Soldier of Fortune
September 1995 cover
Editor/PublisherSusan Katz Keating
Categoriesparamilitary
FrequencyDaily web magazine
Founded1975
CompanySoldier of Fortune[1]
CountryUnited States
Based inTampa, Florida
LanguageEnglish, many others
Websitewww.sofmag.com

Soldier of Fortune (SOF), subtitled The Journal of Professional Adventurers, is a daily web magazine published by Susan Katz Keating. It began as a monthly U.S. periodical published from 1975 to 2016 as a magazine devoted to worldwide reporting of wars, including conventional warfare, low-intensity warfare, counter-insurgency, and counter-terrorism. It was published by Omega Group Ltd., based in Boulder, Colorado. In May 2022, author, editor, and security journalist Susan Katz Keating bought the publication from founder Robert K. Brown.[2][3]

History

Soldier of Fortune magazine was founded in 1975, by Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve, (Ret.) Robert K. Brown, who served with Special Forces in Vietnam.[4] After retiring from active duty, Brown began publishing a “circular”, magazine-type publication with few pages which contained information on mercenary employment in Oman, where the Sultan Qaboos had recently deposed his father and was battling a communist insurgency. Brown's small circular soon evolved into a glossy, large-format, full-color magazine.

Significant to the early development of SOF was its recruitment of foreign nationals to serve in the Rhodesian Security Forces, during the Rhodesian Bush War (1964–79).[5][6] During the late 1970s and the 1980s, the success and popularity of a military magazine such as SOF led to the proliferation of like magazines such as Survive, Gung Ho!, New Breed, Eagle, Combat Illustrated, Special Weapons and Tactics, and Combat Ready. SOF was published by the Omega Group Ltd., in Boulder, Colorado. Archived 2011-09-30 at the Wayback Machine." Soldier of Fortune. Retrieved September 24, 2011. "2135 11th St. Boulder, CO 80303"</ref> At the height of its circulation in the early 1980s the magazine had 190,000 subscribers.[7] The April 2016 issue of Soldier of Fortune was the final print edition; further editions have been published online.[8][9]

The magazine currently is published by Soldier of Fortune LLC, and is based in Tampa, Florida.[10]

In the online magazine, publisher Keating introduced a new section entitled The Fire Pit, wherein readers submit personal stories of war and adventure.[11] Among those whose stories appear in the section are Gen.(Ret) Scott Miller, formerly the four-star general in charge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan [12] and Jan Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Memorial Wall,[13] along with numerous warfighters and veterans.[14]

The magazine gained publicity in July 2023 when Keating published her investigative series on the cocaine packet that was discovered inside the Biden White House.[15] The articles were picked up by Radar Online,[16] the New York Post,[17] and other outlets.

"Gun for Hire" lawsuits - 1980's, Under Robert K Brown

Grievous injury

During the late 1980s, Soldier of Fortune under Brown was sued in civil court several times for having published classified advertisements of services by private mercenaries. In 1987, Norman Norwood, of Arkansas, sued SOF magazine, because of injuries he suffered during a murder attempt by two men hired via a "Gun for Hire" advertisement in the magazine. The US District Court denied the magazine's motion for summary judgment based upon the Constitutional right of free speech under the First Amendment. The Court said, "reasonable jurors could find that the advertisement posed a substantial risk of harm" and that "gun for hire" ads were not the type of speech intended for protection under the First Amendment.[18] Norwood and Soldier of Fortune magazine settled the lawsuit out of court.[19]

Wrongful death

On February 20, 1985, John Wayne Hearn, a Vietnam veteran, shot and killed Sandra Black for a $10,000 payment from her husband, Robert Vannoy Black Jr., also a Vietnam veteran. Black communicated with Hearn through a classified advertisement published in Soldier of Fortune, wherein Hearn solicited "high-risk assignments. U.S. or overseas". In 1989, Sandra Black's son Gary and her mother Marjorie Eimann filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against SOF magazine and its parent publishing company Omega Group Ltd., seeking $21 million in redress of their grievance. While he was on death row, Black's lawyer attempted to use his client's post-traumatic stress disorder as a defense, citing trauma from bombing civilians and watching fellow soldiers die.[20][21]

Robert Black was executed for Sandra's murder in 1992. John Wayne Hearn received a life sentence.

