# Marty Gottesfeld > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Marty Gottesfeld," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/marty-gottesfeld/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *American hacktivist and computer security engineer, convicted for a 2014 denial-of-service attack on Boston Children's Hospital in protest of the treatment of patient Justina Pelletier; a fellow federal prisoner of John Kiriakou who has publicly taken up the case of Donnie Reynolds Jr.* - **Background:** Data security engineer - **Known for:** Protest of the Justina Pelletier custody case - **Conviction:** Financial-damage count only; jury declined to convict on endangering patient care **Marty Gottesfeld** is an American hacktivist and computer security engineer convicted for a 2014 denial-of-service attack on Boston Children's Hospital, carried out in protest of the hospital's treatment of teenage patient Justina Pelletier (referred to in the source recording as *"Christine Pelletier"*) during a high-profile custody and medical dispute. The attack cost the hospital tens of thousands of dollars and disrupted its operations for days, though no patients were directly harmed by the disruption.[1] ## Background Gottesfeld says his father worked as an Apollo-program rocket scientist and computer programmer who taught him to code at age three. Gottesfeld wrote his first program at five, sold his first at twelve, and was working as a full-time network infrastructure and data security engineer by eighteen. Before his prosecution he worked as a data security coordinator at a Massachusetts biotech company, handling business continuity and disaster recovery planning for health organizations and Fortune 500 companies.[2][3] ## Prosecution A jury declined to convict Gottesfeld on the charge that his actions endangered patient care, convicting him only on financial-damage grounds. He says prosecutors David Deitch and Seth Kosto failed to prove to the jury the ethical core of their case — that his actions had endangered patient lives — a claim he says the government nonetheless used as a rhetorical *"cudgel"* regardless of the verdict.[3][4] ## Federal prison and the Reynolds case Gottesfeld served time as a federal prisoner alongside [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto), where he became an advocate for fellow inmate [Donnie Reynolds Jr.](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donnie-reynolds-jr). Gottesfeld theorizes Reynolds was targeted as a Justice Department scapegoat in the aftermath of the ATF's Operation Fast and Furious scandal after refusing to serve as an undercover cartel weapons source, and that Reynolds's life-plus-75-year sentence — longer than that given to cartel boss El Chapo — reflects his potential to implicate powerful figures if his case became public.[5][6] ## Solitary confinement and the CMU [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) has separately described Gottesfeld's imprisonment as a case study in the use of Communications Management Units against whistleblowers: Gottesfeld was held more than nine months in solitary confinement inside a CMU, cut off from mail, phone calls, and visits except through the court, after bringing to light evidence that a teenage girl — Justina Pelletier — was being abused at Boston Children's Hospital and being charged with computer crimes carrying a 10-year sentence.[7] Kiriakou says Gottesfeld lost all of his accrued good-behavior time in prison over conduct as minor as writing a letter to a journalist, and asking his attorney by phone to tell his wife he was okay — treated by prison authorities as forbidden "third-party communication."[8] ## See also - [Donnie Reynolds Jr.](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donnie-reynolds-jr) - [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. S1E27 Prisoner Ex (2026-05-11), at 09:29. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69ee9259eefc66ef2b061811/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-11-dead-drop-s1e27-prisoner-ex/ 2. S1E27 Prisoner Ex (2026-05-11), at 09:53. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69ee9259eefc66ef2b061811/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-11-dead-drop-s1e27-prisoner-ex/ 3. S1E27 Prisoner Ex (2026-05-11), at 10:03. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69ee9259eefc66ef2b061811/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-11-dead-drop-s1e27-prisoner-ex/ 4. S1E27 Prisoner Ex (2026-05-11), at 10:37. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69ee9259eefc66ef2b061811/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-11-dead-drop-s1e27-prisoner-ex/ 5. S1E27 Prisoner Ex (2026-05-11), at 15:37. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69ee9259eefc66ef2b061811/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-11-dead-drop-s1e27-prisoner-ex/ 6. S1E27 Prisoner Ex (2026-05-11), at 28:18. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69ee9259eefc66ef2b061811/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-11-dead-drop-s1e27-prisoner-ex/ 7. Ep. 5150 – John Kiriakou on the Brutal CIA Torture of Abu (2019-12-30), at 41:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmUsmRQO_cQ&t=2494s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-12-30-scott-horton/ 8. John Kiriakou – Ep 133 (2024-02-04), at 19:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHbpdELKO3o&t=1164s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-02-04-fortress-on-a-hill-henri/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/marty-gottesfeld/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt