Kurt Sonnenfeld is praised at rallies in Buenos Aires while he dodges trial for allegedly murdering wife Nancy (above) in Colorado.
Kurt Sonnenfeld is praised at rallies in Buenos Aires (right in glasses) while he dodges trial for allegedly murdering wife Nancy in Colorado. (
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The Spin Doctor
Hero or Cold-Blooded Killer?
by Kirk Mitchell
New Horizon Press
A cameraman who videotaped the aftermath of 9/11 for the feds is trying to escape a murder rap — by peddling conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks.
Kurt Sonnenfeld fled to Argentina in 2003 after being suspected of murdering his wife in Colorado. Since then, he has been living the high life, protected from extradition by his host country after claiming to have “proof” the US government secretly knew of the 9/11 plot in advance.
Argentina has infuriated September 11 victims by embracing the wacky claims of Sonnenfeld, an ex-FEMA cameraman who filmed Ground Zero and had privileged access to Ground Zero for three weeks.
But according to a new book, Sonnenfeld is a lying drug addict wanted for allegedly shooting his stunning wife Nancy in Colorado and staging it to look like a suicide.
“The Spin Doctor” chronicles Sonnenfeld’s life on the lam in Buenos Aires since 2003, when Denver cops were closing in on him.
Sonnenfeld, 43, has been wanted for nearly a decade. The feds hope to haul him back to stand trial on charges he shot Nancy in the head after the couple fought over his boozing, heroin abuse and hiring two hookers, according to the book by Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell.
Yet he’s hailed as a hero in Argentina, where Sonnenfled claims the US sent ninjas and shadowy government agents to assassinate him.
“This guy’s a madman,” said Bill Doyle, who lost his son Joseph in the terror strike and is a leading advocate for families of 9/11 victims. “Shame on him. He’s suspected of murdering his wife and because of 9/11 that’s going to make him a hero? I don’t think so.”
Sonnenfeld — who has a new wife and twin girls — appears on popular TV and radio shows in Argentina, saying his Ground Zero work reveals hidden truths. An empty US Customs vault found in the wreckage, for example, proves that officials knew an attack was coming and could have stopped it.
In a speech he gave in Buenos Aires, he ripped the investigation into 9/11 and “explained how his filming at Ground Zero and previously at secret nuclear and chemical storage bunkers led to his arrest,” Mitchell reports.
“He outlined how he had been chased across continents, tortured and falsely accused” — all for “knowing too much about 9/11.”
Slamming the US has worked wonders for Sonnenfeld.
His glowing press often fails to mention the facts of his wife’s murder, which was the real reason he was arrested in 2002, though Denver prosecutors inexplicably cut him loose even as they worked to firm up their case.
Sonnenfeld had earlier sworn to investigators he was in another room when Nancy killed herself at their home on New Year’s Eve 2001, yet he had her blood spray on his face, according to the book.
Later he told two prison snitches that he staged the murder by creeping up behind his passed-out wife, putting his gun in her hand and firing, the book alleges. He’d wrapped his own hand in a plastic bag to avoid powder burns, they said.
The informants knew key details that had never been disclosed. The DA re-filed murder charges against him in 2004, and the feds issued a warrant for his arrest.
But by then Sonnenfeld was in South America, where he carefully crafted a new image.
He puffed up his career with fabrications in an autobiography he wrote in Spanish, “El Perseguido” (The Hunted), falsely asserting that Al Gore once gave him a vice presidential award for “technical innovation.”
And he suggested Nancy was susceptible to suicide by handgun since her grandmother and a boyfriend at 15 both shot themselves to death — claims that are outright lies, Mitchell’s book says.
His supporters in Argentina include Nobel Peace prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel.
But Sonnenfeld’s run might soon be over. Federal authorities are making a final push for extradition, which has been delayed for years by a judge in Buenos Aires, who insists on guarantees that Sonnenfeld will not face the death penalty.