The Ahwahnee Hotel, by National Park Service

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Yosemite National Park
by April Rowan
May 2000

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Yosemite National Park is home to a host of natural wonders: thundering waterfalls, massive granite domes, and towering sequoias. Its unusual beauty was prized by the native Americans who once lived in the area, as well as by the European settlers who supplanted them. Today, Yosemite is one of the United States' most popular national parks, attracting about 2.5 million visitors each year. Unfortunately, the activities of these visitors, combined with the facilities designed to attract their business, are threatening to rob Yosemite of its wild character.

Describing the Resource

Physical Characteristics


FIGURE 1: Yosemite National Park, California.

Yosemite National Park covers 1,189 square miles (3,080 square kilometers) on the western edge of the Sierra Nevada (Figure 1). Approximately 25 million years ago, the Earth shifted, uplifting the granite ridges that had lain below its surface and forming the mountain range. Two or three million years ago, massive glaciers carved out valleys and lakes and sculpted granite peaks. One of the most striking legacies of the glaciers is the patches of polished rock found in the upper Yosemite region; these patches of granite are so compacted by the pressure of tons of ice that they shine like mirrors in the sun. Even today, small glaciers exist in the upper reaches of the Sierra Nevada.

The park's best-known area is the Yosemite valley. Roughly seven miles long and one mile wide, it lies between 900-foot-high granite walls, which appear to rise almost perpendicularly from the valley floor. The valley features some of the park's most impressive granite peaks, including El Capitan, the Cathedral Rocks, and the Three Brothers. Their massive size and elegant, sculpted lines give the valley the air of a cathedral. Flowing through the valley is the Merced River, which forms some of the park's spectacular cataracts. Yosemite Falls, North America's highest waterfall, thunders down 2,610 feet (783 meters) in three stages.

Biological Characteristics

Yosemite National Park is home to a multitude of species. Although some original inhabitants, including the wolf, have been extirpated from the park, it is still home to over 70 species of mammals, including elk, mule deer, and black bear. It also contains at least 1,200 species of flowering plants and 37 tree species. Of the plants, eight are considered endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and 37 are designated rare by the state or the park.

Vegetation types range from those commonly found in the California deserts and lowlands to those native to glacial regions in Canada and Alaska. The foothill belt, generally dry and warm, extends up to an average altitude of 3,000 feet (900 meters); vegetation is largely shrubs and grass. The yellow pine belt extends between 3,000 and 6,200 feet (1,860 meters) and features a great variety of conifers, including yellow pine, incense cedar, and a variety of willows along the streams. It is also home to three major groves of the famed sequoia, some of which are approximately 250 feet tall, 30 feet in diameter, and 3,500 years old. Species of boreal origin, such as silver pine and snow bush, thrive in the upper coniferous belt, between 6,200 feet and the timberline. Only plants that can withstand harsh winters and little warmth, such as Arctic willow and alpine sorrel, are found above the timberline up to 13,090 feet (3,927 meters).

The many streams, rivers, and lakes in Yosemite are home to 11 species of fish, five of which occur naturally in the region. The others are stocked for sport fishing. In 1972, as part of an effort to restore the park to a more natural condition, managers planned to stop stocking nonnative fish. However, the California Department of Fish and Game protested, and limited stocking continues.

The bighorn sheep, one of Yosemite's original inhabitants, was eliminated from the park by 1914 because of disease, hunting, and habitat loss outside park boundaries. The animal was restored to the park in March 1986, when the California Department of Fish and Game, the National Forest Service, and the National Park Service introduced a herd of 27 bighorns to Yosemite. The addition of 11 individuals in 1998 furthered the herd's ability to sustain itself.

Yosemite is also home to several pairs of peregrine falcons. Just removed from the endangered species list in August 1999, the world's fastest bird was nearly decimated by the pesticide DDT. Though its numbers are rebounding, this species continues to be threatened by the amount of DDT that has accumulated in the food chain in and around Yosemite. While DDT has been banned in the United States for over 20 years, use of the pesticide by Latin American countries and residual DDT in California still pollute the Yosemite area. As the falcons ingest more and more DDT, the shells of their eggs become thinner and thinner. These thin-shelled eggs have little chance of hatching, and so the adults produce few offspring by themselves. To remedy this situation, the Park Service replaces thin-shelled eggs with artificial eggs, and then, just before the eggs would have hatched, it replaces the artificial eggs with two or three newly hatched falcons raised in captivity. The parent falcons then raise the babies as their own. This and other procedures have helped to preserve this magnificent bird's place in its ecosystem; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor the peregrine falcon's progress for the next 13 years to ensure its continued longevity.

Social Characteristics

European settlers first saw Yosemite in 1851, when an army battalion chasing a band of native Americans (who had been raiding mining camps) followed them into the valley. At that time, there were 22 native American villages in the area that now makes up the park. Within a few years, the army had "conquered" the area, killing or displacing all the natives. The only reminder of their presence was the name of their tribe, Yosemite. The park's Indian Cultural Museum sponsors weekly demonstrations of native American traditions and provides other cultural and historical background on the area.


FIGURE 2: Yosemite's natural beauty continues to attract thousands of visitors each year.

The Yosemite valley today would be almost unrecognizable to the native Americans who once lived there. By 1974, the valley contained restaurants, gift shops, grocery stores, service stations, liquor stores, swimming pools, tennis courts, kennels, horse and mule stalls, a bank, a skating rink, and a miniature golf course. Further, the tremendous growth in visitors has brought many typically urban problems to the supposedly natural area. Campfire smoke and automobile exhaust pollute the air. Park rangers spend a good portion of their time dealing with speeders, drunk drivers, and thieves. During the popular summer months, overcrowding, noise, and litter detract from the peaceful atmosphere people hope to find in a national park (Figure 2).

Looking Back

The history of Yosemite has been one of a continual struggle between those who have wanted to develop the park for maximum public enjoyment and those who have tried to preserve the beauty and natural quality of the environment.

How Public Use Grew from a Goal to a Problem

The Europeans who settled Yosemite gave little thought to their effect on the environment. Herds of cattle, sheep, and horses grazed meadows down to bare earth; heavy logging also contributed to erosion. Then, in 1864, President Lincoln granted the Yosemite valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove of sequoias to the state of California, with the instruction that these areas be preserved specifically for public use and recreation.

One of Yosemite's earliest and most ardent admirers was John Muir. He spent years exploring the wonders of the area, which he described in The Yosemite. Muir reveled in the powerful natural forces of Yosemite: he rushed outside to experience earthquakes, climbed tall trees to watch thunderstorms, and scaled precipitous heights to obtain the best view of waterfalls (Figure 3). Muir was part of the campaign to make Yosemite a national park, a goal realized in 1890. Sadly, this triumph was soon followed by a bitter defeat. The park's second major river, the Tuolumne, flowed through the Hetch Hetchy valley, similar to Yosemite in its grandeur. When the people of San Francisco proposed damming the river to create a reservoir for the city, Muir and others fought the idea. The city prevailed, and today the waterfalls and domes of Hetchy Hetchy are buried under tons of water.


FIGURE 3: One of Yosemite's numerous waterfalls.

The park was operated by the U.S. Army until 1917, when the newly created National Park Service assumed that duty. The early managers of the park did not share Muir's appreciation for the wilder side of nature. They tried to eliminate factors that might prevent visitors from enjoying the park in peace and comfort. Crews built roads and paths to areas of natural beauty. Naturally occurring fires were suppressed. Animals that might discourage visitors, such as wolves, were exterminated, allowing animals that visitors enjoyed, such as deer, to flourish. From the vantage point of the 1990s, fire suppression and predator control seem to many people to be short-sighted and anthropomorphic, but, to be fair, these management techniques were once widely thought to be appropriate and sound. It was only relatively recently that ecologists, wildlife biologists, and resource managers recognized the importance of fire and predators to a healthy ecosystem.

