"Boston brakes" and a mystery death

Interested in a little deep-dish conspiracy theory? Do you have a weakness for that tried-and-true formula: "Newsclips + speculation = samsara"? Then you may enjoy the following tale, which gets us into X-File territory. Literally.

I'm a little sorry that Xymphora mentioned this item before I got around to it, especially since the incident occurred on my home turf. The story concerns the strange death of aviation writer Michael Dornheim, west coast editor for Aviation Week -- sometimes referred to as "Aviation Leak," due to the journal's scoops on black budget projects. Dornheim did not fear to walk on the wild side: He was looking into some rather wild DARPA activities, not to mention Area 51.

On the night of June 3, Dornheim disappeared after dining with some friends at the Saddle Peak Lodge -- the same elegantly rustic hilltop eatery where the Cigarette Smoking Man once shared a meal with Agent Scully. (Toldja we were in X-File territory!) What happened after dinner requires some understanding of the geography.

Basically, Malibu -- home to those assholes you see on Entourage -- is a movie-star colony town hugging the shoreline. Go a little inland and you will pass through some very lovely hills and canyons, dotted with expensive homes. M.A.S.H. was filmed around here, and the opening credits convey a good idea of the terrain. You'll find Saddle Peak Lodge nestled somewhere in these hills. If you go still further inland, you'll run into the Ventura Freeway (residents do not use highway numbers, and we don't call them highways) and the suburbs west of the San Fernando Valley. One of these suburbs is Westlake, where Dornheim made his home.

The suburbs and the ocean are connected by a series of two-lane roads which snake through the canyons. Some of these roads offer smooth rides, while others will make even the best drivers sweat.

Ocean - hills - suburbs. Got it? Okay, on to the mystery.

According to an LAPD announcement, "A friend said that Mr. Dornheim was planning to take the back road home, Cold Canyon to Mulholland Highway to the 101 Freeway." This route is a little odd, since it would have taken him east, toward Topanga Canyon and the San Fernando Valley. Westlake is to the northwest. It would have made sense for him to take Piuma to Las Virgines.

Instead -- and contrary to his announced plans -- he took Piuma south, toward the ocean.

He negotiated the turns and twists without a problem. But then, on a straight stretch of road, he veered sharply off the path and sailed off into a deep ravine. No skidmarks.

Dornheim was missing for more than a week before investigators spotted the wreckage of his car. No one could understand why he headed in precisely the wrong direction, and no one can understand why, on a straightway, he suddenly turned into the void.

I suppose a skeptic would say that Dornheim simply missed his turn and then had a heart attack. But where’s the fun in that? Let’s look at an alternative scenario.

Here you will find a review of a book on the controversial death of Princess Diana: “Princess Diana: The Hidden Evidence.” One passage puts the above scenario in an interesting light:

One such 'unnamed' source - a former SAS sergeant - reveals that the 'accident' in which Diana died bore all the tell-tail signs of a known special forces assassination technique known as the 'Boston brakes'. Agreed, on first hearing, this sounds a bit James Bond - contrived. But bear with it. Because then you go on to read the testimony of former SAS officer and world famous explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who confirms that the 'Boston brakes' is indeed a commonly employed assassination technique used by hired 'hit squads', and that it involves the use of a device which remotely controls the target-vehicle's steering and brakes. Fiennes goes on to say that this method has been used at least once in England, and in this regard describes in some detail the assassination of one Major Michael Marman, who was killed in a 'car crash' near Stonehenge in 1986. There's no doubt that the operation that killed Major Marman, as described by Fiennes, as well as by former Equerry to the Queen, Air Marshall Sir Peter Horsley, was chillingly identical to the series of events that killed Diana. Once again I have to say that the way the authors are able to continually corroborate their evidence in this way, throughout the book, is very impressive.

(Emphasis added.) One becomes much less impressed after reading another review by the sensible and reliable Kevin McClure. Turns out that the authors of "Hidden Evidence,", John King and John Beveridge, have a weakness for odd theories involving “Grail” bloodlines and other fringe subjects. They seem to endorse Laurence Gardner’s ‘Bloodline of the Holy Grail,’ a work that serious scholars in this field laughed out of court ages ago. (Gardner uses the Grail mythos to sell spurious titles of nobility; I’m told that Americans are particularly keen to buy into this nonsense.)

After reading McClure's warnings, I would have a hard time accepting any view of the Diana affair promulgated by King and Beveridge, especially given their reliance on unidentified “inside” sources who confirm their unlikely views.

Despite these misgivings, I can’t help wondering if there might be anything to the “Boston brakes” idea. Anyone who reads a great deal about spook-work will have heard vague references to assassination tactics involving remote sabotage of a target's vehicle. (We heard many such rumors after the death of Karen Silkwood.) But I have yet to find any hard confirmation of this specific technique using that specific name.

On the other hand... Ranulph Fiennes, a relative of the actor, is a real person – he’s a well-known explorer and adventurer. (Oddly, he was once considered for the role of James Bond.) Even if we dismiss much of the King-Beveridge work, I strongly doubt that they would put false words into the mouth of a living individual. Doing so runs a needless legal risk.

So my questions are these: Can any reader confirm whether “Boston brakes” is a real assassination methodology? And how would one search for evidence? Dornheim’s car remains at the bottom of that ravine…