Willis Carto archive

Carto-IHR Milestones

1952

The Legion for the Survival of Freedom, Inc. (the non-profit parent corporation of the IHR) is incorporated in Texas by Frances Whalen Clark, and Jason and Marcia Matthews. (April 14) It eventually purchases H. L. Mencken’s old American Mercury.

1964

Jason Matthews, the last of the Legion incorporators, dies in Texas. (November 30) Lavonne Furr, the Legion’s office secretary inherits the company by default, but cannot keep it going.

1966

Carto arrives on the scene and is made Treasurer of the Legion after making it appear that he has given the Legion $20,000 to pay its bills. (March 1) Shortly thereafter, Carto arranges for repayment of his gift with interest. (June 21)

1969

Carto severs all legal ties to the Legion to become its unpaid agent and business manager, operating the Legion by remote control. The Noontide Press is brought under the Legion’s non-profit umbrella.

1970

Carto publishes a series of smears accusing former associate Dr. William L. Pierce (now head of National Alliance and publisher of National Vanguard) of being an FBI agent, patriotic group infiltrator, and Zionist agent provocateur.

Revilo Oliver nails Carto in a semi-private letter to Colonel Dall, noting that even at this early date Carto has a substantial Swiss bank account, and that he is completely untrustworthy and money-grubbing.

1971

Carto publishes smears calling former friend and associate Dr. Edward R. Fields (publisher of The Thunderbolt [now The Truth at Last]) a lackey of the Kosher Conservatives, a pro-Zionist, and an infiltrator.

1977

Carto’s attempt to keep The American Mercury afloat with a mishmash of crude racialism, anti-communism, and revisionism fails.

1978

Irish-born revisionist activist David McCalden approaches Carto with a proposal to create an Institute for Historical Review to specialize in historical revisionism. They co-found the IHR under the Legion parent company. McCalden assumes the directorship of IHR, while Carto remains in the shadows controlling IHR as agent of its parent corporation. Tom Marcellus is hired by McCalden as an assistant.

1979

McCalden conceives and launches successful promotional campaigns to disseminate historical revisionism, and organizes the First International Revisionist Conference in Los Angeles (September), where IHR offers $50,000 reward for proof of Nazi gas chambers.

1980

McCalden creates The Journal of Historical Review.

Holocaust survivor Mel Mermelstein sends in a claim for the $50,000 reward for proof of Nazi gas chambers. Carto prevents McCalden from properly adjudicating the claim as required by the terms of the reward offer, and Mermelstein files a multi-million dollar lawsuit against IHR for breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

1981

McCalden creates the IHR Newsletter. IHR gains worldwide recognition, and support pours in. McCalden and Carto have policy disputes. Carto directs nominal Legion directors Lewis and Lavonne Furr (now retired to the Ozarks) to fire McCalden. Carto puts his name on IHR letterhead as sole founder. An acrimonious running battle erupts between Carto and McCalden.

1982

Carto begins circulating the rumor that IHR co-founder McCalden is an ADL agent.

IHR staff is harassed and threatened by the Jewish Defense League. Staff’s homes and automobiles are vandalized. IHR offices are repeatedly fire-bombed. Tight-fisted Carto maintains minimum IHR property insurance.

1983

Keith Stimely is hired as editor of The Journal of Historical Review. (February)

1984

IHR’s under-insured offices and warehouse are destroyed by unknown arsonists with $400,000 net loss. (July 4) Marcellus begins fundraising campaign to obtain new IHR building. Carto gives Mermelstein $90,000 of IHR funds to settle lawsuit. Although named separately in the lawsuit, Carto pays nothing.

1985

Keith Stimely resigns as editor of The Journal with such antogonistic feelings toward Carto that he sends friends and associates a cutting 25-page letter explaining the falling out. (February)

Marcellus raises $100,000 for new IHR building, $73,000 of which later disappears into a non-IHR entity controlled by Carto. This other Carto entity then buys an office building. Without the funds to buy its own office building, IHR finds itself renting offices at premium prices from the Carto-controlled entity.

Shortly after naming the IHR in her will and transferring $17 million to a Carto-controlled entity (NECA Corporation, that was set up to give the finds to IHR in the event of her death), wealthy Swiss IHR supporter Jean Farrel dies. Carto, however, has set up NECA improperly, so the $17 million is judged to be part of Farrel’s estate, and not a pre-death gift. Carto gets himself appointed agent by the Furrs with a promise to secure the bequest for LSF/IHR.

1986

Marcellus leaves the Legion. (January)

A few months later, Michael Hoffman (now editor and publisher of Revisionist Researcher magazine) quits as editor of The Journal of Historical Review in a cloud of acrimony having to do with Carto’s role with the IHR.

1987 The Farrel bequest is in litigation. The IHR nears bankruptcy. Carto discontinues publication of The Journal of Historical Review.

Journal editor Robert Berkel quits after a dispute with Carto. (July)

Carto persuades Marcellus to return to IHR (July). Within a year, IHR is again financially sound and The Journal of Historical Review is back in publication, even without the Farrel bequest money.

1989

In a letter to Paul McCloskey, Jr., Carto makes it clear that he holds no official position with the LSF/IHR.

Under Carto’s watchful eye, portions of the IHR mailing list fall into the hands of the ADL. Included are the names, addresses, and phone numbers of those attending the Ninth International Revisionist Conference. (February) The leak is discovered in April 1993 after San Francisco police seize the records of ADL informant Roy Bullock, at one time a close associate of Carto’s who worked out of the Liberty Lobby building in Washington, DC.

1991

Carto arranges to obtain power of attorney from the LSF board to secure the lawful portion of the estate and property of Miss Jean Farrel for this corporation and to do and perform all necessary acts in the execution and prosecution of the aforesaid business in as full and ample a manner as the Board of Directors of said corporation might do if personally present. (January 10)

Carto gains power of attorney from the LSF board for his close friend, Henri J. Fischer, to secure and expedite the lawful portion of the estate of Jean Farrel…. (January 18)

The Farrel bequest litigation is settled in Switzerland — the IHR is to receive more than $7.5 million. With Carto still acting as agent, virtually all proceeds from the bequest disappear.

Carto dummies up fraudulent minutes for two LSF board meetings that never took place. According to these minutes, both meetings took place at the same place at the same time, but with different directors in attendance. One crucial difference, in one set of minutes, the LSF gives all future proceeds of the Farrel estate money to Carto; in the alternate minutes, the Farrel estate isn’t even mentioned. (March 5)

During a deposition in the Mermelstein case, Carto acts as if he has never heard of Jean Farrel. (March 22)

Fearing an adverse judgment in the Mermelstein case, Carto fraudulently transfers the full assets of the LSF/IHR to each of three different Carto-controlled entities on the same day. (July 10)

Carto publishes two copyright-protected books, Report from Iron Mountain and Gallipoli, under IHR’s affiliate, The Noontide Press. The rightsholders sue and IHR (not Carto) is forced to pay some $30,000 in legal fees and settlement costs.

Because the LSF/IHR needs operating capital, Carto loans the LSF some of its own money from the Farrel estate, with interest! (September 25)

1992

Carto rents the mailing list of Foreign Affairs magazine for an IHR mailing. FA magazine is, of course, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, supposedly Carto’s sworn enemy.

Because it is again running low on funds, Carto arranges once again to loan the LSF/IHR some of its own money from the Farrel estate, with interest. (September 24, October 13)

1993

Carto suddenly decrees that The Journal of Historical Review will abandon Holocaust revisionism to focus instead on multiculturalism. IHR senior staff (Marcellus, Weber, O’Keefe, Raven) and prominent IHR Editorial Advisors (including Prof. Robert Faurisson and Prof. Arthur Butz) oppose Carto’s move, which would betray IHR supporters, destroy The Journal, and undermine the Institute’s scholarly work to date.

Carto calls one of IHR’s printers and so alienates him that he refuses to accept any more IHR work. A new printer is found only after great trouble and expense.

Carto is discovered covertly attempting to replace Weber as editor of The Journal, a move designed to eliminate opposition to his plans to transform The Journal.

Carto attempts illegally to sell the IHR to L. T. Patterson, publisher of Criminal Politics magazine.

Carto seeks to sell his Clearwater, Florida-based Sun Radio Network to the Church of Scientology, also headquartered in Clearwater, Florida.

Carto is caught red-handed transferring huge sums of IHR funds from the Farrel bequest to Liberty Lobby (which he controls). The staff confronts Legion board members Lewis and LaVonne Furr with the evidence. They panic and resign, fearing liability for their agent Carto’s actions. (September 16)

A new LSF board of independent revisionists is established, (September 24-25) which terminates Carto’s agency and demands return of all IHR funds. (October 1)

Carto begins diverting as much IHR and Noontide mail as he can get his hands on, and cashing any checks he finds. (September 29) To this day, he has not forwarded one piece of Legion, IHR, or Noontide mail that he has received (we have forwarded all Carto’s personal mail to him, of course).

Carto agrees to a meeting on neutral ground to discuss differences between himself and the IHR. After the IHR senior staff leaves for the meeting, Carto, his wife, two hired thugs, and a locksmith seize control of the IHR offices. The Cartos are arrested and jailed. (October 15)

Carto repeatedly warns IHR staff of the damage to revisionism that will result should this affair become public knowledge. IHR agrees and complies. Carto then unilaterally commences a protracted public defamation campaign against IHR principals in his paper, The Spotlight. (November 8)

A Carto attorney brags to an IHR attorney that Carto will have the IHR staff out in two weeks through their legal efforts. (November)

Shortly after leaving her fortune to the Carto-controlled FDFA, IHR supporter Ingaborg Busch dies. Elisabeth Carto immediately flies to Washington state, rents a moving truck, and seizes Busch’s belongings. Carto and FDFA become involved in a protracted legal dispute with Busch’s family.

Hiding behind his wife and an elderly acquaintance, Carto concocts a lawsuit in California Superior Court to gain control of the IHR, (November 19) and loses. (December 31) The judge rules: In fact, Carto was exercising substantial control [over IHR] without any apparent legal authority.

1994

After losing the Polis decision, Carto tells supporters that everything will go his way on the appeal. It doesn’t. (January)

Shortly after designating Willis Carto as trustee of his estate, Jack Graham dies. Carto, as trustee of the estate, diverts IHR’s share to his own uses, setting up a back account in Texas to hold the proceeds under the name of one of his attorneys, Joe Izen.

Carto continues to publish defamatory attacks against IHR principals in mailings on IHR letterhead and in The Spotlight.

Carto fraudulently signs a U.S. Postal Service document claiming to be an authorized agent for the Legion (with power of attorney) in order to divert the Legion’s bulk mailing permit from its legitimate address to one of his personal addresses. (February 23) This attempt is discovered and thwarted. (June 29)

Hiding behind an elderly ex-employee with the unlikely name of Olive Snead, Carto simultaneously files two concocted lawsuits against the IHR in California Superior Court, falsely claiming IHR owes an entity he controls more than $200,000. (March 3) One of the suits, for $187,800 plus interest, is thrown out by the judge as a non-suit, only the third time in 12 years this judge has done such a thing. (November 28)

After learning that long-time IHR supporter Dr. Arthur Butz, author of The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, endorses the Carto-free IHR, Carto attacks Butz in an insulting open letter. (March 4)

After reading revisionist Bradley Smth’s analysis of the IHR/Carto affair in Smith’s Report, (Spring 1994) Elisabeth Carto writes a vicious letter personally attacking Smith, his long years of work on behalf of revisionism, and his family.

Criminal Politics magazine publishes an article on the IHR/Carto affair that is unfavorable to Carto. (April) Carto then publishes eight Spotlight smears against publisher L. T. Patterson in an attempt to undermine its support.

In response to a similar article in Christian News reporting on the IHR/Carto affair, Elisabeth Carto attacks CN publisher Rev. Herman Otten. (July 16)

IHR files suit against Carto for recovery of the $7.5 million Farrel bequest. (July 22) Carto takes the Fifth Amendment, refusing to testify.

Hiding behind his wife and two trusted cronies (whom he convinces to fraudulently claim they represent the legitimate Legion), Carto notifies Marcellus, Weber, O’Keefe, and Raven that they are fired. Carto also fires Legion attorney Hulsy. (August 6)

In Texas, where IHR’s parent corporation was chartered in 1952, the litigious Carto files yet another concocted lawsuit (claiming to be a permanent substitute incorporator of the Legion) in a new attempt to gain control of the IHR. (August 22) Carto again tells supporters this suit will straighten everything out. Carto’s restraining order against IHR principals is first quashed, and the lawsuit itself is then abated. (December 15) Eventually, Carto loses on all counts. (February 6, 1998)

Continuing to claim that he represents the Legion even after his October 1, 1993, termination and the December 31, 1993, court decision, Carto notifies three members of the Legion board of directors, including Marcellus, that they must stop calling themselves board members and vacate Legion property. (September 17)

IHR successfully holds its Twelfth International Revisionist Conference in Irvine California (September 3-5). Carto sends hired goons to disrupt the event and intimidate attendees, and falsely informs hotel that IHR is bankrupt and that its checks will bounce. Among the goons is Joe Fields, who later pleads no contest to multiple charges of child endangerment, arising out of Fields’ propositioning Latina high-school girls to act in a pornographic film.

1995

Police, armed with search warrants, raid the homes of Willis Carto and Henri Fischer, in connection with the disappearance of the missing millions. (March 22)

Carto’s attempt to invalidate the search warrant used by the police to search his house goes down in utter defeat. (June 15-16)

The IHR holds a historic debate on the Holocaust issue, the first ever in the United States, featuring IHR editor Mark Weber for the revisionists and Skeptic magazine editor Michael Shermer for the anti-revisionists. Carto sends would-be child pornographer Joe Fields to disrupt the meeting. (July 22)

At a court-ordered mandatory settlement conference, Carto’s attorney tells the judge that he has spent all but a tiny fraction of the $7.5 million of the money meant for the IHR. (July 27)

1996

Carto loses his last appeal in the 1993 decision in the Kerr Carto vs. IHR suit (August 28)

IHR’s court case against Carto et al finally goes to trial. (October 31)

Judge Runston G. Maino awards the IHR a judgment in the amount of $10,219,295.89, to be paid by Willis Carto, Elisabeth Carto, Henri Fischer, and Liberty Lobby, among others, for their roles in the diversion of Farrel funds. Carto announces this in The Spotlight, but instead of revealing why Liberty Lobby was involved in the first place, Carto continues to push forward his insane claim that somehow the ADL, Mossad, IRS, Church of Scientology, and others are conspiring against him. (November 21, 1996)

Carto fails to appear for a judgment debtor examination for non-payment of $7,400 in sanctions in his HEF2 case, and a bench warrant is issued for his arrest. (Nov 18)

Late in the afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving, Carto’s attorneys attempt to overturn the bench warrant in an emergency pleading to the California Court of Appeal. Their appeal is denied. The Spotlight subsequently reports, in response to a reader letter, that rumors of the existence of the bench warrant are part of a campaign of lies and intimidation directed against Carto by Mark Weber of the IHR.

Carto hires another Texas attorney, Norman Reidmueller, to intervene in his own case there! Judge Brown doesn’t go for it (Dec 3).

After serving only a few weeks of what could have (and should have) been a nine-year sentence, registered sex offender Joe Fields is released from jail. Carto, who many feel has been bankrolling Fields for years, immediately invites Fields over for a Christmas party at Carto’s swank estate in Escondido.

1997

Carto files yet another lawsuit against IHR personnel Mark Weber and Greg Raven, making the same allegations he has made in a previous lawsuit that he lost. (August 15)

Judge Harvey Brown in Texas rules against Carto’s ridiculous claim to control the IHR because he is the permanent substitute incorporator, a position unknown in law. (August 22)

1998

Carto files his "megasuit," claiming $100 million in damages, against the IHR, its staff, its directors, and others associated with the IHR. Carto again promises supporters that this will straighten everything out. (January 30)

Judge Brown’s decision in Texas becomes final, and Carto appeals. (February 6)

Because of Carto’s refusal to cooperate even minimally, the Court puts Carto and Liberty Lobby into receivership. The receiver starts intercepting Carto and Liberty Lobby mail.

Spotlight readers are told to divert their mail to an alternate Carto-controlled entity, rather than to Liberty Lobby. (April 27)

Carto sues the US Postal Service in Washington, DC, in an attempted end-run around the court-ordered receivership. He loses.

Spotlight readers are told not to worry about the mail seizures. (May 4)

Spotlight readers are again told about the mail seizures, but not the reasons behind them. (May 11)

Willis and Elisabeth Carto, and Liberty Lobby, file for bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid collection efforts by the IHR arising out of their conversion of millions meant for the IHR.

1999

2000

2001

It is important to understand that at no time during Carto’s long association with the IHR did he ever contribute so much as a nickel of his own money to the enterprise. Contrary to Carto’s claims that he beneficently funded the IHR over the years, the truth is that his leadership has cost the IHR as much as $500,000 between 1966 and 1984, and since then he has gotten away with millions of IHR funds.

The Institute for Historical review thrived not because of Carto, but in spite of him. Under the guidance of Tom Marcellus, Mark Weber, Ted O’Keefe, Robert Faurisson, Bradley Smith, James J. Martin, Arthur Butz, and many others, and with the generous financial support of thousands of revisionists over the years, IHR has grown in prestige and influence to become an important force in correcting the historical record.

It is a mark of Carto’s character that his relationship with every single IHR director and IHR Journal editor (David McCalden, Keith Stimely, Michael Hoffman, Robert Berkel, Ted O’Keefe, Mark Weber, and Tom Marcellus) has ended in acrimony.

Since Carto’s termination, IHR has been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars and invest countless man-hours to shield itself against his attempts to take over or bankrupt it. Carto’s high-powered lawyers are charging him at least $250 an hour to destroy the IHR. It is estimated that Carto has thus far spent more than $500,000 in his legal assault against IHR. There is no telling if Carto is using previously-diverted IHR funds to attack the IHR, or if he is diverting funds from some other entity or entities that he controls. Whatever its source, the money is most certainly not being used as intended by those who originally donated it.