The Finders
The Finders was a Washington D.C.-based communal group led by Marion Pettie that came to public attention in 1987 when members were arrested transporting malnourished children, with a subsequent federal investigation abruptly closed after the CIA acknowledged an interest in the group.
The Finders was a Washington D.C.-based communal group led by former U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Marion Pettie that came to public attention on February 4, 1987, when two of its members were arrested in Tallahassee, Florida while transporting six malnourished children in a van. The ensuing investigation uncovered extensive computer networks with satellite communications, international files referencing operations in multiple countries, and documents describing methods for obtaining children. A federal inquiry was opened, then abruptly closed after the CIA acknowledged an interest in the group. The case was partially reopened in 1993 following congressional pressure, then closed again without criminal charges. In November 2019, the FBI released several hundred pages of investigative records through its online Vault repository under FOIA case number 1372462-0.234
Origins and Structure
The Finders coalesced in the late 1960s around Marion Pettie, who had been hosting open-house gatherings at his Washington D.C. residence since at least the 1940s. The formal communal structure took shape around 1971 at Pettie's home in the Glover Park neighborhood.5 Pettie described no formal membership requirements: "Nobody signs anything."5 Members pooled finances into what Robert Garder Terrell called the "Invisible Bank," with some members contributing life savings to the communal fund.5
The group blended Taoist philosophy with New Age and Human Potential Movement concepts. Members were typically well-educated professionals who rejected conventional employment as an obstacle to what Pettie called spontaneity. Pettie functioned as the "Game Caller," a title the children in the group also used for him, directing members on assignments called "projects" that could range from mundane tasks to international travel, and exercising final authority over communal life.56 His stated life philosophy, offered to journalist Eddie Dean in 1996, was "to know everything and do nothing."5
Beginning around 1980, children were raised communally rather than by biological parents. The group believed this practice replicated what members described as original Native American child-rearing. Children were not enrolled in conventional schools and were separated from their parents for months during group-organized trips described as educational adventures. Neighbors reported seeing dozens of children at the Virginia farm during summer periods, sometimes naked or appearing distressed.7
Properties
The group maintained several interconnected properties:
- 3918-3920 W Street NW, Glover Park, Washington D.C.: Two attached red brick buildings containing approximately eight apartments, renting rooms at five dollars per night. Women and children lived here. A duplex portion contained a satellite communications setup.52
- 1307 Fourth Street NE, Washington D.C.: A 10,000-square-foot warehouse owned of record by Robert Garder Terrell. Men lived here. The space contained a large library, two kitchens, a sauna, a hot tub, a video production room, extensive computer equipment, and satellite dish antennas on the roof.23
- The Farm, Nethers, Madison County, Virginia: Approximately 90 acres near Shenandoah National Park and Old Rag Mountain. Neighbors reported vans arriving at night with children who were sometimes heard crying.57
Membership
The active membership roster circulated during the 1987 investigations listed: Ronald L. Alleman; Mary Grogan; Christian Herbst; Kristin Knauth; Theodore G. Reiss; Allen Schoen; Stuart Miles Silverstone (operating under the alias Steve Learner); Randolph Winn; and Steve Usdin. Former members included Patricia H. Livingston, Carolyn Said, and others who maintained contact with the group.2
Robert Garder Terrell, a former IRS appeals officer and certified public accountant, served as the group's principal spokesman and financial manager. He was associated with Future Enterprises, a computer training company that conducted business with the CIA.23
John J. Cox and General Scientific
An unsigned investigative memo of unknown provenance, circulated among researchers in the mid-1990s and described by journalist Wendell Minnick in the publication Unclassified (Winter 1995) as a document of "unknown origin" in which "some of the data has been independently verified," claims that in 1979 Pettie recruited John J. Cox, described as a computer specialist and founder of General Scientific, a firm specializing in classified defense contracts. The memo alleges Cox trained several Finders members in computer programming and communications, and took two or more of them to Costa Rica and Panama in 1980-81.11
A separate and partially contradicting account appears in MPD Intelligence documents included in the 2019 FBI Vault release, which describe The Finders as having "attempted to infiltrate General Scientific Corporation, Rockville, Maryland," framing the relationship as an infiltration effort rather than Cox recruiting into the group.3 The December 1993 Secretary of State query generated during the DOJ reinvestigation listed General Scientific Corporation, Rockville, Maryland as one of several entity names associated with the Finders.3 Cox appears in supplemental Finders membership documents listed as a former member, without aliases or biographical detail. He has not given any known public interview, and his specific role - whether as founder, employee, or point of contact - has not been established in independently accessible primary sources.11
