Richard "Dick" Marshall Goes on Trial for Aiding and Abetting the 1975 Murder of Anna Mae Aquash

"[Richard] Marshall, the bodyguard of American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Russell Means in 1975, has been accused by federal witnesses close to the case of having provided the gun for which Aquash was killed."---Paul DeMain, News From Indian Country

UPDATE: See "AIM Slaying: Trial Set In 1975 Killing Of Activist" (Dave Kolpack, AP 4-12-10); See also "Aquash murder trial for Richard Marshall opens April 14" (Dave Kolpack, News from Indian Country via AP 4-13-10).

Richard Marshall, the former bodyguard of Russell Means, finally goes on trial on Tuesday, April 13, 2010, for the December 1975 murder of the Canadian Indian Anna Mae Aquash.

Marshall---a previously convicted killer who served time for the murder of Martin Mountileaux in the men's room of a Scenic, South Dakota, bar---allegedly provided the Canadian Indian triggerman John Graham with the gun that was used to execute the Canadian Indian Anna Mae Aquash in December 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation.

Search Aquash on my site for more articles. See especially my post "Former FBI Agent in Charge Joe Trimbach: 'Justice for Anna Mae Might Finally Become a Reality'" (9-16-09). Mr. Trimbach and his son John have written about Anna Mae's murder in their book, American Indian Mafia.

The Trimbachs' book was recently reviewed this April by Adrian L. Jawort in Native Sun News, and the review was reprinted in News from Indian Country. The NFIC Editor's Note that prefaces the article observes:

Many of our readers will remember the 20+ or so years of support NFIC gave to Leonard Peltier and other AIM myths before our investigative work with the late Richard LaCourse and other Native journalists turned up numerous changing alibis, evidence of additional murders, and convincing recorded interviews about Peltier interrogating Annie Mae Pictou Aquash by putting a gun in her mouth and bragging about shooting FBI agent Ron Williams. In recent years Peltier has also chosen to utilize his lobbying efforts in support of attempts to keep John Boy Patton Graham from going to trial in the alleged execution of Annie Mae, writing to Denise and Debbie Pictou Maloney to tell them that he would not “lift a finger” to assist in finding justice for their mother if it meant “another brother would go to jail.”

Part of the result of those revelations led to our endorsement for reading purposes and fact checking reality of the other side of the story -- that one written by former FBI agent Joe Trimbach and his son John. [See the full text.]