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Francis E. Dec

From Kook Science

Francis E. Dec, Esq.
Born 6 January 1926(1926-01-06)
Hempstead Village, New York
Died 21 January 1996 (70) [1]
Queens, New York
Burial Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, New York [1]
Occupation(s) Notary public, Attorney
Nationality American
Ethnicity Polish
Alma mater St. John's University (New York), Brooklyn Law School
Field(s) Law, Conspiracy
Known for "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God"
Salvaged from a deleted article, formerly published by the Wales Family Jam, as had been last modified on 2012-10-27 at 20:17. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Francis E. Dec, Esq. (January 6, 1926 - January 21, 1996) was an American conspiracy theorist, noted for his bizarre socio-political tracts that he mass-mailed to the media. Often denouncing a "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God"[2] mind-controlling mankind, Dec is considered to have been a paranoid schizophrenic of the influencing-machine delusion kind, and is often referred to as a "kook."[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Not unlike Ed Wood, Dec later became a cult figure referenced in underground culture. He has been the subject of books, comics, and a stage play; he also made his way into the folklores of the Discordians and the Church of the SubGenius. His rants have been reprinted (as in a 1983 issue of Robert Crumb's magazine Weirdo), and circulated since 1986 as recordings by KROQ-FM host Doc Britton, which have been, in turn, sampled by Psychic TV, Critters Buggin, and Venetian Snares, and inspiration for a Coldcut album. Dec's work has been archived as outsider art by UbuWeb and WFMU, spawned a fanclub and website, and has been used as a gauge for "kook typography" and the entropy of the undeciphered Voynich manuscript.

Background

Early life

Francis E. Dec was born on January 6, 1926,[9] in the Nassau County, Long Island community of Hempstead Village, New York (a Black and Latino majority neighborhood, accounting later for its frequent racist designations in Dec's rants) and appears to have lived there for most of his life (except for his military service). His middle name is not established: there is only "[+]*Francis [-]Frank Dec"[9] on his birth certificate, and "Dec Francis E"[10] on his army's enlistment record.

He was the son of two Polish immigrants, butcher John F. Dec (John Frank Dec, June 23, 1893 - August, 1971; born Jan Dec)[9][11] and servant turned housewife Rose M. Dec (~1889/1890 - October 3, 1967[12]); born Rozalia Jaronek or Rosalia Jronek).[9][13] Both of Dec's parents were born in Poland (his mother from the Polish part of what was then Galicia) and immigrated to the United States, his mother in 1910 and his father in 1912, and were married c. 1920-1921.[14]

Dec also had an older brother, Joseph I. Dec (1921-2010) [15]), whom he mentions in several of his rants as "his only brother."[16] Dec later wrote[17] of attending a Catholic grammar school taught by nuns, and appears to have completed at least three years of high school[10] before he volunteered for military service in World War II.

Military life

Dec enlisted on April 13, 1944[10] as a private in the United States Army Air Forces, "for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months."[10] After six weeks of basic training at Keesler Field near Biloxi, Mississippi, he was enrolled in the Army Air Forces Technical School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He graduated from the Radio Operator and Mechanics Course in January 1945. He subsequently was stationed at USAAF bases in Yuma, Arizona, Lincoln, Nebraska, Dallas, Texas, and Fairfield, California. He was honorably discharged as a Private First Class in May 1946.[18]

Professional life

Dec received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950 from the College of Liberal Arts at St. John's University in Brooklyn, New York. According to one of his rants, Dec then studied at Brooklyn Law School,[19] though it's not established for how many years since completing a law degree wasn't mandatory in order to get a law license in New York State.[20]

Dec then became a lawyer, an attorney at law. He was admitted to the New York state bar[21] on March 31, 1954 but was disbarred on January 19, 1959.[22] Dec was also a notary public, at least during 1956-1957[23] for the Notary Department in the Nassau County Clerk's Office.

After being convicted of fraud and larceny, Dec was disbarred as an attorney and "commanded to desist and refrain from the practice of law in any form, either as principal or as agent, clerk or employee of another, and is forbidden [...] to give to another an opinion as to the law or its application, or any advice in relation thereto,"[22] effectively ending any career related to law; along with the five-year prison sentence, this is probably why Dec later referred to it as a "maximum-conviction"[24] sentence.

From 1959 to 1962, Dec tried unsuccessfully to have the case overturned on appeal. All appeals to the New York courts were denied and the case, when it was filed in forma pauperis with the U.S. Supreme Court (featuring Dec asking for a rehearing about his "gestapo like farce kangaroo court trial,"[25] sic, and "the psychotically, sadistically, wantonly, fraudulently altered Official Nassau County Court, New York State trial record of this petitioner's Gestapo like farce trial,"[26] sic), was denied certiorari twice. In spite of having lost his permission to practice law Dec did, however, in his later correspondence persistently continue to refer to himself using the suffix "Esquire."

Later life

After his disbarment and denied appeals, Dec spent the remainder of his life as a recluse, mailing his tracts to various mass-media in the U.S. and around the world.

For several years, Dec lived in a house with his brother, whom he pretended beat and terrorized him; the living arrangement lasted until 1966, when his brother moved out. Within a few years of his brother's leaving, Dec said he mostly hid in the house, ordering food to be delivered to him and avoiding his visitors.[27]. In 1969, Dec reported that a warrant was issued for his "incarceration in a maximum security insanity prison"[17], though he was never actually committed. It was only in 1982, after hiding "for over ten years," that Dec believed he "[could] once again walk the streets solely as [he] did before 1969," as after he had "mailed worldwide thousands of [his] letters exposing" the "Computer God" conspiracy, his "testimony" was out and his "extermination" less necessary.[17]

From 1959 to 1968 his income had been "zero," and Dec existed "on much less than 1000 a year" of his savings; in 1969, he said he had gained enough "insight of this deadly closed society" to visit small stock brokerage offices and invest some of his money. From these investments Dec claimed to reach about "yearly minimum wage income" over the next decade.[17]

Dec may have been a vegetarian,[28] at least later in life. He apparently never married nor had children.

Mental health

Due to the bizarre and earnest nature of Dec's claims (see Works section), it is usually believed that he suffered from schizophrenia[29] - most likely the kind referred to by Viktor Tausk as "influencing-machine delusion" - though without access to his medical records (Dec had at least two court-ordered psychiatric examinations in 1958 and 1961,[16] and possibly again at some point during his 1993-1996 last years at the Veteran Hospital) this remains supposition.

It also seems likely that Dec's mental condition deteriorated after his 1958 conviction in the forgery case (cited above), as his 1961 appeal brief[30] - although rambling, paranoid, and disjointed at times - still manages to be coherent and to present a fair representation of his perception of the errors in his conviction. On the other hand, his "rants," produced later (as in the Spring 1984 flyer "Gangster Computer God"; see Worldview section), lack overall coherence, are prone to word salad-like strings of words (such as "Computer God computerized brain thinking SEALED ROBOT OPERATING ARMS SURGERY CABINET machine removal of [...]"), and are heavily laden with paranoia as well as a highly developed conspiracy mindset.[31] As such, even though some theories produced by Dec in his "rants" can be seen in germinal form in his appeal brief, they are not there fully as developed as they would later come to be, possibly indicating the onset of mental illness after his conviction. On January 16, 1961 (four months before his appeal brief), a court order was issued for committing Dec to Pilgrim State Hospital (Pilgrim Psychiatric Center) for a 60-day mental examination; just one month later, on February 17, 1961, Dec was "Released on own recognizance"[16].

As Dec was never committed and was able to stay in his home almost to his death, his writings from 1960 (his appeals) to 1992 (his stroke) could provide an insight into the progress of advanced paranoia. The internally self-consistent claims contained within his tracts and rants are strongly in keeping with common definitions of delusion as described by modern psychology: for example, similarities between Dec's claims of being "Frankenstein controlled" by the so-called "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God"[2] and the claims of 18th Century paranoiac James Tilly Matthews of being "tortured-at-a-distance" by what he termed the "Air Loom" gang.

In one episode, when removing the red wallpaper that there was in most of the rooms of his house, Dec found "fresh red paint" that he considered the CIA's doing. Thinking that "the entire house was a CIA death trap for [him] set up while [he] was buying it," he dedicated time between 1967 and 1968 to chipping off all of the paint "with hundreds of single edge razor blades."[17]

Death

Dec reportedly suffered a stroke in late 1992 and was transferred in early 1993 to the St. Albans VA hospital in Queens, New York by his brother Joseph.[16][32] He was still residing there in December 1995 when he was visited by Forrest Jackson, David Hanson, and Ean Schuessler, who had come across tape recordings of some of his rants at Dallas in 1993 (see Legacy section) and went to New York to ask him about their origin and meaning;[32] as far as is currently known, these individuals were the only fans of Dec ever to have met or spoken to him at any length, and videotaped the only documented encounter with him. Dec was entirely unresponsive to the presence or inquiries of his visitors, and the visit produced no answers whatsoever.

Francis E. Dec died a few weeks later on January 21, 1996 at the age of 70. The exact cause of death is not known. His remains are interred in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, NY alongside his mother Rozalia Dec and his aunt Sophia Jaromek.[33]

Legacy

Francis E. Dec was dubbed "one of the most mysterious characters in all kookdom"[34] by his 1994 biographer Donna Kossy, "the most important paranoid schizophrenic kook of the century"[35] or "the Gnostic God of these End Times"[32] by his 1995 interviewer Forrest Jackson, and it was stated that "his insane diatribes must truly be one of the greatest comedic gems of the 20th century"[36] by his 2006 fanclub founder Peter Branting. Dec is often compared or contrasted to William S. Burroughs[37] (for his prose style; some of Dec's rants would even have "found their way to William S. Burroughs"[34] according to Donna Kossy[38]), Philip K. Dick (for his later schizophrenic worldview), and Jack T. Chick (for his conspiracy theory tracts).

Dec's publications are considered outsider art,[36][39] circulated for their unintended humor, underground poetry,[40][41] or both. They have been republished in a number of places. One of Dec's rants was reprinted on the back-cover of Robert Crumb's Weirdo #8[42] (Summer 1983). A 2009 Washington City Paper art article listed Dec as one of three outsider artists whose works ought to be adapted as iPhone app, though considering him not "that far afield from the diatribes of today's talk radio."[43]

Dec also entered the folklore of the Church of the SubGenius, which contributed[32] to his underground popularization since at least 1993: a Dec rant was broadcast at least twice on the weekly syndicated SubGenius radio program Hour of Slack, in program #392 "Francis Dec & kooks"[44] (1993) and a rerun in program #555[45] (1996); Dec is also regularly mentioned by Church users in their Usenet newsgroup alt.slack, from which messages mentioning Dec or reprinting his rants were selected for the Church's official newsletter The Stark Fist of Removal.[8] Additionally, he was canonized as "St. Francis the Incoherent"[46][47] among Discordian Saints.

Dec's letters have been used as an example of "kook typography"[6] by graphic designer Steven Heller in a same-titled 1994 article of the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. There is also a 1998 mathematical analysis which uses five Dec rants as a gauge of "schizophrenic language" for an entropic evaluation of the undeciphered Voynich Manuscript[48] (concluding that schizophrenia alone could not account for the manuscript's puzzling nature).

In 1985, Boyd "Doc" Britton (then a newscaster for the radio station WZUU in Milwaukee, now the talk show host "Doc on the ROQ" for KROQ-FM) received a stack of Dec's flyers mass-mailed to the media;[34] in 1986, he made a spoken word recording of himself reading five of Dec's rants over various background music selected and mixed in at random.[34] Ever since, these recordings have been circulated in underground circles, creating and building further interest in Francis E. Dec: first as tapes, then CDs,[49] and now as MP3 files on the Internet, where they are torrented as well as archived by literature site UbuWeb, Archive.org, and radio WFMU. In 1990, SubGenius co-founder Rev. Ivan Stang gave Dallas artist Joe Riley such a Dec tape, which was eventually played at a 1993 party where Forrest Jackson heard it,[50] inspiring Jackson to track down and meet Dec in 1995 (see Death section), videotaping the only documented encounter with Dec. Psychic TV as Kitten Sparkles sampled Doc Britton reading Dec in "Saint Frances E." (sic, on Ultrahouse The L.A. Connection, 1991, reissued as "Sir Frances E. Dec (Kitten Sparkle Mix)," sic, on Origin of the Species, Volume Too,[51] 1999) and in "The Deadly Touch Taben"[52] (sic, on the compilation Patchouli & Echoes, 2004). Venetian Snares also sampled Doc Britton in "Americanized" on Infolepsy EP (2004), spreading Dec's prose on lyrics websites. Dec's rants inspired other artists: in 2005, the band Coldcut cited "the mad deadly computer gangster godpoems of Francis E Dec, RIP"[53] as inspiration[54] for their CD Everything Is Under Control; in 2007, "Saint Francis E. Dec, Esq." was credited as the co-creator of two MP3 singles called Worldwide Living Death Frankenstein Slavery (vol. 1 and 2) by Alex Spalding et al.[55]

The delusions of Francis E. Dec have also been fictionalized. In 1998, his rants were adapted into the 8-page comic-book story "Worldwide Gangster Robots" (script: Scott Cunningham; art: Danijel Zezelj), acknowledging Dec in the opening credits as the basis for protagonist "Melchizedek" and his posters; the story was published in anthology Gangland #3 from Vertigo at DC Comics.[56] In 1999, his rants were dramatized by Eric Dyer with the theatre troupe Radiohole in A History of Heen: Not Francis E. Dec, Esq.,[57] a stage play starring Dec and large excerpts of his rants;[57] selected for The Wooster Group's "Emerging Artist Series" and played then extended for two weeks at The Performing Garage in SoHo, New York City, it was reviewed positively by The Village Voice,[7] CurtainUp,[58] and Playbill.[59]

While Doc Britton's recordings helped foster awareness of Dec's rants and his underground notoriety, little was known about the man and his life; this came with Dec's immortalization in Donna Kossy's 1994 book Kooks (the first biography of Dec, published by Feral House, also home to the book that spawned Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood), along with NY lawyer Jeff Sperber's investigations into Dec's legal past, and the Dec flyers donated by Tim Maloney[34] to Kossy. Yet since the 1980s, only a few Dec rants were circulated (mostly the five recorded ones), when more documents were known to exist. The next steps were achieved on the Internet, with wider dissemination of the Doc recordings as MP3 files, as well as Kossy's online Kooks Museum in 1996.

In 2006 appeared the so-called "Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub" website founded by Peter Branting, a hub for "Decologists" providing an extensive collection of old and new Francis E. Dec material unearthed by members, including Dec's legal correspondence recovered by Decologist Ted Torbich, new biographical data dug up by genealogist Steven Dhuey, scans of original tracts, along with a biographical timeline, a "Dectionary" of Decian delusions, and humorous illustrations of the rants. In October 2008, such rants mentioned by Doc Britton to Kossy as "Astrocism - The True Religion of the Slovene People" or "The Teddy Kennedy Letter" were donated to the Club[60] together with other formerly unknown material, making possible further study into the beliefs and personal history of Francis E. Dec.

Conspiracy Theories

Overview

Francis E. Dec produced and self-published a series of flyers containing rant-like essays with a paranoid outlook, all of which contained a number of recurring themes and claims of a more or less delusional or paranormal nature.

Recurring themes and phrases[29] in Dec's rants include: an entity referred to by Dec as the "World Wide Communist Gangster Computer God," its "Frankenstein Earphone Radio" and "Eyesight Television" (often preceded by "Frankenstein" as well), along with allegations of political chicanery on the part of Presidents and Vice Presidents throughout U.S. history. For example Dec alleged that Lyndon Johnson lured John F. Kennedy to Dallas in order to have him killed and that Teddy Roosevelt did the same to William McKinley by luring him to New York. Dec also incorporated into his rants one Frank Gulotta, ex-District Attorney of Nassau County, who once acted as prosecution in a trial which would eventually come to result in Dec's conviction and disbarment as a lawyer (see Professional life section), as well as the Judge (one William Sullivan) who presided over the court case in question.

Other recurring themes included racism against black people, anti-Communism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and various other conspiracy theories, racial and otherwise. An analysis of Dec's written material suggests that he thought he was also regularly abducted and operated upon by the so-called "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God"[2] as well as the subject of constant mind reading, mind control, and brainwashing via various cranial implants (see Mental health section).

Worldview

Dec's later cult figure status came because a half-dozen of his tracts were turned into underground culture items (see Legacy section), and to understand why requires some extended quotes. "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy" (1984)[61] was a racist tract intended to denounce the longtime conspiracy of a "Gangster Computer God" controlling mankind through cranial radios, causing the aging process through gradual surgeries, and planning a worldwide race of mulatto slaves. Popularized early by Doc Britton's 1986 recordings, this compendium of Decian concepts is also one of Dec's more outlandish rants; as such, three excerpts summarizing it can consistently show both Dec's overall worldview and his writing style. They are reproduced in the original typewritten typography (emphases and misspellings included).

  • The opening paragraph warns[29] that people are implanted with "Frankenstein radio controls" that constantly brainwash them, while "Brain Bank Cities" on the far side of the Moon are housing their "Brain Bank brain" which is their other real brain:

Gangster Computer God worldwide SECRET CONTAINMENT POLICY, made possible SOLY by worldwide Computer God Frankenstein Controls, especially LIFELONG CONSTANT THRESHOLD BRAIN WASH RADIO ( quiet and motionless, I can slightly hear it; repeatedly this has saved my life on the streets ). FOUR BILLION worldwide population ALL living have a Computer God CONTAINMENT POLICY BRAIN BANK BRAIN, A REAL BRAIN, in the Brain Bank Cities on the far side of the Moon, we never see. Primarily, based on your lifelong Frankenstein radio controls, especially, your eyesight T.V. (sight, and sound) recorded by your brain. YOUR Moon BRAIN of the Computer God, activates your Frankenstein Threshold Brain Wash Radio LIFELONG, inculcating conformist propaganda, even frightening you and mixing you-up and the USUAL, "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT." for your set backs, mistakes even when you receive deadly injuries. THIS IS THE WORLDWIDE COMPUTER GOD SECRET CONTAINMENT POLICY.

- [Sic, per original tract.][61]

  • The second paragraph explains[29] that people are regularly remote-controlled "as a Frankenstein slave" to undergo surgeries performed by a "Robot Operating Cabinet," generating the aging process,[62] that he calls the "Inevitability of Gradualness." (This last phrase usually refers to the gradualist philosophy of Fabian socialism.[63])

Worldwide, as a Frankenstein slave, usually, at nite, you go to nearby hospital, or camouflaged miniture hospital van trucks. You strip naked, lay on the operating table, which slides into the SEALED COMPUTER GOD ROBOT OPERATING CABINET. [...] The Computer God operating cabinet has many robot arms, with electrical and LASER BEAM knife robot arms, with Fly eye T.V. cameras watching your whole body. Every part of you is monitored, even through your Frankenstein Controls. Synthetic blood, synthetic instant sealing flesh and skin, even synthetic electrical heart beat to keep you alive, are some of the unbeleivable Computer God INSTANT PLASTIC SURGERY SECRETS. YOU ARE THE HIGHEST MOST INTELLIGENT ELECTRICAL MACHINE IN THE UNIVERSE. INEVITABILITY OF GRADUALNESS: Usually, in a few years, you are made, string beam thin, or grotesquely deformed, crippled and ugly, or even made over one foot shorter or one foot taller, as the Computer God sees fit.

- [Sic, per original tract.][61]

  • (The next paragraphs elaborate[29] how birth at the hospital helps implement those controls, and how medicine helps enforce diseases and deaths.) The rest presents[29] Dec as the "only hope" against a future mankind reduced to Jewish-Communist-Black slaves:

For your only hope for a future, do you know one word of pray for me. Francis E. Dec Computer God computerized brain thinking SEALED ROBOT OPERATING ARMS SURGERY CABINET machine removal of most of the frontal COMMAND LOBE of the brain, gradually during lifetime and OVERNITE IN ALL INSANE ASSYLUMS, after C. God kosher bosher one month probation period, creating helpless hopelsss Computer God Frankenstein Earphone Radio parroting puppet BRAINLESS SLAVES, resulting in millions of hopeless, helpless, homeless derelicts in all JerUSAlem cities and Soviet slave work camps. [...] Eventual Brain Lobotomization of the entire world population for the worldwide deadly Gangster Communist Computer God Over-All Plan, an ideal worldwide population of lite skin, low, hopeless and helpless JEW mulattos, the Communist BLACK WAVE OF THE FUTURE.

- [Sic, per original tract.][61]

Dec's bizarre worldview and unique style are further explained through the list of his recurring themes in The Dectionary (see Sources section).

Bibliography

Letters (1958-1962)

Available[64] documents from Dec's legal correspondence.

To the N.Y. Appeals Court

To the U.S. Supreme Court

Flyers (1962-1992)

The rants on Dec's flyers and tracts didn't feature a title proper and have usually been named later from their first words (common alternate titles and aliases are indexed below). Most of them being undated, they are listed alphabetically.

Known flyers

Common aliases

  • All of the Gangster Scum on Top (first words) — see Teddy Kennedy...
  • All Religions Are Untouchable Con Artist (first words) — see True History...
  • A Terrible Prison Sentence! — not a flyer: the fanclub's "best of" Dec's 1961 SC Appeal
  • Communist Gangster Computer God Worldwide Systematic Destruction of All Standards (first words) — see Evil Metric...
  • Demanding a Re-Hearing (Finish Him!) (WFMU file) — see To All Judges...
  • Dual Food Standard (from first sentence) — see Top Secret Dual Food...
  • Empirical Scientific Agnostic Religion of Astrocism, The (first words) — see Astrocism...
  • Frankenstein Radio Controls (from first sentence) — see Master Race...
  • Frankenstein Radio Head (first words) — see Infrared Crusader...
  • Hangman Rope Sneak Deadly Gangsterism (WFMU file) — see Long Island...
  • In December 1965 When I returned (first words) — see Long Island...
  • Look at the Picture!!! (first words) — see Master Race...
  • Metric System Conspiracy, The (from title) — see Evil Metric...
  • Nazi Jewmany (from title) — see True History...
  • Rant 1 (UbuWeb file) — see Master Race...
  • Rant 2 (UbuWeb file) — see To All Judges...
  • Rant 3 (UbuWeb file) — see Gangster Computer God...
  • Rant 4 (UbuWeb file) — see Long Island...
  • Rant 5 (UbuWeb file) — see Worldwide Open Secret...
  • Rant No. 1 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Worldwide Open Secret...
  • Rant No. 2 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Gangster Computer God...
  • Rant No. 3 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see To All Judges...
  • Rant No. 4 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Long Island...
  • Rant No. 5 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Master Race...
  • Secret Containment Policy (from first sentence) — see Gangster Computer God...
  • Secret to Save the Entire Human Race, The (WFMU file) — see Master Race...
  • See the Skull (from second sentence) — see Master Race...
  • Sneak Shameless Hangman Rope Gangsters (first words) — see Top Secret Dual Food...
  • Three Young Seekers Consult Mr Dec Regarding Frankenstein Controls Before Being Dragged Away to Extermination (WFMU file) — not a Dec flyer: the 1995 visit by Forrest Jackson
  • True Slovene Religion: Astrocism, The (Kooks Museum mention) — see Astrocism...
  • Undetectable Extermination (WFMU file) — see Worldwide Open Secret...
  • Worldwide Secret Containment Policy (from first sentence) — see Gangster Computer God...

Sources

Primary sources

  • Dec, Francis E. (~1982). "Long Island Lunacy" (transcript from audio is "Rant No. 4", Kooks Museum), presumed around 1982,[27] — Various autobiographical data for 1959-1982.
  • Dec, Francis E. (1984). "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy" (incl. facsimile with original typography), Spring 1984, now hosted at The Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub — Dec's main worldview. Rant is complete (the text that can be seen through the facsimile is another rant).
  • Jackson, Forrest (1996). "I Met Francis Dec!", Kooks Museum, Schizophrenic Wing, www.book-happy.com, copyright 1996, consulted February 2009 — The December 15, 1995 visit to Dec, with the only photo available.
  • NARA (1944). "Army Serial Number 12089790: Dec Francis E" (enlistment record), Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946, World War II Army Enlistment Records, National Archives and Records Administration's Access to Archival Databases, aad.archives.gov, April 13, 1944 (electronic record created 2002), consulted February 2009 — Dec's 1944 WW2 enlistment record.[70]
  • NYSCAD (1959). "Order of Disbarment in the Matter of Francis E. Dec" (PDF file), New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, presided by Justice Gerald Nolan, held January 19, 1959 — Following his 1958 conviction.
  • NYSCOA (1961). "Order of Affirmance of the Court of Appeals", New York State Court of Appeals, Respondent's Brief by Manuel W. Levine & Henry P. DeVine, July 7, 1961[71] — Last known argumented response to Dec's appeals.
  • NYSDOH (1926). "Certificate of Birth of Francis Dec" (PDF file), New York State Department of Health, filed January 11, 1926 — Copy "for genealogical research only." Note the updated "*Francis" next to the stricken "Frank."

