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TENNESSEE UNDERWORLD
Officials say Gore
killed drug probe
Mayor: Top fund-raiser, pal had 'clout
to shut down an ongoing investigation'
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Editor's note: This is the third report in an exclusive WorldNetDaily investigative series on corruption allegations involving Vice President Al Gore and his Tennessee family, friends and supporters.
In Part 1, "Al Gore's Uncle Whit," Monday, WorldNetDaily revealed that Gore's uncle and confidant, retired judge Whit LaFon, has been targeted as an alleged drug trafficker by federal and state law enforcement officials in Tennessee.
Part 2, "Gore plays fixer to 'crooked' uncle" in yesterday's edition, involves allegations that Gore has routinely leaned on his longtime friend and supporter Larry Wallace, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, to "take care" of criminal matters involving Gore's family and friends.
In Part 3, senior Tennessee law enforcement officials say Gore killed a major drug trafficking investigation in their state that allegedly implicated several of the vice president's long-time friends and supporters.
The series was researched and written by native Tennessee reporters Charles C. Thompson II and Tony Hays. A long-time veteran of network news, Thompson was a founding producer of ABC's "20/20," as well as Mike Wallace's producer at CBS's "60 Minutes." Hays is an experienced journalist whose recent 20-part series on narcotics trafficking received an award from the Tennessee Press Association.
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By Charles Thompson and Tony Hays
© 2000, Charles C. Thompson II and Tony Hays
SAVANNAH, Tenn. -- If you were rich and politically connected in Hardin County, Tenn., and were under scrutiny for drug dealing by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or if you needed a permit from the Tennessee Valley Authority to run a sewer line on your property abutting the bank on Pickwick Lake, you might have gone to two of Al Gore's money men to get things straightened out.
Take those pesky TVA permits that encompassed everything from your right to cut down a tree on your property to dredging a boat slip or building a dock. These permits were costly and time-consuming, and sometimes seemed unobtainable.
According to Benny Austin, owner of the largest real estate agency in Savannah, the county seat of Hardin County, until very recently the best person to expedite those permits was Clark Jones, a Savannah car dealer and a key fund-raiser for Gore, who raised more than a $100,000 for the vice president last year.
Jones took contributions for Gore in return for handling TVA permits, according to Austin, who added that the potential scandal "has been swept under the rug."
Another major realtor who spoke on condition of anonymity said a second fund-raiser and longtime friend of Gore also obtained TVA permits for properties that weren't eligible.
"I checked it out and found that these permits should never have been granted," he said.
The fund-raiser, Paul Callens, 57, a wealthy real estate broker, controls a great deal of the desirable building lots around Pickwick Lake. These lots sell for $69,000 for an off-water lot, while a waterfront lot begins at $159,000. Callens' company handles the sales of many of the opulent estates situated on the gently rolling hills surrounding the lake.
Callens' and Jones' access to Gore allowed them to obtain lucrative federal assistance from Gore and his aides. A problem with barges cluttering Pickwick Lake disappeared after a Callens contact with Gore and Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss.
Given this background, it is not surprising that when last year the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began narcotics-trafficking investigations against Jones and Ron Harmon, a sitting chancery court judge, Jones allegedly went to Gore to have the investigation killed. The embarrassing and politically dangerous state probe was suddenly terminated last year just 10 weeks after it began by the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Larry Wallace, another of Gore's close associates.
According to current and former TBI officials, that is business as usual at the agency. In fact, those officials say Wallace has routinely spiked investigations that could be harmful to politicians or that involve law enforcement officials -- especially those involving Gore.
Sources within the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation say Gore and Wallace have been in frequent contact over the past eight years. WorldNetDaily asked Wallace for his correspondence with Gore and his aides involving TBI investigations and were told "no such correspondence exists."
Ed Holt, deputy director of the TBI, said Wallace killed the Hardin County drug probe because the agency was unable to develop an informant.
"You know there was an opportunity at one time for a drug investigation down there, but we couldn't take it anywhere, because we couldn't get any informants, " Holt said.
"That's total bulls--t!" responded Butch Morris, a former top narcotics agent with the TBI. Local and federal sources agree with Morris, saying bureau agents were spoonfed documentation and key informants, but never used them.
Community leaders in Hardin County, center of the TBI inquiry, claim that the investigation was terminated prematurely after an unusual meeting between an alleged suspect, Jones and the TBI agent in charge of the investigation, Roger Hughes.
According to members of the 24th Judicial District who worked with the FBI, the federal agency began the investigation last fall. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs Service have opened their own investigation of the case. Holt confirmed that after his agency halted the investigation in the spring of 1999, FBI special agents questioned him about some of the TBI's suspects.
However, the federal agents added another suspect, according to two local law enforcement officials who are part of a narcotics task force assisting the FBI. They identified him as Whit LaFon, Gore's crusty old uncle, a former state judge who peppers his conversation with racial epithets such as "nigger."
The genesis of TBI's Hardin County drug investigation was the overdose death of a 20-year-old Savannah man, John Riddell. Riddell had been at a party on Dec. 29, 1998, at a friend's house in a secluded area of Hardin County known as Bruton Branch.
According to his autopsy report, John had ingested three prescription drugs. He aspirated his vomit and then choked to death. His parents, David and Jane Riddell, were painfully aware of their son's addiction.
They had tried twice without success to get
(cont)
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