JESSE BROWN

Jesse Brown lives in Costa Mesa, with his high school sweetheart, Reanna and their two teenagers, Deborah and Isaiah. At 32, he thought had everything he thought he wanted. Twelve years married; two kids, health, wealth, and then she left. Like over half of American families, they divorced. But what he discovered about himself not only brought them back together, but recently sparked in him a desire to share his “love vs lust” lessons with others through spoken word videos on his newly formed YouTube channel “Tough Love Talks”. He is also looking to publish his book “Love is Not for Pu**ies” by the end of 2018. A “Tough Love Talks” podcast may also be in the cards.

ROBBIE MOTTER

MICHAEL MCGINNIS

During Michael McGinnis’ long career as a singer, songwriter, actor, poet, and storyteller, He directed the music for, and performed with, the internationally popular New Christy Minstrels, a group that spawned Kenny Rogers, The rest of the First Edition, Kim Carnes, and Barry McGuire. He has also toured extensively with his own band, the Rodeo Gypsies. Michael has six major label recordings to his credit, Besides It’s All Good, and was the first artist ever to produce a full-length music video for EMI Video. Many major artists, including Kim Carnes, Don Henley, Michael McDonald, Wayne Newton, and Captain Kangaroo have recorded his songs. He is a published poet, and contributes to several literary magazines. He and his friend the legendary David P. Jackson, have collected Michael’s best ever performance pieces on It’s All Good, producing a compilation of material which showcase his experience, strength and hope in a sensitive, funny, and altogether delightful way. Featured on this album are Stephen Geyer, (Great American Hero, and Hotrod Hearts) and Danny Wheatman (John Denver Band, and Marley’s Ghost).

More About Michael Mc Ginnis…

Born in February of 1942 in Peoria, Illinois, the third and last child of Francis and Dr. Clifford McGinnis, Michael spent his early years riding his pony, Star, and fantasizing about being a cowboy movie star. When he started school, the reality that hardly any of the other children in his class acted this way was quite startling to him. Often he wore his pajama top to school, because it was the closest thing he had to a pirate shirt. He never quite understood why that didn’t completely bowl the girls at school over, when it worked so well for Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas in the movies.

His parents were quite musical, and Michael started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of five. This was disastrous, because he already knew all the beginning piano tunes by ear from listening to his older brothers play them, so he didn’t really bother with learning how to read the music, he just played them from memory. This of course displeased his teacher greatly, subsequently, Michael could often be found hiding behind the chicken house when it was time to practice or take a lesson.

Sometime around the age of seven, Michael’s dad took him to a nighttime rodeo at the Peoria motor speedway. This was a particularly special event for several reasons. They did not take the rest of the family; it was at night after dark, and past his bedtime; and something life changing occurred in the middle of the whole thing. The McGinnis family owned lots of horses, and Michael had already been to many horse shows and rodeos in his young life, but at this one, during the intermission, the lights went down, and the spotlight came up and out of the shoots on a big white horse, and dressed in a burgundy cowboy suit trimmed in rhinestones, rode Tex Ritter, the singing cowboy movie star. Tex rode to the center of the arena, and strumming his rhinestone-decorated guitar, sang, “Blood on the Saddle”. The story goes that upon completion of the tune, Michael leapt to his feet, and screamed, “Daddy, I want to do that!”

Michael bugged his folks for a guitar, until they finally bought him a ukulele. With a little help from his mom, he taught himself to play it, and began entertaining his family, and performing in school variety shows. Eventually he graduated to a four-string guitar, and by the time he entered high school, he was playing a full- sized electric guitar, and had formed a Doo-wop group called the ‘Six-teens’. The group had a rehearsal policy which said that if a member heard a song during the week that they thought would be good for the group, they should bring it to rehearsal, and the group would vote on it. It is important to note that in those days, radio in the Midwest was still segregated, and it was very difficult for young white boys to hear, let alone get their hands on real black rhythm and blues. But dauntless, Michael pursued several avenues and emerged on one occasion with a copy of “Daddy Cool” by the Cadillacs. He was sure that when he brought this record to the group they would be overwhelmed with excitement to learn it and perform it. Another member of the group came to that rehearsal with a record by an unknown trio of white Ivy League college students who played acoustic guitars, and banjos called the Kingston trio. The record was called “Hang down your head Tom Dooley”, and little did the boys realize at the time that this was the beginning of what was to become known as the Urban Folk Revival. The group elected to sing the folk song much to Michael’s chagrin. Soon after that experience he gave up on that group.

Synonymous with the Six-teens, Michael also played guitar in a Dixieland band which featured a trumpet player who sang folk songs just like Harry Bellefonte. He did not, however play the guitar, so Michael became his accompanist. When that boy graduated, Michael was left with an entire solo folk repertoire, which he continued to perform. This became the basis of the repertoire that he perfected in college, and eventually took on the road in the summer of 1962.

By 1962, Folk music in America was a viable popular art form, and groups like Peter Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio, the Limelighters, the Brothers four, and the New Christy Minstrels were touring nationally. Similarly, on the East Coast, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Josh White, and of course Bellefonte. Pete Seeger and the Weavers, were making a big noise with songs of the people. So having failed his French class at De Pauw University, which put his academic endeavor in question, Michael took his guitar, and one suitcase of clothes and stuff, and went to St. Louis to Gaslight Square, where he was hired for fifty dollars a week, at a club called “Jack’s or Better”, which was a steak house catering to a mostly Jewish clientele. Michael strolled through the tables singing folk music for tips, and immediately had to learn standards like Hava Nagila. At the end of six weeks of this he got a raise, the owner built a stage with lights and sound, stopped serving meals, and turned the place into what became known as a “Folk House.”

