Justice Hangs A Vacancy Sign: : Graham's Guilty Verdict in Aquash Murder Trial
by antoinette nora claypoole
"....in the dream of the living predator arrives. out of the blues...a man calls to justice, justice lies.” --John Trudell, from "Out of the Blues"
Dec. 12, 2010. An old song found on youtube. Over and over. Playing on the Macbook while I wait for a jury in South Dakota to return to the courtroom with a verdict. On the murder of Anne Mae Pictou Aquash (1945-1975/6). John Trudell, former “chairperson” of the American Indian Movement (AIM), was Annie Mae’s friend: he and her lover Dennis Banks, were all an unrelenting, dynamic force to reckon with back then. Their legacy defies time. The lyrics of “out of the blues” infinity, haunting. The words suit events in Indian Country today. As much as they did 30 years ago. When they were written. “A man calls to justice, justice lies”.
On Dec. 10, 2010, after nearly a decade of fighting a murder indictment scripted by the FBI, John Graham, a Canadian First Nations Man and young footsoldier for the (AIM) in 1975 , was found guilty of murdering his friend Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. He faces mandatory life in prison. The State of South Dakota claimed Graham killed her 35 years ago, to date, on/around Dec. 12, 1975. And the jury agreed. But there was no real evidence, just a myriad of change like the weather stories. And the atmosphere in Indian Country is deeply divided. By the verdict, the murder and the claims to truth everyone seems to own. Someone said to me just yesterday. Discompassionately. “Well it’s a cold case. What do you expect.” I replied. Defiantly. “There is nothing but heat in this case. Always has been.”
The efforts by the FBI to blame AIM via John Graham have been going on for over 20 years. Maybe longer. Nothing cold about that. Nearly since the time in Feb. 1976 when Annie Mae’s body was found, buried as “Jane Doe”. The first autopsy NOT disclosing cause of death as bullet to the head, rather “exposure” and closing the case. Only after family/friends insisted on exhuming her body was it found to be Annie Mae, and that she was shot, brutally. At that point. The FBI and Federal/State Prosecutors moved in on AIM, claiming they killed their own. Moving around the country like an old Buffalo Bill side show, from one old AIM member to another, the Feds have flaunted a “drawer of seal indictments ready to hand out” (Robert Mandell, Feb. 2004) to any lookey loo who challenges their rant. For years. The brutal truth is Annie Mae had discovered who had infiltrated AIM. And she was killed because of it. Some in the Movement thought it meant she was herself a "fed". But the real informants were threatened by her knowledge. From the onset the Feds “had” to protect their own. Just like they did and still do. In the high profile Leonard Peltier case.
Like Peltier, Graham was extradited from Canada on faulty “facts”. And though not as International in stature as Peltier, John Graham has a huge support network up North, in Canada. His close friend and long time supporter, Maureen Bourke, was understandably angry at the jury’s verdict. She pours out her heart: “I had a glimmer yesterday when the jury asked for clarification. Very briefly, did I believe, that John could come home.” Her belief in Justice, magical, painful, quashed.
The jury had deliberated 12 hours on the case, much longer than happened in the trial of another man, Arlo Looking Cloud, found guilty of Annie Mae’s murder back in 2004. But the Graham Defense rested suddenly without calling one witness—a surprise to many and a sign to some that the Jury, in the end, had no chance to counter the hours of stories they heard against Graham. From one to another, like a cast of folks auditioning for an old Redford flick, Graham was depicted as kidnapping and killing his friend. No physical evidence was provided in the trial. Only vague, variant stories told by “witnesses” who for the most part saw nothing. Marshall, who earlier this year was acquitted for his role in the Aquash murder. Did not want to take the stand. But was offered immunity. And thus had to. He said “no I never gave them a gun”. And then said “yes. They came to my house”. The stories are threads of a ragged map. With destination marked in a red X. Provided by the Prosecutors. The script predictable. Then. There are “witnesses” who may have taken the road trip just to claim their 15 minutes of “fame”. That includes a woman named Candy Hamilton who chimed in again, just like she did at the Looking Cloud dog and pony show. This time she tried to win favor. According to Rapid City Journal reporter Heidi Bell Gease, at the prompting of the Prosecution, Hamilton said " yes the FBI was capable of setting an execution in motion". Okay? And so what does that have to do with Graham's guilt? It is Hamilton's way of trying to not look like a Fed, herself. Tired and old story, all of it.
The "fact" that Hamilton was “Annie Mae’s good friend” and she claims Graham intended to kill Annie Mae is just creepy. Because Hamilton conveniently never explained why she didn’t save Annie Mae’s life. If she knew what was going to happen “ at the hands of John Graham”. Hamilton’s testimony, like others, never mentions the stark, brutal fact: if they knew Annie Mae was going to be killed by Graham, why didn’t someone stop him? Why wasn’t Annie Mae protected? But that is assuming Graham was guilty. His innocence would explain a lot.
Graham claims he did not kill Annie Mae. Quite clearly Graham admitted via a 2004 interview which found me in FBI stew. He admitted that he DID pick up Annie Mae in Denver, just as the Prosecution claims. BUT Graham says he went to “Troy Lyn’s” house to get Annie Mae because she asked him for protection. She wanted to get out of a place she believed was swarming with Fed informants. Graham says he took her to a safe house in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. A house of her choosing. And never saw her again. Prosecutor Oswald said in the Graham trial, the alibi is “just plain stupid”. But apparently he himself never had to find a place to run, a place to hide.
Graham’s innocence would explain a lot about the shreds of shrapnel which live inside those of us. Who have been inside this quest for resolve. For so long.
Graham’s version of what happened in Dec. 1975 runs deep inside of me. It becomes a haunting. Perpetual freaky. Apparitions based on an interview I can’t forget. I did. With an Aquash family member, back in the early 90’s. I found a relative of Nogeeshik Aquash, Annie’s Mae’s husband. This was long before Graham, public indictments, Indian newspaper timelines and Fed trials had emerged. The “ Aquash Man” I’ll call him, was one of the few who would talk with me about Annie Mae back then.
I asked my simple, standard interview questions: “can you tell me a good Annie Mae Story? Something about her you remember. And when was the last time you saw her” Aquash man was happy to oblige. “Last time I saw my auntie was “Christmas, 1975. It was great to see her...she was always good to be around.” When the timeline and indictments came down. I was haunted by the remembering of this Christmas Story. He claimed to have been with Annie Mae two weeks AFTER Graham is said to have shot her.
Graham’s claim to innocence also explains something else.
The FBI reports from Jan. 1976 which explain seeing Annie Mae in Oklahoma. They even describe what she was wearing. Those documents were explained to me by Robert Robideau, before he passed: “ It was an FBI error antoinette. The Feds got the reports mixed up with ‘another Annie Mae’ who was running around Indian Country then”.
With the verdict of Guilty some are still asking: Was Graham the killer??? And I am still asking. What about people who saw her alive after the supposed shooting? All we have. Is Looking Cloud. So. Did he really stand by and watch, as he testified in his changes like the weather story of it all? The story that in the end, convicted his friend John Graham.
Barry Bachrach, Looking Cloud’s current lawyer came to the case in 2008. Long after Looking Cloud's trial and sentencing. But. As a former lawyer for Leonard Peltier Bachrach is familiar with old AIM days. Bachrach believes that in the Graham trial “Yes. Justice was served." He naturally believes his client's story was true. Despite the contradictions that can be found by reading various statements Looking Cloud has made over the years. Including one statement during his appeal in which Looking Cloud, via his attorney at the time, Terry Gilbert, apparently claimed he would not testify at Graham's trial. Because the events did not happen. But that was before Bachrach arrived on the scene. Bachrach explains: “Mr. Graham knows what he did and he knows the truth. Others know what they did. In one sense, you are correct that justice has not been fully served because there were so many people involved...”.
Who are these people?
Are they the AIM informants who Annie Mae had discovered while she was in jail in the Northwest, right before she “went missing”???
This guilty verdict creates more quakes in Indian Country than it does resolve. As people know how much power Big Brother has. To control “reality”. Indians have always known what the “Great White Father” does. Monica Charles old AIM activist who knew Annie Mae, continues, like so much of Indian Country, to try to make sense of the events surrounding her death. Charles, in her statement regarding the Arlo Looking Cloud testimony that sealed Graham’s fate says it straight: “ Did his lawyer ever ask Arlo about the torture he suffered at the hands of the Amerikan Just Us system? I still believe in Arlo's innocence as I believe in John's innocence. Arlo is in my prayers every day. I saw the FBI in their paramilitary uniforms packing rifles, bullying, bullying, bullying.
They dragged People out of their cars and interrogated them without a lawyer present.”
This. Then. From my book about Annie Mae. After 20 years of covering this story. It still plays: “I try to explain. Blame game’s not my thing. The mystery of Annie Mae’s death, who pulled the trigger matters as much as who set the execution in motion. Addicted to power, people want eyes for eyes, like that’s some kind of anecdote to fear. But like freaked out kids once stuck on a short circuit tilt-a-whirl you are frantic to forget and I say you got no choice. Remembering helps you decide. Which ride you’ll go on next...”
The old Trudell song is still playing. “In the dream of the living, predator arrives, out of the blues”. And Graham supporter Maureen Bourke insists: “I am so angry, we are angry, and we are not going away. There will be an appeal”. Like the old music, the old legends and memories of Wild West sideshows. None of this is going away. Anytime soon. Annie Mae’s family may have imagined resolve with this conviction. Yet. It seems an unlikely promise. As Graham has family too. And the people who set this brutal mess in motion. Are still walking free.
