Police have refused to release the contents of a letter from a gunman that may reveal why he held 18 people hostage.
The letter from the now-deceased man, Clifford Lynn Draper, was addressed to Deseret News Publisher Wm. James Mortimer and contained "demands and explanations," of why Draper took his hostages, according to a conversation between Draper and employees of a local radio station.At the conclusion of Saturday's hostage ordeal, Salt Lake Police Lt. Col. Robert Nievaard told Deseret News editors that he had a demand letter in his hands, but because he had no envelope, he couldn't be sure for whom the letter was intended.
Two people who were among the last of a hundred witnesses to leave the library as the crisis began each said they handled a sealed letter from the gunman and saw that it was addressed to Mortimer.
"I don't know exactly what it said, we didn't open it, we didn't dare," said Joan Robinson. She was attending a ceremony conducted by visiting Tibetan monks at the Salt Lake City Library when Draper jumped on top of a desk waving a gun.
Draper gave the letter to one of the Buddhist monks, a teacher of the Garden Jangtse monastery in southern India. The monk, who does not speak English, handed the letter to Robinson's husband, Carl, who turned it over to hostage negotiators.
Joan Robinson called the Deseret News apparently moments before her husband gave the letter to police and just after leaving the library. "Is William James Mortimer there?" she asked. "We have a letter here for him. This crazy man wants this letter to get to him!"
After a few minutes, Carl Robinson joined the conversation, saying he had given the letter to police.
Though not aware of the exact contents of the letter, Joan Robinson said she heard officers discussing it.
"They said it was filled with `blue sky' demands that were to be met within 72 hours." One of the officers, who was a negotiator, said, "This is serious," after reading it, "she said.
"The police outside should have a list of my demands," Draper said to station managers at KLZX (Z-93). "And I also gave a sealed envelope with U.S. postage on it to a man in the lobby to put in the mailbox to go to the editor of the Deseret Times (News) with my demands and my explanations on it." The conversation was taped just 20 minutes before a sheriff's lieutenant shot and killed Draper.
Police plan to keep the letter at least until their investigation is complete. Despite requests to the Salt Lake City Police administration, the Salt Lake City attorney's office and the Salt Lake County attorney's office, Deseret News editors and legal counsel were unsuccessful in obtaining a copy of the letter.
The gunman did make several demands during tape-recorded conversations with KLZX after the siege began. They were:
- To have a military doctor, stripped to his shorts, bring insulin and other medical supplies into the hostage room in a clear plastic bag
- To speak to Salt Lake City Police Chief Ruben Ortega, who was in Phoenix
- To speak with and receive a pardon from Gov. Mike Leavitt
- To speak with the "commander in chief of the National Guard"
- To have copies of "documents" the gunman had prepared printed in the Sunday editions of both Salt Lake City newspapers
- To list his demands live on the air with KLZX
- Food, beverages and sedatives