Marion Pettie's Background and Intelligence Connections
Marion Pettie was born in 1920 and grew up in Culpeper, Virginia, where his family had lived for ten generations. He dropped out of school after ninth grade. He served as a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and retired in 1956.5 His wife, Isabelle Pettie, was a CIA employee; FBI Vault documents confirm her employment, though the precise dates cited across sources vary, with estimates ranging from approximately 1952 to 1961, and the Stitcher MPD report citing 1950 to 1971.3 She was listed as a staff stenographer but was issued passports to North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, travel that would not ordinarily be approved for an employee in that category.3 Pettie confirmed in a 1993 interview with U.S. News & World Report that his wife "once worked for the Central Intelligence Agency."4
Pettie's son George Pettie worked for Air America, the CIA proprietary airline that operated in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and was documented to have transported narcotics from the Golden Triangle.4 George Pettie had broken contact with his father by 1985 and was operating a home inspection business in Northern Virginia at the time of the 1987 investigations. In a 1987 interview he described the circa-1971 Glover Park gatherings as "the beginning of a new life" for his father and followers.5
Marion Pettie consistently denied CIA employment in public interviews, stating: "The reason the CIA wouldn't hire me is that they wouldn't have the control factor over me."5 He acknowledged studying intelligence agencies since the 1930s and described himself as Taoist by inclination. His open houses in Washington from the 1930s onward drew intelligence figures, diplomats, and journalists, though Pettie described these gatherings as self-financed social events rather than operational meetings.5
An anonymous three-page investigative memo circulated among researchers in the 1990s alleged a more formal intelligence relationship: that in 1946 Pettie served as chauffeur to General Ira Eaker, then commanding general of Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean, and that publisher Charles Marsh subsequently arranged for Pettie to receive counterintelligence training. The memo further alleged that Colonel Leonard N. Weigner of the USAF directed Pettie to retire from active service and surround himself with what Weigner called "kooks," to provide cover for intelligence recruitment and infiltration of counterculture movements. Weigner died in September 1990; his Washington Post obituary confirmed a career in Air Force intelligence and the CIA.5 These claims are unverified and the memo's authorship is unknown.
The Tallahassee Arrest, February 4, 1987
At Myers Park in Tallahassee, Florida, on February 4, 1987, local police received reports of two well-dressed men with six visibly dirty and malnourished children living out of a van. The men were identified as Douglas Ammerman, age 27, and James Michael Holwell, age 23, both from Washington D.C.28
The six children ranged in age from approximately two to seven years. They were described by police and medical personnel as bug-bitten, dirty, underfed, and on a raw food diet dispensed only as behavioral reward. The children appeared unfamiliar with modern technology including telephones, televisions, and toilets, and demonstrated unfamiliarity with the names of rooms in a house. When questioned about their origins, the children stated they were being taken to a special school in Mexico for brilliant children. They indicated they had been "weaned from their mothers" and were "under the control of the game caller." One child stated that the group would go to people's houses, babysit, and eat whatever was available and "do what those people wanted" but would not elaborate further.12
Florida HRS physician Dr. Moorer found physical evidence consistent with possible sexual abuse in two of the six children. A subsequent psychiatric examination by Dr. Nahman Greenberg found "no signs of recent sexual or physical abuse."8 Items found in the van included a TRS-80 computer, twenty floppy computer disks, a telephone connection device, and a Chinese-English dictionary.2
Douglas Ammerman and James Michael Holwell were charged with misdemeanor child abuse; Holwell faced an additional count of resisting arrest without violence. Bond was initially set at $100,000 each, reduced to $20,000 on February 19. Five women identifying as the children's mothers arrived in Tallahassee from Washington around February 12: Kristin Knauth, Judy Evans, Paula Arico, Carolyn Said, and Patricia H. Livingston.8
Custody Proceedings and Outcomes
Florida state awarded temporary custody of all six children on February 5, 1987. On February 28, Judge Victor Cawthon awarded temporary custody of all six to the mothers pending a final hearing. On March 11, 1987, Cawthon ruled that three of the children be returned to their mothers unconditionally, while three older children were declared state dependents and placed under state supervision. Two mothers, directed by Pettie not to hire lawyers and not to respond to court proceedings, returned to Washington D.C. and forfeited their custody proceedings; their children became the state dependents. On June 1, 1987, a Florida judge sent two of the three state-dependent children to foster homes. The final disposition, as documented in press coverage, left four children returned to mothers and two in foster care.8
