("Quid coniuratio est?")
[CN Editor -- I cannot vouch for the accuracy of all of the following. It may or may not be true, I just don't know. However I consider Skolnick to be an honest and careful investigator.]
[The following is a transcript of a recorded phone message put out by a group in Chicago called "Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts [CCCC]." (312) 731-1100 and (312) 731-1505.]
Hi! Sherman Skolnick, Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts, 9800 South Oglesby.
In December, 1975, we brought you the exclusive story how the federal intelligence agencies were "bugging" the confessionals in St. Peter's Church, around the corner from Chicago's City Hall! The unit that was doing it was operating out of the office of the U.S. Attorney here, Jim Thompson, who went on to become Illinois governor [CN -- also noted in connection with the Moose Island situation], and later by his co-hort, Sam Skinner. In charge of these dirty tricks was Tyrone Phaner(?) [or Saner(?)], who went on to become head of state law enforcement and later to become Illinois Attorney General.
This federal gestapo was not legitimately gathering data of any alleged violations of federal law, but rather, grabbing up political dirt! They were doing such things, instead of running after the fraudulent oil companies! Thompson and his gang used this to stop those who stood in their way.
At the time, a priest at St. Peter's said:
It's against the whole, the whole teaching of the Catholic Church! I mean, the seal of confession, I mean even the Pope can't, has no right to ask a priest what he heard in confession. I mean, this has, this has been recognized by all the courts.
I just can't even, I can't even believe that this happened, that anybody would be that stupid!
The "bugging" of the confessional was just one of many rotten practices of Jim Thompson, a pal of the infamous Nelson Rockefeller, and Phaner and Skinner! As federal prosecutors, they ran a "massage parlour" on North Broadway. Also, with government funds, they operated the Town and Country Motel and Restaurant in Calumet City [CN -- south of Chicago]. In that motel, through 2-way mirrors, they videotaped politicians in compromising sexual positions. This is all done not for legitimate prosecution purposes, but for blackmail and to gather political intelligence!
In more recent years, the motel and restaurant was used by British intelligence, in dirty games against supporters of the IRA [Irish Republican Army] in the Chicago area. In September, 1979, arsonists finally put the torch to this notorious Cal City [i.e., Calumet City] spy deal.
Are such things still going on, but at other locations? Yes! We think so.
More recently, the mass media would have you believe that the El Rukn dope mess is [unclear] limited to perjury and sex. Actually, it is the tip of a corrupt operation of the chief federal prosecutor's office in Chicago, involving, for example, bribing federal prosecutors [unclear] some who escape being prosecuted in a thing called "The Dope Underground" permeating the federal establishment here.
Assistant federal prosecutor William R. Hogan(sp?), jr., has been accused in the El Rukn mess of misconduct. He counter-attacks by saying six federal judges here take bribes.
Stay tuned.
In Chicago, see us on cable tv, channel 21, 9 pm [cst] most Monday evenings.
Play it again: The Head of the Mafia/CIA/Vatican Bank. (312) 731- 1505.
New message Saturday; we change it several times a week.
Donations appreciated. Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts, 9800 South Oglesby, Chicago, [Illinois] 60617. For the latest on courts, banks, espionage agencies, political assassinations, and the news media. On 24 hours a day.
I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"