Witnesses Cleo Gates and Candy Hamilton say they saw Anna Mae with Graham on the Pine Ridge Reservation in December, and Hamilton says she seemed upset. Graham acknowledges that the four drove from Denver to Pine Ridge, visited Cleo and Dick Marshall, and travelled to Bill Means' home in Rosebud.

Here, the stories diverge. Graham says they dropped Anna Mae at a safe house on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Antoinette Claypoole: Carson Walker, the journalist who wrote the piece recently published (March 2004) regarding a supposed tape in which you speak of Annie Mae's murder, Walker mentions he heard you saying, on a tape "Theda was driving the car when w left "Kills" house. Do you remember saying that??

John Graham: What are they talking about? When are they talking about? I've never ever stated that I've been at "Kills" house.

Antoinette Claypoole: So, now [you] got up to Pine Ridge, and you went to a few different houses?

John Graham: Yea, two or three. I can't remember. And I never went into any of the houses, so I don't know who they were.

A Canadian man charged with killing a former American Indian Movement member in 1975 acknowledged on an audiotape that he was with her moments before she was shot and left for dead in a ravine, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.

John Graham is charged with first-degree murder in the kidnapping and slaying of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, who prosecutors say was killed because AIM leaders suspected she was a government informant. Prosecutors say Graham shot her in the back of the head as she begged for her life.

The 2001 conversation on the tape was arranged by a senior AIM leader, according to people familiar with the tape who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They said the interview was intended to provide Graham an opportunity to present an explanation for his whereabouts during the final moments of Aquash's life.

Prosecutors would not comment on the tape. During a telephone interview this week with the AP, Graham also refused to discuss it.

"If they have me on tape saying all this stuff, bring it on. I'm going to keep my comments to the courts," said Graham, who was due in court Monday for a hearing involving his extradition.

Cut.....

The tape focuses on a Denver-to-South Dakota trip in 1975 that included Aquash, Graham, Looking Cloud and fellow AIM member Theda Clarke.

Witnesses at Looking Cloud's trial testified that Looking Cloud and Graham walked Aquash to the edge of a ravine in South Dakota's Badlands, where Graham allegedly shot her.

On the tape, Graham places himself on the trip from Denver and to the spot where she was killed, according to the transcript.

He does not directly acknowledge killing Aquash, but he never said Looking Cloud killed her either, according to the transcript.

At Looking Cloud's trial, John Trudell, AIM chairman at the time, testified he believes Graham, Looking Cloud and Clarke were ordered to kill Aquash during a stop at the home of AIM member Bill Means.

On the tape transcript, Graham said he was there.

"I don't remember going into (Means') house. I stayed in the car (with Aquash), I know that. Theda went in. And I don't know if Arlo went in or not, I can't really remember that too clear," he said.

Asked if Clarke took over the driving when they left Means' house for Wanblee, where Aquash was killed, Graham said: "Yeah. I do remember that. Theda did some driving. Theda drove from Bill Means'."

ICT: Were you involved in taking Anna Mae from Denver?

Graham: I drove Anna Mae from Denver.

Cut.....

ICT: Where did you take her?

Graham: I got no idea where we were. It was a safe house. Anna Mae and I knew what was coming down around Pine Ridge. Things were hot, things were tense. A lot of her guidance got me though that, kept me alive. We had to protect people and had to protect ourselves. At the time, I didn't go into the house, because it was a safe house. That's the way it was. I didn't know where it was. I didn't know Pine Ridge, I know people had to drive for a few miles to get to different places.

ICT: Do you remember, was that safe house Cleo Gates or Cleo Marshall's?

She testified that you and Arlo were there looking for a place to take Anna Mae.

Graham: No, I don't remember that. I don't know where that comes from.

QUESTION BY MR. MANDEL:

Q. When they came over what took place?

Cleo Marshal-Gates - They came in and they brought the girl in, and she sat on the chair in the living room, and they went into the bedroom with my husband.

Q. They meaning who?

Cleo Marshal-Gates - Arlo, John and Theda.

Q. Was there some request made of you and Dick that evening by these people?

Cleo Marshal-Gates - Well, they came in and they went, they came out of the bedroom and called me in the kitchen and he said they want us to keep her here.

Q. Who said that?

Cleo Marshal-Gates - Dick. I said what for? I don't know, just keep her here. And I said no.

Q. You refused to allow them to do that?

Cleo Marshal-Gates - Right.

Q. How come?

Cleo Marshal-Gates. Because I had, this was Anna Mae, and I had heard just different things going on on the reservation, and I didn't want to be any part of it.

Q. What kind of different things were you aware of?

Cleo Marshal-Gates - Well, people were saying that Anna Mae was an informer...

Under pressure from the FBI in the aftermath of the killings, Aquash, who was living in Denver, asked Graham to take her to the Pine Ridge reserve.

"She was very scared and nervous," said Graham. "She was being hunted by the FBI. She needed somebody she could trust to travel with her to Pine Ridge."

Graham emphatically denies, as his accusers say, that he was asked by AIM leaders to execute Aquash because they believed FBI "lies" that she was an informer.

"I never met with any AIM people," he said. "Anna Mae was afraid of (FBI agent David) Price, who had tried to get her to testify against Pelletier and others, telling her that if she didn't, she'd be dead within six months.

.....

Graham says he and Looking Cloud drove Aquash to a "safe house" on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Looking Cloud, who goes on trial next month (March 2004) in Rapid City, S.D., says it was there that Graham shot Aquash in the head.

...Newbrook credibiity questioned - Check here before reading further...

Hi XXXXXX. John's OK and optimistic. He gave me his rebuttal of Paul DeMain's story and related the following to me. He was with Anna Mae at Crow Dog's trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when they heard of the firefight incident at Oglala on the radio. They returned to the reservation immediately to help evacuate the people who were in hiding, after which he went to Denver.

Some time later, possibly in the Fall, he received word from Anna Mae that she was at Pine Ridge and wanted to see him. John and Looking Cloud, who was more familiar with the reservation than John, travelled to the reservation and located her at a safe house where she was hiding in fear of the FBI. She was alone, and related to John how S A Price had interrogated her, taken as much identification as possible and had told her that if she would not release the names of those at Jumping Bull involved in the shootout, that he would personally make sure she would not live out the year. He left several days later thinking she was safe

He learned of Anna Mae's death several months later.

Today, Sept. 19,2000, I met with a native man called John Graham (native name Cheeleta sp?) He had called me last week to speak with me and expressed concern about anyone knowing his whereabouts. He gave me the following information in the presence of a witness, and both he and the witness signed and dated what I wrote down while I was with them...

Cut......

He claims the FBI are out to get him for the killing of Anna Mae Aquash, a very capable and attractive native woman from Nova Scotia who was found dead in the US, where she had been an acknowledged leader of the native people and very active in AIM. Originally her family were told she died from exposure, but upon investigation initiated by the family, bullet holes were found in the back of her head. The night before her death she had driven with John Graham across the US from Denver, and he had left her at a safe house in or near Pine Ridge. At the time John said she feared for her life and particularly feared David Price and Douglas Durham, two agents for the FBI working to undermine AIMS. John Graham says he feels sure Douglas Durham knows all about the killing of Anna Mae.