All charges against Ammerman and Holwell were dropped for lack of evidence, and both were released on March 17-18, 1987.8
The Washington Raids, February 5-6, 1987
The white van used to transport the children was registered to the 1307 Fourth Street NE warehouse. Metropolitan Police in Washington D.C. already had preexisting information from an informant about The Finders' practices. Search warrants were secured for the warehouse and the Glover Park property, and Virginia State Police separately raided the Madison County farm on February 6.2
U.S. Customs Special Agent Ramon J. Martinez was the principal federal investigator at the Washington D.C. properties. His reports, filed February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987, constitute the primary documentary record of what investigators found.23
Warehouse Findings
At the warehouse, investigators found:
- Extensive networked computer equipment with satellite dish antennas
- A large library including books on mind control and psychological operations
- A video screening room with production capability
- Sauna and hot tub facilities
- Files referencing international contacts and activities in London, Germany, the Bahamas, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Africa, and Costa Rica
- A file labeled "Pentagon Break-In" (see below)
- Photographs of unidentified individuals including nude images and images of children
- Documents describing "explicit sexual conduct" between members
- Documents with what Martinez described as "detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes," including methods described as: impregnation of female members, purchasing, trading, and kidnapping23
Martinez documented that files contained printouts of messages transmitted through an MCI telex account to networked computer terminals across the United States and in foreign locations. Among the telex messages, Martinez identified what he described as a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong to be arranged through a contact at the Chinese Embassy.23 No second investigator present at the raid independently confirmed this specific document in accessible records.8
Additional documents referenced bank secrecy practices, technology transfers to the United Kingdom, and currency movement across multiple international jurisdictions. Martinez's overall assessment was that the files indicated "international trafficking in children, high tech transfer to the United Kingdom, and international transfer of currency."2
The "Pentagon Break-In" File
Among the documents observed at the warehouse, Martinez noted in his April 13, 1987 report the existence of a file entitled "Pentagon Break-In." His report records only the title; he did not describe the file's contents, and his subsequent loss of access to the seized materials - after the FBI transferred jurisdiction and classified the case - prevented any follow-up examination. No investigator, journalist, or FOIA release has produced a description of what the file contained. It is unknown whether the title referred to a literal unauthorized entry, surveillance of Pentagon personnel, an exercise or game, or something else. The file is mentioned in secondary sources only as a notation from Martinez's memo.23
The Babysitter and Tutor Advertisement Method
Martinez's April 13, 1987 report documented information provided by an MPD officer regarding an intelligence-gathering method used by the group: "the group would respond to local newspaper advertisements for babysitters, tutors, etc. and then a member of the Finders would gather as much information as possible about the habits, identity, occupation, etc., of the family." Evidence of this activity was found among the warehouse documents, described in the FBI file summary as "intelligence files on private families." The specific newspapers targeted, the geographic scope, the volume of families targeted, and the period over which this was conducted are not established in available records. The 1993 DOJ reinvestigation did not examine this method independently.23
Glover Park and Stuart Miles Silverstone
At the Glover Park duplex, investigators found Stuart Miles Silverstone inside a room equipped with multiple computers, printers, and satellite communications equipment. Large bags of color slides and photographic contact sheets containing images of children were also seized.2
Virginia Farm
Virginia State Police found at the Madison County farm what they described as evidence of cult or ritual activity. This characterization was subsequently disputed; photographs later described in some sources as showing ritual activity appear to depict livestock butchering. No criminal charges resulted from the farm search.7
CIA Involvement and Investigation Suppression
On February 6, 1987, the FBI took over the investigation and took possession of computers and floppy disks seized from Finders properties. The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division directed the Metropolitan Police Department to classify all MPD reports related to The Finders as Secret, and further directed MPD not to advise the FBI's own Washington Field Office of what had occurred.23
