|
We are playing catch-up because this current phase is taking longer than expected after it took an interesting turn towards the pivotal year of 1963. That is when political forces came together and President John F. Kennedy was murdered in plain sight on a lovely day in the heart of Dallas, Texas. It was also the moment in time when the same people who connected with Jack Ruby, also connected to Gordon McLendon and his radio station KLIF, and that broadcasting operation connected to the exported Texas sound of Don Pierson's 'Radio London' on board a ship anchored off the coast of south-east England. Our research which is currently being edited for inclusion as the next chapter, is not as yet complete. But we are getting there. However, it means that we have to begin another intermission in the meantime. Stay tuned to this page for more details
Three life experiences and one narrator: that is the core of the storyline that you are now reading.
Three individual life experiences by three people whose lives collide in time and space, but because they are three individual and non-omnipotent human beings, none of these individuals collectively know what their two companions in life know, or think that they know, or have experienced in life, until the moment arrived when they began to work together. But even then, their collective life experiences are interpreted in three different ways according to the lives that they have lived and the previous knowledge that each of them has absorbed about life as individuals. Perception is not reality. Because perception is individualistic its take on reality varies from person-to-person, and for this reason eyewitness accounts of anything will vary from person-to-person. Perception is derived from observing life as it happens, and that form of observation is governed by the degree to which something is being observed. The classic example of this process is demonstrated in classrooms where law students are following a lecture. Suddenly, and without warning, the lecture is interrupted by a person who enters the lecture hall in full view of all of the students, and then grabs an item and exits. Students are then quizzed about what they just witnessed, or failed to witness, and the results are amazing. Some students didn't see the person enter, take anything or even leave the lecture hall because at that moment they were distracted by something else. Others saw someone enter, but did not pay any attention because they were focused upon what was being taught. Some were distracted by the intruder and followed their entry and departure, but not upon what was grabbed. So much for the validity, or lack thereof, regarding the value of eye-witness accounts. Of the few who saw it all and took cognisance to store a me memory of the event, the reporting eye-witness reports will vary considerably within their accounts of what they individually perceived. There have been many individuals throughout time who have been convicted and sent to prison - or worse - as a result of eye-witness testimony that has been used against them an accused person. However, coupled with forensic material evidence in all of its many forms, eye-witness testimony can be helpful, just as it can be a dangerous form of accusatory information when used with malice or even without due care. First, a caveat: This is not a work based upon 'guilt by association', or some sort of wild 'conspiracy' based upon a pre-determined uniformity of 'message', because their is no 'message' as such. This is an account of 'truth telling' by three individuals. For this reason we are not seeking 'peer approval' because in many instances, those who might be classified as 'peers' have a totally different and even contradictory preset belief in contemporary events, and their interpretation, even though they belong to the same time and space that are occupied by the three individuals in this storyline. Therefore, this is not a melded account by 'historians' who are self-proclaiming their own custodial account of past events, these are the accounts of three self-proclaiming 'detectives' using a form of court-room methodology in order to introduce forensic evidence gained from personal investigations of cultural events. A new descriptive terminology was called for to replace the word 'historians', and it resulted in 'YesterTecs'. YesterTecs, are the invention of 'The Trio'. They are detectives examining events of yesterday, as those events relate to cultural origins. This embraces the entire panorama of events created by human beings. 'The Trio' in this storyline use the 'YesterCode' called 'E+O3X'. Its meaning is explained in detail, elsewhere in this work. E+O3X is the YesterTecs guide to their research methodology. Now let's take a look at one individual who we referred to within the previous precursory chapter within the context of educating the person who is today known as Dr Habil Professor Eric Gilder. It should be noted of course, that this event took place long before 'The Trio' was formed. It was in one sense a momentary event when viewed within the context of the curriculum of Eric's higher education. In the previous precursory chapter, Eric explained how he had briefly been taught the Russian language at UTA by Colonel J.D. Wilmeth. That was before Eric switched to Latin. On its own, as part of Eric's educational chronology, it is of little passing anecdotal interest, and in the context of Eric's own educational experiences of lasting value, it may be viewed as having no interest at all. But the focus here is not upon Eric's interaction with Colonel J.D. Wilmeth, but upon the seventeen years of interaction that Colonel J.D. Wilmeth had on both the students attending UTA, and people outside of UTA that Colonel J.D. Wilmeth interacted with. In fact, the mention of Wilmeth is in many ways similar to other names that flit in and out of this combined storyline created by 'The Trio'. Viewed on their own as personal interactions, they may seem to be unnoteworthy of attention or further comment. But sometimes, like Colonel J.D. Wilmeth, the mention of his name in a wider context can open-up a Pandora's Box of additional questions that have far-researching implications and ramifications. In the instance of Colonel J. D. Wilmeth, his name was sufficient for the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to question a Mrs. Ruth Paine about what she knew about him. More questioning followed in the 'Warren Report' and a plethora of questions then arose from people who were privately investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Next: Who was Colonel J.D. Wilmeth ....? "If I had been born in London, I would certainly call London my Hometown, but I was not born anywhere near London, indeed, I was not even born in England. However, my original university work was certainly born out of a specific interest in London, and specifically in a unique form of broadcasting that was heard in London during the Nineteen Sixties." That is how Eric Gilder, now Professor Dr Habil Eric Gilder, began his monologue that has now appeared in several journals and text books under the title of 'London: My Hometown'.
