Speaker 1: Previously, on our coverage of Leonard Piltier, we talked about
Speaker 1: the history that gave rise to Native activism like aim
Speaker 1: the American Indian Movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies.
Speaker 1: In addition to a focus on treaty violations, land reclamation,
Speaker 1: and other issues, Aims supported the resistance to mining interest
Speaker 1: in South Dakota, but they were met in force by
Speaker 1: a federally funded paramilitary group called the Goon Squad that
Speaker 1: perpetrated a reign of terror beginning in nineteen seventy two
Speaker 1: on the Pine Ridge Reservation, leaving sixty unsolved murders in
Speaker 1: its wake. So on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: when two plain close agents and unmarked vehicles drove onto
Speaker 1: an AIME stronghold and drew their weapons, they were both
Speaker 1: killed before the conveniently stationed SWAT teams could swoop in,
Speaker 1: leaving the FEDS to figure out how they prosecuted someone
Speaker 1: for defending their own community. This is wrongful conviction. You're
Speaker 1: listening to wrongful conviction. You can listen to this and
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where I'm once
Speaker 1: again thrilled to be joined by Ben Bolan from one
Speaker 1: of my favorite podcasts, Stuff They Don't Want You to Know.
Speaker 1: As we continue now our coverage of the wrongful conviction
Speaker 1: of Leonard Peltier.
Speaker 2: To help tell the story, we'll hear again from the
Speaker 2: man himself, one of his co defendants, Dino Butler, as
Speaker 2: well as one of his attorneys, Bruce Ellison. In addition,
Speaker 2: we'll hear from one of his appellate attorneys, Ron Cooby.
Speaker 1: We'll pick up Leonard's story where we left off last
Speaker 1: time on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy five, when federal
Speaker 1: forces had Jumping bull Ridge surrounded and it seemed like
Speaker 1: an eagle was showing Leonard Peltier, Dino Butler, and Bob
Speaker 1: Rogudoo to safety. They had made their way into a culvert,
Speaker 1: one of those sometimes barely walkable drainage pipes that travel
Speaker 1: under roadways. They had stopped there to pray, and, almost
Speaker 1: as if by divine intervention, a surveillance plane left the area,
Speaker 1: so they made their move, unsure of their fate or
Speaker 1: of how many agents and goon squad members were still
Speaker 1: up on the road.
Speaker 3: We had some young kids with us, and my responsibility
Speaker 3: to make sure that they got safe. I sent them
Speaker 3: ahead of me. I told them, go, I'll take up
Speaker 3: the rear. And when they started shooting us, turn around
Speaker 3: and start shooting back. And I'm not trying to make
Speaker 3: myself and the hero. I was fighting for my life.
Speaker 4: And there were so many bullets flying around us. Man,
Speaker 4: I just knew that somebody was going to get shot.
Speaker 4: I could just feel the bullets buzzing around me. And
Speaker 4: I ran and ran until I couldn't run no more,
Speaker 4: and I just I thought, all hecky with it, and
Speaker 4: I just lay down catch my breath. I was expecting
Speaker 4: bullets to enter my body anytime.
Speaker 3: They were getting closer and closer to hit some of us,
Speaker 3: so I would turn around to them, go keep going,
Speaker 3: and I would start shooting back at them.
Speaker 4: I caught my breath, so I jumped up and I
Speaker 4: started running again, and I couldn't see Leonard, I couldn't
Speaker 4: see anybody, but I was praying that nobody was hurt.
Speaker 4: And I ran until I couldn't run no more, and
Speaker 4: I stopped, dropped on the ground. And I just kept
Speaker 4: praying like that, no bullets entered my body. And I
Speaker 4: got up again and I ran up.
Speaker 3: There was a little flat, so I finally made it
Speaker 3: to the top, and here they come from the back
Speaker 3: of the hill.
Speaker 4: So I turned around. I went back to the edge
Speaker 4: of that platte, and there was a car coming up
Speaker 4: the hill full of goons. I laid on the ground
Speaker 4: and I emptied my gun out that car and it
Speaker 4: turned around and ran back down the hill real fast.
Speaker 4: And I couldn't believe we were all safe. None of
Speaker 4: us got shot, no wounds or nothing. Man, when we
Speaker 4: got up to the top of that hill, two brothers
Speaker 4: come riding down on horseback and they said, Hey, what's
Speaker 4: going on. What's happening, brothers?
Speaker 3: I asked him, I said, what are you guys doing here?
Speaker 3: He said, well, this is our people, this is our
Speaker 3: war too. We are here to help you. And so
Speaker 3: they led us out of there. These two young kids
Speaker 3: came through a hail of bullet to come and help us.
Speaker 5: And that's a fact.
Speaker 4: The last time the FBI's horse heading out of there,
Speaker 4: following those brothers on horseback, and Noah wounded lived up there,
Speaker 4: and these brothers knew him and everything.
Speaker 5: He was the elder.
Speaker 4: That's where they took us. And he opened the door
Speaker 4: and he says, I've been expecting you come on in.
Speaker 4: So we all walked in there and he said, I
Speaker 4: don't have much food. He said, but you're welcome to it.
Speaker 4: And he said, you eat what you want.
Speaker 3: I found out later that the whole reservation was praying
Speaker 3: for us that we would get out of there. So
Speaker 3: I believe it great spirit helped us get out of there.
Speaker 4: If we had done something wrong that day, we wouldn't
Speaker 4: have got out of there. I mean that Diego helped us.
Speaker 4: Those people help us. There was so much help.
Speaker 2: At this point, FBI agents examined the bodies and collected
Speaker 2: bullets and casings, and they allegedly found one two twenty
Speaker 2: three caliber shell casing in the agent's trunk, typical AMMO
Speaker 2: for AR fifteen's. This becomes important later since none of
Speaker 2: the agent's guns could fire that caliber. Agent Williams had
Speaker 2: a handgun, which he allegedly fired only twice, while Agent
Speaker 2: Kohler fired a handgun, three Toho eight rifle, and a
Speaker 2: twelve gage shotgun once each.
Speaker 1: Which sounds just as strange as the fact that these
Speaker 1: two well trained agents only fired five shots total, just
Speaker 1: five against an estimated one hundred and twenty five bullets
Speaker 1: that were rained down on them by forty two different
Speaker 1: shooters from the ranch, who, by the way, let's call
Speaker 1: it what it is. They had every right to defend themselves,
Speaker 1: especially when unidentified intruders had driven five hundred yards onto
Speaker 1: private property and drawn their weapons, whether they had a
Speaker 1: warrant or not.
Speaker 6: It was a day that should never have happened. Three
Speaker 6: people unnecessarily died because of this government agenda.
Speaker 3: After the shooting, they wanted to course arrest somebody, and
Speaker 3: they couldn't get nobody to talk to them.
Speaker 5: So the nationwide search starts.
Speaker 6: They even included at one point every Native man who
Speaker 6: had ever been in combat in Indo, China on.
Speaker 5: Their suspect list. Wow, they also included a four year old.
Speaker 1: While the FEDS tried to whittle down that suspect list,
Speaker 1: AIM leadership, including Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier, traveled out
Speaker 1: west to gather financial support for whoever was about to
Speaker 1: fight a tremendous legal battle, and one of their visits
Speaker 1: was with the Godfather himself, Marlon fucking Brando.
Speaker 3: He was from Omaha, Nebraska. There's a big reservation right
Speaker 3: on the border there, so his mother had some Native
Speaker 3: blood in there. Marlon had been involved in a Native
Speaker 3: struggle since the fifties. Dennis and I decided to go
Speaker 3: to California and see some of our friends there to
Speaker 3: see if to give us some financial help, and we
Speaker 3: were successful in that. Marlon even gave us a mobile
Speaker 3: home to take back with us to Pine Ridge. It
Speaker 3: was literally a war scene.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: You had FBI agents running around the fatigues, you had
Speaker 3: helicopters flying all over, you had SWAT teams running around
Speaker 3: the reservation.
Speaker 6: It was decided that they were going to break the
Speaker 6: American indew movement. They were going to do it one
Speaker 6: way or another. They were going to go as for
Speaker 6: as they could with kind of insurgency. Helicopters, armored cars,
Speaker 6: a lot of heavy weaponry being brought into Pine Ridge
Speaker 6: and throughout the reservation. Over over the days, searches of homes,
Speaker 6: terrorizing the people.
Speaker 3: They were threatening them, especially the kids. Somebody's going to
Speaker 3: end up killing them because they were there. Something was
Speaker 3: going to happen to their families. And they still couldn't
Speaker 3: get nobody to talk to them because nobody knew nothing.
Speaker 3: I dies, but nobody's going to talk to them anyway.
Speaker 6: The local people felt tremendous love and support towards the resistance.
Speaker 6: But to counter that, you want to terrorize people so
Speaker 6: that they don't help, or maybe they inform as an
Speaker 6: attorney with the who they need Offense Committee. I was
Speaker 6: on the ground right after the firefight Oglala. I was
Speaker 6: still studying for the bar at that time, and if
Speaker 6: Offense Comittee had a little hut where some of us
Speaker 6: stayed overnight, and we got a call that there had
Speaker 6: been a goon attack and we went probably equivalent about
Speaker 6: three city blocks over to this house and you could
Speaker 6: still see the dust in the air, and you could
Speaker 6: smell courtite, You could see the terror and the fear.
Speaker 6: That was a woman and a couple of kids, And
Speaker 6: these are kind of unique experiences for a young Jewish
Speaker 6: kid out of New York.
Speaker 2: But Bruce quickly got acquainted with the situation and he
Speaker 2: told us about an AIM member named Byron Deserso. Deserts's
Speaker 2: father read an underground newspaper that was critical of the
Speaker 2: tribal chairman Dick Wilson and his federally funded pairamilitary group,
Speaker 2: the Goon Squad, which had attacked Byron's friends.
Speaker 6: They started shooting at a young couple as they got
Speaker 6: out of their car. The person who defended himself with
Speaker 6: a single shot twenty two against semioma and automatic weapons
Speaker 6: was arrested in his home for disorderly conduct. So Byron
Speaker 6: was going there to see how he can help out.
Speaker 6: And Byron was on his way home in Womblee and
Speaker 6: a caravan of goons passed by and they riddled the
Speaker 6: car with bullets and they killed Byron Breccacy. The other
Speaker 6: three people in the car were not hurt and as
Speaker 6: a winning defense cann't remember. We were asked to go
Speaker 6: down and to investigate. And the first thing that we
Speaker 6: were met with in the streets of Wombli, we were
Speaker 6: surrounded by a SWAT team which questioned us at gunpoint.
Speaker 6: But it was part of that fear there. They had
Speaker 6: already destroyed two homes by fire bombing them. They had
Speaker 6: shot up about a half a dozen homes.
Speaker 3: Well, we started to protect the people again because of
Speaker 3: all the chaos and terrorism they were committing against the
Speaker 3: local citizens.
Speaker 6: There, and you know, staying overnight in that community and
Speaker 6: watching the elders get together and give a warning to
Speaker 6: the goons. You get out the next day by noon,
Speaker 6: or we're going to come and take you out. Because
Speaker 6: the government wasn't taking them out.
Speaker 2: It appears that Leonard's participation in resisting this continued reign
Speaker 2: of terror put a target on his back.
Speaker 5: Cornypi documents.
Speaker 6: They decided that Leonard had shot the agents two and
Speaker 6: a half weeks after the firefight. And they made this
Speaker 6: conclusion because they say they found some of his fingerprints
Speaker 6: on some items that were in the camp area about
Speaker 6: quarter from mile away from the scene.
Speaker 1: Which says exactly nothing.
Speaker 6: But that was where they started from. And then they
Speaker 6: went and they targeted four people Leonard, Dino Butler, Bob
Speaker 6: Robberdew and Jimmy Eagle.
Speaker 3: Jimmy Eagle, I wasn't even in the state. It was
Speaker 3: on a Wyoming reservation. We didn't understand why we were indicted,
Speaker 3: why we were being accused, because we don't know who
Speaker 3: the real shooters are.
Speaker 2: They caught up with Dino Butler first.
Speaker 4: I was arrested in Rosebud and I was taking to Pierce,
Speaker 4: South Dakota. I was put in jail there, Dad two
Speaker 4: holding tanks, one tank where they put all the goons
Speaker 4: and the other tank of where they put all the
Speaker 4: AIM members.
Speaker 6: So first they captured Dino Butler in Rosebud and then
Speaker 6: Bob Robberdy down in Kansas.
