Just what happened on the night of June 13, 1974?
Ron Caspers |
Way out west: Guadalupe Island |
On Wednesday, a well-known psychic was flown to the search area, meeting with the volunteers at the El Presidente [hotel in Guerrero Negro] that evening to give his impressions of the voyagers washed up on a rocky island and huddled in caves. He was flown next morning to scan islands where he felt survivors might be found. One of the photo planes was dispatched to Guadalupi Island, 200 miles to the west, to photograph its shores after another seer had a vision of the men clinging to rocks there. (From "The Last Voyage of the Shooting Star, part 2," by Wayne Clark; Orange County Illustrated, Dec., 1974)Gosh, I wonder if they tossed chunks of cash into the ocean, too? That would have been more useful.
Guadalupe Island: psychic misdirection |
Nothing was found.
Thursday evening, a week after the sinking, the Coast Guard finally headed home, but the volunteers back in Guerrero Negro planned for yet another day of searching, this time further south another 100 miles.
Tom Fuentes, 1973 |
insisted they abandon the plan and return home. Caspers’ executive aide, Tom Fuentes, reasoned the risk of one of the volunteer planes going down at sea was too great, now that the Coast Guard had withdrawn. The chance that any of the Shooting Star party still survived was also very slim. Reluctantly, the volunteer squadron returned home. (LVSS)I find this odd. —Not the decision, but who seemed to make it. Fuentes could not have been senior among the crew back in Santa Ana, which seemed to count some fairly powerful county figures among its members. He was a mere Supervisor’s aid and at most 25 years old. He had no military or rescue experience.
Why was this green kid making decisions for the search effort? Why would he be even advising the éminences grises huddled in that office in Santa Ana?
I’ve got other questions.
Tommy Klein, Supervisor Clark's "executive aide" |
Was Clark acquainted with some of the victims of the Shooting Star disaster? And was he close to Fuentes or to others directly involved in commanding or executing the search efforts?
And, again, why does Fuentes have so prominent a role?
Possibly, Fuentes was close to Caspers’ family and to Caspers’ wife. I came across an article about the SS disaster (dated 6/24/74) that reports:
Fuentes said he and Caspers’ wife, Ann, had asked Caspers not to make the trip. “Premonition is perhaps too strong a word to use here,” Fuentes said, “but Ann and I had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Neither of us liked the boat.”I dunno. Maybe Fuentes was close to the family and that gave him special authority with regard to whether the search effort should continue.
No doubt there are perfectly good answers to my questions. I wonder if Clark is still around? I might give ‘im a call.
* * *
Cella's search heads south |
But Dr. Louis Cella, a close associate of Caspers and Harber (and the boss of OC’s then political machine—aka the OC “shadow government”), pushed on with great determination. He hired four airborn spotters for the tuna industry to scan the area south of Cedros Island all the way to Magdalena Bay, 300 miles away. They found nothing.
Cella also hired (through a Mexican go-between) perhaps as many as 200 villagers to search the beaches. That effort was continuing as Clark was writing his articles (in late 1974).
As I indicated earlier, the SS’s Boston Whaler was eventually found on July 4 by a Swedish freighter, 60 miles south southwest of Magdalena Bay. (That’s 350 miles south of where the other debris was found.) The whaler was “awash” with its outboard motor “attached.” There “were no signs of fire or explosion,” writes Clark. The Coast Guard examiner was convinced that none of the crew had been aboard.
According to some calculations, the Coast Guard searchers likely passed over the whaler several times without spotting it.
* * *
Clark ends his story with the conclusion of two court hearings:Ronald Caspers, Fred Harber, Caspers’ two sons, Erik and Kirk, Leonard Bashor, his nephew, Robert Bashor, and son-in-law, Richard Tully, Thomas Klein and his two brothers, Timothy and John, died at sea June 14, 1974, in the vicinity of the San Benito Islands, off the coast of Baja California. (LVSS)
* * *
THE COAST GUARD REPORT. I’ve looked over the Coast Guard report of the Shooting Star case. Below are some elements of that report that strike me as interesting.* There’s a cover letter, dated 8/2/74, from J. M. Bowen, Commander, U.S. Coast Guard, Chief, Search and Rescue Branch TO an attorney in Ogden Utah (the Klein brothers were from that area). The letter explains the Coast Guard effort. It ends with this: “The names of the reported ten persons on board, including John and Tim Klein, were provided to the Coast Guard by Mr. Tom Fuentes, of Supervisor Ronald Casper’s [sic] Office.” It then provides Fuentes’ phone number.
