Some have suggested that the formation of the George Jackson Brigade was life imitating art vis-à-vis Woody Allen’s 1968 mockumentary, Take the Money and Run. The comedy which was written, directed by and starring Woody Allen tells the story of the world’s most incompetent criminal. The George Jackson Brigade took themselves quite seriously even though law enforcement referred to them as, “a disorganized band of inept criminals spouting left-wing drivel to cover their criminal behavior.” In the drivel department, the gang’s very motto, “The power of the people is the force of life,” was a meaningless, sappy if not, nebulous slogan which underscored the groups impotence as a self-proclaimed revolutionary force.
The group used the name of one George Jackson, a vile black racist who never met a white person he didn’t hate. He hated them all, including the white gas station attendant, he murdered in cold blood for $71.00. Naturally, his dumb ass was quickly captured. George later received a life sentence for his $71.00 murder.
Tired of the newspapers characterizing him as essentially a low-life, reprehensible scumbag George, who had a grade school education, decided to take on the new and more series persona of a Black Power activist. How convenient. George’s bold rebranding strategy worked and soon white liberals were calling George a “political prisoner.” Suddenly, Little George wasn’t merely a murderous, small-time douchebag career criminal but, a new “hero” in “the protracted struggle against the white devil.” George knew he had finally arrived when liberal white women started writing love letters addressed to him in prison. Yippie Yi yay! Little George actually reveled in his newfound celebrity among the white, liberal America hating subculture.
Unlike the group of white Leftists who would name their revolutionary group after him, George actually possessed a minimum level of competence as a criminal. In 1970, George with two fellow Black Power inmates murdered Soledad Prison guard John V. Mills who had a wife and small children at home. Upon murdering Mills, Jackson crowed, “this is the fate awaiting all blue-eyed devils!”
Jackson was transferred to San Quintin Prison where we he was killed during a daring escape attempt. After being shot by a guard, the Black Power revolutionary’s last pathetic words, spoken over an outstretched arm were, “I’m sorry…help me.” Jackson collapsed into the hereafter and undoubtedly received his First-Class ticket to board the Hell Express. The world briefly became a better place at that moment.
George’s bona fides as a serious, hardened criminal were unquestionable. The George Jackson Brigade membership however, bore a resemblance to the bumbling outlaws in the 1975 film, Disney’s The Apple Dumpling Gang. Perhaps the FBI best described the George Jackson Brigade when they stated, “The GJB’s operations were often undermined by their own lack of precision and a disconnect between their stated revolutionary goals and the outcome of their actions.” Translation: The George Jackson Brigade members were blundering, incompetent criminals who botched almost ever capper they ever attempted, sometimes with tragic results. Think Inspector Clouseau leaving the Sûreté and undertaking a life of crime. The George Jackson Brigade was an amateurish collection of Leftist oddballs who were bumbling accident-prone, would-be criminals lurching blindly from one mistake ridden crises to the next. Examples:
The Safeway bombing: One of the most infamous examples was the group’s first failed operation in 1975 against a Safeway grocery store in Seattle. The brigade intended to plant an explosive device in the store by hiding a pipe bomb in a dog food bag. How ingenious. A Brigade member called in a nervous, confused voice to warn Safeway of the bomb but, the idiot dialed the wrong number and called the Washington Athletic Club instead.
A WAC employee answered the the phone with chirpy, “Good morning, thank you for calling the Washington Athletic Club.”
The Brigade member then bewilderedly asked, “Hello…is this Safeway?”
The WAC employee stated, “No, this is the Washington Athletic Club.”
The Brigade member then idiotically inquired with a follow up, “Do you possibly know the phone number to the Safeway?”
Without a phonebook and afraid to dial information for the Safeway phone number for fear his call could later be traced, the clueless revolutionary made no further attempts to warn Safeway. This proved to be a tragic mistake.
