Francis E. Dec
Encyclopedia
Francis E. Dec was a U.S.
lawyer from Hempstead Village, New York, disbarred
for fraud in 1959, and later known for the bizarre socio-political tract
s of conspiracy theories he mass-mailed to the media. Often denouncing a "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God" mind-controlling mankind, Dec is considered to have been a paranoid schizophrenic of the influencing-machine delusion kind, and is often referred to as a "kook".
Not unlike Ed Wood, Dec later became a cult figure referenced in underground culture
. He was the subject of a 1994 book chapter, a 1998 comics, and a 1999 stage play; he also made his way into the folklores of the Discordians and the Church of the SubGenius
. His rants have been reprinted in a 1983 issue of Robert Crumb
's magazine Weirdo and circulated since 1986 from recordings by KROQ-FM
host Doc Britton; they have been sampled in 1991 and 2004 by Psychic TV
, in 2004 by Venetian Snares
, and inspired a Coldcut
album in 2005; they have been archived as outsider art
by UbuWeb
and WFMU
; they spawned a fanclub and website; they have also been used as a gauge in 1994 for "kook typography" and in 1998 for the entropy of the undeciphered Voynich manuscript
.
, Long Island
community of Hempstead Village, New York (a Black and Latino majority neighborhood, accounting later for its frequent racist designations in Dec's rants) and appears to have lived there for most of his life (except for his military service). His middle name is not established: there is only "[+]*Francis [-]Frank Dec" on his birth certificate, and "Dec Francis E" on his army's enlistment record.
He was the son of two Polish immigrants, butcher John F. Dec (John Frank Dec, June 23, 1893 – August, 1971; born Jan Dec) and servant turned housewife Rose M. Dec (~1889/1890 – death unknown; born Rozalia Jaronek or Rosalia Jronek). Both of Dec's parents were born in Poland
(his mother from the Polish part of what was then Galicia) and immigrated to the United States, his mother in 1910 and his father in 1912, and were married circa 1920–1921.
Dec also had an older brother, Joseph I. Dec (born in 1921, was alive in 2006, died in December 2010 ), whom he mentions in several of his rants as "his only brother". Dec later wrote of attending a Catholic grammar school taught by nuns, and appears to have completed at least three years of high school before he volunteered for military service in World War II
.
, "for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months". After six weeks of basic training
at Keesler Field
near Biloxi, Mississippi
, he was enrolled in the Army Air Forces Technical School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
. He graduated from the Radio Operator and Mechanics Course in January 1945. He subsequently was stationed at USAAF bases in Yuma, Arizona
, Lincoln, Nebraska
, Dallas, Texas, and Fairfield, California
. He was honorably discharged as a Private First Class
in May 1946.
degree in 1950 from the College of Liberal Arts at St. John's University in Brooklyn, New York
. According to one of his rants, Dec then studied at Brooklyn Law School
, though it's not established for how many years since completing a law degree wasn't mandatory in order to get a law license in New York State.
Dec then became a lawyer, an attorney at law. He was admitted to the New York state bar on March 31, 1954 but was disbarred
on January 19, 1959. Dec was also a notary public
, at least during 1956–1957 for the Notary Department in the Nassau County Clerk's Office.
After being convicted of fraud and larceny (see at right), Dec was disbarred as an attorney and "commanded to desist and refrain from the practice of law in any form, either as principal or as agent, clerk or employee of another, and is forbidden [...] to give to another an opinion as to the law or its application, or any advice in relation thereto", effectively ending any career related to law; along with the five-year prison sentence, this is probably why Dec later referred to it as a "maximum-conviction" sentence.
From 1959 to 1962, Dec tried unsuccessfully to have the case overturned on appeal. All appeals to the New York courts were denied and the case, when it was filed in forma pauperis
with the U.S. Supreme Court (featuring Dec asking for a rehearing about his "gestapo like farce kangaroo court trial", sic, and "the psychotically, sadistically, wantonly, fraudulently altered Official Nassau County Court, New York State trial record of this petitioner's Gestapo like farce trial", sic), was denied certiorari
twice. In spite of having lost his permission to practice law Dec did, however, in his later correspondence persistently continue to refer to himself using the suffix "Esquire
".
s to various mass-media in the U.S. and over the world (see Works section).
Until 1966, Dec lived with his brother and pretended he was beaten and terrorized by him. In 1966, his brother moved out and left Dec alone in the house; at this time, Dec still went out "shopping two, three times a month". When removing the red wallpaper that there was in most of the rooms, he found "fresh red paint under it" that he considered the CIA
's doing. In 1967 and 1968, thinking that "the entire house was a CIA death trap for [him] set up while [he] was buying it", he spent time chipping off all of the red paint "with hundreds of single edge razor blades".
In 1968, Dec said he had gained enough "insight of this deadly closed society" to visit small stock brokerage offices and invest some of his money (from 1959 to 1968 his income had been "zero" and Dec existed "on much less than 1000 a year" of his savings); from his investments he would eventually reach about "yearly minimum wage income" over the next decade.
In 1969, Dec reported that a warrant was issued for his "incarceration in a maximum security insanity prison" (presumably committal to an asylum). From 1969 to around 1982, Dec said he mostly lived hidden alone in his house, ordering food to be delivered to him and hiding from his visitors.
Around 1982, after hiding "for over ten years", Dec said he "can once again walk the streets solely as [he] did before 1969" because after he had "mailed worldwide thousands of [his] letters exposing" the "Computer God" conspiracy, his "testimony" was out and his "extermination" less necessary.
According to a rant presumed around 1981, Dec seems to have been a vegetarian, at least later in life. He apparently never married nor had children.
– most likely the kind referred to by Viktor Tausk
as influencing-machine delusion – though without access to his medical records (Dec had at least two court-ordered psychiatric examinations in 1958 and 1961, and possibly again at some point during his 1993–1996 last years at the Veteran Hospital) this remains supposition.
It also seems likely that Dec's mental condition deteriorated after his 1958 conviction in the forgery case (cited above), as his 1961 appeal brief – although rambling, paranoia laden and disjointed at times – still manages to be coherent and to present a fair representation of his perception of the errors in his conviction. On the other hand; his "rants", produced later (such as the Spring 1984 "Gangster Computer God", see Worldview section), lack overall coherence, are prone to word salad
-like strings of words (such as "Computer God computerized brain thinking SEALED ROBOT OPERATING ARMS SURGERY CABINET machine removal of [...]", see Worldview section), and are heavily laden with paranoia
as well as a highly developed conspiracy mindset. As such, even though some theories produced by Dec in his "rants" can be seen in germinal form in his appeal brief, they are not there fully as developed as they would later come to be – possibly indicating the onset of mental illness after his conviction. On January 16, 1961 (four months before his appeal brief), a court order was issued for committing Dec to Pilgrim State Hospital (Pilgrim Psychiatric Center
) for a 60-day mental examination; one month later Dec is "Released on own recognizance" on February 17, 1961.
