From the June 2003 Idaho Observer:
See comments below by Martini.

From the June 2003 Idaho Observer:

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Wife, mother wrongfully convicted of murder; Aspartame not even indicted (yet)

by Don Harkins

We live in a time where the money power rules: Products that maim and kill are approved by the government and the injuries and deaths they cause are blamed on something -- or someone -- else. When infants die from an adverse reaction to vaccines, innocent parents are routinely sentenced to serve life in prison for shaking their babies to death. Today, an innocent woman and widowed mother of three sits in a Virginia prison, sentenced to serve 20-year and 30-year sentences concurrently for poisoning her husband with methanol. As you are about to see, her husband was murdered, but Diane Fleming was not the murderer. Shortly after New Year's, 2000, Chuck Fleming, 37, an athletic man, decided to put himself on a dietary regimen and exercise program to get back into shape. Six months later he dropped dead. The autopsy shows he died of methanol poisoning.

Fleming's dietary regimen involved a product called Ripped Fuel, an ephedra-containing muscle-building formula. He also drank copious amounts of Gatorade and had just begun mixing a product called Creatine into it as a supplement to help build muscle mass.

On the way home from church on a Sunday afternoon in June, 2000, the Flemings stopped at a store to buy a case of Gatorade and a carton of Creatine. Fleming mixed a bottle of warm Gatorade with three times the amount of Creatine recommended because he misread the directions which called for a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon. Diane recalls her husband tasted the mixture and, not liking the taste, put the bottle in the refrigerator and took off to play basketball, as was his custom 2-3 times per week.

Backing up

For approximately a month prior to his death, Fleming complained to his wife about experiencing some shortness of breath and intermittent nausea.

Fleming also drank approximately eight 12-ounce cans of diet soft drinks each day and every evening drank 2-4 mixed drinks of bourbon and Diet Sprite. He drank very little water and never drank tea or coffee.

While Fleming was on his fitness regimen, he also ate various protein health bars and took several pharmaceutical preparations including Prevacid
(a digestive antacid), Tetracycline (antibiotic), Naproxen (digestive anti-inflammatory), a multivitamin w/iron and Vancenase AQ (nasal inhaler for allergies).

Anatomy of mass murder

The process whereby the Searle Corporation (then led by current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) accomplished aspartame's U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval is beyond the scope of this article. However, comments by former FDA Inspector Arthur Evangelista puts the artificial sweetener and its government approval into proper perspective. Regardless of how I initially felt about it [aspartame], the evidence is factual. Now we have to do something about it because it [aspartame in our food supply] is nothing less than MASS MURDER [emphasis original].

Aspartame is currently used as a sweetener in thousands of products consumed by millions of Americans every day. The FDA lists some 200 symptoms of Aspartame poisoning. Sudden death is one of them.

Unprecedented numbers of Americans are simply dropping dead. The Atlanta Journal Constitution recently reported that 450,00 people have dropped dead for no apparent reason.

James Bowen, MD, himself a case study in Aspartame poisoning, believes the excitotoxin is responsible for the nation's epidemic of sudden deaths. My articles at www.dorway.com and my book, 'Billions of Victims' are essential reading for a full understanding of the sudden death issue relative to aspartame, commented Dr. Bowen.

Murder by methanol

Upon returning home from playing basketball, Fleming ate a bowl of ice cream and, after mixing Creatine into the remaining three bottles of Gatorade, went to bed early.

The next morning he woke up feeling ill, but went to work. He took three of the four bottles of Gatorade with him to work, but drank only a third of one bottle before returning home feeling nauseated.

Originally thinking he just had a flu bug, his condition kept worsening. By late afternoon the following day, Diane called 911 and her husband was rushed to the hospital. He lapsed into a coma and was removed from life support three days later and was soon after pronounced dead. An autopsy confirmed methanol poisoning as the cause of death.

Investigative authorities questioned the family about Fleming and his habits and had the Gatorade tested. The bottles of Gatorade each contained measurable amounts of methanol.

Diane was not initially suspected of murdering her husband. Thirteen months later, she was arrested and indicted. At trial it was determined that the source of the methanol that led to Fleming's death was from a gallon of windshield washer fluid found in the Fleming's garage. The jury believed that Diane must have added the methanol into the Gatorade/Creatine mixture while her husband was off playing basketball.

Curiously, of the four bottles of Gatorade found to contain methanol in concentrations that ranged from 3.3 percent - 4.7 percent (weight over volume), only one-third of one bottle had been consumed. A toxicologist at Diane's trial testified there was not enough methanol in all four bottles to kill Fleming. One-third of one bottle at the concentrations determined could not have been the cause of the man's death, yet Fleming did have lethal levels of methanol in his body at the time of his death.

The biochemistry of a murder

If Diane did not poison her husband with methanol, where did the lethal levels in his body come from? In his article, Aspartame and Methanol Revisited, Dr. Bowen explains aspartame's unique decomposition process. He describes how the body metabolizes aspartame to methanol, then to formaldehyde, to formic acid then carbon monoxide.

Outside of the body, aspartame decomposes to methanol then formaldehyde at room temperature. The process is accelerated with higher temperatures. Lab analyses have shown how aspartame levels used to sweeten diet sodas diminish over time while methanol and formaldehyde, not present initially, are found in measurable quantities.

The methanol levels found in the four Gatorade bottles is consistent with aspartame's decomposition profile. It should also be noted that the methanol found in the windshield wiper fluid was not matched forensically to the methanol found in the Gatorade/Creatine mixture.

Aspartame is a cumulative poison, commented Betty Martini of Mission Possible, a worldwide network of activists calling for the removal of aspartame from foods and beverages.

I believe that Chuck's habit of consuming aspartame-containing diet sodas set him up for the fatal aspartame dose, Martini stated.

Since Fleming's diet soda habit is not in question, we can state with certainty that he had elevated levels of aspartame and its decomposed products in his system. On that fateful Sunday after church, he mixed too much Creatine into his Gatorade and did not drink any water per manufacturer's recommendations.

The chemical and metabolic properties of aspartame, a combination of two amino acids, phenylalinine and the excitotoxin aspartate, are well-known. It is an effective rat and ant killer. Aspartame can respond synergistically to transform other substances such as ephedra and pharmaceutical drugs into toxic compounds. During the last year I had been researching Creatine and Ephedra and never once thought the culprit was aspartame, said Diane's friend Betty Rickmond.

Hope

Rickman, who has never doubted her friend's innocence, believes the evidence indicates Diane did not murder her husband. She even passed a polygraph, which is, of course, not admissible in court. The evidence indicates Fleming was killed accidentally by the fitness regimen he was on, combined with his addiction to aspartame-sweetened beverages.

At the time of the trial, the defense was not aware of the tendency of aspartame to become methanol. A subsequent appeal was denied also because the aspartame connection had not been properly presented to the court. An appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court is pending.

Martini believes that this tragic case could become the one which raises public awareness to the aspartame issue and leads to the ban of this sweet poison.


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The Idaho Observer P.O. Box 457 Spirit Lake, Idaho 83869 Phone: 208-255-2307 Email: observer@coldreams.com Web: http://idaho-observer.com

http://proliberty.com/observer/ Comments from Martini: Diane Fleming, was a Sunday School teacher, a charitable and compassionate woman who even worked one day a week for the homeless. Her husband was a diet pop addict making sure that the fridge was full of diet soda at all times, taken from the cases in the hot garage. Diane says he probably also mixed Equal to the Gatorade which accounts for the methanol. Jack Samuels who has a web site on MSG, www.truthinlabeling.org says the Gatorade itself probably has glutamic acid, aspartic acid and L-cysteine in the flavoring.

This woman who has lost her husband, her home, her children and her freedom sits in a jail cell waiting for someone to wake her up from this nightmare. If you can help or can spread the word please do. If you write Diane she can only accept what will go in one 37cent envelope unless you are a publisher, not over 5 sheets. If mail is returned she has to pay for it. In prison she crochets for charity. Please advise if someone needs a copy of the autopsy which shows the methanol poisoning and usual changes we find in someone who has used aspartame. As Dr. H. J. Roberts says "It's Right on Target". He is author of Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic. (www.sunsentpress.com) which goes into sudden death from aspartame.

Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible Intl, 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097 770
242-2599 www.dorway.com

 

 

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