Sherman Skolnick
| Sherman H. Skolnick | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 13, 1930 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died |
May 21, 2006 (aged 75) Chicago, Illinois |
| Occupation | Author and investigative journalist |
Sherman H. Skolnick (July 13, 1930 – May 21, 2006) was a Chicago-based activist, anti-Catholic, and conspiracy theorist.[1][2][3]
Early life
Born in Chicago in 1930, at the age of six, Skolnick was paralyzed by polio, and he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.[4] His parents, a homemaker and a tailor, were Jewish European immigrants.[4] Skolnik's father was from Russia.[5]
Career
Skolnick was founder and chairman of the Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts,[4] which he started in 1963. He used the local press to distribute his reports, later establishing a telephone hotline–"Hotline News", a public-access television show on cable TV, and a web site.[4]
Skolnick's investigations put Otto Kerner Jr. in prison for three years; and lead to the resignation of two Illinois Supreme Court justices, Roy J. Solfisburg, Jr. and Ray Klingbiel, who, as Skolnick reported, had accepted bribes of stock from a defendant in a case on which they ruled.[4] The scandal catapulted John Paul Stevens, special counsel to an investigating commission, to fame as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.[6] In 2001, the story became the subject of a book, Illinois Justice, by Kenneth A. Manaster.[6]
Towards the end of his life, Skolnick served as co-host with Lenny Bloom for the Canadian radio show Cloak & Dagger. The show was taken off the airwaves, despite very high market ratings, following a controversial interview with former German Defense Minister Andreas von Bülow, in which Von Bulow claimed that the terrorist September 11, 2001 attacks were an inside job. Cloak & Dagger then became an Internet podcast, which subsequently relocated to a German web server due to relentless hacking attacks.
At the end of every radio broadcast, Skolnick would sign off with the following statement: "To Hell with the Queen of England!"
Skolnick's final written works include an 81-part series entitled "The Overthrow of the American Republic," and a 16-part series entitled "Coca-Cola, the CIA, and the Courts."[4] On the radio show and podcast with Lenny Bloom, much commentary was devoted to CIA drug dealing, the "9-11 Truth Movement," and also a belief that the Jesuit Order, through co-optation of the Vatican, controls world events. His material is generally un-copyrighted. Other major collaborators with Skolnick and Bloom include Webster Tarpley, Stew Webb, Tom Heneghan, Eric Jon Phelps, and Ralph Schoenman.
Later life and death
Skolnick died of a heart attack on May 21, 2006.[4]
References
- ↑ Fenster, Mark (1999). Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. p. 84. ISBN 9780816632428. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ↑ Kellner, Douglas (2003). Media Spectacle. London: Routledge. p. 120. ISBN 9781134493951. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ↑ Smith, Christopher E. (2011). "John Paul Stevens: A Liberal Leader & His Roles on the Court". In Smith, Christopher E.; DeJong, Christina; McCall, Michael A. The Rehnquist Court and Criminal Justice. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. p. 128. ISBN 9780739140826. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Noel, Josh (May 23, 2006). "Sherman Skolnick". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
- ↑ "Judges: Skolnick's Guerrilla War". Time. August 29, 1969.
- 1 2 Patten, Joseph N. (2003–2004). "Review of Illinois Justice: The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens" (PDF). Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. pp. 233–237.