he bluffed, was called, and quickly folded, end of story

If i remember correctly he didnt just pull back. he had some legal issues coming from Hanson and had to make a choice to prove it or shut up.

Truth be told, it cannot be told. They are asking the guy to prove he killed it legally. Now just how does one do that? I have never seen any report of proof of wrong doing. Add to that, vicious small town mentality, envy, jealousy, "I just don't like that guy."
I would have done the same thing. Because guess what? I get to look at that monster every day, and the only other people who get the honor of seeing it are who I let see it. Everyone else could KMA.
This whole mess has cheated the rest of us from seeing it. That is a shame.

Although I have met Mitch, I do not know him at all. I do know a friend of his that was one of the official scorers of that set of antlers. This guy said it was legit, and that is good enough for me. Did Mitch make some poor decisions in his life......well, which of us hasn't. His goof-ups , unfortunately, cast doubt on the guys credibility not only as a woodsman, but as a guy that you may, or may not, want living next door. I never heard any poaching stories about him. I was shown a photograph he took of a monster buck a year or two before he killed that buck in question. The scorer showed it to me. It was a massive heavy horned beast in a cedar swamp in the winter. When the news of that whopper hit, I asked the scorer if it was the buck in the photo I'd seen. It was not. Mitch lived and breathed big whitetails, he was obsessed with them and "hunted" big bucks year around. He is, without question, a heck of a big buck slayer, but he "hunts" them 24/7, 365 days a year.

I met Rompola at a hunting convention a couple years prior to him killing this deer.
Very interesting to chat with he certainly lived whitetail. At the time I met him he just
killed a huge 9 point I believe. He was promoting Buck Fever synthetic urine.
His routine that he used for mock scrapes was quite involved. Automatic battery
operated dripper and so on. I know after he killed that buck, Buck Fever was selling
a lot of urine before all the controversy. After meeting Mitch I did read a lot of his
writings. Hard core bow hunter. Never heard of him violating but did hear of some
wrong doings that I believe had nothing to do with hunting.
He was quite young when he took the Missouri state record.
Held the typical state record here in Michigan for some time. Lots of stories floated around
of hunters not being able to kill a certain buck and he was invited to hunt these deer and killed them.
Not sure what caused him to back out of recording this deer guess we may never know for sure.

Big deer sure brings out the jealousy in "trophy hunters". A simple "congrats " would be in order.

All this over a deer,I agree.I believe he shot that deer around '92,'93,and the controversy still surrounds it.And you should have seen it here when it first happened.