Federal Crimes

No idea what one could get from a mail box (Birthday cash from Nana? Who else sends anything important/valuable by the U.S.P.S. these days?) but I s'pose it beats violent crime.

Federal Waste, Fraud & Abuse: Ray Bradbury's F.B.I. file. Absorb this lesson well:

Abso-fucking-lutely no one is to be trusted, ever.

Compare & contrast Mr. Bradbury's statement w/ the paranoia of the F.B.I. informants below.

Anyone can squeal, at any time. "Informants" actually contacted the F.B.I. to bitch & moan that Ray Bradbury was subversive, opposed to the Vietnam mess, had "ridiculed the U.S. Gov't.", yada yada.

And beyond Bradbury, a comsymp cabal of science fiction writers predicting that World War III might not be winnable. Imagine!

You'll note two names below are not redacted. I assume that's because, like the man they thought they'd ratted out, they're dead now. (Or were they simply proud of their paranoia? And why do they both have my initials?)

MARTIN A. BERKELEY,
1336 North Benedict Canyon Road
Los Angeles, California (4/10/59) 

MARTIN A. BERKELEY, a self admitted former member of the CP in New York City and Los Angeles, California, and who has previously testified under oath before the HCUA on April 10, 1959, advised that BRADBURY was one of the more prominent writers of science fiction in the United States.

He also felt BRADBURY was probably sympathetic with certain pro-Communist elements in the WGAw. He stated BRADBURY, during a meeting of Screen Writers Guild (SWG), now known as WGAw, entered into a discussion of a resolution propounded for the membership as to whether or not to keep CP-members and those writers who had invoked the Fifth Amendment from becoming members of the SWG.

BERKELEY reported that BRADBURY, during the course of the discussion, rose to his feet and shouted "Cowards and McCarthyites" when the resolution was discussed. BERKELEY stated it has been his observation that some of the writers suspected of having Communist backgrounds have been writing in the field of science fiction and it appears that science fiction may be a lucrative field for the introduction of Communist ideologies. He noted that some of BRADBURY's stories have been definitely slanted against the United States and its capitalistic form of Government. [sic]

LA T-3:(1/5/59)

Informant observed that Communists have found fertile opportunities for development; for spreading distrust and lack of confidence in American institutions in the area of science fiction writing. Informant declared that a number of science fiction writers have created illusions with regard to the impossibility of continuing world affairs in an organized manner now or in the future through the medium of futuristic stories concerned with the potentialities of science.

Informant advised that individuals such as RAY BRADBURY are in a position to spread poison concerning institutions in general and American institutions in particular. He noted that individuals such as BRADBURY have reached a large audience through their writings which are generally published in paper backed volumes in large quantities. Informant stated that the general aim of these science fiction writers is to frighten the people into a state of paralysis or psychologica1 incompetence bordering on hysteria which would make it very possible to conduct a Third World War in which the American people believe could not be won since their morale had been
seriously destroyed. 

The informant observed that this appeal taken by the science fiction writers sympathetic to Communist ideology, is similar to the approach taken by a small number of scientists who hold that it is impossible to conceive of war without threatening the isolation of the Universe. [sic]

MILTON BUTTREY 
901 Hermosa Avenue
Redondo Beach, California 
(May 1, 1953)

BUTTREY advised that BRADBURY, during the course of a talk before the Southwest Manuscriptors, a writers group, on November 21, 1952, at Clark Stadium, Hermosa Beach, ridiculed the United States Government and the HCUA hearings. Informant described BRADBURY as a science fiction writer, whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and books.

Seriously. Some two-bit asshole in Redondo Beach called the F.B.I. because some dirty pinko/fairy dared ridicule the United States Gov't., a bureau of which was ridiculous enough to record & keep this paranoid idiocy, while denying the existence of the Mafia. Ridiculous? No, completely absurd!