The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture [Paperback]

Adam Gorightly (Author), Robert Anton Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

One of the 1960s counterculture's most fascinating characters was Kerry Wendell Thornley -- a writer, philosopher, Zen dishwasher, enlightened prankster, and, possibly, an Oswald double with disturbing ties to the Kennedy assassination. A lifelong provocateur, Thornley was linked to many of the fringe elements of the time. He helped create the spoof religion called the Discordian Society and its tract, the Principia Discordia. He coined the term "paganism" to describe various nature religions. And he befriended Robert Anton Wilson, inspired the Illuminatus, and gave his anarchic support to the Bavarian Illuminati, a brilliant prank.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Paraview Press (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193104466X
• ISBN-13: 978-1931044660
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That's the truth, November 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture (Paperback)

I knew Kerry Thornley for more than 40 years, although I hadn't seen him for the last ten before he died. We had talked on the phone and wrote letters during that time, though.

Kerry was unique, and that's one of the reasons why I liked him. You could seldom predict his response. When I got the book (THE PRANKSTER AND THE CONSPIRACY), I was afraid to open it, afraid that his uniqueness would be misinterpreted by the author, afraid that his madness, particularly, would be misunderstood.

But I had nothing to fear. The author, Adam Gorightly, apparently had excellent sources, and he characterized them accurately. Most importantly, he let them tell the story themselves.

The story is about an extremely brilliant and funny man, who had a lot of friends, and who get involved with "the authorities" over the assassination of JFK. I will let you read the book to find out how that all came out, but the important thing was that at that same time, his personality disintegrated into paranoid schizophrenia. He was never institutionalize.

The people who were his friends, many of whom are described in the book, are quite interesting people, too. I knew and warmly liked many of them. Even when he was at his most paranoid, he could laugh with friends, even make new friends -- unlike most paranoids, who often spend most of their time alone. And usually he unconsciously chose them for their kindness.

Along the way, you can read about what to do with 100 naked bananas (for the Mellow Yellow con), what happened at the first LA Human Be-in when a sociologist's theory about LSD was proved all wet, and why a (perhaps imaginary) group of helicopters in Tampa brought everything to a head.

It is a good story, and it is told truthfully.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but unexpectedly melancholy, March 30, 2007

By 

The Dilettante "Dilly!" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture (Paperback)

This is a fantastic book, but it left me kind of sad. Prior to reading this, everything I knew about Thornley was filtered through Robert Anton Wilson, and it was all positive (or at least all humorous). This book made me acutely aware that Wilson's Thornley is not unlike Plato's Socrates - an idealized character who reveals more about his biographer than his or her actual self. Unlike Wilson, Gorightly declines the invitation to treat Thornley as a discordian saint/superhero. He depicts a man who was a philosophical and comic genius, but also a raving lunatic (and -perhaps more importantly- an unhappy one).

More alarmingly, Gorightly recounts allegations that Thornley commited acts of sexual abuse against children. Gorightly's case here is pretty slim, and basically amounts to two instances of hearsay, but the allegation changes the character of this story substantially. It is disheartening to learn that the man who you thought was a bodhisattva may just have been a homeless, schizophrenic, child molester with very good PR. (Of course, the same could be said of Socrates...)

Of course, none of this should detract from the appeal of the book, which is very well-written and downright fascinating. Especially interesting are the parts about "brother-in-law," the shadowy CIA/neo-nazi/cowboy who Thornley came to believe had brainwashed him into assisting Lee Harvey Oswald. Did he exist? Was he really E. Howard Hunt? Was Thornley insane, brainwashed by the CIA, or both? With this discussion Gorightly masterfully brings the reader to the threshold of Chapel Perilous and, by the end of the book, the reader may question his or her own sanity.

As the title suggests, The "Prankster and the Conspiracy" is primarily about the nexus between Thornley and the Kennedy assassination, and does not purport to be a full biography of Thornley the man. Still, it is remarkably insightful into his personal character and is based on information from people who were close to him.

This is also maybe the first book to be written about Discordianism (rather than simply being a discordian holy text) which purports to be historically accurate. Anyone interested in Our Lady of Chaos will be interested to hear the backstory to Thornley and Hill's revelations...

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography of Long-Overlooked Counterculture Figure, December 6, 2003

By 

Paul Thomas Evans (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture (Paperback)

Gorightly set quite a task for himself--wading through the plethora of contradictions that the late Kerry Thornley wove around himself. He also had the uphill battle of sifting the truth from the lies and legends surrounding Thornley.
And this book is the result! Tracking the life of Kerry W. Thornley was quite difficult, even for Thornley. And yet Gorightly made excellent use of letters, interviews, court transcripts, and social history to present a well written biography of a talented, verbose, and iconoclastic man, much overlooked by the JFK assassination community and social historians.
Gorightly also explores fairly Thornley's descent into mental illness and the resultant irrational Kennedy assassination "facts" which Thornley spoke to friends and A CURRENT AFFAIR viewers ("I am a Nazi breeding experiment" is perhaps the best well known.)