Someone Knows Something - S7 E2: Remembrance

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

In the 1990s, three Canadian abortion providers are shot and gravely injured — all about a year apart, all around Remembrance Day. David begins his examination of these attacks by speaking to Canadian family members. In so doing, David discovers connections between the Canadian shootings and the murder of Amanda Robb’s uncle, Dr. Barnett Slepian. An eyewitness account reveals new information publicly for the first time. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/someone-knows-something-the-abortion-wars-transcripts-listen-1.6736516

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The following episode contains mature subject matter. Please take care. oh hi is that mrs feynman if you have my name's fagy they don't give a shit about women i mean it's it's like the anti-vaxxers, you know? I mean, like, to me, they're irrational. But they hang into these belief systems. You need to go figure that irrationality out. Real life doesn't matter. I'd like these guys to have a few babies at a time of life that's not good for them. This is Faggy Feynman in her 80s. Her husband, Dr. Jack Feynman, was shot through the back window of their Winnipeg home on November 11, 1997. Dr. Feynman was the third Canadian abortion provider to be shot in this way

during the series of unsolved shootings in the 90s that Amanda Robb and I are now investigating together. I want to know more about the Canadian crime scenes. Dr. Romalis in British Columbia, Dr. Short in Ontario and Dr. Feynman in Manitoba. Are they tied together? The best place to start is with the Canadian family members. They shot Jack while his back was to the window. The blinds were basically opened all the time. My husband was watching TV when he got shot.

And there was a big hole. Luckily, it was a triple glass. So it didn't, you know, that was lucky because otherwise if it would have gone straight in, he'd be dead. There are intriguing similarities between the way Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot in Buffalo and the Canadian shootings. Also, the timing.

All of the shootings occurred around Remembrance Day, Veterans Day in the United States, in what would become known as the Remembrance Day shootings, a day some in the anti-abortion movement reserved to remember what they call unborn children, or the pre-born. He loved delivering babies. He liked life. Jack was shot in the shoulder, but lived. He died in March of 2014 at the age of 83 of an illness while on a vacation in Mexico. I think that, you know, people believe that, I don't know what they believe, frankly.

They believe that you shouldn't kill potential life. And I guess most of these men figure that the women should be there with the babies. The life of the woman has no value. The life of the potential child has all the value. Mrs. Feynman hasn't spoken much about her husband's shooting to the media. I want to know if over the years she's heard anything from police about who might have been involved. From what I understand from the police, we were stalked for a year.

We were told we were being watched for a year and that he had a support group here, of course. My kids were harassed, too. And I wouldn't give any interviews with the paparazzis. I was told it was dangerous to talk, and it probably was. And you know that the cops screwed up. Somehow or other, the communication either didn't come through or somebody fucked up here in Winnipeg. They were supposed to warn us all to be super careful that weekend.

I don't know if you know that. How did the police become aware, do you think, that something was coming? There was some communication from God knows where, if it was Ottawa or wherever, and they told the Winnipeg police, maybe they told all the police in Canada, I don't know, that they should warn the doctors that, you know, somebody's looking for them. I see. Or something like that. That would be worthwhile looking into. Unlike other police I've contacted,

Winnipeg seems reluctant to help in any way on my endeavor, so I can't confirm what may have been done or said prior to Dr. Feynman's shooting. The question remains, who was doing the stalking, and why did they choose Dr. Feynman? I'm David Ridgen, and this is Someone Knows Something, Season 7, Episode 2, Remembrance. I was just watching television, and all of a sudden I heard a bang. And I could see there was blood, so then that's when I shouted to my wife, I said,

Fadi, I think I've been shot. Dr. Feynman spoke with CBC News just over two years before he passed away. I saw during my residency the bad results of abortion that was not done in a hospital with under sterile conditions. I'm a very strict pro-choice. I think women absolutely should do what they want with their bodies and I just resent that other people want to take this privilege away. Could you ever have conceived that you might have been targeted?

