Kerry Wendell Thornley (April 17, 1938 – November 28, 1998)
was an American author. He is known as the co-founder (along with childhood friend
Greg Hill) of
Discordianism
Discordianism is a religion, philosophy, or paradigm centered on Eris, a.k.a. Discordia, the Goddess of chaos. Discordianism uses archetypes or ideals associated with her. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its "holy book," the ''Pri ...
,
in which context he is usually known as Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst or simply Lord Omar.
He and Hill authored the religion's text ''
Principia Discordia
The ''Principia Discordia'' is the first published Discordian religious text. It was written by Greg Hill (Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. The first edition was printed allegedly using ...
, Or, How I Found Goddess, And What I Did To Her When I Found Her.'' Thornley was also known for his 1962 manuscript, ''The Idle Warriors'', which was based on the activities of his acquaintance,
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
, prior to the 1963
assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
.
Thornley was highly active in the
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
publishing scene, writing for a number of underground magazines and newspapers, and self-publishing many one-page (or ''broadsheet'') newsletters of his own. One such newsletter called ''Zenarchy'' was published in the 1960s under the pen name Ho Chi Zen.
Zenarchy is described in the introduction of the collected volume as "the social order which springs from meditation", and "A noncombative, nonparticipatory, no-politics approach to
anarchy
Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...
intended to get the serious student thinking."
Raised
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
, in adulthood Kerry shifted his ideological focus frequently, in rivalry with any serious
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
figure of the 1960s. Among the subjects he closely scrutinized throughout his life were
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
,
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
,
Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian Americans, Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with prod ...
,
autarchism
Autarchism is a political philosophy that promotes the principles of individualism, the moral ideology of individual liberty and self-reliance. It rejects compulsory government and supports the elimination of government in favor of ruling on ...
(he attended
Robert LeFevre
Robert LeFevre (October 13, 1911 – May 13, 1986) was an American libertarian businessman, radio personality, and primary theorist of autarchism.
Early life
LeFevre was born in Gooding, Idaho, on October 13, 1911, but when he was a child Le ...
's
Freedom School),
neo-paganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...
,
Kerista
Kerista was a utopian community that was started in New York City in 1956 by John Peltz "Bro Jud" Presmont. Throughout much of its history, Kerista was centered on the ideals of polyfidelity and creation of intentional communities. Kerista underwe ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, and the
meme
A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...
tic inheritor of
Discordianism
Discordianism is a religion, philosophy, or paradigm centered on Eris, a.k.a. Discordia, the Goddess of chaos. Discordianism uses archetypes or ideals associated with her. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its "holy book," the ''Pri ...
, the
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion that satirizes better-known belief systems. It teaches a complex philosophy that focuses on J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, purportedly a salesman from the 1950s, who is revered as a prophet by the Church. SubG ...
.
Personal life
Kerry Wendell Thornley was born on April 17, 1938, in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
to Kenneth and Helen Thornley. He had two younger brothers, Dick and Tom.
Thornley attended
California High School in
Whittier, California
Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States ...
, located within
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
.
On Saturday, December 11, 1965, Kerry married Cara Leach at
Wayfarers Chapel
Wayfarers Chapel, also known as "The Glass Church" is located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It is noted for its unique organic architecture and location on cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Swedenborgian Church of North Amer ...
in
Palos Verdes
The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Sou ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. They had one son,
Kreg Thornley, born in 1969. They later divorced. Kreg was a photographer, painter, musician and film maker.
Military life
Having already been a
U.S. Marine Corps reservist for about two years, Thornley had been summoned to active duty in 1958 at age 20, soon after completing his freshman year at the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
.
According to ''Principia Discordia'', it was around this time that he and Greg Hill—alias
Malaclypse the Younger
Gregory Hill (May 21, 1941July 20, 2000), better known by the pen name Malaclypse the Younger, was an American author. He is listed as author of the ''Principia Discordia'', which was written with Kerry Wendell Thornley (a.k.a. Lord Omar Khayya ...
or Mal-2—shared their first
Eristic vision in a
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
alley in their hometown of
Whittier, California
Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States ...
.
In early 1959, Thornley served for a short time in the same
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
operator unit as
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
at
MCAS El Toro
Marine Corps Air Station El Toro was a United States Marine Corps Air Station located next to the community of El Toro, near Irvine, California.
Before it was decommissioned in 1999, it was the home of Marine Corps Aviation on the West Coast ...
in
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...
.
Both men had shared a common interest in
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...
,
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
,
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
, and whenever duty placed them together, had discussed such topics as
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
's famous novel ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...
'' and the
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
of
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, particularly Oswald's interest in the latter.
[''Warren Commission Hearings'', Volume XI, pp. 87–90]
While aboard a troopship returning to the United States from duty in Japan (some time after the two men parted ways as a result of routine reassignment), Thornley read of Oswald's autumn 1959
defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...
to the Soviet Union in the US military newspaper ''
Stars and Stripes''.
[''Warren Commission Hearings'', Volume XI, p. 109](_blank)
/ref>
1960s
In February 1962, Thornley completed '' The Idle Warriors,'' which has the historical distinction of being the only book written about Lee Harvey Oswald ''before'' Kennedy
Kennedy may refer to:
People
* John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States
* John Kennedy (Louisiana politician), (born 1951), US Senator from Louisiana
* Kennedy (surname), a family name (including a list of persons with t ...
's assassination in 1963. Due to the serendipitous nature of Thornley's choice of literary subject matter, he was called to testify before the Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...
in Washington, D.C. on May 18, 1964. The Commission subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
ed a copy of the manuscript and stored it in the National Archives, and the book remained unpublished until 1991. In 1965, Thornley published another book titled ''Oswald Oswald may refer to:
People
* Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name
*Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name
Fictional characters
*Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbu ...
'', generally defending the " Oswald-as-lone-assassin" conclusion of the Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...
.
In January 1968, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison
James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he ...
, certain there had been a New Orleans-based conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy, subpoenaed Thornley to appear before a grand jury, questioning him about his relationship with Oswald and his knowledge of other figures Garrison believed to be connected to the assassination. Thornley sought a cancellation of this subpoena on which he had to appear before the Circuit Court. Garrison charged Thornley with perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
after Thornley denied that he had been in contact with Oswald in any manner since 1959. The perjury charge was eventually dropped by Garrison's successor Harry Connick Sr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick (born March 27, 1926) is an American attorney who served as the district attorney of Orleans Parish (New Orleans), Louisiana from 1973 to 2003.
His son, Harry Connick Jr., is an American musician. Connick is also a ...
Thornley claimed that, during his initial two-year sojourn in , he had numerous meetings with two mysterious middle-aged men named "Gary Kirstein" and "Slim Brooks". According to his account, they had detailed discussions on numerous subjects ranging from the mundane to the exotic, and bordering sometimes on bizarre. Among these was the subject of how one might assassinate President Kennedy, whose beliefs and policies the aspiring novelist deeply disliked at the time. Later, the former Marine came to believe that "Gary Kirstein" had in reality been senior CIA officer and future Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
burglar E. Howard Hunt
Everette Howard Hunt Jr. (October 9, 1918 – January 23, 2007) was an American intelligence officer and author. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), particularly in the United States involvem ...
, and "Slim Brooks" to have been Jerry Milton Brooks, a member of the 1960s right-wing activist group " The Minutemen". Guy Banister
William Guy Banister (March 7, 1901 – June 6, 1964) was an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an Assistant Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, and a private investigator. After his death, New Orleans District ...
, another Minutemen member in New Orleans, had been accused by Garrison of involvement in the assassination and was allegedly connected to Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
through the Fair Play for Cuba Committee The Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) was an activist group set up in New York City by Robert Taber in April 1960.
History
The FPCC's purpose was to provide grassroots support for the Cuban Revolution against attacks by the United States govern ...
leaflet. Thornley also claimed that "Kirstein" and Brooks had accurately predicted Richard M. Nixon's accession to the presidency six years before it happened, as well as anticipating the rise of the 1960s counterculture
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...
and the subsequent emergence of Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
and what became his cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
following. This led Thornley to believe that the US government had somehow been involved, directly or indirectly, in creating and/or supporting these events, personages and phenomena.
After Shaw was acquitted, Thornley said he wanted Garrison to bring him to trial in order to clear his name.[http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Thornley%20Kerry/Item%2021.pdf ]
Later life and death
For the next 30 years, Thornley traveled and lived all over the United States and was involved in a variety of activities, ranging from editing underground newspapers to attending graduate school
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have earned an Undergraduate education, un ...
. He spent most of the remainder of his life in the Little Five Points
Little Five Points (also L5P, LFP, Little Five, or Lil' Five) is a district on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, east of downtown. It was established in the early 20th century as the commercial district for the adjacent In ...
neighborhood of Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. During this time he maintained a free series of fliers titled "Out of Order." This single page, double sided Xeroxed periodical was distributed in the Little Five Points area.
In 1994, he and Malaclypse the Younger were inducted into the Order of the Pineapple.
Thornley became increasingly paranoid and distrustful in the wake of his experiences during the 1960s, both by his own accounts and those of personal acquaintances. For a time, Thornley wrote a regular column in the zine
A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...
''Factsheet Five
''Factsheet Five'' was a periodical mostly consisting of short reviews of privately produced printed matter along with contact details of the editors and publishers.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, its comprehensive reviews (thousands in each issue ...
'', until editor Mike Gunderloy
''Factsheet Five'' was a periodical mostly consisting of short reviews of privately produced printed matter along with contact details of the editors and publishers.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, its comprehensive reviews (thousands in each issue ...
stopped publishing the magazine. Struggling with illness in his final days, Kerry Thornley died of cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...
in Atlanta on November 28, 1998, at the age of 60. The following morning, 23 people attended a Buddhist memorial service in his honor. His body had been cremated and the ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean. Shortly before his death, Thornley reportedly said he'd felt "like a tired child home from a very wild circus", a reference to a passage by Greg Hill from ''Principia Discordia:''
List of pen names and titles
List of pen names and self-awarded titles provided by Kerry himself on the role of Pope of the Discordian Society in an affidavit to the California School Employees Association (CSEA), on a legal case concerning a member of the society that refused to join the CSEA alleging that the Discordian religion forbade him from doing so:
*co-founder of the Discordian Society and the Legion of Dynamic Discord thereof and co-author of ''Principia Discordia''
*Grand Ballyhoo of Egypt of the Orthodox Discordian Society
*Kerry Wendell Thornley, JFK Assassin
*Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst
*President of the Fair-Play-for-Switzerland Committee
*Reverend Doctor Jesse Sump
*Ancient Abbreviated Calif. of California
*Sinister Minister of the First Evangelical and Unrepentant Church of No Faith
*Ho Chi Zen (the Fifth Dealy Lama)
*Purple Sage
*Pope
*"I further declare that there is no truth whatsoever to the charge that Kerry Wendell Thornley is a fictitious identity created by the Warren Commission for its own mysterious purposes (Vol. XI, pp. 80+, Commission Exhibits and Testimony)"
Bibliography
*with Malaclypse the Younger
Gregory Hill (May 21, 1941July 20, 2000), better known by the pen name Malaclypse the Younger, was an American author. He is listed as author of the ''Principia Discordia'', which was written with Kerry Wendell Thornley (a.k.a. Lord Omar Khayya ...
( Greg Hill); ''Principia Discordia, or, How I found Goddess and what I did to Her when I found Her'', 5th Edition, September 1991, IllumiNet Press (Introduction by Kerry Thornley)
*Thornley, Kerry; ''Oswald'', New Classics House, 1965
*Thornley, Kerry; ''Zenarchy'', IllumiNet Press, June 1991
*Thornley, Kerry; ''The Idle Warriors'', IllumiNet Press, June 1991
See also
*Omar Khayyam
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...
*Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia".
Altho ...
Notes
Inline citations
References
* Biles, Joe G.; ''In History's Shadow: Lee Harvey Oswald, Kerry Thornley & the Garrison Investigation'', Writers Club Press, April 2002 (foreword by Robert Buras)
* Gorightly, Adam; ''The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture'', Paraview Press, November 2003 (foreword by Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
)
*
External links
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* Sondra London
Sondra London (born 1947 in Florida) is a controversial American true crime author. A onetime girlfriend of convicted murderer and suspected serial killer G.J. Schaefer and the fiancée of convicted serial killer Danny Rolling (later executed f ...
:
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornley, Kerry
1938 births
1998 deaths
American religious writers
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
Discordians
American SubGenii
People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Former Latter Day Saints
Founders of new religious movements
United States Marines
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Omar Khayyam
20th-century American male writers