Fran’s Day Care case – Dan and Fran Keller – News Article Excerpts from 1991 – 1993

Fran’s Day Care case – Dan and Fran Keller – News Article Excerpts from 1991 – 1993

What the information below shows is that there was no panic or witch hunt and that there was evidence backing the original charges, including one defendant’s confession and the children’s testimony. Media coverage in this Austin newspaper was balanced and did cover both sides of the story, unlike the coverage in the news today.

Information from the news articles:

Fran Keller’s brother Johnson in a separate case was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a 4-year-old and received an eight-year sentence in a plea bargain.

One child in the case was treated in a psychiatric hospital for several weeks after the allegations of abuse surfaced. “His prognosis is he will probably need therapy off and on the rest of his life.” Parents described how their preschoolers’ behavior changed in odd ways.

Perry (a defendant who later recanted his confession): His confession contained graphic details of a variety of sexual acts performed on two children, and it substantiated claims made by the children that they had been threatened and terrorized into not speaking out.

News article excerpts on this page follow more recent information and case updates.

August 22, 2017 case update:
Dan and Fran Keller…will receive $3.4 million from a state fund for those wrongly convicted of crimes.
The couple’s circumstances changed in June, when Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore filed court documents that dropped all charges and declared the Kellers “actually innocent” under the law. After an extensive review, it was clear that the Kellers’ innocence claim should be supported in the interest of justice, Moore said at the time.
Now adults, several of the children who accused the Kellers opposed the move, according to Moore and family members. (Quotes from Austin-American Statesman article)
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

Here are a few facts about the Fran’s Day Care case:

1. Children’s parents were alerted when children returned home from daycare wearing their under clothing inside out or wearing other children’s underwear and sometimes having wet hair.

2. The children who were old enough to speak reported sexual assaults by Dan Keller and other visitors to the school. The older children also reported assaults on younger, pre-verbal children at the school.

3. The Kellers attempted to evade arrest by fleeing to Las Vegas. They were captured there wearing disguises. Fran has bleached her hair blond.

4. A co-defendant, Doug Perry, a sheriff’s deputy, pled guilty, turned state’s evidence, testified against the Kellers, and received a 10-year probated sentence. Perry is a registered sex offender in Texas.

5. The defense did not retain an expert witness in defense of the Kellers. They only produced a copy of Richard Gardner’s book, Sex Abuse Hysteria, in response to the allegations against the Kellers.

6. The prosecution did not discuss ritual abuse until the subject was raised by the defense at which point the prosecution’s expert witness, Randy Noblitt, explained what ritual abuse is and how it works. He also provided testimony in response to the production of the Richard Gardner book intended by the defense to demonstrate in unreliability of sex abuse claims by children. (The book’s theme is that all people are latent pedophiles and that parents receive vicarious sexual gratification from their children’s sexual experiences).

Fran’s Day Care – Randy Noblitt, PhD (prosecution’s expert witness)
Article at https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

More Misinformation in the Media about the Keller Case
June 3, 2015…

(1) The Kellers were never charged with, let alone convicted of, satanic ritual abuse….The only reason those issues came into the Keller case is because the defense brought them up.

(2) Dr. Mouw’s “recantation” did not negate all of the medical evidence of abuse in the case. As anyone who bothered to read his affidavit can see, Dr. Mouw still admits that the original girl in this case had a tear in her vagina. Cathy Young has dismissed this evidence with the wild assertion that vaginal tears are normal in non-abused children, but virtually all research of “normal” genitals contradicts this claim. The Keller case began with a genital injury that Dr. Mouw does not deny. His “recantation” of the other finding strains credulity. It relies on the claim that Dr. Mouw had a clear recollection of this genital exam many years after he testified that he had absolutely no recollection of the exam.

(3) A civil complaint filed by the parents of one of the children who attended the Keller’s home daycare contains the allegation that a “longtime friend and confident” of Francis Keller was told about “Daniel Keller’s abusive habit toward children” (p. 2)…. https://blogs.brown.edu/rcheit/files/2014/05/Keller-civil-complaint.pdf

In sum, there was far more evidence in this case than has ever been acknowledged by those promoting the witch-hunt narrative. The “recantation” by Dr. Mouw made it impossible to retry the case, but a close examination of his affidavit makes it clear that Dr. Mouw is not credible. That probably explains why the appellate court did not exonerate the Kellers. Dr. Mouw’s statement simply does not add up. He claims to have had a clear recollection of the medical exam in this case many years after testifying; but when he testified under oath in 1993 he said that he had “no independent recollection” of the exam beyond his written records.
https://blogs.brown.edu/rcheit/2015/06/03/more-misinformation-about-the-keller-case/

Petition detailing allegations of abuse by Dan Keller and others
A civil complaint filed by the parents of one of the children who attended the Keller’s home daycare contains the allegation that a “longtime friend and confident” of Francis Keller was told about “Daniel Keller’s abusive habit toward children” (p. 2)
https://blogs.brown.edu/rcheit/files/2014/05/Keller-civil-complaint.pdf
 
Excerpts from news articles before, during and after the Keller trial:

Police find Jeep, weapon belonging to couple wanted on assault charges
Kerry Haglund December 7, 1991
Austin American-Statesman

Law enforcement authorities on Friday recovered a vehicle and a weapon belonging to two day-care operators wanted on sexual assault charges, according to sheriff’s reports. The vehicle was being used by Daniel Bruno Keller, 50, and Elaine Keller, 44….

The weapon recovered was a .38-caliber gun, authorities said.

The couple was expected to turn themselves in to authorities on Tuesday but didn’t appear, Radford said.

The sheriff’s department, fearing the couple may attempt to flee the state, has sent out a statewide bulletin and has contacted law enforcement agencies in neighboring states in hopes of finding the couple….

Day care owners arrested in Las Vegas in sex case
January 15, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

Two fugitives accused of sexually assaulting children in their Austin day care center were arrested Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev., said Sgt. Gordon Dye of the Travis County Sheriff’s Department. Daniel Bruno Keller, 50, of 11800 Manchaca Road, and his wife, Frances Elaine Keller, 44, were arrested on fugitive charges after Las Vegas police spotted their car and chased them to a hotel, said Las Vegas police Sgt. Jack Ladner.

Both had cut and dyed their hair, and Daniel Keller had a birth certificate with a false name. However, they were still driving a car that was listed in the National Criminal Investigation Computer and a national, all-points police bulletin, said Todd Radford, a Travis County detective….

They will be returned to Travis County to face charges, Dye said….

Fugitives returned to Austin
January 29, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

Two fugitives accused of molesting children they cared for at a Travis County day-care center arrive Tuesday at Robert Mueller Municipal Airport after being arrested in Las Vegas. Frances Elaine Keller, 44, right, and her husband Daniel Bruno Keller, 50, at center with his head bowed, are accused of molesting two children at their Fran’s Day Care center. The couple have been sought since Dec. 3, when they failed to appear in a Travis County court on the charges.
 
2 officers arrested on sex charges
Deputy constables linked to couple in day-care case
Kimberly Garcia July 9, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

Two deputy constables face charges of engaging in improper sexual behavior with two children, whom husband-and-wife day-care center operators were charged with sexually assaulting last year….

The Kellers were indicted in November on charges of sexually assaulting the same two children at their child-care center. They were arrested in January in Las Vegas when officers saw their car, which was listed in the National Criminal Investigations Computer. Both had cut and dyed their hair, and Daniel Keller had a birth certificate with a false name….

Ex-husband is charged in assaults
Man accused with constable in charges at day-care center
Kimberly Garcia July 10, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

The former husband of a Travis County deputy constable charged with sexually assaulting two children at a day-care center was arrested Thursday on charges of sexually assaulting the same children.

Douglas Wayne Perry, 30, was at Travis County Central Booking in lieu of $50,000 bail, records state. He and Janise White, a former deputy constable who is Perry’s ex-wife, are charged with sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy at Fran’s Day Care Center in August.

Daniel Bruno Keller and Frances Elaine Keller operated the center in southwestern Travis County until they were indicted in November on charges of sexually assaulting the same children. The center is closed.

A fifth suspect, Raul Quintero, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of indecency with a child by contact in connection with the August incident. Quintero is a Travis County deputy constable who worked with White in the Precinct 3 office….

`I don’t know if the public is ready for this’
Allegations of abuse portray dark side at Oak Hill day care
Pamela Ward

Denise Gamino July 12, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

As the investigation continues, questions surround B.D. Johnson, 40, who is Fran Keller’s brother. Johnson, who has a prison record for two theft convictions and one driving-while-intoxicated conviction from Travis County, was indicted last July in Burnet County in a child abuse case, records show.

Johnson was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a 4-year-old and received an eight-year sentence in a plea bargain, records show. Johnson remains in prison, authorities said.

Law officials also said they believe there are child victims who have not been interviewed and other victims who gradually reveal details about their abuse as they gain verbal skills and receive therapy.

“I’m sure there are more out there we haven’t been able to talk to. We’re still looking for other kids who may have been there,” Oliver said.

More than half of the eight to 10 children at the home when the abuse allegations surfaced were infants or toddlers who could not yet talk, he said.

Oliver said police have interviewed only three or four children because “those are the only ones old enough to talk.”….

“We have experienced almost unfathomable pain and terror,” said the mother of one of the alleged victims, a boy who is 4. What her son endured, the mother said, is “shocking and unbelievable.” She said, “I don’t know if the public is ready for this story yet.”

She said her boy was treated in a psychiatric hospital for several weeks after the allegations of abuse surfaced. “His prognosis is he will probably need therapy off and on the rest of his life.”

Parents described how their preschoolers’ behavior changed in odd ways and how that didn’t seem overly significant, at first.

Last summer, a parent of a 3 1/2-year-old girl noticed the child playing with her underwear and her sexual organs. “She was playing with herself and doing things that little girls just don’t do,” the parent said. “I recognized it, and my parents recognized it.”

The family was puzzled and concerned but didn’t know what to make of the child’s behavior.

Then, one day, “She was playing with herself. . . . She was spreading her legs apart,” the parent said. “She was being kind of coy about it. I said, `Wow, something’s going on.’ ”

Another parent said her preschool-age boy began “talking in bathroom terms and laughing about it.” He also crawled on the floor naked, carrying a pillow and talking baby-talk, and would reach out to play with his father’s male organ. These inappropriate “out of the blue” behaviors, she came to realize, were symptoms of child abuse, she said.

“I want to stress how important it is to notice, notice, notice and listen to the child,” said the parent. Once, she said, her son stood beforeher and “said `I’m gonna cut your head off.’ It occurred to me to say, `Did anyone ever tell you they were gonna cut your head off?’ He said `Yes,’ and was making a sawing motion at his neck….

Hearing for 5 charged in crimes at Oak Hill day-care center begins
Man voluntarily confessed to abuse of children, ranger testifies
Jim Phillips September 29, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

A suspect in the sexual abuse of several children at an Oak Hill day-care center voluntarily confessed, implicating the owners of the center and two deputy constables, a Texas Ranger testified Monday.

Ranger John Waldrip said Douglas Perry, 30, admitted the crimes after he failed a polygraph test in July. Perry has since recanted the written statement he gave investigators, attorneys in the case said. The testimony came in a pretrial hearing for five people charged with abusing children at Fran’s Day Care in Oak Hill….

The hearing is to determine whether Perry’s confession and statements by other defendants can be used against the accused.

Perry also told investigators that White had given a copy of a police report to the Kellers, and that the constables had been questioned about reading police reports about the investigation on their computers, Waldrip said. The Kellers initially had been charged last year; the other three defendants were charged in July.

The ranger said Perry, after failing the polygraph, described sex acts between the Kellers and two victims, a boy and girl. Perry said that White had photographed the sex acts and that he and Quintero also participated, Waldrip said.

Also testifying was Roger Wade, a Travis County sheriff’s deputy, who said that when the Kellers were first confronted with the accusations in August 1991, they denied the charges….

Man confessed to abuse, ranger says at hearing
Jim Phillips September 29, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

A suspect in the sexual abuse of several children at an Oak Hill day-care center voluntarily confessed, implicating the owners of the center and two deputy constables, a Texas Ranger testified Monday.

Ranger John Waldrip said Douglas Perry, 30, admitted the crimes after he failed a polygraph test in July. Perry has since recanted the written statement he gave investigators, attorneys in the case said. The testimony came in a pretrial hearing for five people charged with abusing children at Fran’s Day Care in Oak Hill….

Perry also told investigators that White had given a copy of a police report to the Kellers, and that the constables had been questioned about reading police reports about the investigation on their computers, Waldrip said. The Kellers initially had been charged last year; the other three defendants were charged in July.

The ranger said Perry, after failing the polygraph, described sex acts between the Kellers and two victims, a boy and girl. Perry said that White had photographed the sex acts and that he and Quintero also participated, Waldrip said.

Also testifying was Roger Wade, a Travis County sheriff’s deputy, who said that when the Kellers were first confronted with the accusations in August 1991, they denied the charges.

Daniel Keller said “anyone who did that should be shot and put out of their misery,” Wade said. “He was very adamant about that.”…

6-year-old testifies he witnessed abuse of girl
Jury may begin deliberating molestation case today
Denise Gamino November 24, 1992 Austin American-Statesman

A 6-year-old boy, testifying in court by closed-circuit television, said Monday he saw Frances and Daniel Keller sexually abuse a 3-year-old girl on numerous occasions at “Fran and Danny’s Hate Care” center.

When a prosecutor began questioning the boy about Fran’s Day Care near Oak Hill, the child interrupted by saying, “You mean Fran and Danny’s Hate Care.” He said he called the facility that “because they hated kids.” The boy, who drew on a notepad and sometimes hugged a teddy bear named “Boo” while testifying for 40 minutes in a closed room near the courtroom, said he saw the girl abused with “sticks, fingers, toes and mouths.”

The boy is one of three children who have said they were sexually abused at the Kellers’ day-care home in 1991. He was asked just about the abuse of the girl, who is now 5, because the Kellers are on trial only in the molestation of the girl. Charges against the Kellers in the other two cases are pending….

The boy said the Kellers “tried to touch her in her private parts.” When Brian Case, an assistant Travis County district attorney, asked the boy where the abuse occurred, the child said, “outside, in the house, everywhere (they) owned.”

“First one person went (to touch her), and then the other person, then the other person and the other person,” he said.

Three other adults, Doug Perry and former Travis County deputy constables Janise White and Raul Quintero, have been charged with sexually abusing children at the day care. They have not been tried.

When Case asked the boy what else he had seen, the boy said, “And they like, well, they, hmmm, they took us to a graveyard and dug up this body.

“They made (the little girl) carry all of the bones that they dug up.”

The boy, who is in first grade at a local school, said the Kellers forced children to touch each other’s genitals and showed them horror movies. He also said the Kellers gave him a drug to make him forget things.

“It looked like stomach-ache medicine, but it wasn’t,” he said. “It didn’t stop my stomach from hurting, even for a minute. It made it feel worse.”….

But after the boy completed his testimony, the Kellers’ defense lawyers showed the jury a September 1991 videotape of the boy being interviewed by a woman from the Travis County sheriff’s office.

In the videotaped interview, the boy said attending Fran’s Day Care “was pretty good,” and said no one had touched his genitals and that he never had seen anyone touch another child’s genitals….
“What happened over at Dan and Fran’s?” he was asked. “I can’t remember that,” the boy said.

Later, the interviewer asked: “What about anyone touching on your private parts?” The boy said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s true ’cause I was there.”

Defense lawyers say the videotaped interviews with children allegedly abused by the Kellers show inconsistent stories. They say the difference between the taped interviews and other allegations show the children have been coaxed.

Shipway said the boy’s videotaped interview was different from his testimony because he had been traumatized and threatened in an effort to keep him from speaking up about the abuse. “What he said on the video is that he forgot or did not want to remember those things.”

She said the boy was exhibiting the same type of memory disorder discussed earlier Monday by an expert in ritual abuse, who testified for the state. Randy Noblitt of Richardson, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, said many sexual abuse victims have memory lapses or feel they are not themselves because they have been so traumatized and intimidated.

Noblitt said he has reviewed law enforcement reports and psychological reports on the 5-year-old girl and believes there are many similarities to ritual abuse. He said he found no evidence to suggest the girl had been coaxed into making the allegations….

Defense lawyers presented their own expert witness, clinical psychologist George Parker of Austin. Parker testified children “are very susceptible to leading questions and suggestion,” and may make statements just to please adults.
But Parker said he did not know enough about the girl to know whether she had a tendency to lie.

Also testifying Monday was Brenda Keele, 23, the eldest child of Frances Keller. She testified that her mother never abused her or her two siblings.
But under cross-examination, Shipway presented Keele with a letter she had written to Frances Keller in November 1990.
In the letter, Keele wrote, “First, I disown my brother because he was perverted enough to ask me, his own sister, to sleep with him.”
Keele denied the incident and said she wrote the letter because her brother angered her by not paying for a car he was buying from her.
Shipway later said she introduced the letter to show “these things (sexual abuse) are patterns. Her (Fran’s) brother is in prison for sexual abuse of a 5-year-old. There are some indications that other of Fran’s family members may have that problem.

Mother says girl revealed sex assault by couple
Pamela Ward November 18, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

The mother of a 5-year-old child and the child’s therapist testified Tuesday that the girl described sexual acts performed on her by Frances and Daniel Keller, a couple who ran an Oak Hill area day-care home.

In the opening day of testimony in the child molestation trial, the mother said her child had experienced night terrors and had become hysterical at bathtime in the days before she confided that “Danny hurt her.” The mother said her child, who was 3 1/2 at the time of the summer 1991 revelation, told her “Danny took his pee-pee and put it in her hole and got glue all inside her and it was yucky.” The woman also said her child told her Frances Keller had put a writing pen in her vagina “lots of times.”

That same day, Aug. 15, 1991, the child visited with therapist Donna David Campbell. The child used anatomically correct dolls to demonstrate oral sex, Campbell testified, adding that the child made biting noises and said, Frances Keller “ate me all up.”

Dr. Michael Mouw, an emergency room physician at Brackenridge Hospital, said he examined the child and found tears in her vagina that were probably less than 24 hours old. No sperm was found.

Dr. Beth Nauert, a pediatrician with expertise in examining child sexual abuse victims, testified Tuesday that she examined the child a couple of weeks after the examination at Brackenridge. Nauert said the child’s vaginal tears had healed….

He said the couple figured out which child might have made the accusation, and that Frances Keller said the child was “a liar, that she lied about all kinds of things, about putting her shoes away, about eating her vegetables.”….

5-year-old testifies in day-care abuse case
Girl’s testimony often contradictory Denise Gamino November 19, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

A fidgeting 5-year-old girl, sitting on the lap of her teen-age sister and chewing on a lollipop, took the witness stand Wednesday and alternately denied and admitted that anything bad happened to her at a day-care home near Oak Hill.

The girl sometimes glanced at former day-care home operators Frances and Daniel Keller, who are on trial for aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child, but did not acknowledge them. Prosecutors put the child on the witness stand two times, about half an hour apart, but neither period of testimony yielded consistent answers. The child was too shy to be sworn in before spectators, but she became increasingly playful on the stand, and answered one question with “No way, Jose.”

The most incriminating remark the child made, “I don’t know why Fran and Dan hurt me,” was not admissible evidence because the child whispered the statement to her sister and the court reporter was not able to record it.

During her initial 10-minute testimony, the child said she didn’t know anyone named Fran or Dan, was never hurt or touched inappropriately by anyone, and never attended Fran’s Day Care. “I didn’t go there at all,” she said.

But the girl contradicted herself later during an additional 20 minutes of testimony when she was allowed to whisper her answers to Judy Shipway, assistant Travis County district attorney.

“Did you ever go to a day care named Fran and Dan’s?” Shipway asked. “Yes,” the girl whispered.

“Did anything ever happen at Fran and Dan’s Day Care you didn’t like?” Shipway asked. “Yes,” the girl said.

“Did Danny ever do something to you that you didn’t like?” Shipway asked. “Yes,” the girl said after standing up and offering her yellow lollipop to those nearby.

But when Shipway asked the girl to “go ahead and tell them” what happened, she began to get playful. She blew air into the microphone and began saying “Hello, hello.”

Shipway, kneeling next to the child, tried again. “Did Danny ever touch you where you didn’t like?” The child said, “No.”

“Did anyone else ever touch you where you didn’t like?” Shipway asked. “No,” the girl said.

“Did Fran ever touch you where you didn’t like?” Shipway asked. “No,” the girl said.

After more negative answers, Shipway asked, “Does `no’ mean, no you don’t want to talk about it, or no, it didn’t happen?”

“No, it didn’t happen,” the child said….

Parents of the alleged assault victims said Daniel Keller’s brother, who was outside the courtroom, and someone in the courtroom flashed threatening hand signals to the child before and during her testimony that may have frightened her into silence. The parents believe hand signals were used as part of a pattern of ritualistic abuse of their children.
Shipway said she doesn’t know whether hand signals were flashed at the child, but said she is aware that similar tactics have been reported in other ritual abuse cases around the country.
Prosecutors attributed the child’s inability to provide consistent testimony to her age and fear of the crowded courtroom….

But the court-appointed defense lawyers said the child’s testimony showed she had been coaxed into making her previous statements about being abused by the Kellers….

During the afternoon, the jury heard a graphic tale of five adults engaging in sexual acts with two children at Fran’s Day Care.

The details came in a July 7th confession read aloud by Douglas Perry, 30, one of three adults besides the Kellers who have been charged with molesting children at the day-care home. The other two adults charged are former Travis County deputy constables Janise White, who at the time of the alleged assaults was married to Perry; and Raul Quintero, who was White’s working partner.

Perry has since recanted the confession, but he testified in the Keller trial after Flowers granted him immunity. None of his testimony or evidence gathered through his testimony may be used against him when he goes on trial.

On the stand, Perry denied participating in the adult-child sexual encounters to which he confessed, and said he had recanted shortly after confessing….

In a voice sometimes cracking with emotion, Perry read his original account of a Friday evening beer-and-sex party at Fran’s Day Care. He said Frances Keller phoned White and Perry and invited them over. Quintero also showed up, he said.

A young boy and girl were at the home, and White, wearing a constable officer’s shirt, told the children she knew where they lived and said “if they told anybody she would do to them what she was about to do to the doll. Then she tore the head off of the doll.”

Then, according to the confession, a number of sexual encounters occurred: Frances Keller put a pen in the girl’s vagina and engaged in oral sex with her, the girl performed oral sex on Daniel Keller and Perry, Quintero put his finger in the girl’s vagina, Daniel Keller inserted a pen in the boy’s anus, and the boy was forced to perform oral sex on Frances Keller and White.

Jury mulls day-care abuse case
State, defense make their final arguments
Denise Gamino November 25, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

A Travis County jury continued deliberating late Tuesday in the trial of Frances and Daniel Keller, who are accused of sexually abusing a preschooler last year at their day-care home near Oak Hill.
During the six-day trial, prosecutors argued that the Kellers had abused the girl by engaging in several forms of sexual acts with her and threatening and terrorizing her into silence. They presented medical records and testimony about the girl’s torn vagina and psychology reports about her August 1991 outcry, which they said was so sexually vivid it could not have been fabricated….

The Kellers’ court-appointed defense lawyers argued that the girl and other alleged victims were coaxed into making the allegations against the Kellers. They said the children could not be believed because many of their allegations, such as witnessing killings and flying in airplanes, were outlandish.

The trial was highlighted by the testimony of the girl, who is now 5 years old, and by a 6-year-old boy who also was allegedly abused by the Kellers.

While the girl’s testimony from the witness stand last week yielded inconsistent answers to questions about what had happened to her, the boy wavered little Monday in his accusations against the Kellers. He said he saw the Kellers abusing the girl on numerous occasions….

Therapist describes ritualistic abuse claims
Defense begins its case in day-care molestation trial
Pamela Ward

Denise Gamino November 20, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

The focus of a day-care sexual molestation trial shifted dramatically Thursday to a bizarre tale of ritualistic torture of babies, children and cats and graveyard ceremonies.

The therapist who has counseled a child who prosecutors say was abused by Frances and Daniel Keller, the Oak Hill area day-care home operators on trial, was asked to detail for the jury the child’s stories of events while in the Kellers’ care. Donna David Campbell related a string of comments from the child, who was 3 1/2 when the alleged abuse occurred. Among the many stories the girl has told in the preceding 16 months, Campbell said, are tales of candles burning while needles were stuck into screaming cats, the killing of a baby named Rachel and a visit to a cemetery where child and adult bodies were unearthed in the presence of a police officer or sheriff’s deputy.

The child also told her therapist that the Kellers wore white robes when they hurt her, that she saw Easter bunnies and dogs shot, that she took a ride in an airplane and that all the children had to help Daniel Keller dismember a person with a chainsaw.

The therapist’s testimony came at the request of defense attorneys, who began their case Thursday. The prosecution previously interviewed Campbell but appeared to be building a case based solely on sexual molestation. Nationally, prosecutors have had poor success when claims of ritualism were introduced….

A day after the girl testified in court, offering conflicting testimony, the jury watched three videotapes of her speaking with sheriff’s office staff.

