Police Officer Murdered to cover up OKC Bombing
SGT. Terry Yeakey's Mom speaks out.
Date: Fri Apr 25 13:24:03 1997
Resent-From: "Bob Hall"
Resent-To: okcbomb@mars.galstar.com
To: piml@mars.galstar.com
From: hafreepr@telepath.com (David Hoffman/Haight Ashbury Free Press)
Subject: okcbomb] piml] Police Officer Murdered to cover up OKC Bombing
Reply-To: okcbomb@mars.galstar.com (The okcbomb mailing list)
This story is third of a series that ran in the Washington Weekly. It will
be included in my forthcoming book, entitled, "The Oklahoma City Bombing
and the Politics of Terror," to be published in the Fall on 1997 by Feral
House. It should be in all the major bookstores, that is, unless the FBI
steals the galleys.
******
Like Dr. Don Chumley, the media said Officer Terrance Yeakey "was wracked
with guilt" over his inability to help more people that fateful morning.
And in a manner paralleling that of El Reno Prison guard Joey Gladden, the
press claimed Yeakey led a "troubled family life," having been recently
divorced from his wife Tonia, and separated from his two daughters, aged
two and four, whom the Daily Oklahoman claimed he was not permitted to see
due to a restraining order.
On May 8, 1996, only three days before Sergeant Yeakey was to receive the
Oklahoma Police Department's Medal of Valor, he "committed suicide." The 30
year-old cop was found in a field near El Reno, not far from where Gladden
"committed suicide." His wrists were slashed in numerous places, as was his
neck and throat. Apparently not satisfied with this initial attempt to take
his life, he got out of his car, walked a mile and-a-half over rough
terrain, then pulled out his gun shot himself in the head.
Some accounts suggest that Yeakey was reluctant to receive the Medal of
Valor due to his "guilt" over being injured in the Murrah Building. "He
didn't like it," said his supervisor Lt. Jo Ann Randall. "There are some
people that like to be heroes and some that don't. He was not one that
wanted that."
"He had a lot of guilt because he got hurt," added fellow officer Jim Ramsey [1]
Apparently, there was much more behind Officer Terrance Yeakey’s reluctance
to be honored as a hero.
“He kept telling me it wasn’t what I thought it was,” said his ex-wife, Tonia
Rivera, “that they were only choosing officers who were not even at the site,
you knowÑwho didn’t see anythingÑto take public rewards, recognition, that
sort of stuff.
“They started pressuring them into taking [the rewards],” added Rivera. “There
came a time about mid-year, where they were forcing him into going to these
award ceremonies. As in, ‘Yes, you could not go, but we’ll make your life
hell...’
The story of the reluctant hero, she added, was nothing more than a “real thin
veil of truth” which covered up a “mountain of deceit.”
“[T]erry wanted no part of it.” [2]
His sister, Vicki Jones, agreed. “Terry hated that stuff. ‘I’m no hero,’ he would
say. ‘Nobody that had anything to do with helping those people in that bombing
are heroes.”
Why would the Medal of Valor recipient make such a bizarre-sounding
statement? In a letter he wrote to a bombing victim and friend, the officer tells
the real reason for his reluctance to be honored as a hero:
Dear Ramona,
I hope that whatever you hear now and in the future will not change your
opinions about myself or others with the Oklahoma City Police Department,
although some of the things I am about to tell you about is [sic] very disturbing.
I don’t know if you recall everything that happened that morning or not, so I
am not sure if you know what I am referring to.
The man that you and I were talking about in the pictures I have made the
mistake of asking too many questions as to his role in the bombing, and was
told to back off.
I was told by several officers he was a ATF agent who was overseeing the
bombing plot and at the time the photos were taken he was calling in his report
of what had just went down!
I think my days as a police officer are numbered because of the way my
supervisors are acting and there is [sic] a lot of secrets floating around now
about my mental state of mind. I think they are going to write me up because of
my ex-wife and a VPO.
I told you about talking to Chaplain Poe, well the bastard wrote up in a report
stating I should be relieved of my duties! I made the mistake of thinking that a
person’s conversation with a chaplain was private, which by the way might
have cost me my job as a police officer! A friend at headquarters told me that
Poe sent out letters to everyone in the department! That BITCH (Jo Ann
Randall) I told you about is up to something and I think it has something to do
with Poe. If she gets her way, they will tar and feather me!
I was told that Jack Poe has written up a report on every single officer that has
been in to see him, including Gordon Martin and John Avery.
Knowing what I know now, and understanding fully just what went down that
morning, makes me ashamed to wear a badge from Oklahoma City’s Police
Department. I took and oath to uphold the Law and to enforce the Law to the
best of my ability. This is something I cannot honestly do and hold my head up
proud any longer if I keep my silence as I am ordered to do.
There are several others out there who was [sic] what we saw and even some
who played a role in what happened that day.
[Two Pages Missing]
My guess is the more time an officer has to think about the screw up the more
he is going to question what happened... Can you imagine what would be
coming down now if that had been our officers’ who had let this happen?
Because it was the feds that did this and not the locals, is the reason it’s okay.
You were right all along and I am truly sorry I doubted you and your motives
about recording history. You should know that it is going to one-hell-of-a-fight.
Everyone was behind you until you started asking questions as I did, as to how
so many federal agents arrived at the scene at the same time.
Luke Franey (a BATF agent who claimed he was in the building) was not in the
building at the time of the blast, I know this for a fact, I saw him! I also saw
full riot gear worn with rifles in hand, why? Don’t make the mistake as I did
and ask the wrong people.
I worry about you and your young family because of some of the statements that
have been made towards me, a police officer! Whatever you do don’t confront
McPhearson with the bomb squad about what I told you. His actions and
defensiveness towards the bombing would make any normal person think he
was defending himself as if he drove the damn truck up to the building himself.
I am not worried for myself, but for you and your group. I would not be afraid
to say at this time that you and your family could be harmed if you get any
closer to the truth. At this time I think for your well being it is best for you to
distance yourself and others from those of us who have stirred up to many
questions about the altering and falsifying of the federal investigation’s reports.
I truly believe there are other officers like me out there who would not settle for
anything but the truth, it is just a matter of finding them. The only true problem
as I see it is, who do we turn to then?
It is vital that people like you, Edye Smith, and others keep asking questions
and demanding answers for the actions of our federal government and law
enforcement agencies that knew beforehand and participated in the cover-up.
The sad truth of the matter is that they have so many police officers convinced
that by covering up the truth about the operation gone wrong, that they are
actually doing our citizens a favor. What I want to know is how many other
operations have they had that blew up in their faces? Makes you stop and take
another look at Waco.
I would consider it to be an insult to my profession as a police officer and to the
citizens of Oklahoma for ANY of the City, State or Federal agents that stood by
and let this happen to be recognized as any thing other than their part in
participation in letting this happen. For those who ran from the scene to change
their attire to hide the fact that they were there, should be judged as cowards.
If our history books and records are ever truly corrected about that day it will
show this and maybe even some lame excuse as to why it happened, but I truly
don’t believe it will from what I now know to be the truth.
Even if I tried to explain it to you the way it was explained to me, and the
ridiculous reason for having out own police departments falsify reports to their
fellow officers, to the citizens of the city and to our country, you would
understand why I feel the way I do about all of this.
I believe that a lot of the problems the officers are having right now are because
some of them know what really happened and can’t deal with it, and others like
myself made the mistake of trusting the one person we were supposed to be able
to turn to (Chaplain Poe) only to be stabbed in the back.
I am sad to say that I believe my days as a police officer are numbered because
of all of this....
Shortly after the bombing, Yeakey appeared at his ex-wife's. "About two
weeks before his death, he'd come into my home at strange times," said
Rivera, "two-thirty in the morning, four in the morning, unannounced-trying
to give me life insurance policies.... He kept telling me we needed to get
remarried immediately, or me and the girls would not be taken care of.
"I mean, why would a guy tell you to take a life insurance policy, knowing
damn well it wouldn't pay for a suicide? He obviously knew he was in
danger."
Yet Officer Terrance Yeakey was not the type of person to easily show his
feelings. He didn't want to tell his family anything that might get them
hurt.
"He told me enough to let me know that it was not what they were making it
out to be," said Rivera, "and that he was disgusted and didn't want any
part of it, but he never went into detail.... It scared me."[3]
Yeakey also had a girlfriend who worked at El Reno Federal Prison,
ironically, the same place that Joey Gladden worked before he "committed
suicide." Speaking through a police officer friend, the woman said that
Yeakey had been having nightmares, and was scared. "It was about a week
after the bombing," said the intermediary, "that the large, strapping cop
suddenly became frightened. In fact, according to his girlfriend, the
Saturday after the bombing, Yeakey became scared-to-death, and had remained
that way ever since.
Within days of the bombing, according to a sympathetic government source
who has spoken to Rivera, Yeakey began receiving death threats. He was at
his ex-wife's apartment when the calls came. Afraid for his family, he got
up and left.
"When he came to my apartment two weeks prior, trying to give me these
insurance policies," said Rivera, "he sat on my living room couch and cried
and told me how he had a fight with [his supervisors] Lt. Randall and Maj.
Upchurch. He did not tell me what that entailed, but he was scared-he was
crying so badly he was shaking.
"He wouldn't totally voice whatever it was," recalled Rivera. "It was like
he'd be just about to tell me-he'd want to spill his guts-and then he
stopped, and he just cried. And that's when he kept insisting that I take
the insurance policy."
