“What was your plan after shooting her in the ass?” J-3 asked.
She shrugged. “Beat the shit out of her, maybe, or strip her naked and push her out in front of the Capitol – something to make myself feel better. I had a good life before she wrecked it.”
Emery said, “How’d you like to be part of a plan to take them all down, Gloria and the people she works for?”
Stephens pursed her lips. “Sign me up.”
Chapter 45: ‘Murdered for His Honesty’
December 30, 2 p.m.
Early Thursday morning, Emery called Harmon to find out what he was going to do about Kan-Tel. He refused to talk about Kan-Tel. Then he asked to go off the record. Emery reluctantly agreed.
“Gloria Munday contacted Stamos this morning about an immunity deal,” Harmon said. “She’s terrified she’ll end up dead and mutilated like Complet. KCID has her in protective custody. So stand by to file a complaint if she balks at helping us. You’re my leverage against her.”
“Can’t I use this on background, Mike?”
“Absolutely not.”
Emery considered whether he owed Harmon a warning about the Munday audio clip he was posting soon. He decided he didn’t. After she confessed on The Vindicator, a complaint wouldn't matter.
So he asked, “Are you willing to say, on the record, that the assailants in the Cannon assaults were from Alpha-Omega?”
A pause. Then Harmon said, “You can quote me as saying we think Alpha-Omega mercenaries did it because the M.O. in Colby was similar to the M.O. in the assault cases where they’ve been proven responsible.”
Two hours later, Emery and Jenkinson posted their story about the murder of Ferdinand Cannon on The Vindicator and ColoradoMuckrakers:
MURDERED FOR HIS HONESTY: Kan-Tel Co. implicated in ’08 beating that resulted in phone exec’s death.
During a home invasion on June 5, 2008, a hooded assailant struck Ferdinand Cannon of Colby, Kan., in the head with an aluminum baseball bat. Two years and 20 days later, that blow to the head killed Cannon in Colorado Springs. Cannon was the former Colby general manager for Kan-Tel Co.
Cannon’s wife, Severine Cannon, suffered a broken cheekbone in the 2008 home invasion. She blames Kan-Tel, a telephone-Internet company headquartered in Garden City, Kan., for the attack. In a comment posted on The Vindicator last week and republished on ColoradoMuckrakers today, she said her husband’s problems with Kan-Tel began a month before the home invasion. In 2007, her husband, an accomplished grant writer, helped Kan-Tel leverage a $750,000 grant from the Kansas Technology Corridor Corporation, a state-owned entity that promotes technological advances across Kansas. Kan-Tel lobbyist and spokeswoman Gloria Munday assisted Cannon in this effort.
In May 2008, her husband “found out the grant money went for such ‘modernization’ as sumptuous offices for company officers and luxury company cars for certain board members and their lobbyist in Topeka.” She added: “KanTech didn’t seem to care that the money was misspent or about getting it back."
In response to Ferdinand Cannon’s complaints, she said, Kan-Tel leaders in late May 2008 blamed the misuse of the grant money on accounting errors and promised to correct them. The home invasion came about a week later.
In recounting the horror of that early-June evening, Severine Cannon reports that Ferdinand Cannon’s assailant, after knocking him senseless, told her to make him shut up about the KanTech grant. If he didn’t, she recounted, the two hooded men would come back and kill them both. The day after the attack, she said, as she and her husband were getting medical treatment and preparing to flee to the Colorado mountains, Kan-Tel fired Ferdinand Cannon.
Was the injury inflicted on Cannon in 2008 in Colby the same injury that killed him this year? Of this there can be no doubt. The Vindicator and ColoradoMuckrakers contacted doctors at the Northwest Kansas Clinic in Colby, where both Cannons sought treatment after the home invasion, and at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Colorado Springs. As a result of these contacts, Dr. Jane Hepworth of the Colby clinic, who treated Ferdinand Cannon, and Dr. Michael Koenig, the brain-injury specialist who treated Cannon in Colorado Springs, shared test results and compared notes on his traumatic brain injury. They concluded that the injury inflicted on Cannon in June 2008 is the same injury that killed him on June 24 this year. The physicians’ full reports are posted here.
