1) As you point out in DEATH CULTS, the infamous 1970s Son of Sam
killings seem to stretch well beyond David Berkowitz involvement to
include a group called "The Process Church of the Final Judgment."
Please give us a brief overview of this secretive organization.
The Process was an offshoot of Scientology, founded in England in the
mid-60’s by a couple of former Scientologists, Robert and Mary Ann
DeGrimston.
Originally, their organization was a psychoanalysis group known as
Compulsions Analysis, which used a “process” similar to Scientology’s
“auditing”. At some point, however, the group got into the occult and
changed its name to The Process Church of the Final Judgment,
transforming
from a self-help group into a spooky bunch of pseudo-Satanists. Famous
for
their black capes and goth-like appearance, The Process promoted an End
Times theology and made a concerted effort to attract rock stars like
Mick
Jagger and John Phillips into their ranks. In fact, Jagger’s girlfriend
of
the time, Marianne Faithful appeared on the cover of a Process Church
publication.
Around 1967, The Process started several branches in the U.S.,
including San
Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans and later, New York. The Process
was in
San Francisco at the same time that the Manson Family was active there,
and
in fact they lived only a couple of blocks from one another. Several
witnesses have come forth over the years claiming that Manson and The
Process were connected during this period, and the evidence seems to
lean in
this direction. From a philosophical standpoint, The Manson Family and
The
Process shared many of the same philosophical tenets revolving around
an
apocalyptic worldview. The parallels between their two philosophies
have
always appeared to be much more than mere coincidence. Author Ed
Sanders in
his book The Family claimed that The Manson Family and The Process were
part
and parcel of a larger occult organization into all kinds of weird
shit,
including human sacrifice. This theme was later expanded upon in Maury
Terry’s controversial tome, The Ultimate Evil, published in the late
80’s
wherein Terry posited that The Process Church was involved in Hitler
worship,
animal sacrifice, drug running, kiddie porn and, most significantly,
complicity in the Son of Sam murders.
These are some of the threads I try to piece together in Death Cults,
as
well as recent revelations that have surfaced indicating that The
Process is
still among us.
2) You are also the author of SHADOW OVER SANTA SUSANA, which I feel is
the best book ever written about Charles Manson and his Family. If you
could encapsulate things into a nutshell, what do you think made
Charlie
tick during those last few years of freedom between 1967-1969?
As I suggest in The Shadow Over Santa Susana, Charlie was a probable
victim
of government sponsored mind control, and was thusly used as a
scapegoat to
undermine the 60’s counterculture. This was the theory that legendary
conspiracy researcher Mae Brussell first proposed: that the TateLaBianca
murders were used to create what Mae called a “strategy of tension” — a
ploy
devised to erode our civil liberties and bring about a Police State.
Many
now contend that the World Trade Center tragedy of 9/11 was used in a
similar fashion, as a “strategy of tension” to stir up hysteria and
create
an atmosphere where people are more willing to give up certain civil
liberties on the pretext that it will insure their safety against a
potential terrorist attack. In this regard, 9/11 could be considered
Bush’s
Reichstag. In other words, Hitler was a good American!
3) Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, and many other Hollywood celebrities
were involved in the occult and other highly bizarre activities during
the late 1960s. What can you tell us about their interests that most
people aren't familiar with?
Polanski and Tate were part of a hipster Hollywood scene that embraced
hard
drugs, kinky sex and the occult. This is not to suggest that the
victims
“got what they deserved” or that they were necessarily bad people. They
simply may have gotten over their heads in a scene that had some creepy
overtones. This whole subject area opens up a monumental can of worms
that I
believe is at the core of what went down on the nights of August 8th
and 9th
of 1969 in Los Angeles. Some would contend that the Tate-LaBianca
murders
were the result of a drug deal gone sour and that the Mansonoids were
paying
back murder victim Voityck Frykowski for burning them. Other rumors
suggest
that Jay Sebring got over his head in sadomasochism and black magic and
that these activities somehow led to his undoing. Mama Cass and John
Phillips of the Mamas and Papas had connections to both Manson and The
Process, and were said to have been at parties that The Family
attended.
Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys was a benefactor of Manson’s and
actually
tried to help him get established in the music industry. After Manson
was
picked up on charges for the Tate-LaBianca murders, many of the same
people
Manson had associated with in the Hollywood fast-lane quickly clammed
up, and
created, what author Ed Sander’s termed, a “veil of silence”. This is
some
of the ground I cover in The Shadow Over Santa Susana.
4) There seems to be an underlying thread between Scientology, L. Ron
Hubbard, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Jack Parsons of SEX
AND ROCKETS fame, the intelligence community, and the occult. How are
they all tied together?
Jack Parsons was a pioneering rocket scientist and founding member of
Jet
Propulsion Laboratories who met a fiery demise in the early 50’s when
he
apparently blew himself to smithereens at his home in Los Angeles.
However,
Parsons’ death is shrouded in mystery, and some suggest that he was
actually
murdered. Parsons was also a leading member of the Pasadena branch of
Aleister Crowley’s O.T.O., and it was through the O.T.O. that he met
and
befriended then science fiction author, L. Ron Hubbard, who later
founded
Scientology. Parsons and Hubbard got involved in ritual magic in a
seemingly
hair-brained scheme with the intent of creating an elemental being, a
homunculus. In fact, it has been theorized that Parsons was
alchemically
cooking up this very same elemental being when he blew himself up. As
for
Hubbard, he later claimed that he was on a covert assignment for Naval
Intelligence during the period that he and Parsons were conducting
their
rituals, and that his mission in this regard was to infiltrate Parson’s
“satanic cult” and ultimately sabotage it. Along the way, Hubbard
ripped
off Parsons of his life’s savings and also ran off with his wife.
Whatever
Hubbard’s true motivations, he no doubt borrowed certain aspects of
O.T.O.
ritual magic and incorporated them into his own Scientology
smorgasbord.
Whether he was actually an intelligence agent is another matter. Check
out
my friend John Carter’s Sex and Rockets for the lowdown on Jack
Parsons.
5) How prevalent a role did mind control play in the assassinations of
John and Robert Kennedy, and other events such as the Jonestown
murder/suicides?
The evidence certainly suggests that Sirhan Sirhan, RFK’s alleged
assassin,
was mind controlled and used as a patsy in the assassination. Others
have
made the same assertions regarding Lee Harvey Oswald; in particular a
book
by Lincoln Lawrence published in 1967 entitled Were We Controlled?
Lawrence,
through his connections with intelligence agency insiders, learned of a
secret CIA technology known as RHIC-EDOM, an acronym for Radio Hypnotic
Intracerebral Control and Electronic Dissolution of Memory, purportedly
used
to program Oswald to murder President Kennedy. Lawrence also suggested
that
Jack Ruby had been similarly mind controlled when he killed Oswald.
As for Sirhan Sirhan, during the course of his trial, it was
established
that he was highly prone to hypnotic trance states, and in fact
appeared to
have been in a trance at the time of RFK’s assassination. Aside from
that,
many odd things occurred at the Ambassador Hotel on the night RFK was
shot,
including a statuesque young lady wearing a polka-dot dress who was
with
Sirhan immediately before the assassination, and who many researchers
believe was one of Sirhan’s “handlers”. As it so happens, there are
also
some disturbing ties between Sirhan and The Process. Among other
things,
author Ed Sanders claimed that a Process member named Lloyd worked as a
chef
at the Ambassador Hotel at the time of RFK’s assassination. Perhaps it
was
only a coincidence, but Sirhan visited a friend at the Ambassador Hotel
kitchen only a day before Kennedy was shot.
As for Jonestown, I would refer your audience to the work of conspiracy
researcher John Judge, and his piece The Black Hole in Guyana, which
clearly
outlines a behavior modification experiment conducted in Guyana with
the
fingerprints of a certain intelligence agency all over it.
6) In your latest book, THE PRANKSTER AND THE CONSPIRACY, you write
about a legendary 1960s figure named Kerry Thornley, who epitomizes the
zaniness of that era. For those who aren't familiar with this
individual, tell us what made Thornley so unique.
Kerry was a groundbreaker in many regards; and at the same time remains
one
of the more obscure figures to emerge from the 60’s counterculture.
Many
things make Thornley unique. First off, along with his pal Greg Hill,
he was
a founding member of The Discordian Society. The Discordian Society, a
spoof
religion, paved the way for a wave of other spoof religions that are
with us
today, from the Church of Beaver Cleaver to the Church of the
SubGenius.
Along with Greg Hill, Kerry was the author of the bible of Discordia
entitled The Principia Discordia: Or How I Found Goddess and What I did
To
Her When I Found Her. This tract was a big influence of Shea and
Wilson’s
Illuminatus trilogy and, in fact, the first edition of Illuminatus was
dedicated to Hill and Thornley. If you do a web-search for
Discordianism you
will see that it is nowadays a worldwide phenomenon, which was started
as a
simple joke between two nerdy buddies in a bowling alley in Yorba
Linda,
California over 45 years ago. Hail Eris!
Of course, another thing that makes Thornley distinctly unique was his
association with Lee Harvey Oswald. Thornley met Oswald when the two
served
together in the Marines in the late 50’s/early 60’s, and Thornley was
actually writing a book based on Oswald three years before to the
Kennedy
assassination. Thornley later came to suspect that both he and Oswald
had
been used as patsies by the intelligence community, as well as being
victims
of mind control. Thornley later became a key suspect in New Orleans
D.A. Jim
Garrison’s JFK assassination probe, although charges against him were
later
dropped.
These are just a few of the things that made Kerry Thornley a unique
individual.
7) I know you've been writing for underground publications for quite
some time now. Which do you consider to have been the best of them
over
the years, and how has the alternative press changed and evolved over
time?
Critique, Off the Deep End, Crash Collusion, Murder Can Be Fun, The
Excluded
Middle, Pills-a-go-go, SteamShovel Press, ELF Infested Spaces, The
Nose,
Paranoia, FactSheet Five — there were a lot of great mags that were
published
during the heyday of the zine movement, many of which are still active.
I
could name many others that were as equally influential. There was a
lot of
great stuff done during the halcyon days of the zine revolution.
The late 1980’s was an amazing period, and opened up the doors to a lot
of
dissident voices, such as myself, who--over the years--have been
gradually
working our way into the mainstream, or at least have cultivated a
larger
audience due to our involvement in the zine revolution. Jim Keith was
the
classic example of a zinester who was able to transcend the categories
of
“conspiracy theorist” and “zine publisher” to become one of the most
important writers of his generation, in my opinion.
With the emergence of the World Wide Web in the early 1990’s, zines-for
the most part--fell by the wayside, and many of the alternative artists
who
found their voice as part of the zine revolution have evolved to the
Internet and are using it now as their medium to exchange ideas and
explored
controversial subject matter.
8) Politically, what type of psychological effect do you think images
such as burnt bodies hung from bridges, the prison abuse photos as Abu
Ghraib, and Nick Berg's beheading video have on people?
I don’t think it’s any accident that those disturbing photos from Abu
Ghraib
have made there way into popular consciousness. They serve a purpose
for
those intent on bringing about a New World Order. This is what Michael
Anthony Hoffman II calls “The Revelation of the Method”. The
“Revelation of
the Method” is a means of mass indoctrination and processing the group
mind
of humankind to accept the horrors of psyops, specifically of a
psycho-sexual nature -- in essence training us to accept and prepare
ourselves
for the eventual mass rape of our minds.
9) If you were the President of the United States, what would you do
about our debacle in the Middle East?
As long as we are limited to a “two party system” — The Skull and
Bones — there’s probably not much chance of Adam Gorightly becoming
President…
10) Finally, you recently made news in relation to Mel Gibson and his
CONSPIRACY THEORY film. Fill us in on the details.
This whole thing with Mel Gibson started when I finally saw the movie
Conspiracy Theory for the first time a few months back and came to the
sudden realization that the central plot of this film may have been
lifted
from an article I wrote for Paranoia magazine back in the early ‘90’s
entitled Is the Catcher in the Rye a Mechanism of Control? In that
article I
put forth the theory that both John Hinkley and Mark David Chapman had
been
victims of MK-ULTRA mind control experimentation. And this was the
storyline
presented in Conspiracy Theory, released in 1997 -- that there are
still
sleeper agents amongst us who have been programmed to be Manchurian
Candidates -- programmed assassins that can be awakened or activated
with a
certain coded trigger or post hypnotic command. In the book, The
Manchurian
Candidate, this triggering device was the queen of hearts from a deck
of
cards. In this regard, both Hinkley and Chapman were found with a copy
of
The Catcher in the Rye in their possessions after Chapman killed Lennon
and
Hinkley’s attempted assassination on then President Ronald Reagan. Now
what
this suggested to me, and what I outlined in my article, was that The
Catcher in the Rye had been a triggering device, ala MK-ULTRA. And, as
I
recently discovered, this was the basis of the plot of Conspiracy
Theory.
However, I contend that I was the first one to make this connection, a
full
five years before Gibson’s movie, and stated such on my email list.
Anyway, a reporter for Wireless Flash News took this information and
put the
spin on it that I was accusing Mel Gibson of plagiarism, which I never
exactly did. I just posed the rhetorical question: “Did Mel Gibson rip
me
off?” Whatever the case, I’ll forgive all sins if Mel would be kind
enough
to option the right to my latest book, The Prankster and the
Conspiracy. Of
course, I haven’t heard a peep out of Mel, which means he must be
gearing up
for a long legal battle with yours truly. J