Robert Robideau Dead in Barcelona, Spain

"They died Like worms."--Robert Robideau speaking of the brutal 6-26-75 murder of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler on Pine Ridge Indian reservation. (American Indian Mafia, p. 338)

UPDATE: In a 1994 article, Paul DeMain, who is now the Editor of News from Indian Country, wrote:

Who actually killed at close range FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams on June 26th 1985 [typo--1975], people have asked; who killed Anna Mae Aquash on February 24, 1976? [There are different views on this date.]

Her murder has often been blamed by AIM, on the FBI and vice-versa and the subject is still an emotional issue to many AIM members. It may be that only a handful of AIM members or FBI agents know the true answer to either question.

Both issues were brought up during interviews with Bob Robideau and Ward Churchill by News From Indian Country correspondent Shelly Davis (Mid-Jan, 94) when Robideau claims that the Bellecourts provocateured (or bad-jacketed) Aquash as an agent, which eventually led to her death. In addition, Robideau goes on to say that the now infamous Mr. X segment filmed for Incident at Oglala was made in Ward Churchill's home. [For more about the fabricated Mr. X see here, here, and here.]

News From Indian Country (2-19-09) reports [Check the link to see the full story and possibly updates to what I have cited]:

News From Indian Country has received word via email from various friends and the widow of Robert Eugene Robideau, Pilar Campo Robideau of his passing on the evening of February 16th.

According to the information in the emails and Myspace, Robideau suffered a seizure while working in his painting studio at the American Indian Movement Museum he helped create with his wife in Barcelona.

Robideau was a long time member of the Autonomous Chapters of the American Indian Movement, and who along with Dino Butler was acquitted at trial in 1977, of shooting to death two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation on June 26th, 1975. His cousin, Leonard Peltier was later convicted of aiding and abetting on the same murder charges and was sentenced to two life terms in prison. [See the legal history of the Peltier case here.]

Robideau served two terms as director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) where he set the stage in the early 1990s for the emergence of a Mr X who claimed to have been responsible for the shooting of the two agents. Robideau introduced Mr. X to...author Peter Matthiessen on February 17, 1990 at Robideau's home...

Several members of the American Indian Movement, including the late Vernon Bellecourt, former AIM National Chairman John Trudell, and Dino Butler later stepped forward to claim Mr. X was actually Harry David Hill, a current LPDC spokesperson, and refuted his claim of having shot the agents.

In recent years, Robideau actively supported the extradition of John Boy Patton-Graham from Canada [for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash]. Graham is awaiting trial in Rapid City, South Dakota on charges he aided and abetted in the First Degree Premeditated Murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash on or around Dec. 11, 1975 on orders of senior members of the American Indian Movement who thought she was an FBI informant. Robideau accused AIM brothers Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt for initiating the actions against Aquash, and claimed that AIM Attorney Bruce Ellison of Rapid City, South Dakota had a hand in framing Aquash as a snitch. [See full text. Watch for updates to this article or new articles at News from Indian Country.]