The Monarch Claimants — Not Independent Accounts, by Their Own Documentation
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The strongest argument for the story is that many people who never met tell the same one. Their own books say they met.
Who they are
The four people the Monarch account rests on: Hammond (1992), Cathy O'Brien and Mark Phillips (1995), Brice Taylor (1999) and Fritz Springmeier.
What they do
They are not independent witnesses, and the evidence for that comes from what they wrote themselves.
How it works
Brice Taylor writes that she flew O'Brien and Phillips to California, put on a seminar with them as the speakers, and that 'Mark Phillips knew all about my programming'. Her endnotes cite their earlier material. She also names Hammond's speech, with its date and venue. Her own earlier book is catalogued by the Library of Congress as a novel. A reporter who sat in the room at a 1995 conference wrote that O'Brien and Phillips 'seem to be the source of most of the Monarch material', that nobody was ever shown the scars or any medical record of them, and that Phillips — who claimed twenty years in genetics — had never heard of the Human Genome Project.
Why it matters
Their books also contain the case against themselves. O'Brien and Phillips print a list of about seventy officials and newsrooms they say they contacted, and report that nothing came of any of it. Springmeier writes that he left out his footnotes because his sources are confidential and 'paper trails were not left'. His 2003 conviction for armed bank robbery is real and on the court record — though three details people repeat about it are wrong, including that he was convicted over a bomb. He wasn't; that charge never reached the jury.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #192] The strength usually claimed for the Monarch account is that many people who never met describe the same thing. The claimants' own published texts document that they did meet, and in what order.
SEQUENCE. Hammond's lecture is June 1992 and is the earliest use located. Cathy O'Brien and Mark Phillips, 'Trance Formation of America', follows in 1995 (Reality Marketing, Las Vegas — effectively self-published; the Library of Congress holds it as a Minimal Level Cataloging record with no subject headings, LCCN 2001616223). Brice Taylor (Susan Ford), 'Thanks for the Memories', follows in 1999, published by the Brice Taylor Trust — the author's own trust.
THE DEPENDENCY, IN TAYLOR'S OWN WORDS: 'I flew Mark and Cathy O'Brien to California to meet with me for the first time and I put on a seminar where they were the featured speakers. Mark Phillips knew all about my programming.' Her endnotes cite 'Mark Phillips and Cathy O'Brien, Project Monarch, 1993'. She also anchors her account to Hammond by name, date and venue. Taylor's earlier 1995 book 'Starshine' is catalogued by the Library of Congress as A NOVEL (LCCN 95232153; class PS3570, DDC 813.54, American fiction).
THE CONTEMPORANEOUS FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT. Evan Harrington, attending the March 1995 Dallas conference where O'Brien and Phillips spoke, published in Skeptical Inquirer 20(5), 1996: 'these two seem to be the source of most of the Monarch material.' Also: 'We never saw the scars, photos of the scars, or doctors' reports about the scars.' And, testing Phillips' claim of twenty years in genetics by asking about the Human Genome Sequencing Project: 'He had never heard of it.' Harrington records that the conference organiser said the pair would not be invited back 'because they failed to produce evidence of Operation Monarch.' INTERESTED-PARTY FLAG: Skeptical Inquirer is a skeptic-movement publication; the article is first-hand reportage from the room with named sources.
THE CLAIMANTS' OWN NEGATIVES. O'Brien and Phillips reproduce in their own book a roster of roughly seventy officials and news organisations they say they contacted — including the FBI's Kenneth Lanning and both congressional intelligence committees — prefaced 'We left no stone unturned. And we were stonewalled For Reasons Of National Security.' By their own account nothing followed. The only official written response located anywhere is a routine US Senate constituent-mail referral dated 13 March 1991. Fritz Springmeier states in his own text: 'I have dispensed with most footnotes. To provide my sources would double the size of the book, and many of them are confidential... Paper trails were not left or are not available.' His glossary adds: 'the authors have not seen who is on the active Monarch Program list of slaves.'
SPRINGMEIER'S COURT RECORD, verified to primary. United States v. Bateman et al, 3:02-cr-00024 (D. Or.), Judge James A. Redden. Jury verdict 12 February 2003: guilty on armed bank robbery (18 U.S.C. 2113(a),(d)) and using and carrying a firearm during it (924(c)(1)). Sentenced 14 November 2003 to 51 months plus 60 months consecutive — 111 months. Affirmed, 110 F. App'x 843 (9th Cir. 2004); certiorari denied. Bureau of Prisons: register 65941-065, released 25 March 2011. THREE CORRECTIONS TO THE CIRCULATING VERSION: the third count, for a destructive device, never reached the jury — the court ruled the evidence did not support it, so he was not convicted of anything involving a bomb; the government proceeded against him on an aiding-and-abetting theory, not as the man in the bank; and the fine and restitution figures widely attributed to 254 F. Supp. 2d 1192 do not appear in that opinion.
NOT READ, AND THEREFORE NOT CHARACTERISED HERE: any response from the named individuals or their offices. That search was not completed.
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