Hougan's first book, Decadence, was published soon after his return from Europe. His second book, Spooks, reported on the "metastasis" of the American intelligence community and the emerging "cryptocracy." In its review, the Los Angeles Times declared Spooks "one of the best non-fiction books of the year, a monument of fourth-level research and fact-searching."[citation needed]Howard Hughes, Robert Maheu, Robert Vesco, Aristotle Onassis, and Yoshio Kodama were among the book's more infamous subjects, but its most important contribution to the investigative canon may have been its reportage about lesser known intelligence agents such as Bernard Spindel, Lou Russell, Mitch WerBell, John Frank, Joseph Shimon and others.[third-party source needed]
Hougan testified at the trial of Mark Knops, editor of the Madison Kaleidoscope, a newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin.[7]
As Washington Editor of Harper's Magazine (1979–84), Hougan wrote extensively about the U.S. intelligence community, and the CIA in particular.[citation needed] His investigation of the Watergate break-in uncovered links between the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office building and a call-girl ring at a nearby apartment complex.[citation needed] This liaison arrangement, coupled with evidence implicating the CIA in the operation, led to the publication of Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA by Random House in 1984. A Book of the Month Club selection, Secret Agenda was chosen by The New York Times as "one of the year's most noteworthy books."[citation needed] Hougan made appearances on such programs as NPR's All Things Considered, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and programs hosted by Larry King, Tom Snyder, and Regis Philbin.[citation needed]
In the mid-1980s, Hougan and author Sally Denton formed Hougan & Denton, a Washington-based company that did investigative research for law firms and labor unions. Clients included the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the United Mine Workers of America, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).[citation needed] During this period, Hougan joined with Norman Mailer and Edward Jay Epstein in forming what Hougan characterized as "an invisible salon," but which The New York Times called "a small coterie of intelligence buffs, conspiracy theorists and meta-political speculators, who, with all proper self-mockery, call themselves 'the Dynamite Club.'" The group met irregularly at the Manhattan apartment of Edward Jay Epstein and at the Washington manse of Bernard "Bud" Fensterwald (founder of the Assassination Archives and Research Center in Washington, D.C.). Attendees included Dick Russell (author of The Man Who Knew Too Much), Don DeLillo (Libra and Underworld), Kevin Coogan (Dreamer of the Day), G. Gordon Liddy (Will) and others. At the time, Hougan was helping Norman Mailer in his research for what became the latter's CIA novel, Harlot's Ghost. While Mailer referred to these informal gatherings– drinks and dinner– as "meetings," the affairs had more in common with those of a salon than of an actual "club."[8]
In early 1991, Hougan was retained as a private investigator by AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Department (IUD) and by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). At stake were the jobs of more than 1,700 workers at the Ravenswood Aluminum Corporation (RAC) in Ravenswood, West Virginia– a demographic that constituted the majority of the town's workforce. Hougan discovered that the plant from which the workers had been locked-out was secretly controlled by Marc Rich, a fugitive billionaire and commodities broker then resident in Zug, Switzerland. For the next two years, Hougan led the investigative component of an international campaign marked by demonstrations in Switzerland and England, and by congressional hearings in Washington and parliamentary speeches in Bern. In the summer of 1992, Rich finally capitulated and the Steelworkers returned to their jobs. The Ravenswood campaign has since been called "one of the most innovative and sophisticated contract campaigns ever waged by an American union. What happened in this small West Virginia town serves as a beacon of hope for American workers..."[9]
Hougan participated in G. Gordon Liddy's radio show on June 18, 1992, at the Watergate Hotel on the 20th anniversary of the Watergate crime, with Len Colodny along with John Barrett, Paul Leeper, and Carl Shoffler, the three arresting police officers. The event was broadcast nationwide by C-SPAN.[10]
In 1993, Hougan became one of the first, if not the first, American journalist to return to Beirut after years of internecine warfare, kidnappings and bombings.[citation needed] On assignment for the television documentary program, 60 Minutes, Hougan and Lowell Bergman paved the way for Mike Wallace to interview three of Hezbollah's most powerful figures: its spiritual leader, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah; its former Secretary-General, Sheik Subhi al-Tufayli; and Hussein Mussawi, an Iranian agent and head of Islamic Amal. Both Musawi and Tufayli have been implicated in Lebanon's torturous Hostage Crisis. The segment, titled "Three Days in Beirut," aired on January 16, 1994.[11] Hougan continued to work for 60 Minutes over the next two years, after which he returned to writing books.
These were thrillers, all but one written with his wife, the novelist Carolyn Hougan, using the pseudonym, "John Case."[12] The first of these of was The Genesis Code (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997), a New York Times best-seller. The First Horseman (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998) followed a year later. Kingdom Come (New York: Ballantine Books, 2000) was published under his own name, and was subsequently reprinted as The Magdalen Cipher after becoming a bestseller in Spain.[13] To date, his subsequent novels, all written under the John Case pseudonym, include The Syndrome (2002); The Eighth Day (2002); The Murder Artist (2004); and Ghost Dancer (2007). All were published in the U.S. by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., as well as by publishers in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Writing with his wife as "John Case," Hougan has twice been short-listed for the Hammett Prize, honoring literary excellence in crime writing.[14][third-party source needed]
Hougan’s wife Carolyn died from stomach cancer in 2007.[15]
In 2014, his former high school publicly recognized him and five others as "graduates of distinction."[16] He lives in Afton, Virginia.[12]
Rebecca Moore endorsed Hougan's body of work as being the "most credible example of leftist conspiracy literature."[18] She expanded on this in another article, where she writes: "I described Mr. Hougan's article in Lobster as falling within the genre of conspiracy literature. I stand by that statement, and I believe other readers of the article would agree. [...] I believe the editors published Mr. Hougan's piece because of its conspiracy themes. However, there is a difference between an article written by a professional conspiracist, and an article with a conspiracy theme written by an investigative reporter. I recognize the importance of making that distinction, and I am happy to do so."[19]
Filmography
Hougan's films include The Vodka Dons, a documentary for the Discovery Channel about the Russian Mafia in the United States.
He served as executive producer for the 1982 documentary, Frank Terpil: Confessions of a Dangerous Man.[20] In 1998, he produced Jonestown: Mystery of a Massacre, an episode of the TV show Investigative Reports, hosted by Bill Kurtis.[21] The documentary aired on November 9, 1998 on A&E in the United States and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.[22]
Hougan provided a featured interview for a 2004 episode of the television documentary series, Betrayal!, regarding disgraced CIA officerEdwin Wilson.[23]
"Mexico Raises a Counter-Culture." The Nation, vol. 215, no. 8 (September 25, 1972), pp.238–240.
On the emergence of counterculture in Mexico and the liberalization of women's roles on young men. Explores the impact of rock lyrics on a counterculture and speculates why a conservative government and an up-tight bourgeoisie try to suppress a counter-culture without first making an attempt to understand it.
"London: Helen Vlachos Doesn’t Love You Anymore." Capital Times [Madison, Wis.], vol. 111, no. 140 (Nov. 20, 1972), p.31.
"Greece: The Illusion of Stability." The Nation, vol. 216, no. 11 (Mar. 12, 1973), pp.329–334.
Discusses various political and economic issues related to Greece: economic implications of terrorism, effects of massive industrialization, and relations with other countries.
"Less than Meets the Eye: Bob Woodward's Pseudosecrets" (Jan. 5, 1988). Review of VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987 by Bob Woodward. Village Voice [New York], vol. 33, no. 1. p.52.
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17, 1972, break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., at the Watergate Office Building.
Allen Welsh Dulles was an American lawyer who was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he oversaw the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the Lockheed U-2 aircraft program, the Project MKUltra mind control program and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He was fired by John F. Kennedy over the latter fiasco.
George Gordon Battle Liddy was an American lawyer, criminal and FBI agent who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.
The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.
Frank Anthony Sturgis, born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Jeb Stuart Magruder was an American businessman and high-level political operative in the Republican Party who served time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal.
Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was an American intelligence officer and author. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), particularly in the United States involvement in regime change in Latin America including the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Along with G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Sturgis, and others, Hunt was one of the Nixon administration "plumbers", a team of operatives charged with identifying government sources of national security information "leaks" to outside parties. Hunt and Liddy plotted the Watergate burglaries and other clandestine operations for the Nixon administration. In the ensuing Watergate scandal, Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison. After release, Hunt lived in Mexico and then Florida until his death.
Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information in 1972 to Bob Woodward, who shared it with Carl Bernstein. Woodward and Bernstein were reporters for The Washington Post, and Deep Throat provided key details about the involvement of U.S. president Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. In 2005, 31 years after Nixon's resignation and 11 years after Nixon's death, a family attorney stated that former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Associate Director Mark Felt was Deep Throat. By then, Felt was suffering from dementia and had previously denied being Deep Throat, but Woodward and Bernstein then confirmed the attorney's claim.
John Wesley Dean III is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland. After his plea, he was disbarred.
The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, the Room 16 Project, or more officially, the White House Special Investigations Unit, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit, established within a week of the publication of the Pentagon Papers in June 1971, during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Its task was to stop and/or respond to the leaking of classified information, such as the Pentagon Papers, to the news media. The work of the unit "tapered off" after the bungled "Ellsberg break-in" but some of its former operatives branched into illegal activities while still employed at the White House together with managers of the Committee to Re-elect the President, including the Watergate break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal. The group has been described as Nixon's "fixers".
Bernard Leon Barker was a Watergate burglar and undercover operative in CIA-directed plots to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Jonathan Kwitny was an American investigative journalist.
The Watergate scandal refers to the burglary and illegal wiretapping of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in the Watergate complex by members of President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, and the subsequent cover-up of the break-in resulting in Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, as well as other abuses of power by the Nixon White House that were discovered during the course of the scandal.
Mark Lane was an American attorney, New York state legislator, civil rights activist, and Vietnam war-crimes investigator. Sometimes referred to as a gadfly, Lane is best known as a leading researcher, author, and conspiracy theorist on the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. Lane authored 10 books on the JFK assassination, including Rush to Judgment,, the 1966 number-one bestselling critique of the Warren Commission and Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK, published in 2011.
Donald Freed is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, historian, teacher and activist. According to Freed's friend and colleague, the late Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, "(Freed) is a writer of blazing imagination, courage and insight. His work is a unique and fearless marriage of politics and art."
Bernard "Bud" Fensterwald Jr. was an American lawyer who defended James Earl Ray and James W. McCord Jr. Other notable clients included Mitch WerBell, Richard Case Nagell and the widow of John Paisley.
Cord Meyer IV was a war veteran, a world federalist, a CIA official and a writer. After serving in World War II as a Marine officer in the Pacific War, where he was both injured and decorated, he led the United World Federalists in the years after the war. Around 1949, he began working for the CIA, where he became a high-level operative, retiring in 1977. After retiring from intelligence work in 1977, Meyer wrote as a columnist and book author.
Robert Aime Maheu was an American businessman and lawyer, who worked for the FBI and CIA, and as the chief executive of Nevada operations for the industrialist Howard Hughes.
The CIA Kennedy assassination is a prominent John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. According to ABC News, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is represented in nearly every theory that involves American conspirators. The secretive nature of the CIA, and the conjecture surrounding the high-profile political assassinations in the United States during the 1960s, has made the CIA a plausible suspect for some who believe in a conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists have ascribed various motives for CIA involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy, including Kennedy's firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, Kennedy's refusal to provide air support to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy's plan to cut the agency's budget by 20 percent, and the belief that the president was weak on communism.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 has spawned numerous conspiracy theories. These theories allege the involvement of the CIA, the Mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or some combination of these individuals and entities. Some conspiracy theories have alleged a coverup by parts of the federal government, such as the original FBI investigators, the Warren Commission, or the CIA. Former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people had been accused at one time or another in various conspiracy scenarios.
"G. Gordon Liddy, who spent more than four years in prison for his involvement in the Watergate break-in, hosted a radio talk show live from the Watergate Hotel to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the crime. The show featured the three officers who made the arrest of the burglars."
↑ "Three Days in Beirut."60 Minutes, CBS. Season 26, Episode 47 (Jan. 16, 1994). 16 min. — via The Paley Center for Media: "Mike Wallace goes to Lebanon to interview retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cowan, who is heading up an investigation of the terrorist attacks against Americans during the 1980s. Cowan believes that Syria, and therefore Syrian President Hafas Assad, knew about and helped organize many of the attacks, including the bombing of the United States Embassy, the kidnapping of Terry Anderson, and the kidnapping and murder of William Buckley. Wallace then questions three leaders of the Hesballah, or 'Party of God,' the terrorist army that controls the southern portion of Beirut, who deny any involvement in the attacks." Summary.
↑ Staff writer (Jul. 29, 2014). "Six honored as Horlick Graduates of Distinction."Journal Times. "Jim Hougan, Class of 1960—While at Horlick High School, Hougan participated in baseball, cross-country, and was a member of the extra-curricular discussion group 'Stimulus' which focused on current events. It was this discussion group that began to prepare Hougan for a career in journalism that would take him abroad and back to the U.S. where he would work as Washington Editor of Harper's Magazine and as a producer for Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes. Hougan is also an accomplished author who along with his late wife Carolyn, wrote a series of best-selling thrillers under the name 'John Case.' Hougan is currently working on a new novel and last year traveled to Havana for the Frontline program on PBS to interview one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, a former CIA officer who has been on the run for more than 30 years."
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