Eric's own foray into the topic of offshore broadcasting eventually united him with Mervyn Hagger and Genie Baskir. His path to meeting them began at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) where he graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with a focus upon Communications and Political Science. The city of Arlington Texas is just over twenty miles to the east of Dallas; a city 'branded' as 'Big D'. Also to the east of Arlington is the city of Irving, and just over fifteen miles to the west of Arlington is the city of Fort Worth which claims as its slogan that it is "Where the West begins". At UTA Eric Gilder took several courses, and one of them was as a student of Associate Professor Dr. Ross Chapin. He became a personal friend Dr Ross and to whom he later turned for advice regarding the subject of radio broadcasting when he was faced with writing a thesis for his Master's degree at the North Texas State University (NTSU). In 1988, which was six years after Eric received his Master's degree in 1982, that institution was renamed for the seventh time in its life as University of North Texas (UNT). When its campus-based radio station was faced with adopting the new initials, prudence prevailed. Station identification remained 'KNTU', thus avoiding the switch to a new and embarrassing station identification. But in 1981, the university at Denton was still NTSU, and it was as a student attending NTSU that he told his former UTA professor Dr Ross that he was considering writing about 'Radio Swan'. This was a strange station located on a Caribbean island which had been made famous for the amount of its excrement known as guano. It was a regularly deposited by seabirds, but it was also harvested to be turned into fertilizer. Instead of receiving encouragement from Dr. Ross to pursue that topic, Eric received advice akin to a warning: Stay off that subject! Radio Swan' had became a controversial station because its short life story threaded through the ill-fated invasion of Cuba which had been intended to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Its owners seemed to be a rather obscure company in New York, and their station appeared to be a private commercial operation. In reality 'Radio Swan' was a 'front' for activities controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that were related to the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The year was now 1981, and well over a decade had past by since that 1961 aborted invasion of Cuba, but its legacy was far reaching. In 1962, Cuba also became the location for the Missile Crisis that almost sparked a nuclear World War III. Then, on a bright sunny day in 1963 came the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. But back in 1981 when Eric Gilder was advised to find another topic, he asked Dr Ross why, and he was told that it was for his own safety. Perhaps Dr Ross knew something of which Eric was unaware. Unrelated to that advice, a few years earlier, Eric had enrolled in a UTA Russian-language class (simply to meet the language requirements for his degree), and he later told Mervyn Hagger that it was common knowledge that the professors at the Soviet and East European Studies Center there had 'Intelligence' links. Eric switched from Russian to Latin after a year, because he struggled with the subject and he was the only non-Russian degree major in that class. One of his Russian language teachers was Colonel Wilmeth, who, documents show, did have such career links. Eric recently remarked that, the Russian language material was often from Russian sources and technological in nature." At NTSU where Eric was studying speech communication related to radio, television and film, he took the advice of Dr Ross and changed the topic of his proposed thesis, which a year later would result in being awarded his Master's degree. Under the advice and direction of Dr Marilyn Lawrence-Boemer, the title of his thesis now became "The History of Pirate Radio in Britain and the End of BBC Monopoly in Radio Broadcasting in the United Kingdom.” But there was a problem which was not apparent to Eric at that time. In the early 1980s, there was little in the way of source material. While Eric credited Dr Ross for his new focus, neither he nor Dr Marilyn could provide Eric Gilder with the foundational research materials that he needed, because they were not readily available to anyone. Professor Asa Briggs was still in the process of publishing an encyclopaedia of material about British broadcasting within the context of a focus upon the British Broadcasting Corporation. A student from the University of Aberdeen name Paul Harris had written a book called 'When Pirates Ruled The Waves', but it was primarily built upon a collection of news-cuttings containing a lot of misinformation. There was also a monologue mainly focusing upon Scandinavian offshore 'pirate' radio and the structure known as 'Radio and TV Noordzee.' It had been built upon an artificial island off the coast of the Netherlands in the North Sea. That was about it. There had been articles in magazines and newspapers, but their contents were both incomplete and in many instances in error. The Internet as it is now did not exist back in the early 1980s, and the concept, let alone the opportunity to research digital back issues of periodicals and newsprint was not available to any student who wanted to write a thesis. The floodgates that opened to an avalanche of books, magazines and academic monologues would all occur much later, and in many instances the fawning fans who turned the subject of offshore broadcasting into a constantly repeating topic. all seem to have been born just before or in the Nineteen Sixties. Consequently they had no first-hand knowledge to draw upon. The source of what has become a plethora of books long after Eric published his thesis, seems to be a young lad named Ian Cowper Ross. His father was a New Zealand immigrant who divorced his first wife and married Ian's mother in London. His name is Charles Edward Ross and he became attached to a career in promoting a franchised dry cleaning business. He had two sons. One shared his father's first name and his mother was Ian's father's first wife. Ian's step-brother Charles Ross went into the restaurant, car wash and theatrical business with a partner. They based their businesses in the Chelsea district of London which is also where Ian was born. Ian Cowper Ross was a reckless individual who first crashed a collector's motorbike, and then he crashed an expensive Jensen car into a bus. That landed him in hospital where he almost lost a foot, and then it landed him in court. Ian's father hived off Ian to the advertising business of Jocelyn Stevens, publisher of 'Queen', the fashion magazine. It was Ian who bumped into Christopher Moore who was a club disc jockey, and it was Chris Moore who introduced Ian to a young Irish school drop-out who had recently arrived in London. His name is Ronan O'Rahilly and after he was introduced to Jocelyn Stevens by Ian Cowper Ross, Ronan O'Rahilly became a 'useful fool' to Jocelyn Stevens by spreading misinformation about the roots of 'Radio Caroline'. However, by the time that Eric Gilder began to write his thesis about British 'pirate radio', Ronan O'Rahilly had 'poisoned the well' by spreading lies and distortions to the point that O'Rahilly was quoted everywhere as being the author and creator of 'Radio Caroline'. In reality, Ronan O'Rahilly had set out to spread a lie with the help of Ian Cowper Ross and Chris Moore, and the three of them had succeeded in misleading many more than just Eric Gilder. At that time there was no contact by Gilder with Hagger and Baskir, because the three of them were yet to meet and form 'The Trio'. Next: Digging Deeper .... Our schedule has been interrupted by an anonymous poster questioning the validity of the account written by Genie Baskir as a member of 'The Trio'. It concerns the road to her involvement in this project which she wrote about on February 28, 2022, in Precursory Chapter 22, titled 'Genie introduces herself ....' and in it Genie referred to her association with the 'Voice of Peace' and made reference to Abie Nathan.
Our Precursory Editor (Caroline Brooks) redirected the words of this anonymous poster to Genie for her own response, after the anonymous poster merely posted his comments elsewhere. (We believe that we know the identity of this anonymous poster who has repeatedly tried to impress a small group of people that he has the ability to uncover information that is not accessible to others, but in reality his sources are outdated publications. However, since our claim is to forensically research all of our material and to cross-reference sources, or to know from first-hand life experiences anything we publish, we have taken the extra step of asking Genie Baskir for additional information.) We have now received more information from Genie Baskir and we will be revising the original Precursory Chapter 22 and adding her own additional comments to Precursory Chapter 23, titled 'Genie returns to radio ....' The next Precursory Chapter will be 'Eric Gilder goes in search of answers ....' and it will continue the revised story in Precursory Chapter Twentyseven, titled: 'Who was Don Pierson?'. Our Intermission will continue until Monday, March 28, 2022.
The next Precursory Chapter will be published on March 28, 2022.
We are in the middle of coordinating dates from different versions of the same story. We will continue as soon as possible.
This current intermission continues while we are dividing our time between expanding our European facility by doubling its size to include part of our library; our mini theatre for screening videos, and a conference room equipped to hold small scale symposiums. The title of this combined facility is 'JLRI.CENTER' which is now our primary domain name, as in http://jlri.center.  [LEFT: Main sign over units (next to 'Pebble Theatre'), and the window sign on both units and on the plinth/tv base outside both units. At the present time the images above are linked via jlri.center to our unrevised 2016 copy and page for 'Pebble Theatre'.]
This work is ongoing by adding a lot more shelf and working desk space, painting parts of the interior and exterior, and adding a moving partition wall between the theatre and conference room. This physical work is not expected to be completed until the end of March 2022. Meanwhile the partwork precursory publication of our storyline is continuing. These partworks are to be divided into volumes in their own right. The first book in this series will be published after the precursory partworks have been published. The difference will be in the addition of footnotes, endnotes and bibliographies to each volume in the series. Originally begun as an extension of writings about our own experiences, the first volume will be centered upon telling the story of 'The Trio' whose life-stories it is documenting. The next volume in the series will be devoted to specific aspects of the combined experiences of 'The Trio'. Our work has not been assisted by the constant theft of our research work by those who, in vain-glory and self-puffery try to make themselves seem important in the world of the media, when in fact they have little of their own knowledge to contribute while shunning the idea of educational research. There are some who have assisted us but chose not to seek credit for their contributions, and there are some who have decided that to venture into deeper documentation is to "go where angels fear to tread'. In that respect we received our latest copy of 'Offshore Echos' magazine and noticed that the last section of the magazine contains a revised (edited) version of documents that we and one of the editors of OEM paid for and undertook the time-consuming job of obtaining from the Irish government. By their own admitted process of redactions of these documents, the readers are not aware of the important relevance of the material redacted, nor are they helped by the constant repetition of references in this current addition to a phantom person named 'Jimmy Ross' who never existed. The reason for their inclusion and promotion of this name in OEM is that without the fake story invented by Ian Cowper Ross concerning 'Jimmy Ross', the entire charade promoted about Ronan O'Rahilly in OEM then comes tumbling down and Ronan O'Rahilly is exposed as the convenient fool that he was to the people behind the scenes who used him as their cover. Naturally all of this will be exposed in depth by our work and the stories published about 'Jimmy Ross' and the hyped account of Ronan O'Rahilly will be revealed as total fiction. It is therefore fitting that OEM decided to also include the redacted story of Philip Birch in their latest issue, since Philip Birch and Ronan O'Rahilly served the same purpose for those involved behind the scenes. The story of Philip Birch will therefore also be exposed in due course, and it is one reason why we temporarily halted publication of our story about Don Pierson who life we began to touch upon in our last precursory chapter, after already revising it several times. Because of the relevance of his life story to events that connect to 'The Trio', and because of the insulting manner in which people like DJ Johnnie Walker have made references to the work and family of Don Pierson, it has become necessary to explain in chronological detail who he was and what he did before 'The Trio' became involved with him. This explanation about our European facility and our research and publication work schedule is given to shed light on this present pause, but our precursory publishing will continue. We will keep you informed as to our timetable for the resumption of our publishing schedule. The last precursory chapter posted online, which has already been revised by us twice, will soon be replaced with new text very soon.
We have now decided to answer the question: "Who was Don Pierson?" in a more detailed biographical form, rather than as a quick reference to aspects of his life as presently posted. As we will show in the revision to come, it was not only Paul Rusling who stole our research material relating to 'Radio Caroline', but Howard Rose, Ray Anderson and Chris Elliot in a book they contributed to and titled 'The Wonderful Radio London Story'. However, what they published in several formats, was not the real story about that offshore broadcasting station. Add to their confusion the offhand and derisory comments made by DJ Johnnie Walker relating to Don Pierson on the original commercial tape sold by Steve England about Don Pierson and 'Radio England', and the ship 'Olga Patricia', as well as the semi-correction commercial tape issued later by Steve England, and it seems that we need to correct the entire record that is presently in general circulation about the life and times of Don Pierson. We will reflect what we knew about him when we first went into business with him; what we know now about Don Pierson now, as well as touching on the misinformation relating to Don Pierson's broadcasting activities that has been promoted by his son Grey Pierson. To that distorted account, Tom Danaher has added his own smear of misinformation together with Ben Toney's input, and both of them have been laughingly promoted by the Paynes who in turn have added their own contributions to the destruction of truth under their brand name non-broadcasting business which they call 'Radio London'. Therefore, we will retain the essence of our existing chapter about Don Pierson, but we will be introducing a detailed account of this man's life in order to reflect his actual biography, rather than in the form of snippets of information. Naturally this has already demanded a lot more of our time, and it is still preoccupying our time, but we hope to complete this task as soon as possible. We will keep you informed about our progress. If possible we will continue our storyline tomorrow following further investigation.
While in the process of editing the previous chapter information came to light that significantly changes a lot of the information currently in circulation about the identity of Don Pierson as a person, and as he relates to this story. Therefore we are taking another break while we investigate this new material. The storyline will continue.
NEW EDITORIAL TEXT REPLACING THE ORIGINAL AND REVISED TEXT DATED 3/13/2022
Writing a biographical account of Don Pierson proved to be more than a simple task of chronologically documenting his biography, because like the true life stories of several people involved in this storyline, they have all become constantly enmeshed in fables and outright lies to distort and even totally conceal the truth. In this regard we were very disappointed to read the latest edition of 'Offshore Echos Magazine' (207) for April 2022, because instead of making a gigantic course correction, its editors have decided to keep promoting a lie that surrounds the person known a Ronan O'Rahilly, while attempting to preempt this work. 'OEM's' English Editor is an intelligent man who privately acknowledges that the nonsense promoted by the gang of anoraks who seem to worship the person of Ronan O'Rahilly, is not a true portrayal of who Ronan O'Rahilly was in life. However, there is an interesting parallel to be drawn between Ronan O'Rahilly as the son of Aodagán O'Rahilly, and Grey Pierson's father Don Pierson. The mythology surrounding Ronan O'Rahilly did not begin with his father Aodagán, but with his grandfather Michael Rahilly. Aodagán was twelve when his father died, and it was his grandfather who began the idea of prefacing his surname with the letter 'O' followed by an accent. He then morphed this into the grandeur of a clan name by calling himself 'The O'Rahilly', and it was only in fairly recent times that Ronan's father decided to write a book that would surround the life and times of his father (Ronan's grandfather), with tales of intrigue and mystique that far exceeded his contribution to the cause of Irish independence. However, for most of his life, Ronan's father Aodagán, was a level-headed entrepreneurial businessman, and that seems to be a trait that he genuinely inherited from his own father Michael. The important point to know and remember about Aodagán O'Rahilly is that he followed a text book process of success in creating his own business, and he was indeed a successful businessman. One of the keys to his success was knowing how to work with two clashing political groups that governed parts of the divided island of Ireland. Being able to work with the British government was certainly an asset, because at one crucial time in Aodagán's business life, it involved working with the very same governmental body over which Anthony Wedgewood Benn was put in charge and became its Minister. Another Irishman whose family home was not too far from Aodagán O'Rahilly in the Republic of Ireland, was Charles Orr Stanley. On one occasion Charles Orr Stanley had reason to meet with Anthony Wedgewood Benn concerning the vast Pye group of electronics companies that Stanley came to represent. But instead of making a good impression on Benn, Stanley seems to have done the opposite. He gained a few negative lines to that effect in one of Benn's many volumes that he wrote as part of his own autobiographical diary. In that respect Grey Pierson, the son of Don Pierson, has many of the same traits as Ronan O'Rahilly in relation to his father Aodagán O'Rahilly. Ronan loved blarney and Grey loved to tell tales about the bizarre activities of other people, and both of them engaged in cloaking real events with their own fabricated tales. Coming back to the latest edition of 'OEM', the glorification of the non-life and times of Ronan O'Rahilly seems to be essential to its survival, because if the editors now begin to tell the truth about Ronan O'Rahilly, then 'OEM' will probably die overnight. How will it be possible to explain to 'OEM' readers that the 'OEM' editor has worked in a joint venture with this project on more than one occasion to uncover the true story, and then twisted it in such a way as to make both the truth and the connection with this project disappear? Don Pierson and Grey Pierson are not just a father and story with similarities to Aodagán O'Rahilly and Ronan O'Rahilly, but if readers want to know anything factual about the lives of the fathers, then they have to know about the lies spun by their sons. It is upon a foundation of lies that the story of 'Radio Caroline' has for decades been told to the public, and the real story behind the creation of 'Radio London' began with Don Pierson long before the story of Grey Pierson was added to it by a rag tag assemblage of people such as Christopher Gaydon who called himself Chris Elliot, together with Howard Rose and Ray Anderson, who were also assisted by others in their attempts to bury the true story. When it comes to 'Radio England' and 'Britain Radio', the true story behind those stations is totally bizarre and it exceeds the swirling array of nonsense spread by people like Steve England and Johnnie Walker. But that latter twin station project took place before Grey Pierson became involved in his father's business ventures and caused his own layer of untruth to settle like thick dust upon already dusty furniture. The story of the ship upon which those two radio stations were built, is the story of the same ship which spent turbulent years in the cause of others who were repeatedly trying to topple the regime of Fidel Castro as the leader of Cuba. It was a behind-the-scenes CIA story which linked from South Miami in Florida, to locations in Texas such as Galveston, Houston, as well as Dallas, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated just prior to 'Radio Caroline' going on the air. The ship used for 'Radio Caroline South' was also an ex-CIA vessel of interest, just like the 'Olga Patricia' which served as the home of 'Radio England' and 'Britain Radio'. That latter venture involved using the same ship which then connected to the ambitious plan by Don Pierson to create a freeport on the Haitian island of Tortuga in the Caribbean. That venture predated connectivity to Grey Pierson. Grey Pierson's involvement followed on the heels of the failed Haitian freeport venture after the British gave independence to the Caribbean island nation of Dominica. Grey Pierson tried to show-up his father's failure on Tortuga, by teaching his father Don Pierson how such a freeport venture in the Caribbean should be contemplated and successfully completed. But Grey Pierson, the son with a portrait of Adolph Hitler on his bedroom wall, did not succeed, and when U.S. government officials began enquiring about a contemporary Canadian-U.S. neo-Nazi attempt to overthrow the Dominican government by force of arms, Grey Pierson simply denied all knowledge of those Canadian and American citizens who also worshipped the same German leader. Of course, the U.S. government officials knew nothing about Grey Pierson's wall portrait featuring Adolph Hitler, and if they had, then they might have asked a few more questions about Grey Pierson's political ideology in relation to the activities of the New Orleans neo-Nazis. Grey Pierson's own failure to create a freeport resulted in his state of depression. His father Don Pierson, then came to the rescue with Mervyn Hagger and Larry West and a project called IFAC. Therefore, it is ironic that IFAC was funded by the Jewish brother-in-law of Larry West, who, with Mervyn Hagger, was then driven to Arlington, Texas by Don Pierson. He was on a mission to save his son who seemed to enjoy seeing a picture of the Fuehrer hanging on his bedroom wall when he first opened his eyes each morning. Naturally, at the time, neither West nor Hagger knew anything about the strange behavior of Grey Pierson. Next: Eric Gilder goes in search of answers .... Because this is primarily the account of three lives lived, and because those three lives are not related by family, it is about the lives of three individuals who, looking back in time, perceive the events that each of them lived through, in three different ways. Then these three individuals began to conduct part of their own time lived in the company of each other.
But they were and still are, three individuals living three separate lives. There is no American-style 'cookie-cutter' stamping going on. These three individuals each see events differently, and they quite often argue about the interpretation of these events, and their arguments are based upon the information that the three individuals possess at the time of argument. Perception is everything. Presentation is also a key factor. Eric Gilder, is a professor and now Dr Habil, and his academic approach is quiet and scholarly. Genie Baskir is married into 'The System' as well as her own family with a daughter. Mervyn Hagger is labeled by Eric Gilder as 'impassioned' and Genie Baskir commented that when she worked at IFAC that he yelled a lot. Three different people. Three different approaches to life, but all three determined to unveil this hitherto and misrepresented story to the world. It is necessary to state this background analysis as foundational fact, because a casual reader might assume that these three individuals are living out their three separate lives according to some hitherto unstated 'master plan', but there is no 'master plan' and the three individuals are not related by any form of bloodline or political or religious ideology. On the contrary, differences in perception due to different family experiences is what makes this story somewhat complicated to recite, but it is that factor that keeps it focused upon being an honest and open-minded investigation as a joint enterprise, while at the same time keeping it within the three component parts of the lives lived. Now if that is not enough of a complicating factor on its own in the telling of one story, then add the fact that there are several other individuals who, from time-to-time, have entered into the lives of the three main individuals and influenced episodes within this story. It is a story that began after the IFAC episode had been concluded, but the IFAC episode was the means by which the three core individuals came together as an investigative team called 'The Trio'. While the storyline is one, it was different aspects of that story which grabbed the attention of the three individuals. For Mervyn Hagger, whose date of birth makes him the senior in age of the other two members; his interest began as a young boy in England when his father took him on a holiday visit to see an 'uncle' and they made a recording in a BBC studio at Bush House in London. For Genie Baskir, who was born in New York, her trek through time relating to this topic began in the nation of Israel. That is when she was asked to make broadcasts for Abe Nathan's 'Voice of Peace' radio ship. For Eric Gilder who was born in Dallas, his part in this story began when, after graduation with a bachelor's degree at a university in Arlington, he embarked upon studies at another university in Denton (all three locations in Texas), to be guided by an academic advisor into writing a master's thesis about European and especially British 'pirate' radio. Three different points of entry converged in the Nineteen Eighties into one storyline that initially centered upon the person of Don Pierson. To many, Don Pierson was and still is a mystery man. That is because other people had a superficial contact with him, and their own lack of intellectual curiosity concealed from them the details of who this man was. It is not difficult to find the answers because Don Pierson never hid from the press. Thanks to the Internet and newspaper archives, it is now easier than ever to reassemble details of his life. Next: Who was Don Pierson? The reason why we adopted the image of ripples emanating in all directions over a still body of water following the dropping of a pebble, is because it is the easiest graphic image that we could think of to portray this project.
To outsiders (other than 'The Trio'), it seems as if we are starting and stopping multiple storylines without completing any of them. Sometime members of 'The Trio' also wonder if that is what we are doing! But this is not the sum total of a completed investigatory educational project. Another key factor is that we are not starting from the moment of impact when the pebble first meets the still surface of the water, but from the farthest edge of the last visible ripple before there are no more to be seen. We then work inwards towards the point of origination. If we were working outwards, we would already know all of the answers to everything, and clearly, we don't, and more importantly, neither does anyone else. There are no super-humans, all-knowing, all-understanding. On the other hand, there are quite a number of puffed-up self-important people who like to pretend that they are all-knowing and all-understanding, but their own individual deaths prove that they were really no different from every other person who has ever been born on this Planet. That is why this Planet is in such a mess, but to then suggest that some human beings are going "Save the Planet", are merely indications that they are of the self-aggrandizing variety who have deceived themselves into thinking that they are on the same level as the Creator of Everything that exists or has ever existed in any form. But they are not. Their flesh and blood is in reality part of matter which can only change its form, but it can never been destroyed. Mere human beings cannot create anything from nothing. 'Magicians' who are stage performers can befuddle other human beings by conjuring-up illusions which are, as we know, only practicing the art of deception. By only seeing the outer ripples, we are only seeing watered-down manifestations of factual information that has become co-mingled with umpteen storylines into which fiction has been injected. So this storyline is following the development of events beginning with the first entanglements by the Crown of England with the person known as John Lilburne. We are not actually sure that he was born in 1615, but unless someone produces hard evidence to the contrary, we accept as fact that 1614 was the year of his birth. There is far more evidence that records the year of his death as 1657, than there is the year of his birth. But it is what John Lilburne did and came to understand during his lifetime that is of essence in this storyline. His life story and its rippling effects are the ones that we began to follow back in time from the present day, to the time of his birth. However, this is not the story of John Lilburne, or Don Pierson or 'The Trio', but the sum total of all these lives. It is retracing the recorded evidence of a human life in ripple after ripple. Because to understand the business of licensing recorded music, it is necessary to understand the licensing of the printed word. It is also necessary to know about Benito Mussolini and his fascist Italy and its connection to EMI. To understand how EMI got involved with the restricted broadcasting airplay of recorded music, which came to be known in the United Kingdom as 'needle time', it is necessary to know that EMI was a spin-off from the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA was created by the General Electric Corporation of the USA, with the financing of J.P. Morgan who began creating a worldwide electrical Trust whose plans and programs have once more become the focus of attention in the clash between oil and electrical power. Similarly, if you want to know about the history of oil, then it is necessary to know about Persia and British Petroleum and Halliburton of Texas, as well as individuals such as John D. Rockefeller. Our story that is retracing the true origins of 'Radio Caroline' which began in 1964 and died in 1967, also engulfs the history of 'Radio London' which became the blueprint for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in its creation of 'BBC Radio One'. That story is mired in deceit. This trail of misinformation about 'Radio Caroline' began in earnest with a young Irishman named Ronan O'Rahilly. So, it is necessary to explain who he really was, and how he managed to deceive Don Pierson of Eastland, Texas. Thus we return to the story of the pebble and the initial splash, only we, being mere mortals who do not know or profess to know all that is to be known, have to begin at the outer edges of the furthermost ripple before all ripples disappear. We have not yet reached the point in our story which began in a radio studio where a frustrated Mervyn Hagger reached for a random book. That volume happened to the '1968 Yearbook of Encyclopedia Britannica', and he flipped open that book to serendipitously begin reading a five-page essay written by the wife of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black. That was when we began paying attention to the farthermost ripple. It is when the story of John Lilburne first came to our attention. Now you know where this story begins and why it probably has no ending. Next: After IFAC Work is progressing on the JLRI.CENTER and it is taking away from the time required to write and edit the next chapter. But the next chapter will be added online very shortly.
In late 1979, the scheduled meeting of Mervyn Hagger and Larry West from Houston with Don Pierson in Eastland concerning the declining fortunes of radio host Herb Jepko from Salt Lake City in Utah, failed to materialize into a successful 'rescue' plan of operation. However, it did evolve into a new and lasting business relationship between the Mervyn Hagger, Larry West and Don Pierson.
However, Don Pierson seized that moment to promote a new entrepreneurial idea of his own. He wanted to create a rival daily newspaper to the existing newspaper in Abilene, Texas. This time Mervyn Hagger shot down Don Pierson's idea, because Mervyn Hagger had prior hands-on experience of going up against the same large newspaper chain that owned the existing newspaper that Don Pierson wanted to compete with. This is how entrepreneurial media discussions about radio transitioned into discussions about printed publications against the background interests of Hagger and West relating to selling original Victorian art as an investment. That venture was based upon a famous private art gallery situated in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Austrian-American owner of that gallery promoted his work by buying one or two pages each month in the full-sized glossy magazine called 'Architectural Digest'. He also employed a salesman in Texas to sell on commission by bringing buyers to the New Orleans gallery. These were professional people such as lawyers, doctors, dentists and oil men who had cash money to invest in a quiet way. At that time, original Victorian works of art were constantly increasing in value by repeatedly being sold by the three big international auction houses, and thus creating a proven track record of value, as well as proven authenticity. The Texas salesman associated with the New Orleans gallery was a Jewish graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined-up with two other graduates to form a network of Jewish friends who served as 'bird dogs' providing leads for potential future sales. This salesman also asked Mervyn Hagger to create a marketing plan for him, which incorporated his friends, and it was from this basic request that IFAC was born. The first part of the plan was to create opportunities for the salesman by using local media to publish interviews in both print and in person on local radio and television shows. The subject was art as an investment. From interested enquiries generated by readers, listeners and viewers, came more sales. Assisting Mervyn Hagger in the implementation of this business plan was Larry West who was one of three core Jewish friends and graduates from U.T. in Austin. The plan then expanded to include local advertising offering a free seminar for anyone interested in learning how to sell art as an investment on commission. The next phase involved the salesman and another of his Jewish friends deciding to set up a satellite art gallery in Houston that would display works obtained from the New Orleans gallery. Again, Mervyn Hagger was asked to create this local gallery, and together with Larry West the two of them set about creating a national advertising program based upon their original and localized trial run operations. This idea soon morphed into a more streamlined approach. It became obvious that the expense of maintaining the satellite gallery in Houston was unnecessary, and that space in an office complex would work just as well if the original paintings on the wall of the satellite gallery were replaced by photographs. Because the business plan involved selling European works of art, a company called European Fine Art Centers (EFAC) was formed. However, the partner who was financing the satellite art gallery was running out of money, so there was little money left to begin a brand-new venture. As it was, to save the sole investor money, Mervyn Hagger was already living on the top floor of the big Houston house that had been transformed by him into the satellite gallery. The EFAC plan in Houston with one office soon developed into a larger plan based upon the franchise plan of Century 21 real estate offices. They also used photographs to illustrate their properties. So rather than spending time in promoting time consuming seminars for salespeople, it was decided to attract people who wanted to buy a franchise operation that could then hold these sales seminars, and all of this was still tied back to the parent gallery in New Orleans. Taking another lead from the Austrian-American owner of that New Orleans gallery, in which he bought full-sized advertising pages in the glossy magazine called 'Architectural Digest' to attract buyers, it was decided that in addition to the local EFAC offices, their franchisee would also publish a local magazine. Noting at that time the growing trend in publishing quarter-fold magazines which copied the format of 'Reader's Digest', with titles such as 'Golf Digest' and 'Book Digest', Mervyn Hagger decided to create 'Cultural Digest'. But since the original investor in the Houston gallery and center was almost out of money, the question arose how such an expensive start-up could be achieved. A new business plan was created to resolve that problem and Larry West then brought-in his brother-in-law as an interim investor to make it become a reality. It was at this moment in time that the totally unrelated involvement with Herb Jepko took place which led to the meeting with Don Pierson who then steered discussions to the subject of publishing a local digest-sized magazine. For details about how the first edition of this local digest was created on such a limited budget, please refer to Chapter 12 - Origins of 'The Trio'. The common factor with Don Pierson, Larry West and Mervyn Hagger was the son of Don Pierson who was an attorney about 100 miles from Eastland in Arlington, Texas. After moving to Arlington, Texas at the request of Don Pierson, Mervyn Hagger and Larry West transformed EFAC into the International Fine Arts Corporation (IFAC). It was registered in Texas by attorney Grey Pierson on November 14, 1979. Larry's brother-in-law was named as Chairman of the Board, and Don Pierson became President of the new company. Its offices were established in the same suite as Grey Pierson. The operational trading name on the main door of the office suite was International Fine Arts Press (IFAP). It was one of several suites occupied by different businesses in one building. Upon entering a common area a visitor was greeted by Grey Pierson's secretary at her desk. Grey Pierson had a glass paneled office with its own door to the left of the main door. To the right were two other offices, each with their own doors. Mervyn Hagger moved into the second one which faced a larger common area. The IFAC/IFAP plan envisioned ten local 'City Digest' magazines in close geographical proximity. They would each contain local information and a common editorial content, and each one would have a limited circulation of ten thousand copies per month. Once the combined circulation of 100,000 copies was available, then the small imitation of 'Architectural Digest' called 'Cultural Digest' would be stitched into the middle of each local 'City Digest'. After registering IFAC and IFAP, International Fine Arts Society (IFAS) was added to the list to form the identifier of a membership base for 'Cultural Digest' readership relating to art as an investment. Grey Pierson was then instructed to register 'Arlington City Digest' on December 19, 1979, and then 'Irving City Digest' on March 3, 1980, as the first two of ten initial editions. 'Tyer City Digest' became the third edition, and it was followed by 'Wichita Falls City Digest' as the fourth edition of the first ten editions. More than seventeen trading names were also added to the corporate register in Austin, Texas on behalf of IFAC related activities. However, lurking in the background was the story of two failed business ventures involving Don and Grey Pierson, and they were still pulling the strings that controlled the destinies of Don and Grey Pierson, and they had turned Grey Pierson into a seething young man full of resentment. Neither Hagger nor West were aware of this factor when they entered into business with Don Pierson and his son. Had they become more curious about the artifacts already on display and attached to a wall of the main common area of the IFAC office suite, they would have found evidence of prior events that still had enormous international implications for Mervyn Hagger and Larry West. In fact, it was years later that the political ramifications of those prior episodes began to come to light. This was long after Larry West had departed from the scene, and Genie Baskir took up an investigative partnership role with Mervyn Hagger. Genie Baskir had the misfortune of being hired by Grey Pierson while a forced management take-over of IFAC was taking place. At the time Grey Pierson had gained the support of Larry West, and it was at a time when Grey Pierson was in the process of destroying the entire IFAC operation. Don Pierson had brought in new investors related to his family, and consequently Grey Pierson had more influence than Mervyn Hagger over this new money source, while Larry West had more influence than Mervyn Hagger over his own family-related money source. What exactly Grey Pierson's motivation was is still not clear. What is clear is that their existed a rift of resentment between Grey and Don that related to their prior business ventures. Grey's seething anger came about because in the first of those two prior ventures which both revolved around creating freeports in two Caribbean nations, Don had used attorneys outside his family circle. For the second venture Grey not only got involved, but he became that venture's primary lawyer. He felt trapped, and when Mervyn Hagger first met him, he was in a depressed state and his father was concerned that his son was relying upon prescription medication to stay on top of daily life. The fact that Mervyn Hagger was now another of his father's business activities was not considered as an asset by Grey Pierson, but yet another liability requiring his legal services to assist his father. So Grey Pierson brought Larry West over to his side and came up with a new plan. First of all, the existing local plan was more trouble than what it was worth, or so he believed due to the legal entanglements it was already generating. It was also not a magazine representing prestige without the addition of the 'Cultural Digest', and so he decided to dump the fine arts plan, after all he had never been to see the New Orleans gallery and turn the local magazine into a glossy stand-alone publication. The problem with his idea was that if did not make business sense. It could not support itself, let alone make a profit, so Grey Pierson's new plan of action collapsed in debt. Then the Pierson investors walked away, and Larry West's original investor was left high and dry with nothing. Grey Pierson resigned as Registered Agent on October 1, 1981, which left the entire operation without a legal means of existence, and without any form of financial support. However, on his CV that is Online and viewed on March 9, 2022, Grey Pierson claims to have been the "Publisher" of 'City Digest' in 1982 as well as author of an article in that magazine. Neither claim is true or could be true since IFAC had ceased trading under its original structure in Arlington, Texas. When lawyers representing the copyright, franchise and trademark issues took legal action against IFAC and its primary directors for their unpaid consultancy fees, Grey Pierson used the trust funds supplied by the Pierson investors to pay off the attorneys. Mervyn Hagger was left in the cold and so was Genie Baskir. The Pierson investors merely disowned their IFAC shares, and Mervyn Hagger looked for a buyer of his own shares in IFAC which then ended up having majority control of a shell company. He sold his own shares to a new owner at a new address in San Marcos, Texas who had nothing to do with Don Pierson, Grey Pierson, Larry West, or Genie Baskir. The new shareholders then filed Notice of their own Registered Agent in the State of Texas on January 20, 1982, and because Grey Pierson did not know the new owners, and because the new owners did not publish any edition of 'City Digest' magazine. Grey Pierson could not have been publisher of 'City Digest' in 1982, and neither could he have been author of any article published by such a magazine that year. But a mere one month after the new Registered Agent for the company located in San Marcos, Texas, had filed his own Notice with the State of Texas on February 22, 1982, the State of Texas filed its own Notice of Tax Forfeiture, against IFAC, and consequently IFAC disappeared for good. It was in this turbulent period when Genie Baskir joined the IFAC enterprise, that the strange behavior of Grey Pierson had really began to resonate as outright hostility towards anything concerning his father's entrepreneurial past activities. In turn, Grey Pierson's trail of destruction generated anger in Genie Baskir towards Grey Pierson. For years afterwards, Grey Pierson continued to pretend as if he was the best friend of Mervyn Hagger. It was a sham, and in the end, it spurred on Mervyn Hagger to join with Genie Baskir to look beyond the surface events at the story of Don Pierson that led from 'Radio London' to 'Radio England' and 'Britain Radio' into the murky waters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the strange life and times of Papa Doc Duvalier, 'President for Life' of Haiti. Next: The Hidden Entanglement CONTINUING OUR STORYLINE FROM THE LAST PRECURSORY CHAPTER DATED MARCH 3, 2020. The office meeting between Mervyn Hagger and Genie Baskir was probably the moment when the two of them began to form the basis of a platonic and lasting friendship which would be centered upon offshore broadcasting. It was also at this moment in time when Eric Gilder was paralleling their lives due to his own related interest in the same subject matter. From this beginning came the birth of The Trio'.
