Sherman Skolnick

Infobox Person
name =Sherman H. Skolnick


image_size =
caption =
birth_date =July 13, 1930
birth_place =Chicago, Illinois
death_date =May 21, 2006 (aged 75)
death_place =Chicago, Illinois
occupation =Author and Investigative Journalist
spouse =
parents =
children =

Sherman Skolnick (July 13,1930 – May 21 2006) was a Chicago-based activist and "conspiracy theorist".

At the age of six, Skolnick was paralyzed by polio, and he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Skolnick was founder and chairman of the Citizens Committee to Clean Up the Courts, which he started in 1963. He used the local press to distribute his reports, later establishing a telephone hotline, public access television show, and a web site.

Skolnick's investigations caused the resignation of two Illinois Supreme Court justices, Roy J. Solfisburg Jr. and Ray Klingbiel, who, as Skolnick reported, had accepted bribes of stock from a defendant in a case on which they ruled. The scandal catapulted John Paul Stevens, special counsel to an investigating commission, to fame as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2001, the story became the subject of a book, [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226502430 Illinois Justice] , by Kenneth A. Manaster.

Towards the end of his life, Skolnick served as co-host with Lenny Bloom for a Canadian radio show named " [http://www.cloakanddagger.de Cloak & Dagger] ." The show was taken off the airwaves, despite very high market ratings, following a controversial interview with former German Defense Minister Andreas von Bülow, in which Von Bulow claimed that the terrorist September 11, 2001 attacks were an inside job. [http://www.cloakanddagger.de Cloak & Dagger] then became an internet podcast, which subsequently relocated to a German web server due to relentless hacking attacks.

At the end of every radio broadcast, Skolnick would sign off with the following statement: "To Hell with the Queen of England!"

Skolnick's final written works include an 81-part series entitled "The Overthrow of the American Republic," and a 16-part series entitled "Coca-Cola, the CIA, and the Courts." On radio podcast with Lenny Bloom, much commentary was devoted to CIA drug dealing, the "9-11 Truth Movement," and also a belief that the Jesuit Order, through co-optation of the Vatican, controls world events. His material is generally un-copyrighted. Other major collaborators with Skolnick and Bloom include Webster Tarpley, Stew Webb, Tom Heneghan, Eric Jon Phelps, and Ralph Schoenman.

The several few subjects detailed above represent only the tip of the iceberg for Skolnick's wide area of expertise. Each article and podcast which Skolnick participated in contained many fascinating details covering a wide range of topics, overlooked by popular culture. He was, in his own words (usually attributed by Skolnick towards his radio guests), "a treasury of wisdom and knowledge." However, a critism would be that he often made extraordinary claims without citing a source or reference.

Skolnick frequently referred to the mainstream media as "the liars and whores of the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press." After his death in 2006, Skolnick leaves behind a number of like-minded admirers as well as critics.

Notes

References

* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/chi-0605230116may23,1,3425030.story?ctrack=1&cset=true "Chicago Tribune", "Sherman Skolnick, activist and political gadfly, dies at 75" published 22 May 2006 accessed 22 June 2006]

External links

* [http://www.skolnicksreport.org Skolnick's website]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14391848 Sherman H. Skolnick Memorial] at Find A Grave