Month: November 2023

by Travis Mateer

I was feeling down yesterday for a number of reasons, one of them being all the shit I know that makes me appear crazy if I don’t filter this knowledge for the benefit of others. For example, this picture you see above–am I going to write about smiley faces and clowns? Nope, not today. That crazy shit is going into a different piece of writing, where the REAL fun stuff is being kept for posterity.

Instead of writing about smiley faces and clowns, I’ve got some videos I’m going to share to show Zoom Chron readers some easy-to-use techniques that ANYONE can use. That’s right, you don’t have to be an independent journalist taking big risks for small donations (and thank you for each and every one!) to benefit from the information I’m hoping these videos will impart.

This first technique is one I learned from a bud-tender who exited the Cannabis dispensary where he was working to begin video taping the homeless woman yelling and assaulting the trash can on the sidewalk. The appearance of the camera quickly deescalated the woman, who stopped yelling, stopped assaulting the trash can, and walked away.

Though I wasn’t conscious at the time of the fact I was using this same technique to deescalate MYSELF, that is precisely what happened when, once again, I was told that being IN PERSON at City Council is simply not possible when you have angered someone who knows how to use the courts to punish you.

I should add that the Missoula Police Officer ALSO did an excellent job of keeping his tone and demeanor at a lower level than my initially escalated level of frustration, which my f-bomb clearly indicates. I can tell this officer has clearly taken the Crisis Intervention Training that Theresa Williams leads for the city.

https://vimeo.com/881909999?share=copy

Was I going to make it to a spot in time to phone in my public comment? That’s what I was thinking as I drove back to my studio, obeying ALL major traffic laws to arrive just in time IF our local officials were on time to start the meeting, which they weren’t, because of technological problems.

It’s not just the possibility of technology not working that lead me to try and make an IN PERSON public comment last night, it’s the visual aid I had with me to emphasize the point I was going to make.

Why did I bring a copy of John Coston’s book about Missoula’s serial killer, titled To Kill And Kill Again? Because I think there are STILL things that can be learned about how Wayne Nance was able to elude local authorities for so long. Here’s an excerpt from the epilogue that details the interest that the FBI has in this case:

The primary reason he’s of such interest to us is because of the fact that he committed, to the best of our knowledge, all of his crimes within a very, very small area and was still able to evade apprehension or identification. Even though he was strange, even though he arose as a prominent suspect in what they think may have been one of this first murders, he was able to mislead the people, and that’s what we’re interested in.

Yes, and now this case interests me as well, since nearly 50 years later our local law enforcement STILL has trouble catching a killer, despite a citizen like ME doing my best to help them out.

In the case of Wayne Nance, it took a lethal citizen intervention by two of Nance’s targeted victims to ultimately stopped the killing. Would you believe that Dusty Deschamps was heavily involved in the NOT catching of this killer?

With all this context in mind, here’s my public comment:

https://vimeo.com/881933431?share=copy

If you listen to the comment, you hear me reference my new breathing technique, which I learned in therapy. Thanks to the tech glitch, and Bob Moore’s casual exposing of Mayor Hess’ hilarious impotance when it comes to imposing the 3 minute time limit, I had time to BREATHE as instructed. I think it worked!

For further proof that I didn’t spiral into fuming on rant-mode, here’s the beginning of a song about some funny characters I’m developing, who I imagine live in a future Missoula not too far away. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Detective Gordon Shaker!

https://vimeo.com/881939498?share=copy

If you appreciate the results of how deescalated myself, then consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page…because therapy ain’t cheap!

Thanks for reading/listening!

UPDATE: I was told by the officer involved (while stopping by Municipal court today) that he has NOT received formal Crisis Intervention Training–could have fooled me!

by Travis Mateer

While I’m glad the Festival of the Dead came back to the streets of Missoula, the manner in which this event had to slink back into existence has me once again thinking about local media and narrative control.

The link above takes you to the Missoulian’s second article on the festival. The first one, written by Cory Walsh, did include some context on the claims of cultural appropriation that began the slow death of this festival all the way back in 2016:

In 2016, debates over cultural appropriation in American culture at large reached the local level and the festival became a focal point. The Zootown Arts Community Center, which had taken over organizing, dropped out. It was later renamed the Festival of Remembrance, and during the pandemic was largely dormant due to safety concerns around public gatherings.

Understanding WHY things happen is important, or at least I think it’s important. When it comes to this festival, understanding the recent history will help current and future organizers understand the difficulty of recapturing what was lost, because last Thursday’s processional was NOTHING like it’s been in years past, despite the bold assertion from the organizers that it would be as big, or bigger, than years past.

