From 79d8eb8f923bc249c86d0a012c9558a04239ae7c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "disinfo.zone" Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 13:15:53 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] vault backup: 2026-05-15 13:15:53 --- .claude/settings.local.json | 10 +- 00 - META/CHANGELOG.md | 20 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ted Gunderson.md | 21 ++- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ramon J. Martinez.md | 56 ++++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Isabelle Pettie.md | 32 +++- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John David Norman.md | 8 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marion Pettie.md | 57 +++++- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stuart Miles Silverstone.md | 30 +++ 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Garder Terrell.md | 37 +++- .../PRIVATE/Future Enterprises.md | 30 ++- .../PRIVATE/Odyssey Foundation.md | 4 + 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Finders.md | 172 ++++++++++++++++-- 12 files changed, 413 insertions(+), 64 deletions(-) create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ramon J. Martinez.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stuart Miles Silverstone.md diff --git a/.claude/settings.local.json b/.claude/settings.local.json index 95d14dbb..a6618eb6 100644 --- a/.claude/settings.local.json +++ b/.claude/settings.local.json @@ -63,7 +63,15 @@ "Bash(python -c ' *)", "PowerShell(ls \"C:\\\\Users\\\\David\\\\Documents\\\\SpiderOak Hive\\\\The_Info_Web\\\\The_Info_Web\\\\10 - PEOPLE\\\\\\(T-Z\\)\\\\\" | Select-Object -First 30)", "PowerShell(head *)", - "PowerShell(ls \"C:\\\\Users\\\\David\\\\Documents\\\\SpiderOak Hive\\\\The_Info_Web\\\\The_Info_Web\\\\20 - ORGANIZATIONS\\\\GOVERNMENT\\\\\" | Select-Object Name)" + "PowerShell(ls \"C:\\\\Users\\\\David\\\\Documents\\\\SpiderOak Hive\\\\The_Info_Web\\\\The_Info_Web\\\\20 - ORGANIZATIONS\\\\GOVERNMENT\\\\\" | Select-Object Name)", + "WebFetch(domain:www.mintpressnews.com)", + "WebFetch(domain:washingtoncitypaper.com)", + "WebFetch(domain:vault.fbi.gov)", + "WebFetch(domain:thehotstar.net)", + "WebFetch(domain:nrgiseternal.com)", + "WebFetch(domain:finderscult.wordpress.com)", + "WebFetch(domain:www.mail-archive.com)", + "WebFetch(domain:skepticalinquirer.org)" ] } } diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index ccfae040..c2970362 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,3 +1,13 @@ +- 2026-05-15T1315 · [[The Finders]] +- 2026-05-15T1308 · [[Marion Pettie]] +- 2026-05-15T1250 · [[Odyssey Foundation]] +- 2026-05-15T1250 · [[John David Norman]] +- 2026-05-15T1250 · [[Ted Gunderson]] +- 2026-05-15T1250 · [[Future Enterprises]] +- 2026-05-15T1249 · [[Stuart Miles Silverstone]] +- 2026-05-15T1249 · [[Ramon J. Martinez]] +- 2026-05-15T1248 · [[Robert Garder Terrell]] +- 2026-05-15T1247 · [[Isabelle Pettie]] - 2026-05-15T1156 · [[SIMWA]] - 2026-05-15T1156 · [[Gerald Richards]] - 2026-05-15T1156 · [[Ignacio Paz]] @@ -13,13 +23,3 @@ - 2026-05-15T1155 · [[Peter Squire]] - 2026-05-15T1155 · [[Roderick Sinclair]] - 2026-05-15T1155 · [[Dr. John Philip Nichols]] -- 2026-05-15T1154 · [[William Ryback]] -- 2026-05-15T1154 · [[Yoav Shacham]] -- 2026-05-15T1154 · [[Tim Osman]] -- 2026-05-15T1154 · [[Robbie Van Der Plancken]] -- 2026-05-15T1153 · [[William Rolya]] -- 2026-05-15T1153 · [[Wayne Reeder]] -- 2026-05-15T1153 · [[William M. Pender]] -- 2026-05-15T1153 · [[Sheila Ostrander]] -- 2026-05-15T1153 · [[Shippi Strang]] -- 2026-05-15T1153 · [[Rosemary Smith]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ted Gunderson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ted Gunderson.md index 711fd761..4270a6aa 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ted Gunderson.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ted Gunderson.md @@ -25,17 +25,24 @@ Despite their past collaboration, Gunderson faced limitations in disclosing nume Throughout his career, Gunderson encountered significant challenges and obstruction in his efforts to expose corruption. He observed a "turf battle problem" between [[Ralph Olberg]]'s group and certain factions within the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and their group, MSH ([[Management Science For Health]]), concerning the legitimate representation of the Afghan rebel leadership. His attempts to facilitate [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s entry into the Witness Protection Program ultimately proved unsuccessful, as federal agencies, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], demonstrated reluctance to fully cooperate or acknowledge Riconosciuto's claims.[^1] +### The Finders Investigation + +Gunderson became a central figure in publicizing the [[The Finders|Finders]] case after obtaining copies of U.S. Customs Special Agent [[Ramon J. Martinez]]'s reports from the February 1987 raids on The Finders' Washington D.C. properties. These reports -- filed February 7 and April 13, 1987 -- documented the contents of The Finders' warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE, including networked computer equipment, satellite links, files describing methods for obtaining children, and telex communications referencing international operations. The reports also documented Martinez's conclusion that the FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division had classified all Metropolitan Police reports as Secret and that a CIA official had told police the investigation had "become a CIA internal matter."[^2] + +Gunderson made the Martinez documents publicly available, hosting them on his website and distributing them to journalists and researchers. He authored a pamphlet titled "U.S. Customs Service Report on the Finders" and made public assertions that the CIA had orchestrated child trafficking networks, using The Finders as a central example. His distribution of the documents was the primary reason they reached a broader audience before the FBI Vault released official copies in November 2019.[^2][^3] + +When the FBI released several hundred pages of Finders-related documents in 2019, the release included Gunderson's diagrams of the [[McMartin preschool]] tunnels near the beginning of the first document batch alongside more substantive materials including the Martinez customs reports and the MPD report on CIA involvement. The placement of the tunnel diagrams -- material from a case widely regarded as discredited -- at the front of the release prompted commentary among researchers about whether the sequencing was incidental or intended to contextualize the Finders material within the broader "satanic panic" framework of the era.[^2] + +The 2019 FBI Vault release confirmed that the bureau had maintained files on Gunderson's private investigative activities and that his materials had been incorporated into its documentation of the Finders case. The inclusion also confirmed that the primary documents Gunderson had distributed for over two decades -- particularly the Martinez customs reports -- were authentic.[^3] + ### Child Abuse Network Investigations -Gunderson later became involved in investigating organized child abuse networks and related conspiracy cases. His work intersected with the release of government documents concerning [[The Finders]] case. In 2019 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] began dumping heavily redacted case files from their investigation into [[The Finders]], including a follow-up inquiry into a suspected coverup in 1993. Buried among these releases, sprinkled with red herrings such as Gunderson's diagrams of the [[McMartin pre-school tunnels]] near the beginning of the first batch, were three documents of instantaneous interest. It turned out a list of names and addresses had been found on [[The Finders]] men caught transporting children through [[Florida]].[^2] +Beyond The Finders, Gunderson investigated and made public claims about organized child abuse networks connected to various institutions. His assertions were expansive, encompassing claimed connections between intelligence operations, drug trafficking, and child exploitation. Researchers and journalists who engaged his work have consistently noted that his documented primary source work -- particularly his distribution of the Martinez reports -- should be distinguished from his broader, unverified theoretical claims about CIA-orchestrated child trafficking networks.[^2] -Gunderson's diagrams of the McMartin pre-school tunnels were included among the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] release materials, though their placement near the beginning of the document batch raised questions about whether they functioned as deliberate distractions from more substantive evidence. The McMartin pre-school case had become a focal point for debates about satanic ritual abuse and recovered memories, with tunnel allegations becoming a controversial element that was used to discredit survivor testimony. Gunderson's involvement in documenting these claims placed him within a network of investigators who pursued connections between institutional child abuse and intelligence operations.[^2] - -The release of [[The Finders]] files in 2019 revealed that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] had maintained extensive documentation on the group's activities, including surveillance reports and internal communications. Gunderson's materials, while included in the release, appeared alongside documents of more direct relevance to the case, such as the [[U.S. Customs]] memo compiled by [[Ramon J. Martinez]] and [[Metropolitan Police]] reports on [[Central Intelligence Agency]] involvement. The juxtaposition of his tunnel diagrams with these substantive documents raised questions about the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s organizational strategy in releasing the files.[^2] - -Gunderson's career trajectory exemplified a pattern among law enforcement personnel who moved from official agency work to independent investigation of organized abuse networks. His [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] background provided him with access to sources and documents unavailable to civilian researchers, while his independence from institutional constraints allowed him to pursue lines of inquiry that official investigations had abandoned or suppressed. The inclusion of his materials in the 2019 release suggested that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] had tracked his activities and considered his findings relevant to their own investigations.[^2] +Gunderson died of cancer in Santa Monica, California, on July 31, 2011. ### Footnotes [^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. -[^2]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. +[^2]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. +[^3]: FBI Vault, "The Finders," vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). Also: Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ramon J. Martinez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ramon J. Martinez.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f3fccfe7 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ramon J. Martinez.