Although Yeakey was concerned for his family, the marriage was not without
abuse. Rivera had filed a VPO (Victim's Protective Order) against him
slightly over two years ago. In a fit of temper, Yeakey had once threatened
to take his life and those of his wife and children.
"I think it was said in the haste of, well, he's going to kill all of us
kind of thing-cop under pressure," said Rivera. But that was over a year
and-a-half ago. Yeakey had spent considerable time with his wife and
children since then, taking them on family outings and so forth.
Nevertheless, the Oklahoma City Police Department (OCPD) attempted to use
the incident to claim that Yeakey was suicidal. It was on the day of his
death, around 1:30 p.m., that they called Rivera, trying to get her to file
a VPO Violation based on the two-year-old report. "They wanted me to come
down and make some statements against him," Rivera said.
On the same afternoon, in-between messages on his answering machine from
his sister, Vicki Jones and his supervisor Lt. Jo Ann Randall, Yeakey had a
message from Tonia. "The message was like at 5:30 in the afternoon,"
recalled Rivera. "I sound like I'm whispering, and I'm apologizing for
waking him up-at 5:30 in the afternoon-on Wednesday."
It seems the intent behind this cleverly-crafted deception was to convince
the family and potential investigators that Rivera was an "evil person,"
who was sleeping with him the night before, but "went down and filed a VPO
the next day."
"That tape was planted," said Rivera. "I never called his house."
It seemed the OCPD was playing an elaborate game to sow confusion and
mistrust, and create the appearance that Rivera was responsible for her
ex-husband's death.
"So it comes out in paper after paper how he's having problems with his
ex-wife, how he's not allowed to see his children.... "They're trying to play
up the story of the bitch-ass wife whose trying to get him fired...."
Yet Rivera claimed she never filed a VPO violation. "The OCPD wanted to
file one," said Rivera. "But I never signed it." Rivera claimed she had
gone to the police station, but simply out of concern for her ex-husband,
who had been acting strangely.
"Nobody ever said, 'Mrs. Yeakey, Terry's missing. Do you know anyplace he
might have gone to? They never told me that they weren't able to locate
him, that they were concerned, you know-nothing. I never knew he was
missing."
Officer Terrance Yeakey's death was a tragedy, but if OCPD officials were
concerned over their fellow officer's death, they didn't show it. Almar
Jarrahi, Yeakey's natural mother, told me that no one from the Department
ever called after his death. Even Yeakey's two best friends on the police
force never called to offer their condolences, she claimed. Why? Were they
guilty about their silence over their friend's death?
If Officer Yeakey's death was anything more than a suicide, the OCPD didn't
go to any great lengths to find out. While his death occurred in El Reno,
the OCPD took over the crime scene, squeezing the El Reno Police Department
out of the picture. The OCPD's Media Relations officer, Cpt. Ted Carlton,
explained, "It was our police officer who was killed. It's not uncommon [to
take over the investigation] in the case of a smaller police agency." [4]
But Carlton could cite no official rule or statute for this decision. Was
the OCPD attempting to keep El Reno from discovering something? Something
they weren't supposed to know?
Although forensics are also standard procedure in the event of a violent or
suspicious death, especially that of a police officer, Yeakey's car was
never dusted for prints. "And the next day, they gave us the damn car!"
said Mrs. Jarrahi. "It was full of blood."
When Yeakey's Brother-in-Law, Glenn Jones, inspected the dead man's car, he
discovered a bloody knife stashed underneath the glove compartment. Yet
according to the responding officer, Yeakey had apparently used a razor
blade. Where did the knife come from? Since no forensic investigation was
conducted, this remains unclear.
No autopsy was ever conducted.
"There were common sense things that were wrong about the whole thing, that
makes it so weird," added Mrs. Jarrahi. "It just doesn't seem right. Why
would policemen and the authorities make such common mistakes that would
leave questions? It's just really weird."
If Yeakey's death was a suicide, he left no note. Although he was upset
over his divorce, according to the family, he was not suicidal. It is also
unlikely that he abused drugs, as he was an instructor at DARE, a program
designed to keep children off drugs.
Former Canadian County Sheriff Clint Boehler, who claims to have known
Yeakey, doesn't concur with this analysis. Boehler said that Yeakey showed
up at his house in El Reno on the afternoon of his death, his car stopped
at an angle in the middle of the road. When Boehler and his girlfriend Kate
Allen, a paramedic, ran outside, they found the police officer virtually
passed out.
"He couldn't tell us his name initially," said Allen. "He was ill, and he
was very anxious. His heart rate was rapid; he was sweaty.... He told us he
had been having concentration problems, he hadn't slept. He had all the
appearances, my first guess would be, of someone who was having emotional
problems. And my second guess would be, of some kind of substance abuse
problem. But that's a pure guess."
Boehler added that Yeakey said he hadn't eaten, and was "throwing up,
taking medication, and incoherent. "He was taking medications for his
back," said Boehler. "He had four or five medications in the car."
"We tried to get him to go to the hospital," said Allen. "We tried
desperately to talk him into that. As I understand, the deputy took him to
his sister's house because he refused to go to the hospital."
After Canadian County deputies took Yeakey away, relatives came and drove
his car home. "That night," according to Boehler, "he went out the window."
Boehler's account jives with what Yeakey's sister, Vicki, said. She told
her mother that Terry seemed exhausted that evening. She had tried to give
him some soup, but he had thrown it up. Late that night, after a nap, they
found him in the kitchen looking for his keys. According to Mrs. Jarrahi,
Terry told his brother-in-law, "Glenn, I need to go. I'm fine."
Vicki then called Mrs. Jarrahi and said, "Mom, I can't worry about Terry...
there's nothing we can do," and went back to sleep. The next day Vicki
called her mother up screaming. Terry had been found dead. [5]
"Basically they just let him go," said Boehler. "We told those people he
needed help.... We knew he was suicidal. He had all the classic symptoms."
However, what Boehler and Allen didn't know was that Yeakey had Sickle-Cell
Anemia-a blood-sugar-related condition that caused seizures. It was these
seizures, Rivera explained, that would occasionally cause her ex-husband to
act "out-of-sorts," or even to slip into unconsciousness.
In spite of his medical condition, Rivera insisted that Terrance Yeakey was
a health fanatic. The prescriptions were for his condition, she said, but
he used only the minimum amounts.
According to Canadian County Sheriff Deputy Mike Ramsey (no relation to
OCPD Officer Jim Ramsey), who drove Yeakey home, Yeakey was not suicidal.
"He didn't give me any indications that he was out to do harm to himself,"
said Ramsey. "He seemed more disoriented, tired..."[6]
There are many things about Officer Yeakey's death that remain a mystery.
While Boehler described a man on drugs, the Medical Examiner claims they
didn't bother to conduct a drug test because it "costs too much." [7]
The ME's field investigator, Jeffrey Legg, also reported that Yeakey "had
been drinking heavily" the day before, based on statements made by OCPD
Homicide Detectives Dicus and Mullinex. Yet Terrance Yeakey didn't drink,
and their own report concluded that there was no alcohol in the body at the
time of death. [8]
The OCPD also warned Mrs. Jarrahi not to come down to the crime scene; they
would pick her up. "They said, 'Promise us you won't come. If you promise
us you won't come, we'll send a car for you,'" recalled Mrs. Jarrahi.
But the police didn't arrive until one o'clock in the morning, seven hours
after the body had been found. "I said, 'You didn't give anybody the
opportunity to see the crime scene?!'" Mrs. Jarrahi exclaimed. "They said,
'Well, he's a police officer and we have that right.' I said, 'I brought
him into the world, and no, you don't have that right.'"
Canadian County Sheriffs discovered the abandoned car, filled with blood,
about two and-a-half miles from the old El Reno reformatory. The OCPD was
notified, and Police Chief Sam Gonazles flew out by chopper. Using dogs,
they followed a trail of blood, and found the body in a ditch, about a mile
and-a-half from the car. (Legg reported the body was 1/2 mile south of the
car, when in fact it was 1 1/2 miles north-east of the car.)
Apparently Yeakey had tried to cut himself in the wrists, neck, and throat,
then, after losing approximately two pints of blood, got out of his car
(contentiously remembering to lock the doors), walked a mile and-a-half
over rough terrain, crawled under a barbed-wire fence, waded through a
culvert, then lay down in a ditch and shot himself in the head.[9]
As is this weren't strange enough, Yeakey's diet-related condition would
have made him too weak to walk the mile and-a-half from his car to where
his body was found-especially after losing two to three pints of blood.
Nevertheless, the OCPD ruled it a suicide on the spot. Their investigation
remained sealed. This reporter was unable to obtain it, and not even the
family was allowed to see it.
"There were so many things that were weird," said Mrs. Jarrahi. "My
daughter kept going back to the Police Department. She said, 'Well what
about this... we knew he had a camcorder, we knew he had a briefcase...'
"These are things we never got back. The kid always carried camera and
film. [He] never went anywhere without his camera and briefcase. He had all
his important papers in there.... We got the camera back. We never got the
film back. We never got the briefcase. They said they never saw it...."
In regards to Yeakey's videos, Detective Mullinex, who "investigated" the
case for the OCPD, told Vicki Jones, "I really don't think you'll want to
see those; they contain pornography." Jones didn't believe him and didn't
care. "I want those tapes!" she demanded.
The Homicide detective finally told her she'd get them back after they had
"examined the evidence."
"One minute the guy would say he had them," said Jones, "the next minute
he'd say 'we don't have anything....'"
According to Jones, Mullinex then said, "Now, we all loved Terry. I hope
you understand that, but I'm not going to let you see any pictures. And I
don't know anything about a briefcase, but if there's anything back there,
I'll give you a call, and you can come back and get them."
