hist2004
05-23-2004, 09:21 AM
Outside of the 1963 Kennedy assassination, no 20th Century homicide by gunfire has been more extensively examined and caused more speculation than what has come to be known as the FBI Miami Firefight of 11 April 1986. Indeed, one would have to travel back to October 1881 and the O.K. Corral to find a shootout which has so assumed the mantle of the Epic.
"The repercussions of 11 April 1986 were massive and as far-reaching as any other event in the annals of Law Enforcement..."
That event has spawned articles in both gunzines and the popular press, paperbacks, numerous lectures and presentations on the law enforcement circuit, a well-mounted video re-enactment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation aptly entitled "Firefight," a totally dismissable and error-laden segment of the Pernell Roberts-hosted half-hour TV series, "FBI: The Untold Stories," and one shoddy, fanciful two-hour teleflick in NBC's dreadfully revisionist "In the Line of Duty" series, "The F.B.I. Murders", with David Soul and Michael Gross1 as the too-bad-to-be-believed killers, Michael Lee Platt and William Russell Matix, but who were, in reality, "Freddy Kruger" and "Michael Meyers" incarnate, and as despicable a pair of murderers as were ever imagined by producers of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween series of dead teenager splatter flicks.
The repercussions of 11 April 1986 are still being felt, as firearms author Charlie Petty has elsewhere noted2, and that dark event has become the defining moment of the century for handgun ammunition throughout both law enforcement and civilian ranks.
The FBI's C1 (reactive) squad in the Miami field office had been after a pair of savage armored car and bank stick-up artists for six months, and as their criminal acts increased in violence, more FBI man hours were devoted to apprehending them before they robbed and killed again.
In studying the felonious activities of the two well-armed killers, Miami Division Supervisory Special Agent Gordon McNeill and his crime fighters had discerned what they felt was a pattern which might finally give them the ability to close down the vicious duo which had been a two-person crime wave since the October 1985. Acting on their beliefs and information provided by one quick-witted and courageous citizen who'd followed the criminals from the site of a previous robbery and shooting, McNeill put his 14-man rolling stake-out team in ten FBI fleet vehicles3 in the field on that Friday morning and had them working a section of Metro-Dade County along the South Dixie Highway on the alert for a dark-colored 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in which would be riding two white males between the ages of 25 and 40, professional criminals armed with an assortment of weapons which in the past had included shotguns, Colt's/Stoner pattern carbines, long-barreled magnum revolvers and on at least one occasion, a 1911-style .45 ACP pistol.
Sometime after 0900 hours that Friday, Special Agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove spotted the suspect vehicle and alerted SSA McNeill that they had surreptitiously slipped behind the black Monte Carlo on the South Dixie Highway. McNeill immediately alerted the rest of his squad that they had their bad guys and gave the coordinates as he, SA Richard Manauzzi in a solo car, SAs Edmundo Mireles and John Hanlon in another vehicle, and SAs Ron Risner and Gil Orrantia in a fifth sedan closed in on the mobile surveillance.
About the time that Manauzzi fell in behind Grogan's and Dove's vehicle with Hanlon and Mireles joining them, Platt and Matix began to get the notion that their game might be up. Using the classic counter-surveillance tactic of making three consecutive right-hand turns in the semi-residential neighborhood of Kendell4, the criminal duo confirmed their suspicions and instead of making a run for it back onto the South Dixie Highway, prepared to live it out with the five FBI agents in low speed pursuit.
At that moment, SSA McNeill arrived on the scene from the opposite direction and passed the "mini-convoy," observing passenger Platt in the lead vehicle loading a high-capacity magazine into a Ruger Mini-14. McNeill would later state that driver Matix's intense demeanor appeared to be that of "a man on a mission."
Still, they were, after all, the FBI, and they already had the bad guys outnumbered six to two, with reinforcements rapidly closing in on the rolling scene. Besides, Grogan and Dove, in the lead pursuit vehicle, were both SWAT-qualified, and Grogan, widely acclaimed as the best shot in the Miami field office, had been, it was later said, preparing his entire law enforcement career for just such a situation as was now developing.
SSA McNeill evaluated the situation and made a judgment call that many have subsequently second-guessed... a felony car stop would be attempted.
It all went horribly wrong from there on in, for when the five vehicles had come to rest one block from the South Dixie Highway behind the Dixie Belle Shopping Center at 12201 SouthWest 82nd Avenue, Ben Grogan's glasses went flying in the impact of the crash, and SAs Manauzzi and Hanlon had lost control and possession of their issue Smith & Wesson revolvers. And as the bad guys both began shooting immediately, never was my colleague Mark Moritz' brilliant aphorism more chillingly brought home: "First Rule of a Gunfight - Have a Gun!"
Manauzzi, who had been driving the vehicle which had finally ridden the Monte Carlo off Southwest 82nd Avenue and into a large tree, his passenger side door just inches from the driver's side of the bad guys' car, was the first of the FBI agents shot, taking a 5.56mm round into his side and body as he dove unarmed out his door and onto the street.
While Platt with the Mini-14 was firing in front of his partner's face at Manauzzi, Matix brought his folding-stocked S&W Model 3000 12 gauge pump shotgun into action, turning and discharging a round of #6 shot at the white Buick to his rear, the vehicle in which Grogan and Dove had been riding.
Grogan, nearly blind without his corrective lenses, had dismounted and begun firing his S&W Model 459, discharging a total of nine rounds of issue 9 X 19mm Winchester 115-grain Silvertip hollow points at the recalcitrant felons inside the Monte Carlo. On the other side of their Buick, Jerry Dove was also shooting his Model 459. He would reload and shoot some more, a total of 20 rounds.
SSA McNeill had taken a position with the left front of his Olds angled into the rear of Manauzzi's vehicle. Managing to throw his (handgun-rated) soft body armor quickly over his suit and tie, he exited his car, leaving his Remington 12 gauge in the back seat. Running over to the front of Manauzzi's car, he immediately went into action with his 2˝-inch Model 19, firing across the hood and into the driver's window of the Monte Carlo.
Responding to a 1987 inquiry about his "cognitive thought processes during the event," McNeill stated that he had never felt calmer.
I was the calmest I had ever been when I exited my vehicle. I saw everything clearly in my peripheral vision, I did some shooting, I got shot, I bore down and took two more shots. When I realized that I was out of ammo and that it was still going on... then I got scared!
