Notes On Illegal Surveillance And Organized Stalking

Since my children and I continue to find clear indications of the presence of large amounts of illegal surveillance equipment in our house and on our property on an almost daily basis (and are positive this equipment is still fully operational and functioning because of various acts and actions committed regularly by persons stalking us), I could go on documenting this here indefinitely as I’ve been doing in preceding posts. (I almost certainly will be returning to this at some point.) However, I believe, for various reasons, that now is a good time for me to pause and summarize what I’ve both found and documented so far, discuss what it means, and compare it with things I’m currently learning and hearing from other victims of organized stalking.

My children and I have been victims of organized stalking for twelve years (with no end in sight). The children are now young adults (all over the age of 18), but they were all underage victims for many years. We believe we are being targeted as part of a “Trammel” conspiracy (see my "Code Names" post from 9/28/09) in order to illegally obtain our house and land for development by physicians and other persons connected with our local hospital.

Most of the various kinds of stalking-related incidents committed against us could not possibly have been committed without the persons committing them having had access to extensive minute-to-minute knowledge of our whereabouts at all times plus knowledge of what goes on inside our house, on our property, and inside our vehicles. A few of these incidents might be considered coincidental, but thousands of them, committed day after day for twelve years, are not. Because of this, we are positive that illegal surveillance equipment is installed in our home and vehicles and on our property.

Over the years, I have hired a number of private investigators (p.i.s) licensed with the Private Security Board (PSB) of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to find and remove this equipment and gather evidence to be used to prosecute individuals installing it and accessing information from it. These p.i.s charged me large sums of money for this but never actually did anything and also defrauded me in other serious ways. (I filed complaints with the DPS about this, but they refused to do anything.) Some of these investigators were (or claimed to be) former federal law enforcement agents and/or persons with close ties to federal agencies.

Because there were also clear signs that local law enforcement officers were involved in the stalking of us, I then hired Diop Kamau of the Police Complaint Center, a nationally know organization that’s linked to many respected law enforcement websites, to help me deal with the stalking and the illegal surveillance. Instead, Kamau also defrauded and victimized me. When I discovered this and confronted him, he began insisting that I allow persons in his employ to enter our home and remove some sort of equipment they’d installed, but he repeatedly refused to describe, list, or give me the locations of any of this equipment, so I refused them entry. Kamau then threatened us with an illegal invasion of our home by local police officers to remove the equipment (see “Illegal Surveillance, Part III”, posted here on 11/12/09).

I filed repeated complaints with the DPS, the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) begging them for protection, asking them to properly sweep our property for illegal devices and remove and prosecute for them, requesting that they prosecute the various other serious crimes committed against us (which I repeatedly submitted extensive documentation of), and more; I even personally visited the San Antonio FBI office three times. None of these agencies would do anything to help us. Sample responses I’ve received from them are posted here under "Today The DOJ Said" (12/4/10), "DOJ Civil Rights Division" (6/28/10), and "The DOJ Said" (9/19/09).

At the same time, local first responders had serious problems with missing, unaccounted for, or improperly used surveillance and other equipment, much of it purchased with federal grant money. (See, for example, my "Defibrillators" (10/7/09) and "Missing Equipment" (1/14/11) posts here.) Not long after the threatened invasion of our home, Brian Collister of WOAI reported on over $30 million worth of missing federal equipment, much of it sophisticated surveillance equipment (see “Illegal Surveillance Summary”, posted here on 11/17/09). Collister said he had turned a list of this equipment over to Rep. Lamar Smith, who promised to look into it, but as far as I know, nothing was ever done. It’s also important to note that there are companies located here that have federal contracts to manufacture some of this equipment.

Because I was not able to obtain any of the help we needed despite years of constantly trying, I was advised to start documenting what was being done to us and to others here on a blog, which was why this one was started. Eventually, the blog attracted international attention. It has been assistance from outside the U.S. that has enabled us to start locating and documenting the illegal surveillance equipment being used to facilitate the stalking of us, rather than U.S. help of any kind. That fact alone ought to cause every American citizen considerable concern and dismay!

The vast majority of the population knows stalking only as a one-on-one kind of criminal victimization and has trouble dealing with the concept of organized stalking, the idea that people can be (and are!) being deliberately stalked by large groups of people who are being given access to illegal surveillance of victims wholesale. It is my fervent hope that the things I’m describing, explaining, photographing, and posting here will go a long way toward educating the general public about what’s really going on. For example, the ways I’ve illustrated and explained that illegal equipment has been installed in and on our house alone require the involvement of skilled professional electricians, carpenters, construction experts, wallpaper and flooring installation experts, heating and air conditioning technicians, painters, electronics and telecommunication experts, computer experts, and more. There’s simply no way a single person could have this much expertise!

There’s no question about the fact that large numbers of people are currently participating in the illegal stalking, harassment, and victimization of others, both here and around the world. The question then becomes why. For an excellent discussion of this at the interpersonal level, please see "Science Is A Freedom" at the Medawar's Cornflakes blog (posted 12/14/08) and "The Culture Of Impunity" (posted here on 1/4/11). For views on how this fits into an historical perspective, please see “Empire Builders”, posted here on 10/30/10. As to why large numbers of people would knowingly and willingly access illegal surveillance of others (including young children), often in their most private moments, I direct your attention to the excellent book People Of The Lie, by the late F. Scott Peck.

This blog has brought me into contact with other victims of organized stalking from across the U.S. and all over the globe. One major trend that’s emerging as we compare notes is that victims commonly report being followed and/or stalked by either persons flashing law enforcement badges or persons who say they were asked to follow or commit harassing or illegal acts against someone by a person or persons flashing law enforcement badges and claiming to be law enforcement officers (often federal). U.S. citizens (and those of most other countries as well) should be aware that no legitimate law enforcement officer will ever do this, and that is someone ever asks them to do anything like this, they should refuse and threaten to call legitimate law enforcement—and then do it!. People also need to be aware that a high percentage of the time, the badges the people making these requests flash at them are fake (even though some of these are extremely realistic-looking). I have personally seen some of the people following me flash very official-looking badges at people, so I know for a fact that this is occurring. Several times, this happened to me at various post offices, after which the item I was mailing disappeared or was seriously tampered with.

Many victims of organized stalking also report the involvement of local law enforcement officers. A new trend that is developing, however, is the extensive involvement of “community policing” groups or organizations, some of which appear to actually be operating solely as a cover for organized stalking. (Comparisons with Nazi Germany here are encouraged!)

There’s one extremely important trend in particular that’s emerging as a result of my sharing information with other organized stalking victims that fellow victims must be made aware of. Many victims are reporting that their stalking began because someone powerful, wealthy, or well-connected badly wanted something they had. Usually, this is real estate, but sometimes it’s a spouse or significant other, assets, or something else that’s coveted. Often, the specific targeting day after day, plus the lack of help from authorities, combine to make victims believe that if they simply give up what is wanted and leave the area, the stalking will stop. When they do this, however, victims discover to their horror that their stalking not only continues, but actually worsens. This is because whoever is behind the stalking now both knows what “gets to” that particular victim and is anxious to silence and/or discredit the victim about what they know. (The “discredit” part is done by deliberately making others believe the victim is mentally ill. Please remember that it’s the stalkers who actually have the mental problems, not their victims!)

Here in Central Texas, by comparing notes with fellow organized stalking victim Dr. John Hall, I’ve been able to identify some of the individuals who’ve committed acts of stalking and harassment against us as members of what appears to be a major stalking gang out of the extended San Antonio area that’s run by one of the licensed p.i.s who defrauded me. This man is discussed as “P.I. #2” in my 3/25/11 post, “Who Lied?”. Although one San Antonio FBI agent personally told me P.I. #2 had once worked as an FBI agent and a second San Antonio FBI agent told Dr. Hall the same thing, so far no one that I’m aware of has been able to obtain confirmation of this in writing directly from Quantico. Regardless of whether P.I. #2 ever actually worked as a federal agent or not, he certainly has known close ties to the San Antonio FBI office, where I have every reason to suspect he might have been given improper access to classified information. According to Dr. Hall, P.I. #2 employs mainly extended family members of his and his wife’s to do the stalking, and I know that on one of my visits to the San Antonio FBI office to request help, these relatives of his were allowed to party loudly both in the lobby of the building and out in front of the building the entire time I was there. (When I was persuaded to hire him as a p.i. without realizing who he really was, he twice wore shirts belonging to one of my children to meetings with me and lied about where he got them!)

I’m told it’s very expensive to hire these gangs to stalk someone, so if you are a victim of organized stalking, it’s important to try to identify both the particular gang that’s stalking you and the person, entity, or organization that hired them. In our particular case, based on the many serious incidents we’ve documented in our logbooks over many years, we believe the expensive formal stalking gang out of San Antonio appears to have been hired in more of an “advisory capacity” and for specific incidents only. The more routine, day-to-day stalking of us seems to be done by locals whose services are likely either free or far cheaper. I do believe, based on comparisons with Dr. Hall and other victims (some of whom have also filed serious criminal complaints against this same gang that have also been ignored) that the San Antonio gang, with its known connections to federal law enforcement, is likely to have been involved with the installation of illegal surveillance equipment in our house and on our property. Interestingly, some of the known or suspected victims of this San Antonio gang are located in other states, meaning this particular gang has a reach that is well beyond Texas.

Now there are apparently new problems with the use of federal grant money in Texas; see the San Antonio Express-News article below). The statement about the DPS’s refusal to respond to requests for information about this is especially interesting. And this article further begs the question of whether any of the equipment sealed within the walls, cabinets, tile, porches, and elsewhere or installed or mounted in our vehicles and on our property was purchased with federal funds.

Another Jimmy Brown?

There certainly are a lot of people named Jimmy Brown involved in our case. (If you haven't done so already, please read "My Story" at the very beginning of this blog.)

My ex-husband made some comments about this at the end of my 11/24/09 posting here entitled "What's The Buzz?" about one or more of these people. Here I'm providing a page from the Texas DPS-PSB website that gives information on licensed private investigators in the state of Texas. How coincidental is it that a person with the name of Jimmy Brown just happened to be licensed under one of Ed Hodges' companies?

I think this Jimmy Brown is probably the same person who used to work as a security guard at our local hospital and was a very close associate of my ex-husband's--so close that for at least a couple of years he was at my ex-husband's home virtually every time my children went over there for visitation. He even went on vacations to the aforementioned waterfront house in British Colombia, Canada with my ex-husband and my children.

If this Jimmy Brown and that Jimmy Brown are the same Jimmy Brown, then this Jimmy Brown died very suddenly on the same day that my youngest child and I saw a city ambulance parked along the street directly in front of my ex-husband's office around 7 A.M., and this Jimmy Brown provided a link between my ex-husband and Ed Hodges. My kids are still extremely upset and frightened over Mr. Brown's sudden demise. Oh, and Ed Hodges is also now deceased.

Fredericksburg Police Chief

This old photo of the current Fredericksburg police chief was published in the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post's July 9, 2008 edition.

Years ago, I was told that this man had worked as an undercover narcotics officer but was fired by the DEA for using and stealing cocaine. I was also told he was sent to some sort of rehab. program.

