Open Letter to Calaveras Cnty. Sheriffs re. the Philip Marshall family’s tragic death.
Please update your press releases. The official time of death in the Philip Marshall incident is wrong and the unofficial one is probably right (times are from Union Democrat and Calaveras Enterprise, the local media up there). Your press releases say it’s still being evaluated.
The guy is dead (Philip Marshall, ex-CIA, accused of murder-suicide around the time of Senate confirmation hearings for Brennan after he once pulled his name for unknown reasons).
But Marshall still deserves his defense, which would be the paraffin tests, not just evidence found at the home, and ballistics tests, not just a box of bullets found with his wedding ring on top of them, and there were no pictures of any of this non-upsetting kinds of evidence in the news releases to reassure the public that a thorough investigation had been done.
The paraffin tests should be done on his hands.
In the next press release, can you tell the deputies’ names that first posited the “sleeping on a couch” theory, and what made them think the kids were sleeping on the couch when they were shot? There was no mention of bedding, pillows, etc. that could be construed to have given them this impression.
And if you actually do know the time of death by now, and if it was Thursday (as is suggested by when the teenagers’ friends said they dropped off the radar and the fact that they missed school Thursday), please tell us whether or not you still think they were “sleeping” on the couch when they were shot with a 9mm handgun without a silencer.
It makes a lot more sense for them to have been sleeping on a couch on a weekend or Friday than it would on a school night.
Thanks.
ADDENDUM:
Here are the links to the press releases (apparently not used by the local paper) and some questions about the press releases that led me to write this letter. -rs
Dated feb 3.
The Sheriffs’ version:
http://sheriff.co.calaveras.ca.us/Portals/sheriff/Press/2013/Man%20Shoots%20Children%20then%20Himself%20in%20a%20Murder-Suicide.pdf
—- excerpts
A Murphys man identified as Phillip Marshall (54) took the life of his two juvenile children before taking his own life in an apparent murder-suicide. On February 2, 2013 at 3:10 pm Calaveras Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence on the 1200 block of Sandalwood Drive in the Forest Meadows subdivision, Murphys, for a suspicious circumstance/welfare check. The reporting parties, who are friends of the two victims, told investigators that they had not heard from the victims since Thursday,
They also discovered the family dog deceased in a bedroom.
The reason for the murder-suicide is unknown at this time.
—- end excerpts
Questions:
Time of death still being determined. When was the “official time of death” determined to have been Saturday at the exact time when the bodies were found? Did the Union Democrat (local newspaper see below) get that information from the Sheriffs’ Dept.? If so, why didn’t the rest of us?
The kids had not been heard from since Thursday, [other sources report they missed school Friday as well].
Sleeping on couch theory not explained, bedding, pillows, or what?.
“A bedroom” (not “THE bedroom” as some reports on the net have it, implying the kids did have their own bedrooms.
The reason for calling it a murder-suicide is not explained (parafin test? ballisitcs?)What evidence at the scene was used to make this determination?
No photos, no verbal descriptions, just a vague “we think that… so trust us.”
Dated feb 4.
http://sheriff.co.calaveras.ca.us/Portals/sheriff/Press/2013/Update-Correction_on_Murder-Suicide.pdf
—- excerpts
On February 2, 2013 Calaveras County Sheriff’s deputies and investigators investigated a double murder-suicide that occurred at a residence on the 1200 block of Sandalwood Drive in the Forest Meadows subdivision, Murphys.
It was further determined that Phillip Marshall’s son and daughter, Alex Marshall (17) and Macaila Marshall (14), were asleep on the couch at the time they were shot. Foul play by outside persons has been ruled out, and evidence at the scene confirmed that Phillip Marshall was the shooter. The time of death is still being examined
—- end excerpts
Questions:
Foul play by other persons has been ruled out? How was it ruled out? Finding evidence at the scene is not the same as doing ballistics and paraffin tests. A pile of bullets with a wedding ring (not mentioned in the press release) could have been planted if this were a hit by organized crime, for example.
What evidence was found at the scene? What evidence was there that the children were sleeping? How did the Sheriffs get into the house? Was the house locked?
At this time they are still saying the time of death is being examined.
Feb 5.
from the Guardian UK.
—- excerpts
John Brennan, Barack Obama’s nominee for CIA director, will come under renewed pressure at his confirmation hearing on Thursday to justify the targeted killing of US citizens in drone strikes, following the leak of a secret summary of the White House rationale for one its most controversial policies.
—- end excerpts
[This date above is significant because the accused suicide-murderer claimed to have inside knowledge of a CIA conspiriacy.]
It is now Feb 13 and there are no new updates at the sheriffs dept.
On Feb 6 the Union Democrat reports:
—- excerpts
The time of the discovery, 3 p.m. Saturday, will be listed as the official time of death.
—- end excerpts
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/More-murder-suicide-details
Now this is highly problematic in that the kids were then “sleeping on the couch” instead of in their own rooms on a Saturday, which is not unusual. But if they were killed on Thursday, they they were “sleeping in the living room” on a school night and the time of death has changed, is changing, or hasn’t been evaluated yet.
Did the kids often sleep in the living room on school nights? Were they allowed to sleep in their own rooms at all? In fact it’s not even clear if the kids had bedrooms. Which bedroom was the dog shot in?
The mother was in Turkey when she was notified of the deaths, according to several sources on the internet. Who had legal custody of the children? Was he a fit parent?
[Everyone, including a county supervisor that lived four doors down from him apparently thought so. Only the ex-wife from a previous marriage that ended in divorce in the mid-1980s had anything negative to say about him. All of this background was gleened from internet articles. -rs]
Does the accused have a right to a fair trial? Witnesses for his defense (i.e., paraffin and ballistics tests, just to make sure)?
Why the dual “time of death” confusion? Will the time of death become more clear or less clear as more time passes?
Additional Notes/Updated Questions:
The family dog was killed but if the investigation is taken to have been complete, the cat survived. (Find “macaila #pissed”) on the net.
The toxicology results should be back any time between today and next week. These results, the coroner said, might shed light on how the kids “appeared to have been sleeping” through getting shot with an unsilenced glock 9mm inside the house.
Madsen reported that Mashall was right handed (verifiable from pix on the net) and that he died from a bullet wound to the left temple. This is NOT verifiable on the net. If pictures exist (hopefully taken by the sheriffs since they so hastily cleaned the crime scene) who besides Madsen has seen them, and why aren’t they available to the public who trust these law enforcement and forensics experts to do at least the minimally competent job.
If it never occurred to the Sheriffs (who never mentioned even ‘bedding or pillows’ that a pillow or blanket could have been used as a ‘suppressor’, shouldn’t this investigation be redone from the beginning by someone less blinded by prejudice and with more skill in the area of murders?
Why haven’t the press releases been updated. Even the time of death is non-committal, though it’s significant if the time of death was Thursday (a school night) because Marshall’s last post at his twitter page was also on Thursday (Jan 31, 3013).
[The link below is NOT broken as of this writing. The other one posted at most blog pages and media sites is broken. -rs]
https://twitter.com/thebigbamboozle

Here’s a petition to have this case taken up by the DoJ.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/have-justice-department-investigate-murder-author-philip-marshall-and-his-son-and-daughter-murphys/JB99RB2p?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
Here’s an aireal view of the Marshalls’ house.
http://www.bollyn.com/public/Marshall_house_in_Murphys.jpg
The toxicology results should be in any time now. I guess the coroner hopes testing for drugs will make sense out of how the two kids who died on Saturday at 3 pm and/or Thursday night slept through getting shot along with their dog (but not the cat)
On Feb 6 the Union Democrat reports:
—- excerpts
The time of the discovery, 3 p.m. Saturday, will be listed as the official time of death.
—- end excerpts
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/More-murder-suicide-details
Among other strange details, the above article indicates that the wife whose account is the only person that knew him personally that provided a damaging character reference may have been video taped by Philip Marshall stealing opiates, after which she was arrested for breaking and entering, burglary, and possession of a controlled substance. Is that the ‘nurse’ who had so much to say about the man? But to balance things out the report also points out that someone somewhere thought he may have been spiraling into depression (which is not substantiated by the consistency of his posts from Jan 12-Jan 31, see twitter link below), and that this same ‘psychology expert’ evidently thinks that 91 percent of all males are likely to commit murder-suicides — or whatever that statistic is supposed to mean.
The sheriffs also allegedly said they’d look into whether or not Marshall was mentally ill and on medication, but that they would not release the results. Probably out of sensitivity for the accused suicide-assassin’s reputation, we might assume.
Fortunately for the sheriffs, their alibi is that their press release is barely what could be called “sketchy”. The press evidently pulled details such as the time of death out of thin air.
Note: If the cat was wounded in the senseless slaughter we may never know because the sheriffs quickly destroyed the evidence at the crime scene after their hasty conclusion as to what happened. The sweetest memorial to the family would be if a neighbor found the cat and took it in, I would think. But nobody’s talking up there. It’s almost like the whole area has been “terrorized”.
Dated feb 3.
The Sheriffs’ version:
http://sheriff.co.calaveras.ca.us/Portals/sheriff/Press/2013/Man%20Shoots%20Children%20then%20Himself%20in%20a%20Murder-Suicide.pdf
Dated feb 4.
The Sheriffs’ version:
http://sheriff.co.calaveras.ca.us/Portals/sheriff/Press/2013/Update-Correction_on_Murder-Suicide.pdf
In fact they didn’t tell whether paraffin tests were done, ballistics tests, to see if Marshall was indeed the killer, nor did they report any DNA from the cat which might have been wounded, since the alleged murderer managed to kill both of his kids, you’d imagine he’d have killed both of his pets too. And there’s no mention of photographs that might have been taken prior to the hasty cleanup of the crime scene. It appears that they relied only on ‘evidence found at the scene’, which is NOT specified in the press release.
So we ask, “WHAT EVIDENCE?” Was there any? Is there any now? (And who were the deputies that first advanced the “sleeping while getting shot” theory?)
And then there’s a question as to whether or not he killed any of them, actually.
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/news/article_71f9b8da-6e27-11e2-99e8-001a4bcf887a.html
tarquin feb 5, 2013
Phil was NOT depressed. He did NOT take his life. He did NOT murder his kids. Only a few days ago he said that “I have a gun, but it would be useless if I needed it because I got no bullets for it”, (then he laughed!). I knew Phil, and he had everything to live for and he doted over his two beautiful kids.
And it appears that the sheriffs themselves may not have been so sure either. For example, why did they contact the county supervisor that lived four doors down from Philip Marshall? Was it to get her opinion or to shape it.
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/news/article_71f9b8da-6e27-11e2-99e8-001a4bcf887a.html
Since the kids quit responding to text messages on Thursday and they didn’t go to school Friday, the coroner’s theory that the sleeping children were killed on Saturday afternoon (when the bodies were found) may be flawed. And if it is flawed, the most likely times of death would be Thursday.
Here’s Philip Marshall’s twitter page, not broken as of Feb 26, but you might want to download it.
https://twitter.com/thebigbamboozle
Notice that his posts are consistent in their tone from Jan 12 to Jan 31 (the Thursday the family most likely died). One interesting change though is his change from using tmblr.co to fb.me about a week before his death, and another interesting detail is a broken link to an RT.com article that was about rupert murdoch and the movie zero dark thirty.
So the ONLY evidence publicly available besides the sheriffs and coroner’s theory contradicts their conclusion. If they have photos of the crime scene or other evidence that could make sense of their conclusions it would be in the public interest as well as their own to publish the evidence that so far has not been forthcoming. If they do have this important data, how long should ‘new’ be ‘aged’ before it becomes relevant?
Wayne Madsen scooped the story and has learned that Philip Marshall was right handed and that he died from a gunshot to his left temple. That he was right handed can be verified by photos on the net. That he was shot in the left temple can NOT be verified. And so how did Madsen come across this information and is it even correct? Did he get it from the sheriffs? Not to kick a dead horse, but did they take photos of the crime scene before destroying the evidence? And why did Madsen zero in on this story rather than the Christopher Dorner manhunt which had ten times the number of google hits and culminated in a positive ID from a wallet and ID that somehow survived the conflagration undamaged?
http://santabarbaraview.com has closed the thread (search “philip marshal victim”), just as the final insult is due in from the lab in Sacramento.
Looks to me like this football field has the field goals, not in the end zones, but at the cheerleaders’ benches.
In any case, Marshall ends one of his articles at the top of this page
http://thebigbamboozle.tumblr.com/page/2
— excerpt
Yet, there is good news. The $15 trillion they have “lost” looking for Osama bin Laden did not vanish from the face of the earth, it simply went to a place where we can’t see it. Thanks to our founding fathers, American citizens come armed with a Constitution, and are backed with judicial and penal systems.
— end excerpt
And there’s your dangerous destroyer of innocent lives he’d spent so many years taking great care to preserve, protect, and defend.

Wayne Madsen Writes About Disinformation; Is He The Purveyor Of It?
Who lied about what side of the head Phillip Marshall’s head wound was on? Was it the sheriffs or was it Wayne Madsen.
Where did he get his info/disinfo?
We need an explanation from Madsen in order to figure out who lied.