Dogs Jews Sea Monkeys & Aryan Brothers

[Abraham H. Foxman]

"BrickRage" <bric...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010907023753...@mb-mg.aol.com...

Many of you have heard of the dog mauling case in San Francisco in which
Marjorie Knoller and her husband Robert Noel, both attorneys, were charged with
manslaughter and Marjorie Knoller with second degree murder in the death of
Diane Whipple. The details have been shocking what with their connections to the
Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. As many are aware the couple adopted an inmate
who is a prominent member of the Aryan Brotherhood as their son and who is
currently incarcerated at the notorious Pelican Bay penitentiary. The dogs were
being bred to raise money for Aryan Brotherhood members behind bars.

Given these facts it must be even more shocking to all to hear Nedra Ruiz of the
famous Tony Serra law firm who is now representing Marjorie Noller describe her
client as "a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn" as she did in a bail reduction
hearing on August 31st, 2001. However the shock must dissipate soon as this is a
true statement. Knoller's husband Robert Noel has also converted to his wife's
religion.

Who else have you heard of who use the word "Aryan" in the title of their
organization? Does the Idaho based "Aryan Nations" ring a bell? Indeed the
"Aryan Nations" are closely connected with the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.
Many inmates when paroled have turned up over the years at the Aryan Nations
compound before its recent demise.

So where does the "Aryan nations" get their money? Well this opens yet another
chapter of Kosher monkey shines, more specifically monkeys that swim, known to
you as "Sea Monkeys". The inventer of those "Sea Monkeys" that you and your
friends grew in a jar as children is Harold von Braunhut who for many, many
years has been a major source of money for "Aryan nations". Harold von Braunhut
also happens to be a Jew, a Bar Mitzvahed Jew. This was reported in the Los
Angeles Times by Tamar Brott Sunday Octobar 1st, 2000 and can be found,
purchased, and read online at http://www.latimes.com . For your reading pleasure
and convenience though the article is reproduced below in full.

Is this surprising to you? Well, it should not be as Jews had many strong
connections to the German Government known to the world as "The Third Reich".
The Jews who had these strong connections were and are known as "Zionists", the
group which founded Israel and continues to rule Israel. It has always been the
focus of Zionists to create a Jewish state, a Jewish Nation within boundaries
like other ethnic nations in Europe. The Third Reich was instrumental in
bringing about the state of Israel. Indeed, without the efforts of Adolf Hitler'
s government Israel would not exist today because Jews would never have gone
there and the money and will of Western governments to back the creation of
Israel to this day would not exist without "The Holocaust".

The relationship between Nazism and Zionism is a natural one. Both ideologies
think of Jews in an ethnic and nationalistic manner. In fact, Nazi theoretician
Alfred Rosenberg frequently quoted from Zionist writers to prove his thesis that
Jews could not be Germans.

In his study, The Meaning of Jewish History, Rabbi Jacob Agus provides this
assessment: "In its extreme formulation, political Zionists agreed with
resurgent anti-Semitism in the following propositions:

1)That the emancipation of the Jews in Europe was a mistake.
2)That the Jews can function in the lands of Europe only as a disruptive
influence.
3)That all Jews of the world were one 'folk' in spite of their diverse political
allegiances.
4)That all Jews, unlike other peoples of Europe, were unique and unintegratible.
5)That anti-Semitism was the natural expression of the folk-feeling of European
nations, hence, ineradicable."

Now points three and four above are absurd to most observers as many Jews are
ethnically and racially like the peoples of Europe where they lived and
interbred for so many years. Anyone knowledgeable about the Jewish population
world wide knows that Jews are quite diverse biologically, just the opposite of
what the Rabbi has stated. Indeed in America there are over 250,000 black Jews,
a significant percentage of the estimated six million population of Jews in
America. The Sephardic Jews are much different than most of the European Jews
who rule Israel and face discrimination and second class status in Israel.
However, facts and beliefs are not always in lock step with one another. Israel
is not founded upon facts but rather upon a vision, a Zionist vision.