The origins of this event probably took place sometime during the month of August 1981, because the record seems to point to that month being the time period in which Eric Gilder visited Don Pierson at his home in Eastland, Texas. The reason for Eric Gilder's visit was to interview Don Pierson for his Master's thesis. Gilder wanted to know why Don Pierson got involved with British offshore broadcasting, and how Don Pierson began a Texas-based business that resulted in the birth of Radio London'. It is a complicated and extremely strange story that has become surrounded by mythology and wrapped in misinformation. The Atlantic Ocean still seems to form a barrier between factual events on the ground in Texas, and mythology in the air emanating over England. The story behind the creation of 'Radio London' is anything but conventional. It begins by knowing that the most important person in both Don Pierson's personal and business life was Henry H. Grubbs. Henry H. Grubbs was Don Pierson's father-in-law. Mrs Pierson (nee Grubbs) also had a brother (Henry A. Grubbs) who was the minister of the Oak Hurst Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth, and her father was a charter member of the Highland Church of Christ in Abilene. The name of Henry H. Grubbs seems to have followed Don Pierson around as a most influential man whether it was as a director of a businesses in Eastland where Don Pierson became a controversial mayor, or as a director on the board of Abilene National Bank at a time when Don Pierson was its chairman. Don Pierson was also a car dealer representing well-known U.S. brands. as well as the British 'Hillman' brand. He was not a stranger to the British Isles as a car dealer. In 1957 he attended a 'Roots' car company convention in England to attract American car dealers. It was part of a British government attempt to promote the export of products made by various British manufacturers, in the vast USA marketplace. It was while he was on a train in England during that 1957 convention, when Don Pierson claims that he heard the voice of another Texan. After introductions were made, Don Pierson learned that his new friend was Tom Danaher of Wichita Falls. He was also a car dealer, but he mainly represented the 'Volkswagen' brand. Yet another Texas car dealer entered Don's life. Mal McIlwain of Abilene sold 'Ford' cars, and the three Texas dealers formed a network of connecting business interests. McIlwain also had connections with the 'J. Walter Thompson' (JWT) advertising agency in New York, and that is how he became familiar with Philip Birch, a JWT agent who was part of a team managing its 'Ford' advertising account. But there was also a connection that was not directly related to selling cars, but to the means of propelling them that was both a blessing and a curse for Don Pierson, because he was not in a position to control either the positive or the negative sides of this influence. The problem did not arise from its exploration, drilling, extracting, refining or delivery to the consumer, but from the financial gains that were returned to the owners of that kind of business venture, and their methodology which they used to hide profits from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Pierson's pipeline to oil money began with Jack V. McGlothlin of Abilene, and it terminated in the offices of Burton Kanter in Chicago, Illinois. Kanter became the doyen of hiding wealth from the tax authorities, and he had his own network of CIA agents and offshore banking friends in the Bahama Islands who could hide it from U.S. authorities. His expertise came in knowing how to move those funds in such a way that he could operate within the boundaries of existing laws. What many suspected they were unable to prove. Unfortunately for Eric Gilder, he did not gather any of this information from Don Pierson during his visit. Nor did he know that between the close down of 'Radio London', 'Radio England' and 'Britain Radio', and his visit, that Don Pierson with his son Grey Pierson had both become entangled in two offshore projects connected to both the assassination of President Kennedy, and a long-running, but low-key "secret war" against Cuba's Fidel Castro. When Eric Gilder met Don Pierson, and Gilder explained that he was a Master student at the University of North Texas at Denton who was writing a thesis about British offshore broadcasting, Don Pierson picked up the phone and introduced Eric Gilder to Mervyn Hagger. But, as will be shown in this storyline, Mervyn Hagger had existing plans for a manuscript about the same subject, and so Eric Gilder was left to his own devices. In hindsight, that was a mistake, since at that moment in time very few firsthand sources were available to any author. Consequently Eric Gilder had to rely upon the paucity of publications that did exist, and most of them were swirling around in factual errors that were based upon hearsay and inaccurate reporting. Tomorrow: Who was pulling the strings? Please read our explanation for this Intermission in our post for March 4, 2020, and note that the next Precursory Chapter will appear tomorrow on March 8, 2020.
|
Archives
November 2023
Copyright 2022 with all rights reserved.
|
RSS Feed