Because Dec was never committed and was able to stay in his home almost to his death, his writings from 1960 (his appeals) to 1992 (his stroke) could provide an insight into the progress of advanced paranoia
. The internally self-consistent claims contained within his tracts and rants are also strongly in keeping with common definitions of delusion
as described by modern psychology. For example, it was drawn certain similarities between Dec's claims of being "Frankenstein controlled" by the so-called "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God" and the claims of 18th Century paranoiac James Tilly Matthews
of being "tortured-at-a-distance" by what he termed the "Air Loom" gang.
in Queens, New York by his brother Joseph I. Dec. He was still residing there in December 1995, at which time he was visited by Forrest Jackson and two other fans who had come across tape recordings of some of his rants at Dallas in 1993 (see Legacy section) and went to New York to ask him about their origin and meaning; as far as is currently known, these individuals were the only fans of Dec ever to have met or spoken to him at any length, and videotaped the only documented encounter with Dec. Dec was entirely unresponsive to the presence or inquiries of his visitors, and the visit produced no answers whatsoever.
Francis E. Dec died a few weeks later on . The exact cause of death is not known. Francis is interred in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, NY alongside his mother Rozalia Dec and his aunt Sophia Jaromek. His brother Joseph is buried in Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, NY
, "the most important paranoid schizophrenic kook of the century" or "the Gnostic God of these End Times" by his 1995 interviewer Forrest Jackson, and it was stated that "his insane diatribes must truly be one of the greatest comedic gems of the 20th century" by his 2006 fanclub founder Peter Branting. Dec is often compared or contrasted to William S. Burroughs
(for his prose style; some of Dec's rants would even have "found their way to William S. Burroughs" according to Donna Kossy), Philip K. Dick
(for his later schizophrenic worldview), and Jack T. Chick (for his conspiracy theory tracts).
Dec's publications are considered outsider art
, circulated for their unintended humor, underground poetry, or both. They have been republished in a number of places. One of Dec's rants was reprinted on the back-cover of Robert Crumb
's Weirdo #8 (Summer 1983). A 2009 Washington City Paper
art article listed Dec as one of three outsider artists whose works ought to be adapted as iPhone app, though considering him not "that far afield from the diatribes of today's talk radio." An April 2010 article about Dec on the satirical website Encyclopædia Dramatica features nine facsimiles of his flyers under the heading "Make Copies for Yourself".
Dec also entered the folklore of the Church of the SubGenius
, which contributed to his underground popularization since at least 1993: a Dec rant was broadcast at least twice on the weekly syndicated SubGenius radio program Hour of Slack
, in program #392 "Francis Dec & kooks" (1993) and a rerun in program #555 (1996); Dec is also regularly mentioned by Church users in their Usenet
newsgroup alt.slack, from which messages mentioning Dec or reprinting his rants were selected for the Church's official newsletter The Stark Fist of Removal. Additionally, he was canonized as "St. Francis the Incoherent" among Discordian Saints.
Dec's letters have been used as an example of "kook typography" by graphic designer Steven Heller
in a same-titled 1994 article of the AIGA
Journal of Graphic Design. There is also a 1998 mathematical analysis which uses five Dec rants as a gauge of "schizophrenic language" for an entropic evaluation of the undeciphered Voynich Manuscript
(concluding that schizophrenia alone could not account for the manuscript's puzzling nature).
In 1985, Boyd "Doc" Britton (then a newscaster for the radio station WZUU in Milwaukee, now the talk show host "Doc on the ROQ" for KROQ-FM
) received a stack of Dec's flyer
s mass-mailed to the media; in 1986, he made a spoken word
recording of himself reading five of Dec's rants over various background music selected and mixed in at random. Ever since, these recordings have been circulated in underground
circles, creating and building further interest in Francis E. Dec: first as tapes, then CDs, and now as MP3
files on the Internet, where they are torrented as well as archived by literature site UbuWeb
, Archive.org, and radio WFMU
. In 1990, SubGenius co-founder Rev. Ivan Stang
gave Dallas artist Joe Riley
such a Dec tape, which was eventually played at a 1993 party where Forrest Jackson heard it, inspiring Jackson to track down and meet Dec in 1995 (see Death section), videotaping the only documented encounter with Dec. Psychic TV
as Kitten Sparkles sampled Doc Britton reading Dec in "Saint Frances E." (sic, on Ultrahouse The L.A. Connection
, 1991, reissued as "Sir Frances E. Dec (Kitten Sparkle Mix)", sic, on Origin of the Species, Volume Too, 1999) and in "The Deadly Touch Taben" (sic, on the compilation Patchouli & Echoes, 2004). Venetian Snares
also sampled Doc Britton in "Americanized" on Infolepsy EP
(2004), spreading Dec's prose on lyrics websites. Dec's rants inspired other artists: in 2005, the band Coldcut
cited "the mad deadly computer gangster godpoems of Francis E Dec, RIP" as inspiration for their CD Everything Is Under Control; in 2007, "Saint Francis E. Dec, Esq." was credited as the co-creator of two MP3 singles called Worldwide Living Death Frankenstein Slavery (vol. 1 and 2) by Alex Spalding et al.
The delusions of Francis E. Dec have also been fictionalized. In 1998, his rants were adapted into the 8-page comic-book story "Worldwide Gangster Robots" (script: Scott Cunningham
; art: Danijel Zezelj
), acknowledging Dec in the opening credits as the basis for protagonist "Melchizedek" and his posters; the story was published in anthology Gangland #3 from Vertigo at DC Comics
. In 1999, his rants were dramatized by Eric Dyer with the theatre troupe Radiohole in A History of Heen: Not Francis E. Dec, Esq., a stage play starring Dec and large excerpts of his rants; selected for The Wooster Group
's "Emerging Artist Series" and played then extended for two weeks at The Performing Garage in SoHo
, New York City, it was reviewed positively by The Village Voice
, CurtainUp, and Playbill
.