The girl gave inconsistent answers when asked what the Kellers had done to her, sometimes showing how they had molested her and sometimes denying they had hurt her. At times, she mixed up the names of body parts.

Also on the videotapes, she was offered candy or a “special treat” for talking about what happened. At one point, the girl’s mother told her she should make the videotape “to help save the other kids and protect them.”…

Kellers deny abusing kids at day care
Two fled Austin because of fear, woman testifies
Pamela Ward

Denise Gamino November 21, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

Day-care home operators Daniel and Frances Keller testified in their criminal trial Friday and denied they ever engaged in sexual acts with children in their care.

Frances Keller, who testified first, burst into tears shortly after taking the stand and answered “no” to all the charges against her. “Well, if you didn’t do any of those things, then why did you go to Las Vegas,” her lawyer, Lewis Jones, asked, in reference to the Keller’s fugitive flight after their November 1991 indictment.

“We were scared, humiliated and hurt,” she said as she blotted her eyes with a tissue. She continued to sniffle as she testified they fled Austin because she believed that she would go to jail and have to pay $10,000 – money she didn’t have – for a lawyer to fight the charges.

Her husband later took the stand and often seemed confused by the questioning. To prosecutors’ questions, he answered “yes” it was a coincidence that his wife dyed his hair on their trip to Las Vegas, and a coincidence that, as police arrived at their hotel, they left behind a steaming bowl of food, belongings and a car and moved to a different hotel.

“So it’s all just a coincidence,” prosecutor Judy Shipway asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

The next question came from Keller’s court-appointed attorney, Dain Whitworth: “What’s a coincidence?”

“I don’t know,” Keller answered.

“Then why are you up there testifying it’s a coincidence if you don’t know what it is?”

“I don’t know,” he said….

The Kellers said they never had taken the children to a cemetery, never had dressed in robes or costumes in front of them and never maltreated, killed or injured animals in the children’s presence….

Defense witnesses on the fourth day of testimony included a next-door neighbor and three mothers of children who attended the day-care home at the time of the alleged abuse. All testified they never witnessed anything suspicious….

Kellers found guilty of sexual assault
Day-care owners face sentencing Monday
Denise Gamino

November 26, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

After deliberating 14 1/2 hours, a Travis County jury Wednesday found Frances and Daniel Keller guilty of sexually assaulting a child at their day-care home, which prosecutors portrayed as a horror chamber for children….

Nash’s 6-year-old son was a key witness in the six-day trial. He came to court with his teddy bear and testified via closed-circuit television, steadily recounting details of how the Kellers terrorized children in a cemetery and the many ways in which they sexually abused a 3 1/2-year-old girl. The Kellers were being tried only for abuse of the girl, who is now 5 years old, but they also have been charged with abusing the 6-year-old boy and another boy….

The Kellers remained in jail all spring and summer. In July, police arrested three other adults and charged them with molesting children at Fran’s Day Care. Arrested were Doug Perry and former Travis County deputy constables Janise White and Raul Quintero. Their trials are pending….

The three were arrested after Perry confessed that the three adults, along with the Kellers, had engaged in a beer-and-sex party during which several children were sexually assaulted by the adults while photographs were taken.

Perry later recanted his confession, but the prosecution instructed him to read his confession last week after he was granted immunity. His confession contained graphic details of a variety of sexual acts performed on two children, and it substantiated claims made by the children that they had been threatened and terrorized into not speaking out.

According to the confession, White tore the head off a doll and told the girl and boy if they reported being abused their heads would come off the same way….

Kellers are given sentences of 48 years
Appeal is expected in child-abuse case
Pamela Ward December 1, 1992
Austin American-Statesman

A Travis County jury handed child-care home operators Frances and Daniel Keller 48-year prison sentences Monday for sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl.

The defendants stood calmly before District Judge Wil Flowers as he read the jury’s decision. Frances Keller offered a soft “no” when the judge asked if she had anything to say. Her husband, in a voice close to a whisper, uttered “I am innocent,” and moments later proclaimed “We are innocent” as he and his wife were led back to jail…..

Parents who trusted their children to the Kellers said they were pleased at the sentences but would have preferred more years.

“I feel that if ever there was a case for life, this was it, that these two individuals should have had life sentences,” said Carol Staelin, whose 5 1/2-year-old son was committed to a psychiatric hospital after his summer at Fran’s Day Care home near Oak Hill….

When the Kellers were indicted on the eve of Thanksgiving a year ago, they told officers they would turn themselves in after the holiday. Instead, the couple fled to Las Vegas where they were arrested in January.

Charges dropped in child abuse case
Pamela Ward December 4, 1993
Austin American-Statesman

Child sexual abuse charges were dropped Friday against former Travis County Deputy Constables Janise White and Raul Quintero in the Fran’s Day Care case, a decision that dismayed parents….

Prosecutors defended the decision to drop charges pending further evidence. Bryan Case, an assistant district attorney, said that since a grand jury indicted the two Precinct 3 officers, important additional evidence failed to materialize….

Douglas Wayne Perry, another co-defendant, pleaded guilty last May and received 10 years of probation. Perry, who was accused of having a 3-year-old girl perform oral sex on him, gave police a confession – later recanted – in which he implicated the deputy constables. He was married to White at the time. They have since divorced.

Perry told police that he, White, Quintero and the Kellers had engaged in a beer and sex party during which several children were sexually assaulted by the adults while photographs were taken….

Parents decry child abuse case plea bargain
Douglas Perry agrees to 10 years probation in Fran’s Day Care sex abuse case
Pamela Ward May 25, 1993
Austin American-Statesman

Douglas Wayne Perry, one of five people accused of sexually abusing children at Fran’s Day Care, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Monday and agreed to a sentence of 10 years probation and community service – a decision that angered parents.

“We think it’s a grave injustice,” said Sean Nash, father of one child who attended the Oak Hill area child care home. “This shows clearly that there is no justice for children in Texas.” Last November, child care center operators Fran and Dan Keller received 48-year prison sentences for aggravated sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl in a case that includes stories of ritualistic torture of babies, children and cats, and graveyard ceremonies.

Assistant District Attorney Judy Shipway, who prosecuted the Kellers, arranged the Perry plea bargain. She said it was based on three considerations: “The fact that he confessed and opted to plead guilty” and avoid a trial. “Also, apparently he did not have the magnitude of involvement that Fran and Dan Keller appeared to have. And the main consideration was not to put child witnesses through another trial.”…

Perry confessed that he, White, Quintero and the Kellers had engaged in a beer-and-sex party during which several children were sexually assaulted by the adults while photographs were taken.

A reluctant witness in the Kellers’ trial, Perry read aloud from his confession after being granted immunity. His confession contained graphic details of a variety of sexual acts performed on two children, and it substantiated claims made by the children that they had been threatened and terrorized into keeping the abuse secret….

Copied with permission from https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care-case-dan-and-fran-keller-news-article-excerpts-from-1991-1993/

Red Sox child sexual abuse scandal, Fran’s Day Care - Keller Case Updates, Huge rise in UK child neglect

- Reimer: Red Sox child sexual abuse scandal another disgraceful portion of Tom Yawkey's legacy
- Huge rise in UK child neglect prompts call for urgent action
- Fran’s Day Care - Keller Case Updates

Reimer: Red Sox child sexual abuse scandal another disgraceful portion of Tom Yawkey's legacy
Alex Reimer August 21, 2017  

Former Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey’s record of virulent racism has been recounted numerous times in the debate to rename Yawkey Way. But another disgraceful portion of his ownership tenure often goes unmentioned.

Eight years before longtime Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky faced child sexual abuse charges, the Red Sox settled a longstanding child molestation case of their own. John Henry, who purchased the team in late 2001, paid $3.15 million to seven men who say former clubhouse attendant Don Fitzpatrick sexually abused them during his more than 20-year tenure with the club. A victim came forward to the team in 1971, but Fitzpatrick remained with Red Sox until 1991, when a man showed up at a nationally televised game in Anaheim and held up a sign that read, “Don Fitzpatrick sexually assaulted me.” The Red Sox paid out an $100,000 settlement and Fitzpatrick left the club four days later.

There are now 20 alleged victims, most of whom tell a similar story: Fitzpatrick, who presided over the visitor’s clubhouse, lured them in with promises of employment and access. The men who successfully sued the Red Sox for Fitzpatrick’s misconduct, dubbed the “Winter Haven Seven,” were lured in at the team’s former Spring Training headquarters in Winter Haven, Fla. Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in 2002 to four counts of attempted sexual battery against boys younger than 12 between 1975 and 1989 in the central Florida city. He died in 2005 without serving any time.

As Yahoo’s Jeff Passan details in an extensive story about the scandal, Fitzpatrick was a favorite of Tom and Jean Yawkey. The couple operated a home for disadvantaged boys in South Carolina, and often took wayward youths under their wing. Tom Yawkey took a particular liking to Fitzpatrick, an orphan who played pepper with batboys outside Fenway Park prior to Red Sox home games.

Two sources told Passan that Yawkey “protected” Fitzpatrick when his “tendencies to gravitate towards young boys became apparent.” Red Sox players reportedly instructed young boys, especially African-Americans, to stay away from Fitzpatrick. Passan reports that one player saw Fitzpatrick sodomizing a young boy in the team shower and alerted the team, but Fitzpatrick kept his job (much like how ex-Penn State coach Mike McQueary says he caught Sandusky molesting a boy in the locker room shower).

It’s uncertain how much the Yawkeys knew about Fitzpatrick’s monstrous behavior. But if players were aware of it, then it’s fair to assume the rumors had percolated up to the owner’s box. Fitzpatrick’s swift removal after the 1991 incident, and the Red Sox’ willingness to settle, also indicates they had knowledge of their beloved clubhouse attendant’s sick tendencies.

Yawkey’s 44-year tenure as owner, which lasted from 1933 until 1976, was a low-point in franchise history. The Red Sox were basement dwellers for the majority of those years, largely due to his refusal to integrate.
http://www.weei.com/articles/column/reimer-red-sox-child-sexual-abuse-scandal-another-disgraceful-portion-tom-yawkeys  

Huge rise in UK child neglect prompts call for urgent action
Reports of problems rise 60% in five years with nearly nine in 10 serious enough to refer to social services or police
The NSPCC received 19,448 reports of child neglect in 2016-17, up 61% on the previous year. 
Tuesday 22 August 2017

Reports of child neglect in the UK have risen by more than 60% in the last five years with nearly nine in 10 calls proving serious enough to be referred to social services or the police.

Nearly 19,500 calls reporting child neglect were dealt with by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the last 12 months. The charity said a growing number of callers were concerned about children, some under the age of five, being left at home unsupervised by parents struggling with alcohol and drug use.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/23/rise-uk-child-neglect-social-services

Fran’s Day Care - Keller Case Updates

August 22, 2017 case update:
Dan and Fran Keller…will receive $3.4 million from a state fund for those wrongly convicted of crimes.

The couple’s circumstances changed in June, when Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore filed court documents that dropped all charges and declared the Kellers “actually innocent” under the law. After an extensive review, it was clear that the Kellers’ innocence claim should be supported in the interest of justice, Moore said at the time.

Now adults, several of the children who accused the Kellers opposed the move, according to Moore and family members.   (Quotes from Austin-American Statesman article)

Here are a few facts about the Fran’s Day Care case:

1. Children’s parents were alerted when children returned home from daycare wearing their under clothing inside out or wearing other children’s underwear and sometimes having wet hair.

2. The children who were old enough to speak reported sexual assaults by Dan Keller and other visitors to the school. The older children also reported assaults on younger, pre-verbal children at the school.

3. The Kellers attempted to evade arrest by fleeing to Las Vegas. They were captured there wearing disguises. Fran has bleached her hair blond.

4. A co-defendant, Doug Perry, a sheriff’s deputy, pled guilty, turned state’s evidence, testified against the Kellers, and received a 10-year probated sentence. 

5. The defense did not retain an expert witness in defense of the Kellers. They only produced a copy of Richard Gardner’s book, Sex Abuse Hysteria, in response to the allegations against the Kellers.

6. The prosecution did not discuss ritual abuse until the subject was raised by the defense at which point the prosecution’s expert witness, Randy Noblitt, explained what ritual abuse is and how it works. He also provided testimony in response to the production of the Richard Gardner book intended by the defense to demonstrate in unreliability of sex abuse claims by children. (The book’s theme is that all people are latent pedophiles and that parents receive vicarious sexual gratification from their children’s sexual experiences).
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/
 

Pregnant woman murdered in apparent satanic ritual, Military-style Christian sect leader charged in abuse case

- Pregnant woman murdered in apparent satanic ritual
- Ritual murders, rape and domestic violence rampant in this community
- Military-style Christian sect leader charged in abuse case
- NM religious group in spotlight for horrific crimes against children

Pregnant woman murdered in apparent satanic ritual
Aug 20, 2017  By Nicole Morley 

A pregnant woman whose ashes were found on wasteland is thought to have been murdered in a Satanic ritual.
Fernanda Pereyra, 26, is believed to have been stabbed to death before being burned in a fire so hot that only a necklace was left by which to identify her.
It’s believed that Fernanda Pereyra, 26, was stabbed to death before being burned in a fire so hot that only a necklace was left to identify her.
Pereyra, who was six months pregnant, was found on kilometre six of Route Six near the town of Rincon de los Sauces, in the western Argentine province of Neuquen.

Investigators think the three sixes were chosen on purpose to represent the number 666 and say the killers used a large amount of petrol to burn the body to ash....

The suspects have also been linked with drug trafficking and are thought to practice Satanism and unidentified African religions.
Police investigators named San La Muerte (Saint Death), the paron saint of drug traffickers, and ‘Destranca Rua’, an entity linked with the Angolan ‘kimbanda’ religion as having featured in the alleged ritual.
Officers searching a suspect’s house say they found ‘Satanic’ music and images featuring tridents and women in flames.

A sheep in the courtyard was also suspected to have been used in the trio’s Satanic rituals....
Police say they have two hypotheses for the murder’s motivation beyond its religious significance.
The first is that Pereryra was murdered by her boyfriend because she got pregnant by another man.
The other is that it was to warn other citizens against interfering with drug-dealing gangs.
http://nehandaradio.com/2017/08/20/pregnant-woman-murdered-apparent-satanic-ritual/




describes crimes
Ritual murders, rape and domestic violence rampant in this community
Most of the recorded abuse cases involve women who are physically, emotionally and verbally abused by their partners.  18 August 2017

He said the organisation was also concerned about an increase in cases of ritual murders and rapes. He said TVEP received about 40 rape cases of rapes monthly and in recent months six cases of ritual killings had been reported in the district....
“We need to work together as a nation to end the number of rapes which are being committed in our country,” said Masikhwa.
Limpopo police spokesperson Moatshe Ngoepe said more resources had been dedicated to fighting domestic violence and ritual killings in the province.
http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Woman/News/ritual-murders-rape-and-domestic-violence-rampant-in-this-community-20170818 


Military-style Christian sect leader charged in abuse case
By Russell Contreras? AP August 21 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A leader of a New Mexico military-style Christian sect is facing dozens of child sexual abuse charges in a case that authorities say is connected to widespread abuse by the religious commune.
Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in the remote community of Fence Lake faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child, according to a criminal complaint filed August 15. Sect members Deborah Green, Joshua Green and Stacey Miller also face various charges ranging from child abuse, bribery and not reporting a birth.

KOAT-TV reports (https://goo.gl/Qtcsnr) that all four were arrested Sunday. Sheriff Tony Mace told the station that his office began investigating the group last year after two members claimed they had escaped the commune in the sparsely populated area of mostly ranchland. Those who escaped told deputies that Deborah Green and Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu in 2014, Mace said.

Miller faces one count each of intentional abuse of a child age 12-18, bribery of a witness and not reporting a birth.
In a statement, the group said the allegations “are totally false” and similar to others the group has faced over the years....
The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps describes itself as a group that is “aggressive and revolutionary for Jesus” and provides a free spiritual “ammo pack” to anyone who writes. Photos of members show them in military-style clothing and on missions in Africa.
Its website is laced with anti-Semitic language and anti-gay tirades about same sex marriage.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps as a hate group.
The group has its origins in Sacramento, California, after Deborah and James Green founded “Free Love Ministries” but garnered media attention for its unique beliefs and its communal houses.
Former sect member Maura Alana Schmierer told The Associated Press on Monday by the group’s latest troubles and had been interview by investigators recently. “I’ve been trying to expose them for years,” said Schmierer, who left the sect in the late 1980s.

