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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FRITZ ARLO LOOKING CLOUD, Defendant. * * CR. 03-50020 APPEARANCES: Mr. James McMahon
Proceedings recorded by mechanical stenography, transcript JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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(A jury was duly selected.) (Court Reads Preliminary Instructions.) THE COURT: That completes my preliminary instructions, and counsel for the government may give opening statements. MR. McMAHON: Ladies and gentlemen. On a December morning in 1975 a little red Pinto wagon pulled up to the edge of a road about three miles north of the junction between Highway 73 and 44. The driver of that little red car was Theda Clark, there were three passengers in the car; the defendant, Arlo Looking Cloud, fellow by the name of John Graham, and Anna Mae Aquash. After Anna Mae was taken out of the car, she was walked by the defendant and by Mr. Graham from the edge of the road out to the edge of that cliff. All the way out there she was begging them not to kill her. When they got to the edge of the cliff and she realized that her pleas were to no avail, she asked to have time to pray. While she was praying on the edge of that cliff she was shot in the back of the head. Her body was either thrown or fell over the cliff, came to rest right there where that white mark is. Stayed there for about two and a half months until a rancher riding fence found it. After Anna Mae was killed, the defendant, Mr. Graham, walked back to the car and three people drove back to Denver. So who was Anna Mae Aquash, why was she taken to that cliff to be killed, and how did she get there?
JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
PAGE 3 Tribe from Canada. She was a mother of two young daughters. She came to the United States to support the American Indian Movement. She came down at a time that AIM was occupying Wounded Knee. She joined the occupation and she stayed. She spent the next two years attending AIM events, making friends within the AIM organization. When she wasn't attending events somewhere else around the country, she was often times on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. But at the same time she was making friends. As we approached the year 1975 there started to be rumors all through the AIM movement that Anna Mae Aquash was a government informant. Portions of the AIM movement within South Dakota had turned somewhat violent. There had been riots at the Custer courthouse, Minnehaha courthouse in Sioux Falls, the occupation of Wounded Knee when there was gun fire exchanged between the occupants and federal authorities, and there were rumors of many people possibly being informants. But particularly Anna Mae. We are going to pick up our story in June of 1975. There was an AIM national convention held in Farmington, New Mexico. Hundreds of people gathered from around the country, some of the leaders of the AIM movement were there, Anna Mae was there, Dennis Banks, one of the leaders, was there. There were many people there. Along with Dennis Banks was a young lady by the name of Kamook Nichols. Kamook finished high school in 1927 at seventeen JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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with Mr. Banks, and she traveled with him and the two of them eventually had four children together. They were together in Farmington. During this national convention there was a general topic of conversation that Anna Mae was a government informant. She was confronted down there with the possibility that she was an informant, she was actually threatened down there. She denied it. And she was not. After the convention ended, the participants went back to their various homes. There were a number of them that came back to South Dakota to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, and there was encampment at a place called Jumping Bull on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents by the name of Coler and Williams were following someone they believed to be a fugitive, and they found themselves at that encampment. They came under fire and they were shot and killed. This escalated the tension immensely between law enforcement and members of the AIM movement. In the next month, July of 1975 there was a trial in Custer, South Dakota. Dennis Banks was on trial for his participation in the courthouse riots down there. Mr. Banks was convicted during that trial, he was let out on bond pending his sentencing. He went back to the Pine Ridge Reservation and was waiting around there. He was supposed to be sentenced approximately four to six weeks later, something like that. When it was time for him to go JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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going to go back to be sentenced, he decided to run. Kamook went with him. On September 5, 1975, law enforcement conducted a raid at a place called Crow Dog's Paradise which is on the Rosebud reservation. There were a number of people arrested during that raid and charged with weapons and explosives violations. Anna Mae Aquash was one of those people. The people arrested were taken to Federal Court in Pierre, South Dakota for an appearance. Anna Mae appeared, she had a court appointed lawyer by the name of Bob Riter from Pierre. The Judge let Anna Mae out on bond, and she was supposed to come back on November 10th. After Anna Mae was out on bond she traveled to California. She stayed with a friend of her's by the name of Mathalene White Bear. She and Mathalene had become acquainted through being together at different AIM organizational events. Mathalene was a young woman at the time, twenty years old, she was still living at home with her parents, and Anna Mae stayed with them for a week or two. During that time Anna Mae shared with Mathalene that she was - - MR. RENSCH: At this point I object, getting in to argument that is inadmissible evidence. THE COURT: We will see if it is admissible. It is the attorney's expectation that the evidence will be admitted, I can't rule on it yet because the evidence hasn't been JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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because I don't know at this point, but it is supposed to be. If it isn't, I'm sure we will hear about it if it isn't admitted, proceed. MR. McMAHON: Thank you. Your Honor. Anna Mae confided in Mathalene that she had been confronted about being an informant. She was very fearful for her life. She was afraid of the FBI, and she was afraid of different factions within AIM. She told Mathalene that she was concerned about she may be killed. She received a telephone call while she was there, she told Mathalene she was leaving. Mathalene tried to talk her out of it, but Anna Mae said she was going to go. She met up with a man by the name of David Hill, and they drove a motor home from Los Angeles back to Chadron, Nebraska. They parked the motor home there and made their way up to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. We are now approaching Columbus Day, 1975, October 12. There was a get-together on the Pine Ridge. Mr. Banks was back for the meeting, Leonard Peltier was there, David Hill was there, Anna Mae was at this meeting, and Kamook Nichols was at the meeting. And there may have been others. A plan was hatched whereby they were going to make some home made bombs and plant them at utilities in Pine Ridge. Leonard Peltier and David Hill made Anna Mae participate in that so her fingerprints would be on the bombs. So the next day when they were planted JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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back to Chadron and picked up the motor home, Mr. Banks, Leonard Peltier, Anna Mae, and Kamook Nichols, Kamook's sister, and one or two others were in the motor home. They were taking Anna Mae with them because they wanted to keep an eye on her. They traveled from Chadron, Nebraska to the state of Washington where they camped for two or three weeks. During that time there were more accusations, more conversation about Anna Mae being an informant. She was not allowed to go anywhere alone. When they left that spot they started on the road, they were traveling down a highway in Oregon, a Highway Patrolman saw the motor home, he knew who was in the motor home, and he stopped it. He ordered the occupants of the motor home out. All of the occupants got out of the motor home except Mr. Banks. Mr. Banks decided to take off in the motor home and an exchange of gun fire followed between the gun fire and the motor home. Mr. Banks got away during the gun fire, Mr. Peltier got away. Anna Mae was re-arrested, Kamook Nichols was arrested, there were a couple other people there that were following in a car that were arrested. Anna Mae and Kamook Nichols were put in a jail cell together. Now they hadn't been spending much time together. They were friends from 1973 when Anna Mae showed up until June of '75 in Farmington, New Mexico, they became friends and spent quite a bit of time together. While they were in JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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had also fallen in love and entered in to a relationship with Mr. Banks. So during the summer months and through that fall there was not much contact between the two of them. But now when they were alone together in the jail cell they began visiting again. And Anna Mae also shared with Kamook that she was scared. They were in jail up there for about two weeks, and then they were brought back to this part of the country. Kamook was taken to Kansas where she was wanted because she had missed a court date while they were traveling in the motor home. Anna Mae was taken to Pierre, South Dakota, because she had missed her November ten court date. She appeared in court on November 24. This was the day before her trial on the weapons and explosive charges was set to begin. She met with her court appointed attorney. When she appeared in court, even though she had just missed a court appearance, the Judge let her out on bond again. During the night she was picked up by two people within the American Indian Movement, Evelyn Bordeau and her husband Ray Handboy. They transported her to Denver. She was taken by Theda Clark to the home of Troy Lynn Yellow Wood. Ms. Yellow Wood had an apartment there and it was used for members of AIM as more or less of a safe house when they were on the run. She was dropped off there with Theda Clark and Michelle Wood to keep her there safe. She was not initially being held against her will. She spent JERRY J, MAY. RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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was very scared while she was there. The first part of December a call came from South Dakota down to Denver, by Angie Janis. Said that Anna Mae was an informant, she was wanted back in South Dakota. A meeting was convened at the home of Troy Lynn Yellow Wood. Theda Clark was there, and of course Troy Lynn Yellow Wood was there. Angie Janis was there, there were some members of the Crusade for Justice there, which was I believe it was a Chicano organization out of Denver that had close ties with the AIM people. And there were other people there who have not yet been identified. The defendant Arlo Looking Cloud was there, and John Graham was there, and their job during this meeting was they kept Anna Mae Aquash in a separate room under guard. When the meeting ended, Theda Clark came to the room and said let's go. They got Anna Mae up and they tied her wrists together. They started escorting her out of the house, they ran in to Troy Lynn Yellow Wood. Anna Mae was crying, she said I don't want to go. If I go back to South Dakota you will never see me alive again. Troy Lynn Yellow Wood had a conversation with Theda Clark, Theda Clark said she is going one way or the other. The defendant, Mr. Looking Cloud, and John Graham marched her out of the apartment, put her in the back, the hatch end of that little red Pinto car that was owned by Theda Clark, tied up, then the two of them got in the car along with JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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the morning they arrived and they went to an empty apartment that was owned by Thelma Rios, another AIM member in Rapid. The defendant, Mr. Looking Cloud, and John Graham kept Anna Mae Aquash under guard all day. Theda Clark was in and out of the house. Some point late in the afternoon Anna Mae was taken to a house that had been set up for what was called the Wounded Knee Legal Defense-Offense Committee. They used it to coordinate the defense of people that had been charged with criminal cases, or AIM members. There was another meeting at that time involving Anna Mae, she was seen to be visibly upset. When they left that house, the defendant, Mr. Graham, Theda Clark again took Anna Mae, they put her back in the little red Pinto, again bound up, tied up. The defendant was now driving and they headed south toward the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. They first went to a small town, Allen, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge reservation. About three or four hundred people live there, it was late at night by now, about eleven o'clock at night. They showed up at the house of Cleo and Dick Marshal. The Marshals were in bed already, they woke them up, went into the house. They left Anna Mae at the kitchen table with Cleo. The defendant, John Graham, Theda Clark and Dick Marshal walked into the next room and shut the door. A few minutes later they came out. Dick Marshal said to his wife they want us to keep her here for a while. Cleo JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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defendant, Mr. Graham, Theda Clark take Anna Mae, put her back in the car again and now they are on their way to Rosebud. They stop at a house in Rosebud in the wee hours of the morning. This time just Theda Clark and John Graham go in the house, and the defendant stays in the car and guards Anna Mae. While they are in that car, she begs him to let her go. She tells him she knows she is going to be killed, and she begs to be set free. The defendant refuses. Theda Clark and John Graham come out of the house, they get into the car, they start driving north. North toward Wanblee. Soon they cross the intersection of Highway 44, they are going north on Highway 73. Three miles approximately north of that intersection is where they pulled over. Now as I said to you, Anna Mae's body laid at the bottom of that cliff until late in February. Roger Amiotte, a rancher was out riding fence, found the body and reported it immediately. The body had been there long enough that it wasn't in very good shape. An autopsy was done by a doctor by the name of Dr. Brown out of Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. In a nutshell, that autopsy was botched. Dr. Brown found that the cause of death was exposure. Didn't even find the bullet hole in her head. Commented about the weight of the kidneys, but it turns out later that the kidneys hadn't ever been removed from the body to be weighed. Because of the condition of the body, they JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, tt305A
