I’m Not Going to Any Jail

This chapter focuses on the early 1990s judicial pursuit of Manuel Contreras and Pedro Espinoza, now both retired yet protected by the military even after the return to democracy. The mysterious “Liliana Walker” is discovered to be a former escort called Mónica Lagos living quietly in Santiago. Lagos confirms the story told years earlier Armando Fernández, which allows the re-opening of the case in Chilean courts. Judicial reforms and the arrival of a new Supreme Court judge, Adolfo Bañados, results in the indictment of Contreras and Espinoza. They are found guilty in 1993, but they appeal.

No More Lies Are to Be Told

This chapter surveys the late 1980s, when Armando Fernández defects to the United States, stands trial, and confirms the story told a decade earlier by Michael Townley. Emboldened by the first indictment of a Chilean military man in US courts, investigators and the families push for the Chilean courts to re-open the Letelier case, which they refuse to do. Back in the United States in 1990, the two Cuban-Americans who had been on the lam since 1979, Virgilio Paz and José Suárez, are caught, tried, and jailed.

Events Are Developing at Such a Rapid Pace

This chapter begins when the Department of Justice and FBI, led by Eugene Propper, identify Michael Townley and Armando Fernández as having been in the United States during the assassination. This knowledge prompts US investigators to pressure the Chilean government into handing over Townley, an American citizen, for questioning. The Chileans expel him to the United States, where he reveals the conspiracy to kill Letelier. In return for his testimony, Townley is given a light sentence and placed into the Witness Protection Program. Two of the Cubans go into hiding, while three are found guilty but then later acquitted on technicalities. Three Chileans are named in the indictment.

Cueca Sola

This chapter focuses on Isabel Letelier’s widowhood in the year or so after the assassination, in addition to the experiences of other friends and family members. Letelier and her four teenage boys face daunting challenges of ostracism and destitution. She essentially replaces her husband at the Institute for Policy Studies and, with Michael Moffitt, pressures the Jimmy Carter administration to pursue the investigation into the Pinochet government. These non-state actors will end up having a significant impact on the case.

Chilbom

This chapter begins Part Two of the book, “Investigation.” “CHILBOM” is the code-name that the Federal Bureau of Investigation gives to the Letelier case, suspecting early that the Chilean government is involved but confirming only after a year and a half of investigation. Eugene Propper is the Assistant US Attorney in charge of the investigation at the Department of Justice, with the FBI assisting.

Such a Safe City

This introduction recounts the day’s events of the car bomb assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC on September 21, 1976. It focuses on the experiences of the surviving family members, especially Michael Moffitt, who was in the car with his wife Ronni Moffitt but lived, and Orlando’s wife Isabel, who rushed to the hospital to find out that Orlando had already died. The story exposes the immediate suspicion that the families had that the Pinochet government was responsible. It also posits the book’s major question: will the families ever enjoy a full measure of justice?

Homicide Squad

This chapter recounts the days leading to the assassination on September 21, 1976. Michael Townley and the Cuban-Americans follow Letelier’s movements as they suspect one another and hide their tracks. Two other Chileans, Armando Fernández and a woman with the pseudonym of “Liliana Walker,” accompany Townley to New York and Washington. Two Cubans set off the car bomb in Sheridan Circle.

Stand Up with Me

This chapter takes another couple as its subject, Michael Moffitt and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who will both be in Orlando Letelier’s car when it is bombed. Through their biography, the chapter explains the coming-of-age of a new generation of young activists focused on human rights. In the mid-1970s, the Moffitts fall in love, marry, and begin to work with Letelier under the aegis of a Washington think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies.

The Fear Is Over

This chapter ends the narrative of the Letelier case with the 1995 decision by the Chilean Supreme Court to ratify the guilty verdict of the lower court in the case of Manuel Contreras and Pedro Espinoza. But several challenges remain in the quest for justice, not the least of which is the resistance of Augusto Pinochet, who remains the head of the Army and threatens the return of the dictatorship if military members are targeted for human rights violations. Espinoza goes to prison willingly, but Contreras resists both legally and physically. By the end of 1995, however, the pressure for him to accept his sentence becomes overwhelming and he submits. The Letelier family expresses relief and joy.

The Ghost Who Haunts Our Chile Policy

This chapter returns to how the diplomacy of US-Chilean relations is hostage to the Letelier case throughout the 1980s. The Ronald Reagan government is far less interested in pushing for justice, but the Democratic-controlled Congress forces the executive to “certify” that Chile is making progress on the Letelier-Moffitt murders before the United States can normalize relations. US diplomats therefore turn against the Pinochet regime. Isabel Letelier and her four sons continue dealing with the fallout of the assassination.