logo
EXCLUSIVE My mother was murdered by a migrant in cold blood. A liberal 'coward' with White House ambitions set him free

EXCLUSIVE My mother was murdered by a migrant in cold blood. A liberal 'coward' with White House ambitions set him free

Daily Mail​30-05-2025
A 'barbaric' killer controversially deported to East Africa by President Donald Trump 's ICE agents should still be in locked up behind bars, insists the victim's daughter.
'He should have never been paroled,' Birte Pfleger told Daily Mail of Thongxay Nilakout, 48, a native of Laos in Southeast Asia. 'It was devastating.'
College professor Pfleger, 57, spoke hauntingly of the searing grief over her 64-year-old mother Gisela's heinous assassination-style murder in 1994 and how the pain is just as raw 31 years later.
She also condemned California Governor Gavin Newsom as a 'coward' for his role in the convict's shocking release from Solana State Prison two years ago.
Pfleger said Newsom, who is believed to be positioning himself for a 2028 White House run amid continuing leadership chaos in the Democrat party, passed the buck 'rather than do the right thing' when he had an opportunity to overturn a 2023 parole board decision to release the brutal killer.
Rather than reverse the board's contentious ruling - one of his executive powers as governor - he instead praised Nilakout and chose to have an 'en banc' hearing instead, meaning a larger group of parole board members would have the final say.
The group, thanks to Newsom, affirmed the original parole board decision and allowed Nilakout to leave prison.
'He's a coward for not doing what is right,' said Pfleger of governor, who has been repeatedly criticized for his soft stance on crime. 'In the end, he took the easy way out.
'I knew he wasn't going to do it. The political will wasn't there.
'He was following the general consensus of Democrats in Sacramento - that the days of long sentences were over; there's prison overcrowding and prisons needed to be closed.
'As long as offenders did not kill law enforcement officials or [had] sexually assaulted children, the inmates should be released.'
Nilakout emptied all five bullets from his weapon into Gisela and her husband.
The couple were visiting from their native Germany when they were set upon by him and two associates who were also convicted and sent to prison.
He used his first two bullets to shoot her in the head as she lay helpless on the ground.
And the three remaining shells he pumped into Klaus, Pfleger's father, now 93, who miraculously survived.
Surgeons were unable to remove one of the bullets, however, as it was lodged near an artery and it remains in his body, behind his shoulder, as a painful reminder of the savage attack.
Today, he remains tortured from losing his beloved wife. 'This never ends,' admits his daughter. 'There is no closure.'
Pfleger was contacted by Newsom's Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary, Jasmin Turner-Bond, via a May 10, 2023 email with the subject line: 'The Governor has made a decision in the Nilakout case.'
She wrote: 'Dear Ms. Pfleger, The Governor has decided to refer inmate Nilakout's grant for an en banc review.'
'He's a coward for not doing what is right,' said Birte Pfleger of Governor Newsom. 'In the end, he took the easy way out
In a signed statement dated the same day, Newsom wrote: 'I acknowledge that Mr. Nilakout committed this crime when he was 17 years old and that he has since been incarcerated for 28 years.
'The psychologist who evaluated Mr. Nilakout found that, at the time of the crime, Mr. Nilakout demonstrated hallmark features of youth, which diminished his culpability under youth offender laws.
'I also acknowledge that Mr. Nilakout has made efforts to improve himself in prison. He has participated in self-help programming, earned a GED, and taken college courses.
'I commend him for his efforts in rehabilitation and encourage him to continue on this positive path.
'However, I find this case warrants the consideration of the full Board of Parole Hearings to determine whether Mr. Nilakout can be safely released at this time.
'The psychologist who evaluated Mr. Nilakout identified current areas of concern that include the 'life crime involving extreme violence against unknown and vulnerable victims, [his] participation in documented negative behavior through 2014, and some ongoing deficits in awareness or understanding related to life crime or subsequent negative behavior.'
'The psychologist found that Mr. Nilakout's 'deficits in awareness and understanding related to the life crime and other more recent negative behavior remain present, [but] seem to be decreasing.'
'While this is an encouraging sign that Mr. Nilakout has made progress in rehabilitation, I ask the full Board to assess whether Mr. Nilakout has sufficiently mitigated his risk factors, and whether his release on parole is consistent with public safety.
'For these reasons, I refer the decision to parole Mr. Nilakout back to the Board for en banc consideration.'
Nilakout is one of eight violent immigrant criminals ejected from the country last week and flown by a government Gulfstream jet to East Africa headed to landlocked South Sudan.
The men are currently under guard at an American military base in the Republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa at the southern tip of the Red Sea amid a fierce legal brawl between an 'activist' federal judge and Trump's administration.
Critics and attorneys for the men assert Trump's administration is brazenly attempting to skirt legal proceedings in order to permanently banish them.
In April, Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the government to give deportees at least 15 days notice before sending them to a third-country - one where they had previously lived or where they were born.
They should also be allowed to tell a court if they fear persecution or torture at their final destinations.
But the men were deported anyway with Trump's backing. Other than Nilakout, the men are from countries including Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico. One of them is from South Sudan.
So on May 20, an irate Judge Murphy held an emergency hearing and stated U.S. officials must retain custody and control of the migrants while he determines if their removal from the States was unlawful.
This in turn prompted swift and fierce pushback from the Department of Homeland Security which controls the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A DHS statement called the men 'some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States'
Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, called the judge's ruling 'deranged.'
She added: 'These depraved individuals have all had their day in court and been given final deportation orders.
'A reminder of who was on this plane: murderers, child rapists, an individual who raped a mentally & physically disabled person.
'The message this activist judge is sending to victims and their families is we don't care.'
President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 'are working every day to get vicious criminals out of our country while activist judges are fighting to bring them back onto American soil.' The Supreme Court has now taken up the case.
Nilakout was 17 at the time of the slaying near the mountain town of Idyllwild, 110 miles east of Los Angeles.
He was found guilty of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. However, a ruling in 2012 meant that juveniles convicted a violent crime must be given a chance for parole and freedom.
Against Pfleger's hopes that he remained in jail, Nilakout was granted parole and he received a final order of removal in July 2023.
'He's no different,' she said. 'He doesn't take full responsibility for shooting my mom when she was lying face down. The only reason my dad is still alive is because he [Nilakout] had run out of bullets.'
A former Green Card holder, he then spent five months in ICE custody immediately following his release from prison before being set fully free.
He was picked up again by ICE agents on January 26 this year - five days after Trump's second inauguration.
Pfleger, who teaches history at California State University, Los Angeles, described all eight men sent to Africa as 'criminals convicted of heinous crimes.'
Over the years, the mother-of-two was determined to attend parole hearings for her mother's killers which she described as a 'traumatic' experience.
She recalled long drives to be in person for Nilakout's hearings. 'I had two small children at the time, but I took time off from work and time away from my family,' she said.
'I'm this very normal law abiding person. I'd never been close to a prison. That was all very weird.'
When one of Nilakout's two accomplices was granted parole 'there was nothing I could do. The parole officers actually said, 'Our hands are tied.''
Pfleger criticized the parole process as 'entirely meaningless when it comes to the victim's input.
'They've now changed things to the point where you can't even talk about the actual crime. It's all about what has the inmate done since being incarcerated. No one asks about the permanent consequences, pain, suffering of the victims.'
Despite the deep frustration and disappointment, she has 'made peace' with Nilakout's release from prison.
But she has not revealed to her father the updates regarding the three men convicted of his wife's murder as it would be too upsetting for him. 'He has has social anxiety,' she said. 'He's never recovered.'
She added: 'When it came to the parole hearings, I knew that I owed this to my dad. I owe it to the memory of my mom. I owe this to my kids who never got to meet their grandmother. I did everything I could for them not to get out.'
Judge Murphy, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, said the U.S. government must 'maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.'
He sensationally warned that the administration officials who enabled the deportations to South Sudan of Nilakout and the seven others could potentially face criminal penalties.
Federal law specifically prohibits the government from deporting people to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion or where they fear they would face torture.
'I wasn't jumping for joy when I heard that he was on that plane to go to South Sudan,' admitted Pfleger.
'It's a problem when someone's due process rights are violated. Either we have these rights and they apply to everyone - or we don't.
'It's dangerous when we don't have them and there are somehow these exceptions. Everyone who is in this country due process rights regardless of immigration status.
'When a judge says you cannot be deported right now, you have the right to object. You have the right to consult with an attorney. When that doesn't happen then that's a problem.'
'Do I care if he gets released to South Sudan and something happens to him in terms of violence. No, not really. But it's a problem when basic rights are violated by the government.
'Nothing brings my mother back. Nothing eases my dad's pain. He thinks that they're all still in prison.
'Where do you draw the line? Here's a convicted murderer but there's a legal process. Now there's an administration that says, "Screw those laws, screw any orders - we're getting rid of them."'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

How a junior trader paid for the banking crisis – while the big bosses never joined him in the dock
How a junior trader paid for the banking crisis – while the big bosses never joined him in the dock

The Independent

time25 minutes ago

  • The Independent

How a junior trader paid for the banking crisis – while the big bosses never joined him in the dock

The wheels of British justice are appallingly slow. Back in 2016, I wrote that the conviction of Tom Hayes, the bank trader jailed for conspiring to manipulate the Libor interest rate, was unsafe. Today, finally, the Supreme Court has agreed to quash his conviction. The case of Carlo Palombo, the other trader who had his conviction quashed today, was not linked to Hayes. Palombo received four years in 2019. When ex-Citi and UBS banker Hayes was found guilty in 2015, he was sentenced to 14 years, an astonishing long term for a white-collar criminal in this country. That was reduced to 11 years on appeal, but as I remarked at the time, you get less for killing someone. There is no doubt he was being made an example of. There was considerable public anger at the way bankers had walked scot-free from the financial crisis – still is – and Hayes was seen as discouraging others. He was portrayed as being at the centre of a web, setting the benchmark rate used for millions of personal loans; he was therefore the worst of the worst, an arch-villain who profited from ordinary folks; he, everyone seemed to agree, deserved every moment spent inside. But in his case, there literally were no others. A year later, in a blow to the Serious Fraud Office, which brought the prosecutions, six brokers were acquitted of conspiring with him to fix the interbank rate. On their acquittals, in his cell at HMP Lowdham Grange, Hayes could be forgiven for raging against the iniquity of a system that saw his life ruined. Particularly, as in the professional hierarchy, Hayes was a junior. We were supposed to believe that others never condoned what he did. It simply never rang true that he was able to act without anyone above him at the bank knowing and agreeing. That unease only increased with details emerging about his personality. He was a bit of a geek, as many are in his area of work. He learned by heart the Highway Code from cover to cover when he was learning to drive. It was one of the traits that earned him his nicknames of 'Rain Man' and 'Kid Asperger's'. But, as he explained, it also meant he was ideally suited to futures trading. 'The success of getting it right, the success of finding market inefficiencies, the success of identifying opportunities and then when you get it right, it's like solving that equation,' Hayes said in court. 'It's make money, lose money, and it's just so pure.' Symptomatic of an underlying condition, he was also open and personable, not sophisticated at keeping something secret. Indeed, that was his defence, that what he did was common; he was encouraged to do what he did and he did not believe he was acting dishonestly. It would have been more reassuring if his bank bosses had joined him in the dock. But they never did. Nevertheless, the promise of the subsequent trial of his alleged co-conspirators did provide some comfort. Then they were acquitted. Hayes said he was delighted with the outcome. He was 'thrilled that the brokers can return to their families and their lives' but was 'bewildered' that he was left 'in a situation where he [was] convicted of conspiring with nobody'. Originally, there were 22 names on the draft indictment, including the six found innocent. At Hayes' trial, most of the evidence presented against him was in relation to those six – hence the Serious Fraud Office's decision to pursue only them. Most of the other names were thought to be peripheral. Hayes said he had never met or even spoken to them; there were some he'd been in touch with via email or other messaging, but just a few times. Ahead of Hayes' trial, the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, decided to separate his hearing from that of the brokers and his alleged co-conspirators. Their statements were not allowed to be submitted in Hayes' trial. Presumably, if they had been, given the jury's conclusion in their trial, this may have assisted his defence. Critically, his jury was unaware of evidence relating to whether or not an agreement between the co-defendants was ever reached. After their acquittals, David Green, then head of the SFO, said: 'The key issue in this trial was whether these defendants were party to a dishonest agreement with Tom Hayes. By their verdicts, the jury have said that they could not be sure that this was the case.' It was an odd use of words from Green. He was trying to justify the prosecution by saying that in the end, the jury could not be certain, so therefore they acquitted. Where, though, does the jury say that? Equally, the jury could surely have been certain there was no agreement – Green simply did not know. In Hayes' earlier trial, however, without the evidence from his alleged co-conspirators, the jury was certain there was a conspiracy. Later, with those not guilty verdicts, that did not seem right or fair. During his closing speech to the jury at Hayes' trial, Mukul Chawla QC for the prosecution was keen to point out that Hayes was the first but would not be the last. Again this was a reference to the six. But look what happened. In light of their acquittals and the non-submission of their statements in his trial, Hayes deserved a fair hearing. Shamefully, it took nine further years for that day to arrive.

