From: Rosemary Waigh <rwaigh@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Trutt readings part three
Reply-To: rwaigh@zooid.UUCP (Rosemary Waigh)
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 03:12:21 GMT


(April 1989)

"Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Trutt"

"_Agent_provocateurs_ hired by U.S. Surgical Corporation (USSC) to 
discredit the animal rights movement apparently actively encouraged and
admittedly helped Fran Trutt place a bomb in the USSC parking lot at
Norwalk, Connecticut, last November 11.  During the same period, someone
electronically spied upon the Friends of Animals (FoA) head office in
Norwalk; police found the bug February 4.

"The revelations shifted the focus of the state and Federal criminal
investigation to the activities of Perceptions International, a private
security firm hired by USSC which happens to be publisher (through 
Perceptions Press) of _The_Animal_Rights_Reporter_.  The bomb idea came from
Perceptions agent Mary Lou Sapone, Trutt told the _Westport_News_, while
fellow Perceptions agent Marc Mead gave her money to buy the bomb and then
drove her to Norwalk from her home in New York.

"Sapone - who had been suspected of being an infiltrator by some animal
rights activists as early as the summer of 1987, when she first appeared
on the scene - was reportedly paid as much as $75,000 a year to spy on
numerous animal rights groups, while Mead received $500 a week plus expenses
for befriending Trutt and working closely with her in the two months before
the attempted bombing (see March _Animal_Newsline_ [Trutt reading part two]).

"Alleged bombmakers Darrell Benvenuto and Marc Anagnos were arrested January
28 in Flushing, N.Y.   Neither has ever had any involvement with animal
rights.

"As early as January 17, 1988, Sapone tried to solicit the interest of this
writer [Merritt Clifton] in bombing USSC at a party held by the Animal Rights
Alliance (ARA) of Fairfield County, Conn.  She claimed, in an obvious attempt
to build credibility with animal rights activists, to have taken part in
numerous underground direct actions for animals, such as sawing the supports
of deer stands so that hunters would fall from trees.  She was rebuked, and 
her outlandish claims were ascribed by this writer to alcohol and a desire for
attention.  At another ARA meeting, Sapone urged members to smash the windows
of fur stores and throw paint on the garments.  Even after her ideas were
universally rejected, she offered then ARA president Wayne Pacelle $100 to buy
paint.  Throughout 1988, Sapone tried to coerce Margo Tannenbaum of Action for
Animals and the Animal Liberation Front Support Group into holding seminars to
teach activists how to infiltrate animal research labs.

"Said Trutt, 'The first time she telephoned me, she said (USSC president
Leon) "Hirsch ought to be blown from here to kingdome come.  I wish we could
buy a bomb."'

"Sapone previously ran into trouble in 1982 as head of a group called the
Childbirth and Family Development Institute.  Funds disappeared and her
volunteer staff resigned.  Though a college dropout, Sapone claimed to be a
doctoral candidate in an article for a professional journal.

"She responded to exposure of her activities by telling the media she had
received death threats from animal rights activists, whom she refused to name.
Meanwhile, former husband Rocky Sapone stated, 'She can lie like hell.  She
will lie right in front of you and never bat an eyelash.  She lies like a son
of a bitch.'"


Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals