By Steve Neavling

Danny Defenbaugh, the former special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, has died. 

He was 71. 

Defenbaugh served the bureau for 33 years and was a certified bomb technician who oversaw 150 investigations, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He also helped investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 

Defenbaugh’s family said he died this week at Baylor Scott and White T. Boone Pickens Cancer Hospital after undergoing a bone marrow stem cell transplant, KRLD News Radio reports.

“On behalf of the Defenbaugh family, our hearts grieve for Danny’s many friends and colleagues, our country, and the world’s loss of a great man. A patriotic man. A man who dedicated his whole life to thwarting off evil and defending America,” his family wrote on Defenbaugh’s Facebook page.

Defenbaugh, who is from Ohio, became a clerk for the FBI in 1969 before becoming an agent in 1976. 

He served as special agent in charge in Dallas from 1998 until his retirement in 2002. 

“The aura that surrounded him had such a presence. You knew he embodied greatness and strength,” his family wrote.

While Defenbaugh’s stem cell transplant was successful, “the complications that proceeded were just too much for his body to sustain,” the family said.

“In closing this message we find it so fitting to share that while writing this, a couple of eagles flew over Danny & his wife, Jennifer Defenbaugh’s property,” his family wrote.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) tracked down a 19th century painting that was stolen in Italy in 2002.

Acting on a tip from the HSI Attaché Office in Rome, investigators found the painting in the Dallas area, where a private art collected had purchased the painting in 2015 from a dealer who apparently was unaware that it was stolen, ICE says in a news release.

The artwork, titled “the Assumption of the Virgin Mary,” was painted by Italian artist Giuseppe Pappini in August 1851.

The private collector agreed to hand over the painting to investigators so it could be returned to the Abbey of Santa Maria in Sylvis in Sesto al Reghena, a monastery in Italy where it had been stolen.

“Investigating the loss or looting of cultural heritage properties and returning them to their countries of origin is an important part of HSI’s diverse mission” Ryan L. Spradlin, special agent in charge of HSI Dallas, said. “Our specially trained investigators and attachés in more than 40 countries not only partner with governments, agencies and experts who share our mission to protect these items, but they train the investigators of other nations and agencies on how to find, authenticate and enforce the law to recover these items when they emerge in the marketplace.”

Read more about ICE’s investigations of cultural property, arts and antiques.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Four people accused of plotting to murder a DEA task force officer were indicted by a Texas grand jury on Wednesday.

Those charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire were Manual Garcia Gomez, 22; Jorge Humberto Velazco Larios, 27; Eva Denisse Gomez Garcia, 38; and Alicia Yuritzi Juarez Martinez, 31, NBCDFW-5 reports.

Larios and Gomez have been arrested, while Garcia and Martinez are still in the loose, believed to be in Mexico.

“The Dallas Violent Crime Task Force is dedicated to protecting our citizens. This includes ensuring the safety of our law enforcement partners,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno. “The defendants wanted to harm a DEA task force officer and that is unacceptable. Fortunately, we were able to prevent a dangerous act from occurring and successfully apprehend a group of violent criminals.”

The defendants face up to 10 years in prison.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The FBI arrested a 42-year-old El Paso man who posted a racist video in which he threatened to kill Black Lives Matter protesters, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Manuel Flores faces up to five years in prison on a federal charge of making a threat over the internet.

The FBI arrested Flores on Monday in the Dallas area after authorities say he admitted recording and uploading a video to YouTube entitled “N***** Lives Matter” in which he said “my dream is (to) at least … take out at 200 N*****.”

In the video, which shows what appears to be an AR-15 resting on his feet, Flores said he planned to travel to Dallas and dare protesters to “stop him.”

Flores was arrested in the Dallas area.

As of Wednesday, Flores was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting to be transferred to El Paso for a preliminary hearing that has not yet been scheduled.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The FBI was warned in July 2016 about the man who opened fire outside of a federal courthouse in Dallas before being shot to death by law enforcement.

Brian Clyde’s half-brother told the FBI that his sibling should not be permitted to buy a gun because of his obsession with firearms and suicidal thoughts, their mother said, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Clyde’s family also said he was placed in a mental institution but was still able to buy a rifle.

Clyde was fatally shot after opening fire with an AR-15-style rifle at the Earle Cabell Federal Building.

The FBI confirmed the half-brother’s call but insisted there was little they could do.

“The information provided did not contain any specific threat, and no investigation was conducted,” the FBI wrote in a statement.

At the time, the FBI said, the bureau had no legal cause to investigate.

Clyde had no history of violence. His family believed his goal was to get killed.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Jack Ruby, who would shoot and kill Lee Harvey Oswald, told an FBI informant to “watch the fireworks” just hours before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, according to newly released JFK files.

The interaction between Ruby and FBI informant Bob Vanderslice wasn’t relayed to the FBI until March 1977, nearly 14 years after Kennedy was shot, the Independent reports. 

“The informant stated that on the morning of the assassination, Ruby contacted him and asked if he would ‘like to watch the fireworks’,” the FBI record stated.

“He was with Jack Ruby and standing at the corner of the Postal Annex Building facing the Texas School Book Depository Building, at the time of the shooting.

“Immediately after the shooting, Ruby left and headed toward the area of the Dallas Morning News Building, without saying anything to him.”

Ruby died in jail in 1967.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI warned Dallas police about a threat to kill Lee Harvey Oswald, but cops didn’t provide adequate protection, according to information found in the release of 2,800 previously classified files relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover issued the warning to police about a potential death threat to Oswald after he was in police custody.

“There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead,” Hoover wrote on Nov. 24, 1963.  “Last night we received a call in our Dallas office from a man talking in a calm voice and saying he was a member of a committee organized to kill Oswald.”

Hoover continued: “We at once notified the chief of police and he assured us Oswald would be given sufficient protection. This morning we called the chief of police again warning of the possibility of some effort against Oswald and again he assured us adequate protection would be given.

“However, this was not done.”

Hoover indicated he didn’t have “firm” information about Jack Ruby, the man who fatally shot Oswald, but said there were rumors of “underworld activity.”

An FBI scrambled to Oswald’s deathbed but was unable to get a confession.

Less than an hour after Oswald died, Hoover expressed concerns about quelling conspiracy theories about the assassination of JFK.

“The thing I am concerned about, and so is (deputy attorney general) Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin,” he said.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Police arrested a man and woman after they tried to “forcibly stop an FBI employee’s vehicle” as it existed the bureau’s Dallas office parking lot Tuesday evening. 

CBS DFW reports that the pair was taken into custody and turned over to Dallas police. 

It wasn’t immediately clear why the driver, Erling Beck, tried to stop the FBI vehicle.

Beck had an outstanding warrant. The woman was released, police said.

Investigators used a bomb squad robot to remove items from a nearby SUV following the incident.

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