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Anxious to shake the Hopedale blues from my tail feathers, I joined the Navy in 1957, right after graduation. I spent the next three years with the Naval Security Group, as a communications technician. It took me all of two days in the Navy to know that it would not be my career. As everyone knew, I wanted to be an Actor. Over the three years in the Navy, reality set in and I opted for the Law instead. In 1961, I became a member of the Metropolitan Police
Department in Washington, D.C. a likelihood once deemed improbable, if
not impossible, by those who knew me best. Pecks bad boy of the class
of '57 was now one of Washington's finest. I spent 6 years in Washington,
where I learned and survived, in spite of myself. |
John F. Rice
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In 1964, after a yearlong courtship, I made the smartest move of my life and married Juanita (Neta) Bennett, who hailed from Johnson City, Tenn. They say that, behind every successful man there is a successful woman. In my case that's more than true. She is not only wife and mother of my two children, Dawn and Brian, she is my best friend, She is the one responsible for all the good things that have happened to me in my life. What's amazing is I'm smart enough to know it. Listen to me, I must really hate that woman. The other thing that happened to me in Washington D.C. has some historical significance. As a twenty-four year old, I had no conception of how significant, but as time has passed; I have come to realize that I was in rare company. I was one of 40 policemen selected to flank the funeral procession of John F. Kennedy, a son of Massachusetts. Elected to the presidency on my 21st Birthday, November 8, 1960. The first day after the assassination, as we took the body to the Capitol rotunda, there was only the riderless horse, guided by an Army Lieutenant, the Bier, the Color Guard, Jackie, John- John, and Caroline in the Limousine and the patrolmen, 20 in front and 20 in the back. Funny, how I didn't realize at the time, how important an activity we were performing. At any rate, in 1967, after 6 years and several broken noses, stitches and various bangs and bruises, also one delivered baby, looking for greener pastures and broader horizons, I passed the Treasury Agent's Enforcement Examination. I was then appointed a Special Agent with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the Internal Revenue Service, which evolved into the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms in 1972. My first assignment, and the most fun, was Birmingham, Alabama, where my main duties for the next four years, consisted of locating "stills' and chasing Moonshiners. There are a million stories I could tell about Moonshining. Most of them humorous, some not so funny. Since 1920, ATF has lost more Agents in the line of duty than a other agencies combined, (125) most of those deaths related to the illegal liquor business. When the gun laws were passed in 1968, 1 wound up making a major case on a Birmingham physician, who suspended his practice to travel with George Wallace in his quest for the Presidency. He had accumulated a tractor-trailer load of firearms and explosives, waiting for the Black/White revolution to start. When we finished, he got 5 years in Federal Prison, making little rocks out of big ones, contemplating the error of his ways. He was the first doctor in Alabama history, to lose his license to practice, for a non-medical felony conviction. That case, voted one of the top three stories in the State of Alabama for 1970, earned me an unasked for transfer to Orlando, Florida, where they were having trouble with a number of bombings that involved several unions and non union companies. 1971-1974 was spent in Orlando. What was a small, very pretty, Florida vacation spot, was about to become a megalopolis catering to the tourist trade over the next twenty years. I was only going to be there for four of them. In October 1971, Disney World opened with a flourish. On February 3, 1972, an anonymous caller, in an attempt to extort $90, 000, placed a bomb in the Banjo Cabin on the River, at Disney World and I had my next major case. (An Orange County Deputy Sheriff and I disarmed the bomb) I eventually made an arrest in the case. A former employee was identified by the use of voiceprints, as the caller in the case. Another incident that was voted a top ten story in Orlando in 1972. Another major case I had in Orlando involved the bombing of a concrete plant in Vero Beach Florida. I eventually developed enough information to obtain a search warrant for the residence of a member of the Ironworkers Union, where I recovered (40) dynamite bombs that he had constructed and was storing in a metal shed in back of his house. When we got the devices, they were leaking glycerin, and were so unstable; a lightning storm could have detonated them. That would have been a surprise to the neighbors! The bloom was off the rose at that point and I was looking for greener pastures. In 1974 1 transferred to Las Vegas, Nevada, where I spent the rest of my career in the field, working bombings and commercial arson fires, under the explosive laws. One of the bombing cases I worked involved a subject named "Lefty" Rosenthal. "Lefty" was an oddsmaker and worked for the Stardust Hotel in Vegas. He was a running