With the popularity of the automobile, increased leisure time and the dwindling amount of land remaining in a natural state, Yosemite and other parks became increasingly popular for vacations and weekend trips. A few hours’ drive from the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco, Yosemite experienced heavy influxes of visitors. The overuse problem came to a head on the weekend of July 4, 1970. Over 76,000 people visited the park that weekend—a record crowd. Several thousand young people gathered in a meadow, playing loud music and smoking marijuana. Park rangers asked them to leave, to no avail. Finally, a dozen rangers, armed with clubs and Mace, dispersed the crowd and arrested 186 people. Because of this and similar incidents throughout the park system, the Park Service began to train rangers in law enforcement.

How the Park Service Tried to Protect the Park

Soon after the July 4th incident, the Park Service began limiting visitors and auto traffic in an attempt to protect the park from environmental degradation and to preserve the wilderness experience for park visitors. Meanwhile, they worked on a master plan aimed at finding a solution to the park's problems. The proposed plan included the complete elimination of private automobiles in the park, the construction of a mass transit system, and the removal of all Park Service and concession buildings from the valley to the town of El Portal, at the western entrance to the valley.

The Park Service plan proved controversial. In Yosemite, as in most other national parks, all of the entertainment, restaurant, and lodging facilities were under the management of a single concessioner. The Yosemite Park and Curry Company was owned by MCA, a large entertainment company; MCA opposed any action that might limit its profits. On the other side, conservationists charged that MCA had influenced the Park Service's final master plan in favor of development rather than conservation, and persuaded the Assistant Secretary of the Interior to examine the plan. When the Assistant Secretary deemed the plan inadequate, the Park Service developed a more comprehensive general management plan, which was approved in 1980. The plan's main goals, to be attained in 10 to 15 years, included designating 90 percent of the park as wilderness, forever free from development; removing substandard Park Service and concession staff housing and other facilities from Yosemite valley to El Portal; reducing concessioner-operated lodging facilities by 10 percent and overnight facilities in the valley by 17 percent; reducing the use of private vehicles in the valley, with a long-range goal of eliminating them entirely; identifying and enforcing carrying capacities; and improving and expanding information, interpretation, and reservation services.

Amid efforts on both sides to meet the goals of the general management plan, MCA was purchased in the late 1980s by a Japanese firm, thus creating MCA-Matsushita. The revelation that the concession contract for one of the nation's best-loved parks was held by a foreign company brought a public outcry. In 1990, MCA-Matsushita sold its concession rights in Yosemite to the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to channel private donations to the parks. In addition, MCA-Matsushita agreed to donate $6 million to the National Park Foundation over three years. (This unprecedented agreement now serves as the model for national park concession contracts.) Although the sale provided promising support for the general management plan, full implementation of the plan has not resulted. Many of the general management plan's goals have not been attained, though all were scheduled to be met between 1990 and 1995. For example, identification and enforcement of carrying capacities, especially for overnight visitors, were important steps in preserving the park. Unfortunately, the conservationists' goal—enhancing the wilderness experience for everyone by restricting the number of people who could enjoy it at any one time—was misinterpreted by many people, who saw the restrictions as a blow to their individual freedom to enjoy Yosemite. Opponents of the plan, pointing to the removal of nonessential amenities from park grounds, accused the conservationists and the Park Service of limiting the enjoyment of Yosemite to the young and able-bodied.

In the late 1990s, planners for Yosemite addressed the general management plan's unmet goals by drafting four alternative plans for the future of the park. The plans range from continuing implementation of the general management plan as stated, to developing a comprehensive plan for ecosystem reconstruction and improved management of human activities. (Ideas include a shuttle bus transport system, redesigned campgrounds, and more educational programs). At the close of the century, these plans are still being debated at community, state, and national levels.

While the debate over official management policies ensues, the Park Service has taken other steps to improve Yosemite. In a major improvement, the Park Service has altered the way it manages the vegetation and the wildlife of the park to produce a more natural ecosystem. One of the first steps was to end the artificial suppression of fires. To prevent natural fires from running rampant, the Park Service first had to eliminate an unnatural buildup of fuel, the legacy of decades of the no-burn policy. Sequoia groves, which would naturally be open, were clogged with an understory dominated by white pine; therefore, the Park Service began a series of carefully controlled, purposefully set fires.

The Park Service also has begun a program to return native vegetation to the area. It attempts to eliminate exotic plants brought into the park from other areas, using biological controls whenever possible. It revegetates sites stripped or altered by human activity and reduces the threat of further degradation by regulating the grazing of horses, mules, and burros used for recreational trips or field work. Additionally, it monitors water quality to safeguard against the pollution of lakes, streams, and rivers.

Looking Ahead

As we move into the twenty-first century, work continues on finalizing a long-range management plan for Yosemite, as do the improvement programs already in place. However, the park's future remains in question because the nation cannot resolve the controversy over use versus preservation. For example, in an effort to discourage the daily deluge of automobile traffic, park officials raised the price of admission to $20 per car and remain dedicated to making this problem a priority in any management plan. Yet the National Park Service is also conducting a road improvement campaign, to be completed in September 2000, which will lessen traffic congestion and increase road safety, but which does not address the original problem of overcrowding. The increased incidence of bear encounters further evidences the problem of use versus preservation. Over one, two-month period in 1998, 117 cars were damaged by bears looking for food and marking territory. Though bear attacks are rare when people handle themselves correctly, the rising number of these incidents is cause for concern, both for human health and for preservation of the bears' natural habitat. Likewise, in January 1997, the combination of snow pack and heavy rain severely flooded Yosemite—and left behind $178 million in damage. As flood waters receded, it became apparent that the park's roads, utilities, and other facilities were ill-prepared to withstand even smaller floods. Thus, the National Park Service renewed its resolve to enact long-range management objectives that effectively balance natural occurrences and human use.

In a 1912 argument against damming the Hetch Hetchy valley, John Muir wrote that "no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man." Preservation, which includes limits on use, must be the top priority in order to safeguard the natural temples of Yosemite and other national parks for future generations.

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Excerpt from "The Last Circle," by Carol Marshall

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

CHAPTER 1

For the deputies of the Mariposa Sheriff's Department, the awakening occurred on June 24, 1980, when deputy Ron Van Meter drowned in an alleged boating accident on Lake McClure. The search party consisted mainly of three divers, deputies Dave Beavers, Rod Cusic and Gary Estep. Although adjacent counties offered additional divers, sheriff Paul Paige refused outside help, even a minisubmarine offered by Beavers' associate.

In the shallow, placid waters of Lake McClure, Van Meter's body was not recovered that week, and indeed would not be found until ten years later, in September, 1990 when his torso, wrapped in a fish net and weighted down by various objects, including a fire extinguisher, washed ashore a few hundred yards from where Sergeant Roderick Sinclair's houseboat had once been moored.

Van Meter's widow, Leslie, had been at home baking cookies when she was notified of her husband's disappearance. She was an Indian girl who had no affinity with sheriff Paul Paige. The horror began for her that day also. Her home was ransacked and her husband's briefcase and diary were seized by the Mariposa Sheriff's department. Only she and a few deputies knew what Van Meter's diary contained. He'd told his wife he'd taken out a special life insurance policy two weeks before, but after the search that was missing also.

Leslie was taken to a psychiatric clinic for evaluation shortly after the incident. The story surfaced years later, one tiny bubble at a time. The self-involved little community of Mariposa did not cough up its secrets gladly. On March 23, 1984, Leslie Van Meter filed a Citizen's Complaint with the Mariposa County Sheriff's department alleging that the Sheriff's office had been negligent and unprofessional in their investigation of her husband's disappearance. His body had still not been found, despite private searches by Sergeant Beavers and other friends of the missing deputy. She wanted the case reopened.

