NANTUCKET, MA - For 10 years, Thomas Johnson lived cocooned in an
underground bunker he called ''my self-help tank.''
Yesterday, the world began to intrude.
As news of Johnson's life as a subterranean hermit spread around this island yesterday, federal and state law enforcement agents made their way to his hideaway. Armed with a pistol, the agents approached Johnson as he was about to reenter his 8-foot-deep, three-room home yesterday afternoon and asked for the barn owl's wings and the talons of a red-tailed hawk they saw photographed in yesterday's Globe. Both are illegal keepsakes. Johnson surrendered what he called ''priceless totems'' to the agents, but only after a distraught, angry exchange with an agent from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and an armed sergeant from the state Environmental Police. The authorities said they would recommend that he not be prosecuted. To Johnson, such news is small comfort for a man who fears reemerging from a world where he purposely shunned a materialistic society he abhors. After spending 2 1/2 years in an Italian prison for carrying heroin in a drug deal, Johnson said, he fled back to the United States to fashion an uncomplicated, self-dependent life. Underground in the woods, Johnson explained, he could commune with nature and create a radical lifestyle that would free him from the routine burdens of modern life and allow him to grow stronger morally. ''I'm not a religious nut - I'm not another Randy Weaver,'' said Johnson, referring to the ntigovernment zealot whose wife and son were killed in a standoff with federal agents in Idaho. An FBI agent was also killed. ''I'm a dignified person. I'm not a dog. I'm not an animal - and that's what some people would like to make me.'' ''This is my self-help tank,'' he added, looking admiringly around his comfortable home. ''I've gone into the earth, almost like a seed to regerminate.'' Even as authorities intensified their scrutiny of Johnson, the travails of the sometime-woodworker and house painter generated considerable support on an island where building development has made housing less and less affordable. 'Everybody I've talked to so far has said, `All right!''' said Wayne Viera, a former selectman who drives a cab, sells real estate, and carves scrimshaw to make a living. ''The year-round people know the hoops you have to go through to get housing.'' Chet Curtis, the WCVB-TV anchorman who owns about 5 acres of undeveloped land close to the bunker, said he is inclined to support Johnson's wish to remain in his home. ''He's not bothering anybody,'' said Curtis, who arrived on Nantucket yesterday. ''I thought it was incredible that he had accomplished this.'' Authorities informed Curtis and his wife and co-anchor, Natalie Jacobson, a couple of weeks ago that Johnson's dwelling might be on their land. At the time, Curtis said, his feeling was that ''if he's on our property, and he's not hurting anybody, why not leave him alone.'' A surveyor later placed Johnson's structure within the Boy Scouts' Camp Richard. Nantucket officials said the bunker has health code violations and poses a danger to people who might walk on top of it. They have drawn up a list of violations, such as inappropriate toilet facilities and no water under
pressure, but appeared to have taken no other steps to force him to leave. The home, which is furnished with a queen-size bed, TV, stone stove, refrigerator, kitchen, and makeshift shower and toilet, was discovered by a deer hunter who stumbled over a stovepipe that protrudes a foot above ground. Boy Scout officials from the Cape Cod Council, which also covers Nantucket, could not be reached for comment. Nantucket health inspector Richard Ray has said he believes the Scouts plan to begin eviction proceedings that could take up to 90 days to complete. However, Police Chief Randolph Norris said it is his understanding that the Boy Scouts intend to let Johnson stay. Johnson said he has chosen another underground site on Nantucket if he is forced to move. Such a prospect wouldn't distress Steve Tornovish, co-owner of the Thrifty car rental agency here. ''I'd let him do it in my yard, but my family and dog might be upset,'' Tornovish said. ''I'm something of the opinion: No harm, no foul.'' However, he added, Nantucket has many well-to-do landowners with big tax bills who ''will be riled up'' about Johnson's tax-free alternative. Dennis Kelley, a construction worker from Hyannis who works on Nantucket during the week, empathized with that thinking.''He's been here for 10 years? How about paying back some rent or giving some money to the Boy Scouts?'' Kelley said. ''Some townspeople are very upset. They've got a $2 million to $3 million house, and here's this guy
living tax-free.'' Whatever the outcome of Johnson's saga, the emergence of what some townspeople are calling ''the subterranean guy'' is viewed as one more colorful chapter in island lore. ''This takes the expression of `going underground' to a whole new level,'' Tornivish said. ''But you know, Nantucket is an island of characters. And the story of this guy is just another example.'' Johnson shudders at the thought that he might become an island attraction. As the environmental authorities approached him, Johnson tossed aside camouflage brush from the hatch to his home, pointed to the earth-covered dwelling, and said, ''This is the trouble I went to for peace, and the last thing it'll get me is peace.''
By Brian MacQuarrie
