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Minuteman Founder Jim Gilchrist Stayed In Contact With Accused Killer After Murders

Posted June 28, 2009 by Patrick Young, Esq.

A new report in the Arizona Star says that Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist stayed in touch with accused killer Shawna Forde after she ordered the killings of a ten year old girl and her father. The article says that:
On June 2, three days after the murders, Gilchrist received an e-mail from a Southern Arizona associate who had been visited by investigators looking for Forde. Gilchrist forwarded the e-mail to Forde, he said.
He said he called her and asked if there was a warrant for her arrest. She said no.
Now let’s look at the implication of this. In most worlds, we would call this “tipping off the perpetrator” that the cops were on her trail.
Gilchrist could had kept the report to himself. Or he could have sent Forde an open-ended inquiry asking if she was having any problems. He didn’t. He sent her his associates full report letting her know that the police on her trail, something she might not have known at the time.
Now, those of you who read this site regularly know that last week I posted a report from the Green Valley News that presents information that is more troubling now than when it first appeared. The post refered to Gilchrist and the current Executive Director of the Minuteman Project, Steven Eichler’s continued communications with Shawna Forde after the May 20 murders:
Another “Message from Forde,” since removed, was posted eight days after the May 30 murders of Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, but several days before Forde, Jason Eugene “Gunny” Bush and Albert Gaxiola were arrested in the case. It introduced Bush as MAD’s new operations director and stated, “We are in full operation we have people coming from Florida and other parts of the country to assist in gathering exclusive footage of drug cartel drug smuggling and humane (sic) trafficking.”
Forde sent the article to Gilchrist and Eichler on June 6 via an e-mail obtained by the Green Valley News.
Eichler responded in the e-mail the next day, writing, “Do you want a large volumne (sic) of volunteers to go to the border under your watch? If you are going to expand, then you will get all the way from lawn chair lookie lous to hard core combat ready Minutemen.”
In an interview, Eichler said he remembered the correspondence, but had no idea then that Forde might have been involved in the murders. Hindsight is 20-20, he said, but nothing tipped him off to Forde’s potential for violence.
“We facilitated the publicizing of her organization like we’ve facilitated many others,” he said. “We want to work with as many people as we can. But in doing so, there is still that risk.”
So Eichler claimed in an inteview after the arrests that he had “no idea that Forde might have been involved in the murders” at the time he offered her “combat ready Minutemen”, but his ally Gilchrist had received word from an “associate” a week earlier that the Feds were looking for Forde. Why wouldn’t this information have set off the kind of alarms that would at least have precluded the sending of additional Minutemen to serve “under her watch”?
Since both Eichler and Gilchrist were both recipients of Forde’s June 6 missive, why wouldn’t Gilchrist have weighted in with caution on reinforcing a Minuteman leader being investigated by the police?
More Links to the Minuteman Murders
Since the police first revealed the Minuteman connection to the murders of ten year Brisenia Flores and her father Raul, Long Island Wins has provided intensive coverage of this story. Here is an index of the most important articles we’ve posted:
The Crime
The shocking murder of a little girl and her father focused our attention on recent Minuteman activities in Arizona.
The 911 call by a mother who had just seen her husband and child murdered.
Excerpts from the police reports on the murder investigation.
Anti-Immigrant Groups Deny Ties To Shawna Forde, The Mastermind Of The Murders
Although Forde was a part of Minuteman from its early years, anti-immigrant groups around the country immediately branded her an insignificant figure, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.
More on Shawna Forde’s extensive connections with anti-immigrant groups.
While the Minutemen depict her as a minor figure, their own web site described Shawna Forde as a person in the leadership.
Shawna Forde had close ties to Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen. Is Gilchrist an important figure in that movement?
This article looks at Gilchrist’s communications with Forde after the killings.
Inside The Mind Of Shawna Forde
Video interview with Shawna Forde on “patrol” along the border.
Shawna Forde’s blog from the Tea Party a month before the killings.
The Glenn Spencer Connection
Glenn Spencer, one of the founders of the “border protection movement” and the man who inspired Suffolk’s anti-immigrant movement had ties to Shawna Forde. She was arrested nearly two weeks after the killings immediately after visiting him.
Glenn Spencer speaks out on the Minuteman murders.
The Minutemen Speak
The weird response of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to the media coverage of the murders.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy And The Minutemen
Steve Levy’s endorsement in 2006 by the founder of the Minutemen.
Steve Levy and the Suffolk Minutemen.
The New York Times covers the Minuteman murders.