NEW START - SAME OLD AMERICAN TERRORISTS

Illness Problems Get Worse
My attempt to find another job came to a complete halt. In early April, after several delays, I went on an interview trip to and east coast company. I was so run down that I had difficulty staying awake during the interview. Obviously I did not get the job and that experience told me I should cancel all other job hunting efforts until I regained my health. Thus I terminated all efforts to find a job and concentrated on regaining my strength and my health.

By the end of April I was feeling better, but I was still having difficulty swallowing. The doctor decided to run some more tests. A couple of days later I returned to his office for the test results. The doctor appeared anxious. He told me to sit down and then asked me, “Are you very religious? Do you have a minister or someone you can talk to?”

I just sat there wondering what was wrong.

He continued! “There seems to be a spot on your x-ray at the base of your esophagus. We are not sure what it is. It appears to be some sort of growth.”

I sat there stunned. After all I had been through now I was being hit with this. We talked about what the x-ray showed and the doctor was not very encouraging. Ironically, the doctor himself had had throat cancer and was very knowledgeable on the subject. From his experience and based on the location of the growth, he concluded there was a 90% chance the lump was malignant. The doctor also suggested that I talk with someone for both my medical problems and for my Gamma Supplies problems which I had mentioned to him. He then scheduled me for some more tests to determine if the lump was cancerous or benign. It would take a week to have the test run and to get the results.

Later that week I was Paul Dujour a Ph. D. Clinical psychologist, and I began to relate my Gamma Supplies story to him. I was relieved when he didn't doubt me and he was willing to try to help me. Since I was in a very anxious state because of my medical problems, he suggested that I see a psychiatrist who could prescribe medication to help me calm down.

The next day I was Dr. Mengele, a psychiatrist, for a short visit and suffered a severe anxiety attack when he refused to believe anything I told him. He concluded I was totally crazy and then prescribed medication for me. The medication did help me calm down, but the visit to Dr. Mengele put Ralph Dujour and my family doctor, both whom believed me in the middle between Dr. Mengele and them. Paul was a professional colleague of Dr. Mengele and he had to listen to and respect the opinions of Dr. Mengele. However, Paul continued to believe me and support me in subsequent discussions.

What bothered me about Dr. Mengele was not his opinion of me as a person, but rather his opinion supported the government/big business plan to make me look mentally ill. I could not let that happen. Later I was to find out that Dr. Mengele was head of the Psychiatric Department at East Scranton General Hospital and I learned that his staff had a very low opinion of him. As a Dr. Menegele colleague psychiatrist said to me on a later occasion, “Dr. Mengele is on the wrong side of the desk!” What I later found out about Dr. Mengele and many people, but not all in the psychiatric profession IN THE US, is that Dr. Menegele placed a premium on serving the political system and on acquiring power.

LEGAL DOCUMENTS ALTERED - By Whom?
The results of my laboratory tests finally came back and they were negative. Although the cancer scare was greatly reduced, the test were repeated at another hospital and the results were again negative. That meant the only health concern remaining was the problem I was having swallowing. In late May, I saw a throat specialist who cauterized my throat. After the severe pain caused by the cauterizing process mitigated, there was a marked improvement in my throat and my overall health. By June I was back on the tennis courts and was back looking for a job. I was also four thousand dollars poorer.

I began searching the want ads in June and soon had several leads toward a new job. One position I was interested in was with the General Energy Company. I went to Massachusetts for an interview and it went very well. A couple of weeks later I was invited back for a follow-up interview. Everything was going well until I had a meeting with the research director who gave me a very difficult time. He aggressively attacked to the point of being ridiculous, and he constantly put me on the defensive. The hostile nature of his interrogation made me suspicious. I left his office feeling I had handled his aggressive questions well, but I knew his hostile attitude toward me was not my imagination when Dr.Dan Wolf, who was acting as my host for the visit, apologized to me for the director's hostile behavior. I still felt the interview had gone well and I left fully expecting a job offer.

A week went by and I did not hear anything from General Energy. I became suspicious and anxious. I phoned Dr. Wolf's office, but I could not get a definite answer or a date when I would be told of their decision. I was just left hanging. Finally, I called Roger Cardell who worked for a recruiting agency. Since Roger had been helping me get some other leads I discussed the General Energy situation with him. He said he would make some inquires and find out what was going on. After a couple more weeks of getting the run same run around that I had been getting, Roger threw up his hands and said, “I don't know what is going on up there, but something funny is going on.” It was good to hear him confirm my suspicions. There could have been many reasons for my situation with General Energy, but I couldn't help but think that “they” were somehow involved. Finally, I did receive a letter from General Energy that stated that they did not have any positions at the present time.

In addition to writing for jobs, I also wrote to the Professional Relations Staff at the American Chemical Society and described what had happened at Gamma Supplies. Their response was that they sympathized with me, but there was nothing they could do to help me. They made a few suggestions on how I could improve my resume, but they gave me no advice on my problem with Gamma Supplies. I was disappointed because I thought the American Chemical Society might be one organization with enough muscle to help me.

In late June I unexpectedly received an official copy of my sworn statement for editing and signing from my attorney Leonard Smart. With a sense of satisfaction, I went to my bedroom and started reading. There is no way I could have expected what I saw. The statement was a string of meaningless, rambling words as if they had been said by someone totally crazy. I sat there stunned! I knew what I had told Cruz Little and what I had in my hands was not the same thing! I didn't know what to do and I was confused and scared. I kept thinking who has the power to alter legal documents. And now it seemed clear why Cruz Little had not been interested in what I was telling him about the illegalities that went on at Gamma Supplies. He was an integral part of the trial rigging! No wonder the judge
had ruled that Better Supplies must use outside legal council. Better Supplies staff lawyers would never have sold the company out.

Cruz Little also would have been a good source for how Darth Korey had received his information on the importance of the free formaldehyde and other inside information about the “Rapid Set” formulation. If Bruce Tittel had not been his source he was a good bet. It also helped explain why Darth Korey and Cruz Little would always have private conversations from which I was always excluded whenever we got together for legal proceedings.

THINK ABOUT IT! You have a federal judge making rediculous rulings in favor of one side of a lawsuit. You have the opposing lawyer helping the other side and you have critical testimony from a "programed" witness. Who could and would undermine the american judicial system to that extent to increase the wealth of a few select people???? WHO WOULD HAVE SUCH CONTEMPT AND DISDAIN FOR THE AMERICAN SYSTEM???

The Beginning of A New Hell
About a week after I received the sworn statement, Cruz Little called me. He repeatedly urged me to sign the sworn statement I had and to send it back to him. I told him I would read it over. There was no way I was going to sign the worthless statement I had. I also knew I had to keep that document as proof of a conspiracy. Since I was at my parents house that was occupied almost 24 hours a day, I put the document in my dresser drawer and tried to forget about it.

I recalled how in Februar my “friend” Cruz Little had sent me a copy of my original Gamma Supplies deposition . In his cover letter for that disposition he urged me to sign the document and return it to him. This was after I had told him my original testimony had been programmed through brainwashing techniques and that I was willing to testify against Gamma Supplies. His letter urging me to sign my Gamma Supplies deposition has since “disappeared” as have many related documents.
I continued to hunt for a job, but my concern that potential positions might be pulled out from under me by my ubiquitous tormentors was increasing. Then in early July, the RAM corporation contacted me as a result of a “situation wanted” advertisement I had placed. I filled out the application form and within a couple of weeks, I had an interview trip.

The RAM corporation offered a lot of advantages. First, it was big and if there was anywhere that I could hide, RAM was the place. Second, RAM was unique in that it supposedly offered lifetime job security. Since my career had been so damaged, and the Gamma Supplies threats against my working again were still on my mind, job security was an attractive feature. Thus, RAM became the job I really wanted. For several weeks I walked a tight rope by delaying accepting an offer I had just received from another company while I pushed for an offer from RAM. And I was also buying time to improve my health and increase my stamina which was at about 85% from my recent illnesses. Finally in mid-July, RAM gave me a verbal offer which I readily accepted. Since I was eager to get back to work because I needed the money, I agreed to start work the following week. Thus, by the end of July, I ended almost six months of unemployment. It is interesting that when I offered Gamma Supplies the consulting offer, I estimated that I would need about six months to recover from the hellish mental beatings I had been subjected to.

Same ol'. Sameol';Just a different cast.
The thoughts of all the threats against my career and life seemed behind me. My physical health was rapidly improving and getting back to normal. Just the prospect of having a job again helped me forget that the six month hiatus had cost me over four thousand dollars in medical bills alone. I was looking forward to returning to work, but there was still apprehension about going back into the industrial environment.


Chapter IV

My adversaries.................applied the one means that wins the easiest victory
over reason: Terror and force. ADOLF HITLER

I had not told any RAM personnel or any one associated with our move to RAM that I worked ten weeks for CoSteal corporation. To try to explain what had occurred there would have been futile. As we packed for our journey to Fitville, NY, I was making sure there no records or documents that could be associated with CoSteal or Louisville in my possessions. As I was going through my briefcase to make sure there were no papers related to CoSteal, Anita walked into the bedroom.

She asked. “What are you doing?”

I replied. “I'm making sure there are no papers related to CoSteal that I would have to explain. You know that lying on an application is cause for dismissal. And make sure when you are there that you never say anything about Louisville or CoSteal to anyone.”

“Don't worry.” She replied. “I know better than that. Just to be safe, I'd better check my things too.

There were two things I wanted to make sure of before we left for New York. First, I checked to make sure the CoSteal diary was packed with my valuable papers and second, I took another look at the copy of the sworn statement I had. It still read the same and it was nowhere near what I had testified to. Since I wanted to make sure the sworn statement did not leave my sight, I packed it with the diary in my suitcase. The next day we left for Fitville, NY and RAM.

The first few weeks at RAM were normal. I was always on the alert for coincidences, but none occurred and those questionable incidences that did occur could be readily explained away. On one occasion I went to lunch with Don Slewowski, my first level manager and a couple of coworkers. During the meal I talked about the beautiful mountains on the west coast and the enjoyment I received by hiking through the woods. When I returned to my office, my office partner Osama Ikill, who had not been at lunch, started talking about how beautiful he found the mountains on the west coast when he lived out there. I dismissed his comment as being a true coincident.

The first signs of trouble started when I tried to buy a house. We were working with a real estate agent and found a house under construction that we were interested in. The agent suggested we talk with the builder as soon as possible. That evening Anita, the real estate agent and I went to the office of the builder. The agent introduced us.

“Tom, this is Mr. And Mrs. LaBar.”

We shook hands and the Tom the builder said, “Oh, this is the couple from Louisville.”


Anita and I just looked at each other with a shocked look, and then after a period of silence, the real estate agent nervously commented. “No, no! They are from Chicago and Mr. LaBar has just started working for RAM.”

The rest of the meeting went smoothly, but I left feeling “they”had been present and that Tom or the real estate agent knew more about us than I wanted them to know. Tom's comment was just too much of a coincidence.

Fascist american Terrorism Starts Up Again After I Buy A House
The second problem arose at work in mid-August when I started arranging to have my
belongings shipped from Louisville to Fitville. We had decided to purchase the house wehad looked at and a completion date of the first of September had been given to us. By setting in motion the paper work to get our belongings, I thought the shipment could be made with little or no delay. However, the man at RAM shipping started giving me a bad time. He said he had to have two estimates. I told him that I already had an exact weight, the rates were federally regulated and the items were in storage with a carrier and that no other moving company would give me an estimate under those conditions. The man in shipping became adamant and totally unreasonable. He would not ship the items without two estimates. The issue was so ridiculous that I began to wonder if this wasn't some planned frustration like that I had so frequently encountered at Gamma Supplies.

My worst fears were confirmed soon after our house closing on August 30th. I was busily working in the laboratory when an RAM pen I had in my pants pocket began to leak. The ink stained my pants so I went looking around the laboratory for some dry cleaning chemicals. When I couldn't find any, I went into the adjacent laboratory and asked coworker Dick Sawyer to help me locate the chemicals. After some searching, we found what we were looking for and I began to clean my pants. Instead of cleaning though, the chemical spread the ink stain to an even larger spot.

“This doesn't seem to working to well.” I said. “I started with a small spot and now I have a large one."

“It doesn't seem to be doing much good. It looks like you're doing cloth chromatography instead of cleaning it.” Dick agreed.

I worked on the spot a little more and then went back into the other laboratory to continue working at the bench. About five minutes later, my boss, Don Sienkowski, came walking into the lab. I turned and said “hi” and then went back to my work. Don stopped beside me as if he wanted to talk, but I ignored him because I was busy. Finally, Don grabbed me by the arm and insisted I talk with him.

“I see you had some trouble with your pen.” He said.

“Yes,” I replied. “A good old RAM pen leaked all over.”

With that once again I turned back to my work, but Don continued. “I was on a trip in Chicago once and I had this nice white shirt on. A pen I had in my pocket started to leak and created a small black spot. Well, the fellow who was showing me around the lab got some acetone for me to use to remove the spot, but it just spread it out to a bigger one. It was like I did cloth chromatography rather than cleaning it.”

I just stared at Don. His insistence that he tell me the story and his choice of words was too much to be a coincidence. Don looked at me as if to say “do you get the message” and then continued his tour of the laboratory. I was left in a state of fear and anxiety. From that point on, coincidences abounded at RAM.

After that coincidence, I began to wonder about some other things that had occurred. When we had our house closing, I scheduled it at eight thirty on a weekday morning. About three days before the closing, Don came into my office to tell me he had scheduled an important meeting on my research project at exactly the same time my house closing was scheduled. It was a classic “no win”/psychological double bind situation. There was conflict created between attending my house closing and attending an important meeting at work. And, as I was to find out later, there was a general policy in the department not to
schedule any meetings before nine A.M., because many people like myself had flexible
working hours and some people did not show up for work until nine or later. I ended up spending a lot of time and effort to make sure my attorney could close on the house for meso I could attend my critical work meeting. At the time, I considered the whole incident an inconvenience.

Fascist american Terrorism Starts Up Again After I Buy A House
The second problem arose at work in mid-August when I started arranging to have my
belongings shipped from Louisville to Fitville. We had decided to purchase the house wehad looked at and a completion date of the first of September had been given to us. By setting in motion the paper work to get our belongings, I thought the shipment could be made with little or no delay. However, the man at RAM shipping started giving me a bad time. He said he had to have two estimates. I told him that I already had an exact weight, the rates were federally regulated and the items were in storage with a carrier and that no other moving company would give me an estimate under those conditions. The man in shipping became adamant and totally unreasonable. He would not ship the items without two estimates. The issue was so ridiculous that I began to wonder if this wasn't some planned frustration like that I had so frequently encountered at Gamma Supplies.

My worst fears were confirmed soon after our house closing on August 30th. I was busily working in the laboratory when an RAM pen I had in my pants pocket began to leak. The ink stained my pants so I went looking around the laboratory for some dry cleaning chemicals. When I couldn't find any, I went into the adjacent laboratory and asked coworker Dick Sawyer to help me locate the chemicals. After some searching, we found what we were looking for and I began to clean my pants. Instead of cleaning though, the chemical spread the ink stain to an even larger spot.

“This doesn't seem to working to well.” I said. “I started with a small spot and now I have a large one."

“It doesn't seem to be doing much good. It looks like you're doing cloth chromatography instead of cleaning it.” Dick agreed.

I worked on the spot a little more and then went back into the other laboratory to continue working at the bench. About five minutes later, my boss, Don Sienkowski, came walking into the lab. I turned and said “hi” and then went back to my work. Don stopped beside me as if he wanted to talk, but I ignored him because I was busy. Finally, Don grabbed me by the arm and insisted I talk with him.

“I see you had some trouble with your pen.” He said.

“Yes,” I replied. “A good old RAM pen leaked all over.”

With that once again I turned back to my work, but Don continued. “I was on a trip in Chicago once and I had this nice white shirt on. A pen I had in my pocket started to leak and created a small black spot. Well, the fellow who was showing me around the lab got some acetone for me to use to remove the spot, but it just spread it out to a bigger one. It was like I did cloth chromatography rather than cleaning it.”

I just stared at Don. His insistence that he tell me the story and his choice of words was too much to be a coincidence. Don looked at me as if to say “do you get the message” and then continued his tour of the laboratory. I was left in a state of fear and anxiety. From that point on, coincidences abounded at RAM.

After that coincidence, I began to wonder about some other things that had occurred. When we had our house closing, I scheduled it at eight thirty on a weekday morning. About three days before the closing, Don came into my office to tell me he had scheduled an important meeting on my research project at exactly the same time my house closing was scheduled. It was a classic “no win”/psychological double bind situation. There was conflict created between attending my house closing and attending an important meeting at work. And, as I was to find out later, there was a general policy in the department not to
schedule any meetings before nine A.M., because many people like myself had flexible
working hours and some people did not show up for work until nine or later. I ended up spending a lot of time and effort to make sure my attorney could close on the house for meso I could attend my critical work meeting. At the time, I considered the whole incident an inconvenience.

I also had experienced a minor dental problem in August that required treatment by a dentist. I had experienced some sensitivity in a tooth and decided to have it checked out. I checked with the people in the lab and finally Don told me of a clinic near the RAM facility. A quick phone call and the fact that I worked for RAM which had complete dental insurance got me an immediate appointment.

The dentist diagnosed my problem as a hairline crack in a filling and fixing it would be no problem. He started to drill the tooth before putting in a small filling. As he drilled he kept pushing harder and harder against the back of the tooth. He was pushing so hard that I started to reach up with my hand to push him back when he exclaimed, “Oops, I just broke your tooth off. I'm going to have to give you a temporary filling now because a the regular filling is going to take a lot more work and time.” With that he gave me a temporary filling and told me to come back in a couple of weeks for a permanent one. The dentist seemed quite nervous about the whole incident, but I dismissed it at the time as a result of his having made a mistake. Later, I was so sure the whole incident was truly an
accident. I examined the tooth in the mirror and found the entire back half of the tooth had been broken off at the gum line. It was not a minor slip.

I began to express my doubts to my wife. “How can I be sure “they” didn't arrange to have my tooth broken. Their whole intent seems to be to inflict as much pain and frustration on me as they can.

I continued. “And you know how “they” work. The could have had this done to my tooth, or it could have been an accident. I just don't believe it was an accident because the dentist was pushing so hard I was ready to stop him, I said to Anita. I think it was deliberate, but I can't prove it.”

Anita just listened and said nothing.

Two weeks later, in early September I returned to the dentist to get a permanent filling. I had a noon time appointment in order to avoid missing any work. When I arrived the receptionist informed me there would be a slight delay because the dentist had an emergency. Just as I sat down, out of the dentist's office walked Don Slewowski. He smiled and said, “Hi Russ. I hope you don't mind my using your time, but when I called and found out this time was yours I convinced the dentist to fit me in.”

I was stunned. It was just too much of a coincidence that my boss should have an “emergency” on the same day and time that I had my appointment. And how did he know that the time was reserved for me?

When I went in to the dentist, he was visibly nervous and his hands were shaking. He gave me an examination and then filled the tooth he had broken. The filling was so large that it required a pin to hold it in place.

I was furious. I was convinced my broken tooth had not been an accident or at the very least, things had been orchestrated to make it look like it had not been an accident. When I went home that evening I decided to test Anita. I started by saying “Well the dentist fixed my tooth today and he gave me a complete examination. I'll bet you can never guess who was in the dentist chair when I got there."

Without even pausing, Anita replied. “Don Slewowski”.

“Yes,” I replied. “Some coincidence that he just happen to have an emergency today.”

Anita's response was reassuring because it told me that the coincidences were so obvious that she recognized them as such. After that part of the conversation I went on raving about how sick my tormentors were, and that I couldn't even afford to get sick because I didn't know if I would get proper medical treatment.

My boss Don Slewowski was a ten year RAM employee who had worked his way up the
ranks. He had started his career with Exon and came to RAM when the Fitville facility was being built up. Apparently, from the number of ex-Exon employees at RAM, they had raided Exon's technical staff in the late sixties to fill their expanding needs. Don was a very insecure person who always seemed to be on the edge of one disaster after another. Some of the disasters he seemed to create either through his own inadequacies or by design. Somehow I never felt he was sharp enough to be totally responsible for deliberately creating the disasters he would find himself in, but he did know how to take full advantage of the messes when they occurred.

After I had been at RAM for awhile, I found “crisis management” was a favorite game played not only by Don but most of RAM managers. “Crisis management” seemed to be the way managers got a sense of importance and visibility. The project I had been assigned to was a true crisis, and the failure of my area to solve the problem was causing major production problems to the point that the site manager, who would eventually become President Ronald Reagan's science advisor, was having weekly review meetings on the problem. Don loved the exposure, but he was totally unequipped to handle a problem of that magnitude. The crisis problem plus the problems created by my presence made me wonder if Don could take all the pressure.

My other daily contacts at work besides Don consisted primarily of Osama Ikill, my office partner, Klause Closeau, the Senior Scientist working on the problem I had been assigned to and Dick Sawyer, a laboratory technician who was doing a lot of the lab work for Klause.

Osama was an Armenian who had received his education in Lebanon and then came to the United States to attend graduate school at Cal Tech. Osama had many of the characteristics that Buzz had at Gamma Supplies, and Osama really did have that defiant attitude that seemed to characterize Buzz. What was clear was that Buzz was close to Don and a couple of the older employees in my area. For a new relatively new employee, Osama seemed to fit well in the highly political environment that existed at RAM. And being a non-American my tormentors loved using him to terrorize a native borne American – me. As with Buzz and others, to the ruling fascist government, American citizenship is of no value if you are poor.

Klause Closeau and Dick Sawyer were both old-time Ram employees, and they were close personal friends. Together they had taken a research material and made it a practical product for use in RAM's micro-chip manufacturing. In their haste to be successful they had overlooked or hidden some serious problems that the material had, and now that the chemical was in full scale use, the problems were becoming apparent and causing difficulties on the chip manufacturing line. To make matters worse, RAM was unable to manufacture the material in sufficient quantities to keep the chip manufacturing line going. Klause was a very capable chemist and very skillful at dodging the blame for the current predicament. Now I was being placed in the position of solving the problems that Klause, Dick and the rest of the RAM research staff was unable to solve. The problem had grown to such proportions that outside consultants, including Nobel prize winner Paul J. Flory, had been called in for advise. Although Klause resented someone intruding into his territory, I believe he was glad to have some capable help and to have someone else take the heat for a while.