Here’s what the organizers were anticipating before the event, along with a potential reason WHY it ended up being a pretty disappointing turnout (emphasis mine):

The events include the Nov. 2 procession down Higgins Avenue, which is open to any local members and groups. They “anticipate it will be as big or bigger than in previous years,” Williams said.

…

They also said the procession on Higgins doesn’t allow fire, throwing of objects or candy, and no motorized vehicles, per the city rules and the event insurance.

For those in attendance last Thursday night, if you were wondering why it didn’t feel the same, maybe it’s because this city’s control mechanisms are kicking in, like having to provide EVENT INSURANCE for a community processional.

Another reality moving forward for this event is the fact the naysayers are NOT simply going away, despite being denied a platform this year from local media to complain about face paint and sugar skulls like they got back in 2016.

Here’s how NBC Montana reported on some of the “controversy” in 2016:

Missoula’s 24-year-old Festival of the Dead parade is changing traditions up this year to address a new controversy.

Event organizers say they’ve received complaints about people painting sugar skulls on their face for the holiday, citing “cultural appropriation.” Sugar skulls are a sacred way of honoring the dead in some cultures and have become a popular costume at Day of the Dead and Halloween events.

…

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to (paint your face),” said Lauren Estabrook. “If they ask you not to, you shouldn’t do it.”

“It’s just how Native Americans don’t want people to wear headdresses, because it’s important to them. I can understand why Hispanic or Latino people would not want white people to paint their face, because that’s part of their culture,” said Lea Tonnerre.

I’m writing all this about a festival honoring the dead because I want to highlight how it’s actually the POWER OF THE MEDIA that we’re seeing here because it’s the media that can turn ON a controversy, like they did in 2016, or they can shut it out, which this year exemplifies.

You didn’t hear about angry people giving organizers and supporting businesses angry phone calls this year because the media did NOT tell you that those phone calls were happening, but they were, and I know because one of the organizers told me this directly when I spoke with her on the phone.

I was supposed to get a call back from this organizer after they had their final planning meeting before the event, but that never happened. If I did get a call back, I would have congratulated her on wonderfully appropriate ethnic name appearing on the byline of the second Missoulian article.

If you click on the name, like I did, you will see that Antonio Ibarra Olivares is a photojournalist for Lee Enterprises, so it’s pretty cool he gets to WRITE the words for article as well.

I don’t care WHO in local media steps up, but I would REALLY LIKE some help figuring out this little matter of the MULTIPLE dead bodies I keep hearing about, along with more plausible explanations for the ones I DO know about, since I don’t believe in magic chokeholds (and neither does Cyril Wecht).

I’m going to be a tremendous pain in the ass until my concerns are taken seriously, and I don’t give a shit who I piss off.

If you agree that honoring the dead includes determining how they died in the first place, then help me as I continue asking questions by supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I took this picture inside the Montana State Crime Lab on Thursday because owls are powerfully symbolic creatures. In the book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews writes this about owls:

The owl is a symbol of the feminine, the moon, and the night. It was been called a cat with wings. It has been worshipped as an idol and hated as the reincarnation of the devil. It has been believed to have great healing powers, both in North America and on other continents. Because of its association with the moon, it has ties to fertility and seduction, for the moon is the arouser of men and owls. The owl is the bird of magic and darkness, of prophecy and wisdom.

To the ancient Greeks, the owl was associated with the goddess Athena, and it was a symbol of higher wisdom. It was the guardian of the Acropolis. To the early Christian Gnostics, it is associated with Lilith, the first wife of Adam who refused to be submissive to him. To the Pawnee, it was a symbol of protection. To the Ojibwa, it was a symbol of evil and death. To the Pueblo, it was associated with the Skeleton Man, the god of death, but who was also a spirit of fertility. “Owl medicine is symbolically associated with clairvoyance, astral projection and magic, both black and white.”

I will also point out the sign, partially obscured, that lets visitors know THE WITCH IS IN. Duly noted.

I’m going to crime labs and funeral homes because I keep hearing about dead bodies, so wouldn’t crime labs and funeral homes be the natural places to go? While I am getting more insights into the scope of what might be happening, nothing concrete is materializing, just talk.

On Friday I got another story of a death in or around the river a few months ago. The man who died was a recent arrival, according to one of my homeless contacts, and he “got lippy” with the wrong people, so he ended up dead from an “injection”, is what I was told.

I asked this same homeless contact about overdoses INSIDE the Johnson Street Shelter since it opened. He said he knows of at least one, a woman who died from “China white”, which I’m assuming is heroin.

Heroin was the topic of another conversation I had, but I won’t get into the specifics with that chat. I’ve said enough in direct conversations this past week to put several new targets on my back.

