Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
Salt Life Clothing Founder Shoots His Girlfriend - The Michael Hutto story
Tue, 04 Feb 2025
This is the story of Michael Hutto, the founder of Salt Life, and his manslaughter conviction.
Who is Michael Hutto and why is he in the news?
Have you heard of that clothing company Salt Life? Well the founder of that company just unalived someone and had a mental breakdown. Now the founder, his name's Michael and he and some other guys co-founded the clothing company Salt Life and they make clothes for like surfers and stuff. You've probably seen their stickers on cars at some point and mistakenly thought it said Salt Life.
Anywho, so Michael co-found Salt Life and later ends up selling the company for $40 million. So the dude is rich now. He is rolling in the money. But one day, all that changes. Because Michael, he's out riding an ATV. And then kaboom, he crashes it. So he decides to start going to the gym for physical therapy. And there at the gym is where he meets this woman, the woman of his dreams, Grace.
Grace works at the gym and Michael thinks she is foint, but there's a problem. Michael, not only is he already married, he's also 54 years old, while Grace is 18. But Michael, he's like, whatever, if Leonardo DiCaprio can get away with it, why can't I? So he starts trying to riz her up, and surprisingly, Grace is into it. She thinks Michael's old ass is foint.
So they start flirting at the gym and then they start going out on dates and pretty soon they start smashing on the regular. And he's calling her his girlfriend. And they even start working on some business together. Now, Grace's parents, they definitely have strong opinions about their daughter dating a man literally three times her age.
And one day, she calls them and she's like, hey, I'm going out of town with my old ass boyfriend this weekend. We're going on a business trip to Daytona. And her parents certainly aren't happy with this. But she's technically an adult, so there's nothing they can do. So Michael and Grace, they leave Lake City and they go on their trip to Daytona.
And Grace's parents, they don't hear from her for like a whole day. And they start to get paranoid. So they report her missing. And a local police officer, he comes over to their house to follow up with them. And while the officer's there, Grace actually calls her parents. And she lets them know she's fine.
But oddly, Grace sounds really strange on the phone, almost like she's been drugged or something. And her parents are like, all right, this is all very weird. And they ask police to do a welfare check on her. So police, they start looking for her. A day or so later, Grace calls her parents again.
And she says she's fine and that they're now going from Daytona to go visit some friends in the Florida Keys. Now, on their way to the Florida Keys, Grace and Michael decide to stop at Singer Island and have, you know, a day at the beach. After their day at the beach, they head back to their hotel room. And this is where things start to get weird.
Because allegedly, here is where Grace and Michael start partying. Little drugs, little alcohol. Allegedly. And at some point, they start playing this little game with their hands, like finger guns, like you would do as a kid. And I guess they're pretending to, like, shoot each other, and they're sort of doing it back and forth, and I guess they find it hilarious. I don't know.
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