John and Yoko funded Paul Krassner's first reports on Watergate

[deutsey]

http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=9188

Krassner published Mae Russell's reports on the Watergate break-in in 1972:


The attempted burglary of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel had suddenly brought her eight and a half years of dedicated conspiracy research to an astounding climax. She recognized names, modus operandi and patterns of cover-up. She could trace linear connections leading inevitably from the assassination of JFK to the Watergate break-in, masterminded by E. Howard Hunt, who had worked for the CIA for 21 years.

Three weeks later–while Nixon was pressing for the postponement of an investigation until after the election, and the mainstream press was still referring to the incident as a "caper" and a "third-rate burglary"–Mae completed a long article for the Realist, documenting the conspiracy and delineating the players, from the burglars all the way up to FBI Dir. L. Patrick Gray, Atty. Gen. John Mitchell and President Nixon himself.

"The significance of the Watergate affair," she wrote, "is that every element essential for a political coup d’etat in the United States was assembled at the time of their arrest."

Believing that her documented article could prevent Nixon’s reelection, she delineated the details of a plot so insidious and yet so logical that the typesetter wrote "Bravo!" at the end of her manuscript. However, instead of my usual credit arrangement, the printer insisted on $5000 cash in advance before this issue could go to press. I didn’t have the money, and had no idea how I would get it, but I was filled with an inexplicable sense of confidence.

When I got home, the phone rang. It was Yoko Ono. She and John Lennon were in town, and they invited me to lunch. At that time, the administration was trying to deport Lennon, ostensibly for an old marijuana bust, but really because they were afraid he was planning to perform for protestors at the Republican National Convention that summer. I brought the galleys of Mae’s article to lunch. Her account of the government’s motivation and methodology provided a context for John and Yoko’s current harassment.

I mentioned my printer’s ultimatum, and they immediately took me to a bank and withdrew $5000 cash.

The timing was so exquisite that Coincidence and Mysticism became the same process for me.