Tyrannosaurus Sue-- The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found

by Steve Fiffer

continued searching for a m b e r in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

  She had also spent m u c h of her time searching for shipwrecks in the

  waters off Cuba and the Philippines with a team led by famous French

  marine archaeologist Franck Goddio.

  7 2 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  The Cuban effort was particularly noteworthy. Until Goddio's

  arrival in Havana in 1991, Fidel Castro had refused to let outsiders look

  for the treasure-laden galleons that had sunk on their way back to Spain.

  Hendrickson was largely responsible for Castro's t u r n a r o u n d . During a

  sailing regatta in 1979, she had become friends with Vicente de la

  Guardia, the director of Carisub, Cuba's state-run marine archaeology

  effort. She had sent h i m the latest literature on diving techniques and

  e q u i p m e n t for almost ten years before seeing h i m again in Cuba in

  1988. Two years later he had asked her to r e c o m m e n d a team to help

  Carisub. She had suggested Goddio, w h o then enlisted her to dive and

  serve as liaison with the government. She was the only w o m a n on his

  diving crew.

  Although they were no longer dating, Hendrickson and Larson had

  kept in close contact during this period. They saw each other at paleon-

  tology society meetings and talked frequently on the phone. "We were

  still best friends," says Hendrickson.

  W h e n the T. rex had been seized, Larson had p h o n e d Hendrickson

  in Seattle. She wasn't h o m e . She returned the call from France a few days

  later. "I kept saying, 'Really?' and laughing," she remembers, "but then it

  started sinking in—that it wasn't a joke. At that point everyone at Black

  Hills was in shock, but they were thinking, This is too bizarre. It will all

  get straightened out."

  Shortly before her grand jury appearance, Hendrickson had joined

  Larson at the Tokyo Fossil and Mineral Show, where she helped at the

  institute's booth. She had only been in Japan for a short time when she

  received a call from her m o t h e r in Seattle. FBI agents had p h o n e d Mrs.

  Hendrickson and told her they had a subpoena for her daughter. The

  government wanted Sue to testify before the Rapid City grand jury

  investigating the institute. Mrs. Hendrickson had referred the agents to

  her son, John, Sue's brother, w h o was a partner at a major Seattle law

  firm.

  On her return to Seattle, Hendrickson met with her brother and

  other attorneys from his firm before calling the FBI. The lawyers advised

  her that the government often applies pressure on potential witnesses by

  threatening to prosecute them. Therefore, she should try to strike a deal

  for full i m m u n i t y from prosecution before testifying before the grand

  jury. Although she felt she had d o n e nothing wrong, Hendrickson

  T A K I N G A H O W I T Z E R T O A F L Y 7 3

  agreed to this plan. The lawyers had received s o m e oral c o m m i t m e n t s

  from the prosecution before Hendrickson journeyed to Rapid City, but

  nothing regarding i m m u n i t y had been put in writing.

  In Rapid City, Hendrickson was represented by Gary Colbath, a

  lawyer w h o had previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney. For three

  days, Hendrickson and Colbath met with Schieffer, Assistant U.S.

  Attorney David Zuercher, a n d FBI agents. As the prosecutors debriefed

  his client, Colbath attempted to finalize the i m m u n i t y deal. Despite his

  one-time m e m b e r s h i p in the fraternity of prosecutors, Colbath, w h o

  died in 1999, had little kind to say about the conduct of Schieffer or

  Zuercher: "Kevin Schieffer had no trial experience, a n d David Zuercher

  was just vindictive."

  The government offered and withdrew i m m u n i t y to Hendrickson

  three times, all the while threatening to bring charges against her.

  Finally, a deal was struck, and Hendrickson testified before the grand

  jury for two days. "The prosecutors thought I was going to be the star

  witness against Pete—the ex-girlfriend w h o spills her guts," she says.

  "Then they realized I didn't fit that m o l d and that I didn't have any

  information to give t h e m anyway. I didn't k n o w of anything the insti-

  tute had d o n e wrong."

  Hendrickson recalls that as the appearance dragged on, Zuercher

  grew increasingly frustrated with her. "He'd show me pictures of s o m e

  site and ask if I could identify it and recall collecting there. T h e grand

  jury was totally bored. Zuercher would get so upset with my answers

  that he'd have me leave the r o o m until he could calm down."

  The prosecutors told Hendrickson that she was not to talk to the

  press and not to have any contact with anyone from the institute. "Can

  they do this to me?" she asked Colbath. Aware of the fragility of the

  arrangement with the government, Colbath advised her to follow these

  instructions. "That's when the nightmare really began," Hendrickson

  recalls. "These were my closest friends and we couldn't talk during the

  period we really needed each other. I can r e m e m b e r driving t h r o u g h

  South Dakota thinking I should just stop at the institute or call, but I

  couldn't." She followed the case t h r o u g h her friend Casey Carmody, a

  Seattle mineral and fossil dealer w h o had friends at the institute.

  Although Hendrickson couldn't talk to the media, Colbath could. "I

  don't ever recall such a Mickey Mouse procedure or being jerked around

  7 4 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  as m u c h as I was appearing with Ms. Hendrickson," he told the press.

  "She has confirmed what everyone has said, that no one at the institute

  did anything unlawful or intended to circumvent the law. . . . The U.S.

  attorney's office was taking a howitzer to a fly, so I wouldn't be surprised

  to see these people severely charged. The federal government has never

  been able to say, 'We screwed up.'" Seven years later Colbath felt the same

  way. He termed the investigation one of the worst abuses of prosecutor-

  ial power that he had seen in his 25 years of criminal defense work.

  While the grand jury considered whether to indict the Larsons

  criminally, the SVP did indict t h e m professionally. On June 26, the same

  day the Eighth Circuit ordered Judge Battey to hold a hearing to deter-

  m i n e t e m p o r a r y custody of Sue, the SVP executive committee sent

  Schieffer a letter stating its "strong objection to the removal of the

  tyrannosaur 'Sue' from its present location . . . to the Black Hills

  Institute, a commercial fossil-collecting business." Writing on behalf of

  the committee, SVP Secretary-Treasurer Dr. Robert H u n t argued that

  "professional paleontological expertise" was available at the School of

  Mines a n d Technology to properly care for and preserve the fossil. He

  also cited "a recently prepared conservator's report [that] attests to the

  fact that the skeleton is not deteriorating in any way."

  The following day, 13 SVP m e m b e r s , including H u n t , Woodburne,

  and President Churcher, got personal. In a second letter to Schieffer,

  they wrote:

  Officers of the Black Hills Institute, a commercial fossil busi-

  ness, have not, in o u r opinion
, published scientific studies

  demonstrating serious scientific expertise in dinosaur research

  in the past and have not demonstrated an ability to carry out

  noncommercial scientific work, n o r do we believe they are able

  to identify the best experts to undertake such a study. In fact, it

  is o u r opinion that the "institute" often chooses associates w h o

  support their views on commercial collecting, whereby some

  fossils are sold, others are retained for their own purposes

  which often reflect the long-term commercial interests of the

  business and not those of the scientific discipline of vertebrate

  paleontology or the general public.

  T A K I N G A H O W I T Z E R T O A F L Y 7 5

  Larson had no d o u b t that W o o d b u r n e a n d H u n t , longtime critics of

  the institute were behind the letters. H u n t , curator of vertebrate pale-

  ontology and professor of geology at the University of Nebraska,

  seemed to admit as m u c h in a 1992 interview with the American Lawyer.

  He told the magazine that the signatories to the letters felt that "the

  press was portraying the professional c o m m u n i t y as divided on this

  issue," when in reality paleontologists were " u n a n i m o u s in c o n d e m n a -

  tion of this supposed institute."

  On this particular issue, Hunt's own research proved suspect. T h e

  professional c o m m u n i t y of which he spoke seemed far from u n a n i -

  mous. After this letter was sent to Schieffer (and the executive c o m m i t -

  tee r e c o m m e n d e d expulsion of any m e m b e r found collecting on feder-

  al lands), Clayton Ray of the Smithsonian, an SVP vice president slated

  to become president in three m o n t h s , resigned in protest; he had been

  an SVP m e m b e r for three decades. Dr. Donald Wolberg, a paleontolo-

  gist at the New Mexico School of Mines a n d acting president a n d secre-

  tary of The Paleontological Society, also resigned. He had been an SVP

  m e m b e r for 26 years.

  Bakker termed the two letters "scandalous, quite probably libelous."

  The notion that the institute chose only associates w h o supported its

  view was particularly ridiculous, he said; the Larsons invited everyone

  to Hill City, including H u n t . As for the institute's scientific skills, he said,

  "We stiff PhDs, speaking in Latin, wearing elbow pads, criticize the

  Larsons for not having degrees, but their research is better than ours."

  Not surprisingly, at the hearing to determine t e m p o r a r y custody of

  Sue, Wolberg and Bakker testified on behalf of the institute, while H u n t

  testified as an expert for the government. Their respective evaluations of

  Sue's condition either demonstrated that scientists sometimes reason-

  ably differ in their analyses of similar data or that scientists sometimes

  unreasonably allow personalities a n d politics to influence their deci-

  sions. Or both.

  In its opinion calling for the hearing, the Eighth Circuit had writ-

  ten: "If the parties could c o m e to a c o m m o n understanding on this

  issue, the court as well as the public at large would be well served." As in

  the past, the parties couldn't reach an understanding. And so 100 peo-

  ple packed Judge Battey's c o u r t r o o m on July 9. While most of those in

  7 6 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  attendance supported the institute, the government was not without

  friends. T h e Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, w h o m the institute had volun-

  tarily dismissed from the lawsuit, had filed an amicus curiae (friend of

  the court) brief supporting the U.S. position that Sue should temporar-

  ily remain at the School of Mines.

  Wolberg took the witness stand first. D u r i n g his testimony, he com-

  pared Sue to "an original or a second draft of the Constitution" and a

  "Van Gogh or Whistler or Remington." This T. rex, he said, was a "total-

  ly unique specimen, educationally, culturally, scientifically."

