signed first edition
1970 · Twin Gates, WA
by Crisman, Fred; Jon Gold [Pseudonym]
Twin Gates, WA: Transistor Publishing Company, 1970. First edition. Very Good. First edition. Signed by Fred Crisman under his pen name, Jon Gold, on the verso of the front wrap. x, 191 pp. Bound in publisher's wraps. Very Good, rubbed along edges, corners creased. Rare signed.
This work is a rant against the city manager form of local government (as exemplified by the author's hometown of Tacoma, Washington), penned by the quintessential 20th Century "fringe" person-of-interest. He is best remembered for his odd role in the Maury Island Incident of 1947 that helped usher in the modern UFO era. Crisman acted as a Svengalish intermediary between purported UFO spotter Harold Dahl and the press (pilot Kenneth Arnold, writing for Amazing Stories) and US military-- so much so that some have wondered if Crisman concocted the whole story. Before that he'd been sending purportedly-true stories in the Richard Shaver vein to Raymond A. Palmer, Kenneth Arnold's editor. The plane crash and demise of two military officers investigating the affair created a macabre twist ending to what many have concluded was a hoax. Crisman would later be subpoenaed by New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison in regards to the JFK assassination. He allegedly was an associate of some of the shadowy New Orleans figures in accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's milieu: Clay Shaw, pilot David Ferrie (played memorably albeit not accurately by Joe Pesci in Oliver Stone's film JFK), and young con artist Thomas Beckham. The dubious "Torbitt Document" even maintained that Crisman was one of the three "tramps" arrested in Dealey Plaza. In his later years in Tacoma he was a conservative talk show host (hence the Jon Gold pseudonym) and good friend of Michael Riconosciuto's father, placing him in a final realm of intrigue chronicled by mysteriously deceased journalist Danny Casolaro, sometimes referred to as The Octopus. Was Crisman a con artist, nobody special, a "disruption agent" as one declassified letter maintained, or was he perhaps a Forrest Gump-like figure of the fringe, innocently popping up at all the major junctures of 20th century conspiracy theory? Who was Fred Crisman? (Inventory #: 140947194)
This work is a rant against the city manager form of local government (as exemplified by the author's hometown of Tacoma, Washington), penned by the quintessential 20th Century "fringe" person-of-interest. He is best remembered for his odd role in the Maury Island Incident of 1947 that helped usher in the modern UFO era. Crisman acted as a Svengalish intermediary between purported UFO spotter Harold Dahl and the press (pilot Kenneth Arnold, writing for Amazing Stories) and US military-- so much so that some have wondered if Crisman concocted the whole story. Before that he'd been sending purportedly-true stories in the Richard Shaver vein to Raymond A. Palmer, Kenneth Arnold's editor. The plane crash and demise of two military officers investigating the affair created a macabre twist ending to what many have concluded was a hoax. Crisman would later be subpoenaed by New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison in regards to the JFK assassination. He allegedly was an associate of some of the shadowy New Orleans figures in accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's milieu: Clay Shaw, pilot David Ferrie (played memorably albeit not accurately by Joe Pesci in Oliver Stone's film JFK), and young con artist Thomas Beckham. The dubious "Torbitt Document" even maintained that Crisman was one of the three "tramps" arrested in Dealey Plaza. In his later years in Tacoma he was a conservative talk show host (hence the Jon Gold pseudonym) and good friend of Michael Riconosciuto's father, placing him in a final realm of intrigue chronicled by mysteriously deceased journalist Danny Casolaro, sometimes referred to as The Octopus. Was Crisman a con artist, nobody special, a "disruption agent" as one declassified letter maintained, or was he perhaps a Forrest Gump-like figure of the fringe, innocently popping up at all the major junctures of 20th century conspiracy theory? Who was Fred Crisman? (Inventory #: 140947194)
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