Front Burner - Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 3

Episode Date: October 12, 2024

Welcome to the world of conspiracy and paranoia. A horrifying act of domestic terrorism brings right wing radio some unwanted attention, which pushes one fan of the supernatural away from politics, while a pair of anti-government broadcasters dig their heels in.This is episode 3 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. This series was originally produced in 2021. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi everybody, it's Jamie. So for the next few Saturdays leading up to the U.S. presidential election, we are featuring the CBC podcast The Flamethrowers. The series tracks the rise of right-wing radio from the 1930s to the political firestorm that rages on today. Today's episode is all about conspiracy theories and paranoia. act of domestic terrorism brings right-wing radio some unwanted attention, which pushes one fan of

the supernatural away from politics while a pair of anti-government broadcasters dig their heels in. Just a reminder that this podcast was first released in 2021, and it doesn't touch on the current U.S. presidential election. Here's episode three of the flamethrowers, the information wars. This podcast tells the story of how right wing radio radicalized America. We use examples of what was actually said on the radio, and some of it is offensive, but it's an important part of understanding this story. Just a heads up. understanding this story. Just a heads up. I'm Justin Ling and this is The Flamethrower. It's April 19th, 1993. There is a tent standoff at the Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas.

It's home to a Christian sect known as the Branch Davidians. Outside, there's nearly 900 federal agents from the FBI, Customs, the National Guard, and the Texas Rangers. And they've brought a ton of firepower with them, including a dozen tanks. Inside the fortified buildings, there are about 100 Branch Davidians, including 20 children, all gathered around their leader, David Koresh. They've got a.50 caliber cannon, machine guns, and more than a million rounds of ammunition. They are prepared for a holy war. Two months earlier in February, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms had attempted a raid on the compound. This is Dave Koresh.

This is who, sir? David Koresh. Mount Carmel Center, we're being shot on what by here? ATF agents had walked into what one called a hailstorm in reverse. And in the aftermath of that raid, Koresh calls 911 and reaches a negotiator. You brought a bunch of guys out here and you killed some of my children. There's a bunch of us dead and a bunch of you guys dead. Now that's your fault. The firefight leaves four ATF agents and five Branch Davidians dead. There's been a tense standoff ever since.

If you're following the mainstream media, you'd hear the Clinton administration explain that the raid was about saving the children inside. But if you tuned into shortwave radio, you might hear a very different message. You're listening to the Hour of the Sun. From his own compound in Arizona, one broadcaster is warning that the raid is the beginning of the end for Christian Americans. We have on the line with us from Waco, Texas, one of the people who was actually in the church of Branch Davidian.

His name is William Cooper. He broadcasts on Shortwave, which is able to carry his voice to listeners who have special radio sets all across America and as far away as Europe. Rita Riddle, you were at the church at the time that all of this happened. Rita, let me ask you this. Is anyone in that church being held hostage? No, not under any circumstances. Were you ever held hostage? No.

Do you know anybody that was ever held hostage? Never. So everybody's in there of their own free will. For William Cooper, the Waco siege is a symbol of government overreach and tyranny. He argues that the U.S. government is training this massive military force on Americans who are just exercising their religious freedom. For Cooper, this siege vindicates the dire predictions that he's been making for years. vindicates the dire predictions that he's been making for years.

That the socialist, irreligious, liberal government is about to take away your freedom. The siege continues in Waco, Texas. A small group of men and women trapped under siege by government forces. They are fighting the second battle of the second American Revolution. Make no mistake about it, folks. We are at war. And you may be next. David Koresh claimed to be the second coming of Christ.

They think I'm the son of God. Do they? Yeah. He had a violent past and had taken over the cult through a gunfight. Supporters of Koresh have flocked to a spot near the Mount Carmel Centre. Among them, on a hill overlooking the compound, one of Cooper's avid listeners is sitting on the hood of his car. He's young and gangly.

He kind of looks like a clean-cut farm boy. Just arrived today. Spread out on the hood of the car, he has bumper stickers for sale. They say things like, Fear the government that fears your gun. And, Ban guns. Make the streets safe for a government takeover. They're $1.50 each, or $4 for $5.

