Чак Хоган: The Standoff

They moved his head again and he asked for his wife. He asked that Molly and Nicole be brought to him immediately. If he spoke at all, that was what he said. He was trying to speak. He was just a head now, nothing in his arms or legs or in his chest except the heaviness, not really tingling but absent now and gone.

He saw Blood over him. The Indian’s hat was off and his long black hair was out and hanging and he was wild-eyed, yelling. He told Blood to get his wife and daughter and hurry. He needed to tell them. It was never too late. That was what the songs always said. It was never too late. He saw Fagin now, alive. Others looking over him with paralyzed expressions. Kearney, his face wide. Coyle in tears. Perkins. The smoke funneling up beyond them.

He saw the smoke and the fire and the helicopters and the branches and the night. He heard the buzzing now, full in his head. The buzzing. He was getting through to Molly. “I’m sorry,” he said. He said it again and again. “I’m sorry,” he said. Everything relaxing in him now. “So sorry,” he said. The smoke and the fire and the night. “Forgive me,” he said. Everything he had ever done to anybody he had ever hurt.

Blood yelling at him now. Fagin motioning. EMTs working over him, shaking him. Shining lights, talking in his face.

Some things you cannot negotiate. Some things are fixed and cannot be bargained with or for. Banish relaxed completely and let his eyes unfocus softly, like ribbon raveling off a spool.

[PARASIEGE, p. 83]

SA Banish expired at 22:47 hrs. (Mountain Time) on 10 August 1993. His body was loaded into a service truck and transported off Paradise Ridge and flown to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., for postmortem examination. An intermediate crime scene was declared and the area cordoned off and all weapons surrendered for inspection. Members of the press were briefly detained, camera film and videotape recordings confiscated as evidence.

The subsequent official ruling of SA Banish’s demise as death by misadventure was appropriate and the dismissal of all charges against the two deputy marshals justified. No one law enforcement individual or group of individuals could be said to have been at fault or performing outside their duties in the wake of the attempted murder of Deputy Marshal Fagin by Rebecca Ables.

As to the subject of this report, Special Agent John Banish:

As directed telephonically by Assistant Director Richardsen, GID, on 4 August 1993, I insinuated myself as close as possible to SA Banish during the PARASIEGE operation in Montana and monitored his daily activities, re porting nightly to AD Richardsen’s office and recording notes and observations variously reflected herein. In summary, I find that I cannot accurately estimate the quality or state of SA Banish’s mental health and disposition, or whatever limitations it may or may not have imposed upon his reasoning faculties as they impacted his decision-making ability over the course of the siege. I can, however, offer my impressions of SA Banish’s job performance as compared to those activities generally understood to befit a federal agent.

SA Banish’s methods were unorthodox. SA Banish’s actions were suspect and often baffling, and his motivation for these actions secretive and at times wholly unknown to anyone but himself. SA Banish was inconsistent in following both basic negotiator as well as Bureau SOP, and on at least two occasions detailed herein blatantly disregarded or, at best, casually ignored direct Bureau orders. The joint forces’ confidence in SA Banish varied widely throughout the siege, but overall would be rated at a level lower than the minimum standard any effective case agent would be expected to garner. SA Banish’s interpersonal skills were naught and his personality — that is, his presence, characterized by the caliber of his leadership — was, at best, remote.

Having said this, I find however that I cannot myself join the recent chorus condemning SA Banish’s performance at Paradise Ridge. Despite his numerous shortcomings, I found SA Banish to be entirely focused on the case assigned to him and at all times fully and wholeheartedly dedicated to the successful resolution of operation PARASIEGE I must also contradict SAC Perkins’s and others’ accounting of SA Banish’s professional demeanor, in as plain language as I am capable: at no time in my numerous daily exchanges with SA Banish did I suspect, sense, or otherwise detect any evidence whatsoever of alcohol use. Unsubstantiated allegations as to SA Banish’s deportment can only serve to cloud this already difficult and complicated after-action examination. SA Banish was dispatched to Paradise Ridge under unusual circumstances with the directive to end the delicate, highly public siege situation ongoing therein and deliver the suspect individual while preventing any further harm to the hostage family. Setting aside for a moment the question of the death of Marjorie Ables, with which this internal investigation is primarily concerned, and the death of Judith Ables, which occurred before SA Banish’s arrival, SA Banish resolved PARASIEGE successfully and at extraordinary personal cost. SA Banish delivered all four of the Ables children into safety, including single-handedly saving the lives of the oldest and the youngest at the expense of his own. In this light, I find the recent backlash and revision of SA Banish’s reputation by SAC Perkins and others not only misguided but, frankly, most unfortunate.

I would like to request a personal interview, sir, in support of this report.

SA Mary Grace Coyle

26 October 1993

Butte, Montana

[signature, initialed]

[Stamped “TELETYPE” and “CONFIDENTIAL”]

1 — Mr. Richardsen

1 — Mr. Carlson

1 — Mr. Frankson

1 — Mr. Lewis

1 — Mr. Patrick

[Printed on the bottom of the page:]

These comments are neither the recommendation nor the conclusion of the FBI. This report is not to be distributed outside this agency.