AIM Members Implicate Themselves in Multiple Murders

"[T]he cover stories have only served to implicate AIM members in other killings, such as the execution-style murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash."--Joe Trimbach

A 6-27-07 article in News from Indian Country by the retired FBI agent Joseph H. Trimbach reported:

"June 26, 2007: The Supreme Court of British Columbia orders the extradition of John Graham to the United States. He is the alleged trigger man who carried out the executioner’s mandate against [the American Indian Movement activist] Anna Mae [Aquash]."

Who is the executioner who ordered the alleged "trigger man" Graham to kill Aquash? Perhaps the public will hear more in the days to come.

Trimbach writes:

"Many of [Leonard Peltier's] brothers-in-arms, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), have tried to construct plausible alibis to support his claimed innocence [in the murders of two FBI agents on Pine Ridge on June 26, 1975]. None of it has stuck, and many of the cover stories have only served to implicate AIM members in other killings, such as the execution-style murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash."

It is interesting that Ward Churchill made the unsubstantiated claim that FBI-backed death squads murdered 342 Indians, but now Joseph Trimbach says that AIM may have murdered more people than the two FBI agents and the Canadian citizen Anna Mae Aquash, whose frozen body was found dumped in a ditch in early 1976.

Who are these other people that AIM members are suspected of murdering? Maybe these mysteries will become clearer when John Graham goes on trial.

Trimbach observes:

People familiar with the case believe that once Graham is on American soil, AIM’s legacy is up for grabs. As the embattled Professor Ward Churchill likes to say, the chickens have come home to roost.

The professor, however, would presumably not want the description applied to his old warhorse buddy, AIM leader Russell Means. On a cold morning in 1976, Means and his brothers boycotted Anna Mae’s funeral, evidently believing her guilty as charged.

AIM war chiefs and Anna Mae’s erstwhile friends must now reposition themselves for the coming storm. An old rusty prosecutorial engine is finally turning over, powered by an unlimited statute of limitations for murder in the first degree.

Former members know that aiding and abetting carries the same penalty that awaits Graham: life in prison. And so they are naturally concerned that Graham may cut a deal and sing like a canary. Stay tuned. This could get very interesting. [Full text]

News from Indian Country has collected some articles about Aquash's kidnapping and murder.