The duo placed flowers on the dumpster at Soper’s East County complex and said their tearful goodbyes to their friend. On Friday, Soper – accompanied by his friend, Inocente Izucar, the former homeless teenager-turned-star of the Oscar-winning documentary short, “Inocente” – made good on that promise.
“I’m going to buy a bouquet of flowers and put them next to the dumpster where we first met,” Soper added. He’s also going to pay tribute to Hannah at the site in La Mesa where their friendship started. He hopes the funeral includes a release of doves since Hannah loved the birds. Soper, who can't travel to Georgia due to his brain injury, said he plans to cover the funeral expenses for his friend. Hannah is survived by his wife and children. "Rufus would call me all the time and encourage me," he said. He, too, was a pillar of support for Soper, especially after Soper was involved in a car crash that left him with a traumatic brain injury. Soper said his friendship with Hannah went both ways. Don't be afraid of them they're human beings.'" "He would tell me, 'Don't give them money, just say hello. "He taught me about kindness, especially with the homeless," Soper said. Soper described his longtime friend as a man with a "soft soul and a huge heart." “He taught me that we all needed to look at the homeless more kindly, that it could’ve been your mother or your brother. “He worked with the National Coalition for the Homeless as an advocate because he had lived that life himself,” said Soper. Hannah had also been advocating on behalf of the homeless. Soper said Hannah had five children, one of whom died, also in a car crash. In recent years, Hannah had returned to his hometown in Georgia to reconnect with his adult children. "He took care of the complex like it was his place," Soper told NBC 7. Soper hired Hannah to serve as the assistant manager at his La Mesa apartment complex, a job he held, with pride, for about six years. With Soper’s support, Hannah eventually turned his life around. In their first exchange, Soper learned of Hannah’s life as “Rufus the Stunt Bum,” and about his involvement in “BumFights.” Soper first met Hannah in the early 2000s when he noticed him sifting through a dumpster inside a La Mesa apartment complex owned by Soper.
Soper said the book is reportedly the basis for a movie that's has been in pre-production for about four years.
His story – co-written by Soper – was chronicled in the book, “A Bum Deal: An Unlikely Journey from Hopeless to Humanitarian." McPherson and Tanner – then 31 and 33 years old, respectively – were ultimately released. The duo said they had planned to send the odd items to friends.Īs for Hannah, he spent the last 15 years cleaning up his life, getting sober and getting himself off the streets. McPherson and Tanner ran into bizarre legal trouble again in November 2014 when they allegedly tried to ship preserved human parts from Thailand to Las Vegas.īangkok police confiscated three packages labeled “toys” from the men that contained an infant’s head, a baby’s foot, and an adult heart. Two years later, McPherson and one other defendant were sentenced to 180 days in jail for failing to perform that community service. The four filmmakers were arrested and charged with making “BumFights.” In 2003, they were placed on probation and sentenced to perform community service at a homeless shelter. The video quickly rose to notoriety, with the filmmakers selling more than 300,000 copies online and making millions of dollars. “BumFights” was produced by La Mesa-area high school student Ryan McPherson and fellow filmmakers Daniel Tanner, Zack Bubeck and Michael J. What It's Like to Spend Christmas Eve on Candy Cane Lane