The Rampage of Ryan O'Hara Read Free Page B

university in Ohio, where he enrolled after returning from a combat tour in Vietnam. He felt that the war protesters and rioters who were infesting the college campuses and streets of America were undermining the war, giving encouragement to the enemy, and by proxy causing the deaths of thousands of soldiers. So he decided to do something about it. It was the informant’s belief that the war in Vietnam was just one battle in the war against communism and that there was an even bigger and more important battle in that war taking place right here on American soil.
    “He watched as the radical Students for Revolutionary Change, aka the SRC, and Lenin’s Legion gained control of college campuses, indoctrinating students to their Marxist ideals and ultimately escalating their silent insurgency into a violent national insurrection that included bombings, murder, and destruction of property. He gathered intelligence on various Lenin’s Legion members and passed the information along to his FBI handlers. The information included word of their trips to communist Cuba for schooling in terrorist tactics. He also provided information regarding when and where bombing attacks were going to occur.
    “When all was said and done, the informant barely escaped with his life after his cover was blown in New York City. Later, he testified before several grand juries and a senate subcommittee. His testimony included your scumbag uncle’s statement that he and your aunt had cooked up the plot that resulted in my grandfather’s death, and that it was your aunt and anotherwoman who had built the device and planted it under the hood of the police vehicle, which was parked in the lot outside Park Police Station.
    “After several grand jury hearings, a federal judge ruled that the informant’s testimony would not be allowed as evidence in court because it was based on hearsay. That is to say, no one who was present with your aunt when she planted the bomb was available to corroborate his story.
    “It later came to light that the woman who assisted your aunt in making the bomb and was with her when it was hooked up to the ignition of the radio car became fearful that the authorities were closing in on Lenin’s Legion. In hopes of saving her own skin, she decided to turn on the group. Her name was Linda Longmeir.
    “An attorney representing Longmeir had several meetings with representatives of the FBI, the San Francisco Police Department, and the San Francisco district attorney’s office. The parties were attempting to iron out an agreement that would grant Longmeir immunity in exchange for testimony implicating your aunt and uncle—not only in the murder of my grandfather, but also for scores of other bombings and acts of domestic terrorism throughout the country. Before the arrangements could be completed, however, Longmeir turned up dead. Her decomposing body was found hanging from a tree in an isolated grove near an old windmill at the west end of Golden Gate Park several days after her attorney reported her missing. The coroner’s office declared the death a suicide, but a lot of skepticism was expressed about that ruling.
    “With Longmeir dead, there was no one to corroborate the informant’s testimony regarding youraunt rigging the bomb to the ignition of the police car. The mere fact that your uncle Bill told the informant that Brenda had done it was not enough, because the hearsay rule forbids third-party information from being used against a defendant at trial without a corroborative witness who was on the scene when a crime was committed. Longmeir’s death negated any value that your uncle’s statement to the informant may have had in a case against your aunt.
    “The case still may have been prosecutable had the lead FBI investigator been more careful in overseeing the collection of wiretap evidence. Whether intentional or through oversight, the collection of the evidence was ruled to have been collected in violation of the