A few years later, he was appointed police chief after having been recommended by a Texas Ranger who had headed the DPS's state Criminal Investigations unit.

Texas Ranger Heritage Center

One of the biggest controversies swirling around Central Texas these days concerns why the Former Texas Ranger Foundation suddenly announced they were scrapping previous plans to build a "Texas Ranger Heritage Center" on land they owned in Kerrville and would be building the facility in Fredericksburg instead. All sorts of accusations and blame have been flying back and forth between various entities involved in the situation, and I don't really feel I have enough of the most critical information I'd need to weigh in effectively at this time.

Here's what I do know. The Texas Rangers were started by Stephen F. Austin in 1823, making them the oldest law enforcement agency in North America. The Rangers, who have a rich historic (and often controversial) past, are now an elite part of the Texas Department of Public Safety (TX DPS). In 1982, the Texas Ranger Association Foundation was created to assist Rangers and their families in times of need, provide scholarships for the children of Rangers, perpetuate the history of the Rangers, and help run the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, the official historical center of the Texas Rangers. This organization has sponsored official reunions and fundraisers for years and is run by a statewide board consisting of representatives from all of the Ranger companies. It has an outstanding reputation statewide as far as I know, having given substantial financial aid to qualifying individuals over the years, doing a fine job of caring for the Waco museum, and preserving and publishing Ranger history.

The group planning to build the Texas Rangers Heritage Center, first in Kerrville and now in Fredericksburg, is called the Former Texas Rangers Foundation (FTRF) and is separate from the Texas Ranger Association Foundation. According to a recent press release, the center the FTRF plans to build in Fredericksburg will have 41,350 square feet of space. It will contain 5 galleries, including a Ranger Ring of Honor (a memorial to Rangers who've died in the line of duty) and an auditorium that will also be available for community use. The planned center will house historical artifacts and documents and will serve as the headquarters of the FTRF.

The FTRF has been holding major fundraisers such as galas and golf tournaments for the past decade in the Kerrville area for their planned center, and they had purchased 15 acres on Texas 173 across from the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville to build it on. According to their head, Joe Davis, the foundation has raised $5.4 million for the project.

Various local newspaper accounts say certain (but notably not all) Kerrville city officials began hearing last summer that foundation officials were thinking about moving their planned center to Fredericksburg. Various Kerrville officials say they repeatedly informed the FTRF about the steps necessary for applying for various financial and other incentives that were available but that the foundation would not follow any of the application procedures and never even submitted any building plans.

In March of this year, the FTRF announced they'd decided to build their Texas Rangers Heritage Center in Fredericksburg instead. Fredericksburg offered the foundation a package that included 7.1 acres of land adjacent to Fort Martin Scott, water, sewer, and electric service to the site, and to pay the bills for any necessary archaeological studies. Kerrville donors who'd supported the project faithfully for years under the assumption they were supporting a Kerrville project were upset, as you can imagine.

Kerrville officials began suddenly spreading information that had been previously reported by the San Antonio newspaper, namely that the FTRF was ranked second in the nation for inefficiency in its fundraising efforts by nonprofit watchdog group charitynavigator.org, spending $1.54 for every $1.00 raised. Sandra Miniutti, charitynavigator.org vice president, was quoted in the March 6-7 edition of the Kerrville Daily Times as saying, "Personally, I would not give to this organization." Kerrville officials claim the foundation never gave them an official explanation for the sudden move. There hasn't been any announcement about what will happen to the Kerrville property now, either, except that Davis says it's "currently being appraised". The FTRF says they hope to begin construction within the next 12 months, "although economic factors could delay the start of construction" (quoted from the 3/3/10 edition of the Kerrville Daily Times).

Now here are some of the things I don't know but want very much to find out. The first time I drove by the Kerrville property purchased by the FTRF along the Guadalupe River and saw their sign, I immediately noticed that it appeared to lie within the river's floodplain. Yes, the property is in a great location for tourism, being directly opposite the entrance to the well-established Western Art Museum, but the museum is also considerably uphill. I want to know whether any floodplain/drainage studies were done when the foundation purchased this property and what the results were. I'd also like to know who the foundation purchased the property from and how much they paid for it.

As people who've lived here for any length of time will tell you, flood and drainage information for property here is crucial, because there's so little soil for rainwater to soak into that it generally only goes up. Our usually dry climate is notorious for tricking people into thinking it's safe to build close to our beautiful rivers and streams, until one of our occasional "gullywashers" suddenly makes them realize it's not. Early settlers in this region quickly learned (often after watching their homes and businesses wash away) to walk a fine line between building close enough to the water that they wouldn't have to carry it far and far enough away to be safe when it floods.

My own personal opinion on the matter (which you can take for whatever it's worth) is that the property the FTRF bought and said they intended to build on in Kerrville looked too low. In fact, after I saw it, I emailed both the Texas Rangers and our local San Antonio reporter to ask whether the floodplain situation with regard to the property had ever been checked out. (I never received any replies.) Note that a good deal of the property both up- and downstream from the foundation's tract is currently in use as parkland precisely because it does tend to flood (and, interestingly, much of the rest of it now has new construction).

I also want very much to know why the Texas Rangers want another museum so badly when they already have a well-established one in Waco. In fact, the Texas Rangers Association Foundation also seems to be questioning this, because they wrote a lengthy letter to the Kerrville Daily Times (published in the March 20-21 issue) putting as much distance between themselves and the FTRF as possible. I'm confused about why the FTRF says specifically in their press release they want the new facility to house historical documents and artifacts when I thought these were kept at the Waco museum--why split them up?