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and sent them back to the lab in Washington, D.C., the FBI lab. Approximately two weeks later the report came back Anna Mae Aquash. At that time the FBI and the family of Anna Mae both started down the same road to obtain a Court order to have the body exhumed and another autopsy done. That was done. There was discussions about having two pathologists at the autopsy, what ended up happening is the pathologist that was obtained by the Aquash family is the one that did the second autopsy because the FBI said we are fine with that. Dr. Garry Peterson from Minneapolis came and did that second autopsy. He didn't realize even when he arrived that he was going to do the autopsy. On initial examination of the body he noticed right away there was what he believed to be a gun shot wound to the back of the head. He ordered X-rays of the skull which clearly slowed there was a bullet lodged in the upper left part of her skull. He completed the autopsy and found that she had been shot in the head and killed. An investigation pursued, hundreds and thousands of hours spent, but because of the tensions of the time between law enforcement and AIM, there wasn't much cooperation going on. So the case was not being solved. Years later as the years went on bits and pieces came in, and finally people started tc be willing to talk about this. Starting in approximately 1988 the defendant, Mr. Looking Cloud, started to talk to some JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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people about his involvement in Anna Mae's murder. He made statements to a number of people. We are going to bring those statements to you. You are going to hear that the statements are inconsistent in various areas depending on who he is talking to. You are going to hear Mr. Looking Cloud profess his ignorance that he didn't know what was going on. After you compile and listen to all those statements and the other evidence, it is going to show you through his own words from the time in Denver when Anna Mae Aquash was taken, bound and put in to that little red Pinto, when she was hauled bound and tied up to Rapid City, when she was hauled bound and tied up down to the Pine Ridge Reservation, to the Rosebud reservation and out to that cliff on the south edge of the Bad Lands where she was killed, Mr. Looking Cloud was there every step of the way. And when we are done with the evidence, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to ask you to find him guilty. Thank you. THE COURT: Counsel. MR. RENSCH: Thank you, Your Honor. Arlo Looking Cloud didn't kill anybody. Arlo Looking Cloud the evidence in this case will show didn't help kill Mrs. Pictou-Aquash. Arlo Looking Cloud today, this year, is a fifty year old man. In 1975 he was a 22 year old young adult. He was born in South Dakota, he lived on the reservation for a period of time, he lived in Denver for a period of time, and he spent his young JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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this is a case of fate. You will find through the evidence in this case that what Arlo Looking Cloud became embroiled in was simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You see in December of 1975 Arlo lived in a place near the projects down in Denver. He lived with a woman by the name of Charlotte Zephier. He had a job selling art, making paintings, things of that nature. He had a little boy. Up to that point in his life he had had some problems with alcohol and with drugs, but he was doing well. And this weekend in early December of 1975 his path would change. You see, the woman who lived with him, Charlotte Zephier, was going on a trip that weekend, she was going to Nebraska and taking his son to Nebraska to visit some relatives. And what does Arlo do, the 22 year old young man that he is, he goes out on the town. He goes out on the town with a friend who was named Joe Morgan, and he goes drinking with this other young adult down in the streets of Denver, down in the bars of Denver, down in the haunts of Denver, and he drinks all night. And he comes home to his empty house, his woman is not there, his live-in girlfriend is not there with their child, and he sleeps off his hangover. And he sleeps all day. He sleeps all day, and he wakes up in the afternoon with a splitting headache, and little did he know his path was going to change. You see he gets out of his bed and he puts his clothes on and he decides to go downtown again JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
PAGE 15 and try to find his friend Joe Morgan, and that's what changed his fate. When he dressed that evening, little did he know that Joe Morgan wouldn't be over at Yellow Wood's house. Troy Lynn was a friend of Arlo's, Troy Lynn was a friend of many people. Troy Lynn lived close to Arlo, so when he walked over to his house that night in late December, his intent was not to kill somebody or help premeditate the end of a human being, his intent was to go down drinking that day because he had a hangover, he appeared on the steps and knocked on the door to see if his friend Joe Morgan is there and Troy Lynn doesn't answer. Theda Clark is there. Theda Clark is a fifty'ish Indian woman at this point in her life who owns a bar in Colorado, Arlo had known her from before. He had driven for her from time to time, she would give him some drinks, let him drink in her bar, things of this nature. Theda on this night says to young Arlo, hey, we want you to drive up to Rapid City for us. Arlo doesn't really want to drive up to Rapid City for her. You will find evidence in this case that Theda Clark, well, she was older, she was pushy, and when she asked Arlo to drive to Rapid City, Arlo said okay, I will do it. His friend Joe Morgan wasn't there, and he was would just drive to Rapid City for Theda. As he steps in to the house of Yellow Wood's they don't really let him go many places in the house, they shoo him right down to the basement. And as he is walking down those basement steps little does he know he is JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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