1973. 5 shots ring out in the suburbs of the Nation’s Capital. Colonel Joseph Alon lay dead from an assassin’s bullets. A few blocks away, Fred Burton, a then sixteen-year teen sleeps silently in his bed. A short time later, in another part of the world, Ted Andre’s dad, a decorated MACV-SOG veteran, hears of his friend Joseph’s murder. Answers. Answers are needed. How? Why? Who? These questions haunt. Ted’s father’s dying wish is to learn who killed his friend.
Follow Ted and Fred’s Journey as they discuss their paths to justice and uncover the truth of the assassination of Israeli Colonel Joseph Alon. In this first part of a multi-part series, Ted and Fred talk about the 1970s and their relations to the Colonel. PS: We not only discuss the assassination but also the culture of the 1970s (including Ozzy Osbourne's connection to Ted).
This episode was brought to you by DeliverFund.org
Make sure to check out Jason on IG @drjasonpiccolo
1973. 5 shots ring out in the suburbs of the Nation’s Capital. Colonel Joseph Alon lay dead from an assassin’s bullets. A few blocks away, Fred Burton, a then sixteen-year teen sleeps silently in his bed. A short time later, in another part of the world, Ted Andre’s dad, a decorated MACV-SOG veteran, hears of his friend Joseph’s murder. Answers. Answers are needed. How? Why? Who? These questions haunt. Ted’s father’s dying wish is to learn who killed his friend.
Follow Ted and Fred’s Journey as they discuss their paths to justice and uncover the truth of the assassination of Israeli Colonel Joseph Alon. In this first part of a multi-part series, Ted and Fred talk about the 1970s and their relations to the Colonel. PS: We not only discuss the assassination but also the culture of the 1970s (including Ozzy Osbourne's connection to Ted).
This episode was brought to you by DeliverFund.org
Make sure to check out Jason on IG @drjasonpiccolo
19 73, 5 shots ring out from Assassin's Gun killing Colonel Joseph Ilan, as he lays dead in his driveway a few short blocks away. A thin 16 year old Fred sleeps silent in his bed, a world away. Ted Andre's dad, a decorated Max Sog bedroom here is of his friend's death. Listen in as we find out how these worlds collide. This is a three-part special series of the Protector podcast. I'm joined today by Fred Burton and Ted Andre. We're gonna be talking about a very important intersection of cultures and countries between the death of Colonel Joseph Ilan, as documented in Fred's book, chasing Shadows. And Ted's father, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Allen Andras. Let's talk. Ted. Fred, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Great to be back, Jason. Thanks for having us. Fred, world renowned author, spook, all sorts of cool stuff going on in our I could, you're not really a spook, but you know, you got a lot of really great background, Ted, world renowned producer, all sorts of good stuff in the entertainment industry, industry, and it's also award-winning. So, Ted, let's, let's hear about you, Ted. What's your background? What's your 30,000 foot overview?
Speaker 2:30,000 foot overview. I'm one of the few, if not the only, in the family to pursue the arts rather than going into, uh, some aspect of military or law enforcement. So, uh, it was an interesting path. And, uh, the interesting thing about growing up that way is that gives you a sense of discipline that you can apply to entertainment and, and a multitude of other pursuits. And I think that that's absolutely, uh, invaluable in, in the course of doing so. And, uh, short story is I, I learned how to play guitar, or I thought I did, uh, as a teenager and was playing backyard parties on East Coast and got the idea to, uh, come out to Los Angeles and pursue that. And, uh, audition for Ozzy Osbournes band, which was a lot of fun. And then went from there and, and as kind of a springboard into that, uh, sector of the industry, and, uh, was lucky enough to work with a lot of great people, uh, formed some, some good bands. We had some, you know, relatively good levels of success. And I, I also did a lot of what's referred to as ghost playing. So I would, uh, go into the recording studio between typically midnight and six in the morning and sign an nda and then go, uh, fix tracks as needed, uh, for various bands that, uh, that were in there. So, uh, very interesting path and, uh, met some, some great people on the way. And in the course of doing that, uh, on the set of our second music video, I encountered a director with a great idea about a phone that communicates with the past. So I transitioned then into filmmaking to pursue that, uh, concept, which we then did on a shoestring and ended up getting picked up by Showtime, HBO and Netflix, which wasn't too bad for our first time out. And then that was then going into full-time, uh, film industry as opposed to, uh, the music industry. So that's kind of the brief story. And, uh, along the way there, I saw little glimpses of elements of what my father did. I had a couple occasions where, uh, one in particular where there was a contract that was not honored. And in this one particular case I had, I was studying, uh, law and finance in college and knew that these contracts should be adhered to. So dad happened to call one afternoon and I said, well, you know, somehow these guys aren't fulfilling under the contract. What do I do? And I shared with him some of the details about this particular organization. And within the next, uh, three weeks, everything was, uh, mysteriously fixed. And, uh, I ran into this gentleman, uh, a little while longer when I was playing a show at the Roxy out here. Uh, my band was headlining. And, uh, he came, uh, running over very quickly to see if everything was okay. And I had a completely different attitude. And I remember asking my father, you know, what, what happened with this gentleman? How did you convince him to, uh, uphold his end of the deal and do what was right? And he said, well, don't worry, but I don't think you'll have trouble with him anymore,
