From the Rapid City Journal:
Former South Dakota Governor and House Rep. Bill Janklow announces he's dying of brain cancer. Janklow resigned from Congress after killing a motorcyclist in a 2003 accident near Flandreau. A jury convicted him of second-degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to 100 days in jail and fined $5,000.If Janklow (a morbidly obese white male) has any remorse for killing someone with a car he hasn't shown it. According to one chilling newspaper story he has been ticketed four times since he slaughtered Randy Scott. Read this piece that appeared in the Mitchell Daily Republic, it will scare the shit out of you. Here's a snip:
He was also cited for a minor accident when he collided with a parked vehicle, and was twice cited for failure to maintain financial responsibility. The citations for failure to maintain financial responsibility — not having proof of insurance — were dismissed, as was a parking ticket. The minor accident occurred in a Hy-Vee parking lot on Sept. 23, 2008, in Sioux Falls. Janklow was fined $53 and paid $51 in costs.No telling how many times he has been pulled over without citations by a law enforcement agency that still quivers under his authoritarian personality(s) and powers of coercion.
Earlier in this week's news cycle Jonathan Ellis of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported that Janklow pocketed $850,000 from a campaign fund:
Janklow, who had been maintaining the account and filing regular disclosure statements since leaving office in 2003, filed notification that he was terminating the account with the Secretary of State’s Office. The statement required Janklow to report the expenditures from the account. However, the handwriting on the filing was difficult to read. South Dakota law allows political candidates to convert any surplus campaign donations for personal use. In this respect, South Dakota is an anomaly, say campaign finance experts.It should be noted here that beginning with Janklow, South Dakota now routinely scores at the bottom of US ethics practices rankings.
Ellis goes on to say that South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant (also a morbidly obese white male) declared that it happens as a matter of course in the collapsed red state but that the amounts had never exceeded $10,000; and:
Federal candidates also have restrictions on surplus donations, said Edwin Bender, the executive director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. They can donate the money to other political committees, charity or return it to donors.That recalled a 2009 piece written by Kevin Woster in the Rapid City Journal about a Republican slush fund that is impossible to trace:
The Governor's Club has been a discrete part of political fundraising in South Dakota for more than 30 years. For a $1,000 donation, contributors buy a place at the table - and a position of potential influence - with South Dakota's governor at club events that are not open to the general public. Gov. Mike Rounds refused a Journal interview request for this story. Former Gov. Bill Janklow split the club proceeds with the party.Janklow even had a hand in the banking crisis by ramming legislation through the South Dakota Statehouse in 1981 that paved the way for Citibank to locate in an already desperately poor state.
Referring to then-Governor Janklow as "The Intimidator," Minnesota Public Radio covered the 1999 Gina Score tragedy at the now-closed Plankinton 'reform school' where teenage girls were stripped naked then four-pointed to concrete floors. From the Cara Hetland piece:
Gina Score collapsed after being forced to run two miles on a hot and humid July morning. Boot camp counselors refused her help. They said she was faking. "The doctor flushed her with cold fluids, and her temperature was still over 108 degrees. And that was one and a half hours later. So basically, she cooked to death," says her father David. Former legislator Pat Haley says Janklow's reaction to Gina Score's death was typical. He went on the attack. He tried to discredit kids and parents who spoke out on camp abuse.More recently, convicted felon Bill Janklow sounded scared shitless on his idea of public radio as he condescendingly pontificated to host Paul Guggenheimer. Lifted from Doug Wiken's Dakota Today:
What Janklow is not saying is that he sued the US Corps of Engineers in order to make them maintain HIGHER water levels on Oahe Reservoir. The Republican failure to plan for Mainstem dam water releases in determining safe building areas is the problem...and that includes the Janklow administration.In the above-mentioned SDPB interview Janklow seemed to call for the removal of the mainstem dams.
Marion’s Pastures is situated in a large meadow, west to the Missouri River, within the City limits of historic Fort Pierre, South Dakota. This development was established in 2000 and is nearly completed at this time.This is single-party patronage coming home to roost in a town with a history of flooding.