So, the George Jackson Brigade didn’t want the bomb to actually explode. They merely wanted to intimidate the community and show that they knew how to make an explosive device. Unfortunately, GJB members thought that they had placed a safety mechanism on the bomb to keep it from detonating. Unfortunately, their bomb safety mechanism didn’t work, and the bomb actually did explode. This resulting explosion injured some shoppers and generated a public backlash, severely damaging the group’s public image and exposing the recklessness of their methods. The GJB also became a bit of a running joke among the people of Seattle. The GJB was attempting to establish itself as a revolutionary forced to reckoned with- if not feared. Yet they made a very poor first impression and would forever be branded as “armatures.” Soon a series of, “How many George Jackson Brigade members does to take to plant a bomb…” jokes made the rounds.
One of the jokes to make the rounds was as follows:
One George Jackson Brigade member says to another while planting a bomb, “what will happen if this one explodes while we are installing it?”
The other George Jackson brigade responds:
“Don’t worry I’m carrying a spare!”
The Pacific National Bank Heist, Tukwila, WA. On January 23, 1976, four emboldened members of the GJB, John Sherman, Ed Mead, Bruce Seidel and John Cook walked into the Pacific National Bank. Seidel slipped the bank teller a misspelled robbery note with illegible penmanship.
“I’m sorry, what is this?” The teller asked. The confused bank teller couldn’t make heads or tails of the note.
“Would you just read it…please,” Seidel skittishly begged with sweat beads forming on his brow.
“I’m sorry sir, I can’t read your handwriting, may I have your account number and some identification please?” The Teller requested.
“This…is a stick up… bitch!” A now very panicked Seidel screamed for all to hear then, brandished a gun.
The bank teller hit the alarm button and Seidel’s GJB accomplices drew their weapons as John Sherman admonished Seidel out loud to, “stick to the plan man!”
Mead and Cook ordered everyone to the ground. The luckless foursome had expected to be out of the bank within 60 seconds, yet it took much longer to collect the money than they had anticipated. Meanwhile, a couple of GJB members started rattling off leftist slogans for the edification of the bank’s customers, turning the capper into a briefly improvised 60’s style, teach-in. Despite the delay in gathering the money from the bank, the criminal’s ringleader, John Sherman, wasn’t too worried. The group had placed a number of bombs in local hotels that were expected to detonate during the planned robbery in order to divert local police resources away from the bank. Yet- surprise, surprise! – these diversionary bombs never detonated, and a group of local police officers arrived as the bungling criminals were exiting the bank.
John Sherman opened fire on the police. And the incompetent criminal foursome immediately received return fire. Founding GJB member Bruce Seidel was cut down when he attempted to squeeze off a round at the police. His gun didn’t fire, and things might have gone better for Seidel had he bothered to notice that his weapon was still in safety mode and further, that there was no round in the chamber. Sherman, who stood a few yards away from Seidel’s dead body, took a police officer’s bullet to his face. He dropped with his hands in the air and begged, “Please, no more! Don’t shoot!” Comrade Che would have been proud.
The Downfall. The GJB continued their streak of incompetent robberies and other criminal capers until they were all captured and an sent away to prison. One FBI agent perhaps summed up the unclimactic end of the GJB best, “They never got any better at it (crime). They never improved or learned from their mistakes. It was always one bungled job after the next.”
With the GJB members all in prison, some area residents lamented about the loss of the comedic fodder they enjoyed so much from the GJB’s prolific blunders. The George Jackson Brigade jokes soon became just an old memory for those who lived through that time. Virtually all of the GJB members are dead now. Most were released from prison before they died. In the end, one should ask, What if anything did the George Jackson Brigade accomplish?
The answer is simply this: Apart from the comedic entertainment inspired by their doomed foray into criminality which so many enjoyed, they accomplished nothing.
