Guard Dog Operation Downplayed

State prison investigators say the dog that killed a San Francisco woman last week was part of a fledgling operation by the Aryan Brotherhood called the “Dogs of War,” an enterprise to train fighting guard dogs that never got off the ground and never made the prison gang its intended profits.

They say the operation, despite its ominous title, consisted of six dogs at most, half of them eventually killed by the mixed breed Canary Island-English mastiff named Bane. This was the same powerfully built dog that mauled to death 33-year-old Diane Whipple at the door of her San Francisco apartment Friday.

Corrections investigators said Wednesday that earlier reports of the dogs being trained to guard methamphetamine labs were “pure speculation,” and that whatever the prison gang intended to do with the animals, it was never able to carry out its plans.

“It was a fledgling enterprise at best, and half the dogs were eaten by Bane, according to our sources,” said one corrections investigator close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The story here is that a fine young woman was killed. All this other drama about meth labs and a big prison dog-breeding ring is made-for-TV stuff.”

State corrections investigators said they began a serious investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood more than a year ago when a woman raising the dogs told them she was being threatened by the inmates. She said she was being threatened for not teaching fighting skills to Bane and a handful of similarly bred dogs shipped out from the Midwest, investigators said.

The trail then led to Pelican Bay State Prison, the remote lockup near the California-Oregon border that holds leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Mafia and Black Guerrilla Family in one of the most secure housing units in the country. Even so, the Aryan Brotherhood has managed to run drugs and direct murders from inside the prison, so the tip that the group had organized a fighting-dog ring was taken seriously.

That sent investigators to the cell of Paul “Cornfed” Schneider, 38, one of the most notorious inmates in California, and his fellow gang member, Dale Bretches, 44, both of whom had set up the “Dogs of War” enterprise, corrections officials said.

Schneider, who is serving a life sentence plus 11 years for stabbing a guard as well as one of his former attorneys, is a reputed U.S. Air Force-trained expert in escape and survival who boasted a “highly developed talent for weapons manufacture, use and concealment,” according to a letter from one of his attorneys obtained by The Times. In addition to his prowess with knives, Schneider is an accomplished pencil and crayon artist.

At the direction of Schneider and Bretches, the dogs ended up at a remote farm belonging to Janet Coumbs of Hayfork, Calif. Coumbs, who had been visiting Schneider in prison as part of a Christian outreach effort, was enlisted by the gang members to teach the dogs to fight, corrections investigators said. But she resisted, and at some point, two associates of the gang visited her.

“They tell her to get with the program, you either teach the dogs to fight or you get your arms and legs broken,” said the corrections investigator. “Coumbs is one tough lady or she apparently didn’t understand who she was dealing with, because she told them she wasn’t going along with the plan.”

Herman Franck, a Spokane lawyer who has represented Schneider in the past, scoffed at the idea that Schneider and Bretches were running a ring to breed attack dogs.

“These guys are artists,” Franck said. “They wanted to have someone raise the dogs so they could have their pictures and paint them. . . . As far as I know they were just giving the dogs away, not making any money from it.”

Franck said both men love the Presa Canarios, or Canary Islands, breed of dog. They adorned their prison cells with self-made artwork of the animals. The two also produce art featuring horses and “all kinds of furry animals,” said Franck, who added that in much of their work “the animals will be next to a beautiful woman.”

Corrections investigators have turned their information over to San Francisco police. Detectives are trying to determine if two San Francisco lawyers--who gained ownership of Bane and a second dog that attacked Whipple--knew the animals were violent.

City detectives said they are investigating reports that the two dogs kept by attorneys Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller were involved in a spate of attacks in recent months. A postman reported that he was bitten by one dog while delivering mail. Another mailman told police that the dogs lunged at him while being restrained by either Noel or Knoller.

“We have reports that these animals were aggressive toward people in the past, and we’re following up every lead,” said San Francisco Police Lt. Henry Hunter.

Hunter said police are also investigating an incident at San Francisco’s Baker Beach in which Bane, which literally means death, allegedly attacked Noel.

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan said Wednesday that his office is focusing on a possible prosecution of Noel and Knoller. He said authorities would have to prove that the dogs were trained to attack and that the owners were negligent.

“We are considering a variety of options right now, from a felony conviction that could bring two, three or four years, all the way to homicide,” Hallinan said.

Corrections officials say the husband-and-wife lawyer team of Noel and Knoller, who shared the same apartment complex with Whipple, are well known to them. The couple, who this week took the unusual step of adopting inmate Schneider, have represented half a dozen guards on behalf of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. At the same time, they have represented members and relatives of the Aryan Brotherhood.

“Noel and Knoller have represented several correctional officers accused of brutality against inmates, and they’ve yet to win a case,” said Mark Roussopoulos, a special investigator with state corrections who was once sued by Noel and Knoller in a racketeering case thrown out of court.

Noel is a former assistant U.S. attorney who handled tax and bank failure cases, and Knoller specialized in financial, banking and Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory work.

They have represented Pelican Bay officers charged with civil rights violations against inmates. Two of the officers have been found guilty of conspiring with inmates who belonged to white supremacist groups. The guards and prisoners had conspired to set up attacks against convicted child molesters and other inmates at the bottom of the prison hierarchy. A third guard accused of brutality faces federal trial this year.

Because the guards were working in concert with white prison gangs, Noel and Knoller became familiar with the operations of the Aryan Brotherhood. Out of this familiarity, corrections investigators say, friendships grew between the two attorneys and gang members. In a 39-page letter in 1998, Noel and Knoller told Del Norte County and federal officials that Schneider’s life was in danger because he shared a cell with a violent inmate.

The letter was written in the midst of a war within the Aryan Brotherhood. At the time, according to Noel, the gang inside Pelican Bay had splintered into at least three factions. One of them was headed by Schneider, who claimed his life was threatened by the other two factions.

In 1994 and 1995, according to Noel’s letter, Schneider had put his weapons and artistic skills to use when he managed to hide several knives inside the prison’s Security Housing Unit.

Schneider had removed a metal vent cover from the law library and used the vent to craft several knives, or shanks. The missing vent was never discovered, Noel wrote, because Schneider had replaced it with a pencil and ink drawing made to look like a vent.

At some point, Schneider decided to turn over the knives. Noel said he handed over the knives to authorities in hopes of gaining a transfer to another prison. That transfer never came.

Two years ago, Schneider struck up a friendship with Coumbs, the Hayfork woman who agreed to raise the dogs.

This week in Hayfork, a hard-luck mining town deep in the woods southeast of Eureka, residents said they couldn’t imagine Coumbs training fighting dogs at the behest of the Aryan Brotherhood.

“I don’t think Janet knew what she was getting into when she saw those cons,” said David Godfrey, a local feed store owner who has known Coumbs since she was a girl. “She wouldn’t do anything to hurt anyone. She just got conned by some cons.”

Visiting Schneider and Bretches at Pelican Bay was no easy feat for Coumbs. The Crescent City prison sits 180 miles on twisting mountain roads from Hayfork. Residents described Coumbs as a devoutly religious woman who was often in town with her 17-year-old daughter. She got by on welfare payments, they said, and no one could recall if she ever held a job.

Her home, a white clapboard structure surrounded by cars and a few beat-up old camper trailers, is just off the main road that winds into town. On a recent day, a pair of sheep grazed in the back and a few chickens skittered among patches of snow.

“She’s a quiet person. She’s always out doing fund-raisers for the church,” said Angela Riggs, manager of a local coffee shop. “I would never picture her raising fighting dogs.”

Coumbs was away from home Wednesday. Neighbors said the dogs were kept penned and didn’t cause problems, though the muscle-bound animals were an intimidating presence.

“They were scary,” said Darlene Booth, a neighbor who lives half a mile from Coumbs’ house.

Her husband, Donald Booth, said the biggest dog was often kept on a chain out front. Coumbs told him about the arrangement with the Pelican Bay prisoners, he said, adding that “it seemed a little strange.”

State corrections investigators say reports that members of the Mexican Mafia were part of the fighting dog ring appear to be exaggerated. They say that one Los Angeles family, whose father and son are members of the Mexican Mafia, received as a gift one of the surviving dogs raised by Coumbs.

Investigators said Bretches recently took out a strange advertisement in a magazine for breeders of the Presa Canario dogs. The inmate had penned an elaborate drawing of Bane, with exposed fangs and in full snarl. He offered to draw a similar portrait for other dog owners and asked that they send photos to the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay.

“It was a very accurate and frightening drawing,” said the investigator. “It looked like a killer dog.”

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Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this story.

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Raising Deadly Dogs

The dog that killed a San Francisco woman was raised on a farm in Hayfork at the direction of two members of the Aryan Brotherhood behind bars at Pelican Bay State Prison, according to corrections officials.

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Prison profile

Date opened: 1989

Number of acres: 275

Inmate capacity: 2,280

Currant inmate count: 3,384

Number of custudy staff: 862

Annual operating budget: $83.8 million for fiscal year 2000-2001

Source: California Dept. of Corrections Web site