OPENING DAY RANT:
Nov. 28. Ashland, Or. In Rapid City, S.D. the jury selection in John Graham trial. Graham is one of the accused murderers of Anna Mae Aquash, an American Indian Movement warrior who "disappeared" 35 years ago this week. Her body was found at Pine Ridge, S.D. in Feb. 1976: dead via execution. Graham and others were said to have killed her on/around Dec. 12, 1975. But look closely at the quote below, from an FBI report. As the trial begins, it is important to review the history of this case. And decide for yourselves. The truth of the lies. Please scroll to the end of this piece for many links to history/primary sources: letters, statements etc. Including. A letter by Annie Mae. She knew who the informants were in AIM. It is clear that her knowledge of their identity was, in the end, her demise.
by antoinette nora claypoole
"....in the dream of the living predator arrives. out of the blues...a man calls to justice, justice lies.” --John Trudell, from "Out of the Blues"
Dec. 12, 2010. An old song found on youtube. Over and over. Playing on the Macbook while I wait for a jury in South Dakota to return to the courtroom with a verdict. On the murder of Anne Mae Pictou Aquash (1945-1975/6). John Trudell, former “chairperson” of the American Indian Movement (AIM), was Annie Mae’s friend: he and her lover Dennis Banks, were all an unrelenting, dynamic force to reckon with back then. Their legacy defies time. The lyrics of “out of the blues” infinity, haunting. The words suit events in Indian Country today. As much as they did 30 years ago. When they were written. “A man calls to justice, justice lies”.
On Dec. 10, 2010, after nearly a decade of fighting a murder indictment scripted by the FBI, John Graham, a Canadian First Nations Man and young footsoldier for the (AIM) in 1975 , was found guilty of murdering his friend Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. He faces mandatory life in prison. The State of South Dakota claimed Graham killed her 35 years ago, to date, on/around Dec. 12, 1975. And the jury agreed. But there was no real evidence, just a myriad of change like the weather stories. And the atmosphere in Indian Country is deeply divided. By the verdict, the murder and the claims to truth everyone seems to own. Someone said to me just yesterday. Discompassionately. “Well it’s a cold case. What do you expect.” I replied. Defiantly. “There is nothing but heat in this case. Always has been.”
The efforts by the FBI to blame AIM via John Graham have been going on for over 20 years. Maybe longer. Nothing cold about that. Nearly since the time in Feb. 1976 when Annie Mae’s body was found, buried as “Jane Doe”. The first autopsy NOT disclosing cause of death as bullet to the head, rather “exposure” and closing the case. Only after family/friends insisted on exhuming her body was it found to be Annie Mae, and that she was shot, brutally. At that point. The FBI and Federal/State Prosecutors moved in on AIM, claiming they killed their own. Moving around the country like an old Buffalo Bill side show, from one old AIM member to another, the Feds have flaunted a “drawer of seal indictments ready to hand out” (Robert Mandell, Feb. 2004) to any lookey loo who challenges their rant. For years. The brutal truth is Annie Mae had discovered who had infiltrated AIM. And she was killed because of it. Some in the Movement thought it meant she was herself a "fed". But the real informants were threatened by her knowledge. From the onset the Feds “had” to protect their own. Just like they did and still do. In the high profile Leonard Peltier case.
Like Peltier, Graham was extradited from Canada on faulty “facts”. And though not as International in stature as Peltier, John Graham has a huge support network up North, in Canada. His close friend and long time supporter, Maureen Bourke, was understandably angry at the jury’s verdict. She pours out her heart: “I had a glimmer yesterday when the jury asked for clarification. Very briefly, did I believe, that John could come home.” Her belief in Justice, magical, painful, quashed.
The jury had deliberated 12 hours on the case, much longer than happened in the trial of another man, Arlo Looking Cloud, found guilty of Annie Mae’s murder back in 2004. But the Graham Defense rested suddenly without calling one witness—a surprise to many and a sign to some that the Jury, in the end, had no chance to counter the hours of stories they heard against Graham. From one to another, like a cast of folks auditioning for an old Redford flick, Graham was depicted as kidnapping and killing his friend. No physical evidence was provided in the trial. Only vague, variant stories told by “witnesses” who for the most part saw nothing. Marshall, who earlier this year was acquitted for his role in the Aquash murder. Did not want to take the stand. But was offered immunity. And thus had to. He said “no I never gave them a gun”. And then said “yes. They came to my house”. The stories are threads of a ragged map. With destination marked in a red X. Provided by the Prosecutors. The script predictable. Then. There are “witnesses” who may have taken the road trip just to claim their 15 minutes of “fame”. That includes a woman named Candy Hamilton who chimed in again, just like she did at the Looking Cloud dog and pony show. This time she tried to win favor. According to Rapid City Journal reporter Heidi Bell Gease, at the prompting of the Prosecution, Hamilton said " yes the FBI was capable of setting an execution in motion". Okay? And so what does that have to do with Graham's guilt? It is Hamilton's way of trying to not look like a Fed, herself. Tired and old story, all of it.
The "fact" that Hamilton was “Annie Mae’s good friend” and she claims Graham intended to kill Annie Mae is just creepy. Because Hamilton conveniently never explained why she didn’t save Annie Mae’s life. If she knew what was going to happen “ at the hands of John Graham”. Hamilton’s testimony, like others, never mentions the stark, brutal fact: if they knew Annie Mae was going to be killed by Graham, why didn’t someone stop him? Why wasn’t Annie Mae protected? But that is assuming Graham was guilty. His innocence would explain a lot.
Graham claims he did not kill Annie Mae. Quite clearly Graham admitted via a 2004 interview which found me in FBI stew. He admitted that he DID pick up Annie Mae in Denver, just as the Prosecution claims. BUT Graham says he went to “Troy Lyn’s” house to get Annie Mae because she asked him for protection. She wanted to get out of a place she believed was swarming with Fed informants. Graham says he took her to a safe house in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. A house of her choosing. And never saw her again. Prosecutor Oswald said in the Graham trial, the alibi is “just plain stupid”. But apparently he himself never had to find a place to run, a place to hide.
Graham’s innocence would explain a lot about the shreds of shrapnel which live inside those of us. Who have been inside this quest for resolve. For so long.
Graham’s version of what happened in Dec. 1975 runs deep inside of me. It becomes a haunting. Perpetual freaky. Apparitions based on an interview I can’t forget. I did. With an Aquash family member, back in the early 90’s. I found a relative of Nogeeshik Aquash, Annie’s Mae’s husband. This was long before Graham, public indictments, Indian newspaper timelines and Fed trials had emerged. The “ Aquash Man” I’ll call him, was one of the few who would talk with me about Annie Mae back then.
I asked my simple, standard interview questions: “can you tell me a good Annie Mae Story? Something about her you remember. And when was the last time you saw her” Aquash man was happy to oblige. “Last time I saw my auntie was “Christmas, 1975. It was great to see her...she was always good to be around.” When the timeline and indictments came down. I was haunted by the remembering of this Christmas Story. He claimed to have been with Annie Mae two weeks AFTER Graham is said to have shot her.
Graham’s claim to innocence also explains something else.
The FBI reports from Jan. 1976 which explain seeing Annie Mae in Oklahoma. They even describe what she was wearing. Those documents were explained to me by Robert Robideau, before he passed: “ It was an FBI error antoinette. The Feds got the reports mixed up with ‘another Annie Mae’ who was running around Indian Country then”.
Barry Bachrach, Looking Cloud’s current lawyer came to the case in 2008. Long after Looking Cloud's trial and sentencing. But. As a former lawyer for Leonard Peltier Bachrach is familiar with old AIM days. Bachrach believes that in the Graham trial “Yes. Justice was served." He naturally believes his client's story was true. Despite the contradictions that can be found by reading various statements Looking Cloud has made over the years. Including one statement during his appeal in which Looking Cloud, via his attorney at the time, Terry Gilbert, apparently claimed he would not testify at Graham's trial. Because the events did not happen. But that was before Bachrach arrived on the scene. Bachrach explains: “Mr. Graham knows what he did and he knows the truth. Others know what they did. In one sense, you are correct that justice has not been fully served because there were so many people involved...”.
Who are these people?
Are they the AIM informants who Annie Mae had discovered while she was in jail in the Northwest, right before she “went missing”???
They dragged People out of their cars and interrogated them without a lawyer present.”
This. Then. From my book about Annie Mae. After 20 years of covering this story. It still plays: “I try to explain. Blame game’s not my thing. The mystery of Annie Mae’s death, who pulled the trigger matters as much as who set the execution in motion. Addicted to power, people want eyes for eyes, like that’s some kind of anecdote to fear. But like freaked out kids once stuck on a short circuit tilt-a-whirl you are frantic to forget and I say you got no choice. Remembering helps you decide. Which ride you’ll go on next...”
 |
| annie mae and her daughters, circa 1974 |
OPENING DAY RANT:
Nov. 28. Ashland, Or. In Rapid City, S.D. the jury selection in John Graham trial. Graham is one of the accused murderers of Anna Mae Aquash, an American Indian Movement warrior who "disappeared" 35 years ago this week. Her body was found at Pine Ridge, S.D. in Feb. 1976: dead via execution. Graham and others were said to have killed her on/around Dec. 12, 1975. But look closely at the quote below, from an FBI report. As the trial begins, it is important to review the history of this case. And decide for yourselves. The truth of the lies. Please scroll to the end of this piece for many links to history/primary sources: letters, statements etc. Including. A letter by Annie Mae. She knew who the informants were in AIM. It is clear that her knowledge of their identity was, in the end, her demise.
excerpt from "Canaries in a Room of Crows"
“Pictou was wearing blue jeans, a red scarf, a long brown coat and moccasins” --FBI report, Feb. 12, 1976
History of Anna Mae
With this COINTELPRO road show. Let’s retrace the steps that lead us here.
It was over 20 years ago when I first heard her name, Anna Mae Aquash, here in the Pacific Northwest. Almost ten years after she had been executed. And only a couple years after stumbling into Indian Country. I remember the night vividly.
Her name didn’t come easily. It wasn’t spoken because people talked about Aquash as a heroine, a warrior who helped Indian kids at the Red School house in Minneapolis. It wasn’t because of her courage in taking her young daughters to a political rally in Washington, D.C., the BIA takeover back in the early 70’s. It wasn’t even “hey Anna Mae” because someone was bragging about her work with the elders on Pine Ridge and her trying to help protect water rights and prevent uranium mining there inside the remote world of Indian Country, barren, poverty infested, warped history lessons of massacre, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Bear Butte. Nope. It wasn’t for Anna Mae’s courage and bravado, like she was someone Marlon Brando woulda starred against if he’d had the chance.
Nope. I heard about Anna Mae Aquash because people said, quietly, “Yes she was with AIM. But we think she was a snitch, that’s why she was killed”. I spend 10 years researching her life, death and friends to prove them wrong. She was not a fed, but was set-up by the FBI to appear as a threat. To AIM.
In many ways the hands of time have been pushed back by the grown daughters, the dead activists, the young children and dying elders. All speaking in harmonic wails of fright. Who killed Annie Mae? Many journalists, Michael Donnelly, Rex Wyler, many writers Steve Hendricks and Serle Chapman, famous UK writer who recently (summer 08) is alleged to have been working as a “federal informant.” This according to court documents filed on behalf of John Graham in August. Located on Pacer.
All these people have done their time. Asking questions. Serving justice. Working for the Feds. Writing stories. About “who killed annie mae”. But me? My mind, my fingers are on my own pulse, still alive, I say.
My eyes drift like a death walk. Back into the heartbeat of a Pacific Northwest audience. An event myself and local activists organized: “Apartheid in America”. One night that late winter weekend International Treaty Council person Tom LaBlanc brought an 8mm flick up from San Francisco. It was called “Brave Hearted Woman” and there I heard Annie Mae’s name. Saw her death in the eyes of all of us, like headlights on an Oregon highway which Robert Robideau still claims “did her in. That November (1975) bust here in Oregon was her death sentence, antoinette”.
Anna Mae’s execution went unnoticed, undiscussed by federal authorities AND AIM activists. For nearly 20 years. And then something happened.
Her second cousin, Robert Pictou Branscombe was approached by “an agent of some kind” according to Branscombe, in an interview I did with him back in the mid 90’s. The “agent” came up to him at a pow wow in Arizona and said “look at this”.
It was a file, according to Branscombe, which had photos and details about Anna Mae. Branscombe had never heard of her and didn’t grasp the depth of what he had just fancy danced into. Death, murder, lies, secrets, brutal betrayal, lovers and friends colluding with paranoia that Anna Mae was an agent.
Branscombe talked to his mum. “Was she our relative?”
Yes was the answer he got. His mother and Annie Mae were cousins. And everyone back in Nova Scotia, at that time, was still afraid to talk about Annie Mae. Just like it was in MY part of the world. Silence the mantra. Branscombe broke the spell.
He searched, travelled and found people who talked about what happened to his cousin. When he came out with who he felt killed Anna Mae it began what is culminating in Rapid City this Fall, November 29th. John Graham, from the Yukon Territory, accused of murdering his friend.
But when Branscombe named Graham there were other names mentioned. Arlo Looking Cloud. Indicted, found guilty after a 3 1/2 day trial in 2004. Then came DIckie Marshall. He was acquitted this past Spring, 2010. Lastly, Thelma RIos, who just three weeks ago (October 2010) "confessed" and then was set free. Her "confession" will certainly be part of the upcoming trial and perhaps become the reason other "Old AIM" may, STILL, be indicted. In 2004 the Prosecutors told me that " other indictments are in a drawer" waiting to be delivered.
There were “5 or 6 of you” Branscombe said in a public statement published on the web pages of Jordan S. Dill. Back in the late 90’s. And Branscombe claimed some of them were agents who his cousin had discovered as feds. Back then there was even talk of “another Anna Mae”, an imposter, who may have been stirring paranoia about Aquash by posing as a friendly to the FBI.
Fast Forward, back to now.
Dennis Bank's wife at the time of Aquash's murder, Kamook Banks, turned state, a shock revealled back during the Looking Cloud trial, 2004. People were stunned as this "warrior" from the old days turns out to be wiring herself to record conversastions with her former husband, Dennis Banks. A marriage of activists as snitches was made public. With another player making his debut the summer of 2009. Serle Chapman, best known for writing "Indian Books" with interviews, introductions to his books written by John Trudell and Dennis Banks. Chapman is revealled, in the summer of 2009, to be working for the FBI as an undercover agent. For the past six years, or more he fooled alot of Indians and old AIM. It is unclear who actually knew his true identity. John Trudell did testify in the Looking Cloud trial to knowing about "Neil" Serle Champman. In what capacity, it is hard to know. The upcoming Graham trial will make this clear, that is a certainty. As Chapman is said to have "recorded" Graham admitting his role in Aquash's death. The recording was never authenticated but was given to an AP writer who wrote a piece picked up by the New York Times. Back in 2004. He claims Graham confessed. But, as I say, the tape was not authenticated. Expect that "fact" to be discussed as part of key evidence against Graham in the next three weeks.
Under the guise of finding Aquash’s murderer, paid informants in this case make a New York parade on Thanksgiving Day look lean. A Revolution against the Brits “aint seen nothing yet”. For as UK author Serle Chapman, who now lives in S. Dakota, is added to the informant “co-operating witness” list, one has to wonder “who is next”. Certainly Thelma Rios will be likely to name names. Who elses rise as informant. Soon to be revealled. But let's look at the Chapman factor.
