G. Edward Griffin

G. Edward Griffin
Born	(1931-11-07) November 7, 1931 Detroit, Michigan
Nationality	American
Education	University of Michigan BA
Occupation	Author, lecturer, filmmaker
Known for	Conspiracy theories
Spouse(s)	Patricia Irving Griffin

G. Edward Griffin (born November 7, 1931) is an American conspiracy theorist, author, lecturer, and filmmaker. He is the author of The Creature from Jekyll Island (1994), which promotes conspiracy theories about the motives behind the creation of the Federal Reserve System.^[1][2] Griffin's writings put forth a number conspiracy theories regarding various political, defense and health care interests. His book World Without Cancer argues that cancer is a nutritional deficiency that can be cured by consuming amygdalin, a view regarded as quackery by the medical community.^[1][3][4] He is an HIV/AIDS denialist, supports the 9/11 Truth movement, and supports a specific John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory.^[1] Also, he believes the actual geographical location of the biblical Noah's Ark is located at the Durupınar site in Turkey.^[5]

Biography

Griffin was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 7, 1931, and became a child voice actor on local radio from 1942 to 1947. He later emceed at WJR (CBS), and continued as an assistant announcer at the public radio station WUOM. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1953, majoring in speech and communications. In 1954, he served in the United States Army, and in 1956 was discharged as a sergeant.^[6]

Griffin worked as a writer for Curtis LeMay, vice presidential running mate for George Wallace during his 1968 United States Presidential campaign.^[6] Shortly thereafter, he began writing and producing documentary-style videos about the same controversial topics covered in his books, such as cancer, the historical authenticity of Noah's Ark, the Federal Reserve System, the Supreme Court of the United States, terrorism, subversion, and foreign policy.^[7][8]

Political advocacy

In 1964, Griffin wrote his first book, The Fearful Master, on the United Nations, a topic that recurs throughout his writings. While he describes his work as the output of "a plain vanilla researcher", Griffin also agrees with the Los Angeles Daily News's characterization of him as "Crusader Rabbit".^[9]

Griffin has been a member and officer of the John Birch Society (JBS) for much of his life^[10] and a contributing editor to its magazine, The New American.^[11] Since the 1960s, Griffin has spoken and written about the Society's theory of history involving "communist and capitalist conspiracies" over banking systems (including the Federal Reserve System), International banking, United States foreign policy, the U.S. military-industrial complex, the American news and entertainment media as propaganda, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the United Nations.^[12][13] From 1962 to 1975, he completed nine books and seven film productions; his 1969 video lecture, More Deadly Than War: The Communist Revolution in America, was printed in English and Dutch. In 1974, he published World Without Cancer, and in 1975, he wrote a sympathetic biography of JBS founder Robert W. Welch.^[14][15]

In May 2009, Griffin helped Robert L. Schulz and Edwin Vieira organize a meeting at Jekyll Island of thirty people including "radical tax protesters, militiamen, nativist extremists, anti-Obama 'birthers,' hard-line libertarians, conspiracy-minded Patriots with theories about secret government concentration camps, even a raging anti-Semite named Edgar Steele".^[16] Speakers at the meeting "warned of 'increasing national instability,' worried about a coming 'New World Order,' denounced secret schemes to merge Canada, Mexico and the United States, and furiously attacked the new president's 'socialized' policies and failure to end illegal immigration," and attendees made plans for a "continental congress" that occurred in November 2009 that was hosted by the We the People Foundation.^[16] Griffin was the first to speak at the Jekyll Island meeting and he "told conferees that merely putting 'large numbers of people in the street' was not enough. 'We must,' he said, 'achieve power.'"^[16]

Alternate conspiracy theories and fringe science

The Creature from Jekyll Island

Griffin's 1994 book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, draws parallels between the Federal Reserve and a bird of prey.

He has opposed the Federal Reserve since the 1960s, saying it constitutes a banking cartel and an instrument of war and totalitarianism.^[17] Griffin presented his views on the U.S. money system in his 1993 movie and 1994 book on the Federal Reserve System, The Creature from Jekyll Island.^{[6][note 1]} The book was a business-topic bestseller.^[2][18][19] The book also influenced Ron Paul when he wrote a chapter on money and the Federal Reserve in his New York Times bestseller, The Revolution: A Manifesto.^[20]

Edward Flaherty, an academic economist writing for Political Research Associates, characterized Griffin's description of the secret meeting on Jekyll Island as "paranoid", "amateurish", and "academically suspect".^[21]

Cancer, chemtrails, and AIDS denial

In 1973, Griffin wrote and self-published the book World Without Cancer and released it as a video;^[22][23] its second edition appeared in 1997. In the book and the video, Griffin asserts that cancer is a metabolic disease like a vitamin deficiency facilitated by the insufficient dietary consumption of laetrile. He contends that "eliminating cancer through a nondrug therapy has not been accepted because of the hidden economic and power agendas of those who dominate the medical establishment"^[24] and he wrote, "at the very top of the world's economic and political pyramid of power there is a grouping of financial, political, and industrial interests that, by the very nature of their goals, are the natural enemies of the nutritional approaches to health".^[25]

Since the 1970s, the use of laetrile to treat cancer has been identified in the scientific literature as a canonical example of quackery and has never been shown to be effective in the treatment or prevention of cancer.^[26][27] Emanuel Landau, then a Project Director for the APHA, wrote a book review for the American Journal of Public Health, which noted that Griffin "accepts the 'conspiracy' theory ... that policy-makers in the medical, pharmaceutical, research and fund-raising organizations deliberately or unconsciously strive not to prevent or cure cancer in order to perpetuate their functions". Landau concludes that although World Without Cancer "is an emotional plea for the unrestricted use of the Laetrile as an anti-tumor agent, the scientific evidence to justify such a policy does not appear within it".^[28]

Griffin's websites refer visitors to doctors, clinics, and hospitals with alternative cancer treatments, including sellers of laetrile.^[22][29][30] He does not sell laetrile himself.^[22]

In 2010, Griffin engaged in HIV/AIDS denialism, claiming that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) "doesn't exist" and that antiretroviral medications (rather than the HIV virus) cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).^[1]

In a 2012 video entitled "What in the World Are They Spraying?", Griffin asserts that airplanes leave a permanent grid of chemtrails hanging over cities like Los Angeles.^[31]

Noah's Ark search

In 1992 Griffin wrote and narrated The Discovery of Noah's Ark, based on David Fasold's 1988 book, The Ark of Noah.^[5] Griffin's film said that the original Noah's Ark continued to exist in fossil form at the Durupınar site, about 17 miles (27 km) from Mount Ararat in Turkey, based on photographic, radar, and metal detector evidence. Griffin also said that towns in the area had names that resembled terms from the Biblical story of the flood. He endorsed the historicity of the Biblical account of the flood, and speculated that the flood was the byproduct of massive tides caused by a gravitational interaction between Earth and a large celestial body coming close to it.^[9]

Works

Some of Griffin's work is published by Western Islands Publishers, the publishing arm of the John Birch Society, with the remainder being self-published through his own company, American Media.

Bibliography

• The Fearful Master: A Second Look at the United Nations. Boston, MA: Western Islands Publishers. 1964. ISBN 0-88279-102-8. OCLC 414277. 
• The Great Prison Break: The Supreme Court Leads the Way. Boston, MA: Western Islands Publishers. 1968. OCLC 220369. 
• More Deadly Than War: The Communist Revolution in America (transcript)|format= requires |url= (help). American Media). 1969. OCLC 71304108. 
• This is the John Birch Society: An Invitation to Membership (1st ed., 2d ed. 1972, 3d ed. 1981 Western Islands ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media. 1970. OCLC 83825. 
• The Capitalist Conspiracy: An Inside View of International Banking (transcript)|format= requires |url= (help) (1st ed., 2d ed. 1982 Huntington Beach Patriots ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media. 1971. OCLC 3263688. 
• World Without Cancer: The Story of Vitamin B₁₇ (1st ed., reprinted 1976, 1977, 2d ed. 1997, reprinted 2001, 2006 ed.). American Media. 1974. ISBN 0-912986-09-3. 
• The Life and Words of Robert Welch, Founder of the John Birch Society. E. Merrill Root (introduction). Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media. 1975. ISBN 978-0-912986-07-4. OCLC 1530499. 
• The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve (1st ed., 2d ed. 1995, 3d ed. 1998 American Media, 4th ed. 2002, now in 5th ed.). Appleton, WI: American Opinion Publishing. 1994. ISBN 0-912986-16-6. OCLC 31354943. 

