The case of John Graham, by Bob Newbrook
CORRECTION BY BOB NEWBROOK
From: Bob Newbrook Bob Newbrook
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 1:00 AM
To: Harvey Arden
Subject: Re: LPNET: FW: Bob Newbrook on Anna Mae/John Graham important
reading!
Thank you for this, Harvey. For the record, I was a member of the Hinton
Municipal Police Department when I detained Leonard and handed him over to
the RCMP who were accompanied by members of the FBI. Like everything else
concerning Leonard Peltier, facts become distorted.
What's important is that it was an illegal arrest in every aspect, as was
his extradition and conviction. Like water dripping on a stone, the status
quo can be changed by relentless dedication to a cause.
Regards, Bob Newbrook.
From: Bob Newbrook Bob Newbrook
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 2:44 PM
Please give this case the attention and publicity it deserves.
Bob Newbrook.
The case of John Graham, by Bob Newbrook
Revised November 3, 2005.
The extradition appeals trial of John Graham, a Tuchone Native Indian of
the Yukon, Canada, for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, which
occurred 29 years ago in South Dakota, USA, is scheduled for November 7,
2005 in Vancouver, Canada. John and Anna Mae were close acquaintances
and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), at the time when two
FBI agents and one Lakota Sioux Native were killed on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in June of 1976 in a gunfight between AIM members and
the FBI. They had helped the Lakota occupants escape after the
incident from the Jumping Bull ranch, where the incident occurred. That
64 Lakota Sioux Natives living on Pine Ridge were subsequently murdered on
the reservation over a two year period is apparently of no consequence,
and none of the deaths was ever investigated by U.S. authorities.
Leonard Peltier, also a Lakota Sioux Indian with whom John was associated,
was falsely convicted and sentenced to two life terms in prison, which is
the subject of another expose'.
Following is the result of my research of FBI documentation obtained under
the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts with respect to the murder of
Anna Mae.
According to FBI documents, the frozen body of a Native woman was found on
private land near Wanblee, South Dakota on February 24, 1976. A
pathologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Dr. W.O. Brown, was
appointed by the FBI to perform an autopsy the following day which
included, by his statement, "the removal of the brain from the body" and
the cause of death was determined as exposure. The corpse's hands were
severed and sent to FBI headquarters, and she was buried anonymously.
The body was subsequently identified as that of Anna Mae, and on demand by
legal counsel acting for the family of the deceased, Bruce Ellison, the
body was exhumed on March 11, 1976. A pathologist of the family's
choosing, Dr. Garry Peterson, determined the cause of death as a bullet
wound to the head, something the FBI appointed pathologist had somehow
missed.
Mystery and intrigue have surrounded the case for years. During my
investigation, John Graham related to me that Anna Mae had told him how
FBI Special Agent Price had personally threatened her life unless she
named the people who were present at the shootout on Pine Ridge where the
two agents were killed. Graham said that Anna Mae was afraid and hiding
from the FBI, but had no reason to fear AIM. He added that they had also
harassed him on various occasions, once in the Yukon where they tried to
compel him to 'cooperate' with them by naming those present at the time of
the shootout.
On September 16, 1999, a distant cousin of Anna Mae, Robert
Pictou-Branscombe, convened a press conference in which he stated that FBI
provocateur Douglass Durham had planted rumours about Anna Mae being an
FBI informant. He further alleged that she was taken to a house on the
Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, where she was interrogated by other
AIM members, and a director of AIM, Vernon Bellecourt, had ordered her
execution. Branscombe also alleged that she was killed by John Graham.
The FBI quickly responded by stating that new evidence would be put before
a grand jury. In 2003, a homeless alcoholic Native man named Arlo
Looking Cloud was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in
prison as an accessory in the first degree murder of Anna Mae. The
evidence used to convict him was a video showing Looking Cloud being
interviewed by police, and stating that he saw John Graham take Anna Mae
past a fence near the embankment where her body was found and shoot her in
the head, killing her there on December 12, 1975. Looking Cloud had
visited the scene with police officer Bob Ecofy shortly before the trial,
ostensibly to re-enact the crime for police evidence. Looking cloud, now
in jail and sober, has recanted, stating that he was under the influence
of alcohol and drugs at the time of the recorded interview and could not
remember what he had said until he watched it in court. He also said
that he was plied with alcohol by the police during the time leading up to
his arrest and interview.
There are many discrepancies associated with the evidence at trial, which
the government appointed lawyer for the defense, Tim Rensch of Rapid City,
did not broach. For example, the pathologist for the FBI Dr.W.O. Brown,
had stated in his report of the autopsy which he performed on February
25th, 1976, that the body had been dead for 7 to 10 days, putting the time
of death around February 15th 1976, and not December 12, 1975 as stated by
Looking Cloud in the video recording. Also, had the body been exposed in
the cold open countryside for over 2 months, the flesh would have been
scavenged by coyotes and crows. The owner of the ranch who discovered
the body, Roger Amiotte, stated that the fence in question had not been
erected until some fifteen years after he found the body. He also said
that the body was wrapped in a blanket when he found it.
In an FBI document titled "A summary of investigation of the murder of
Anna Mae Aquash", it is stated that "During the crime scene search, the
earth below where Aquash's head had rested was spaded in an effort to
obtain physical evidence of which none was located and no earth was
removed from the scene. There was no evidence of foul play". These
statements directly contradict the new allegations that John Graham shot
Anna Mae in the head where her body was found. Had this been the case,
there would have been ample evidence of foul play, including blood on the
corpse's head and on the ground. (One theory holds that she was shot
inside a house on the Rosebud reservation, the body was wrapped in a
blanket and placed in the woodshed for about a week before being
transported to where her body was found. This correlates with the
apparent facts.
It is worthy of note that AIM was formed in 1968 and outlawed by the U.S.
government as a terrorist group and was to be dealt with as such. Why
would the FBI arrest a terrorist for killing another terrorist after 29
years? Clearly the FBI is persecuting John Graham, another AIM member
who was associated with Leonard Peltier, to conceal their own culpability
in the death of Anna Mae Aquash in the face of the appalling
Discrepancies in the FBI documentation. Where is the unfabricated,
unambiguous, physical evidence such as blood, powder burns, hair, DNA
samples etc? Court is not a crucible for truth, and witnesses are
routinely coached prior to testifying in order to achieve predetermined
results; nuances are shaded, memories reprocessed and vulnerable suspects
can be intimidated into confessing to something of which they are not
guilty.
This travesty of justice is a clear attempt by the FBI to vindicate
themselves through subterfuge with respect to this shameful and abhorrent
chapter of history.
Bob Newbrook, retired RCMP, was Leonard Peltier's arresting officer in
Alberta, Canada on Feb. 6, 1976
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Last updated on November 04, 2005