Cockfighting Romanian Royalty In Oregon

The Pretenders; the royal cockfighter is on the left

Today everyone in Europe is complaining about the influx of Romanians into their countries. Since Romania joined the EU, there are no borders to keep them out and because there are a lot of poor Romanians, they are drawn to the wealthier countries like Germany, Britain, Holland, Italy, France. Europeans talk about them the way they used to talk about Moroccans and Algerians and the way Republican xenophobes and racists like Steve King and Dana Rohrabacher talk about Mexicans. Everything from "they're primitive and carry diseases" to "they're stealing our jobs" and "committing all the crimes."

Here in the U.S., I don't see much of a Romanian problem, although the food was so rich at Sammy's on Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side that I was sick. Ever see a restaurant that serves a bowl of schmaltz on the table like ketchup or mustard? A few days ago, however, I read about King Michael I of Romania-- or, more precisely, about the third of his and Queen Anne's 6 daughters, Princess Irina.

Her parents had been forced to abdicate-- for the second time-- before she was born (in Switzerland) in 1953. Her father had a bright future when he was born in Foișor Castle, grandson of King Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Elena of Greece. When his father, Carol II, eloped with his mistress, Michael became heir apparent and when King Ferdinand died in 1927, he was crowned king at the age of 6. His father came back 3 years later and became king. 10 years later, in 1940, the Romanian fascist leader and notorious anti-semite, Prime Minister Ion Anontescu staged a coup, claiming Carol II was anti-German, and declared the 18 year old Michael king again. Michael was just a figurehead for the fascist regime but he did get chummy with Hitler and Mussolini. In the summer of 1944 King Michael, deftly reading the handwriting on the wall, staged his own coup, had Antonescu arrested on August 23, 1944 (happy 69th anniversary!) and turned over to the Russians who then gave the Romanian communists the honor of trying and executing him.

The following year King Michael, ever the puppet, was forced to appoint a pro-Soviet Communist government, with which he constantly quarreled. In 1947 he was forced at gunpoint to abdicate and the monarchy was abolished the same day and Mike was exiled (with lots of gold, rubies and valuable art). He moved to London and then Switzerland where he became a commercial pilot. In 1976 he sold two of the El Greco paintings he had stolen when he left.

He tried coming back to Romania at the end of 1990 but was deported immediately. After the Communists were overthrown he was allowed to visit and in 1997 he was given a couple of the old royal palaces and now lives part time in Romania and part time in Switzerland. He and Anne attended the baptism of Princess Irina's daughter in Portland, Oregon in 1987. At the time, she and her first husband, John Kreuger, a Swede, were raising horses near the southern Oregon coast. The Swede and Irina were divorced in 2003 and she married John Wesley Walker, a Coos County deputy sheriff, on November 10, 2007 at the Heart of Reno Chapel in Reno. She and the former deputy sheriff were arrested last Thursday as federal agents swept through eastern Oregon and southcentral Washington to upend a suspected cockfighting ring. They are accused of having staged at least 10 cockfighting derbies at their ranch near Irrigon between April 1, 2012, and last May 19.

Thee royal mug shot

The accused cockfight hosts, with a supporting cast of 16 other suspects in Oregon and at least 10 in Washington, were charged in a conspiracy to violate the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The indictment alleges that the derbies featured dozens of cockfights in a ring, much like a fight card in a night of boxing. But the combatants were roosters, each with knives, gaffs or other cutting instruments attached to their legs, fighting to their deaths in a blood sport now outlawed in all 50 states.

"Besides being a barbaric practice, cockfighting jeopardizes public health and safety and facilitates the commission of other criminal acts," said U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall, Oregon's top federal prosecutor. The "fairly large-scale cockfighting venture" also supported illegal gambling, she said.

A referee supervised the fights as concessionaires sold beer and food, and those managing the action took a 10 percent "house" cut, prosecutors allege.

John and Irina Walker-- along with Irrigon neighbors David Sanchez, 29, and Aurelia Garcia Mendoza, 33, and Hermiston friends Mario "El Cuba" Perez, 62, and Jose Luis Virgen Ramirez, 48-- were charged with operating an illegal gambling business and unlawful animal fighting ventures at the Walkers' Morrow County ranch.

Each of the charges carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

...Top purses in the earlier cockfighting case sometimes reached into the tens of thousands of dollars, authorities said.

The government alleges that the Walkers' horse ranch, on a flat patch of irrigation circles about two miles south of Irrigon, is subject to federal forfeiture because it was used in a criminal enterprise. The ranch's dwellings were valued at $170,360 in 2011, according to public records.

John Walker, 67, served as a sergeant in the Myrtle Point Police Department before going to work on Aug. 1, 1998, with the Coos County Sheriff's Office. He left that job in June 30, 2003, according to the county's Department of Human Resources. It's unclear what kind of work Walker might have performed in the last 10 years.

Walker in 2007 married the former Irina Kreuger, the middle of five daughters born to King Michael I and Queen Anne of Romania. A published account says the Walkers married in the Heart of Reno Chapel, in Reno, Nev.

Princess Irina, 60, is fifth in line to the throne, following her older sisters, Margareta and Elena, and Elena's two children, Nicholas and Elisabeta Karina. She was born and raised in Switzerland and moved to Oregon in 1983.

Irina Walker has never been a visible member of the royal family, which owns four castles in Romania. She has visited the European nation only a handful of times, said historian Filip-Lucian Iorga. Her biography is largely unknown to the Romanian public, he said. The royal family is popular, but largely uninvolved in local politics.

So, should all "royals" who refuse to wholeheartedly renounce their pretensions meet the same fate as Louis XVI? Yeah, of course. They never give up hope of taking over again and subjugating "their" people and stealing all the wealth for themselves. And cockfighting.