Last Updated: Friday, March 30, 2007 2:24 PM CDT
A Story of Intrigue
by Meredyth Albright - Daily News Editor - malbright@rhinelanderdailynews.com
The greatest story never told looks at lasers in their early day, threats to safety and political corruption
In his 32 years as an FBI agent Tom Berg covered hundreds, probably thousands of cases.
There are several that stand out in his mind and there is one that warranted a book.
That's a case that stretched from the late 1970s to early 1980s and related to the use of laser that was being developed by a Wausau man.
The story, told in “On the Laser's Edge,” is fascinating and somewhat unbelievable on several fronts. The fact that the laser technology that is now used around the clock in the medical profession got a lot of its research start in Wausau, a relatively small community that does not have a major University or corporate research lab is in itself amazing.
Then there's the whole alleged tie to the Posse Comitatus. And, there's political corruption.
The way the story goes Mike Muckerheide of Wausau was doing some research and experimentation with a medical laser when he was approached by some men who were purported to be members of the Possee Comitatus and wanted to use the laser for detrimental uses such as pointing lasers at pilots' eyes, thereby causing plane crashes.
By the time Berg moved to the Wausau office of the FBI, the case had been in development for a while. Muckerheide was an informant who met with, and put off, the gentlemen with interest of detrimental use of the laser.
The case resulted in only one arrest -that of Rep. John Lewis of West Bend, who then left the state assembly.
Berg, who refers to himself as the collaborator, teamed up with Sharon Thatcher to write the book. Thatcher, the editor of the Merrill Courier, had long had an interest in the case.
Berg calls the tale “the greatest story never told,” but wasn't able to do anything with it while he was working for the FBI.
“It's an important story because now, 20-30 years forward we see the potential of lasers then and see what it could be,” Berg said.
The approach taken by the FBI in the 1970s when Muckerheide approached agents to tell them about the interest in lasers varies greatly from that of today.
“If the FBI got a walk-in now similar to that there would be a terrorism investigation immediately,” he said.
Because the book addresses all those issues and many more, it is an interesting book.
“On the Laser's Edge” is available at Bookworld and Brown Street Books in Rhinelander.
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