The next two years were spent touring America’s cities playing in coffee houses, and folk clubs. The Viet Nam war was in full-tilt Boogie, so the draft was looming. Michael joined the Army Reserves, and spent 7 months of 1964 at Fort Knox, Kentucky as a Battalion Talent Director. Following this he returned to College at Bradley University in his home town, and one night at about three o’clock in the morning he received a phone call from Michael Settle who was in town at the local hotel with the New Christy Minstrels. He told Michael that Berry McGuire had left the group, and they needed a replacement. Long story short, four days later, Michael was out of school, out of the army reserve, out of Peoria, and on the road. The rest, as they say, is history.

TESS CACCIATORE

Tess has been a writer since an early age, while growing up in Des Moines IA.

Her first poem “The Red, White, and Blue” won an award and was sent to Washington DC, when she was just 8 years old. At the age of 11, even though she was stricken with fear of speaking in public, her short story was shared as her first public speaking experience talking about her passion for the Native American communities. 

Tess loves living “in the zone” of writing, which has spanned over the decades, ranging from poetry and short stories, to full feature scripts, hour long drama, animated series, speeches for the United Nations, animated children’s series, children’s books and more.

Check out  “Homeless to the White House” & “Bella Wishes”

Author/Producer/Director/Public Speaker for social good. Check out the links and be a part of a global movement that educates, motivates and inspires. Join Tess and take part of a fast-growing movement, to help change national and international laws through creative expression.

Tess has been a public speaker on behalf of women and children for the past 20+ years. Appearing before thousands of people on any given stage, to millions of viewers and listeners during interviews on television, radio, print outlets.

Tess spoke at a TEDx conference on April 14th, 2014 – revealing her vulnerable story of financial abuse that led her to the path of being without a home for seventeen months. This event, along with many other milestones in her life led for her to write her autobiography “Homeless to the White House.” 

Lyn Willmott has a BA in Ceramic Design, and another in teaching. She has run her own pottery business and has taught Art and English expression in a variety of class rooms - including five years where she ran the education department in a prison. At the age of sixty she became a fitness instructor and has helped conduct fitness trials for the aged. She has written 2 science fiction/fantasy novels for young adults and numerous short stories.

RICK MORRISON

As new author of his first children's book entitled, The Hug Store, Rick widened this sphere of his services to include families, children and single parents everywhere. Rick is proud that The Hug Store is endorsed by several nationally recognized health care professionals and features a list of over a dozen reasons why hugs are not only healthy for our body, mind and well-being, but why they are essential for it. In addition to blogging, public speaking and facilitating hugging play-shops in and around the Los Angeles area, Rick has appeared on a variety of talk, radio and TV shows to promote his vision of conscious parenting and ultimately promoting world peace, one hug at a time. Besides food, wine, hugs and music, Rick s other passions include fitness and overall well-being. Rick enjoys charity work as well as giving back to his community. Some of the charities that are particularly important to him are Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Cancer, Meals on Wheels and Macular Degeneration. Lastly, Rick s ultimate joy and inspiration in life is spending time with his co-author of The Hug Store and most huggable one, daughter Shana.

Caroline Myss is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned speaker in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality and mysticism, health, energy medicine, and the science of medical intuition. Caroline established her own educational institute in 2003, CMED (Caroline Myss Education), which offers a diverse array of programs devoted to personal development and draws students from all over the world. In addition to hosting a weekly radio show on the Hay House network, Caroline maintains a rigorous international workshop and lecture schedule.

After completing her Master’s degree, Caroline co-founded Stillpoint Publishing and headed the editorial department, producing an average of ten books a year in the field of human consciousness and holistic health. Simultaneously Caroline refined her skills as a medical intuitive, with the assistance of C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon.

Caroline developed the field of Energy Anatomy, a science that correlates specific emotional/psychological/physical/spiritual stress patterns with diseases. Her research proved so accurate that it became the subject matter of a book co-written by Caroline and Norm: THE CREATION OF HEALTH.

In 1996, Caroline released ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT, a New York Times bestseller that has been published in 28 languages and has sold over 1.5 million copies. Through the investigation of the underlying reasons why people sabotage their healing processes, Caroline identified a syndrome she calls “woundology,” characterized by a person’s reliance on the power of illness for manipulation of his or her world, as opposed to attaining an independent, empowered state of health. As with her other seminal research, this syndrome is now a recognized psychological condition. Her third book, WHY PEOPLE DON’T HEAL AND HOW THEY CAN, became another New York Times bestseller.

Caroline then pursued her interest in the language of symbols, myths, and archetypes, conducting research that enabled her to profile an individual’s “Sacred Contract,” a complex of 12 archetypal patterns that reflect in mythic language the agreements the soul made prior to birth. Based on this work, Caroline released SACRED CONTRACTS, which became her third New York Times bestseller. It is published in 18 languages and posts sales of well over 1.6 million copies. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey gave Caroline her own television program with the OXYGEN network in New York City, which ran successfully for one year.

Caroline followed with two more New York Times bestsellers, INVISIBLE ACTS OF POWER in 2004 and ENTERING THE CASTLE in 2007. Caroline’s latest book, DEFY GRAVITY, was released in October 2009, a book exploring the mystical phenomenon of healing that transcends reason.

In addition to her written work, Caroline has produced more than eighty audio/visual products on subjects that include healing, spirituality, personal development, and the study of archetypes.

