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---
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category: "Other"
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category: "Criminals & Offenders"
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tags:
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- Person
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- OrganizedCrime
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summary: "Thompson was originally hired by Patrick Moriarty at $10,000 per month to bodyguard Michael Riconosciuto."
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- PROMIS
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- Octopus
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- Cabazon
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- Informant
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aliases:
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- Phillip Arthur Thompson
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- Philip A. Thompson
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- PAT
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- Jason
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- Jason Smith
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- Philip Jason Thompson
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summary: "Convicted of the 1980 Burlingame UPS robbery-kidnappings and, in 2008, of the 1971 murder of Betty Cloer; named by Michael Riconosciuto as Paul Morasca's killer and described by others as an FBI informant."
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location: "California"
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relations:
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- type: spouse_of
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with: "[[Diana Saylor]]"
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role: "husband, 1971"
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fn: 2
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- type: relative_of
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with: "[[Thelma Hart]]"
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role: "son"
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fn: 2
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- type: relative_of
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with: "[[Richard Hart]]"
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role: "stepson"
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fn: 2
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- type: partner_of
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with: "[[Mark Masterson]]"
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role: "used car business, Sacramento"
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Tower Apartments]]"
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start: 1980
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end: 1980
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role: "building manager, San Francisco"
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fn: 5
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- type: partner_of
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with: "[[James Dunagan]]"
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role: "accomplice, UPS robberies"
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fn: 1
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- type: represented
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with: "[[Peter R. Silten]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "appellate counsel, UPS robbery convictions"
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fn: 1
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- type: represented
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with: "[[Harland Braun]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "counsel, Suel robbery appeal"
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fn: 9
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[People v. Wisely]]"
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start: 1982
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end: 1982
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role: "immunized prosecution witness"
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fn: 9
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Eddy Erdelatz]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "suspect, Paul Morasca homicide"
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fn: 19
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- type: prosecuted
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with: "[[Trish Kelliher]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2003
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end: 2008
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role: "deputy district attorney, Cloer murder"
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fn: 4
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- type: represented
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with: "[[Dain Weiner]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "defense counsel, Cloer murder trial"
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fn: 25
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created: 2025-08-05
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updated: 2026-10-07
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---
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[[Philip Arthur Thompson]], also known as PAT or Jason Smith, was an individual involved in government drug-sting operations and had connections to [[Michael Riconosciuto]] and [[Patrick Moriarty]]. He worked as an undercover informant for [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Robert Barnes]] at the San Francisco Bureau.[^1]
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[[Philip Arthur Thompson]] (spelled Phillip Arthur Thompson in court records), also known as PAT, "Jason" and Jason Smith, was convicted of robbing and kidnapping two [[United Parcel Service]] drivers in [[Burlingame, California]] in December 1980,[^1] and, on April 8, 2008, of the first degree murder of [[Betty Cloer]] in [[El Dorado County]] in 1971.[^2] [[Michael Riconosciuto]] named him as the killer of [[Paul Morasca]], and [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that he worked as an informant for [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Robert Barnes]].[^3]
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Thompson was originally hired by [[Patrick Moriarty]] at $10,000 per month to bodyguard [[Michael Riconosciuto]]. Moriarty was unaware that Thompson was an undercover informant for [[Robert Barnes]]. Thompson was arrested on June 16, 1983, for an unrelated murder and is incarcerated for life in a [[California]] prison.[^1]
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### Sacramento, 1970 to 1972
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### Involvement in Drug Operations and Murders
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Thompson is six feet, four and one-half inches tall. In 1971 he was married to [[Diana Saylor]] and lived on V Street in [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]], and he and a partner, [[Mark Masterson]], operated a used car sales and service company on Alhambra Boulevard. His mother and stepfather were [[Thelma Hart]] and [[Richard Hart]].[^2] The [[Mountain Democrat]] described the stepfather as a [[California Highway Patrol]] sergeant.[^4] Saylor later testified that Thompson owned guns in 1971 and often carried one in the car with him.[^2]
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Thompson was involved in a methamphetamine operation. [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s statement from February 16, 1984, detailed how [[John P. Nichols]] directed Riconosciuto to have PAT recover [[Ben Kalka]]'s assets, which included amphetamine production chemicals and acid. Thompson, along with [[Steve Finley]], drove vehicles containing these chemicals from the Oakland area.[^1]
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Thompson and Masterson were tried in 1971 for the December 2, 1970 rape of a woman identified in court records as Sharon S., and both were acquitted. Masterson testified in 2008 that both men had raped her and that Thompson had persuaded an employee, [[John Mays]], to give false alibi testimony at the 1971 trial. On March 9, 1972, Thompson was charged in a second sexual assault, on a woman identified as Melinda M., and entered a negotiated plea to assault, with the sex offense charges dropped.[^2]
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Thompson was suspected of involvement in the murder of [[Paul Morasca]]. Detective [[Eddy Erdelatz]] investigated Morasca's homicide and placed a comprehensive report within the "Paul Morasca Homicide Investigation File" relative to Thompson's suspected connections to the murder. [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Peter Zokosky]] claimed that Thompson was not creative in his killing style, preferring to use a gun for quick kills, implying he was not responsible for Morasca's torture. However, they also stated that [[Michael Riconosciuto]] was responsible for Morasca's torture and death, and that Thompson worked for the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] under the code name "Jason."[^1]
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Cloer, 22, left a Sacramento dance club early on June 19, 1971 and left her apartment complex with a man. Her body was found at about 1:00 p.m. that day in an isolated field 15 to 20 miles west of [[Placerville, California|Placerville]], nude except for a bra, with three gunshot wounds (to the head, chest and arm) and crushing head injuries. A [[Texaco]] credit card slip from a station on Madison Avenue in Sacramento carried license plate DUK323, registered to Thelma and Richard Hart for a 1965 Oldsmobile convertible. The officers involved in the case never investigated Thompson in connection with the murder.[^2]
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Thompson talked to Detective [[Sue Todd]] in prison about "kick-backs" to powerful people being handled by [[Michael Riconosciuto]] on his computer. He also told Todd that he had withheld one of [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s computer coded cards for himself, which were allegedly connected to the deaths of [[Paul Morasca]] and [[Mary Quick]].[^1]
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Thompson was later convicted of unrelated offenses, including solicitation to commit murder and being an accessory after the fact to murder, and a biological sample was taken from him for the state convicted offender databank. The federal court record gives no date or case for those convictions.[^2]
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### San Quentin and the Tower Apartments, 1978 to 1980
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A [[San Francisco Examiner]] article of January 11, 1981 gave Thompson's age as 35 and stated that his criminal record dated to 1965 and included murder, forgery, kidnapping, assault, burglary and possession of stolen property. He escaped from the [[Sierra Conservation Center]] on June 19, 1978. On August 11, 1980 he was released on work furlough from [[San Quentin State Prison]] after serving a sentence for escape, receiving stolen property and weapons charges, and became manager of the [[Tower Apartments]] on Grant Avenue in [[San Francisco]].[^5] [[John Gordon Abbott]], whom Thompson had met in San Quentin and with whom he had once escaped, became assistant manager on August 26, 1980 after his own release on work furlough, and [[Michael John Hennessey]] joined them.[^6]
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After a September 1978 raid on Abbott's flat, [[San Francisco Police Department]] burglary inspector [[Neil Jordan]] said that Thompson and Abbott were tied to robberies in other jurisdictions and that none of those jurisdictions moved to prosecute. Jordan said: "And 18 months later, I saw Thompson here in the property room, looking for his records. Why did he get out so early? I just don't know." Private investigator [[Sandra Sutherland]] said she believed the pair may have been working for a federal agency, and that her sources pointed to the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. The head of the DEA's San Francisco office, [[Daniel Addario]], did not respond.[^5]
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A tenant, [[Valerie McDonald]], 26, told a friend she had seen the new management engage in "Satanistic activities" and that parties featured "large bowls of cocaine."[^6] She left the building on November 9, 1980 with Hennessey after he offered her a part in a film, and did not return. Hennessey was shot dead and Abbott arrested after a shootout with the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] at [[Trail, British Columbia]], on November 26, 1980; investigators determined that Thompson had also been in Trail but had flown back to California before the shootout.[^5][^7] The Examiner later reported that Thompson and Abbott used robbery proceeds as seed money to buy guns for sale to right-wing militias in [[El Salvador]] and cocaine cartels in [[Bolivia]] and [[Colombia]], and that Thompson had worked as a driver for the 1972 [[Richard Nixon]] campaign. Thompson told the Examiner that McDonald "was just the face of the girl in room 24."[^8] Her remains were found in 1991 on the [[Kettle River]] in [[Ferry County, Washington]] and identified on November 22, 2000. Neither Thompson nor Abbott was charged in her disappearance.[^7]
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### UPS robberies, 1980 and 1981
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On December 24 and December 30, 1980, Thompson and an accomplice, [[James Dunagan]], robbed UPS trucks in Burlingame and abducted their drivers, [[James Matson]] and [[Daniel Smith]]. Thompson rented a warehouse at 1370 Wallace Street in San Francisco and lived in [[Kensington, California]]. Dunagan testified that when he arrived in San Francisco about December 1, 1980, Thompson and his girlfriend, [[Lynn Shastany]], met him and took him to the Tower Apartments, "which were managed by appellant." Thompson and Dunagan were arrested on January 14, 1981, after a vehicle check showed that a truck in which they were riding was stolen. The warehouse search produced an automatic pistol, hundreds of checkbooks and counter checks from a Burlingame bank, and two UPS jackets.[^1]
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The trial followed an August 15, 1983 hearing. The jury convicted Thompson of two counts of robbery and two of kidnapping for robbery, with firearm-use findings, and the court found two prior felony convictions under Penal Code section 667.5(b) and sentenced him to "life imprisonment with possibility of parole." The [[California Court of Appeal]], First District, Division 4, affirmed on January 13, 1986 in No. A025390, with Deputy State Public Defender [[Peter R. Silten]] as appellate counsel. Seymour wrote that Thompson was arrested on June 16, 1983 for an unrelated murder.[^3][^1]
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### The Suel robbery and the Wisely trial, 1981 to 1983
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On August 24, 1981, Thompson was charged in [[Los Angeles County]] with the February 10, 1981 armed robbery of [[Arthur Suel]], in which more than $100,000 was taken; [[Willie Wisely]] was charged in a separate information with the same robbery. In the [[Orange County, California|Orange County]] murder prosecution of Wisely for the March 9, 1981 killing of his stepfather, [[Robert Bray]], the district attorney sought Thompson's testimony that Wisely had solicited him in April 1980 and January 1981 to kill Bray for $50,000 and had later admitted the killing. In his proffer Thompson said: "Willie said he had control of the property and there was only one loose end. JD is. He said he intended to off JD". Called on January 12, 1982 under an immunity order limited to the Bray murder, he first refused to answer and was jailed for contempt, then testified that he had lied to police because he was angry with Wisely, and that he had been in [[Central America]] on February 10.[^9]
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Thompson was convicted of the Suel robbery. On August 11, 1983, the Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, rejected his argument that the immunity covered the robbery and affirmed. [[Harland Braun]] represented him, and the [[California Supreme Court]] denied a hearing on October 5, 1983.[^9]
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[[Danny Casolaro]]'s file index lists four 1982 [[Los Angeles Times]] articles on Thompson under the headings "Cabazon Arms and Wackenhut" and "Cabazon Reservation": that he was held in contempt for refusing to testify in a murder trial, with Casolaro's note "THOMPSON WORKED FOR CIA, ASSOCIATED WITH JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS"; that he recanted testimony implying Wisely's guilt; that the victim of the robbery attributed to Thompson and Wisely lived in protective custody while the alleged robbers were free, with the note "FBI ALLEGEDLY INTERVENED ON BEHALF OF THOMPSON TO HELP HIM AVOID JAIL"; and that Wisely was convicted of murder while Thompson was free on bail.[^10]
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### Michael Riconosciuto, 1981 and 1982
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In a taped interview dated March 28, 1984, Riconosciuto told [[Ted Gunderson]] that he met Thompson about November 1981, and that Thompson "came to me" right after Riconosciuto's trip to Washington with [[Dr. John Philip Nichols|John Philip Nichols]] and [[Robert Frye]]. He said he introduced Thompson to a Los Angeles Times reporter "so I could have a witness," and called him "a hired gun, whether it be to do robberies or killings." Asked whether the FBI was using Thompson as an informant, he answered, "Uh, I believe so. They went to the L.A. Times and asked them not to write a story about him," and said Thompson had told him the FBI "had kicked in his door" over jewelry robberies. Riconosciuto said a deal was made between Nichols and Thompson "to help Thompson get out of his current difficulties," that in late February 1982 Thompson persuaded Riconosciuto's father to let him search the [[Hercules Research]] plant and removed a file cabinet of Riconosciuto's records, and that Barnes "did not want to investigate Philip Arthur Thompson in any way, shape or form."[^11]
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An unsigned letter in the Casolaro papers, addressed "Dear Pat" to [[Patrick Moriarty]] at Pyrotronics Corp. in [[La Mirada, California]], and written from Riconosciuto's position, states: "My father has paid Mr. Thompson at least $10,000.00 to supposedly recover my equipment," and that "Mr. Thompson reached an agreement to render surveliance on me and then physically return me to the care of my father." It calls him "Philip Jason Thompson," lists items taken including "Pictures of Paul Moraska, friends and the boat," mentions [[Ben Kalka]], and states that the writer was "formalizing an agreement with an assistant U.S. attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."[^12] Seymour wrote that Thompson "was originally sent in by Patrick Moriarty," the partner of Riconosciuto's father for 40 years,[^13] that Moriarty hired him at $10,000 per month to bodyguard Riconosciuto, and that Moriarty did not know Thompson was an undercover informant for Barnes at the FBI's San Francisco office.[^3]
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A letter of April 13, 1982 from [[Phyllis Riconosciuto]] engaged [[Jimmy Hughes]] and [[Steven Bates]] to guard Riconosciuto until he went into protective custody with the FBI's Oakland office, where he was to meet Special Agent Barnes. Seymour wrote that Detective [[Sue Todd]] interviewed Barnes in 2000 and that he confirmed he had been the "handler" for both Riconosciuto and Thompson in a large drug sting operation in San Francisco. She also wrote that [[Patrick Kenneally]], an investigator for the [[Riverside County]] district attorney, said he was ordered to turn everything he learned over to FBI agent [[Rudy Valadez]], who worked with Barnes.[^14]
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### Paul Morasca, 1982
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Paul Morasca, 30, was found hog-tied with a telephone cord noosed around his neck in his condominium on Kearny Street on [[Telegraph Hill]] in San Francisco in January 1982. Riconosciuto stated: "I was the one who found him." Three days later [[Mary Quick]] was killed by a single gunshot to the head in [[Fresno, California|Fresno]].[^15] Gunderson, a former FBI agent working as Riconosciuto's investigator, wrote on October 6, 1983 to Judge [[Victor Dahman]] of the Madera County Justice Court that at the time of his death Morasca was working with federal and [[San Bernardino County]] authorities to expose Kalka, Holbert and Knossi for drug activity, and that large quantities of LSD and chemicals disappeared from their San Francisco location afterward.[^16]
