01-10-2009, 05:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-10-2009, 07:02 PM by Peter Lemkin.)
This doctor was both involved in money over his patients and covert ops for the Big Boys......
November 3, 2002
California Doctor's Suicide Leaves Many Troubling Mysteries Unsolved
By JO THOMAS
[Modified limited hangout article. I know of what I speak and can provide name and talk by another physician [ethical one] who knows many of the details, and was next on this 'doctor's' hit list. - P.L]
IRVINE, Calif. — On the morning of Feb. 28, 2000, a man in a black hood ran up to Patrick Riley in front of his office, shot him flush in the face and fled.
The bullet missed his brain, and Mr. Riley, a biotechnology entrepreneur, survived. But two days later, his business partner, a doctor named Larry C. Ford, killed himself with a shotgun after learning he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the shooting.
That is where the story probably would have ended — a lurid but ultimately local piece of intrigue played out in the sun-splashed Orange County sprawl — had it not been for the phone calls that within hours began coming in to the police. Dr. Ford, the callers said, had left something behind: a cache of weapons and anthrax. [The initial reports of anthrax were correct! - P.L.]
The local elementary school was closed. Forty-two families were evacuated from their homes in Dr. Ford's affluent neighborhood. Then police and federal investigators began to unearth evidence that Larry Ford had another life — that he was not just a brilliant, if somewhat geeky, gynecologist who hoped to develop a device to protect women from AIDS.
Buried next to his swimming pool they found canisters containing machine guns and C-4 plastic explosives. In refrigerators at his home and office, next to the salad dressing and employee lunches, were 266 bottles and vials of pathogens — among them salmonella, cholera, botulism and typhoid. The deadly poison ricin was stored, with a blowgun and darts, in a plastic bag in the family room. A compartment under the floorboards held medical files on 83 women. [Having lived in L.A., I know this is standard at poolside, fridge and home! - P.L.]
What the searchers did not find was anthrax, and the fear of what remained unfound, along with dozens of other questions, set off investigations that ranged from Beverly Hills to South Africa and back to the Nevada desert.
Since then, pieces of Dr. Ford's other life have begun to emerge. Taken together, they form a troubling and confusing picture — of a man with ties to racist, antigovernment groups in the United States who also developed a relationship with apartheid South Africa's secret biological and chemical weapons program, Project Coast.
For the most part, though, investigators say they are stymied, a long way from understanding what Dr. Ford was doing with his guns and his germs. In South Africa, documents from Project Coast were either destroyed or classified and put on CD-ROM's in a military vault. The fragments of Larry Ford's other life remain just that — frightening, tantalizing fragments.
Still, while no one is suggesting any link to the anthrax attacks of last fall, [Why the hell not! - P.L.] the questions Dr. Ford left behind nag deeper now, in the ambient anxiety of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Around Irvine, most people knew the 49-year-old Dr. Ford as a committed Mormon and a family man of harmless eccentricities, like wearing tennis shoes no matter what the occasion.
Trained as a gynecologist and microbiologist, he taught at the University of California at Los Angeles in the 1980's and later at the university's campus here. He wrote dozens of scholarly articles on infectious diseases and, with Mr. Riley, ran a biotechnology company, Biofem Inc.
After his suicide, officials began to wonder if Dr. Ford might have deliberately infected some patients. There were the hidden medical records, and a number of women had come forward to say they feared Dr. Ford was responsible for their mysterious illnesses. But in interviews, several former patients praised Dr. Ford and said they felt fine.
Epidemiologists examined the records and interviewed eight women, six of them ill. But they quickly closed the inquiry, saying they had found no public health threat and no pattern of symptoms suggesting deliberate infection. [this is absolutely untrue - he was infecting the women with a variety of diseases! -P.L.]
One of the women, Shane Gregory, says she was a 27-year-old U.C.L.A. undergraduate when Dr. Ford became infatuated with her in 1981, buying her a car and renting her an apartment. She says she broke off the relationship in 1984 — and believes that was the same year Dr. Ford deliberately infected her, possibly in Los Angeles and possibly in London.
