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Post by Morgan Sierra on Dec 23, 2010 22:51:11 GMT -6
This is an interesting story which I had heard rumors of but never knew the full details. I found it on some site called gopherproxy.org gopherproxy.org/isisunveiled.no-ip.org/0/paranormal/zines/uk.ufo.network/1996/uk-ufo-network.057.txtFrom: Reuters Date: June 13, 1996 JOHN FORD TRIES TO KILL JOHN POWELL
RIVERHEAD, N.Y., June 13 (Reuter) - Investigators uncovered an apparent plot to assassinate several Long Island, New York, local politicians with radioactive material, Suffolk County authorities said on Thursday.
District Attorney James Catterson told a news conference that two men had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. The alleged plot was ``something out of a novel,'' he said, with radioactive material and weapons discovered in a house in Bellport, Long Island.
Catterson said one of the suspects, 47-year-old John Ford, was soliciting people to use radium isotope against Suffolk County Republican Party leader John Powell when an informant alerted the District Attorney's office on Wednesday. Ford was then recorded on tape outlining the plot.
``The plot was where an individual so obsessed with hatred for mainstream political figures, who with ballistics people would spread radioactive material in the seat of his car, in his food or some proximity to him in the hope that he would contract incurable diseases and cause his death,'' Catterson said.
Apart from Powell, others targeted included two other Republicans, county legislator Fred Towle and Brookhaven public safety director Anthony Gazzola.
Long Island is the political stronghold of Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, but he was not on the plotters' list.
Investigators found five canisters of radium, a low-level radioactive material, in Ford's home, Catterson said.
``Any potential threat to public health and safety has been eliminated,'' Catterson said in a statement. ``There is no danger to the community and the material has been removed to a facility capable of its proper disposal.''
Catterson described Ford as a former court officer and president of the Long Island ``UFO Network.'' The other man arrested was identified as 42-year-old Joseph Mazzachelli of Manorville, but no further information was available on him.
Investigators also found a cache of rifles and handguns, ammunition, a mine sweeper, gas mask and assorted militia literature, the Suffolk County District Attorney said. It was not known whether the men belonged to a militia.
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Post by Morgan Sierra on Dec 23, 2010 22:53:56 GMT -6
Here's another one... gopherproxy.org/isisunveiled.no-ip.org/0/paranormal/zines/uk.ufo.network/1996/uk-ufo-network.057.txtFROM: Reuters Date: June 15, 1996 MORE ON JOHN FORD
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (Reuter) - A third suspect was arrested Friday in an alleged bizarre plot to kill several local Republican politicians by exposing them to radioactive material, officials said.
Police found a small quantity of radium and weapons in the Medford, New York home of Edward Zabo, who was taken into custody, officials said.
Two other men, one of them the president of the Long Island ``UFO Network'', were arrested and charged Thursday with conspiracy to commit murder. Further arrests were expected, officials said.
District Attorney James Catterson said Thursday the alleged plot was ``something out of a novel.''
The plotters were ``so obsessed with hatred'' that they planned to spread radioactive material in their targets' cars or food in hopes they would contract incurable diseases and die, he said.
Catterson said one suspect, John Ford, had solicited people to use radium isotope against Suffolk County Republican Party leader John Powell when an informant alerted the authorities Wednesday. Ford was then recorded on tape allegedly outlining the plot.
The targets included two other Republicans -- county legislator Fred Towle and Brookhaven public safety director Anthony Gazzola.
Investigators found five canisters of radium, a low-level radioactive material, in Ford's home, Catterson said.
Catterson described Ford as a former court officer and president of the Long Island ``UFO Network.'' Also arrested on Thursday was Joseph Mazzachelli, 42, of Manorville, New York.
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Post by Morgan Sierra on Dec 23, 2010 22:57:28 GMT -6
And some more... gopherproxy.org/isisunveiled.no-ip.org/0/paranormal/zines/uk.ufo.network/1996/uk-ufo-network.057.txtSource: South Shore Press Date: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 BELLPORT UFOLOGISTS ARRESTED IN BIZARRE PLOT TO MURDER POLITICAL LEADERS
by Allen Campbell
"He was considered an eccentric, even a nut, by some; by others, he was considered a serious investigator out to provie that unidentified flying objects were space crafts piloted by extraterrestrial beings. Police had a new opinion of this man last week when they arrested the 47-year-old, nationally known UFO researcher, and charged him with poltting to kill three Suffolk County politicians.
