If you want to learn more about the topics of
today's episode, visit the podcast website at
naturessecretservice .com. Thanks for listening.
Okay, people, listen up. Here we go. This is
Nature's Secret Service. I'm your host, Ed Newcomer,
and you're about to join me as we go back in
time to March 1962 and join U .S. Fish and Wildlife
Service Special Agent Vic Blasevic in the field
to experience every law enforcement officer's
worst nightmare, an ambush. Who was Special Agent
Vic Blasevic? Well, I met Vic by telephone in
2005. Back then, I was a fairly new special agent
myself. I was all bright -eyed and bushy -tailed.
And I just called him out of the blue, and I
asked him to tell me the story. Aside from that
call, I didn't really know Vic. And unfortunately,
he's no longer with us. Okay, so in telling the
Vic story, I thought it would be a great idea
to reach out to somebody who actually knew him.
So I'm very happy to welcome retired special
agent Jerry Smith to the podcast because Jerry
knew Vic Blasovic. Jerry, thanks so much for
coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, my pleasure. Go ahead no no i let's listen
first of all i want to say i you and i have never
met prior to this podcast but i know of you because
of course you know. The mission wildlife service
fairly small and so we always hear about other
people But I always heard good big great things
about you and I know of you because you have
been instrumental in kind of organizing retired
special agents to kind of keep in touch with
each other and Before we started recording today.
You told me that you have been doing that for
over 29 years Keeping the retirees together and
I got to tell you as a new retiree recently retired
guy I really appreciate that. I mean, it's so
great to, it's hard to leave the agency because
we loved our jobs, right? But it's so great to
leave and know I still have a connection not
only to people I worked with, but great people,
you know, historical, people who have historical
knowledge, institutional memory, that now I can
get to know as a retiree and share stories and
reminiscence. So thank you for doing that, first
of all. You're welcome. It's been a pleasure
and of course, as you said, we had the best job
in the entire world. I never once went to work
on Monday looking for Friday. To me, that says
the most about any job. If you have that type
of a job that you can't get enough of it. I started
in 1968 in South Texas, right on the border.
As a kid from North Dakota, that was quite a
change. Then I migrated to the east. I told my
wife I was never going to go east of the Mississippi,
but I spent most of my career east of the Mississippi.
I went to Washington as a trainee, and that's
where I met Vic Blasvik. So what can you tell
us about Vic in terms of what he was like as
a person and as an agent? Tell us a little bit
about Vic Blasvik. Now you knew him. How'd you
know Vic? Well, like I said, I first first met
him when I was in that training position and
he was the agent in charge in Chicago. And then
after that, We changed names in 74 to senior
resident agents. And so anyway, then we always
kidded Vic. He moved to Washington as the chief
branch of investigations and Washington office.
And we kidded Vic up until the last time I saw
him. And I'll talk about that a bit. But he is
the only agent. that came to the headquarters
office by accident. Vic was a real good agent,
but he was a great driver. And in Chicago, I
think what it was is that he used to be a state
game warden in Minnesota. Uh, uh, then he was
in Illinois and he wasn't used to the big city.
And, uh, I can understand that having been in
New York, uh, but he had one accident and, you
know, uh, that was his fault. And that, that
was kind of set aside and everything else. What
do you mean? Like a car, like a car or a car
accident? Okay. But then he had a second car
accident. And they took away his driver's license,
his government driver's license. So an agent
without being able to drive is kind of sitting
on the limb and they're sawed at off. So they
found another position for him. And that was
in Washington. And so they moved him to Washington
as the chief branch of investigations. And he
was the only one came there by accident. I love
it. I love it. And what a, what a character,
huh? He's an agent for the U S government. He's
such a bad driver. He loses his driver. That's
pretty funny. Anyway. Then when I was in New
York, I was up there for five years and they
had another reorganization and they were eliminating
positions. And so Clark Mayven, the chief, opened
up the position of deputy chief. And I was selected.
And so I moved out. And as you're probably aware,
when you are selected, you have a deadline to
get there. And so we put our house up for sale
and it obviously didn't sell right away. So I
had to be in Washington for my new job when my
family was still outside of New York City. So
I contacted Vic. I knew he had retired and was
still living in Fairfax. And he said, oh, yeah,
come on down here. Vic was just a very funny
guy, but he was just a, some stranger talks to
him, they think he's a grouchy old man. That's
the way he, but he had a heart of gold. He really
did. And he was quite intelligent and funny.
He had a real dry wit about him. But anyway,
he says, come on down. I've got plenty of room.
So I went down there and asked him about how
much. Do you want for me to live here for?" I
said, I'm not sure how long. Eh, nothing, no
problem. So anyway, about the first part of September,
1982, I moved in with Vic Blasvik and his house
in Fairfax. And I lived with him until it was
probably early December. of 82 when we finally
got our household and I moved my family down.
But living with Vic was quite an experience.
After he retired, he became a beekeeper. I knew
he was into bees, but he was actually a beekeeper.
He actually was. He was also very, very eccentric.
Like houses give me an example. Okay I've got
two or three of them. Okay. One is that when
he bought that house and moved in He was still
married and then that didn't that didn't work
out And so anyway, they had this big house, but
he didn't have a place for his separator for
his his beat, you know the Honey you put homes
in and it separates it into honey. So they had
a place on his kitchen table and that's where
he sat his separator right in the middle of the
kitchen table. So when we ate lunches or dinners
or whatever it was, we sat around the separator.
That might have something to do with why he got
divorced. That could very well be. Now, he also,
he didn't believe in wasting any money. So he
kept the house quite cold. And in Virginia, in
October, November, it gets pretty chilly. So
darn cold, but he said, well, I'll just give
you extra blankets. That's what he did. And then
another thing, he hit up. Small microwave. I
don't know what it's about like that. After every
use, he would unplug it. I said, Vic, why are
you unplugging the microwave after you use it?
Well, he says, even off, it uses some electricity
and I'm going to save on electricity. How much?
Electricity, but a microwave used being off.
You know, that was that was that was Rick and
he was he got around a lot and for selling his
honey. And I went I went out with him to work
on the bees where he collected the combs and
everything else. And I didn't do much with him.
delivering the honey. Except one day, it was
in November, I was in the office and Vic gave
me a call. They said, Jerry, I'm going to be
downtown D .C. late this evening to deliver some
honey. Do you want to join me? And then I'll
give you a ride home because I was taking the
subway, the metro and things like that. He knew
that. So I said, oh, sure, Vic, where do you
want me to meet you? He says, well, meet me at
the old executive office building, because we're
going to the White House. He's delivering honey
to the White House. So I said, oh, all right,
Vic. So I met him, I don't know, like five thirty,
six o 'clock, something like that. I was just
getting ready to go home anyway. So I met him
there and we went down in the basement. The basement
of the old executive office building is where
you enter the tunnel. going to the White House.
But they had the police there stopping, you know,
the Capitol Police. And so I was still packing.
So I had to leave my gun. They gave us, you know,
tags, name tags and things like that. And we
went through the tunnel and got up and we were
waiting in kind of a waiting room with things.
And there was probably four or five guards. around
there. And one of the guards came over and started
talking to me and just chatting, chit -chatting
about, I can't even remember what, but it was
probably just about normal. And then this guy
came in and introduced himself to me as Morton
Blackwell. And he was a special assistant to
President Reagan. And he was one of the customers
of Vic. No kidding. How Vic ever got to him as
a customer, I don't know. But first thing he
did after shaking hands with Vic and introducing
himself to me, he says, well, who are you? I
said, well, I've been here for over two years
and I've never seen those guards talk to anybody.
They don't talk to me, but then they were talking
to you. That's probably because I'm a law enforcement
officer. Oh, well, that probably could be. But
anyway, Vic delivered the honey. And then Mr.
Blackwell said, well, do you want a tour of the
White House? Yes. Well, yeah. So he took us to
the Oval Office. And so he must have been pretty
high. high up as a special assistant to Reagan.
