I went back to make sure what I thought I'd heard was indeed in the
Tom Brown's Body podcast. And yep, it's in Episode 2, "Tom's Loop." It doesn't appear in the
Texas Monthly article version, but in the podcast NL definitely can be heard telling Skip Hollandsworth that,
...he [Tom] saw me in the Rotary Club and he approaches me and he said, “Man, I’m sorry for – for that night, um.” And he told me he told his mother a lie. He said, “Man, I fibbed to my mother.” Because he, he told his mother that I was rude, I cussed at him, pulled a gun, he said all kind of stuff to his mom, and he said, “Man, I’m sorry for doing all that stuff.” And I said, “Tom, the past’s the past, man, don’t worry about it. Just always tell the truth.” And that’s all I told him. And I didn’t see him – I’ve never dealt with him ever since.
I'm just so curious about this. I know it's a small detail, but it reveals a LOT. I'm curious, how many of you believe this, that high school teenager Tom approached NL at a club event, initiated a conversation, apologized, and confessed to having lied to his mother about something which caused her to file a complaint with NL's boss about him?
I'd love to ask others who were at this particular event if they recall seeing Tom and NL in conversation. I know it has now been a long time (probably close to 6 years?) since it happened, but I'd be willing to bet people would remember having heard Tom give a speech, considering what eventually happened to him. Those kinds of things take on a significance in people's memories in retrospect. Did anyone witness this conversation?
It is completely inconsistent with how NL comes across, that he would not have pursued justice for himself after this supposed confession. It is also completely inconsistent with the way even the most mature teenagers behave. Tom was not a dumb kid...it seems unimaginable that he would have admitted something like this to NL before admitting it to his mom. As I said before, Tom would have had no way of knowing what NL would do with this information. Any halfway smart kid (which Tom obviously was) would assume he'd be in for a world of hurt, at least from his mother and maybe even the legal system.
Not to mention - think about it. Why would Tom even need to explain to NL that he'd "fibbed" to Penny??? NL was there on the night of the incident. If Tom had lied to PM about it, both he and NL would already would have known this.
To me this whole thing seems like an obvious lie. The question is WHY? Why did NL make up a story and also bring in the detail about "pulling a gun" on Tom when that was never part of PM's complaint?
Also - I'm so curious what PM has to say about this supposed confession from Tom. Has anyone ever asked her?