Tuesday, September 21st, 9-10 a.m. Pacific (noon-1 pm Eastern) on http://NoLiesRadio.org, to be archived here a few hours after broadcast…
Guests: The Monfils Conspiracy authors Denis Gullickson, John Gaie, and/or Mike Piaskowski.
Wisconsin has had its share of miscarriages of justice. Take Joe McCarthy’s anti-leftist witch-hunts…or the case of a certain University of Wisconsin instructor forced out by a crackpot state legislator for speaking the truth about 9/11 — a truth that nobody in either the legislature or the entire University of Wisconsin system is willing to challenge in a free and fair debate, but which remains politically “unspeakable” in the land of fearless sifting and winnowing.
Okay, so I thought I had it bad…until I read The Monfils Conspiracy: The Conviction of Six Innocent Men. This book shows how six innocent workers at Green Bay’s James River Paper Mill were falsely convicted of murder in a surreal, witch-hunt-style mass trial back in 1995. Five of them are still rotting in jail for the crime of refusing to lie at the behest of out-of-control cops and prosecutors. The sixth, Mike Piaskowski, was exonerated and released in 2001, and will (I hope) be appearing on the show, along with Monfils Conspiracy co-authors Denis Gullickson and John Gaie.
If you’ve seen The Thin Blue Line, or studied the frame-ups of Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, and/or the alleged 9/11 hijackers, you know how the innocent can be painted as guilty, and the guilty as innocent, based on emotionally-engaging stories fed to or latched onto by investigators, prosecutors, the media, and/or the public…no matter how ridiculous the story, and no matter how wildly it clashes with the facts. The Monfils Conspiracy documents that this is precisely what happened to Dale Basten, Mike Hern, Mike Johnson, Keith Kutska, Ray Moore, and Mike “Mike Pie” Piaskowski: The cops started with a good story, to which they immediately became emotionally attached; and they subsequently bulldogged that story into six false convictions in the teeth of overwhelming countervailing evidence. We need to study these cases and learn from them to counteract our natural tendency to make this kind of mistake. And above all, we need to get these five guys out of prison.
two books in this vein, if you have time to read books any more, both by donald h. wolfe:
the black dahlia files
the last days of marilyn monroe.
he figures out both of these whodunits. should i give away the plot?
wolfe grew up a hollywood insider, got into these mysteries late in life. he's done some directing and screenwriting, but these are the only books he's written. it'll tell you a lot about how things work, maybe even more than you know already.
Hardly the biggest miscarriage of justice in Wisconsin, merely BUSINESS AS USUAL. (I lie not)
I'm no fan of Nelson Mandela, but he had one thing right: If you really want to know what a country is like, then spend some time in their prison.
One of the most corrupt judges on the bench in Waukesha County has been the object of exposure and picketing in the past 2 months.
If the sheeple only knew 1/1000 of the truth!!!!!
Mike Piaskowski wasn't able to join us; we're hoping to do another show on this case, with Mike, before long.
Great interview! I love to hear about people who invest this much energy working for justice.
Looking forward to the interview and if one really wanted to know what happened during this debacle, get the book. It is beyond comprehension why the Green Bay district attorney chose to (knowingly)ignore the preponderance of evidence exonerating the six men and their respective whereabouts (down to the minute, and confirmed from multiple sources) during the period when this crime was committed.They also don't point fingers but there is one person that stands out blatently that the Green Bay police department and the district attorneys entire investigation ignores, even when multiple "red flags" appear about this person.
It is stated in the book that the authors were waiting for the D.A. to look back at everything that has transpired since, the testimony that has since been recanted, convictions that have occured that do relate directly to this case, and the fact that these five remaining men in order to even be considered for parole have to admit their respective guilt in the murder conspiracy of Tom Monfils, which none will even consider as they did not commit murder.
In my opinion, the D.A. has had enough time to reconsider the evidence, he has ignored the facts of the case and related convictions, has shown incompitancy that sets new levels, and refuses to budge in his stand regarding the convictions. Time to point fingers directly, pull no punches regarding fact,look at the person that the evidence is pointing to. And if you still won't name the person, I suggest that the show interview FBI profiler and investigater John Douglas who I'm sure can clear up matters greatly. And it is not an understatement that this level of disregard of the facts is a career ender for those involved in the investigation and prosecution, but then again… a whole lot of people involved didn't seem to last long or stay in their respective fields, anyone wonder why ?