Bill Janklow on the Rosebud

Memories  of Bill Janklow  on the Rosebud  and the Rosebud Bar.

And do as adversaries do in law,Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew, 1.2.280), Trani

Shakespeare had it right.

In late September of 2011 my daughter-in-law Lori Simpson died from brain cancer survived my son Mike and their three  little children.

The day after the funeral I received a call from Bill Janklow. He had heard of  Lori’s death and although he never knew her told me that he knew of her and what a great person she had been.

How ironic that he would die from the same brain cancer that had taken my son’s and my grandson’s wife and mother.

Some would perhaps know that Bill Janklow started his legal career as a legal aid lawyer on the Rosebud Reservation in Rosebud South Dakota.

I knew him well.

When he was Governor a client I represented in a habeas corpus and parole hearing had “tripped the light fantastic” while she was a trustee in Janklow’s Governor’s mansion. Judge Anderson and the Attorney General had “thrown the book at her”.

In representing her I found it necessary to take his deposition and e-mailed him concerning that lady trustee.

He sent me this response:

From: William Janklow
To: 'John J. Simpson'
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 12:20 PM
Subject: RE: Heather Mauston


“I  have received a ton of undeserved accolades in life for my trial actions and skills. I have always told everyone, including law students, I learned from the best - you. You have the quickest mind, the fastest draw, the best question and, without question, the oratory skills that put William Jennings Bryant to a footnote in the oratory history books. I learned a ton from you and loved every minute of it.

They are the best memories.”


LET ME TELL SOME OF THOSE MEMORIES.

Although my eyesight is failing my memory is not.

Here  are my memories of an early Bill Janklow, a young lawyer striving to do his best representing the Indians on the Rosebud Reservation in a racially charged arena.

Bill Janklow was a

young eager lawyer trained by the Rosebud bar.

Bill Janklow would arrive at the legal aid office in Rosebud driving his  “lemony” AMC Nash car, shortly after graduating from the University of South Dakota School of  Law. He worked a short time with Jim Abourezk  at Chick Abourexk’s Enterprises in Hot Springs South Dakota.

When he arrived at legal aid he was employed by Ray Kinz . Ray would have only one claim to fame and that is he would’ve been the director who hired Bill Janklow. Janklow would soon depose Ray and take over as director of the legal I aid office and Rosebud at a time which would be memorable in legal history.

Janklow graduated shortly after Board of Education versus Brown and his graduation would coincide with, Miranda, and a host of other Supreme Court opinions promulgated by Chief Justice Warren and justice Brennan two Republican appointees of the United States Supreme Court who changed legal   criminal procedural history.

Janklow’s arrival on the Rosebud and those decisions were like meeting of a vast summer thunderstorm on the South Dakota prairie. He enjoyed every minute of it. He immediately became first in his job is only Janklow could. In fact at the time South Dakota assessed a tax on all personal property and of course Indians did not pay the tax. Janklow who owned a boat and other personal property rather than submit to the state jurisdiction of taxing what he had owned on the reservation titled the boat in the name of the legal aid secretary who was an Indian.

It was not long before he had deposed Ray Kintz and became the director himself. I was a member of the board that supervised the legal aid office.

Janklow advertised in law journals far and wide and amassed a array of legal talent although young would after leaving Rosebud like Janklow himself become a legal legend. Young lawyers like Mark Meierhenry, Marshall Matz, Stephen Pevar, Mick Grosenburg, Terry Pechota,, Don Bormann and many others who would make their legal mark not only in South Dakota legal circles but in the United States as well.

When Bill arrived no one at legal services had any prior experience with the trial of cases either criminal or civil whatsoever. He also arrived at a time when the powers that be in the Rosebud legal circles excepting Bill Day and myself, especially the judge looked with disfavor on the recent changes made by Chief Justice Warren and Justice Brennan in the Supreme Court involving minority rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, and criminal rights. It was however a time to change and Bill Janklow was up to the task. He represented his legal aid clients morning noon and night.

At the time of his arrival I was States attorney of Tripp County and Todd County which encompassed the greater portion of the Rosebud Reservation. Questions of jurisdiction were rampant as to whether Indians should be tried in state court, federal court or in the Rosebud Indian court. Marvin Talbott, West Rivers County judge at the time, sponsored legislation in the state legislature that gave the state power to prosecute all offenses that occurred on state and federal highways crossing the reservation.

That procedure would be followed until the advent of the Warren and Brennan Supreme Court opinions were promulgated. The racial divide which existed in the court system however would continue to prevail on the Rosebud especially with the Judges Talbott and Judge Grieves. Talbott and Judge Grieves.

My practice not only included prosecuting cases as states attorney in both Tripp and Todd counties but I was also appointed to defend those cases that were sent to federal court involving Indians. As such I did defend as well as prosecute capital cases in State Court and many capital cases in federal court involving Indian homicides.

I knew that Bill Janklow would be a great help in defending those cases since he had ready access to all of the information and witnesses where the homicides occurred. He also had the trust of all those who were involved on the reservation excepting Peter P. Pitchlyn and some of the Rosebud police.

Bill Janklow despised Peter P. Pitchlynn because Pitchlynn had been the investigator who investigated the allegations of rape that were brought by Jancita Eagle Deer. See endote #1 and #2.