Speaker 1:<laugh>. Well, Ted, you know what? We need to pause right there, because what the deal is, is your dad was not only a lieutenant colonel, but in Vietnam, he was attached to military assistance command. Vietnam studies, an observation group. Now, if anybody is a Vietnam historian into the soft world, special operations forces and everything else, you know, that's Mac v sag. So that is, uh, the spooky world, quote unquote spooky world of the Vietnam War, where there's a lot of black ops and open ops going on, and a lot of really cool, well, I shouldn't say cool, because it's seen a life and death, but a lot of really interesting aspects I could imagine of your dad's background in the Intel community. And in that, so when you say your dad intersected, he's probably using his years of experience, his quote, particular set of skills Yes. That he learned through a<laugh>
Speaker 2:A career. You bring up one interesting point, and again, because, uh, just briefly, I couldn't ask him a lot what he did growing up. I got used to that at a very young age, and I knew what the term sodium penal was somehow by the time I was six<laugh>. But I remember specifically, uh, he came to visit me at one point, we would traditionally go get a steak and we'd go get an af a lunch. We went to Benny Hana. And Benny Hana has that sort of hibachi outlay where we've got about, uh, eight or nine people around the table. I took a brief restroom break, came back in three minutes or so, and by the time I got back, he knew everyone's first and last name, where they lived, what they did for a living and was speaking fluent Japanese with the waitress. And that kind of surprised me a bit. And, uh, there you go. That's another example of, of an unusual skillset and the knack of really getting along with people very quickly.
Speaker 1:Human intelligence, that's one thing Fred knows immensely. And that's one thing you cannot get by in the intelligence community unless you have, well, I should say, unless you are the spycraft world, if you're in the field, you can't get by without being able to talk to someone. And that brings us into Fred Burton. Fred has an illustrious career within the Department of State Counter-Terrorism. He's written numerous books about it, and he's spent time in some, in very interesting areas. I love saying interesting is my favorite word when I say, wow. So Fred, let's talk about your seventies now. We're, we're, we're going back here, you know, we're going to, this whole thing's gonna make sense everybody in a little while. But Ted's father, Vietnam comes back, ends up on the East Coast Pentagon area at this same time, same location. Fred enters the world of emergency services i e police in the 1970s. What brought you into the police world? Was this something about your background, or how did you get into there to wanna put on a badge?
Speaker 3:Uh, it's a great question, Jason, and trust me, my background is nowhere near as interesting as Ted's<laugh> after I listened to that. Uh, but, uh, I'm the son of a West Virginia coal miner. My dad literally grew up in a coal camp without, uh, running water and went off to World War ii. And then after the war, he knew he didn't want to go back to the coal camp. So, uh, he went up to Detroit and worked a little bit on the auto lines, and then eventually headed back to the Washington DC area where he cobbled up, cobbled together enough money, Jason and Ted to, uh, buy a business. He bought a local gas station. And I remember, uh, we lived in a two bedroom apartment, uh, pretty much right across the street from where the gas station was located, uh, throughout the sixties. I'm, I'm old enough to remember when JFK was assassinated, uh, I'm sad to say. But, um, what happened was, uh, in the seventies, Jason, uh, there was an event that took place, which I know we're going to get into. And, uh, in, uh, the mid seventies, I joined our local rescue squad, which was the Bethesda Chevy Chase rescue squad, uh, for those of you in the DC area, very familiar with it. It's been around forever. And, uh, I kind of got the bug for public safety. And, uh, during that time period, um, most of the volunteers at the rescue squad had full-time jobs, of course. And, and there were a lot of cops, a lot of Montgomery County police, a lot of dc DC police, a lot of, um, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, DC Fire, DC Ambulance. So, uh, I, uh, I chose to go the law enforcement route, uh, and, uh, join the Montgomery County Police first, which, um, you know, many days, uh, when I would later become a federal agent, I would look back and, and kind of wish I was back in that patrol car, uh, when life was a little bit simpler. So that's pretty much my story, uh, as to how I got into public safety,
Speaker 1:Public safety. And you know what, speaking of public safety and speaking in 1970s, I cannot believe I did not ask Ted more about this Ozzy Osborne
Speaker 2:<laugh>.
Speaker 1:What was it like meeting the man? Did you actually play with Ozzy?
Speaker 2:Well, I, it, it's interesting. I auditioned with, uh, the drummer bass, which was Randy Castillo and Phil Susan, who were, uh, among some of the best people I've ever been in a room with. I did not actually meet Ozzy, uh, at the auditions. We went through, uh, a a lot of the catalog musically and, uh, which was a terrific experience because these are the guys that I, you know, I grew up listening to that and I saw them, you know, play a number of times. So to be in that room, I think was, was, uh, tremendously rewarding. And actually just being able to get through that process, to me was an accomplishment. And being able to tell that story at this point, and it gave me that additional confidence to then go on and, you know, form my own bands. And I understood how to, how to navigate the business as well. I had a terrific, uh, uh, manager in the form of, uh, Tammy Shad. She was my manager. She's, uh, coincidentally, uh, was Judd Apatow's mother. And, uh, her father was Bob Sha, who was also another luminary in the music business. And, uh, to bring it full circle, Tammy Sha actually went to high school with my current manager, Rob Heller, who is, uh, has been in the business for many, many years. He, uh, he still manages also a Smokey Robinson and Neil Sadaka. So he's a terrific guy who's also been a really good mentor. And so the music industry, I found that music is, is in its own way a commonality that brings people together. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to be in that part of the business, but when you have an understanding like that, somehow, it's almost like a secret handshake. And I think that having that pedigree in that certainly was a good preparation to then transition into film. And then in general, because music is, there's kind of not really a specific path. You have to understand how to navigate quickly. And that skill also is useful in other disciplines in entertainment, like the film industry, for example, of creating content.
Speaker 1:Now, Ted music is kind of like telling a story. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, either it's through the words or through music. Your dad probably what he saw, what I imagine he saw in Vietnam probably kept him guarded. What was it like growing up with someone who did spend a lot of time in special activities?
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting you say that because guarded is certainly, uh, a good way of putting it. When we would go to school, obviously, uh, and this is primarily in Virginia, prior to going overseas, everyone kind of knows what their parents did. It's a standard thing, you know, what does your dad do? I don't know. Well, what do you mean you don't know? Well, it works for the government. It's got an office in the Pentagon, and I don't know any more than that. And, and that was kind of the extent of it, but at the same time, but the times we did share together were, were very, very, uh, impactful. You know, we did a lot of outdoor stuff together, hiking, uh, you know, things of this nature. But he was gone a lot to your point. And because he was gone so frequently, you kind of get used to, uh, taking advantage of the time when he does get back. But I do know he spent a lot of time in Japan, and we had, uh, a lot of Israeli friends. I think he went to Israel quite frequently, and, uh, also Morocco and also Iran. So I believe he knew the Shaw.
Speaker 1:That's a<laugh>. Wow. Very, I, I wish I could, I really wish I could have met your father. Sounds like a very interesting person and a excellent, incredible background in the military and intelligence community.
Speaker 2:Oh, and one to, to this timeframe, I didn't, didn't mean to interrupt you there, but in the, when he was in Vietnam, he would send back recordings, and I'm still trying to find these, but he would record conversations to us and my mom would play them back for my sister and I. So, uh, this was kind of our way of just getting, getting a little bit of insight from dad and, and kind of saying hello virtually, if you will, in the, uh, pre-internet days.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, when I first went to the war in oh 5, 0 6, we were still sending video, not video, but audio tapes over. So it's, it's interesting how that transcribes, uh, throughout the decades. Now, your dad, did he ever like, bring people home, like, you know, people from work, did you? Yes. You have to go to like, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:We had a, we had a regular, uh, uh, guest list that would come over from time to time. I actually learned how to attend bar at a pretty young age, and I could always tell if they'd had a real big party the night before, because it was very chill by the time they got to our place. So I, yeah, I would meet these, uh, these people who were all very, very cool. Um, I remember he took me to his office in the Pentagon at one point, and this was remarkable because there were, again, it was very little at the time, but we went through a multitude of levels of security. And when we finally got into his office in that back area, everything much like a film was either flipped over, uh, or they had this, that top secret stamp actually on the paper. And I remember seeing that as a kid, just going, well, this looks like the movies in a way. And, uh, there was one area in particular that stood out because the final, uh, sort of area of the Pentagon, we got to, it resembled a cement tunnel. It was very odd. There were no right angles, and it was a rounded kind of a passageway. And, uh, that definitely left an impression as well. It was a very interesting place to be in.