Nazi theoretician Rosenberg, who was executed as a result of his conviction for
war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, declared under direct examination: "I
studied Jewish literature and historians themselves. It seemed to me after an
epoch of generous emancipation in the course of national movements of the 19th
century, an important part of the Jewish nation found its way back to its own
tradition and nature, and more and more consciously segregated itself from other
nations. It was a problem which was discussed at many international congresses,
and Buber, in particular, one of the spiritual leaders of European Jewry,
declared that the Jews should return to the soil of Asia, for only there could
the roots of Jewish blood and Jewish national character be found."

The Ashkenazi Jews who are often referred to as "European" did originally come
from Asia. They were a Turkic people who converted to Judism before spreading
out across Russia and Europe many centuries ago. Over time though Jews have
intermarried with Europeans to the point that many if not most are
indistinguishable from other Europeans. This is why so many Jews have no strong
feelings for Israel as a place to live and refuse to consider moving there
permanently and becoming an Israeli. Of course there are ways to change how
someone feels about such things.

In a review of the book In Memory's Kitchen: A Legacy From The Women of Terezen,
Lore Dickstein, writing in The New York Times Book Review, notes that, "Anny
Stern was one of the lucky ones. In 1939, after months of hassle with the Nazi
bureaucracy, the occupying German army at her heels, she fled Czechoslovakia
with her young son and emigrated to Palestine. At the time of Anny's departure,
Nazi policy encouraged emigration. 'Are you a Zionist?' Adolph Eichmann,
Hitler's specialist on Jewish affairs, asked her. 'Ja wohl,' she replied.
'Good,' he said, 'I am a Zionist too. I want every Jew to leave for Palestine.'"

Zionists have repeatedly stressed--and continue to do so--that, from their
viewpoint, Jews are in "exile" outside of the "Jewish state." Jacob Klatzkin, a
leading Zionist writer, declared: "We are simply aliens, we are foreign people
in your midst, and we emphasize, we wish to stay that way." And with a push from
a bayonet most Jews can be made to feel an affinity for Zionism and for becoming
an Israeli.

Of course six million Jews will not be enough to populate Israel and make it a
going enterprise. This is where the hard bargaining will be. Bargaining and deal
making with an elite group of Aryan's in America. The government of Germany
under Adolf Hitler was willing to declare anyone with a Jewish grandparent to be
a Jew. We believe that we can strike a much better deal with those in America,
perhaps those who have a great, great grandparent who is Jewish and anyone who
has a maternal line going back to 1/32 would be considered a Jew. Now we may not
want all of these "Jews" but it will be our choice as to who to accept just as
it was our choice as to who went to Palestine in 1942-1945 and who went to
Auschwitz.

Last year our news magazine on the CBS television network "60 Minutes" had a
story on our little DNA trick for determining who is a Jew. By swabbing the
inside of the mouth of anyone we can decide if that individual has been
descended from our Judaic priests going back thousands of years. This will help
us to cull from the European nations several million of above average ability to
strengthen our ruling class in Israel as compensation for "The Holocaust" as
well as gathering large numbers in America.

Where today the Jewish population of Israel is less in number than the Jews of
North America, twenty years hence it will be more than 30million strong with as
always an emphasis on the word "strong".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sunday, October 1, 2000 | Print this story

The Sea Monkeys and the White Supremacist
Do Those Little Brine Shrimp Marketed as Kids' Toys Have a Connection to the
Aryan Nations?

By TAMAR BROTT

APART FROM THE FACT THAT THEY CAN HATCH WITHIN MINUTES AFTER contact with
water, brine shrimp are unappealing creatures. They're ant-sized and translucent
and bear a striking resemblance to sperm. Yet brine shrimp packaged as "Sea
Monkeys" are currently sold as children's companions, and portrayed on their
boxes as pink, pear-shaped simian creatures with spindly legs, paunches and coy
smiles. They are one of the most impressive achievements in the annals of
marketing.
Harold von Braunhut, a former manager of novelty acts, first packaged his
patented hybrids in 1960, transforming the Sea Monkeys into American icons via
millions of comic book ads. Von Braunhut also wrote the 32-page handbook that is
included in most Sea Monkey kits to this day, which states that the creatures
can be hypnotized, play baseball and rise from the dead. The tone of the
handbook is florid and huckstery: "It seems that at mating time in the Animal
Kingdom, the males engage in combat to win the fin, paw, flipper, hoof, wing or
what-have-you, of their 'lady love.' "
In 1999, the Sea Monkeys were in line for an overhaul: The freeze-dried
creatures were, and still are, licensed to Educational Insights Inc., a
Carson-based company whose ExploraToy division handles production development
and sales of the Sea Monkeys. According to then-art director Gregory Bevington,
the classic '70s naked monkeys lounging on a seaweed bank in front of a castle
are too "lame" for today's children. Hoping that a new look and some
razzle-dazzle would parlay Sea Monkeys from an undisclosed-but-"significant"
portion of their $40 million in annual sales to a $25-million-a-year line,
Educational Insights brought in Alan Fine, who spent the majority of his adult
life in Mattel's marketing department.
"I have a lot of background on what is attractive to kids, what works and
what doesn't work," said Fine, who is no longer with the company. Before leaving
in August, Fine helped wage a multimillion-dollar media blitz in honor of the
Sea Monkeys' 40th anniversary. Five new products were being unveiled, including
a Sea Monkeys speedway and an LCD watch that houses up to two Sea Monkeys for up
to 24 hours. But the linchpin of Fine's campaign was a brand new television
commercial featuring greatly altered Sea Monkeys, which has yet to air.
Months before I saw this commercial, I drove down to Educational Insights,
hoping to see the new Sea Monkeys. Having hatched more than my share as a child,
I was curious about the kind of concessions needed to entice the Game Boy-loving
children of today. I had no idea this would turn into a story about a white
supremacist inventor and the nice men who were marketing his invention to
children.

* * *
ANTICIPATING MY ARRIVAL, BEVINGTON SET UP A PICTORIAL history of Sea Monkey
packages on a conference-room table at ExploraToy. On one side were classic ads
featuring the nuclear Sea Monkey family, virtually unchanged since the '70s.
"There's a dad, the mom and a couple kids," Bevington explained in a droll
voice. "The mom has a little flip hairdo, and, basically, they look like naked
people with webbed tails and feet and hands and three prongs sticking out of
their heads. They have potbellies and skinny arms and legs so they're not really
physically fit."
On the other side of the table, Bevington arranged artists' submissions for
the updated Sea Monkeys. A radical departure from their sweet, potbellied
predecessors, the new models had enormous torsos and tree-trunk legs. Some wore
scaly breast plates; others sported capes. "If we really want them to appeal to
kids of today, they need to look like superheroes or action figures," Bevington
said.
Any decision regarding the appearance of the Sea Monkeys must be vetted by
Harold von Braunhut. The 75-year-old inventor currently lives on a nature
preserve in Bryans Road, Md., and drives a red Corvette. "Harold," as he is
known at Educational Insights, is notoriously protective of his patented Sea
Monkeys. ExploraToy Vice President George C. Atamian says Von Braunhut once
refused to do business with a company desiring to make Sea Monkey refrigerator
magnets after he discovered risque magnets in its catalog.
Atamian, a round-faced scientist, met Von Braunhut via phone in 1990, when
he called to congratulate Atamian on an underwater microscope he'd invented. A
few days later, some Sea Monkeys arrived in the mail. Atamian didn't know what
they were. "When people were reading comic books, I was in the Marine Corps," he
says. When he opened the boxes, he thought they were junk. But Atamian
eventually came around, and in 1995, he brought Von Braunhut to ExploraToy.
The two men talk Sea Monkeys "every day, every night and every weekend,"
and Atamian has become a great receptacle of Von Braunhut lore, which he imparts
at lightning speed. "As far as I'm concerned, he's an absolute legend. He's got
193 patents and he invented X-Ray Spex [another huge success, advertised in the
back pages of comic books], which is a phenomenal thing. He's a master of
marketing and a great word crafter and he's done all kinds of strange stuff. He
used to race cars and motorcycles. And he used to manage a mentalist called the
Great Dunninger, who he says put Uri Geller and all the other mentalists to
shame."
But Atamian says it is Von Braunhut's scientific achievement that impresses
him most of all. "Sea Monkeys, as you know, are hybrid brine shrimp eggs that
are immersed in a medium that nobody's been able to knock off," he says. The Sea
Monkey eggs remain in a sort of suspended animation until they are poured into
water that's been mixed with this top-secret formula, whereupon they hatch.
"There's something in the powder [Harold] formulates that does something to
those eggs that nature can't do," Atamian says. Von Braunhut and his wife,
Yolanda, are said to be the only two people who know the formula, with which Von
Braunhut is constantly tinkering. "It used to be [that] only one Sea Monkey
lived and that [same] one died. Now the formulation of the chemistry, the vigor
of the Sea Monkeys themselves, is better than ever," rhapsodizes Atamian.
I ask Atamian for Von Braunhut's unlisted number. Atamian says he would
prefer that I not speak to Harold. Each time I ask, Atamian puts me off with a
series of excuses, ranging from Von Braunhut's reclusiveness to his poor
health--a few years ago Harold fell off a balcony, then his "gallbladder
exploded." Atamian also mentions that whenever Von Braunhut gives interviews,
there's "fallout." Curious as to what this "fallout" could be, I do a database
search on Harold von Braunhut.

* * *
AMONG VON BRAUNHUT'S MANY INVENTIONS, WHICH RANGE FROM bulletproof garb to
an insect observation kit, is a pen-sized weapon called the Kiyoga Agent M5,
which telescopes into a metal whip at a flick of the wrist. The M5 caused an
uproar in 1988 after it was revealed, in a fund-raising letter for the Aryan
Nations, that a portion of the sales proceeds was going to Richard Butler,
founder and leader of the organization. (This is the same Richard Butler who,
along with the Aryan Nations, was recently found negligent and ordered to pay
$5.1 million after two security guards assaulted a mother and son outside the
Nations compound in Idaho in 1998.) Butler was on trial for sedition and needed
help with his legal bills. Shortly after the M5 story broke, the Washington Post
ran a lengthy article about Von Braunhut, revealing his involvement with "some
of the most extreme racist and anti-Semitic organizations in the country." The
article quoted an official with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith as
saying: "He has a reputation of being a generous contributor." Von Braunhut has
vehemently denied the accusations in various news reports. Yet in a 1988
interview with the Seattle Times, he referred to the "inscrutable, slanty Korean
eyes" of Korean shop owners and was quoted as saying, "You know what side I'm
on. I don't make any bones about it."
At my request, the ADL, which has tracked Von Braunhut for years, sends me
a rather hefty package. In it is a picture of the inventor, who resembles Lenny
Bruce, posing in a priest's collar in front of a Nazi flag. News clippings track
his frequent attendance at the Aryan Nations Congresses held every July in
Hayden Lake, Idaho, where he appeared as recently as 1995--sometimes as a
featured speaker, sometimes as the lighter of the burning cross. And there are
newsletters from an organization called the National Anti-Zionist Institute,
headed by "Hendrik von Braun," whose return address, P.O. Box 809, Bryans Road,
Md., is the same place one sends away for Sea Monkey paraphernalia such as
baseball kits.
Floyd Cochran, spokesman for the Aryan Nations until 1992 and a reformed
racist, recalls Von Braunhut as a slight, balding man with "a rather large nose
for a person of the Aryan Nations." He says Von Braunhut was something of a
misfit. "He'd give long speeches about numerology and he'd make references to
the pyramids," Cochran says. "It just didn't play very well."
If Von Braunhut is underwhelming in public, the Anti-Zionist newsletters
written by Hendrik von Braun are quite lively. "In the world of jewels and
precious metals, only that which is pure, rare and unalloyed is of the highest
value," begins a newsletter dated 1993. For a full two pages, readers are urged
to unite against "wogs" and "mud people," even if it means giving up their own
lives. "No one (except for Jesus Christ Himself) has ever managed to live
forever," Von Braun writes. "Even if you could, what a bore it would be to hang
around for a few hundred years, not doing much of anything except watching the
niggers make basketballs and sneakers out of Jew skins."
As it turns out, Von Braunhut is Jewish. According to the 1988 Washington
Post article, he was born to Jeannette Cohen and Edward Braunhut in New York
City on March 31, 1926, as Harold Nathan Braunhut. A cousin was quoted in the
Post as saying he "probably" attended Von Braunhut's bar mitzvah. Gail Gans,
director of the Civil Rights Information Center of the ADL, says Von Braunhut
may have been allowed to remain in the Aryan Nations even after the startling
revelation partly because he is wealthy. "If he'd been a practicing Jew or they
thought he was informing, then surely he'd have been kicked out," she says--and
Cochran, who lectures for the ADL, concurs. He says rumors about Von Braunhut's
ethnicity had been circulating for years and that members of the Aryan Nations
were "disappointed" when the Post article appeared with its reference to a bar
mitzvah, but that Richard Butler liked Von Braunhut's money. Cochran does not
know the extent of Von Braunhut's contributions to the Aryan Nations, but says
the organization called upon him often.
When the Von Braunhut headlines appeared in 1988, New Jersey-based Larami
Limited held the Sea Monkeys license. Atamian says Von Braunhut took the
company's license away because Larami had neglected Sea Monkeys after the
enormous success of their Super Soaker water gun. But Al Davis, executive vice
president of Larami, tells a different story. He says that he received a flurry
of phone calls from retailers, wholesalers and distributors concerned that Sea
Monkey dollars were going to unsavory places. "When I called Harold on this,"
Davis says, "he said something to me I find hard to believe to this day. 'Al,'
he said. 'Hitler wasn't a bad guy. He just received bad press.' "
In 1994, Von Braunhut found another licensee, Basic Fun, a
Philadelphia-based company that specializes in novelty key chains, to market Sea
Monkeys. Alan Dorfman, president of Basic Fun, says Von Braunhut assured him
that the allegations were false and that the bad press had been generated by an
enemy with whom he was involved in a property dispute. But less than a year
later, Dorfman, who is Jewish, severed his relationship with Von Braunhut after
the New York Times identified Von Braunhut as a featured speaker at the July
1995 Aryan Nations Congress. It was there that Butler called Jews "the bacillus
of the decomposition of our society."
While Basic Fun was in the process of severing its contract, Dorfman says
he was approached by Educational Insights, which wanted to take over the Sea
Monkeys license. Dorfman says that the company, whose founder and chairman, Burt
Cutler, is Jewish, was aware of Von Braunhut's past. "We knew through the turn
and content of the conversation that they knew what they were getting into,"
Dorfman says. "We wished them luck and that was the extent of it."

* * *
NINE MONTHS AFTER MY FIRST visit to ExploraToy, I drive to Carson again,
this time to view the new TV commercial featuring the revamped Sea
Monkeys--which are no longer naked. "Having been involved in the marketing to
kids," Fine said in one of our initial interviews, "you don't want to introduce
that as an area of controversy."
The specter of Sea Monkey dollars funding hate groups seems to be less
controversial. When I broach the topic with Fine and Atamian, Atamian confirms
that all of the higher-ups at Educational Insights know about Von Braunhut's
past. He says that everyone in the toy industry knows about him, that people had
sent them the articles, but that the Sea Monkeys shouldn't be tainted by their
inventor. "Is this any different than the U.S. government having normal
relations with Germany three, four, five, six years after World War II?" Atamian
asks. "We're doing business with him on a business basis with a wonderful
product called Sea Monkeys, and we don't see where it's relevant. I've never
seen evidence of his alleged past behavior."
Says Fine: "This has absolutely nothing to do with Harold as a person. It's
more to do with who Sea Monkeys are and what they can mean in terms of fun and
fantasy for kids and adults of all ages."
Cutler agrees. "Do you listen to Wagner? The Israelis wouldn't listen to
his music for all those years. But now they do."
Prior to signing their contract, Atamian says he warned Von Braunhut that
he'd heard the allegations, and that if Educational Insights saw any evidence
that they were true, Atamian would sever the deal. But Atamian never asked if
the allegations were true. It seems no one at Educational Insights has ever
confronted Von Braunhut about his past--not even to inquire about the
possibility of Sea Monkey profits going to white-supremacist hate groups. "I
certainly don't want to confront him with something like that," says Fine.
I leave Atamian and Fine with copies of the National Anti-Zionist
newsletter, and they promise to confront Von Braunhut once and for all and ask
if he's funneling money to hate groups. Then they'll get back to me. In the
meantime, I track down Von Braunhut's number and call him myself.
Harold von Braunhut is almost deaf, but loquacious, and his voice is
high-pitched. He says he knows nothing about ExploraToy's desire to clothe Sea
Monkeys, and as far as he knows, they will remain naked until "fish wear pants."
Then he launches into a story about the Wham-O Instant Fish debacle of the early
1960s, a seminal event in the marketing of Sea Monkeys. "Wham-O was flying
higher than a kite with the Superball and the Hula Hoop, and they took a risk on
an instant fish. But the fish didn't work. The buyer at Sears, Roebuck almost
got fired because of it. So when I took my Sea Monkeys around after that, you'd
think another Ice Age had happened. The doors that weren't open to begin with
slammed shut in my face. So I went to comic books. I did 303 million pages of
advertising per year."
When I ask Harold about his past, he becomes furious. He tells me the news
reports are lies. He doesn't take the opportunity to set the record straight,
though. "I don't have to defend myself to you or anyone else. I'm hanging up."
A few days later, Atamian calls to say he has good news. He's faxed Von
Braunhut a copy of the Anti-Zionist newsletter written by Hendrik von Braun, and
Von Braunhut has faxed him a note categorically denying that he'd written it or
that he is involved in any such groups. I ask Atamian if he believes Von
Braunhut. "All I know is I have to believe him," Atamian tells me. "Or else how
could I live with myself?" He promises to fax me a copy of Von Braunhut's letter
when he can. "The fax machine's out of paper now," he says.
The fax never comes. Later that day, Fine calls. When we had parted a few
days earlier, he'd seemed rattled. As a Jew, Fine had said, he would have to
walk away from Sea Monkeys if it turned out monies were being diverted to
anti-Semitic causes. But he's extremely relieved when he calls, telling me that
Harold has enemies who wish to see him caught in a vice.
"Then you believe him?" I ask. Fine pauses a moment. "There's one thing
that makes me feel he didn't," he says. "Harold's a great writer. I mean he's
very articulate and he prides himself on writing great copy. And that thing you
sent me--it's really poorly written."

* * *
IN DECEMBER 1995, ONE MONTH AFTER SIGNING ON WITH Educational Insights, Von
Braunhut officiated at the funeral of Betty Butler, Richard Butler's wife. Since
then, Harold von Braunhut hasn't been seen by either the Anti-Defamation League
or the Southern Poverty Law Center, both of which have tracked him for years.
"Once you get past a certain age," Floyd Cochran says, "running around the
bushes playing paramilitary games doesn't happen. That's true of a lot of things
in life."
And if Sea Monkey dollars have been going to hate groups? Cutler says he'll
increase his donations to Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law
Center. "I'm a major contributor to the center," he adds.
If Von Braunhut's past isn't relevant to Sea Monkey sales, ExploraToy's new
TV commercial certainly may be. In it, the Sea Monkeys are dressed like rock
stars and sing songs that Von Braunhut clearly did not write.
"Pour us into water," they wail. "You won't believe your eyes. We eat. We
grow. We race. We're into outer space. We're wet and we're wild. 'Cause you make
us come alive." The new Sea Monkey lyrics and attire are startling, but the
unexpected cutaways to live brine shrimp are even more so. They're hideous
creatures. Magnified thousands of times, they look like blind white centipedes,
and each time they fill the screen, it is a new decimation of fancy, an
annihilation of 40 years of Harold's own brand of huckstery Americana.
Educational Insights has returned to the Sea Monkeys' retro-'70s image for
packaging. Harold's vision is intact, at least for now.

[Abraham H. Foxman]

"IllRefute" <illr...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010910165605...@mb-fa.aol.com...
"BERNARDZ" <BERNAR...@iname.COM> wrote in message
news:MPG.16073966c29b87a98a406@NEWS...
: This is probably the most ridiculous thing I've heard in my life. Can
: you post the news article URL (from a reputable site) outlining the
: Aryan beliefs of their "adopted" son?

Will the San Francisco Chronicle do?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/08/MN14488
43.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/06/MN16462
8.DTL

: Connecting Jews to Nazis in a supportive way is just silly.....as well
: as obscene. Shame on you.

No it's all true.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/01/MN19935
.DTL

"Nice Jewish Girl From Brooklyn"

Woman's bail cut in half in dog case
Knoller no more risk than Noel, judge says

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, September 1, 2001

San Francisco -- In a surprise move, a San Francisco judge cut bail in half
yesterday for a woman facing second-degree murder charges in the dog-mauling death
of her neighbor.

Superior Court Judge James Warren reduced Marjorie Knoller's bail to $1 million from
the $2 million originally set when she was jailed in March along with her husband,
Robert Noel.

Warren said that while Knoller may be facing more serious charges than Noel -- who
is still being held on $1 million bond on manslaughter charges -- she is no more of
a risk to jump bail.

The ruling followed a daylong, often heated hearing in which prosecutors argued that
the accused couple had strong ties to the "vile, vicious, murderous" Aryan
Brotherhood prison gang. Warren kept details of prosecutors' accusations secret to
avoid adding to pretrial publicity surrounding the case.

In arguing against cutting Knoller's bail, the prosecution also said that the couple
are flight risks and that Knoller had done nothing to help Diane Whipple as she lay
dying in her Pacific Heights apartment building after the dog attack.

The defense countered that the prosecution was "cruel" for suggesting that Knoller
let Whipple die after the Jan. 26 attack by the Presa Canario dog that Noel and
Knoller had been keeping.

The defense stressed that both defendants had an unblemished reputation and strong
ties to the community. Far from letting Whipple die, they said, Knoller had acted
heroically.

In the end, Warren acknowledged prosecution arguments about the risks involved but
ordered the bail reduced based on his theory of equal flight risk.

Prosecutors had no comment on the ruling, citing Warren's gag order in the case. But
a private attorney suing the couple for wrongful death was puzzled by the decision.

"It doesn't make sense. . . . I don't understand it," said Michael Cardoza, who
along with his client, Sharon Smith, attended the first part of the hearing.

It is unclear whether Knoller can raise even the reduced bail sum.

"I hope so," said Knoller's attorney, Nedra Ruiz, who added that she disagreed with
the judge and said that bail of $1 million is "unnecessary" because of no flight
risk.

"She's stunned; she feels she deserves release on her own recognizance," Ruiz said
about her client's reaction.

At the hearing, Ruiz described Knoller as a "nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn" with
ties to the community and no criminal record.

"There's nothing in this evidence to show she was anything but brave in the face of
a tragedy that would strike most people speechless, that might dement a person,"
Ruiz told Warren.

Later she said Knoller "put her body on (Whipple) to protect her from this crazed,
damned dog."

Prosecutor James Hammer bristled at the suggestion that Knoller valiantly fought to
protect Whipple's life.

"If Marjorie Knoller's such a hero, why didn't she give first aid to Diane Whipple
while she was dying?" Hammer said. "If Marjorie Knoller's such a hero, why didn't
she call 911? And if Marjorie Knoller's such a hero, why did she go on national
television and blame Diane Whipple for her own death?"

When he again stressed Knoller's failure to help Whipple, Knoller shouted, "I did
too, you son of a bitch!" That brought a threat from the judge to remove her from
court.

Much of the testimony in the hearing concerned the alleged ties the accused may have
to the Aryan Brotherhood, in part through a Pelican Bay State Prison inmate they
adopted.

The judge appeared to agree with the prosecution that there was cause for concern,
saying, "The court does find that Aryan Brotherhood is a danger, that people are in
danger and that witnesses in this case are in danger. . . . The Aryan Brotherhood is
potentially a resource of some value to the defense."

He also noted prosecutors' argument on the couple's alleged flight risk. Prosecutors
pointed out that the couple drove at high speeds while being followed by police
after testifying before a grand jury that would later indict them.

That was not enough, however, for Warren to order Knoller's bail kept at $2 million.

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvande...@sfchronicle.com.