Filmography

• The Grand Design: A Lecture on U.S. Foreign Policy. 1969. OCLC 5549063. 
• More Deadly Than War: The Communist Revolution in America (Lecture)|format= requires |url= (help). American Media. 1969. OCLC 5549058. 
• World Without Cancer: The Story of Vitamin B₁₇ (Visual material). American Media. 1974. OCLC 5604983. 
• Bezmenov, Yuri; Griffin, G. Edward (1984). Soviet Subversion of the Free Press: A Conversation with Yuri Bezmenov (Videotape). Westlake Village, CA: American Media. OCLC 45810551. 
• Griffin, G. Edward; Solis, Willy (1985). The Red Reality in Central America (Videotape). Westlake Village, CA: American Media. OCLC 37023488. 
• The Discovery of Noah's Ark: The Whole Story (Videotape). Westlake Village, CA: American Media. 1992. OCLC 29511807. 
• Griffin, G. Edward; Shurtleff, Howard (1994). The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve (Videotape). John Birch Society. OCLC 36245861. 
• Hidden Agenda: Real Conspiracies that Affect our Lives Today (6 volumes)|format= requires |url= (help). Venice, CA: Knowledge 20/20. 2001. OCLC 49289908. 
  • Vol. 1 (1971). The Capitalist Conspiracy: An Inside View of International Banking. American Media. OCLC 5558340. 
  • Vol. 2 (1983). The Subversion Factor: A History of Treason in Modern America (Part 1: Moles in High Places, Part 2: Open Gates of Troy) (Videotape). Westlake Village, CA: American Media. OCLC 36968013. 
  • Vol. 3 (1968). The Truth About Communism: Only the Brave are Free (Videotape). 
  • Vol. 4 (1966). Anarchy U.S.A.: In the Name of Civil Rights (DVD). John Birch Society. 
  • Vol. 5 (1962). Katanga: The Untold Story (Videotape). 
  • Vol. 6. WBTV (1982). No Place to Hide: The Strategy and Tactics of Terrorism (Videotape). Alexandria, VA: Western Goals Foundation. OCLC 10744020.  Also OCLC 19993388.
• Griffin, G. Edward (executive producer); Dill, David; Gazecki, William; Harris, Bev; Mercuri, Rebecca; Rubin, Aviel D (2004). Invisible Ballots: A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud (Videotape, DVD). Westlake Village, CA: American Media and Reality Zone. ISBN 978-0-912986-43-2. OCLC 65199460.  Also OCLC 56844390.
• Jaeger, James; Baehr, Theodore; Griffin, G. Edward; Paul, Ron; Vieira, Edwin (2007). Fiat Empire: Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution (DVD). Beverly Hills, CA: Cornerstone-Matrixx Entertainment. OCLC 192133806. 
• What in the World Are They Spraying? Produced by G. Edward Griffin, Michael Murphy, and Paul Wittenberger. (2010). OCLC 682713571

Notes

References

Further reading

• Neiwert, David (March 26, 2011). "As Predicted, Beck Goes Full-bore Bircher With Hour-long Promotion Of Griffin's Anti-Fed Conspiracy Tome". Crooks and Liars. 
• Richardson, John A.; Griffin, Patricia Irving [spouse of G. Edward] (2005). Laetrile Case Histories; The Richardson Cancer Clinic Experience. American Media. ISBN 978-0912986388.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: G. Edward Griffin

• G. Edward Griffin at the Internet Movie Database
• Guest listing: G. Edward Griffin, Coast to Coast AM
• Book discussion: The Creature from Jekyll Island, C-SPAN