Dear Supporters:
It’s common for criminals to
use aliases and Leonard Peltier is no exception.
Why and how they pick,
also-known-as, a.k.a., aliases is unknown, but they serve one obvious purpose,
to disguise one’s true identity.
Peltier had at least four
known aliases. His FBI Wanted Poster, issued December 3, 1975 clearly lists;
Leonard Littleshell, Luis Martinez, John Yellow Robe and Leonard Williams
(Footnote #1).
The source of Leonard Littleshell is a mystery known only
to Peltier, however, it is at least Indian sounding, and after all he is a
Native American. He does though distance himself from his real heritage by
using the anglicized pronunciation of his surname as Pel-teer versus the French
iteration, Pel-ti-a.
A little history can perhaps
explain the meaning of two others.
On November 14, 1975, as a
result of an FBI All-Points-Bulletin, Peltier and others were pulled over by Oregon
State Troopers. Peltier escaped from a motor home, (loaned to the American
Indian Movement’s cause by actor Marlon Brando).
At Peltier’s trial Trooper
Ken Griffiths described “a large Mexican appearing person got out of the
vehicle.” (Trial transcript at {2224}). (This ‘person’ was later confirmed to
be Leonard Peltier.) Griffiths asked Peltier his name, and was provided “a
common Mexican name.” Griffiths ordered Peltier to the ground as, during some commotion, “two female
Indian ladies and an young child” also exited the motor home (Tp. {2230}).
The motor home backed up
briefly and then took off down the highway as Griffiths believed a shot had
been fired at him from Peltier who was now running away and over a fence. Initially,
between him and Peltier were the two women and child, but Griffiths was able to
fire two shotgun rounds at the fleeing subject. The point is, as was further
clarified during an anemic cross-examination by Peltier attorney, Bruce “I’ll
take the Fifth” Ellison, that Peltier used the distraction of the motor home
and the position of the women to make his escape. (Fn. #2)
This would support the
notion of the “Louis Martinez“ alias
(Peltier believing apparently he could pass for a Mexican-American), and the “John Yellow Robe” as he once again
demonstrated his low regard for women. Once with Anna Mae Aquash by placing a
“gun in her mouth” trying to force her to confess that she was an informant (it
has been proven she was not, however, AIM thought otherwise and ordered her
kidnap and murder nonetheless), and now with women and a child as cover, he
flees again. (Fn. #3) The “yellow”
in this alias is appropriate and indistinguishable from the cowardly and
murderous acts at Jumping Bull five months earlier.
The ironies in the Peltier
saga are too many to list, but this one, as unexplained as it remains, is
beyond just a quirk of fate. Of all the names Peltier could have chosen to
disguise his true identity, sometime in his criminal career he chose the one of
a future victim. If it wasn’t so pathetically serious it’s as if Peltier at
some point sealed his own destiny.
“In the Spirit of Coler and
Williams”
Ed Woods
Footnotes:
As a constant source of
irritation for Peltier as he’s repeatedly denied the basis of the charge of aiding and abetting in the
murders of Agents’ Coler and Williams, please see the notation at the bottom of
the wanted flyer. This is why, as promised in a previous blog, that Peltier,
when he receives mailed copies of NPPA updates and blogs, he also receives an
autographed copy of I.O. 4681 for his records and as a reminder that no one is
buying that nonsense.
#2) Ellison, a true believer
but who has drifted from the Peltier camp was quick to point the finger at the
FBI for alleged wrongdoing but when it came down to putting his own credibility
on the line, he either fell back on the 5th Amendment or refused to
testify.
