(Delaware) Dumped body was Vietnam War vet (worked in 3 administrations)

[sabra]

Source: delaware online

Slay victim a defense consultant for US

Newark police have identified the body discovered on New Year's Eve at the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington as 66-year-old John P. Wheeler III of New Castle.

Wheeler, a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War who lived part time in Old New Castle, was a defense consultant in Washington, D.C., and had a long career in public service, working in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Wheeler was past chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

His death has been ruled a homicide.

...

From 1978 to 1986, Wheeler held positions at the Securities and Exchange Commission. During the Reagan administration, he founded the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, to link war veterans with jobs.

Working on the transition team for President George H.W. Bush, Wheeler helped found the Earth Conservation Corps. During George W. Bush's second term, Wheeler was special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force from 2005 to 2008.

Read more: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110103/NEWS01/101030329/Dumped-body-was-Vietnam-War-vet

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Calling all paranoids--

What's the going theory on this one?

[FreakinDJ]

2. I don't know - but this guy is "A Well Connected Heavy Hitter"

some thing has / is going down

But you won't hear a word about it from the likes of FUX News and Rush Lickballs because he hails to the RATpubliCON side of the isle.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. My theory?

Last one in, Last one out.

Look what he was doing currently. Things have changed drastically in the last twenty years. I'm guessing he saw something that finally broke the camel's back.

[avaistheone1]

12. I go with your theory.

Makes most sense to me.

[jberryhill]

8. A few days earlier...

...someone threw a smoke bomb into the house of the people he's been having a decade long property dispute with.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. The thot plickens…

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Sniff, sniff." - Americans with Memories

Do we detect that old-fashioned pungent, putrid RepubliStink?

[freshwest]

29. Always!

The GOP in their bottomless pit with the stench of burning sulfur!

Okay, I just can't say enough bad things about the GOP.

So sue me!

:dem:

[goforit]

58. Love your bloodhound

[TacticalPeek]

4. Weren't there troubles with Shrub's offices of the Sec of the Air Force and Sec of the Army?

Resignations, deaths even?

A shitload of procurement goes through those offices.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. The Air Force is ripe for a scandal.

Would not surprise me.

[jberryhill]

7. His ongoing property dispute with a neighbor has been very bitter /nt

[Nostradammit]

13. You seem very eager to get this meme out there -

Have you been following John Wheeler's personal affairs closely for some time?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. Maybe because he is from Delaware?

[Nostradammit]

15. Maybe so.

[woodsprite]

28. It took up quite a lot of space in DE papers over the years,

at least in NCC. As for smoke bombs in New Castle, not an unusual thing. Although it could be an easy cover-up for someone trying to throw a monkey wrench into the investigation. The house is practically in Battery Park, where the kids hang out, when they're not chased away by the cops. For 18 yrs, my family lived a few streets over from that location and have experienced and/or witnessed our house/car being egged, snowballs thrown in open doors (into an elderly lady's store across the street), stones thrown at us, ours and neighbors cars spray painted with aluminum paint, our side mirrors kicked off our cars, our windows shot with BBs, lights stolen at Christmas, and our car tires slashed. It's not surprising to me that to the New Castle City Police, a smoke bomb could just be considered another Day in Old New Castle.

[freshwest]

31. What, they couldn't settle the dispute in court?

Sorry your family endured all of that when they lived there.

Never thought of Delaware as being wild and woolly. And it seems that a guy with connections and good salary/retirement would live in a safe area.

But you think from the newspapers that their opponents would kill someone over this and do, well, what would this be called, a mob hit on the guy?

Yet, I still feel high-connected GOPhers or their ilk did it. Remember the former head of the CIA who turned up dead in the Potomac?

But that's only because I refuse to be 'fair and balanced' on their behalf. The days have passed when I thought the GOP had good intentions about anything.

Of course, it could be exactly as you say. Maybe we should just keep it simple.

[jberryhill]

33. "Never thought of Delaware as being wild and woolly"

Property disputes in Old New Castle are epic sagas.


Ever heard of Tom Capano, our former attorney general, murderer, and disposer of bodies along with his brother?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Capano

Thomas J. Capano (born October 11, 1949) is a disbarred American lawyer from Wilmington, Delaware, who was convicted of the 1996 murder of his lover Anne Marie Fahey. The case made headlines because Capano is from a wealthy family and was a former deputy attorney general of Delaware.

.....

Capano is a member of a prominent family of Delaware real estate developers and building contractors. He became a wealthy, well-connected lawyer, state prosecutor, Wilmington city attorney, counsel to Governor Michael N. Castle, and political consultant, well known in Delaware's political community.


----------

OMG, someone in a family of Delaware property developers murdered somebody. Call the "news of the unheard of" department.

[freshwest]

49. I've never been to Delaware, so I asked. Excuse me.

'OMG, someone in a family of Delaware property developers murdered somebody. Call the "news of the unheard of" department."'