Paul Paige was no longer sheriff, but newly elected Sheriff Ken Mattheys responded by reopening the investigation. Investigator Raymond Jenkins, a Merced College Police Chief, and retired FBI agent Tom Walsh from Merced, were notified by Sheriff Mattheys in October, 1984 that the Van Meter case had been reopened and he wanted their help in cleaning up the Sheriff's Department.

Their investigation led them straight to the doorstep of MCA Corporation (Music Corporation of America), parent company to Curry Company, the largest concessionaire in Yosemite National Park. A major drug network had surfaced in the park, compelling one park ranger, Paul Berkowitz, to go before the House Interior Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation to testify about drug distribution by Curry Company officials.

Ed Hardy, the president of Curry Company, was closely associated with Mariposa County officials, in particular, Mariposa District Attorney Bruce Eckerson, County Assessor Steve Dunbar, and Congressman Tony Coelho, whose district encompassed Mariposa and the Park. The annual camping trips that the three men took together was encouraged by the local townsfolk because most of Mariposa's tax base emanated from Curry Company. Coelho and Hardy were regular fixtures around town, seen at most of the social events. Coelho even cooked and served spaghetti dinners for the whole town annually at the Mariposa Fair Grounds, and purchased property in partnership with one member of the Mariposa Board of Supervisors. In fact, Mariposa was one of the first places he bid farewell to after resigning from Congress to avoid an investigation of his finances.

Meanwhile, investigator Raymond Jenkins had followed the drug trail from Yosemite back to the Mariposa airport, where sheriff's deputies were seen regularly loading and unloading packages from planes in the dead of night.

One Indian girl complained bitterly about deputies using the Sara Priest land allottment (reservation) to grow marijuana and operate methamphetamine labs. Jenkins, by now retired from the position of Police Chief of Merced College, was called in to interview the Indian girl. That same day, as a favor, he provided me with copies of his notes. I followed up with a tape recorded interview at her home in Bear valley. Her father and uncle operated a small auto dismantling business on the reservation in Midpines, and after locating them and gaining their confidence, the uncle drove me out to Whiskey Flats, the site of the marijuana and methamphetamine lab operations. That week I rented a horse and rode down into the rocky, isolated valley of Whiskey Flats. Brush and shrubbery tore at the saddle on the horse and at the end of the dirt path I encountered three snarling Rottweiler dogs who put the horse into a frenzied lather.

Nevertheless, I managed to photograph the irrigation system, artesian spring and pond from which the water was supplied as well as various points of identification for future reconnaisance. I later returned in a fourwheel drive pickup truck and managed to view the trailer and lab shack.

The tape recorded interview with the Indian girl, the photos and notes from my discovery were provided to the Stanislaus County Drug Task Force, but jurisdictionally, they couldn't enter Mariposa County without authority of the Mariposa Sheriff's department. It was a catch 22 situation. Ultimately I provided the same information anonymously to several related agencies. It was not until 1993 that the fields were eradicated, and 1994, before the labs were raided. However, no arrests of any deputies were ever forthcoming. In fact, no arrests occurred at all, except for a few non-English speaking Mexican nationals who had handled the "cooking." The head of the Los Angeles Drug Enforcement Agency noted to a local newspaper that the meth lab was part of a large California drug network, but they were unable to identify the kingpins.

On July 6, 1985, Mrs. Van Meter filed a "Request for Official Inquiry" with the State of California Department of Boating and Waterways stating that no satisfactory investigation was ever conducted into the matter of her husband's disappearance.

That same month, shortly after a meeting at Lake McClure with Mrs. Van Meter, Sheriff Mattheys mysteriously resigned from his position at the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. Mattheys revealed to reporter Anthony Pirushki that he had been ordered by two county supervisors and the county's attorney "to stay away from the Van Meter investigation." But that was not the reason he resigned. The whole story would not surface until seven years later when a reporter for the Mariposa Guide interviewed him.

However, while still in office, Mattheys and his internal affairs investigators had learned the reason for Van Meter's disappearance. A few weeks prior to his death in 1980, Van Meter had driven to the Attorney General's office in Sacramento and reported drug dealing and other types of corruption within the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. This, according to his friends whom he had confided in, deputies Dave Beavers, a fifteen year veteran of the sheriff's department, and Rod Cusic, a seventeen year veteran. Both deputies were ultimately forced out of the department and retired on stress leave.

On that same day, reserve deputy Lucky Jordan had driven to the Fresno office of the FBI to report similar information. According to Jordan, they had split up and reported to separate agencies in the event "something" happened to one of them. The crux of the story was State Attorney General Van De Kamp's response to the requested investigation by Ron Van Meter. When Ron returned home from Sacramento, he was confronted by Sheriff Paige. Paige had received a call from the Attorney General informing him of the visit and its contents, and the sheriff was livid about Van Meter's betrayal. Van Meter had been photographing and journalizing drug activity by deputies at Lake McClure. He was part of a California State Abatement Program which involved harvesting and eradicating marijuana fields in Yosemite National Park and adjacent counties. Instead, the harvested marijuana was being stored in abandoned cars and towed out of town by a local wrecker under contract with the sheriff's department. It was also being distributed at a hidden cove at Lake McClure.

On June 24, 1980, frustrated and angry at the Attorney General for betraying him, Van Meter had borrowed a boat and was on his way to arrest the deputies at Lake McClure himself. He never returned. The investigation of Van Meter's "accident" was initially handled by Sergeant Roderick Sinclair, who could not have known on that fateful day that in exactly three years, three months, and nineteen days, he would enter the Twilight Zone where his own private hell awaited him.

The first substantial hint that a tentacle of the Octopus had slithered into Mariposa County occurred on March 5, 1983 when a Mariposa County Sheriff's vehicle scouting Queen Elizabeth II's motorcade route rounded a curve in the Yosemite National Park foothills, crossed a highway and collided head-on with a Secret Service car, killing three Secret Service agents. CHP (California Highway Patrol) Assistant Chief Richard Hanna reported that the collision occurred at 10:50 a.m. between Coulterville and La Grange on Highway 132 about 25 minutes ahead of Queen Elizabeth's motorcade. CHP Sergeant Bob Schilly reported that Mariposa County Sheriff's Sergeant Roderick Sinclair, 43, was driving with his partner, Deputy Rod McKean, 51, when "for some reason, [he didn't] know why," Sinclair crossed the center line and hit the second of the three Secret Service cars, which went tumbling down a 10-foot embankment.

The three Secret Service agents killed in the collision were identified as George P. LaBarge, 41, Donald Robinson, 38, and Donald A. Bejcek, 29. Sinclair, who had sustained broken ribs and a fractured knee, was first stabilized at Fremont Hospital in Mariposa, then transported several days later to Modesto Memorial Hospital.

Years later, several nurses who had been present when Sinclair was brought into Fremont Hospital confided that Sinclair had been drugged on the day of "the Queen's accident" as it became known in Mariposa. For months Sinclair had been receiving huge daily shots of Demerol, "enough to kill most men," according to one billing clerk. Some former deputies who had feared punitive measures if they spoke up, later corroborated the story of the nurses.

Meanwhile, Assistant U.S. Attorney James White in Fresno ordered Dr. Arthur Dahlem's files seized to prove Sinclair's drug addiction. Sinclair's Mariposa doctor and close friend had been prescribing heavy sedatives to him for years. When White attempted to prosecute Sinclair for criminal negligence, he was called into chambers during the federal probe and told by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Coyle to "drop the criminal investigation" because Sinclair's drug problem was not relevant to the prosecution and the drug records could not be used in court. Judge Coyle's reasoning was that no blood tests had been taken on Sinclair at the Fremont Hospital on the day of the accident, therefore no case could be made against him.

In fact, the blood tests HAD been taken, but later disappeared. A significant piece of information relative to Judge Coyle's background was passed to me during my investigation of the Queen's accident by retired FBI agent Thomas Walsh. Allegedly, the Judge was once the attorney of record for Curry Company (owned by MCA Corporation) in Yosemite National Park. I later learned, in 1992, that Robert Booth Nichols had strong ties to MCA Corporation through Eugene Giaquinto, president of MCA Corporation Home Entertainment Division. Giaquinto had been on the Board of Directors of Nichols' corporation, MIL, Inc. (Meridian International Logistics, Inc.) and also held 10,000 shares of stock in the holding corporation. MIL, Inc. was later investigated by the Los Angeles FBI for allegedly passing classified secrets to overseas affiliates in Japan and Australia. It is interesting to note, though unrelated, that shortly afterward, the Japanese purchased MCA Corporation, one of the largest corporate purchases to take place in American history.

Relative to the Queens accident, in the civil trial that followed the tragic accident, Judge Coyle ruled that both Sinclair and the deceased Secret Service agents were at fault. Mariposa County was ordered to pay 70 percent of the claim filed by the widows, and the Secret Service to pay 30 percent. The county's insurance company paid the claim, and ironically, Sinclair was subsequently promoted to Commander of the Mariposa Sheriff's Department where he is still employed as of this writing.

In an interview on March 7, 1988, at Yoshino's Restaurant in Fresno, former U.S. Attorney James White recalled that the original CHP report on the Queens accident was sent to the State Attorney General's office (Van De Kamp) in Sacramento. The report was first received by Arnold Overoye, who agreed with White that Sinclair should be prosecuted. But when the report crossed Van De Kamp's desk, he told Overoye and his assistant to discard it trash it.

Van De Kamp then appointed Bruce Eckerson, the Mariposa County District Attorney, to take charge of the investigation and submit a new report. Coincidentally, Bruce Eckerson's disclosure statements on file at the Mariposa County Courthouse indicated that he owned stock in MCA Entertainment Corporation. White added that ALL of the crack M.A.I.T.S. team CHP officers involved in the original investigation either resigned or were transferred (or fired) afterward. The CHP Commander and the Deputy Commander who supervised the M.A.I.T.S. investigation also resigned as did Assistant U.S. Attorney White himself after the coverup took place.

However, White noted that before he resigned, he quietly filed with Stephan LaPalm of the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento the transcripts of the trial and an affidavit which listed the "hallucinatory" drugs Sinclair had used prior to the accident. I privately continued with the Queen's accident investigation, interviewing deputies Dave Beavers and Rod Cusic who had been privy to Sinclair's drugged condition on the day of the accident.

Beavers, who was the first deputy to arrive on the scene, maintained four years later, in 1987, that he was cognizant of Sinclair's condition, but when he was questioned by James White he was NOT ASKED about the drugs. (James White had by then been ordered to drop the criminal investigation and stay away from the drug aspect of the case).

In January 1988, deputy Rod Cusic strode into the offices of the Mariposa Guide, a competitor newspaper to the Mariposa Gazette, and stated that he was "told by Rod Sinclair to lie to a Grand Jury" about Sinclair's drug addiction and the resulting Queen's accident. Cusic added that he officially disclosed this to the Fresno FBI on April 26, 1984 and again on October 9, 1987. In 1987, Cusic also noted that he witnessed a boobytrapped incendiary device explode at Rod Sinclair's home during a visit to his residence. Additionally, earlier on, Sinclair allegedly barricaded himself inside his home and boobytrapped the property, as witnessed by numerous deputies who tried to persuade him to come out.

While reviewing old newspaper clippings from the Mariposa Gazette, I discovered an odd sidebar to the story. In December, 1984, during the Queen's accident civil trial in Fresno, U.S. Attorney James White had introduced testimony that Sinclair's vehicle contained "a myriad of automatic weapons including a boobytrapped bomb" when the collision occurred on March 5, 1983. It was not until 1991 that I discovered the depth of the coverup.

A CBS television executive and a Secret Service agent who had ridden in the third car of the Queen's motorcade in 1983, arrived in Mariposa to enlist my help in putting the pieces of the puzzle together on the Queen's accident. The Secret Service agent's best friend had been the driver of the car in which all three agents were killed. I signed a contract with the television executive for the sale of the story then drove them to the site of the accident, then to the site of where the damaged vehicle was stored near Lake McClure. The Secret Service agent broke down at the sight of the vehicle, remembering the gruesome appearance of his dead friend in the front seat. He turned, tears welling in his eyes, and said, "His heart burst right through his chest and was laying in his lap when I found him."

Dave Beavers joined us the next day. As did former sheriff Ken Mattheys. Beavers did not know that the same Secret Service agent whom he was sitting with in the car was the man who had tried to pull Sinclair out of the sheriff's vehicle on the day of the accident. There had been a scuffle, Beavers insisting that Sinclair go to the hospital with "his own people," and the Secret Service ultimately conceding. The Secret Service agent reflected sadly that they didn't know to ask the hospital for blood tests on Sinclair that day, didn't know of his drug addiction. By the time the case went to court, the records at the hospital were gone.

Two weeks after the agent left Mariposa, I received a packet containing copies of Sinclair's drug records for three years prior to the accident. They were the same records that U.S. District Court Judge Robert Coyle had disallowed in the Queen's accident trial. But it was not until producer Don Thrasher, a ten-year veteran of ABC News "20/20," came to town, that I learned of Sinclair's background, or the extent of his addiction.

By chance, at a book signing engagement at B. Dalton Bookstore, I had mentioned to the manager, Shaula Brent, that my next book contained information about the Queens accident. Surprised, Shaula blurted out that she had worked at Fremont Hospital when Sinclair was brought in from the accident. Shaula recounted the following: Rod Sinclair was brought into Fremont Hospital and placed in a room with an armed "FBI" agent outside the door. Sinclair had been receiving huge shots of Demerol in the arm every day prior to the accident, by order of Dr. Arthur Dahlem. Shaula noted that Sinclair was a big man and the amount of Demerol he had been receiving would have killed most men. After the Queen's accident, all drugs were withdrawn from Sinclair, and employees, including Shaula, could hear him raving aloud for days from his hospital room. The employees at the hospital were instructed not to speak about or repeat what took place at the hospital while Sinclair was there.

Because Shaula and her friend, Barbara Locke, who also worked at the hospital, were suspicious about Sinclair's hospital records, they secretly took photostats of the records "before they were destroyed by the hospital." Blood HAD been drawn on Sinclair on the day of the Queen's accident, and he HAD been under the influence, according to Shaula. Shaula gave the names of six nurses who were witness to Sinclair's condition at the time he was brought into Fremont Hospital. When his body was finally drug-free, Sinclair was transported, against his wishes, to Modesto Hospital.

******

In January, 1992, the final pieces to the puzzle fell into place. Sinclair's background had been the key all along. Producer Don Thrasher had interviewed the Secret Service agent and, although the information he obtained would not be used in his production, he advised me to follow up. The Secret Service corroborated the following profile: Sinclair's father had been a military attache to General Douglas MacArthur during World War II. (I had privately mused how many of MacArthur's men later became arms of the Octopus). In Japan, after the war, Colonel Sinclair (sr.) supervised the training of selected Japanese in intelligence gathering operations.

According to the Secret Service, he was an "international figure," highly regarded in the intelligence community. Rod Sinclair, Jr. attended school in Japan during this time. He later reportedly worked in the Army C.I.D. in a nonmilitary or civilian capacity, allegedly receiving training at Fort Liggett in San Luis Obispo, a training center for military intelligence operations.

Could it have been possible for Colonel Sinclair, Sr. to have called upon old friends in high places to rescue his son, Rod, from the Queen's accident investigation? Did the Octopus have enough power to alter an investigation of the death of three Secret Service agents? According to the Secret Service agent in Los Angeles, it did. And he intended to tell the story after he retired.