The 1987 Finders Investigation
The group before Tallahassee
Contemporaneous reporting placed the group in Washington, D.C. at a Glover Park house and a Northeast warehouse, with an additional rural base in Virginia, and described it as the remnant of a 1960s communal experiment under Marion Pettie. [5]Source 5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/07/finders-group-has-its-roots-in-popular-60s-hippie-refuge/2d6b5d9d-904f-4acd-a371-f560fca68b39/
Former followers told The Washington Post that Pettie was known by titles including "Game Caller" and that the group treated child-rearing as a collective experiment in making children independent and tough, while adults were often sent away on "adventures." [6]Source 6 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/08/ex-finders-tell-of-games-complex-beliefs/dcb48101-8d06-4777-a8e3-fcf46fd7ed0f/
George Pettie, Marion Pettie's son, told The Washington Post that his father had retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant in 1956, that group members supported themselves in temporary office jobs, and that adults could be separated from their children for months at a time as part of the group's "adventures." [5]Source 5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/07/finders-group-has-its-roots-in-popular-60s-hippie-refuge/2d6b5d9d-904f-4acd-a371-f560fca68b39/
Investigation Metrics
Children Recovered
6
Agencies Involved
4+
Jail Time Served
6 weeks
Washington Properties Searched
2
Allegation Verification
Child Welfare Problem
4
Unusual Seizures
3
Federal Exploitation Proven
0
CIA Training Link
2
CIA Ownership Proven
1
Timeline of the Tallahassee Arrests
| Date | What the strongest reviewed record says |
|---|---|
| Feb. 4, 1987 | The FBI's 1993 recap says Tallahassee police arrested Douglas E. Ammerman and James Michael Holwell after a complaint that six children in a park seemed unkept and neglected, and the men were uncooperative about the children's identity and legal custody. |
| Early child interviews | Contemporary reporting said the children described being 'weaned' from their mothers, traveling for weeks, going to Mexico to start a school for brilliant children, and being rewarded with food for undefined 'good things' |
| one report said their food ration consisted of oranges, bananas, and raw potatoes. | - |
| Feb. 10, 1987 | D.C. Police Chief Maurice T. Turner Jr. said the group's practices looked 'odd but not criminal', and that police had not substantiated allegations of satanic activity or child pornography at that point. |
| Feb. 18 to March 18, 1987 | The FBI file says the U.S. Attorney in Washington declined federal prosecution on kidnapping and sexual-exploitation theories on Feb. 18, and UPI and later summaries reported that the local child-abuse charges were dismissed in March after the men had spent about six weeks in jail. |
The Tallahassee arrests
The episode that made The Finders nationally visible began in Tallahassee on February 4, 1987, when local police found two men with six small children and treated the situation as a child-abuse and possible custody or kidnapping matter. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [7]Source 7 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/02/10/dc-police-finders-odd-not-criminal/7571c820-de20-4800-9781-711a8351f52f/
The early local narrative was markedly more sensational than the later official summaries. [7]Source 7 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/02/10/dc-police-finders-odd-not-criminal/7571c820-de20-4800-9781-711a8351f52f/, [9]Source 9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/11/finding-truth-about-finders-proves-to-be-no-simple-matter/01c16d17-c301-4894-951f-b87052c9fd4f/
By February 11, The Washington Post reported that Tallahassee police had dropped the explicit "satanic cult" label, while a child-abuse expert working for Florida's social-services agency found insufficient evidence to say whether the children had been sexually abused and no evidence of recent physical harm. [9]Source 9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/11/finding-truth-about-finders-proves-to-be-no-simple-matter/01c16d17-c301-4894-951f-b87052c9fd4f/
The Washington and Virginia searches
The FBI's 1993 summary says the Metropolitan Police Department obtained search warrants after combining Tallahassee's information with earlier Washington allegations that children were being used in rituals, and MPD seized computers, software, photographs, and biographical information from two Washington properties. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
A separate chronology preserved in the released file says the warrants were executed with MPD and two Customs agents, and that the seized material included passports, telexes, computer/electronic media, and correspondence. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
The same FBI summary says the searches yielded no evidence of child sexual exploitation, kidnapping, or related crimes, and a Richmond teletype reported that the rural Virginia searches did not produce evidence of federal or state sexual-exploitation offenses involving children. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Jon Cohen's 1988 review of Tallahassee records reported that a recovered TRS-80 contained a note from Pettie telling handlers to say they were headed to Mexico to start a school and that the mothers had authorized it, while another script told adults to invoke "Harvard University for Bright Kids" if challenged about school attendance. [4]Source 4 https://joncohen.org/wp-content/uploads/1988/11/In-Search-of-the-Finders-New-Times-version-.pdf