A 2012 National Geographic Television show “Escaped a Cult” documented Schmierer’s experience with the sect. She said Deborah Green ordered her to live in a shed with no toilet and with little food.
Schmierer sued the sect for mistreatment and forcing her to give up legal custody of three of her children. A judge in 1989 awarded her $1.08 million dollars but the group fled California and later resurfaced near El Paso, Texas, and then in western New Mexico....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/military-style-christian-sect-leader-charged-in-abuse-case/2017/08/21/ff1a3dee-86ae-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html  



NM religious group in spotlight for horrific crimes against children
KOAT Updated: Aug 21, 2017 Megan Cruz
CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. —
The leader and three members of a religious group based in Cibola County were arrested over the weekend for what investigators called horrific crimes against children.
Charges include over 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse.

The Cibola County Sheriff's Office says deputies arrested Deborah Green, Peter Green, Joshua Green, and Stacey Miller of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps Sunday morning. According to the group's website, Deborah and her husband James are the "Generals" and command their army to spread Christian ideals throughout the world. They're based out of Fence Lake in western Cibola County.
Sheriff Tony Mace says his office first started investigating the group last year when two members claimed they just escaped the commune. They told deputies Deborah and another member Stacey Miller allowed Miller's 12-year-old son to die of the flu in 2014....

According to arrest warrants, no one took the boy to the hospital. Puss started leaking from his forehead and he lost his ability to speak and move his right side. He was buried on the property and no one reported his death.
Investigators asked Miller why she didn't get her son help. She told them "she wanted to trust God." Deputies arrested her from her home in Sierra County. She's now charged with child abuse.

The warrants say Deborah controlled the group's money and rarely wanted to pay for hospital visits, preaching that those who are sick "must repent to be healed." She's now charged with neglect resulting in the death of a child.
The Sheriff's Office also charged Deborah with sexual assault of a minor and child abuse. Investigators say in 2001, Deborah sexually assaulted her daughter's 5-year-old girl who they believe was smuggled in from Uganda as a baby with forged documents....
http://www.koat.com/article/nm-religious-group-in-spotlight-for-horrific-crimes-against-children/12040259

Fascism spread in 1930s America. It could spread again today. Fred Trump and the KKK

Charles Lindbergh went so far as to praise Adolf Hitler as "undoubtedly a great man."

As late as July 1942, a Gallup poll showed that 1 in 6 Americans thought Hitler was "doing the right thing" to the Jews.

The careers of anti-Semitic celebrities such as Catholic Rev. Charles Coughlin reflected the popular appeal of fascist ideas....enjoyed the second-largest radio audience in the country frequently quoted Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and praised the Nazi quest for racial purity.

Newspaper clips obtained by VICE suggest the Republican frontrunner's father (Fred Trump) may have worn the robe and hood of a Klansman in 1927.


Fascism spread in 1930s America. It could spread again today.
By  Seva Gunitsky Special to the Washington Post  August 16, 2017

The violent white nationalist rally in Virginia has reawakened simmering fears of American fascism. But the roots of these feelings — and the militant organizations that promoted them — did not begin with the election of President Donald Trump. The last time fascism was brazenly embraced was in the 1930s. The lessons of that crucial decade bear increasing relevance for modern American life. The three big factors that drove the spread of American fascism at that time are still relevant for America today.

Fascist ideas were quite popular in 1930s America

In the 1930s, fascist ideas were increasingly accepted. This was reflected in the energetic growth of Nazi organizations. Ku Klux Klan rallies were common and numerous; Trump's own father was reportedly arrested at one such rally. A 1941 book found that more than 100 such organizations had formed since 1933.

The appeal of fascist ideas extended far beyond the fringe, reaching prominent citizens such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh went so far as to praise Adolf Hitler as "undoubtedly a great man." In 1940, Lindbergh's wife published a bestseller that called totalitarianism "The Wave of the Future" and an "ultimately good conception of humanity."....

At the time, Jews served the same role for U.S. fascists that immigrants, Muslims and other minorities serve today: a vague but malicious threat they believed to be undermining America's greatness. Surveys of U.S. public opinion from the 1930s are a startling reminder of just how widespread these attitudes became. As late as July 1942, a Gallup poll showed that 1 in 6 Americans thought Hitler was "doing the right thing" to the Jews. A 1940 poll found that nearly a fifth of Americans saw Jews as a national "menace" — more than any other group, including Germans. Almost a third anticipated "a widespread campaign against the Jews" — a campaign that 12 percent of Americans were willing to support.

The careers of anti-Semitic celebrities such as Catholic Rev. Charles Coughlin reflected the popular appeal of fascist ideas. Father Coughlin, as he was known, enjoyed the second-largest radio audience in the country (after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats), frequently quoted Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and praised the Nazi quest for full employment and racial purity. He broke with Roosevelt in 1934, forming his own party, whose 1936 candidate received nearly 1 million votes. Coughlin was finally silenced by the Catholic Church in early 1942.....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-trump-fascism-nazis-hitler-0170816-story.html 


Fred Trump - Donald Trump's father
In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens
By Philip Bump February 29, 2016

....On Memorial Day 1927, brawls erupted in New York led by sympathizers of the Italian fascist movement and the Ku Klux Klan. In the fascist brawl, which took place in the Bronx, two Italian men were killed by anti-fascists. In Queens, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested.
One of those arrested was Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Rd. in Jamaica.
This is Donald Trump's father. Trump had a brother named Fred, but he wasn't born until more than a decade later. The Fred Trump at Devonshire Road was the Fred C. Trump who lived there with his mother, according to the 1930 Census....

It's not clear from the context what role Fred Trump played in the brawl. The news article simply notes that seven men were arrested in the "near-riot of the parade," all of whom were represented by the same lawyers. Update: A contemporaneous article from the Daily Star notes that Trump was detained "on a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/28/in-1927-donald-trumps-father-was-arrested-after-a-klan-riot-in-queens/ 


All the Evidence We Could Find About Fred Trump's Alleged Involvement with the KKK
Mike Pearl  Mar 10 2016
Newspaper clips obtained by VICE suggest the Republican frontrunner's father may have worn the robe and hood of a Klansman in 1927.
Late last month, in an interview with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, CNN host Jake Tapper asked the candidate whether he would disavow an endorsement from longtime Ku Klux Klan leader and white nationalist celebrity David Duke. Trump declined. "I don't know anything about David Duke," he said. Moments later, he added, "I know nothing about white supremacists."

Trump has since walked back his comments, blaming his hesitance to condemn the Klan on a "bad earpiece." The matter has now been filed away into the ever-growing archives of volatile statements Trump has made about race and ethnicity during the current election cycle—a list that includes kicking off his presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists, calling for the "'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," and commenting that perhaps a Black Lives Matter protester at one of his rallies "should have been roughed up."

But the particulars of the David Duke incident call to mind yet another news story, one that suggests that Trump's father, the late New York real estate titan Fred Trump, once wore the robe and hood of a Klansman.

Versions of this story emerged last September when Boing Boing dug up an old New York Times article from May of 1927 that listed a Fred Trump among those arrested at a Klan rally in Jamaica, Queens, when "1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen staged a free-for-all," in the streets. Donald Trump's father would have been 21 in 1927 and had spent most of his life in Queens....

Moreover, three additional newspaper clips unearthed by VICE contain separate accounts of Fred Trump's arrest at the May 1927 KKK rally in Queens, each of which seems to confirm the Times account of the events that day. While the clips don't confirm whether Fred Trump was actually a member of the Klan, they do suggest that the rally—and the subsequent arrests—did happen, and did involve Donald Trump's father, contrary to the candidate's denials. A fifth article mentions the seven arrestees without giving names, and claims that all of the individuals arrested—presumably including Trump—were wearing Klan attire....
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mvke38/all-the-evidence-we-could-find-about-fred-trumps-alleged-involvement-with-the-kkk

Trump’s position on Charlottesville has become even more pro-Nazi, Trump defends white supremacists

Trump’s position on Charlottesville has become even more pro-Nazi,  Trump defends white supremacists                  

"you also had people that were very fine people—on both sides" - Trump

- "Charlottesville: Watch VICE News Tonight’s full episode “Charlottesville: Race and Terror”
- Trump defends white supremacists
- Why are these politicians smiling next to white nationalists?
- Trump and Fascism : S.M.A.R.T.'s Ritual Abuse Pages

Trump’s position on Charlottesville has become even more pro-Nazi.

At a press conference in New York City to nominally promote his infrastructure bill, the president re-iterated his belief that both white supremacists and their opponents were at fault for the racial violence in Virginia this weekend. “You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent,” Trump said. In that one sentence, Trump returned to his original position that “many sides” bore responsibility, which comes after a transparently insincere attempt on Monday to blame neo-Nazis and white supremacists specifically.