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - US_Customs + - The_Finders + - Washington_DC + - 1980s +summary: "Ramon J. Martinez was a U.S. Customs Special Agent based in Washington D.C. who conducted the primary federal investigation of The Finders' properties in February 1987 and authored the reports documenting the warehouse contents, the CIA interference claim, and the subsequent suppression of the investigation." +location: "Washington, D.C." +--- + +Ramon J. Martinez was a U.S. Customs Special Agent based in Washington D.C. who conducted the primary federal investigation of [[The Finders]]' properties in February 1987. His reports -- filed February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987 -- constitute the principal primary documentary record of what investigators found at the group's warehouse and Glover Park properties, including the telex communications describing international operations involving children and the subsequent CIA interference in the investigation.[^1][^2] + +### The 1987 Finders Investigation + +Martinez was called in by Metropolitan Police to assist with the investigation after the van used to transport six malnourished children in Tallahassee, Florida on February 4, 1987 was traced to The Finders' warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE in Washington D.C. He executed search warrants on the warehouse and the Glover Park duplex alongside MPD Detective Bradley on February 5-6, 1987.[^1] + +His February 7, 1987 report documented the following at the warehouse: + +- Extensive networked computer equipment with satellite dish antennas on the roof +- A large library including books on mind control +- A video screening room with production capability +- Sauna and hot tub facilities +- Files referencing international contacts in London, Germany, the Bahamas, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Africa, and Costa Rica +- A file labeled "Pentagon Break-In" +- Documents with what Martinez described as "detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes" including impregnation, purchasing, trading, and kidnapping +- Telex messages transmitted via MCI accounts to terminals across the United States and in foreign locations, including what Martinez identified as a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong through a contact at the Chinese Embassy[^1][^2] + +At the Glover Park duplex, Martinez found [[Stuart Miles Silverstone]] inside a room equipped with multiple computers, printers, and satellite communications equipment, and bags of color slides and photographic contact sheets containing images of children.[^1] + +Martinez's overall documented assessment: the files indicated "international trafficking in children, high tech transfer to the United Kingdom, and international transfer of currency."[^1] + +### CIA Interference and the April 1987 Report + +On February 6, 1987, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] took over the investigation and took possession of the computers and floppy disks seized from Finders properties. The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division directed the Metropolitan Police Department to classify all MPD reports as Secret and directed MPD not to brief the FBI's own Washington Field Office -- a division that puzzled Martinez and others at the time.[^1][^2] + +In late March or early April 1987, Martinez met with MPD Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr., who informed him that the investigation "had become a CIA internal matter." An MPD report filed by Stitcher on February 19, 1987 had previously documented a CIA official's acknowledgment that the investigation was "treading on their toes" and that the CIA had a "vested interest" in the group.[^1] + +Martinez's April 13, 1987 report concluded: "The MPD report has been classified SECRET... FBI had withdrawn from the investigation... FBI Foreign Counter Intelligence Division had directed MPD not to advise the FBI Washington Field Office... No further information will be available. No further action will be taken."[^1] + +### Professional Consequences + +Martinez's reports were not released through official channels. Copies were obtained by retired FBI official [[Ted Gunderson]], who made them publicly available. The existence of the reports became widely known among researchers during the 1993 reopening of the investigation, when congressional representatives obtained copies from a private consultant named Henry T. "Skip" Clements.[^2] + +In 1994, the U.S. Customs Service proposed to remove Martinez from his position. The stated reason was improper disclosure of case information to a close co-worker of an individual under investigation. By letter dated December 7, 1994, the penalty was subsequently mitigated to a five-day suspension without pay and reassignment from Special Agent to Physical Security Specialist, GS-080-13, Security Programs Division. Martinez declined public comment on the matter.[^2] + +### Significance + +Martinez's reports, later confirmed and released through the FBI Vault's November 2019 document disclosure, remain the most detailed primary-source description of what federal investigators found at The Finders' properties. No second investigator present at the same raids independently confirmed all elements of his reports -- particularly the specific telex describing the Hong Kong children purchase -- in records accessible to the public.[^3] His April 1987 report provides the primary documentary basis for the claim that the CIA intervened to end the investigation. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Reproduced via FBI Vault and Ted Gunderson archive. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. +[^2]: MintPress News. "Losing Finders: How the US Government Worked to Keep the CIA Connection Secret." 2019. https://www.mintpressnews.com/finders-cult-us-government-worked-keep-cia-connection-secret/277948/. +[^3]: Sword, Autumn. "Were 'The Finders' a CIA-Fronted Satanic Cult?" *Skeptical Inquirer*, February 28, 2023. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/were-the-finders-a-cia-fronted-satanic-cult/. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Isabelle Pettie.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Isabelle Pettie.md index c31fbbbf..3382ac7a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Isabelle Pettie.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Isabelle Pettie.md @@ -3,15 +3,35 @@ category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person - CIA -summary: "Isabelle Pettie was a CIA employee and the late wife of Marion Pettie, the leader of The Finders." + - The_Finders + - Washington_DC + - Cold_War +summary: "Isabelle Pettie was a CIA employee and the late wife of Marion Pettie, leader of The Finders. FBI Vault documents confirm her CIA employment and her possession of passports to Cold War restricted destinations including North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union." +location: "Washington, D.C." --- -Isabelle Pettie was a CIA employee and the late wife of [[Marion Pettie]], the leader of [[The Finders]]. Her employment with the CIA established a direct connection between the intelligence community and the leadership of The Finders, a relationship that became central to investigations into the group's activities and potential intelligence links.[^1] -The discovery of Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment occurred during the broader investigation into The Finders following the February 1987 arrests of group members in Florida. As investigators examined Marion Pettie's background, they learned that his wife had worked for the CIA, and that one of their sons had worked for Air America, a CIA cutout used to traffic heroin in the golden triangle region during the Vietnam War. These family connections to intelligence operations raised questions about whether The Finders maintained formal or informal links to the agency.[^1] +Isabelle Pettie was a CIA employee and the wife of [[Marion Pettie]], the founder and leader of [[The Finders]]. Her employment with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] was confirmed by FBI Vault documents released as part of the 2019 Finders document disclosure, and was acknowledged by Marion Pettie himself in a 1993 interview with *U.S. News & World Report*: "his wife once worked for the Central Intelligence Agency."[^1][^2] -The 1993 Department of Justice inquiry into CIA involvement with The Finders examined these connections in detail. The Washington Times reported in December 1993 that a Metropolitan Police document quoted a CIA agent confirming that the agency was sending personnel to a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations. While Isabelle Pettie's specific role within the CIA was not detailed in the publicly released documents, her employment provided a documented link between the intelligence community and the organization's leadership.[^1] +### CIA Employment -The significance of Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment extended beyond her individual role. The connection suggested that The Finders may have functioned as an unacknowledged intelligence asset, or that intelligence personnel used the group's infrastructure for training and operational purposes. The family's multi-generational involvement with intelligence-connected entities, including Air America and Future Enterprises, indicated a pattern of overlap between The Finders and the intelligence community that warranted the Department of Justice investigation.[^1] +The precise dates of Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment vary across sources due to apparent inconsistencies in the underlying FBI Vault documents themselves. The most commonly cited range in journalism is approximately 1952 to 1961, though some documents suggest a start date as early as 1950 or 1951 and an end date as late as 1971.[^2][^3] She was listed in CIA records under the job title of staff stenographer. + +FBI Vault documents established that Isabelle Pettie held passports to North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union during the Cold War -- three destinations that were among the most restricted for American citizens during that era and would not ordinarily be approved for travel by an employee listed as a staff stenographer.[^3] This discrepancy between her official job category and her documented travel authorizations became a focal point in discussions of the CIA's relationship to [[The Finders]] and to the Pettie family more broadly. + +### Discovery During the Finders Investigation + +Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment came to investigators' attention during the 1987 federal inquiry into The Finders. Metropolitan Police and U.S. Customs investigators learned of her background as they examined [[Marion Pettie]]'s personal history in the weeks following the February 4, 1987 arrests in Tallahassee, Florida.[^1] + +An MPD report filed February 19, 1987 by Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr. described a CIA official acknowledging Isabelle Pettie's employment with the agency and stating that the investigation had been "treading on their toes" and that the CIA had a "vested interest" in the group.[^3] The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division subsequently classified all MPD reports related to The Finders as Secret.[^3] + +### Significance to the CIA Connection Question + +Isabelle Pettie's documented employment, combined with [[George Pettie|her son George's]] work for [[Air America]] and [[Future Enterprises|Future Enterprises' training]] of CIA employees, constituted three overlapping family and organizational connections to the CIA that investigators noted formed a pattern. The CIA's formal public position, articulated in 1993 by spokesman David Christian, characterized the agency's relationship with The Finders as "an indirect, tangential association" limited to the Future Enterprises computer training connection, and did not address Isabelle Pettie's employment in detail beyond confirming it.