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Five years after moving to Omaha, he was named president of the University of Nebraska System, overseeing four campuses with a total enrollment of more than 41,000 students and a financial budget of $700 million. Representing more than 3,000 universities and colleges, Roskens served as chairman of the board of the American Council on Education; was president of the Association of Urban Universities and has been a member of the Young Presidents Organization.

After retiring from the university in 1989 and serving as President Emeritus until March of 1990, Dr. Roskens accepted an appointment by then-President George Bush as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. As CEO of USAID, Roskens oversaw a major restructuring of the agency, created a more responsible management system and kept tabs on an $8.1 billion budget for the U.S. foreign assistance program.

From January of 1993 until December of 1995, Roskens served as President of Action International, a newly formed organization whose mission is to maximize the impact and insure the development of the InterAction Council, a group of 35 former heads of state or government, who meet annually to make recommendations for positive global relations. Former President Gerald Ford, Helmut Schmidt, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Lee Kuan Yew, and Mikhail Gorbachev are among it’s current membership.

Since 1996, Roskens has served as President of an international business-consulting firm, called Global Connections, in Omaha. In 1999, the government of Japan appointed him honorary consul general for the Nebraska region to assist Japanese nationals living and working in the Omaha/northern plains regions, to improve trade relations and to monitor local exchange programs with Japan. He also serves as Chairman of the Omaha/Douglas Building Commission; is a board member for ConAgra Foods and The Silverstone Group; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Roskens holds honorary degrees from 12 institutions of higher education and is a licensed minister in the United Church of Christ. He has written numerous papers and publications, and continues to deliver lectures and sermons. He resides in Omaha with wife, Lois Lister of Eagle Grove, Iowa. Together they have three daughters, one son and twelve grandchildren.

RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION INTO U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR'S COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL STANDARDS -- HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR. (Extension of Remarks - October 02, 1992)

[Page: E2907]

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HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

in the House of Representatives

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1992

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, today, I am calling for the President of the United States to ask for the resignation of the U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator, Ronald Roskens.

A year-long investigation by the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, which I chair, assisted by the U.S. General Accounting Office's Office of Special Investigations, has confirmed allegations that AID Administrator Ronald Roskens abused his public office for private gain. I call on President Bush to appoint new leadership at AID, that will observe the high ethical standards that we expect of our senior Government officials.

In brief, the investigation found:

Administrator Roskens billed the Government for domestic travel to visit members of his family and friends and to take vacations.

Adminstrator Roskens also took four trips at Government expense to attend meetings of organizations in which he had been active as a private citizen.

Administrator Roskens or his spouse accepted something of value from nine nongovernmental entities, several of which are prohibited sources due to their financial relationship with AID.

Although the AID Inspector General investigated and referred this same misconduct, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Dr. Roskens on charges of conflict of interest, illegal gratuity, and dual compensation. And when senior AID officials referred the Inspector General's findings to the White House, Presidential Counsel C. Boyden Gray only criticized two instances in which the Administrator inadvertently and unknowingly failed to comply with applicable standards of conduct, and demanded repayments from Dr. Roskens. No other disciplinary action was taken against the AID Administrator, although his domestic travel schedule fell dramatically.

This comprehensive investigation also uncovered additional instances where Administrator Roskens violated ethics standards. During the course of the investigation, Dr. Roskens once again reimbursed funds that had been used improperly.

The results of this investigation are particularly important because they speak to the root causes of a growing leadership crisis at an Agency which administers over $7 billion in foreign aid each year. For years, independent reviewers have found serious misconduct and mismanagement at AID, culminating in a recent OMB-SWAT Team report that AID is still plagued by ineffectiveness and inefficiencies.

AID needs dynamic leadership committed to restoring and enforcing the highest ethical standards at that Agency. As this investigation revealed, Dr. Roskens personally ignored and evaded those standards, and under his stewardship, allowed an unprecedented disregard for ethics at AID, which has further disrupted the Agency. I have lost confidence in Ronald Roskens' ability to lead AID, and the President must appoint new leadership immediately.

Bush-appointed Ronald W. Roskens, Administrator of USAlD, did not improve matters during his reign. He brought to the job a management-oriented approach with effectively no foreign policy experience. During his time as administrator, several employees and contractors were cited for ethical violations, with some serving jail time. Roskens himself was fined for misuse of government travel funds and for improper acceptance of gifts9. The House Government Operations Committee staff report issued in September 1992 summed up the Agency's state: "Administrator Roskens' first year marked a new low in ethics at AID. While the administrator was flaunting executive orders and agency standards of conduct, white-collar crime among senior AID officials soared to new heights and staff morale plunged to new lows9." It was during this time when, at the request of Congress, the President's Commission on the Management of AID Programs was established. Based on their analysis, the five member committee recommended that USAID as a separate entity be abolished and incorporated directly into the State Department.

Strangely enough, within a year after Ronald Roskens allegedly being dismissed from the University of Nebraska in 1991, President George H.W. Bush selected Roskens to head the Agency of International Development (AID). (For a map of the Roskens’ connections, Try this link )
His promotion is definitely unusual because such an important government position would no doubt have involved a great deal of vetting to prevent such things as blackmail or, as in the events above, scandal. In the past the agency had provided millions of dollars in U.S. goods and services to foreign governments around the world so the possibility of corruption through extortion should have set off alarm bells. (Some have claimed the agency was nothing more than a CIA front- not such an easy allegation to dismiss as we soon see.)
And yet, nobody in the Bush administration seems to have taken any notice of Roskens dubious past. If they did, it didn’t seem to bother them at all. It didn’t take very long to see problems with Roskens however.
As Eric Konigsberg, writer for The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, pointed out back in June, 1992

If he couldn't run a university, why should he be entrusted with a $7.5 billion government agency? Probably because his sponsor was Dick Herman, a Republican National Committeeman from Nebraska whose South Bay Beer Distributors company in Los Angeles, one of the largest Anheuser Busch distributors in the country, has listed James Baker and Bob Strauss as shareholders.

Unfortunately, failure didn't exactly chasten Roskens. At AID, he promptly ushered in friends like Katherine Morgan, his new head of the foreign aid policy office, whose resume included no work in government or international development, but stints as a nun, patent lawyer, and dean of college admissions. And then there was "consultant" Kermit Hansen, a regent at the University of Nebraska.

