From a too-brief article called Evel Knievel and a Shit Named Joe Eszterhas from a writer who was supposed to find Evel Kneivel:

“From the other end of the phone came a sigh: “Peter, I don’t want or need Rolling Stone to do a story on me after all these years. In 1974 Rolling Stone sent a shit named Joe Eszterhas to write a story about me when I attempted to make my Snake River Canyon jump. And when the story came out, the title of the story was ‘King of the Goons.’ It hurt, it hurt very much, and I know a thing or two about pain. Now, I’m not judging your insides by the cover of your magazine. I’m sure you’re a decent human being. And God knows we all make mistakes. [Pause.] I made some of my biggest live on national television. But Rolling Stone made a mistake when they ran that story.”

I am now instantly and utterly fascinated by Evel Kneivel, and regret not having been so while he was still alive. I have renamed one of my plants Evel. (For the recond, that makes them Cosma the pitcher plant, Doc the ambiguous straggly one and Evel née Romeo the philodendron. Senator Dallaire, what have you done for me lately?)

Futher, from Wikipedia,

Knievel ended high school after his sophomore year and got a job with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator in the copper mines. He was promoted to surface duty where he drove a large earth mover. Knievel was dismissed when he made the earth mover do a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte’s main power line. The incident left the city without electricity for several hours. Idle, Knievel began to get into more and more trouble around Butte.