So we had a real good time. Interesting scene,
the White House and some of the other special
rooms there that the average tourist doesn't
get. But that's the kind of person that Bick
was. He sounded very grouchy and everything else,
but he hit that. and about him that he can just
get get together with anybody. I mean, and I
was a special assistant to the president. That's
maybe that proves the old adage that if you want
to get to know, you know, important people, you
should use honey sweets. If you ever thought
it's important people use honey. I never thought
of that. You know what I thought of when you
were telling these stories, Jerry, I thought,
you know, Maybe the reason that the separator
was on the table and maybe the reason he kept
it so cold and maybe the reason he unplugged
the microwave was to make sure you didn't stay
too long. That could be, but with Vic, I doubt
that. The last time I saw Vic was after I retired
in 94 and then we went with some of the get -togethers
for the Region 4, like I already mentioned. One
of them was in Asheville, North Carolina. I called
Vic and asked him, I said, well, why don't you
come on down? Because he knew some of the older
agents there from Region 4. Like we usually do,
it's usually about a two -day affair and just
mostly visiting and things like that. We were
just about ready to Go home. And the late one,
it was the last evening, just before dinner,
here came this old pickup that Vic had. Then
pulled up, they all came, Lazarick, and he came
in, said, oh, I'm a thing. And they chatted for
probably 15, 20 minutes. They said, well, goodbye.
Got to go. They got this pickup head and go home
again. Oh, he sounds like a character. I love
it. Oh, yeah. I love it. I do not know anybody
who ever knew Vic and didn't like him. Yeah.
And you wouldn't you wouldn't know it like, say,
oh, I know it was that type of guy. But it didn't
take long to know what his heart was all about.
Yeah. He was all about. Love and things like
that. But I really, really missed it. Well, it's
so awesome to hear kind of a little bit about
his personality and your relationship with him
in the background, because, you know, when I
reached out to him to ask him to tell me the
story of his shooting, you know, I heard that
gruffness in his voice, but he couldn't have
been more. Open to me and welcoming. He didn't
know me. I was just a new agent, you know somebody
he'd seen a million of before and You know, he
spent time with me on the phone to tell me the
story about how he was ambushed by poachers in
Illinois in 1962 and I was just astonished by
the whole story that his tenacity and his his
ability to kind of push through that and save
himself really from being killed. Did he ever
talk to you about that incident or did he keep
quiet about it? Was he one of these guys that
was so stoic he didn't talk about it? Yeah, he
never talked about it. I know we had pictures
of him blowing up pictures of him with the shot
in the face and all of the BB holes and things
like that. But I do not remember talking to him.
about it in depth or anything like that. It wasn't
something that was on his mind constantly. Yeah,
which is amazing, which is amazing. I mean, considering
what happened to him, like you said, he's shot
in the face. You know, I think, would you like
to hear the story about what happened to him?
Because I'll tell you. Yeah, I'd love to. So
let me, let me do that. I'm going to make you
wait though. I'm going to make you listen to
the podcast to hear it. Let me tell you the one
thing I'll leave you with this. Uh, and I think
it will resonate with you as that's Vic, um,
in, in doing my research for telling the story,
I also looked for old documents related to it.
And I found a few memos that went through headquarters.
So you probably saw them. Um, but well, no, maybe
you wouldn't cause it would have been Earlier
in your career and you wouldn't have been at
headquarters, but there was some memos that went
back and forth. And while Vic was still recovering
after being shot at basically point blank range
with a shotgun, um, he was mad because they weren't
going to let him go up to do the annual waterfowl
count. He wanted to be back out in the field
working as an agent. And I think that says everything
about him personally. but also his dedication
to our mission and our job. And I'm sure you'll
agree, most of the agents in the service share
that kind of attitude. It's certainly the best
agents share that attitude. But listen, Jerry,
I can't thank you enough for coming on just to
talk about Vic and a little bit about your career.
You will be back as a guest because I know you
are loaded with great stories about the service.
And maybe you can add some context to some of
our other stories, such as Marie Paladini's involvement
in that alligator case. But thank you so much
for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Now let's move on and let's tell this story about
Vic Blasevik getting ambushed in 1962. The story
you're about to hear is true. It was personally
told to me by Special Agent Vic Blasevik years
after he retired from the service. It's spring
1962 in southern, Illinois an area known in the
United States as the corn belt Imagine barren
soggy farm fields as far as the eye can see All
or most of the corn has been harvested and these
are open fields with trace corn kernels strewn
about They make the perfect stopover point for
ducks as they migrate from south to north along
the central flyway a major migratory route for
all types of birds, including ducks and geese.
