It is with deep regret and sadness that I relay the passing of Ray McKee. Ray was a long time collector and at one time had one of the most prominent restraint collections in the world. In the mid 1980s Ray sold his collection. During his early years, Ray located and identified some of the rarest items known to the hobby and certainly helped many collectors by passing on his knowledge and expertise.
Additionally Ray was a gifted machinist and made several one of a kind items that were spectacular. In about 2004, Ray decided to start collecting again and was quick to gain the attention of many of us as that darn high bidder on ebay. I personally got to know Ray about seven years ago. It was like opening an encyclopedia of knowledge. When I mentioned a strange cuff or senior collector, Ray always knew what and who I was talking about.
Last year Ray attended the Indy lock show and it was such a treat to meet him personally. Ray was genuinely nice man who loved his family and friends and of course the hobby.
Good bye my friend. You will be missed.
Damon
The first time I met Ray (so I thought) was a few months after a jail escape I did In a small city outside of Pittsburgh. He watched the P.M. Magizine segment (tv show) the escape was on, and wrote a letter to the station for my contact information. They denied his request without contacting me. This is especially funny because I only lived 20 ish miles away and was listed in the phone book, but he had no idea I lived in the area ( it gets better). Finally, after he persisted in contacting the TV station, the station forwarded his request. Later hecsaid he sent a bunch of letters before they helped.
So I opened this letter asking for my contact info and called him. He invited me to his home. When I arrived he informed me that we should be quiet because his wife was upstairs in bed and I'll. (she had emphizema) So we went down to the basement. In the basement there was a wall of really cuffs. There was also a couch and a table. We sat at the table. He went into another room and brough out a half dozen cuffs. He asked me to inspect them while he quizzed me on my knowledge of jail locks, handcuffs, and locksmithing. I was gingerly handling his cuffs.. That was the correct thing to do as I found out. This was really a test. He said "I'm glad you know how to handle the metal without scratching or hitting them. Now we can really look at the collection".
He went into the other room again and wheeled-out 4, folding display boards on wheels. When he opened them I saw what I thought were a LOT of identical handcuffs. He said "I spend a lot of time making sure my collection is complete" then he pointed-out there were 127 (as I remember) of the exact same Japanise cuff including 127 different keys... And he had them all, making for a complete set.
Then he slid-open the table, which o never duspected as a hide-a-way and inside were several dozen cuffs he paid various machinists to make because he couldn't fond them on the open market. He explained that all his spare time was taken-up coorsponding with police departments and manufacturers all ofer the world but he just couldn't find the ones in the table.
After that he called attention to the wall, which was about 18 feet long. We inspected a few hundred cuffs hanging on the wall. I thought the tour was over but he asked if I could stay longer. He invited me to look at any cuff I wanted to because he knew I would take care but he needed to go check on his wife. Half an hour later he came back downstairs and said that I was in-for a real treat.
Meanwhile, I had mentioned that he looked familiar to me, by this time, about 4 times.
So he said that he probably had 6 tons of metal "down here". I remarked that the floor should probably be fortified. He smiled. He said that he did reinforce the floor to take 10 tons, if necessary. Then the real fun began. Peas there 5 hours already and couldn't imagine how much more fun we could have.
So he asked me whatever I saw that I keep it a secret. And I have till now because, since he's gone, it doesn't matter. The secret was that the double wall where the cuffs hung was really a front for a secret room that contained another 300 antiquities and super-cuffs. The walls slid sideways. It was a beautiful thing. There were no clues that tracks, rollers or secret anything existed.
As the walls slid open interior lighting bounced off the metal in a way that made the experience look like the opening of a pirate chest full of gold. The room wasn't that deep but I could imagine the contractors pouring cement through a window into the basement and the neighbors scratching their heads.
Locks of all sizes, handcuffs, jail locks, story locks and more. Hundreds of more.
Then Ray lamented that he would have been an escape artist except that his wrists were too big. We compared wrists. He told me he was jealous my wrists were so small compared to his. He was right. He probably could have been an escape artist had his wrists and hands been smaller. He was only an inch taller than me but o am small boned and he was big boned.
Since that time I visited his house several times and we did some horse trading but only half the time. The rest of the visits all we did was talk metal. Hours of inspecting, picking, shimming and comparing metal.
Then one day I figured- out why Ray looked so familiar to me. He worked at the Giant Eagle Grocery Store in the produce department and I had been buying my produce from him for 5 years. About the third time I was at the Eagle, after my initial visit to his home, Ray smiled and said hello. Before that I didn't connect "the produce guy" with the hsndcuff collector.
Needless to say, after that I met him many times for lunch. After all, I could walk to his work on about 5 minutes!
Rest in peace, Ray.
