In this episode, retired agent John Kingston reviews how he, with the cooperation of law enforcement partners, unraveled a murder-for-hire conspiracy which resulted in the 1985 killing of Atlanta entrepreneur Richard Braun, who was ambushed and killed in the driveway of his Cobb County home; his teenage son was also shot but survived. The hit was brokered through a Soldier of Fortune magazine classified ad.
“Moore turned to Soldier of Fortune magazine, and in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine are classified ads, and some of those classified ads are for bodyguards, but there are some that are for gun for hire, and they don’t leave much to the imagination that they’ll do just about anything for a job.”—Retired Agent John Kingston
The conspiracy involved triggerman Sean Trevor Doutre, organizer Richard Savage, instigator Bruce Gastwirth, and facilitator John Horton Moore. John connected the dots using travel records, phone logs, financial trails, surveillance, and interviews that flipped key witnesses and corroborated the murder scheme. All four men were charged and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.
The Braun family also won a landmark civil verdict against Soldier of Fortune magazine for negligent publication.
This case was the subject of a one-hour episode of the ID network show Blood, Lies and Alibis, called “The Executioner,” and an episode on ABC’s 20/20, titled “Puzzling Murder.”
Special Agent (Retired)
John Kingston
5/1984 -9/2005
John Kingston served in the FBI for over 21 years. He was initially assigned to the FBI’s Atlanta and Los Angeles divisions, where he investigated complex white-collar crime and fraud.
In Atlanta, he was nominated as Federal Investigator of the Year for spearheading the successful investigation and prosecution of two men who attempted to defraud a bank of more than $32 million, as well as four individuals who carried out contract murders. In Los Angeles, he led a landmark undercover operation targeting Sheriff’s deputies who had stolen over $5 million from drug dealers they arrested.
During his career, John rose through the ranks in a variety of supervisory and management positions.
He was the Unit Chief of the Economic Crimes and Money Laundering Units at FBI Headquarters.
He next served in San Diego as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) managing white-collar crime, cybercrime, and intellectual property rights (IPR) investigations, as well as administrative matters.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, John was placed in charge of all terrorism-related matters for the San Diego office. Later he was detailed to Jackson, Mississippi, to lead the WorldCom investigation.
After retiring from the FBI, John became the director of San Diego’s Law Enforcement Intelligence “Fusion” Center, where he supervised the 45 Analysts and Agents which comprise the Criminal Intelligence portion of the Center, and coordinated the interactions of all three components of the center, those being the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Sheriff’s led Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, and the Criminal Intelligence Component. The center “de-conflicts” all law enforcement operations for the region, produces numerous intelligence products, and trains “Terrorism Liaison Officers”.
The following are news articles about the murder-for-hire conspiracy and the landmark civil verdict against Soldier of Fortune magazine for negligence:
Atlanta Business Chronicle – 10/10/1988: A tale of fraud, bankruptcy and murder for hire
UPI Archives – 1/9/1987: Soldier of Fortune sued over apparent hired-gun ads
New York Times – 8/23/1992: Soldier of Fortune; Magazine Liable for Death Arranged Through an Ad
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit – 8/13/1992: Braun v. Soldier of Fortune Magazine
To learn more about how the FBI investigates murder-for-hire cases, listen to these FBI Case File Review episodes.
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