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21
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/American Society for Psychical Research.md
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@ -10,15 +10,28 @@ tags:
- USA
description: The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, dedicated to the scientific study of psychic phenomena.
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, founded in 1885 by the philosopher and physician William James."
summary: "The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, organized in 1884-85 by a Boston committee of nine that included the philosopher and physician William James."
start: 1885
location: "New York City"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Simon Newcomb]]"
reverse: true
role: "first president, 1884-85"
start: 1884
fn: 2
---
The [[American Society for Psychical Research]] (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the [[United States]], founded in 1885 by the philosopher and physician [[William James]]. It is dedicated to the scientific study of [[Psi|psychic]] phenomena, including [[Telepathy]], [[Clairvoyance]], [[Precognition]], and [[Psychokinesis]].[^1]
The [[American Society for Psychical Research]] (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the [[United States]], organized between September 1884 and January 1885 by a Boston committee of nine that included the philosopher and physician [[William James]], with [[Simon Newcomb]] as its first president. It is dedicated to the scientific study of [[Psi|psychic]] phenomena, including [[Telepathy]], [[Clairvoyance]], [[Precognition]], and [[Psychokinesis]].[^1]
In the early 1970s, the ASPR was one of the institutions where [[Ingo Swann]] participated in psychic experiments before his involvement with [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]. [[Karlis Osis]], a parapsychologist at the ASPR, conducted experiments on [[Out-of-Body Experience|out-of-body experiences]] (OBEs) with Swann, where Swann claimed to be able to "float up" and perceive hidden objects. Osis also conducted a [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] experiment with [[Pat Price]], where Price, from a distance, appeared to affect an infrared sensor in a sealed copper box.[^1]
In the early 1970s, the ASPR was one of the institutions where [[Ingo Swann]] participated in psychic experiments before his involvement with [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]. [[Karlis Osis]], a parapsychologist at the ASPR, conducted experiments on [[Out-of-Body Experience|out-of-body experiences]] (OBEs) with Swann, where Swann claimed to be able to "float up" and perceive hidden objects. Osis also conducted a psychokinesis experiment with [[Pat Price]], where Price, from a distance, appeared to affect an infrared sensor in a sealed copper box.[^1]
### Formation
At a meeting in Boston on September 23, 1884, the question of a society for psychical research in America was placed in the hands of a committee of nine, including James, [[G. Stanley Hall]], [[Edward C. Pickering]], [[Henry P. Bowditch]], [[Charles S. Minot]], [[Samuel H. Scudder]], [[Alpheus Hyatt]], [[William Watson]] and N. D. C. Hodges.[^2] About eighty scientific men replied favorably to its invitation. The society's first meeting was held in Boston on December 18, 1884, and its organization was completed on January 8, 1885, with Newcomb as president.[^2] The first circular describes the English [[Society for Psychical Research]] as "formed in the beginning of 1882."[^2] The Epsilon person record for Sir [[William Fletcher Barrett]], who convened the 1882 London conference, states that in 1884 he "founded the American equivalent," and the April 24, 1885 presidential address to the Society for Psychical Research says Barrett had informed it of the American society.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: "Formation of the Society" and "Circular No. 1, Issued by the Council," *Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research,* vol. I, no. 1 (July 1885), pp. 1-2, with secretaries' records for December 18, 1884. https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofame18589amer
[^3]: Epsilon, person record for Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844-1925); address of the president, *Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,* April 24, 1885. https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/person/PERSON68

12
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory.md
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@ -17,9 +17,17 @@ The [[Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory]] was a research unit founded in
Rhine's work at Duke helped transform psychical research into "parapsychology," emphasizing dry statistics and experimental rigor. While his methods were blessed by statisticians and gained some public interest, the laboratory's work ultimately failed to firmly establish psi within mainstream science. Critics argued that parapsychologists never seemed to have anything to show for their work beyond marginal statistical evidence, leading to the ghettoization of the field.[^1]
The laboratory also conducted classified research for the U.S. government. In the early 1950s, the Army initiated a secret program with the Duke lab to test whether dogs could locate buried landmines underwater. The lab also conducted experiments on the homing abilities of pigeons for the Army Signal Corps, and on telepathic communication with cats.[^2]
### Establishment and move
The laboratory's early work began at [[Duke University]] in 1930, after [[William McDougall]] invited Rhine and [[Louisa Rhine]] to Durham.[^2] It left the psychology department in 1950 and became a separate entity at Duke.[^3] When Rhine retired from the Duke faculty in 1965, the laboratory moved to the [[Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man]] as the Institute for Parapsychology.[^2][^3]
The laboratory also conducted classified research for the U.S. government. In the early 1950s, the Army initiated a secret program with the Duke lab to test whether dogs could locate buried landmines underwater. The lab also conducted experiments on the homing abilities of pigeons for the Army Signal Corps, and on telepathic communication with cats.[^4]
---
### Footnotes
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: "Early Studies in Parapsychology at Duke," Rubenstein Library, Duke University. https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/parapsychology/about-the-exhibit
[^3]: "Rhine Research Center," NCpedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/rhine-research-center
[^4]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

11
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fair Play for Cuba Committee.md
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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ tags:
- Oswald
- 1960s
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "The Fair Play for Cuba Committee was a pro-Castro political organization founded in 1960 whose primary historical significance is that Lee Harvey Oswald distributed its leaflets in New Orleans in the summer of 1963, raising unresolved questions about whether his activities were genuine political expression, an intelligence operation, or an attempt to establish a pro-communist cover identity before the Kennedy assassination."
summary: "Pro-Castro organization founded in 1960 whose leaflets Lee Harvey Oswald distributed in New Orleans in the summer of 1963."
start: 1960
end: 1963
location: "New York, New York"
@ -31,11 +31,11 @@ The organization was under FBI surveillance from its founding. The FBI's COINTEL
### Oswald and New Orleans
In the summer of 1963, Oswald appeared in [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] distributing FPCC leaflets stamped with a fictitious address ("544 Camp Street," which was actually the address of anti-Castro activist [[Guy Banister]]'s office building). He gave a radio interview defending Castro's Cuba, attempted to recruit members for a New Orleans FPCC chapter, and was photographed distributing leaflets. He may have been the only actual FPCC member in New Orleans.
In the summer of 1963, Oswald appeared in New Orleans distributing FPCC leaflets stamped with a fictitious address ("544 Camp Street," which was actually the address of anti-Castro activist [[Guy Banister]]'s office building). He gave a radio interview defending Castro's Cuba, attempted to recruit members for a New Orleans FPCC chapter, and was photographed distributing leaflets. He may have been the only actual FPCC member in New Orleans.
The anomalies of Oswald's FPCC activities have been extensively analyzed:
The 544 Camp Street address: The address Oswald stamped on his FPCC leaflets - 544 Camp Street - was physically the same building as 531 Lafayette Street, the office of [[Guy Banister]], a former FBI Special Agent in Charge who ran an anti-Castro intelligence network. This proximity has never been satisfactorily explained. Whether Oswald and Banister knew each other, or whether the address connection was deliberate or accidental, remains disputed.
The 544 Camp Street address: The address Oswald stamped on his FPCC leaflets - 544 Camp Street - was physically the same building as 531 Lafayette Street, the office of Guy Banister, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge who ran an anti-Castro intelligence network. This proximity has never been satisfactorily explained. Whether Oswald and Banister knew each other, or whether the address connection was deliberate or accidental, remains disputed.
Intelligence cover theory: Some researchers have argued that Oswald's public pro-Castro activities were designed to establish a left-wing cover identity that would later be used to create the appearance of a Castro-connected assassination motive - either by Oswald himself as part of a planned operation or by others who were using or manipulating Oswald. The CIA's own internal reviews acknowledged that the [[Mexico City]] evidence connecting Oswald to the Cuban and Soviet embassies was handled in ways that remained unexplained.
@ -45,9 +45,12 @@ Genuine belief: Other analysts have argued that Oswald was a genuine if eccentri
Declassified documents have confirmed that the CIA ran targeted operations against the FPCC in 1961-1963, including attempting to use Cuban exile groups to create incidents at FPCC events and working with informants to penetrate the organization. The specific question of whether any CIA-connected operative was directing or monitoring Oswald's New Orleans activities has not been definitively resolved.
The [[Warren Commission]] investigated Oswald's FPCC activities and concluded they were genuine political expression with no intelligence connection. The [[HSCA]] found the CIA's handling of Oswald-related evidence "not in accordance with agency regulations" and noted unexplained gaps.[^2]
The [[Warren Commission]] investigated Oswald's FPCC activities and concluded they were genuine political expression with no intelligence connection.[^2] In New Orleans in 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald wrote to the FPCC's national director [[Vincent T. Lee]] about opening a chapter, and had handouts printed, some stamped with his own name and address, some with the alias "A. J. Hidell," and others listing the FPCC address as 544 Camp Street.[^3] The [[HSCA]] found that Guy Banister's firm occupied an office in the Newman Building at 531 Lafayette Street, that another entrance to the building was at 544 Camp Street, and that [[David Ferrie]] frequented 544 Camp Street regularly in the summer of 1963 as a result of his working relationship with Banister.[^4] The committee stated that there was at least a possibility that Oswald and Banister were acquainted, citing among other facts that Banister's brother Ross told the committee he had seen Oswald handing out FPCC literature that summer and that Banister's secretary, Delphine Roberts, told the committee she saw Oswald in Banister's office on several occasions.[^4] On December 3, 1963, the FBI's electronic surveillance recorded [[Sam Giancana]]'s lieutenant Charles English saying that the FBI was "gonna start running down Fair Play for Cuba."[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Warren Commission. *Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.* Government Printing Office, 1964. Melanson, Philip H. *Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence.* Praeger, 1990.
[^2]: House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.* Government Printing Office, 1979. Davy, William. *Let Justice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Garrison Investigation.* Jordan Publishing, 1999.
[^3]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, 95th Cong., 2d sess. (1979), pp. 140-141 (Oswald and the FPCC in New Orleans). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, pp. 143-146 (544 Camp Street; Banister; Ferrie). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^5]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, p. 169. https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit

14
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Hadron.md
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@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
---
aliases: []
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-05-01
updated: 2026-10-09
location: "Washington, D.C., USA"
tags:
- Organization
- PROMIS
- INSLAW
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "Hadron, Inc. was a Washington-area technology and information services company in which Earl Brian held a controlling interest, and which INSLAW alleged was positioned to acquire INSLAW's assets and software contracts as the intended beneficiary of the DOJ's alleged scheme to destroy the company."
summary: "Hadron, Inc. was a Washington-area technology company controlled by Earl Brian, which INSLAW alleged was positioned to acquire its assets and software contracts as the intended beneficiary of the DOJ's alleged scheme to destroy it."
---
Hadron, Inc. was a technology and information services company in which [[Earl Brian]] held both direct and indirect financial interests. [[INSLAW]] alleged that Hadron was the intended commercial beneficiary of the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]]'s alleged scheme to force INSLAW into liquidation: that DOJ employees delivered copies of INSLAW's proprietary [[PROMIS]] software to Brian and Hadron before INSLAW's bankruptcy, positioning Hadron to acquire INSLAW's assets and client base and then receive a "massive sweetheart contract" from DOJ in the aftermath.[^1]
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Hamilton claimed that [[Edward Hurley]], a Hadron Vice President, stated in June
Hamilton alleged that [[James L. Byrnes]], a Deputy Assistant Attorney General with ties to [[Edwin Meese]], spearheaded the award of a $40 million computer services contract to [[Accumenics]], a Hadron subsidiary, in October 1987. Byrnes denied any knowledge of such a contract or any contact with Hadron or its subsidiaries. The Special Counsel found no evidence supporting this allegation.[^2]
INSLAW alleged a connection between [[Peter Videnieks]], DOJ's PROMIS contracting officer, and Hadron, claiming Videnieks had administered Customs Service contracts with Hadron. While a witness suggested a possible meeting between Videnieks and Laiti, Videnieks denied being the contracting officer for any Hadron contract or meeting Hadron management. The Special Counsel found no evidence of a conspiracy, concluding any connection was "tenuous and insignificant."[^2]
[[John Schoolmeister]], a former [[U.S. Customs]] employee, told INSLAW and the House Judiciary Committee that [[Peter Videnieks]], before he became the Justice Department's PROMIS contracting officer, handled two Customs contracts with Hadron and would almost certainly have met Dominic Laiti, Hadron's president, who in Schoolmeister's words "met everyone in government."[^3] Schoolmeister did not claim personal knowledge of any meeting.[^3] Videnieks told the Special Counsel that he did not recall being the contracting officer on any Hadron contract. The Special Counsel found from Hadron's records that two Hadron subsidiaries had Customs contracts in the period, that Videnieks was not the contracting officer on either, and that he supervised the contracting officers on both.[^4] The report found one connection that it called "extraordinarily tenuous": in 1978 and 1979 Videnieks had been the contracting officer on a Customs contract with [[Universal Systems]], which Hadron bought in December 1980, and the report stated that his involvement with Universal Systems ended before the purchase.[^4] It concluded that Schoolmeister's statement tended at most to show that it was possible Videnieks once met Laiti, and that this "falls far short of anything that could fairly be called evidence of a conspiracy."[^5] The Justice Department's 1994 review of the Bua report concurred.[^6]
Hamilton alleged that [[SCT|Systems and Computer Technology, Inc.]] (SCT)'s 1986 attempt to purchase INSLAW was encouraged by DOJ officials and indirectly linked to Brian. The Special Counsel found no evidence supporting these claims, noting that SCT's contacts with DOJ were for due diligence purposes only.[^2]
@ -32,10 +32,14 @@ Hamilton alleged that [[SCT|Systems and Computer Technology, Inc.]] (SCT)'s 1986
### Congressional and Official Findings
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found "no proof of any connection between Earl Brian or Hadron and the Department with regard to the INSLAW contract" in its September 1989 report.[^3] The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report described Brian's alleged role in connection with Hadron as "intriguing...but without the requisite degree of causation," raising circumstantial concerns while stopping short of a direct finding.[^1] The Special Counsel's report concluded that the evidence overwhelmingly showed no connection between Hadron and anything related to INSLAW or PROMIS, and that individuals claiming direct knowledge were "unworthy of belief" and contradicted by credible evidence.[^2]
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found "no proof of any connection between Earl Brian or Hadron and the Department with regard to the INSLAW contract" in its September 1989 report.[^7] The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report described Brian's alleged role in connection with Hadron as "intriguing...but without the requisite degree of causation," raising circumstantial concerns while stopping short of a direct finding.[^1] The Special Counsel's report concluded that the evidence overwhelmingly showed no connection between Hadron and anything related to INSLAW or PROMIS, and that individuals claiming direct knowledge were "unworthy of belief" and contradicted by credible evidence.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.
[^3]: U.S. Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. *The Inslaw Affair.* September 1989.
[^3]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess., September 10, 1992, p. 68; U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, March 1993, p. 102. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, pp. 102-104. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993, p. 104. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 54. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
[^7]: U.S. Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. *The Inslaw Affair.* September 1989.

6
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/INSLAW.md
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@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---
category: "Private Organization"
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-05-01
updated: 2026-10-09
start: 1981
location: "Washington, D.C., USA"
tags:
@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ tags:
- INSLAW
- Software
- DoJ
summary: "INSLAW, Inc. is a Washington-area software company that developed the PROMIS case management system and became the center of a major legal and political scandal after alleging the U.S. Department of Justice stole its proprietary software and drove the company into bankruptcy."
summary: "INSLAW, Inc. is a Washington-area software company that developed the PROMIS case management system and alleged that the Justice Department stole its proprietary software and drove it into bankruptcy."
---
INSLAW, Inc. is a software company founded by [[Bill Hamilton|William A. Hamilton]] and [[Nancy Hamilton]] as the commercial successor to the Institute for Law and Social Research (ILSR), a Washington, D.C. non-profit think tank that originally developed the [[PROMIS]] (Prosecutor's Management Information System) software under grants from the [[LEAA|Law Enforcement Assistance Administration]]. The company became the center of the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] following its allegation that the [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] systematically stole its proprietary software, drove it into bankruptcy, and distributed modified versions internationally to foreign intelligence agencies.
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ When the Reagan administration took office in January 1981 and accelerated cuts
In March 1982, INSLAW signed a three-year, $10 million contract with the DOJ's [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]] to install PROMIS in 20 large U.S. Attorneys' offices and word-processor systems in 74 smaller ones. The contract specified installation of a public-domain version of PROMIS; however, INSLAW argued the version it delivered incorporated substantial proprietary enhancements developed with private capital after May 1981, including a relational database structure and recidivism-risk assessment capabilities. DOJ maintained the contract entitled it only to the public-domain base version.[^1][^2]
C. Madison Brewer was assigned as the EOUSA project manager for the contract, a conflict of interest noted by Senate investigators given his prior tenure as ILSR's general counsel. Contract administrator [[Peter Videnieks]] took consistently adversarial positions on INSLAW's proprietary claims throughout the contract period. On April 11, 1983, Videnieks executed Modification 12 to the contract with INSLAW, which restricted DOJ from distributing PROMIS "beyond the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and to the 94 United States Attorneys' Offices covered by the contract, pending resolution" of the rights dispute. Nine days later, on April 20, 1983, INSLAW delivered the VAX-platform version of enhanced PROMIS under that modification.[^2]
C. Madison Brewer was assigned as the EOUSA project manager for the contract, a conflict of interest noted by Senate investigators given his prior tenure as ILSR's general counsel. Contract administrator [[Peter Videnieks]] took consistently adversarial positions on INSLAW's proprietary claims throughout the contract period. Modification 12 to the contract with INSLAW, effective April 11, 1983, restricted DOJ from distributing PROMIS "beyond the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and to the 94 United States Attorneys' Offices covered by the contract, pending resolution" of the rights dispute. Nine days later, on April 20, 1983, INSLAW delivered the VAX-platform version of enhanced PROMIS under that modification.[^2]
DOJ withheld advance payments beginning in November 1982, citing a contractual violation after INSLAW disclosed it had pledged government invoices to the Bank of Bethesda as collateral for a line of credit. INSLAW alleged the withheld payments were pretextual, designed to exacerbate a financial crisis the Department had helped engineer. Under continuing financial duress, INSLAW filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 1985.[^1][^2]

19
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Institute of Noetic Science.md
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@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
aliases:
- "Institute of Noetic Sciences"
created: 2025-07-22
updated: 2025-07-22
updated: 2026-10-09
title: Institute of Noetic Science
tags:
- organization
@ -13,10 +13,23 @@ category: "Private Organization"
summary: "The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) is an American nonprofit parapsychological research institute founded in 1973 by former Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell following a spontaneous consciousness experience during his return from the Moon."
start: 1973
location: "Petaluma, California, USA"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Edgar Mitchell]]"
reverse: true
start: 1973
fn: 2
---
The [[Institute of Noetic Science]] (IONS) is an American nonprofit parapsychological research institute. It was founded by former Apollo 14 astronaut [[Edgar Mitchell]], a known psi enthusiast. In the context of the *Remote Viewers* narrative, the Institute provided a grant that funded [[Andrija Puharich]]'s efforts to bring [[Uri Geller]] to America in 1972 for scientific testing at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]].[^1]
The [[Institute of Noetic Science]] (IONS) is an American nonprofit parapsychological research institute. It was founded by former Apollo 14 astronaut [[Edgar Mitchell]], a known psi enthusiast. [[Jim Schnabel]] wrote that the Institute provided a grant that funded [[Andrija Puharich]]'s efforts to bring [[Uri Geller]] to America in 1972 for scientific testing at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]].[^1]
The Internal Revenue Service tax exemption of the California Institute of Noetic Sciences was issued in June 1973.[^2] A 1973 survey of parapsychology organizations describes the Institute's founder as having stepped down as chief operating officer of EDMA (Edgar D. Mitchell and Associates) Corporation to take up responsibilities in the Institute.[^3] A [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Office of Research and Development memorandum of January 24, 1973 states that the SRI work with Geller "has been supported by Edgar Mitchell's foundation."[^4] A New Scientist report of October 17, 1974 states that Mitchell "two years ago set up his Institute of Noetic Sciences in Palo Alto" and names [[John White]] as his assistant at the Institute there.[^5] In a 1997 NASA oral history Mitchell said he started the Institute after the flight to study the nature of consciousness, and that it looked at biofeedback, psychic phenomena and Uri Geller.[^6]
---
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "California Institute of Noetic Sciences" (EIN 23-7236986), tax exemption issued June 1973. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237236986
[^3]: "Research, Investigation and Teaching: A Survey of the International Scene," *New Psychic Frontiers*, p. 208. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230018-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200230018-6
[^4]: CIA Office of Research and Development memorandum ORD-413-73, January 24, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400070029-2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400070029-2
[^5]: Joseph Hanlon, report on Uri Geller and the Targ and Puthoff paper, *New Scientist*, vol. 64, no. 919, October 17, 1974, reprinted in CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090024-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200090024-7
[^6]: Edgar D. Mitchell, oral history interview, NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, September 3, 1997, pp. 12-32 to 12-34, 12-40. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/nasa/EDM_9-3-97.pdf

247
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Music Corporation of America.md
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@ -5,33 +5,256 @@ tags:
- Entertainment
- OrganizedCrime
- TheOctopus
- Antitrust
- LaborRacketeering
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "The Music Corporation of America was a major entertainment corporation that became entangled in investigations related to organized crime and the broader network that Danny Casolaro termed 'The Octopus.'"
aliases:
- MCA
- MCA Inc.
