Good Morning POU! OK, let’s learn about some of the other hitmen and conspirators of these heinous crimes.
Harlow Arlie
In 1989, Tommy “the Sandman” Burns was hired to kill a jumper horse named Streetwise. This horse was owned by Donna Brown, the ex-wife of former U.S. Olympic rider Buddy Brown, who had once been a trainer at Paul Valliere’s farm in Rhode Island. Because the animal had already suffered from colic and thus could not be insured against that disease, electrocution was ruled out as a method of murder. Donna Brown insisted that Burns break the animal’s leg and make it look like an accident so that the horse would have to be put down by a vet. Burns decided to sub-contract the deed to a man named Harlow Arlie, who was willing to cripple the horse with a crowbar.
By this time, the FBI had Burns under surveillance, and although the agents were too far away to prevent the fatal injury to Streetwise, they were able to capture Burns and Arlie after a short chase. The two men confessed to the crime, and Burns, in retaliation for being left without legal aid by his powerful former employers, turned FBI informant and revealed the names of dozens of people who had hired him. As a result of his confession, 36 people were arrested for animal cruelty and insurance fraud, of whom 35 were convicted.
After testifying before the federal grand jury in Chicago investigating insurance fraud in the horse show industry, Harlow Arlie served eight months in jail for breaking Streetwise’s leg.
Burns, who revealed the names of many other conspirators, was sentenced to a year in jail for his crimes, including breaking Streetwise’s leg; he served six months. He still resides in Florida, where he has legally changed his name to Tim Ray; he currently sells auto parts for a living.
Richard Bailey
Not only electrocution and leg-breaking were employed as methods to kill insured horses. When arson looked profitable, an entire stable could be burned to the ground, to collect on the building insurance as well as the horse insurance. Richard Bailey, who feuded with his brother, and Frank Jayne and his family, were said to have left “a trail of violence” in the horse-club world of the upper Midwest states of Illinois and Wisconsin over the course of decades.
Richard Bailey pleaded guilty to racketeering, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering charges in 1995 and was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of Helen Brach.
Paul Valliere
Horse trainers also participated along with Burns in the conspiracy, including Paul Valliere, the owner of Acres Wild Farm in North Smithfield, Rhode Island. In 1994, Valliere admitted that he hired Burns to electrocute his show horse, Roseau Platiere, so that he could collect $75,000 in insurance money. Once he was apprehended, Valliere turned state’s evidence. He wore a wire for a year, gathering information for the federal authorities who were investigating the conspiracy.
Due to his cooperation with law enforcement, Paul Valliere was sentenced in 1996 to four years of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine; he also was indefinitely suspended from participating in horse shows sanctioned by the American Horse Show Association. In 2006, Valliere attempted to gain reinstatement to the United States Equestrian Federation (formerly AHSA) causing outrage among those who recalled his crimes, and sparking an online campaign to have him permanently barred from participation in equestrian events.
Barney Ward
One of Valliere’s close friends, the Rhode Island-born trainer Barney Ward, who owned Castle Hill farm in Brewster, New York, also arranged horse-killings for wealthy owners; Tommy Burns said Ward arranged for Burns to commit 15 horse killings.
Ward was charged in 1994 with arranging the killings of four horses. Although he claimed to be innocent of the charges, he pleaded guilty in 1996 to conspiring to kill four horses for their insurance payouts between 1987 and 1990: Charisma, Condino, Rub the Lamp and Roseau Platiere. In court papers he “admitted that he told the horse killer to keep quiet about the people who hired the killer to slaughter the horses, and, if he kept quiet about [Ward’s] friends and business associates, [Ward] would pay him money. [and] that [Ward] later spoke with the horse killer and […] said that he would kill the horse killer if he did anything to hurt [Ward].”
Ward was sentenced to 33 months in prison, followed by three years of probation, and ordered to make restitution of $200,000 to one of the defrauded insurance companies. Upon his release, Ward sued the AHSA, which had barred him from attending its sanctioned shows. He claimed that it was his right, as a private citizen and no longer a member of the AHSA, to watch his son compete in equestrian events. In 2000, the Supreme Court of New York found that argument meritless, ruling that Ward’s membership in AHSA at the time of his criminal conduct, plus his promise to be bound by the organization’s rules, authorized the AHSA to discipline him, regardless of his current membership status.
Donna Brown
Donna Brown, the ex-wife of Paul Valliere’s former associate Buddy Brown, was convicted of hiring Tommy Burns and Harlow Arlie to break Streetwise’s leg.