Frank St. James is well known for his work with many local police and investigative authorities. He appeared on The Psychic Detectives, as well as the Bio Show on A&E Cable, and is also a top radio personality. He was once a detective, has worked with the FBI, and the answers he gives are usually spot on! Frank is very popular at the New Jersey Psychic Fairs and books out quickly. Contact: (862) 684-1904

Dr. Kulvinder Kaur was a scientist at the University of Oxford for fourteen years, before being invited to work in the US Biotechnology industry as an ‘Alien of Extraordinary Ability’. Her early research pioneered the use of disruptive technologies to enhance healthcare through genetic diagnostics.

Since her move to California, Kulvinder has applied her love of genetics to understanding the scientific basis of integrative medicine.  Her passion is to provide empirical evidence of the alterations to our cells which occur when our innate healing capacity is activated.  Her TEDx talk at Winnipeg Exchange District outlined her vision for a society built on greater compassion through an understanding of our genetically encoded subconscious responses to different environmental stimuli. In 2017 Kulvinder founded Kreomics, a consultancy firm which specializes in empowering the wellness industry with scientific support for their offerings.

My guest, David Emerson says “I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in February of 1994 at the age of 34. I underwent induction therapy of 5 rounds of VAD, 2 rounds of cytoxan and an autologus bone marrow transplant, all in 1995. I relapsed in 10/96, underwent local palliative local radiation, relapsed again in 9/97 and was told “nothing more can be done for you. ”

”I underwent a “quack” cancer therapy called antineoplaston therapy (ANP) from 11/97-4/99. I reached complete remission where I have remained since.  I have remained in complete remission from my multiple myeloma by living an evidence-based, non-toxic, anti-myeloma lifestyle through nutrition, supplementation, bone health, mind-body, detox. and more. I consider my anti-myeloma regimen to be a metronomic, low-dose, maintenance myeloma therapy. But non-toxic.

I am also a multiple myeloma cancer coach. Click my website to join a free webinar about the Multiple Myeloma Cancer Coaching Program that I researched and developed based on my 22 plus years living with multiple myeloma I would not be alive today if it weren’t for the Internet and The Burzynski Research Institute. I created the Galen Foundation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit and launched with the mission to empower cancer survivors and caregivers through information, education and support.

The Formula for Miracles: Where Science Reveals the Secrets of the Spirit

Former Skeptic Engineer-Turned-Healer Offers a Faster Path to Healing and Higher Consciousness Using Theta Brain Waves

Brent Michael Phillips was a web and video game developing pioneer at the dawn of the commercial internet era. An MIT graduate, he left his PhD studies at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science to cash in on the infinite possibilities that the worldwide web offered. Success came fast!

Does this, then, seem at all like someone who 20 years later would be an internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher and healer? One who has used his engineering skills to source and present a faster path to healing and higher consciousness than attainable through other methods, a formula that often creates instant “miracles”. Hence, the first book in his healing trilogy, The Formula for Miracles: Where Science Reveals the Secrets of the Spirit.

Today, he has gone on to become a sought-after healer, author, speaker and leader on healing and achieving SupraNatural levels of higher consciousness—faster and more easily than can be achieved through other means. It’s the speed at which this transformational takes place that has burnished Phillip’s reputation and demand globally.

Short Bio:

Brent Michael Phillips was a successful MIT-trained engineer who experienced a staggering physical challenge when chronic pain landed him on permanent disability and then his arm became paralyzed after a surgery. After a long battle of unsuccessful treatments, Brent experienced a miracle when he his elbow instantly healed from energy healing.

Knowing his life path was fortuitously altered, he then spent years studying with various master healers and spiritual teachers to discover and reverse-engineer the scientific laws and principles underlying miraculous instant healing, financial abundance, and even enlightenment.

Today he is the founder of Awakening Dynamics, an internationally known and best-selling author and speaker, and the media has called him the "#1 most powerful American healer and spiritual teacher." He's also a frequent and popular guest on local and national TV as well as radio, helping people around the world to overcome suffering with the world’s most advanced consciousness technology.

Brent has greatly simplified and improved energy healing and higher consciousness so that anybody can quickly become a master healer, no special talent or skill required!

Dr. Robert Puff is an internationally recognized clinical psychologist, professional speaker to business and organizations and host of the Happiness Podcast. He has authored 13 books on a variety of topics, including relationships, anger management, holistic success and happiness.  He is regularly sought by the media for his expertise on a variety of healthy living issues and has been quoted in the media over 1000 times. The Happiness Podcast, which has been downloaded over 4 million times since its inception, focuses on ways for all of us to find happiness. For years, Dr. Puff has been a regular blogger for Psychology Today.  

Elana is passionate about helping people find love. She founded KickStartLove in 2010 when she was single and intrigued by the world of online dating. As she explored the dating scene, she focused on helping other people write strong profiles to attract high-quality matches. Her clients saw an increase in their matches, and soon they were asking for advice on how to make smart choices about partners, and create meaningful relationships in the real world. She started providing individual dating coaching, leading workshops, and writing the dating advice column, "Ask Elana." With a bachelor's degree in psychology, she decided to earn a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling to increase her understanding of human desire and companionship. Her clients were finding partners, and creating lives together, but it wasn't until she followed her own advice that she met the man who would become her husband. Today, she continues to develop products and services to help people get results in their love lives. Elana and her husband live in Lakewood, Ohio with their adorable Australian Shepherd.

JOHN SALLEY is an American retired professional basketball player, actor and talk show host. He was the first player in NBA history to play on three different championship-winning franchises, as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades. Salley was a long-time host of the former Fox Sports Net show The Best Damn Sports Show Period. John’s film credits include Bad Boys 1 & 2, and Eddie and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Confession of a Shopaholic. John was the host of The John Salley Block Party on 100.3 The Beat Morning Show in Los Angeles and hosted the Reunion Shows of VH-1’s #1 rated show, Basketball Wives. He is a frequent speaker at VegFest’s across the USA, and is a partner in the label “Vegan Vine.”

