vault backup: 2026-09-21 17:31:27

40 - EVENTS/CRIME_INVESTIGATIONS/Olney House Investigation.md

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+---
+category: "Crime Investigation"
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - OlneyHouseInvestigation
+  - Philadelphia
+  - MissingWomen
+  - FBI
+  - RCHorsch
+  - Kensington
+alias:
+  - Olney house of horrors
+  - Chew Avenue investigation
+  - Horsch investigation
+summary: "Philadelphia police and FBI investigation, opened in June 2026, into seven missing women linked by recovered video and photographs to the West Chew Avenue house of the late pornographer R.C. Horsch and his son Eugene."
+start: 2026-06-19
+location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+The Olney House Investigation is a joint inquiry by the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] into the disappearance of at least seven women connected to 417 West Chew Avenue in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], the home of the pornographic filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]], who died in May 2025, and of his son [[Eugene Horsch]]. It began with a parking stop on June 19, 2026. Police have said that video and photographs taken from the house show five women who appear to be dead. No body has been recovered and no one has been charged with a homicide.[^1][^2]
+
+### Earlier Police Contact
+
+Police entered Horsch properties three times before 2026. In 2009 officers in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania]], searching Raymond Horsch's house after a woman there reported noises, found 455 marijuana plants, firearms, pornography showing women who appeared to be bleeding, and identification cards belonging to several women. The former chief, [[Robert Scafidi]], said the district attorney's office took the cards. "I really don't know what happened after that," he said. In 2013 Philadelphia police found about 1.9 million dollars' worth of marijuana in the Chew Avenue house, and Eugene Horsch was sentenced to four to eight years. In May 2025, the month Raymond Horsch died, a fire at the house brought narcotics officers, who recorded marijuana plants, firearms, and containers of chemicals. Eugene Horsch received three years of probation on drug counts.[^3][^4][^5][^6]
+
+[[Gabrielle Amarando]] disappeared in 2012 at 22. [[Amy McHale]], Raymond Horsch's fourth wife, was last seen at the house in 2016. [[Nicole Fusaro]], 27, was last seen in [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]] on July 19, 2018, and [[Maribel Fresses]] disappeared the same year. [[Blair Tonzelli]], 35, was reported missing in February 2023. A photograph of Tonzelli, nude, with an apparent black eye and blood near her mouth, ran as a lead image on Raymond Horsch's website from about 2020 until at least September 2023. From about 2017 to 2021 the same website advertised an escort service whose client reviews describe visits to the house.[^1][^6][^7][^8]
+
+### The Stop at Independence Mall
+
+At about eight in the morning on June 19, 2026, a federal park ranger approached a black BMW parked at a fire hydrant beside [[Independence National Historical Park]]. The woman in the passenger seat said the driver was going to hurt her. She carried an identification card bearing her own photograph and Tonzelli's name. She told officers that she did not know Tonzelli. Officers found scissors, a switchblade, a second knife, a baton, a cattle prod, a glass pipe, crack cocaine in a dashboard compartment, a .38 revolver and a .40 caliber Taurus pistol with obliterated serial numbers hidden in the car, and [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] credentials in the name Eugene Frederick Steiner carrying Horsch's photograph. Both occupants were treated at a hospital for hyperventilation and then taken to the agency's Philadelphia headquarters. The criminal complaint filed on June 26 was sworn by DEA Special Agent Curtis A. McRoy.[^4][^9][^10][^11]
+
+### The Search
+
+About fifteen FBI agents, some in hazardous-materials suits, began searching the house on June 26. They found a third handgun, forged FBI credentials and the desktop computer used to make them, a marijuana grow, hidden compartments, five urns, vats of chemicals, and a 55-gallon drum plumbed into the basement sewer line. They also found handwritten pages that refer to [[Ted Bundy]] and describe the pleasure of hurting a woman with a zip tie. Raymond Horsch's self-published 2014 book Empathy describes strangling a woman and dissolving her body with sodium hydroxide in a basement bathtub. The liquids were sent to a laboratory in [[Chicago]]. [[Krista Killen]], who lived in the house for years, had died of drug intoxication some months after Raymond Horsch. Eugene Horsch was held on 500,000 dollars bail at the [[Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility]].[^4][^5][^8][^12]
+
+The hard drives held more than 600,000 images, 70,000 videos, and 10,000 pages of documents. On August 28 the [[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Inquirer]] reported, citing unnamed sources, that investigators believed one video showed Raymond Horsch killing a woman.[^5][^13]
+
+### The September 16 Briefing
+
+Police Commissioner [[Kevin Bethel]], Deputy Commissioner [[Frank Vanore]], and FBI Special Agent [[Wayne Jacobs]] said on September 16 that about 30 percent of the files had been reviewed and 58 people identified in them. Five women shown appear to be dead, they said, including Amarando and Fresses. Vanore described a video in which Raymond Horsch, naked and holding a camera with a second camera fixed in a corner of the room, gives a woman drugs and money, handcuffs her to a bed, and tightens a zip tie around her neck with pliers until she stops moving. The department withheld her name. Her cousin, Jonathan Halloran-Koren, identified her as Nicole Fusaro and wrote to Mayor [[Cherelle Parker]] and the City Council that the department had described her death to reporters in detail it had not given the family. A department spokesman, Sergeant Eric Gripp, said detectives had traveled to northern [[New Jersey]] to brief the family before the announcement.[^1][^2][^14]
+
+Three of the five urns are believed to hold the ashes of Raymond Horsch, his sister, and a friend. Two are unidentified. "We did never recover a body here," Vanore said. Bethel said: "We're going to dictate the pace." Jacobs said further search warrants were planned.[^1]
+
+### The Crematorium
+
+Police are examining Raymond Horsch's access, in the years before 2007, to the Kensington crematorium of the [[Garzone Funeral Home]], whose operators pleaded guilty in 2008 to selling more than 240 corpses to a [[New York City|New York]] tissue-recovery company. The man identified as his contact there, [[George Newsome]], died in 2014. The five women believed dead disappeared between 2012 and 2023. The [[Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office]] has declined to say whether the city sent unclaimed bodies to the crematorium.[^7]
+
+### Charges
+
+State prosecutors withdrew all five state counts against Eugene Horsch at a preliminary hearing on August 6, 2026. A federal grand jury had indicted him on July 9 on two counts, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a fraudulent federal identification document. [[United States]] v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296, is assigned to Judge [[John Milton Younge]] of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]. The government moved for pretrial detention on June 30, and the defense has obtained three extensions of the motions deadline, the latest filed September 18. He has not been accused of any offense against the missing women. His lawyer, [[Jerome Brown]], called the search "much ado about nothing" and said: "We categorically deny that Eugene Horsch is a serial killer."[^2][^10][^11][^12][^15]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: "At least 5 women dead, more missing in connection to Olney home, Philly police say," *WHYY,* September 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/
+[^2]: "Philadelphia police identify 58 people in images from investigation into Olney house," *CBS News Philadelphia,* September 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/horsch-investigation-chew-avenue-olney-philadelphia/
+[^3]: "Former police chief recalls 2009 arrest of R.C. Horsch, man linked to investigation in Philadelphia's Olney section," *6abc Action News,* 2026. https://6abc.com/post/former-police-chief-recalls-2009-arrest-rc-horsch/19841495/
+[^4]: "Five takeaways from Philly missing women mystery connected to Raymond and Eugene Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 4, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-missing-women-20260804.html
+[^5]: Cuffe, Davis. "Philadelphia's 'house of horrors' investigation: All that we know," *Billy Penn,* September 18, 2026. https://billypenn.com/2026/09/18/philadelphia-house-of-horrors-police-investigation-olney-update/
+[^6]: "Who is Eugene Horsch? Man at Center of Philadelphia 'House of Horrors,'" *Newsweek,* 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/who-is-eugene-horsch-man-at-center-of-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-12459693
+[^7]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Ellie Rushing. "Raymond Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium linked to illegal body parts sales, years before missing persons investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-missing-women-kensington-bodies-crematorium-20260921.html
+[^8]: "A troubling photo of a missing woman appeared on Raymond Horsch's erotic website, years before police investigated," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-missing-women-olney-blair-tonzelli-20260821.html
+[^9]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 00:15 to 01:37. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/13/ray-horsch-2/
+[^10]: Kramer, Jillian. "Eugene Horsch indicted in federal court on firearms, fake credentials charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 9, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-olney-house-federal-indictment-20260709.html
+[^11]: United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296 (E.D. Pa.), criminal complaint and affidavit, June 26, 2026; motion for pretrial detention, June 30, 2026; third motion for extension, September 18, 2026. Docket via CourtListener / RECAP.
+[^12]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html
+[^13]: "Police believe a new video shows violent pornographer Raymond 'R.C.' Horsch killing a woman on camera, sources say," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 28, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/raymond-horsch-woman-killed-snuff-film-olney-20260828.html
+[^14]: "Cousin of a Raymond Horsch victim criticizes police for sharing graphic details at news conference before telling family," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 17, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/nicole-fusaro-family-complaint-horsch-olney-house-investigation-20260917.html
+[^15]: "Eugene Horsch Denies He's a Serial Killer as Philadelphia Cops Hunt for Missing Women," *Newsweek,* 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/philadelphia-obviously-serial-killer-former-fbi-agent-12457175

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BNL Scandal.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
----
+---
 title: BNL Scandal
 aliases:
   - BNL Scandal
@@ -11,15 +11,18 @@ tags:
   - CIA
   - IranContra
   - Banking
-summary: "The BNL scandal involved the Atlanta branch of Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, whose manager Christopher Drogoul extended approximately $5 billion in unauthorized loans to Saddam Hussein's Iraq between 1987 and 1989; subsequent investigations found CIA awareness of or involvement in the scheme, and the Justice Department's handling of the prosecution was criticized as protecting intelligence equities over criminal accountability."
+  - BNL
+  - Iraqgate
+  - KissingerAssociates
+summary: "The BNL scandal involved the Atlanta branch of Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, whose manager Christopher Drogoul extended approximately $5 billion in unauthorized loans to Saddam Hussein's Iraq between 1985 and 1989; subsequent investigations found CIA awareness of or involvement in the scheme, and the Justice Department's handling of the prosecution was criticized as protecting intelligence equities over criminal accountability."
 created: 2026-05-14
-updated: 2026-05-17
-start: 1987-01-01
+updated: 2026-09-21
+start: 1985-01-01
 end: 1993-12-31
 location: "Atlanta, Georgia"
 ---
 
-The BNL scandal (Banca Nazionale del Lavoro scandal) grew from the discovery that the Atlanta, Georgia branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] - Italy's largest state-owned bank - had illegally extended approximately $5 billion in unauthorized loans to [[Iraq]] between 1987 and 1989. The loans were used by [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government to finance purchases of weapons, weapons components, and dual-use industrial equipment. The FBI discovered the scheme on August 4, 1989, when agents raided the Atlanta branch and seized documents showing undisclosed credit facilities to Iraqi state enterprises.[^1]
+The BNL scandal (Banca Nazionale del Lavoro scandal) grew from the discovery that the Atlanta, Georgia branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] - Italy's largest state-owned bank - had illegally extended approximately $5 billion in unauthorized loans to [[Iraq]] between 1985 and 1989. The loans were used by [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government to finance purchases of weapons, weapons components, and dual-use industrial equipment. The FBI discovered the scheme on August 4, 1989, when agents raided the Atlanta branch and seized documents showing undisclosed credit facilities to Iraqi state enterprises.[^1]
 
 ### The Atlanta Loans
 
@@ -31,7 +34,7 @@ The Iraqi entities that received the loans included the [[Nassr State Enterprise
 
 The key contested question in the BNL scandal was whether the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] knew about the BNL loans and used them as a conduit for authorized assistance to Iraq under the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations' policy of supporting Baghdad during the [[Iran-Iraq War]]. Evidence assembled by journalists, congressional staff, and House Banking Committee investigators suggested that CIA reports specifically identifying Iraq's use of BNL-Atlanta funding for weapons procurement had been available as early as 1988 and had been circulated within the intelligence community.
 
-Federal Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] in Atlanta became the focal point of the scandal when he publicly criticized the [[Department of Justice]]'s handling of the case. Shoob accused the DOJ of directing prosecution away from the central question of whether the loans had been authorized at high levels of the U.S. government. He was subsequently removed from the case by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals after his public statements.[^2]
+Federal Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] in Atlanta became the focal point of the scandal when he publicly criticized the [[Department of Justice]]'s handling of the case. Shoob accused the DOJ of directing prosecution away from the central question of whether the loans had been authorized at high levels of the U.S. government. He recused himself from the case on October 1, 1992.[^2]
 
 ### Congressional Investigation
 
@@ -41,7 +44,18 @@ The [[House Banking Committee]] under Chairman [[Henry Gonzalez]] conducted the
 
 The BNL scandal intersected with other subjects documented in this vault. [[Carlos Cardoen]], the Chilean arms manufacturer who supplied cluster munitions to Iraq through CIA-connected channels, received financing through mechanisms connected to the BNL funding stream. [[Matrix Churchill]], the British machine-tool company at the center of the [[Arms-to-Iraq]] affair, exported equipment to the same Iraqi procurement entities that received BNL funding. The [[PROMIS]] software distribution to Iraqi intelligence is separately alleged by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and others.[^2]
 
+### Indictment and Pleas
+The indictment, No. 1:91-CR-078 in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia|Northern District of Georgia]], was returned on February 28, 1991, the day after the [[Gulf War]] ceasefire, and charged [[Christopher Drogoul]] on 347 counts with two branch officers, [[Entrade International]] and its manager [[Yavuz Tezeller]], [[Rafidain Bank]], and four Iraqi officials including [[Safa al-Habobi]]. Two branch employees, [[Leigh Ann New]] and [[Paul Von Wedel]], pleaded guilty to separate informations. Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992 and withdrew the plea on October 1, when Judge Marvin Shoob recused himself with the stated conclusion "that officials at BNL-[[Rome]] were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities." The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] ordered the depositions of thirteen Italian bank officers on September 2, 1993. Drogoul pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced in December 1993 to 37 months.[^3][^4]
+
+### Lacey and the Senate Staff Report
+[[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[William Barr]] appointed the retired judge [[Frederick Lacey]] as special counsel on October 16, 1992. Lacey reported on December 8 that there were no grounds for an independent counsel and that he had "seen nothing" to suggest that [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]] knew of the loans. Part of the report was classified. Representative Henry Gonzalez called it a whitewash. Acting [[United States Attorney]] [[Joseph D. Whitley]] had recused himself on June 1, 1990, because his former firm represented Matrix Churchill. The staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] found in February 1993 that the CIA's grounds for withholding reports from prosecutors had "no legal support" and did not find deliberate concealment. In December 1992 prosecutors in [[Venice]] indicted 59 people, including executives of the bank, for financing arms sales to [[Iran]].[^5][^6][^7]
+
 ### Footnotes
 
 [^1]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam Books, 1993.
 [^2]: Gonzalez, Henry. Congressional Record, selected statements 1992-1993. https://www.congress.gov/member/henry-gonzalez/G000272
+[^3]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
+[^4]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal," *United Press International,* December 9, 1993.
+[^5]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
+[^6]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
+[^7]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993.