[^1] + +She had died before the 1987 investigation began. Her specific operational role, if any, within the CIA beyond her stenographer classification has not been established in accessible primary sources. ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. + +[^1]: Witkin, Gordon, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez. "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation." *U.S. News & World Report*, December 27, 1993 / January 3, 1994. +[^2]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. +[^3]: FBI Vault, "The Finders," vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). Also cited in: MintPress News, "Losing Finders: The Buried Documents that Linked the Infamous Cult to the CIA," 2019. https://www.mintpressnews.com/losing-finders-buried-documents-link-infamous-cult-to-cia/277756/. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John David Norman.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John David Norman.md index a0f183d4..46e8990b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John David Norman.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John David Norman.md @@ -27,5 +27,11 @@ Following the 1973 raid, [[Dallas Police Department]] Lieutenant Harold Hancock After release, Norman continued crimes; by 1983, arrested in Pennsylvania for using boys in "Handy Andy" pornography, released on bail in 1985, then fled. In 1986, wanted in at least five states, he used jailhouse lawyer skills to reduce bail, posted $7,500, and skipped, apprehended in Illinois in July 1987. Norman died in 2011 after spending his later life in and out of prison and parole programs.[^1] +### Connection to The Finders + +When [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] investigators examined the address book carried by the two [[The Finders|Finders]] members arrested in Tallahassee, Florida on February 4, 1987 -- [[Douglas Ammerman]] and [[James Michael Holwell]], who were transporting six malnourished children -- names in that address book appeared in FBI files related to Norman's network. According to FBI file notes cited in secondary sources, two individuals named in the address book appeared in FBI Dallas field office file 145-0 relating to Norman's Odyssey Foundation child prostitution investigation. A third name appeared in an FBI Buffalo field office file concerning [[NAMBLA]] members suspected of murder connections.[^1] + +The address-book overlaps represent the primary documented connection between The Finders and Norman's network. The underlying FBI documents establishing this connection are cited in secondary sources including *Eye of the Chickenhawk* and the NAMBLA-related investigation files; they were also referenced in the FBI Vault's November 2019 Finders document release. No direct organizational relationship or personal contact between Norman and Finders leadership has been established in accessible primary sources. + ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marion Pettie.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marion Pettie.md index 5a326fbf..947bd60f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marion Pettie.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marion Pettie.md @@ -4,20 +4,61 @@ tags: - Person - CIA - Military -summary: "Marion Pettie was the leader of The Finders, a group that law enforcement and researchers have described as a commune or cult operating in the Washington D.C." + - The_Finders + - Washington_DC +summary: "Marion David Pettie (1920-2003) was the founder and leader of The Finders, a Washington D.C.-based communal group investigated in 1987 for child trafficking connections. A retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant with family ties to the CIA and Air America, Pettie served as the group's 'Game Caller' for approximately three decades." born: 1920 died: 2003-10-24 -location: "Washington, D.C. area" +location: "Washington, D.C. / Culpeper, Virginia" --- -Marion Pettie was the leader of [[The Finders]], a group that law enforcement and researchers have described as a commune or cult operating in the Washington D.C. area. The children in the group called him the game-caller. Pettie was a former [[U.S. Air Force]] Master Sergeant, a background that provided him with military training and connections that would later become relevant to investigations into the group's activities.[^1] -Pettie's personal connections extended into the intelligence community. His late wife, [[Isabelle Pettie]], had been a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employee. One of his sons had worked for [[Air America]], a CIA cutout used to traffic heroin in the golden triangle region during the Vietnam War. These family connections to intelligence operations became central to inquiries into whether The Finders maintained operational links to the CIA or functioned as an unacknowledged asset.[^1] +Marion David Pettie (1920-2003) was the founder and leader of [[The Finders]], a Washington D.C.-based communal group that came under federal investigation in February 1987 following the arrest of two members who were transporting six malnourished children in a van in Tallahassee, Florida. A retired [[U.S. Air Force]] Master Sergeant with documented family connections to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and its proprietary airline [[Air America]], Pettie functioned within the group as the "Game Caller" - the title used both by adult members and by the children under the group's care - for approximately three decades until the group's announced dissolution in 1987.[^1][^2] -The investigation into The Finders intensified in February 1987 when two members of the group were arrested in Florida for transporting children. U.S. Customs agents and Metropolitan Police in Washington D.C. discovered preexisting information from an informant stating that a group calling themselves the Finders were conducting brainwashing techniques and that children were used in rituals. Search warrants were secured for a warehouse and a nearby duplex house owned by Pettie, which were raided on February 5.[^1] +### Early Life and Military Service -Inside the warehouse, investigators discovered hot tub and sauna facilities, various film sets, a video screening room, a library containing books on mind control, and a room full of networked computer equipment with a satellite link on the roof. Files seized during the raids contained detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes, including the impregnation of female members of the community, purchasing children, trading, and kidnapping. Other files contained printouts of telex messages sent to networked computer terminals across the United States and abroad, including a purchase order for two children in [[Hong Kong]] to be arranged through an official at the [[China|Chinese Embassy]].[^1] +Pettie was born in 1920 in Culpeper, Virginia, where his family had lived for what he described as ten generations. He dropped out of school after ninth grade. He served in the [[U.S. Army]] before and during World War II, later transitioning to or serving within the U.S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of Master Sergeant. He retired from the Air Force in 1956.[^2] -The 1993 [[Department of Justice]] inquiry into CIA involvement with The Finders revealed that Future Enterprises had provided software training for CIA employees, and that an employee of the company named [[Robert Garder Terrell]] was a member of The Finders who had been let go in February 1987. The Washington Times published an article in December 1993 citing a Metropolitan Police document dated February 19, 1987, quoting a CIA agent as confirming that the agency was sending personnel to a [[Future Enterprises]], for training in computer operations.[^1] +From at least the 1940s, Pettie hosted open-house gatherings at his Washington D.C. residence. He described these as self-financed social events that drew intelligence figures, diplomats, journalists, and others. Pettie stated in a 1996 interview with the *Washington City Paper* that he had studied intelligence agencies since the 1930s, tracking the evolution from the Office of Naval Intelligence through the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].[^2] + +### Alleged Intelligence Connections + +An anonymous three-page investigative memo of unknown provenance, circulated among researchers during the 1990s, alleged a more formal intelligence relationship. The memo claimed that in 1946 Pettie served as chauffeur to General [[Ira Eaker]], then commanding general of Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater, and that newspaper publisher [[Charles Marsh]] subsequently arranged for Pettie to receive counterintelligence training. The memo further alleged that Colonel [[Leonard N. Weigner]] of the USAF directed Pettie to retire from active duty and surround himself with "kooks" in order to provide cover for intelligence recruitment and the infiltration of counterculture movements, with Major [[George Varga]] serving as Pettie's case officer until Varga's death in the 1970s.[^2] + +Weigner died in September 1990. His *Washington Post* obituary confirmed a career in Air Force intelligence and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].[^2] The memo's specific claims regarding Weigner as Pettie's handler and Marsh as a facilitator are unverified and not corroborated by any accessible primary source. + +Pettie consistently denied CIA employment in public statements. In the most direct formulation, given to journalist Eddie Dean in 1996: "The reason the CIA wouldn't hire me is that they wouldn't have the control factor over me."[^2] In a 1993 interview with *U.S. News & World Report*, however, Pettie confirmed that his wife [[Isabelle Pettie]] "once worked for the Central Intelligence Agency" and that his son [[George Pettie]] worked for [[Air America]], the CIA proprietary airline that operated in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.[^3] + +### The Finders and the Game Caller Role + +Pettie's communal gatherings evolved into The Finders, a group that coalesced in the late 1960s and established a formal communal structure around 1971 at his Glover Park house in Washington D.C. Pettie functioned as the "Game Caller," structuring the group's activities through assignments he called "projects" - which could range from mundane domestic tasks to travel abroad - and exercising final authority over communal life.[^1][^2] + +He described no formal membership requirements: "Nobody signs anything." His stated personal philosophy, offered to Eddie Dean, was "to know everything and do nothing."[^2] The group blended Taoism with New Age and Human Potential Movement concepts, and members pooled finances into what [[Robert Gardner Terrell]] called the "Invisible Bank."[^1] + +Beginning around 1980, children in the group were raised communally rather than by biological parents. Pettie described this practice as replicating what he believed were original Native American child-rearing traditions. Children were not enrolled in conventional schools and were removed from their parents for months during group-organized travel described as educational.[^4] + +### The 1987 Investigation + +The February 1987 arrests of [[Douglas Ammerman]] and [[James Michael Holwell]] in Tallahassee while transporting six malnourished children prompted searches of The Finders' Washington D.C. warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE and the Glover Park duplex. Investigators found extensive computer networks with satellite communications, files describing methods for obtaining children, and telex communications referencing international operations. [[U.S. Customs]] Special Agent [[Ramon J. Martinez]] documented the contents in reports dated February 7 and April 13, 1987.