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CNN Live Event/Special
Interview with Aphrodite Jones About Her Shocking New Book "Red Zone"
Aired July 10, 2003 - 20:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. On January 26, 2001, Diane Whipple died a horrible death. She was attacked in her San Francisco apartment building by a pair of 120-pound dogs and died as a result of the mauling. The story made headlines around the country. The dogs' owners eventually went to jail. And Most of us only know a fraction of the story.
Now best selling author Aphrodite Jones has looked into the case. The result, a book called "Red Zone" is every bit as gripping as her previous works, including one turned into the Oscar winning movie "Boys Don't Cry." Aphrodite Jones joins me now, welcome.
APHRODITE JONES, AUTHOR "RED ZONE": Thank you.
ZAHN: Tell me what the American public might be shocked about. That they don't already know about this case.
JONES: The most shocking thing about this is that these two attorneys in Pacific Heights adopted an Aryan Brotherhood inmate with whom they were sexually involved in a fantasy sexual thing that included the dogs as the keeper of their castle. The castle being the building at Pacific Heights in which Diane Whipple was killed.
So those dogs were not just any dogs, they belonged to an Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. And the offspring of those dogs were sold and brokered to Mexican Mafia affiliates and Mexican drug cartel affiliates in the L.A. area for the purpose of guarding very illicit activities.
So those two attorneys in Pacific Heights are literally affiliates of the Aryan Brotherhood now, sitting behind bars, and ready to come out, Paula, and they have facilitated bringing Presa Canario dogs, a rare breed of fighting animal, that is like a pitbull on steroids, to California, to San Francisco, and to Los Angeles. For the purpose of helping out all the illicit activities that go on from prison gangs to street gangs and back again.
ZAHN: What was the evidence that initially made you come to this conclusion? This could not have been easy thing to uncover.
JONES: No, it wasn't easy, but I've been doing this for 12 years, writing fine books. And it happens that I have connections with the California Department of Corrections. And I work very closely with them and the DA's office in San Francisco, as well as the San Francisco State police, in order to discover 15,000 pages of documents, many of which were confiscated out of the Pelican Bay State Prison, which show drawings of these people in sexual positions with the dogs, and this inmate Paul Schneider. Pictures of these people posing in bizarre frames. S and M kind of things going on. And letters, pornographic letters. And other proof that they were brokering this. They were facilitating the dog-of-war operation is what they called it.
ZAHN: This clearly was something that the jury had no idea about?
JONES: It was kept out of the court because the judge felt bringing in beastiality, those allegations, bringing the allegations of them being Aryan Brotherhood affiliates and brokering dogs for illicit activities, would deter the jury from making a straight sentence for second degree murder, which Marjorie got, because they had prior incidents, 34 of them, with those dogs biting and scaring and hurting other animals. So that these people were being tried and focused on for what -- knowing that they had loaded guns in their apartment which got out of that hallway and killed Diane Whipple.
The judge didn't want anybody distracted in the jury with other things such as, beastiality, such as, Aryan Brotherhood activities, and what happened with the offspring of these dogs. So, there's a whole chain of events, an embroilment, that went on for many years prior to Diane Whipple's death.
ZAHN: And you write about all of this in the "Red Zone". Thank you for sharing some of your latest investigative work with us tonight.
JONES: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
"Red Zone">
Aired July 10, 2003 - 20:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. On January 26, 2001, Diane Whipple died a horrible death. She was attacked in her San Francisco apartment building by a pair of 120-pound dogs and died as a result of the mauling. The story made headlines around the country. The dogs' owners eventually went to jail. And Most of us only know a fraction of the story.
Now best selling author Aphrodite Jones has looked into the case. The result, a book called "Red Zone" is every bit as gripping as her previous works, including one turned into the Oscar winning movie "Boys Don't Cry." Aphrodite Jones joins me now, welcome.
APHRODITE JONES, AUTHOR "RED ZONE": Thank you.
ZAHN: Tell me what the American public might be shocked about. That they don't already know about this case.
JONES: The most shocking thing about this is that these two attorneys in Pacific Heights adopted an Aryan Brotherhood inmate with whom they were sexually involved in a fantasy sexual thing that included the dogs as the keeper of their castle. The castle being the building at Pacific Heights in which Diane Whipple was killed.
So those dogs were not just any dogs, they belonged to an Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. And the offspring of those dogs were sold and brokered to Mexican Mafia affiliates and Mexican drug cartel affiliates in the L.A. area for the purpose of guarding very illicit activities.
So those two attorneys in Pacific Heights are literally affiliates of the Aryan Brotherhood now, sitting behind bars, and ready to come out, Paula, and they have facilitated bringing Presa Canario dogs, a rare breed of fighting animal, that is like a pitbull on steroids, to California, to San Francisco, and to Los Angeles. For the purpose of helping out all the illicit activities that go on from prison gangs to street gangs and back again.
ZAHN: What was the evidence that initially made you come to this conclusion? This could not have been easy thing to uncover.
JONES: No, it wasn't easy, but I've been doing this for 12 years, writing fine books. And it happens that I have connections with the California Department of Corrections. And I work very closely with them and the DA's office in San Francisco, as well as the San Francisco State police, in order to discover 15,000 pages of documents, many of which were confiscated out of the Pelican Bay State Prison, which show drawings of these people in sexual positions with the dogs, and this inmate Paul Schneider. Pictures of these people posing in bizarre frames. S and M kind of things going on. And letters, pornographic letters. And other proof that they were brokering this. They were facilitating the dog-of-war operation is what they called it.
ZAHN: This clearly was something that the jury had no idea about?
JONES: It was kept out of the court because the judge felt bringing in beastiality, those allegations, bringing the allegations of them being Aryan Brotherhood affiliates and brokering dogs for illicit activities, would deter the jury from making a straight sentence for second degree murder, which Marjorie got, because they had prior incidents, 34 of them, with those dogs biting and scaring and hurting other animals. So that these people were being tried and focused on for what -- knowing that they had loaded guns in their apartment which got out of that hallway and killed Diane Whipple.
The judge didn't want anybody distracted in the jury with other things such as, beastiality, such as, Aryan Brotherhood activities, and what happened with the offspring of these dogs. So, there's a whole chain of events, an embroilment, that went on for many years prior to Diane Whipple's death.
ZAHN: And you write about all of this in the "Red Zone". Thank you for sharing some of your latest investigative work with us tonight.
JONES: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
"Red Zone">