There's no doubt that the new site proposed for the FTRF center is very tourist-friendly, being located next to an established historic attraction (Fort Martin Scott) and just outside the "tourist Mecca" of Fredericksburg--see also my "They Do What?" post from 3/30/10 below. (Notably, the new site also happens to be somewhat topographically low.)

There's also no doubt that a lot of Texas Rangers and other very high-level TX DPS officials retire here. In fact, a former Ranger who headed the entire criminal investigations division of the TX DPS came back to our town (where he'd grown up with my former father-in-law) to be our police chief and live in a house owned by my ex-husband's family. (This man has since passed away, but not before personally recommending our current police chief, also a lifelong close friend of my ex-husband's family.)

Finally, I need to note here that my children and I have often noticed we are being followed by retired Rangers or other persons connected with the TX DPS. Many of these people don't seem to realize that over the years we've gradually learned who they are and what they are doing. They certainly don't seem to care that what they are doing to us constitutes stalking and/or illegal surveillance, since their backgrounds in law enforcement mean they know what they're doing is illegal. What would Walker say??

The Governor's Tast Force [sic]

After I finally received the documents I'd asked for in an open records request for copies of everything the Texas DPS had concerning my case as discussed in my previous post, I began looking the pages over carefully. I immediately noticed many problems with them: they were incomplete (from the page numbers, pages were missing); the pages concerning the former DEA and FBI agents I'd filed complaints about were not signed by the investigator as the other pages were; many of the investigator's statements were inaccurate or misleading (and some were totally false); and in one place, my name was listed along with my ex-husband's address!

I also noticed the statement excerpted here about a "Governor's Tast Force" [sic] that I could potentially go to for help. Although the investigator states that he told me about this when he and a colleague came to my house and interviewed me after I'd filed my complaints, I have no memory of either of them mentioning this. I assumed he meant there was some sort of task force that investigated corrupt law enforcement, so I emailed Gov. Perry's office to see if I could talk to them.

A female staffer of the governor's soon called me, and she said she wasn't sure what I'd asked about, so I explained about this statement in the document and offered to fax her a copy. She gave me the fax number for Gov. Perry's office, and I immediately sent the page to her. After about an hour, she called me back and said no one in the governor's office knew what this task force was and that they couldn't help me.

Recently I have learned the governor does indeed have multiple task forces, some with known purposes and others said to be secretive. I still don't know exactly what task force the DPS investigator was referring to here (and he never returned my phone calls asking about it), but it seems clear at this point that, for whatever reason, my children and I won't be getting any help from it.

Revoked

I am posting these documents in response to a series of comments my ex-husband made on 1/18/2010 underneath my "Right On Schedule" blogposting below regarding the late Ed Hodges, one of the private investigators who defrauded me and committed other criminal acts against me. These are official documents from the Texas Department of Public Safety (TX DPS) that prove Ed Hodges lost his p.i. license as a result of formal complaints I filed with them against him. (I am the client referred to in the documents.)

There are some important things to note here. The TX DPS never notified me that Ed Hodges' licenses had been revoked; I discovered this fact accidentally when I did some internet checking on 12/27/06 and came across the page from the DPS website shown here. When I still had not received any notification from the DPS a few months later, I filed an open records request asking for copies of all documents related to my complaints. An official with the DPS told me I had to send my request for these documents plus a postal money order for the copying costs by certified mail, but when I did this, the USPS and the DPS both tried to tell me my letter had been lost. Then when I received the green receipt card back in the mail, I noticed certain irregularities on it. When I started looking into these, I suddenly got a call from the DPS saying they'd fax me the documents. This "Order of Revocation" was one of the documents I received in the fax from the DPS. I was shocked that I'd never been notified about how my complaint had been resolved, and I was even more shocked by serious problems I found in many of the other documents I was sent in the same fax concerning other private investigators I'd also filed serious and well-documented complaints against.

As far as I know, Ed Hodges was the only p.i. ever disciplined in any way by the DPS in my case, and he was never investigated or charged with any criminal wrongdoing, even though he and others clearly committed multiple serious criminal acts. [See many of my earlier postings here.] I'm fairly sure that even Hodges was only disciplined after I'd contacted numerous major consumer rights organizations, crime victim advocates, and media representatives about what had been done to us.

My ex-'s 1/18/2010 comments about Hodges not only make no sense in light of what I have extensive documented proof of; they don't even agree with some of my ex-'s other comments in which he makes fun of me for having been victimized by Hodges and others. I have been told by several locals that Ed Hodges was actually related to my former father-in-law's law partner and that Hodges was also related to a local woman who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and serves as officer-in-charge of the CENTROM Intelligence Support Center--New Orleans in support of Counter-Terrorism Targeting and Analysis.

The G-Man Down The Road

The former FBI agent working as a private investigator and certified fraud investigator who defrauded me in 2005 (see my 9/16/09 post entitled "They Said") once insisted that I meet with him in his home in a nice subdivision just off I-10 near Boerne. (Much later, a DPS senior investigator told me p.i.s are not supposed to do this.) At his house, I met his wife, whom he said worked for him, as did their adult children.

While I was there, the former FBI agent showed me his gun and badge, which were in a glass case. Nearly, I noticed a distinctive framed art print that appeared to be either very similar or identical to one I'd remembered seeing on the wall of the FBI agent who lived next door to my father and stepmother (see "The G-Man Next Door" below). I was surprised to see a copy of this print in Texas, because I associated the artist (who has a very distinctive style and was a friend of my late mother's) more with the state my father lives in.