[^1][^5] + +An MPD report filed February 19, 1987 by Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr. described a CIA official acknowledging Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment and stating that the investigation had been "treading on their toes" and that the agency had a "vested interest" in the group. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Foreign Counterintelligence Division classified MPD reports Secret and directed MPD not to brief the FBI's own Washington Field Office. All charges against the two arrested men were eventually dropped.[^1][^5] + +### Post-1987 and Final Years + +By 1996, when journalist Eddie Dean interviewed Pettie in Culpeper, Virginia, Pettie was 76 years old and living in his ancestral hometown. He denied that The Finders had engaged in any criminal activity and characterized the group name as informal: "There's no such thing as the Finders. It's just a group term for people who like to hang around me."[^2] + +A 1996 court appearance involved Pettie being unable to locate a briefcase containing approximately two million dollars in land deed documents. [[Robert Gardner Terrell]] announced the group's dissolution on March 11, 1987, though activity was observed at the former warehouse address as late as October 1991.[^1] + +Pettie gave no extended public interviews after 1996. He died on October 24, 2003, in Culpeper, Virginia.[^2] + +### Family + +- **[[Isabelle Pettie]]** (wife, deceased by 1987): Confirmed CIA employee, approximately 1952-1961. Held passports to North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.[^5] +- **[[George Pettie]]** (son): Worked for [[Air America]]. Had broken contact with his father by 1985 and was operating a home inspection business in Northern Virginia at the time of the 1987 investigation. He described the circa-1971 Glover Park gatherings as "the beginning of a new life" for his father and followers.[^3] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. + +[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. +[^2]: Dean, Eddie. "Finders' Keeper." *Washington City Paper*, May 24, 1996. https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/287890/finders-keeper/. +[^3]: Witkin, Gordon, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez. "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation." *U.S. News & World Report*, December 27, 1993 / January 3, 1994. +[^4]: Fisher, Marc and John Mintz. "Finders Group Has Its Roots in Popular '60s Hippie Refuge." *Washington Post*, February 7, 1987. +[^5]: FBI Vault, "The Finders," vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). Also: Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stuart Miles Silverstone.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stuart Miles Silverstone.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e2ddfb04 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stuart Miles Silverstone.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +category: "Other" +tags: + - Person + - The_Finders + - Washington_DC + - Computer_Operations + - 1980s +summary: "Stuart Miles Silverstone (alias: Steve Learner) was an active member of The Finders found by U.S. Customs investigators inside the group's satellite-equipped computer room at the Glover Park duplex during the February 1987 raids." +location: "Washington, D.C." +--- + +Stuart Miles Silverstone, who operated under the alias Steve Learner, was an active member of [[The Finders]] and was found by U.S. Customs Special Agent [[Ramon J. Martinez]] inside a satellite-equipped computer room at the group's Glover Park duplex during the February 1987 federal raids on The Finders' properties.[^1] + +### Discovery During the 1987 Raids + +When U.S. Customs and Metropolitan Police investigators executed search warrants on The Finders' Glover Park duplex at 3918-3920 W Street NW on February 5-6, 1987, Silverstone was found inside a room containing multiple computers, printers, and satellite communications equipment. Large plastic bags filled with color slides, photographs, and photographic contact sheets including images of children were also seized from the same area.[^1] + +The room Silverstone occupied at the duplex appears to correspond to the communications hub through which the group's telex messages were generated. Martinez's reports identified telex communications found at the warehouse and duplex -- transmitted through MCI accounts to terminals across the United States and in foreign locations -- including what Martinez described as a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong through a contact at the Chinese Embassy.[^1] + +### Membership and Aliases + +The active membership roster circulated during the 1987 investigations listed Silverstone by his alias "Steve Learner." His given name Stuart Miles Silverstone appears in investigative documents; some sources list a date of birth in June 1941, though this has not been independently verified. His specific formal role within [[Future Enterprises]], the computer training company associated with The Finders that conducted business with the CIA, is not established in accessible primary sources.[^1][^2] + +Silverstone is not known to have given any public interviews or made any public statements in connection with the 1987 investigation or subsequent inquiries. He does not appear in the 1993 DOJ/FBI follow-up inquiry records accessible through the FBI Vault.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. Also: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. +[^2]: FBI Vault, "The Finders," vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Garder Terrell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Garder Terrell.md index 3f889d25..79423b33 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Garder Terrell.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Garder Terrell.md @@ -3,15 +3,40 @@ category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person - CIA -summary: "Robert Garder Terrell was an employee of Future Enterprises and a member of The Finders who was let go from the group in February 1987." + - The_Finders + - Washington_DC + - Computer_Operations +summary: "Robert Gardner Terrell (aliases: 'Tobe Terrell,' 'Genghis K. Plato') was the principal spokesman and financial manager of The Finders, a former IRS appeals officer and certified public accountant who was associated with Future Enterprises, a company that provided computer training to CIA employees." +location: "Washington, D.C." --- -Robert Garder Terrell was an employee of [[Future Enterprises]] and a member of [[The Finders]] who was let go from the group in February 1987. His simultaneous employment at a company that provided software training for [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employees and membership in The Finders established a direct operational link between the group and the intelligence community.[^1] -The connection between Terrell, Future Enterprises, and The Finders emerged during the 1993 Department of Justice inquiry into CIA involvement with the group. Investigators learned that Future Enterprises had provided software training for CIA employees, and that Terrell was a member of The Finders who had been released from the group in February 1987. The timing of his departure coincided with the intensification of law enforcement scrutiny following the arrests of Finders members in Florida that same month.[^1] +Robert Gardner Terrell -- known within [[The Finders]] as "Tobe Terrell" and in some group documents as "Genghis K. Plato" -- was the principal spokesman and financial manager of The Finders, a former IRS appeals officer and certified public accountant who was associated with [[Future Enterprises]], a company that provided computer training to [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employees during the 1980s.[^1][^2] -Future Enterprises functioned as a corporate entity linked to The Finders' operations. A Metropolitan Police document dated February 19, 1987, quoted a CIA agent confirming that the agency was sending personnel to a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations. Terrell's position within this corporate structure suggested that he may have been involved in facilitating these training arrangements or in managing the technical infrastructure that supported both the company's legitimate business and The Finders' other activities.[^1] +### Background and Role Within The Finders -The Washington Times reported on these connections in December 1993, citing both the U.S. Customs memo compiled by Ramon J. Martinez and Metropolitan Police reports. The article brought public attention to the overlap between The Finders, Future Enterprises, and CIA training programs, with Terrell's dual role serving as a specific example of this convergence. The investigation did not establish whether Terrell was aware of the full scope of The Finders' activities or whether his involvement was limited to the technical and training aspects of the operation.[^1] +Terrell had a prior career as an appeals officer with the Internal Revenue Service before becoming associated with [[Marion Pettie]] and The Finders. He held the warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE in Washington D.C. -- the group's primary male residence and operational hub -- in his name as owner of record.[^1] + +Within the group, Terrell managed what he called the "Invisible Bank" -- a pooled communal fund into which members contributed finances, in some cases including life savings.[^2] He was a certified public accountant and handled the group's finances in this capacity. He was also associated with Future Enterprises as a computer trainer. The CIA confirmed in 1993 that it had sent employees to Future Enterprises for computer training during the 1980s; CIA spokesman David Christian described Terrell's role there as that of a "part-time accountant," though Terrell's own descriptions of his work at the company described computer training.[^3] + +### The 1987 Arrests and Dissolution Announcement + +When the two Finders members were arrested in Tallahassee on February 4, 1987, and federal and Metropolitan Police investigators subsequently raided the warehouse and Glover Park properties, Terrell functioned as the group's public face. He was identified in contemporaneous reporting as the group's spokesman and made statements to journalists in the days following the raids.[^1] + +On March 11, 1987, as a Florida judge ruled on custody of the six children involved in the Tallahassee case, Terrell announced to the press that The Finders were "breaking up" after approximately seventeen years of operation: "You won't hear from the Finders again until the year 2000." On March 23, 1987, he gave a follow-up statement to the Associated Press confirming the group's dissolution.[^1][^2] + +The announcement of dissolution did not prevent the group's continued investigation. U.S. Customs records document that a U.S. Customs proposal to remove agent [[Ramon J. Martinez]] from his position in 1994 cited his disclosure of case information to a co-worker of someone under investigation. Activity was also observed at the former warehouse address as late as October 1991, when Metropolitan Police officers found well-dressed men with children entering the building after midnight.