Gunmen murder 3 F.B.I. men

Press, 11 August 1979, Page 8

Gunmen murder 3 F.B.I. men

NZPA El Centro (California) A social worker left two suicide notes with his estranged wife expressing “dissatisfaction with the Government” yesterday, then went to a Federal Bureau of Investigation office and shot and killed two agents and himself, the F. 8.1. has said. A few hours earlier in Cleveland, an F. 8.1. special agent, Johnnie Oliver, was shot dead in a public housing project as he tried to arrest a 19-year-old fugitive wanted in Illinois. The F. 8.1, said it was seeking the fugitive, Melvin Guyon, for the shooting. In Washington, the Attor-ney-General (Mr Griffin Beil) said through a spokesman that he was “very distressed” by the three killings. It was the first time three F. 8.1. agents had been fatally shot in one day. The social worker, James Maloney, aged 30, of Holtville, California left two notes with his estranged wife, Esther, before going to the F. 8.1. office at a shopping centre in the desert town of El Centro, 160 km east of San Diego, agents have said.

An F. 8.1. spokesman said Maloney had an appointment to discuss his request for information from F. 8.1. files under the Freedom of Information Act. His request had been denied.

The agent said that when one of the agents had gone to the door, Maloney had apparently fired the shotgun, but the shot had not hit anyone. The shotgun had apparently jammed and Maloney had fired six shots from a revolver.

Maloney had shot Agent Robert Porter first, hitting him twice in the chest and once in the head. Agent Charles Elmore had got off two shots, but had apparently missed, and had then been hit twice in the chest.

Maloney, who apparently shot himself in the mouth, had died with his head in the lap of one of the agents, the F. 8.1. reported. “Many would denounce this action,” Maloney said in the suicide notes he left. Agent George Gudnor of the F.8.1.’s San Diego office said the notes showed “dissatisfaction with the Government,” saying he (Maloney) was going to take his life and take someone with him. “We don’t know exactly why he did it except that he might have been disgusted with not being able to get files from us that he had sought.” Th. F. 8.1. bad investigated Maloney in 1971 for allegedly associating with groups advocating the overthrow of the Government by force, but nothing had come of the inquiry, an agent said.