On the night of Oct. 14, 1976, in the island kingdom of Tonga, a Peace Corps volunteer killed another volunteer in her feebly-lit shack.
Deborah Ann Gardner, 23, of Steilacoom, Wash., was hit with a lead pipe and stabbed repeatedly with a serrated diving knife by 24-year-old Dennis Priven. He had stalked her for months.
According to a recently published book, "American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps" by Philip Weiss, Gardner screamed and fought but could not wrest the inevitable from the man determined "to bleed her life slowly from pressure points."
Twenty-eight years later, Emile Hons, the general manager of the Shops at Tanforan in San Bruno and former volunteer, is helping Weiss bring attention to the Peace Corps for its role in covering up the murder and defending Priven from certain death by hanging.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter was gaining momentum against incumbent President Gerald Ford. The Peace Corps withheld the scandal of Gardner's murder for 19 days until Election Day, effectively burying it with news of Carter's win.
Then on Priven's behalf, the Peace Corps hired a famous defense attorney from New Zealand and sent for a renowned psychiatrist from Hawaii. The tiny Tongan government was overwhelmed by the United States' resources, prompting the prosecutor to write in 1976,
"From the time that the murder was committed until the end of the case, I found a strong Peace Corps effort, in particular by Mary George [the director in Tonga], in the defense of Priven. It seems all pity was with Priven and none was shown to the dead girl."
Priven was tried in a Tongan court and found not guilty by reason of insanity. The Peace Corps and the State Department stepped in and assured the Tongan king and Gardner's parents that Priven would undergo mandatory psychiatric treatment if allowed to return to the United States.
But when Priven arrived in Washington D.C., he refused to be admitted and could not be compelled to do so. There were no treaties with Tonga and its court decision was not enforceable on U.S. soil.
Priven continued to pick up his paychecks at Peace Corps headquarters until he was given a Completion of Service in 1977. Four months after killing Gardner, he was granted a passport by the State Department.
"Clearing his files was criminal and immoral," Hons said. "They cleared the murder with an equivalent to an honorable discharge."
Hons said what he saw that fateful night is something he sees again and again, but what Priven saw was worst. Hons was returning from a movie when children intercepted him and told him his friend "Tenisi had hurt Tepola." Her Tongan neighbors had taken her to the hospital. He ran to her hut and opened the door.
"What I saw that night is never going to go away, but what he saw was uglier. He heard her screams. He held the knife and felt her struggle. I can't accept that someone can stab someone 22 times and not be insane," Hons said recently of his former best friend, Priven.
Gardner lived next door to Hons and he loved her. But she was a free spirit, beautiful and kind. She engendered love and desire in many men while keeping her distance.
"Dennis got away with murder. It's almost unbelievable. If he had gone into treatment and paid his dues, as ugly as the deed was, the book wouldn't have happened. At least, I wouldn't have participated in it," Hons said.
Weiss first heard the story in 1978 while in Samoa. Even then, as a 22-year-old on a trip around the world, he sensed "the original wrong had been compounded".
"A young woman was forgotten there. She died horrifically," Weiss said in recent telephone interview from New York. She was idealistic and wanted to serve her country, but her government treated her with the greatest cynicism and contempt."
When Weiss contacted Priven in Sheepshead Bay, New York, in 2002, the former Peace Corps volunteer was almost 50 years old and making $78,000 a year as a top computer coordinator for the Social Security Administration. He has since retired from the government and has changed his phone number.
Several attempts to obtain comments from representatives of the Peace Corps were unsuccessful.
Deborah Ann Gardner, 23, of Steilacoom, Wash., was hit with a lead pipe and stabbed repeatedly with a serrated diving knife by 24-year-old Dennis Priven. He had stalked her for months.
According to a recently published book, "American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps" by Philip Weiss, Gardner screamed and fought but could not wrest the inevitable from the man determined "to bleed her life slowly from pressure points."
Twenty-eight years later, Emile Hons, the general manager of the Shops at Tanforan in San Bruno and former volunteer, is helping Weiss bring attention to the Peace Corps for its role in covering up the murder and defending Priven from certain death by hanging.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter was gaining momentum against incumbent President Gerald Ford. The Peace Corps withheld the scandal of Gardner's murder for 19 days until Election Day, effectively burying it with news of Carter's win.
Then on Priven's behalf, the Peace Corps hired a famous defense attorney from New Zealand and sent for a renowned psychiatrist from Hawaii. The tiny Tongan government was overwhelmed by the United States' resources, prompting the prosecutor to write in 1976,
"From the time that the murder was committed until the end of the case, I found a strong Peace Corps effort, in particular by Mary George [the director in Tonga], in the defense of Priven. It seems all pity was with Priven and none was shown to the dead girl."
Priven was tried in a Tongan court and found not guilty by reason of insanity. The Peace Corps and the State Department stepped in and assured the Tongan king and Gardner's parents that Priven would undergo mandatory psychiatric treatment if allowed to return to the United States.
But when Priven arrived in Washington D.C., he refused to be admitted and could not be compelled to do so. There were no treaties with Tonga and its court decision was not enforceable on U.S. soil.
Priven continued to pick up his paychecks at Peace Corps headquarters until he was given a Completion of Service in 1977. Four months after killing Gardner, he was granted a passport by the State Department.
"Clearing his files was criminal and immoral," Hons said. "They cleared the murder with an equivalent to an honorable discharge."
Hons said what he saw that fateful night is something he sees again and again, but what Priven saw was worst. Hons was returning from a movie when children intercepted him and told him his friend "Tenisi had hurt Tepola." Her Tongan neighbors had taken her to the hospital. He ran to her hut and opened the door.
"What I saw that night is never going to go away, but what he saw was uglier. He heard her screams. He held the knife and felt her struggle. I can't accept that someone can stab someone 22 times and not be insane," Hons said recently of his former best friend, Priven.
Gardner lived next door to Hons and he loved her. But she was a free spirit, beautiful and kind. She engendered love and desire in many men while keeping her distance.
"Dennis got away with murder. It's almost unbelievable. If he had gone into treatment and paid his dues, as ugly as the deed was, the book wouldn't have happened. At least, I wouldn't have participated in it," Hons said.
Weiss first heard the story in 1978 while in Samoa. Even then, as a 22-year-old on a trip around the world, he sensed "the original wrong had been compounded".
"A young woman was forgotten there. She died horrifically," Weiss said in recent telephone interview from New York. She was idealistic and wanted to serve her country, but her government treated her with the greatest cynicism and contempt."
When Weiss contacted Priven in Sheepshead Bay, New York, in 2002, the former Peace Corps volunteer was almost 50 years old and making $78,000 a year as a top computer coordinator for the Social Security Administration. He has since retired from the government and has changed his phone number.
Several attempts to obtain comments from representatives of the Peace Corps were unsuccessful.
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