It is no coincidence that the two greatest achievements of 20^th century science are also the subject of history’s greatest scandal. I am referring, of course, to the 1900 discovery of the okapi and the 1938 capture of the legendary coelacanth.

            For those of you who do not know, the okapi is a short-necked African animal related to the giraffe, but resembling more of a donkey-zebra mix. For decades, this mythological creature has been the poster-boy for cryptozoology (the study of ‘unexpected’ animals) and its 1900 discovery was considered a monumental victory for this fringe-science. Similarly, the coelacanth, a frightening fish thought to be extinct for 60 million years, was a favorite subject of cryptozoologists, and its appearance in a South-African fishing net sent shockwaves through the scientific (and pseudo-scientific) world. In fact, subsequent research has shown that the coelacanth species is 400 million years old, making it older than the dinosaurs! Yet strangely, the preserved bodies of both these creatures were stolen from African museums in the early 1990s.

            And not coincidentally, ‘Mancho,’ the famous Mars rock filled with the petrified remains of worm-like extra-terrestrials, was stolen from NASA headquarters in 1994. And in 1996, the previously top-secret skull of Bigfoot was declared missing from the National Archives in Washington, DC.

            The mysterious disappearance of these curiosities has baffled government agencies, conspiracy theorists, and religious gurus alike. And it should come as no surprise that many researchers suspect that all of these items were stolen by a single organization. And while there is little agreement as to who stole these objects, a number theories and claims concerning the whereabouts of these items have surfaced over the years.

            For instance, Howard P. Dunnley, the self-proclaimed ‘King of Telekinesis’ claims to have moved a huge boulder in the Angeles Forest with his mind, thus uncovering a vault wherein all the stolen items were stored. But when asked to prove his claim, Dunnley said that he also accidentally made the objects disappear with his mind, thereby destroying the evidence. And Gloria Bonnet, leader of the Dionysian Delegation, a New Hampshire based Pagan cult, insists that members of her group stole and ate the okapi and coelacanth, and have incorporated ‘Mancho’ and the Bigfoot skull in their alter of sacrifice. Yet when asked how the cultists could have survived the ingestion of formaldehyde (which covered the creatures), Bonnet replied “I don’t ask how you can eat apples, do I?”

            With the proliferation of these (and hundreds of other) crack-pot claims, it is hard to determine who stole the coveted curiosities. But many have linked the Mystic Order of the Sons of Zadok to the disappearance of the okapi, coelacanth, ‘Mancho’, and Bigfoot’s skull.

            This secret society, based just outside of the Mental Physics campus in Yucca Valley, Ca., has been suspected of housing the “world’s most amazing collection of bizzaros” (Architeuthis Weekly, Feb. 3, 1993). And no other secret organization in history has had so many of its members in prominent world leadership positions. After all, Henry Kissinger, Allen Greenspan, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg are all ‘Zadokites’. But while it is not clear why the Mystic Order of the Sons of Zadok is interested in collecting oddities, investigative reporter Rebecca Silver asserts that this fascination stems from the organization’s zealous roots.

            The Sons of Zadok take their name from the Damascus Document, one of the scrolls found in the caves of Qumran, Israel. These zealous Jewish fighters were self-appointed warriors of God determined to overthrow the Roman rule of Israel in the 1^st century C.E. Thus, the current manifestation of the Mystic Order of the Sons of Zadok essentially believes that everything it does is for the advancement of God on Earth. And it is for this reason, Silver suggests, that the Sons of Zadok have stolen the remains of important cryptozoological creatures. Indeed, in her book, “Highway to the Zealot Zone,” Silver states that the “Sons of Zadok are determined to collect the ‘mistakes’ of God’s creation so that the angels can come down from heaven and destroy them.” According to Silver, the group maintains that destroying these grotesque creatures will improve God’s public image.

            And it is interesting that Silver asserts that the “strategists behind the robberies are clearly the Rabbinical School Dropouts, who were elected the chief governing body of the Mystic Order of the Sons of Zadok in 1992.” However, in the tradition of secret societies throughout history, I will neither confirm nor deny these allegations!