Willis Carto archive

Including information about his associates

All The Way
September, 1999
Showtime

Profiteer to Continue to Operate After Settlement

Raven decides to take cash rather than fight Carto

LOS ANGELES - The man once called the nation’s most notorious Patriot-for-a-Profit appears headed toward a court settlement which will allow him to continue to operate. According to Greg Raven, promoter Willis Carto has agreed to pay $1.2 million of a $7.3 million judgment against him for pilfering the estate of an elderly woman. Anarchist bomber Tim McVeigh once advertised in a Carto publication. Despite encouragement to shut Carto down entirely, Raven said that he decided to settle because he was strapped for cash.

Carto, 75, a former John Birch Society salesman, had been forced into bankruptcy by Raven. For forty-two years, Carto had run a mail-order business with dummy boards and jilted followers, touting everything from cancer cures to conspiracy theories. His California mansion was raided while he was under investigation for fraud. A man of contradictions, Carto employed lawyers named Mosche Levine, alias Mark Lane, and Paul Pearlstein, despite claiming to be anti-Semitic. His associate, John Acord, fled to Israel after bilking the treasury of a veterans’ group.

Nationalist Secretary Richard Jordan called cutting Carto loose not in the public interest.