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He started telling people around the office that he wanted out of the family business. I'm on the hook for $15 million. Don't Shoot: George Bumb Sr., the publicity-shy patriarch of the Bumb family and creator of the Flea Market, in a rare photo which appeared in California Today magazine in 1980. The elder Bumb may not have been feeling well, but he wasn't too sick to remember who was boss in this family. Just so everyone got the point, Jeff Bumb announced to the press that he and Brian were divesting from Bay 101, and records show he eventually sold his shares for $1.4 million. OK--we didn't get out--OK? The teenagers had been drinking booze earlier in the night. In a fit, he took the paper he was writing on, crumpled it up and threw it out the office door. Along the way, Jeff raised the ante, hiring Frank Ubhaus, a lawyer who represented Garden City card club, Bay 101's crosstown rival. After learning of the incident, Jeff and wife Elizabeth did not report the matter to police immediately. And as with any divorce, embarrassing private details about the family and its businesses made their way into the public record. Snow White or Cinderella? But Jeff says the loan dispute screwed up their moving plans. The court saga evolved into a battle of wills between a father--a man who wouldn't even let the Vatican tell him what to do--and his oldest son, determined to break free from the old man's grasp. But his dream, which now seemed so close to being a reality, was about to become a nightmare. The two, she said, never talked about what was going on while it was happening. And that ain't happening because I can't afford it." And as with any divorce, embarrassing private details about the family and its businesses made their way into the public record. Ultimately, the charges against the older Bumb were reduced to a misdemeanor. Near the end Venzon writes, "They want to bring up the 'murder-for-hire' investigation again. It did the unthinkable: ON AUG. 11, 1995, Jeff sat in his Flea Market office scribbling on a piece of paper, plotting his grand return to his peach palace. Matthew is the kind of guy a relative described to police as "polite," the guy parents wanted their daughters to date. The elder Bumb may not have been feeling well, but he wasn't too sick to remember who was boss in this family. Even though all the lights were out, she told police that she knew it was Matthew "because the moonlight shined into the room through the large windows that faced the ocean." The guy doesn't get a slap on the hand." "I mean," Jeff later said at a deposition, "it was a time of hurt and heartache for us--and not my father, not my mother, not my brother George, not my brother Tim, not Brian could care less." she said, referring to the family-run Catholic school at the Flea Market. Toward the end of the call, things got heated. "My issue with [George Bumb Sr.]," Jeff Bumb complains about his father, "was his control of where you lived, what kind of house you bought, where your children went to school, who your friends are, whether your children went to college, who they would marry, what kind of wedding they would have." It did the unthinkable: In fact, Tim and George had to agree not to collaborate with other Bumbs on any new business venture. When Jeff and Brian were denied licenses for Bay 101, Tim (above) and brother George Jr. jumped in. The elder Bumb may not have been feeling well, but he wasn't too sick to remember who was boss in this family. "I mean," Jeff later said at a deposition, "it was a time of hurt and heartache for us--and not my father, not my mother, not my brother George, not my brother Tim, not Brian could care less." "My wife broke the code," he says, "and I supported her." The Bumbs had a plenty of experience with a cash business through the Flea Market, which they've run for almost 40 years. Preventive Medicine: George Bumb Jr. is a co-owner of Bay 101, where a snakebite kit is kept on-hand as a family joke. His crimes included taking valuables from the bereaved family members of dead crime victims while pretending to console them. During the Venzon investigation, San Jose police dug up an old file from November 1990 in which Venzon, a sheriff's deputy, had reported his department-issued Smith & Wesson 9 mm automatic stolen. Well, guess what? "And when I visited you at your home I told you that other than God you are the only person I've gotten down on my knees for," Venzon says on page 7. George Bumb Sr.'s loan-repayment demands came in July 1996, just as his oldest son and his wife were about to move to Los Gatos and break away from the family and its eastside enclave. Police reports would suggest she had, "for about a year," been giving "blow jobs" to 19-year-old Matthew Bumb, son of George Bumb Jr. But the Bumbs are hardly traditional political players. It did the unthinkable: Jeff's daughter interrupted Matthew and said, "And I didn't know better. she said, referring to the family-run Catholic school at the Flea Market. On March 17, 1993, the City Council gave Bumb and his partners the green light to open a 40-table card room on a 10-acre plot of land off U.S 101. And Jeff himself had been playing poker since he was 12. They recorded the conversation. Meanwhile, Jeff and his lawyers spent 15 months trying get his father to appear at a deposition. Almost four months later, on July 21, 1998, George Bumb Sr. appeared in the downtown offices of Berliner Cohen to have his deposition taken. Eight days after the molestation incident was reported to police--and one day after Jeff Bumb formally refused his father's $6.9 million buyout offer--George Bumb Sr. sent Jeff a curt typewritten memo informing Jeff that he was terminated effective immediately and had to clean out his desk before 5pm. ON AUG. 11, 1995, Jeff sat in his Flea Market office scribbling on a piece of paper, plotting his grand return to his peach palace. His crimes included taking valuables from the bereaved family members of dead crime victims while pretending to console them. In her 10 years as the Flea Market's community relations specialist, Bryant has come to adore the lack of pretension among this clan of millionaires who have their offices in a mobile home where none of the furniture seems to match. George Bumb Sr.'s loan-repayment demands came in July 1996, just as his oldest son and his wife were about to move to Los Gatos and break away from the family and its eastside enclave. But his dream, which now seemed so close to being a reality, was about to become a nightmare. "I don't need their help," he barked at Werner. You know the school we went to?" The teenagers had been drinking booze earlier in the night. Deputy chief Tom Wheatley says that police wondered if Venzon, or someone, destroyed the barrel to prevent a ballistics test from tracing a fired bullet to the gun. Along the way, Jeff raised the ante, hiring Frank Ubhaus, a lawyer who represented Garden City card club, Bay 101's crosstown rival. (Tim Bumb, the school's director, says it was put there to save on rent. The investigation was given a shot in the arm after the arrest of Johnny Venzon in 1997, a cop who made headlines for burglarizing homes while on duty to pay for his mounting gambling debts. attorney Frank Ubhaus asked the Bumb patriarch. Meanwhile, Jeff and his lawyers spent 15 months trying get his father to appear at a deposition. In her 10 years as the Flea Market's community relations specialist, Bryant has come to adore the lack of pretension among this clan of millionaires who have their offices in a mobile home where none of the furniture seems to match. It's like we had no life except for the family." At one point in the investigation, sheriff's detectives had Jeff's daughter call Matthew while he was working at the Flea Market to confirm the sexual activities. And he [Jeff] wants me to violate the condition which says in it that I sign away my rights and they close us down. At the time, Jeff was in the midst of negotiating an arrangement to be bought out of the family businesses. You know the school we went to?" Police reports would suggest she had, "for about a year," been giving "blow jobs" to 19-year-old Matthew Bumb, son of George Bumb Jr. "And when I visited you at your home I told you that other than God you are the only person I've gotten down on my knees for," Venzon says on page 7. Tim and George, under pressure from then Police Chief Lou Cobarruviaz, had already signed an agreement a year earlier that prohibited Brian, Jeff and their father from having anything to do with the card room. "They had to find Snow White and Cinderella," Tim Bumb says, "and that was George and I." EVERY DAY THE CLUB stayed closed, the Bumbs lost more money. Tim, the second youngest of George Bumb's four boys, was already running the family toy business, Fact Games, and Premium Pet Stores. Preventive Medicine: George Bumb Jr. is a co-owner of Bay 101, where a snakebite kit is kept on-hand as a family joke. But Jeff and his family started hearing that instead of showing concern and support for his daughter, George Bumb Sr. and others in the family were blaming his freshman daughter for the incident and not her adult-age cousin. In fact, on the day he was arrested, records show that Venzon pawned a 14-karat-gold diamond cluster ring and a ladies' gold tennis bracelet for a total of $298 at American Precious Metals, a jewelry store at the Flea Market run by Joseph Bumb. Jeff himself was hit with a federal grand jury investigation over financial transactions in connection with a multimillion-dollar residential development near Silver Creek Road. she said, referring to the family-run Catholic school at the Flea Market. Along the way, Jeff raised the ante, hiring Frank Ubhaus, a lawyer who represented Garden City card club, Bay 101's crosstown rival. Preventive Medicine: George Bumb Jr. is a co-owner of Bay 101, where a snakebite kit is kept on-hand as a family joke. Within weeks, Jeff says, his six-month-old dog was dead, his cat was dead and the tires of a family car were slashed. Originally he was scheduled for questioning on March 10, 1997, but the old man's lawyers explained that their client was extremely ill, suffering from "severe life-threatening conditions," practically on his death bed. In response to Jeff's legal attacks, George Bumb Sr. and Bumb & Associates filed two separate suits of their own to collect nearly $1 million in loans and interest they claimed Jeff never paid. "He took care of it." Tim, the second youngest of George Bumb's four boys, was already running the family toy business, Fact Games, and Premium Pet Stores. Before the end of the month, the Flea Market laid off Jeff's daughters Anne and Rebecca. George Bumb Sr., an avid card player, held a regular weekly family poker game at his home. According to Jeff, there was tremendous pressure from his father and others in the family to keep the incest a secret. The ensuing delay forced Jeff Bumb to lay off 600 workers he had hired. THINGS WERE certainly simpler back in the old days, before Bay 101, when the Bumbs were known for the Berryessa Flea Market, the family-owned business started in 1960 by 75-year-old family patriarch George Bumb Sr. Police reports would suggest she had, "for about a year," been giving "blow jobs" to 19-year-old Matthew Bumb, son of George Bumb Jr. "The thing they probably value most is their privacy," Bryant explains.