1991

"What do Ronald Reagan, President George Bush, former CIA Director William E Colby, Democratic presidential candidate Bob Kerrey, billionaire and second richest man in America and now head of Salomon Brothers - Warren Buffett, and Ronald Roskens, the current administrator of the Agency for International Development, all have in common?" I asked my close friend and adviser William Colby one day in 1991.

"I give up," former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Colby said. "What could that group have in common?"

"Three things," I replied, "all of them a burden at times for those who have to carry them. The three things are me (John DeCamp), a case called Franklin and a man named Larry King."

"Are you serious?" Colby asked.

"Dead serious," I responded. "And I hope that word ‘dead’ does not turn out to be a prophetic pronouncement, as it has for at least fifteen other Franklin-related personalities."

My statement to Bill Colby was not made lightly. Colby and his wife, Sally Shelton Colby, a United States ambassador under President Jimmy Carter, were at that very moment warning me to get away from the Franklin child abuse investigation, Larry King, and anybody else linked with Franklin, as quickly as possible for the sake of my own life and safety.

Sally and Bill had never talked to me like this before. They sat me down, made it clear that this was not one of our routine discussions about life and death and happiness, and emphasized to me the serious nature of what and whom I was dealing with.

"What you have to understand, John, is that sometimes there are forces and events too big, too powerful, with so much at state for other people or institutions, that you cannot do anything about them, not matter how evil or wrong they are and no matter how dedicated or sincere you are or how much evidence you have. That is simply one of the hard facts of life you have to face. You have done your part. You have tried to expose the evil and wrongdoing. It has hurt you terribly. But it has not killed you up to this point. I am telling you, get out of this before it does. Sometimes things are just too big for us to deal with, and we have to step aside and let history take its course. For you, John, this is one of those times,"

Bill warned, with Sally nodding her head in affirmation.

When a caution of this nature comes from someone of the stature and experience of Bill or Sally Colby, you have to take it seriously, even if you do not want to. I had already had warnings enough, that unless I backed off from the Franklin situation, I might be looking at life from a pine box six feet underground.

Bill Colby had ample reason to know the seriousness of the Franklin case. In secret, Colby had been hired a few months earlier by the Nebraska Legislature’s investigative committee, to look into the single-engine plane crash, in which the Senate’s private investigator, Gary Caradori, and his son were killed.

"But Bill," I argued, "somebody has to do something. The problem here is that our institutions of government have been corrupted. If there is a cover-up - and I now absolutely believe there is, even though originally I thought this whole Franklin story had to be a fantasy - then that cover-up can only take place with the co-operation and even the active assistance of some of our key institutions of government, from the courts to the cops, from the highest politicians, to the media representatives, to the wealthiest business leaders of our community and country.

"I can’t believe what you are telling me, Bill. Are you saying I should just lay it down, and walk away from this, when I know kids are being abused and killed; when I know our most respected citizens and business leaders are up to their eyebrows in drug dealing and official corruption; when every bone in my body tells me that evil is triumphing and everybody who is anybody is scared beanless to do something about it, for fear of one thing or another? How can any honest or intelligent person do this? If I, or someone like me, do not keep pursuing this, then who will? And if we quit now, then when, if ever, will the truth come out and something be done about this evil and this corruption?"

Bill could tell I was excited, frustrated and almost angry.

"Relax, just a moment, John," he said. "Relax, and I will tell you my own personal story. Maybe it will have some message for you.

"Last night I returned from Russia," Bill began.

Our conversation was taking place shortly before the now infamous August 19, 1991 coup attempt to throw out Gorbachov, and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union as it had existed since 1917.

"Why was I in Russia?" Bill explained:

"For meetings in Moscow, to try to work with other world leaders and Russian leaders, privately and quietly, so that when and if a transition of power and a change of government and economic policy occur in Russia, they occur in such a way that it avoids a war.

"I was staying at a hotel located right near Red Square which, as you know, is the most guarded, sacred spot in the Soviet Union. It was about 1:00 in the morning. I could not sleep. The next morning I was to return to the United States. Not being able to sleep, I thought I would see if it was possible to walk around and get some exercise.

"I walked out of my room, expecting to be stopped by the guards or secret police. But nobody paid attention to me in the hallway. I walked on down into the hotel lobby. Nobody seemed to care.

"So, I walked out the door of the hotel, directly onto Red Square. Nobody paid attention. I stopped by Lenin’s tomb. I stood a few feet away from the entrance to the Kremlin.

"Then it struck me like a ton of bricks: It was over. Here was the head of the CIA, once hated and feared by the Soviet Union, wandering unwatched and unguarded around Red Square, after spending the previous week meeting with their leaders, trying to help them save themselves from economic collapse and political revolution, which might turn into a new totalitarian dictatorship. And nobody cared. The guards did not care who I was or what I was doing. The system had collapsed. It was over. Communism was dead. That was the happy part."

Bill went on, quietly,

"But I also realized, that this walk in Red Square was going to be the only victory parade I would have, to celebrate my forty-year battle for this. There were not going to be any parades down Madison Avenue with ticker tape. This walk in Red Square was the only victory parade I was going to have."

"So, what’s the message?" I asked. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"Sometimes," Bill said,

"There are forces too powerful for us to whip them individually, in the time frame that we would like. We have to keep working at our goal. But we have to be sensible enough, not to risk everything and get ourselves destroyed or killed in the process. That victory we seek may take much longer than we wanted, and come in ways we never anticipated.

"Maybe, just maybe, you have to have your own private victory parade. You maybe have to face the fact that you cannot ‘right’ all the ‘unrightable wrongs’ That there really are people too powerful, interests too big; that the rich and the powerful, even when doing evil, can and will succeed and you can do nothing about it at that moment.

"But," Bill continued: "you do the possible, recognize the impossible, and if you are right - and you are, and we both know it - there will be a time when victory will come and the good will triumph over the evil. Only the when and where and how are usually unknown to us. the vest we might be able to do sometimes, is point out the truth and then step aside. that is where I think you are now. For your own safety and survival, step aside."

"Maybe I should start carrying a gun," I suggested.

Bill gave a cynical laugh and said, "No, that will only likely get you killed. If they are going to get you, a gun you are carrying is not going to stop anything. The best thing you can do for your personal safety is to tell your story, and make sure you have the national press interested in this and looking into it with some really good investigative reporters."

"Huh," I muttered. "Maybe the simplest thing for me to do is to try to tell the story."

"Maybe it is," Bill said. "Besides, I myself want to fully understand what you said at the beginning about what all those prominent individuals, from President Bush to Bob Kerrey, from myself to billionaire Warren Buffett, have in common."

"Maybe I’ll have to write a book, and tell you, won’t I Bill?"

Well, here it is.