vault backup: 2026-10-15 14:01:13
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@ -4,10 +4,27 @@ tags:
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- Person
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- OrganizedCrime
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summary: "Individual under FBI investigation for extortion, insider trading at MCA/Universal, narcotics trafficking, and ties to organized crime."
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updated: 2026-10-15
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relations:
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- type: partner_of
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with: "[[Martin Bacow]]"
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start: 1987-03
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role: "named co-subject of the same wiretap applications; calls recorded March and August 1987; the affidavit alleges a kickback on labor benefit plans"
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fn: 2
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---
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[[Angelo Commito]] was an individual who was under investigation in 1987 for various suspected offenses, including extortion, insider trading (MCA/Universal), the purchase and sale of narcotics/controlled substances, and the allocation and use of the proceeds of its trafficking. His name appeared in [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap affidavits related to the investigation of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] and its alleged ties to organized crime.[^1]
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### Wiretaps and the benefit-plan allegation
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Commito was then the president of Labor Health and Benefit Plans, Inc., a company that administers employee benefit plans for unions and private companies.[^2] On March 12, 1987, Commito told a Chicago-area contact that he had spoken with [[Martin Bacow]], who was making a movie that [[Eugene Giaquinto]] was going to distribute.[^2] The affidavit alleges that agents were investigating whether Commito offered Bacow a kickback to guarantee the selection of benefit plans that Commito represented.[^2]
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The Ninth Circuit's opinion in the Tham appeal recounts that Chief Judge Peckham, sitting as a magistrate, initially authorized the April 22, 1987 wiretap application against Commito, and that the April affidavits named Commito, Bacow, real estate developer William Richard Baldwin and others.[^3] In the appeal of [[Michael Rudy Tham]], a Teamsters official in San Francisco, Tham argued that the affidavit omitted a March 12, 1987 call in which Commito told Bacow that he did not want to talk to Tham or involve him in further discussions about an eye-care insurance kickback scheme. The court held that the omission was at worst negligent and that Tham had offered no proof it was intentional or reckless.[^3] The Ninth Circuit later reversed Judge Patel's suppression of the April wiretap, which Judge Patel had ordered in Commito's trial.[^4] On December 15, 1987 the Los Angeles Times reported Commito's indictment on labor racketeering charges, described as another organized crime figure and Bacow associate.[^5]
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---
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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[^2]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 5(c), 58 and 59 (continuation affidavit, Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal., intercepts through September 1, 1987). https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf).
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[^3]: United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. Nov. 5, 1991). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/571500/united-states-v-michael-rudy-tham/
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[^4]: United States v. Commito, 918 F.2d 95 (9th Cir. 1990), as stated in the note to United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107. https://static.case.law/f2d/918/cases/0095-01.json
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[^5]: William Knoedelseder, Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 436.
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@ -2,28 +2,170 @@
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aliases:
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- Cheryl Bentov
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- Cheryl Hanin
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- Cheryl Hanin Bentov
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- Cheryl Ben-Tov
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- Cindy
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- Cindy Hanin
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- Cindy Hanin Bentov
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category: "Intelligence & Government"
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tags:
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- Person
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- CherylBentov
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- Mossad
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- MordechaiVanunu
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- Dimona
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- SundayTimes
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- PeterHounam
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- Israel
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- Florida
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summary: "Florida-born Mossad agent Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who under the name Cindy lured Mordechai Vanunu from London to Rome in September 1986, identified by the Sunday Times through a London hotel register."
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updated: 2026-09-21
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updated: 2026-10-15
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relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Mossad]]"
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role: "alleged operative, per Cohen and Hounam"
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fn: 15
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- type: spouse_of
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with: "[[Ofer Bentov]]"
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start: 1985-03
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fn: 13
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[Abduction of Mordecai Vanunu]]"
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start: 1986-09-30
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role: "lured Vanunu from London to Rome"
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fn: 2
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Peter Hounam]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1987-07
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fn: 5
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[The Sunday Times]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1986-10
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fn: 5
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Uzi Mahnaimi]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1998-01
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fn: 33
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[CFI Sales and Marketing]]"
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end: 1997
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role: "real estate sales, per the St. Petersburg Times"
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fn: 38
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---
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Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who used the name Cindy, was a [[Mossad]] agent. She enticed [[Mordecai Vanunu]] to leave [[London]] for [[Rome]] a few days before the publication of his story in the *London Sunday Times*. Once in Rome, Vanunu was drugged and returned to [[Israel]] by ship to stand trial.[^1]
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Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who used the name Cindy, was a [[Mossad]] agent born in 1960 in [[Orlando]], [[Florida]]. She enticed [[Mordecai Vanunu]] to leave [[London]] for [[Rome]] a few days before the [[The Sunday Times|London Sunday Times]] published his story on October 5, 1986.[^1] Once in Rome, Vanunu was drugged and returned to [[Israel]] by ship to stand trial.[^2]
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### Identification
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The passenger list of the flight to Rome on September 30, 1986, showed Vanunu in seat 6F and "a Miss C. Hanin" beside him. A Cynthia Hanin of Longwood, [[Florida]], was found and proved to be a different woman, who had married a Randy Hanin a month after the abduction. [[Peter Hounam]] of [[The Sunday Times]] then found that "a Cheryl Hanin had stayed at the Eccleston Hotel in London just before [[Oscar Guerrero]] had checked in," giving the Hanin family address and American nationality. "The woman who lured Vanunu to Rome used a false identity, that of her sister-in-law."[^2]
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The passenger list of the flight to Rome on September 30, 1986, showed Vanunu in seat 6F and "a Miss C. Hanin" beside him.[^3] The name led the paper to a Florida woman, Cynthia Hanin of Longwood, known as Cindy, who was a beautician trainee and was the wife of Cheryl's brother. Cynthia had married him on November 2, 1986, a month after the abduction. She was shown to be a different woman. Cohen wrote that "Cindy Hanin" did not exist on September 30, 1986, the day of the abduction, and that Cheryl had given Vanunu only the first name Cindy while using the surname Hanin when she bought her plane ticket to Rome.[^4]
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Cheryl Hanin, Randy's sister, was the daughter of Stanley Hanin, owner of Allied District Tire Stores, who later sold the business for 32 million dollars. She "returned to Israel in 1978 and enlisted for the Israeli Army," joined a kibbutz in [[Galilee]], and in March 1985 married [[Ofer Bentov]], "a former major in Israeli military intelligence" who "had been active in West Africa." A family acquaintance said: "Presumably, she was recruited into Mossad from the army." Asked about his service, Bentov said: "It is not true. I was a chauffeur in the army." Her father told the newspaper: "I haven't seen her for years. Where is she, what's she doing?" Vanunu petitioned Israel's High Court to have investigated "the possibility that Cindy was an American citizen working for the CIA." People close to the case in Israel held that one reason for the secrecy around it was "the fear that an American involvement in the abduction might be exposed." She has not returned to [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where she could be charged with conspiracy to kidnap.[^2]
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[[Peter Hounam]] of the Sunday Times then found that "a Cheryl Hanin had stayed at the [[Eccleston Hotel]] in London just before [[Oscar Guerrero]] had checked in." The registration form gave her family's Florida address and listed her nationality as "USA." Hounam wrote that at that point "the hunt was over."[^5] Two reporters who had seen Cindy with Vanunu in London, [[Max Prangnell]] and [[David Connett]], were shown college and family-wedding photographs of Cheryl, and both said it was the same woman.[^6]
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Hounam's 1999 book rebuts the Rome magistrate's view of the identity in the same terms: "The woman who lured Vanunu to Rome used a false identity, that of her sister-in-law."[^7]
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### Family and early life
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Hounam reported that Cheryl's father, Stanley Hanin, owned Allied District Tire Stores, a chain of Florida outlets, and that he later sold the business for $32 million.[^8] [[Yoel Cohen]] gives the family business as a chain of perfumeries.[^9] When the Sunday Times telephoned Stanley Hanin in Florida, he replied: "I haven't seen her for years. Where is she, what's she doing?" Told that the paper knew he had seen Cheryl the previous year at a family wedding, he said: "Look, I don't want to get involved in this. I know nothing about it." Asked about Ofer Bentov, he said: "All I know is, he's a nice boy."[^10] Cohen wrote that Hanin found the story totally unbelievable and thought there was not a speck of truth in it.[^11] Cheryl graduated from [[Edgewater High School]] in Orlando. Reporting by the [[St. Petersburg Times]] in 2004 has her growing up in Pennsylvania and Orlando.[^12] She spent a semester in Israel on a Jewish studies program while still in high school, returned to Israel in 1978, and enlisted in the Israeli army. Hounam wrote that she then joined a kibbutz at [[Hephzibah]] in the [[Galilee]].[^13] Cohen wrote that she joined a [[Nahal]] unit, and that Hounam was first led to [[Kibbutz Bet Alpha]] before he found the couple living in [[Netanya]].[^14]
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In March 1985 she married [[Ofer Bentov]]. Hounam described him as "a former major in Israeli military intelligence" who had been active in West Africa.[^13] Cohen wrote that he came from a military family and that his father was a retired army general.[^15]
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Ofer Bentov denied to Hounam that he had served in military intelligence. Asked about it, he said: "It is not true. I was a chauffeur in the army." Told that he had not denied his wife's involvement, he said: "Yes, I deny it. We have nothing to say."[^16] Cohen recorded that in a later telephone call Ofer Bentov described himself as a fiberglass salesman who had done his national service as a driver.[^17]
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Jack Schiffman, a family friend who told Hounam he had known the Hanins for many years, gave him a long interview in 1996. Schiffman said that when the Vanunu story broke there was a front-page story in the Orlando newspaper, with a picture of Cheryl, about the high school graduate involved in the affair. Schiffman said: "Presumably, she was recruited into Mossad from the army." He said Mossad was her main employer, and he reported that Cheryl once told her mother: "There were other things that I did for the Israeli government which were even more pertinent and more involved than this." Schiffman also said that Cheryl was a full-timer who left for work in Tel Aviv in a secretive way, that her mother called her "my daughter the spy," that Ofer Bentov's annual army call-ups had been quashed at her instigation since the Vanunu affair, and that she "continued to work for them, but in what capacity I don't know." He said that Cheryl would never go back to England, because she felt very vulnerable legally there.[^18]
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### The Rome operation
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Vanunu's written statement at his trial described the approach: "On 9/30/86 she persuaded me to come with her to Rome to visit her sister."[^19] His hand, held up to photographers at the court, bore the words "Vanunu M was hi-jacked in Rome. ITL. 30.9.86. 21.00 Came to Rome by fly BA504."[^20]
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[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Vanunu was enticed to leave for Rome by a Mossad agent named Cindy Hanin Bentov (a pseudonym) a few days before publication, and that Vanunu has told family members he was taken by taxi to an apartment in Rome, drugged, and returned to Israel by ship.[^21] Hersh later relayed Ben-Menashe's statement that Vanunu was entrapped by "the Mossad's Cindy Hanin Bentov" and was on his way to Rome within days of Mossad locating his hotel in London.[^22]
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[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that Vanunu met "Cindy Hanin Bentov" in [[Leicester Square]] and that she told him of an apartment she had in Rome. He wrote that he "heard all the fine details from 'Cindy,' with whom, it happened, I had worked at an earlier period."[^23]
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The Rome magistrate [[Domenico Sica]] closed his inquiry in June 1988 with the finding that Vanunu had worked with the Mossad and that the affair was "a disinformation exercise." Sica reasoned, among other things, that Cindy had used her real name, "Hanin," which Hounam quotes him calling "highly suspicious."[^7] Hounam replied that Sica "never once advanced the view that The Sunday Times was the victim of a hoax."[^7]
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### Exposure in 1987
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In July 1987 Hounam and Connett went to a house in Netanya. Cohen recorded that when Hounam told her the paper had established that she had lured Vanunu from London, she did not deny it. Her only reaction was "Are you going to publish this?" She then rose and, "almost screaming," said "I deny this, I deny everything," and ran into a bedroom.[^24] Hounam's own account gives her words as "I deny it. I deny everything," and says she ran into a bedroom and locked the door.[^24] Hounam later telephoned Ofer Bentov, who refused to meet and told him: "We have nothing to say."[^16]
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Cohen described the identification as the work of the Sunday Times Insight team, which had tracked the Florida lead and the hotel register. He wrote that the naming of Cheryl Bentov came after Vanunu had been returned to Israel, and he lists a Sunday Times report headlined "Revealed: The Woman from Mossad" among the paper's coverage of Vanunu.[^25] [[Hirsh Goodman]], then military correspondent of the [[Jerusalem Post]], wrote that by assuming the identity of a close living relative, Cindy (or rather her masters) had left herself open to exposure and ridicule.[^26]
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Cohen reported that [[Zeev Boim]], a [[Knesset]] member, asked the government's law adviser, [[Elyakim Rubinstein]], to bring charges against Sunday Times reporter [[Uzi Mahnaimi]] for disclosing national secrets. Rubinstein declined, and Cohen noted that the decision left open whether a journalist working abroad must submit material to the Israeli military censor.[^27]
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### Spotlight and the American question
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The American magazine [[Spotlight]], which Cohen describes as a right-wing and anti-Israeli publication, was the first to report Cheryl's Florida origins.[^28] Hounam quoted its item as saying that a source with access to Middle East intelligence data had described a covert operation "staged jointly by agents from Mossad and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]." The item said Cindy "is believed to be an American divorcee who moved from Miami, Florida, to Israel in her early twenties," and that she "went to work for the CIA as a covert action operative who also did occasional assignments for Mossad." It further claimed that [[Shimon Peres]] had telephoned the White House to ask for United States help.[^29]
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Cohen wrote that the CIA and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] asked to examine the school records of Cheryl's high school, and that the CIA's London office asked British counterparts whether Israel had approached the [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] government about the operation. Cohen concluded that United States authorities did not appear to have been involved in the abduction.[^28]
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Hounam wrote that people in Israel close to the case believed one reason for the heavy security around it was the fear that an American involvement in the abduction might be exposed.[^29]
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### The Vanunu petition
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In a petition to the Israeli High Court, Vanunu asked for an investigation into "the possibility that Cindy was an American citizen working for the CIA," and into the possibility that she had been "murdered by the same people who carried out the kidnapping." Hounam later described the second claim as probably false.[^30]
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### Later life
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Hounam reported that in 1997 Cheryl was seen driving a red sports convertible in the Orlando area, where she and Ofer had lived for a time. He wrote that the couple were said to be selling timeshare properties, although neighbors in Israel described this as a cover story.[^31]
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The St. Petersburg Times reported that a Sunday Times reporter had found her in 1997 at home in Orlando. She said little, except to voice concern that any story about her should not harm her position in America. The paper quoted the Sunday Times as saying she "continues to work for Mossad, according to her Israeli neighbors."[^32] Cohen dates the search to January 1998, when Mahnaimi located her and had her photographed as she left her house. Cohen wrote that she told him she had nothing to say, and that she did not deny being Cindy.[^33]
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Cohen records that Vanunu, after seeing that photograph in the Sunday Times, told the Knesset member [[Dedi Zucker]]: "it was not the woman I was with." He said he would be able to identify the real Cindy.[^34] Some sailors on the naval craft that had brought Vanunu from Italy to Israel thought the woman on the boat was far prettier than the woman in the Sunday Times photograph. Cohen suggested that the woman aboard may have been another Mossad agent.[^35] Cohen describes Mahnaimi as the son of a general in army intelligence and as a former major in Unit 504, which Cohen says is reportedly responsible for planting agents abroad.[^36]
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A close friend of Cheryl's in Florida, quoted by [[Yedioth Ahronoth]] according to Hounam's own website, said: "She left Israel to flee the media and the people who burrowed into her life."[^37]
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In a 2004 feature, the St. Petersburg Times reported that state records had listed Cheryl as holding an active real estate sales license and as employed by [[CFI Sales and Marketing]], an Orlando company that is part of [[Westgate Resorts]]. The company's president, [[David A. Siegel]], said she had been terminated in 1997, likely for not meeting sales goals. After the paper began to inquire, the state records were changed to show the license as inactive, without a reference to the company. Officials could not say who had requested the change, and the company said it had not.[^38]
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The same article reported that Ofer Bentov was a trainee appraiser for an Orlando appraisal firm and declined an interview. When the paper reached Cheryl by telephone at home, a voice said: "I have no interest in talking."[^39] [[Yossi Melman]] of [[Ha'aretz]] said she was unlikely to still work for the Mossad: "No way," he said. "She was burned." Hounam said: "I think she probably is still doing some stuff for the Mossad."[^40] Vanunu's brother, [[Meir Vanunu|Meir]], said that Vanunu now realized Cindy had been a Mossad plant. Hounam said Vanunu still insisted that Hounam did not have the right woman.[^40]
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Cohen wrote in 2003 that Cindy was probably still on the Mossad payroll as a "sleeper" and living in Florida.[^25]
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### Legal exposure
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Hounam wrote that Cheryl was afraid to return to England for fear of arrest, and that there was surely enough evidence to pursue a criminal prosecution for conspiracy to kidnap.[^41] She has not returned to [[United Kingdom|Britain]].
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.
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[^2]: Hounam, Peter. *The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program*. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 88-98, 127-129.
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[^1]: Susan Taylor Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," _St. Petersburg Times_, March 21, 2004, which gives the publication date of October 5, 1986. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2004/03/21/the-spy-and-the-man-she-busted/
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[^2]: Peter Hounam, _The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program_. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 1, 76, 80. Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/womanfrommossads0000houn
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[^3]: Hounam, _The Woman from Mossad_, p. 88.
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[^4]: Yoel Cohen, _The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb_. Holmes & Meier, 2003, p. 135. Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/whistleblowerofd0000cohe . Hounam, pp. 88, 90-91 (Cynthia's trade, and the mother's denial that she had been a beautician).
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[^5]: Hounam, pp. 93-94.
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[^6]: Hounam, p. 90.
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[^7]: Hounam, p. 127.
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[^8]: Hounam, pp. 89, 94.
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[^9]: Cohen, p. 135.
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[^10]: Hounam, p. 92.
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[^11]: Cohen, p. 135 (Hanin's reaction on first hearing of the allegation).
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[^12]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004.
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[^13]: Hounam, p. 90.
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[^14]: Cohen, pp. 135-136.
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[^15]: Cohen, p. 94.
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[^16]: Hounam, p. 92.
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[^17]: Cohen, pp. 135-136.
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[^18]: Hounam, pp. 94-98 (Schiffman interview, 1996).
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[^19]: Hounam, p. 80.
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[^20]: Hounam, p. 87.
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[^21]: Seymour Hersh, _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991, ch. 15 ("The Tunnel"), p. 198.
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[^22]: Hersh, _The Samson Option_, ch. 22 ("An Israeli Asset"), p. 315.
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[^23]: Ari Ben-Menashe, _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992, pp. 203-204.
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[^24]: Cohen, p. 134; Hounam, pp. 90-92.
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[^25]: Cohen, ch. 14 (the 2003 "sleeper" passage and the list of Sunday Times coverage, including the headline "Revealed: The Woman from Mossad").
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[^26]: Cohen, pp. 136-137.
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[^27]: Cohen, p. 138.
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[^28]: Cohen, pp. 94-95 (Spotlight, the school-record requests, the CIA London office, and Cohen's conclusion on US involvement).
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[^29]: Hounam, p. 94 (the Spotlight item as quoted by Hounam, and the account of Israeli opinion).
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[^30]: Hounam, pp. 97-98.
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[^31]: Hounam, p. 97.
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[^32]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004.
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[^33]: Cohen, p. 137.
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[^34]: Cohen, p. 137.
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[^35]: Cohen, p. 137.
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[^36]: Cohen, pp. 137-138.
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[^37]: Peter Hounam, "How I Escaped Mossad's Clutches," peterhounam.com (undated author's account).
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[^38]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004 (state records, CFI Sales and Marketing).
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[^39]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004 (Ofer Bentov's appraisal work, his interview refusal, and the telephone reply).
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[^40]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004 (Melman, Hounam, and Meir Vanunu).
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[^41]: Hounam, p. 129.
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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
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- Danny Casolaro
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- Joseph Daniel Casolaro
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created: 2024-04-25
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updated: 2026-10-09
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updated: 2026-10-15
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category: "Authors & Journalists"
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tags:
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- KeyFigure
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@ -59,17 +59,17 @@ The family disputed the suicide ruling, citing Casolaro's known fear of blood an
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Casolaro had packed his notes, handwritten outlines, a 12-page Riconosciuto memo detailing PROMIS allegations, newspaper clippings, and names of former CIA officers and arms dealers into a black leather tote bag and a dark brown briefcase when he left for Martinsburg. The briefcase, which his associates said contained documents central to his investigation, was not recovered.[^1]
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In 2024, Martinsburg police released records under a Freedom of Information Act request by researchers Zachary Treitz and Christian Hansen. These records indicated that another person had visited Casolaro's room on the night of August 9, and that an eyewitness had provided police with a written statement and sketch of this visitor - a description matching [[Joseph Cuellar]], a man who had made contact with Casolaro weeks earlier at a local bar. Cuellar talked of his exploits in the Army special forces, and Casolaro asked him repeatedly to arrange a meeting with [[Peter Videnieks]], the DOJ contracting official central to the PROMIS case, to question him about Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit. The Justice Department's 1994 review of the Bua report recorded that Videnieks' wife works for Senator [[Robert Byrd]], and that Cuellar said a former fiancée had worked with her in the Senator's Capitol Hill office. Cuellar called Videnieks, who refused.[^1][^5]
|
||||
The Martinsburg police report on the death was obtained by the Australian researcher Peter Osborne through a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2004, according to a *CovertAction Magazine* article by Jeremy Kuzmarov of October 16, 2024, which also stated that [[Christian Hansen]] and [[Zachary Treitz]], the producers of the Netflix series *American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders*, had received a copy in 2014.[^5] The article reported that the report includes a witness sketch of a man seen entering and leaving Casolaro's room on the day he was found dead, and that the man "bears strong resemblance to Major Joseph Cuellar."[^5] A Justice Department review of the Casolaro matter by Steven E. Zipperstein and Scott A. Erskine records a different witness account: a guest in an adjoining room saw someone matching Casolaro's general description enter room 517 with a key at about 9:00 p.m. on August 9, 1991, carrying a brown paper bag, and did not see the man's face; the same text states that no one was seen entering or leaving the room on the morning of August 10.[^6] [[Joseph Cuellar]] had made contact with Casolaro weeks earlier at a local bar. Cuellar talked of his exploits in the Army special forces, and Casolaro asked him repeatedly to arrange a meeting with [[Peter Videnieks]], the DOJ contracting official central to the PROMIS case, to question him about Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit. The Justice Department's 1994 review of the Bua report recorded that Videnieks' wife works for Senator [[Robert Byrd]], and that Cuellar said a former fiancée had worked with her in the Senator's Capitol Hill office. Cuellar called Videnieks, who refused.[^1][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The 1994 Justice Department review of the Bua report addressed the allegation that Videnieks was involved in the death. The review found "no evidence whatsoever" of his involvement and recorded that Videnieks said he had been at a summer cottage in New York state from August 5 to August 11, 1991. His personnel records reflect leave in that period, and a credit card receipt shows a purchase at a bookstore in Oneonta, New York, on August 9. The review found no evidence linking Cuellar to the death, and recorded that Cuellar was in Washington, D.C., on August 10, 1991.[^6]
|
||||
The 1994 Justice Department review of the Bua report addressed the allegation that Videnieks was involved in the death. The review found "no evidence whatsoever" of his involvement and recorded that Videnieks said he had been at a summer cottage in New York state from August 5 to August 11, 1991. His personnel records reflect leave in that period, and a credit card receipt shows a purchase at a bookstore in Oneonta, New York, on August 9. The review found no evidence linking Cuellar to the death, and recorded that Cuellar was in Washington, D.C., on August 10, 1991.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Congressional and Official Findings
|
||||
|
||||
The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 report noted that Casolaro had "encountered dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations" and recommended further investigation into the circumstances of his death. The committee found no evidence that DOJ had sought to influence the local West Virginia investigation.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The Bua Report, completed in March 1993, stated that "the physical evidence in Casolaro's hotel room strongly supports the conclusion of the local authorities that the death was a suicide," found no DOJ influence on the local investigation, and stated that "there was ample reason to believe Casolaro had a motive to commit suicide," noting that he had been unemployed for months, was dependent on family for support, faced a balloon mortgage, and had been told by a prospective publisher shortly before his death that it would not advance him money on his proposed book about the "Octopus."[^7]
|
||||
The Bua Report, completed in March 1993, stated that "the physical evidence in Casolaro's hotel room strongly supports the conclusion of the local authorities that the death was a suicide," found no DOJ influence on the local investigation, and stated that "there was ample reason to believe Casolaro had a motive to commit suicide," noting that he had been unemployed for months, was dependent on family for support, faced a balloon mortgage, and had been told by a prospective publisher shortly before his death that it would not advance him money on his proposed book about the "Octopus."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The Bua report listed the tests it relied on: handwriting analysis confirming that Casolaro wrote the note found in the room; fingerprint analysis finding his prints and none other except a single print on an ash tray; hair and fiber analysis; an analysis of the bloodstains by Dr. Lee of the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory consistent with suicide; and an autopsy finding hemorrhage from the wrist wounds as the cause of death and no evidence that he was unconscious or debilitated when cut. It addressed criticisms that the room was not sealed, that notification of next of kin was delayed while the body was embalmed, and that Martinsburg authorities discounted suspicions about his "sources," stating that "no credible evidence suggested that any of Casolaro's 'sources' played any role in his death." The report also records that Michael Riconosciuto, in a lawsuit against Bua, alleged that one of the FBI agents assigned to the investigation had murdered Casolaro; the district court dismissed the suit as patently frivolous (*Riconosciuto v. Bua*, No. 92 C 6217, N.D. Ill.).[^8]
|
||||
The Bua report listed the tests it relied on: handwriting analysis confirming that Casolaro wrote the note found in the room; fingerprint analysis finding his prints and none other except a single print on an ash tray; hair and fiber analysis; an analysis of the bloodstains by Dr. Lee of the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory consistent with suicide; and an autopsy finding hemorrhage from the wrist wounds as the cause of death and no evidence that he was unconscious or debilitated when cut. It addressed criticisms that the room was not sealed, that notification of next of kin was delayed while the body was embalmed, and that Martinsburg authorities discounted suspicions about his "sources," stating that "no credible evidence suggested that any of Casolaro's 'sources' played any role in his death." The report also records that Michael Riconosciuto, in a lawsuit against Bua, alleged that one of the FBI agents assigned to the investigation had murdered Casolaro; the district court dismissed the suit as patently frivolous (*Riconosciuto v. Bua*, No. 92 C 6217, N.D. Ill.).[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
FBI task force members assigned to examine Casolaro's death privately "questioned the conclusion of suicide" and recommended further investigation; expressing doubt about the ruling reportedly "risked one's career" within the Bureau as of December 1992. FBI documents related to Casolaro remain partially withheld from public release under national security exemptions, while the Bureau simultaneously claims the files are missing - a contradiction noted by MuckRock journalists who filed FOIA requests.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -81,9 +81,9 @@ Casolaro's investigation intersected with the drug-trafficking networks document
|
|||
|
||||
### The research files
|
||||
|
||||
Casolaro's research files, photographed by [[Christian Hansen]] at the Missouri State Historical Society and published on the Internet Archive, include a folder labelled "Promotional Material" of corporate and weapons literature, hand-numbered "BD|AI|PM-01" onward. Its items are a brochure for the Inter-Probe modular energy transfer catalyzer (PM-01), a printed page numbered 207 on fuel air munitions (PM-02), a [[Brunswick Corporation]] defense division cover sheet and drawing for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon for urban warfare dated October 1976 (PM-03), a sales sheet of the defense division of the Chilean firm [[Industrias Cardoen]] (PM-04) and a fax of the resumes of the associates of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], whose fax counters run 141 P01 to 141 P12 (PM-05) and whose page headers carry the date June 20, 1990 and times from 16:53 to 17:01.[^9] In the order of the photographs the folder runs PM-04, PM-02, PM-03, PM-05, PM-01.[^9] The packet names [[Carter Cornick]], [[Eugene Propper]], [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|E. Lawrence Barcella]], [[Francis J. McNeil]], [[James B. Motley]] (a vice president of [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]]), [[Mayer Nudell]] and a former CIA counterterrorism chief whose entry carries no name.[^9] The files also contain a folder of 1980s newspaper and magazine material on [[Frank Terpil]] and [[Edwin Wilson]], folders of Wackenhut annual reports, correspondence, profiles and newsletters, and, in a folder of Department of Defense publications, a magazine article by David Corn on Barcella and the Pan Am 103 bombing.[^10]
|
||||
Casolaro's research files, photographed by Christian Hansen at the Missouri State Historical Society and published on the Internet Archive, include a folder labelled "Promotional Material" of corporate and weapons literature, hand-numbered "BD|AI|PM-01" onward. Its items are a brochure for the Inter-Probe modular energy transfer catalyzer (PM-01), a printed page numbered 207 on fuel air munitions (PM-02), a [[Brunswick Corporation]] defense division cover sheet and drawing for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon for urban warfare dated October 1976 (PM-03), a sales sheet of the defense division of the Chilean firm [[Industrias Cardoen]] (PM-04) and a fax of the resumes of the associates of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], whose fax counters run 141 P01 to 141 P12 (PM-05) and whose page headers carry the date June 20, 1990 and times from 16:53 to 17:01.[^11] In the order of the photographs the folder runs PM-04, PM-02, PM-03, PM-05, PM-01.[^11] The packet names [[Carter Cornick]], [[Eugene Propper]], [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|E. Lawrence Barcella]], [[Francis J. McNeil]], [[James B. Motley]] (a vice president of [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]]), [[Mayer Nudell]] and a former CIA counterterrorism chief whose entry carries no name.[^11] The files also contain a folder of 1980s newspaper and magazine material on [[Frank Terpil]] and [[Edwin Wilson]], folders of Wackenhut annual reports, correspondence, profiles and newsletters, and, in a folder of Department of Defense publications, a magazine article by David Corn on Barcella and the Pan Am 103 bombing.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The INSLAW folder of the research files includes a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 that names Industrias Cardoen and its owner [[Carlos Cardoen]]. It states that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], in an affidavit filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, said that Cardoen told him in January 1989 that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Earl Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS, and that the sale was consummated in Santiago, Chile.[^11] Brian called the allegations "nonsense," according to the report.[^11] The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] dates the affidavit February 17, 1991.[^12]
|
||||
The INSLAW folder of the research files includes a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 that names Industrias Cardoen and its owner [[Carlos Cardoen]]. It states that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], in an affidavit filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, said that Cardoen told him in January 1989 that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Earl Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS, and that the sale was consummated in Santiago, Chile.[^13] Brian called the allegations "nonsense," according to the report.[^13] The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] dates the affidavit February 17, 1991.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Bibliography
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -95,11 +95,13 @@ The INSLAW folder of the research files includes a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* rep
|
|||
[^2]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
|
||||
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty."
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of the United States Department of Justice on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report on the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.*, September 27, 1994, p. 9 (Summary item 4) and pp. 107-168 (Section V), at pp. 137 (August 7, 1991 call, August 17, 1991 letter, later interview), 146 (September 1990 agent meeting; "part-time author"), 148 to 149 (December 1990 New York meetings) and 154 (his account of Casolaro's state of mind). https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport.
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 161-162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 159-160, 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 246-250 ("B. The Death of Joseph Daniel Casolaro").
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 246-250 and p. 69. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^9]: Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," Internet Archive items casolaro-notebooks (PromotionalMaterial.pdf) and PromotionalMaterial, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
|
||||
[^10]: Danny Casolaro papers, folders "CIA Frank Terpil Renegades," "Wackenhut - Newsletters" and "DOD PUBLICATIONS," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files (the Corn item is headed "SPECIAL EDITION - TERRORISM / Did It Blow Up Flight 103?").
|
||||
[^11]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis," clipping in the INSLAW folder, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt.
|
||||
[^12]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74.
|
||||
[^5]: Kuzmarov, Jeremy. "Witness Sketch of Man Seen Entering and Leaving Journalist's Room on the Day He Was Found Dead Resembles Former CIA Agent." *CovertAction Magazine*, October 16, 2024. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/10/16/witness-sketch-of-man-seen-entering-and-leaving-journalists-room-on-the-day-he-was-found-dead-resembles-former-cia-agent/
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, review of the Casolaro matter by Steven E. Zipperstein and Scott A. Erskine, as reproduced in a memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release pp. 69-70 (printed pp. 53-54), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 161-162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 159-160, 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 246-250 ("B. The Death of Joseph Daniel Casolaro").
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 246-250 and p. 69. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^11]: Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," Internet Archive items casolaro-notebooks (PromotionalMaterial.pdf) and PromotionalMaterial, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
|
||||
[^12]: Danny Casolaro papers, folders "CIA Frank Terpil Renegades," "Wackenhut - Newsletters" and "DOD PUBLICATIONS," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files (the Corn item is headed "SPECIAL EDITION - TERRORISM / Did It Blow Up Flight 103?").
|
||||
[^13]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis," clipping in the INSLAW folder, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt.
|
||||
[^14]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,76 +1,216 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Joris Demmink
|
||||
- Mr. J. Demmink
|
||||
- Mr. J. (Joris) Demmink
|
||||
- J. Demmink
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- Military
|
||||
summary: "Joris Demmink was a senior Dutch justice official who served as Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands from 2002 until his resignation in 2012."
|
||||
- Netherlands
|
||||
- MinistryOfJustice
|
||||
- RolodexInvestigation
|
||||
- TurkeyAllegations
|
||||
- Article12
|
||||
- HelsinkiCommission
|
||||
- GovernmentCorruption
|
||||
summary: "Joris Demmink was secretary-general of the Dutch Ministry of Justice from 2002 to 2012, and a 2017 Arnhem-Leeuwarden court decision ended a criminal case over rape allegations from two Turkish complainants without charges."
|
||||
born: 1947-12-11
|
||||
location: "Laren, North Holland, Netherlands"
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Ministry of Defence]]"
|
||||
role: "legal affairs staff, later head of the legislation and public law section"
|
||||
start: 1971
|
||||
end: 1982
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Ministry of Justice]]"
|
||||
role: "secretary-general"
|
||||
start: 2002-11-01
|
||||
end: 2012-11-01
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[K4 Committee]]"
|
||||
role: "chairman during the Dutch EU presidency"
|
||||
start: 1997-01-01
|
||||
end: 1997-07-01
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Rolodex Investigation]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "named by a witness in 1998; official summary says he did not appear in the file"
|
||||
start: 1997-02
|
||||
end: 1999-09-21
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Rijksrecherche]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "criminal investigation ordered under Article 12 Sv"
|
||||
start: 2014-02
|
||||
end: 2017-08-18
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Openbaar Ministerie]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "prosecution ordered by the court on January 20, 2014; request to waive prosecution granted August 18, 2017"
|
||||
start: 2014-01-20
|
||||
end: 2017-08-18
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[U.S. Helsinki Commission]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "briefing of October 4, 2012 on alleged child sex trafficking"
|
||||
start: 2012-10-04
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Mischa Wladimiroff]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "criminal defence counsel, fees paid by the ministry until January 2014"
|
||||
end: 2014-01-22
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Joris Demmink (born December 11, 1947, in [[Laren]]) is a Dutch civil servant who served as secretary-general of the [[Ministry of Justice]] of the [[Netherlands]] from November 1, 2002, to November 1, 2012. The ministry was renamed Veiligheid en Justitie in October 2010.[^1] He is named in the [[Rolodex Investigation]], a 1997 to 1999 probe in [[Amsterdam]] of an escort and brothel operation, and in criminal complaints filed through their attorney by two Turkish men who allege that he raped them in [[Turkey]] in the mid-1990s. In 2017 the [[Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden]] found that, in its view, no reasonable suspicion of guilt remained, and no charges were filed. The official findings, the claims of the attorney and witnesses, and the press accounts are attributed to their makers below.
|
||||
|
||||
### Overview
|
||||
### Career
|
||||
|
||||
Joris Demmink was a senior Dutch justice official who served as Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands from 2002 until his resignation in 2012. His career spanned several decades, during which he rose to become one of the most powerful figures in the Dutch justice system. Demmink's name became central to multiple investigations into child trafficking and government corruption, particularly concerning his alleged involvement in the [[Rolodex Investigation]] and his connections to international child exploitation networks.[^1]
|
||||
Demmink began in 1971 on the legal affairs staff of the [[Ministry of Defence]] and was head of its legislation and public law section from 1977 to 1982. He then moved to the Justice ministry, where he was deputy director and then director of the police directorate (1982 to 1988), head of the judicial organisation directorate (1988 to 1990), director-general of the administration of justice (1990 to 1993), and director-general for international affairs and aliens (1993 to 2002).[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Early Career and Rise to Power
|
||||
He chaired the [[K4 Committee]], the EU body for justice and home affairs, during the Dutch presidency from January 1 to July 1, 1997.[^2] The government's 2012 answers to parliamentary questions add that an EU delegation visited [[Istanbul]] and [[Ankara]] on March 9 and 10, 1998, and that Demmink was not a member of it.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Demmink began his career in the Dutch justice system in the 1970s, steadily advancing through the ranks to positions of increasing responsibility. By the 1990s, he had become a senior official within the Ministry of Justice, wielding significant influence over legal policy and prosecution decisions.[^2]
|
||||
He was appointed secretary-general on November 1, 2002. [[Advocatie]] reported in January 2014 that he retired as of November 1, 2012. The [[Rechtbank Rotterdam]] recorded in 2014 that he was secretary-general from 2002 until his retirement on October 31, 2012.[^3] In 2012 his departure from the ministry coincided with the launch of a U.S. Helsinki Commission inquiry into his connection to child sex trafficking, and even after leaving office he continued to deny all allegations against him.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
By 1997, when the Rolodex Investigation into the Bell Boys callboy service began, Demmink was already a powerful figure within the Dutch justice system. His position gave him considerable influence over which cases were pursued, how investigations were conducted, and which officials were protected from prosecution.[^2]
|
||||
### Rolodex Investigation, 1997 to 1999
|
||||
|
||||
### Rolodex Investigation Involvement
|
||||
The Rolodex Investigation of 1997 and 1998 concerned the Bell Boys callboy service operated by [[Karel Maasdam]].[^5] The Dutch government's summary of the Rolodex Investigation, dated December 23, 2013, and released under the Public Access to Government Information Act, describes a probe that began in February 1997 of an Amsterdam brothel for homosexual clients with an attached escort agency. The probe was halted for tactical reasons and reopened in May 1998, after a suspect in an unrelated sex case began describing the brothel in detail. On July 17, 1998, that witness named two chief prosecutors whose names he said he had seen on the brothel owner's rolodex. A multidisciplinary team was formed on August 25, 1998. The rolodex was never found in searches.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Demmink's name first emerged in a significant context during the 1997-1998 Rolodex Investigation into the Bell Boys callboy service operated by [[Karel Maasdam]]. The Dutch government's summary of the investigation states that the former secretary-general of the ministry did not appear in the Rolodex file in any way, and a ministerial letter of March 27, 2014 repeats this.[^3][^4] Former detective [[Leendert de Koter]] testified on March 5, 2014 before an examining magistrate in Utrecht that the [[Rijksrecherche]] had supplied Demmink's name, with those of three chief prosecutors, and that the probe produced no further indications against Demmink.[^5][^6] At the time, Demmink was a senior ministry official.[^7]
|
||||
The summary states that the former secretary-general did not appear in the Rolodex file in any way and that nothing in the file showed he had any involvement. The same position was given to the [[Tweede Kamer]] on June 15, 2007, and repeated in 2014.[^5][^6] In questions of January 30, 2015, MP Bontes asked whether the earlier answers that Demmink did not appear in the Rolodex file could be wrong in light of two statements under oath in the civil witness hearings. The minister had answered on January 21, 2015 that for the second statement, of April 15, 2014, he had asked the chairman of the College of Procurators-General for an assessment, who reported by official message of May 1, 2014 that no information had been found confirming it.[^7] The summary also records that two other officials with legal government functions came into view through witness statements, wiretaps and observations, and that on September 21, 1999 the College of Procurators-General found it had not been shown that they had committed offences.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
A boy prostitute who worked at Maasdam's Festival Bar later described at a U.S. Helsinki Commission briefing on October 5, 2012 how he had been introduced to Demmink by a university professor and instructed to have sex with Demmink inside his government car. The witness described refusing anal sex but performing oral sex with Demmink, who then wanted to take him to his home in Den Haag.[^8]
|
||||
The Minister of Security and Justice, [[Ivo Opstelten]], wrote on March 27, 2014 that the Rolodex probe began in August 1998 on the basis of a statement by a suspect in another sex case, that this statement did not concern the former secretary-general, and that his name did not appear in the start information.[^6] The 1997 start date given by former detective [[Leendert de Koter]] and the August 1998 date in the ministerial letter are both on the record.[^6][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government Vehicle Abuse Allegations
|
||||
On March 5, 2014, De Koter testified before an examining magistrate in [[Utrecht]] in preliminary witness hearings sought by the [[Stichting De Roestige Spijker]]. He said that the [[Rijksrecherche]] supplied Demmink's name together with those of three chief prosecutors, [[Jan Wolter Wabeke]], [[Henry Hans Holthuis]] and [[Wooldrik]], and that the suspicion against the four was repeated sexual abuse of minors. He said the four names were already in the Rijksrecherche's system, that searches at the home of a university professor who was the focus of the probe found the computer, video recorder and tapes gone (he said the professor had been warned in advance), and that [[Fred Teeven]], who led the probe as chief prosecutor, knew the names. He said the probe produced no further indications against Demmink.[^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
Further evidence emerged from complaints filed by drivers assigned to Demmink's government car. One driver complained that Demmink had sex with boys in the backseat of his government car in his presence. The driver died shortly after lodging the complaint, which was never followed up on. Similar complaints were made by other drivers.[^9]
|
||||
The accounts differ on who refused a request to place Demmink and the prosecutors under observation. [[NOS]] reported that the Openbaar Ministerie did not grant the request. [[Omroep Brabant]] reported that De Koter said the request was turned down by the head of the national police investigative information service, [[Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg]].[^8][^9] [[Jaap Hoek]], a former head of the Amsterdam youth and vice police who was heard the same day, said he did not remember Demmink's name appearing in the investigation.[^9] Omroep Brabant wrote that the probe produced no tangible result as far as high-ranking figures were concerned.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
Justice officer Tjeerd Postma later confirmed that he had warned the BVD (Dedishness Dienst, the Dutch security service) about complaints from drivers regarding Demmink's activities. Postma stated that drivers had reported nightly visits to clubs and a business trip to Brussels where Demmink had sex with a young boy in the back seat of the official car while the driver witnessed everything through the rearview mirror.[^9]
|
||||
[[S. Dovey]] wrote that a man Dovey describes as Karel Maasdam's bookkeeper told the Dutch current-affairs programme [[EenVandaag]] that [[Warwick Spinks]] frequently supplied boys to Demmink and Henry Hans Holthuis.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Turkish Allegations and International Investigation
|
||||
### Witness account, October 2012
|
||||
|
||||
In 2012, Demmink's resignation coincided with the launch of a U.S. Helsinki Commission inquiry into his connection to child sex trafficking. The inquiry focused on allegations that Demmink had raped two Turkish boys aged 12-15 during visits to Istanbul in the mid-1990s. Demmink denied these claims, stating he was not in Turkey at the time.[^10]
|
||||
A witness identified in the record as "Mr. B" testified at the [[U.S. Helsinki Commission]] briefing on October 4, 2012. He said he ran away from home at 14, was taken to a bar and introduced to the operator of a brothel for boys, and worked as an escort from a bar called the [[Festival Bar]]. He said a university professor introduced him to Demmink and told him to go outside to meet Demmink in his car. He said Demmink wanted anal sex, which he refused, and that he performed oral sex. He said Demmink later asked him to go to his home in [[The Hague]], which he declined because the pimp forbade leaving Amsterdam. He said the professor was a key suspect in the Rolodex probe and kept a rolodex of high-ranking clients, and that he was later asked to cooperate in a Dutch television news programme about Demmink that was never broadcast.[^4][^10] The witness's face was hidden at the hearing, and he is not named here.
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections to Other Investigations
|
||||
### Government vehicle complaints
|
||||
|
||||
Demmink's name surfaced in multiple investigations beyond the Rolodex Investigation. S. Dovey wrote that a man Dovey describes as Karel Maasdam's bookkeeper told the Dutch current-affairs programme EenVandaag that [[Warwick Spinks]] frequently supplied boys to Demmink and [[Henry Hans Holthuis]].[^11]
|
||||
[[Tjeerd Postma]], who headed facilities management at the Ministry of Justice from 1990 to 1998 (the chauffeur pool was part of his responsibility), told the [[Algemeen Dagblad]] in March 2014 that a driver, Hans Bakker, had told him after a trip to [[Brussels]] in the 1990s that Demmink had picked up a young boy and had sex with him on the back seat of the official car while the driver watched in the rear-view mirror. Postma said Bakker filed no formal complaint, that other drivers complained of waiting through the night outside clubs in The Hague, and that he raised the matter with Demmink, who in Postma's account called it "allemaal gezeur" and played it down. Postma said that in 2001, when Demmink was being considered for secretary-general and the [[Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst]] (BVD, the predecessor of the [[AIVD]]) screened him, he told two BVD officers about the club visits and the Brussels trip and warned them explicitly that Demmink was open to blackmail. A consultant who trained the ministry's works council told the AD that he had told the BVD that Demmink "jongetjes in zijn dienstauto bestelde" (ordered young boys to his official car), which he said he had heard from the works council.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Protection and Official Cover-up
|
||||
Bakker told the AD that Postma's account was "uit de lucht gegrepen" (plucked from the air) and that nothing improper had happened in the years he drove Demmink.[^11][^12] John Moeleker, a former change manager at the ministry, told the AD that in about 1999 Bakker, by then head of the chauffeur service, told the director of general affairs that a second driver had filed a complaint against Demmink, and that the director later told him the driver had died suddenly of a cardiac arrest, so the complaint had lapsed. Moeleker said the secretary-general of the time, Harry Borghouts, was to be informed; Borghouts told the AD the complaint never reached him. The driver died on January 25, 2000. His widow told the AD that he had died of a heart condition that ran in his family, called stories of mysterious circumstances nonsense, and said he had filed the complaint on behalf of another driver. The former Amsterdam chief public prosecutor Hans Vrakking told [[NRC Handelsblad]] that the driver himself had told the BVD he could no longer bear that Demmink sometimes had sex with boys in the official car.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
De Koter testified on March 5, 2014 that a request for an observation team on Demmink and the prosecutors was refused and that searches at the home of the university professor on whom the probe concentrated found the computer, video recorder and videotapes gone.[^5][^6] The government summary records that the underlying probe was halted for tactical reasons in 1997 and reopened in May 1998, and the start of the Rolodex probe is given as 1997 by De Koter and as August 1998 in the ministerial letter.[^3][^4] Jaap Hoek, a former head of the Amsterdam youth and vice police heard the same day, said he did not remember Demmink's name appearing in the investigation.[^6] No criminal charges were filed against Demmink in the Netherlands.[^12]
|
||||
Minister Opstelten answered that the AIVD had taken into account all information it held when assessing Demmink's security clearance, and had never found reason to refuse or reconsider the declaration of no objection for his post.[^6][^11] Demmink has denied the allegations throughout.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Media Exposure and Public Scrutiny
|
||||
### Gay Krant report and the 2003 denial
|
||||
|
||||
Demmink's case received increased media attention, particularly after 2012 when the Helsinki Commission hearings and Turkish allegations brought international scrutiny. Dutch media outlets began reporting on the long history of allegations against him and the apparent protection he had enjoyed within the government.[^13]
|
||||
The magazine [[Gay Krant]] and the magazine [[Panorama]] reported suspicions about Demmink in 2003. The Gay Krant's editor-in-chief, [[Henk Krol]], published the allegations in that year.[^13] Omroep Brabant wrote that Demmink, then secretary-general, said in 2003 that he was not the official concerned himself and could not imagine that another official had such contacts, though the matter would be discussed internally.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death of Els Borst and Political Connections
|
||||
[[Adèle van der Plas]], the attorney for the Turkish complainants, told the Helsinki Commission that the Gay Krant was forced to withdraw its accusations under threat of bankruptcy from Demmink's lawyer, and that Demmink told Krol in a private meeting that he had had sex with young boys without asking their age. In her account Demmink added: "Remember well, Mr. Krol, that we are the ones who make the laws in this country."[^14] She also told the commission that major Dutch media had not written about the case for several years.[^14] These are her claims.
|
||||
|
||||
In February 2014, Els Borst, the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1998-2002) and former Minister for Health, was found murdered in her garage, stabbed 41 times in what was initially reported as a possible suicide. Borst had been Demmink's minister when he served in the justice system and died just weeks after a Dutch court in Arnhem ruled to launch an investigation into historic allegations of child abuse against Demmink.[^14]
|
||||
### Turkish complaints and the Article 12 procedure
|
||||
|
||||
Dutch author Tomas Ross, who knew Demmink personally, suggested that Borst was murdered over what she had learned during her tenure at the Ministry of Health in the 1990s, particularly reports of rampant child abuse by Dutch politicians and other prominent figures that had flowed up to her office from social workers at government care facilities.[^14]
|
||||
Van der Plas testified that she filed three criminal charges against Demmink in 2008 and 2010 on behalf of two Turkish clients, for rape and sexual abuse of minors under sixteen. She said the boys were 11 and 14 at the time, and that the offences took place in Turkey in the mid-1990s, including a 1995 party in [[Bodrum]] that she described.[^14] The Bakker Schut Foundation's release of January 4, 2013, issued in her name, gave the ages as twelve and fourteen and said Demmink assaulted boys "between the ages of twelve and sixteen" in Turkey.[^15] The January 2014 press reports said the claimed abuse took place in 1996.[^16] The Justice ministry gives different dates. Its answer to parliamentary questions states that the Openbaar Ministerie carried out orienting fact-finding inquiries after complaints in 2007 and 2011. The 2007 inquiry led to no reason to order a criminal investigation, as minister [[Hirsch Ballin]] reported on July 16, 2007. The 2011 inquiry found no confirmation that Demmink had been in Turkey in the relevant period, and the minister reported that conclusion on February 2, 2012.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Resignation
|
||||
On January 20, 2014, the Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden issued a decision in an Article 12 Sv complaint procedure ordering that criminal prosecution of Demmink be instituted, to be carried out through a request for a judicial preliminary investigation (vordering tot gerechtelijk vooronderzoek).[^17] Press reports of January 21, 2014 gave the court as Arnhem.[^13][^18] A ministerial letter of July 1, 2015 gives the court as 's-Hertogenbosch and the date as January 21, 2014, and states that the court ordered prosecution and instructed the Openbaar Ministerie to conduct a preliminary investigation.[^19] The 2017 court release gives the date as January 20 and the court as Arnhem-Leeuwarden.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
Demmink resigned from his position as Secretary General in 2012 amid growing scrutiny and the launch of the U.S. Helsinki Commission inquiry. Even after leaving office, Demmink continued to deny all allegations against him, and no criminal charges were ever filed against him in the Netherlands.[^1]
|
||||
In January 2014 DutchNews.nl reported, citing NRC, that the order required the Openbaar Ministerie to interview one witness in Turkey (a second witness had since died) and to study Demmink's movements in the year in question.[^16] Advocatie reported that the court found the earlier fact-finding had produced enough facts and circumstances to support a reasonable suspicion that Demmink had committed the other offences alleged by the complainant, and that those inquiries had not yet given the clarity needed, so a criminal investigation was warranted.[^18] Advocatie also reported that the Justice ministry had searched for a document showing Demmink was in Turkey in the relevant period and had found no evidence, including in entry and exit records. It suggested that 1990s records may be missing because Demmink held a diplomatic passport at the time.[^18] According to Advocatie, Demmink himself said he had last been in Turkey in 1986. Van der Plas gave the date as 1987, describing it as his "alibi".[^14][^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Investigation, 2014 to 2017
|
||||
|
||||
The Openbaar Ministerie began a criminal investigation about a month after the order, carried out by the Rijksrecherche. At its request, the investigating magistrate (rechter-commissaris) of the [[Hague district court]] also opened an investigation in 2014. The magistrate heard witnesses, examined documents, searched premises, tapped Demmink's telephone briefly, and questioned Demmink.[^17][^20] The magistrate and the prosecutor visited the prosecutors' offices in Istanbul and Ankara in 2014 and 2015 to press requests for legal assistance. Turkish authorities refused, and Turkey said that Turkish law stood in the way.[^20][^21]
|
||||
|
||||
In January 2014 Opstelten wrote to the Tweede Kamer that Demmink was now a suspect in a criminal investigation and that the ministry would stop paying the fees of Demmink's criminal lawyer, [[Mischa Wladimiroff]], although it would continue to pay for a civil case against the [[AD]] newspaper.[^22] That civil case, a claim for 100,000 euros, is described in the same report. The minister's letter of March 27, 2014 also refers to a criminal investigation into an allegation of offences committed in Turkey, which was under way.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The Openbaar Ministerie's statement of June 30, 2017 said that its investigation, conducted at the court's direction, did not give rise to a reasonable suspicion that Demmink committed the rapes of 1995 to 1997 reported by the two Turkish boys.[^20] The same day the OM asked the court to approve dropping prosecution. The complainants' lawyer asked the court to order further investigation and to refuse the request. The court's decision of August 18, 2017 approved the OM's request.[^17][^21] The court built a day-by-day timeline of Demmink's whereabouts from documents from him and from third parties, checked against the underlying records. It found no basis for the claim that he was in Turkey in 1995, 1996 or 1997, and considered it highly unlikely that a later criminal court would reach a different conclusion on the evidence.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
### Helsinki Commission briefing, October 4, 2012
|
||||
|
||||
The briefing was chaired by Representative [[Christopher Smith]] of New Jersey, with Representative [[Steve Cohen]] present. The witnesses were "Mr. B," [[Klaas Langendoen]], a former chief of Dutch criminal intelligence who had run his own advisory firm since 1998, and van der Plas.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Langendoen testified that his investigation, commissioned by van der Plas's law firm, examined alleged manipulation of wiretaps and possible blackmail by the Turkish government of members of the Dutch justice department in the case against [[Hüseyin Baybaşin]]. He said he concluded that the attorneys' theory was correct, and that a high-ranking Turkish intelligence officer had given him a copy of a Turkish report about a Dutch official who had boys brought to his hotel room. He said that after one of the Turkish complainants travelled to the Netherlands to give a statement, the head of the National Investigation Unit told him that "there will be no criminal investigation".[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
Smith said in his opening remarks that Demmink had a right to be presumed innocent, and that the allegations, "when taken in their full context, are credible and deserve to be properly investigated". He said Demmink maintained his innocence and appealed to him to request a public investigation.[^24] A counsellor at the [[Netherlands Embassy]] said at the close of the hearing that the Netherlands takes child sex trafficking seriously and that the panel was one-sided, and that the Dutch government's position was set out in the minister's letter to parliament. Smith said he would convene a second hearing if the Dutch government wished.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
Van der Plas's testimony added claims that a Turkish policeman who had been Demmink's security officer on visits to Turkey had admitted kidnapping boys for Demmink to abuse, that former Istanbul police chief [[Necdet Menzir]] was willing to testify that Demmink was in Turkey in the 1990s and that his officers had been ordered to protect him, and that prosecutors in [[Diyarbakır]] were investigating Demmink and two Turkish officials, including former interior minister [[Mehmet Agar]] and former police and intelligence chief [[Emin Arslan]], for corruption and child abuse. She also described a report, which she called the EK report, written by the Turkish intelligence officer [[Hüseyin Celebi]] (dated 2006 in her testimony and to January 2007 in an appendix she cited). She said the report gives dates of Demmink's entries into Turkey and says he used aliases. She said Turkish authorities had leaked a travel list, and that the Dutch authorities who received a copy never checked it.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Official position on the Turkish claims
|
||||
|
||||
The Dutch government's position has been stated consistently. In December 2012 the ministers confirmed that the Public Prosecution Service had concluded the accusations were unfounded and had established that Demmink was not in Turkey in the period in question.[^2] In 2014 the minister described the Turkish complaint as the subject of a criminal investigation.[^6] In July 2015 the minister declined to give a view on a remark attributed to his predecessor that the matter was nothing and never would be, because a criminal investigation was under way.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
The Dutch embassy's letter of August 17, 2012 was addressed, according to the government's answers to parliamentary questions, to Representative [[Joseph Pitts]].[^2] A 2015 ministerial letter gives the recipient as a Representative named Wolf.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Baybaşin case
|
||||
|
||||
Hüseyin Baybaşin, a Turkish-Kurdish man, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the [[Gerechtshof 's-Hertogenbosch]] in 2002 for complicity in murder, attempted incitement to murder, hostage-taking, preparation of heroin imports and leading a criminal organisation.[^25][^26] His lawyers, including van der Plas, have argued that the wiretap evidence was manipulated and that Turkish and Dutch officials conspired against him. His lawyer applied for a revision of the case in April 2011. On April 17, 2018 the [[Hoge Raad]] refused the revision request (ECLI:NL:HR:2018:605). The Hoge Raad summarised the applicant's theory as a secret collusion between the Netherlands and Turkey to have him convicted of offences he had not committed so as to silence him, and found that no collusion between the authorities had been shown.[^25][^26]
|
||||
|
||||
Van der Plas's account links Demmink to the case through a 1997 Justice ministry memorandum, which she said named him as the responsible official for using the Baybaşin case as leverage over Turkey.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Els Borst
|
||||
|
||||
[[Els Borst]] was minister of Health, Welfare and Sport from August 22, 1994 to July 22, 2002, and deputy prime minister from 1998.[^27] From 1994 to 2002 she headed the Health ministry while Demmink was a director-general in the Justice ministry. She was found dead by a friend in the garage of her home in [[Bilthoven]] on February 10, 2014, next to her car. On February 11, NOS reported that it was not established whether she had died a natural death, and that police were treating the case with care because a crime could not be excluded.[^28] Her death was initially reported as a possible suicide.[^29] It came about three weeks after the court's order in the Demmink case.
|
||||
|
||||
On April 13, 2016 the Rechtbank Rotterdam found proven that [[Bart van U.]] killed Borst in the period February 8 to 10, 2014, and his sister in January 2015. The indictment charged that he stabbed Borst 41 times, and the proven statement uses that figure ("eenenveertig maal, althans meermalen"). The court held that he acted in a sudden emotional outburst, so that both killings were manslaughter and not murder, and found him fully unaccountable, departing from the reports of the experts at the [[Pieter Baan Centre]]. It discharged him from prosecution and ordered TBS with compulsory detention.[^30][^31] The court recorded that he said much later that he had a divine commission to kill the person responsible for the euthanasia legislation, and the court's release states that he said this about Borst.[^30][^31] Dutch media reported the 41 stab wounds in September 2015 on the basis of statements by Van U.'s lawyer.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
Dutch author [[Tomas Ross]], whose 2014 novel De vrienden van Pinocchio concerns a network of Dutch officials who abuse boys and protect one another, and who knew Demmink personally, suggested that Borst was murdered over what she had learned at the Health ministry in the 1990s, particularly reports of child abuse by politicians and other prominent figures that had reached her office from social workers at state care facilities.[^32][^33]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later litigation
|
||||
|
||||
Demmink sued the Algemeen Dagblad, its editor-in-chief and a reporter in 2013 over articles of October 6 and 8, 2012. The first, headed "Justitiebaas had contact met pooier van jongetjes", reported that three eyewitnesses in The Hague's Schilderswijk described Demmink meeting a procurer of minor boys in the early 1980s; the second reviewed the earlier investigations and why they had come to nothing. Demmink demanded a rectification and 100,000 euros in damages, and the ministry paid his costs. His lawyer wrote to the AD before publication that Demmink had never met the procurer and had not been in Turkey since 1986, and that Demmink had received the Gay Krant and Panorama editors in 2003, which had led to a rectification. The Stichting De Roestige Spijker joined the case on the AD's side.[^3][^22]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 17, 2014 the Rechtbank Rotterdam rejected all claims (ECLI:NL:RBROT:2014:10259), holding that the AD and its journalist had researched carefully, that there were serious indications and sources to support the accusations, that Demmink had been given the chance to respond, and that the public interest in publication outweighed his interest in silence. The court stated that the civil case concerned only whether the articles were unlawful, not whether the events described took place.[^3][^34] In questions of January 30, 2015, the MP Bontes asked whether the judgment meant the court had found the allegations about contacts with a procurer probably true, and whether Demmink would appeal at taxpayers' expense.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 29, 2015 the Amsterdam court ordered Opstelten, Teeven and Demmink to testify under oath in a preliminary witness hearing sought by a former boy prostitute who says he had sex with Demmink in the 1990s, including in the back of his official car, according to the AD as reported by Advocatie. Demmink has denied this.[^35] In September 2015 NRC reported that the Openbaar Ministerie in The Hague had abandoned efforts to trace witnesses in Turkey, which had cited legal considerations, and van der Plas said she suspected an agreement between Turkey and the Netherlands not to hand over files.[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
### Congressional correspondence
|
||||
|
||||
On December 21, 2012 Representatives [[Ted Poe]], [[Jim Costa]] and Chris Smith, writing as members of the Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus, wrote to the Turkish ambassador [[Namik Tan]] of "serious concerns regarding reports that two victims of child sex tourism in your country are being threatened and intimidated into dropping their allegations against Joris Demmink". The text is quoted in a release issued by the Bakker Schut Foundation on January 4, 2013, in which van der Plas said that former Turkish police chief Emin Arslan had offered her clients money to recant.[^37] Smith's press statement for the October 4, 2012 briefing said that Dutch authorities had interviewed only one of three alleged victims, that a witness had accused Demmink of raping him in an Amsterdam brothel at 15, and that the investigation into those accusations "was suddenly and inexplicably halted" with the officers involved "allegedly sworn to secrecy".[^38] [[Samantha Healy Vardaman]] of [[Shared Hope International]] also testified.[^39]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Joris Demmink career timeline and official positions; Dutch government records and media reports
|
||||
[^2]: Demmink's early career in Dutch justice system; Rise to senior positions within Ministry of Justice, 1970s-1990s
|
||||
[^3]: "Samenvatting van de aanleiding, het verloop, de resultaten en de besluitvorming in het Rolodex-onderzoek," December 23, 2013. https://eerstekamer.nl/9370000/1/j4nvgs5kjg27kof_j9vvkfvj6b325az/vjigib8p5szh
|
||||
[^4]: Tweede Kamer, Kamerstuk 33 750 VI, nr. 116, letter of March 27, 2014. https://www.eerstekamer.nl/behandeling/20140327/brief_regering/document3/f=/vjifeja4nlzk.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: NOS, "Politie onderzocht Demmink in '97," March 5, 2014. https://nos.nl/artikel/619220-politie-onderzocht-demmink-in-97
|
||||
[^6]: "Oud-hoofdofficier justitie Jan Wolter Wabeke uit Best genoemd in zedenzaak Joris Demmink," Omroep Brabant, March 5, 2014. https://www.omroepbrabant.nl/nieuws/1720283/oud-hoofdofficier-justitie-jan-wolter-wabeke-uit-best-genoemd-in-zedenzaak-joris-demmink
|
||||
[^7]: Rolodex Investigation files and Demmink's implication; Dutch police reports, 1997-1998
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Helsinki Commission briefing, "Listening To Victims of Child Sex Trafficking," October 5, 2012; Bell Boys service victim statements regarding Demmink
|
||||
[^9]: Government vehicle abuse complaints and driver testimony; Justice officer Tjeerd Postma statements to BVD
|
||||
[^10]: Turkish allegations and U.S. Helsinki Commission inquiry; Demmink's resignation statement, 2012
|
||||
[^11]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023.
