As most people know, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died recently in Texas on the morning of February 13, 2016. His death has set off a political firestorm that has only begun to burn in the already heated environment of Washington, D.C.
As the tie-breaking conservative voter on the court, Scalia often enabled 5-4 majority decisions to be decided in favor of Republican interests, such as the Bush v. Gore case that allowed George W. Bush to become president in 2000 or the Citizens United case, which allowed unlimited political contributions from corporations.
The first Italian-American to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, Scalia was extremely outspoken and immodest in his views. He was a practitioner of a law ideology now referred to as “originalism” — the belief that the Constitution should be strictly adhered to in its “as-written-when-written” form, as opposed to an interpreted one. As Scalia saw it, since the Constitution didn’t mention abortion or gay marriage, he believed that these rights were not granted by it.
Scalia was a fierce defender of the Second Amendment, the American citizen’s right to bear arms. For conservatives and many law students, he was a legal hero whose simplistic philosophies and plain-language arguments belied an intense study and knowledge of the law.
But is there more to the death of Antonin Scalia than is being reported by the mainstream?
When he died, Scalia was 79 years old. According to news reports, he died in his sleep while on a hunting vacation at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a highly fortified, remote West Texas cattle ranch that has been used in the past several decades for bird and big game hunting.
There were reports that Scalia’s body was found with a pillow over his head, giving rise to theories that his death may not have been a natural one. In fact, as more facts come to light, the circumstances of his death seem to be stranger and stranger.
Cibolo Creek Ranch is not an ordinary ranch. It’s 30,000 acres in size and incorporates its own airport. Originally established in the 1850s by legendary Texas cattle rancher Milton Faver, the ranch passed through the hands of many owners over the last century.
It had deteriorated badly before being purchased in 1990 by John Poindexter, a U.S. Army captain (and possible special operations commando) in the Vietnam War who had been awarded two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars for heroic service in action. Poindexter is the Chairman and CEO of J.B. Poindexter & Co., the owner of the world’s largest maker of commercial truck bodies.
Poindexter also happens to be a leader in a secret hunting society called the International Order of St. Hubertus. Or perhaps “secret” is the wrong word — let’s call it an “elite” society instead.
The International Order has only 250 members in the United States. It’s actually a very old organization, having been founded in 1695 by Austrian Count Franz Anton von Sporck.
The Order exists in theory merely to “honor God by honoring his creatures,” according to its motto, but over the centuries, the Order has counted among its members royalty, noblemen, political leaders and aristocratic members of society; even today, the Order is led by a bona fide Austrian Archduke.
There are only 600 members of the society (all male) worldwide. While the Order isn’t secret per se, it has nonetheless stayed out of the limelight until recently, gaining unwanted attention with Scalia’s death.
In 1938, the Order was banned in Austria after it refused to admit Nazis when Germany annexed the alpine country. In 1950, it was reconstituted at the request of Leopold Figl, the chancellor of Austria. In 1966, the American chapter of the Order was created at the Bohemian Club of San Francisco.
The Bohemian Club, for those who are not aware, is an elite private club that has two locations, one in San Francisco and one in Sonoma County, the latter known as Bohemian Grove. It’s at the latter site that arcane and arguably Satanic rituals are performed.
This is most curious because membership in the Bohemian Club is typically limited to only the most connected and powerful of the elite of society; past and present members have been Senators, Congressmen, U.S. presidents, Chairmen and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and military men, along with a smattering of creative artists such as famous authors and actors.
Every year, the club holds a two-week camp that features nighttime ceremonies and theatrical performances. Pageantry, pyrotechnics and costumes all feature in the rites, which take place at the edge of a lake where a 40-foot-tall statue of an owl has been constructed.
Until recently, no outsider had ever witnessed the Club’s shocking “Cremation of Care” ceremony wherein an effigy is placed on a makeshift altar by hooded figures and burned while members of the club cheer. The club has all sorts of hijinks and customs that are known only to members, all of whom are sworn to secrecy.
As an ultra-elite private gathering, the Bohemian Grove congregations have no peers except perhaps the storied Bilderberg conferences or the Trilateral Commission meetings, many of which take place outside the United States and often include more international figures. That the American branch of the Order of St. Hubertus was constituted at the Bohemian Club is very telling, indeed.
It has now come out that the man who flew Scalia to Cibolo Creek is C. Allan Foster, a Chancellor and Grand Knight Officer of the Order. Foster and Scalia were well-acquainted, with Foster having argued at least one case before the Supreme Court previously. For the trip to the Ranch, Scalia declined his normal security detail, which is usually provided by the U.S. Marshals Service.
In fact, some 35 other guests at the Ranch that weekend were also members of the Order of St. Hubertus, so it can probably be assumed that there was some kind of meeting and/or ritual or ceremony taking place at the Ranch during the time of Scalia’s visit.