In October 1987, she says, she developed vertigo, and "that's when my life changed." Despite brain surgery and medicine, she says, "I never got better."
According to a law enforcement official, Dr. Ford told two friends that he had infected Ms. Gregory with an "alpha toxin." The official said the authorities had recently received information that appeared to corroborate this.
Then there were the suggestions that Dr. Ford was working for the C.I.A. Several people close to him — including Dr. Hunter Hammill, a Baylor University professor who collaborated on papers with him — say he sometimes told them so. Other people say they simply assumed it.
"We had heard that he had worked for the government, worked at Fort Detrick," said Dr. Daniel Knobel, a senior official in Project Coast. He was referring to the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md., where the government did biological weapons research.
Lt. Col. Kathleen W. Carr, the institute's deputy commander for operations, said there was no record of Dr. Ford's having worked there. In addition, a scientist who was a leading C.I.A. expert on biological warfare during this time said he had never heard of him. [They never heard of him.....hmmmm! -P.L.]
Indeed, Dr. Ford's only known connection to Fort Detrick is an unclassified 1988 newcomer's guide found among his belongings.
But the Irvine police have their suspicions. Detective Victor Ray said that before the search of the Ford property, he warned the F.B.I. agent in charge about reports that Dr. Ford had developed germs and toxins for the C.I.A. [This is true! He was working for the CIA - P.L.]
Detective Ray said that after three calls to bureau headquarters, the agent, Doug Baker, responded that Dr. Ford had worked for the C.I.A. and might have buried just about anything. Mr. Baker, speaking through an F.B.I. spokesman, denied this.
One thing that is clear is that Dr. Ford was involved with the apartheid government of South Africa. Just what he was doing, though, is far less clear.
After his death, Detective Ray said, the authorities learned that Dr. Ford had been a consultant to Project Coast, which has been accused of creating weapons for use against enemies of apartheid. They also discovered that he had held extreme racist views and had once told a girlfriend that to understand him, she should read "The Turner Diaries," the anti-Semitic and white supremacist novel, popular among far-right groups, that was prosecutors say inspired the Oklahoma City bombing.
Over the years, Dr. Ford made a number of trips to South Africa. His laboratory assistant and constant companion, Valerie Kesler, says she traveled there with him at least six times.
Speaking through her lawyer, Ms. Kesler said that Dr. Ford had once carried a vial in his vest pocket and handed it to a South African official at the airport. Dr. Ford, she remembered, was extremely nervous throughout the flight. Years later, she said, she realized that the vial held lethal bacteria, endangering everyone on the plane.
Dr. Wouter Basson, the cardiologist who ran Project Coast, said Dr. Ford twice brought biological samples "in his pocket." They were not dangerous, he said, and "had no military significance." [I have a bridge for sale!...if you believe that - P.L.]
After the fall of apartheid, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission conducted an extensive investigation of Project Coast. In 1998, Project Coast scientists told the commission that they had produced, among other weapons, chocolates and cigarettes infected with anthrax, milk laced with botulism, and enough cholera to cause "massive outbreaks."
In a 30-month nonjury trial, the judge, an apartheid-era holdover, dropped six murder charges against Dr. Basson, on the ground that the killings had occurred outside the country. Last spring, Dr. Basson was acquitted of all other charges, including murder conspiracy and drug trafficking.
In a recent interview in South Africa, Dr. Basson said he had invited Dr. Ford to lecture Project Coast scientists in 1987 because the program's Dr. Knobel had described Dr. Ford as an expert on chemical and biological weapons.
"Nothing he could offer was what we could use," Dr. Basson said.
Asked why Dr. Ford was later paid through the project's Swiss bank account, Dr. Basson said Dr. Knobel had told him to arrange payments for Dr. Ford's AIDS research. Both officials said they had tried to help Dr. Ford find a South African laboratory for AIDS research.
Ultimately, he was given space in an aerospace medicine laboratory to work on several projects using amniotic fluid collected from thousands of women in South African military hospitals. Why these projects were sponsored by the military, and what became of them, is unclear.
However, a South African military document about AIDS research, found in Dr. Basson's possession by investigators, mentioned "the acquisition of any relevant C.B.W. literature from Dr. Ford." The abbreviation C.B.W. is commonly used to refer to chemical and biological weapons.
Perhaps the deepest fear in the entire affair was that Dr. Ford had been working with anthrax. That trail, too, has run cold. [Not! - P.L]
After Dr. Ford's suicide, the police got tips that he had buried anthrax in a gold mine. They searched fruitlessly in California. Four months later, documents in a Nevada trash dump showed that Dr. Ford had been in touch with people involved in antitax and antigovernment groups. Some of them had tried to use bacteria to extract gold from dirt.
In December 2000, investigators searched a derelict gold milling site outside Henderson, Nev. They found a separator funnel, a white liquid and Dr. Ford's business card. A federal agent said they also found directions for making chemical and biological weapons, including anthrax. But that was all. The site's proprietor had recently died of unrelated causes. [Yeah, right! - P.L.]
As for the attempted murder case, the gunman remains unknown. The getaway driver, an accountant and friend of Dr. Ford's named Dino D'Saachs, was sentenced to 26 years to life after refusing to identify the shooter in return for leniency. [Someone who would 'take' 26 years, rather than identify the gunman, to me, says the gunman would kill him - even in prison - i.e. a gov't hit man, should he be ID'd P.L.]
Mr. Riley, who has recovered but for a faint scar, says he never suspected Dr. Ford. He has rebuilt the company the two of them ran, and he has made a settlement with Dr. Ford's wife, Diane. She has refused requests for interviews.
Even the doctor's suicide notes, scratched out while he was conferring with his lawyer on the last day of his life, offered no clues.
Dr. Ford promised to meet his wife and three children in heaven. "I was set up by evil," he wrote. "Fear not. I will be with you forever."
November 3, 2002
California Doctor's Suicide Leaves Many Troubling Mysteries Unsolved
By JO THOMAS
[Modified limited hangout article. I know of what I speak and can provide name and talk by another physician [ethical one] who knows many of the details, and was next on this 'doctor's' hit list. - P.L]
IRVINE, Calif. — On the morning of Feb. 28, 2000, a man in a black hood ran up to Patrick Riley in front of his office, shot him flush in the face and fled.
The bullet missed his brain, and Mr. Riley, a biotechnology entrepreneur, survived. But two days later, his business partner, a doctor named Larry C. Ford, killed himself with a shotgun after learning he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the shooting.
That is where the story probably would have ended — a lurid but ultimately local piece of intrigue played out in the sun-splashed Orange County sprawl — had it not been for the phone calls that within hours began coming in to the police. Dr. Ford, the callers said, had left something behind: a cache of weapons and anthrax. [The initial reports of anthrax were correct! - P.L.]
The local elementary school was closed. Forty-two families were evacuated from their homes in Dr. Ford's affluent neighborhood. Then police and federal investigators began to unearth evidence that Larry Ford had another life — that he was not just a brilliant, if somewhat geeky, gynecologist who hoped to develop a device to protect women from AIDS.
Buried next to his swimming pool they found canisters containing machine guns and C-4 plastic explosives. In refrigerators at his home and office, next to the salad dressing and employee lunches, were 266 bottles and vials of pathogens — among them salmonella, cholera, botulism and typhoid. The deadly poison ricin was stored, with a blowgun and darts, in a plastic bag in the family room. A compartment under the floorboards held medical files on 83 women. [Having lived in L.A., I know this is standard at poolside, fridge and home! - P.L.]
What the searchers did not find was anthrax, and the fear of what remained unfound, along with dozens of other questions, set off investigations that ranged from Beverly Hills to South Africa and back to the Nevada desert.
Since then, pieces of Dr. Ford's other life have begun to emerge. Taken together, they form a troubling and confusing picture — of a man with ties to racist, antigovernment groups in the United States who also developed a relationship with apartheid South Africa's secret biological and chemical weapons program, Project Coast.
For the most part, though, investigators say they are stymied, a long way from understanding what Dr. Ford was doing with his guns and his germs. In South Africa, documents from Project Coast were either destroyed or classified and put on CD-ROM's in a military vault. The fragments of Larry Ford's other life remain just that — frightening, tantalizing fragments.
Still, while no one is suggesting any link to the anthrax attacks of last fall, [Why the hell not! - P.L.] the questions Dr. Ford left behind nag deeper now, in the ambient anxiety of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Around Irvine, most people knew the 49-year-old Dr. Ford as a committed Mormon and a family man of harmless eccentricities, like wearing tennis shoes no matter what the occasion.
Trained as a gynecologist and microbiologist, he taught at the University of California at Los Angeles in the 1980's and later at the university's campus here. He wrote dozens of scholarly articles on infectious diseases and, with Mr. Riley, ran a biotechnology company, Biofem Inc.
After his suicide, officials began to wonder if Dr. Ford might have deliberately infected some patients. There were the hidden medical records, and a number of women had come forward to say they feared Dr. Ford was responsible for their mysterious illnesses. But in interviews, several former patients praised Dr. Ford and said they felt fine.
Epidemiologists examined the records and interviewed eight women, six of them ill. But they quickly closed the inquiry, saying they had found no public health threat and no pattern of symptoms suggesting deliberate infection. [this is absolutely untrue - he was infecting the women with a variety of diseases! -P.L.]
One of the women, Shane Gregory, says she was a 27-year-old U.C.L.A. undergraduate when Dr. Ford became infatuated with her in 1981, buying her a car and renting her an apartment. She says she broke off the relationship in 1984 — and believes that was the same year Dr. Ford deliberately infected her, possibly in Los Angeles and possibly in London.
In October 1987, she says, she developed vertigo, and "that's when my life changed." Despite brain surgery and medicine, she says, "I never got better."
According to a law enforcement official, Dr. Ford told two friends that he had infected Ms. Gregory with an "alpha toxin." The official said the authorities had recently received information that appeared to corroborate this.
Then there were the suggestions that Dr. Ford was working for the C.I.A. Several people close to him — including Dr. Hunter Hammill, a Baylor University professor who collaborated on papers with him — say he sometimes told them so. Other people say they simply assumed it.
"We had heard that he had worked for the government, worked at Fort Detrick," said Dr. Daniel Knobel, a senior official in Project Coast. He was referring to the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md., where the government did biological weapons research.
Lt. Col. Kathleen W. Carr, the institute's deputy commander for operations, said there was no record of Dr. Ford's having worked there. In addition, a scientist who was a leading C.I.A. expert on biological warfare during this time said he had never heard of him. [They never heard of him.....hmmmm! -P.L.]
Indeed, Dr. Ford's only known connection to Fort Detrick is an unclassified 1988 newcomer's guide found among his belongings.
But the Irvine police have their suspicions. Detective Victor Ray said that before the search of the Ford property, he warned the F.B.I. agent in charge about reports that Dr. Ford had developed germs and toxins for the C.I.A. [This is true! He was working for the CIA - P.L.]
Detective Ray said that after three calls to bureau headquarters, the agent, Doug Baker, responded that Dr. Ford had worked for the C.I.A. and might have buried just about anything. Mr. Baker, speaking through an F.B.I. spokesman, denied this.
One thing that is clear is that Dr. Ford was involved with the apartheid government of South Africa. Just what he was doing, though, is far less clear.
After his death, Detective Ray said, the authorities learned that Dr. Ford had been a consultant to Project Coast, which has been accused of creating weapons for use against enemies of apartheid. They also discovered that he had held extreme racist views and had once told a girlfriend that to understand him, she should read "The Turner Diaries," the anti-Semitic and white supremacist novel, popular among far-right groups, that was prosecutors say inspired the Oklahoma City bombing.