It's early March. U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Special Agent Vic Blasevic, an irascible and
dedicated federal wildlife agent, receives a
tip that around the small town of Quincy, Illinois,
poachers are lurking through the empty corn fields
at night to kill migratory ducks. Vic knows that
this is a violation of federal law. The Migratory
Bird Treaty Act prohibits the taking of wild
ducks except during highly regulated hunting
seasons. There is no hunting season for ducks
in the springtime. Knowing it's dangerous to
work at night when you're in law enforcement,
Vic teams up with Calvin Lear, a local Illinois
State game warden who he's worked with before
and who he trusts. They plan to go into the fields
to find and apprehend these poachers. Both law
enforcement officers are armed. Vic is wearing
hip boots and carries a Smith & Wesson Model
60 .38 caliber revolver in a shoulder holster.
It's just after sunset on March 18th, 1962. You
can imagine the air is brisk. There's like a
three -quarter moon just rising in the east.
Both these men carry flashlights, but they aren't
going to use them. They don't want to give away
their presents. It's cold that day, about 30
degrees Fahrenheit. Gunshots echo in the distance,
close but too far away to identify the shooters
or where they're located. Vic and his partner
immediately recognize the sounds of 12 gauge
shotguns. The kind of guns used by duck hunters
and duck poachers. Moving more carefully now,
Vic and his partner move toward the sound of
the shots. Three more shots ring out. They're
closer. They're way closer now. Both men drop
into a crouch and they wait and they listen.
They scan the horizon with their binoculars,
trying to make out shapes in the dark. Vic believes
he knows where the poachers are located, using
his binoculars. He sees the silhouettes of two
men at the edge of a slough moving toward an
unharvested stand of corn. He and his game warden
partner split up. The plan is for Vic to pursue
the poachers while the warden cuts off their
escape. Moving quickly now, Vic continued to
use his binoculars to keep an eye on the escaping
poachers. They emerged from the standing cornfield
into a harvested cornfield. heading away now
from where the game warden was waiting. Vic immediately
moved toward them, practically running now with
his binoculars pressed to his eyes. He sees one
of the poachers drop into a crouch, as if trying
to hide within the corn debris on the ground.
The other poacher continued to run. Vic moved
directly toward the crouching poacher. The binoculars
screwed up my depth perception, said Vic when
he told me this story back in 2005. I'd gotten
too close to them too quickly. Suddenly, Vic
heard a shot. He felt a sting on his left thumb
and something heavy hit his chest. Realizing
he'd been shot, he turned and yelled out to warn
his partner, Warden Lair. His night vision was
now gone from the flash of the first shot, but
he turned back to locate his assailant drawing
his pistol as he turned. Vic sees the flames
shooting from the end of a shotgun at close range
and hears the sound of the shot He goes down
on his back his pistols hit by the blast of pellets
and knocked from his hand He never returns fire
Nearly unconscious Vic has no idea where the
poachers are or if they're going to shoot again
Vic lay on his back in the mud listening waiting
He can hear a pulsing noise in his head and he
can feel blood spurting from his neck It's 1962.
He has no portable radio He's on his own and
he realizes that if he's going to live he's gonna
have to save himself His survival instincts set
in and he found the strength and courage to get
up find his pistol and head toward the road He
knew he was hurt bad The vision in one eye was
so blurry that he couldn't use it. He covered
it with his left hand and held his pistol in
his right hand. He started walking across the
cornfield in the direction he believed might
take him to his partner, the Illinois State Game
Warden. The warden had heard those shots followed
by loud and excited voices. He knew that something
had happened and he headed in the direction he
hoped would take him to Vic. As he swept his
flashlight across the cornfield, gun in hand,
the warden saw a blood -covered figure moving
toward him. It was Vic. The warden helped Vic
back to the warden's patrol vehicle, and with
lights, flashing sirens blaring, they raced to
the nearest hospital in Pittsfield, Illinois.
Ironically, they had a flat tire on the way,
and ended up having to wave down a passing motorist,
who then drove them the rest of the way to the
hospital. The doctors in Pittsfield saw that
Vic had been shot in the face, eyes and neck.
