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

To: "Editor, NC Times" <opinion@nctimes.com>, "Editor, San Diego Union-Tribune" <letters@uniontrib.com>

The Cunningham Affair

April 18th, 2006

To The Editors:

My congratulations to both of you for your awards and work on revealing the details of the Cunningham bribery scandal to the public, and for your cooperation with law enforcement, all of which has undoubtedly led to greater public TRUST in government because we can feel that one less crook is out there, and we can feel that our news services are doing their duty to uncover and reveal fraud and deception.

But you've both left out a key event.  Chosen, consciously, to ignore it -- to pretend it didn't happen.  Couldn't have happened.  Is utterly impossible.  But it happened.

On Friday, November 25th, 2005, at about 8:35 pm, on Mission Road in San Marcos, California, then-Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham attempted to commit suicide by ramming his car as high speed into another car -- my Honda Passport.  I evaded him by the skin of my teeth --and of my vehicle, which was damaged -- by fooling him into thinking *I* had given up trying to evade him entirely, and was, instead, bracing for impact.

We clipped each other, at a closing speed of at least 70 miles per hour and probably over 80 miles per hour -- it would have been fatal if it had been head-on instead of a side-swipe.  I was barely going about 20 miles per hour, if that, at the moment we almost passed each other.  I looked at the driver.  I SAW him as he whizzed by my wife and I, and then again on television the following Monday, November 28th, 2005.

And there were other witnesses to the ferocity and near-fatalness of the "accident," too -- from the nearby pizza parlor, for instance (just east of the "S" curve on Mission Road), and in the 7-11 parking lot nearby.  The responding officer (#2004) REFUSED to interview anyone that night, after arriving nearly 45 minutes after the ADAMANT 911 call about a "suicidal driver trying to have a head-on collision."  I believe the cops drove by several times in UNMARKED VEHICLES hoping I would simply go home rather than try to make a formal report about this crazed driver and this horrible incident.  At that time I had no idea I would have a chance to recognize the driver just a few days later.  When I realized who it was, I IMMEDIATELY notified my insurance company AND THE SAN MARCOS SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, although the COPS claim they TOSS OUT emails, faxes, etc. without reading them on a regular basis and didn't get the message right away.  It was a cover-up from the start, though, that's now obvious.

I have a part from the other driver's car, which has an identifying sticker tracing it back to one car and one car only.  The other driver sped away, meandering wildly.  I believe his tie rod was broken in the impact and the police collected him THAT NIGHT -- he NEVER made it home.   The part could equally well be used to prove it was some other driver, and that person could be taken off the road or at least, if he tried it again and succeeded, no insurance fraud or other lie could be compounded on top of the original crime such as I allege that Mr. Cunningham was trying to commit and very nearly succeeded.  Fortunately, I had (fairly recently, at that) become an "extreme defensive driver," AND fortunately I have spent a good part of my life studying the psyche of fighter pilots, AND I had reread the California Driver's Manual just a few months before the incident occurred.  Luck and circumstance were all on my side that night -- and on Cunningham's, for I have YET to find the driver who claims he could have pulled off a victory against the ACE pilot that night, under the circumstances as they ACTUALLY HAPPENED (details shown below in my letter to Federal Prisoner Randall "Duke" Cunningham).

I have tried from the start -- from before I realized who the other driver was -- to get a police investigation into this case, and since Monday, November 28th, 2005, to simply be SURE the crazed driver really WAS Cunningham, whom I have formally accused in letters to Judge Larry Alan Burns, the Prosecuting Attorneys headed by Carol Lam, and to Cunningham himself (within two weeks of the incident I had sent a letter to his lawyer, via registered mail).

The idea that the car that came at me has disappeared into thin air is ludicrous.  It's also hard to believe that an accusation by a citizen of attempted murder with a vehicle would not be investigated -- let alone, if it is an accusation against a Congressman, good, bad, or ugly -- or as handsome as "The Duke."

I have told police I don't care to see Mr. Cunningham prosecuted for this case.  The following Monday he confessed to bribery, resigned from office, and told us all he was ashamed of himself.  But I WOULD like an investigation into WHY this incident has been covered up by the police -- who I'm sure knew about it that very night.

But that's not really all that important to me.  What I really want is for Mr. Cunningham to describe the incident in excruciating detail, so that it can be studied by police and motor vehicle departments and defensive drivers (as well as by those interested in various related psychological issues) everywhere.

I believe the reality is that he has already confessed to this incident, that he had little choice in so doing because the car (a Chevy Tracker) was so seriously damaged, and he therefore is being prevented from confessing to ME by those who aided him in his cover-up -- for why in the WORLD would a man in his shoes not want to pay me the apology he owes me?  Not want to apologize to my wife, who also would have been killed, who was riding in the passenger seat, whom I believe he saw?

Were his words, that Monday, directed directly at my wife and I?  Was his statement: "Now, I have known great shame" a code phrase I am supposed to translate into, "Gee, Ace, I'm sorry I tried to kill you and your wife, and I'm sorry the entire law enforcement system, and the Federal Government, all are going to back me up in pretending this didn't happen, but really -- I'm really, really sorry about aiming my car at you, putting my pedal to the floor, and holding it steady for the next five to seven seconds, and not letting you swerve left or right to evade me."

If that's what he meant, he should be sure to add, "And I'm really glad you kept your speed down, gave UP trying to evade me, and let us both come straight at each other for about three seconds as I gained enormous speed, and then flitted out of the way so fast even I couldn't track you!  Here's my air medals; you're the better pilot.  That was supposed to be my final mission."

I should add, Editors, that, moments before coming at me, I'm sure he tried to kill ONLY himself, by solo-flipping his Chevy Tracker, which is a descendent of the Suzuki Samurai, well-known for it's roll-over capabilities.  I think the engineers have worked on the problem, and it defeated him to flip the car.  He saw the other driver -- me, as it turned out -- as, perhaps, just a constituent who didn't like him -- and a "target of opportunity."

But that was Cunningham then.  He got one last chance to try to do right by the pubic, and CLAIMS he wants to do so -- and I, personally, want to believe him.

But as long as he cannot / will not confess to this attempted suicide, it's all just more FRAUD AND DECEPTION, and I'm sure you know it, and he knows it, and I'm sure Judge Larry Alan Burns and all the rest, from #2004 up, know it, too.

Please publish this as an OP-ED as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Russell "Ace" Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA