American Warlord Read Online Free Page A
Author: Johnny Dwyer
the
Sentinel
to see where her son’s path could lead. She no longer wanted the responsibility of handling the boy.
Soon afterward she called Liberia to speak with her son’s father. 13 Taylor had little sway with his son and even less influence in the United States to try to ensure that Chucky would not be imprisoned. But Bernice wasn’t looking for Taylor to intercede on their child’s behalf.
“I’ve had him until he’s seventeen,” she told him. “Now it’s your turn.”
PART II
10
War Business
I tote dat gunn dat, feelin fear as I blast spreadin rumors with your ruger.
—
United States vs. Belfast
, EXHIBIT CE -4
Lynn had been married just four months before she became a mother; six months later she packed up her newborn son and embarked with him on his first trip to Africa and his first meeting with his father. She was just twenty-one years old—an age when many of her friends were focused on graduating from college—but she hoped to settle down and start a life with her husband. Their teenage romance had barely survived the years they’d spent apart; it was unclear how their marriage would last when they were finally together.
It was October 2000 when she returned to Monrovia. Until then she had been connected to Liberia only through conversations and e-mails with Chucky. While she remained in the dark about much of his life, she knew that in the year he had been without his unit, he had made very little money off his various schemes and ventures. More important, she knew that the pressure on his father’s government had increased significantly. What she did not know, when she finally arrived, was that Chucky had given up on the idea of being a husband and father.
“I never wanted her there,” he said, even though he’d lured her to Liberia as a teenager, begged her forgiveness after she discovered his infidelity, married her, and fathered her son. 1 It was characteristic of Chucky’s personality to discard people when he no longer felt they served a purpose in his life.
Indeed, having a child had not been the catalyst for change in Chucky’s life that Lynn had hoped for; if anything, it pushed him away and did nothing to change his behavior. As much as she still loved him, she couldn’t deny that his darker side had become more present. His temper flared with his bodyguards, as he was constantly yelling at them. Then there was Danger; he never acknowledged what had happened to the dog.
When Chucky mysteriously injured his hand, Lynn understood that he’d broken it hitting someone. But as with many of the shrouded details of his life outside of their home, she didn’t pursue it. “All through my time in Africa, I really believed he hadn’t killed someone,” she said. 2
The end came quickly and without incident, she recalled: “One day he just decided he didn’t want to be married anymore.” She knew all the failures in Chucky’s life were weighing on him, but the more fundamental problem was that “he just became a different person.” She returned to Florida and filed for divorce. For nearly a year, the couple did not communicate. She remained in Orlando raising her son as a single mother, hearing little of Chucky’s life in Monrovia and receiving no financial support for their child.
Eventually, Chucky wanted their two-year-old son to travel with Bernice to Africa to accompany him on a medical trip to South Africa to receive surgery on his hand. She refused. Furious at being denied access to his son, Chucky called Lynn in Orlando and reached her sister. When Lynn refused to get on the phone, Chucky grew enraged, according to a member of her family. 3 He threatened the family member and parents in specific terms: “He told me that he was going to line me and my mom and dad up and shoot us in the back of the head.” (The family member asked to not be identified, given the nature of the threat.)
Lynn called President Taylor, hysterically crying. Taylor had grown accustomed
Sentinel
to see where her son’s path could lead. She no longer wanted the responsibility of handling the boy.
Soon afterward she called Liberia to speak with her son’s father. 13 Taylor had little sway with his son and even less influence in the United States to try to ensure that Chucky would not be imprisoned. But Bernice wasn’t looking for Taylor to intercede on their child’s behalf.
“I’ve had him until he’s seventeen,” she told him. “Now it’s your turn.”
PART II
10
War Business
I tote dat gunn dat, feelin fear as I blast spreadin rumors with your ruger.
—
United States vs. Belfast
, EXHIBIT CE -4
Lynn had been married just four months before she became a mother; six months later she packed up her newborn son and embarked with him on his first trip to Africa and his first meeting with his father. She was just twenty-one years old—an age when many of her friends were focused on graduating from college—but she hoped to settle down and start a life with her husband. Their teenage romance had barely survived the years they’d spent apart; it was unclear how their marriage would last when they were finally together.
It was October 2000 when she returned to Monrovia. Until then she had been connected to Liberia only through conversations and e-mails with Chucky. While she remained in the dark about much of his life, she knew that in the year he had been without his unit, he had made very little money off his various schemes and ventures. More important, she knew that the pressure on his father’s government had increased significantly. What she did not know, when she finally arrived, was that Chucky had given up on the idea of being a husband and father.
“I never wanted her there,” he said, even though he’d lured her to Liberia as a teenager, begged her forgiveness after she discovered his infidelity, married her, and fathered her son. 1 It was characteristic of Chucky’s personality to discard people when he no longer felt they served a purpose in his life.
Indeed, having a child had not been the catalyst for change in Chucky’s life that Lynn had hoped for; if anything, it pushed him away and did nothing to change his behavior. As much as she still loved him, she couldn’t deny that his darker side had become more present. His temper flared with his bodyguards, as he was constantly yelling at them. Then there was Danger; he never acknowledged what had happened to the dog.
When Chucky mysteriously injured his hand, Lynn understood that he’d broken it hitting someone. But as with many of the shrouded details of his life outside of their home, she didn’t pursue it. “All through my time in Africa, I really believed he hadn’t killed someone,” she said. 2
The end came quickly and without incident, she recalled: “One day he just decided he didn’t want to be married anymore.” She knew all the failures in Chucky’s life were weighing on him, but the more fundamental problem was that “he just became a different person.” She returned to Florida and filed for divorce. For nearly a year, the couple did not communicate. She remained in Orlando raising her son as a single mother, hearing little of Chucky’s life in Monrovia and receiving no financial support for their child.
Eventually, Chucky wanted their two-year-old son to travel with Bernice to Africa to accompany him on a medical trip to South Africa to receive surgery on his hand. She refused. Furious at being denied access to his son, Chucky called Lynn in Orlando and reached her sister. When Lynn refused to get on the phone, Chucky grew enraged, according to a member of her family. 3 He threatened the family member and parents in specific terms: “He told me that he was going to line me and my mom and dad up and shoot us in the back of the head.” (The family member asked to not be identified, given the nature of the threat.)
Lynn called President Taylor, hysterically crying. Taylor had grown accustomed
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