Daniel James Murray, Man Sought For Threatening Obama, Arrested

SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities have arrested a man who allegedly told bank tellers while cleaning out his savings account in Utah that he was on a mission to kill President Barack Obama.

The Secret Service said Daniel James Murray, 36, was arrested Friday outside a casino in Laughlin, Nev., a gambling town 100 miles from Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona line.

He was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with a federal count of conveying threats while talking to tellers last month at Zions First National Bank in St. George, Utah.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnson said Murray was in federal custody in Nevada and likely will get a court date there Monday. Neither Bearnson nor the Secret Service would discuss whether Murray was considered to be a serious threat.

Charging documents say Murray, originally from Rexford, N.Y., is the registered owner of eight guns.

He was described by his father and former neighbors in Rexford as troubled but not dangerous, known for strolling down a street wearing a cape while talking to himself.

"He's sick. He's been sick for about 10 years," Michael Murray, his father, told the Times Union of Albany, N.Y.

In charging documents filed Thursday, the Secret Service said Daniel Murray made bizarre statements while opening _ and then closing within two weeks _ an $85,000 savings account.

First, he demanded to know if Zions First National Bank was solvent, saying, "I'm sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths," bank tellers told a Secret Service agent.

On May 27, as a teller counted out bills no larger than $50, Murray delivered a rambling discourse on the probability of economic and social disorder, ending with "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States," a bank employee told the Secret Service.

The next day, Murray withdrew the remaining $72,000 and closed his account.

In Washington, Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said Murray offered no resistance when he was arrested at 7 p.m. Friday on a warrant in the parking lot of the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev. Wiley wouldn't offer any further details. It wasn't clear if Murray had a lawyer.

___

Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Comments

[proudamerican2012]

Where is the ACLU..I thought they tried to keep criminals from serving jail time..This guy must not be a Liberal..so..NO HELP FROM THE ACLU

[TheLearnedEnglishDog]

You seem to have no idea what the ACLU does, winger

[TonyRome]

Right wingers hate the ACLU. The ACLU defends the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States.

Therefore, wingers hate the Bill of Rights (except the 2nd Amendment) and they hate the US Constitution.

[TheLearnedEnglishDog]

proudamerican2012
Member Since June 2009
Total Comments Made: 31
****************************
proudamericansockpuppetcoward

[jsingleton361]

you know you're crazy when the press refers to you by all three names.

[mapleaforever]

...and they all look like the "Francis" character from the movie "Stripes".

"Anybody touches my stuff and I'll k!ll 'em."

[berryessence]

AMERICA POPULATION HAS PTSD!

[Telemachus]

ADHD?

[PaiaGirl]

PMS?

[Clayton139]

Prison !!!

[CaptainFailmore]

More than anything else, it'll be interesting to see how Murray's psychological evaluation turns out. If he really is psychotic as opposed to being just another eccentric wannabe terrorist like the late James Cummings - the wife beating Neo-Nazi who tried to assemble a dirty bomb in time for the Presidential Inauguration, only to be slain by said beaten wife - it would only be fair to categorize him as a genuinely disturbed person instead of lumping him in with the rest of the Red Team fringe. On the other hand, that would really beg the question, how did a man suspected of having severe mental illness for up to a decade manage to register eight firearms? How obvious would his symptoms have been to a gun dealer if he was willing to tell his whole story to a bank teller? Forget the caped crusading, if this guy launches into monologues at the bank counter and relays his plans for revolution to total strangers at the drop of a hat, how is it that this guy was given a pass?

Say what you will about the right to bear arms, but severe mental disturbances and guns just don't mix. No proponent of responsible gun ownership could possibly endorse the kind of laxity that allows a guy who wears his derangement on his sleeve to acquire a small arsenal of firearms.

[grannydee]

Why, oh why, can't we get some sort of middle-ground mental health legislation passed? Not everyone needs permanent institutionalization, but, many need more than living on the streets, refusing to take their meds, because their families can't , or won't, be bothered. I think some sort of mandatory group home for those who have gone so far as to only make the threat of hurting or killing someone (not just the president or other well-known persons) may help the situation alot. Hell, it can't be any worse than what we have now.
And no, I'm not talking about lockdowns with electroshock therapy and crap like that. Just a place where they and we are all safe.

[AlaninElkGrove]

"Not everyone needs permanent institutionalization"

just the republican base...

[PaiaGirl]

Amen to that!

I served as the sexual assault crisis counselor. Almost all my cases were homeless schizophrenics assaulting each other. It is dangerous to BE a schizophrenic out on the street as well as have a run-in with one.