Speaker 1:And Fred, you know, you're growing up in the DC area, you're growing up around all this going on. There's so much spycraft going on in the sixties and seventies with, you know, the, the drop locations and everything else, but, and you're, but you're keeping a view of what's going on around you. What was your childhood like growing up in this area? And you guys are almost around the, the same timeframes in this area.
Speaker 3:Well, it was really kind of an amazing, uh, place to grow up. Jason, I know you're in the DC area, and Ted lived there too growing up. You know, you had a very blue collar mixture of neighborhoods with diplomats intermingled with blue collar workers. Like my father certainly was as a gas station owner next to government employees. My, my best friend's dad was a senior c I official, which I never knew for many, many years. Uh, he actually wore one of the, uh, hoover fedoras too, to work every day and drove a, a 68 Camaro, which was pretty cool. Uh, being at the gas station, certainly, you know, cars. And, you know, the one thing that really resonates with me from that timeframe is, you know, of course, being that close to the district line, Washington DC line, the 68 riots was something that, uh, was still fresh in everybody's mind in the late sixties into the seventies. And, you know, it, of course, you had the explosion of just, uh, rock and roll music and, uh, bands and Woodstock. And, and of course, um, you know, I I vividly recall the, uh, Arab gas embargo, and my dad had like a v i p line for, uh, all of his Masonic lodge, uh, uh, brothers. And any cop or any firefighter that he knew, he would whistle and we would move him to the head of the line. And, and actually, I, I don't think I've ever told you this story, Ted, but, uh, one of my father's customers was, uh, vice President Spiral Agnew at the time. Really? Before, yeah. Yeah. That was, uh, pretty interesting. And wow. And the Secret Service occasionally would ring down to my dad's gas station and say, Hey, can you come up and, and fuel up the old man's car or the wife's car? And, and they would, the mechanics would pick it up and, and gas it up. So, you know, gas in was what, 20 something cents a gallon. So it was just a different error. And, you know, um, my uncle uh, my uncle went off to Vietnam. He actually is an interesting fellow. He, he had an appointment, uh, for West Point and turned it down, and, uh, he enlisted and then somehow made his way to Oc s School, and he turned out to be, uh, a Green Beret in Vietnam as well. And, uh, I'll never forget, uh, Jason and Ted, um, he came home from the war, and I, I don't remember what year this was, it, it had to be the late sixties. And, and, um, he drank a lot. And my, um, my dad when after the war, he was at Ehrenberg. And, uh, my uncle was kind of the, uh, outcasts of the family because of his drinking habit. And my dad took him in and, uh, I remember him living with us in our two bedroom apartment there on Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, Maryland. And my dad, uh, knew what he had suffered through. And, uh, that's just the kind of big heart that my dad had for, for, uh, veterans, for people that had been through war and traumatic experiences and, and so forth. And my dad was also a big OT Murphy fan, of course, the, uh, the legendary soldier. And I still have a couple of his autographed pictures to me lying around here as part of my collection.
Speaker 1:Cool. I, I tell you, the, the father son intersection and how it's such a, it drives who we are and who we become regardless of what your, your relationship is with them. Now, this whole time you have Lieutenant Colonel Andrati, and you have 16 year old Fred Burton, and then you have Colonel Joseph Ilan, your neighbors Fred, basically right down the road from Colonel Alan Ted, your dad is friends with Colonel Alan, right?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So what did you know about their friendship, Ted?
Speaker 2:Well, I do recall the name, uh, growing up. And I, and I do know, uh, like I s like I mentioned earlier, he had a lot of Israeli friends. That was a, a pretty common thing. Um, and when I learned really to, you know, more of the details was, you know, one of my last conversations with dad when he said, be sure and look into what happened to my buddy Joe Alan. And at the time that he mentioned that to me, I was not aware of, of the murder at that point. I just knew that he said to look into what happened to his friend. And of course, when he gave me those details, I then began to, to investigate and get more context to it. And that's what led me to, uh, you know, to join forces with Fred.