MORE TERROR - NO ESCAPE
Dick on the other had was much more cynical and resentful. All his years of being at the bottom of the pecking order had left him with some deep bitterness towards the IBM system and that bitterness sometimes showed itself in directed hostility. In many ways, Dick had the same resentment toward the IBM system that many older veterans had, but Dick's personality was such that he tried to get back at the system every chance he got. I was the perfect target for his pent up hostilities and his need for revenge. Dick instructed me in the practical aspects of handling the problem material. While I worked well with Bill, he was to become one of my primary antagonists while I was employed at RAM.

The orchestrated harassment began to intensify in mid September and what I call cross-over events began to occur. Cross-over events were references at work about things which had occurred at home in my personal life. It was a form of torment which let me know that I had absolutely no privacy. And lack of privacy is a key element in mental torture.

Anita's father had been having some serious medical problems and had to be confined to a hospital bed. Since I would not allow a phone in the house because of because of the the annoying calls, Anita had to call her mother from a neighbor's house. Since every effort at work was made to be cruel to me, I made no mention of my father-in-law's medical problems for fear that it would be used to antagonize me. Then one day, Hun Wong from the sister Polymer Science Technology group and a close friend of Osama's stopped by my office.

“Hi, Russ.” He said. “How come you look so down?”

I was surprised that Hun(I believe another non-american) stopped by to talk to me because in general I was isolated and people avoided me. He was correct in that I was becoming depressed.

I responded, “Oh, I have some personal problems that are getting to me.”

“Yes, I heard you were having some personal problems and that your father was in the hospital and has been in serious condition.” He replied.

I didn't even question how he knew about my personal life. I was use to it by now. However, I have always been curious why he mixed up my father for my father-in-law. Maybe he just didn't get the story straight. I had not said anything to anyone and I could only assume his reference was to my father-in-law's medical condition. I should add that that was the only time Hun ever came up and talked to me.

My privacy at work was also invaded in ways similar to those used at Gamma Supplies. In fact, most of the techniques were the same, but no mention was ever made of Gamma Supplies. I still had the practice of leaving my briefcase on my desk and one day I came in my office and found it had been moved. I quickly checked through it to find a memo on Closteal letterhead! I had checked several times to make sure there were no references to Closteal in my briefcase, and now after finding by briefcase moved, there was a memo on Closteal letterhead prominently located in the file holder. This conjured up all sorts of fears about being fired for lying on the employment application. Of course, it reaffirmed that my briefcase was not a safe place to keep anything important. There would be many more threats toward my employment situation and most of them were much more direct. The purpose was the create FEAR, ANXIETY and more FEAR.


I continued to get annoying phone calls at work, and when I complained to my bosses they said it was just people getting the wrong number and nothing could be done. Terrorizing me by phone expanded to include letting me know that all my phone calls were being monitored. One day I had to call an old friend at a former company (pre Delta Oil) for some technical information for my current research project. As we talked I mentioned my Gamma Supplies problems and told him I was still considering a lawsuit against my former employer. After the conversation I went back to work and thought no more of it. About five minutes later I was walking by Don's office when he called me in. Don seemed more nervous than usual. He began by getting right to the point.

“Russ, I don't know what kind of problems you had with your former employer, but if you should decide to sue them, the RAM lawyers would have to see if you could remain employed here. I don't think that would be possible. But that's just in case you should decide to sue. Otherwise there are no problems.” I just stood there and didn't know what to say. The message was clear. My phone calls were being monitored as was everything else in my life and, I could not sue Gamma Supplies.

Also by telling me immediately after I had just made the phone call, the greatest conditioning terrorizing impact had been made. My behavior was being modified. From then on I would have to be very careful of what I said on the phone.

The Truth About My Situation as a Slave

My sworn statement started with Mr. Little making a summary statement about how this
meeting had come about and the conditions under which the statement was being given. The two major stipulations were that I would not violate any contractual agreements I had with Gamma Supplies and that the information would be held in confidence and would not be disclosed to anyone else, including Better Supplies personnel. Other than for confidentiality reasons, I really don't know why I agreed to the latter point. That was a HUGH mistake.

In addition to Mr. Little, his partner, Barry Champs, my attorney, Leonard G. Smart and a Notary Public was present. Because of my high state of anxiety, I rambled on for almost three hours. However, I did manage to make four major points. First, Gamma Supplies was being backed by someone in their legal battle with Better Supplies. Tenneland definitely had some interest. Second, my testimony had been programed through mind control (brainwashing) techniques and then I was driven from the company and threatened. Third, Darth Korey had definitely perjured himself during his deposition. And fourth, my deposition, as is, could not be used in a court of law because I had not signed it and I had not waived my right to sign it.

Cruz Little and his partner asked a few questions to keep me on track, but said little of any value to me. During my statement I constantly needed to drink water to sooth my sore throat. My nervousness and state of anxiety were readily apparent. I was surprised after the sworn statement at Cruz Little's apparent lack of interest in what I had told him. Instead he questioned me off the record on why I had not accepted the Tenneland job offer. His lack of concern about the substance of what I had said concerned me and I definitely did not get the feeling that he was going to be any help.

After I completed my deposition I continued to relate to Cruz Little and Barry Champs other incidences that had happened at Gamma Supplies. I related the early attempts to get me to commit sexual indescretions and pointed out that at the time I considered the possibility that such an act might be used for psychological blackmail latter down the road. It had just seemed to me from my initial read of Darth Korey that psychological blackmail would be just the type of thing he and his unidentified partners would do. To my surprise, Cruz Little's reaction was one of astonishment! His jaw just about dropped to the floor and he exclaimed, “YOU KNEW THAT?!”

His remark took me off guard and I responded, “Of course, it seemed obvious to me.” What I couldn't understand was his reaction to what I was telling him. It scared me. I should point out the several years latter, the movie The Firm(1993) the sex act pyschological blackmail was used by a criminal element against the victim(Tom Cruise).

After the sworn statement and talking with Cruz Little I felt relief and took the occasion to chat with my new lawyer, Leonard Smart.

I said, “Why do people do things like this? It is so senseless and costly.”

“Let me tell you something,” he replied. “ I have clients who take action against other people, and I advise them that it's not in their best interest. It is not good for their health, it is not good for their business, but they insist on going through with it. These people just aren't happy unless they are making someone else's life miserable.”

I knew what he was saying was true because my attorney in Wisconsin had told me
the same thing in different words.

“But what can I do? They will destroy me. They are creating a lie(mental illness) at my expense and they are going to live and die by that lie”.

“I don't know what to tell you”, Barry replied. “The best I can do is offer you a couple of my Valium.”

I thanked him but said “no."

Never Trust A Lawyer!!!!!
I left the building alone and I constantly looked over both shoulders as I walked to my car parked in the parking garage. Before I started the engine I checked under the hood for explosives and looked around the rest of the car. I still feared for my life, but more than that, I feared the unexpected. I never knew what was going to happen next.

After the sworn statement I kept in constant contact with Cruz Little by phone. Usually I would call him in the evening after some incident had happened at work which had ininfuriated me. I had told him only a portion of what I knew in the sworn statement and each time I called him I told him a little more in an attempt to raise his interest. However it seemed no matter how damaging the information was toward Gamma Supplies, Cruz Little seemed uninterested and unimpressed. At first I attributed this to the fact that Judge Myron Gordon's ruling which had the trial in limbo, had negated my testimony. But I was convinced that the judge's ruling was ridiculous and would be overturned by the Appeals Court and my testimony would be important. For some reason which I did not understand at that time, Cruz Little did not share my enthusiasm.

At one point I told him how Jordan kept the “Rapid Set” price artificially low so the profit margin would not be too great. This created the illusion that Delta Oil could not afford the licensing agreement that Better Supplies was offering. This was a critical point in the argumentthat the patents were monopolistic. Bruce Tittle was unimpressed with the information.

Anita said very little about what was going on and remained distant from the problem. I thought this was best for her own safety and I felt it was my battle and I didn't want to involve any more people that necessary. Her major immediate concern was about my physical health and she was still constantly concerned about my well-being.

My physical condition had seemed to stabilize, but my overall health still was not good. As long as I kept taking the antibiotics, my condition did not worsen. At least my health was good enough to permit me to drive back to Scranton, Pennsylvania.

On March 10, 1978 I formally resigned from Costeal. I gave my deteriorating health and other “personal” problems as the reason for leaving. While I was discussing my reasons leaving my boss, who was sitting there with his immediate supervisor, interrupted me and in a laughing sarcastic tone said, “Well, I hope it's not serious”. My appearance and the difficulty I had in speaking was enough to tell him it was serious and since he probably already knew about my physical condition, I took his remark to be malicious in nature.

It is interesting to note, that while I struggled while I was in Louisville, people seemed to go out of their way to treat my wife well. The Realtor that was showing us housing, took Anita skiing, and helped her find a sales job at a local clothing store. Of course Anita spent her weekly check buying clothes for herself. And if we did anything where Costeal people were present, they were overly friendly and helpful to her. The contrast in treatment from how I was treated to how Costeal was being treated baffled me.

POWER/STUPIDITY/INSANITY
After my resignation at Costeal, Anita and I drove back to Pennsylvania. We arrived
at my parents house on Saturday March 11, and the night there. The next day we
immediately left for the American Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim, California. The flight was comfortable and I got some much needed rest, but my health still was not very good. I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of searching for another job right away and as I sat on the plane, I thought more and more about using the trip for a vacation. The reason I had decided to take Anita with me was because I thought she could use a break and a little vacation would do her good too.

The weather in Anaheim was excellent and unseasonably warm. I attended the ACS
meeting and related my tale to several friends I met there while Anita enjoyed the sun at the beach. Interestingly, I didn't get any funny talk from my friends and while they all expressed sympathy, none of the could offer and real solution to my problem. And most important was that none of them questioned what had happened to me.

I also attended the Employment Clearing House and had several interviews with
prospective employers. I did not try to hide anything and tried to relate my experience as best I could in a half hour interview. One sympathetic interviewer suggested I write to the Professional Relations Staff at the American Chemical Society. I thanked him for his help.

The interviews were hard on my throat because they usually required about twenty minutes of talking. It seemed like I was on a steady diet of throat lozenges and antibiotics.

I found it interesting that no one doubted what I told them. That meant that Darth Korey was absolutely wrong that no one would believe me and I already knew I could prove what I was saying. On reflection, that meant Darth Korey was TOTALLY out of touch with reality. That is INSANITY! Psychopathic behavior at one time was called “moral insanity” and my experience at the ACS meeting made me realize that was definitely dealing with dangerously insane captors.

People frequently would ask "why would they do that"? And the answer is because they could! There was nothing to stop these people from government/big business. And ultimately that is what POWER is. Power is the ability to be as STUPID, as INSANE as you want to be. If a person without power does something stupid or insane, they will have to face the consequences eventually. If you have power, that is not true. In fact, when someone with power does something stupid, other people pay the consequences. And you see people everyday in politics and business do really stupid and insane things and you ask yourselves, "why did they do that"? The answer is because they have power.

Fascist Slave State
I'm going to repeat part of what I publisheed before, because it is the essence of how the american fascist state destroys countless lives. In the american fascist slave system, life has no value. Only money has value so destroying lives to increase corporate profit is as american as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.

I said, “Why do people do things like this? It is so senseless and costly.”

“Let me tell you something,” he replied. “ I have clients who take action against other people, and I advise them that it's not in their best interest. It is not good for their health, it is not good for their business, but they insist on going through with it. These people just aren't happy unless they are making someone else's life miserable.”

I knew what he was saying was true because my attorney in Wisconsin had told me
the same thing in different words.

“BUT WHAT CAN I DO? THEY WILL DESTROY ME! THEY ARE CREATING A LIE(MENTAL ILLNESS) AT MY EXPENSE AND THEY ARE GOING TO LIVE AND DIE BY THAT LIE”.“I don't know what to tell you”, Leonard replied. “The best I can do is offer you a couple of my Valium.”

I thanked him but said “no”.


On with the story:

At the end of each day, I would go back to the motel and collapse. I felt guilty about not being able to spend more time with Anita, and after two days of interviews, I decided to take the vacation I needed. The next two days we spent visiting Disneyland, San Diego and Mexico.

It was in San Diego that an incident occurred that should have tipped me off to how serious my problems were. I was driving in downtown San Diego on a clear, bright
sunny day at about two in the afternoon. Traffic was moderate and there were no traffic problems. When all of a sudden, someone hits my rental car from behind! I got out of the car and exchanged information with a middle aged man neatly dressed in a dark suit. He couldn't offer me any reason as to why he had hit me and after agreeing that the damage to my rental car was minor, we went on our way. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been much of a problem except I was about 3,000 mile from “home”, and the car was a rental. As I drove off, I kept wondering how he could have hit me under such ideal driving conditions(remember this was BEFORE cell phones and Ipods).

Many years later I read John Marks' book on the CIA and mind control. In there he points out that American government gestapo type agents will deliberately cause minor traffic accidents in order to keep their victims stressed. One CIA agent related that running into the back of the victim's car is a common technique that they use to harass the person. Thus, from what happened that day, and from the dark blue suit the man was wearing, it is very possible that my “accident” was caused by a government gestapo agent in order to cause me more stress. And it definitely did cause me stress.

I did get to spend some time at the beach in the sun and that seemed to arrest my again deteriorating health. At the end of the week we left Anaheim with little accomplished and I was feeling tired.

The first day when we arrived back at my parents place I was feeling tired and feverish. That afternoon I decided I should see a doctor again. I made an appointment for two days hence and then went to bed for some much needed rest. I slept for almost two days and was too weak to get out of bed. Because I was so weak, I called the doctor who knew me and he prescribed some new, more powerful antibiotics over the phone and then made a new appointment to see me a few days latter. When I finally got enough strength to get out of bed, I could barely walk and Anita had to help me down the stairs.

For the next two months I fought the throat and viral infections with little success. The doctor could do little more that give me antibiotics and vitamin shots and tell me to get plenty of rest. Then after the throat infection had seemed to clear up, I developed bronchitis. With all of the stress and anxiety,, my body had lost its ability to defend itself from disease. As the doctor put it, "the virus seems like it has attacked your entire body."

Last night I watched an hour long special on Bernie Madoff. Several of the interviewed people used the word "sociopath" to describe Madoff. However, if you read the description I gave below, maybe the correct term would be psychopath. He was very organized, charming and had a very normal looking life for a wealthy person. He also had no concern for his victims. The unusual thing about Bernie Madoff is that his victims were wealthy people who were duped. This is part of the reason his actions are so news worthy. If the victims had been poor working people, the news media would probably have ignored the story.

However, as in my dealings with psychopaths, Bernie Madoff left a lot of damaged lives behind.

BACK TO MY STORY
I went back to my office and called Dan Gane. I had always considered Don to
be one of the more reasonable, rational people I had met while I was at Gamma Supplies and I was hoping he might be able to have reason prevail. I explained in my excited state the offer I had made to Gamma Supplies and the stated reason for their rejection. I toldhim I was interested in peacefully settling this matter, and I would go on my way and Gamma Supplies would not have to worry about me in the future. Dan said he would convey my message, but he didn't think it would do any good.

By now my emotions were running out of control. I was furious that “they” had
rejected my offer and preferred war, and at the same time I was scared because I
knew “they” could not just leave me alone. In rejecting my offer for the consulting
contract, “they” were declaring all out war, and at the same time they had totally
eliminated any attempt to go the Tenneland. I left work hurriedly and went
home to talk to Anita.

I had been keeping Anita informed of what was going on at Gamma Supplies, but she very little help in terms of advice on what to do. My emotions were so out of control that I would shout at her instead of rationally discussing the issues. As I talked to her the one thing that became clear was that she didn't want me to take the Tenneland job. It was also evident that my fear was becoming contagious and
she was beginning to react to situations in a scared manner. Soon I was trying to
calm her and trying to alleviate her fear that “they” might try to block the sale of the house. When I saw how frightened she was becoming, I decided to try to keep things more to myself. That was particularly difficult because of the hyper state that I was in.


PHONE TERRORISM

That evening I called Paul Jones and informed him that I thought it best that I didn't accept the Tenneland offer. He said he was sorry to hear that and then hung up. Immediately upon hanging up, the phone rang. I answered and there was just a dial tone. I hung up. About thirty seconds later the phone rang again. I answered again and again there was just a dial tone. I hung up and turned to Anita and said, “It is just like at work. It's them”.

Just then the phone rang again so I motioned to Anita to answer it. She slowly picked up the phone and got the same response that I had gotten – a dial tone. She just looked at me with a terrified look on her face and hung up the phone. From that point on, I became terrified of the telephone.

With my rejection of the Tenneland offer and Gammma Supplies' rejection of the consulting contract, I considered myself at war with whomever had set me up as a witness in the law-suit. I spent time at home documenting as much as possible what had happened during the previous seventeen months at Gamma Supplies, and I spent most of my time at work getting ready to leave. I had handed in my letter of resignation in the first week of December and my last day of work was to be December 14, 1977. I dreaded each and every day of those two weeks because Gamma Supplies' plan seemed to be to create as much anger, anxiety, paranoia and fear as possible. Every action done by people at Gamma Supplies was designed to keep my emotions running out of control.

Almost daily, Darth or someone else would do something to make me angry. The
actions ranged from minor comments made by Jay and Carl concerning my status at Gamma Supplies to more serious actions like those of Jeff Teller. Jeff had been out of work for a couple of days with a virus and when he came back to work he said the doctor had told him a serious illness had been going around that affected the throat and respiratory system and that it was important to get antibiotics immediately to prevent serious complications. I told him good luck and to be sure to stay far away from me because I didn't need to get sick.

The next day Jeff came into my office and started coughing. I asked him to leave, but he just stood there and coughed more in my direction. I was furious and yelled at him to get out of my office, but he ignored me. I didn't know what to do. I felt like hitting him, but since I couldn't do that, I pushed my way past him and rushed out of my office. Jeff followed in close pursuit, coughing all the time! Finally, I lost him but the situation was absurd beyond description. Here was an ill man deliberately coughing on me apparently in the hope that I would catch the virus. With the extreme stress I was under, catching such a virus could have serious consequences.

With all of the other excitement going on, I had forgotten to notify Costeal that I would accept their offer. I was not really looking forward to working at Costeal, but the job helped solve two major problems. First, Costeal would move my belongings by the end of the month. That meant I could close on the sale of the house by the end of December. Second, Costeal was located in Louisville, the home of the Better Supplies' attorneys. That meant I would be near someone I thought I could count on being an ally against whoever was behind the Gamma Supplies' scheme. The sooner I got a statement in writing, the sooner I would feel better. I made a call to Cruz Little, but he refused my call since I was still a Gamma Supplies employee. Idecided I would contact him after I left Delta Oil and was living in Louisville.

I was also looking for anyone associated with Delta Oil who would support me and my
story in the future. George Hammond seemed like the best candidate. George had been Vice President of Sales at Gamma Supplies and been give the G. T. Cline award for outstanding service the previous February. Then under the direction of Darth, George had been driven from the company in the fall. I thought if anyone was bitter about their treatment at Gamma Supplies, it would be George.

I left work early one afternoon in order to call George from my home. Mrs. Hammond answered the phone and I asked to speak to George. She informed me that he was visiting his brother and would not be back until Christmas. By then I would have have left the area which would make it very difficult to get together with him. I still had not identified myself to Mrs. Hammond, but I continued to ask more and more probing questions which she answered with candor.

Finally I said. “Look, my name is ***** ***** and I worked with your husband at Gamma Supplies. You don't know me , but it is important that I talk to your husband.”

Mrs. Hammond calmly replied, “Oh, I knew who this was.”

When I asked how she knew me, she just ignored me. I don't know how she knew me or how she knew it was me on the phone since I had never met her, but it seemed as if she had been expecting my phone call. At that point I decided it would not do any good to talk to George, so I thanked Mrs. Hammond for her time and hung up. This would not be the last time someone knew of me before I ever met and/or talked to them.

The last few days at work were spent getting my personal item from the office. A computer print-out catalog of all of the Gamma Supplies formulas which I kept in my office disappeared, but that didn't bother me since I had another copy at home. One evening I was going over a list of things with Anita that needed to be done before I left Gamma Supplies. I told her there were two things that I really wanted to take with me from my Gamma Supplies office, but I didn't know if I could get them out before I left. One item was an antique rider-beam balance that was no longer used and was in the office closet. The other item was a set of books on chemistry which I felt I could use in the future. I told her that I would try to get the items the next day.

The next morning I was sitting in my office when Darth walked in. He didn't even look at me. Instead he walked right over to my closet and stared at the rider-beam balance sitting on the upper shelf as if he were checking to make sure it was still there. After peering in the closet for thirty seconds, Darth finally faced me, looked at my books and then knelt down at my bookcase and started going through my books.

Finally I said. “Can I help you with something?”

“I just looking for the book on urethanes.” He said.

I reached down, picked out the book and handed it to him. He flipped through it and thengot up and walked out of the office with the book. It was the only time in the year and a half that I had been at Gamma Supplies that Darth had asked me for a book. The coincidence was too much and his actions had been exaggerated. The implication was obvious.“They” knew what I was planning to do and “they” were creating anxiety and fear by letting me know through the use of suggestion. The actions seemed so absurd, and I kept wondering why things were being done in such a manner.

That evening I was using Anita as a sounding board and thinking out loud.

I said, “OK, they set me up as a witness, got my testimony and then dumped me. But that is stupid because I can always come back and testify against them if the Judge's ruling doesn't hold up and the case goes back to trial. Unless they plan to kill me.”

Then I realized that there was a second possibility. “They are going to say I'm insane; that I don't know what I'm talking about! That's what Darth meant when he said no one will ever believe me. That is why all the effort is being made to create fear and anxiety. That is stupid! I have documents to support what I say. But then this whole thing has been stupid.”

