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Authors: Randall B. Woods
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table in the sunroom. Also on the table were Colbyâs wallet, containing $296, and his keys. The canoe and its paddle and life jacket were missing from the nearby shed. Policewoman Sharon Walsh alerted the Coast Guard, and the search was on.
Over the next few days, a dozen navy divers, two helicopters, and more than a hundred volunteers scoured the area. They found nothing. On themorning of May 6, nine days after Colby was last seen, his body was spotted on the shoreline of Neale Sound, approximately 40 meters from where Kevin Akers had discovered the green canoe. The police announced that there were no signs of foul play. Most likely the old man had suffered a heart attack and fallen into the water. The state medical examinerâs office issued a preliminary verdict of accidental death.
When Akers learned who had owned the green canoe, alarm bells began going off in his head. There was the unexplained overabundance of sand in the canoe. More significant, the boat and the body were separated by a spit of land. Given the prevailing currents, there was no way the canoe could have wound up on one side of the spit and Colby on the other. The former spook had been murdered, he concluded. Akers gathered his family and went into hiding.
The Neale Sound handyman was not the only doubter. Zalin Grant was in Paris when he heard the news of Colbyâs death. The former director of central intelligence (DCI) had gone paddling in his canoe at night, fallen out, and drowned? Not a chance. Grant, a Vietnam veteran, war correspondent, and author, had known Colby in Vietnam. Colby had subsequently helped the journalist write his book on counterinsurgency and the CIA. Grant admired him, agreeing with US counterinsurgency expert Edward Lansdaleâs observation that Colby was the most effective Americanâsoldier or civilianâto serve in the Vietnam War. The man was fit, seasoned, and prudent, not some doddering septuagenarian. And he had enemies, some of them quite dangerous. Finally, Colbyâs death reminded Grant of the demise of another CIA official some twenty years earlier under eerily similar circumstances. On the moonlit night of September 23, 1978, John Arthur Paisley had vanished in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Paisley was last seen alive that morning, crossing a narrow section of the bay aboard his sloop Brillig . A week later, on October 1, a bloated and badly decomposed body was found floating in the water, a 9-millimeter gunshot wound in the back of the head and weighted diverâs belts around the waist. The CIA suggested that Paisley had committed suicide, but the Maryland state coronerâs office ruled that he had died of indeterminate causes. 1
Upon his return to the States, Zalin Grant began investigating Colbyâs death. Throughout the summer of 1996, Grant interviewed family members, neighbors, police and sheriffâs officers, the medical examinerâhe even managed to locate Kevin Akers. What he got were unanswered questions.Why would Colby, after a hard dayâs work, go canoeing in total darkness? Carroll Wise and his sister had left him between 7:15 and 7:30, still watering his willows. It still remained for Colby to go in the house, steam the clams, boil the corn, open the wine, and consume part of the meal. By the time he finished, it would have been at least 8:30âpitch black. Colby had said nothing to Sally about a water outing. Then there were Akersâs questions about the location of the sand-filled canoe in relation to the body.
Grant was the first and only journalist to view the autopsy pictures. He had seen plenty of dead bodies in Vietnam, some of which had been dumped in the Mekong River or other waterways. Without exception, they had sunk to the bottom, begun to decompose, filled with gas, and surfaced, bloated and grossly disfigured. In the autopsy pictures, Colbyâs body appeared almost normal, with no bloating whatsoever. The medical examinerâwho
Over the next few days, a dozen navy divers, two helicopters, and more than a hundred volunteers scoured the area. They found nothing. On themorning of May 6, nine days after Colby was last seen, his body was spotted on the shoreline of Neale Sound, approximately 40 meters from where Kevin Akers had discovered the green canoe. The police announced that there were no signs of foul play. Most likely the old man had suffered a heart attack and fallen into the water. The state medical examinerâs office issued a preliminary verdict of accidental death.
When Akers learned who had owned the green canoe, alarm bells began going off in his head. There was the unexplained overabundance of sand in the canoe. More significant, the boat and the body were separated by a spit of land. Given the prevailing currents, there was no way the canoe could have wound up on one side of the spit and Colby on the other. The former spook had been murdered, he concluded. Akers gathered his family and went into hiding.
The Neale Sound handyman was not the only doubter. Zalin Grant was in Paris when he heard the news of Colbyâs death. The former director of central intelligence (DCI) had gone paddling in his canoe at night, fallen out, and drowned? Not a chance. Grant, a Vietnam veteran, war correspondent, and author, had known Colby in Vietnam. Colby had subsequently helped the journalist write his book on counterinsurgency and the CIA. Grant admired him, agreeing with US counterinsurgency expert Edward Lansdaleâs observation that Colby was the most effective Americanâsoldier or civilianâto serve in the Vietnam War. The man was fit, seasoned, and prudent, not some doddering septuagenarian. And he had enemies, some of them quite dangerous. Finally, Colbyâs death reminded Grant of the demise of another CIA official some twenty years earlier under eerily similar circumstances. On the moonlit night of September 23, 1978, John Arthur Paisley had vanished in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Paisley was last seen alive that morning, crossing a narrow section of the bay aboard his sloop Brillig . A week later, on October 1, a bloated and badly decomposed body was found floating in the water, a 9-millimeter gunshot wound in the back of the head and weighted diverâs belts around the waist. The CIA suggested that Paisley had committed suicide, but the Maryland state coronerâs office ruled that he had died of indeterminate causes. 1
Upon his return to the States, Zalin Grant began investigating Colbyâs death. Throughout the summer of 1996, Grant interviewed family members, neighbors, police and sheriffâs officers, the medical examinerâhe even managed to locate Kevin Akers. What he got were unanswered questions.Why would Colby, after a hard dayâs work, go canoeing in total darkness? Carroll Wise and his sister had left him between 7:15 and 7:30, still watering his willows. It still remained for Colby to go in the house, steam the clams, boil the corn, open the wine, and consume part of the meal. By the time he finished, it would have been at least 8:30âpitch black. Colby had said nothing to Sally about a water outing. Then there were Akersâs questions about the location of the sand-filled canoe in relation to the body.
Grant was the first and only journalist to view the autopsy pictures. He had seen plenty of dead bodies in Vietnam, some of which had been dumped in the Mekong River or other waterways. Without exception, they had sunk to the bottom, begun to decompose, filled with gas, and surfaced, bloated and grossly disfigured. In the autopsy pictures, Colbyâs body appeared almost normal, with no bloating whatsoever. The medical examinerâwho
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