HerbaLife vs. the Mob, ZZZZ Best, and maybe cults??

[compared2what?]

Okay. Bear with me for a moment.

Chig asked on another thread whether Herbalife had any links to Scientology. I don't know that/if it does, and since it would be a huge research task to try to find out, I was going to just stop my answer at "I don't know."

But....Well. I'll explain the rest after the intro materials.

Starting with a few excerpts from the Herbalife wiki entry, first of all...

In February 1980, Mark Hughes began selling the original Herbalife weight loss product from the trunk of his car. Hughes often stated that the genesis of his product and program stemmed from the weight loss concerns of his mother, whose death he attributed to an eating disorder and an unhealthy approach to weight loss. Adopting the multi-level marketing system for distribution and growth, the company attracted thousands of distributors who sold its products door-to-door or through word-of-mouth, shunning commercial distribution in retail stores.

The company's slogan, "Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How", became a marketing theme for distributors, featuring heavily on badges, flyers and posters. Early methods to recruit distributors included seminars, which would feature distributors giving health and weight loss testimonials on the Herbalife products and a keynote address by Hughes. By 1982 Herbalife had reached USD 2 million in sales and had expanded into Canada.

In 1985, the California Attorney General sued the company for making inflated claims about the efficacy of its products. The company settled the suit for USD 850,000 without admitting wrongdoing. In 1986 Herbalife became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, and in 1996 Herbalife reached USD 1 billion in annual sales.

Mark Hughes died at age 44. The Los Angeles County Coroner autopsy results ruled that the entrepreneur had died of an accidental overdose of large quantities of alcohol and the prescription anti-depressant Doxepin. The company continued to grow after his death and in 2002 was acquired by Whitney and Co LLC and Golden Gate Capital for USD 685 million, who took the company private again.

In April 2003, Michael O. Johnson joined Herbalife as CEO following a 17-year career with The Walt Disney Company[***], most recently as president of Walt Disney International. On December 16, 2004, the company had an initial public offering on the NYSE of 14,500,000 common shares at $14/share. 2004 net sales were reported as USD 1.3 billion. In April 2005, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with a four-day event attended by 35,000 Herbalife Independent Distributors from around the world. In August 2005, Dr. Steve Henig joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer, responsible for product research and development. In 2008, President and COO Greg Probert resigned after it was reported that he had not completed the degree requirements for the MBA he claimed on his resume./quote]

So right out of the gate, you've got:

* The extremely unlikely and very rapid rise of the company from nowhere to millions, and then billions of dollars in sales annually.

* The sudden, early quasi-suspicious death of the founder, more on whom in the next installment.

* And a classic, AmWay-style not-technically-a-Ponzi-scheme MLM company that used AmWay-style charsimatic-leader cult rallying and recruitment tactics.

Also, if you read the whole entry, you'll notice that the company just seems to be under a lucky star or something when it comes to somehow always managing to beat the charges for what seem like they ought to have been open-and-shut cases on a whole slew of crimes and misdemeanors.
______________________________

*** Hugh! That bold-face type is dedicated with love from me to you.
______________________________

Next, real quick is the part of the wiki entry that caught my eye as potentially having multiple destructive-cult red flags, which I'll explain in the next post, since they require a little unpacking:

In May 2008 the Fraud Discovery Institute, which claims to be a consumer watchdog organisation, reported that laboratory test results of Herbalife products showed lead levels in excess of limits established by law in California under Proposition 65. The Fraud Discovery Institute was founded by fraudulent entrepreneur Barry Minkow, who served seven years in jail for stock fraud, and since disclosed that his company was profiting from the allegations by shorting Herbalife stock. Herbalife responded stating its products met federal FDA requirements and released independent lab tests proving the products did not exceed Proposition 65 limits.

[chiggerbit]

Don't forget to add that HerbaLife is a major contributor to Senator Tom Harkin, who just happens to be chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

(chigger is sitting back and gleefully anticipating the rest of c2w's post)

[compared2what?]

This first thing will sound daffy. But be that as it may.

