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---
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category: "Private Organization"
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aliases:
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- "The Daily Mirror"
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- "Mirror"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Newspaper
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- UK
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- RobertMaxwell
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summary: "London daily founded by Alfred Harmsworth in 1903 and owned by Robert Maxwell from 1984 to 1991, whose foreign editor Nicholas Davies was accused in Parliament in 1991 of serving Israeli intelligence."
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location: "London, United Kingdom"
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start: 1903-11-02
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relations:
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- type: owned
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with: "[[Robert Maxwell]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "proprietor, through Mirror Group Newspapers"
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start: 1984-07
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end: 1991-11-05
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Nicholas Davies]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "foreign editor"
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end: 1991-10-28
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fn: 3
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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The *Daily Mirror* was launched in London on Monday, November 2, 1903, by [[Alfred Harmsworth]], later Lord Northcliffe, proprietor of the *Daily Mail,* as a newspaper for women, edited by Mary Howarth. Northcliffe said that no newspaper "was ever started with such a boom." The paper lost heavily; Hamilton Fyfe replaced Howarth as editor and the women on its staff were dismissed, a step Northcliffe likened to "drowning kittens."[^1]
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### Under Maxwell
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In July 1984 [[Robert Maxwell]] bought Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the *Daily Mirror* and other titles including the *[[The Sunday Mirror|Sunday Mirror]],* from Reed International for about 113 million pounds.[^2] Its foreign editor for about fifteen years under Maxwell was [[Nicholas Davies]], who had joined the group in the 1960s.[^3] In 1986 [[Oscar Guerrero]] offered the *Sunday Mirror* the story of the Israeli nuclear technician [[Mordecai Vanunu]] while *[[The Sunday Times]]* was still checking it; the *Sunday Mirror* instead published an attack on the story, and its news editor later said the line had "cost the Sunday Mirror a world-beating exclusive." Vanunu was lured from London to Rome, abducted and tried in [[Israel]].[^4]
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[[Seymour Hersh]]'s *The Samson Option* went on sale in Britain on October 20, 1991, alleging that Maxwell and Davies had links to Israeli intelligence and that Davies had taken part in Israeli arms sales. Under parliamentary privilege, [[George Galloway]] put down a motion stating that Davies was "a longstanding and highly-paid Israeli Intelligence asset" who had betrayed Vanunu's whereabouts to [[Mossad]], and calling on Maxwell to establish "the extent of foreign intelligence penetration of Mirror Group newspapers"; [[Rupert Allason]] put down one stating that the *Daily Mirror* and its proprietor "have maintained a close relationship with the Israeli Intelligence Service" and that Davies had formed [[Ora Limited]] with [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] in 1983.[^5] The paper's front page said the two members had "as much honor as a pair of jackals scavenging in a rubbish heap."[^6] The *Mirror* dismissed Davies on October 28, 1991, for denying that he had been at the Ohio home of an arms dealer in 1985 after a rival paper printed a photograph of him there.[^3] Maxwell was found dead in the sea off his yacht near the Canary Islands on November 5, 1991.[^2]
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### The Pension Funds
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The pension schemes of the Maxwell companies, with more than 32,000 members, were pooled in a Common Investment Fund managed by Bishopsgate Investment Management, a Maxwell-controlled subsidiary, whose assets Maxwell pledged as collateral for loans to his private companies. Administrators and the [[Serious Fraud Office]] concluded that roughly 450 to 460 million pounds had been taken; [[Goldman Sachs]], on Maxwell's instructions, had sold blocks of Mirror Group shares marked as pension-fund property.[^7] His sons [[Kevin Maxwell]] and [[Ian Maxwell]] were acquitted at the [[Old Bailey]] in January 1996.[^8] In August 1994 Mirror Group Newspapers apologized "unreservedly" in a London court for its articles of October 1991 about Hersh and agreed to pay him and his publisher, [[Faber and Faber]], "substantial damages."[^9]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Cudlipp, Hugh. *Publish and Be Damned!* Andrew Dakers, 1953, ch. 1, the paper's own history, written by a Mirror editor. https://archive.org/details/publishbedamned0000hugh
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[^2]: "Robert Maxwell," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Maxwell
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[^3]: "Daily Mirror fires foreign editor," United Press International, October 29, 1991. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/10/29/Daily-Mirror-fires-foreign-editor/6711688712400/ ; Association of Mirror Pensioners, "Nick Davies," February 3, 2016. https://www.mirrorpensioners.co.uk/obituary/nick-davies/
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[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Faber and Faber, 1991.
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[^5]: House of Commons, Early Day Motion 2134, "Mirror Group Newspapers and Israeli Intelligence," and Early Day Motion 2136, "Arms Sales," October 1991. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/2134/mirror-group-newspapers-and-israeli-intelligence
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[^6]: United Press International, "Maxwell to seek injunction against book," London, October 23, 1991.
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[^7]: "Unravelling the Web," *Pensions Archive Trust,* November 3, 2021. https://pensionsarchive.org.uk/2021/11/03/unravelling-the-web/
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[^8]: "Media Magnate Maxwell's Sons Acquitted of Charges They Raided Pension Fund," *The Washington Post,* January 20, 1996. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/01/20/media-magnate-maxwells-sons-acquitted-of-charges-they-raided-pension-fund/1841c6cf-8340-4e9e-876c-9f862b4685b5/
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[^9]: "Hersh Wins Apology From British Papers," *The Washington Post,* August 19, 1994; "Writer wins damages, apology in libel suit," *Deseret News,* August 20, 1994.
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@ -1,25 +1,34 @@
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---
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Child_Trafficking
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- ChildTrafficking
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- Brothel
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- UK
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- 1980s
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- VIP_Network
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- Political_Connections
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- Spartacus_Connection
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- VIPNetwork
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- PoliticalConnections
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- SpartacusConnection
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category: "Private Organization"
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summary: "The Elm Guest House was a suburban brothel operating near central London in the early 1980s that served as a front for an international child trafficking network connected to powerful political and business figures."
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summary: "Barnes guest house run by Haroon and Carole Kasir, raided on June 19, 1982; the inquiry into child sexual abuse found one child victim evidenced and no VIP identified."
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location: "London, United Kingdom"
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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The Elm Guest House was a suburban brothel operating near central London in the early 1980s that served as a front for an international child trafficking network connected to powerful political and business figures. The establishment, run by German couple [[Haroon Kasir]] and [[Carole Kasir]], displayed a sign reading "Spartacus, Club - Welcome" and was part of the broader [[Spartacus International]] network operated by [[John Stamford]].[^1]
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### Police Raid and Official Cover-up
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### The Raid and the Inquiry Findings
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In June 1982, [[Metropolitan Police]] raided the Elm Guest House following an investigation into illegal brothel operations. The raid revealed that visitors were provided with a price-listed menu of sex to indulge in with boys as young as ten. Twenty-three men were detained on the premises, which contained bedroom suites festooned with whips, chains, and ropes, along with communal areas including a lounge bar, spa and sauna facility, and a screening room for pornography. According to police sources, three of the guests were parliamentary ministers, while a fourth was a member of the Queen's royal staff. Metropolitan Police had been expected to reopen files on the murder of one boy and the disappearance of another in their investigation into a VIP homosexual vice network in London.[^1]
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Elm Guest House, in Rocks Lane, Barnes, south-west London, was run by Haroon and Carole Kasir and advertised as a gay guest house. It came to police notice late in 1981, when someone reported concerns about a 10-year-old boy there to Richmond police station; after a surveillance operation in which two undercover officers entered the house posing as members of the public, the police raided it on the night of June 19, 1982, and arrested twenty people, including the Kasirs. In April 1983 the Kasirs were convicted of running a disorderly house and each sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined 1,000 pounds. None of the guests was convicted of any offense.[^2][^3]
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All reporting on the matter was subsequently denied in official statements. While a Scotland Yard official initially described it as just a routine investigation into a brothel, sources close to the investigation claimed the top brass had ordered everything to be played down and that every attempt was being made to ensure the names of VIPs using the place did not leak out. The [[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]] reported that Scotland Yard denied claims of a security risk, stating that Special Branch was not taking part in inquiries. However, all twenty-three men detained were released without charge, and reporting on the matter soon ceased, possibly upon intervention by Attorney General [[Michael Havers]].[^1]
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Giving evidence to the [[Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse]], Commander Neil Jerome of the [[Metropolitan Police]] said that the investigation had found evidence of sexual abuse of a single child at the house, the 10-year-old boy, whose account and a medical examination showed extensive abuse, and no evidence that other children had been abused, and that "no individuals of prominence" had been seen there during the surveillance or found there in the raid. A social worker, Andrew Keir, alleged that on the night of the raid the boy had named one of his abusers as "Uncle Leon," who might have been a politician from "the big house," and that the detail had been left out of the interview notes; the Independent Office for Police Conduct found "no substance … at all" to the allegation. Another investigation, Operation Yvonne, examined allegations by a man who had been a 17-year-old masseur at the house that undercover officers had sex with him before the raid and that he was abused in custody, and found no evidence to support them. Jerome called the "Elm Guest House list" of VIP visitors, promoted by Chris Fay and Mary Moss, of "zero evidential value" and its creation "certainly dubious," and noted Fay's conviction for money laundering.[^3]
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Carole Kasir was found dead in June 1990; the inquest ruled her death a suicide. At the inquest Fay, of the National Association of Young People in Care, said Kasir had told him boys were trafficked from Grafton Close Children's Home and abused by VIPs at the guest house, and he repeated the allegation in a [[BBC]] *Panorama* program in 2015. The inquiry recorded that no politician or VIP was ever identified as having been involved.[^2]
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### Allegations
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In June 1982, Metropolitan Police raided the Elm Guest House following an investigation into illegal brothel operations. The raid revealed that visitors were provided with a price-listed menu of sex to indulge in with boys as young as ten. Twenty-three men were said to have been detained on the premises, which contained bedroom suites festooned with whips, chains, and ropes, along with communal areas including a lounge bar, spa and sauna facility, and a screening room for pornography. According to police sources, three of the guests were parliamentary ministers, while a fourth was a member of the Queen's royal staff. Metropolitan Police had been expected to reopen files on the murder of one boy and the disappearance of another in their investigation into a VIP homosexual vice network in London.[^1]
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All reporting on the matter was subsequently denied in official statements. While a Scotland Yard official initially described it as just a routine investigation into a brothel, sources close to the investigation claimed the top brass had ordered everything to be played down and that every attempt was being made to ensure the names of VIPs using the place did not leak out. The [[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]] reported that Scotland Yard denied claims of a security risk, stating that Special Branch was not taking part in inquiries. The men detained were released without charge, and reporting on the matter soon ceased, possibly upon intervention by Attorney General [[Michael Havers]].[^1]
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The owners, Haroon and Carole Kasir, were charged for keeping a disorderly house and possession of child pornography. However, the child pornography charge was dropped in 1983 after seven hours of video footage seized from the premises was ruled inadmissible. By agreement with defense lawyers, the prosecution slashed eight hours of videos to just 45 minutes, and the judge made an order forbidding the press to identify the child in the case.[^1]
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The circumstances surrounding the Elm Guest House resurfaced in 1990 during an inquest into the death of former owner Carole Kasir, who died from an insulin overdose. Social worker [[Mary Moss]] testified that Kasir had approached her in 1989 with evidence that boys from [[Grafton Close Children's Home]] were supplied as prostitutes to VIP guests of the Elm Guest House in the early 1980s. According to Moss, the home, run by Richmond Council, supplied boys under age 14 to the gay guest house frequented by top MPs and judges. Kasir had been involved with a group of child pornographers linked to the foster home's management and was in fear for her life before her death.[^1]
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During the 1990 inquest, Mary Moss and [[Christopher Fay]] claimed Kasir was murdered over evidence she kept on the Elm Guest House's VIP clientele. Fay testified Kasir had shown him a photograph of a former Tory Cabinet minister in a sauna with naked boys, and that a bishop, high court judge, social services director, and top businessman were among those captured on video at the hotel. The cabinet minister was identified as Leon Brittan, the same Home Secretary who received Geoffrey Dickens' dossier. Another parliamentary minister named was [[Cyril Smith]], who was posthumously exposed as a serial violent sexual abuser of boys in 2013 and confirmed to have been a frequent visitor to the Elm Guest House.[^1]
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During the 1990 inquest, Mary Moss and [[Christopher Fay]] claimed Kasir was murdered over evidence she kept on the Elm Guest House's VIP clientele. Fay testified Kasir had shown him a photograph of a former Tory Cabinet minister in a sauna with naked boys, and that a bishop, high court judge, social services director, and top businessman were among those captured on video at the hotel. The cabinet minister was identified as Leon Brittan, the same Home Secretary who received Geoffrey Dickens' dossier. Another parliamentary minister named was [[Cyril Smith]], who was posthumously exposed as a serial violent sexual abuser of boys in 2013 and was said to have been a frequent visitor to the Elm Guest House.[^1]
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### Government Connections and Later Investigations
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.
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[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives twenty-three men detained where the inquiry gives twenty people arrested including the Kasirs, and describes Cyril Smith as confirmed as a visitor, where the inquiry found no politician or VIP identified.
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[^2]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster: Investigation Report,* February 2020, Part B.3, "The 1980s," paras. 9-12. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-b-allegations-child-sexual-abuse-linked-westminster/b3-1980s.html
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[^3]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster,* February 2020, Part D.7, "Allegations connected to Elm Guest House," paras. 70-74. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-d-police-responses-allegations-westminster-child-sexual-abuse/d7-allegations-connected-elm-guest-house.html
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58
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---
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category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
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aliases:
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- "FTX Trading Ltd."
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- "FTX.com"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Cryptocurrency
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- Fraud
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- EffectiveAltruism
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- SamBankmanFried
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summary: "Cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019 whose customer deposits, commingled with Alameda Research, funded political gifts and effective-altruism grants before its collapse in November 2022."
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start: 2019
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end: 2022-11-11
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2019
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fn: 1
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- type: funded
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with: "[[FTX Future Fund]]"
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start: 2022-02
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end: 2022-11
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fn: 6
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- type: funded
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with: "[[Effective Ventures]]"
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start: 2022
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end: 2022
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role: "26,786,503 dollars, returned 2024"
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fn: 9
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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FTX Trading Ltd., doing business as FTX.com, was a centralized digital-asset derivatives exchange controlled by [[Sam Bankman-Fried]], who also controlled the trading firm [[Alameda Research]], "a primary market maker on FTX." It held itself out as "the safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto" and told customers that their assets were held in "custody" and segregated from its own.[^1] It raised "more than $1.8 billion from equity investors," about 1.1 billion dollars of it from some ninety investors in the United States.[^2]
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### The Fraud
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On December 13, 2022, the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]], the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] and the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]] brought parallel charges. The CFTC alleged that from at least May 2019 through November 11, 2022, customer assets "were routinely accepted and held by Alameda and commingled with Alameda's funds," and that Alameda, Bankman-Fried and others had used them for "luxury real estate purchases, political contributions, and high-risk, illiquid digital asset industry investments." At Bankman-Fried's direction, FTX employees wrote into the exchange's code an "allow negative flag" and "effectively limitless line of credit" that let Alameda withdraw billions of dollars in customer assets; the features were not disclosed. The commission put customer losses at more than 8 billion dollars and thanked the Securities Commission of [[The Bahamas]] for its assistance.[^1] The SEC charged that the concealment began at least in May 2019 and included Alameda's exemption from the exchange's risk controls and its exposure to "overvalued, illiquid assets such as FTX-affiliated tokens."[^2]
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Bankman-Fried gave about 40 million dollars in the 2022 election cycle, mostly to Democratic candidates and committees, and later described a parallel stream of undisclosed donations to Republicans; prosecutors charged that the money came from customer funds.[^3] Alameda's chief [[Caroline Ellison]], the FTX co-founder [[Gary Wang]] and the engineering head [[Nishad Singh]] pleaded guilty and testified against him. A jury convicted him on seven counts on November 2, 2023, and on March 28, 2024, Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced him to twenty-five years and ordered forfeiture of 11.02 billion dollars.[^4]
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### Effective Altruism
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Bankman-Fried had been drawn into the "earning to give" wing of [[Effective Altruism|effective altruism]] by [[William MacAskill]].[^5] The [[FTX Future Fund]], launched in February 2022 under [[Nick Beckstead]] with [[Leopold Aschenbrenner]], Avital Balwit, MacAskill and Ketan Ramakrishnan, had by June 2022 made 262 grants totaling about 132 million dollars; its team resigned on November 11, 2022, and its grantees then faced clawback claims from the bankruptcy estate.[^6][^7][^8] [[Effective Ventures]], the umbrella of the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], [[80,000 Hours]] and [[Giving What We Can]], returned 26,786,503 dollars, all it had received from FTX and the FTX Foundation, under a settlement agreed on December 13, 2023.[^9]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "CFTC Charges Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX Trading and Alameda with Fraud and Material Misrepresentations." Release 8638-22, December 13, 2022. https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8638-22
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[^2]: Securities and Exchange Commission. "SEC Charges Samuel Bankman-Fried with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX." Press release 2022-219, December 13, 2022. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-219
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[^3]: "Sam Bankman-Fried donated over $40 million in the 2022 election cycle. Where did it go?" *CBS News.* https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-political-donations-2022/
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[^4]: "Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in federal prison." *CNN,* March 28, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/business/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sentencing
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[^5]: "Sam Bankman-Fried's 'Effective Altruism' Team Resigns Amid FTX Meltdown." *Gizmodo,* November 2022. https://gizmodo.com/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-effective-altruism-crypto-1849773116
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[^6]: "Announcing the Future Fund." FTX Future Fund, February 2022. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2mx6xrDrwiEKzfgks/announcing-the-future-fund-1
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[^7]: "Future Fund June 2022 Update." EA Forum. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/paMYXYFYbbjpdjgbt/future-fund-june-2022-update ; "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned." EA Forum, November 11, 2022. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1
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[^8]: "Claw-Back Litigation in FTX Bankruptcy FAQs." Morris James LLP. https://www.morrisjames.com/p/102j9xu/claw-back-litigation-in-ftx-bankruptcy-faqs/
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[^9]: "EV updates: FTX settlement and the future of EV." Effective Altruism Forum. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/HjsfHwqasyQMWRzZN/ev-updates-ftx-settlement-and-the-future-of-ev ; "Effective Ventures Settles $26.8M FTX Donations Case." *The Crypto Times,* January 31, 2024.