Roberta Hladek is the CEO and co-founder of the Energetic Matrix Church of Consciousness, LLC also referred to as EMC². She is head of operations at the company headquarters in Las Vegas, NV and oversees over 60 EMC² Facilitators worldwide. To date, the AIM Program of Energetic Balancing has assisted thousands of people on their path to self healing.

Thirty years ago, Roberta began working with Stephen Lewis after being injured in a car accident. Having a natural attraction to alternative therapies, she consulted Lewis for help. At the time, he had his private practice in which he incorporated acupuncture and homeopathy in conjunction with subtle energy research, physics, oriental healing arts, philosophy and spirituality. As Roberta experienced accelerated healing and achieved a full recovery, she was experiencing tremendous shifts in her emotional and physical healing. This spawned her passion for energetic work. She left her successful career in the corporate world, obtained a degree in homeopathy, and partnered with Lewis, taking on an instrumental role in expanding his practice and, years later, in making the miracle called the AIM Program of Energetic Balancing known and available to people world-wide.

Roberta is now in charge of researching all energetic imbalances and has had a profound impact in discovering countless balancing frequencies in the last two years along with her other duties. She is a co-founder of the Energetic Matrix Church of Consciousness, LLC (EMC²), with Stephen Lewis and Evan Slawson. She’s made it her life’s work to help thousands worldwide discover the benefits of the AIM Program. She is also responsible for developing the Energy Goal Cards and AIM Essentials conference calls and is the inspiration for the character “Jennifer” in the novel Sanctuary: The Path To Consciousness, Max’s ever-patient assistant/alchemist.

"The aim of energetic balancing is to give the body enough strength, which I call "energy" to use its own wisdom and its own resources to provide a state of well-being You already know that there is an innate self-organizing principle in your body whose purpose is to maintain health. If that organization is disrupted, your ability to resist or overcome infections is hampered or lost. If you need a term for what I'm doing, let's say that I'm organizing you to help you deal with your specific problems. If I succeed, it's highly possible that you'll go back to your doctor and be found free of your diseases."

— Sanctuary, Pathway to Consciousness

“For over 20 years, I was an Independent Contractor (IC), specializing in sensitive, covert assignments, as well as bodyguard work. In 1994 I was given the task to blow up the Alfred P. Murray building in Oklahoma City. This job came from an x-US military man, who told me he worked covertly for CIA. I refused on moral grounds. My strong opposition to attacking U.S. citizens on our own soil changed my status from a CIA asset into a liability, a private, Independent Contractor who “knew too much”.

This is a true story about the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s role in covering up the bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, and the secret reasons why, I believe, it was ordered. Afraid to speak up until now, I am very lucky to be alive to tell this story. Hopefully,enough time has elapsed so that I will not be targeted again, for retribution,as so many “whistle blowers” have been before me. May God bless America, and our fellow Patriots who have fought and bled, for her.”

Since founding the Quantum-Touch Organization more than 18 years ago, Gordon has been showing people the remarkable power of hands-on healing.  In his first international bestseller Quantum Touch: The Power to Heal, he chronicles the way that energy follows thought -- and the process of body awareness combined with  specific breathing techniques, directed into one’s hands can significantly impact a vast variety of structural problems, illnesses, emotional or mental disturbances, chronic diseases and or cellular or organ disruptions. Anyone can do Quantum-Touch with proper training, and can even use it on pets!

Gordon’s journey as a healer began as a skeptic, but experiences with the incontrovertible healings of himself  and others –- many at the hands of the remarkable  healer Bob Rasmussen, a friend and neighbor, opened the way for Gordon to immerse himself in hands-on healing and pave the way for what would become Quantum-Touch.

Today, Gordon teaches Quantum-Touch around the globe. Quantum-Touch: The Power to Heal -- which boasts a foreword by Dr. C. Norman Shealy, President of the American Holistic Medicine Association -- has been published in 17 languages. Gordon is a sought after speaker.

Andrew Kreig is a Washington, DC-based commentator, drawing on his careers in law, business, journalism and non-profit advocacy. Currently, he is Executive Director of the Justice Integrity Project, created to improve oversight of federal white-collar prosecutions.

As President and CEO of the Wireless Communications Association International from 1996 until 2008, Kreig led its evolution into the premier worldwide advocate for high-capacity wireless services. Such services include tech-enabled efficiencies in community economic development, education, green technology, health care, military preparedness and public safety protections for homeland security. Previously, he authored many bylined news and magazine articles, plus the pioneering 1987 book “Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America’s Oldest Newspaper.”

Listed in numerous Who’s Who volumes for more than a dozen years, he has lectured on five continents about communications issues and has been active in civic affairs in Washington. He holds degrees from Yale Law School and University of Chicago School of Law. He was a research fellow in 2009 with both the Information Economy Project at George Mason School of Law and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.

His previous employers include the global law firm Latham & Watkins, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf in Massachusetts and the Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut.

Welcome To Waterbury: The City That Holds Secrets That Could Bring Down Trump

• Andrew Kreig
• January 9, 2018inShare

By Wayne Madsen and Andrew Kreig

A woman who was allegedly sodomized and raped at the age of 12 along with at least one other underage girl by Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at Epstein’s midtown Manhattan townhouse in 1993 is alive and trying to maintain obscurity from alt-right operatives who have identified her and her current residence.

The Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) and Justice Integrity Project (JIP) are revealing here for the first time the identity of “Maria,” who was identified as such in two 2016 federal civil lawsuits brought against Trump and Epstein by another underage victim of the pair, Katie Johnson (aka, "Jane Doe"). The product of a month-long investigation that took us to the site of the girl’s kidnapping in Waterbury, Connecticut, this information comes from confidential sources in multiple states. They have been pursuing the “Maria” story since the name and 1993 incident was first referenced in Johnson’s lawsuits. Johnson dropped the suit after she became the victim of physical threats by individuals who claimed to be Trump supporters, according to her account in court records.

The original tip came to WMR, which reported exclusively earlier today with this column that Maria was the 12-year old child rape victim of Donald Trump's and convicted underage girl molester, Jeffrey Epstein's sex orgies at Epstein's midtown Manhattan mansion then owned by his friend Les Wexner, a billionaire retailing mogul. Maria was kidnapped on March 20, 1993, when she was 11-years old from the front of Nash’s Pizza in Waterbury. The girl's kidnappers were involved in a child trafficking ring that provided abductees to wealthy individuals like Trump and Epstein in Manhattan, according to our information.

The Waterbury Police Department has refused to provide us with a copy of the original police report on the abduction. It defers to Linda Wihbey, the city’s Corporation Counsel. On December 12, 2017, Wihbey made her views known in a phone call with Andrew Kreig of JIP, as Wayne Madsen listened. She said that she was ready to “welcome us to Waterbury” until she decided that our investigation was “hostile” to her and Waterbury’s interests. These suffered greatly some 17 years ago over a high-profile pedophilia incident involving the city’s Republican mayor.

Waterbury’s stance emerged from our request for the 1993 police report on Maria’s abduction, including any relevant witness statements provided to the police.

The site of “Maria’s” kidnapping in 1993, then known as Nash’s Pizza restaurant, since relocated [WMR photo]

Things Seemed 'Strange'

Waterbury (shown in a photo via Wikimedia) reported 110,000 in population at the last census and is located 77 miles northeast of New York City.

In 1993, Maria lived with her mother and nine siblings in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Waterbury, which is nicknamed “The Brass City” for its once-booming brass and clock factories. It is now suffering from urban blight, like many New England cities with abandoned factories.

Maria, whose father died in 1991, was reportedly abducted just moments after her mother entered the pizzeria while asking Maria to wait outside. The precise circumstances are among the secrets that police are withholding, thus limiting news coverage. The mother died in 2015.

One resident of the kidnapped girl's close-knit neighborhood told us that the circumstances always seemed strange to the family and neighbors, and yet almost no police or other interest has been apparent for many years. Our source also stated that Maria’s mother always felt that her daughter was alive and, at one time, was in New York City. Another source in Waterbury said that it was the belief by many neighborhood residents at the time of Maria’s abduction that she was kidnapped by a ring operating out of New York. “Those who took her [Maria] were not from Waterbury,” said one longtime Puerto Rican resident familiar with the case.

In the interest of responsible journalism, we are withholding Maria’s actual full name. A June 25, 2010 paper, titled “Protecting victims’ identities in press coverage of child victimization,” which was published by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, spells out the concerns of releasing the identities of child sex victims without prior precautions being taken. The authors of the paper contend, “When the names of child victims and other identifying information appear in the media it can exacerbate trauma, complicate recovery, discourage future disclosures and inhibit cooperation with authorities for the children involved.”

Maria is still listed as a “missing person” by the Waterbury Police Department. The police missing person notification states that Maria was last seen at the corner of Walnut Street and Walnut Avenue at Nash’s Pizza. It adds that the girl “was 11-years-old when she went missing.”

Here is a development that proved startling in Maria’s neighborhood, including to at least one family member: She is alive.

Maria has been avoiding any public limelight since the Trump Organization discovered her actual identity, according to our sources. During the 2016 presidential campaign, there was some interest in the Maria story by major corporate media outlets, but they were intimidated by Trump Organization legal threats.

The incident helps illustrate the institutional cowardice and greed of many of the major news organizations and the danger that unprotected whistleblower/victims face when they share their stories with such journalists. Although the initial reporters and producers are usually very well-intentioned they work for conglomerates whose top executives realize that it’s typically safer not to antagonize the power structure.

That would be in this case a litigious billionaire Trump, who now influences, if not controls, a vast “law enforcement,” national security and broadcast federal regulatory apparatus.

The federal government delivers (or withholds) merger and tax approvals, for example, scrutiny over a host of other legal and regulatory issues, plus discretionary grants that can be vital to local authorities, particularly those with financial struggles like Waterbury. Beyond that, monied interests in the power structure have fostered private goons and trolls — sometimes equipped with the trappings of legitimate law enforcement or journalism — who can seek out whistleblowers, victims and reporters alike to set them up for vicious legal or extra-legal reprisals.   

In the case of Katie Johnson, she alleged in lawsuits filed in federal courts first in California and then in New York that Trump knew that she was 13-years-old when he assaulted and raped her in 1993. Johnson said that it was Trump who initiated contact with her at four different parties at Epstein's residence in Manhattan. The mansion, shown below in a photo via Google Maps, was owned by the billionaire retailing magnate Les Wexner, who controls such companies as Victoria’s Secret.

Here is Johnson’s account, taken from her most recent lawsuit filed in Manhattan’s federal court:

She said that she was inveigled into the “party” scene after she was approached by an Epstein party “recruiter” while she was at the New York-New Jersey Port Authority Bus Terminal on 42nd Street in Manhattan. The recruiter suggested that she might become a model if she met the right people at a fashionable party. That was a typical approach used by Epstein’s recruiters, who leveraged his high-level contacts with fashion, modeling, photography, travel, political and entertainment figures to entice girls, tweens and teens, according to court records.  

The Johnson lawsuit states that at their fourth encounter at an Epstein party: "Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted."

Johnson (shown in a screenshot with her face obscured) claimed that at two parties Epstein raped her once after she had been raped by Trump. During the second encounter with Epstein, Johnson stated that Epstein raped her "anally and vaginally despite her loud pleas to stop." She stated that Epstein attempted to strike her on the head "with his closed fists," while he angrily screamed that he [Epstein], rather than Trump, should have been the one who took the girl's virginity.

According to the suit, Trump told Johnson that if she ever revealed the sexual encounter with Trump, the girl and her family would be "physically harmed if not killed." Johnson also stated that Epstein periodically reiterated to her Trump's earlier threat that if she were to "reveal any of the details of his sexual and physical abuse of her or else," she and her family would be "seriously physically harmed, if not killed."

Trump Fights Back: All Lies and Fake News, He Says

Trump and his representatives have repeatedly insisted that any woman who alleges that he harassed or sexually assaulted her is lying. The Washington Post, among other outlets, reported that stance in All of the women who have accused Trump of sexual harassment are lying, the White House says,  a story published on Oct. 26, 2017.

After filing her first complaint against Epstein and Trump in California on April 26, 2016, Johnson said that she began receiving threatening phone calls on her cell phone from blocked numbers. She refiled in New York. A courtroom hearing was scheduled for mid-December 2016 in federal court for the Southern District of Manhattan. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams [pictured at right] said that she was requiring Epstein and Trump to appear before her in the Johnson lawsuit, an unusual requirement for a pre-trial hearing, especially in a civil case. Because of the threats, Johnson pulled her lawsuit just prior to the 2016 presidential election and no hearing occurred.

There are many pundits who will say from their comfortable perches that the withdrawal of this and similar lawsuits means there is nothing further to examine, especially if any flaw can be found or alleged involving the personality of a plaintiff, the supporting witnesses or lawyers. But that blame-the-victim conventional wisdom is being upended by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements — and is especially wrong-headed in this case for several important reasons.

First, there is substantial evidence that Epstein and Trump are notorious sexual predators and billionaire litigants who use threats and the legal system to their advantage. Epstein is a convicted pedophile who targeted junior high and high school girls, as described below. Epstein was required to register as a convicted sex offender [pictured at left]. Trump has long been notorious as a lecher, telling ABC’s “The View” in 2006, “I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."

More recently in November, The Washington Post published in “President Trump and accusations of sexual misconduct: The complete list extensive details of thirteen women (not including those alleging crimes only on social media or those like Katie Johnson who had withdrawn lawsuits) making accusations against him, along with names and details of corroborating witnesses. Wikipedia, under a heading Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations, lists 15 claims as of this writing.

After underage sexual abuse allegations began surfacing during the failed campaign of GOP Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, Ivanka Trump (shown on her Twitter portrait) said of Moore, “there’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children. She added, “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ account.” Bannon, who supported Moore’s campaign, replied to Trump’s daughter in a December 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, “What about the allegations about her dad and that 13-year-old?” Bannon was referring, of course, to Katie Johnson.

Second, the vulnerability of sex abuse victims in their early teens from poor families requires special attention. Nowhere is that more poignant than in the case of the girl “Maria.” Police reports say that she was kidnapped at age 11 from her own neighborhood and, to all outward appearances, then disappeared off the face of the earth. In sum, the track record and power of these two particular defendants requires a deeper look at the allegations, particularly in light of the lessons learned from the #MeToo harassment and assault revelations this past fall regarding other powerful predators.

A Deeper Look

So, we return to the allegations in the “Jane Doe” (aka Katie Johnson) lawsuit despite the practice of pundits, lawyers, trolls, fanatics and thugs, many well-paid or fanatically ideological, using their varied skills to claim that there’s nothing to see or know. You be the judge, based on these lawsuit claims:

On July 23, 2016, "Joan Doe," a classmate of Johnson during the 1994-1995 school year, signed an affidavit avowing that Johnson had told her during the summer of 1994 about the sexual assaults by Epstein and Trump.

Another witness, “Tiffany Doe,” signed an affidavit in support of Johnson's suit on June 18, 2016. Tiffany Doe stated that she had been hired in 1990 by Epstein when she was 22 to "provide entertainment" for his various "guests." She further stated that Epstein hired her in 1991 as a "party planner" to, among other duties, entice "attractive adolescent women" to attend Epstein's parties. Tiffany Doe stated that she personally witnessed Trump's sexual assault and rape of Johnson during four encounters.

Johnson also stated in the suit that Trump told her that she "shouldn’t ever say anything if she didn’t want to disappear like Maria, a 12-year-old female that was forced to be involved in the third incident" with Trump. Johnson said she had not seen “Maria” after the third sexual encounter with Trump. Tiffany Doe said that she witnessed Johnson and 12-year old “Maria” perform oral sex on Trump.

Vendetta Against Puerto Rico?

There’s a larger story here. Trump's psychopathy of disinterest in Puerto Rico and its post-Hurricane Maria problems likely revolves around the fact that Maria hails from Puerto Rico. Trump’s addled ego may have reacted when Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricane Maria. It could well have reminded him that a 12-year old whom he had raped and knew as Maria knows details that could very well bring down him and his administration.

The Trump administration’s extreme disinterest in Puerto Rico’s recovery — especially in comparison to post-hurricane rescue efforts for continental U.S. sites this fall — has been reported by many news organizations. The national media reported it visually by showing his contemptuous hurling of paper towels to Islanders at a photo op soon after the disaster.

Waterbury's Secrets

In terms of solving the 1993 kidnapping, Waterbury Corporate Counsel Wihbey did reveal to us that about four or five years ago — she said “around 2012 or 2013” — there was some interest by “law enforcement” and “a few journalists” in the Maria missing person police report from 1993. Wihbey told us that the case remains under “active” investigation even though it has been a dormant “cold case” for several years. Originally, spokespersons for Waterbury Police Chief Vernon Riddick Jr. expressed no real opposition to releasing the police report, claiming that all that was needed was the chief’s concurrence.

Wihbey is pictured above at a Connecticut Freedom of Information hearing defending Waterbury’s insistence on retaining secret documents in another matter. It involved the details of a largely secret arrangement whereby Waterbury taxpayers paid former Republican Connecticut governor and ex-con John Rowland, a former Waterbury state assemblyman and congressman after he had been imprisoned on a federal political corruption charge in 2004.  

Waterbury’s Democratic Mayor Neil O’Leary may continue to have good reason to be concerned about public interest in the abduction of Maria to provide sex for pedophiles like Trump and Epstein in New York.

Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary, center, was a witness in a high-profile Freedom of Information complaint in 2013 by Connecticut journalist and author Andy Thibault, right.

O’Leary was the Waterbury police chief (as shown below) when now-imprisoned Republican Mayor Phil Giordano (nicknamed “Pedo Phil”) was arrested by the FBI as part of their investigation of payoffs to the mayor by Mafia building contractors. During court-authorized wiretaps of Giordano’s phones, the FBI became aware that the mayor was paying a female Puerto Rican prostitute named Guitana (“Gigi”) Jones for sex with her 10-year old niece and 8-year old daughter. Giordano and Rowland were once close political allies and Rowland’s cozy relationship with Mayor O’Leary has raised eyebrows in Connecticut.

Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, center, a former Waterbury assemblyman later imprisoned on corruption charges, and then Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, at right, meet in October 2000 at the exclusive Burning Tree Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut.

According to federal court records: The trysts between Mayor Giordano and the children took place over nine months in 2000 and 2001 in the mayor’s office, his official car, his home, a friend’s home, and his private law office. Giordano paid Jones $40 to $60 per visit. Giordano made special requests for the two girls on days when he knew they were off from school.

During 2000, Giordano, a former U.S. Marine and state assemblyman representing Waterbury, was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate against then-Democrat Joe Lieberman. Giordano, married to an attractive heiress, also made no secret of his desire to become the vice president of the United States. In 2003, Giordano was sentenced to 37 years in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona after his conviction of violating the civil rights of the two female children, using interstate devices (cellphones) to arrange the meetings, and conspiring with Jones to supply the children for sexual purposes.

Mafia Connections

It is not known how long Giordano [pictured above right in police mug shot] was using his mayoralty and other political influence to arrange for sexual encounters with girls. In 1993, when Maria was abducted, Giordano had been a Republican state representative for Waterbury. Giordano’s mob-linked friend, Joseph Pontoriero, owner of Worth Construction Company, Inc. of Bethel, Connecticut, was also tied to a Mafia syndicate’s numerous concrete-pouring construction contracts in Manhattan and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Pontoriero provided Giordano with $8,300 in designer clothing and a $12,000 loan for a minivan in return for Waterbury contracting favors, federal authorities showed.

Trump's Genius

According to several major biographies, Trump grew his businesses while maintaining relationships with Mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno (shown at right), the Genovese family crime underboss, and Paul Castellano, chief of the Gambino family. The Genovese and Gambino organizations, named after leaders in their heyday, have historically been the most powerful and dangerous of the New York City metro region’s five Mafia families. The construction firms they controlled, including S & A Concrete, poured concrete for Manhattan’s Trump Tower, Trump Plaza, and other Trump building projects in New York and Atlantic City. Trump’s Atlantic City construction projects also involved Philadelphia and South Jersey Mafia chief Nick “Little Nicky” Scarfo, who was regarded as vengeful and murderous at a level reaching psychotic proportion.

Trump’s association with Mafia bosses resulted from intermediary services provided by the infamous mobbed-up lawyer Roy Cohn (shown at left), someone also known for his prurient sexual interests involving young men. Cohn, who represented leaders in both the Genovese and Gambino mobs, died in 1986 from complications from AIDS. Before that, however, as Trump’s business attorney, friend and mentor, Cohn made the right “introductions” for Trump in the organized crime underground of the New York City area, including Connecticut.

It is very likely that Trump’s affectation for young girls involved compromising him with “favors” that were provided by mob elements in New York and elsewhere, such as Waterbury. And, considering Waterbury’s current obfuscation on providing official information on Maria’s abduction and Giordano’s mob ties and pedophile problems, concerned citizens might reasonably demand answers regarding basic information about the kidnapped girl — as well as how those secrets relate to the city’s troubled past and current politics.

In Waterbury, federal authorities broke up the massive corruption scheme and documented Giordano’s compulsive sex obsession with teens and pre-teens. Meanwhile, Waterbury authorities apparently proceeded in an oblivious manner that, in the most charitable interpretation, resembled the acumen of Inspector Clouseau in the movies.

Eventually, the Italian Mafia would introduce Trump to the even more nefarious Russian Jewish mob, which was nestled around Brighton Beach, also known as “Little Odessa,” in Brooklyn.

WMR has reported extensively that it was from these quarters that Trump would be introduced to the money-laundering services of shady Eastern European, mostly Jewish, gangsters. These included Felix Sater, David Bogatin, Vyachelsav Ivankov, and the most dangerous mobster of them all —Semion Mogilevich. These mobsters specialized in not only money laundering, but the other big threat to Trump’s presidency — sex trafficking, including of underage girls. WMR's findings are summarized in a visual relationship chart of "Trump-Kushner-Sater-Manafort Global Syndicate Road Map" showing persons and entities that was first published last spring and is updated.

Helping to confirm the importance of this illicit network was former Trump Chief Strategist Steven Bannon’s remark quoted by author Michael Wolff in the Fire and Fury best-seller that Trump and his associates are highly vulnerable to money laundering charges in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe.

Epstein’s “Lolita Express”

Trump’s pedophile problems also extend to his Mar-a-Lago private estate and club in Palm Beach, Florida. In 2005, when a Florida mother accused Trump’s “good friend” Epstein with having her underage daughter “Mary” strip down and “massage” Epstein for $300, a barrage of subsequent civil lawsuits was brought against the billionaire investor, who started out his career as a seventh-grade teacher at the exclusive Dalton School in Manhattan from 1973 to 1975.

In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump said of his friend Epstein, “I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Trump’s 15-year relationship with Epstein put the alleged rapes of Katie Johnson and Maria well within the timeframe of their friendship.

Palm Beach police detectives led by Det. Joe Recarey and the FBI built up a criminal case against Epstein that soon involved over 100 “Jane Does” who accused the Palm Beach resident Epstein, a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, with sexual assault.

One victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, claimed that she was 15 when Epstein’s chief procurer of young girls, Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late newspaper press lord and Mossad operative Robert Maxwell, recruited her into “service” while she was a towel girl at Mar-a-Lago.

Giuffre said that the adjoining photo of her with Maxwell and Prince Andrew of Britain's royal family when she was 17 illustrates the time when she was being trafficked. Epstein, Maxwell and Buckingham Palace denied improprieties, and Giuffre settled a lawsuit against Epstein.,

Some of the girls were 14-years-old at the time of Epstein’s alleged assaults at these venues: his Palm Beach El Brillo Way mansion (which is just a mile away from Mar-a-Lago), Epstein’s private Little Saint James Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, his private Boeing 737, and his huge ranch in New Mexico. The other “Jane Does” in the civil cases against Epstein were identified in court documents with the initials of "L.M.," "E.W.," and "M.J."

The Sweetheart Deal Protecting Pervert Pedophiles

Under the Bush administration, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta (shown at right), arranged a sweetheart plea deal for Epstein. The billionaire pervert served merely 13 months of a nighttime-only sentence in a minimum-security wing of the Palm Beach County prison for his misdemeanor guilty plea of soliciting sex from an underage female. The New York Post reported (Massage Maven out of prison) that Epstein was permitted to have a mistress whom Epstein had described as his "sex slave" visit him in jail 67 times.

Most shocking, Epstein was spared from any further Florida or federal charges in a non-prosecution agreement approved by Acosta in coordination with Epstein’s high-powered legal team, which included Florida attorney Jack Goldberger, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz and former President Clinton's Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who was dean of Pepperdine School of Law beginning in 2004.

And, in yet another free ride for those VIPs who were present at Epstein’s orgies with underage girls, Acosta’s plea deal stipulated that neither Florida nor the federal government would charge anyone else for having sex with underage females. Normally, sweetheart plea deals are to encourage small fry to rat out higher-ups, not to protect everyone except one miscreant receiving a slap on the wrists.

The honest police in West Palm Beach were so outraged by the sellout that they risked firing by anonymously posting on the web details (redacted to remove names) of the shocking specifics of Epstein’s crimes against the girls, who were primarily of junior high and high school age. WMR has inspected the court record in criminal and civil cases, and identified 104 separate “Jane Doe” victims of Epstein and his ring in one case alone.

Ironies abound. Clinton and Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom's royal family were among Epstein's social circles. The former president while involved with Clinton Foundation activitiestook many documented flights on Epstein's luxury airplane, although no abuse claims have yet surfaced against him. Starr (shown in a portrait) would go on to become chancellor of Baylor University, where he would intone on the importance of moral instruction for college students, as we reported in the 2015 column Moralist Ken Starr Explains His Help For Billionaire Pervert Jeffrey Epstein. However, a massive sex scandal in football player recruitment, whereby students reported being raped after serving as hostesses for prospective student athletes, festered under his nose and would ultimately cost him his job,

Trump ultimately rewarded Acosta for his “deal” with Epstein by nominating him last year to become U.S. Secretary of Labor. Acosta was approved on a near-party line vote. Most Democrats were too timid to grill him on the Epstein plea deal.  Republicans touted his Hispanic and “law enforcement” backgrounds. From this Trump post where Acosta serves as the supposed watchdog over the employment rights of workers, the Labor Secretary continues to serve as an ostensibly decent public servant and rare minority face in the Trump cabinet.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, with his hand on a Bible and surrounded by family members, is sworn into office by Vice President Michael Pence last year.

What's Next?

Let's think about the high stakes involved and the apparent lack of sustained scrutiny and public disclosure despite the #MeToo movment.

In this instance, the trail of Trump’s and Epstein’s pedophile sexual assaults on young girls is a long one. It extends from the greater Palm Beach area in Florida to Manhattan and, we believe, at least as far north as Waterbury, Connecticut. In most instances, substantial evidence points to law enforcement investigations that have been stymied by government cover-ups, witness intimidation, and monetary pay-offs to victims.

And now there are two new factors: One is an array of zealots, trolls and thugs determined to attack vulnerable victims, particularly to protect President Trump, the leader of their alt-right movement. Also, we see that an entire U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, apparently is suffering from continued storm damage and loss of life because an addled but vengeful Trump apparently conflates a 12-year old Puerto Rican girl whom he knew as Maria with the devastating hurricane of the same name.

To be continued…

Contact the authors Andrew Kreig and Wayne Madsen