Scaife-obsessed man sought him, but took own lifeBy Richard GazarikTRIBUNE-REVIEW Last month, Steve Kangas of Las Vegas bought a 9mm pistol, a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey and a bus ticket to Pittsburgh. It would be a one-way trip.
Nine hours later, drunk to the point of incoherence, Kangas shot and killed himself in the restroom - on the same floor as the offices of Richard M. Scaife, the publisher of the Tribune-Review and a nationally known backer of conservative causes. The location was no accident. Kangas, 37, was obsessed with Scaife's politics; apparently he traveled to Pittsburgh to confront, and possibly to kill, the man he believed to be evil incarnate. And he came close to completing whatever bizarre mission he was on. Scaife was in his office for much of the afternoon, but he never ran into Kangas. Late that night, Kangas turned the gun on himself moments after a maintenance worker found him semi-conscious in the men's room, according to a police report. He was carrying a box of ammunition when he died. The pistol was brand new; he had obtained a permit for it shortly before leaving Nevada. The Allegheny County Coroner's Office ruled the death a suicide. Six days before he died, Kangas posted a message with an Internet discussion group blaming Scaife for all of President Clinton's legal troubles. "Clinton is, in my mind, a moderate Republican, and it is only the insanity of Richard Mellon Scaife that is causing them to go after this man," Kangas wrote. Scaife has been a frequent target of the left during Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of Clinton. The White House, other Democrats and some liberal media have accused Scaife of being the financial force behind what Hillary Clinton called the "vast right-wing conspiracy" to remove Clinton from office. Unfortunately, Kangas bought into it all. On his World Wide Web site, which he titled "Liberalism Resurgent," Kangas wrote that Scaife and other wealthy conservatives are the "overclass," and he accused Scaife of having connections to the Central Intelligence Agency. He called the conservative movement "a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest one percent into the stratosphere. "The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA," Kangas wrote. Scaife wasn't the only target of Kangas' scorn. His writings were also critical of The Washington Post and its publisher, Katharine Graham, former editor Ben Bradlee and Deputy Managing Editor Bob Woodward. Even the Knights of Malta and various foundations not linked to Scaife came under attack. Kangas also considered Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, part of the CIA-directed conspiracy. Kangas was himself a former intelligence agent, according to his Web site. A Russian linguist, he served in the U.S. Army in Berlin during the 1980s electronically intercepting and translating communication traffic of East bloc military units. "Journalism is the perfect cover for CIA agents," he wrote in one of many lengthy diatribes against the right. He believed that the news media provided the perfect cover to "write anti-communist, pro-capitalist propaganda when needed." He included Scaife in that group, he wrote, because Scaife's father, Alan, served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. The OSS was the forerunner of the CIA. Kangas' writings conveyed a sense of frustration. He tried unsuccessfully to raise money over the Internet in a one-man crusade called "Help Fight the Right." He was once a conservative himself. Kangas wrote that his political transformation began while he was in the Army. He honed his new liberal views in Santa Cruz, Calif., coffeehouses while earning a degree in Russian studies at the University of California. Kangas' family and friends say they knew he was troubled but had no clue that he might be homicidal or suicidal. "I was deeply concerned that he was in serious mischief," said Roger Langheet, his stepfather. "There was no reason for him to be in Pittsburgh," said his mother, Janet Langheet, who holds a doctoral degree in religious studies and lives in Michigan. "He knows no one in Pittsburgh. This was quite a surprise to us." Kangas' father, Robert Esh of South Carolina, said his son was raised in a religious, conservative Republican family before the parents divorced. He said Kangas has an uncle who is active in Republican Party politics in Illinois. That, he added, was the extent of the family's political activism. Esh doesn't know what drew his son to Pittsburgh, a city he apparently had never been in before. Kangas told his sister, Sharise Esh, that he had to collect money from two people. He didn't say who they were or where they lived, according to Robert Esh. In retracing Kangas' movements on Feb. 8, police said he arrived at the Greyhound bus station Downtown, rented a locker in which he stored a bag, and got something to eat. He went to One Oxford Centre, entering the building around 2 p.m. Around 11 p.m., maintenance worker Don Adams found Kangas in the bathroom, unhurt but obviously intoxicated. Kangas was lying on his back on the floor inside the last stall. The Jack Daniel's bottle was nearly empty. Adams told police he asked Kangas if he was all right, and got an unintelligible reply. Adams went to get help from another maintenance man, Don Oberdich. When they went back in the restroom a few minutes later, they found Kangas' body seated on a commode, blood flowing from his head, his pistol on the floor nearby. The restroom, which had been accessible to anyone, is now kept locked. Scaife's lawyer, Yale Gutnick, on Saturday issued a statement on the incident: "On behalf of Mr. Scaife, who is out of town, and the Scaife foundations, we are profoundly saddened and sorry for Mr. Kangas and his family, and we offer our sincere condolences. We are pleased that no one else was injured, but this was a tragedy." Security guards told investigators they remembered seeing Kangas strolling around the building that day, carrying a backpack. He was dressed casually except for what one guard noted were expensive-looking shoes. Kangas had just $14 on him - and not much more to his name, though he wasn't always poor. In fact, Kangas had bragged to a friend that he had been earning $150,000 a year in a gambling venture. Kangas worked for P.W. Enterprises, a Las Vegas-based business that used mathematical models and computer technology to calculate the odds of winning horse races. It was Kangas' job to place the bets while others crunched the odds. Kangas also kept track of revenue, according to Peter Wagner, who started the company. After getting his degree and moving to Las Vegas, Kangas held a number of jobs, all for short periods. And all the while, he spent free time attacking conservatives and billing himself as a standard-bearer of liberalism. In February 1988, Kangas wrote to a friend, Mike Huben of Arlington, Mass., that his personal life had been precarious but had stabilized. "I've hit the big time," he wrote. "My current job pays $150,000 a year - I'm part of the damned top one percent I've been railing against all along. (Rest assured it won't change my politics.) "With the investment opportunities here, I could well become a millionaire in a few years. That is not a misprint nor is it an empty boast. Yesterday we won $102,000 at horse racing. That was a record, to be sure, but losing days are very, very rare." Huben recalls Kangas telling him how the intelligence community was behind all sorts of sinister political plots. "He had a number of conspiracy theories about the CIA being involved in neo-liberal and right-wing movements," Huben said. "He said his military experience changed his life. That's when he rejected his conservative upbringing. "I'll miss him. He was a real interesting character," Huben added. Chuck Nyren of Seattle worked with Kangas on a political Web site, suite101.com. "His death was an absolute shock to me," Nyren said. "No way I thought he was suicidal. He was an intelligent fellow who was on the ball and seemed to have a fairly good sense of humor about himself. He could make fun of himself." Another acquaintance, Columbia University Law School student Josh Gottlieb, says he can't believe Kangas set out to kill anyone. "Steve was the kind of guy who riled people with his politics, but not enough to kill them," Gottlieb said. In the final months of his life, Kangas had begun drinking heavily and showing signs of another obsession: sex. Denise Waddell of Sherman Oaks, Calif., whose husband, Tom, is a partner in P.W. Enterprises, said Kangas had gotten involved in pornography and began spending his money on strippers at the Olympic Garden strip club in Las Vegas. She said Kangas had been P.W. Enterprises' first employee, and he was rewarded with a share of the company. Months later, Kangas admitted to Wagner that he had "misspent" $30,000 in company funds. He ended up selling his 30 percent interest to Wagner for $30,000. Diana Evans of Sherman Oaks, Calif., said Kangas' drinking caused her to abandon plans to become a business partner with him in an adult Web site they planned to start called "Sunset Dreams" and another venture, "Erotique, Where the Beautiful Girls Are." "He was drinking heavily and always said he felt sick," Evans said. "I told him he was sick all the time because he was drinking all the time." Sometime last year, Kangas fell in love with a Las Vegas stripper and began spending heavily on her. He withdrew $25,000 in $5,000 increments from a checking account, then started drawing down his savings account. Meanwhile, Kangas continued to distance himself from his family. In 1992, he had changed his last name from Esh to his mother's maiden name. She hadn't seen her son in 4 ½ years. He and his father had a falling out several years ago, although Robert Esh says they later reconciled. "Steve moved totally away from us. He would disappear from the family radar screen," Esh said. "He didn't believe in God. My daughter told me she had talked pretty candidly with Steve, and said, `The reason he hasn't called you was because you wouldn't approve of what he's doing now. He's afraid to tell you.'" In his writings, Kangas admitted he had lost his faith. "I left religion at age 12 and conservatism at age 26 to become the godless, pinko, commie lying social weasel that conservatives find at right (sic)," he wrote.
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Title: TribLIVE - Scaife-obsessed man sought him, but took own life - March 14, 1999
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