Somebody told me a lot of people would be scared to put something on their knee like this. Remember that kid. You're going to be hearing from him again. The time to come out is now. If you can't see your way through, walk towards the sound of the speakers. David, don't do this to your people. On April 19, 1993, the federal agents move in. Many families of the Branch Davidian cult members watched in horror as the compound was leveled by fire

under the blistering Texas sun. Investigators combed the smoldering remains of the Branch Davidian compound. Nobody was coming out. It was unbelievable. The raid was a catastrophe. When agents broke down the walls of the compound, fires erupted,

some of which were deliberately set by the Branch Davidians. 76 members of the religious sect died. America the beautiful is no more. The second battle of the religious sect died. America the beautiful is no more. The second battle of the second American Revolution has come to an end. And folks, we lost. And you're next. Many of those who died in the raid either refused to leave the burning building or were forced to stay.

But not according to William Cooper. Now, I don't know if the federal forces actually started the fire themselves intentionally, but we do know one thing, ladies and gentlemen, the people inside did not commit suicide, although the government is attempting to convince you otherwise. although the government is attempting to convince you otherwise. Three days after the raid, Cooper tells his listeners that everything they cherish is at risk. Folks, it's getting close to that time when every single citizen of this country is going to have to make a decision. Are you going to sit by and allow the United States of America, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, everything that we've ever held dear to be flushed down the toilet, destroyed, ripped apart?

Are you going to allow rampant socialism to take over? Are you going to allow the formation of a one world totalitarian socialist government? the formation of a one world totalitarian socialist government. And listening to Cooper, somewhere out there in America is Timothy McVeigh. Even as a kid, he loved guns. But after high school, he becomes obsessed. He's an avid reader of Soldier of Fortune magazine and a vocal proponent of gun rights. He joins the Army and graduates top of his class.

And there are signs of trouble. He's disciplined for buying a white power t-shirt at a KKK rally. But it's his experience in Operation Desert Storm that really breaks McVeigh. I can see the right and wrong of it. The right, I thought, well, it was self-defense. The reason I fired is because I saw a muzzle flash, and I instinctively fired around in that direction. But then I thought, well, at the same time, I'm in this person's country. What right did I have to come over to his country and kill him?

How did he ever transgress against me? He wins medals as a sniper, but he comes home bitter and traumatized. He's considered for the special forces, but he can't pass the physical. And that humiliation is the turning point for McVeigh. He starts telling his friends the U.S. military stuck a microchip up his ass. He shows up at Waco to protest, what he sees as the socialist takeover of America. And we know that in the spring of 1993, he's there at the compound hawking bumper stickers. Remember that kid from before? That's Timothy McVeigh. In the years that followed, he's roaming the country going to gun shows.

country, going to gun shows. After the raid, he orders a tape from Cooper called Waco, The Big Lie. He would have been hearing messages like this. Are you going to stand up on your two feet like a real man and a real woman? The time is near, folks. And you're going to have to make a decision whether you want to or not. How many more people are you going to allow to be jailed, prosecuted, burned to death, murdered because you are a coward. And that's basically what it boils down to, isn't it? Cowardice.

It seems that Timothy McVeigh took that message to heart. It's April 19th, 1995. It's just 19, 1995. It's just after 9 a.m. in Oklahoma City. A rush of federal workers have just streamed into the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Today is the second anniversary of the Waco massacre. And I don't want anyone out there to forget it, ever. A thousand years from now, I want patriots somewhere, and I mean patriots to principles and ideals of liberty and freedom, to remember the Waco massacre.

Timothy McVeigh remembers Waco. Just two years earlier, he was hawking bumper stickers at the Branch Davidian compound. And now he has a plan to commemorate the anniversary. He drives a Ryder rental truck to the front of the federal building. In the back is 5,000 pounds of explosive ammonium nitrate and nitromethane. Just before he arrives, he lights a two-minute fuse. He parks in a drop-off zone under the daycare center, locks the truck, and walks to a getaway vehicle. A massive car bomb exploded outside of a large federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. It was a horrible noise. Just the roar of the whole building crumbling.

