only reference to this guy I could find were a few court cases, either suing him for late payments on leases or his filing for Chapter 11 in 1980. But then I hit paydirt.

Yes, it was a blog, but it illuminated aspects of Davis’ life that were as of yet not well understood. For instance, prior to terrifying his poor Houston-based staff, Davis also had Denver connections, actually marrying 69-year-old Helen Bonfils after acting as her chauffeur for several years. Despite her highly contested will, Davis earned enough money to dabble in oil and gas, at least for awhile.

More weird news was to follow. The gentleman who forwarded us the original memos got a response from one of his readers informing us that Davis was born in Lebanon, had no education, emigrated to the US, and drove taxis in Denver. He was originally hired by Bonfils’ husband and remained her chauffeur after his death. Once he inherited part of her fortune, he invested in several drilling rigs. Later this business, known as Tiger Drilling Co., was bought out by Cleveland Cliffs, lining Davis’ pockets even further. As a newly minted “oil baron,” he proceeded to drill 49 dry holes and went broke.

This is perhaps the most troubling part of this missive: “Tiger Mike’s wardrobe consisted of only one-piece khaki polyester leisure suits with white shoes and white belt.”

Another article indicates that he later turned up in Las Vegas and helped broker a deal between Roger Parker, chairman and chief executive of Delta Petroleum,
and Kirk Kerkorian, a Vegas billionaire.

The final shot of weirdness came when I discovered that both my former executive editor, Don Lyle, and my father-in-law, Herb Duey, knew this character. Luckily, neither of them had to work for him.

Space does not allow for a full retelling of the infamous memos. But I’ll share a couple of the doozies with you:
• “On days when you have to work, and you think you should be off, you wear slouchy dress attire. That will not occur in the future. You will wear proper dress attire to work always. Also, all employees should have the proper attitude to coincide with proper dress, especially on those days when you’re working and think you should be off.”
• “Idle conversation and gossip in this office among employees will result in immediate termination. Don’t talk about other people and other things in this office. DO YOUR JOB AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!”
• “Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you sons-of-bitches.”
• “Per Edward Mike Davis’ orders, there will be no more birthday celebrations, birthday cakes, levity, or celebrations of any kind within the office.”
For a link to the memos, visit our Web site, www.epmag.com.