[^1] + +### The Future Enterprises and CIA Training Connection + +The 1993 Department of Justice and FBI inquiry into The Finders examined Terrell's role at Future Enterprises closely. The Washington Times published a December 17, 1993 article by investigative reporter Paul M. Rodriguez citing both Martinez's customs documents and an MPD report dated February 19, 1987, in which a CIA agent confirmed the agency was sending personnel to "a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations."[^3] This language -- "Finders Corp." -- in the MPD document suggested a direct institutional identification between the two entities, though the CIA's public position maintained the connection was limited to one Finders member working as a part-time accountant at an otherwise independent firm.[^3] + +### Post-1987 Public Statements + +Terrell gave no extended public interviews for over twenty-five years following the 1987 investigation. In 2018 he agreed to be interviewed by journalist Derrick Broze of The Conscious Resistance Network -- the first such interview since the investigation. A follow-up interview was conducted in 2021. Both interviews were incorporated into Broze's 2019 documentary "Who Will Find What The Finders Hide?" Terrell denied all criminal allegations throughout and described The Finders as a philosophical and communal organization.[^4] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. + +[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. +[^2]: Dean, Eddie. "Finders' Keeper." *Washington City Paper*, May 24, 1996. https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/287890/finders-keeper/. +[^3]: Witkin, Gordon, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez. "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation." *U.S. News & World Report*, December 27, 1993 / January 3, 1994. Also: Rodriguez, Paul M. "CIA tied to cult accused of abuse; Justice probes links to Finders." *Washington Times*, December 17, 1993. +[^4]: Broze, Derrick, and Jeremy Martin. "Who Will Find What The Finders Hide?" Documentary. The Conscious Resistance Network, March 2019. https://theconsciousresistance.com/thefinders/. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Future Enterprises.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Future Enterprises.md index 7d2703be..3d56005c 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Future Enterprises.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Future Enterprises.md @@ -8,15 +8,33 @@ tags: - Washington_DC - 1980s category: "Private Organization" -summary: "Future Enterprises was a company linked to The Finders that provided software training for CIA employees." +summary: "Future Enterprises was a Washington D.C.-area computer training company associated with The Finders that provided software training to CIA employees during the 1980s. The CIA confirmed this relationship in 1993, characterizing it as an incidental procurement arrangement; investigators described it as evidence of a direct organizational link between the CIA and The Finders." +location: "Washington, D.C." --- -Future Enterprises was a company linked to [[The Finders]] that provided software training for [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employees. The connection between Future Enterprises and the intelligence community emerged during the 1993 Department of Justice inquiry into CIA involvement with The Finders and a potential [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] coverup of the group's operations.[^1] -The Washington Times published an article in December 1993 citing both the U.S. Customs memo compiled by [[Ramon J. Martinez]] and Metropolitan Police Department reports. The article reported that a Metropolitan Police document dated February 19, 1987, quoted a CIA agent as confirming that the agency was sending personnel to a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations. This direct admission of CIA personnel receiving training at a Finders-related company established an operational link between the intelligence community and the group.[^1] +Future Enterprises was a Washington D.C.-area computer training company associated with [[The Finders]] that provided software training to [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employees during the 1980s. The existence of this business relationship was confirmed publicly in 1993 by CIA spokesman David Christian, who stated: "CIA sent some employees to a company called Future Enterprises, Inc. for computer training in the nineteen eighties." Christian denied that the company was a CIA front or that it was "in any sense owned or operated by anyone for the CIA."[^1] -An employee of Future Enterprises named [[Robert Garder Terrell]] was identified as a member of [[The Finders]] who had been let go in February 1987. The timing of his departure coincided with the intensification of law enforcement scrutiny following the arrests of Finders members in Florida. Terrell's dual role as both an employee of a CIA training contractor and a member of The Finders suggested that the company may have functioned as a corporate front for the group's activities.[^1] +### Organizational Connection to The Finders -The role of Future Enterprises within The Finders' operational structure appeared to involve technical training and infrastructure management. The warehouse raided by U.S. Customs in February 1987 contained a room full of networked computer equipment with a satellite link on the roof, and the duplex house contained additional computer facilities. The telex messages found on these systems detailed international communications, including instructions for moving children across jurisdictions and purchase orders for children in [[Hong Kong]]. The CIA's use of Future Enterprises for computer training raised questions about whether the agency was aware of these activities or whether the training arrangement provided cover for intelligence personnel to access the group's facilities.[^1] +[[Robert Gardner Terrell]], a certified public accountant and former IRS appeals officer who served as [[The Finders]]' principal spokesman and financial manager, was associated with Future Enterprises as a computer trainer. The CIA's characterization of his role was "part-time accountant." Terrell's own accounts described computer training work.[^1] + +Vice president **Joseph Marinich** confirmed in contemporaneous reporting that CIA employees received training at the company during the 1980s.[^1] + +An MPD report filed February 19, 1987 by Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr. described a CIA official confirming that the agency was sending personnel to "a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations." The phrase "Finders Corp." in this document represented a direct institutional identification of Future Enterprises as a Finders corporate entity, though the CIA's public position maintained the connection was incidental.[^2] + +### Infrastructure Context + +The physical infrastructure of The Finders' properties and the technical capabilities implied by the Future Enterprises training relationship were related in investigators' assessments. The warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE and the Glover Park duplex both contained extensive networked computer equipment with satellite dish antennas. [[Ramon J. Martinez|U.S. Customs Agent Ramon J. Martinez]] found [[Stuart Miles Silverstone]] inside a satellite-equipped computer room at the Glover Park duplex during the February 1987 raids. Telex messages on the group's systems referenced international contacts and included what Martinez described as communications relating to children in multiple countries.[^2] + +Whether CIA employees who received computer training at Future Enterprises had any operational contact with The Finders' broader activities through this arrangement has not been established in accessible primary sources. + +### The 1993 DOJ Investigation + +The Future Enterprises connection was a central element of the 1993 Department of Justice and FBI reinvestigation of The Finders, prompted by congressional pressure from Representatives Tom Lewis (R-FL) and Charlie Rose (D-NC). Reporter Paul M. Rodriguez of the *Washington Times* published the key investigative article on December 17, 1993, citing the MPD document identifying Future Enterprises as "Finders Corp."[^1] The *U.S. News & World Report* contemporaneous investigation also cited the CIA training relationship as one of three documented overlaps between The Finders and the intelligence community, alongside [[Isabelle Pettie]]'s CIA employment and [[George Pettie|George Pettie's]] work for [[Air America]].[^1] + +The DOJ inquiry concluded without criminal charges. The CIA maintained its characterization of the training relationship as an incidental procurement arrangement. ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. + +[^1]: Witkin, Gordon, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez. "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation." *U.S. News & World Report*, December 27, 1993 / January 3, 1994. Also: Rodriguez, Paul M. "CIA tied to cult accused of abuse; Justice probes links to Finders." *Washington Times*, December 17, 1993. +[^2]: Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. Also: FBI Vault, "The Finders," vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Odyssey Foundation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Odyssey Foundation.md index cd345c7e..ed87fbbb 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Odyssey Foundation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Odyssey Foundation.md @@ -12,5 +12,9 @@ location: "Dallas, Texas, USA" --- The Odyssey Foundation was the legal front entity for [[John David Norman]]'s [[Odyssey Network]] trafficking operation, operating from Dallas, Texas. The foundation was connected to [[Educational Foundation for Youth]] in Illinois, which derived tax-exempt status as a subsidiary of offshore companies. Through these front organizations, Norman operated a nationwide system of "sponsors" who provided housing for boys in exchange for sexual access, creating an interlocking web spanning multiple states. The Odyssey Foundation was linked to [[Francis Shelden]]'s [[North Fox Island]] operation through shared sponsors and the [[Hermes]] newsletter.[^1] +### Connection to The Finders + +When the two [[The Finders|Finders]] members arrested in Tallahassee, Florida in February 1987 were found transporting six malnourished children, an address book in their possession contained names that appeared in FBI Dallas field office file 145-0 relating to the Odyssey Foundation's child prostitution investigation. This address-book overlap, documented in FBI records cited in secondary sources and referenced in the FBI Vault's November 2019 Finders document release, represents the primary documented link between the two operations. No direct organizational relationship or personal contact between Norman and [[The Finders]]' leadership has been established in accessible primary sources.[^1] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Finders.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Finders.md index 6dfb923e..2131b777 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Finders.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Finders.md @@ -9,46 +9,180 @@ tags: - International_Network - Computer_Operations category: "Private Organization" -summary: "The Finders was a 60s-style commune/cult group operating in Washington D.C. that came to public attention in February 1987 when two of its members were arrested in Tallahassee, Florida for transporting six disheveled children in a white van." +summary: "The Finders was a Washington D.C.-based communal group led by former Air Force Master Sergeant Marion Pettie that came to public attention in February 1987 when two members were arrested in Tallahassee, Florida while transporting six malnourished children. Subsequent raids on group properties uncovered computer networks, satellite equipment, and documents describing international operations involving children, triggering a federal investigation that was abruptly halted after CIA involvement was acknowledged." location: "Washington, D.C." +start: 1970 --- +The Finders was a Washington D.C.-based communal group led by former [[U.S. Air Force]] Master Sergeant [[Marion Pettie]] that came to public attention on February 4, 1987, when two of its members were arrested in Tallahassee, Florida while transporting six malnourished children in a van. The ensuing investigation uncovered extensive computer networks with satellite communications, international files referencing operations in multiple countries, and documents describing methods for obtaining children. A federal inquiry was opened, then abruptly closed after the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] acknowledged an interest in the group. The case was partially reopened in 1993 following congressional pressure, then closed again without criminal charges. In November 2019, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] released several hundred pages of investigative records through its online Vault repository.[^2][^3][^4] -The Finders was a 60s-style commune/cult group operating in Washington D.C. that came to public attention in February 1987 when two of its members were arrested in Tallahassee, Florida for transporting six disheveled children in a white van. The group, led by former Air Force Master Sergeant [[Marion Pettie]], was discovered to be engaged in international child trafficking operations with connections to intelligence agencies.[^1] +### Origins and Structure -### The Tallahassee Incident +The Finders coalesced in the late 1960s around [[Marion Pettie]], who had been hosting open-house gatherings at his Washington D.C. residence since at least the 1940s. The formal communal structure took shape around 1971 at Pettie's home in the Glover Park neighborhood.[^5] Pettie described no formal membership requirements: "Nobody signs anything."[^5] Members pooled finances into what [[Robert Gardner Terrell]] called the "Invisible Bank," with some members contributing life savings to the communal fund.[^5] -On February 4, 1987, police in Tallahassee, Florida received a call about six poorly cared for children under the supervision of two well-dressed men. The children were dirty, malnourished, and one showed signs of sexual abuse. The children demonstrated unfamiliarity with the outside world and stated they were being taken to a special school in Mexico for brilliant children. When asked about their parents, they replied they had been weaned from their mothers and were under the control of the game caller. One child indicated they would go to people's houses and babysit, stating this was fun because they got to eat what was there and do what those people wanted them to do, but would not elaborate further.[^1] +The group blended Taoist philosophy with New Age and Human Potential Movement concepts. Members were typically well-educated professionals who rejected conventional employment as an obstacle to what Pettie called spontaneity. Pettie functioned as the "Game Caller" -- a title the children in the group also used for him -- directing members on assignments called "projects" that could range from mundane tasks to international travel, and exercising final authority over communal life.[^5][^6] His stated life philosophy, offered to journalist Eddie Dean in 1996, was "to know everything and do nothing."[^5] -### The Washington Raids +Beginning around 1980, children were raised communally rather than by biological parents. The group believed this practice replicated what members described as original Native American child-rearing. Children were not enrolled in conventional schools and were separated from their parents for months during group-organized trips described as educational adventures. Neighbors reported seeing dozens of children at the Virginia farm during summer periods, sometimes naked or appearing distressed.[^7] -The white van used to transport the children was registered to a warehouse in Washington D.C. This information was relayed to U.S. Customs officers and Metropolitan Police, who discovered they had preexisting information from an informant stating that a group calling themselves The Finders was conducting brainwashing techniques and that children were used in rituals by the groups. Search warrants were secured for the warehouse and a nearby duplex house owned by Finders leader [[Marion Pettie]].[^1] +#### Properties -Inside the warehouse, investigators discovered hot tub and sauna facilities, various film sets, a video screening room, a library containing books on mind control, and a room full of networked computer equipment with a satellite link on the roof. According to U.S. Customs official [[Ramon J. Martinez]], who conducted the raids, a member of The Finders named [[Stuart Miles Silverstone]] was found inside a computer room at the duplex home, which was also equipped with a satellite link. Files on the computers contained detailed instructions for obtaining children through impregnation of female members, purchasing, trading, and kidnapping.[^1] +The group maintained several interconnected properties: -### International Trafficking Operations +- **3918-3920 W Street NW, Glover Park, Washington D.C.:** Two attached red brick buildings containing approximately eight apartments, renting rooms at five dollars per night. Women and children lived here. A duplex portion contained a satellite communications setup.[^5][^2] +- **1307 Fourth Street NE, Washington D.C.:** A 10,000-square-foot warehouse owned of record by [[Robert Gardner Terrell]]. Men lived here. The space contained a large library, two kitchens, a sauna, a hot tub, a video production room, extensive computer equipment, and satellite dish antennas on the roof.[^2][^3] +- **The Farm, Nethers, Madison County, Virginia:** Approximately 90 acres near Shenandoah National Park and Old Rag Mountain. Neighbors reported vans arriving at night with children who were sometimes heard crying.[^5][^7] -Files seized during the raids contained printouts of messages sent through an electronic mail system called telex to other networked computer terminals across the United States and abroad. One telex message was a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong to be arranged through an official at the Chinese Embassy. Others detailed activities such as bank secrecy and interests in high tech transfers in London, Europe, and Africa. A recently received message found in Silverstone's possession provided a detailed summary of the arrests in Florida and included instructions to move the children and keep them moving through different jurisdictions to avoid police attention.[^1] +#### Membership -### Intelligence Community Connections +The active membership roster circulated during the 1987 investigations listed: [[Ronald L. Alleman]]; [[Mary Grogan]]; [[Christian Herbst]]; [[Kristin Knauth]]; [[Theodore G. Reiss]]; [[Allen Schoen]]; [[Stuart Miles Silverstone]] (operating under the alias Steve Learner); [[Randolph Winn]]; and [[Steve Usdin]]. Former members included [[Patricia H. Livingston]], [[Carolyn Said]], and others who maintained contact with the group.[^2] -The investigation took a significant turn on February 6, 1987, when the FBI took over the investigation and classified all MPD reports related to The Finders investigation as Secret. According to an MPD report dated February 19, 1987, an MPD Detective reported speaking with a CIA official who told them The Finders investigation had been treading on their toes and that the CIA apparently had a vested interest in the group. The CIA connection was later confirmed when it was revealed that Finders leader Marion Pettie's late wife had been a CIA employee named [[Isabelle Pettie]], and one of his sons had worked for [[Air America]], a CIA cutout used to traffic heroin in the golden triangle region during the Vietnam War. It was also learned that [[Future Enterprises]] had provided software training for CIA employees, and that an employee of the company named [[Robert Garder Terrell]] was a member of The Finders let go in February 1987.[^1] +[[Robert Gardner Terrell]], a former [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] appeals officer and certified public accountant, served as the group's principal spokesman and financial manager. He was associated with [[Future Enterprises]], a computer training company that conducted business with the CIA.[^2][^3] -### Evidence of Ritual Abuse +### Marion Pettie's Background and Intelligence Connections -Among the evidence seized were photographs of children engaged in what appeared to be cult rituals. A photo album found during the warehouse raid contained pictures of men and children from The Finders group dressed in robes slaughtering goats. Customs officials reported finding photos showing children involved in bloodletting ceremonies of animals and one photograph of a child in chains. When news of the investigation was picked up by [[The Washington Post]] on February 7, they reported that D.C. police sources said some of the items seized showed pictures of children engaged in what appeared to be cult rituals, and that Customs officials were looking into whether a child pornography operation was being conducted.[^1] +[[Marion Pettie]] was born in 1920 and grew up in Culpeper, Virginia, where his family had lived for ten generations. He dropped out of school after ninth grade. He served as a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and retired in 1956.[^5] His wife, [[Isabelle Pettie]], was a CIA employee; FBI Vault documents confirm her employment, though the precise dates cited across sources vary, with estimates ranging from approximately 1952 to 1961.[^3] She was listed as a staff stenographer but was issued passports to North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union during the Cold War -- travel that would not ordinarily be approved for an employee in that category.[^3] Pettie confirmed in a 1993 interview with *U.S. News & World Report* that his wife "once worked for the Central Intelligence Agency."[^4] + +Pettie's son [[George Pettie]] worked for [[Air America]], the CIA proprietary airline that operated in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and was documented to have transported narcotics from the [[Golden Triangle]].[^4] George Pettie had broken contact with his father by 1985 and was operating a home inspection business in Northern Virginia at the time of the 1987 investigations. In a 1987 interview he described the circa-1971 Glover Park gatherings as "the beginning of a new life" for his father and followers.[^5] + +Marion Pettie consistently denied CIA employment in public interviews, stating: "The reason the CIA wouldn't hire me is that they wouldn't have the control factor over me."[^5] He acknowledged studying intelligence agencies since the 1930s and described himself as Taoist by inclination. His open houses in Washington from the 1930s onward drew intelligence figures, diplomats, and journalists, though Pettie described these gatherings as self-financed social events rather than operational meetings.