There is an old saying which goes “What is the difference between ignorance
and arrogance?” The answer is “I don't know” and “I don't care”. In the following years I debated with myself about whether my captors were just stupid or insanely arrogant.

Anita sat there with a blank look on her face and said nothing. The pieces all fit into place. I had been set up as a witness. They had my sworn testimony in my deposition and the cover-up on how my testimony was obtained was to say I was crazy. It all seemed so neat except for one minor technical difficulty. I had not signed my deposition and I had not given the power of attorney to anyone. That meant my testimony was of questionable value as it was. Since Gamma Supplies had signed my name to other documents without my knowledge, it was important that I make it know to Cruz Little as soon as possible that I had not signed my deposition. It was important that I get everything in writing while I still could remember details. After all, part of their plan was that I would not be able to remember facts and details about what had been done. And of course, as Darth said “they” wanted war! And this was war.

I did not want war. No sane person wants to take on what I thought were corporations over anything. There is no way an individual can win that war. In the Karen Silkwood case, she lost her life and it took fifteen years before her heirs won a lawsuit in which the compensation was so small that the attorneys said that it wasn't worth the effort. And in the battle with the tobacco industry, tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand lost his wife, family, health and retirement compensation. The American system is designed to make sure corporations do not lose. And I was smart enough to know that and I did not want war with big corporations. I also didn't know at this point that big corporations ultimately were not the real source of my problems. Things were actually worse than I realized!


Chapter III

The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endlessly repeated rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which one may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but in itself it signifies not a little. Sigmund Freud


The week before Christmas, the movers picked up our furniture and took it to Louisville. We made arrangements with our attorney to close on the house on December 27, and gave him the power of attorney in our absence. Anita and I then began our trek to Scranton, Pennsylvania to spend the holidays with my parents. I was scheduled to begin work at Costeal on January 9. I could use the two weeks of rest, but I really needed longer. But since I wanted to get something in writing before I forgot the details, I wanted to get to Louisville and start work as soon as possible.

The weather for the trip to Scranton was atrocious and we had to stop in Indiana the first night because of icy roads. There was a strong wind and near blizzard conditions which made driving impossible.

The next day we continued our trip and stopped in Louisville for a brief visit at Costeal. I took the opportunity there to call Cruz Little again since I was now no longer a Gamma Supplies employee. Mr. Little was not in so I left a number with the secretary where I could be reached in Scranton.

We arrived in Scranton late on December 23rd. We had not even given Christmas
gifts a thought since things had been so hectic. That evening Anita and I sat down and made a shopping list for the next day. Early in the morning, we began a full day of Christmas shopping for my relatives and Anita's family.

The festivities of the holidays helped take my mind off Gamma Supplies. Still, now that I was in a non-hostile environment I was surprised at how much anger and anxiety I had. Some nights I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. It was becoming obvious to me that my experience at Gamma Supplies had taken a greater toll on me that I had initially realized.

Christmas day was pleasant, but my mind just was not on what was going on around me. Despite the gift giving and festive mood, there was always that underlying feeling that things were not good. Also, during that Christmas I could sense that my parents were concerned about my well-being.

Christmas day was pleasant, but my mind just was not on what was going on around me.
Despite the gift giving and festive mood, there was always that underlying feeling that things were not good. Also, at the Christmas I could sense that my parents were concerned about my well-being.

The following day in the afternoon of December 26th I received a call from Cruz Little. I informed him that I had some information relevant to the ongoing litigation between Gamma Supplies and Better Supplies and that I would like to speak to him in some detail concerning that information. He said he was interested but was not sure what was the best route to take. I said I would think about it and would get back in touch with him.

Since I needed some legal advise, I contacted an old high school friend who was now a practicing attorney in Scranton and sought his advise. We talked business over dinner with our wives present. My friend Chet told me the best thing to do was to make a formal statement and to have my attorney present. Then Chet, whom I consider a good friend, gave me some advise.

“Russ, you know revenge can be costly.”

I replied, “You don't understand Chet. Maybe part of this is revenge, but they won't leave me alone. To them I'm a RUNAWAY SLAVE and they won't be happy until I'm not any kind of threat to them.”

I left that evening feeling for once that I had received sound advise and that I knew the best course of action to take.

I spent the first week in January organizing documents concerning Gamma Supplies and preparing for my new job at Costeal. Unexpectedly on Wednesday, January 4, I got a phone call from Dan Gane. My mother answered the phone and at first I was reluctant to take the call, but then in a moment of optimism I decided to talk to Dan. He said Darth had asked him to call me and tell me Arnold Cline and Darth wanted me to come back to Gamma Supplies and that Darth wanted to come to Scratnon to talk to me. I didn't know what to say, but I assumed Dan called because they knew I would not talk to Darth. I had not told anyone at Gamma Supplies about the Costeal job, but I was sure they knew. I asked Dan for some details. He said Darth would fly into the local airport and then drive to to meet me. Since I was still confused as to why Darth would come to Scranton, I continued and went along with the plan. “You know the only reason Darth wants to talk to me is because I'm a threat to them”.

Dan totally ignored my comment and then continued by saying “Darth wanted to fly in on Monday, January 9th”! Suddenly I knew the real purpose of the call. “They” were still harassing me. “They” knew I was to begin work in Louisville on that date and they were creating an impossible “no-win” situation. I decided to call their bluff. I said Monday would be fine and that I would be waiting on Monday to talk to Darth about returning to work at Gamma Supplies. That concluded the conversation.

Of course, Darth Korey nor anyone else from Gamma Supplies ever showed up at my parents house to talk to me on that Monday or on any other date, but the conversation did serve the purpose of letting me know that my every move was being monitored.

I started work at Costeal with great apprehension. Not only was I afraid of more harassment and terrorism would occur there, but I also had caught the same virus that had caused Jeff Teller to be so ill. At least the symptoms were the same as the ones that he had described. I was not feeling well when I began work on the first day, but I couldn't call in sick. Since I did not know anyone in the area I had no easy way to find a good doctor. Since in the past I had always been able to fight off illnesses quickly, I decided to let the illness run its course.

My worst fears were realized at Costeal when the strange events involving the workers there began to happen. I was beginning to understand what Darth meant when he said no one would believe me. I was now in a fight to preserve my veracity and my sanity. I started keeping a daily diary in which I documented events and the people involved. A rational person would have a hard time explaining the events that I was describing in the diary unless they accepted the fact that peoples actions were being orchestrated to make me sound and look paranoid and schizophrenic.

One incident which involved almost all of the personnel at Costeal technical center occurred in late January. There had been a severe ice storm in the area and most roads were virtually impassable. As a result, I was about twenty minutes late arriving at work. When I walked in the door, all the lights were off and no one was present. I walk into the coat room to hang up my coat and found about a dozen coats hanging on the hooks and I recognized the coat of my boss. Yet, when I walked into the office area, no one including my boss, was there and there were no lights on. I walked back to the lunch room and an adjoining room and they were empty and dark. Finally, I walked into a small laboratory and there I found three workers standing there.

“Where is everyone”? I inquired.

“I guess they are late because of the storm,” was the reply. I was suspicious. Something was going on. I counted at least a dozen coats and yet I could only find three people. I exchanged pleasantries and then left and walked back out to the main office. The scene I saw left me stunned. All the lights were on and everyone was busy working as though they had been there all along! I just couldn't believe someone had gone to all that effort to shock my nervous system and to make me look crazy. It remind me of something out of a grade B horror movie. It was like the scene where the rich old aunt walks into a room and finds a body hanging from the ceiling. She runs out to find help and when she returns, the body is gone! She must be crazy. Whatever the purpose was for the orchestrated event, the
result was an increase in my anxiety and an increase in the flow of adrenaline.

Events like that became a daily occurrence at Costeal as did the continuing harassing phone calls. The incidences would always involve a couple or almost all of the workers there. On one occasion I went into the lunch room and found several men eating, but no women were present.

“Where are the girls today?” I asked.

“They all went out for lunch today.” One of the workers replied. No one else said anything else.

I sat down and started to eat lunch when another male worker came in and asked the same question I had asked. This time the same worker responded, but I noticed his response was loud, deliberate and seemed artificial. I thought no more of it and continued to eat my lunch. A few minutes later, I got up to get something from my desk in the office area. When I returned to the lunch room a minute later, there sitting at the tables were all of the office girls eating lunch. No one said anything and by now I didn't question such actions. I had been conditioned at Gamma Supplies that when I questioned such things I was either given a ridiculous rational or I was ignored.

These events were meant to create fear, anxiety, worry and paranoia. I was slowly beginning to loose my ability to rationally analyze a situation and my mind was beginning to conjure up all sorts of irrational scenarios. The absured orchestrated actions created stress and triggered my defense mechanisms which meant the actions generated the flow of adrenaline.

As an added note, I called the company Costeal here because this company produced nothing original. They merely copied successful existing products and then copied them and sold the product through a large retail outlet like Sears. My orginal assignment there was to retroengineer an adhesive on a press and stick shelf paper.
Once the adhsive was copied, Costeal could then produce an identical product and sell it through some retail chain. Costeal had no direct sales to the customer through their own stores or outlets.

One incident which was meant to raise fear and anxiety involved the taking of my
picture. One day two workers were talking about a light meter they were holding when they walked over to a couple of feet of me sitting at my desk. They pointed the meter in my direction, made a couple of remarks about the meter reading and then walked off. Later that day I was sitting at my desk working when I happened to look up. There across the room, standing at about the same place the two workers had been with the light meter, was one of the workers pointing a 35 mm camera at me. I quickly put my hand in front of my face and got up and walked away.

The next day there was a birthday party at lunch for one of the employees and a similar type of incident involving picture taking occurred. My first reaction was fear and the thought that “they” wanted a picture of me. If I had thought about it, “they” had all my photo albums in storage plus, they could have taken my picture many times before without my knowledge. But the visibility of the incidences was meant to raise my defense mechanisms and make the adrenalin flow without actually physically or verbally threatening me.

In addition to all of the psychological stress I was under, my physical health was rapidly failing. I was running a fever and my throat was constantly sore. In addition to my sore throat, my throat felt constricted and I was having difficulty swallowing. My condition continued to worsen until one day I back to the motel from work, laid down and started to experience severe chills and fever. At that point I knew I had to see a doctor.

Since I did not know anyone in the Louisville area, I had to find a doctor through the people at work. The next day a coworker recommended a doctor whom I called immediately for an appointment. The following day I saw the doctor who diagnosed me with a severe throat infection. He prescribed some antibiotics and told me to come back in two weeks. I felt my illness was a lot more serious that the doctor indicated, but I accepted his judgment that the antibiotics would clear up the infection.

I took the medication, but for some insane reason I continued to go to work everyday. I tried to get as much rest as possible, but getting rest at the motel suddenly became difficult. First, the temperature in the motel room became noticeably colder. It was the middle of January and we had no heat in our room. My wife complained to the motel manager, but it did not do any good. On one occasion I decided to go to bed early but the blaring of a radio kept me awake. After trying unsuccessfully to locate the radio, we called the front office and the manager admitted that he had “accidentally” left the radio on in the laundry room. He said he would turn it off. An hour later and two phone calls later the radio was still blasting away. Out of complete frustration, I got out of bed, got dressed and went looking for the laundry room. I finally found the radio in an empty laundry room blaring at full volume. I turned it off and returned to bed wondering if the whole incident hadn't been planned to deny me precious sleep. I finally got to sleep around 1:00 AM!

My physical condition continued to deteriorate and now my throat was visibly swollen to the point that I could hardly eat anything. Finally I returned to see the doctor. This time the doctor expressed serious concern and decided I should take a different, more powerful antibiotic. He also made an appointment for me to see a throat specialist, but that appointment was not for another two weeks.

By the time I saw the throat specialist, the infection was “under control”, but he warned me that if I didn't get some rest, the problem would probably reoccur. With that diagnosis, I decided I had to leave Clopay and get my physical health back.

The people at Closteal seemed to be aware of the fact that I did not intend to stay there very long. I did not try to keep my plans a secret and used the company phones to talk to employment agencies.

The closer I came to leaving, the more direct the threats became. At one point during dinner on a business trip to Chicago with another Closteal employee, the subject turned to how companies treated employees. The discussion became quite heated. The co-worker finally turned to me and said, “Trust us or you will trust no one. You will stand alone.”

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could he make a threat like that? “I still have friends and I will trust them and not you or big business.” After my comment, neither of us said much the rest of the evening.

Now that the extreme right wing element is no longer in office in Washington, people are now beginning to discuss the use of torture by the american government. The only reason the average american knows about torture now is because 1) the use became widespread and with rendition, international, 2) technology such as the internet makes it harder to keep it hidden and 3) it involved non-american victims so foreign media picked up on it. The truth is, torture of american citizens has been going on for at least 50 years. There are even several documented cases of it. For the most part, the victims of american government/industry torture are individuals whom the media ignores. Thus it is kept hidden from the american public. In america, no publicity means no torture! That is not true, but that is what the public believes.

Back to my story:

I was becoming suspicious of everyone. I was making plans to attend the American
Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim, CA and I was not trying to be very secretive about it. If “they” were going to flaunt the fact that they knew everything I did, why try to hide anything. I was also interacting with one employment agency and their representative said they had an opening in Los Angeles. I told the rep. That I was going out there in a few weeks and maybe I could talk to the company while I was out there. She said she would check and get back to me. She never did call me back, and I became suspicious and carefully wrote it in my diary. The job opening in Los Angeles coming to my attention exactly when I was planning to go there seemed like too much of a coincidence to me. I wonder if someone could have put her up to it.

The longer I was at Costeal, the more it seemed that my real purpose in Louisville was to make a sworn statement for the Better Supplies' attorneys. I kept calling Cruz Little and told him of the events at Costeal and how important it was that I get something in writing. He seemed to be dragging his feet, but finally we agreed that I could make a sworn statement on Wednesday, February 15, 1978in his office building. I had hired Mr. Leonard G. Smart to act as my attorney, at Cruz Little's recommendation and per my friend Chet's instructions. I arrived at Cruz Little's law firm office in an anxious state and I had trouble speaking because of my reoccurring throat problems. I had tried to keep this appointment secret for my own safety, but a couple of days prior to the sworn statement Cruz Little called me at work to remind me of the date. His blatant disregard for my safety annoyed me.

Nazi America the Slave State

I continued to work on the patent application and finally got a completed draft to Dan Gane. Dan edited and modified the application to make it legally sound and then submitted it to the patent office. The records show the patent was applied for on May 8, 1977. Thus Gamma Supplies now had my testimony and in all probability a patent on the “Rapid Set” system. One more item was needed before I became completely disposable.

Example 12 in one of the patents under litigation was now the focal point of the legal battle. Although I had testified extensively on my inability to make Example 12 work, my deposition still had not been transcribed and signed which meant there were no legal documents in place to present to the federal judge. In mid-May, Arnold and Darth came into my office and told me they wanted me to sign and affidavit that Example 12 had been falsified and did not work. Dan would then submit the document to the court. I refused.I had given them my testimony and a potential patent and still I was being driven out of the job. I was not about to put my name on another court document. Arnold and Darth argued vigorously and applied tremendous pressure, but I would not budge. Finally, I told them I did not see why Example 12 would not work, and I wanted to run some more experiments. They left but not before telling me I had one week to run more experiments and that they would be back with the affidavit to sign. Darth and Arnold made it clear that I had no choice but to sign the affidavit. The whole scenario was like one of those scenes in a Western movie where the bad guys force the ranch owner to sign over the deed to his ranch.

I had won a momentary victory, but I did not know what to do. I really had no experiments to run, and I was running out of excuses for not signing the document. That week, at least once a day, Arnold or Darth would call or come into my office and ask me if I was ready to sign the affidavit. Finally, I acquiesced and signed the document stating that Example 12 did not work. Dan Gane then submitted the document to Judge Myron Gordan for consideration.

I continued to try to establish a working relationship with Jeff and Buzz, but I was constantly rebuffed, and they along with John continued to make my life in the laboratory miserable. At one point I asked them to join me for lunch, at my expense, for some informal talk. I was hoping that maybe outside of the work environment I could find some reason their antagonistic attitude and find some solution to the problem. During lunch we talked and I tried to explain what I expected the lab to accomplish. I came back to Gamma feeling I had made some progress. That illusion was quickly shattered the next day, when a follow-up conversation, Buzz accused me of trying to buy his friendship! I felt totally
frustrated. No matter what I did, the negative aspect of it was thrown back at me; I could do nothing right in their eyes.

Finally, the situation with Buzz got totally out of hand. He would not discuss his work with me, and his work habits were still poor. I was really puzzled by Buzz's performance. In rummaging through lab drawers, I had found some reports written by Buzz prior to his six month sabbatical in Iran. I found those reports to be reasonably well written and generally of good quality for a person of his training and experience. Yet his work during the period I was at Gamma Supplies had been poor and his written communications had been horrendous. It seemed as if his poor performance was deliberate. In addition, Buzz refused to direct his research in the direction I wanted it to go and seemed to care less about what I wanted. Any attempt to discuss the issue with Darth or Carl resulted in the usual frustration.

This time I wrote a memo to Darth, with copies to Carl and Buzz about the direction of the research in the laboratory. If nothing else, I hoped the memo would lead to discussions to resolve the differences between Buzz and me, and it would document the problem.

The response was totally unexpected. First, when the memo was circulated, Darth was out of town and he did not immediately see it. Second, Jay Wells came into my office and told me that Carl had showed him the memo. He proceeded for about one hour to tell me how wrong I was in issuing the memo and what a bad move it was to do that. Had I been aware at that point of what was really going on, I would have thrown him out of my office, but I was not to become totally aware of the scope of things until several months later.

The next morning Carl called me in his office and “discussed” the problem with me. He defended Buzz and then said it would be best if “we” removed the memo from
Darth's desk and not say anything more about the subject. In other words, I was to live with the problem. I said I wanted Darth to see the memo, and did not see any reason for bringing Jay into the discussion. Carl had no explanation for his behavior.

That afternoon, Carl came back into my office and in a toned down manner told me again how wrong I was in writing the memo and that I could still save myself by not letting Darth see it. I still said no. Finally, late in the afternoon I saw Carl in the hall and he said, “Oh, I did you a favor, I took your memo off Darth's desk.”

Before I could say anything he continued on his way. I had been beaten again, but since Carl was now an executive in the company, I felt I had accomplished my purpose of documenting Buzz's behavior. Darth, officially never did see the memo. All of this was farcical because all I had tried to do was follow the exact procedure to start an investigation into firing a person that Darth had outlined at one of the meetings.

After I sent out the memo about Buzz's behavior, he refused to talk to me and he would literally run away from me when I approached him to discuss anything. He maintained this behavior for a period of better than two weeks and then eventually he began talking to me again.

During the April/May time period, the coincidences at Gamma were becoming more
frequent and broader in their scope. On example which really bothered me involved a sales representative who sold computer printout paper to Gamma Supplies. Pete Dini had worked as a sales representative for a computer company before he struck out on his own selling peripheral material needed in computer operations. Gamma Supplies was an important customer to his fledgling operation, and he had befriended Gamma Supplies' computer programmer, Dave Lipton. It was through Dave that I had first met Pete.

One evening after work, I stopped at the Full Sails by myself for a drink. I ran into Pete and we discussed work and my overall impression of Gamma Supplies. I told Pete I thought Gamma had a good future, but I was concerned because all the managers were young and seemed to lack good business acumen.We concluded our conversation and I thought no more of it.

About a week later, Darth stopped by my office and requested that I attend a sales management meeting that was to be held a couple of days hence. I really wasn't interested, but Darth was persistent and insisted that I attend.

I reluctantly attended the meeting and was sitting there thoroughly bored when out of the blue, Darth started talking about what some people were saying about Gamma Supplies. He then went on to say that some people thought that Gamma Supplies'managers were young and lacked good business acumen. Not only did he express the thought I had relayed to Pete at the Full Sail, but he used the same words verbatim! I sat there almost in a state of shock. To express the same thought was one thing, but to use the exact same words was mind boggling. Darth's insistence that I attend the meeting followed by his regurgitating my exact words was mind boggling. Also, "business acumen" is just not the type of language or expression that I would have expected Darth to use. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence to be a true coincidence. I listened intently the rest of the meeting, but nothing else unusual occurred.

One interesting item did get disseminated during that day. During the discussion of sales, Darth presented a chart of industry wide sales of the different foundry binder systems. One did not need to be a genius to see that the new Better Supplies “Fast Set” which was the object of the lawsuit, and the sister system “Ice Box” were rapidly replacing the older systems. If one extended those trends, in less than five years Better Supplies would totally dominate the foundry binder business at the expense of Gamma Supplies and several large chemical companies.

Since Better Supplies had such extensive protective patent coverage, the development of competitive seemed prohibited. The data reinforced the need to break up the Better Supplies' patents and confirmed my suspicions that the litigation was important to more companies than just Gamma Supplies. The questions which ran through my head were for whom was I really working and what was their plans for me. I was beginning to get more than a little concerned.

The next day I ran into Ralpgh Sampson and he asked me about the sales meeting. I told him for my purposes the meeting was pretty much a waste of time. Then I related to him the coincidence about what Darth said at the meeting and what I had said to Pete Dini. When Ralph said nothing I emphasized that not only did Darth state the same thought, but he used the same words! Still, Ralph expressed no thought on the subject. I couldn't understand his lack of reaction to the incident.

Minor incidents also occurred which bothered me. Sometimes when I would get bored with my work I would take a break and frequently go down to the computer room and chat with Dave Lipton. On one occasion we were discussing Carl's role in the company. Dave was rather gruff person and in only a manner that he could do it, he stated “Every time I see that worthless SOB he is sitting at his desk reading the paper”.

I said, “Well, I don't know about that, but I do know he runs the laboratory from a distance. After a while I left Dave's office and returned to my office. Amazingly, the next three times I walked past Carl's office on a way to meet with someone, there was Ralph sitting there reading the paper. I thought it's almost as if it was staged, but the thought seemed ridiculous to me.

The most frightening coincidence, and the one that would eventually be used to make life a real nightmare involved a comment I made at the last management meeting I was to attend. Darth as usual informed me of the date of the meeting and then gave me a book titled “Corporation Man” by Anthony Jay. He told me the three chapters I was responsible for covering. Then he mentioned that he was going to cover another book by Anthony Jay titled “Machiavelli and Management” which he had used at sales meetings, but he thought that given the circumstances, he would do “Corporation Man” first. I did not ask what the circumstances were, but somehow I couldn't help but feel the circumstances involved me. Darth also gave me the responsibility for finding a place for the meeting and for putting out a memo to the other people announcing the meeting.

By now I knew I had been used and had no future at Gamma Supplies. To protect myself I was documenting as many of the unusual happenings as I could. As luck would have it, a week before I sent out the meeting notice, a story on the drought in the Chicago area appeared in the paper and accompanying the article was a picture of a man trying to locate underground water with a divining rod. Finding water and nickels with a divining rod had been an unannounced topic at our previous management meeting. The memo I sent out had a picture of the man holding a divining rod and all of the pertinent information regarding the next meeting. The day the memo was sent out Darth summoned me to his office and asked who was responsible for the memo. I told him I was. Darth acted very annoyed, but made no direct comments expressing his disapproval. I could only assume his reaction was because I had put on paper a reminder of the ridiculous subjects we had covered the previous meeting. The conversation amounted to little more than Darth saying “I don't like this.”

The management meeting started with Darth passing out a short IQ/creativity test
which can be found in most brain puzzle books. The test was a series of mathematic
operations in which the conventional meaning of mathematic signs had been changed. For example, the instructions may state that the + sign means to multiply instead of adding thenumbers. Thus, in a series of math operations you have to remember what the new mean-ing for each sign is. Since I had seen the test before and knew what it was, I deliberately plodded through it and made sure I was the last of the group to complete it. As long as everyone was playing for a dummy, I thought it was best to live up to the image. After the test, we went on to cover the assigned topic.

A discussion of trust in management arose and I related a story of how I had worked for a person for 2 years without missing a day of work. Then one day I became ill and forgot to call in to tell the office I would not be coming in that day. I was home sleeping in the bedroom when the phone in the kitchen rang. I managed to get out of bed and make it to where the phone was located just in time to have the person calling hang up on me. It turned out it had been my boss calling me and I related how it really bothered me that my boss didn't trust me and had to call, wake me up, get me out of bed and then hang up on me. I said it was really an annoying experience.

The next day at work, I was working in the laboratory and my phone rang in my office. I made a mad dash to my phone, picked it up and heard a dial tone. The party had hung up!, It could have been a coincidence except that this was to become a routine the rest of my stay at Delta Oil. Usually, the calls would come at times when I was far removed from my office. I just accepted the calls as part of the planned harassment to drive me out of the company. It didn't even occur to me at the time that all other managers had their calls answered by the company switchboard operator when they were not in their office. What I did not understand was why “they” waited until I had mentioned it before that form of harassment began. Everyone knows that hanging up the phone on someone is highly irritating. I couldn't understand why that form of irritation was done to coincide with any
comments I made at the management meeting. I never consider the possibility that someone wanted to make me look paranoid or even worse, to make me paranoid.

Two other coincidental incidents happened that June which were equally perplexing. Thefirst involved my old friend in sales, Paul Johnson. As the humid weather of summer beset upon the mid-west, problems involving “Rapid Set” were arising. Darth arranged for me to go with Paul and a local salesman to visit some foundries in Iowa and observe the problem first hand. I knew what the problem was and knew how to solve it, but I also knew the solution would potentially cause more conflict with other Better Supplies' patents. I also believed Darth knew what was wrong, but I had to go through the discovery process myself and come up with the solution. That way I couldn't say that Darth told me the answer and what to do.

The trip to the Iowa foundries was pretty routine. The problem was self-evident and I assured Paul and the local salesman that I knew how to correct the situation. That evening in Iowa, we were having a couple of drinks when I mentioned to Paul that I had seen one of Allis Chamler's people who had been at Paul's Christmas dinner at a Waylon Jennings concert in Chicago the previous week. Paul was surprised that I had recognized the man, but acknowledged that the particular person did like country music. At the time I couldn't understand why Paul was so surprised that I had recognized and remembered the man and the situation where I had met him. What I didn't realize is that all the stress I had been deliberately subjected to since I had been at Gamma Supplies was in part to reduce and wipe out memory. This would become more evident as time went on.

The next day I returned to Gamma Supplies and told Darth what had to be done to solve the “Rapid Set” problem and that it might cause more conflict with the Better Supplies' patents. Darth quickly rationalized the patent conflict away and said to make the necessary changes. I made sure Darth knew of the potential conflict and that he approved of the changes. He seemed totally unconcerned about the potential conflict.

That afternoon Ralph Sampson came into my office and told me that he, Joah Rilley, the company comptroller, and Dave Lipton were going over the Full Sails for drinks to celebrate Dave's's Birthday. He thought I might want to join them. I thought it was strange to invite me to join them since I had not been to the Full Sails with Gamma Supplies people for several months, but I said I would be glad to join them. I went in and found Josh Rilley there by himself. I joined him for a drink and as soon as I sat down at the bar, Waylon Jennings' song “Good Hearted Woman” came on over the stereo system that had been on. All the time I had been in the Full Sails, I had never heard a Waylon Jennings song and I couldn't even remember ever hearing a country and western song playing. Now the day after I mentioned Waylon Jennings to Paul, Waylon music is played the minute I walk in the door. The thing seemed orchestrated, but it seemed so absurd and there was no reason I could see for orchestrating such a bizarre coincidence. I finished my drink, talked awhile with Josh and then left. Ralph Sampson and Dave Lipton never did show up.

The big event at Gamma Supplies in July was “Fish Day” which was a trip to a fish hatchery just north of Chicago. The invited people fished for a short time, drank and then had a picnic. It was a big outing for the Gamma Supplies Chicago area people because it gave the workers located at the plant a chance to meet and talk with the sales people from different areas. The people from the Chicago plant were invited by invitation only and I, of course, as head of the laboratory expected to be invited. A week before the event I still had not received an invitation, so I mentioned that fact to Jay. Jay acted surprised and said he was sure I was suppose to go and that he would talk to Darth about it. By now, I was tired of the useless confrontations with Darth and felt if Jay talked to him, it might be best. I also approached Carl about going to the “Fish Day”, but he said it was for only for salesman. Since Jay never did get back to me, I was effectively excluded from a company event. Ralph Sampson, Jay Wells and the rest of my management group attended.

Since I had resigned myself to the fact that I would be leaving Gamma Supplies, I had drawn up some plans and a timetable for a sequence of events. On thing I planned was to make some improvements to the house to increase its resales value. One project was to build an elevated deck off the family room which could be accessed through sliding glass doors.

To build the deck I needed some three foot lengths of galvanized steel pipe
which cost about $50.00 at a hardware store. I planned to do the work on th following Saturday. On the proceeding Wednesday, I went to the Gamma Supplies plant
workshop and found the tubing I needed. I then went to Bill James, the plant
manager and told him what I needed and asked if I could have the scrap pipe in the
workshop and if he could have it cut in three foot lengths. He said the pipe was
scrap and he saw no problem getting it cut into three foot lengths. I emphasized that
I needed the pipe by Friday and thanked him for his help. On Thursday I checked
with the man in the workshop and he confirmed that Bill had talked to him and he
would have the three foot lengths ready Friday. I caught Bill in the hall the next day and again emphasized that I needed the pipe before the weekend. He assured me
that there was no problem. Friday afternoon I went to the workshop and found no
one around. The pipe I wanted was lying on the ground uncut where it had been. A
cursory look around the shop revealed no suitable pipe cutting equipment that I
could use. Since I couldn't find Bill, I left work without the pipe.

That weekend I purchased the necessary pipe cut in three foot lengths and laid the
foundation for the deck. As usual at Gamma Supplies, I had been promised something and nothing had been delivered.

The following Monday, Bill popped his head in my office bright and early and
said, “Hey, your lengths of pipe are in the shop all cut. Do you still want them?”

As I sat there I couldn't help thinking he knew I no longer needed the pipe.
Politely I said “sure”. I took the pipe for use as fencing, but I couldn't help but feel the delay in getting the cut pipe had been deliberate.

By late July I hardly spoke with Darth and my dislike for him and his practices
had grown to a hate. I was still having trouble with Jeff and Buzz in the lab and
just as he had done with Ravi and John, he ignored the problem. In addition, now
Darth was taking actions aimed at thwarting my every move in the laboratory.

“Rapid Set” was now at least equal to “Fast Set” in performance, yet Gamma was
having little success in the field. I surveyed the sales results and came to the conclusion that there was no well defined plan of attack to introduce the product into the market place. I drew up a memo outlining the problem and proposed a strategy for careful control and planning of all future “Rapid Set” tests. The memo went to Al Jordan, Vice President of Sales, Jay Wells, Carl Host and
Darth Korey. I received no verbal response from any of the recipients. Several
days later, I walked into the laboratory and there was a five gallon pail of “Rapic
Set” sitting on the lab bench.

“What this?” I asked Jeff

“Oh Darth is sending that to Caterpillar foundry for a test run.”

“Who is running the test and when is it going to be?” I asked.

Bill responded. “He's just sending it down there for them to test when they get
the chance. There's nothing definite.”

I was angry. Two days after I outlined a plan for conducting successful “Rapic
Set” tests, Darth was flaunting his disregard in my face. It seemed like a deliberate act to irritate me. In addition, I never was able to find out if the trial run had been carried out or what results were obtained. I never was able ascertain if the test run had been conducted and the results of such a test were deliberately withheld from me.

A second “Rapic Set” test was carried out a couple of weeks later without my
knowledge. I was sitting home one evening when I got a call from Jay Wells.
He said he was in Louisiana running a “Rapid Set” test that day and the results had
been terrible. I had not even been informed of the test and when I inquired about it, I found the test had been run under the worst possible conditions. I told Jay that the test shouldn't have been run and that under the conditions he used, it was bound to fail. I asked why he hadn't discussed the trial with me first. But all Jay kept saying was, “What am I going to tell them tomorrow? What am I going to say about why it didn't work?”

Suddenly the failure had become my problem. I gave him a few suggestions and
then hung up. I went to the family room and two scotches to try to calm down.
Jay had reported that he had run the trial unprepared, and now he was calling me
for an explanation for his poor results. My strategy to have successful “Rapid Set”
test trials had been designed to avoid exactly that situation.

In the confusion of everyday events, a very dramatic, yet almost unnoticeable
change had taken place in John Mason's behavior. John was now very quiet, reserved
and barely visible. When he was present, he no longer was the loud-mouth author-
itarian, but rather he was taciturn. His relationship with me became very distant and there were stretches of time when I barely saw him. Quietly and slowly, John had vanished as my antagonist and Buzz had grown to replace him. The dramatic
change in John's behavior baffled me and gave more credence to my belief that his
initial absurdly aggressive behavior had been planned and orchestrated.

In early August, Darth came in my office , sat down and started a dialog.

“Russ, I was planning to make some changes next January, but I decided to
move them up and make them now. I think it's time you get some stripes. Your
going to become the Technical Director. There will be some other changes too,
but they don't effect you. The changes will be made at the end of the month”. Darth continued on but I really didn't pay any attention.

After he left my office, I sat there debating what to do. If I accepted the “promotion" and the title, I would be lending credence to their story that they had treated me well and given me all that they had promised while at the same time if I rejected the promotion, they would have more reason to jump all over me and create more guilt and negative feelings. In fact, this was a classic "no-win" situation.

After Darth left my office, I sat there debating what to do. If I accepted the “promotion and the title, I would be lending credence to their story that they had treated me well and given me all that they had promised while at the same time if I rejected the promotion, they would have more reason to jump all over me and create more guilt and negative feelings.

I decided I would not decline the offer, but that I would ignore the whole thing. Besides, the "promotion" would enhance my chances of getting a better job in the future. Refusal to accept the promotion would also put me in a position of having to defend myself and my views and by now I was avoiding as much confrontation a possible. I also decided not to inform my wife because I did not want to get her hopes up especially since she had just quit her job and was beginning to get ready to go to school to become a nurse.

After Darth informed me of my pending promotion, a couple of peculiar
incidences occurred. Ben Kenholz, from the quality control laboratory started
coming to my office and kidding me about changing offices and moving into Ravi's
old office which was adjacent to my mine. Ben's timing and his almost daily
presence at my office door told me he knew of the impending announcement, but
every time I asked him if he knew something I didn't know, he would profess
ignorance. I kept wondering how a laboratory worker from quality control knew
about my “promotion” to Technical Director, but all he would ever say was “when
are you moving into your new office?” I never did consider changing offices, but I
often wondered who would move into the now vacant office.

Another implication involved the use of a company car. One late afternoon,
Darth asked me to join him, Josh Rilley, Dave Lipton and Ralph Sampson for drinks
at a near-by tavern. I reluctantly agreed to stop by for a few minutes. When I
arrived Darth was there and we began to chat. Shortly afterwards, Josh joined us.
As the three of us sat there talking, Ralph Sampson and Dave Lipton came in and
started kidding me about driving a “purple Lincoln”. I asked them and Josh, to
whom Ralph reported, what they were talking about. Josh just shrugged
his shoulders and the other two just went silent. I left that night wondering what all the talk about a “purple Lincoln” was all about.

After that, just about everyday at work someone at work would come up to
me and say, "Gee, I wish I had a 'purple Lincoln'”. As soon as I tried to question
someone about what they had said, they would ignore me. The only purple Lincoln
that I knew of in Gamma Supplies was the one driven by Joel Gitz who was the original
owner of Delta Oil. Joe was now retained as a consultant and adviser, and he drove
a deep plumb colored Lincoln.

The suggestions were made to imply that I was going to get a company car. I did not expect a company car, and I assumed the comments and suggestions were just
another form of harassment to drive me out of the company. But what I didn't fully
appreciate was that I had been abused so badly that I was loosing control of my
rational thought processes. I also didn't realize at that moment that causing me to
loose control of my rational thought process was the exact purpose of all of the
harassment.

I was scheduled to take a trip to Tenneland, and as usual, I had the secretary
make the arrangements. I told her I would need a rental car and that I wanted a
compact car. When I arrived in Summerfield, I found the car reserved for me was a
mid-sized Cutlass Supreme, which was the standard company car for salesmen and
it was the same model company car that Ravi had driven as the Technical Director. Obviously the secretary had reserved the wrong car. On my previous trips to Summerfield the rental cars had been much less luxurious and roomy. Again the implication was that I, as Technical Director, would have a company car.

The suggestions about a company car become more blatant a week before the big
announcement. I was talking to Jay Wells and Paul Jones about a trip to Neenah Foundry in Neenah, Wisconsin. We were discussing how we were to make the trip and who going to drive.

Paul looked at me and said, “Maybe you should wait until next week and you can go in a new company car.”

Jay looked at Paul as if to say, “your getting a little too obvious.” After a period of awkward silence, the conversation continued until we decided to wait until the following week after the big announcement to determine who should drive.

The day before the announcement, Carl came into my office and told me that I would be the new Technical Director. At the same time, he would become Vice President of Technical Operations, and he would be moving into Ravi's old office next to mine. He also implied that he would be taking a more active role in the running of the laboratory operations, which meant that I would have even less say in running the laboratory than I already had. It was now evident why Carl had been “hidden” from me when I first joined the company and why his role in the company had never been well defined until now. The fact that Carl was a klutz and borderline competent was really disheartening. At least Ravi had been competent and scientifically knowledgeable and that was one of the major reasons I had come to Gamma Supplies originally.

The fact that Carl was going to play an increasing roll in the laboratory had been evident when in July he had informed me he was doing the laboratory budget for the next year and he wondered if there were any items I might want. After a year of trying, and now as “Technical Director”, I still did not even get a copy of the budget. The day after Carl had told me of my promotion, an official announcement was made in a memo which stated that I was the new Gamma Supplies "Technical Director." What confused me about all of this charade, was why was all of this being done in an official and public manner.
______________________________________________________________________________

* I always considered both Darth Corey and Carl Host to be marginally competent. I now know that as a fact, given that 20 years latter, Gamma Supplies has shown zero, none, nada growth in terms of real dollars. I don't know how many years Darth and Carl stayed on at Gamma Supplies after I left, but I do know they were there 6 years latter when I returned. In 1998, the Clines sold Gamma Supplies to HA International a large foreign owned company. I sure that they,Darth, and Carl if they were still there at the time, made a lot of money off of my efforts. But that's what makes america great; the powerful exploiting the poor.

For anyone reading this and who owns a business, Darth and Carl both claimed to have an advanced degree from the University of Chicago Business School. Based on their performance, I would discourage any business owner from hiring anyone from the Chicago School of Business!

Despite my new title, the problems still continued in the laboratory and now, with
Carl's office near the laboratory, everyone ran to Carl with their problems. I still
had continuing problems with Buzz and I had a new problem that was becoming
more and more irritating. The problem involved the disappearance of laboratory
equipment. I would order and purchase laboratory supplies, frequently in excess of
need and put them supplies in the cabinets in the lab. Within a week or two, all of
the supplies would be gone! This was particularly irritating when I would be work-
ing in the laboratory and need a piece of equipment which I had purchased, only to
find the item was missing. I discussed this problem with everyone, but no one knew
anything about it. Then one day Jeff said he wanted to show me something. He
took me to George Landry's office and opened a desk drawer. There was all of the
equipment I had been purchasing which subsequently turned up missing. Why Gene
the head of Quality Control would want the items was a mystery to me. Jeff claimed he made the discovery accidentally while looking for something. It was just one more crazy incident that was going on and I was becoming more and more curious as to why all these events were taking place.

Shortly after the changes had been announced, Carl and I were in Darth's office
listening to Darth go on one of his ego trips explaining his views of the world. One
thing was always true about Darth and his conversations; he was always extremely
egotistical and if given a chance, he would brag. I was trying to figure out why he
had called me in his office when he began explaining how the human mind tends to forget things if conditions are made unbearable enough and that the brain secrets chemicals when under extreme stress so that a person can forget traumatic
experiences. As I sat there listening, my heart began to race. Was that the reason for all the harassment and irritation? Was my time at Gamma Supplies suppose to be so unbearable that I wouldn't know or remember what had happened to me in order to get my testimony? If that had been the purpose, it had not been successful and what if “they” knew I could remember things? What else would they do? The thoughts raced through my head. And I couldn't help but think how arrogant and stupid Darth was. But most important to me at this point was who ultimately was behind this idiotic plan!? I now knew for sure that I was dealing with some REALLY SICK PEOPLE!?

Then Darth turned his attention to the real purpose of the meeting. He had
decided “Rapid Set” was now competitive with the Better Supplies' “Fast Set” and he
now wanted me to direct my efforts toward developing a sister product called “Ice Box” on which Better Supplies had another set of patents. This was possible now because Judge Myron Gordon, The FEDERAL JUDGE presiding over the legal battle had surprisingly ruled the “Fast Set” patents were invalid on a filing date technicality. If the ruling stood, Gamma Supplies had won the legal battle over the “Rapid Set” patent infringement. This apparent victory had made Darth feel so confident that he felt he could brag about the plan to get my testimony.

Judge Myron Gordon's ruling seemed ridiculous to me and it made me question his integrity too. However, the victory would not be final until until all of the appeals had been made, but in the meantime Darth wanted to start an attack on the “Ice Box” set of patents. I was not pleased with his request because I knew my days at Gamma Supplies were numbered, and if form held true, I would be gone by the Christmas holidays. To make sure I thought about the threat of loosing my job, Darth finished by saying that he wanted the “Ice Box” type system by the end of the year. I left the meeting knowing I was never going to develop the system Darth wanted.

In mid-September another incident occurred which caused me a lot of internal
conflict. Darth said he wanted Carl, Jay and me to give a presentation at the
September 19th American Foundry Society/Wisconsin Chapter meeting. I told
Darth I preferred to wait until the February regional meeting and give a full length
talk on “Rapid Set” by myself. As always, Darth agreed although I was somewhat
surprised since the regional meeting was after the end of the year. Two weeks later
the notice for the meeting came out, and there I was listed as one of the speakers.
Before I had a chance to object, Carl and Jay were upon me discussing what the
topic should be and how we should divide up the talk. Reluctantly I gave in and
agreed to give a presentation on the importance of quality control.

I was presented to the audience as Gamma Supplies Technical Director and I talked on the importance of the quality control for the “Rapid Set” system. I had only a couple of days to prepare for the speech and I was not pleased with the content, but the presentation at the meeting was a success. Again I had been forced into doing something I did not really want to do, and as a result a lot of internal conflict had been generated. Parading me in front of other people also gave Gamma Supplies and the people behind the attack on the Better Supplies patents “proof” that Gamma Supplies had treated me well and had honored their commitment to me.

Since I did not want to work on a “Ice Box” type product at this point, I spent
most of my time in the laboratory getting involved in problems which were of
immediate importance. In two instances I was able to solve major problems which
were baffling to the people involved in the projects. Quickly solving problems that
confused Darth and Carl only help confirm my opinion about there general
incompetence. In fact, on one such problem Darth set up a meeting in order to get
me involved and solve the problem. Of course to Darth, exploiting me only showed to himself what a brilliant manager he was. I was being used as a consultant and Darth's use of me in that role said my days at Gamma Supplies were numbered. Despite the fact that I could quickly solve problems that baffled the dynamic genius duo of Darth and Carl plus the other people in the laboratory, I did not fit into Gamma's future and their plans seemed only to get the most out of my services while I was there. My only real purpose was to provide testimony in the lawsuit and amusement for my captors.

In one instance Carl and Darth staged a meeting at the laboratory door. Carl
turned to me and said he was checking his keys to see if they fit the door because he
was coming in on Saturday to work. I had worked on Saturdays when I first joined
Gamma Supplies, but I stopped that practice when I knew I had no future there. Somehow I just didn't believe Carl was the type to work on Saturdays or any other day if he thought he didn't have to. Besides lacking any real talent, Carl seemed to be rather lazy. I thought they were just trying to intimidate me to get more work out of me with this little scenario. Of course, that would have just been another unconfirmed belief of mine except that I overheard Carl talking to a secretary a short time later, and he was bragging to her about how he had never worked a Saturday in his life! When Carl turned around and saw me listening to
him, he turned beet red.

In early October, the plan to get rid of me started in earnest. First, my problems with Buzz were always present and had reached a head. I went into the laboratory to find Buzz and was told by Jeff that he was in talking with Darth. Fuzzy's talk lasted for over an hour, and when he emerged I came into the laboratory to talk to him but he ignored me. Instead he walked to the other side of the laboratory to Jeff.

Jeff inquired in a loud voice. “Well, what did he say?”

Buzz responded. “He said he knew it was a bad situation, but there was nothing
he could do right now because he didn't have anyone to replace him. We just have
to live with the situation”.

Given the situation it was not hard to figure out what Buzz had been discussing
and his willingness to air his conversation in front of me did not surprise me
because what good did it do to set someone up to be fired if you didn't create the
anxiety to go with it. Anxiety was always being generated by the annoying phone
calls that were becoming more and more frequent. The harassing phone calls had
become a joke in the laboratory and everyone was aware I was being harassed. Now
it was as if they were saying, “we are going to fire you and here is how we are
going to do it.”

I was also getting increased conflict from Carl and Jay. Carl would give me
a sheet of paper with some things to be done, and then I would discuss the items
with Carl. During the discussion, he would say item 4 wasn't important and that I
shouldn't worry about it. So I would do everything but item 4, and then Jay would
come in my office and yell at me for not doing item 4. He would tell me how Carl was disappointed in me because I wasn't doing what he asked me to do. Carl then
would go tell Jay who would then lecture me. It seemed like every effort was
being made to drive me out of the company.

I had gone along with enough things, but I was not going to stand for being set
up to be fired. The next day I walked into Ralph Sampson's office. Dave Lipton was
sitting there when I said, “Well, I'm being set-up to be fired.” Both of them had
blank stares like I had said something wrong when Dave Lipton finally said “Come
on Russ, no one is setting you up.” Immediately they turned the conversation to
some trivial topic. Then I departed. I had made it know that I would not stand by
silently while Gamma Supplies people set me up to fire me. After the conversation with Dave and Ralph, the effort to get rid of me became more directed at forcing me to resign through harassment, implied suggestions and intimidation.

In early November, I informed my wife that we would have to sell the house and
I would have to find another job. She did not act very surprised and was more
concerned about finishing her first semester of college. In fact, Anita's whole non-
reaction to all that was going on really bothered me.

In early November, I informed my wife that we would have to sell the house and
I would have to find another job. She did not act very surprised and was more
concerned about finishing her first semester of college. In fact, Anita's whole non-
reaction to all that was going on really bothered me.

Anita seemed withdrawn from me, and she had exhibited several major changes
while we were in Chicago. First, she had started going to church almost every
Sunday. In the previous nine years I had been with Anita, she had never attended
church, but shortly after we moved into our new home in Illinois, she started
attending a nearby church and she kept up the practice the entire time we had been
there. When I questioned her as to what was wrong, she would shrug off her
behavior and tell me nothing was bothering her. I knew better.

Another change which had occurred involved our social life. Prior to moving to
Wisconsin, our social life involved relationships with my friends from work making
up the largest part of our social life. Now, our social life consisted entirely of
relationships with acquaintances of hers since no one at Gamma Supplies would have any social interactions with us despite my efforts to initiate such actions. The change was real but subtle. This change seemed insignificant at the time.

My reaction toward Anita had also changed. I would frequently get irritated
and would act irrationally to minor incidences. On one occasion I could not find
a pair of scissors when I needed them so I yelled at Anita for misplacing them. I
then stormed out of the house and went and bought three pair to make sure I could
find a pair of scissors when I needed them. Incidents like this increased the stress
at home and merely added to the extreme stress I was already under.

In early November we made plans to sell the house. Anita did not offer any
arguments against the pending sale. We decided to sell the house ourselves to save
the commission paid to the real estate agents. For a week we toured other houses
for sale in our area. Then we decided on a price and placed an ad in the paper.

We had made a fortunate move when we bought our house. We were located in
the Williamsburg School District and the Chicago area was just beginning to
experience the migration(white flight) to the suburbs which had occurred in the East
several years earlier. The Williamsburg School District was an excellent one (and very white) and thus our house had an excellent, unexpected selling point. On the other hand, the biggest obstacle we faced in selling the house in a hurry was its rural location which was about twenty miles from downtown Chicago.

After two weeks of trying to sell our house on our own without any success, we
started negotiating with real estate agents who would list our house. The same day
we decided on an agent, a young couple looked at the house and made us an offer.
In one day we had sold the house without an agent and the buyers had agreed to a
closing date in late December. The sale of the house had gone exceptionally
smoothly. I had been worried that the people behind my Gamma Supplies problems might try to block the sale. Then I realized that those demented people probably wanted me to have a fast exit from the area.

With the sale of the house set, I turned my attention to finding a new job.
Actually I had been responding to want ads in “Chemical and Engineering News”
since about July with no success. In late August I responded to an unidentified ad
which I was sure had been placed by Tenneland. I called Paul Jones to
inquire about the ad, but he assured me it was not a Tenneland ad and that Tenneland
had no openings. However, I remained convinced the as had been placed by Tenneland.

Now I was making a new, intense effort to secure a job and I began calling
people at Tenneland and applying pressure. If their plan had been that I would
not remember what had happened, I dropped little reminders to let people know that I
did not forget their roll in the plan to get my testimony. Finally, one of my contacts at Tenneland told me there was an opening in Plains, Texas, and I was instructed to call a Mr. Gordon Simms who was the regional sales manager.

I phoned Mr. Simms with great apprehension because I knew Ravi was still unemployed a year after he had been fired, and I was worried that “they” might decide to keep me unemployed. As I talked with Gordon Simms, we discussed what type of job I might like and where I would like to live. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he said, "don't bother to send me a resume. We already have a copy from when you answered our ad last August. We'll use that one, and I'll send you an application form to fill out."

I had been right! The ad had been Tenneland's and they knew I had applied
and they were going to ignore me until now when I applied some pressure. I was
making so much noise they had to change their minds. The fact that their original
intention was to forget about me scared me even more, but I went ahead with plans
to visit their plant in Plains, Texas on December 3.

My job hunting efforts also had produced a positive response from the Costeal Corporation in Louisville. They invited me to visit their technical center the week of the Thanksgiving Day holiday so I knew I would have the results of that interview prior to my Plains,TX trip.

My time at work was spent doing very little, and for the most part I spent my time preparing for my upcoming interviews and trying to negotiate some reasonable separation from Gamma Supplies. I felt no dedication to Gamma Supplies and on one occasion I left work about three in the afternoon. On my way home, I decided to stop at Club Tennis for some exercise to relieve the stress I was under. I was shocked to walk into the exercise room and find Buzz there exercising. The reason for my shock was that Buzz had always maintained that he exercised exclusively with Jeff and John in the morning and that he had to come to work early and leave early because he had to babysit in the afternoon while his wife worked. I had always considered Buzz's unusual work hours another pain in the side, but when I had tried to get him to change them, Carl interceded and backed Buzz. Now I had proof that none of his stories were probably true. When Buzz saw me, he looked surprised and then ran for the door and left the establishment.

I was in a largely confused state as a result of all the deceit that had gone on, but I still needed to know who was behind the whole plan so I decided to try to get Darth to talk. I remembered the words of a journalist who had been take captive. She said when you are in trouble, play to the prejudices of your captors. Since Darth was such an egomaniac, I decided to play to his ego. I arranged to have a conversation with Darth concerning what had gone on while I was employed at
Gamma Supplies.

I said, “Darth, it really was quite a plan you had. How did you ever sell it?”

Darth laughed and replied. “Russ, you give me too much credit. You don't
really think I planned all of this by myself. Do you?”

I waited for Darth to go on and tell me who was responsible, but he abruptly
stopped and went on to a new subject. I was unable to get him to respond further on
who was behind the terrorism. At least I knew that “they” were not just my imagin-
ation. “They” were real people, but I still didn't know their identity.

I made my interview trip to Costeal as planned and everything went well. The
Vice President of R & D told me they would be giving me an offer. Still, I was
suspicious if for no other reason than I was now suspicious of everything. There
was also some anxiety about the move to Louisville because the city was the home
of the firm representing Better Supplies in their legal battle with Gamma Supplies. I always felt if worse came to worse, I could tell my story to the Better Supplies legal staff. Somebody had to interested in what was going on.

I returned home and told Anita about the job and expressed my fears and
concerns that “they” might interfere. Any doubt that my activities were going un-
observed were erased when I got a call from Tenneland the following night
and Gordon Simms asked me if I still planned to make my interview trip in light of
recent job offers. Since I hadn't mentioned Costeal or any other job to him, I could
only assume he meant the Costeal job. I assured him I was still going to go to
Plains, but his inquiry left no doubt in my mind that “they” knew everything I was
doing. As a result of being under constant observation, I became paranoid in most
everything I did, and I even checked the phones and the house for “bugs”, but I
found none.

At Gamma Supplies l I continued to be harassed on almost a daily basis. This did not make any sense to me since I was making every effort to find a peaceful solution that everyone could live with. At one point Ralph Sampson gave me a copy of an article about respect for your boss. Again it was an implied suggestion without actually saying anything that my rough treatment was because I had no respect for my bosses. I was so angry that I couldn't talk to him, but I wanted to ask him WHY WOULD ANYONE RESPECT PSYCHOPATHIC CRIMINALS?!. Fear them maybe; Respect them - NEVER!

The article created guilt feeling on my part as if I deserved the terrorism. Again, I was to learn later that generating guilt in the victim is a key element of of mental torture. On of the first things any interrogator does is try to make a captured enemy combatant feel guilty about the “crimes” he has committed. In my case, any guilt I may have felt was drowned out by the anger and resentment the article generated.

On the Thanksgiving weekend while my wife was at work, I typed a letter to
Gamma Supplies's attorney, Dan Gane. In the letter I stated my positions on several legal matters concerning Gamma Supplies in relation to Better Supplies. In particular, I pointed out areas where I could not support Gamma Supplies' position in any further legal questions that might arise from continued litigation against Better Supplies. I wanted to make sure as long as Gamma Supplies and friends were trying to destroy me and my career, I wanted to make my positions clear if they wanted to use me as a witness in the future. The only way I knew to do that was to put my position on sensitive matters in writing. I sent the letter to Dan and a copy to Darth. No one knew I had typed and mailed the letter. For once, I knew “they” would be surprised.

The effort to drive me out of Gamma Supplies continued to work and the effort was being escalated. If I had any doubts as to how far Gamma Supplies and the backers of the plan would go to protect their scheme, they were removed when Darth walked up to me one day in the outer business office and calmly said, “You wouldn't be a martyr, would you?”

I was taken totally off guard by his comment and mumbled back something like “I really don't know. I guess I don't see what I have to be a martyr about.”

Darth just glared at me and then walked off. It didn't really strike me at first, but after I went back to my office, I sat down and realized that Darth had just threatened my life! At first I didn't want to believe it so I took out my dictionary and looked up “martyr”. There in black and white was the definition of “martyr” as “someone who dies rather that give up his beliefs”. If Darth was asking me if I was willing to die in a fight against Gamma Supplies demented scheme and the destruction of my career, I knew the answer was “yes”.

The pressures at work were not always so direct, and I was constantly subjected
to subtle forms of harassment. George T. Cline suddenly started showing up in the
laboratory and spending a lot of time talking with Jeff Teller. The implication obviously was that Jeff had been selected to replace me. What that really meant was that after I was gone, there would be Buzz and Jeff in the lab. A two man lab.

On one occasion George T. Cline unexpectedly came into my office and started talking to me. I wanted to call him a senile S.O.B., but my fear of retaliation prevented me from expressing my contempt for the man. The conversation was trite and he spent most of the time talking about raising his beagle and how much he cared about them. I sat there wondering why he wasted my time telling me about his dogs. After he finished, I got and walked into the laboratory where I was greeted by a large wall poster hanging over Jeff's desk of beagle puppies. The conversation had been set up as George T. Cline's last dig at me and a coincident had been used as
had been done frequently at Gamma Supplies to carry it off.

The Wednesday prior to my trip to Tenneland started out as a typical day
until about ten in the morning when I received a call from Dan Gane.

Dan: “I just received your letter today. What the hell were you trying to do by writing something like that?”

Just from the fact that Don swore to me told me he was in an agitated state and his and his tone of voice conveyed anger.

I replied. “Dan, I'm on my way out of here and I just wanted to get my views on
things down in writing. I told you back in January I had some different points of
view than Darth on “Ice Box” and they might come up in the future. I just wanted
you to know what they are.”

“Well the next time you want me to know something like that, just tell me; don't
put it in writing! Who else saw the memo?” Dan questioned angrily?

“Just Darth”, I answered. “I'll give him a copy today.”

Dan said very little else and closed the conversation, but from his tone of voice and manner, I knew my letter was potentially highly damaging to the Gamma Supplies' cause. I then went into Darth's office and left a copy of the letter on his desk.

Late that afternoon, I decided I wanted to talk to Arnold Cline. I went to his
office and found it empty but there prominently laying in the middle of his desk was
my letter. Now I knew for sure that Arnold Cline would be aware of what I had
written. Since Arnold was not in his office, I thought maybe I should wait a day or two before I spoke with him.

The Thursday prior to my visit to Tenneland, I was summoned along with
managers to Arnold Cline's office where Darth informed our management group
that there would be new improved medical coverage for managers. Darth then went
on to explain that there would be some other new programs in the future, and they
would be patterned after programs being carried out at DuPont. Remember that Gamma Supplies was suppose to be this little unsophisticated company and since Darth had
always professed to be anti big business, I jumped at the opportunity to intercede.

“Just because DuPont does it, does that mean it's good?” I asked.

Darth turned red, glared at me, stood up with his fists clinched. For a moment I thought we were going to come to blows. Then he regained his composure and said directly to me, “DuPont has a good reputation and their programs are sound.” He sat back down and there was a period of silence.

Then Bill James, who was sitting across from me blurted out, “Yeah, and maybe somebody is facing early retirement!”

I turned toward Arnold Cline who sat there expressionless and waited for him to
say something. He finally sensed the uneasiness and said there was no further
business and dismissed the meeting.

What bothered me most was Bill James' comment which had been directed
towards me. His comment plus my knowledge about Ravi's unemployed status(a year later) made me feel very uneasy even though I had another job. Both my career and my life had been threatened and I was becoming more and more anxious about my future.

My trip that Saturday to Tenneland in Plains, TX did not go well. I met with Tony Jolson,the sales manger for the region along with the research manager from Texarkana, Arkansas laboratory, and the Plains plant manager. The day was full of coincidences which I tried to ignore. At one point as we were getting into the car to drive to the plant, Gordon Simms mentioned what a bright sunny day it was and how he couldn't stand cloudy weather. I took the remark to be directed to me because I had frequently made my views known on how I felt about cloudy, Seattle type weather. When I chose to ignore his remark, Gordon grabbed me by the sleeve, jerked my arm and then repeated the remark with a smile. Finally, I nodded and said I agreed.

At noon we stopped to have lunch at a small restaurant. During lunch we were
discussing company policy when I thought it would be a good time to show that I was willing to cooperate. In a friendly tone of voice I said, “I suppose if I had to give testimony in the litigation I'm involved in with Gamma Supplies, I would be given time off.” The response from the research manager was totally unexpected. He took the comment as a threat and immediately he retaliated. He started telling me about how they had hired someone just like me and then three months later, they fired him. He left no doubt that I should not feel secure just because I was going to get an offer. He was so angry that I didn't even try to explain my comment. If everyone was that touchy about my testifying in the future, things could never work out. After that incident, the interview went down hill.

By the end of the day, the research manager would not even shake my hand
good-bye. I left Plains wondering if the research manager even knew in depth
what was going on. I felt I was being forced on him and he greatly resented it. It
was a bad situation for everyone involved.

That Sunday evening, I got a call from Gordon Simms who told me everyone was
impressed with me and that they wanted to make me an offer! He then told me the
salary, the other conditions of employment and closed by saying that he wouldn't
bother to send me the offer in writing unless I accepted the offer. I told him I would like a few days to think about it before I made a final decision.

The strange thing about the Tenneland deal was that everyone else acted
ignorant about what was happening. Arnold Cline and Darth had to be well aware
of my dealings with Tenneland, and although none of us ever said so directly, we would talk about the situation indirectly. It was as if none of these negotiations were going on, but at the same time everyone concerned knew they were taking place. It was a very tense, strange and stressful situation.

The next couple of days I spent evaluating the situation and analyzing the
possibilities. I had forced Tenneland to give me an offer, but the situation had not turned out well. The man who would be my immediate supervisor was hostile towards me,and if I went there, there were no guarantees that things would be any different from the happenings at Gammma Supplies. And, I still would not have any job security. The Costeal offer was not very attractive and I couldn't really be sure what the situation would be like there. I finally decided I was under a lot of stress and that the best situation for me would be to take six months, get my sanity back and take some time to look for a job I really wanted. I needed some income to take six months to look for a new job.

After some consideration, I decided to offer Gamma Supplies a consulting contract for only one thousand dollars a month which was less than half of my normal salary. My consulting efforts would be direct them in how to develop a “Ice Box” system. In my free time, I would relax and look for another position. This situation would have allowed me to have minimum contact with the people at Gamma Supplies which would negate the incessant mind games they were playing.

Since I wanted to make sure there was nothing illegal about my offer, I discussed the terms with my neighbor who I retained as my attorney. He gave his OK and the next day I presented my offer to Darth. Darth replied that he would consider my offer and discuss it with “them” and get back to me. I left his office
feeling I had found a suitable solution for all. In hindsight, Gamma Supplies could have just offered me six thousand dollars severance pay and my departure could have gone smoothly. However, "they" did not want anything to go well or smoothly for me since I was just a lowly slave to them.

That night I called Gordon Simms at Tenneland and told him I could not accept his offer. He said he was disappointed and repeatedly asked why I was rejecting the offer. I told him I had decided to accept another offer.

The next day I went into Darth's office and inquired about the consulting
contract for six months.

Darth was blunt. “They said no! They consider it blackmail”. Then he
paused. “Not that we've done anything wrong. Besides, no one will ever
believe you. You can't prove anything.”

I was stunned. Here is Darth giving me the Richard Nixon “I'm no crook”
defense. Then I regained my composure and replied, “I'm sorry to hear that.
I really wanted a peaceful solution. You have a real problem here.”

I left Darth's office feeling more anxious than ever. Not only had “they”
taken a hard-line position, but “they” also considered me a real threat. The
whole situation seemed surreal. Here I was trying to save my career and my
life and those sick bastards considered me a blackmailer. I now realize that people with their criminal mentality always look at other people in the same low-life mode. Psychologist call it “paranoid projection” which basically means if you see yourself as a scumbag, then all other people must be scumbags. You project your view of yourself onto others. And “they”, if they were in my position, would blackmail the other party. Also, since they believed that “I couldn't prove anything” and I knew I could, I began to worry about my physical well-being.

The problem with dealing with psychopathic criminals is that they can never understand nor do the care to understand that a normal, well-adjusted, mentally healthy person does not want to associate with them. A person of integrity would not knowingly associate with a serial killer. In my case, these psychopathic criminals had trapped me in their scheme and now I was their prisoner who wanted to escape from their grasp.

Since the people I was dealing with were obviously mentally unstable, I want to discuss the psychopath/sociopath personality. One major point made in dealing with the psychopath is, and I quote from an on line source:

“Many psychopaths - not all, but many - are extreme narcissists. If you
hurt their ego, their reaction is visceral and extreme.”

“The difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is somewhat blurred,
least according to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM-IV lists both definitions together under the
heading of Antisocial Personalities because they share some common traits. Many
see the term sociopathy, psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder (APD)
interchangeably. Professionals not only dispute whether there is a difference
between a sociopath and psychopath, but among those that believe there is a
difference, there is dispute over what those differences are.

Even those professionals that identify a difference note that traits of the
psychopath and sociopath are largely similar. Both the psychopath and sociopaths have a complete disregard for the feelings and rights of others.

Both the psychopath and sociopath fail to feel remorse or guilt (we've done nothing wrong). They appear to lack a conscience and are completely self-serving.THEY ROUTINELY DISREGARD RULES, SOCIAL MORES AND LAWS,UNMINDFUL OF PUTTING THEMSELVES AND OTHERS AT RISK.

A sociopath is more likely to spontaneously act out in inappropriate ways
without thinking through the consequences.

Conversely, some argue that the psychopath tends to be extremely organized,
secretive and manipulative. The outer personality is often charismatic and
charming, hiding the real person beneath. Though psychopaths do not feel for
others, they can mimic behaviors that make them appear normal. Upon
meeting, one would have more of a tendency to trust a psychopath than a sociopath.

Because of the organized personality of the psychopath, he or she might have a
tendency to be better educated than the average sociopath. While psychopaths can
fly under the radar of society, many maintaining families and steady work, a
sociopath more often lacks the skills and drive for mimicking normal behavior,
making 'seemingly healthy' relationships and a stable home less likely. From a
criminal standpoint, a psychopath's crimes are well planned out. For this reason, psychopaths are harder to catch than sociopaths as the sociopath is more apt to leave ample evidence in his or her explosions of violence.” *

*Quoted from WiseGeek.com

From today's news:

For the American public, AIG now stands for "arrogance, incompetence and greed," said Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H.

Greed, arrogance and incompetence by others are the elements that led to the destruction of my life. When just one person is involved in their schemes the perpetrators have enough power to hide their crimes. Despite the wide-spread effects of Enron's actions, they succeeded in hiding their crimes for years.

It is only when the psychopathic crimes involve and affect so many americans that it can't be hidden any longer(the collapse of Enron and the collapse of the financial markets) do americans wake up and demand something be done.

america is a broken system and the powerbrokers and politicians of this country have broken it! For me personally it cost me everything in my life.

