This past Monday marked the eight-year anniversary of the death of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, a liberal crusader from Minnesota who was killed along with his wife and daughter, the pilot and four other passengers in a plane crash outside of Eveleth in the northern part of the state. Occurring just 11 days prior to Election Day in 2002, his spot on the ticket was taken by fellow Democrat and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who subsequently lost to the Republican challenger, Norm Coleman.
Minnesota Public Radio this week was able to obtain 219 pages of FBI files related to the late senator, including his years of activism while a professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. At the time of his death and for some time afterwards there was speculation that the crash wasn’t accidental. The FBI files show that the government agency did a thorough investigation into possible criminal connections to the crash, eventually determining that pilot error was to blame.
This is the first time that information about the criminal leads has been released. FBI agents took a close look into the claims made by a caller from Jacksonville, Florida who linked Wellstone’s death to plans by members of the American Trucking Association to make the aircraft’s de-icing equipment inoperable. The caller claimed that the senator was trying to show how organized crime was linked to the trucking industry.
There was also an investigation into a postcard sent to Wellstone just one day before the plane crash which said that “…the sniper should go after people like you, not real Americans.” The handwritten postcard was dismissed when no bullet holes were found in the aircraft wreckage. The aircraft did not have a cockpit voice recorder, so nothing that was said by the pilot or passengers prior to the accident will ever be known.
Wellstone was 58 years old when he died, and he is still held in very high regard by family, friends and supporters who remember his commitment to peace and justice for all peoples of the world.
Comments
I can't believe it has been 8 years. I remember being in middle school when an annoucement was made that Sen. Wellstone's plane had gone down. If he were here he would be doing great things for Minnesota. As long as we continue to keep him in our memories he will forever be here.
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