Douglas Durham who had been the FBI spy who had infiltrated the top echelon of the AIM movement and had taken Jancita as his lover and was present when she met her death by being run over in northern Nebraska

. The attached is a note I had written about the aim encampment in Winner in 1975.

Tripp and Todd County had been joined for government functions. This galled the local republicans because Todd county was mostly populated by Indians who were most always Democrats. The legislature passed a law severing the two counties.

       This was during the time of AIM and emotions ran high. I was city attorney at the time and when Clyde Bellecourt was shot during an AIM quarrel on the Rosebud he was transferred to the Winner Hospital.

AIM descended on Winner, they “occupied” the Hospital waiting room and with the encouragement of their chief enforcer Douglas Durham ( It was later determined that he was an undercover agent for the FBI) proceeded to raise hell in Winner.

It was Labor Day in Winner. A time that had always  been marked by celebrations, carnivals, rodeos, an end to harvest celebrations. At this time most bars in Winner opened on CST and closed well after 2:00 MST because by state law the time zone was at the Missouri River.

It was nothing for partying cowboys to adjourn to the Westside café,  (Owned by the Brown Brothers and incidentally that café collected more sales tax at the time than any other café in South Dakota) an all night establishment  and  not go home til break of day.

       It was never uncommon at that time for fights and deaths to occur on the streets of Winner following bar-room quarrels.

(State v Lange; State v Antoine; death of W.Long Crow to name a few)

Rather than have them ransack for food (their were hundreds camped in Winner-waiting for a spark to cause trouble which was sure to come because of the Labor day celebration) some of us took up a collection and gave it to them to buy food.

At the time Kevin Keirnan was a young reporter for Public Radio and had been a witness to the events at the hospital.

He contacted me at my home  and told me of the actions of Robert Paris a  highway patrolman  who showed up wearing gloves and slapping his night stick and parading around in front of the assembled Indians at the hospital, just begging for a fight to start.. Kiernan had tape recorded the events and thought that the highway patrolman should be removed.

Imagine this, if you will, here we have Douglas Durham , FBI infiltrator  parading around the Winner  hospital  slapping some fake tomahawk in his hands and Robert Paris also parading slapping  his night stick in his gloved hand in a waiting room that was occupied by AIM.

Of course nobody knew at the time that Robert Durham was a paid FBI infiltrator who later would have been the driver of  the car in which Jancita Eagle Deer was last seen alive and who had used her in a plot to discredit Dennis Banks. 

I contacted Governor Kneip and played the tape for him. Not only was highway patrolman, Robert Paris, removed from the hospital he was transferred to Buffalo, South Dakota, and thank God, we never heard from him again.

James Abourezk was a U.S. Senator at the time  and with help of a younger Means boy we contacted him and he arranged for Bellecourt to be transferred and flown to a hospital in Minneapolis.

 On Labor day I took my trusty Model 12 and went to the Winner gun club, near the Winner airport to shoot trap. I remember hearing that plane take off from the Winner airport and breathing a sigh of relief.    I knew the AIM invaders would soon leave town.

          When Governor Kneip vetoed the Tom Tobin Tripp – Todd separation bill he asked me to write the veto message.

By way of explanation to the reader both Bill Day and I had been contacted by Bill Janklow when the rape allegations were made and we agreed and did act as his attorneys. Without discussing any of the matters that would be subject to an attorney-client relationship it may be said that no charges in State or Federal Court were ever made.

The Rosebud bar was just the right place for wild Bill.

No sooner had he arrived he immediately sought out another lawyer who would become a South Dakota legend, Rick Johnson of Gregory South Dakota andjr  represented wild Bill and they sued American motors for that old “lemony”  Nash – he limped into Rosebud on the reservation with after graduating from law school.

They were a formidable pair and American motors hired Jack Grieves  of Winner to defend the lawsuit. I doubt if any one of the local lawyers would have been up to the task of defending against a young Rick Johnson and wild Bill Janklow. But Jack would have been low on the list. (Once when George Johnson was trying a jury case against Jack, I asked George how it was going. John , he said, “he is so easy I can’t  even get mad at the little sob” George and Janklow had much in common ) in any event there was no way he could tame two raging , ferocious tigers in the personage of Johnson and Janklow. Both would become legendary as trial lawyers in the State and Federal courts of South Dakota and beyond.

INSERT

John F. Kennedy was President and would soon be assassinated. Bull Connor  was releasing his police dogs on crowds of blacks who were merely wanting their own place to sit at a southern  lunch counters. “Woody” Woods, in the early fifties, in Tripp County Sheriff would religiously hook up a high-pressure firehose and wash around the Indian drunks in the

Winner city jail until George Johnson of Gregory brought  a lawsuit which stopped the practice.

A young Bill Day would be elected states attorney and would be sent off to war during the Cuban missile  crisis when the National Guard company in Winner was activated. Bob Maule son of a local legal legend Claude Maule, would be appointed as states attorney. Now Bob had many attributes but one of his chief downfalls was the fact that he knew no boundaries when it came to law enforcement. In fact,Bob, spent a lifetime in college before Professir Vrooman privately tutored him through law school. My favorite Judge, H.P. Gilchrist,  described Bob’s  problem  when he told me that “If you can’t recognize  the problem how can you find a solution.” He would follow local Winner tradition and jail any Indian he could for any real or imagined wrongdoing. Before constitutional rights were enforced, Bob, would allow defendants to languish  in thart Tripp  County hell hole of a jail for a long as he wanted. Bob was a law unto himself at the time.

As an example, my first criminal defe nse trial was in winner against Bob Maule where I had been appointed to defend an Indian from Mission South Dakota who had escaped from jail. Oh yes, at the time a court appointed attorney was paid fifty bucks total in State court and n  in Federal Court it  was deemed a civic duty and a lawyer was paid nothing  at all. The  all white jury found the defendant not guilty and he was released tio wlak back to the Reservation. He walked along  Highway 18 to his home in Mission some 45 miles to the west of Winner. The Rosebud Reservation line was near Carter about 20 miles West of Winner and Bob Maule instructed the Sheriff to let that Indian defendant walks the 20 miles to the reservation border and rearrest him for some trumped up charge just before he stepped over the reservation line.

Not only would Woody woods the Tripp County Sheriff unleash high-pressure firehoses on the Indians in the drunk tank but on several occasions allegations were made that the winter city police often had sexual relations with the Indian ladies who were incarcerated in that structure.

What would become a local joke was the fact that when the DCI came down to investigate. A local policeman was assigned to drive the DCI agent around Indiantown to interview those Indian ladies who the local police had sexual relations with when they were thrown in the winter city jail. Here’s the  joke, when the agent  entered an Indian ladies house and asked her if she had ever had sex with a police officer when she was in the city jail she looked out the window and said “although I can’t recall specifically I think the guy that’s driving that car out there rang my bell several times.”

Bob Maule in the exercise of this newfound power would quite often arrest Indians and hold them in jail without court appearance for months at a time. (When Bob was states attorney I was appointed to defend Jake Antoine for a crime that had been minted on a date when he was on active duty in the United States Navy. Judge Gilchrist released him from jail after he had spent several months prior to my appointment. Later and tone would corner me in the restroom of a local bar and asked me why I had not sued Bob Maule for him fortunately I told them the truth and said because you're an Indian and we would get anywhere. Except in my statement and left me alone and left)

This was not a new practice for Winner since Clarence Talbott, father of Marvin Talbott, was deputy states attorney,prtior to the advent of Bob Maule when mean, old Clarence  woul climb those three flights of stairs to the dungeon like Tripp County jail rattle the cage and shout “it’s court day all of you guys who want to plead guilty step forward”. “The rest of you and when you change your mind next month I’ll ask again.” It was a Tripp County tradition.

It was also time when the Republican-controlled state legislature had raised the civil damages for wrongful death of a human being to a limit of$25,000. The going settlement price for insurance adjusters to offer for the wrongful death of an Indian at the time was $2000. So that if the driver of a car sped through a stop sign and killed your husband, the breadwinner of the family, at the time all his estate could collect would be a maximum of $25,000.

Such was the tradition of 11^th circuit  in its relationship with Indians at the time that a young Bill Janklow arrived on the 11^th circuit, West River, South Dakota.

Before he was done Bill would charge it every windmill that had been placed in West River.

Law professor Clark Gunderson at University of South Dakota law school taught a class on the theory of law. It was mainly a discussion class which included thoughts on what the law really was.

He would often pronounce that the criminal law is what is enforced at a particular time in a particular place not merely what the judges or the legislatures have pronounced or enacted the criminal law to be. Thus it was at the time that the city of Dante just off Highway 18 W. of Yankton a strong Catholic and Bohemian community that on every Sunday as soon as the last mass had ended the local bar was opened and the parishioners when the last bell had rung bellied up to the bar.

Thus it may be said for West River reservation areas such as the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian

reservations. In the late 50s it was not uncommon for the law that was enforced on the reservations was so much different from the realities that existed in East River South Dakota.

As an example the federal judge at the time would announce to anyone who cared to talk to him that he considered statutory rape on the reservation a mere social indiscretion.

At the time most of the Indians on the reservation border edge registered Republicans because of the constant campaigning of E.Y.Berry okay Congressman from the Second District

of South Dakota. Dan Parrish who would later become the Republican state chairman who washed and cleaned Bill Janklow would proclaim that whenever a dead Indian was found and could not be identified all they had to do would be to look in a shirt pocket and there would be a letter addressed to the Indian from E.Y.Berry.

It may also be said that the moral strictures of East River seldom applied to the reservation areas west of the river. Thus it may be said that legendary deputy sheriff Raymond Fernen of Mission and the Rosebud reservation had his white  wife run his upscale motel and his  Indian mistress runs the downtown Mission hotel. Once when the two ladies met they went to Raymond's office and wrestled him to the floor. They both said “Raymond you're going to have to make up your mind which one of us you really want and really love". Without batting an eye Raymond looked up with a smile and said  “ I'm just like Jesus Christ I love you all."

This

Also illustrative of the time and place was the fact that the ubiquitous court reporter Dan Parrish when driving to court in White River would come upon a large culvert in the highway where several Indian man were fanning a fire apparently to smoke out whatever was hiding in that culvert. He would eventually rescue the occupants of the culvert who were none other than two prominent white ranchers would been caught “teepee crawling” with the  fired up Indian husbands wives. One of them would later admonish after having becoming  a widower  had taken  an Indian lady as his housekeeper that it was very difficult for him “ to pass up that warm brown flesh on his bedrooms white sheet"

Thus it may be said that the young Bill Janklow took over the reins of the legal aid recently established by Pres. Lyndon Johnson.

Janklow was an amazing recruiter. He recruited bright young graduates from many of the law schools across the nation. Nearly all wood suffer culture shock. Nearly all wood become great lawyers. Each would be dubbed a particular name by the local Indians, some would receive the name “che muzza” or freely translated as iron prick  and one who would later become a circuit judge appointed by then Gov. Bill Janklow would not so lovingly be referred to as “ the stink lawyer". Notwithstanding this well  deserved nickname on the “res” this judge would keep a coil of rope near his bench and when a young man appeared before him not wearing a belt would cut a piece of rope to the defendant's waist dimensions and make him tie up his pat's. One wonders what those defendants would have thought if that judge while a young lawyer on the reservation was derisively called “ the stink lawyer".

To add to a fuller explanation of the time and place and the culture shock they faced consider the States Attorney of Bennett County, John George Day who when caught tripping the light fantastic with a local Indian girl in the back alley of Martin on an unimproved dusty trail would be charged with disturbing the peace by the local constabulary.

So it was and to add credence to the facts as stated perhaps the retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Bob Miller would describe it best when as a young lawyer and Assistant Attorney General he was assigned to investigate the shenanigans of John George Day.

Chief Justice Miller wrote : “  When I started with the AG Office, John George Day was the Bennett County State's Attorney.  Although a very bright man, his talents significantly deminished , especially after the death of his wife.  He developed a terrible drinking problem which caused him to be intoxicated much of the time.  Also, he allegedly would take women to his office in the courthouse for personal gratification.  At the request of the local authorities and the direction of the AG, Walt Andre and I began proceedings to have him removed as state's attorney. He resisted and defended those proceedings and a trial date was set.  On the day before trial we were notified that he was voluntarily resigning, so the proceedings were cancelled.  We discovered a couple of days later that the day he resigned was also the deadline for filing petitions for the office of county judge and that he had filed for that position with no opposition. Thus, Mr. Day out-smarted us became Bennett County Judge.  I think it was just a few years later that that the county judge position was abolished and the judicial services were performed by District County Judge Marvin Talbott.’.”

So it was that a morality play would be written at this time and place. Adding confusion to the definition of law on the reservation in the 50s and early 60s was the fact that serious questions arose as to what court system had jurisdiction, state, federal or Indian courts. Problems such as criminal acts that occurred on the reservation by white on white or white on red or red on red or red on white were the object of many and differing court opinions.

Stories would abound as to the young lawyers confrontation with the culture shock they witnessed on the reservation coupled with the nations sexual revolution because of the invention of the pale. While one may write of the notorious conduct of the deputy sheriff or the white ranchers culvert or the Bennett County states attorney John George Day suffering the charge of disturbing the peace suffice it to say that it is not within my accounts of the historical stories at the time to recount for you any of those stories. Those young lawyers on the reservation at that particular time and place

lar place because in the words of Prof. Gunderson whatever they did was not a crime. This writer also confirmed in  the belief that all things would be forgiven if an act of contrition was either vouchsafed or manifested. It would be up to others to raise the matter of such rumored indescretions in political races that would follow some of these young men. Besides some had sought my legal advice.

It is with some remorse however that the writer well remembers a beautiful young Indian girl Jancita Eagle Deer, who would be used by a spy planted by the FBI during the time of the AIM scare and would eventually die a tragic death, being run over on a lonesome road in northern Nebraska.

The reader may find it strange that former Governor, Attorney Gen3ral and Congressman Janklow would send me the e-mail containing his thoughtful compliments of how I had treated him when he first started practicing law. While I appreciated the compliments very much his e-mail also demonstrated that there was much Irish charm to his many political ways although often accompanied by overbearing conduct but never to me.

At the time I never thought much about the fact that I would help a young attorney such as Bill Janklow at the legal aid office in Rosebud. His obituary tells me that he graduated from law school in 1966.

I would contact him in the fall of that year when he was a young legal aid attorney and ask his help in my defense of Theodore Running Bear from Parmalee who was charged with the second degree murder of Dawson T The Straight along Highway 18 in Todd County South Dakota. Ted Running Bear was being held for the crime and he was to be tried in federal court in Pierre South Dakota with a trial date sometime in December of 1966.

In retrospect and having considered the complement that Janklow had paid me I reflected on his praise. At the time I was considered a very good criminal defense attorney who had been schooled and cudgeled  Schultz by the likes of Don Fellows, Pat Morrison, Parnell Donohue, Dudley R Herman, George Fielding Johnson and that blue ribbon defense attorney Roddy Bottum. Perhaps no other young lawyer had received such great training from such an all star cast are cast of criminal defense lawyers.

That coupled with the fact that Bill Janklow had just graduated from law school and was being asked to help in the criminal defense of a capital case by me. At last I knew how significant that event was to ayoung Bill Janklow.

In September of 1966 Theodore Running Bear and Dawson at the straight and their friends had driven from Parmalee to one of those notorious Nebraska waterholes South of Parmalee and South of Highway 18 I believe the town as Crookston. The presence of liquor and beer sales at Crookston Nebraska and other areas adjacent to the reservation need not be located on any map but one merely had to follow a litter trail of beer cans to find the freely sold beer.

Like all Native Americans who became beeraholics all their cars included a gallon jug and that all-important gas siphon hose. It was my experience that rather than by a six pack most Indians in Winner would tote their gallon jugs onSunday afternoon to Tom Falencik’s Pizza Pub and buy Beer by the gallon jug. They claimed it was much better than canned beer. All of the bartenders in the joints that catered to such trade knew how to take the gallon jug, shake and  swish some water from the tap around in the jug to wash it out and while they Indians attention might be drawn to some other point pour out all but a at least two pints of the water and quickly place the gallon jug under the beer tap. Thus it may be said that most of those Indians  who used the gallon jug would brag that jug Beer that they got from Tom Falencik’s  Pizza pub was like Guy Lombardo's music the sweetest smoothest dear this side of heaven.

After spending some time in the Crookston beer joint the party bought a gallon of such beer and proceeded north on a gravel road intersecting with Highway 18 in Todd County toward Parmalee South Dakota. I vividly recall Janklow remarking on the ability of those folks to get home notwithstanding their old junk car whose fuel pump failed them just after the crossed the South Dakota border. They were not worried at all and took their time chugging what was left of the beer in the gallon jug. They then grabbed their gas siphoning hose and siphoned a gallon of gasoline into that old beer container. Taking the gallon jug placing the siphon hose in the jug and the other in the carnurerator and starting it running one of the crew sat on the front of the car with the siphon hose inserted in the carburetor and pinching the hose as necessary they started the car and with the pinching and closing of the hose managed to get to Highway 18.

An argument ensued between Theodore Running Bear and Dawson at The Straight. Dawson was the common law live in husband of Teds sister. In other words in Indian parlance their marriage although recognized was not “ legal”. This was at the bottom of the dispute between At The Straight and Running Bear. Previously in arguing about this matter and Parmalee Dawson At The Straight had attacked Running Bear swinging a single tree.

The two fought and a knife was produced. There was conflicting testimony as to whether the knife belonged to Dawson or Theodore but Theodore won the fight. Dawson was stabbed to death and the party then took his body and carried it approximately a quarter mile off the highway depositing it in a deep ravine.

Janklow and the young Indian man who worked at legal aid as an investigator thoroughly investigated the case for me. They did an exceptional job.

We had a serious problem. Our defendant Ted was not the brightest thing on or off the reservation. Lacking a lot of fundamental schooling it was difficult for him to understand the many nuances of the English language. New line a new FBI investigator had arrived on the reservation replacing John Penrod. The mill arrive all claims that he had just come from Las Vegas where he was assigned to file and spy on the activities of Jack Kennedy Frank Sinatra and Sinatra was gaining. He knew nothing about West River or the Rosebud reservation or anybody like young running bear who grew up there.

The new agent arrested running bear and secured a confession to murder from the young man.

The Supreme Court opinion in Maranda recognizing criminal rights to remain silent and providing tests for the suppression of forced confessions had just become the law of the land.

We had to get that confession suppressed although we would admit to the killing we would not admit to anything other than the fact that the death was caused during a fight were by running bear was acting in self-defense.

With Janklow's help we secured the services of a psychiatrist at the University of South Dakota information who examined running bear. Running bear was also examined bicyclist psychiatrist hired by the government and who would demonstrate about as much understanding of West River and set new FBI agent did.

I vividly recall the testimony of our psychiatrist who gave the opinion that running bear did not fully understand the admonitions that the FBI agent had given in order to secure the confession and if that were true the court should rule that the confession was inadmissible and should be suppressed.

Although judge in the call through his physical actions seem to believe that we had somehow coached running bear and the answer to certain questions nevertheless the psychiatrist testified that when the FBI agent in reading running bear his rights told him he was entitled to the presence of counsel. Our psychiatrist explained to the judge that on questioning running bear it was running bear's belief that Christmas was coming and that presents mental gifts. In any event no young Indian from Parmalee would understand much different having been raised in the atmosphere that pervaded the reservation at the time.

The government psychiatrist also examined running bear. I don't know where that psychiatrist came from but he followed me everywhere including the men's room during any break we had in the proceedings and I had serious questions about his manhood. I think he knew about as much about the reservation as the FBI agent who just come from Las Vegas. He indicated although running bear he thought understood all the admonitions given to him before he confessed to the murder he did find it disconcerting that when he asked running bear to respond to the statement strike while the iron is hot running bear immediately replied branding cattle. To be sure that psychiatrist thought that was the most unusual response he had ever listed from a person being examined.

Fortunately we won the suppression hearing the confession was suppressed and thus could not be used in any proof involving premeditation or other conduct that would be injurious to our self-defense play.

Later on you will hear of the case for a 14-year-old Rosebud Indian girl was arrested at a confession was taken from her by that same Las Vegas style FBI agent. You'll also learn that the confession had been forced. The more of that later. In his needs is and is and willll

The trial was held in federal court before a jury presided over by Judge Fred Nicole of Mitchell. Nicolh was the perfect federal judge for the young law graduate Janklow to watch conduct a trial since he loved trial attorneys and would socialize with them strike that with them over dinner after the days trial had adjourned.

The case was prosecuted by Ron Clabaugh and Gene Bushnel from the US attorney's office in Sioux Falls.

Although they had the full resources of the FBI and tribal investigator Peter P Pitchlyn and other tribal policeman Janklow and his hired man had done a better job of investigation.

In fact he had ascertained the reason for the fight the previous single tree fight and that Theodore Running Bear had been a young altar boy for Father DeMers S.J. of the Parmalee parish who thought much of Ted Running Bear.We claimed self-defense and that only one knife having been found there was no testimony as to more than one knife in the fight. We also now had testimony that with the attack of the single tree fight in Parmalee there was reason for the jury to believe that Running Bear may have feared for his life.

Our case rested on the testimony of Theodore Running Bear. He knew he had killed Dawson and he did not understand the white man's excuse of self-defense. His guilt at having killed Dawson overwhelmed .But I had to put him on the stand. I feared as to what he might say on cross-examination after I've establish the fact that he had acted in self-defense.

Janklow had contacted father DeMers S.J. the good father had come to Pierre to be with the family, sleeping on the floor with them in their one bedroom rented hotel room. I explained to father DeMers the problem that I had to have Running Bear testify but that he was overwhelmed by the guilt of his deed and didn't understand any sense of self-defense that I could explain to him.

“Let me talk to him”, father DeMers  said and took Running Bear aside. He explained to him that he was charged with murder and that the government wanted to take his life and that if he was worried about his guilt , he Father Demers would see that God forgave him and he need worry about it anymore. The good father had in fact saved his life.

We placed Running Bear on the stand; he was a good witness and  he described a fight that involved only one knife that he had had previous problems with Dawson who had attacked him with a single tree and he admitted that he killed him.

After the judge instructed the jury and retired. They returned a verdict of voluntary manslaughter and judge Nichol subsequently sentenced him to six years.

Thus it was that Bill Janklow's first case was one of homicide where he had been my second chair and my investigator and a young man’s life had been saved.

I never met Theodore Running Bear again. Years later a dinner companion at the roundtable at Joe's Café in Winner told they that while he as bank president and the bank’s attorney were driving through Todd County they picked up in Indian hitch hiker. The bank presisent, Keith Goodhope, asked him if he knew John Simpson. He replied  “I sure do ,John got me off from a murder charge in federal court”. really Such a small world.`

THE  EGGING

Bill Janklow was a very strange man indeed. Perhaps he was starc-rossed from the very beginning. Perhaps more than most he demonstrates the fact that his abilities could be used as a manifestation of power and sometimes in their application in the appreciation that many have that absolute power is often d9sgusting.

The Rosebud bar would have annual spring meetings at various towns throughout the circuit. One of the more memorable meetings was held in white River South Dakota at the Knights of Columbus hall on that wide main street of white River at the time that Bill Janklow announced his candidacy for Atty. Gen. after he had left the legal aid office and worked in the Atty. Gen.’s office for Kermit Sande.

Bill attended thatsh shindig on that nice spring day in white River. When first talking to him he indicated that he needed to have some Indian he could prosecute so he could rid himself of the reputation he had earned as a legal aid attorney and representing Indians on the reservation.

I thought this a strange request. Event’s that would transpire that day would demonstrate how strange this young man really wants.

This bar meeting was held at the height of the American Indian movement on the reservation.

The annual spring meetings of the Rosebud bar were noted for their friendliness, outspokenness and downright West River use of alcohol.

In the past all members of the South Dakota Supreme Court would look forward to this friendly and loquacious meeting and would attend until one time George Johnson of Gregory who was never noted for his sobriety took the floor and excoriated all five members of the Supreme Court for reversing one of his cases where he had received a large plaintiff’s verdict. The occasion of the annual meetings would continue thereafter without the presence of any Supreme court justice save s Fred Winans who every attorney loved and who although enjoyed the frivolity of the Rosebud bar meetings.

This meeting was no different except it was held on the main Street of white River South Dakota in the Knights of Columbus hall during the time of the a AIM movement and the presence of Freddie and Jim  knife, Sue Herman and other ladies, Bob Luby, Roger Paschke, and Bill Janklow.

The well-dressed ladies of the Rosebud bar attorneys and judges were sipping their cocktails in front of the Knights of Columbus hall on main Street in white River under the ubiquitous cottonwood trees enjoying their drinks and the wonderful spring weather. Little did they notice Freddie knife driving his pickup and noticing this white power openly drinking on the main Street of white River.  Freddie, no doubt knowing what would happen if a similar act would have been done by a bunch of his friends, drove his pickup to the local grocery store and purchased several dozen eggs. Getting another Indian to drive the pickup and another friend with a large drum that they placed in the back of the pickup Freddie and his friends drove past the Knights of Columbus hall Columbus hall where the attorney’s judges and their ladies were obviously breaking the law by drinking intoxicating beverages on the streets of white River South Dakota. They drove by and announced their presence by beating on the large drum which brought the attention of the ladies to come and see these demonstrating AM Indians and once the ladies were all assembled Freddie rose up in the back of the pickup and cast the eggs on the assembled ladies. “Splat” and an egs hit Dudley Herman’s wife and an “expletive deleted” echoed up and down the street.

The Rosebud bar had a dilemma. So did Bill Janklow who had previously announced his intentions to run for Atty. Gen. The ladies who were in front of the Knights of Columbus hall were the judges wise and some of the attorneys wives and even Dudley Herman’s blonde bomber had been egge.

A lawyer from Martin, Bob Looby and court reporter Roger Paschke became powerfully incensed and they insisted that the local states attorney Gene Jones contact the Sheriff and swear out a complaint for the arrest of Freddie knife.

Bill Janklow interrupted. He and I knew Freddie knife very well as Mr. knife had been involved in a homicide case that I had asked Janklow to help me defend. We both knew the Rosebud bar had a tiger by the tail

Janklow also knew that the Rosebud bar had been flaunting the law and  if an assembled group of Indians had been drinking intoxicating liquor on the main street of white River South Dakota all hell would’ve broken loose. He promptly told Bob Looby and Roger Paschke where they could go and they better not have Freddie knife arrested. While the rest of the griup remain silent Janklow had spoken out. Aa verbal quarrel ensued between he and Looby. Looby would not back down nor would Janklow. Someone suggested that they settle the matter “west river style” and they proceede to  the back alley behind the Knights of Columbus hall. Janklow grade grabbed Looby and pushed him into the back alley. No one followed. Shortly thereafter the rwo having settled their differences came back to join the rest of us at that annual spring meeting

And so it would all end. Billl  Janklow ould always be in charge-from confronting Bob Looby in  the back alley to pushing Bill Day out of his chair during a murder  trial,to never forgetting a friend   or never forging an enemy to always be in charge  to the bitter end, come stop signs or  hell or high water.

End note 1

. The attached is a note I had written about the aim encampment in Winner in 1975.

Tripp and Todd County had been joined for government functions. This galled the local republicans because Todd county was mostly populated by Indians who were most always Democrats. The legislature passed a law severing the two counties.

       This was during the time of AIM and emotions ran high. I was city attorney at the time and when Clyde Bellecourt was shot during an AIM quarrel on the Rosebud he was transferred to the Winner Hospital.

AIM descended on Winner, they “occupied” the Hospital waiting room and with the encouragement of their chief enforcer Douglas Durham ( It was later determined that he was an undercover agent for the FBI) proceeded to raise hell in Winner.

It was Labor Day in Winner. A time that had always  been marked by celebrations, carnivals, rodeos, an end to harvest celebrations. At this time most bars in Winner opened on CST and closed well after 2:00 MST because by state law the time zone was at the Missouri River.

It was nothing for partying cowboys to adjourn to the Westside café,  (Owned by the Brown Brothers and incidentally that café collected more sales tax at the time than any other café in South Dakota) an all night establishment  and  not go home til break of day.

       It was never uncommon at that time for fights and deaths to occur on the streets of Winner following bar-room quarrels.

(State v Lange; State v Antoine; death of W.Long Crow to name a few)

Rather than have them ransack for food (their were hundreds camped in Winner-waiting for a spark to cause trouble which was sure to come because of the Labor day celebration) some of us took up a collection and gave it to them to buy food.

At the time Kevin Keirnan was a young reporter for Public Radio and had been a witness to the events at the hospital.

He contacted me at my home  and told me of the actions of Robert Paris a  highway patrolman  who showed up wearing gloves and slapping his night stick and parading around in front of the assembled Indians at the hospital, just begging for a fight to start.. Kiernan had tape recorded the events and thought that the highway patrolman should be removed.

Imagine this, if you will, here we have Douglas Durham , FBI infiltrator  parading around the Winner  hospital  slapping some fake tomahawk in his hands and Robert Paris also parading slapping  his night stick in his gloved hand in a waiting room that was occupied by AIM.

Of course nobody knew at the time that Robert Durham was a paid FBI infiltrator who later would have been the driver of  the car in which Jancita Eagle Deer was last seen alive and who had used her in a plot to discredit Dennis Banks. 

I contacted Governor Kneip and played the tape for him. Not only was highway patrolman, Robert Paris, removed from the hospital he was transferred to Buffalo, South Dakota, and thank God, we never heard from him again.

James Abourezk was a U.S. Senator at the time  and with help of a younger Means boy we contacted him and he arranged for Bellecourt to be transferred and flown to a hospital in Minneapolis.

 On Labor day I took my trusty Model 12 and went to the Winner gun club, near the Winner airport to shoot trap. I remember hearing that plane take off from the Winner airport and breathing a sigh of relief.    I knew the AIM invaders would soon leave town.

       When Governor Kneip vetoed the Tom Tobin Tripp – Todd separation bill he asked me to write the veto message.

Janklow and Tobin botch double murder .

On a cold winters night in Winner South Dakota in February of 1975 two residents of Winner South Dakota were brutally murdered in their trailer park home and depite the fact that there was sufficient evidence to arrest “Sony” Peck of Pierre and Harold  South Dakota the case was never prosecuted and justice was never done .

Why?

Stan Whirring now a recognized excellent trial attorney in Winner, South Dakota was deputy States attorney at the time and relates the following recollection of the events and subsequent dismissal of all charges against the lone suspect, “Sonny” Peck .The facts are his all opinions are mine.

Peck, 37, and Rene June Uithoven, 36. Had been lovers and it was reported that Peck repeatedly abused and threatened her and that she sought refuge with Lawrence Steiger.671, who had operated a   beer and pool hall in Kennebec, South Dakota.

Peck had threatened to Kill Renea if she ever left him.

Steiger gave her that chance she had wanted. He provided a safe haven for Renae June Uithoven. It is unimportant whiter the 71 year old Steiger and the 36 year old Renea  Uithoven  were lovers and many said they were not  and that he was just providing  a safe place to be free of the abusive “Sonny” Peck. Peck ‘s reputation in his  abusive treatment of Renea was manifest. Whiting , a young deputy States Attorney at the time investigated the case . His recollection of events discloses that the investigation revolved around statements from witnesses that Peck  had in fact come to Winner on the night of the Murder and asked person at Winners all night Westside Café where Lawrence Steiger lived. Ironically he also asked directions from the police as to where Steiger lived. The investigation also revealed that Peck had abused Uithoven and had threatened to kill her if she left him.

What seems impossible to believe in view of the dismissal of the case by States Attorney Tommy Drake Tobin and Attorney General Bill Janklow was the fact that the local police investigation had turned up the fact that Peck had been seen entering the Steiger trailer on the night of the murder and that he had entered the trailer carrying an object  that was wrapped in such a manner that the witness could not tell if in fact he was carrying a rifle. Based on those facts the young deputy States attorney, has an arrest warrant issued for Francis. “Sonny” Peck for the double murder.

What was to follow borders on the bizarre Peck was arrested and brought before Judge Marvin S. Talbot and bond was set at $1000,000.00 and Peck was placed in the Tripp County Jail. While Whiting was gathering his evidence to present the case for preliminary g hearing or present the fact to a grand jury, along came his boss Tommy  Drake Tobin and Attorney General Bill Janklow , who Tobin allowed to take control of the case. Tobin and Janklow decided to dismiss all charges against Francis “Sonny” Peck. Why, you might ask. They has no plausible answer except that if Peck would be released  he would get drunk sometime and brag about the murder and he would be then found out about by the agents of the Attorney general’s office by such erstwhile investigators as Marc Weber Tobias.

End note #2

Douglass Frank Durham
born 9/26/37

Doug Durham who claimed to be 1/4 Chipewa, played an important role in the AIM confrontation of Wounded Knee. He had become so trusted, that the leaders of AIM appointed him to head of security. He was in fact, a paid informer/operative of the F.B.I. AIM women noticed right away that even with his headband, beaded belt buckle, and turquoise jewelry, that he also dyed his hair to make it appear darker. One of these women, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, suspected even further - that he was some sort of govenment agent. Anna Mae just might have paid for those beliefs with her life. During the 1975 Wounded Knee trials in St. Paul Minnesota, he was confronted with evidence that he was an informer. He confessed, and was removed from the AIM.

In 1976, the Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a report on AIM. In compiling this report, only one witness appeared before the Committee when it met in April 1976. Douglass Frank Durham. No Indians testified at the hearing. Douglass Frank Durham did present several lies and statements to suggest savage acts by AIM members. All without corroboration. In fact, some of his statements contradicted other statements made by him. One in particular was an account he described as taking place on Easter Sunday (April 22) 1973. He claimed that in the occupied area of Wounded Knee, AIM members hung a man from a cross, in full view of marshals and members of the press, and proceeded to beat the body for a period of six hours. The event he described never happened!

In 1973, Dr. Connie (Redbird) Pinkerman discovered documentation about the BIA-IHS genocidal policy of sterilization of native women at the infamous Claremont BIA hospital. In 1974, she testified about this to the U.S. Congress. When she returned through the Denver airport, there was an attempt to assassinate Connie with a silenced sharpshooter-rifle. At this time in 1974, Connie was "marked for death" by Douglass Durham, the FBI-CIA-Army Intelligence infiltrator. Durham prepared a flyer and poster announcing Connie was a government informer and had been sentenced to death by an AIM tribunal. He approached several AIM warriors of various violent backgrounds soliciting them to kill her. Several of them have told her about this.

Doug Durham was also involved in drug smuggling, using ARMY planes. He also ran some illegal gambling establishments in Iowa. With a background such as this, it made him a prime and valuable consultant to New York authorities during the 1989/1990 gambling/anti-gambling Mohawk Tribal war at Akwesasne. He was, and still might be ARMY Intelligence, and associated with the FBI. He now lives in Dallas, Texas. He lives in a communal house in Dallas, said by some to be a Satanist group. Said by others, to be some sort of government covert operation. Personal items worth mentioning; he is always armed, he carries small hidden guns and knives, he is known as a disguise expert, he knows about demolition methods and products, he taught infiltration/ex-filtration techniques, and he is still active.

The latest update I have on him places him on the east coast Pow-Wow circuit. He has been seen at Pow-Wows driving a dark green Dodge van, with a bumper sticker that says "Proud to be Native American". The vehicle carries a Virginia tag, even though he claims to live in Oklahoma.

Published March 06, 2004.

DURHAM, DOUGLASS

Douglass Frank Durham, 66, of Las Vegas, died Feb. 22, 2004. He was a retired businessman and served in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1956-1959. Services will be held later this month in Galatia, Ill.

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