Jack Lee Harelson (1940 - December 14, 2012) was an American

insurance agent Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

, best known for desecrating and looting a

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...

Indian burial site in the

Black Rock Desert __NOTOC__ The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe eco-region) of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a si ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Biography

Jack Lee Harelson was an insurance agent in

Grants Pass, Oregon Grants Pass is the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, along the Rogue River. The population was 39,189 at the 2020 census. History Early Hudson's Bay Company hunt ...

. In 1995, one of his former business partners in an

opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms ...

mine tipped off police that Harelson had been looting Amerindian sites. In exchange for immunity from prosecution, Harelson's ex-wife Pamela Ralph led police investigators to an Elephant Mountain Cave in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. She stated that she and Harelson had dug and collected American Indian treasures in the early 1980s. She had photographs of the cave that had significantly grown after three years of digging. Harelson had built a wall to hide a dirt pile. Digging had totally destroyed the site, which had included various artifacts, including those from the

tribe.

Oregon State Police The Oregon State Police (OSP) is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of Oregon. The OSP enforces all of Oregon's criminal laws and assists local law enforcement agencies. Terri Davie has served as Superintendent since November 1, 2020. The ...

recovered over 2,000 artifacts from Harelson's home in Grants Pass, including 10,000-year-old sandals. In Harelson's garden, police found two headless bodies of Paiute children wrapped in plastic garbage bags. These bodies were historical, maybe 2,000 years old. The heads were not found. Ralph said that bodies were intact when they were found in two large baskets. The state prosecutor charged Harelson for looting and desecrating the site. He was charged with aggravated theft, abuse of corpses, tampering with

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

and possessing illegal

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

devices. The main witness in the case was Pamela Ralph, but his former business partners also testified. Harelson admitted only to digging a "test hole" and removing some artifacts and said that he had intended to attract interest of archaeologists and to hand the artifacts over later. He stated that he had reported significant

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...

finds to the Nevada State Museum. The museum acknowledged that. Harelson's defense claimed he was a collector who had bought the Amerindian artifacts and was not involved with dealing them. The defense tried to have charges dismissed on the grounds that the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

had expired. The prosecutor successfully argued that continued possession of the items constituted continuation of the crime. Harelson was found guilty of abuse of a corpse and possession of state property. He received a fine of $20,000 and spent 30 days in jail. Harelson lost his insurance agent's licence and began an online business, called Jack's Outback, selling opals and things like

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

reproductions and artifact display cases. According to a later police report, he also continued to deal in

illegal antiquities The antiquities trade is the exchange of antiquities and archaeological artifacts from around the world. This trade may be illicit or completely legal. The legal antiquities trade abides by national regulations, allowing for extraction of artifact ...

and solicited excavation of sites in Oregon and Nevada. On December 6, 2002, a federal administrative law judge in Oregon fined Harelson $2.5 million for destruction of archaeological resources. Further investigation unearthed two skulls that may have belonged to the two Paiute corpses. Harelson claimed that he had no money and accused the government of turning him into a scapegoat. Behind the scenes, police investigation about his antique dealings continued. In January 2003, authorities discovered that Harelson intended to kill police sergeant Walt Markee (who had searched Harelson's home), County Judge Loyd O'Neal (who had presided over the 1996 trial), Harelson's ex-wife and two former business partners. An undercover policeman approached Harelson in the role of a

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

willing to carry out the murders for a price. Harelson paid the policeman $10,000 in the form of opals after the policeman showed Harelson a fabricated photograph of the corpse of one of the intended murder victims. The transaction was videotaped, and police later arrested Harelson in his home with the help of a

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

team. In 2004, the

State of Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

charged Harelson with multiple counts of

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

to commit aggravated

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

and

illegal possession of a firearm Criminal possession of a weapon is the unlawful possession of a weapon by an individual. Many societies both past and present have placed restrictions on what forms of weaponry private citizens (and to a lesser extent police) are allowed to pur ...

. He was sent to jail without

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

to await sentencing. Later in 2004, Harelson's bid to overturn the $2.5 million fine failed. As of October, 2009, Harelson was serving a 10-year prison sentence in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in

Pendleton, Oregon Pendleton is a city and the county seat of Umatilla County, Oregon. The population was 17,107 at the time of the 2020 census, which includes approximately 1,600 people who are incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. Pendleton ...

. Harelson died on December 14, 2012, in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harelson, Jack Lee 1940 births 2012 deaths People convicted of soliciting murder Prisoners and detainees of Oregon Archaeological theft American people convicted of theft People from Grants Pass, Oregon