Saint Fletcher the Obscure

[Adrian Mack]

Prouty also authored Hubbard's "official biography".

Moreover:

It is fair to say that he holds unconventional views on a variety of topics. He claims, for instance, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was assassinated; that the 1978 Jonestown mass suicide was perpetrated by the CIA; that oil is not a fossil fuel but is a in fact a plentiful natural resource covertly monopolised by the oil companies, with the aid of the Israelis. He is perhaps best known for his claims about the 1965 Kennedy assassination and was the prototype for the "Mr. X" character in Oliver Stone's film JFK. He also spoken at conferences of the Institute for Historical Review, a far-Right Holocaust denial group.

For not especially clear reasons, 2 Scientology's Freedom magazine has given Col Prouty a platform for the last two decades. Between 1985 and 1987, Freedom published a 19-part series by Col Prouty to which (according to the magazine) "provided a unique and highly informative view of the events which led up to the Vietnam War." More recently, Freedom has covered his claims about the Jonestown affair. As well as being an "expert witness" retained by Scientology's lawyers, Prouty has described himself as "an editorial adviser to publications of the Church of Scientology".

I haven't read Prouty's JFK book, although I gather that he either deliberately or mistakenly cites Leonard Lewin's satirical Report from Iron Mountain as authentic. In fact, I think this line is from Lewin, via "Mr. X": "The organizing principle of any society is for war. The basic authority of a modern state over its people resides in its war powers."

I'm no expert on L Fletcher Prouty, although I've noted his gift for freely saying precisely what many of us would like to hear without the retaliation or consequences one would normally expect from the all-powerful Secret Team-types he's uncovering.

I'd add that I can totally ignore Prouty's contribution to JFK and MLK research without shaking my fairly commensurate opinions one bit.