Herman Marks was born into a working-class family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 1, 1921. Marks was a sexual deviant with an overriding compulsion to rape underaged girls- the younger the better, as he saw it. His propensity toward violent crime began in his early teens, and for the remainder of his life thereafter, he robbed, rapped, stole and brutally beat any hapless victim he could exploit when the opportunity presented itself. He was a loner and certified psychopath. When Herman was not committing violent felonies, he would drink, smoke, sniff, swallow or inject any illegal narcotic he could place his dirty little hands on. He had a grade school education and a creepy demeanor which repelled just about everyone he ever came in contact with. These credentials would later make him an ideal candidate for recruitment into Fidel Casto’s murderous, Communist guerrilla army in Cuba.
His last prison stretch was in Wisconsin’s Waupun State Penitentiary. A prison which was then set aside for the most violent and hardened of Wisconsin’s criminals. Upon learning of his assignment to Waupun, Herman naively assumed that he would fit right in and make fast friends among his fellow deviants. Unfortunately, Herman wasn’t particularly well received by his fellow convicts in Waupun. This was primarily for two reasons: First, the other inmates found him to be a “weirdo” in the extreme. Second, it was learned by the offender population that Herman was doing time for the rape of a sixteen-year-old girl which caused Marks to be branded in prison slang, as a “Broad Jumper.” Even prison Warden, John C. Burke would later describe Herman Marks as, “a real stinker.” This was no small distinction given the many other notorious and profoundly disturbed prisoners who were also incarcerated at Waupun then.
Marks acted like a tough guy when he was loose on the street brutalizing the elderly, women, teenaged girls and others weaker than him. In maximum-security prison, his tune changed. Once Marks’ profile was raised from his later activity in Cuba, journalists began seeking out interviews with those who knew him from before his nefarious deeds in service to Castro. One such person was Mathew “Matty” Brown who had served time with Marks in Waupun. Brown remarked:
“He (Marks) didn’t look like a punk. I mean, he had a good build. But all fish (new inmates) get tested by other Cons. He wouldn’t stand up for himself. He was a strange cat. Odd…man. Very odd… you know? Something was wrong with him… yeah, he was a punk.”
Perhaps only the infamous serial killer Ed Gein was hated more. Yet, Gein was housed in Waupun’s criminally insane ward, where the inmates couldn’t get to him. The same was not true for Marks. In Waupun, Marks quickly earned the nickname, “Frig Mouth.” In 1950’s prison slang, “Frig” means copulation. Need more be said? He survived two different attempts on his life from other inmates. Nothing about his difficult taste-of-your-own-medicine experience in Waupun changed his views on crime, criminality or the victims of the same. According to Herman Marks himself, it only reinforced his own personal ethos that, “…in this world there are only the strong and the weak. In nature, the weak are always victims of the strong or stronger.” How philosophical.
In 1956, Marks was released from the penitentiary. He had no job prospects nor a girlfriend waiting for him when he got out. In fact, Marks had never had a girlfriend. Although Marks was not an unattractive man, he had never been much of a hit with the opposite sex. Marks’ freaky weird persona tended to cause the needle on women’s internal Creep Meters to shoot deeply into the red zone. This was likely because prison psychiatrists diagnosed Marks as being both severely narcissistic and psychopathic. Thus, when not raping young girls, Marks spent most of his limited financial resources on buying encounters with prostitutes in Milwaukee’s red-light district. Even with these ladies for hire, there were still those who balked- no matter what price Marks was willing to pay. Among Milwaukee’s “working girls,” Herman Marks would became known as “Psycho Eyes.”
