Remember the case of former Blues hockey player
Mike Danton? In April 2004 Danton allegedly hired someone to kill his Canadian agent and mentor
David Frost. As it turned out, the hit man was really a police dispatcher who told the FBI about the plot.
Federal prosecutors in East St. Louis charged Danton with conspiracy to commit interstate murder-for-hire. Then, during his time in jail awaiting a court hearing, Danton and Frost reconciled. Once more they were buddy-buddy. Danton eventually pled guilty to the murder plot but refused to provide a motive or admit that he was targeting Frost.
It was confusing to everyone involved in the case, including U.S. District
Judge William D. Stiehl. Prior to sentencing Danton to 7.5 years in prison, Stiehl looked down from his bench to proclaim: "In over 18 years on the bench I have never been faced with a case as bizarre as this one."
Well, guess what judge? It gets stranger -- at least if you believe Danton's former agent David Frost. According to Frost, Danton is to soon begin writing on Frost's blog
Hockey God Online. Never mind that Danton is still in the penalty box so to speak with another year-and-half to go before he could be released from
federal prison for good behavior. For Frost, though, Danton's name alone might generate some much-needed hits for his blog.
The former hockey agent (Frost surrendered his agent's license a
few years back) bills his
blog as a no-holds-barred take on the NHL. Or in Frost's garbled
English, the blog features "Hockey's number # 1 bad boy controversial
figure former NHLPA agent Dave Frost. His behind the scenes expertise
look, that no one else will tell you about today's game."
Frost founded the site this past November, just three days before a
judge in Canada acquitted him on charges of sexual exploitation
stemming from a coaching gig he held in that country in mid-1990s.
According to reports,
Frost shared an apartment with several of his teenage players at the time and often
instructed the players to have sex with their girlfriends while he
watched. One woman testified that Frost would allow her former
boyfriend to have sex with her only if Frost also joined in on the
action.
Frosts relationship with Danton is also creepy. Danton was just eleven
when he started playing hockey for Frost in Canada and often spent periods traveling and staying with his former coach and agent. (The two
were sharing an apartment in suburban St. Louis when Danton
allegedly arranged to have Frost killed.) In a
letter from prison,
Danton says he thinks of Frost as more of a father figure than an
agent. Danton disowned his birth-family years ago. In 2002, he changed
his name from "Mike Jefferson" to "Mike Danton" to further disassociate
himself from his family in Canada.
The section of Frost's blog reserved for his former player,
Danton's Den,
has sat empty since the site went online in November. Curious as to
when we might expect a few posts from Danton, I e-mailed David Frost a few
weeks back. His two word reply? "Stay tuned!"
Uhh, okay. We're still waiting. In developing news...Frost's blog
now states that members of "Hockey God Online" will get first crack
at two soon-to-be-released books: "The True Story of Former NHLPA Agent
David Frost" and "When the Ice Melts" by Mike Danton. Maybe then Judge
Stiehl -- and the rest of us -- will finally get some answers to these
two men and their utterly bizarre relationship.