((Access available to Leon, Claire, and Becky))
"Leon requested Saddler's criminal background. Access is given to you two in case you'd like to know. Some information has been gathered on Salazar, but there's security issues there. Ask me something and I'll see if I can answer it.
"Leon, you’re not going to like this. But prior to his rise to power, it's all circumstantial. Corrupted officials on Saddler’s bankroll are still being ferreted out. They’ve slowed investigations and kept small, easily repelled forces coming at Los Illuminados, which you know. They also helped obscure his origins. Still, the truth is too big for him to completely conceal."
Osmund Saddler started off as a studious intellectual, primarily an anthropologist. He was hired to work in a small program that studied regional history. He had no criminal record.
There was a stretch of unwritten history sometime before the castellans and their scribes arrived on the scene. All we have from then are artifacts, which are open to interpretation. Saddler looked at the data and favored the idea that the region had a single, strong leader. He had two opponents who claimed it appeared that the tiny villages were governed by a committee of town fathers-pretty surprising teamwork for that era. Either way, Saddler ignored the historical application and failed to cooperate. There was funding riding on the issue, not to mention possible discrediting of reports he’d previously published.
So it seems Saddler took action. I checked the coroner's report for the first. He made a few suspicious sounds over spots that could have been "petechial hemmorhage," which is a sign of smothering, before moving on to the evidence of self-injury. He ruled suicide. The other, whose report has vanished, was poisoned with a chemical found in local mushrooms. Neither death was easy. My suspicion is that Saddler disliked their ideologies as much as their opposition.
Of course Saddler was under suspicion, even when the one who apparently poisoned the second man was caught. But the story’s still murky. The accused man had been acting as though under terrible strain for a few weeks prior. Friends said some of his most valuable books were missing and he wouldn’t say where they went. He also had no discernable motive. After an interrogation, he committed suicide in his cell.
Between the missing motive, the loss of valuable personal belongings, and the suicide all together, I’m thinking ‘blackmail,’ Leon. Especially since Saddler, being a scholar, would have loved to acquire old books. He might also have loved the show of power involved in taking them. But, I have no proof that's what he did.
The next sudden death was a man who, as the Spanish investigators have noted, was his primary contestant for the position of chairman once the current one retired. Once again, suspicious circumstances, no solid evidence, no leads. When he died, the group had to rebudget. They sent Saddler back to the libraries while they re-prioritized. (That’s my explanation as to why the chairman is alive today.)
There was only one fellow researcher there, Devante Herrera, head librarian. He and Saddler did not work well together. Herrera had a very controlling personality, probably a bit obsessive, and considered whatever people were reading his books about as his business. He also talked freely. Coworkers reported frequent, bitter personality clashes between Saddler and Herrera. For a while, their separate interests helped keep the peace.
After all, while Saddler was more focussed on the governments of that time period, Herrera had already published several papers on the form and fluidity of religious beliefs. His major focus was on regional mythology.
The next step is unclear. Saddler could have discovered mentions of Los Illuminados on his own. In that case, Herrera’s expertise, curiosity, and controlling nature were a threat to his secrecy. Or Herrera was piecing the story of Los Illuminados together and Saddler, with his research into the castellans of the time, ran across corroborative evidence. Either way, the outcome should be obvious: Herrera suffered a broken neck at the bottom of a staircase. Once more, no witnesses, no evidence.
Following this, Saddler remained in the area while the investigation was underway. Then he simply. . . disappeared. No movement in his small bank account, no attempt to renew his driver’s license or his papers. Nothing.
It’s likely the next death--the chairman’s the obvious choice--would have been his last murder. The police knew they were being thwarted, and he was probably getting overconfident, secure in his own intelligence. But he changed his goals.
That’s all I’ve got on Saddler's past.
"Leon, you’re not going to like this. But prior to his rise to power, it's all circumstantial. Corrupted officials on Saddler’s bankroll are still being ferreted out. They’ve slowed investigations and kept small, easily repelled forces coming at Los Illuminados, which you know. They also helped obscure his origins. Still, the truth is too big for him to completely conceal."
Osmund Saddler started off as a studious intellectual, primarily an anthropologist. He was hired to work in a small program that studied regional history. He had no criminal record.
There was a stretch of unwritten history sometime before the castellans and their scribes arrived on the scene. All we have from then are artifacts, which are open to interpretation. Saddler looked at the data and favored the idea that the region had a single, strong leader. He had two opponents who claimed it appeared that the tiny villages were governed by a committee of town fathers-pretty surprising teamwork for that era. Either way, Saddler ignored the historical application and failed to cooperate. There was funding riding on the issue, not to mention possible discrediting of reports he’d previously published.
So it seems Saddler took action. I checked the coroner's report for the first. He made a few suspicious sounds over spots that could have been "petechial hemmorhage," which is a sign of smothering, before moving on to the evidence of self-injury. He ruled suicide. The other, whose report has vanished, was poisoned with a chemical found in local mushrooms. Neither death was easy. My suspicion is that Saddler disliked their ideologies as much as their opposition.
Of course Saddler was under suspicion, even when the one who apparently poisoned the second man was caught. But the story’s still murky. The accused man had been acting as though under terrible strain for a few weeks prior. Friends said some of his most valuable books were missing and he wouldn’t say where they went. He also had no discernable motive. After an interrogation, he committed suicide in his cell.
Between the missing motive, the loss of valuable personal belongings, and the suicide all together, I’m thinking ‘blackmail,’ Leon. Especially since Saddler, being a scholar, would have loved to acquire old books. He might also have loved the show of power involved in taking them. But, I have no proof that's what he did.
The next sudden death was a man who, as the Spanish investigators have noted, was his primary contestant for the position of chairman once the current one retired. Once again, suspicious circumstances, no solid evidence, no leads. When he died, the group had to rebudget. They sent Saddler back to the libraries while they re-prioritized. (That’s my explanation as to why the chairman is alive today.)
There was only one fellow researcher there, Devante Herrera, head librarian. He and Saddler did not work well together. Herrera had a very controlling personality, probably a bit obsessive, and considered whatever people were reading his books about as his business. He also talked freely. Coworkers reported frequent, bitter personality clashes between Saddler and Herrera. For a while, their separate interests helped keep the peace.
After all, while Saddler was more focussed on the governments of that time period, Herrera had already published several papers on the form and fluidity of religious beliefs. His major focus was on regional mythology.
The next step is unclear. Saddler could have discovered mentions of Los Illuminados on his own. In that case, Herrera’s expertise, curiosity, and controlling nature were a threat to his secrecy. Or Herrera was piecing the story of Los Illuminados together and Saddler, with his research into the castellans of the time, ran across corroborative evidence. Either way, the outcome should be obvious: Herrera suffered a broken neck at the bottom of a staircase. Once more, no witnesses, no evidence.
Following this, Saddler remained in the area while the investigation was underway. Then he simply. . . disappeared. No movement in his small bank account, no attempt to renew his driver’s license or his papers. Nothing.
It’s likely the next death--the chairman’s the obvious choice--would have been his last murder. The police knew they were being thwarted, and he was probably getting overconfident, secure in his own intelligence. But he changed his goals.
That’s all I’ve got on Saddler's past.