PCV Murder in Tonga
Thanks for all the correct information provided in these comments. It has been 15-20 years since I have read the…
Deborah Gardner
The Peace Corps Volunteer, Dennis Priven, who murdered PCV Deborah Gardner in Tonga in 1976, and never was charged for her death, has died. The Tonga RPCV community found out that Priven died on April 1, 2023.
Priven was ruled not guilty in the Tonga judicial system, with national Peace Corps intervention, based on an insanity defense. He returned to the U.S. where he was briefly hospitalized but checked himself out. He eventually got a government job and reportedly retired on a government pension.
The story was retold in Philip Weiss’s 2005 nonfiction book, American
Taboo and fictionalized in Jan-Worth (Tonga 1976-78) novel Night Blind published in 2006.
Recently a 1970s Tonga RPCV Tom Riddle found this obituary:
Dennis Priven, age 70, of Brooklyn, New York passed away on Saturday, April 1, 2023. He was born in Brooklyn on May 28, 1952 to Morris and Dorothy Priven. He graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in mathematics and education. In 1974, Dennis joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to Tonga. While in Tonga, he met Deborah Gardner, another Peace Corps volunteer.
The two began dating, but Gardner ended the relationship after Priven became increasingly possessive and controlling.
On October 14, 1976, Gardner was found brutally murdered in her home. Priven was arrested and charged with her murder. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Tonga.
Priven was released from the hospital in 1980 and returned to the United States. He lived in Brooklyn for the rest of his life.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Deborah Gardner Memorial Fund, which supports programs for women and girls in Tonga.
On the obituary page somebody named Adam P. left the following message:
June 30, 2023
Deborah Gardner you will not be forgotten. Dennis Priven you got off way to easily. You butchered and killed a woman who rejected your advances and didn’t receive any type of punishment. You went on to work for the US government and were paid well and given a government pension. I hope you are at peace, but what you did to that poor woman was horrific and should have never happened.
•
To read about the case on this site, go to:
I don’t think this statement in the Obittuary is true, ” Priven was arrested and charged with her murder. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Tonga.
Priven was released from the hospital in 1980 and returned to the United States. He lived in Brooklyn for the rest of his life.”
Right — these “facts” are pretty screwy. Yes, Priven WAS charged in Debbie Gardner’s murder and was judged not guilty by reason of insanity by a Tongan court. He was shipped back to the State where it was expected that he would be institutionalized. But he was allowed to admit himself for psychiatric care, and checked himself out a few days later.
You are absolutely right. My facts were wrong. He was never hospitalized in Tonga.
This comment was posted by Joane Roll.
The so-called obituary as reported by Tom Riddle and posted here is inaccurate in several respects: (1) Deb Gardner and Priven never “dated.” She reluctantly accepted one dinner invitation from him and immediately regretted it. (2) Priven was not committed to a psychiatric hospital in Tonga, for no such hospital existed at the time. (3) Priven was rerurned to the U.S. by U.S. authorities in Jan. 1977 and was a free man by the end of that month. (4) There is no Deborah Gardner Memorial Fund. It’s a shame that such an inaccurate obituary was ever published, if indeed, it ever was. It is an ironic fact, however, that Dennis Priven died on April 1, 2023.
Thanks for the update, Robert.
I read on this story and your accounts are accurate. Dennis got away with murder and had a successful career working for the government. It makes you wonder about a coverup and how he was connected to get away with this crime.
Thank you to Bob Forbes for digging up, exploring, and sharing these additional details. It’s infuriating, again, that these inaccuracies have made their way into the internet. It’s so aggravating. So much about this story is deeply disturbing — I guess it figures Priven’s life ended in the ludicrous detail of his April Fool’s Day departure. I think most of us who participated one way or another in this tragedy are glad Proven is gone from this world, but really there is no true satisfaction in how it played out. It was all senseless, including the involvement of the U.S. Peace Corps. In the long run, well, rest in peace, Debbie Gardner. We are sorry.
Priven, not Proven.
Jan, we can thank Phil Weiss’s relentness research for Untruth #1. As for #2, both you and I knew at the time when the US State Dept brought him him back from Tonga in Jan. ’77. As for #3, Preston McCrossen told me before I left Tonga in ’79. I wasn’t surprised; it was consistent with my jaded opinion of the US gov’t. As for #4, I concluded that one after an exhaustive internet search. If such a fund exists, I’d like to know about it…
Any one know Priven’s true cause of death?
The Devil finally came for his soul?
Loneliness, I suspect.
Just read the Weiss book and was moved by it. I’d buy lunch or dinner for those who knew Deb and want to talk.
How is his death “ironic”?
Thanks for all the correct information provided in these comments. It has been 15-20 years since I have read the two books, the accounts on the murder and subsequent cover-up or whitewash of the events, so my recall is sketchy. Still, reading that obituary sounded odd to say the least.
Not to gloss over Priven as a murderer, but it seems to me that it should not be forgotten that he effectively had an accessory. The woman – I believe it was a woman – who was Peace Corps Director of Tongo (or that region) or Peace Corps Washington who came out and whisked Priven off to safety. She lied to the Tongans, whose trust of America and Americans was likely low to begin with, and now will NEVER trust an American again. Not only was justice circumvented, a murderer was let loose on the streets and this person singlehandedly destroyed the global image of the Peace Corps. In the process she tarnished the image of every single Peace Corps volunteer. Her name should be out there. She should still be public enemy number one.
Unfortunately, I do not see this as an outlier, the thing that sets you apart from other job candidates in America is “crazed murderer,” and you are selected for a U.S. government job and live off taxpayer dollars until you retire with full benefits.
But I know that Peace Corps has always been full of political hacks on the administration side. I once applied for a recruiter job and the woman in charge of that region had photos of her with Reagan and Bush and Oliver North on her wall. Oh, the heroes! Sad. I didn’t get the recruiter job. Sad for prospective PCVs, maybe not so sad for me.