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---
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aliases:
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- "Boys Farm, Inc."
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Foster_Home
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- Child_Pornography
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- FosterHome
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- ChildPornography
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- Tennessee
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- 1970s
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- Church_of_New_Revelation
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- North_Fox_Island
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- ChurchOfNewRevelation
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- NorthFoxIsland
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category: "Private Organization"
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summary: "Father Bud's Boys Farm was a rural foster home located on a farm in Monteagle, Tennessee, owned and operated by the ordained Episcopal priest Claudius Vermilye, known by the alias Father Bud."
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location: "Monteagle, Tennessee"
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summary: "Home for wayward boys near Alto, Tennessee, founded in 1971 by Claudius Vermilye and partly financed with state and county funds, where boys were filmed for more than 270 sponsors."
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location: "Roarks Cove, near Alto, Tennessee"
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start: 1971
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end: 1976
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Claudius Vermilye]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1971
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fn: 2
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created: 2026-04-28
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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Father Bud's Boys Farm was a rural foster home located on a farm in Monteagle, Tennessee, owned and operated by the ordained Episcopal priest [[Claudius Vermilye]], known by the alias Father Bud. Juvenile delinquents were sent to the farm by youth corrections and welfare agencies in Tennessee. Boys at the farm were supplied with drugs and alcohol to make them pliant for participation in orgies, which were filmed and photographed. Materials were distributed to a mailing list of sponsors who could pay additional fees to arrange personal visits to the farm for direct access to the boys. Film stocks were mailed from the farm to [[Gerald Richards]] in Michigan for development and distribution through networks including MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California.[^1]
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Boys Farm, Inc., known as Father Bud's Boys Farm, was founded in 1971 by the Rev. [[Claudius Vermilye]], formerly rector of the Episcopal church at Alto, Tennessee, as a rehabilitation center for wayward boys in the Roarks Cove community near Alto; national wire reports placed it at Winchester and the investigator [[Kenneth Wooden]] at Monteagle. The boys were sent there by the state correction department, juvenile authorities and welfare agencies, and the farm was partly financed with state and county funds.[^2][^3][^4][^5]
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The farm was incorporated under [[The Church of New Revelation]] in [[New Jersey]], described by authorities as a sham referral agency for pornography distribution rather than a legitimate church. [[Francis Shelden]] appeared on a seized list of sponsors for the farm's materials. The farm was raided by authorities on November 10, 1976, and the Detroit Free Press reported it as a national pornography hub the following day. The raid linked the farm to the broader network including the [[Delta Project]], [[Odyssey Network]], and [[North Fox Island]] operations.[^1]
|
||||
Films found on the Michigan photographer [[Gerald Richards]] at his arrest in July 1976 and films seized in the [[New Orleans]] raid on [[Troop 137]] led Tennessee authorities to raid the farm after they recognized some of the "actors"; Vermilye's name had also turned up in the files of the New Orleans scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]]. The raid produced films of sexual acts between boys at the farm and a list of more than 270 "active sponsors," among them [[Francis Shelden]], owner of [[North Fox Island]]. District Attorney General [[J. William Pope]] said the boys were shown obscene films and given liquor before orgies filmed with a hidden camera, that films were sold to sponsors to raise money for the farm, and that some sponsors came to the farm to have sex with the boys. Half a dozen Illinois men had bought films from Vermilye, one for more than 4,000 dollars. Richards testified that the farm "sold raw film to other men. They would bring it to me to process." An investigator for the district attorney general, Pete Bouldin, described the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], one of the network's fronts, as a "referral agency which distributes pornography around the country"; Boys Farm, Inc., was listed as a separate organization from the church. Vermilye was convicted on June 3, 1977.[^2][^3][^4][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections
|
||||
### The Distribution Network
|
||||
|
||||
The farm was connected to [[Troop 137]] in New Orleans through a letter sent by Vermilye to scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]] personally inviting him to visit. This link established the connection between the Tennessee farm, the New Orleans troop, and the Chicago-based trafficking network run by [[John David Norman]]. The farm's incorporation through [[The Church of New Revelation]] linked it to [[Dyer Grossman]] and [[Adam Starchild]], who had served as the incorporating agent for Brother Paul's Children's Mission on North Fox Island. The investigation into the farm was part of the cascading exposure of interlinked operations that began with the Gerald Richards arrest in Michigan in July 1976.[^1]
|
||||
Film was said to have been mailed from the farm to Richards for development and distribution through MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California. The farm was said to have been raided on November 10, 1976, and reported the next day by the *Detroit Free Press* as a national pornography hub, and to have been incorporated under the Church of the New Revelation, through which it was linked to [[Dyer Grossman]] and [[Adam Starchild]], and connected through a letter from Vermilye to Halvorsen with Troop 137 and with the Chicago network of [[John David Norman]], the [[Delta Project]] and the [[Odyssey Network]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. The incorporation under the Church of the New Revelation and the letter to Halvorsen are not borne out by the hearing record, which lists Boys Farm, Inc., separately and records only Vermilye's name in Halvorsen's files.
|
||||
[^2]: "Former Clergyman Is Convicted of Acts Against His Wards." United Press International, *The New York Times,* June 4, 1977, p. 33. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/04/archives/former-clergyman-is-convicted-of-acts-against-his-wards.html
|
||||
[^3]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
[^4]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
[^5]: Testimony of Kenneth Wooden, in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977.
|
||||
[^6]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, May 27, 1977, in *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* 1977, p. 41. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -9,24 +9,28 @@ category: "Private Organization"
|
|||
summary: "The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International is an influential organization with a history of strong military connections and wide-ranging effects on foreign policy, particularly in Central America under the Ronald Reagan administration."
|
||||
start: 1952
|
||||
location: "Los Angeles, California"
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
The [[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International|FGBMFI]] is an influential organization with a history of strong military connections and wide-ranging effects on foreign policy, particularly in Central [[America]] under the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration. Prominent right-wing activists, such as [[Joseph Coors]] ([[Heritage Foundation]]) and [[Sanford McDonnell]] (McDonnell Douglas Corporation), were members of FGBMFI.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Political and Military Influence
|
||||
|
||||
[[Ronald Reagan]] had close ties with FGBMFI. In 1970, five FGBMFI members, including [[Pat Boone]] and [[Shirley Boone]], [[Harold Bredesen]], and [[George Otis]], prayed with then-California Governor Reagan at his home in Sacramento. [[George Otis]], a former Lear executive, reportedly spoke in the voice of God, comparing Reagan to a king and prophesying that Reagan would "reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" if he continued to walk in God's way. Reagan reportedly took the prophecy very seriously. A Reagan Aide who later worked on [[Pat Robertson]]'s presidential campaign invited [[Nita Scoggan]], the wife of an FGBMFI member, to form a prayer group in the [[White House]]. [[Oliver North]] reportedly attended these prayer meetings.[^1]
|
||||
Ronald Reagan had close ties with FGBMFI. In October 1970 [[Pat Boone]] and [[Shirley Boone]], [[Harold Bredesen|Harald Bredesen]] and [[George Otis]] prayed with Governor Reagan at his home in Sacramento, with Nancy Reagan and Herbert Ellingwood present.[^2] George Otis, a former Lear executive, reportedly spoke in the voice of God, comparing Reagan to a king and prophesying that Reagan would "reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" if he continued to walk in God's way. Reagan reportedly took the prophecy very seriously. A Reagan Aide who later worked on [[Pat Robertson]]'s presidential campaign invited [[Nita Scoggan]], the wife of an FGBMFI member, to form a prayer group in the [[White House]]. [[Oliver North]] reportedly attended these prayer meetings.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Since 1964, FGBMFI held regular military prayer meetings in the Washington D.C. area, with three chapters, including one in the Navy Officers' Club. The Secretary of Defense even arranged for two prayer rooms to be built in the [[Pentagon]]. A 1986 FGBMFI brochure listed over a dozen military names, including the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.[^1]
|
||||
Since 1964, FGBMFI held regular military prayer meetings in the Washington D.C. area, with three chapters, including one in the Navy Officers' Club. The Secretary of Defense even arranged for two prayer rooms to be built in the [[Pentagon]]. A 1986 FGBMFI brochure listed over a dozen military names, including the Chairman of [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In Central [[America]], President [[Ronald Reagan]] supported [[General Rios Montt]], a Pentecostal "true believer," who became president of [[Guatemala]] in an army coup in March 1982. Montt was aided and supported by Full Gospel businessman [[John Carrette]], a former Army Ranger in [[Vietnam]]. According to Carrette, the then-presidents of [[Guatemala]], [[El Salvador]], and [[Honduras]] were all Full Gospel.[^1]
|
||||
In Central America, President Ronald Reagan supported [[General Rios Montt]], a Pentecostal "true believer," who became president of [[Guatemala]] in an army coup in March 1982. Montt was aided and supported by Full Gospel businessman [[John Carrette]], a former Army Ranger in [[Vietnam]]. According to Carrette, the then-presidents of Guatemala, [[El Salvador]], and [[Honduras]] were all Full Gospel.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections to Jimmy Hughes and the Honduras Coup
|
||||
|
||||
[[Jimmy Hughes]] joined FGBMFI in 1987 and subsequently founded Jimmy Hughes Ministries – Free the Oppressed in [[Honduras]]. He openly admitted his past as a "Mafia hit-man" on the FGBMFI website. [[John Carrette]] "god-fathered" Hughes into the Fellowship and helped set him up in [[Honduras]].[^1]
|
||||
[[Jimmy Hughes]] joined FGBMFI in 1987 and subsequently founded Jimmy Hughes Ministries – Free the Oppressed in Honduras. He openly admitted his past as a "Mafia hit-man" on the FGBMFI website. John Carrette "god-fathered" Hughes into the Fellowship and helped set him up in Honduras.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Hughes was a high-standing member of FGBMFI and a keynote speaker at a dinner event in Fresno, [[California]], in February 2008, alongside [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] of [[Honduras]]. Hughes, [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]], and [[Romeo Vasquez Velasquez]] were all members of FGBMFI. Hughes was allegedly involved in the planning of the [[Honduras coup]] in June 2009, which ousted President [[Manuel Zelaya]]. The interim de-facto president of [[Honduras]], [[Roberto Micheletti]], was placed in office by coup leaders [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] and [[Romeo Vasquez Velasquez]], both friends of Hughes and members of FGBMFI.[^1]
|
||||
Hughes was a high-standing member of FGBMFI and a keynote speaker at a dinner event in Fresno, [[California]], in February 2008, alongside [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] of Honduras. Hughes, General Daniel Lopez Carballo, and [[Romeo Vasquez Velasquez]] were all members of FGBMFI. Hughes was allegedly involved in the planning of the [[Honduras coup]] of June 2009, and Lopez Carballo and Vásquez Velásquez were described as his friends.[^1] On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military detained President [[Manuel Zelaya]] and flew him to [[Costa Rica]]; Zelaya had ordered the removal of Vásquez Velásquez as chairman of the joint chiefs days earlier, and the Supreme Court had ordered him restored. The National Congress then replaced Zelaya with its president, [[Roberto Micheletti]], who called it a "constitutional succession."[^3] On September 26, 2009, Hughes was arrested at Miami International Airport on his way to Honduras and charged in the 1981 murders of the Cabazon tribal leader [[Fred Alvarez]] and two others; the charges were dismissed in July 2010.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited. It counts five FGBMFI members at the 1970 meeting. It describes Micheletti as placed in office by the generals.
|
||||
[^2]: Slosser, Bob. "The Prophecy." CBN. https://cbn.com/article/relationships/prophecy
|
||||
[^3]: Congressional Research Service. *Honduran Political Crisis, June 2009-January 2010,* R41064, February 1, 2010. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R41064.html
|
||||
[^4]: "Jimmy Hughes Speaks To KESQ After Charges Dropped." KESQ, July 2, 2010. https://kesq.com/news/2010/07/02/jimmy-hughes-speaks-to-kesq-after-charges-dropped/
|
||||
47
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Giving What We Can.md
Normal file
47
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Giving What We Can.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- "GWWC"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- EffectiveAltruism
|
||||
- Oxford
|
||||
- Philanthropy
|
||||
summary: "Pledge society launched at Oxford in November 2009 by Toby Ord and William MacAskill, later housed under Effective Ventures, which repaid 26.8 million dollars of FTX money in 2024."
|
||||
location: "Oxford, United Kingdom"
|
||||
start: 2009-11
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Toby Ord]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2009-11
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[William MacAskill]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2009-11
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Effective Ventures]]"
|
||||
role: "hosted project"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Giving What We Can is a society whose members pledge to give at least ten percent of their income to the charities they judge most cost-effective. By its own account it was "the brainchild of Toby Ord, a philosopher at Balliol College, Oxford," who, inspired by the ideas of ethicists such as [[Peter Singer]], decided in 2009 to commit a large part of his income to charity and worked with a fellow Oxford philosopher, [[William MacAskill]], to form a society of people who would do the same. Ord, his wife, the physician Bernadette Young, and MacAskill launched it in November 2009; within a year 64 people had joined, pledging 21 million dollars, and it took on full-time staff in the summer of 2012. It lists as early supporters the [[Future of Humanity Institute]], Balliol College and the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.[^1] Singer took the pledge in November 2009.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Toby Ord]] set his own living allowance at about 18,000 pounds a year, giving away the rest toward a lifetime target of one million pounds.[^3] MacAskill went on to found [[80,000 Hours]] with [[Benjamin Todd]] in 2011 and to write the longtermist *What We Owe the Future.*[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Effective Ventures and FTX
|
||||
|
||||
Giving What We Can became one of the projects hosted by [[Effective Ventures]], the umbrella of two charities, Effective Ventures Foundation in the United Kingdom and Effective Ventures Foundation USA, alongside the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], 80,000 Hours and the EA Funds.[^5] In 2022 Effective Ventures and its projects received about 27 million dollars from [[Sam Bankman-Fried]]'s [[FTX]] and the FTX Foundation. On December 13, 2023, it agreed to return 26,786,503 dollars to the FTX bankruptcy estate, a sum equal to all of the money received, and its boards then decided to spin out every project as an independent organization.[^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Giving What We Can, "Our history." https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/history
|
||||
[^2]: "Peter Singer's Keynote, Effective Altruism Summit 2013"; Edmonds, David. *Death in a Shallow Pond.* Princeton University Press.
|
||||
[^3]: "Toby Ord: Why I'm giving £1m to charity." *BBC News,* 2010. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11950843
|
||||
[^4]: "William MacAskill," Effective Altruism Forum topic page; MacAskill, William. *Doing Good Better.* Gotham Books, 2015.
|
||||
[^5]: "EV updates: FTX settlement and the future of EV." Effective Altruism Forum. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/HjsfHwqasyQMWRzZN/ev-updates-ftx-settlement-and-the-future-of-ev
|
||||
[^6]: "Effective Ventures Settles $26.8M FTX Donations Case." *The Crypto Times,* January 31, 2024. https://www.cryptotimes.io/2024/01/31/effective-ventures-settles-26-8m-ftx-donations-case/
|
||||
|
|
@ -3,24 +3,26 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Organization
|
||||
- Publication
|
||||
- Newsletter
|
||||
- Child_Pornography
|
||||
- ChildPornography
|
||||
- Chicago
|
||||
- Illinois
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
- Delta_Project
|
||||
- Odyssey_Network
|
||||
- DeltaProject
|
||||
- OdysseyNetwork
|
||||
category: "Crime Investigation"
|
||||
summary: "Hermes was an underground boylover newsletter printed in Chicago during the 1970s that served as a communications hub for a nationwide child trafficking and pornography network."
