http://civilwarbummer.com/new-york-patriot-or-feminist-surgeon-hero/ This is the last of John Keel’s dossier on “Organized Harassment of Individuals.” He conducted a bit of an investigation into some of his own phone problems, with some unexpected results. I did, by the way, do some digging, and found that a James F. Ahern, the chief of police in New Haven, was convicted of illegal wiretapping from 1968 to 1970; his brothers, Stephen, John, and William, all police officers, were also implicated. Apparently both criminals and political dissidents were targeted. The elderly William Ahern that John found seems to have been much older. A search for Joseph Tittel only turns up a contemporary medium, certainly an odd coincidence.
Well this, (among other happenings in John life and career), explain his comments about being a bit paranoid. The evidence clearly points to an illegal wiretapping operation and I doubt John was the only one to be targeted. One has to wonder who would have been behind this. Wow, this was a very interesting series of posts. I look forward to more good stuff.
Comment by Clarence Carlson — March 13, 2014 @ 1:18 am
Very interesting background material to that in THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES. I wonder whether it was part of the FBI’s COINTELPRO, itself fed info by the then completely secret NSA and MINARET operation. These projects were designed to monitor and disrupt (even kill)”dissidents,” including many journalists. Talk about validated paranoia!
Comment by William J. Grabowski — March 13, 2014 @ 7:09 am
Question is: how did Keel attract the attention of right wing eccentrics with wire tampering capabilities? Or was Ahern a contractor for intelligence services?
Comment by VA — March 14, 2014 @ 5:16 am
John thought he might have attracted attention because he visited military installations while looking for UFOs. He also had left wing friends, like Paul Krassner. However, he also worked for HEW in the early ’70s, helping to cut costs in government printing, so he must not have been considered too suspicious.
Comment by Doug — March 14, 2014 @ 12:18 pm