The jury found Soldier of Fortune grossly negligent in publishing Hearn's classified ad for implicit illegal activity (murder) and awarded the plaintiffs $9.5 million in damages. However, in 1990 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the verdict, saying that the standard of conduct imposed upon the magazine was too high, because the advertisement was ambiguously worded.[22][23]

Contract killing

In 1989, four men were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in the 1985 contract killing of Richard Braun, of Atlanta, Georgia. The killers were hired through a classified services advertisement published in SOF magazine that read: "GUN FOR HIRE". Braun's sons filed a civil lawsuit against the magazine and a jury found in their favor, awarding them $12.37 million in damages, which the judge later reduced to $4.37 million. Nonetheless, in 1992 the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the judgement of the jury, saying "the publisher could recognize the offer of criminal activity as readily as its readers, obviously, did".[19] The Brauns and SOF magazine settled the wrongful-death lawsuit for $200,000.[24] One consequence of the lost lawsuits was that the magazine suspended publication of classified advertisements for mercenary or related work, either in the U.S. or overseas.[24]

Editors

  • Jim Graves, former managing editor and columnist.[25]
  • Susan Katz Keating, editor and publisher (as of March 30, 2022).

Notable contributors

See also

References

  1. ↑ Omega First Amendment Legal Fund, All Business, allbusiness.com
  2. ↑ "Soldier of Fortune Founder Robert K. Brown Passes the Torch to New Publisher After 47 Years". Soldier of Fortune Magazine. May 6, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  3. ↑ "A Message From SOF Publisher SKK: A Tribute to RKB, and Looking Ahead". Soldier of Fortune Magazine. May 6, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  4. ↑ Robert K. Brown Archived 2008-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, Biography, National Rifle Association
  5. ↑ Ward Churchill, "U.S. Mercenaries in Southern Africa: The Recruiting Network and U.S. Policy", Africa Today, Vol. 27, No. 2, External Intervention in Africa (2nd Qtr., 1980), pp. 21–46
  6. ↑ James Taulbee, "Soldiers of fortune: A legal leash for the dogs of war?", Defense & Security Analysis, 1475-1801, Volume 1, Issue 3, 1985, pp. 187–203
  7. ↑ Meany, Thomas (August 1, 2019) "White Power." London Review of Books, Vol 41, No 15. Page 5.
  8. ↑ "Soldier of Fortune magazine to stop publishing after 40 years". Guns.com. March 1, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  9. ↑ The Internet Claims Another Victim – ‘Soldier of Fortune’ Magazine To Cease Hard Copy Publication, Go Digital Only Soldiers Systems. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Contact Us
  11. ↑ https://sofmag.com/the-fire-pit-new-section-featuring-stories-of-fortune-lore-book-reviews-and-more/
  12. ↑ https://sofmag.com/general-scott-miller-battle-of-mogadishu/
  13. ↑ https://sofmag.com/jan-scruggs-vietnam-wall-veterans/
  14. ↑ https://sofmag.com/articles/the-fire-pit/
  15. ↑ https://sofmag.com/white-house-cocaine-questions-for-fbi/
  16. ↑ https://radaronline.com/p/white-house-cocaine-culprit-idd-biden-family-orbit-top-security-hunter/
  17. ↑ https://nypost.com/2023/08/08/white-house-cocaine-belonged-to-biden-family-orbit-report/
  18. ↑ Norwood v. Soldier of Fortune, Inc., United States District Court, W.D. Arkansas, Fayetteville Division, January 29, 1987
  19. 1 2 Smothers, Ronald, Soldier of Fortune Magazine Held Liable for Killer's Ad, New York Times, August 19, 1992
  20. ↑ Belkin, Lisa, Soldier of Fortune Magazine Is Sued Over Slaying, New York Times, February 14, 1988
  21. ↑ "THE WRONGFUL DEATH OF BOB BLACK". Chicago Tribune. June 9, 1992. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  22. ↑ Award in Case of Killer Hired by Ad Is Overturned, Associated Press, August 18, 1989
  23. ↑ "Transcript of the Fifth Circuit's decision in Eimann v. SOF". Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  24. 1 2 Moscou, Jim, Soldier of Fortune Toughs Out Changing Times, New York Times, October 16, 2000
  25. ↑ Clausing, Jeri (Mar. 2, 1988). "Jurors trying to decide whether Soldier of Fortune should..." UPI.

Further reading

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