Leonard Peltier

Were Dead Men

There is no question that the firefight was ferocious. Bullets flew in every direction, and several Indians, among them women and children, were pinned down in the crossfire. The FBI's own forensic investigation gives a glimpse of just how much firepower the agents faced from what the FBI believes was as many as seven armed Indians. "The agents," the FBI concluded, "had fired a total of five rounds during the incident. The agents' vehicles contained a total of 125 bullet holes. This total does not include the rounds that hit the agents, the windows or were misses."

Agent Jack Coler

A pathologist who studied the agents' remains for the feds declared that during the shootout the two agents were severely, though not fatally wounded. "Pathology reports disclosed that Agent Coler had been hit in the arm, which was nearly severed. The pathologist's opinion was that Agent Coler was disabled upon receiving that wound and would not have been able to continue the fight. Physical evidence demonstrated that Coler received the wound while standing at the open trunk of his car retrieving his long guns. Agent Williams' shirt had been wrapped around Agent Coler's arm as a tourniquet. The shirt had bullet wounds that coincided with wounds Agent Williams had received to his left arm and side. Additionally, Agent Williams had been shot in the foot. Neither of Agent Williams' wounds up to this point would have been fatal and his right arm was still operational."

Leonard Peltier, recent

Of all the rounds fired that day, however, there were three that particularly interested the FBI and which have served as the foundation for much of the government's case against Leonard Peltier. They were three .223-caliber rounds, fired, the FBI's report concludes, at close range, in what was, in the government's opinion, a coup de grace on the two wounded agents. According to the FBI report, "physical evidence showed that Agent Williams had received a defensive wound though his right hand. The same bullet then traveled through his head, killing him instantly. Agent Coler was lying on the ground, unconscious or nearly unconscious, when he was shot once in the top of his head, but the wound was not fatal. Agent Coler was then shot a second time near the jaw. This wound was fatal."

AR-15 rifle

Bachrach disputes that. "I have a packet of evidence that's not clear they were shot at close range," he says. But the FBI has long insisted that the agents were executed and that the bullets were fired from an AR-15, a military-style assault-type weapon, which the government claims was in Peltier's possession. Though Bachrach also disputes that, arguing that "virtually every single FBI agent, BIA agent who responded had an M-16 or AR-15, and there were numerous such guns at the site," the feds insist that "testimony established Peltier was the only person carrying an AR-15 at the time." The FBI's report states, "the AR-15 was the only weapon present capable of firing a .223 round. One hundred and fourteen .223 shell casings were found in the general crime scene area, away from the agents' bodies."

Barry Bachrach

But only one such shell casing was recovered from the area where the agents' bodies were found. It was plucked from the trunk of Coler's car and that, according to Peltier's lawyer, Bachrach, was found days after the killings. To the FBI, the only conclusion worth drawing was that whoever delivered the final blows to Coler and Williams "attempted to remove all the shell casings from the scene of the murders [sic] and inadvertently overlooked the shell casing in Agent Coler's trunk." To Bachrach, however, that suggests a far more nefarious possibility that perhaps the government had planted the shell casing there to bolster its case against Peltier.

Agent Ron Williams

Even now, 30 years later, the government admits there is no eyewitness testimony about what happened at the agent's car. The best the feds have ever been able to come up with is testimony that they claim came from eyewitnesses who described Peltier, Robideau and Darrelle Dean Butler walking toward the agents' cars. Robideau's fingerprints were found on the inside door handle of William's car, and witnesses allegedly told the feds that they saw Peltier carrying out one of the agents' handguns, Butler carrying another, and Robideau carrying out both of the agents' long guns. Peltier's supporters insist, in the words of Jennifer Harbury, that "Those witnesses placing Peltier, Robideau and Butler near the crime scene after the killing were coerced and intimidated by the FBI."