Marks’ release from prison in 1956, opened a host of fresh challenges for him. As it turned out, numerous people were eager to find Herman Marks so they could “talk with him.” Who were these people? Well, they included FBI agents, police detectives and other members of the law enforcement community from such far-flung places as New York, Maine, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and more. All were keen to speak with Marks about serious crimes he was alleged to have committed such as, theft, armed robbery, burglary, assault, and of course, rape. Yet they were having difficulty finding him. This was only because when not snoozing on his mother’s couch, Marks had become a wandering street itinerant, sleeping wherever he could find a roof to have over his head. Word on the street regarding the different law enforcement agencies searching for Herman Marks, soon reached old “Frig Mouth.” Upon being apprised of the authorities’ efforts to find him, Marks deduced it might be wise for him to get as far away from Milwaukee as possible. There was just one problem. Mr. Marks had not so much as the proverbial pot to piss in, let alone the money needed to relocate to a far off region of the country.
For most people, this would pose a significant obstacle. However, unlike most people, Marks would demonstrate a certain resourcefulness when faced with his dilemma. Accordingly, Marks did what any red-blooded American career criminal would do under similar circumstances. He stole a series of cars then went on a four-day, multi-state crime spree where he mugged, pillaged, robbed, burgled and stole until he had enough money to make his way south the Florida, which is almost as far from Milwaukee as one can get while still remaining in the continental United States. Once in Maimi, he went on a drinking, drugging and prostitute fueled binge of hedonistic depravity.
In Florida, he had talked his way into a job working on a shrimp boat. He had done so by claiming to have served as a sailor in the US Merchant Marine. He lasted about three days on the shrimp boat until it became apparent that he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. There never was any definitive proof that he ever did in fact serve as a merchant mariner although Marks would continue to claim as much for most of his life.
He would also claim at various times that he had either served in the Army in WWII or during the war in Korea. These claims can be disproven. Although he was of military age during WWII, Marks had dodged the draft and was arrested and later charged with draft evasion. The draft evasion charge was dismissed as the Judge determined that his extensive criminal record would have precluded him from being eligible to serve in any branch of the US military. However, Marks was well versed in the use and maintenance of various firearms, going back to his childhood. His father was a bit of a gun nut. Those skills would later serve him well both as a criminal and in other future endeavors.
It was in Miami where he made some newfound criminal friends who alerted Marks to opportunities for those with his particular skill set, in Havana. There were many Mafia controlled hotels, nightclubs and casinos to be found in Havana, Cuba and the mobsters who ran them were purportedly always looking for men who weren’t afraid of “getting their hands dirty.” With the remaining booty from his crime spree, Marks was able to secure boat passage to Cuba. Shall we generously say it was the type of travel arrangement which didn’t require Mr. Marks to present his Passport upon arrival.
Marks made the rounds of the various mob owned casinos in Havana. He made less than a favorable impression on the Mafia operators. Marks had the type of repelling personality which caused others, including fellow criminals, to adopt an unflattering opinion of him. On his second day of job hunting, he visited The Hotel Plaza, a notorious Mafia owned casino in Havana. The assistant casino manager seemed to think Herman Marks might be a good addition to the of operation’s “muscle department.” Marks was invited back for a meeting with the man in charge of the operation, notorious mobster, Joe Stassi. After speaking with an excessively weird and cocky Marks for about ten minutes, Stassi saw right through his bullshit. Having heard enough, Stassi stood up and warned Herman Marks, “I never forget a face, Pal. You’d better hope I never see yours in this casino again.”
Marks was escorted off the premises and given a final warning to never return. As Herman Marks gloomily walked through Havana’s Vedado District, he undoubtedly contemplated his limited prospects. By his own admission, he knew only ten words of Spanish. He was almost out of money but, he couldn’t return to the United States as he was a wanted man. Marks then did what was quite predictable for him. He beat a hasty path in search of an oceanfront dive bar with the intention of getting drunk.
Marks’ wild eyed and unkempt appearance was in stark contrast to the throngs of affluent American tourists he walked amongst in his search a cheap, hole-in-the-wall bar. He finally found a darkly lit, seedy little joint away from the tourists, that suited him and his limited budget. The clientele seemed to be mostly fishermen and sailors. Marks took a long swig from his ice-cold beer and contemplated the limited options available to him given the seemingly irrevocable corner his choices has painted him into.