But there’s more! Trump also gave a rousing endorsement of the white supremacists’ cause, saying that many “good people” had come to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. He said that tearing down the statue of Lee was comparable to tearing down statues of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson.

“Not all of those people were neo-Nazis,” Trump asserted. “Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. ... You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people—on both sides.”

As a factual matter, Trump’s statement is dubious: The event was openly organized by white supremacists, so it is unlikely that many “fine people” were at the rally. His latest remarks have only validated the suspicion that Trump sees white supremacists as a crucial part of his political alliance and that he is loath to alienate them. And the country’s racists like what they’re hearing....
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/144347/trumps-position-charlottesville-become-even-pro-nazi 

"Charlottesville:
Watch VICE News Tonight’s full episode “Charlottesville: Race and Terror”
By Vice News Aug 15, 2017

On Saturday hundreds of white nationalists, alt-righters, and neo-Nazis traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to participate in the “Unite the Right” rally. By Saturday evening three people were dead – one protester and two police officers – and many more injured.

“VICE News Tonight” correspondent Elle Reeve went behind the scenes with white nationalist leaders, including Christopher Cantwell, Robert Ray, David Duke, and Matthew Heimbach — as well as counterprotesters. VICE News Tonight also spoke with residents of Charlottesville, members of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Charlottesville Police.

From the neo-Nazi protests at Emancipation Park to Cantwell’s hideaway outside Virginia, “VICE News Tonight” provides viewers with exclusive, up-close and personal access inside the unrest....
https://news.vice.com/story/vice-news-tonight-full-episode-charlottesville-race-and-terror



Trump defends white supremacists
By Gabrielle Bluestone Aug 15, 2017

President Donald Trump defended the group of white supremacists who marched on Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, telling reporters they were largely justified and being unfairly vilified by the media. The protests ended Saturday when one of the white supremacists drove his car into a crowd of people, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.

“What I’m saying is this: You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible and it was a horrible thing to watch,” he said at a Tuesday press conference in New York. “But there is another side. There was a group on this side, you can call them the left, that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want but that’s the way it is.”

The press conference, which took place in the gold-plated lobby of Trump Tower, was to focus on infrastructure. But Trump quickly veered off-script into defending the white supremacists, pointing out that they had a permit to “innocently” protest, while the people who came to protest against them did not.....
https://news.vice.com/story/donald-trump-blames-alt-left-for-charlottesville-violence 

Why are these politicians smiling next to white nationalists?
By Carter Sherman Aug 15, 2017
After violence erupted Saturday at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a photo started circulating on social media showing Republican Rep. Tom Garrett of Virginia standing next to a smiling Jason Kessler — the man who organized Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally.

Garrett quickly denounced Kessler, telling Fox News that he had no idea who Kessler was when he met with him. But Garrett isn’t the only politician who’s ended up associating with the white nationalists and supremacists who attended the “Unite the Right” rally — unwittingly or not. And while very few politicians tend to come into contact with such extremists, that status quo seems likely to be upended, as white nationalists and supremacists intensify their efforts to inject their ideas into mainstream politics.
Advertisement

“That [2016] election campaign unleashed some really bad demons in our society, and it emboldened these people that we saw in Charlottesville to think that they’re part of the system,” Heidi Beirich, who studies hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told VICE News.

Photo ops like Garrett’s can sometimes just happen — Garrett told Fox News that meeting unsavory constituents of his district, which includes Charlottesville, is an “occupational hazard.” (When asked for comment, Garrett’s team directed VICE News to his Fox News appearance.) Politicians can also get caught up at a public event and fail to properly vet the people they’re standing next to. That’s what Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, said happened to him, after photo began circulating showing him standing next to Peter Cvjetanovic — a college student who confirmed to the Reno Gazette-Journal that he was both a white nationalist and had attended the Saturday march....

Then, at the other end of the spectrum, are the politicians who seem to confirm Beirich’s fears and actually court the white nationalist and supremacist vote. Former Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who served in Congress from 1997 to 2008, spoke at a March event for Kessler’s organization Unity and Security for America, according to the group’s Facebook page. Goode could not be reached for comment.

Corey Stewart, who is currently running for Tim Kaine’s Senate seat, has repeatedly appeared at events with Kessler, having made the preservation of the state’s Confederate monuments the linchpin of his failed gubernatorial campaign last year. (He very nearly won the Republican nomination, losing by just over one percentage point.) He told the Washington Post Sunday that he hadn’t talked to Kessler recently, saying, “He does his own thing.”

As of Sunday, though, Stewart was the only Virginian politician of either party not to condemn white nationalists. Instead, he blamed “half the violence” on Saturday counterprotesters....
https://news.vice.com/story/why-are-these-politicians-smiling-next-to-white-nationalists 

Trump and Fascism : S.M.A.R.T.'s Ritual Abuse Pages
This page is a data dump of articles about Donald Trump, those working with Trump and historical articles about fascism. Fascism uses different types of mind control to control people. Donald Trump has been accused of using propaganda and mind control techniques to win the election, to control people's opinions of him and to control their opinions of other topics. This page contains excerpts from articles related to this topic.  https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/trump-and-fascism/

Anti-fascism protests erupt across US as protesters blame Donald Trump for deadly white supremacist rally in Virginia

- Anti-fascism protests erupt across US as protesters blame Donald Trump for deadly white supremacist rally in Virginia
- Neo-nazis and white supremacists are celebrating Trump's remarks about the Charlottesville riots
- ‘Jews will not replace us’: Why white supremacists go after Jews
- Colonia Dignidad: German court upholds jail term in Chile child abuse case
- Trump approval falls to lowest level ever in Gallup poll
-  Leader of neo-Nazi group linked to Charlottesville attack was a US marine
- "If you're not resisting, you’re partaking": a historian on Trump's failure to call evil by its name
- Trump and Fascism : S.M.A.R.T.'s Ritual Abuse Pages
https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/trump-and-fascism/

Anti-fascism protests erupt across US as protesters blame Donald Trump for deadly white supremacist rally in Virginia
by Our Foreign Staff

14 August 2017

Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the country on Sunday, saying they felt compelled to counteract the white supremacist rally that spiralled into deadly violence in Virginia.

The gatherings spanned from a march to President Donald Trump's home in New York to candlelight vigils in several cities. In Seattle, police made arrests and confiscated weapons as Trump supporters and counter-protesters converged downtown.

Some focused on showing support for the people whom white supremacists condemn. Other demonstrations were pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments, the issue that initially prompted white nationalists to gather in anger this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Still other gatherings aimed to denounce fascism and a presidential administration that organisers feel has let white supremacists feel empowered.

"People need to wake up, recognise that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done," said Carl Dix, a leader of the Refuse Fascism group organising demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and other cities. "This can't be allowed to fester and to grow because we've seen what happened in the past when that was allowed."....
Helen Rubenstein, 62, was among hundreds of people who marched through downtown Los Angeles. She said her parents were Holocaust survivors, and she's worried that extremist views were becoming normal under Trump's presidency.

"I blame Donald Trump 100 percent because he emboldened all these people to incite hate, and they are now promoting violence and killing," Ms Rubenstein said.

Charlottesville descended into violence on Saturdayafter neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered to "take America back" and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia college town, and hundreds of other people came to protest the rally. The groups clashed in street brawls, with hundreds of people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and beating each other with sticks and shields....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/14/anti-fascism-protests-erupt-across-us-protesters-blame-donald/


Neo-nazis and white supremacists are celebrating Trump's remarks about the Charlottesville riots 
Natasha Bertrand     Aug. 12, 2017
The founder of the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist website that considers itself a part of the alt-right, celebrated the fact that Trump "outright refused to disavow" the white nationalist rally and movement.

"People saying he cucked are shills and kikes," wrote the founder, Andrew Anglin. "He did the opposite of cuck. He refused to even mention anything to do with us. When reporters were screaming at him about White Nationalism he just walked out of the room."

"Clearly President Trump is condemning the real haters: the SJW/Marxists who've attacked our guys,"  said one  commenters on the far-right, pro-Trump subreddit called r/The_Donald.

"Marxist" and "SJW," or social justice warrior, are terms frequently used by the far-right to describe liberals.

"So glad GEOTUS called this bulls--t out for what it really is," said another commenter, using an acronym to refer to Trump that stands for "God Emperor of the United States.'"
http://www.businessinsider.com/neo-nazis-celebrate-trumps-remarks-about-charlottesville-riots-2017-8 

‘Jews will not replace us’: Why white supremacists go after Jews
By Yair Rosenberg August 14, 2017....
When white nationalists descended upon the historic Virginia city to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, their “Unite the Right” rally gathered a veritable who’s who of top neo-Nazis in the United States, including Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and alt-right leading light Richard Spencer, among others....
They immediately went after the Jews. At their Friday night rally at the University of Virginia, the white nationalists brandished torches and chanted anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans, including “blood and soil” (an English rendering of the Nazi “blut und boden”) and “Jews will not replace us” — all crafted to cast Jews as foreign interlopers who need to be expunged. The attendees proudly displayed giant swastikas and wore shirts emblazoned with quotes from Adolf Hitler. One banner read, “Jews are Satan’s children.”

“The truth is,” Duke told a large crowd Saturday, “the American media, and the American political system, and the American Federal Reserve, is dominated by a tiny minority: the Jewish Zionist cause.” Addressing another group, Richard Spencer mocked Charlottesville’s Jewish mayor, Mike Signer. “Little Mayor Signer — ‘See-ner’ — how do you pronounce this little creep’s name?” Spencer asked. The crowd responded by chanting, “Jew, Jew, Jew.” In TV interviews, attendees were not shy about their anti-Semitism.

And James Fields Jr., the man who is accused of mowing down protesters that day, killing one and injuring 19, “had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler,” according to his high school history teacher. He was previously photographed at a rally for Vanguard America, a neo-Nazi group dedicated to fighting “the international Jew.”....

Inspired by Donald Trump, Duke himself ran for Senate in Louisiana, spending much of his time on the primary debate stage ranting against the Jews. When Melania Trump was found to have plagiarized Michelle Obama in her Republican National Convention address, Duke declared he’d “bet a gefilte fish” that it was Jewish sabotage.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump’s alt-right supporters barraged Jewish journalists with online abuse, including CNN’s Jake Tapper, the Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe and me, photoshopping us into gas chambers and concentration camps....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/14/jews-will-not-replace-us-why-white-supremacists-go-after-jews/  


Colonia Dignidad: German court upholds jail term in Chile child abuse case
A German man who fled Chile after being sentenced to five years in prison for child sex abuse must serve his sentence in Germany. Hartmut Hopp was part of the notorious Colonia Dignidad enclave.
Date 14.08.2017
Harmut Hopp - who helped run the notorious Colonia Dignidad colony in Chile - must serve the five-year jail sentence handed to him by a Chilean judge, a German court in Krefeld ruled on Monday.

Hopp was sentenced in Chile back in 2011 for 16 counts of aiding the sexual abuse of children over several decades. However, he managed to flee to Germany before the sentence took legal effect, living freely in the western town of Krefeld....
Hopp is widely thought to have been among the closest associates of Paul Schäfer, the founder of the Colonia Dignidad enclave.

Schäfer, a German lay preacher, former Nazi soldier and convicted pedophile, fled Germany to Chile after World War II and founded the colony in the 1960s. Located in a remote mountainous region around 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the capital Santiago, the colony was intended to project an image of harmonious and communal living. At its peak, hundreds of German immigrants resided there.

However, allegations of child sex abuse soon emerged, after a number of former residents managed to escape the heavily-guarded enclave. However, Colonia Dignidad was allowed to continue to run with relative impunity, thanks to key political links enjoyed by its leaders. As well as being the scene for decades of child sex abuse, reports later uncovered that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet had used the colony to torture and kill political dissidents. Residents are alleged to have taken part in the torture.

Following Chile's democratic transition in 1990, officials began investigating the alleged abuses. Schäfer fled to Argentina after child sex abuse charges were filed against him. He wasn't arrested until 2005, and was finally sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006. He died in prison four years later at the age 88....
http://www.dw.com/en/colonia-dignidad-german-court-upholds-jail-term-in-chile-child-abuse-case/a-40089137 

Leader of neo-Nazi group linked to Charlottesville attack was a US marine

Dillon Hopper, the self-styled ‘commander’ of the Vanguard America group that attacker James Fields marched with, was a sergeant in the US marine corps
Dillon Hopper served in Afghanistan and Iraq. His active duty with the marines ended in January this year.
Jon Swaine and Lois Beckett  Monday 14 August 2017

The leader of the neo-Nazi group that James Fields marched with in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday before allegedly killing a protester with his car served in the US marine corps until earlier this year.

Dillon Hopper, the self-styled “commander” of Vanguard America, is a recently retired marine staff sergeant and veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Members of his white supremacist group marched in Virginia last weekend.

Hopper, 29, has been using his former name, Dillon Irizarry, when appearing in public for Vanguard America. But he officially changed his name to Dillon Ulysses Hopper in November 2006, according to court records in his native New Mexico.

Hopper’s active duty with the marines ended in January this year, according to a Department of Defense record. He has lived in California and Ohio since returning to the US. Hopper’s full service record could not immediately be obtained. His Facebook avatar is currently a cartoon image of Donald Trump building a wall.

Hopper and Vanguard America did not respond to messages seeking comment. Hopper’s identity was first reported by Splinter.

Fields, a 20-year-old military bootcamp dropout from Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with crimes including murder after allegedly driving his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of people in Charlottesville who were demonstrating against the far-right. The crash killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured about 20 others....

Fields had been photographed standing among members of Vanguard America earlier in the day. He was pictured holding a shield bearing the group’s logo and was wearing the same distinctive outfit – white polo shirt and khakis – as many Vanguard members. The group has said, however, that Fields is not a member.

Vanguard America is only about a year old. It is one of a handful of new white supremacist organizations that are attempting to radicalize young white men across the country. Its manifesto is racist and its website URL references the Nazi slogan “blood and soil”. The group bars people who are not of white European heritage....
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/14/charlottesville-attack-vanguard-america-james-fields-dillon-hopper




"If you're not resisting, you’re partaking": a historian on Trump's failure to call evil by its name
The president had a chance to take a stand against fascism. He didn’t.
Updated by Sean Illing  Aug 14, 2017

“This was our Beer Hall Putsch. This was the beginning of our revolution.”

Thus concluded a post on the Daily Stormer, a popular American neo-Nazi website in which the author, Andrew Anglin, recapped the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend.

The original “Beer Hall Putsch” was the first Nazi spectacle in 1923. It was modeled explicitly after Mussolini’s March on Rome. The putsch was an attempt by Hitler, the leader of the nascent Nazi Party, to seize power from the German government by marching to the center of Munich, alongside 2,000 fellow Nazis.

The putsch failed, amounting to little more than a crazed mob. Hitler was arrested and charged with treason. But the event became central to Hitler’s rise, as he used the subsequent trial to perform fiery speeches that were printed and reprinted in German newspapers.

On Sunday, I reached out to Timothy Snyder, a professor of European history at Yale University. Snyder has made a career of studying the history of 20th century fascism, and earlier this year released a book titled On Tyranny, a tightly argued warning about the dangers of encroaching American fascism.

I wanted to know what he thought about the events this weekend in Charlottesville, about the fact that the self-described alt-right protesters were shouting chants like “You will not replace us” and “Blood and soil” (the latter a direct reference to Nazi ideology), and about President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to condemn white supremacy in clear terms.

“There are moments,” he told me, “when there isn't a gray zone, when there isn't really room for nuance, where if you're not resisting, you’re partaking.” Saturday was one such moment, and Trump’s insistence that the violence is “on many sides” was a missed opportunity to take a stand against an emergent threat....

https://www.vox.com/2017/8/14/16141078/charlottesville-unite-the-right-nazi-history-timothy-snyder


Trump approval falls to lowest level ever in Gallup poll
By Robin Eberhardt - 08/14/17
President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level ever in a Gallup tracking poll.

The president's approval rating is only 34 percent in the latest Gallup average released Monday, while 61 percent of adults disapprove of the president's performance, also a new high.

Trump's approval rating has dropped at a time when he has taken heavy criticism for not explicitly calling out white supremacists and neo-Nazis in a statement condemning violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

The president did damage control on Monday, delivering a statement from the White House where he denounced white supremacists by name.

“Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to what we hold dear as Americans,” Trump said....
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/346487-trump-approval-falls-to-lowest-level-ever-in-gallup-poll 

Trump and Fascism : S.M.A.R.T.'s Ritual Abuse Pages
This page is a data dump of articles about Donald Trump, those working with Trump and historical articles about fascism. Fascism uses different types of mind control to control people. Donald Trump has been accused of using propaganda and mind control techniques to win the election, to control people’s opinions of him and to control their opinions of other topics. This page contains excerpts from articles related to this topic.
https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/trump-and-fascism/