He was bleeding badly. He needed more sophisticated
medical care than they could provide. Once they
had him stabilized, they transferred Vic by ambulance
to the hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois. There,
surgeons spent long hours removing pellets from
Vic's head and neck. They couldn't safely get
all of them. I was struck by about 50 pellets,
said Vic in an official report he later filed
with the U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service. About
15 are still in my head and chest, and one is
still lodged in my thumb. Two pellets were behind
his left eye, and one lodged in the muscle of
his right eye. The pellets that entered his left
eye bounced off the orbital bones and perforated
his retina, causing considerable hemorrhaging.
Fortunately for Vic, advances in the use of lasers
in eye surgery allowed specialists to successfully
repair his retina. Assaulting a federal agent
is no joke. Remember, this happened in Illinois
in 1962. Just 30 years earlier, famous federal
agents like Elliot Ness and Melvin Purvis were
working in Illinois to capture equally infamous
killers like Al Capone, John Dillinger, Pretty
Boy Floyd, and Babyface Nelson. When someone
goes after a Fed, the entire federal law enforcement
apparatus is brought to bear. FBI agents from
the Chicago field office were dispatched to the
area in search of the attackers. There really
were no leads, but word got out a federal agent
had been shot. A tip came into the FBI office
that led them to a farm near where the ambush
and shooting occurred. There they interviewed
49 -year -old Hubert Motley and his 24 -year
-old nephew Robert Eugene Motley and the truth
was quickly exposed. The shotgun was found concealed
beneath the kitchen floorboards at Hubert Motley's
farmhouse. It was a 12 gauge double -barreled
shotgun capable of firing two shotgun rounds
before reloading. Hubert Motley was identified
as the shooter and was charged with assaulting
a federal agent in the line of duty. Robert Eugene
Motley was charged as an accessory to the assault,
harboring a fugitive and obstructing justice
by helping his uncle evade capture and to hide
the shotgun. Both men were convicted. When I
spoke to Vic in 2005, he said that he believed
that both were sentenced to serve eight years
in federal prison but served three before being
released on parole. Although that's Vic's memory,
it's likely that Robert Eugene Motley would have
received a slightly lighter sentence as an accessory,
but I couldn't find any records related to his
conviction and sentence. Vic believes that if
Hubert Motley had been armed with a pump -action
shotgun, which can hold more than two rounds,
that he would have shot again and probably killed
Vic. These guys were out poaching ducks. That's
an offense that would have likely landed them
with a federal citation and nothing more. But
poachers hate game ordnance, and sometimes that
hatred turns deadly. It wasn't about ducks to
the Motley's, it was about their hatred of law
enforcement. If you're a conservation law enforcement
officer or someday want to be one, never forget
that you can get yourself killed over the most
routine and minor violations of law. Stay alert.
Be safe. The story of Vic's ambush doesn't end
here. I don't know what happened to Hubert Motley
after he was released from federal prison, but
I do know what happened to his nephew, Robert
Eugene Motley. Convicted as only an accessory
to the assault on Agent Blasevik, Robert Eugene
Motley would go on to fulfill his wish to murder.
In 1976, in an absurdly concocted plan to win
back the affections of his ex -wife who'd left
him, Motley placed several homemade bombs at
the Quincy Compressor factory in Quincy, Illinois.
Don't ask me why he thought that would work in
getting his wife back. We know from his involvement
in the attack on Agent Blasevic that Motley was
not a man who spent much time thinking about
the consequences of his actions. To build the
bombs, Motley used dynamite he'd stolen earlier
in the month from the Western Illinois Stone
Company. On September 27th, 1976, U .S. Army
demolition specialist Mike Vining and several
of his U .S. Army colleagues were in Quincy attached
to the U .S. Secret Service detail protecting
then US Senator Bob Dole, who was in Illinois
campaigning for the re -election of President
Gerald Ford. Dole was Ford's pick for Vice President.
