DRUG PILOT SAYS HE'S CAUGHT IN CIA PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 28, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-60552R000505040003-6
APTICL! APPEA1t)Zb
n" P46S
MIAMI HERALD
28 May 1984
Drug pilot says
ns
caught in a CIA plot
Implants called part
of plan to control world
By AL MESSERSCHMIDT
Herald Staff Writer
James Pettit, convicted drug pilot, admit-
ted arms smuggler, has told the same story
over and over again. Nobody believes him.
Embedded in his neck, he says, are tiny
electronic devices put there by the CIA to
control his thoughts.
A federal judge heard the tale and ordered
a psychiatric examination. The psychiatrist
said Pettit is legally competent. The judge
ordered a CAT scan, a sophisticated X-ray, of
Pettit's neck. The test found nothing.
When a Dade circuit judge heard the story,
he thought Pettit was trying to talk his way
out of an arson charge. The judge ordered
new X-rays when Pettit offered to accept a
30-year jail sentence if they turned up
nothing.
To the surprise of the judge, the prosecu-
tor and even Pettit's attorney, the newest
tests from Jackson Memorial Hospital show
two "foreign objects" in Pettit's neck.
Circuit Judge Howard Gross has ordered
exploratory surgery to find out what they
are.
"Thoughts that don't belong to me keep
appearing." Pettit said during an interview in
the Dade County Jail. "The only problem I'm
having is getting the implants exposed."
"Up until the newest X-rays, there was
nothing to give credence to his story," said
Pettit's latest attorney, Roy Gelber. "I feel
that now there is some objective proof of
what he was saying."
It is the kind of tale that could become a
bestseller, a spy thriller with drug smugglers'
airplanes crashing in flames, organized crime,
murders and mind control by the CIA.
Sitting in a tiny interview room in the jail,
Pettit holds up one, then two X-rays. Each is
about the size of a sheet of typing paper.
"See the circled areas?" he says. "See that
thing that looks like a little bottle? That, my
friend, is an implant. They're not metal.
They're quartz. They're like tiny radio
receivers.
"I think they were going to use me in a
program to assassinate someone," Pettit says.
"I can't prove the CIA put them in there. But
there is no way any other government agency
has the power to do that. You think about it
I can't be the only one implanted."
***
Physically, James Pettit, 39, is a wreck.
"Burn 'em" Pettit was what federal drug
agents called him because of the many planes
he crashed during his brief career as a drug
pilot. ,
Pettit's last crash, in April 1982, a
Lockheed Lodestar carrying Quaaludes, was
the worst: When the plane exploded in a
Colombian pasture, Pettit was burned over 54
percent of his body.
Eight days later, he was admitted to the
burn center of the U.S. Army Institute of
Surgical Research at the Brooke Medical
Center in San Antonio, Texas. Hospital
spokesman Ray Dery confirmed that Pettit
James Pettit: Says implants
?control his thoughts.
was treated by two doctors at the
center until July 2, 1982.
Pettit said that while he was at
the burn center, the implants were
put In his neck, face, arms and ears.
Three times during surgery, "I
left my body and watched the
operation," said Pettit, a believer in
astral projection who once listed his
occupation as a parapsychologist.
The crash left him badly scarred.
He wears long-sleeved shirts to
cover the shriveled, baby-pink skin
on his arms. His nose was rebuilt,
but one nostril is larger than the
Contmmied
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040003-6
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040003-6
1Z
`I think they were going
to use me in a program
to assassinate someone.
I can't prove the CIA
put them [implants] in
there. But there is no
way any other
government agency has
the power to do that.'
James Pettit
other. His battered face is covered
with a heavy, dark beard. The
fingers on his right hand stop at the
knuckles; they were lost in an
earlier fire. The fingers on his left
hand are bent back.
* * *
The CIA program was called "Op-
eration Crystal Ball," Pettit says,
and he found top secret documents
on it in a Key West dumpster in the
mid-1960s. They came from a
safety deposit box that was broken
into at the former Key West
National Bank, he says.
The documents described a CIA
plan to take over the world's
judicial and political systems
through mind control by the year
2000, Pettit says.
"The Crystal Ball routine, I'll
never be able to prove," he says.
But his discovery of the docu-
ments is one reason the CIA focused
on him, Pettit says.
The other reason was his search
to find out why his older brother,
Herschell Neal Pettit, died in the
Gulf of Mexico in 1978. Pettit says
his brother was "a straight arrow,"
and he couldn't believe reports that
the elder Pettit had committed
suicide aboard a boat loaded with
pot.
think he was working for the
CIA or the DEA [Drug Enforcement
Administration]," Pettit says. "I
went to New Orleans. I talked to
]an organized crime] 'family.' I
gave 'em a list of names. CIA, CIA,
CIA. 'Don't fool with it,' they told
me. I put it all together in my head
- smuggling ... CIA connected."
* * *
James Pettit is obsessed bye
thoughts that the CIA can control
him.
In a deposition, Pettit asked his
ex-attorney in federal court, Kathy
Hamilton, if she was working for
the agency.
No, she said, but the CIA once
offered her a job as she was
graduating from college.
Pettit says Hamilton's fidgeting
with her hair and with cigarettes
were "triggering mechanisms" to
control his mind.
Ring called tipoff
In motions filed in court, Pettit
says his former attorney, Assistant
Public Defender James Webb, once
showed up in court wearing a Duke
University ring. The year on the
ring wasn't the year of Webb's
graduation - a tipoff that Webb
was working for the CIA, says
Pettit. "I accused him of it." Webb
says there's no truth to the accusa-
tion.
The federal jury that convicted
him of drug smuggling in 1983 was
controlled by the CIA, says Pettit.