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Riconosciuto's statement of February 16, 1984 says that John Philip Nichols ("JPN") directed him "to have PAT (Phillip Arthur Thompson) recover [all] of Kalka's assets." Riconosciuto accompanied PAT and [[Steve Finley]] to the vehicles in the [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] area, which held amphetamine production chemicals and acid, and "PAT and SF drove the vehicles off." Nichols later complained that PAT had made off with everything. At a dinner in [[Las Vegas]], [[George R. Wackenhut|George Wackenhut]] asked where "the 'South African' Thompson" could be reached; Riconosciuto wrote that he "laid out to GW what PAT had done, including murdering PM," and that Nichols told Wackenhut it was "a different PT."[^17] [[Peter Zokosky]] told Seymour that the statement was not a grand jury statement but was written for his files at the request of [[Robert Booth Nichols]], and that Ellen Nichols typed it.[^18]
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### The Desert Sun report, 1985
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On March 21, 1985, the [[Desert Sun]] of Palm Springs reported that Morasca, 32, had been found dead in San Francisco on January 14, 1982. San Francisco homicide inspector [[Eddy Erdelatz|Edward Erdelatz]] said that Riconosciuto discovered the decomposed body and, instead of notifying police, drove to John Philip Nichols's house in [[Indio, California|Indio]]; Nichols called Los Angeles attorney Harlan Braun, who notified San Francisco police. Erdelatz said that "a large amount of money in foreign banks and drugs may have something to do with the death," that Thompson was a suspect although he had not been charged, and that Riconosciuto was not a suspect. Erdelatz said Nichols had introduced Thompson "to help Riconosciuto." According to the police reports, Thompson was to "recover certain scientific property used by Riconosciuto for both legitimate and illicit purposes," and "Thompson's job was allegedly to destroy the illicit material."[^19]
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The same article described Nichols as consultant to the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indians]] since 1979, interviewed by the FBI, the San Francisco Police Department and the [[Riverside County Sheriff's Department]] in a number of cases; reported that Riconosciuto, Nichols and Morasca had formed [[Sertic]], a joint venture to produce night vision equipment and satellite dishes; and quoted an FBI spokesman in San Francisco confirming a racketeering investigation of Riconosciuto. It described Thompson, 39, as serving two consecutive life terms at the [[Deuel Vocational Institution]] near [[Tracy, California|Tracy]], and as "described by some law enforcement officials as a college-educated criminal genius."[^19]
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### Accounts of the Morasca killing, 1987 to 1992
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In Casolaro's notes of a telephone conversation, Riconosciuto said the FBI became involved in the Morasca murder because Morasca was taken across state lines: "Philip Arthur Thompson and others grabbed Paul in Nevada," held him in Forestville for ten days, and Thompson "strangled him several times over a period of ten days and then revived him." He said he testified to a grand jury that Thompson admitted the killing to him.[^11] In a May 5, 1991 meeting in the attorney visiting room in [[Tacoma, Washington]], with attorney [[Alan D. Boyack]] and Gunderson, Riconosciuto instead placed the killing in "our office condominium" in San Francisco and said: "The guy who did it, Philip Arthur Thompson, had me tied up, we were in rush hour traffic." Asked whether Thompson had been convicted of the murder, he answered, "No, not at all," said Thompson was in state prison in California for something else, and added: "But they won't go after anybody on this murder."[^20]
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Seymour's summary dated February 24, 1992 records Robert Booth Nichols saying that Thompson "worked under the code name of 'Jason'" and "worked for the FBI in some capacity which Nichols would not define." At a lunch arranged through the journalist [[Jonathan Littman]], Nichols said Riconosciuto had killed Morasca, and Zokosky corroborated him; both said the torture was "Michael's style," that Thompson "was not so creative in his killing style," and that he had allegedly killed many people but chose to use a gun and get the job done quickly. Nichols also said the killer of Mary Quick had been arrested and released. The same summary records [[Brian Leighton]] testifying at Riconosciuto's trial that he thought Riconosciuto had been brought to him by "an agent Barnes from the Oakland or San Francisco office of the FBI."[^21]
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Seymour wrote that Detective Eddy Erdelatz placed a report on Thompson's suspected connections to the murder in the "Paul Morasca Homicide Investigation File," and that Thompson told Sue Todd in prison about "kick-backs" to powerful people handled by Riconosciuto on his computer, and that he had withheld for himself one of Riconosciuto's computer coded cards, which were allegedly connected to the deaths of Morasca and Quick.[^3] After Casolaro's death in August 1991, the [[West Virginia State Police]] crime laboratory recovered handwriting impressions on a folded paper found in his left shoe in Room 517. As reproduced in the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] report on his death, the outline for a "Chapter on 1980" lists "Fred Alvarez," "Paul Morasca," "Philip Arthur Dempson" (as printed), "Fresno" and "Hercules."[^22]
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### The Cloer prosecution, 2002 to 2009
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In July 2002 the Cloer case was reopened, and the bra and panties found at the scene were taken to the [[California Department of Justice]] crime laboratory. Sperm cells on the panties produced a DNA profile that matched Thompson in the convicted offender database, and a saliva sample confirmed the match.[^2] [[Bob Calhoun]] wrote that Thompson was serving an 18-year sentence when El Dorado County Sheriff's Office investigators charged him with the murder on the day he was scheduled to leave prison.[^23] He was held in the El Dorado County Jail from 2003.[^4] In 2003 investigators questioned Saylor, who recalled losing some keys in 1971; shown the keys found at the scene, "she immediately grabbed the keys and started rubbing a stone attached to the keychain."[^24]
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In October 2007, defense attorney [[Dain Weiner]] argued that Cloer had worked as a drug informant and that a prosecution witness identified as "John Doe" had an extensive narcotics history, and the journalist [[Kathryn J. Dixon|Kate Dixon]], who said Thompson was being prosecuted for a crime he did not commit, was nearly held in contempt. The prosecutor was [[Trish Kelliher]].[^25] The court excluded the informant hearsay, and contact with [[Oregon]] law enforcement officials revealed no evidence that Cloer had been an informant.[^2]
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Thompson testified, denied the murder, and said the DNA came from consensual sex at a party before July 4, 1971; he also testified that he had worked as a driver for state Senator [[Randolph Collier]] and for [[Alan May]], who led the California Committee to Reelect Richard Nixon. [[Stanley Ellis]], a federal prisoner who had lived in Cloer's complex, testified that he saw her leave with a man he identified as Thompson.[^2][^4] A jury of four men and eight women deliberated seven hours after six weeks of testimony and found Thompson guilty on April 8, 2008. Lead detective [[Rick Fitzgerald]] said that "There are at least eight to 10 others that we know of," and of Thompson: "There is, in fact, some information that suggests he was an operative who was given a lot of leeway." The Mountain Democrat noted that it had earlier reported Thompson's ties with [[Luis Posada Carriles]]. Because 1971 sentencing guidelines applied, the maximum was seven years to life; Kelliher seemed confident he would never be paroled. Dee Dee Kouns, McDonald's mother, said evidence linked Thompson "and two other men" to her daughter's murder.[^4] On April 25, 2008 he was sentenced to seven years to life with the possibility of parole.[^2]
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In [[Dixon v. Superior Court]] (170 Cal.App.4th 1271, February 4, 2009), the Third District held the Cloer coroner and autopsy reports exempt from the [[California Public Records Act]]; the opinion describes Kathryn Dixon as a reporter who "covered the Thompson murder trial and intends to write a book about it."[^26] In February 2009 the Mountain Democrat gave Thompson's age as 64.[^27]
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### Appeals and habeas proceedings, 2009 to 2014
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The Third District affirmed the conviction in an unpublished opinion filed December 15, 2009, and the California Supreme Court denied review on March 25, 2010. State habeas petitions were denied by the El Dorado County Superior Court on April 19, 2011, the Court of Appeal on July 14, 2011, and the California Supreme Court on February 15, 2012. Thompson filed a federal petition on May 16, 2011 in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of California]] (Thompson v. Dickinson, No. 2:11-cv-1318); the amended petition ran 432 pages and raised more than thirty overlapping claims. It included affidavits from [[John Prokop]], who stated in September 2011 that in late June 1971 Ellis had admitted killing Cloer and threatened to have Prokop killed if he went to police; the magistrate judge found the declarations not trustworthy eyewitness accounts and on May 28, 2014 recommended denial, describing Thompson as "a state prisoner serving an indeterminate life sentence."[^2] An order filed August 28, 2014 records that Thompson appealed the denial to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Ninth Circuit]].[^28]
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---
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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[^1]: People v. Thompson, No. A025390 (Cal. Ct. App., 1st Dist., Div. 4, Jan. 13, 1986). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1843801.html
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[^2]: Findings and Recommendations, Thompson v. Dickinson, No. 2:11-cv-1318 GEB AC (E.D. Cal., dated May 28, 2014, filed May 29, 2014), Doc. 35. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-caed-2_11-cv-01318/pdf/USCOURTS-caed-2_11-cv-01318-3.pdf
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[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^4]: Eric Laughlin, "Thompson guilty of murder," Mountain Democrat (Placerville), April 9, 2008 (Wayback copy of newsmakingnews.com reprint). https://web.archive.org/web/20110414121657/http://www.newsmakingnews.com/laughlin,eric,phillip,arthur,thompson,verdict,4,8,08.htm