In 1974 ('75?), if a smoky memory serves, then-Attorney General Janklow gave a speech to a standing room-only crowd in the Volstorff Ballroom at SDSU. He was heckled throughout the address hosted by the Vet's Club.
A brash, wild-eyed sophomore (yes, ip) piped up and questioned how the State of South Dakota could persecute marijuana smokers while turning a blind eye to service clubs like the VFW, Knights of Columbus, and American Legion that were running illegal games of chance with impunity. My query received rapturous applause from those in attendance. Mr. Janklow shouted over the din, "mail me their names," and then was booed off the stage.
I hope Randy Scott kicks you right in the nuts when he sees you, Billy Boy!
Douglas brings a fascinating idea posted at The Decorum Forum.
5 comments:
Notice that not one of the 12 headlines popping up on KELO since the announcement mentions Janklow's conviction for manslaughter. Instead, "People Are Unaware of Jankow's Kindness." Sorry to turn your stomach so close to bedtime.
My dad died in Riverview Manor, which is owned by the family. BJ's mom is still alive, nearly 100. His sisters, one is the director, one is the activities coordinator, treated him like a king and came to his wake. We had many conversations about many things. Awesome people. Their relationship with their brother is awkward.
Recall that the bishop testified at his trial.
Janklow has a redeemer complex and is similar to Stace Nelson in so many ways they are difficult to count. The biggest problem, of course, is that it is all built on the pathology of the warrior, where choices made in the past are reflected in the choices being made in the future.
And, not all of it is bad; but South Dakota is a sad, failed place as a result.
Perhaps his passing will reverse the cascade that his generation has wrought...but I doubt it. His judgment in the afterlife will not come as he has spent the last days of his life in Hell as the wages of his sins.
May he rot in peace.
"The only way to deal with the Indian problem in South Dakota," Janklow said, "is to put a gun to the AIM leaders' heads and pull the trigger."
At a 1974 meeting of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC), representatives from the Rosebud reservation came forward with concerns about Bill Janklow, the soon to be Attorney General. Douglas Durham, a member of the Banks-Means legal team who later admitted to being an FBI infiltrator, had located Jancita Eagle Deer. She was ready to testify that on January 14, 1967, when she was a 15-year-old student at the Rosebud Boarding School, she was raped by her legal guardian, William Janklow. The day after the alleged assault, Eagle Deer had reported the incident to her principal, who took her to the hospital. Hospital records indicate that an attack had occurred. The FBI's cursory investigation concluded that it was "impossible to determine anything," and that there was "insufficient evidence, allegations were unfounded; we are therefore closing our files on the matter."
Delphine Eagle Deer, Jancita's stepmother, vowed to prove that William Janklow had raped her daughter. She never got her chance. Mrs. Eagle Deer was found dead in a winter field after she had been severely beaten and left by BIA police.
Rosebud Tribal Judge Mario Gonzalez found enough evidence to charge Janklow with "assault with attempt to commit rape and carnal knowledge of a female under 16." Janklow failed to appear on his court date and, for want of a more severe measure, was disbarred from further legal practice on the Rosebud Reservation. As a white man, he was outside the jurisdiction of Tribal law.
I live on the Pine Ridge but live within ten miles of the Rosebud. I can planly remember friends talking about Wild Bill riding his Harley with a sawed off shotgun in a scaberd. He always made it clear that if you didnt agree with him you should fear him. And no Im not just talking about the native population of this state but anyone that dared to stand up against him.
I wont even get into his enviromental history. Lets just say that he was all about money and had very little feeling for the land or its people. He had many oppertunities to "do the right thing" but at every turn he chose to turn his back on the land.
Bill could speak the Lakota language as well as any white man but when he did it was always with a "forked tounge." He played one race against the other as good as any one man in the history of this state.
The Blindman
Sorry Pat. That was a little too mean-spirited even for me. You are welcome to try again but without quite so much vitriol.
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