Defense attorney Hamilton is
convinced that Pettit is linked to the
agency. "I'll tell you this," she says.
"Jim Pettit has worked for the CIA
. that has been confirmed. Pettit
has told me he worked for the CIA.
In addition [Charles] Marty has told
me he worked for the CIA ... that
he had Pettit checked out ... that it
was confirmed."
Marty, a co-defendant in the
federal drug case, was to have been
a co-pilot on a drug flight with
Pettit.
In the middle of that trial,
Marty's defense attorney, Alexan-
der Martone, asked for a hearing,
out of the presence of the jurors,
because he had learned that Marty
had met secretly with the DEA and
CIA.
"The CIA ... tried to get the
charges dismissed because of the
CIA connection with my client,"
Martone told U.S. District Judge
Jose Gonzalez. "There are letters in
their files."
"I have direct confirmation that
Jim Pettit has flown for the CIA,"
said Martone. "Jim Pettit needs
some definite help. The government
owes him that. He's been impaired
as a result of those flights. The U.S.
government has never taken re-
sponsibility for what happened-to
Jim Pettit." * * *
James Pettit says he is a good
guy, not a lawbreaker.
He says he flew drug missions
outside the United States to tip off
law enforcement authorities, that
he scuttled planeloads of pot, called
the cops and never landed a single
load in this country.
"It's no crime to haul dope
outside the States," he says.
Pettit says he went through
$50,000 "harassing" drug dealers in
Texas and Florida.
He says he tipped an FBI agent
named Ty Cobb about drug loads
coming into the Miami area. The
FBI says Cobb has been transferred,
but won't say where.
Pettit says he tipped former DEA
agent Randy Beasley. Not so, says
Beasley, the undercover agent in
Operation Screamer, an 84-defen-
dant series of busts in 1983. .
Pettit "tried to go to Cobb," says
Beasley, but Pettit was a target of
the Operation Screamer probe at
the time. "The guy is not reliable
enough to be an informant. The guy
is a real character. He kept us
entertained. The CIA - that only
came up after he was arrested."
Pettit was charged in Operation
Screamer with plotting to smuggle
two planeloads of pot into Florida
in August 1981.
He allegedly attended a series of
meetings and developed a landing
code for the flights. Pettit flew a
DC-3 to Colombia, but instead of
returning to Lake Okeechobee with
pot, he landed at Treasure Cay in
the Bahamas.
Pettit says he never intended to
bring the marijuana into Florida.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Ste-
phen LeClair told the jurors in
Judge Gonzalez's court that a
"mix-up" in signals - not Pettit -
forced the landing in the Bahamas.
Mental test ordered
Before Pettit's federal trial, de-
fense attorney Hamilton asked Gon-
zalez to order a psychiatric test and
a CAT scan of Pettit's head.
Dr. Charles Mutter reported that
Pettit was competent to stand trial,
and added: "It is my opinion that
this individual is attempting to
contrive a story to evade further
legal proceedings. Although his
alleged belief would represent a
psychotic delusion, there is nothing
else in the mental status exam that
it consistent with mental illness."
The CAT scan at Jackson Memo-
rial found nothing.
Pettit didn't testify. He refused to
cooperate with Hamilton. The at-
torney said nothing about the CIA
or implants.
The jury convicted Pettit. Gonza-
lez ordered a 15-year prison sen-
tence, one of the stiffest in the
Operation Screamer cases.
Pettit's extensive criminal record
he has served several prison
terms - prompted the judge to
order the tough sentence, Hamilton
says.
Now Pettit awaits trial in Circuit
Court, accused of setting fire to his
girlfriend's house after barricading
himself inside when DEA agent
Beasley tried to arrest him.
For nearly six hours in mid-June
1983 Pettit refused to leave the
house at 5929 SW 16th Ter. The
DEA called a Metro-Dade SWAT
team. Pettit called TV reporters.
Continiid3
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040003-6
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040003-6
,3
Six-hour standoff
During the standoff, Pettit alleg-
edly tossed lighted containers of
paint thinner from the house. Pettit
says he didn't set the fire in the
bedroom that caused $60,000 in
damage.
"Who set the fire?" he says.
"That I don't know. Whoever,
'whatever, set the fire came through
the west bedroom window. I
thought it was a tear gas canister."
In court depositions, there is no
mention of tear gas.
The case was scheduled for trial
before Judge Gross last week. The
day the trial was to begin, hospital
officials, responding to a court
order, brought copies of the federal-
ly ordered X-rays to court.
Pettit, defense attorney Gelber
and prosecutor Phil Maniatty hud-
dled in the jury room with Dr.
Robert M. Quencer of Jackson's
radiology department to examine
the X-rays. The X-rays showed the
top of Pettit's head, but didn't show
the neck area behind his ear.
Judge accepts offer
Pettit, who is representing him-
self with Gelber as co-counsel.
offered to plead no contest to the
arson charge and accept a 30-year
sentence - if another set of X-rays
`Up until the newest
X-rays, there was
nothing to give
credence to his story. I
feel that now there is
some objective proof of
what he was saying.'
Attorney Roy Gelber
showed nothing.
Judge Gross sent Pettit back to
the hospital.
When Dr. Quencer returned with
the newest tests, he told the judge
that something unexplainable is in
Pettit's neck.
"I thought he was just fabricating
a story to beat the charges," said
Gross. "The X-rays give me some-
thing to think about."
"Until the radiologist came in, I
thought it was nonsense," said
Maniatty. "I don't know what those
two things are. The radiologist said
it could be metal from an accident.
It's certainly worth checking into.
But it has nothing to do with this
case."
Tuesday, Gross ordered the hospi-
tal staff to perform an operation to
determine what is in Pettit's neck.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040003-6