[Marxism] THINKING ABOUT RUSSELL TURCOTTE -- MURDERED ALMOST SEVEN YEARS AGO [EXPANDED]

["Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

THINKING ABOUT RUSSELL TURCOTTE -- MURDERED ALMOST SEVEN YEARS AGO [HUNTER GRAY 
/ HUNTER BEAR] JANUARY 18 2008

A native of Northern Arizona, I lived extensively in the Grand Forks, ND region 
for sixteen years [coming to Idaho in 1997], And from here, I picked up on the 
murders of the four Native men in the Forks region immediately -- and was 
probably the first person to put these tragedies and the necessary 
calls-to-action out widely on the Internet. I have kept up with it all, doing 
that which I can. [All four victims happened to be Turtle Mountain Ojibwe.]

Our very well visited website page on the murders of Native men in the Grand 
Forks ND setting is certainly one of our most popular. Three of those murders 
are now solved -- but that of 19 year old Russ Turcotte, murdered in July 2002 
at night, remains unsolved. 

As I understand it, state -- and probably Federal -- investigators are now 
looking yet again at the case. We can only wish them success. And we can 
continue to think "good thoughts" on behalf of Russ and justice -- and do 
whatever else we reasonably can,

If justice in all of these Native murders cases has been slow in coming, this 
has certainly been true in the tragic situation involving Russ Turcotte. Things 
on that front got off to a poor and ineffective start in North Dakota right 
from the beginning.

Russ, of course, disappeared from Grand Forks on a July 2002 night while 
hitch-hiking along Highway 2 to his home at Wolf Point, MT -- and this was 
reported with dispatch by family members. Local law enforcement officers in the 
Grand Forks setting were laggard in picking up on it. Early on, we received a 
reliable report that the police -- after some time had passed -- secured a 
routine surveillance film from the Mini-Mart on the edge of Grand Forks in 
which Russ was spotted as a customer. Then for some reason, the police 
apparently told the grocery manager that he could routinely dispose of the 
film, and the tape went into irreversible oblivion. It's possible it could have 
shown Russ' assailant [s] or featured other recognizable customers who might 
have had useful information. On all of that, we will never know.

While, almost immediately after the report of Russ' disappearance, we were 
generating many action e-mails to responsible public officials in North Dakota, 
I began to arrange for a newspaper story on the matter via the Bismarck 
Tribune. The Trib, of which a son of mine, Peter, had earlier been State 
Editor, has a significant circulation in the central and western part of North 
Dakota -- and even into eastern Montana. And its circ also covers the few towns 
west of Grand Forks along Highway 2.

The Trib story was in the process of preparation when some Turcotte family 
members asked that it not emerge. The reason for this was that Tim Miller of 
Texas EquuSearch [Mounted Search and Recovery] --a not for profit group -- had 
decided to come up from Houston and enter the effort to locate Russ. >From the 
beginning it was clear that Miller -- not at all familiar with the North Dakota 
setting -- intended things to go his way. As several in the area put it, "He's 
doing it the way it's done down in the Houston area."

Miller insisted on handling all media himself -- with a focus only on the 
immediate Grand Forks setting. We honored the Turcotte family's request to let 
Miller be the sole media manager -- and the Bismarck Tribune story died. [If 
that story we were developing had appeared in the Trib, it could have led to 
Russ' body being found much, much earlier than it finally was many weeks later 
-- and long before it had been hit by several waves of Dakota rain and snow.]

At about this same time, some Turcotte family members asked us what we felt 
would be the most appropriate search area.

I consulted with another son of mine, John. He and I talked extensively. At one 
point, years before, he had lived in the small, dying town of Niagara -- about 
40 miles or so west of Grand Forks and just off Highway 2. In those days, he 
made the trip into the Forks and back each day, and had a very good feel for 
the lay of the land. It was our joint feeling, which I conveyed to appropriate 
Turcotte family members, that the most promising search area would be on and 
around Highway 2 -- again, the road to Montana. We specifically suggested west 
of Grand Forks Air Force Base -- itself about 13 miles west of Grand Forks. The 
stretch between the Base and Grand Forks is well traveled at all times -- but 
the vast region west of the Base is all a very, very lonely stretch, especially 
at night, and with only a handful of widely scattered towns.

This advice was not taken. 

Instead, Miller concentrated the search forces [essentially as he was 
concentrating his media] in much shorter stretches within the Forks and in the 
four directions just beyond the city. All of this is relatively well settled 
and traveled turf.

And the searchers found nothing.

And the Miller outfit returned to Texas.

For our part, we began asking that all persons such as farmers and ranchers and 
hunters and hikers keep their eyes peeled -- especially off Highway 2, west 
from Grand Forks Air Force Base and well beyond.

And then, of course, in early November 2002, Russ' naked body was found by a 
rancher, a few miles west of Devils Lake, ND, who was searching for lost 
cattle. The body was partially hidden in a thicket of trees, not far at all 
from Highway 2. By that time, there had been much rain and snow.

Now, at this writing [January 2009], three of the Native murders in the Forks 
area have since been solved. Obviously, Russ' has not.

On that web page of ours, I give my own "theory" about the murder. I am 
inclined to think it's solid -- but then, again, it is simply my own theory, 
nothing more nor less. I think he was murdered not far to the west of Grand 
Forks Air Force Base -- where Highway 2 becomes very lonely and very dark at 
the time of night he was killed. There are a number of side roads in that 
setting. I suspect his body, clothing, and gear were carried to the point a few 
miles west of Devils Lake -- where his naked body was hidden in the small grove 
of trees. Then I think his clothing and gear etc were taken well to the west 
and dumped into one of those rivers in that region -- close or just beyond the 
Montana border.

It's good news for sure that Russ' case is now being reviewed carefully. Again, 
let's wish the state -- and probably Federal investigators -- all success in 
solving this hideous tragedy.

And I am sure that many of us, even with our necessarily limited resources, 
will do what we can to help. The names of a few North Dakota public officials 
-- and their e-addresses -- are given on our webpage.

Always and forever. [Keep posted via, among other resources, 
http://hunterbear.org/NATIVE%20AMERICAN%20COMMISSION%20PAGE%204.htm

Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]
In the mountains of Eastern Idaho
Nialetch / Onen

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

For a good feel for some of the civil liberties challenges faced by an effective
organizer, see this cluster of four related pages:
http://hunterbear.org/a_bizarre__1979_fbi_smear_effort.htm

And see Hunter's Movement Life Interview:
http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm


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