Michael Ruppert was a former L.A. police officer who later tried to expose government corruption and drup smuggling. He is said to be a victim of Gang Stalking and later commited suicide.
Overview
Michael Craig Ruppert was an American writer, former Los Angeles Police Department officer, investigative journalist, political activist, and peak oil awareness advocate known for his 2004 book Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.
From 1999 until 2006, Ruppert edited and published From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website covering a range of topics including international politics, the CIA, peak oil, civil liberties, drugs, economics, corruption and the nature of the 9/11 conspiracy.
LAPD (1973-1978)
Ruppert joined the LAPD in 1973. He was assigned to handle narcotics investigations in the most dangerous neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Beginning in 1976, he made discoveries that led him to believe that he had stumbled onto a large network of narcotics traffickers and that the US military as well as the LAPD might be involved. He resigned from the force in November 1978.
Claims of Government Corruption & Harassment
On November 15, 1996, then Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch visited Los Angeles' Locke High School for a town hall meeting. At the meeting, Ruppert publicly confronted Deutch, saying that in his experience as an LAPD narcotics officer he had seen evidence of CIA complicity in drug dealing. He went on to become an investigative journalist and established the publication From The Wilderness, a watchdog publication that exposed governmental corruption, including his experience with CIA drug dealing activities.
In the summer of 2006, claiming government harassment, and fearing for his life, Ruppert left the United States with Raul Santiago for Venezuela, vowing not to return. The Ashland Daily Tidings reported that, in June 2006, Ruppert had accused a former female employee of burglarizing the offices of From The Wilderness, a case in which Ruppert himself was considered a potential suspect. Around the same time, the former female employee accused him in turn of sexual harassment. She said that Ruppert had fired her after she refused his sexual advances. Ruppert denied that he had sexually harassed her and said that "the case was based on a deliberate attempt to discredit his work, a movie coming out about his views and his former newsletter, From The Wilderness." In 2009, Ruppert was ordered to pay a $125,000 fine by the Oregon labor board in the case.
From The Wilderness Newsletter
From The Wilderness was a newsletter published from 1998 to 2006 by the media company, From The Wilderness Publications. The newsletter covered political and governmental issues. It was published eleven times per year but featured weekly updates online.
The end of From The Wilderness was announced in a post at the website on November 7, 2006. Reasons for the closure were detailed in the article. Ruppert claimed his bad health, glitches that disabled their web store, "problems of human origin" and his departure to Venezuela had led to the demise of From The Wilderness. After shutting down, From the Wilderness was sued by their landlord for unpaid rent owed on their Ashland office space. Later that year, Ruppert flew to Toronto, Canada, for medical treatment. The following statement was posted on the From The Wilderness website on November 26, 2006:
Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease. It is time to move on. I spent twenty-seven years as a dedicated public activist and that is something which I am no longer able or inclined to do. The price was ultimately too great.
Death
On April 13, 2014, Ruppert was found dead in Napa County at home just outside the Calistoga, California city limits. Ruppert died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. This was confirmed by close friend and property owner and landlord Jack Martin. Martin found Ruppert's body and suicide note. According to his business partner and last attorney of record, Wesley Miller, Ruppert shot himself after taping his final broadcast of The Lifeboat Hour with friend and colleague Carolyn Baker, Ph.D.
