Clint
Eastwood, Angelina Jolie and the 1930’s L.A. Kidnapping Crisis
by Barney
B. Bariscale, CPW News Service
Being John Malkovich means playing some juicy
roles…none juicer than that of Rev. Gustav Arminius Briegleb in the film, The Changeling. Briegleb came to the aide of Walter Collin’s
mother, the kidnapped Los Angeles boy murdered in what was known as the “Chicken
Coop Murders” in Wineville, California by Gordon Steward Northcott. Clint Eastwood directed the true story of the
Wineville murders with Angelina Jolie playing the part of Walter Collin's grieving mother.
Eastwood’s film rightly explains that
Wineville changed its name to Mira Loma, California to escape its tragic past. Mira Loma: “Sight Knoll” or “it watches hill”….suggesting a new
vantage point. Eastwood’s film leaves
out, however, many other important facts in the Walter Collins case that obstruct
our full view of the California culture.
It was widely rumored that Gordon Steward
Northcott was providing his kidnapped boys to a powerful underworld of pedophile
personalities. In light of the Jerry
Sandusky case in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania and the Franklin Cover-Up in Omaha,
Nebraska, these claims could have easily been investigated using survivors’
testimony. No mention of these
connections are voiced in the Eastwood film.
Rev. Gustav Briegleb, was a graduate of
Yale University whose career path took him to Baltimore, Maryland, home to the
rich and powerful progenitor of Brown Brothers Harriman, Alexander Brown. It also took him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
where decades later in the summer of 2011 over 30 pedophile priests were removed
from Roman Catholic parishes just months before the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke at Penn State. Rev. Briegleb was installed in the Holland
Memorial Church on January 17, 1916. The
Sandusky scandal broke between the Penn State and Nebraska football game in
2011 leading many to speculate about the long standing cover-up and Coach Joe Paterno’s
relationship to Sandusky and the Republican National Committee. In 1988 in New Orleans at the Republican National Convention that nominated GHWB, Coach Joe appeared with
convicted pedophile and S&L swindler, Omaha’s Lawrence E. King of Lincoln Savings. Paterno gave a speech. King sang the National Anthem. This Omaha and Pennsylvania connection
turned heads in a state, Pennsylvania, where names like Dick Thornburg, Tom
Ridge and Frank Carlucci were Republican stalwarts. King
was implicated, not unlike Jerry Sandusky, in what appeared to be a wide ranging
power elite pedophile ring that had a California connection through the witness
of victim Johnny Bonacci who sued King for $1 million and won in what should have
rightly been held after a criminal trial like the one that the L.A. establishment was
trying to cover up in the Walter Collins case.
Information about Rev. Gustav Briegleb is
hard to find, but some helpful insights come from Ross Briegleb (from Briegleb’s
Aerodome: El Mirage and Briegleb History, http://www.rbriegleb.com/about/)
who writes:
After one year he went to New Haven,
Conn., attending Yale Divinity School, presiding in a small suburban
church. Charges in Tuckahoe and
Syracuse, N.Y. followed.
Young Mr. Briegleb had the desire to
become identified with the Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Md.,being received
into the Presbytery of Baltimore in 1911.
The young preacher did an outstanding piece of work there, making
extensive improvements in the structure, pacing this congregation upon a faith
basis by their tithes and paying off the mortgage. Holland Memorial
Presbyterian in Philadelphia sought him and here he served during the years
1916 and 1917, then came the call to California.
A unique glider airplane is featured in
Ross Briegleb’s website because Gus Briegleb, son of the famous pastor, built a
glider in the basement of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church. Also featured on Ross Briegleb’s website is a
photo of Walter Briegleb, a World War German flying “Ace” who according to
Jerry Scutts’s German Night Fighter Aces of
World War II, had over 25 Allied kills (Jerry Scutts, German Night Fighter
Aces of World War II, Oxford: Osprey Publishers, 1998, p. 94).