|
||||
[^12]: Evidence of official protection and cover-up; Multiple investigation shutdowns after Demmink's implication
|
||||
[^13]: Media coverage of Demmink case, 2012-2014; Dutch press reports on government corruption
|
||||
[^14]: Els Borst murder investigation and timing; Dutch court ruling on Demmink investigation, January 2014
|
||||
[^1]: Parlement.com, "Mr. J. (Joris) Demmink," biographical entry (Laren, December 11, 1947; Ministry of Defence 1971 to 1982; Justice ministry posts 1982 to 2002; secretary-general from November 1, 2002 to November 1, 2012). https://parlement.com/biografie/mr-j-joris-demmink
|
||||
[^2]: Tweede Kamer, Aanhangsel Handelingen 2012-2013, nr. 691, answers of December 4, 2012 by ministers Timmermans and Opstelten to questions by Omtzigt and Oskam on the August 17, 2012 letter (answers 1 to 13: the 2007 and 2011 orienting inquiries, the Hirsch Ballin letter of July 16, 2007, the February 2, 2012 letter, the K4 chairmanship, and the March 1998 EU visit). https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/ah-tk-20122013-691-n1.html
|
||||
[^3]: Rechtbank Rotterdam, judgment of December 17, 2014, C/10/419404 / HA ZA 13-226, ECLI:NL:RBROT:2014:10259 (undisputed facts 2.1 to 2.6: retirement on October 31, 2012, the AD articles of October 6 and 8, 2012, the letter of Demmink's lawyer of October 3, 2012; decision). https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBROT:2014:10259
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), "Listening to Victims of Child Sex Trafficking," hearing transcript, October 4, 2012 (opening remarks of Chairman Smith; testimony of Mr. B, Langendoen and van der Plas; Embassy statement). https://www.csce.gov/sites/evo-subsites/csce.house.gov/files/migrated/uploads/2016/02/Transcript-Listening-to-Victims-of-Child-Sex-Trafficking-2012-10-04.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Ministry of Security and Justice, "Samenvatting van de aanleiding, het verloop, de resultaten en de besluitvorming in het Rolodex-onderzoek," with the chronological inventory of the Rolodex file, December 23, 2013. https://eerstekamer.nl/9370000/1/j4nvgs5kjg27kof_j9vvkfvj6b325az/vjigib8p5szh
|
||||
[^6]: Tweede Kamer, Kamerstuk 33 750 VI, nr. 116, letter from Minister Opstelten to the Speaker, March 27, 2014 (Rolodex start date, AIVD clearance, criminal investigation into an allegation of offences in Turkey). https://www.eerstekamer.nl/behandeling/20140327/brief_regering/document3/f=/vjifeja4nlzk.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Tweede Kamer, questions of MP Bontes (Groep Bontes/Van Klaveren) on the Demmink affair, 2015Z01581, January 30, 2015 (questions 1, 7, 10, 12; footnote 1 on the answers of January 21, 2015). https://berthub.eu/tkconv/getraw/2015D03269
|
||||
[^8]: NOS, "Politie onderzocht Demmink in '97," March 5, 2014 (De Koter testimony; Rijksrecherche names; observation request; search at the professor's home). https://nos.nl/artikel/619220-politie-onderzocht-demmink-in-97
|
||||
[^9]: "Oud-hoofdofficier justitie Jan Wolter Wabeke uit Best genoemd in zedenzaak Joris Demmink," Omroep Brabant, March 5, 2014 (De Koter on the observation request and Aalbersberg; Hoek; probe results). https://www.omroepbrabant.nl/nieuws/1720283/oud-hoofdofficier-justitie-jan-wolter-wabeke-uit-best-genoemd-in-zedenzaak-joris-demmink
|
||||
[^10]: Dovey, S., *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. The EenVandaag bookkeeper account is Dovey's.
|
||||
[^11]: Tobias den Hartog and Koen Voskuil, "Escapades van Joris gaan een keer uitkomen," Algemeen Dagblad, March 29, 2014, p. 11 (statements of Postma, Moeleker, an external adviser to the works council, a driver's widow and Hans Vrakking; Bakker's denial). Summarized in Welingelichte Kringen, "Seks in dienstauto: BVD was gewaarschuwd over Joris Demmink," March 29, 2014. https://www.welingelichtekringen.nl/politiek/seks-in-dienstauto-bvd-was-gewaarschuwd-over-joris-demminkbvd-was-gewaarschuwd-over-joris-demmink
|
||||
[^12]: Welingelichte Kringen, "Seks in dienstauto: BVD was gewaarschuwd over Joris Demmink," March 29, 2014 (Bakker: "Het is allemaal uit de lucht gegrepen"; Demmink continues to deny). https://www.welingelichtekringen.nl/politiek/seks-in-dienstauto-bvd-was-gewaarschuwd-over-joris-demminkbvd-was-gewaarschuwd-over-joris-demmink
|
||||
[^13]: "Onthulling Gay Krant Best leidt jaren later tot vervolging van voormalig topambtenaar Demmink," Omroep Brabant, January 21, 2014 (Henk Krol as editor-in-chief of the Gay Krant; 2003 reports; Demmink's 2003 response; court decision reported as Arnhem). https://www.omroepbrabant.nl/nieuws/1675299/onthulling-gay-krant-best-leidt-jaren-later-tot-vervolging-van-voormalig-topambtenaar-demmink
|
||||
[^14]: Written testimony of Adèle van der Plas, Helsinki Commission briefing, October 4, 2012 (complaints in 2008 and 2010; Gay Krant account; media remarks; Turkish claims, EK report, Diyarbakır investigation, 1997 memorandum; attributed to van der Plas throughout). https://www.csce.gov/sites/evo-subsites/csce.house.gov/files/migrated/uploads/2016/02/van-der-Plas-Testimony.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: Bakker Schut Foundation, release "Adele van der Plas Urges 113th Session of Congress to Further Investigate Concerns of Congressmen Ted Poe, Jim Costa, and Chris Smith," PR Newswire, January 4, 2013 (ages twelve and fourteen; twelve to sixteen). https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/attorney-for-turkish-victims-of-former-dutch-justice-ministry-secretary-general-joris-demminks-alleged-crimes-applauds-letter-from-congress-expressing-concern-to-turkish-ambassador-about-pedophilia-investigation-185655552.html
|
||||
[^16]: DutchNews.nl, "Former justice top dog should face probe for child rape: court," January 21, 2014 (claims of abuse on business in Turkey in 1996; one witness to be interviewed in Turkey; second witness dead). https://www.dutchnews.nl/2014/01/former_justice_top_dog_should/
|
||||
[^17]: Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden, press release on the request to waive prosecution in the Article 12 proceedings against J. Demmink, August 18, 2017 (describes the beschikking of January 20, 2014, the investigation, the timeline and the court's conclusions). https://www.rechtspraak.nl/organisatie-en-contact/organisatie/gerechtshoven/gerechtshof-arnhem-leeuwarden/nieuws/2017/08/beslissing-gerechtshof-over-bewilligingsverzoek-in-de-beklagzaak-tegen-j-demmink
|
||||
[^18]: Advocatie, "Hof: OM moet Demmink vervolgen om seksueel misbruik," January 21, 2014 (Arnhem-Leeuwarden order; retirement as of November 1, 2012; Justice ministry findings on Turkish travel; diplomatic passport suggestion; Demmink's 1986 statement). https://www.advocatie.nl/?p=37223
|
||||
[^19]: Tweede Kamer, Kamerstuk 31 015, nr. 115, letter from Minister Van der Steur, July 1, 2015 (answers 1, 2 and 5 on the Bekink letter, the January 2014 order and the criminal investigation). https://eerstekamer.nl/9370000/1/j4nvi0xeni9vr2l_j9vvkfvj6b325az/vme26leaeuex/f=/vjvdn6hc42z9.pdf
|
||||
[^20]: Openbaar Ministerie, "OM vraagt bewilliging van verzoek af te zien van vervolging Demmink," June 30, 2017 (investigation summary, legal assistance requests to Turkey, Turkish refusal). https://www.om.nl/actueel/nieuws/2017/06/30/om-vraagt-bewilliging-van-verzoek-af-te-zien-van-vervolging-demmink
|
||||
[^21]: Openbaar Ministerie, "OM tevreden met beslissing hof om Demmink niet verder te vervolgen," August 18, 2017 (court's approval; one complainant heard in the Netherlands, the other never came to the Netherlands). https://www.om.nl/actueel/nieuws/2017/08/18/om-tevreden-met-beslissing-hof-om-demmink-niet-verder-te-vervolgen
|
||||
[^22]: Advocatie, "Opstelten betaalt strafrechtadvocaat Demmink niet meer," January 22, 2014 (letter to parliament on the fees of Wladimiroff; civil claim against the AD for 100,000 euros). https://advocatie.nl/nieuws/opstelten-betaalt-strafrechtadvocaat-demmink-niet-meer
|
||||
[^23]: Written testimony of Klaas Langendoen, Helsinki Commission briefing, October 4, 2012 (commission from the law firm; wiretap and blackmail claims; account of the National Investigation Unit). https://www.csce.gov/sites/evo-subsites/csce.house.gov/files/migrated/uploads/2016/02/Langendoen-Testimony.pdf
|
||||
[^24]: Helsinki Commission transcript, October 4, 2012 (Smith's opening and closing remarks; Embassy counsellor's statement; announcement of a second hearing). https://www.csce.gov/sites/evo-subsites/csce.house.gov/files/migrated/uploads/2016/02/Transcript-Listening-to-Victims-of-Child-Sex-Trafficking-2012-10-04.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: Rechtspraak.nl, "Levenslang veroordeelde Hüseyin Baybaşin," case summary (revision request filed April 2011; refused by the Hoge Raad on April 17, 2018). https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Bekende-rechtszaken/Levenslang-veroordeelde-Huseyin-B/Paginas/default.aspx
|
||||
[^26]: Hoge Raad, April 17, 2018, 11/02065, ECLI:NL:HR:2018:605 (revision of ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2002:AE5920). https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:HR:2018:605
|
||||
[^27]: Parlement.com, "Dr. E. (Els) Borst-Eilers," biographical entry (minister of Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport, August 22, 1994 to July 22, 2002; place of death Bilthoven). https://parlement.com/biografie/dr-e-els-borst-eilers
|
||||
[^28]: NOS, Gerard Driehuis, "Of ex-minister Els Borst een natuurlijke dood is gestorven staat nog altijd niet vast," February 11, 2014; DutchNews.nl, "Former health minister Els Borst was stabbed 41 times," September 2, 2015 (stab count from the suspect's lawyer, as reported by Dutch media). https://www.dutchnews.nl/2015/09/former-health-minister-els-borst-was-stabbed-41-times
|
||||
[^29]: Reports of the Els Borst murder investigation and timing, and of the Dutch court ruling on the Demmink investigation, January 2014.
|
||||
[^30]: Rechtbank Rotterdam, press release "Rechtbank Rotterdam veroordeelt Bart van U. tot tbs met dwangverpleging," April 13, 2016. https://www.rechtspraak.nl/organisatie-en-contact/organisatie/rechtbanken/rechtbank-rotterdam/nieuws/2016/04/rechtbank-rotterdam-veroordeelt-bart-van-u-tot-tbs-met-dwangverpleging
|
||||
[^31]: Rechtbank Rotterdam, judgment of April 13, 2016, 10/660017-15 and 10/662040-15, ECLI:NL:RBROT:2016:2699 (indictment and proven statement of 41 stabs; manslaughter in a sudden emotional outburst; full unaccountability; TBS). https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBROT:2016:2699
|
||||
[^32]: Statements attributed to Tomas Ross.
|
||||
[^33]: Thrillerweb, review of Tomas Ross, De vrienden van Pinocchio (2014) (plot of the novel). https://thrillerweb.nl/tomas-ross-de-vrienden-van-pinocchio/
|
||||
[^34]: Advocatie, "Joris Demmink verliest rechtszaak tegen AD op alle fronten," December 17, 2014. https://advocatie.nl/?p=39325
|
||||
[^35]: Advocatie, "Rechtbank: Demmink, Opstelten en Teeven moeten getuigen over kindermisbruik," October 29, 2015. https://advocatie.nl/?p=40915
|
||||
[^36]: DutchNews.nl, "Turkey won't cooperate with Demmink abuse inquiry: NRC," September 14, 2015. https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2015/09/turkey-wont-cooperate-with-demmink-abuse-inquiry-nrc/
|
||||
[^37]: Bakker Schut Foundation release, PR Newswire, January 4, 2013 (text of the December 21, 2012 letter of Poe, Costa and Smith to Ambassador Tan). https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/attorney-for-turkish-victims-of-former-dutch-justice-ministry-secretary-general-joris-demminks-alleged-crimes-applauds-letter-from-congress-expressing-concern-to-turkish-ambassador-about-pedophilia-investigation-185655552.html
|
||||
[^38]: Rep. Chris Smith, "Child Sex Trafficking Topic of Congressional Briefing," press statement on the October 4, 2012 briefing. https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=310525
|
||||
[^39]: Remarks by Samantha Healy Vardaman, Shared Hope International, Helsinki Commission briefing, October 4, 2012. https://www.csce.gov/sites/evo-subsites/csce.house.gov/files/migrated/uploads/2016/02/Vardaman-Testimony.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,22 +1,102 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Other"
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Joseph Cuellar
|
||||
- Joe Cuellar
|
||||
- Joseph Cuéllar
|
||||
category: "Military"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- PROMIS
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
summary: "Joseph Cuellar, an Army Reserve major, met Danny Casolaro at a bar in Arlington, Virginia, in May 1991 and called Peter Videnieks at Casolaro's request."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
- PROMIS
|
||||
- TheOctopus
|
||||
- CasolaroDeath
|
||||
- ArmyReserve
|
||||
- DesertStorm
|
||||
summary: "Army Reserve major who met Danny Casolaro in a bar in May 1991 and was asked to arrange a meeting with Peter Videnieks, and whom a 2024 article compared to a police witness sketch."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[U.S. Army]]"
|
||||
role: "Army Reserve major"
|
||||
start: 1991
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[United States Southern Command]]"
|
||||
role: "in-processing after Operation Desert Storm, per the 1994 review"
|
||||
start: 1991-08
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[PROMIS Software Scandal]]"
|
||||
role: "contact of Casolaro during the INSLAW inquiry, interviewed by the 1994 review"
|
||||
start: 1991-05
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Joseph Cuellar]], an Army Reserve major, met [[Danny Casolaro]] by chance at a bar in Arlington, Virginia, in May 1991. Cuellar talked of his exploits in the Army special forces, and according to Cuellar, Casolaro became fascinated. In a later conversation Casolaro asked about people in his "Octopus" story, and Cuellar told him he knew [[Peter Videnieks]], because a former fiancée had worked with Videnieks' wife in the Capitol Hill office of [[Robert Byrd]]. Cuellar and Videnieks both told the reviewers that their relationship was social.[^1]
|
||||
[[Joseph Cuellar]] is an Army Reserve major who met [[Danny Casolaro]] in May 1991, during the last months of Casolaro's work on the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and on what Casolaro called [[The Octopus]]. Casolaro later asked him to arrange a meeting with [[Peter Videnieks]]. The [[Department of Justice]]'s 1994 review found no evidence that Cuellar was involved in Casolaro's death; a 2024 article by Jeremy Kuzmarov compared a Martinsburg police witness sketch to him.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Casolaro asked Cuellar repeatedly to arrange a meeting with Videnieks, so that he could interview him about Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit. Cuellar called Videnieks, who refused.[^2] The review found that Cuellar was in Washington, D.C., on August 10, 1991, working on his separation from Operation Desert Storm and his reassignment to a Southern Command post, and that several witnesses verified this.[^2]
|
||||
### Meeting at the bar
|
||||
|
||||
The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that Cuellar approached Casolaro in a pub during the week before his death, claimed to be a Special Forces operative and offered to arrange a rendezvous with Videnieks, and that Casolaro confided to friends that he was unnerved by the encounter.[^3] Sources later suggested that Cuellar was a [[U.S. Army|U.S. Army]] Major in an [[Army Intelligence Agency|Army intelligence]] unit who went to work for a company that was a [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] cutout. One [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent reported that Cuellar spoke Arabic fluently and had spent time in [[Iraq]].[^3]
|
||||
According to the Justice Department's 1994 review of the report of [[Nicholas J. Bua]], Cuellar and Casolaro met in May 1991 at "The Sign of the Whale" bar in Arlington, Virginia. Cuellar had gone there expecting to meet friends who were celebrating his return from [[Operation Desert Storm]]. Casolaro was already seated at the bar, waiting for a friend, and struck up a conversation with him. Cuellar talked of his exploits in the Army special forces, and, according to Cuellar, Casolaro became fascinated. The two men talked on the telephone several times and saw each other at least twice more. Cuellar also began dating the woman Casolaro had been waiting to meet.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Bill Hamilton]], president of [[INSLAW]], stated that he had received an affidavit from [[Bill Turner]] on "highly classified computer printouts on off-shore accounts that he claimed Casolaro intended to use the night he died in a planned meeting with Peter Videnieks and Joseph Cuellar and others."[^3]
|
||||
A Justice Department review of the Casolaro matter, ordered on November 1, 1993 and carried out by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven E. Zipperstein with FBI Supervisory Special Agent Scott A. Erskine, gives the same account. Its text describes Cuellar as "an Army Reserve Major named Joseph Cuellar, who is attached to the United States Southern Command."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Other accounts place the first contact differently. [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Cuellar approached Casolaro in a pub during the week before his death, claimed to be a Special Forces operative, and offered to arrange a rendezvous with Videnieks, and that Casolaro confided to friends that he was unnerved by the encounter.[^5] Seymour also wrote that sources suggested Cuellar had been a major in an [[Army Intelligence Agency|Army intelligence]] unit and later went to work for a company that was a cutout for the [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]]. She wrote that an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent reported Cuellar spoke Arabic fluently and had spent time in [[Iraq]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Jeremy Kuzmarov wrote in [[CovertAction Magazine]] in October 2024 that in the days before Casolaro's death Cuellar "happened to bump into Casolaro near his home in Fairfax, Virginia, and gave him his business card," and that Cuellar at the time "had been contracted to investigate the theft of INSLAW's software."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Kenn Thomas]] and [[Jim Keith]] wrote that the Hamiltons, whose firm was [[INSLAW]], believed that in the last days of Casolaro's life he was being tailed by a man named Joseph Cuellar, an Army special services officer and friend of Videnieks.[^6] In the same chapter they described a restaurant encounter in which a friend of Videnieks claimed Special Forces service and earlier work for a company connected to INSLAW, and was so forthcoming that he alarmed Casolaro's companions. They did not name that man.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Thomas and Keith also reported that [[Sarah McClendon]]'s notes recorded complaints by the Hamiltons that [[Webster Hubbell]] and the FBI investigator Erskine planned to release a report without interviewing important Casolaro associates or looking into incidents that included a threat against Casolaro made by a friend of Videnieks, Cuellar, who apparently was also trailing the writer.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Videnieks
|
||||
|
||||
In one conversation, Casolaro asked about the people in the Octopus story, and Cuellar said he knew Videnieks. Cuellar explained that a former fiancée had worked with Videnieks's wife in the Capitol Hill office of Senator [[Robert Byrd]]. Both men told the reviewers that "their relationship was social," that they had double-dated with their partners several times, and that they saw less of each other after Cuellar broke up with his fiancée.[^8] The Zipperstein and Erskine text states: "As best as we can tell, there was nothing sinister about the fact that Cuellar knew Videnieks; it was, at most, a coincidence."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Casolaro then asked Cuellar repeatedly to arrange a meeting with Videnieks, so that he could ask about the allegation in the March 1991 affidavit of [[Michael Riconosciuto]] that Videnieks had threatened him. Cuellar called Videnieks, who refused.[^9] The Zipperstein and Erskine text records that Casolaro's notes reflect a telephone call he made to Videnieks on June 13, 1991. In that call Videnieks refused to talk and referred him to his lawyer, [[Charles Ruff]].[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Casolaro's last weeks
|
||||
|
||||
Cuellar told the reviewers that Casolaro confided in him near the end of his life. Casolaro, Cuellar said, had become so absorbed in the Octopus story that he had lost his perspective and could not arrange the material into a cohesive story, and he was in financial distress and close to losing his house.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
A woman who was briefly involved with Cuellar after the bar meeting told the reviewers that, after Casolaro's death and as their relationship deteriorated, Cuellar made a veiled threat. She said he told her she was asking too many questions about Casolaro, that she had two children, and that she would not be doing them a favor if she wound up like Casolaro or another journalist who had been killed in Guatemala. Cuellar denied making those statements.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Findings on August 10, 1991
|
||||
|
||||
Casolaro's body was found in room 517 of the Sheraton Inn in Martinsburg, [[West Virginia]], on August 10, 1991. Local authorities ruled the death a suicide in 1991 and again on January 25, 1992, after over 1,000 man-hours of investigation. The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report recorded that it had not included the death in its formal INSLAW investigation and that the controversy over the death continued in the press.[^13] The March 1993 report of the Special Counsel, Bua, stated that Casolaro's death "was fully and fairly investigated" and that the local conclusion of suicide "was amply supported by the facts."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The 1994 review wrote that several people had suggested Cuellar was somehow involved in Casolaro's death. "We found no evidence supporting that hypothesis." The review stated that on August 10, 1991, Cuellar was in Washington, D.C., working on his "Outprocessing" from Desert Storm and his "in-processing" into the Southern Command, and that several witnesses had verified that he was in Washington that day.[^1] The review also said that it was unaware of any evidence linking Videnieks to the death.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Bill Hamilton]], president of INSLAW, stated that he had received an affidavit from [[Bill Turner]] on "highly classified computer printouts on off-shore accounts that he claimed Casolaro intended to use the night he died in a planned meeting with Peter Videnieks and Joseph Cuellar and others."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Martinsburg police file and witness sketch
|
||||
|
||||
The Zipperstein and Erskine text records a detail from the hotel. At about 9:00 p.m. on August 9, 1991, a guest in an adjoining room saw someone matching Casolaro's general description enter room 517 with a key. The guest did not see the man's face, because his back was to her, and he was carrying a brown paper bag.[^16] The same text states that no one was seen entering or leaving Casolaro's room on the morning of August 10.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2024, Kuzmarov published an article in CovertAction Magazine on the Martinsburg police report, which he wrote had recently been obtained by the Australian researcher Peter Osborne through a Freedom of Information Act request Osborne filed in 2004. The article said the report "includes a witness sketch of a man seen entering and leaving Danny Casolaro's room on the day he was found dead" and continued: "The man bears strong resemblance to Major Joseph Cuellar, a CIA and military intelligence Special Forces operative, who had long been a lead suspect in Casolaro's apparent murder." Kuzmarov added that the police file includes signed statements from a witness who saw a man other than Casolaro leaving the room with a key on the night before and the morning of Casolaro's death. A footnote to the article states that the sketch witness described the man leaving the room as wearing sports clothes that Cuellar was also known to wear.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Kuzmarov wrote that the Martinsburg police never interviewed Cuellar and that the Justice Department claimed not to be able to find him even though he worked with the U.S. Southern Command. The 1994 review records that Cuellar and Videnieks each spoke with its reviewers.[^8] Kuzmarov further wrote that [[Janet Reno]], [[John Dwyer]] and Zipperstein left the match between the sketch and Cuellar out of their investigation reports. He wrote that the producers of the Netflix series American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders, [[Christian Hansen]] and [[Zachary Treitz]], received a copy of the Martinsburg report in 2014, and that the series presented Cuellar favorably on the basis of an interview with his son.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Service record
|
||||
|
||||
The Justice Department's 1994 review records Cuellar as an Army Reserve major who was returning from Operation Desert Storm in May 1991 and was being processed into the Southern Command in August 1991.[^1][^3] Kuzmarov reported that he was born in Los Angeles in 1954, took part in covert operations in Venezuela, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia and Africa, served in the Persian Gulf War, and worked at NATO headquarters.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Kuzmarov also quoted an October 11, 1991 letter from Don Walker, whom he identified as president of [[Business Risks International]], to Hamilton. The letter described Cuellar as an "intelligent and articulate individual" who "speaks several languages" and who had "extensive experience in U.S. army intelligence and the CIA." Kuzmarov described Business Risks International as a CIA front where Cuellar worked, and a footnote to the article states that Cuellar "is thought to have been a 'wet operative' ie. a CIA assassin."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 161. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^2]: Kuzmarov, Jeremy. "Witness Sketch of Man Seen Entering and Leaving Journalist's Room on the Day He Was Found Dead Resembles Former CIA Agent." *CovertAction Magazine*, October 16, 2024. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/10/16/witness-sketch-of-man-seen-entering-and-leaving-journalists-room-on-the-day-he-was-found-dead-resembles-former-cia-agent/
|
||||
[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 160-161. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, review of the Casolaro matter by Steven E. Zipperstein and Scott A. Erskine, ordered November 1, 1993, as reproduced in a memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release pp. 41-42 (printed pp. 25-26), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro
|
||||
[^5]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^6]: Thomas, Kenn, and Jim Keith. *The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro.* Feral House, 2004, p. 102.
|
||||
[^7]: Thomas, Kenn, and Jim Keith. *The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro.* Feral House, 2004, p. 132, reporting the notes of Sarah McClendon.
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 161. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, review of the Casolaro matter by Zipperstein and Erskine, as reproduced in a memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release p. 42 (printed p. 26), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro
|
||||
[^11]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162 n.5. Cuellar's account to the reviewers. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^12]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162. Account given to the reviewers by a woman who had been involved with Cuellar; she is not named here as a private individual. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^13]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992, pp. 69-72. https://archive.org/stream/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport/TheInslawAffair_djvu.txt
|
||||
[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 246-250 ("B. The Death of Joseph Daniel Casolaro"), quotation at p. 248. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport
|
||||
[^15]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 160. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^16]: U.S. Department of Justice, review of the Casolaro matter by Zipperstein and Erskine, as reproduced in a memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release p. 69 (printed p. 53), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro
|
||||
[^17]: U.S. Department of Justice, review of the Casolaro matter by Zipperstein and Erskine, as reproduced in a memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release p. 70 (printed p. 54), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro
|
||||
[^18]: Don Walker to William Hamilton, October 11, 1991, as quoted in Kuzmarov, *CovertAction Magazine*, October 16, 2024 (its note 3). https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/10/16/witness-sketch-of-man-seen-entering-and-leaving-journalists-room-on-the-day-he-was-found-dead-resembles-former-cia-agent/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ tags:
|
|||
- RussianImperialMovement
|
||||
- USA
|
||||
created: 2026-05-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
summary: "Kaleb Cole was a Washington state-based Atomwaffen Division leader who received paramilitary training from the Russian Imperial Movement in St. Petersburg in 2018, ran a coordinated intimidation campaign against journalists and activists, and was convicted of civil rights conspiracy and sentenced to 84 months in federal prison."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
summary: "Washington state Atomwaffen Division leader trained in Russia in 2018, convicted in 2021 of conspiring to threaten journalists and activists, and sentenced to 84 months."
|
||||
location: "Washington State"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -22,11 +22,15 @@ Kaleb Cole was a Washington state-based [[Atomwaffen Division]] leader who rose
|
|||
|
||||
Cole became one of AWD's most operationally active members in the period after Russell's initial incarceration. He worked to maintain the organization's cohesion and continued its recruitment and propaganda activities while Russell was imprisoned. His role in AWD's operations placed him at the center of the organization's internal communications and gave him visibility into the network's full scope of activities.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The government's sentencing memorandum in the Western District of Washington case (Dkt. 261, filed January 4, 2022) states that AWD members formed a relationship with a Denver, Colorado resident who wrote [[Siege]], which the memorandum describes as the basis for AWD ideology. It describes the book as advocating leaderless resistance and lone-offender strategies as a means to accelerate the collapse of the United States government.[^2] The same memorandum states that AWD hosted a "Death Valley Hate Camp" in [[Las Vegas]] on January 25, 2018.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The memorandum also states that the "Death to Pigs" image used in AWD propaganda was lifted from a crime-scene photograph taken at one of the [[Charles Manson]] murders, and that Cole's selection of the phrase was not coincidental, because a reporter had written that he embraced Manson's "race war" ideology.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Russia Training Trip (2018)
|
||||
|
||||
In 2018, Cole traveled to Europe with fellow AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]] of Olympia, Washington, on a trip that included passage through [[Ukraine]] via the Donbas green corridor into Russia, followed by attendance at the Russian Imperial Movement's Partizan paramilitary training facility in St. Petersburg. The training covered firearms, explosives, squad movement, and tactical operations. Former Russian military instructors ran the program. The same facility had trained members of the [[Nordic Resistance Movement]] from [[Sweden]] in 2016, who subsequently carried out bombings in Gothenburg in 2017, the case that formed the basis for the U.S. State Department's 2020 designation of RIM as an SDGT entity.[^2]
|
||||
In 2018, Cole traveled to Europe with fellow AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]] of Olympia, Washington, on a trip that included passage through [[Ukraine]] via the Donbas green corridor into Russia, followed by attendance at the Russian Imperial Movement's Partizan paramilitary training facility in St. Petersburg. The training covered firearms, explosives, squad movement, and tactical operations. Former Russian military instructors ran the program. The same facility had trained members of the [[Nordic Resistance Movement]] from [[Sweden]] in 2016, who subsequently carried out bombings in Gothenburg in 2017, the case that formed the basis for the U.S. State Department's 2020 designation of RIM as an SDGT entity.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
After completing Partizan training, Cole and Bruce-Umbaugh traveled back through Ukraine into Poland and documented the trip with a photograph at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp. The Russia trip is referenced in federal prosecution materials from both Cole's case (2:20-cr-00032, [[Western District of Washington]]) and Bruce-Umbaugh's case (5:19-cr-00130, [[Northern District of Texas]]), and is documented in investigative reporting on AWD's transnational connections.[^3]
|
||||
After completing Partizan training, Cole and Bruce-Umbaugh traveled back through Ukraine into Poland and documented the trip with a photograph at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp. The Russia trip is referenced in federal prosecution materials from both Cole's case (2:20-cr-00032, [[Western District of Washington]]) and Bruce-Umbaugh's case (5:19-cr-00130, [[Northern District of Texas]]), and is documented in investigative reporting on AWD's transnational connections.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The RIM training represents the most documented instance of a senior AWD leader receiving in-person foreign paramilitary training from an organization later designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. government.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -38,10 +42,13 @@ Following the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]], [[Cameron Shea]] created an encrypt
|
|||
|
||||
The FBI investigated Cole's intimidation operations. He was arrested in 2020 as part of the broader federal crackdown on AWD leadership that also ensnared [[John Cameron Denton]], [[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], and others during that period.
|
||||
|
||||
Cole was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Washington on all five counts: conspiracy to commit hate crimes, mailing threatening communications, cyberstalking (two counts), and a fifth related count. He was sentenced to 84 months (seven years) in federal prison. The case drew national attention in 2021 when motion-to-suppress filings revealed that [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]], who had infiltrated AWD as a senior leader, had been an FBI informant throughout his entire tenure inside the organization.[^1]
|
||||
A federal jury in the Western District of Washington convicted Cole on September 29, 2021, on all five counts: conspiracy to commit hate crimes, mailing threatening communications, cyberstalking (two counts), and a fifth related count.[^6] He was sentenced on January 11, 2022, to 84 months (seven years) in federal prison. The case drew national attention in 2021 when motion-to-suppress filings revealed that [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]], who had infiltrated AWD as a senior leader, had been an FBI informant throughout his entire tenure inside the organization.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Member of Violent Extremist Group Sentenced to 84 Months for Civil Rights Conspiracy." https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/member-violent-extremist-group-sentenced-84-months-civil-rights-conspiracy
|
||||
[^2]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages
|
||||
[^3]: GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0
|
||||
[^2]: United States v. Cole, No. CR20-032JCC (W.D. Wash.), Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Dkt. 261 (filed January 4, 2022), at 3. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Kaleb%20Cole%20Government%20Sentencing%20Memorandum.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: United States v. Cole, No. CR20-032JCC (W.D. Wash.), Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Dkt. 261 (filed January 4, 2022), at 15. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Kaleb%20Cole%20Government%20Sentencing%20Memorandum.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages
|
||||
[^5]: GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington, "Leader of 'Atomwaffen' hate group convicted of five federal felonies for conspiracy to threaten journalists and Anti-Defamation League employees," September 29, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/leader-atomwaffen-hate-group-convicted-five-federal-felonies-conspiracy-threaten
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,19 +4,128 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Person
|
||||
- OrganizedCrime
|
||||
- Mafia
|
||||
summary: "Bacow was described in the wiretaps as 'the back door liaison Teamsters connection to the movie industry.' He was under investigation in 1987 for various suspected offenses, including extortion, insider trading (MCA/Universal), the purchase and sale of narcotics/controlled substances, and the alloca"
|
||||
- Teamsters
|
||||
- LaborRacketeering
|
||||
- MCA
|
||||
- Wiretaps
|
||||
- LosAngeles
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Marty Bacow
|
||||
- Martin Bacow
|
||||
summary: "Labor consultant described in a 1987 FBI wiretap affidavit as the 'back door liaison Teamsters connection to the movie industry,' investigated in Los Angeles and never charged."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1987-03
|
||||
role: "subject of the Los Angeles organized-crime wiretap investigation"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Thomas Gates]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1987-03
|
||||
role: "affiant on the wiretap applications naming Bacow"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Eugene Giaquinto]]"
|
||||
start: 1987-03
|
||||
role: "named with Giaquinto as co-subject of the same wiretap applications; the affidavit alleges a joint scheme"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Angelo Commito]]"
|
||||
start: 1987-03
|
||||
role: "named co-subject; calls with Commito recorded in March and August 1987; the affidavit alleges a kickback on labor benefit plans"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Martin Bacow]] was a friend of [[Eugene Giaquinto]], then president of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] home entertainment division. He was a figure in the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap investigation into alleged organized crime penetration of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]].[^1]
|
||||
[[Martin Bacow]], also known as [[Marty Bacow]] and William Martin, was a labor consultant in [[Los Angeles]] who was the subject of a 1987 wiretap investigation by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] into alleged extortion through [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters|Teamsters]] influence in the motion picture industry.[^1] He was never charged with a crime.
|
||||
|
||||
Bacow was described in the wiretaps as "the back door liaison Teamsters connection to the movie industry." He was under investigation in 1987 for various suspected offenses, including extortion, insider trading (MCA/Universal), the purchase and sale of narcotics/controlled substances, and the allocation and use of the proceeds of its trafficking.[^1]
|
||||
### Identity and aliases
|
||||
|
||||
Intercepted conversations revealed Bacow's discussions with Giaquinto about the internal situation at [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] and plans to produce a film about [[Meyer Lansky]]. The intercepts indicated that [[La Cosa Nostra]] from either [[Florida]] or [[New York City]] was attempting to get involved in the Lansky film. Bacow also informed Giaquinto that his "guy downtown" (Detective [[John St. John]] at the [[Los Angeles Police Department|Los Angeles Police Department]]'s Organized Crime Intelligence Division) was tied up with [[John Gotti]] and could obtain intelligence reports on organized crime figures.[^1]
|
||||
The continuation affidavit sworn by the FBI agent [[Thomas Gates]] describes Bacow as "recognized as the 'back door liaison Teamsters connection to the movie industry'" and cites an earlier affidavit for the description. The same paragraph records a date of birth, a Studio City residence and telephone number, no employment address, and "no known criminal record."[^1] The affidavit lists his aliases as William Martin, Frank Harris, Frank Walters and Frank Price, Jr.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Bacow boasted to Giaquinto about [[John St. John]]'s status within [[OCID]], which allowed him to obtain intelligence reports on organized crime figures across the nation, and Bacow could then pass that information along to Giaquinto. A grand jury investigation into the mob's involvement in the motion picture industry was in the process of being opened at that time, which would have included a close look at Giaquinto, Bacow, and others. St. John called Bacow and told him he would listen and not give up too much, and try to find out what the investigators were looking at and let Bacow know. Bacow then called Giaquinto and related what St. John had said. Giaquinto responded that he would call [[Edwin Meese]] and get the investigation shut down.[^1]
|
||||
A later paragraph reports that a Frank Harris of [[El Cajon]], California, took part in a 1982 stock-inflation scheme that used surrogates and fictitious names to buy shares. The affidavit states that Bacow had used the name Frank Harris in intercepted calls, that Bacow said he owned property outside [[San Diego]], and that the affiant asked the San Diego division of the FBI to check whether the El Cajon Frank Harris was Bacow.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Richard Stavin]] confirmed that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap revealed a conversation in which Giaquinto told Bacow that he would call [[Edwin Meese]] and have the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s investigation of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] stopped. No indictment was ever issued against Bacow for any criminal violations, with the prosecution of these suspects reportedly not going forward because no one at the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] in Washington D.C. wanted all the wiretap affidavits in the case to be released.[^1]
|
||||
The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Ninth Circuit]] later described Bacow as a "labor consultant."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1987 Los Angeles wiretaps
|
||||
|
||||
Seymour described Bacow as a friend of Giaquinto.[^5] [[William Knoedelseder]] wrote that investigators led by Stavin, unable to tap Giaquinto's office telephone, installed a wiretap on the telephone of a Giaquinto confidante named Marty Bacow, "a self-styled labor negotiator with ties to Teamster president Jackie Presser" who was suspected of trying to extort Hollywood film companies in exchange for labor peace.[^5] Gates's affidavits of March 27, May 20, June 25, July 15 and August 3, 1987 were attached to a continuation application before Judge [[J. Spencer Letts]] of the [[United States District Court for the Central District of California]]. The continuation sought to intercept the telephones of Bacow, [[Eugene Giaquinto]], [[Angelo Commito]], [[Edward Sciandra]], [[Michael Del Gaizo]], [[Joseph Garofalo]] and [[Robert Booth Nichols]], and covers intercepts through September 1, 1987.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The affidavit lists the investigations the FBI was pursuing in Los Angeles. Agents were investigating whether Bacow, through his influence with Teamsters General President [[Jackie Presser]] and local officials in the entertainment industry, performed labor favors for money, and whether he threatened or caused strikes to extort money from movie and television production companies. Agents were also investigating whether Commito offered Bacow a kickback to steer labor benefit-plan business, whether [[John St. John]] of the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] was revealing investigative information to Bacow, whether Bacow and others manipulated stock prices, and whether Bacow and others were using extortion to ensure that [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] executive Giaquinto retained his position as president of the home entertainment division.[^2] The affidavit lists the suspected offenses, which include the extortion and obstruction provisions of Title 18 and Section 186 of Title 29.[^2] Among the stated objectives of the interception were the identities of purchasers, couriers and sellers of narcotics and controlled substances, the source of funding for their purchase, and the allocation and use of the proceeds of the trafficking.[^6] The affiant's belief, stated in paragraph 155, is that Bacow, with Giaquinto, Edward Sciandra, Commito, Michael Del Gaizo, Garofalo and Nichols, committed violations of Title 21, sections 841, 844 and 846, which concern controlled substances, as well as Title 18 sections 371, 1343, 1503 and 1951.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Commito and the benefit-plan scheme
|
||||
|
||||
Commito was then the president of [[Labor Health and Benefit Plans]], Inc., a company that administers employee benefit plans for unions and private companies.[^1] On March 12, 1987, Commito told a [[Chicago]]-area contact that he had spoken with "Marty" Bacow, who was making a movie that Giaquinto was going to distribute. In a second call the same evening, Commito and Bacow discussed film casting and a union official, and Bacow said that the official was insecure and that nothing he had touched outside the union had worked.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 31, 1987, Bacow said that a man the affidavit calls the "Fat Guy," who had once owned the Chez Paris in Chicago, was to be involved in a takeover, possibly of the Teamsters.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The April 1987 wiretap application against Commito was authorized by Chief Judge [[Peckham]], sitting as a magistrate. Bacow was among the people named in those April affidavits, along with Commito, real estate developer [[William Richard Baldwin]], and others.[^4][^10] [[Michael Rudy Tham]], a Teamsters official in San Francisco who was a defendant in that matter, argued on appeal that the affidavit had left out a March 12, 1987 call in which Commito told Bacow that he did not want to talk to Tham or involve him in further discussions about an eye-care insurance kickback scheme. The court held that the omission was at worst negligent and that Tham had offered no proof that it was intentional or reckless. The court also wrote that Tham had continued calling Bacow, among others, as late as mid-April 1987, and that "Bacow, in turn, stayed in frequent touch with Commito."[^4][^11] [[Judge Patel]] had suppressed the April wiretap in Commito's own trial, and the Ninth Circuit later reversed that ruling in *United States v. Commito*.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### The MCA intercepts
|
||||
|
||||
On June 30, 1987, Giaquinto told Bacow that [[Irving Azoff]], in charge of the record division of MCA, was planning to take over the whole operation. Bacow told him to wait, because "it's warfare."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Intercepts in early July 1987 record Bacow discussing a proposed film about [[Meyer Lansky]]. In one call, Bacow reported that a visitor had come to a third party's house to say that some people wanted to talk to Bacow and wanted to produce the Lansky film with "Jimmy Caan." Bacow said that people from [[Florida]] and Chicago were involved and that Chicago was backing off. The affiant concluded that [[La Cosa Nostra]] figures from Florida or [[New York City|New York]] were trying to get involved in the Lansky film, noted that Bacow had said he would resist them, and recorded that Bacow and Giaquinto had each obtained a gun.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 13, 1987, Giaquinto said he had told Commito, who had asked whether to hold a sit-down meeting with certain people, not to do anything, and to call "Frank," the Frank Harris alias that Bacow had used. Bacow said that the detective the affidavit identifies as St. John had told him that a permit application had to go through a small-town office or the sheriff's office.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
In an intercepted call, Bacow and Giaquinto discussed a figure the affidavit identifies only as Policar and the film laboratory [[Movielab]]. Bacow said he would ask Policar whether he knew Giaquinto. The two men speculated that Policar might be another messenger on the Lansky film. The affidavit reports that "Jimmy Caan" had attended a luncheon with eight members of a local La Cosa Nostra family. The affidavit reports that Giaquinto and Bacow stated that at the luncheon Caan was overheard to say that the movie would never be distributed. It also reports that Bacow said the local family had been instructed never to come near him, and it identifies [[Russell Massetta]], an organizer for [[Teamsters Local 848]] in [[El Monte]], California, as the son-in-law of [[Peter John Milano]], whom it describes as indicted and sent away.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
The affiant's opinion, stated in a paragraph on Giaquinto's contacts with unions, is that Giaquinto would use his influence with the unions through Bacow and or La Cosa Nostra through an associate to threaten MCA and its top executives if they moved to end his employment. The affiant wrote that the conversation "may also indicate" that Giaquinto was using his telephone in furtherance of a stock fraud by furnishing MCA inside information.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
On a call of July 7, 1987, Giaquinto told Bacow that he had held a meeting in New York and had whatever he wanted from number one. Bacow asked whether that was "the G guy," and Giaquinto said yes; the affiant stated his belief that the reference was to [[John Gotti]], boss of the Gambino family. Bacow told Giaquinto that the guy downtown, whom the affiant bracketed as St. John, was tied up with them and was their friend. In a separate intercept Bacow said that their friend St. John was in charge of the whole country, which the affiant read as a reference to St. John's position gathering La Cosa Nostra intelligence for the Los Angeles Police Department nationwide.[^18] Knoedelseder wrote that the same call, as quoted in the affidavit, had Giaquinto saying he could put certain people "all on planes," and that on July 8 Giaquinto spoke of carte blanche with "G."[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
A July 7, 1987 call recorded in the affidavit refers to a meeting of June 18, 1987 at the Bistro Gardens attended by Bacow, Giaquinto and Edward Sciandra, and to a contract with Michael Del Gaizo's Northstar Graphics.[^20] On July 8, according to Knoedelseder, the conversation covered retiring Sciandra and "the younger guys are taking over," and whether [[Sidney Sheinberg]] might "break a leg." On July 12 Bacow asked whether Azoff had something on "S.S."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Meese, St. John and the obstruction question
|
||||
|
||||
[[Cheri Seymour]] reproduced reports of conversations between [[John Cohen]] and Gates, in which Gates said that the wiretap revealed a conversation in which Giaquinto told Bacow that he would call [[Edwin Meese]] and have the FBI investigation of MCA stopped. Gates also said the wiretap revealed "there was a close working relationship between the Board of Directors of MCA, Attorney General Edwin Meese, and the White House."[^22] Seymour wrote that the investigation was shut down afterward by the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. Knoedelseder wrote that what the agents overheard convinced Stavin and Gates that the Gambino and Genovese families were engaged in a dispute over control of MCA's home entertainment division.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Richard Stavin]], the strike force attorney, confirmed in an e-mail to Seymour that the wiretap had recorded Giaquinto telling Bacow that he would call Meese and have the FBI's investigation stopped, in reply to what was already in the public record. Stavin said that he and Gates had handled the wiretaps. [[Marvin Rudnick]] said that he did not handle the wiretaps and had no involvement in their management.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
Stavin left the strike force in May 1989. Seymour wrote that [[Michael DeFeo]] had threatened him about talking about the circumstances of the case. Seymour also wrote that the wiretaps were shut down around September 1988 and that Stavin's investigation was unofficially closed around January 1989, when the first draft of his prosecution memorandum was given to [[John Newcomer]].[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
The wiretap material reportedly gathered enough evidence to justify seeking indictments of St. John, Giaquinto and Bacow for obstruction of justice. No indictment was issued. Seymour quoted Stavin saying that any indictment would have had to be approved by the then U.S. Attorney, [[Rob Bonner]], and Main Justice, including [[David Margolis]] and DeFeo. Stavin neither confirmed nor denied that such approval was given. Stavin's surmise, as Seymour quoted it, was that the prosecution did not go forward because no one at the Justice Department in Washington wanted all the wiretap affidavits in the case released.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
Seymour wrote that Bacow boasted to Giaquinto about St. John's status within the [[OCID|Organized Crime Intelligence Division]], which allowed St. John to obtain intelligence reports on organized crime figures across the country that Bacow could pass to Giaquinto. Seymour wrote that a grand jury investigation into the mob's involvement in the motion picture industry was being opened at that time, which would have included a close look at Giaquinto, Bacow and others.[^25] Seymour also wrote that St. John told Bacow he would listen, not give up too much, and try to learn what the investigators were looking at, and that Bacow then relayed this to Giaquinto, who replied that he would call Meese.[^25][^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### Indictments and aftermath
|
||||
|
||||
On December 15, 1987 the Los Angeles Times reported the indictment of Commito on labor racketeering charges, described as another organized crime figure and Bacow associate, and the next day MCA relieved Giaquinto of his responsibilities pending investigation.[^27] Knoedelseder wrote that by early 1989 Stavin had presented 95 percent of his evidence to the grand jury and was ready to seek indictments of Giaquinto and Bacow, and that his prosecution memorandum stalled on the desk of strike force chief John Newcomer, after DeFeo and Margolis had approved the theory.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
Knoedelseder also wrote that DeFeo and Margolis rebuked Stavin for granting informal "pocket" immunity to [[Sylvester Stallone]] without Newcomer's written permission. Stallone apparently knew Bacow, and Stallone's production company, [[White Eagle]], had employed Bacow as a consultant on the film Over the Top.[^29] As of the book's 1993 publication Giaquinto had never been prosecuted in the Hollywood labor racketeering case, and the wiretaps of his conversations with Bacow remained sealed.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^1]: Affidavit of Special Agent Thomas G. Gates in support of an application to continue interception of wire communications of Martin Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Angelo Commito, Edward Sciandra, Michael Del Gaizo, Joseph Garofalo, Robert Nichols and others, before Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal. (continuation affidavit citing intercepts through September 1, 1987), paragraphs 5(b) and 5(c), citing Exhibit D, paragraph 53 for the "back door liaison" description. Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Gates." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf).
|
||||
[^2]: Gates affidavit, the section listing the investigations in Los Angeles, which follows paragraph 155 and names Bacow's aliases, the Presser, Commito and St. John matters, and the stock and controlled-substance offenses. Same source as note 1.
|
||||
[^3]: Gates affidavit, paragraph 68. Same source as note 1.
|
||||
[^4]: United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. Nov. 5, 1991), superseded by the amended opinion at 960 F.2d 1391 (Apr. 7, 1992), factual and procedural background. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/571500/united-states-v-michael-rudy-tham/ and https://static.case.law/f2d/948/cases/1107-01.json.
|
||||
[^5]: Cheri Seymour, The Last Circle (TrineDay, 2010); William Knoedelseder, Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 435.
|
||||
[^6]: Gates affidavit, paragraph 5 (objectives of the interception). Same source as note 1.
|
||||
[^7]: Gates affidavit, paragraph 155 (the affiant's belief on the offenses for which interception was sought). Same source as note 1.
|
||||
[^8]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 58 and 59 (March 12, 1987 calls).
|
||||
[^9]: Gates affidavit, Commito exhibit, paragraph 96 (August 31, 1987 calls), with paragraph 58 for the identification of the "Fat Guy."
|
||||
[^10]: United States v. Tham, 960 F.2d 1391 (9th Cir. Apr. 7, 1992), background to the April 1987 affidavits. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/580895/united-states-v-michael-rudy-tham/
|
||||
[^11]: United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. Nov. 5, 1991), discussion of the omitted March 12, 1987 call and of the frequent-contact passage. Same source as note 4.
|
||||
[^12]: United States v. Commito, 918 F.2d 95 (9th Cir. 1990), reversal of the suppression ruling as stated in the note to United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107. https://static.case.law/f2d/918/cases/0095-01.json.
|
||||
[^13]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 14 and 15 (June 30 and July 6, 1987 calls).
|
||||
[^14]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 19 and 20 (Lansky film, Florida and New York involvement, gun).
|
||||
[^15]: Gates affidavit, paragraph 41 (July 13, 1987 calls).
|
||||
[^16]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 56 and 57 (calls concerning Policar, Movielab and the Lansky film, the luncheon, and the Teamsters Local 848 organizer).
|
||||
[^17]: Gates affidavit, paragraph 70 (the affiant's opinion, not an intercept).
|
||||
[^18]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 23 through 25 (July 7, 1987 call) and the paragraph following the Wasserman and Villano discussion (St. John "in charge of the whole country"). Same source as note 1.
|
||||
[^19]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 435.
|
||||
[^20]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 437.
|
||||
[^21]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, pp. 438 and 440.
|
||||
[^22]: Cheri Seymour, The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal (TrineDay, 2010), pp. 347-348 (reports Seymour attributes to John Cohen, Reports 5 and 6).
|
||||
[^23]: Seymour, The Last Circle, p. 358.
|
||||
[^24]: Seymour, The Last Circle, pp. 358-359.
|
||||
[^25]: Seymour, The Last Circle, pp. 359-360.
|
||||
[^26]: Seymour, The Last Circle, p. 368.
|
||||
[^27]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 436.
|
||||
[^28]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 439.
|
||||
[^29]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 442.
|
||||
[^30]: Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 464.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,14 +1,22 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Anna Ferkuniak
|
||||
- Anna M. Horsch
|
||||
- Myroslawa Anna Ferkuniak
|
||||
- Myroslawa Ferkuniak
|
||||
- Myroslawa A. Ferkuniak
|
||||
- Myroslawa Anna Horsch
|
||||
- Myroslawa Anna Hoersch
|
||||
- Anna Ferkuniak
|
||||
- Anna M. Ferkuniak
|
||||
- Anna M. Horsch
|
||||
- Anna Horsch
|
||||
- M. Horsch
|
||||
category: "Other"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- AbuseNetworks
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- RCHorsch
|
||||
- NewZealand
|
||||
- Wales
|
||||
- IdentityFraud
|
||||
- Fugitive
|
||||
summary: "Welsh-born wife of the fugitive R.C. Horsch, whom she married in Reno in 1980 under his stolen name and accompanied to New Zealand, and mother of Eugene Horsch."
|
||||
|
|
@ -19,45 +27,93 @@ relations:
|
|||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]"
|
||||
start: 1980-09-12
|
||||
end: 1989
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
end: 1989-07-28
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Eugene Horsch]]"
|
||||
role: "mother"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
start: 1981
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Myroslawa "Anna" Ferkuniak (October 7, 1949, to July 28, 1989), known after her marriage as Anna M. Horsch, was the second wife of the [[Philadelphia]] pornographer and counterfeiter [[R.C. Horsch]] and the mother of [[Eugene Horsch]]. She married Horsch in [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]] on September 12, 1980, while he was a fugitive using the stolen identity of a [[California]] chemist, Dr. Stanley Edward Stokowski, and lived with him in [[New Zealand]] until he fled the country in 1984.[^1][^2]
|
||||
Myroslawa "Anna" Ferkuniak (October 7, 1949, to July 28, 1989), known after her marriage as Anna M. Horsch, was the second wife of [[R.C. Horsch]], a [[Philadelphia]] filmmaker, counterfeiter and methamphetamine manufacturer who was a fugitive from 1977 to 1984. She married him in [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]] on September 12, 1980, while he was using the identity of a [[California]] chemist, [[Stanley Edward Stokowski]]. She lived with him in [[New Zealand]] until he left the country in March 1984, and she was the mother of [[Eugene Horsch]].[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Family
|
||||
### Early life
|
||||
|
||||
She was born in [[Nantymoel]], [[Wales]], a daughter of Michael and Maria (Perwiczko) Ferkuniak, and her parents later lived on a rural route outside [[Lehighton, Pennsylvania|Lehighton]] in [[Carbon County, Pennsylvania|Carbon County]]. She had one sister. Her birth was registered in the Bridgend district of [[Glamorgan]] in the last quarter of 1949, and she arrived in [[New York City|New York]] on March 2, 1961, at 11. Her Social Security record also carries the names Myroslawa Anna Hoersch and M Horsch.[^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
She was born in [[Nantymoel]], [[Glamorgan]], [[Wales]], a daughter of Michael and Maria (Perwiczko) Ferkuniak.[^2] Her birth was registered in the [[Bridgend]] district in the last quarter of 1949.[^3] A 2026 [[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Inquirer]] article gives the same birthplace, spelled Nant-y-moel.[^1] She arrived in [[New York City|New York]] on March 2, 1961, at the age of 11.[^4] Her parents later lived on a rural route outside [[Lehighton, Pennsylvania|Lehighton]] in [[Carbon County, Pennsylvania|Carbon County]], and she had one sister, who survived her.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### With Horsch
|
||||
### The fugitive years
|
||||
|
||||
According to the *[[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Philadelphia Inquirer]]*, she met Horsch at some point after her arrest in an [[LSD]] raid on a house near [[Temple University]]. After Horsch was arrested by the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] for manufacturing methamphetamine in February 1977 and jumped bail, she went with him to the West Coast, where he took the identity of Stokowski, a chemist with a doctorate from [[Stanford University]]. They married in Reno on September 12, 1980, before a religious celebrant, he as Stanley E. Stokowski; the marriage was recorded on September 16, and both gave their residence as [[Florida]]. It was the opening day of the 1980 [[Reno Air Races]], where Horsch later claimed to have flown a jet. Horsch said in 2013 that they had been together five or six years and married "specifically because we needed a marriage license to get into New Zealand."[^1][^5][^6] The New Zealand Minister of Immigration said in 1984 that her husband had entered the country in 1980.[^7] *[[The Press]]* of [[Christchurch]] reported in June 1984 that "Stokowski" had come to New Zealand "with his wife, Anna, and 18-month-old son," and in April 1985 that he had fled "with his wife and 18-month-old son"; the *Inquirer* gives her son Eugene's birth as 1981, in New Zealand.[^1][^8][^9][^10] The family lived at [[Hadlow, New Zealand|Hadlow]], near Timaru, until March 1984.[^11] The family lived near [[Timaru]], where Horsch worked with [[Chemical Technology Limited]] at [[Clandeboye, New Zealand|Clandeboye]] on a whey-to-ethanol plant, and the company's founder, [[John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer)|John Rutherford]], described Horsch to *The Press* as "an excellent family man."[^1][^8] When Horsch left New Zealand on March 17, 1984, on a passport that police believed had been stolen in a burglary at [[Temuka]], he left his wife and son behind, and they returned to the [[United States]] later. Detective Superintendent [[R.N. MacDonald]] told *The Press* that the family had left "soon after," and in mid-June police said they were looking for the wife and child, having searched properties at Clandeboye and Hadlow. Horsch said in 2013 that he got his wife and son out first, on their own passports, before leaving himself.[^1][^6][^8][^9][^12]
|
||||
The Inquirer reported that Horsch met her sometime after she was arrested in an [[LSD]] raid at a house near [[Temple University]], and that she was his longtime girlfriend when he fled to the West Coast.[^1] Agents of the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] arrested Horsch in Philadelphia on methamphetamine charges in February 1977.[^5] *[[The Press]]* of [[Christchurch]] reported in 1985 that the offences occurred in 1977 and that Horsch "skipped bail."[^6] In California he took the identity of Stanley Edward Stokowski, a chemist with a 1968 doctorate from [[Stanford University]]. The real Stokowski, 42 in 1984 and working at the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore Laboratory]], told the paper's [[San Francisco]] correspondent that he had never lost his passport and was unaware that anyone had used his name.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The psychologist [[Don Seraydarian]], who examined Horsch in 1985 before his federal sentencing, recorded that his only real support at the time was his wife, who had a "therapeutic and rehabilitative effect" on him. Horsch was released from federal prison in 1987.[^13]
|
||||
In a 2013 interview Horsch described her as the steadier partner of the fugitive years. "She was the practical one. She was the one who kept me from making big mistakes," he said, calling her "kind of the sea anchor."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Marriage in Reno
|
||||
|
||||
They married in Reno on September 12, 1980. The groom is recorded as Stanley E Stokowski, and both residences are given as [[Florida]].[^9][^10] The [[Reno Air Races]] opened that day. Horsch's self-published biography later claimed that he flew a BD-5J micro-jet in air shows during his years as a fugitive and appeared on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s Wide World of Sports during the 1980 Reno races.[^11] The official program lists the daily BD-5J demonstration as flown by [[George Marshall (pilot)|George Marshall]].[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
Horsch said in 2013 that the two had been together "five or six years or something like that" before they married, and that they "got married specifically because we needed a marriage license to get into New Zealand."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### New Zealand, 1980 to 1984
|
||||
|
||||
On October 3, 1984, The Press reported that the Minister of Immigration and Regional Development, [[Kerry Burke]], had announced the completion of further inquiries into the case of an American-born man "now known to be Raymond Charles Hoersch, who entered New Zealand in 1980 and worked for a [[South Canterbury]] firm as an alternative fuels expert." The report said that Hoersch "has since left New Zealand with his wife and child." Burke said that the immigration department had been under "some pressure from the man's proposed employer to make an early decision," and that the transcript submitted in the stolen name was one the genuine Stokowski had since confirmed as his.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 9, 1984, The Press wrote that "Stokowski" came to New Zealand "with his wife, Anna, and 18-month-old son," after the Christchurch lawyer [[John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer)|John Rutherford]] contacted him and with Rutherford set up [[Chemical Technology Limited]] in South Canterbury.[^15] A [[The New Zealand Herald|New Zealand Herald]] article of September 23, 2026, repeated the account of "wife Anna and 18-month-old son" and placed the arrival in Canterbury in 1980.[^16] The Inquirer gives Eugene's birth as 1981, in its passage on the family's years at [[Timaru]], and a 2026 Inquirer report on the 1985 evaluation describes him as four years old.[^1][^17] In 2013 Horsch said that his son was three at the time of his 1984 arrest.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
The family lived at [[Hadlow, New Zealand|Hadlow]], near Timaru, until mid-March 1984.[^19] Horsch was a director of Chemical Technology, which owned an ethanol plant at [[Clandeboye, New Zealand|Clandeboye]] that converted whey into ethanol, and he ran a computer software exchange at [[Washdyke]]. Rutherford told The Press in June 1984 that he found Horsch "a particularly smart fellow, a real toiler and an excellent family man."[^19][^20]
|
||||
|
||||
Horsch left New Zealand on March 17, 1984, on a passport that police believed had been stolen in a burglary at [[Temuka]]. Detective Superintendent [[R.N. MacDonald]] said on June 9 that his family left "soon after."[^15] On June 12 he said that police had confirmation that "Stokowski" had left the country but none that his wife and child had gone, and that properties at Clandeboye and Hadlow had been searched in the inquiry; police were looking for the wife and child.[^21] In 2013 Horsch said that he got them out first: "I got my son and my wife out of the country. They were able to travel in their passports."[^18] The Inquirer wrote that he "left Anna and Eugene behind, and they returned to America later."[^1] The Press reported in April 1985 that he had fled New Zealand "with his wife and 18-month-old son," and quoted [[Joanne Epps]], a Philadelphia assistant district attorney, as saying that he left New Zealand in June 1984 and was arrested in Florida in October.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Return to the United States and the last years
|
||||
|
||||
Horsch said in 2013 that after returning to the [[United States]] he settled in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]] and started a computer business, and that he had arranged through a Philadelphia lawyer to surrender when agents of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] arrested him there at 4 a.m. on the Monday he was to do so. He had set up businesses "which I thought would provide my wife and son with a little bit of income while I was in jail." They failed, he said, and "Her family and my family got together and we got through it."[^18] He was sentenced in Philadelphia on April 25, 1985, to a total of four years.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
A psychologist, [[Don Seraydarian]], examined Horsch for four hours in 1985 at the request of his defense team before his sentencing. He recorded that Horsch's only real friend or support system was his wife, who had a "therapeutic and rehabilitative effect" on him, and that Horsch was "very protective" of his wife and son, who were the "most important things in his life."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
After an early release from prison in 1987, Horsch moved the family to [[Northeast Philadelphia]] and took a job as an IT director. She found work cleaning houses. Although he claimed never to have taken drugs, he "watched Anna fall into addiction," according to the Inquirer.[^1] In 2013 Horsch said that after the move "she started using prescription painkillers and that, and ended up killing herself," and that during the last year "I would go to work during the day and never know what was happening, whether she'd be driving the car stoned out of her mind, whether she was taking care of our son or not."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
She died at the family's house at 1101 Devereaux Avenue in Philadelphia on Friday, July 28, 1989, at 39. Her obituary in *[[The Morning Call]]* of [[Allentown, Pennsylvania|Allentown]] said that she died "after a lengthy illness"; the *Inquirer* reported in 2026 that she died of an accidental overdose of glutethimide and codeine while sitting in the living room. Her funeral was held from the Andrew P. Ovsak Funeral Home in Lehighton, with a Divine Liturgy at [[St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church (Lehighton)|St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Catholic Church]]. The following month Horsch bought a house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania|New Britain Township]], where their son grew up.[^1][^2][^14]
|
||||
She died on Friday, July 28, 1989, at the family's home in Philadelphia, at the age of 39.[^2] Her death in 1989 is also recorded in the Social Security index.[^3] Her obituary in *[[The Morning Call]]* of [[Allentown, Pennsylvania|Allentown]] described her as the wife of Raymond Horsch, said that she died "after a lengthy illness," and listed her husband, her parents and her son Eugene, then at home, among the survivors. Her funeral was held from the [[Andrew P. Ovsak Funeral Home]] in Lehighton, with a Divine Liturgy at [[St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church (Lehighton)|St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Catholic Church]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The Inquirer reported in 2026 that she was sitting in the family's living room when she accidentally overdosed on glutethimide and codeine, and that Eugene, then seven, was in the room.[^1] Horsch's 2013 account attributes the death to her use of prescription painkillers and says the son was in the room. "My basic fundamental reaction was and is anger," he said. "Because she kind of bailed out, left me with a kid to raise by myself."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
The following month Horsch bought a house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania|New Britain Township]], [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]], where, according to the Inquirer, he raised Eugene as a single father. A county real-estate transfer dated October 29, 1989, names him as the buyer.[^17][^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Books credited to her
|
||||
|
||||
In 2013 Horsch said that one of the books he wrote in prison was written with one of his ex-wives, was her memoir of growing up, and was banned for content.[^24] In January 2014 Horsch's website, [[Eroto]], credited "authors R.C. Hörsch and Anna M. Ferkuniak," along with "publisher S.E. Stokowski," with books that [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] had banned, and offered their eBooks free.[^25] The site's books page of September 2014 lists *Annie*, "the intimate journal of a troubled young girl wrestling with addiction, destructive behavior, bulimia and rampant promiscuity," by "Anna M. Ferkuniak and R. C. Hörsch," of about 162 pages. Its Foreword, signed A. M. Ferkuniak, begins: "My ex-husband, R. C., is the one who got me to write this memoir."[^26] A paperback edition of *Annie*, crediting R. Horsch and Anna Ferkuniak, was issued by [[CreateSpace]] in 2014.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
The Inquirer wrote that Horsch was "always looking for new women," particularly women who resembled his deceased wife, and that he told one woman he asked to appear in *Slaves*, a 2003 film he was producing, that she reminded him of Anna. *Slaves* is also the title of a Horsch book on the same site.[^1][^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "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
|
||||
[^2]: "Anna M. Horsch," obituary, *The Morning Call,* August 1, 1989, p. 18 ("Born in Nantymoel, England [sic], she was a daughter of Michael and Maria (Perwiczko) Ferkuniak of Lehighton R.2."; survivors include "son Eugene, at home"). https://www.newspapers.com/image/283766965/ Death notices ran in the same paper on August 1, 1989, p. 30, and August 2, 1989, p. 37.
