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OML Archives-
Subject: Re: Reich & Conspiracy Theories - Fri, 19 Jan 1996 06:24:35
-0500
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 06:24:35 -0500
From: David Silver <dsilver@panix.com>
To: orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: Reich & Conspiracy Theories
Sender: owner-orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
On Wed, 17 Jan 1996, Christopher G Caruso wrote:
> Kenn Thomas wrote:
> >
> > >What do conspiracy theories have to do with Reich?
> >
> > Reich's work gave early exposure to conspiracies in the medical
> > bureaucracy to suppress promising cancer research, for just one instance.
> > A conspiracy of government agencies (FBI, FDA) led to his death and we
> > still do not understand the whys and wherefores because of conspiratorial
> > cover-up and the continued institutionalized conspiracy of the medical
> > establishment.
>
> What happened to Reich was a travesty. There is no doubt about that.
> However, the statement that a "conspiracy of government agencies" "le[a]d to
> his death" is hyperbole. Are you saying Reich was murdered? What
> evidence is there for that?
>
> Sadly, Reich ending up in jail was not unrelated to incredibly
> poor choices made by Reich in defending (or not defending) himself. What
> exactly did he expect would happen when he just refused to show up in court?
A simple point of accuracy. Reich did not land in jail because of not
showing up in court. As a result of Reich's not showing up in court, the
original FDA injunction was granted - by default. That was phase 1.
"The trial" occurred later when Dr. Silvert, presumably without Reich's
knowledge or consent, violated the injunction. The really unfortunate
predicament was that once Reich finally focused his attention on
convincing the court of the correctness of his position and exposing the
dishonest and shoddy behavior of the FDA, it was already too late.
Technically, the judge could only consider whether the injunction had been
violated, not whether it was fair. Since the injunction had in fact been
violated, a fact that both Reich and Silvert admitted, their case was lost
from the start - technically. Reich used the trial as an opportunity to
enter materials that he felt were of historical importance into the court
record (and to make some folks on the FDA side squirm a little under his
cross-examination). The point is, he was not thrown in the slammer for
not appearing. He got into a major legal mess as a result of not
appearing.
I don't know the cause of Reich's death in prison, and I don't think
anyone ever will, but since there is so much interest in the subject I
would like to pass along the following. Reich told one of his close
associates before entering Lewisburg that "he would never survive prison."
The implication I always took from the story was not that he felt he would
meet with foul play, but simply that he feared living in a cage might be
too much for a man like himself to bear. I'm not saying that a lot should
be read into this statement, it's just interesting and perhaps gives some
insight into his state of mind before entering prison.
David Silver
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