Was it something you'd ever passed your mind? Never. You know why? Because my husband was a humanitarian. He wasn't a political person like me. I'm out there trying to change the world. But he just, as a humanitarian, thought it was the right thing to do. Our life changed totally. My husband had to give up his practice.

He was 66. Insurance ran out at 65. His baby catching arm was paralyzed for three years. So he just had to give his practice up totally. And frankly, I had to suddenly be a good wife. I was very political. I was going all over the place, doing some of this sort of work. We were investigating governments that were against human rights, and I had to give it all up and become a good wife and sort of support my husband.

So my life changed, too. Big time. And so I had to abandon it because I was freaked out of my head anyway. We were sleeping on the floor with the window blinds closed. And, you know, it was really scary stuff. That's awful. Do you happen to be Jewish? I am not Jewish. You know what the word mensch means? Yes.

A great guy. Dr. Feynman's son, Brad. I've reached him in Winnipeg, too. My dad was a mensch. Okay? Nicest guy on the planet. Would be there to help everybody. Would give you the shirt off his back.

And during the course of his career he did about 6 000 deliveries okay and he did about 60 abortions about one percent of what he did and i remember once asking him i said, why did you go into obsgyny? And he says, it's one of the only branches of medicine where people are in it for a good reason, that they're coming to see a doctor for a good reason. They're not dying of cancer. They're not sick. They're there where it is ultimately a joyous occasion for the majority of people. And he said, when I would deliver a baby, the parents would often start crying.

And he says, I'd cry with them. And back then, when teenagers, young women got pregnant, there was not too many choices. So, you know, these young kids had to resort to what they called backline abortion. Okay, and the girls would begin to bleed, and some would die in the backline. It was the old coat hanger up the vagina into the uterus to try and scrape out the fetus. And this also was extremely dangerous. And it just totally, totally freaked me out that my dad, again, who's the nicest guy in the world, could be shot by some lunatic.

No one was ever charged in Dr. Feynman's shooting. I asked Brad if he can remember anything about the police investigation that might help me find out who was involved. The Feynman house was erected on stilts along the shore of the Red River. A long, grassy berm, built to keep the house from flooding, became the perfect hiding and scoping place for the shooter. Brad doesn't think there was anything found at the scene, but I have heard that there was something discovered on the berm. I've also heard that there was a neighbor who saw a vehicle and it could have been had his car parked.

And off he went and headed down to the States. The he Brad is referring to here is James Kopp, the same man who murdered Dr. Barnett Slepian in Amherst, New York in 1998. I ultimately found out that, you know, here in Winnipeg we're about an hour from the border, and I was subsequently told that after my dad got shot, his car went through customs at the U.S. border on his way back to the United States.

And who told you that? God, I don't know. We're talking like 30 years ago. Dr. Feynman was shot around 8.50 p.m. local time. FBI documents show that three hours and 20 minutes later, a black 1987 Chevy Cavalier registered to COP crossed the border into the U.S. at Pemina, North Dakota, just over 100 kilometers from Winnipeg, a distance easily driven in that time from when the shooting

happened. Fourteen days earlier, COP's Cavalier entered Canada at Niagara Falls, just four hours after a doctor in Rochester, New York, had been shot at. I finish talking to Brad, but I'm curious what Feggy thinks of what I'm doing. Should I be trying to find these people that helped, let's say, a cop in doing this? Should I be trying to talk to them? Should I be trying to hold them accountable? Do you think that it's an important thing for me to be doing? It would be great if you could do it,

but they're not going to come forward and say that they helped them. I mean, why would they come forward? But I think they should be accountable. It would be great if you could unravel it, but you won't be able to. I don't think it'll be too difficult. People too easily hide from it. I'm thankful for Feggy's honest opinion here. It won't be easy.

Some of the anti-abortion writings I've seen make it crystal clear to its readers how those who undertake anti-abortion violence can make this hiding in plain sight happen. The manifesto attributed to Army of God states, God is the general and commander-in-chief. The soldiers, however, do not usually communicate with one another. Very few have ever met each other, and when they do, each is usually unaware of the other's soldier status. Loose lips sink ships, basically, not rocket science. So we're left on the ground,

looking for witnesses, people who have had a change of heart, or those with just the courage to speak their truth. How do you hold the unaccountable accountable? Thank you. and connections and possibilities. From youth shelters to job training, mental health counseling and beyond, the YMCA offers hundreds of programs that empower people to shine their brightest. See our charity's impact at ymcagta.org slash charity. Oh, that coffee smells good. Can you pass me the sugar when you're finished? Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing?

That's salt, not sugar. Let's get you another coffee. Feeling distracted? You're not alone. Many Canadians are finding it hard to focus with mortgage payments on their minds. If you're struggling with your payments, speak to your bank. The earlier they understand your situation, the more options and relief measures could be available to you. Learn more at Canada.ca slash it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada.ca slash itpaystoknow. A message from the Government of Canada. Do we think that Kopp will talk to you or I or both of us? Um, I would be surprised if he wouldn't.

Amanda and I are talking about a potential approach to James Kopp, who is now serving his life sentence in a California prison for killing her uncle. Since Amanda has some history with meeting and speaking to him, I wonder if she would rather take the lead in trying to communicate. I'm reasonably confident Kopp will want to talk, but about what and with whom is the question. It'd be good to go and directly ask him these questions and just have him... There's a case to be made for you doing it, and not me, because I provoke, obviously, feelings in him. I would encourage you to do that, I think.

I mean, I'll think about it more, but that's my gut. That's probably a good idea, yeah. Thus the quest to speak to COP begins, and that's going to take a while. Before that, I need to talk to a lot more people, including eyewitnesses. Hello? Hi, is that Sheila?

Yes. Hi, Sheila, it's David Ridgen calling. This is Sheila Ramalas. Her husband, Dr. Gary Ramalas, was the first Canadian abortion provider shot. We don't call them pro-life. We never use that word. I'm pro-life. So, we just don't use that word ever. What do you call them? I call

myself pro-choice. I call them anti-abortionists. We're losing ground is what's happening. It was November 1994 and Sheila was upstairs when Dr. Ramales was shot through a sliding glass door that looked out onto their backyard. Gary survived the shooting, but he passed away in 2014 after an illness at the age of 76. Sheila also hasn't spoken much to the media about her husband's case. He never was an activist, and he didn't fall into it. He actually made a concerned decision that this is what I'm going to do because I want these women to be able to have a clean, safe place to have this procedure. Sheila tells me about the summer before the shooting. They were getting some mysterious mailings of letters, she says,

that were from a priest who taught at Vancouver College, a Catholic boys' school several blocks away. Anyway, there was a priest there who was sending my husband letters. Our address was listed, our phone number was listed. We lived a very ordinary life, except that we would occasionally have nails thrown onto our driveway and get flat tires. What was the content of the letters? It's not too late to repent. You can stop killing babies if you want to. All kinds of crap like that.

My husband, it took him four years to recuperate. Sheila says Gary complained to the school and the priest was reprimanded, but she says he continued his letter writing. In September, we had another incident of the nails, but then we also had a letter sent to all our neighbors for a two-block radius saying, you've got a murderer living in your midst. Did you know that? Toward the end of October 1994, she and Gary went on a short holiday. They came home Sunday, November 6th, and Gary was back to work the next day, November 7th, the day before he was shot.

He always woke up at 7 o'clock. He was always downstairs. He was sitting at the kitchen table at 10 after 7 every single day. You could set your clock with it. And we we never had drapes on our back sliding glass door to the patio because I like nature and I like to see our garden and he would sit there at 7 10 and finish eating at 7.20 and be back upstairs. So this particular morning, Monday morning the 7th, my birthday, he got up an hour early.

Gary got up an hour earlier than usual because he knew he'd have mail to catch up on at work after being away on holiday. So he had left the house by a quarter to seven. At ten after seven, the phone rang. And I answered the phone, and the person said, Is Dr. Romalis there? And I said, No, he's not here. You can reach him on his answering service.

