Dec. 9: LaRouche and the suicide of the Freedom Rider. In The Power of Reason, his 1979 autobiography, LaRouche describes an odd incident in the early 1960s that may shed light on how he would later respond to the suicide of Ken Kronberg and the death of Jeremiah Duggan.
LaRouche claims that he began--during a period of increasing tension with his first wife--to provide "personal counseling" to a troubled young man named Griswold, a former Freedom Rider. After a number of visits, Griswold was making progress...until, supposedly, LaRouche's wife intervened. "An intruded household scene, during which [she] carelessly included savage complaints against my 'uncompensated' help to Griswold, so profoundly disturbed him that I never heard from him again--until being informed, some months later, of his suicide." LaRouche alleges that the news of Griswold's death killed his "last strong feeling" for his marriage and helped to establish in him "a deepening ruthlessness toward any aspect of personal life which corrupted the dictate of conscience in respect to the duties of public life."
Is there a pattern here? LaRouche serves as a mentor to a younger man. When the latter commits suicide, LaRouche blames his own wife and develops a new "ruthlessness" regarding the primacy of the political over the personal. Years later, LaRouche becomes a ruthless (to say the least) mentor to another young man who, after decades of service to LaRouche, commits suicide. LaRouche blames the suicide's wife. And then there's the young man who decides he doesn't want LaRouche to be his mentor at all--he ends up dead, LaRouche claims this death was a suicide, and blames the young man's mother. Thus we have three suicides (real or alleged), three witch-women--and a completely innocent (if ruthless) Lyndon! I leave the explanation of all this to the psychiatrists, but I do have two final questions: Why did LaRouche, a college dropout with no mental health credentials, undertake to serve as a counselor to Griswold? And why did LaRouche, in later years, having earned no credentials in the interim, presume to practice the "ruthless" form of therapy known as ego-stripping on other young people, many of them possibly as troubled as Griswold had been?
Dec. 9: The LaRouche movement's view of the suicide of Arthur Koestler (1983). Anyone who wants to understand why LaRouche suggested in April 2007 that Ken Kronberg kill himself--and why LaRouche and his followers behaved in such a callous (indeed, sadistic) manner towards the Kronberg family after Ken went out and did it--will find a partial explanation here, in the sick "humor" of this editorial from LaRouche's New Solidarity, March 14, 1983.
The anonymous editorial writer, in commenting on the double suicide of the eminent Jewish author (referred to euphemistically as a "Hungarian-emigré intelligence agent for the British") and his wife Cynthia, says the "world might benefit if a selected few took the Koestlers as a heroic example." The editorialist then fantasizes about various fitting modes of suicide for Jews and non-Jews hated by the LaRouche organization: Henry Kissinger, Nancy Kissinger, Paul Volcker, Swiss banker Fritz Leutwiler, and Club of Rome founder Aurelio Peccei (the latter, it is suggested, should turn his body over "to the local dogfood manufacturer"). And then: "We could go further, but why should the worthwhile vast majority of the human race settle for attempts to solve its antisocial problems on a case-by-case basis? Why not get organized to settle with such characters all at once?"
Oh, and readers should note the emphasis on husband-wife suicide: first, the real-life example of the Koestlers; second, the fantasy example of the Kissingers. There's an eerie parallel here to what the LaRouchian troll "revenire" has been saying on blogs recently: that Molly Kronberg should join her husband (and Jeremiah Duggan) on the "jumper brigade." Hmmmm...I wonder if revenire's IP address can be traced back to the environs of Round Hill, Virginia...
Dec. 1: Was Ken Kronberg's suicide just another "fine mess" to be cleaned up? Ex-LaRouchian "eaglebeak" gives yet another example of Der Abscheulicher's contemptuous attitude re the Kronberg tragedy.
May 27 posting: "The History of PMR Printing Company." Ex-LaRouche follower "eaglebeak" describes how Ken Kronberg's printing firm was squeezed and squeezed until there was nothing left.
May 20 posting: "Ken Kronberg's Funeral, a Year Ago Today." Description by "eaglebeak" of the April 19, 2007 funeral of businessman hounded to death by Lyndon LaRouche. "The one person who wasn't there, of course, was LaRouche....It is rumored that the night before the funeral Molly Kronberg had called up Nancy Spannaus and said "If that man comes, I leave the church."
May 6 posting: LaRouche just can't stop sliming his loyal old-timers. The same month as the anniversary of Ken Kronberg's suicide, LaRouche with his usual crassness repeats (April 2, 2008) his claim that the organization's boomers such as Kronberg were/are nothing but slackers. This morning briefing, with commentary added by LaRouche's critic "eaglebeak," reveals more clearly than ever that LaRouche is serious about carrying out a "boomer pogrom"--thus guaranteeing that after his death the organization will end up under the control of a ruthless new generation of brainwashees.
April 14 posting: Hounded to death! Statement by Factnet's "Eaglebeak" on the first anniversary of Ken Kronberg's suicide. "When Ken left the house that morning he did not intend to kill himself"...but then he read the LaRouche/Papert suicide memo. Eaglebeak's posting also includes a Nov. 22, 2004 LaRouche memo trashing Ken that was found on his nightstand after his death.
April 12 posting: Life in LaRouche's "Inner Ring." Postings from Factnet (edited by DK) re the sadomasochistic manipulation and just plain bullying that are the dreary lot of Der Abscheulicher's Leesburg "boomers." Includes the text of a July 6, 2006 memo in which LaRouche heaps humiliation on two of his most loyal disciples--Ed Spannaus and Ken Kronberg.
March 21 posting: Conservative newsletter provides more evidence of LaRouche's historic links to the Republican Party--and the hypocrisy of his attacks on Molly Kronberg for her donations to Republicans. The Right Report (Nov. 19, 1976) discloses that "[l]iterally hundreds of conservatives and Republicans have already been approached by this cadre group, which obviously has compiled a thick file on the U.S. right." And: "A handful of top Republican party officials and prominent conservatives are now actively cooperating with the U.S. Labor party." Names several Republicans involved and claims that the finance chairman of the Oklahoma Ford campaign had helped funnel money to the USLP.
Feb. 25 posting: "If I were you, Molly, I'd have my brakes checked." New documentation from Factnet of LaRouche's callous and hostile treatment of Ken Kronberg's widow.