It sounded like just one big boom. Really loud. Then there was so much noise from everything falling in, though, you couldn't hear anything else. loud. Then there was so much noise from everything falling in though you couldn't hear anything. A massive bomb shattered the Murrah Federal Building killing 168 people including 19 children. It was the worst terrorist act in American history. Not long after the bombing, McVeigh was pulled over for driving without a license plate and arrested. A few days later his accompliceice, Terry Nichols, would be arrested as well. The two of them would face dozens of charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. Oklahoma City followed years of increasingly apocalyptic declarations

and incitement from the fringes of right-wing radio. And five days after the attack, President Bill Clinton connects the dots. They leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable. You ought to see, I'm sure you are now seeing the reports of some things that are regularly said over the airwaves in America today. Conservative talk radio king Rush Limbaugh goes on the air the next day and replies. He says, and I quote, Talk is not a crime. And talk is not the culprit here.

Talk didn't buy the fertilizer and the fuel oil. Talk didn't drive the van. Talk didn't rent the van. A person did. A lunatic did. William Cooper knows that people are pointing the finger at him too. He insists that his own movement is not responsible for Oklahoma City, even after Timothy McVeigh's motives become clear. They're in the process of attempting to

propagandize the American people to believe that patriots bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City. No patriot would ever attack this nation. That's what the word patriot means. He doesn't just say that his movement is innocent. He claims the government is guilty. Ladies and gentlemen, just as I predicted today, the attacks began. The great herd of sheeple out there have fallen directly into the dialectic. It is working exactly as it was planned. He's saying that Oklahoma City was planned by the government in order to discredit patriots like him, like you at home. He says it's all a false flag operation. Our investigation has shown

that people traveled all over the country, ladies and gentlemen, in what appears to be a sting operation attempting to suck patriots into performing an illegal act. And he warns, A one world totalitarian socialist government is coming. He starts signaling to the far right militias that the hour is at hand. I know many of you have been waiting patiently through all the crap today. First I have an order from the commanding general of the Second Continental Army of the Republic. All militias are to remain on full alert.

And then, in October of 95, he does something really strange. After months of accusing the U.S. government of being responsible for the bombing, Cooper suggests he met McVeigh. And not only that, he hints that McVeigh tipped him off about the attack. I didn't know that anything was going to happen in Oklahoma City, but I did know that two people had come by our research center, gave us a copy of the Turner Diaries, and told us to keep our eye on Oklahoma, and wanted to know if they could get some help from us. And I told them, nope, no way. No way. I don't want to know what you're doing. I don't care what you're doing. We will not help you in any way, shape, or form if you have any intentions of hurting anybody or any property.

This was credible enough that the FBI actually interviewed Cooper about it. Cooper's description roughly matched McVeigh and his accomplice Terry Nichols, and that book, The Turner Diaries, it's all about committing acts of terrorism to spark a race war. And investigators found a copy of it inside the Ryder van. The FBI can't confirm the meeting took place, but it's clear that Cooper did influence McVeigh. And despite his insistence that he doesn't support violence or terrorism,

he literally spent years calling his listeners cowards for not doing anything about Waco. And then, one of those listeners did exactly what he was telling them to do. After Oklahoma City, for the first time in a couple of decades, conservative talk radio was getting some serious critical scrutiny, and the stakes were a lot higher this time. They weren't being implicated in a boycott of Polish ham products, they were being blamed for inciting mass murder. And for one radio host, that would mean a moment of reckoning and a turn away from the politics of paranoia. A lot of people in this audience, because of the nature of the program, have seen UFOs. Many claim to have been abducted by creatures from elsewhere, dimension or physically elsewhere.