- MCA Inc
- MCA Corporation
- Music Corporation of America
summary: "The Music Corporation of America was a Chicago talent agency founded in 1924 that became a studio and television producer and was the subject of antitrust suits and FBI wiretaps on alleged organized crime ties."
start: 1924
location: "Chicago, Illinois, USA"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Jules Stein]]"
reverse: true
start: 1924
fn: 2
- type: head_of
with: "[[Lew Wasserman]]"
reverse: true
role: "president from 1946, later chairman"
start: 1946
fn: 5
- type: represented
with: "[[Ronald Reagan]]"
role: "talent agency client from about 1939 or 1940, per Reagan's grand jury testimony"
start: 1939
fn: 18
- type: owned
with: "[[Decca Records]]"
role: "80 percent acquired June 18, 1962"
start: 1962
fn: 23
- type: owned
with: "[[Universal Pictures]]"
role: "acquired through Decca, June 1962"
start: 1962
fn: 23
- type: owned
with: "[[Curry Company]]"
role: "Yosemite Park and Curry Company, concessioner at Yosemite National Park"
start: 1973
end: 1993
fn: 45
- type: investigated
with: "[[Department of Justice|DOJ]]"
reverse: true
role: "Antitrust Division grand jury and civil action, consent judgment October 18, 1962"
start: 1961
end: 1962
fn: 21
- type: investigated
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]"
reverse: true
role: "wiretaps of 1987 to 1989 on Robert Booth Nichols and Eugene Giaquinto"
start: 1987
end: 1989
fn: 35
- type: owned
with: "[[Matsushita Electric Industrial]]"
reverse: true
role: "purchase of MCA, closed December 29, 1990"
start: 1990
end: 1995
fn: 42
- type: owned
with: "[[Seagram Company]]"
reverse: true
role: "80 percent interest in MCA Holding I Corp., acquired June 5, 1995"
start: 1995
fn: 43
created: 2025-08-05
updated: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-10-09
---
The [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] was a major entertainment corporation that became entangled in investigations related to organized crime and the broader network that [[Danny Casolaro]] termed "[[The Octopus]]."
The [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] was a talent agency founded in [[Chicago]] in 1924 that grew into a major film and television producer. It was sold to the Japanese electronics maker [[Matsushita Electric Industrial]] in 1990 and, in 1995, 80 percent of it was sold to [[Seagram Company|Seagram]]. It was the defendant in a 1946 antitrust jury trial in [[Los Angeles]] (*Finley v. Music Corporation of America*), in a 1962 civil antitrust action by the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] that ended in a consent judgment, and in a 1987 to 1989 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap inquiry into alleged organized crime penetration. Its ties were part of the broader network that [[Danny Casolaro]] termed "[[The Octopus]]."[^1]
### Organized Crime Allegations
### Founding in Chicago
MCA was the subject of a [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap investigation which, according to [[Cheri Seymour]], was supervised by the federal prosecutor [[Marvin Rudnick]] and later by [[Richard Stavin]] of the Justice Department's [[Los Angeles]] Organized Crime Strike Force. These investigations, which also involved FBI agent [[Thomas Gates]], led them to believe that MCA had been penetrated by organized crime. Specifically, the wiretaps recorded communications between [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Eugene Giaquinto]], then president of MCA home entertainment division. Giaquinto was also a board member of Nichols' holding company, [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]], which was under FBI investigation as a source of funding for narcotics and the allocation of drug trafficking proceeds.[^1]
[[Jules Stein]], a Chicago ophthalmologist who worked as an assistant to the eye surgeon [[Harry Gradle]], started the Music Corporation of America in 1924 with a college friend, [[William R. Goodheart]]. Moldea wrote that Stein gave up his position with Gradle to found the agency, which worked from a tiny two-room office in downtown Chicago and booked dance bands into nightclubs, ballrooms and hotels for a ten percent commission, drawing its principal business from the nightclubs and speakeasies of the city's South Side.[^2] MCA signed [[Guy Lombardo]] and his orchestra in 1928, and by the mid-1930s represented more than half of the major bands in the country.[^2]
Moldea wrote that [[James Petrillo]], president of the Chicago local and later national president of the [[American Federation of Musicians]], kept other agencies from obtaining booking licenses, that the union's executive board sided with MCA in every dispute between a band and the agency, and that the union gave MCA a "blanket waiver" allowing it to act as booking agent and radio production company at once. Moldea cited Justice Department documents as alleging that union officials, club owners and bandleaders who cooperated with Stein received cash, cars and sometimes MCA stock options, and that Petrillo was never indicted.[^3]
Moldea wrote that accounts of Stein's dealings with the Chicago underworld conflict. In one version, recounted from Justice Department documents, Stein's bootlegging sales for the nightclubs he booked crossed into the territory of the bootlegger Roger Touhy, an enemy of [[Al Capone]], and Touhy threatened Stein or his wife. Stein said later that he stood up to Touhy and took out a $75,000 kidnapping insurance policy.[^4]
Moldea wrote that [[Lew Wasserman]] was groomed as Stein's heir and was named president of the company in 1946, when Stein became chairman of the board. Moldea dated Stein's step back to April 26, 1946, Stein's fiftieth birthday, and quoted Stein as saying of his thirty-three-year-old protege, "Lew was the student who surpassed the teacher."[^5]
### Lew Wasserman
Lew Wasserman was the Chairman of MCA Corporation. He was a powerful figure in Hollywood and a long-time political supporter of [[Ronald Reagan]]. Cheri Seymour wrote that Wasserman represented Reagan during the actor's early days in Hollywood, and that Wasserman and Stein negotiated the sale of Reagan's [[California]] properties at inflated prices, which helped make Reagan a millionaire.[^1]
Wasserman was a major contributor to and sat on the board of the Reagan presidential library, along with [[Edwin Meese]] and others. He was involved in raising $80 million to build it.[^1]
Wasserman was on the MCA board of directors during the FBI investigation into alleged mob ties to MCA. [[Edward Sciandra]] reportedly wanted to go to Wasserman and [[Sidney Sheinberg]] (President of MCA) and tell them who they were up against.[^1]
Reagan and [[Nancy Reagan]] were known to celebrate New Year's Eve with Wasserman and his wife, Edie. [[Howard Baker]] returned to MCA's board of directors in March 1989, just in time to help Wasserman celebrate his seventy-sixth birthday.[^1]
Wasserman's employment agreement with MCA Inc. is dated December 6, 1988, and was amended on November 26, 1990.[^6]
### Finley v. Music Corporation of America, 1946
[[Larry Finley]], who had leased the [[Mission Beach]] amusement park and dance hall from the city of [[San Diego]] in November 1944, sued MCA, Stein, [[Larry Barnett]] and the MCA agent [[Harold Eames Bishop]] on March 20, 1945. Moldea wrote that Finley claimed MCA had charged him far more for bands than it charged other ballrooms and had conspired to freeze him out of San Diego, and that he sued for triple damages under the Sherman Act in a $3.1 million suit.[^7] The case was docketed as Civil No. 4328 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, and the trial before Judge [[Paul J. McCormick]] began in Los Angeles on January 29, 1946.[^8][^9]
After about ten days of trial the jury returned a general verdict for the plaintiffs, with treble damages of $55,500. Moldea wrote that the jury deliberated for only a few hours, that McCormick had earlier dismissed the charges against Stein, and that in his final statement to the court McCormick called MCA "the Octopus ... with tentacles reaching out to all phases and grasping everything in show business." Moldea wrote that the image became MCA's nickname in the Hollywood trade and the press.[^8] A four-part series by [[David G. Wittels]] titled "Star-Spangled Octopus" ran in the *[[Saturday Evening Post]]* beginning August 10, 1946.[^10]
In the memorandum reported at 66 F. Supp. 569, dated June 24, 1946, McCormick held that the evidence did not fix the damages with the certainty the Supreme Court's decisions required, found the jury's estimate of $18,500 in actual damages legally unsupported, and assessed costs and attorney's fees of $9,092.85 against the defendants.[^9] Moldea wrote that the court's ruling on damages quickly put a damper on the Justice Department's MCA investigation in Washington.[^11]