Jim Pomeroy recounted his memories of actor
Steve McQueen from the 1970’s. “I rode with him a couple of other times in
the desert with Roger Ridell. We would go out to El Mirage, which was east of
Palmdale where there was a 10-mile dry lake and big sand hills to ride up and
down on. Roger was one of the people who helped make the movie On Any Sunday
with Bruce Brown.” (http://www.soloshawn.com/riding-with-steve-mcqueen.html)
Bruce Brown is the documentary film maker
from Nicole Brown Simpson’s home of Dana Point, California, who made the widely
popular surfing film The Endless Summer. Dana Point is named for Cambridge, Massachusetts’,
Richard Henry Dana, author of Two Years
Before the Mast.
The LA Time’s Charles Hillinger recounted
El Mirage’s history with Rev. Gustav Briegleb:
“EL MIRAGE, Calif. — This is
the closest man can come to being a bird," shouted 78-year-old Gus
Briegleb as he caught the whirling dust devil and soared skyward at 500 feet
per minute.... For
63 years, Briegleb has been catching thermals--rising columns of spinning hot
air, miniature tornadoes, dust devils at ground level--and riding wavelike air
currents bouncing off mountains...He built his first glider in 1928 in the
basement of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, where his father was
pastor. It has been his passion ever since.
When
Steve McQueen returned to an airplane hangar after his diagnosis of cancer and began
a type of spiritual quest, he appeared to be returning to something he had
known. The glider scene from The Thomas
Crown Affair, would have been common place at El Mirage. Ross Briegleb writes:
To begin with, the reader will learn about
some of my ancestors, most noteworthy, my Grandfather, Gustav Arminius Briegleb
(GAB), my father William Gustave Briegleb (Gus) my mother Annie Briegleb, and
brother Ken. The narrative will then follow my family’s journey from Van Nuys,
California to the Mojave Desert where my Dad purchased from the War Assets
Administration an ex army airfield known as Mirage Field Auxiliary #3.
Gustav Arminius Briegleb was the Rev. Gus Briegleb
played by John Malkovich in The Changeling.
What Clint Eastwood’s story does not say
is just how close Rev. Briegleb was to the U.S. military and intelligence power
elites through his contacts at Yale and Baltimore…..to the Nazi ambitions in
Europe via his family ties to Walter Briegleb and to L.A.’s underworld kingpin,
Charles H. Crawford. Crawford was baptized at
St. Paul’s Church by Rev. Briegleb, but later shot and killed by L.A. prosecutor
and judge, David H. Clark.
Charles H. Crawford was head of the “City
Hall Gang” that had been disregarding Mrs. Collin’s pleas for help in finding
her missing son. By the time Mrs. Collins' situation was becoming a public embarrassment, the City Hall Gang was in full "damage control" mode just as at Penn State, or in Omaha's Franklin Savings scandal cover-up was the name of the game, but The Changeling is also cover-up by avoiding the full story....sorry, Mr. Eastwood, Ms. Jolie, Mr. Malkovich. Behind the "City Hall Gang's" bamboozling of the public were other motives that inform everything from the Rodney King beating, the O.J. Simpson murder case, to the "Freeway" Ricky Ross case that cost Gary Webb, a white man, his life for telling the truth of the matter. Decades later the same issues abound in LA....Hello, Mr. Sterling!
Floyd Barriscale’s on-line blog that covers
the history of St. Paul’s church states (Floyd B. Bariscale, Big Orange
Landmarks: Exploring the Landmarks of Los Angeles, One Monument at a Time, from
http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.com/2009/04/no-229-westminster-presbyterian-church.html):
“Briegleb’s acceptance of Crawford into
the fold along with the racketeer’s gift was controversial, of course. The
Reverend R.P. Shuler, a former pal of Briegleb, broadcasted he would “just as
soon baptize a skunk as to receive Crawford.” Shuler also maintained it was
Crawford’s money that was financing Briegleb’s radio sermons in which he
endorsed some of Charles H.’s pals for political office, a charge which the
reverend later copped to. (In fact, Crawford’s unrealized plans to finance a
permanent radio station in St Paul’s were revealed after his death.)”
Floyd Bariscale's blog also shows that church loans for Briegleb's congregation were secured through Bank of America, the TransAmerican and Vatican related bank in San Francisco that would purchase CountryWide Mortgage after the 2008 bailout which also saw Bank of America buying Merrill Lynch formerly Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith with the Pierce name connecting directly to the ancestors of President Franklin Pierce and Barbara Pierce Bush. CountryWide had provided special low interest loans to Buck McKeon, Chair of the Congressional Armed Services Committee. McKeon, a graduate of Brigham Young University and a Mormon, comes from a tradition that is new to women's rights and civil rights in general and from a state that domiciles the NSA's new data mining storage facility. Floyd Bariscale states:
In January 1931, the Los Angeles Times reported demolition of the old church buildings would begin on the 12th and that the congregation would hold services at the Home Theater on Jefferson west of Arlington till the new structure was complete. The article also quoted Rev. Briegleb’s saying St Paul’s had just received a $40,000 loan from the Bank of America along with a gift of a diamond ring – valued at $3,554 – from “well-known politician Charles Crawford”. It turns out Crawford would give more than jewelry to finance the new church building.
Floyd Bariscale's blog also shows that church loans for Briegleb's congregation were secured through Bank of America, the TransAmerican and Vatican related bank in San Francisco that would purchase CountryWide Mortgage after the 2008 bailout which also saw Bank of America buying Merrill Lynch formerly Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith with the Pierce name connecting directly to the ancestors of President Franklin Pierce and Barbara Pierce Bush. CountryWide had provided special low interest loans to Buck McKeon, Chair of the Congressional Armed Services Committee. McKeon, a graduate of Brigham Young University and a Mormon, comes from a tradition that is new to women's rights and civil rights in general and from a state that domiciles the NSA's new data mining storage facility. Floyd Bariscale states:
In January 1931, the Los Angeles Times reported demolition of the old church buildings would begin on the 12th and that the congregation would hold services at the Home Theater on Jefferson west of Arlington till the new structure was complete. The article also quoted Rev. Briegleb’s saying St Paul’s had just received a $40,000 loan from the Bank of America along with a gift of a diamond ring – valued at $3,554 – from “well-known politician Charles Crawford”. It turns out Crawford would give more than jewelry to finance the new church building.
When
in 2014 a film starring Angelina Jolee’s husband, Brad Pitt, was directed by
Steve McQueen, many did a double take. “I
didn’t know Steve McQueen had a son,” said one Academy Awards watcher. It wasn’t Bullitt’s son. This was Steve McQueen the black director
from Amsterdam. His winning film was Twelve
Years A Slave of which Ellen Degeneris said "It better win or we are all racists." Of course, the blond Degeneris did not note that African American, Whoppi Goldberg, was dressed in black and the ruby slippers of the Wicked Witch to introduce Degeneris as Glenda the good white witch," said Frederick Ritchel, of the writers' group, Purple Pandas. When Degeneris ordered the pizzas for everyone, but had no money who did she get it from, the stars and Harvey Weinstein," said Ritchel. "Subtle stuff," said Ritchel.
“Trying to follow the story line in
Hollywood is as perplexing and knowing someone's real name,” said another Hollywood-watcher who noted that the
attorney for Walter Collin’s mother, Sammy Kahn, died by self-inflicted
drowning in 1957. Self-inflicted drowning is about as rare as Gary Webb's two-shots-to-the-head suicide," she continued.
Rev. Gus Briegleb received an honorary
doctorate from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington the alma mater of
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas as well as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan,
Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, the historic oil-rich opium
producing region of the Golden Crescent, Ryan Crocker.
“California has had a long history with
the East Coast power elites for whom Henry Dana, Herman Melville, Edgar Allen
Poe, James Russell Lowe and others were articulate voice pieces. Hear no mistake about it. Their weird intrigues, prevalent there in New
England or Baltimore are prevalent in Los Angeles and San Francisco, too. Their ordered life at Yale or Brown, Penn
State or Princeton, informs life in every major U.S. city. When Gary Webb exposed in Dark Alliance the CIA connection to LA’s
“Freeway” Ricky Ross, the gig was up. We
just didn’t know what else wasn’t being exposed until that connection surfaced
with Jerry Sandusky, Michael Hess’ story in another 2014 film, Philomena, and the Catholic Church connection
in Philadelphia and St. Louis, the Paterno and Lawrence E. King connection to
the 1988 Republican National Convention and King's pedophile connection with the Franklin Cover-up scandal,” said Mark
Marenowski, a self-described “Hollywood watcher and part-time pedophile hunter.”
"You have to ask yourself, why would Clint Eastwood not tell this part of the Walter Collins story? Clint Eastwood? The actor who at the 2012 Republican National Convention talks to Obama as if he's sitting in an empty chair and telling the world that Angelina Jolie's father, Jon Voight, dislikes Obama? In Los Angeles where the Clipper's owner, Donald Sterling, has shown that among many Jewish power elites there are those who are as racist as the KKK for which Rev. Briegleb and Rev. Shuler were supporters, it's not hard to figure out," said Marenowski. "Just as in Nazi Germany, tyranny made strange bed fellows. It's also not hard to figure out just why LA blacks felt vindicated by O.J. Simpsons acquittal when he was married to Nicole Brown from Dana Point, California. Tyranny begets cock-eye contradictions of all sorts," Marenowski concluded.
Was Rev. Gustav Arminius Briegleb's interest in Walter Collins and his mother motivated by his place as a spiritual consigliore for the "City Hall Gang" controlled as it was by Charles H. Crawford?
Then perhaps, the viewpoint of Klaus Briegleb comes into play. Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt who had reportedly been expelled from Hitler's Brown Shirts and remained staunchly anti-Nazi cited Karl Briegleb's work. Schmidt gives us a peek into the mind behind an alternative universe so that perhaps now we better understand just how L.A.'s breakdown, breaks down. Why Mel Gibson can be demonized by Jewish actors and film makers for his father's Nazi sympathies and how behind the lofty claims of American exceptionalism lurks the dark alliances of out-and-out gang warfare, fight promoting and the racket of war.....none of which was a concern for a mother who had lost her only son.
"You have to ask yourself, why would Clint Eastwood not tell this part of the Walter Collins story? Clint Eastwood? The actor who at the 2012 Republican National Convention talks to Obama as if he's sitting in an empty chair and telling the world that Angelina Jolie's father, Jon Voight, dislikes Obama? In Los Angeles where the Clipper's owner, Donald Sterling, has shown that among many Jewish power elites there are those who are as racist as the KKK for which Rev. Briegleb and Rev. Shuler were supporters, it's not hard to figure out," said Marenowski. "Just as in Nazi Germany, tyranny made strange bed fellows. It's also not hard to figure out just why LA blacks felt vindicated by O.J. Simpsons acquittal when he was married to Nicole Brown from Dana Point, California. Tyranny begets cock-eye contradictions of all sorts," Marenowski concluded.
Was Rev. Gustav Arminius Briegleb's interest in Walter Collins and his mother motivated by his place as a spiritual consigliore for the "City Hall Gang" controlled as it was by Charles H. Crawford?
Then perhaps, the viewpoint of Klaus Briegleb comes into play. Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt who had reportedly been expelled from Hitler's Brown Shirts and remained staunchly anti-Nazi cited Karl Briegleb's work. Schmidt gives us a peek into the mind behind an alternative universe so that perhaps now we better understand just how L.A.'s breakdown, breaks down. Why Mel Gibson can be demonized by Jewish actors and film makers for his father's Nazi sympathies and how behind the lofty claims of American exceptionalism lurks the dark alliances of out-and-out gang warfare, fight promoting and the racket of war.....none of which was a concern for a mother who had lost her only son.