And this is the number. And I gave it. And the person said, well, isn't he supposed to be there? And I said, I'm sorry, he's not here. You can reach him on his answering service and this is the number and I hung up and I was so tired I fell back asleep and at 25 after just after I had fallen back asleep the phone rang again and I picked it up and I immediately recognized that it was the same voice and the guy said is Dr. Romales there and I said I'm sorry he's not here and I've told you that you can reach him on his answering machine and I gave him the number again and when I did the guy said but isn't this 1338 West 46th and And I said, he isn't here. You can reach him on his answering machine. And I gave him the number again and I hung up.

And this time I unplugged the phone. So we were all meeting at my favorite sushi place for dinner for my birthday. And I said to Gary, did that guy get you? Did he speak to you? He was really insistent on speaking with you. And Gary said, nobody called me. Nobody left me a message. So we went back to the house after dinner. And the morning of the 8th, he got up and he went downstairs and he sat down at the table at 7.10 and was shot. Right away? Yep, right away. He was wearing his bathrobe.

That's all he had on. And the first shot came in and hit him in the upper thigh and severed the artery. Femoral artery? Yes. Thank you. And the force of it was so hard that he fell off the chair to the right and the blast made a hole about the size of a grapefruit. The second bullet went right into the back of the chair and if he had been sitting there it would have gone through his heart. We couldn't figure out how he didn't pass out or go into shock that he stayed so awake.

With spurts of blood shooting from his leg, Dr. Ramales fashioned a tourniquet out of his bathrobe belt, and it helped to save his life. At the scene, police say the shooter used a 7.62mm bullet, the same kind used later in Dr. Slepian's shooting. They also found a roll of tape that the shooter used to tape down a garbage can lid so that it wouldn't make noise as it was used as an armrest. The shooter removed leaves from the ground and shell casings were found at the scene. There were no known witnesses to the shooting and Sheila says that the shooter probably escaped in a vehicle that was parked

close by. Dr. Ramales dragged himself into the front hallway and yelled up at Sheila, who was in her bedroom on the second floor, to call 911, which their daughter was able to do. She dialed 911. I shut the bedroom door, locked it, and stood there. But I was standing right above that little passageway, and I was hearing... That's what I was hearing, which was his elbow hitting the tile, because he was dragging himself into that area. And I thought we were done for. I thought the shooter was coming through that way to come upstairs. So my daughter, she was on the phone trying to tell them that somebody had shot her father, who was on the floor, bleeding heavily,

and could they send an ambulance and the police and everybody? And they said, well, why do you think your father was shot? And she said, because he does abortions. And we've got the tape of this. And they said, what do you mean? Anyway, less than five minutes passed, and I heard him shout out, Sheila, come downstairs. I need you to hold the tourniquet.

I guess he felt that he was going to pass out. Well, I came running downstairs, and i turned the corner to where he was but there was so much blood there that i slid on the blood and smashed into the dresser in that passageway and kind of almost fell on top of him but when i got down on the floor and saw him lying there, it looked to me like the leg was severed. There was just so much blood. I just, it was terrible. And so I hung on to that. He showed me where he wanted me to hold it.

He said, hold it tight and don't let go. Just hold it tight and don't let go. Just hold it tight and don't let go. And I did. I held it so tight and I was in such shock that they couldn't get me to open my hands to let go. Dr. Ramallah spoke to CBC Radio months after the shooting. The person who shot me is almost certainly an anti-abortionist. I don't believe it is possible for only one person to know about this.

Gary also spoke to America's Most Wanted for a program that aired after Dr. Slepian was shot. There's no question in my mind that this man was trying to kill me. I'd like to see the person who shot me brought to justice. What he did to me and my life and my family is unforgivable, and he should be punished for it. But there's another more important element, because he didn't only shoot me. He shot all doctors.

Was there anyone who had seen anything that day? Was there any witnesses that you know of that came forward? To this day, nobody did. But I didn't realize that the guy that I saw was who he was, the guy in the back lane. Sheila says she saw something in October, before Gary was shot, that she hasn't ever revealed publicly before. Something that didn't concern her so much at the time, but would later become of utmost importance. At the beginning of October, there was this man leaning against the telephone pole, which was against the back fence of our neighbors.

