Major Gene Duncan a.k.a. Dois Gene “Chip” Tatum a.k.a. Pegaus
Part 2
In 1996, two Secret Service agents visited Tatum in his Tampa, Florida jail cell and told him if he didn’t produce the documents he would be charged with treason and either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment. A week later treason became the primary crime that the US Marshals held him for. The Marshals claimed he was not being held on federal fraud charges, but treason. The media was very interested in these mysterious treason charges, especially since jury selection was already set to begin on the fraud charges. Later, the treason charges were dropped, but Tatum was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to fifteen months. In March of 1996 an added charge of conspiring to embezzle was brought against him and he was again found guilty and now had a total of twenty-seven months to serve. At the trial Tatum’s attorney refused to call any of Tatum’s list of eighty witnesses for his defense. Later the attorney confessed to being pressured by the Department of Defense not to call these witnesses.

At 3:00pm on April 4, 1997, Chip Tatum was roused from an afternoon nap in his cell and told to report to the Warden. Less than halfway through his sentence, Tatum was told he was being released-with immediate effect-as an appellate court had deemed his convictions illegal.

Tatum, who had been awarded a Purple Heart, a Representative of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Air Force Distinguished Service Medal and a Vietnam Service Medal among others, has now disappeared. Some think he’s made a deal and is merely staying quiet and others think he’s probably entombed in concrete at the bottom of the ocean.
In March of 1986, Tatum was again involuntarily recruited by Oliver North into a Special Operations group. He was to work directly for the President of the United States this time. He was paid $43,000 and some change for his service to date and given a medical discharge. In May of 1986, he reported to duty on his new assignment.

During the following years, President Bush asked him to “neutralize” a Mossad agent, Ami Nir -- killed in 1988; the President of a third-world country, General Gustavo Alvarez--killed in 1989; and the leader of a revolutionary force in Central America, Enrique Bermudez (who oversaw the cocaine kitches)--who was killed in 1991. In 1992 he was asked to neutralize an American citizen, a leading political figure in the presidential election--Ross Perot. Tatum refused to do this and decided to leave the “Black Operations Unit.” He was told he couldn’t just “walk away”, but after informing Mr. Colby that he’d documented his activities the past years on video tape, audio tape and copies of documents placed in strategic locations around the world, Chip Tatum did just that--walk away.

In 1994, after repeated threats by Mr. Colby, Oliver North and Felix Rodriquez, he chose to publish some of the documents he’d accumulated over time. After returning to the US from Honduras after securing documents there, his car was broken into at the airport and only his briefcase stolen. However, the documents were not in the briefcase as he had them taped to his person. Two weeks later, the FBI detained Tatum and his wife Nancy and confiscated their household property. The documents were still not found so the FBI arrested Chip Tatum and held him without bail. He was charged with fraud.
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