Secret Armies and the Origins of the Cercle Complex Part II

Welcome to the second installment in my examination of the origins of the shadowy network variously known as Le Cercle, the Pinay Circle and a host of other names. I've already examined the Cercle complex at length before here, but for those of you just tuning in: Le Cercle is somewhat akin to the far right's answer to the Bilderberg Group. Both organizations were founded in the early 1950s and forged a kind of alliance during the first few decades of their existence. But differences always existed.

Bilderberg chiefly drew its membership from the ranks of international capital and the emerging technocratic class and was heavily dominated by the Anglo-American Establishment. Le Cercle's early backers largely hailed from Continental Europe and were chiefly comprised of members of the old aristocracy and various far right Catholic organizations such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Opus Dei. What's more, while Bilderberg was chiefly a policy coordinating body, Le Cercle went far beyond that, effectively operating as a full blown private intelligence network. As such, it gained early support from the ranks of the Anglo-American intelligence services and by the 1970s a clique of British veterans of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) wielded enormous influence within the network

By the 1970s the Cercle complex became increasingly disillusioned with the Rockefeller-backed policy of detente. David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger, one time affiliates, had formerly broken with the group by 1980. This was part of a broader break with the Bilderberg network. Le Cercle would throw its extensive intelligence resources behind Margaret Thatcher and later Ronald Reagan, the elections of which formerly reversed course from detente to full blown rollback against the Soviet Union.

Having covered some of the numerous outraged committed by the Cercle complex over the years in a prior series, my purpose here is to explore the possible origins Le Cercle had in what is commonly referred to as Operation Gladio. Gladio was only the name of the Italian component of what was a network spread across Western Europe that the Pentagon and CIA, along with their counterparts in the UK, established in the wake of the Second World War. "Gladio" was essentially a series of stay-behind armies that were set up to wage a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in the event of an invasion of Western Europe.

Or at least that was the rationalization, anyway. Over the years, extensive evidence has emerged that these stay-behind armies were in fact used to wage campaigns of terrorism within Western Europe to ensure that said states remained within the NATO system. Italy and Belgium in particular faced especially intense terror campaigns in what is known as the Years of Lead and the Bloody Eighties in those respective nations.

There were essentially three organizations for which these stay-behind armies were modeled upon, two of which derived from the Anglo-American intelligence services. One was the above-mentioned SOE while the other was the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was largely based upon the SOE.

The third organization hailed from Nazi Germany and was known as the Reich Main Security Office (RHSA). The RHSA, a component of the SS, was a Byzantine organization that included the dreaded Gestapo, among others. For our purposes here, I am mainly concerned with two departments of the RHSA: Amt VI and Amt VII. Amt VI housed the foreign component of the SD, which was the SS's intelligence service. Within the SD was a detachment known as Amt VI-S, headed by the infamous Otto "Scarface" Skorzeny. Amt VI-S possessed the bulk of Nazi Germany's special operations forces and was used extensively to train stay-behind networks to harass the advancing Allies.

And then there was the mysterious Amt VII, which is often described as the RHSA's "research library." In reality, it appears to have conducted a lot of arcane research into the occult. As the war was winding down, the infamous Italian philosopher and occultist Julius Evola went to work for the RHSA, likely in either Amt VI or VII, but most likely the latter. Evola in turn appears to have became involved in efforts by the Reich to establish of a postwar stay-behind network, likely as an ideological architect.

Evola

Such were the topics discussed in part one of this series. In this present installment I would like to consider these postwar networks in greater depth.

SOFINDUS

Over the years there has been much dispute as to whether there was a well organized network geared toward revving the Reich or a haphazard network thrown together as the war was winding down to spare as many of Nazi hierarchy as possible. The truth appears to lie somewhere in between.

On the one hand, plans for this network do appear to have been rather last minute and geared chiefly towards saving as many of the most notorious Nazis, especially as SS members, as possible. And on the whole, this network appears to have been rather decentralized. And yet, there appears to have been some type of formal hierarchy within this network that drew upon its resources. And as many of the longstanding ODESSA allegations have long maintained, this inner circle appears to have centered around Otto Skorzeny in the immediate decades following the Second World War. But rather than staging a revival of the Reich, Skorzeny and his associates appear to have been enlisted by the Anglo-American defense establishments in their Cold War against the Soviet Union.

Skorzeny

This inner hierarchy that Skorzeny was the figurehead of appears to have derived from a conglomerate called Sociedad Financiera Industrial, better known as SOFINDUS. Unsurprisingly, this company's murky origins are closely linked to the RHSA, and especially the SD.

The genesis of SOFINDUS can be traced to two prior holding companies:the Berlin-bases ROWAK and HISMA of Tetouan, Morocco. Both companies were headed by a German businessman known as Johannes Bernhardt. Bernhardt was not only close to the Nazi regime, but Franco as well. After the Nazi regime opted to support Franco during the Spanish Civil War, Bernhardt was tasked with funneling supplies to the generalissimo. Bernhardt effectively created ROWAK and HISMA for this purpose.

In 1938, ROWAK and HISMA were rolled into one operation, SOFINDUS. From the very beginning, SOFINDUS was close to Nazi intelligence. In The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph P. Ganis notes: "Bernhardt's SOFINDUS intelligence network was manged out of the Reich Main Security Office (RHSA) Section VI, or Foreign Intelligence Service, also known as Ausland-SD" (pg. 149).

But unlike ROWAK and HISMA, which were chiefly concerned with Spain, SOFINDUS had dealings across the world. Ganis goes on to note:

"The SOFINDUS business networks were expansive. In addition to operations in Spain and Morocco, Johannes Bernhardt also oversaw operations in South America (particularly Argentina) and France. One of the most important roles of SOFINDUS was the delivery of vital mineral resources from Spain, Morocco, and Portugal to the Third Reich. Foremost in this operation was wolframite (tungsten), a mineral that was vital in the production of armor-piercing ammunition. The SOFINDUS delivery of wolframite had to be protected by Germany at all costs. The war could not be fought without this critical mineral.

"Through the SOFINDUS network, Nazi intelligence services carried out espionage, sabotage, and even assassinations. SOFINDUS assassination operations are referenced in declassified documentation involving SS Lt. Col. Walter Mosig..."

(The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph P. Ganis, pgs. 149-150)

The above-mentioned Mosig is himself quite an interesting figure. He left SOFINDUS in 1945 as the Reich was coming to an end and would fall into the hands of US authorities in 1946. In  February of 1947 Mosig was "interrogated" US Army Counterintelligence (CIC) Officer Arnold M. Silver. Silver, who would sign on with the CIA in 1948, had also interrogated Otto Skorzeny and is widely believed to have been the man who recommended his use to the US intelligence community. It is likely Silver did the same for Mosig, as both "former" SD men managed to escape from US custody after being interrogated by Silver. In 1948, Mosig would turn up in Argentina, working for the successor of SOFINDUS. But more on that in a moment.

On the topic of Arnold Silver, it is also interesting to note that after he was drummed out of the CIA in 1977, he signed on with Brian Crozier's 6I intelligence network. As was noted in the prior installment, Crozier was very close to many of the former SOE men who signed on with Le Cercle in the 1970s. His 6I network would become a key intelligence network for Le Cercle by the late 1970s. According to David Teacher in his long suppressed Rogue Agents, Silver is known to have attended Le Cercle meetings in 1982 but it is unknown if he became a member. The significance of Silver's connection to SOFINDUS via Skorzeny and Mosig will be more evident in a future installment.

Before moving along, a note should be made concerning SOFINDUS's resources: they appear to have been quite extensive, to put it mildly. Indeed, SOFINDUS appears to have been one of the key institutions used to launder gold out of Nazi Germany:

"... It is worthwhile to note that the Allies had computed the amount of gold coming into Spain from Nazi Germany during the period of the war as more than 122 tons (conservatively; other estimates put it at more than 200 tons). These calculations were based on records obtained from Sofindus and from trucking manifests out of Germany to Spain. The final disposition of this gold is unknown, but it would be worth more than US$100 million in 1945 dollars."

(Ratline, Peter Levenda, pg. 60)

Today, this gold would be worth in the billions. Clearly then it was no insignificant amount of funding SOFINDUS had its disposal by 1945, when these shipments were at there peak. SOFINDUS would seemingly put these resources to good use in one particular project the conglomerate became deeply involved in as the war was drawing to a close.

Ratlines

When key figures in the SS began drawing escape plans for the aftermath of the Reich's inevitable defeat, it was the SD that they turned to devise escape routes. And it would seem that the SD in turn made good use of the SOFINDUS network in creating what has become known as the "Ratlines." As such, it is hardly surprising then to find that the earliest Ratlines led from Spain to Argentina, where various Nazi war criminals could flee even deeper into South America, depending upon the extent of their crimes. 

Reportedly the first such Ratline was established by a Buenos Aires-born Frenchman known as Charles Lesca. During the 1930s Lesca had been most active in various far right movements in France, most notably Action Francaise. Lesca was an asset of the SD and appears to have been recruited even before the Nazi conquest of France. Afterwards, Lesca would have well placed contacts in the Vichy regime, most notably President Pierre Laval.

Charles Lesca

As the war wound down, Lesca became the figurehead of a group of French collaborators who ended up in Spain to avoid arrest. Lesca was tasked with smuggling them, along with various German SD men, to Argentina. Lesca and his associates frequently met at a German restaurant in Madrid known as Horcher's. This establishment was a key point of contact for various Nazi intelligence personnel in Spain and was likely set up by the SOFINDUS network. 

