"At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead the rest has been told exactly as it occurred." -opening to the film "Fargo" by Nathen and Joel Coen
You don't find many sawmills in North Dakota. Why? Some say that flat northern state was stripped bare of timber by the mighty efforts of logger, Paul Bunyan.
The legend of Paul Bunyan came about as waves of northern Europeans trekked west from the Great Lakes area into Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, then on further west to Montana, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington.
There were Swedes, Danes, lots of Germans, Norwegians, Finns, Ukrainians, German Russians, and Icelanders. Hard working London Jews, the Kanning brothers, built a wheat farming empire along the Hi-line railroad in far eastern Montana.. The emigrants worked hard, drank hard, and most remained loyal to the Lutheran heritage of their home countries.
The emigrants were industrious. As time passed, they formed a tapestry of loosely integrated communities throughout North Dakota, Montana and the south central provinces of Canada: Manitoba and Saskatchewan .
For example, the ethnic make-up of Crosby, on the Canadian border in western North Dakota was about 90 percent Norwegian. Nearby Williston, in the late 1980's, had 38 listings for households with the Scandinavian surname "Haugen" and only one with the more common "Smith". Similar Scandinavian enclaves exist in Manitoba, where Miami FBI agent Terry Nelson was born.
The Blue Ox Truck Stop in Brainard, Minnesota (home of Paul Bunyan) is no different from hundreds of truck stops throughout the US where Clinton Mullen's trucks have stopped to refuel. The truck stop/motel was named after the gigantic Blue Ox, "Babe", who helped Paul Bunyan haul the logs to the saw mill. Truckers seemed to like the analogy . Either that, or it was the chicken fried steaks.
Soon after Clint Mullen of Lambert borrowed money from his dad and bought a Peterbilt tractor-trailer, he learned to love the over-the-road trucking business. Mullen made good money and expanded his fleet. But as he expanded his fleet, Mullen picked up too much debt, and neglected a lot of paperwork. By early 1992 things would get much worse.
Soon Clint Mullen was up to his eyeballs in legal matters and cash flow problems. Wage claims, creditors, administrative agencies, and an assortment of other headaches swamped the small business. Family lawyer Arnie Hove began to help out, and gradually joined into at least some of the business.
Clint Mullen did most of his banking at the First United Bank in Sidney. Clinton's dad did most of his ranch business at the First United Bank, too. Still Clinton and his wife Rena Mullen thought it was odd that an additional $40,000 turned up in his business account around the time they went in for an appointment to see Sidney attorney Phillip N. Carter. The First United Bank insisted that the money was "his" and that there "had been no mistake."
When the Mullens met with Phillip N.Carter at his office, the lawyer also assured them that there was "no problem" with the funds. Lawyer Carter told the young couple he was familiar with their financial problems. He wanted them to help haul a shipment from nearby Canada in Mullen Trucking vehicles. Just one load "could take care of all of the Mullen Trucking financial problems," attorney Carter assured them.
Clint Mullen recalled the rumors about Phil Carter. Months earlier in November, 1991, the Sidney Herald had run a big article about Sidney City Councilman Hobbs, who was banging a gong to get the state Crime Bureau to investigate drug trafficking by a local detective and prosecuting attorney (believed to be Phillip N. Carter).
Clint Mullen also knew that a witness had gone before the Mayor and other Sidney City Councilmen and told about hauling drugs from Billings for Phillip N. Carter and a Poplar man named Andy Hollum. Mullen knew that Lambert and Sidney area ranchers were saying a pilot named "Williams" was said to also have made flights into airstrips with drugs bound for a Sidney prosecuting attorney. The area was abuzz with talk of drug trafficking.
No, it didn't take long for Rena and Clinton Mullen to get Carter's drift in the conversation. Clinton's father had warned them against Carter; his dad had struggled unsuccessfully to keep Phillip Carter's father, a local tavern owner, from taking advantage of a wealthy old man with a drinking problem, named Charlie Grove. The Mullens did not hold the Carters in high esteem.
Clinton Mullen declined Carter's offer, and terminated his services as attorney. The decision was easy. The consequences weren't.
Within days Clinton Mullen was caught in a maelstrom. The First United Bank, (which was represented by Carter's firm), found there had indeed been an overpayment into Mullen's account of more than $40,000. This caused checks to bounce, and of course the bank then decided to cut off Mullen's operating funds. Drivers and trucks were stranded all over the country. Creditors howled- and everybody began fighting with Clinton Mullen.
Clinton Mullen, became a very unpopular man in Sidney overnight. Within weeks of the meeting, he took his wife Rena and her family to a dinner club, and they were attacked in the parking lot as they left. Witnesses would later testify that that the gangland-style beating was instigated by a prosecutor attorney friend of Phillip N. Carter.
The beating was not a pleasant thing. As the toughs held Mullen and pounded his stomach , again and again, Mullen broke free and fought back valiantly — like a miniature lion. Mullen's defense of his wife was so ferocious that other thugs joined in the fight and attempted to subdue him. It was only as the participants could hear the police cars coming down the road with their sirens blazing that the perpetrators — including the crooked prosecutor — fled.
As the witnesses arrived at the police station in Sidney they were surprised to see the prosecuting attorney waiting on them. He insisted that he should be present as the witnesses were interviewed. Mullen's attorney Arnie Hove demanded that the prosecutor leave the witnesses, and finally Deputy J.C. Rankin led the miscreant away.
