Rapid City Trial of John Graham Set for October 6, 2008

"The American Indian Movement [AIM] leadership ordered the execution of Anna Mae Aquash...the AIM leadership concocted a series of conspiracy stories blaming the FBI for the murder. ...Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee [WKLDOC] lawyers were a party to the conspiracy and joined efforts to blame the killing on the FBI...Countless authors have since parroted the lies in a series of politically-motivated books, most notably Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Ken Stern’s Loud Hawk, and Professor Ward Churchill’s Agents of Repression."--Former FBI Agent Joseph H. Trimbach and his son John M. Trimbach, co-authors of American Indian Mafia

The Jamestown Sun (6-23-08) reports that American Indian Movement (AIM) member John Graham (shown above) will finally stand trial in Rapid City, South Dakota, for the December 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash (shown below). Aquash was also a member of AIM.

Graham's trial is scheduled to begin on October 6, 2008 and is expected to last at least two weeks.

Anna Mae Aquash was shot in the head as she begged for her life and was pushed over a cliff near Wanblee, South Dakota.

A Denver man, Graham's co-defendant Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud, was convicted of her murder in 2004. According to the Jamestown Sun (6-23-08), at Looking Cloud's trial, witnesses testified:

[Looking Cloud], Graham and another AIM member, Theda Clark, drove Aquash from Denver and that Graham shot Aquash...

Looking Cloud and Graham, who were young men in 1975, are believed to have acted on the orders of the leaders of the American Indian Movement.

According to News From Indian Country,

The Aquash case may have implications for leadership members of the American Indian Movement [AIM] alleged to have been involved in several murders of those they believed were informers going back to the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973...according to AIM members now cooperating with federal authorities.

Soon NFIC will publish some new documentation about this murder investigation:

Part V - Index of Individuals, Grand Jury/Cooperating Witnesses, Conspirators/Associates.

Under Construction/Readying Completion/Projected Publishing June 2008

Part VI - Relationship Tree: Family member relationships and AIM hierarchy.

Under Construction/Readying Completion/Projected Publishing June 2008

The former FBI agent Joe Trimbach and his son John write:

The American Indian Movement leadership ordered the execution of Anna Mae Aquash because they believed (mistakenly) that she was an FBI informant. Once convinced that she had not betrayed them, the AIM leadership concocted a series of conspiracy stories blaming the FBI for the murder. Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee lawyers were a party to the conspiracy and joined efforts to blame the killing on the FBI. (AIM lawyer and WKLDOC member Bruce Ellison was allegedly among those present at the meeting where Anna Mae’s fate was discussed by a round table of co-conspirators. Upon learning that Anna Mae was bound with rope, Ellison allegedly said, “Untie her.” Today, Ellison insists the FBI was behind the murder.) Countless authors have since parroted the lies in a series of politically-motivated books, most notably Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Ken Stern’s Loud Hawk, and Professor Ward Churchill’s Agents of Repression. These books are easily exposed as sham histories shrouded in half-truths, distortions, and shameless lies...

In their timeline of notable events in the history of the American Indian Movement, Trimbachs note:

According to News From Indian Country sources, WKLDOC [Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee] attorney Bruce Ellison is said to have encouraged the idea that Anna Mae might be an informant.

In his article "Anna Mae Awaits Justice," (6-30-07) Joe Trimbach writes (scroll down):

[W]hen [Anna Mae] realized the end was near, she asked to pray on her knees. (The request was denied.) Months before he placed a gun to [FBI agent] Ron Williams’s head, [Leonard] Peltier had placed a gun in Anna Mae’s mouth, in one of her early interrogations. She died six months after [Peltier murdered FBI agents Coler and Williams], partly because it was feared that she would repeat Peltier’s boast [that he shot FBI agent Ron Williams in the face] which she heard “straight from the horse’s mouth.”

People familiar with the case believe that once Graham is on American soil, AIM’s legacy is up for grabs. As the embattled Professor Ward Churchill likes to say, the chickens have come home to roost. The professor, however, would presumably not want the description applied to his old warhorse buddy, AIM leader Russell Means. On a cold morning in 1976, Means and his brothers boycotted Anna Mae’s funeral, evidently believing her guilty as charged. AIM war chiefs and Anna Mae’s erstwhile friends must now reposition themselves for the coming storm. An old rusty prosecutorial engine is finally turning over, powered by an unlimited statute of limitations for murder in the first degree. Former members know that aiding and abetting carries the same penalty that awaits Graham: life in prison. And so they are naturally concerned that Graham may cut a deal and sing like a canary. Stay tuned. This could get very interesting.