Deafening Silence

Out of the Woodwork and Into the Press: Sources Offer Critical Views of the Turnidges

Joshua and Bruce Turnidge, the father-and-son duo accused of bombing the West Coast Bank on December 12, have once again appeared in court.

The two appeared before Circuit Judge Joe Ochoa in a joint arraignment at 8 a.m. on December 26.  They have been indicted by a grand jury on multiple counts of aggravated murder.Both men pleaded Not Guilty.

Journalist Maxine Berstein of the Oregonian describes the charges:

The multiple counts of aggravated murder, which can carry the death penalty, stem from different theories involved in each death: that the suspects caused the intentional death of multiple people in the same incident, caused the death of a law enforcement officer in the line of duty, caused the intentional death by explosives, caused felony murder in the course of committing a first-degree robbery and caused felony murder in the course of committing criminal mischief with an explosive.

If convicted, the men could receive the death penalty.

Thelma Guerrero-Huston of the Statesman Journal describes the charges laid in the indictment this way:

The grand jury returned an 18-count indictment on Dec. 22.

Both were formally charged with 10 counts of aggravated murder; three counts of attempted aggravated murder; one count each of first-degree assault and second-degree assault, unlawful manufacturing of a destructive device, possession of a destructive device and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

Ms. Bernstein quotes a local official who explains the reasoning behind the broad array of charges:

"I'd be careful about narrowing their motive down to one separate thing," Marion County deputy district attorney Matt Kemmy said afterward. "The reason we charge so many different theories is so the indictment can accurately reflect their criminal conduct."

Both men are being held without bail.

Oddly, despite the many counts of aggravated murder in the indictment and the assumption of robbery or extortion as the motive, no one has yet explained how the bomb fit into the suspect's plans.  It was planted outside the bank, so it could not have been used to blow open a vault.  Was it meant to murder passersby at random?  If it was, how did that further the alleged plot?  Was it meant to intimidate bank officials?

Ms. Bernstein notes that in their previous court appearances both men had been wearing the sleeveless, quilted jumpsuits and sandals that are issued to inmates on suicide watch.  At their most recent appearance, they had switched to ordinary prison uniforms.

There will be another court session concerning the case on January 6, but neither man is expected to appear.

Little was known about Joshua and Bruce Turnidge immediately after their arrests. Residents of the Woodburn area described the Turnidge clan as respectable members of the community, but shrugged that Bruce and Joshua Turnidge were "reclusive."  A few relatives expressed disbelief that either man would do something so violent, and the brother of Turnidge's live-in girlfriend described Joshua as a churchgoer.

With time, however, more negative descriptions are surfacing.

Ex-friend and neighbor John Falen, a Nevada farmer, was interview by the FBI after the bombing.  Bruce and Joshua Turnidge lived in Nevada from at least 1996 to 2006.  In an interview with the Statesman Journal, Mr. Falen painted Bruce Turnidge as anti-government but nonviolent:

"I didn't think it was in him to do this (bombing), but he's been anti-government and anti-authority for a long time," John Falen, a Nevada farmer and rancher, said this week in a telephone interview with the Statesman Journal.

...

"I just told them he was always critical of the establishment and all that," he said, "but I had no idea he'd ever do what he's been charged with — him or Josh, either one."

Falen's son, Frank, is a Wyoming property rights attorney who became acquainted with Bruce Turnidge during a legal dispute between Turnidge and John Falen.  He describes Bruce Turnidge as paranoid, litigious and self-promoting.

"He's one of those folks who when you're around him enough, after a while it becomes obvious that he thinks everybody he's ever been around has screwed him," he said. "The Turnidges always had a story about how so and so had done this or that bad thing to them, which is why they were down and out."

...

"Bruce is one of those guys who's always got some big deal cooked up, about to make a bunch of money," he said. "I remember a bunch of those stories that started being less credible and less credible. He's not honest. He just has lots of big stories to tell."

This article by Alan Gustafson in the Statesman Journal offers some details of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge's stay in Nevada.  The elder Turnidge was unsuccessful in running a farm there, and defaulted on several loans.  He also attempted to start a business erecting cell phone towers, but lost a legal dispute with Wireless Allicane Inc. when he did not pay a subcontractor for repairs.  He was also sued by a collection agency in November 2007 for unpaid credit card debts.

Frank Falen recalls seeing Joshua Turnidge with his daughter in Nevada.  The little girl, now ten, was at the center of a custody dispute between Turnidge and his ex-wife in 2002.  Turnidge's ex-wife accused him in court of alcoholism and violence (she claimed he received a dishonorable discharge from the Navy, a charge that has never been confirmed).  Court documents appear to show, however, that the ex-Mrs. Turnidge was herself an alcoholic with a history of domestic violence.  Joshua Turnidge took out a restraining order against her after she attacked him with a bottle of bleach, and after their divorce,in March 2002, she was arrested for attacking her live-in boyfriend, sending him to the hospital.

Mr. Falen and Salem lawyer Dennis Messoline have both reported that Turnidge was eventually given custody of the child.  To my knowledge, no Navy official has yet come forward with any statement regarding Joshua Turnidge's service or discharge, and there does not yet appear to be any alcohol-related charges against him in Oregon or Nevada.

As new witnesses continue to surface, that could change.

You can read the indictment against the Turnidge men here.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

My Next Post

I will be celebrating the Christmas Holiday with family in the coming week.  I may get an opportunity to put up further posts, but it's not likely.

There has been intense interest in information about the West Coast Bank Bombing, so while I'm away, I'd like to give Deafening Silence readers some sources they can consult for more news:

The Portland Tribune

StatesmanJournal.com

OregonLive.com

KTVZ.com

KPTV.com

KATU.com

And don't forget Flock of One, a brand-new blog that has been covering this story since the day of the bombing.

 

 

Tennant and Hakim Mourned; Honored.

Two American Heroes were laid to rest this weekend.

From the service for  Capt.Tom Tennant:

        

...one of the slain officer's favorite possessions was a John Wayne coffee mug with the inscription: "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."

You can read about the service here.

From OregonLive.com coverage of the memorial service form Senior Trooper Bill Hakim:

A law enforcement career was a good match for Hakim's "very strong sense of right and wrong," the chaplain said. "Bill believed in the good guys winning," he said.

Contrary to recent Internet comments painting Trooper Hakim as an ignorant country cop, the article describes a man who spoke 4 languages and spent his childhood abroad.  You can read the article here.

Please spare a thought for the families of these two officers at this terrible time.

Some of us are still here because they were there.

Handling of Woodburn Bomb Criticized, Bomb Affects Described

Bomb experts are reluctantly criticizing the decision made by local officers to take the West Coast Bank bomb indoors.

"An X-ray is just not 100 percent. You may miss something because there's so many variables," said Hal Lowder, an Atlanta-based explosives expert. "It sounds like he made a judgment call, just a bad call.

"I hate to say bad things, but taking a bomb apart is just not done anymore."

...

Experts say bomb technicians are trained to keep their hands off a device and instead send in a robot to disrupt it where it's found.

We may never know why Tennant and Hakim decided to take the device indoors and dismantle it.  Apparently, sophisticated equipment owned by state authorities could have allowed them to examine the bomb with robots:

The Oregon State Police Bomb Squad, to which Hakim was assigned, got a new Explosive Ordinance Disposal vehicle through a 2006 grant that carries important bomb-detection tools including robots, disrupters, protective suits and a containment vessel. But the vehicle, based in Salem, was not at the bank when Hakim responded Friday, nor were any bomb detection robots used, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, a state police spokesman.

Hastings said he did not know why the bomb squad's explosion disposal vehicle wasn't there, and was not sure what equipment was available at the scene Friday. The state police will ask the FBI to conduct an independent inquiry into the police response after the criminal investigation, Hastings said.

This adds another layer of questions to the confusion surrounding the case.  Further details of the safety procedures and tools normally used in bomb situations can be found here.

Dr. Marty Schreiber is chief of trauma at Oregon Health and Science University and has also served in the Army Reserve in Iraq.  In this interview posted by KATU.com (hat tip: Flock of One) he makes some haunting remarks about the effect of the Woodburn bomb:

"I've taken care of patients who are almost exactly like this, with limbs blown off," Schreiber said. "It's clearly a powerful blast to induce that much tissue damage."

He said the loss of limbs results from the high-pressure shock wave accompanying the blast, which typically is more intense if the explosion is indoors or inside an enclosed space, such as a bus.

...

Court documents released by the Marion County district attorney's office after the arrest of the first of two suspects in the case said the blast Friday dismembered the two officers, Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn police Capt. Tom Tennant.

...

There has been no indication what kind of bomb it was, but Schreiber said traumatic amputation - the loss of limbs - is generally associated with high-order explosives.

The Associated Press article quoted above mentions explosives information given by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.  I found the CDC page and it makes for interesting- if grim- reading. Some relevant excerpts:

Key Concepts

• Bombs and explosions can cause unique patterns of injury seldom seen outside combat.
• The predominant post explosion injuries among survivors involve standard penetrating and blunt trauma. Blast lung is the most common fatal injury among initial survivors.
• Explosions in confined spaces (mines, buildings, or large vehicles) and/or structural collapse are associated with greater morbidity and mortality.
• Half of all initial casualties will seek medical care over a one-hour period. This can be useful to predict demand for care and resource needs.
• Expect an “upside-down” triage - the most severely injured arrive after the less injured, who bypass EMS triage and go directly to the closest hospitals.

"Standard penetrating and blunt trauma" would seem to describe the injuries of the bank manager who survived the blast with shrapnel embedded in her leg.

The bomb-handling experts quoted earlier touched on the aspect of "explosions in confined places" being more deadly.

I found this remark on the CDC page interesting,if disturbing:

Few U.S. health professionals have experience with explosive-related injuries. Vietnam era physicians are retiring, other armed conflicts have been short-lived, and until this past decade, the U.S. was largely spared of the scourge of mega-terrorist attacks. This primer introduces information relevant to the care of casualties from explosives and blast injuries.

The CDC page also describes basic differences between types of explosives, based on the injuries they cause:

Classification of Explosives

Explosives are categorized as high-order explosives (HE) or low-order explosives (LE). HE produce a defining supersonic over-pressurization shock wave. Examples of HE include TNT, C-4, Semtex, nitroglycerin, dynamite, and ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO). LE create a subsonic explosion and lack HE’s over-pressurization wave. Examples of LE include pipe bombs, gunpowder, and most pure petroleum-based bombs such as Molotov cocktails or aircraft improvised as guided missiles. HE and LE cause different injury patterns. 

...

Blast Injuries

The four basic mechanisms of blast injury are termed as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary (Table 1). “Blast Wave” (primary) refers to the intense over-pressurization impulse created by a detonated HE. Blast injuries are characterized by anatomical and physiological changes from the direct or reflective over-pressurization force impacting the body’s surface. The HE “blast wave” (over-pressure component) should be distinguished from “blast wind” (forced super-heated air flow). The latter may be encountered with both HE and LE.

Table 1: Mechanisms of Blast Injury

Category	Characteristics	Body Part Affected	Types of Injuries
Primary	Unique to HE, results from the impact of the over-pressurization wave with body surfaces.	Gas filled structures are most susceptible - lungs, GI tract, and middle ear.	Blast lung (pulmonary barotrauma) TM rupture and middle ear damage  Abdominal hemorrhage and perforation - Globe (eye) rupture- Concussion (TBI without physical signs of head injury)
Secondary	Results from flying debris and bomb fragments.	Any body part may be affected.	Penetrating ballistic (fragmentation) or blunt injuries Eye penetration (can be occult)
Tertiary	Results from individuals being thrown by the blast wind.	Any body part may be affected.	Fracture and traumatic amputation  Closed and open brain injury
Quaternary	All explosion-related injuries, illnesses, or diseases not due to primary, secondary, or tertiary mechanisms.  Includes exacerbation or complications of existing conditions.	Any body part may be affected.	Burns (flash, partial, and full thickness) Crush injuries Closed and open brain injury Asthma, COPD, or other breathing problems from dust, smoke, or toxic fumes Angina Hyperglycemia, hypertension

LE are classified differently because they lack the self-defining HE over-pressurization wave. LE’s mechanisms of injuries are characterized as due from ballistics (fragmentation), blast wind (not blast wave), and thermal. There is some overlap between LE descriptive mechanisms and HE’s Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary mechanisms. 

Back to Top

Table 2: Overview of Explosive-Related Injuries

System	Injury or Condition
Auditory	TM rupture, ossicular disruption, cochlear damage, foreign body
Eye, Orbit, Face	Perforated globe, foreign body, air embolism, fractures
Respiratory	Blast lung, hemothorax, pneumothorax, pulmonary contusion and hemorrhage, A-V fistulas (source of air embolism), airway epithelial damage, aspiration pneumonitis, sepsis
Digestive	Bowel perforation, hemorrhage, ruptured liver or spleen, sepsis, mesenteric ischemia from air embolism
Circulatory	Cardiac contusion, myocardial infarction from air embolism, shock, vasovagal hypotension, peripheral vascular injury, air embolism-induced injury
CNS Injury	Concussion, closed and open brain injury, stroke, spinal cord injury, air embolism-induced injury
Renal Injury	Renal contusion, laceration, acute renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis, hypotension, and hypovolemia
Extremity Injury	Traumatic amputation, fractures, crush injuries, compartment syndrome, burns, cuts, lacerations, acute arterial occlusion, air embolism-induced injury

This is taken from information posted on the CDC page 12/20/08.

I have noted in earlier posts that the terror groups previously known to plant bombs in the Pacific Northwest- animal rights terrorists, ecoterrorists, and anarchists- have primarily used simple incendiary bombs set off by timers. Their main effect has been fire rather than explosive force. Reading the CDC description, these would seem to be lower-order explosives.

The West Coast Bank Bomb seems to be different.  Based on the injuries described by Dr. Schreiber, the CDC chart, the West Coast Bomb sounds like an HE- a higher-order explosive.  Are we seeing the first use of an IED on American soil? 

Authorities have indicated that Tovex may have been used in the device.  Tovex was originally developed by DuPont as a replacement for dynamite.  Because it does not used nitroglycerine, Tovex is more stable than dynamite.  It is safer to handle and to transport, and resists contamination by water and oil.  It is commonly used in excavation and seismic assessments of oil fields, but it is also available to private individuals by the stick.  Farmers sometimes use it to remove stumps or cut drainage ditches:

Blow up the stumps with Tovex. It's more available to the public anymore than dynamite. It's more stable, and is less messy to use. Several possibilities. Call your nearest BATF office and ask for the information for a license for purchasing explosives. These aren't too difficult to get. Buy or build a storage facility. The ATF has a publication that describes all the rules and regulations for explosives (on the Federal level), including storage, documentation, and use. Also remember that transportation of explosives falls under the DOT, not the ATF. Anyway, with such a license, one can purchase explosives from any manufacturer. Second possibility, and is becoming increasingly more difficult to do, is find an explosives distributor and buy a small quantity off them. You'll have to fill out the day-use license form, and must use the explosives that day. Again, transport falls under the guise of the DOT. Typically Tovex comes in 1lb sticks, and though not ideal for stumps, will work fine. Around here, Tovex is about $3 a stick, and caps are $3.50 if bought in single use quantities. It's a lot cheaper if bought in bulk. Anyway, find someone, preferably someone who is a certified blaster, to show you how to use them. It's pretty easy, and fairly safe as long as you have some basic idea of what you are doing.

Some basic idea of what you are doing. Bruce Turnidge would likely have used Tovex in his excavation work.  Joshua Turnidge served in the Navy and received training at the Great Lakes Station, which offers recruits certification as Electronics Technician and Electrician's Mate. Did the father and son combine their expertise to build an IED?

That remains pure speculation, as no Navy official has yet stepped forward to confirm or deny Joshua Turnidge's service, let alone what type of training he received or what kind of discharge he obtained.

Why not?

 

The Woodburn Bombing and Its Suspects Through Local Eyes

Turnidge relatives and residents of the Woodburn, Ore. area are having difficulty imagining Joshua and Bruce Turnidge creating a bomb and murdering police officers.

The Turnidge family has a good reputation in the Woodburn community.  Joshua Turnidge's great-grandfather, J. Henry Turnidge, helped found Salem Academy, a private Christian school, in 1945.  The school is still in operation, and Joshua Turnidge attended it in 1992 and 1993, although it appears he graduated elsewhere.

J. Henry Turnidge also operated a flourishing peppermint farm. The Turnidge name was a good one- synonymous with prosperity and sturdy values.

Salem lawyer Dennis Messoline represented Joshua Turnidge in a custody dispute with his ex-wife.

"I can't imagine that they're guilty of these things, to perfectly honest with you," he told journalist Alan Gustafson.  "I would certainly have to be shown an awful lot of evidence before I would ever believe that him and his dad were every involved in anything like this."

Joshua Turnidge won the custody dispute, gaining custody of his daughter, who is now 10.  It is unusual for a father to win full custody in divorce disputes.

But as shocked as they are by the charges, residents admit that Bruce and Joshua Turnidge are less well-known than other family members.  They are consistently described as "friendly but reclusive," and "loners." Both are described as family men fallen on hard times, bouncing from job to job and deeply in debt.

Joshua Turnidge's divorce is often described as "messy," and somehow vaguely connected to his financial troubles.  His father, Bruce Turnidge, was apparently forced to make his own way after the family farm was lost, and seemed to drift from excavation work to farm work until his business efforts along the way left him with deep debts.

Neither man is believed to have any financial connection to the Wells Fargo bank or the West Coast Bank.  Some sources say that Joshua Turnidge was once charged with forgery and theft, but those charges were dismissed.  Beyond that, neither man has any criminal record other than minor traffic violations.

Joshua Turnidge has been described as a regular churchgoer by his fiancee's brother, and lawyer Dennis Messoline formed a favorable impression of Bruce Turnidge as well during his work on the custody case.  He described the elder Turnidge and his wife as supportive, involved grandparents.

Yet the evidence against both men seems damning.  Is the half-destroyed laptop found at Bruce Turnidge's home the one used to activate the cell phones placed with the bomb?  Is the Tovex explosive also found there left over from creating the deadly device- or was it just leftover supplies from  Bruce Turnidge's previous job as an excavator?  Did Joshua Turnidge buy a can of green spray paint to use in his work making drum lids at BD oil, or were the paint- and the two cell phones- tools in a violent criminal plot?

If they planted the bomb, what did the two men hope to achieve?  It certainly seems like an odd way to rob a bank.  At least one cell phone was not used as a detonator.  It was placed with the phoney device so that a bank employee could receive further instructions from the person or person who called to threaten the Wells Fargo bank that morning.  That phoney device was filled with black bags as well.  Was the bank employee intended to fill the bags with money?  But if that was the plan, why the second, deadly bomb?  A powerful bomb like that, placed in some bushes, could only be used to kill randomly.  Was it supposed to threaten bank officials into compliance?  And why were two calls to Mid Valley Bank recorded on the cell  phones?

Prosecutors are still refusing to divulge a motive.  Both men will appear in court on December 26 at 8 a.m. local time.  In a case that seems to raise as many questions as it answers, perhaps things will finally become clearer then.

References

 Accused Woodburn Bombers Have Deep Personal Ties to Mid-Valley- Alan Gustafson, StatesmanJournal.com

Bomb Suspect's Dad Held; Officers Thought It Was a Hoax- KTVZ.com

Relatives Stunned by Ore. Bombing Suspect's Arrest- A.P./OregonLive.com

Reading the Probable Cause Statement from the Arrest of Bruce Turnidge

The document, in PDF form, is here.

It is essentially the same document that was presented after the arrest of Joshua Turnidge, with 2 new pages added.

Some new information from the document:

• Just after Joshua Turnidge's arrest, the arresting officer reported overhearing Turnidge's fiancee place a call to Bruce Turnidge: "she told him police had asked about welding equipment ,the barrels they manufacture, and the laptop." (page 6)
• When police arrived at Bruce Turnidge's home shortly thereafter, he was not there.  His wife, Janet, told officers he had gone for a walk.  The document reports that the weather was dark and snowy, and it should be remembered that the top local story in all the Oregon news outlets this week has been the frigid, snowy weather.  Not great conditions for a stroll.
• The search of the 750-acre farm turned up materials (such as metal, screws, etc.) similar to those used in the bomb left at the West Coast Bank, and a badly burned laptop.  The items were found in Bruce Turnidge's shop, home and in or near a river adjacent to the property.  Tire tracks and footprints led to that river.
• Tovex was found on the property.  Tovex appears to have been used in the bomb.
• Patrick Turnidge, the uncle for whom Joshua Turnidge worked, told police officers that on 12/12/08, the day of the bombing, he called Bruce Turnidge around noon and Turnidge told him that he was with his son, Joshua.  Another witness told authorities that he had spoken with Bruce Turnidge late in the evening of 12/12/08 and that Turnidge had complained of being tired from getting up early to go to Bend that morning.

The details reported in this document would seem to indicate a rather hasty and crude attempt on the part of the elder Turnidge to destroy evidence.  It will be interesting to see what information, if any, can be extracted from the partially-burned laptop.

Hat Tip: Flock of One

The StatesmanJournal.com has complete video of Bruce Turnidge's first appearance in court.

Flock of One Catches My Mistake; Adds New Information

The alert reader from Flock of One has noted a mistake I made in a previous post and add some new information on the West Coast Bank Bombing case:

In you first question, it's provable lie, not probable lie.

The provable lie is listed on page six of the PC document.

"Mr. Turnridge went on to say things that his Fiancee, Jamie Lewis would contradict when later interviewed"

The reason the laptop was mentioned is that they were looking for the computer that activated the phones from IP address 71.59.129.128

As an update, Joshua's father was arrested and the probable cause statement of his arrest is here

http://blog.oregonlive.com/news_impact/2008/12/brucetcause.pdf

This is essentially the same statement as above, with a couple more pages describing the evidence against Bruce Turnidge. Interesting evidence found on the farm, including a burned laptop.

Thanks, Flock!

I'm embarrassed I didn't put that together myself.  DUH.

MEOW

There are elements in the blogosphere that like to gloat over the death of the "MSM"- the Mainstream Media, aka the Legacy Media,  sometimes sneered at as the LameStream Media.

In return, professional journalists often snipe that blogs are no substitute for their work, and indeed would not exist without it.

This week I've had cause to understand the professional journalist's side of the argument.

When a friend told me about the West Coast Bank bombing, my first response was to comb the Internet for local news resources.  I found plenty.  Skim the References listed at the end of every post this week and you will see them- breaking news reported by local sources.  I'm unable to go to Oregon myself and I was grateful for the information.  As a blogger I felt it was my job to weave all the facts into an understandable story and give my readers good sources of information to look up on their own.

In the process of gathering that information, I saw what some journalists have been complaining about. Every online new story attracts comments these days, and although moderators make a show of asking commentors to be civil, there are always a few ill-considered and ugly remarks.  That is to be expected.  What I saw was not an anonymous, bile-soaked comment.  It was a post on the bombing carried on a well-trafficked site.

It exemplified what I've come to think of as MEOW- the Moral Equivalent of Wankitude.

Completely source- and fact-free, it implied that Joshua Turnidge was a Neo-Nazi and called him demonic.  It speculated on far-right gun culture and assumed that Turnidge learned to build bombs at gun shows.

It offered not one shred of evidence for any of this.

Instead, it posted pictures of Turnidge and his girlfriend apparently gleaned from a social networking site.  Turnidge is seen drinking something in a plastic cup while a woman- I presume it is his girlfriend, but not even this is confirmed- sits on his lap and smokes a cigarette.  In another, a woman (is it the same one?  We are never told, and the photos are never sourced) reclines on a bed with an automatic weapon resting between her legs.

(You mean people sometimes post ill-considered photos on the Internet?  Shocking!)

These photos are taken as evidence that Turnidge is a far-right wingnut obesessed with guns and bombs, and proof positive that he must be guilty.

"Evidence" of this quality was once used to lynch black men.  And to send Jews to the gas.

Obviously, Mr. Turnidge's appearance is frightening and offensive to some bloggers.  Fine.  I don't care for tattoos myself.  But look at this photo for a moment:

These colorful gentlemen are Rescue Ink- a group of bikers devoted to rescuing and nurturing lost and abused pets.  Their charitable work helps hundreds of animals each year.

They themselves admit that they look scary, but their tats don't 'prove' anything- their actions do.

I have no idea if Joshua Turnidge embraces Neo-Nazi, far-right ideas.  No one does.  Not one single statement describing his beliefs has been released to the media.  If a letter or diary entry or interview reveals ugly beliefs, fine- cite it, quote it, and bash away.

But when even Prosecutors refuse to speculate on a motive, I'm going to resist jumping to conclusions.  To do otherwise is to spew self-indulgent crud based on a person's image in a few photographs.

If that's the best you can do, you shouldn't write.  Not even for fun.

Suppose Turnidge and his father do embrace Nazi ideas and have violent fantasies about frontier justice.  And suppose a jury trial finds them not guilty.

What then?

What if Turnidge loathes and repudiates every far-right idea imaginable? (He was starting a bio-diesel business, after all.)  But then a jury finds him guilty.

How does that suit your preconceptions?

 A lot of information was ignored by those quick to judge by appearances: that Joshua Turnidge actually won custody of his daughter from a first marriage, that he wanted to start a biodiesel fuel business, that his family had a good reputation in the community.

I'm not really interested in defending Turnidge or his father, but they are entitled to a jury trial that takes all available facts into account.

Before bloggers replace the mainstream media, some self-examination and self-restraint is in order.

After all, the next trial-by-innuendo could be yours.

Relatives Supply Background Information on Bruce and Joshua Turnidge

The Turnidge name has deep connections in the Willamette Valley.  As the case begins to dominate the news, relatives and locals have come forward to give their impressions of Joshua and Bruce Turnidge.

The common emotion was shock.  Those interviewed found it nearly impossible to believe that either man was capable of such a crime.  Most admitted, however, that while friendly, both men were reclusive.

Locals describe a well-esteemed family that fell on hard times.  Bruce Turnidge's grandfather was a very successful mint farmer in the valley who helped to establish a private Christian school called Salem Academy.  The Turnidge clan was thought of as very God-fearing, very Christian.

Salem Academy is still in operation today.  Joshua Turnidge attended it in 1992 and 1993, although it is not clear if he graduated there or transferred to another school.

When Bruce Turnidge's father lost the family farm, his sons were thrown back on their own resources.  Bruce Turnidge's brother Doug eventually operated an Oregon youth camp.  His other brother, Patrick, did extensive work with the local Republican party.  Relatives interviewed described Bruce as having more trouble finding his way; he drifted from job to job and place to place, doing farm work and operating a backhoe.

At the time of the arrest, Bruce Turnidge and his wife, Janet, were renting a house on farmland not far from his father's old holdings. 

Joshua Turnidge hired Salem lawyer Dennis Messoline at some past, unspecified date to help him settle a custody dispute with his ex-wife.  Messoline eventually helped Turnidge to win custody of his daughter, who is now 10.  In the course of that effort, Messoline became acquainted with both Joshua and Bruce Turnidge.  He was favorably impressed.

"I can't imagine that they're guilty of these things, to be perfectly honest with you," he said.  "I would certainly have to be shown an awful lot of evidence before I would ever believe that him and his dad were ever involved in anything like this."

Mr. Messoline may soon get his wish.  The court has appointed two well-known lawyers, Steven Krasik and Steven Gorham, to defend Joshua Turnidge.  They have specialized in high-profile cases in the past.  Any evidence presented should get a thorough examination, if their reputations hold true.

References

Bomb Suspect's Dad Held-KTVZ.com

Accused Woodburn Bombers Have Deep Personal Ties to Mid-Valley- Alan Gustafson, StatesmanJournal.com

Relatives Stunned by Ore. Bombing Suspect's Arrest-AP