The “Caliphate” Tape

This is a transcript of a 45-minute audio tape made at a meeting involving Grady Louis McMurtry, William Breeze, Jim Wasserman, Richard Gernon, Michael Kramer and Alan Cabal. The discussion concerns Liber CXCIV (Book 194), “An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order”. The exact date of the meeting is unknown; according to witnesses, it took place in the spring of 1984, when the “Caliphate” was still in its infancy with regard to implementing the organisational structure of the Constitution of this O.T.O.

In 1983, McMurtry travelled to Europe for initiations. His health was already failing, and during that journey he had to be cared for by David Rietti, a brother with nursing experience. McMurtry returned in October 1983, and his travel was thereafter largely curtailed because of ill health. D.R.’s differences with O.T.O. came much later and are dealt with in Peter-R. Koenig’s “Noch Mehr Materialien zum O.T.O.”.

The East Coast trip was probably connected with the Motta v. Weiser suit in Maine, where McMurtry testified as a witness, not as a litigant, in March 1984. That appearance apparently almost did him in, health-wise. Afterwards, McMurtry was hospitalised intermittently until his death, owing to congestive heart failure. He had been hospitalised for the same reason earlier, and during the 1985 Ninth District case in San Francisco he was able to attend only some of the time, and then in a wheelchair. He died shortly after Ad Veritatem’s (Wasserman’s) Tahuti Lodge “healing ritual” on 15 July 1985.

The audio recording is of high quality and has been carefully preserved.

The voices can be recognised immediately. Anyone familiar with the situation can identify: Michael Kramer, who operated the turbulent and infamous Kephra Chapter O.T.O. from the Newkirk Plaza apartment in Brooklyn in the 1980s; Richard Gernon, who succeeded Wasserman as Tahuti Lodge Master and is also discussed in Motta’s OTO News, page 513 of Magick Without Tears, Part 2; James Wasserman, the former GSG, who in December 1998 resigned the post of “Revolutionary”, a title discussed in this meeting; Bill Breeze, who later assumed the position of O.H.O. of the current “Caliphate”; Alan Cabal, who in January 1999 was “kicked out of the Caliphate” for “unauthorised XI degree initiations”; and, finally, the late Grady Louis McMurtry himself, who died in July 1985.

The meeting took place in an apartment on Marlboro Road near Newkirk Plaza in Brooklyn, New York. According to Bill Heidrick, Breeze himself, less than two years before this foreword was written, admitted to the meeting, but quickly added the disclaimer that McMurtry had been throwing a tantrum that day after losing a game of Risk, the board game that simulates global domination. This disclaimer was apparently intended to diminish the significance of McMurtry’s disagreements with the others during the meeting.

The general topic is the plan to implement the Constitution of the Order.

The subject may have been influenced by Grady McMurtry’s interpretation of the “election notice” sent out by Karl Germer. Germer quoted or paraphrased Crowley’s election procedure from the Constitution of the Order of Thelemites. McMurtry seems to have taken it as applying to both A.·.A.·. and O.T.O., although the election was never held. This “election notice” formed part of McMurtry’s distinction between Germer as de facto or de jure O.H.O.; in 1985, the U.S. Ninth Federal Court determined that there was no meaningful distinction between those two standings.

Everyone knew that the tape was being made. After Grady’s death, multiple copies became available. The late Richard Gernon is even rumoured to have sold a copy shortly before his suicide to support his publicly known drug habit. The point is that the tape has passed through the hands of people now dead, people unavailable or untraceable, non-initiates, initiates of other disciplines, and initiates who are currently banned from the Order (Cabal) or seeking a new burst of fame (Kramer).

Before the tape ends, Wasserman asks to go off the record, and the recording is paused while Bill Heidrick is discussed. When the tape resumes, McMurtry describes Heidrick’s situation and disposition. The East Coast “Caliphate” O.T.O. plainly had a long-standing hostility toward Heidrick, who was depicted as a loathsome character. It is assumed that, in the back of his mind, Heidrick had expected to be named “Caliph” by McMurtry after McMurtry’s death; see also Heidrick’s letter to Kenneth Grant, dated 9 September 1985, reproduced in P.R. Koenig’s Materialien zum O.T.O.

Apparently there was the impression that Heidrick was a wealthy man who lacked imagination and ability but compensated with money and time. At the end of the tape McMurtry says, in effect, that if Breeze and company want Heidrick out, he is out, but that they should not overlook the value of his material worth, enthusiasm, and whatever else. Since Heidrick had published The Magickal Link newsletter for years, McMurtry felt that he had “enormous talent”. There was nevertheless talk of taking control of The Magickal Link away from Heidrick after McMurtry’s death.

Elsewhere in the transcript, McMurtry acknowledges that Breeze and Wasserman regard Heidrick as a bureaucrat: a frustrating and ugly politician. The label was not without merit; however, Grady quickly points out that, while Heidrick might be a bureaucrat, Breeze was perceived as a “corporate” type, and that both management styles — corporate O.T.O. and bureaucratic O.T.O. — would lead to being out of touch with the members of the Order. Many former members of the “Caliphate” agree. The O.T.O. was never meant to be a business or a form of government.

The tape ends abruptly. It is not currently known how much more of this conversation is available.

January 1999