Although I had very little interaction with laboratory people because of my writing, I noticed a new pattern developing. In addition to spending a couple of hours a day on the telephone, Buzz was now calling in sick on alternate Mondays and Fridays. He was also taking half days off for personal business. When I first noticed the occurrence, I began marking the days he was absent on my desk calendar. After about a month of documenting his actions, I calculated that he was effectively working a four day week, and I was powerless to do anything about it. If I talked to Buzz about it, he would run to Darth who would make light of the whole thing and then Darth would probably reprimand me for handling the situation incorrectly. I was powerless to take action.

Finally in desperation, I discussed the problems concerning Buzz with Jeff Teller.

“Look at this. Buzz is absent all the time,” I said pointing to my appointment calendar.

Jeff Teller looked shocked and exclaimed, “You're documenting it!!”

I replied, “Sure, and if I go to Darth he'll just ignore it.”

“Yeah, that's the way he is,” Jeff answered uneasily.

Jeff then left my office without offering any suggestions or help.

Shortly after that conversation, Buzz's daily attendance dramatically improved. I was confused by his sudden change in his behavior. It almost seemed as if his actions had been planned and orchestrated.

My faint hopes of adding a new person were squelched a few weeks later when I received a letter from Mack Mark rejecting my offer. It was a standard rejection letter with no specific reason given for not accepting the Delta Oil offer. Since I wanted to confirm suspicions that the low salary was a major factor, I gave Mack a call. He stated that he had accepted another offer that was 25% higher than the Gamma Supplies offer. As I probed more, he revealed that he had received three other offers beside the Gamma Supplies offer and that the Gamma starting salary was the lowest of the the four offers. I already knew what he was telling me, but I wanted proof for when I was put on the defensive by Darth and the Arnold cline as to why I had not hire someone new for the lab.

The typical scenario had evolved. I was told to do something, which was hire a new
person for the lab, and then I was thwarted to the point of being put in an impossible situation. Now I would have to defend “my failure”. It also seemed more and more that my trip to New Orleans just prior to my deposition was just for R&R to make sure I would be in a good mood and give favorable testimony.

I went about the business of contacting the remaining candidates, but since almost six weeks had passed since the ACS meeting they all had made decisions to accept positions elsewhere which left me with no viable prospects. As expected, Arnold Cline summoned me to his office and grilled me on the progress in locating a person for the laboratory. I explained the situation to him, including the low salary offer to Mack Mark, and outlined alternative routes to obtaining the services of someone else. He acted annoyed at my failure and told me to keep at it because it was important to get someone else in the laboratory as soon as possible. I said fine, but I really saw no reason at that point to hire someone new for the laboratory.

Programmed Testimony - Book Publisher Wanted

Early that afternoon Darth came around to my office and explained that I would be
reporting to Carl, and that he would oversee the technical area and production. In other words, Carl would be taking over Ravi's job and my function would be to be responsible for the upper lab. Since the major responsibility of the upper lab was to develop “Quick Set”, there was no real change in my status. The promise from Darth in October that I would take over Ravi's position was not realized.

Then as Darth was leaving my office, Jay and Carl caught him and started discussing the memo. I joined in and took the opportunity to inquire about the “joint venture”.

“What about this joint venture business with Tenneland?” I inquired.

Darth became very nervous and annoyed. He said, “Arnold can't get anything right. I told him exactly what to say and he fouled it up.”

Darth then changed the subject, and our joint venture with Tenneland was never mentioned again.

That afternoon, Carl called everyone in the laboratory and announced that Ravi would no longer be active in the operations of the laboratory, but he would still be allowed to use his office because he had a contract with Gamma which was good for another six months. He also announced that I would be responsible for the laboratory, but that he would make all the decisions concerning research and production. His entire announcement left my position very nebulous and left me with the image of having no decision making power. I hardly had what could be termed management responsibilities, and although Carl had an elusive title, it was clear that he was taking over Ravi's duties. I was upset and depressed at the turn of events.

The next day was the annual Christmas party. I was not in a very jovial mood, and I was angry with Darth. By now, I knew it did no good to discuss anything with him because his word was worthless. The only consolation was that even though things had not worked out at Gamma Supplies, the work I was doing was also a benefit to Tenneland and the people there had treated me well so far. The party did not last very long and most people seemed more interested in leaving and spending time with their families. As I was leaving, Darth yelled across the room, “Russ, would you like to come down to my farm for Christmas dinner. Buzz and John are coming.”

I had already mad a commitment for Christmas with Anita's sister the prior evening on the phone, and I no longer felt any obligation to try to further my career at Gamma Supplies. I couldn't help feel that Darth already knew that I had a prior commitment when he made his belated offer.

I just said “No thank you, I already have other plans.” This type of
“scheduled conflict” would also become a common occurrence. Several years later, I would read an article about "psychological double-binds" or "no win" situations. These conflicts which have "no win" solutions are believed to cause schizophrenic behavior.

Several other changes became became apparent the week following Christmas. John was no longer working in the upper laboratory, but was now located in the lower lab out of my sight. He also now reported to Jay Wells. Buzhoha Yazzi had moved to the upper laboratory and was now working where I could see him. The net effect was the John and Buzz had switched positions. With the movement of Buzz to the upper lab, I was able to converse with him more and find out a little about the work he was doing.

One day while I was trying to make conversation with Buzz, he exclaimed, “Oh, I want to apologize for kidding you about not having any children. I didn't know your wife couldn't have any.”

At first I just accepted his apology and then after a moment of thought I said, “How do you know that?!”

Fuzzy calmly replied, “Darth told me.”

Now I was confused. How did Darth know? The only explanation I could think of was that the evening Anita and I went to dinner with Paul Johnson and his wife, Anita had discovered that Paul's wife had a similar medical problem and Paul had told Darth about Anita's problem. But why and how did that conversation go from Paul's wife to Buzz? It did not make sense, but how else could Buzz have known.

I was still unhappy about changes that had taken place so I decided to talk to Arnold Cline. Arnold was receptive, listened and then sympathized by saying it was difficult on a person when he didn't know where he stood. He said it with such understanding that I got the feeling my predicament was definitely deliberate. As we concluded our conversation, I mentioned something about maybe things would be better now that Ravi was fired.

With that Arnold said, “See what we had in mind?” The he paused as though he had something wrong and continued. “Not that we had it planned or anything.”

Of course it had been planned, but I didn't know why he didn't want me to think that. The only thing I could think of was the image of a fly-by-night outfit we were presenting to the courts did not entail planning strategies, but surely he was aware that I knew better that that! I left his office feeling the same way I felt after one of my futile conversations with Darth.

January 1977, began the new year much the same way the previous months had been. It was decided that the new “Rapid Set” needed a formal quality control sheet with instructions to be available to the customer for use of the product, Since I was responsible for the development of the product, I felt I should draw up the information on the Quality Control Sheet since it contained product specifications. Instead, Darth decided Jay Wells should do it. Jay had a copy of the Better
Supplies “Fast Set” specifications from which he copied the form and then put Gamma Supplies's name and logo on it.

I was then given the job to test the directions to see how reproducible the test results were. To do this I requested each member of the laboratory to try out the new instructions and I would collect the data. John, Jeff and Buzz responded by attacking me for writing such poor instructions. Then they questioned, bickered, and argued over every little point. It took two weeks of fighting and hassling to get done what should have been done in a couple of days. Lost in all the confrontation was the fact that Jay, not I, had copied the Better Supplies document and had decided what to include in it. And since Darth had to approve everything, Darth had to have given his OK.

Darth's involvement and presence in the laboratory suddenly became noticeably less conspicuous. In fact, the only time I saw him was when he told me that he, Ravi and I were scheduled to give depositions on January 19.20. and 21 concerning the litigation with Better Supplies. When he told me, I thought it was pretty stupid to have Ravi give sworn testimony a month after he had been fired. And I really did not want to testify for Gamma Supplies at that point because I was not happy with the changes that had been made and the pay raise I had been told I would be getting at the beginning of the year had not materialized. The latter point was quickly explained away by accountant Ralph Sampson, who said Carl was handling all the raises in the lab except mine. Mine was being handled by my arch nemeses Darth. He explained that Darth had handled all raises the previous year, and he had been tardy then too. As had become a standard practice at Gamma Supplies, I was given the explanation that this occurrence too was a normal practice. And, as usual I was not happy.

In late January, I was told by Carl what Jeff and Buzz's raises were to be and that I would tell them of their increases. He also explained that Darth would handle my raisewhen he got around to it. I dutifully told Jeff about his salary increase and then I told Buzz. Both were less that happy and I was left in a position of defending salary increases that I had no say in determining. In my previous job, I gave evaluations of the technicians that worked for me, then their salaries were determined by upper level management based in part on my evaluation and then I informed the employee of their pay raise. I was also told in general the procedure which was used to arrive at the pay raises. At Gamma Supplies I had to face Buzz's hostility and questions for which I had no answers since I had no input in how the raises were determined. Again I was put in a position of being on the defensive. This time I had a basis for comparison in the procedure used to give raises.

I also had no way of evaluating Buzz's performance, but the fact that I knew nothing about what he was doing was enough to convince me that he was not doing a satisfactory job. Another irritating factor which indicated that Buzz was not doing a satisfactory performer was the amount of time he spent talking on the phone. He would get calls from his wife at least three times a day, and frequently someone would have to scurry around the lab to find him. He spent on the average one to two hours a day talking on the phone! When I discussed this problem with Darth, he acted unconcerned and casually asked, “I wonder whom he talks to?”

I tried to get copies of the phone call records from the people in the business office, but I was told such records were not kept.

I said to Ralph Sampson, “then anyone can pick up the lab phones and call Hong Kong and no on will know?!”

The answer was affirmative! Buzz could be talking to someone in Iran and it would be fine. I knew that couldn't be true, but I had no way of getting the phone records.



Chapter II

'The great masses of the people .................will more easily fall victim to a big lie
than to a small on. - Adolf Hitler

In late January Darth gave his deposition. It was held in downtown Milwaukee in the offices of a local law firm. Carl Host and I attended along with Gamma Supplies' attorney Dan Gane from a Chicago law firm. The Better Supplies' lawyers were Cruz Little and Barry Champs from a Dayton law firm. Gamma Supplies was too small of a corporation to have in-house lawyers and the federal judge presiding over the case in Chicago's United States District Court had made a ruling early in the case that Better Supplies could not have their in-house attorneys to handle the case because there was to be an exchange of proprietary and confidential technical material in the case. Therefore both sides had hired outside council. That decision had been a major victory for Gamma Supplies because it limited Better Supplies ability to carry out an effective technical attack on Gamma Supplies' position. At the time of the that decision, I thought Gamma Supplies had been extremely fortunate to have won such a ruling and I was to later learn it was crucial in the course of the trial.

Darth arrived late as usual. I had not seen Darth for several weeks and I was a bit surprised when he came in the room looking very tan and wearing a very business-like three piece, blue pin-strip suit. His attire was quite different from his usual ski sweater and cleated cowboy boots that he wore around the office. I was also curious as to where he had gotten such a deep tan. As I sat there and listened to him give his deposition, I laughed to myself because it was such a fabrication that it was ridiculous, but it was the story line which had to be pursued to win the legal battle. The first day ended and Darth, Dan and I all agreed things had gone well, but we knew there were still a few items that needed to be gone over for the next day.

During the second day of questioning, Cruz Little asked the one question I had been waiting for.

Little: “There's no joint venture, anything like that between Gamma and Tenneland

Darth: “Mm-mm”*

Little: “It's just a manufacture-customer relationship?”

Darth: “Right”

Darth's first answer was barely audible, but it was still a “no” and then Little let him off the hook with the perfect follow-up question. What luck!

When noon rolled around we all decided to take an hour for lunch and then reconvene. At that point Cruz Little, Darth and Dan Gane asked me to leave the room while they chatted. I felt the request was a little unusual, but I dutifully left. As I closed the door behind me I stood there in the hallway and contemplated ease dropping on the conversation going on in the room. I wondered what could be so important that I couldn't hear it. After all, this was a legal proceeding. I decided to head to lunch, but to this day I wish I had listened
_________________________________________________________________________
* The first transcribed copy of the deposition shows Darth's answer to the first question to be “Mm-mm.” The official version shows it to be “No.”


The second day of testimony delved into the technical aspects. Mr. Little asked Darth to draw some chemical structures on a piece of paper which could be included in the deposition. Darth scrawled some crude structures on the paper as if he were barely aware of what had been going on in the lab. Darth had a B.S. Degree in chemistry, he had worked in and had been in charge of Gamma's lab for over ten years and I had given him detailed reports with structures on my work. We had discussed the structures, and now he was acting like a novice and as if he had never seen the structures before. I was concerned he was overacting. I was also beginning to wonder if Darth thought I didn't know what he was doing. After all, he had such a condescending attitude toward everyone. I decided for my own good, I had better find out.

Following Darth's testimony that afternoon, he, Dan Gane and I packed up the
documents and proceeded to leave the building. There was a sense of relief that the grind of two days of questioning was over. I jokingly said, “Darth, from the looks of those structures you drew, I'm going to have to teach you some organic chemistry.”

Darth stopped, turned and glared at me, and with a slightly red face said, “you better watch your step, BOY!” There was heavy emphasis on the BOY. Apparently there was no longer a need to explain things like the building fences lecture he gave me in our first meeting.

My question about whether Darth was aware that I knew he had perjured himself had been answered, but equally important was his reaction to even my slightest suggestion that I knew. Given Darth's lack of character and given his strong reaction my comment evoked, I felt like I was talking to a Mafia Don rather than my boss and a partner in the legal battle against Better Supplies. Actually, I wasn't afraid of Darth, but I was becoming fearful that I was involved in a nefarious scheme being run by some really powerful people. And I didn't know who those people were. As we continued down the hall, I was still thinking about Darth's reaction.

I barely had time to get back to the lab and think about what had transpired
when it was time to attend the next management meeting. The third meeting was held at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club and served as a mid-winter break from the rigors of Chicago winters. The meeting was suppose to center on a scenario of the self-made man who had been a successful in the business and financial worlds and who was a hard line conservative. Mr. Haws, as he was called in the story, was a true believer in the malevolent dictatorship, and he acted totally in a very short term manner. Darth embraced his techniques, which was a complete reversal of our first meeting when Gamma Supplies was presented as a long term, people oriented company.

We only spent a short time on the analysis on the Mr. Haws' techniques before went on to the subject he really wanted to talk about; firing employees. Darth went great lengths to detail the procedures which had been reportedly used to terminate a Gamma Supplies' sales rep from Louisiana. The procedure called for making Darth aware of the problem and then having him and the Clines review the situation. Finally, they would observe the person and make the decision. The bottom line was that no on but Darth Korey could decide to fire anyone. This seemed reasonable to me, but I couldn't help but wonder why he went to such great lengths to emphasize it.
What the Darth firing procedure meant is that I could not take any corrective actions in the laboratory because I had almost no say or power in terminating anyone. It had already been established that I had no say in determining personnel salaries. So, despite all of the showy announcements in the lab., I had absolutely no power.

On the plus side, since the firing procedure had been made a policy at the management meeting, Presumably no one else had any power in firing someone. This laborious review procedure did not fit into what one salesman had termed Gamma Supplies revolving door policy. Other that providing some time away from the lab in a nice atmosphere, the meeting was just another of a series of disappointments.

Darth's January testimony had raised some questions about our technical defense
against Better Supplies. Since Ravi's deposition never materialized and my testimony had been postponed until late March, it gave me time to do some work on the technical issues which were still no solidified. Two prominent issues had surfaced.

First, in one of the Better Supplies' patents involved in the litigation, there was an example of a phenolic resin which was made by a process very similar to the one Gamma Supplies was now using and it was possible that the material itself was very similar. We had to establish that the material in Better Supplies' Example 12 of the patent did not work as well as our material. Example 12, as we referred
to it, would become more and more critical to the Gamma's case as time went on. The second problem was a result of a statement Darth made during his depostion. He had claimed that in early 1976, one batch of phenolic resin had worked exceptionally well and he thought it might have been accidentally the same as the phenolic resin I had subsequently developed. Although this had little effect on the immediate litigation, it meant that I had to get a patent application filed as soon as possible. I also started working on the that application immediately.

The easiest way to remove the concern about Example 12 was to reproduce the work
that Better Supplies had reported. This required that I go back into the laboratory, make the phenolic resin as described in the patent and then evaluate it. I was not looking forward to going back into the laboratory. First, Buzz was always giving me a difficult time over one thing or another, and John and Jeff contributed to a hostile environment. In addition to the difficulties with Buzz, my perceived conflict with Jim hadnot subsided. This fact was reinforced by Jay Wells who informed me that John had made the remark, “Russ is going to pay for Ravi being fired”. And my situation was not helped by the fact that Ravi still came in and used his office from time to time and always held visible conference with John. The high visibility of all of the hostility made me wonder why no one seemed to care about the situation. Despite all of the distractions, I still managed to work on Example 12.

I was concerned about Example 12, because from what I knew about the chemistry
involved, I could not see why the phenolic resin described should not work. John had informed me he had tried to make Example 12 work, but was not successful. Since I was aware of Joohn's propensity to massage and slant data, I was still uneasy about the material in Example 12. Still, there were some differences between the material in Example 12 and the phenolic resin I had developed. I spent several weeks carefully following Better Supplies' directions, but I could not get the critical final results which they had reported. In essence, Example 12 did not work as reported. I was relieved and not totally surprised since patents will frequently contain fictitious examples just to cover and protect against all possibilities.
Since Example 12 was one of only two of its kind in the Better Supplies patents under question, I believed that this might be the case here.

By now I was fully convinced that my only purpose at Gamma Supplies was to provide a technical base and testimony to defeat the Better Supplies' patents. I decided to push for as many concessions as I could get before my scheduled testimony. The first thing I wanted to do was to add a new person in the laboratory to break up the John, Buzz, Jeff cabal and to upgrade the technical abilities in the laboratory. To that end, I requested that I attend the ACS meeting in March and recruit a new chemist since I was suppose to be “building a laboratory".

Darth's reaction to my request for a contract took a strange and totally unexpected
twist. After our conversation, Darth's attitude toward me became childish to the point of being ridiculous. At first, he would just refuse to acknowledge me when I would walk pass him at work.

Then, things at work became more absurd. First, it was customary at Gamma Supplies for the secretary to circulate a birthday card for everyone to sign and then present the card to theto the recipient. On the day of my birthday, I did not receive a card. I knew it was not an oversight because when I joined the company, Chris, the secretary, had called me for my personal data which included my birthday. At that time, Chris explained to me that the data was used for such company rituals such as the birthday card. When I inquired with Chris as to why I hadn't received a card, she said Darth had stopped it.

More direct evidence of my isolation from the Gamma Supplies environment occurred the next day when all the laboratory personnel, the Clines's and Darth attended a dinner and a play which was paid for by Gamma Supplies. The event had been planned a couple of weeks in advance and George Landry, the lab coordinator for the event gave in advance of the event, the tickets for the play and then made sure to point out that Darth had assigned the seating arrangement.

The seating at dinner was random and Anita and I sat at a table with Carl Host and his wife. Darth arrived alone and late, and to my surprise came over to our table and sat down for dinner. The dinner time was spent talking about trivial subjects and Darth gladly chimed in with his opinions. However, he avoided talking directly to me and would not respond to any of my questions directed to him. I just sat there and thought how absurd it was for him to act like that.

After the dinner, we walked to the to the theater where the Gamma' laboratory
personnel sat in the center section of the first two rows, Darth and the Clines sat together in the upper right section of the theater. Anita and I had been given seats by ourselves in the upper center section! We were totally separated from all of the Gamma people. At intermission, some people with seats near the Gamma laboratory personal left and Anita and I moved down to those seats for the second act.

After the play, Jay Wells from Tech Services and his girlfriend, Carl Host and I with our wives went to a near-by club for a drink. During a conversation, I commented to Carl about what a nice time Anita and I had at the Club Tennis Valentines Tennis Party and how it was a shame that he and his wife had been unable to attend. Carl's wife was surprised and turned to Carl and said, “What tennis party were we invited to”?

Carl didn't know what to say and finally after a long period of silence he told her to forget about it and that it wasn't important. But it was important to me it told me that Carl never considered going to the tennis party, and for some reason he was avoiding all none work related social interactions between him, his wife and Anita and me.
I was not surprised when Darth quickly agreed with the trip and the plans to
hire someone new since Darth's tactics were always to agree at first and then latter change his direction. Also the ACS meeting was in mid-March and anyone I recruited could not be hired until at least April which was well past my scheduled deposition date. I went ahead and made arrangements and looked forward to the trip to New Orleans.


My second plan of attack was to befriend Carl Host and get his support for my efforts. I wanted to get to know him better so I invited him and his wife over for dinner. He refused with little or no excuse. I then invited him and his wife to join Anita and me at a social tennis gathering at La Club. Carl had told me he played tennis and I thought the invitation would be hard to refuse. Carl said he would check with his wife and then let me know. At last I thought I was making progress. Several days later, Carl informed me that his wife did not want to attend the tennis social. At that point I gave up trying to socialize with Carl and his wife.

My third plan of attack was to press for a long-term contract similar to the one Ravi had. Although the contract would not provide me with any job security, it would provide me with an income should my worse fears be realized and I did have to find another job. Darth's reaction to my request for a long-term contract was predictable. At first he said he thought it would be a good idea and even gave me a small pamphlet on writing an effective contract. This fit the pattern of Darth initially agreeing to something and then latter doing an about face and doing just the opposite. And this time was no exception.

For the next two evenings, I read and studied the pamphlet on how to write an effectivecontract and what to include in such a document. The third day I went in and told Darth that I wanted to discuss some of the items to be included in the contract. Darth was succinct and to the point. “The Cline's and I feel we should be able to walk in and fire anyone on a moments notice. There will be no contract.” End of conversation!

I left Darth's office wondering what ever happened to their elegant firing procedure that Darth had spent a half a day outlining at the previous management meeting. Of course, by now I was accustomed to double standards at Gamma Supplies. There was on set of rules and conventions that applied to everyone else and a separate set of rules that applied to me. Their failure to negotiate a contract with an employee who they were counting on for the future of Gamma Oil confirmed what I already knew. My job was solely to assist in their legal battle with Better Supplies.


In retrospect, the most interesting thing about the evening was my wife's reaction to everything. On the drive home, I said “Did you see how Darth acted toward me?”.

“Yes”, she replied.

“I mean he wouldn't say a word to me”.

Anita said nothing.

“And Carl never did ask his wife about going to the tennis party with us,” I continued.

Again, Anita said nothing. She also never commented on our being separated from
everyone else at the play. Her lack of comments on the situation puzzled me, but it was late and since we were both tired, I dropped the subject.

Early the next week, Carl came into my office and told me I would be getting an 8%
raise (the same as Buzz and Jeff) which increased my salary to the figure Darth had originally mentioned during myprimary interviews at Gamma Oil. I was not told how the figure was arrived at, but I was given the usual amount of verbal praise and was told how the Clines and Darth thought I was doing an excellent job. I thought the raise, which I was suppose to get back in January being given to me because my deposition in the lawsuit was scheduled in two weeks. If anything, the timing of the raise mad me angry.

Anita and I were getting back on our feet financially, and we had reached a point where we able to save some money. Since we able to live on our combined salaries prior to my raise and since Anita had a tendency to spend “extra money”, I decided to open a separate savings account and deposit the net of my salary increase in the new account without Anita's knowledge. As far as she was concerned, I was still making same salary.

I thought that we should accumulate as much savings as possible for the inevitable change of jobs and relocation. I went to the same bank where we had our checking and joint savings account and opened a second savings account in my name only. I gave the teller my work address on the application and took great pains to explain to her that under no circumstances did I want the new savings statement going to my home address. She assured me that the joint account statement would go to our home, and the new single name account would go to my work address. I left the bank feeling relieved that I did not have to explain my raise to my wife. What I did not realize was that I had so much conflict at work that I was changing my relationship with my with wife to avoid any more stress in my life.

The week prior to my departure to the ACS meeting, we had our fourth management
meeting. I didn't know it at the time, but this turned out to be the most critical meeting I was to attend while I was at Gamma Supplies. The business scenario we were given to review was titled, “Decisions at Zenith Life,” and we were asked to pick from four candidates the man best suited to become president of The Zenith Life Company. Darth came to the meeting and acted out each of the fictional candidates in “interviews”, and then we discussed the merits for each man becoming the new president.

Next, Darth handed out a sheet called “How to Spot a 'Comer'”. The article was a list of thirteen items that managers should look for in subordinates who are to be promoted. The list was the exact same one Darth had read to us in the first management meeting in September. I later checked and found that even the order in my original notes was the same as in the article. At the meeting, I knew we had previously discussed the the items on the list, but I was amazed that no one commented on the fact that we had covered this before. My first reaction was that no one wanted to embarrass Darth, but when no one mentioned it at lunch when Darth was not present, I became baffled. Surely someone else must have recognized that we had covered this material before. What I did not know at the time, was that the purpose of repeating the list at the meeting, was to test my memory. And Darth's absent at lunch was no accident. Had all the induced stress I had been subject to been effective in erasing/altering my memory? Had the programming of my testimony been effective?! The list testing my memory said "yes" as far as my "captors" were concerned.

The afternoon session took on the typical farcical atmosphere that exemplified most of the meetings. Darth spent a couple of hours talking about supernatural acts and mysterious happenings. He went to great lengths telling us about his use of a divining rod to locate water on his land and how he and his brother use to play hide and seek for nickels. One brother would hide a nickel in a house room and the other brother would then locate the hidden nickel by holding a nickel and a bent coat hanger in his hand. The coat hanger would then point to the location of the hidden nickel! Darth of course presented this in all seriousness. Maybe he thought I should hire a mystic for the laboratory to solve the technical problems.

It did not immediately occur to me that there was nothing to show Darth
had lectured at great lengths on the ludicrous and evil (Biblically speaking) topic of mystical forces. I doubt if he learned that subject in business school. I did retain copies of the “Zenith Life” and “Spot A Comer” articles which were legitimate topics for a management meeting. But there was little evidence of the farcical topics we covered at most of the meetings.

That weekend I departed for New Orleans to attend the ACS meeting , but before I left
Darth informed me that Carl would be joining me to help me recruit the new scientist. Although I had no objection to Carl's presence at the meeting, I did not see what he could contribute in terms of recruiting a scientist. More importantly, I had been looking forwardto spending a few days away from any Gamma influence. I was also looking forward to see-ing some old friends and socializing with them. With Carl there, I would have to modify some of my plans.

The recruiting at the ACS meeting was laborious and exhausting. Most of the
candidates came to the interview thinking that Gamma Supplies, must be located in the New Orleans area and they became quickly disinterested when they learned the job was in Chicago, IL.

Carl showed up for the second and third day of recruiting a demonstrated a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the job at hand. By the end of the third day, I had found three good candidates that I thought were worth actively pursuing. Carl seemed satisfied and he would be leaving on business on the next day. That meant I would get a couple of days to relax and enjoy the professional meeting.

The weekend prior to my scheduled deposition I flew back to Chicago feeling somewhat relieved and freshened. The following Monday when I reported back to work, I was informed by Darth that the Better Supplies' attorneys were going to take a deposition of a Tenneland person located at the Summerfield plant. Darth informed me that he, Dan Gane and I were going to be present during the testimony.

The next morning I was on a plane to Summerfield, Ohio. We met with the Better Supplies attorneys for lunch and then proceeded to an office to await the arrival of the yet unidentified Tenneland witness. My feeling was that Paul Jones, the plant chemist was the man Better Supplies should be talking to, but I knew the witness could not be him because he had been transferred to Atlanta, GA a couple of months earlier. At the time when I was told that Paul had been transferred, I thought that at least in part the reason for the transfer was to make the process of obtaining his testimony difficult.

Robert Graham, the plant manager at the Tenneland Summerfield facility finally showed up to give his deposition. His testimony only lasted a couple of hours and it revealed nothing. He expressed ignorance of everything of real interest to Better Supplies' case, and gave only superficial answers to the questions that he did know something about. The day concluded with Better Supplies' attorneys learning nothing new, and I left thinking Gamma Supplies and Tenneland had pulled another fast one in the legal battle.

Darth and Dan decided I should fly back to Chicago with Dan Gane and then we would drive from the airport together. The time together would give us a chance to discuss our strategy and Dan could prep me for some of the more difficult questions.

During our discussion on the drive from the airport I brought up an example from another Better Supplies' patent that was not directly involved in the litigation. I told Dan thatthe material was very similar to that in Example 12, about which we were concerned, and that due to some differences, maybe that example would work whereas I had not been able to make Example 12 work. No one had ever mentioned this other example, and if Better Supplies' attorneys inquired about that example, it could potentially greatly weaken Gamma Supplies' position which was more and more becoming based on the fact that Example 12 did not work. I was very concerned that Cruz Little would question me on that example, and I wanted some advice as to how to handle that kind of attack. Dan did not answer my questions. If fact, he just ignored me as if he knew that subject would not be brought up. Since Dan had coached me on other subjects, his failure to respond in this instance told me not to worry about it. But I couldn't help wonder why he was not concerned about that example. This was a technical issue at stake and not some legal maneuvering. Since I was
Gamma Supplies' one and only expert technical witness, I had a lot of concern over this second example. But, I could not get Dan to say anything.

One comment that Dan did make bothered me even more. He said he was Gamma Supplies attorney and did not represent me. That sounded strange to me since I was a Gamma Supplies' employee, and he seemed to be saying I was on my own or that I could get my own attorney. Of course, I couldn't afford to do that.

That evening at home I did a lot of soul searching. Something was drastically wrong, but I didn't know what. The next morning I was suppose to go in and testify on behalf of Gamma Supplies. Since the technical issues were in the grey area and were not black and white,I could support Gammma Supplies' position or I could sink the whole Gamma Supplies' defense. It was really a matter of which side I wanted to take.

The non-technical issues were likewise unclear and rather muddy. While Gamma Supplies had presented to the courts and Better Supplies the image of a small company that had accidentally stumbled into Better Supplies' area of patent coverage, I was well aware of Tennelands participation and had other evidence that Gamma Supplies attack on the Better Supplies patents was well planned and orchestrated. One document I was given was a letter from Better Supplies' attorneys dated April 1976, which stated that Gamma Supplies should seek legal counsel because of the legal action Better Suppliesw was pursuing. However, in my snooping around in the lab, I had come across a lengthy letter from Dan Game to Rave, Darth and Arnold Cline, dated October 17, 1975. The letter detailed a complete strategy for defeating the Better Supplies patents. In fact, on page 8, Dan states:

“....it might be to Gamma's best interest to take license thereunder at a very nominal paid-up royalty, since a nominal royalty might be more
economical in the long run than defending a patent infringement
lawsuit.....”

However, the actions of the people at Gamma Supplies supported the story that Gamma Supplies had just stumbled into the whole affair, and that was the story I was suppose to present. One thing I was sure of was that the litigation had industry wide implications and a lot of people besides Gamma Supplies would benefit if the Better Supplies patents were broken. Regardless of my status at Gamma Supplies, it was in my best interest of my career to support the Gamma Supplies cause. I could not let my intense dislike for Darth and the Clines be the deciding factor. I had to believe that more rational people were behind the orchestrated attack on the Better Supplies' patents and that in the long run, it would best for me to give a supportive testimony.

However, Darth's condescending attitude toward me should have been a warning that maybe the people who were behind the orchestrated attack on the Better supplies patents were NOT SANE and RATIONAL. The ideas that I might be dealing with CRIMINALLY INSANE people did not cross my mind at the time.

There was one other consideration in deciding what to do about my testimony. Dan Gane had explained to me that the deposition was a preliminary questioning procedure from which the attorneys extracted information which they used for questioning during the actual trial. He did point out that in cases where a witness could not appear for the trial the deposition could be presented at the trial as that witness's testimony. Since I saw no reason why I would not be able to appear at the trial, I believed my deposition would not be my final word in the legal proceedings. Thus, Gamma Supplies would still need my services.
______________________________________________________________________________________
For anyone reading this story, I have a question: What would you have done? I can tell you that you are missing one critical piece of information that I didn't have either at the time of the decision.

My deposition took place on March 30, 1977. The official document states the
following:

“Deposition of XXXXXXX X. XXXXX, called for examination by the Plaintiff,
under and pursuant to the Federal Rules and Civil Procedure, pursuant to
notice, before Moneen L. Behtea, a Notary Public in and for the state of
Wisconsin, at 250 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the
30th day of March 1977, commencing at 9:30 o'clock in the morning.

APPEARANCES:

DEWEY, CHEATEM and HOWE by Cruz Little, Esq., and J. Barry Champs, Esq. appeared on
behalf of the plaintiff.

Fried, Wezel, and Gane by Dan Gane, Esq.
Chicago, Illinois 606033 appeared on behalf of the defendant.

Also present for the plaintiff:
Robert L. Laity
Jane Bitzen

The last two people listed for the plaintiff are scientists form the Arthur D. Little Consulting Company who were there to determine my technical competency. During thelunch break of my first day of testimony, they informed Cruz Little that I was competent and that they could not be of any help so they left after the lunch recess.

The questioning initially concentrated on my education and industrial background and quickly progressed to my introduction to Gamma Supplies and the foundry industry. I answered all questions strictly in line with the Gamma Supplies story and avoided all taboo subjucts such as Tenneland.


The afternoon session quickly progressed into a discussion of the technical issues andthe phenolic product being manufactured by Tenneland for Delta Oil. At this point I answered that I had no knowledge of what Tenneland did because Ravi Sardess and Carl Host handled that end of the business. All I ever saw was the phenolic resin product that arrived at the Gamma Supplies' plant. As the questioning continued, Cruz Little started to delve into the Gamma “Rapid Set” formulation and the effect of what I will call a “polyol material”. The “polyol material” was the basis of the Ravi Sardess and Darth Korey patent, and its beneficial effects in the “Rapid Set” formulation were questionable. At one point I had generated data which showed the laboratory data John Mason had reported was not accurate and that the amounts of the “polyol material” in the formulation was way too high. I had shown the data to Darth and he was not pleased with it, because at
that time, the presence of the polyol material was a major element in the Gamma Supplies defense. Darth had taken the appeasement route and reduced the “polyol material” a small amount in the “Rapid Set” formulation. The change was not enough to make any significant performance difference. At the same time, he preserved the “polyol material” defense, but both he and I were well aware that the polyol material defense was very weak. I did not discuss the data with anyone else, and it did not appear in any of my monthly reports. Cruz Little was now probing in that area and I was uncomfortable so I asked for a short break. When the questioning resumed, Cruz Little started by asking questions on another topic. Just like that the problem disappeared and I was relieved that he had stopped
pursuing the “polyol material” subject.

As the questioning continued, it became more and more clear that the failure of Example 12 to work was a key issue. Mr. Little questioned me over and over again on how I ran the test, what possibly was wrong with the way I ran the test and why I thought Example 12 did not work. I was well prepared for his questions and had no trouble defending the Gamma Supplies position that Example 12 was a bogus example. Surprisingly, Mr. Little did not ask about the other patent example I had found which was very similar to Example 12. My fears concerning questions on that subject were not realized. Again, I felt a sense of relief.

After a day and a half of testimony, my deposition was concluded.

The next day I returned to the laboratory to face Jeff, John and Buzz whom I now referred to as the Three Musketeers. They acted in the laboratory as though they spent all their free time together. They told me they got up each morning and exercised at Club Tennis together and then they jogged together. Of course, their ultimate objective was to get rid of me and they made no attempt to hide that fact.

One day I got into an argument with Jeff over the installation of a dart board in the lab. Finally, after a heated debate, I said that there would be not dart playing in the laboratory. I went back to my office, sat down and looked through the doorway of the laboratory and saw John telling Jeff in a loud voice, “Now don't push it. Just do what I say and we'll get him.” By now such blatant hostility was just standard practice and I just shrugged it off.

My plans to hire a new person for the laboratory were also being thwarted. I brought Mack Mark, one of the chemists I had interviewed in New Orleans into Gamma for an in-depth interview. Things were going well until lunch time. Darth suggested that he, Jay and Carl join Mack and I for lunch at the Full Sails. I agreed. Mack was an intelligent, serious professional who was interested in learning as much as he could about Gamma Supplies during his visit.

At lunch time, Darth, Jay and Carl sat on one side of the table and Mack and I sat on the other side. Mack tried in vain to ask intelligent questions, but Darth, Jay and Carl were acting like they were the Three Stooges and repeatedly talked nonsense. I tried without too much success to make sense out of their actions, but I was helpless to try to save the interview. Mack left the lunch with a disappointed, confused expression on his face and I could only imagine what must have been going through his mind. I knew I would not be getting a new person for the laboratory. Mack was obviously annoyed and unimpressed by the “Three Stooges”, but there was little I could do to correct the situation. That afternoon before Mack left the site, I informed him he would be getting a formal offer from us. He did not respond very enthusiastically.

The following day I began discussing with Carl what kind of stipend would be best to induce Mack to accept our offer. Since Gamma Supplies had a poor benefits package, I thought it was best to give him a good salary offer. Carl agreed with me in principal and then suggested we offer Mack a starting salary that was equal to what I had received three years earlier when I started working in industry. I argued that his suggested salary offer was low, but Carl was adamant and proceeded to give me a lecture on being fiscally conservative. I didn't mention it, but apparently Carl never heard that you get what you pay for. Finally, Carl yielded a little and agreed to make Carl an offer for $2,000 per year more than what
he had originally suggested. I knew from the current job market that the offer was still ridiculously low, but I went through the motions and wrote up an offer and sent it to Mack.

If the clown act at lunch had not turned off Mack, the salary offer most assuredly would. I mailed off the offer knowing I was just going through the motions and that the offer would be rejected.

My lab work now consisted primarily of writing a patent application. Every other day Dan Gane would call to see how I was progressing and the days he didn't call, Darth would stick his head in my office to inquire how things were coming on the patent application. Other than that, I never saw Darth which was fine with me.

Setting Up The Victim

Darth laid the groundwork during the first meeting and formally appointed me the secretary for the group. The responsibility he gave me in front of the group was far less that what he had privately discussed with me. The task was simple; we were to look at quality control practices in the plant and in the lab, recommend ways to improve the practices and then implement the recommended changes. Since the people responsible for carrying out any recommended changes were part of the group, the changes should take place with relative ease. Thus, an opportunity to impact Gamma's poor business practices appeared possible, and the changes would have Darth's blessing which was essential.

Darth was emerging more and more as the one man who oversaw everything and who had to approve all changes. His power was conveyed in direct ways and in some subtle ways. In one instance I had written a monthly report that I had which showed the results of some work I had done which indicated that the patent application submitted by Ravi and Darth could be circumvented by a simple chemical trick. The procedure which I had tested would allow other companies to essentially use our system. A couple of days later, Darth called Ravi and me into his office and gave us a lecture on how he would make all decisions on how the Tenneland legal battle would be fought. He emphasized that it was not my job to do that. I was a little confused, because I had made no attempt to steer the direction of the legal battle, but the timing of the meeting in relation to my monthly report and Darth's direct remarks to me implied that Darth thought I had. I left the meeting feeling his comments were irrelevant to the issues at hand, but Darth did emphasize his total control.

The meeting also served to reinforce the idea that everything I did was wrong. I ouldn't do anything right. It was like a child with a domineering parent or a marriage with a verbally abusive spouse. What I couldn't see was how the constant belittling of me was wearing down my self confidence and self-esteem.
On one occasion Darth and I were discussing authority, decision making and general business practices in relation to the task of the quality control committee. At one point Darth paused and said, “Russ, the best form of management is the BENEVOLENT DICTATOR.” The message was clear. You did not discuss policy with Darth, because what he said was the way things were to be and, of course Darth was benevolent.

Darth's power and appearance of total control was reinforced by Paul Johnson and Ralph Sampson. Pauk commented that Darth treated everyone the way that I was being treated.

Ralph came in one day and said, “Darth is treating you the way the Chinese treats their prisoners. He likes to break people down, and then he molds them the way he likes them." He laughed and then departed.

I did not find his comment humorous at all, and I thought the analogy to the communist treatment of prisoners was not a totally inaccurate description. Jay Wells reiterated that Darth had the Cline's ear and he had the final word in everything. The bottom line was that Darth was all powerful in Gamma Supplies.

More subtle means of conveying Darth's power ran from the ridiculous to the sublime. During quality control studies of a particular product, the question arose as to how to determine the point in time when a reaction was complete in order that the product could be drummed and a new batch could be started as quickly as possible. I was discussing the problem with Jay and I suggested we put a torque meter on the stirrer shaft, since there was a sharp increase in the thickness of the product when the reaction was complete. Jay said he didn't like the idea. When I asked why he said, “Well, Darth told me we should hook up an amp meter to the stirrer motors and then measure the increase in the current on the motors when the reaction became complete.” After some more discussion, I said fine, and eventually the quality control committee agreed to recommend Darth's solution to the
problem to Darth for action. The incident enforced the idea that all changes came from Darth and more importantly, it placed Jay as Darth's official spokesman in the quality control group. It again appeared that Darth was undermining my position in the quality control group. This was after Darth took great pains to tell the group that I was heading up the task force. It looked like the old “magic act” again.

To make sure that Darth had actually told Jay that the amp meter was the solution Darth wanted, when we presented our group findings to Darth I said, “Of course, we did consider monitoring the torque on the stirrer as an alternative. What do you think of that?”

Darth just glared at me as if to say, what do you think you are doing, you
insubordinate? Then he said, “The amp meter should work fine”.

I remained silent the rest of the meeting.

The ridiculous means of conveying Darth's position of power took very subtle
psychological forms. In Darth's office, across from his desk, was a couch which was very low. When you sat on the couch, your knees came up to your chest, making the occupant quit uncomfortable. One day I was talking with Jay and I mentioned a book I had read by Michael Korda called Power. In the book, Mr. Korda related how some managers arrange their furniture in their office to give them a position of power when they talked with someone. It is a subtle form of intimidation. One example in Korda's book was about a manager who had his furniture so low that the people in his office felt uncomfortable, and the manager from behind his desk had a feeling of towering over his subjects. For a vertically challenged person like Darth, he probably wanted to feel he towered over other people.

JaY blurted out, “Yeah, just like Darth's couch.”

I said, “Yes, exactly like that.”

We both laughed and I didn't think anymore of the conversation until a couple of days later. I went into Darth's office , sat down on the couch and was surprised that the couch had been raised to a comfortable level. The timing relative to my conversation with Jay bothered me immensely. And this was another time when something I told a coworker in private seemed to have made its way to one of my managers. I was baffled as to why that should be happening.

As work on the quality control committee progressed, I became more and more
disenchanted. I was working hard at learning all I could about the product processes so changes could be made. Darth would verbally support all of the groups recommendations, but nothing was done. One day in early November, I was preparing for a meeting, when I sat back and reflected on the situation. Every couple of weeks we would meet in Darth's office, discuss our findings, recommend actions that should be taken, get Darth's support and approval and then nothing would happen.

At the next meeting I was going to address the lack of progress. I took my notes from the previous meeting and made up a list of seventeen actions which was supposed to have occurred in the intervening two weeks. I also noted the person who was responsible for implementing the change. I wanted to find out why nothing was being done.

I started the next quality control meeting by saying I wanted to go over what had been done since the last time. Darth tried to steer the meeting in another direction, but I was insistent. I took out my list, and one by one I addressed the expected actions and the person responsible. The answer was always the same; the people responsible had done nothing and they acted like they could care less. Finally, when I had completed the list, Darth turned to me and said, “Russ, how may items were you responsible for?”

“Three,” I replied.

“Well you only did two of them. See you didn't do all you were suppose to.”

I sat there in disbelief. No one else in the room had done anything, and Jordan was reprimanding me. He said nothing more to the other people. Once again I was wrong. Then we went on to business as usual.

I left the meeting feeling frustrated and with little enthusiasm for the quality control work. Darth was suppose to be all-powerful in the company and he was verbally supporting all of our recommendations, yet he said and did nothing when no actions were being taken. The feeling of frustration and failure was further enforced by the actions of another committee which had been formed at about the same time as our quality control committee. That group was responsible for identifying cost problems in production and then taking corrective actions. Ralph Sampson was a group member and he dutifully kept me abreast of their work. In direct contrast to our group, their group was being successful in carrying out corrective actions and they were achieving results. I was baffled by the difference in the results of the two groups.

My work in the laboratory was going well, and I had solved the major problem of not having adequate analytical facilities at Gamma Supplies by gaining access to equipment at the University of Wisconsin, Blackwater. In a stroke of luck, I had learned that my former office partner from the University of Florida was now a professor at the U. of Wisc., Blackwater. I quickly contacted him and gained permission to use the equipment there. Not only did it make my work easier, but there was no cost to Gamma Supplies which resulted in a savings of several thousand dollars in analytical fees. The analytical data was absolutely essential to support our technical position in the legal battle against Tenneland. Despite
all the other activity, winning the lawsuit was still the major objective of my work.

Think One by SUGGESTION!
My earlier laboratory results had shown that one particular phenolic resin worked
particularly well in Gamma's “Rapid Set” formulation. This was an important result, and there was a need to identify why that particular material worked so well and then to characterize that particular material. However, before I did that, I wanted to find out what was going on at Gamma Supplies. I decided to run a little test.

Before I went to Blackwater for analytical data, I decided to tell Darth and Dave some of my results. We met in my office and I explained my results to them. Darth quickly asked why I thought one particular material worked well. I knew what answer Darth wanted, but I deliberately gave him an answer that was not supportive of Gamma's cause. Darth sat there, visibley annoyed, commented on my interesting results and then queried as to when I would have my analytical results supporting my conclusion. I told him it would be a while because it was a long drive to Blackdwater and I wanted to wait until I had lots of samples for analysis. That way I could make the most efficient use of my time and spend the entire day on their equipment. Darth said fine and the meeting was adjourned. He made no attempt
to question my conclusions, and he offered no alternative explanation.

About a week later I passed Darth in the hall, and as we passed he shouted out
something. Since I didn't understand what he had said, I stopped him and asked him to repeat it.

“One is the magic number.” Then he turned and continued on his way.

Several days later he walked through the lab and as he passed me he said, “Think one!”

This scenario was repeated on two other occasions, and I knew what Darth was telling me. The phenolic resin which worked so well was what polymer chemists call monomeric, or as a layman would say, it had a unit of one. I had been certain that was the case all along, but I was not going to confirm it with analytical data until I found out how Darth was going to tell what was wanted for the legal battle. Finally, I went to Blackwater and obtained the analytical data which quickly confirmed the phenolic resin which had worked well was indeed low molecular weight or near monomeric. When I returned to the laboratory the next day, I informed Darth that my initial conclusion that the desired material was polymeric was wrong and that I was surprised to find that “one” was indeed the magic number. Darth was relieved.

CHRISTMAS - A Good Time to Eliminate People!
The one day away from the confines of Gamma Supplies did help me put things in perspective. While talking to Ed, my former office partner at Florida, I realized how distorted my view of things had become and how much stress I was under. It seemed as though my values and belief in myself had been warped by my exposure to the barrage of criticism I had endured at Gamma Supplies. It really frightened me, but I didn't see any way out of my present predicament.

My relationship with Ravi had not improved, and he and John continually kept me under constant pressure. The extreme stress I was under began to show up in physical symptoms. Initially it was nothing more serious that frequent colds and fatigue, but in early October, I developed an irregular heart beat. At first the palpitations were just a skipped beat now and then, but their occurrence was becoming more and more frequent. Finally, one evening as I was driving home, my heart started racing out of control. I wasn't sure what was happening, and I quickly pulled my car off the road. I sat there for a minute or two while my heart raced at triple time. I was frightened and wasn't sure what to do. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, my heart rate dropped down to its normal beat pattern. I cautiously resumed my trip home. When I arrived home I did not say anything to
my wife for fear of alarming her.

The next day I called the Chicago Medical Clinic and asked for an appointment. Since I was new to the area, I had to describe my problem to a nurse who finally gave me an appointment with Dr. Agayoff. The problem was I would have to wait two weeks to see internist Dr. Agayoff. I was not too pleased about waiting that long, but I already knew what the problem was and as long as my heart didn't act up again like the previous night, I could wait.

That same week we were scheduled to have another management meeting. Again I decided to confront Darth with the situation with Ravi and John. The meeting was held at the West End Inn and we were to discuss a short scenario we had been given and we would also discuss the process of evaluating personnel. The scenario we were given was titled “Excelsior Bakeries, Inc.” and it presented the classic problem of the conflict which arises when a person is suddenly made manager over people with whom he has been long time friends. I was particularly interested in Darth's analysis since he had gone to Chicago's Business School. Again my expectations were not fulfilled as the morning discussion never addressed the basic issue of the paper. Instead we talked about assembly line operations, which was of little value to us, since we had no assembly line. And Darth carefully avoided the subject of conflict among company personnel which was prevalent in the Excelsior scenario.

I was going to talk to Darth at the noon break, but instead he, Jay and I went to a local foundry to see Better Supplies's “Fast Set” being used in production. After watching production at the foundry for awhile, we returned to the inn.

The afternoon session was equally uninformative and we adjourned around three
o'clock. As everyone was leaving the room I collared Darth and said we had to talk. I told him I was fed up with the situation in the laboratory and that either Ravi went or I was leaving. I told him I had a phenolic resin which worked well, and Ravi was blocking my efforts to do further research on it. Darth was prepared.

He said, “Ravi will be fired and you will be given his job, but we can't do it now.”

I was puzzled. “Why not?” I asked.

“We don't want to fire him until after G. T. leaves for Florida in December. Besides, if we do it at Christmas time, the rest of the people are busy with the holidays and they don't think about it,” replied Darth.

This was the first of many Christmases that would be used to "eliminate" someone from the work environment. To this day I still hate the Christmas holiday!

Answers Out of Nowhere(or Heaven)!
I was not pleased at all with his answer because it did not solve my immediate stress problem and the related health problems, and Darth despite all his power had not acted sooner to rectify the problem.

I replied, “Fine, if you get rid of Ravi, I will stay and see your lawsuit through to a successful completion.” At that point I had decided as soon as the lawsuit was completed, I was out of Delta Oil.

Then the conversation turned to my research results. As we were discussing what should be done, Darth quired, “what about the free formaldehyde?” Since I saw no reason from my work as to why free formaldehyde should be important, I tended to ignore his comment and continued on with what I thought was important.

After the meeting that day, we all gathered in the cocktail lounge for a drink. Darth joined us and soon everyone was listening to his business philosophy. After a couple of drinks, Darth began to brag more. He took great pride in telling how he and some friend had operated a telephone scam designed to bilk old ladies out of their savings. As I sat there and listened I couldn't help but think what a sad state of affairs it was to have a man like that as a business and community leader. In addition he pointed out that he was an Elder at a church in his community.

The next day, Darth came into my office and handed me a sheet of paper.

“Here are some thoughts I jotted down this morning on what should be done. I gave Ravi a copy. Why don't you draw up some plans and give them to Ravi.”

I looked at this list and there was item number 4, “What effect does free formaldehyde have?” The question again surfaced in my mind as to why he was so insistent on looking into the free formaldehyde. It seemed to me that he had been told that the free formaldehyde was critical. But by whom and why had Darth been given that information.

I drew up a detailed research plan, but I didn't include any work on free formaldehyde because I couldn't get all the work done by myself. I had my research plans typed and had a copy sent to Ravi and Darth.

The direct response I was expecting did not come from neither Ravi nor Darth.
Instead, John showed up in the upper lab and started to work on making phenolic resins to determine what the effect of free formaldehyde was on the “Quick Set” formulation. The results were dramatic. The correct level of free formaldehyde was critical to get the optimum performance on “Quick Set”. Now I was completely baffled as to how Darth knew that. He had been so insistent on it that he had to have known. And there were at least a dozen other parameters we could have looked at, but originally, the only thing he told me he was interested in was the free formaldehyde.

And in a later conversation, Darth all but admitted he had been given the information when we were talking about the free formaldehyde and he said, “I should have thought of that! It is comparable to another product we have.” I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Suggestions and stress!
Once the criticalness of the free formaldehyde in the phenolic resin had been established in the performance of the “Rapid Set”, Darth decided that no one outside of the laboratory should know about it. It was a technical secret that was to stay known only to a select few.

Several days later I had a scheduled meeting with George Hammond who was Vice President of Sales. The meeting was scheduled for nine o'clock in his office. As I walked down the hall toward George's office, I could hear John's voice. I paused and listened. John was talking to George and Paul Johnson and telling them all about the importance of free formaldehyde! I walked into the office, John looked at me, completed what he was saying and then left. I was furious. I went upstairs and stormed into Darth's office.

“What the hell is going on here? We agreed not to tell anyone about the effect of free formaldehyde and I walk into George's office and there is John blabbing all about it.”

Darth remained very aloof, and then said something about including John more in our plans to keep John from doing such things. I failed to mention that it was Darth's job to do that since John never listened to anything I wanted.

Since my appointment with Georng had been arranged for nine A.M., so John's presence and blunder seemed almost deliberate. But WHY? It was not until several months later that I realized these little arranged incidents were designed to generate a strong emotional response. This incident with John was one of many that were arranged to get my emotions running out of control. But at the time, it just seemed like another bizarre event at Gamma Supplies.

At that point I had enough of Gamma Supplies. John had worked for Mobile and knew better than divulge critical information. The information he was relaying had been obtained by, at best, questionable means as far as I was concerned. And, it was considered to be a critical trade secret. Yet Darth was condoning John's conduct by saying we had handled incorrectly. I was going to find another job.

I wanted to find a position immediately because I didn't want to get involved any deeper in Gamma's legal battle with Better Supplies. I called an acquaintance from a previous job and explained my situation to him. He had approached me with an offer prior to my joining Gamma. He said that he would be in Chicago in December for the Plastics Show, and maybe I could meet with him there to discuss the situation in more detail. I said I didn't know how I was going to get to the show, but if I could, I would contact him. Since I didn't have many alternatives, I decided I would try to manage a trip to the Chicago show.

I was very unhappy with Gamma Supplies, and I no longer believed anything Darth told me. Even if Kash was fired, I had been treated so badly that I wouldn't want to stay with Gamma, but I still wanted to leave under conditions which were best for me. Apparently my unhappiness was noted because I was given constant reminders that Ravi would be fired. One day Darth walked into my office and handed me a stack of papers concerning Gamma Supplies technology and suggested I look through them. All the papers were technical in nature except one which was one of Darth's business scenarios titled “The Paul White Young Co.”. That story was about a young manager who had been hire to replace an older, unpopular man. The new man is given an office adjacent to the unpopular manager. Eventually the older manager is fired , and the newly hire man takes his position. The analogy of situation with Ravi could not have been missed.

Later when I saw Darth, he asked if I had looked through the papers he had given me. I said, “yes”. The he said with a wink, “did you find anything interesting?” He smiled as only Darth could.

The absurd suggestions continued. One day when I was in the outer business office copying some papers, G. T. Cline walked up to me. I was about to say hello, when he smiled and stuck out his hand. I shook his hand and he turned and walked away.

That evening I told Anita what had happened and I exclaimed, “Now what the hell did that mean?”

“I don't know.” She replied.

The second week of November, I kept my appointment with Dr. Agayoff. Dr. Agayoff quickly asked me what was wrong and then gave me a quick once over. He then asked me a series of questions concerning the use of stimulants, such as coffee, to which I answered negative in all cases. Then he asked me if I had been under a lot of stress at work. I explained my situation at Gamma Supplies and with Ravi. He concluded that my problem was due to externally generated stress.

I was curious what someone else might do if they were in my situation. When I asked him his opinion, his solution was to hang on until Ravi was fired and to hope that things would improve. Even he seemed uneasy with that solution, but it was the best he could offer. He answer was not encouraging, but it made me feel as though I was doing the most practical thing by staying on the job. An EKG was taken and it proved to be normal. The appointment confirmed what I had believed all
along; I was under a tremendous amount of stress at work.

Book publisher wanted!
I continued to consider leaving Gamma Supplies, but because of my financial situation, I could not afford to just pack up and leave. Despite the finances involved, I continued to look for ways to find a new job rapidly. I made some inquiring phone calls with no success. I also finally expressed my problems to Anita and during our discussion, I stressed that despite all the problems, the Delta job still offered me exposure to the other business facets such as sales, accounting, marketing and production that I could not get with larger companies. And that exposure fit into my long term plans. At that moment it was the one reason I could see for staying at Gamma Supplies.

The next day at work, late in the afternoon, Darth wandered into my office and started a discussion which rapidly turned into a sales pitch on the merits of working for Gamma Supplies. I had had another bad day with Ravi and John, and I was not buying any of it. By now I considered Darth as much or more to blame for my problems than I did Ravi. It was becoming obvious to Darth that I wasn't buying his pitch when he said, “You know, Delta offers you exposure to other facets of the business such as sales, accounting, marketing, and production that you wouldn't get in another company.”

I blurted out, “That's EXACTLY what I said to my wife last night.”

I was somewhat take back by his statement, but I just dismissed it as a coincident. The coincidences at Gamma Supplies began to occur with more and more frequency and several occasion they seemed truly bizarre. At one of the management meetings, Darth had briefly mentioned psychologist Maslow's hierarchy of needs which states that a person's needs can be grouped into five categories, and that the categories are pyramidal in nature. That is, one need must be satisfied before the next higher need can be fulfilled. The third level need is belonging or association.

During a routine office conversation with Ralph Sampson, I jokingly said, “ I know what's the matter with me. My Maslow's sense of belonging is not being fulfilled.” Then I went back to my lab and continued working.

Within a couple of minutes of my conversation with Ralph, Darth came into the lab and slapped me on the back. Then he put his arm over my shoulder as if we were old buddies and said, “How are you doing Russ?”

The conversation continued for a couple of minutes, then Darth removed his arm from my shoulder and went on his way. The timing of Darth's action in relation to my comment to Ralph Sampson was uncanny. Darth had never acted like that before. In fact, Darth was always the isolated power figure. His actions seemed amateur like as if he were deliberately trying to make me feel that I belonged at Gamma Supplies.

No Escape
My hope for a trip to the Plastics Show in Chicago were fading when a week before the show, another strange coincidence occurred. Darth walked into my office and without saying anything else, calmly asked, “How would you like to go to the Plastic Show in Chicago next week? Ravi thought it would be a good idea.” I was stunned. I had been trying for weeks to find some way to rationalize a trip to the show on company expense, and now Darth walks in and offers it to me with no strings attached. I felt he had to know I wanted to go, but why would he offer me an opportunity to go see about another job. And, how did he know? I accepted the offer somewhat reluctantly.

Later in the week I was making arrangements for the trip to the show and a minor problem arose. I was still having a problem in my own mind justifying the trip because it was in no way related to my job in foundry industry products. Surely Darth was aware of that. I discussed the problem with Darth, and he assured I me there was no problem with my going and urged me to complete my plans to make the trip. As I was walking from his office, Darth said, “Oh Russ, Ravi listens to your conversations through your office wall. He suggested the trip.” That explanation, which I didn't ask for, seemed to be another one of those convenient rationalizations. I didn't see how Ravi could have heard me and a more
plausible explanation was my phone was tapped – but why and by whom?

I left Darth's office more confused that ever. If Ravi had overheard my conversation about the plastic show, as Darth had inferred, why would Ravi tell Darth and more puzzling was first, why would Darth want me to go and why would he tell me about Ravi's role? Nothing made any sense.

My trip to the plastic show was uneventful. I did get to talk to a few old friends, but none of them were encouraging when the topic of a new job came up. While I toured the exhibition hall I kept wondering what I was doing there besides looking for another job. And Darth's insistence that I go, bothered me even more. And to make things even more frustrating, I never did get to talk to the man I had gone to see. He was either always busy or our paths just did not cross at the right time. It was almost like he was avoiding me. I left the show feeling I had accomplished very little.

At the show I did meet a couple of fellow scientists that I had worked with at my previous job or I had known at the University of Florida. What was striking was how content and happy those people seemed and how well things were going for them. It sharply contrasted my frustrating, unhappy position at Gamma Supplies. It made me feel more sad and trapped that before I went to the show.

Women's Role at Gamma Supplies
When I returned back to the lab, my work progressed nicely and with the results John Mason had obtained, I had developed a new process for making the phenolic resin needed for the “Rapid Set” formulation. Actually I had developed two processes, but the first process and the one that gave the best material for our use was a high temperature process which Ravi, Darth and I all agreed come very close to the Better Supplies' process reported in their patents. To be safe, it was decided that an alternate, low temperature process should be used even though it gave a slightly inferior product. I maximized the low temperature process in the laboratory and wrote a detailed procedure for Tenneland, Columbus plant where the new material would be manufactured.

It seemed only natural to me that I should go to Columbus, explain the new process and watch the first production batch being made. Instead, Darth informed me that Ravi would be taking the process to Columbus. I was angry. I should have at least been going with Ravi. It was standard procedure in for the developer of a new process to help transfer that process to manufacturing. Ravi was going to be fired in a month, I was suppose to be taking his place, I had developed the process, and Darth decided to send Ravi to Columbus to oversee the first production batch. It seemed like Darth was doing things just to frustrate me. He never gave me a satisfactory explanation for his actions, and such decisions kept me constantly unsure that Ravi would be fired despite constant reassurances. Darth had more than amply demonstrated that his word was not good. Darth, more and more was becoming my antagonist. Not Ravi.

The material Tenneland made from the new process arrived at Gamma Supplies a few days later, and test showed the material worked very well. In fact, with proper conditions, the material equaled or bettered the Better Supplies product. The only problems remaining were to get Tenneland to make the phenolic resin consistently and to win the legal battle against Better Supplies. Both objectives seemed well within our grasps with a little work.

It was mid-December and Anita and I were busy getting ready for the holidays. Since all of our relatives lived in the east, we planned on spending a quiet Christmas by ourselves. The one exception was Ursula's older sister Anna and her husband who lived in Madison, Wisconsin. A couple of weeks before Christmas, Anna called and asked us to join them for the holiday weekend. We had visited Anna and her husband Dave in the late fall and had an enjoyable weekend which included attending a university football game in Madison. Although we were not the closest of friends, Anita and I decided to spend the holidays with them rather than going it alone.

At work, I received a couple of invitations for the holidays. First, the secretary for the laboratory invited me to a Christmas party at her house. The invitation was for me only and when I asked if I could bring my wife, she was a bit taken back. She emphasized that Jay and Cliff from tech service were the only other people from Gamma Supplies who were going to be there. Jay and Cliff were both single. When I finally told her that I would only attend with my wife, she acquiesced and said that would be fine.

One of the things that had bothered me at Gamma Supplies was that there were no family functions. Wives were entirely invisible, and at all social gatherings, such as the Hatch Cover gatherings, and no one ever mentioned or acted as though they were married. In fact, Darth used the gatherings to boast of his male chauvinist pig attitude and on occasions he wore a tie with small pigs and “MCP” written all over it. However, I remained determined to include my wife in my social life.

Plot unfolds - divide and conquer
The following week Paul Johnson stopped in my office and invited me to dinner with
him, his wife, and several of his clients from the Chicago area. Since Paul was about my age, a former chemist and a confidant at work, I thought that the dinner was an excellent way to cultivate a friendship with a co-worker. I readily accepted. Of course, I was not to tell Ravi I was having dinner with an area sales manager.

On December 19, Anit and I joined Paul, his wife and two Allis Chalmers managers and their wives for dinner at Paul's house. At dinner I was seated next to Paul with my wife on my immediate right. During the course of the evening, I was talking to an Allis Chalmers representative and was telling him about my background and how I planned to help Gamma Supplies provide the best foundry binders possible. Suddenly, Paul gave me a sharp rap on my leg under the table as if I was saying something wrong. Since they were Paul's clients, I terminated the conversation. After dinner, I asked Paul what was wrong. He ignored my question and said, “well, tomorrow is the big day.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Ravi is going to be fired tomorrow.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Darth told me today that the attorney had given his approval so tomorrow they are going to make the changes.”

I was still skeptical. Darth had not said anything to me. “Are you sure?” I quired.

“Definitely,” Paul replied.

The next day I went to work with great anticipation. With all the events that had happened since my October meeting with Darth, I had almost begun to believe that the promise to fire Ravi was just another one of Darth's hollow promises. The day went by slowly and no announcement was made, and Ravi was his usual happy self. Late in the afternoon I saw Paul and pulled him into my office.

“I thought you said today is suppose to be the day. What happened?”

“I don't know,” he replied. “That is what I was told.”

I went home that evening feeling let down. The next day came and went with no
changes. Finally on the third day, Ravi had a meeting with Darth. When Ravi came out I was the only one in the laboratory, and as he walked by me he was visibly angry. He looked at me and said, “Have you ever been had?”

Ravi's words contained no animosity towards me, and they almost seemed to be a
warning more that anything else. I wanted to go in and talk with Ravi and to try to find out what was going on, but the rift between us was too great. There was still no official announcement, but rumors were everywhere that Ravi had been fired. I feigned ignorance about the situation.

On December 23rd, the long awaited announcement was made in the form of a memo to all Gamma Supplies personnel from Arnold Clin. The memo contained several startling revelations. First, there was no mention of Ravi. Second, my name was noticeably missing from the memo. Several sales people were promoted or given increased responsibility, and Jay Wells was officially made Manager of Technical Services. Third, Carl Host was given the evasive title of Executive Assistant with the responsibility to “work on various projects, such as our joint venture with Tenneland.” There in black and white was what I had long suspected; Tenneland and Gamma Supplies were carrying out a joint effort. That effort I believed was to develop a phenolic resin and to have it manufactured. I was surprised to see it in writing because all our efforts had been to present Gamma Supplies in the Federal Court as some small fly-by-night outfit who had accidentally infringed on big, bad Better Supplies patents. Here was written evidence that Gamma Supplies was not acting alone, and that a larger corporation was involved in the attack on Better Supplies patents. While the memo stated many things, it did nothing to establish my position in the company.