|
||||
start: 1970
|
||||
location: Chicago, Illinois
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
Hermes was an underground boylover newsletter printed in Chicago during the 1970s that served as a communications hub for a nationwide child trafficking and pornography network. The publication used coded classified ads to propagate [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] and [[Odyssey Network]], and advertised mail-order hardcore child pornography. It catered to a readership of predatory pedophiles who between themselves used the pronoun "chickenhawk," a reference to a hawk that hunts little chickens. Hermes also published advertisements for clandestine groups providing support and instructions on how to infiltrate community groups such as the boy scouts, big brother programs, and church affiliated youth groups, including guides on how to groom children.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Hermes was allegedly financed by a philanthropist in Michigan named [[Francis Shelden]], a scion of the old money families of Grosse Pointe, Detroit, who owned [[North Fox Island]] in Lake Michigan. The publication was printed and edited by men associated with John Norman in Chicago. Three principal figures behind the publication were arrested: Elden Gale Wake, an employee of Trinity College in Lake Forest who was identified as the Hermes printer; Patrick Townson, who operated a citizens band radio information show for homosexuals; and David Berta, who along with Townson was involved in Norman's trafficking operation. A dentist associated with the Hermes men named Arthur Langford was found with a collection of sixty-nine 8mm child pornography film reels at his home, one labelled "John Bell -- Michigan trip." Langford and Bell were directors of a children's summer camp in Michigan, as had been Hermes printer Wake.[^1]
|
||||
Hermes was allegedly financed by a philanthropist in Michigan named [[Francis Shelden]], a scion of the old money families of Grosse Pointe, Detroit, who owned [[North Fox Island]] in Lake Michigan. The publication was printed and edited by men associated with John Norman in Chicago. Three principal figures behind the publication were arrested: Elden Gale Wake, an employee of Trinity College in Lake Forest who was identified as the Hermes printer; Patrick Townson, who operated a citizens band radio information show for homosexuals; and David Berta, who along with Townson was involved in Norman's trafficking operation. Wake was identified by the Lake County state's attorney's office as having worked at a children's home and two children's camps between 1964 and 1968.[^2] In May 1977 Chicago police arrested a Park Ridge dentist, Dr. Lloyd William Lange, 42, charged with filming a pornographic movie of two 14-year-old boys produced by Berta and John Bell, 19; in Lange's apartment police found five rolls of the commercial child pornography films *Lollitots* and *Lollipops* and 69 rolls of other film, three reels of which were marked "John Bell, Michigan trip." Bell told police he owned a summer camp at Hastings, Michigan, with his brother. The State's Attorney, Bernard Carey, announced a grand jury investigation.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Distribution Network
|
||||
|
||||
[[Gerald Richards]] identified the California-based F&S Distributors, operated by [[Guy Strait]], as the West Coast distributor for Hermes. Strait himself admitted writing an article for the publication. In February 1977, a Michigan newspaper reported that Shelden had a financial interest in Hermes. An FBI memo confirmed the Delta Project connection to Hermes and noted the operation was attempting to set up a large scale trafficking network. When Shelden fled to Amsterdam after the North Fox Island exposure, he continued the publishing legacy by founding [[PAN Magazine]] (Paedo Alert News) under the penname Frank Torey, which was used to platform [[John Stamford]]'s [[Spartacus International]] just as Hermes had been used for Norman's Odyssey Network in North America.[^1]
|
||||
[[Gerald Richards]] identified the California-based F&S Distributors, operated by [[Guy Strait]], as the West Coast distributor for Hermes. Strait himself admitted writing an article for the publication. In February 1977, a Michigan newspaper reported that Shelden had a financial interest in Hermes. An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo confirmed the Delta Project connection to Hermes and noted the operation was attempting to set up a large scale trafficking network. When Shelden fled to Amsterdam after the North Fox Island exposure, he continued the publishing legacy by founding [[PAN Magazine]] (Paedo Alert News) under the penname Frank Torey, which was used to platform [[John Stamford]]'s [[Spartacus International]] just as Hermes had been used for Norman's Odyssey Network in North America.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. It names the Park Ridge dentist "Arthur Langford" and makes him and Bell directors of a summer camp; the Tribune reports name him Lloyd William Lange and give the camp as Bell's.
|
||||
[^2]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- "ISD"
|
||||
- "ISD Global"
|
||||
- "The Trialogue Foundation"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- UK
|
||||
- ThinkTank
|
||||
- CounterExtremism
|
||||
summary: "London counter-extremism research body incorporated in 2008 as The Trialogue Foundation, with Lord Weidenfeld on its board until 2016, whose reports track Terrorgram and nihilistic-violence networks."
|
||||
location: "45 Albemarle Street, London"
|
||||
start: 2008-04-30
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[George Weidenfeld]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2010-05-18
|
||||
end: 2016-01-20
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Joanna Shields]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2025-09-08
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Terrorgram Collective]]"
|
||||
start: 2024
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue is a company limited by guarantee registered in England, incorporated on April 30, 2008, as The Trialogue Foundation and renamed on November 21, 2009. Its registered office is on the third floor of 45 Albemarle Street in Mayfair, London, and it lists its business as research in the social sciences and humanities, foreign affairs and education.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Directors
|
||||
|
||||
On May 18, 2010, the directors appointed at incorporation left the board and [[George Weidenfeld|Lord Weidenfeld]], Stuart Fiertz and Michael Lewis joined it. Weidenfeld remained a director until January 20, 2016, and Fiertz, an American and Swiss national, was still one in 2026. Sir Michael Davis joined in January 2024, Lord Sarfraz in June 2024, and Baroness [[Joanna Shields]] on September 8, 2025.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Monitoring of Extremist Networks
|
||||
|
||||
In its "Digital Dispatch" reports the institute described the [[Terrorgram Collective]] as "effectively defunct" as an organized structure by late 2024, after the arrests of [[Dallas Humber]], Matthew Robert Allison and Matthew Althorpe.[^2] After the arrest of Telegram's founder Pavel Durov and the unsealing of the Terrorgram indictment in 2024 it followed neo-Nazi accelerationist groups to a new encrypted platform, which it declined to name, and recorded that within a single day, September 25, 2024, users in the channels it watched posted three calls for the assassination of Vice President [[Kamala Harris]] and one for that of [[Donald Trump]].[^3] Its study of "nihilistic violence," violence driven by a misanthropic outlook rather than a political program, traced the path of [[Natalie Rupnow]], who opened fire at [[2024 Abundant Life Christian School Shooting|Abundant Life Christian School]] in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 16, 2024, from the gore site [[WatchPeopleDie]] through [[764 Network|764]]-affiliated and Terrorgram-adjacent material, and linked such subcultures, [[No Lives Matter]] among them, to at least four school shooters and five disrupted plots.[^4] Its researcher Steven Rai said the bot-amplified promotion of [[The Base]] on VKontakte raised questions about Russian state support for the group, whose founder [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] lives in Russia.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Companies House, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, company number 06581421, company profile and officers list, accessed September 22, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06581421
|
||||
[^2]: ISD Global. "Dismantling Digital Terror: Lessons Learned from the Collapse of Terrorgram." https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/dismantling-digital-terror-lessons-learned-from-the-collapse-of-terrorgram/
|
||||
[^3]: ISD Global. "Neo-Nazi accelerationists seek new digital refuge amid looming Telegram crackdown." September 2024. https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/neo-nazi-accelerationists-seek-new-digital-refuge-amid-looming-telegram-crackdown/
|
||||
[^4]: ISD. "Terror without ideology? The rise of nihilistic violence." https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/terror-without-ideology-the-rise-of-nihilistic-violence-an-isd-investigation/
|
||||
[^5]: "US neo-Nazi leader based in Russia offers payment for attacks on Ukrainian officials." *Euromaidan Press,* June 4, 2025; The Soufan Center, "Russia's Links to Neo-Nazi Terrorist Groups Demonstrates its Hybrid Warfare Toolkit," May 8, 2025.
|
||||
67
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/MIT Media Lab.md
Normal file
67
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/MIT Media Lab.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- "Media Lab"
|
||||
- "MIT Media Laboratory"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- MIT
|
||||
- Technology
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
summary: "Research laboratory at MIT co-founded by Nicholas Negroponte and directed by Joi Ito from 2011 to 2019, which took 525,000 dollars from Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction and recorded the gifts as anonymous."
