--- born: 1920 category: Intelligence & Government died: 2003-10-24 location: Washington, D.C. / Culpeper, Virginia summary: Marion Pettie (1920-2003) was the founder and 'Game Caller' of The Finders communal group, a retired Air Force Master Sergeant with family CIA connections whose group was investigated for child trafficking in 1987 before the federal inquiry was closed after CIA acknowledged an interest. tags: - Person - CIA - Military - The_Finders - Washington_DC --- Marion David Pettie (1920-2003) was the founder and leader of [The Finders](/organizations/the-finders/), a Washington D.C.-based communal group that came under federal investigation in February 1987 following the arrest of two members who were transporting six malnourished children in a van in Tallahassee, Florida. A retired [U.S. Air Force](/organizations/us-air-force/) Master Sergeant with documented family connections to the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) and its proprietary airline [Air America](/organizations/air-america/), Pettie functioned within the group as the "Game Caller," the title used both by adult members and by the children under the group's care, for approximately three decades until the group's announced dissolution in 1987.[^1][^2] ### Early Life and Military Service Pettie was born in 1920 in Culpeper, Virginia, where his family had lived for what he described as ten generations. He dropped out of school after ninth grade. He served in the [U.S. Army](/organizations/us-army/) before and during World War II, later transitioning to or serving within the U.S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of Master Sergeant. He retired from the Air Force in 1956.[^2] From at least the 1940s, Pettie hosted open-house gatherings at his Washington D.C. residence. He described these as self-financed social events that drew intelligence figures, diplomats, journalists, and others. Pettie stated in a 1996 interview with the Washington City Paper that he had studied intelligence agencies since the 1930s, tracking the evolution from the Office of Naval Intelligence through the [OSS](/organizations/office-of-strategic-services/) to the CIA.[^2] ### Alleged Intelligence Connections An anonymous three-page investigative memo of unknown provenance, circulated among researchers during the 1990s, alleged a more formal intelligence relationship. The memo claimed that in 1946 Pettie served as chauffeur to General [Ira Eaker](/people/ira-eaker/), then commanding general of Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater, and that newspaper publisher [Charles Marsh](/people/charles-marsh/) subsequently arranged for Pettie to receive counterintelligence training. The memo further alleged that Colonel [Leonard N. Weigner](/people/leonard-n-weigner/) of the USAF directed Pettie to retire from active duty and surround himself with "kooks" in order to provide cover for intelligence recruitment and the infiltration of counterculture movements, with Major George Varga serving as Pettie's case officer until Varga's death in the 1970s.[^2] Weigner died in September 1990. His Washington Post obituary confirmed a career in Air Force intelligence and the CIA.[^2] The memo's specific claims regarding Weigner as Pettie's handler and Marsh as a facilitator are unverified and not corroborated by any accessible primary source. The same body of conspiracy-press reporting further claims that under Varga's direction Pettie ran a network of recruited agents in Europe, including a Dr. Keith Arnold recruited in Paris in 1958 and taken to [Moscow](/places/moscow/) in 1959 or 1960, who later operated from Hong Kong under [Rockefeller Foundation](/organizations/rockefeller-foundation/) cover; these claims rest on the same uncorroborated sources.[^6] Pettie consistently denied CIA employment in public statements. In the most direct formulation, given to journalist Eddie Dean in 1996: "The reason the CIA wouldn't hire me is that they wouldn't have the control factor over me."[^2] In a 1993 interview with U.S. News & World Report, however, Pettie confirmed that his wife [Isabelle Pettie](/people/isabelle-pettie/) "once worked for the Central Intelligence Agency" and that his son [George Pettie](/people/george-pettie/) worked for Air America, the CIA proprietary airline that operated in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.[^3] ### The Finders and the Game Caller Role Pettie's communal gatherings evolved into The Finders, a group that coalesced in the late 1960s and established a formal communal structure around 1971 at his Glover Park house in Washington D.C. Pettie functioned as the "Game Caller," structuring the group's activities through assignments he called "projects" (which could range from mundane domestic tasks to travel abroad) and exercising final authority over communal life.[^1][^2] He described no formal membership requirements: "Nobody signs anything." His stated personal philosophy, offered to Eddie Dean, was "to know everything and do nothing."[^2] The group blended Taoism with New Age and Human Potential Movement concepts, and members pooled finances into what [Robert Gardner Terrell](/people/robert-garder-terrell/) called the "Invisible Bank."