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February 4, 2008 Jury Finds R.L. Wilson with Michael & Karen Salisbury Not Guilty in Seven-Week Federal Court Trial in Louisville, Kentucky Michael and Karen Salisbury, Huntsville, AL, and author/historian R.L.Wilson, San Francisco, CA, were acquitted of a litany of felony charges, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, in what has come to be called the “Whiskey Justice” case. The jury’s verdict was read on January 22, 2008. Foreman Tracy Hornbuckle, a student and nursing assistant from Bloomfield, KY, said she spoke for jury members when she declared the trial “a waste of time...the government really didn’t prove…anything,” and the case “didn’t make sense.” The charges had been generated on behalf of Louisville philanthropist Owsley Brown Frazier, who had used their services in acquiring guns and artifacts for the Frazier International History Museum, opened in 2004, on Main Street in Louisville. Wilson’s landmark book, Silk and Steel Women at Arms had been funded partially by Frazier. Salisbury had purchased approximately 300 firearms for Frazier, including historic arms of Buffalo Bill Cody, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Jesse and Frank James and the Younger Brothers gang, and a presentation Colt Single Action Army of FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover. The Salisbury purchases for Frazier required more than five years of intense searching for superior firearms. It was Wilson whose connections led to an entire floor in the museum of loans from the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. This made the Frazier the first and only lending and exhibiting partner of the Armouries, originally displayed at Her Majesty’s Tower of London. Wilson also captured for the Frazier Museum the historic Theodore Roosevelt .500/.450 Holland & Holland double rifle - the "Big Stick" cased set presented to the President by 58 British dignitaries, including the Archbishop of London. Judge Charles R. Simpson III initially cleared R.L. “Larry” Wilson of a conspiracy charge to defraud Frazier. After a lengthy trial, the jury then found Mr. Wilson not guilty of both charges, delivering the verdict with almost no deliberation. Only two minor charges, misdemeanors related to tax filings, remained for Mr. Salisbury. Jury foreman Tracy Hornbuckle also mentioned that one of the key government witnesses, C.W. Slagle, did not impress the jury with his appraisals, which doubled and tripled the value of some guns when he appraised them a second time for Frazier for tax write-off purposes. She said the jury thought Slagle was “a joke.” Mr. Slagle also admitted that he had embellished his resume. Wilson’s attorney, deputy federal public defender Laura Wyrosdick, said, “I am very happy. I knew all along he was innocent.” An author, historian, antiquarian, international sportsman, and TV talking head, R.L. Wilson has written 45 books, including the landmark The Book of Colt Firearms. Wilson will enthusiastically return to creating books for various publishers, among them Random House and Blue Book Publications, Inc., as well as appearing in television programming, and developing the “Silk and Steel Women at Arms” traveling museum loan exhibition. ___________________________________
Contact: Brooke Laurel Denman (310) 926.8080See also articles and blogs at courier-journal.com/search: search for R. L. Wilson trial between Dec.1 and Jan. 24. |