This document is part of a series about Randall "Duke" Cunningham's attempted murder / suicide on November 25th, 2005
Home page for "Cunningham's Last Battle" web site / Contact the author / victim / witness Russell 'Ace' Hoffman
Senators Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Ron Paul, Tom Harkin, Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Bob Filner, John Conyers, CA AG Bill Lockyer, Judge Larry Burns, Atty Carol Lam et al, Francine Busby, etc.
Outsmarting a suicidal driver intent on having a head-on collision was only easy when compared to catching him afterwards!
March 23rd, 2006
Dear Madams & Mssrs,
In previous correspondence which I had sent most of you, and which is enclosed with this letter for reference, I described a hit-and-run traffic accident that occurred on November 25th, 2005 in San Marcos, California. Of course, hit-and-run accidents happen all the time, but this one had special circumstances that I think warrant your attention.
First, the other driver was intent on suicide and had no compunction about killing one or more other people in the process.
Second, I believe the other driver was Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham.
And third, despite numerous efforts on my part, the police have not -- to my knowledge -- investigated this incident at all.
Recently, I discovered that Cunningham had a "contract" with Dr. Ronald Smith, U.S. Capital psychiatrist, "not to act on" Cunningham's "ideation" to commit suicide. This "contract" was described by defense psychiatrist Dr. Saul J. Faerstein in a letter to Judge Larry Alan Burns on February 13th, 2006.
That sounds like a scam to protect psychiatrists from legal responsibility: In the event someone acts on their ideations, the psychiatrist can say, "But how could I possibly have expected THAT? After all, he signed this contract not to do so!"
According to Dr. Faerstein's letter (shown below), Dr. Smith was concerned enough about Cunningham's "suicidal ideation" to recommend hospitalization, but Cunningham refused. Instead, Dr. Smith obtained the "contract." It turned out to be a contract on my life, my wife's life, and Cunningham's life, and it almost paid off -- in full.
When Cunningham attempted to commit suicide / homicide by ramming his car head-on at high speed into mine on the night of November 25th, 2005 in San Marcos, California, he was clearly violating the terms of his "contract" with Dr. Smith NOT TO ACT ON HIS IDEATION.
I say it was the same man because I SAW HIM as he whizzed by me and clipped the back of my car that Friday night, and then again when he resigned tearfully on television the following Monday morning -- veteran "Ace" pilot, Top Gun flight trainer, Congressional Representative, and medical soupcon of overwhelming emotions and prescription drugs to control them: Drugs for anxiety, depression, pain, insomnia, and probably a few other emotions which were raging out of control in the man, with an upcoming resignation, confession to bribery charges, and sentencing on those charges. The complex mixture MIGHT have clouded his moral judgement.
And yes, of course Cunningham might have been drinking, and the alcohol might have mixed very poorly with the prescription medications to cloud his moral judgement. But he WASN'T meandering aimlessly OR fixated -- he was suicidal / homicidal and his aim and acceleration were both true to his purpose.
Did Cunningham think, at the time he signed the "contract," that it was just about the silliest contract he had ever been asked to sign in his life, considering the consequences if he violated it? Are "contracts" like this normally notarized or witnessed by anyone other than the psychiatrist (aka, the "whacko quacko")?
All I can say is, that's some catch, that Catch-22!
I wonder, historically, how often these "contracts" are violated. I wonder how often the "violation of the contract" is made to look like an "accident," and everyone believes it -- including the psychiatrist who should know better, or at least should suspect otherwise. That's certainly what was going to happen in THIS case. Three people dead. No questions asked.
When the depression continued after Mr. Cunningham "left Washington" (a euphemism used by Dr. Faerstein to describe Cunningham's resigning in shame), Dr. Warren Clamm at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego continued treatment. For what? This treatment would have started right around the time of Cunningham's suicide / homicide attempt.
You might ask why I continue to pursue this issue, especially since I don't want Mr. Cunningham prosecuted in this matter. He's already broke, already in jail for probably years to come, and already publicly shamed for multiple serious offenses. Yet I continue to pursue the issue because I am seeking sunshine, closure, truth, public safety when/if he gets out some day, and my own reputation back -- with 911 and the rest of law enforcement, and specifically, among the sheriffs in San Marcos. But most of all, I am seeking an accurate description of the event from the other driver, for use by the Department of Motor Vehicles in carefully analyzing this "incident," since he is a PROFESSIONAL at providing post-"mission" debriefings, and I have already provided mine. Anything less is a travesty of justice.
