JOHN FORD TRIES TO KILL JOHN POWELL
13 June 1996 / July 6, 1996
Source: Reuters
RIVERHEAD, N.Y., June 13 (Reuter) - Investigators uncovered an apparent plot to
assassinate several Long Island, New York, local politicians with radioactive
material, Suffolk County authorities said on Thursday.
District Attorney James Catterson told a news conference that two men had been
arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. The alleged plot was
``something out of a novel,'' he said, with radioactive material and weapons
discovered in a house in Bellport, Long Island.
Catterson said one of the suspects, 47-year-old John Ford, was soliciting
people to use radium isotope against Suffolk County Republican Party leader
John Powell when an informant alerted the District Attorney's office on
Wednesday. Ford was then recorded on tape outlining the plot.
``The plot was where an individual so obsessed with hatred for mainstream
political figures, who with ballistics people would spread radioactive material
in the seat of his car, in his food or some proximity to him in the hope that
he would contract incurable diseases and cause his death,'' Catterson said.
Apart from Powell, others targeted included two other Republicans,
county legislator Fred Towle and Brookhaven public safety director
Anthony Gazzola.
Long Island is the political stronghold of Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, but
he was not on the plotters' list.
Investigators found five canisters of radium, a low-level radioactive material,
in Ford's home, Catterson said.
``Any potential threat to public health and safety has been eliminated,''
Catterson said in a statement. ``There is no danger to the community and the
material has been removed to a facility capable of its proper disposal.''
Catterson described Ford as a former court officer and president of the Long
Island ``UFO Network.'' The other man arrested was identified as 42-year-old
Joseph Mazzachelli of Manorville, but no further information was available on
him.
Investigators also found a cache of rifles and handguns, ammunition, a mine
sweeper, gas mask and assorted militia literature, the Suffolk County District
Attorney said. It was not known whether the men belonged to a militia.
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