MPD Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr. filed a report on February 19, 1987, titled "Re: Finders involvement with the CIA," marked Confidential and Do Not Disseminate. The report documented a conversation with a CIA special agent (name redacted in released versions) that included several significant admissions. When Stitcher asked whether the investigation was "treading on anyone's toes," the CIA agent responded "Sort of." The CIA agent stated the agency had "had someone working on the case since it first broke." The report confirmed Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment and documented that travel by at least one Finders member to Moscow, North Korea, and Vietnam during 1969-1971 had been conducted with CIA awareness and facilitation. Large sections of the released version of the report remain redacted.3
A separate MPD Intelligence Division report dated April 13, 1987 - distinct from Stitcher's February report and labeled Secret - concluded that "the Finders organization is and has been utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency as a disinformation service." This is among the most direct official characterizations in any government document of the relationship between the group and the CIA.3
In late March or early April 1987, Martinez met with Stitcher, who told him the investigation "had become a CIA internal matter." A November 1, 1993 DOJ summary notes that Stitcher had been contacted by an unnamed party and "told him to step away from the Finders case." Martinez's April 13, 1987 report concluded: "The MPD report has been classified SECRET... FBI had withdrawn from the investigation... FBI Foreign Counter Intelligence Division had directed MPD not to advise the FBI Washington Field Office... No further information will be available. No further action will be taken."2
Stitcher died on May 28, 1993, from septic shock, at age 48. He was working as a security guard at the Australian Embassy at the time of his death. His death came approximately five months before the DOJ formally initiated its 1993 reinvestigation, rendering him unavailable for interview. The FBI's 1993-1994 inquiry notes specifically record his death and his unavailability as a witness.3
In 1994, the U.S. Customs Service proposed to remove Martinez from his position for what it described as improper disclosure of case information. The penalty was mitigated by letter of December 7, 1994 to a five-day suspension without pay and reassignment from Special Agent to Physical Security Specialist, GS-080-13.3
Future Enterprises and the Computer Training Connection
Future Enterprises was a private company that provided computer training to CIA employees during the 1980s. In a 1993 public statement, CIA spokesman David Christian confirmed: "CIA sent some employees to a company called Future Enterprises, Inc. for computer training in the nineteen eighties." Christian denied any CIA ownership of or organizational relationship with the company, characterizing the Finders connection as involving one member who worked as a "part-time accountant."4
Robert Garder Terrell, described in sources as a former IRS appeals officer and the warehouse's owner of record, was that member. Vice president Joseph Marinich confirmed in contemporaneous reporting that CIA employees had received training at the company during the 1980s.4 An MPD report dated February 19, 1987 cited a CIA agent confirming the agency was sending personnel to "a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations," using language that directly identified Future Enterprises as a Finders corporate entity.4
The 1993 Congressional and DOJ Investigation
The case was revived in 1993 when Henry "Skip" Clements, a private consultant in Stuart, Florida, obtained copies of Martinez's customs reports. Clements, who had become involved in investigating child abuse networks following his child's victimization at the Glendale Montessori School in Stuart, provided the documents to U.S. Representatives Tom Lewis (R-FL) and Charlie Rose (D-NC). Lewis made public statements questioning whether the government had protected The Finders at the expense of the children: "Could our own government have something to do with this Finders organization and turned their backs on these children?"4
Congressional pressure, combined with the prospect of a CBS 48 Hours segment that was in active preparation on the case and which was ultimately never broadcast, prompted the Department of Justice to reopen the matter. No CBS staff member or producer has publicly explained why the segment was killed. An October 26, 1993 memo from Acting Assistant Attorney General John C. Keeney tasked FBI Assistant Director Larry A. Potts with a preliminary inquiry into the CIA interference allegations.3
The Washington Times published what became the key investigative piece in the reopening: reporter Paul M. Rodriguez, a four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, published "CIA tied to cult accused of abuse; Justice probes links to Finders" on December 17, 1993.3 U.S. News & World Report followed on December 27, 1993 with "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation" by Gordon Witkin, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez, which contained the interview with Marion Pettie confirming his wife's CIA employment and his son's Air America service, as well as CIA spokesman Christian's formal statement.4
The DOJ and FBI concluded their inquiry in late 1993 and early 1994. A November 16, 1993 memo from Tallahassee Police Chief Mel Tucker stated that no outside agency had contacted anyone in his department to influence the investigation.8 No criminal charges resulted and the case was again closed.
