Browsing Flickr yesterday, I stumbled upon this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclaimedmysteries/4065490173/sizes/l/

As you can plainly see, this appears to be a facsimile of the rant "WORLDWIDE OPEN SECRET". What fascinated me about it was that it appears to be an earlier version than the one uploaded to the Fanclub:

http://www.bentoandstarchky.com/dec/opensecret/opensecretrant.jpg

As you can see, the rant lacks the vertical text on the left-hand side, as well as of the initial line (the one that goes "WORLD WIDE WIDE OPEN SECRET"). Additionally, it also appears to lack the words "(CZARINA alias" on line 7. The rant was uploaded to Flickr by one C.L. Smith, proprietor of the excellent web site Unclaimed Mysteries. When I got in touch with him re: the rant, he had the following to disclose:

Quote:


Very interesting! Not only does it clearly indicate Dec specifically tended to target the media with his rants (whenever he could), but it also provides more support for my ongoing hypothesis that Dec continually revised his rants and added new material to them. I think this is especially noticable in The Top Secret Dual Food Standard rant. Here, I strongly suspect that the entire hand-written portion of the text was not originally present, but rather was added (by Dec) later in an attempt to "update" or "correct" the original text. That means, if we  should ever manage to locate the "original version" of the TSDFS rant, it might be much longer and far more detailed than the version containing the frenzied scribbling we have right now.

I suspect (as I've mentioned earlier) that Dec had access to a xerox machine of some sort, or some other type of tool for mass-producing copies of typewritten material. The fact that this version of the WWOS rant is completely and totally identical to the one we have (apart from the text added later) further supports this theory.

I also think Dec might have added material to his rants by typing on a blank piece of paper, cutting the typewritten portion out and then gluing it onto an already-written rant; possibly pasting over text already present. Then, he would likely have created xerox copies of his work and mailed them out to the public. I can't be sure, but I think this might have been how the vertical text was added. The handwritten portions of the TSDFS rant, I think, might also have been created after this fashion.

All in all, very interesting!

A mimeograph machine probably isn't a bad guess at all. Either that, or some other sort of stencil-making apparatus. It might still even be in Dec's basement, supposing his sneak deadly Murder Incorporated felon assassin brother hasn't cleaned it out!

I got back to C.L., and he said he might upload some stuff by this other ranter on his Flickr account at some point. I'm looking forward to it, as this Mark Margoian person sounds almost as wacked-out as Mr. Dec. A quick google search seems to reveal he was (is?) branded by several sources as a racist and a self-professed anti-semite.  Guess he, like Mr. Dec, must've sent out his rants to a large number of people throughout his "career". Yikes!

Excellent work you hangman rope underling!

I would like to read these as well.

Hey, I have a dim memory of registering on this site, but the brain ray™ might have messed it up. At least I remembered my login/password combo. Anyway, apologies for not being more prolific and scanning more stuff and posting to my flickr account. I hope to get around to it ... sometime ... time ... time ...

That's the only one by Mr. Dec I have, sent to me by a friend several years ago. Others I collected over the years (1980s- 1990s) when I worked at several US radio stations.

Those were the days when conspiracy kooks had to take charge and show some initiative! Use manual typewriters, build strong finger muscles! Walk to the copy center, get an aerobic workout! Research libraries to find possible sympathizers in the media, or just screw it and send everybody a copy!

Kids have it too easy these days.