Tag: suspicious suicides

SENIOR U.S. INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL DIED BY SUICIDE IN JUNE

ONE OF THE nation’s highest-ranking intelligence officials died by suicide at his home in the Washington, D.C., area in June, but the U.S. intelligence community has remained publicly silent about the incident even as the CIA has conducted a secret investigation of his death.

Anthony Schinella, 52, the national intelligence officer for military issues, shot himself on June 14 in the front yard of his Arlington home. A Virginia medical examiner’s report lists Schinella’s cause of death as suicide from a gunshot wound to the head. His wife, who had just married him weeks earlier, told The Intercept that she was in her car in the driveway, trying to get away from Schinella when she witnessed his suicide. At the time of his suicide, Schinella was weeks away from retirement.

Soon after his death, an FBI liaison to the CIA entered Schinella’s house and removed his passports, his secure phone, and searched through his belongings, according to his wife, Sara Corcoran, a Washington journalist. A CIA spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

As NIO for military issues, Schinella was the highest-ranking military affairs analyst in the U.S. intelligence community, and was also a member of the powerful National Intelligence Council, which is responsible for producing the intelligence community’s most important analytical reports that go to the president and other top policymakers.

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Holistic Doctor and Partner Found Dead: Cops Say Murder-Suicide

According to the local news, Dr. James Greg Bonham, 63, was a respected member of the Irmo area of Lexington County. He and his longtime companion Lisa Marie McCartha, 46, were both found deceased in their home. Their bodies were discovered after McCartha’s sister got concerned when she and her mother were unable to reach McCartha for almost a week, which was very unusual.

On Wednesday, July 29, their mother went to the home herself to check on her daughter but was unable to get anyone to come to the door. She became more worried and expressed that to McCartha’s sister.

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10 Things To Know About Gary Webb, The Reporter Who Linked The CIA To Crack Cocaine

In August 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published a groundbreaking investigation, a year in the making, written by journalist Gary Webb entitled “Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion.”

The series examined the origins of crack cocaine in Los Angeles that devastated vulnerable African American neighborhoods. Webb claimed the Contra rebels in Nicaragua were shipping cocaine into the U.S. Crack was then flooding Compton and South-Central Los Angeles in the mid-80s after being turned into crack. Relatively new at the time, crack was a highly addictive substance sold in rocks that could be smoked.

Webb reported that the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the U.S. cocaine trade. The profits supported their fight against Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government in the 1980s.

The Contras were right-wing rebel groups backed and funded by the U.S. and active from 1979 to the early ’90s. They opposed the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Webb suggested that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) knew about the Contras and protected their cocaine trade. The series findings enraged readers, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations.

The secret flow of drugs and money, Webb reported, had a direct link to the crack epidemic that devastated California’s most vulnerable African American neighborhoods.

Here are 10 things to know about Gary Webb and his report that linked the CIA to crack cocaine.

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Suspect in Shooting of Federal Judge Esther Salas’s Family Died of Apparent Suicide, Reports Say

The suspected triggerman in the shooting of a federal judge’s husband and son has died by suicide according to law enforcement sources cited by ABC News. They identified the dead suspect as an attorney who previously argued a case before Judge Esther Salas in 2015.

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Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly thinks Epstein was murdered, fears the same fate

Ghislaine Maxwell believes her ex-lover Jeffrey Epstein was murdered behind bars and lives in fear of facing the same unfortunate end, according to a new report.

“Everyone’s view including Ghislaine’s is Epstein was murdered. She received death threats before she was arrested,” an unnamed friend told The Sun.

A federal judge denied Maxwell bail on Tuesday and ordered the 58-year-old to spend the next year awaiting trial at the Brooklyn Detention Center, where she has been held since shortly after her July 2 arrest in New Hampshire.

The friend, who the Sun described as “in regular contact with Maxwell at her secret New Hampshire hideaway,” said the death threats spurred the British socialite to hire security guards, and led her to believe she may not live to see her trial.

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