Yet in life, as one door closes, another may open. Just as Marks ordered a second beer with a shot of whiskey, he felt a warm pat on his shoulder.
“Herman?” The voice which spoke with a Cuban accent and had a pleasantly surprised tone.
Herman Marks turned to find one of his crewmates from the ill-fated Shrimp Boat job standing next to him in the bar. The Cuban was the only member of the small crew who had tried to help him learn his job. The other crew members had exhibited contempt for Marks as his lack of qualifications ultimately caused more work for them.
As a man with few friends, Marks enjoyed his reunion with the Cuban sailor. The two men drank, joked and laughed for several hours. Marks had told his friend of his unsuccessful attempts to find work at the local casinos. His friend responded by telling him that those casinos wouldn’t be around for long in any event. The Cuban told his former shipmate about the 26th of July Movement. A revolutionary force which he felt would ultimately succeed in overthrowing the government of Cuba because the people were allegedly opposed to the régime of Fulgencio Batista.
Marks asked the Cuban two questions: “Does the rebel army accept yanquis?” “Who would I see to join the 26th of July Movement?”
The next day, Marks purchased a bus ticket to the town of Manzanillo, which was then a sleepy little city nearly 500 miles to the east of Havana, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra mountain range. With nothing to lose, he decided to become a member of the Communist revolutionary army or die trying. Yet, the choice to join a Communist guerilla insurgency was a particularly odd decision for one Herman Marks.
Beginning in his late teens, Marks had developed a strong affinity for Adolph Hitler and the Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. He specifically agreed with Hitler’s warped racial dogma. He believed wholeheartedly that white people were a master race and viewed others of non-white ethnicity, particularly blacks, with disdain. He supported the idea of racial segregation and felt that as a white man, he should not have to suffer mingling with blacks. He considered Communism to be a sinister Jewish invention with the objective of world domination and Zionist supremacy. He also believed that Communism itself was a Jewish conspiracy to enslave the white race. In short, Marks was a despicable racist with a deluded if not perversely twisted, world view.
Upon arriving in Manzanillo, the man who believed that “Communism was the chosen vehicle of Jews to enslave the white, European race,” set out to ask anyone and everyone he encountered about how he would go about joining the Communist revolutionaries. It wasn’t long before Marks met two young Cubans who were also hoping to join Castro’s guerilla army. Marks and his two new companions decided to band together. They bought all the provisions that they could carry and set out into the jungle to find the rebels. After nearly three days and with their provisions waning, the trio of aspiring revolutionaries stumbled upon a guerrilla outpost
The jungle outpost was manned by a few dozen rebels and commanded by guerrilla Captain Paco Cabrera who, fortunately for Marks, spoke English. Captain Cabrera was initially suspicious of Marks’ intentions and taken aback by his strange demeanor. Cabrera spent a significant amount of time questioning the rather odd American. For his part, Marks spun some wild tales about his having served with distinction in the US Army during the Korean War where he claimed to have seen extensive combat. He also claimed to be a small arms expert. There was some truth to the latter statement as he had grown up using both pistol and rifle and was proficient in the cleaning and maintenance of many different firearms.
Marks’ two companions were welcomed into the rebel army as was Marks, despite Captain Cabrera’s reservations. Marks’ new comrades in arms within the small jungle guerilla garrison didn’t know quite what to make of him. He couldn’t speak Spanish and exhibited some peculiar behavior such as frequently talking or laughing to himself. This strange behavior prompted his fellow guerillas to label him as the “Loco Gringo.” A derisive moniker yes, but preferable to “Frig Mouth.”
Marks cachet among his fellow rebels improved considerably one day when he came upon a few of his fellow soldiers clumsily trying to disassemble a .30 Caliber M1 Carbine rifle. Newly minted guerrilla fighter Herman Marks intervened and showed his comrades how to properly disassemble, clean and maintain the weapon. Marks soon became responsible for the maintenance and repair of all firearms in his remote guerrilla base.
Marks would later be assigned to a unit ostensibly commanded by Che Guevara. Guevera was not a skilled battlefield tactician and delegated the tactical combat deployment of men to his subordinates. In Marks, Che immediately recognized a kindred spirit. Both men were diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder and both were Psychopathic. Both men avoided direct combat whenever they could, and both would become known as men who took great pleasure in executing other people.
Yet, in his journal, Che wrote that, “The American (Marks) fundamentally didn’t fit into the troop.”
Che’s guerilla underling and aid, Enrique Acevedo, told Che’s biographer, Jon Lee Anderson that Marks was, “tyrannical and arbitrary…in camp.” Acevedo also told Anderson that Marks’ “bloodthirsty ruthlessness had disturbed many of his fellow rebel fighters and that it was particularly his readiness to gleefully volunteer for execution duty which he did with an enthusiasm which was unseemly.”
After the fall of Batista and the collapse of the Cuban government, Che would be tasked by Castro with overseeing the executions of close to 49,000 Cubans. Who were these unfortunate souls slated to be snuffed out by their new Communist masters? They were those who had dared to serve in the Cuban military from the ranks of Private all the way up to General. Anyone who had ever served in the police force. Anyone of note who had previously criticized Castro or his revolution. Any wealthy individuals who hadn’t already fled the island.
Che, like Herman Marks, was a psychopath, and a sexual degenerate. Although Comrade Che would have personally enjoyed executing all 49,000 Cuban “enemies of the people” himself, it was not feasible for him to do so. Accordingly, Che naturally chose his kindred spirit Herman Marks, to assist in this task. Marks, who had recently been promoted to Captain, was given command of the La Cabana fortress and tasked with overseeing the executions of tens of thousand of these former soldiers, policemen and critics of Castro.
Thus, standing at center stage in the courtyard of the La Cabana fortress stood “Psycho Eyes,” also known as “Frig Mouth,” the Waupun Penitentiary “punk.” His evil, crooked smile beaming live on Cuban Television and before the international press while bellowing out the commands to the firing squad: “Atencion, Preparen, Aputen, Fuego!” (Attention, Ready, Aim, Fire!). After the lifeless bodies of the condemned collapsed to the stone masonry floor below, Marks would walk toward the executed men with the wicked grin of man who was thoroughly enjoying himself. Then, into each blood oozing corpse he fired a bullet into the head, which he appeared to relish.
It’s believed that old “Frig mouth” presided over the executions of some 20,000 Cubans. Many of these executions were witnessed by the loved ones of the condemned on live television. Marks took great enjoyment in mocking those condemned men who called for a Priest to give them the Last Rites or who prayed to God before their execution. Many of the men were led to the execution courtyard with their hands untied. More than a few of those men used their last moments of life to courageously taunt their Communist tormentors. Many of these men would place their index finger between their eyes and courageously deride their executioners by shouting, “Aim right here.” In the end, it was the dignity of these condemned men which demonstrated their real courage. The type of courage which had always eluded men like Che or Marks.
For the brave men who would dare the firing squad to “shoot right here,” (between the eyes) Marks would personally shoot each of these dead men in the face with six to eight bullets in order to ensure that their families would be unable to recognize them. Marks briefly became a worldwide celebrity among Leftists. He enjoyed the numerous media interviews where he would always mention how grueling his schedule was and seldom failed to mention that he was “up until 2:00 AM performing executions.” In the western media, Marks became known as “the Butcher Havana.”
