Summary Execution: The Seattle Assassinations of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes

"An incredible true story that reads like an international crime thriller peopled with assassins, political activists, shady FBI informants, murdered witnesses, a tenacious attorney, and a murderous foreign dictator."
—STEVE JACKSON, New York Times bestselling author of NO STONE UNTURNED

On June 1, 1981, two young activists, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, were murdered in Seattle in what was made to appear like a gang slaying. However, the victims' families and friends suspected they were considered a threat to the dictatorship of Phillippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his regime's relationship with the United States.

But how could they prove it up against such powerful and ruthless adversaries?

In SUMMARY EXECUTION, attorney and author Michael Withey describes his ten-year battle for justice for Domingo and Viernes that he fought because “They killed my friends.” Follow along as he embarks on a long and dangerous investigation and into the courtroom to obtain convictions of three hitmen and then prove in U.S. federal court that Marcos was behind the assassinations. If so, it would be the first time in U.S. history that a foreign head of state would be held liable for the murder of American citizens on U.S. soil.

However, to accomplish this, Withey and his legal team, working with the victims' families and friends, would have to defeat concerted efforts by the murderers and those who hired them to cover up their crimes and obstruct justice. Then they'd have to overcome numerous obstacles, including exposing the perjured eyewitness testimony of an FBI informant, uncovering the brutal murder of an accomplice who was being sought to turn state’s evidence, and working around the failure by local authorities to prosecute the Marcos operative who planned the murders.

"If you have not heard Mike Withey tell the story of the cover-up of the Domingo/Viernes murders, you have not lived. I thank my friend and colleague Mike for writing it." —VINCE WARREN, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights