Chief Mate of the APL President Jackson Was Convicted of Raping & Murdering a Passenger. Masters, Mates & Pilots Leader Don Marcus Allowed Him to Remain a Member of the Maritime Labor Union

New York, NY

By: MLAA

     On September 6, 2016 disgraced union leader Donald Marcus, the long-time President of the International Organization of Masters, Mates, & Pilots labor union (MMP), signed a now-infamous letter to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx titled “MARAD Sexual Assault Response Strategy ‘Dangerously Off Course.’”

     In his angry letter denouncing efforts by the U.S. Maritime Administration to combat a plague of sexual harassment and sexual assault affecting students at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy during their “Sea Year” training aboard U.S. flag commercial vessels, Marcus wrote that he was “offended by the illogical, indefensible notion that inappropriate, even unlawful sexual behavior is rampant in the commercial U.S. merchant fleet.”

Marcus declared the notion that sexual harassment and sexual assault were significant industry problems was “a class action affront to all American merchant mariners, regardless of where they work.”

     According to Marcus, unlike land-based office jobs where few doubted that sexual harassment and sexual misconduct were significant problems, life at sea was different. In his letter Marcus wrote: “One principal fact of life at sea in the U.S. merchant fleet in all trades is that, unlike people with jobs ashore, American merchant mariners live where they work for months at a time. They tend quickly to see each other as family, and their day-to-day personal behavior typically reflects family values at their strongest.”

     Marcus told the Secretary of Transportation that over decades his union had “tracked only a handful of cases of sexual harassment, most of which occurred more than a generation ago” and the union leader avowed that “Each time, the proven perpetrator was expelled from our ranks or disciplined severely.”

     But when Marcus told the U.S. Secretary of Transportation that all proven perpetrators of shipboard sexual misconduct had been expelled from the ranks of his labor union, he was not telling the truth. And Marcus was hiding at least one very dark secret, which was that at least one infamous, convicted sex-criminal was still a member of the MMP, still in good standing, and still collecting his MMP pension.

     By September 2016, Philip J. Heidner had been a member of the Masters, Mates, & Pilots labor union for more than 40 years, and, since 1982, Heidner had been one the union’s most infamous members. In that year, Heidner found himself serving as Chief Mate aboard the S.S. President Jackson operated by American President Lines (APL)–one of the American shipping companies that contracted with the MMP for licensed deck officers.

     The S.S. President Jackson was a break bulk “stick ship” operating near the end of that era, and in addition to cargo, the ship also carried at least a dozen passengers who paid handsomely to take a “cruise” on a working cargo ship with real sailors.

     According to the July 27, 1982 edition of the Desert Sun newspaper, in late May of 1982 Angela Mary Rabe and her husband Lester Rabe boarded the S.S. President Jackson in Seattle, Washington as two of those passengers. Angela was 69 years old, Lester was 70, and the couple had booked the two month cruise to Indonesia and the Philippines aboard the President Jackson to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. 

     When the vessel returned to Seattle in late July, 1982, Angela Rabe was no longer alive, and the circumstances of her death were shrouded in mystery. 

     Captain Karl Fidler, a recently retired member of the IOMMP, told sources close to MLAA that he was sailing as 2nd Mate aboard the President Jackson with the Rabe’s and Chief Mate Philip Heidner during that fateful cruise to Asia and back. According to Fidler, there was little for the passengers to do aboard the vessel on the long ocean crossings aside from drink alcohol, and so that’s what the passengers did.

Chief Mate Heidner was a non-watchstanding Chief Mate, and one of his supplemental responsibilities aboard the vessel was operating the ship’s bar. According to Fidler, Heidner opened the bar for the passengers almost every afternoon at 16:00, then served drinks to the passengers and drank with them–often until late in the evenings.

     According to the Desert Sun, early on the last morning of the voyage, the vessel was about 300 miles northwest of Cape Flattery off the Washington Coast when the ship’s purser discovered Mrs. Rabe’s naked and lifeless body surrounded by a pool of blood inside her stateroom. It was thought that the door to the Rabe’s stateroom was partially opened as the purser walked past the room, prompting him to look inside.

According to reports, when the purser entered the stateroom he saw Lester Rabe asleep in the bed, and saw Chief Mate Heidner standing in the stateroom covered in blood. When asked why he was in the stateroom and why he was covered in blood, Heidner responded that he had been trying to give CPR to Angela Rabe after seeing her in distress.

     The ship’s Captain and purser went along with Heidner’s story, and the Captain reported that Ms. Rabe had likely died of natural causes, possibly suffering an internal hemorrhage as a result of excessive drinking. Accordingly, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office in Seattle initially ruled that Ms. Rabe’s death was the result of natural causes. According to the Desert Sun,

The ship’s command evidently believed initially that death was by natural causes, investigators said. “It sounded like it would have been chronic alcoholism,” [Kings County Medical investigator Bill] Haglund reported. He said rectal bleeding occurred, which is common when heavy drinkers have bleeding ulcers. “We later discovered she had other problems,” he said. 

     According to the Desert Sun, The King County Medical Examiner’s Office in Seattle determined that Mrs. Rabe died from abdominal injuries and that the death resulted from “extensive internal pelvic hemorrhaging” that were the result of a sexual attack. The Desert Sun also noted,

The King County Medical Examiner in Seattle ruled that Mrs. Rabe died of abdominal injuries she suffered during the attack. Hill added there did not appear to be any weapon used, “only a fist.” Medical investigator Bill Haglund said the last-day celebration started last Tuesday evening…“Evidently there was a lot of drinking going on,” Haglund said. “They were having a farewell party. It was their last night aboard ship.” Mrs. Rabe’s husband left the party before his wife did, said Haglund, and retired to his stateroom. Haglund said the attack apparently occurred about 1 a.m. Wednesday. 

The ship docked in Seattle on Thursday and the body was examined by medical specialists. The examination showed the abdominal wounds that led to the determination death stemmed from a sexual attack. “It was only due to our screening process that we were able to catch this one," said Haglund. Hill also credited the medical examiner’s office with calling in the FBI quick enough to nab Heidner in Tacoma...The S.S. President Jackson is part of the San Francisco-based American Presidents Line. No one at the line’s headquarters could be reached for comment.

     Heidner had been on his way to the airport when he was stopped by the FBI. When questioned, Heidner denied murdering Rabe, but was later asked to take a polygraph test. That polygraph test led to Heidner’s arrest. According to the Desert Sun,

The ship’s chief mate, Philip J. Heidner, 43, of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, was arrested Friday in connection with the woman’s death after flunking a polygraph test, said Hill. Heidner was taken into custody in Tacoma, Wash., where the ship docked after leaving Seattle. Heidner was arraigned Monday before U.S. Magistrate John L. Weinberg in Seattle on a charge of “second-degree murder on the high seas,” reported the court clerk.

     The United Press International (UPI) published an article about the murder on July 25,1982 titled “First mate says he blacked out with slaying victim.”  According to the UPI:

After a party celebrating a successful 45-day cruise of the Orient, the first mate of the S.S. President Jackson awoke next to the corpse of a 69-year-old woman and realized he had done 'something terrible.'

Heidner and Mrs. Rabe were among the guests at a cocktail party celebrating the end of the S.S. President Jackson's voyage from the Far East to Seattle, authorities said.  Heidner told the FBI he woke up the next morning beside the unclothed body of Mrs. Rabe in her stateroom -- where her husband was still sleeping -- and realized he had done 'something terrible and was in trouble.'

Arvella Ensler, the party hostess, told the FBI Heidner offered to help Mrs. Rabe back to her stateroom after her husband and the other guests had left.  Shortly after Mrs. Rabe's body was discovered the next morning, Capt. Edmund Rothwell reportedly saw Heidner in Mrs. Rabe's stateroom, standing in his underwear with a blood-stained shirt near his feet.

After taking a polygraph test, Heidner told FBI agents he escorted Mrs. Rabe to her stateroom where he blacked out then woke up on the floor beside her. The complaint said Heidner recalled sexually abusing Mrs. Rabe.

     According to the January 29, 1983 edition of the Desert Sun, Heidner was found guilty of the murder of Mrs. Rabe:

Phillip Heidner, who was found guilty last November of second-degree murder in the slaying of Palm Desert resident Angela Mary Rabe aboard a cruise ship, was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison, a U.S. District Court clerk said. Heidner, 42, of Goleta, was sentenced for the murder of Mrs. Rabe, 69, who was found dead July 21 in the bathroom of her stateroom aboard the S.S. President Jackson, on which he was the chief mate.

     According to the Desert Sun, the U.S. District Court jury deliberated 90 minutes before returning the guilty verdict, and Heidner was sent to federal prison for decades.  But despite being convicted in Federal court of sexually assaulting and murdering a passenger onboard a MMP-contract vessel, Heidner was never “expelled” from the labor union, and in fact went on to work aboard at least one more MMP-contract vessel following the murder of Mrs. Rabe.  

     When, on September 6, 2016, long-time MMP President Don Marcus sent the infamous “MARAD Sexual Assault Response Strategy ‘Dangerously Off Course’” letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, Philip Heidner was alive, out of prison, still a member of the MMP, and still collecting the MMP pension he had earned.

     When Heidner died the following year, MMP President Don Marcus honored Heidner in the “Cross’d the Final Bar” section of the July/August 2017 edition of the Master, Mate & Pilot magazine. Marcus’ tribute to Heidner read:

Philip J. Heidner, 78, [died] Feb. 26. A resident of Nampa, Idaho, and a pensioner since 2004, he last sailed for Matson Navigation Co. aboard the SS Manukai.

The case of Philip Heidner, and the deception practiced by the MMP President surrounding Heidner’s union status following his conviction in federal court, raises questions of what else, and who else, the MMP and other American maritime labor unions are also hiding.