Over the years, Dr. Ford made a number of trips to South Africa. His laboratory assistant and constant companion, Valerie Kesler, says she traveled there with him at least six times.
Speaking through her lawyer, Ms. Kesler said that Dr. Ford had once carried a vial in his vest pocket and handed it to a South African official at the airport. Dr. Ford, she remembered, was extremely nervous throughout the flight. Years later, she said, she realized that the vial held lethal bacteria, endangering everyone on the plane.
Dr. Wouter Basson, the cardiologist who ran Project Coast, said Dr. Ford twice brought biological samples "in his pocket." They were not dangerous, he said, and "had no military significance." [I have a bridge for sale!...if you believe that - P.L.]
After the fall of apartheid, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission conducted an extensive investigation of Project Coast. In 1998, Project Coast scientists told the commission that they had produced, among other weapons, chocolates and cigarettes infected with anthrax, milk laced with botulism, and enough cholera to cause "massive outbreaks."
In a 30-month nonjury trial, the judge, an apartheid-era holdover, dropped six murder charges against Dr. Basson, on the ground that the killings had occurred outside the country. Last spring, Dr. Basson was acquitted of all other charges, including murder conspiracy and drug trafficking.
In a recent interview in South Africa, Dr. Basson said he had invited Dr. Ford to lecture Project Coast scientists in 1987 because the program's Dr. Knobel had described Dr. Ford as an expert on chemical and biological weapons.
"Nothing he could offer was what we could use," Dr. Basson said.
Asked why Dr. Ford was later paid through the project's Swiss bank account, Dr. Basson said Dr. Knobel had told him to arrange payments for Dr. Ford's AIDS research. Both officials said they had tried to help Dr. Ford find a South African laboratory for AIDS research.
Ultimately, he was given space in an aerospace medicine laboratory to work on several projects using amniotic fluid collected from thousands of women in South African military hospitals. Why these projects were sponsored by the military, and what became of them, is unclear.
However, a South African military document about AIDS research, found in Dr. Basson's possession by investigators, mentioned "the acquisition of any relevant C.B.W. literature from Dr. Ford." The abbreviation C.B.W. is commonly used to refer to chemical and biological weapons.
Perhaps the deepest fear in the entire affair was that Dr. Ford had been working with anthrax. That trail, too, has run cold. [Not! - P.L]
After Dr. Ford's suicide, the police got tips that he had buried anthrax in a gold mine. They searched fruitlessly in California. Four months later, documents in a Nevada trash dump showed that Dr. Ford had been in touch with people involved in antitax and antigovernment groups. Some of them had tried to use bacteria to extract gold from dirt.
In December 2000, investigators searched a derelict gold milling site outside Henderson, Nev. They found a separator funnel, a white liquid and Dr. Ford's business card. A federal agent said they also found directions for making chemical and biological weapons, including anthrax. But that was all. The site's proprietor had recently died of unrelated causes. [Yeah, right! - P.L.]
As for the attempted murder case, the gunman remains unknown. The getaway driver, an accountant and friend of Dr. Ford's named Dino D'Saachs, was sentenced to 26 years to life after refusing to identify the shooter in return for leniency. [Someone who would 'take' 26 years, rather than identify the gunman, to me, says the gunman would kill him - even in prison - i.e. a gov't hit man, should he be ID'd P.L.]
Mr. Riley, who has recovered but for a faint scar, says he never suspected Dr. Ford. He has rebuilt the company the two of them ran, and he has made a settlement with Dr. Ford's wife, Diane. She has refused requests for interviews.
Even the doctor's suicide notes, scratched out while he was conferring with his lawyer on the last day of his life, offered no clues.
Dr. Ford promised to meet his wife and three children in heaven. "I was set up by evil," he wrote. "Fear not. I will be with you forever."
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
