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TooB Return of the PSOs

Page history last edited by Michael 5 years, 8 months ago

back to the TooB Index

 

early February 2009

 

Various homeless persons, shelter staff, etc. can identify the four PSOs as having spent time in various shelters and missions, and in abandoned buildings and under freeways, around and just south of Chicago during this period. The weather was pretty bad -- lots of snowstorms, hail, wind, etc. Hobbes was suffering from pneumonia.

 

February 24, 2009 - Tuesday

 

McClellan calls a senior officer in the Department of Public Safety, claiming to be alive.  He is not believed.

  

February 25, 2009 - Wednesday

 

It actually takes several calls, for a couple of days, to get anyone to start believing that they are the four "dead" PSOs.

 

The PSOs are eventually picked up by the Chicago PD; after some initial interviews, they're put up in a hotel and cleaned up a bit. By the evening, word has reached the press, and the FBI has taken over from the Chicago police. Hobbes is sent over to the University of Chicago Medical Center.

 

February 26, 2009 - Thursday

 

The other PSOs are taken to UCMC for a lot of tests, and for treatment of their various injuries (some poorly-treated traumas suffered in the previous few months). The national press goes nuts with the story!

 

February 28, 2009 - Saturday

 

O'Reilly, Burns and McClellan are flown to San Jose. Hobbes can't fly (he's still being treated for pneumonia). More of the "media goes ape". A court order is granted for the exhumation of the bodies of three of the PSOs (O'Reilly's "corpse" was cremated), and preliminary DNA tests seem to confirm their identities. The fact that Hobbes now has a smallpox vaccination scar -- he didn't six months ago -- is of some interest, along with McClellan's teeth, strange "piercing" in his sternum, and tattoo; more blood is drawn for tests.

 

March 2, 2009 - Monday

 

The graves of Hobbes, Burns, and McClellan are opened, and the bodies are taken to the Santa Clara county coroner's office; FBI pathologists are to perform new autopsies. There's some discussion of how the medical examiners dealt with the identification of the corpses originally. Detailed results on the blood tests come back, with evidence of exposure to several diseases (or vaccines) recently. Hobbes is still in Chicago; the PSOs have been allowed to meet with their families and Sunnyvale PSD officials. The nature of McClellan's plug is quite mysterious, and the Feds are passing along pictures of his large abdominal tattoo to occult experts.

 

Samples of O'Reilly's hair show recent exposure (within the last couple months) to radiation.

 

March 3, 2009 - Tuesday

 

The FBI holds a press conference, and states that the exhumed bodies are definitely not those of the missing PSOs. Preliminary causes of death for all three corpses were gunshot wounds, probably from one or more .223 caliber assault rifles. Facial reconstruction, etc. will take a few weeks to perhaps identify the dead men. The records of the county coroner's office are being examined; the medical examiners deny any wrongdoing. Some folk from the Defense Department arrive with lots of medical records for McClellan, O'Reilly and Burns -- more checking to verify their identities.

 

Blood tests confirm that both O'Reilly and McClellan have received large doses of ionizing radiation in the last two months. The possessions of all four men, and the various shelters in the Chicago area where they are known to have been, are being checked very carefully for radioactive contamination.

 

March 4, 2009 - Wednesday

 

The three PSOs in Sunnyvale are asked by the FBI to submit to hypnosis while under sedation.

 

March 9, 2009 - Monday

 

The PSOA claims that Burns, Hobbes, O'Reilly and McClellan are being pressured by the FBI and Department of Justice, "despite the fact that these four brave men are the victims here ... initially victims of some bizarre plot, and now victims of the Federal agents responding to media pressure." A reporter from Time magazine is the highest-profile non-official person wanting to interview the PSOs.

 

The pathologists provided by the FBI come to some interesting conclusions about the three exhumed corpses.

 

  • Cadaver #1, substituted for Hobbes, was a red-haired Caucasian man in his 30s. He lost his right eye a considerable time before death. There are notable accumulations of lead and mercury in his hair and tissue, and some signs of nervous system damage from this contamination. The person also had an early case of syphilis, and had contacted (and survived) smallpox at some point in his life. (This causes some biohazard concern). There are heavy calluses associated with manual labor on his hands, and a tattoo of an anchor on each forearm. He was a pipe smoker, with very bad teeth.

 

  • Cadaver #2, substituted for Burns, was a bearded Caucasian man in his 40s. There is some liver damage from alcoholism, signs of syphilis and other venereal diseases, and indications that this person survived smallpox also. This person used chewing tobacco, and also has accumulations of lead in his hair and tissue. There are several small scars, all well healed, on his hands and arms, which again show signs of heavy manual labor.

 

  • Cadaver #3, substituted for McClellan, was an Asian man in his 40s. He was an opium addict -- specifically, he smoked a combination of opium and tobacco. His hair was apparently worn in queue, which was cut off post-mortem. There are several tattoos on his back, all typical of older Chinese gang tattooing ("very much older, this guy was getting ink from long-gone Chinatown tongs").

 

March 2009

 

The four PSOs are officially on administrative and medical leave from the DPS; in the cases of O'Reilly, McClellan and Hobbes there are definite medical aftereffects to deal with. Hobbes arrives back in California; and by now the PSOs are all living in their own homes/apartments. Press interest has dropped (though long-term media interest is still there). O'Reilly and McClellan go through hypnosis under light sedation, and give some mighty messed-up stories. Burns plays up the "I don' wanna play your stupid hypnosis game", and Hobbes combines ill-health and just plain "hmm, apparently I can't be hypnotized" to avoid anything like a useful session.

 

O'Reilly is notified that his Air National Guard unit is deploying to Afghanistan beginning May 1st.

 

April, 2009

 

The FBI unveils reconstructions of the three corpses exhumed on March 2nd -- nothing at all like the PSOs, and (in the long run) totally anonymous. Two of the Santa Clara County medical examiners are placed on leave, pending hearings; they are protesting their innocence. There are some internal meetings and investigations within the Sunnyvale DPS ... the entire "they fell into a hole" incident is just full of inconsistencies and contradictions. A few officers will be less likely to receive promotions.

 

April 20, 2009 - Monday

 

All four PSOs are returned to duty; the PSOA arranges for Burns' probationary period to be considered "still underway" (it will end in December of 2009) - although extending the probationary period is a pretty well-known way for the Department to harass unwanted officers (such as women and minorities). The PSOs will be assigned to the department's fire investigation unit for now -- the annual "bidding for positions" process is coming up in May.

 

May 2009

 

O'Reilly's off to Afghanistan from 1 May to 8 September.

 

June 2009

 

McClellan enters and passes the 80-hour "Basic SWAT Course" run by the Santa Clara Sherrif's office; he can now apply for a spot on the Sunnyvale DPS SWAT team.

 

July 2009

 

The last FBI investigator assigned full-time to the Dead Men Returned case is given other cases (he's in the San Francisco field office, if it comes up).

 

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