But the director has also had some help from the White House. To White House personnel staffer Tom Kranz, AID was a safe and profitable place to dump Sally Montgomery, a friend and former stewardess; there, she earns $90,000 a year as a deputy assistant administrator.
While there's not always direct correlation between bad appointees and bad governance, under Roskens' leadership AID seemed to specialize less in international development than in the development of personal wealth. Since Roskens appointment, an impressive number of AID contractors and administrators have been sent to prison for rigging contracts, accepting bribes, and padding expense accounts. Roskens himself was forced to pay back more than $3,000 from an AID subcontractor for violation of ethical standards. And on three recent occasions, the federal government has required Roskens to reimburse private organizations, two of which are AID contractors, for honoraria or travel expenses he accepted illegally.

By October of 1992, after a year long investigation, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., chairman of Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, confirmed that AID Administrator Roskens had abused his public office for private gain. While none of the charges in the investigation involved sexual abuse, they did outline a pattern of financial and ethical misconduct. In his letter to the Speaker, Conyers states:

Although the AID Inspector General investigated and referred this same misconduct, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Dr. Roskens on charges of conflict of interest, illegal gratuity, and dual compensation. And when senior AID officials referred the Inspector General's findings to the White House, Presidential Counsel C. Boyden Gray only criticized two instances in which the Administrator inadvertently and unknowingly failed to comply with applicable standards of conduct, and demanded repayments from Dr. Roskens. No other disciplinary action was taken against the AID Administrator, although his domestic travel schedule fell dramatically.

A Textbook Example
In fact, Roskens, the University of Nebraska and AID had already had an on-going relationship even before President Bush, Sr. made this appointment. That relationship might go a long way in explaining how this unusual appointment occurred. While chancellor at University of Nebraska, Roskens had negotiated an exchange program with Kabul University in Afghanistan, and oversaw development of the center for Afghanistan studies.
Under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center, the agency spent $51 million on the university education program in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994. One part of that grant involved the publishing of textbooks in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu. In an effort to fight communism, and specifically the Soviet occupation, the textbooks were filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance.

It must have sounded like a good idea at the time, the indoctrination of children to generate Islamic militancy.

According to the Washington Post

During that time of Soviet occupation, regional military leaders in Afghanistan helped the U.S. smuggle books into the country. They demanded that the primers contain anti-Soviet passages. Children were taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines, agency officials said. They acknowledged that at the time it also suited U.S. interests to stoke hatred of foreign invaders...
AID dropped funding of Afghan programs in 1994. But the textbooks continued to circulate in various versions, even after the Taliban seized power in 1996.
Officials said private humanitarian groups paid for continued reprintings during the Taliban years. Today, the books remain widely available in schools and shops, to the chagrin of international aid workers.
“The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the texts are even much worse,” said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-based nonprofit.
An aid worker in the region reviewed an unrevised 100-page book and counted 43 pages containing violent images or passages.

According to The Genesis of Global Jihad in Afghanistan, quoted by Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistani nuclear physicist, essayist and political-defence analyst.

The program ended in 1994 but the books continued to circulate: ‘US-sponsored textbooks, which exhort Afghan children to pluck out the eyes of their enemies and cut off their legs, are still widely available in Afghanistan and Pakistan, some in their original form.

Ronald W. Roskens
Achievement 2004

Ronald W. Roskens, 58PhD, has gone from his boyhood on an Iowa farm to the national and global arenas of higher education and international relations. This accomplished University of Iowa graduate finished his doctoral degree and went on to a lifetime of exceptional achievements that have allowed him to share his UI experiences with the world.

After completing an undergraduate and master’s degree at the University of Northern Iowa and a doctoral degree at the UI, the Spencer, Iowa, native began his professional career in 1959 as a professor at Kent State University, where he eventually was named executive vice president. This role became the springboard for a lengthy and distinguished tenure in higher education, including a position as chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and as president of the four campuses of the University of Nebraska system. During this period, he also served as chairman of the board of the American Council on Education.

Roskens has been an indefatigable educational leader who has brought an international perspective to his life’s work. He developed faculty exchange programs for the University of Nebraska system that encompassed partnerships with Kabul University in Afghanistan and with higher education and medical institutions in the Soviet Union and China.

Such global vision earned the UI graduate the recognition of former President George H. Bush in 1990, when he appointed Roskens as the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. In this role, Roskens served as chief executive officer of an $8.1 billion annual program offering economic and humanitarian assistance to more than 100 countries throughout the developing world.

In 1993, Roskens became president and chief executive officer of Action International, a think tank comprised of 35 former heads of state and other policy leaders. Just two years later, the Omaha, Nebraska, resident was named honorary consul general of Japan and was elected to the board of the Friends of the World Food Programme, a United Nations agency headquartered in Rome, Italy.

This kind of work in the international community helped Roskens begin a business consulting firm—Global Communications—in Omaha in 1997. While continuing as president of Global Communications, Roskens also has served as director of ConAgra Foods, the Russian Farm Community Project, and the Capitol Federal Foundation of Topeka, Kansas.

Despite his international focus, Roskens still makes time for causes closer to home. He served as interim executive officer of the Omaha Public Library from 1996 to 1998 and has served since 1997 as chairman of the Omaha/Douglas County Building Commission. In addition, he has served on numerous national boards and committees—including the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Eligibility—and currently is a member of the University of Iowa’s National Campaign Steering Committee. He is a member of the UI Foundation’s Presidents Club, as well as a life member of the UI Alumni Association. Roskens credits his wife, Lois, as an invaluable partner throughout his successful career.

Ronald W. Roskens has made diverse and significant contributions to the field of higher education and policy. Though his work has taken him from an Iowa farm to a much broader global arena, he has stayed true to his most important UI values and has used them to shape a career of international significance.

LINCOLN, NEB. — The reason that Ronald Roskens was fired as president of the University of Nebraska last summer and given a $261,000 settlement is still a mystery to the public.

No one on the state`s board of regents will say why, and last week the state`s attorney general announced a legal opinion that supports their silence.

``All of us would love to, but our attorneys have advised us not to say anything,`` said Regent Donald Blank.

Not that Roskens, a well-regarded educator with 12 years in the job, did anything wrong. In announcing its action, the eight-member board ruled out personal or fiscal misconduct as reasons for the firing.

But not even Roskens is saying why. He and board members signed a lengthy document that bars discussion of the reasons, citing concern that a lawsuit might arise if disclosure were to hurt his job prospects.

Two powerful state senators say the public has a right to know why Roskens was fired, and Atty. Gen. Nicholas Spire agrees with them, despite his legal opinion.

In an addendum to his opinion, Spire soundly slapped the board`s wrists.

``Public officials have a profound duty to account to the public for precisely how and why they perform the public`s business,`` he wrote. ``This accountability . . . transcends the limited legal obligations of the open meetings law.``

Roskens was fired on a 7-1 vote at a closed-door session July 31. He will receive $261,000 in salary and retirement benefits for the remaining two years of his contract, less what he earns on a new job in the second year.

What has especially upset legislators was that Roskens had signed a new three year-contract with the board the previous summer.

The $261,000 buyout was unnecessary, argues State Sen. Jerome Warner, chairman of the unicameral legislature`s powerful Appropriations Committee. Roskens was performing well, and the regents could have waited until 1991 to end his contract, he said.

``Most of us assume they simply don`t want to acknowledge all the petty little things that brought him down,`` Warner said. ``They`re hiding behind a legal facade.``

The regents` action left many in higher educational circles surprised and puzzled. Roskens, 56, former president of Kent State University and a past chairman of the American Council on Education, has a solid reputation.

Not that his performance was flawless during his 12 years on the job. But in that time, appropriations more than doubled; the endowment fund grew seven- fold; and in the last few years, large increases in research spending and faculty salaries have been achieved.

Roskens says the clash stemmed from a difference in management styles.

``The board now wants to be more hands-on,`` he said in one of the few comments he would make on the matter.

Former board member James Moylan, a Roskens supporter, said the firing was the result of, ``personality clashes and petty differences.``

Board chairman Nancy Hoch argues against these interpretations. ``This was a seven-to-one decision by the board-an overwhelming majority,`` she said. ``It certainly had nothing to do with personality.``

Privately, those close to the decision cite a number of isolated incidents as reasons leading to his ouster.

They involve his many travels to China, where the university has some 15 educational agreements; a computer system delivered before the board voted on it; his speaking in favor of adding a new college to the system before the board made its decision; failure to promptly sue a contractor for shoddy work on a university building; and earning the displeasure of chairman Hoch when he was not present with facts and figures at a legislative hearing at which she was heatedly grilled on detailed budgetary questions.

``Those things don`t explain why they did it,`` said John White, president of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.

In Nebraska, regents are elected by district, like state representatives. Roskens` troubles began in late 1988, when two of his supporters lost their re-election bids to the board.

``The president has a strong personality. He had strong supporters and detractors. When the detractors gained control, they were after his head,`` said state senator Ronald Withem, chairman of the legislature`s education committee.

"Some [appointees] view these posts as stopping grounds, their first job in public service, and a start at building their resumes," says Pat Ingraham, a political scientist at Syracuse University. Because of this, she notes, many political appointees take whatever post is offered them, regardless of their experience or interest in the agency's field. But some political appointees don't come in to rocket-fuel their careers; they come in to resuscitate them after a crash. Consider Ronald Roskens, director of AID, who arrived there in 1990 after being fired as president of the University of Nebraska.

If he couldn't run a university, why should he be entrusted with a $7.5 billion government agency? Probably because his sponsor was Dick Herman, a Republican National Committeeman from Nebraska whose South Bay Beer Distributors company in Los Angeles, one of the largest Anheuser Busch distributors in the country, has listed James Baker and Bob Strauss as shareholders.

Unfortunately, failure didn't exactly chasten Roskens. At AID, he promptly ushered in friends like Katherine Morgan, his new head of the foreign aid policy office, whose resume included no work in government or international development, but stints as a nun, patent lawyer, and dean of college admissions. And then there was "consultant" Kermit Hansen, a regent at the University of Nebraska.

But the director has also had some help from the White House. To White House personnel staffer Tom Kranz, AID was a safe and profitable place to dump Sally Montgomery, a friend and former stewardess; there, she earns $90,000 a year as a deputy assistant administrator.

While there's not always direct correlation between bad appointees and bad governance, under Roskens' leadership AID seemed to specialize less in international development than in the development of personal wealth. Since Rosken's appointment, an impressive number of AID contractors and administrators have been sent to prison for rigging contracts, accepting bribes, and padding expense accounts. Roskens himself was forced to pay back more than $3,000 from an AID subcontractor for violation of ethical standards. And on three recent occasions, the federal government has required Roskens to reimburse private organizations, two of which are AID contractors, for honoraria or travel expenses he accepted illegally.

Baker and Bush now bypass AID on all significant foreign aid activities. Dick Armitage at the State Department is in charge of aid to the Soviet Union, while Lawrence Eagleburger runs assistance programs for Eastern Europe. Other agencies, from the Peace Corps to the Department of Agriculture, are picking up the rest of AID's slack. Unfortunately, taxpayers are still paying AID to keep out of the way.

In my opinion, most organized religion is a load of crap. When it comes to Judaism and the many denominations of Christianity, even Islam, everybody is fighting over whose god has the biggest dick, when in fact, they were all castrated centuries ago. I’m more attracted to certain elements within the Hindu Pantheon, the terrible deities of Tibet, animism, magic, voodoo, and other less-respected forms of so called 'religion'. They all offer much more in the ways of god or goddess-like experience. Nothing organized about any of it. All encourage pursuits by the individual and are not geared toward the masses. Hinduism is perhaps the most un-organized of all. There just isn’t a filing system big enough in the galaxy to ever contain it, therefore ensuring its validity and power until the end of time. Ever since I can remember I’ve had a keen interest in the darker side of the mystical experience. I was exposed to it at an early age and I attribute that to my family’s relation to Freemasonry more than anything else. I did attend the local Methodist Church for a few weeks when I was 9 years old, at my parents’ request. No sir, didn’t like it! It had absolutely no meaning and was the dullest thing and the biggest waste of time I had experienced in my life up to that point. When I told my folks I hated it they just shrugged their shoulders and said I didn’t have to go anymore. They were the coolest! I then started attending the local Order of DeMolay, an organization for children of Freemasons. That was a little more interesting at first; meetings were inside the Masonic lodge with the skulls and the all-seeing eye, the checkered floor, the black and white pillars, and other odd symbols. I didn’t understand it at all but there was a mystery about the whole ordeal. I eventually lost interest in it because, as a young teenager, there were plenty of vices awaiting me. Regardless, I think those Masonic connections, however short-lived they were, stayed within me and later encouraged me to begin my own studies into the mystery cults, the history of magic ritual, eastern mysticism, etc., a few years later.

Hammer of Los » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:30 am wrote:...

Murdering heathens and stealing their gold in Jesus' name never gets old, does it?

They think that's a role model?

It's about time they knocked it off.

I'm pretty sure Jesus wouldn't like it.

...

Brother Expelled: Was It To Tarnish Gov’t Witness In Demolay Molestation Case?

