Fringe: The Strange Dealings of Bob Bigelow

With the recent bombshell revelations concerning a secret UFO program being run by the Pentagon, I thought the time was right for an update in an ongoing series I've been working on for over a year that I've dubbed "Fringe." It was originally focused on the connections between the far right and a host of arcane topics ranging from UFOs, psi, mind control, Tesla weapons, human potential, the occult and so on. The series thus far has generated over ten installments, plus two appendix, one dealing with the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon and another (which can be found here and here) focused on the ties between these bizarre topics and a highly classified national security project typically referred to as Continuity of Government (COG).

As such, the reader is strongly advised to check out several of these posts for further background on the present matter at hand.

And with the introductions out of the way, let us get to the matter at hand. I'm sure many of you already have some awareness of the UFO program, but for those living under a rock, here's a rundown from The New York Times, one of the first publications to "break" the story:

"In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

"Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

"For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

"The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.

"The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space." 

It is also interesting to note that this project was apparently largely overseen by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The DIA is the Pentagon's largest intelligence service, though it is largely overshadowed by the CIA, FBI and NSA in the public consciousness. Conspiracy researchers are generally not very impressed by the DIA either. To this researcher's mind, this is a grave oversight as the DIA has been at the heart of strange dealings inside the US intelligence community for decades.

The High Weirdness of the DIA

The DIA first officially waded into such murky waters when it was tapped to take on the Pentagon's legendary remote viewing program, variously known by such handles as GRILL FLAME and later, under the DIA, STARGATE. The DIA officially expressed interest in ESP as far back in 1972, when they issued an alarmist account of Soviet efforts in said field.

"By the late 1960s the US intelligence community was becoming aware of all this, by way of popular books, official studies, Pentagon and CIA translations of foreign psi research papers, and agents and émigré reports. The first big result was a curiously titled Defense Intelligence Agency report, Controlled Offensive Behavior – USSR, which appeared in 1972. It noted that 'the major impetus behind the Soviet drive to harness the possible capabilities of telepathic communication, telekinetics, and bionics are said to come from the Soviet military and the KGB.'...

"Thanks to the Soviet 'head start' in psi research, argued the DIA report-writer, 'Soviet knowledge in this field is superior to that of the West.' In other words, the United States, which already had to worry about a possible missile gap – a Soviet numerical superiority in ICBMs – now faced the prospect of a devastating 'psi gap.' "

(Remote Viewers, Jim Schnabel, pgs. 94-95)

By decade's end,  the DIA was well on its way to closing the "psi gap," real or imagined. In 1979 it had taken on funding and coordination of the Pentagon's remote viewing program and took over complete control of it by the mid-1980s. The program would remain under DIA control until 1995, when it was shuttered.

For our purposes here, it is interesting to note that the DIA remote viewing program spawned an 1980s exploration of the UFO question known as the UFO Working Group that has curious links to the modern program. The UFO Working Group was first exposed in 1990 by another New York Times journalist, one Howard Blum, in his classic Out There. Blum was first clued into the existence of the UFO Working Group in the mid-1980s.

"The UFO Working Group was a spin-off of the remote viewing program and known more accurately as the 'coordinate remote viewing' CRV program. One version of the account told by Blum states the whole thing started in the fall of 1985 during a meeting held in the secure vault of President Reagan's Scientific Advisor, George Keyworth.

"Dr. Hal Puthoff, then running the SRI remote viewing program, explained that Ingo Swann, a remote viewer, would demonstrate 'A new perceptual channel through which individuals are able to perceive and describe remote data not presented to any known sense.'

"A short series of precise geographical coordinates were read to Swann, and he proceeded to describe a building. Once revealed the target turned out to be the country dacha of Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Following this, a demonstration took place to show how the displayed 'Scannate' technology was proficient in antisubmarine warfare. They showed Ingo Swan a series of pictures of submarines, some American, some Soviet, some in dry docks, some not built yet. His job was to provide the exact coordinates for each submarine.

"As he was set to call up the coordinates of the Soviet Delta-class submarine in one of the photographs, he stopped and reported that he saw something above submarine. Swann was asked to draw what he saw on a piece of paper, and he proceeded to render a sketch of classic flying saucer. 

"A report was made by the SRI team of the incident and sent to the DIA who was the 'primary client.' About this same time, money from the Army for the CRV program ended, and the entire program moved to the DIA. 

"The Swan submarine incident led to a DIA/Navy Intelligence sponsored program to use 'Scannate' to search for Soviet submarines. According to Blum's information, the DIA was able to detect at least 17 UFO objects connected to Soviet submarines over the next 14 months. The project was called Project Magnet, and the DIA Directorate for Management and Operations supervised it. 

"Moreover, the incidents of the 'hovering UFOs' around submarines provided inspiration to Col. John Alexander, then Director, advanced concepts U.S. Army Lab. Command, Adelphi, M.D. 

"Alexander was a Colonel in the US Army and had been interested in the UFO mystery since 1947 when he was young boy. He also had done work on 'esoteric projects, specifically in the intelligence community was psychokinesis.' 

"Alexander wrote a book on his UFO investigations called UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities. In the book, Alexander pointed out that although UFOs are real, they are of no interest to the American government, and therefore there is no cover-up of the facts by American officials. 

"Alexander is also well-known in the UFO community for hosting a Top Secret – Special Access series of meetings in the mid-1980s to evaluate a possible new way of the government's approach to the UFO question. Alexander's group was known as the Advanced Theoretical Physics Group and bore the same 'Top Secret – Restricted Classification' found on the MJ-12 set of documents. 

"According to Blum, Alexander proposed that the DIA Project Aquarius viewers should view an area above Kickapoo, Texas. It was there that NORAD reported an unknown object had tripped a man-made electromagnetic fence extending up to 15,000 miles above the earth. 

"The three viewers were all asked to view anything unusual at that latitude and longitude in the last 48 hours. But in the day, on three CRV viewers had sent back drawing of a UFO. With this additional evidence in hand, Alexander convinced the DIA to set up a 'top-secret working group to investigate the possibility that extraterrestrials with making contact with this planet'... 

"Based on this psyche confirmation of a UFO been obtained by radar, the UFO Working Group formed in February 1985. Col. Alexander sent out the invitations for others he had chosen to generate a top-secret review of the UFO situation."

(Managing Magic, Grant Cameron, pgs. 107-109)

There's a lot to take in here and I will pick up the thread of this 1980s-era UFO group and its connection to the Pentagon's most recent one, but first a few points must be made.

First, the DIA appears to have been very active in the UFO field in general during the 1980s. Infamous Ufologist Bill Moore was in contact with a group of US intelligence officers that have sense been dubbed "the Aviary" on account of their use of bird names. The above-mentioned Colonel John Alexander was a part of this group and allegedly used the handle "Penguin." Moore's chief informant, who is still unknown, went by the codename "Falcon" and is widely suspected of being a DIA agent. As was noted before here and here, Moore threw the UFO community into a tailspin in the 1980s that it still hasn't fully recovered from and it would appear that the DIA was at the forefront of this disinformation campaign.

Another point that should be made are the allegations, first raised nationally by Jon Ronson in his classic The Men Who Stare At Goats, that the Pentagon's remote viewing program had been reactivated with the onset of the War on Terror. This is rather ominous in light of reports that the DIA, along with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have initiated Project ARTICHOKE-like "interrogation" methods, some including mind altering drugs. As was noted before here and here, the CIA/Pentagon remote viewing programs largely grew out of ARTICHOKE's 1950s forays into psi.

And with that out of the way, let us move along to the really juicy stuff.

The NIDS

Colonel John Alexander is a figure readers of my "Fringe" series should be well aware of by now. As was noted before here and here, he has been involved in the development of so-called "nonlethal" weapons for decades, more than a few of which may have been partly inspired by research conducted by ARTICHOKE, MK-ULTRA and like programs in prior decades. What's more, Alexander also appears to have been extensively involved in efforts by the Pentagon to create so-called "supersoldiers" (which, as was noted before here, was one of the original objectives of ARTICHOKE) during his time with Project Jedi. And despite becoming something of a New Age superstar in recent years, Alexander has decades-spanning ties to the most far right elements of the United States national security complex. In fact, Alexander appears to have first gained a foothold in this type of fringe research thanks to such elements.

Colonel John Alexander

But back to the matter at hand. After retiring from the Army, Alexander found himself playing a key role in one of the premier civilian groups dedicated to investigating unexplained phenomena. It was known as the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). Alexander described the NIDS as such:

"... NIDS had been established by a local real estate developer, Robert Bigelow, to examine scientifically two specific anomalous areas. One was the continuation of consciousness beyond physical death, and the other was UFOs..."

(UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities, John Alexander, pg. 41)

Yes, the above-mentioned Robert Bigelow whose Bigelow Aerospace ran the most recent Pentagon forays into the UFO question. The NIDS, which Bigelow was the founder and president of, was established in 1995 and officially shuttered its doors in 2004. In addition to Alexander, it also featured the above-mentioned Hal Puthoff on its scientific advisory board.

Puthoff was of course a founder of the CIA-sponsored SRI remote viewing program (after having previously served in the Office of Naval Intelligence) that spurred the DIA's 1980s-era investigations into UFOs. Alexander and Puthoff were but two of numerous other-intelligence linked personnel who became involved with NIDS in its less than-a-decade of existence.

Hal Puthoff

Easily the most famous investigation launched by the NIDS involved the infamous "Skinwalker" ranch in Utah. By all accounts, Bigelow went all in on this mecca of high weirdness.

"... The organization called NIDS has been mentioned as was its mission to explore UFO sightings. Some readers also will be aware of the most unusual ranch in southeastern Utah that was acquired by Robert Bigelow. Sometimes known as Skinwalker Ranch, it has been a focal point for a wide range of phenomena for at least decades, possibly centuries... 

"It was the UFO reports that attracted Bob's attention to the property. However, what happened there did not fit into any neatly organized box...

"Orbs or balls of light were often reported by the Gormans, who worked the ranch. They were very troublesome and contributed to the decision to sell the ranch. In one memorable instance, three of the Gormans' dogs were observed snapping at the orbs as they floated through the eastern part of the ranch close to where they lived. These orbs seemed to tease the dogs and led them off into a nearby pasture. The dogs never returned to the house. When Gorman searched for dogs the following day, all he found were three grease spots on the ground, which he took to be the remains of the dogs. Fearing that his teenaged sons might provoke the orbs, he decided to vacate the premises, selling it to Bob."

(UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities, John Alexander, pgs. 232-233)

In addition to the UFOs and orbs, there were also frequent reports of cryptids (the infamous Skinwalkers, somewhat related to Bigfoot-like creatures), poltergeist activity and a host of other strange activity.

On the whole then it would seems that the NIDS had interests that went far beyond UFOs or even near death experiences (NDEs). The presence of famed Ufologist Jacques Vallee, who frequently drew comparisons between UFOs and supernatural encounters from earlier eras, has led many to believe that the NIDS developed a working hypothesis concerning UFOs that was stranger than mere spaceships from another planet.

Putting It All Together

Now, let's take a look at the timeline of these events:

• the mid-1980s: Colonel Alexander allegedly forms the first DIA-linked UFO study group around 1985, thanks in no small part to interest raised in the subject by the CIA/Pentagon remote viewing program. During this same time the DIA also appears to have been running interference in the UFO community at large
•  1988-1990: Alexander retired from the Army in 1988 and shortly thereafter his UFO Working Group was exposed by Howard Blum in Out There. This appears to have briefly brought the UFO Working Group to a halt
• 1995: Project Stargate, the final name of the DIA's remote viewing program, is officially shuttered this year. At the same time Bigelow launches the NIDS with several key figures from the remote viewing program. 
• 2001: 9/11 unfolds, unleashing the War on Terror. Rumors persist of a reactivation of the CIA/Pentagon remote viewing program while both outfits roll back out techniques they spent decades researching under the banner of programs such as ARTICHOKE and MK-ULTRA in the name of "enhanced" interrogation methods
• 2004-2007: the NIDS is shuttered after allegedly inconclusive results. Despite this, the Pentagon taps Bigelow three years later to launch a highly secretive UFO program under the guise of his aerospace company. 

For years there were rumblings that the NIDS was simply a front for further CIA/Pentagon forays into high weirdness and recent revelations concerning Bigelow seem to confirm this. It would appear that the Pentagon's most recent investigation into UFOs had its origins with Alexander's 1980s-era UFO Working Group, which relocated into the deep private after the end of the Cold War. For years it was nurtured there by the generous contributions of Bigelow and the US intelligence community. This ensured that whatever discoveries made in these investigations would be well beyond the eyes of the public.

The question then becomes, why is this now being revealed to the public?

It would seem that this is partly the result of the ongoing civil war within the American power elite. The project was chiefly exposed by its former head, Luis Elizondo, who protested these program's secrecy to Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis shortly before going public. Since then Elizondo has attached himself to the disclosure project of Blink 182's Tom DeLonge.

DeLonge's project in turn appears to be little more than a continuation of a similar disclosure project effort launched by Laurence Rockefeller in the early 1990s. A key source to both efforts was none other than the infamous John Podesta, whose interests in UFOs became a lightening rod for controversy during the 2016 US presidential election (noted before here). These claims were of course latter overshadowed by Pizzagate, but there is no question the strange dealings of Podesta, a long time Clinton alley, had disastrous effects on Hillary's campaign.

John Podesta

By contrast, Robert Bigelow was an early backer of the Orange One and appears poised to receive ample government funding for his aerospace industry. Bigelow, who is based out of Las Vegas, may have had prior dealings with Trump of a less than legal nature, given the Orange One's roots in organized crime.

Robert Bigelow

On the whole, Las Vegas looms over all this like a specter. John Alexander is a key figure in the Las Vegas chapter of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), an organization believed to covertly manage the US intelligence community. Another key figure there is Alexander's friend, Colonel Michael Aquino, another figure with extensive ties to the far right (noted before here) who appears to have been running disinformation campaign in the UFO community for years as well.

And then there's the nearby Area 51, a long time staple of UFO lore that was largely leaked by the far right (noted before here). Curiously, Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock is believed to have been taking shots at a classified airline that supplied Area 51 shortly before beginning his killing spree. There is of course much speculation online at present that Paddock was a gun runner for some branch of the US intelligence community and with the covert revival of ARTICHOKE/MKULTRA, this raises some strange questions about the actual motive of Paddock's shooting spree.

It would seem then that Vegas is at the absolute black heart of much of the deep private's forays into high weirdness. But whether these recent revelations (and attacks) were simply payback for the 2016 election and outing of the Podesta brothers, or something far stranger and sinister is impossible to say at this point.

All that really can be said is that its been that kind of year.

Man's Son or the Children of the Sun?

As no doubt many of you are aware, infamous American cult leader and goth/heavy metal icon Charles Manson shed his mortal coil on November 19, 2017. Manson's death came at a time when Charlie had been enjoying something of a pop culture Renaissance. The ill-fated David Duchovny series Aquarius most recently dealt with some of the more conspiratorial notions surrounding Manson while a reenactment of the Tate murders was crucial to the most reason season of AMC's American Horror Story: Cult. A few years ago it was announced that rocker-turned director Rob Zombie would team with American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis for their own Manson TV series, but despite such pedigree, nothing seems to have come of it.

Most recently acclaimed hack director Quentin Tarantino was said to be developing his own Manson project, which hit a snag of late due to the ongoing fallout surround longtime Tarantino associate Harvey Weinstein. Even shock rocker Marilyn Manson, who took part of his stage name and persona from Charlie, has been back in the headlines of late in wake of as the Las Vegas shooting.

Marilyn Manson

I'm sure many regular readers of this blog are quite aware of many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Manson, especially in relation to the Process Church of the Final Judgment. I've dealt with this topic before here and here (and with the Process itself in this series) and will thus not delve into these topics at length here. What I would like to consider here in brief is Manson's ties to various far right networks and the truly global reach of these networks.

Fear and Loathing in Southern California

As many of you are no doubt aware, Manson is often depicted as the quintessential burned out hippie who ushered in the dark side of the Age of Aquarius, or something to that effect. But a closer examination reveals that when one looks past the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, Manson and his cult had far more in common with later right wing organizations than with the 1960s counterculture.

To wit, Manson and his cult departed from San Francisco, the absolute heart of the 1960s counterculture (at the end of the  of Summer of Love no less) and relocated to Southern California. Manson explained this move as an effort to escape the "bad vibes" of San Francisco. But surely things would have been hardly any better for a hippie cult in Southern California at this time, especially around the Los Angeles area.

While pop culture often depicts California as awash in the counterculture statewide in the 1960s nowadays, this was far from the reality. In fact, Southern California (outside of Hollywood) was the absolute heartland of far right organizations during this era. The most well known was of course the John Birch Society (JBS), who had their largest national presence in Southern California at this time, but they were hardly alone.

"The geographical distribution of Birch strength corresponds roughly to the concentrations of petty conservatism around country. The midwestern Bible Belt is fertile soil, and the Mormon-settled state of Utah, Idaho, Washington container membership out of proportion to their population. The eastern seaboard and Chicago largely turned their backs on the society. The Texas, Florida, in Southern California are Birch country.

