'Gary from Chicago' and his fiancée Vicki stole the show when Jimmy Kimmel brought their Hollywood tour group into the Oscars. But as it turns out, he's a convicted felon who'd just served 20 years in prison.
Apparently, the tourists really were just randomly picked up that day . . . because just two days before, he was still behind bars.
Gary's full name is Gary Allan Coe, and he served 20 years . . . for stealing PERFUME. The harsh sentence is because it was his third strike. He had been convicted of grand theft exceeding $400 a few years before the perfume.
And he also had a prior from 1975 for attempted rape, which is obviously a very serious offense. He was a teenager at the time, and it required him to register as a sex offender. But for whatever reason he wasn't sentenced in that case.
But Gary's being up front about his past. He says, quote, "If you don't give up on yourself, anything can happen. People let public opinion crush them, but I served my time. I'm a changed man."