Tesla is named after the wrong guy. Its CEO clearly sounds just like the infamous Morrell.

About a year after opening up shop, federal investigators came banging on Morrell’s door in February 1908 to arrest him for using the U.S. mail to defraud; after being tipped off by disgruntled investors, investigators determined Morrell was running a massive airship racket. As he was hauled off to jail, Morrell shouted to a San Francisco Examiner reporter he was going to “revolutionize the methods of transportation of the universe.”

The inside of a courtroom became a familiar place for Morrell as he was hit again and again with fraud charges. But each time, he wriggled out of them and returned to his beloved airship.

Doesn’t “revolutionize the methods of transportation of the universe” sound familiar?

In spite of his massive failure, Morrell was undeterred. “I still believe that I had solved the problem of aerial navigation,” he said.

He hadn’t.

Ouch. So familiar.

And what about those fools now dumping money into a Cybertruck fiasco?

Morrell’s fiance rushed to his defense. Only identified as Miss A. Kern from San Francisco, the Tribune said she blamed “disobedience to the orders of Morrell” for the crash. According to National Airship Company employees, the woman had been quietly bankrolling Morrell’s folly for the past two years. In fact, she’d blown through $70,000 of her inheritance on his passion project and fell in love with the charismatic inventor along the way.

They demand obedience to charisma, even after catastrophic failure.