William Cooper

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[[File:Milton William Cooper.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Cooper]]
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{{cquote|I believe that any man without principles that he is ready and willing to die for at any given moment is already dead and is of no use or consequence whatever.|||William Cooper<ref name=behold>[https://archive.org/details/pdfy-fK_LIU_yIP8YBTfX/page/n83/mode/2up ''Behold a Pale Horse''] by Milton William Cooper (1991) Light Technology Publishing. {{isbn|0929385225}}.</ref>{{rp|4}}}}
{{cquote|The world will always remember Bill Cooper as an egotistic paranoia monger. Indeed, to many he was an arrogant, obnoxious, choleric, self-aggrandizing, rude, vitriolic and vengeful person.|||Norio Hayakawa, eulogy by his friend, and former-ufologist<ref name=hayakawa>[https://web.archive.org/web/20011124005648/https://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/norio_coop.html Ode to Wild Bill Cooper] by Norio Hayakawa (11/7/01 11:13:14 PM PST) ''Cyber Space Orbit'' (archived from November 24, 2001).</ref>}}

'''Milton William "Bill" Cooper''' {{lived|1943|2001}} was the [[conspiracy theorist]] whom other conspiracy theorists wish they could be. Getting his start in [[radio]] in the 1980s, Cooper was the first to mix [[New World Order]] (NWO) conspiracy theories with [[New Age]] nonsense like [[ufology|UFOs]]. His book, ''[[Behold a Pale Horse]]'',<ref name=behold/> could be found in the New Age section of many book stores. You can also thank him for popularizing the term "[[sheeple]]" (though he didn't coin it). Cooper was closely associated with, if not a member of, the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref name=kirk>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111120095346/https://mg.co.za/article/2000-09-08-govt-aids-nut-linked-to-ku-klux-klan/ Govt Aids nut linked to Ku Klux Klan] by Paul Kirk (Sep 08 2000 10:52) ''Mail & Guardian''.</ref><ref name=sidley>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127850/ South African leaders come under pressure to admit HIV/AIDS link] by Pat Sidley (2000) ''BMJ'' 321(7263):722.</ref>

Cooper was a raging [[alcoholic]],<ref name=hayakawa/><ref name=jacobson>''Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, the Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in America'' by Mark Jacobson (2018) Blue Rider Press. {{isbn|0399169954}}.</ref>{{rp|54}} and he was married to as many as nine women.<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|53}} He engaged in [[Domestic violence|physical and verbal abuse to at least three of these women]].<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|54,56-57,127,265}} Cooper also exhibited symptoms of untreated bipolar disorder,<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|54,141}} which when combined with substance abuse, increases the risk of violence in males.<ref>[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26771949/ Substance use is a risk factor for violent behavior in male patients with bipolar disorder] by İzgi Alnıak et al. (2016) '' J. Affect. Disord.'' 193:89-93. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2015.12.059.</ref>

Cooper claimed to have been a member of the Order of DeMolay, an 'appendant body' of [[Freemasonry]].<ref name=fbcy>[https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/cooper_m.html Milton William Cooper] ''Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon''.</ref> He claimed that his membership gave him insight into the workings of the NWO.<ref name=fbcy/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181106235538/http://www.konformist.com/2002/cooper/cooper-robertm.htm William Cooper Epitaph] by Robert D. Morningstar (January 2002) ''The Könformist'' (archived from November 6, 2018).</ref>

Although he was swimming in the same waters as [[Alex Jones]] many years before Jones became popular, Cooper had a reputation for denouncing most of his rival conspiracy theorists as being part of the conspiracy themselves, leaving him as a [[paranoid]]. In particular, he accused the New Ager [[David Icke]] of teaching the doctrines of mystery religions and of fear-mongering, and accused Alex Jones of inflicting hysteria among people with his rants.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydC4Y4AyYPQ "Alex Jones is a rotten liar - Milton William Cooper"]. YouTube.</ref>  

==Supposed background==
He claims to have been in the U.S. Air Force (like fellow conspiracy theorist [[Texe Marrs]]) as well as Naval Intelligence, where he supposedly saw top secret documents detailing U.S. involvement with [[evil]] [[space aliens]]. We'd love to believe his self-published military records, but we note that he's also published "authentic" documents revealing the [[Satanic Panic|U.S. Army's connection to Satanism]],<ref name=behold/>{{rp|361-380}} the existence of Moon Bases,<ref name=behold/>{{rp|212,221,423,436}} and aliens at [[Area 51]].<ref name=behold/>{{rp|397-441}} However, all that can be confirmed by public records is that he was in the Navy with a rating of E5, served a tour of duty in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]], and received two service medals in 1969.<ref name=behold/>{{rp|381-396}}<ref>[https://aad.archives.gov/aad/display-partial-records.jsp?f=4254&mtch=2&q=milton+william+cooper&cat=all&dt=1784&tf=F aad.archives.gov Search for: milton william cooper] ''Access to Archives Databases (AAD).</ref> One reporter claimed that Cooper functioned as a low-level clerk without access to classified information.<ref name=kirk/>

==Conspiracy theories==
Cooper started out believing that the UFO people were controlling the world, and that UFO technology had been used in Vietnam. He became one of the stars on the UFO lecture circuit, writing books that alleged that space aliens were part of the [[New World Order]]. He later claimed that the secret papers he had supposedly read while allegedly in "Naval Intelligence" were fake and that he had in fact been deliberately tricked into believing in aliens (although he did claim he witnessed the emergence of a UFO from the ocean), and it was all part of an [[Illuminati]] plot, including the [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory|JFK assassination]] and [[Moon landing hoax|faked Moon landings]]. Or maybe the [[goat]] [[Didit fallacy|did it]]. Who knows?  

His book, ''Behold a Pale Horse'', contained the text of [[The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]], which he prefaced by claiming the text didn't refer to [[Jews]], but to the evil Illuminati (supposedly connected with the [[Priory of Sion]] and the [[Knights Templar]]) and their master plan to control the great unwashed masses of "[[sheeple|cattle]]."<ref name=behold/>{{rp|267-332}} It is functionally a form of [[dogwhistling]], similar to how [[David Icke#Not anti-Semitic|David Icke has claimed that his Lizard People are not really meant to be Jews]].

==Media==
If you've heard of him at all, you've probably seen his book, or you heard of the radio show he had on [[shortwave]], ''Hour of the Time'' (HOTT), delivering his "Mystery [[Babylon]] Series" of lectures. He encouraged pirate radio and [[free speech]]. He operated a low-power pirate television station, and a low-power FM pirate radio station in his hometown of Eagar, Arizona.{{efn|Allan Weiner, owner of WBCQ, demonstrated Bill Cooper's television transmitter built into an ammo can, at the North American Shortwave Association listener festival in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania, c. 2006.}} In the early 1990s his radio show was broadcast via satellite.{{efn|Extant recordings of some early Cooper radio shows feature a station identification, "You are listening to the Hour of the Time on the Becker Satellite Network, Spacenet 2, channel 7, 7.5 audio."}} He bought air time on such stations as WRNO, [[WWCR]], and WBCQ. [[Conspiracy theorists|Listeners]] occasionally called into his show on WBCQ complaining that the Voice of America was jamming the station.{{efn|For many years, the Voice of America operated a high-power shortwave station in western Africa on or near WBCQ's frequency of 7.415 MHz, often badly interfering with WBCQ's lower powered transmissions. The VOA would use this service only a couple of hours a day, but would [[conspiracy|occasionally]] interfere with Cooper's program.}}

Several thousand hours of recordings of Cooper's radio show from 1993 to 2001 have been posted on the internet. The collection shows how Cooper covered nearly all "speculative" topics on his show, including a mammoth series about a massive conspiracy of conspiracies entitled {{sl|Mystery Babylon|'Mystery Babylon'}}.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150405021815/http://www.hourofthetime.com/wordpresstest/milton-william-bill-cooper-mp3-collection/ Complete Cooper MP3 Collection]. hott.com. Retrieved on 22 December 2016.</ref>

The popularity of his 1991 book ''Behold a Pale Horse'' in New Age bookstores{{efn|The publisher encourages because back cover of the book has always stated its subject matter as "Body, Mind & Spirit".<ref name=behold2019>''Behold a Pale Horse'' by William Cooper (2019) Light Technology Publishing. {{isbn|9780929385228}}.</ref>}}{{efn|If your body, mind or spirit are actually influenced by this book, you're likely fucked.}} marked the first real penetration of classic Illuminati conspiracy theorizing into New Age circles, where it had previously not been a factor. Icke and several others soon made a cash cow out of this market, and, thanks to Cooper and Icke, conspiracy and UFO theories are now a staple of the smorgasbord of ideas making up the New Age. Ironically, Cooper opposed the New Age movement as a "satanic cult."

