• No immediate evidence suggests Jim was the victim of foul play, but a pathologist wants to examine all possibilities before releasing final ruling on cause of death.
By Pete Papaherakles —
After the tragic death of Jim Traficant on September 27, the phones at AMERICAN FREE PRESS began ringing off the hook with calls from Jim’s fans wanting to find out more information. Most callers were devastated by the news and seemed to feel that Jim had been murdered. Although there is no real proof of such a conspiracy, the overwhelming majority of the callers was convinced this was the case.
At this time, there doesn’t seem to be any concrete evidence of foul play. However, the possibility cannot be ruled out, as there are several anomalies with the official story that need to be examined.
The people who directly witnessed the incident are being suspiciously tight-lipped about what occurred. Andrew Thomson, the only eyewitness to the accident and the one to call 9-1-1, is not giving any interviews and even wanted his identity concealed. All interested parties have is Thomson’s 9-1-1 call saying Jim was pinned under the overturned tractor and didn’t appear to be breathing.
Perhaps the most important news has come from the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, which reported that the cause of Jim’s death was positional asphyxia, meaning Jim was pinned in such a way that he could not breathe.
According to forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph S. Ohr, Jr., who completed the autopsy on September 29, Jim never suffered a heart attack prior to the accident, as was widely rumored, nor was there any trace of drugs or alcohol in his system. More significant was Ohr’s finding that Jim had “no crushing injuries” to his body, as was reported from sources at the hospital.
The official story is that Jim’s tractor ran over a “blade” or scraper and the front end was elevated to the point that it flipped backward. Jim remained fixed on his seat as the tractor swung 180º over him. Being that the seat was lower than the top of the wheels and the top of the engine cover, Jim was compressed enough to restrict his breathing but somehow was not crushed by the one-and-half-ton tractor crashing on him.
Although Jim’s breathing appeared to have stopped due to the accident, after CPR was administered he began breathing on his own, and his heart was also beating on its own. The life support machines were only there as a backup.
Traficant never regained consciousness, however. His wife believed that Jim was already “brain dead” when the EMS got to him. “The brain can only go six minutes without oxygen,” she said, “and Jim went for seven-10 minutes before he got CPR; therefore, he is brain dead.”
Jim was breathing on his own even after he was taken off a backup respirator on September 26, and his heart was beating on its own. He was even snoring, according to family spokesperson Heidi Hanni.
“But there was no hope” of recovery, Hanni said. Jim was transported from St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown to the Hospice of the Valley on September 26 “to make him as comfortable as possible,” according to Hanni. Jim died at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 27.
On September 30, WKBN Ohio’s channel 27 said “family spokesperson Heidi Hanni confirmed that Jim Traficant’s remains have been cremated. Heidi Hanni confirmed that the cremation happened after a private family service Monday morning.”
The Vindicator, Youngstown’s local newspaper, reported that Traficant was actually buried on Monday morning.
Both of these seem to be wrong, however, as the coroner did not complete the autopsy until 5:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon.
The circumstances at the hospital, the hospice and the burial are somewhat vague, especially in light of the coroner’s report. But even stranger is how the tractor flipped over. It is difficult to visualize how Jim, who was well acquainted with the tractor, the terrain and the barn, presumably traveling at low speed on flat ground, could have capsized like this. Both the barn and the tractor had lights on, yet Jim must have not seen a fairly large object.
Although he reportedly had all his wits about him, Jim was unable to stop the tractor once he hit the object, and forged ahead forcefully enough to climb over the blade and flip the tractor. Even so, the blade was no taller than a foot and a half or so. How could it have caused the front of the tractor to rise high enough to flip over backward?
Ohr told this reporter that there’s been much speculation that something other than an accident may be to blame, given how careful a driver Traficant was. He wants to investigate further by examining the tractor and the EMS report that was taken at the time of the incident. He would also like to talk to Traficant’s trauma surgeon before making a final ruling on the cause of death.
Pete Papaherakles is a writer and political cartoonist for AFP and is also AFP’s outreach director. Pete is interested in getting AFP writers and editors on the podium at patriotic events. Call him at 202-544-5977 if you know of an event you think AFP should attend.
Traficant’s Legacy Lives in Project Freedom
By Jim Condit
When word got out that Jim Traficant, America’s most courageous officeholder of our generation, was in a serious mishap on his family farm and then that he had died the next day—to say that it was a shock is the understatement of the year. This certainly goes for myself, as I had been privileged to ride with Jim to and from his last several speeches over the last six months.
A few mental snapshots from what would turn out to be my last hours with Jim . . .
On an 11-hour trip to Youngstown, Ohio, on September 17, I drove for the first nine hours with Jim staying awake the entire time helping me navigate. A little past Columbus, it was daylight, so Jim took over, but told me I would have to stay awake in the passenger’s seat. That was easy with Jim telling me stories about his time in Congress. When he was recalling stories, as when he walked onto a stage, Jim was back in his prime, animated, eloquent and seemingly ageless. I think he loved telling those stories almost as much as we loved listening to them.
We got home on September 19, and a week later James Anthony Traficant, Jr. was dead.
Always bigger than life, Jim was a great leader, a true political martyr and a folk hero. As his longtime acquaintance Don Hanni said on a 1991 edition of “60 Minutes,” “If Traficant walks into a room and speaks to 10,000 blue collar workers, when he leaves, 9,999 of them will be on his side.”
Where now? The consensus is that all of us must carry on PROJECT FREEDOM USA with the Traficant spirit, as best we can. He is and was the very symbol of righteous defiance of tyranny. We need to look to him as our symbol. Jim’s story is that of the fight for America.
If you want a lift in spirit and in resolve, search for the newly released, moving, six-minute YouTube video by Mike Wayne, titled “James Traficant—A Tribute.”
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was a movie, but Mr. Traficant goes to Washington—that was real history.
For the past decade, Cincinnati-native Jim Condit, Jr. has traveled the country speaking on important issues such as vote fraud and the vital need for monetary reform in the United States. He also worked closely with Jim Traficant on the grassroots group, PROJECT FREEDOM USA, to help spread the word about Traficant’s plan for a retail sales tax. Currently, Condit is the Constitution Party’s congressional candidate in Ohio’s eighth district, running against the speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio). He can be reached at P.O. Box 11555, Cincinnati, Ohio 45211 or by calling 513-741-2095.
Jim had pretty much retired and was no imminent danger to the Hidden Hand – why would they want to take such a risk? Purely for revenge?
I always thought it was business not personal.
Exposing the Truth you’d better have a fast horse.
If they can kill JFK , and get away with it, Traficant is a small fish. You have to be an idiot to believe he died in accident.
THERE’S NOW A LONG LIST OF DEAD AMERICAN LEADERS .
ORGANIZED CRIME IS NOT WHITE PEOPLE WITH ITALIAN NAMES , DUHHH
IT’S THE JEWS !!! GET A CLUE … THE NAZIS WHERE THE GOOD GUYS !!
THE BAD GUYS ARE IN CONTROL HERE …. NOW WE’LL SEE HOW T OUGH AMERICA REALLY IS ..
FRANKLY , AMERICANS ARE SISSYS …
HE WAS OLD.
The very concept of “America as a Republic” was a Petri dish for the exportation of global capitalism through terror. The Civil War was the end of the last great wave of “Government Dissension.”
We as a Nation are marching lockstep with the NWO and their Luciferian agenda. Everything is going according to “The Plan.” Nothing to see here folks, move along!
Entinen vapaamuurari vetosi piispoihin viimeiseen saakka
Very few get out alive after saying something like this on national television.
Murdered by his wife for sure.
Traficant knew that what little remained of the Bill of Rights was destroyed on 9/11/2001, and that the next step would be outright tyranny.
His death by tractor accident sounds completely contrived, by those who wanted to murder him with plausible deniability.
There are poisons he could have been given that would not have shown up in a blood test. He could have even been rendered unconscious while driving his tractor as the result of a directed energy weapon attack.
Anything is possible. However, it is highly unlikely that Jim died in a tractor accident. The so-called accident was used to cover up the real cause of death. Some type of covert means which was made to appear as a accident.
Thoughts?
This should show you there is no way in hell you will ever win against the government. I mean they just won’t let it happen. They will not have someone like him take them to court. They will never let up. This should prove to everyone you will never change anything. In fact they have decided to get rid of billions of us and we should get them first, but we won’t so no use to discuss it.
You know if there was nobody around, then they might want to have killed him differently, because if they keep blatantly killing all the people like Jim, then the people might say f*ck it and Mr. G man can have problems real quick. In fact you people are going to wish you didn’t wait so long, because the government is getting stuff ready for you and all you’re doing is all you can do and that is wait for them to come and then each individual is going to have to decide what they are going to do. But the info is out there and you had better look at the videos from Deborah Tavares, Benjamin Fulford, and others like them. You got some bad sh*t coming down the pike.
Above statement is your answer as to how Jim was murdered.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
and on and on…
I´ve written a tribute for you, in Spanish.
By the way Pete, excellent article and I hope we find out the truth. For now in my book Jim was murdered. What transpired after the alleged accident most certainly wreaks of foul play and that places a huge question mark on the alleged accident itself.
So, you are comparing apples to oranges. But nice try, now go back to those who pay you to troll the net and try to change the opinions of commenters as well as create doubt of the facts revealed by the article’s author with a story about some guy named Buck on your daddy’s farm.
Jim was a thorn in the side of the Israeli/Jewish lobby, which is why he was railroaded. And Jim was working on educating people about who controls the U.S. as well as speaking at events like Freedompalooza. Jim was and still is someone they fear. Will these anti-American forces seek to destroy Project Freedom and anyone who carries on Jim’s movement? Perhaps so, so long as they have people like you Elaine that seem hellbent on minimizing Jim’s cause of death by writing it off as some simple accident where you claim that tractors can flip over easily.
This reminds me of the circumstances and facts surrounding Patton’s death. Patton was a threat and planned on coming home to expose the lies of WWII and run for office. Eisenhower and his communist buddies couldn’t allow that to happen.
We must carry Jim’s torch of freedom forward and rid this country of the Marxists and communists.
Buck drove a tractor across a creek on our farm. When he got to the far side, the tractor lost traction on the uphill grade. It tipped over backward and crushed Buck.
I believe that tractors can be unstable and may easily tip over.
POS Judge Wells gave her husband immunity to testify against him which is illegal in many ways.
Edgar Steele believed in law, he did not believe that America is a gangster form of government.
Jim must also in some way must have believed that America was not a gangster form of government otherwise he would have been a lot more cautious.
Too suspicious. Typical murder by our cowardly and creepy “rulers.” They are sending a message to anyone else who thinks of being as courageous as Jim Traficant was. We need more like him, willing to stand up to these evil and inhuman cowards. But we need so many that murdering them all is not an option.
I do not believe for minute that this was an “accident.” I suspect this was plain assassination pure and simple surrounded by the usual government lies. Hey, Edgar Steele was recently murdered and I sincerely hope Dr. David Duke has some good security measures in place. The Marxists bastards running our government will stoop to any low level. They are afraid of people like Jim Traficant and Edgar Steele. I also suspect the same culprits had a hand in the death of Dr. William Pierce of the National Alliance some years ago. In God We Trust. In liberals we do not believe a damn thing they say.
We will all miss Jim Traficant. His death is an enormous loss. Accidents do happen.
Look to JFK to Sen. Wellstone to Judge Mahoney.
What is “hyperbolic” about the title which is actually a question? Are you trying to cover for your democrat cronies who had him killed?
Hyperbole? What is hyperbolic about a title that is a question!
Has the stench of Mossad/CIA all over it!
JIM TRAFICANT WILL LIVE IN THOSE OF US WHO ARE READY TO TELL THE TRUTH, AND TO LIVE UP TO HIS EXAMPLE.
You need to quit with the National Enquirer-style HYPERBOLIC titles!