Below are documents and a write-up from a brother out of Florida. His expulsion seemed to be an effort to diminish the brother’s testimony. He reported on possible abuses of a DeMolay father to the Grand Lodge because he wanted to protect future children from molestation by a “well-respected” leader in Florida Freemasonry. At least sixteen boys were victims. This continues to show the abusive, and sometimes perverse, attitudes perpetuated by the Grand Lodges in the United States.

The Grand Lodge system, particularly in the South, is one of the greatest failures of American Masonry. Instead of upholding strong virtues, the system has become one of abuse, fraud, perversion, and evil-doing. The leaders developed methods to abuse the protective Masonic landmarks for their own purposes, forever smearing the good name of Freemasonry.

Grand Lodges that have incorporated (and most have), are no longer purely private organizations, but have entered the civil realm, and are now subject to civil authority and to the rules of incorporation in their state. They can no longer legally violate the civil rights of their members, nor commit injustices with impunity. Civil courts will rule upon their practices because they’ve removed themselves from the exclusive private world, and become public entities.

My expulsion couldn’t have happened at a better time in my life! I’d just finished serving as the Worshipful Master of Northside Lodge No. 283, in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I was confronted by the petty politics of those jealous of my accomplishments. I served as Curator of the Florida Masonic Museum at the Masonic Home, and was ready to spread my wings and move on to other Masonic projects I’d been planning!

The Internet was still new to me in 1998, but I quickly saw the educational value, and tried to persuade the Deputy Grand Master and incoming Grand Master, Jacque Couture, to display the museum collections online, thereby making them accessible to people all over the world. Grand Master Couture had already recognized my work on behalf of Masonry, and appointed me to the General Services Panel at the Masonic Home, as well as the Masonic Renewal Committee, and the Penal Affairs Committee.

The website, to which I’d hoped to dedicate my time, however, was not to be. Grand Master Couture claimed that the $19.95 per month web hosting fee would be a strain on Grand Lodge finances, so it quickly became evident that I personally had to fund the new museum/library venture on my own. It became Phoenixmasonry.

Within days, I was sent a certified letter from the Grand Master, terminating my appointment as Curator of the Florida Masonic Museum. A few weeks later, my lodge charged me with un-Masonic conduct, and Grand Master Couture appointed a committee to investigate those charges. The committee determined the charges were unfounded.

First, I protested being discharged as Curator of the Florida Masonic Museum, after Grand Master Couture accused me of selling Masonic artifacts that didn’t belong to me. The truth was that 90% of the collection at the Masonic Home Museum actually DID belong to me, and I had every right to buy, sell or trade as I saw fit, to improve the quality of the display. That fact was understood by Past Grand Master Samuel Cowan, who envisioned the Masonic Home Museum, and dedicated it in 1997. After a thorough investigation by Past Grand Master David Eschrich, of the Grand Lodge Jurisprudence Committee, it was recommended that I be reinstated as Curator. No one else was qualified, or wanted to do the job!

Second, I had to respond to my lodge about their charges of un-Masonic conduct. It was alleged that I lied on my petition to gain admission to Freemasonry, but the timing was certainly questionable, as I’d been a perpetual member in good standing for nine years. I’d been through the chairs, served as Worshipful Master, and was currently serving on a couple of Grand Lodge committees!

The un-Masonic conduct charge was untrue, and I supplied letters from many reputable Masons who investigated my petition when I joined. I read to the lodge letters from Past Grand Master Samuel Cowan, Right Worshipful Louis Drake, Right Worshipful Paul Leathers, Worshipful Charles Jatko, and my father, James R. Lettelier.

I did have a criminal conviction in my past, but I served my probation honorably, and my civil rights were restored before I ever applied for membership in Northside Lodge. The Masonic Digest of Florida is very specific about having civil rights restored before becoming a Freemason!

Grand Master Couture succeeded in pushing the un-Masonic conduct charge from the lodge level to a Grand Lodge Tribunal, after violating every Masonic Law of due process. Penal Code Section 44.25, states: “Charges shall be in writing and conform to the following: …(d) Each charge shall specify…the name or names of witnesses having knowledge of such action and upon whose testimony the accuser or accusers will rely upon at trial of the accused.” The charges filed on October 3, 1998, failed to specify the names of any witnesses of the alleged violation of Penal Code 44.07, and were legally insufficient.

Additionally, Penal Code Section 44.34(c) states: “The accused shall have the right to be present at the time of the reading of the charges and the answer but shall retire from the Lodge immediately thereafter and shall not be permitted to be present at the time of discussion or voting.” On the night my charges were read, October 19, 1998, the Worshipful Master ordered me not to attend.

On November 16, 1998, without notifying me, the lodge took a third vote on whether to pursue charges, and by so doing, violated my right of due process, failing to notify me of the vote, and denying me of the right to be present for the reading of the charges and my answer. (See the letter of protest from my attorney, Alan Rosenthal.)

Finally, my expulsion from the fraternity was in violation of Penal Code Section 44.56, which specifically states: “Expulsion is the severest penalty for the punishment of offenses known to the plan of Freemasonry and it drives its subject from the circle of the Mystic Brotherhood. It is, therefore, properly applied only to the gravest offenses known to Masonic Law. It may properly be inflicted upon a provoking repetition of an offense for which a Brother has been suspended, or for the violation of the Mystic Covenant of Secrecy, or for the violation of any injunction of the moral law which exhibits an intolerable degree of moral depravity.”

I was not found guilty of a provoking any repetition of an offense for which I’d been suspended, nor a violation of the Mystic Covenant of Secrecy, nor for violating the moral law which exhibits an intolerable degree of moral depravity (emphasis added). I was found guilty under Penal Code Section 44.07, of “obtaining a Degree or Degrees of Freemasonry by fraud, untrue statements or representations, or by knowingly concealing and withholding information relevant and material to eligibility for such Degrees.” According to Florida Masonic law, the maximum penalty for that violation is a suspension, and my expulsion was not in accord with the law.

I believe that the expulsion was imposed in an attempt destroy my credibility, as I was to testify on behalf of the DeMolay boys who’d been molested! During the year that took place, I served on Grand Master Couture’s Penal Affairs Committee, in Zone 6, District 21. It was my duty to report problems in my Masonic district, and I did report the incident of John Shirley giving alcohol to DeMolay boys, and taking pornographic pictures of them at a Masonic youth camp. After my trial lodge filed its charges, on December 18, 1998, the St. Petersburg Times published an article about a Mason from a nearby lodge, who was caught molesting DeMolay boys while serving as their chapter “dad.”

I was a member of the Grand Master’s District Publicity and Public Relations Committee, and on December 22, 1998, a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times, asked me what I knew, and when I knew it. I told the Times the same thing I’d told Couture months before, but when the reporter called Grand Master Couture to confirm it, Coutre claimed I was lying! On December 23, 1998 (the very next day), the St. Petersburg Times confirmed I’d been telling the truth, and that the Grand Lodge of Florida, as well as DeMolay leaders at the State and National level, knew very well about Shirley’s reported abuse, yet did nothing.

It’s the old traditional view in Freemasonry that you keep everything in house no matter what the issue is; you don’t sully the name of the fraternity with problems. The leadership of Florida wanted the problems to be “hush, hush” and to sweep it under the rug. They knew that if such horrors became public, it would destroy the fraternity’s name and the membership to decline.

The worst thing about the molestation of these innocent boys by Shirley came when the abuse was made public…the Grand Lodge of Florida and DeMolay International circled the wagons and treated the victims like filth. The boys believed in Freemasonry through DeMolay. No assistance was given for the needed help and counseling. As a result, St. Petersburg Chapter of DeMolay, a once thriving Chapter of one hundred or more, is now defunct.

The former DeMolay “dad,” John Shirley, was convicted and sentenced to multiple life terms in the Florida Department of Corrections for molesting sixteen boys! I received a letter from the Department of Corrections on September 28, 2010, informing me that John Shirley is now deceased. The victims and their parents sued DeMolay International, and settled their lawsuits for many millions of dollars using my deposition testimony! Grand Master Jacque Couture died of cancer in June, 2003.

From time to time, people ask me: “Why are you so loyal to Freemasonry, and why do you keep working so hard to promote the craft, after being tinged with expulsion?” I simply reply that I wasn’t expelled by Freemasonry, rather by men of questionable character who claim to be Freemasons, but have no real concept of the principles Freemasonry teaches, or what it’s truly all about!”

It would be a great success to see the Grand Lodge system reigned in and reestablished as providers and protectors of true Masonic principles.

Bro. Lettelier has since joined the ranks of Co-Masonry after the debacle with the Grand Lodge in Florida. He has continued to build one of the greatest museums and libraries of Freemasonry. Most of it is available online through his website and websites authorized to reproduce the materials he’s derived.

For quite some time there has been a growing number of unsubstantiated rumors of sexual misconduct within the Royal Order of Jesters (see the previous article about molestation in Demolay). However, more light has glimmered upon in the darkest of areas of our Fraternity once again. This time, numerous states are involved showing that organized prostitution and abuse is rampant. Those states include, but are not limited to, Texas, Florida, and New York.

The first sign of the Jesters’ abuse came in the form of an anonymous email sent to the Grand Lodge of Texas. The claim was generalized. The information within the email was investigated by the Grand Lodge of Texas. The appointed Grand Lodge Officers were unable to find a Mason who could substantiate the unsigned email.

Second, there are Court Documents filed in The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida Miami Division which indicated there was a problem within the Jesters’ Order (Case Number 07-21228-CIV-Martinez-Bandstra, dated December 20, 2007). The documents list 57 witnesses, 19 of which are believed to be members of the Jesters. These witnesses were to testify about illegal drugs and child prostitution. See the attached documents showing the statements from the abused children, the original civil complaint, and the witness list from that legal proceeding.

Third, on March 9, 2008, a retired New York State Supreme Court Justice resigned his post as a hearing officer. The resignation came as federal agents investigate his alleged role in taking a local massage parlor worker across state lines for purposes of prostitution. The FBI and U.S. Border Patrol agents determined it was necessary to investigate allegations that retired Judge Ronald H. Tills, his former law clerk, and a retired police captain took the female massage parlor employee in a motor home to a gathering of members of a nationwide group called the Royal Order of Jesters.

At the Jesters event, law enforcement officials said, the woman allegedly was paid to perform sexual favors. Police said the men who took her to the event could face federal criminal charges for transporting the female across state lines for the purposes of prostitution. These men were found guilty and sentenced to a prison term.

The U.S. Attorney’s office stated that Tills admitted the following:

-He was responsible for recruiting out-of-state prostitutes to work a Jesters meeting in Dunkirk “in or about September 2001,” while serving as director of the Buffalo chapter of the Jesters
-He recruited an illegal alien prostitute from a North Tonawanda massage parlor to service men at a Jesters event in Kentucky in October 2005.
-He arranged for transporting prostitutes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to a national Jesters meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., in the spring of 2006.
-He recruited a woman from the same massage parlor to work as a prostitute at a Jesters gathering in Pennsylvania sometime in the fall of 2006. He also arranged for a Buffalo-area prostitute to travel to Florida for a Jesters event.
-He arranged for prostitutes from three different states to service a Jesters meeting in Brantford, Ont., in October 2007.

The Federal investigators have reason to believe that multiple chapters of the Jesters were involved in transporting prostitutes across state lines. This information can be found in the court papers filed by U.S. Attorney Robert C. Moscati.

Probe of Jesters’ carousing goes national

By Dan Herbeck

Updated: August 20, 2010

To hear the leadership of the Royal Order of Jesters tell it, the illegal activities that ensnared three Buffalo-area members in a federal investigation are isolated events not in keeping with Jesters traditions.

But sources close to the investigation and former Jesters from other parts of the country tell a different story, one of bizarre activities — including routinely hiring prostitutes for gatherings, sex competitions and degrading initiation rites for new members — at many Jesters outings, with off-duty police hired to keep nonmembers away.

“I quit the Jesters more than 20 years ago, and this kind of thing has been going on at least 40 or 50 years,” said Malcolm “Mutt” Herring, 90, of Montgomery, Ala. “I quit because I don’t drink, and I don’t mess around with other women, other than my wife. Going to one of their events was like going to a whorehouse.”

While the case against the three Buffalo-area Jesters is wrapping up, with sentencings expected soon, federal agents have expanded their investigation and are looking into allegations that illegal activities occurred at outings sponsored by more of the Jesters’ 191 chapters. The local men who pleaded guilty in the Buffalo case, and others, have cooperated with the feds, providing information about Jesters events in other cities.

Gary N. Martin, president of the 22,000-member Jesters, says he is disturbed about the allegations. But Martin said that, to his knowledge, such conduct is extremely isolated and never condoned by the organization.

“We believe that this is isolated, inappropriate, indeed illegal conduct by only an extremely small fraction of our membership,” said Martin, a Houston car dealer. “We have, however, taken a number of significant steps to make it abundantly clear to [members] that such behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

The Jesters, a 98-year-old, nationwide fraternal group whose past members have included movie stars, judges, prominent businessmen and two presidents, is a tax-exempt organization that admits it is dedicated to one thing: the pursuit of mirth and merriment. Last year, the group put its Buffalo chapter on probation, after investigators from a human trafficking task force learned that Buffalo members took prostitutes—some of them illegal aliens — to Jesters weekend gatherings, known as “books.”

A Jesters spokesman said a chapter in Big Sandy, Ky., also was put on probation because of incidents uncovered in the same federal probe.

Code of secrecy

Retired State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tills; his former law clerk, Michael R. Stebick of Orchard Park; and retired Lockport police Capt. John Trowbridge all pleaded guilty to transporting prostitutes across state lines. Trowbridge is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in Buffalo’s federal court, and Tills is scheduled for a pre-sentencing conference Thursday.

With rare exceptions, the Jesters’ 22,000 members operate under a strict code of secrecy.

“When I joined, they told me their motto was, ‘What you hear here, what you see here, stays here when you leave here,’ ” said J. L. Edwards, a former member from South Carolina. “Everybody’s told to keep the secret.”

Edwards, a farmer in his 60s, said he belonged to the Jesters for seven years, ending in 1998. Edwards said he quit because he felt guilty about things he saw at the Jesters’ gatherings.

Edwards told The Buffalo News the incidents he witnessed included:

Prostitutes walking around parties, wearing only panties, soliciting Jesters to meet them later in their hotel rooms.

“Sex contests” involving prostitutes and Jesters members, performing in front of large groups of Jesters.

Off-duty cops in uniform, making sure that no non-Jesters entered the rooms where activities were going on.

“You had prominent people at these books — ministers, police chiefs. It’s an elite group, people like Judge Tills,” Edwards said. “A lot of these guys were prominent men in their 60s and 70s. They have beautiful young women with them, and it makes them feel like they’re a young buck again.”

A national Jesters spokesman, Robert Leonard, said the organization is unaware of any such activities. And if they ever did occur, he said, they were not part of the official functions.

The case involving Tills, 74, of Hamburg, sent shock waves through the national Jesters organization.

A former assemblyman and State Supreme Court justice, Tills hastily retired in March 2008 from his $300-a-day job as a hearing officer for the court. His resignation from the part-time post occurred shortly after he became aware that members of the Western New York Human Trafficking Task Force were investigating him and other Jesters.

Tills case a shocker

Last September, Tills pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.

Between 2001 and 2007, Tills admitted, he arranged for prostitutes to perform at Jesters events in Dunkirk; Brantford, Ont.; Niagara Falls, Ont.; and unspecified cities in Florida, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

As the former director of the Buffalo Jesters, Tills has cooperated extensively with federal agents who are investigating other chapters, sources close to the case said.

And court papers filed by Assistant U. S. Attorney Robert C. Moscati make clear that investigators do not believe Tills was the only Jester involved in procuring prostitutes.

“This organization maintained chapters throughout the United States. [It] was the custom of these chapters to host periodic meetings, usually on weekends,” Moscati said of the Jesters.

“At most of these meetings, some members of the organization would be tasked to arrange for the presence of women at the meeting, for the specific purpose of utilizing the women to engage in sexual intercourse and other sexual activity with the organization’s members in exchange for money,” Moscati said.

Martin, the group’s president, is working to distance himself from what happened with the Buffalo chapter.

Last August Martin sent a directive to all 191 local chapters, forbidding the following conduct during initiation ceremonies:

“Any type of physical brutality, such as whipping, beating, striking, branding, electronic shocking [or] placing of a harmful substance on the body.”

Sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement to small spaces, or other activity that subjects Jesters to “an unreasonable risk of harm.”

Any activity involving consumption of food, liquor, drugs or other substances that would expose a Jester to “an unreasonable risk of harm.”

“The warning was sent out in an abundance of caution,” Leonard said. “It was based on some prominent lawsuits filed about hazing at college campuses. It had nothing to do with any specific incident involving Jesters.”

Many Masons upset

The Jesters are a division of the Freemasons, one of the world’s largest and oldest fraternal organizations. Many Masons are upset and angry about what has happened with this subgroup.

Some feel it may be time to disband the Jesters, said Christopher L. Hodapp of Indianapolis, co-author of the book “Freemasons for Dummies.”

“They’ve got no business being Masons,” Hodapp said of the Jesters who cavort with prostitutes. “It’s completely opposed to the obligations we take in joining a Masonic lodge. The Masons are about family, community and faith-oriented activities that make good men better.”

According to Leonard, five former Buffalo Jesters — Tills, Trowbridge, Stebick and two other men he declined to name — resigned from the Jesters because of the federal probe.

He added that, as far as national leaders know, the only Jesters events featuring prostitutes were those identified in the federal case in Buffalo.

But some investigators doubt that.

“I don’t believe that,” said Elizabeth Fildes, an Erie County sheriff’s deputy and program director of the Human Trafficking Task Force. “It seems like it went on for a very long time.”

The task force includes investigators from the FBI, U. S. Border Patrol, U. S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and the Erie and Niagara sheriffs’ offices.

“From my conversations with the government, it seems they believe a lot of the other Jesters chapters were doing the same things as the Buffalo guys,” said Joel L. Daniels, Stebick’s attorney.

Critics of the Jesters — including Sandy Frost, an online journalist from Tacoma, Wash. — said it is outrageous the group gets tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service since, as stated in its own literature, its sole purpose is to have fun.

http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article152707.ece

In a related article, a Sheriff’s Deputy (Michael Lesinski) admitted to hiding the above crimes of the New York judge and driving prostitutes to work at a convention (November 2010):

Ex-deputy admits hiding crime
Michael Lesinski admits he drove prostitutes to hotel for Jesters’ convention.

By Dan Herbeck

Updated: November 19, 2010, 9:04 PM

A retired Erie County sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty Friday to concealing a felony crime in a case involving prostitutes and a fraternal group called the Royal Order of Jesters.

Michael Lesinski, 50, of Lake View, admitted in federal court that in April 2005, he transported “approximately six or seven” prostitutes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont., where the Jesters were having a convention.

According to court papers, Lesinski was a member of the Jesters’ Buffalo chapter, which included a state judge, a former Lockport police captain and a former state court official. All previously took guilty pleas in the case.

Authorities said Lesinski, who has since retired, was still active as a road deputy at the time of the off-duty incident involving the prostitutes.

“[Lesinski] pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony, which is basically concealment of a felony crime,” said Rodney O. Personius, the former deputy’s lawyer.

The defense lawyer said Lesinski admits that he knew the women were prostitutes after dropping them off at the Ontario hotel, but he said Lesinski takes the position that he did not know they were prostitutes when he took them across the border into Canada.

U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny approved the guilty plea, which was presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert C. Moscati.

Lesinski is the fourth former public official to be convicted of a crime in connection with the Jesters probe, which was conducted by FBI agents and the Western New York Human Trafficking Task Force.

In August 2009, retired State Supreme Court Judge Ronald H. Tills, 74, was sentenced by Skretny to 18 months in prison after admitting that he coordinated the procurement of prostitutes for several Jesters events. Skretny called the former judge’s conduct “disgraceful.”

Former Lockport Police Capt. John Trowbridge was put on probation for two years after taking a guilty plea in the case, and Michael Stebick, a former Erie County prosecutor and state court law clerk, was sentenced to four years of home confinement after also pleading to a crime.

National leaders of the Jesters, a national organization affiliated with the Masons, have repeatedly said they were shocked to learn that members of the Buffalo chapter were employing prostitutes at their gatherings.

Lesinski retired from police work in November 2008 after 21 years with the Sheriff’s Office.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police- ... 258929.ece

These series of incidents may not seem like much except to those in the profane world looking at Freemasonry and casting judgment. If we take these incidents in the collective, it is apparent that the instances of abuse are widespread and scattered throughout the jurisdictions in the United States. Are we to sit around and await “newly elected Grand Lodge Officers” to clean up the mess? Such comments are routinely made by our rank-and-file, but these situations have been going on for over a decade. Waiting for new blood to takeover the Grand Lodge chairs is clearly the worst thing the Masonic membership may do.

The Franklin Credit Union had two boards. The small, governing board included Larry King, Jarrett Webb and James C. Hart, Jr., the secretary, who were named as child abusers by victim-witnesses before the Legislature's Franklin committee. The firms run by the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, along with other prestigious Omaha corporations and law firms, showed up on the larger, "Advisory Board."

On the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union Advisory Board were:

Chairman Harold Andersen, publisher, World-Herald
Rep. Hal Daub (R-2nd Congressional District)
N.P. Dodge II, President, N.P. Dodge Real Estate
Lamont Wallin, Kutak, Rock, & Huie law finn
L.B. Thomas, Vice President, ConAgra
Jerome Jamrog, Senior Vice President, Commercial Federal Savings and Loan
Arnold Nesbitt, Senior Assistant Manager, Union Pacific

Railroad
David Hinton, Assistant Dean, College of Public Affairs,

University of Nebraska, Omaha
Louis Lamberty. County Surveyor
Samuel Marvin, President, R-Lynn, Inc., Council Bluffs,

Iowa
Leslie McAuley, Supervisor, Director of Quality Control,

Northwest Bell
Donald Miller, Vice President, Omaha National Bank
Carolyn Rothery, Byrne & Randall, P.c, Omaha
Dale Wolforth, Vice President (ret.), Murray State Bank
John S. Zeilinger, attorney, Baird-Holz, Omaha
Michael Albert, President, Albert Food Brokerage
Angelo Amato, General Superintendent Customer Records

Department. M.U.D.
David Ambrose, Professor, Department of Marketing, University of Nebraska, Omaha
Joseph Barker III, Massachusetts Mutual Insurance

Company
Dana "Woody" Bradford, Bradford, Coenen, & Ashford
Leo Eisenstatt, Erickson, Sederstrom, Leigh, Eisenstatt, Johnson, Kinnamon

James Healy, Administrator of Urban Affairs, Northern Natural Gas

L.B. "Red" Thomas headed up finances for ConAgra, which put funds into Franklin certificates of deposit. Union Pacific, and its executives acting as individuals, poured in money, while Union Pacific officer Arnold Nesbitt sat on the board.

Ak-Sar-Ben interfaced with the Franklin credit union proper, but also with individuals in the orbit of Larry King. One of its biggest financial contributors in recent years was the department store heir and child abuser, Alan Baer.

He was formerly Senior Vice President of Legal, Compliance and Legislative Services to Alegent Creighton Health, which is the largest nongovernmental employer in the state of Nebraska and the largest hospital in the state of Nebraska with 10 hospitals, 450 employed physicians, and over 100 separate points of entry into the health system.

[He] was the Venerable Master of the Scottish Rite, Lodge of Perfection in the Omaha Valley and has been active in Masonic bodies over the course of thirty years. He is a member of the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, and Tangier Shrine, where he has been a member of the Royal Order of Jesters since 1985 and served as its Director in 1998. He was the Personal Representative of the Scottish Rite Sovereign Grand Inspector General of Nebraska for several years and has also been a member of the Scottish Rite Cathedral Board of Omaha which oversees the operation of the Scottish Rite Center. [He] was appointed Scottish Rite Deputy to the Supreme Council for Nebraska in May 2007 and Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Nebraska in 2009.

Over the course of the past thirty years, he has been involved with the Salvation Army having served on the local Omaha Board and for the past fifteen years served on the Advisory Board of the National Salvation Army. He has served the Omaha Salvation Army in many other capacities: Board Resources Committee, General Chairman of the Christmas Committee, Planning Committee, Chairman of the Advisory Board, and Bequest and Endowment Committee in 1999. He received the Others Award in 1994. In addition, he was formerly Chairman of the Combined Health Agencies of America.

[He] is a very active member and leader in many legal and civic organizations, including American Diabetes Association, American Lung Association, Arthritis Foundation, Boy Scouts of America, Combined Health Agencies Drive of Nebraska, Goodwill Industries, United Way, Rotary International, Chamber of Commerce and the Omaha Home for Boys. [He] was President of the Omaha Bar Association in 1984 – 1985.

6/2008 - DeMolay Legion of Honor, Deputy member of The International Supreme Council, Order of DeMolay

Black Hills State University - Recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Alumnus Award

4/12/2012 – Inducted into the Goodwill Omaha Hall of Fame

11/13/2012 - Recipient of the Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser presented by the Association of Fundraising Professionals

1/31/2013 - Recipient of The Grand Master's Humanitarian Award presented by the Grand Lodge of Nebraska

5/1/2013 - Recipient of the 2013 Robert M. Spire Public Service Award presented by the Omaha Bar Association, Law Day 2013.

An employee of [the firm I'm trying not to mention] Jay Derr, came to the attention of Caradori and the Franklin committee, in connection with King's sexual escapades. Caradori received reports from at least two sources, that Derr had taken a private flight with King to the 1988 Republican National Convention, where King organized one of his sex parties. In his notes of March 29, 1990, Caradori reported a local law enforcement officer receiving call from the DEA in D.C. requesting help on Jay Derr." Then Paul Bonacci testified about him before the Franklin committee on June 12, 1990.

SENATOR LYNCH: Does the name Jay Derr mean anything to you?

BONACCI: Yeah, Derr I know. Jason Derr.

SENATOR SCHMT: Why is that name familiar to you?

BONACCI: Well, there was a guy that was at some parties and stuff, he told me his name was Jason Derr. And that's all I remember. I mean, because he was having-you know, he asked me questions a lot and then he took me out sometimes, a couple times, and gave me money and-

SENATOR SCHMT: Did you have sex with Jason Derr?

BONACCI: Yes.

Political Organizations: ·Bush for President Campaign · Daub for Senator Campaign, 2nd District, Finance Chairman, 1988 ·Lawyers for Bush/Quayle, Nebraska Chairman, 1988-1992 ·Nebraska Finance Committee, Vice Chairman, 1988 ·Lawyers for Reagan/Bush, Nebraska Chairman, 1984 ·National Finance Committee, 1992 ·Nebraska Finance Committee, Vice Chairman, 1988 ·RNLA Judicial Advocacy Panel Member, 2003-present

It is Ritual that sets DeMolay apart from all other Youth Movements and keeps it in a class by itself. This is something that should be remembered and practiced at all times by all Chapters, members, and leaders. Ritual MUST be used to the utmost in the expansion and development of the Order.

It is Ritual that has held DeMolay together ever since it was founded in 1919. It is Ritual that has inspired numerous DeMolays to become state governors; many to reach flag rank in the U.S. Armed Services; more than 125 to become 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Masons, and hundreds of thousands to climb to the tops of their chosen walks of life and community effort.

Ritual perfection is of the greatest importance. There should be no deviation - not even the slightest - in exemplification of the Initiatory and DeMolay Degrees and the presentation of the Flower Talk.

However, from the mid-1960s onward, there was increasing dissatisfaction with the use of civic resources for a celebration emphatically excluding all but the white elite. As late as the early 1960s, Jews were excluded not only as members but as guests. As the culmination of protests organized by Percy Green and the civil rights group Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes ("ACTION"), on December 22, 1972, in Kiel Auditorium, Gena Scott slid down a power cable and unmasked the Prophet, who was Monsanto Company executive vice president Tom K. Smith, according to the St. Louis Journalism Review[4] (though the papers at the time claimed that the unmasking was too brief to allow for identification). Subsequently, Scott's car was bombed, and her apartment vandalized numerous times. The incident is the subject of Lucy Ferriss's memoir, "Unveiling the Prophet" (Ferriss's aunt, Ann Chittenden Ferriss, had been the 1931 Queen of Love and Beauty). The unveiling of the Prophet was the most dramatic disruption in ACTION's long campaign (1965-1976) to encourage the many CEOs in the VP Organization to hire larger numbers of minority workers, and even to disband the organization so that public and private funds could be spent on worthier projects

[Ak-Sar-Ben] was formed in 1895 in an attempt to keep the Nebraska State Fair in Omaha after receiving an ultimatum to provide entertainment "other than saloons, gambling houses and honky tonks." The board's solution was to strike out to secure all the floats used that year in the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. While in New Orleans, they decided to model their organization on the parade's Krewe concept complete with "royalty" and "coronations." According to the organization's web site, Dudley Smith suggested a name for the new organization, and was quoted as saying, "Why not reverse the name of our beloved state, since everything seems to be going backwards these days?"

The Veiled Prophet Ball (commonly referred to as the VP Ball) is a dance held each December in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, by a secret society named the "Veiled Prophet Organization" (often referred to as "the VP"), first founded by prominent St. Louisans in 1878, and originally part of the Veiled Prophet Fair (or "VP Fair"), which today is Fair St. Louis. The founders' intent was to create a local celebration in the likeness of Mardi Gras, eventually including pageantry and costuming as well as a parade with floats.

[...]

On March 20, 1878, Charles Slayback, a grain broker and former Confederate cavalryman (who had spent several years in New Orleans after the Civil War, there becoming acquainted with the Mardi Gras traditions of that city) called a meeting of local business leaders at the Lindell Hotel. Together with his brother Alonzo, Slayback invented a mythology for a secret society, whose public demonstrations would coincide with the annual fair. From Irish poet Thomas Moore, the Slaybacks borrowed the name of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, and incorporated features from the Mystick Krewe of Comus. In their version, the Prophet was a world traveler who had made St. Louis his home base.

1850: Joseph Ellison, a Mobile Cowbellion, is one of six Mobilians who moved to New Orleans and organized the Crescent City’s first mystic societies; Ellison forms "The Mystick Krewe of Comus" in New Orleans (1850)

The original meeting resulting in the formation [of the Royal Order of Jesters] was held on February 20, 1911, by Shriners in the Captain’s office of the S.S. Wilhelmina on a pilgrimage to Aloha Temple, Hawaii. Noble A.M. Ellison of San Francisco, California, was responsible and the original cast included a Director and thirteen members.

We know why, how and where the GROTTO - MYSTIC ORDER OF VEILED PROPHETS OF THE ENCHANTED REALM OF NORTH AMERICA-was actually founded. The chief moving spirit in the founding of this organization was LeRoy Fairchild. In the summer of 1889 a group of Master Masons, members of Hamilton Lodge #120 at Hamilton, New York, met to organize and hold informal meetings. What this group was seeking was fun and good fellowship. At their meeting on September 10, 1889, they decided to honor the founder by calling it "Fairchild Deviltry Committee." It was decided that this organization be confined to Master Masons in good standing. The idea of the Order proved to be attractive and many distinguished Masons joined. The Order could no longer be confined to any one locality and in response to imperative requests other groups were formed. On June 13, 1890 the Fairchild Deviltry Committee duly established and formed the Supreme Council, Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm.

Its purpose mainly was to add in greater measure to the Masonic fraternal spirit the charm of radiant cheerfulness and to maintain within the fraternity an impetus of royal good fellowship, wherein joyous companionship and helpful sympathy shall mingle graciously and become the distinguishing characteristics of the Order.

[...]

Four Presidents of the United States have joined the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm ...The Grotto. Pictured from left to right Presidents Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Gerald R. Ford.

Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary gives the definition of Grotto as follows: "A cave, a vault, natural recess or a cavity in the earth; an artificially constructed cavern." This is exactly what the Grotto is not...