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Project Babylon.md

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+---
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - ProjectBabylon
+  - GeraldBull
+  - Iraq
+  - ArmsToIraq
+  - SpaceResearchCorporation
+  - SheffieldForgemasters
+  - ExportControls
+alias:
+  - Iraqi supergun
+  - Supergun affair
+summary: "Iraqi program to build Gerald Bull's 131-foot gun, exposed when British customs seized its barrel sections at Teesport on April 12, 1990, three weeks after Bull was shot dead in Brussels."
+start: 1988
+location: "Iraq"
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+Project Babylon was the program of the government of [[Iraq]] to build a gun designed by the Canadian engineer [[Gerald Bull]], with a barrel 131 feet long and a bore of 40 inches, "the largest ever built." Bull had worked for Iraq on artillery since 1981 through his Belgian-based [[Space Research Corporation]]. The propellant came from [[Poudreries Réunies de Belgique]]. Bull was shot dead at the door of his [[Brussels]] apartment on March 22, 1990.[^1][^2]
+
+### Seizure
+
+On April 12, 1990, British customs officers at [[Teesport]] seized eight steel tubes aboard the [[MV Gur Mariner]], described in the papers as petrochemical pressure vessels and consigned to the "Ministry for Industries and Minerals, Petrochemical Project, [[Baghdad]]." They had been forged by [[Sheffield Forgemasters]]. Other parts had been made by [[Walter Somers Ltd.]] of Halesowen. The following weekend trucks carrying further parts were stopped in [[Turkey]] and [[Greece]]. Space Research closed the next week and "denied helping supply gun parts to Iraq, and the Iraqi government said the pipes were to be used in a petrochemical plant."[^1][^2]
+
+[[Christopher Cowley]], a British metallurgist who had worked for Bull's company, went to the customs investigators himself and on April 25 "became the first person to be charged in the affair," with attempted illegal export, an offense carrying two years. [[Peter Mitchell]], managing director of Walter Somers, was also charged. The charges against both were later dropped.[^1][^2]
+
+### Parliament
+
+Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]], [[The Washington Post]] reported, "has attempted to put the blame on the two British engineering companies." Both said they had not known the parts were for a gun. Opposition members said officials "did not look closely enough at what was happening at the companies for fear of losing lucrative export orders."[^1]
+
+Asked on April 24 when ministers in the [[Department of Trade and Industry]] first learned of the Walter Somers order, the trade minister [[Alan Clark]] answered: "Earlier this month." On April 27 [[Gordon Brown]] asked the secretary of state, [[Nicholas Ridley]], when the department first saw the Sheffield Forgemasters contract, what checks were made of "the 44 items of piping now sent to Iraq," how often Walter Somers had itself come to the department about the order, and what was done when the firm reported that it had been approached "about aiming equipment." To each Ridley replied: "In the light of charges laid against an individual on 25 April, and in the light of the continuing investigation by [[HM Customs and Excise|Customs and Excise]], it would be inappropriate to give any further information." Thatcher, asked which departments had considered the order, said: "Export controls are administered by the Department of Trade and Industry who seek advice from the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] and other Departments as necessary." The [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] minister [[William Waldegrave]] said on April 30: "We first became aware of Iraq's involvement with advanced ballistic missiles in 1987." The [[Trade and Industry Select Committee]] opened an inquiry.[^3]
+
+The freelance journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who had been looking into Iraqi arms purchases in [[Chile]], was found dead in a [[Santiago]] hotel on March 31, 1990, nine days after Bull.[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: "Briton Charged in Alleged Iraqi 'Super Gun' Project," *The Washington Post,* April 25, 1990.
+[^2]: "Britain confirms pipes were for supergun," United Press International, April 18, 1990; "Two linked to Iraq gun affair freed on bail," United Press International, May 3, 1990; GlobalSecurity.org, "Space Research Corporation." On Moyle see the sources cited at [[Jonathan Moyle]].
+[^3]: House of Commons, written answers, April 24, 27, and 30, 1990, *Hansard.* https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written_answers/1990/apr/27/iraq-arms-component-exports