### The 1952 blanket waiver under Reagan's SAG presidency
Moldea wrote that Reagan, president of the [[Screen Actors Guild]] for five consecutive one-year terms, engineered a "blanket waiver" in 1952 exempting MCA from Guild rules that barred a talent agency from also engaging in film production. Reagan's second wife, actress Nancy Davis, sat on the SAG board at the time. MCA was the only such firm granted that status, which gave it the ground floor in television production and placed it in a position to offer jobs to the actors it represented. Other talent agencies complained that the arrangement gave MCA an unfair advantage.[^12]
Moldea wrote that in July 1952 there was a series of meetings between certain members of the SAG board and MCA, including Wasserman, [[Taft Schreiber]], the MCA attorney [[Laurence Beilenson]] and another MCA representative, and that no record of the meetings was kept. A Justice Department document quoted by Moldea stated that "Wasserman and Schreiber could sell SAG anything" because of their relationship with Reagan. The deal allowed MCA to work in television production through its talent agency, MCA Artists, and a new production company, [[Revue Productions]], headed by Schreiber.[^13] The Antitrust Division later reported, in Moldea's quotation, that "The MCA-SAG arrangements, in effect, have placed MCA in a highly favorable competitive position over other talent agencies and television producers," and Moldea wrote that the Justice Department received information that "The central fact of MCA's whole rise to power was undoubtedly the blanket waiver."[^14]
Moldea wrote that, according to Justice Department documents, several government sources believed the favorable treatment Reagan later received from MCA, after his film career declined, was a payoff for services rendered while he led the Guild.[^12] Moldea wrote that MCA arranged for Reagan to appear as master of ceremonies at the Last Frontier hotel in [[Las Vegas]] from February 14 to 28, 1954, where [[Johnny Roselli]] was on the payroll as a "public relations consultant."[^15] In a June 7, 1961 interview recorded by the Antitrust Division attorney [[Leonard Posner]], an industry source called Reagan "a complete slave of MCA who would do their bidding on anything."[^16]
Moldea wrote that in 1959 the SAG membership re-elected Reagan president for a sixth term to lead a strike against the studios, that MCA and a few smaller studios made an early separate peace with the Guild, and that, according to the president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the 1960 settlement with the major studios came with the help of [[Sidney Korshak]].[^12]
### Grand jury and Reagan's testimony
Moldea wrote that after the election of [[John F. Kennedy]] and the appointment of [[Robert F. Kennedy]] as attorney general, the government began a concentrated probe of MCA's business affairs and empaneled a federal grand jury to hear charges including restraint of trade, conspiracy with the Guild to monopolize talent and film program production, extortion, discrimination, blacklisting and predatory business practices.[^12] The [[Federal Communications Commission]] subpoenaed Schreiber on March 8, 1961, and he declined to testify except in secret session. On August 25, 1961 the attorney general authorized a grand jury in the Southern District of New York; the Antitrust Division then moved it to Los Angeles, and by mid-November 1961 it was calling witnesses, among them [[Cary Grant]] and [[Danny Kaye]].[^17]
On February 5, 1962, Reagan testified before the federal grand jury in Los Angeles, questioned by the Antitrust Division attorney [[John Fricano]]. The transcript, taken down by the shorthand reporter Lucille Girlow, was first published in full in Moldea's book. Asked his profession, Reagan answered, "Actor, I think." He testified that MCA had represented him since about 1939 or 1940, when it bought the William Meiklejohn agency and took six of its clients, among them [[Jane Wyman]] and [[Bill Demarest]], as its first motion picture clients; that his first MCA agent was Wasserman and then [[Art Park]]; that he had been president of the Guild about five and a half years from 1946 or 1947 and again for a final year; and that his wife Nancy Davis, whom he married in March 1952, had sat on the Guild board in 1952.[^18]
Fricano asked Reagan why the Guild had granted MCA a blanket or unlimited waiver. Reagan answered that "I personally never saw any particular harm in it," that the Guild believed it could "pull the rug out from under them" if harm followed, and that he did not recall participating in the July 1952 negotiations or the June 1954 extension. Fricano showed him Grand Jury Exhibit 41, a letter of June 7, 1954 from the Guild's counsel Beilenson to Wasserman stating that the July 23, 1952 letter agreement "was executed under a specific set of circumstances where Revue was willing to sign a contract giving the guild members reuse fees when no one else was willing to do so." Reagan answered, "I don't recall it, no." He said he had told the Guild's executive secretary that he felt self-conscious about his long association with MCA and "sometimes I kind of ran for cover and was very happy to duck a committee duty in these matters." Of the many meetings in his career he said, "my memory is like a kaleidoscope of meetings."[^18]
Reagan also testified about *[[General Electric Theater]]*: that Schreiber of Revue approached him, that he was employed by the advertising agency [[BBD&O]] rather than by Revue at a salary he put at $120,000 a year, and that in the spring of 1959 Wasserman, with Schreiber present, set terms giving him a 25 percent ownership interest in the films. He said Wasserman ruled in his favor in a dispute between Schreiber and his agent Park over foreign motion picture rights.[^18]
Moldea wrote that Reagan "displayed a remarkable loss of memory while on the witness stand."[^12] In *Where's the Rest of Me?* (1965), written with [[Richard Hubler]], Reagan described the day as "a long, unhappy afternoon being interrogated by a federal lawyer who'd seen too many Perry Masons."[^19] On February 13, 1962 the Antitrust Division subpoenaed the [[Internal Revenue Service]] for the income tax returns of Ronald and Nancy Reagan for 1952 through 1955, and for the returns of the Guild's executive secretary [[John Dales]], his assistant [[Chet Migden]] and four members of the 1952 board. Moldea wrote that no charges were filed against anyone, and that on February 15 Posner learned from a source that MCA "has a means of obtaining information from the grand jury itself," a leak he could not trace.[^19]
A *[[Washington Post]]* article of March 15, 1987 reprinted by Moldea states that the grand jury never charged Reagan with any crime, and Moldea states that Los Angeles journalist [[David Robb]] first uncovered and published portions of the transcript.[^20]
Moldea wrote that Reagan later acknowledged that the government's action against MCA affected his political beliefs, inclining him toward a more conservative stance, and that MCA's Jules Stein and Taft Schreiber were among the guiding forces in shaping that philosophy.[^12]
### The 1962 Justice Department action
The Antitrust Division filed a civil complaint against MCA Inc. on July 13, 1962 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division, docketed as Civil No. 62-942-WM, under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and Section 7 of the Clayton Act. The government was represented by Leonard R. Posner and [[Malcolm D. MacArthur]] and MCA by [[Allen E. Susman]] and [[Albert C. Bickford]] of the firm of Beilenson, Meyer, Rosenfeld and Susman.[^21] Moldea wrote that the complaint was approved by Robert Kennedy, named the Guild and the [[Writers Guild of America West|Writers Guild of America, West]] as co-conspirators for their waivers to MCA, and was filed with a request for a ten-day temporary restraining order against MCA's planned sale of its talent agency to its own employees.[^22]
MCA had acquired 80 percent of the stock of [[Decca Records]], the parent of [[Universal Pictures]], on June 18, 1962, a purchase that included Universal's library of 250 post-1948 feature films and about 2,500 hours of filmed television programs.[^23] Moldea wrote that on July 15 Wasserman filed an affidavit stating "I deny that MCA has been guilty of any violations of law or any other alleged wrongful acts charged," that Judge [[William C. Mathes]] granted the restraining order on July 16, and that Posner told the court the government wanted "to dissolve this mammoth corporation and turn these actors free to whomever they want."[^24]