  Wolberg had visited the machine shop at the School of Mines. What

  did he think of the present storage conditions of this unique specimen?

  Duffy asked. "Trying not to overreact, I was appalled," said Wolberg.

  High heat and humidity, the possibility of fire and flood, and the pres-

  ence of corrosive chemicals all threatened Sue. So, too, did the fact that

  she was being stored in the Rapid City flood plain. She was already suf-

  fering from pyrite disease a n d her plaster jackets were cracking and in

  need of repair. "It would have been the last place I would have put this."

  W h e r e did Sue belong? "I would give it back to the Black Hills

  Institute on the quickest train you can find.... They can appraise, treat,

  curate, a n d store it if needed," Wolberg said.

  Cross-examined by Schieffer, Wolberg admitted that Peter Larson

  was a close friend. Was he testifying as a friend or an objective scientist?

  Both, said Wolberg.

  Leitch and Bakker agreed with Wolberg's findings. Bakker, too, saw

  evidence of pyrite disease. It was i m p o r t a n t that the fossil be cleaned

  and examined frequently, he said. T h e institute was the only place to

  store Sue d u r i n g the m a n y m o n t h s that would pass before ownership

  was decided. (Prior to the hearing, Judge Battey estimated that it could

  take up to two years before the ownership question was resolved.)

  The government also presented three experts. Pat Leiggi, a prepara-

  tor for the M u s e u m of the Rockies, testified that Sue should remain

  where she was. "More damage will occur by moving the fossil," he

  explained. Sally Shelton, a natural history conservator for the Texas

  Memorial M u s e u m at the University of Texas in Austin agreed. She said

  she found little difference between the housing at the institute and that

  at the School of Mines. Transporting Sue back to Hill City was 100 times

  m o r e likely to damage the fossil than allowing it to remain at its present

  T A K I N G A H O W I T Z E R T O A F L Y 7 7

  location, she said, likening the effect of moving the bones to the effect

  of setting them afire.

  At the government's request, Shelton had performed an x-ray test

  on a small piece of bone to check for pyrite. She stated that the risk fac-

  tor of pyrite disease was "very low." She added that m o n i t o r i n g equip-

  ment should be installed in and a r o u n d the container housing Sue and

  that the bones should be checked regularly. The School of Mines had

  already begun installing such equipment.

  Bakker, w h o had respected Shelton's previous scholarship, was per-

  plexed by her findings. "She just looked at a chip from the corner of o n e

  bone. That's like looking at one chip of a m a n s i o n a n d concluding it

  doesn't have termites," he says.

  Hunt, however, seconded Shelton's opinion. "From what I've seen . . .

  [Sue] is in better condition than most people realize.. . . The building is

  adequate to protect this fossil," he testified, adding that the level of pyrite

  in bones was so low that they might not even require treatment. How

  many bones had he examined? Under cross-examination by Duffy, H u n t

  said he had looked at only three bones and analyzed only one small
frag-

  ment for pyrite.

  Through Hunt, Schieffer introduced into evidence the two letters

  written by SVP m e m b e r s critical of the institute's scientific capabilities

  and supportive of the current storage plan. As Larson's lawyers noted,

  however, the signatories had never seen the institute. Or Sue. Or the

  machine shop.

  The institute a n d the government lawyers weren't the only ones ask-

  ing questions of witnesses. Examined directly by Judge Battey, Peter

  Larson said he would spend whatever it took to preserve Sue if she were

  returned to the institute. Larson also promised to post a b o n d on Sue

  guaranteeing that the institute would not use her for any commercial

  purposes.

  Neal Larson also took the stand. T h e questions Schieffer asked h i m

  had little to do with Sue's physical fitness and m u c h to do about the

  institute's moral fitness to house her. Larson admitted that after receiv-

  ing Ray's p h o n e call about the FBI's call to the Smithsonian, he had

  changed the dates and descriptions on several boxes of fossils. He

  explained that he had hoped that this would prevent their seizure in the

  event of a raid. "I was scared and stupid," he said. "I don't k n o w why I

  7 8 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  did it." He emphasized that when the agents arrived, he immediately

  told t h e m what he had d o n e and corrected the dates.

  Court recessed for the weekend after two days of testimony. That

  Saturday, July 11, the long-awaited Black Hills M u s e u m of Natural

  History had its grand opening. The opening did not take place on the

  10-acre site where the Larsons h o p e d to build the m u s e u m ; the not-for-

  profit corporation they had established had nowhere near the m o n e y to

  purchase the land, and, of course, the status of the main attraction was

  still in limbo. The several h u n d r e d people attending the event instead

  gathered at the m u s e u m ' s "temporary home," the institute. The build-

  ing's facade n o w featured a huge painting of the T. rex crying behind

  prison bars. "Free Sue," read the caption.

  Mayor Vitter, Bakker, and Wolberg spoke to the gathering, as did

  Gus Hercules, the Libertarian party candidate for the United States

  Senate. Hercules had been o n e of the most persistent critics of the raid

  since day one, endearing himself to the Larsons and others w h o thought