Man Kidnaps Street Sign in Protest of Poindexter Role
A peace activist says he wants a $30-million ransom for a John Poindexter Street sign, erected recently in the hometown of President Reagan’s former national security adviser.
Bill Breeden said he took the sign to protest Poindexter’s reported role in the sale of U.S. weapons to Iran and the diversion of an estimated $30 million to rebels in Nicaragua.
Breeden, 37, said he hung the sign near the tepee where lives in Brown County.
Poindexter, a vice admiral in the Navy, resigned as national security adviser after the weapons sale and transfer of funds to the contras were disclosed.
Officials of Odon, a town of 1,500 in southwestern Indiana, erected the street sign honoring their native son on Nov. 26, the day after Poindexter resigned.
Breeden said he took the sign the next night, replacing it with one that read: “There are some graduates of this (Odon-Madison Township) high school who do not believe government should lie to the people. Lo, how the mighty have fallen.”
Poindexter is a 1954 graduate of the high school; Breeden was graduated in 1967.
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