For another budding broadcaster, Oklahoma City became a critical launch point for an empire built on imagined conspiracies. These people are murderers. I'm sick and tired of hearing your lies when you machine gunned a bunch of men, women, and children. You sit over here and you talk about how the children huddled in the corner and how the ammunition that they had is what killed them, all the rest of your garbage. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. ashamed of yourself. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection.

Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix.

I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people, and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples,

I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. graveyard shift in the mid-90s and you flipped on your local talk station, there's a pretty good chance you heard something like this. This is Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM. Broadcasting from just outside Las Vegas, he played the role of a folk historian. He chronicled his listeners' encounters with aliens and the supernatural. I'm continually searching and I want to know. So we take serious ghost stories. We don't joke. These are hopefully true stories.

And I guess that's what makes it all the more frightening. Art was there to listen. Hello, Art. It's Anthony, Mr. Friday night from St. Louis. Well, welcome to the program. I got a ghost story for you. It's not very scary, but it's worth telling. And he was there to tell you, yes, you're right. This happened to you. You're not crazy. You weren't seeing things. I believe you. I never really knew my grandfather consciously, although mom said I did love him. He died when I was two years old. That was 15 years ago. Right. And he came back in full form, fully recognizable, just like he was in real life, just before he died. And he didn't say anything. He was just sitting there with a smile on his face.

These shows go on for hours, and they are strangely soothing. Like one time, my mother, you know, like, seemed like a little man crawling on her arm. And she woke up. On her a little man crawling on her arm. And she woke up. On her arm? Yeah, on her arm. Uh-huh. He's all silver. And he left, like, deep footprints.

She woke us up to see these little footprints on her arm. On her arm. It actually left footprints on her arm. Yeah, it left footprints on her arm. Wow. All right. Thank you very much for the call. Now, what was that?

Hmm? What what was that? What would do that? Well, there are those who would suggest this woman was dreaming. Maybe there is not a difference. Maybe that which does occur in our mind is, in fact, real. Does that occur to you, the distinction between that which we dream and that which we experience while awake? It's really, when you examine it, a very, very small distinction. Imagine Art Bell sitting in a lawn chair in the sand next to a giant radio tower, broadcasting to millions in the dead of night, like a desert therapist for all of America's insomniacs, night shift workers, and, of course, truckers. Even if you don't believe in ghosts and aliens, it's hard not to love Art Bell.

But he didn't start out doing a show about the supernatural. His career took a couple of hard turns. Art Bell got his start in radio as a rock DJ. Then he got offered a late night slot doing political talk and call-in. In 1988, as Rush Limbaugh was beginning his ascent as a national figure in conservative talk, Art Bell changed gears again. He dropped the straight politics and leaned into conspiracy theories and gun control. Is the ultimate objective, Don, to get all the guns? Yeah, that's definitely the ultimate objective.

It's not registration, it's confiscation. You have to disarm the American people before you can establish a total socialist police state, before you can establish the new world order. Waco occurred. It was awful. In my opinion, it was murder. There have been a lot of people woken up as a result of Waco. Yes, they whitewashed it. Yes, they covered up, just like they're doing in Whitewater and the Vince Foster murder and all of the stuff the Mendocini,

the Clint Eastwoods are doing. They're covering those things up. I've got a lot of people in the audience who, for whatever reason, have been saying they feel something big is coming. Something's pending. Something's going to happen. They don't have much of a sense of what it is, but something's coming. And then in 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing happened. It was a wake-up call.

Bell wrote in his book in 1998 that the Oklahoma City bombing, quote, scared the hell out of me. Bell was libertarian. He didn't trust the government. And at first, he didn't want to believe this was domestic terrorism. But he knew that Oklahoma City was retaliation for Waco. It wasn't some government plot. So Bell continues his show.