Never having been there or known anyone there, I don't think I need to know all that you know.

All I've heard recently about Delaware is Christine O'Donnell.

Prior to that, the only thing I knew about Delaware was its reputation as a tax haven for corporations.

From what is being reported here, good luck to all the people there.

[woodsprite]

59. The old part of New Castle isn't all that bad. The issues seemed to be cyclical and

we lived near a high school bus stop. The New Castle police are pretty awesome. They would keep an eye on our property when we would travel, they helped us keep informed on some kids that used to sit on our stoop (under surveilance for drug dealing), they called to check on us after an accident where the lady that hit us (and was found at fault) had her daddy try to sway the police report to the insurance company. They called us to make sure we weren't receiving any harrassing phone calls from the individuals.

I don't think I'd move back into the area where we lived before (9th street), but if I didn't have kids (not a great high school), I'd consider moving back. When everything is going right, it's like living in a 'living' Colonial Williamsburg.

Crime can be anyplace.

[jberryhill]

66. I've always wanted to live in Old New Castle

Now that the kids are grown, I look at the property listings there from time to time.

I was just trying to convey that there's a lot that can happen between the train station and Old New Castle, although he would know that.

[pinboy3niner]

67. Just want to say...

...despite some attacks on you, I appreciate your contributions here, especially on issues of law. Your knowledge and exsperience are vaued here.

[jberryhill]

30. As closely as anyone who lives less than 8 miles from him and has been aware of that nasty dispute

Yeah, along with the rest of New Castle County. It's a small place and we don't live in freaking caves.

His personal affairs have been especially noteworthy in our longstanding generator of neighbors who can't stand each other.

Today the first day you heard of him?

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/delawareonline/results.html?st=basic&QryTxt=wheeler%20marini
Old New Castle street sullied by neighbors' lengthy legal battle
SEAN O'SULLIVAN; The News Journal; Jul 10, 2009; pg. n/a;

Holy cow, call the conspiracy A-Team, a lawyer in Delaware is familiar with the legal fights that go on in what we call "Old New Castle".

There are a couple of square blocks of beautiful colonial port town, the original town of New Castle, which is "Old New Castle".

It is an absolute gem of a place, in the middle of a vast surrounding area of industrial shithole, street prostitution, and what passes for urban decay in New Castle County. You want a link to the crime map of this county?

The fights that go on that town are epic. The property owners there are regularly encroaching on rights of way to the riverfront, and getting into catfights with each other and the local government.

We now return to our regularly scheduled paranoid bullshit accusation...

But I'll tell you something else. NOBODY worth their salt would dispose of a body in a dumpster at the College Square Shopping Center in Newark.

The RIGHT way to get rid of bodies in Delaware is to take them down along Route 9, and throw them in the marsh.

Got any other personal insinuations to make, Sherlock?

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[edbermac]

10. Add one more name to the Clinton hit list.

:sarcasm:

[TatonkaJames]

11. At least, in a long time....

they are ruling it a homicide and not a suicide.

[harvey007]

16. Cops: Former Bush Aide Murdered, Found in Landfill

Source: Fox News

A man who fought to get the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built and served in two Bush administrations was murdered, Delaware police say.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/03/bush-aide-dead-landfill/

[Ozymanithrax]

17. What did he know and when did he know it... n/t

[davidwparker]

18. +1

[sofa king]

19. Short Bio

http://cryptogon.com/?p=19640

CAREER CHRONOLOGY
1. 1966 – 1967, fire control platoon leader, nuclear Nike Hercules site, Franklin Lakes, N.J.
2. 1967 – 1969, graduate student, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. (summer 1968, systems analyst (Strategic Programs), Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington, D.C.)
3. 1969 – 1970, member of the General Staff, Headquarters U.S. Army Vietnam, Long Binh, Vietnam
4. 1970 – 1971, staff officer, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
5. 1971 – 1972, senior planner, Amtrak, Washington, D.C.
6. 1972 – 1975, law student, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
7. 1975 – 1976, law clerk, George E. MacKinnon, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
8. 1976 – 1978, Associate, Shea and Gardner Law Firm, Washington, D.C.
9. 1978 – 1986, Assistant General Counsel, Special Counsel to Chairman, and Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C. (1980 – 1981, on loan per President Reagan to create Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program)
10. 1986 – 1988, self-employed specialist in startups and turnarounds of companies, charities
11. 1988 – 1989, President G.H.W. Bush Transition Team to create Earth Conservation Corps, Washington, D.C.
12. 1989 – 1997, self-employed specialist in startups and turnarounds of companies, charities
13. 1997 – 2001, President and CEO, Deafness Research Foundation, Washington, D.C.
14. 2001 – 2005, self-employed specialist in startups and turnarounds of companies, charities (2004 – 2005, consultant to acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Washington, D.C.)
15. 2005 – 2008, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C.
16. 2008-2009 Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Logistics and Energy.
17. 2009. Consultant to Mitre Corporation.

[Paul Muni]

32. Check out the who's who at the Mitre Corporation

These are War-Mongers that never fly coach. I smell sulfur.

http://www.mitre.org/about/trustees.html

[Nostradammit]

52. Whoa - WTF?

"MITRE manages Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs): one for the Department of Defense (known as the DoD Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence FFRDC), one for the Federal Aviation Administration (the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development), one for the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the Center for Enterprise Modernization), and one for the Department of Homeland Security (the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute)."



http://www.mitre.org/about/index.html



Sounds like Mr. Wheeler was playing with the big boys. I'm sure this is all over a property dispute, though.

:sarcasm:

Don't they know that "the RIGHT way to get rid of bodies in Delaware is to take them down along Route 9, and throw them in the marsh."

[avaistheone1]

20. So many strange deaths surround the Bush crime family....

:wtf:

[goforit]

21. Go straight to the horse's mouth.....GWB and GHWB

[woodsprite]

22. I was just going to post this.

Here's the News Journal link:

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110103/NEWS01/101030329

[goforit]

24. WOW

[struggle4progress]

23. ... The body of 66-year-old John Wheeler III of New Castle was discovered on New Year's Eve

as a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill ...

Posted at 2:44 PM ET, 01/ 3/2011
John Wheeler, former Bush administration aide, found dead in landfill
By AP/Post Editor
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/01/john-wheeler-former-bush-admin.html

[Demeter]

25. This is why we had to go after the Mafia

They were cutting into the BFEE territory.

[Mafia Killer]

26. won't see me crying

not over a neocons death.

[Meatball]

51. hey man.. i think you should show a little more respect for the dead

Hes done a lot in his life for Vietnam vets. Most notably that huge wall in washington DC where all the deceased soldiers names are carved called the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He was chairman of the committee that did that.

[formercia]

27. Like something out of the movie 'GoodFellas.'

People like that are supposed to die surrounded by their family.

Perhaps he chose the wrong Family.

[Still a Democrat]

34. Body of former George W. Bush appointee found in landfill

Source: Reuters

A former Pentagon political appointee in President George W. Bush's administration was found dead in a Delaware landfill on New Year's Eve, and police are treating it as a homicide.

The body of John P. Wheeler III, 66, was discovered falling off a truck into a trash pile by an employee at the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington at about 10 a.m. local time on December 31, Lt. Mark Farrall of the Newark, Del. police said on Monday.

"A spotter observed a body coming out of a truck," Farrall said.

The truck had collected trash from dumpsters in 10 locations in Newark, Farrall said. The body's position in the trash truck suggested the dumpster containing it was emptied at the beginning of the route, police said.

...

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7023S220110103

---

Let's not go tin foil.

[RandySF]

35. This is about to get ghoulishly interesting.

[Joanie Baloney]

36. Weird.

And cryptic. Strange phrasing in this quote:

According to Atlantic magazine writer James Fallows, whose column about his friend Wheeler was published early Monday, Wheeler was "a complicated man of very intense (and sometimes changeable) friendships, passions and causes."

-JB

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Oh I could, depending on what he did at DOD.

[pinboy3niner]

39. Some info here:

http://cryptogon.com/?p=19640

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Two things that jump at me

Staff, desk jockey.

Biologics specialist and worked in his last post as facilities and energy... He pissed somebody off.

Though he did something good too...

The biologics expertise, though dated, immediately jumps.

[pinboy3niner]

46. He did a lot of good things

At the SEC, he was involved in pursuing investigations of insider trading. He was also instrumental in making the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial a reality, and worked with charities for deaf children and with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

I met him 25 years ago, shortly after he left the SEC. His book, 'Touched with Fire: The Future of the Vietnam Generation,' was out in paperback and he was national chair of MADD. We spoke several times, at the Memorial and on the phone, mostly about his book, the war, the Memorial and his work with MADD.

Can't say I really knew him, but he struck me as a very decent man.

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. So he pissed off somebody

And yes the resume struck me as an Ike conservative.

[avaistheone1]

38. This is the 3rd thread in Breaking News on this topic.

just saying-

[Turborama]

53. That means mine was the 4th

I alerted on myself as soon as I noticed , though.

It was a pre-coffee post lol (It's morning where I live).

[pacalo]

40. Reminds me of a "Goodfellas" scene.

[Raster]

41. Hmmm...I wonder what he knew?

[Marblehead]

42. Where is Dick?

[Safetykitten]

44. Barbara Bush is wondering where her special compost mulch is for her flowers.

[lovuian]

45. He was a patriot of the first order

Former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, for whom Wheeler worked as a special assistant during the last four years of the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News he was "stunned" to learn of Wheeler's death. He called Wheeler a "patriot to the first order," saying, "he's the most unlikely candidate for someone to do this to."



"This is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered," an attorney who used to represent Wheeler told the News Journal.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/03/bush-aide-dead-landfill/#ixzz1A0oR512d

Not a Patriot of the United States?????????????????????????????????????
he was patriot of the first order
is this a reference to the NEW WORLD ORDER????????????????

Does anybody know what this first order is???
He is from Yale too boot

[greiner3]

47. "Body of former George W. Bush;"

Caught my eye and would not let go for several seconds.

Wonder what secrets the dead guy had and what he was going to do about it.

[Turborama]

54. Body of US military expert found in Del. landfill

Source: AP

By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press – 51 mins ago

DOVER, Del. – The body of a military expert who served in three Republican administrations was found dumped in a landfill over the holiday weekend, and investigators said Monday they do not know who might have killed him.

John Wheeler III, 66, was last seen Dec. 28 on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington. His body was found three days later, on New Year's Eve, as a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide.

=snip=

The former Army officer lived in New Castle and worked as a consultant for The Mitre Corporation, a nonprofit based in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va., that operates federally funded research and development centers.

=snip=

Wheeler, the son of a decorated Army officer, was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He retired from the military in 1971. Wheeler served as a special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force under President George W. Bush, and in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also was the first chief executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110103/ap_on_re_us/us_federal_official_landfill

---

The article goes on to mention he wrote "a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons, which recommended that the United States not use biological weapons."

Does that mean he said it was OK to use chemical ones, though?

Anyway, curious case... Maybe add, "don't travel in empty train carriages" to the list.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=MITRE_Corporation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation

[aquart]

55. Okay, where is Hercule Poirot?

This is his kind of case.

What's Wheeler been doing lately?

[htuttle]

56. Of course, I'm sure this has nothing to do with missing microbiologists

Nothing whatsoever...unless he happened to know a bunch of them.

[nyy1998]

57. OK, I've seen 3 different headlines for this story, "Bush aide" "military expert" "Vietnam war vet"

Does the AP want to settle on a headline?

[DeSwiss]

60. These are crazy times.

And given his martial and spooky background, I'd say he was likely about to crack. So whatever he was going to spill that's probably what got him killed. Since they didn't attempt to suicide him it would appear that this hit was a warning to any others.

K&R

[pinboy3niner]

61. I'm not sure what you mean by 'spooky background'

Jack Wheeler was more of a policy guy, someone who was skilled in managing organizations and projects and solving problems. His work regarding bioweapons, for example, came after I knew him, but the biographical info about him seems to suggest that he worked to promote U.S. renunciation of their use and destruction of U.S. stocks.

I don't know anything about his more recent consulting with a defense contractor, but it's premature to jump to any conclusions that he was assassinated. Whatever happened, I sincerely hope they catch his killer(s) and we learn the truth about this death--wherever else that may, or may not, lead.

[DeSwiss]

62. Reading is fundamental.

Check the links upthread.



on edit: and so is spelling

[pinboy3niner]

63. Not sure which links you mean

If you're referring to the Mitre links, they still don't go to Jack's role there. Maybe I'm missing something. If I am, please help me out...

[JI7]

64. he might have been killed for something that has nothing to do with Politics

maybe he had sex with someone other guy's wife or something.

[pinboy3niner]

65. Or he coud have been murdered in a simple robbery

I think your point that politics may not be involved at all is a good one. All we have so far are very sketchy details. It's far too soon to jump to conclusions or even suspicions about assassination plots.

I'd like to have at least a little more information before I jump to any conclusions.

[SpiralHawk]

69. Well, that would be consistent with Republiconism...

...but because of the egregious Republicon track record of skullduggery, Watchful Americans must be suspicious...

It would be irresponsible to be be anything less than suspicious.

[SpiralHawk]

68. What's the buzz?

hmmmmmm

[woodsprite]

70. His neighbor is saying that the TV was blaring constantly for 4 days

Having lived in a house that shared a common wall with no additional insulation, I'd be calling the cops WAY before 4 days past if I could hear their TV 24/7. Sounds like someone wanted to cover up some sounds. The article also said there was a statement from the family (honoring privacy at this time, etc.), but it didn't sound like a statement from the wife. I guess the NJ has been trying to contact her, but she hasn't returned calls and her location is unknown.

Here's the link and quote:
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110104/NEWS01/101040338/Police-searching-for-leads-in-homicide

"Roark, who lives next door to Wheeler's home in a circa-1900 duplex at Third and South streets, said Monday he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. But for four days around Christmas, Roark and his family heard a loud television in Wheeler's home that was constantly on, but no one appeared to be home, Roark said.

"It was so loud, we could hear it through the walls, and we found that strange," Roark said."