If the strong arm beating wasn't enough, Hove and Clinton Mullen were threatened again, by another tough, who was apparently following orders to intimidate the men. When they complained to the authorities nothing was done. Burglaries at the Mullen Trucking shop building were ignored. It became obvious that Mullen was being targeted by someone very powerful.
As a consequence, Hove, as Mullen's attorney, prepared to file a lawsuit. Hove called in a private investigator , Mike Roe, from Phoenix to investigate the Sidney situation. Roe had been investigating corruption allegations in the Chinook area. Accusations which involved nighttime aircraft landings (and the unloading of drug shipments) at the Chinook airport. A pristine pattern emerged.
A criminal Enterprise was protecting the attorneys in Sidney and Chinook, who were involved in the drug scheme. It would be years before the story was completely sorted out and the culprits were brought to justice.
After Hove filed a notice of the lawsuit with the Riceland County Commissioners as required by law, enormous pressures were put on everybody involved. The shady prosecutor claims now that he was pressured to leave Sidney. Threats were made, and the intimidation process began to roll full steam.
Arnie Hove was targeted with death threats. So was one of the witnesses, Anita Tomalino. Mullen Trucking business sagged. Legal bills to Arnie Hove grew astronomical. Enemies materialized out of the woodwork in every direction. Lawsuits piled on top of lawsuits.
Arnie Hove and Clinton Mullen watched as their close friendship dissolved into recriminations. Clinton owed Arnie money. More work was needed on the files than Hove was putting into the files. Mullen owed Hove money for rent of a shop building; Hove owed money from receipts off of one of the freezer trucks he owned jointly with Mullen.
Then, an altercation occurred between Mullen, his employees, and Hove one evening at the shop building Hove owned. Both sides eventually filed complaints with the sheriff claiming that the other side had fired shots. The sheriff, in time honored Montana fashion ( and considering that no one was hurt), concluded that both sides had apparently "only fired warning shots" and declined to recommend the matter for prosecution.
Anger and rage grew between the two friends. Soon the men were drawn into a vicious personal battle and civil lawsuit which lasted for years. Eventually Hove was granted a nominal award, and all the Mullen claims were denied. In the midst of the struggle Hove reported to the Richland County authorities that Mullen possessed a stolen snow mobile. The same attorney who had instigated the attack on Mullen at the dinner club prosecuted the case, which was dismissed on the District Court level, and then was affirmed by the Montana Supreme Court.
Clinton Mullen was exonerated in the snowmobile matter, but did not prevail on the claims against Arnie Hove. The attorney who instigated the beating, and prosecuted the snowmobile charges, sued Mullen, his witnesses, and attorney Hove. The lawsuit is still pending today. Clinton Mullen , as of April 1998, had spent more than $150,000 in all the related Sidney litigation.
The fight between the two friends continued for about four years, and caused a slight delay in the matters pending in Sidney. While the men fought, an imperceptible change occurred. Several U.S. intelligence officers came forward identifying Sidney, Chinook, Havre, and the Fort Peck Reservation as a central depot for drug shipments from Canada. Gradually, things began to make sense.
One suspects that they'll make more sense as the photos of pallet loads of cocaine on the tarmac of a runway in Columbia surface. The photos show tons of cocaine waiting to be loaded onto a large plane. The plane then flew- as revealed in satellite photos- to an island in the Caribbean, was unloaded, then the cocaine was reloaded into smaller planes flying into the Canadian Maritime Provinces. From there the cocaine went to a staging area near Weyburn, Saskatchewan then down into Montana and North Dakota.
More than a few researchers began to see that the steady flow of the drug shipments was punctuated by dozens of mysterious killings close to the operation.
The story of Mullen Trucking is as twisted as the "Fargo" movie script which made the Coen brothers famous. The ridiculous cold and snow, along with small town Scandinavian elements, have made it easy for the criminal investigators to simply ignore the situation around some of the airstrips. "You betcha!", snowmobiles, claims that law enforcement authorities are dealing drugs, "I suppose...", Ole Olson, minus 40 degree winter temperatures, and remote eastern Montana, all make the Mullen story a curiosity.
Now that the facts are gradually coming out about the Columbian Cali/Medellin cartel operation into Montana, folks are taking the story a little more seriously. The casual murders in "Fargo" may mimic what was done to victims in Montana. Paul Bunyan couldn't have done any more damage with his ax than was done to Michael Wolfe and Bruce Madsen.
Clint Mullen was divorced from his wife Rena during the ordeal. Arnie Hove developed a stress related drinking problem. Both their lives and careers have been devastated by the fighting around the so-far fruitless drug investigations. Both men and their families are weighing the costs. They have been excessive.
Clinton Mullen was caught up in a sardonic comedy which is about to come to an end. The audience knew that the comedy was coming to an end when journalist Paul Richardson was fired from his job for insisting that his article about corruption in Montana be published. They knew it was over when FBI Agent Price took the file of a Wolf Point newspaper (drug corruption matters), after promising to bring it back, four weeks ago, and never returned it.
Anticipate that the ridiculous, the extreme, is coming to an end. The horrible and certain resolution is beginning. Clint Mullen will be standing at the end, watching. The cat and mouse game is over.
