The United States of Paranoia (50 page)

18
. Plowman, “The Legend(s) of John Todd.”

19
. Ibid.

20
. P. E. I. Bonewits, “Official Report of the President to the Board of Directors on His Investigation of the John Todd/Lance Collins Affair in Dayton Ohio,”
Green Egg
, March 1976.

21
. FBI memorandum, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 1, 1976.

22
. Bonewits, “Official Report of the President.”

23
. Ruth Tomczak and Elmer L. Towns, “Christian Teachers Deny John Todd: Fundamentalists Cautioned of Former Witch,”
Journal Champion
, December 22, 1978.

24
. “John Todd: Dividing the Brethren” (Christian Research Institute, 1978).

25
. Hicks and Lewis,
The Todd Phenomenon
, 22.

26
. Tomczak and Towns, “Christian Teachers Deny John Todd.”

27
. Quoted in Tom Nuget, “In Search of the Ultimate Conspiracy,”
The Sun
(Baltimore), October 30, 1978.

28
. Quoted in Plowman, “The Legend(s) of John Todd.”

29
. Nesta H. Webster,
World Revolution: The Plot Against Civilization
(Small, Maynard & Company, 1921), 313.

30
. Ibid., 310–11.

31
. Ibid., 306.

32
. Winston Churchill, “Zionism Versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People,”
Illustrated Sunday Herald
, February 8, 1920.

33
. William Guy Carr,
The Red Fog over America
(St. George Press, 1962 [1955]), 3–4.

34
. The index to one of Carr’s books includes the entry “Jewry, International, 48–168.” Yes: 121 consecutive pages. William Guy Carr,
Pawns in the Game
(Omni Publications, n.d. [1955]), 187.

35
. “I do not believe the Synagogue of Satan (S.O.S.) is Jewish, but, as Christ told us for a definite purpose, it is comprised of ‘Them who say they are Jews . . . and are not . . . and do lie’ (Rev. 2:9 and 3:9).” William Guy Carr,
Satan, Prince of This World
(Omni Publications, 1997), 6. (Written in 1959 and published posthumously.)

36
. See Joseph W. Bendersky,
The “Jewish Threat”: Anti-Semitic Politics of the U.S. Army
(Basic Books, 2000), 14.

37
. Edith Starr Miller,
Occult Theocrasy
, vol. 2 (privately published, 1933), 564.

38
. Gertrude M. Coogan,
Money Creators: Who Creates Money? Who Should Create It?
(Omni Publications, 1963 [1935]), 280.

39
. Michael Barkun,
A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America
(University of California Press, 2003), 48.

40
. G. Edward Griffin,
The Capitalist Conspiracy
(H. B. Patriots, 1982 [1971]), 58. Griffin’s book consists largely of a transcript of a filmstrip of the same name. The filmstrip was released in 1969.

41
. John Todd shared the Birchers’ aversion to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy. Despite that, he denounced the John Birch Society as anti-Semitic, claiming in tape 4A that “its platform and the American Nazi platform and the Klan’s platform are almost identical.” Meanwhile, he was willing to share a platform with Colonel Curtis Dall of the Liberty Lobby, a group that really
was
anti-Semitic.

      Todd also on at least one occasion repeated Carr’s and others’ description of the Illuminati as “the Synagogue of Satan.” Confusingly, he said this in the midst of an attack on anti-Semitism. Though you can take this as a sign of a hidden prejudice against Jews bubbling to the surface, it’s more likely that he just hadn’t thought hard about the implications of the fragments of conspiracy theory he had cobbled together.

42
. Gary Allen with Larry Abraham,
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
(Concord Press, 1972), 39.

43
. Marvin S. Antelman,
To Eliminate the Opiate
(Zionist Book Club, 1974), 143.

44
. Sirhan himself scrawled the word “Illuminati” several times in his notebook. His interest was probably mystical rather than political: He also wrote the name “Master Kuthumi,” a reference to one of Blavatsky’s Ascended Masters, and he possessed a copy of Manly P. Hall’s
The Secret Destiny of America
. Sirhan belonged to the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis, H. Spencer Lewis’s fauxicrucian group, leading Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty to declare after the shooting that Sirhan “was a member of numerous Communist organizations, including the Rosicrucians.”