"The group often gathered at the exclusive Horcher restaurant on Alfonso XII Street, installed there in 1943 by Berlin restaurateur Otto Horcher with the help, according to American intelligence, of Walter Schellenberg. To open his Madrid branch Horcher allegedly transferred 250,000 Swiss francs out of Germany to Nazi diplomats in Lisbon and later converted the Swiss notes to pesetas on the black market, an exercise in money-laundering allegedly organized by another Schellenberg agent who ended up in Argentina, Walter Eugen Mosig. Schellenberg reportedly also helped Horcher transfer furnishings and silverware from Germany. The original Horcher restaurant on Berlin's Kurfurstendamn had been a regular meeting place for the Third Reich's hierarchy from Goring to Himmler. Unknown to most clients, it was planted the secret microphones to capture the conversations of foreign visitors..."

(The Real ODESSA, Uki Goni, pg. 74)

Walter Schellenberg was the head of the RHSA VI, the foreign intelligence branch of the SD. As was noted above, this was same branch of the RHSA that oversaw the SOFINDUS network, which Mosig was an agent of by 1942. As such, SOFINDUS likely played a role in establishing Horcher's in Spain, which in turn was clearly used as a cover for intelligence operations, most notably the first Ratline to Argentina. That it was established by French collaborators is most significant, as we shall see.

Before moving along, its also interesting to note that Lesca first arrived in Spain (1944) around the same time Skorzeny was training French collaborators there in sabotage and assassinations operations with eye towards infiltrating them back into France in the wake of the liberation. This was noted in the first installment of this series.

A much more tangible connection between SOFINDUS and the Ratlines comes in the form of Carlos Fuldner, another Argentina-born SD asset. Fuldner was born to German immigrants in Buenos Aires, but he and his family returned to Germany in 1922, just as the Nazi Party was starting to take off. Fuldner would join the SS in 1932 at the age of 21. Bizarrely, he was then booted out of the SS in 1936 as allegations of fraud and disloyalty hoovered around him. The charges were cleared up in 1937 and by '38 he attempted to reenlist in the SS. The next seven years of his life are shrouded in mystery.

"... He apparently had a close connection with Spain, serving as a lieutenant and German-Spanish interpreter in the Blue Division, the corps of 20,000 soldiers sent by dictator Francisco Franco to fight alongside the Nazis on the Russian front. He returned frequently to Berlin. At some point he joined the huge Nazi corporation Sofindus, which controlled widespread German business interests and provided cover and financing for the Nazi agents in Spain. True to character, Fuldner created trouble for himself even there and was dismissed for embezzlement. In the last months of war he traveled back and forth between Madrid and Berlin. An arrival by plane in Madrid was registered in 26 November 1944, then a return to Berlin in late December.

"But by that crucial Monday in March 1945 when he climbed down the German plane's stepladder in Madrid, Fuldner seems to have been restored to his former rank. He was now on a 'special mission' for Himmler's secret service for which he carried both his German and Argentine passports, and to which he would add the particular brand of financial chicanery which had distinguished his career. In the coming years, many former Reich officials and some of the worst Nazi criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, would owe their lives to the Argentine SS captain. Was Fuldner's mission the result of a plan laid by Schellenberg and Himmler? There is precious little documentation available even today about Fuldner's activities in Madrid in the immediate postwar period, but his later activity suggests high-level Nazi involvement."

(The Real ODESSA, Uki Goni, pg. 69)

It was Fuldner more than anyone else who managed to enlist Juan Peron, the Argentine dictator, to turn his country into a haven for Nazi war criminals. As was noted above, Eichmann and many of the most notorious Nazis who fled to South America were aided by Fuldner.

Peron

When examining Fuldner's career, there is a strong hint of sheep dipping. After being booted out of the SS he would apparently spend much time traveling in the late 1930s and early 1940s, frequently visiting South American and even the United States. He then ends up serving in Franco's Blue Division and employed by SOFINDUS.

As was noted above, the conglomerate was effectively a front for the SD and was used to smuggle tremendous amounts of gold from Nazi Germany to Spain. And here is Fuldner, allegedly booted out of SOFINDUS for "embezzlement" shortly before he was brought back into the SS and SD in 1945, apparently with high level support amongst the Nazi hierarchy.

Carlos Fuldner

This researcher suspects that Fuldner was serving as an agent of the SD for much of this time, and most certainly during his time with SOFINDUS. His dismal from the company was likely a ploy to confuse Allied intelligence as to Fuldner's actual mission. Curiously, there are also reports that Fuldner was linked to the Nazi "Werwolf" efforts at war's end. As was noted in the prior installment, Otto Skorzeny also had some involvement in these stay-behind efforts.

And that brings us to Scarface. Skorzeny does not appear to have had direct involvement with SOFINDUS during the war, but likely made use of its assets. After all, both SOFINDUS and Skorzeny's commandos were the control of Amt VI and SOFINDUS would have provided the kind of cover necessary for covert operations.

It was not until after the war the Skorzeny officially began to take an active role in SOFINDUS. In The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph Ganis notes that Skorzeny partnered with SOFINDUS founder and "former" SD agent Johannes Bernhardt in business venture in Spain shortly after Scarface arrived in Madrid in 1950. At the time, Bernhardt was still involved with the SOFINDUS network as an 'adviser.'

Around the same time, Skorzeny would emerge as a key figure in the Ratlines. H. Keith Thompson, an American recruited into the SD while allegedly still a teenager who later aided the escape routes in the postwar years, emphasized Skorzeny's importance to journalist Martin A. Lee: "Skorzeny was not an intellectual. He was a get-it-done type, a soldier. Very daring. He would take on anything. He played a significant role after the war in the escape routes" (The Beast Reawakens, Martin A. Lee, pg. 86).

Meet the New Boss

With its ties to Skorzeny, Mosig, Fuldner and likely Lesca, it seems clear that SOFINDUS was crucial in establishing the Ratlines in Spain immediately after the war. Other organizations, most notably the Vatican, would later pick up the slack, but SOFINDUS appears to have been the trailblazer. But smuggling Nazi war criminals does not appear to be the extent of SOFINDUS network's intelligence efforts in the postwar years.

But to put these activities into context, we must first consider who gained control of SOFINDUS after the war:

"...Several months before the end of the war Johannes Bernhardt had secretly contacted British Intelligence in an attempt to strike a deal with the Allies to turn over the SOFINDUS network. The Spanish government, which had investments in the company and had worked closely with German Intelligence, was also involved in this secret arrangement.

"As a result of these clandestine negotiations, SOFINDUS assets were eventually taken over by the Allied Control Commission (ACC) as soon as the war ended. This was a joint operation in which an American corporate president was placed in charge of SOFINDUS assets, with a British vice-president. Also involved in the transfer of assets was the Spanish government, which negotiated control in Spanish industry tied to SOFINDUS. Under the agreement, the former SOFINDUS network was rolled up into a government-controlled organization called Instituto Nacional de Industria (National Institute of Industry) or INI, under Juan Antonio Suanzes.

"The acquisition was announced publicly but details were not given, and the takeover of SOFINDUS was conducted in great secrecy. In one clever move, U.S. and British Intelligence had acquired the entire former SS intelligence network embedded in SOFINDUS. Subsequently, SOFINDUS companies were revamped and incorporated into the World Commerce Corporation (WCC) formed by General William Donovan and operated by Frank Ryan and Ricardo Sicre..."

(The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph P. Ganis, pgs. 147-148) 

Ah yes, the good old WCC. That organization is quite a story unto itself, one that I will take up in the next installment. Until then dear readers, stay tuned. 

Discussing "Goodfellas" on Opperman

I'm back on the Opperman Report, this time discussing the various highlights from my "Goodfellas" series.

Topics broached included the curious history of Resorts International, a gaming interest with extensive ties to the US intelligence community and organized crime that Donald J. Trump became CEO of in 1986; Trump's sinister political mentor, attorney Roy Cohn; Cohn's links to the Profumo Affair and how this scandal disgraced globalist elements of the Tories while sparing those eventually linked to the Pinay Circle/Le Cercle; the presence of so many descendants of key figures of the Round Table movement figures, especially those linked to the Cliveden Set, in Le Cercle; Roy Cohn's links to the long reputed Son of Sam cult; the overlap between said cult and various Christian Identity terrorists; the possibility Manson was a follower of identity "theology"; the far right connections of the Process Church of the Final Judgment; the credibility of Maury Terry; the many sex scandals Cohn's longtime private detective Thomas Corbally appears in; the Mueller probe as an instrument to silence Cohn's former associates; Roger Stone and NXIVM; and of course the Company and Kentucky Derby days. In other words, its quite an epic chat that Ed and I have.

The interview can be found here.

The articles that this interview is based upon include:

Goodfellas: The Hidden History of Resorts International
Goodfellas: The Dark Tower and Beyond Part I
Goodfellas: The Dark Tower and Beyond Part II
Goodfellas Part III: Viva Las Vegas
Goodfellas Part IV: Lavender Mafia Edition
Goodfellas Part V: The Bedroom Dick
Goodfellas Part VI: Cliveden Games
Goodfellas Part VII: Jack and Bobby
Goodfellas Part VIII: Sons of Cohn

A big thank you to Ed for having me back on. I hope everyone enjoys the chat. As always dear readers, stay tuned.

Secret Armies and the Origins of the Cercle Complex Part I

Regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware of my interest in a curious organization known variously as Le Cercle, the Pinay Group, Pinay Circle/Cercle and a host of other titles. The organization was founded in 1952 by longtime German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, onetime German Defense Minister Franz Josef-Strauss, French Prime Minister Antoine Pinay (for whom the organization was sometimes named after) and the mysterious Frenchman known as Jean Violet. It grew out of the United Europe movement and would become one of the two principal networks working towards this goal, along with the infamous Bilderberg group.

But while there was overlap between Bilderberg and Le Cercle in the early years, there were fundamental differences between these groups that led to a rift by the 1970s. Bilderberg was chiefly comprised of international bankers and other captains of industry and has long been dominated by the Anglo-American Establishment. Le Cercle, by contrast, was largely dominated by elites from Continental Europe until the 1980s, many of whom were drawn from the ranks of the Vatican and the old aristocracy. Catholicism was as much a part of Le Cercle's vision of a United Europe in the early days as was capitalism.

What's more, unlike Bilderberg, Le Cercle was not simply a policy coordination body, but also a full blown private intelligence network. As I've noted before here, here and here, Le Cercle appears to have played a crucial role in what is commonly referred to as Operation Gladio as well as various sex rings across Europe used to blackmail regional elites. As such, it has long enjoyed close ties with various Western intelligence services, especially those in the US and UK.

Recent research I've been conducting has indicated that this relationship may have stretched back to the origins of Gladio and that Le Cercle itself may have grown out of this network as a coordination body. This is the general thesis of this series.

Before moving along, a few words about Gladio: For one, Gladio is only the name of the Italian component of a network that stretched across Western Europe during the Cold War. Gladio and related components were meant to serve as stay-behind-armies in Western Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion, effectively waging an intense guerrilla war against the Reds. Or at least that was the official reasoning anyway. In actuality, these stay-behind or secret armies were more often than not used to terrorize Western nations to ensure their submission to NATO and the United States on the whole. The terrorism related to Italy's "Years of Lead" and Belgium's "Bloody Eighties" can largely be traced back to the stay-behind networks in these nations, as I noted before here and here.

And it would appear that Le Cercle loomed over all these networks, and may have from the very beginning. But before getting to the origins of Le Cercle let us first consider the history of these secret armies. Essentially, two World War II-era organizations appear to have served as the basis for these secret armies and were incorporated wholesale into Gladio at the onset of the Cold War. As such, a few words should be said about the WWII-era functions of these organizations.

Special Operations Executive 

The first of these organizations up for consideration is the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British intelligence network created at the onset of World War II. SOE had its origins in Section D of MI6 and several other operations being carried out by the Foreign and War Offices. When Churchill came to power in 1940, all of these operations were coordinated under the SOE, which came to be housed in the Ministry of Economic Warfare.

SOE is probably most well known in these United States for the role it played in creating the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA. The SOE worked closely with the British Security Coordination (BSC) in New York City prior to US entry into the Second World War. Along with the BSC and MI6, it maintained a branch office in Rockefeller Center beginning in 1940. Sir William Stephenson, head of the BSC and a close friend of OSS Director William "Wild Bill" Donovan, coordinated the operations of the SOE and MI6 in the States. He helped Donovan set up the OSS, which was largely modeled upon the SOE.

the famed Rockefeller Center

The SOE in turn maintained a massive training compound in Canada that was used initially to train OSS agents being deployed to Europe.

"... Camp X. Located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, between the Canadian towns of Oshawa and Whitby, the camp was the first paramilitary training school in North America. Established in December 1941, just one day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the 270-acre site was operated by Britain's ultra-secret Special Operations Executive. SOE had been formed as a branch of MI-6 in July 1940, after Winston Churchill instructed his military advisers to counter Nazi blitzkrieg victories and 'set Europe ablaze.' SOE's first order of business was to recruit and train hundreds of secret agents, who would be responsible for advancing sabotage, subversion, and organized resistance against Axis occupied areas. Camp X, also called Project J and STS-103, offered its carefully selected students a full curriculum in the techniques of guerrilla warfare, covert action, and assassination...

"Training at Camp X was extremely rigorous. Recruits were routinely roused well before dawn to perform several hours of strenuous physical exercise before they were allowed a Spartan morning meal consisting of little more than a glass of milk and a hard roll. Then it was on to a full day of classes with instructions in subjects like 'Close Combat,' 'Small and Concealed Weapons,' and 'Silent Killing.' The camp featured a number of extremely difficult 'infiltration courses,' one of which featured a large swamp dubbed 'Lake Oshawa' by SOE instructors; for more substantial water exercises, the frigid waters of Lake Ontario were only twenty minutes away. Camp X's training ethos were simple; it revolved around the mantra, 'Kill or be killed.' Several times a week, trainees would participate in group jiu jitsu training, led by their chief instructor, British Major William Ewart Fairbairn, during which words were chanted, in cadence with martial movements, for hours on end. Said one former student years later, 'It turned our values upside down and we wondered about making a world fit for terrorists.' "

(A Terrible Mistake, H.P. Albarelli, pgs. 393-394) 

Camp X

These fears would prove to be most well founded, as we shall see.

During the Second World War, the SOE built up a massive and highly effective network that the great Daniele Ganser referred to as "a carbon of operation Gladio born in the midst of the Second World War" (NATO's Secret Armies, pg. 41). Ganser went on to note:

"Special Operations Executive employed many of the staff of Section D and eventually became a major organisation in its own right with over 13,000 men and women in its ranks, operating on a global scale and in close cooperation with the MI6. Although SOE also carried out missions in Far East Asia, mounted from India and Australia, Western Europe was its main theatre of operation where it focused on establishing of national secret armies. SOE promoted sabotage and subversion in enemy-occupied territory and established nucleus of trained men who could assist resistance groups in the re-conquest of the countries concerned. 'SOE was for five years the main instrument of British action in the internal politics of Europe,' the British Cabinet Office report noted, 'it was an extremely powerful instrument' for it could serve a multitude of tasks and thus 'While SOE was at work no European politician could be under the illusion that the British were uninterested or dead.' "

 (NATO's Secret Armies, Daniele Ganser, pg. 41)

the emblem of the SOE

Curiously, SOE veterans would serve as the backbone of Cercle members from the UK when the British began to take a keen interest in the organization during the 1970s. Lord Julian Amery, a future Cercle chairman and president, noted before here, cut his teeth with the SOE in Albania during WWII. By the 1980s he had been joined Le Cercle by his former SOE comrade-in-arms Neil "Billy" McLean.

Another future Cercle chairman, Sir Peter Tennant, was also an SOE veteran, having been recruited by Sir Charles Hambro, the eventual director of the SOE. Another Hambro associate who would sign up with Le Cercle was Harry Sporburg, a deputy chief of SOE under Hambro's predecessor, Colin Gubbins. Later, he would go on to work for the banking house long controlled by the Hambro family.

Sporborg's association with Le Cercle is especially ominous. Sporborg has been described as the individual who first conceived of Gladio, though I have been unable to confirm this. I have been able to confirm, however, that he helped establish an especially controversial British charity typically known as Sue Ryder. The Sue Ryder who served as the namesake of this charity was herself a veteran of the SOE during the Second World War. It would later be revealed that Jimmy Savile abused at least one dying child at a Sue Ryder children's hospice in Leeds. Its possible there were more victims at this institute, but no one is alive now to tell tales. But moving along.

Another British Cercle chairman and future president, Brian Crozier, never worked with the SOE, but received ample aid from such veterans over the years. His Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC), a major Cercle propaganda outfit by the early 1970s, received its initial funding from SOE veteran Sir Peter Wilkinson. Another SOE veteran, Stephen Hastings, was deeply involved in Shield, a private intelligence network Crozier established in the UK in the 1970s to help elect Thatcher. Sporborg and Tennant were also involved with Shield, which was a domestic version of the global intelligence network Crozier established with the assistance of Le Cercle known as the 6I. Hastings was also a member of the Monday Club and a longtime political alley of Amery. He is known to have attended Cercle meetings during the late 1970s but it is unknown if he was a full blown member.

Clearly, SOE veterans were a key source of support for the Cercle complex by the 1970s and eventually they would dominate the organization by the 1980s. This curious relationship has been little remarked upon, but given the role the SOE had in establishing Gladio, it is hardly surprising. For all of this information I'm deeply indebted to David Teacher's groundbreaking and long suppressed Rogue Agents, which can be found here on the great Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics (ISGP). ISGP's own Cercle page is also a great resource.

Reich Main Security Office

But while the SOE connection to Gladio has received some attention over the years, the influence of another WWII-era intelligence agency has been even less remarked upon. This is not entirely surprising as the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) was the chief intelligence and security service for the SS. Of course the role Reinhard Gehlen, who at one point was the German General Staff's chief intelligence officer for the Fremde Heere Ost (FHO, Foreign Armies East) and the founder of the BND, played in German and Eastern European stay-behind networks is fairly well known at this point. But Gehlen was an agent of the Wehrmacht, the German military. Gehlen was not an SS man and while known for rather brutal interrogation methods, was not a fanatical Nazi. In point of fact, Gehlen comes off as rather restrained in comparison to the legions of the psychopaths in the RSHA, many of whom would serve as the backbone of Gehlen's secret armies.

Gehlen

But before getting to that, a bit more should be said about the RSHA. Created in 1939, it quickly grew into one of the most Byzantine institutions in Nazi Germany (no small accomplishment, that). The man often credited with its creation was General Reinhard Heydrich, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust. Heydrich headed the organization from its creation in 1939 until 1942, when he was assassinated --by the SOE.

During his time overseeing the RSHA, Heydrich incorporated many of the most brutal components of the Nazi Party into the organization. The RSHA was divided into seven Amters or sections. Amt IV and Amt V included the dreaded Gestapo and the Kriminalpolizei (which was somewhat akin to Nazi Germany's FBI). Amt IV also oversaw many aspects of the Holocaust.

Amt III was comprised of the domestic wing of the SD, the SS's own private intelligence service and the chief rival of the Abwehr during the Second World War. For our purposes here, however, we are most concerned with Amt VI and Amt VII. Amt VI featured the foreign component of the SD, which became one of the most powerful intelligence services of WWII era by war's end.

"... Amt VI ('Department Six') of the SS RSHA, Nazi Germany's main security headquarters. This SS section had been a combined foreign intelligence, sabotage, and propaganda agency and was, in effect, the CIA of Nazi Germany. By war's end SS RSHA Amt VI had consolidated not only the foreign sections of the Nazi's police intelligence apparatus but military intelligence (Abwehr), Gehlen's own FHO, and much of the Nazi Party's internal foreign espionage network as well. Amt VI was an extraordinary rich collection of trained agents, intelligence files, saboteurs, and propagandist. Both Gehlen and the United States drew many of their most valuable recruits from this department after the war. Its hoard of files on the USSR and Eastern Europe, in particular, was without equal anywhere."

(Blowback, Christopher Simpson, pg. 46)

Of especial interest was Amt VI-S. Created in 1943, Amt VI-S would emerge as the special operations forces of Nazi Germany. At the time this unit was conceived of as a counter to the British SOE  and Special Air Services (SAS) and the American OSS. Tapped to head the unit was the infamous Otto "Scarface" Skorzeny, allegedly Hitler's favorite commando. Virtually everyone who met Skorzeny agreed that he was very inch of soldier. Standing at 6'4 and weighing around 220 pounds of mostly muscle, the Austrian was as fine an example of Hitler's notion of Aryan superiority as any.

The Hunting Group

Skorzeny, prior to the war, had trained as an engineer and generally comes off as more intelligent than he is often given credit for. Certainly the intense training he subjected his charges too would test both their physical and mental limits.

"... Skorzeny's unit would eventually be known as SS-Jagdverband or 'Hunting Group.' Skorzeny recruited personnel throughout the Reich'ss various military units. He wanted to acquire only those of the highest caliber and as such received special permission to recruit from all the services, not just the Waffen SS. Eventually, his commando group included army, navy, and air force personnel, which resulted in Skorzeny becoming the preeminent special forces commander of the Third Reich.

"Besides having a foreign language requirement, the recruits had to demonstrate basic skills and knowledge of firearms, grenades, artillery, and the ability to operate automobiles, motorcycles, watercraft, and locomotives. They also had to be expert swimmers and able to parachute from aircraft. Many were capable of speaking foreign languages such as English, French, Italian, Russian, and Persian. An intense commando training regimen was instituted. Some individuals were selected for special agent training. All of Skorzeny's training was tough and included covert operation skills required for stay-behind missions in enemy territory."

(The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph P. Ganis, pg. 38)

As the war began to turn against Nazi Germany in the wake of the disastrous Battle of Stalingrad, Skorzeny became increasingly involved in training stay-behind units. Some of the earliest and most infamous were Eastern units, largely comprised of Ukrainians, that were used to harass the Red Army as the Germans retreated from the Ukraine. These units were drawn from the ranks of the infamous Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which in turn grew out of the equally infamous Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Bandera (OUN-B). There had been an early OUN, but with approval of the Nazis, the more radical OUN-B emerged out of this group. While its relationship with the Nazi regime would be ambiguous at best throughout the war, the OUN-B was still the chief Ukrainian Quisling group and a vigorous participant in the Holocaust.

the emblem of the OUN-B

When the war turned against the Nazis in the East, the UPA was founded by the OUN-B to assist the German withdraw. Skorzeny trained many of these units, which would prove to be highly effective.

"... accelerated German recruitment of Ukrainians from police groups into the Waffen SS, and by increased cooperation with the underground OUN/UPA leadership and a secret program that the SS-designated Operation Sonnenblume (Sunflower). According to U.S. interrogations of SS RSHA Amt VI clandestine operations chief Otto Skorzeny and his adjutant Karl Radl, Amt VI organized Sonnenblume in 1944 to coordinate German and OUN efforts during the Nazis' retreat from Russia.

"Thousands of tons of arms, ammunition, and other war materiel abandoned by the Nazis were consigned to underground OUN-led troops, Skorzeny told the Americans. The deal proved to be an astute investment for the Germans. The OUN/UPA succeeded in tying down some 200,000 Red Army troops and killing more than 7,000 Soviet officers during the Wehrmacht's disordered flight across Europe during 1944 and 1945."

(Blowback, Christopher Simpson, pgs. 162-163)

Curiously, many of the OUN-B members would go on to play a crucial rule in establishing the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN). The ABN in turn would play a key role in creating the World Anti-Communist League (WACL, noted before here), one of the key components of the post-war Fascist International. Both the ABN and especially the WACL would establish a close working relationship with Le Cercle. But back to the matter at hand.

Skorzeny also had some involvement in the legendary Werwolf project, though not to the extent that is generally claimed. SS General Hans-Adolf Prutzmann was the actual head of the project, with Skorzeny's "Hunting Group" provided some training and support to the Werwolf units.

For those of you unaware, the Werwolf project was begun in 1944 as the war was winding down. Originally the Werwolf participants were conceived as additional commando units that could be used to conduct sabotage and assassinations behind enemy lines. Towards the end of the war, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels made brazen claims that the Werwolf units would be used as a stay-behind force to wage a guerrilla war against the Occupation, a claim that Allies initially took very seriously.

However, it is now widely agreed that these claims were pure propaganda. There does not appear to have been a serious plan to wage a guerrilla war against the Allies and in fact the Werwolf units were largely poorly trained and equipped. Their chief value to the Nazi regime was principally for psychological warfare purposes.

Skorzeny was involved in other, much more highly effective stay-behind operations, however. One of the most notorious was the so-called "Peter Group" of Denmark, which was created to counter the SOE-backed resistance in that particular Nordic country. The group as commanded by Otto Schwerdt, one Skorzeny's top men in the SD.

Another, even more curious group Skorzeny was involved in was known as the "Organisation Technique" (OT). This group was also established in 1944, shortly after France was liberated by the Allies. The OT was intended as a stay-behind network that would conduct sabotage and assassination operations against the Allies in France.

"... the OT was created by Joseph Darnand, the former head of the Vichy Milice (French fascist paramilitary), consisting of 150-200 volunteers to be trained as agents and sent back in France to fight the Allied forces. 

"Command of the OT was given to Jean Degans, a former member of the Cagoule and former director of the Vichy police. OT liaison with the Germans came from Skorzenys Jagdverband, and Jean Fillliol, a former Cagoule who exercised 'day-to-day' control of the group. Several OT sabotage and secret service camps were established in Germany with training and operational planning coming directly from Skorzeny's special forces."

(The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph P. Ganis, pg. 60) 

OT creator Joseph Darnand, like seemingly every other major member of the group, had also been a member of the dreaded Cagoule in the years leading up to the war. La Cagoule, which was addressed before here and here, was a secret society and paramilitary organization active in France during 1936 and 1937. During those years the group stockpiled an enormous amount of arms and engaged in several assassinations and bombings, with an eye towards plunging France into a civil war. From there the Cagoule, along with their extensive supporters in the military, would establish a fascist dictatorship in France along the lines of those in Italy and Spain.

Needless to say, things didn't quite work out that way. The organization was largely neutralized by French police in 1937, with most key members in prison by the end of that year. But with the outbreak of the war in 1939, many Cagoulards were released to defend the homeland. After the French defeat most Cagoulards signed up with the Vichy regime, were they gained some degree of influence. Others went to De Gaulle's Resistance movement. Towards the end of the war, they became a crucial back channel between the US and the Nazi regime.

The above-mentioned Jean Violet, a founder of Le Cercle, had been a member of the Cagoule prior to the war. Violet is generally regarded as the chief force behind the creation of Le Cercle and the dominant personality behind the group until his departure in the late 1970s.

Amt VII

And finally we come to Amt VII, easily the most mysterious section of the RHSA. When most (scholarly) researchers consider occultism in the SS, they look to the Ahnenerbe, that curious "think tank" that dabbled in so much esoteric research both prior to and during the Second World War. And while the Ahnenerbe was without a doubt the chief agency within the SS for researching occultic topics, Amt VII would quietly delve into the same waters with equal vigor. Officially Amt VII was the "Written Records" section of the RSHA, essentially its library. But this was a library that specialized in especially arcane research.

"... AMT VII of the RSHA, the 'Ideological Research' Division that handled occultism, Freemasonry, and cults. From 1941-1945, this division have been under the leadership of Dr. Franz Alfred Six, a scholarly SS-Brigadefuhrer who earlier became prominent as a leader of the Vorkmmando Moskau: a death squad that roamed occupied Russia, murdering hundreds of civilians, dissidents, and Jews in 1941. Six joined the SD in April of 1935 when he was only twenty-six years old; in 1939 he became head of AMT II of the RSHA. A year later, Heydrich named him his future representative in Great Britain after the hypothetically successful Nazi invasion of the British Isles. In other words, Dr. Six would have been largely responsible for program of 'ethnic cleansing' in England had the Nazis managed to invade and occupy the country. 

".... It is said that Himmler created the bizarre occult research division of the RSHA –AMT VII – specifically for Six, so pleased as he was by Six's enthusiasm for hunting down the enemies of the Reich in Russia during the summer of 1941 at Smolensk."

(Unholy Alliance, Peter Levenda, pg. 237)

Six had actually left Amt VII in 1943 and was replaced by Paul Dittel, another SD man. Throughout its brief existence, appears to have maintained a close relationship with the SD, especially Amt VI. Six had been a member of Amt VI, as had Werner Goettsch, another Amt VII man that shall be addressed in a moment. This has led to some confusion among researchers, with some claiming that Amt VII was a part of the SD. Technically they were separate departments, with the SD consisting of Amt III and Amt VI in the RSHA. Still, there was clearly close collaboration and various members of VI would later work with Amt VII.

Back to one of those members, the above-mentioned Werner Goettsch. Goettsch was a close friend of fellow SD agent Otto von Bolschwing, who enjoyed a longstanding working relationship with the CIA in the post-war years. Goettsch was also close to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who became head of the RHSA in the wake of Heydrich's assassination. Kaltenbrunner was an old fencing partner of Otto Skorzeny from their academy days. It was Kaltenbrunner who recommended Skorzeny to lead the SS's commando units.