Along with the new fun I’m having, there’s also been an opportunity to reflect on a case I’m no longer directly involved in, though that doesn’t mean the risk just went away. But it’s like I told the Director of the Crime Lab, something happens to me, a lot of writing will get a lot of validation.

Before the links, a song. This one started as a line in my head about a Huckleberry as I drove to see my kids, then the radio said Huckleberry as I sat at the table I no longer eat dinner at. This all makes sense in a crazy sort of way, considering other references in the song include Dogma and Buddy Christ.

The world is strange and getting stranger by the day. Buckle up.

https://vimeo.com/881346271?share=copy

The Music Festival Scheme Missoula Doesn’t Need, But Gwen Jones Wants + Day Of The Dead Festival Hiatus Misinformation (October 30th, 2023)

The Unforeseen Consequences Of My Involvement In The Rebekah Barsotti Case (October 31st, 2023)

This Dead Fox Investigation Is The Funniest Thing I’ve Read All Week! (November 1st, 2023)

A Judge, A Perv, And The Joke We Call Justice (November 2nd, 2023)

On The Benefits Of Not Being Dead (November 3rd, 2023)

If you appreciate my work, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) would like to see some support, or make donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Since I’m not a very patient person, the idea of having to wait for the thinning of the veil in order to interact with the living sounds obnoxious. Even worse for the dead, Missoula decided to stop its collective honoring of the departed NOT because of the pandemic, so the last few years must have been pretty boring for any spirits who recall the vibrant years of Missoula’s decades-old tradition.

While it wasn’t anywhere close to the long processional of years past, it was great to see the Festival of the Dead return last night, so a BIG thank you to the organizers for getting this going again and fielding those antagonistic phone calls.

One of the benefits of not being dead is that no one needs a ouija board to communicate with me. These amazing phone devices we carry around with us everywhere are AMAZING for having conversations. In fact, I’ve had several conversations just in the last few days, so I know my phone is operational and ready to facilitate MORE great conversations.

Though I myself am not dead, many of my conversations are about dead people, and that’s because dead people don’t have phones, or even mouths, so conversations are much more difficult for them to have (though not impossible). And where should one go to talk to a live person about dead people? The Montana Crime Lab, of course!

The man standing by all those things known for turning alive people into dead people was very generous with his time yesterday as I inquired about death data and whether or not the State of Montana has any good death data on indigent deaths, or overdose deaths, or Guy Baker investigated deaths. No on all three, darn!

I haven’t chatted with Travis Spinder since his very competent crime lab handled the corpse of Rebekah Barsotti, so after getting no insights into death data, I gave Mr. Spinder ALL KINDS of insights into the very fascinating work I’m doing on SO MANY dead people. How many dead people? At this point, I don’t even know, but Crime Lab Travis sure seemed entertained by what Journalist Travis was saying. I think it’s because I’m so damn hilarious.

My communication device connected me to even more interesting alive people yesterday, like the Council candidate who produced this:

I gave this candidate a crash course in ME, then told her about a famous Guy I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. No, not in a gay way, but more like a firm grip on those coattails kind of way, since I’m famous enough to be a limited purpose public figure, but not famous enough to sit at the cool kids podcast table.

Can dead people smoke weed? No, maybe play with wafting tendrils of smoke, but without lungs, taking monster hits of a nice Sativa is definitely not dead people behavior.

One of the benefits of not being dead is alive people get to engage in commerce. Or is that a curse? Regardless, we supposedly have an economic system called “Capitalism”, and how this Capitalism is working within the Montana Cannabis industry is fascinating and hilarious.

As the Cannabis industry regulator, the state of Montana has been a veritable shit-show of tea-leaf interpretation when it comes to applying policy. When you consider the wide spectrum of business acumen of former black-market weed dealers, the challenges are obvious.

Now that enough businesses have been given enough rope to end their entrepreneurial dreams, who is capitalizing on snatching up FOR SALE storefronts? From what I’m learning, the big mover and shaker in the industry IS Bloom, and the moves being made have created a potential marketing problem. Let me explain.

To avoid a possible backlash of being SEEN proliferating the Bloom brand too quickly across the state, some curious moves are being made to occlude Bloom ownership of dispensaries, but a kind person demonstrated how, with the state database, Bloom-owned dispensaries can be identified. Too funny.

Yes, there are many benefits to not being dead, and maybe one day I’ll experience one of the most fun not dead experiences we humans get to have down here, because you can’t have death without the act of making life, know what I mean?

If you appreciate my tenacity amidst incredible stress and mounting disappointment, money is the best way to currently show me that appreciation, so direct monetary love at Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can finger my button at the about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

In 2006, Robert “Dusty” Deschamps was appointed by Governor Brian Schweitzer to fill a vacancy in the 4th Judicial District Court. Here’s a little excerpt from the article about how a judge must set aside one’s ego to do the job effectively:

Prior to the swearing-in, District Judge Ed McLean told the crowd of Deschamps’ family and friends the job Deschamps was about to take required a person to “set aside one’s ego” and be ever-mindful of personal liberties, constitutional rights, to ensure a balance of power between government’s branches, and to protect property and legal rights.

A judge is always obligated, McLean said, to “do his or her best to treat everyone equally in our courts.”

How did old Dusty treat the man who secretly recorded his adopted daughter getting naked over a year ago? Did he throw the book at him, or slap him on the wrist for a crime that was originally charged as a felony?

Well, according to this Missoulian article, Dusty let this piece of shit off VERY easy. From the link (emphasis mine):

The former CEO of the Missoula Boxing Club won’t spend any more time behind bars, as he was handed an entirely deferred sentence by a judge for a case alleging he filmed a minor girl without her consent.

Jonathan D. Partain, 50, was sentenced for a misdemeanor surreptitious viewing charge on Monday, though the case was originally charged as felony child sex abuse, according to court documents and the Missoula County Attorney’s Office.

A teenage girl reported to law enforcement in August 2022 that one month prior, she was changing when she noticed a cellphone propped up on a speaker system Partain installed earlier in the day, according to charging documents. Partain was confronted by the girl and an adult. According to the case affidavit, he admitted to purposely recording her while she was changing without her knowledge.

JD Partain is a lucky guy, not only is he getting a deferred sentence, he ALSO has the Missoulian using vague terminology, like “a teenage girl” and “an adult” instead of more accurate terms like ADOPTED DAUGHTER and WIFE.

Hmmm, if I went to church, would the Missoulian be a little nicer to me in their reporting?

Going back to the judge in this case, did I find anything while poking around online that raises concerns about Judge Deschamps capacity for “treating everyone equally in our courts”? Hell yes I did, like this 2015 change-dot-org petition to have Dusty removed from the bench.

I also found a post positing that Dusty hates women because Mommy didn’t do a good enough job protecting him from Catholic priests here in Missoula. From the link:

Is Judge Robert L. “Dusty” Deschamps carrying long held anger at women for not protecting him? Is Judge Robert L. “Dusty” Deschamps prosecuting, sentencing and violating the law to punish women? The power to abuse from childhood abuse is manifest in many ways. Did Judge Robert L. “Dusty” Deschamps find a way to punish women for not protecting him as a child? Is he mad at mommy for not protecting him? Ask this question before you cast your next vote to re-elect him as judge.

Yes, it’s quite possible Judge Deschamps has problems with women, since he seems to think they’re more prone to embezzlement than men are. Yes, he actually said that from the bench 5 years ago. Is this guy a CHAMP or what? (emphasis mine):

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a Missoula woman’s two embezzlement convictions based on a few key factors, among them a state prosecutor’s concession she is entitled to a new trial. 

Linda Faye Harris, 61, will also appear before a new judge following Tuesday’s order. In her appeal, Harris argued the judge presiding over her case showed bias when he was open about both prematurely considering her guilty and surmising women to be more often guilty of embezzlement than men.

“It’s women that commit this crime most of the time,” District Judge Robert “Dusty” Deschamps III said, according to the transcripts from the January 2018 sentencing hearing included in court filings. “And they commit it big time. And it seems like once they start doing it, they just keep coming back. And she’s evidence of that pattern.”

Isn’t the criminal justice system in Montana AMAZING? I sure think it’s amazing, and later this week I’ll be reporting on what a Mineral County Attorney with a brain injury told me about Russian truck drivers, so be sure to check that one out.

For my coverage on this JD Partain case, here are some relevant links:

Is There A Mark Ebner In Missoula Getting Ready For An I Told You So Tour? (November 30th, 2022)

The Tune Has Changed For J.D. Partain And Here Are My Insights From His Arraignment (December 13th, 2022)

Can Churches Handle “Spiritual Character” Problems Without Outside Help? (December 20th, 2022)

The Danger Of The Christian Savior Complex (March 17th, 2023)

On Selling Sex In Zoom Town (June 9th, 2023)

Well, there you go, more evidence that justice in this town is a sick fucking joke presided over by worthless judges and enabled by a pathetic local media landscape.

If more people don’t start becoming more active locally in calling out this worthless criminal justice system, then it’s just going to get worse.

I’d put up the links to support my work, but fuck it, no one has donated in 3 weeks and even people I have helped in the past don’t seem very interested in responding to my requests for help.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to keep exposing MORE and MORE and MORE of what I know, so stay tuned, things are going to get interesting.