45
. Gale Thorne, “Eighteenth Century Dies Committee,”
New Masses
, January 9, 1940.

46
. Quoted in J. Hoberman,
An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War
(New Press, 2011), 47.

47
.
Ramparts
, September 1969. Jack Chick got in on the environmental doomsaying with a tract that discussed overpopulation, the dying oceans, and other green concerns before informing us that “
JESUS
predicted these problems.” “Escape!” (Jack T. Chick, 1972).

48
. Joseph McBride,
What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career
(University Press of Kentucky, 2006), 228.

49
. Todd’s earlier forecasts were even closer to Smith’s: In his Phoenix days, he had predicted 1981 rather than 1980 as the year it all would end.

50
. Key’s book
Subliminal Seduction
, published in 1973, featured an introduction by the famed Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan had his own history of conspiracy theorizing: For a period of his life he convinced himself that the Freemasons were to blame for the American Civil War, for Vatican II, and for several setbacks in the career of Professor Marshall McLuhan. For more on McLuhan’s interest in Masonic (and Satanic) conspiracies, see Philip Marchand,
Marshall McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger
(MIT Press, 1998 [1989]), 111–15.

51
. Wilson Bryan Key,
Media Sexploitation
(Prentice Hall, 1976), 140.
Allen’s
thoughts on “Hey Jude,” and on popular music in general, can be found in Gary Allen, “That Music: There’s More to It than Meets the Ear,”
American Opinion
, February 1969. Allen’s basic approach to rock criticism was to take “Back in the U.S.S.R.” literally while assuming that everything else had a hidden meaning.

52
. Key,
Media Sexploitation
, 146.

53
. To see some attempts to read the
entire
backward recording of “Stairway to Heaven” as a long Satanic incantation, go to YouTube; several competing interpretations can be found there.

54
. Quoted in Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein,
Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke
(Cornerstone Press, 1993), 101.

55
. Mike Warnke, “Foreword,” in Hicks and Lewis,
The Todd Phenomenon
, 9.

56
. Warnke was hit hard by the revelations of the early 1990s, but he continues to perform as a Christian standup comic today. He still insists that his story is essentially true, though he has admitted inventing some of the details.

57
. Richard Hofstadter,
The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays
(Harvard University Press, 1965), 34–35.

58
. “Angels?” (Jack T. Chick, 1986).

59
. “Dark Dungeons” (Jack T. Chick, 1984).

60
. “Bewitched?” (Jack T. Chick, 1972).

61
. Quoted in David Waldron, “Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right: Community Formation in Response to a Moral Panic,”
Journal of Religion and Popular Culture
, Spring 2005.

62
. Quoted in Michael A. Stackpole, “The Pulling Report” (1990), rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html.

63
. Tipper Gore,
Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society: What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Children from Sex and Violence in the Media
(Abingdon Press, 1987), 118.

64
. Quoted in Nuget, “In Search of the Ultimate Conspiracy.”

65
. Quoted in Hicks and Lewis,
The Todd Phenomenon
, 93.

66
. Sheila Todd’s letter is reprinted online at holysmoke.org/jtcsheil.txt. According to Hicks and Lewis, Todd sometimes tried to pass off Sheila as his previous wife, Sharon. But they are not the same person.

67
. The angry mail is mentioned in “John Todd’s Record Confirmed,”
Journal Champion
, February 9, 1979.

68
. Quoted in “
Cornerstone
’s Near-Miss Interviews with Madalyn Murray O’Hair and John Todd,”
Cornerstone
48 (1979).

69
. Quoted in Jess Walter,
Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family
(Harper Paperbacks, 1996), 53. My description of Todd’s behavior during the talk draws on Alan W. Bock,
Ambush at Ruby Ridge: How Government Agents Set Randy Weaver Up and Took His Family Down
(Dickens Press, 1995), 38.

70
. Kerry Noble,
Tabernacle of Hate: Seduction into Right-Wing Extremism
, 2nd ed. (Syracuse University Press, 2010), 77, 81.

