--- alias: - Eugene M. Propper category: Law Enforcement & Legal created: 2026-09-21 location: Washington, D.C. summary: Federal prosecutor of the Letelier murder, from whom the CIA withheld its 1976 knowledge of the Chilean agents' passports, and who in 1988 formed a counterterrorism consultancy with the FBI men from the case. tags: - Person - EugenePropper - OrlandoLetelier - DepartmentOfJustice - DINA - MichaelTownley - PrivateSecurity updated: 2026-09-21 --- Eugene M. Propper was the assistant United States Attorney in Washington assigned in September 1976 to the murder of [Orlando Letelier](/people/orlando-letelier/) and [Ronni Moffitt](/people/ronni-moffitt/). His deputy was E. Lawrence Barcella, and the [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) agents were [C. Carter Cornick](/people/carter-cornick/) in Washington and [Robert Scherrer](/people/robert-scherrer/), the bureau's representative in [Buenos Aires](/places/buenos-aires/).[^1] ### The Investigation The [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) began sending him classified files, most of them on Chilean leftists. It "withheld from Propper the information that Deputy Director [Vernon Walters](/people/vernon-walters/), a few weeks before the assassination, had learned about a covert mission to Washington by two Chilean intelligence officers using the names Juan Williams and [Alejandro Romeral](/people/armando-fernandez-larios/)," the subject of Ambassador [George Landau](/people/george-landau/)'s cable from [Paraguay](/places/paraguay/), which Director [George Bush](/people/george-hw-bush/) "had personally handled." A source with personal knowledge said that Bush, meeting Propper, "made no mention of the mysterious Chilean agents or of his discussions with Walters." On October 21, 1976, Propper sat beside Attorney General Edward Levi when Letelier's widow and her lawyer asked that the CIA be subpoenaed, which Levi declined. The photographs from the Paraguayan passports, which the [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) had given him in the fall of 1976, were first shown to a witness on July 12, 1977, and identified [Michael Townley](/people/michael-townley/). Propper obtained Townley's expulsion from [Chile](/places/chile/) in April 1978 and his guilty plea that August.[^2] Newspaper clippings filed by the defense in 1978 reported that Propper, Assistant Attorney General Stanley Pottinger, and the director of central intelligence, George Bush, had "met to determine to what extent that agency could help in the investigation," and that "a carefully worded agreement placing the Letelier case in a 'national security' status allowed that cooperation." During the trial Townley telephoned Chile from Propper's office, with his consent for calls about the extradition proceedings, and once, on January 30, 1979, without it, a call that was taped at the other end and given to the defense.[^3] The letter rogatory that carried the investigation to Chile, signed by Chief Judge William B. Bryant and certified by Cyrus Vance and [Griffin Bell](/people/griffin-bell/), asked the Supreme Court of Chile to have "[Juan Williams Rose](/people/rené-riveros/)" and "[Alejandro Romeral Jara](/people/rolando-mosqueira/)" answer 55 written questions under oath, with Propper present; the foreign ministry's legal adviser, Gustavo Chamorro, advised on March 3, 1978, that the secrecy of the Chilean sumario did not allow his attendance. It stated that "at least one of these men met with one of the persons believed to be responsible" for the murders. The Chilean prosecutor in turn asked for a statement from Vernon Walters; Propper had already noted on June 9 that Walters had retired on July 2, 1976, and "was no longer there at the time either mission to the United States by [DINA](/organizations/dina/) personnel took place"; he and Barcella sent the FBI's interview of June 14 on June 22.[^4] ### Afterward With the journalist Taylor Branch he wrote *Labyrinth* (1982), an account of the case. By 1988 he was with the Washington law firm of Lane and Edson and a partner, without title, in Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc., formed with Cornick, Scherrer, who had "recently retired from the FBI as its records chief," and Barcella. The firm offered governments, airlines, shipping companies, and the sponsors of events such as the Olympic Games "pro-active" plans against attack, the management of kidnappings and hijackings, "in-depth intelligence files," and "liaison programs with national and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies."[^1] [^1]: "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/ [^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 242-243, 252, 297, 309-311. [^3]: Motion for change of venue, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with newspaper clippings attached as exhibits, legible only in fragments, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-venue.pdf; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington field office, file 185-425, reports of interviews of Michael Vernon Townley by Special Agents Robert W. Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick, February 6, 8, and 16, 1979, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-townley-phone.pdf. [^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, and oficio of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, February 27, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memoranda of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 5, 9, and 22, 1978.