Bernard, The Beef Jerky of Baltimore

Bernard, the Beef Jerky Baron of Baltimore, was an independent businessman whose small meat smoking plant turned into global empire almost overnight. Unfortunately, as his beef jerky business became more and more successful, his love of money became more and more apparent. He cut his workers lunch break to only 15 minutes, then cut their pay by nearly two thirds.

He wouldn’t allow them to take any time off unless it was a federally mandated holiday. He even refused to open the windows in the sweltering factory because it would cause his industrial smokers to become less efficient. But perhaps worst of all, Bernard wore the finest Italian made suits while his workers barely made enough money to afford patches to cover the holes in their worn out clothing. Something had to change…and it did, late one October night.

As Bernard was closing up shop for a long, federally mandated holiday weekend, he was pushed into one of his beloved industrial smokers and the door was shut and locked behind him. When his body was discovered that following Monday, the smoker has slow cooked him into a 6’2” slab of jerky. Indeed, Bernard had now become the beef jerky Beef Jerky Baron of Baltimore.

While Bernard’s factory is long gone, some claim that even today you can often catch a glimpse of his ghost roaming the streets of Baltimore where his factory once stood. He is easily identified by his fine Italian clothing, leathery completion, ectoplasmic vapors that smell like hickory, and his haunting cry of “Peppered of teriyaki!”