[^5] + +An anonymous three-page investigative memo circulated among researchers in the 1990s alleged a more formal intelligence relationship: that in 1946 Pettie served as chauffeur to General [[Ira Eaker]], then commanding general of Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean, and that publisher [[Charles Marsh]] subsequently arranged for Pettie to receive counterintelligence training. The memo further alleged that Colonel [[Leonard N. Weigner]] of the USAF directed Pettie to retire from active service and surround himself with what Weigner called "kooks," to provide cover for intelligence recruitment and infiltration of counterculture movements. Weigner died in September 1990; his *Washington Post* obituary confirmed a career in Air Force intelligence and the CIA.[^5] These claims are unverified and the memo's authorship is unknown. They are not corroborated by accessible primary sources. + +### The Tallahassee Arrest, February 4, 1987 + +At Myers Park in Tallahassee, Florida, on February 4, 1987, local police received reports of two well-dressed men with six visibly dirty and malnourished children living out of a van. The men were identified as [[Douglas Edward Ammerman]], age 27, and [[James Michael Holwell]], age 28, both from Washington D.C.[^2][^8] + +The six children ranged in age from approximately two to eleven years. They were described by police and medical personnel as bug-bitten, dirty, underfed, and on a raw food diet dispensed only as behavioral reward. The children appeared unfamiliar with modern technology including telephones, televisions, and toilets, and demonstrated unfamiliarity with the names of rooms in a house. When questioned about their origins, the children stated they were being taken to a special school in Mexico for brilliant children. They indicated they had been "weaned from their mothers" and were "under the control of the game caller." One child stated that the group would go to people's houses, babysit, and eat whatever was available and "do what those people wanted" but would not elaborate further.[^1][^2] + +Florida HRS physician Dr. Moorer found two children with findings consistent with sexual abuse, including one showing signs of sodomy and another of vaginal penetration. A subsequent psychiatric examination by Dr. Nahman Greenberg found "no signs of recent sexual or physical abuse."[^8] Items found in the van included a TRS-80 computer, twenty floppy computer disks, a telephone connection device, and a Chinese-English dictionary.[^2] + +Ammerman and Holwell were charged with misdemeanor child abuse. Bond was initially set at $100,000, reduced to $20,000 on February 19. Five women identifying as the children's mothers arrived in Tallahassee from Washington around February 12: Kristin Knauth, Judy Evans, Paula Arico, Carolyn Said, and one additional woman.[^8] On March 11, Judge Victor Cawthon returned three children to their mothers without restrictions and declared three children state dependents pending further supervision. All charges against Ammerman and Holwell were dropped for lack of evidence, and they were released on March 17-18, 1987.[^8] + +### The Washington Raids, February 5-6, 1987 + +The white van used to transport the children was registered to the 1307 Fourth Street NE warehouse. Metropolitan Police in Washington D.C. already had preexisting information from an informant about The Finders' practices. Search warrants were secured for the warehouse and the Glover Park property, and Virginia State Police separately raided the Madison County farm on February 6.[^2] + +U.S. Customs Special Agent **[[Ramon J. Martinez]]** was the principal federal investigator at the Washington D.C. properties. His reports, filed February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987, constitute the primary documentary record of what investigators found.[^2][^3] + +#### Warehouse Findings + +At the warehouse, investigators found: + +- Extensive networked computer equipment with satellite dish antennas +- A large library including books on mind control and psychological operations +- A video screening room with production capability +- Sauna and hot tub facilities +- Files referencing international contacts and activities in [[London]], [[Germany]], the [[Bahamas]], [[Japan]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Malaysia]], Africa, and [[Costa Rica]] +- A file labeled "Pentagon Break-In" +- Photographs of unidentified individuals including nude images and images of children +- Documents describing "explicit sexual conduct" between members +- Documents with what Martinez described as "detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes," including methods described as: impregnation of female members; purchasing; trading; and kidnapping[^2][^3] + +Martinez documented that files contained printouts of messages transmitted through an MCI telex account to networked computer terminals across the United States and in foreign locations. Among the telex messages, Martinez identified what he described as a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong to be arranged through a contact at the Chinese Embassy.[^2][^3] No second investigator present at the raid independently confirmed this specific document in accessible records, and the Skeptical Inquirer's 2023 analysis noted its existence rests on Martinez's reports alone.[^8] + +Additional documents referenced bank secrecy practices, technology transfers to the [[United Kingdom]], and currency movement across multiple international jurisdictions. Martinez's overall assessment was that the files indicated "international trafficking in children, high tech transfer to the United Kingdom, and international transfer of currency."[^2] + +Evidence gathered from the properties also included what Martinez's report described as intelligence files on private families, apparently compiled through placements of tutor and babysitter advertisements.[^2] + +#### Glover Park and Stuart Miles Silverstone + +At the Glover Park duplex, investigators found [[Stuart Miles Silverstone]] inside a room equipped with multiple computers, printers, and satellite communications equipment. Large bags of color slides and photographic contact sheets containing images of children were also seized.[^2] + +#### Virginia Farm + +Virginia State Police found at the Madison County farm what they described as evidence of cult or ritual activity. This characterization was subsequently disputed; photographs later described in some sources as showing ritual activity appear to depict livestock butchering. No criminal charges resulted from the farm search.[^7] + +### CIA Involvement and Investigation Suppression + +On February 6, 1987, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] took over the investigation and took possession of computers and floppy disks seized from Finders properties. The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division directed the Metropolitan Police Department to classify all MPD reports related to The Finders as Secret, and further directed MPD not to advise the FBI's own Washington Field Office of what had occurred -- a division that confused investigators at the time and was later documented in FBI Vault records.[^2][^3] + +An MPD report filed February 19, 1987 by Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr., titled "Re: Finders involvement with the CIA," described a CIA official acknowledging [[Isabelle Pettie]]'s employment with the agency and stating that the investigation had been "treading on their toes" and that the CIA had a "vested interest" in the group.[^2][^3] Stitcher died in 1993 before he could be interviewed during a subsequent Department of Justice inquiry. + +In late March or early April 1987, Martinez met with Stitcher, who told him the investigation "had become a CIA internal matter." Martinez's April 13, 1987 report concluded: "The MPD report has been classified SECRET... FBI had withdrawn from the investigation... FBI Foreign Counter Intelligence Division had directed MPD not to advise the FBI Washington Field Office... No further information will be available. No further action will be taken."[^2] + +The investigation was declared closed by the FBI in early 1987. An FBI spokesman stated investigators had found no evidence of federal violations including kidnapping or use of children for pornographic purposes.[^1] + +In 1994, the U.S. Customs Service proposed to remove Martinez from his position for what it described as improperly disclosing case information to a close co-worker of an individual under investigation. By letter of December 7, 1994, the penalty was subsequently mitigated to a five-day suspension without pay and reassignment from Special Agent to Physical Security Specialist, GS-080-13.[^3] + +### Future Enterprises and the Computer Training Connection + +[[Future Enterprises]] was a private company that provided computer training to CIA employees during the 1980s. In a 1993 public statement, CIA spokesman David Christian confirmed: "CIA sent some employees to a company called Future Enterprises, Inc. for computer training in the nineteen eighties." Christian denied any CIA ownership of or organizational relationship with the company, characterizing the Finders connection as involving one member who worked as a "part-time accountant."[^4] + +[[Robert Gardner Terrell]], described in sources as a former IRS appeals officer and the warehouse's owner of record, was that member. Terrell was associated with Future Enterprises as a computer trainer. Vice president Joseph Marinich confirmed in contemporaneous reporting that CIA employees had received training at the company during the 1980s.[^4] The CIA's public position was that employees who received training at Future Enterprises did so in the normal course of procurement and that no one in the agency knew of any connection between Future Enterprises and The Finders at the time.[^4] + +### The 1993 Congressional and DOJ Investigation + +The case was revived in 1993 when Henry T. "Skip" Clements, a private consultant in Stuart, Florida, obtained copies of Martinez's customs reports. Clements provided the documents to U.S. Representatives Tom Lewis (R-FL) and Charlie Rose (D-NC). Lewis made public statements questioning whether the government had protected The Finders at the expense of the children.[^4] + +Congressional pressure, combined with the prospect of a CBS *48 Hours* segment on the case, prompted the Department of Justice to reopen the matter. An October 26, 1993 memo from Acting Assistant Attorney General John C. Keeney tasked the FBI with a preliminary inquiry into the CIA interference allegations.[^3] + +The Washington Times published what became the key investigative piece in the reopening: reporter Paul M. Rodriguez (a four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee) published "CIA tied to cult accused of abuse; Justice probes links to Finders" on December 17, 1993.[^3] Rodriguez was described by colleagues as the only journalist to directly quote significant portions of the Martinez customs documents. *U.S. News & World Report* followed on December 27, 1993 with "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation" by Gordon Witkin, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez, which contained the interview with Marion Pettie confirming his wife's CIA employment and his son's Air America service, as well as CIA spokesman Christian's formal statement.[^4] + +The DOJ and FBI concluded their inquiry in late 1993 and early 1994. A November 16, 1993 memo from Tallahassee Police Chief Mel Tucker stated that no outside agency, domestic or foreign, had contacted anyone in his department to influence the investigation.[^8] The CIA's formal position, per David Christian, was that any connection to The Finders was "an indirect, tangential association" through the Future Enterprises training relationship alone.