Secondary sources

Resources

Texts

Pictures

Recordings links

The 1986 recordings by Doc Britton (the 5 rants)

The 1995 visit by Forrest Jackson (as "Rant 6" after the 5 rants)

Other recordings

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV2H-CRB9 : 13 December 2015), Francis E. Dec, 1996; Burial, Woodside, Queens, New York, United States of America, Calvary Cemetery; citing record ID 62966346, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 See Dec's rant "Master Race Frankenstein Radio Controls."
  3. ↑ "Kook" in Hour of Slack #392, "Francis Dec & kooks" (1993).
  4. ↑ "Kook" in Kossy 1994, Kooks.
  5. ↑ "Kook" in Kossy 1999, Kooks Museum.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Heller, Steven, "Kook Typography", AIGA Journal of Graphic Design 12: 4, "You can always tell a letter written by a kook by the total absence of any border around the page. With uncanny precision, the hand-scrawled, typewritten, or even word-processed kook epistle invariably begins flush left and ends exactly the same way on the opposite side, without a millimeter to spare. [...] Many of these missives are not as typographically rant-driven as say, those of Francis E. Dec, Esquire, a paranoid gentleman who, through tightly packed typewritten fliers and broadsheets, incoherently invokes Frankenstein as both God and Satan and the linchpin in a world dominated by a computer god containment policy." 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Soloski, Alexis (13 July 1999), "Garage Music", The Village Voice, http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/garage-music-7155937, "History of Heen—which draws upon theorist Jean Baudrillard, experimental fiction author Ben Marcus, and schizophrenic conspiracy kook Francis E. Dec, Esq.—will use none of the Group's gewgaws." 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Kook" in SubGenius 1999, "Kooks."
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 NYSDOH 1926 (primary source), "Certificate of Birth of Francis Dec."
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 NARA 1944 (primary source), "Army Serial Number 12089790: Dec Francis E."
  11. ↑ FamilySearch (2009 [2000]). "John DEC" (1893-1971), U.S. Social Security Death Index, consulted in March 2009 — Confirms data and adds "Social Security Number: 066-22-9916." The downloadable "DEC-1893.ged" file has the same data in computer form, adding only "This data is only accurate as of 30 Sep 2000."
  12. ↑ Death: Oct. 3, 1967 (findagrave.com)
  13. ↑ Dec's mother Rose wasn't located in the FamilySearch database (contrary to Dec's father John). As of March 2009, searches with "exact spelling" option off against last name alone with "Jaronek, Jaronec, Jaronic, Jronek, Jronec, Jronic, Jeronac" returned little or no hits. Searches against "Rozalia, Rosalia, Rose, Rosie" plus "Dec" returned no relevant or conclusive results. It may be due to records not yet indexed online.
  14. ↑ - U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, Immigration Service, List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for S.S. Hannover (sailing from Bremen, November 11, 1909 to New York, November 25, 1909), list 17, p. A and B, item 20 "Jaronek Rozalia."
    - U.S. Census, April 15, 1910, State of New York, County of Kings, City of New York (borough of Brooklyn), enumeration district 278, p. 10-B, family 181, item 63 "Jeronac Rosie" [sic].
    - U.S. Census, January 1, 1920, State of New York, County of Kings, enumeration district 570, p. 4-A, family 174, item 20 "Jaronek Rose."
    - U.S. Census, April 1, 1930, State of New York, County of Nassau, enumeration district 98, p. 18-B, family 431.
  15. ↑ Death: Dec. 1, 2010 (findagrave.com)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Branting 2006, The Official Francis E. Dec Timeline.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Dec ~1982 (primary source), "Long Island Lunacy."
  18. ↑ National Personnel Records Center, Military Records Division. U.S. Army service record of Francis E. Dec.
  19. ↑ See flyers section: 1984, "True History of Nazi Jewmany!!, The."
  20. ↑ New York State allowed (and still allows as of 2009) so-called county-seat lawyers: to qualify to take the NY State bar examination, the minimum required when "reading law" (personal study) was at least one successful academic year of law school study, followed by enough years of work as a law clerk (as Dec did for Nassau County Police Force) to get a total of four years (see reading law). Thus, Dec could have completed a single year at school followed by three years as law clerk (or two years at school and two years as clerk, etc.), and still qualify for the bar in NY. Whichever way, Dec completed a BA in 1950 and was admitted to the bar in 1954, fulfilling this required 4-year span of law study.
  21. ↑ Not to be confused with the New York State Bar Association. Unlike most states, lawyers in the state of New York are licensed by the New York State Judiciary, not by the Bar Association.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 NYSCAD 1959 (primary source), "Order of Disbarment in the Matter of Francis E. Dec."
  23. ↑ NYSCOA 1961 (primary source), "Order of Affirmance of the Court of Appeals."
  24. ↑ See Flyers section: 1976, "To All Judges!."
  25. ↑ See Letters section: 1961, "Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in Forma Pauperis."
  26. ↑ See Letters section: 1962, "Petition for Rehearing of Petition for Writ Certiorari in forma pauperis"
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Dec may have been house-bound from 1969 to around 1982, based on notes assumed written during the Ronald Reagan presidency (from the "now worse with Ronnie" paragraph), but only "for over ten years" after "1969" (thus early in the presidency).
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Source: "The Top Secret Dual Food Standards"; assumed written early during the Ronald Reagan presidency (from the claim "This Exposé Page Made Ronnie President"), though the original version may have been written late during the Carter administration (and the Ronnie intro added to later copies)
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 Branting 2008, The Dectionary.
  30. ↑ "The Appeal Brief of Francis E. Dec". The Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
  31. ↑ "The Collected Rants of Francis E. Dec". The Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 Jackson 1996 (primary source).
  33. ↑ Burial: Calvary Cemetery (findagrave.com)
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 Kossy 1999.
  35. ↑ Jackson, Forrest (2002). "Francis E. Dec and his Legal Woes" (Archive.org of 2002), www.heliophobe.com (lawyer Jeff Sperber's site) — Original copy of NYSCOA 1961.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Branting, Peter (2006). The Official Francis E. Dec F.A.Q. (Archive.org of 2006).
  37. ↑ Foster 2008.
  38. ↑ The claim that Dec's rants reached Burroughs is found in a few other places but seems to repeat Kossy's claim without separate sources.
  39. ↑ UbuWeb filed Dec in their Outsiders section for "Outsider music, art and literature."
  40. ↑ Peter Branting: "Dec's great epic poem"[1]; "the (likely) unintentional poetry [...] a genuine poetic touch"[2]; "UBUWEB have even considered the rants culturally significant enough to include in their vast collection of audio poetry"[3].
  41. ↑ Autonoetic (2009). "The Poetic Insanity of Francis Dec", www.autonoetic.com, January 28, 2009
  42. ↑ Deppey, Dirk (2009). "We're not dying, we swear", Journalista! (The Comics Journal's blog), February 3, 2009 entry. (See also Weirdo #8 at the Grand Comics Database.)
  43. ↑ Leitko, Aaron (2009). "Three More Outsider Artist iPhone Apps". Arts Desk: News and Criticism on D.C. and Beyond. Washington City Paper, www.washingtoncitypaper.com, October 1, 2009: "Possible iPhone App: Given the current tenor of political discourse in the United States, Dec's rants no longer seem all that ranty. In fact, Dec's language, once considered the hysterical (albeit kind of hip-sounding) words of a total loon, don't seem all that far afield from the diatribes of today's talk radio. A Francis E. Dec iPhone app could supply snippets from the author's writings [...]"
  44. ↑ Stang, Ivan (1993). "News from Stang", alt.slack (via Google Groups), September 21, 1993: "Recommended Hour Of Slack Episodes: [...] 392 (Francis Dec & kooks), [...]."
  45. ↑ Stang, Ivan (1996). "Hour Of Slack #555 plus News", alt.slack (via Google Groups), November 25, 1996: "I let Side One be a Rerun [...] Side One (from HoS 394 [apparently a typo for 392]) Killer Joe Riley audio collage/ Francis E. Dec [...]"
  46. ↑ Bulhak 2001.
  47. ↑ McElroy, Ruadhan J. (2008). Simple Man: the Autobiography of Peter West, Lulu.com, ISBN 1-4357-2179-9, p. 11: "Jayne West is notorious only in circles which are morbidly fascinated with 'kooks' and it's been rumoured for some time that she's up for Discordian 'sainthood', much like her anti-Semitic and racist fellow leaf-letting paranoid schizophrenic, Francis E. Dec Esq. Of course, as Peter West points out, it's unfair to compare Jayne West to Valerie Solanas and Francis Dec, because at least Solanas was articulate and Dec was imaginative, [...]."
  48. ↑ Stallings 1998.
  49. ↑ From the 1998 "Russell Media Underground Catalog": "TRANCE FORMATION RECORDS label (more to come) Worldwide Living Death Frankenstein Slavery A dramatic reading of the mind-shatteringly paranoid and schizophrenic conspiracy flyers of the late Francis E. Dec. A CD version of this extraordinarily sad and hilarious classic was long overdue."
  50. ↑ Riley, Joe (2006). "Francis E. Dec, Esquire" (Archive.org copy of 2006 - highlight text if displayed white on white), Riley's blog Men-Oo-She-A, August 19, 2006: "Rev. Ivang Stang, head honcho and Grand Pubah of the Church of the Subgenius, handed me the tape back in 1990 on the set of an MTV film shoot we were on. [...] Jackson's meeting with Dec was a direct action from my having the cassette in hand. He heard the Dec Rants at a party here in Dallas. One of the people attending the party was Jason Cohen. Jason had, at this time,(1993) borrowed my only cassette and dubbed it, then apparently played it at this "Party." It all goes full circle."
  51. ↑ Origin of the Species, Volume Too at Discogs (alias Origin of the Species, Vol. 2)
  52. ↑ Patchouli & Echoes at Discogs
  53. ↑ Everything Is Under Control at Discogs
  54. ↑ Micallef, Ken (2006). "Coldcut", Remix Magazine, remixmag.com, January 1, 2006: "Inspired by the paranoid rants of Hempstead, N.Y.'s Francis E. Dec, the innovative DJ duo Coldcut produced “Everything Is Under Control,” the first single from Sound Mirrors (Ninja Tune, 2006). “Dec wrote these dreadful polemics that are insane but also have a certain spine-chilling truth,” Coldcut's Matt Black says, explaining the song's genesis. With Dec in mind, Black and his Coldcut partner, Jonathan More, wrote lyrics [...]"
  55. ↑ Saint Francis E. Dec, Esq. discography at Discogs
  56. ↑ Ganglang #3 at the Grand Comics Database. "Worldwide Gangster Robots" page at Danijel Zezelj's site.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Radiohole 1999.
  58. ↑ "A History of Heen (Not Francis E. Dec, Esq.)" at CurtainUp.
  59. ↑ "Dyer's Heen Extends at Wooster Group's Garage" at Playbill.
  60. ↑ "Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub Announces New Rants by Dec; New Era Opened in Research (press release)". The Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub. 2008-10-26. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 61.2 61.3 Dec 1984 (primary source), "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy."
  62. ↑ Also explicitly confirmed in the "Master Race" rant.
  63. ↑ E.g. see The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Volume 3, page 174.
  64. ↑ Not listed are unavailable technical documents (as seen recapitulated in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court briefs), namely: "Notice of Appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the Second Judicial Department and appeal motions, namely, Motion for an Order Commanding the Trial Stenographers to Produce the Trial Record in Accordance with Section 456 of the Code of Criminal Procedure" (February 2, 1959); "Motion to Dispense with Printing" (February 2, 1959); "Motion for an Order of Settlement" (March 30, 1959); "Motion to Extend Time to Amend the Trial Minutes" (May 8, 1959); "Motion to Extend Time to Perfect Appeal" (October 5, 1959); "Motion to Reargue Motion to Dispense with Printing" (October 5, 1959); Appellant’s and prosecutions appeal briefs and Court Order of transference to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the First Judicial Department (October 11, 1960).
  65. ↑ Following the Metric Conversion Act of December 1975 (cf. the "decree" from "Congressmen" in the rant), the metric system was taught in U.S. schools after 1976 and metrication in the United States was considering a global switch to metric, until the end of the United States Metric Board in 1982; the original rant seems written between these dates. The sentences "already in 1982" and "Rewritten in 1982" show it was updated then, at least for its first part. The second part's allusion to the "energy crisis" could refer to the 1979 energy crisis and date the main, non-updated rant around 1980.
  66. ↑ Assumed after December 1991 from the "Ex. U.S.S.R." reference, and before his 1992 stroke.
  67. ↑ Assumed during the 1970s period when Dec is in hiding (from "I HIDE in forced jobless poverty, isolated alone") because he still considers himself a menace (from "now even you know I am a MENACE") that would be exterminated on the streets.
  68. ↑ Assumed around 1972/1974: the main prose is presumed early 1970s from reference to being "now, years later" after the July 1969 Chappaquiddick incident; it also refers to old 1948 presidential events about Thomas E. Dewey (as "Tom Dewey") who retired in the 1960s and died in March 1971 (bringing him back in the news and leading to Dec's usual integration of then-recent events into his rants), a date consistent with presuming the main rant being around 1972. The rant's post-scriptum mentions Denis Dillon (misspelled "Dennis Dillon") as being "Dis. Atty." (as Dillon was 1974-2005, hinting at the P.S. being added no earlier than 1974) as well as Louis Lefkowitz (misspelled "Louie Lefkowitz") as being "Chief Atty. Gen. of the N.Y. State" (as Lefkowitz was 1957-1978, hinting at the P.S. being added no later than 1978), framing the P.S. inside 1974-1978; the P.S. also refers to Brendan Byrne (misspelled "Brenden Byrne") being "now governor of New Jersey" (as Byrne was 1974-1982), hinting at the P.S. being added around 1974-1975 early inside the 1974-1978 timeframe. Independently, such dates are seen by the Dec Fanclub as corroborated by the state of Dec's typewriter and writing.[4]
  69. ↑ Assumed written during or after the Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 presidency (named) and the John Paul II 1978-2005 papacy (named "Pope John").
  70. ↑ The link is a direct database search against Dec's Army Serial Number (after a preliminary search on "Dec Francis" to locate him). Note that it yields two records (see the "Next Record" link) that are identical except for the two last fields, which have been added later by the archive about the microfilm storage (Box Number, Film Reel Number); it seems the original punchcard was microfilmed twice due to a clerical error, since other records are not duplicated.
  71. ↑ The date, not provided in this online copy, was retrieved from a mention in Dec's U.S. Supreme Court appeal brief. The date and the document's very existence were independently confirmed with the last page of "People v. Dec, 219 N.Y.S.2d 612, 10 N.Y.2d 764 (N.Y., 1961)" on Fastcase.com, as well as a search on FindACase.com and its "Purchase Document" result on VersusLaw.com.
  72. ↑ According to Discordianism, each Discordian is a Pope and can canonize saints [5]: list per Bulhak (author of the Postmodernism Generator, he is also referenced by Discordia.ch and has an essay hosted by the Discordian POEE).
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