‘I stole £1.2m in a 40-minute call — then blew it all in Harrods'
‘I stole £1.2m in a 40-minute call — then blew it all in Harrods'

Times

time26 minutes ago

  • Times

‘I stole £1.2m in a 40-minute call — then blew it all in Harrods'

Fraud accounts for 41 per cent of all reported crime in the UK and as much as £1.17 billion was stolen by scammers last year, according to the trade body UK Finance. This makes it the most common type of crime — and I am one of the world's leading experts on it. Why? Because I used to be a prolific fraudster and spent more than 25 years stealing money and services worth many millions of pounds. Some of my frauds were theatrically audacious. I once spent seven months living free of charge in five-star hotels in central London, posing as the 13th Duke of Marlborough and demanding that invoices were sent to Blenheim Palace. Other frauds were immensely cruel and damaging, fleecing some of my victims of their life savings and causing them to become seriously unwell. The harm I caused still haunts me. • Fake duke jailed for fooling five star hotels with Fawlty Towers con trick I was in prison three times over 17 years — for a total of eight years, each spell longer than the last. When I was finally released in January 2022, I knew I had to change. I started sharing my insights with law enforcement, banks, the government and, perhaps most importantly, with members of the public. I have just started working with BBC Radio 4 on a podcast called Scam Secrets. One of the most highly damaging types of fraud is an authorised push payment (APP) scam. This involves a fraudster contacting a victim, usually by telephone, pretending to be a bank employee or a police officer, convincing the victim that their money is at risk and instructing them to transfer it out of their account into a 'safe' account. This method can net a vast amount of money very quickly and doesn't leave much evidence. Between 2017 and 2018 the police estimate that I stole as much as £50 million by committing APP fraud. I didn't know or care at the time, but I was leaving a trail of absolute chaos in my wake. Once, during the course of a 40-minute phone call, I stole £1.2 million from a family-run construction company. It caused utter devastation. I took all the money they had, leading to scores of redundancies. My gang targeted small-to-medium-sized family-run construction companies because we figured that they could have several million pounds in the bank but wouldn't have sophisticated accounting procedures. And, unlike a law firm, for example, they would not require multiple signatories to authorise online bank transfers. I would be able to focus all my energy on one person and not have to worry that somebody else might smell a rat. The isolation of a victim is key to a successful fraud. I called the company's switchboard and asked the receptionist to put me through to the accounts manager. The number that the receptionist saw on her phone was the correct number for their bank's fraud department — I had 'spoofed' the phone number using a free app which, unbelievably, is still available to download, despite it having no legitimate use. When the accounts manager (let's call her Sally) answered her extension, I explained that I was calling from the bank's fraud team and that we had noticed an unusual transaction which we needed to verify. I gave my name as somebody who genuinely worked for the bank (I had found his name and job title on LinkedIn) and invited Sally to Google the number she could see on her phone display to satisfy herself that I was genuine. Sally tapped away on her computer and, after a few seconds, sounded reassured. 'Phew, you're genuine,' she said, 'you can never be too sure these days'. I asked Sally whether she had attempted to transfer £45,000 to a Mercedes garage in Dundee (several hundred miles away from their office). Naturally, she replied that such a payment was unauthorised so I reassured her I would block the transaction. Her nervousness gave way to relief as I was able to help her. She thanked me over and over again. • Read more money advice and tips on investing from our experts 'Sally,' I said, 'we need to understand why this suspicious transaction has appeared out of the blue. It is possible you have a virus on your system which is causing this to happen. Have you had any suspicious emails recently, or have you noticed your system running slow or buffering from time to time?' This is an example of the Barnum-Forer effect, a psychological phenomenon whereby people are given scenarios that are supposedly tailored to them, but could equally apply to many other people. We all get junk mail in our inboxes, and whose computer doesn't run slow or buffer? I knew that Sally would say yes and panic that there could indeed be dangerous malware on her system. I then told her that we would need to make some test payments to check whether a virus was interfering with the transactions. If we found a virus we would be able to create a patch to keep the company safe. Sally, by now baffled with technical jargon, asked me how long all of this would take because she needed to pick her children up from school. I reassured her that I would be as quick as possible but the priority had to be keeping our valuable customers safe from fraudsters. • The rise of fraud in the UK What I said next is an example of the cruel and sophisticated social engineering that fraudsters use. 'Sally, I am shortly going to ask you to log into your online banking platform and make a series of test payments. Your account will be in a test environment while we make these dummy transactions, but they will look just like genuine payments. This requires you to trust me. So, if you are in any way worried that I might not genuinely be calling from the bank, we can end this call now and I can arrange an appointment for you to visit the branch with your usual desktop computer so we can carry out the tests in person.' Sally paused. 'OK I'm happy to continue with this and I trust you. I've verified the number you're calling from, I've checked your name online … and you can't possibly be a fraudster because what scammer in his right mind would give me the opportunity to end the call. We're always told that fraudsters will rush us and you haven't done that either. So yeah, let's get these tests done but please hurry up as otherwise I'll have to put the kids in after-school club and that's so bloody expensive.' Over the next 20 minutes I instructed Sally to make transfers to what I told her were 'randomly generated test accounts'. Over and over again, until every single penny had left the company bank account. At the end of the call, I told her we had identified and successfully patched the virus. Everything was back under control and she could go and collect the kids while I restored the balances to their pre-test values. Sally thanked me profusely and we ended the call. When I telephoned Sally that day, she did not stand a chance. She was hopelessly duped by an expert career fraudster, despite carrying out reasonable checks as to my identity. My co-conspirator, an expert money launderer, went to work withdrawing the cash from the accounts that Sally had inadvertently funded and we drove to Harrods and blew the lot. I remember the spree with a deep sense of disgust. In court, Sally said that during those 40 minutes she had transferred more from the company account than she was likely to earn through her entire working life. She told the court that every time her phone rings she panics and feels sick to the pit of her stomach. She finds it hard to trust anybody and has lost all her confidence. I have never forgotten her words. I am ashamed, more than words can possibly express, of the man I used to be and I now use all of my energy to help stop people like that man, running fraud awareness courses and advising banks and governments on how to prevent scams. • Fraudsters stole £260k from Colin before he died. We called them up Given the sophistication and ruthlessness of such gangs, it is entirely right that the banks are now obliged to refund customers under the APP reimbursement scheme, up to a limit of £85,000. The scheme is mandatory for all banks and financial institutions in the UK. They must pay back victims, with the liability shared equally with the sending and receiving banks of fraudulent payments. The scheme has incentivised banks to develop far better transaction monitoring technology — for example, banks can tell how we are holding our phones when we are making payments in case it is at a different angle to usual. They can tell if a transaction is taking longer than normal, or if a phone call is taking place at the same time, which would indicate that the customer was being instructed by a third party to make the payment. But despite this, fraudulent payments continue to be made, and victims continue to report staggering losses. Fraudsters won't give up, they will keep coming up with new ways to get their hands on your money. Perhaps it is time to abandon the faster payment systems altogether and revert to a four-day clearance cycle — banks are at a serious time disadvantage when payments clear within seconds.

South Yorkshire Police must improve investigation results
South Yorkshire Police must improve investigation results

BBC News

time26 minutes ago

  • BBC News

South Yorkshire Police must improve investigation results

South Yorkshire Police has been rated as good at preventing crimes but told it needs to improve its investigation outcomes, according to a new force was reviewed across nine areas following a recent visit by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer said she while was "pleased with some aspects" the force was "not bringing about a good service" in to the report Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Poolman said work was already under way "to develop an action plan to improve the service". HMICFRS graded the force across eight areas, rating it "good" in one, "adequate" in five and "requires improvement" in two others.A previous report published in February 2023 rated the force adequate, good or outstanding in all to the latest inspection, the force requires improvement at investigating said that in the year to 30 September 2024 a total of 125,472 victim-based crimes were recorded, but just 10.9% were assigned an "offences brought to justice" outcome - though said that figure fell within the normal range compared to other forces in England and WalesIt found that in almost half of cases (46.1%) no suspect was force was also rated as requires improvement at building, supporting and protecting the report said a number of officers and staff said they felt unable to cope with their "high workloads", with sergeants in particular saying they often had to take work home to also said the force needed to improve its understanding of why officers were choosing to leave, adding that in the 12 months to 10 February 2025, 45 student officers had left. Ms Skeer said: "We found the force particularly good at preventing and deterring crime, with a clear commitment to neighbourhood policing. "The force also answers 999 calls more quickly but doesn't always respond to calls for service as quickly as it should. "While the force has tried to address this issue, it needs to do more to meet the public's needs."She added the force had faced "significant challenges", including policing the violent disorder at the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers in August and the discovery of a £65m said: "I will be monitoring the force's progress closely and I hope that changes made will result in improvements that help it better meet the public's needs."Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Poolman said: "Some gradings have lowered. This is not a sign that we are holding ourselves to lower standards than before but rather that a new higher bar has been set by HMICFRS prior to this round of inspections."She said the force faced challenges with its financial deficit and shortage of detectives but was committed to being an "ambitious force" in preventing crime and disorder and responding to the needs of victims and communities. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store