[^4] No criminal charges resulted and the case was again closed. ### Connection to John David Norman's Odyssey Network -The connection to broader trafficking networks was revealed in 2019 when the FBI released heavily redacted case files. A list of names and addresses found on The Finders men arrested in Florida contained names linked to both [[NAMBLA]] and [[John David Norman]]'s [[Odyssey Network]]. The FBI reported that one name was reflected in a Buffalo file concerning alleged members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association with possible murder connections, while two other names appeared as members of the Odyssey Foundation in Dallas file 145-0, which was related to child prostitution.[^1] +The two men arrested in Tallahassee were found carrying an address book. According to FBI file notes cited in secondary sources, individuals named in that address book included one person appearing in an FBI Buffalo field office file concerning [[NAMBLA]] members suspected of murder connections, and two persons appearing in FBI Dallas field office file 145-0 relating to [[John David Norman]]'s [[Odyssey Foundation]] child prostitution investigation.[^1][^2] -### Cover-up and Media Spin +[[John David Norman]] (October 13, 1927 - May 22, 2011) was convicted multiple times between 1960 and 1998 on child molestation and child pornography charges. He founded the Odyssey Foundation in Dallas in the mid-1960s as a front for procuring teenage boys for prostitution and distributing child pornography nationally through a network of clients he called "sponsors."[^9] The address-book overlaps documented in FBI records represent the primary documented connection between The Finders and Norman's network; the underlying FBI documents have not been independently reviewed through accessible primary sources. -The satanic cult aspect of the investigation was allowed to circulate in the national press for about a week before the FBI declared their investigation had uncovered no evidence of a federal crime. An FBI spokesman stated the investigation was pretty well winding down and that they had not uncovered any evidence of federal violations, including no evidence of kidnapping or using children for pornographic purposes. The media quickly realigned themselves, with The Washington Post publishing an op-ed dismissing the incident as a hoax reminiscent of the satanic panic, comparing it to the 1987 Salem witch trial aided and abetted by newspapers and TV.[^1] +### Ted Gunderson's Investigation -### Continued Operations +[[Ted Gunderson]], a former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles, Memphis, and Dallas field offices who retired from the bureau in 1979 and established a private investigation firm, obtained copies of the Martinez customs reports and made them widely available, hosting them on his website and distributing them to journalists and researchers. Gunderson authored a pamphlet titled "U.S. Customs Service Report on the Finders" and made public assertions regarding CIA orchestration of child trafficking networks, citing The Finders as a central example.[^3] He died of cancer on July 31, 2011. His role was that of a private investigator and public advocate rather than an official government investigator, and his broader claims about CIA child trafficking programs have not been corroborated by accessible primary sources. -Despite the 1987 raids, The Finders appeared to continue operations. In October 1991, MPD officers observed suspicious activity of well-dressed men accompanied by children at late hours of the night coming and going from a building that had been raided during the 1987 investigation. Officers observed numerous well-dressed males operating rental cars and expensive luxury vehicles entering the building at late and early morning hours. On one occasion, they observed adult males with a young male child entering the building after midnight. When stopped, a van operator told police he did research stuff and babysat children for diplomats, though officers found this story highly suspicious given the neighborhood's nature.[^1] +### Media Coverage and the Satanic Panic Context + +Initial coverage broke in the *Washington Post* on February 7, 1987, through a series of articles by Marc Fisher and John Mintz describing cult rituals and the warehouse contents.[^1] D.C. Police Chief Maurice T. Turner announced on February 10, 1987 that police had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.[^1] + +The case emerged during the height of what social scientists later termed the "satanic panic" - a period in the mid-1980s characterized by widespread allegations, often unsubstantiated, of ritual abuse at daycare centers and by organized cults. The FBI's public closure of the investigation without charges, combined with media pivot toward skeptical coverage, followed a pattern seen in other contemporaneous cases. The *Washington Post* subsequently published an opinion piece dismissing the case as an artifact of this climate.[^1] + +Washington City Paper journalist Eddie Dean conducted the definitive long-form profile of Pettie in a May 24, 1996 piece titled "Finders' Keeper," based on a direct interview with Pettie, then 76, in Culpeper, Virginia. It remains the most substantial journalistic account of the group based on primary access to its founder.[^5] + +### The 2019 FBI Document Release + +In November 2019, the FBI released several hundred pages of documents about The Finders through its FBI Vault online repository (vault.fbi.gov/the-finders), organized in four parts. The FBI described The Finders as among the most-requested topics in its Vault system.[^3] + +The released documents included the 1993 DOJ inquiry paperwork, the Tallahassee Police Chief's November 1993 memo, and records of the FBI's internal preliminary inquiry. They confirmed that the FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division had directed MPD not to brief the FBI's Washington Field Office, and that MPD reports had been classified Secret. The documents did not resolve the central disputed questions: whether the CIA maintained a formal operational relationship with The Finders beyond the Future Enterprises training connection; whether the telex message describing a Hong Kong children purchase order was authentic; or whether child trafficking as described in Martinez's reports occurred.[^3][^8] + +A 2023 analysis by *Skeptical Inquirer* (Autumn Sword, "Were 'The Finders' a CIA-Fronted Satanic Cult?", February 28, 2023) concluded that the released records did not support the CIA-front or child trafficking interpretations, characterizing the affair as substantially shaped by the satanic panic context and by the particular investigative lens of the era.[^8] + +### Dissolution and Aftermath + +On March 11, 1987, as the custody proceedings concluded in Florida, [[Robert Gardner Terrell]] announced to the press that The Finders were "breaking up" after approximately seventeen years: "You won't hear from the Finders again until the year 2000." He gave a follow-up interview to the Associated Press on March 23, 1987 confirming the group's dissolution.[^5][^2] + +In October 1991, MPD officers observed activity at the previously raided Fourth Street NE warehouse: well-dressed men operating rental cars and luxury vehicles entering the building at late and early morning hours, on at least one occasion with a young male child, after midnight. A van operator told officers he "did research stuff and babysat children for diplomats." Officers found the explanation suspicious, given the neighborhood and hours, but no further action was documented.[^1] + +Marion Pettie died on October 24, 2003, in Culpeper, Virginia.[^5] + +In 2018, Terrell gave his first public interview in over twenty-five years to journalist **Derrick Broze** of The Conscious Resistance Network, followed by another in 2021. The interviews were incorporated into Broze's documentary "Who Will Find What The Finders Hide?" released in March 2019.[^10] Terrell denied all criminal allegations throughout. + +### Documented vs. Alleged + +The following are confirmed by primary sources: + +- [[Isabelle Pettie]] worked for the CIA (FBI Vault documents) +- [[Isabelle Pettie]] held passports to North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union (FBI Vault documents) +- [[George Pettie]] worked for [[Air America]] (Marion Pettie, *U.S. News & World Report*, 1993) +- CIA sent employees to [[Future Enterprises]] for computer training (CIA spokesman David Christian, 1993) +- [[Robert Gardner Terrell]] was associated with Future Enterprises (multiple sources) +- The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division classified MPD reports Secret and barred the FBI's own Washington Field Office from being briefed (Martinez reports; FBI Vault) +- A CIA official told MPD investigators the case was a "CIA internal matter" and acknowledged agency interest in the group (MPD Sgt. Stitcher report, February 19, 1987, cited in FBI Vault documents) + +The following are alleged in investigative reports or secondary sources but not confirmed by independently accessible primary evidence: + +- That The Finders functioned as a CIA operational front or training program +- That the CIA directed suppression of child abuse investigations +- That the Hong Kong children telex represented a genuine trafficking order rather than fantasy material or a misidentified document +- The specific claims in the anonymous 1990s investigative memo regarding Colonel Weigner, Major Varga, and Charles Marsh as handlers ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. +[^2]: Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Reproduced via FBI Vault and Ted Gunderson archive. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. +[^3]: MintPress News. "Losing Finders: How the US Government Worked to Keep the CIA Connection Secret" and "Losing Finders: The Buried Documents that Linked the Infamous Cult to the CIA." MintPress News, 2019. https://www.mintpressnews.com/losing-finders-buried-documents-link-infamous-cult-to-cia/277756/. Also: FBI Vault, "The Finders," vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (November 2019 release, four parts). +[^4]: Witkin, Gordon, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez. "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation." *U.S. News & World Report*, December 27, 1993 / January 3, 1994. +[^5]: Dean, Eddie. "Finders' Keeper." *Washington City Paper*, May 24, 1996. https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/287890/finders-keeper/. +[^6]: Fisher, Marc and John Mintz. "Finders Group Has Its Roots in Popular '60s Hippie Refuge." *Washington Post*, February 7, 1987. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/07/finders-group-has-its-roots-in-popular-60s-hippie-refuge/2d6b5d9d-904f-4acd-a371-f560fca68b39/. +[^7]: Fisher, Marc and John Mintz. "Officials Describe 'Cult Rituals' in Child Abuse Case." *Washington Post*, February 7, 1987. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/07/officials-describe-cult-rituals-in-child-abuse-case/11f05df1-48e0-41f7-b46d-249c0bd2bc39/. +[^8]: Sword, Autumn. "Were 'The Finders' a CIA-Fronted Satanic Cult?" *Skeptical Inquirer*, February 28, 2023. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/were-the-finders-a-cia-fronted-satanic-cult/. +[^9]: Norman, John David. Wikipedia, citing FBI Dallas field office files and multiple conviction records. See also [[John David Norman]]. +[^10]: Broze, Derrick, and Jeremy Martin. "Who Will Find What The Finders Hide?" Documentary. The Conscious Resistance Network, March 2019. https://theconsciousresistance.com/thefinders/.