A Wichita crab restaurant, its bizarre story are part of a juicy new Showtime docu-series
Back in June, I reported that several Wichita restaurants appeared to be closed, including Krab Kingz Seafood at 784 N. West St.
At the time, I wrote that the restaurant had been open at least through April but that the phone number was disconnected, the decor was gone and my calls to the owner, Karla Neumann-Campbell, had not been returned.
Now, it’s all starting to make a whole lot more sense. As it turns out, Karla and Wichita’s Krab Kingz restaurant were tangled up in a story so compelling, it fills an entire episode of a buzzed-about new Showtime docu-series called “Love Fraud.”
The four-part series, which outlines the alleged misdeeds of Richard Scott Smith and the dozens of women he romanced, married and allegedly swindled out of an estimated $1 million, premiered on the channel on Aug. 30. The finale airs at 8 p.m. on Sunday.
But the second episode, which originally aired on Sept. 6 and is titled “Wichita,” focuses on Neumann-Campbell and the strange tale of how she met Smith and opened the Wichita restaurant with him.
The episode includes interviews with Neumann-Campbell, several of her former employees — including with one who started a romantic relationship with Smith, too — and footage from the restaurant taken by a private detective trying to track Smith down.
It also includes a brief glimpse of the Dining With Denise blog as one of the characters scrolls through a story I wrote about Krab Kingz in early 2018. And there’s audio in the documentary of an interview I did about the restaurant as part of my regular segment on “The Drive” with Bob Lutz and Jeff Lutz on KNSS radio.
In February 2017, Smith was charged with identity theft and forgery in Johnson County after a Shawnee woman reported to police that he had, among other crimes, bought two cars in her name and emptied a joint bank account. The woman also had agreed to marry Smith, she told the Kansas City Star, but later learned that he was already married to another Olathe woman.
The documentary makers reported that Smith, a serial online dater, was married to at least 10 women, some of them simultaneously. It shows how several of the women banded together to track him down with the help of a tough-as-nails Olathe-based female bounty hunter.
As a result of their efforts, Smith was arrested in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2018. He was sentenced to prison and released in April, according to the series.
On Thursday, I finally reached Neumann-Campbell by phone, and she filled me in on more of the story.
Her dealings with Smith started in November 2017, when he wooed her at a Kansas City karaoke bar, she said, and ended in April 2018, when he disappeared a month after Krab Kingz opened. Neumann-Campbell had left her husband of 39 years, Jim, to move to Wichita with Smith, and according to the documentary, emptied Jim’s bank account in the process.
She hasn’t seen Smith since, she said.
Neumann-Campbell told me she hasn’t watched the documentary yet and has decided she won’t until all four of the episodes have aired and she can take them in all at once.
She said the restaurant was able to survive Smith, though it never fully recovered after he left town and took all of the money from the restaurant’s accounts with him, she said.
But the restaurant could not survive COVID-19, she said, and she closed it in April.
“I feel like he was the beginning of the fall, and then the COVID did me in,” she said.
Though she regrets her entanglement with Smith, she said on Thursday, she doesn’t regret the time she spent in Wichita.
“I loved Wichita and I loved meeting everybody,” she said. “It was an awesome experience for me. I always try to look at the good and not the bad.”
Restaurant dreams
Neumann-Campbell said she filmed her part in “Love Fraud” a year ago.
She recounted how she first met Smith both to me and to the producers of the documentary.
Her marriage had cooled, and her husband wasn’t as affectionate as she’d like, she said. She was out at a Kansas City karaoke bar when she met Rick, who took her hand and invited her to sing a Tim McGraw song with him.
After that, he appeared smitten. In a short time, Neumann-Campbell was, too.
“He had a vivacious personality, and we went everywhere. I met all kinds of people, I did. I had the time of my life with him, so I just felt like this was meant to be,” she tells the camera.
Neumann-Campbell harbored a dream of opening a seafood restaurant, and in short order, Smith told her they should move to Wichita and do just that. She left her husband, planning to file for divorce, and followed Smith. The documentary includes a voice recording of Smith telling her Wichita was the perfect spot for a seafood restaurant.
“Red Lobster is the only real competition. Nobody else has done the dine-in, sit-down and serves fast casual seafood,” he tells her in the recording. “We’re gonna do it.”
In the documentary, Neumann-Campbell says that Smith used her name to set up the restaurant and apply for a business credit card to open it.
Eagle business reporter Carrie Rengers first caught wind of Krab Kingz plans for Wichita in January 2018. She spoke to Smith, who referred to himself as Mickey Smith, for a story published on Jan. 11. He told Rengers he planned to open at least two Krag Kingz restaurants in Wichita.
In February 2018, I learned that the restaurant had signed a lease for the space at 784 N. West St., where Emilia’s Family Restaurant and Pie Shop had operated for 30 years. Just before opening day in March of that year, I stopped by to take a photo and found Smith there. He wouldn’t let me take his picture but he did share the menu.
The restaurant was crowded during its first few weeks in business, but then it started to slow down. The documentary delves into the turmoil happening behind the scenes, including bouncing paychecks and a side romance Smith quickly started with an employee.
The episode wraps up at Wichita bar A&J’s Music Room. Neumann-Campbell is shown singing karaoke there, and her husband, Jim, who she never divorced, is there with her.
As she sings “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues, he watches, and then the two slow-dance together.
Jim reveals that they’ve reunited.
“When you love somebody, you hope for the best. You always hope it will work,” he says. “She went out on me, but you’re supposed to be able to forgive, and I love her.”
On Thursday, Neumann-Campbell said she and Jim are still together and living in Kearney, Missouri. She’s not working now but says she wouldn’t rule out opening another restaurant someday.
According to media reports, Smith was last spotted in Johnson County in August of this year.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
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