And he was wearing this maroon-colored velour tracksuit, and he had a baseball cap on NYC and she had sort of light brown blondish hair and glasses wire rimmed glasses and he had been leaning against that pole but as soon as I came out he started walking up towards Hudson Street in the direction going east up the lane. And at the time, I didn't think anything of it because I thought maybe he was just kind of resting. He'd been exercising, going for a walk or something. You know, I really, really didn't think anything about it. Now, this person obviously had been watching every morning you could see from our back fence you could see right into our kitchen to the kitchen table so after slept in what happened was I was watching the 11 o'clock news

and I suddenly saw the guy that had been in our lane and I like I screamed I I am positive it was James Cobb that was the face that I saw in my back lane I know it was him leaning against that that post and wearing the tracksuit and the hat and he had been casing our home i was absolutely i i went ballistic because i said gary gary that's the guy that was in our back lane that's the guy and you know i i was positive and we called it to texas and they actually have a record of cop crossing in a car crossing the border into the United States. They have a record of cop passing from Canada to Blaine in the U.S. on the 8th. On the 8th of November 1994? Yes, correct. FBI documents I've obtained do state intriguing intriguingly, that on October 9th, 1994, one month before Dr. Ramales was shot, U.S. Border Patrol in Blaine, Washington ran James Charles Kopp's

name through their database and then ran a search for someone whose name is redacted. Someone I can only assume must have been with him. I'd like to find out who redacted is, this person who was with Cop. What do they know? And in a way, this brings us around to the reason I've called Sheila and the Feynmans and met with Lynn Slepian in the first place. There was a conviction for the murder of Dr. Slepian, but is there truth yet to be found, justice yet to be served, for those other cases of anti-abortion violence?

Three Canadian shootings without resolution. I wonder how RCMP messaged what was going on to the families, to Sheila at the time. They told us why he wouldn't be prosecuted here. What did they say? How did they say that? They said they did not have enough evidence per case in Canada. Well, they said that because in the States he killed Slepian, that that's where they'd have the best chance of getting him. I was positive that he had shot Gary, so I was delighted that

he was caught. In the course of their investigation, did the police ever give you any hints or tell you about any individuals that they were looking at in Vancouver area or other people? They looked at several people and questioned several people there, and so they did have names of people. Vancouver police have been slow to be of assistance, but I'm trying. My call with Sheila begins to wind down, but not before she tells me that in the year 2000, Dr. Ramales was attacked again, six years after he'd been shot. Ramales had returned to work providing abortions and was stabbed by an unknown assailant on his way into a clinic. Sheila says a young man, dark hair, about 5'10", with no glasses. Cop was on the run outside the U.S. at this time. The stabbing wasn't solved

either. If police do help me, I'd like to know if some of the same names they compiled to look at for Dr. Ramales' shooting were on the list for his stabbing. For Sheila, it all boils down to one thing. Well, the whole thing is that we just have to make sure that choice is available. In the process of trying to find documents, I've discovered that James Kopp is currently engaging with the U.S. courts in an attempt to have his conviction for second-degree murder in the Slepian case vacated. I send him a letter at the California prison he is currently in to see if he would like to talk about that and also to talk about his actions. Outside of those who may have helped him, only he can tell me what

he might have done, when, and why. After several weeks, I receive a reply. He's working on arranging a phone call with me, and also, he adds, This has been hosted, written, and produced by me, David Ridgen. The series is also produced by Hadil Abdel-Nabi, Steph Kampf, and Amanda Robb. Sound design by Evan Kelly. Emily Cannell is our digital producer, and our story editor is Chris Oak. Our executive producer is Cecil Fernandez, and the director of CBC Podcasts is Arif Noorani.

If you want to help new listeners discover the show, please rate and review wherever you listen. If you're looking for another investigative series to listen to, check out Uncover from CBC Podcasts. Find Uncover on the CBC Listen app, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.