71
.
Witchcraft and the Illuminati
(CPA Book Publisher, 1981), 42–43, 45, 78. The book was published anonymously, but Noble identified himself as its author in
Tabernacle of Hate
, 119.

72
. Quoted in Jessica Stern,
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
(HarperCollins, 2003), 21.

73
. Todd may have helped inspire another would-be terrorist in 1997, when a bank was robbed and an adult bookstore bombed in Damascus, Oregon. (No one was injured.) Fritz Springmeier, a conspiracy theorist heavily influenced by Todd, was among the people eventually charged with the crimes, and he served time from 2003 to 2011. Springmeier maintains that the Illuminati framed him.

74
. For a balanced discussion of those early attempts to estimate the number of missing children in general and stranger abductions in particular, see Joel Best, “Missing Children, Misleading Statistics,”
The Public Interest
, Summer 1988.

75
. Jello Biafra, “Tales from the Trial,” on
High Priest of Harmful Matter
, CD, Alternative Tentacles, 1989.

76
. Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker,
Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt
(Basic Books, 1995), 86.

77
. Quoted ibid., 88.

78
. Quoted in Sam Howe Verhovek, “Death in Waco,”
The New York Times
, April 20, 1993.

79
. Joel Best,
Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern About Child-Victims
(University of Chicago Press, 1990), 2.

80
. “The Devil Worshippers,”
20/20
, ABC, May 16, 1985.

81
. There is a hint of sophistication in the argument here: Though the filmmakers who shot
The Exorcist
wanted to make a Christian movie, it is certainly possible for someone who views it to ignore their intentions and identify with the Devil. Of course, if you accept this, you also have to accept the converse—that people who listen to a “Satanic” metal band don’t necessarily take the lyrics at face value either.

82
. This was a theme of the first comic book Todd made with Jack Chick. See “The Broken Cross,”
The Crusaders
2 (1974).

83
. Quoted in David Alexander, “Giving the Devil More Than His Due,”
The Humanist
, March–April 1990.

84
. “Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground,”
The Geraldo Rivera Specials
, NBC, October 25, 1988.

85
. Kenneth V. Lanning, “Satanic, Occult, Ritualistic Crime: A Law Enforcement Perspective,”
The
Police Chief
, October 1989.

86
. holysmoke.org/wicca/wicca-letters-hoax.htm.

87
. Quoted in Kurt Kuersteiner,
The Unofficial Guide to the Art of Jack T. Chick: Chick Tracts, Crusader Comics, and Battle Cry Newspapers
(Schiffer, 2004), 24.

88
. Quoted in Danny C. Flanders, “Jury Deliberating John Wayne Todd’s Fate in Rape Case,”
The State
, January 22, 1988.

89
. John Todd, “John Todd’s Testimonial While in Prison,” February 26, 1991, kt70.com/~jamesjpn/articles/john-todd-from-prison.html.

90
. Quoted in Roy Livesey, “The Church
Versus
the New World Order: Examples from South Carolina Are Lessons for Us All,”
New Age Bulletin
, July 1994.

91
.
Kollyns v. Gintoli
, U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina, Columbia Division, August 12, 2005.

92
.
Kollyns v. Hughes
, U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina, Columbia Division, September 22, 2006.

93
. youtube.com/watch?v=qMYrSPuEYTk.

Chapter 9: Operation Mindfuck

  1
. Quoted in Scott Thill, “Grant Morrison Talks Brainy Comics, Sexy Apocalypse,” March 19, 2009, wired.com/underwire/2009/03/mid-life-crisis/.

  2
. Paul Eberle, “The Minutemen,”
The East Village Other
, July 23, 1969.

  3
. “Current Structure of Bavarian Illuminati Conspiracy and the Law of Fives,”
The East Village Other
, June 4, 1969.

  4
. Thomas M. Disch,
The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World
(Touchstone, 1998), 29. In the same passage, Disch described an encounter with Robert Anton Wilson: “I saw him once, after a book signing in Los Angeles, gravely romancing a would-be true believer, throwing out dark hints, then lapsing into winks and giggles. Did he experience cognitive dissonance?”