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G. Edward Griffin (b. November 7 1931) is an American film producer, publisher, author, and lecturer. While he describes his documentaries on controversial topics like the Federal Reserve, the Supreme Court, cancer, and Noah's ark as the output of "a plain vanilla researcher", he also agrees with the Los Angeles Daily News characterizing him as "Crusader Rabbit". Griffin's promotion and advocacy of Laetrile as a killer of cancer cells has not been accepted by the majority of the scientific community.

Early life

Griffin was born in Detroit on November 7 1931, and became a child actor on local radio in 1942. By 1947 he was emceeing at WJR (CBS), and continued as announcer at WUOM and station manager at WWJ-TV (NBC), 1950–1955. He earned his bachelor's from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army, 1954–1956, reaching the rank of sergeant.

When George Wallace ran for U.S. president in 1968, Griffin served as a writer for Wallace's vice presidential candidate, Curtis LeMay. In the next year, Griffin began producing films for American Media of Los Angeles (later moving to Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village, California). He also became a member of the Pacific Coast Pioneer Broadcasters group.

Health advocacy

In 1974, Griffin wrote the controversial book World Without Cancer, and released it as a documentary video. It proposed that cancer is a metabolic disease facilitated by the lack of Laetrile ("Vitamin B₁₇"), a view not accepted by many scientists. Because the nutritional approach to cancer cure had been labeled "quackery" by the American Cancer Society, as well as the FDA and the American Medical Association, Griffin charged those groups with a "hidden economic and power agenda". A critical review by the American Journal of Public Health found Griffin's view to be a "'conspiracy' theory, i.e. that policy-rtiakers in the medical, pharmaceutical, research and fund-raising organizations deliberately or unconsciously strive not to prevent or cure cancer in order to perpetuate their functions." Griffin's website refers visitors to laetrile sellers and doctors and clinics that use laetrile, a product of apricot seeds. He does not sell laetrile.

Griffin's productions referenced the work of biochemist Dr. Dean Burk, head and chief chemist of the Cytochemistry Section of the National Cancer Institute, who served for over 30 years. Funded by the McNaughton Foundation, Burk described his experiments to Griffin as showing that Laetrile and glucosidase set "the cancer cells dying off like flies". A systematic review of the effectiveness of laetrile interventions found that claims of positive effects for cancer patients are not supported by the clinical data.

Economics advocacy

Griffin later became a Certified Financial Planner and described the U.S. money system in his 1993 movie and 1994 book, The Creature from Jekyll Island. The title refers to his depiction of a November 1910 meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia, of seven bankers and economic policymakers who represent the financial elite of the western world. The meeting was described by Forbes founder B. C. Forbes as "the real birth of the present Federal Reserve System."

Griffin's work stresses the point which Federal Reserve chair Marriner Eccles made in Congressional testimony in 1941: "If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn't be any money." Griffin argued against debt-based fiat money systems on several grounds, such as its devouring of individual prosperity and its perpetuation of war. He also described the framework by which central bankers have been observed to underwrite both sides of an ongoing war or revolution.

Griffin lectures as author of The Creature from Jekyll Island, and the book has appealed to figures as diverse as California columnist Michael Whiteley and Maryland fishing champion Russell Colwell. Among the most popular books on the Federal Reserve, it can be found in business bestseller lists, and its review has been linked from the homepage of Slashdot. Griffin's dreams of a free-market, private-money system superior to the Fed caused economist Bernard von NotHaus to deploy such a system in 1998. Griffin states that the private silver certificates, known as Liberty Dollars, are "real money".

Griffin appeared as himself in the controversial anti-Fed movie America: Freedom to Fascism.

Books written

• The Fearful Master, 1964.
• Great Prison Break, 1968.
• World Without Cancer: The Story of Vitamin B17, 1974.
• The Life and Words of Robert Welch: Founder of the John Birch Society, 1975. Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media.
• The Creature From Jekyll Island, 1994. Westlake Village, CA: American Media. ISBN 0912986182.

Films written or narrated

• The Grand Design, 1968.
• More Deadly Than War, 1968.
• Capitalist Conspiracy, 1971.
• No Place to Hide, 1982.
• Open Gates to Troy, 1983.
• Moles in High Places, 1983.
• The Discovery of Noah's Ark, 1992.
• The Creature From Jekyll Island, 1993.

Web sites

• The Reality Zone, http://www.realityzone.com/index.html
• Freedom Force International, http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/
• The Cancer Cure Foundation, http://www.cancure.org/home.htm

References

1. ^ Who's Who in America 1994 (48 ed.). Marquis Who's Who. 1993. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
2. "T.O.'s Griffin All Booked Up With Writing, Film Projects". Daily News of Los Angeles. 1995-05-22. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
3. ^ Griffin, G. Edward (2006-04-07). "A World Without Cancer - The Story Of Vitamin B17" (video). Retrieved 2008-02-29.
4. ^ Lagnado, Lucette (2000-03-22). "Laetrile Makes a Comeback Selling to Patients Online". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
5. "Controversial Cancer Drug Laetrile Enters Political Realms". Middlesboro Daily News. 1977-08-10. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
6. "New Library Books". Books. Grand Forks Herald. 2003-07-13. p. 4. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
7. Landau, Emanuel, Ph.D. (July 1976). "World without Cancer; the Story of Vitamin B₁₇" (PDF). American Journal of Public Health. 66 (7): 696. ISSN 0090-0036. Retrieved 2008-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
8. The Cancer Cure Foundation (2003-08-15). "List of Clinics in the United States Offering Alternative Therapies". Retrieved 2008-03-05.
9. Jones, Marianna (1976-10-11). "Cure or fraud?". Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
10. Griffin, G. Edward (1974). World Without Cancer. Retrieved 2008-02-29. 'When we add laetrile to a cancer culture under the microscope,' said Burk, 'providing the enzyme glucosidase also is present, we can see the cancer cells dying off like flies.'
11. Milazzo S, Lejeune S, Ernst E (2007). "Laetrile for cancer: a systematic review of the clinical evidence". Support Care Cancer. 15 (6): 583–95. doi:10.1007/s00520-006-0168-9. PMID 17106659.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
12. ^ Heath, Hari (June 2003). "Money? It's not what you think it is". Idaho Observer. Retrieved 2008-03-03. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
13. "Feeding the God of War". The New American. 2002-09-09. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
14. Gurumurthy, S (2007-12-28). "US Fed an Enigma Wrapped in a Mystery". Business Line.
15. ^ Ross, Michael J (2007-09-26). "The History of the Federal Reserve". Slashdot. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
16. "Business vs. government: in his book The Big Ripoff, Timothy Carney blows away the deception that Big Business and the government are adversaries and that the government defends the average citizen". The New American. 2007-01-22. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
17. Dotte, Alex (2004-04-15). "In the Community". Lifestyle. Austin American-Statesman. p. E2. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
18. Whiteley, Michael L (2004-06-04). "Finding the words: I'll see that bet and raise you a coalition!". Oroville Mercury-Register. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
19. "Russell Colwell". ESPN. 2007-02-22. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
20. Gavin, Robert (2004-11-28). "The man who shaped the Federal Reserve". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
21. USA Daily Staff (2007-08-22). "Paul Out to Slay The Creature from Jekyll Island". USA Daily. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
22. "Bestselling business books". Calgary Herald. 2006-07-04. p. F5.
23. "Best-selling business books, April 14". Rocky Mountain News. 2007-04-14. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
24. Chevreau, Jonathan (1999-11-11). "Paper notes need 'real' backing". National Post.
25. "Edward Griffin: Filmography". New York Times. Baseline StudioSystems, All Media Guide. 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-05.

• Articles with a promotional tone from March 2008
• Misplaced Pages articles needing factual verification from March 2008
• 1931 births
• Living people
• American economics writers
• American film producers
• American authors
• Conspiracy theories