"Southern California is the lotus land not only for the society but for ultra conservatism in general. When the Australian Dr. Fred Schwarz first set up his theological anti-communism shop in the United States, it was in Waterloo, Iowa, but the siren call of the California southland soon lured him to San Pedro and now Long Beach, where his Christian Anti-Communism Crusade has been anchored since 1958. Possibly nowhere in the nation is there a denser concentration of rightist activity than in Greater Los Angeles. Two well-known outfits are the Liberty Amendment Committee (not to be confused with the Liberty Lobby), which from national headquarters at 6413 Franklin Boulevard pushes for repel of the graduated income tax, and the Free Enterprise Division of Coast and Southern Federal Savings and Loan Association, which supports a staff of paid propagandists struggling 'to preserve the climate of economic opinion favorable to Americanism.' The First National Directory of Rightist Groups, published in 1968 by the Alert Americans Association, lists literally dozens of smaller groups and fronts. Glendale alone boasts the United Patriotic People of the USA, and Community Crusades for Americanism, the Network of Patriotic Letter Writers, Pilots for the American Republic, and the Reverend W. Stuart McBirnie, who originates a daily radio program from his United Community Church and subscribes to the motto 'Free Enterprise under God.' This is in addition to active branches of the National States Rights Party, the American Nazi Party, Young Americans for Freedom, the Constitution Party, and Pro-America."

(Power on the Right, William Turner, pgs. 22-23)

the JBS in Southern California during the 1960s

Turner would go on to note that Southern California was also ground zero for the emerging American militia movement, with numerous right wing paramilitary organizations cropping up there throughout the 1960s. One of the most notorious was related to Christian Identity minister (and former Army intelligence officer) William Potter Gale, who was addressed at length before here.

Little remarked upon are the similarities between the Manson Family and later militia groups. Manson and his followers were allegedly preoccupied with a coming race war. In preparation for it, they began to stock pile firearms while searching for isolated compounds in the California desert to dwell in. There are shades of the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord here and it is certainly possible that various right wing paramilitary groups in Southern California at the time took inspiration from the Family. But moving along.

After Manson's arrest, the Family would briefly forge close ties with the Aryan Brotherhood, the notorious white supremacist prison gang. Curiously this chapter of the Manson Family is little reported upon, even by alternative researchers, despite producing some of the cult's most shocking post-Tate/LaBianca moments. The alliance began in 1971 and quickly produced several striking moments of violence.

"In the summer of 1971, Manson formed an alliance with the Aryan Brotherhood (A.B.) at Folsom Prison by arranging visits between A.B. members and his girls, who – following Charlie's orders – gave the A.B.-ers hand jobs and lap dances in the Folsom Prison visiting room. Charlie swung a deal with the A.B. where they would protect him against prison beatings and homosexual assaults on the inside and, in return, Charlie's girls would look after A.B. members on the outside.

"The first A.B. member to join the Manson fold was Kenneth Como, who led a group of Manson Family members on a ten-minute shootout during an attempted robbery of the Western Surplus Store in Los Angeles on August 21, 1971. This incident later became known as 'The Hawthorne Shoot-Out.' Others involved in the robbery included Mary Brunner, Gypsy, Charles Lovett (aka. Chuckleberry), Little Larry and Dennis Rice...

"After the arrest of the Manson Family Six, it was learned that the same group had been responsible for the August 13th robbery of a Covina beer distributorship. The motive behind these robberies was to collect an arsenal of weapons to break Manson out of prison. According to Vincent Bugliosi, their madcap plan included using the stolen weapons to hijack a 747 and kill one passenger every hour until Manson – and all other incarcerated Family members – were released...

"Como in due time became a clan leader in his own right, as those Manson Family members who had followed him into armed battle now became his followers. Gypsy declared herself to Como, look, along with Mary Brunner, Charlie's first Manson Family convert. This resulted in a dispute between Manson and Como that soon came to a head, leading to the subsequent breakdown of the pact between the Aryan Brotherhood, and Charlie's Family." 

(The Shadow Over Santa Susana, Adam Gorightly, pgs. 144-145)

the aftermath of the Hawthorne Shoot-Out

The Aryan Brotherhood pact also resulted in one of the most mysterious pair of murders linked to the Manson Family. Nominally these killings appear to be related to the death of Ronald Hughes, an early defense attorney for the Family who disappeared in the midst of the trial. His body later turned up and Family member Sandra Good alleged that he had been murdered by the cult.

This all unfolded around late 1970. A little less than a year later the A.B. appears to have assisted the Family in tying up loose ends.

"Family members were still involved in murder and attempted murder. Brenda McCann, aka. Nancy Pitman, was arrested on November 11, 1972 in Stockton, California. Brenda had been Bruce Davis' girlfriend, with whom she had been on the lam in the Los Angeles sewers for months before they turn themselves in during December 1970. This time, she was found in a house which contained a body buried in the basement, that of Lauren Willett (19), who had been shot in the head. Along with McCann were two members of the Aryan Brotherhood, as well as another woman named Priscilla Cooper (21). Both women had X's carved into their foreheads, identifying them as Manson Family members. What alerted police to the house was the fact that a car parked outside belonged to a man who been murdered a few days earlier in Northern California. James T. Willett was a former Marine, and had been found in his Marine uniform: killed with a shotgun and decapitated. As the police were busy arresting the four people in the house – which contained a small arsenal of weapons – Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme called and asked to be picked up, evidently in the slain Mr. Willett's car. The police were only too happy to oblige.

"The motive for the murders remains unknown to this day. It is known that the Willetts have been associates of the Family for some time, at least a year if not longer according to Bugliosi. Bugliosi also wondered if James and Lauren Willett were the same James and Lauren who had driven Ronald Hughes to his campsite; if so, their deaths would be in accord with the Family's tradition of murder-as-cover-up. Bugliosi was unable to find the original James and Lauren, who had long since moved from their last known address. Eventually, the two men of the Aryan Brotherhood confessed to the crimes and were sentenced, as were Nancy Pitman and Priscilla Cooper. There was nothing to hold Lynnette Fromme, so she was set free."

(Sinister Forces Book II, Peter Levenda, pg. 121)

The relationship between the Manson family and the A.B. later soured, allegedly on account of Charlie not being racist enough for the A.B.'s liking. Manson assaulted Como in prison while the A.B. reportedly retaliated by  slipping Charlie some rat poison. The eventual deflections proved to be costly for Manson as well. Not only was Mary Brunner Manson's first convert, so was also the mother of his son Valentine Michael.

A.B.-er Kenneth Como relaxing with a Manson Family member

Despite these setbacks, Manson would continue to forge alliances with Nazi-leaning organizations. One of the most notable and longest standing has been with James N. Mason of the Universal Order. Mason was a veteran of George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party (ANP) and after Rockwell's death, signed up with the militant National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF), an organization founded by fellow American Nazi Party member Joseph Charles Tommasi in Southern California during the 1970s. After engaging in a dialogue with Manson, Mason launched the Universal Order during the early 1980s.

"... In 1980 James N. Mason (n. 1952), a violent Nazi who had joined Rockwell in the mid-sixties, revived the NASL (it had lapsed with Tommasi's assassination in 1975) as a forerunner of new militant American whites supremacist movements committed to an armed struggle against the so-called Zionist Occupied Government (ZOG), a current far-right epiphet for the U.S. government as a Jewish-controlled puppet regime. Mason relaunched Siege, in which he preached violence, racial strife and an all-out war against the hated system. In his quest for extremist mentors, Mason then became obsessed Charles Manson (b. 1934), the notorious killer serving life in prison for conspiracy in the murders of the actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969. Although Manson had carved a swastika into his forehead, his politics were vague. However, Mason regarded Manson as the supreme outlaw and adopted the convicted criminal as the spiritual leader of his neo-Nazi group, the Universal Order (the name came from Manson). Mason's Nazi religion embraced both Hitler and Manson as saviors, thereby combining Koehl's messianic piety with the millenarian violence of Tommasi. In the pages of Siege, Mason paid extravagant tribute to Hitler, Tommasi, Manson and Savitri Devi."

(Black Sun, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, pg. 19) 

James N. Mason

In addition to Joseph Charles Tommasi, another former American Nazi Party member was gaining a following in Southern California during the Family's most active years. This would be James K Warner, who relocated to Los Angeles in 1966. There he became a high priest the Odinist Religion and Nordic Faith Movement. He later made contact with the Odinist Fellowship of Else Christensen. I've found no evidence of contact between Warner and Manson, but one can imagine them having some degree of shared interests. But lets us return to James N. Mason for a moment.

Else Christensen

Mason's ties to the American Nazi Party are especially interesting in light on the long reputed ties between Manson and the Process Church of the Final Judgment. As was noted before here, the Process (an organization which also had a morbid fascination with Nazism) had been in contact with George Lincoln Rockwell shortly before his assassination. And here is Manson helping a former ANP member establish his own neo-Nazi outfit while other members of the ANP were active in Southern California at peak Family years. In the case of the pot-smoking Tommasi, he actively tried to recruit among the counterculture. Unfortunately, few investigators have explored these links. But moving along.