The name "Minkow" jumped out at me because it's similar to "Minkoff." And "Minkoff" is a Scientology family name. There's a Dr. David Minkoff who was very closely involved in Lisa MacPherson's death, for example. And organizations that run a lot of fronts tend to use a lot of name-spelling variants of exactly that kind.

Also, heavy metals (such as lead) are an evergreen, all-purpose favorite bogeyman for organizations that make money doing very extreme detoxes. Which Scientology does, through Narconon and the Purif Rundown.

Although as far as I know, they don't do chelation at the drop of a hat, which is an extremely dangerous and expensive cure-all that's often offered by shady alternative health advocates to treat everything from arthritis to cancer, but which is -- coincidentally -- actually the correct treatment for heavy metal poisoning. But anyway. Shady alternative health clinics are heavy-metal obsessed, and lead is a heavy metal, and Scientology does some shady alternative health business.

I realize that those alarm bells aren't all ringing in perfect harmony, but whatever. They were ringing. It caught my attention. You can read the wiki entry on chelation here. And if you feel like it, the Quackwatch link at the end of it. But I'm not here to proseltyze, skip it if you prefer.

So turning to Minkow....Or, actually, I'll do that in the next post. The other thing that rang a bell was the stock-shorting fraud. That kind of thing happens a lot in close proximity to Scientology, although they -- of course -- never know anything whatsoever about it, it always turns out, whenever very active and well-known Scientologists end up getting convicted for such shenanigans.

For example, Steve Fishman. Or, for another example, Reed Slatkin.

More in a moment.

[compared2what?]

To get the Barry Minkow basics out of the way, here's a slashed down version of practically his entire damn wiki entry; comments on the bolded portions will follow:

Barry Minkow (born March 17, 1967) is an American religious leader and ex-convict.

As a young teenager Minkow was a fraudulent entrepreneur who managed to present the front of a successful businessman for a number of years during the 1980s. His company, ZZZZ Best (pronounced "Zee Best") appeared to be an immensely successful carpet-cleaning company but collapsed in 1987, costing investors an estimated $100 million. He was convicted of fraud and several other offenses and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but served only seven years. During his time in prison, Minkow became involved in Christian ministry, which continued after his probationary release from prison in April 1995.

Today he is senior pastor of the Community Bible Church in San Diego, California, having renounced his felonious acts. Minkow is recognized as an expert on fraud, and speaks on the subject to university students and the business community in an effort to prevent fraud.

Beginnings of ZZZZ Best

Minkow was raised in a modest house in Reseda, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. He attended and graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda. He learned his business manners from his mother's job as a telemarketer with a carpet cleaning company.

At the age of 16—while still in high school—Minkow started ZZZZ Best in his parents' garage with the help of an investor who specialized in usurious loans to businesses. He soon branched out into "insurance restoration" services as well as home carpet cleaning.

Minkow found the going difficult at first. For instance, two banks closed his account due to California state laws which barred minors from signing binding contracts, including checks. He also found it difficult to cover basic expenses, such as payroll. Out of frustration, he was forced to obtain usurious loans from two other Los Angeles-area investors. He also resorted to check kiting, stealing and selling his grandmother's jewelry, staging break-ins at his offices, and running up fraudulent credit card charges. At one point, one of his original investors tried to foreclose against him and repossess his equipment. However, a court backed Minkow's claim that the investor's interest rate was unlawfully high, and forced him to accept a significantly reduced principal. This only bought him a temporary respite, and he was forced to turn to businessmen with ties to the Mafia to get financing. In order to justify the need for this new financing, he had Tom Padgett, an insurance claims adjuster, give him some letterhead from his company to make it look like ZZZZ Best was working large numbers of restoration contracts for Padgett's company.

Nonetheless, Minkow was able to expand his company and open additional offices across Southern California, becoming the largest carpet-cleaning company in the region. He instituted a policy of promoting entirely from within the company; all of his managers started out as carpet cleaners or telemarketers.

However, Minkow's company was little more than a front to attract investment for a Ponzi scheme. While ZZZZ Best's home carpet-cleaning business was very real, its insurance restoration business was virtually nonexistent. It generated a fraudulent paper trail to fool potential investors. He helped Padgett form "Interstate Appraisal Services," a separate company, to support this fraud.

Minkow raised money by factoring his accounts receivable for work under contract, as well as floating funds through several banks in an elaborate check kiting scheme. He hired reputable accountants and lawyers to boost his image.

Going Public

In late 1985, one of Minkow's longtime friends suggested that becoming a public company would solve most of Minkow's cash shorts; up to that time the company had existed from payroll to payroll. Minkow liked the idea, seeing it as a way to fulfill his ambition of making ZZZZ Best "the General Motors of the carpet-cleaning industry".

ZZZZ Best officially went public in January 1986 when it merged with a Utah-based shell company, gaining a spot on NASDAQ. At the time, Minkow was the youngest person to take a company public in American financial history. He retained a 53 percent controlling interest in ZZZZ Best; at fifty cents a share, this made him an instant millionaire on paper.

Going public also offered Minkow an instant solution to covering up his fraudulent activities. Under securities law, he was not allowed to sell any of his personal shares until January 1988. At that time, however, he planned to sell a million of his shares to the public. He hoped that by then the company would have grown enough that he'd be able to pay everyone off once and for all and go completely legitimate.

Minkow launched a massive television advertising campaign featuring himself in a business suit, confidently extolling the superiority of ZZZZ Best. Minkow was presented as a business success story in magazines and TV shows. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley declared a Barry Minkow Day. Minkow gave lectures at business schools, owned a Ferrari Testarossa sportscar, and bought a mansion in the wealthy Valley gated community of Hidden Hills.

In order to obtain more financing, Minkow was persuaded to raise $15 million of capital through an initial public offering of ZZZZ Best stock. When accountants wanted to inspect ZZZZ Best's operations, Minkow borrowed fake offices for a tour of "Interstate Appraisal Services" and used an incomplete building to present a fake restoration job. [snip]

There were signs of problems, but investors chose to ignore them. snip Short-sellers, including the Feshbach brothers, took positions predicting that ZZZZ Best's stock would fall.

Magazines and TV shows did not bother to check his background. Investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI, two accounting firms and various individual investigators found nothing. Minkow bribed a security guard to give him access to a newly constructed building in Sacramento so that he could present it to his auditors as a wreck that ZZZZ Best had recently finished restoring.

Downfall

By February 1987, ZZZZ Best' stock was worth $18 (USD) a share on NASDAQ, valuing the company at more than $280 million. Minkow's stake was worth over $100 million. The company was now a 1,400-employee colossus with offices across California, Arizona and Nevada.

However, it was still facing severe cash shorts from paying investors for the nonexistent restoration projects. Minkow needed another cash infusion, and thought he had it when he heard that KeyServ, the authorized carpet cleaner for Sears, was up for sale by its British parent. Although it was double the size of ZZZZ Best, the two companies quickly agreed to a $25 million deal in which ZZZZ Best would be the surviving company. The merger would have made Minkow the president and chairman of the board of the largest independent carpet-cleaning company in the nation.

Downfall

Then, almost as rapidly as it rose, ZZZZ Best came unraveled. [snip]


...[M]embers of the press had been researching the company, and communicating with short-sellers who had done their own research. These investigations indicated that most of the company's contracts didn't exist. Another Times story spurred an FBI investigation of Minkow's link to the Genovese crime family and white separatist movements.

The final straw came on June 27, when an independent law firm ZZZZ Best retained to investigate the allegations of wrongdoing asked for the addresses to all of the company's restoration jobs. Minkow realized that he couldn't possibly come up with them, and resigned on July 2, citing "health reasons." Before leaving the company, he secretly cashed in $700,000 of his stock to retain a criminal lawyer, hire a private investigator and make some private investments.

blah blah blah

A week later, the Los Angeles Police Department raided Minkow's home and ZZZZ Best offices and uncovered evidence that ZZZZ Best was being used to launder money from the sale of narcotics. The LAPD believed that the phony restoration contracts were being used for the money-laundering scheme and to inflate ZZZZ Best's stock.

snip

The collapse of ZZZZ Best prompted an investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Conviction and prison

Minkow and eleven other ZZZZ Best insiders were indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury in January 1988 on 54 counts of racketeering, securities fraud, embezzlement, mail fraud, tax evasion and bank fraud. The indictment accused Minkow of bilking ZZZZ Best's investors and lenders out of $50 million. It also accused Minkow of setting up dummy companies, writing phony invoices and conducting tours of purported restoration sites. Three additional counts were added in a superseding indictment.

et cetera.

He served just under seven and a half years, most of them at Englewood Federal Prison in Jefferson County, Colorado. During his early prison stay in San Pedro, California before his trial, Minkow became involved in Christian ministry. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Church Ministries (with an emphasis on Theology and Apologetics) from Liberty University. In 1996 he earned a Master of Divinity degree from Liberty.

[compared2what?]

As I mentioned on the Sarah Palin/CoS thread, my computer keeps crashing when I try to get to Scientology specific sites. Or anyway, it's now done that three times in two days.

So I haven't finished checking all of this.

However:

Carpet cleaning is, I have no idea why, a destructive-cult line of work. The best-known example of that being, probably, the Church of Bible Understanding. So that's odd. It's also a little unusual to have your parents paying so little attention to you that they let you start an enormous Ponzi scheme in the garage when you're sixteen. And although wiki doesn't name the usurious lender mentioned in the "beginnings" section, it was a nice Genovese-connected guy named Jack Catain, who had ties to Mike Milken, and was once married to Paris Hilton's grandmother.

That's not very watchful parenting.

Tom Padgett, per one source, at least, worked for AllState and then Traveller's Insurance before hooking up with ZZZZ. AllState was not totally, but pretty thoroughly, infiltrated regionally by Scientology via, IIRC, Sterling Business Management consultants.

And there's also a very high-profile ex-Scieno named Tom Padgett, who had a horrendous custody battle with his still-Scieno wife. And who refers in speeches that appear on impeccably anti-Scieno sites like Xenu-TV to once having earned in excess of six figures annually.

The main thing I want to know is whether the ex-Scieno Tom Padgett is the same as the ZZZZ Best Tom Padgett.

Because if he is, then he's not all he appears to be, Minkow is probably in some way connected to CoS, and the Fraud Institute's accusations and short-selling could be construed as dead-agenting.

And even if he's not, there's still yet more that's really fascinating about Herbalife. Wait. Phone. BRB.

[compared2what?]

Is anybody interested in my continuing?

Tom Padgett's identity is the main thing I wish humbly to ask others to try looking into in their spare moments, since I can't stay online long enough to do it.

But there is quite a bit more. It's a previously unidentified collision of deep political forces, with or without CoS, I'd say. Like, a multiple-car pile-up.

It's just that it's very difficult to convey that without frankly speculating about stuff that's potentially very defamatory. Which I just can't do. It's irresponsible. Also possibly very costly.

Anyway. Here's a link to a fascinating story about Mark Hughes, whose early sudden death I find interesting.

Also wiki had it partly wrong, according to this. He was on Antabuse, not just the anti-depressant. He was, in point of fact, a big-time drunk, apparently. Whose mom did not, as he said, die from eating-disorder-related problems, but from a Darvon overdose. Because she was a lifelong prescription-pill junkie. Maybe.

It's hard to say, because the source for that is one of the two men who claim to be Hughes's father.

A guy named Stuart Hartman, who sold aircraft parts to the U.S. government, and appears to have been the person who sent Hughes to the CEDU program at Running Springs to deal with his drinking and drug use back when he was still a teenager.

That would be CEDU, the Chuck E. Diederich University. Or, in other words, the less-well known brutal brainwashing program for kids that was based on Synanon. The better-known one being Straight, Inc. Which was founded by big-time Bush funder and two-time Ambassador for the United States, Mel Sembler.

Before eventually going out of business, due to the rapes, suicides, and other horrendous abuses, and shape-shifting into the more reputable Drug-Free America Foundation. CEDU is basically the same story. Kids got brutalized, and it kind of morphed and shifted into, IIRC, DARE.