|
||||
[^3]: England and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index, fourth quarter 1949, Bridgend registration district, Glamorgan, "Myroslawa A Ferkuniak"; U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, "Anna Ferkuniak," also recorded as Myroslawa Anna Hoersch and M Horsch, born October 7, 1949, Nantymoel, died July 1989 (both via Ancestry.com), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/
|
||||
[^4]: New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, "Myroslawa A Ferkuniak," arrival March 2, 1961, New York (Ancestry.com), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/
|
||||
[^5]: Nevada Marriage Index, 1956-2005, record for Myroslawa Anna Ferkuniak, spouse Stanley E Stokowski, marriage date September 12, 1980, Reno, officiant a religious celebrant, recorded September 16, 1980, Book 722, page 654, instrument number 4784, both parties residing in Florida (Ancestry.com, collection 1100), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1100/
|
||||
[^6]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:05:45 to 1:09:27 (audio preserved in a Wayback Machine capture of March 31, 2019). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^7]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23
|
||||
[^8]: Leask, Anna. "Man linked to multiple missing women in US had fled NZ 40 years ago after posing as scientist," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 23, 2026 (quoting *The Press* of 1984). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raymond-horsch-man-linked-to-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-lived-near-timaru-under-stolen-name/BVQSWBL3LZDL3GIXFEHHBFY6RY/
|
||||
[^9]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9
|
||||
[^10]: "Ethanol 'scientist' jailed for drug offences," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 27, 1985 (Press Association). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850427.2.26
|
||||
[^11]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48
|
||||
[^12]: "Police seek wife, child," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 13, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840613.2.7
|
||||
[^13]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, and Ellie Rushing. "'Consumed by anger': Inside the 1985 psych profile of Raymond Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 3, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-olney-missing-women-psych-exam-20260903.html
|
||||
[^14]: [Bucks County real-estate transfers], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 29, 1989, p. 480 ("520 Airy Ave. ... to Raymond C. Horsch"). https://www.newspapers.com/image/177531276/
|
||||
[^1]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026 (the passages on the LSD raid and flight to the West Coast, the 1980 Nevada marriage, the 1981 birth, the departure from New Zealand, the 1987 move, the addiction, the 1989 death and the glutethimide overdose, the 2003 film, and the embedded profile line "He married Anna Ferkuniak, a native of Nant-y-moel, Wales, who was Eugene Horsch's mother. She died in 1989 at age 39 after a lengthy illness, according to her obituary."). https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html
|
||||
[^2]: "Anna M. Horsch," obituary, *The Morning Call,* August 1, 1989, p. 18 ("died Friday in her home after a lengthy illness," "She was the wife of Raymond Horsch," "Born in Nantymoel, England," "a daughter of Michael and Maria (Perwiczko) Ferkuniak of Lehighton R.2"; survivors include her husband, her parents, "son Eugene, at home" and one sister; funeral at the Andrew P. Ovsak Funeral Home with a Divine Liturgy at St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Catholic Church). https://www.newspapers.com/image/283766965/ Death notices ran August 1, 1989, p. 30, and August 2, 1989, p. 37.
|
||||
[^3]: England and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index, December quarter 1949, "Ferkuniak, Myroslawa A," Bridgend, volume 8b, page 44 (FreeBMD, search of October 15, 2026); the same index lists "Myroslawa Anna Ferkuniak" with a death in 1989 (Ancestry.com, record 23055146); U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, "Anna Ferkuniak" with the names "Myroslawa Anna Hoersch" and "M Horsch," born in the United Kingdom, death 1989 (Ancestry.com, record 37433855). https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl and https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Myroslawa_Ferkuniak
|
||||
[^4]: New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, "Myroslawa A Ferkuniak," arrival at New York, March 2, 1961 (Ancestry.com, record 8290685), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Myroslawa_Ferkuniak
|
||||
[^5]: "A Philadelphia man is arrested on drug charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* February 5, 1977, p. 10. https://www.newspapers.com/image/172176774/
|
||||
[^6]: "Ethanol 'scientist' jailed for drug offences," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 27, 1985, p. 3 (Press Association; "The offences occurred in 1977, but Hoersch skipped bail and later spent three years in New Zealand. He left New Zealand in June last year and was arrested in Florida in October, Ms Epps said"; "He used the passport to flee New Zealand with his wife and 18-month-old son"; sentenced "on Thursday" to a total of four years). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850427.2.26
|
||||
[^7]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984, p. 1 (the real Stokowski, "aged 42," a Stanford doctorate of 1968 who "works for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory"; "He had never lost his passport and was puzzled and surprised about the affair"; "was unaware that someone had used his name"). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9
|
||||
[^8]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:12:32 to 1:12:42 (Horsch interview; audio preserved in a Wayback Machine capture of March 31, 2019). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^9]: Nevada, U.S., Marriage Index, 1956-2005, "Myroslawa Anna Ferkuniak," spouse "Stanley E Stokowski," both residences Florida, marriage date September 12, 1980 (Ancestry.com, record 3523542), accessed October 15, 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Myroslawa_Ferkuniak
|
||||
[^10]: Nevada Marriage Index, 1956-2005, same record: recorded September 16, 1980, Book 722, page 654, instrument number 4784, religious celebrant, Reno (Ancestry.com, collection 1100). https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1100/
|
||||
[^11]: "Biographical Note," by "S.E. Stokowski," eroto.com, Internet Archive capture of November 5, 2016 (the self-published claim that Horsch "somehow managed to fly a BD5-J micro-jet aircraft in various U.S. air shows, boldly (and foolishly) appearing on ABC's 'Wide World of Sports' during the 1980 Reno Air Races"). https://web.archive.org/web/20161105021502/http://eroto.com:80/commentary/3-biography
|
||||
[^12]: "Official Air Races schedule," *Reno Gazette-Journal,* September 12, 1980, p. 74 (the daily program of the National Championship Air Races, which ran from September 12 to 14, 1980; "BD5J" demonstration listed under George Marshall). https://www.newspapers.com/image/149117327/
|
||||
[^13]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:05:45 to 1:06:01 (Horsch interview). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^14]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984, p. 3 (Parliamentary reporter; Burke's announcement "yesterday"; "the department was under some pressure from the man's proposed employer to make an early decision"; the transcript "which the genuine Dr Stokowski had since confirmed as his"). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23
|
||||
[^15]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984, p. 1 ("came to New Zealand with his wife, Anna, and 18-month-old son, and with Mr Rutherford set up Chemical Technology, Ltd"; Detective Superintendent MacDonald: "the bogus Stokowski left New Zealand on March 17, using a stolen passport, and that his family left soon after"; the Temuka burglary). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9
|
||||
[^16]: Leask, Anna. "Man linked to multiple missing women in US had fled NZ 40 years ago after posing as scientist," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 23, 2026 ("He reportedly travelled to Canterbury in 1980 with his 'wife Anna and 18-month-old son'"). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raymond-horsch-man-linked-to-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-lived-near-timaru-under-stolen-name/BVQSWBL3LZDL3GIXFEHHBFY6RY/
|
||||
[^17]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, and Ellie Rushing. "'Consumed by anger': Inside the 1985 psych profile of Raymond Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 3, 2026 (the four-hour assessment commissioned by the defense before sentencing; the wife's "therapeutic and rehabilitative effect"; "very protective" of "his wife and then-4-year-old son, Eugene"; the move to Bucks County after her death and the raising of Eugene as a single father). https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-olney-missing-women-psych-exam-20260903.html
|
||||
[^18]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:07:13 to 1:07:51 ("I got my son and my wife out of the country"; "They were able to travel in their passports") and 1:08:12 to 1:10:14 (Orlando; "my son was three years old at the time"; the arrest at 4 a.m.; the businesses; "Her family and my family got together and we got through it"). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^19]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984, p. 1 (Press Association, Timaru; "Dr Stokowski lived in Hadlow, near Timaru, until mid-March"; "a director of the Clandeboye ethanol plant owned by Chemical Technology, Ltd, and also ran a computer software exchange at Washdyke"). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48
|
||||
[^20]: Same article (Rutherford: he found Horsch "a particularly smart fellow, a real toiler and an excellent family man"); "Ethanol by September," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 20, 1981 (Chemical Technology, Ltd., "formed earlier this year"; the $1.5 million plant near Temuka and its whey feedstock; "Dr Stanly Stokowski, the director"). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 and https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810720.2.23
|
||||
[^21]: "Police seek wife, child," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 13, 1984, p. 1 (Press Association, Timaru; "the police had confirmation that 'Stokowski' had left New Zealand, but they had no confirmation that his wife and child had gone"; searches of properties at Clandeboye and Hadlow). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840613.2.7
|
||||
[^22]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:12:48 to 1:14:21 (Horsch interview: "ended up killing herself"; "my son was seven at the time. He was in the room when she died"; "Because she kind of bailed out, left me with a kid to raise by myself"; "My basic fundamental reaction was and is anger"; the last year). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^23]: "[Bucks County real-estate transfers]," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 29, 1989, p. 480 (transfer to Raymond C. Horsch in New Britain Township). https://www.newspapers.com/image/177531276/
|
||||
[^24]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:36:23 to 1:36:59 ("I wrote four or five books in prison"; "a book that I wrote with one of my ex-wives. The book was her memoir of when she was growing up"; "That was banned for content"). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^25]: eroto.com front page, Internet Archive capture of January 13, 2014 ("In honor of having three of four posted books banned by Amazon, authors R.C. Hörsch and Anna M. Ferkuniak, along with publisher S.E. Stokowski, have decided to make the eBook versions of everything available to all our friends for FREE download."). https://web.archive.org/web/20140113132225/http://eroto.com/
|
||||
[^26]: eroto.com, "Books," Internet Archive capture of September 28, 2014 (*Annie*, "By Anna M. Ferkuniak and R. C. Hörsch," "approximately 23,000 words, 162 pages"; *Slaves*, "By R.C. Hörsch," "the book upon which the 'Slaves' film is based"), https://web.archive.org/web/20140928154523/http://www.eroto.com:80/books ; eroto.com, "Annie," capture of September 27, 2020 (Foreword "By A. M. Ferkuniak": "My ex-husband, R. C., is the one who got me to write this memoir."), https://web.archive.org/web/20200927100923/https://eroto.com/books/35-annie
|
||||
[^27]: *Annie* (2014), authors R. Horsch and Anna Ferkuniak, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, ISBN 9781492971054, 162 pages (Open Library edition OL55275516M, work OL40660562W). https://openlibrary.org/books/OL55275516M
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Nuclear
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "Freelance Colombian journalist who met Mordecai Vanunu in Sydney and received top-secret photographs of Israel's nuclear facility."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Oscar Guerrero]] was a freelance journalist from [[Colombia]]. He met [[Mordecai Vanunu]] in [[Sydney]], [[Australia]], where Vanunu was sharing top-secret photographs of [[Israel|Israel's]] nuclear facility.[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -13,5 +14,9 @@ Guerrero saw the photographs and proposed publishing them for a fee. He first ap
|
|||
|
||||
[[Nicholas Davies]], a London *[[Daily Mirror]]* foreign editor and Israeli agent, stalled Guerrero by telling him the newspaper needed an expert to check his claims. Guerrero had already struck a deal with *The [[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]]* to publish Vanunu's story and photographs, with Vanunu receiving a £250,000 advance on a book and Guerrero receiving a 10% cut. Guerrero approached the *Mirror* because he believed he was being cut out of *The Sunday Times* deal.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
A hotel register at the [[Eccleston Hotel]] in London recorded a Cheryl Hanin as a guest just before Guerrero checked in. [[Peter Hounam]] of the Sunday Times found the entry while tracing the woman who had lured Mordecai Vanunu from London. The form gave a Florida family address and the nationality "USA."[^2] She is profiled on the page for [[Cindy Hanin Bentov]].
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
[^2]: Peter Hounam, _The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program_. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 93-94. Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/womanfrommossads0000houn
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Operations director of DINA, indicted in Washington for the Letelier murder in 1978, named by Michael Townley as the man who asked for the killing of General Prats, and convicted in the Horman case."
|
||||
location: "Santiago, Chile"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Pedro Espinoza Bravo was a [[Chile|Chilean]] army colonel and director of operations of [[DINA]], the secret police of General [[Augusto Pinochet]], under [[Manuel Contreras]].[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ In a sworn statement of April 24, 1978, in the file of the military prosecutor [
|
|||
|
||||
A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Contreras, Espinoza, and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]] in 1978 for the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]. Chile put the three under military detention and refused to extradite them, and a military court dismissed the domestic case. On an appeal by Letelier's sister the [[Supreme Court of Chile|Chilean Supreme Court]] ruled in January 1982 that the dismissal "was temporary and not definitive." Contreras was sentenced to seven years for the murder in 1995.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
A man who sought asylum in 1987 told American officials that [[Charles Horman]] had been put to death in the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]] in September 1973 on Espinoza's orders. A Chilean court sentenced Espinoza to seven years in the Horman and [[Frank Teruggi]] case in 2015, and the Supreme Court raised the term to fifteen years in 2016.[^4]
|
||||
A man who sought asylum in 1987 told American officials that [[Charles Horman]] had been put to death in the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]] in September 1973 on Espinoza's orders. A Chilean court sentenced Espinoza to seven years in the Horman and [[Frank Teruggi]] case in 2015.[^4] The Appeals Court of Santiago upheld the sentence on September 5, 2015.[^5] On July 21, 2016 the Supreme Court sentenced Espinoza unanimously to fifteen years, as the author of both killings, and raised the term of the civilian [[Rafael González (Chilean intelligence)|Rafael González]] to three years as an accomplice in the Horman killing.[^6] The journalist [[John Dinges]] reports that the trial court had ignored González's 2003 recantation of his 1976 statements.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -33,3 +33,6 @@ A man who sought asylum in 1987 told American officials that [[Charles Horman]]
|
|||
[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Pedro Espinoza Bravo, April 24, 1978; declaración of René Riveros Valderrama, March 22, 1978; resolution of April 10, 1978.
|
||||
[^3]: "Letelier Case Reversal," *The Washington Post,* January 16, 1982, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680022-8; "Ex-Chile spy chief dies while serving 500-year sentence," Al Jazeera, August 8, 2015.
|
||||
[^4]: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, document 2; "Sentencing in Chile begins to bring closure in 41-year-old murder cases of US citizens Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman," *The Tico Times,* January 30, 2015.
|
||||
[^5]: "Chilean appeals court upholds convictions of 2 in killings of Americans portrayed in 'Missing,'" Fox News, September 5, 2015. https://www.foxnews.com/world/chilean-appeals-court-upholds-convictions-of-2-in-killings-of-americans-portrayed-in-missing
|
||||
[^6]: "Chile eleva penas a militares por morte de dois americanos na ditadura," Swissinfo, July 21, 2016. https://www.swissinfo.ch/por/chile-eleva-penas-a-militares-por-morte-de-dois-americanos-na-ditadura/42317540
|
||||
[^7]: National Security Archive, "Chile in Their Hearts," May 7, 2025, with Dinges's summary of the 2015 verdict. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2025-05-07/chile-their-hearts
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ tags:
|
|||
- RCHorsch
|
||||
- Philadelphia
|
||||
- Olney
|
||||
summary: "Philadelphia grandfather of the pornographer R.C. Horsch, whose house at 417 West Chew Street in Olney became the house searched in the 2026 Olney House Investigation."
|
||||
summary: "Philadelphia grandfather of the pornographer R.C. Horsch, whose house on West Chew Street in Olney became the house searched in the 2026 Olney House Investigation."
|
||||
died: 1972-07-01
|
||||
location: "417 West Chew Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
|
||||
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Helen E. Hoersch]]"
|
||||
|
|
@ -25,10 +25,10 @@ relations:
|
|||
role: "grandfather"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Albert Hoersch (died July 1, 1972, aged 81) lived at 417 West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], the house later owned by his grandson, the pornographer and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]], and from 2007 by his great-grandson [[Eugene Horsch]], and searched by the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
Albert Hoersch (died July 1, 1972, aged 81) lived on West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], the house later owned by his grandson, the pornographer and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]], and from 2007 by his great-grandson [[Eugene Horsch]], and searched by the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Family
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -40,11 +40,11 @@ He died on July 1, 1972. His funeral service was held at the Schneider Funeral H
|
|||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "Hoersch, Helen E. Wissman," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 29, 1968, p. 32 ("wife of Albert Hoersch, of 417 W. Chew st., Aug. 27, 1968. Relatives, friends and Grace United Methodist Church, are invited ... SCHNEIDER FUNERAL HOME, 617-19 W. Olney ave. Int. Hillside Cem."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/182120759/
|
||||
[^2]: "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 3, 1972, p. 10 ("aged 81 years, beloved husband of the late Helen Wissmer Horesch [sic] and father of Albert Jr., Raymond C., Helen M Hoersch, 417 W. Chew st., July 1, 1972 ... SCHNEIDER FUNERAL HOME, 617-19 W. Olney ave. Int. Hillside Cem."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/
|
||||
[^1]: "Hoersch, Helen E. Wissman," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 29, 1968, p. 32 ("wife of Albert Hoersch, of W. Chew st., Aug. 27, 1968. Relatives, friends and Grace United Methodist Church, are invited ... SCHNEIDER FUNERAL HOME, 617-19 W. Olney ave. Int. Hillside Cem."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/182120759/
|
||||
[^2]: "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 3, 1972, p. 10 ("aged 81 years, beloved husband of the late Helen Wissmer Horesch [sic] and father of Albert Jr., Raymond C., Helen M Hoersch, W. Chew st., July 1, 1972 ... SCHNEIDER FUNERAL HOME, 617-19 W. Olney ave. Int. Hillside Cem."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/
|
||||
[^3]: "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
|
||||
[^4]: "Hoersch, Helen M.," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* April 7, 2004, p. B12. https://www.newspapers.com/image/201102740/
|
||||
[^5]: Find a Grave memorial 25275352, "Albert Hoersch Jr.," headstone inscription "LT US Navy WWII," St. Mark's Episcopal Church Cemetery, West Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25275352/albert-hoersch
|
||||
[^6]: [Social column], *The Daily Intelligencer* (Doylestown), January 10, 1955, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40163522/
|
||||
[^7]: City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, 417 W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, grantor "Hoersch Helen M," grantee "Horsch Eugene A"; later mortgages of 2007 and 2009 and satisfaction of 2025, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql?q=SELECT%20*%20FROM%20rtt_summary%20WHERE%20street_address%20=%20%27417%20W%20CHEW%20AVE%27
|
||||
[^7]: City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, grantor "Hoersch Helen M," grantee "Horsch Eugene A"; later mortgages of 2007 and 2009 and satisfaction of 2025, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/ (rtt_summary table)
|
||||
[^8]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:29:47 to 1:29:57 (depression; audio preserved in a Wayback Machine capture of March 31, 2019). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -20,10 +20,10 @@ relations:
|
|||
start: 2026
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Amy McHale was the third wife of the [[Philadelphia]] pornographer and filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]], from 2004 to 2008, and appeared in his films. She was last heard from at the Horsch house at 417 West Chew Avenue in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of Philadelphia on June 14, 2016, in her mid-forties, and remains missing. Her disappearance is part of the [[Olney House Investigation]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
Amy McHale was the third wife of the [[Philadelphia]] pornographer and filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]], from 2004 to 2008, and appeared in his films. She was last heard from at the Horsch house on West Chew Avenue in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of Philadelphia on June 14, 2016, in her mid-forties, and remains missing. Her disappearance is part of the [[Olney House Investigation]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Horsch
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
|
|||
aliases:
|
||||
- Charles Edmund Horman
|
||||
- Charles Horman Lazar
|
||||
- Charles E. Horman
|
||||
- Charles Horman Jr.
|
||||
category: "Victims & Witnesses"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
|
|
@ -11,47 +13,139 @@ tags:
|
|||
- StateDepartment
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- Missing
|
||||
summary: "American writer seized at his Santiago home by the Chilean army on September 17, 1973, and shot the next day, whose death the American embassy attributed to leftists while the State Department's inquiries concluded otherwise."
|
||||
- HormanVKissinger
|
||||
- Hinchey
|
||||
summary: "American writer seized at his Santiago home on September 17, 1973, and shot the next day; a 1976 State Department memorandum said U.S. intelligence 'may have played an unfortunate part' in his death."
|
||||
died: 1973-09-18
|
||||
location: "Santiago, Chile"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Ray Davis]]"
|
||||
start: 2011-11-29
|
||||
role: "named as an accomplice in the 2011 Chilean indictment"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Pedro Espinoza]]"
|
||||
start: 2015-01
|
||||
role: "convicted in the Horman and Teruggi killings, sentence raised to fifteen years in 2016"
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Rafael González (Chilean intelligence)]]"
|
||||
start: 2015-01
|
||||
role: "convicted as an accomplice in the Horman killing"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Henry A. Kissinger]]"
|
||||
start: 1977
|
||||
role: "named defendant in Horman et al. v. Kissinger et al., Civil Action No. 77-1748"
|
||||
fn: 14
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Frederick Smith Jr.]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1976-07
|
||||
end: 1976-12
|
||||
role: "five-month review of State Department and embassy files"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Charles Horman was an American writer and filmmaker living in [[Santiago]] who was detained by the Chilean army six days after the coup of September 11, 1973, and executed. He and [[Frank Teruggi]], detained days later, were both shot at the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]]. His case was the subject of the 1982 film Missing by [[Costa-Gavras]], and of a Chilean prosecution that in 2011 indicted the former head of the [[United States]] military group in [[Chile]].[^1]
|
||||
Charles Horman was an American writer and filmmaker living in [[Santiago]] who was detained by the Chilean army six days after the coup of September 11, 1973, and executed. He and [[Frank Teruggi]], detained days later, were both shot at the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]].[^1][^2] His case was the subject of the 1982 film [[Missing (1982 film)|Missing]] by [[Costa-Gavras]], and of a Chilean prosecution that in 2011 indicted the former head of the [[United States]] military group in [[Chile]].[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Viña del Mar
|
||||
|
||||
On the day of the coup Horman was in [[Valparaíso]] and [[Viña del Mar]] with a friend from [[New York City|New York]], [[Terry Simon]]. Over that day and the next four they met officers and contractors of the [[United States Military Group]], all of whom were enthusiastic about the coup. A Navy contractor, [[Arthur Creter]], said more than once that "it had gone smoothly." An American officer gave them a ride back to Santiago. Simon kept notes of the conversations with names and addresses. After Horman's death she dictated them to the American academic [[Stephen Volk]], who typed them on onion skin and carried them out of the country in an empty Chapstick tube.[^1]
|
||||
On the day of the coup Horman was in [[Valparaíso]] and [[Viña del Mar]] with a friend from [[New York City|New York]], [[Terry Simon]]. Over that day and the next four they met officers and contractors of the [[United States Military Group]], all of whom were enthusiastic about the coup. A Navy contractor, [[Arthur Creter]], repeatedly suggested that "it had gone smoothly."[^3] The notes contain nothing that could be construed as secret.[^4] [[Edmund Horman]]'s memorandum records that "Captain Davis" drove Horman and Simon to Santiago. The memorandum gives only the surname, which matches that of the Military Group's commander, Navy Captain Ray Davis.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
A month before his death, on a visit to New York, Horman had persuaded four friends to give him money to buy weapons for the cordones industriales, the belts of worker-run factories that supporters of [[Salvador Allende]] expected to resist a coup. A few days before September 11 he and his wife, [[Joyce Horman|Joyce]], moved to a house in the Vicuña Mackenna industrial district.[^1]
|
||||
Simon kept notes of the conversations with names and addresses. After Horman's death she dictated them to the American academic [[Stephen Volk]], who typed them on onion skin and carried them out of the country in an empty Chapstick tube.[^1][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
A month before his death, on a visit to New York, Horman had persuaded four friends to give him money to buy weapons for the cordones industriales, the belts of worker-run factories that supporters of [[Salvador Allende]] expected to resist a coup. A few days before September 11 he and his wife, [[Joyce Horman]], moved to a house in the Vicuña Mackenna industrial district.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### September 17
|
||||
|
||||
An army unit took Horman from the house in the late afternoon of September 17. Neighbors saw the arrest, and two callers reported it to the United States consulate, where the calls were entered on the note cards kept on the case. Less than 24 hours later his body and those of six labor leaders from a nearby factory were delivered to the morgue. He had been shot at the stadium on September 18. A Chilean official stopped the morgue from completing a fingerprint comparison, even after the family supplied prints from [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] records. In mid October two Chilean military intelligence sergeants, Raúl Meneses and Jaime Ortiz, who had been assigned to find him, pressed the morgue to make the comparison, which identified body 2663. They told his father that the body had been "interred in the wall of the [[Cementerio General de Santiago|Santiago Cemetery]] on October 3."[^1]
|
||||
An army unit took Horman from the house in the late afternoon of September 17. Neighbors saw the arrest, and two callers reported it to the United States consulate, where the calls were entered on the note cards kept on the case.[^1] The Smith report of December 1976 described the arrest as the work of ten to fifteen armed men in Chilean Army uniforms, who took Horman and some of his belongings away in a truck. It recorded that calls on the following morning, relating to his detention, reached a former neighbor and a friend.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Less than 24 hours later his body and those of six labor leaders from a nearby factory were delivered to the morgue. He had been shot at the stadium on September 18.[^1] A Chilean official stopped the morgue from completing a fingerprint comparison, even after the family supplied prints from [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] records.[^5] In mid October two Chilean military intelligence sergeants, [[Raúl Meneses]] and Jaime Ortiz, who had been assigned to find him, pressed the morgue to make the comparison, which identified body 2663. They told his father that the body had been "interred in the wall of the [[Cementerio General de Santiago|Santiago Cemetery]] on October 3."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Embassy
|
||||
|
||||
An embassy cable of September 25, number 4565, reported that the embassy had "no firm info on his detention." [[Edmund Horman]] arrived on October 5 and with his daughter-in-law saw Ambassador [[Nathaniel Davis]], who "said that the Embassy feeling was that Charles probably was in hiding." When the father mentioned the two telephone calls, the ambassador asked the consul, Purdy, whether he knew of them. "No sir," Purdy said. The vice consul handling the case, [[James Anderson (CIA)|James Anderson]], was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer under diplomatic cover.[^1]
|
||||
An embassy cable of September 25, number 4565, reported that the embassy had "no firm info on his detention." The same cable recorded that military authorities continued to deny that Horman was held at the National Stadium, and that the consul's review of the detainee list as of September 19 did not show his name.[^7] Edmund Horman arrived on October 5 and, with his daughter-in-law, saw Ambassador [[Nathaniel Davis]], who, in Joyce Horman's account, "said that the Embassy feeling was that Charles probably was in hiding." When Edmund Horman mentioned the two calls received at the consulate reporting the arrest, the ambassador looked at the consul, [[Frederick Purdy]], and asked if he knew anything about them. Purdy said: "No sir." Joyce Horman reminded him that both calls were recorded on the consulate note cards kept on the case.[^3][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The junta told the embassy that Horman and Teruggi had been killed by leftists in stolen army uniforms. A foreign ministry official, Enrique Guzmán, told an embassy officer that "we may never know" how they died, that both had been deeply involved in "Communist Industrial areas," and that they "perhaps had been shot by their own comrades." The embassy gave this account to journalists for years. Three American diplomats later acknowledged that no real pressure was put on the junta, on instructions from [[Henry Kissinger]]. Edmund Horman wrote of the embassy's conduct: "Whether it was incompetence, indifference, or something worse, I find it shocking, outrageous and perhaps obscene."[^1]
|
||||
The vice consul handling the case, [[James Anderson (CIA)|James Anderson]], was identified as a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer under diplomatic cover by the journalist [[John Dinges]].[^1] In a 1976 interview with an embassy consular officer, [[Rafael González]] said that he had sought out Anderson, whom he considered a CIA agent, to accompany him to obtain Horman's body.[^6] On July 15, 1976, [[Rudy Fimbres]] wrote to [[Harry Shlaudeman]] that "Vice Consul Anderson's participation in this matter will eventually be the subject of further probing."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The junta of [[Augusto Pinochet]] told the embassy that Horman and Teruggi had been killed by leftists in stolen army uniforms.[^1] A foreign ministry official, [[Enrique Guzmán]], told an embassy officer that "we may never know" how they died, that both men had been deeply involved in leftist activities in the "Communist industrial areas," and that they "perhaps had been shot by their own comrades of the left for some unexplained reason."[^9] The embassy gave this account to journalists for years.[^1] Three American diplomats later acknowledged that embassy officials exerted no real pressure on the junta, because of instructions from [[Henry Kissinger]] to defend the regime that had overthrown Allende.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
At the time of the coup Horman had been looking into the killing of General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] in 1970. Assistant Secretary [[Jack Kubisch]] raised the case with Chile's foreign minister in February 1974 "in the context of the need to be careful to keep relatively small issues in our relationship from making our cooperation more difficult."[^10] Edmund Horman wrote of the embassy's conduct: "Whether it was incompetence, indifference, or something worse, I find it shocking, outrageous and perhaps obscene."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Man Who Knew Too Much
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1976 [[Rafael González (Chilean intelligence)|Rafael González]], a Chilean civilian intelligence agent who had taken asylum with his family in the Italian embassy, told American reporters, among them [[Frank Manitzas]] of [[CBS]] and [[Lewis Diuguid]] of [[Washington Post|The Washington Post]], that he had seen Horman interrogated with an American in the room and had heard that he "had to disappear" because "he knew too much." Senator [[Edward Kennedy]] and others wrote to the [[State Department]].[^1]
|
||||
In June 1976 Rafael González, a Chilean civilian intelligence agent who had taken asylum with his family in the [[Italian Embassy in Santiago|Italian embassy]], told American reporters, among them [[Frank Manitzas]] of [[CBS]] and [[Lewis Diuguid]] of [[Washington Post|The Washington Post]], that he had seen Horman interrogated with an American in the room and had heard that he "had to disappear" because "he knew too much."[^3] Senator [[Edward Kennedy]] and others wrote to the [[State Department]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Inside the department [[Rudy Fimbres]] wrote to Assistant Secretary [[Harry Shlaudeman]] that "we 'withheld' for almost two years any reference to a Chilean memorandum which accused Teruggi, and Horman, of leftist activities," that "we have done nothing about it," that the public claim to be pursuing every lead "is overdrawn," and that Anderson's employer would eventually come out. A memorandum by Fimbres, [[Robert Driscoll (CIA)|Robert Driscoll]], and William Robertson stated that "this case remains bothersome," that the junta "sought Horman and felt threatened enough to order his immediate execution," that it "might have believed this American could be killed without negative fall-out from the USG," and that the CIA's "lack of candor with us on other matters only heightens our suspicions." Fimbres said later that the language was meant to force an inquiry: "I was trying to smoke something out." [[Frederick Smith Jr.]] then spent five months in the files. He concluded that the Chilean military "deliberately killed" both men, that its denials were "difficult to credit," and that there was "no evidence" of an American role "apart from Gonzalez's statements," and recommended "high level inquiries" of the CIA as to whether it had done anything "that may have led the Junta to believe it could, without serious repercussions, kill Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi." Embassy officers interviewed González on tape in January 1977 and reported that he "is not reliable."[^1]
|
||||
Inside the department, Rudy Fimbres wrote to Assistant Secretary Shlaudeman on July 15, 1976, that the department had "'withheld' for almost two years any reference to a Chilean memorandum which accused Teruggi, and Horman, of leftist activities," that "we have done nothing about it," and that the public claim to be pursuing every lead "is overdrawn." His memorandum also reported that Diuguid said he had a source who told him embassy superiors were informed early of Horman's fate and did not follow up.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
In March and April 1987 Meneses approached the embassy four times, offering what he knew in return for help leaving Chile. He said that "to his knowledge, no U.S. official played any role in the death of Charles Horman since he was dead before anyone in the Embassy would have known of his detention." The embassy suspected that he and [[Mariana Callejas]], who visited at the same period, were "plants," turned him away, and later reported that it could not find him.[^1]
|
||||
A memorandum of August 25, 1976, by Fimbres, [[Robert Driscoll]], and William Robertson of the Bureau of American Republic Affairs, stated: "This case remains bothersome. The connotations for the Executive are not good. In the Hill, academic community, the press, and the Horman family the intimations are of negligence on our part, or worse, complicity in Horman's death."[^10] It stated that the junta "sought Horman and felt threatened enough to order his immediate execution," and that it "might have believed this American could be killed without negative fall-out from the USG." The memorandum addressed the possibility of American involvement in terms that recur throughout the record: "U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death. At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the GOC. At worst, U.S. intelligence was aware the GOC saw Horman in a rather serious light and U.S. officials did nothing to discourage the logical outcome of GOC paranoia." It recommended further inquiry and noted that the CIA's "lack of candor with us on other matters only heightens our suspicions."[^11] Fimbres said later that the language was meant to force an inquiry: "I was trying to smoke something out."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 25, 1976, three State Department officers wrote to Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman: "This case remains bothersome. The connotations for the Executive are not good. In the Hill, academic community, the press, and the Horman family the intimations are of negligence on our part, or worse, complicity in Horman's death." They concluded that the Chilean government "sought Horman and felt threatened enough to order his immediate execution," and that "U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death. At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder." The passage was withheld from the family and released intact in October 1999. At the time of the coup Horman had been looking into the killing of General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] in 1970. Assistant Secretary [[Jack Kubisch]] raised the case with Chile's foreign minister in February 1974 "in the context of the need to be careful to keep relatively small issues in our relationship from making our cooperation more difficult."[^2]
|
||||
[[Frederick Smith Jr.]] then spent five months in the files. His report of December 10, 1976 concluded that the evidence in the files "strongly indicates that they were deliberately killed by the GOC," described the Chilean government's disclaimer as "difficult to credit," and stated that "apart from Gonzalez' statements and accusations, there is no evidence in the files that any element of the USG played a responsible role, directly or indirectly, in the death of Charles Horman." The report also found no evidence in the files of what Horman was supposed to have known. It recommended "high-level inquiries" of intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA, into whether any information had been furnished to the forces that became the junta, and asked whether those agencies had taken action, formally or informally, "that may have led the Junta to believe it could, without serious repercussions, kill Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi."[^6] Embassy officers interviewed González on tape in late January 1977 and transmitted their conclusion "that Gonzalez is not reliable." They described him as intelligent and well informed, and willing to say what would get him out of Chile.[^3][^12]
|
||||
|
||||
In a sworn affidavit drafted in November 2001 and submitted to the Chilean court in 2003, González called his June 1976 statements "an absolute falsehood," made under duress to secure a safe exit from Chile for himself and his family. He said that the phrase about knowing too much came from a [[London Times]] article by [[William Shawcross]], which Italian diplomats had shown him, and he stated that no American officer was present at Horman's interrogation.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1987 Approaches
|
||||
|
||||
In April 1987 an informant whose name the State Department redacted sought asylum at the embassy and offered an account of Horman's death, which the embassy reported in a cable of April 28. Under Secretary [[Michael Armacost]] questioned the informant's credibility in a May 14, 1987 reply and directed that State Department officers stationed in [[Uruguay]] interview him.[^2] In March and April 1987 Meneses approached the embassy four times, offering what he knew in return for help leaving Chile. He said that "to his knowledge, no U.S. official played any role in the death of Charles Horman since he was dead before anyone in the Embassy would have known of his detention." He also criticized the embassy for failing to help the family locate Horman. A cable on a visit by [[Mariana Callejas]], who came at the same period, left his name uncensored, misspelled Menesas, and expressed concern that the two were "plants" of the Pinochet government. The embassy turned him away, and later reported that it could not find him.[^1][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Horman v. Kissinger
|
||||
|
||||
The family's civil suit, [[Horman v. Kissinger|Horman et al. v. Kissinger et al.]], Civil Action No. 77-1748, was filed in 1977 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Henry Kissinger and other American officials.[^14] Agency correspondence in 1977 and 1978 identified the case by that caption, and a CIA memorandum of July 15, 1977 recorded a meeting with Representative [[Dante Fascell]] concerning H.R. 6689 and the Chilean colonel Rafael Gonzales.[^14] According to a 1998 report, the suit named Kissinger and eleven other officials, and was dismissed in 1982 because the information was classified top secret.[^15] The [[Center for Constitutional Rights]], which filed the case on October 1, 1977, states that the Hormans voluntarily dismissed it because key witnesses could not be deposed and evidence classified as secret could not be obtained, and that it could be reinstated if new disclosures emerged.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Hinchey Report
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA's report to Congress of September 18, 2000, prepared under the [[Hinchey Amendment]], addressed the deaths of the two men in a section headed "Death/Disappearance of US Citizens." It stated that allegations of CIA complicity in Horman's death were "unfounded," and that the agency had "no prior knowledge of the circumstances leading to the death in Chile of US citizen Frank Teruggi in 1973."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1999 and 2000 Releases
|
||||
|
||||
State Department cables from the Chile Declassification Project carry the release number S199900006, and the cable of September 25, 1973 is among them.[^7] On June 30, 2000, the government released hundreds of formerly secret CIA, Defense, State, Justice and National Security Council records on the two deaths, and the [[National Security Archive]] published ten of them as Electronic Briefing Book No. 33.[^2] The August 25, 1976 memorandum's passage on U.S. intelligence was withheld from the family and released intact in October 1999.[^10] The Archive's 2025 editor's note states that new information had cast doubt on the theory that the United States had a role in Horman's death or that he was killed because he had stumbled on evidence of U.S. involvement in the coup.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Chilean Case
|
||||
|
||||
Judge [[Jorge Zepeda]] indicted Navy Captain [[Ray Davis]], the former head of the Military Group, on November 29, 2011, as an accomplice who had known of the detentions and not prevented the deaths "although he was in a position to do so." The documentary evidence he cited for foreknowledge was cable 4565, which he placed "at the very moment when the victim was still alive." The cable is dated a week after the body reached the morgue. Davis died in a Santiago nursing home in 2013. In 2015 Zepeda convicted [[Pedro Espinoza]], who had been in charge of interrogations at the stadium, and González as an accomplice. González had filed an affidavit in 2003 calling his 1976 statement "an absolute falsehood" made to get his family out of Chile, and saying that he took the phrase about knowing too much from an article by [[William Shawcross]] that Italian diplomats had shown him. The ruling did not address it. The journalist [[John Dinges]], who read the 6,976-page court record, named as responsible for the arrest Colonel [[Fernando Grant Pimentel]], Lieutenant [[Enzo Cadenasso]], and Lieutenant Colonel [[Roberto Soto Mackenney]], and found no evidence in it of American involvement in the killings. In 2025 the [[National Security Archive]] added a note to its 2000 publication of the State Department documents stating that the theory of an American role was now in doubt.[^1][^3]
|
||||
On November 29, 2011, Judge [[Jorge Zepeda]] indicted Navy Captain Ray Davis, the former head of the Military Group, as an accomplice who knew of the detentions and did not prevent the deaths "although he was in a position to do so." The documentary evidence he cited for foreknowledge was cable 4565, which his ruling placed "at the very moment when the victim was still alive."[^3] The cable is dated eight days after Horman was taken from his home and a week after his body reached the morgue.[^3][^7] On October 17, 2012, a panel of the Chilean Supreme Court voted 4 to 1 to approve the extradition request: Justices Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller and Haroldo Brito and the acting justice Jorge Lagos in favor, and Ricardo Peralta dissenting on the ground that the offenses had prescribed.[^18][^19] Davis was never extradited. He died at a Santiago nursing home in 2013.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2015 Zepeda convicted [[Pedro Espinoza]], who had been in charge of interrogations at the National Stadium, and González as an accomplice. Espinoza had been sentenced at trial to seven years.[^3][^20] The Appeals Court of Santiago upheld the sentences on September 5, 2015.[^21] On July 21, 2016, the Supreme Court raised Espinoza's term to fifteen years and González's to three.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
Dinges, who read the 6,976-page court record, named as responsible for the arrest Colonel [[Fernando Grant Pimentel]], Lieutenant [[Enzo Cadenasso]], and Lieutenant Colonel [[Roberto Soto Mackenney]]. He found no evidence in the record of American involvement in the killings, and wrote that the ruling ignored González's recantation.[^1][^3] The Archive's 2025 posting presents Dinges's findings alongside the documents.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Davis v. Costa-Gavras
|
||||
|
||||
Ray E. Davis sued the director Costa-Gavras, Universal Studios and MCA for libel over the film Missing (Civil No. 83 Civ. 2539, S.D.N.Y.), alleging that the film portrayed him as having ordered or approved a Chilean order to kill Horman. The film, drawn in part from Thomas Hauser's 1978 book *The Execution of Charles Horman*, names no Ray Davis; its character Ray Tower is a fictional composite of the American presence in Chile. On March 2, 1987, Judge Milton Pollack granted summary judgment to the defendants, finding no evidence of actual malice after an evidentiary hearing at which Davis called no witnesses.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Joyce Horman
|
||||
|
||||
Joyce Horman's typewritten statement of November 10, 1973, runs to thirty pages and gives a day-by-day account of her search for her husband from September 10 to October 18, 1973. It is the earliest and most complete account of that search in the record.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Frank Teruggi
|
||||
|
||||
The case of Teruggi was joined with Horman's in both Chilean and American inquiries.[^3] An FBI report of December 14, 1972, concerned Teruggi's attendance at a 1971 conference of the Committee of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and his membership in the Chicago Area Group on the Liberation of the Americas, and the Archive's 2000 briefing book notes that it raises the question whether this information was shared with the Chilean military.[^2] The Smith report, which covered both men, found little information in the files on Teruggi's activities in Chile.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "Chile in Their Hearts," National Security Archive, May 7, 2025, with Embassy cable 4565 of September 25, 1973, the statement of Joyce Horman of November 10, 1973, and the State Department memoranda of 1976; summarizing Dinges, John. *Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup*. 2025. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2025-05-07/chile-their-hearts
|
||||
[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 269-272, 278.
|
||||
[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "New Information on the Murders of U.S. Citizens Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi by the Chilean Military," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, June 30, 2000, with editor's note of 2025. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html
|
||||
[^1]: Dinges, John. *Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing after the Coup*. 2025. Summarized in Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "Chile in Their Hearts," National Security Archive, May 7, 2025. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2025-05-07/chile-their-hearts
|
||||
[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "New Information on the Murders of U.S. Citizens Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi by the Chilean Military," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, June 30, 2000, documents 1 (FBI, "Frank Teruggi," December 14, 1972), 2 (Embassy Santiago, April 28, 1987) and 3 (State Department, May 14, 1987, Armacost), with editor's note of 2025. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html
|
||||
[^3]: National Security Archive, "Chile in Their Hearts," posted May 7, 2025, with documents 1 to 15 of the Chile Documentation Project and Dinges's summaries of the 2011 indictment, the 2015 verdict and the 2003 González affidavit. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2025-05-07/chile-their-hearts
|
||||
[^4]: Stephen Volk, notes of conversations with Terry Simon, September 1973, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 3. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges3Volkchapsticknotes-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Horman, Edmund C., "The View After Three Years," personal memorandum, December 22, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 11. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges11EdHormanreflections-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: Smith, Frederick, Jr., report on the Horman case, State Department, December 10, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 10. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges10Smithrpt-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Embassy Santiago, cable 4565, "W/W: AMCIT Missing in Chile," September 25, 1973 (251518Z), Chile Project release S199900006, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 4. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges4Zepedacable-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: Fimbres, Rudy, memorandum to Ambassador Harry Shlaudeman, "The Charles Horman Case," July 15, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 8. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/dinges8fimbresmemoonKennletter-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: Embassy Santiago memorandum on a conversation with Enrique Guzmán regarding Horman and Teruggi, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 6. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges6Stevenmemo-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^10]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 269-272, 278.
|
||||
[^11]: Fimbres, Rudy, Robert Driscoll and William Robertson, memorandum to Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman, "The Charles Horman Case," Secret, August 25, 1976, with "Gleanings" attached, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 9. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges9FimbresDriscoll-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^12]: Embassy Santiago cable, "Investigation of Horman Case: Interviews with Rafael Gonzalez," Secret, February 18, 1977, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 12. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges12EmbassyonGonzalez-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^13]: Gonzalez, Rafael, sworn affidavit submitted to the Chilean court, drafted November 2001 and filed in 2003 (Spanish original with English summary in NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 15). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges15GonzalezRecantation-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^14]: Horman et al. v. Kissinger et al., Civil Action No. 77-1748 (D.D.C.), as cited in CIA correspondence of February 8, 1978 and January 16, 1978, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, documents 5 and 8, and CIA addendum of July 15, 1977 (document 4). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html
|
||||
[^15]: Democracy Now!, "Delayed Justice for Pinochet's Victims," December 10, 1998. https://democracynow.org/1998/12/10/delayed_justice_for_pinochets_victims
|
||||
[^16]: Center for Constitutional Rights, "Horman v. Kissinger," case page (date filed October 1, 1977), archived December 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/horman-v-kissinger
|
||||
[^17]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Report to Congress on CIA Activities in Chile," September 18, 2000, section "Death/Disappearance of US Citizens," issued under Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000. https://irp.fas.org/cia/product/chile/index.html
|
||||
[^18]: "Navy officer extradited for 1973 Chile killings," The Volunteer (albavolunteer.org), October 18, 2012, reporting that the Supreme Court of Chile approved the extradition request on Wednesday against Retired Capt. Ray E. Davis, indicted the previous November. https://albavolunteer.org/2012/10/navy-officer-extradicted-for-1973-chile-killings/
|
||||
[^19]: "Abogado valoró fallo que autoriza pedido de extradición a EE.UU. por caso Horman," Cooperativa, October 18, 2012, reporting the 4 to 1 decision of the Second Chamber and the dissent of Ricardo Peralta. https://cooperativa.cl/noticias/pais/dd-hh/abogado-valoro-fallo-que-autoriza-pedido-de-extradicion-a-ee-uu-por/2012-10-18/110141.html
|
||||
[^20]: "Sentencing in Chile begins to bring closure in 41-year-old murder cases of US citizens Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman," *The Tico Times,* January 30, 2015.
|
||||
[^21]: "Chilean appeals court upholds convictions of 2 in killings of Americans portrayed in 'Missing,'" Fox News, September 5, 2015, reporting upheld seven-year and two-year sentences for Pedro Espinoza and Rafael Gonzalez. https://www.foxnews.com/world/chilean-appeals-court-upholds-convictions-of-2-in-killings-of-americans-portrayed-in-missing
|
||||
[^22]: "Chile eleva penas a militares por morte de dois americanos na ditadura," Swissinfo, July 21, 2016, reporting that the Supreme Court sentenced Pedro Espinoza to 15 years and Rafael González to 3 years. https://www.swissinfo.ch/por/chile-eleva-penas-a-militares-por-morte-de-dois-americanos-na-ditadura/42317540
|
||||
[^23]: Davis v. Costa-Gavras, 654 F. Supp. 653 (S.D.N.Y. 1987) (Pollack, J.), No. 83 Civ. 2539, decided March 2, 1987. https://static.case.law/f-supp/654/cases/0653-01.json
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,12 +6,18 @@ tags:
|
|||
- CIA
|
||||
- SerialKiller
|
||||
- MindControl
|
||||
summary: "Los Angeles cult leader whose Family committed the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, with documented connections to MKULTRA psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West, CIA Operation CHAOS, and a pattern of unpunished parole violations that has attracted sustained independent investigation."
|
||||
summary: "Los Angeles cult leader whose Family committed the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, linked by researchers to MKULTRA psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West, Operation CHAOS and repeated parole violations."
|
||||
born: 1934-11-12
|
||||
died: 2017-11-19
|
||||
location: Corcoran, California
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[James Mason]]"
|
||||
start: 1982
|
||||
role: "co-founder of Universal Order"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
created: 2026-06-03
|
||||
updated: 2026-06-03
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
Charles Milles Manson was born November 12, 1934, in [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], and spent his childhood in and out of institutions. By the time he arrived in [[San Francisco]]'s [[Haight-Ashbury]] district in 1967, following his release from the federal penitentiary at [[Terminal Island]], Manson had spent more than half his life in correctional facilities. What happened next, the transformation of a petty criminal into a cult leader who ordered the murders of seven people over two August nights in 1969, has remained one of the most scrutinized criminal cases in American history.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -39,6 +45,14 @@ After his conviction, Manson was incarcerated at [[Vacaville]] Medical Facility
|
|||
|
||||
Independent investigators stopped short of claiming definitive proof that Manson was a witting CIA asset, but concluded there was a "good likelihood that Manson is a product of MKULTRA, whether he was knowledgeable about it or not." The circumstantial evidence cited includes the failure to revoke Manson's parole, the proximity to Dr. West's operations, the alignment of the murders with Operation CHAOS objectives, and the deliberate distortions in the official prosecution narrative. West's files from the Haight-Ashbury period have reportedly gone missing.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Universal Order and James Mason
|
||||
|
||||
From the early 1980s [[James Mason]] corresponded with [[Sandra Good]] and [[Lynette Fromme]], two Manson followers then imprisoned, and then with Manson himself. Mason and Manson founded [[Universal Order]], which Mason intended as a self-sustaining ideology rather than an organization with members and buildings.[^3] The finding aid for Mason's papers at the [[University of Kansas]] holds a series titled "Universal Order and Charles Manson," dated 1979 to 1994. According to the finding aid, Mason ceased communicating with Manson by the late 1980s but continued to hold him in high esteem.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Counter Extremism Project]] states that Manson designed the Universal Order logo, a swastika imposed over scales of justice.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
A government sentencing memorandum in the prosecution of [[Kaleb Cole]] states that the "Death to Pigs" image used in [[Atomwaffen Division]] propaganda was lifted from a crime-scene photograph taken at one of the Manson murders. The memorandum says that Cole's choice of the phrase "was not coincidental," because a reporter had written that he embraced Manson's "race war" ideology.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
Manson died of natural causes at [[Corcoran State Prison]] in California on November 19, 2017, at age 83.[^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -47,3 +61,6 @@ Manson died of natural causes at [[Corcoran State Prison]] in California on Nove
|
|||
|
||||
[^1]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998.
|
||||
[^2]: O'Neill, Tom, and Dan Piepenbring. *Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties*. Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
|
||||
[^3]: University of Kansas Libraries, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, "James N. Mason papers," RH WL MS 41, finding aid (series list and biography). https://archives.lib.ku.edu/repositories/3/resources/5069
|
||||
[^4]: Counter Extremism Project, "James Mason," extremist profile. https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/james-mason
|
||||
[^5]: United States v. Cole, No. CR20-032JCC (W.D. Wash.), Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Dkt. 261 (filed January 4, 2022), at 15. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Kaleb%20Cole%20Government%20Sentencing%20Memorandum.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
role: "daughter"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Clara Hoersch, born Clara Hagerty, was the wife of the engineer and former glider pilot [[Raymond C. Hoersch]] and the mother of the [[Philadelphia]] pornographer, counterfeiter, and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. She was a daughter of [[Eugene D. Hagerty]] and [[Cecilia T. Hagerty]] of [[Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania|Stroudsburg]] in the [[Pocono Mountains|Poconos]], where her son was born in 1943.[^1][^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,14 +32,14 @@ Clara Hoersch, born Clara Hagerty, was the wife of the engineer and former glide
|
|||
|
||||
In January 1955 a [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] social column reported that Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hoersch had been honored at a New Year's Eve party in [[Paoli, Pennsylvania|Paoli]] for their thirteenth wedding anniversary, and that her brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Elwood Hagerty of [[Reading, Pennsylvania|Reading]], had visited them.[^1] Her son said that his mother was a housewife during his early childhood on a farm near Stroudsburg.[^5] In September 1969 she and her husband, then of [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]], attended her parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary in Stroudsburg with their daughter Helen.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In September 1971 her husband bought property in [[Chalfont, Pennsylvania|Chalfont]], and the family house at 523 North Main Street was the address their son gave in his 1972 suit against the Army and the house where, according to officials, he had been living when the [[United States Secret Service]] arrested him for counterfeiting in December 1974.[^7][^8] Her mother's obituary of October 1991 lists her among the survivors as "Clara Hoersch of Chalfont, Bucks County," with her brothers Elwood, of [[Wyomissing Hills, Pennsylvania|Wyomissing Hills]], and Olen, Ottmar, and Carl, of Stroudsburg.[^2]
|
||||
In September 1971 her husband bought property in [[Chalfont, Pennsylvania|Chalfont]], and the family house on North Main Street was the address their son gave in his 1972 suit against the Army and the house where, according to officials, he had been living when the [[United States Secret Service]] arrested him for counterfeiting in December 1974.[^7][^8] Her mother's obituary of October 1991 lists her among the survivors as "Clara Hoersch of Chalfont, Bucks County," with her brothers Elwood, of [[Wyomissing Hills, Pennsylvania|Wyomissing Hills]], and Olen, Ottmar, and Carl, of Stroudsburg.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: [Social column], *The Daily Intelligencer* (Doylestown), January 10, 1955, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40163522/
|
||||
[^2]: "Cecilia T. Hagerty," obituary, *The Morning Call,* October 26, 1991, p. 115. https://www.newspapers.com/image/283774999/
|
||||
[^3]: "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
|
||||
[^4]: No single document located names her as Raymond C. Hoersch's wife and R.C. Horsch's mother. The identification rests on her mother's 1991 obituary ("Clara Hoersch of Chalfont"), on Raymond C. Hoersch's purchase of property in Chalfont in 1971 and his address at 523 North Main Street there, and on the listing of "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hoersch" and "Mrs. Raymond Hoersch Jr." among the Hagerty children and grandchildren in 1969.
|
||||
[^4]: No single document located names her as Raymond C. Hoersch's wife and R.C. Horsch's mother. The identification rests on her mother's 1991 obituary ("Clara Hoersch of Chalfont"), on Raymond C. Hoersch's purchase of property in Chalfont in 1971 and his address on North Main Street there, and on the listing of "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hoersch" and "Mrs. Raymond Hoersch Jr." among the Hagerty children and grandchildren in 1969.
|
||||
[^5]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 08:50 to 09:09. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/13/ray-horsch-2/
|
||||
[^6]: [Report of the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Hagerty], *Pocono Record* (Stroudsburg), September 26, 1969, p. 6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40464241/
|
||||
[^7]: [Bucks County real-estate transfers], *The Daily Intelligencer,* September 10, 1971, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/47552873/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2026-05-15
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-14
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
title: Edward Lansdale
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Edward Geary Lansdale
|
||||
|
|
@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
role: "special assistant to the ambassador, later senior liaison officer"
|
||||
start: 1965-08
|
||||
end: 1968
|
||||
fn: 55
|
||||
fn: 56
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Edward Geary Lansdale (1908-1987) was an [[United States Air Force]] officer and intelligence operative whose counterinsurgency work in the [[Philippines]] and [[Vietnam]] shaped American counterinsurgency doctrine, and who served as chief of operations of [[Operation Mongoose]], the Kennedy administration's covert program against [[Fidel Castro]], from November 1961 until the program was suspended after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ Parrott, an assistant to the president's military representative, testified befo
|
|||
|
||||
Lansdale testified in 1975 that "touchdown play," a phrase in his memoranda, was a breezy way of referring to a Cuban revolt to overthrow the regime, and the committee reports that the examples in his January 1962 memorandum contained no indication of assassination.[^37]
|
||||
|
||||
On February 20, 1962 Lansdale detailed a six-phase schedule designed to culminate in October 1962 with "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime." For its "Resistance" phase he listed "attacks on the cadre of the regime, including key leaders," with the notation that "Gangster elements might provide the best recruitment potential for actions against police G-2 officials" and that chemical warfare agents should be fully considered. Lansdale testified that the "actions" and "attack" in that component meant killing. He testified that early in the program he had suggested to working-level representatives of the participating agencies that they contact "criminal elements" for intelligence and for "possible actions against the police structure" in Cuba, and he conceded that his proposal to recruit gangster elements for attacks on "key leaders" contemplated the targeted killing of individuals.[^42] On January 30, 1962 Craig forwarded to Lansdale a concept called Operation Bounty, a system of financial rewards for killing or delivering alive known Communists, with leaflets listing rewards from $5,000 for an informer to $100,000 for government officials and a reward of 2 cents for Castro. Lansdale testified that the figure was designed to denigrate Castro and that he tabled the concept, which he never brought before the Special Group (Augmented).[^43]
|
||||
On February 20, 1962 Lansdale detailed a six-phase schedule designed to culminate in October 1962 with "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime." For its "Resistance" phase he listed "attacks on the cadre of the regime, including key leaders," with the notation that "Gangster elements might provide the best recruitment potential for actions against police G-2 officials" and that chemical warfare agents should be fully considered. Lansdale testified that the "actions" and "attack" in that component meant killing. He testified that early in the program he had suggested to working-level representatives of the participating agencies that they contact "criminal elements" for intelligence and for "possible actions against the police structure" in Cuba, and he conceded that his proposal to recruit gangster elements for attacks on "key leaders" contemplated the targeted killing of individuals, and he testified that he never took up assassination with the attorney general or the president.[^42] On January 30, 1962 Craig forwarded to Lansdale a concept called Operation Bounty, a system of financial rewards for killing or delivering alive known Communists, with leaflets listing rewards from $5,000 for an informer to $100,000 for government officials and a reward of 2 cents for Castro. Lansdale testified that the figure was designed to denigrate Castro and that he tabled the concept, which he never brought before the Special Group (Augmented).[^43]
|
||||
|
||||
### Operation NORTHWOODS and the pretexts question
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -182,23 +182,25 @@ The August 13, 1962 memorandum that the Church Committee quotes directed Harvey
|
|||
|
||||
Harvey testified before the committee that during the October 1962 crisis he ordered agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation, that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone ordered the agent operations stopped. On October 30, 1962 the Special Group ordered a halt to all sabotage operations, citing Lansdale's memorandum for the record.[^50] The committee's chronology records that Operation Mongoose ended in November 1962.[^51] The program was formally reduced in scope after the crisis.
