The most mysterious character in Parks & Recreation was Ron Swanson, who was very protective of his personal life and more, which has made fans believe he was hiding something, and he might have been a criminal. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, Parks & Recreation premiered on NBC in 2009 and came to an end in 2015 after seven seasons and a rough start. The first season wasn’t well-received as the writers struggled to find the right tone for the series and the characters, particularly Leslie Knope, but they eventually did and subsequent seasons were better received, and now Parks & Recreation is considered one of the best TV shows of the decade.
Parks & Recreation followed the daily lives of the crew at the Parks Department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, led by the always optimist Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). The series allowed viewers to know Leslie’s friends and coworkers quite well, with many of them becoming fan-favorites, as happened with Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman). The latter was a one-of-a-kind character in Pawnee as he kept an emotionless face, was brutally honest and hated the government even though he worked for it. Ron was also extremely protective of his personal information, to the point where Leslie struggled to learn when his birthday is, but that over-protective attitude might have a dark reason to be.
A Parks & Recreation fan shared on Reddit their theory on what Ron Swanson did prior to the events of the series and with that explain why Ron is the way he is and why he has so much money. The author begins by reminding the reader that Ron invests in gold and has all of it and more buried somewhere, and even his will doesn’t make much sense (except for “the man who kills him”. He will understand). Ron also buys the distillery of his favorite Scotch, which many viewers have pointed out wouldn’t really be possible with his salary from the Parks Department, which along with how protective he is of his personal life has made the author of the theory suggest that Ron was a criminal overlord in Pawnee.
This dark past would have allowed Ron to live comfortably while working a job that doesn’t pay that much (and that he doesn’t really like) but would have pushed him to be extremely careful with his personal information, to the point where he wouldn’t even trust computers. The author even uses Ron’s alter ego, Duke Silver, as proof that Ron had no problem living a double life, so a criminal past could be the reason for how he acted the way he did through all of Parks & Recreation. However, there are some flaws in the theory when paying closer attention to what’s known of Ron Swanson’s backstory. First, all that money and gold could be a product of his hard work as Duke Silver, as he was very popular in Eagleton and recorded a couple of albums, though some fans argue that being popular in one town wouldn’t guarantee that much money.
There’s also the fact that Ron started working when he was a kid and never really stopped, so even though he came from a family of farmers, Ron earned everything he had through hard work. Still, the idea of Ron Swanson being a criminal years before the events of Parks & Recreation began is a fun one that could be worth keeping in mind the next time you watch the series, even if there are some details from his life that could easily prove it wrong.