Several times during this and subsequent meetings with this man, he mentioned that his wife had been a high school classmate of a very prominent San Antonio attorney. (I later learned this attorney is a major criminal defense lawyer.) The former agent also told me (but always verbally, never in writing) on several different occasions that another former classmate of his wife's had been an FBI agent and colleague of his but, like him, had retired and become a private investigator. However, he described this former colleague as a "rogue agent" [his exact words] who'd gotten mixed up with a criminal known as "Murph The Surf" who had murdered a woman in Florida. He and the former DEA agent-turned-p.i. who'd recommended I hire him told me on several occasions they had reason to believe my ex-husband was somehow involved with these criminals, but they would not give me any proof or additional information on this, and I didn't know whether to believe them or not.

Also during this and subsequent meetings with the retired agent, he mentioned that he and his wife were involved in some sort of prison ministry that involved regularly visiting inmates on behalf of their church. I'm not familiar with the particular church they belonged to, but over the years, I've noticed that many of the churches here whose finances are handled only by very close associates of my former father-in-law also have these prison ministries. (They have extensive ongoing missionary projects in Mexico and Central America as well that involve frequent member trips to these countries.)

The final thing I need to mention for now about my meetings with this former FBI agent is that twice when I met with him, he was wearing a t-shirt identical to two owned by one of my children. These shirts were very distinctive, and both times I mentioned to the agent that one of my kids owned the same shirt. He just laughed it off as coincidence at the time, but a few weeks after I fired him (see "My Story" at the beginning of this blog), both of these shirts suddenly turned up together in my offspring's overnight bag upon returning from visitation with their dad, and they said they did not know how the shirts got in there. I have been forced to conclude that the ex-agent deliberately wore my child's shirts while meeting with me as a sick joke.

After I accidentally discovered this man was not really working for me and fired him, I began to have serious and repeated problems with him stalking and harassing me (that I have kept records of). One of these incidents occurred while I was driving to San Antonio on I-10 to meet with a lawyer who'd been recommended to me by the State Bar of Texas' referral service. As I passed the entrance ramp located closest to the former agent's house, he suddenly pulled up behind me and began tailgating me extremely aggressively. After doing this for several minutes, he changed lanes, drove right up beside me until he was sure I recognized him, grinned and waved, and then sped off; I saw him exit the freeway at the next off-ramp. (My meeting with the lawyer that day did not go well, especially after I accidentally discovered he was a close friend of the son of my ex-husband's divorce lawyer while I was there.) [I have discovered serious conflict of interest problems with every single lawyer I've been referred to by the state bar.]

All this happened in 2005, but I still sometimes see this man, his wife, or people in his vehicles who appear to be his family members, following and harassing me occasionally, and I have documented incidences of seeing him or his vehicle/s parked outside office buildings owned by my ex- and his family. Although I filed an extremely serious and well-documented complaint against him with the p.i. licensing bureau, the DPS refused to discipline him in any way; in fact, a DPS investigator lied to me over the phone by telling me he could find no record of this man's ever having worked for the FBI. (The tape I made of this phone call has been tampered with.) Even after I complained in person to a San Antonio FBI agent that on one occasion the guy had been following me so closely that I believe his car bumper touched mine when I stopped at a stop sign near my home, nothing was ever done about him.

Texas As A Third World Country

Lately, living in Texas seems more like being in a third-world country than in the United States of America. Gov. Rick Perry treats the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and rangers like his own personal army, ordering them to the border on short notice for secret missions that are never explained publicly. (The helicopters that buzzed us on 11/23/09 as previously reported in my “What’s The Buzz?” blog posting may have belonged to the DPS. We have been buzzed at all hours by what look like military aircraft many times over the last ten years.) People write in to local newspapers complaining about being buzzed by drone aircraft; my children and I have also been victims of this, and it is very startling and frightening. Local ranches look like military fortresses. I have already discussed the situation with regard to illegal surveillance and millions of dollars worth of missing federal equipment (some of it expensive and sophisticated helicopter-mounted surveillance equipment); see my “Illegal Surveillance Summary” blogpost below. There are persistent rumors of billions of dollars being hidden by locals in offshore accounts and being laundered through real estate, banks, charities, businesses, and even schools.

Texas’ Republican senators insist on being able to choose appointees for important federal positions in Texas, and so far, President Obama does not seem either able or willing to stand up to them: for example, the apparent stand-off currently going on over an appointment to the position of U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Texas (our federal district). Texas State Senator John Whitworth (D, Houston) received a death threat from a convict on death row via a cell phone that had been smuggled into the prison; an investigation of this led to the discovery of so many smuggled-in phones and other contraband that it was considered easier to pursue legislation allowing the jamming of airwaves inside prisons than to try and keep contraband out.

Much of our personal (i.e., non-junk) mail arrives wide open, crudely taped or glued shut after having been opened, damp from having been steamed open, with parts of the contents deliberately pulled out [remember, they brag about lawbreaking here], with strange/goofy markings added, etc. One piece of mail I received from Diop Kamau had what looked like a pubic hair taped to the opening that had to have been added locally (because, from the way it was sticking up, it would not have been likely to survive in the mail). I have a stack over an inch thick of receipts for mail that was lost or stolen that the USPS and various private carriers have repeatedly refused to do anything about. If you input the tracking numbers on some of these, you will see tracking information that is absolute nonsense and was obviously made up by someone. Other tracking numbers from these receipts simply bring up a “No Record” message.

People here build secret rooms in their homes, stockpiling weapons and ammunition as discussed in my “Secret Rooms” blog previously. Separatism and survivalism are preached openly on the streets by “Patriots For Freedom” and others. Local churches have rooms full of computer equipment and heavy security, and only persons with the closest ties to my ex-husband’s family are allowed to handle church finances.

Court documents and official records of all kinds are filed without being properly notarized (ex.: our case), disappear and reappear (ex.: former Gillespie County Judge Jay Weinheimer’s case), etc. Corrupt judges are allowed to resign when caught so they can retain their pensions (ex.: Karl Prohl). Other judges (both current and retired) are simply never prosecuted for wrongdoing (ex.: our own case), despite overwhelming proof of involvement. I have heard D.A. Curry being called "Let 'Em Loose Bruce".

At any given time, approximately one-fourth of vehicles seen around here have clearly illegal license plates: no front plate; no back plate; no plates at all; plates illegally obscured by plastic, mud, scratches, large plate frames, etc.; “cover plates” that flip up or down over existing plates; temporary dealer plates that are often either outdated or on vehicles that are ancient; plates that belong on other vehicles (this one is particularly common!); plates that are expired; and plates that are clearly fake, either because they look crude or because they mimic a custom plate but contain a word or meaning that would normally be censured (ex.: a plate on an unmarked law enforcement pickup reading “GLOCK U”). A substantial percentage of vehicles also have illegally dark window tints. Parked at the local high schools, you will see more luxury vehicles than “bangers” (and you will also sometimes see assault rifles and hunting rifles on racks in the windows; in the past, I've reported these, and law enforcement does nothing).

STRATFOR has been quoted nationally as reporting that corrupt law enforcement is a major problem here, yet the U.S. Department of Justice refuses to do anything about it. Law enforcement officers buy and sell illegal substances (ex.: the DPS trooper from Boerne recently arrested for selling steroids), and some have clear symptoms and histories of personal substance abuse problems. My children and I have been tailgated by current and former law enforcement officers, often so aggressively that we are nearly bumped. In one case, we may have actually been bumped gently while stopping for a stop sign. In another case, after one of my children and I were harassed and frightened at night by a state trooper in a marked patrol car, I complained to the DPS, but of course nothing was done about it. I have personally heard persons with connections to local law enforcement talking about officers being stationed on top of local hills with special scopes “that can read license plates from distances of up to 5 miles away” in order to monitor vehicles. A new police substation downtown has a concrete-lined storage room and cooking facility located beneath it that city officials said in the local newspaper was for “parties”.

Then there are the homicides. Deaths are ruled suicides or accidents under the most outrageous circumstances: clear signs of torture (ex.: Phillip Shue), multiple gunshots (ex.: John Dillday), gunshots to the stomach by long-barrelled weapons (ex.: Preston Nelson; Kimberly Weirich barely survived this; her brother Matt barely survived a suspicious fall off a cliff in his underwear in near-freezing temperatures in Austrailia that he claims was an accident). Local police watch people burn to death (ex.: Sandy Smith) or drown (ex.: Courtney Foreman) and do nothing, gun people down in officer-involved shootings, are the last ones to see people alive (ex.: Theresa Vallado), arrive too quickly on the scene of homicides (ex.: Linda Muegge), and try to pass homicides off as accidents (ex.: Linda Muegge, Mary Rose Warburton, Trudy Harris). Murder victims are lured into certain counties before being killed (exs.: Norman Roark, Cassie Ann Hough) or are dumped in certain counties after being murdered (ex.: Yuhuai Yan). Law enforcement officers are often the only ones able to locate persons missing under suspicious circumstances (ex.: Tony Shans, supposedly drowned while fishing during a heavy rain storm and flooding). Pilots seem to be especially prone to dying under suspicious circumstances around here; we once lost 3 in a single day: Ronald and Helen DeLoof (plane crash) and Robert Wilson (found dead in a vehicle). Victims of suspicious deaths also seem to turn up on pilots’ property (ex.: William Watson, found dead on property owned by a pilot with very close personal ties to my ex-husband). People suddenly die shortly before they are to testify before grand juries (ex.: Cynthia Parker). Siblings all suddenly die (ex.: Sherman Klein, Stephen Klein, and Ellen Klein Russell). The latest trend in suspicious deaths around here is the use of fire, both in homes (ex.: Linda Muegge), with vehicles (ex.: Carla Saylor and Marietta McDonald), and with aircraft (exs. in a previous post), probably to destroy foreign DNA and other forensic evidence. Crime labs and medical examiners statewide are woefully inadequate or corrupt or both. (Gov. Perry fired the head of the statewide group that oversees medical examiners just as they were starting to investigate the possible innocence of a man executed for deaths ruled arson that appear to have actually been accidental.)

According to recent news reports, the Mexican city of Juarez, located directly across the border from El Paso, now averages 7 homicides per day, making it one of the deadliest cities in the world. Is this really what we want here? [Is this what we already have here??] I believe that to sit back and do nothing is the same thing as actively making the decision to let this happen.

Namedropping

A lot of well-known people live here or own property here or have other close ties to our area. The Bush Museum of the Pacific War is in Fredericksburg, and the Bush family has many ties here. (I once heard a local hospital official bragging that he used to routinely see “W” in the showers at a country club in Midland.) The LBJ Ranch is at Stonewall. Karl Rove lists his residence as Ingram (and votes there); Kinky Friedman also resides there. Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (ex-CIA) has a ranch between Kerrville and Fredericksburg. Business writer Roger Cameron has what looks like a fortress here. Well-known jewelry designer James Avery has his business and residence near Kerrville.

Over the years, I’ve also been told about many celebrities owning property here. George Strait has a ranch here. Patrick Swayze has/had an Arabian horse farm near Kerrville. Madeline Stowe and Brian Benben have a ranch here. Producer Lynda Obst has a ranch here; I remember my ex-husband telling me the local police chief’s former wife worked for her in some capacity. Robert and Shelly Duval own property here. I’ve been told that Kevin Costner and Jane Seymour own property here. Tommy Lee Jones (former Harvard suitemate of Al Gore and the inventors of the Internet) owns property nearby and used to sometimes phone my ex-husband on business. Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey are well-known homeowners in Austin who come here frequently; they are said to particularly enjoy the scenic Willow City Loop area. Luckenbach, with its country music stars, is here. (One of the p.i.s working for Ed Hodges that the Texas DPS refuses to discipline, despite my providing them with absolute proof of wrongdoing, owns a ranch close to Luckenbach.) Bill Ham, whom I was told is a major music producer, who apparently always travels with bodyguards, and whose wife was supposedly murdered in Austin years ago, owns property very close to mine. Johnny Nicholas (whose son died under suspicious circumstances at Colorado School of Mines) lives here and has a restaurant here. CBS News reporter Lara Logan is involved in a local divorce that has attracted attention from the tabloids. This is only a partial list, by the way.

Then there are the many current and former state and federal officials and employees who either live here or own property here. A number of the families of LBJ’s former Secret Service agents that my ex-husband grew up with have retired here. Retired FBI and CIA agents live here. All or most of the highest-ranking Texas DPS officers and officials seem to have retired to this area—so many, in fact, that the Texas Rangers have been raising funds to build a museum here (but their charity recently received a very low rating from a watchdog group, according to the San Antonio Express-News). For some reason, the FBI and certain community leaders are currently pushing the building of an FBI gun range and weapons training facility near the Kerrville landfill, even though the construction of a similar facility by the FBI just south of San Antonio had recently been announced and the location of the proposed Kerrville facility is causing serious controversy there due to its proximity to the local high school and residential areas.

While I’ve admittedly only listed a sampling of names here, there is one name I can’t drop—because I don’t know it. Back in the 1980s, when I was married, I remember my former father-in-law complaining constantly and bitterly about a “wealthy Japanese businessman” who was repeatedly out-bidding him for local property when it came onto the real estate market. I was never told this man’s name, however, and eventually my ex-husband’s family stopped talking about him, so I assumed he probably was a victim of the Japanese financial recession. I do recall that the time period when this guy was buying up local property was the same time that my former father-in-law (an attorney) said he was helping many celebrities buy property here.

Criminal Intent

After I fired Ed Hodges and company in January 2005, I began to notice that he had used the phrase "Semper Occultus" on some of his documents, as the examples show here; I noticed that he also had this phrase posted on his company's website. This website, which was the only one he ever directed me to, appears to have been set up around the time I first contacted Hodges, and it advertises international investigations his company had supposedly performed for Fortune 500 companies. (At the same time, the man from my church who'd recommended Hodges to me was telling me the same sort of things.)
Because Hodges and his associates only directed me to their own website and never told me about Texas DPS/PSB licensing rules and procedures or the DPS/PSB website for verifying private investigator licenses, I did not discover they'd committed numerous and repeated serious DPS violations: use of an unlicensed company, not being licensed to work for that company, impersonation of a licensed private security guard and private investigator, fake license number, no information on DPS website provided, no required DPS information on their correspondence, improper attire for private security guards, improper and fraudulent charges and invoices, no report or other materials provided when I requested them by certified mail, documented lies to me about having used private investigators "from a school in San Antonio", and more.
Although I complained repeatedly to the DPS/PSB, they refused to take disciplinary action against any of these people. I then filed a complaint with the TX OAG, but they too refused to do anything, so I began complaining to various national consumer organizations and providing them with copies of sample documentation. Eventually I received a call from DPS Trooper Taft Green saying Hodges' license (which he'd belatedly been granted) had been suspended pending an investigation. About six months later, I happened to check the DPS/PSB website and discovered that Hodges' p. i. license had been revoked, which no one with the DPS had ever bothered to notify me of. I also discovered that NONE of the other individuals who committed serious violations in my case had been disciplined in any way, even though I'd filed separate and well-documented complaints against them as well.
After learning Hodges' license had been revoked, I filed an open records request with the DPS for copies of all documents related to this. The DPS first tried to claim they never received my request; then they insisted I send them a money order to cover copying costs that supposedly somehow got lost in the mail (I have the mailing receipt for this) and then magically turned up when I filed a USPS complaint (with a very unusual signature card!). The documents I eventually received were incomplete, contained numerous false statements, were only partially signed, and in one case, listed my name with my ex-husband's address!

The Oral Surgeon and the Pilot

On May 25th, 2009, prominent Kerrville oral surgeon Dr. James Stokes and pilot Roger Nathanson were found dead in the remains of an ultralight aircraft on a ranch off Highway 16 between Fredericksburg and Kerrville that is owned by lifelong close friends of my ex-husband and his family. [This ranch adjoins one owned by the grandparents of another victim of a suspicious death.] According to newspaper accounts, the FAA concluded that the wings somehow came off this craft causing it to crash. None of the accounts I've seen say anything about what these two men were doing in this plane, where they were headed, etc.
A few days after this incident, the head of the Kerrville newspaper and his wife (both very close friends of Judge Ables and his wife) suddenly left town and were replaced by a man whose wife is from Fredericksburg. [The current Kerrville police chief's wife is also from Fredericksburg, as is the wife of Texas DPS Trooper Gates, newly assigned to our area.]

Addresses

This is a page from my 2003 contract with private investigator Ed Hodges. Aside from the fact that he wasn't properly licensed with the State of Texas at the time, it contains other licensing violations as well.
I wonder who these addresses belonged to in June 2003?

