Month: December 2024

by Travis Mateer

First, out of an abundance of caution, I made yesterday’s post private, so it’s no longer visible. I have challenges on so many fronts, it’s easy to get a bit overloaded and convey that TOO effectively. That’s how good I am.

To emphasize the kind of quality local insights I provide here, two local news stories caught my attention, both about drugs. The first one is about Troopers busting fugitives in a drug “interdiction”. Isn’t that a fancy word? Here’s the EXCLUSIVE news report NBC Montana thinks you’ll ONLY get at their website (emphasis mine):

Montana Highway Patrol troopers conducted a drug interdiction operation from Dec. 2-6 in a small Montana town.

NBC Montana talked exclusively with Montana Highway Patrol Colonel Kurt Sager about the interdiction and the issues of drugs flowing throughout the state.

It’s a story you’ll only see on NBC Montana.

Before I get to the part of about Superior, Montana, that sounds a lot like THIS POST I wrote back in April, here’s my framing from 8 months ago:

Yep, knowing this region is important for the reasons I’ve been talking about for years, here’s the politically well-timed description from NBC Montana:

“Superior is kind of unique, it is a small town, but it is one of our entrances into the state of Montana and it is on a major interstate, so its location definitely adds to the amount of drugs that are coming through there with it being on interstate 90. A lot of the drugs that we get there are passing through,” Col. Sager explained.

Yes, drugs flow into Montana on I-90, and plenty of that illicit product goes north, to the eager homeless drug consumers kept warm in Kalispell thanks to the Warming Shelter and the lawsuit by a national law organization, which I mentioned in this post two months ago.

What I did NOT write about publicly (it’s in my crazy synchronicity research) was my suspicion regarding WHY the warming shelter needs to stay open, and I got confirmation of that hunch recently when I checked out the University’s publication, the Kaimin. Here’s what I knew was coming months ago (emphasis mine):

Opioid overdoses could become less likely thanks in part to new research being done at the University of Montana. In early 2024, a fentanyl vaccine, designed by University researchers in collaboration with Inimmune, a Missoula-based biotech company, will undergo phase one of human clinical trials. 

Yep, I knew this was coming, and mentioned to more than a few people my hunch that keeping drug addicts warm would be a good thing for our local bio-tech company developing their Fentanyl vaccine. Looks like my hunch might be accurate.

To finish up this post, the Homeless Outreach Program I developed has a “news” story about their work with those living outside during the winter. Here’s a quote (emphasis mine):

Beckett Redinger, the communications coordinator for the Johnson Street and Poverello shelters says that the Homeless Outreach Team is reaching out to those who are living unsheltered providing information for services, including both shelters.

“Our HOT team has definitely been working a lot to reach people who are living unsheltered, and, you know, let them know that shelter is an option for them this winter, and help bring them inside, especially on the coldest nights, so that no one is hurt by the cold temperatures this winter.

Yes, that inconvenient corpse I thought might have been hurt by the cold temperature was, according to the Sheriff’s Office, NOT a corpse. Also, that dead body recently identified is NOT the victim of an assault, also according to the Sheriff’s Office, so maybe I should BACK OFF that claim Missoula might have a serial killer.

That is, unless MORE concerning rumors of dead bodies emerges, like this comment someone sent me:

What the hell might be going on in this town? And, if there IS nasty shit happening, how effective will the narrative controllers be at CONTROLLING the growing worry that killers can kill in Montana and get away with it.

If you appreciate my perspective, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit counts.

Thanks for reading!

Yesterday the clerks of the fourth judicial court of Montana embodied Franz Kafka’s peculiar vision of bureaucratic hell when they informed me that printing forms is practicing law, and they don’t do that.

Do MUNICIPAL court clerks print forms? Yes, they do, but that doesn’t matter. Consistency, or even common sense, does NOT apply to bureaucrats, so one key to NOT losing your shit is adjusting your expectations.

It took me ALL DAY and THREE visits to the Courthouse to file a motion to get more time for the CIVIL part of the legal hell I’ve been in for over a year. Did I know filing an appeal gave me 20 days to file a legal brief? No, I did not know that. Unlike the politically-connected woman who weaponized a protective order against me, I never attended law school, so I’m at a BIG disadvantage here.

When you examine the duties and skills clerks of limited jurisdictions are supposed to have, the hilarity of what I experienced yesterday only increases. Here’s what the clerks are SUPPOSED to be able to do (emphasis mine):

Efficient? That’s REALLY FUNNY.

The second clerk I interacted with yesterday was nice enough to show me a little shelf on the second floor of the courthouse where some legal documents exist in printed form for pro se idiots like me, but the specific forms I needed were NOT available. Yeah, EFFICIENT!

Judicial bureaucrats aren’t the only kind of bureaucrat that make this modern era so maddeningly stupid, there’s also the propagators of parks who spend dumb money on dumb things with dumb results. Let’s take a quick look at two examples of EXTREME STUPID.

The first example of extreme stupid is the indefinite closure of the West Broadway Island, a piece of geography I’ve been intimately involved in dealing with, both as the former Homeless Outreach Coordinator of the Poverello Center, then as a concerned citizen. Here’s the latest on the problem CREATED by Parks and Rec when they spent almost a MILLION dollars building that REALLY stupid bridge to no where. From the first link:

West Broadway Island is undeveloped land nestled in the heart of downtown Missoula that’s been inaccessible to the public since early September, a closure poised to continue into 2025.

“We elected to close the island and really just give the land time to heal, right?” said Missoula Parks and Recreation conservation lands program manager Jeff Gicklhorn. “So, keeping people off of it and let vegetation in particular recover after those impacts that we were seeing.”

Throughout the summer people were staying on the island and damaging vegetation, leaving holes and the potential for riverbank destabilization, said Gicklhorn.

City staff did an initial cleanup of trash in the area before doing further work, Gicklhorn said.

While Parks and Rec did their cleaning this summer, the homeless sex swing I cleaned up occurred in spring, around the same time that guy got ARRESTED for picking up trash along West Broadway.

Remember that, Missoula?

I certainly remember, since putting the homeless sex toys on display and declaring our community RETARDED earned me my SECOND criminal charge for violating a protective order last spring, a charge I’ll be on trial for tomorrow, unless the busy courts boot my trial to early next year, like I suspect will happen.

The second example of extreme stupid is all the money being spent for the Caras Park area of the Clark Fork, including this new access loop:

I thought this image lacked something, so I had ChatGPT create a more plausible one.

Yeah, that looks a little more accurate, don’t you think?

If you appreciate what a motivated citizen journalist can do with a zero-fuck approach to exposing local corruption and cognitive impairments, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Last week I wrote a post about someone potentially dying outside due to cold weather, but that wasn’t what my source supposedly witnessed on December 5th, according to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office. By the end of the week, though, a body HAD been found by people looking for a Christmas tree.

A woman’s body was found in the Gold Creek area by people looking for a Christmas tree on Thursday evening.

Missoula County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jeanette Smith says law enforcement responded to a report of a deceased person whose body was found in the area of Montana Highway 200 and Gold Creek.

When Reddit heard about this body, the speculation included wondering if a serial killer was operating in Missoula again like Wayne Nance did decades ago.

There was even a specific claim made about “hunting”.

When I tried bringing attention to the possibility that a serial killer like Wayne Nance could be active in this area over a year ago, my compromised ability to attend City Council meetings led to my first criminal charge of a protective order. This was the case the city dismissed against me earlier this month, but a second alleged violation is scheduled to go to trial this week.

Six months after suggesting a serial killer could operate like Nance because our Sheriff Offices don’t appear competent or even remotely capable of investigating murders, I wrote this post about the potential of a serial killer killing in and around Missoula, which included this excerpt from the book about Wayne Nance:

While the sheriff’s department didn’t explicitly link the two killings, the talk of the town did. The townspeople were already swept up in rumors about devil worship in neighboring Idaho, where only months before, in November, a young newlywed couple from Rathdrum, in northeast Idaho, mysteriously disappeared. Word had spread that the couple had been abducted and sacrificed by a satanic cult, that Rathdrum was the center of a devil-worshipping cult. In the minds of Missoulians then and now, Rathdrum, though two hundred miles away, is considered to be just over the hill. And it was no big stretch of the open-minded imaginations of many Missoulians to believe the tales that linked satanism with news reports of cattle mutilations reported in the Plains states to the east, beginning in the fall of 1973, and in eastern Montana in 1974. The animals were found with their lips, udders, and genitals removed, cut off with what was alleged to have been “surgical precision.”

No one with a badge ever caught Wayne Nance. Instead, it was a citizen who fought back and ended this man’s reign of terror. If it wasn’t for that capable citizen, who knows how many more people would have been murdered.

Like the rumors swirling around Rathdrum, Nance claimed to be inspired by the devil. Here’s a little context from Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

Wayne Nance was born on October 18, 1955, in Clinton, Montana to George Edwin Nance (August 20, 1928 – April 4, 2004), a long-haul truck driver, and Charlene Mae Mackie (February 2, 1936 – April 3, 1980), a waitress. Nance lived in a motor home outside of Milltown, Montana, which is east of Missoula and was described by teachers and classmates as an academically gifted yet eccentric individual who was also a juvenile delinquent. Friends claimed that during his adolescence, Nance frequently boasted of worshipping the devil, and had even used a hot coat hanger to brand himself with Satanic symbols. He also had bragged about wanting to commit a murder before he was 19-years-old. Nance graduated from Sentinel High School in 1974.

When you look at some of the presumed early kills attributed to Nance, you see how vulnerable people, like homeless runaways, were often the targets (emphasis mine):

After his discharge from military service, Nance visited Seattle, Washington in July 1978, where 15-year-old runaway Devonna Nelson went missing. On February 27, 1980, her badly decomposed body was discovered by the crew of a slow-moving freight train on a road bank close to the Interstate 90 in the city of Missoula resting against a chain-link fence. Because of the condition of the body, her remains were not identified until February 16, 1985. She had no shoes or underwear, and her dress was hitched up around her neck. Nelson had been stabbed in the chest. Prior to her identity being confirmed, she was dubbed “Betty Beavertail” after the nearby Beavertail Hill State Park. Nance is suspected of killing Nelson, but has not been definitively linked to the crime.

The body of Marcella Cheri “Marci” Bachmann, 16, was found in an advanced state of decomposition on December 24, 1984, by a wildlife photographer. The body had been buried in a shallow grave and her decomposed leg was protruding out of the frozen ground. Strong evidence indicates that Nance murdered Bachmann. Investigators found hair similar to Bachmann’s in Nance’s home. She had run away from Vancouver, Washington, due to conflict with her family members.

Another aspect common to serial killers is their involvement in a branch of the U.S. military. While Nance served in the Navy, another serial killer from Montana, who killed around the same time as Nance, spent time serving in the army. This killer was the distinction of being the first serial killer to be profiled by the new approach of profiling developed by the FBI.

David Gail Meirhofer (June 8, 1949 – September 29, 1974) was an American serial killer who confessed to four murders in rural Montana between 1967 and 1974 — three of them children. Meirhofer killed himself shortly after confessing, and was never tried in court.[2]

In the early 1970s when Meirhofer’s crimes were ongoing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been refining a method of psychologically profiling criminal offenders, and Meirhofer would be the first serial killer to be actively investigated using this technique. Offender profiling is now a contemporary method used to discover clues pertaining to the characteristics of an unknown offender from evidence at the scene of the crime, and to psychologically profile the perpetrator concerned.

…

After graduating in 1967, Meirhofer worked several odd jobs before being drafted into the Army in the fall of 1968. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 1, spending the next few months at a military base in San Diego, California, as part of the Signal Corps.[5] After completing his basic training, he was sent to MCAS Cherry Point, before being dispatched to fight in the Vietnam War in 1969, serving in the 5th Communications Battalion.[5] For his achievements in deploying communication systems and controlling military formations during armed assaults, he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. In August 1971, he returned to the United States, where he continued his military service at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

If you’ve read the book by Dave McGowan, titled Programmed To Kill, then you’ll understand why the entire idea of a LONE serial killer might be a complex strategy of misdirection intended to downplay or cover up just how many military-trained killers with ties to programs, like the Vietnam Phoenix Program, are out there operating. There’s even a theory that the fear created by serial killers provides a convenient excuse for THE STATE to expand its surveillance capacity.

While I keep my eyes on local headlines, I don’t expect local media to do ANYTHING to make this case of a possible serial killer, because that is not the role of local media. If people are afraid, they don’t go out and spend money, and if Missoula had a reputation for harboring a killer (or killers), then tourists might select a different spot to vacation.

For this reason alone, you might want to consider supporting a citizen journalist who spent 7 years working at a target-rich environment for psychopaths (homeless shelter), and now exhibits the kind courage in reporting the paid punks for Lee Enterprises only dream about. And you can provide this support in the form of digital dollars at Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF).

Stay tuned, there’s definitely more to come.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The acquittal of Daniel Penny has brought the idea of MALICIOUS PROSECUTION into the conversation regarding our out-of-control criminal “justice” system. I consider this interesting timing, for me personally (emphasis mine):

Days after his acquittal in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, lawyers for Marine veteran Daniel Penny are floating the possibility of a malicious prosecution lawsuit against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who secured an indictment against their client days after police let him go, then failed to convince a jury he committed a crime.

…

“It was clear that there was a fear that if an arrest wasn’t made – and made very quickly – that there might be rioting in the streets, and that that may ultimately look very bad for District Attorney Alvin Bragg,” he said. “And if that in fact happened, that could affect his re-election.”

In addition to Bragg, he said the lawsuit could also potentially name Dr. Jason Graham, New York City’s chief medical examiner, who signed off on Neely’s cause of death as a homicide by strangulation before toxicology results had come back.

I don’t think the timing of this case with NATIONAL attention would have gotten as much of my attention had I not been offered the MOST HILARIOUS plea deal agreement by the city of Missoula, suggesting my charge of driving under the influence of WEED be modified if I say I’m guilty of the protective order violations I’m still facing, though one has already been dismissed.

I am now MUCH MORE interested in why my rap-loving arresting officer asked me a question about my protective order case while we were bumping to his preferred rap music down Russell. Plea agreement? Nigga, please!

For anyone curious about what kind of elements go into a malicious prosecution, here’s something I found:

Taking a step back, the future of America–and the world, really–might be shaping up to move in directions no one is ready for, and faster than anyone can prepare for. A supporter of the blog recently sent me a video for my thoughts, and my first thought was OH SHIT, I THINK HE’S RIGHT. Here’s the video:

Another piece of media I’d like to bring some attention to is a podcast called the Cascade Effect, a “true crime” podcast looking at an “officer involved shooting” in Cascade County, Where Sheriff Slaughter reigns supreme and CONSTITUTIONAL, he says, though pesky details like “warrants” don’t always get used the way they are supposed to, it would appear.

Before wrapping this up, I read about a Clinton, Montana, couple getting busted for drug trafficking and there was a little detail that got my attention, probably because this tactic was used on ME when I was obtaining my illicit weed from Washington State (emphasis mine):

When Slattery and Everhart allegedly drove to California at the end of the month to re-up, investigators obtained a warrant to track Slattery’s cell phone location. They planned to stop their car once they reached Missoula County.

The pair only made it as far as Idaho, however, where state troopers allegedly pulled over a car on U.S. Interstate 15 driven by Everhart in Bannock County, where Pocatello is located. An Idaho State Trooper wrote in the affidavit that he stopped the vehicle for not using its turn signal for a full five seconds when it changed lanes.

Yep, this is EXACTLY what happened to me in Idaho, but the weird thing was the cop pulled out behind me BEFORE I even made a lane change, like he KNEW my day trip to Spokane was a likely trip that included re-upping on my weed stash after seeing family. Unlike my DUI situation, I was not arrested, and no rap music was involved.

One more data point before I end this week of reporting, Biden made big clemency moves to help people facing legal consequences, many drug-related.

The White House released brief biographies of the 39 pardoned individuals. Most committed non-violent drug offenses in their late teens and early 20s. Many served in the U.S. military and all are active in their communities, either through church or volunteer work — including helping others with addiction recovery and navigating life after incarceration.

Fun times in America!

If you appreciate my work here at Zoom Chron, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Money continues to be tight, so any little bit will help.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

People still don’t get it. They might be at a local coffee shop, waiting for their morning of fix of caffeine, and they will see a headline screaming something like TACTICAL CIVICS and they will assume an organic process of news-making is at work in order to make citizens more informed participants of democracy, or some shit like that.

Well, I’m here to tell you how wrong those people are.

We are in an information war, and a “reporter” like Seaborn Larson is doing some narrative control heavy lifting for his corporate paymasters at Lee Enterprises when he starts writing about TACTICAL CIVICS. Let’s take a quick look at HOW this information warfare is being funded and conducted before I offer my opinion about WHY it’s happening.

First, what the hell is the Poynter Institute? And why are they giving the reporter with a great mustache funding to correlate TACTICAL CIVICS with Montana Freemen? Great questions, Travis, let’s see what kind of words they use to describe themselves and the work they do:

If this doesn’t impress you, dear reader, there’s more. For 50 years these trainers of journalists have been doing their thing, which really should NOT be a point-of-pride, considering the state of journalism being so deplorable, even Jeff Bezos has to concede this harsh reality. Maybe someone should tell the Poynter Institute?

Before I pivot to mocking Seaborn’s obvious agenda-driven “reporting”, I want to show you just how bad local media is, and I’ll do it with an image where the inaccurate headline is literally undermined by the banner graphic. It’s so bad it’s almost like performance art!

While KPAX can’t get basic facts right, like how much money Gianforte actually handed the United Way harpy, SHP, this month, the reporter with the mustache is SO EXCITED about tactical civics and what’s he’s uncovered that he’s hosting an entire forum about it.

The Helena Independent Record and the Montana State News Bureau invite the public to join reporter Seaborn Larson in Helena on Monday to discuss his three-part series on Tactical Civics, a new Christian nationalist group promoting citizen grand juries and county militias in Montana.

Larson will discuss his recent reporting series on Tactical Civics on Dec. 9 at Brothers Tapworks in Helena for the establishment’s “Soapbox” series.

Former Gov. Steve Bullock will moderate the discussion set for 6 p.m. at 40 S. Last Chance Gulch.

Yep, you are reading this right. The former GOVERNOR, Steve Bullock, who used his influence as Attorney General to protect the badges caught up in the Coyote Club scandal, is moderating a whole series of propaganda performances in order to draw customers to drink at his brother’s establishment, and our corporate media rag, Lee Enterprises, is joining the party.

For those who don’t know about the Coyote Club, here’s a little summary (PDF):

This case stems from investigations into an alleged poaching ring called the “Coyote Club” in Lake County, Montana. Sargeant and Funke were accused of participating in the poaching ring while on duty and while in law enforcement vehicles. The first investigation was initiated by the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (“FWP”) in 2010, but no charges were brought against the Plaintiffs or any other individuals. In 2014, Don Bell was elected Sheriff of Lake County and took office in January 2015. Similarly, Steve Eschenbacher (“Eschenbacher”) was the newly elected Lake County Attorney. Eschenbacher had heard of the Coyote Club and was concerned when a few years prior no charges were brought.

Hmmm, why were no charges brought? Maybe Steve Bullock, who served as Attorney General from 2009-2013, can answer that question. Of course, that would take some REAL journalists doing REAL work exposing ACTUAL power players, not some dude with a mustache targeting citizens, like Seaborn is doing for his corporate paymasters.

Later in the article targeting tactical civics, the connection to Montana Freemen is made. This is where the political agenda becomes VERY obvious (emphasis mine):

With a grant from the Poynter Institute, Larson set out to understand what animates Tactical Civics’ followers, and tracked the group as it quietly made inroads with state lawmakers, local organizers and disenfranchised Montanans who were “desperate” for something to swing back at what they perceived to be government overreach. What he found was a recycled blueprint from groups like the Montana Freemen, remade in the era of social media and podcast programming.

Following the Nov. 5 election, the group also staged a microcosmic question pondered also by antigovernment extremists: With Trump back in the White House, where does the militia movement go from here?

I know the answer to Seaborn’s question, and that’s because I’m going to be a part of it. Here’s the answer: the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. That’s where. And hopefully a heavy dose of CORONER INQUEST exposure, which I’ll be writing about next week.

I’ll get even MORE specific. There are some funny people in Montana who call themselves CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFFS, but their understanding isn’t always in-line with what our rights should be. Some of these Sheriffs used to be Democrats, like Cascade County Sheriff, Jesse Slaughter, and Missoula’s former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, the chubby badge who decided NOT to run an actual Mayoral campaign when he realized what I would be writing about him if he did.

Thanks to Mineral County, my ability to challenge the hero narrative of WILD WEST shootouts has expanded, out of necessity, to much of Western Montana. This is why the more recent FAILURE of Mineral County to find Willie is interesting to me, just like the FAILURE of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office to find a suspect in the antler-murder of an 88 year old woman is interesting to me.

If YOU, dear reader, find my citizen journalism interesting, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). I don’t write the kind of propaganda trash the Poynter Institute pays for, so hopefully you see value in that.

Thanks for reading!