I remember when Regain closed all the state mental hospitals in California. That was the beginning of these lost souls wandering the streets unable to care for themselves, at the mercy of each other's psychoses and psychotic acts.

[normathumb]

He seemed perfectly normal, like everyone else, at Caped Crusader Gun Shop where the seller has the responsibility to evaluate sale or no sale.

[hopefulinflorida]

Haaa!

[Donnat]

He should have moved to Kansas, the FBI would have ignored him.

[mapleaforever]

..or Minnesota, where they ignored their own field agents' reports on the 911 terr0rists.

[Deborah Noble]

Scary. He seems delusional, perhaps Schizophrenic. He needs to be institutionalized & put on meds. Very dangerous situation. The Secret Service fast intervention was great.

[2008FedUP]

He should be placed in a cell with a man of color.

[hopefulinflorida]

Like in American History X

[A-VotR]

I am glad they caught him.

[Imzadi]

Ditto. Wish the other domestic terrorists coul be found, too.

[Imzadi]

Ditto. Wish the other d0mestic ter0rists could be found, too.

[Suzanne525]

Follow the money.

[LeftCoastLefthandedLefty]

Good idea.

Where does a whack job like this get an $85 k bank account???

[mapleaforever]

Contributions from "friends"?

[hopefulinflorida]

Good question. Maybe he's a hit man

[dotsthefunist]

If you are looking for help from having the desire to kill someone you mention your intentions ,if your plan begins to make sense to you then you don't mention it to anyone and act out the plan ,if you don't have the weaponry you get it .

If its a " lone loony " we feel that it isn't too threatening ,if its a bunch of somewhat sane people working in harmonious mass hysteria with some superstition tossed in the plan becomes a conspiracy .

We can't undo technology and human's knowledge of how to destroy life and property , at best all we can come up with now facing all this well founded fear is to communicate face to face and share some ideals about having a future that isn't such a crazy plan .

[joebaggadonuts]

It's time for a few of you to go see a movie. Conspiracy Theory. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118883/

It stars Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, and Patrick Stewart as the Dick Cheney lead secret agent.

[Suzanne525]

Will never watch anything again from/starring Mel Gibson.

Never liked Julia Roberts - avoid everything she's in.

[LeftCoastLefthandedLefty]

Interesting movie.

It explores the lone gunman convention that is always involved in us political hits.

This guy seems like a bonified head case though.

[toomuchtolose]

Have you seen the Parallax View? It's an old movie, but still available.

A nut case is the perfect fall-guy. The real sniper does the real work and
the nut case gets the blame.

[hopefulinflorida]

That was a good movie.

[Hina]

How long beofre Fox news hire this guy as a reporter?

[mitsie]

This is what is scarey about what Bachman, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Gingrich and the other loonies say, it may just set off one of these people and have a disaster happen. These people better wake up and wise up, because it's going to be their fault.

[OpposingViewpoint]

I understand what you are saying but really, people like this guy need no external motivations. There are a force all unto themselves. O'Reilly, Bachman (a real piece of work), Limbaugh were not around when Lincoln, RFK, JFK, MLK, and others were as*sass*inated. People like Murray are a clock that when the alarm goes off, we all wonder what made the clock tick to begin with. The right wing does not have a patent on people that choose to take these types of actions. Rather, they come from all walks of life with varying backgrounds, motivated by whatever unknown internal mechanisms or demons that have affected some people since the beginning of time. It's easy and convenient to blame somebody else for Murray's actions, but at the end of the day I believe Murray was motivated by Murray and the voices he was reportedly hearing, voices heard only by Murray.

[joebaggadonuts]

Since many of those voices in his head come from ClearChannel and Fox News which spews them across the nation, there are many Cather in the Rye types that get reached with messages of hate, danger and please bring down our leadership to save their pretend version of the world. Simply knowing that these dangerous people are out there, waiting to be activated by the right hate message should be enough for any intelligent civilization to tame these hateful message spewers. That the purveyors of these messages make money spewing them simply makes it all the worse.

Look into the history of the deaths you mentioned. There WERE such voices of hate out there for all four of them. How can you propose to use them as examples of happenstance when the facts show their killers were led by ideological claptrap to do what they did? Do you think we are morons?

[JZ735]

It's a different era than back then, and today we have Fox fomenting the kind of lunacy that most undoubtedly could set some crazy off...that's just a given today.

[normathumb]

Bush thought God was talking to him. Coincidence?

[deluk]

EIGHT registered guns...Scotland yard would be sooo jealous...They have to make do with those funny
sticky things.

[TheLearnedEnglishDog]

I hope your cellmate shares your views