November 4, 1957 - EOW November 24, 2024

This is the story of the first Al Qaeda terrorist victim on US soil.

Ten months before the 9/11 attack, Federal Correctional Officer Louis Pepe was working at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a Federal Detention Center located across the US Courts on Park Row, New York City. He was working in Unit 10 South, a Special Housing Unit.

 

Officer Pepe was not only respected by his peers but also by the prisoners under his care. He always looked out for their needs, and no one had anything bad to say about him. He was a gentle soul who always had a smile on his face.

 

Under his care were two Al Qaeda terrorists. One was Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, an Al Qaeda founding member and lieutenant and advisor to Osama Bin Laden. The other was Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, both charged with conspiracy in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that took 224 lives.

 

On November 1, 2000, Officer Pepe escorted Salim and Mohamed back to their cell on the tenth floor after meeting with their lawyer in the prison. When they got to the cell, they attacked Pepe. First, spraying his eyes with the hot sauce collected from the commissary in an empty honey bottle. They beat Pepe and kicked him, trying to get his jail keys to release other suspects in the embassy bombings. But Pepe would not surrender the keys. Pepe, blinded by the hot sauce, fought them and would not relinquish the keys. Then Salim, half the size of Pepe, reached for the shank. The shank was formed from a plastic comb sharpened on the concrete. Salim plunged this shank deeply into Pepe's brain through his left eye. Outside the security camera view, they pummeled, kicked, and beat Pepe for almost an hour, but Pepe just refused to die. He would not surrender the keys and continued to fight valiantly. When other correctional officers finally stormed the cell, they found Pepe awash in his blood; his attackers had drawn a red cross on him. Even with his mortal wounds, he wanted to walk out of the prison instead of being carried to meet the ambulance.

 

For 2 1/2 years after the assault, Pepe remained hospitalized. He suffered a massive stroke after the surgery to remove the weapon. Pneumonia followed, then a collapsed lung. He spent three weeks in a coma and was placed on life support. Multiple infections set in. His temperature peaked at 105 one time. Follow-up brain surgery helped ease spinal fluid leaking from his eye socket. The damage done to his brain was devastating. It was heartbreaking to visit him in the hospital, unable to recognize you and to see this gentle soul reduced to the mental state of an 8-year-old. It took years for him to regain his strength and ability to speak again. But even after ten years, he would call everyone Mr. and Ms. "G". Pepe's received many visitors to include then US Attorney General Janet Reno.
 

 

During this duration, one by one, his father, mother, and finally in February of 2024, his only sibling sister passed away. He has no family left. Except for one.
 

 

For the last 15 years, an angel in disguise named Lesley Achiaa cared for Pepe 7 days a week, 12 hours a day until the day Pepe passed away. He died twice, after the attack, and on November 21 when they resuscitated him for the last time. Pepe was a fighter but on November 24, 2024, at the age of 67, he succumbed. He was alone when he was attacked and except for one, he died alone as well.