Samizdat

Dustin757 (gHOST3301), “#Thomas Schoenberger #Defango #Fake Cicada 3301,” YouTube, May 27, 2019.

On August 19, 2019, I talked with an early member of the original Cicada 3301, known as gHOST3301 on the deep web and as Dustin757 on YouTube. I was delighted to conduct this interview, as no inner circle members of Cicada’s Early Period (2011-4) are publicly known, and accessing them is difficult.

This interview with gHOST3301 is the first conducted by any social scientist with an inner circle member of Cicada’s Early Period (2011-4). This is my second interview in the Cicada Files: the first was with Arturo Tafoyovsky (Lestat), chief videographer during a part of the Middle Period (2016-8), published earlier on this site, August 15, 2019.

I am researching a long interview (40,000+ words) that I conducted on May 22, 2019 with Manuel Chavez III (Defango) about the nascence of QAnon. Chavez was also an inner circle member of Cicada 3301 late in its Middle Period (2014-8), and he was personally responsible for its implosion on May 7, 2018.

Chavez’s central role in the Cicada narrative, and his account of his betrayal of the organization’s legendary secrecy is riveting and historic. I am exercising due care in the transcription of his interview and my commentary upon it, and I will release it in installments in coming weeks. Read the rest of this entry »