As for the assault on the Cannons, Kansas Attorney General Mike Harmon today said that the assailants likely worked for Alpha-Omega Construction. Harmon also confirmed that the KCID and Colorado authorities are investigating Cannon’s death as a murder.
Alpha-Omega, which is not in the construction business, is a shell company spun off from Richards Security of suburban Oklahoma City. Its apparent main activity in recent years has been to carry out attacks on Kansans who get in the way of Kan-Tel Co. Alpha-Omega is also suspected of perpetrating the destruction of the Gunderson dam near Los Llanos, Colo., on Oct. 11, killing three people and causing billions in property damage. The state has paid Alpha-Omega at least $1.3 million over the past four years.
As The Vindicator reported earlier this month, Alpha-Omega received its money from a fund overseen by recently murdered former Kansas agriculture secretary, Eunice Swindle, and the Agriculture Department board. Before she died, Swindle identified Ernest Complet, the former general counsel to Gov. Mabel Hodge who was murdered on Christmas Eve, as the director of Alpha-Omega’s activities. Thanks to DNA collected at Complet’s home, the Kansas Criminal Investigation Division has established that an Alpha-Omega operative was in Complet’s house the night of his murder.
The Vindicator made numerous efforts to contact Kan-Tel for comment, without success. We reached the company switchboard in Garden City and asked to speak to the chief executive officer, Albert Vernal Spritzer. He refused to come to the phone. State Sen. Vernal Barnes, R-Garden City, the Democratic lieutenant governor-elect and reportedly a Kan-Tel board member, refused to take our calls. Munday was not available for comment. So we have only Severine Cannon’s word that Kan-Tel was behind the attacks. But readers who play the ColoradoMuckrakers interview with Mrs. Cannon Wednesday will discover that her account of the incident has the ring of truth.
The package included two audio clips. The first was Munday, in her cynical contralto voice, telling Emery how Kan-Tel’s leadership mistrusted Cannon with the inside information he’d been given for the KanTech grant application and how, unlike Cannon, the board saw nothing wrong in misappropriating the money.
The audio clip also included her quasi-confirmation that Vernal Barnes was part of Kan-Tel – likely an important part.
A blurb of text accompanying the clip noted that Kansas Technology Corridor Corporation President Dick Delano, a former southwest Kansas Republican representative and Hodge appointee, had refused to answer questions about the status of the grant. The KanTech legal counsel, Delano contended, would not allow it.
The second audio clip was Jenkinson’s phone interview with Severine Cannon, conducted late Wednesday afternoon. Reached in Denver, she talked proudly about the “simple Kansas values” that informed her husband’s business dealings. She explained how his refusal to knuckle under to the dishonesty of his company’s leadership drove him into harm’s way, out of his job, into hiding and ultimately into the grave. It was essentially the same story she’d written in her comment, but her husky, heartbroken voice brought the horror of the assaults to life.
In cosmic terms, Cannon’s was the murder of a marginally significant young man. But more than anything else Emery had published about the Alpha-Omega thugs and the people who directed them, Severine’s sad narrative dramatized the human suffering that ensues when the politicians allow thieves and thugs to subvert the people’s government.
The post quickly went viral on The Vindicator – page views by the hundreds, comments by the dozens. In his role as comments editor, J-3, who’d been briefed in advance, was already responding to readers who asked for more information o
r who offered angles for further journalistic exploration.
But Emery was already working on his next report. He called Terry Conklin. “Joseph,” his friend exclaimed. “Great post on Ferdinand Cannon. I just read it. Looks like Kan-Tel is in this up to its eyeballs.”
“Actually, that’s what I’m calling about. Can you send me that KanTech report you told me about earlier this month? I need to go through it.”
There came the clicking of computer keys. “The report’s on its way.”
“You’re the best. I’m thinking the real story here is that Kan-Tel criminally violated state grant guidelines in spending the $750K.”
“Well, that’s the inference I drew from our friend Gloria’s audio comments in your post. How on Earth did you get the recording?”
“Trickery plus superior schmoozing skill.”
“To your main point,” Conklin said, “your theory on how Kan-Tell spent the money sounds plausible. The spending guidelines for state grants, as opposed to loans, would have to be strict. Want me to check on that for you?”
“Do you have time?”
“For you, yes.”
That night, as Carol and Emery snuggled on their narrow guest room bed, she said, “What would you think about sending Juwan and Sadie back down to Ouimet tomorrow? She needs to get ready to go back to Fort Hays State next week. He wants to be with her there until we’re certain the security threat is gone.”
“OK with me,” he said. “I’d ask J-3 to go with them, too, but he wants to be part of the finale. I’m letting him do it.”
“Your Garfield County foray and the Complet interview got him hooked on adventure,” she said. “But can we agree now that he handles only a safe supporting role?”
“Sure. Same goes for you, sweetie. Except for my part, and possibly Viviana’s, they’re all safe supporting roles.”
Jenkinson arrived the following afternoon, looking leaner, better groomed and better dressed than Emery remembered. He explained that his new girlfriend had goaded him into exercising, getting regular haircuts and buying his clothes at a men’s store instead of Target.
A few minutes later, J-3 came over with Stephens. There followed a group discussion of the plan – “visioneering,” as Jenkinson called it. Then Stephens proposed that they walk across the river to the downtown bars. After imploring J-3, still underage, to be careful, Emery and Carol begged off. They wanted some time alone.
It was New Year’s Eve, and despite the uncertainty to come on Tuesday, the year ahead seemed full of promise.
Chapter 46: Power Figure
January 3, 10 a.m.
The second joint post on The Vindicator and ColoradoMuckrakers went up Monday morning. The piece ripped away the veil with which Vernal Barnes – the Republican state senator and Democratic lieutenant governor-elect – had enshrouded his private activities:
POWER, MONEY AND BLOOD: Barnes built Kan-Tel on taxpayers’ backs
Most Kansans who have heard of Vernal Barnes know him as the longtime Republican Kansas Senate Republican power broker who became a Democrat this year to run successfully for lieutenant governor. Some Kansans, especially those in the agriculture community, know Barnes, of Garden City, as the man who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Agriculture Subcommittee of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. In those roles, he decides and directs state agricultural spending.
But few Kansans are likely aware that Barnes is also a power broker in the state’s private sector. Barnes is the chairman of the board of one of the state’s most successful – and secretive – companies, Kan-Tel Co. of Garden City. Kan-Tel is the dominant telephone and high-speed Internet provider in rural Kansas. Four present and former company employees confirmed Barnes’ role in Kan-Tel in interviews Monday and last week.
In addition, Barnes was a member of the Kansas Technology Corridor Corporation’s Board of Business Advisors in 2007. That year, KanTech granted Kan-Tel $750,000 without requiring repayment. The Advisors are 17 Kansas businessmen and women appointed for two-year terms. Their statutory charge is to keep the KanTech grounded in the real world of business. To that end, the Advisors meet quarterly to review the corporation’s operations and recommend future courses of action.
The Advisors do not oversee or govern KanTech. A separate nine-member governing board plays that role.
Barnes, however, used his position as an Advisor to leverage the grant for Kan-Tel. Six present and former KanTech employees reached last week and Monday said that in 2007 and 2008, Barnes had participated in KanTech grant-making decisions, in consultation with his close friend from western Kansas, KanTech President Dick Delano.
Gov. Mabel Hodge appointed Delano, a former Republican state representative from Hugoton, to the KanTech presidency in 2007. Delano was one of three Republicans whom Hodge appointed to mid- and high-level positions in her administration.
None of our KanTech sources was willing to be quoted on the record. As one of them explained, “People who cross Vernal Barnes tend to suffer economic and/or physical harm.” The four present and former Kan-Tel employees contacted for this story also declined to be quoted on the record, for the same reason: Barnes is a man who inspires fear.
There was nothing illegal about the KanTech grant to Kan-Tel. KanTech’s statutory purpose is to help technology companies such as Kan-Tel grow and prosper, to the benefit of the Kansas economy.
But Kan-Tel’s use of the money was decidedly illegal. The terms of the grant required Kan-Tel to spend the $750,000 to upgrade telephone and Internet technology across its system. But as Gloria Munday, the company’s lobbyist-spokeswoman revealed last month in an audio recording, Kan-Tel spent the money to improve its offices in Garden City and on automobiles for key officials. KanTech money also paid for a car for Munday, the company’s contract lobbyist-spokeswoman.
Under state law, the misappropriation of public money, including grant money, is a Class B felony. Conviction carries prison time of no greater than five years and fines of no more than $50,000.
Early today, we contacted Barnes at his temporary Capitol office, the space formerly occupied by Ernest Complet, Hodge’s recently murdered former general counsel. We read this story to Barnes and asked for comment.
Barnes initially denied any association with Kan-Tel and KanTech. We reminded him that in his annual statements of substantial interest, filed with the Kansas Public Disclosure Commission, he reported an unspecified role in Kan-Tel. The law, structurally weak, does not require detail beyond that. Barnes then admitted being part of Kan-Tel but insisted his role in the company was minor.
However, a former Kan-Tel employee contacted for this story asserted that “behind his stooge cousin, Vernal Spritzer, Sen. Barnes ran Kan-Tel with an iron fist.” All four of the present and former Kan-Tel employees we interviewed confirmed that Barnes chairs the Kan-Tel Board of Directors. Because Kan-Tel is privately held, it makes no public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For that reason, the identities of the company’s directors are not public knowledge.
As for Barnes’ association with KanTech as an Advisor, he admitted, under prodding, that “I dimly remember being on that board.” He added: “I’ve been on and off of a lot of boards, as have most other senior senators. That’s part of public life. But I don’t recall doing much as a KanTech Advisor. I may have attended a meeting or two.”
Barnes expressed ire that none of the Kan-Tel or KanTech sources “you’re using to damn me” was quoted by name. The employees’ desire for anonymity, he said, “is proof that they’re lying about me.” We offered the senator an easy fix for this problem: Simply deny that he ever drove decision-making at Kan-Tel and/or KanTech and we’ll report your denial prominently. He declined the offer.
Kan-Tel is under investigation by the Kansas Criminal Investigation Division for allegedly using taxpayer-funded mercenaries to assault Kansans who posed a perceived threat to the company’s rapid expansion over the last four years. The KCID has establ
ished that a company known as Alpha-Omega Construction (which is not in the construction business) provided the muscle for these operations. As The Vindicator and ColoradoMuckrakers reported last week, Alpha-Omega received disbursements from the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Some of that money was used to pay the hooded assailants who attacked Kansas communications entrepreneurs and at least one local elected official to remove obstacles to Kan-Tel’s expansion.
We also contacted Gov. Hodge for comment. She promised a thorough internal investigation of Barnes’ “alleged use and abuse of public money.” She would not cooperate with the KCID investigation already in progress, she said, because “(Kansas Attorney General) Mike Harmon is not running an honest investigation. His only goal is to increase his own power at my expense.”
Hodge added that as soon as the Senate confirmed her new general counsel nominee, Edward Vanderslice, now the prosecutor for the 25th Judicial Circuit in western Kansas, her personal Barnes probe would begin.
“That could happen as early as next week when the Legislature reconvenes,” she said. “If Eddie proves any of these charges, I’ll have another lieutenant governor before this year’s legislative session ends. But right now, Vernal is entitled to the presumption of innocence, so I’ll say no more.”
The Barnes post wasn’t quite the Internet phenomenon that the previous week’s post on the murder of Ferdinand Cannon had been. But by noontime, it had attracted several hundred page views and dozens of comments, with more streaming in by the minute.
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