(Originally posted April 1, 2025) This man's wrongful conviction and continuing incarceration, is the reason I restarted the Restless Spirit Blog. All that is uncovered therein, is because of this ongoing injustice. You wanna get mad, bro? Look at the system that brought this. 

Werner has always been a hella nice guy. He loves animals, loves kids – his own and his nieces nephews. All this despite being bullied throughout his school years by one particular bully, Lonnie Olson. Lonnie later became a State’s Attorney Prosecutor so he could continue the bullying. We will talk about bullies a lot in this blog. But I want you to get the feel of it from Werner himself.

I asked for a bio so I could give y’all a sense of who he was and who he is now and what he has been through.

So, without further delay, in his own words, I give you Werner Kunkel: 

“Well, here goes:

Came to the US with 2 sisters and a mother who married an abusive American soldier, in March 1968. After a few months of living with step-father’s parents in Devils Lake, ND, we moved to Minneapolis, Minn.

In 1970 we moved back to Devils Lake where step-father joined the family insurance and real estate business.

Growing up in Devils Laake was extremely di[icult as other kids teased me due to my being a German immigrant. This includes Lonnie Olson who regularly called me a Nazi and other vulgar, o[ensive names, getting others to join in on the bullying.

Step-father was bi-polar, was very abusive and ruled the home relentlessly with a dysfunctional iron fist. The combination of such made it almost impossible to adjust to life in America.

Unfortunately, as a crutch, I turned to substance abuse. Got into some trouble after moving out of the home, and after some brushes with the law, finally turned my life around.

It was at this time I was accosted by law enforcement for the 9-year old cold case murder of Gilbert Fassett, in which I played no part.

Not accepting a plea proposal that would’ve released me in a couple of years, Olson moved to purposefully and knowingly wrongfully convict me, in a shocking manner, all the while secretly and o[ensively hiding the evidence that proved my innocence.

Subsequent to this pattern of abuse, Lonnie Olson, now a District Court Judge, manipulated the prison to jails and prisons all over the US in order to keep me from investigating other prisoners sent to ND State Pen, (who) came from the Devils Lake, ND area.

I returned to ND in 2004 and completely immersed myself in attempting to clear my name.

I was ordered in June, 2011 to be deported to Germany, later, being eligible for parole in 2015 but was informed that I would be forced to wait another 10 years, 8 months for my first parole hearing scheduled for September, 2025.

Overcome with grief and anger that almost completely destroyed me, I barely survived a 86-day hunger strike.

Due to subsequent good behavior, the parole in 2022. In a show of cruel inhumanity (that) was callously stripped from me because of continuing lies emanating (from) law enforcement.

For the past 20 years of my wrongful incarceration; 7 were spent with periodic Solitary Confinement placements due to low-level concocted prison infractions. Once, going over 2 years with a broken neck (while) being denied medical care. Additional torture, another time spending 4 years in a wheel chair, again being denied medical care from 2020-2024.

All the while, 24/7365, I fought tenaciously for my innocence until recently I was blessed with the assistance of Jim Mayer from the Great Northern Innocence Project, and attorney Dane Dekrey.

These two lawyers today are seeking not only justice on my behalf, but justice from law enforcement that has quite clearly for decades, been allowed to go amuck in the Devils Lake, ND Spirit Lake areas. (Emphasis mine)

In spite of this continuing tragedy, I remain hopeful. I remain optimistic and attempt to look at life with the glass half-full as opposed to half-empty. I’m a good, kind, caring person, who has yet to o[er society a successful, productive life.