Beyond Southern California

Now that the Process has been brought up, I simply must address Maury Terry's allegations on a nation-spanning cult network that Manson was a part of. Per Terry the cult, often referred to as the "Four P-movement," originated with the Process Church of the Final Judgment and had links not only to the Manson Family, but also the Son of Sam killing spree (which have long been suspected of being committed by more than one person), the Cotton Club murder, and the Atlanta child murders, among others.

As I noted before here, I find Terry's claims to be dubious on some levels. But his raw data is compelling even though I believe his sources (including the Son of Sam himself, David Berkowitz) led him to conclusions that are questionable. Most glaring is Terry's blindness to the extent of which this alleged cult dovetailed with assorted right wing groups despite the frequent references to Nazism in Terry's investigation.

Consider for instance a reputed member of the Son of Sam cult, "Big" Fred Cowan. A bodybuilder and "former" member of he US Army (like Berkowitz himself, any number of militia types and, increasingly, mass shooters in general), Cowan went on a rampage in 1977 in New Rochelle, New York at his workplace that left six people dead on Valentine's Day. By all accounts Cowan was an unabashed neo-Nazi.

"No piker when it came to racism, Cowan decorated his attic apartment with portraits of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, Wermacht helmets, vintage German weapons, and a Nazi battle flag. He joined the fanatical, Georgia-based National States Rights Party and stocked up on anti-Semitic literature, but friends still thought he was joking when Cowan spoke about the possibility of 'shooting up a synagogue.' In Cowan's view of life, 'Nothing is lower than blacks and Jews except the police who protect them.' "

(Raising Hell, Michael Newton, pg. 113) 

"Big" Fred

Curiously, FBI informant and multiple murderer Frazier Glenn Miller was affiliated with the National States Rights Party (NSRP) in the 1970s. Miller, also an Army veteran, would go on to shoot up a synagogue in 2014. In fairness, Miller and Cowan were surely not the only white supremacists to contemplate shooting up a synagogue. It is interesting to note, however, that the NSRP had a strong presence in southern California at this time as well. In Power on the Right, former FBI agent William Turner notes that the NSRP was frequently used as a recruiting ground for the budding patriot militias there. It may well have been a recruiting pool for something else as well. But moving along.

the banner of the National States Rights Party

For Terry, one of the key connections between Manson and the Son of Sam killings was the figure of William Mentzer, a low rent hitman convicted in the Cotton Club murder. Mentzer reportedly knew Manson in LA back in the late 1960s and then did work for the Son of Sam cult nearly a decade later as part of a nation wide cult network.

While none of this has ever been proven, it is beyond question that Mentzer was involved in the murder of millionaire Roy Radin in LA. At the time Radin had been assisting famed Hollywood producer Robert Evans, who was already then legendary for his involvement in The Godfather and Chinatown (which was directed by Sharon Tate's husband, Roman Polanski), procure funding for his latest picture, the Francis Ford Coppola-directed Cotton Club. Evans now has something of a cult following thanks to the documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture that glamorized his life and even had a cartoon based upon him at one point. Needless to say, this episode of his life is rarely addressed by "serious" movie buffs.

Reportedly Radin's murder was contracted by a drug trafficker known as Karen Jacobs, who had been using Evans' movie to launder drug money in addition to breaking into Hollywood. At the time of Radin's death Jacobs was married to Larry Greenberger, a member of the Medellin cartel and close associate of the infamous Carlos Lehder. As was noted before here, the Hitler-worshiping Lehder had extensive ties to the Fascist International.

Carlos Lehder

According to Steve Wick in Bad Company, Greenberger had also had dealings with fugitive financier Robert Vesco. As was noted before here, Vesco also had frequent dealings with the far right during the 1970s. But back to Mentzer for the time being.

Mentzer, whom Terry dubbed "Manson II," frequently collaborated with another killer known as Alex Marti. An Argentine national, Marti also reportedly had a soft spot for Nazism.

"... Marti, an Argentine and reputed for death squad member was more violent of the two, and also a Hitler to Cody who had a portrait of your in his home, a Third Reich library, and who admired the Nazi method of execution: a single gunshot to the back of the head."

(Sinister Forces Book III, Peter Levenda, pg. 218)

Marti assisted Mentzer in killing Radin and reportedly in other murders. Both men appear to have first encountered one another while working as bodyguards for famed pornographer Larry Flynt, the founder of Hustler. In this capacity both men worked for one William Rider, who at the time was Flynt's brother-in-law and the head of his security force. Rider, who was a crucial source for both Steve Wick and Maury Terry concerning Mentzer, was also a curious fellow. During the trials revolving around Mentzer, Rider was accused of poisoning "former" OSS officer, and renowned drug and arms trafficker Mitchell WerBell III, another Flynt security man and luminary of the Fascist International.

WerBell

As was noted before here, WerBell was also very close to the above-mentioned financier Robert Vesco. I also speculated there that he may have been supplying sub-machine guns to Italian to Italian neo-fascist terror organization during this time frame, a point that we shall return to again in a moment.

Rider was accused of poisoning WerBell by a private detective known as A. Michael Pascal. Reportedly Psacal, who had also employed Mentzer and Marti, had claimed to be a former CIA agent on more than one occasion. Eventually Pascal was linked to another murder Marti and Mentzer had carried out and reached a plea bargain as his health was failing. Pascal's claims do not appear to have been given much merit by either Terry or Wick, two of the only researchers to examine the Cotton Club murders in depth (surprisingly, there have been few attempts to chronicle this salacious tale despite the fame of Evans and director Francis Ford Coppola).

Certainly Pascal seems to have embellished more than a few things, but Rider seems to have deserved far more scrutiny that either Wick or Terry applied to him. Rider was apparently aware of Radin's murder for some time before reporting it to authorities and "involuntarily" showed Menzer and Marti the spot where Radin's body was ultimately found.

apparently William Rider (left) and William Mentzer (right)

And in another murder involving a prostitute, Rider apparently "lent" Mentzer the pistol that was used for the killing. He was then able to conveniently produce it for the police, linking Mentzer to a crime police had been struggling with for some time. This was also the murder Pascal was implicated in, by the way. But moving along.

Thus, we are left with Mentzer, reputedly a member of a nationwide cult network who is only a few degrees of separation removed from Carlos Lehder and potentially even Mitchell WerBell, key figures in the Fascist International at the time. What's more, Mentzer was frequently working with an Argentine national alleged to have been involved in the death squads there. During this era the Argentine death squads were closely linked to the World Anti-Communist League (addressed at length before here) and Operation Condor, two linchpins of the Fascist International.

Is it absurd to think that Terry's alleged cult network could have this type of international reach?

Not when one considers another alleged associate of Charles Manson. As was noted before here, there are strong indications that Manson knew infamous LSD trafficker Ronald Hadley Stark during his time in L.A., that Stark may even have been a source of the drugs the Manson Family was known to traffick in. Regular readers of this blog are no doubt familiar with Stark, whom I examined at length before here, as are many of you who have studied the murky history of LSD.

Ronald Hadley Stark

As such, many of you no doubt are aware that not only was Stark the largest LSD distributor in the West for almost a decade but also that he was almost surely an agent of some branch of the US intelligence community. Some of you may not be aware, however, to his ties to the Italian neo-fascist community, which were extensive.

What's more, many of these neo-fascists were involved in the murky netherworld of what is commonly referred to as Operation Gladio. For the unaware, here are a few details concerning Gladio:

"Operation Gladio was first made public in August 1990, when then-Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti admitted its existence to the Italian Parliamentary Committee on Terrorism. To this day much about Gladio remains mysterious. It seems that planning for the operation began to take shape in 1951... On paper, Gladio was a NATO-backed 'Stay Behind' operation: any Soviet attack on Italy would encounter a pre-established resistance network, a militarily-trained underground with access to secret arms caches hidden across the country...

"The Italian governments initially claimed the Gladio was part of the general agreement within NATO. NATO, however, officially denied any involvement. Revelations that Gladio-type organizations existed in non-NATO nations like Austria, Spain, and Switzerland further eroded the NATO cover story. Gladio really seems to of been what its name means: a double-edge sword to be used against both the Soviets and any elements inside Italy, from either the left or the right, that might try to take Italy out of NATO. Gladio also served as the backdrop for the 'strategy of tension,' which repeatedly destabilized Italian politics with bombings and other terrorist acts. Popular fear of terrorism, from either the 'left' or 'right,' could then be used to justify suspension of constitutional law or even, in a worst-case scenario, a military-backed Pinochet-like 'white coup' to ensure Italy's continued allegiance to the West."

(Dreamer of the Day, Kevin Coogan, pg. 332)

a patch used by Gladio recruits

As was noted before here, Gladio heavily recruited among "former" Nazis and vigorous neo-fascists. In many cases, the latter were used to infiltrate left wing organizations and push them towards acts of terrorism. What's more, there is compelling evidence that occultism was used among the lower levels to condition would-be terrorists. The ideology of the philosopher and occultist Julius Evola (whom Steven Bannon infamously addressed of late) was especially popular. Some of his acolytes among such ranks referred to themselves as the "Children of the Sun." Curiously, Terry claims that the East Coast branch of his alleged cult network called themselves "the Children."

As for Evola, his ideology appears to have been useful on more than philosophical levels.

"One of the principal influences on the ideology of Ordine Nuovo, and of the neo-fascist in general, was the philosopher Julius Evola. Evola rejected what he saw as the decadence of the modern world in favor of the nobility of 'tradition,' based on a blend of mythology, occultism and esotericism. It has been suggested that the remarkable control exercised by the leaders of the extreme right over some of their teenage followers could in part be explained by their dabbling in black magic and esotericism..."

(Puppetmasters, Philip Willan, pg. 43)

Evola

Not unlike the remarkable control Charlie displayed over his followers as well. And if the Pentagon and the US intelligence community were willing to sign off on these methods in Europe, would they not do so here as part of an American version of Gladio?

To be sure there is quite a considerable amount of evidence of these and cults like the Manson Family along with various neo-Nazi and militia groups were at the forefront of these operations. I have gathered much more evidence of this over the years that what is presented here. Those of you who follow the links and look at some of the older articles sited here will no doubt be able to fill in some of the gaps.

At some point I'll hopefully be able to return to this topic to fill in the remaining pieces. Until then, stay tuned dear reader.

Recluse on the Opperman Report

Recently I appeared on the Opperman Report to discuss a host of topics. The interview was roughly centered around infamous cult leader Adolfo Constanzo, the Cuban-American drug trafficker and occultist who became a player in the Mexican drug scene during the late 1980s. It was a fitting topic as the interview was conducted on November 1, Constanzo's birthday and the Day of the Dead in many Catholic countries.

Also discussed were various Mexican right wing cults that grew out of the Los Cristero movement, including the Legion of Christ, the synarchists and Los Tecos. We also found the time to touch upon the West Memphis Three, Trump's organized crime ties, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, John Podesta, and elite pedophile rings.

Enjoy and a big thanks again to Ed Opperman for having me on the show. The interview can be found here.


Related posts:
"Latin American High Weirdness: The Cults Part IV"
"Latin American High Weirdness: The Cults Part V"
"Latin American High Weirdness: 49 Headless Bodies Along a Highway"
"Secret Societies, Narcoterrorism, International Fascism and the World Anti-Communist League Part III"
"Le Cercle: Puppetmasters"
"Goodfellas: The Hidden History of Resorts International"
"Men in Black: The Hidden History of the Knights of Malta Part I"

Goodfellas: The Hidden History of Resorts International

Resorts International was a most curious creature that remains strikingly relevant today despite having been largely consumed by larger corporations years ago. During its heyday, from the late 1960s up until the late 1980s, it was at the absolute center of American power, serving as a kind of bridge between Underworld and Overworld figures. It forged close ties with at least two American presidents while accepting money and other forms of assistance from various drug traffickers, financial swindlers and Mafiosi. And there were of course the inevitable various "former" intelligence officers that always seem to factor into these shady private enterprises that dabble in intelligence.

While little remembered now, Resorts International was a trailblazer in the gambling industry, having first brought casinos to both the Bahamas and Atlantic City. But it also trailblazed other paths even more nefarious than gambling. For instance, it played a crucial role in establishing the whole financial "offshoring" culture that now prevails across the world. Even less remembered is its innovations in another industry: private security. Resorts would found one of the first world wide private security firms that would appear time again in a host of intrigues. But more on that latter.

Resorts International was largely a family affair that grew out of a company called the Mary Carter Paint Company.

"Mary Carter (she never existed) was pretty much a family affair controlled by Jim Crosby, two of his brothers, and his in-laws. Based in Tampa, Florida, the firm included in its directorate James Crosby, John Crosby (a plastic surgeon in Mobile, Alabama), William Crosby (a Tampa realtor), and the Murphy brothers, Henry and Tom, who'd married the Crosby daughters. Henry owned a funeral home in Trenton, New Jersey, while Tom was board chairman of Capital Cities Communications, a successful broadcasting business founded by explorer Lowell Thomas. The explorer too was an early shareholder in Mary Carter Paint, as was Republican Thomas Dewey."

(Spooks, Jim Hougan, pg. 381) 

Lowell Thomas was also a journalist and broadcaster who rose to initial stardom for his promotion of British Imperialist T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. Thomas was apparently a neighbor of Dewey's in New York state, which may explain how both men became involved with Marty Carter.

Early Mary Carter sponsors: Lowell Thomas (top) and two-time Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey (bottom)

But why, ultimately, would such prominent figures become involved with an obscure paint company based in Tampa, Florida (and largely owned and run by a family hailing from New Jersey), in the first place? The answer may lay in another suspected early backer of the Mary Carter Paint Company. Acclaimed researchers Sally Denton and Roger Morris note: "... the Mary Carter Paint Company, which was widely considered to be a CIA front that laundered payments to the Cuban exile army in the early sixties..." (The Money and the Power, pg. 284).

Murky Beginnings

This is certainly quite plausible considering Mary Carter was then based out of Tampa, a hub for joint CIA-Syndicate efforts to assassinate Castro. As was noted before here, Tampa don Santo Trafficante, Jr. was one of the gangsters initially tapped by the CIA's notorious Office of Security to arrange for Castro's untimely demise. Trafficante, a close associate of Meyer Lansky (whom we shall return to again), had been deeply involved in Cuba's gambling operations prior to the revolution and would later become even more deeply immersed in the world heroin trade. As was noted before here, he was very close to the emerging Cuban Mafia, which provided ample recruits to the CIA during the early 1960s despite much suspicion that Trafficante was a double agent for Castro.

Santo Trafficante, Jr.

Certainly the Mary Carter Paint Company would have been well positioned to assist Trafficante in these endeavors in Tampa. And such a connection would also explain why the corporation, in the mid-1960s (as CIA Cuban operations were winding down), abruptly sold off its paint business and boldly delved into gambling. By the end of the decade it was managing one of the most profitable casinos in the world on the Bahama's Paradise Island.

What it amounts to is that by the late period James Crosby emerged as not only the CEO of Mary Carter/Resorts International, but as an extremely well connected figure within the GOP and beyond.

"... Crosby was himself uniquely situated in Republican circles: a sometime guest at the White House, he'd donated $100,000 to Nixon's 1968 campaign. He was also a friend of, and frequent host two, Bebe Rebozo (with whom he banked). Moreover, Crosby's private intelligence agency, Intertel, was even then working with White House aides and ITT executives to discredit Jack Anderson's revelations anent ITT and Chile. At the same time, Intertel was the de facto custodian of the demented billionaire Howard Hughes (his own $100,000 donation would later result in two volumes of Senate testimony in the Watergate affair). Indeed, the ties between Paradise Island and Richard Nixon's administration were of the sort that bind: Allan Butler, owner of the failing bank that was his namesake, claims the Nixon was a silent partner of Crosby's in his Bahamian ventures, sharing a healthy chunk of Paradise Island bridge revenues with yet another secret partner, Bebe Rebozo. And by by no means finally, James O. Golden, Resorts' vice-president and one of Intertel's founding spooks, had formerly served as Nixon's Secret Service shield, later taking charge of security for the Nixon forces at the GOP's 1968 convention in Miami Beach. That Paradise Island is a special place, and had a special place in the heart (or what passed for a heart) of the Nixon regime, is abundantly clear..."

(Spooks, Jim Hougan, pg. 180) 

James Crosby (right) and Richard Nixon (Left)

Clearly Crosby had established very close ties with the Nixon regime by this point, in addition to his infamous financial adviser Charles "Bebe" Rebozo. Rebozo was widely suspected of Mob ties for years, including links to the above-mentioned Santo Trafficante (noted before here).

Rebozo would hardly be the only with organized crime ties linked to Resorts, however. Not by a long shot.

Consider, for instance, Eddie Cellini, brother of famed Mafioso Dino. For a time Eddie operated as the casino manager for Resorts on Paradise Island. Reportedly both Eddie and Dino were close to Meyer Lansky, among other notorious Mafioso.

"... In pre-Castro Cuba, Nesline had been employed at the Havana Tropicana, where Lansky's man Dino Cellini was manager and where McWillie had also worked, before shifting jobs to work for Tourine at the Capri. When Ruby and McWillie went out to Cuba's Trescornia Prison in 1959, both Tourine and Cellini were there..."

(Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott, pg. 240)

Dino Cellini

The Ruby the great Peter Dale Scott mentions above is none other than Jack Ruby, the infamous Dallas nightclub owner who murdered alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby has long been suspected of Syndicate ties and had worked the Cuba casino scene prior to the revolution. Afterwards he became deeply involved in the anti-Castro Cuban underground. An here's Eddie's brother Dino, a close Lansky associate, in the same Cuban prison for a time with Ruby.

Dino's ties to Washington D.C. Mafioso Joe Nesline is also of interest. As regular readers of this blog may remember, Nesline was the initial pimp of Heidi Rikan (noted before here), the D.C.-based madam they played such a crucial (and little remarked upon) role in the Watergate scandal.

Thus, Dino can be said to have lingered in the background of both the JFK assassination and Watergate, arguably the two most pivotal American deep state events of the twentieth century. Dino, with his close links to Meyer Lansky, was a major figure in the Underworld and the presence of his brother Eddie running the casino on Paradise Island indicates that Resorts International had strong Syndicate ties from the very beginning.

However Eddie did not last long in Paradise Island, having been kicked to the curb after 1972. With him appears to have gone a large chunk of Lansky's influence. These moves were likely political in nature and not geared towards cleaning up Paradise Island.

"... 'Lansky's established connections to the Democrats,' as scholar William Chambliss saw it, 'led Santo Trafficante, Jr. (and others such as Carlos Marcello of New Orleans) to forge political alliances with Republicans.' As a result, Lansky had been frozen out of the 'Teamsters-Republican coalition' and was 'engaged in major conflict with Bebe Rebozo and other Nixon associates for control of casinos and banks in Miami and the Bahamas.'

"As the furnace heat of a Las Vegas midsummer day still hung over the evening, Rebozo, the Florida entrepreneur and intimate friend of President Nixon, and Richard G. Danner, the Hughes empire's liaison with the Nixon White House, joined the Hughes and Resorts representatives for dinner and a Strip casino showroom. Before the floor show was over, the two factions 'reached a tentative agreement,' as Kohn recorded."

(The Money and the Power, Sally Denton & Roger Morris, pg. 285)

Meyer Lansky

This agreement, reached in 1970, would have profound implications for billionaire Howard Hughes and his empire, as we shall see. But for the time being I'd like to continue to focus on Resorts' organized crimes links.

The Vesco Blues

While Lansky's influence over Resorts (at least during the Nixon years) was marginalized,  there were any number of other crooks chomping at the bit for a piece of Paradise Island. One of the most notorious was rogue financier Robert Vesco. There was a time (circa 2001) that Robert Vesco was considered possibly the greatest fugitive financier ever. While he's certainly faced some stiff competition in the twenty-first century, Vesco's record is still impressive. Slate notes:

"The undisputed king of the fugitive financiers. Vesco fled to Costa Rica in 1973 in order to avoid standing trial for the alleged theft of $224 million from the Swiss-based mutual fund, Investors Overseas Services (see Bernie Cornfeld, above). Shortly before Vesco left, he delivered $200,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. The money was stuffed in a suitcase and handed over to campaign treasurer Maurice Stans, who ended up paying a $5,000 fine for "non-willful violation" of campaign-finance law. Vesco was indicted in absentia. He was indicted yet again in 1989 on drug smuggling charges. From Costa Rica, Vesco hopscotched to the Bahamas, Antigua (where he tried unsuccessfully to buy a nearby island called Barbuda and establish it as a sovereign state), Nicaragua and, finally, Cuba, where he has lived for the past two decades and, since 1995, been domiciled in a Cuban jail. Vesco was convicted in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud Cuba's pharmaceutical industry. Also arrested by the Cubans was Vesco's partner and houseguest, Donald Nixon, nephew to the former president. Nixon was allowed to return to the U.S., but Vesco went to the slammer. He gets out in 2009, when he'll be 74. Vesco's Cuban wife Lidia was convicted on lesser charges and gets out in 2005."

Ah, but this is only part of it. During his heyday in the 1970s Vesco was a crucial figure among right wing circles, serving (not unlike Resorts International) as a bridge between Overworld and Underworld figures. As to the former, there was clearly the Nixon family but Vesco was also very close to Reagan's first National Security Advisor, Richard Allen.

"... Richard Allen (who had been Nixon's first choice for the Plumbers unit) is known to have represented Robert Vesco in Washington back in 1972, the year in which Vesco flew from a meeting with Lansky's representative Dino Cellini to Costa Rica, and initiated the contact which later led to the proposed deal to manufacture Ingram M-10s in Costa Rica, between Vasco and Parabellum, Alliegro, and WerBell. Allen is also said to have been one of the U.S. contacts of the Aginter Plan Usine lobbyists who were proposing an economic freezone for the Azores (and the U.S. Mafia) much like that which Vasco, at Allen's suggestion, was proposing for Costa Rica."

(The Great Heroin Coup, "Foreward", Peter Dale Scott, pg. 21) 

Richard V. Allen

When Vesco wasn't busy assisting Allen in setting up offshore tax havens for their special friends, he was deeply immersed in drug and arms trafficking and sponsoring neo-fascist terrorism. In many of these endeavors he was aided by "former" OSS man Mitchell WerBelI III, one of the most notorious of the so-called "China Cowboys" (noted before here). For years WerBell was suspected running guns for the CIA when not aiding various far right wing causes.

"In 1974 WerBell – according to a motion filed by his own lawyer when WerBell, his son and his company Defense Services, Inc. were charged with illicit weapons sales – was involved in a 'conspiracy among the CIA, Robert Vesco, and various corporations to finance clandestine guerrilla activities in Latin America.' Vesco wanted to purchase WerBell's stock of 2000 silenced M10 machine pistols. When WerBell failed to secure an export license, he devised a plan to smuggle the weapons to Vesco. The two later negotiated the construction of a factory in Costa Rica which would be licensed to fabricate the pistols...

"Although the M10 and M11 could be acquired legally only with the special permission of U.S. officials, large numbers of silenced M10s turned up in the hands of European fascist terrorists in 1976-77. When Pierluigi Concutelli, a leader of the Italian terrorist group Ordine Nuovo, was arrested in Rome in February 1977, police found in his apartment the silenced M10 which he had used to murder the Rome magistrate Vittorio Occorsio. Occorsio have been shot down on the streets of Rome in July 1976 after announcing he would expose the close collaboration between fascist terrorist groups and the Mafia.

"However, it was among Spanish terrorists in particular that WerBell's machine pistols appeared in quantity. Most notably, a sizable consignment of M10s, sent to Spain under license from U.S. authorities, had been purchased by the Spanish intelligence agency DGS, which is allegedly coordinated the actions of fascist terrorists. 

"The fugitive IOS billionaire Vesco employed a large contingent of Cuban exiles in his Costa Rica sanctuary. Moreover, his weapons negotiations coincided with the efforts of the fanatic anti-Castro Cuban leader Orlando Bosch to assemble Cuban exile groups into an army of terror, CORU, that would later carry out assassinations and other dirty work for several Latin American regimes. During Bosch's 1974-75 drive, a wave of murder struck Miami's Cuban exile haven. Most victims have been opposed to Bosch. With the obstacles to his plan removed, CORU was established in June 1976.

"While Vesco and WerBell were hatching their weapons deal Bosch's base of operation just happen to be Vesco's Kingdom of Costa Rica – and Mafia heroin boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. was also reportedly there between January 1974 and the summer of 1975...

"In 1973 some of the details began to surface in a series of scandals linking these individuals. DEA undercover agent Frank Peroff charged Vesco with financing extensive heroin smuggling. For his initiative Peroff was fired summarily and his life was threatened. Before the Senate Investigations Subcommittee could probe deeply the case was squelched through the intervention of the White House. The Oval Office had already helped Vesco – a friend of the Nixon family – in his run-in with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had sought his prosecution for the trail of swindle he had left in the world of international finance. Midway through the subcommittee investigation of the heroin charges, the DEA announced the disappearance of its Vesco file... 

"This was not the last heard of Robert Vesco in connection with drugs. In the summer of 1977 police uncovered the smuggling of large quantities of heroin and cocaine to Rhode Island. In one of the involved ships they discovered a ledger in which it was written: 'to Vesco/6 million/he picked up w. shrimper (Lansky)/"Curier" beat up.' "

(The Great Heroin Coup, Henrik Kruger, pgs. 182-184)

Mitchell WerBell III

That WarBell may have been supplying Italian fascists with his beloved M10 during this era is most interesting in light of another guest at Paradise Island during the early 1970s. As was noted before here, the infamous Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was reportedly a regular guest of Paradise Island during this time when he wasn't busy running the Bahamas-based Banco Ambrosiano Overseas.