In great media fanfare by the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, John J. Ford was arrested at his Bellport home and charged with second degree conspiracy in an alleged plot to assassinate political and public officials by slowly poisoning them with doses of radioactive material. The three officials that Suffolk County District James Catterson said were targeted were Suffolk County Republican Leader John Powell, Suffolk County Legislator Fred Towle Jr., and Anthony Gazzola, de facto chariman of the Brookhaven Town Conservative Party and a safely investigator for the Town of Brookhaven.
According to the district attorney, Ford and two accomplices were about to plant radium particles in the cars, food, and toothpaste of the three victims in an attempt to kill them through radioactive poisoning. Although specifics as to how the murder plots were to be implemented remain sketchy, Catterson said that Ford was prepared to shoot the three if the poison plan failed.
Although no motive has yet been noted by Catterson, such theories as militia actions (similar to the Freeman group in Montana) or political discontentment have been suggested.
Ford is a former Suffolk County Court officer who retired last year. Living with his mother (who died last summer) in a well-kept, middle-class home in Bellport for the last ten years, Ford was an enthusiastic believer in the existence of UFOs and alien visitations. He came to national notice in 1994 when his theories about a space craft crashing into Southaven Park in Shirley on November 24, 1992, was made a major segment of a Fox 5 television premier broadcast about unexplained events.
Afterwards, Ford often complained about being harassed by both federal agents and local Suffolk County police. Last year, he filed official complaints against the Suffolk County Police Department for harassment. And just last month, Ford told South Shore Press reporters that an acquaintance of his, using Ford's vehicle, had been stopped by an unmarked police vehicle, dragged from the car, hit and kicked, and warned to dismiss any suits against the police department. Ford at that time said that the violence had been directed to him as a warning. Although the assaulted victim spoke about the incident to a South Shore Press reporter, he refused to give his name and the story was dropped by the newspaper.
The main target of the threats, say police, appears to be Gazzola, who attempts to remain as non-revealing as possible. In a Channel 12 News interview on Friday, Gazzola refused to show his face to the camteras, and he has not returned South Shore Press phone calls to his office. Gazzola and Ford, who has been active in the political stream have had a poor relationship over the past years involving differences in the framework of the local Conservative Party, noted one political observer. One serious point of contention had been the issue of Gazzola running a political party that, according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections, is not registered and, in all legal actuality, is non-existent.
But none of the charges against Ford have indicated a motive, and the district attorney's office remains reticent, and even stonewalled against inquiries. One theory rising from independent sources, however, is that Ford had been promised the Conservative backing for the New York State assembly seat and then, later, a spot for Suffolk County legislative position. After being denied the endorsement, the theory proposes that Ford decided to kill the Conservative and Republican leaders, and the person who now occupies the 3rd District Legislative seat, Fred Towle.
Such a theory, however, appears to have little foundation. Although Ford has been considered by some to be over exuberant with his studies of UFOs, his work record as a court officer appears unblemished. And he has no criminal record. But his work in investigating local UFO incidents produced numerous confrontations with town officials and police personnel. Ford claimed, only last month, that his phone was tapped and that there was a conspiracy against both his UFO activities and his involvement with local politics. He particularly noted that Gazzola, as a former New York City cop, forced to retire early from that job, had become an "enforcer" of political projects for the Town of Brookhaven.
Ford's case will be in court today to determine future dates relevant to the charges and a possible Grand Jury hearing. He is to return again on Friday. The two other men, Edward Zabo of Medford and Joseph Mazzachelli of Manorville, have been charged with lessor crimes relative to the alleged conspiracy. (Although a fourth man has also been arrested, his connection with the Ford case has yet to be noted by the District Attorney's office.)"
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Post by Morgan Sierra on Dec 23, 2010 23:00:07 GMT -6
And still some more... gopherproxy.org/isisunveiled.no-ip.org/0/paranormal/zines/uk.ufo.network/1996/uk-ufo-network.057.txtSource: New York Times Date: June 23, 1996 THREE ARE CHARGED IN A MURDER CASE INVOLVING ALIENS AND SEIZING COUNTY GOVERNMENT
RIVERHEAD, N.Y.-Fearing that space aliens had crashed on Long Island and that the authorities were covering it up, three members of a UFO group plotted to assassinate Suffolk County officials with radioactive materials and seize control of county government, prosecutors said yesterday.
"Yes, this all sounds way-out," District Attorney James M. Catterson said. "But when I read the Unabomber manifesto, some of his ideas were just as bizarre. That's why I take this and the imminent threat to the individuals concerned here very seriously."
At a news conference yesterday after indictments in the case were unsealed, Catterson said the defendants had also planned to burn down the county Republican Party headquarters. He added that the leader of the plot, John J. Ford, believed, "in his own way, that his branch of the Conservative Party, which was no branch except in his own mind, could become the balance of power if he could eliminate the Republican leaders and the party's nominating petitions."
Ford is chairman of the Long Island UFO network, and the other defendants are network members.
"When we first heard this, the idea that someone would attempt to introduce radioactive material into someone's food and someone's living area was so bizarre that there was a human tendency to discount it," Catterson said. "But it didn't take very long to realize that this was some of our worst nightmares come true."
The indictments charged Ford, 47, a retired court officer, and Joseph Mazzuchelli, 42, a convicted burglar, with three counts each of conspiracy to murder, trying to hire others to carry out the plot and illegal possession of radioactive materials. A third suspect, Edward Zabo, 49, a government electrical inspector at Northrop Grumman Corp., was charged with 21 counts including criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, and violating health laws by possessing radioactive materials. which he is said to have sold to Ford.
Catterson noted that Ford recently sent a newsletter to followers claiming that last year's forest fires in the Long Island Pine Barrens were touched off by the crash of a large UFO. In the same newsletter, Ford accused local and federal agents of trying to cover up the crash by starting fires away from the crash site. He also wrote that Mazzuchelli had learned that government agents were trying to kill him and that Suffolk Police were covering up the plot. To expose this conspiracy against him and his UFO research, Ford hatched his plot to seize control of the Suffolk County government, Catterson said.
Ford and his followers plotted to introduce radioactive radium into the food eaten by John Powell, chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Committee; Fred Towle, a Suffolk legislator, and Anthony Gazzola, a leader of the Conservative Party in Brookhaven and chief investigator in the Brookhaven town attorney's office, Catterson said.
Catterson said evidence showed that the three men had begun to put their plot into action. "We caught it at the beginning." The plot was uncovered during an investigation into illegal gun sales. Martin Thompson, chief of the district attorney's rackets bureau, said investigators taped a conversation between Ford and Mazzuchelli discussing their plot. He said Northrop Grumman and the Defense Department were also investigating.
Ford, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was ordered held on $500,000 bond or $350,000 cash bail. Mazzuchelli, who came to court without a lawyer, was ordered to return on Monday with a court-appointed lawyer. Zabo was ordered to return to court next Friday. Bail was set at $100,000.
"All this convinces me that there is a side to humanity that defies definition," Catterson said, recalling the bombings of the World Trade Center and the federal building in Oklahoma City and the Unabomber. "While we may think of them as kooks and far-outs, the point is that they lead daily lives and are able to get along, but within them they harbor thoughts which seldom, but do surface, so we must be on guard."
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Post by Morgan Sierra on Dec 24, 2010 21:01:11 GMT -6
Would you believe those clowns in the Long Island UFO Network who were arrested were actually affiliated with MUFON? Where do they find these people?
Using radiation to murder somebody isn't such a wacko idea either. I have heard reports that the CIA and some Big Business Corporate assassins have used similar tactics. There was one incident where a radioactive thing that looked like a hockey puck was found stuffed inside the front seat of a person's car. He developed colon cancer and died as a result of it. It is definitely a slow assassination attempt, but it worked.
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