On July 23, 1962 the parties filed a stipulation and order under which MCA dissolved its talent agency without selling it, surrendering its guild and union franchises. The stipulation stated that nothing in it was an admission of any violation of law. Posner said the action "destroys the power base MCA Inc. used for leverage for its filmed television production," and *[[Daily Variety]]* headlined its report "MCA DISSOLVES ENTIRE AGENCY."[^25]
The Final Judgment was entered October 18, 1962. It enjoined MCA from engaging in the talent agency business; barred it for seven years from acquiring or merging with any major television, motion picture or phonograph record production or distribution company without the Justice Department's written consent or a court finding, naming five television, six motion picture and six record companies as the "major" companies; barred tying the license of television programs, feature films or phonograph records to one another; and set a procedure, running to October 1, 1967, under which Universal could license 215 of 229 listed feature films for television to distributors other than MCA. The defendant denied any violation, and the judgment was entered on consent before any testimony was taken.[^21] Moldea wrote that the settlement took the case off the public record and spared Stein, Wasserman, Schreiber, Reagan and others from answering questions in open court, and that the Guild franchise for MCA expired at 12:01 a.m. on July 19, leaving 1,400 clients free.[^26]
The Antitrust Division's public listing of legacy judgments includes *U.S. v. MCA, Inc.*, case open date July 13, 1962, final judgment October 18, 1962, with a public comment period on its possible termination that closed April 19, 2019.[^27] A 1952 consent judgment against Decca Records, *United States v. Decca Records, Inc.* (S.D.N.Y., Civil No. 46-779), was the subject of a Justice Department motion to terminate in December 2020 stating that Decca Records, Inc. merged into MCA Inc. in 1966 and that MCA Inc. dissolved in 2015.[^28]
### Universal and Decca
Moldea wrote that after MCA bought Universal Pictures it made plans to produce motion pictures as well as television programs, that in the midst of the grand jury's investigation MCA purchased Universal and its parent company Decca Records, that the government went to court to block the takeover, and that the consent decree forced MCA to choose between being a talent agency and a production company. He wrote that production yielded nearly ten times the money of the agency and that MCA dissolved its talent agency.[^12] Moldea also wrote that Decca Records bought Universal Pictures in 1952, the same year as the MCA-SAG arrangement.[^29]
Moldea wrote that on September 19, 1962, the day after Attorney General Kennedy announced the proposed consent decree, workers began razing the Revue-Universal studio for the $110 million Universal City, which included a fifteen-story black-glass administration building.[^29]
### Reagan's Malibu Canyon land
Moldea wrote that Reagan bought 290 acres in Malibu Canyon in 1951 for $85,000, and that on December 13, 1966, a little over a month after his election as governor of California, he sold 236 of those acres to [[Twentieth Century-Fox]] for $1,930,000, or $8,178 an acre, in an arrangement handled by Stein and Schreiber with legal work by Reagan's attorney [[William French Smith]]. Moldea wrote that Fox's own appraisers had put the land at about $4,000 an acre.[^30]
### Sidney Korshak
Moldea wrote that federal investigators described Sidney Korshak, a [[Beverly Hills]] attorney, as the principal link between the legitimate business world and organized crime.[^31] He wrote that after [[Willie Bioff]], a front man for the Chicago Mafia in Hollywood, testified, Chicago's new liaison in the motion picture industry became Korshak, who had represented Bioff. Moldea quoted [[Charles Gioe]], a Chicago Mafia figure, as telling Bioff that Korshak was "our man."[^31] Moldea also wrote that Korshak became a close friend of Stein and Wasserman.[^31]
[[Seymour Hersh]], with [[Jeff Gerth]], published a four-part series on Korshak in *[[The New York Times]]* from June 27 to 30, 1976. Moldea quoted the Times as stating that "Mr. Korshak is the most important link between organized crime and legitimate business," and quoted Wasserman in that series as calling Korshak a "very good personal friend" and saying of the underworld allegations, "I don't believe them." Moldea wrote that three days after the series Korshak was among about three hundred guests at the Wassermans' fortieth wedding anniversary party.[^32]
The Bureau's file on Korshak, file 92-5053, is held on archive.org in three parts.[^33] A Bureau memorandum in that file dated July 2, 1976 quotes the Hersh and Gerth article, headlined "Korshak Again the Target of a Federal Investigation," as reporting that officials said the FBI "was accumulating evidence on Korshak's alleged involvement in a labor racketeering scheme in southern California." The memorandum states that the two reporters had interviewed over 300 people, including members of the Los Angeles and San Francisco Justice Department strike forces, while making inquiries into labor problems in the Long Beach area.[^33]
### Organized crime allegations
MCA was the subject of an FBI wiretap investigation which, according to [[Cheri Seymour]], was supervised by the federal prosecutor [[Marvin Rudnick]] and later by [[Richard Stavin]] of the Justice Department's Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force. These investigations, which also involved FBI agent [[Thomas Gates]], led them to believe that MCA had been penetrated by organized crime. Specifically, the wiretaps recorded communications between [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Eugene Giaquinto]], then president of MCA home entertainment division. Giaquinto was also a board member of Nichols' holding company, [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]], which was under FBI investigation as a source of funding for narcotics and the allocation of drug trafficking proceeds.[^1]
John Connolly reported in *[[Spy (magazine)|Spy]]* in January 1993 that Giaquinto left MCA and its board when reports of the investigation surfaced.[^34]
The intercepted conversations reportedly revealed connections to [[La Cosa Nostra]], including members of the [[Gambino Crime Family]] and [[Bufalino Crime Family]]. The wiretap application itself stated that the purpose of the interceptions was to determine the "source, type and quantity of narcotics/controlled substances, methods and means of delivery, and the source of funding for purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances." It was also apparent from the intercepted conversations that Eugene Giaquinto had a special relationship with [[John Gotti]].[^1]
### Leveraged Buyout and Investigation Shutdown
The continuation affidavit of Gates, sworn in 1987, names Giaquinto and [[Joseph Garofalo]] as persons committing offenses "involving the sale and possession of controlled substances," and lists among the matters the intercepts were to establish "The source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances and the allocation and use of the proceeds from its trafficking."[^35] It records a July 20, 1987 call in which Giaquinto told Nichols that MCA stock had fallen four points, and a July 23 call in which Giaquinto told Nichols that [[ZZZZ Best]] was a money-laundering operation for heroin money and asked what to do if Nichols's name came up.[^35] An excerpt of the affidavit reproduced in Meridian's Ninth Circuit brief describes agents investigating whether others used extortionate practices "to ensure that Eugene Giaquinto retains his position as the president of Home Entertainment for MCA/Universal, Inc."[^36]
At the time of these investigations, MCA was being offered in a leveraged buyout to Japanese interests. An FBI investigation could have jeopardized this sale. In her account the wiretaps were then sealed by the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]], and no case against MCA or its executives followed. The Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force was disbanded, Richard Stavin resigned, and Thomas Gates closed the FBI investigation. The Japanese ultimately purchased MCA in what was reported as the largest corporate sale in U.S. history at the time.[^1]
