A lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Little Rock bears notice for its effort to breathe life into the story most familiarly known as the Boys on the Tracks.

The lawsuit — a Freedom of Information action against multiple agencies from the CIA and FBI down to the Bryant Police Department — is brought by Linda Ives of Saline County. She’s the mother of Larry Kevin Ives, whose body was found dead in August 1987 on railroad tracks in Saline County along with that of his friend Don Henry. The circumstances underlying their unsolved homicides have been subject of many investigations, articles, books and political rhetoric.

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All of the tentacles of this sprawling saga are outlined in the lawsuit, filed for Ives by R. David Lewis of Little Rock. Keywords: Mena Airport, Barry Seal, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Asa Hutchinson, drug running, gun running, Iran-Contra, Fahmy Malak, Rose Law Firm, Dan Harmon. And that’s just a few of them.

The suit claims insufficient response to FOI requests — “stonewalling,” in the words of the complaint. It alleges a coverup of the story behind the death of Ives’ son.

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For now, that’s about enough.


Arkansas Times
senior editor Mara Leveritt wrote a book on the case.

I mean no disrespect in saying this lawsuit sounds like the whistle of an approaching crazy train. If it doesn’t morph in someone’s hands into a repeat of Clinton Chronicles-style conspiracy theories to inject into the final days of Hillary Clinton’s run for president, I’ll be surprised. 

PS — Judge Leon Holmes has recused from the case because his wife is related to Linda Ives and Judge Bill Roy Wilson has recused because he once represented someone involved in the case. Judge Brian Miller now has the case.

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