"And I just sat there and looked at him, and said to myself, 'You're doing
a great performance, but it's not working....' Then he got really uptight and
said, 'Well, some of us hated Terry.' [Then] he kind of grabbed his face
and said 'oh shit.'"
For his part, Mullinex had "no comment either way." He then told me, "I
don't remember what I said to the lady, but I certainly was not rude to
her.... This comes as a big shock to me, because he was a police officer and
a friend of mine. It was a hard thing and hurt me to have to work it."
Cpt. Carlton likewise feigned shock at Jones' rebuffs, and said he would
have to know who the officer was who made those statements. He then asked
me to have the family contact the OCPD directly (as though they hadn't
already done so numerous times), and he would meet with them and discuss
the case, but that Cpt. Danny Cockran, Chief of the Homicide Squad, would
have to make the decision about whether or not to let the family see the
files.
Yet Carlton's statements fly in the face of the experiences of not only
Yeakey's mother and sister, but those of his ex-wife. In a letter to Police
Chief Sam Gonzales dated September 4, 1996, Rivera writes:
Needless to say, I have many questions regarding the investigation. What
type of weapon was used to inflict the gunshot wound to his head? Who
located the body? How could the cause of death be determined with such
confidence with the multitude of injuries to his body and how did he walk
the distance indicated in People magazine with the great loss of blood from
razor cuts not only to both wrists, but both his forearms as well as two
razor cuts to his neck? Not only did he walk this distance, but he
struggled with bobwire fencing to reach his chosen destination to die then
inflicted the gunshot wound to himself? I request that a copy of the
investigative report of his death be made available to me.
Gonzales didn't respond.
Police officials eventually responded to Vicki Jones' complaints by telling
her she needed to see a psychiatrist. "They said, 'We're just trying to
protect you.'"
Exactly what were they trying to protect her from? When I called Mrs.
Jarrahi, the telltale signs of a tapped phone were clearly present. If
Terrance Yeakey's death was a simple suicide, why would law-enforcement
agencies be tapping the family's phones?
The OCPD soon began conducting surveillance on the dead man's family.
"There was always an officer out there in front of our apartment," said
Jones. Anywhere we went, we had an officer or someone in a marked car
following us around. It started right after I started going to the Police
Department quite a bit."
They also tailed Rivera. When she confronted the officers, they ignored
her, hid their faces, or sped off. Cars were parked outside her childrens'
school. When she spoke to school officials about the surveillance one
afternoon, she went to work startled to find the conversation on her office
answering machine! Rivera had spoken to the school principal in person. How
did the conversation wind up on her answering machine? [10]
The harassment against Officer Yeakey's family wasn't limited to mere
surveillance. After Rivera met with State Representative Charles Key, her
car was broken into. Her house was broken into twice.
She finally moved to Enid when the heat became too hot. "I lived in an
apartment on the third floor with a security alarm in it," said Rivera.
"I'd come home and the alarm would be off. I'd notice things out of place.
There'd be cabinets open that I'd have no reason to have opened."
About two weeks after Terry's death, Rivera went downstairs around 6:30 one
morning to do some laundry, "and there was a man downstairs with huge
headphones on, at 6:30 in the morning, right behind my apartment...."
The individual, who was wearing a jogging suit-wasn't jogging, and was not
doing laundry. "He looked startled when I came around the corner," said
Rivera. "I came back down at 8:30 and the guy was still there."
It appears that what Rivera was describing was an audio technician with a
"Shotgun Mic," a portable surveillance tool designed to pick up
conversations through windows and across fields. They are commonly used by
private detectives and law-enforcement agencies.
One day Rivera came home to find her front door open and off its hinges.
When the frightened single mother walked into her bedroom, she found a
balloon tied to her door. It read: "Get well soon. This will keep you busy
until you do." [11]
It seems the OCPD and the FBI thought that Officer Yeakey had passed off
some incriminating documents concerning the bombing cover-up to his
ex-wife, and were intent on obtaining the documents.
The surveillance, break-ins, and thinly-veiled threats soon escalated into
more serious incidents. Right before Yeakey's murder, the couple's Ford
Explorer began getting mysterious flats. "And when I'd roll it into a
shop," said Rivera, "they'd pull out like six or seven nails." This
occurred between eight and ten times, she claims.
Rivera explained that once during a quarrel, Terry had removed some fuses
from her car to keep her from leaving. The police knew about the incident,
said Rivera, who thought the subsequent events were created by the OCPD to
sow mistrust and provide a convenient trail of evidence to prove that
Yeakey led a troubled family life. Yet while Yeakey admitted to removing
the fuses, he repeatedly and adamantly denied that he had damaged the car-a
car that was registered in his name and carried his cherished children to
and from school.