As regular readers are no doubt aware, Marcinkus was the director of the Vatican bank that opened it up to extensive Syndicate influence, first via banker Michele Sindona and later Banco Ambrosiano chairman Roberto Calvi. In addition to the Syndicate, Sindona and Calvi also had close ties to Propaganda Due (P2), the infamous Italian Masonic lodge dominated by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Opus Dei. As was noted before here, P2 also had extensive ties to neo-fascist Italian terrorists such as Ordine Nuovo --in other words, the same neo-fascist terrorists that appear to have been well-armed with WerBell's M10s during the same time frame.

This certainly raises some interesting possibilities with Marcinkus' presence at Paradise Island at the same time Vesco, another frequent Resorts guests, and WerBell, were scheming. But unfortunately there has been little investigation into these potential ties. As such, let us return to the life and times of Dick Nixon's most notorious banker.

As was noted above, Vesco was again charged with drug trafficking while living in Cuba in 1989. He was arrested in Cuba in 1995 and ultimately died in prison there in 2009 (allegedly). At the time of his arrest the Cuban government accused him of being an "agent of foreign special services."

Needless to say, Mr. Vesco lived quite an interesting life. And when he wasn't busy financial schemes or political lobbying or arms and drug trafficking, he reportedly liked to kick back and relax at Paradise Island. He even lived there for a time 1978, when the noose was allegedly beginning to tighten.

Vesco was so taken in fact with Resorts' casino that he had considered buying it at one point around 1972.

"A friend of Crosby's, Vesco proposed to buy virtually all of Resorts property in the Bahamas, using funds from IOS. The purchase price was $60,000,000, split in two improbable parts. The casino toll bridge were to be sold to Gulf Stream (Bahamas), Ltd., run by Gil Straub, one of Vesco's cronies and a fellow indictee. Twenty million dollars in cash and five million dollars in promissory notes would be the price – a bargain of the first order. More than 300,000 tourists cross the bridge each year, paying two dollars apiece (or $600,000) for the privilege, and the casino reports an annual profit of about five million dollars. Even if one discounts allegations of revenue being skimmed from both the bridge and the casino, Gulf Stream could have earned back its entire purchase price in less than five years! And if the reports of skimming are true, the deal would have been even more lucrative. How much more is uncertain. According to Resorts figures, the average tourist leaves a mere fifteen dollars on the casino's tables, little more than a sawbuck in excess of what it costs to visit the casino. That seems an awfully modest sum when one considers the affluence of Bahamian tourists on a spree and the troops of high rollers who arrive every week on subsidized gambling junkets."

(Spooks, Jim Hougan, pgs. 228-229)

Robert Vesco

Even then Vesco's reputation was fast going down the toilet and the SEC quickly put the kibosh on any such buyout of Resorts. While the Nixon White House may still have been able to keep Vesco indicted on drug charges, it was unable to get the SEC to stand down. Resorts was unfazed. It had other curious backers ripe with dirty money at its beckon.

Mr. Billy

Easily the most bizarre was Richard Mellon Hitchcock, a member of the fabled Mellon dynasty (addressed before here). During the 1960s, Hitchcock (known to his friends as "Mr. Billy") popped up in a host of strange places.

I've already addressed Hitchcock at length before here, so I'm only going to provide a brief rundown of his notoriety in this present blog. He first made the scene in 1962 in the UK in the midst of Profumo affair that ultimately resulted in the downfall of Harold Macmillan's government in 1963. In '62 Hitchcock had had dinner with Dr. Stephen Ward, a key figure in the scandal, who reportedly made some rather provocative statements about the role he had played during the Cuban Missile Crisis he had played for the British and Soviet governments.

Hitchcock then reported these statements back to the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James, his uncle David Bruce. But in addition to marrying into the Mellon family, Bruce had also been a key figure in the OSS during World War II. As such, there has long been speculation that Hitchcock's timely meeting with Ward was intelligence-related.

David Bruce

Then, in 1963, Hitchcock would open up his estate at Millbrook to Timothy Leary and his entourage. While Leary and his crew occupied the main estate, Hitchcock lived out of the guest house and cynically partook in the acid-fried hi jinks. He evicted Leary by '67, but was not finished with the acid scene by a long shot. It was around this time that he became the de facto banker for the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, the so-called "hippie mafia" that was at one point the largest supplier of LSD in the world. It was in the capacity that Hitchcock became involved with Resorts.

"In the spring of 1968 Hitchcock and acid chemist Nick Sand journeyed to the Bahamas, where they stayed at the spacious mansion of Sam Clapp, chairman of the local Fiduciary Trust Company. Clapp was a college chum of Hitchcock's and they have been doing business together for years. They arranged for Sand to open an account under a false name at Clapp's bank. Hitchcock and Sand also looked into the feasibility of setting up an offshore LSD laboratory on one of Bahamas secluded cays – which led some to wonder whether Mr. Billy was 'on a Dr. No Trip.' ...

"Hitchcock took full advantage of his unlimited borrowing privileges at Fiduciary. At Clapp's urging he poured over $5,000,000 into unregistered 'letter stocks' (the kind that aren't traded publicly but tend to show dramatic gains on paper) associated with the Mary Carter Paint Company, later known as Resorts International. It was the single largest chunk of money raised by Resorts, an organization suspected of having ties to organized crime. Resorts International proceeded to build a casino on an exclusive piece of Bahamian real estate called Paradise Island..." 

(Acid Dreams, Martin A. Lee & Bruce Shlain, pgs. 244-245)

Even more curious is the fact that Mr. Billy's shares in Resorts ended up being managed by the infamous CIA bank known as the Castle Bank & Trust, a key sponsor of various efforts to topple the government of Cuba during this time frame.

"The bank was established by Paul Helliwell, a former OSS China hand with a background in drug-trade intelligence. After the war, Helliwell had run CIA front companies in Florida. Through his Bahamian bank, and a companion institution in Florida, millions of dollars were funneled for covert military operations staged off Andros Island in the Bahamas. Castle also facilitated tax evasion, and, in its trust-company capacity, voted the shares of certain nonresident owners of Resorts International, the top Lansky-era casino operation in Nassau. When one of their shareholder so strongly objected to the way Castle was voting his shares that he sued the bank, the scheme began to unravel.

"The shareholder was William Mellon Hitchcock, the New York stockbroker who had been using the Paravicini bank of Berne, Switzerland, to circumvent the New York Fed's margin requirements...

"After Hitchcock's lawsuit, the IRS made its move anticipating the biggest tax-evasion bust in American history. But the CIA successfully lobbied for the inquiry to be buried, and many IRS veterans quit in disgust. The Castle Bank shut down its Caymans and Bahamas operations in 1977, and moved to the more congenial environment of Panama..." 

(Hot Money, R.T. Naylor, pg. 315)

Mr. Billy on the right

Castle and Mr. Billy were ensnared in what was known as Operation Tradewinds, an IRS-sponsored investigation of offshoring that also turned up the Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Resorts. The Brotherhood went down while Mr. Billy got a slap on the wrist, but both Castle and Resorts emerged unscathed. According to Jim Hougan in Spooks, Resorts at least was saved by Richard Nixon, who intervened to stop the investigation.

What it amount to is that a big part of Resorts early funding came from LSD financier William Mellon Hitchcock, who brought the infamous CIA-sponsored Castle Bank into the fold. This should leave little doubt that Resorts was founded at least in part as some type of CIA front, at first geared towards Cuban operations, but later (during the Resorts era) as something more nefarious.

And that brings to possibly the most curious aspects of Resorts, namely its ownership of its own vast private intelligence network.

Rent-a-spook: Intertel

It was known as Intertel, short for International Intelligence, Inc. Intertel was incorporated in 1970 as an almost wholly-owned subsidiary of Resorts International and hit the ground running. During its heyday, Intertel had an impressive roster and an international reach. It would turn up in host of intrigues throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Curiously, it had its origins with Robert Kennedy's "Get Hoffa" squad.

"... Intertel, known especially and remarkably for its composition of former organized crime strike force attorneys from Robert Kennedy's Justice Department... The IRS considered Intertel... 'an organized crime enterprise of some type aimed at the Bahamas,' as one account summed up the agency's view. Roberts Peloquin and William Hundley, Kennedy's top crime fighters, had joined the firm and recruited operatives from the CIA, FBI, IRS, Secret Service, and other intelligence agencies. Staffed exclusively by what one author called 'Get Hoffa agents,' it was likened into a corporate CIA. 'With the murder of Robert Kennedy in 1968, the federal government's war on organized crime... was over,' wrote Hoffa biographer, Dan Moldea, '... and two its best warriors – Bill Hundley and Bob Peloquin – were dressed for war but had no one to fight.' "

(The Money and the Power, Sally Denton & Roger Morris, pg. 284)

Robert Kennedy

In point of fact, the enigmatic Robert Peloquin always seemed to have some war or other to fight. Peloquin first got into the intelligence racket in during the Korean conflict when he joined the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). He was on active duty with the ONI from 1951 to 1955, and continued Office to serve in the reserves for over twenty-five years, finally retiring in 1981 with the rank of Commander. Interestingly, the ONI was one of the two US intelligence agencies (the other being the OSS) that initiated Operation Underworld, effectively a collaboration between the Syndicate and US intelligence during World War II. Meyer Lansky played a key role in establishing this arrangement, which many believe continues to this day. But back to Peloquin.