* According to the Coast Guard report, the Shooting Star was constructed in 1947; it had a 340 hp diesel engine; it was 63 feet long and it had a wooden hull.
* The CG estimates that, at the time of the MAYDAY, the SS was “approximately fifty miles northwest of San Benito Island….”
* There’s a “record of missing.” Ronald Caspers is listed as living on Lido Isle, Newport Beach.
* All three Klein brothers are listed as living in Roy, Utah.
* “Weather on 13 June … in the area of San Benito Island … was overcast, visibility unknown; wind was fifteen to twenty-five knots, gusting to forty knots; seas and swells were running from the northwest at ten to fifteen feet….”
Roy, Utah, is in the Ogden area |
* “The two life jackets that were recovered from the debris were in a torn and semi-mutilated condition. The life jacket that was in the worst condition [difficult to read] was delivered to the Long Beach [illegible] criminology laboratory for testing of traces of blood or of any other substance. All tests and reports were negative. The life jacket check [ties?] were [tied?] at the time of recovery. One life jacket tie was tied in a bow and the other tie was tied in a knot. The lower straps on the jacket were clasped closed, although the straps were ripped, torn and/or severed. The body of the jackets were ripped and torn in several places with one [illegible] chest pad missing entirely from one of the life jackets. It is not known in what manner the life jackets were [stowed?] prior to the casualty. It is known that some of the life jackets were new and were stowed while still in the original plastic bags prior to the vessel’s departure from the United States.”
Tim Klein on the Shooting Star, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
When the small boat was located, it was awash with [seas?] boarding the small craft over the stern. … The outboard motor, a 30-horsepower Evinrude, was still attached to the vessel but the controls, including the fuel lines, were all torn loose and adrift in the bottom of the vessel. There were no portable fuel tanks in the boat. … The Master of the Nihon stated that when the boat was recovered there were no signs of fire or explosion. … The investigator from the Canal Zone stated that it was his opinion that the craft did not contain any survivors prior to the time it was picked up by the Nihon. … Upon inspection of the debris when returned to the Coast Guard Base, Terminal Island, California, it was noted that the cradle which housed the small boats was undamaged. The crome padeyes that a nylon grip[e?] attached to were undamaged. There was no evidence of forcible separation of the small boats from the Shooting Star.”
. . .
Shooting Star crewmen John and Tim Klein: proud Marines
“Inspecting the vessel externally found topsides to be in fair condition… at this time we do not deem rework necessary.”
“Inspecting the vessel internally in all accessible areas found structural members to be in fair condition with no apparent fractures noted….
“…The vessel Shooting Star was hauled from the water at Windward Yacht and Repair, Inc., in Marina del Rey on 21 Sept. 1972 and … repair was accomplished…. Mr. G[illegible] stated that the vessel, to the best of his knowledge, was in good shape.”
CONCLUSIONS
The Shooting Star sank … at about fifty miles northwest of San Benito Island…. This location was determined as the most probable position for the sinking by U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center, Long Beach, CA.
The exact cause of the sinking of the Shooting Star is unknown, although heavy weather may have been a contributing factor.
The differences in the location as passed to KMI Overseas Radio and as overheard by the vessel Scandia cannot be positively resolved but it is felt that because of atmospheric conditions the words “south” and “but” were confused by either one of the involved parties. It cannot be determined which word is correct.
From the Coast Guard report |
It cannot be determined if the life jackets were or were not used by the persons on board the Shooting Star.
It cannot be determined whether or not any persons were, at any time, in the thirteen-foot Sea Witch, nor can it be determined that the small craft was or was not forcibly removed from the Shooting Star.
The cause of the damage to the life jackets and the small boat cannot be determined.
The incident that occurred at Dana Point in July, 1971, did not contribute to this casualty.
The work that was accomplished on the vessel after the survey … corrected all the deficiencies that were listed in the survey report….
The deficiencies as listed in the survey of July, 1973, most probably were not contributory to this casualty.
There is no evidence of foul play…. [For a brief discussion of Neal Graney's "murder" theory, see Part 1 of this series.]
RECOMMENDATIONS:
It is recommended that no further action be taken and this case be closed with the submission of this report.
L.P. Minott, Jr.
The Coast Guard's Venturous |
2 comments:
Thank you Sir for your interest in this sad story. I knew the Klein brothers well.I had the great fortune to grow up with them.
Sad story. Have appreciated the coverage.
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