Kaltenbrunner

During his time with Amt VI, Goettsch played a key role in establishing SD intelligence networks in the Balkans. Then, in 1943, he was transfer to Amt VII for curious reasons. A report by the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) noted:

"while deep in this reading which changed his feelings towards Nazi ideology, GOETTSCH was appointed liaison officer between Amt VI and the Propaganda Ministry. Because of continued illness and a changed ideological point of view, GOETTSCH asked KALTENBRUNNER to transfer him to Amt VII. Later he sought the acquaintance of Dr DOPPLER, a Freemason in VIENNA, who later advised him concerning the evacuation of Amt VII'S library."

(Dreamer of the Day, Kevin Coogan, pg. 322) 

The reading that changed Goettsch's point of view involved works on political theory, history and mysticism. Nor was Goettsch the only SD man who would use Amt VII to research the occult at the end of the war.

The infamous Italian philosopher and occultist Julius Evola had enjoyed a longstanding association with the SD that likely went back to at least 1939 despite Evola's ideology being denounced by Volkish elements in the SS. Evola was close to members of the Romanian Iron Guard, which Werner Goettsch's friend Otto von Bolschwing had also worked with while detailed to the SD. Evola's early work with the SD may have derived from his connection to the Guard as well. Former members of the Iron Guard would later help establish the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, as was noted before here.

Evola was officially involved with the RSHA by the end of the war, but what exactly he was doing is shrouded in mystery.

"...  Historian Richard Drake says that while he was in Vienna, 'Evola performed vital liaison services for the SS as Nazi Germany sought to recruit a European army for the defense of the Continent against the Soviet Union and the United States.' According to his own account, Evola spent his time living incognito while doing 'intellectual' research. But what kind of research? 

"While Evola was in Vienna, the SD supplied him with a series of arcane texts plundered from private libraries and rare book collections. The SD bureau the provided him with these documents was Amt VII, an obscure branch that served as an RSHA research library. With this precious archive, Evola closely studied masonic rituals and translated certain 'esoteric texts' for a book called Historie Secrete des Societes Secretes.  It never appeared because Evola claimed that all his documents were lost during the Russian bombardment."

(Dreamer of the Day, Kevin Coogan, pgs. 319-320)

Julius Evola

But is it possible Evola was doing both --working on a book on occultism while helping set up a stay-behind army? And were these to projects totally unrelated? The great Kevin Coogan proposes that Evola was involved in setting up a kind of secret society that could sustain the SS in the wake of the Third Reich's defeat.

As outlandish as it may sound, there can be little doubt that Evola played some as yet unknown role in the Gladio-inspired Years of Lead in Italy, as was noted before here. And there can be even less doubt that Evola had an enormous influence on Italian neo-fascist terrorists in thep ost-war years.

"The use of violence in Italian neo-fascism escalated with numerous bomb attacks and massacres, beginning with the Piazza Fontana explosion in Milan in April 1969. Adriano Romauldi, a leading young neo-fascist, identified Evola in 1971 as the intellectual hero of militant right-wing youth in Italy 'because the teaching of Evola is also a philosophy of total war.' By 1975, the far-right underground adopted a leftist strategy in mounting attacks against the state itself (murders of officials, robberies in ministries). The trend towards violence continued, so that by the late 1970s a cult of action replaced ideology itself, elevating the idea of combat to an existential duty. Neo-fascist terrorist such as Franco Freda and Mario Tuti frequently reprinted and cited Evola's two most militant tracts, Metafisica della guerra (1935) and Dottrina ariana (1940), in praise of 'heroic,' 'exemplary' action without an instrumental purpose.... Groups such as Movimento Revoluzionario Popolare, Terza, and Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari subsequently unleashed a surge of black terrorism in Italy until the majority of militants had been captured or killed and a handful fled abroad."

(Black Sun, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, pgs. 67-68)

Could this also help explain why so many Amt VI men like Six and Goettsch would end with Amt VII as the war was going into a critical stage studying the occult. Wouldn't their services have been put to better use in other fields? Or was there was some truth to Coogan's notion of a Black Order?

During his time with the RSHA at war's end, Evola was detailed to Vienna. Otto Skorzeny, a man also deeply involved in SS stay-behind networks, was also active in Vienna at times during this period as well. Did their work overlap and were their postwar efforts part of the Black Order Evola conceived of in the final days of the Third Reich?

As well shall see, there were certainly a few post war connections to either man. And with that I shall sign off for now. Until next time dear reader, stay tuned.

Men in Black: Discussing the Knights of Malta on Conspirinormal

Since you kids can't seem to get enough of the Maltese knights, I was enlisted for another discussion on them, this time with the good folks at Conspirinormal. For those of you unaware, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) has a nearly thousand year history stretching back to the Crusades. SMOM claims to be the legitimate descendants of the Knights Hospitaller, later known as the Knights of Cyprus and Rhodes and a host of other names.

Over the centuries, the Maltese knights have found themselves at the center of a host of intrigues, including the capture of Jerusalem and the suppression of the Knights Templar. In more recent years they've turned up frequently in deep events and the occult underground of the twenty and twenty-first centuries.

But in these United States, they've also faced a challenge since the 1950s from various Sovereign Orders of Saint John (SOSJ) that claim to be the legitimate successor to the Knights Hospitaller from the Russian line of descent. In this podcast we address the infamous Charles Pichel version of the SOSJ (sometimes referred to as the Shickshinny Knights of Malta) and a more recent manifestation of the group that features the infamous General William "Jerry" Boykin as a Grand Chancellor. Needless to say, these groups appear to have been at the heart of much domestic terrorism in the US for several decades now.

General William Boykin (left) in his SOSJ getup

The podcast can be found on YoutTube here.

Additional background on the topics discussed can be found here:
Men in Black: The Hidden History of the Knights of Malta Part I
Propaganda Due: A Strange and Terrible Journey Into the Heart of the Deep State Part XI
Le Cercle: Puppetmasters
A Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: The Secret Origins of the Patriot Movement Part IV
Trump, the JSOC, and the Legacy of ARTICHOKE

I hope everyone finds this discussion and the links provided informative. Before wrapping up, a brief note on programming: I know new posts have been a bit scarce of late, but be assured I'm hard at work. Presently, several of the topics I'm looking into are extremely research heavy. As such, it might be a few weeks until one of them is ready to start working on. When I've had this problem in the past, I've usually focused on current events. But as it stands, making sense of current events nowadays is a bit daunting, to say the least. Still, I'll keep my eyes peeled for recent developments that I feel I can add insight too.

In other words, please be patient. There are some exciting projects in the works around here and the wait will be worth it. And with that I shall sign off for now. Say tuned dear readers.

Goodfellas Part VIII: Sons of Cohn

Welcome to the eighth and final installment in what has been a long, strange journey. It began in November of 2017 with a standalone piece I published examining the implications of Donald Trump's time as CEO of the gaming company known as Resorts International for a brief period in the 1980s. While often overlooked. Trump's tenure at Resorts was likely a pivotal moment in the Orange One's public life. It effectively announced his arrival as a real player in deep politics.

For you see, Resorts International was not just any gaming interest. It had its origins in an entity known as the Mary Carter Paint Company, widely believed to be a CIA front used to sponsor anti-Castro operations in Florida during the early 1960s. By the end of the decade it had morphed into Resorts and opened up the Bahama's Paradise Island to legalized gambling. It had an assortment of powerful and curious backers that included President Richard M. Nixon, billionaire Howard Hughes, "rogue" financiers Robert Vesco and William Mellon Hitchcock and the inevitable Lansky associates. It also owned its own private intelligence company outright. It was known as Intertel and was heavily staffed with various members of the US intelligence community.

Both the Syndicate and Intertel were still heavily involved in Resorts at the time of Trump's CEO-ship. The two represented the confluence of powers that ultimately brought Trump into the White House.

This present series began as an attempt to trace Trump's ties to organized crime prior to Resorts, with part one focusing on the various wise guys who helped establish Trump's real estate empire in the early days. But at the end of that installment I began to focus on a curious individual known as Edward "Biff" Halloran, an alleged Genovese family member who had ties to an even more curious criminal enterprise.

With the second and third installments I began to consider "The Company," a Kentucky-based drugs-and-arms trafficking network founded and heavily staffed by former US military and law enforcement personnel. "The Company" appears to have had links to both the US intelligence community as well as the administration of Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown. During the heyday of The Company Trump would befriend Brown and become a regular at Caesars Palace, a Las Vegas casino Brown was a shadow owner of and which laundered money for the Company. During this era Trump would also begin making annual pilgrimages to the Kentucky Derby, where Company personnel were providing security for various high society balls held in honor of the race. Other curious types, such as the Clinton family, were making the rounds there as well.

Donald Trump with John Y. Brown as Hillary Clinton looks on

As I was wrapping up part three I began to consider the man widely regarded as Trump's political mentor and the individual who initiated Trump into the criminal underworld: his infamous attorney Roy Cohn. A former legal aide of Joseph McCarthy, Cohn was a major power in New York City with heavy sway over the mob. But beyond this, he was a key member of an international far right network and a vicious foe of the Kennedy family.

With the fourth installment I began to take a closer look at Cohn, noting his close ties to CIA Director William Casey and Republican lobbyists Craig Spence and Robert Keith Gray, all of whom were alleged to be key figures in the Franklin scandal. Said scandal involved a nation wide pedophile ring based out of Nebraska that was linked to the Bush I White House and generally catered to the rich and powerful, almost surely for the purpose of blackmail.

But Franklin was not the only blackmail ring Cohn has been linked too. With part five I began to consider the curious career of Thomas Corbally, a member of both the OSS and Kroll Associates who frequently worked as a private detective for Cohn (and later Trump). Corbally crops up in numerous sex scandals over the years, the most recently involving Heidi Fleiss, the so-called Hollywood madam, during the early 1990s. As the fifth installment was coming to an end I began to consider a far more serious sex scandal Corbally was a central player in: the Profumo affair.

John Profumo was the UK Secretary of State for War and a Privy Council member. In 1961 he had an affair with Christine Keeler, who at the time was also sleeping with Yevgeni Ivanov, a Soviet naval attache and GRU asset then stationed in London. When news of the affair broke in 1963, it brought down the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan.

Christine Keeler

Keeler had been set up with both men by MI5 asset Stephen Ward, who was also reputedly used by the UK as a back channel to the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ward's patron was Lord William Astor III, a fellow MI5 man who belonged to one of the most powerful Anglo-American dynasties around. The British branch of the Astor family had played a key role in launching the Round Table movement that spawned the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

As was noted in part six, Ward and Astor appear to have been involved in a curious network of British aristocrats engaged in sex parties with sadomasochistic and occultic overtones. Indeed, Ward himself was said to have a keen interest in the occult and members of this social circle such as J. Paul Getty Jr. and William Mellon Hitchcock (also a later shareholder in Resorts International) would later become major backers of the 1960s counterculture.

Corbally was also a member of this network, sharing a flat with Hitchcock in London at the time. In 1962 he befriended Ward and began learning of the seedier side of the British Establishment while also throwing sex parties at his flat. Reportedly, he is who provided confirmation of the Profumo affair to Macmillan via US Ambassador to the UK David Bruce, another OSS man himself.

But Corbally appears to have had an even more ambitious agenda than gathering dirt on the British Tories. As was noted in part seven, his interest in Ward's ring appears to have derived from allegations that John F. Kennedy had had an affair with at least two of Ward's girls in New York City during 1961. Corbally would eventually befriend one of these girls and provide information on what he had learned to the FBI in 1963. His attorney during these interviews was Roy Cohn, who owed much of his career to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. At the time both men were at war with the Kennedy White House and Corbally's revelations were no doubt most welcome.

The Process, or Lack Therefore Of

But Profumo indicates even more ominous dealings on the part of Cohn and Corbally. As I've stated several times before, Ward's ring was practically full blown Eyes Wide Shut and one of his reputed girls would go on to form a most notorious cult. The woman's name was Mary Ann MacLean (later DeGrimston) and the cult was called the of the Process Church of the Final Judgment.

It should be noted that there is no concrete evidence that Mary Ann was one of Ward's girls. As was noted in part six, former Process member Timothy Wylie rejected this claim outright on the basis the Mary Ann would have boasted of it at some point. Apparently the woman was prone to embellishing her past.

Mary Ann MacLean

But keep in mind, Ward's ring brought down one government in the UK and may have done the same to the Kennedy White House had JFK lived long enough after the scandal broke. Ward himself died during the trail via suicide (which is widely disputed) and several other individuals with knowledge of the ring suffered similar fates. In other words, Mary Ann would have had good reason to keep mum on any work she did for Ward, especially during the 1960s when many figures linked to the ring were still politically active.

Still, evidence of this is rather slim and I've only included it here due to later connections Cohn and Thomas Corbally made in New York City and the surrounding area during the late 1970s. But before getting to that, I need to briefly address some of the longstanding claims surrounding the Process. 

Since the early 1970s there have been allegations, most notably in Ed Sanders' The Family, that the Process was involved with the Manson Family. Both entities were active in San Francisco during 1967 and it is quite possible Manson encountered the group then, as did numerous other individuals. Certainly, there are indication that Manson was influenced by Process literature of the time.

Then, in 1988, journalist Maury Terry published The Ultimate Evil, a highly controversial account that linked the Process not only to Manson, but also the Son of Sam killings and the Cotton Club murder. Later additions also included the Atlanta Child Murders. Terry effectively outlined a nation wide cult network involved not just in murder, but drug and sex trafficking as well.

I've examined Terry's claims at length before in my account of the Process (which can be found here), and while I find much of his raw data compelling, many of his conclusions are highly problematic. To my mind, Terry overemphasized the importance of the Process and other occultic organizations like the Church of Scientology and American branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) in this network while almost totally ignoring its ties to the American militia and neo-Nazi undergrounds and the broader Fascist International.

I already noted Manson's ties to the far right at length in a recent post in the wake of the cult leader's death last year. It is highly recommended the reader check out this post as we shall return to several personalities noted in it. As for the Son of Sam cult, Terry makes frequent references to the group's obsession with Nazism and includes in its membership Army veteran and bodybuilder Fred Cowan. A fanatical neo-Nazi, Cowan murdered several of his coworkers at his place of employment on February 14, 1977 in New Rochelle. Cowan was a member of the far right Georgia-based National States' Rights Party (NSRP).

Fred Cowan

Cowan is not the only right wing terrorist the NSRP has produced over the years. Another was Frazier Glenn Miller, another Army veteran and long time FBI informant linked to several murders over four decades. The most notable were the Greensboro massacre and the Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting.

And then there's NSRP co-founder J.B. Stoner. In 1980 Stoner was convicted on the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church (which played a major role in the early Civil Rights movement) and authorities believed that he may have been involved in dozens of other bombings. Stoner also served on the legal team of James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., and some suspect he played a more direct role in the King assassination as well. And Stoner and other NSRP members have also been credibly linked to the Atlanta Child Murders which, as noted above, Terry has also believed were connected to the Son of Sam cult.

Finally, at least one notable NSRP members appears in the Kennedy assassination, as I noted before here. Interestingly, it is noted in a Warren Commission document that Captain Robert K. Brown was also in contact with NSRP in the months leading up to the Kennedy assassination. As was noted in part two of this series, famed mercenary Brown would go on to found Soldier of Fortune magazine, which was used extensively by The Company to recruit veterans for their operations. Also noted in that installment were allegation that The Company had provided "devil worshipers" with paramilitary training at a massive training compound in Kentucky. But moving along.

Robert K. Brown

The NSRP was almost surely not the only far right organization the cult network Terry proposes was in contact with. Consider the cities Terry cites as major bases of operations for the network: Los Angeles, Houston and two North Dakota cities, Bismarck and Minot. In Terry's thesis, this network was a kind of shoot of the OTO and used occult organizations across the nation.

And while the OTO had a presence in Houston and certainly Los Angeles during this time, the Dakota cities weren't exactly known as New Age meccas, either then or now. There was, however, one especially militant right wing network active near three of the four cities. This would be the Posse Comitatus network, founded by former military intelligence officer Colonel William Potter Gale. As was noted before here, Gale had played a key role in founding what would become in the militia movement during the early 1960s in Southern California and the Posse was something of a prototype of said movement.

This network would eventually reach across the nation and find a particularly militant member in North Dakota: Gordon Kahl, another former military man who famously engaged in a large scale shootout with police in 1983 that made him a hero of the far right. Kahl had founded a Posse chapter in North Dakota during the 1970s and had been very active in promoting it in the area around Bismark and Minot up until the Medina shootout in 1983.

Gordon Kahl

I've been unable to determine if a Posse chapter was active in Houston during this time, but another right wing paramiltarist surely was: Louis Beam, yet another former military man who helped promote the concept of "leaderless resistance" in the militia movement. Beam was involved with a militia in the Houston area during the early 1980s, reportedly using Camp Puller near Houston to train potential members, which included children as young as 8.

Gale, Kahl and Beam were all proponents of Christian Identity "theology," as was J.B. Stoner. All of these individuals were in contact with one another through a nationwide network that has been linked to numerous instances of terrorism over the years, including the Oklahoma City bombing (noted before here).

Christian Identity theology is a thoroughly racist ideology that depicts nonwhites as demonic, subhuman beings. As was noted before here, there is some overlap between Identity theology and that of Charles Manson, another reported cog in this network. Christian Identity grew out of a concept known as British Israelism, which held that the British were descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. It is interesting to note that in the early twentieth century, in the UK, there was some overlap between the British Israelists and Christian Scientists, including founder Mary Baker Eddy. Reportedly, Christian Science would later play a key role in the Round Table movement (which was sometimes known as the Milner Group):

"... Christian Science became the religion of the Milner Group after Milner's death. Among others, Nancy Astor and Lord Lothian were ardent supporters of the new belief. Christian Science was part of the atmosphere of Cliveden."

(The Anglo-American Establishment, Carroll Quigley, pg. 70)

The so-called "Cliveden Set," named after the Astor family estate, was an offshoot of the Round Table movement that fought for appeasement with Nazi Germany in the years leading up to World War II. Nancy Astor was the mother of Lord Astor while the Lothain family would later turn up in far right wing pursuits (noted before here). Clivden would later become the site of various sex parties, with Stephen Ward renting a cottage there during the peak of his influence (as was noted in part six). Reportedly Ward and Nancy Astor became quite friendly with one another during this time. But moving along.

Cliveden

Naturally, Maury Terry was totally oblivious to these connections and seemingly so are virtually every other researcher that delved into these murky waters. I can't speak for the rest of the pack, but in Terry's case I feel quite certain that there's a reason he's never chosen to pursue this angle. More on that in a moment.

There's one other point I would also like to make before moving on to the next section as well: the presence of military veterans in this network. Many of the most notorious members of these far right paramilitary organizations were veterans, as were many of the members of The Company. And so were many reputed members of the Son of Sam cult. Beyond Cowan, there was David Berkowitz himself, John Carr (the reported leader of Berkowitz's coven and a some time resident of Minot) and William Mentzer. And these are just the alleged members.

Certainly, it would seem like there is a lot of overlap among these supposedly unconnected networks...

Cohn and Son of Sam

As far as Roy Cohn goes, there has been one noteworthy individual to link the infamous attorney to the Son of Sam cult: David Berkowitz. The allegations come via Maury Terry, so they certainly should be taken with a grain of salt, but are interesting nonetheless.

"According to Berkowitz, the sex and drug soirees were held at upscale private residences in Westchester, Manhattan, Connecticut and Long Island's Hamptons. His telephone records, which documented calls to the Hamptons and to the Long Island summer homes of two Yonkers doctors, partially supported his statement. Further, two witnesses maintain that occasionally present at these parties were a Yonkers judge, at least two Westchester County politicians, a high-ranking New York State politician, a celebrated but later-murdered physician, a Nobel Prize-winning doctor, and two aides (one prominent) to then-mayor of New York City Abraham Beame.

"Berkowitz also revealed that he met Roy Cohn, the powerful and notorious attorney who once represented – besides numerous other 'high-society' clients – are dealer Andrew Crispo and the owners of the glamorous but scandal-ridden Studio 54 discotheque. 

" 'I was at a party at that big house he had in Greenwich [Connecticut],' Berkowitz said of Cohn, who died of AIDS in 1986. 'I didn't know him, but other people did, and that's how I went to a party there.' "

(The Ultimate Evil Maury Terry, pg. 534)

What then are we to make of these claims? Surprisingly, they are more plausible than they may initially seem.

For one, Terry had earlier alleged that these soirees featured underage prostitutes and as was noted in part six, Cohn was reputed to be involved in sex ring involving minors in New York City going back to the 1950s. Specifically, Cohn was said to keep a suite at the Plaza in Manhattan (one of the alleged locations of these parties) for such activities. Would it be a stretch for Cohn to carry on such activities at his Greenwich residence? Certainly his parties there were legendary, with Trump being a frequent guest by the early 1980s.

Cohn's former Greenwich residence

What's more, in addition to hosting sex parties, Westchester County was a the main base of operations for the alleged Son of Sam cult. And it just so happens that Biff Halloran, the Genovese family member who helped Bradley Bryant found The Company (noted in part two) was a resident of Westchester, owning a mansion in Pelham Manor. Halloran was also a client of Cohn and provided Trump with much of the concrete for his early building projects.

And then there's the matter of New York City mayor Abe Beame. Its totally plausible aides of Beame could have attended such parties, especially when they were held at Cohn's home, as Beame was very much a creature of the attorney. In fact, Beame largely owed his office to Cohn.

"The son of a Bronx judge, Cohn was reared in the clubhouse culture of the city, attending dinner parties as a teenager with Carmine DeSapio, Ed Flynn, and the other Democratic bosses who ruled New York. He had also met Abe Beame in his father's house, and over the years became an adviser to both Beame and new Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Meade Esposito. In fact, he played a pivotal role in 1973, when bridesmaid Beame, who was against city comptroller, finally won the mayoral election.

"It was Cohn who privately convinced the New York Times that Beame's leading opponent, Bronx Congressman Mario Biaggi, had taken the Fifth Amendment before a federal grand jury the year before. Cohn happened to know this because Biaggi had come to him for legal advice and told him that he'd refused to testify. When the Times published the charge against Biaggi, with the source cited as anonymous, Biaggi denied it, the testimony was eventually released, and Biaggi's candidacy was destroyed. The gambit made Roy Cohn a fixture in a Beame's government and Beame a trophy at Cohn's frequent parties.

(Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth, Wayne Barrett, pg. 82)

Abe Beame

Abe Beame was the embattled mayor of NYC during the Son of Sam killings. David Berkowitz was arrested in 1977, the year Beame was up for reelection. Beame's administration was riddled with corruption, having lead NYC into a major fiscal crisis. He was trailing badly at the polls when the murders began and would latch onto Sam in a desperate reelection bid.

"Concurrently, New York Mayor Abraham Beame was up for reelection and was trailing badly in the polls as the Sam case heated up. He almost closed a carnivorous gap in the wake of Berkowitz's arrest – with his highly visible portrayal as the man in charge whose police department just happened to end the reign of terror only a month before the primary. But despite his phoenixlike rise from the ashes, Beame narrowly lost that election and was out of office several months later.

"To state the obvious: new mayors initiate high-level changes in large police departments. Thus, many in power had a vested interest in a timely, uncomplicated resolution of the Son of Sam case. But the evidence reveals more than that. It also shows that events were manipulated behind the scenes by a handful of influential individuals who, although not directly involved in the shootings themselves, were compromise because they had interacted with cult leaders at high-society drug parties that featured sex with children."

(The Ultimate Evil, Maury Terry, pg. xiii)

Terry is of course referring to the above-mentioned parties alleged thrown at times at Cohn's Greenwich home and which included two Beame aides. In other words, Beame likely had a vested interest in the police reaching a tidy conclusion, namely that the Son of Sam killings were the work of a lone nut. Many police officers chaffed at this assessment, but this was the view the Beame administration endorsed.

Let us call this the "Phase One" story concerning the Son of Sam killings, with apologies to Peter Dale Scott. As Beame's chief patron, Roy Cohn would have been well placed to influence the "Phase One" story.

However, Cohn also would have been in an excellent position to craft the "Phase Two" story, namely the one embraced by Terry and his followers: that the Son of Sam killings were the result of cult comprised of demented former hippies and acolytes of the Process, the OTO and other such organizations.

And how would Cohn have done this, you may ask. Well, consider Terry's employer at the time the Son of Sam killings begun:

"The New York Post, a recent acquisition of Australian publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch, was heavily involved in coverage of the Son of Sam case. At times, it was guilty of sensationalism, but so were the rest of the media. The Post was losing money when Murdoch took the reins, and he immediately laid claim to the .44-caliber investigation, engaging the Daily News, particularly, in a battle of headlines as the probe continued. It was said in New York that Murdoch 'hung his head on Son of Sam.' 

"Two weeks after Berkowitz arrest, I sat in the office of Peter Michelmore, the Post metropolitan editor, and elicited his interest in the subject of John Wheaties Carr and the Carr illustration studio. The Post was headquartered at 210 South Street, near the Seaport, not far from the Brooklyn Bridge. Its city room reflected the paper's financial struggles, with antiquated typewriters and general disarray in evidence.

"Murdoch had imported a number of Australian writers and editors to work at the Post; people he knew well from his overseas operations. Michelmore, a distinguished-looking, gray-haired man of about fifty, was one of those. 

" 'I think this John Carr thing is good stuff,' he said, after I explained what I'd discovered. Michelmore summoned columnist Steve Dunleavy, another Australian, and assigned him to work with me to develop the story... "

(The Ultimate Evil, Maury Terry, pg. 144) 

Steve Dunleavy

Dunleavy would go on to become one of the leader reporters in the TV tabloid show A Current Affair. He served as the basis for the serial killer-glorifying journalist Wayne Gale in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Dunleavy was a longtime favorite of Murdoch and it should come as little surprise that he is the one who first put Terry into contact with Berkowitz via a prison informant. This was at time when Terry alleges many police officers didn't have access to Berkowitz. But Dunleavy did and he was more than happy to help Terry establish a dialogue.

As noted above, John Carr was an Air Force veteran alleged to have been involved in the Son of Sam cult. Thus, it would seem Terry was already closing in on his cult hypothesis at this point and Murdoch's paper was more than happy to give him the contacts needed to eventually write what became The Ultimate Evil.

As was noted in part three of this series, Cohn and Murdoch were very close, with Cohn introducing the Australian press magnet to various high ranking officials in the Reagan administration during the early 1980s. Cohn played a key role in Murdoch's rise in other words and here is Murdoch helping lay the foundation of the "Phase Two" story concerning the Son of Sam murders.

Ruppert Murdoch is to the center while Cohn is at the right

Clearly, Cohn would have been in position to influence Terry's investigation and as such, it should hardly come as surprise that the Process, the OTO and the Church of Scientology were all linked to the murders while organizations such as the National States' Rights Party and the broader Christian Identity/militia network were almost entirely ignored. This no doubt would have gotten too close to Cohn's sinister circle of associates.

Before moving along, there is one other interesting indirect connection to the Son of Sam case Cohn had. The Post's chief rival in covering the Son of Sam case was the New York Daily News. During the killing spree Berkowitz allegedly sent Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin the infamous "Hello from the gutters..." letter that the newspaper later published in its entirety. The letter sparked hundreds of calls to the NYC police offering leads that were largely baseless. It is generally felt that the publication of this letter hurt the investigation and Breslin and the Daily News received a lot of criticism in the aftermath.

As was noted in part seven of this series, the Daily News was the newspaper that had linked Thomas Corbally to the Profumo scandal in 1963. After Roy Cohn threatened the paper with a six million dollar lawsuit, it promptly dropped the issue. What's more, there appears to have been no love lost between Breslin and Cohn. As such, this research can't help but wonder if the Son of Sam letter to Breslin and the controversy it stirred was another attack on the Daily News by Cohn.

Enter Corbally

As should come as little surprise to those of you who have been following this series, former OSS man, private detective-to-the-stars and blackmail specialist extraordinaire Thomas Corbally was also knee deep in this scene. But before getting to that, a bit needs to be said about another individual Terry linked to the Son of Sam cult. This would be showbiz promoter Roy Radin, who made a considerable fortune off of packing vaudeville shows and oldies music tours to various police unions across the northeast in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

Radin owned a home in the Southhampton area of New York known as Ocean Castle. As noted above, the Hamptons were one location for the sex parties Cohn was linked too and Berkowitz (via Terry) alleged that Radin's mansion was another such location. Radin and the mansion had made headlines in 1980 when actress Melonie Haller alleged that she had been beaten and rapped there. Radin claimed that it was consensual and the story largely died down by the end of the year.