Seymour reproduced reports she attributed to John Cohen, an investigator for the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], in which Gates is recorded as saying that the wiretaps showed a close working relationship between the MCA board and high-level Justice Department officials.[^1]
Marvin Rudnick, who lost his job for refusing to drop the investigation, later had part of his story told in the 1993 book *Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, The Music Business, and the Mafia* by William Knoedelseder.[^1]
### Pisello and the strike force
The prosecution that did come out of the investigation was of [[Sal Pisello|Salvatore Pisello]], a middleman in MCA's dealings. In June 1984 MCA gave Pisello 30,000 dollars to study a "Latin record label" and in January 1985 another 50,000 dollars; he also received payments from Sugar Hill Records in connection with efforts to have MCA distribute its records and buy its catalog. Indicted in 1986 for evading taxes on this income, he was convicted for 1984 and 1985 and sentenced to four years' imprisonment and three years' probation; the Ninth Circuit affirmed on June 8, 1989.[^2]
[[Sal Pisello|Salvatore Pisello]] was convicted in federal district court on two counts of tax evasion for 1984 and 1985, acquitted on a third count for 1983, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment on one count and three years' probation on another; the Ninth Circuit affirmed on June 8, 1989. The court recited that in June 1984 [[MCA Records]] gave Pisello $30,000 to investigate a "Latin record label," that in January 1985 it paid him another $50,000, and that in 1984 [[Sugar Hill Records]] paid him about $156,109 in connection with his efforts to have MCA distribute its records and purchase its catalog of master recordings.[^37]
Moldea reported in June 1988 that Pisello attended the March 1984 convention of the [[National Association of Recording Merchandisers]] at the [[Diplomat Hotel]] in [[Hollywood, Florida]], as a representative of MCA Records. He wrote that in December 1987 the strike force's chief, [[David Margolis]], and his deputy, [[Michael DeFeo]], told Rudnick that he could pursue a tax case against Pisello, who had earned about $600,000 from his dealings with MCA, but could not call several MCA executives as witnesses.[^38] Moldea reported that on October 2, 1987 MCA filed a formal complaint against Rudnick with the Justice Department, retained [[William Hundley]] to present its case in Washington, and received a letter in mid-October from [[John Newcomer]], the head of the Los Angeles strike force, stating that "Neither MCA nor any of its executives or employees are targets of that case and its attendant investigation."[^38]
### Leveraged buyout and Matsushita
At the time of the wiretap investigations, MCA was being offered in a leveraged buyout to Japanese interests. An FBI investigation could have jeopardized this sale. In Seymour's account the wiretaps were then sealed by the Justice Department, and no case against MCA or its executives followed. The Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force was disbanded, Richard Stavin resigned, and Thomas Gates closed the FBI investigation. The Japanese ultimately purchased MCA in what was reported as the largest corporate sale in U.S. history at the time.[^1]
Marvin Rudnick, who lost his job for refusing to drop the investigation, later had part of his story told in the 1993 book *Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, The Music Business, and the Mafia* by [[William Knoedelseder]].[^39]
*[[Broadcasting (magazine)|Broadcasting]]* reported on October 1, 1990 that MCA had issued a statement on September 25 that it was "in discussions with a major international company regarding a possible negotiated acquisition of MCA," that Matsushita acknowledged it was talking with MCA, that MCA's stock had risen more than $25, or 66 percent, in two days, and that [[Michael Ovitz]] of [[Creative Artists Agency]] was helping represent Matsushita. The same article stated that "MCA continues to be subject to allegations of ties with organized crime," and that Wasserman, then 77, was assumed by many to be the sole arbiter of a sale.[^40] The October 22 issue reported that, with MCA-Matsushita and MGM-Pathe, four of the eight major Hollywood studios would be foreign-owned.[^41]
Matsushita closed its purchase on December 29, 1990, acquiring about 77.7 million MCA shares at $66 each for about 97 percent of the company, in a transaction reported at $6.6 billion. A federal judge in Los Angeles, [[Manuel Real]], had declined the day before to block the sale in a shareholder suit contending that Wasserman was to receive a new preferred Matsushita stock that would save him $100 million in capital gains and estate taxes.[^42]
On June 5, 1995 Seagram completed the purchase of an 80 percent interest in MCA Holding I Corp., the indirect parent of MCA Inc., from Matsushita for $5.7 billion, with Matsushita retaining 20 percent. Seagram's September 1996 annual report lists [[Frank Biondi]], president and chief executive of [[Viacom]] until January 1996, as chairman and chief executive officer of MCA Inc.[^43]
### Yosemite concession
Seymour wrote that the park concessioner [[Curry Company]] was owned by MCA. A park ranger, [[Paul Berkowitz]], testified before the House Interior Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation about drug distribution by Curry Company officials.[^1] Moldea wrote that at the end of 1972 MCA added the Yosemite Park and Curry Company, which held the food, lodging and transportation concessions at [[Yosemite National Park]], to its Recreation Services Division. The National Park Service's finding aid for the park's concession records lists the changes in control of the company as Shasta Natural Resources in 1970, MCA in 1973 and Matsushita in 1991.[^44][^45]
On January 8, 1991 the [[National Park Foundation]] and MCA entered an agreement in principle under which the Foundation, as a pass-through, would buy 100 percent of the stock of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company from MCA. The House Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands held an oversight hearing on the transaction on January 9, 1991 and the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks and Forests held one on February 21, 1991; a final purchase agreement was approved on September 20, 1991, and the [[General Accounting Office]] reported on the sale on September 10, 1992. The National Park Service planned a sale on September 29, 1993 to the concessioner it selected, at an effective price of $61.5 million, which the new concessioner could finance through MCA at 8.5 percent interest over fifteen years.[^46] At a joint House oversight hearing on March 24, 1993, an Interior Department attorney, [[Lars Hanslin]], testified that the National Park Service recommended [[Delaware North]] for a fifteen-year contract and that the price of $49.5 million plus interest, a total of $61.5 million, had been negotiated by the Interior Department with Matsushita and the present owner. The committee chairman, [[George Miller]], said that MCA at one point had put the figure at $100 million, and Hanslin answered, "I think that is true." A National Park Service witness described a note held by MCA under which MCA reserved the right to select a successor concessioner if the contract was terminated.[^47]
### Connection to "The Octopus"
Danny Casolaro's investigation into "The Octopus" included MCA, and he was reportedly told by Robert Booth Nichols about the leveraged buyout. [[Dan Moldea]], in his 1986 book *Dark Victory: [[Ronald Reagan]], MCA, and the Mob*, had previously labeled MCA as "The Octopus," a term that likely inspired Casolaro's own use of the phrase.[^1]
Danny Casolaro's investigation into "The Octopus" included MCA, and he was reportedly told by Robert Booth Nichols about the leveraged buyout.[^1] The nickname predates his investigation. Moldea wrote that it originated in McCormick's 1946 statement in the Finley case, and his bibliography lists a 1961 article by Nat Hentoff, "The Octopus of Show Business," in *The Reporter* and a February 1962 article, "MCA: The Octopus Devours the World," in *Show*. [[Dan Moldea]] applied it to the company in his 1986 book *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*.[^8][^48]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
[^2]: *United States v. Pisello,* 877 F.2d 762 (9th Cir. 1989). https://openjurist.org/877/f2d/762
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
[^2]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 1. Full text at https://archive.org/details/dark-victory-ronald-reagan-mca-and-the-mob
[^3]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 1.