Speaker 1:Now, Fred, on July 1st, 1973, you're a 16 year old kid, as someone gets murdered, assassinated in your neighborhood, that left a lifelong impression, obviously a lifelong impression that you wrote books about it, you researched, you investigated, you set yourself on a path. Do you think that was such a big incident that it really put you on a path that you came to, to live this life of human intelligence, gun gathering, counter-terrorism, law enforcement?
Speaker 3:You know, Jason, uh, it's a very good question. I'm sure the, uh, the DC shrinks would say. So, uh, I just, I just certainly recall, uh, the event, uh, after reading about it in the morning paper, you know, in those days, of course, you don't have the internet, you don't have social media, which I know many of your listeners won't understand.<laugh>, uh, you had a nightly news broadcast and so forth. So information kind of flew very slowly during that time period. And the, um, oldest daughter of Colonel Alan actually was in high school with me at, uh, the Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. And so, you know, it's a small community during that timeframe. But, you know, after the murder, um, shortly thereafter in 1975, the murder was in 73. In 75, I joined the Bethesda Chevy Chase rescue squad. And they were actually the first new unit that responded to the, uh, shooting of Colonel Alan. And actually got there before the cops did. And then, uh, I later became a police officer in Montgomery County that investigated the, the homicide. And, um, so, you know, I've thought long and hard about the sequence of events, whether it was fate or destiny, I don't, I don't know Jason Ted. Uh, but you know, here we are in 2021, still talking about this case that happened in 1973, which is at times just very surreal for me to still be thinking about this case all these years later.
Speaker 1:And, you know, Ted, we were talking before the show about the intersection of music and history and all this going on in the 1970s. Did you wanna elaborate on that?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it, it's interesting because in that timeframe that we're referring to, uh, was a kind of an upheaval in terms of pop culture and, and culture in general. And in fact, one of the projects that I'm working on now, uh, involves specifically 1971 when the Alice Cooper Band relocated from, uh, Detroit into a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut to record billion dollar babies. This is actually all true events. And in the course of looking into that, you see that music in a way kind of drives culture. And the two then in turn sort of shape, uh, pop culture and basically kind of like the way that the, the movements of the time were, were going. And so there's this kind of an undercurrent of that. And I distinctly recall to kind of make a, a tie in here with Dad as we would ride in the car through, through, you know, on the beltway or through Virginia, and I believe it was W P G C we would put on, so that was the local station, and we would listen to, you know, all the rock music and then he would play his, uh, Johnny Cash music for me, which was a really, uh, sort of a pivotal time as a, as a kid too. I was a big Johnny Cash band thanks to that. So music, really big part of our, our whole family. And he would sing a lot in the car, which was always really cool.
Speaker 1:What did your, did your dad ever say anything about the assassination?
Speaker 2:He never, you know, at the time he didn't mention it at all. Um, and I know at the time we were just little kids. And maybe it's the type of thing too where you don't want to put that kind of a, a fear into your family. And, and you know, I think the operations they were involved in, from what I've learned from, from, uh, you know, collaborating with Fred here is it's, it's very, very high level operations and it's not the type of thing you would share with your family for the reasons that, we'll, you know, we'll start to uncover as we go through the story here. But, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't recall, uh, him, him ever mentioning that at the time.
Speaker 1:I would imagine that there was a lot going on with your father, whether or not directly or indirectly he knew what was going on in one way or the other, as the same way Fred would find out later on about all the different communities involved with this. This wasn't just a murder in the driveway, this was an assassination.
Speaker 2:No, and he was a friend. Cuz the other thing my father shared with me, you know, in, in our final conversations there was they, they did a lot of stuff together. And I'm guessing that with, along with the folks that were coming over to our house at that time, especially in Virginia, he was certainly among those guests.
Speaker 1:Fred. Ted, thank you so much for telling part one of this story. This is gonna be multi-part, it may be three, it may be four, maybe five. I wanna flush this story out as much as possible cuz when a foreign diplomat is assassinated on US soil, it sends ripple effects through the community. And now we have Ted Andre award-winning, filmmaker, producer, musician, and Fred Burton, former federal agent and bestselling author coming together to talk about this. And me, Hey,<laugh>, the podcaster guy. I'm really looking forward to talking more about this and we're going to flush this out for as long as it takes. Thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you Jason. Jason and Fred.
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