Charles Pichel

Charles Louis Thourot Pichel (June 26, 1890 - May 3, 1982) was an American pseudo-heraldist and founder of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Inc. From the late 1920s through the 1930s, Pichel operated the American Heraldry Society, an outfit promising genealogically legitimated proofs of nobility and coats-of-arms to paying clientele, and through these activities cultivated ties with the White Russian exile community, became involved with the Ancient and Noble Order of the Blue Lamoo, and sought a position as a public liaison for Adolf Hitler to the United States but was dismissed as a crank by the Germans. Following the war, Pichel was an elected Pennsylvania State Constable in Fairmount Township from 1947 into the 1950s, and, after his tenure in local policing ended, incorporated the Sovereign Order of Saint John at Shickshinny in 1956, devoting several years to that venture. In the 1960s, Pichel founded the "International Authority for Terrestrial Operation of Galactic Powers Task Force" and the Maltese Cross Legionnaires, the latter intended "to combat a secret alliance between the Holy See and the government of Malta to hand the Island over to the Soviet Union," and toward the end of his life was peddling natural cures via "Cosmic Energy" manipulation.