Eugene Hasenfus leaped into national celebrity when the Contra supply plane in which he was a "cargo kicker" was shot down over Nicaragua. Hasenfus (whose last name means "rabbit's foot" in German) was lucky enough to parachute to safety but unlucky enough to be captured by the Nicaraguan government forces.
His statements -- and a little black book with some very damaging phone numbers in it -- confirmed that the Reagan administration was engaged in a series of criminal acts amounting to illegal war, piracy and murder in attempting to overthrow the legitimate government of Nicaragua. As the tale unwound, it turned out that the merry men from the White House were stealing sophisticated weapons from U.S. military stores, smuggling them to Iran, selling them for exorbitant prices and funneling the money into "deniable" criminal organizations in Central America. A fine mess. Ultimately, President George Bush I, issued a series of pardons to his cronies even though none of them had yet been convicted of crimes -- thus granting a whole raft of unsavory characters, traitors and crooks permanent lifetime "get-out-of-jail-free" cards.
Eugene, however was not one of them. He spent several months in a Nicaraguan prison before being exchanged in a spy-swap. Afterwards, he dropped out of sight. Evidently, his life has been a bit of a downhill slide.
The Smoking Gun provides this news of Eugene's run-in with the law in July 2000.
![[Image]](../images/bunny.gif){kind=small}