Accountant, Randolph Kennedy, is startled and alarmed when his front door is smashed open, and a horde of heavily armed ATF agents in urban combat gear burst in; he reflexively shoots the first agent dead—part of a series of actions and reactions which eventually brings down the President of the United States.
FINDERS KEEPERS, LOSERS WEEP: A Novel of Innocence Betrayed and the Search for Restitution is loosely based on actual event reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 2, 1996, by Michael D. Sorkin entitled, Federal Agents Raid St. Charles Home by Mistake. Informer Told ATF That House was Center of Illegal Guns Ring. Randolph Kennedy, his wife, Irene, and their little daughter Annie are ready to sit down for supper. Randolph is cleaning his handgun and is about to put it away. A massive crash announces a no-knock raid by a powerful force of ATV agents. Randolph wheels and fires at the first man in black he sees, killing the agent instantly. Before the melee is over, four agents, Irene, and Annie Kennedy are dead; and two agents and Randolph are wounded; their house is a total wreck; and Randolph is roughly hauled off to jail.
In the complicated aftermath of the raid, it is learned that the ATV’s confidential informant lied about the Kennedys being drug and gun runners to keep himself out of a life-sentence, and no evidence of any participation in any crime is ever found. In a civil suit, Randolph collects millions from the government and also lasting enmity at multiple levels of the law enforcement and political community. The original ATV agents in the raid refuse to accept their mistake and swear out a vendetta.
The impatient agents collect bits of evidence from which they develop a new plan. Kennedy now lives alone with his paranoia in an Alaskan fortress he builds himself. Still convinced beyond doubt that Kennedy is the kingpin in a criminal conspiracy, but lacking good evidence, the federal agents are able to convince their superiors and even the president herself not only to provide another no-knock warrant; but, in the interest of national security, to permit the planting of evidence taken from a previous successful raid in Ketchikan.
A multi-agency attack force strikes Randolph’s fortress in the middle of the night only to encounter a myriad of deadly booby-traps. With Randolph’s concealed explosive devices and the attack force’s high explosive weaponry, the house is reduced to nothing more than a charred hulk; 10 officers are dead, and four wounded; careers are ruined; and again no evidence is found at the house. Kennedy is nowhere to be found, not even his DNA, because he escapes through a well-hidden tunnel. On his way out of his property, he expropriates a large trailer full of planted evidence cash and leaves behind a number of planted illegal weapons to incriminate his tormenters. Randolph makes it out of the country and transfers his money to Vanuatu, a tax avoiders’ haven. He becomes public enemy #1 on the FBI’s list, and lives a brinkmanship life as a fugitive. With the help of a NY Times reporter, members of a survivalist network, a few honest and thinking police officers, a dogged U.S. Marshal, and a powerful attorney, Randolph’s life, fortune, and reputation are salvaged. The president and her co-conspirators do not fair nearly as well.