He keeps looking for conspiracies and hidden truths. And it was coming up literally behind us. Its direction of travel was roughly east, southeast, and traveling towards the west, northwest. The object was moving very slowly. slowly. So it was floating, and it literally floated right across the, or very nearly across the top of my car, just a little off to the driver's side. When I looked up at it, I was able to discern the substance of it, and it was black and solid and triangular. So I have absolutely no idea what I saw, except that it was large. It was precisely as I described to you. It wasn't a guess. It was not an indistinct light. This was without question

a craft. The question is, was it a craft that our military has that we don't know that they have? Or was it from someplace else? I don't know. This is the art Bell his fans know and love, exploring the end of this world, the supernatural, the realms beyond our perception. Bell is still fascinated with secret programs, but he's focused on clouds rather than the one-world socialist government. on clouds rather than the one world socialist government. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather modification system to achieve military objectives.

God, have we lost our minds? And this Art Bell just doesn't carry the same anxiety, vitriol, and outrage as someone like William Cooper. He only wound up here because Oklahoma City scared him straight. But for Alex Jones, Oklahoma City was just more fuel for the fire. You know, there's a common thread in all of this. From Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center bombing, to of course Waco. They always destroy the evidence and don't let locals in to document anything. What do they have to hide? Jones got his start on public access TV in Austin, Texas. A year after Oklahoma City,

he began hosting the final edition on KJFK radio in Austin. Waco and Oklahoma City already loomed large in his universe of conspiracies. Why do they always destroy the remains? This building was burnt to the ground, but they still bulldoze the entire foundation and push it up in a heap, in a monument to the wreckage of the police state. Welcome to the New World Order.

Jones insisted that Oklahoma City wasn't an attack on the U.S. government. It was an attack by the U.S. government. And just like William Cooper, he's a big believer in false flag operations. And I gotta watch people in little black uniforms with little machine guns trying to intimidate us, telling me how they're doing it to keep me safe. Bull, pal, your boss has carried out Oklahoma City. And he told his listeners he himself was in peril just for telling the truth. Every single show, Jones said, could be the last one before the G-men break down his door and haul him away.

We get followed around by unmarked police cars openly taking 35mm photographs of us. That's just wonderful, isn't it? Every edition could be the final edition. They don't say, by the way, all these people that have been kooks for 10 years telling you about it, now they're admitting they have black helicopters. It's a fact.

He was spinning these webs of vast conspiracy at the ripe old age of 22. And at first, he was a bit of a joke. In 1997, the alt-weekly Austin Chronicle voted Jones the best looking crank. The paper wrote that, quote, Jones's heart always seems to be in the right place, expressing outrage at the dominant media and the Clinton administration and whatever other windmill he can topple. And damn, he is cute. But it wasn't long before people started taking him a little more seriously. Two years later, Chronicle readers voted Jones one of the best radio hosts in Austin. Tuning the dial to Jones was like tuning into a different universe of hidden truths and secret meaning.

Here he is on the air in 1999 with his guest, Jeff Davis. There is a power behind the scenes. It started with Adam Weishaupt, 1776, when he created a document called The Order of the Illuminati, Weishaupt, 1776, when he created a doctrine called the Order of the Illuminati, at which that time he stated that he would, through international finance, via the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank of Settlements, would one day buy up the world. And that's exactly what they've done.

Let me stop you right there. Every one of those groups is real, and this is the biggest industry in the world, is corrupt international banking, I don't mean local banking. And it's real. They're out in the open. But the little serfs, the little idiots, because Peter Jennings doesn't tell them, and I don't mean to be mean, but they are, they just go, Big Mac, cheeseburger, please.

That's all I care about. And I'm just trying to say to them, you idiot, it's real. It's real. It's right here in front of your face. And they just go, no, it's a conspiracy. Everything is wonderful. I never questioned anything. Big fan of yours, Jeff.

Rush Limbaugh was a leading force in the Republican Party. He was, increasingly, an establishment man. But not Jones. He counted himself as a libertarian. Yeah, he hated President Bill Clinton. But he hated the Republicans, too. The left and the right are the same people, he told one newspaper in 99. And for him, the entire system was corrupt.

He foamed the mouth over the New World Order and the global banking elite. Simple things like private banks print the money and enslave everyone. Simple things like Clinton's a transnational agent. This all harkens back to his predecessor on the dial, Father Charles Coughlin, who, just like him, warned of a shadowy cabal of bankers that were really running the world. Anytime anybody talks about the international bankers or says anything like that, they're automatically a kook. Well, folks, I think you look back over all the presidents that have been assassinated that have tried to put us on a new monetary system like Mr. Lincoln. Look on the greenback that Lincoln put out $4.5 billion worth of.

It has a red seal on it, a red treasury seal on it. In 1963, he was assassinated roughly four weeks later. Many other presidents have been assassinated for this, all for going against the banking cartel. And everything could be traced back to a shadowy deep state. That's because the global mafia run things, and our president's just a little drill bit that they, a little front man, a little pitch man. Knowing what we know now, yeah, these clips, they sound pretty ominous.

But back in the 90s, this was refreshing to a ton of people. Jones was telling everyone what they didn't want you to hear. And this was on a major radio station. You didn't need some special shortwave receiver to get it. And his growing listener base, well, they were getting in on the act. We're talking about black helicopters today. Me and my son were out in a mountain town today, and my wife was here at home with the other... I gotta go, buddy, but call me back later. All right, brother, sure will. Please do it.

What's going on, Mr. Cooper? Mr. Cooper. Mr. William Cooper. Listen to how excited Jones is to hear from him. Hello. Yeah, that's one of my friends just called in. He's got an Apache over his house with camera pods and infrared taking film. We're going to play that on our TV show.

This is just wonderful. It's 1998. His association with the Oklahoma City bombing hasn't destroyed Cooper. In fact, his 1991 book, Behold a Pale Horse, is only growing in popularity. It becomes a religious document for all sorts of militia members, far-right cranks, and anti-government agitators. Behold the Pale Horse cements everything in conspiracy. The Kennedy assassination, the Illuminati, aliens, it's an all-you-can-eat conspiracy buffet. It's just one other manifestation of the Nazi Gestapo police state which has taken over this country.

Cooper fears a Nazi police state, but he's also anti-Semitic. Don't you think it's a little strange, ladies and gentlemen, that all of a sudden the top positions in our government, and I mean just about every one of them, are occupied by Jewish people? But I believe that there's a segment of the Jewish community who are Zionists who are, and have always been, in the process of operating with the Illuminati. Jones drew from the same source material as Cooper. Dark, sinister conspiracies. Evil incarnate. But Jones made it a little more fun and exciting.

And I know how you feel when I talk to you this week. And I'm 24 years old. I'm ready to just say screw it. Because you got these people cramming cheeseburgers in their mouth and they love it. I mean, does it ever anger you? Well, of course it does. What angers me most is the stupidity of the vast herd of American sheeple out there that think they know something and they don't even know what planet they're on, to tell you the truth. This is 1998, three years after Oklahoma City. The feds are trying to figure out how to deal with Cooper. He's refusing to pay any income tax, and he's threatening to kill any federal agent that

sets foot on his property. So Mr. Cooper, you think that that the feds may be backing down simply because you're in a strong community or do you think they could just fly over one night and launch a hellfire attack with a... Doesn't matter what they do, they lose and they know it. They've stepped on their dicks this time. No matter what they do, they lose, and they know it. They've stepped on their dicks this time. No matter what they do, they lose, and they know it. Because if they make a martyr out of William Cooper... I don't know about martyrdom, but Jones was right. Cooper wasn't long for this world.

And this is where their paths diverge. verge. On November 4th, 2001, Cooper broadcasts what would be his last show. And he spends the whole show reading letters from Vietnam veterans. And I have to say that on hearing this, it's hard not to think of a particular Cooper fan, Timothy McVeigh. He was himself an embittered, traumatized veteran of a foreign war. As soldiers, sailors, and airmen, we did our jobs. But we are different because we have killed others and shot at others with the intent to kill. Thousands of us needed help in order to become proper citizens and to recover from battle stress fatigue. I believe I have recovered from it and want to help others recover as well. There are literally hundreds of more emails just like the ones I read tonight, folks.

