Karen Gay Silkwood began working in the laboratory at the Kerr—McGee Cimarron facility, which manufactured plutonium for nuclear reactors, in the fall of 1972 after her six-year marriage had broken up. She was 26. At the plant, Silkwood joined OCAW, and in the spring of 1974 she was elected to the union’s steering committee. Throughout the summer she noticed a steep decline in safety standards after a production speed-up caused a rapid worker turnover; new employees were being appointed to positions for which they had inadequate training. Silkwood herself became contaminated by airborne radioactive particles. Invited to the OCAW national office in Washington DC, she informed officials of the Cimarron plant’s unsafe procedures, which included improper storage and handling of the fuel rods themselves, some of which were defective. She also alleged that the company falsified inspection records. These OCAW headquarters officials were the first to tell Silkwood that plutonium radiation was carcinogenic and potentially lethal. The OCAW Washington officials asked her to covertly gather information, including company documents, to corroborate Kerr—McGee’s violations of safety legislation.
On 5 November 1974, Silkwood performed a routine radiation self-check and found herself at almost 40 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination. She was decontaminated at the plant and sent home with a testing kit to collect faeces and urine and for further analysis. The next day, despite performing only paperwork duties at Cimarron, she again tested positive for plutonium and was decontaminated. On the following day, 7 November, she was found to be so contaminated she was expelling plutonium particles from her lungs—and this was before she had even entered the plant. She was given a more aggressive decontamination. Health inspectors sent to her home found it to be “hot”, with plutonium traces in, among other places, the bathroom and the refrigerator. The house, too, was decontaminated, and Silkwood and her two housemates were sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory for in-depth testing.
Since plutonium has to be kept under the strictest security, the question arose as to how the plutonium entered the house. According to Kerr—McGee, Silkwood herself must have carried it back to her apartment in order to paint the company in a bad light. On decontaminating Silkwood’s home, Kerr—McGee employees found pieces of lab equipment from the plant. Furthermore, Silkwood had previously inquired about the health effects of swallowing plutonium pellets.
Silkwood herself alleged that the testing jars she had been given were intentionally laced with plutonium and that Kerr—McGee was responsible, their intention being to scare her off whistle-blowing. The fact that the samples taken in new jars at Los Alamos showed much lower contamination rates than those used by Silkwood at home supports the notion of malicious planting of plutonium. Richard Raske’s 2000 book
When doctors informed Silkwood that she was infected with “less than one-half of the maximum permissible body burden” of plutonium, her worries were assuaged a little and she returned to work at the lab. She also decided to go through with her plan to meet David Burnham and OCAW official Steve Wodka on the night of 13 November.
According to the Oklahoma State Highway Patrol, Silkwood’s death was a one-car accident. She fell asleep at the wheel and her Honda Civic drifted off the left side of the road. The patrol also cites an autopsy report showing that methaqualone, a sleep-inducing drug prescribed for Silkwood to combat stress, was present in her body. If Silkwood fell asleep at the wheel, this explains why she made no attempt to veer away from the concrete culvert. A dent discovered in the Honda’s rear bumper was determined to have been caused by the recovery vehicle that had pulled the Honda out of the culvert. Subsequent investigations by the Justice Department and FBI agreed there was no foul play, and two congressional subcommittees dropped their investigations.
The unofficial version is a little different. The OCAW accident investigator found the Honda’s tyre tracks showed the car had skidded violently off the left side of the highway, then straightened out and driven along the shoulder. He believed this was evidence that Silkwood was prevented from returning to the highway by another car, and that a “drifting car” would anyway have veered into a field before reaching the culvert. Another OCAW- hired expert found the dent in the Honda’s rear bumper resulted from “contact between two metal surfaces”. Scratch marks in the dent were from rear to front, indicating the car had been hit from behind. No fewer than eight independent toxicologists agreed that Silkwood had built up such a tolerance to methaqualone (Quaalude) that the 0.35 milligrams of the drug found in her body would not have caused her to fall asleep at the wheel.
In March 1979 the Silkwood case finally reached the courts, with a suit brought by her father and children. The presiding judge allowed only one issue to be decided: Kerr—McGee’s negligence or not in Silkwood’s contamination. Other counts, which might have uncovered liability for her death, were barred. Lawyers for Silkwood’s estate theorized that she had been under surveillance by Kerr—McGee, who knew she was about to blow the whistle on the company. The lawyers were not allowed to present testimony that documents with the Kerr—McGee insignia had been found in Silkwood’s wrecked car and that—according to the owner of the garage where the car was taken—only government, police and Kerr—McGee officials visited the wreck during the night after the accident.
On 18 May 1979 the jury awarded $10 million in punitive damages to the Silkwood estate. On appeal, the judgment was reduced to US $5,000. In 1986, the Supreme Court restored the original verdict. The case was headed for retrial when Kerr—McGee settled out of court for $1.38 million, admitting no liability.
There is still no legal closure, however, on the question of whether Silkwood was murdered, and, if so, by whom. It is a heck of a coincidence, though, that she died en route to the very meeting where she was due to hand over the proof of Kerr—McGee’s negligence.
Kerr—McGee, incidentally, closed its nuclear plants in 1975.
Union activist Karen Silkwood was murdered to prevent her whistle-blowing on the Kerr—McGee nuclear company: ALERT LEVEL 8
Skull & Bones
It’s so secret that we can’t talk about it.
Win some, win some. When Democrat John Kerry took on Republican George W. Bush for the US presidency in 2004, one group of Americans was assured of victory whichever way the result went. For Kerry and Bush were both members of the secretive Yale University society known as Skull & Bones.
Skull & Bones was founded in 1832 by Yale University student William H. Russell. He had spent some time in Germany, and based Skull & Bones on the secret societies then popular in that country; some even hold that Russell was introduced in Germany to the Illuminati, and that Skull & Bones was set up as that organization’s US branch. (The skull-and-bones emblem is the official crest of the Illuminati.) What is certain is that Skull & Bones flourished; by 1856 it built its own headquarters, a windowless campus building known to “Bonesmen” as “The Tomb”. Membership was, and remains, highly exclusive. Total living membership stands at around 600; each year just 15 Yale students are “tapped” (literally) and invited to join Skull & Bones. A majority of those so tapped come from private school, the establishments of preference being the Anglophile Phillips Academies and Groton. It helps of course to come from one of America’s blue-blood dynasties; aside from George W. Bush, his father, George H. W. Bush, and his grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush, all featured on the membership roll. Alphonso Taft, a founder member, was the father of Bonesman and US president Howard Taft. Other prominent members of the Skull & Bones—which is also known as “Chapter 322”, “The Brotherhood of Death” and “The Order”—have included Howard Stanley (founder of Morgan Stanley), political pundit William F. Buckley, magazine baron Henry Luce and War Secretary Henry Stimson.
According to the numerous conspiracy websites devoted to detailing the shenanigans of the Skull & Bones fraternity, initiation takes place in the Tomb’s inner sanctum, entered through a door which bears the
