Cowboy Ray
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Cowboy Ray" born as Raymond Hofstatter was a regular caller and contributor to Mancow's Morning Madhouse, a syndicated radio talk show hosted by Erich "Mancow" Muller, who was a radio morning drive shock jock for Q101 (WKQX-FM) in Chicago.
Hofstatter, age 45, was discovered by Mancow Muller after numerous calls to the show made by Hofstatter had supposedly revealed to Muller that he was a mentally challenged man who hadn't left his mother's house for several years. Hofstatter became famous and admired by the fans and staff of Mancow's Morning Madhouse and became a show favorite despite Hofstatter's living condition and inability to function as a typical man of his age. His on-air antics include mischievous phone scams; calling Old Navy to enlist, and crack up skits; singing Gloria Gaynor’s legendary disco tune "I Will Survive" on the air with his sidekick, "Crazy Mary."
Hofstatter was critically injured in a hit-and-run accident while walking out of Bohica Bar and Grill, a local watering hole on Chicago's southwest side on November 20, 2005. Although this story was eventually confirmed by the Chicagoland news media, it was initially greeted with skepticism - about two years earlier, Muller faked Ray's death for several months to explain his absence from the show. He was kept on life support since that time only to tell his mother he was "sorry for everything bad he had ever done to her".
On January 11, 2006, Hofstatter had his life support unplugged and died shortly thereafter at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago. The show that day was dedicated in his memory. Muller has offered a $23,000 (as of mid-January 2006) reward pertaining to the arrest of the driver. The hit-and-run death of Hofstatter was featured on the Fox TV show America's Most Wanted on February 26, 2006. To this day, the driver of the vehicle and killer of Cowboy Ray has yet to be found.