Speaker 1: In September nineteen seventy five, Bob Robadu and two other
Speaker 1: AM members, Michael Anderson and Norman Charles, were traveling through Wichita,
Speaker 1: Kansas in Leonards station wagon when either ammunition or an
Speaker 1: explosive went off in the back of the vehicle, and
Speaker 1: authorities found an AR fifteen inside the burning wreck, which
Speaker 1: was then taken for comparison to the two twenty three
Speaker 1: shellcasing allegedly found an Asian Kohler's trunk, and we'll hear
Speaker 1: more about that later. But meanwhile they put pressure on Bob, Mike,
Speaker 1: Norman as well as the people back on Pine Ridge
Speaker 1: and continued to pursue both Jimmy Eagle and Leonard Peltier.
Speaker 3: They offered people money, cattle, They offered people land on
Speaker 3: our own reservation. How the hell do you got a
Speaker 3: right to offer us land on our own reservation to
Speaker 3: become an informant, But the people said, no, we're not
Speaker 3: going to do this to Leonard, you can kiss our ass.
Speaker 5: We're not going to do it.
Speaker 3: We're not going to get up there and make false
Speaker 3: statements against him. So I was protected by the people,
Speaker 3: but they were still continuing to do this for.
Speaker 5: Quite a while.
Speaker 3: And there is a treaty among the United States and
Speaker 3: Canada that people can cross that border anytime they want.
Speaker 3: So that's when the elders are telling me that I
Speaker 3: should go to Canada and we could find out what
Speaker 3: kind of evidence they got.
Speaker 2: According to the extradition agreement between the United States and Canada,
Speaker 2: the authorities must produce convincing evidence of guilt for Canada
Speaker 2: to extradite. So Leonard left for Canada in Marlon Brando's
Speaker 2: motor home with Dennis Banks as well as with two
Speaker 2: other individuals, and they made it to Oregon. Then they
Speaker 2: were pulled over on November fourteenth, nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 3: We were traveling down the highway and this cop pulls
Speaker 3: us over, and I think you jumped the gun because
Speaker 3: right down the road they had a whole road blocks
Speaker 3: and everything else set up, but just cop pulled us over.
Speaker 3: Like I said, I think it was premature. He started
Speaker 3: shooting and I tried to draw them shooting away from
Speaker 3: camouting her kids. They were all laying on the ground
Speaker 3: and there was cop screaming and yelling and all.
Speaker 5: This other shit.
Speaker 3: It so we've split up and we've shaped I did
Speaker 3: get shot there still to this day have laded my body.
Speaker 5: Where were you shot Leonard in the back? That's a miracle.
Speaker 5: If you weren't killed or paralyzed. You can't go to
Speaker 5: a hospital.
Speaker 3: You can't go to hospital. And I'm wounded. Some of
Speaker 3: the supporters that opened their homes for me, and so
Speaker 3: I had a doctor comment, we're trying to get the
Speaker 3: bullet out of my shoulder. And from there I went
Speaker 3: in a state with various people. I think it was
Speaker 3: at least six months.
Speaker 1: During which time Leonard's name went to the top of
Speaker 1: the FBI's most wanted list before he went to Canada,
Speaker 1: where he was picked up by the Royal Canadian Mounted
Speaker 1: Police in Hinton, Alberta in February nineteen seventy six, and
Speaker 1: then he was transported to the much less Native friendly
Speaker 1: province of British Columbia.
Speaker 3: I went before a very conservative judge who was not
Speaker 3: my friend, not Indians, native people's friends. It was quite
Speaker 3: obvious even he said it was not going to turn
Speaker 3: me back to the United States. He said, there is
Speaker 3: no evidence. I can't just turn this man over. They
Speaker 3: continued to develop false evidence. They created a false witness.
Speaker 3: I never met her in my life, but she was
Speaker 3: claiming she was my girlfriend and she was an eyewitness.
Speaker 7: And the FBI used what they knew to be a
Speaker 7: perjured affidavit in order to obtain his extradition from Canada.
Speaker 2: This is one of Leonard's appellot attorneys, Ron Cooby. He's
Speaker 2: explaining how the FBI found a woman named Mirgal poor Bear,
Speaker 2: who gave three affidavits. Her first, which was initially hidden,
Speaker 2: said that Leonard had confessed to her after the fact,
Speaker 2: and then poor Bear swore two more affidavits saying that
Speaker 2: she was an eye witness.
Speaker 7: Myrtle poor Bear, who was deeply psychotic, made a number
Speaker 7: of different affidavids till she satisfied the FBI, and she
Speaker 7: said she actually witnessed Leonard Pilteer shoot the agent's at
Speaker 7: close range because she was there. Now everybody knew that
Speaker 7: Myrtle poor Bear was nowhere near the scene of this.
Speaker 3: The people in the community stated out right that he
Speaker 3: was the faith.
Speaker 5: They don't know her.
Speaker 3: They knew I was never a winner or not because
Speaker 3: I had a girl from there. I had two kids there.
Speaker 6: And by the way, when murder Poor Bear was Leonard
Speaker 6: Belteer's girlfriend, she was also a local aim leader's girlfriend
Speaker 6: by the name of Dick Marshall, and later she claimed
Speaker 6: that Dick Marshall confessed to her to killing a goon.
Speaker 7: Ancillary to that perjured Affid David was an Affid David
Speaker 7: from firearms expert Evan Hodge that the shell case that
Speaker 7: was found in the agent's car had extractor marks on it.
Speaker 7: Extractor mark comparisons are not an exact science, unlike say,
Speaker 7: firing pin comparisons.
Speaker 2: When a semi automatic weapon is fired, the firing pin
Speaker 2: springs forward through the breach face behind the bullet. It
Speaker 2: strikes the bullet primer, a small explosive that ignites the
Speaker 2: propellant gunpowder, and this creates enough high pressure gas to
Speaker 2: send both the projectile forward from its casing down the
Speaker 2: barrel and sliding the casing back against the breach face
Speaker 2: where it's grabbed by the extractor. This extractor slides the
Speaker 2: casing further back where it's hit by the ejector and
Speaker 2: then flies out an opening on the right side of
Speaker 2: the gut.
Speaker 1: Each movement leaves striations, and each machine part leaves marks
Speaker 1: on the casing, which can then be compared to other
Speaker 1: casings produced by test firing a suspect weapon, and really
Speaker 1: all firearm analysis is best suited for excluding a firearm
Speaker 1: rather than actually making definitive matches. However, the firing pin
Speaker 1: test provides the most accurate reading, and it improved from
Speaker 1: two D microscopic images in nineteen seventy five to the
Speaker 1: three D imaging available by twenty ten, delivering up to
Speaker 1: ninety eight point eight percent accuracy, Whereas extractor marks are
Speaker 1: described as being able to identify class characteristics like the
Speaker 1: make and model, but they have no value in identifying
Speaker 1: the individual weapon well. Extractor marks were the subject of
Speaker 1: Evan Hodge's Affidavid, which, along with Myrtle Poor bears Affidavid
Speaker 1: one extradition. So while Leonard's team appealed the extradition and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Eagle hadn't even been located yet, Dino and Bob
Speaker 1: went to trial in July of nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 4: What do I went on trial and see the rapids
Speaker 4: the FBI sent a team and they just terrorized those
Speaker 4: people and see the rapids that they said that they
Speaker 4: had two A members. I killed two fbis. No one
Speaker 4: should go out alone by themselves. Don't leave your cars unlock.
Speaker 4: They told them that there would be snipers up on
Speaker 4: buildings and everything. There's going to be Dog soldiers terrorizing
Speaker 4: the people and trying to set us free and all.
Speaker 4: I mean, they really done a job on those people
Speaker 4: before our trial.
Speaker 2: The term Dog Soldiers refers to a militaristic band of
Speaker 2: the Cheyenne Nation dating back to the eighteen thirties. They
Speaker 2: served as an effective bulwark against western expansion in present
Speaker 2: day Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Speaker 6: It was all about creating a climate of fear and terror.
Speaker 4: When my parents, our defense team came to see the rapids,
Speaker 4: my mother and father, my little brother, no one would
Speaker 4: take them in. Finally John Tredell and his group came
Speaker 4: in and they started making speeches and talking to these people,
Speaker 4: and the doors opened up, the church open up, and
Speaker 4: they have some land to our people to set up
Speaker 4: their camps there, and my mom and dad got a
Speaker 4: hotel room. I mean, it was a beautiful what happened there.
Speaker 4: Without those people, we would have probably been convicted there.
Speaker 1: So the FBI's jurypool poisoning had been neutralized for civil
Speaker 1: rights attorney William Kunstler to present the self defense theory,
Speaker 1: while the prosecution now had to prove their narrative.
Speaker 6: The government's theory in about the Robberty trial was that
Speaker 6: this was a pre planned ambush, and they argued that
Speaker 6: and tried to assert it, and it kind of blew
Speaker 6: up on their face in the middle of the trial.
Speaker 6: It just became so ludicrous.
Speaker 2: Initially, this narrative was built in part on Myrtle Poor
Speaker 2: Bears affidavits, the ones which she also said that she
Speaker 2: witnessed this group allegedly planning to lure agents into the
Speaker 2: compound to be ambushed, but soon after the extradition proceedings,
Speaker 2: she stopped cooperating with the FEDS. The FEDS then had
Speaker 2: had to produce new testimony to assert that Bob and
Speaker 2: Dino were part of some premeditated act.
Speaker 6: One of the things that the FBI was very successful
Speaker 6: at was going into jails and finding people who were
Speaker 6: in the same jail, maybe as a person who they
Speaker 6: were targeting, and suddenly the targeted person would.
Speaker 1: Confess them, of course, so how mus to this day,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 6: And the FBI particularly liked to go to people who
Speaker 6: are accused of breaking in homes.
Speaker 5: And raping women, four children, or elders.
Speaker 6: In this case, they found a man that was facing
Speaker 6: extradition to Texas, where the Texas Rangers sent word that
Speaker 6: if they get him back there, he's not going to
Speaker 6: survive very long.
Speaker 4: His name was Vern Harper. He said that I confessed
Speaker 4: everything to him in the jails, and the agreement that
Speaker 4: he made with the government is that he would testify
Speaker 4: against us if they would see that the charges in
Speaker 4: Texas against him were dismissed.
Speaker 6: And you saw how much do you know, talked after
Speaker 6: all these years. Usually people when they made denal Butler,
Speaker 6: they might not hear him say a word for two weeks.
Speaker 6: But nevertheless, that night those two became such good friends
Speaker 6: that Dino confessed to not only being involved in killing
Speaker 6: the agents, but also trying to assassinate a federal judge
Speaker 6: in Rapid City.
Speaker 1: But Vern Harper was exposed for what he had stood
Speaker 1: to gain, and then another witness, Wilford Draper, admitted that
Speaker 1: he'd changed his story upon instruction from the FBI. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: Draper put an AR fifteen in Leonard's hands, as did
Speaker 1: Norman Brown, who received immunity and later recanted. Brown placed
Speaker 1: Bob Dino and Leonard near the agent's car with an
Speaker 1: AR fifteen, but at this point the AR fifteen from
Speaker 1: the car fire in Wichitah was only tacitly linked to
Speaker 1: the two twenty three casing bound in Asian Kohler's car.
Speaker 1: After all, there were other AR fifteens on Jumping Bull Ranch.
Speaker 6: In the public robbery trial, they presented testimony to basically
Speaker 6: this weapon, this damaged AR fifteen that was found, and
Speaker 6: witchta that they could not conclusively state that that weapon
Speaker 6: had been used to fire at the agents because they
Speaker 6: couldn't do a firing pin test on what was left
Speaker 6: of this rifle, and it was a mess except for
Speaker 6: what looked like a brand new bolt mechanism when we
Speaker 6: saw it.
Speaker 2: The brand new bolt mechanism is important to remember for later,
Speaker 2: but for now, there was no known firing pin test. Therefore,
Speaker 2: this was a case of self defense. It's a case
Speaker 2: where the FEDS thought they were in pursuit of Jimmy
Speaker 2: Eagle in a red pickup truck and drove on to
Speaker 2: the compound. A firefight started, and Robadu and Butler arrived
Speaker 2: after the fact, unsure who they were exchanging fire with,
Speaker 2: and that scenario wasn't exactly out of ordinary for them.
Speaker 2: At this time, we.
Speaker 6: Were able to present members of the community, the people
Speaker 6: of Pine Ridge, who came in and talked to the jury.
Speaker 6: Helped them to understand what life was like during what
Speaker 6: was regarded as the Reign of Terror, scores of people
Speaker 6: being killed, people being kept on the floors of their
Speaker 6: homes while bullets went through the walls. Clarence Kelly, the
Speaker 6: FBI director at the time, we subpoened him and put
Speaker 6: him on the witness stand and he admitted that everyone
Speaker 6: has the right to defend themselves and it doesn't matter
Speaker 6: who the aggressor is, and he even said even if
Speaker 6: it's an FBI agent. And the jury became convinced that
Speaker 6: Dino Butler and Bob Robert and Leonard had he been
Speaker 6: on trial with them, were acting in self defense that
Speaker 6: day in whoever was responsible for the killing of the
Speaker 6: deaths of the agents.
Speaker 3: Everybody knew that this was an American Indian Movement stronghold,
Speaker 3: and they came right onto where the cars were found.
Speaker 3: If they did that to a white community, they would
Speaker 3: have been shot too. We were protectling in our homes
Speaker 3: like any other American has the right to do, and
Speaker 3: they got acquitted. The jury to all white jury Christians,
Speaker 3: conservative juries said those Indians have the same rights as
Speaker 3: we do to protect their homes, to protect their families and.
Speaker 5: Their children and everything else.
Speaker 3: That's why they were acquitted.
Speaker 6: The acquittals happened in seedar rapids. The jurors, some of
Speaker 6: them in post trial interviews said by the way they
Speaker 6: were treated, said they came away from the trial terrified
Speaker 6: that they were going to face reprisals from the FBI
Speaker 6: and the US marshalls.
Speaker 4: After I got out of jail, I came back to
Speaker 4: Oregon at my mother and father's house in Cutler City.
Speaker 4: One night, meing Neelock decided to go up to town
Speaker 4: and we met my cousin in the bar there just
Speaker 4: playing pool. And while we were there, this one guy
Speaker 4: and one white guy. He came over to our table
Speaker 4: and he started talking about these two FBI agans that
Speaker 4: were killed, and he was saying how they deserved that
Speaker 4: and all this and that. My cousin said, well, what
Speaker 4: the hell are you talking about? And he said, get
Speaker 4: the hell out of here. I don't know if he
Speaker 4: was a FBI Asian or not, but he left. And
Speaker 4: I had an uncle that lived about two blocks from
Speaker 4: where we were at. My mom and dad lived about
Speaker 4: a mile from where we were at, and we were
Speaker 4: on foot, so I told Neila, let's walk up to
Speaker 4: my uncle's place and we'll stay there tonight. So we
Speaker 4: did that. Next morning, my little brother came up there
Speaker 4: and told us that the FBI had raised at my
Speaker 4: mom and dad's house. And he said when he woke up,
Speaker 4: an FBI Asian was pointing a pistol at his head
Speaker 4: and says, where's your fucking brother at. And when they
Speaker 4: found out we weren't there, Mom, she said, one of
Speaker 4: those Asians walked over to her and they told her,
Speaker 4: you know, we may not have got him this time,
Speaker 4: we will get him.
Speaker 5: We will get him.
Speaker 6: After the Butler robbery trial, the government kind of freaked
Speaker 6: out and they decide that they're going to have a
Speaker 6: meeting in Washington, DC at FBI headquarters. Prosecutors are their
Speaker 6: the FBI's the air, and they either have to decide
Speaker 6: that the agents followed Jimmy Eagle into the jumping boat compound,
Speaker 6: which is what the deceased agents transmitted they were doing.
Speaker 5: Or they had to say.
Speaker 6: Jimmy Eagle was never there, and really it was Leonard
Speaker 6: Peltier who was the killer.
Speaker 7: Somebody had to pay, and that somebody was going to
Speaker 7: be Leonard Peltier. He was the last one available to them.
Speaker 6: So they made a decision to dismiss the charges against
Speaker 6: Jimmy Eagle and in their words, put the full prosecutive
Speaker 6: weight of the federal government to be directed.
Speaker 5: Against Leonard Peltier.
Speaker 6: So they decide that they have to if they're going
Speaker 6: to win, they have to prove that Leonard did it.
Speaker 1: Because Dino and Robert were able to prove that it
Speaker 1: was self defense, they changed the whole story and said
Speaker 1: that this was actually a cold blooded execution.
Speaker 6: Then suddenly this damaged day R fifteen that was found
Speaker 6: in Wichita, which they never attributed to Leonard in any way.
Speaker 6: That weapon had to have been the one that was
Speaker 6: used to kill the agents, And they found the showcase
Speaker 6: and that was a couple of feet away in the
Speaker 6: open trunk, and therefore Leonard Muster did it.
Speaker 1: And by eliminating the idea that there were other ar
Speaker 1: fifteens on the compound, which was just a lie. It
Speaker 1: wasn't true. The extractor marked comparison in absence of a
Speaker 1: firing pin test became enough for them to say that's
Speaker 1: the gun, and since it was found close to the bodies,
Speaker 1: the narrative was that he was able to walk up
Speaker 1: to the agents, who were no longer a threat, and
Speaker 1: execute them in cold blood, as supported by Myrtle Poor
Speaker 1: Bears Affid Davids. But by this time Myrtle herself had
Speaker 1: come forward.
Speaker 5: It was total bs. They terrified this one.
Speaker 1: They threatened to take her kids away, right to take
Speaker 1: your kids away, which is also standard operating procedure, unfortunately
Speaker 1: and police departments too often around the country.
Speaker 2: In pre trial proceedings, Leonard's attorney tried to admit Myrtle
Speaker 2: Poor Bear as their witness, where she would testify as
Speaker 2: to how she was treated and forced to lie. However,
Speaker 2: the judge barred her from testifying and he cited mental incompetence.
Speaker 1: They got a different judge, a notoriously racist judge as
Speaker 1: we understand it, a guy named Paul Benson.
Speaker 4: They moved a child from Saya Rapids up to Fargo,
Speaker 4: North Dakota.
Speaker 1: There was an all white jury.
Speaker 4: I mean the program that set up was a program
Speaker 4: meant to convict Leonard.
Speaker 1: And with the new narrative that this was a cold
Speaker 1: blooded execution of two incapacitated FBI agents, self defense was
Speaker 1: off the table and the judge would not allow any
Speaker 1: testimony about the climate of violence and fear that led
Speaker 1: up to June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 3: The judge would not let them make the statement. The
Speaker 3: judge d a statement that Leonard Peltiers is on trial here,
Speaker 3: not FBI, and that was a begin the type of
Speaker 3: trial I was going to receive.
Speaker 1: And that's where we'll pause for the second of three
Speaker 1: episodes of the wrongful conviction of Leonard Peltier and stick
Speaker 1: around because there's still so much more to come.
Speaker 3: First, opportunity I got, I was able to escape.
Speaker 7: Kunstler learned of this teletype from Agent Hodge, which had
Speaker 7: been suppressed.
Speaker 6: That damaged AR fifteen could produce a firing pentest.
Speaker 3: I don't know who pulled a trigger.
Speaker 6: Then how could the judge deny him the same defense
Speaker 6: that Butler and Robberty.
Speaker 7: You have nothing that any of the dozens of lawyers
Speaker 7: did accomplished a single damned thing for Leonard.
Speaker 1: You had on your side, Hope Francis, Archbishop to to Mother,
Speaker 1: Teresa Nelson, Mandela Muhammad Ali, the Dali Lama Correta, Scott
Speaker 1: King out rage against the machine, Tom Morello, Johnny Depp.
Speaker 3: Regional director of the FBI. Don Edwards is the supporter
Speaker 3: of mine. He said, I worked there. I know what
Speaker 3: they did to Leonard.
Speaker 6: Clinton was told that South Dakota senator would lose the selection.
Speaker 5: If he pardoned Peltier. My anger kept me alive.
Speaker 3: I just made my mind up. You ain't going to
Speaker 3: break me.
Speaker 7: Most of us never thought we would see the day
Speaker 7: that Leonard would walk out of prison alive.
Speaker 2: The guard there said, ma'am, I've told you there's no
Speaker 2: visitation today.
Speaker 4: And I said, the President has just granted clemency to
Speaker 4: Leonard Peltier, and so I'm wondering if you could let
Speaker 4: him know.
Speaker 3: It is just about Leonard Peltier. It's about the struggle.
Speaker 3: It's about what they'd tried to do to us natives.
Speaker 3: They tried to exterminate us.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune in for the final episode of
Speaker 1: The Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this and all
Speaker 1: the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and ad
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Speaker 1: I want to thank our production team, Connor Hall and
Speaker 1: Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler,
Speaker 1: Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Kleiber. The music in this production
Speaker 1: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us across all social media platforms
Speaker 1: at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can
Speaker 1: also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number One. We have worked hard
Speaker 1: to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate.
Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
Speaker 1: this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
Speaker 1: those of Lava for Good