In 1978, Townley pleaded guilty to the 1976 murders of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, Letelier's co-worker at the Institute for Policy Studies.
31 Facts About Michael Townley
1.
2.
Michael Townley was sentenced to ten years in prison, serving 62 months.
3.
In 1993, Michael Townley was convicted in absentia by an Italian court of carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton.
4.
Michael Townley worked in producing chemical weapons for DINA which would be used against Pinochet regime political opponents, along with Colonel Gerardo Huber and the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
5.
Michael Townley has long maintained status as a protected witness.
6.
In 1957, Michael Townley moved to Chile with his father, Vernon Michael Townley, who became head of the Ford Motor Company in Chile.
7.
Michael Townley worked as a salesman of mutual fund stocks.
8.
Michael Townley later testified that, before leaving the US, he contacted the CIA to offer his services in Chile, however Michael Townley said he never worked for the CIA.
9.
Back in Chile, Michael Townley ran a clandestine anti-Allende radio station and worked with violent opposition groups.
10.
Michael Townley fled Chile in the months before the 1973 coup which overthrew Allende.
11.
Michael Townley then returned to Chile and was recruited by the DINA.
12.
Michael Townley was responsible for the assassination of General Carlos Prats, who served as a minister in Salvador Allende's government while Commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army.
13.
Michael Townley spent three weeks in Buenos Aires monitoring Prats and planning.
14.
In 1983, Michael Townley entered a plea deal which would grant him immunity from prosecution.
15.
In March 1993, Michael Townley was convicted and sentenced in absentia in Italy to an 18-year prison sentence, with two years remission, over his role as an intermediary between the DINA and Italian neo-fascist terrorist organizations, including Avanguardia Nazionale.
16.
However, he was still a member of the United States witness protection; at the time of Enrique Arancibia Clavel's arrest in May 2000 for murder of Carlos Prats, it was acknowledged that Michael Townley was left as a member of witness protection following the Orlando Letelier case.
17.
Michael Townley stated that Arancibia had traveled to California in the autumn of 1977 on banking business for ALFA, alias Stefano Delle Chiaie.
18.
Michael Townley was convicted in the United States of the 1976 murder of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC During his trial, he said that Pinochet was responsible for planning the murder.
19.
Michael Townley confessed that he had hired five anti-Castro Cuban exiles to booby-trap Letelier's car.
20.
Michael Townley was the prosecution's chief witness at the trial for Ross and the Novo brothers.
21.
Michael Townley arrived in the United States on April 8,1978.
22.
Michael Townley made an agreement with the US government on April 17,1978, which required that he only provide information relevant to violations of US law or offenses committed in US jurisdiction.
23.
Michael Townley was then freed under an unofficial Witness Protection Program.
24.
Michael Townley then said that Romero had broken the weapon in pieces and scattered the pieces throughout Santiago.
25.
In 2005, DINA chief Manuel Contreras told the Chilean judge responsible for trying the case that Michael Townley had been supported for Letelier's assassination by CIA agents, as well as the Cuban Nationalist Movement and members of the Venezuela's National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, for which Luis Posada Carriles worked.
26.
Michael Townley would have testified on biological experiments made upon prisoners in Colonia Dignidad with the help of the two above mentioned laboratories.
27.
In 1992, Michael Townley testified that the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, assassinated in 1976, had been detained at his home on Via Naranja in the sector of Lo Curro.
28.
When Michael Townley defaulted, the district court entered a $7 million judgment against him.
29.
Michael Townley confessed to the murders of two Chileans, - real estate conservator Renato Leon Zenteno and Army corporal and DINA agent Manuel Leyton - using sarin nerve gas that he manufactured in the chemical laboratory in his home.
30.
When updating the letter after the assassination of Letelier was carried out on September 21,1976, Michael Townley noted how he recruited the team of American-based Cuban exiles after traveling to the United States after obtained phony visas in Paraguay.
31.
Michael Townley claimed he received assistance from a network of individual Southern Cone secret polices known as Red Condor.