mate with Tony "the Ant" Spilotro, a Chicago Mafia figure, who was organized crimes representative in Las Vegas. Lefty and Tony had a falling out and Lefty came out of Tony Romas' restaurant one night, started his car and wound up about 60 feet away from his exploded and still burning automobile. The only thing that saved his life was that he had left his door open when he started the car. Instead of frying him, it blew him out of the car. Being an oddsmaker, Lefty knew the odds of his survival if he stayed in Vegas. He heard California calling and heeded the call. The movie Casino, with Robert DeNiro, as Lefty, Sharon Stone as his wife and Joe Pesci as Tony Spilotro was based on Rosenthals career in Las Vegas. Joe Pesci's fate in the movie was exactly what Tony "the Ant" and his brother got. They were beaten to death and left in a cornfield as a lesson to fellow mobsters, not to draw attention to themselves lest they suffer the same fate. Perhaps the most significant investigations that I was responsible for during my 13 years in Las Vegas, were the MGM Grand Hotel fire in November of 1980, that took 86 lives and was the second worst hotel fire in United States history. Three months later, I was investigating the fire at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, that took the lives of an additional 8 people. The MGM Fire was determined to be an accidental fire that started on the casino floor, in a restaurant. The ATF laboratory recreated the circuitry in a pie box that touched off the blaze, in which all but 4 of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation. The Hilton Hotel Fire was set deliberately by a Hilton busboy, who thought he could light the fire and then put it out and be a hero to his bosses. Instead, the fire leapfrogged up the building through 22 floors. When it was over there were 8 dead, many more injured and $10,000,000. in damages. The busboy received 8 life sentences, back to back for his actions. I spent 13 years chasing arsonists, bombers and gunrunners. I had one case that involved an attempt to smuggle two hundred 45-caliber pistols to Saudi Arabia secreted in hollowed out car batteries. My only problem was that my major player was in Saudi Arabia. Even though I had many hours of taped conversation between him and a co-conspirator in San Francisco, California, I still needed to lure the principal back to the United States in order to arrest him (he was a resident of Florida). After three months of conversation and the principal's belief that in order to get the guns he was going to have to come back to the States, he came to Las Vegas and met with us in a seedy motel to take possession of the guns. I had Colt Firearms loan us the two hundred 45 cal. pistols for show and tell. They went directly to jail, they did not pass go and they did not collect 200 guns. I was a charter member of the Southern Nevada Arson Task Force, made up of law enforcement, local and Federal, fire investigators and insurance industry representatives. I was Training Chairman of the task force from 1980 to 1987. In 1987, 1 was promoted to Senior Special Agent and transferred to the ATF National Academy in Glynco, Georgia to take over as Program Manager for our New Agent Training Program. I had been active as an instructor and course developer in ATF since 1976. Wouldn't Miss Holmes turn over in her grave if she knew I was teaching advanced subject matter at a post graduate level. It would have to be branded as heresy. I remained in this post until December, 1989 when I retired with over 31 years service. I was not done with ATF, or with my association with law enforcement even in retirement. In November of 1990, 1 was elected Executive Director of the Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms Association of Retirees. An organization of 700 members nationwide. In 1993, 1 instituted the Waco Memorial Fund on behalf of the 4 ATF agents slain in the line of duty at the Davidian compound in Waco Texas. I raised over $200,000 for the widows of the slain agents. For my activities with the retirement association and actions undertaken on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms, I was named the first recipient of the ATF "Advocate Award" in 1997. A national award, given to the retiree who does the most to support the programs and positive image of the Bureau. I am, as I have been since my retirement, licensed by the State of Georgia as a Private Investigator Well, you now know the highlights of
a 40-year career with law enforcement. Neta and I have been married for
36 years. Our kids have also done their own thing. Brian has been a chef
in an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas for years. Our daughter, Dawn, has
a bachelor of fine arts degree, so naturally she is a bartender in Laguna
Niguel, California, so she can make more money. In her younger single
years, Dawn was a television star with the "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling".
She was Godiva, a bad girl. Of course it was choreographed, but got her
on a lot of game shows and allowed her to see a lot of the country. She
has been long since retired from the ring and wrestling with my 8-year-old
grandson, Johnny. Smart girl, named him after his grandfather. The picture
attached to this libretto was taken during my visit home in 1999. |
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