The Gemstone File is a series of documents by the American writer Bruce Porter Roberts (1919–1976). The best-known document is probably the 23-page "A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File", written by Stephanie Caruana in 1975, which presents a brief, undocumented series of claims that conspiracies and suppressed information played a major role in shaping world events since the 1950s. In particular, this document named three individuals as the shooters of President John F. Kennedy, and suggested connections between a number of political assassinations which occurred within a relatively short time frame.
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Factsheet Five publisher Mike Gunderloy collected and distributed several versions of the Gemstone File. Gunderloy has explained that the original Gemstone File was simply a list of contributors to Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), while the subsequent versions gradually linked various figures of the Watergate and Kennedy eras.[1]
Roberts says in his Gemstone File letters that he began sending out copies of what had been a private journal to selected people, including journalists, politicians, and heads of foreign states, in 1968. He claimed to have written letters to 27 heads of state which influenced the vote in the United Nations which ousted Taiwan from the United Nations and admitted China instead. "The Gemstone File: A Memoir," by Stephanie Caruana, includes the text of two letters addressed to President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1975.
The Gemstone File proposes that Aristotle Onassis, Joseph P. Kennedy, and other prominent figures were involved in various schemes to forward a vast global conspiracy, involving the Mafia and corrupt politicians, brutal oil and drug cartels, rogue military operations, and more. It also posits that early in 1957, Aristotle Onassis had Howard Hughes kidnapped from his Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow; that Hughes suffered a massive brain injury during the forcible kidnapping, and that Hughes was subsequently a virtual prisoner of Onassis on Skorpios and injected regularly with morphine, while Onassis took over the operation of Hughes's considerable financial affairs, including airlines and U.S. defense contracting. (At the time, Onassis had a permanent suite rented at the same hotel, along with his many other residences around the globe. Thus he was a "neighbor" of Howard Hughes, and in a position to conceive of, plan, and have the kidnap executed more readily.)
In order to cover up Howard Hughes's sudden disappearance from public view, including his career as a ladies' man among Hollywood's leading ladies, a phony "marriage" to actress Jean Peters in Tonopah, Nevada was arranged, with the help of Paul Laxalt. Laxalt later rode this assistance to a career as Governor of Nevada, and later, a U.S. Senate seat. A series of doubles played "Hughes" whenever necessary.
"Hughes" (i.e., Onassis acting as "Hughes") suddenly became a major purchaser of Las Vegas casinos, in line with Onassis's previous gambling operations in pre-Castro Cuba and in Monaco. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute was created to serve as a major money-laundering money funnel (tax-free, private, not subject to any monitoring by anyone.) Its true purpose was covered up by generous donations to medical research and also to cultural institutions, but only a small percentage of the amount of money drained from the U.S. economy.
One controversial aspect of the Gemstone File is its portrayal of Onassis as the main force behind the election of John F. Kennedy as President, and subsequently, Kennedy's assassination in 1963. According to Bruce Roberts' Gemstone papers, Lee Harvey Oswald was a participant in the JFK assassination plan. He was linked to the Central Intelligence Agency, and to Mafia connections in New Orleans. However, the role he was destined to play in the assassination was as the patsy. The Gemstone File names Jimmy Fratianno, Johnny Roselli, and Eugene Brading as the real shooters.
When Robert F. Kennedy decided to run for the Presidency, Aristotle Onassis ordered that he be assassinated. A hypnotized Sirhan Sirhan was allegedly set up to be the ostensible shooter. His wild shots peppered the room, but none of them hit Kennedy. According to the documents, the real shooter was Thane Cesar, a security guard at General Motors, which was secretly owned by Onassis, who was "lent" for the occasion to act as Robert Kennedy's bodyguard. Cesar was walking right behind Kennedy as they entered the Pantry area. While Sirhan Sirhan's shots flew around the room, Cesar lifted a small palm gun and shot Kennedy behind the ear. "The Second Gun," a documentary by Ted Chirach, covers this scenario.
Roberts' Gemstone papers also detail the involvement of Joseph P. Kennedy with the Mafia, and with Onassis. John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy attempted to break away from Onassis and the Mafia, and the CIA, and that is the basic reason they were shot.
The entire document is of unknown length, probably over 1,000 pages. A complete copy is not known to exist, but over 400 pages from the original handwritten file are in existence and available. 220 edited pages from Roberts' original hand-written letters and papers from the period of 1970-1975 are included in the book, The Gemstone File: a Memoir, by Stephanie Caruana.
Six books have since been written based on the Skeleton Key, between 1976-2006:
In the television series La Femme Nikita, the Gemstone File documents the plans for world domination of Operations (a.k.a. Paul Wolfe), the leading operative of Section 1, which involve the support of Saddam Hussein, a pawn in Operations' schemes. The former head of Section 1, Adrian, plans of revealing the Gemstone File first to George, head of Oversight, and then to the public in order to shatter Operations's bid for power, though Nikita ends up siding with Operations, as simulations predict world chaos and destruction should Hussein be removed from power.