[^4]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 2.
[^5]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 6.
[^6]: The Seagram Company Ltd., Annual Report on Form 10-K405 for the transition period ended June 30, 1996, filed September 27, 1996, Item 14 exhibit list, items 10(bb) and 10(cc) (Employment Agreement between MCA Inc. and Lew R. Wasserman dated December 6, 1988; Amendment dated November 26, 1990). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/88188/0000950123-96-005242.txt
[^7]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 5.
[^8]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, Prologue and ch. 6. The case is cited in Moldea's notes as *Finley v. MCA*, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, Central Division, Civil Action No. 4328-M (1946).
[^9]: *Finley v. Music Corporation of America*, 66 F. Supp. 569 (S.D. Cal. June 24, 1946) (Civ. No. 4328, McCormick, J.). https://static.case.law/f-supp/66/cases/0569-01.json ; https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1556053/finley-v-music-corporation-of-america/
[^10]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 7 and bibliography (Wittels, David G., "Star-Spangled Octopus," *The Saturday Evening Post*, August 10, 17, 24 and 31, 1946).
[^11]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 7.
[^12]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, Prologue.
[^13]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 13.
[^14]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 13.
[^15]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 14.
[^16]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 21.
[^17]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, chs. 21 and 22.
[^18]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 23, "verbatim transcript" of Reagan's February 5, 1962 testimony before the federal grand jury in Los Angeles (taken down by certified shorthand reporter Lucille Girlow), pp. 167-201.
[^19]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 24, quoting Ronald Reagan with Richard G. Hubler, *Where's the Rest of Me?* (1965).
[^20]: Moldea, Dan E. "Ronald Reagan's 1962 grand jury testimony," reprinting the *Washington Post*, March 15, 1987. https://www.moldea.com/ReaganGJ.html
[^21]: *United States v. MCA Inc.*, 1962 Trade Cases para. 70,459 (S.D. Cal., Central Division, Civil No. 62-942-WM, Final Judgment entered October 18, 1962; Case No. 1695 in the Antitrust Division). Final Judgment as posted by the Antitrust Division, https://www.justice.gov/atr/page/file/1145241/dl . The film-library provision (paragraph V) permits Universal to offer 215 or more of 229 listed films for licensing; Moldea's account describes it as an order that Universal sell 215 of the 229 films.
[^22]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 24.
[^23]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 24.
[^24]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 25.
[^25]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 25, including the note quoting *Daily Variety*, July 24, 1962.
[^26]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 25.
[^27]: U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, "Legacy Antitrust Judgment: U.S. v. MCA, Inc.," updated March 19, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/atr/legacy-antitrust-judgment-mca-inc
[^28]: Memorandum of Law in Support of the United States' Motion to Terminate a Legacy Antitrust Judgment and Declaration of T. Jakob Sebrow, *United States v. Decca Records, Inc.*, No. 1:20-mc-778 (S.D.N.Y. filed December 21, 2020) (originally Civil Action No. 46-779). https://www.justice.gov/media/1111836/dl ; https://www.justice.gov/media/1111841/dl
[^29]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 26.
[^30]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 28.
[^31]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, Prologue and ch. 14.
[^32]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 32; bibliography entry Hersh, Seymour M. (with Jeff Gerth), *The New York Times*, June 27-30, 1976.
[^33]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file 92-5053, "Sidney Korshak," Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts section, three parts, memorandum dated July 2, 1976 quoting Seymour M. Hersh with Jeff Gerth, "Korshak Again the Target of a Federal Investigation," *The New York Times*, June 1976. https://archive.org/details/SidneyKorshak
[^34]: Connolly, John. "The Story That Killed Danny Casolaro." *Spy,* January 1993. https://archive.org/details/SpyMagazine
[^35]: Affidavit of Special Agent Thomas G. Gates in support of an application to continue interception of wire communications of Martin Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Joseph Garofalo, Robert Nichols and others, before Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal. (continuation affidavit citing intercepts through September 1, 1987), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Gates." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf), paragraphs 5, 69 and 79.
[^36]: Appellant's Opening Brief, *Meridian International Logistics, Inc. v. Gates,* No. 90-55281 (9th Cir.), certificate dated June 27, 1990 (case removed as CV 89-4383 RG (Kx), C.D. Cal.). https://archive.org/details/MeridianV.Gates
[^37]: *United States v. Pisello,* 877 F.2d 762 (9th Cir. June 8, 1989) (No. 88-5156). https://static.case.law/f2d/877/cases/0762-01.json ; https://openjurist.org/877/f2d/762
[^38]: Moldea, Dan E. "MCA Music & the Mafia: Did the Justice Department cut Reagan's Hollywood pals a break?" *Regardie's*, June 1988. https://www.moldea.com/MCAMusic.html
[^39]: Knoedelseder, William. *Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia.* HarperCollins, 1993, pp. xvii, 434-448, 464.
[^40]: "Look who's talking...again," *Broadcasting*, October 1, 1990, pp. 30-31. https://archive.org/details/bc-1990-10-01
[^41]: "Selling Hollywood," *Broadcasting*, October 22, 1990. https://archive.org/details/bc-1990-10-22
[^42]: "Japanese firm closes purchase of MCA," Associated Press, December 30, 1990, reprinted in the *Deseret News*. https://www.deseret.com/1990/12/30/18898485/japanese-firm-closes-purchase-of-mca-br/
[^43]: The Seagram Company Ltd., Annual Report on Form 10-K405 for the transition period ended June 30, 1996, filed September 27, 1996: Item 1 (Entertainment), Item 10 (directors and executive officers), and Notes 2 and 3 to the financial statements. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/88188/0000950123-96-005242.txt
[^44]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, ch. 31.
[^45]: National Park Service, Yosemite National Park, finding aid for the Yosemite concession records, Online Archive of California. https://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c89s1wh3/
[^46]: Memorandum from the Director, National Park Service, to the Secretary of the Interior, "Yosemite Park and Curry Company Transaction," in *Yosemite Concession Contract: Joint Oversight Hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands of the Committee on Natural Resources, House of Representatives*, 103d Cong., 1st Sess., Serial No. 103-15 (March 24, 1993), pp. 84-85. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-103hhrg73649/pdf/CHRG-103hhrg73649.pdf
[^47]: *Yosemite Concession Contract*, Serial No. 103-15 (March 24, 1993), statement of Lars A. Hanslin, Senior Attorney, Department of the Interior, and the question period with Chairman Miller and Representatives Vento and Calvert. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-103hhrg73649/pdf/CHRG-103hhrg73649.pdf
[^48]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986, bibliography (Hentoff, Nat. "The Octopus of Show Business," *The Reporter*, November 23, 1961; Davidson, Bill. "MCA: The Octopus Devours the World," *Show*, February 1962).