Present Danger

Piggott born James Purnell in 1954 in Boston Massachusetts. Changed his name to Piggott by deed poll six months before moving to Ireland three years ago.

Purnell was the child of two first-generation Irish émigrés, and eldest of two sons. Grew up in the working-class neighbourhood of Dorchester – his father was a clerk in a law firm. Educated at the prestigious Boston Latin School after winning a scholarship. Attended MIT and took a Bachelor of Science in a combined mathematics and physics degree, followed in 1974 by a PhD. A brilliant student but references from teachers describe him as headstrong.

In 1972 a Purnell was recorded as a member of the extremist group the Weather Underground, but no firm connection between our subject, James Purnell, and the Weathermen was ever firmly established.

Purnell’s advanced degree in mathematics and physics was of particular value in the military area of high grade missile technology. Purnell was offered a position with Arrow Systems, a Route 128 group specialising in missile control and retrieval software systems. Its contracts were predominantly with the US Defense Department. Accordingly Purnell was successfully positively vetted before being offered the post.

His name appears in lists compiled in the late 1980s by local fundraisers for the Northern Ireland Aid Committee (NORAID). Purnell visited England in June 1984 but he did not come to notice in contact with IRA sympathisers on the mainland.

In 1985 Purnell left Arrow Systems and established his own consultancy (The Purnell Group – or TPG), employing his younger brother Edwin as chief finance officer. Edwin was a trained accountant, but also very active in IRA fundraising – his name appears in FBI files on NORAID activities, and he visited Northern Ireland on several occasions.

Where Arrow Systems had specialised in anti-radar aspects of large-scale missile systems, TPG focused on hand-held projectile weaponry (RPG), and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Until the late 1990s revenues were almost exclusively derived from Department of Defense contracts, but cuts in procurement at the end of the Clinton administration forced TPG to look for other clients. These included US government-approved customers, Israel, South Africa, and Pakistan, but an FBI file suggests Purnell may also have been doing business with a range of illegal clients, including Somalian rebels and both sides of the Rwanda civil war – Hutus and Tutsi. It was believed that revenues from these sales were deposited in off-shore banks, first in the Seychelles, then in banks in those former Soviet countries that had refused to sign international disclosure agreements (Estonia and Moldova in particular).

In 1999 at the instigation of MI5, the FBI investigated a gun-running scheme to smuggle arms, including hand-held missile launchers, by ship from the coast of Maine into Northern Ireland. Three men were arrested, including Edwin Purnell. The trial of the Mattapan Three (named by the press after the South Boston neighbourhood where all three lived) took place in 2001, though coverage of the trial was overshadowed by the events of 9/11.

All three men were convicted, and Edwin Purnell was sentenced to six years for his part in the plot. He was due for parole in 2004 but died of kidney failure in a federal prison in Louisiana in 2003. Despite our suspicion that James Purnell was involved, the FBI was unable to link him to any part of the conspiracy.

After his brother’s death, James Purnell closed down his company, changed his name, and moved to Northern Ireland.

Liz,

The FBI special agent in charge of the Boston investigation of 1999/2000 was called Daryl T. Sulkey Jr and the same man is the new FBI legat in London. I phoned him and he could meet you first thing tomorrow – 8.15 a.m. at Grosvenor. Please let him know if you can’t make it; otherwise he will be expecting you.

PK