But getting back to Synanon. It had another offshoot called The Seed, which was paid for by the federal government, until the horror stories led to a cut-off in funding. Prompting Bush-buddy Sembler to start Straight, actually. Which was visited by Nancy Reagan and Princess Di, and much loved by the super-wealthy elites in its day.

Speaking of which, Hughes had some kind of bond with Ronald Reagan, evidently. Anyway. I mean this Synanon:

[compared2what?]

On March 20, 1978, a former member of Synanon, Tom Cardineau was severely beaten (for being an alleged spy) while tied to a post during his honeymoon when he took his bride to show her where he had once lived on the Walker Creek Ranch. (Dave Mitchell, Light on Synanon; Dave Gerstel, Paradise Inc.; Marin County crime report on Cardineau beating.)

They also beat a neighboring rancher, Gamboninni, who was helping children run away from Synanon and return to their parents (Light on Synanon; Dave Gerstel, Paradise Inc.; Marin County crime report on Gambinini beating, Synanon memos describing incident.

Ron Eidson, after a road skirmish, and refusing Dr. Robson’s demand for apology, was pistol whipped and hospitalized while shotguns were held on his watching family. He and his family were represented by Paul Morantz and Ed Martin in a civil suit. (Eidson v. Robson, Synanon; Synanon memos describing incident)

Many young teenagers who got too close to Synanon property were beaten brutally by Synanon mobs. Teeth were knocked out. Believed trespassers were taken into the basements of Santa Monica Del Mar building and worked over on directions of Dr. Robson. Synanon evicted by tossing people and belongings out of apartments (even off a roof). (Robson letters, crime reports, Synanon memos on each event, Synanon Holy War file, Depostions of ex-Synanon member, Morantz vs. Synanon; IRS vs. Synanon).

Dan Garrett ordered a kidnapping and then changed the order to beating the person on the spot. (People vs. Dederich, Synanon memos on incident).

Synanon lawyer Howard Garfield ordered Marine head Dr. Douglas Robson to collect all Synanon memos describing their violence and transfer them to legal department so attorney client privilege would attach. Robson wrote back the mission was accomplished (Garfield-Robson letters). But in fact Robson had failed and the violence memos, including the Garfield-Robson letters were scatter in the Synanon San Franciso warehouse which was opened for copying to the law firm of Lillick, Mchose and Charles (to avoid discovery sanctions) who then found them (Synanon vs. ABC; IRS vs. Synanon).

After the rattlesnake incident, Mary Robson, wife of Imperial Marine leader Dr. Douglas Robson, went to a neighbor of Paul Morantz’s mother and left her card so Morantz would know Synanon knew where his mother was. (Robson card, Morantz memorandum).

In the summer of 1978 NBC produced a "hard hitting" news segment on Synanon. Following its broadcast, executives of the network and its corporate chairman received hundreds of threats from Synanon members and supporters, including letters that said, "Your actions place you in legal and physical peril" and "We are going to teach you a lesson you will never forget."

September 21, 1978 ex-member Phil Ritter, was severely beaten by two members, causing him to fall into a coma for a week. Fluid leaked into his spine causing a near fatal case of spinal meningitis. Former Synanon President Jack Hurst spoke out against Synanon and found his home door open and his dog hung. (Berkeley Gazette l978, Mitchell, Light on Synanon).

Several weeks later, October 10, 1978, two Synanon members placed a de-rattled rattlesnake in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz in Pacific Palisades, California. Morantz had successfully brought suit on behalf of a woman abducted by Synanon, winning a $300,000 judgment, obtained release of children, gave information to the press and lobbied (defeating) another Synanon bill written by Herschel Rosenthal. The snake bit Morantz but did not kill him. Before the incident, Synanon investigator Chris Reynolds wrote a memo on Morantz, giving his home address to Synanon legal department. (Reynolds memo, People vs. Dederich; IRS vs. Synanon). It was read on the Synanon wire while Dederich would bellow when will one of you have the guts to go to LA and do something about him, break his knees.

Six weeks later the Los Angeles Police Department performed a search of the ranch in Badger that turned up a recorded speech by Dederich in which he said, ""We're not going to mess with the old-time, turn-the-other-cheek religious postures ... our religious posture is: Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead, literally dead...these are real threats," he snarls. "They are draining life's blood from us and expecting us to play by their silly rules. We will make the rules. I see nothing frightening about it ... I am quite willing to break some lawyer's legs and next break his wife's legs and threaten to cut their child's arm off. That is the end of that lawyer. That is a very satisfactory, humane way of transmitting information. ... I really do want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk."[3]

A drunken Dederich was arrested on December 2 in Lake Havesu. The two other Synanon Imperial Marines, one of whom was Lance Kenton, son of musician Stan Kenton, pleaded "no contest" to charges of assault and conspiracy to commit murder. While his associates went to jail, Dederich avoided imprisonment by pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit murder, agreeing as part of probation to formally step down as Chairman of Synanon and agreed to have nothing to do with running Synanon. Most of his remaining time he was segregated in Synanon, as the foundation tried to revert back to early images and goals.

Full link here.

Minkow also apparently was in some kind of rehab in his youth. And is said to have given a lot of money to anti-drug charities.

Scientology does some rehab work in the state of California, too, of course. And is very opposed to drugs. Although unlike Synanon, when it was still the Church of Synanon, it didn't stay down when the IRS took its exempt religious organization status away. Otherwise, they were really very similar.

That does make it seem like quite a few coincidences were going on in the same part of the country at more or less the same time, one or more of which appear to have affected Hughes and/or Minkow, with the basic through-line always passing through the torture and brainwashing of kids; a virulently anti-drug policy that's kind of an odd match, given that all the major players -- Bush, Reagan, ZZZZ Best, and the mob -- were at most one degree of separation away from major narcotics trafficking shenanigans. In some cases, via the CIA, which had close connections to Scientology in the same timeframe.

And while of course, I wouldn't want anyone to think I was, you know, a conspiracy theorist or anything, I do wonder: What the fucking fuck?

However, I still got some more name-searching to do.

So pipe up if you're interested. Otherwise I'll just go do it quietly.

[compared2what?]

More comprehensive L.A. Times coverage on ZZZZ Best here and here, as well as in the links in the lower-left sidebar of both articles.

And Minkow's degree is from Falwell's place, obviously. Liberty University. I forgot to mention that. And as we know from Robert Parry, Liberty University has basically been owned by the Unification Church for some time. So we got Moonies in here too.

Also, the Feshbach brothers, who I bolded as short-selling ZZZZ stock way back up in Minkow's wiki entry are big-time, longtime Scientologists. It's a great big cult clusterfuck.

Also, probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. But it seems to be a great big cult clusterfuck, everywhere you look, if you ask me. However, I really am stopping for now. For reals. I swear.

[norton ash]

Sup-erb. You are one hell of an investigative reporter. All the rat lines and corpses and money trails linked to corridors of power. It's Chinatown.

[barracuda]

So Minkow's Institute was graciously releasing (phoney) tests results of HerbaLife products and privately shorting the company's stock? Wow, you really can't keep a good man down some people never learn.

[Alaya]

I found the Hughes story very interesting. I'm not even sure why.

I'm, curious. Will try some extremely amateurish snooping manana.

Please, do continue, c2.

[compared2what?]

Seriously, every link you follow on this one makes it more horrifying. For example, wrt CEDU, the school Hughes went to:

DEATH ROW SERIAL MOLESTER CONNECTED TO CEDU

Chuck Wyatt
Staff Writer

California Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators are researching the possibility that serial child molester and child murderer, James Lee Crummel, 65 of San Quentin State Prison, had years of free, unsupervised access to the students at the now defunct CEDU School in Running Springs.

The CEDU schools in Running Springs were founded by Mel Wasserman in 1967 and promoted itself as an emotional growth-boarding school for troubled youths. Monthly costs to board a student reportedly ran as high as $3,500 dollar a month. The school closed its doors in 2005 amidst allegations of financial improprieties, allegations of sexual and physical abuse of the students, by other students and staff members and citations issued by the State of California for various violations. At a non-compliance conference, CEDU officials reportedly admitted that the rights of students under their care were systematically violated.

The current investigation is focused on the activities of Doctor Burnell Forgey and his reported assistant, Crummel.
Crummel, whose criminal history of violence against children dates back to the early 1960s, is on death row for a 2004 Riverside County murder conviction of 13-year-old James “Jamey” Trotter of Costa Mesa. Trotter disappeared over 25 years ago and his remains were discovered by a hiker in 1990 in a remote area off the Ortega Highway, but were not identified until 1996.

The hiker that discovered the remains and notified authorities was James Lee Crummel who lived on the same street as Trotter when Trotter disappeared. Investigators later discovered that Trotter would have to pass by Crummel’s residence several times a day.

In that trial, the jurors found Crummel guilty of first-degree murder, and that the murder occurred while Crummel was committing lewd acts with a child, thereby making Crummel eligible for the death penalty.

After joining the Army in the early 60’s, the 17-year-old Crummel was convicted of molesting two boys and a girl in Missouri, taking them into a remote wooded area where he tied the 11 and 13 year old boys to a tree and sexually assaulted them. Crummel was convicted of the crime and sentenced to prison. He was released in 1967.

In June or July of 1967, Crummel kidnapped nine-year-old Fred Clawson, who lived on the same street as Crummel, and took him into the Arizona desert where he sexually assaulted, then strangled him.

In April of 1967, before he was connected to Clawson’s murder, Crummel had been tried and convicted of kidnapping and molesting a boy in Los Angeles County.

Nine months later, Crummel and his roommate moved to Wisconsin where Crummel took a 14-year-old boy into the woods, repeatedly beat him bloody with a tree branch and left him for dead in a ravine. The boy managed to crawl out of the woods the following morning.

In July of 1981, 6-year-old Jeffrey Vargo was reported missing from his Anaheim Hills home. Vargo’s body was found twenty miles away at construction site. Investigators reported that Vargo had been molested and strangled. To this day, Crummel remains the prime suspect in the murder.

In 1982, Crummel was invited to a neighborhood Halloween party. Crummel reportedly arrived wearing an alien costume and had glitter on his face. During the festivities, the host became concerned when he had not seen his nine-year-old son for some time. The father found Crummel molesting his son in the boy’s bedroom. The irate father and other partygoers applied a liberal dose of “street justice” then called the police. The police report indicated that glitter was collected as evidence from the area around the boy’s genitals.

In 1995, Crummel, who was living in Big Bear City, had been charged with fifteen counts of child molestation. Most of the charges had to be dismissed during the trial when the State of California Supreme Court changed the statute of limitations, and the window of prosecution had passed.

That same year, former nine-year-old Crestline resident Jack (JD) Phillips disappeared while watching a parade in Big Bear. Crummel just happened to live on the same street as Phillips at the time. Phillips is still listed as missing.

At the time of his last arrest, Crummel was living with Dr. Burnell Forgey, a psychiatrist with a practice in Costa Mesa, in Forgey’s Newport Beach condominium. In addition to his private practice, Forgey counseled troubled teens at group homes around Southern California.

Crummel was described as “a faithful servant, chauffeur, maintenance, and right-hand- man” to Forgey, now deceased.

In 1997, California State Investigators were notified that Crummel was accompanying Forgey when he would travel to the youth homes. State officials said Forgey described Crummel to group home staff as his assistant, but Forgey never informed the staff that Crummel was a registered sex offender and pedophile.

In 1998, Forgey confessed that he had engaged in oral sex with a 16-year-old patient while Crummel sodomized the minor. Forgey also admitted that he gave Crummel free access to his adolescent patients’ files, took Crummel with him on his rounds to group homes and would leave him alone with young patients during his visits from 1990 to 1994.

Both men were convicted of child molestation and received jail sentences.

After Forgey confessed to taking Crummel with him to youth homes, State of California officials began examining records of psychiatrists used by group homes around Southern California. During the still-in-progress investigation, it was discovered that Forgey also practiced at CEDU in Running Springs.

In an exclusive interview with The Alpenhorn News, DOJ Missing Person Investigator Bill Gleason confirmed that Forgey was a contracted psychiatrist at CEDU, and it appears that Crummel also accompanied him when he visited CEDU.

It might have been a strange coincidence, Gleason said, but the number of runaway juveniles reported from CEDU always seemed to have increased just after Forgey had sessions at the CEDU campus.

Gleason said what the DOJ is examining now is the connection between Crummel being on the CEDU campus and the disappearance of then 17-year-old John Christopher Inman on January 16, 1993 and Blake Wade Pursley, aged 14, on June 26, 1994.

A third student, Daniel Ted Yuen, aged 16 at that time, disappeared from CEDU on February 8, 2004, but is not considered a possible victim of Crummel due to the date of disappearance, and subsequent reported sightings of Yuen.

Gleason said DOJ investigators would like to hear from former CEDU staff members and students that may have had contact with Forgey or Crummel. Gleason may be conacted through the California Department of Justice, Missing Person Unit at (916) 227-3290.

NOTE TO SELF OR OTHERS WHO FEEL LIKE LOOKING: I see two minor (probable) coincidences.

(1) The last name of John Christopher Inman mentioned above as a CEDU student thought to have been killed by Crummel. "Inman" is also a name I've seen in connection with Scientology. If anyone wants to check either truthaboutscientology.com for service completions or, alternately, other sources as they occur to you for the names of this John Inman's parents, that might be interesting to know.

(2) Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild! fame was a CEDU student. Per wiki, his parents were very into Herbalife. So (a) Who were his parents?; and (b) Does this shed any light on whether the Joe Francis who does have a service completion listed at truthaboutscientology is the same as the GGW Joe Francis? That's something about which I've wondered in the past, occasionally. I've heard some stuff about Joe Francis of GGW that was pretty low. Not reliably sourced enough to accept as gospel. Or reject. Or repeat.

But it was lower than what you can easily find out about him in the public record. IOW: Pretty fucking low. But the whole thing was very underworld. I mean the context in which I heard it was one hundred percent underworld populated, there was no way to tell who was up to lower shit than who else. They were all unsavory characters. But, you know. So is Joe Francis, even at best.

It's interesting to learn that he may have some formal training in salesmanship/con-artistry/coercive persuasion, just by itself, in fact. That would explain quite a lot. He's had an easier ride with the law than he might have done a couple of times, too, IIRC. Although to be fair, that could just be regular old rich man's justice.

And his pal Paris Hilton? Also briefly a CEDU student.

Small world.

[compared2what?]

Sup-erb. You are one hell of an investigative reporter. All the rat lines and corpses and money trails linked to corridors of power. It's Chinatown.

Thank you! I don't feel that I've quite earned the accolade yet, though. I mean, I'm just reading.

[StarmanSkye]

WoW -- That was really fascinating. You did a GREAT job ferreting out some rather obscure stuff that has some pretty deep implications for the kind of secret scams and deals that were being run thru the freaky 70s and 80s, heavy Reagan and Bush juju.

"That does make it seem like quite a few coincidences were going on in the same part of the country at more or less the same time, one or more of which appear to have affected Hughes and/or Minkow, with the basic through-line always passing through the torture and brainwashing of kids; a virulently anti-drug policy that's kind of an odd match, given that all the major players -- Bush, Reagan, ZZZZ Best, and the mob -- were at most one degree of separation away from major narcotics trafficking shenanigans. In some cases, via the CIA, which had close connections to Scientology in the same timeframe.

And while of course, I wouldn't want anyone to think I was, you know, a conspiracy theorist or anything, I do wonder: What the fucking fuck?"

What the Fucking Fuck is RIGHT! Whew ...
Thanks! I didn't know much about the Synanon scandal, have since mostly forgot about it, 'cept for some RI discussion a year or two ago. Boy did THAT whole scene ever reek.

[chiggerbit]

Holy shit!