Interview With Alex Constantine
7/31/00
Twenty-Two Questions Answered . . .
Alex Constantine, author, answers email questions posed by CTRL editor Kris Millegan. His books, Virtual Government: CIA Mind Control Operations in America; Florida/Hollywood Mob Connection, the CIA and O. J. ; Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A and The Covert War Against Rock are available at amazon.com and other places on-line or at your local bookstore.
CTRL: The Conspiracy Theory Research List
www.ctrl.org
1. What got you interested in conspiracies?
My interest in fascist conspiracies, to be specific, began about 12 years ago. I was the proverbial academic nabob engaged in writing plays and short stories, also book, film and television reviews for publications in southern California. I frowned at any claims of political conspiracies. But back in Ohio I had run an alternative newspaper in a blighted urban area, where I had written hard news stories about police abuse, urban renewal and gentrification, redlining by the insurance companies and such, and craved an opportunity to cover a story with some substance as news. So I flew up to San Francisco and covered the John Doe 60 trial. This was not exactly your workaday murder case. It involved the kidnap and cannibalizing of a homeless man by a couple of SF satanists. One of them had a swastika tattoo on his face. The other, Cliff St. Joseph, was a waiter. Together, they had abducted "John Doe 60," took him to St. Joseph's apartment, strapped him down, pumped him full of narcotics and proceeded to carve on him all night long. They cut a pentagram into his chest, ate one of his testicles, and tortured him with knives until he bled to death. The body was left under a truck parked south of Market. All of this, of course, was repulsive, led me to ponder how anyone could sink so low as to commit this atrocity. I interviewed the lead witness; a 20-year-old kid named Eddy, over the course of three days. Eddy informed me that there were some 22 members of this satanic cult, including police officers and some very wealthy people living across the Bay. One of the cultists involved with St. Joseph worked for the Bechtel Corp. There were ties to SDI and the Reagan White House. How could this be? What did these killers have to do with Republican politicians? Moreover, Eddy told me that he'd been whisked off the street one day by a CIA agent, and held for three days of questioning. I returned to Los Angeles, shaped my trial notes into a story. It appeared in the LA Weekly. But I was not done with this atrocity and its attendant leads. CIA? Reagan? Star Wars? Mind Control? What the Hell was going on? I was obsessed and had to have some answers. I began buying newspapers from around the world, calling reporters and investigators, searching for relevant information and to my surprise it existed. My nagging curiosity regarding satanism led me to mind control and fascism. I had quite a catalogue of information assembled when I turned on the radio one evening and heard Mae Brussell for the first time. She was then on Michael Aquino's case, which dovetailed neatly with my own work. I phoned parents of children involved in the Presidio child molestation case that I'd interviewed a few weeks before, told them about Mae Brussell's program, and they phoned her. Mae set up an interview with them and attended the parents' meetings. I had arranged this as a way of establishing trust, but before I could lay the groundwork toward a meeting with her, she was dead. This hit me very hard. I drove to Monterey and explained my own work and interest in Mae Brussell to Al Kunzer at KAZU. Kunzer produced the radio program that aired her work. He put me on the air for four hours over a two-day period. The response was very favorable. Kunzer asked me to make it a weekly conspiracy show, so I tried to pick up where Mae had left off, as a way, I think, of keeping her alive. I refused to let a voice so important be stilled by mere human mortality, and still feel this way.
2. Can you give us some of your background?
I grew up in northwest Ohio. Went to college and graduate school there, studied English literature, primarily. My father was ruined by the Mafia, so perhaps I should have caught on early, but my interest was then in writing, particularly the books of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Roth, Mailer, and other American writers. I was a high school student in the 1960s, and remained a liberal, but generally steered clear of politics. The move to Los Angeles and discovery of domestic fascism was formative. I haven't read a novel since, and went ten years without seeing a single movie. My interest in political conspiracies consumed every waking moment, and I did nothing but research in this period. I still have little time for anything else, though I'm learning how to relax and enjoy life a little. I have also been, for 12 years, a victim of electronic harassment, and this only feeds my obsessions. Torture has a way of inspiring resistance, and I will not give it up until the day I expire.
3. Where we you when Kennedy was shot?
In a grade school classroom. We were allowed to go home early that day. I remember the national remorse, the sad images on television, but comprehended little about the significance of this event. As a researcher, however, I have "gotten off the grassy knoll," and as a rule study fascist conspiracies that have not been widely written about, as has the Kennedy assassination. The new book on the music business is a case in point.
4. Was being a writer a career choice?
Yes. I wanted, at an early age, to be a novelist and writer of short stories and plays, so my path is not as I envisioned it. It is, in many ways; more satisfying as the one I set out to follow. But the political situation is so critical; I don't feel there is time for other pursuits.
5. What conspiracy research has had the most lasting affect on you?
I'd say it was not any single bit of research, but the EM assaults on my mind and body, and the attempts to kill me. I have endured years of intense physical pain, been knifed, shot at, beaten, nearly killed by the LAPD, almost burned out by a serial killer (Glenn Rogers), etc. All of this has a way of feeding one's taste for revenge, and mine is acute. I don't mind admitting this, because revenge is my primary motivation. Hunger for knowledge and justice comes in a close second.
6. You have publicly feuded with other researchers, care to comment?
A few. But "feud" is not the word from my own standpoint. Any adversity you perceive is defensive, and I can recall no exceptions. I suppose you are referring to Dave Emory, who went haywire after Mae's death and badmouthed some dozen researchers on the air, especially John Judge and Barbara Honegger, and attempted to destroy their reputations with unfounded smears. Do I have to point out that Judge was not "with the Manson Family?" That Honegger is not a "murderer?" These are claims that Emory made in a public forum. The attacks were not directed at me at first, but the others gave me their written responses, and I put them together, made copies and got them around. Emory interpreted this as an attack by ME, when in fact I was trying to provide balance and sanity to the discussion and give his victims a forum to speak against his fabrications. This is not a feud, but peer review; though I suppose some observers will interpret it otherwise. I don't really care. Any personal enmity directed at me, and there is some, is wrong-headed. Some researchers find the fact that I was mercilessly tortured for years -- but not broken -- to be amusing. Fine. Some are prone to putting words in my mouth and arguing with them. But such nonsense is irrelevant, and I have no interest in anyone's mistaken impressions. My books are well researched and on target. My work can be found on some 350 web sites. I've done scores of radio programs. The key from my own perspective is that I have saved lives, e.g., my one article on aspartame history, first published by Hustler and subsequently the most widely distributed approach on the topic, accomplished this much. THAT is what I care about ... not whether some idiot who believes in "lizard aliens" or craves the limelight approves of me. There was a verbal to-do with Martin Cannon, author of the Controllers, that some subscribers to the list may recall. It began when I arranged for the publication of his book. Cannon took a $3,000 advance from Adam Parfrey at Feral House, signed a contract, then reneged, kept the money, and made vague excuses regarding his default on the publishing agreement. When I began to talk and write about Cannon's contractual lapse and general ingratitude, he claimed I'd been "in a mental institution," and "take LSD." Well, neither claim is remotely true. Cannon sought to deflect attention from his theft and dishonesty by smearing me. My only mistake in this affair was recommending the book to Parfrey. Cannon is beneath contempt. I have seen him drive mind control victims to despair, and one nearly to suicide. I have been cleaning up his messes for years. I've collected a fat file from his former associates and mind control victims who have made the error of trusting him. So Cannon's "feud" is with me and a dozen others he has abused.
7. Would you recommend the Conspiracy genre to aspiring writers?
No. I recommend years of reading about corporate fascism and Nazi history. Fascism is inherently conspiratorial, and the study of it is often maligned as "conspiracy theory." The conspiracy genre per se is a largely a ghetto that any good researcher should avoid at all costs. For every book I write, 30 are published that are intended to discredit legitimate researchers. The field is so polluted with disinformation that I recommend students of fascism depend upon their own work and steer clear of spoon-fed "theories."
8. Do you make a living from your books? How many copies are sold?
I make a partial living from my books. I also live on an inheritance from my late grandfather, freelancing, and investments. My books are not best-sellers, but over the years they continue to sell and sell. Psychic Dictatorship is still on the shelves five years after it appeared. The new one is outpacing the others.
9. Do your friends and family accept your research or are you considered a "kook?"
My family considers me a good egg and heap love upon me.
10. What is your opinion of the Colliers brother's book Votescam?
Much of it concentrates on local, small-scale acts of electoral sabotage. The Fascist Right has been determining elections for decades via political assassination, libel, sex traps, "negative" campaigning, innuendo, and so on. The actual fixing of the ballot occurs, naturally, but it's risky for the perpetrators because there are too many factors to control, and exposure is common. Some politicians on the Right have fertilized their sour grapes with the book, most notably Robert Dornan of California, but even in this case the fraud amounted to a relative small number of votes. And what of better-known cases say the Mafia's Chicago fix in the Nixon-Kennedy race? I looked into it years ago, and learned that some allegations concerning Kennedy and the mob were exaggerated, and that Nixon's mob pals also pulled strings in Chicago, and this, it seems to me, is a better subject for a book than the examples cited in the Collier book. This is my personal opinion, however, and have no argument with those who find the book informative or even revelatory
11. Any thoughts on the upcoming elections?
If you are asking how it will turn out, sorry, but I don't make predictions. Any researcher who does is engaging in a conceit, placing him above the arduous task of comprehending the present, as if one's political "wisdom" qualifies one to play the role of seer. Some prominent researchers fall into this game, and have had to wipe away a quantity of facial egg. Even a researcher of Mae Brussell's stature can make the mistake of trying to predict the future. Brussell once opined that Pete Wilson, the former governor of California, was being groomed for the White House. As it developed, this was not the fait accompli she perceived it to be. Will the spawn of Prescott Bush rise again? Appears to be so, but only a fool would stake his reputation by suggesting that GWB's political prominence is certain. Too many x-factors at play. Dick Cheney COULD have a coronary. The DEA agents who have been trying to expose the cocaine-distribution network allegedly headed up GW and Jeb Bush, discussed on Michael Levine's radio program a few months back, MAY find a wider public forum. Gore's seedier pursuits, including the mind control connections that were the subject of Harlan Girard's Congressional testimony a couple of years ago, COULD be exposed. Either candidate COULD go out in a plane crash. I demur on the predictions, but widespread corruption and the drift to open fascist rule is and will be the rule until the voting public drops its interest in Kathy Lee and body worship and "Millionaire" and the WWF and pop music and the cinematic classic of the week, etc., and addresses the hard realities.
12. What do you think of Trance Formation of America and the story that Cathy O'Brien tells?
Whatever I think, it is unsubstantiated. That makes it grist for debate, and little else. My own approach is to drop personal experiences - and my own beat anything you know - and stick with information that I can document.
13. What are your thoughts on Brice Taylor's book Thanks for the Memories?
About the same.
14. Any thoughts on Bohemian Grove?
Only facts,
15. What are your thoughts on HAARP?
Anything HAARP can allegedly do have been done by other means perfected long ago. HAARP is a small cloud in a big sky.
16. Have you been subjected to "Mind Control?"
Never. I am a victim of electromagnetic harassment. Head pains. Sleep deprivation. Not mind control. I was told years ago that this was not the point. "Punishment" is the point.
17. What about the underlying thread of pedophilia in conspiracy literature?
I've addressed this elsewhere, in books and countless radio programs, at length.
18. Have you received much mainstream coverage about your books? And why or why not?
No. I'm anti-establishment in the extreme, so the establishment does its best to ignore me.
19. What has been the reception to your latest book, The Covert War against Rock?
Without exception, good reviews from the rock press, and loads of flattering comments. VH1 is basing a series largely on the book, and I will appear in some segments. BBC has sent three crews over for interviews. All in all, I couldn't be more pleased.
20. What will your next book be about?
Don't know yet. I'm thinking of doing a Psychic Dictatorship II.
21. How do you find about "secret stuff?"
Research - long hours of it.
22. What do you see for the future?
The war of every man against every other man.