While McNeill was firing across the hood, SAs Mireles and Hanlon left their vehicle which had crashed into a concrete wall on the far side of the street, and rushed to aid their fellow agents under heavy fire. Hanlon, his primary weapon lost, retrieved his backup five-shot J-frame from an ankle holster and went to support Dove. His Model 870 at port arms, Mireles came up behind McNeill just in time to take a .223 round in his left forearm, the shock of which impact toppled the 6'5" agent into the street where he quickly realized that his ruined left arm was all but useless. Platt's round, however, had not reached his chest when it had been aimed.
After McNeill expended his six rounds of .38 Special 158-grain +P, his right hand grievously wounded, he returned to his Olds sedan to reload as Mireles struggled after him. After only managing to get two fresh rounds into his gore-covered revolver, McNeill arose to reach in the back seat for his shotgun, took a .223 round in his neck, and fell over onto his back, paralyzed and out of the remainder of the firefight. He was intensely aware that he had just looked right into the face of Michael Platt and had the murderous thug smile at him as he squeezed off a fast three rounds at McNeill's head!
Platt had extricated himself from the penned in Monte Carlo and was able to move about as he rained fired upon the agents. What he would almost certainly have been unaware of was that he was already a dead man; from a distance of 30 feet, Jerry Dove had delivered a difficult hit on Platt while he was exiting the passenger window of his car. Mireles would later describe it as "a million dollar shot" on the scrambling Platt who had been presented a narrow target profile exposed for such a brief time.
"Platt shot Hanlon in the groin and turned his attentions to Grogan and Dove, shooting the former multiple times in the body and the younger agent twice in the head."
Sometime during the preceding 45 seconds, Risner (another SWAT-qualified SA with an S&W Model 459) and Orrantia with a four-inch S&W K-frame, had rolled on the scene to take up a covering position across the road where they would fire approximately two dozen rounds between them, scoring two hits on the wily Platt from a distance of 30 yards. Orrantia would be wounded in return.
At that point, with McNeill paralyzed and helpless on his back, Mireles fighting the effects of his avulsed forearm, Grogan unable to clearly locate his target without his glasses, and Manauzzi still unarmed after losing control of his revolver from the impact of the improvised felony stop, the mortally wounded Michael Platt made his daring bid for freedom. Exsanguinating from the FBI hits, he slipped from the cover of the Monte Carlo and moved on the position occupied by Dove and Hanlon. The latter saw him coming and fired all five rounds from his backup S&W Model 36 Chief's Special before ducking down to attempt to reload. Before he could accomplish that, Platt was upon them, and stood over the helpless Hanlon with his folding-stocked Mini-14 aimed at his head. Then, changing his mind, Platt shot the FBI agent in the groin and turned his attentions to Grogan and Dove, shooting the former multiple times in the body and the younger SA twice in the head. Both men died on the spot, while Hanlon lay stricken beneath the rear bumper.
Military-trained, Platt having neutralized the more immediate points of hostile fire, then moved toward his ultimate objective, the open driver's door of the vehicle recently occupied by the two Special Agents he had just murdered. SAs Risner and Orrantia 25 yards across the street were now more concerned about hitting their comrades as Platt stepped falteringly among them.
But Ed Mireles by sheer dint of his formidable will had "regrouped," determined that the killer not escape. As Platt entered the FBI's Buick and his partner appeared out of nowhere to slip into the passenger's seat, Mireles carefully supported his Remington 870 on the right rear bumper of McNeill's Olds, and fired a round of 00 Buck at Platt, hitting him in the feet. As the man slumped into the driver's seat and sought to restart the car, Ed deliberately pulled the 12 gauge shotgun down between his thighs in his sitting position and with only one hand, worked the action and rearmed his weapon. Four times Mireles did this, then painfully rolled out and somehow managed to fire at Platt.
Realizing that someone was posing a threat to his escape, a weakened Platt yanked Matix's six-inch Dan Wesson revolver from his partner's shoulder rig, slowly staggered from his victims' vehicle and attempted to neutralize this last point of fire. There is some contention about which agent Platt was firing at, whether it was the incapacitated McNeill or the partially recovered Mireles, but he fired three .357 Magnum rounds at close range.
Miraculously, he missed.
Platt then lurched back to the Buick and flopped down in the front seat, trying to summon enough strength to get the car started and away from the killing field.
Mireles, however, was determined to assure that this was not an option. With great difficulty, he levitated himself from the ground and, discarding his Remington 12-gauge, walked stiff-legged toward the Buick as he withdrew his own S&W revolver and fired two 158-grain +P lead hollow points at Platt, three at Matix curled in a vain attempt to avoid the deadly fire, and a final one at Platt.
Five of the rounds struck home, Matix was killed on the spot, and Platt, the man who didn't die fast enough, died a little faster although he showed enough vital signs some minutes later that the responding EMTs dragged him from the Buick and inserted an endotracheal tube in his mouth, and an intervascular tube in his left arm.
But the firefight, the bloodiest in the FBI's history, was over.
The repercussions, however, were massive and as far-reaching as any other event in the annals of Law Enforcement....
About the Bad Guys
Michael Lee Platt: 6'0" - 173 lbs.
Born: 3 February 1954, San Diego, California
KOFA High School, Yuma, Arizona. Graduated 1972
Stellar 3-Sports Athlete
Miami-Dade Community College
U.S. Army (#526087944) from 27 June 1972-1 May 1979
Honorable Discharge; E-6
MOS: 11B10, 11B20, 11B30
Airborne Ranger trained at Fort Campbell: 9/73-5/75
Also served in M.P. Unit there with Matix. Service notation includes "High Combat Proficiency."
Married and divored from first wife (unknown) in 1972
Widowed from second wife Regina E. Lylen Platt
Born: 13 September 1952
Married: 13 October 1975
Died: 21 December 1984
Cause of death: Suicide (shotgun to the mouth)
Third wife: Brenda
Married, January 1985
Brother: Timothy Lee Platt
At the time of his death, Platt lived at 15031 SW 88th Lane, West Kendall.
William Russell Matix: 6'1" - 147 lbs.
Born: 25 May 1951, Lewisburg, Ohio
New Madison High School, Ohio. Graduated 1969
Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY. Graduated: 28 December 1979
National School of Meat Cutting, Toledo, Ohio
Columbus Technical School, Aviation Maintenance Program: Fall 1983-Spring 1984.
Marine Corps (#2578943) from 7 October 1969-7 July 1972. Honorable Discharge; E-5
MOS: 3371 (Cook/Supply)
Tattoo on right forearm of Bulldog and "USMC" with his service number.
U.S. Army (#2578943) from 10 August 1973-9 August 1976. Honorable Discharge; E-5
MOS: Military Police, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Widowed from first wife Patricia Buckanich Matix
Born: 1953
Married: 1976
Died: 30 December 1983
Cause of death: Murder
One daughter: Melissa, born October 1983
2nd wife: Christy Lou Horne
Married: 17 May 1985
Son: 27 December 1985
At the time of his death, Matix lived at 15615 SW 85th Avenue, Southwood.
Both Platt and Matix died within 12 blocks of where they currently lived.
That infamous Friday morning in Florida's Dade County also quickly took on historical significance, for it directly led to the FBI's convening of its first Wound Ballistics Seminar over 15-17 September 1987 to see what direction the Bureau should pursue to more effectively arm its Field Special Agents. In the wake of the tragedy in which agents Grogan and Dove were slain, and five others wounded, John Hall, who 28 months later took over as head of the Bureau's Firearms Training Unit, had made the startling ****ouncement, "All else aside, Miami was an ammo failure."
The Weapons Advisory Committee of the FBI Academy had been conducting an evaluation of many semi-auto pistols in both .45 ACP and 9 x 19mm in consideration of issuing them to FBI Field SWAT teams and Special Operations Groups (SOG) such as the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). In an attempt to resolve the contentious question of caliber selection and substantiate the final selection recommendation, a decision was made to seek "outside expertise to analyze the factors involved in handgun wounding and the relative effectiveness of the two calibers."
And from that Quantico conference emerged the name of Dr. Martin L. Fackler, Colonel, U.S.A., as a major force in the literature of what has regrettably come to be known as "handgun stopping power." With his battle cry of "Penetration is paramount" and his heavy reliance on ordnance gelatin as a test medium, Dr. Fackler and his growing legion of "jello junkies" set up in opposition to the "morgue monsters" led by former Detroit Homicide Detective Evan Marshall, who for years had been publishing after-action reports in various police and popular gunzines, explaining how sundry individuals had reacted to being shot with different handguns, often illustrating his texts with handgun projectiles recovered during post mortem exams.
Aside from the foundation of the Fackler-led International Wound Ballistics Association, and the 1991 publication of an inordinately successful volume by Marshall and Edwin Sanow, "Handgun Stopping Power," the Miami shootout and subsequent Wound Ballistics Seminar paved the way for Hornady's debut of the first of the "designer" handgun rounds, the XTP-HP, whose most ****ounced attribute, not coincidentally, was its formidable penetrative abilities.
Although handgun ammunition design has inexorably evolved over the past dozen years, and those who survived the terrible firefight have gotten on with their lives, the event is still of great interest to many in the firearms and law enforcement community, and some elements of that confrontation have taken on near mythic proportions, not the least of which is the remarkable fortitude of SA Edmundo Mireles, Jr. who overcame severe injuries and brought the felons' careers to an irrevocable close.
Frequently in discussions, the author has also expressed a grudging awe of the huge "stones" possessed by VERY bad guy Michael Platt, who, mortally wounded early on, single-handedly carried the firefight with the eight FBI agents. I had put forth the notion that had his partner in murder William Matix held up his end of the battle (Matix fired just that ONE round of Winchester-Western 12 gauge #6 without effect from his S&W Model 3000, compared to Platt's 48 rounds from a Mini-14 and two .357 Magnum revolvers), the two murderous thugs would have escaped from the Southwest 82nd Avenue kill zone in the vehicle of slain SAs Grogan and Dove, although Platt, and probably Matix, would have expired shortly thereafter.
David Rivers, supervisor of the crime scene for Metro-Dade Police Department, went one step farther.
"If Matix had done his part," he related in 1987, the details still vivid in his mind, "more FBI would have died, as well as some uniforms" (responding local police).
Many had always been curious about what Matix had been doing during the furious four minute action, reasoning that perhaps it was planned that Platt lay down a field of fire with his folding-stock blue Mini-14 while Matix broke for another vehicle in which they might escape... except that he wound up in the front passenger seat of the Grogan/Dove fleet car, and it was Platt who got behind the wheel.
Hmmmn! Well, maybe Matix, his ear drums (according to the most popular recounting of the event) ruptured by Platt's 13 rapid-fire .223 shots right in front of his face in the enclosed space of their Monte Carlo, in excruciating pain and possibly partially blinded, was so disoriented that he just couldn't function.
However, thanks to Forensic Analysis of the April 11, 1986, FBI Firefight, a truly remarkable 128-page volume privately published by W. French Anderson, M.D. and professor of Biochemistry and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California's School of Medicine, some startling new information about that infamous firefight has come to light, not the least of which is just why Matix was unable to hold up his end of the deal. The fifth round of .38 Special +P fired by SSA Gordon McNeill from his 2˝-inch S&W Model 19 in the furious exchange hit Matix with a penetrating wound of the right lateral face, fracturing the right maxillary sinus and middle cranial fossa, and causing a contusion of the right temporal lobe.
In Anderson's marvelously detailed narrative, the wound...
"...must have been devastating. It fractured the base of the skull and contused the brain. It should have knocked Matix unconscious. ... It is difficult to comprehend how an individual received this wound, laid unconscious for one or more minutes, and then managed to become sufficiently alert to leave (his vehicle), move around for 1-2 minutes, figure out that Platt had entered Grogan/Dove's car, travel to that car, and get in.... Matix's ability to function with that head wound was extraordinary."
And for the record, the Mini-14 blasts right in front of his unprotected face and ears5 seem to have not influenced Matix's actions in the slightest...
"...despite the fact that Platt fired 13 rounds from his .223 directly in front of Matix's face in essentially a closed car, the concussive effect of these muzzle blasts apparently did not damage Matix's eyes or ears. The corneas of Matix's eyes were intact at autopsy, and the absence of blood in Matix's ear canals suggests that his eardrums were also intact."
A perception that many have held the intervening years is that the eight FBI agents' marksmanship was gravely lacking. Not so, argues Dr. Anderson, and presents a persuasive brief that a number of FBI hits were good ones; they just happened to run up against two highly trained (military police, 101st Airborne and Rangers), well-practiced (approximately 750-1,500 rounds per week which they had purchased or robbed from several unfortunate civilians plinking in the Everglades), and extremely focussed individuals in Platt and Matix. The FBI fired a verified 70 rounds (possibly as many as 77 or 78) and delivered 18 wounds to the bad guys, firing at extremely hostile targets obscured by gunsmoke, considerable amounts of dust and debris from the crashing, careening cars, and the deep shadows of the trees beneath which their vehicle came to rest.
Among those wounds, McNeill hit Matix with that head shot plus a neck/chest shot early on in the fight; Dove delivered that difficult hit as Platt was wriggling from the passenger window of the Monte Carlo, as well as two others; Risner (from 30 yards!) also made a lethal chest wound on Platt in mid-fight; and Mireles, after his shotgun blast had delayed Platt with four 00 foot wounds, had one-handedly put three rounds into Matix's head and two into Platt (one central nervous system, one scalp) all while himself gravely wounded.
An adversary gets hit square in the head with a 158-grain +P, and he isn't stopped, you are having a bad day! McNeill, Mireles and Hanlon had bad days... only Grogan and Dove had worse ones. In light of this information, perhaps John Hall's "ammo failure" assessment has some merit... but then as a war veteran chum with more than three dozen confirmed kills continually asserts, "the more I see of this stuff, the more I'm convinced that nothing hand-held is absolutely reliable."
This is one reason why Dr. Anderson undertook such a time-consuming labor of love, as he related in an interview with the author. "I've been fortunate in life," he avers simply and with characteristic modesty. "And the law enforcement community has taken good care of me, witness that I am still alive after a number of death threats I have received." (Biochemists involved in genetic engineering are viewed with considerable alarm in many fundamentalist sectors.)
So, long fascinated with the "nuts 'n' bolts" of the Miami Massacre, Dr. Anderson set about to answer some lingering questions in his and the minds of many who have studied that bloody suburban firefight.
Through interviews with the six surviving Agents, Sgt. Rivers and P.O. Martin Heckman of the Metro-Dade P.D., civilian witness to the firefight Sidney Martin, and the post mortem reports, photographs, x-rays, slides, notes and ancillary materials provided by Dr. Jay Barnhart, the Metro-Dade County Medical Examiner who actually responded to the crime scene between 120th and 124th Streets, and subsequently performed the autopsies, Dr. Anderson uncovers some previously obscured "truths" about that bloody Friday morning, all of which are documented and substantiated in his fully detailed volume.
Forensic Analysis of the April 11, 1986, FBI Firefight is truly a magnificent achievement, with never-before seen full color crime scene and autopsy photos, as well as painstakingly detailed graphic illustrations of not only the Miami killing field, but the wounds Platt and Matix received. At the risk of sounding like a certain writer who opined that the Colt's All-America 2000 "instantly made the 1911 design obsolete," it is my view and others with whom I have consulted, that Dr. Anderson's oeuvre has immediately taken its position as the standard text in this benignly neglected genre.
Certainly it is an indispensable adjunct of every wound ballistics student's bookshelf, or that of those interested in gun fights, and while the volume is not presently available6 through conventional bookstores or mail order outlets, remaining copies of the second printing may be individually obtained by request upon departmental letterhead, and sending a self-addressed, stamped (Fourth Class Media Rate, $1.32) 9" X 12" envelope, to:
W. French Anderson, M.D.
Norris Cancer Center, #612
University of Southern California School of Medicine
1441 Eastlake Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089
What Dr. Anderson's extraordinary artifact shows in graphic and detailed color, is that on 11 April 1986 there were three huge pairs of balls on Miami's Southwest 82nd Avenue... fortunately for the good guys, the biggest set belonged to Ed Mireles and with the aid of some solid hits from Gordon McNeill, Ron Risner and Jerry Dove, the good guys won, but at a terrible expense of life.
Footnotes:
1. Some people actually refer to the authenticity of NBC's In The Line of Fire teleflick for their information about the notorious firefight. A telling comment on that comes from Washington Post staff writer Patricia Brennan's 27 November 1988 review of that evening's presentation:
Note of interest: (Michael) Gross, a supporter of handgun control for years, was so nervous about handling guns in the film that he took lessons at a shooting range, working with assorted semiautomatic handguns, revolvers and shotguns. He said he enjoyed target practice so much he now favors allowing handguns for target shooting, kept under lock and key at home, of course.
It's fiction, folks!
2. Be sure to read Charlie Petty's fascinating sidebar on the "ripple effect" in the wake of this terrible event in Miami, The Far Reaching Effects Of the Miami Firefight, an insider's look at the FBI's test protocols and the Bureau's quest for a more effective handgun round.
3. Considerable discussion has transpired about the six non-participant agents and the ordnance they might have brought to the firefight. Aside from an additional four 12 gauge Remington Models 870, one vehicle, Unit #88, contained a Heckler & Koch MP5-SD, and another, Unit #83, had an M16.
As for author John Ross' fanciful blending of historical events, rich boys' toys and kinky *** in his novel, Unintended Consequences (1996), there is no credible evidence to support his speculation (page 414) that the reason two of the better armed SAs failed to respond to the Kendall scene was due to a matutinal ménage with a randy waitress in the back room of a restaurant on the Dixie Highway. Students of the firefight will note that there are also several factual errors in Ross' entertaining fictional epic. And since the author refers to SA Gil Orrantia as "Arrantia," he undoubtably borrowed from Massad Ayoob's reconstruction of events for the January/February 1989 issue of American Handgunner.
In a 29 May 1997 response on the rec.guns newsgroup, John Ross asserted:
"The basic account is true, although the restaurant dialogue is invented. The positions were a guess. Could have been taking turns, could have been a simultaneous DP. I opted for a middle-of-the-road assumption..."
Author Ross repeated this assertion almost verbatim in the same venue on 19 April 2002.
4. As it was with the 1969 event known far and wide as "Woodstock" which in reality transpired in Bethel, NY, the FBI's 11 April 1986 firefight actually occurred in a suburb southwest of Miami, the unincorporated middle-class South Dade community of Kendall known as Suniland. It will, however, for all time continue to be known as the "FBI-Miami Firefight" even though, in 1995 the area became incorporated as the Village of Pinecrest.
5. Veterans Administration records reveal that Matix had already suffered high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus (a common shooter's complaint) in his left ear during his military service in the early '70s.
6. Because of the color prints, the Reports are fairly expensive to produce and so are not given free to the general public. If a private citizen wishes a copy, they should have their local police department request it (the citizen should supply two S.A.S.E. so that the police department can receive its own copy also). A portion of that Report is now available on-line.
Medicine, where he also serves as Professor of Biochemistry and Pediatrics. He is a Full Member of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is the Program Coordinator for Gene Therapy in the Institute of Genetic Medicine. Dr. Anderson is a 5th degree black belt in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do, was the National Team Physician from 1981-1988, was the Olympic Team Physician at the 1988 Olympic Games, and still competes in karate competition where he won the Gold Medal in his age division in the AAU National Karate Championships in July, 1998. Dr. W. French Anderson is the Director of the Gene Therapy Laboratories at the University of Southern California Keck School of
Frequently the object of vicious threats because of his ground-breaking work in genome engineering, Dr. Anderson, in addition to his unarmed martial arts credentials, is a multiple graduate of defensive pistolcraft instructor John Farnam's DTI programs.
Regards,
Hist2004
"The repercussions of 11 April 1986 were massive and as far-reaching as any other event in the annals of Law Enforcement..."
That event has spawned articles in both gunzines and the popular press, paperbacks, numerous lectures and presentations on the law enforcement circuit, a well-mounted video re-enactment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation aptly entitled "Firefight," a totally dismissable and error-laden segment of the Pernell Roberts-hosted half-hour TV series, "FBI: The Untold Stories," and one shoddy, fanciful two-hour teleflick in NBC's dreadfully revisionist "In the Line of Duty" series, "The F.B.I. Murders", with David Soul and Michael Gross1 as the too-bad-to-be-believed killers, Michael Lee Platt and William Russell Matix, but who were, in reality, "Freddy Kruger" and "Michael Meyers" incarnate, and as despicable a pair of murderers as were ever imagined by producers of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween series of dead teenager splatter flicks.
The repercussions of 11 April 1986 are still being felt, as firearms author Charlie Petty has elsewhere noted2, and that dark event has become the defining moment of the century for handgun ammunition throughout both law enforcement and civilian ranks.
The FBI's C1 (reactive) squad in the Miami field office had been after a pair of savage armored car and bank stick-up artists for six months, and as their criminal acts increased in violence, more FBI man hours were devoted to apprehending them before they robbed and killed again.
In studying the felonious activities of the two well-armed killers, Miami Division Supervisory Special Agent Gordon McNeill and his crime fighters had discerned what they felt was a pattern which might finally give them the ability to close down the vicious duo which had been a two-person crime wave since the October 1985. Acting on their beliefs and information provided by one quick-witted and courageous citizen who'd followed the criminals from the site of a previous robbery and shooting, McNeill put his 14-man rolling stake-out team in ten FBI fleet vehicles3 in the field on that Friday morning and had them working a section of Metro-Dade County along the South Dixie Highway on the alert for a dark-colored 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in which would be riding two white males between the ages of 25 and 40, professional criminals armed with an assortment of weapons which in the past had included shotguns, Colt's/Stoner pattern carbines, long-barreled magnum revolvers and on at least one occasion, a 1911-style .45 ACP pistol.
Sometime after 0900 hours that Friday, Special Agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove spotted the suspect vehicle and alerted SSA McNeill that they had surreptitiously slipped behind the black Monte Carlo on the South Dixie Highway. McNeill immediately alerted the rest of his squad that they had their bad guys and gave the coordinates as he, SA Richard Manauzzi in a solo car, SAs Edmundo Mireles and John Hanlon in another vehicle, and SAs Ron Risner and Gil Orrantia in a fifth sedan closed in on the mobile surveillance.
About the time that Manauzzi fell in behind Grogan's and Dove's vehicle with Hanlon and Mireles joining them, Platt and Matix began to get the notion that their game might be up. Using the classic counter-surveillance tactic of making three consecutive right-hand turns in the semi-residential neighborhood of Kendell4, the criminal duo confirmed their suspicions and instead of making a run for it back onto the South Dixie Highway, prepared to live it out with the five FBI agents in low speed pursuit.
At that moment, SSA McNeill arrived on the scene from the opposite direction and passed the "mini-convoy," observing passenger Platt in the lead vehicle loading a high-capacity magazine into a Ruger Mini-14. McNeill would later state that driver Matix's intense demeanor appeared to be that of "a man on a mission."
Still, they were, after all, the FBI, and they already had the bad guys outnumbered six to two, with reinforcements rapidly closing in on the rolling scene. Besides, Grogan and Dove, in the lead pursuit vehicle, were both SWAT-qualified, and Grogan, widely acclaimed as the best shot in the Miami field office, had been, it was later said, preparing his entire law enforcement career for just such a situation as was now developing.
SSA McNeill evaluated the situation and made a judgment call that many have subsequently second-guessed... a felony car stop would be attempted.
It all went horribly wrong from there on in, for when the five vehicles had come to rest one block from the South Dixie Highway behind the Dixie Belle Shopping Center at 12201 SouthWest 82nd Avenue, Ben Grogan's glasses went flying in the impact of the crash, and SAs Manauzzi and Hanlon had lost control and possession of their issue Smith & Wesson revolvers. And as the bad guys both began shooting immediately, never was my colleague Mark Moritz' brilliant aphorism more chillingly brought home: "First Rule of a Gunfight - Have a Gun!"
Manauzzi, who had been driving the vehicle which had finally ridden the Monte Carlo off Southwest 82nd Avenue and into a large tree, his passenger side door just inches from the driver's side of the bad guys' car, was the first of the FBI agents shot, taking a 5.56mm round into his side and body as he dove unarmed out his door and onto the street.
While Platt with the Mini-14 was firing in front of his partner's face at Manauzzi, Matix brought his folding-stocked S&W Model 3000 12 gauge pump shotgun into action, turning and discharging a round of #6 shot at the white Buick to his rear, the vehicle in which Grogan and Dove had been riding.
Grogan, nearly blind without his corrective lenses, had dismounted and begun firing his S&W Model 459, discharging a total of nine rounds of issue 9 X 19mm Winchester 115-grain Silvertip hollow points at the recalcitrant felons inside the Monte Carlo. On the other side of their Buick, Jerry Dove was also shooting his Model 459. He would reload and shoot some more, a total of 20 rounds.
SSA McNeill had taken a position with the left front of his Olds angled into the rear of Manauzzi's vehicle. Managing to throw his (handgun-rated) soft body armor quickly over his suit and tie, he exited his car, leaving his Remington 12 gauge in the back seat. Running over to the front of Manauzzi's car, he immediately went into action with his 2˝-inch Model 19, firing across the hood and into the driver's window of the Monte Carlo.
Responding to a 1987 inquiry about his "cognitive thought processes during the event," McNeill stated that he had never felt calmer.
I was the calmest I had ever been when I exited my vehicle. I saw everything clearly in my peripheral vision, I did some shooting, I got shot, I bore down and took two more shots. When I realized that I was out of ammo and that it was still going on... then I got scared!
While McNeill was firing across the hood, SAs Mireles and Hanlon left their vehicle which had crashed into a concrete wall on the far side of the street, and rushed to aid their fellow agents under heavy fire. Hanlon, his primary weapon lost, retrieved his backup five-shot J-frame from an ankle holster and went to support Dove. His Model 870 at port arms, Mireles came up behind McNeill just in time to take a .223 round in his left forearm, the shock of which impact toppled the 6'5" agent into the street where he quickly realized that his ruined left arm was all but useless. Platt's round, however, had not reached his chest when it had been aimed.
After McNeill expended his six rounds of .38 Special 158-grain +P, his right hand grievously wounded, he returned to his Olds sedan to reload as Mireles struggled after him. After only managing to get two fresh rounds into his gore-covered revolver, McNeill arose to reach in the back seat for his shotgun, took a .223 round in his neck, and fell over onto his back, paralyzed and out of the remainder of the firefight. He was intensely aware that he had just looked right into the face of Michael Platt and had the murderous thug smile at him as he squeezed off a fast three rounds at McNeill's head!
Platt had extricated himself from the penned in Monte Carlo and was able to move about as he rained fired upon the agents. What he would almost certainly have been unaware of was that he was already a dead man; from a distance of 30 feet, Jerry Dove had delivered a difficult hit on Platt while he was exiting the passenger window of his car. Mireles would later describe it as "a million dollar shot" on the scrambling Platt who had been presented a narrow target profile exposed for such a brief time.
"Platt shot Hanlon in the groin and turned his attentions to Grogan and Dove, shooting the former multiple times in the body and the younger agent twice in the head."
Sometime during the preceding 45 seconds, Risner (another SWAT-qualified SA with an S&W Model 459) and Orrantia with a four-inch S&W K-frame, had rolled on the scene to take up a covering position across the road where they would fire approximately two dozen rounds between them, scoring two hits on the wily Platt from a distance of 30 yards. Orrantia would be wounded in return.
At that point, with McNeill paralyzed and helpless on his back, Mireles fighting the effects of his avulsed forearm, Grogan unable to clearly locate his target without his glasses, and Manauzzi still unarmed after losing control of his revolver from the impact of the improvised felony stop, the mortally wounded Michael Platt made his daring bid for freedom. Exsanguinating from the FBI hits, he slipped from the cover of the Monte Carlo and moved on the position occupied by Dove and Hanlon. The latter saw him coming and fired all five rounds from his backup S&W Model 36 Chief's Special before ducking down to attempt to reload. Before he could accomplish that, Platt was upon them, and stood over the helpless Hanlon with his folding-stocked Mini-14 aimed at his head. Then, changing his mind, Platt shot the FBI agent in the groin and turned his attentions to Grogan and Dove, shooting the former multiple times in the body and the younger SA twice in the head. Both men died on the spot, while Hanlon lay stricken beneath the rear bumper.
Military-trained, Platt having neutralized the more immediate points of hostile fire, then moved toward his ultimate objective, the open driver's door of the vehicle recently occupied by the two Special Agents he had just murdered. SAs Risner and Orrantia 25 yards across the street were now more concerned about hitting their comrades as Platt stepped falteringly among them.
But Ed Mireles by sheer dint of his formidable will had "regrouped," determined that the killer not escape. As Platt entered the FBI's Buick and his partner appeared out of nowhere to slip into the passenger's seat, Mireles carefully supported his Remington 870 on the right rear bumper of McNeill's Olds, and fired a round of 00 Buck at Platt, hitting him in the feet. As the man slumped into the driver's seat and sought to restart the car, Ed deliberately pulled the 12 gauge shotgun down between his thighs in his sitting position and with only one hand, worked the action and rearmed his weapon. Four times Mireles did this, then painfully rolled out and somehow managed to fire at Platt.
Realizing that someone was posing a threat to his escape, a weakened Platt yanked Matix's six-inch Dan Wesson revolver from his partner's shoulder rig, slowly staggered from his victims' vehicle and attempted to neutralize this last point of fire. There is some contention about which agent Platt was firing at, whether it was the incapacitated McNeill or the partially recovered Mireles, but he fired three .357 Magnum rounds at close range.
Miraculously, he missed.
Platt then lurched back to the Buick and flopped down in the front seat, trying to summon enough strength to get the car started and away from the killing field.
Mireles, however, was determined to assure that this was not an option. With great difficulty, he levitated himself from the ground and, discarding his Remington 12-gauge, walked stiff-legged toward the Buick as he withdrew his own S&W revolver and fired two 158-grain +P lead hollow points at Platt, three at Matix curled in a vain attempt to avoid the deadly fire, and a final one at Platt.
Five of the rounds struck home, Matix was killed on the spot, and Platt, the man who didn't die fast enough, died a little faster although he showed enough vital signs some minutes later that the responding EMTs dragged him from the Buick and inserted an endotracheal tube in his mouth, and an intervascular tube in his left arm.
But the firefight, the bloodiest in the FBI's history, was over.
The repercussions, however, were massive and as far-reaching as any other event in the annals of Law Enforcement....
About the Bad Guys
Michael Lee Platt: 6'0" - 173 lbs.
Born: 3 February 1954, San Diego, California
KOFA High School, Yuma, Arizona. Graduated 1972
Stellar 3-Sports Athlete
Miami-Dade Community College
U.S. Army (#526087944) from 27 June 1972-1 May 1979
Honorable Discharge; E-6
MOS: 11B10, 11B20, 11B30
Airborne Ranger trained at Fort Campbell: 9/73-5/75
Also served in M.P. Unit there with Matix. Service notation includes "High Combat Proficiency."
Married and divored from first wife (unknown) in 1972
Widowed from second wife Regina E. Lylen Platt
Born: 13 September 1952
Married: 13 October 1975
Died: 21 December 1984
Cause of death: Suicide (shotgun to the mouth)
Third wife: Brenda
Married, January 1985
Brother: Timothy Lee Platt
At the time of his death, Platt lived at 15031 SW 88th Lane, West Kendall.
William Russell Matix: 6'1" - 147 lbs.
Born: 25 May 1951, Lewisburg, Ohio
New Madison High School, Ohio. Graduated 1969
Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY. Graduated: 28 December 1979
National School of Meat Cutting, Toledo, Ohio
Columbus Technical School, Aviation Maintenance Program: Fall 1983-Spring 1984.
Marine Corps (#2578943) from 7 October 1969-7 July 1972. Honorable Discharge; E-5
MOS: 3371 (Cook/Supply)
Tattoo on right forearm of Bulldog and "USMC" with his service number.
U.S. Army (#2578943) from 10 August 1973-9 August 1976. Honorable Discharge; E-5
MOS: Military Police, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Widowed from first wife Patricia Buckanich Matix
Born: 1953
Married: 1976
Died: 30 December 1983
Cause of death: Murder
One daughter: Melissa, born October 1983
2nd wife: Christy Lou Horne
Married: 17 May 1985
Son: 27 December 1985
At the time of his death, Matix lived at 15615 SW 85th Avenue, Southwood.
Both Platt and Matix died within 12 blocks of where they currently lived.
That infamous Friday morning in Florida's Dade County also quickly took on historical significance, for it directly led to the FBI's convening of its first Wound Ballistics Seminar over 15-17 September 1987 to see what direction the Bureau should pursue to more effectively arm its Field Special Agents. In the wake of the tragedy in which agents Grogan and Dove were slain, and five others wounded, John Hall, who 28 months later took over as head of the Bureau's Firearms Training Unit, had made the startling ****ouncement, "All else aside, Miami was an ammo failure."
The Weapons Advisory Committee of the FBI Academy had been conducting an evaluation of many semi-auto pistols in both .45 ACP and 9 x 19mm in consideration of issuing them to FBI Field SWAT teams and Special Operations Groups (SOG) such as the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). In an attempt to resolve the contentious question of caliber selection and substantiate the final selection recommendation, a decision was made to seek "outside expertise to analyze the factors involved in handgun wounding and the relative effectiveness of the two calibers."
And from that Quantico conference emerged the name of Dr. Martin L. Fackler, Colonel, U.S.A., as a major force in the literature of what has regrettably come to be known as "handgun stopping power." With his battle cry of "Penetration is paramount" and his heavy reliance on ordnance gelatin as a test medium, Dr. Fackler and his growing legion of "jello junkies" set up in opposition to the "morgue monsters" led by former Detroit Homicide Detective Evan Marshall, who for years had been publishing after-action reports in various police and popular gunzines, explaining how sundry individuals had reacted to being shot with different handguns, often illustrating his texts with handgun projectiles recovered during post mortem exams.
Aside from the foundation of the Fackler-led International Wound Ballistics Association, and the 1991 publication of an inordinately successful volume by Marshall and Edwin Sanow, "Handgun Stopping Power," the Miami shootout and subsequent Wound Ballistics Seminar paved the way for Hornady's debut of the first of the "designer" handgun rounds, the XTP-HP, whose most ****ounced attribute, not coincidentally, was its formidable penetrative abilities.
Although handgun ammunition design has inexorably evolved over the past dozen years, and those who survived the terrible firefight have gotten on with their lives, the event is still of great interest to many in the firearms and law enforcement community, and some elements of that confrontation have taken on near mythic proportions, not the least of which is the remarkable fortitude of SA Edmundo Mireles, Jr. who overcame severe injuries and brought the felons' careers to an irrevocable close.
Frequently in discussions, the author has also expressed a grudging awe of the huge "stones" possessed by VERY bad guy Michael Platt, who, mortally wounded early on, single-handedly carried the firefight with the eight FBI agents. I had put forth the notion that had his partner in murder William Matix held up his end of the battle (Matix fired just that ONE round of Winchester-Western 12 gauge #6 without effect from his S&W Model 3000, compared to Platt's 48 rounds from a Mini-14 and two .357 Magnum revolvers), the two murderous thugs would have escaped from the Southwest 82nd Avenue kill zone in the vehicle of slain SAs Grogan and Dove, although Platt, and probably Matix, would have expired shortly thereafter.
David Rivers, supervisor of the crime scene for Metro-Dade Police Department, went one step farther.
"If Matix had done his part," he related in 1987, the details still vivid in his mind, "more FBI would have died, as well as some uniforms" (responding local police).
Many had always been curious about what Matix had been doing during the furious four minute action, reasoning that perhaps it was planned that Platt lay down a field of fire with his folding-stock blue Mini-14 while Matix broke for another vehicle in which they might escape... except that he wound up in the front passenger seat of the Grogan/Dove fleet car, and it was Platt who got behind the wheel.
Hmmmn! Well, maybe Matix, his ear drums (according to the most popular recounting of the event) ruptured by Platt's 13 rapid-fire .223 shots right in front of his face in the enclosed space of their Monte Carlo, in excruciating pain and possibly partially blinded, was so disoriented that he just couldn't function.
However, thanks to Forensic Analysis of the April 11, 1986, FBI Firefight, a truly remarkable 128-page volume privately published by W. French Anderson, M.D. and professor of Biochemistry and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California's School of Medicine, some startling new information about that infamous firefight has come to light, not the least of which is just why Matix was unable to hold up his end of the deal. The fifth round of .38 Special +P fired by SSA Gordon McNeill from his 2˝-inch S&W Model 19 in the furious exchange hit Matix with a penetrating wound of the right lateral face, fracturing the right maxillary sinus and middle cranial fossa, and causing a contusion of the right temporal lobe.
In Anderson's marvelously detailed narrative, the wound...
"...must have been devastating. It fractured the base of the skull and contused the brain. It should have knocked Matix unconscious. ... It is difficult to comprehend how an individual received this wound, laid unconscious for one or more minutes, and then managed to become sufficiently alert to leave (his vehicle), move around for 1-2 minutes, figure out that Platt had entered Grogan/Dove's car, travel to that car, and get in.... Matix's ability to function with that head wound was extraordinary."
And for the record, the Mini-14 blasts right in front of his unprotected face and ears5 seem to have not influenced Matix's actions in the slightest...
"...despite the fact that Platt fired 13 rounds from his .223 directly in front of Matix's face in essentially a closed car, the concussive effect of these muzzle blasts apparently did not damage Matix's eyes or ears. The corneas of Matix's eyes were intact at autopsy, and the absence of blood in Matix's ear canals suggests that his eardrums were also intact."
A perception that many have held the intervening years is that the eight FBI agents' marksmanship was gravely lacking. Not so, argues Dr. Anderson, and presents a persuasive brief that a number of FBI hits were good ones; they just happened to run up against two highly trained (military police, 101st Airborne and Rangers), well-practiced (approximately 750-1,500 rounds per week which they had purchased or robbed from several unfortunate civilians plinking in the Everglades), and extremely focussed individuals in Platt and Matix. The FBI fired a verified 70 rounds (possibly as many as 77 or 78) and delivered 18 wounds to the bad guys, firing at extremely hostile targets obscured by gunsmoke, considerable amounts of dust and debris from the crashing, careening cars, and the deep shadows of the trees beneath which their vehicle came to rest.
Among those wounds, McNeill hit Matix with that head shot plus a neck/chest shot early on in the fight; Dove delivered that difficult hit as Platt was wriggling from the passenger window of the Monte Carlo, as well as two others; Risner (from 30 yards!) also made a lethal chest wound on Platt in mid-fight; and Mireles, after his shotgun blast had delayed Platt with four 00 foot wounds, had one-handedly put three rounds into Matix's head and two into Platt (one central nervous system, one scalp) all while himself gravely wounded.
An adversary gets hit square in the head with a 158-grain +P, and he isn't stopped, you are having a bad day! McNeill, Mireles and Hanlon had bad days... only Grogan and Dove had worse ones. In light of this information, perhaps John Hall's "ammo failure" assessment has some merit... but then as a war veteran chum with more than three dozen confirmed kills continually asserts, "the more I see of this stuff, the more I'm convinced that nothing hand-held is absolutely reliable."
This is one reason why Dr. Anderson undertook such a time-consuming labor of love, as he related in an interview with the author. "I've been fortunate in life," he avers simply and with characteristic modesty. "And the law enforcement community has taken good care of me, witness that I am still alive after a number of death threats I have received." (Biochemists involved in genetic engineering are viewed with considerable alarm in many fundamentalist sectors.)
So, long fascinated with the "nuts 'n' bolts" of the Miami Massacre, Dr. Anderson set about to answer some lingering questions in his and the minds of many who have studied that bloody suburban firefight.
Through interviews with the six surviving Agents, Sgt. Rivers and P.O. Martin Heckman of the Metro-Dade P.D., civilian witness to the firefight Sidney Martin, and the post mortem reports, photographs, x-rays, slides, notes and ancillary materials provided by Dr. Jay Barnhart, the Metro-Dade County Medical Examiner who actually responded to the crime scene between 120th and 124th Streets, and subsequently performed the autopsies, Dr. Anderson uncovers some previously obscured "truths" about that bloody Friday morning, all of which are documented and substantiated in his fully detailed volume.
Forensic Analysis of the April 11, 1986, FBI Firefight is truly a magnificent achievement, with never-before seen full color crime scene and autopsy photos, as well as painstakingly detailed graphic illustrations of not only the Miami killing field, but the wounds Platt and Matix received. At the risk of sounding like a certain writer who opined that the Colt's All-America 2000 "instantly made the 1911 design obsolete," it is my view and others with whom I have consulted, that Dr. Anderson's oeuvre has immediately taken its position as the standard text in this benignly neglected genre.
Certainly it is an indispensable adjunct of every wound ballistics student's bookshelf, or that of those interested in gun fights, and while the volume is not presently available6 through conventional bookstores or mail order outlets, remaining copies of the second printing may be individually obtained by request upon departmental letterhead, and sending a self-addressed, stamped (Fourth Class Media Rate, $1.32) 9" X 12" envelope, to:
W. French Anderson, M.D.
Norris Cancer Center, #612
University of Southern California School of Medicine
1441 Eastlake Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089
What Dr. Anderson's extraordinary artifact shows in graphic and detailed color, is that on 11 April 1986 there were three huge pairs of balls on Miami's Southwest 82nd Avenue... fortunately for the good guys, the biggest set belonged to Ed Mireles and with the aid of some solid hits from Gordon McNeill, Ron Risner and Jerry Dove, the good guys won, but at a terrible expense of life.
Footnotes:
1. Some people actually refer to the authenticity of NBC's In The Line of Fire teleflick for their information about the notorious firefight. A telling comment on that comes from Washington Post staff writer Patricia Brennan's 27 November 1988 review of that evening's presentation:
Note of interest: (Michael) Gross, a supporter of handgun control for years, was so nervous about handling guns in the film that he took lessons at a shooting range, working with assorted semiautomatic handguns, revolvers and shotguns. He said he enjoyed target practice so much he now favors allowing handguns for target shooting, kept under lock and key at home, of course.
It's fiction, folks!
2. Be sure to read Charlie Petty's fascinating sidebar on the "ripple effect" in the wake of this terrible event in Miami, The Far Reaching Effects Of the Miami Firefight, an insider's look at the FBI's test protocols and the Bureau's quest for a more effective handgun round.
3. Considerable discussion has transpired about the six non-participant agents and the ordnance they might have brought to the firefight. Aside from an additional four 12 gauge Remington Models 870, one vehicle, Unit #88, contained a Heckler & Koch MP5-SD, and another, Unit #83, had an M16.
As for author John Ross' fanciful blending of historical events, rich boys' toys and kinky *** in his novel, Unintended Consequences (1996), there is no credible evidence to support his speculation (page 414) that the reason two of the better armed SAs failed to respond to the Kendall scene was due to a matutinal ménage with a randy waitress in the back room of a restaurant on the Dixie Highway. Students of the firefight will note that there are also several factual errors in Ross' entertaining fictional epic. And since the author refers to SA Gil Orrantia as "Arrantia," he undoubtably borrowed from Massad Ayoob's reconstruction of events for the January/February 1989 issue of American Handgunner.
In a 29 May 1997 response on the rec.guns newsgroup, John Ross asserted:
"The basic account is true, although the restaurant dialogue is invented. The positions were a guess. Could have been taking turns, could have been a simultaneous DP. I opted for a middle-of-the-road assumption..."
Author Ross repeated this assertion almost verbatim in the same venue on 19 April 2002.
4. As it was with the 1969 event known far and wide as "Woodstock" which in reality transpired in Bethel, NY, the FBI's 11 April 1986 firefight actually occurred in a suburb southwest of Miami, the unincorporated middle-class South Dade community of Kendall known as Suniland. It will, however, for all time continue to be known as the "FBI-Miami Firefight" even though, in 1995 the area became incorporated as the Village of Pinecrest.
5. Veterans Administration records reveal that Matix had already suffered high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus (a common shooter's complaint) in his left ear during his military service in the early '70s.
6. Because of the color prints, the Reports are fairly expensive to produce and so are not given free to the general public. If a private citizen wishes a copy, they should have their local police department request it (the citizen should supply two S.A.S.E. so that the police department can receive its own copy also). A portion of that Report is now available on-line.
Medicine, where he also serves as Professor of Biochemistry and Pediatrics. He is a Full Member of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is the Program Coordinator for Gene Therapy in the Institute of Genetic Medicine. Dr. Anderson is a 5th degree black belt in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do, was the National Team Physician from 1981-1988, was the Olympic Team Physician at the 1988 Olympic Games, and still competes in karate competition where he won the Gold Medal in his age division in the AAU National Karate Championships in July, 1998. Dr. W. French Anderson is the Director of the Gene Therapy Laboratories at the University of Southern California Keck School of
Frequently the object of vicious threats because of his ground-breaking work in genome engineering, Dr. Anderson, in addition to his unarmed martial arts credentials, is a multiple graduate of defensive pistolcraft instructor John Farnam's DTI programs.
Regards,
Hist2004