Chapman was paid by the U.S. Government after “cooperating” with their investigation, receiving over $70,000, according to online, Pacer docket files. From August 08 in the U.S. vs John Graham. Posing as a writer and friend to Indians. Taping interviews which Chapman would later turn over to federal prosecutors.Items which may possibly include a “secret”, mystery tape originally circulated about the Graham case a few years back. A recording of Graham which some speculate may have been conducted by Chapman in Canada before Graham was extradited in 2007. This all according to a quiet, piercing buzz in Indian Country.
Chapman had many people believing he was “just a writer”. Including controversial prosecution witness, one time friend to Anna Mae and former Chairman of AIM, John Trudell. Trudell wrote a book introduction for one of Chapman’s projects which places the old AIM figure into a less than poetic chapter of “colluding with the enemy”. Or did he innocently, as so many other of Chapman’s fans, “get taken in” by feeling important enough to have a white guy from Europe want to “tell your story”?? Hard to tell. Still.
Hitherto a poster child for Indian Country, Chapman, best known for a myriad of popular “Indian books” has a rather huge role in all this. Aug. 08 court documents filed by the Defense, and response by the courts (Sept. 08) confirm receipt of funds by Chapman from the U.S. Government, for at best “being a paid informant”, at least “co-operating with the Prosecution”. A decision regarding details of his role was handed down by the court on Sept. 4, 08 and another, sealed from public viewing, on Sept. 8th. And the quest for more witness continues.
Freelance writers not immune, an offer made to me by the Prosecution in July 08 was far less exotic. “Tell your lawyer to talk to me if she needs money”. I politely refused but was told “Don’t worry, all the other journalists we contacted are co-operating”. Finding an attorney is less spendy than life as a betrayer of civil liberties. As journalists we are still able--in theory-- to secure our sources, sanity and neutrality. In fact, this doesn't come without a series of random events, akin to small pox blankets. A story best left for another news clip.
But maybe there’s a reason for all this. Perhaps the quest for “new witnesses” comes because there are still others unnamed in the investigations, events which lead to Aquash’s execution which are begging to be known. And. Like Professor Plum in the library being nuked inside a mushroom cloud. Holding a lit candlestick to time illuminates little of the brutal mystery.
Faulty FBI Files: Anna Mae alive in 1976?
Specifically because varied realities about Aquash, where she was seen (or not), who killed her and why, continue to defy the ravages of time.
There are defense and prosecution teams who pursue justice and desire resolve in this case, yet what is emerging in 2008 Rapid City, S. Dakota are a series of events and court documents which sometimes contradict, oftentimes blur the clear path to truth.
That is, a weave around the murder theory which might be fraying.
And. Yes. There is more to the story. As a Leonard Peltier support organizer, Els from a popular Indian e-newlist says “If we wrote this and gave the script to Hollywood they’d never buy it. They’d say the whole thing’s too far fetched”.
In Aug.2008 the defense for John Graham, John Murphy of Rapid City, S. Dakota, made surprising court requests. It appears Murphy has filed request pertaining to it’s knowledge that an FBI file written in Feb. 1976 claims that Annie Mae Aquash was seen alive two months after Graham is alleged to have killer her. “Wearing blue jeans.....and moccasins” somewhere on Pine Ridge. In Feb. 1976.
Why is this important?
The obvious. Because John Graham is accused of killing Annie Mae before Christmas, 1975 and various, unauthenticated FBI reports claim what appears to be multiple Annie Mae sightings weeks AFTER Aquash was supposedly shot and killed, on Dec. 12, 1975 by Graham.
It’s not the first time the “Annie Mae alive” theory has been spun, but the first time a legal team has taken the words and dressed them in defense of the accused.
“Pictou was wearing blue jeans, a red scarf, a long brown coat and moccasins”, from an FBI memorandum sent on Feb. 19, 1976. Two months to the day. After the alleged Aquash murder. I have to keep saying that. Over and over. Wrapping myself, us, around the new spin. Reading these scanned pages I finally stop. A pause, a prayer for all the times Aquash and others were, have been, watched and detailed. The tattoo on a shoulder, the nuance of slinging burgers, all become sentences which document our lives. Through the eyes of spies.
The agent listed at the top of scanned, aging and faded page in a PDF bleeds through. Special Agent. David Price. Appears. To have written about the blue jean Annie Mae sighting. From a source who remains anonymous, per FBI policy to redact (withhold) names. Despite efforts by the Graham Defense to have the name released per prior legal cases where are sources are not “unequivocally” protected, a ruling by Judge Duffy on Sept. 4, 2008 dismissed the FBI file as “a mistake” that is proven by Aquash’s “decomposed body”. Yet, 1976 coroner reports she was “partially decomposed” and suggested Aquash was exposed for 7-10 days. Before being found. That would put her ALIVE on Feb. 12, 1976. If we believe the faulty coroner.
The Sept. 08 ruling to keep “secret” the one witness who might help Graham in his defense is a blow. To the matrix of all who want justice. If it was a mistake, let the informer explain to us. To a jury. Why not? The ruling perplexes. The judge’s disregard for the government’s own reporting and file keeping is less suspicious than it is revealing. Nothing is what it seems and reports are only true if the court favors their content. Perhaps. Still. The questions linger.
Who was the informant?
And why didn’t anyone, including Price, mention this in Looking Cloud’s trial? I wonder out loud. No worries about secrets. Price, an FBI agent who allegedly threatened Annie Mae before she was killed was also the infamous sole ominous “witness for the defense” in that Feb. 04 murder trial.
Price. A man described by Robideau as “Little Custer”.....who wrote the three Poor Bear affidavits used to extradite LP {Leonard Peltier} back to the U.S.... that the Government later admits were fabricated..... should we believe his reports now?”
Robideau’s rant is adamant and he answers his own question. Yet. There are more.
Fragments of files attempting to confirm this bizarre turn. Arrive. Via Robideau. Teletyped reports claiming Aquash alive was a mistake. But for other reasons Another sighting her in a mustang. Filed by unnamed informants in and around AIM. 1976. Sent out to Portland, Denver, Rapid City. Unauthenticated, they nonetheless create dust devils in a prairie of cisterns. The vague oasis blurred.
When seen in teletype, though, something still takes hold; “Anna Mae Aquash....January 28, 1976 driving en route Tulsa. Oklahoma, in white over red 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix....vehicle reportedly owned by Aquash...she is former wife of (name deleted) who is reportedly in Oklahoma City Territory at present time and she may be planning to meet him”.
Can the intersection of past and present get more complex? You bet.
Branscombe and his “5 or 6 of you” proclamation. Comes to mind. And. The early ’76, “other Annie Mae” theory. Running around Indian Country. An imposter? A coincidence that another AIM activist had the same first name, Anna Mae?
An email from someone who doesn’t want his name in print, asking to remain anonymous gets into the frayed fabric of deception: “There is Anna Mae Tanaquodle in Oklahoma who was originally thought to be Aquash until the FBI interviewed her. It was this “other Annie Mae” who was around confusing people”. This is sent my way to “prove” it would seem, that any Annie Mae sighting can be explained by the Oklahoma, potential informant/imposter “Anna Mae” working at Fitzgerald’s Place.
A blown tire in this road trip lets no one get to be who they say they are. The questions persist.
Was this “other Annie Mae” a federal agent? Was it really HER that the FBI says was driving mustang, a grand prix, going to see her husband? Was the “other Annie Mae” intentionally targetting Aquash as fed, impersonating, with an FBI alliance which would cost Aquash her life? Or was Aquash still alive and the tag you’re it game was in play?
Though most in Indian Country confirm a packet of extensive, authenticated FBI records exist. Others believe that the whole thing is a sideshow.
The documents by the Defense which mention Annie Mae alive are “razzle, dazzle. Nothing but bullshit” Robideau explains as though he we offering a closing statement back in the day. “This is nothing but creative writing on the part of the defense” Robideau reads the riot act about it all. And believes that the Marshall arrest is less historic than canarylike—“All we needed was someone else to name Graham.....even if Looking Cloud doesn’t talk, again, we have Marshall now”. And they wouldn’t have Marshall, without Looking Cloud, according to a source close to the case who explains that Looking Cloud left jail to talk at a recent grand jury in Sioux Falls. Perhaps.
Ragged FBI teletype once again arrests the spin. “....Individual thought to be subject Aquash in reality Tulsa AIM activist”, reported on Feb. 19, 1976 in those raggedy ass scanned papers.
Trying to authenticate the files sent to me, random pages of "Anna Mae sightings" , I contact Michael Kuzma, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) attorney for Leonard Peltier. After a visit to Peltier in Pa. prison, late Aug. 08, Kuzma reviews the copies: "some of these files are tampered with, unauthentic. Look at the typeface on one of these pages, for instance. And what are those page numbers. Those don’t exist on FBI files”. With eyes like a redtail hawk hovering over an interstate of hungry commuters, Kuzma can neither locate "originals" in his personal files of "resmurs" which includes Aquash documents, nor does he believe the copies I have are necessarily authentic.
Maybe someone wants me to believe things that aren't true. There's a novel idea. People trying to force feed me a story.
“Wowsie, haven’t been here before, right?” I lie.
We both laugh nervously. We talk of the difficulty, the brutal fact that truth is elusive in his profession. A mere reflection of pandemic imperfection in the human condition. I sort through the stacks of questions on my laptop PDF’s. And wish I had a way to rewrite time.
Perhaps the FBI files were sent because many in Indian Country have a very clear agenda. We’ll just leave it at that.
It’s true. Many in Indian Country are staunch believers that Graham murdered Annie Mae, that Graham pulled the trigger in Dec. 1975. It’s true. That Robideau is not alone. In his belief that “Graham is finished”. Quite definitively. Most everyone I have spoken with in the 5 years--since early indictments were handed down--most everyone I talk with believes Graham raped and killed his friend. Anna Mae Aquash.
Yet. Graham’s defense, in soliciting for DNA testing (per the rape accusation) and in unearthing an FBI Annie Mae sighting long after she was supposed to be dead. Graham defense defied, for a moment, the ghost of imagination.
For even as Graham supporter Matthew Lien, back in 2006 called for “anyone who saw Annie Mae at Christmas time, 1975, please contact us” I suddenly remembered an eerie sighting myself. Something about a “Paula Giese” website. That was sent to me when I first started writing my book for Annie Mae, to break the warped silence about her life. The early 1990’s website was supposed stories about “Annie Mae’s last Christmas” 1975.
Many times I have been told, sometimes I have been threatened and most times I had ear muffs on. “Don’t talk about the timeline, antoinette”. More than one hardy seasoned character talked to me like this.
As the trial is only 6 weeks away, I wonder what kind of sound proof rooms the defense has.
And am even more curious about “the other Annie Mae” documents and how they may, or may not, surface to deafen more muted ears.
That is, as I write this inside my own quest for neutrality and civil liberties of writers, there is an imagining that the frayed weave of “truth” be challenged. To reinvent itself as a warm blanket, wrapping murder tightly into the psyches of everyone who knows what happened. And can never tell.
 |
| John Graham circa 2006 |
This game of informants in a Movement is being played not only within Indian Country but as a green show. For an entire new generation of activists who may watch in awe as the Federal Government continues to drag up people from the past. Who are expected to be like singing canaries in a room full of crows. No one is shocked. Indians always seems to get the small pox blankets before the rest. “It always happens first Indian Country” the old guys used to say.
Finding, indicting, arresting and convicting. Still. The resolve to actually grasp the events which surrounded the murder of Anna Mae Aquash continue to remain elusive. The successful quest for “new witnesses” promises even more work for the Defense, and potentially more paid “informant” testimonies for the Prosecution. Quite a plethora of needs. The case, nonetheless, continues to serve various camps who either want to see AIM take the rap for Aquash’s death or have a need to hide facts about paid informants who may have silenced her. Because she “knew too much” as both her cousin Branscombe and friend Trudell used to tout.
Maybe Ben Carnes, an AIM activist from Colorado says it best, in a recent piece he wrote for Leonard Peltier:
“In the Aquash case, it seems strange that all of a sudden the Justice Department and FBI are being cast as heroes in solving the case.....if Graham is convicted, then will the case be over for Indians? Will "justice" be served on a plate of BS and greedily devoured by anti-AIMers and the media?”
The verdict is not in on either front. Though it doesn’t take a political historian or a collection of fries in a happy meal. To guess. That none of this will be over anytime soon.
The Graham trial, now scheduled for October 6, 2008 in Rapid City, S. Dakota, may do what so many quests accomplish. Frame the questions in ways that answers are inconceivable to fathom. To renounce or embrace. The summer of love is long gone. Or, maybe it’s like an old Indian guy once told me “sometimes you White people ask too many questions. Just watch. The things around you. You’ll learn alot that way”.
And then there’s that ominous anonymous email I received the day before the Marshall arrest “it ain’t over after Graham”.
The beat goes on is all I could reply.
Sources:
2008 antoinette claypoole Interview with Robert Robideau (RIP)
Ben Carnes quotes used w/permission by author.
1. Court Documents and Rulings in the U.S. vs John Graham: Aug., Sept. 08
www.grahamdocuments.blogspot.com
2. PACER: Federal Court Docket
http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/
3. antoinette nora claypoole: contacted by the FBI, statement re Journalism Civil Liberties: Aug. 08
www.johngrahaminterview.blogspot.com
4. History of this Case 2003-present: blog index
http://antoinetteclaypoole.blogspot.com/2007/12/thursday-dec_07.html
5. "The Border Crossing of John Graham" hEyOka magazine
Extradition of JOHN GRAHAM: Dec. 07
http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.10.JohnGraham.1.htm
6.New indictments/acquital: old AIM and Annie Mae Murder 2010
7. Looking CLoud Trial/John Trudell testimony: AUDIO: PACIFICA RADIO BROADCAST ARCHIVE from Looking Cloud Trial: antoinette, 2. 03
http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.9.Antoinetteclaypoole.ArloTrial.htm
8. Looking Cloud Trial/Kamook Banks informant testimony:
www.lookingcloudpieces.blogspot.com
9. Graham Defense Committee: Annie Mae alive at Christmas: spring 06
http://antoinetteclaypoole.blogspot.com/2006/08/annie-mae-alive-at-christmas-1975.html
10. Statements from Annie Mae’s family: 05, 07
http://anniemaefamily.blogspot.com/
11. Serle Chapman/"Dickie Marshall" updates: 2010
http://antoinetteclaypoole.blogspot.com/2010/04/marshall-acquitted-in-anna-mae-murder.html
.
about Annie Mae's Murder
antoinette's Interview with John Graham (2004)
antoinette's Interview with Vernon Bellecourt (2000)
article about INFORMANTS:
Serle Chapman and Kamook Banks
notes about "the other Annie Mae"
(scroll down about 1/2 into the article)
AUTHOR BIO
antoinette nora claypoole bio/WORK: current/past
http://www.antoinettewritings.blogspot.com
