Unknown Location: former East Tennessee limestone mine being repurposed for…?

Note the massive curtains to the left and right of the limestone pillar. This location, somewhere in East Tennessee, is purported to be a full two miles underground.

I was visited…

I’m almost certain one of the former officials I’ve been researching, writing about and criticizing, came to my hometown last December. He was waiting for me outside a grocery store, leaning on the car next to mine with his arms crossed, with the faintest hint of a smile.

He wished me “Merry Christmas.”

I was carrying a couple bags of groceries that took a few seconds to throw in my trunk. He was gone by the time I slipped behind the wheel.

I knew the experience was out of place, but it wasn’t until a short time later I realized he strongly resembled one of the men I’ve studied in newspaper articles and on websites, trying to piece together the deep and longstanding corruption within the southeast Kentucky justice system.

You don’t expect someone you’ve examined from afar to show up in a Kroger parking lot, waiting for you. He was uncannily fit for his age. His appearance, impeccable. Quite congenial in his greeting, he clearly had no fear coming face to face with me.

I too, exhibited no fear at the time because:

1. off-the-wall stuff has been happening to me for years now, and while I can pick up on it in a second, I’ve become a little desensitized to it and,

2. it just didn’t dawn on me until I left the parking lot who the man appeared to be.

It unnerved me. (I loathe saying that.) I basically put my whole blog on “unpublished” status over it. I’m trying to get the courage to repost all the posts.

Two quotes I have about ‘fear’ on my refrigerator:

  1. “What you are afraid to do, is a clear indication of the next thing you must do.”
  2. “Fear is wisdom in the face of danger.”

Any courage you can will my way, I deeply appreciate. Thanks for reading and sticking around.

MAX.

“…it would probably take days and days and days of all the stuff that went on. I know the federal judge back there, when they, with the sheriff and all them, you know, everybody, like you said, there was instant justice. Jimmy Renfro had bodyguards on him. He had a guy named Max, I can’t remember Max’s last name, at the time, that killed four or five people for him, crap like that.

All the judges and everything was all in, all in it. I remember, they had a trial, they had a trial and they went up to Louisville with the trial, and the judge, the federal judge said if he had his way about it, that he would take Bell County and fence it off and make it all one federal prison it was so bad.” (excerpt from 2019 interview with former CIA contractor and colleague of Jim Renfro and John Asher)

April 16, 1988 Courier-Journal
March 31, 1989 Lexington Herald-Leader
Curley was a petty criminal, not a murderer.
July 23, 1988 Lexington Herald-Leader

“Handy used to have a bodyguard, and it was rumored that Handy ordered him to kill an ex-convict who had served his time and was released from prison and whom Handy felt threatened by. I can’t remember the man’s name, but he drowned in Laurel Lake and it was ruled an accident even though the man had no history of fishing or swimming there.” (confidential source, 2016)

G.M.C. II is allegedly deceased.

Allegation: Kentucky State Police and FBI perpetuate fraud by lying about “joint investigation”

Did Special Agent John Gill perjure himself to protect a Commonwealth Attorney’s involvement in drug trafficking?

The following are excerpts from a series of emails and correspondence regarding a records request made to KSP regarding the 1982 trafficking case discussed here: “Organized crime finds a home at Tom Handy’s hotels.”

Excerpt from court transcript

Newspaper article included with request
KSP response to Open Records Request regarding Pino-Cox et al case

The twenty seven pages provided by KSP concerning this alleged 11-month investigation were the UORs, or, Uniform Offense Reports from the day of the raids/arrests (September 18, 1982) and UORs from dates following the arrests. There were no documents found concerning this investigation prior to September 18, 1982.

The following are examples of the UORs provided in response to the records request:

Each defendant in this case has corresponding UORs like the above. But KSP was unable to locate any records from before the date the search warrants were executed, leading to the question: did FBI agent John Gill lie about KSP’s involvement?

Official appeal to the Office of the Attorney General:

Exhibits A and B are the second and third documents above (court transcript and newspaper article showing KSP were supposed to have been involved in investigation for almost a year).

The search warrant that is never served on Tom Handy’s friend:

Tom Handy’s friend who was able to avoid being served the signed search warrant?

He has friends in interesting places:

Exhibits E and F: under oath, FBI Agent John Gill conceals Tom Handy as the owner of the hotel where so much drug activity took place the judge called the hotel “the headquarters” of the drug ring:

and here, another opportunity to give the very pertinent information that a Commonwealth Attorney owned the hotel:

Daniel Cameron, Tom Handy and Mitch McConnell: can two bad apples spoil the third?

Daniel Cameron, the Attorney General whose office received the above records request appeal, is now running for Kentucky governor. He has been endorsed by Tom Handy and is a close friend (and former legal counsel) of Mitch McConnell (see video about McConnell’s involvement with this very drug ring here.)