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was appointed chief of the CIA station in Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963.[^52] [[Evan Thomas|Thomas]] wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^53] Lansdale retired from the Air Force on October 31, 1963, was awarded a second Distinguished Service Medal for his counterinsurgency work, and became a consultant to the director of Food for Peace at the White House.[^2]
|
||||
A Church Committee staff index summarizes Lansdale's special memorandum of November 11, 1962 for the Special Group (Augmented), which records that when the CIA was asked on October 30 and 31 for the status of all operations it reported all militant operations ordered held at a stop and did not mention the Matahambre operation, and his memorandum of November 13, 1962, which states that the CIA mentioned two action teams inside Cuba, one small team in central Cuba and one with about 200 men in western Cuba, under orders to collect intelligence and not to take actions.[^52]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was appointed chief of the CIA station in Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963.[^53] [[Evan Thomas|Thomas]] wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^54] Lansdale retired from the Air Force on October 31, 1963, was awarded a second Distinguished Service Medal for his counterinsurgency work, and became a consultant to the director of Food for Peace at the White House.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Return to Vietnam, 1965 to 1968
|
||||
|
||||
Lansdale returned to Vietnam in 1965. A CIA memorandum for the record, of August 1965, summarizes a Washington meeting on his mission, attended by officials from State, including [[Walt Rostow]], from the White House, from [[United States Agency for International Development|AID]] and [[United States Information Agency|USIA]], and from the CIA, including [[William Colby]]. At that meeting Lansdale described his concept of the mission as finding out what the Vietnamese thought, what they wanted and what they would do, and as unifying the efforts of the American mission.[^54]
|
||||
Lansdale returned to Vietnam in 1965. A CIA memorandum for the record, of August 1965, summarizes a Washington meeting on his mission, attended by officials from State, including [[Walt Rostow]], from the White House, from [[United States Agency for International Development|AID]] and [[United States Information Agency|USIA]], and from the CIA, including [[William Colby]]. At that meeting Lansdale described his concept of the mission as finding out what the Vietnamese thought, what they wanted and what they would do, and as unifying the efforts of the American mission.[^55]
|
||||
|
||||
Congressional remarks by Representative [[Claude Pepper]], reprinting a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, described Lansdale as being sent to South Vietnam as a special assistant to Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]].[^55] The Pentagon Papers state that Lansdale "never got to Vietnam until Cabot Lodge brought him out later in 1965," despite four requests from Diem and recommendations from Cottrell, the Taylor report and William Bundy that he be sent.[^56] In late August 1965 Lodge announced Lansdale's appointment as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the South Vietnamese government's CRCC.[^57]
|
||||
Congressional remarks by Representative [[Claude Pepper]], reprinting a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, described Lansdale as being sent to South Vietnam as a special assistant to Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]].[^56] The Pentagon Papers state that Lansdale "never got to Vietnam until Cabot Lodge brought him out later in 1965," despite four requests from Diem and recommendations from Cottrell, the Taylor report and William Bundy that he be sent.[^57] In late August 1965 Lodge announced Lansdale's appointment as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the South Vietnamese government's CRCC.[^58]
|
||||
|
||||
His 1965 post carried less operational authority than his earlier mission. A New York World Journal Tribune article of March 26, 1967 reported that Lansdale had returned to Vietnam in September 1965 with Lodge, under the unusual and rather vague title of senior liaison officer, with ministerial rank, as a member of a ten-man mission council.[^58] The senior liaison office staff worked on winning support in the Vietnamese countryside, and President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] also appointed Lansdale a minister. From 1967 to 1968 he was an assistant to Ambassador [[Ellsworth Bunker]] at the U.S. Mission in South Vietnam.[^2] Lansdale was recalled in 1968 without the political reform he believed essential to South Vietnam's survival.[^1]
|
||||
His 1965 post carried less operational authority than his earlier mission. A New York World Journal Tribune article of March 26, 1967 reported that Lansdale had returned to Vietnam in September 1965 with Lodge, under the unusual and rather vague title of senior liaison officer, with ministerial rank, as a member of a ten-man mission council.[^59] The senior liaison office staff worked on winning support in the Vietnamese countryside, and President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] also appointed Lansdale a minister. From 1967 to 1968 he was an assistant to Ambassador [[Ellsworth Bunker]] at the U.S. Mission in South Vietnam.[^2] Lansdale was recalled in 1968 without the political reform he believed essential to South Vietnam's survival.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Lansdale died in McLean, Virginia, on February 23, 1987.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Fletcher Prouty's claims
|
||||
|
||||
Col. L. Fletcher Prouty wrote about Lansdale in two publications, one placing him in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the other connecting him to the story of President Kennedy's assassination. In a 1986 article in [[Freedom (magazine)|Freedom]], Prouty wrote that he and Lansdale flew to [[Fort Gordon]], Georgia, on November 1, 1960 to collect elements of a Civil Affairs and Military Government curriculum, and that both were then assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prouty described Lansdale as a principal proponent of what he called the "Mao doctrine" of counterinsurgency, which he wrote was introduced into the White House under the guise of a mutual security program.[^59]
|
||||
Col. L. Fletcher Prouty wrote about Lansdale in two publications, one placing him in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the other connecting him to the story of President Kennedy's assassination. In a 1986 article in [[Freedom (magazine)|Freedom]], Prouty wrote that he and Lansdale flew to [[Fort Gordon]], Georgia, on November 1, 1960 to collect elements of a Civil Affairs and Military Government curriculum, and that both were then assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prouty described Lansdale as a principal proponent of what he called the "Mao doctrine" of counterinsurgency, which he wrote was introduced into the White House under the guise of a mutual security program.[^60]
|
||||
|
||||
In his 1992 book on the assassination and Vietnam, Prouty asked where the Joint Chiefs, Lansdale and [[Allen Dulles]] were when the guns sounded in the streets of Dallas. He wrote that Cuban exile groups from Louisiana and their instructors became suspects in the investigation, that many of them were later recruited into the larger program Operation Mongoose under Lansdale, and that the identification of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the scapegoat served as a cover story.[^60]
|
||||
In his 1992 book on the assassination and Vietnam, Prouty asked where the Joint Chiefs, Lansdale and [[Allen Dulles]] were when the guns sounded in the streets of Dallas. He wrote that Cuban exile groups from Louisiana and their instructors became suspects in the investigation, that many of them were later recruited into the larger program Operation Mongoose under Lansdale, and that the identification of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the scapegoat served as a cover story.[^61]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -253,12 +255,13 @@ In his 1992 book on the assassination and Vietnam, Prouty asked where the Joint
|
|||
[^49]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 378, Memorandum of Meeting, Washington, August 16, 1962, prepared by McCone. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d378
|
||||
[^50]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 148, citing Harvey's testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, on the agent teams and McCone's order, and citing Lansdale's memorandum for the record of October 30, 1962 on the halt. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^51]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, chronology, p. 293, "November: Operation MONGOOSE ends." https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^52]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. CIA reading room document 01228805. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
|
||||
[^53]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA*. Simon & Schuster, 1995.
|
||||
[^54]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Lansdale Mission to Vietnam," August 1965, participants including Unger, Lansdale, Rostow, Colby and Bohannan. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420030-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01580r001603420030-5
|
||||
[^55]: Congressional Record, 89th Congress, August 1965, remarks of Rep. Claude Pepper extending remarks with a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, on Lansdale's appointment as special assistant to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430053-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430053-0
|
||||
[^56]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 126-130, on Lansdale's arrival in Vietnam in 1965 and the four requests from Diem. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
|
||||
[^57]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 364-366, on Lodge's announcement in late August 1965 of Lansdale as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the GVN CRCC. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
|
||||
[^58]: *New York World Journal Tribune*, March 26, 1967, on Lansdale's title and position in the U.S. Embassy. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430002-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430002-6
|
||||
[^59]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. "Building to the Final Confrontation: John F. Kennedy vs. the CIA," *Freedom*, July 1986, on the Fort Gordon trip of November 1, 1960 and the "Mao doctrine." https://archive.org/details/building-to-the-final-confrontation-john-f.-kennedy-vs.-the-cia-by-l.-fletcher-p
|
||||
[^60]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. *JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy*. Carol Publishing Group, 1992, chapters on the Kennedy-era covert programs and on the assassination. https://archive.org/details/jfkciavietnamplo0000prou_r5p5
|
||||
[^52]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, staff index cards on Operation Mongoose documents, June 1975, National Archives JFK Records 157-10011-10002. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/jfk2023/157-10011-10002.pdf
|
||||
[^53]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. CIA reading room document 01228805. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
|
||||
[^54]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA*. Simon & Schuster, 1995.
|
||||
[^55]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Lansdale Mission to Vietnam," August 1965, participants including Unger, Lansdale, Rostow, Colby and Bohannan. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420030-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01580r001603420030-5
|
||||
[^56]: Congressional Record, 89th Congress, August 1965, remarks of Rep. Claude Pepper extending remarks with a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, on Lansdale's appointment as special assistant to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430053-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430053-0
|
||||
[^57]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 126-130, on Lansdale's arrival in Vietnam in 1965 and the four requests from Diem. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
|
||||
[^58]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 364-366, on Lodge's announcement in late August 1965 of Lansdale as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the GVN CRCC. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
|
||||
[^59]: *New York World Journal Tribune*, March 26, 1967, on Lansdale's title and position in the U.S. Embassy. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430002-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430002-6
|
||||
[^60]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. "Building to the Final Confrontation: John F. Kennedy vs. the CIA," *Freedom*, July 1986, on the Fort Gordon trip of November 1, 1960 and the "Mao doctrine." https://archive.org/details/building-to-the-final-confrontation-john-f.-kennedy-vs.-the-cia-by-l.-fletcher-p
|
||||
[^61]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. *JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy*. Carol Publishing Group, 1992, chapters on the Kennedy-era covert programs and on the assassination. https://archive.org/details/jfkciavietnamplo0000prou_r5p5
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -16,31 +16,36 @@ summary: "Son of the pornographer R.C. Horsch and owner of the Olney house searc
|
|||
born: 1981
|
||||
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]"
|
||||
role: "son"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Myroslawa Ferkuniak]]"
|
||||
role: "mother"
|
||||
start: 1981
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Eugene Albert Horsch (born 1981) is the son of the Philadelphia pornographic filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] and the owner since 2007 of the house at 417 West Chew Avenue in [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] that is the subject of the [[Olney House Investigation]]. He has been in custody since June 19, 2026, and faces two federal counts, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a fraudulent federal identification document. He has not been charged with any offense against the women whose disappearances the police connect to the house.[^1][^2]
|
||||
Eugene Albert Horsch (born 1981) is the son of the Philadelphia pornographic filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] and the owner since 2007 of the house at West Chew Avenue in [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] that is the subject of the [[Olney House Investigation]]. He has been in custody since June 19, 2026, and faces two federal counts, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a fraudulent federal identification document. He has not been charged with any offense against the women whose disappearances the police connect to the house.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Timaru and Bucks County
|
||||
|
||||
Horsch was born in [[Timaru]], [[New Zealand]], where his father, a fugitive from a [[Philadelphia]] methamphetamine charge, worked as a chemist under the stolen identity of Dr. Stanley Edward Stokowski. His mother was [[Myroslawa Ferkuniak|Myroslawa "Anna" Ferkuniak]], whom his father had married in [[Nevada]] under the same name. *[[The Press]]* of [[Christchurch]] reported in 1984 that the family had arrived in [[Canterbury, New Zealand|Canterbury]] in 1980 with an 18-month-old son, which does not agree with his 1981 New Zealand birth reported by the *Inquirer*. His father left New Zealand in March 1984 on a stolen passport, leaving his wife and son behind, and was arrested by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in [[Florida]] later that year; he was sentenced in April 1985 and imprisoned until 1987.[^3][^4] His mother died at the family's house on Devereaux Avenue in Philadelphia on July 28, 1989; her obituary gave the cause as a lengthy illness, and the *Inquirer* reported in 2026 that it was an accidental overdose.[^1][^5] He grew up in his father's house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania]]. The [[Central Bucks School District]] has no record that he graduated.[^1][^6] The house on West Chew Avenue had been the home of his great-grandparents, [[Albert Hoersch|Albert]] and [[Helen E. Hoersch]], by 1968, and of their daughter [[Helen M. Hoersch]] until her death in 2004.[^7][^8][^9] The city's deed index records its transfer to him by a deed executed on October 1, 2007, with Helen M. Hoersch named as grantor; the *Inquirer* reported that his father used a power of attorney to make the transfer, for one dollar.[^10][^11]
|
||||
Horsch was born in 1981, according to the *Inquirer*, during the family's years at [[Timaru]], [[New Zealand]], where his father, a fugitive from a [[Philadelphia]] methamphetamine charge, worked as a chemist under the stolen identity of Dr. Stanley Edward Stokowski. His mother was [[Myroslawa Ferkuniak|Myroslawa "Anna" Ferkuniak]], whom his father had married in [[Nevada]] under the same name. *[[The Press]]* of [[Christchurch]] reported in 1984 that the family had arrived in [[Canterbury, New Zealand|Canterbury]] in 1980 with an 18-month-old son, which does not agree with the 1981 birth reported by the *Inquirer*. His father left New Zealand in March 1984 on a stolen passport, leaving his wife and son behind, and was arrested by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in [[Florida]] later that year; he was sentenced in April 1985 and imprisoned until 1987.[^3][^4] His mother died at the family's house in Philadelphia on July 28, 1989; her obituary gave the cause as a lengthy illness, and the *Inquirer* reported in 2026 that it was an accidental overdose.[^1][^5] The *Inquirer* reported in 2026 that he was seven and in the room when she overdosed.[^1] In a 2013 interview his father said the same: "my son was seven at the time. He was in the room when she died."[^6] A 2026 *Inquirer* report on the 1985 psychological evaluation of Horsch's father describes Eugene as four years old and says the evaluator wrote that the father was "very protective" of his wife and son, who were the "most important things in his life."[^7] He grew up in his father's house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania]]. The [[Central Bucks School District]] has no record that he graduated.[^1][^8] The house on West Chew Avenue had been the home of his great-grandparents, [[Albert Hoersch|Albert]] and [[Helen E. Hoersch]], by 1968, and of their daughter [[Helen M. Hoersch]] until her death in 2004.[^9][^10][^11] The city's deed index records its transfer to him by a deed executed on October 1, 2007, with Helen M. Hoersch named as grantor; the *Inquirer* reported that his father used a power of attorney to make the transfer, for one dollar.[^12][^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Convictions
|
||||
|
||||
In 2003, while a student at [[Drexel University]], Horsch caused a drunk-driving crash that left the other driver in a vegetative state; the man died sixteen years later. Horsch pleaded guilty in 2004 to driving under the influence and aggravated assault and was sentenced to two to four years. He was released in 2006. In 2013 police found about 1.9 million dollars' worth of marijuana in the house, and he was sentenced to four to eight years. He was in prison from 2013 to 2017. His father's former wife [[Amy McHale]] was last seen at the house in 2016. After a fire at the house in May 2025 he was charged with possession of marijuana and amphetamine and received three years of probation.[^1][^6][^12] Firefighters had answered a small fire on the second floor on May 18, 2025, and a fire marshal and a patrolman found a marijuana grow, an AR-15 pattern rifle modified to fire automatically, a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, and a 9mm pistol, all with destroyed serial numbers, and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition. According to a spokesperson for District Attorney [[Larry Krasner]], [[Jerome Brown]] told the court that the guns had belonged to his father, who had died three days before the raid, and that he had planned to dispose of them properly. The *Inquirer* reported that he pleaded guilty to manufacturing drugs and that prosecutors withdrew the gun charges.[^13]
|
||||
In 2003, while a student at [[Drexel University]], Horsch caused a drunk-driving crash that left the other driver in a vegetative state; the man died sixteen years later. Horsch pleaded guilty in 2004 to driving under the influence and aggravated assault and was sentenced to two to four years. He was released in 2006. In 2013 police found about 1.9 million dollars' worth of marijuana in the house, and he was sentenced to four to eight years. He was in prison from 2013 to 2017. His father's former wife [[Amy McHale]] was last seen at the house in 2016. After a fire at the house in May 2025 he was charged with possession of marijuana and amphetamine and received three years of probation.[^1][^8][^14] Firefighters had answered a small fire on the second floor on May 18, 2025, and a fire marshal and a patrolman found a marijuana grow, an AR-15 pattern rifle modified to fire automatically, a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, and a 9mm pistol, all with destroyed serial numbers, and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition. According to a spokesperson for District Attorney [[Larry Krasner]], [[Jerome Brown]] told the court that the guns had belonged to his father, who had died three days before the raid, and that he had planned to dispose of them properly. The *Inquirer* reported that he pleaded guilty to manufacturing drugs and that prosecutors withdrew the gun charges.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Krista Killen]], who lived in the house and appeared in his father's films, told two friends that Horsch shattered her bedroom door and threatened to kill her; in another version of their account he broke the lock on her basement door armed with a gun.[^14][^1] She died in August 2025, some months after his father's death; the affidavit for the 2026 search gave the cause as "drug intoxication," and the city medical examiner found an overdose.[^20][^1]
|
||||
[[Krista Killen]], who lived in the house and appeared in his father's films, told two friends that Horsch shattered her bedroom door and threatened to kill her; in another version of their account he broke the lock on her basement door armed with a gun.[^1][^16] She died in August 2025, some months after his father's death; the affidavit for the 2026 search gave the cause as "drug intoxication," and the city medical examiner found an overdose.[^1][^17]
|
||||
|
||||
### Arrest and Federal Case
|
||||
|
||||
On the morning of June 19, 2026, a federal park ranger approached Horsch's BMW at a fire hydrant beside [[Independence National Historical Park]]. His passenger said he was going to hurt her. She carried an identification card in the name of [[Blair Tonzelli]], missing since 2023. In the car were two handguns with obliterated serial numbers, a switchblade, a baton, a cattle prod, crack cocaine, and [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] credentials with his photograph in the name Eugene Frederick Steiner. The search of his house produced forged FBI credentials and the computer used to make them.[^2][^14]
|
||||
On the morning of June 19, 2026, a federal park ranger approached Horsch's BMW at a fire hydrant beside [[Independence National Historical Park]]. His passenger said he was going to hurt her. She carried an identification card in the name of [[Blair Tonzelli]], missing since 2023. In the car were two handguns with obliterated serial numbers, a switchblade, a baton, a cattle prod, crack cocaine, and [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] credentials with his photograph in the name Eugene Frederick Steiner. The search of his house produced forged FBI credentials and the computer used to make them.[^2][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. On August 6 Assistant District Attorney [[Alyssa Amoroso]] of the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]] withdrew the five state counts of illegal gun and drug possession, telling a city judge that the [[United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|United States Attorney's Office]] would handle the case; neither Horsch nor Brown attended the hearing.[^15] [[United States]] v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296, is before Judge [[John Milton Younge]] in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]. A January trial date had been reported; on the defense's request the trial was postponed in September 2026 to begin no earlier than March 22.[^16] He is represented by Jerome Brown, who had also defended his father in the federal case of 2009; the government's attorneys of record are Maureen McCartney and Justin Ashenfelter, who appear for the United States Attorney's Office in the district's grand jury and warrant matters.[^17] Brown said: "We categorically deny that Eugene Horsch is a serial killer," "there's zero evidence right now that anyone was killed at that location," and "I'd be shocked if they found any harm related to those missing persons at that location."[^2][^12][^18][^19]
|
||||
A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. On August 6 Assistant District Attorney [[Alyssa Amoroso]] of the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]] withdrew the five state counts of illegal gun and drug possession, telling a city judge that the [[United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|United States Attorney's Office]] would handle the case; neither Horsch nor Brown attended the hearing.[^18] [[United States]] v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296, is before Judge [[John Milton Younge]] in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]. A January trial date had been reported; on the defense's request the trial was postponed in September 2026 to begin no earlier than March 22.[^19] He is represented by Jerome Brown, who had also defended his father in the federal case of 2009; the government's attorneys of record are Maureen McCartney and Justin Ashenfelter, who appear for the United States Attorney's Office in the district's grand jury and warrant matters.[^20] Brown said: "We categorically deny that Eugene Horsch is a serial killer," "there's zero evidence right now that anyone was killed at that location," and "I'd be shocked if they found any harm related to those missing persons at that location."[^2][^14][^21][^22]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -49,18 +54,20 @@ A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. On August 6 Assistant Distric
|
|||
[^3]: Leask, Anna. "Man linked to multiple missing women in US had fled NZ 40 years ago after posing as scientist," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 23, 2026 (quoting *The Press* of 1984). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raymond-horsch-man-linked-to-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-lived-near-timaru-under-stolen-name/BVQSWBL3LZDL3GIXFEHHBFY6RY/
|
||||
[^4]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/
|
||||
[^5]: "Anna M. Horsch," obituary, *The Morning Call,* August 1, 1989, p. 18. https://www.newspapers.com/image/283766965/
|
||||
[^6]: "Bucks County connection with Philly 'house of horror' case," *Yahoo News* (syndicated), 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/bucks-county-connection-philly-house-091634860.html
|
||||
[^7]: "Hoersch, Helen E. Wissman," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 29, 1968, p. 32. https://www.newspapers.com/image/182120759/
|
||||
[^8]: "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 3, 1972, p. 10. https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/
|
||||
[^9]: "Hoersch, Helen M.," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* April 7, 2004, p. B12. https://www.newspapers.com/image/201102740/
|
||||
[^10]: "What we know about the Olney investigation into missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 27, 2026 (which calls Helen M. Hoersch his sister; her 1991 and 2004 notices make her his aunt). https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/olney-investigation-eugene-horsch-missing-women-20260627.html
|
||||
[^11]: City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, 417 W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, grantor "Hoersch Helen M," grantee "Horsch Eugene A"; later mortgages of 2007 and 2009 and satisfaction of 2025, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql?q=SELECT%20*%20FROM%20rtt_summary%20WHERE%20street_address%20=%20%27417%20W%20CHEW%20AVE%27
|
||||
[^12]: "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
|
||||
[^13]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, Ellie Rushing, and Barbara Laker. "Police searched Olney home last summer, but drugs, not missing women, were the focus," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 1, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-raymond-horsch-olney-home-search-guns-drugs-20260701.html
|
||||
[^14]: "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
|
||||
[^15]: Rushing, Ellie. "Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 6, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-federal-charges-olney-missing-women-20260806.html
|
||||
[^16]: Charns, David. "Eugene Horsch trial delayed amid missing women investigations." *NBC10 Philadelphia,* September 22, 2026. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/eugene-horsch-trial-delayed-amid-philadelphia-missing-women-investigations/4467226/
|
||||
[^17]: *United States v. Horsch,* Nos. 2:26-mj-01270 and 2:26-cr-00296, and *United States v. Horsch,* No. 2:09-cr-00794 (E.D. Pa.), docket metadata and attorney listings via CourtListener search. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73593607/united-states-v-horsch/
|
||||
[^18]: United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296 (E.D. Pa. filed July 8, 2026), docket via CourtListener / RECAP.
|
||||
[^19]: "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
|
||||
[^20]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, and Barbara Laker. "A woman missing since 2016 had close ties to the Olney house that's now the target of a massive investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 27, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/olney-raid-missing-women-mystery-drugs-20260627.html
|
||||
[^6]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:13:12 to 1:13:24 (Horsch interview). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3
|
||||
[^7]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, and Ellie Rushing. "'Consumed by anger': Inside the 1985 psych profile of Raymond Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 3, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-olney-missing-women-psych-exam-20260903.html
|
||||
[^8]: "Bucks County connection with Philly 'house of horror' case," *Yahoo News* (syndicated), 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/bucks-county-connection-philly-house-091634860.html
|
||||
[^9]: "Hoersch, Helen E. Wissman," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 29, 1968, p. 32. https://www.newspapers.com/image/182120759/
|
||||
[^10]: "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 3, 1972, p. 10. https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/
|
||||
[^11]: "Hoersch, Helen M.," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* April 7, 2004, p. B12. https://www.newspapers.com/image/201102740/
|
||||
[^12]: "What we know about the Olney investigation into missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 27, 2026 (which calls Helen M. Hoersch his sister; her 1991 and 2004 notices make her his aunt). https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/olney-investigation-eugene-horsch-missing-women-20260627.html
|
||||
[^13]: City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, grantor "Hoersch Helen M," grantee "Horsch Eugene A"; later mortgages of 2007 and 2009 and satisfaction of 2025, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/ (rtt_summary table)
|
||||
[^14]: "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
|
||||
[^15]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, Ellie Rushing, and Barbara Laker. "Police searched Olney home last summer, but drugs, not missing women, were the focus," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 1, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-raymond-horsch-olney-home-search-guns-drugs-20260701.html
|
||||
[^16]: "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
|
||||
[^17]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, and Barbara Laker. "A woman missing since 2016 had close ties to the Olney house that's now the target of a massive investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 27, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/olney-raid-missing-women-mystery-drugs-20260627.html
|
||||
[^18]: Rushing, Ellie. "Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 6, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-federal-charges-olney-missing-women-20260806.html
|
||||
[^19]: Charns, David. "Eugene Horsch trial delayed amid missing women investigations." *NBC10 Philadelphia,* September 22, 2026. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/eugene-horsch-trial-delayed-amid-philadelphia-missing-women-investigations/4467226/
|
||||
[^20]: *United States v. Horsch,* Nos. 2:26-mj-01270 and 2:26-cr-00296, and *United States v. Horsch,* No. 2:09-cr-00794 (E.D. Pa.), docket entries and attorney listings via CourtListener search. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73593607/united-states-v-horsch/
|
||||
[^21]: United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296 (E.D. Pa. filed July 8, 2026), docket via CourtListener / RECAP.
|
||||
[^22]: "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
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ tags:
|
|||
- RCHorsch
|
||||
- Philadelphia
|
||||
- Olney
|
||||
summary: "Philadelphia grandmother of the pornographer R.C. Horsch, who died in 1968 at the family house at 417 West Chew Street in Olney."
|
||||
summary: "Philadelphia grandmother of the pornographer R.C. Horsch, who died in 1968 at the family house on West Chew Street in Olney."
|
||||
died: 1968-08-27
|
||||
location: "417 West Chew Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
|
||||
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Albert Hoersch]]"
|
||||
|
|
@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ relations:
|
|||
role: "mother"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Helen E. Hoersch, born Helen E. Wissman (died August 27, 1968), was the wife of [[Albert Hoersch]] of 417 West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], and the paternal grandmother of the pornographer and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. The house was later owned by R.C. Horsch and from 2006 by his son [[Eugene Horsch]], and was searched in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
Helen E. Hoersch, born Helen E. Wissman (died August 27, 1968), was the wife of [[Albert Hoersch]] of West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], and the paternal grandmother of the pornographer and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. The house was later owned by R.C. Horsch and from 2006 by his son [[Eugene Horsch]], and was searched in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Her death notice, which gives her address as the Chew Street house, invited relatives, friends, and [[Grace United Methodist Church (Philadelphia)|Grace United Methodist Church]] to a viewing and to a service at the Schneider Funeral Home, 617-619 West Olney Avenue, with burial in [[Hillside Cemetery]]. Her husband's death notice of 1972, which spells her maiden name Wissmer, names their children as Albert Jr., [[Raymond C. Hoersch|Raymond C.]], and Helen M. Hoersch.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -27,14 +27,14 @@ relations:
|
|||
role: "senior editor"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Helen M. Hoersch (died April 5, 2004, aged 83) was a daughter of [[Albert Hoersch]] and [[Helen E. Hoersch]] of 417 West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], a sister of [[Raymond C. Hoersch]], and the aunt of the pornographer and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. The house was searched in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
Helen M. Hoersch (died April 5, 2004, aged 83) was a daughter of [[Albert Hoersch]] and [[Helen E. Hoersch]] of West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of [[Philadelphia]], a sister of [[Raymond C. Hoersch]], and the aunt of the pornographer and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. The house was searched in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Life
|
||||
|
||||
She was born in Philadelphia and lived there all her life. She graduated from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and worked for many years as a senior editor at the [[American Society for Testing and Materials]], retiring at 79. She did not marry. Her father's death notice of 1972 gives the family address as 417 West Chew Street, and her brother Raymond's of 1991 lists her among the survivors as "Helen M., of Phila."[^1][^2][^4]
|
||||
She was born in Philadelphia and lived there all her life. She graduated from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and worked for many years as a senior editor at the [[American Society for Testing and Materials]], retiring at 79. She did not marry. Her father's death notice of 1972 gives the family address as West Chew Street, and her brother Raymond's of 1991 lists her among the survivors as "Helen M., of Phila."[^1][^2][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death and the House
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -48,4 +48,4 @@ She died on April 5, 2004, "at the home of her nephew." Her death notice names a
|
|||
[^4]: "Hoersch, Raymond C.," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* November 22, 1991, as reproduced in Find a Grave memorial 233455054. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/233455054/raymond-c-hoersch/photo
|
||||
[^5]: Sharber, Cory. "Police, FBI provide updates on Horsch missing women case," *WHYY,* September 16, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/
|
||||
[^6]: "A woman missing since 2016 had close ties to the Olney house that's now the target of a massive investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 27, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/olney-raid-missing-women-mystery-drugs-20260627.html
|
||||
[^7]: City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, 417 W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql?q=SELECT%20*%20FROM%20rtt_summary%20WHERE%20street_address%20=%20%27417%20W%20CHEW%20AVE%27
|
||||
[^7]: City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/ (rtt_summary table)
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- James Nolan Mason
|
||||
- James N. Mason
|
||||
- James Mason (neo-Nazi)
|
||||
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- KeyFigure
|
||||
|
|
@ -8,38 +12,157 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Accelerationism
|
||||
- NSLF
|
||||
- AtomwaffenDivision
|
||||
- UniversalOrder
|
||||
- USA
|
||||
created: 2026-05-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-21
|
||||
summary: "James Mason is an American neo-Nazi ideologue whose collected essays Siege (1992) became the foundational accelerationist text for Atomwaffen Division and the broader 'siege culture' movement after being rediscovered and popularized on the Iron March forum in 2015."
|
||||
born: 1952
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
summary: "James Mason is an American neo-Nazi writer whose 1980 to 1986 newsletter Siege, collected as a book in 1992, became the foundational text of Atomwaffen Division and the Siege Culture milieu."
|
||||
born: 1952-07-25
|
||||
location: "United States"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[American Nazi Party]]"
|
||||
start: 1968
|
||||
role: "worked at party headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, after leaving school at sixteen"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[American Nazi Party]]"
|
||||
start: 1966
|
||||
role: "youth movement, from age fourteen"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[National Socialist White People's Party]]"
|
||||
start: 1967
|
||||
role: "affiliated after the 1967 killing of George Lincoln Rockwell"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[National Socialist Liberation Front]]"
|
||||
start: 1976
|
||||
end: 1982
|
||||
role: "member; helped revive the group's newsletter Siege in 1980"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Universal Order]]"
|
||||
start: 1982
|
||||
role: "co-founded with Charles Manson"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Atomwaffen Division]]"
|
||||
start: 2017
|
||||
role: "friendship and business relationship with members"
|
||||
fn: 12
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Canada]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2021-06-25
|
||||
role: "listed as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code"
|
||||
fn: 20
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[United Kingdom]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2021-04-23
|
||||
role: "Atomwaffen Division, the group that adopted his book, proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000"
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[James Mason]] is an American neo-Nazi ideologue whose collected newsletter essays, published as *[[Siege]]* in 1992, became the foundational accelerationist text for [[Atomwaffen Division]] and the wider "[[Siege Culture|siege culture]]" movement after lying largely dormant for two decades before being rediscovered and popularized on the [[Iron March]] neo-fascist forum in 2015. Mason's writings explicitly advocate lone-wolf terrorism and argue that the collapse of liberal democratic society can be accelerated through cascading acts of political violence.
|
||||
[[James Mason]] (James Nolan Mason, born July 25, 1952) is an American neo-Nazi writer whose collected newsletter essays, published as *[[Siege]]* in 1992, became the foundational accelerationist text for [[Atomwaffen Division]] and the wider "[[Siege Culture|siege culture]]" movement. He grew up in [[Chillicothe, Ohio]], joined the youth movement of the [[American Nazi Party]] at fourteen, and from 1980 to 1986 wrote the monthly newsletter *Siege* for the [[National Socialist Liberation Front]].[^1] The essays argue that democratic institutions are too corrupt to reform, that lone attackers are difficult for authorities to police, and that tensions should be escalated until a race war becomes unavoidable.[^2] Mason served a Colorado prison sentence in the mid-1990s and stayed out of the public eye until the text was revived on the [[Iron March]] forum in 2015.[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Background and NSLF
|
||||
### Youth and the American Nazi Party
|
||||
|
||||
Mason served as a leader of the [[National Socialist Liberation Front]] (NSLF), which had its roots in a 1970s periodical created by [[Joseph Tommasi]]. From 1980 to 1986, Mason wrote a newsletter for the NSLF that he called *Siege*, producing essays that collectively developed an avowedly accelerationist position: that existing democratic institutions are too corrupt to be reformed and must be destroyed through terrorism, that lone-wolf attacks are preferable to group action because they are harder to infiltrate and prosecute, and that the strategic goal is to escalate societal tensions until a race war becomes unavoidable.[^1]
|
||||
Mason joined the youth movement of the American Nazi Party (ANP) under [[George Lincoln Rockwell]] at fourteen. According to the finding aid for his papers at the [[University of Kansas]], he left school at sixteen to work at the party's headquarters in [[Arlington, Virginia]].[^1] The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] profile dates his move to the Virginia headquarters to 1968, when [[William Luther Pierce]] recommended that he come there and learn printing, and records that he became a full party member in 1970 before returning to Chillicothe.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
After Rockwell was shot dead in 1967 the party fragmented. Mason affiliated with its successor, the [[National Socialist White People's Party]], and later with the National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF), which was led by [[Joseph Tommasi]].[^1] The group had its roots in a 1970s periodical created by Tommasi, and Mason served as one of its leaders.[^2] [[ProPublica]] describes the NSLF as a splinter group of the ANP that formed in 1969 and espoused the strategic use of political terrorism.[^6] Tommasi was shot dead in 1975 outside the party's headquarters in [[El Monte, California]].[^5] The [[International Centre for Counter-Terrorism|ICCT]] study states that after the killing Mason helped re-establish the NSLF and its newsletter.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The SPLC profile also records that in 1973 Mason and an associate took a car on a test drive and maced several Black teenagers in a Dairy Queen parking lot, and that Mason served six months in a [[Cincinnati]] workhouse for the car offense.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Newsletter and the NSLF
|
||||
|
||||
*Siege* was published monthly from August 1980 until June 1986, in hand-circulated and mailed form.[^2] The finding aid states that the NSLF had become defunct by 1982 and that Mason continued producing the newsletter until 1986.[^1] The SPLC profile gives a different sequence: it records that leadership of the NSLF passed to [[Karl Hand]] in 1981, places the group's end in 1986, when Hand was arrested for attempted murder, and says Mason left in 1982 after a dispute over his praise of [[Charles Manson]].[^5] Between 1978 and 1980 the same profile has Mason working with the National Socialist White Workers Party and editing its newspaper before the 1980 revival.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
ProPublica reported that in the newsletter Mason proposed a White Liberation Front of small armed squads that would "hide in wilderness areas" and strike in "hit-and-run engagements." In Mason's view, [[Dan White]], who assassinated San Francisco Mayor [[George Moscone]] and gay civil rights leader [[Harvey Milk]], was a hero.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1992 Book
|
||||
|
||||
After years of failed attempts to find a publisher, [[Michael J. Moynihan]] formed the Storm Books imprint and published Mason's collected NSLF newsletter essays as *Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason* in 1992. Prominent white supremacist [[Tom Metzger]] praised and distributed the book, but the mainstream neo-Nazi movement of the time largely ignored or criticized it. For roughly two decades, *Siege* remained a marginal text within the far right.[^2]
|
||||
Mason had failed for years to find a publisher. [[Michael J. Moynihan]]'s [[Storm Books]] first released the collected essays in 1992 as *Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason*.[^2] The ICCT study counts 217 of the op-ed style pieces in the book and gives the first edition a length of 434 pages.[^2] The Open Library record for a 1992 Storm Books edition issued in [[Denver, Colorado]] credits [[Michael M. Jenkins]] as editor and introducer.[^7] The SPLC profile credits Moynihan with editing the newsletters into the book, and dates the edition to 1993.[^5] ProPublica describes the book as 563 pages, a figure that the ICCT study links to the 2017 edition.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Iron March Rediscovery and AWD
|
||||
[[Tom Metzger]] praised and distributed the book, and much of the neo-Nazi movement of the period ignored or criticized it. Later printings followed in 2003, 2017 and 2018, and the 2018 edition ran to 684 pages through the self-publishing service CreateSpace.[^2] The SPLC profile records that in 2003 Ryan Schuster reprinted the book with a new introduction through his Black Sun Press in Bozeman, Montana.[^5] [[Bethan Johnson]] and [[Matthew Feldman]] wrote that the Iron March moderators published a first revision in June 2015, that a third edition under the Iron March imprint in September 2017 added a six-page preface by Mason after members of Atomwaffen Division located him, and that Mason wrote more than three dozen new pieces in 2017 and 2018 for a Siege Culture website before it was taken down. They describe a fourth edition in 2018 with nearly 200 pages of added material, including statements by the imprisoned AWD leaders Brandon Russell and John Cameron Denton.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The book's second life began in 2015, when [[Iron March]] members began promoting it aggressively. The forum's global neo-Nazi and neo-fascist membership proved receptive in ways that the American white nationalist movement of the 1990s had not been. [[Brandon Russell]] announced [[Atomwaffen Division]] on Iron March in October 2015, and the new organization adopted *Siege* as its ideological foundation. AWD's activities, aesthetics, and strategic orientation all drew directly on Mason's writings.[^2]
|
||||
### Universal Order and Charles Manson
|
||||
|
||||
Mason was personally drawn into the AWD orbit. He attended the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]], AWD's internal leadership gathering organized by [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] of [[Tempel ov Blood]], delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks and making his first documented in-person appearance with the organization.[^3]
|
||||
From the early 1980s Mason corresponded with [[Sandra Good]] and [[Lynette Fromme]], two followers of Charles Manson then imprisoned, and then with Manson himself. With Manson he founded [[Universal Order]], which he intended as a self-sustaining ideology rather than an organization with members and buildings. His preference, according to the finding aid, was to wait for "the system" to consume and destroy itself from within.[^1] The SPLC profile dates Universal Order to 1982. The [[Counter Extremism Project]] places its formation in the 1970s and states that Manson designed the movement's logo, a swastika over scales of justice.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Documented Influence
|
||||
The finding aid states that Mason ceased communicating with Manson by the late 1980s but continued to hold him in high esteem, a position that angered more conservative figures in the white power movement.[^1] ProPublica reported that Mason also struck up a friendship with Manson, who became another hero for Atomwaffen.[^9] [[Alan Prendergast]] described Mason in Westword in 1995 as a 44-year-old white supremacist with ties to several American Nazi organizations and a longtime pen pal of Manson, and wrote that the Siege newsletter was the voice of the Universal Order he had founded, inspired by his extensive correspondence with Manson and other members of the Manson Family.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
An early study of *Siege*'s influence across the post-2015 extremist landscape identified 33 extremist entities with documented ties to the book, nine of which had been involved in acts of violence, four in specific murders, and four in threats or acts of terrorism. [[Europol]] noted in 2021 that "*Siege* and Accelerationism, both with significant potential for inciting violence, were the most prominent ideologies in 2021, especially attracting young people radicalised online."[^1]
|
||||
A 2022 government sentencing memorandum in the prosecution of AWD leader [[Kaleb Cole]] states that the "Death to Pigs" image used in Atomwaffen propaganda was lifted from a crime-scene photograph taken at one of the Manson murders.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The direct citation of *Siege* by [[Cain Clark]] in his manifesto for the [[2026 Islamic Center of San Diego Shooting]] represents one of the most recent documented instances of the text's continued operational influence more than three decades after its initial publication.
|
||||
### Colorado and Ohio Convictions
|
||||
|
||||
Prendergast reported in Westword in September 1995 that sheriff's deputies raided Mason's rural home in southern Ohio in 1988 and 1991 and seized photographs of a fifteen-year-old girl, that Mason pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of "illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material," and that he received a $500 fine and a suspended sentence before leaving the state. The same article states that police in Ohio reportedly contacted the [[Colorado Bureau of Investigation]] about Mason shortly after he arrived in [[Las Animas, Colorado]], a town of 2,500 in [[Bent County, Colorado]], in 1992, and that he had served time in his youth for a racially motivated assault.[^4] The Kansas finding aid dates the move to Colorado to 1993.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
According to the same article, Las Animas police arrested Mason on March 30, 1994 and charged him with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Investigators removed hundreds of pounds of material from his house, most of it horror videos, Nazi and Manson literature and adult erotica. Mason was released on bond in May 1994 and about three weeks later was back in jail on a charge of felony menacing after a confrontation in which, according to the other persons involved, he had a handgun; Mason said he never drew it. The district attorney's office dropped the exploitation charges in return for a guilty plea to the menacing charge, and Mason was sentenced to three years in prison in the spring of 1995. He had faced up to 32 years on the exploitation charges. Prendergast interviewed him at the Arrowhead minimum-security prison near Canon City, where Mason said: "Anybody aspiring to a revolutionary position has got to expect to be in prison sooner or later."[^4] Westword reported in 2020 that he took a plea deal on the menacing charge and received a three-year sentence.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The SPLC profile records the same sequence: the Ohio raids in 1988 and 1991, a 1992 plea, and in May 1994, after release on bond, a threat with a firearm against two people that led to an arrest for felony menacing. It says the exploitation charges were later dropped, that Mason began a three-year sentence in May 1995, and that he was released in August 1999.[^5] [[Der Spiegel]] reported that after he was charged with child abuse, police searching his apartment found naked photographs of a 15-year-old girl, along with swastika flags and images of Hitler and [[Joseph Goebbels]].[^12] The Counter Extremism Project describes the Colorado charges as stemming from a relationship with a 14-year-old girl in Ohio, and says Mason was imprisoned for three years and then again for parole violations.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Iron March and Atomwaffen Division
|
||||
|
||||
For roughly two decades *Siege* remained a marginal text within the far right.[^5] Members of the Iron March forum discovered *Siege* in 2015 and began promoting it.[^3] Der Spiegel reported that Atomwaffen Division was founded on the forum that year and that the group made Mason its ideological authority.[^12] [[Brandon Russell]] announced the group on Iron March in October 2015. AWD's activities, aesthetics and strategic orientation drew on Mason's writings.[^5] AWD adopted *Siege* as required reading for its members, and ProPublica reported that the book serves as the backbone of the organization's ideology, worldview and training program.[^6] [[FRONTLINE]] and ProPublica broadcast an investigation of the group on November 20, 2018, produced by [[Richard Rowley]], A.C. Thompson and Karim Hajj, describing its recruiting inside the U.S. military.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
ProPublica reported in 2018 that the group's leader, [[John Cameron Denton]], shaped its ideology and selected the books that new recruits must study.[^6] Der Spiegel reported that Denton claims to own the rights to Mason's books, and that members tracked Mason down in 2017 after years of searching. Denton is quoted in the same report as saying "James Mason passed the torch on to us."[^12] Westword reported that [[Samuel Woodward]] visited Mason in Denver in late 2017.[^11] ProPublica reported that [[Jeffrey Kaplan]], who interviewed Mason in the 1990s, described him as "a true believer."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Der Spiegel lists the May 2017 killings of two housemates in Tampa by [[Devon Arthurs]], a member who had converted to Islam, the December 2017 killings in Reston, Virginia by a 17-year-old AWD-linked member who admired Mason, and the January 2018 killing of a college student in California by Woodward.[^12] The ICCT study states that AWD members were implicated in or convicted of five murders.[^2] The government's memorandum in the Russell case records that Arthurs told police the group was "started and led by Russell," and that Russell had materials in the house to kill civilians.[^14] Russell pleaded guilty on September 27, 2017, and was sentenced to five years.[^12][^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2019 Las Vegas Gathering
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2019 [[Vice]] reported on a propaganda video posted to a new dark web site, in which Mason and an AWD member declared that the organization needed to act before law enforcement shut it down. Vice described Mason as a 67-year-old neo-Nazi who had been in the movement since George Lincoln Rockwell, and as the author of works advocating lone-wolf violence by white supremacists.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Ali Winston]] wrote in [[Rolling Stone]] that [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] of [[Tempel ov Blood]], an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] informant, attended AWD's 2019 [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress|Nuclear Congress]] in a [[Las Vegas]] hotel room with several high-ranking members and Mason, who "urged the creation of a new fascist regime through murder, small 'lone wolf' terror attacks, and relentless war against the government."[^17] It was his first documented in-person appearance with the organization.[^17] The government's memorandum in the Cole case states that AWD hosted a "Death Valley Hate Camp" in Las Vegas on January 25, 2018.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Canada, Australia and the 2020 Disbanding
|
||||
|
||||
On February 3, 2021 the government of [[Canada]] listed Atomwaffen Division, [[The Base]], the [[Proud Boys]] and the [[Russian Imperial Movement]] among 13 new terrorist entities, four of them ideologically motivated violent extremist groups.[^19] On June 25, 2021 the government listed Mason, describing him as "one American neo-Nazi who has provided ideological and tactical instruction on how to operate a terrorist group," and as the second individual added to the Criminal Code list.[^20] The Counter Extremism Project reads the listing as concerning instruction given to AWD.[^3] The United Kingdom proscribed [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] by an order made on February 27, 2020, and proscribed Atomwaffen Division, including National Socialist Order, by an order in force from April 23, 2021.[^21][^22] On February 17, 2022 Australia added the [[National Socialist Order]], which the [[Associated Press]] described as formerly known as Atomwaffen Division, to its list of terrorist organisations.[^23][^24]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 9, 2020 an audio recording attributed to Mason announced that AWD would disband immediately. Vice confirmed the recording's authenticity with several sources familiar with Mason's voice.[^3] Westword reported that members approached Mason that day and asked him to announce the dissolution. Mason said: "Officially, as an organization, no more."[^11] [[Joanna Mendelson]], a senior investigative researcher at the [[Anti-Defamation League]]'s Center on Extremism, told Westword that the announcement was "the ultimate protective clause," and that it did not end the group's messaging.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
On February 26, 2020 federal authorities arrested John Cameron Denton in [[Montgomery, Texas]] for his alleged role in a swatting conspiracy; the [[United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia]] described him as a former leader of Atomwaffen Division in Texas.[^25] Four other AWD members were arrested the same month for sending threats to journalists.[^3] Denton pleaded guilty on July 14, 2020 and was sentenced on May 4, 2021 to 41 months in prison.[^26] On September 29, 2021 a federal jury in Seattle convicted Kaleb Cole of conspiracy, mailing threatening communications and interfering with a federally protected activity; the Department of Justice release noted that one poster carried the words "Death to Pigs," the message Manson followers wrote in blood at a home-invasion murder.[^27] On November 8, 2021 a self-described group of former members announced an AWD revival online. On November 12 the American Futurist released a video of Mason calling the new group a "stupid action on the part of one lone nut."[^3] On October 30, 2022 the American Futurist site, which had published Mason's material, announced it would sever ties with him while continuing to sell *Siege*.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Documented Citations
|
||||
|
||||
A 2018 study by the Counter Extremism Project of the book's influence identified, in the figures Johnson and Feldman later quoted, 33 extremist entities (21 individuals and 12 organizations) with ties to the book, and of the 21 individuals, nine "have been involved in acts of violence, four have been involved in specific murders, and four have been involved in threats or acts of terrorism."[^8] The Counter Extremism Project's own version of the study counted 32 entities (21 individuals and 11 organizations) in 2019, and its current version counts 41 (26 individuals and 15 organizations), of whom nine individuals have been involved in violence, four in specific murders and five in threats or acts of terrorism.[^28] The ICCT study, which describes "a recently-revived doctrine advanced by the neo-Nazi ideologue, James Mason, now termed 'Siege Culture,'" states that AWD members have been implicated in or convicted of violent crimes "including five murders."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Europol]]'s report on 2021 stated that "SIEGE and Accelerationism, both with significant potential for inciting violence, were the most prominent ideologies in 2021, especially attracting young people radicalised online."[^29] Its report on 2020 described SIEGE as the manifesto for groups such as Atomwaffen Division, Sonnenkrieg Division and the Feuerkrieg Division, and as a 563-page collection of newsletters produced by Mason during the 1980s.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
In May 2026 the Anti-Defamation League reported that the manifestos of [[Cain Clark]] and [[Caleb Vazquez]], the two attackers at the [[2026 Islamic Center of San Diego Shooting]], named William Pierce's [[The Turner Diaries]] and Mason's *Siege* as works that "should be read almost biblically by all soldiers of the white race."[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: ICCT. "Siege Culture After Siege: Anatomy of a Neo-Nazi Terrorist Doctrine." https://icct.nl/sites/default/files/2022-12/siege-culture-neo-nazi-terrorist-doctrine.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: SPLC. "James Mason." Extremist Files. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/james-mason/
|
||||
[^3]: Rolling Stone. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers." 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/
|
||||
[^1]: University of Kansas Libraries, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, "James N. Mason papers," RH WL MS 41, finding aid (biography and series description). https://archives.lib.ku.edu/repositories/3/resources/5069
|
||||
[^2]: Bethan Johnson and Matthew Feldman, "Siege Culture After Siege: Anatomy of a Neo-Nazi Terrorist Doctrine," ICCT Research Paper, July 2021, DOI 10.19165/2021.1.07 (the five murders at p. 15). https://icct.nl/sites/default/files/2022-12/siege-culture-neo-nazi-terrorist-doctrine.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Counter Extremism Project, "James Mason," extremist profile. https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/james-mason
|
||||
[^4]: Alan Prendergast, "Double Exposure: Underage Girls, a Nazi with a Camera, and Partying Cops," Westword, September 20, 1995. https://www.westword.com/news/double-exposureunderage-girls-a-nazi-with-a-camera-and-partying-cops-whats-wrong-with-this-picture-5055531/
|
||||
[^5]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "James Mason," Extremist Files. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/james-mason/
|
||||
[^6]: A.C. Thompson, Ali Winston and Jake Hanrahan, "Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student," ProPublica, February 23, 2018. https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group
|
||||
[^7]: Open Library, "Siege," work OL43490555W, edition record for Storm Books, Denver, CO, 1992, crediting "edited and introduced by Michael M. Jenkins." https://openlibrary.org/works/OL43490555W
|
||||
[^8]: Matthew Feldman and Bethan Johnson, "The Godfather of Fascist Terrorism," Fair Observer, August 17, 2021, quoting the Counter Extremism Project's 2018 study of Siege. https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/matthew-feldman-bethan-johnson-james-mason-siege-culture-neo-nazi-groups-radical-right-news-12512/
|
||||
[^9]: A.C. Thompson, Ali Winston and Jake Hanrahan, "California Murder Suspect Said to Have Trained With Extremist Hate Group," ProPublica, January 26, 2018. https://www.propublica.org/article/california-murder-suspect-atomwaffen-division-extremist-hate-group
|
||||
[^10]: United States v. Cole, No. CR20-032JCC (W.D. Wash.), Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Dkt. 261 (filed January 4, 2022), at 15. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Kaleb%20Cole%20Government%20Sentencing%20Memorandum.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: Conor McCormick-Cavanagh, "Atomwaffen Division Is Disbanding, James Mason Says," Westword, March 17, 2020. https://www.westword.com/news/atomwaffen-division-is-disbanding-james-mason-says-11664712
|
||||
[^12]: Alexander Epp and Roman Höfner, "Atomwaffen Division: Who is behind it?" Der Spiegel, print issue 2018-35 (August 25, 2018). https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/index-2018-35.html
|
||||
[^13]: FRONTLINE and ProPublica, "Documenting Hate: New American Nazis," November 20, 2018. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/documenting-hate-new-american-nazis/
|
||||
[^14]: United States v. Russell, No. 8:17-cr-283 (M.D. Fla.), United States' Motion for Upward Departure and/or Variance and Sentencing Memorandum, Dkt. 71 (filed January 7, 2018), at 2. https://www.facingsouth.org/sites/default/files/Russell_Sentencing.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: United States v. Russell, No. 8:17-cr-283 (M.D. Fla.), Dkt. 71 (filed January 7, 2018), at 7. https://www.facingsouth.org/sites/default/files/Russell_Sentencing.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: "New Video May Signal Dangerous Change For Neo-Nazi Terror Cell Atomwaffen," Vice, October 2, 2019. https://www.vice.com/en/article/new-video-may-signal-dangerous-change-for-neo-nazi-terror-cell-atomwaffen/
|
||||
[^17]: Ali Winston, "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers," Rolling Stone, June 5, 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/
|
||||
[^18]: United States v. Cole, No. CR20-032JCC (W.D. Wash.), Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Dkt. 261 (filed January 4, 2022), at 3. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Kaleb%20Cole%20Government%20Sentencing%20Memorandum.pdf
|
||||
[^19]: Public Safety Canada, "Government of Canada lists 13 new groups as terrorist entities and completes review of seven others," February 3, 2021. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2021/02/government-of-canada-lists-13-new-groups-as-terrorist-entities-and-completes-review-of-seven-others.html
|
||||
[^20]: Public Safety Canada, "Government of Canada lists four new terrorist entities," June 25, 2021. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2021/06/government-of-canada-lists-four-new-terrorist-entities.html
|
||||
[^21]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, SI 2020/200, made February 27, 2020, article 2(4). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/200/made
|
||||
[^22]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2021, SI 2021/501, made April 22, 2021, in force April 23, 2021, article 3. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/501/made
|
||||
[^23]: Associated Press, "Australia to list Hamas and US far-right group as terrorists," syndicated report. https://katv.com/news/nation-world/australia-to-list-hamas-and-us-far-right-group-as-terrorists-national-socialist-order-atomwaffen-division-tahrir-al-sham-tahrir-al-sham-global-race-war-islam-scott-morrison
|
||||
[^24]: "Australia lists US far-right NSO as terror outfit," The Tribune (India), Canberra dateline February 17, 2022. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/oz-lists-us-far-right-nso-as-terror-outfit-370954
|
||||
[^25]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia, "Former Atomwaffen Division Leader Arrested for Swatting Conspiracy," February 26, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-atomwaffen-division-leader-arrested-swatting-conspiracy
|
||||
[^26]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia, "Former Atomwaffen Division Leader Pleads Guilty to Swatting Conspiracy," July 14, 2020, and "Former Atomwaffen Division Leader Sentenced for Swatting Conspiracy," May 4, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-atomwaffen-division-leader-sentenced-swatting-conspiracy
|
||||
[^27]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington, "Leader of 'Atomwaffen' hate group convicted of five federal felonies for conspiracy to threaten journalists and Anti-Defamation League employees," September 29, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/leader-atomwaffen-hate-group-convicted-five-federal-felonies-conspiracy-threaten
|
||||
[^28]: Counter Extremism Project, "Siege's Ties to Extremists" (2019 version, 32 entities). https://www.counterextremism.com/sites/default/files/Siege_Ties_to_Extremists.pdf ; current version, "James Mason's Siege: Ties to Extremists." https://www.counterextremism.com/james-masons-siege-ties-to-extremists
|
||||
[^29]: Europol, European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2022 (TE-SAT), PDF p. 44. https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/Tesat_Report_2022_0.pdf
|
||||
[^30]: Europol, European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2021 (TE-SAT), PDF p. 86. https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/tesat_2021_0.pdf
|
||||
[^31]: Anti-Defamation League, "San Diego Mosque Shooters' Apparent Manifestos Reveal Anti-Muslim Extremism," May 19, 2026. https://www.adl.org/resources/article/san-diego-mosque-shooters-apparent-manifestos-reveal-anti-muslim-extremism
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,20 +6,95 @@ tags:
|
|||
- O9A
|
||||
- TemplovBlood
|
||||
- NeoNazi
|
||||
- AtomwaffenDivision
|
||||
- Satanism
|
||||
- Publishing
|
||||
- SouthCarolina
|
||||
- USA
|
||||
created: 2026-05-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-21
|
||||
summary: "Jillian Hoy is the co-director of Martinet Press and domestic partner of Joshua Caleb Sutter, co-operating the Lexington, South Carolina O9A publishing house that produced Iron Gates and other texts that became required reading in Atomwaffen Division."
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Jillian Hoy Sutter
|
||||
summary: "Jillian Hoy is described in press reporting as director or co-founder of Martinet Press, publisher of Order of Nine Angles texts, and as the wife of FBI informant Joshua Caleb Sutter."
|
||||
location: "Lexington, South Carolina"
|
||||
created: 2026-05-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Martinet Press]]"
|
||||
role: "director, per Vice (August 2021); run with Sutter, per USA Today (June 2022)"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Martinet Press]]"
|
||||
role: "co-founder with Joshua Caleb Sutter, per Rolling Stone (June 2022)"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Tempel ov Blood]]"
|
||||
role: "co-leader with Sutter, per the Mapping Militants Project; addressed as the Blood-Mistress, per communications surfaced by Nate Thayer"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Joshua Caleb Sutter]]"
|
||||
start: 2008
|
||||
role: "Lexington County, South Carolina marriage licence, per Bellingcat (June 2023)"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Jillian Hoy]] co-directs [[Martinet Press]] alongside [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] and is Sutter's domestic partner. The pair operated the press from [[Lexington, South Carolina]] as the primary publishing arm of [[Tempel ov Blood]] and the American [[Order of Nine Angles|O9A]] network. Martinet Press published [[Iron Gates]] (2014), *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*, and related O9A texts that became required and recommended reading within [[Atomwaffen Division]] following Sutter's 2017 infiltration of that organization.
|
||||
[[Jillian Hoy]] is named in press reporting as the director of [[Martinet Press]] ([[Vice]], August 2021) and as its co-founder with [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] ([[Rolling Stone]], June 2022), and as Sutter's wife.[^1][^2] [[USA Today]] reported in June 2022 that "a variety of extremism experts" said Sutter runs the press with her.[^3] Martinet Press published the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) texts of the American [[Tempel ov Blood]] nexion, including [[Iron Gates]].
|
||||
|
||||
Hoy's individual public profile is limited in available reporting: she is identified as co-director in Martinet Press materials and in accounts of Sutter's activities, but investigative journalism and court documents have focused primarily on Sutter's dual role as FBI informant and O9A publisher. The extent of her awareness of Sutter's FBI arrangement and the full scope of her role in press operations have not been resolved in public sources.
|
||||
### The Press
|
||||
|
||||
The [[FBI]] paid Sutter more than $140,000 as an informant, including funds directed specifically at facilitating his infiltration of AWD. The timing and funding of Martinet Press publications relative to those informant payments - some publications appear to have been produced during periods when Sutter was actively receiving federal payments - remains one of the most extensively documented anomalies in the federal government's handling of the AWD monitoring operation.[^1]
|
||||
The imprint page of *Iron Gates*, a novel issued in 2014, carries the line "MARTINET PRESS" beside an ISBN of 978-0692306581 and the notice "© Copyright by Tempel ov Blood (2014)."[^4] Rolling Stone reported that members of RapeWaffen, the Telegram channel where Melzer contacted other O9A adherents, were assigned a reading list that included *Iron Gates*, *Liber 333* and *Bluebird*, "books authored by an American O9A 'nexion,' called the Tempel ov Blood, and distributed by Martinet Press, a publishing house run by Sutter," and that "Martinet Press titles were introduced as required reading for new O9A recruits."[^2] Vice described the press as a publisher of "[[Atomwaffen Division]]-approved books such as Iron Gates and Liber 333."[^1] USA Today quoted an open letter, posted online by a former Atomwaffen member, stating that [[John Cameron Denton]] and others in the group "started to promote 'Iron Gates'" and that it was "REQUIRED READING to join AWD."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The press's About page states that it concerns itself with "publishing texts that reflect the darkness that is endemic to real antinomian spirituality" and that it makes available "texts that instruct, rather than entertain."[^5] USA Today quoted the press describing itself as "a decidedly darker spiritual press," selling merchandise such as "TOB support patches."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Bellingcat]] found Martinet Press listed in the Global Register of Publishers at an address in [[Lexington, South Carolina]], with the contact person listed as Sutter's wife. Bellingcat also reported that an email address registered to Martinet Press was attached to a post in an O9A Yahoo Group email chain titled "[o9a] Is The ONA Fake?" in May 2013, a link first reported by *The Empire Never Ended* podcast. In June 2023 Bellingcat counted at least 19 Martinet Press books on sale at Amazon.com and 22 active links to Amazon.com on the press's website.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Library catalogue records list Martinet Press as publisher of titles including *Choronzon I* (2015), *Purushamedha* (2015), *False Prophet* (Tempel ov Blood, 2015), *Liber Rudra* (2016), *Quimbanda* (2016), *Shitty Occult Comics* (2016), *Scithain* (A.A. Morain, 2017) and *Choronzon IV* (2019).[^7] USA Today reported that the press printed books by [[Ryan Fleming]], a neo-Nazi from Leeds, England, who published under the name A.A. Morain.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Patrik Hermansson]], a senior researcher at [[Hope Not Hate]], told Bellingcat: "Martinet Press is an outlet for Temple ov Blood and therefore a part of the O9A network. Its books are all in line with O9A/ToB's ideas and mythology."[^6] Hermansson's own report for Hope Not Hate of June 23, 2020 concerned the O9A Telegram channel "RapeWaffen," with which the soldier [[Ethan Melzer]], indicted the previous day, had engaged.[^8] The [[Southern District of New York]] later stated that Melzer sent details of his unit's location, movements and security to O9A members, "in particular, a sub-group of O9A known as the 'RapeWaffen Division'."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Marriage and Her Titles
|
||||
|
||||
Bellingcat reported that a search of Lexington County, South Carolina marriage licences showed Sutter married the press's registered contact in 2008; the licence record on which the report is based has the name and date blurred.[^6] Vice wrote that after leaving federal prison in 2004 Sutter returned to South Carolina and "married a woman named Jillian Hoy," whom it called "the director of Martinet Press."[^1] Rolling Stone wrote that Sutter became the main propagandist of the Songun Politics Study Group USA "before migrating to Hindu esotericism with a woman named Jillian Hoy, whom he married," and that Martinet Press was "co-founded with Hoy."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Mapping Militants Project]] (Stanford University, with Rice University) profile of Tempel ov Blood states that the group "is co-led by Joshua Caleb Sutter and his wife Jillian Hoy, who are based in South Carolina" and that "the couple also operates the extreme-right Martinet Press."[^10] Rolling Stone reported that the independent journalist [[Nate Thayer]] surfaced communications between Sutter and another satanist in which Sutter labeled himself "Master of the Tempel" and Hoy the "Blood-Mistress."[^2] Thayer had published an investigation of pro-North Korean American groups, tagged to Sutter and the Songun Politics Study Group USA, at NK News on May 6, 2013.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Informant Case
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter's federal firearm case opened in March 2003 in the [[Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] under docket 2:03-cr-00158 and closed in August 2003.[^12] Vice reported that he served a brief term in federal prison in Georgia and was released in 2004.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The defense motion to suppress filed on August 13, 2021 by lawyers for [[Kaleb Cole]] in the [[Western District of Washington]] (*United States v. Cole*, 2:20-cr-00032-JCC, Dkt. 194) described a confidential informant without naming him. It stated that the informant "has been paid over $140,000" since 2003, "$78,133.20 plus an expense advance of $4,378.60, since February 7, 2018, which almost entirely coincides with his work on the investigation into Mr. Cole and Atomwaffen," that he "was the source of almost all of the information implicating Mr. Cole," and that he "currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings."[^13] Vice, writing on August 25, 2021, identified the informant as Sutter and the publishing house as Martinet Press, reporting the sum as "more than $100,000."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The government's response of August 20, 2021 (Dkt. 200), signed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas M. Woods and Seth Wilkinson, stated that the informant had provided information to the [[FBI]] since approximately 2003 and had received about $140,000 "which included both compensation and reimbursement for expenses," and argued that paying him for about sixteen years "tends to suggest that the informant is reliable."[^14] On August 30, 2021 Judge [[John C. Coughenour]] denied the motion to suppress and for a hearing under *Franks v. Delaware*, writing that the compensation of "approximately $140,000 over a sixteen-year period" did not impugn the informant's credibility and "suggests that he demonstrated reliability in the past."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter testified at Cole's trial in [[Seattle]] in September 2021. USA Today, citing a transcript, reported that he said federal agents first approached him in the early 2000s while he was serving a sentence for possessing a pistol with an obliterated serial number, that "It was proposed that I could act in a deep-cover capacity," and that after his 2004 release he worked for the FBI doing "surveillance, attending in-person meetings and traveling around the country." Asked what he did for a living, he answered "Publishing." He also testified that Denton introduced him to Atomwaffen Division and that he went by "Swissdiscipline" online.[^3] Rolling Stone reported that Denton contacted Sutter in spring 2017.[^2] Rolling Stone reported that his handler was Special Agent Bill Moser of the FBI's Columbia, South Carolina field office.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
A jury convicted Cole on September 29, 2021, after 90 minutes of deliberation, on five counts.[^16] The Justice Department stated that he was sentenced to seven years on January 11, 2022 and that the jury had convicted him "in September 2021."[^17] Rolling Stone wrote in June 2022 that Cole was sentenced to seven years "after a jury convicted him in January."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Rolling Stone reported that the FBI declined to respond to questions about Sutter's role as a paid informant, about Martinet Press's role in spreading O9A ideology, and about whether the bureau had been contacted by foreign law enforcement regarding Sutter or Tempel ov Blood.[^2] USA Today reported that the FBI "declined to address specific questions about Sutter or the relationship he detailed in testimony," and quoted [[Ariel Koch]] of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, who said that the O9A practice of the "insight role" meant it had to be considered whether Sutter's work as an informant was such a role.[^3] [[Hannah Gais]] of the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] told USA Today that Sutter "was really the one who basically took them in that direction towards Satanism."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Public Statements and Correspondence
|
||||
|
||||
Rolling Stone quoted [[Nick Lowles]], chief executive of Hope Not Hate: "What was, if any, the FBI's interest in the satanist stuff? Was Sutter genuinely into this ideology and allowed to be involved in it as long as he spied on what they considered to be the real threats?"[^2] Hope Not Hate's *State of Hate 2019* chapter on the O9A, by Lowles, stated that the order "is intrinsically intertwined with Nazism" and that O9A influence "has also been seen in the Atomwaffen Division."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
Rolling Stone reported in July 2022, after Melzer pleaded guilty on June 24, 2022, that [[Angel Almeida]], a Queens man, had been found with a Tempel ov Blood banner and patches "the proceeds of which would benefit FBI informant Joshua Sutter."[^19] USA Today reported that Almeida was arrested in November 2021 for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and that prosecutors alleged a poster bearing an image used on the cover of *Liber 333*, published by Martinet Press, appeared in the background of at least two of his social media posts.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Bellingcat. "How Atomwaffen Became A Neo-Nazi Terror Group." https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2018/11/19/how-atomwaffen-division-became-a-neo-nazi-terror-group/; Frontline / ProPublica. "A Neo-Nazi Terrorist Is Paid Over $140,000 by the FBI — and That Might Just Be the Start." https://www.propublica.org/article/a-neo-nazi-terrorist-is-paid-over-140000-by-the-fbi-and-that-might-just-be-the-start
|
||||
[^1]: Matthew Gault. "FBI Bankrolled Publisher of Occult Neo-Nazi Books, Feds Claim." *Vice* (Motherboard), August 25, 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/fbi-bankrolled-publisher-of-occult-neo-nazi-books-feds-claim/
|
||||
[^2]: Ali Winston. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers." *Rolling Stone,* June 5, 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/
|
||||
[^3]: Will Carless and Kevin Johnson. "The FBI informant who helped white supremacists, Joshua Caleb Sutter" (also headlined "He publishes books on satanism and torture to inspire neo-Nazis. The FBI has paid him $140,000"). *USA Today,* June 9, 2022. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2022/06/09/fbi-informant-white-supremacist-atomwaffen/7237901001/
|
||||
[^4]: Tempel ov Blood, *Iron Gates* (Martinet Press, 2014), imprint page, ISBN 978-0692306581. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/tempel-ov-blood-iron-gates-text
|
||||
[^5]: Martinet Press, "About." https://martinetpress.wordpress.com/about/
|
||||
[^6]: "The Mainstream Publishers, Distributors and Bookshops Selling Satanist Neo-Nazi Books." *Bellingcat,* June 30, 2023. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/06/30/the-mainstream-publishers-distributors-and-bookshops-selling-satanist-neo-nazi-books
|
||||
[^7]: Open Library catalogue records, publisher search "Martinet Press" (titles, years and ISBNs, including 978-0-9978363 and 978-0-9997680 prefixes). https://openlibrary.org/search?q=%22Martinet+Press%22
|
||||
[^8]: Patrik Hermansson. "The Rapewaffen Telegram Channel." *Hope Not Hate,* June 23, 2020. https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/06/23/the-rapewaffen-telegram-channel/
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. "Former U.S. Army Soldier Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Attempting To Murder Fellow Service Members In Deadly Ambush," March 3, 2023 (Melzer pleaded guilty June 24, 2022, in *United States v. Melzer*, 20-cr-314, S.D.N.Y.). https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-us-army-soldier-sentenced-45-years-prison-attempting-murder-fellow-service
|
||||
[^10]: "Tempel ov Blood." Mapping Militants Project, Stanford University and Rice University. https://mappingmilitants.org/node/534/
|
||||
[^11]: Nate Thayer. "Pro-DPRK Americans Revealed," *NK News,* May 6, 2013, reposted at nate-thayer.com (Internet Archive capture, January 11, 2015). https://web.archive.org/web/20150111192633/http://www.nate-thayer.com:80/joshua-sutter/
|
||||
[^12]: *United States v. Sutter*, No. 2:03-cr-00158 (E.D. Pa.), docket 8143981, filed March 11, 2003, terminated August 20, 2003. CourtListener: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8143981/united-states-v-sutter/
|
||||
[^13]: Defense motion to suppress evidence, *United States v. Cole*, No. 2:20-cr-00032-JCC, Dkt. 194 (W.D. Wash., August 13, 2021), pp. 2 and 8-9. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365.194.0.pdf ; Internet Archive mirror: https://archive.org/details/kaleb-cole-august-13-2021-motion-to-suppress-1
|
||||
[^14]: Government's Response to Motion to Suppress, *United States v. Cole*, Dkt. 200 (W.D. Wash., August 20, 2021), pp. 10-11 and 17. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365.200.0.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: Order, *United States v. Cole*, Dkt. 211 (W.D. Wash., August 30, 2021), pp. 1 and 4. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365.211.0.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: Associated Press. "US jury convicts leader of neo-Nazi threat campaign." September 29, 2021. https://www.wxow.com/news/national/us-jury-convicts-leader-of-neo-nazi-threat-campaign/article_690fdfd4-e9fb-5842-9a17-d74784680f57.html
|
||||
[^17]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington. "Leader of Neo-Nazi group sentenced for plot targeting journalists and advocates," January 11, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/leader-neo-nazi-group-sentenced-plot-targeting-journalists-and-advocates
|
||||
[^18]: Nick Lowles. "Order of Nine Angles." *State of Hate 2019,* Hope Not Hate, February 16, 2019. https://hopenothate.org.uk/2019/02/16/state-of-hate-2019-order-of-nine-angles/
|
||||
[^19]: Ali Winston. "Plea Deal in the Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers." *Rolling Stone,* July 6, 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Lippo Group banker who worked under James Riady at Worthen Bank, received 37 CIA briefings at the Commerce Department while keeping a secret office at Stephens Inc., and pleaded guilty in 1999."
