Dear
Supporters:
As
a follow-up to a previous blog[i], there are
two additional matters of importance relating to the anniversary of the unprovoked
attack and brutal murder of FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams on June 26,
1975 on the Jumping Bull property, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota:
The memorial services held in memory of the slain agents and Peltier’s predictably
shameless public statement.
Los Angeles, California: On June 24th
a memorial service was held at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Cypress, California for Jack R. Coler, and on June 27th at the Forest
Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California for Ronald A. Williams
honoring their memory and sacrifice in the line of duty. Organized and attended
by members of the Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation along with the President of the Society and President of the FBI
Agents Association, and including current FBI and law enforcement personnel.[ii]
This was a fitting tribute to two young, courageous and professional public
servants who faced their final assignment and their End of Watch.[iii]
On
June 26th Peltier, as he does every year, released a public
statement on the anniversary of the killing of our Agents. However, this one is
different because everything is at stake now, as Peltier acknowledges, “I
believe that this President is my last hope for freedom and I will surely die
here if I am not released by January 20, 2017.”
(Believe it, Leonard Peltier, this is not your last hope, this is your only hope and face the reality
that the Pardon Attorney, Attorney General and President Obama can see through
the fog of the myth and folklore. The
truth is there and it is not on your side. January 20th will come
and go and your marginal following will disappear like breath on a mirror. You
will leave USP Coleman one day. That much is certain.)
At
this critical time, most must think Peltier would temper his public statements,
but instead he furthers the depth of his lack of remorse and failure to grasp
the seriousness of his conviction and life sentences.
Let
us closely examine what Peltier wants his followers to believe:
“June 26th marks 41 years since the long summer day when three
young men were killed at the home of the Jumping Bull family, near Oglala,
during a firefight in which I and dozens of others participated. While I
did not shoot (and therefore did not kill) FBI agents Ronald Williams and
Jack Coler, I nevertheless have great remorse for the loss of their young
lives, the loss of my friend Joe Stuntz, and for the grieving of their loved
ones. I would guess that, like me, many of my brothers and sisters who were
there that day wish that somehow they could have done something to change what
happened and avoid the tragic outcome of the shootout.”
This is where again Peltier gets it pitifully
wrong with “a firefight,” “Three young men,” and “avoid the tragic outcome.”
Peltier is incapable of separating
the deaths from the reality at Jumping Bull. Incapable of separating fact from
fiction.
Firefight: Not a firefight
in the least but an unprovoked attack on two federal agents, pinning them down
in an open field in a deadly crossfire, taking hundreds of rounds of rifle
fire, being critically wounded and then executed, would hardly turn this cowardly
assault into a firefight. No, this
was a shameless and gutless act by AIM recreants at their cowardly worst, and
for that instant, led by the murderous Peltier.
Three young men: Two of the young
men Peltier invokes were carrying out their lawful duties attempting to locate
a fugitive wanted for several felonies.[iv]
Instead, unknown to them at the moment, they followed Peltier, Norman Charles*
and Joe Stuntz onto the Jumping Bull farm. We already know that one of those
two young men, Ron Williams, was able to tell other Agents within radio contact
exactly what was about to happen: That those they followed exited with rifles,
and joined by other AIM cowards, placed them under intense fire making this “firefight”
an unprovoked attack tantamount to an ambush.
Let’s look at exactly what the—third young man, Joe Stuntz’ part was in
this deadly drama.
Peltier’s “great remorse,” places
Stuntz in the same category as Agents’ Coler and Williams: Hardly…and not even
a close comparison. Stuntz, and all should remember, was intimately involved in
the crimes that day.
Following Peltier’s lead, Stuntz
fired at the pinned down agents, perhaps one of his own bullets finding its
mark.
Following Peltier’s lead, while
standing over the mutilated bodies of two young
men, Peltier himself tells us what happened next, “I seen Joe when he pulled it out of the trunk and put it on, and he
gave me a smile.”[v] Please, picture
this horrid scene: Standing beside two murdered and mutilated Agents, their
bodies still warm, Stuntz goes about stealing Jack Coler’s FBI raid jacket,
punctuating it with a smile at Peltier: Abhorrent behavior to any decent and
civilized observer.
Following Peltier’s lead, Stuntz
begins to shoot at Agents and police officers responding to the aid of their besieged
comrades. Stuntz wasn’t smart enough to understand that when you shoot at
police officers there’s a better than even chance they are going to shoot back.
Which is exactly what they did, stopping Stuntz dead in his tracks, still
wearing Agent Coler’s FBI jacket.
Some, rightly so, would say that
Stuntz got what he deserved. However, we would offer that it was unfortunate
Stuntz was not arrested, prosecuted and sent to prison for aiding and abetting
in first-degree murder and attempted murder. Then…that stolen FBI jacket would
have become an important piece of circumstantial evidence.
Avoid the tragic outcome: A
conviction and dozens of appeals have confirmed the government’s position that Peltier,
with the infamous Wichita AR-15, brutally murdered both agents making Peltier’s
claim of “I did not shoot (and therefore
did not kill) FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler,” an unmitigated absurdity.
None of this would have happened had
Peltier not provoked a confrontation. This bears repeating…None of this would
have happened had Peltier not provoked a confrontation.
The self-proclaimed brave warrior knew he was a wanted
fugitive and mistakenly assumed the agents’ were coming for him.[vi]
The shooting was unprovoked and we have Ron Williams’ own words, his final
testimony, his dying declaration, establishing that irrefutable fact.
The cowardly Peltier chose instead to
start the shooting that placed all the AIM members present at Jumping Bull in
jeopardy.
Had the agents approached Peltier (only,
and probably wrongfully assuming for the moment he would have properly
identified himself), he would have been taken into custody and processed to be
returned for the outstanding warrant in Milwaukee. Moreover, of all the
ironies, Peltier was acquitted of those charges and would have been a free man
in a matter of months instead of committing horrendous murders, becoming a
Top-Ten fugitive and spending the rest of his life behind bars. No one knows how
different Peltier’s life may have been over these ensuing forty-one years.[vii]
Nevertheless, Peltier made his choice that fateful day for himself and the
others, most certainly including the third young
man, Joe Stuntz.
There was only one person responsible
for the carnage that day: Leonard Peltier. He was the only one who could have
avoided the tragic outcome.
Certainly, the Stuntz family still
carries the burden of their loss but if there is a shred of blame attributed to
Joe Stuntz’ death, his family has to point the finger squarely at Leonard
Peltier.
“In
the Spirit of Coler and Williams”
Ed
Woods
*See footnote v.
[iv] http://www.noparolepeltier.com/faq.html#17
(Jimmy
Eagle and the alleged “old cowboy boots” fable.
[v] Peter
Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. (Penguin Books, 1992) 552
[vi] It is
widely speculated that Peltier chose to begin shooting at the agents because he
was a fugitive based on the Milwaukee warrant. However, the facts prove
otherwise because Peltier knew that Agents Coler and Williams were searching
for Jimmy Eagle as provided by sworn testimony during Peltier’s trial. Why
Peltier chose to react the way he did is known only to him. Perhaps he just
panicked (as biographer Peter Matthiessen suggested), which is not an uncommon
trait of a natural born coward. Perhaps too, in his quivering hysteria he knew
that dead men make poor witnesses.
(See testimony of Michael Anderson, summarized here with transcript
references.)
Anderson
related that on the evening of June 25th, he, Wish Draper and Norman Charles*
went to Oglala to take a shower and while returning along Highway 18 were
stopped and questioned by two FBI agents who were trying to determine if one of
them was Jimmy Eagle. They provided “Indian” names and were taken by the agents
to the Pine Ridge police to have one of the officers confirm that none of them
was Jimmy Eagle. Another officer then dropped them off near the Jumping Bull
Property {760-769}. (The two FBI agents were Jack Coler and Ron Williams
driving late model, unmarked sedans. The same vehicles they drove the next day.)
When
the three returned to the AIM camp Peltier questioned them about what happened
and “We just got yelled at” and Peltier said, “We were dumb to get in the car
{771-72}.”
Anderson
described the “red and white van” he knew Peltier operated {772}.
*The same Norman Charles who, along with Peltier and Stuntz, initially
fired upon Agents’ Coler and Williams.
[vii] Based on
Peltier’s behavior and actions (Anna Mae Aquash, etc.) prior to Jumping Bull
and his self-serving, narcissistic personality and ingratiating and sycophantic
demeanor, odds are he would have wound up pretty much where he is now.
