Public Eye - Lost in Space

Conspiracy writer Bill Kaysing kindly sent Eye a copy of his planned legal interrogation of astronaut James Lovell this week, whom Kaysing is suing for libel. Eye watchers may recall that Lovell described Kaysing, author of We Never Went to the Moon, as "wacky" in the pages of Metro last year. Kaysing, acting as his own attorney, begins his written interrogatories with a dramatic historical anecdote about a man hanged for forgery despite an eloquent appeal to King George to spare his life. "It is apparent that English law was not sympathetic to those who tell lies in print." ... Some of Kaysing's more intriguing queries: "Are you familiar with CIA expertise in inducing heart attacks and strokes and their proficiency in torture as recently reported in the Baltimore Sun?" "Are you familiar with the term 'shadow government'?" "Are you familiar with what is known as the Nuremberg defense?" ... The 74-year-old Kaysing is waging a more down-to-earth battle against his landlord, Peggy Matsuda, whom Kaysing calls "the dragon lady," to stop her from raising his rent by $100. Matsuda apparently owns the Soquel mobile home park where Kaysing and his wife, Ruth, reside. While sympathizing with his desire to hang onto his homestead, Eye can only blush at Wild Bill's open letter to Matsuda on "behalf of the helpless and the suffering," which ends with this puzzling postscript: "During WWII, a friend of mine on another destroyer was machine-gunned by a Jap sub after his ship sank. I am sure that, as a Japanese person, you would not want to be classified as being as merciless as that Jap sub captain." (Memo to Bill "Grasshopper" Kaysing: This isn't 1945.) .

( From the February 20-26, 1997 issue of Metro )