|
||||
location: "Los Angeles, California"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
John Huang was the chief representative in the [[United States]] of the [[Lippo Group]] of [[Indonesia]], an official of the [[United States Department of Commerce|Commerce Department]] in 1994 and 1995, and a fundraiser for the [[Democratic National Committee]] in 1996. He was born in [[Fujian]] province in [[China]], raised in [[Taiwan]], and naturalized as an American citizen in 1976.[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -35,12 +35,16 @@ The department's security office gave Huang an interim top secret clearance on J
|
|||
|
||||
Lippo's principal partner in China, the committee reported, was [[China Resources]], "a company wholly-owned and operated by the PRC government," of which "intelligence officials have confirmed in the press that the Chinese intelligence establishment is heavily involved in the operation." In 1991 Huang was sent to [[Beijing]] to negotiate a joint bid with China Resources for the Hong Kong branch of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]. On October 7, 1993, he wrote to the office of Vice President [[Al Gore]] with thanks for receiving the chairman of China Resources, Shen Jueren, at the [[White House]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The minority views appended to the 1998 Senate report disputed the weight given to the briefings. They stated that Huang received oral briefings from John Dickerson of the Office of Intelligence Liaison 37 times in 14 months, an average of 2.5 times per month, that briefings of this type took an average of 20 minutes, and that the contents were largely at the discretion of the briefing officer. The minority views also stated that Huang was shown documents during briefings but was not allowed to keep them or take notes. Dickerson testified, as the minority quoted him, that the subjects included "areas of international relations and trade that we seem to feel were his responsibility." The minority wrote that Huang "was actually briefed far less frequently" than other Commerce officials, who received weekly briefings.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Plea
|
||||
|
||||
On August 12, 1999, Huang pleaded guilty in the federal court in [[Los Angeles]] to a felony charge that he conspired with other Lippo employees "to make campaign contributions and reimburse employees with corporate funds or with funds from Indonesia." He was sentenced to a year's probation, 500 hours of community service, and a fine of 10,000 dollars, and was directed to go on cooperating. LippoBank pleaded guilty in 2001 to 86 misdemeanor counts for contributions its agents Riady and Huang had made from 1988 to 1994.[^3]
|
||||
On August 12, 1999, Huang pleaded guilty in the federal court in [[Los Angeles]] to a felony charge that he conspired with other Lippo employees "to make campaign contributions and reimburse employees with corporate funds or with funds from Indonesia." The Justice Department release stated that the charged conspiracy lasted from approximately 1992 through June 1994, and that the government alleged Huang was responsible for arranging approximately $156,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Lippo Group overseas to various Democratic and Republican political committees. The release stated that Huang had been cooperating with the FBI and prosecutors.[^5] He was sentenced to a year's probation, 500 hours of community service, and a fine of 10,000 dollars, and was directed to go on cooperating. LippoBank pleaded guilty in 2001 to 86 misdemeanor counts for contributions its agents Riady and Huang had made from 1988 to 1994.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, *Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns,* S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, chapters 13, "John Huang's Years at Lippo," and 14, "John Huang at Commerce." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/1-14.htm
|
||||
[^2]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
[^3]: Department of Justice, "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law," press release 01-17, January 11, 2001.
|
||||
[^4]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, Minority Views of Senators Glenn, Levin, Lieberman, Akaka, and Durbin, section on Huang at Commerce (the briefings discussion, footnotes 118 through 120). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/4-4.htm
|
||||
[^5]: Department of Justice, "John Huang Pleads Guilty to Violating Federal Campaign Finance Laws," press release, August 12, 1999. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/1999/August/357crm.htm
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -3,16 +3,20 @@ category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
|
|||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
summary: "During the process of opening a grand jury investigation into the mob's involvement in the motion picture industry, St."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[John St. John]] was a Detective with the [[Los Angeles Police Department|LAPD]]'s Organized Crime Intelligence Division ([[OCID]]). He was implicated in the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap investigation into alleged organized crime penetration of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Martin Bacow]] boasted to [[Eugene Giaquinto]] that St. John's status within OCID allowed him to obtain intelligence reports on organized crime figures across the nation, which Bacow could then pass along to Giaquinto. St. John was allegedly Bacow's direct contact at LAPD-OCID.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
During the process of opening a grand jury investigation into the mob's involvement in the motion picture industry, St. John called Bacow and told him he would listen, not give up too much, and try to find out what the investigators were looking at to inform Bacow. Bacow then called Giaquinto, who responded that he would call [[Edwin Meese]] and get the investigation shut down.[^1]
|
||||
During the process of opening a grand jury investigation into the mob's involvement in the motion picture industry, St. John called Bacow and told him he would listen, not give up too much, and try to find out what the investigators were looking at to inform Bacow. Bacow then called Giaquinto, who responded that he would call [[Edwin Meese]] and get the investigation shut down.[^1] The Los Angeles wiretap affidavit lists as a separate investigation whether St. John, assigned to the Organized Crime Intelligence Division, was obstructing the administration of justice by revealing information about investigations to Bacow.[^2] In an intercepted call of July 13, 1987, Bacow said that the "guy downtown" had told him that a permit application had to go through a small-town office or the sheriff's office. The affiant bracketed "guy downtown" as St. John, and the call concerned a gun permit that Giaquinto said he was seeking.[^3] In a separate intercept Bacow said that their friend St. John was in charge of the whole country, which the affiant read as a reference to St. John's position gathering La Cosa Nostra intelligence for the Los Angeles Police Department nationwide.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Despite the wiretap information and related investigation reportedly gathering enough evidence to justify seeking an indictment against St. John, Giaquinto, and Bacow for obstruction of justice, no indictment was ever issued. The prosecution reportedly did not go forward because no one at the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] in Washington D.C. wanted all the wiretap affidavits in the case to be released.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^2]: Gates affidavit, the section listing the investigations in Los Angeles, following paragraph 155. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf).
|
||||
[^3]: Gates affidavit, paragraph 41 (July 13, 1987 calls). Same source as note 2.
|
||||
[^4]: Gates affidavit, paragraphs 23 through 25 and the paragraph following the Wasserman and Villano discussion. Same source as note 2.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,17 +1,139 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Nezar Hindawi
|
||||
- Nizar Hindawi
|
||||
- Nezar Nawaf Mansour Hindawi
|
||||
- Nezar al-Hindawi
|
||||
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
summary: "Hindawi was instructed to ensure his pregnant Irish girlfriend, Ann-Marie Murphy, boarded an El Al flight with explosives in her bag."
|
||||
- ElAlPlot
|
||||
- Heathrow
|
||||
- Syria
|
||||
- SyrianIntelligence
|
||||
- Mossad
|
||||
- BenMenashe
|
||||
- Jordan
|
||||
- OldBailey
|
||||
- Parole
|
||||
summary: "Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin convicted in 1986 of attempting to bomb an El Al airliner at Heathrow, sentenced to 45 years; a 2011 court judgment called him an agent of the Syrian government."
|
||||
born: 1954
|
||||
location: "Baqura, Jordan"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[El Al Heathrow bomb plot]]"
|
||||
role: "convicted of attempting to place the bomb aboard the aircraft"
|
||||
start: 1986-04-17
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Syrian Air Force Intelligence]]"
|
||||
role: "recruited and instructed by officers of the service, per a 1986 CIA note"
|
||||
start: 1986-01
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Haitham Said]]"
|
||||
role: "Syrian Air Force Intelligence officer who gave him a passport and the flight details, per a 1986 CIA note"
|
||||
start: 1986-02
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Baath Party]]"
|
||||
role: "reported member of the Jordanian branch"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Ahmad Hasi]]"
|
||||
role: "full brother"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Mohammed al-Khuli]]"
|
||||
role: "Air Force Intelligence chief named in Hindawi's revised police account, per Seale"
|
||||
start: 1986-01
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Mohammed Radi Abdullah]]"
|
||||
role: "cousin, per Ben-Menashe"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Ann-Marie Murphy]]"
|
||||
role: "girlfriend, later described as fiancee in court records"
|
||||
start: 1985
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Rafael Eitan]]"
|
||||
role: "named by Ben-Menashe as the orchestrator of the plot"
|
||||
start: 1986-01
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
created: 2025-08-05
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Nezar Hindawi]] is a Syrian national who was involved in a 1986 plot to bomb an [[El Al]] plane. He was recruited by his cousin, [[Mohammed Radi Abdullah]], as part of an [[Israel|Israeli]] "black" operation designed to discredit [[Syria]].
|
||||
[[Nezar Hindawi]] is a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin who was convicted at the [[Old Bailey]] on October 24, 1986, of attempting to place a bomb aboard an [[El Al]] Boeing 747 at [[Heathrow Airport]] on April 17, 1986.[^1][^2] He was sentenced to 45 years' imprisonment. The same day, the Foreign Secretary, [[Geoffrey Howe]], told the [[House of Commons]] that there was "conclusive evidence of Syrian official involvement with Hindawi" and that Britain was breaking diplomatic relations with [[Syria]].[^3] A 2011 judgment of the High Court describes Hindawi as having acted "as an agent of the Syrian Government."[^1] The former [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence officer [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote in 1992 that the plot was an Israeli operation conceived by [[Rafael Eitan]] to discredit Syria, and that Hindawi was recruited for it by his cousin, [[Mohammed Radi Abdullah]].[^4] The British writer [[Patrick Seale]] concluded in 1989 that a Syrian agency, most probably Air Force Intelligence, was involved, and also that Hindawi was most probably an agent provocateur controlled by Israel.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Hindawi was instructed to ensure his pregnant Irish girlfriend, Ann-Marie Murphy, boarded an [[El Al]] flight with explosives in her bag. He was led to believe the money for this operation came from "Syrian brothers on behalf of the Palestinians." He arranged for her to receive the bomb package in the [[Heathrow Airport|El Al]] departure lounge after passing through security, expecting her to die in the explosion along with other passengers.
|
||||
### Early life
|
||||
|
||||
The plot was foiled by [[Israel|Israeli]] security, who were aware of the operation. Hindawi was arrested and subsequently jailed for 45 years. His actions led to [[Margaret Thatcher|Margaret Thatcher's]] government closing down the [[Syrian Embassy in London|Syrian Embassy]] in London.
|
||||
Hindawi was born in 1954 in [[Baqura]], [[Jordan]]. An offender manager's report, quoted in the 2012 judgment, states that "Mr Hindawi was involved with the PLO from the age of 12yrs" and "was also involved with the [[Jordanian Revolutionary Movement]]."[^2] In June 1986 the [[Washington Post]] reporter [[David B. Ottaway|David B. Ottaway]] described him as a sometime journalist in London and Jordan, and reported that he was said to have belonged to the Jordanian branch of the Syrian-backed [[Baath Party]].[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### The plot
|
||||
|
||||
A [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] note of November 1986 reports that Hindawi travelled to Syria in January 1986 seeking funding for a new group, the Jordanian Revolutionary Movement. According to the note, in February [[Haitham Said]], identified there as second in command of [[Syrian Air Force Intelligence]], told him of the plan to place a bomb aboard an El Al flight from London, gave him an official Syrian passport in a false name, and specified the flight. The note adds that Said allegedly promised him $250,000 after the operation.[^7] The same note names [[Mohammed al-Khuli]], head of Air Force Intelligence, as the officer who probably cleared the operation.[^7] A June 1986 CIA assessment recorded that [[Libya]] had reportedly failed to fund Hindawi's proposed group before he went to [[Damascus]] alone.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Howe told the Commons that Hindawi travelled on an official Syrian passport in a false name, that two of his visa applications were backed by official notes from the [[Syrian Foreign Ministry]], and that he met the Syrian ambassador, Dr. [[Loutof Haydar|Haydar]], in the embassy after the device was discovered. Howe also cited trial evidence that Hindawi had stayed in hotel accommodation reserved for [[Syrian Arab Airlines]] crew, and had spent the night after the attempt in Syrian embassy accommodation, where hair clippings and hair dye were found.[^3] Howe said the Syrian government's claim that its staff had dealt with Hindawi "throughout as a bona fide journalist" was "frankly incredible."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2011 judgment summarises the 1986 facts as Hindawi acting "at the instigation of the Government of Syria and with the assistance of its officials, including diplomats in London." He provided his Irish girlfriend, [[Ann-Marie Murphy]], then pregnant with his child, with a bag for a journey to Israel. Unknown to her, the bag held explosives and a timing device set to detonate at 39,000 feet over [[Austria]], with the result, the judgment states, that the 375 people on board would have been killed.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Seale, drawing on the trial and on British and Syrian sources, gives the sequence of the day. An Israeli security guard at Heathrow found 1.5 kilograms of Czechoslovak-made Semtex in the false bottom of the bag shortly after 9 a.m. on April 17, with a detonator disguised as a pocket calculator that Hindawi had primed in the taxi by inserting a battery. Hindawi returned to a room at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington reserved for Syrian Arab Airlines personnel, boarded the airline's crew bus for a 2 p.m. Damascus flight, and got off when news of the discovery broke. He went to the Syrian embassy in Belgrave Square and told the ambassador, Dr. Lutfallah Haydar, that he was in trouble. Embassy security men took him to their lodgings in West Kensington and cut and dyed his hair. Early on April 18 he went to the London Visitors Hotel in Holland Park, where his brother, a clerk in the medical section of the [[Qatar]] embassy, persuaded him to give himself up.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Seale wrote that Hindawi was interrogated for two days at [[Paddington Green Police Station]], first saying he believed the bag held narcotics, and that "after his sleep was deliberately interrupted several times during the night, he changed his story." In the revised account he met Air Force Intelligence chief General Muhammad al-Khuly and Colonel Haytham Sa'id in Damascus in January 1986, received from Sa'id a Syrian service passport in the name "Issam Share," made a practice trip to Britain, returned to London on April 5, and was handed the bag at the Royal Garden Hotel by a man he took to be an airline official.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Ben-Menashe's account gives a different origin and handover. He wrote that Colonel Mohammed Radi Abdullah, a Jordanian army officer who had emigrated to London, was recruited in 1978, with a £200,000 loan from an Israeli source, into an antiterrorist group run by Rafi Eitan. In 1986, he wrote, Radi was involved in "the well-documented attempt to blow up an El Al plane. Or at least what was publicly perceived to be an attempt. In fact, it was a cold, calculated plan conceived by Rafi Eitan to discredit the Syrians." At a secret meeting in Paris, according to Ben-Menashe, Eitan told Radi he wanted to implicate the Syrian Embassy in London in terrorism and have all Syrian diplomats thrown out of England. Radi, whom Ben-Menashe names as Hindawi's cousin, approached Hindawi, who was friendly with the Syrian Air Force intelligence attache in London, and offered him $50,000: "This money I'm offering you ... is from our Syrian brothers on behalf of the Palestinians. We want to blow up a Zionist plane." Ben-Menashe wrote that Hindawi was instructed to make sure his girlfriend boarded the flight and expected her to die in the explosion, and that in the El Al departure lounge an Israeli security man dressed in casual clothes passed her the parcel. Of Radi he wrote: "Radi was not implicated. He was under MI-5 protection. As a result, Margaret Thatcher closed down the Syrian Embassy in London. Rafi Eitan had had his way, Hindawi was jailed for 45 years."[^4] The Washington Post's June 1986 reporting placed the same case the other way, noting that British police gave more credence to Hindawi's claims of Syrian involvement than the Foreign Office did.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Trial and sentence
|
||||
|
||||
Howe told the Commons on October 24 that the trial of Hindawi at the [[Central Criminal Court]] "ended today."[^3] Hindawi was convicted that day. At the trial in October 1986 he retracted the account he had given the police and claimed to be the victim of a conspiracy possibly mounted by Israeli agents. Seale reported that he alleged Detective Sergeant Will Price had threatened to turn him over to [[Mossad]], and that the police had made up his statements and forced him to sign them unread.[^5] [[Lord Lane]], the Lord Chief Justice, refused leave to appeal the sentence, describing the plot as "about as foul and as horrible a crime as could possibly be imagined," and writing that "the sentence of 45 years imprisonment was not a day too long."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In May 1986, after Hindawi's arrest, the government had demanded the withdrawal of three Syrian embassy attachés, and the Syrian government declined to waive their immunity so that the police could question them.[^3] On October 24, Howe announced that the Syrian ambassador, Dr. Haydar, had been told to close the [[Syrian Embassy in London|embassy]] and leave the country within 14 days, and that the British embassy in Damascus would also close.[^3] The [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] government also imposed stricter searches on Syrian Arab Airlines aircraft, crew, passengers and baggage in London.[^3] President [[Ronald Reagan]] issued a statement the same day backing the British decision and crediting the vigilance of those responsible for security at Heathrow with preventing the attack.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Syrian involvement and the rival account
|
||||
|
||||
On October 20, 1986, [[Hafez al-Assad]] told Time magazine that Israeli intelligence had planned the operation and arranged for it to be uncovered "at the plane's doorstep."[^5] Seale listed the evidence for a Syrian role: the official Syrian passport in a false name; Syrian Foreign Ministry support for Hindawi's two visa applications in February and April 1986, the second submitted by a locally recruited clerk at the British embassy in Damascus while the consul who signed the first was away; the airline cover; a message from Ambassador Haydar recommending Hindawi to Syrian intelligence, which British intelligence had apparently intercepted in 1985; hair and dye traces in the security men's flat; and pre-trial attempts to contact Damascus. Seale wrote that Assad and Prime Minister Kasm "knew nothing about the operation until they heard the news on the radio," the considered judgment of American and European officials. General al-Khuly, head of Air Force Intelligence since 1963, was moved to deputy commander of the air force in October 1987, "in the wake of the Hindawi affair."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Seale then wrote: "There is some evidence to suggest that Hindawi, and indeed his brother Hasi in West Germany, were double agents who worked for Syria while in fact being controlled by Israel. Hindawi was most probably an agent provocateur whose mission was to entrap the Syrian intelligence services so as to smear Syria as a terrorist state." He added that if so the bomb "was never intended to go off and its discovery was not an accident." Seale cited Ian Black of The Guardian, who was told by a senior Israeli security source in Jerusalem that Israeli intelligence had received an advance general warning of an attack on El Al.[^5] Seale also reported the findings of a Syrian-Jordanian post-mortem: the family were Palestinians settled in the East Jordan village of Baqura, "with a history of involvement with Mossad"; Hindawi's father had worked as a cook at the Jordanian embassy in London until found to be an Israeli agent, was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan, and remained in Britain; Hindawi stored the bag and explosives in his father's flat for ten days in April 1986. "According to Syrian and Jordanian sources, Israel used the threat that his father would be sent back to Jordan to win Hindawi's co-operation." A senior Jordanian official said Hindawi had done a job for Mossad "and been paid for it," had worked for Jordan against the Palestinians, for Syria against Jordan and for the clandestine Jordanian Communist party, and had been refused a passport renewal by Jordan in 1985. Assad told Seale: "It was not an operation which could have been carried out behind the backs of British intelligence."[^5] Charles Glass published a related inquiry, "Who Was Hindawi Working For?", in The Spectator on November 1, 1986.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA's June 1986 Terrorism Review concluded that Syrian officials were directly involved in planning and execution of both the London operation and the bombing in [[Berlin|West Berlin]], and described the two principals as "freelance terrorists" who had worked with Syrian officials.[^8] Ottaway reported in June 1986 that Western antiterrorism experts believed Syrian Air Force Intelligence was directly involved in handling both Hindawi and his brother, and that Foreign Office officials remained skeptical that the Syrian government had planned the operation or ordered it.[^6] Ottaway also recorded an unnamed Reagan administration source's account that Hafez al-Assad had told [[King Hussein]] that Syrian intelligence had contacts with Hindawi but regarded him as too unstable to use, and that Syrian embassy officials in London refused to take Hindawi in after the failed attempt.[^6] That account sits against the Howe statement that Hindawi spent the night after the attempt in Syrian embassy accommodation.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In November 1986 [[The Washington Times]] reported an interview in which [[Jacques Chirac]] relayed what [[Helmut Kohl]] and [[Hans-Dietrich Genscher]] had told him: that the London attempt was a provocation organized jointly by Mossad and renegade elements in Assad's entourage, whose objective was to embarrass Assad and bring down his regime. Chirac, who did not wish to be quoted directly, is also reported to have said that some of Assad's enemies, foreign and domestic, might be manipulating some of the Syrian agents against him.[^11] On November 25, 1986, the Syrian ambassador to East Germany suggested in an interview that Mossad was responsible for the West Berlin bombing.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Christian Science Monitor]] reported in October 1986 that on February 4 Israel had intercepted a Libyan airliner bound for Damascus and forced it to land in Israel, and that it was carrying [[Abdullah Ahmar]], the second-ranking official of Syria's ruling Baath Party, along with other officials. Syrian leaders vowed revenge. The correspondent [[Jim Muir]] quoted analysts who suggested the Hindawi attempt might have been a Syrian response, but also noted that trial evidence indicated much of the infrastructure was in place before the February incident.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Berlin bombing
|
||||
|
||||
On March 29, 1986, a bomb exploded at the [[German-Arab Friendship Society]] in West Berlin, injuring nine people.[^12] Hindawi's full brother, [[Ahmad Hasi]] (also spelled Hazi), was tried for it. Ottaway reported in June 1986 that Hasi, who used a different surname, had vehemently denied any role in the bombing of the [[La Belle discotheque]] in West Berlin on April 5, 1986.[^6] A CIA note of November 1986 reports that Hasi confirmed Hindawi's trip to Syria in January and said Hindawi had arranged for him to collect the device used in the Friendship Society bombing from the Syrian embassy in East Berlin.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
On November 26, 1986, a West Berlin court convicted Hasi and [[Farouk Salameh]], a second Jordanian, and sentenced them to 14 and 13 years. Presiding judge [[Hans-Joachim Heinze]] said that the only evidence for official Syrian involvement was the defendants' pre-trial confessions, and that the court found the accusations credible because other details of their accounts had been confirmed. Shortly before the verdicts, West Berlin justice officials issued an arrest warrant for a man identified at trial as a Syrian intelligence officer, known as Abu Ahmed, reported to be Lt. Col. Haitham Saed, deputy intelligence chief of Syria's Air Force.[^12] According to the confessions, Hindawi, Hasi and Salameh first travelled to Libya to seek backing and netted $5,000. They then turned to Syria, and were assigned the Friendship Society bombing as a test. Hasi said the Syrian embassy in [[East Berlin]] supplied the bomb, which failed to explode in two attempts before going off on the third, on March 29.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Parole and judicial review
|
||||
|
||||
Hindawi became eligible for parole in 2001. A deportation order to Jordan had been made against him on November 13, 2000, and he did not appeal it.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 12, 2009, a [[Parole Board]] panel recommended his release on terms that he be deported immediately to Jordan. On November 23, 2009, the [[National Offender Management Service]] wrote rejecting the recommendation, and the Justice Secretary, [[Jack Straw]], decided the question on the papers. The High Court later found that those papers "did not put a balanced case; they only put the case for rejecting the decision of the Parole Board and no case as to why he should accept it." On April 1, 2011, the court quashed the 2009 decision, holding that it did not set out proper reasons for rejecting the Board's finding that Hindawi was a credible witness.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
A later Parole Board panel, chaired by [[Mr Justice Butterfield]], considered his case in late 2011 and declined release. The 2012 judgment quotes the offender manager's report as stating that "the risk posed by Mr Hindawi would be due to future involvement in politically motivated terrorist activity."[^2] Permission to bring a further judicial review was refused by [[Lloyd-Jones J]] on April 26, 2012, and granted on three of five grounds by [[Silber J]] on August 10, 2012. On December 17, 2012, [[Blake J]] dismissed the challenge, holding that the Board's overall conclusions were "rational and lawful on the information before it," while recording his concern that relevant information had not been before the Board.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2012 judgment describes Hindawi as 57 years old and in poor health. It records that he was eligible for parole after a third of his sentence, must be released after two-thirds, an event due in June 2016 unless he was released earlier on licence, and that the Secretary of State for the Home Department intended to deport him to Jordan on completion of the sentence.[^2] Press reports after the later Parole Board decision gave the same automatic release date of 2016, with deportation to Jordan to follow.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: [2011] EWHC 830 (QB), *Hindawi, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Justice*, Lord Justice Thomas and Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, Administrative Court, April 1, 2011, paras 1, 3, 4, 5 to 7, 12, 13, 45. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/qb/2011/830
|
||||
[^2]: [2012] EWHC 3894 (Admin), *Hindawi v The Parole Board*, Blake J, Administrative Court, CO/3217/2012, December 17, 2012, paras 1 to 3, 15, 17, 50. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2012/3894
|
||||
[^3]: HC Deb 24 October 1986 vol 102 cc1504-14, "Anglo-Syrian Relations," statement by Sir Geoffrey Howe, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1986/oct/24/anglo-syrian-relations
|
||||
[^4]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; TrineDay, 2015), pp. 121 to 124.
|
||||
[^5]: Patrick Seale with Maureen McConville, *Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East* (University of California Press, 1989), "The Hindawi affair," pp. 475 to 481; p. 181 on Khuly.
|
||||
[^6]: David B. Ottaway, "Syrian Connection To Terrorism Probed," *Washington Post*, June 1, 1986, CIA reading room copy. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000604900038-5
|
||||
[^7]: Central Intelligence Agency, note to the Deputy Director for Intelligence, November 5, 1986, with attached assessment of Syrian, Libyan and Iranian state support for terrorism (CIA-RDP89G00720R000600740004-0). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00720r000600740004-0
|
||||
[^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, *Terrorism Review*, June 1986 (DI TR 86-007, CIA-RDP87T00685R000200360003-6). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp87t00685r000200360003-6
|
||||
[^9]: Ronald Reagan, "United Kingdom-Syria Diplomatic Relations," statement, October 24, 1986, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/102486e
|
||||
[^10]: Charles Glass, "Who Was Hindawi Working For?", *The Spectator*, November 1, 1986, cited in Seale, p. 520.
|
||||
[^11]: Arnaud de Berchgrave, "Chirac told Syria was framed," *The Washington Times*, November 7, 1986 (CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460003-9). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201460003-9
|
||||
[^12]: "Berlin court deals another blow to Syria," *Christian Science Monitor*, December 1, 1986, compiled from wire reports. https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1201/itrial.html
|
||||
[^13]: Jim Muir, "State terror: Syrian links highlighted," *Christian Science Monitor*, October 27, 1986. https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1027/oterr.html
|
||||
[^14]: Elizabeth Pond, "West Berlin trial spotlights alleged Syrian terror role," *Christian Science Monitor*, November 18, 1986. Hasi's and Salameh's pre-trial confessions as reported at trial. https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1118/ohazi.html
|
||||
[^15]: "Terrorist plotter won't be let out of jail early," *The Jewish Chronicle*. https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/terrorist-plotter-wont-be-let-out-of-jail-early-fjf10lh6
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long
|
|
@ -29,14 +29,14 @@ relations:
|
|||
with: "[[Clara Hoersch]]"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Raymond C. Hoersch was a [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] mechanical engineer and a glider pilot of the [[United States Army Air Forces]] in the [[World War II|Second World War]], the father of the [[Philadelphia]] pornographer, counterfeiter, and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]], who was born Raymond Charles Hoersch Jr. in 1943. He was born in Philadelphia on August 17, 1918, a son of [[Albert Hoersch]] and [[Helen E. Hoersch]] of 417 West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of Philadelphia, the house deeded to his grandson [[Eugene Horsch]] in 2007 and searched in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
Raymond C. Hoersch was a [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] mechanical engineer and a glider pilot of the [[United States Army Air Forces]] in the [[World War II|Second World War]], the father of the [[Philadelphia]] pornographer, counterfeiter, and fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]], who was born Raymond Charles Hoersch Jr. in 1943. He was born in Philadelphia on August 17, 1918, a son of [[Albert Hoersch]] and [[Helen E. Hoersch]] of West Chew Street in the [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]] section of Philadelphia, the house deeded to his grandson [[Eugene Horsch]] in 2007 and searched in the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026.[^1][^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Glider Pilot
|
||||
|
||||
His son said in a 2013 interview, rebroadcast in 2026, that he flew cargo gliders for the Army Air Corps and was stationed in [[London]]: large plywood aircraft, towed aloft six or eight at a time behind a [[Douglas DC-3|DC-3]], each able to carry a jeep or twelve to sixteen troops, which landed once behind enemy lines by crashing in a controlled way. "My father said generally, you pick two trees and you went between them to shear the wings off," he said, and added that his father's war stories concerned "slipping across the [[English Channel]] and smuggling back a plane load of wine." In January 1979 a notice in [[Luzerne County, Pennsylvania|Luzerne County]] newspapers asked former World War II glider pilots living in the area to contact "State Commander Raymond Hoersch, 523 N. Main St., Chalfont."[^1][^5]
|
||||
His son said in a 2013 interview, rebroadcast in 2026, that he flew cargo gliders for the Army Air Corps and was stationed in [[London]]: large plywood aircraft, towed aloft six or eight at a time behind a [[Douglas DC-3|DC-3]], each able to carry a jeep or twelve to sixteen troops, which landed once behind enemy lines by crashing in a controlled way. "My father said generally, you pick two trees and you went between them to shear the wings off," he said, and added that his father's war stories concerned "slipping across the [[English Channel]] and smuggling back a plane load of wine." In January 1979 a notice in [[Luzerne County, Pennsylvania|Luzerne County]] newspapers asked former World War II glider pilots living in the area to contact "State Commander Raymond Hoersch, N. Main St., Chalfont."[^1][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Bucks County
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -44,18 +44,18 @@ He married [[Clara Hoersch|Clara Hagerty]], a daughter of [[Eugene D. Hagerty]]
|
|||
|
||||
In May 1964 a firm named R. C. Hoersch & Associates, at Rural Delivery 1, [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]], advertised in *[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]* for a mechanical design draftsman.[^9] In September 1969 Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hoersch "of Doylestown" attended the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Clara's parents in Stroudsburg with their daughter Helen; the son's wife attended separately, listed as Mrs. Raymond Hoersch Jr., of Philadelphia.[^10] The following month Raymond C. Hoersch and his wife sold a property on Gayman Road in [[Plumstead Township, Pennsylvania|Plumstead Township]] for 48,000 dollars.[^11] In July 1971, when a car he owned crashed into a tree on South York Road in [[Hatboro, Pennsylvania|Hatboro]] with his daughter, then Mrs. Bowers, in it, he was living at the English Village Apartments in [[Horsham Township, Pennsylvania|Horsham]]; in September 1971 he bought a property in [[Chalfont, Pennsylvania|Chalfont]] from Karl R. Zuch for 36,400 dollars, and in July 1973 the Chalfont borough council approved the division of land he owned on Oak Avenue into three lots.[^12][^13][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### 523 North Main Street
|
||||
### North Main Street
|
||||
|
||||
The house at 523 North Main Street, Chalfont, was the address his son gave in December 1972 when, as "Raymond C. Hoersch, Jr.," he sued the Secretary of the Army to void his call to active duty, and in December 1974, when the [[United States Secret Service]] arrested the son for counterfeiting, officials described it as his parents' home, where he had been living recently.[^15][^16] On August 20, 1973, a Cessna 210A, registration N1437J, was registered to "Hoersch Raymond C" at that address; the registration was cancelled on July 11, 1984. On July 26, 1981, while the son was living in [[New Zealand]] under a false identity, the aircraft lost power in its initial climb from [[Doylestown Airport]] and was brought back for a wheels-up landing; the [[National Transportation Safety Board]] recorded the pilot in command as 62 years old, an engineer holding a commercial certificate, with a minor injury.[^17][^18] His son said in 2013 that while he was a fugitive [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agents obtained his father's telephone records about once a year and traced every long-distance call, "which it never was, even though I was in pretty good contact with my father the whole time," and that the father was notified after each search, which let the son track the investigation. R.C. Horsch also said that his own son, then three, "was missing seeing his grandparents" when he decided to surrender in 1984.[^19] At 7:50 p.m. on November 19, 1991, walking home in dark clothing along a dimly lit stretch of Main Street near Peace Valley Road in Chalfont, he was struck by a car; borough police said he was hearing-impaired and "technically" jaywalking. He was flown by helicopter to [[Hahnemann University Hospital]] with head injuries and two broken legs and was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. on November 20, at 73. His death notice names his wife Clara, his son Raymond of Chalfont, his daughters Helen M. Mitchell of Chalfont and Virginia E. of [[Souderton, Pennsylvania|Souderton]], his sister [[Helen M. Hoersch|Helen M.]] of Philadelphia, and four grandchildren, and asked for remembrances to [[Doylestown Hospital]]; the funeral was held at the Decker Funeral Home in [[Warminster, Pennsylvania|Warminster]], with interment at [[Hillside Cemetery]].[^20][^21] In June 2026 the *Inquirer* reported that investigators searching the Olney house had found what appeared to be urns holding remains, "one set of which was apparently his father's."[^22] In September police said they believed three of the five urns found in the house held the ashes of R.C. Horsch, his sister, and a friend, and that two were unidentified.[^23]
|
||||
The house on North Main Street, Chalfont, was the address his son gave in December 1972 when, as "Raymond C. Hoersch, Jr.," he sued the Secretary of the Army to void his call to active duty, and in December 1974, when the [[United States Secret Service]] arrested the son for counterfeiting, officials described it as his parents' home, where he had been living recently.[^15][^16] On August 20, 1973, a Cessna 210A, registration N1437J, was registered to "Hoersch Raymond C" at that address; the registration was cancelled on July 11, 1984. On July 26, 1981, while the son was living in [[New Zealand]] under a false identity, the aircraft lost power in its initial climb from [[Doylestown Airport]] and was brought back for a wheels-up landing; the [[National Transportation Safety Board]] recorded the pilot in command as 62 years old, an engineer holding a commercial certificate, with a minor injury.[^17][^18] His son said in 2013 that while he was a fugitive [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agents obtained his father's telephone records about once a year and traced every long-distance call, "which it never was, even though I was in pretty good contact with my father the whole time," and that the father was notified after each search, which let the son track the investigation. R.C. Horsch also said that his own son, then three, "was missing seeing his grandparents" when he decided to surrender in 1984.[^19] At 7:50 p.m. on November 19, 1991, walking home in dark clothing along a dimly lit stretch of Main Street near Peace Valley Road in Chalfont, he was struck by a car; borough police said he was hearing-impaired and "technically" jaywalking. He was flown by helicopter to [[Hahnemann University Hospital]] with head injuries and two broken legs and was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. on November 20, at 73. His death notice names his wife Clara, his son Raymond of Chalfont, his daughters Helen M. Mitchell of Chalfont and Virginia E. of [[Souderton, Pennsylvania|Souderton]], his sister [[Helen M. Hoersch|Helen M.]] of Philadelphia, and four grandchildren, and asked for remembrances to [[Doylestown Hospital]]; the funeral was held at the Decker Funeral Home in [[Warminster, Pennsylvania|Warminster]], with interment at [[Hillside Cemetery]].[^20][^21] In June 2026 the *Inquirer* reported that investigators searching the Olney house had found what appeared to be urns holding remains, "one set of which was apparently his father's."[^22] In September police said they believed three of the five urns found in the house held the ashes of R.C. Horsch, his sister, and a friend, and that two were unidentified.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 08:39 to 10:20 and 26:01 to 27:14. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/13/ray-horsch-2/
|
||||
[^2]: "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 3, 1972, p. 10 ("father of Albert Jr., Raymond C., Helen M Hoersch, 417 W. Chew st."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/
|
||||
[^2]: "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 3, 1972, p. 10 ("father of Albert Jr., Raymond C., Helen M Hoersch, W. Chew st."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/
|
||||
[^3]: "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
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File and Social Security Death Index, "Raymond Hoersch," born August 17, 1918, died November 20, 1991; World War II draft registration card, Raymond Charles Hoersch, born August 17, 1918, Philadelphia (all via Ancestry.com), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/
|
||||
[^5]: [Notice seeking former World War II glider pilots], *The Times Leader* (Wilkes-Barre), January 29, 1979, p. 36; the same notice ran in *The Mountaintop Eagle* and *The Miner* (Carbondale) in January and February 1979. https://www.newspapers.com/image/407620980/
|
||||
[^6]: The marriage is inferred rather than stated in any one document: Cecilia T. Hagerty's obituary of 1991 names her daughter "Clara Hoersch of Chalfont"; he bought property in Chalfont in 1971 and lived at 523 North Main Street there; and the *Pocono Record* in 1969 listed "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hoersch" among the Hagerty children and grandchildren. "Cecilia T. Hagerty," obituary, *The Morning Call,* October 26, 1991, p. 115, https://www.newspapers.com/image/283774999/; *Pocono Record,* September 26, 1969, p. 6, https://www.newspapers.com/image/40464241/
|
||||
[^6]: The marriage is inferred rather than stated in any one document: Cecilia T. Hagerty's obituary of 1991 names her daughter "Clara Hoersch of Chalfont"; he bought property in Chalfont in 1971 and lived on North Main Street there; and the *Pocono Record* in 1969 listed "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hoersch" among the Hagerty children and grandchildren. "Cecilia T. Hagerty," obituary, *The Morning Call,* October 26, 1991, p. 115, https://www.newspapers.com/image/283774999/; *Pocono Record,* September 26, 1969, p. 6, https://www.newspapers.com/image/40464241/
|
||||
[^7]: "Cecilia T. Hagerty," obituary, *The Morning Call,* October 26, 1991, p. 115 ("Daughter, Clara Hoersch of Chalfont, Bucks County"). https://www.newspapers.com/image/283774999/
|
||||
[^8]: [Social column], *The Daily Intelligencer* (Doylestown), January 10, 1955, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40163522/
|
||||
[^9]: [Classified advertisement, "Draftsman, Mechanical Design"], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* May 12, 1964, p. 42. Whether the firm was the father's or the son's is not stated. https://www.newspapers.com/image/180608119/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- X1
|
||||
- Régina Louf
|
||||
- Louf
|
||||
category: "Victims & Witnesses"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- KeyFigure
|
||||
|
|
@ -8,53 +10,164 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Belgium
|
||||
- Dutroux
|
||||
- Witness
|
||||
summary: "Ghent woman who, as the anonymous witness X1 in the Dutroux inquiry, described childhood prostitution and murders at elite parties; prosecutors closed the related files in April 1998."
|
||||
- XWitnesses
|
||||
- BelgiumScandals
|
||||
summary: "Ghent-born witness X1 in the Dutroux inquiry, who named herself in 1998 and described childhood prostitution and murders at elite parties; prosecutors closed the related files in April 1998."
|
||||
born: 1969
|
||||
location: "Ghent, Belgium"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[X-Dossier]]"
|
||||
start: 1996
|
||||
start: 1996-09
|
||||
end: 1998-04-23
|
||||
role: "witness X1"
|
||||
role: "witness X1, whose statements opened the related files"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Jean-Marc Connerotte]]"
|
||||
start: 1996-09
|
||||
end: 1996-10-14
|
||||
role: "witness who came forward after the judge's public appeal for victims"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Anne Thily]]"
|
||||
start: 2002-01-16
|
||||
end: 2002-01-16
|
||||
role: "named in the prosecutor-general's statements to BBC journalists"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Regina Louf, born in Ghent in 1969, was the witness known as X1 in the investigation opened at Neufchâteau after the arrest of [[Marc Dutroux]] in August 1996. The investigating judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]] had set up a free telephone line for information on child abuse; a Dutch-speaking caller, Tania, a friend of Louf's, reached the gendarme [[Patrick De Baets]], who, according to the Senate proposal of 2000, was in Connerotte's office at the time, and after some days Louf herself contacted him. A special cell of the Brussels BSR under De Baets questioned her, with every interview videotaped and summarized in French for Neufchâteau, while senior gendarmerie officers and magistrates watched from behind glass. Her statements opened a series of "related files," the [[X-Dossier]].[^1]
|
||||
Regina Louf, born in [[Ghent]] on January 29, 1969 and moved to [[Knokke-Heist]] to her grandmother at the age of eighteen months, by her own account,[^1] was the witness known as X1 in the investigation opened at Neufchâteau after the arrest of [[Marc Dutroux]] in August 1996. The Observer reported that she was the first of ten people to come forward after the investigating judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]] appealed to victims to speak to the police.[^2] Her statements opened a series of "related files" (dossiers connexes), the [[X-Dossier]]. In 1998 she gave up her anonymity and published her account as a book, and her credibility was disputed repeatedly in official and press accounts thereafter.[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Witness X1
|
||||
|
||||
According to the Senate proposal of October 9, 2000, the first contact came through a telephone line that Connerotte had opened for people with information on child abuse. A Dutch-speaking caller said that a friend knew of grave abuse of children. The gendarme [[Patrick De Baets]] was in Connerotte's office to report on his financial inquiry into the assets of Dutroux and took the call because of the language. After some days the friend contacted De Baets, and a special cell of the [[Brussels]] criminal investigation brigade (BSR) under De Baets questioned her. The interviews were videotaped and each was summarized in French for the Neufchâteau magistrates, while senior gendarmerie officers and magistrates watched from behind glass.[^3] She was questioned at length thirteen times under the code name X1.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The parliamentary commission's complementary report of February 16, 1998 gives a different account of the first contact. It records that a friend of the Dutch-speaking anonymous witness telephoned Connerotte, who put her in contact with a Dutch-speaking investigator of the third section (3e SRC) of the Brussels BSR and then issued a written instruction (apostille) to question her. The same passage records that the 3e SRC members were assigned to the related files of September 1996 on the basis of this witness's statements, under files 109/96, 110/96, 111/96, 136/96 and 139/96.[^5] The commission records that the Neufchâteau antenna was set up in separate premises shortly after November 25, 1996, under the command of [[Jean-Luc Duterme]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The commission's complementary report adds that the Brussels BSR members came into the inquiry by chance, that the antenna had 32 members in five teams under one coordinator, and that the related files 109/96, 110/96, 111/96, 136/96 and 139/96 were opened at the end of September 1996.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### How X1 Began
|
||||
|
||||
According to Bulté, De Coninck and Van Heeswyck, Operation Bagou was formally opened on September 19, 1996 on an initial report about a man called Tony who had supplied children in the 1980s. Her friend gave De Baets a manuscript of 1989 titled "Levenslang" (Life sentence), signed "Regina Louf, december 1989", which was largely reused in her 1998 book. Louf agreed to one interview and withdrew; a Ghent therapist telephoned the BOB to say that her patient suffered from dissociative disorders; a legal frame for anonymous testimony was agreed with the prosecutor [[Michel Bourlet]], and the code X1 was assigned. On September 20, 1996 she telephoned De Baets: "I have thought it over." Her parting words to him, as the authors quote them, were that he would never be able to say she had not warned him: "They will not let you do it."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Her Account
|
||||
|
||||
She was questioned at length thirteen times under the code name X1. She summarized her family background in two sentences: "My mother was abused by her father, a police commissioner in Knokke. I was rented out by my mother, with my father's knowledge."[^2] The writer S. Dovey wrote that Louf said that from early childhood she had been prostituted by her grandmother, [[Cecile Beernaert]], at a villa in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], that at about twelve she was handed to a pimp, [[Tony Van den Boggaert|Tony Van den Bogaert]], who took her to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], and that the parties moved from sex to torture and murder. Among those she named as clients or participants were the former prime minister [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and members of the Lippens family, [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. She said she had witnessed the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]] in the abandoned mushroom farm at Auderghem, naming Dutroux, Nihoul, [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]], and the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]] after childbirth. She described a factory site that investigators connected to [[ASCO Industries NV]], a villa at Faulx-les-Tombes and parties on the Avenue Louise.[^3] She published her account as *Zwijgen is voor daders* in 1998.[^3]
|
||||
Louf summarized her family background in two sentences given to [[Der Spiegel]]: "My mother was abused by her father, a police commissioner in Knokke. I was rented out by my mother, with my father's knowledge."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Investigation of Her Testimony
|
||||
The writer S. Dovey wrote that Louf said that from early childhood she had been prostituted by her grandmother, [[Cecile Beernaert]], at a villa in Knokke-Heist near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]]. At about twelve, Dovey wrote, she was handed to a pimp, [[Tony Van den Boggaert|Tony Van den Bogaert]], who took her to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], and the parties moved from sex to torture and murder. Among the clients and participants she named were the former prime minister [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and members of the Lippens family, [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. Dovey wrote that she said she had witnessed the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]] in an abandoned mushroom farm at [[Auderghem]], naming Dutroux, Nihoul, [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]] as present, and the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]] after childbirth. She described a factory site that investigators connected to [[ASCO Industries NV]], a villa at [[Faulx-les-Tombes]], and parties on the [[Avenue Louise]].[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Her account of Van Hees led the Brussels gendarme Aimé Bille to the unsolved file, and he found that the earlier investigation under the investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]] had "multiple gaps." Her statements led to the reopening of the murders of Van Hees, Dellaert, [[Veronique Dubrulle]], [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and Hanim Ayse Mazibas. A psychiatric report on her by Professor Igodt of the Catholic University of Leuven was read so differently by others that its author publicly urged "extreme caution" about the concrete details of her testimony while calling them "useful data" for further investigation.[^1]
|
||||
The Observer reported in 2002 that Louf had told a police team in 1996, under filmed and supervised conditions, that her regular clients included judges, one of the country's most powerful politicians (since dead) and a prominent banker, and that the parties involved sadism, torture and murder. The same paper reported that from the age of twelve she had been "given" by her parents to a family friend who had a key to their house and collected her from school.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The parliamentary commission's complementary report of February 16, 1998 gives a different account of the first contact. It records that a friend of the Dutch-speaking anonymous witness telephoned Judge Connerotte, who put her in contact with a Dutch-speaking investigator of the Brussels 3e SRC and then issued a written instruction to that investigator to question her. The same passage records that the 3e SRC investigators were assigned to the related files of September 1996 on the basis of this witness's statements, under files 109/96, 110/96, 111/96, 136/96 and 139/96.[^4]
|
||||
The 1998 book in which she set out her account was *Zwijgen is voor daders. De getuigenis van X1* (Silence is for perpetrators: the testimony of X1), published by Houtekiet / Linkeroever Uitgevers.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
After Connerotte was removed from the Dutroux case in October 1996 and replaced by Judge Jacques Langlois, the cell came under a Mr. Duterme, who from April 1997 had De Baets's colleagues reread the interviews and report on her credibility and on possible manipulation by De Baets's team; the first report, very negative for De Baets, totally lacked credibility, and a second was ordered. In the summer of 1997 Langlois ordered a complete rereading of all the related files and removed De Baets and Bille from the investigation. A criminal investigation of the two gendarmes by Judge Pignolet was dropped and a gendarmerie disciplinary inquiry acquitted them completely; they then filed more than eighty complaints alleging that reports in the rereading had been falsified.[^1]
|
||||
### Checking of Her Statements
|
||||
|
||||
In January 1998 Louf gave up her anonymity, in part to protest the stalling of the inquiry, amid a press campaign against her fed by leaks from police and judicial circles. On April 23, 1998, the day Dutroux escaped, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels decided that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files. According to the Senate proposal, the same day, in a confrontation with Louf, the man it describes as her "so-called protector" admitted that he had had sex with her when she was twelve, with her parents' knowledge, and had once lent her to others; the admission was not pursued, the acts being time-barred.[^1] *The Observer* reported in 2002 that her parents had told police that a family friend in his forties, Tony Van den Bogaert, had a key to their home and unlimited access to their twelve-year-old daughter, that he had himself admitted his relationship with Louf to police, and that the RTBF program *Au Nom de la Loi* presented the parents as victims of a fantasist without mentioning either.[^5]
|
||||
The Senate proposal states that her account of the 1984 Auderghem murder led the Brussels gendarme [[Aimé Bille]] to the unsolved file, and that he found that the earlier investigation under the investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]] had "multiple gaps." Her statements led to the reopening of the murders of Van Hees, Dellaert, [[Veronique Dubrulle]], [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and Hanim Ayse Mazibas.[^3] A psychiatric report on her by Professor Igodt of the Catholic University of Leuven was read so differently by others that its author publicly urged "extreme caution" about the concrete details of her testimony while calling them "useful data" for further investigation.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 11, 1997 the Neufchâteau investigating judge ordered a general rereading of all the related files except file 110/96. His service note for file 109 prescribed, among other steps, a reread on an adversarial basis and a list of steps aimed at making the X witnesses credible (visant à crédibiliser les X).[^6]
|
||||
The Observer reported that by the time the team was dismissed the police believed they had verified key elements of her account, and quoted the gendarme Rudi Hoskens, assigned to re-examine the unsolved case, as saying that she gave details "impossible to give without having been there": the way the body was found and the way she described the person killed. The paper wrote that in 1996 she described to the team the intricate interior of the mushroom farm (wallpaper, sinks, ceiling hooks, a network of stairs and adjoining rooms), and that the son of the farm's former owner, shown her description, said she could not have described the house as well unless she had been there.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 3, 1997 the antenna head [[Jean-Luc Duterme]] told the commander of the Brussels BSR that he could no longer work with the team that had conducted the interviews of an anonymous witness. The commission records that his note said the five victims heard so far had yielded little that could objectify their statements, despite all the investigative measures taken.[^7] A [[Zembla]] programme description of March 18, 2004 states that the gendarmerie leadership judged after some months that the inquiry had been wrongly conducted and that the investigators were suspected of falsifying a procès-verbal, and that three years later an internal gendarmerie commission reported that they had done their work with integrity and professionally.[^8]
|
||||
The parliamentary commission's complementary report records that its councillor-investigator Marique, instructed to look for mechanisms protecting Jean-Michel Nihoul and Dutroux in this unsolved murder, was informed that an anonymous witness had associated Nihoul and [[Annie Bouty]] with it. It records that Van Espen, who had conducted the original investigation in the 1980s, reacted violently to Marique's contact with antenna investigators, and that antenna members criticised the 1980s investigation by the Brussels judicial police.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
[[La Libre Belgique]] reported in 2004 that her account was recorded over more than 1,500 pages, that magistrates in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Neufchâteau stated at a press conference on January 30, 1998 that no element of proof supported the witnesses' statements, and that on March 17, 2000 it became known that semen recovered from Van Hees's body matched neither Nihoul nor any known suspect, which the paper described as destroying the credit of X1 on the point; it adds that the chambre du conseil at Neufchâteau removed the Louf file from the prosecutor's office on October 30, 2003.[^9] A Zembla programme description of March 11, 2004 states that X1 had "daderkennis" (knowledge of the perpetrators) in the Van Hees and Dellaert cases and that the gendarmerie confirmed much of what she said; it states also that Dutroux's lawyer asked that she be heard at the Arlon trial.[^10] [[Michel Clippe]], a former adjudant of the Brussels BSR, told La Dernière Heure in 2020 that he was able to verify a great deal of what she said.[^11] On November 27, 2002 the [[Chamber of Representatives]]' justice committee tabled motions on an interpellation by [[Vincent Decroly]] on statements by the Liège prosecutor-general [[Anne Thily]] to BBC journalists about Louf; Decroly's recommendation called the statements mendacious and disqualifying and asked for a disciplinary file against Thily over her BBC statements of January 16, 2002.[^12]
|
||||
### The Book Record
|
||||
|
||||
Bulté, De Coninck and Van Heeswyck wrote that Louf has been pilloried abroad for statements she never made: that she described satanic rituals and accused members of the royal family. In reality, they wrote, she never said anything of the kind, and X3 did.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
They report that on March 20, 1997, instead of a planned operation at 43 addresses, a single search was carried out, at Louf's rented house in Ghent, by a BOB team on the order of Van Espen. The team seized a video, a press clipping, a notebook, fax copies, four family albums and notes on her personalities. Louf is quoted as saying: "I hope that next time you raid the perpetrators!"[^11] A Neufchâteau magistrate had planned to go on interviewing her for two or three years with parallel verification.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The same book records that in early 1998 Professor Igodt, whose report on her had described her as borderline, protested on RTL-TVi against one-sided readings and called her "an exceptionally balanced woman whose testimony can indeed have its importance."[^12] On April 5, 1998, fourteen months after a photo identification, the BOB investigators De Pauw and Verhaeghen showed her twenty photographs of Turkish girls, and the authors report that she picked out the correct photograph of a murdered girl whose picture had not yet appeared in the press; her statements were deemed worthless shortly after.[^13] The investigators of the Antwerp case of Katrien de Cuyper told the authors: "In the beginning we believed this testimony. We are not ashamed of it. There were elements that were inexplicable for us, unless she had been there."[^14] A former Neufchâteau investigator told them that everything else in X1's story could be dropped for his part, but that he could not understand the mushroom farm file: "Those are facts."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 21, 1998 the justice minister [[Tony Van Parys]] told the Chamber that the investigating judge Vincke closed the X1 track at the end of April 1998 on the basis of the conclusions of the coordination meetings with the magistrates of Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels.[^16] The Ghent prosecutor Jean Soenen told a press conference that all the girls' names she had known in her circuit were found to be old schoolmates and classmates, whose accounts the press release called pure fantasy; the authors set this against classmates' statements that an older man collected her after school.[^17] They report that the Canada story published by De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad on April 29, 1998 was refuted when her lawyer read the 61-page confrontation report in early 1999 and found that Louf said she knew nothing of a trip to Canada: "The truth is the reverse of what was communicated to the public."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
The authors report that the Brussels substitute prosecutor Paule Somers told De Morgen in spring 1998 that the chance of Dutroux and Van Hees having met at the skating rink was "very small," and note that the search at Marcinelle on August 13, 1996 had seized skating-rink schedules, among them those of the Poseidon rink in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe.[^19] They also report that a journalist's book misquoted her interview, turning a "yes" into a "no" and putting the interrogators' words in her mouth, which the journalist called a "small mistake" at a debate in Tubize on March 9, 1999.[^20] A letter to Verwilghen from an elderly Ghent woman, as the authors summarize it, said that in Knokke in November 1944 Louf's grandmother had been jeered at as "the whore madam."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
The authors also report on a 1989 gendarmerie interview-technique course at which Louf took part once as a role-player, where instructors described her as too labile and too emotionally involved and said she seemed to draw on her own experience; De Standaard later reported that she had played a raped woman repeatedly in 1989 and 1990, and the inquiry by Judge Pignolet found one session.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Relecture of Her Statements
|
||||
|
||||
The commission's complementary report describes the rereading (relecture) of the X1 statements in detail. On January 14, 1997 the antenna commander Duterme wrote to the five team leaders that the head of the antenna had to be informed of every initiative toward magistrates that exceeded the antenna's capacity, and of every change in the direction of an inquiry. The commission describes this requirement as the point of dispute between investigators who had worked directly with the magistrates and those who worked through the antenna head.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 3, 1997 Duterme sent a note to the commander of the Brussels BSR stating that he could no longer work with the team that had conducted the interviews of the anonymous witness. The note accused one investigator of manipulation and of lacking objectivity, and complained of that investigator's direct contact with the prosecutor Michel Bourlet. The note nevertheless said that a disciplinary inquiry would be inopportune at that stage, since the investigator's position in the inquiry was important. The same note reported that the five victims heard by the antenna had yielded nothing that could objectify their statements, despite all the investigative measures taken. Duterme also recorded that he had assigned another team to reread the statements of the anonymous witness relating to the Brussels file, which had been reopened at the end of January 1997 before the same investigating judge who had led it in the 1980s.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
The Senate proposal describes the same period from the side of De Baets's team. From April 1997 the tension between Duterme and De Baets rose. Duterme asked colleagues of De Baets to reread the interviews and report on the credibility of the witness's statements and on possible manipulation of the interviews by De Baets's team. The first report, which the proposal describes as very negative for De Baets, itself totally lacked credibility, so a second reading was ordered.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 22, 1997 the Brussels investigating judge Jean-Claude Van Espen withdrew his confidence from the antenna's team, suspended the investigative acts it was carrying out on his instructions, and asked that it be restructured. The commission notes that the team had carried out about 250 of his instructions without any comment from him on their quality.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 11, 1997 the Neufchâteau investigating judge ordered a general rereading of all the related files except file 110/96, to be carried out by investigators other than those who had conducted the interviews. His service note for file 109 prescribed a reread on an adversarial basis, with further interviews where necessary, and a list of steps aimed at making the X witnesses credible (*crédibiliser les X*).[^24] The commission's figures show the effect on the unsolved murder file. From October 24, 1996 to June 24, 1997 it had been fed with some twenty reports a week; from June 24, 1997 the average fell to one a week.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
On February 16, 1998 the commission reported that the rereading was still not finished, although it had been announced as nearly complete several times.[^26] The Senate proposal states that in the summer of 1997 the Neufchâteau judge [[Jacques Langlois]] ordered a complete rereading of all the related files and removed De Baets and Bille from the investigation.[^3] The commission records that on July 14, 1997 Duterme told the antenna that the Ghent prosecutor no longer wished to use its investigators for his related file, that the Brussels judge had suspended his acts and that the Neufchâteau judge had ordered the rereading, and that the targeted team was therefore stood down. On September 2, 1997 the Neufchâteau judge wrote in principle against their definitive removal until they had been able to answer the complaints.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
The Senate proposal states that the rereading was closed a week after the commission deposited its report, and that the file then went to the Neufchâteau judge Jacques Langlois and the Brussels prosecutor-general, who had not yet drawn conclusions on the position of De Baets and of the gendarme Aimé Bille.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On the removal of the two investigators, the Senate proposal states that the inquiry into them by the investigating judge [[Pignolet|Judge Pignolet]] was closed without further action, and that a gendarmerie disciplinary inquiry acquitted them completely. The proposal records that once they obtained access to the rereading files they found that procès-verbaux had been falsified, and that they filed more than eighty complaints for calumny, defamation and forgery against colleagues and magistrates.[^3] The [[Zembla]] programme of March 18, 2004 states that the gendarmerie leadership judged after some months that the inquiry had been conducted incorrectly, that the investigators were suspected of falsifying a procès-verbal, and that three years later an internal gendarmerie commission reported that they had done their work with integrity and professionally.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### Public Identity and the Press
|
||||
|
||||
Louf gave up her anonymity in January 1998, in part to protest the stalling of the inquiry and amid a press campaign against her. The Senate proposal attributes part of that campaign to leaks from police and judicial circles.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The Observer reported in 2002 that the Belgian public broadcaster RTBF's current affairs programme [[Au Nom de la Loi]] presented her parents as victims of a fantasist. In the Observer's account, the parents had already told the police that a family friend in his forties had a key to their home and unlimited access to their twelve-year-old daughter, and the friend had himself admitted a relationship with her to the police. The programme mentioned neither point.[^2] The Senate proposal reports, separately, that a man it calls her "so-called protector" admitted on April 23, 1998, in a confrontation with Louf, that he had had sex with her when she was twelve, with her parents' knowledge, and had once lent her to others. The proposal states that the admission was not pursued because the acts were time-barred, and it does not name him. According to Bulté, De Coninck and Van Heeswyck, the man signed a statement admitting a relationship when she was twelve, lasting a little under a year, and at the confrontation said it was between her fourteenth and sixteenth years; the final report of the Ghent BOB of June 2, 1998 concluded that between the ages of twelve and sixteen she had a sexual relationship with a much older adult man, and the Ghent prosecutor's press release then put her age at about fourteen to fifteen.[^3][^27]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 30, 1998 magistrates charged with verifying the witnesses' statements in the districts of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Neufchâteau held an exceptional press conference at which they stated that no element of proof supported the witnesses' statements, which also contained many contradictions. [[La Libre Belgique]] reported this in 2004 and added that her account had been recorded over more than 1,500 pages.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
On April 23, 1998, the day Dutroux briefly escaped, the prosecutors-general of [[Antwerp]], Ghent and Brussels decided that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files, except the main file before Langlois.[^3][^29]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 17, 2000 La Libre Belgique reported that semen recovered from the body of Van Hees had been analyzed and matched neither Nihoul nor any known suspect in the Dutroux affair. The paper described this as destroying the credit of X1 on the point. The same article reports that the chambre du conseil at Neufchâteau removed the Louf file, which it called the most emblematic of the X witnesses, from the prosecutor's office on October 30, 2003.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
The commission's conclusions of February 16, 1998 state that the antenna's head took decisions that were not his to take, namely the rereading of the files and the designation, with exclusions, of the investigators to carry it out, which the Neufchâteau judge later endorsed without fixing any deadline; that the Brussels judge gave disproportionate weight to the Marique contacts; and that the commission, with the data it had, could not say whether the antenna's problems were related to protection mechanisms. It stated that only the judicial inquiry or an inquiry into the inquiry (a parliamentary commission or the chambre des mises en accusation) concerning the murder could settle the matter, and that clarity was required.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
### Official Positions and Later Statements
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Chamber of Representatives]] took up the matter repeatedly in 1998. On May 13, 1998 a recommendation on an interpellation by [[Frans Lozie]] asked the government to inform the president of the former Dutroux commission without delay of the conclusions the investigators drew from the rereading of the X1 interviews.[^31] On October 21, 1998 the Chamber's motions included an interpellation by [[Marc Verwilghen]], who had chaired the parliamentary commission, on the claim that the high command of the gendarmerie had misled the judiciary in the related files.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Liège]] prosecutor-general [[Anne Thily]] held the official position on the witness. In 2002 she told the Observer's reporter that Louf was a fantasist who had invented everything, a view the paper described as the official line in Belgium.[^2] On January 16, 2002 Thily made statements about Louf to [[BBC]] journalists. On November 27, 2002 the Chamber's justice committee tabled motions on an interpellation by [[Vincent Decroly]]. The recommendation called Thily's statements "mendacious and disqualifying", stated that Louf was proven to have suffered repeated and serious sexual abuse, and asked that a disciplinary file be opened against Thily over her BBC statements. A pure and simple motion, signed by Jacqueline Herzet and Yolande Avontroodt, proposed moving to the order of the day.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michel Clippe]], a former adjudant of the Brussels BSR, told [[La Dernière Heure]] in 2020 that his checks after Louf's statements allowed him to verify a great deal of what she said.[^33] A Zembla programme description of March 11, 2004 states that X1 had "daderkennis" (knowledge of the perpetrators) in the Van Hees and Dellaert cases and that the gendarmerie confirmed much of what she said; it states also that Dutroux's lawyer asked that she be heard at the Arlon trial.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
In March 2020, at the age of 51, Louf gave an interview to La Dernière Heure, the first in more than twenty years in which she spoke about her testimony. Asked how she regarded her testimony as X1, she said: "I was far too young and far too vulnerable when I testified. I was a young mother, just at the start of a long and difficult process, and suddenly I had to testify about situations I could not yet handle emotionally."[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
### Closure and the Court Record
|
||||
|
||||
The writer S. Dovey wrote that the Arlon trial of 2004 did not hear the X witnesses.[^8] The Observer had reported in 2002 that judges had announced that Louf would not be called as a witness in any future trial of Dutroux or his associates.[^2] At the trial the jury split on whether Nihoul had taken part in the kidnappings. The court sent the jury back to consider a lesser charge of complicity in the kidnappings, on which it acquitted him, and the jury convicted him of membership of a gang that smuggled drugs and people into Belgium.[^34] On June 22, 2004 the court sentenced him to five years; Al Jazeera reported that he was acquitted of conspiracy and kidnapping and found guilty of drug trafficking and other crimes.[^35] La Libre Belgique later reported that he received five years for drug trafficking and criminal association.[^36] In November 2007 Belga reported that Nihoul was claiming 250,000 euros in damages from Marc Verwilghen, the former justice minister who had chaired the commission, with hearing set for November 19, and that he planned further summonses against Louf, journalists who supported the network thesis and the Belgian State.[^37] According to the Zembla description of March 11, 2004, Dutroux's lawyer had asked that X1 be heard at the trial.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2020 La Dernière Heure report states that no judicial finding has been made on the account of the man Louf named as her pimp, and that he admitted to having had sexual relations with her when she was twelve and he was thirty-nine.[^33] The paper also reported that her mother had acknowledged that at that time he held a key to the house and came when he wished.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000, développements. https://www.senate.be
|
||||
[^2]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850
|
||||
[^3]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. The underlying accounts are Louf, Regina, *Zwijgen is voor daders. De getuigenis van X1,* Houtekiet / Linkeroever Uitgevers, 1998, 310 pp., ISBN 90-5240-487-9, and Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux,* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, 543 pp., ISBN 90-5240-536-0.
