Mary's Mosaic: Entering Peter Janney's World of Fantasy

[Seamus Coogan]

I dunno when it was that I began to distrust Tim Leary.

I guess was at my cousins place way back in my teens, well before JFK mania took full control. I had heard of him previously but hadn't thought to much about him. Anyhow, he appeared on TV talking about all manner of drugs. I recall either my cousin and or one of his mates saying the guy was something like a 'full of shit try hard' and/or 'sell out'. I think they had read some biographies detailing Leary's nefarious interractions with some 60's bands/contempories my cousin and his bandmates were fans of. Anyhow, Leary then became a wanker lol (best advice my cousins mate's ever gave me it turns out). Anyhow, I matured and had a chance to break free of my cousin and his pal's influence. I read some of his stuff and decided that yeah, he was pretty self infatuated. Thus I thought 'Oh well he is a dick' and moved on with my life.

He reawakened my brain however, when he had his ashes spread in space. It was about this time I suspected something odd was up.
Soon after his this I heard he was hanging out with psychopath G Gordon Liddy doing speaking tours prior to his death in the 90's. I know now their engagements began way back in 1982!!!! (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/...wanted=all). It only get's worse though cos he appeared in a film with Liddy in 1979 (http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/lsd/books/bel7.htm). Not surprisingly it emerged some years later he was an informant for the police. Apparently the official truth came out in about 1999. But I swear blind I'd heard this a couple of years earlier. As it turns out there was a lot of shit about this going down in the early 70's, with PILL 'People Investigating Leary's Lies' set up by his counter culture contemporaries like Allen Ginsberg, who now thought he was a fraud. Nonetheless, the question of course is while Leary was prepared to spill his guts when he got arrested. How far back did his ties to the establishment really go? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/380815.stm. The drug library link above goes into some detail about this. I am also pretty sure Jim or someone here has posted some good stuff on this.

Now please I am not denoting CD in this. But one thing I have seen, is that it's pretty hard for some people to accept that their heroes of yesteryear were likely something else. I once had a bitter row with some homophobe dick about James Dean. The guy couldn't get it through his head that Jimmy 'his hero' was as camp as a row of tents! It's even worse in the political field, I've had some big time row's with naifs who adore intelligence/establishment groupies like Gloria Steinem. I've never crossed swords with Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel Press, but he has long been an admirer of Leary. In fact I think he regularly runs to Leary's aid if he's called out, claiming an age old establishment smear campaign against him. After viewing Kenn's schtick with regard to all manner of bollocks concerning JFK. It is little wonder Kenn admires a liar like Leary. Because, regardless of who or what Leary was. That is essentially what he is. As Jim says he once claimed to have slept with Monroe. At the end of all this is one fact. Not to long after I had looked into Leary, I first read Jim's article, when he mentioned that it was Leary himself who was the source for the acid story, which I'd heard about but had never sourced. I was like "Oh my god why did I ever consider this shite plausible?".