While Doc Britton's recordings helped foster awareness of Dec's rants and his underground notoriety, little was known about the man and his life; this came with Dec's immortalization in Donna Kossy
's 1994 book Kooks (the first biography of Dec, published by Feral House
, also home to the book that spawned Tim Burton
's biopic Ed Wood
), along with NY lawyer Jeff Sperber's investigations into Dec's legal past, and the Dec flyers donated by Tim Maloney to Kossy. Yet since the 1980s, only a few Dec rants were circulated (mostly the five recorded ones), when more documents were known to exist. The next steps were achieved on the Internet, with wider dissemination of the Doc recordings as MP3 files, as well as Kossy's online Kooks Museum in 1996.
In 2006 appeared the so-called "Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub" website founded by Peter Branting, a hub for "Decologists" providing an extensive collection of old and new Francis E. Dec material unearthed by members, including Dec's legal correspondence recovered by Decologist Ted Torbich, new biographical data dug up by genealogist Steven Dhuey, scans of original tracts, along with a biographical timeline, a "Dectionary" of Decian delusions, and humorous illustrations of the rants. In October 2008, such rants mentioned by Doc Britton to Kossy as "Astrocism – The True Religion of the Slovene People" or "The Teddy Kennedy Letter" were donated to the Club together with other formerly unknown material, making possible further study into the beliefs and personal history of Francis E. Dec
s containing rant-like essay
s with a paranoid
outlook, all of which contained a number of recurring themes and claims of a more or less delusional or paranormal
nature.
Recurring themes and phrases in Dec's rants include: an entity referred to by Dec as the "World Wide Communist Gangster Computer God", its "Frankenstein Earphone Radio" and "Eyesight Television" (often preceded by "Frankenstein" as well), along with allegations of political chicanery on the part of Presidents and Vice Presidents throughout U.S. history. For example Dec alleges that Lyndon Johnson lured John F. Kennedy
to Dallas
in order to have him killed and that Teddy Roosevelt did the same to William McKinley
by luring him to New York. Dec also incorporated into his rants one Frank Gulotta
, ex-District Attorney Nassau County, who once acted as prosecution in a trial which would eventually come to result in Dec's conviction and disbarment as a lawyer (see Professional life section), as well as the Judge (one William Sullivan) who presided over the court case in question.
Other recurring themes include racism
against black people, anti-Communism
, anti-Semitism
, anti-Catholicism
, and various other conspiracy theories, racial and otherwise. An analysis of Dec's written material suggests that he thought he was also regularly abducted and operated upon by the so-called "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God" as well as the subject of constant mind reading
, mind control
, and brainwashing via various cranial implants (see Mental health section).
s were turned into underground culture
items (see Legacy section), and to understand why requires some extended quotes. "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy" (1984) was a racist tract intended to denounce the longtime conspiracy of a "Gangster Computer God" controlling mankind through cranial radios, causing the aging process through gradual surgeries, and planning a worldwide race of mulatto slaves. Popularized early by Doc Britton's 1986 recordings, this compendium of Decian concepts is also one of Dec's more outlandish rants; as such, three excerpts summarizing it can consistently show both Dec's overall worldview and his writing style. They are reproduced in the original typewritten typography (emphases and misspellings included).
Dec's bizarre worldview and unique style are further explained through the list of his recurring themes in The Dectionary (see Sources section).
To the N.Y. Appeals Court
To the U.S. Supreme Court
s and tract
s didn't feature a title proper and have usually been named later from their first words
(common alternate titles and aliases are indexed below). Most of them being undated, they are listed alphabetically.
Known flyers
Common aliases
s used
Secondary source
s used
Pictures (in 1995)
The 1995 visit by Forrest Jackson (as "Rant 6" after the 5 rants)
Other recordings
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer from Hempstead Village, New York, disbarred
Disbarment
Disbarment is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking his or her law license or admission to practice law...
for fraud in 1959, and later known for the bizarre socio-political tract
Tract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
s of conspiracy theories he mass-mailed to the media. Often denouncing a "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God" mind-controlling mankind, Dec is considered to have been a paranoid schizophrenic of the influencing-machine delusion kind, and is often referred to as a "kook".
Not unlike Ed Wood, Dec later became a cult figure referenced in underground culture
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
. He was the subject of a 1994 book chapter, a 1998 comics, and a 1999 stage play; he also made his way into the folklores of the Discordians and the Church of the SubGenius
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a "parody religion" organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, the Church of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s and maintains an active presence on...
. His rants have been reprinted in a 1983 issue of Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
's magazine Weirdo and circulated since 1986 from recordings by KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
host Doc Britton; they have been sampled in 1991 and 2004 by Psychic TV
Psychic TV
Psychic TV or PTV, is a video art and music group that primarily performs psychedelic, punk, electronic and experimental music...
, in 2004 by Venetian Snares
Venetian Snares
Venetian Snares is the main performing alias of Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk .From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Funk is known for making electronic music often in odd numbered time signatures...
, and inspired a Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
album in 2005; they have been archived as outsider art
Outsider Art
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
by UbuWeb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
and WFMU
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
; they spawned a fanclub and website; they have also been used as a gauge in 1994 for "kook typography" and in 1998 for the entropy of the undeciphered Voynich manuscript
Voynich manuscript
The Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912....
.
Early life
Francis E. Dec was born on January 6, 1926, in the Nassau CountyNassau County, New York
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
community of Hempstead Village, New York (a Black and Latino majority neighborhood, accounting later for its frequent racist designations in Dec's rants) and appears to have lived there for most of his life (except for his military service). His middle name is not established: there is only "[+]*Francis [-]
He was the son of two Polish immigrants, butcher John F. Dec (John Frank Dec, June 23, 1893 – August, 1971; born Jan Dec) and servant turned housewife Rose M. Dec (~1889/1890 – death unknown; born Rozalia Jaronek or Rosalia Jronek). Both of Dec's parents were born in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(his mother from the Polish part of what was then Galicia) and immigrated to the United States, his mother in 1910 and his father in 1912, and were married circa 1920–1921.
Dec also had an older brother, Joseph I. Dec (born in 1921, was alive in 2006, died in December 2010 ), whom he mentions in several of his rants as "his only brother". Dec later wrote of attending a Catholic grammar school taught by nuns, and appears to have completed at least three years of high school before he volunteered for military service in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Military life
Dec enlisted on April 13, 1944 as a private in the United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
, "for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months". After six weeks of basic training
Basic Training
Basic Training may refer to:* Basic Training, a 1971 American documentary directed by Frederick Wiseman* Basic Training , an American sex comedy* Recruit training...
at Keesler Field
Keesler Air Force Base
Keesler Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Biloxi, a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The base is named in honor of aviator 2d Lt Samuel Reeves Keesler, Jr., a Mississippi native killed in France in First World War.-Units:The base is home of...
near Biloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the population as 44,054. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County....
, he was enrolled in the Army Air Forces Technical School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sioux Falls Regional Airport
Sioux Falls Regional Airport , also known as Joe Foss Field, is a joint civil and military use airport located three nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Sioux Falls, a city in Minnehaha County, South Dakota, United States...
. He graduated from the Radio Operator and Mechanics Course in January 1945. He subsequently was stationed at USAAF bases in Yuma, Arizona
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma or MCAS Yuma is a United States Marine Corps air station which is the home to multiple squadrons of AV-8B Harrier IIs of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 and Marine Fighter Training Squadron 401 , an air combat adversary...
, Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln Air Force Base
Lincoln Air National Guard Base, previously Lincoln Air Force Base, is a Nebraska Air National Guard installation located approximately northwest of Lincoln, Nebraska. The facility is a joint use civil airport/military base with the Lincoln Airport which provides airline, charter and general...
, Dallas, Texas, and Fairfield, California
Travis Air Force Base
Travis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force air base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command , located three miles east of the central business district of Fairfield, in Solano County, California, United States. The base is named for Brigadier General Robert F...
. He was honorably discharged as a Private First Class
Private First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
in May 1946.
Professional life
Dec received a Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1950 from the College of Liberal Arts at St. John's University in Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. According to one of his rants, Dec then studied at Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School is a law school located in Brooklyn Heights, in Downtown Brooklyn, New York.-History:Founded in 1901 by William Payson Richardson and Norman P. Heffley, Brooklyn Law School was the first law school on Long Island. Using space provided by Heffley’s business school, the law...
, though it's not established for how many years since completing a law degree wasn't mandatory in order to get a law license in New York State.
Dec then became a lawyer, an attorney at law. He was admitted to the New York state bar on March 31, 1954 but was disbarred
Disbarment
Disbarment is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking his or her law license or admission to practice law...
on January 19, 1959. Dec was also a notary public
Notary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
, at least during 1956–1957 for the Notary Department in the Nassau County Clerk's Office.
After being convicted of fraud and larceny (see at right), Dec was disbarred as an attorney and "commanded to desist and refrain from the practice of law in any form, either as principal or as agent, clerk or employee of another, and is forbidden [...] to give to another an opinion as to the law or its application, or any advice in relation thereto", effectively ending any career related to law; along with the five-year prison sentence, this is probably why Dec later referred to it as a "maximum-conviction" sentence.
From 1959 to 1962, Dec tried unsuccessfully to have the case overturned on appeal. All appeals to the New York courts were denied and the case, when it was filed in forma pauperis
In forma pauperis
In forma pauperis is a Latin legal term meaning "in the character or manner of a pauper". In the United States, the IFP designation is given by both state and federal courts to someone who is without the funds to pursue the normal costs of a lawsuit or a criminal defense...
with the U.S. Supreme Court (featuring Dec asking for a rehearing about his "gestapo like farce kangaroo court trial", sic, and "the psychotically, sadistically, wantonly, fraudulently altered Official Nassau County Court, New York State trial record of this petitioner's Gestapo like farce trial", sic), was denied certiorari
Certiorari
Certiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...
twice. In spite of having lost his permission to practice law Dec did, however, in his later correspondence persistently continue to refer to himself using the suffix "Esquire
Esquire
Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...
".
Later life
After his disbarment and denied appeals (around 1958–1962), Dec spent the rest of his life as a recluse, mailing his tractTract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
s to various mass-media in the U.S. and over the world (see Works section).
Until 1966, Dec lived with his brother and pretended he was beaten and terrorized by him. In 1966, his brother moved out and left Dec alone in the house; at this time, Dec still went out "shopping two, three times a month". When removing the red wallpaper that there was in most of the rooms, he found "fresh red paint under it" that he considered the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's doing. In 1967 and 1968, thinking that "the entire house was a CIA death trap for [him] set up while [he] was buying it", he spent time chipping off all of the red paint "with hundreds of single edge razor blades".
In 1968, Dec said he had gained enough "insight of this deadly closed society" to visit small stock brokerage offices and invest some of his money (from 1959 to 1968 his income had been "zero" and Dec existed "on much less than 1000 a year" of his savings); from his investments he would eventually reach about "yearly minimum wage income" over the next decade.
In 1969, Dec reported that a warrant was issued for his "incarceration in a maximum security insanity prison" (presumably committal to an asylum). From 1969 to around 1982, Dec said he mostly lived hidden alone in his house, ordering food to be delivered to him and hiding from his visitors.
Around 1982, after hiding "for over ten years", Dec said he "can once again walk the streets solely as [he] did before 1969" because after he had "mailed worldwide thousands of [his] letters exposing" the "Computer God" conspiracy, his "testimony" was out and his "extermination" less necessary.
According to a rant presumed around 1981, Dec seems to have been a vegetarian, at least later in life. He apparently never married nor had children.
Mental health
Due to the bizarre and earnest nature of Dec's claims (see Works section), it is usually believed that he suffered from schizophreniaSchizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
– most likely the kind referred to by Viktor Tausk
Viktor Tausk
Viktor Tausk was a pioneer psychoanalyst and neurologist. A student and a colleague of Sigmund Freud, he was the earliest exponent of psychoanalytical concepts with regard to clinical psychosis and the personality of the artist.-Career:Tausk had been a lawyer and writer when he began to study...
as influencing-machine delusion – though without access to his medical records (Dec had at least two court-ordered psychiatric examinations in 1958 and 1961, and possibly again at some point during his 1993–1996 last years at the Veteran Hospital) this remains supposition.
It also seems likely that Dec's mental condition deteriorated after his 1958 conviction in the forgery case (cited above), as his 1961 appeal brief – although rambling, paranoia laden and disjointed at times – still manages to be coherent and to present a fair representation of his perception of the errors in his conviction. On the other hand; his "rants", produced later (such as the Spring 1984 "Gangster Computer God", see Worldview section), lack overall coherence, are prone to word salad
Word Salad
Word Salad is a 1979 debut album by Fischer-Z. John Watts and Steve Skolnik formed the band in 1976 whilst at Brunel University. John Watts had been travelling up and down the country playing the club circuit. Fischer-Z was playing a crossover of the New Wave, Punk and Reggae genres...
-like strings of words (such as "Computer God computerized brain thinking SEALED ROBOT OPERATING ARMS SURGERY CABINET machine removal of [...]", see Worldview section), and are heavily laden with paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
as well as a highly developed conspiracy mindset. As such, even though some theories produced by Dec in his "rants" can be seen in germinal form in his appeal brief, they are not there fully as developed as they would later come to be – possibly indicating the onset of mental illness after his conviction. On January 16, 1961 (four months before his appeal brief), a court order was issued for committing Dec to Pilgrim State Hospital (Pilgrim Psychiatric Center
Pilgrim Psychiatric Center
Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, formerly known as Pilgrim State Hospital, is a state-run psychiatric hospital located in Brentwood, New York. At the time it opened, it was the largest hospital of any kind in the world...
) for a 60-day mental examination; one month later Dec is "Released on own recognizance" on February 17, 1961.
Because Dec was never committed and was able to stay in his home almost to his death, his writings from 1960 (his appeals) to 1992 (his stroke) could provide an insight into the progress of advanced paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
. The internally self-consistent claims contained within his tracts and rants are also strongly in keeping with common definitions of delusion
Delusion
A delusion is a false belief held with absolute conviction despite superior evidence. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological...
as described by modern psychology. For example, it was drawn certain similarities between Dec's claims of being "Frankenstein controlled" by the so-called "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God" and the claims of 18th Century paranoiac James Tilly Matthews
James Tilly Matthews
James Tilly Matthews was a London tea broker, originally from Wales, who was committed to the Bethlem psychiatric hospital in 1797, and is considered to be the first fully documented case of paranoid schizophrenia....
of being "tortured-at-a-distance" by what he termed the "Air Loom" gang.
Death
Dec apparently suffered a stroke in late 1992 and was transferred early 1993 to the St. Albans VA hospitalVeterans Health Administration
The Veterans Health Administration is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the medical assistance program of the VA through the administration and operation of numerous VA outpatient clinics,...
in Queens, New York by his brother Joseph I. Dec. He was still residing there in December 1995, at which time he was visited by Forrest Jackson and two other fans who had come across tape recordings of some of his rants at Dallas in 1993 (see Legacy section) and went to New York to ask him about their origin and meaning; as far as is currently known, these individuals were the only fans of Dec ever to have met or spoken to him at any length, and videotaped the only documented encounter with Dec. Dec was entirely unresponsive to the presence or inquiries of his visitors, and the visit produced no answers whatsoever.
Francis E. Dec died a few weeks later on . The exact cause of death is not known. Francis is interred in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, NY alongside his mother Rozalia Dec and his aunt Sophia Jaromek. His brother Joseph is buried in Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, NY
Legacy
Francis E. Dec was dubbed "one of the most mysterious characters in all kookdom" by his 1994 biographer Donna KossyDonna Kossy
Donna J. Kossy is a U.S. writer, zine publisher, and online used book dealer based in Portland, Oregon. Specializing in the history of "forgotten, discredited and extreme ideas", which she calls "crackpotology and kookology", she is better known for her books Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of...
, "the most important paranoid schizophrenic kook of the century" or "the Gnostic God of these End Times" by his 1995 interviewer Forrest Jackson, and it was stated that "his insane diatribes must truly be one of the greatest comedic gems of the 20th century" by his 2006 fanclub founder Peter Branting. Dec is often compared or contrasted to William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
(for his prose style; some of Dec's rants would even have "found their way to William S. Burroughs" according to Donna Kossy), Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
(for his later schizophrenic worldview), and Jack T. Chick (for his conspiracy theory tracts).
Dec's publications are considered outsider art
Outsider Art
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
, circulated for their unintended humor, underground poetry, or both. They have been republished in a number of places. One of Dec's rants was reprinted on the back-cover of Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
's Weirdo #8 (Summer 1983). A 2009 Washington City Paper
Washington City Paper
The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...
art article listed Dec as one of three outsider artists whose works ought to be adapted as iPhone app, though considering him not "that far afield from the diatribes of today's talk radio." An April 2010 article about Dec on the satirical website Encyclopædia Dramatica features nine facsimiles of his flyers under the heading "Make Copies for Yourself".
Dec also entered the folklore of the Church of the SubGenius
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a "parody religion" organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, the Church of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s and maintains an active presence on...
, which contributed to his underground popularization since at least 1993: a Dec rant was broadcast at least twice on the weekly syndicated SubGenius radio program Hour of Slack
Hour of Slack
The Hour of Slack is a one-hour radio program produced by the Church of the SubGenius centering around the king of slack, J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. Reverend Ivan Stang presents his own commentary, along with recorded material from all SubGenius radio and stage shows, bands, ranters, media barrage collage...
, in program #392 "Francis Dec & kooks" (1993) and a rerun in program #555 (1996); Dec is also regularly mentioned by Church users in their Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup alt.slack, from which messages mentioning Dec or reprinting his rants were selected for the Church's official newsletter The Stark Fist of Removal. Additionally, he was canonized as "St. Francis the Incoherent" among Discordian Saints.
Dec's letters have been used as an example of "kook typography" by graphic designer Steven Heller
Steven Heller (graphic design)
Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design....
in a same-titled 1994 article of the AIGA
Aiga
‘Aiga is a word in the Samoan language which means 'family.' The aiga is the family unit of Samoan society and differs from the Western sense in that it consists more than just a mother, father and children. The Samoan family, also referred to as an 'extended family' is based on the culture's...
Journal of Graphic Design. There is also a 1998 mathematical analysis which uses five Dec rants as a gauge of "schizophrenic language" for an entropic evaluation of the undeciphered Voynich Manuscript
Voynich manuscript
The Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912....
(concluding that schizophrenia alone could not account for the manuscript's puzzling nature).
In 1985, Boyd "Doc" Britton (then a newscaster for the radio station WZUU in Milwaukee, now the talk show host "Doc on the ROQ" for KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
) received a stack of Dec's flyer
Flyer (pamphlet)
__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....
s mass-mailed to the media; in 1986, he made a spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
recording of himself reading five of Dec's rants over various background music selected and mixed in at random. Ever since, these recordings have been circulated in underground
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
circles, creating and building further interest in Francis E. Dec: first as tapes, then CDs, and now as MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
files on the Internet, where they are torrented as well as archived by literature site UbuWeb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
, Archive.org, and radio WFMU
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
. In 1990, SubGenius co-founder Rev. Ivan Stang
Ivan Stang
Rev. Ivan Stang, born Douglass St. Clair Smith August 21, 1953 in Washington, D.C., raised in Fort Worth, Texas, and attended the St. Mark's School of Texas. He is best known as the author and publisher of the first screed of the Church of the SubGenius...
gave Dallas artist Joe Riley
Joe Riley (artist)
Joseph Vergel "Joe" Riley was a U.S. visual and plastic artist based in Dallas, Texas. A painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and special effects makeup artist, he made horror designs for latex masks and for films, such as the vampire movie Blade: Trinity from Marvel Comics, as well as conceptual art for...
such a Dec tape, which was eventually played at a 1993 party where Forrest Jackson heard it, inspiring Jackson to track down and meet Dec in 1995 (see Death section), videotaping the only documented encounter with Dec. Psychic TV
Psychic TV
Psychic TV or PTV, is a video art and music group that primarily performs psychedelic, punk, electronic and experimental music...
as Kitten Sparkles sampled Doc Britton reading Dec in "Saint Frances E." (sic, on Ultrahouse The L.A. Connection
Ultrahouse The L.A. Connection
Ultrahouse The L.A. Connection is an album of material by Psychic TV released under the guise of a various artists compilation album. The album was released on CD, of which some pressings accidentally were in Ultrahouse The Twelve Inch Mixes packaging...
, 1991, reissued as "Sir Frances E. Dec (Kitten Sparkle Mix)", sic, on Origin of the Species, Volume Too, 1999) and in "The Deadly Touch Taben" (sic, on the compilation Patchouli & Echoes, 2004). Venetian Snares
Venetian Snares
Venetian Snares is the main performing alias of Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk .From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Funk is known for making electronic music often in odd numbered time signatures...
also sampled Doc Britton in "Americanized" on Infolepsy EP
Infolepsy EP
The Infolepsy EP was released in 2004 on Coredump Records by breakcore artist Venetian Snares. It consists of 5 tracks, three on the A side and two on the B side. It was also released on CD...
(2004), spreading Dec's prose on lyrics websites. Dec's rants inspired other artists: in 2005, the band Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
cited "the mad deadly computer gangster godpoems of Francis E Dec, RIP" as inspiration for their CD Everything Is Under Control; in 2007, "Saint Francis E. Dec, Esq." was credited as the co-creator of two MP3 singles called Worldwide Living Death Frankenstein Slavery (vol. 1 and 2) by Alex Spalding et al.
The delusions of Francis E. Dec have also been fictionalized. In 1998, his rants were adapted into the 8-page comic-book story "Worldwide Gangster Robots" (script: Scott Cunningham
Scott Cunningham
Scott Douglas Cunningham was a U.S. writer. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects....
; art: Danijel Zezelj
Danijel Zezelj
Danijel Zezelj is a Croatian comic book artist, painter and illustrator and author of a number of graphic novels.-Biography:Zezelj studied classical painting, sculpting and printing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia....
), acknowledging Dec in the opening credits as the basis for protagonist "Melchizedek" and his posters; the story was published in anthology Gangland #3 from Vertigo at DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. In 1999, his rants were dramatized by Eric Dyer with the theatre troupe Radiohole in A History of Heen: Not Francis E. Dec, Esq., a stage play starring Dec and large excerpts of his rants; selected for The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged during 1975-1980 from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group and took its name in 1980...
's "Emerging Artist Series" and played then extended for two weeks at The Performing Garage in SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
, New York City, it was reviewed positively by The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, CurtainUp, and Playbill
Playbill
Playbill is a monthly U.S. magazine for theatregoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most Playbills are printed for particular shows to be distributed at the door...
.
While Doc Britton's recordings helped foster awareness of Dec's rants and his underground notoriety, little was known about the man and his life; this came with Dec's immortalization in Donna Kossy
Donna Kossy
Donna J. Kossy is a U.S. writer, zine publisher, and online used book dealer based in Portland, Oregon. Specializing in the history of "forgotten, discredited and extreme ideas", which she calls "crackpotology and kookology", she is better known for her books Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of...
's 1994 book Kooks (the first biography of Dec, published by Feral House
Feral House
Feral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....
, also home to the book that spawned Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
's biopic Ed Wood
Ed Wood (film)
Ed Wood is a 1994 American comedy-drama biopic directed and produced by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp as cult filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film concerns the period in Wood's life when he made his best-known films as well as his relationship with actor Bela Lugosi, played by Martin Landau...
), along with NY lawyer Jeff Sperber's investigations into Dec's legal past, and the Dec flyers donated by Tim Maloney to Kossy. Yet since the 1980s, only a few Dec rants were circulated (mostly the five recorded ones), when more documents were known to exist. The next steps were achieved on the Internet, with wider dissemination of the Doc recordings as MP3 files, as well as Kossy's online Kooks Museum in 1996.
In 2006 appeared the so-called "Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub" website founded by Peter Branting, a hub for "Decologists" providing an extensive collection of old and new Francis E. Dec material unearthed by members, including Dec's legal correspondence recovered by Decologist Ted Torbich, new biographical data dug up by genealogist Steven Dhuey, scans of original tracts, along with a biographical timeline, a "Dectionary" of Decian delusions, and humorous illustrations of the rants. In October 2008, such rants mentioned by Doc Britton to Kossy as "Astrocism – The True Religion of the Slovene People" or "The Teddy Kennedy Letter" were donated to the Club together with other formerly unknown material, making possible further study into the beliefs and personal history of Francis E. Dec
Overview
Francis E. Dec produced and self-published a series of flyerFlyer (pamphlet)
__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....
s containing rant-like essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s with a paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
outlook, all of which contained a number of recurring themes and claims of a more or less delusional or paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
nature.
Recurring themes and phrases in Dec's rants include: an entity referred to by Dec as the "World Wide Communist Gangster Computer God", its "Frankenstein Earphone Radio" and "Eyesight Television" (often preceded by "Frankenstein" as well), along with allegations of political chicanery on the part of Presidents and Vice Presidents throughout U.S. history. For example Dec alleges that Lyndon Johnson lured John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
to Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
in order to have him killed and that Teddy Roosevelt did the same to William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
by luring him to New York. Dec also incorporated into his rants one Frank Gulotta
Frank Gulotta
Frank A. Gulotta was a former New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division judge, and a former Nassau County district attorney.-Biography:...
, ex-District Attorney Nassau County, who once acted as prosecution in a trial which would eventually come to result in Dec's conviction and disbarment as a lawyer (see Professional life section), as well as the Judge (one William Sullivan) who presided over the court case in question.
Other recurring themes include racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
against black people, anti-Communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...
, and various other conspiracy theories, racial and otherwise. An analysis of Dec's written material suggests that he thought he was also regularly abducted and operated upon by the so-called "Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God" as well as the subject of constant mind reading
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
, and brainwashing via various cranial implants (see Mental health section).
Worldview
Dec's later cult figure status came because a half-dozen of his tractTract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
s were turned into underground culture
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
items (see Legacy section), and to understand why requires some extended quotes. "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy" (1984) was a racist tract intended to denounce the longtime conspiracy of a "Gangster Computer God" controlling mankind through cranial radios, causing the aging process through gradual surgeries, and planning a worldwide race of mulatto slaves. Popularized early by Doc Britton's 1986 recordings, this compendium of Decian concepts is also one of Dec's more outlandish rants; as such, three excerpts summarizing it can consistently show both Dec's overall worldview and his writing style. They are reproduced in the original typewritten typography (emphases and misspellings included).
- The opening paragraph warns that people are implanted with "Frankenstein radio controls" that constantly brainwash them, while "Brain Bank Cities" on the far side of the MoonFar side of the MoonThe far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and is not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon...
are housing their "Brain Bank brain" which is their other real brain:
- The second paragraph explains that people are regularly remote-controlled "as a Frankenstein slave" to undergo surgeries performed by a "Robot Operating Cabinet", generating the aging process, that he calls the "Inevitability of Gradualness". (This last phrase usually refers to the gradualist philosophy of Fabian socialism.)
- (The next paragraphs elaborate how birth at the hospital helps implement those controls, and how medicine helps enforce diseases and deaths.) The rest presents Dec as the "only hope" against a future mankind reduced to Jewish-Communist-Black slaves:
Dec's bizarre worldview and unique style are further explained through the list of his recurring themes in The Dectionary (see Sources section).
Letters (1958–1962)
Available documents from Dec's legal correspondence.To the N.Y. Appeals Court
- 1961. "Notice of Appeal to the Court of Appeals of New York" aka "A Gestapo-Like Farce Trial" (signed April 26, 1961; filed June 20, 1961; denied July 7, 1961)
- 1961. "Reply Brief to the Court of Appeals of New York" aka "Felonious and Immoral" (assumed 1961; no known answer)
To the U.S. Supreme Court
- 1961. "Notice of Appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States" aka "The Maximum-Conviction Appeal Brief" (dated September 21, 1961)
- 1961. "Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in Forma Pauperis" (dated September 20, 1961 for October 1961 term; denied on January 15, 1962)
- 1962. "Petition for Rehearing of Petition for Writ Certiorari in forma pauperis" (dated February 5, 1962; denied on February 19, 1962)
- 1976. — see the flyer "To All Judges!"...
Flyers (1962–1992)
The rants on Dec's flyerFlyer (pamphlet)
__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....
s and tract
Tract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
s didn't feature a title proper and have usually been named later from their first words
Incipit
Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...
(common alternate titles and aliases are indexed below). Most of them being undated, they are listed alphabetically.
Known flyers
- "Astrocism: The True Religion of the Slovene People!" (estimated 1970s)
- "Evil Metric System Conspiracy!, The" (after 1975, possibly 1980, updated 1982)
- "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy" (signed Spring 1984)
- "History of the Computer God, The" (unavailable, named by Kossy as owned by Britton)
- "Infrared Crusader Priests from Beyond Comprehension!" (presumed 1992)
- "Long Island Lunacy" (presumed around 1982, transcript from audio is )
- "Master Race Frankenstein Radio Controls" (presumed 1970s, transcript from audio is )
- "Pasteurized Milk Conspiracy, The" (unavailable, named by Kossy as owned by Britton)
- "Teddy Kennedy Letter, The" (presumed around 1972, and its P.S. around 1974)
- "To All Judges!" (signed October 21, 1976)
- "Top Secret Dual Food Standard, The" (presumed around 1981)
- "True History of Nazi Jewmany!!, The" (signed Spring 1984, undated P.S.)
- "Worldwide Open Secret!!" (after 1978)
Common aliases
- All of the Gangster Scum on Top (first words) — see Teddy Kennedy...
- All Religions Are Untouchable Con Artist (first words) — see True History...
- A Terrible Prison Sentence! — not a flyer: the fanclub's "best of" Dec's 1961 SC Appeal
- Communist Gangster Computer God Worldwide Systematic Destruction of All Standards (first words) — see Evil Metric...
- Demanding a Re-Hearing (Finish Him!) (WFMU file) — see To All Judges...
- Dual Food Standard (from first sentence) — see Top Secret Dual Food...
- Empirical Scientific Agnostic Religion of Astrocism, The (first words) — see Astrocism...
- Frankenstein Radio Controls (from first sentence) — see Master Race...
- Frankenstein Radio Head (first words) — see Infrared Crusader...
- Hangman Rope Sneak Deadly Gangsterism (WFMU file) — see Long Island...
- In December 1965 When I returned (first words) — see Long Island...
- Look at the Picture!!! (first words) — see Master Race...
- Metric System Conspiracy, The (from title) — see Evil Metric...
- Nazi Jewmany (from title) — see True History...
- Rant 1 (UbuWeb file) — see Master Race...
- Rant 2 (UbuWeb file) — see To All Judges...
- Rant 3 (UbuWeb file) — see Gangster Computer God...
- Rant 4 (UbuWeb file) — see Long Island...
- Rant 5 (UbuWeb file) — see Worldwide Open Secret...
- Rant No. 1 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Worldwide Open Secret...
- Rant No. 2 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Gangster Computer God...
- Rant No. 3 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see To All Judges...
- Rant No. 4 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Long Island...
- Rant No. 5 (Kooks Museum transcript) — see Master Race...
- Secret Containment Policy (from first sentence) — see Gangster Computer God...
- Secret to Save the Entire Human Race, The (WFMU file) — see Master Race...
- See the Skull (from second sentence) — see Master Race...
- Sneak Shameless Hangman Rope Gangsters (first words) — see Top Secret Dual Food...
- Three Young Seekers Consult Mr Dec Regarding Frankenstein Controls Before Being Dragged Away to Extermination (WFMU file) — not a Dec flyer: the 1995 visit by Forrest Jackson
- True Slovene Religion: Astrocism, The (Kooks Museum mention) — see Astrocism...
- Undetectable Extermination (WFMU file) — see Worldwide Open Secret...
- Worldwide Secret Containment Policy (from first sentence) — see Gangster Computer God...
Sources
Primary sourcePrimary source
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....
s used
- Dec, Francis E. (~1982). "Long Island Lunacy" (transcript from audio is ), presumed around 1982, — Various autobiographical data for 1959–1982.
- Dec, Francis E. (1984). "Gangster Computer God Worldwide Secret Containment Policy" (incl. facsimile with original typography), Spring 1984, now hosted at The Official Francis E. Dec Fanclub — Dec's main worldview. Rant is complete (the text that can be seen through the facsimile is another rant).
- Jackson, Forrest (1996). , Schizophrenic Wing, www.book-happy.com, copyright 1996, consulted February 2009 — The December 15, 1995 visit to Dec, with the only photo available.
- NARA (1944). "Army Serial Number 12089790: Dec Francis E" (enlistment record), Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946, World War II Army Enlistment Records, National Archives and Records AdministrationNational Archives and Records AdministrationThe National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
's Access to Archival Databases, aad.archives.gov, April 13, 1944 (electronic record created 2002), consulted February 2009 — Dec's 1944 WW2 enlistment record. - NYSCAD (1959). "Order of Disbarment in the Matter of Francis E. Dec" (PDF file), New York Supreme Court, Appellate DivisionNew York Supreme Court, Appellate DivisionThe Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The Appellate Division is composed of four departments .*The First Department covers the Bronx The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate...
, Second Department, presided by Justice Gerald Nolan, held January 19, 1959 — Following his 1958 conviction. - NYSCOA (1961). "Order of Affirmance of the Court of Appeals", New York State Court of AppealsNew York Court of AppealsThe New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...
, Respondent's Brief by Manuel W. Levine & Henry P. DeVine, July 7, 1961 — Last known argumented response to Dec's appeals. - NYSDOH (1926). "Certificate of Birth of Francis Dec" (PDF file), New York State Department of HealthNew York State Department of HealthThe New York State Department of Health, ', is the governmental body responsible for public health in the state of New York. The cabinet-level department is headed by the Health Commissioner, a position held since January 24, 2011 by Nirav R. Shah, M.D., M.P.H.....
, filed January 11, 1926 — Copy "for genealogical research only". Note the updated "*Francis" next to the stricken "Frank".
Secondary source
Secondary source
In scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed; a primary source can be a person with direct...
s used
- Branting, Peter (2006). The Official Francis E. Dec Timeline, updated 2006, consulted February 2009 — Chronological summary of the main biographical data known about Dec.
- Branting, Peter (2008). The Dectionary, updated 2008 (started 2006), consulted February 2009 — Alphabetical list of the main Decian delusions, a good overview of his worldview.
- Bulhak, Andrew C. (1999). "Discordian Saints" (Archive.org copy of 1999). — Compiled by a noted Discordian.
- Foster, Chuck (2008). "Losing My Mind With Francis E. Dec, Esq. and the Reverend Jim Jones", The Big TakeoverThe Big TakeoverThe Big Takeover is a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City since 1980 by critic Jack Rabid.-Overview:The Big T usually appears in June and December, with most recent issues coming in around 200 pages. The review section, featuring Jack’s Top 40 for the issue, is regularly 60-80...
, 13 June 2008 — Review of Doc Britton's Dec recordings. - Heller, StevenSteven Heller (graphic design)Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design....
(1994). "Kook Typography". AIGAAiga‘Aiga is a word in the Samoan language which means 'family.' The aiga is the family unit of Samoan society and differs from the Western sense in that it consists more than just a mother, father and children. The Samoan family, also referred to as an 'extended family' is based on the culture's...
Journal of Graphic Design, vol. 12, pp. 4–6 — With an analysis of the design of Dec's tracts. - Kossy, Donna (1994). Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief. Portland, OR: Feral HouseFeral HouseFeral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....
. ISBN 0-922915-19-9 (1st ed. pbk., 254 p.) and ISBN 0-922915-20-2 (1st ed. hbk., 254 p.). Reissued by Los Angeles: Feral HouseFeral HouseFeral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....
, ISBN 978-0-922915-67-5 (2nd exp. ed. pbk., 287 p., 2001) — Collects material from her Kooks Magazine. The 2nd ed. was expanded with Kooks Outtakes (1995, a 36 p. supplement of material cut due to space). - Kossy, Donna (1999). , Schizophrenic Wing, www.book-happy.com, copyright 1999 with a 2006 addendum, consulted February 2009 — Updated online summary of the Dec chapter in Kossy's book.
- Radiohole (1999). The History of Heen: Not Francis E. Dec, Esq. — The stage play's reviews, full script, photos.
- Stallings, Dennis J. (1998). "Understanding the Second-Order Entropies of Voynich Text" (Archive.org copy of 2003), May 11, 1998 — Used Dec as a gauge of "schizophrenic language" against the Voynich manuscriptVoynich manuscriptThe Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912....
. - SubGenius, Church of theChurch of the SubGeniusThe Church of the SubGenius is a "parody religion" organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, the Church of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s and maintains an active presence on...
(1999). "Francis E. Dec kookrant", in "Kooks", The Stark Fist of Removal, June 1999 "Mini-Fist" (also reprinted in issue #04-2000) — Reprints a Dec rant.
General links
Texts- FrancisEDec.com – fanclub (with Timeline, Dectionary, Rants)
- Francis E. Dec at Everything2Everything2Everything2, Everything2, or E2 for short is a collaborative Web-based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written material. E2 is moderated for quality, but has no formal policy on subject matter...
– an essay by the founder of the Dec Fanclub - Francis E. Dec in Top Ten Visionaries by Mark Allen (from NY Times and WFMU) (Dec visited in 1995 by Forrest Jackson)
- "I Met Joseph I. Dec!" (Dec's brother visited in 2001 by Forrest Jackson)
- Dec-rant generator (with Markov chainMarkov chainA Markov chain, named after Andrey Markov, is a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another, between a finite or countable number of possible states. It is a random process characterized as memoryless: the next state depends only on the current state and not on the...
s from the original rants)
Pictures (in 1995)
- Dec's house at 29 Maple Ave (in 2001, as repainted by Dec's brother)
- Dec's illustrated flyer "Frankenstein Radio Controls" (~1970s)
- Dec's handwritten flyer "Dual Food Standard" (~1981)
- Dec's typewritten flyer "Secret Containment Policy" (1984) (scanned originals)
Recordings links
The 1986 recordings by Doc Britton (the 5 rants)- Recordings (MP3) at UbuWebUbuWebUbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
- Recordings (MP3) at Archive.org
The 1995 visit by Forrest Jackson (as "Rant 6" after the 5 rants)
- Recordings (MP3) at WFMUWFMUWFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
's "On The Download" - Recordings (MP3) at WFMUWFMUWFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
's "Beware of the Blog"
Other recordings
- Francis E. Dec at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
(fan readings or dramatizations of Dec rants)