Impersonation

When I first hired private investigator Ed Hodges of Arlington, TX in 2003, he insisted I turn over certain items to him because he said they were important pieces of evidence that he needed to examine and turn over to law enforcement. He was very specific about what items he wanted, so I made this list of the items he asked for while talking with him on the phone. A short time later, a man who said he worked for Hodges and had just driven down from Dallas called and asked me to meet him at the Dairy Queen at the I-10/Comfort exit and bring the items with me, plus the hard drive from our family computer (which had recently crashed). I did as he asked, and as I helped him transfer the items to his vehicle (a red car), he told me he was a security guard hired by Hodges to bring the evidence safely to Dallas. I asked him to sign my list as a receipt for the items he was taking from me, and as you can see, he signed and dated it and even marked the time on it in his own handwriting.
After I confronted Hodges in January of 2005 and subsequently fired him, I discovered this man WASN'T either a licensed private security guard or a licensed private investigator, after I was finally told about the correct TX Department of Public Safety (DPS) website and looked him up. [Hodges had given me incorrect information about this because, as I also later discovered, he wasn't properly licensed either--and had used a phony license number on one document.] I also discovered that this man probably was from Kerrville, not Dallas, even though I had invoices with travel charges for him from Dallas, and that he had worn improper attire for a security guard in this state when I met with him.
I filed formal complaints against both men (and several others also involved in our case) with the DPS's Private Security Bureau (PSB), the agency that licenses private investigators and private security guards in Texas, and I provided them with this document and others containing proof of serious violations. However, despite the signature of this document alone proving this guy impersonated a licensed private security guard, the PSB/DPS absolutely refused to prosecute or discipline this man in any way, even after I made repeated complaints.
So much for protecting the public!--I can only conclude that the licensing process for private investigators and private security guards in Texas is worthless. I'll be glad to provide additional information and documentation to anyone who requests it.

I-10 At Comfort

The case of the elderly woman discussed in my previous posting is only one example of the many people who've turned up dead under suspicious circumstances in the I-10-Comfort area. Here are some additional examples for your consideration.
In January of 2000, the body of Yuhuai "J.J." Yan of San Antonio was brought to this area from elsewhere and dumped along the side of I-10 just into Gillespie County (only a small corner of which crosses the interstate). This death was ruled a homicide, and a gun dealer from Kerrville was questioned in the case, but no one has ever been charged.
On 3/12/03, Terry Ingram (52) and Pat Kutzer (59) were found brutally murdered on a ranch very close to the interstate here. A severely mentally incapacitated man from KY who appears incapable of defending himself was charged with this crime after his driver's license was conveniently dropped where it was sure to be found at the crime scene.
On 5/7/04, TX State Trooper Kurt Knapp (28) died in a wreck with another car at this interchange (the same one where the elderly woman in the previous posting was found). An article in a local newspaper stated that Trooper Knapp was working on some sort of special task force at the time.
A 9/2/05 local newspaper article mentioned a man from Comfort who was found dead on the side of the road near I-10. This man was never publicly identified, and no additional information was ever given out. I emailed a request to reporter Zeke MacCormack with the San Antonio Express-News asking him to find out who the man was, but Mr. MacCormack never responded to this.
In October of 2007, Theresa Vallado (38) of San Antonio drove to Fredericksburg for Oktoberfest. As she left town to head home, she was stopped by the Fredericksburg police. Shortly after that, she phoned her husband from I-10 to tell him she'd be back soon, but she never arrived. She was found dead in her vehicle under an overpass near Comfort--near wreaths for two other people who'd been found dead at the same spot on Christmas Eve in 1998.
On 2/2/09, Marietta McDonald (65) and Carla Saylor (44) died in a fiery wreck at the same interchange where Trooper Knapp had perished. A month later, David Guzman (40) of Selma and Robert Valderaz (74) of Comfort died in a flaming wreck nearby, on TX 27 west of Comfort in Kendall County. A month after that, Andrew Quasnitschka (21) died in a fiery crash on I-10 nearby in Kendall County.
These are just a few examples; there are many more, especially if you check a bit farther away in both directions--the Phillip Shue case, for example. Coincidentally, when I was married, my former father-in-law owned and rented out a ranch close to this interchange that was located either at the current site of the James Avery Craftsman's Comfort plant or adjacent to it. I don't know what happened to this property after my marriage ended. There used to be a flea market located across the road from this ranch that my children said their father and step-mother took them to many times, but I believe they said it has since closed down.

Location, Location, Location

The Bush Museum of the Pacific War is here. The LBJ ranch is here. My former father-in-law is a close associate of Tom Loeffler (both are from here) and a frat. brother of Red McCombs. My former brother-in-law who lives here went to college with Alberto Gonzales, and both became attorneys. Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (ex-CIA, Bolivia) has a ranch here. Many government officials and celebrities own property here. (Ex: Patrick Swayze raises Arabian horses here.)

My ex-husband grew up with the children of LBJ's Secret Service agents and knows many of them well. (Some of them have retired here.) Most of the highest-ranking officers of the Texas Department Safety seem to be from here or have ties here. The late head of the TX Rangers' CI unit grew up here with my former father-in-law and used to live in a house owned by my ex-husband's family.) The TX Rangers are planning a museum to be built here.

This ares is also considered a national aerospace, military, and security center. A major new military cyber-security facility is being planned for here. There are many companies here that have federal government contracts to manufacture sophisticated parts and equipment (including surveillance equipment) for the DHS, NASA, the CIA, and others; some of these same companies make equipment my ex-husband uses in his business. [Is any of this equipment among the millions of dollars worth of missing DHS equipment reported by WOAI?] There are ranches here that look more like military fortresses--the one owned by business writer Roger Cameron, for example. ("Follow the money.")

The Mexican border is only a few hours away by car.