|
||||
[^4]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 152; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
|
||||
[^6]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 157; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, pp. 154-155; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel II," broadcast March 18, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-ii
|
||||
[^9]: Planchar, Roland. "Des 'X' sans crédit." La Libre Belgique, February 16, 2004. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/2004/02/16/des-x-sans-credit-LKLTKQICABBWXKFUTUJNXL6NRY/
|
||||
[^10]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel I," broadcast March 11, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-i
|
||||
[^11]: "Régina Louf, témoin X1 dans l'affaire Dutroux, brise le silence." La Dernière Heure, online, 2020; translated from the French. https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/regina-louf-temoin-x1-dans-l-affaire-dutroux-brise-le-silence-marc-dutroux-libere-je-m-y-prepare-5e652e1e9978e2051e15c16c
|
||||
[^12]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Motions of November 27, 2002, DOC 50 0025/415; translated from the French and Dutch. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/Pdf/50/0025/50K0025415.pdf
|
||||
[^1]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 139 (interview with Louf); in Dutch: "Geboren in Gent op 29 januari 1969 en verhuisd naar Knokke, bij mijn grootmoeder, toen ik anderhalf jaar oud was."
|
||||
[^2]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
|
||||
[^3]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000, développements; translated from the French. https://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/publications/viewPub.html&COLL=S&LEG=2&NR=563&VOLGNR=1&LANG=fr
|
||||
[^4]: Louf, Regina. *Zwijgen is voor daders. De getuigenis van X1.* Houtekiet / Linkeroever Uitgevers, 1998, 310 pp., ISBN 90-5240-487-9. https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9052404879
|
||||
[^5]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 152; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 134 and notes; Dutch: "Ik heb me bedacht"; "Ze zullen u niet laten doen."
|
||||
[^7]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850
|
||||
[^8]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Dovey draws on Louf, *Zwijgen is voor daders* (1998), and Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux,* Houtekiet, 1999.
|
||||
[^9]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 150; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^10]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 323; Dutch: "In werkelijkheid heeft ze nooit iets van die strekking verklaard. X3 deed dat wel."
|
||||
[^11]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 353 (search of March 20, 1997, report 150.822).
|
||||
[^12]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 354; Dutch: "een uitzonderlijk evenwichtige vrouw wier getuigenis wel degelijk haar belang kan hebben."
|
||||
[^13]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 376.
|
||||
[^14]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, chapter on the De Cuyper case, after p. 381; Dutch: "In het begin geloofden wij in deze getuigenis."
|
||||
[^15]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, after p. 234; Dutch: "Dat zijn feiten."
|
||||
[^16]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 501 (Chamber interpellation of October 21, 1998).
|
||||
[^17]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 502.
|
||||
[^18]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, pp. 483-484; Dutch: "De waarheid is omgekeerd aan diegene die aan de publieke opinie is medegedeeld."
|
||||
[^19]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 234 and following; Dutch: "is wel zeer klein."
|
||||
[^20]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 417.
|
||||
[^21]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, the letter to Marc Verwilghen printed in the book (unnumbered leaf); Dutch: "de hoerenmadam."
|
||||
[^22]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, p. 527.
|
||||
[^23]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, pp. 153-155 (January 14, 1997 letter; June 3, 1997 note); translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^24]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, pp. 156-157 (June 22, 1997 suspension; July 11, 1997 rereading order); translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel II," broadcast March 18, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-ii
|
||||
[^26]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel I," broadcast March 11, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-i
|
||||
[^27]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, pp. 513-514, notes p. 521.
|
||||
[^28]: Planchar, Roland. "Des 'X' sans crédit." *La Libre Belgique,* February 16, 2004. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/2004/02/16/des-x-sans-credit-LKLTKQICABBWXKFUTUJNXL6NRY/
|
||||
[^29]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Motions of November 27, 2002 on the interpellation of Vincent Decroly, DOC 50 0025/415; translated from the French and Dutch. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/Pdf/50/0025/50K0025415.pdf
|
||||
[^30]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, section 3, "Conclusion," pp. 159-161; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^31]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Motions of May 13, 1998 on the interpellation of Frans Lozie, Doc. 25/339-1995; translated from the French and Dutch. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0025/49K0025339.pdf
|
||||
[^32]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Motions of October 21, 1998 on the interpellations of Marc Verwilghen, Frans Lozie, Gerolf Annemans, Charles Janssens and Vincent Decroly, Doc. 25/370-1995, interpellation no. 2063; translated from the French and Dutch. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0025/49K0025370.pdf
|
||||
[^33]: "Régina Louf, témoin X1 dans l'affaire Dutroux, brise le silence." La Dernière Heure, online, 2020; interview with Louf and statement of Michel Clippe; translated from the French. https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/regina-louf-temoin-x1-dans-l-affaire-dutroux-brise-le-silence-marc-dutroux-libere-je-m-y-prepare-5e652e1e9978e2051e15c16c
|
||||
[^34]: Associated Press. "Notorious child rapist-murderer convicted." NBC News, June 17, 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/5233011
|
||||
[^35]: "'Most hated' Belgian in jail for life." Al Jazeera, June 22, 2004. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/6/22/most-hated-belgian-in-jail-for-life
|
||||
[^36]: "Michel Nihoul est décédé." *La Libre Belgique,* October 23, 2019; translated from the French. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/societe/michel-nihoul-est-decede-5db04ec39978e218e36b29be
|
||||
[^37]: "Michel Nihoul traîne Verwilghen en justice." Belga, in *La Libre Belgique,* November 9, 2007; translated from the French. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/michel-nihoul-traine-verwilghen-en-justice-51b89661e4b0de6db9b0d7fd
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,15 +4,24 @@ aliases:
|
|||
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
summary: "Jung remarked on how some age-old mysteries never change, and that attempts to explain away seemingly miraculous results often fail against the facts."
|
||||
summary: "Robert A. McConnell (1914-2006) was a physicist in Pittsburgh who sent Wolfgang Pauli his work on extrasensory perception in 1950 and corresponded with him about ESP experiments in 1954."
|
||||
born: 1914-04-06
|
||||
died: 2006-07-31
|
||||
location: "Pennsylvania, USA"
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Robert A. McConnell was a physicist who authored the paper "ESP - Fact or Fancy?" His work was discussed by Nobel Laureate [[Wolfgang Pauli]] and psychiatrist [[Carl Jung]], who had a lively conversation about [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] in the early 1950s[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
Jung remarked on how some age-old mysteries never change, and that attempts to explain away seemingly miraculous results often fail against the facts. McConnell's paper contributed to the ongoing debate about the reality and nature of anomalous mental phenomena[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
### Correspondence with Pauli
|
||||
|
||||
The archive of Pauli's papers at [[CERN]] holds three letters between McConnell and Pauli. McConnell wrote from [[Pittsburgh]] on September 28, 1950, sending a reprint on ESP and mentioning his work on psychokinetic effects.[^2] Pauli wrote to McConnell on October 14, 1954, and according to the archive's description referred to the ideas of [[G. D. Wassermann]] on "mental patterns", which resemble Jung's archetypes, and asked McConnell a specific question about ESP experiments.[^3] McConnell replied on October 22, 1954, giving Wassermann's address in England and answering the question about the tests.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
|
||||
[^2]: CERN Archives, Pauli Archive, Letter-1155, Letter from McConnell to Pauli, September 28, 1950, https://archives.cern.ch/index.php/letter-1155.
|
||||
[^3]: CERN Archives, Pauli Archive, Letter-1892, Letter from Pauli to McConnell, October 14, 1954, CERN-ARCH-PMC-06-255, https://archives.cern.ch/index.php/letter-1892.
|
||||
[^4]: CERN Archives, Pauli Archive, Letter-1898, Letter from McConnell to Pauli, October 22, 1954, https://archives.cern.ch/index.php/letter-1898.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,26 +7,146 @@ tags:
|
|||
- FilmDistribution
|
||||
- NewYork
|
||||
- RCHorsch
|
||||
summary: "New York pornographic film distributor, named by R.C. Horsch as the head of Mature Pictures, to whom Horsch said he sold his 1973 feature for 50,000 dollars."
|
||||
- MaturePictures
|
||||
- SamLakeEnterprises
|
||||
- QualityX
|
||||
summary: "New York film distributor, head of Gotham Releasing and Sam Lake Enterprises, placed at Mature Pictures alongside Robert Sumner and named by R.C. Horsch as buyer of his 1973 feature."
|
||||
location: "New York, New York"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]"
|
||||
role: "distributor of his 1973 feature, according to Horsch"
|
||||
start: 1973
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Mature Pictures]]"
|
||||
role: "named by Horsch as head of the company; placed at the company by Alilunas, citing Revene"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]"
|
||||
start: 1973
|
||||
role: "distributor, according to Horsch"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Paramount Pictures]]"
|
||||
role: "salesman, New York exchange"
|
||||
start: 1942
|
||||
end: 1947
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Selznick Releasing Organization]]"
|
||||
role: "sales representative, New York territory"
|
||||
end: 1948
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Edward Small Productions]]"
|
||||
role: "assistant to sales manager Harry Kosiner"
|
||||
start: 1948
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Premier Pictures Corp.]]"
|
||||
start: 1953
|
||||
role: "formed by Lake, which acquired seven pictures"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Screen Gems]]"
|
||||
role: "general manager, as reported in a 1952 Variety column"
|
||||
start: 1952
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Onyx Pictures]]"
|
||||
start: 1958
|
||||
end: 1960
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Premier Pictures Co.]]"
|
||||
start: 1959
|
||||
end: 1960
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Gotham Releasing Corp.]]"
|
||||
start: 1960
|
||||
end: 1964
|
||||
role: "executive and president"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Sam Lake Enterprises]]"
|
||||
start: 1963
|
||||
end: 1965
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Scorpio '70]]"
|
||||
start: 1970
|
||||
role: "producer, and writer from an idea by Lake"
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
created: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Sam Lake was, according to [[R.C. Horsch]], a [[New York City|New York]] distributor of pornographic films working through the company Mature Pictures. Horsch said that his 1973 feature *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* was sold to Lake for 50,000 dollars, and his website credited the film's distribution to "the legendary Sam Lake (Mature Pictures, Inc.)."[^1][^2]
|
||||
Sam Lake was a [[New York City|New York]] distributor of theatrical films who worked in the trade from the early 1940s through at least 1970. [[R.C. Horsch]] named him as the head of [[Mature Pictures]], and said that his 1973 feature [[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]] was sold to Lake for 50,000 dollars.[^1] Horsch's website credited the film's distribution to "the legendary Sam Lake (Mature Pictures, Inc.)."[^2] The media historian [[Peter Alilunas]] describes Mature Pictures as the New York company of [[Robert Sumner]], and, citing the cinematographer [[Larry Revene]], places Lake there as well.[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1973 Film
|
||||
### Trade Career, 1942 to 1953
|
||||
|
||||
In Horsch's account, the sale was arranged through [[Salvatore La Russa|Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa]], the [[Philadelphia]] bar owner he said had financed most of the film, and through Philadelphia organized crime.[^1] Contemporary trade sources name the company but not Lake. The magazine *Take One* reported in the spring of 1973 that "Bob Sumner's Mature Films in New York followed up Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (starring Ms. Spelvin) with High Rise, which was budgeted at an astronomical $75,000," and the Canadian edition of *Boxoffice* in February 1974 listed the film's distributor as "Mature," with a booking date of October 15, 1973.[^3][^4] No source located explains the relation between Lake and the Bob Sumner named by *Take One*.
|
||||
In June 1942 the trade paper [[Variety]] listed Lake as a salesman for [[Paramount Pictures]] at its New York exchange, and reported that he was to enter the Army that July.[^5] Paramount trade listings in 1946 and 1947 name him again as a Paramount salesman in New York.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In November 1948 Variety reported that Lake had resigned as the New York sales representative of the [[Selznick Releasing Organization]] to become an assistant to [[Harry Kosiner]].[^6] The [[Motion Picture Daily]] announced the appointment the same autumn and described Kosiner as sales manager for [[Edward Small Productions]].[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In February 1952 a Variety column of Los Angeles television items reported that [[Screen Gems]], the television subsidiary of [[Columbia Pictures]], had a new general manager named Sam Lake.[^7] In 1953 Motion Picture Daily reported that [[Premier Pictures Corp.]] had been formed by Lake, who had acquired seven pictures produced by [[William Goetz]] and [[Leo Spitz]] and formerly released by [[RKO Radio Pictures]], and that he would distribute them.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Distribution Companies, 1958 to 1965
|
||||
|
||||
In March 1958 Variety described Lake as "head of the indie distributing firm of [[Onyx Pictures]]," a company that had acquired rights to a 1935 British production.[^9] The trade weekly [[Motion Picture Exhibitor]] listed Lake as president of Onyx Pictures Corp. and of a [[Premier Pictures Co.]], both at 630 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, in 1960.[^9] The same listings carry Lake as executive and president of [[Gotham Releasing Corp.]] at that address from 1960 through April 1964.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Film Daily Year Book]] for 1963 listed [[Sam Lake Enterprises]], Inc. at the same address, with Lake as president.[^11] In April 1965 the magazine [[CINE World]] described Lake as the head of Sam Lake Enterprises, "one of the foremost distributors of sex-exploitation pictures in the world." Its profile gives his earlier posts as a Paramount sales representative, a division manager for the Selznick Releasing Organization, and a producer's representative for Edward Small Productions and [[Gross Krassne Productions]]. The same profile lists the company's current releases as *Vice Girls Ltd.*, *French Without Dressing*, *Tonight For Sure*, *Naked in the Night*, and *For Lovers and Others*, and names Sam Lake Enterprises as the exclusive United States distributor of *Room for a Stranger*.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Mature Pictures
|
||||
|
||||
Horsch's account names Lake as the head of Mature Pictures, the company through which the 1973 film was distributed in New York.[^1] In the same account the sale was arranged through [[Salvatore La Russa|Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa]], the [[Philadelphia]] bar owner whom Horsch said had financed most of the film, and through Philadelphia organized crime.[^1] Horsch said that Lake complained that the film made no money, and said that he had heard Lake made four or five million dollars from it, adding "I don't know how true it was or not."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The film magazine [[Take One]] named the company in its March-April 1973 issue. In an article by [[John Morthland]] titled "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," the magazine reported that "Bob Sumner’s Mature Films in New York followed up Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (starring Ms. Spelvin) with High Rise, which was budgeted at an astronomical $75,000."[^13] The same article named "the Mitchells, Mature Films, etc." among "the few who are in the business in a highly visible way," and said that most of the trade kept no records.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Boxoffice (magazine)|Boxoffice]] booking chart of the Canadian edition, dated February 4, 1974, lists the film under the distributor "Mature," with a booking date of October 15, 1973.[^14] Take One attributes the company to Bob Sumner, and Horsch attributes it to Lake.
|
||||
|
||||
A New York corporation named Mature Pictures, Inc. appears in the state registry under the alternate name Mature Pictures Incorporated. Its status is listed as inactive, with the dissolution type "Dissolution By Proclamation / Annulment Of Authority." Its registered address is in care of the law firm Kassner & Detsky at 350 Fifth Avenue.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Scorpio '70
|
||||
|
||||
The [[American Film Institute]] catalog lists Sam Lake as the producer of *Scorpio '70* (1970), directed by [[Ron Sullivan]] from a script by Dario Finelli, with a writing credit to Lake "from an idea by." The catalog lists the distribution company as Sam Lake Enterprises.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Robert Sumner and Quality X
|
||||
|
||||
Alilunas wrote that Robert Sumner premiered *Deep Throat* at the [[World Theater]] in New York in 1972 "to record crowds," and that in spring 1977, as "president of Mature Pictures in New York," with his World Theater lease expiring, he put his film library on videotape, licensing titles from the [[Mitchell Brothers]], [[Alex de Renzy]] and [[Radley Metzger]] as well as his own. The initial investment was 75,000 dollars; the first stock was thirty cassettes at 110 dollars each, sold at the East World Theater. The label was Quality X, advertised in *Screw* from October 1977.[^4] By October 1978 the Sweetheart's Home Video Center stores of [[Arthur Morowitz]], in the lobbies of the World Theater and the Manhattan Twin, carried Quality X tapes supplied by Sumner.[^17] In 1979, Alilunas wrote, "Sumner's Mature Pictures" released [[Gerard Damiano]]'s *People* and *Misbehavin'* to theaters and on video at the same time, the first use of that release pattern.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
In a note based on his 2012 email correspondence with Revene, Alilunas wrote that the Swedish producer [[Per Sjöstedt]], investor for the director [[Joe Sarno]], kept connections to the New York adult-film trade "particularly with Sam Lake at Mature Pictures, where Sarno had made many of his early sexploitation films." Sjöstedt became assistant producer and production manager for Lake alongside the producer Robert Sumner, and Lake's connections "were deep, with links to Howard Farber and Arthur Morowitz's Distribpix." Sumner "also founded Quality-X Video," and the Sjöstedt connection led to the formation of [[Femme Productions]].[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The World Theater and Mature Enterprises
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Boston Globe]] obituary of the New York judge [[Joel J. Tyler]] reports that charges were filed in August 1972 against Mature Enterprises, the company that owned the New Mature World Theater, for promoting obscene material, and that the trial began in December 1972. The obituary says that the film tried was [[Deep Throat]], which had opened at that theater on June 12, 1972, and that Tyler fined Mature Enterprises 100,000 dollars, a sum later reduced on appeal.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
A game designer identified in video titles as "Remedy's Sam Lake" shares the name and is a different person.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
|
||||
[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (recorded 2013; passages at 25:43 to 25:45, 28:59 to 29:09, and 29:19 to 29:42). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
|
||||
[^2]: Horsch, R.C. [Commentary on *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig*], eroto.com, archived November 5, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161105022433/http://eroto.com:80/commentary/64-mcp-commentary
|
||||
[^3]: Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," *Take One,* vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-15. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03
|
||||
[^4]: "Boxoffice Bookinguide," *Boxoffice* (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974. https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04
|
||||
[^3]: Alilunas, Peter. *Smutty Little Movies: The Creation and Regulation of Adult Video* (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016), p. 255, chapter note 77 (citing Alilunas's email correspondence with Larry Revene, December 26, 2012). https://archive.org/details/smuttylittlemovi0000alil
|
||||
[^4]: Alilunas, *Smutty Little Movies,* p. 74 (citing *Screw,* October 10, 1977, p. 29, in note 176).
|
||||
[^5]: "Sam Lake, Paramount salesman at the N.Y. exchange, goes into the Army early in July," *Variety,* June 1942. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety146-1942-06_0185 Also *Motion Picture Herald* (September-October 1946), https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureher1641unse_0370, and (August-October 1947), https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureher1681unse_0086, both naming Lake as a Paramount salesman.
|
||||
[^6]: "Lake Aides Kosiner As Sales Rep on Small's Pix," *Variety,* November 1948, reporting that Lake resigned as sales rep of the Selznick Releasing Organization in the New York territory to become assistant to Harry Kosiner. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety172-1948-11_0190 "Sam Lake Is Named Kosiner's Assistant," *Motion Picture Daily,* October-December 1948, naming Kosiner as sales manager for Edward Small Productions. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpicturedai64unse_0_0240
|
||||
[^7]: "Screen Gems' new general manager is Sam Lake," *Variety,* February 1952. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety185-1952-02_0179 Screen Gems described as the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures in *Broadcasting* (1961), https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/broadcastingtele61unse_0_0333
|
||||
[^8]: "Premier Pictures Corp. has been formed here by Sam Lake who has acquired seven pictures produced by William Goetz and Leo Spitz and formerly released by RKO Radio," *Motion Picture Daily,* April-June 1953. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpicturedai73unse_0_0224
|
||||
[^9]: "According to Sam Lake, head of the indie distributing firm of Onyx Pictures, he has acquired all rights to a 1935 British production," *Variety,* March 1958. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety210-1958-03_0002 Listing of ONYX PICTURES CORP. and PREMIER PICTURES CO., "Exec: Sam Lake, Pres.," 630 Ninth Ave., New York, *Motion Picture Exhibitor,* May-August 1960. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh64jaye_0035 Premier Pictures Co. listing with the same executive, *Motion Picture Exhibitor,* November 1959-February 1960, https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh63jaye_0033
|
||||
[^10]: GOTHAM RELEASING CORP. "Exec: Sam Lake, Pres.," 630 Ninth Ave., New York, *Motion Picture Exhibitor,* August-November 1960. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh64jaye_0_0637 The same listing, April-July 1964. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh71jaye_0_0302 Also September-December 1961 and September-December 1962 editions, https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh68jaye_0_0460
|
||||
[^11]: "Sam Lake Enterprises, Inc., 630 Ninth Ave., New York 36, N. Y.," and "Sam Lake, President," *The Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures 1963.* https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/1963filmdailyyea1963wids_0432
|
||||
[^12]: "SAM LAKE of Sam Lake Enterprises Inc., New York, one of the foremost distributors of sex-exploitation pictures in the world," *CINE World,* nos. 6-7, April 1965. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/cine-world-6-7_0022 Photograph caption identifying "U.S. Distributor Sam Lake," https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/cine-world-6-7_0014
|
||||
[^13]: Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," *Take One,* vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-15. The passages quoted appear on page 15 and page 16 of the issue. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03 and https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/take-one-1973-03_0016
|
||||
[^14]: "Boxoffice Bookinguide," *Boxoffice* (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974, national booking chart, entry for *Erotic Memoirs/Male Chauvinist Pig* ("Mature 10-15-73"). https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04 and https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04_0018
|
||||
[^15]: "MATURE PICTURES, INC.," New York (US) entity, status "Inactive," "Dissolution By Proclamation / Annulment Of Authority," registered address "%KASSNER & DETSKY, 350 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10001," previously known as "MATURE PICTURES INCORPORATED." OpenCorporates, accessed October 15, 2026. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ny/248644
|
||||
[^16]: "Scorpio '70 (1970)," *AFI Catalog of Feature Films,* production and distribution credits (producer "Sam Lake, Pres."; writer "Sam Lake, From an idea by"; distribution "Sam Lake Enterprises"). https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20729-SCORPIO-'70
|
||||
[^17]: Alilunas, *Smutty Little Movies,* p. 75.
|
||||
[^18]: Alilunas, *Smutty Little Movies,* p. 77.
|
||||
[^19]: "Obituary of Judge Joel J. Tyler," *The Boston Globe,* January 16, 2012 (charges filed against Mature Enterprises in August 1972; trial began December 1972; the New Mature World Theater; fine of $100,000 later reduced on appeal). https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2012/01/16/joel-tyler-judge-deep-throat-case/hbiQ0keQ0VW0y26CY035SL/story.html
|
||||
[^20]: "Remedy's Sam Lake addresses Alan Wake fans," video title, Internet Archive item youtube-k5CRjoQKyY8. https://archive.org/details/youtube-k5CRjoQKyY8
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -15,11 +15,11 @@ tags:
|
|||
- DannyCasolaro
|
||||
- MenaArkansas
|
||||
- Contras
|
||||
summary: "Rose Law Firm partner and associate attorney general who resigned in 1994 over his billings, was paid over 500,000 dollars by seventeen supporters of the president, among them the Lippo Group, and went to prison."
|
||||
summary: "Rose Law Firm partner and associate attorney general who resigned in 1994 over his billings, took consulting fees from seventeen supporters of the president, among them the Lippo Group, and went to prison."
|
||||
location: "Little Rock, Arkansas"
|
||||
born: 1948-01-18
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Webster L. Hubbell was a partner of [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]] and [[Vince Foster]] in the [[Rose Law Firm]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] and became associate attorney general of the [[United States]] in the [[Department of Justice]] in January 1993.[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Hubbell was the former secretary and corporate lawyer of [[Park On Meter]] Inc.,
|
|||
|
||||
In early 1994 Hubbell, as associate attorney general, ordered "a nationwide investigation" into the suspicious death of investigative reporter [[Danny Casolaro]], who had been investigating connections between the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]], [[Wackenhut International]], and weapons manufacturing for the Contras.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
He resigned that March. What resulted from the Casolaro investigation, or even whether it ever went forward, has not been made public.[^2]
|
||||
He resigned that March.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Resignation
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -42,14 +42,21 @@ He resigned that March. What resulted from the Casolaro investigation, or even w
|
|||
|
||||
McLarty and his staff director, William Burton, "telephoned Hubbell about once a week, telling him he still had friends in the White House." McLarty, [[Erskine Bowles]] of the [[Small Business Administration]], [[Truman Arnold]], and [[Vernon Jordan]] "made calls on Hubbell's behalf." "As a result, seventeen people and companies who were supporters of the President hired Hubbell to do consulting work, paying him in excess of $500,000 over a period of less than a year." He reported 376,075 dollars of it on his tax return for 1994 and paid no tax on it.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
One of the seventeen was the [[Lippo Group]]. On June 23, 1994, [[James Riady]] had breakfast with Hubbell at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]], met President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] at ten with [[John Huang]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. Before the committee Hubbell invoked the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. He wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money."[^3] In September 1994, after meetings in a Hong Kong office building bearing the Lippo name, Hubbell traveled to Jakarta, where he met the family's patriarch, [[Mochtar Riady]], and the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia; James Riady introduced him there as a close friend of the president and told him to get Clinton to play golf in Bali during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.[^1]
|
||||
One of the seventeen was the [[Lippo Group]]. On June 23, 1994, [[James Riady]] had breakfast with Hubbell at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]], met President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] at ten with [[John Huang]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. The Independent Counsel's report quotes the letter to David T. Yeh, director of Hong Kong China Limited: "I am pleased to provide my consultant services to your company," and "the full range of my services for a fee of $100,000.00 per year payable in quarterly installments beginning on July 1, 1994." The same day Hong Kong China Limited wired 99,985 dollars into Hubbell's account at NationsBank in Washington. Hubbell told the Independent Counsel that Riady had wanted a one-year agreement with a retainer of 100,000 dollars, payable quarterly, and Hubbell said he was surprised that Riady had sent the full amount so soon.[^3] The House committee described the payment as "a lump sum of $100,000 for unknown services performed between June 27, 1994 and December 6, 1994."[^4] After his December 1994 plea Hubbell asked Riady to contribute 25,000 dollars toward his daughter's year at [[Davidson College]], and Riady gave 12,500 dollars through [[C. Joseph Giroir]]; Hubbell later asked Giroir about the remaining 12,500 dollars and was told that Riady would give no more. The Independent Counsel recorded that none of the Lippo-related documents Hubbell produced showed substantive work for Lippo, and that Hubbell recalled telephoning [[Nancy Hernreich]] at the White House on more than one occasion to help members of the Riady family gain admission.[^5] "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. Before the committee Hubbell invoked the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. He wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money."[^6] In September 1994, after meetings in a Hong Kong office building bearing the Lippo name, Hubbell traveled to Jakarta, where he met the family's patriarch, [[Mochtar Riady]], and the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia; James Riady introduced him there as a close friend of the president and told him to get Clinton to play golf in Bali during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Plea
|
||||
|
||||
On December 6, 1994, he pleaded guilty in the federal court at Little Rock to one count of mail fraud and one of tax evasion, "admitting that he defrauded his former partners and clients out of at least $394,000." His lawyer later agreed that he had obtained 482,410 dollars and 83 cents. On June 28, 1995, Judge George Howard sentenced him to twenty-one months.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Independent Counsel findings
|
||||
|
||||
After the House committee's count of more than 700,000 dollars from friends and associates of the President, the Independent Counsel's report gave a narrower figure of approximately 450,010 dollars in consulting fees from fifteen of the seventeen clients between April 8 and the end of 1994, and found that Hubbell had reported 376,075 dollars on his 1994 federal return and paid no 1994 tax on the consulting income.[^3] The Independent Counsel "began investigating whether the consulting fees had been paid to influence Hubbell's cooperation" and "determined there was insufficient evidence to prove any such quid pro quo relating to Hubbell's post-resignation employment."[^3] The report also found that Hubbell failed to pay a substantial portion of his tax liabilities for 1994 and 1995, and that he pleaded guilty in June 1999 to one felony count of concealing material facts about the income.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Office of the Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapter 6.
|
||||
[^3]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm ; Hubbell, Webster. *Friends in High Places*. William Morrow, 1997.
|
||||
[^3]: Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings," including the passages on consulting income, the June 27, 1994 letter, and footnote 4 on the June 1999 plea. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, vol. 2, 1998, Part A, section III, "Webster Hubbell," footnotes 91 through 104. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
[^5]: Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, pp. 33 to 35, footnotes 177 through 192, citing the interview of Webster Hubbell (June 25, 1999). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm ; Hubbell, Webster. *Friends in High Places*. William Morrow, 1997.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2026-05-15
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-14
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
title: William Harvey
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Bill Harvey
|
||||
|
|
@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
with: "[[CIA Rome Station]]"
|
||||
role: "chief of station"
|
||||
start: 1963
|
||||
fn: 38
|
||||
fn: 40
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Operation Gold]]"
|
||||
role: "Berlin base chief running the tunnel with MI6"
|
||||
|
|
@ -140,59 +140,63 @@ Martin wrote that Lansdale told the Senate committee that [[John F. Kennedy]] ha
|
|||
|
||||
On August 13, 1962 Lansdale directed Harvey to include an option for the "liquidation of leaders" in a proposed Phase II plan for Mongoose.[^24] Harvey's memorandum of August 14 to Richard Helms attached Lansdale's memorandum with the words excised, and stated that the Special Group (Augmented) "is not expecting any written comments or study on this point."[^24] McCone said that McNamara agreed Lansdale's memorandum should be withdrawn.[^24] Harvey's August 14 memorandum to Helms recorded: "It was the obvious consensus at that meeting, in answer to a comment by Mr. Ed Murrow, that this is not a subject which has been made a matter of official record." McCone's April 14, 1967 memorandum to Helms states that McCone took immediate exception to a suggestion to liquidate top people in the Castro regime, including Castro.[^26] [[Walter Elder]], McCone's executive assistant, testified that he had personally told Helms of McCone's opposition to assassination after the August 10 meeting.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 6, 1962 Lansdale, as chief of operations, replied to Harvey's draft operational plan. He wrote that, "As requested by you in our meeting Monday afternoon, I have read your draft operational plan," and that he "found little basis to say that these were either additional or possible within the context of contributing to the mission as stated." He questioned three items, among them the suggestion that the CIA could generate strikes inside Cuba ("If we have no assets inside Cuba, then why is this now called a possibility?"), and asked Harvey to initial each item he believed was really possible.[^28] On August 16, after that day's meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), Lansdale sent Harvey a memorandum headed "Actions by Cuban Refugees." It said that the Phase II program should give full attention to the desirability of the Cubans liberating Cuba with United States help, and that Bundy had requested that this field of effort be made part of the Phase II guidelines; it proposed that Harvey designate his deputy, Bruce Cheever, to be responsible for the CIA's action. A typed note attached to the copy states that General Taylor asked that action be withheld on the memorandum until further word from him.[^29]
|
||||
The Inspector General's report states that Harvey's August 14 memorandum to Richard Helms gave the excised portion of Lansdale's August 13 memorandum as the phrase "including elimination of leaders," that Harvey telephoned Lansdale's office and spoke with [[Frank Hand]] in Lansdale's absence, protested the use of the phrase and proposed that it be excised from all copies, that this was agreed to, and that Harvey deleted the phrase from his own copy. It records Harvey's statement to the Inspector General that Lansdale repeatedly tried to raise the matter of assassinating Castro with him over the following weeks and that he always avoided such discussions, and his estimate that five persons in Lansdale's office were generally aware of the sensitive details of Mongoose and of Lansdale's interest in assassination as an aspect of it.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
A Church Committee staff index summarizes Harvey's memorandum of November 14, 1962, which states that on November 3, 1962 a fragmentary report was received reflecting arrests by the Cuban authorities in Pinar del Rio of infiltrees, and that it was impossible to determine definitely whether the report referred to the two members of the Matahambre sabotage team. The same index summarizes Lansdale's memoranda of November 11 and 13, 1962 stating that the CIA had not mentioned the Matahambre sabotage team when he asked on October 30 and 31 about action teams inside Cuba.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 6, 1962 Lansdale, as chief of operations, replied to Harvey's draft operational plan. He wrote that, "As requested by you in our meeting Monday afternoon, I have read your draft operational plan," and that he "found little basis to say that these were either additional or possible within the context of contributing to the mission as stated." He questioned three items, among them the suggestion that the CIA could generate strikes inside Cuba ("If we have no assets inside Cuba, then why is this now called a possibility?"), and asked Harvey to initial each item he believed was really possible.[^30] On August 16, after that day's meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), Lansdale sent Harvey a memorandum headed "Actions by Cuban Refugees." It said that the Phase II program should give full attention to the desirability of the Cubans liberating Cuba with United States help, and that Bundy had requested that this field of effort be made part of the Phase II guidelines; it proposed that Harvey designate his deputy, Bruce Cheever, to be responsible for the CIA's action. A typed note attached to the copy states that General Taylor asked that action be withheld on the memorandum until further word from him.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
### Roselli and the Poison Pills
|
||||
|
||||
On November 16, 1961, Bissell asked Harvey to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from [[Sheffield Edwards]], and they discussed the "application of ZR/RIFLE program to Cuba."[^30] Bissell testified that the operation was not reactivated until after he left the agency in February 1962.[^30]
|
||||
On November 16, 1961, Bissell asked Harvey to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from [[Sheffield Edwards]], and they discussed the "application of ZR/RIFLE program to Cuba."[^32] Bissell testified that the operation was not reactivated until after he left the agency in February 1962.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
In early April 1962 Harvey, who testified that he was acting on "explicit orders" from Helms, asked Edwards to put him in touch with [[Johnny Roselli]]. A 1976 CIA memorandum dates Harvey's taking over as case officer to May 1962.[^31] Harvey told Roselli to stop dealing with [[Robert Maheu]] and [[Sam Giancana]], whom Harvey had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."[^30]
|
||||
In early April 1962 Harvey, who testified that he was acting on "explicit orders" from Helms, asked Edwards to put him in touch with [[Johnny Roselli]]. A 1976 CIA memorandum dates Harvey's taking over as case officer to May 1962.[^33] Harvey told Roselli to stop dealing with [[Robert Maheu]] and [[Sam Giancana]], whom Harvey had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
Four poison pills were given to the support chief on April 18, 1962. Harvey arrived in [[Miami]] on April 21 and gave them to Roselli, who was already in touch with the same Cuban who had been involved in the pill passage before the [[Bay of Pigs invasion|Bay of Pigs]].[^30] Harvey procured explosives, detonators, rifles, handguns, radios and boat radar costing about $5,000. Harvey and the chief of the JM/WAVE station rented a truck under an assumed name and delivered the equipment to a parking lot, where the keys were given to Roselli.[^30]
|
||||
Four poison pills were given to the support chief on April 18, 1962. Harvey arrived in [[Miami]] on April 21 and gave them to Roselli, who was already in touch with the same Cuban who had been involved in the pill passage before the [[Bay of Pigs invasion|Bay of Pigs]].[^32] Harvey procured explosives, detonators, rifles, handguns, radios and boat radar costing about $5,000. Harvey and the chief of the JM/WAVE station rented a truck under an assumed name and delivered the equipment to a parking lot, where the keys were given to Roselli.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey met Roselli in Miami on September 7 and 11, 1962. Harvey testified that by then he had grave doubts that the operation would take place. In early January 1963 he paid Roselli $2,700 to defray the Cuban's expenses. The second three-man team never left for Cuba, the reason given being that "conditions" in Cuba were not right.[^30] Harvey ended the operation in mid-February 1963 at a meeting with Roselli in [[Los Angeles]].[^30]
|
||||
Harvey met Roselli in Miami on September 7 and 11, 1962. Harvey testified that by then he had grave doubts that the operation would take place. In early January 1963 he paid Roselli $2,700 to defray the Cuban's expenses. The second three-man team never left for Cuba, the reason given being that "conditions" in Cuba were not right.[^32] Harvey ended the operation in mid-February 1963 at a meeting with Roselli in [[Los Angeles]].[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
In early 1963 Harvey told his underworld contacts that the CIA was no longer interested in assassinating Castro. The FBI learned of this in June 1963.[^32]
|
||||
In early 1963 Harvey told his underworld contacts that the CIA was no longer interested in assassinating Castro. The FBI learned of this in June 1963.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey's operations involving Roselli began in early 1962 and ended in February 1963. Harvey, and to a lesser extent [[James O'Connell]], remained in contact with Roselli from 1964 to about 1970.[^31]
|
||||
Harvey's operations involving Roselli began in early 1962 and ended in February 1963. Harvey, and to a lesser extent [[James O'Connell]], remained in contact with Roselli from 1964 to about 1970.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1963, before Harvey went on another assignment, he and Roselli had a farewell dinner. The FBI observed the meeting, and [[Sam Papich]], the FBI liaison with the CIA, told Harvey that Hoover would be informed. Harvey told Helms of the incident, and Helms agreed that McCone need not be briefed unless a call from Hoover was expected.[^33]
|
||||
In June 1963, before Harvey went on another assignment, he and Roselli had a farewell dinner. The FBI observed the meeting, and [[Sam Papich]], the FBI liaison with the CIA, told Harvey that Hoover would be informed. Harvey told Helms of the incident, and Helms agreed that McCone need not be briefed unless a call from Hoover was expected.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]], which described Harvey in June 1963 as "chief of the CIA's Cuban Task Force," found it "unable to accept" the conclusion that the CIA-Mafia plots were irrelevant because they ended in February 1963, and reported that CIA files show Roselli continued to maintain direct contact with Harvey at least until 1967.[^34]
|
||||
The [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]], which described Harvey in June 1963 as "chief of the CIA's Cuban Task Force," found it "unable to accept" the conclusion that the CIA-Mafia plots were irrelevant because they ended in February 1963, and reported that CIA files show Roselli continued to maintain direct contact with Harvey at least until 1967.[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1967 Roselli was arrested for fraudulent gambling at the [[Friars Club]] in [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]]. He asked Harvey, who had left the agency, to represent him. Harvey contacted the agency and suggested that it prevent the prosecution, according to a December 11, 1967 memorandum by [[Howard Osborn]].[^35]
|
||||
In 1967 Roselli was arrested for fraudulent gambling at the [[Friars Club]] in [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]]. He asked Harvey, who had left the agency, to represent him. Harvey contacted the agency and suggested that it prevent the prosecution, according to a December 11, 1967 memorandum by [[Howard Osborn]].[^37]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Clash with Robert Kennedy and the Missile Crisis
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey and [[Robert Kennedy]] were openly at odds over Mongoose. Thomas wrote that Harvey regarded Kennedy's micromanagement of the operations as incompetent and dangerous, and that Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable.[^1] Harvey testified that during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] he gave an order sending agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation that might occur. He said that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone then ordered the agent operations stopped.[^36] Walter Elder, McCone's assistant at the time, described the episode as Harvey having "earned another black mark as not being fully under control," and said that Harvey had attempted to get guidance from top officials during the crisis.[^36]
|
||||
Harvey and [[Robert Kennedy]] were openly at odds over Mongoose. Thomas wrote that Harvey regarded Kennedy's micromanagement of the operations as incompetent and dangerous, and that Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable.[^1] Harvey testified that during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] he gave an order sending agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation that might occur. He said that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone then ordered the agent operations stopped.[^38] Walter Elder, McCone's assistant at the time, described the episode as Harvey having "earned another black mark as not being fully under control," and said that Harvey had attempted to get guidance from top officials during the crisis.[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
Martin wrote that Kennedy tied off a series of questions to Harvey with "and I've got 10 minutes to hear the answer," and that when Harvey exceeded his time limit Kennedy walked out and Harvey kept talking.[^5] Martin quoted McCone: "When you take a plant supervisor and make him president of the company, it doesn't always work out," and wrote that Dulles is said to have remarked, "That fellow Harvey is a conspiratorial cop."[^5] Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy demanded Harvey's removal.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Rome and the End of Task Force W
|
||||
|
||||
[[Desmond FitzGerald]] replaced Harvey as chief of Task Force W in January 1963.[^37] It is unclear whether Harvey or FitzGerald conceived the plan to present Fidel Castro with a contaminated diving suit.[^37]
|
||||
[[Desmond FitzGerald]] replaced Harvey as chief of Task Force W in January 1963.[^39] It is unclear whether Harvey or FitzGerald conceived the plan to present Fidel Castro with a contaminated diving suit.[^39]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was appointed chief of station at Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963, to replace [[Francis I. G. Coleman]], who was scheduled to attend the [[National War College]].[^38] He took up the Rome post before the November 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^1] Martin wrote in The Washington Post that some attributed the appointment to a wish to keep Harvey out of the country and others to the Rome station's need of a shakeup, that Harvey was hospitalized, that Desmond FitzGerald cabled a report to Helms, that Helms ordered Harvey relieved, that an aide sent to carry out the order sat seven hours across from Harvey, who held a loaded revolver in his lap, and that Harvey was then placed in a unit studying countermeasures against electronic surveillance.[^5]
|
||||
Harvey was appointed chief of station at Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963, to replace [[Francis I. G. Coleman]], who was scheduled to attend the [[National War College]].[^40] He took up the Rome post before the November 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^1] Martin wrote in The Washington Post that some attributed the appointment to a wish to keep Harvey out of the country and others to the Rome station's need of a shakeup, that Harvey was hospitalized, that Desmond FitzGerald cabled a report to Helms, that Helms ordered Harvey relieved, that an aide sent to carry out the order sat seven hours across from Harvey, who held a loaded revolver in his lap, and that Harvey was then placed in a unit studying countermeasures against electronic surveillance.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Testimony Before the Senate
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey testified before the Church Committee in executive session on June 25, 1975 and again on July 11, 1975. He signed an affidavit dated September 14, 1975.[^30] He told the committee that he had acted on explicit orders from Helms, and that he believed the 1962 assassination activity carried over from the period when Allen Dulles was Director, a belief he based on what Bissell had told him.[^18]
|
||||
Harvey testified before the Church Committee in executive session on June 25, 1975 and again on July 11, 1975. He signed an affidavit dated September 14, 1975.[^32] He told the committee that he had acted on explicit orders from Helms, and that he believed the 1962 assassination activity carried over from the period when Allen Dulles was Director, a belief he based on what Bissell had told him.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey said he had not informed the Special Group, or anyone outside the agency, that he had given the poison pills to Roselli. He said he did not brief McCone on the pills because he did not believe it was necessary.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Retirement, Death and Aftermath
|
||||
|
||||
In April 1967 Harvey was to be transferred from the [[European Division]] to the Office of Personnel, where he would be carried in casual status until his final retirement, and his sick leave required a physician's monthly certification.[^39] By October 30, 1967 he had not yet set a retirement date, and retirement was expected on November 30.[^40] He retired from the agency in 1967.[^31]
|
||||
In April 1967 Harvey was to be transferred from the [[European Division]] to the Office of Personnel, where he would be carried in casual status until his final retirement, and his sick leave required a physician's monthly certification.[^41] By October 30, 1967 he had not yet set a retirement date, and retirement was expected on November 30.[^42] He retired from the agency in 1967.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
In November 1967, while leaving the agency to practice law, Harvey asked Sam Papich for reputable private investigators. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company, as Howard Osborn recorded in a memorandum of November 8, 1967.[^41]
|
||||
In November 1967, while leaving the agency to practice law, Harvey asked Sam Papich for reputable private investigators. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company, as Howard Osborn recorded in a memorandum of November 8, 1967.[^43]
|
||||
|
||||
Roselli died in August 1976. On August 11, 1976 [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], then Director of Central Intelligence, wrote that calls to Senators had suggested that the CIA was involved in the murder, and that he had asked [[Edward Levi]] to bring the FBI into the case.[^42]
|
||||
Roselli died in August 1976. On August 11, 1976 [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], then Director of Central Intelligence, wrote that calls to Senators had suggested that the CIA was involved in the murder, and that he had asked [[Edward Levi]] to bring the FBI into the case.[^44]
|
||||
|
||||
According to the 1976 obituary, Harvey moved to [[Indianapolis, Indiana|Indianapolis]] in 1969 after leaving the agency, and was law editor for [[Bobbs-Merrill]] at the time of his death.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey died of a heart attack at an Indianapolis hospital on June 9, 1976, at the age of 60. He was buried at South Cemetery in Danville, Indiana, and was survived by his wife, Clara Grace, a daughter and a son.[^3] A CIA memorandum of August 9, 1976 gives the same date, "9 June 1976."[^31] Martin wrote that surgeons had worked four hours to implant an artificial valve and that Harvey died, holding his wife's hand, at ten minutes past two in the afternoon of June 9.[^2] A June 1976 press report named Harvey among ten agents whose identities the Senate committee had disclosed, and said that [[William Colby]] had argued that disclosure endangered agents.[^3] A CIA routing memorandum of June 16, 1976 records that the agency's information on his death came from the press reports.[^43] Martin wrote that Harvey's wife told him reporters were trying to link his death to Roselli's murder, that there had been two attempted break-ins, and that people were "after his papers," to which she said she had "burned everything."[^5]
|
||||
Harvey died of a heart attack at an Indianapolis hospital on June 9, 1976, at the age of 60. He was buried at South Cemetery in Danville, Indiana, and was survived by his wife, Clara Grace, a daughter and a son.[^3] A CIA memorandum of August 9, 1976 gives the same date, "9 June 1976."[^33] Martin wrote that surgeons had worked four hours to implant an artificial valve and that Harvey died, holding his wife's hand, at ten minutes past two in the afternoon of June 9.[^2] A June 1976 press report named Harvey among ten agents whose identities the Senate committee had disclosed, and said that [[William Colby]] had argued that disclosure endangered agents.[^3] A CIA routing memorandum of June 16, 1976 records that the agency's information on his death came from the press reports.[^45] Martin wrote that Harvey's wife told him reporters were trying to link his death to Roselli's murder, that there had been two attempted break-ins, and that people were "after his papers," to which she said she had "burned everything."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agency employee for cooperation with a book about Harvey. The employee was irritated and believed that a retired CIA officer had given Martin his name.[^44]
|
||||
In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agency employee for cooperation with a book about Harvey. The employee was irritated and believed that a retired CIA officer had given Martin his name.[^46]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -223,20 +227,22 @@ In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agen
|
|||
[^25]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 164, and Additional Views of Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., p. 321, quoting Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 29-30 and 86. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf
|
||||
[^26]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 371, Editorial Note on the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), quoting Harvey's memorandum of August 14, 1962 and McCone's memorandum of April 14, 1967. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d371
|
||||
[^27]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 107 (Walter Elder, McCone's Executive Assistant, on telling Helms of McCone's opposition after the August 10 meeting). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^28]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 366, Memorandum From the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale) to the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey), Washington, August 6, 1962, subject "CIA Draft Operational Plan B+." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d366
|
||||
[^29]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 377, Memorandum From the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale) to the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey), Washington, August 16, 1962, subject "Actions by Cuban Refugees." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d377
|
||||
[^30]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 83-85 (the 1961 assignment and the November 16, 1961 notes; the April 1962 reactivation and "explicit orders"; the poison pills of April 18 and 21, 1962; the $5,000 equipment and the rented truck; the September 1962 meetings; the $2,700 payment; the second team; the February 1963 termination), citing Harvey testimony of June 25 and July 11, 1975, and the affidavit of September 14, 1975. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^31]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Johnny Roselli," August 9, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 (Harvey's operations from early 1962 to February 1963; Harvey as case officer from May 1962; Harvey and O'Connell in contact from 1964 to about 1970; Harvey retired in 1967).
|
||||
[^32]: Church Committee, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Final Report Book V, S. Rept. 94-755, April 23, 1976, pp. 69, 72. https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee
|
||||
[^33]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 105, citing Inspector General's report p. 54 (the June 1963 farewell dinner; FBI observation; Papich's notice to Harvey; Harvey's report to Helms). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^34]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations*, H. Rept. 95-1828, 1979, p. 117 (the committee's finding that the plots were not shown to be irrelevant; CIA files on contact with Harvey until 1967). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
[^35]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (Osborn memorandum for the record, December 11, 1967). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^36]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 149 n. 1, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, and Walter Elder testimony of August 13, 1975, pp. 34-35. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^37]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (FitzGerald replacing Harvey in January 1963; the diving-suit plan), citing Inspector General's report p. 75. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^38]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. Reading room document 01228805, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
|
||||
[^39]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," April 5, 1967. Reading room document 0001228917, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228917
|
||||
[^40]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," October 30, 1967. Reading room document 0001228965, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228965
|
||||
[^41]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection.
|
||||
[^42]: Bush, George, memorandum "The Death of Roselli," August 11, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811
|
||||
[^43]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record memorandum, June 16, 1976, filed with the reading room copy of the June 1976 press report, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600020001-2
|
||||
[^44]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record sheet, "Mr. David Martin, Associated Press Correspondent's Interest in Writing a Book About Mr. William King Harvey," June 27, 1977. Reading room document 0001229025, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001229025
|
||||
[^28]: Central Intelligence Agency, Inspector General, "Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro," May 23, 1967, pp. 113 to 115, unsanitized copy, National Archives JFK Records 104-10213-10101. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10213-10101.pdf
|
||||
[^29]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, staff index cards on Operation Mongoose documents, June 1975, National Archives JFK Records 157-10011-10002. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/jfk2023/157-10011-10002.pdf
|
||||
[^30]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 366, Memorandum From the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale) to the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey), Washington, August 6, 1962, subject "CIA Draft Operational Plan B+." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d366
|
||||
[^31]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 377, Memorandum From the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale) to the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey), Washington, August 16, 1962, subject "Actions by Cuban Refugees." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d377
|
||||
[^32]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 83-85 (the 1961 assignment and the November 16, 1961 notes; the April 1962 reactivation and "explicit orders"; the poison pills of April 18 and 21, 1962; the $5,000 equipment and the rented truck; the September 1962 meetings; the $2,700 payment; the second team; the February 1963 termination), citing Harvey testimony of June 25 and July 11, 1975, and the affidavit of September 14, 1975. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^33]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Johnny Roselli," August 9, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 (Harvey's operations from early 1962 to February 1963; Harvey as case officer from May 1962; Harvey and O'Connell in contact from 1964 to about 1970; Harvey retired in 1967).
|
||||
[^34]: Church Committee, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Final Report Book V, S. Rept. 94-755, April 23, 1976, pp. 69, 72. https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee
|
||||
[^35]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 105, citing Inspector General's report p. 54 (the June 1963 farewell dinner; FBI observation; Papich's notice to Harvey; Harvey's report to Helms). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^36]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations*, H. Rept. 95-1828, 1979, p. 117 (the committee's finding that the plots were not shown to be irrelevant; CIA files on contact with Harvey until 1967). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
[^37]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (Osborn memorandum for the record, December 11, 1967). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^38]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 149 n. 1, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, and Walter Elder testimony of August 13, 1975, pp. 34-35. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^39]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (FitzGerald replacing Harvey in January 1963; the diving-suit plan), citing Inspector General's report p. 75. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^40]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. Reading room document 01228805, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
|
||||
[^41]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," April 5, 1967. Reading room document 0001228917, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228917
|
||||
[^42]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," October 30, 1967. Reading room document 0001228965, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228965
|
||||
[^43]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection.
|
||||
[^44]: Bush, George, memorandum "The Death of Roselli," August 11, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811
|
||||
[^45]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record memorandum, June 16, 1976, filed with the reading room copy of the June 1976 press report, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600020001-2
|
||||
[^46]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record sheet, "Mr. David Martin, Associated Press Correspondent's Interest in Writing a Book About Mr. William King Harvey," June 27, 1977. Reading room document 0001229025, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001229025
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs who warned Kissinger of Operation Condor's assassination plans on August 3, 1976, received Landau's cable on the DINA passports, and saw no warning delivered before Letelier died."
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Harry Shlaudeman was assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] in 1976.[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -28,10 +28,14 @@ Ambassador [[George Landau]]'s cable of July 28 on the Paraguayan passports issu
|
|||
|
||||
### Horman
|
||||
|
||||
A memorandum to Shlaudeman of August 25, 1976, on the death of [[Charles Horman]] in [[Chile]] in 1973, read: "This case remains bothersome. The connotations for the Executive are not good." It concluded that "U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death. At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the GOC."[^3]
|
||||
A memorandum to Shlaudeman of August 25, 1976, on the death of [[Charles Horman]] in [[Chile]] in 1973, read: "This case remains bothersome. The connotations for the Executive are not good." It concluded: "U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death. At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the GOC. At worst, U.S. intelligence was aware the GOC saw Horman in a rather serious light and U.S. officials did nothing to discourage the logical outcome of GOC paranoia."[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 15, 1976, [[Rudy Fimbres]] sent Shlaudeman a draft letter to Senator [[Edward Kennedy]] on the case, with a covering memorandum that said the draft "will not do." The memorandum stated that the department had "'withheld' for almost two years any reference to a Chilean memorandum which accused Teruggi, and Horman, of leftist activities," that the department had "failed to pursue the basis" for the Chilean allegations, and that the public claim to be pursuing every lead "is overdrawn." It reported that the Washington Post's [[Lewis Diuguid]] said he had a source who told him embassy superiors were informed early of Horman's fate and did not follow up. It also stated that "Vice Consul Anderson's participation in this matter will eventually be the subject of further probing." Fimbres recommended that Shlaudeman not sign the letter.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 159-166, 171-174, 180, 183.
|
||||
[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 260-261, 383.
|
||||
[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 269, 343.
|
||||
[^4]: Fimbres, Rudy, Robert Driscoll and William Robertson, memorandum to Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman, Secret, August 25, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 9. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges9FimbresDriscoll-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Fimbres, Rudy, memorandum to Ambassador Harry Shlaudeman, "The Charles Horman Case," July 15, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 8. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/dinges8fimbresmemoonKennletter-ocr.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Indonesian banker, son of Lippo Group founder Mochtar Riady, who interned at Stephens Inc., ran Worthen Bank's international division in Little Rock, and in 2001 paid the largest campaign finance fine in American history."
|
||||
location: "Jakarta, Indonesia"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Stephens Inc.]]"
|
||||
|
|
@ -23,7 +23,19 @@ relations:
|
|||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2001-01-11
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Corruption Eradication Commission]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2018
|
||||
role: "Meikarta permit bribery case; house search October 18, 2018; questioned as witness October 30, 2018"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1997
|
||||
role: "1996 federal campaign finance investigation; Chinese intelligence finding"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
James Tjahaja Riady is an [[Indonesia|Indonesian]] banker and the son of [[Mochtar Riady]], founder of the [[Lippo Group]]. His father met [[Jackson Stephens]] and [[Witt Stephens]] in 1976 while looking for a stake in an American bank, and the two families formed [[Stephens Finance Ltd.]] in [[Hong Kong]] in 1978. James Riady served an internship at [[Stephens Inc.]] in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]].[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -34,20 +46,43 @@ The Stephens and Riady families both invested in the [[Worthen Bank|Worthen Bank
|
|||
|
||||
### Hubbell
|
||||
|
||||
On June 23, 1994, Riady had breakfast at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]] with [[Webster Hubbell]], who had resigned from the [[Department of Justice]] in April, met President Clinton at ten with Huang and [[Mark Grobmyer]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. An associate of Riady told a reporter: "Mr. Hubbell was our very close friend, when he left, we felt we should help him out. We didn't like to see him without a source of income." Hubbell wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money." The former managing partner of the [[Rose Law Firm]], [[C. Joseph Giroir]], incorporated the [[Arkansas International Development Corporation]] with Lippo capital in April 1993 and gave close to 200,000 dollars in 1996 in connection with fundraisers organized by Huang.[^1]
|
||||
On June 23, 1994, Riady had breakfast at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]] with [[Webster Hubbell]], who had resigned from the [[Department of Justice]] in April, met President Clinton at ten with Huang and [[Mark Grobmyer]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year. The Independent Counsel's report records that Hong Kong China Limited wired 99,985 dollars into Hubbell's account on June 27, 1994.[^3] The House committee described the payment as "a lump sum of $100,000 for unknown services performed between June 27, 1994 and December 6, 1994."[^1] "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. An associate of Riady told a reporter: "Mr. Hubbell was our very close friend, when he left, we felt we should help him out. We didn't like to see him without a source of income." Hubbell wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money." The former managing partner of the [[Rose Law Firm]], [[C. Joseph Giroir]], incorporated the [[Arkansas International Development Corporation]] with Lippo capital in April 1993 and gave close to 200,000 dollars in 1996 in connection with fundraisers organized by Huang.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Plea
|
||||
|
||||
On January 11, 2001, Riady agreed to plead guilty in the federal court in Los Angeles to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the [[United States]] by reimbursing campaign donors with foreign corporate funds, and to pay 8.61 million dollars, which the Justice Department called the largest fine in the history of campaign finance law. LippoBank pleaded guilty to 86 misdemeanor counts covering 1988 to 1994. Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the United States, and Riady surrendered voluntarily after about six sessions with prosecutors. He agreed to 400 hours of community service and to stay out of the country for two years. The benefits the charge said he sought included "[[Community Reinvestment Act]] exemptions for LippoBank," "a repeal of the [[Glass-Steagall Act]]," and "Most Favored Nation status for [[China]]."[^3]
|
||||
On January 11, 2001, Riady agreed to plead guilty in the federal court in Los Angeles to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the [[United States]] by reimbursing campaign donors with foreign corporate funds, and to pay 8.61 million dollars, which the Justice Department called the largest fine in the history of campaign finance law. LippoBank pleaded guilty to 86 misdemeanor counts covering 1988 to 1994. Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the United States, and Riady surrendered voluntarily after about six sessions with prosecutors. He agreed to 400 hours of community service and to stay out of the country for two years. The benefits the charge said he sought included "[[Community Reinvestment Act]] exemptions for LippoBank," "a repeal of the [[Glass-Steagall Act]]," and "Most Favored Nation status for [[China]]."[^4] The information described the reimbursement method for the August to October 1992 contributions. Contributions made by Huang in that period, shortly after Riady pledged $1 million in support of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's campaign for the Presidency, were reimbursed with wire transfers from a foreign Lippo Group entity into an account Riady maintained at LippoBank, and the money was then distributed to Huang in cash.[^4] The plea agreement recorded about a half dozen proffer sessions with prosecutors since August 2000, and barred Riady from making, reimbursing, or directing any future campaign contributions in U.S. elections.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Leaving Worthen
|
||||
|
||||
The [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Government Reform and Oversight Committee]], drawing on the depositions of [[Vernon Weaver|Arthur Vernon Weaver]] and C. Joseph Giroir, gave the reason for the family's departure from Worthen: "The Riadys were bought out of Worthen by the Stephens family after the bank experienced a major defalcation by Bevil Bressler in 1986. After the defalcation, regulators investigated the quality of Worthen's assets and determined there were problems. Allegations were made against Worthen's loan practices and asset quality. Eventually, the Riadys traded their interest in the Worthen Bank for the Stephens' interest in the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, and also traded their interests in other joint ventures." Riady and Huang then "focused their attention on a bank they previously had purchased in San Francisco, California. Soon thereafter they established the Bank of Trade in Los Angeles, which later became LippoBank."[^4] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation records show that the Bank of Trade, chartered in [[San Francisco]] in 1961, moved its main office to Los Angeles on October 31, 1989 and took the name Lippo Bank on January 18, 1990.[^5]
|
||||
The [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Government Reform and Oversight Committee]], drawing on the depositions of [[Vernon Weaver|Arthur Vernon Weaver]] and C. Joseph Giroir, gave the reason for the family's departure from Worthen: "The Riadys were bought out of Worthen by the Stephens family after the bank experienced a major defalcation by Bevil Bressler in 1986. After the defalcation, regulators investigated the quality of Worthen's assets and determined there were problems. Allegations were made against Worthen's loan practices and asset quality. Eventually, the Riadys traded their interest in the Worthen Bank for the Stephens' interest in the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, and also traded their interests in other joint ventures." Riady and Huang then "focused their attention on a bank they previously had purchased in San Francisco, California. Soon thereafter they established the Bank of Trade in Los Angeles, which later became LippoBank."[^5] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation records show that the Bank of Trade, chartered in [[San Francisco]] in 1961, moved its main office to Los Angeles on October 31, 1989 and took the name Lippo Bank on January 18, 1990.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Contributions and White House access
|
||||
|
||||
In the 1992 cycle, the Senate committee identified 465,000 dollars in contributions from James and Aileen Riady to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic state party organizations. The committee wrote that Riady had moved back to Indonesia in 1990 and had not been a resident of the United States since that time, and that the legality of the contributions "remains in doubt" because he declined the committee's invitation to explore them when its staff were in Indonesia.[^7] The Senate committee also recorded that LippoBank was owned 99 percent by Riady.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The House committee counted at least 20 visits by Riady to the White House compound between April 1993 and September 1996, based on White House entry records. It noted that his name appeared on 25 scheduled admissions, and that he entered without a record on two occasions, June 25 and September 10, 1994.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Chinese intelligence
|
||||
|
||||
The Senate committee's majority wrote that it had learned from recently acquired information that "James and Mochtar Riady have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." The report described that relationship as based on mutual benefit, with the Riadys receiving help in finding business opportunities in exchange for large sums of money.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The minority views, in the response by Ranking Minority Member [[John Glenn]], stated that the non-public information received by the committee "supports the conclusion that the Riady's business dealings may have involved a relationship with a Chinese intelligence entity," but "does not support the implication that the Riadys were involved in foreign spy or other similar intelligence activity."[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Meikarta
|
||||
|
||||
On October 18, 2018, the Corruption Eradication Commission of Indonesia (KPK) searched Riady's house as part of its investigation into the Meikarta permit bribery case. The KPK had already named the Bekasi regent and a Lippo Group operational director as suspects. The KPK then summoned Riady as a witness, and on October 30, 2018 he was questioned for about nine hours at the KPK office in Jakarta. He said that he personally did not know anything about the alleged bribery and was not involved in the case.[^11][^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm ; Hubbell, Webster. *Friends in High Places*. William Morrow, 1997.
|
||||
[^2]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
|
||||
[^3]: Department of Justice, "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law," press release 01-17, January 11, 2001.
|
||||
[^4]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2, footnotes 14-15. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
[^5]: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, BankFind Suite, institution history for certificate 18453 (Lippo Bank), queried September 23, 2026. https://api.fdic.gov/banks/history?filters=CERT:18453&limit=50
|
||||
[^3]: Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings," the passage on the June 27, 1994 letter and wire. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Department of Justice, "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law," press release 01-17, January 11, 2001.
|
||||
[^5]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2, footnotes 14-15. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
[^6]: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, BankFind Suite, institution history for certificate 18453 (Lippo Bank), queried September 23, 2026. https://api.fdic.gov/banks/history?filters=CERT:18453&limit=50
|
||||
[^7]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, chapter "John Huang's Years at Lippo," sections "Lippo Group," "LippoBank California," and "Lippo and Riady Political Contributions," footnote 37. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/1-13.htm
|
||||
[^8]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, H. Rept. 105-829, vol. 2, 1998, Part A, section IV.A, footnotes 106 and 107. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
[^9]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, chapter "The China Connection," section "James and Mochtar Riady." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/2-18.htm
|
||||
[^10]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, "Response to Majority Report," Part 9, by Ranking Minority Member John Glenn. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/6-9.htm
|
||||
[^11]: Jakarta Post, "KPK to question James Riady over Meikarta case," October 19, 2018. https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/10/19/kpk-to-question-james-riady-over-meikarta-case
|
||||
[^12]: Jakarta Post, "James denies involvement in Meikarta case," October 31, 2018. https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/10/31/james-denies-involvement-meikarta-case
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,76 +1,189 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- John F. Stratton Jr.
|
||||
- John "Jay" Stratton
|
||||
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- UFO
|
||||
- UAP
|
||||
- UAPTaskForce
|
||||
- AAWSAP
|
||||
- AATIP
|
||||
- DefenseIntelligenceAgency
|
||||
- OfficeOfNavalIntelligence
|
||||
- RadianceTechnologies
|
||||
- SkinwalkerRanch
|
||||
- IntelligenceAndGovernment
|
||||
- NavalIntelligence
|
||||
- Elizondo
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Office of Naval Intelligence]]"
|
||||
role: "Defense Intelligence Senior Executive post from which he retired, per the Radiance release of May 12, 2022; the Knapp report of February 2023 says the Naval Intelligence leadership loaned him to the Defense Intelligence Agency"
|
||||
end: 2022
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Defense Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
start: 2009
|
||||
role: "AAWSAP and AATIP investigator and recruiter of Elizondo; in Elizondo's account helped create AAWSAP, wrote the report on the 2004 Nimitz encounter and the OPLAN Interloper proposal"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
role: "AAWSAP and AATIP, per the account of Luis Elizondo; Fravor's 2023 statement places him in the ATIP program in 2009"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[UAP Task Force]]"
|
||||
role: "first director, per Elizondo, after the Secretary of Defense announced the task force"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
role: "first director, per the Radiance release of May 12, 2022 and the Elizondo account; the Knapp report of May 23, 2022 says he was transferred out of the job in January 2021"
|
||||
end: 2021
|
||||
fn: 20
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Radiance Technologies]]"
|
||||
start: 2022-05-12
|
||||
role: "subject matter expert for intelligence strategy, member of the chief executive's strategy team, per the company release of May 12, 2022"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
summary: "In early 2009, Jay Stratton, along with a colleague, approached Luis Elizondo to recruit him for a highly classified program at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)."
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]]"
|
||||
start: 2009
|
||||
role: "recruiter of Elizondo and author of the AAWSAP report on the 2004 Nimitz encounter, per the Elizondo account"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Luis Elizondo]]"
|
||||
start: 2009
|
||||
role: "colleague in AAWSAP, AATIP and the UAP Task Force, per the Elizondo account and the Fravor statement of 2023"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Tic Tac]]"
|
||||
role: "lead investigator of the November 2004 Nimitz encounter, per the Elizondo account, which says the investigation preceded his own involvement"
|
||||
fn: 14
|
||||
created: 2025-08-20
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
summary: "John F. Stratton Jr., known as Jay, was the first director of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, according to his 2022 employer release and speaker biography."
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Jay Stratton]] is a former US Navy intelligence officer who played a crucial role in the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP) and later became the first director of the [[UAP Task Force]]. He was instrumental in recruiting [[Luis Elizondo]] into the UAP investigation effort and was a key investigator and strategist throughout the process.[^1]
|
||||
John F. Stratton Jr., known as Jay Stratton, is a former [[U.S. Navy|US Navy]] intelligence senior executive (a civilian member of the Senior Executive Service at the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]], previously at the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]) and a veteran of the [[United States Army]] and [[United States Air Force Reserve]], who was the first director of the [[UAP Task Force]], a Navy-led unit that the [[Pentagon]] set up in 2020 to collect and analyze reports of [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena|unidentified aerial phenomena]].[^1] His speaker biography states that he retired in early 2022 after more than 32 years of military and federal service.[^2] He grew up in East Texas and, according to a 2026 interview, joined the Army while still in high school.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
This page is not about [[Julius A. Stratton]], the MIT physicist, provost and president (1901 to 1994) who was known to colleagues as "Jay." The UAP Task Force's Jay Stratton is identified in a 2022 release as "John F. Stratton Jr.," who had "recently retired" from a Defense Intelligence Senior Executive post with the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]].[^2][^3]
|
||||
This page is not about [[Julius A. Stratton]], the MIT physicist, provost and president (1901 to 1994) who was known to colleagues as "Jay."[^4] The 2022 company release identifies the task force's first director as "John F. Stratton Jr."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Recruitment of Luis Elizondo
|
||||
### Career and titles
|
||||
|
||||
In early 2009, Jay Stratton, along with a colleague, approached Luis Elizondo to recruit him for a highly classified program at the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA). Stratton, who Elizondo pegged as a fellow special operator, explained that the program, initially known as [[AAWSAP]], was focused on "unconventional technologies" and required a senior intelligence officer to handle counterintelligence and security.[^1]
|
||||
A Navy senior executive biography (PDF created June 21, 2021) states that Stratton "entered Senior Executive Service in September 2018," had "over thirty-two years of experience" with the United States Army, the United States Air Force Reserve and the federal civil service, and was then "Senior Analyst, Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center" of the Office of Naval Intelligence, "responsible for delivering comprehensive intelligence to Navy leadership." It lists earlier posts as Director of Intelligence (J2) at the Joint Warfare Analysis Center; Deputy Director Executive Support in the office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare (N2N6); Director Air Warfare/SPEAR at the Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center; Chief of Air and Space Warfare, Defense Warning Office, Defense Intelligence Agency; Aerospace Engineer at ONI; Aerospace Engineer (Flight Test) at [[Naval Air Systems Command]]; and Senior Weapons Systems Engineer at [[ManTech International]]. Reserve assignments include Senior Intelligence Officer of the 459th Air Refueling Wing, Chief Space Technology at the [[Defense Technology Security Administration]], Detachment Commander with the II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, and Military Advisor to the President's Special Advisor for Middle East Regional Security at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. He holds a Bachelor of Science from [[Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University]] and a master's degree from [[Air University]], and the biography lists the DIA Director's Award, the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Meritorious Unit Commendation and the ODNI Meritorious Unit Commendation among his awards.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Role in AATIP
|
||||
The 2022 release states that Stratton was "recently retired" from a Defense Intelligence Senior Executive post with the Office of Naval Intelligence and had "over 32 years in the national intelligence community."[^1] The publisher's synopsis of his memoir says he "served the U.S. on the battlefield and as a senior member of the National Intelligence Community" and "specialized in emerging and disruptive aerospace technologies."[^6] His speaker biography calls him "a highly decorated intelligence officer." It lists postings at the [[Office of the Secretary of Defense]], the [[Joint Staff]], [[United States Strategic Command]], Naval Air Systems Command and two U.S. embassies, and service in the United States Army and the United States Air Force Reserve. It states that he was "a Senior Advisor for the White House's [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]]," that he worked on UAP for "over 16 years," and that at retirement he held "the civilian equivalent rank of a 2 star General or Admiral."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Stratton was a core member of the AATIP team and a key investigator. He was the lead investigator of the 2004 [[Tic Tac]] involving the [[USS Nimitz]] Carrier Strike Group, writing a detailed report on the event that became a cornerstone of the program's research. He was also responsible for drafting OPLAN Interloper, an ambitious plan to use a carrier strike group as bait to lure UAP for observation and data collection.[^1]
|
||||
[[George Knapp]] of [[KLAS-TV]] wrote in February 2023 that "From 2008 until 2021, nearly everything related to UFO activity came across Jay Stratton's desk," and that Stratton "worked at the highest levels of Naval Intelligence, which loaned him to the Defense Intelligence Agency."[^7] [[The Black Vault]], writing about the 2020 emails discussed below, identifies him as "an Office of Naval Intelligence Senior Analyst from the Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center and former Director of the UAP Task Force."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
When AATIP faced internal opposition and lost its funding, Stratton worked with Elizondo to move the remnants of the program under Elizondo's portfolio of national programs to ensure its survival. He also successfully secured an additional $10 million in funding from Senator [[Harry Reid]], though the funds were later absconded by another DoD program.[^1]
|
||||
Sources differ on when he left the task force. Knapp reported on May 23, 2022 (posted 9:12 PM Pacific time) that "In January 2021 ... Stratton was surprisingly transferred out of the job," and that Stratton "has never spoken publicly about his work and is not commenting now."[^9] The speaker biography gives early 2022 as the date of his retirement.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### UAP Task Force
|
||||
### Recruitment and AAWSAP
|
||||
|
||||
After Elizondo's resignation from the Pentagon, Stratton remained in the government and was tasked by Navy intelligence leadership to build a whole-of-government interagency task force to continue the UAP investigation. This effort, which he built from the ground up, became the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, and Stratton was named its first director. In this role, he continued to push the UAP issue forward within the government, briefing members of Congress and the [[White House]] [[National Security Council]], and laying the groundwork for future legislative action.[^1]
|
||||
[[Luis Elizondo]]'s account places the first contact in early 2009. He describes Stratton as "a serious male in his midthirties," whom Elizondo regarded as a fellow special operator. He writes that Stratton and a colleague, who appears under the pseudonym [[Rosemary Caine]], arrived at his Arlington office wearing blue credentials identifying them as government intelligence officials, and asked for his counterintelligence and security experience for "a highly classified program led out of our office at DIA." Stratton said he had helped create the program under the name [[AAWSAP]], which Elizondo says was focused on "unconventional technologies" and needed a senior intelligence officer to handle counterintelligence and security.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Charter and the 2021 briefing title
|
||||
[[Dave Fravor]]'s written statement to the House Oversight subcommittee on July 26, 2023 says: "It was not until 2009, until Jay Stratton had contacted me to investigate. Unbeknownst to all, he was part of the ATIP program in the Pentagon led by Lue Elizondo."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The charter of the task force, dated September 1, 2020 and issued by the [[Naval Intelligence Activity]], states that "Leadership of the Task Force will be designated by the Director of the Naval Intelligence Activity."[^4] The title slide of a briefing for the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] dated May 17, 2021 carries the title Director, UAP Task Force, Naval Intelligence Activity, without printing a name.[^5]
|
||||
The [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] historical record report of March 2024 describes the program's funding and origin. It states that "At the direction of Senate Majority Leader [[Harry Reid]] (D-NV), the Defense Appropriations Acts of Fiscal Years 2008 and 2010 appropriated $22 million for the DIA," and that "DIA established AAWSAP in 2009, which was also known AATIP."[^12] The report says that the contract went to a private sector organization, that "a DIA employee set up and managed the contract," and that "AAWSAP/AATIP was terminated in 2012 upon the completion of its deliverables due to DIA and DoD concerns about the project."[^12] It states that "Unlike AAWSAP, AATIP was never an official DoD program," and that after the program ended the AATIP name was used by "some individuals associated with an informal, unofficial UAP community of interest within DoD."[^12] The report also records a letter of June 24, 2009, in which "Senator Reid sent a letter to then Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III requesting that AAWSAP/AATIP be made a DoD Special Access Program." Lynn declined "based on the recommendation of then-Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James R. Clapper, Jr., that such a designation was not justified."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo also writes that Stratton secured an additional $10 million for the program from Reid, and that the money was later taken by another Defense Department program.[^13] He writes that when the program lost its funding and faced internal opposition, Stratton worked with him to move its remnants under Elizondo's portfolio of national programs.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Nimitz encounter and Interloper
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo writes that Stratton "investigated the incident before I joined the team" and "had written a detailed AAWSAP/AATIP report" on the November 2004 encounter involving the [[USS Nimitz]] that became known as the [[Tic Tac]]. He writes that pilots later told Stratton they had been debriefed by intelligence officers and saw no follow-up.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
Fravor's 2023 statement addresses the same incident: "What is shocking to us is that the incident was never investigated. None of my crew were ever questioned. The tapes were never taken and after a couple days it turned into a great story with friends."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo writes that Stratton drafted the operation plan "Interloper," an ambitious plan to use a carrier strike group as bait to lure UAP for observation and data collection, which he calls "a classic 'honey pot,'" with dates, call signs, ship names and radar data, and that the Joint Staff declined to give it a compartment designation in 2016. He also credits Stratton with proposing the term "unidentified aerial phenomena" in place of UFO.[^15] Knapp's February 2023 report makes the same attribution, saying that Stratton "decided to abandon the acronym UFO in favor of UAP."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Leadership of the UAP Task Force
|
||||
|
||||
On August 14, 2020 the [[Department of Defense]] announced that [[David L. Norquist]], the Deputy Secretary of Defense, had approved the task force on August 4. The release states that "The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the UAPTF."[^16] The charter, dated September 1, 2020, states that "Leadership of the Task Force will be designated by the Director of the [[Naval Intelligence Activity]]."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
A briefing for the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] dated May 17, 2021 carries the title slide "Director; UAP Task Force Naval Intelligence Activity."[^18] The [[Office of the Director of National Intelligence]] assessment of June 25, 2021 states that "The Director, UAPTF, is the accountable official for ensuring the timely collection and consolidation of data on UAP."[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo writes that after Navy intelligence leadership tasked Stratton with building a whole-of-government interagency task force, which he built from the ground up, with members from the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the [[National Reconnaissance Office]], [[NASA]] and the [[Federal Aviation Administration]], the Secretary of Defense announced the task force "after a couple of years" and named Stratton its first director. He writes that Stratton continued to push the UAP issue forward, briefing members of Congress and the [[White House]] [[National Security Council]] and laying the groundwork for future legislative action, and that the [[Legacy Program]] "started quietly pushing back on Jay."[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
Knapp's June 2022 report on [[Travis Taylor]] quotes Taylor saying that "Jay Stratton, the director of the UAP Task Force asked me if I would be interested in being the chief scientist." The report adds that Stratton "worked with AAWSAP, then its successor program AATIP. Later, he took charge of a third effort, the UAP Task Force, long before Congress formally created that team."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
In his written statement of July 26, 2023, [[David Grusch]] said that "In 2019, the UAP Task Force Director asked me to identify all special access programs and controlled access programs," and that he was "a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
The AARO report describes the task force's record in one paragraph. It says the task force "helped standardize, destigmatize, and increase the volume of UAP reporting," and that its "methods and processes directly led to the identification of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) high altitude balloons." The report attributes the balloon claim to "AARO discussions with UAPTF leadership."[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
At the May 17, 2022 hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, [[Ronald Moultrie]] was asked about AATIP and said: "I am familiar with Blue Book. I am familiar with AATIP. I haven't seen other documented studies that have been done by DOD in that regard."[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### The triangular photograph
|
||||
|
||||
In December 2020 [[The Debrief]] reported a photograph of a triangular object rising from the ocean, attributed to an F/A-18 pilot. Emails of December 3 and 4, 2020, released under FOIA case 21-F-0299, include a message from the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations office to [[Susan Gough]] that reads "Jay [Stratton] tells me the photo is part of the active investigation, so it would probably be withheld from release for that reason."[^6]
|
||||
In December 2020 [[The Debrief]] reported a photograph of a triangular object rising from the ocean, attributed to an F/A-18 pilot. Emails of December 3 and 4, 2020, released under FOIA case 21-F-0299, include a message from the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations office to [[Susan Gough]] that reads "Jay [Stratton] tells me the photo is part of the active investigation, so it would probably be withheld from release for that reason."[^8] The Black Vault wrote that the message "appeared to confirm the existence of the triangle UAP photograph."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
In a statement to [[The Black Vault]], Stratton said: "At the time of this email exchange, the story in The Debrief, and the claim that an F/A-18 pilot had provided a photograph of a triangle emerging from the ocean, I was handling multiple cases." He added: "We had photographs from F/A-18 pilots, instances of UAP that appeared triangular/pyramidal, and other unrelated cases." The Black Vault reported that no such photograph "was ever received by the UAPTF." Asked why he did not correct the record, Stratton said: "Keep in mind that's an email on an unclassified system. I don't recall if I corrected it on a separate system at the time, but generally, there was no formal process for publicly addressing inaccuracies related to potentially classified reporting."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Stratton in Elizondo's account
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo described Stratton in early 2009 as "a serious male in his midthirties," who "helped create something called the AAWSAP," and who with a colleague he calls "[[Rosemary Caine]]" arrived at his Arlington office wearing blue credentials identifying them as government intelligence officials.[^7] He wrote that Stratton "investigated the incident before I joined the team" and "had written a detailed AAWSAP/AATIP report" on the Nimitz encounter of November 2004, and that pilots later told Stratton they had been debriefed by intelligence officers and saw no follow-up.[^8] He wrote that Stratton drafted the operation plan "Interloper," "a classic 'honey pot,'" with dates, call signs, ship names and radar data, which the Joint Staff declined to give a compartment designation in late 2016, and that Stratton proposed the term unidentified aerial phenomena in place of UFO.[^9] After the resignation, Elizondo wrote, Stratton fielded briefing requests from members of Congress, Navy intelligence leadership tasked him with building a whole-of-government task force with members from the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], the [[National Reconnaissance Office]], [[NASA]] and the Federal Aviation Administration, the Secretary of Defense announced the UAP Task Force "after a couple of years" and named Stratton its first director, and the [[Legacy Program]] then "started quietly pushing back on Jay."[^10]
|
||||
In a statement to The Black Vault, Stratton said that at the time "I was handling multiple cases," and that "We had photographs from F/A-18 pilots, instances of UAP that appeared triangular/pyramidal, and other unrelated cases." He added: "No such photo was ever provided to us by an F/A-18 pilot showing a triangle emerging from the water." Asked why he had not corrected the record, he said: "Keep in mind that's an email on an unclassified system. I don't recall if I corrected it on a separate system at the time, but generally, there was no formal process for publicly addressing inaccuracies related to potentially classified reporting."[^8] The Black Vault reported that no such photograph "was ever received by the UAPTF."[^8] The article's author, [[Tim McMillan]], told the same outlet: "I remain confident in the accuracy of the information shared."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Radiance Technologies
|
||||
|
||||
[[Radiance Technologies]] announced on May 12, 2022 the hiring of Stratton, as "John F. Stratton Jr.," for the position of subject matter expert for intelligence strategy. The release states that he was "recently retired" from his role as Defense Intelligence Senior Executive with the Office of Naval Intelligence, with more than 32 years in the national intelligence community, that as a member of the chief executive's strategy team he would lead and develop efforts in scientific and technical intelligence, and that "Most recently, he was the first Director of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force (UAPTF)." It quotes Radiance president [[Tim Tinsley]] and quotes Stratton: "I am very excited to join Radiance Technologies."[^3]
|
||||
[[Radiance Technologies]] announced on May 12, 2022 that Stratton had joined as "SME for Intel Strategy," as a member of the chief executive's strategy team, where he would lead and develop efforts in scientific and technical intelligence. The release quotes the company president, [[Tim Tinsley]]: "Jay's extensive experience in the Intelligence Community will be valuable in identifying and cultivating new strategic teaming opportunities within both industry and government." It quotes Stratton: "I am very excited to join Radiance Technologies."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[George Knapp]] of [[KLAS-TV]] reported on May 23, 2022 (posted 9:12 PM Pacific time) that "In January 2021 ... Stratton was surprisingly transferred out of the job" at the Task Force, and that Stratton "has never spoken publicly about his work and is not commenting now."[^11] In a report posted October 13, 2022, Knapp wrote that Stratton urged Radiance to hire [[Travis Taylor]], and quoted Taylor: "Jay and I are working on growing the capabilities, doing reverse engineering of foreign materials."[^12] [[Liberation Times]] reported on December 3, 2023, in an article in which the attorney [[Daniel Sheehan]] alleged that the CIA supplies Radiance with non-human materials, that "multiple sources" had told it the allegation was untrue and that Stratton and Taylor "are long-time advocates for more transparency on this topic and are in no way involved in any coverup." Details are on Radiance Technologies.[^13]
|
||||
In an October 13, 2022 report, Knapp wrote that Stratton urged Radiance to hire Taylor, and quoted Taylor: "Jay and I are working on growing the capabilities, doing reverse engineering of foreign materials."[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
In a December 2022 article in Reason, [[Mick West]] wrote that "In 2022, government contractor Radiance Technologies hired both the task force's director, John F. Stratton Jr., and its informal chief scientist, Travis S. Taylor, presumably for something at least speculatively government- and UAP-related."[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 3, 2023, [[Liberation Times]] published an article in which the attorney [[Daniel Sheehan]] alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency supplies Radiance with non-human materials. The article reported that "multiple sources" had told it the allegation was untrue, and that Stratton and Taylor "are long-time advocates for more transparency on this topic and are in no way involved in any coverup."[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
### Skinwalker Ranch
|
||||
|
||||
George Knapp wrote in February 2023 that Stratton and his colleague [[James Lacatski]], a DIA rocket scientist, "set out to create an office" to analyze reports of unknown craft, that Lacatski, "reading about a UFO hotspot named 'Skinwalker Ranch,'" visited the property and pitched a formal investigation of it, and that "Reid agreed to fund it, and Bigelow landed the contract."[^7] The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office report records that the contract went to a private sector organization.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo credits Stratton with coining the term "hitchhiker effect" for the tendency of phenomena at [[Skinwalker Ranch]] to follow investigators home and disturb them and their families long after they leave the property.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
In a 2026 KLAS report on his memoir, Knapp wrote that Stratton "spent a lot of time at Skinwalker Ranch in Utah and said he took home devious 'hitchhikers.'" The report continues: "According to Stratton, these hitchhikers never left him and continue to bother him in his own home almost two decades later."[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
### Memoir and public statements
|
||||
|
||||
The publisher's synopsis states that Stratton, "presented with a video of a mysterious advanced aerospace vehicle over a sensitive nuclear weapon site," cofounded AAWSAP, that he "learned that there is a deeply hidden UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program that has been covering up the existence of non-human intelligent life for eighty years," and that the book describes "close encounters that profoundly altered his understanding of humanity's place in the universe and took a disturbing toll on him and his family." The audiobook is read by Stratton and [[Hal Puthoff]].[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In a PEOPLE interview published October 13, 2026, Stratton said that on an autumn day in 2005 a colleague brought him a classified-system video, recorded by security forces near a nuclear missile silo, of a black triangular craft with lights at each corner that accelerated out of view, and that this "was the moment that changed my world." The article says a representative of Stratton stated that the memoir was vetted by 21 agencies and departments before release. Stratton said that from 2010 his wife and sons were visited at their home by glowing orbs and "shadowy figures," and that "Once I retired, it pretty much stopped." PEOPLE reported that the book describes a nuclear submarine used to lure a craft for monitoring, and that military contractors hold at least a dozen recovered craft, and it quotes the book on a source's account: "there was indeed a crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947," with "everything" recovered, "the crash and non-human bodies." The article notes that the Pentagon publicly denied a multi-decade UAP cover-up in 2024. Stratton appears in the 2025 documentary *The Age of Disclosure*, produced by [[Dan Farah]].[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Hollywood Reporter]] reported on June 3, 2026 that Stratton's memoir, *Out of the Shadows: Revealing the Truth About Non-Human Intelligent Life*, will be published by the HarperCollins imprint [[William Morrow]] on October 13, and that his book deal was first announced in 2024. The publisher's synopsis, as quoted in the report, says that "While serving at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Stratton learned of UAP incursions over nuclear weapon sites, leading him to co-found the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)." It also says that Stratton "discovered an 80-year coverup of the existence of non-human intelligent life."[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Deadline]] reported the same month that "For over 16 years, Stratton investigated UAP and non-human intelligent life on behalf of the federal government," and that the film and television rights are held by Dan Farah. A related Deadline report says that [[Terence Winter]] is adapting the memoir for television.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
A [[NewsNation]] report on the memoir described Stratton as "a former director of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, a predecessor to the current All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," and stated that "There's no indication what Stratton plans to reveal."[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
A KLAS report by George Knapp and John Forest, posted before the release, says that Knapp interviewed Stratton "at a UAP conference in Alabama," and gives the release date as mid-October.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
Stratton was the guest on the February 7, 2023 episode of [[Weaponized]], hosted by [[Jeremy Corbell]] and George Knapp, titled "The Pentagon's Top UFO Hunter." The episode runs 1 hour 37 minutes.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Garry Nolan]] of [[Stanford University]] told Stanford magazine in 2023 that Stratton gave pilots who feared exposure to UAP propulsion systems Nolan's name, and the article quotes Stratton: "He has just been one of the guys in my Rolodex."[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
### Press and critics
|
||||
|
||||
The Black Vault, citing a New York Post report, quoted an anonymous former Defense Department official who described the task force as "a complete and utter waste of money" and its former director, Jay Stratton, as "a complete nutjob."[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
|
||||
[^2]: Paul E. Gray, "Julius Adams Stratton, 1901 to 1994," Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, opening paragraph ("Jay, as he was known by nearly all who worked with him"); and MIT News, "President Emeritus Julius Adams Stratton dies at 93," June 29, 1994 (death June 22, 1994). https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/stratton-julius.pdf ; https://news.mit.edu/1994/stratton-0629
|
||||
[^3]: "John F. Stratton Jr. Joins Radiance Technologies as SME for Intel Strategy," Radiance Technologies, PR Newswire, May 12, 2022, read in the Internet Archive capture of the same date. https://web.archive.org/web/20220512145721/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-f-stratton-jr-joins-radiance-technologies-as-sme-for-intel-strategy-301546258.html
|
||||
[^4]: Naval Intelligence Activity, "Charter for Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force," Ser NW20S0068, September 1, 2020, in the Department of the Navy final response in FOIA case DON-2021-003140, April 22, 2025. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/navy/DON-2021-003140.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Naval Intelligence Activity, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" briefing for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, May 17, 2021, title slide. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/UAPTFHPSCIBriefRedacted.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: The Black Vault, "FOIA-Released Emails Mention Alleged Triangular UAP Photo; Former UAP Task Force Director Speaks Out," FOIA case 21-F-0299. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/foia-released-emails-mention-alleged-triangular-uap-photo-former-uap-task-force-director-speaks-out/
|
||||
[^7]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 5 to 14.
|
||||
[^8]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 71 to 73.
|
||||
[^9]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 143, 147 and 186 (Interloper at pp. 143 and 186; the term UAP at p. 186).
|
||||
[^10]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 211 and 223 (task force and first director at p. 223).
|
||||
[^11]: George Knapp, "More UFO hearings? Congress might consider hearing from these 2 men," 8 News Now (KLAS), posted May 23, 2022, 9:12 PM Pacific time, https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/more-ufo-hearings-congress-might-consider-hearing-from-these-2-men/
|
||||
[^12]: George Knapp, "Is this company working with alien technology in Nevada?" KLAS 8 News Now, posted October 13, 2022 (Pacific time). https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/is-this-company-working-with-alien-technology-in-nevada/
|
||||
[^13]: Christopher Sharp, "Daniel Sheehan Exposes Five Powerful Republicans Blocking UFO Disclosure Act, As The Clock Ticks Down," Liberation Times, December 3, 2023. https://www.liberationtimes.com/home/daniel-sheehan-exposes-five-powerful-republicans-blocking-ufo-disclosure-act-as-the-clock-ticks-down
|
||||
[^1]: "John F. Stratton Jr. Joins Radiance Technologies as SME for Intel Strategy," Radiance Technologies release, PR Newswire, May 12, 2022, read in the Internet Archive capture of the same date. https://web.archive.org/web/20220512145721/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-f-stratton-jr-joins-radiance-technologies-as-sme-for-intel-strategy-301546258.html
|
||||
[^2]: Speaker biography of John F. "Jay" Stratton Jr., FanCons, reproduced in the Anomaly Archives file for Stratton, John F. https://fancons.com/guests/bio/7662/jay-stratton ; https://anomalyarchives.org/collections/file/stratton-john-f
|
||||
[^3]: Johnny Dodd, "Pentagon's UFO Hunter Reveals Himself and What He Learned, Including the Video He Can't Forget (Exclusive)," *PEOPLE*, October 13, 2026. https://people.com/confessions-of-the-governments-top-alien-hunter-12171214
|
||||
[^4]: Paul E. Gray, "Julius Adams Stratton, 1901 to 1994," *Biographical Memoirs*, National Academy of Sciences, opening paragraph ("Jay, as he was known by nearly all who worked with him"); and MIT News, "President Emeritus Julius Adams Stratton dies at 93," June 29, 1994 (death June 22, 1994). https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/stratton-julius.pdf ; https://news.mit.edu/1994/stratton-0629
|
||||
[^5]: Department of the Navy Senior Executive biography, "John F. Stratton Jr," Office of Naval Intelligence, PDF created June 21, 2021, in the Internet Archive capture of June 23, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240623122451id_/https://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/About/Senior-Executives/Biographies/Stratton%2C%20J.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: William Morrow (HarperCollins), product page for *Out of the Shadows: Revealing the Truth About Non-Human Intelligent Life* by Jay Stratton, publisher synopsis and contributor credits. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/out-of-the-shadows-jay-stratton
|
||||
[^7]: George Knapp, "Former intelligence official breaks silence on gov't UFO investigations," KLAS-TV (8 News Now), February 2023, as quoted in the Anomaly Archives file for Stratton. https://anomalyarchives.org/collections/file/stratton-john-f
|
||||
[^8]: The Black Vault, "FOIA-Released Emails Mention Alleged Triangular UAP Photo; Former UAP Task Force Director Speaks Out," FOIA case 21-F-0299, reproducing emails of December 3 and 4, 2020 and Stratton's statement. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/foia-released-emails-mention-alleged-triangular-uap-photo-former-uap-task-force-director-speaks-out/
|
||||
[^9]: George Knapp, "More UFO hearings? Congress might consider hearing from these 2 men," 8 News Now (KLAS), posted May 23, 2022, 9:12 PM Pacific time. https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/more-ufo-hearings-congress-might-consider-hearing-from-these-2-men/
|
||||
[^10]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 5 to 14.
|
||||
[^11]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53, statement of Commander David Fravor and questioning. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm
|
||||
[^12]: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I," cleared for open publication March 6, 2024, pp. 22 to 23. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF
|
||||
[^13]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024).
|
||||
[^14]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 71 to 73.
|
||||
[^15]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 143, 147 and 186 (Interloper at pp. 143 and 186; the term UAP at p. 186).
|
||||
[^16]: Department of Defense, "Establishment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force," press release, August 14, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2314065/establishment-of-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-task-force/
|
||||
[^17]: Naval Intelligence Activity, "Charter for Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force," Ser NW20S0068, September 1, 2020, in the Department of the Navy final response in FOIA case DON-2021-003140, April 22, 2025. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/navy/DON-2021-003140.pdf
|
||||
[^18]: Naval Intelligence Activity, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" briefing for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, May 17, 2021, title slide. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/UAPTFHPSCIBriefRedacted.pdf
|
||||
[^19]: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," June 25, 2021, p. 2. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf
|
||||
[^20]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 211 and 223 (task force and first director at p. 223).
|
||||
[^21]: George Knapp, "I-Team: Physicist reveals he's a UFO hunter for the Pentagon," KLAS-TV (8 News Now), posted June 21, 2022 according to The Black Vault's account of the report. https://www.8newsnow.com/investigators/i-team-ufo-scientist-speaks-publicly-for-the-first-time-on-decades-of-work/amp
|
||||
[^22]: David Grusch, statement, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, hearing of July 26, 2023 (Serial No. 118-53). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm
|
||||
[^23]: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "Report on the Historical Record ... Volume I," March 2024, p. 24 and note 70. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF
|
||||
[^24]: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, hearing "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," May 17, 2022, transcript, remarks of Ronald S. Moultrie. https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114761/documents/HHRG-117-IG05-Transcript-20220517.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: George Knapp, "Is this company working with alien technology in Nevada?" 8 News Now (KLAS), posted October 13, 2022 (Pacific time). https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/is-this-company-working-with-alien-technology-in-nevada/
|
||||
[^26]: Mick West, "The Military-UFO Complex," Reason, December 2022, as quoted in the Anomaly Archives file for Stratton. https://anomalyarchives.org/collections/file/stratton-john-f
|
||||
[^27]: Christopher Sharp, "Daniel Sheehan Exposes Five Powerful Republicans Blocking UFO Disclosure Act, As The Clock Ticks Down," Liberation Times, December 3, 2023. https://www.liberationtimes.com/home/daniel-sheehan-exposes-five-powerful-republicans-blocking-ufo-disclosure-act-as-the-clock-ticks-down
|
||||
[^28]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024).
|
||||
[^29]: George Knapp and John Forest, "Jay Stratton to release new book on non-human intelligent life Oct. 13," KLAS-TV (8 News Now), 2026, undated copy. https://www.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/jay-stratton-uap-book-release/amp/
|
||||
[^30]: Johnny Dodd, *PEOPLE*, October 13, 2026 (see note 32).
|
||||
[^31]: Lexy Perez, "Jay Stratton Memoir to Reveal UAP Secrets and Non-Human Life Truths," *The Hollywood Reporter*, June 3, 2026. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/jay-stratton-memoir-out-of-the-shadows-release-1236612113/
|
||||
[^32]: Matt Grobar, "Jay Stratton Memoir: Release Date, Title Unveiled," *Deadline*, June 3, 2026. https://deadline.com/2026/06/jay-stratton-memoir-release/
|
||||
[^33]: "High-ranking Pentagon insider to release UFO memoir," NewsNation, undated copy. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/pentagon-insider-ufo-memoir/amp
|
||||
[^34]: "The Pentagon's Top UFO Hunter - Guest: John 'Jay' Stratton," *Weaponized with Jeremy Corbell & George Knapp*, episode of February 7, 2023, 1 hour 37 minutes, episode listing. https://podwise.ai/episodes/1312011
|
||||
[^35]: Sam Scott, "First Contact," *Stanford* magazine, July 2023. https://stanfordmag.org/contents/first-contact
|
||||
[^36]: The Black Vault, "FOIA Release Reveals Secret Charter Behind Creation of Pentagon's UAP Task Force," citing a New York Post report. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/foia-release-reveals-secret-charter-behind-creation-of-pentagons-uap-task-force/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -12,13 +12,32 @@ tags:
|
|||
- FBIInformant
|
||||
- AryanNations
|
||||
created: 2026-05-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-22
|
||||
summary: "Joshua Caleb Sutter was a paid FBI informant from 2003 through at least 2021 whose handler directed him to infiltrate Atomwaffen Division while he simultaneously operated Martinet Press, publishing O9A texts that AWD required members to read."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
summary: "Joshua Caleb Sutter was a paid FBI informant from 2003 through at least 2021 who infiltrated Atomwaffen Division while he operated Martinet Press, publishing O9A texts that AWD required members to read."
|
||||
born: 1981
|
||||
location: "Lexington, South Carolina"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: informant_for
|
||||
with: "[[FBI]]"
|
||||
start: 2003
|
||||
role: "paid informant from approximately 2003, per the government's response in United States v. Cole (Dkt. 200); handler Special Agent Bill Moser, Columbia field office"
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Jillian Hoy]]"
|
||||
start: 2008
|
||||
role: "Lexington County, South Carolina marriage licence, per Bellingcat (June 2023); Vice wrote that he married after his 2004 release"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Martinet Press]]"
|
||||
role: "co-founded with Jillian Hoy, per Rolling Stone (June 2022)"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Tempel ov Blood]]"
|
||||
role: "co-leader with Jillian Hoy, per the Mapping Militants Project; Master of the Tempel, per communications surfaced by Nate Thayer"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] (born 1981, also known under the alias Wulfran Hall) is an American neo-Nazi, Satanist, and leader of the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) American nexion [[Tempel ov Blood]], who was simultaneously a paid [[FBI]] informant from 2003 to at least 2021. During that period the FBI paid him more than $140,000 for work that included infiltrating [[Atomwaffen Division]] from the inside, while Sutter used those funds in part to operate [[Martinet Press]], a publishing house he ran with his wife [[Jillian Hoy]] that produced the O9A texts subsequently distributed to AWD members and, through [[Terrorgram]] channels, into the broader accelerationist radicalization ecosystem feeding the [[764 Network|764]] network. His identity as an FBI informant was publicly confirmed in 2021 through court documents obtained and published by investigative journalist [[Ali Winston]] in the federal case against Atomwaffen Division leader [[Kaleb Cole]].[^1]
|
||||
[[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] (born 1981, also known under the alias Wulfran Hall) is an American neo-Nazi, Satanist, and leader of the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) American nexion [[Tempel ov Blood]], who was simultaneously a paid [[FBI]] informant from 2003 to at least 2021. During that period the FBI paid him more than $140,000 for work that included infiltrating [[Atomwaffen Division]] from the inside, while Sutter ran [[Martinet Press]], a publishing house he operated with his wife [[Jillian Hoy]] that produced the O9A texts subsequently distributed to AWD members and, through [[Terrorgram]] channels, into the broader accelerationist radicalization ecosystem feeding the [[764 Network|764]] network. His identity as an FBI informant was publicly confirmed in 2021 through court documents obtained and published by investigative journalist [[Ali Winston]] in the federal case against Atomwaffen Division leader [[Kaleb Cole]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Original Criminal Case
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,9 +51,9 @@ Sutter was born in 1981, the son of a white supremacist activist. He became invo
|
|||
|
||||
### FBI Recruitment and Informant Work
|
||||
|
||||
During or shortly after his 2003 arrest, Sutter agreed to become an FBI informant. He served a brief period of federal prison time in Georgia, then was released early in 2004 as a direct result of his cooperation. At trial in September 2021, Sutter testified under oath about his recruitment. His exact words, as obtained by USA TODAY from trial transcripts: "It was proposed that I could act in a deep-cover capacity. I was instructed to continue the relationships that I had in the right wing."[^4] This language confirms that the FBI did not retask him out of the far right; it explicitly directed him to maintain and deepen those relationships.
|
||||
During or shortly after his 2003 arrest, Sutter agreed to become an FBI informant. He served a brief period of federal prison time in Georgia, then was released early in 2004 as a direct result of his cooperation. At trial in September 2021, Sutter testified under oath about his recruitment. His exact words, as obtained by USA TODAY from trial transcripts: "It was proposed that I could act in a deep-cover capacity. I was instructed to continue the relationships that I had in the right wing."[^4][^5] USA Today reported that immediately after his release in 2004 Sutter went to work for the FBI, doing "surveillance, attending in-person meetings and traveling around the country."[^5] Asked at trial what he did for a living, he answered "Publishing."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
His primary FBI handler was Special Agent [[Bill Moser]] of the [[FBI Columbia Field Office]] in [[Columbia, South Carolina]]. Moser directed Sutter to join [[Atomwaffen Division]] and later directed his participation in AWD events including the [[2018 AWD Death Valley Hate Camp]] (February 2018) and the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] (September 2019).[^5] Rolling Stone reporting confirmed Moser as handler. No other named FBI agents associated with Sutter's informant work have been publicly confirmed.
|
||||
His primary FBI handler was Special Agent [[Bill Moser]] of the [[FBI Columbia Field Office]] in [[Columbia, South Carolina]]. Moser directed Sutter to join Atomwaffen Division and later directed his participation in AWD events including the [[2018 AWD Death Valley Hate Camp]] (February 2018) and the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] (September 2019).[^6] Rolling Stone reported Moser as handler, from Sutter's testimony at Cole's trial.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
From 2003 to at least 2021, Sutter received a total of more than $140,000 from the FBI, including $78,133.20 plus an expense advance of $4,378.60 beginning February 7, 2018, a period that court documents in the Cole case noted "almost entirely coincides with his work on the investigation into Mr. Cole" and the broader Atomwaffen Division probe.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -42,35 +61,35 @@ From 2003 to at least 2021, Sutter received a total of more than $140,000 from t
|
|||
|
||||
Sutter's informant history before the AWD period involved two distinct operational strands.
|
||||
|
||||
The first was within Aryan Nations. Sutter had served as the "Minister for Islamic Liaison" for Aryan Nations, a role in which he claimed to pursue alliances with international Islamist movements. After his 2003 conviction, he was positioned to report on [[August Kreis III]], then director of a South Carolina Aryan Nations faction. Sutter and Kreis worked together out of Sutter's Lexington home. According to contemporaneous reporting, Sutter talked Kreis into publicly pledging support to [[al-Qaeda]], a stunt that drew FBI investigation to Kreis.[^2] Kreis was subsequently charged in 2011 with VA benefits fraud (collecting nearly $193,000 in military pension benefits he was not eligible to receive) and sentenced to six months served in [[U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina|U.S. District Court in Columbia, S.C.]][^6]
|
||||
The first was within Aryan Nations. Sutter had served as the "Minister for Islamic Liaison" for Aryan Nations, a role in which he claimed to pursue alliances with international Islamist movements. After his 2003 conviction, he was positioned to report on [[August Kreis III]], then director of a South Carolina Aryan Nations faction. Sutter and Kreis worked together out of Sutter's Lexington home. According to contemporaneous reporting, Sutter talked Kreis into publicly pledging support to [[al-Qaeda]], a stunt that drew FBI investigation to Kreis.[^2] Kreis was subsequently charged in 2011 with VA benefits fraud (collecting nearly $193,000 in military pension benefits he was not eligible to receive) and sentenced to six months served in [[U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina|U.S. District Court in Columbia, S.C.]][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The second strand was the [[Rural People's Party]] (RPP), a pro-[[North Korea|DPRK]]/[[Juche]] front group that Sutter founded and ran from his Lexington home. The RPP promoted North Korea, idolized the [[Kim dynasty]], and distributed DPRK propaganda. According to secondary reporting, the FBI purchased Sutter's family home and used it as the base for this operation, which was directed at surveilling and targeting pro-DPRK Americans.[^7] Sutter was also described as the main propagandist for the [[Songun Politics Study Group USA]], a separate DPRK-affiliated network, before later migrating to [[Hindu esotericism]] and then to O9A.[^5]
|
||||
The second strand was the [[Rural People's Party]] (RPP), a pro-[[North Korea|DPRK]]/[[Juche]] front group that Sutter founded and ran from his Lexington home. The RPP promoted North Korea, idolized the [[Kim dynasty]], and distributed DPRK propaganda. According to secondary reporting, the FBI purchased Sutter's family home and used it as the base for this operation, which was directed at surveilling and targeting pro-DPRK Americans.[^8] Sutter was also described as the main propagandist for the [[Songun Politics Study Group USA]], a separate DPRK-affiliated network, before later migrating to [[Hindu esotericism]] and then to O9A.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Tempel ov Blood and Martinet Press
|
||||
|
||||
After his 2004 release, Sutter married Jillian Hoy, who served as director of Martinet Press, a publishing house specializing in occult neo-Nazi literature. Through Martinet Press, Sutter authored and published the central texts of the American O9A tradition, including:
|
||||
Vice wrote that after his 2004 release Sutter returned to South Carolina and married Jillian Hoy, whom it called "the director of Martinet Press," a publishing house specializing in occult neo-Nazi literature.[^1] Bellingcat reported that a search of Lexington County, South Carolina marriage licences showed the marriage in 2008, on a licence record with the name and date blurred.[^9] Rolling Stone wrote that Sutter co-founded Martinet Press with Hoy.[^6] The Mapping Militants Project profile of Tempel ov Blood states that the group "is co-led by Joshua Caleb Sutter and his wife Jillian Hoy, who are based in South Carolina."[^10] Through Martinet Press, Sutter authored and published the central texts of the American O9A tradition, including:
|
||||
|
||||
*[[Iron Gates]]* (2014, 406 pp.): A novel set seventy years after a nuclear war, depicting a gang of Satanists committing acts of extreme violence including infanticide, cannibalism, rape, sodomy, torture, and pedophilia, framed as spiritual instruction for O9A adherents. The book is available in its full text through the Internet Archive. It became required reading for Atomwaffen Division members under [[John Cameron Denton]] and was distributed through Terrorgram channels into the broader accelerationist network.[^8]
|
||||
*[[Iron Gates]]* (2014): A novel set seventy years after a nuclear war, depicting a gang of Satanists committing acts of extreme violence including infanticide, cannibalism, rape, sodomy, torture, and pedophilia, framed as spiritual instruction for O9A adherents. The book is available in its full text through the Internet Archive. It became required reading for Atomwaffen Division members under [[John Cameron Denton]] and was distributed through Terrorgram channels into the broader accelerationist network.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
*Liber 333*: An O9A text published by Martinet Press.
|
||||
|
||||
*Bluebird*: An O9A text published by Martinet Press.
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter used FBI informant payments to fund Martinet Press operations. The financial flow, as documented through the Cole court filings, means that the U.S. government materially subsidized the production and distribution of the O9A texts that radicalized Atomwaffen Division members and, through the subsequent distribution pipeline, contributed to the broader accelerationist ecosystem.[^1]
|
||||
The FBI paid Sutter more than $140,000 from 2003 onward while he ran Martinet Press, according to the defense motion.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Whether the FBI explicitly authorized founding Tempel ov Blood and operating Martinet Press has not been confirmed in any available public document. The FBI declined to comment on Sutter's publishing activities when asked by Rolling Stone.[^5]
|
||||
The FBI declined to respond to questions from Rolling Stone about Sutter's role as a paid informant, Martinet Press' role in spreading O9A ideology, or whether it had been contacted by foreign law enforcement regarding either Sutter or the Tempel ov Blood.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Infiltrating Atomwaffen Division
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter joined Atomwaffen Division in the spring of 2017, operating under the online alias "swissdiscipline." His entry into AWD came after AWD's Texas leader Denton, fascinated by Tempel ov Blood's combination of National Socialism and Satanic occultism, invited ToB members into the group. Sutter rapidly became an important figure within AWD's leadership structure, and through him, at least nine Tempel ov Blood members held key positions in the organization at the peak of this relationship.[^5]
|
||||
Sutter joined Atomwaffen Division in the spring of 2017, operating under the online alias "swissdiscipline." His entry into AWD came after AWD's Texas leader Denton, fascinated by Tempel ov Blood's combination of National Socialism and Satanic occultism, invited ToB members into the group. Sutter rapidly became an important figure within AWD's leadership structure, and through him, at least nine Tempel ov Blood members held key positions in the organization at the peak of this relationship.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter attended AWD's "Hate Camp" paramilitary training sessions in 2017 and 2018. These camps combined firearms training, physical conditioning, and ideological instruction. He organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]], Nevada in September 2019, AWD's national leadership gathering, using his FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], the author of *[[Siege]]*, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks.[^5]
|
||||
Sutter attended AWD's "Hate Camp" paramilitary training sessions in 2017 and 2018. These camps combined firearms training, physical conditioning, and ideological instruction. He organized the 2019 AWD Nuclear Congress in [[Las Vegas]], Nevada in September 2019, AWD's national leadership gathering, using his FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], the author of *[[Siege]]*, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Denton made Sutter's books (*Iron Gates*, *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members. The ideological shift provoked substantial internal controversy: members who had joined AWD as National Socialists objected to the incorporation of Satanism, and several left the group. Those who remained were exposed to the O9A framework in which murder was construed as spiritual service and transgressive violence as a form of initiatory development.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Cole Case and Public Revelation
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter's identity as an FBI informant was first publicly established through documents obtained by journalist Ali Winston from federal court proceedings in the case against Kaleb Cole in [[United States v. Shea et al.]], 2:20-cr-00032 ([[Western District of Washington|W.D. Wash.]]), before Judge [[John C. Coughenour]]. Motion-to-suppress filings in the Cole case described a confidential informant without using Sutter's name, but the details were sufficiently specific that identification was apparent to those familiar with the AWD network.[^1]
|
||||
Sutter's identity as an FBI informant was first publicly established through documents obtained by journalist Ali Winston from federal court proceedings in the case against Kaleb Cole in [[United States v. Shea et al. (2020)|United States v. Cole]], 2:20-cr-00032-JCC ([[Western District of Washington|W.D. Wash.]]), before Judge [[John C. Coughenour]]. Motion-to-suppress filings in the Cole case described a confidential informant without using Sutter's name, but the details were sufficiently specific that identification was apparent to those familiar with the AWD network.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Payment Specifics and the Cole Case Timeline
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -80,67 +99,49 @@ The Cole defense motion, filed August 13, 2021, established the following paymen
|
|||
- Specific amount from February 7, 2018 onward: $78,133.20 in direct payments plus an expense advance of $4,378.60
|
||||
- The motion noted that the February 7, 2018 start date "almost entirely coincides with his work on the investigation into Mr. Cole" and the broader AWD probe
|
||||
|
||||
The [[2018 AWD Death Valley Hate Camp]] took place February 2018, the same month the intensified payment period began. Photographs obtained during the investigation confirmed Sutter attended under his alias "swissdiscipline."[^9]
|
||||
The 2018 AWD Death Valley Hate Camp took place February 2018, the same month the intensified payment period began. Photographs obtained during the investigation confirmed Sutter attended under his alias "swissdiscipline."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
Cole was convicted September 2021 and sentenced to 84 months in January 2022.
|
||||
A jury convicted Cole on September 29, 2021, and he was sentenced on January 11, 2022 to seven years (84 months).[^13][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Suppression Motion and Government Response
|
||||
|
||||
Cole's defense argued that the search warrant affidavit was defective under the doctrine established in [[Franks v. Delaware]] (1978) because it failed to disclose the CI's criminal history and paid status. The motion described the CI, without naming Sutter, as: "a convicted felon and currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings." It further stated: "The CI began his long career as a professional informant in exchange for consideration regarding his sentence on a federal conviction for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and an unregistered silencer."[^10]
|
||||
Cole's defense argued that the search warrant affidavit was defective under the doctrine established in [[Franks v. Delaware]] (1978) because it failed to disclose the CI's criminal history and paid status. The motion described the CI, without naming Sutter, as: "a convicted felon and currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings." It further stated: "The CI began his long career as a professional informant in exchange for consideration regarding his sentence on a federal conviction for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and an unregistered silencer."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
The DOJ's response acknowledged the deficiency but contested its legal significance: "Although the defense is correct that certain potential impeachment information about the informant was not included in the affidavit, that omission is hardly fatal."[^10] Judge Coughenour sided with the government: "The FBI's longstanding relationship with the informant and the compensation it paid to him, approximately $140,000 over a sixteen-year period, does not impugn his credibility."[^11] The motion was denied without a Franks hearing.
|
||||
The DOJ's response acknowledged the deficiency but contested its legal significance: "Although the defense is correct that certain potential impeachment information about the informant was not included in the affidavit, that omission is hardly fatal."[^15] Judge Coughenour sided with the government: "The FBI's longstanding relationship with the informant and the compensation it paid to him, approximately $140,000 over a sixteen-year period, does not impugn his credibility."[^16] The government's response of August 20, 2021 (Dkt. 200), signed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas M. Woods and Seth Wilkinson, stated that the informant had received approximately $140,000, "which included both compensation and reimbursement for expenses," and that $78,133.20 of it was paid since February 7, 2018, "which almost entirely coincided with his work on Atomwaffen."[^17] On August 30, 2021 the court denied the motion to suppress and for a Franks hearing, writing that the compensation "does not impugn his credibility. If anything, it suggests that he demonstrated reliability."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
Critically, neither the government's brief nor the judge's ruling addressed whether the FBI authorized or was aware of Sutter's operation of Martinet Press during the informant period. The revelation provoked immediate controversy. Critics from the far right charged that the FBI had effectively subsidized the radicalization of AWD through Sutter's continued operation of Martinet Press. Critics from civil libertarians and researchers argued the FBI had failed to adequately supervise an informant who was simultaneously producing extremist material while being paid to gather intelligence on extremist networks. From the government's perspective, Sutter's informant work was credited as "instrumental in the prosecutions" against Atomwaffen Division members.[^1]
|
||||
The revelation provoked immediate controversy. Critics from the far right charged that the FBI had effectively subsidized the radicalization of AWD through Sutter's continued operation of Martinet Press. Critics from civil libertarians and researchers argued the FBI had failed to adequately supervise an informant who was simultaneously producing extremist material while being paid to gather intelligence on extremist networks. The government's response argued that paying the informant about $140,000 over sixteen years "tends to suggest that the informant is reliable,"[^17] and Sutter's informant work was credited as "instrumental in the prosecutions" against Atomwaffen Division members.[^1] [[Ariel Koch]] of the [[International Institute for Counter-Terrorism]] told USA Today that, given the O9A practice of the "insight role," it had to be considered whether Sutter's work as an informant was such a role.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Downstream Prosecution: the NSO / Suzuki Case
|
||||
|
||||
After AWD rebranded as [[National Socialist Order]] (NSO) in July 2020, Sutter's alias "swissdiscipline" continued to appear in the group's encrypted communications. In 2022, these records contributed to the prosecution of [[Aubrey Sakai Suzuki]], 21, of [[Nesbit, Mississippi]], who had posted on an NSO website about killing Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ people and "blowing up the system." Suzuki pleaded guilty on June 30, 2022, in the Northern District of Mississippi, to one count of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.[^12] The Suzuki case represents a confirmed downstream prosecution in which Sutter's active informant presence inside the group generated a prosecutable lead.
|
||||
After AWD rebranded as [[National Socialist Order]] (NSO) in July 2020, Sutter's alias "swissdiscipline" continued to appear in the group's encrypted communications. In 2022, these records contributed to the prosecution of [[Aubrey Sakai Suzuki]], 21, of [[Nesbit, Mississippi]], who had posted on an NSO website about killing Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ people and "blowing up the system." Suzuki pleaded guilty on June 30, 2022, in the Northern District of Mississippi, to one count of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### FBI Authorization of Publishing Activities: What the Record Shows
|
||||
### Publishing During the Informant Period
|
||||
|
||||
The public record on whether the FBI explicitly authorized Sutter's Martinet Press operations is as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
- The court documents describe him as "currently" operating a publishing company distributing white supremacist writings, present tense, during his active informant period
|
||||
- The government's suppression brief did not contest this characterization and did not assert that the publishing activities were authorized
|
||||
- Judge Coughenour's ruling did not address the publishing activities
|
||||
- The FBI declined to comment when asked by Rolling Stone whether it knew about or approved Sutter's publishing role
|
||||
- No document in the public record shows explicit FBI authorization of Martinet Press
|
||||
- No document shows an explicit FBI prohibition on the publishing activities
|
||||
|
||||
The gap between these two absences, no authorization and no prohibition, is the unresolved core of the legal and political accountability question. Rolling Stone cited journalist [[Jake Hanrahan]] on this point: "to not check in on the material he's publishing, which promotes murdering children and pedophilia, that's not doing your fucking job."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Congressional Oversight
|
||||
|
||||
No congressional committee, senator, or representative has filed a formal oversight letter, held a hearing, or made any indexed floor statement specifically demanding that the FBI account for its informant relationship with Sutter or its concurrent funding of Martinet Press. The 117th Congress (2021-2022) Judiciary Committee's FBI oversight hearings do not reference Sutter, Martinet Press, or the Cole case. This absence appears to be genuine rather than a search artifact.
|
||||
The Cole defense motion described the informant as one who "currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings," during his active informant period.[^15] The FBI declined Rolling Stone's questions about whether it had been contacted by foreign law enforcement regarding Sutter or Tempel ov Blood. Rolling Stone cited journalist [[Jake Hanrahan]]: "to not check in on the material he's publishing, which promotes murdering children and pedophilia, that's not doing your fucking job."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Post-Revelation Status
|
||||
|
||||
Sutter was not charged with any crime connected to his Martinet Press activities following the 2021 revelation of his informant status. Rolling Stone's 2022 follow-up noted: "Joshua Sutter, the FBI informant and leading O9A proselytizer, is a free man and still selling Satanist books."[^13]
|
||||
Sutter was not charged with any crime connected to his Martinet Press activities following the 2021 revelation of his informant status. Rolling Stone's 2022 follow-up noted: "Joshua Sutter, the FBI informant and leading O9A proselytizer, is a free man and still selling Satanist books."[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Vice. "FBI Bankrolled Publisher of Occult Neo-Nazi Books, Feds Claim." 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/fbi-bankrolled-publisher-of-occult-neo-nazi-books-feds-claim/; Ali Winston (journalist). August 2021. https://x.com/awinston/status/1429086087830515717
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Matthew Gault. "FBI Bankrolled Publisher of Occult Neo-Nazi Books, Feds Claim." Vice (Motherboard), August 25, 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/fbi-bankrolled-publisher-of-occult-neo-nazi-books-feds-claim/; Ali Winston (journalist). August 2021. https://x.com/awinston/status/1429086087830515717
|
||||
[^2]: Religion News Blog / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Federal investigators infiltrate extremist groups." February 2003. https://www.religionnewsblog.com/2476/federal-investigators-infiltrate-extremist-groups
|
||||
|
||||
[^3]: United States v. Sutter, 2:03-cr-00158-ER-1 (E.D. Pa., Judge Eduardo C. Robreno). CourtListener docket 8143981. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8143981/united-states-v-sutter/
|
||||
|
||||
[^4]: Trial testimony of Joshua Sutter, United States v. Shea et al., 2:20-cr-00032 (W.D. Wash.), September 2021. DocumentCloud document 22056395. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22056395-trial-testimony-of-joshua-sutter/ Quote also reproduced in Yahoo News / USA TODAY, September 2021.
|
||||
|
||||
[^5]: Winston, Ali. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers," *Rolling Stone,* 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/
|
||||
|
||||
[^6]: SPLC Hatewatch. "Neo-Nazi Leader August Kreis Sentenced for Fraud." December 2011. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/neo-nazi-leader-august-kreis-sentenced-fraud/
|
||||
|
||||
[^7]: Secondary reporting aggregated from multiple sources including TRAC Insight and archived blog reporting. No primary document confirms the FBI purchased Sutter's home; the claim appears in secondary sources but has not been confirmed in court filings.
|
||||
|
||||
[^8]: Internet Archive. *Iron Gates* (Tempel ov Blood / Martinet Press, 2014). https://archive.org/details/tempel-ov-blood-iron-gates-text
|
||||
|
||||
[^9]: Pahrump Valley Times. "Neo-Nazi group conducts weapons training near Death Valley." 2018. https://pvtimes.com/uncategorized/neo-nazi-group-conducts-weapons-training-near-death-valley/
|
||||
|
||||
[^10]: Defense motion to suppress and government response, United States v. Shea et al., 2:20-cr-00032 (W.D. Wash.), August 13, 2021. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/kaleb-cole-august-13-2021-motion-to-suppress-1
|
||||
|
||||
[^11]: Order Denying Motion to Suppress, United States v. Cole, Case No. CR20-0032-JCC (W.D. Wash., August 30, 2021). Leagle.com: infdco20210901708.
|
||||
|
||||
[^12]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-NDMS. "Nesbit Man Sentenced To Prison for Racist Threats." October 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndms/pr/nesbit-man-sentenced-prison-racist-threats
|
||||
|
||||
[^13]: Winston, Ali. "Plea Deal in the Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers," *Rolling Stone,* 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280/
|
||||
[^4]: Trial testimony of Joshua Sutter, United States v. Cole, 2:20-cr-00032-JCC (W.D. Wash.), September 2021. DocumentCloud document 22056395. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22056395-trial-testimony-of-joshua-sutter/ Quote also reproduced in Yahoo News / USA TODAY, September 2021.
|
||||
[^5]: Will Carless and Kevin Johnson. "The FBI informant who helped white supremacists, Joshua Caleb Sutter." *USA Today,* June 9, 2022. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2022/06/09/fbi-informant-white-supremacist-atomwaffen/7237901001/
|
||||
[^6]: Winston, Ali. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers," *Rolling Stone,* June 5, 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/
|
||||
[^7]: SPLC Hatewatch. "Neo-Nazi Leader August Kreis Sentenced for Fraud." December 2011. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/neo-nazi-leader-august-kreis-sentenced-fraud/
|
||||
[^8]: Secondary reporting aggregated from multiple sources including TRAC Insight and archived blog reporting. No primary document confirms the FBI purchased Sutter's home; the claim appears in secondary sources but has not been confirmed in court filings.
|
||||
[^9]: "The Mainstream Publishers, Distributors and Bookshops Selling Satanist Neo-Nazi Books." *Bellingcat,* June 30, 2023. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/06/30/the-mainstream-publishers-distributors-and-bookshops-selling-satanist-neo-nazi-books
|
||||
[^10]: "Tempel ov Blood." Mapping Militants Project, Stanford University and Rice University. https://mappingmilitants.org/node/534/
|
||||
[^11]: Internet Archive. *Iron Gates* (Tempel ov Blood / Martinet Press, 2014). https://archive.org/details/tempel-ov-blood-iron-gates-text
|
||||
[^12]: Pahrump Valley Times. "Neo-Nazi group conducts weapons training near Death Valley." 2018. https://pvtimes.com/uncategorized/neo-nazi-group-conducts-weapons-training-near-death-valley/
|
||||
[^13]: Associated Press. "US jury convicts leader of neo-Nazi threat campaign." September 29, 2021. https://www.wxow.com/news/national/us-jury-convicts-leader-of-neo-nazi-threat-campaign/article_690fdfd4-e9fb-5842-9a17-d74784680f57.html
|
||||
[^14]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington. "Leader of Neo-Nazi group sentenced for plot targeting journalists and advocates," January 11, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/leader-neo-nazi-group-sentenced-plot-targeting-journalists-and-advocates
|
||||
[^15]: Defense motion to suppress and government response, United States v. Cole, 2:20-cr-00032-JCC (W.D. Wash.), August 13, 2021. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/kaleb-cole-august-13-2021-motion-to-suppress-1
|
||||
[^16]: Order Denying Motion to Suppress, United States v. Cole, Case No. CR20-0032-JCC (W.D. Wash., August 30, 2021). Leagle.com: infdco20210901708.
|
||||
[^17]: Government's Response to Motion to Suppress, *United States v. Cole*, No. 2:20-cr-00032-JCC, Dkt. 200 (W.D. Wash., August 20, 2021), pp. 10-11 and 17. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365.200.0.pdf
|
||||
[^18]: Order, *United States v. Cole*, No. 2:20-cr-00032-JCC, Dkt. 211 (W.D. Wash., August 30, 2021), pp. 1 and 4. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365/gov.uscourts.wawd.284365.211.0.pdf
|
||||
[^19]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-NDMS. "Nesbit Man Sentenced To Prison for Racist Threats." October 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndms/pr/nesbit-man-sentenced-prison-racist-threats
|
||||
[^20]: Winston, Ali. "Plea Deal in the Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers," *Rolling Stone,* July 6, 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,80 +1,202 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Technologists"
|
||||
created: 2024-04-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- KeyFigure
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- PROMIS
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
summary: "Michael Riconosciuto is a computer scientist and self-proclaimed former CIA asset who claimed to have modified the PROMIS software through the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture and became a central source for Danny Casolaro's Octopus investigation."