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[^5]: Larry Maatz, "The mystery of the disappearing actress deepens," San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, January 11, 1981, p. B2 (transcription). http://www.maebrussell.com/SF-Wash.%20State%20crime/Mystery%20of%20Disappearing%20Actress.html
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[^6]: Bob Calhoun, "Yesterday's Crimes: What Happened to Valerie McDonald?", SF Weekly, May 5, 2016. https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-what-happened-to-valerie-mcdonald/
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[^7]: Seattle Post-Intelligencer special report on the national missing, February 26, 2003 (Wayback copy). https://web.archive.org/web/20091127110111/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/109939_nationalmissing26.shtml
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[^8]: Bob Calhoun, "Yesterday's Crimes: CIA Plots, Canadian Shootouts and the Disappearance of Valerie McDonald", SF Weekly, May 13, 2016. https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-cia-plots-canadian-shootouts-and-the-disappearance-of-valerie-mcdonald/
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[^9]: People v. Thompson (1983) 145 Cal.App.3d 918, 193 Cal.Rptr. 782, Crim. No. 42215 (Cal. Ct. App., 2d Dist., Div. 1, Aug. 11, 1983). https://static.case.law/cal-app-3d/145/cases/0918-01.json
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[^10]: Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith, *The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro* (Feral House), appendix reproducing Casolaro's file index, file codes PR\CW\CR-03 to CR-06. https://archive.org/details/the-octopus Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^11]: Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516): transcript headed "TAPE TRANSCRIPTION FROM 3-28-84" (Riconosciuto interviewed by Ted Gunderson) and Casolaro's notes of a telephone conversation with Riconosciuto. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
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[^12]: Unsigned letter to "Dear Pat" (Patrick Moriarty), c. April 1982, Danny Casolaro papers, Wackenhut correspondence file. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^13]: Whitney Alyse Webb, *One Nation Under Blackmail*, endnote quoting Cheri Seymour, *The Last Circle* (TrineDay, 2010), p. 301. https://archive.org/details/one-nation-under-blackmail-all
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[^14]: Seymour, *The Last Circle*, ch. 25, "Rachel's Resolution," pp. 404-405. https://archive.org/details/RachelsResolution Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^15]: Thomas and Keith, *The Octopus*, text near pp. 28-36, citing Jonathan Littman and Taylor, "Bizarre Murders Puzzle Cops," San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 1991. https://archive.org/details/the-octopus
|
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[^16]: Ted L. Gunderson to Hon. Victor Dahman, October 6, 1983, Danny Casolaro papers, Misc. Docs file. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
[^17]: "Statement of Michael J. Riconosciuto," February 16, 1984, Danny Casolaro papers, Misc. Docs file. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
[^18]: Seymour, *The Last Circle*, ch. 17, "The Inslaw Affair," p. 344. https://archive.org/details/TheInslawAffair
|
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[^19]: John Hussar, "Crime probes tied to Nichols associates," Desert Sun (Palm Springs), March 21, 1985, p. 1 (reprint). https://www.maebrussell.com/Inslaw/Desert%20Sun%203-21-85.html
|
||||
[^20]: "Transcript of Meeting," Alan D. Boyack, Ted Gunderson and Michael James Riconosciuto, May 5, 1991, Tacoma, Washington, pp. 19-21. https://archive.org/details/CasolaroTranscriptBoyackGundersonRiconsosciuto Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
[^21]: Cheri Seymour, "VORTEX" summary dated February 24, 1992, attached to her affidavit notarized in Mariposa County, October 1992. https://archive.org/details/VORTEXDocument
|
||||
[^22]: United States Department of Justice, report of investigation into the death of Daniel J. Casolaro. https://archive.org/details/DOJReportOnDanielJCasolaro
|
||||
[^23]: Bob Calhoun, "Yesterday's Crimes: A Box of Bones and the Disappearance of Valerie McDonald", SF Weekly, May 19, 2016. https://www.sfweekly.com/archives/yesterdays-crimes-a-box-of-bones-and-the-disappearance-of-valerie-mcdonald/article_54507c94-4364-51d0-968e-f93582d23a9c.html
|
||||
[^24]: People v. Thompson, No. C058768 (Cal. Ct. App., 3d Dist., Dec. 2009) (not published), vLex copy. https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-v-thompson-c058768-892642805
|
||||
[^25]: Eric Laughlin, "Judge threatens to arrest woman on contempt charge," Mountain Democrat (Placerville), October 22, 2007 (transcription). http://www.maebrussell.com/SF-Wash.%20State%20crime/Judge%20Threatens%20To%20Arrest%20Woman.html
|
||||
[^26]: Dixon v. Superior Court (2009) 170 Cal.App.4th 1271, No. C058858 (Cal. Ct. App., 3d Dist., Feb. 4, 2009). https://static.case.law/cal-app-4th/170/cases/1271-01.json
|
||||
[^27]: Eric Laughlin, "Murder case sets precedent," Mountain Democrat, February 20, 2009. https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/murder-case-sets-precedent/
|
||||
[^28]: Thompson v. Dickinson, No. 2:11-cv-01318 (E.D. Cal.), Doc. 46, filed August 28, 2014. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-caed-2_11-cv-01318/pdf/USCOURTS-caed-2_11-cv-01318-4.pdf
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