===''Behold a Pale Horse''===
{{main|Behold a Pale Horse}}
[[File:Behold-pale-horse.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Front cover of ''Behold a Pale Horse'', depicting {{wpl|Bellerophon}} riding {{wpl|Pegasus}} toward the sun. Beneath Pegasus is Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, atop his pale horse.]]
The book was purportedly a manifesto for the militia movement at around the time that [[Timothy McVeigh]] and Terry Nichols were tried for mass murder in the Oklahoma City bombing.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/1997/nov/03/mcveigh.usa New trial may solve riddle of Oklahoma bombing] by Ed Vulliamy and Bruce Dirk (3 Nov 1997 10.11 EST) ''The Guardian''.</ref> It is still popular among the [[credulous]], who will regularly pay $200 to $300 on Ebay for an unsigned/unremarkable copy<ref>[https://archive.ph/wip/fKkW9 223 results for "Behold a Pale Horse": sold copies] ''Ebay'' (archived from 25 Aug 2020 06:37:08 UTC).</ref> even though it is widely available at public libraries, and be bought cheaply, and can be downloaded free from the [[Internet Archive]].<ref name=behold/> The subsequent editions of the book deleted the [[antisemitic]] {{sl|Chapter 15: Protocols of the Elders of Zion|Chapter 15}},<ref name=behold2019/> possibly because Cooper's heir(s) and/or publisher were too embarrassed to keep publishing it but still wanted a cash cow. The missing chapter apparently makes the earlier edition more valuable for [[kook]]s and antisemites. The book is a dreary and disjointed read.{{nofact}}

''Behold a Pale Horse''<ref name=behold/> begins with a quote from the Bible ({{bible|Revelation|6|8}}), from which the title of the book comes. The quote refers to [[death]], one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ("…behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death."). The second quote is by a 'Delamer Duverus' (real name: Edward Aloysius Roberts), an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who was a publisher of the ''American Sunbeam'' in Springdale, Arkansas.<ref name=hirschfeld>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130125224359/http://maxhirshfeldpictures.com/2012/05/04/delamer-duverus Delamer Duverus] by Max Hirshfeld (May 4, 2012).</ref><ref>{{wpa|Seligman Sunbeam|''Seligman Sunbeam''}}</ref>

The book also contains anti-[[Jesuit]] conspiracy theories (by way of claiming that they're part of the NWO), and [[anti-vaccination]] conspiracy theories (by way of claiming that [[AIDS]] was intentionally transmitted by vaccines).<ref name=behold/>{{rp|164-168}}

===Mystery Babylon===
Sometime after ''Behold a Pale Horse'' was published Cooper developed the concept of "Mystery Babylon", a super-duper [[unified conspiracy theory]], going from creation to the present, explaining how the world was controlled by a vast conspiracy. The term itself was taken from the {{bible|Revelation|17|5}}:
{{cquote|And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF [[Prostitution|HARLOTS]] AND [[Abomination|ABOMINATIONS]] OF THE [[Earth|EARTH]].}}
Cooper's Mystery Babylon concept is peculiarly inflected by [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s film ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', however.<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|141-146}} Whereas for [[Protestants]], the [[Whore of Babylon]] (i.e., Mystery Babylon) is generally associated with the [[Catholic Church]], instead Cooper associates its present incarnation with [[humanism]]<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|226}} and [[Mormonism]].<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|315-316}} Cooper devoted 43 hours of episodes of his HOTT radio show to Mystery Babylon.<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|141}}

==Politics==
From 1993-1994, Cooper devoted his time to developing the [[Constitution Party]] in conjunction with fellow-conspiracy theorist [[Aaron Russo]], including on his HOTT radio show.<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|238-241}}

==The 9/11 prediction myth==
{{main|9/11}}
Cooper's followers claim that he predicted the 9/11 attacks on his June 28, 2001 radio show.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150414100035/http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/04/milton-william-bill-cooper-predicts-911-and-more-on-june-28-2001-2622626.html ''Milton William “Bill” Cooper predicts 9/11 and MORE on June 28, 2001]'' Before It's News (archived from April 14, 2015).</ref> Transcripts of the show indicate that Cooper made reference to a [[CNN]] news item widely released a few days earlier on June 24<sup>th</sup> reporting that [[Osama bin Laden]] had vowed to attack [[U.S.]] and [[Israeli]] interests in the next two weeks.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070218020731/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/06/24/afghan.binladen/ Taliban dismiss bin Laden threat reports] (June 24, 2001 Posted: 8:03 AM EDT) ''CNN'' (archive from February 18, 2007).</ref> Cooper added his own spin to this report, saying that an attack would come (no date specified), it would be orchestrated by (you guessed it) the New World Order, and "bin Laden would be blamed for it."

The most important thing to note about this prediction is that it is not, by any measure, a hard one to make. Bin Laden had been a wanted terrorist for just under a decade at that point (even having his own CIA unit since 1996) and was involved with the bombing of the USS Cole less than a year before Cooper made that prediction. [[Donald Trump]] made a similar prediction in his January 2000 book ''The America We Deserve'', a year-and-a-half before Cooper did. (The prediction was equally vague.) 

Basically, guessing a well-known terrorist is planning a terrorist attack is not a hard one to make.

==Taxes…==
{{main|Tax}}
Cooper engaged in [[pseudolaw]] during his HOTT episode #28 (February 28, 1993) to justify not paying taxes. He relied on one of the more unusual attempts at claiming that paying taxes was voluntary, relying on 26 CFR 31.3402(p)-1<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/31.3402(p)-1 26 CFR § 31.3402(p)-1 - Voluntary withholding agreements] ''Legal Information Institute''.</ref> The section begins, "An employee and his employer may enter into an agreement under section 3402(p)(3)(A) to provide for the withholding of income tax…" Ordinary citizens, and indeed tax lawyers, realize that the 'may enter' in this sentence pertains to automatic tax withholding by employers, not the payment of taxes ''in toto''. Cooper however erroneously contended "that since the money was not going to the employer but rather to the government, the phrases 'voluntary' and 'may enter' carried legal significance."<ref name=jacobson/>{{rp|273}} This contention ultimately led indirectly to Cooper's death by cop.

==Meeting his own Pale Horse==
Cooper died in a shootout with [[police]], after avoiding an arrest warrant for tax evasion and bank fraud for three years.<ref name=fbcy/><ref name=splc>[https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/conspiracy-theorist-slain-police-shootout/ Conspiracy Theorist Slain in Police Shootout]. ''Intelligence Report.'' Southern Poverty Law Center, Spring 2002.</ref> [[Militia movement|Militia]] and conspiracy [[folklore]] subsequently enshrined Cooper as a [[martyr]] who was brutally beaten and murdered for "telling the truth" about a vast NWO conspiracy plot to disarm the populace in order to better subjugate them.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20050205082419/www.hourofthetime.com/nov2001.htm Milton William Cooper — True Patriot] ''Hour of the Time'' (archived from February 5, 2005). Cooper's fans have said that the autopsy reports show foul play.</ref>

Cooper openly refused to pay taxes, and the [[IRS]] charged him with income tax evasion. According to the Feds, Cooper spent years trying to avoid capture on a 1998 arrest warrant for tax evasion and "vowed that he would not be taken alive." Convinced that [[Bill Clinton]] was personally targeting him, Cooper made it known that any attempt to arrest him for such 'minor' things as assaulting a local man with a wrench and not paying taxes would be met with "armed resistance." He had broadcast threats to "kill any law enforcement officers that tried to take him" and police suspected he had a large quantity of weapons and possibly explosives in his home.

On November 5, 2001, the Apache County, [[Arizona]] sheriff's department, perhaps fearing another [[Waco]], cautiously drew Cooper away from his ostensibly [[Gun nut|weapon-filled]] house using a car parked nearby playing loud music.  According to police accounts, Cooper emerged from his house, and when police officers confronted him, he shot at them with a handgun and wounded one of them in the head. The police, not liking people shooting at them, returned fire and Cooper was killed.<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/07/news/mn-1182 ''Arizona Militia Figure Is Shot to Death''] (November 7, 2001) wire services via ''Los Angeles Times''.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Tax protester]]

==External links==
*[http://www.hourofthetime.com/ Hour of the Time]
*[http://www.archive.org/details/WilliamCooperWilliamCooperMysteryBabylonSeriesCompleteReedit119wwwgeocitiescomariainvictus The Mystery Babylon Series]
*[https://archive.org/details/hott-wbcq Hour of the Time] radio shows from the WBCQ archives

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

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Categories: Anti-Catholicism, Antisemites, Anti-vaccination movement, Authors, Booze, Christians, Conspiracy theorists, Crank magnetism, HIV/AIDS, JFK conspiracy theorists, Military, Militia movement, Paleoconservatives, Pseudolaw, Racists, Right-wing activists, Sexists, Shortwave radio, Tax protesters, Ufology, Unified conspiracy theory