Whilst the location and timeframe of The figure in the b/w footage, and the sad case of Anna Mae seem different, both corpses were 'unidentified' damaged by exposure and with severed hands.

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.

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