After all the “people’s enemies” were executed, Marks’ Warholian fifteen minutes of fame evaporated. Even Castro seemed ever so unnerved over how much Marks seemed to enjoy executing people. News stories had made their way into Cuba from the American press detailing Marks’ extensive criminal history and prison record. That portion of his past was conveniently left out of the biography he had provided to Castro. Moreover, there was no longer much use Herman Marks in the new Castro dictatorship. Marks could barely speak Spanish. He had no education and few skills to offer the new government apart from his willingness to murder others. To his profound disappointment, he was offered no position of import in the new Communist regime. However, as a “hero of the revolution,” he was afforded a very small and modest home to live in and a meager monthly stipend to subsist on. Marks angrily scoffed at the offer. He clearly had an inflated view of his own worth to Casto’s new government. In an enraged tizzy, “Frig Mouth” stormed out of Cuba and discreetly slipped back into the United States. He was arrested soon thereafter for illegally entering the country and there was a dispute over whether or not he was still a United states citizen which was settled in his favor by the courts. Marks quickly became a societal pariah within American society.
He was unable to find gainful employment given his criminal record and status as “the Butcher Havana.” He was arrested in New York in May of 1964 for making threatening phone calls. On Friday the 13th of August 1965 he fell from a tree and broke his right leg after using binoculars to peep at a young girl through a neighbor’s window. When the police arrived, his trousers were unzipped, and an “appendage” was protruding from the unzipped pant zipper crotch. An arrest warrant was issued for Herman Marks after his return to Milwaukee. The warrant alleged that he had engaged in “indecent sexual behavior with a six-year-old girl. Upon hearing of the arrest warrant, Marks told others that he was, “getting the hell out of dodge.”
He was last seen speeding toward the state line via what today is known as “Interstate 39. “ He was never seen again. Different theories have arisen concerning his disappearance.
Some say he went to Las Vegas, seeking “muscle work” and ended up in a hole in the desert courtesy of John “Handsome Johnny” Roselli who also had CIA contacts and had worked with the agency on Cuban related matters. For a while, the father of the six-year-old girl that Marks had molested was considered a prime suspect in his “disappearance.” Others have alleged that Marks was tortured and killed by Cuban exiles. What seems almost certainly to be the case is that a person or persons unknown did our society and the world at large a tremendous favor by dispatching “Frig Mouth” to Hell.
During WWII, the great Polish resistance leader, Zbigniew Stypułkowski made an astute observation of his nation’s two enemy occupiers Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, when he commented that there were no significant differences in the brutal way both operated. He saw both as equally evil, dictatorial systems. On September 1, 1939, Stypułkowski was a member of the Polish parliament when two of the evilest empires known known in the history of man Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union, decided to divide his democratic nation up between themselves. They did so for no other reason than they could.
After the Soviet Communists and the Nazis invaded his country, Stypulkowski helped organize the anti-Nazi resistance in the western portion of Poland. The intellectual politician soon became a respected resistance leader, rising to the rank of Colonel. A large bounty was placed on Stypulkowski’s head by the Nazi occupiers who were bedazzled by his cunning as a prominent guerrilla leader. Yet, no Poles stepped forward to betray Stypulkowski. Both the Soviet Communists and the Nazis surpassed any measure of wickedness previously established in history. Both regimes practiced the mass extermination of millions of their political opponents yet, the Soviets Communists unarguably murdered far more than even Hitler’s regime. What astonished Stypulkowski was the way both regimes, though independent of each other, work identically. In the German occupied sector of Poland, the Nazi’s quickly massacred all elites and intellectuals while anyone deemed a political opponent was shipped off to a camp to be gassed or worked to death. Likewise, in the Soviet occupied sector of Poland, the Communists quickly massacred all elites and intellectuals while anyone deemed a political opponent was shipped off to a camp to be executed or worked to death. Both had secret police who worked with uncannily similar tactics.
The Soviet Communists were quick to murder anyone who even had the appearance of someone who might resist. Most notable, was the Katyn Massacre where the Soviet Communists murdered over 22,000 military and police officers as well as others deemed to be intellectuals- most of whom were Polish Jews. Yet it was the ruthless proficiency of these systematic murders in Katyn which was most shocking. The mass murder was carried out with the efficiency of an industrial slaughterhouse.
See the short video below:
In typical Communist fashion, at the end of WWII when these thousands of bodies were discovered, in shallow graves, each with bullet holes in the backs of their skulls, the Soviets blamed the massacre on their former allies, the Nazis. Yes, they did so directly on the orders from Comrade Stalin. The Nazis were defeated after all and had no historical voice in the matter. For almost 50 years, the Katyn Massacre was attributed to the Nazis. The Nazis by the way, were just as evil as the Soviet Communists and would have been all too happy to have to done the dirty work at Katyn themselves but alas, the Soviet NKDV beat them to the punch.
Each year during the cold war, on the declared anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, there was a Soviet and Polish sponsored memorial gathering to remember these “victims of the Nazis.” Although the Soviets had objected to the placement of physical monuments on the site and preferred to conduct the event in a low key fashion, some select residents of western countries and a limited number of “approved” western media sources were allowed to attend the memorial gathering. Interestingly enough, few average Poles were ever invited and the memorial seemed more like a media event. After all, average Polish citizens might have dared, given the opportunity, to raise some awkward questions such as, “The murdered Polish men were all taken into to custody by the Soviets in the Red Army sector- how were the Nazis able to get to them?”
Only Communist could pull an event like this off and keep a straight face but, wait…it gets better. Every year on the anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, limited numbers of naïve western liberals (mostly women) would make their way to Katyn, Poland in order to,” remember, mourn, and light candles for the “Nazi ‘victims.” Many of these liberal women were filmed with hot tears streaming down their checks as their lower lips quivered over the grizzly fate of these alleged victims of Nazi brutality. They certainly seemed like Norma Desmond, to be ready for their close-up.
Then suddenly, the Soviet people overthrew their Communist dictators in the USSR and those living under Communism in the Eastern Bloc Countries had just previously done likewise. The Berlin Wall came crashing down, and freedom spread beyond the Iron Curtin. Soon thereafter, the secret archives of the former Communists states were made public. Along the way it was discovered, in black and white, that the Nazis did not perpetrate the Katyn Massacre but rather it was as many had already suspected, the Communist Soviets who methodically killed these 22,000 Polish elites.
Now, try not to laugh. I dare you. After democracy was restored in Poland, the Katyn Massacre Anniversary to remember and morn, continued on. However, it took on the new tone of an anti-Communist memorial. Monuments were finally erected in the Katyn forrest to pay homage to these victims of Communism. However, after it was established that the Massacre was committed by the Communists, the crying western liberal women stopped showing up. Maybe it was because there were no longer any Communist officials for them to hug and cry in the arms of over the brutality of Nazism and US foreign policy. Yet it was historically, still a savage massacre- right? It would seem that liberals are only interested in mourning massacres that suit their political ends. Yet maybe there’s another reason. Maybe they caught wind of something.
Perhaps these western liberals heard about the little farm near the diminutive Polish village of Zdziary, not far from the location of the Katyn Massacre. Each year, during the anniversary remembrance, the small farm was cordoned off by a group of Polish and USSR Communists party officials including, Soviet KGB officers and Polish Security Service (PS) personnel. Once there and away from the prying eyes of western “liberal guilt tourists,” they could let their hair down. The liquor would flow, and these Communist officials would begin hours of mocking the western “useful idiots” in attendance- mostly liberal western women. The Communist officials would put on skits where in turn, many of the attendees would imitate the liberal useful idiots’ maudlin sorrow and tears to roars of laughter. Many of these men would entertain their comrades by recounting their sexual conquests of the sundry “loose” western women in attendance, many of whom would throw themselves at the first Communist official they encountered during the couple of days before the ceremony. The jollity and revelry would go on until the wee hours.
The annual fun abruptly ended with the collapse of Communism. Suddenly, the liberal western women lost interest in attending when they learned what was for them, the disappointing news that the massacre was actually committed by their ideological allies, the Communist.
The Historical Truth Project 