It's overwhelming. But I'm so happy that I've made so many others so happy and we're going to continue to do it. It's going to be a great thing for a lot of people. Thank you for listening to my ramblings and ravings tonight. Don't miss tomorrow night's episode of The Hour of the Time. Cooper wouldn't get a chance to record the next day's episode. While the FBI and IRS had decided not to move in on Cooper,

the local sheriff had started to worry that he was a threat to the community. The sheriff sent his deputies to arrest Cooper. But Cooper had long sworn that he would never be taken alive. He opened fire and shot one police officer in the head. The officers returned fire and killed Cooper. When historians or journalists or guys who are doing podcasts listen to some of these right-wing broadcasters, there's always a question of how much they're performing and how much they really believe what they're saying. These questions will come up again and again.

It's a thread that runs from Waco to Oklahoma City to 9-11 to school shootings, right up to QAnon and the Capitol insurrection. William Cooper was a true believer that his end wasn't pretty. While William Cooper is on a collision course with the state, Alex Jones is building his conspiracy empire. And you just look like an absolute clown freak that works for murdering terrorists that jack our food and water. I think you're a big joke. That's what I think you are, murdering scum. But first, he's on a collision course with his broadcaster. At one point, he decides to lead the charge to rebuild the Waco compound. We're out here. It's 1999. We're rebuilding the church portion of Mount Carmel Center that was destroyed April 19, 1993 by the FBI hostage rescue teams and Army Special Applications Group Delta.

And stuff like that, it's just too much for his station. In December 1989, KJFK fires Jones. Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. So it was political. My show was sold out, advertising-wise. It was just lies. So he goes it alone. He starts his own show, which he broadcasts on his online hub, InfoWars.

It's also being rebroadcast on shortwave stations across the country. That's what we're dealing with, ladies and gentlemen. A secretary of state that has had sex in giant vats of feces. On InfoWars, you get to see the show behind the show. There's a video stream of Jones sitting behind his desk in front of a giant InfoWars microphone. All the soft kill, all the pain, the reactors blowing up, the fires, the earthquakes, the wars, the death, the pain, the humiliation. You want the abortions? You want the end of men, you want the end of families, all of it will now be yours. All of it. Hell is coming. He rarely gets out from behind his big

wide desk. He gets worked up, he yells, he screams, sometimes he rips his shirt off. And I see you, I see through it, I know what's going on, and I've had enough. I've had enough of all of it. I've had enough of it. He makes his listeners feel like they're storming the ramparts together. Time and time again in my research, I come, well, eye to eye with something that's even hard for me to believe. And that's that the elite, again, the so-called establishment kings, those that know best, the visions of the anointed ones, are obsessed with the occult. In 2000, Jones produced a documentary.

The Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove. 20 plus years in Northern California, in Sonoma County, on a 2,700 acre secluded redwood grove. Leaders from around the world, prime ministers, chancellors, presidents, governors, again, the heads of industry, banking, academia, the media, Hollywood, only a select few, a little over 2,000 people, travel there to engage in bizarre, ancient, Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremonies. Bohemian Grove, I should say, is a real thing. It's an actual camp. Real world leaders and captains of industry go there.

And they do have some weird rituals. Picture the Stonecutter Society from The Simpsons. Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down? We do. We do. Who leaves Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps? We do. We do. Coincidentally, Harry Shearer, who voices Mr. Burns on the show, actually went to Bohemian Grove one year. He said it was basically like a big, weird frat party. But in Jones' telling, it is something way more fantastical. If everything in modern life is just a facade, an illusion, then this, this secret party of the elites?

Well, it must be more than it truly appears. Did you know that thousands of years ago, different societies would have large metal hollow owls that would throw children into them? I would say they're quite satanic. Obviously, Alex Jones has to get to Bohemian Grove. He has to risk it all to bring the truth to his listeners. It was the night of July 15th, 2000. Mike Hansen and I were about to attempt the first ever successful infiltration of the Bohemian Grove.

Others have tried and failed. No one has ever actually made it in and out with video evidence. No one, until Alex Jones, that is. Here you can see the bottom of the stone owl with the altar and the eternal flame, a Aladdin lamp style urn. He holds up a pamphlet. But first off, I wanted to draw your attention to the program that was given out to the spectators or the viewers. Now, even more shocking is the figure of a human body burning in the flames. And notice how large the cranium is in comparison to the torso, that is the ribs. And this evidence seems to affirm Jones' suspicion of child sacrifice. Look at the size of the hands compared to the rest of the body.

Only children show these anatomical detail. From across the lake, Jones films the actual meeting and honestly it looks pretty spooky. You got your torches, you got your guys in robes, they're all hanging around a giant wood statue of an owl, and there's fireworks. As we sat there in the darkness, not knowing what we were about to see in the gathering crowd, suddenly across the small lake, we saw a carriage with men in black and brown cloaks, robes in front and back, bearing a bound body. The footage, I can assure you, does not show that. But yeah, it is kind of creepy.

Anyway, the point is, Alex Jones is blowing people's minds with this kind of stuff. This becomes the bread and butter of a lot of his radio rantings. Like, hey, everyone, I uncovered the secrets of Bohemian Grove. And this stuff is ridiculous. But at least one of his listeners truly believes that children are being sacrificed to a giant wood owl.

Before becoming a costumed activist, I served in the Marine Corps from 1982 through 1985. I made my debut as the Lynx along with my teenage sidekick Ironclaw, at the 1985 Mid-Ohio Con. In the late 90s, I decided to change my alter ego to the more practical Crackdown. That is Richard McCaslin. When he says costumed activist, he means he does cosplay. He dresses up like he's a superhero in a comic book. But for McCaslin, the line between dress-up fantasy and reality was pretty blurry. Welcome to the Protectorate Outpost. I operate in the real-life superhero community as the Phantom Patriot. And as the Phantom Patriot, McCaslin fully intends

to fight crime in the real world. He has a free hand. The Phantom Patriot will reclaim this land. He will inspire true Americans to fight. No one should steal our guaranteed

rights. New world order. Cower in fear. Your globalist agenda will soon be made clear. The Constitution stands as our source of power. The truth, in its words, will win the final hour. will win the final hour. McCaslin falls really hard into Jones' documentary about Bohemian Grove. He breaks into the Bohemian Grove just like Jones did, except he's carrying a pump-action shotgun-assault-rifle hybrid,

a.45 caliber handgun, a crossbow, a two-foot-long sword, a knife, and what the sheriff's office calls a handmade bomb launcher. McCaslin charges into the park, ready to take on the cult Jones had described. And... The park's empty. Nobody gets hurt, although the Phantom Patriot pays a price. I served six years and four months in the California prison system and three more years on parole. I found out the hard way that if you use extreme tactics to expose the pedophiles and murderers of the Bohemian Club, like George Bush Sr. and Dick Cheney, you go get locked up. The Phantom Patriot raid on Bohemian Grove ends with a whimper, and a jail term, rather than a

bang. But it's a symptom of something deeper and darker. Jones and broadcasters like him are inspiring their listeners to contemplate violence in the real world. It's not the last time it's going to happen. Edgar Welch, 28, of Salisbury, North Carolina, has been arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Police say that Welch told them that he showed up at the DC pizza restaurant to get

to the bottom of what appears to be an utterly bogus story about child abuse promoted on the Internet. Just like the influence William Cooper had on Timothy McVeigh, an angry, alienated young man who found a validating message in a conspiracy-spinning broadcaster, the secrets of Bohemian Grove led Richard McCaslin off the deep end. And Alex Jones is riding the madness to new heights. He's on the cusp of becoming America's conspiracy theorist-in-chief and one

of the biggest stars of right-wing talk. That was episode three of The Flamethrowers. If you are eager for more, you can always listen ahead. Just search for The Flamethrowers wherever you get your podcasts. Join us next week for Episode 4, where the series takes us into the aftermath of September 11th and how a whole new generation of talk radio hosts thrived in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. talk radio host thrived in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety.