Mercenary Case Witness Expresses Fear : Says She Would Flee if Mother, Other Suspect Were Granted Bail

The daughter of one of two Dana Point women who allegedly hired an Alabama team of would-be mercenaries in the firebombing of two cars last August testified in federal court Wednesday that she would be scared and might flee if the two defendants were released on bail.

“I probably won’t be around,” Shirley Ruth Wright, 28, told a detention hearing for her mother, Charlotte Ruth Wyckoff, 51, and Elizabeth Leta Hamilton, 39. Both women own and operate preschools and elementary schools in Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Under questioning by the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attys. David W. Wiechert and Charles J. Stevens, Wright said the two women carried pistols in their purses and bullet clips in their bras and planned to send her 17-year-old adopted brother, Joey, to a mercenary-survivalist training camp run by Franklin Camper at a place called “The Bunker” near Birmingham.

“They spy,” Wright said. “The whole thing is a fantastic game to them.”

She said that Wyckoff and Hamilton “idolized” Camper, who told government agents that he came to California last summer to help find people who had been vandalizing the women’s schools. However, he denied knowledge of the firebombing of two cars in San Bernardino County.

The two women, Camper and three part-time instructors at the mercenary camp were charged in a government complaint Tuesday with conspiracy, arson and use of incendiary devices to destroy automobiles belonging to former teachers who worked at Wyckoff’s and Hamilton’s schools.

Wyckoff and Hamilton, who deny the charges, were arrested at their home in Dana Point. Investigators reported finding a .357 Ruger revolver and a semi-automatic Ruger rifle in the house.

At a birthday party for Hamilton on one occasion, Wright testified, she heard Hamilton talking to a woman who was complaining about the non-payment of a debt. She quoted Hamilton as referring to Camper and saying: “If you ever want anyone bumped off, we have the perfect guy. This guy will take care of that for you.”

The hearing to determine whether Wyckoff and Hamilton will be released on bail was continued until Tuesday morning, when lawyers for the defendants plan to call character witnesses for the defendants.