Saturday, October 16, 2004

The Shickshinny Knights

Went through Shickshinny this morning, which is conveniently located well within the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station (aka Susquehanna Nuke Plant) ten-mile emergency planning zone (in terms of this map, I live right about where the start button on your taskbar is), home of the Shickshinny Opera House and HQ of the Shickshinny Knights of Malta (aka The American Grand Priory of The Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta).

The Knights were a sort of supersecret rightwing schismatic Knights of Columbus, dedicated to the impeachment of Earl Warren, among other things. The Catholic Church didn't like 'em much, and they included Eastern Orthodox (a lot of the Knights, and of the population of Shickshinny in general, were White Russians), Old Catholics, High Episcopalians, etc. They say that after Napoleon took Malta, some of the knights bailed out to St. Petersburg to become the Czar's personal honor guard. And from there, circuitously, to Luzerne County, PA.

Members included Col. Philip J. Corso, one of the central US figures in Operation Paperclip, British Admiral Sir Barry Domville, who was imprisoned in WWII for pro-Nazi activities, and General Charles Willoughby (real name: Adolf Tscheppe Weidenbach), once McArthur's intelligence chief; the big guy apparently called Willoughby "my little fascist."

One of their heroes was Michael Goliniewsky, a Polish intelligence officer who had defected to the United States, and earned the everlasting affection of the Knights by claiming that the CIA had been penetrated by the KGB at a high level. Goliniewsky then decided he was actually Crown Prince Alexi, the rightful hemophiliac heir of Nicholas II. Really.

Anyhow, little trails run off from the Knights into the JFK assassination, Nazi gold, Roswell, and miscellaneous other mayhem. And nobody's ever done a book about 'em, as far as I know. Where's Robert Anton Wilson when you need him?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting! Who would of thunk it. All that history tied in a tight ball around little Shickshinny. Tell me...are you holding your meetings at the pizza shop. I love to stop there for a snack when I am in town working at SSES. Nice area.
Carl from N.C.

7:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The most notable members of either The Shickshinny Knights of Malta or the Order of St. John involved with the assassination of JFK included, not only James "Jesus" Angleton, OSJ, but Lt. Col. Philip J. Corso, OSJ, who was an emmisary to the Vatican during World War II, Frank A. Capell, OSJ, a researcher to Warren Commission interviewee and Birch Society founder, Dr. Revilo P. Oliver, Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby, MacArthur's G-2, Patrick J. Frawley, Jr., OSJ and Peter Grace, OSJ. See: http://www.JFKTheFinalSolution.com
for more info.

7:23 AM  

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