On April 24, two weeks before he was found murdered, the Explorer began
acting strangely. When Rivera pulled it into the local Aamco Transmission
Center, she found that it had been tampered with. "Somebody who knew what
they were doing pulled hoses from you car," said Todd Taylor, the chief
mechanic. "I'm sorry to tell this ma'am, but this is not just something you
can pull randomly...." Taylor also said he though Rivera's brakes had been
tampered with. [12]
About two weeks before this story went to press, the Ford's brakes went out
suddenly while Rivera was traveling at 40 mph. "I went to brake," said
Rivera, "and guess what? No brakes!" The large 4 X 4 slammed into the back
of smaller car, damaging it badly. "The message is 'we can get to you if
we want to,'" she concluded.
Officer [Jim] Ramsey also began making his presence felt. "All of the
sudden, when we moved to Oklahoma City [from El Reno]," said Jones, "there
was Ramsey. When we joined a new church, Ramsey was there. Ramsey was
everywhere. You turn the corner, there was Ramsey.... Everything we did, he
was like the helpful old guy. This went on for two months."
"He was keeping tabs on everyone," added Rivera. "He was showing up in a
lot of places... just casually, in fact, places where he knew that people
knew me just as well as they knew Terry, and weren't buying into the 'it's
Tonia's fault' routine.
"[Ramsey] tried to claim it was his ex-wife and love for his children he
couldn't see that made him commit suicide," she added. He would talk to her
friends. "'How's she taking it? What does she think, blah, blah, blah.'"
Both Rivera and Jones feel the OCPD officer was sent to "baby-sit" them-to
maintain an ever-present watchful eye. "[When he showed up]," Jones said,
"I looked at him and said, that is not a friend of Terry's. He was never at
the house. I never met him before."
Ramsey, who told People magazine that Yeakey was his "dear friend," also
told the press that he was Terry's partner.
"That was a lie," declared Jones.
Rivera concurred. The ex-wife said that not only was Ramsey never Yeakey's
partner, but that the two men didn't even get along. "Terry hated Jim
Ramsey," said Rivera. "He put on a real good performance," she added. "He's
hiding something, I believe.... It burns me up." [13]
For his performance, Ramsey was promoted to Detective, and made "Officer of
the Year."
If Terrance Yeakey did have many friends in the Police Department, they
were among the beat patrolmen, not the upper echelon. While Detective
Mullinex said everybody "loved Terry," according to Rivera, the brass
"hated his guts." "Him and [Maj.] Upchurch had a hate-hate relationship,"
she said.
For his part, Mullinex claims he was "totally unaware" of any problems
Yeakey was having in regards to what he knew about the bombing. "It is my
opinion as a fourteen-year homicide veteran that it was a suicide," said
Mullinex.... If we thought it was anything [other than a suicide] we would
have pursued it to the ends of the earth. We're not hiding anything." [14]
Really?
According to Rivera, three government sources, including a U.S. Attorney
and a U.S. Marshal, hold a slightly different view. As relayed by Rivera,
the events on the morning of Officer Yeakey's death transpired as follows:
At 9:00 a.m., Officer Yeakey was seen exiting his Oklahoma City apartment
with nine boxes of videos and files. He then drove to the police station
where he had a fight with his supervisors.
He was told to "drop it" or he'd "wind up dead."
Yeakey was also due for a meeting with the heads of several federal
agencies that morning. He apparently decided to skip the meetings, instead,
driving straight to a storage locker he maintained in Kingfisher.
What he didn't realize was that the FBI had him under surveillance, and
began pursuit. The six-year OCPD veteran and former Sheriff's Deputy easily
eluded his pursuers. Once at his storage facility, he secured his files.
What were in the files? According to one of Rivera's sources, incriminating
photos and videos of the bombed-out building. Perhaps more.
On the way back, the feds caught up with him just outside of El Reno. "He
had nothing on him," at that point, said Rivera, "just copies of copies."
While it is not known exactly what transpired next, Rivera's confidential
source "described in intimate detail," the state of the dead man's car. The
seats had been completely unbolted, the floor-boards ripped up, and the
side panels removed, all in an apparent effort to find the incriminating
documents.
There were also burn marks on the floor. Apparently, the killers had used
Yeakey's car to destroy what little evidence they had discovered. Exactly
what happened after Yeakey was stopped, and in what order, only his
murderers know for sure. [15]
At approximately 6:00 p.m. that evening, Canadian County Deputy Sheriff
Mike Ramsey was cruising the area near the old El Reno reformatory when he
noticed an abandoned vehicle in a field. "Immediately [the] hair stood up
on the back of my neck," said the deputy. Ramsey came upon the empty car
which he immediately recognized as Yeakey's. There was blood on both seats,
and a razor blade lying on the dash. Yeakey was nowhere to be found.
The deputy immediately called for a homicide investigator, and taped off
the scene. It wasn't until several hours later that police dogs finally
located Yeakey's body in a ditch, a mile and-a-half away. [16]
While it was a macabre scene, the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's report
was even more gruesome. The report released from the Medical Examiner
described numerous "superficial" lacerations on the wrists, arms, throat,
and neck, and a single bullet wound to the right temple.
The report also showed another curious thing. The bullet had entered just
above and in front of the right ear, and had exited towards the bottom of
the left ear. Apparently, whoever held the gun held it at a downward angle.
A person shooting themself would tend to hold the gun at an upward angle,
or at the most, level. It would rather difficult for a large, muscle-bound
man like Yeakey to hold a heavy service revolver or other large caliber
weapon at a downward angle to their head.
While it is true that a slug can alter its trajectory once inside the
skull, a pathologist in the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office told me
that a 9mm or other large caliber weapon-the type commonly used by police
officers-usually tends to travel in a straight line.
But perhaps the most revealing evidence was that the wound did not have a
"Stellat," the tell-tale star shape caused by the dissipating gases from
the gun's muzzle. At the close range of a suicide weapon, such markings
would clearly be present, unless of course... the shooter used a silencer. [17]
While Dr. Larry Balding, Oklahoma City's Chief Medical Examiner, quickly
ruled the death a "suicide," another Medical Examiner's report would,
according to Rivera, surface like an eerie, prescient message from the
grave. This other report, quickly redacted and hidden from public view,
showed a face that was bruised and swollen; blood on the body and clothes
that was not the dead man's blood type; and multiple deep lacerations
filled with grass and dirt, as though the body had been dragged a distance.
Yet according to Rivera, Maj. Upchurch denied that Yeakey's throat was
slashed at all. She was later told by a sympathetic police dispatcher that
his throat was indeed slashed-deeply.
Dr. Larry Balding, who signed off on the Yeakey report, is adament. "I can
tell you unequivably and without a doubt that there was no other ME
report."
Yet while attending a social function, Rivera claims her sister had a
chance encounter with the mortician who worked on Yeakey's body. She was
discussing the strange inconsistencies of his death with someone at the
party, when the mortician, not knowing the woman was Rivera's sister, spoke
up. "That sounds just like a police officer we worked on in Oklahoma City,"
he said. When asked if that man happened to be Terrance Yeakey, the
mortician "freaked."
When pressed, he told the shocked relative that the dead man's wrists
contained rope burns and handcuff marks. A former FBI agent and police
officer, the mortician said that Yeakey's lacerations were already sewn up
when the body arrived from the Medical Examiner's office. Dr. Balding's
response to this was that the marks were merely "skin slippage," resulting
from the natural decomposition of the body.
Yet stranger still, the body was not supposed to go to this particular
funeral home at all, but to one in Watonga. While the OCPD was supposed to
pay the expenses of the funeral, no funds were ever allocated, according to
Rivera. "Vicki had to pay off the burial to Russ Worm [Funeral Home]. So I
wonder if we paid somebody off to do the job."[18]
Was that job to clean up Yeakey so that his manner of death wouldn't appear
suspicious?
This incident is similar to the murder of President Kennedy, whose body was
taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital instead of being examined by the Dallas
Medical Examiner as is standard procedure. Once there, military
pathologists and those controlling them were able to skew their findings to
the satisfaction of the murderers. The chief pathologist burned his notes,
and years later, when researchers went to examine Kennedy's brain, it was
found missing from the National Archives.
Apparently, Terrance Yeakey's murderers and those covering up his death had
not counted on this particular mortician's testimony.
Was Terrance Yeakey tortured? Was he murdered, then made to look like a
suicide? Did he know something he wasn't supposed to know, or was he simply
despondent over life's circumstances?
Said friend Kimberly Cruz, "I don't believe he would have done something
like that. He was always happy and joking a lot."
If the officer was bent on taking his life, it would appear strange, since
he had spent most of the previous month taking entrance exams for the FBI.
Yeakey and best friend Barry McCrary were looking forward to becoming FBI
agents. Perhaps if he had known the role that the FBI played in the
bombing, perhaps even in his own death, he would have changed careers.
Like Dr. Don Chumley, Terrance Yeakey was one of the first rescuers in the
Murrah Building on April 19. Had he seen something he wasn't supposed to
see? Had he heard something he wasn't supposed to hear?
One afternoon, while the family was at Police Headquarters, an officer who
Rivera described as Yeakey's "only true friend," pulled them off to the
side, and whispered "They killed him." [19]
Perhaps the events on the morning of May 8 provide a clue as to who "they" are.
Yet Rivera's sources have warned away her from pursuing an independent
investigation. They said, "two U.S. Senators would go down" if she pursued
it. One of them reportedly old Rivera he wouldn't pursue it "even if his
own mother was in the ground."
Yet Tonia Rivera, a gutsy and intelligent woman, isn't easily frightened.
The rest of the family is. And all believe he was murdered. Several police
officers I spoke with believe the same thing. Said a relative of a
just-retired FBI agent who is familiar with the case, "I had a gut feeling
he was murdered."[20]
Oklahoma's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Fred Jordan, doesn't agree. "People
tend to weave some intriguing tales regarding suicides," said Jordan.
"You'd be amazed at some of the tales people come up with."
Others, like Clint Boehler, take a slightly different tact. "[Yeakey] was
always trying to be tough and macho," said Boehler, "but he was really the
other way. He was supposed to always do the manly thing, but it really
wasn't what he wanted to do.... He was really a gentle type person."[21]
"He was a sensitive person," said Rivera. "He got into [police work]
because he really cared... about people. He couldn't have turned his head to
this."
Maybe Officer Terrance Yeakey was too gentle and caring for his own good.
Maybe still, Officer Terrance Yeakey was murdered.
*******
Notes:
[1] Paul Queary "Oklahoma Hero Commits Suicide," Associated Press, 5/13/96.
[2] According to Rivera, the recalcitrant police officer was forced into
making a public service announcement with Governor Keating. "He was told
he'd make that or he was fired," said Rivera. The officer they sent to
Washington to accept an award on behalf of the OCPD, he told Rivera, wasn't
even at the site!
[3] Yeakey was also angry because he couldn't get access to his own report
about the bombing (which numbered between 9-10 pages). "He was in a
full-fledged rampage over the report," said Rivera, whom he wouldn't even
show it to.
[4] Cpt. Ted Carlton, interview with author.
[5] Almar Jarrahi, interview with author.
[6] Interestingly, Yeakey's superiors, Major Upchurch and Lt. Randall,
according to Rivera, were claiming Yeakey was "delusional" from the back
injury he sustained during his fall in the Murrah Building on April 19.
[7] Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Report, copy in author's possession;
Dr. Larry Balding and Dr. Fred Jordan, interview with author. They said the
drug test costs between $400 and $500 dollars.
[8] Report of ME investigator Jeffrey A. Legg, CME-1 Report, copy in
author's possession.
[9] Several Medical Examiners explained that it is not uncommon for an
individual to attempt suicide by one method, then continue to take
additional measures until they are dead. San Francisco's ME told me about a
man who, upon discovering he had AIDS, tried to hang himself, then threw
himself off the balcony. Perhaps Terrance Yeakey was not satisfied with his
alleged attempts to slash himself. As Dr. Fred Jordan, Oklahoma's Chief
Medical Examiner explained, "It hurts, and nothing much is happening."
[10] This was verified by school officials.
[11] The harassment and surveillance on Rivera and the rest of the family was
confirmed by Vicki Jones, and her husband, Reverend Glenn Jones. Reverend
Jones told me that Rivera had come to them several times "frantic" that she
was being tailed and harassed. Vicki saw evidence of the break-ins at
Rivera's apartment.
[12] Taylor recalled the incident for this author. "There's only a few times
in my life that I remember that somebody had done something weird like
that, and that's why I wrote it down."
[13] Tonia-Rivera Yeakey, interview with author. They had at one time been
friends, she explained, but had a falling-out in 1992, and had remained
apart ever since. Rivera attempted to hire an attorney to bring a Slander
suit against Jim Ramsey, based on the false allegations of his death. No
local attorney would accept it.
[14] OKPD Detective Mullinex, interview with author.
[15] Regarding Rivera's source, she claimed he knew things about her that no
one could possibly have known. "He sat there and told me about stuff I
hadn't told anybody," which included break-ins at her apartment.
[16] Officer Mike Ramsey, interview with author.
[17] This finding is based on the testimony of a former police officer and
Marine sniper.
[18] This funeral home, curiously enough, has been mixed up in some rather
strange incidents.
[19] The author knows the name of this individual, but cannot release it at
this time.
[20] Terry's best friend Barry McCrary attended the funeral, sat with the
family for several minutes without saying a word, then took off for Texas.
He has not been seen or heard from since, according to Rivera.
[21] Interestingly, Boehler also backed the "accident" version of Dr. Don
Chumley's death, which came up in our conversation.
David Hoffman, Publisher
Haight Ashbury Free Press
6118 N. Meridian, #621
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
http://www.webcom.com/haight site down
(405) 948-1330 (temorarily in Oklahoma City)
---
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[APFN] The Terrance (Terry) Yeakey Incident
Terrance (Terry) Yeakey was a courageous young black
Oklahoma City police officer who was on duty near the
Murrah Building the morning of that building's bombing.
Officer Yeakey entered the bombed out Murrah building
and saw things that apparently caused him to be murdered.
The hideous details are within these audio tapes, an interview
with Terrance Yeakey's wife:
(Real Player)
Part 1
http://www.apfn.org/audio/tyeakey1.rm
Part 2
http://www.apfn.org/audio/tyeakey2.rm
