We met JÖRG HAIDERduring our 1990 Southern Patrol where he and Sharkhunters President HARRY COOPER(1-LIFE-1983) met and the two men became friends. This photo was taken during the 2000 Southern Patrol and it is pouring rain. Every year when the Sharkhunters Patrol took us to southern Austria, JÖRG made a special effort to invite our group to a special event.

2008 was like all the other times he welcomed our Sharkhunters group in Kärnten. A few days after we left , he and his party won a major election in September. He was soon to be a major power in Austrian politics and it was no secret that he wanted to take Austria out of the European Union, to return the currency to the traditional Austrian Shilling and to send all the “Asylum Seekers” out of Austria.

Just weeks later, on 11 October 2008, HAIDER was on his way to his mother’s on the occasion of her 90th birthday when his car was wrecked and he was killed. It was reported that he had spent the day in a gay bar and argued with a man that officials said was his gay boyfriend, but nobody believed that or the ever-changing reports of the crash. We covered all this in an issue of our KTB Magazine.

This is the last photo of JÖRG HAIDER. He had spent much of the day with Englebert Tauscher (left), President of the Ulrichsberg Gemeinschaft, and Frau Tauscher (center).

Not much remains of the car in which HAIDER was killed. The last word we got is that the car is still in a police impound and no one is allowed to see or photograph this car. A friend of ours in the area was vigorously looking into all aspects of the crash in 2008 but received not one but two warnings from the police to just leave it alone; the second warning he told us was a very strong warning.

JÖRG HAIDER was a good man, a strong political leader, and a good friend.