Lewis introduced a resolution requiring the U.S. Customs Service to reinstate its Child Pornography and Protection Unit, citing data that child abuse arrests and convictions had fallen by half since its dismantling, though the resolution's fate in the 103rd Congress has not been established in accessible records.12
Connection to John David Norman's Odyssey Network
The two men arrested in Tallahassee were found carrying an address book. According to FBI file notes cited in secondary sources, individuals named in that address book included one person appearing in an FBI Buffalo field office file concerning NAMBLA members suspected of murder connections, and two persons appearing in FBI Dallas field office file 145-0 relating to John David Norman's Odyssey Foundation child prostitution investigation.12
John David Norman (October 13, 1927 - May 22, 2011) was convicted multiple times between 1960 and 1998 on child molestation and child pornography charges. He founded the Odyssey Foundation in Dallas in the mid-1960s as a front for procuring teenage boys for prostitution and distributing child pornography nationally. The address-book overlaps represent the primary documented connection between The Finders and Norman's network.9
Intelligence Program Context
The group's formation between 1969 and 1971 falls within the operational period of Operation CHAOS (codename MHCHAOS), the CIA domestic counterintelligence program run from August 1967 to March 1974 under the Counterintelligence Staff headed by James Angleton. CHAOS used civilian infiltrators through Project MERRIMAC to penetrate antiwar and counterculture organizations, and a separate mechanism to compile dossiers on tens of thousands of Americans connected to dissident groups. Most CHAOS records were destroyed under DCI Helms's orders in 1973. No surviving primary source directly names The Finders in CHAOS operational files.314
The April 13, 1987 MPD Intelligence Division report's characterization of the group as a CIA "disinformation service" describes a function consistent with CHAOS-era methodology: a civilian group embedded within the counterculture milieu, gathering intelligence on private families through placement of tutor and babysitter advertisements, and maintaining a layer of separation from official CIA operations. The group's ideological profile placed it squarely within the demographic CHAOS targeted. Its formation timing coincides with CHAOS at its 1971 peak staffing of 52 personnel.314
One element complicates a straightforward CHAOS attribution: the entity that classified the 1987 MPD investigation as Secret and directed MPD not to brief the FBI's Washington Field Office was the FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division, not a domestic surveillance unit. This suggests the CIA framed whatever relationship it had with the group as a foreign rather than domestic counterintelligence matter, which would place it in a different institutional compartment from CHAOS proper.3
The group also operated through the same years as Project MKUltra and its successor programs. The warehouse library's mind control literature, the communal behavioral conditioning structure the group called "projects," and the documented separation of children from their parents for months at a time have been noted by researchers examining the case in relation to documented CIA behavioral modification research. MKUltra Subproject 136, funded in August 1961, explicitly sought methods to induce dissociative states in children through drugs and hypnosis. No primary source links The Finders to any specific MKUltra subproject.15
Ted Gunderson's Investigation
Ted Gunderson, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles, Memphis, and Dallas field offices who retired from the bureau in 1979, obtained copies of the Martinez customs reports and made them widely available before any official release, hosting them on his website and distributing them to journalists and researchers. Gunderson authored a pamphlet titled "U.S. Customs Service Report on the Finders" and made public assertions regarding CIA orchestration of child trafficking networks.3 He died on July 31, 2011.
Connections Drawn in Secondary Literature
Nebraska attorney and former state senator John DeCamp, who published "The Franklin Cover-Up" (1992) about the Franklin Credit Union Scandal - a separate and contemporaneous case involving allegations of a child prostitution network connected to Omaha credit union operator Lawrence King Jr. - drew explicit connections between the Franklin case and The Finders in the second edition of his book (1996), characterizing both as CIA-connected child exploitation networks. Nick Bryant's "The Franklin Scandal" (Trine Day, 2009) similarly opens with a prologue titled "The Finders of Lost Children" and incorporates U.S. Customs documentation from the Finders investigation as supporting evidence.
No publicly available government record establishes a documented operational or investigative link between the Franklin Credit Union investigation and the Finders investigation. The two were run as separate FBI matters. The "CIA internal matter" termination documented in the 1987 U.S. Customs Service report regarding The Finders has no documented equivalent in the Franklin investigation's public record. DeCamp's and Bryant's connections between the two cases are secondary-source assertions, not corroborated in the documentary evidence available from either case.16
Media Coverage and the Satanic Panic Context
Initial coverage broke in the Washington Post on February 7, 1987, through a series of articles by Marc Fisher and John Mintz describing cult rituals and the warehouse contents.1 D.C. Police Chief Maurice T. Turner announced on February 10, 1987 that police had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.1
The case emerged during the height of what social scientists later termed the "satanic panic," a period characterized by widespread allegations of ritual abuse at daycare centers and by organized cults. The FBI's own supervisory special agent Kenneth Lanning, who had written the bureau's primary analytical report on child sexual exploitation, published a 1992 monograph concluding that there was no credible evidence for organized satanic cult abuse as a phenomenon. This institutional position, circulated widely within law enforcement before the 1993 reopening of the Finders case, shaped how federal investigators framed the evidence.13 Washington City Paper journalist Eddie Dean conducted the definitive long-form profile of Pettie in a May 24, 1996 piece titled "Finders' Keeper," based on direct interview with Pettie in Culpeper, Virginia. It remains the most substantial journalistic account based on primary access to the group's founder.5
The 2019 FBI Document Release
In November 2019, the FBI released several hundred pages of documents about The Finders through its FBI Vault online repository (vault.fbi.gov/the-finders), organized in four parts, under FOIA case number 1372462-0. The FBI described The Finders as among the most-requested topics in its Vault system.3
The released documents confirmed the classification of MPD reports as Secret, the direction not to brief the FBI's own Washington Field Office, the Stitcher CIA report, and the April 13, 1987 MPD Intelligence Division conclusion that the group had been "utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency as a disinformation service." They did not resolve whether the CIA maintained a formal operational relationship beyond the Future Enterprises training connection, whether the Hong Kong telex represented a genuine trafficking order, or whether child trafficking as described in Martinez's reports occurred.38
When the FBI assembled its released file, the documents included diagrams by Ted Gunderson relating to the McMartin preschool tunnel allegations, placed near the beginning of the first document batch alongside more substantive investigative materials including the Martinez customs reports and the Stitcher MPD report. The placement prompted commentary among researchers about whether the sequencing was incidental or designed to contextualize the Finders material within the broader satanic panic framework.3
Dissolution and Continued Activity
On March 11, 1987, Robert Garder Terrell announced that The Finders were "breaking up" after approximately seventeen years. He gave a follow-up statement to the Associated Press on March 23, 1987 confirming dissolution: "You won't hear from the Finders again until the year 2000."52
On October 22, 1991, MPD Intelligence officers observed activity at the former Fourth Street NE warehouse, which the group did not sell until 1994. Officers documented "numerous well-dressed males, who operate rental cars and expensive luxury type models" entering the building at late-night and early-morning hours. Officers also observed adult males with a young male child entering the building. A van operator stopped by officers claimed to have "baby sat children for diplomats" and acknowledged the neighborhood was "not fit for babysitting activity." The MPD report, included in the FBI Vault release (pages 147-148 of the released materials), noted "possible child pornography." No follow-up federal investigation of this incident was documented in accessible records.3
Marion Pettie died on October 24, 2003, in Culpeper, Virginia.5
In 2018, Robert Garder Terrell gave his first public interview in over twenty-five years to journalist Derrick Broze of The Conscious Resistance Network, followed by another in 2021. Both were incorporated into Broze's documentary "Who Will Find What The Finders Hide?" released in March 2019.10 Terrell denied all criminal allegations throughout.
Sources
- Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. ↩
- Martinez, Ramon J. U.S. Customs Service Reports, February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/ted-gunderson-fbi-the-finders. ↩
- FBI Vault, "The Finders," FOIA case number 1372462-0, vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019, four parts). Also cited: MintPress News, "Losing Finders" series, 2019-2021. https://www.mintpressnews.com/losing-finders-buried-documents-link-infamous-cult-to-cia/277756/. ↩
- Witkin, Gordon, Peter Cary, and Angel Martinez. "Through a glass, very darkly: Cops, spies and a very odd investigation." U.S. News & World Report, December 27, 1993 / January 3, 1994. ↩
- Dean, Eddie. "Finders' Keeper." Washington City Paper, May 24, 1996. https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/287890/finders-keeper/. ↩
- Fisher, Marc and John Mintz. "Finders Group Has Its Roots in Popular '60s Hippie Refuge." Washington Post, February 7, 1987. ↩
- Fisher, Marc and John Mintz. "Officials Describe 'Cult Rituals' in Child Abuse Case." Washington Post, February 7, 1987. ↩
- Sword, Autumn. "Were 'The Finders' a CIA-Fronted Satanic Cult?" Skeptical Inquirer, February 28, 2023. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/were-the-finders-a-cia-fronted-satanic-cult/. Also: Washington Post, "Fla. Judge Sends 2 Finders Children to Foster Homes," June 1, 1987. ↩
- Norman, John David. See also John David Norman. ↩
- Broze, Derrick, and Jeremy Martin. "Who Will Find What The Finders Hide?" Documentary. The Conscious Resistance Network, March 2019. https://theconsciousresistance.com/thefinders/. ↩
- Minnick, Wendell L. "The Finders: The CIA and the Cult of Marion David Pettie." Unclassified, No. 35, Winter 1995. Unsigned "Investigative Leads" memo, no author or date, circulated mid-1990s. ↩
- Rodriguez, Paul M. "CIA tied to cult accused of abuse; Justice probes links to Finders." Washington Times, December 17, 1993. ↩
- Lanning, Kenneth V. "Investigator's Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual' Child Abuse." National Center for Missing and Exploited Children / NCAVC, FBI Academy, January 1992. ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/136592NCJRS.pdf. ↩
- Church Committee. Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Book II. S. Rept. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2d Session, April 26, 1976. ↩
- Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar. Also: Project MKULTRA, the CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification, Joint Senate Hearing, August 3, 1977. ↩
- DeCamp, John W. The Franklin Cover-Up. AWT Inc., 1992. Second edition 1996. Bryant, Nick. The Franklin Scandal. Trine Day, 2009. FBI Vault, "The Finders," FOIA case number 1372462-0, vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). ↩
Hidden connections 23
Entities named in this page's prose without an explicit wikilink — surfaced by scanning for known titles and aliases.
- OrganizationPentagon×4
- EventFreedom of Information Actas “FOIA”×3
- PlaceCosta Rica×2
- PersonJohn J. Cox×2
- PlaceNorth Korea×2
- PlaceUnited Kingdom×2
- PersonAlan Bondas “Bond”
- PersonAndres Rodriguezas “Rodriguez”
- PlaceAustraliaas “Australian”
- PlaceBahamas
- ConceptCold War
- PersonDenise Georgeas “Attorney General”
- PlaceGermany
- ConceptHuman Potential
- PlaceJapan
- PersonKenneth Lanning
- PlaceLondon
- PlaceLos Angeles
- PlaceMexico
- PlaceMoscow
- PlacePanama
- ProgramProject MERRIMAC
- PlaceSoviet Union
Local network
The Finders's direct connections. Click any node to navigate, drag to pan, scroll (or pinch) to zoom. + 2‑hop expands the neighborhood one level further.
An interactive diagram of The Finders's connections, drawn on a canvas and explored with a pointer. The same connections are listed as links in the Connected and Mentioned-in sections below.
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Mentioned in 34
- OrganizationAir America
- PersonCharles Marsh
- PersonCharlie Rose
- OrganizationDepartment of Justice
- PersonDouglas Ammerman
- EventFranklin Credit Union Scandal
- OrganizationFuture Enterprises
- PersonGeorge Pettie
- PersonHenry Skip Clements
- EventInternational Child Trafficking Network Overview
- PersonIra Eaker
- PersonIsabelle Pettie
- PersonJames Michael Holwell
- PersonJohn David Norman
- PersonJohn DeCamp
- PersonJohn H. Stitcher Jr.
- PersonJohn J. Cox
- PersonKenneth Lanning
- PersonLeonard N. Weigner
- PersonMarc Dutroux
- PersonMarcel Vervloesem
- PersonMarion Pettie
- OrganizationNAMBLA
- OrganizationOdyssey Foundation
- ProgramOperation CHAOS
- ProgramProject Monarch
- PersonRamon J. Martinez
- PersonRobert Garder Terrell
- PersonStuart Miles Silverstone
- PersonTed Gunderson
- OrganizationThe Finders and The Odyssey Network
- PersonTimothy Leary
- PersonTom Lewis
- PersonWalter Kreitlow