OF COURSE there are a few little things I'd treasure: An apology from him to my wife and me for trying to kill us, a "thank you" from him to me for saving his life so he could "atone" for his many crimes, as he says he wants to do, and this gives him the chance, and certainly, a good place to start, and -- what a surprise, eh? -- his air medals. The training and skill involved in earning them have been utterly misused and abused at my expense -- and then bested. I will care for them respectfully. (I hope you didn't sell them by the time you read this.)
After reading Dr. Faerstein's full letter to Judge Burns (previously, I had only read newspaper accounts of his letter), which includes Dr. Smith's comments and actions, I don't think this is typical California "Celebrity Justice" inaction. I think there is a much greater injustice going on here. If you thought it took a long time -- half a day or so -- for Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident -- a true "accident," possible liquor involvement notwithstanding -- to become public knowledge, well, I think this is supposed to take FOREVER to become public knowledge. So much for "open" government.
Perhaps Cunningham's already confessed to this hit-and-run / attempted murder and suicide, and God bless him if he has. But what, exactly, is a "confession" worth, if the persons who were attacked, and are searching for the assailant, are not informed? In a Gestapo-controlled society, that would be one thing. But in a democracy?
Moments prior to coming at me (as described in the attached), I believe Cunningham tried to flip his car in a lone suicide effort, violating the terms of his "contract" with America -- that is, with Dr. Smith -- right there. I believe he made SEVERAL attempts at this, but because of an "S" curve in the road, I only witnessed the last attempt and didn't immediately recognize it for what it was when it happened. This belief is based in part on the comments of one of the other witnesses, who saw the whole thing, who the responding officer REFUSED TO INTERVIEW, even though the witness was less than 200 yards away in the nearby 7-11 parking lot and was expecting us to ask the police to go talk to him when they showed up.
Regarding what forces can rip a wheel well liner from a car, I have concluded that Cunningham almost surely broke or bent his car's passenger side tie-rod when he hit my car. I am sure he had NOT flatted ANY of his tires prior to colliding with me, although one witness thought so. (The same witness who told me after the accident: "Go get that part! You're going to need that car part from the other guy's car! Make sure you have that part!" I do have that part.)
So I doubt Cunningham got very far after fleeing the scene of our "smooch," and the police found him and gathered him up, possibly just around the corner, and then, nearly 45 minutes later, they finally showed up at the scene of the crime where I was still waiting, because it must have been clear to them by then that I wasn't going ANYWHERE until the cops came. I suspect the police were actually WAITING for all the witnesses to leave the scene before showing up, themselves, and were actually hoping I would give up on them and leave too.
I didn't.
Instead, I did what I assumed police would have wanted me to do after such a terrifying accident -- immediately phone 911, and then, if it's safe to do so -- not in a travel lane, for instance -- and I believed it was safe to do so in THIS instance -- leave my car exactly where I had brought it to a stop after the event, in this case, almost entirely in the two-way turn lane, with my four-way flashers on, so it could not be missed (except, admittedly, by another suicidal Congressional Representative, should one happen to come along, but with only one per district, that seemed unlikely (does the Patriot Act even allow you folks to bunch up (outside of work)?)). After I realized it was taking an exorbitantly long time for the cops to respond, I set up reflective "triangles" on the side where my car was slightly into the driving lane Cunningham and I had headed towards each other in.
I suspect that when the cops saw the triangles, they finally knew there was just NO WAY I was leaving, or even touching the scene of the "accident" until they "officially" came and viewed it. And they were right: I would have waited until at least dawn, if not noon the next day, if I had to, on the theory that the cops HAD to show up eventually, since it was a major thoroughfare, just a lonely night. (Note: Trucks often unload in these lanes, so staying there was really no big deal, although the responding officer yelled at me for doing so as soon as he showed up, probably to start the interaction on an intimidating note. It worked, of course.)
When officer #2004 showed up, he would not take the car part a witness had collected which came off the other guy's car. He would not write up a report or interview witnesses, and he assured me that unless I had "a licence plate number or a VIN" the police would NOT investigate this -- or any -- hit-and-run.
Afterwards, I visited my local (Carlsbad) police department to confirm this "information," and I have concluded the responding officer's comments were misleading and inaccurate.
I'm now convinced #2004 already knew exactly WHO had crashed into my car, and he already knew the guy was an emotional wreck -- probably way, way out of proportion to what one would expect from a mere "hit-and-run" (without suicidal / homicidal intent) criminal celebrity caught red-handed. Calls were presumably immediately made to Washington, D.C..
I believe officer #2004 wished I had tried to follow the attacker. In hindsight -- always 20/20 -- I sort of wish I had, too, despite all the rules and logic it would violate. I might have come upon a scene of Cunningham, and cops, and tow trucks, all very, very quiet and quick, but it practically HAD to be out there somewhere nearby, because I don't think even Cunningham -- the amazing pilot -- could possibly have successfully gotten home after he hit me. I hope that an "all-units" police call went out when I first reported the event to 911, describing the car and describing the incident as an attempt to commit vehicular homicide / suicide.
I wouldn't be surprised if other drivers -- what few there were on the road that night -- were calling 911 on Cunningham for driving erratically, even by the time he got to the first intersection after running away from hitting me.
I bet that when the cops found him, he looked terribly depressed, perhaps even suicidal, not to mention, anxious, and he probably looked like he was going to have trouble sleeping that night, too. That is to say, the "contract," as well as the cocktail of prescribed pills, weren't working very well that night.
But fortunately, at least for that one day, I outsmarted Cunningham and lived to tell (deaf ears) about it. Since then, of course, HE has outsmarted ME -- and the police. Or at least, that is what I am supposed to believe.
But what if it wasn't him, as officer #2004 asserted -- as I recall, his exact phrase was that the chances of it being Cunningham were "one in a million" when I told him who I thought was responsible, in a phone call a few weeks after the "incident" (and I wonder just who ELSE was listening to THAT phone conversation?). I tried to phone, fax, and email the San Marcos Sheriff's Department the day Cunningham resigned (Monday, November 28th, 2005), identifying him as the perpetrator, but apparently those communication systems don't really work at the SMSD.
If, by some chance, officer #2004 is correct, then there is a suicidal / homicidal driver who could be found and taken off the road if the police would fulfill their "contract" to investigate this crime. The fact that they won't investigate is a suspicious and undemocratic aspect of everything that followed the original, terrifying incident.
I believe the evidence surrounding this accident strongly supports my version of the events, and I presume that is why Judge Burns threw poor Mr. Cunningham in jail immediately after sentencing, rather than let the poor bloke visit his mother one last time first, and get his toothbrush. The risk was too great that he would try again, and there is no question he would be successful the second time.
So, IS this some kind of big national secret, or what? When did President George Bush find out about this incident? It's hard to believe he wasn't told anything. Especially what with the "Patriot Act," which I believe is neither patriotic nor a legal Act, especially when used for political purposes. The week Cunningham resigned, a friend of mine asked me, via email, to run for Cunningham's suddenly-vacant Congressional seat. I declined. But is that why this is all STILL some kind of big secret?
It took a week before I could tell my own mother about the trauma my wife and I had experienced. I must have learned to tell it pretty well by then, though, because she actually said, after I was finished, "That's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard!" Learning to telling it properly took more than just starting by saying, "Mom, this has a happy ending, but you better be sitting down to hear it."
If anyone reading this ever ends up telling THEIR mother about their own "near-death experience" in which a highly trained professional killer -- honored by America for those skills -- uses those very same skills to try to kill you, and somehow you evade him (GOOD LUCK), see if YOU can elicit a response like that!
Don't worry, though. You'll probably never get the chance.
One friend who heard about the event nicknamed me "Ace" for obvious reasons, and I accepted it. A neighbor, a former Navy Seal and also (like Cunningham) a trained, professional, experienced killer, said Cunningham must have thought I was a MIG, and this was to be his final mission.
I am not a lawyer, nor a psychiatrist, and I apologize if there are legal nuances I have misunderstood, or legal terms I have misapplied, or if "contracts" not to act on "suicidal ideations" are all the norm these days, and everybody I know has one but me, and that's why all the crazies around me are not locked up. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last vacation, at the Grand Canyon in October of 2005; It was lovely; We should build a magnificent hydroelectric dam there and name the ensuing lake Lake Diablo Canyon / San Onofre / Palo Verde, which are the seven sinister sister nuclear power plants, at a minimum, which could be closed if we did. Either do that, or get serious about other renewable energy options.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. God Bless America.
Sincerely,
Russell "Ace" Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
Enclosures (2):
1) Letter to Cunningham with comments to reporter Alex Brant-Zawadzki
2) Dr. Saul J. Faerstein's letter to Judge Burns