South Dakota’s lone congressman and former two-term Governor William Janklow stands accused of vehicular homicide by the friends of a Minnesota motorcyclist named Randolph Scott.
Scott, named after the late actor by his parents, was killed earlier this month after Janklow, according to South Dakota prosecutors, zoomed through a stop sign going 75 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone.
Apparently this isn’t the first time Janklow has been linked to criminal behavior.
In the past Janklow, who it is said was instrumental in convincing Bill Clinton not to pardon (most likely) falsely imprisoned AIM activist Leonard Peltier, had been accused by a family baby sitter named Jancita Eagle Deer of rape.
According to the website of Dakota-Sioux activists called dlncoalition.org, in 1966 15 year-old Jancita Eagle Deer of the Rosebud Reservation alleged that Janklow, then with the Office of Economic Opportunity, raped her at gunpoint as he drove her home from a baby sitting stint.
In 1974 Janklow was disbarred from practicing law on the Rosebud reservation following the testimony of Ms Eagle Deer.
Several months later, Jancita Eagle was found dead on a Nebraska road.
In 1974 the Senate Judiciary Committee investigated the matter during Janklow’s nomination hearing to sit on the Legal Services Corporation board. Janklow was approved.
The coalition of Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Sioux has posted letters sent to numerous U.S. Senators and AG Ashcroft demanding a full investigation surrounding the rape and murder of Jancita Eagle Deer.
For more info on this intriguing story check out jancitaeagledeer.com or as mentioned above, dlncoalition.org
JACK MCCARTHY lives in Tallahassee, Florida. He can be reached at: jackm32301@yahoo.com