Those internal notes fit the same Mexico-school, weaning, and food-reward story already appearing in children's statements and local police reporting, which is why the case acquired its reputation for strange child-rearing literature in the first place. [4]Source 4 https://joncohen.org/wp-content/uploads/1988/11/In-Search-of-the-Finders-New-Times-version-.pdf, [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Federal involvement and the jurisdiction fight
The verified record shows a genuinely multi-agency inquiry: a 1993 reconstruction inside the U.S. Customs Service file said Tallahassee contacted Customs because there were suspicions of sexual exploitation or abuse and because there was talk of taking the children to Mexico. [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
That same chronology says the FBI was not involved until a walk-through the following day, even though news reports simultaneously identified the FBI as the lead investigating agency after the first day of searches. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
By late 1993, the Department of Justice had asked the FBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry into organized child-abuse allegations involving The Finders and to determine what role, if any, was played by the United States intelligence community. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
DOJ also wanted FBI agents to review relevant State Department and intelligence records firsthand rather than rely on agency summaries alone. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
The later re-checks cut sharply against a documented federal shutdown story. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Tallahassee Police Chief Melvin Tucker told the FBI in November 1993 that no outside agency, including any intelligence agency, had tried to influence his department's handling of the case, and a Jacksonville summary called that the "bottom line." [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Customs' own 1993 review likewise said that after its initial opening report it found no Customs violations and closed the matter, and that neither the Tallahassee police reports nor the related news article mentioned child pornography or another offense within Customs jurisdiction. [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Tucker also told the FBI that the physical evidence collected in the Tallahassee phase had either been returned to its owners or destroyed. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
The Customs memos and the CIA theory
The official FBI transmittal confirms that by November 1993 the Bureau had received from Tallahassee "two memos purportedly authentic U.S. Customs' memos" concerning the case, which means the Bureau logged them as disputed documents rather than as already-validated findings. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Another FBI memorandum says DOJ had also received a three-ring binder from a Customs special agent containing briefing material on The Finders and asked the FBI to obtain a copy. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
A chronology preserved in the released file alleged that Finders-related reports were to be classified at the Secret level and that material was not to be turned over to the FBI Washington Field Office, but the later 1993 FBI reinterviews did not validate that allegation and instead recorded denials from Tallahassee and Customs. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
The Associated Press reported in December 1993 that Customs documents sent to some members of Congress alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency had used a front company run by the commune to train agency employees and had blocked investigation of the group. [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade
The same AP report said The Washington Times was relaying a later Customs claim that the CIA had admitted owning the Finders organization as a front for a domestic computer-training operation that had "gone bad." [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade
In that same AP account, CIA spokesman David Christian denied ties to the group, while also acknowledging that the agency had sent some employees to Future Enterprises Inc. for computer training in the 1980s; Future Enterprises vice president Joseph Marinich said the company trained CIA employees but had never been a front, and he said former Finders figure Robert Gardner Terrell had worked there before being let go in February 1987. [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade
Modern retellings often compress these allegations into the phrase "CIA internal matter," but the official material verified for this report supports only the narrower proposition that contested Customs papers alleged secrecy and CIA-linked training, while later FBI, Tallahassee, and Customs re-checks denied outside interference or a proven federal crime. [10]Source 10 https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-finders-cult-from-the-80s-was-patient-zero-for-epstein-and-pizzagate-conspiracies/, [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade
What the public record supports
Table 1: Allegations vs Verified Records
| Question | What the strongest reviewed record supports |
|---|---|
| Was there a real child-welfare problem in 1987? | Yes. The reviewed record supports that police found six children who appeared dirty or neglected, that the men with them were uncooperative about identity and custody, and that children described prolonged travel, "weaning" from mothers, and food-reward discipline. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt |
| Did searches recover unusual or disturbing material? | Yes. Official summaries describe seizures of computers, software, photographs, passports, telexes, and electronic media, and later reporting from Tallahassee records described scripts about Mexico, school cover stories, and game-based child handling. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [4]Source 4 https://joncohen.org/wp-content/uploads/1988/11/In-Search-of-the-Finders-New-Times-version-.pdf |
| Did the publicly released official record prove kidnapping, child pornography, or federal sexual exploitation by The Finders? | No. The FBI's 1993 summary says the searches produced no evidence of child sexual exploitation or kidnapping, the U.S. Attorney in Washington declined federal prosecution in 1987, and Customs later said it found no Customs violations. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt |
| Did the reviewed record show a real CIA-related training connection of any kind? | A limited one. AP reported that the CIA and Future Enterprises both acknowledged that CIA employees had received computer training from Future Enterprises in the 1980s. [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade |
| Did the reviewed public record prove that the CIA owned or ran The Finders? | No. The public record reviewed here preserves the allegation in contested Customs materials and news reporting from 1993, but it also preserves explicit denials from the CIA, from Future Enterprises, from Tallahassee's chief, and from Customs' own later review. [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade, [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt |
The most defensible reading of the released record is therefore narrower and stranger than either extreme version of the story. [1]Source 1 https://vault.fbi.gov/the-finders, [7]Source 7 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/02/10/dc-police-finders-odd-not-criminal/7571c820-de20-4800-9781-711a8351f52f/, [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade
On one side, the 1987 case was a real, serious, multi-agency child-welfare investigation involving dirty and under-supervised children, coercive-seeming scripts about schooling and parental separation, and enough suspicious material to justify search warrants in Washington and Virginia. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [8]Source 8 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt, [4]Source 4 https://joncohen.org/wp-content/uploads/1988/11/In-Search-of-the-Finders-New-Times-version-.pdf
On the other side, the official documents reviewed here do not prove that the CIA owned or directed the group, even though 1993 Customs allegations about CIA-linked computer training were serious enough to reach Congress and trigger a DOJ-requested FBI reexamination of the intelligence angle. [3]Source 3 https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade, [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Because the same file also says key evidence was later returned or destroyed, the case remains unresolved in the public mind without the currently released record resolving it in favor of the strongest CIA-front theory. [2]Source 2 https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-_WFO__Sec_1_-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
Sources
- https://vault.fbi.gov/the-finders
- https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-WFO__Sec_1-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
- https://apnews.com/article/4c5cd8141e930159ea3e4f0492a41ade
- https://joncohen.org/wp-content/uploads/1988/11/In-Search-of-the-Finders-New-Times-version-.pdf
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/07/finders-group-has-its-roots-in-popular-60s-hippie-refuge/2d6b5d9d-904f-4acd-a371-f560fca68b39/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/08/ex-finders-tell-of-games-complex-beliefs/dcb48101-8d06-4777-a8e3-fcf46fd7ed0f/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/02/10/dc-police-finders-odd-not-criminal/7571c820-de20-4800-9781-711a8351f52f/
- https://archive.org/stream/TheFinders/1372462-0_-WFO_Sub_M_Sec_1-_Section_1_Serial__1_no_descriptionMedi_djvu.txt
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/02/11/finding-truth-about-finders-proves-to-be-no-simple-matter/01c16d17-c301-4894-951f-b87052c9fd4f/
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-finders-cult-from-the-80s-was-patient-zero-for-epstein-and-pizzagate-conspiracies/