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Authors: Charlotte Greig
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have knowledge of, a whole range of intelligence operations. He frequented a San Francisco pub called the Drift Inn where he would entertain his fellow regulars – including ex-intelligence agents – with improbable stories of outlandish secrets. Some of these may have been recorded and transcribed by the pub landlord. Others were written down by Roberts himself. Collected together, they run to over a thousand pages.
It's hard to know for sure, though, as very few, if any people, have ever seen the original manuscript. Instead what people have read is something called the
Skeleton Key To the Gemstone File
, a thirty-page summary of the original produced by one Stephanie Caruana, who was introduced to the original by a conspiracy theorist called Mae Brussell. All of this is hard to check because the mysterious Roberts allegedly died of cancer in 1975, and Mae Brussell died in 1988. As for the original files, according to another conspiracy theorist named Bill Keith, who has written a book about them, there are only four or five photocopies in existence and the owners refuse to part with them.
O NASSIS THE M AFIA B OSS !
So what we are left with is Caruana's
Skeleton Key
. This document was first hinted at in an article Caruana wrote for
Playgirl
magazine (of all the unlikely places for a sensational journalistic expose). Then, in 1974, she began to circulate Xeroxes of the Skeleton Key itself. These were copied and re-copied by conspiracy enthusiasts around the world. Partly because most copies looked illicit, the document soon gained an underground reputation.
So what was in the Gemstone Files, according to this
Skeleton Key
? Essentially, it is an impressionistic alternative history of the post-war era, one that weaves links between the CIA, FBI, and the Mafia, and seeks to explain the deaths of JFK, LBJ and Martin Luther King. Along the way, it brings in Ted Kennedy, Richard Nixon and San Francisco's Mayor Joe Alioto. At the heart of the conspiracy are two shadowy figures, Howard Hughes and Aristotle Onassis.
According to the Gemstone Files, Onassis was a drug dealer who made his fortune selling opium to Turkey before going into partnership with Joe Kennedy (JFK's father) to smuggle booze into the USA during prohibition. By the 1950s, Onassis was running the Mafia. Meanwhile, the Texan millionaire Howard Hughes was buying up politicians with a view to controlling the Presidency. Onassis saw Hughes as a rival, kidnapped him and replaced him with a double (which explains why Hughes became a recluse in his later years). Now Onassis controlled both the Mafia and a number of key politicians. In the 1960 election both candidates, Kennedy and Nixon, were beholden to him – so either way, he won.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis accompanies her husband, Aristotle, to a plane at Kennedy Airport, another Kennedy-Onassis connection.
However, when Kennedy pulled back from invading Cuba, the Mafia decided to have him killed. And so on, and so on. Every assassination during the sixties could be laid at the feet of this sinister conspiracy. Particularly bizarre are the allegations that Onassis kept the real Howard Hughes prisoner on his private Greek island and only married Jackie Kennedy as part of his revenge on the treacherous JFK.
Meyer Lansky, one-time partner of 'Lucky' Luciano. Lansky, like many in the mafia, had big investments in Cuba, and was severely affected by Castro's takeover of the island.
F ROM G EMSTONES TO X-F ILES
All in all, Onassis emerges more as a Bond super-villain than a real person. And that may be the key to the Gemstone Files' enduring popularity. This is the Bond movie version of modern history – more colourful and exciting than real life could ever be. And, in turn, the kind of conspiracy theories propounded in the Gemstone Files have definitely influenced many movies: they notions inform Oliver Stone's films like
JFK
and
Nixon
, and have also influenced TV shows like the
X-Files
.
So do the
It's hard to know for sure, though, as very few, if any people, have ever seen the original manuscript. Instead what people have read is something called the
Skeleton Key To the Gemstone File
, a thirty-page summary of the original produced by one Stephanie Caruana, who was introduced to the original by a conspiracy theorist called Mae Brussell. All of this is hard to check because the mysterious Roberts allegedly died of cancer in 1975, and Mae Brussell died in 1988. As for the original files, according to another conspiracy theorist named Bill Keith, who has written a book about them, there are only four or five photocopies in existence and the owners refuse to part with them.
O NASSIS THE M AFIA B OSS !
So what we are left with is Caruana's
Skeleton Key
. This document was first hinted at in an article Caruana wrote for
Playgirl
magazine (of all the unlikely places for a sensational journalistic expose). Then, in 1974, she began to circulate Xeroxes of the Skeleton Key itself. These were copied and re-copied by conspiracy enthusiasts around the world. Partly because most copies looked illicit, the document soon gained an underground reputation.
So what was in the Gemstone Files, according to this
Skeleton Key
? Essentially, it is an impressionistic alternative history of the post-war era, one that weaves links between the CIA, FBI, and the Mafia, and seeks to explain the deaths of JFK, LBJ and Martin Luther King. Along the way, it brings in Ted Kennedy, Richard Nixon and San Francisco's Mayor Joe Alioto. At the heart of the conspiracy are two shadowy figures, Howard Hughes and Aristotle Onassis.
According to the Gemstone Files, Onassis was a drug dealer who made his fortune selling opium to Turkey before going into partnership with Joe Kennedy (JFK's father) to smuggle booze into the USA during prohibition. By the 1950s, Onassis was running the Mafia. Meanwhile, the Texan millionaire Howard Hughes was buying up politicians with a view to controlling the Presidency. Onassis saw Hughes as a rival, kidnapped him and replaced him with a double (which explains why Hughes became a recluse in his later years). Now Onassis controlled both the Mafia and a number of key politicians. In the 1960 election both candidates, Kennedy and Nixon, were beholden to him – so either way, he won.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis accompanies her husband, Aristotle, to a plane at Kennedy Airport, another Kennedy-Onassis connection.
However, when Kennedy pulled back from invading Cuba, the Mafia decided to have him killed. And so on, and so on. Every assassination during the sixties could be laid at the feet of this sinister conspiracy. Particularly bizarre are the allegations that Onassis kept the real Howard Hughes prisoner on his private Greek island and only married Jackie Kennedy as part of his revenge on the treacherous JFK.
Meyer Lansky, one-time partner of 'Lucky' Luciano. Lansky, like many in the mafia, had big investments in Cuba, and was severely affected by Castro's takeover of the island.
F ROM G EMSTONES TO X-F ILES
All in all, Onassis emerges more as a Bond super-villain than a real person. And that may be the key to the Gemstone Files' enduring popularity. This is the Bond movie version of modern history – more colourful and exciting than real life could ever be. And, in turn, the kind of conspiracy theories propounded in the Gemstone Files have definitely influenced many movies: they notions inform Oliver Stone's films like
JFK
and
Nixon
, and have also influenced TV shows like the
X-Files
.
So do the
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