|
||||
location: "Cambridge, Massachusetts"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Nicholas Negroponte]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Joi Ito]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "director"
|
||||
start: 2011
|
||||
end: 2019-09-07
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Jeffrey Epstein]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2013
|
||||
end: 2017
|
||||
role: "six donations totaling 525,000 dollars"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Marvin Minsky]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]]. [[Nicholas Negroponte]] was its co-founder, and [[Marvin Minsky]] held its Toshiba Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences until his death in 2016.[^1][^2] [[Joi Ito]] was its director from 2011 until he resigned on September 7, 2019.[^1][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Epstein's Donations
|
||||
|
||||
The law firm Goodwin Procter, engaged by MIT after Ito's resignation, found that [[Jeffrey Epstein]] made ten donations to MIT totaling 850,000 dollars between 2002 and 2017. The first, 100,000 dollars from his C.O.U.Q. Foundation in 2002, supported Minsky's research. The nine after his 2008 conviction went either to the Media Lab (525,000 dollars) or to the mechanical engineering professor [[Seth Lloyd]] (225,000 dollars).[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Ito was introduced to Epstein by Linda Stone, a former member of the lab's advisory council, at the TED conference in Long Beach in February 2013. For "due diligence" he ran a Google search and consulted, among others, Negroponte, who replied: "I know him quite well. The person who is his closest friend is Marvin Minsky, who even visited him in jail. I would take Berlusconi's money, so why not Jeff." Epstein's first Media Lab gift, 100,000 dollars in May 2013, was for Ito's discretion. Three more, totaling 300,000 dollars, supported Joscha Bach, a German researcher whom Epstein had introduced to Ito; the lab "hired Bach in large part because Epstein subsidized the cost." Gifts in 2015 and 2017, totaling 125,000 dollars, supported Professor Neri Oxman, whom Ito introduced to Epstein on the campus in October 2015.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Three members of MIT's senior team, the general counsel R. Gregory Morgan, the vice president for resource development Jeffrey Newton and the treasurer Israel Ruiz, knew of Epstein's sex-offense record and in 2013 set up the informal framework under which all his later gifts were accepted. On June 26, 2013, Newton wrote to Ito: "We will keep the money, but it will be listed as anonymous," and instructed the recording secretary: "Please mark all of Epstein's gifts as anonymous. We do not want his name appearing on any list of supporters or donors in any form." MIT's records were altered accordingly. In November 2016 Ito asked the chairman of the MIT Corporation, Robert Millard: "Can you help me figure out how to get money from JE?" Millard declined Epstein's dinner invitation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Epstein also claimed in 2014 to have arranged an anonymous 2 million dollar gift to the lab from [[Bill Gates]] and a 5 million dollar anonymous gift from [[Leon Black]]. Gates's representatives told the investigators that he "flatly denies" Epstein had anything to do with his donation; Black had publicly acknowledged giving to charities "affiliated" with Epstein but had not said whether Epstein asked him to give to MIT. The investigators found no evidence that the money of either was Epstein's.[^1] In August 2015 [[Reid Hoffman]] hosted a dinner in [[Palo Alto]], presented as a fundraiser for the lab, attended by Ito, Epstein, [[Peter Thiel]], [[Elon Musk]] and [[Mark Zuckerberg]]; Hoffman apologized in September 2019 for his part in the Epstein-linked donations.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
On September 6, 2019, [[Ronan Farrow]] reported in *[[The New Yorker]]* that the lab had concealed the relationship and referred to Epstein internally as "Voldemort." Ito resigned the next day, despite a petition supporting him signed by hundreds of faculty, students and alumni.[^1][^3] A staff member later circulated photographs from Minsky's memorial with the request that they be posted only "as long as Jeffrey Epstein does not appear in any of the photos."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Other Research
|
||||
|
||||
From October 2020 to June 2023 the lab ran a project applying topic modeling and network analysis to the leaked forums of the neo-fascist site [[Iron March]].[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Goodwin Procter LLP. "Report Concerning Jeffrey Epstein's Interactions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." Released by MIT January 10, 2020. https://facultygovernance.mit.edu/sites/default/files/20200121GoodwinProcterReport.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: Lohr, Steve. "Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88." *The New York Times,* January 25, 2016.
|
||||
[^3]: Farrow, Ronan. "How an Elite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein." *The New Yorker,* September 6, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein
|
||||
[^4]: "Mark Zuckerberg's 'Wild' Dinner With Epstein Revealed in Files." *The Daily Beast,* 2026, on EFTA00344556 and EFTA00344564. https://www.thedailybeast.com/mark-zuckerbergs-wild-dinner-with-epstein-revealed-in-files/
|
||||
[^5]: "Exclusive: Reid Hoffman apologizes for role in Epstein-linked donations to MIT." *Axios,* September 12, 2019. https://www.axios.com/2019/09/12/reid-hoffman-jeffrey-epstein-mit-donations
|
||||
[^6]: "Eight revelations from MIT's Jeffrey Epstein report." *MIT Technology Review,* January 10, 2020. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/01/10/130928/mit-jeffrey-epstein-donations-media-lab-joi-ito-seth-lloyd-funding-ethics/
|
||||
[^7]: MIT Media Lab. "Investigating the Iron March Forums with Computational Tools: Far-Right Forum Network and LDA Analysis." Project overview, October 2020 to June 2023. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/investigating-the-iron-march-forums-with-computational-tools-far-right-forum-network-and-lda-analysis/overview/
|
||||
|
|
@ -2,18 +2,38 @@
|
|||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Foundation
|
||||
- United_States
|
||||
- New_Jersey
|
||||
- UnitedStates
|
||||
- NewJersey
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
- North_Fox_Island
|
||||
- Adam_Starchild
|
||||
- NorthFoxIsland
|
||||
- AdamStarchild
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
summary: "The Ocean Living Institute was a sea-steading foundation incorporated in New Jersey by Adam Starchild, who also served as the incorporating agent for Brother Paul's Children's Mission on North Fox Island."
|
||||
summary: "Tax-exempt corporation formed in Delaware in 1974, ostensibly for oceanographic research, with Adam Starchild as president and Dyer Grossman as executive director; Gerald Richards named it as a front for child pornography."
|
||||
location: "New Jersey, USA"
|
||||
start: 1974
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Adam Starchild]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Dyer Grossman]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "executive director"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
The Ocean Living Institute was a sea-steading foundation incorporated in [[New Jersey]] by [[Adam Starchild]], who also served as the incorporating agent for [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]]. In August 1976, [[Gerald Richards]] handed over a letter he received from [[Dyer Grossman]] postmarked 19 July 1976, which had a return address for the Ocean Living Institute. In the letter, [[Dyer Grossman|Grossman]] detailed plans to set up a series of foster homes in Michigan, citing the profitability in receiving monthly payments from the government for taking in runaways and problem kids. The letter also mentioned a twelve-year-old boy [[Dyer Grossman|Grossman]] said he had procured through a Big Brother program who he described as innocent but that some camping trips may change that.[^1]
|
||||
The Ocean Living Institute was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, with its principal place of business in [[New Jersey]], ostensibly to promote education and research in oceanography. [[Adam Starchild]] was listed as its president and [[Dyer Grossman]] as its executive director. The Internal Revenue Service granted it an "automatic" tax exemption, as it did the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], without challenging or investigating its claim to be a charitable organization. [[Gerald Richards]], organizer of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]], told police that the institute, the church and the Educational Foundation for Youth of Illinois had been set up as tax dodges and used as fronts for the production of child pornography; Starchild said they might have been "used" for that purpose by Grossman.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Adam Starchild]] was actually a man named Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who appeared to have faked his own death in 1975. [[Adam Starchild|Starchild]] had been a scout master in Minneapolis kicked out of the organization in 1965 after he expressed a desire to engage in sex with boys there. The Ocean Living Institute served as one of [[Adam Starchild|Starchild]]'s corporate vehicles, alongside his role in incorporating [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], which operated the summer camp on [[North Fox Island]] used by [[Francis Shelden]] for child exploitation.[^1]
|
||||
At Richards's arrest in July 1976 police found a letter from Grossman proposing "child care" sites in Michigan, New Jersey, California, Arizona, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and the District of Columbia, observing that counties would pay up to 150 dollars a month per boy, state agencies up to 400 and federal agencies up to 700, and that profits would be greatest if each site were set up under the church or the Educational Foundation for Youth because of their tax exemptions.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Grossman Letter
|
||||
|
||||
Richards was said to have handed over the letter in August 1976, postmarked July 19, 1976, with the institute's return address, and it was said to have mentioned a twelve-year-old boy Grossman had obtained through a Big Brother program. The institute was described as a sea-steading project. Starchild was said to have been Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, and a scoutmaster in Minneapolis expelled in 1965.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives New Jersey as the state of incorporation; Starchild's continued activity under that name in 1976 to 1985 is documented in the federal trust litigation.
|
||||
[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
74
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/PayPal.md
Normal file
74
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/PayPal.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- "PayPal, Inc."
|
||||
- "X.com Corporation"
|
||||
- "Confinity"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Payments
|
||||
- SiliconValley
|
||||
- PeterThiel
|
||||
- ElonMusk
|
||||
- PayPalMafia
|
||||
summary: "Online payments company formed in 2000 by merging Elon Musk's X.com with Peter Thiel and Max Levchin's Confinity, run by Thiel from September 2000, floated in February 2002 and sold to eBay that October."
|
||||
location: "Palo Alto, California"
|
||||
start: 2000-03-30
|
||||
end: 2002-10-03
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Peter Thiel]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "co-founder of Confinity"
|
||||
start: 1998-12
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Elon Musk]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "founder of X.com"
|
||||
start: 1999-03
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Peter Thiel]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "chief executive and president"
|
||||
start: 2000-09
|
||||
end: 2002-10-03
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Elon Musk]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "chief executive"
|
||||
start: 2000-05
|
||||
end: 2000-09
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Max Levchin]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "chief technology officer"
|
||||
start: 2000-03
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[eBay]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2002-10-03
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
PayPal, Inc. "resulted from a merger between Confinity, Inc., incorporated in December 1998, and X.com Corporation, incorporated in March 1999." [[Peter Thiel]] and [[Max Levchin]] co-founded Confinity; [[Elon Musk]], earlier a co-founder of Zip2, founded X.com, which "intended to provide Internet banking services." On March 30, 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, X.com surviving; by October 2000 the company had abandoned internet banking for the PayPal product, and it took the name PayPal, Inc. in February 2001. Musk was chief executive of X.com from March to December 1999 and of PayPal from May to September 2000, when Thiel, a former [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] lawyer and derivatives trader, replaced him; Levchin was chief technology officer. In September 2001 Musk was the largest shareholder, with 14.2 percent, ahead of entities affiliated with [[Sequoia Capital]] (10.7 percent), whose partner [[Michael Moritz]] sat on the board, and Nokia Ventures (9.6 percent); Thiel held 5.6 percent and [[Reid Hoffman]] under one percent.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The company then had 10.0 million registered users, most of whose payments concerned online auctions. It disclosed that "during the four months between July and October 2000, we experienced a significant fraud episode," with gross losses from unauthorized charge-backs of 5.7 million dollars, and that MasterCard had fined it for excessive charge-backs.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Flotation and Sale
|
||||
|
||||
PayPal sold 5,400,000 shares at 13 dollars in its initial public offering, under a prospectus dated February 14, 2002, on the Nasdaq National Market as PYPL.[^2] On July 8, 2002, [[eBay]] announced that it would acquire the company. The merger was completed on October 3, 2002, at 0.39 of an eBay share for each PayPal share, a transaction eBay valued at about 1.5 billion dollars, and Thiel resigned as chief executive the same day.[^3][^4] Members of the founding group went on to found or lead [[LinkedIn]], [[Palantir Technologies]], [[Founders Fund]], [[Tesla]] and [[SpaceX]], and became known as the [[PayPal Mafia]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: PayPal, Inc. Form S-1 registration statement, filed September 28, 2001, SEC file no. 333-70438, "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis," "Management" and "Principal Stockholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205701533855/a2059025zs-1.htm
|
||||
[^2]: PayPal, Inc. Prospectus, Rule 424(b)(4), February 14, 2002. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702006471/a2071068z424b4.htm
|
||||
[^3]: eBay Inc. and PayPal, Inc. "eBay to Acquire PayPal." Press release, July 8, 2002, filed as exhibit 99.1 to PayPal's Form 8-K. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702026650/a2084015zex-99_1.htm
|
||||
[^4]: PayPal, Inc. Form 8-K, October 4, 2002, and exhibit 99.1, "eBay Completes PayPal Acquisition," October 3, 2002. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702037693/a2090698zex-99_1.htm
|
||||
[^5]: Cameron, Dell, and Yulia Almazova. "Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel's Secretive 'Dialog' Society." *WIRED,* June 16, 2026. https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/
|
||||
|
|
@ -6,9 +6,16 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Philanthropy
|
||||
- ColdWar
|
||||
- Policy
|
||||
summary: "The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), established in 1940 by the five Rockefeller brothers, funded the Special Studies Project (1956-1961) that produced six panel reports shaping Eisenhower and Kennedy administration foreign and defense policy, with Henry Kissinger chairing Panel IV on national security."
|
||||
summary: "Foundation established in 1940 by the five Rockefeller brothers whose Special Studies Project of 1956-61, directed by Henry Kissinger until 1958, produced the Rockefeller Panel Reports on security, economy and foreign policy."
|
||||
created: 2026-06-05
|
||||
updated: 2026-06-05
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Henry A. Kissinger]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "director, Special Studies Project"
|
||||
end: 1958-06-30
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) was established in 1940 by the five sons of [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] as a vehicle for coordinating the brothers' charitable giving, and became in the 1950s the primary instrument through which [[Nelson Rockefeller]] channeled Cold War policy development. Its Special Studies Project (1956-1961), convened by Nelson and staffed by figures from the national security establishment, produced six classified panel reports shaping Eisenhower and Kennedy administration defense and foreign policy. Panel IV on national security, chaired by [[Henry Kissinger]], launched Kissinger's career as a foreign policy adviser and cemented his relationship with Nelson Rockefeller.
|
||||
|
|
@ -25,9 +32,9 @@ The RBF's most consequential initiative was the Special Studies Project, launche
|
|||
|
||||
The panels produced a series of influential reports between 1958 and 1961, collectively known as the "Prospect for America" reports and published in a compiled volume as *Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports* (Doubleday, 1961). Individual panel papers were circulated to government officials before the consolidated publication. Their recommendations on nuclear weapons, military strategy, economic growth, and foreign policy substantially shaped the policy frameworks of both the final Eisenhower years and the early Kennedy administration. Veterans of the Special Studies Project who moved into the Kennedy White House included [[McGeorge Bundy]], [[Walt Rostow]], [[Roswell Gilpatric]], and [[Edward Lansdale]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Panel IV: National Security (Kissinger)
|
||||
### Panel II: International Security (Kissinger)
|
||||
|
||||
Panel IV on national security was chaired by Henry Kissinger, then a Harvard faculty member who had worked on earlier Rockefeller-sponsored studies. The panel's work on nuclear strategy and limited war doctrine reflected the [[Rockefeller family]]'s long-standing interest in "flexible response" military capabilities as an alternative to massive nuclear retaliation.
|
||||
[[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] of Harvard's Center for International Affairs was director of the Special Studies Project until his resignation on June 30, 1958, and thereafter a consultant; the report of Panel II, *International Security: The Military Aspect,* was prepared under his direction. Panel IV dealt with the American economy.[^5] The panel's work on nuclear strategy and limited war doctrine reflected the [[Rockefeller family]]'s long-standing interest in "flexible response" military capabilities as an alternative to massive nuclear retaliation.
|
||||
|
||||
Kissinger's panel work through the RBF gave him the intellectual platform and Rockefeller family connections that launched his career as a foreign policy adviser. After the Special Studies Project, Kissinger continued to serve as Nelson Rockefeller's foreign policy consultant through the 1960s.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -43,3 +50,4 @@ Nelson Rockefeller used the RBF's national security framework to promote bomb sh
|
|||
[^2]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25, 27.
|
||||
[^3]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25, 27.
|
||||
[^4]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25.
|
||||
[^5]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund. *Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.* Doubleday, 1961, list of project staff and introduction to the report of Panel II. https://archive.org/details/prospect-for-america-the-rockefeller-panel-reports-rockefeller-brothers-fund-1961
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,16 +1,41 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- "Church of the New Revelation"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Religious_Front
|
||||
- New_Jersey
|
||||
- ReligiousFront
|
||||
- NewJersey
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
- Child_Pornography
|
||||
- North_Fox_Island
|
||||
- ChildPornography
|
||||
- NorthFoxIsland
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
summary: "The Church of New Revelation was a sham religious entity incorporated in New Jersey that served as an umbrella organization for child exploitation operations during the 1970s."
|
||||
location: "New Jersey, USA"
|
||||
summary: "Tax-exempt church incorporated in Delaware in 1974 with a Kearny, New Jersey, address, under whose auspices Brother Paul's Children's Mission operated; a Tennessee investigator called it a 'referral agency which distributes pornography.'"
|
||||
location: "Kearny, New Jersey"
|
||||
start: 1974
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Adam Starchild]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Dyer Grossman]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "youth director"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
The Church of New Revelation was a sham religious entity incorporated in [[New Jersey]] that served as an umbrella organization for child exploitation operations during the 1970s. It was created solely on paper by [[Dyer Grossman]] to gain tax-exempt status for affiliated programs. [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Monteagle, Tennessee was incorporated under the Church of New Revelation, as was [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]]. The church was described by authorities as a fraudulent referral agency for pornography distribution rather than a legitimate religious organization. [[Francis Shelden]] and [[Adam Starchild]] were connected to the church through their roles in incorporating the North Fox Island mission.[^1]
|
||||
The Church of the New Revelation was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, listing its principal place of business in [[New Jersey]]; its articles of incorporation stated that it was formed to train and indoctrinate ministers, brothers and sisters in its teachings and ordain them to carry out its work. [[Adam Starchild]], listed in the Kearny telephone book, was its president and [[Dyer Grossman]] its youth director. The Internal Revenue Service declared it exempt from taxes without challenging or investigating its claim to be a charitable organization. [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], the camp on [[North Fox Island]] organized by [[Gerald Richards]], was created and operated under its auspices; Richards named the church, the [[Ocean Living Institute]] and the Educational Foundation for Youth as fronts for the production of child pornography. A letter from Grossman found on Richards recommended setting up "child care" sites under the church or the foundation because of their tax exemptions.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
"There is no church," said Pete Bouldin of the Tennessee district attorney general's office. "It's just a referral agency which distributes pornography around the country."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Father Bud's Boys Farm
|
||||
|
||||
[[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee was said to have been incorporated under the church, and the church to have been created on paper by Grossman; [[Francis Shelden]] and Starchild were connected to it through the incorporation of the North Fox Island mission.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives New Jersey as the state of incorporation. The contemporaneous reporting lists Boys Farm, Inc., of Alto, Tennessee, as a separate organization and names Starchild, not Grossman, as the church's president.
|
||||
[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
[^3]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ summary: "The Sunday Mirror is a British tabloid newspaper that was part of Robe
|
|||
start: 1915
|
||||
location: "London, UK"
|
||||
---
|
||||
*The [[The Sunday Mirror]]* is a British newspaper. [[Robert Maxwell|Robert Maxwell's]] publishing empire included *The The Sunday Mirror*.[^1]
|
||||
*The [[The Sunday Mirror]]* is a British newspaper. [[Robert Maxwell|Robert Maxwell's]] publishing empire included *The Sunday Mirror*.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Nicholas Davies]], a London *[[Daily Mirror]]* foreign editor and [[Israel|Israeli]] agent, put together a disinformation story for *The The Sunday Mirror* to discredit [[Mordecai Vanunu|Mordecai Vanunu's]] claims about Israel's nuclear program. This piece was published with copies of Vanunu's photographs, claiming that *The The Sunday Mirror* had investigated the pictures and the men trying to sell them and found it to be a "con job."[^1]
|
||||
[[Nicholas Davies]], a London *[[Daily Mirror]]* foreign editor and [[Israel|Israeli]] agent, put together a disinformation story for *The Sunday Mirror* to discredit [[Mordecai Vanunu|Mordecai Vanunu's]] claims about Israel's nuclear program. This piece was published with copies of Vanunu's photographs, claiming that *The Sunday Mirror* had investigated the pictures and the men trying to sell them and found it to be a "con job."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,31 +1,50 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Boy_Scout_Troop
|
||||
- Child_Trafficking
|
||||
- New_Orleans
|
||||
- BoyScoutTroop
|
||||
- ChildTrafficking
|
||||
- NewOrleans
|
||||
- Louisiana
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
- Delta_Project
|
||||
- Odyssey_Network
|
||||
- DeltaProject
|
||||
- OdysseyNetwork
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
summary: "Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop chartered in eastern New Orleans in 1974 by three men: Richard Halvorsen, Raymond Woodall, and Robert Lang."
|
||||
summary: "New Orleans Boy Scout troop organized in 1974 by Richard Halvorsen and Raymond Woodall, raided in September 1976; nineteen men were charged, among them millionaire clients from Massachusetts and California."
|
||||
start: 1974
|
||||
end: 1976
|
||||
location: "New Orleans, Louisiana"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Richard Halvorsen]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1974
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Raymond Woodall]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1974
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop chartered in eastern New Orleans in 1974 by three men: [[Richard Halvorsen]], [[Raymond Woodall]], and [[Robert Lang]]. Around forty boys from low income families were recruited into the troop, from which approximately ten boys aged between eight and twelve were groomed and supplied as boy prostitutes to a network of wealthy clients across the United States. The troop's exposure in September 1976 revealed a child pornography and prostitution operation linked to [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] in Chicago and the [[Hermes]] newsletter.[^1]
|
||||
Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop organized in [[New Orleans]] in 1974 by [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Raymond Woodall]], with about 40 boys as members. From them the two men selected about ten to go on Scout trips, during which sexual acts took place; one boy was injured and hospitalized. The victims in New Orleans were eight to twelve years old, and documents seized in the raid led police to believe the ring may have involved as many as 30 boys, including wards of the Louisiana Welfare Department. Halvorsen was a volunteer probation officer, and many of the suspects had worked with volunteer agencies dealing with runaways and boys from broken homes; Halvorsen and Richard A. Pass gave boys guitars and a motorcycle as inducements. District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] said the Scout leaders had drawn up applications for state and federal money to establish homes for boys.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The case broke when film reels of child pornography discovered by technicians in a broken down commercial film processing machine in Dallas were traced to an assistant scoutmaster named Harry O'Cramer. Boys from the troop and their scoutmasters were subsequently identified engaging in sex acts on the discovered film, leading to the arrest of Halvorsen, Woodall, and Lang. Further investigation revealed Halvorsen and Woodall had previously worked at a private children's school in Florida called Adelphi Academies, owned by [[Peter Bradford]]. The pair moved to New Orleans in the early 1970s and were approved as juvenile probationary officers, using these positions to access and reactivate case files on juvenile offenders to leverage against their families with scholarship offers to attend the Adelphi Academy in Florida. At least six boys from New Orleans had been trafficked to Florida for sex and pornography.[^1]
|
||||
Acting on a tip, New Orleans police raided the troop's headquarters in September 1976 and arrested Halvorsen and Woodall. Halvorsen, 51, and twelve other men were first charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated rape and aggravated crimes against nature; four, including the assistant scoutmaster Harry O. Cramer, 23, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were then at large. A search of Halvorsen's home produced card files with the names and addresses of boys in other states. "It seems to be like spider webs strung out all over the nation," said the juvenile detective Mason Spong, who said the investigation extended into 34 states; nineteen men were eventually charged.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Clients and the Escort Service
|
||||
### Adelphi Academies
|
||||
|
||||
Among those charged as clients were a millionaire from California named [[Robert B. Mallers]], a Boston real estate mogul named [[Hugh Mellor]], and a Boston financier named [[Richard C. Jacobs]], who was a minority-owner of the New England Patriots NFL team. An associate of Raymond Woodall named [[Lewis Sialle]], who had been given an immunity deal to testify, claimed under oath that District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] had been the lover of a boy pornographer named [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive wanted in connection to the Troop 137 case. Sialle alleged: "I knew that Harry Connick was involved with John Campbell as his lover, and there was a cover-up." Campbell was a prime suspect from the beginning, with victims telling police they were introduced to the Troop 137 leaders at Campbell's residence after posing as models in "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits Campbell had painted of them.[^1]
|
||||
Halvorsen and Woodall had come to New Orleans from [[Coral Gables, Florida]], where they worked as maintenance men for the [[Adelphi Academies]], identified by Florida police as a former male prostitution front. Halvorsen recruited six New Orleans boys for the academies by telling their mothers he could obtain free scholarships; the co-owner, [[Peter Bradford]], flew to New Orleans, had sex with one of the boys and met the parents, and the six boys enrolled. Bradford was charged in New Orleans with two counts of aggravated crimes against nature, forfeited bond and stayed in Florida, where no charges were filed.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Woodall had also operated an escort service that initially used adult prostitutes but transitioned to using children from Troop 137, with Sialle testifying: "The service started out using adults, but they began ripping off the customers. That's when Woodall said we could use the kids. They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." Halvorsen, Woodall, and O'Cramer all received lengthy prison terms. Robert Lang was the only key figure to avoid prison, with the State Department of Corrections putting in a good word with the judge on his behalf, recommending probation in view of his "minimal involvement" and describing Lang as of "high moral character."[^1]
|
||||
### The Clients
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections to Broader Networks
|
||||
Among those charged were [[Richard C. Jacobs]], millionaire president of the Jet Spray Corporation and a former part owner of the New England Patriots, who forfeited a 50,000-dollar bond to avoid trial in Louisiana; [[Robert B. Mallers]], a California millionaire; and [[Hugh Mellor|Hugh Scott Mellor]] of Brighton, Massachusetts, president of a real estate holding company.[^2][^3] Woodall's address book contained the name of [[John David Norman]], whose ring, according to the Chicago police, sent boys around the country to a network of clients. Halvorsen's files contained the name of [[Claudius Vermilye]] of [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, and the films seized in New Orleans helped Tennessee authorities identify boys filmed at the farm. By May 1977 Woodall and Halvorsen had been convicted and were awaiting sentence.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
An FBI memo from February 1977 confirmed the [[Delta Project]] connection to Troop 137 in New Orleans and noted that Norman's conviction in December 1976 ended an ongoing investigation into the Delta Project, which had continued to operate under [[Phillip Paske]]. A letter sent by [[Claudius Vermilye]] to Halvorsen personally inviting him to visit [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee established the link between Troop 137 and the wider interlinked network of operations. Don Berlage, a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was also connected to the case through the broader network.[^1]
|
||||
### The Sialle Testimony
|
||||
|
||||
The case was said to have broken when film found in a broken-down commercial processing machine in Dallas was traced to Cramer, and [[Robert Lang]] was said to have been a third founder, arrested with the others, and the only principal to avoid prison, after the state Department of Corrections recommended probation for his "minimal involvement" and "high moral character." Halvorsen and Woodall were said to have used their positions as juvenile probation officers to reactivate case files and leverage families. An associate of Woodall, [[Lewis Sialle]], given immunity to testify, said that District Attorney Connick had been the lover of the boy pornographer [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive in the case, and that "there was a cover-up"; victims said they had met the troop leaders at Campbell's home after posing for his "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits. Sialle testified that Woodall ran an escort service that turned to the boys of the troop: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." Halvorsen, Woodall and Cramer were said to have received long prison terms. An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo of February 1977 was said to have confirmed the link to Norman's [[Delta Project]], then run by [[Phillip Paske]]; Vermilye was said to have written to Halvorsen inviting him to the farm; and [[Don Berlage]], a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was connected to the case.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It spells the assistant scoutmaster "Harry O'Cramer"; the hearing record and Louisiana Supreme Court captions (*State v. Cramer,* 362 So.2d 581, La. 1978) give Harry O. Cramer. Neither Lang, Sialle, Campbell nor Berlage appears in the 1977 hearing record.
|
||||
[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
[^3]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 439-443, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
|
|
|
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