Recorded September 2, 2007
MP3: 30-Minute Segment
REALAUDIO
NB: This stream contains both FTR #608 and FTR #609 in sequence. Each is a 30 minute broadcast.
Among the many 20th century crimes that have never been fully explored or adjudicated is the Oklahoma City bombing. The available evidence suggests that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were part of a larger plot that was covered up by the federal authorities. Of particular significance are the evidentiary tributaries linking the Oklahoma City bombing with the first World Trade Center attack, the 9/11 attacks and the AMIA bombing in Argentina—tributaries that have been ignored by the federal authorities. (For more about this, see—among other programs—FTR#456.) This broadcast explores the mysterious [and sinister] death of Kenney Trentadue, believed by investigators to have been murdered in prison. Ruled a suicide, Trentadue’s death may well have resulted from his resemblance to the mysterious John Doe #2, seen in the company of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Although Trentadue’s injuries suggest he was murdered, prison authorities and other forensic investigators have gone to great lengths to dissemble about the cause of death, a pretense made more effective by the prison “suicides” of several people connected to the case.
Program Highlights Include: The prison “suicide” of Alden Gillis Baker (who testified that Trentadue was murdered); the prison suicide of Peter Langan of the Aryan Republican Army (whose association with Timothy McVeigh is one of the investigative pathways leading to the death of Kenney Trentadue); a grisly accounting of the nature of Kenney Trentadue’s injuries.
1. Among the most striking aspects of Kenney Trentadue’s case are the forensic evidence and the behavior of the authorities with regard to that evidence. Note how Kenney Trentadue died—keeping in mind that this was supposedly suicide! “ . . . Kenney called again that night, sounding chipper, and the brothers strategized about the parole hearing; Kenney promised to call again the next day. But no call came until early the morning of August 21, when the phone rang at Kenney and Jesse’s mother’s house. It was the prison warden. Kenney, she said, had committed suicide that night. She offered to have the body cremated at government expense—a move without precedent in federal prison policies—but Wilma Trentadue turned her down. Five days later, Kenney’s body arrived at a mortuary in California. There were bruises all over it, clumsily disguised with heavy makeup; slashes on his throat; ligature marks; and ruptures on his scalp. Photos of the injuries were included in a letter that Jesse drew up on August 30 and hand-delivered to the Bureau of Prisons (bop), which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice (doj). . . .”
(“In Search of John Doe No. 2: The Story the Feds Never Told About the Oklahoma City Bombing” by James Ridgeway; Mother Jones; 7/3/2007.)
2. More about this supposed “suicide”: “ . . . ‘I have enclosed as Exhibit ‘A’ a photograph of Kenneth’s body at the funeral,’ it read. ‘This is how you returned my brother to us.... My brother had been so badly beaten that I personally saw several mourners leave the viewing to vomit in the parking lot! Anyone seeing my brother’s battered body with his bruised and lacerated forehead, throat cut, and blue-black knuckles would not have concluded that his death was either easy or a ‘suicide’! ‘ After describing Kenney’s injuries in detail, and speculating how they might have come about (bruises to his arms from being gripped, others to his legs from being knocked to the ground with batons, slashes to his throat from someone ‘possibly left-handed,’ which Kenney was not), Jesse concluded: ‘Had my brother been less of a man, you[r] guards would have been able to kill him without inflicting so much injury to his body. Had that occurred, Kenney’s family would forever have been guilt-ridden... with the pain of thinking that Kenneth took his own life and that we had somehow failed him. By making the fight he did for his life, Ken has saved us that pain and God bless him for having done so!’ . . .” (Idem.)
3. A number of Kenney Trentadue’s fellow inmates provided testimony indicating that he was murdered. One of them—Alden Gillis Baker—was subsequently found hanged in his cell. “ . . . Other key evidence was simply omitted from or buried in the official reports: FBI and state Bureau of Investigations officials later testified, in a lawsuit brought by the Trentadue family, that a second person’s blood had been found in Kenney’s cell, and that there were no cut marks on the noose from which he was, according to prison officials, ‘cut down.’ According to an internal FBI memo, a prison guard told his neighbor that Kenney had been killed, and then hung in his cell as a cover-up; an inmate who reported hearing similar statements from a second guard said he was warned to keep silent and then sent to isolation. Another inmate, Alden Gillis Baker, would later give Jesse’s lawyer a note describing an incident during which, he said, Kenney got into an altercation with a guard. Eventually, he wrote, additional officers entered the cell, there was ‘a lot of physical violence going on,’ he heard ‘faint moaning,’ and later the sound of bedsheets being torn. (He would repeat this account in a deposition in connection with a lawsuit brought by Jesse, but a judge ruled that Baker, a convicted robber and sex offender, was not a reliable witness. In 2000, Baker was found hanging in his cell in a California federal prison.) . . .” (Idem.)
4. One of the hypotheses entertained by the Trentadue family and associated investigators involves possible confusion between Kenney Trentadue and members of the Aryan Republican Army, a white-supremacist group that moved in the same circles as Timothy McVeigh and company. [Note the death via “prison suicide” of Peter Langan, a key member of the ARA. Seems to be a lot of this sort of thing going on in connection with this case.] Reports indicate that members of the ARA may be the mysterious John Doe #2, seen by witnesses with Timothy McVeigh. Other analysts feel that John Doe #2 was Andreas Strassmeier, the son of Helmut Kohl’s chief of staff Gunther Strassmeier (the architect of German reunification). (Read more about Andreas Strassmeier, and the Oklahoma City bombing.) “ . . . Guthrie’s name meant nothing to Jesse Trentadue, but in the far-right radical scene, he had some notoriety. In 1994 and 1995, Guthrie and his gang, the Aryan Republican Army, carried out an impressive series of 22 bank robberies across the Midwest, netting some $250,000 that they used to support the white-supremacist movement. The ARA had a flair for the dramatic. They rented getaway cars in the names of major FBI officials. At some robberies they wore Clinton and Nixon masks; at others, they tried to look like Arabs. At a December 1994 robbery they wore Santa and elf suits; the following April, they left behind an Easter basket holding a bronzed pipe bomb. In a home movie, Guthrie’s partner Peter Langan donned a black balaclava and talked about the coming white revolution. The ARA’s philosophy was old-fashioned nativism, but their style was a takeoff on the IRA, with Latin American revolution and rock and roll thrown in. (Members of the Philadelphia skinhead music scene were part of the group.) Langan liked to call himself ‘Commander Pedro’; outside the gang, he cross-dressed and later, when sentenced to prison for the robberies, requested that a judge authorize a sex-change operation. Cash told Jesse that some people—including some in federal law enforcement—thought the ARA might have been involved in the Oklahoma City bombing, and that Guthrie could have been John Doe No. 2. (Guthrie, along with other key ARA members, was finally arrested in January 1996 and was reported to be cooperating with federal prosecutors tracking the far right. That July, shortly before he was due to testify in court against Langan, Guthrie was found hanging in his cell.) . . .” (Idem.)
5. Two video productions are being generated by a couple of documentary filmmakers. One is a DVD of a three-lecture series called “The First Refuge of a Scoundrel: The Relationship Between Fascism and Religion.” In addition, there will soon be a documentary about Mr. Emory, titled “The Anti-Fascist.” For more about this project, visit TheAntiFascist.com.
FBI to judge: Sorry judge, we searched and we just can’t find the files!
Judge to FBI: Ummm...you have to be kidding.
Note that the FBI’s excuse is actually kind of plausible, although not for the greatest reasons...
Police have reportedly found a box filled with ammonium nitrate in the hotel room of the recently arrested leader of one of the militia groups operating on the US/Mexican border, raising the question of what this militia may have had in mind. Fertilizer for a nice hedge fence along the border, perhaps? Hmmmm...:
As we learned back in August, the future is looking bright in Texas if you happen to be a far right militia member:
As you might expect, the militias might be rather fond of soon-to-be governor Greg Abbott given his refusal to denounce their antics while he’s still Attorney General. Of course, if some of those militia members where caught with powerful explosives like ammonium nitrate it’s reasonable to assume Abbot would be will to denounce them at that point. Reasonable and naive:
To reiterate:
Yes, the future is looking bright for Texas.