Ocean Castle

Radin would once again make headlines in 1983, this time for his murder. The promoter had become obsessed with breaking into Hollywood and had established a working relationship with legendary producer Robert Evans, who helped shepherd such movies to the screen as the Syndicate-glorifying The Godfather and Chinatown, a WWII area film noir concerning a private detective investigating a wealthy California man who is revealed to be involved in pedophilia and incest.

Oh, and Chinatown was also directed by convicted pedophile Roman Polanski, whose wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family. Elsewhere, Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola would go on to direct The Cotton Club, the film Evans would ultimately make with Radin's money. All of this begs the question of just how familiar Evans was with this network and how long the relationship had existed. 

Certainly Cohn and Corbally would have found more than a few elements of these films autobiographical and that likely wasn't by accident. As was noted in part five of this series, Evans was a key figure in the Hollywood-based prostitute ring Heidi Fleiss operated. In point of fact, Evans was something of a boyfriend to Fleiss and reportedly Fleiss had met Corbally via Evans. This was during the early 1990s and it would seem that Evans and Corbally had known one another for some time prior to this. Its quite possible their relationship stretched back to The Cotton Club project and even further back, if The Godfather and Chinatown are any indication.

Robert Evans

At the time The Cotton Club project began to heat up Evans was down on his luck and Radin appeared to have crucial financial support available. Another figure offering financial assistance was Karen Greenberger, who had cut her teeth selling cocaine in the Miami area a few years early. At the time she had married a key figure in the Medellin cartel which, as was noted in the second installment, had been supplying The Company with cocaine by the early 1980s. And in both cases, the contacts within the Medellin cartel were individuals linked to the Nazi-worshiping Carlos Lehder. More on Lehder's ties to the far right can be found here. 

This is not the only connection between The Company and Radin's murder either. Greenberger was close to fashion designer Leslie DeKeyser, frequently visiting him in Las Vegas, a city The Company was highly active in (noted in part three). In Sinister Forces Book III, Peter Levenda also notes that one of the Kentucky Derby figures allegedly involved with The Company was also close to DeKeyser. What's more Phyllis George, a former Miss America winner who was married to Robert Evans from 1977 to 1978, was the wife of John Y. Brown during the heyday of The Company. 

And then there was one of Radin's murderers, William Mentzer. Terry alleged that Mentzer was also involved with the Son of Sam cult, dubbing him "Manson II." He linked Mentzer to murder of Arlis Perry, a young woman for Minot, North Dakota who was brutally murdered at Stanford University in 1974 (as was noted in the prior installment, Stanford took over Clivden in 1968). At the time of Radin's murder, Mentzer was working for a security firm employed by pornographer Larry Flynt, another reputed Kentucky Derby regular. Previously Flynt had been using former OSS man and infamous arms trafficker Mitchell WerBell III for security. As was noted in part two of this series, WerBell likely had some type of working relationship with The Company prior to his death. Its also interesting to note Mentzer's security firm was also linked to WerBell's death, as was noted before here. 

As you can see, this whole network is rather incestuous and there even more direct links. For you see, Thomas Corbally was involved with the scene around Ocean Castle during the 1970s. The journalist who broke the Melonie Haller allegations in 1980, one Anthony Haden-Guest, has gone on record to note that Corbally was his source, among other things. Writing on The Daily Beast in 2014, Haden-Guest noted:

"In my piece I referred to the man who opened up a whole party world in the Hamptons for me only as ‘The Roman Senator,’ this being because he had kind of that look and because there was something of Roman decadence about the scene of which he was effectively the Godfather.

"Well, ‘the Roman Senator’ died ten years ago and his name was Tom Corbally. He was a terrific fellow, described in his obituary in the Guardian as a man who 'played significant roles in scandals and big-business battles on both sides of the Atlantic for forty years,' and in the London Times as 'a businessman and New York socialite cloaked in mystery and involved in international intrigue' who 'had friendships with Hollywood stars, business leaders and such international luminaries as Mother Teresa, Sir Jimmy Goldsmith of Britain and King Hussein of Jordan.' 

"The Hamptons world into which Corbally opened the door was small but intense, a clubby, pink and green trousered version of bondage, whippings and what have you, where—I quote myself—'sufferers from tennis elbow were likely to get a knowing look, or a coarse allusion to "thrasher’s arm" ' and where 'it seemed there was no shortage of lovelies longing to slip out of their Halstons into something uncomfortable.'

"I was shown photographs of shackled babes and a cute couple wincing as they were spattered with drippings from a lit candle.

"Corbally also showed me a collection of gizmos inventively put together from leather, glimmery metal, and rubber tubing...

"Why had Corbally been so ready to share? It turned out he was none too keen on some of the fresh faces horning in.

"The whole scene was supposed to be fun and games, he had said. But amateurs wouldn’t necessarily know where to draw those fine lines. 'You’ll do something wrong and you’ll end up in the headlines,' he had told them. He added that he had never accepted an invitation from Roy Radin." 

Thomas Corbally

Let this all sink in for a moment, especially the part about Corbally effectively being the "Godfather" of this whole scene. Also consider the similarities between these sex parties and the ones Corbally was involved in the UK over a decade earlier. Both were characterized by extreme sadomasochism, involved the wealthy and various VIPs and both were reputed to use minors at times. 

To this researcher's mind this lends a lot of credence to the allegations that Cohn was also involved in the scene. Corbally was Cohn's dog's boy and he was likely gathering blackmail material for his longtime attorney just as he had in the UK.  

This also provides a rather clear link between The Company and Radin's murder: Roy Cohn himself. Cohn was the attorney for Biff Halloran, who helped Bradley Bryant set up The Company and provided them with clients. And here's Corbally, Cohn's long time private detective, sniffing around the activities at Radin's house.  

It should be noted that another link is President Donald Trump himself, who also worked with both Halloran and Corbally. As was noted in part three, Trump was also very active in the Kentucky Derby scene by the early 1980s as well. 

Of course, none of this conclusively proves that Cohn was involved with the Son of Sam killings, but it does lend credence to the allegations concerning Cohn made by David Berkowitz to Terry, who in turn did absolutely nothing to follow up on these claims. But clearly Berkowitz was aware of this scene, which had only been hinted at occasionally to the general public, such as when Corbally leaked the Haller incident. This, along with Radin's eventual murder were probably a result of Radin's increasing instability. By all accounts, the drugs were bleeding him dry while also making him more and more on a loose canon. I suspect the Haller leak was a warning, and after he failed to pull his act together while The Cotton Club was going into production, he was eliminated.

Conclusions

For years Roy Cohn appears to have been a key intermediary between Overworld figures such as Hoover, Aristotle Onassiss and Trump on the one hand and on the other with underworld forces such as the Syndicate and The Company. But beyond this, Cohn was also a key key player in what appears to be a sex ring catering to extreme tastes (i.e. sadomasochism, pedophilia, etc) with both a national and an international scope.

I've compared the Profumo affair at times to Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, but the New York-based ring of Roy Radin, Thomas Corbally and likely Cohn himself appears to be a more apt comparison. In point of fact, Kubrick may even have partly based the film on insider knowledge he had of this ring. Eyes was nominally based on a novella called Traumnovelle by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler and Kubrick remained fairly faithful to its plot line.

One of the major points of departure, however, was the location: while Traumnovelle is set in Vienna, Kubrick relocated the film to New York City and the surrounding area. The infamous sex party depicted in the film takes place at an isolated country mansion outside of the city, and features several other elements present in the Stephen Ward and Radin circles, including masks and S & M. What's more, it is reputed that Ward's girls also worked out of New York City in the early 1960s, potentially servicing JFK, among others. This researcher suspects that Kubrick was well aware of this history and picked the New York setting with it in mind.

But beyond the sex rings, there's the even more ominous connection between Cohn and the alleged Son of Sam cult. While superficially this may seem incredible, it must be put into context.

Cohn was a part of a  broader international far right network I have dubbed the Fascist International. Up until the late 1980s, the key organizations representing this network were the American Security Council (in the US, noted at length before here), Le Cercle (Europe, noted at length here) and the World Anti-Communist League (WACL, the international coordinating body, noted at length here). As was noted in part three, Cohn was a member of Western Goals Foundation, a part of the US-based American Security Council network.

As was noted before here and here, both the WACL and Le Cercle were closely linked to Operations Condor and Gladio, effectively international terror campaigns carried out by the Fascist International with support from Western governments throughout the second half the twentieth century. And as was noted in those pieces, these networks frequently dealt in pedophile rings as well. And there was often an occult flavor --as was noted before here and here, the Propaganda Due Masonic lodge and followers of philosopher and occultist Julius Evola were used extensively in Gladio.

Julius Evola

If partners in Le Cercle and the WACL were engaged in such activities, is it such a stretch that their American counterparts would do the same?

And who would be better placed than Roy Cohn, who appears to have spent decades operating various honeytraps and who was well connected with a host of brutal killers?

And this dear reader cuts to the heart of why the Establishment is so terrified of Trump. Trump and many of his key backers such as Paul Manafort and Roger Stone are all proteges of Cohn. What's more, there are indication that they have carried on Cohn's work. Just consider Stone. As was noted before here, Stone appears to have been the one who brought down New York governor Eliot Spitzer after linking him to a prostitution ring and he was almost surely one of the individual who outed the NXIVM cult as well.

Ah, NXIVM --a cult that appears to have specialized in honeytrapping VIPs. Certainly it bares some similarities to how the alleged Son of Sam cult was used in New York state in terms of the sex parties. The killings, not so much.

But that may only be a matter of time. As Trump becomes more embattled, it is likely only a matter of time before these militia and Christian Identity networks from which the Son of Sam cult almost surely grew out of are activated. And if this happens, we are in for some interesting times indeed.

And with that I shall sign off for now. Until next time dear reader, stay tuned.