It’s known that the Ranch played host to at least one previous gathering of Order members in 2010 when the Austrian leaders of the Order attended. On both occasions, Poindexter stated that some members of the group dressed in “traditional European shooting attire.”
Over the years, the Ranch has hosted celebrities including Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall (who is now the wife of media baron Rupert Murdoch) and film actor Randy Quaid, who infamously ran up a $25,000 bill and fled to Canada, bizarrely claiming that hit men were out to kill him and his wife.
Was Scalia a member of the Order? Nothing exists to indicate that, and the press contacts of the Order have denied it. At the same time, they’ve also refused to release their membership lists.
Perhaps they were inducting him into the society? Or was there a darker purpose? It should be noted that the Order has held at least one induction ceremony in Washington D.C.
There has been talk that Scalia had been invited to Cibolo Creek by John Poindexter as a “gift” for the Justice finding in his favor in an age discrimination case before the court. While this sort of quid pro quo arrangement is blatantly unethical, Poindexter has claimed this was the reason for Scalia’s presence at the Ranch.
Even more revelatory than the strange facts surrounding the Order are the characteristics and décor of the ranch buildings, especially the one where Scalia died.
One of three main compounds at the Ranch, this building was elaborately decorated with devil-like masks and sculptures that at first glance one would swear have the appearance of artifacts of the occult. (Images of the interior of the building can be seen by performing a Google Image Search on “Cibolo mask.”)
In the hallway right outside the room where Scalia died, there were full-size beds placed every 10 feet, apparently for decorative purposes. However, if one looks at photos of these halls, there is a distinctly spooky aura that can be discerned. It is certainly hard to picture everyday hunters or even tourists staying at this building.
When Scalia died, he had beside him on a night table a breathing apparatus (Scalia was known to have a problem with sleep apnea, among other health concerns) that was apparently unused. There were also three pillows stacked up supporting Scalia, with the pillowcase of the topmost one found covering his eyes.
Poindexter personally discovered Scalia the following day, and he made a call to Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez, who in cases such as these has jurisdiction over any death inquiry.
Initially, Poindexter was reluctant to say who had died and insisted that the matter needed to be dealt with at the federal level. Dominguez argued with him but agreed to come out to the Ranch. At this point, Scalia’s identity was revealed and his family was contacted.
As the story goes, Scalia’s family were apparently more concerned about getting his body back to Virginia quickly, and thus, the official death inquiry was actually held over the phone by county Judge Cinderela Guevara.
No autopsy was performed. This was due, according to Texas officials, to the wishes of Scalia’s family. The U.S. Marshals Service informed the FBI that the death was due to natural causes, and therefore, the FBI was prevented from conducting an investigation by its own regulations. Scalia’s body was removed, and the events were over less than 24 hours after they had transpired. Or were they really complete?
It’s emerged that at least two of the other members of the Order present at the Ranch had flown in on private planes one day before Scalia’s death and departed 30 minutes apart from each other the following day.
It was only later that pictures of the Ranch building and its occult-like interior were released. Intense mainstream press scrutiny was given to Poindexter and C. Allan Foster, and the link to the Order of St. Hubertus was documented.
On Foster’s part, it was recalled that in 2006, he had flown 40 guests from Washington D.C. to a Czech castle in Moravia where a masked costume ball was held. In the wake of Scalia’s death, repeated press inquiries were dismissed by Foster’s organization, which said he was unavailable for comment and traveling in Argentina.
As for Poindexter, he’s been called a recluse in the media and been labeled an extremely private individual. He’s avoided giving interviews in the past, despite his company having a value in excess of $700 million.
It’s known that he made substantial political contributions to Democratic Party candidates and was honored for his service in Vietnam personally by President Obama.
At this point, any other details are pure speculation, but it was certainly common knowledge in the legal profession how much literal and figurative weight Scalia carried in his job and how great an impact his death would have on the Court and American politics.
Most Republicans probably wish Scalia had been able to survive at least one more year, enduring beyond the 2016 presidential election.
Now, a political crisis has resulted, with Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans locked in a war over who will be nominated to be Scalia’s replacement and whether the Republicans will even hold nomination confirmation hearings.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed not to let these take place since this is Obama’s last year of his last term. This could prove to be unwise come the fall when Congressional Republicans are up for election along with the two parties’ presidential candidates. Obstructing the nomination process could be considered by voters to be hindering the process of government.
Neither Obama nor Republican establishment figures have indicated a willingness nor a desire to conduct an independent investigation into Scalia’s death. Whether this is by design or by happenstance is anyone’s guess.
Certainly, with Obama, there was no love lost between the two. In fact, the president declined to attend the Justice’s funeral, a bitter partisan snub that many Washington insiders decried.
Could it be there are unpleasant details or unseemly connections these insiders don’t want revealed?
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and political commentators have declared that Scalia’s death looks suspicious, and many believe there should be an investigation. Whether or not this will come to pass may hinge on who’s ultimately elected in the fall.
