Oct. 19: John DeLorean busted for $24 million drug deal on this date in 1982

By the time federal agents slapped handcuffs on John Z. DeLorean in a Los Angeles airport motel on this date in 1982, where he had just moments before proposed a toast to a $24 million deal built by a supposed cocaine smuggler, the best of DeLorean's years were already in the rear view mirror. His DeLorean Motors was teetering on collapse; his social notoriety as a flamboyant auto executive would soon make his trial a media circus. Yet DeLorean remained upbeat, even after spending 11 days in jail. After a lengthy trial, DeLorean won acquittal, convincing a jury the government entrapped him. The collapse of DMC left him fighting legal battles for much of the rest of his life, but DeLorean kept planning for a new model that never materialized. Here's his account of his own career, in a rare speech from 2000: