More to the Story

Some of artist Ed Leeper’s tales belie the facts.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Your recent article on Ed Leeper [“Piece of Work,” April 24-30] has raised two bothersome issues for me. The first is that I am embarrassed being associated with Leeper in his relentless quest for glory. This is your publication’s second article featuring Leeper in which I am referenced. Yes, I conceived of and organized both July 4 parade tank protests in 1992 and 1999 in which Leeper participated. But there are important aspects that need clarification.

Your article has some misstatements regarding what happened in 1999 that I’d like to address. You stated: “… police pounced on Leeper and Smith when they laid down in front of tanks rolling down Alvarado… ”

There was only one Army tank, and neither Leeper nor I “laid” down in front of it. A review of KION-TV news video shows that 1) Leeper stopped a Humvee which was about 300 feet ahead of the already stopped tank; 2) Leeper was immediately escorted by two policemen off the roadway (then taken to the ground when he resisted them); and 3) While Leeper was struggling with the police on the roadside, I “sat” in front of the tank until I was arrested moments later.

The reality is that neither Leeper nor I was “pounced” upon by the police; and neither were Steve Pokabla or Alex Holidiloff who also were arrested when stopping the tank farther down Alvarado. Sadly, Steve died of heart failure a week after our arrests.

Leeper still thrives on seeking celebrity by trying to perpetuate his urban legend with misrepresented facts.

Although told by our lawyers to keep a low profile, in August 1999 Leeper was selected by the local ACLU for a lifetime achievement award after he submitted these misleading facts: “served in the Infantry, Airborne, Artillery, Armor, Combat Engineers, Medical Corps and Special Forces (Green Berets)”. After my protesting his distorted military record, Leeper rescinded it in an Aug. 28, 1999 letter he also forwarded to the Monterey County Herald: “Although I was assigned to Special Forces as a Personnel Officer I never took Special Forces training and was never awarded a ‘Full Flash’ indicating I was a Special Forces-qualified soldier. In effect I am a person who has misled the public by making up a story that I was Special Forces qualified when I was not, i.e., I am a want to be.”

Leeper’s grandstanding publicly backfired on him while destroying Alex’s and my chance of having the charges dropped by forcing the district attorney’s hand with a request for a jury trial. Instead, we were compelled to plead guilty.

Pathetically, although a minor and problematic player in a simple act of civil disobedience nearly a decade ago, Leeper still thrives on seeking celebrity by trying to perpetuate his urban legend with misrepresented facts.

The second issue is Leeper’s exploitation of the Purple Heart. I’m offended because I had six friends and 58,256 comrades die in Vietnam. Your article asks the reader to choose whether Leeper is an innovator, an idiot, an artist or an eccentric. But to many war veterans, the article shifts focus from Leeper’s bizarreness and begs the questions: “Why is he so obsessed with media attention on ‘his’ Purple Heart? Was he really wounded in Korea? Did this personnel clerk issue medals to himself?

Leeper has told me two different versions of how he was wounded in Korea. On the first day we met back in 1984, he told me his teeth were knocked out when a bullet came through his helmet and struck his jaw. In 1991 he told me that as a personnel clerk in Korea he was bored one day, so he hitched a ride with the mail jeep to see the frontlines and was wounded in his legs by artillery shrapnel.

After our arrests I challenged Leeper on how a personnel office worker in Vietnam could receive an Air Medal and two Bronze Star Medals? His response was that he issued the Air Medal to himself and one of the Bronze Stars was also phony. Leeper’s records show that orders for an Air Medal and a Bronze Star were both dated on Jan. 26, 1968, but neither medal has awarding citations. His second and third Bronze Stars suspiciously overlap the same time period; one is for action from April 29, 1967 to Jan. 22, 1968, the other from May 1, 1967 to April 18, 1968.

Leeper’s official Army records list a Purple Heart Medal (but there is no accompanying award citation) and his typed DD214 (final discharge certificate) cites many medals – but not the Purple Heart.

Finally, Leeper recently told a member of the Order of the Purple Heart that he received a minor foot wound in Korea and spent two-and-a-half months recovering at a hospital in Japan – which would be very odd for a minor injury.

Aside from these glaring inconsistencies, “… to pour animal blood all over ‘his’ Purple Heart” is a vainglorious act, a desecration of the medal and an insult to all those (alive or dead) officially awarded this medal for wounds sustained by hostile enemy fire. This is not an art form that has any redeeming value other than to piteously glorify the “artist.”