The Army Demolitions Team was there in case any
explosive devices were found at the various campaign
events. With Dole's campaign events finished
for the evening, the soldiers were enjoying a
late meal when they heard a series of explosions
in the distance. They returned to their hotel
and learned that the explosions had no connection
to Senator Dole's presence in the area. The next
morning, after Senator Dole's plane left the
airfield, Vining and the rest of his team were
asked by the local county sheriff to go to the
scene of the bombings to provide their expert
advice about the type of devices and detonation
systems used. When they arrived at the Quincy
Compressor facility, They were told that another
unexploded device had been found on a truck trailer
underneath a large industrial compressor ready
for shipment. The device was placed in such a
way that it could only be reached by walking
between two truck trailers. The device consisted
of six sticks of dynamite wired to an alarm clock
and a six volt battery. One of Vining's colleagues,
Sergeant Major Ken Foster, said that he would
walk down between the two trailers to examine
the device to determine the best way to defuse
it. He directed Vining to set up and organize
the equipment they would need to defuse the bomb.
Foster, accompanied by an Illinois state arson
inspector, soon disappeared between the two trailers.
Seconds later, a loud explosion rocked the area.
The state arson inspector came staggering out
of the smoke and debris cloud. his eardrums bleeding
and ruptured, and he was temporarily blinded
by the blast. As two of Vining's teammates assisted
the arson inspector, Vining ran down between
the trailers to find Foster's mangled body. Foster
was killed instantly by the blast. A reward was
offered, and Motley's ex -wife came forward with
the information implicating him in the crime.
A search warrant of Motley's home uncovered detailed
schematics for the construction of the bombs.
He was arrested and charged with murder and arson
in Illinois State Court. His ex -wife declined
to accept the reward and instead asked that it
be given to Master Sergeant Ken Foster's family.
Motley agreed to plead guilty in exchange for
assurances that he would not be referred for
federal charges related to the interstate transport
of explosive devices, or for an unrelated deer
poaching case in Missouri. What does that tell
you? To me, it's clear that Motley was desperate
to avoid the discovery of his previous conviction
as an accessory to the assault on a federal officer.
There is no mention of his previous record in
the Illinois State Court sentencing documents,
and given that this was the mid -1970s, there
were likely no computer databases that would
have made it easy for Illinois authorities to
discover his prior federal conviction. On March
1, 1977, Robert Eugene Motley was convicted of
murder and sentenced to serve no less than 15
and no more than 45 years in state prison. I
don't know when Robert Eugene Motley was released
from prison in Illinois, but I know that he died
on December 4, 2021 at the age of 83 in Louisville,
Kentucky. His obituary contains no mention of
his violent past, but does mention that he was
a member of the Beechwood Baptist Church and
worked as a truck driver for the Roan Polink
Transportation Company before he retired. I doubt
he's missed. U .S. Army Demolition Specialist
Mike Vining went on to join the U .S. Army's
elite Delta Force, where he served with distinction,
including as a surviving member of the 1979 attempted
rescue of the U .S. hostages held in Iran. He
retired from the U .S. Army as a Master Sergeant.
U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent
Vic Blazovich survived the attempt on his life
and fully recovered from his wounds. Miraculously,
his vision didn't suffer and he was able to continue
his career as a special agent. He went on to
serve as the special agent in charge of investigations
at the Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters
in Washington, D .C. and retired in 1978. He
passed away from natural causes on August 18,
2008. Everyone I talked to who knew Vic said
that he was a dedicated hard -working agent who
never talked about his near -death experience.
Perhaps he was humble or perhaps he simply didn't
want to think too much about how close he came
to death at the hands of wannabe murderers. It's
a shame really that he didn't talk more about
it because it's the kind of story that new and
existing US Fish and Wildlife Service agents
should hear and take to heart. I'm glad I reached
out to him in 2005 and convinced him to tell
me the story in his own words. Vic's devotion
to the mission of the U .S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and his love for his job can be seen
by visiting his grave site. Embedded into his
tombstone is the gold special agent badge from
the credentials he once carried in his pocket.
The same badge I carried and the same badge every
current U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent
carries to this day. Thanks for listening. Nature's
Secret Service is written and produced by me,
Ed Newcomer and is co -produced by the DHTV team
here at California State University, Dominguez
Hills. Follow us on social media and connect
with us online at naturessecretservice .com