Appendix
Historical Background to
the Conspiracy Stories
Y
ou may be interested in knowing what’s real and what’s
fantasy in each of the conspiracy stories in Chapter 3.
American General Benedict Arnold really did attempt to turn
over West Point to the British. His main contact, British spy-
master John André, had actually dated Miss Peggy Shippen
before Arnold married her, and Peggy was part of the chain
of go-betweens between Arnold and André. Alice Carroll and
“the agent known as Solomon the King” are inventions. One of
the more famous signers of the Declaration of Independence
was named Charles Carroll, however, and Solomon the King is
an important character in Masonic mythology.
Not long after the Revolution, Aaron Burr really did conspire,
while serving as Vice President of the United States under
Thomas Jefferson, to carve out an empire of his own in the
American Southwest. Years later, in the decade before the
Civil War, the Knights of the Golden Circle did, in fact, conspire
to create an agrarian empire based on slavery in a “Golden
Circle” centered on Havana. During the Civil War, the Knights
actually worked to help the Confederacy. Although some have
speculated that they had the assistance of Albert Pike after
the Civil War, Pike’s actual feelings about slavery and the duty
to fulfill an oath fit what is in the story in Chapter 3. Pike did
know the sculptress Vinnie Ream, who was working on a bust
of Abraham Lincoln at the time of the President’s assassination.
“Emerald” and his encounter with Pike are inventions.
All the characters and incidents in the “Conspiracy of the
Organization” story are made up.
(Or are they? We’ll never tell.)
Cracking Codes & Cryptograms For Dummies
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