>Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 03:54:03 -0800 >To:Cynthia >From:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alex Constantine) >Subject:US v. Frederick Tupper Saussy > > > The Amazing Tupper Saussy > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > By John Branston > > MAY 18, 1998: For 10 fugitive years, Frederick Tupper > Saussy felt like he was "America's Least Wanted." > > Convicted on federal income-tax charges in Chattanooga in > 1985 and unsuccessful in his appeals, Saussy went on the lam > in 1987 rather than begin serving a one-year sentence at the > federal prison in Atlanta. Thus began a game of > cat-and-mouse with U.S. marshals that would end last > November outside his home in Venice Beach, California. > > By then Saussy, 61, had begun to doubt that the > government was still making much of an effort to find > him. He was on his way to a quiet lunch with his 20-year-old > son, an aspiring art student at Santa Monica City College. > On a cool, rainy day, he opened the door to his garage, got > in his car, and began to drive away when two cars suddenly > blocked him in. A federal marshal got out, held up a badge, > and asked if he was Frederick Tupper Saussy. > > No, Saussy replied, he was not. > > "That name had not been uttered for 10 years," Saussy said > this week in a telephone interview from the Taft > Correctional Institute in California. "I had become another > persona. But he had some science that could disprove that." > > In fact, it was not the first time Frederick Tupper Saussy > had become, if not another persona, at least a very > different person. (Editor's note: Saussy's coauthorship of > James Earl Ray's book Tennessee Waltz was the subject of a > Flyer story April 30th.) > > He was a 1958 graduate of the University of the South in > Sewanee, where his fraternity brother, Patrick Anderson, > remembers him as one of the most popular boys on campus, a > musician, and cartoonist for the campus paper. His first job > was as a prep-school teacher at Montgomery Bell Academy in > Nashville. He married a teenager named Lola Haun, a Fifties > girl with looks, family money, and a Corvette. > > "I was in the wedding party, and it was a huge wedding," > says Anderson, now a novelist in Washington, D.C. "There > were endless parties that the most famous people in town > were giving for them." > > The couple had two children and a house on posh Belle Meade > Boulevard. Saussy became a successful advertising > copywriter, known for his clever jingles and eccentricity. > He and his wife had a pet monkey they named Thelonious Monk. > > "He came and charmed Nashville," > recalls author David Halberstam, who > knew Saussy when Halberstam worked > for The Tennessean in the early > 1960s. "He played the piano and > married a beautiful woman. They were > the golden couple. Everything seemed > to be his." > > A talented jazz musician, Saussy began to concentrate on > songwriting. He had a minor hit, "Morning Girl," which was > nominated for a Grammy, and wrote other songs performed by > the Nashville Symphony, Chet Atkins, Perry Como, Ray > Stevens, and others. > > But the marriage ended in 1972, the songwriting career > stalled, and the clever wordsmith who penned corny jingles > for Purity Dairy turned his attention and skills to more > serious matters. It was at about that time that Saussy was > audited by the IRS. When Anderson ran into his old friend in > the mid-Seventies, all Saussy wanted to talk about was taxes > and the monetary system. > > "I think it's tragic he got off on this political kick," > said Anderson. "He is, in my opinion, a totally > non-political person. He was living in a fantasy world. I > don't think he had any sense of what he was doing or what > the consequences could be." > > In 1976, Saussy and his second wife and their 2-year-old son > moved to Sewanee, seeking an idyllic, protected life on the > mountaintop. He made money doing advertising and selling his > watercolors. And he became enamored of Irwin Schiff, whose > book The Biggest Con was something of a bible of the tax > movement. > > Saussy would become, by turns, a self-styled theologian, > restaurant owner, ghostwriter of James Earl Ray's biography, > King assassination conspiracy theorist, anti-government > pamphleteer, and radical opponent of the federal > government's taxation and monetary authority. > > His life as a fugitive apparently also had its share of > surprising and colorful twists and turns. His flight was > supported, if not assisted, by Jim Garrison, the late New > Orleans prosecutor and famous JFK assassination conspiracy > theorist. "Blowing about as the spirit led me" and going by > various aliases, Saussy spent time as a religious counselor, > pianist, computer handy man, homeless person, Bible student, > and patron of public and university libraries from Seattle > to Key West to Nashville. He played piano in various > nightclubs. He was in Washington, D.C., a few years ago when > the Statue of Freedom was removed from the dome of the > Capitol. Five years ago he abandoned the hairpiece he was > wearing as a disguise and began living a relatively normal > life with his third wife, Nancy, in Southern California. > Some of the people who cared for him knew his identity; > others did not. One of those who did was a fellow fugitive > who got caught and gave federal agents information that led > to Saussy's capture. > > "It was not the miserable existence one's imagination is > prone to depict," he says. "I was never without a keyboard > or music. If you had walked through Rainier Center Mall in > Seattle's downtown during the summer of 1988, you'd have > seen me playing Bach's Goldberg Variations on the Steinway > grand that sits in the atrium." > > In an eight-page letter and the first interviews he has > given since his capture, Saussy discussed his flight, his > prison routine, and his life on the lam (or on the Lamb, as > he says in reference to his Christian faith) which he plans > to describe in detail in a book. He seemed cheerful, upbeat, > and at peace with himself. > > "Tupper had to come back at some time," he says. > > After he was captured last year, Saussy spent several months > in lockdown in Atlanta, where he passed time writing and > reading the Bible while in virtual solitary confinement. At > Taft, a low-security prison near Los Angeles, he is choir > director and unofficial inmate counselor and prison > minister. His former attorney, Lowell Becraft, says Saussy > will probably have to serve a total of about 20 months in > prison. > > "I'm spending my time productively," Saussy says. "It's a > marvelous experience. The fields are ripe for harvest and > there is a lot of harvesting going on." > > He was delighted to find a piano in the chapel at Taft, and > has been giving voice, composition, and piano lessons to > several promising inmates. One of the worst things about > Atlanta, he says, was that he had to go five months without > playing the piano, the longest such stretch in his life. > > He has not necessarily changed his views on government but > seems to be planning a law-abiding life when he gets out of > prison. If he is not exactly repentant about his > pre-fugitive days, he does have misgivings about butting > heads with federal authority. > > "I had been reduced to an angry, frustrated voice that had > no hope of ever being clearly brokered through channels of > information most people trusted," he says. "Worse, I was > beginning to discover that my approach was all wrong." > > He had been neither a good Christian nor an effective > citizen. Prison was no place for him to take his civil > activism and view of morality. What he needed, he believed, > was "a term in the desert, like the Apostle Paul." > > So he ran, but not until he puckishly filmed himself outside > the Atlanta prison "reporting directly to the institution" > as ordered. > > Saussy's refusal to file income-tax returns got him in > trouble in the first place. Technically, he filed a Fifth > Amendment return, a discredited tax dodge that was popular > with tax protesters in the 1970s and early 1980s. He also > issued something called PMOC, or "Public Money Office > Certificates," and used them instead of money to pay for > some services while living in Sewanee. > > In the early 1980s, the federal government began cracking > down on outspoken tax protesters, whose numbers were then > estimated even by the IRS at 40,000 or more. Small towns in > the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas were havens for tax > protesters, one of whom, a fugitive named Gordon Kahl, was > killed in a shootout with local lawmen and the FBI near > Walnut Ridge in 1983. Saussy said he knew of Kahl and his > Arkansas sympathizers but did not share their racist and > violent views. He also supported a group of Memphis tax > protesters led by Franklin Sanders who were tried and > acquitted on tax charges in 1991. > > Saussy himself was convicted on only one count of failure to > file tax returns. But he drew attention to himself with his > courtroom antics and his outspokenness, prompting U.S. > District Judge Thomas Hull to tell him, "You're so > intelligent it hurts you." > > Due partly to Garrison's influence, Saussy began to fear > that security guards at the federal prison in Atlanta "could > easily liquidate me"-a rather grandiose claim for someone > facing a one-year sentence on a misdemeanor count. But > coupling those fears with his suspicions about prison > attacks on his new pen pal James Earl Ray and his general > disillusionment with the federal government, Saussy chose > "disappearance, or civil death." > > Following his video stunt outside the prison, he flew to > Dallas and on to California by private plane. > > He is vague about exactly how he supported himself. > > "Whatever I needed was just there," he says. "I would do > computer work for people without ever submitting a bill. I > haven't submitted a bill for services since the early 1970s. > If a person cares to reward me, I thank the Lord for it." > > He maintained telephone contact with his family and a few > years ago began living with his wife in California. He > changed his appearance only when he was paranoid about > getting caught, but relaxed when there seemed to be no > concerted effort to find him. > > "I considered myself America's Least Wanted," he says. > > His travels even took him back to Nashville, he says, and he > corresponded with friends there and in Chattanooga. He > remains something of a hero to some of them. > > "He's one of the people who can help make the country back > the way it was when it was in its greatness rather than when > it was declining," says Jim Woods, an old friend from > Tullahoma. > > He is not, however, remembered as fondly by everyone in > Sewanee. Rusty Leonard, an attorney in nearby Winchester and > resident of Sewanee, says his involvement in one of Saussy's > tax schemes cost both him and his father dearly. Leonard's > father, a physician, went to prison for filing Fifth > Amendment tax returns. The younger Leonard pled guilty to a > single misdemeanor count of failing to collect taxes on his > former business. > > "Tupper pointed us in the direction and let us make our own > mistakes," Leonard says. "I got myself in my own mess. My > criticism of Tupper is that his entire motivation was in his > pocketbook, either making money off what he was doing or > taking advantage of someone. He's a brilliant man, but he > did hurt a lot of people." > > Leonard lost an election for Circuit Court judge last week > and believes he would have won if not for the cloud that was > cast over his record. > > There are only 393 fugitives currently in the IRS Criminal > Division's database, according to the IRS. But Saussy's > involvement with this little band proved to be his undoing. > > "There's a saying in prison, 'shave ten, nail a friend'," he > says contemptuously of the captured fugitive he believes > turned over a phone number that, with a little detective > work, led to his capture. > > Saussy acknowledges his role in the strange transformation > of James Earl Ray from assassin to political prisoner. After > pleading guilty to King's murder in 1969, Ray soon recanted > and unsuccessfully sought a trial. For the next 29 years > until his death last month, he put forth various conspiracy > theories and persuaded, among others, King's family, the > Rev. James Lawson, and several Memphis ministers of his > innocence. The request to reopen the case has now reached > U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who was in Memphis last > week visiting the site where King was shot. > > In the mid-1980s while imprisoned in Tennessee, Ray > apparently became aware of Saussy's anti-government views > from newspaper stories about his trial. He sent Saussy a > typed postcard asking if he would help write his > autobiography. > > "Both Ray and King were sacrificial victims," Saussy says. > "I never asked James why he chose me, but I believe he > sensed a common denominator among the three of us." > > There followed a box of 175 handwritten pages that became > the basis for Tennessee Waltz - a book stylishly edited and > generously interwoven with Saussy's own literary, > intellectual, and philosophical musings. > > Saussy denied authorship in a foreword to the book, and > Ray's obituaries last month dutifully gave the confessed > assassin a bogus book credit. But in an interview, Saussy > admits he wrote parts of the book himself and rewrote or > edited the rest based on interviews and letters from Ray. It > was financed by a reader of his newsletter named Milton and > his wife who detoured from a cross-country trip to visit him > unannounced in his office in Sewanee. > > "I deliberated prayerfully over whether I should claim > credit for 'as told to' status, and concluded that James had > been taken advantage of by enough vain mercenaries," he > says. > > As it turned out, Ray did not return the favor. After the > book was published by Saussy in 1987, Ray disavowed parts of > it and sued Saussy. > > "If certain facts were not correctly presented, he had only > himself to blame, as he owned the stamp of approval," Saussy > says. > > The lawsuit was later dropped, but a makeover edition of > Tennessee Waltz, retitled Who Killed Martin Luther King?, > was later published. It too ran into controversy because of > unauthorized blurbs on the cover. Newspaper columnist Carl > Rowan, King associate Andrew Young, and King's son Martin > Luther King III told The Washington Post in 1991 that they > were quoted without permission and did not advocate the > views expressed in the book. Young and Martin Luther King > III have since become conspiracy supporters. > > Saussy still thinks Ray was innocent. > > "He [Ray] was not up to an assassination," says Saussy. "I'm > sure if he had sniffed murder in the errands he was running > he would have run the other way. He just didn't want > trouble." > > Saussy says he does not personally know Lawson or Ray's > attorney William Pepper, but he admires them and their work. > Pepper, he says half-seriously, "should found a James Earl > Ray School of Law specializing in criminal defense of > indigent political targets." > > And if he is wrong about Ray? > > "Then I've been conned," he says. "No man's opinions are > infallible." > > Last December, when Saussy returned to Chattanooga for > sentencing, he briefly passed by some reporters. He smiled > at them and said, "I believe in happy endings." > > After half a year in prison, he thinks he has found it, even > if it is not exactly the one his old friends once imagined > for him. > > "I want the government to get its pound of flesh," he says. > "And I want to be safe behind my shield of Christian faith." > > [Weekly Wire Suggested Links] > > * Memphis Flyer's News Feature Archives > * John Branston Archives > > [Memphis Flyer] > > > > > > > > > > > > Saussy in the early > '60s, when he was > charming Nashville. > > > > > � 1995-99 DesertNet, LLC . Memphis Flyer . Info Booth . Powered > by Dispatch > [Weekly Wire] >