|
||||
- Octopus
|
||||
- Cabazon
|
||||
- Inslaw
|
||||
- DrugTrafficking
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Michael Riconosciuto
|
||||
- Michael James Riconosciuto
|
||||
- Michael J. Riconosciuto
|
||||
summary: "Michael Riconosciuto is a computer scientist and convicted methamphetamine manufacturer who claimed to have modified PROMIS software for a Wackenhut-Cabazon venture and became a central source for Danny Casolaro's Octopus investigation."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Cabazon Security Corporation]]"
|
||||
start: 1981
|
||||
end: 1984
|
||||
role: "claimed to be Director of Research in his March 21, 1991 affidavit; the Bua report found no employment by Wackenhut or the venture"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Robert Booth Nichols]]"
|
||||
role: "partners in Meridian Arms, per Seymour"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Dr. John Philip Nichols]]"
|
||||
role: "business relationship at the Cabazon venture, per the Bua report"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[First Intercontinental Development Corporation]]"
|
||||
role: "technical advisor, per Seymour"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Marshall Riconosciuto]]"
|
||||
role: "father"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Bobby Riconosciuto]]"
|
||||
role: "wife"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Nicholas J. Bua]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1991
|
||||
end: 1993
|
||||
role: "special counsel's inquiry into his INSLAW allegations"
|
||||
fn: 14
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1991
|
||||
end: 1992
|
||||
role: "federal narcotics prosecution in Tacoma, Washington; convicted January 1992"
|
||||
fn: 29
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Thomas Olmstead]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1992
|
||||
end: 1992
|
||||
role: "trial counsel in Tacoma"
|
||||
fn: 29
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[John Rosellini]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1991
|
||||
end: 1991
|
||||
role: "attorney after the March 1991 arrest, at the time of the April 1991 congressional interview"
|
||||
fn: 24
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] is a computer scientist and self-proclaimed former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] asset, known for his involvement in various clandestine operations and his claims regarding the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]]. He was described as a child prodigy, wiring his parents' neighborhood with a private telephone system at age 10 and winning science fairs with laser technology, leading to a summer research assistantship at Stanford's Cooper Vaper Laser Laboratory.[^1]
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] is a computer scientist and convicted methamphetamine manufacturer who claimed to have modified [[PROMIS]] software for a joint venture between the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] and the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon]] band near Indio, California. He was a central source for [[Danny Casolaro]]'s investigation into what Casolaro called the [[The Octopus|Octopus]]. The Justice Department special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] wrote that he "can fairly be described as the key witness against Brian," meaning [[Earl Brian]]. He was convicted in Tacoma, Washington, in January 1992 on drug charges that he said were a government frame-up.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Involvement with Wackenhut and Cabazon Joint Venture
|
||||
### Youth and early laser work
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto stated in a March 21, 1991 affidavit that from 1981 to 1984 he was Director of Research for a joint venture between [[Wackenhut Corporation]] and the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]] near Indio, California; the Bua report found no evidence that he was employed by Wackenhut or the joint venture.[^2][^3] The venture, which is called "[[Cabazon Security Corporation|Cabazon Arms]]" in correspondence from the venture, is summarized by the Bua report as one "engaged in the development and manufacture of certain military type materials, which were then intended to be sold to foreign governments and forces."[^4] A newspaper clipping in the Danny Casolaro papers attributes to Riconosciuto, from the affidavit, a project to develop night-vision goggles, machine guns, fuel-air explosives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons and states that because the band was sovereign such weapons could be manufactured without congressional scrutiny for "U.S. client regimes" and "groups such as the contras."[^5] Seymour wrote that the reservation's sovereign status was used to bypass stringent federal controls on such developments.[^1] The Bua report records Nichols's view that "the Cabazon's, as a sovereign nation, were not subject to the usual export and import controls."[^6]
|
||||
[[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Riconosciuto wired his parents' neighborhood with a private telephone system at age 10 and won science fairs with laser technology, which led to a summer research assistantship at Stanford's Cooper Vaper Laser Laboratory.[^1] In a 1984 interview with [[Ted Gunderson]], recorded on tape and transcribed in the Casolaro papers, Riconosciuto said he built full-size carbon dioxide and argon lasers as a ninth grader in Tacoma, won a trip to a San Francisco electronics show through a science fair, and was then introduced to "Dr. Arthur Schalow," the Stanford laser physicist [[Arthur Schawlow]]. He said that after his first summer in the Stanford group his family placed him at a boarding school in Portola Valley so he could continue that work.[^2] [[David Corn]] reported in *The Nation* in October 1991 that as a high school student he had been "something of a scientific prodigy" and "even worked for a while in the Stanford University laboratory of Arthur Schawlow," who won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for work on laser technology.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
During this period, Riconosciuto claimed to have modified the proprietary [[PROMIS]] computer software. He stated that [[Earl Brian]] made the software available to him through Wackenhut, after acquiring it from [[Peter Videnieks]], a [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] contracting official. Riconosciuto's modifications were intended to facilitate the worldwide implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including specific adaptations for the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] and the [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]] in [[Canada]]. This alleged modification and sale of pirated PROMIS software became a central element of the PROMIS Software Scandal.[^1]
|
||||
In a separate, undated interview with Gunderson (the interviewer is initialed "T.G." and the speaker "M.R."), Riconosciuto described attending gatherings in Stanford's English department in 1965 and 1966 at which "Psychedelic Review" contributors spoke and drugs were taken, and a meeting of the Schawlow group in the Varian physics building at which, he said, the group discussed the LSD gatherings after press coverage and a participant said "I make my living with my central nervous system and I think I'm gonna leave it intact." He said that he never took LSD or any other powerful psychedelic drug, that from 1966 he did light show and sound work at the Straight Theatre in San Francisco, that he set up an electronics laboratory at the Avalon Ballroom with Bob Cohen, and that he was a full partner with Chet Helms in Family Dog Enterprises. He also said that [[Timothy Leary]] gave him power of attorney over his property in San Anselmo, which he looked after until early 1968.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
However, the Special Counsel's investigation found significant inconsistencies in Riconosciuto's various accounts of his role in the alleged theft of PROMIS. He was inconsistent regarding from whom he received the software and when and where he altered it. For instance, in his affidavit, he claimed to have received a single copy of the software from Earl Brian, while at his trial, he claimed to have received three versions from [[John Philip Nichols]]. His timeline for altering the software also varied, with his affidavit stating 1983-1984, but his trial testimony indicating late 1981 to early 1983. The investigation noted that it would have been physically impossible for anyone from the DOJ to provide an enhanced version of PROMIS in late 1981, as Inslaw did not even enter into the implementation contract until March 1982, and the enhanced version was not delivered until April 1983.[^7]
|
||||
### The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture
|
||||
|
||||
Both Earl Brian and Peter Videnieks categorically denied Riconosciuto's allegations, stating they had never met him or each other, and had never been to Indio, California. The investigation found both Brian and Videnieks to be credible witnesses. Furthermore, the investigation found no evidence to corroborate Riconosciuto's claims of computer equipment or software modification activities at the Cabazon reservation. Witnesses, including the Tribal Chairman Art Welmas and Indio Police Chief Sam Cross, stated they never saw large computers or computer facilities on the reservation during that period. The investigation concluded that Riconosciuto was a "totally unreliable witness" and that his story was a "tale of total fiction woven against the background of accurate historical facts."[^7]
|
||||
In a March 21, 1991 affidavit, Riconosciuto said that from 1981 to 1984 he had been Director of Research for a joint venture between Wackenhut and the Cabazon Indians of Indio, California.[^5][^6] The Bua report summarizes the affidavit as describing the venture as one "engaged in the development and manufacture of certain military type materials, which were then intended to be sold to foreign governments and forces."[^5] Seymour dates the joint venture's formalization to April 1, 1981.[^1] A newspaper clipping in the Casolaro papers attributes to Riconosciuto a project to develop night-vision goggles, machine guns, fuel-air explosives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons, and states that because the band was sovereign such weapons could be made without congressional scrutiny for "U.S. client regimes" and "groups such as the contras."[^7] The Bua report quotes [[John Philip Nichols]], the tribe's non-Indian administrator, as saying "the Cabazon's, as a sovereign nation, were not subject to the usual export and import controls."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto told *Spy* in 1992 that he "met with George Wackenhut and John Ammarell [a Wackenhut board member and consultant to George Wackenhut] in Las Vegas," with [[Dr. John Philip Nichols]] present. The magazine reported that Wackenhut denied any involvement with improper appropriation of software, and that Ammarell confirmed that a meeting took place in Las Vegas, saying, "I don't remember any specific conversations, but I think we were there to discuss the sale of George's yacht, the Top Secret. I think Nichols said he had a potential buyer."[^8] An unsigned letter in the Danny Casolaro papers, whose writer refers to his father and to the firms Stellar and Hercules Research, states that the writer's "meeting with Mr. George Wackenhut and John Amarell in Las Vegas on March 11, 1982," gave him "ample opportunity to discuss the power pack." The same letter states that "Bob Frye of Wackenhut Services, Inc., gave personal invaluable assistance" at the Picatinny Arsenal, that the cooperation received from the Wackenhut Corporation "has been nothing short of spectacular," and that the writer was "formalizing an agreement with an assistant U.S. attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be a cooperative witness."[^9]
|
||||
The Bua report found that the venture existed, that a September 1981 weapons demonstration took place at a gun range in Indio, and that [[Robert Frye]] was the only individual employed by Wackenhut in the matter. It found "no evidence to support Riconosciuto's claim that he and Earl Brian were employed by Wackenhut or by the joint venture," that the joint venture had no employees, and that the firms Riconosciuto named in a call to the Hamiltons, Wackenhut Research, Inc. and Wackenhut Security, Inc., "do not exist."[^9] Frye and [[Peter Zokosky]], a former president of [[Armtec Defense Products]], described their meetings with Riconosciuto at [[Picatinny Arsenal]] in May and October 1981, and the report notes that Zokosky and Frye disagree about which trip he attended.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The 1993 report of Judge [[Nicholas J. Bua]] for the Department of Justice describes Riconosciuto's March 21, 1991 affidavit in the INSLAW bankruptcy adversary proceeding, in which he stated that he had been Director of Research for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation and the Cabazon Indians and that in 1983 and 1984, in connection with his work for Wackenhut, he modified the PROMIS software.[^2] The report states that its investigators "found no evidence to support Riconosciuto's claim that he and Earl Brian were employed by Wackenhut or by the joint venture," that the joint venture had no employees at any time, and that the only individual employed by Wackenhut in the matter was [[Robert Frye]]. It also states that the firms Riconosciuto named in a call to the Hamiltons, Wackenhut Research, Inc. and Wackenhut Security, Inc., "do not exist."[^3]
|
||||
Riconosciuto told [[Spy]] magazine in 1992 that he "met with George Wackenhut and John Ammarell [a Wackenhut board member and consultant to George Wackenhut] in Las Vegas," with Nichols present. The magazine reported that Wackenhut denied any involvement with improper appropriation of software, and that Ammarell confirmed a meeting took place in Las Vegas, saying, "I don't remember any specific conversations, but I think we were there to discuss the sale of George's yacht, the Top Secret. I think Nichols said he had a potential buyer."[^11] An unsigned letter in the Casolaro papers, whose writer refers to his father and to the firms Stellar and Hercules Research, describes a "meeting with Mr. George Wackenhut and John Amarell in Las Vegas on March 11, 1982," that gave the writer "ample opportunity to discuss the power pack." The letter states that "Bob Frye of Wackenhut Services, Inc., gave personal invaluable assistance" at the Picatinny Arsenal, and that "the cooperation I have received from the Wackenhut Corporation has been nothing short of spectacular." The same letter says the writer was "formalizing an agreement with an assistant U.S. attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be a cooperative witness."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### The PROMIS Affidavit and Arrest
|
||||
The Bua report found that the former tribal chairman [[Arthur Welmas]] and his wife never saw or met Earl Brian at the reservation, and that [[Sam Cross]], the Indio police chief during those years, said he had been in the mobile trailer behind the casino and saw no computer equipment in it. John Philip Nichols told investigators the PROMIS allegations were fabricated, and the report noted that Nichols had a motive to call Riconosciuto a liar, but that "everything Nichols told us was consistent with the great weight of the evidence we obtained from other sources."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
In March 1991, Riconosciuto provided an affidavit to [[Bill Hamilton]] and [[Nancy Hamilton]], owners of [[INSLAW]], detailing his role in modifying PROMIS and alleging that Peter Videnieks attempted to dissuade him from cooperating with a [[United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation into the software's theft. Eight days after signing this affidavit, Riconosciuto was arrested for allegedly operating a methamphetamine lab in Tacoma, Washington. He claimed this arrest was a deliberate attempt to discredit his testimony. The Special Counsel's investigation, however, found no connection between Riconosciuto's prosecution and his allegations in the Inslaw matter, concluding that the drug case began as a local investigation and the evidence against him was overwhelming.[^1][^7]
|
||||
### PROMIS claims and the House Judiciary investigation
|
||||
|
||||
The House Judiciary Committee report recorded that in his March 21, 1991 affidavit Riconosciuto stated that in February 1991 Peter Videnieks told him in a telephone conversation that it would be beneficial for him to refuse a committee request for an interview. On April 4, 1991 Riconosciuto gave the committee investigators a sworn statement connecting his work on PROMIS to Earl Brian and Videnieks, and said that he had two copies of the tape of the February 1991 conversation at the time of his arrest and that the tapes were in the possession of the DEA agents who arrested him.[^10] The report stated that he said that during a luncheon attended by Brian, Videnieks, James Hughes and himself, the enhanced PROMIS software was loaded into his car.[^11] The committee wrote that the timing of the March 29, 1991 arrest, coupled with Riconosciuto's allegation that tapes of a telephone conversation with Videnieks had been confiscated by DEA agents, "raises serious questions concerning whether the Department's prosecution of Mr. Riconosciuto was related to his cooperation with the committee," and that the Department refused the committee access to its investigative files on him.[^12]
|
||||
Riconosciuto said that Brian made a copy of the proprietary PROMIS software available to him through Wackenhut, after acquiring it from [[Peter Videnieks]], a [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] contracting official. He said his modifications were intended to facilitate worldwide implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including adaptations for the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] and the [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]] in [[Canada]].[^5] Seymour treats this as the central element of the PROMIS software scandal.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In his January 1992 trial testimony in Tacoma, Riconosciuto said he received a message from someone named Peter telling him to be at a restaurant wearing a yellow shirt, that a man he recognized as "Norm" and others there placed a call and handed him the phone, and that one of them said "It's no wonder, this is Videnieks." He testified that Videnieks told him he "was making some people nervous" and that there might be problems for him in connection with a savings and loan matter. Asked on direct examination how many times he had met Videnieks he answered "At least a dozen occasions," and that the first place was "In Indio, California."[^13]
|
||||
Riconosciuto's first claims reached [[Bill Hamilton|William and Nancy Hamilton]], the owners of [[INSLAW]], in May 1990. On a conference call that a reporter for one of [[Lyndon LaRouche]]'s publications arranged, he told the Hamiltons that he and Brian were hired as consultants to Wackenhut Research, that he and Brian traveled to Iran in 1980 and paid a $40 million bribe to prevent the release of American hostages before the November 1980 election, and that he still had a copy of the PROMIS source code. The Bua report summarizes the Hamiltons' memoranda of that call, and says that four of his statements about PROMIS could be established with accuracy, three under oath and one in the Hamiltons' notes.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections and Allegations
|
||||
On April 4, 1991, Riconosciuto gave a sworn statement to [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigators. The committee's report says he connected his work on PROMIS to Brian and Videnieks, and that during a luncheon attended by Brian, Videnieks, [[Jimmy Hughes]], and himself, the enhanced software was loaded into the trunk of his car.[^15] He also said he had two copies of a tape of his February 1991 conversation with Videnieks, and that DEA agents seized them at his arrest.[^15] He gave the committee access to a storage facility holding computer tapes and documents. A General Accounting Office analysis for the committee found that only one of five magnetic media could be read, that it held a corporate data file of accounts, and that a later review found one readable tape containing instructions for a word-processing modification and no PROMIS versions.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto's network of connections and the scope of his alleged activities are extensive. He was closely associated with [[Robert Booth Nichols]], a key figure in [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation. They were partners in Meridian Arms, a subsidiary of Meridian International Logistics (MIL), and Riconosciuto was a technical advisor for [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]], where Nichols was on the Board of Directors. Riconosciuto claimed Nichols was involved in large-scale illegal drug operations and money laundering, and that Nichols attempted to pressure him into illegal activities.[^1]
|
||||
The Bua report traced a series of contradictions in his accounts. In his affidavit he said he had received a single copy of PROMIS from Brian. At trial he said he had received three versions from Nichols. In the affidavit he dated his PROMIS work to 1983 and 1984 in Indio, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Miami, Florida. At trial he placed it between late 1981 and early 1983, mentioned only Indio, and did not mention Maryland or Miami.[^17] The report noted that Inslaw did not sign its implementation contract until March 1982 and did not produce an enhanced version to DOJ until April 20, 1983, and that "it would have been physically impossible for anybody from DOJ to produce anything but a public domain version of PROMIS in November 1981."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto claimed to have provided valuable intelligence to former Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Brian Leighton]] regarding a drug/arms organization known as "[[The Company]]," which consisted of former military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel involved in drug trafficking, gunrunning, and mercenary operations.[^1]
|
||||
The Bua report called him "a totally unreliable witness in connection with the allegations he has made about the alleged theft of PROMIS software," and wrote that his "story about PROMIS reminds us of a historical novel; a tale of total fiction woven against the background of accurate historical facts."[^18] The report listed other claims for which it "came across no credible witness who could confirm any of this": work with the CIA, a radio detonator device used to overthrow the Allende government in Chile, patents on revolutionary devices, recovery of computer data from computers damaged in the overthrow of the Shah, handling of the October Surprise payments, and persuading organized crime members associated with Tony Accardo not to commit a murder. It also stated that "Most people who know Riconosciuto told us that he displays a high degree of familiarity with scientific and technical concepts," that NCIC records indicated burglary and bail jumping convictions from the early 1970s, and that during the almost year he was out of prison after his first call to the Hamiltons he never produced the 1099 forms, the photographs of him with Brian in Iran, or the version of PROMIS he said he would give them.[^19] The report states that Riconosciuto said [[Wayne Reeder]] arrived at the September 1981 demonstration with Brian. A 1991 Riverside County investigator's report that named Brian was prepared from Riconosciuto's jail interview and from license-plate records supplied by a former Indio officer. The Bua report found that the registration notes referred only to Reeder.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
He also claimed participation in a [[National Security Council|NSC]]-sanctioned drug/sting operation in Lebanon through Euramae Trading Company in Nicosia, Cyprus, another alleged NSC cutout. He described a network involving [[Michael T. Hurley]] (DEA Country Attache), [[Maurice Ghanem]], and [[George Pender]], where heroin shipments were allegedly used to fund intelligence operations and were sometimes diverted for profit.[^1]
|
||||
The House committee wrote that Riconosciuto "could not provide evidence other than his eyewitness account" of Brian's involvement in the PROMIS conversion at the reservation, that Brian "flatly contradicts" the claims in his own sworn statement, and that the committee was "not in a position to make findings of fact on Dr. Brian's role" but "would strongly recommend that further investigation be given" to it. In a footnote the committee recorded that a Riverside County District Attorney's Office Special Operations Report of October 10, 1991 placed Brian, with Riconosciuto and others, at the weapons demonstration at the Lake Cahuilla gun range in Indio on the evening of September 10, 1981, and that Welmas was quoted in the Washington Business Journal of March 30, 1992 as saying, "Brian must have been involved. His name was mentioned and discussed on a daily basis."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto claimed to have handled gold transfers, money laundering, "virtual dead drops," and altered ACH daily reconciliations for various underworld figures, including Robert Booth Nichols, [[Gilbert Rodriguez]], and [[Jose Santacruz Londono]] of the [[Cali Drug Cartel]]. He sought to provide this information to the [[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network|FinCen]] in exchange for witness protection.[^1]
|
||||
### The 1991 affidavit, arrest and congressional interview
|
||||
|
||||
Regarding the [[October Surprise]], Riconosciuto claimed that he and Earl Brian traveled to [[Iran]] in 1980 and paid $40 million to Iranian officials to delay the release of U.S. hostages until after [[Ronald Reagan]]'s presidential inauguration, linking the PROMIS Software Scandal to the October Surprise affair.[^1] However, the Special Counsel's investigation found no credible evidence to support this claim, and evidence suggested Brian was in New York at the time of the alleged Iran trip.[^7]
|
||||
The affidavit describes a February 1991 telephone call in which Videnieks told Riconosciuto that it would be beneficial to refuse a committee request for an interview. It also says that if he cooperated, he would be punished, with the indictment of Riconosciuto for savings and loan fraud and perjury among the punishments.[^22] Bua reports that Brian and Videnieks each "categorically and under oath denied" the allegations, and that both said they had never met Riconosciuto or each other and had never been to Indio. The report stated: "We found both men to be credible witnesses, both in their demeanor and in the substance of their statements."[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 21, 1991, Riconosciuto signed the affidavit for the Hamiltons, for use in INSLAW's bankruptcy adversary proceeding. On March 29, 1991, eight days later, DEA special agents arrested him on drug charges.[^24] A DEA agent's affidavit in the drug case, held on the archive.org item USAV.MichaelRiconosciuto, describes recorded deliveries of methamphetamine and methadone to a confidential informant beginning in February 1991, and surveillance of a residence at Lakebay, Washington, on March 29, 1991.[^25] The House report states that the Department of Justice proposed a courthouse in Seattle for the interview, and that the Department's attorney refused to give a sworn assurance that the interview would not be monitored or recorded. It also says the Department refused the committee's request to interview the DEA arresting agents, citing the ongoing prosecution, and refused access to its investigative files on him.[^24] The committee wrote that the timing of the arrest, coupled with Riconosciuto's allegation that tapes of a telephone conversation with Videnieks had been confiscated by DEA agents, "raises serious questions concerning whether the Department's prosecution of Mr. Riconosciuto was related to his cooperation with the committee." The same passage states that the arrest "diminishes his credibility as a witness," and that the committee "received sworn testimony and recovered documents which support aspects of Mr. Riconosciuto's story," tying Riconosciuto, Brian and Robert Booth Nichols to U.S. intelligence agencies and, in Nichols's case, possibly to organized crime.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
The Bua report addressed the arrest directly. It stated, "We are convinced beyond all doubt that there was absolutely no connection between Riconosciuto's prosecution and his allegations in the Inslaw matter." It described the case as beginning as a local Washington State drug investigation in which a small-time methamphetamine dealer cooperated with police, with the Seattle office of the DEA brought in after the supplier was found to be distributing on a large scale. It states that DEA recorded Riconosciuto delivering methamphetamine on videotape on more than one occasion, that he ran a large methamphetamine lab at the property where he lived, and that the trial judge commented at sentencing that he was "not sure whether Riconosciuto could tell fact from fiction."[^26] The report records Riconosciuto's testimony that the case was a set up, that the DEA had altered the videotapes, that the government had altered telephone records, and that his lab was only for mining metals.[^26] The Associated Press reported at the opening of the trial that his lawyer said the chemicals found at the property near Tonasket in Okanogan County were used to extract platinum from mining wastes, that the defense would offer expert testimony that recordings can be altered, and that former Attorney General [[Elliot Richardson]], counsel to Inslaw, and Hamilton were expected defense witnesses.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
### Trial and sentence, 1992
|
||||
|
||||
At his trial in federal court in Tacoma in January 1992, Riconosciuto's defense was that he was being framed on the drug charges as punishment for his testimony about PROMIS. He testified at length about PROMIS and said he had supervised a lead programmer and programming teams working in a mobile trailer behind the Cabazon casino.[^28] He testified that in February 1991 he received a message from someone named Peter telling him to be at a restaurant wearing a yellow shirt, that the people there were unknown to him except for one man he recognized as "Norm," that they placed a call and handed him the phone, and that one of them said, "It's no wonder, this is Videnieks." He testified that Videnieks told him he "was making some people nervous" and that there might be problems for him in connection with a savings and loan matter. Asked on direct examination how many times he had met Videnieks he answered "At least a dozen occasions," and that the first place was "In Indio, California." He also testified that the DEA had seized two copies of his tape of the February call and that he was "not sure" where the original was.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 19, 1992, the Associated Press reported that a jury had convicted Riconosciuto, then 44, on seven drug counts: possession of more than 100 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, two counts of distributing methamphetamine, and two counts of distributing methadone. He was acquitted on three other counts. The AP reported a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years, and quoted assistant U.S. attorney Mark Bartlett as saying, "We're very happy." Riconosciuto and his lawyer, [[Thomas Olmstead]], branded four videotapes as fake, and the videotapes showed drugs being delivered to a government informer. The charges covered November 1989 to April 1991.[^29] The AP also reported that two of the videotapes showed a man who appeared to be Riconosciuto accepting 5,000 dollars in marked bills from an informer in a kitchen at Lakebay on the Kitsap Peninsula, that agents testified he was arrested with the bills and that his wallet held a 100 dollar bill from an earlier marked delivery, that one of his fingerprints was on a mug in a tape, that the defense called no witnesses, and that Judge Bryan had denied a defense motion for a mistrial based on a claim that one tape shown to the jury was stolen from Riconosciuto in 1989.[^29] The Bua report records that the trial judge sentenced Riconosciuto to 360 months, "the lowest available sentence under the applicable sentencing guidelines."[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
The Bua report also records that Riconosciuto, with two others, filed a lawsuit challenging the authority of the investigation. It says the lawsuit alleged, among other things, that Bua was involved in organized crime murders and that one of the FBI agents assigned to the case had murdered Danny Casolaro. The report states that the district court dismissed the suit as patently frivolous, in [[Riconosciuto v. Bua]], No. 92 C 6217 (N.D. Ill.).[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
### Appeals and later cases
|
||||
|
||||
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the conviction and sentence in an unpublished memorandum decided October 27, 1993. The appeal challenged the admission of evidence from searches conducted without warrants, the government's destruction of evidence, and the drug quantity used at sentencing. The memorandum describes searches of his property outside Tonasket, Washington, in early April 1993, and of a shack in Home, Washington, on April 10, 1993.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
The Bua report states that Riconosciuto "was involved with hallucinogenic drugs at least as far back as 1972, when he was convicted on a PCP charge," and that in that case his defense was that someone had planted the PCP on him.[^32] Separately, the Court of Appeals of Washington affirmed a grand larceny conviction against him in December 1974. The opinion records his contention that a federal investigation of an alleged conspiracy to manufacture drugs involving him was underway.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
In a news release of September 27, 1994 announcing the Department's review of the Bua report, the Department of Justice stated that two primary sources relied on by INSLAW "were not credible: Michael Riconosciuto, currently serving a 30-year sentence on methamphetamine charges, and Ari Ben-Menashe."[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2017 Riconosciuto filed a federal habeas petition in the Central District of California against the warden and the U.S. Probation and Parole office. Judge John A. Kronstadt dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction on February 16, 2017.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
### Nichols, Casolaro and the Octopus
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto said he was a partner with [[Robert Booth Nichols]] in Meridian Arms, a subsidiary of [[Meridian International Logistics]] (MIL), and that he was a technical advisor to [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]], on whose board Nichols sat.[^1] The Bua report describes any business relationship Riconosciuto had as one with Nichols and the Cabazons rather than with Wackenhut.[^9] Riconosciuto claimed Nichols was involved in large-scale illegal drug operations and money laundering, and that Nichols attempted to pressure him into illegal activities.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto began talking to Casolaro before his March 1991 arrest and became a key source for the Octopus investigation, which Casolaro was pursuing when he died in August 1991.[^1] Riconosciuto claimed that Casolaro's death occurred shortly after he began investigating [[Michael Abbell]]'s connection to the [[Cali Drug Cartel]], a lead Riconosciuto had provided. He also stated that Nichols had warned Casolaro to stay away from him.[^1] Corn reported that Casolaro visited him in jail, that Riconosciuto said he had a tape recording of Videnieks's threat but never gave it to Casolaro, that Casolaro intended to call him "Danger Man" in his book, and that he told Corn Casolaro's death was connected to the writer's inquiry into his allegations and that Anson Ng, a journalist killed in Guatemala, had been investigating an episode involving Riconosciuto and the Cabazon reservation. Corn also reported that Riconosciuto had told others he had equipped AWACS aircraft destined for Saudi Arabia with radar technology proscribed by Congress, that he said he and Nichols had a falling-out in 1984 and had not spoken since, and wrote: "anything Riconosciuto says must be taken with a salt mine."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Drug, arms and money claims
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto claimed to have provided valuable intelligence to former Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Brian Leighton]] regarding a drug and arms organization known as "[[The Company]]," which consisted of former military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel involved in drug trafficking, gunrunning, and mercenary operations.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
He also claimed participation in a [[National Security Council|NSC]]-sanctioned drug sting operation in Lebanon through [[Euramae Trading Company]] in [[Nicosia]], [[Cyprus]], another alleged NSC cutout. He described a network involving [[Michael T. Hurley]], then the DEA country attache, [[Maurice Ghanem]], and [[George K. Pender]], in which heroin shipments were allegedly used to fund intelligence operations and were sometimes diverted for profit.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto claimed to have handled gold transfers, money laundering, "virtual dead drops," and altered ACH daily reconciliations for underworld figures, including Robert Booth Nichols, [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela|Gilbert Rodriguez]], and [[Jose Santacruz Londono]] of the Cali Drug Cartel. He sought to provide this information to [[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network|FinCEN]] in exchange for witness protection.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Regarding the [[October Surprise]], Riconosciuto claimed that he and Brian traveled to [[Iran]] in 1980 and paid $40 million to Iranian officials to delay the release of U.S. hostages until after [[Ronald Reagan]]'s inauguration. The Bua report found no credible evidence for that trip and states that Brian's office records placed him in New York on September 10, 1981.[^36] Seymour wrote that the claim created what Riconosciuto described as a "domino effect" in Washington and generated additional investigations and media attention.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Riconosciuto claimed to have been in direct communication with [[Michael Hand]], co-founder of [[Nugan Hand Bank]], before and after Hand's disappearance, and handled money transfers for Hand when he fled [[Australia]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Beyond PROMIS, Riconosciuto was involved in advanced technological projects, including theoretical work on railguns for the U.S. Army, and research into "energy transfer phenomena" with [[William Frash]] and [[Patrick Moriarty]] (his father's business partner), aiming to develop technology that would "supercede all existing world patents in the field."[^1]
|
||||
Beyond PROMIS, Riconosciuto was involved in advanced technological projects, including theoretical work on railguns for the U.S. Army, and research into "energy transfer phenomena" with [[William Frash]] and [[Patrick Moriarty]], his father's business partner, aiming to develop technology that would "supercede all existing world patents in the field."[^1] At trial he testified that his group ran a pilot plant at its facility in [[Hercules, California]], and that the work included [[Hercules Research]].[^37] [[Harry Fair|Dr. Harry Fair]] of Picatinny Arsenal described him as a "potential national resource" after a May 1981 railgun blackboard exercise.[^1] In the 1984 Gunderson interview Riconosciuto said Hercules Research began with scrap and residue platinum catalyst left in an acid plant at Hercules, from which he said the group generated 130,000 dollars, and that it then worked tailings piles in the northern Sacramento River area to recover platinum group metals; he described a project at Hercules he called the "Special Project" as a direct energy related weapons project based on Interprobe technology and technology developed at Hercules Research.[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
### Remarks on Clearances and the Aquino Question
|
||||
### Clearances and the Aquino question
|
||||
|
||||
In an undated transcript of an interview with [[Ted Gunderson]] (the interviewer is initialed "T.G."), the speaker, initialed "M.R.," discusses members of the Church of Set and of [[Michael Aquino]]'s circle. He says that the reaction to Aquino he received from "Dr. Malkin" was "Well, his clearance isn't all that high."[^14] In the same passage the speaker says that nearly everyone in Aquino's group was psy-ops or intelligence related.[^14] The transcript's cover line begins with the name "Michael," and the first notes in the file are headed "NOTES OF PHONE CONV. 12/29/87." The initials are the only identifier in the body of the transcript. Records found do not establish whether "Dr. Malkin" is [[Myron S. Malkin]], the former NASA Space Shuttle director and former Defense Department official, whose name appears in an undated (year not printed) Cabazon Arms letter.[^15]
|
||||
In an undated transcript of an interview with Gunderson (the interviewer is initialed "T.G."), the speaker, initialed "M.R.," discusses members of the Church of Set and of [[Michael Aquino]]'s circle. He says that the reaction to Aquino he received from "Dr. Malkin" was "Well, his clearance isn't all that high."[^39] In the same passage the speaker says that nearly everyone in Aquino's group was psy-ops or intelligence related.[^39] The transcript's cover line begins with the name "Michael," and the first notes in the file are headed "NOTES OF PHONE CONV. 12/29/87." Records found do not establish whether "Dr. Malkin" is [[Myron S. Malkin]], the former NASA Space Shuttle director and former Defense Department official, whose name appears in an undated (year not printed) Cabazon Arms letter.[^40]
|
||||
|
||||
### Legal Troubles and Witness Protection Attempts
|
||||
### Witness protection attempts
|
||||
|
||||
Following his arrest, Riconosciuto attempted multiple times to trade information with federal authorities, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|BATF]], in exchange for entry into a [[Witness Protection Program]]. He offered to expose high-level corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering operations, including those involving Robert Booth Nichols, [[Michael Abbell]], and the Cali Drug Cartel. However, these attempts were largely unsuccessful, with authorities often expressing skepticism or facing internal resistance to his claims.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Relationship with Danny Casolaro
|
||||
|
||||
Danny Casolaro began interviewing Riconosciuto prior to his arrest in March 1991. Riconosciuto became a key source for Casolaro's "The Octopus" investigation, providing insights into the alleged criminal network. Riconosciuto claimed that Casolaro's death occurred shortly after he began investigating Michael Abbell's connection to the Cali Drug Cartel, a lead Riconosciuto had provided. He also stated that Robert Booth Nichols had warned Casolaro to stay away from Riconosciuto.[^1]
|
||||
Following his arrest, Riconosciuto attempted multiple times to trade information with federal authorities, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|BATF]], in exchange for entry into the [[Witness Protection Program]]. He offered to expose high-level corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering operations, including those involving Robert Booth Nichols, Michael Abbell, and the Cali Drug Cartel. These attempts were largely unsuccessful, with authorities often expressing skepticism or facing internal resistance to his claims.[^1] Seymour wrote that Gunderson, who had begun as a contact after the arrest when Riconosciuto wrote to him from jail, tried to facilitate his entry into the Witness Protection Program, and that the FBI and other federal agencies were reluctant to cooperate or to acknowledge his claims. Gunderson provided an affidavit and testified at the Tacoma trial to corroborate Riconosciuto's government-sanctioned activities, and Seymour wrote that Gunderson could not describe many of Nichols's activities there because Nichols was then under FBI investigation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^2]: United States Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua on the INSLAW matter (1993), printed pp. 42 to 43 (affidavit of March 21, 1991, paragraph 44 as quoted). https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/DOJ-OIP-INSLAW_1993.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua on the INSLAW matter (1993), printed p. 55 and footnote 32 (firm names) and footnote 35 on p. 58 (employment). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it.
|
||||
[^4]: United States Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.* (March 1993), section "(ii) Riconosciuto's March 21, 1991 Affidavit," printed p. 44. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. Riconosciuto's claims, as summarized by the report. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^5]: Newspaper clipping on INSLAW and PROMIS, undated, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence2." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks
|
||||
[^6]: United States Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.* (March 1993), section "(i) The Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture," printed p. 56. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.
|
||||
[^8]: John Connolly, "Inside the Shadow CIA," *Spy,* September 1992, pp. 46-54. The bracketed description of Ammarell is the magazine's. https://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm
|
||||
[^9]: Unsigned, undated letter, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence," beginning "The cooperation I have received from the Wackenhut Corporation." The spelling "Amarell" is as printed in the letter. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess., September 10, 1992, p. 51. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^11]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess., September 10, 1992, p. 52 n. 131. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^12]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess., September 10, 1992, pp. 100-101. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^13]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 48, 53 (summarizing the trial testimony). https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^14]: Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview notes, file "Folder 7 Acc5516" (archive.org casolaro-notebooks item, file "Folder 7 Acc5516.pdf", text layer). Undated passage. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks
|
||||
[^15]: Letter over the name of Arthur Welmas, headed "CABAZON INDIAN SECURITY /WSI JOINT VENTURE," Indio, California, dated "May 1" (year not printed), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. Cited for the claims about Riconosciuto's youth, the Meridian Arms and FIDCO relationships, the Octopus contacts, the drug, arms and money claims, the Iran claim, the railgun work and the witness-protection attempts.
|
||||
[^2]: Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview transcript, headed "TAPE TRANSCRIPTION FROM 3-28-84," Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516), archive.org item casolaro-notebooks. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. The transcript reads "Dr. Arthur Schalow"; the identification with Arthur Schawlow is editorial. Cited for the youth, Stanford and boarding-school passages, which are the speaker's own account.
|
||||
[^3]: David Corn, "The Dark World of Danny Casolaro," *The Nation*, October 28, 1991. https://archive.org/details/Danny-Casolaro
|
||||
[^4]: Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview transcript (interviewer initialed "T.G.", speaker "M.R."), undated, Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516), archive.org item casolaro-notebooks. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. The speaker's own account.
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.* (March 1993), section "(ii) Riconosciuto's March 21, 1991 Affidavit," printed pp. 44 to 45, quoting the affidavit. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^6]: Seymour, *The Last Circle* (2010), for the period 1981 to 1984; U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, p. 51 (the committee wrote that Riconosciuto stated that "in the early 1980's both he and Dr. Brian were associated with the Wackenhut Corporation"). Bua, printed p. 44, gives the affidavit's Director of Research claim without dates.
|
||||
[^7]: Newspaper clipping on INSLAW and PROMIS, undated, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence2." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks
|
||||
[^8]: Bua report, printed p. 56, section "(i) The Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture," quoting Nichols. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^9]: Bua report, printed pp. 56 and 58 (firm names "do not exist"; the only individual employed by Wackenhut was Frye; "no evidence to support Riconosciuto's claim that he and Earl Brian were employed by Wackenhut or by the joint venture"; "any business relationship Riconosciuto had was between him and Nichols or the Cabazons rather than with Wackenhut"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^10]: Bua report, printed pp. 57 to 58 (Zokosky and Frye on the Picatinny Arsenal meetings, May and October 1981). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^11]: John Connolly, "Inside the Shadow CIA," *Spy*, September 1992, pp. 46 to 54. The bracketed description of Ammarell is the magazine's. https://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm
|
||||
[^12]: Unsigned, undated letter, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence," beginning "The cooperation I have received from the Wackenhut Corporation." The spelling "Amarell" is as printed in the letter. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks
|
||||
[^13]: Bua report, printed pp. 59 to 60 (Welmas and his wife; Cross; Nichols's denial and the "motive" passage, quoting "everything Nichols told us was consistent with the great weight of the evidence we obtained from other sources"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^14]: Bua report, printed pp. 42 to 43 (the four accurately recorded statements, one in the Hamiltons' notes; the May 18, 1990 call and the Iran and Wackenhut Research claims; "the key witness against Brian"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it, summarizing the Hamiltons' memoranda. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^15]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report*, H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess., September 10, 1992, "2. Sworn Statement of Michael Riconosciuto," pp. 50 to 52 (the affidavit and tape statements on p. 51; the luncheon statement in n. 131 and the storage-facility and GAO passages on p. 52), as the committee summarized the April 4, 1991 sworn statement. The committee also described him as "a self-described computer expert who in the past has been involved with contract computer and munitions work for U.S. intelligence agencies," brought to its attention in June 1990 (p. 50). Official findings and committee summaries of a witness's statements. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^16]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, p. 52 and nn. 131 to 135, citing the General Accounting Office report of November 12, 1991 and the follow-up report of March 23, 1992 on the Riconosciuto media. Official findings as reported by the committee. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^17]: Bua report, printed pp. 49 to 51 (affidavit and trial inconsistencies; the affidavit's "1983 and 1984" statement; the trial testimony of "late 1981" to "early 1983"; the April 20, 1983 delivery and March 1982 contract). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^18]: Bua report, printed p. 73 (conclusion). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^19]: Bua report, printed pp. 70 to 73 (the list of unconfirmed claims, the 1099 forms and photographs, NCIC records, "high degree of familiarity with scientific and technical concepts"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^20]: Bua report, printed pp. 62 to 63 (the Gilbert report and Baird's registration notes) and p. 66 (Reeder and Westley). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^21]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, section "2. Possible Connection Between Earl Brian, Michael Riconosciuto, Robert Booth Nichols and the Cabazon Indian Reservation," pp. 72 to 73 and nn. 218 to 222, citing the Riverside County District Attorney's Office Special Operations Report of October 10, 1991, pp. 2 to 4, and the *Washington Business Journal*, March 30, 1992. Official findings of the committee. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^22]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, p. 51 and n. 126 (affidavit paragraph on the February 1991 call), and Bua report, printed p. 46 (punishments in the affidavit, including the savings and loan and perjury indictments). Official summaries of a witness's sworn claims. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^23]: Bua report, printed pp. 53 to 54 (Brian and Videnieks, "categorically and under oath denied all the allegations made by Riconosciuto about them"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^24]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, "D. Department Interferes With Michael Riconosciuto's Sworn Statement to the Committee," pp. 100 to 101 (arrest of March 29, 1991; attorney John Rosellini; the courthouse proposal; the refusal of a sworn non-monitoring statement; the refusal to interview the DEA agents; the timing quotation). Official findings of the committee, placed as its position. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^25]: Affidavit of a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in *United States v. Michael James Riconosciuto*, federal court, Washington, 1991, nine pages, archive.org item USAV.MichaelRiconosciuto. https://archive.org/details/USAV.MichaelRiconosciuto. Only the dates and places stated above are drawn from the document.
|
||||
[^26]: Bua report, printed pp. 66 to 68 ("We are convinced beyond all doubt"; DEA videotapes; the lab; "not sure whether Riconosciuto could tell fact from fiction"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^27]: Associated Press, "Defendant Says Government Drug Charges Are Part Of Vendetta," January 2, 1992, Seattle Times archive. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920102/1468169/defendant-says-government-drug-charges-are-part-of-vendetta
|
||||
[^28]: Bua report, printed pp. 47 to 48 and 53 (trial testimony on PROMIS, the trailer, the yellow shirt and "It's no wonder, this is Videnieks," the tape and "not sure"; the meetings with Videnieks, printed p. 53; sentence of 360 months, "the lowest available sentence under the applicable sentencing guidelines"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^29]: Associated Press, "Jury Says Guilty," January 19, 1992, Seattle Times archive (the headline continues with the claim of a frame-up and the 20-year term). https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920119/1471110/jury-says-guilty
|
||||
[^30]: Bua report, printed p. 69 (the lawsuit, Riconosciuto v. Bua, No. 92 C 6217 (N.D. Ill.), dismissed as patently frivolous). The allegations are as the report describes them. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^31]: *United States v. Riconosciuto*, No. 92-30200 (9th Cir. October 27, 1993) (unpublished memorandum; submitted August 31, 1993), reported at 9 F.3d 1555. The memorandum is not precedential and affirms the judgment. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/009/9.F3d.1555.92-30200.html
|
||||
[^32]: Bua report, printed pp. 68 and 71 to 72 (PCP charge in the early 1970s; "at least as far back as 1972, when he was convicted on a PCP charge"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^33]: *State v. Riconosciuto*, 12 Wash. App. 350, 529 P.2d 1134 (Wash. Ct. App., Div. One, December 23, 1974), No. 2623-1, judgment affirmed. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1172527/state-v-riconosciuto/
|
||||
[^34]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, news release of September 27, 1994 on the review of the Bua report in the INSLAW matter. Official position of the Department. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/Pre_96/September94/555.txt.html
|
||||
[^35]: *Riconosciuto v. Langford*, No. 2:17-cv-01088-JAK-AJW (C.D. Cal.), judgment of February 16, 2017, dismissing the petition for a writ of habeas corpus for lack of jurisdiction; respondents the warden and U.S. Probation and Parole. https://archive.org/details/gov.uscourts.cacd.670148
|
||||
[^36]: Bua report, printed pp. 40 to 41 (no credible evidence on the Iran hostage allegations) and p. 66 (Brian's New York office and expense records for September 10, 1981). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^37]: Bua report, printed p. 53 (Riconosciuto's trial testimony on the pilot plant in Hercules, California, Hercules Research and the Interprobe joint venture). Testimony as the report summarizes it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^38]: Gunderson interview transcripts, Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516), archive.org item casolaro-notebooks (the Hercules Research, platinum catalyst and "Special Project" passages). https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. The speaker's own account.
|
||||
[^39]: Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview notes, file "Folder 7 Acc5516," archive.org item casolaro-notebooks. Undated passage. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
|
||||
[^40]: Letter over the name of Arthur Welmas, headed "CABAZON INDIAN SECURITY /WSI JOINT VENTURE," Indio, California, dated "May 1" (year not printed), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
start: 1998
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-23
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Mochtar Riady is an Indonesian of Chinese descent who built the [[Lippo Group]]; according to the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Government Reform and Oversight Committee]], citing *Forbes,* he found it necessary to "Indonesianize" his name, which had been Li Mo Tie. He first met [[Jackson Stephens]] and [[Witt Stephens]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] in 1976, when he was looking into buying [[Bert Lance]]'s share of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]; that purchase fell through, and in 1978 the two families formed [[Stephens Finance Ltd.]] in [[Hong Kong]].[^1] The Riady and Stephens families later controlled [[Worthen Bank]] in Little Rock together.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -38,11 +38,13 @@ Mochtar Riady is an Indonesian of Chinese descent who built the [[Lippo Group]];
|
|||
|
||||
The Riadys gave more than 450,000 dollars to the [[Democratic National Committee]] and state Democratic parties in the 1992 election cycle.[^3] Shortly after [[Bill Clinton]] took office, Mochtar Riady wrote to him advocating, among other things, most-favored-nation trade status for China, and thanked him "for the personal time he spent with the Riady family on Inauguration day 1993." He and [[John Huang]] asked Commerce Secretary [[Ron Brown]] to meet Shen Jueren, chairman of China Resources.[^1] In June 1994 [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, engaged the former associate attorney general [[Webster Hubbell]] as a consultant "for a fee of $100,000.00 per year," and in September 1994, after meetings in a Hong Kong office building bearing the Lippo name, Hubbell traveled to Jakarta, where he "met Mochtar Riady, head of the Riady family business, and the [[United States]] Ambassador to Indonesia." James Riady introduced Hubbell there as a close friend of the president and told him to get Clinton to play golf in Bali during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1998 the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, in its report on the 1996 campaign-finance investigation, stated: "James and Mochtar Riady have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." It also noted that they had known Clinton since the mid-1980s, when they held a controlling interest in Worthen Bank.[^4] His son [[James Riady]] pleaded guilty in January 2001 to violating federal election law.[^5]
|
||||
In 1998 the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, in its report on the 1996 campaign-finance investigation, stated: "James and Mochtar Riady have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." It also noted that they had known Clinton since the mid-1980s, when they held a controlling interest in Worthen Bank.[^4] His son [[James Riady]] pleaded guilty in January 2001 to violating federal election law.[^5] The minority views appended to the Senate report, in the response by Ranking Minority Member [[John Glenn]], stated that the majority's conclusions about the Riadys' connections to Chinese intelligence sources rested primarily on public proceedings. They said non-public information "supports the conclusion that the Riady's business dealings may have involved a relationship with a Chinese intelligence entity," but "does not support the implication that the Riadys were involved in foreign spy or other similar intelligence activity."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Hong Kong Chinese Bank
|
||||
|
||||
After a defalcation at Worthen Bank in 1986 and the regulatory review of its assets that followed, the Riadys, according to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, "traded their interest in the Worthen Bank for the Stephens' interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]], and also traded their interests in other joint ventures." In late 1992 [[China Resources]], described by the committee as "a Chinese Government owned company which is a joint venture partner with the Lippo Group," bought 15 percent of that bank, and it later "infused the failing LippoLand with tens of millions of dollars, effectively bailing the Riady family out of a precarious financial situation." In 1993 Riady and Huang also arranged a meeting between Shen Jueren of China Resources and Vice President [[Al Gore]].[^6]
|
||||
Senate testimony in July 1997 by [[Thomas R. Hampson]], an investigator who advises American corporations, described China Resources as "widely reported to be a corporate agent of economic and political espionage serving the government of China." In spring 1997 Stephen Riady announced that the Hong Kong Chinese Bank would be renamed the Lippo China Resources Bank, because China Resources had become an equal partner in the bank.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
After a defalcation at Worthen Bank in 1986 and the regulatory review of its assets that followed, the Riadys, according to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, "traded their interest in the Worthen Bank for the Stephens' interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]], and also traded their interests in other joint ventures." In late 1992 [[China Resources]], described by the committee as "a Chinese Government owned company which is a joint venture partner with the Lippo Group," bought 15 percent of that bank, and it later "infused the failing LippoLand with tens of millions of dollars, effectively bailing the Riady family out of a precarious financial situation." In 1993 Riady and Huang also arranged a meeting between Shen Jueren of China Resources and Vice President [[Al Gore]].[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -51,4 +53,6 @@ After a defalcation at Worthen Bank in 1986 and the regulatory review of its ass
|
|||
[^3]: Office of the Independent Counsel. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, on Webster Hubbell. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. *Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns,* S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, "The China Connection." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/2-18.htm
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law." Press release 01-17, January 11, 2001.
|
||||
[^6]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, vol. 2, 1998, footnotes 14 and 115-119. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
[^6]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, "Response to Majority Report," Part 9, by Ranking Minority Member John Glenn. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/6-9.htm
|
||||
[^7]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, chapter "John Huang's Years at Lippo," including the testimony of Thomas R. Hampson, July 15, 1997. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/1-13.htm
|
||||
[^8]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, vol. 2, 1998, footnotes 14 and 115-119. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,14 +7,28 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Lawyer
|
||||
- INSLAW
|
||||
summary: "Olmstead questioned Peter Videnieks during the trial about his knowledge of the Wackenhut Corporation-Cabazon Indian Reservation joint venture, his relationship with Earl Brian, and his involvement with Hadron Company."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Michael Riconosciuto]]"
|
||||
start: 1991
|
||||
end: 1992
|
||||
role: "trial counsel in the Tacoma drug case"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Thomas Olmstead]] was the attorney for [[Michael Riconosciuto]]. He represented Riconosciuto during his trial in Tacoma, Washington, where Riconosciuto's defense rested on his ability to prove he worked for the [[United States|U.S. government]] in intelligence and undercover operations.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Olmstead questioned [[Peter Videnieks]] during the trial about his knowledge of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] joint venture, his relationship with [[Earl Brian]], and his involvement with Hadron Company. He also pressed Videnieks on "Modification No. 12" of the [[PROMIS]] software and the bankruptcy court's ruling that the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] had "stolen" [[PROMIS]] from [[INSLAW]] through Videnieks' handling of it.[^1]
|
||||
Olmstead questioned [[Peter Videnieks]] during the trial about his knowledge of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] joint venture, his relationship with [[Earl Brian]], and his involvement with Hadron Company. He also pressed Videnieks on "Modification No. 12" of the [[PROMIS]] software and the bankruptcy court's ruling that the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] had "stolen" PROMIS from [[INSLAW]] through Videnieks' handling of it.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] communicated with [[Cheri Seymour]] and [[J.H.]] (an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent) to convey information that Olmstead could use in his defense, including details about "[[The Company]]" and Riconosciuto's attempts to enter the [[Witness Protection Program]].[^1]
|
||||
Michael Riconosciuto communicated with [[Cheri Seymour]] and [[J.H.]] (an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent) to convey information that Olmstead could use in his defense, including details about "[[The Company]]" and Riconosciuto's attempts to enter the [[Witness Protection Program]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Trial and verdict, January 1992
|
||||
|
||||
A federal jury in Tacoma convicted Michael Riconosciuto on seven drug counts on January 17, 1992, and acquitted him on three others. Olmstead and his client branded four videotapes, which showed drugs being delivered to a government informer, as fake. The Associated Press reported at the opening of the trial that Olmstead told the jury Riconosciuto was the victim of a government plot, that the chemicals found near Tonasket were used to extract platinum from mining wastes, and that the defense would offer expert testimony that recordings can be altered.[^2] It reported at the verdict that Olmstead said he would decide whether to appeal after the sentencing set for March 20, 1992.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^2]: Associated Press, "Defendant Says Government Drug Charges Are Part Of Vendetta," January 2, 1992, Seattle Times archive. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920102/1468169/defendant-says-government-drug-charges-are-part-of-vendetta
|
||||
[^3]: Associated Press, "Jury Says Guilty," January 19, 1992, Seattle Times archive. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920119/1471110/jury-says-guilty
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,19 +4,40 @@ aliases:
|
|||
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
summary: "Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his pioneering work on quantum mechanics, particularly the Pauli exclusion principle."
|
||||
summary: "Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his pioneering work on quantum mechanics, particularly the Pauli exclusion principle."
|
||||
born: 1900-04-25
|
||||
died: 1958-12-15
|
||||
location: "Vienna, Austria"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Carl Jung]]"
|
||||
role: "correspondent and collaborator on synchronicity and the archetypes; 80 letters, 39 by Pauli, exchanged 1932 to 1958"
|
||||
start: 1932
|
||||
end: 1958
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his pioneering work on quantum mechanics, particularly the Pauli exclusion principle. He is also famously associated with the "Pauli effect," a phenomenon where technical equipment inexplicably malfunctions or breaks in his presence[^1].
|
||||
Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his pioneering work on quantum mechanics, particularly the Pauli exclusion principle. He is also famously associated with the "Pauli effect," a phenomenon where technical equipment inexplicably malfunctions or breaks in his presence[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
The Pauli effect was coined after numerous instances were noted where Pauli was present and technical equipment malfunctioned, fell, broke, or sustained unusual damage. For example, in February 1950, during a visit to [[Princeton University]], the cyclotron Pauli had come to observe inexplicably caught fire[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1948 letter to Jung
|
||||
|
||||
Pauli's own account of the phenomenon is a letter to Jung dated June 16, 1948. It opens: "When that amusing 'Pauli effect' of the overturned vase occurred, on the occasion of the founding of the [[C. G. Jung Institute]], I had the immediate and vivid impression that I should 'pour out water inside'."[^2] The letter says that the connection between psychology and physics in Jung's talk made clear "what I was to do," and that "the outcome of all this is the enclosed essay."[^2] The appendix of the letters edition prints an unpublished essay, "Modern Examples of Background Physics" ("Hintergrundsphysik"), which [[Engelbert Schücking]] described as found with the correspondence and as addressing its main theme.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Pauli, along with psychiatrist [[Carl Jung]], had a lively conversation about [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]], discussing a paper by physicist Robert A. McConnell titled "ESP - Fact or Fancy?" Jung remarked on how some age-old mysteries never change, and that attempts to explain away seemingly miraculous results often fail against the facts[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
Pauli wrote an article on the subject titled "Background Physics," in which he discussed the relationships between physics, the conscious, and the unconscious[^1]. His association with Jung and his interest in the unconscious aspects of reality highlight a unique intersection of physics and parapsychology.
|
||||
Pauli wrote an article on the subject titled "Background Physics," in which he discussed the relationships between physics, the conscious, and the unconscious[^1]. The appendix of Atom and Archetype (2001 English edition) prints the essay as "Modern Examples of Background Physics" ("Hintergrundsphysik").[^3] His association with Jung and his interest in the unconscious aspects of reality highlight a unique intersection of physics and parapsychology.
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
Pauli died of cancer at the [[Red Cross Hospital]] in Zürich on December 15, 1958, aged 58.[^4] The stomach pains began during a lecture on December 5, and on December 6 he was taken to the Red Cross Hospital on Gloriastrasse. On the Monday evening Pauli asked [[Charles Enz]] whether he had seen the room number: "137!" Enz replied that it must mean good luck, and Pauli "was not convinced."[^5] The papers passed to his widow, [[Franca Pauli]], who with Enz, his last assistant, began sorting and administering the collection.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
|
||||
[^2]: C. A. Meier, ed., Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932-1958 (Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 33-34, letter of Wolfgang Pauli to C. G. Jung, Zollikon-Zurich, June 16, 1948.
|
||||
[^3]: Engelbert L. Schücking, review of Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932-1958, Physics Today 55, no. 9 (September 2002), DOI 10.1063/1.1522220, https://physicstoday.aip.org/article/55/9/62/757315.
|
||||
[^4]: CERN Archives, Archives of Wolfgang Pauli (CERN-ARCH-WP), fonds description, https://archives.cern.ch/index.php/cern-arch-wp.
|
||||
[^5]: Charles P. Enz, No Time to Be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 533.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,14 +14,16 @@ summary: "American student in Santiago, the subject of an FBI subversive file th
|
|||
died: 1973-09
|
||||
location: "Santiago, Chile"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Frank Teruggi was an American student living in [[Santiago]] who was detained by the Chilean military in the days after the coup of September 11, 1973, held at the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]], and executed. His case was joined in Chilean and American inquiries with that of [[Charles Horman]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The FBI File
|
||||
|
||||
In 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] opened a "Security Matter Subversive" file on Teruggi after the interception of his correspondence with activists in [[West Germany]] who were assisting [[Resisters Inside the Armed Forces]] and other groups the bureau called "deserter organizations," which supported American soldiers absent without leave from European bases in protest against the war in [[Vietnam]]. [[United States Army Intelligence]] was monitoring those groups with the help of German intelligence. The intercepted letters gave Teruggi's address on Hernán Cortés street in Santiago, and the bureau's summary recorded it. Whether any American agency gave the address to Chilean authorities, before or after the coup, has not been established.[^1]
|
||||
In 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] opened a "Security Matter Subversive" file on Teruggi after the interception of his correspondence with activists in [[West Germany]] who were assisting [[Resisters Inside the Armed Forces]] and other groups the bureau called "deserter organizations," which supported American soldiers absent without leave from European bases in protest against the war in [[Vietnam]]. [[United States Army Intelligence]] was monitoring those groups with the help of German intelligence. The intercepted letters gave Teruggi's address on Hernán Cortés street in Santiago, and the bureau's summary recorded it. The National Security Archive notes that the report raises the question whether any American agency gave the address to Chilean authorities, before or after the coup.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
An FBI report of December 14, 1972 recorded Teruggi's attendance at a 1971 conference of the Committee of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and his membership in the Chicago Area Group on the Liberation of the Americas.[^2] The National Security Archive notes that the report raises the question whether the information was shared with the Chilean military.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
After four months in [[Chile]] he wrote to his sister Janice: "Being down here is the best thing that could have happened to me as far as my political formation. I'm with revolutionaries from all over the continent and learning theory and practice in a way that is probably not available anywhere in the States."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -29,14 +31,19 @@ After four months in [[Chile]] he wrote to his sister Janice: "Being down here i
|
|||
|
||||
Teruggi was taken from his house, which was known in the neighborhood for its connection to the [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria]]. Four others who lived there were active in the party's clandestine work, one of them in its military wing. His housemate [[David Hathaway]] was detained with him, held with him at the stadium, and saw him taken away for interrogation. The junta later told the [[United States]] embassy that both Teruggi and Horman had been killed by leftists wearing stolen army uniforms.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
A State Department review of December 10, 1976, prepared by [[Frederick Smith Jr.]], found little information in the files on Teruggi's activities in Chile. It stated that the evidence in the files strongly indicated that both men were deliberately killed by the Chilean government.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Father
|
||||
|
||||
[[Frank Teruggi Sr.]] went to Santiago in February 1974. He told consular officers, among them Vice Consul [[James Anderson (CIA)|James Anderson]], a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer under diplomatic cover, that "he was not happy with Embassy action to protect his son," and asked to see "all the files that you have on the case." The interior minister, General [[Oscar Bonilla]], had given him the military's account the day before. Teruggi handed him Hathaway's letter. Bonilla said he had not known the details, promised to reopen the inquiry, and said: "Mr. Teruggi, if your son died in the hands of the Chilean military, I am terribly sorry."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
A [[State Department]] officer, [[Rudy Fimbres]], wrote in 1976 that the department had "'withheld' for almost two years any reference to a Chilean memorandum which accused Teruggi, and Horman, of leftist activities," and had "failed to pursue the basis" for the accusation. The department's internal review that year concluded that the Chilean military had "deliberately killed" both men.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Judge [[Jorge Zepeda]] found in his 2011 indictment of Navy Captain [[Ray Davis]], former head of the [[United States Military Group]], that Davis had known of the detentions and had not prevented the deaths. Davis died in a Santiago nursing home in 2013. In 2015 Zepeda convicted [[Pedro Espinoza]], who had been in charge of interrogations at the stadium. A review of the 6,976-page court record by the journalist [[John Dinges]] found no evidence that American officials took part in either killing.[^1]
|
||||
Judge [[Jorge Zepeda]] found in his 2011 indictment of Navy Captain [[Ray Davis]], former head of the [[United States Military Group]], that Davis had known of the detentions and had not prevented the deaths. Davis died in a Santiago nursing home in 2013. In 2015 Zepeda convicted [[Pedro Espinoza]], who had been in charge of interrogations at the stadium, and on July 21, 2016 the Supreme Court sentenced Espinoza to fifteen years for both killings, as their author.[^4] A review of the 6,976-page court record by the journalist [[John Dinges]] found no evidence that American officials took part in either killing.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "Chile in Their Hearts," National Security Archive, May 7, 2025, with the FBI summary on Teruggi, his letters to Janice Teruggi, and the embassy memorandum of conversation with Frank Teruggi Sr., February 1974; summarizing Dinges, John. *Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup*. 2025. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2025-05-07/chile-their-hearts
|
||||
[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Frank Teruggi," December 14, 1972, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, document 1. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html
|
||||
[^3]: Smith, Frederick, Jr., report on the Horman case, State Department, December 10, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 10. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges10Smithrpt-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: "Chile eleva penas a militares por morte de dois americanos na ditadura," Swissinfo, July 21, 2016. https://www.swissinfo.ch/por/chile-eleva-penas-a-militares-por-morte-de-dois-americanos-na-ditadura/42317540
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Technician at Israel's Dimona reprocessing plant from 1977 to 1985 who gave photographs of it to the Sunday Times, was lured from London to Rome by the Mossad in 1986, and served eighteen years."
|
||||
born: 1954-10-14
|
||||
location: "Marrakech, Morocco"
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Mordecai Vanunu]] was a former technician at a nuclear facility near [[Dimona]], [[Israel]], who became a whistleblower, exposing details of Israel's nuclear program to the _London Sunday Times_ in 1986.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -74,6 +74,8 @@ In the Commons the Conservative members [[Dennis Walters]] and [[Anthony Beaumon
|
|||
### Rome
|
||||
The Roman magistrate [[Domenico Sica]] traced a van hired by the Israeli embassy on the day of the abduction whose mileage matched a journey to [[La Spezia]], and an Israeli cargo ship that had declared a false itinerary. Vanunu's brother [[Meir Vanunu|Meir]], who had learned the details by speaking Moroccan Arabic to him in prison, testified twice. An Israeli court issued a warrant for Meir's arrest, and the [[Home Office|British Home Office]] refused him asylum on the ground that he "faced prosecution, not persecution." An official of the Israeli foreign ministry said: "If Dr. Sica comes it would be very, very embarrassing for our government." Sica closed the inquiry in June 1988 with the finding that Vanunu had been working with the Mossad and that "the whole affair had been a disinformation exercise." He reasoned that no one could be found who had seen Vanunu arrive in Rome, that professionals would not have used a flat in a crowded district, that the message Vanunu wrote on his palm was in better English than he commanded, and that the photographs showed no staff. Meir Vanunu replied: "If this is a disinformation exercise, release my brother." Peter Hounam of The Sunday Times wrote: "I made six visits to Rome to brief Sica and provide him with every scrap of evidence of the abduction. He never once advanced the view that The Sunday Times was the victim of a hoax, as his report intimates." The woman, he pointed out, had not used her real name, as Sica supposed, but that of her sister-in-law.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In November 1999 the Israeli daily [[Yedioth Ahronoth]] published documents from the closed trial. The published material included Vanunu's statement that he had exposed the secrets of Israel's nuclear program to force the government to bring it under closer scrutiny.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Bentov
|
||||
Cheryl Hanin was born in [[Orlando, Florida]], in 1960, went to Israel in the late 1970s, served in a [[Nahal]] unit, and in March 1985 married [[Ofer Bentov]], a major in military intelligence and a general's son. Hounam and [[David Connett]], who had seen her with Vanunu in London, found her at an address in [[Netanya]] in July 1987. She asked, "Are you going to publish this?" and then said: "I deny this, I deny everything." A family friend recalled her telling her mother that "there were other things that I did for the Israeli government which were even more pertinent and involved than this." The CIA and the FBI examined her records at [[Edgewater High School]] in Orlando, and the CIA's London station asked the British services whether Israel had given warning of the operation. The Sunday Times photographed her in [[Florida]] in January 1998.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -85,5 +87,6 @@ In April 1987 British police found an arms cache kept by [[Ismail Sowan]], a Pal
|
|||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Faber and Faber, 1991, pp. 313-314.
|
||||
[^3]: United Press International, report on the dismissal of Nicholas Davies, October 29, 1991.
|
||||
[^4]: Cohen, Yoel. *The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb*. 2003. https://archive.org/details/the-whistleblower-of-dimona-israel-vanunu-and-the-bomb
|
||||
[^4]: Cohen, Yoel. *The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb*. Holmes & Meier, 2003. https://archive.org/details/whistleblowerofd0000cohe
|
||||
[^5]: Hounam, Peter. *The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program*. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 74, 127.
|
||||
[^6]: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, report of November 24, 1999 (Yedioth Ahronoth publication of trial documents). https://jta.org/?p=400503
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
start: 1991
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
created: 2024-04-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-15
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Peter Videnieks]] was a contracting officer in the [[Justice Management Division]] of the [[Department of Justice]] who administered the 1982 implementation contract between the [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]] and [[INSLAW]] for the [[PROMIS]] case management software. His handling of that contract, his statements about [[Earl Brian]] and [[Hadron]], and his alleged contacts with [[Michael Riconosciuto]] made him a central figure in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]]. The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that he was never charged with any wrongdoing.[^1] Before he entered the Justice Department he worked as a supervising contracting officer in the [[U.S. Customs]] Service.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -110,6 +110,8 @@ The Justice Department's review of the Bua report, dated September 27, 1994, add
|
|||
|
||||
Joseph Cuellar, an Army Reserve major, met Casolaro by chance at a bar in Arlington, Virginia, in May 1991. Cuellar talked of his exploits in the Army special forces. He told investigators that he knew Videnieks because a former fiancée had worked with Videnieks' wife in Byrd's Capitol Hill office, and Cuellar and Videnieks each said their relationship was social.[^36] Casolaro asked Cuellar repeatedly to arrange a meeting with Videnieks so that he could ask about Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit. Cuellar called Videnieks, who refused.[^37]
|
||||
|
||||
Casolaro's notes, a Justice Department memorandum records, reflect a telephone call he made to Videnieks on June 13, 1991. Videnieks refused to talk and referred him to his lawyer, Charles Ruff. Videnieks recalled a call from a reporter whose name sounded like "Kessler," which he said could have been "Casolaro," and said he could not remember whether he had ever spoken with Casolaro.[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
The review recorded that Videnieks denied any involvement in Casolaro's death and said he had been at a summer cottage in New York state from August 5 to August 11, 1991. His personnel records showed leave in that period, a credit card receipt showed a purchase at a bookstore in Oneonta, New York, on August 9, and his telephone records showed a call from the cottage to his brother on August 9 at 8:35 p.m. The review found no reason to question his account that he was in New York on August 10, 1991, and was unaware of evidence linking him to the death.[^35] The review also recorded that a Kentucky salvage dealer told Martinsburg police that Videnieks and Brian had played a high-stakes poker game at a Sheraton in Martinsburg around the time of Casolaro's death. The police could not corroborate the account, and the review found the witness lacked credibility.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
### Trial testimony and later accounts
|
||||
|
|
@ -157,3 +159,4 @@ Seymour wrote that Videnieks offered rewards for non-cooperation with the House
|
|||
[^35]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 159-160. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^36]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 161. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^37]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^38]: U.S. Department of Justice, memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release p. 42 (printed p. 26), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue