Dave Burgess is the subject of a recent book titled Framing Dave Burgess and also the author of a newsletter written in prison titled Dave’s World Behind The Barbwire. He commented publically on the book about his case in the 46th edition of his newsletter published on September 14.
This is what Burgess had to say:
Greetings everyone. I hope you are all doing well in this third quarter of 2013. I am doing pretty good. I have developed a cough that seems to not want to go away. I have been to the medical facility here on the compound and they gave me a chest x-ray, some antibiotics for infection, some cough pills for the cough (they actually seem to work) and an inhaler to break up any congestion in my chest. I am feeling better, but I do still have a slight cough.
In this issue of Behind the Barbwire I would like to make a few observations and personal comments regarding the new book by Donald Charles Davis (The Aging Rebel) entitled Framing Dave Burgess.
First I want to say that even though I was not very enthusiastic about having The Aging Rebel dragging this very low point in my life through the public eye again, I am in a way thankful for it also. The main reason I was not interested in having the story retold even in my favor was because of all the embarrassment I know it caused and will continue to cause all of the innocent characters in the story. I will speak more on that subject shortly.
I know this story was written from the view point of an investigative reporter so I had no way of knowing what was or was not going to be included. All of the comments that are attributed to me were in fact made by me. I am sure all of you have already read everything of what was said by me in this book before. You read all those words right here in my many issues of Behind the Barbwire.
I believe all of the other information came to The Aging Rebel directly from the court transcripts and also maybe people who were directly involved in the case.
Reading this book is the second hardest thing I have ever done in my life. The hardest thing in my life was to sit through the actual court trial and listen to all of the awful things the prosecuting attorney had to say about me. And the way the contrived evidence against me was spun to try to make me look like some kind in insane psychopath.
If I would have had any control of what should not have been included in the book, it would have been the chapter entitled “The Hells Angels.” I know and agree with the Club about being tired of reading the name Hells Angels in any book when the book was not first endorsed by the Club.
I believe the chapter entitled “The Family Owned Business” was appropriate. After all, we are all products of our surroundings. There was one or two mix-ups in family relationships but I think they did not interrupt the flow of the story and can be forgiven.
All of the other chapters seemed to be right on the mark, and after all, there would not be a story without those chapters.
After all these years I still do not know how all of those thousand of internet style illegal-porn pictures got on those hard drives. I only know how they did not get put on there. I still believe that a defendant trying to prove a conspiracy theory is almost impossible. On the other hand, conspiracies seem to always be proven by federal prosecuting attorneys even with little or no hard evidence?
Also as a side note, when the FBI later raided my house and confiscated all of my computer equipment and all other digital storage devices in my home, there seems to be some controversy regarding what they may have found in regards to anything illegal. First they say they found nothing that would help them with the case, and then they say there may have been one illegal picture on my computer but they were not sure? (The picture never made it into the evidence. But the casual remark did.) As close as I can figure, what they may be have found was on a regular basis I would check the email account of the Old Bridge Ranch/ Mustang Ranch brothel. And I can tell you that on a regular basis I would receive all kinds of unsolicited email and x-rated advertisements that I would just delete. After all, the email address was connected to a brothel so you can imagine the advertizing that was deposited into the account. Back in 2007 unsolicited email was showing up every day and I was sure that a lot of those emails were infected with viruses so I just deleted them without ever opening them. As I think back on it, even back then, I wondered how much of that stuff was coming from some three letter government agency trying to trip me up and close the brothel down.
Now I come to the hardest part of this newsletter that needs to be dealt with. That is the evidence regarding the captions that were placed on some of the picture of a young lady who was in my care. Those captions were the hardest thing I had to look at and read during that trial. Those words were so degrading that were written about that young lady. That is the closest I have ever come to going over the top. There were other degrading things such as the many pages of text they say were found on the hard drives related to me and that young lady. After talking to many computer experts who are doing time in prison for a number of different reasons, I have come to the conclusion that no one had to take the time to write all that stuff and place it on those hard drives. All someone had to do was take an existing story that was already in a digital library somewhere and highlight one or more of the participant’s names and change those names, and all other references to those names would be changed to any name the manipulator chose. At that point all someone had to do was take the existing hard drives that already had many hundreds or maybe even thousands of my photos from events, parties, and motorcycle runs over the years and the backups from my davesworld website and transfer the stories to those hard drives along with all those thousand of forensic internet style illegal digital pictures.
So as I was sitting here reading this book by The Aging Rebel and I started reading those captions that were placed on some of those pictures taken at the Winnemucca motorcycle run, I again was transported back to that awful time in that court room. I felt so helpless then and I still feel helpless today about how those captions must make that young lady feel. The damage has been done. Even though I may have been vindicated by the investigation that The Aging Rebel came up with in Mr. Gene Jone’s testimony (Mr. Jone was the forensic expert used by my attorney) regarding the LEAD Technologies software that was used to make those captions (page 150 in the book), there is still no way to make those words go away. Someone wanted me out of business and they would sacrifice any innocent person to make that happen.
Read the book if you want. I am sure it will piss you off. It pissed me off. Remember, even though I may have been vindicated in the book, to me it was not worth it dragging that young lady through the pit once again.
Thank you all. I hope there are not too many typos.
You can read Burgess’ newsletter here.
You can browse or buy a copy of Framing Dave Burgess here.