[^1] Beginning around 1980, children in the group were raised communally rather than by biological parents. Pettie described this practice as replicating what he believed were original Native American child-rearing traditions. Children were not enrolled in conventional schools and were removed from their parents for months during group-organized travel described as educational.[^4] In his 1998 interview with Steamshovel Press, Pettie described a close 1960s connection to [Timothy Leary](/people/timothy-leary/), saying Leary sent people to a communal property Pettie ran in the mountains near Culpeper called the Free State and that Leary gave him [LSD](/concepts/lsd/), which Pettie claimed he kept in his refrigerator without ever taking.[^6] ### The John Cox Connection An unsigned investigative memo circulated in the mid-1990s, of unknown provenance, claimed that Pettie recruited computer specialist [John J. Cox](/people/john-j-cox/), described as the founder of General Scientific Corporation in Rockville, Maryland, in 1979. The memo alleged Cox trained Finders members in computer programming and communications, and took members to Costa Rica and Panama in 1980-81. MPD Intelligence documents in the 2019 FBI Vault release offer a different account, describing The Finders as having "attempted to infiltrate" General Scientific rather than having been recruited through it. The company name appeared in a December 1993 Secretary of State query generated during the DOJ reinvestigation. The two accounts have not been reconciled in accessible sources.[^5] ### The 1987 Investigation The February 1987 arrests of [Douglas Ammerman](/people/douglas-ammerman/) and [James Michael Holwell](/people/james-michael-holwell/) in Tallahassee while transporting six malnourished children prompted searches of The Finders' Washington D.C. warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE and the Glover Park duplex. Investigators found extensive computer networks with satellite communications, files describing methods for obtaining children, and telex communications referencing international operations. U.S. Customs Special Agent [Ramon J. Martinez](/people/ramon-j-martinez/) documented the contents in reports dated February 7 and April 13, 1987.[^1][^5] An MPD report filed February 19, 1987 by Sgt. [John H. Stitcher Jr.](/people/john-h-stitcher-jr/) described a CIA official acknowledging Isabelle Pettie's CIA employment and stating that the investigation had been "treading on their toes," that the CIA had "had someone working on the case since it first broke," and that the agency had a "vested interest" in the group. The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division classified MPD reports Secret and directed MPD not to brief the FBI's own Washington Field Office. A separate April 13, 1987 MPD Intelligence Division report concluded the group "is and has been utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency as a disinformation service." All charges against the two arrested men were eventually dropped.[^1][^5] ### Post-1987 and Final Years By 1996, when journalist Eddie Dean interviewed Pettie in Culpeper, Virginia, Pettie was 76 years old and living in his ancestral hometown. He denied that The Finders had engaged in any criminal activity and characterized the group name as informal: "There's no such thing as the Finders. It's just a group term for people who like to hang around me."[^2] A 1996 court appearance involved Pettie being unable to locate a briefcase containing approximately two million dollars in land deed documents. Robert Gardner Terrell announced the group's dissolution on March 11, 1987, though activity was observed at the former warehouse address as late as October 1991.[^1] Pettie gave no extended public interviews after 1996. He died on October 24, 2003, in Culpeper, Virginia.[^2] ### Family - Isabelle Pettie (wife, deceased by 1987): Confirmed CIA employee, approximately 1950-1971 per the Stitcher MPD report. Held passports to North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.[^5] - George Pettie (son): Worked for Air America. Had broken contact with his father by 1985 and was operating a home inspection business in Northern Virginia at the time of the 1987 investigation. He described the circa-1971 Glover Park gatherings as "the beginning of a new life" for his father and followers.[^3] [^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar. [^2]: Dean, Eddie. "Finders' Keeper." Washington City Paper, May 24, 1996. https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/287890/finders-keeper/. [^3]: 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. [^4]: Fisher, Marc and John Mintz. "Finders Group Has Its Roots in Popular '60s Hippie Refuge." Washington Post, February 7, 1987. [^5]: FBI Vault, "The Finders," FOIA case number 1372462-0, vault.fbi.gov/the-finders (released November 2019). Also: 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. [^6]: Kenn Thomas and Len Bracken, "The Finders' Keeper," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998; A.B.H. Alexander, "Sex, Drugs, the CIA, MIND CONTROL and Your Children," PROBE, c. 1996. These conspiracy-press sources make additional, largely uncorroborated claims about Pettie's intelligence role and cultural-infiltration activities.