In 1956 he graduated from Georgetown University Law School (Georgetown has a rich history of grooming future spooks) and was appointed Deputy Chief at the National Security Agency (NSA) in the same year.

Already possessing quite an extensive intelligence background, Peloquin joined the Justice Department in 1957 and soon found himself knee deep in the battle against organized crime, or so the story goes. Peloquin was involved with Operation Tradewinds during the 1960s before retiring from Justice, with some believing that he was running interference on it for the Syndicate. Shortly after he had left the government he ended up working for the NFL and especially closely with the Washington Redskins. As was noted before here, DC capo Joe Nesline and future Watergate madam Heidi Rikan were deeply (har har) involved with the Redskins in the same time frame as was Dino Cellini, brother of future Resorts manager Eddie Cellini.

Unsurprisingly, it was Peloquin's gig with the Redskins that led to the murky netherworld of Resorts International and Intertel.

And murky it was indeed. Probably the most notorious caper of Intertel was also one of their first: the abduction of billionaire Howard Hughes from Las Vegas. For years many have equated this to a kind of palace coup.

"Only a few months later, on Thanksgiving Eve 1970, Intertel agents descended on Las Vegas for the stated purpose of ridding the Hughes empire of the hoodlum elements that had infiltrated the organization under Maheu's rain. With the same mysteriousness and secrecy cloaking Hughes arrival exactly four years earlier, he was now 'placed on a stretcher, carried out of the Desert Inn to a waiting van and driven to Nellis Air Force Base,' as Barlett and Steele described the event. A wasting wraith on a gurney, he was removed from Las Vegas by James Golden, a former Nixon Secret Service agent turned Intertel vice president, and whisked by private jet to Resorts International's Britannica Beach Hotel in the Bahamas.

"As some Intertel agents carried Hughes down the back stairs of the Desert Inn, others 'rushed cashier's cages and began stuffing money' and IOU markers into satchels. Kicking down doors of Mahue offices, they occupied all the Hughes casinos. In yet another ironic twist, Robert Kennedy's legendary organized crime team had suddenly taken charge of six major Las Vegas casinos, while governor Laxalt and his gaming officials scrambled to figure out what was going on."

(The Money and the Power, Sally Denton & Roger Morris, pg. 285)

Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes's sudden departure from Las Vegas has been shrouded in mystery for years. Many of his close subordinates would never see the man alive again --indeed, there's much controversy as to whether anyone credible saw Hughes alive after November 1970. For the rest of his life Hughes only communicated to the rest of his empire via phone, if at all.

Hughes reportedly spent most of remaining years living at the Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina of the Bahamas. When he officially died on April 5, 1976, the body produced for Hughes barely weighed ninety pounds on a 6'4 frame. This, combined with the beard, long hair and nails, made the body unrecognizable. It had to be identified via fingerprints by the FBI.

the Xanadu

There has been much dispute as to whether Hughes had in fact died when he was reported to, or if the body was even actually his. It is beyond the scope of this present article to address these issues, but suffice to say, Resorts and Intertel were major winners from the shakeup in the Hughes empire and there has been much speculation that Intertel (and by default, Resorts) was in the driver's seat of good chunk's of Hughes empire. And this put a considerable amount of money at their disposal.

Intertel's other ventures include spying of muckraker Jack Anderson for ITT, investigating the Chicago Tylenol murders and the Bhopal disaster. Even more ominous, however, were its dealings with a shady Belgium-based private detective agency known as Agence de Recherche et d'Information (ARI). As was noted before here, ARI was linked to members of the neo-fascist terror organization known as the Westland New Post, a few of whom had also been implicated in drug trafficking and pedophile rings. Intertel reportedly hired ARI to do some work for them during the 1980s.

It probably goes without saying, but Intertel, along with the closely related Wackenhut, was a trailblazer in the private intelligence racket. Its legacy lives in the modern deep private that in many ways has surpassed the deep state itself. In its heyday, Intertel was a the absolute black heart of this network.

Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City

At the end of the 1970s Resorts International set its sites on opening up another region to gambling, this one in the United States itself: Atlantic City. It was a rather ironic choice of locations to be sure, as in some accounts the Syndicate is alleged to have been founded in Atlantic City in 1929. And now it was poised to openly rule the city. Unsurprisingly,  Resorts was reportedly at the forefront of efforts to legalize gambling there.

"... Crosby's firm was the architect of the politically slick, million-dollar campaign which led New Jersey voters to change their minds on the subject. In 1974 a referendum to legalize state-operated gambling casinos had been roundly rebuffed by the local citizenry. Two years later, however, a new referendum, providing for privately owned casinos 'in Atlantic City only,' was in the works. And the man who brought it to the attention of Resorts, strangely enough, was David Probinsky (formally of the Bahamas and one of Pindling's disappointed supporters). Probinsky convinced Crosby that the new referendum would pass if Resorts got behind it. When Resorts did, acquiring huge (and moldering) Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel on the Boardwalk, as well as the fifty-six acre tract that had been cleared for 'urban renewal.' Resorts told its stockholders that 'the tract would be developed under an urban renewal plan with hotel, housing and other facilities.' It didn't say what those other facilities would be, but it wasn't hard to guess."

(Spooks, Jim Hougan, pgs. 410-411)

Resorts Casino Hotel, Atlantic City's first gambling establishment

The opening of Atlantic City for legalized gambling proved to be a boon for both Resorts International and one of the future owners. He was a rising New York real estate baron who went by the name of Donald J. Trump.

Once Trump dipped his toes into the troubled waters of the gambling industry he would rapidly emerge as one of the premier tycoons of the 1980s. It is not a stretch to say that Atlantic City made Trump a household name --quite literally via his first casino, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, which he built on behalf of Holiday Inn. Trump bough them out in 1984 and there was no looking back from there.

What is of great interest to us here is Trump's third Atlantic City casino: the Taj Mahal. While now widely associated with Trump, thanks in no small part to it leading to his first bankruptcy, it was not in fact Trump who started the casino. That dubious distinction lies with Resorts International.

The company had begun construction on the Taj Mahal in 1983, but had run into persistent difficulties in finishing construction in the following years. Then, in April 1986, James Crosby died suddenly. This left Resorts in turmoil (allegedly) and Trump stepped in. Trump bought a controlling stake in the company in 1987 and was promptly named its chairman of the board.

Let that sink in for a moment: Donald J. Trump, the current President of the United States, was briefly the chairman of a corporation long suspected of being a CIA front, that had decades-spanning involvement with the Syndicate, numerous "rogue" financiers, various drug and arms traffickers and which owned a vast private intelligence network that had managed to abduct one of the wealthiest men in the world and effectively take over his gambling concessions. 

And less anyone think Resorts had cleaned up by the time Trump took over, consider that uber deep state player Robert Peloquin resigned from Intertel and joined Resorts' board in 1985, shortly before Trump became involved. He stayed on with Resorts until 1990, by which time he had become the chairman after Merv Griffin had beaten Trump in a bidding war for Resorts.

the enigmatic Robert Peloquin

As part of the arrangement made with Griffin, Trump ended up with the Taj Mahal, which his first wife Ivana ran for a time. At this point in time a curious pattern began to develop with Trump's business empire: projects were financed with massive amounts of debt, they went bankrupt and yet the owner did not seem to incur serious financial loses from these failures. This is a pattern not unfamiliar to Syndicate-backed businesses. And naturally there appears to have been an extensive, Mob-linked money laundering operation being run out of the Taj Mahal after Trump owned it outright.

It would certainly appear that Trump learned a thing or two from Resorts during his brief affiliation with them. This should also shatter any notion that Trump is some type of outsider --Resorts was as deep state, or more accurately, deep private, as it gets. Trump would not have ended up as the chairman with Peloquin on the board were he not in the club.

And finally, this should leave little doubt as to how pathetic the mainstream media's crusade against Trump really is. Only the gods know how much money has been pissed away on phantom Russian-connections when a few hours of Internet sleuthing will turn up connections between Trump and one of the most notorious criminal organizations of the 1970s and 1980s, which Trump served as the chairman of.

And with that I shall wrap things up for now. Until next time dear readers, stay tuned.